Little tipple, cutesily / SUN 4-13-25 / Creative motivation in onlinen slang / Fig. that never starts with 666 / Research on a political rival, for short / Members of the "third team," jocularly / Young DC Comics sidekick with a lightning bolt on his chest / Antidepressant type, in brief / 1982 Benjamin Hoff best seller on Eastern philosophy, with "The" / Cleans up after a dirty guest? / Gallup's bailiwick / Retail magnate James Cash ___ / Third largest tech hub in North America

Constructor: John Kugelman

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Both Sides Now" — two-word phrases where the words start with "PRO" and "CON," respectively, and are otherwise spelled identically:

Theme answers:

• PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS (23A: Popcorn and pretzels at a parade?)
• PROTESTANT CONTESTANT (42A: Someone who might excel at a Bible trivia game?)
• CONTRACTOR'S PROTRACTORS (67A: Tools of the trade?)
• CONFESSION PROFESSION (86A: Police interrogator or priest?)
• CONVOCATION PROVOCATION (110A: Angry words at a school assembly?)

Word of the Day: KID FLASH (31A: Young DC Comics sidekick with a lightning bolt on his chest) —

Kid Flash is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero The Flash. The first version of the character, Wally West, debuted in The Flash #110 (1959).^[1] The character, along with others like the first Wonder Girl, Aqualad, and Speedy, was created in response to the success of Batman's young sidekick Robin. These young heroes would later be spun off into their own superhero team, the Teen Titans. As Kid Flash, Wally West made regular appearances in Flash related comic books and other DC Comics publications from 1959 through the mid-1980s until the character was reinvented as the new version of The Flash.

• • •

It's harder to imagine a duller, or easier, theme. I didn't even read the clue on most of these. Why would I? What's the point? You know one word will start with PRO and the other CON, and you know the rest of the words will be identical in spelling, so ... just get a few crosses and fill it all in. No problem. You can try as hard as you like to make those "?" clues funny or interesting or whatever, but it just doesn't matter. They aren't necessary. And at best, these "?" clues are just average, humor-wise. I sincerely don't understand how this qualifies as a NYTXW Sunday theme. I have nothing to say about it because there's nothing to say about it. Once you've described it ... that's it. 

The first themer was the worst, to my ears, because I don't really see where the "apostrophe-S" is coming from. PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS? Wouldn't you just use the noun (PROCESSION) adjectivally? You know, the way you use CONVOCATION in CONVOCATION PROVOCATION. Like, you'd say "amusement park rides," not "amusement park's rides." Maybe if the clue on PROCESSION'S CONCESSIONS had left open the possibility that "procession" was plural, that would've helped as I could've imagined it as a plural possessive (CONTRACTORS'), but in the clue it's adamantly singular (there's just the one "parade"), so ... I dunno. I honestly left that final "S" in PROCESSION'S off for a bit because it sounded so awkward. Sadly, that "S" was right in the middle of the hardest answer in the puzzle: NO SAINT (9D: A flawed person). By "hard" I mean I could not parse it forever. Needed almost every cross. I must've mentally inserted that last "S" from PROCESSION'S at some point to help me out. This is almost the only thing I remember about solving this puzzle, and as you can see, it's not exactly a good memory.

There's not much I actively like about this puzzle. I like that the CAT answer (LAP CAT) is crossing the DOG answer (LEAD DOGS). I like the words OPPO (63D: Research on a political rival, for short) and INSPO (59D: Creative motivation in online slang), and now I get to think of them as a couple (mingling at a rather dull party). I'm not sure I like DRINKY-POO, but it definitely stands out as one of the more original and lively answers in the puzzle today, so I'll take it (72A: Little tipple, cutesily). Oh, and YOINKS! Always welcome. Do I like that OKD and KOD are here, that ONE is duped (OLD ONES, AS ONE) and POP is duped (EUROPOP, POP CAN)? Do I like the word ATONER? The answer is "I do not" in all cases. In a puzzle with a killer theme, it's unlikely that I'd've noticed any of these infelicities. Or they wouldn't have lingered in my mind, at any rate. 

Bullets:

• 15A: Antidepressant type, in brief (SSRI) — gah, hardest single square in the puzzle for me, that first "S." I just blanked on it. Wanted MSRI ... maybe from MSRP (Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price)???! Or MMORPG??? And the "S" cross was semi-brutally clued (15D: Something added to a plot = SOIL). Oh, a plot. I thought you meant a plot. Like in a book. So I wanted FOIL. Sigh, as for SSRI ... SSR was bad enough as crosswordese (colonizing the grid at least as thoroughly as the Soviets colonized Eastern Europe for many decades there)—now I gotta deal with a bulked-up SSR: the SSRI. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. Gotta remember that. When I asked my brain what SSRI stood for, it was like "blah blah blah uptake inhibitor?" So we're getting there. 
• 30A: Fig. that never starts with 666 (SSN) — This is how you will know the antichrist—by the first three digits of his social. If you gotta clue SSN (yet again), then sure, go nuts. I like this clue.
• 62A: 1982 Benjamin Hoff best seller on Eastern philosophy, with "The" ("TAO OF POOH") — I know this book exists solely because of crosswords. It's used in clues for both TAO and POOH ... whoa, nope, I'm wrong; it's never been used in a clue for POOH. Only TAO (many times, as recently as Christmas Eve last year). Weird that POOH has appeared in the NYTXW close to 100 times since THE TAO OF POOH came out and not once has it been used as a POOH clue (despite its frequent use in TAO clues). Anyway, it will surprise no one that this is the first time the full title (minus definite article) has appeared in the grid. The letter combos are so improbable that I kinda like it TAOOF! That letter string alone, mwah. It's like someone was starting to say "table" or "taffy" or "talk" and got interrupted by a punch in the stomach.
• 75A: Beach day bummer (RAIN) — when (sun)BURN didn't work, I was out of ideas.

• 84A: Cleans up after a dirty guest? (BLEEPS) — I confess I don't understand "guest" here. Did Christopher Guest swear on family television and you had to bleep it. Is it a dirty guest ... appearance on a tv show? Because I don't know where bleeping (as in "cleaning up" language) is happening except on screen. And so I need to get that "guest" on screen, somehow, to make the clue make sense. Oh, is it a talk show guest? OK. I guess that works. Thank you for bearing with me through my mental processing. Sometimes you just gotta talk it out. 
• 94A: Retail magnate James Cash ___ (PENNEY) — wait, his name has "Cash" and PENNEY in it? They were really grooming him for magnate status, weren't they? I haven't been in a J.C. PENNEY's in so long, I wasn't sure they still existed. And yet it looks like we have a PENNEY's right here in town, at the Oakdale Mall, which still exists somehow. How retro. Might have to check it out.
• 37D: Third largest tech hub in North America (TORONTO) — oh is that why my stepbrother commutes there several times a month from Carmel, CA. I was like "cool city, but kinda random." Apparently not.
• 57D: Poet with four Pulitzers (FROST) — in five letters, I wanted ELIOT. O'HARA didn't live long enough. SEUSS would've been funnier.
• 75D: Members of the "third team," jocularly (REFS) — have not heard this expression. Thought "is this what we're calling the BIS now?" But then BIS didn't fit, much to my disappointment.

Going to pour coffee down my gullet now. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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