Xi's language / SAT 5-24-25 / Xenomorph who can produce humanoid offspring / Thin rods, in some product names / Infamous denier of Mary and Joseph / Location where a video game character starts (or restarts) a level / Rock band founded by three sisters / Course on behavior / Shelters from the heat? / Younger contemporary of Virgil / Incredulous reply to a daring scheme

Constructor: Gene Louise De Vera

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: "Hey ARNOLD!" (44A: "Hey ___!" (Nickelodeon cartoon of 1996-2004)) —

Hey Arnold! is an American animated sitcom created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. It originally aired from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in an inner-city tenement in the fictional city of Hillwood. Episodes center on his experiences navigating urban life while dealing with the zany hijinks he and his friends encounter. Many episodes, however, focus on other characters, including major, secondary, supporting, and even minor characters.

Bartlett's idea for the show is based on a minor character named Arnold who he created while working on Pee-wee's Playhouse. The executives enjoyed the character, and Bartlett completed the cast and setting by drawing inspiration from people and locations he grew up with in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Brooklyn, New York. Bartlett created the pilot episode in his living room in 1994 and official production began in 1995. The animators worked to transform Arnold from clay animation to cel animation, leading to the series premiere in 1996. Hey Arnold! was the final series to be green lit (along with Kablam!) under the leadership of network president Geraldine Laybourne. Production on the show concluded on December 7, 2001, after 5 seasons and 100 episodes. Its last episode aired unannounced on June 8, 2004. A feature film based on the series, Hey Arnold!: The Movie, was released in theaters on June 28, 2002. All five seasons have been released on DVD.

On March 2, 2016, a television film continuation of the series, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, was greenlit. It picks up from where the series ended and resolved unanswered plotlines of the story. The film premiered on November 24, 2017, on Nickelodeon, Nicktoons Network, TeenNick, NickRewind and on November 24, 2018 as an international theatrical release, wrapping up the series' storyline.

• • •

Found this very easy despite the fact that it seemed like it was made for a person who was very much not me. Video game levels, social media stars ... you know, I don't think I've seen even a single movie in the Alien franchise. The very existence of that first one traumatized me so bad as a kid that I never had any interest in it, or any of its many follow-ups, as an adult. So ALIEN QUEEN? (11D: Xenomorph who can produce humanoid offspring). I mean, I could infer it, but it was just blah blah blah to me. Weird to have a franchise-specific answer without being able to mention the franchise in the clue. Seems like there might, theoretically, be all kinds of ALIEN QUEENs out there ... you know, in space ... not all of whom are xenomorphs who can produce humanoid offspring. So lots of this was just not in my range of interests. And yet, I smoked it. I think the answers I mentioned were just about the only hold-ups I had at all in this puzzle. As for the cross-referenced grid-spanners ... pretty tepid. Kind of a yawn. I know the phrase "cautiously optimistic," but CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM ... yes, I guess I know that too, but it doesn't land with quite the same force / familiarity. I'm not sure PLEASANT SURPRISE ties to CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM that well. I think PLEASANT SURPRISE is something you experience when you really didn't expect things to turn out so good, whereas CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM has you leaning toward positive expectations. Anyway, neither phrase made me sit up and applaud. But they're 16s (as opposed to the usual 15 for grid-spanners), so if nothing else their presence here means you get More Puzzle, and that's ... something. 

I like two-A RIGAMAROLE (6A: Song and dance) because it's really, technically supposed to be one-A "rigmarole," so if you say it with the four syllables implied by two-A RIGAMAROLE, it makes some people mad—the kind of people it's fun to make mad. Seriously, though, this should be marked with "Var." or something, because it's not just an alternative to "rigmarole," it's a far less common alternative. In fact, merriam-webster dot com has "less commonly, RIGAMAROLE" right there at the top of the definition. As I was writing it in, I thought, "huh, I thought this was spelled 'rigmarole'." And it is. So hurray, memory. But also hurray, flexibility and moving right along. Not loving "I NEVER WILL," since it only makes sense, or truly resonates, as the back end of a statement, i.e. following "and" (e.g. "I've never even bothered to look up who 'Social media star' Addison RAE is, and I NEVER WILL"). The phrase all on its own, just standing there, not framed as a follow-up or add-on, seems strange. Big fan of ILL-ADVISED and especially "YOU WOULDN'T!" That last one has some real colloquial heat. Very dramatic. But my feelings about the rest of the puzzle were mostly "this is fine, but not really for me." That's OK. Not all puzzles have to be made for me. As long as such puzzles don't tax me too much, I don't mind them that much.

