"That's so relatable," in modern slang / SAT 4-26-25 / Convincing A.I.-created video / "Gossip Girl" fashion descriptor / Short product overview, in business lingo / Something picked in a fortunetelling game / Emily ___, winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel / Traditional treat in Japanese New Year celebrations / ___ Dunn (brand of ceramic art and other housewares) / Words on a statue honoring Washington / Tantric meditation practiced while in a sleeping state / Literally, "good word"

Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Emily TESH (20A: Emily ___, winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel) —

Emily Tesh is a science fiction and fantasy author. She won the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel for her first novel, Some Desperate Glory. She won the World Fantasy Award in the novella category in 2020, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2021. [...] Some Desperate Glory is a science fiction novel by Emily Tesh, with political themes and "thrilling action," according to reviewers. It was published in spring 2023 by Tordotcom. [...] According to Lisa Tuttle, writing for The Guardian: "The well-told story combines thrilling action with more thoughtful content, touching on such hot topics as AI, fascism and gender politics, and looks like another award winner." //  A starred review in Publishers Weekly concluded: "The political theme of breaking away from fascist ideology pairs beautifully with smart sci-fi worldbuilding ... and queer coming of age." // In the Washington Post, Charlie Jane Anders wrote, "the story blends thrilling action with a mind-bending course in cosmic metaphysics, which keep shifting your sense of what this book is about." (wikipedia)

• • •

Sorry, short write-up today as somehow a work emergency (!?) has fallen in my lap overnight (on the weekend!? I teach English ffs, this shouldn't be happening!), and I need to attend to it immediately. I'm really glad this puzzle played relatively easy for me, because after getting the infuriating work email first thing upon waking, I was in No MOOD for excessive struggle, despite the fact that it's Saturday and "struggle" should generally be part of the brief. I could tell early on that the puzzle was going to skew young(er)—I mean, I could've guessed it from the constructors (two lovely people whose combined ages don't even reach my own, I don't think), but then stuff like 27A: "That's so relatable," in modern slang ("MOOD") and 42A: "Gossip Girl" fashion descriptor confirmed it. Though I will say, looking the puzzle over now, it's actually pretty light on generationally specific stuff, and light in general on the kinds of proper nouns that tend to feel generationally exclusionary. The clues on ADAM, WOOLF, ERROL, for instance, could've come from the year 2000 or 1975 or even earlier as easily as the year 2025. This is to say that the puzzle had a youthful swagger but a broad-minded outlook. There's lots of stuff to like here—or hate, if that's your vibe today, I suppose. Me, I mostly like it. I am (now) a not-so-SECRET ADMIRER (though you're never gonna convince me that DREAM YOGA is real, no matter how much supporting material you throw at me) (15A: Tantric meditation practiced while in a sleeping state).

The only thing I didn't particularly care for today was ONE-PAGER, but then "business lingo" always rubs me the wrong way (probably because I absolutely do not speak it ... and find much of it silly-sounding) (13D: Short product overview, in business lingo). ONE-PAGER sounds pretty ordinary, though. I've assigned ONE-PAGERs (i.e. one-page papers) to students before, so while this "business lingo" version is unfamiliar to me, the phrase itself doesn't sound ridiculous to my ears (always nice). I also didn't care for the clue on TESH—I love that there's a new TESH in town (move over, John), but it seemed weird to clue her as having won the Hugo for Best Novel and then not saying what that novel is!? It's her first novel! If it was good enough to win the damn thing, then go ahead and name it! It wouldn't have helped me (I wouldn't have known her name either way), but the clue would've seemed like it was at least doing something useful. If you're gonna introduce a new name, a name that wouldn't be crossworthy except for a single book, Name The Book. Let people know. (Bizarrely, TESH's Some Desperate Glory is actually in my house right now—I bought a handful of highly recommended new fantasy/scifi books last summer in a fit of aspirational consumption, and then promptly failed to read most of them ... maybe now ... maybe now (he said to all the unread books on his shelves ...)).

OK, short write-up, I said!! I met both Sarah and Rafa at the ACPT earlier this month, so it seemed fitting (to me) that the first entry in the puzzle was EGG-HEADED (it was nice to be in an environment so thoroughly EGG-HEADED that the term ceases to have any meaning). My daughter is home now (and for a few more days), and so the "Night owl" / LATE RISER clue made me smile (our sleep schedules are almost completely upside-down). I liked the alliterative "H"-fest in the middle of this grid, which also seemed like a vaguely thematic grouping. If you throw a successful HAIL MARY on your HOME TURF, you might wanna enjoy a HOT PAD after the game. The only trouble for me today was pinning down that "H" at TESH / HAIL MARY (thought she might be a TESS and couldn't parse HAIL MARY, esp. with that elliptical clue (21D: Hard pass?)). I thought "hard" might be literally hard, like rock hard, so even with the "H" I was thinking HAIL as in hard rain, not HAIL as in HAIL MARY. I couldn't make sense of "fashion descriptor" in 42A: "Gossip Girl" fashion descriptor (PREPPY). "Descriptor" was the stumbling block. Who is doing the describing? When? Where? It seems like the clue just means "how one might appropriately describe the fashion on Gossip Girl," OK. Also weirdly struggled with 43D: Something picked in a fortunetelling game (PETAL). "What the hell is a fortunetelling game?" I couldn't think of any. Magic 8 Ball? Is that a "game"? But no, the "game" in question appears to be some version of "(s)he loves me, (s)he loves me not ..."

What else?:

• 17A: "Would you like a bite?" ("WANT TO TRY?") — absolutely fine, and yet when the answer is colloquial like this, I expect it to be properly slangy, which means I tried to make "WANNA" answers happen for a bit.
• 27D: Traditional treat in Japanese New Year celebrations (MOCHI) — I did not know this about MOCHI. I feel like MOCHI had a moment (in the U.S.) several years ago and then faded, but maybe they're still going strong and I've just tuned them out. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm thinking of MOCHI ice cream, not MOCHI per se. 
• 6D: Actress and comedian Edebiri (AYO) — never heard of her ... 
• 26A: ___ Dunn (brand of ceramic art and other housewares) (RAE) — never heard of it (seriously, this time)
• 23A: Countdown occasion, for short (NYE) — New Year's Eve
• 31D: Words on a statue honoring Washington (BEST ACTOR) — loved this clue. Took me a few beats to realize the "Washington" in question was Denzel (Best Supporting Actor for Glory, BEST ACTOR for Training Day). Washington is currently playing Othello on Broadway (to great acclaim and massive box office success—although ticket prices are apparently, uh, very high).

• 22A: "The young man who has not ___ is a savage": George Santayana ("WEPT") — I had the "W" and "T" and wrote in ... WANT. I thought it was a commentary on the savagery of the rich.

So much for a short write-up. Some day ...

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]