End part of a violin bow / SAT 5-17-25 / Type that's compatible with everyone, in brief / Sitcom set in a corner store run by a Korean Canadian family (2016-21) / Museum with works by Hockney, Turner and Millais / First president of the S.C.L.C. / Something to take in from a boat / Humiliated (or honored), as on Nickelodeon / Chain whose name came from a Boston hotel whose sign was too expensive to remove / Sultanate that controls the exclave of Madha

Constructor: Ryan Judge

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (more Easy than Medium)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Pete ALONSO (62A: M.L.B. star Pete who holds the single-season record for homers by a rookie (53)) —

Peter Morgan Alonso (born December 7, 1994), nicknamed "Polar Bear", is an American professional baseball first baseman for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). Internationally, Alonso represents the United States.

Alonso played college baseball for the Florida Gators before the Mets selected him in the 2016 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut on Opening Day in 2019 and won the National League Rookie of the Year Award that year, setting a major league record for rookies with 53 home runs. Alonso is a four-time MLB All-Star who led the league in home runs in 2019 and in runs batted in in 2022. He has also won the MLB Home Run Derby twice, in 2019 and 2021. (wikipedia)

• • •

Not enough good marquee fill for my taste. Stuff like ONE TO TEN and EATS A LOT is just a terrible waste of long answers. See also MINIMART. Boring. Too much of that, not enough good stuff. Also, and I say this as a sports fan (of sorts): too much sports. You can put whatever you want in a grid, but you shouldn't stay in one pocket of trivia for too long, and this one Really hangs out in the sports pocket. From the ACC (which I assumed was the AFC) (12D: Miami is in it, for short), to LAKER (basketball) (1D: Athlete who shares his home venue with the Sparks), ARI (football) (21A: Cards' home), RAVENS (football) (53A: N.F.L. team whose name is a literary reference) (Poe!), ALONSO (baseball), ASTROS (baseball) (48D: Team whose logo contains an "H" on top of a star). This stuff wasn't hard for me, but I could feel myself getting annoyed by the same-same-ness. I just kept thinking "OK, move along." If the marquee stuff had been banging, it's likely I wouldn't have gotten so put off by the sports trivia avalanche. Which is why you have One Job in a themeless—make the marquee answers *interesting*. Flashy, elegant, original, something. Not just a few of them—almost all of them. And then make the rest of your fill smooth and (important) *varied*. I mean, this is an entirely adequate Saturday, and it's got some highlights for sure, but it didn't feel special enough for the NYTXW. It's got diagonal symmetry, though, so if you're a fan of that ... there's that.

Some people will love KIM'S CONVENIENCE because they love KIM'S CONVENIENCE. It's certainly marquee-worthy, and original. I've never seen the show, but I'm aware of its existence, so it was a huge gimme up top, which really helped move the solve along. The only longer answer I actively *liked* though, were... "SO THAT'S THAT," that was pretty nice. SPILL THE TEA is OK, but I feel like I've heard it so much that it sounds more "cliché" than "original" now. "ANY ADVICE?" is nice, though the clue felt a little awkward to me (15A: Tip line?) (a "line" you might say if you wanted some "tips," I get it, but I don't love it. Not sure why, but "line" doesn't strike me as sincerely interrogative. I mean, "what's your sign?" or "come here often?" are certainly "lines" in the "bad bar come-ons from the '70s" sense, and those are questions, technically, but a practical, earnest question that isn't about hitting on someone ... I just wouldn't call that a "line."). Hate the idea of doing any advertising for anything related to Bezos, so SAME-DAY DELIVERY was an actively negative experience for me (3D: Prime choice). FLYING SOUTH is fine but only if the clue is related to birds, which this one wasn't (31A: Going down, in a way). That BANANA SPLIT clue was certainly Saturday-hard, but again, the "humor" on the clue felt forced, and in this case, oddly old-timey. Is anyone calling the dish a BANANA SPLIT comes in a "boat" any more? Were they ever? Gravy comes in boats. I don't think much else does, food-wise (6D: Something to take in from a boat). Since a "banana boat" is an actual thing (or a brand of sunscreen, at least), it took me a long time to get my "boat" out of the water and into the ice cream parlor.