Assorted points:

• 1A: Course on behavior (PSYCH) — me: "SEX ED"; this is how I convinced myself that Iowa was somehow in the "E"astern time zone (EDT), despite being directly underneath Minnesota, which I know is in the "C"entral (CDT) (4D: Summer hrs. in Iowa).
• 28D: Shelters from the heat? (SAFE HOUSES) — me: "SAFE HAVENS." 
• 16A: Lyrical piece (EPODE) — never really bothered to learn the difference between this and a regular old ODE. Crazily, the American Heritage Dictionary has seven (7) (!?) definitions for EPODE: 

noun

1. 1. A lyric poem characterized by distichs formed by a long line followed by a shorter one.
2. 2. The third division of the triad of a Pindaric ode, having a different or contrasting form from that of the strophe and antistrophe.
3. 3. The part of a choral ode in classical Greek drama following the strophe and antistrophe and sung while the chorus is standing still.
4. 4. The after song; the part of a lyric ode which follows the strophe and antistrophe, -- the ancient ode being divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode.
5. 5. A species of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one. It does not include the elegiac distich.
   "the Epodes of Horace"
6. 6. The after song; the part of a lyric ode which follows the strophe and antistrophe.
7. 7. A kind of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one

• 43A: Rock band founded by three sisters (HAIM) — new album, I Quit, out next month. I assume they're not actually quitting. I enjoy their music, and am a huge fan of their performances in the movie Licorice Pizza (Alana is the star of that movie, but her sisters are in it (playing her sisters), as are her parents (playing her parents!)). Here is an ironic and/or apt tidbit from their wikipedia page:

On April 23, Haim held one of two surprise concerts at the Bellwether theater in Los Angeles, their first full concert in nearly two years. During the gig, the band played in front of a screen with the words "I quit" which was later announced to be the title of the album. The trio performed their previously released singles as well as the live debut of the third single "Down to Be Wrong" and the unreleased album cut "Blood in the Streets", while the latter performance was joined by American singer Addison RAE. ["singer!?" that was not in the clue]

• 1D: River that once marked the boundary of the Wild West (PECOS) — wait, you're telling me that "the Wild West" was a specifically demarcated piece of land and not just an abstract concept used to sell TVs and movies?  Like ... the "Wild" West was distinct from just "the West"? This is all news to me. But I still got this answer really easily. "Fastest gun west of the PECOS"—that's a phrase from ... something, isn't it? LOL yes, Yosemite Sam! My foundational source of all things Wild Western:

• 24D: Xi's language (GREEK) — see, this is why you should never pay attention to current events— I just yesterday read some article about our current buffoonish administration's ongoing attacks on Harvard and the effects that the most recent dumb-ass and probably illegal order (prohibiting Harvard from enrolling foreign students) might have, specifically on students from China (where most of Harvard's foreign students come from). And I think that article mentioned that Xi Jinping had a child that went to Harvard (yes, true—she attended under a pseudonym and studied English and PSYCH). The point is, I was primed to see "Xi" as the leader of China. So my first reaction to this clue was "... what the hell languages do they speak in China besides Mandarin and Cantonese? That are five letters starting with 'G'!?" But as you've likely guessed by now, "Xi" here refers not to the Chinese president, but to the Greek letter:

[Xi, letter between Nu and Omicron, "representing the voiceless consonant cluster [ks]." (wikipedia)]

• 34D: A flute might have a short one (STEM) — the flute here is a glass ("champagne flute"), not a musical instrument:

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]