Ride-or-dies, in brief / TUE 6-17-25 / Shady, in modern lingo / Wireless standard inits. / Windstorm often accompanied by rain / Tennis's Gibson who won back-to-back Wimbledons and U.S. Opens

Constructor: Tarun Krishnamurthy

Relative difficulty: Very easy 

THEME: REESE'S / PIECES (40A: With 41-Across, popular candy represented by the circled letters in 17-, 26- and 57-Across) — "REESE'S" broken into (3) PIECES—"RE" and "ES" and "ES" are found in paired circled squares inside three theme answers:

Theme answers:

• "HERE COMES THE SUN" (17A: Classic Beatles song written by George Harrison)
• RENÉ DESCARTES (26A: Mathematician/philosopher who wrote "I think, therefore I am")
• PRESSES THE FLESH (57A: Does some door-to-door campaigning)

Word of the Day: ALTHEA Gibson (45D: Tennis's Gibson who won back-to-back Wimbledons and U.S. Opens) —

Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam event (the French Open). The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor of the US Open), then won both again in 1958 and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam titles: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. "She is one of the greatest players who ever lived," said Bob Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. [...] Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. In the early 1960s, she also became the first Black player to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

• • •

I'm not usually much for non-consecutive circles spelling things, especially the same thing three times, but at least here the non-consecutiveness is meaningful—that is, the whole point of the theme is that "REESE'S" is found in pieces inside each answer. The letter pairs are broken up for a reason. The puzzle has an interesting mirror (as opposed to the typical rotational) symmetry. The only drawback of that kind of symmetry, for me, is that it highlights the fact that the circled letters are almost but not quite symmetrical themselves. The first and last pairs of "pieces" are symmetrical, but those middle pairs can't be—not in a 15-wide grid. In a grid that's an odd number of columns wide, a pair of letters can only sit slightly off-center, at best. More scattered "pieces" would somehow be more visually pleasing (to my eye) than this slight off-centeredness. It's like the themers are a picture that's been hung slightly crooked. It's driving my brain nuts. Whereas if symmetry had not been a consideration, my brain would (for once) be fine. But this isn't a fault with the puzzle, just a glitch in my brain. It's a solid Tuesday concept, executed pretty well. Those themers are all nice standalone answers (even if the phrase PRESSES THE FLESH has always felt a little creepy to me: a little handsy, a little touchy-feely, a little ... meaty. 

The only thing I actively didn't like about the puzzle was that clue on TEEN (65A: Typical high school student ... like this puzzle's constructor!). Stop fetishizing TEENs! There have been literally dozens of TEEN constructors by now. Actually, I don't know the exact number, but it's a lot. This isn't even a debut!! This constructor had a puzzle out last summer. And good for them! Big accomplishment. But if you're a pro, you're a pro. Don't expect medals or applause 'cause you're a TEEN. There's something cringey about adults fawning over precocious kids. I would've hated having that clue in my puzzle if I'd been the TEEN constructor (luckily, I was a disappointing underachiever as a TEEN and so never had this problem). This clue (with its "look-at-me" revealer-type structure (ellipsis, exclamation point!) is an editorial choice; it detracts from the puzzle's manifest worthiness. 

I don't know that I've done an easier Tuesday puzzle than this. I've done hundreds and hundreds of Tuesday puzzles in my time, so I probably have done an easier one, but they're rare. I have absolutely no trouble spots or even mild missteps to speak of. I no-looked PRESSES THE FLESH *and* the revealer (when it became clear that the second half was gonna be PIECES, I just wrote in the REESE'S part without looking at the clue—I'd already noticed what was inside those circled squares). I balked at the spelling of SPIRALLED (47A: Went through the air like a perfectly thrown football)—the two-"L" version looks British. And ... it is.  This makes the clue especially inapt, since British people don't throw footballs, or give a damn about footballs. The only football they care about is the kind PELÉ plays (54D: Sports star who debuted with the New York Cosmos in 1975). I remember being in Edinburgh in '89 and staying up super late on Sunday night with other Americans and a handful of oddball Scots to watch the one British show that recapped American football. I think the announcer was a British guy who'd been a kicker in the NFL for a hot minute or so some time in the '70s or early '80s (!?!?!). Admittedly, this memory is fuzzy. Anyway, my point is, if it's a football, it's a one-"L" SPIRALED.

[Mick Luckhurst!]

What else?:

• 1A: Ride-or-dies, in brief (BFFS) — I feel like the expression "ride-or-die" will be unfamiliar to a significant chunk of older solvers. I also feel that this will matter very little to the overall difficulty level of the puzzle. I liked this clue. I also liked SUS (short for "suspicious") (50A: Shady, in modern lingo). It's weird how much I like SUS as a three-letter answer, generally. SUS > SIA. SUS > ILE. SUS > a lot of things. 
• 17A: Classic Beatles song written and sung by George Harrison ("HERE COMES THE SUN") — love the song, obviously, but "Classic" feels like a cop-out. You could say that about scores of their songs. "Abbey Road song" would give a little more specificity, a little more color.

• 22A: Auction offer (BID) — this puzzle reminded me a lot of yesterday (not the Beatles song, but my actual day yesterday). I changed wireless companies (and so saw the letters LTE more than a few times) (49D: Wireless standard inits.) and I also won my first ever non-eBay auction. Like, from a real auction house. This was my first time bidding and I only BID what I can afford so I got dramatically outbid on most everything. Except one thing: an Italian movie poster for a film by director Dario Argento called Il Gatto a Nove Code (Cat O' Nine Tails) (1971). Featuring Karl Malden as a blind crossword puzzle maker! And look at this murderous kitty! So handsome.

[Love the yellow in this poster—the movie belongs to the horror subgenre known as "Giallo" (Italian for "yellow")]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]