[FLYING SOUTH]

The only hard part of the puzzle for me was the FROG / O NEG crossing (31D: End part of a violin bow / 39A: Type that's compatible with everyone, in brief). I cannot keep track of what all the blood types do or don't do. Some letter, POS or NEG, whatever you say. I just work that stuff out from crosses. But when that single letter (here, the "O") is not crystal clear in the cross, then yikes—trouble. And today, it couldn't have been less clear. A part of a violin I've literally never heard of??? Ugh. I sincerely thought this was some non-violent way of cluing FRAG, and A NEG seemed ... plausible? But then I thought "what monster would use FRAG when FROG is right there? I'm going to assume the constructor is not a monster, and guess FROG, even though that is the dumbest violin bow-part name I can imagine, and FRAG actually seems like a better guess were it not for the cross." So I guessed FROG and was right. Bad editing. Don't do that. With initials and other single letters that aren't guaranteed gimmes, cross them clearly. The FROG today should've been amphibious. Or the kind you get in your throat. You can make the clue hard, just don't make it totally inscrutable (no way to get from violin bow to FROG by inference of any kind). 


Bullets:

• 24A: Humiliated (or honored), as on Nickelodeon (SLIMED) —do they still "slime" people on Nickelodeon? The clue feels bygone and kind of corny. "Unfortunately, sliming ain’t what it used to be.  With the so-called “Glory Days” of Nickelodeon waning (num​bers took a sharp downturn in 2012), slime has been relegated to award sho​ws and YouTu​be clips. The Nickelodeon Studios theme park, where kids could go to get slimed in real life, was shut down in 2004. The only place to get doused in green goo seems to be a N​ickelodeon-themed resort in Orlando where water-park games include the occasional sliming" (vice.com). If you absolutely positively have to use "slime" as a verb, make it a Ghostbusters clue. Please.

• 38D: Chain whose name came from a Boston hotel whose sign was too expensive to remove (SHERATON) — absolutely no idea. Why is this a good clue? It's not good trivia? The clue has Absolutely Nothing in it that suggests SHERATON specifically. In an elaborate trivia clue like this, you expect some part of that clue to be hinting at, at least faintly suggesting, the content of the answer. But SHERATON is just ... a name? Nothing about it says "Boston" or "expensive sign." It's like you took the most boring fact about a hotel chain you could think of and made it the clue. If you're going to reach into obscure trivia for your clue, give us something good. Please.
• 62A: M.L.B. star Pete who holds the single-season record for homers by a rookie (53) (ALONSO) — I know I complained about "too much sports" but I was really complaining about "too much of one thing," not sports per se. Personally, I loved seeing Petey's name here. Polar Bear! I got to seem him play a couple of times when he was on the Mets' Double-A affiliate, which happens to be my hometown team: the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. On one amazing summer day six years ago I got to see both Pete ALONSO and Vlad Guerrero on the same field, with both of them hitting towering home runs. You could tell just by looking at them that those two were on another planet from everyone else on the field. ALONSO hit the ball So Hard. What I remember most, though, is his rear-end thickness. Just a massive ass and thigh region (he played 1st and our seats were in the outfield down the 1st base line, so I had a very good view). Not fat. Powerful. A truly impressive power source.

• 41D: Part of a cold pack? (KLEENEX) — again, this puzzle's ear for "?" clues feels very tinny. Yes, I get it, when you have a "cold" you might reach for a "pack" of KLEENEX. It works on some basic wordplay level. But the surface level of the clue just doesn't zing. I got this easily because the "X" was in place before I ever saw the clue. But yeah, I'm just mad at the "?" clues and other wordplay misdirection today. Just doesn't seem clever or elegant enough. Defensible, but semi-tortured.

I will confess to not being in the best mood as I write this, as I am still recovering from surgery and thus still in a decent amount of pain (the pain is managed, but not yet extinguished, to my great annoyance and impatience) (so many "cold packs"!). If you want to heap laurels on this puzzle, be my guest. I'm sure it's got virtues that I'm just not noticing. Like I said, it seemed fine, but NYTXW puzzles should be more than fine. 

Thanks so much to Mali and Rafa for filling in for me the past few days. I'm grateful to have them there when I need them. That's all—see you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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