Stuff boiled in sugar shacks / SAT 8-23-25 / Island in a classic video game / Product pitched by a pitcher / Relative of upward dog / International grocery chain founded in Germany / One's primary character, in video game lingo / White House daughter of the 1960s-'70s / Rapper whose father is the jazz musician Olu Dara

Constructor: Ryan Judge

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SAM Hill (42A: ___ Hill) —

Sam Hill is an American English slang phrase, a euphemism or minced oath for "the devil" or "hell" personified (as in, "What in the Sam Hill is that?"). Etymologist Michael Quinion and others date the expression back to the late 1830s; they and others consider the expression to have been a simple bowdlerization, with, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an unknown origin. [...] H. L. Mencken suggested that the phrase derives from Samiel, the name of the Devil in Der Freischütz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber that was performed in New York City in 1825. The phrase "Sa' m Hill" can also be seen in the variant "Samil". (wikipedia)

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Nice, if too easy for a Saturday. I particularly like the OHIO RIVER flowing into the very strong SE corner—VEGAN BACON, EVIL GENIUS, RESCUE CAT, colorful phrases one and all. The overall fill quality today is about equal to yesterday—the highs are maybe not as high, but the lows are not as low (this one's lighter on tiresome short stuff). I got very distracted by the central marquee phrase today, though. I could tell it was gonna start "MY," and then later I filled in some of the latter part of the answer, and I could see that it was gonna be "MY ___ HERE IS DONE," but for me the word that wants to go there, that really really wants to go there, is WORK. I wrote in "JOB" because I had the "B" from KNOB but ... I didn't like it. Of course "JOB" makes sense, if you said it, no one would fail to understand your meaning, but the phrase as I know it has "WORK," not "JOB." It's rare that I stop mid-puzzle to investigate an answer, but I did here, and promptly fell down a weird rabbit hole that involved a. finding out that "MY JOB HERE IS DONE" is the phrasing on a popular meme using stills from Sailor Moon (even though the line "MY JOB HERE IS DONE" is not uttered in the actual TV show); b. finding out that said meme continues with the response (attributed to Sailor herself), "But you didn't do anything"; c. *knowing* that this exchange was lifted from the Monorail episode of The Simpsons, where it takes place between Barney and Leonard Nimoy, only with Leonard Nimoy saying "MY WORK HERE IS DONE"; d. finding out that I was both right about that ... and (slightly) wrong. Leonard Nimoy doesn't say "MY WORK HERE IS DONE." He says, "MY WORK IS DONE HERE." Then Barney says "But you didn't do anything." And then ... well, here:

And here's the Sailor Moon meme:

And here is a genuinely fascinating recent article on the history of the phrase "MY WORK HERE IS DONE," that covers a lot of ground, including the collective misremembering of the phrase as a sign-off on the TV show The Lone Ranger. So, in conclusion, "MY WORK HERE IS DONE" is probably the more common and certainly older phrase (googles 2x "JOB"); the "JOB" version appears to have been popularized by a meme; the text of that meme is basically lifted from The Simpsons; my memory of the Simpsons phrase put the "HERE" in the wrong place. After learning all this, I realized "oh ****, I still have half the puzzle left to finish." And so I went back and did it. 

This puzzle gave too much away (to me) right off the bat, with the cross reference in 1A: Relative of upward dog, to 50-Down (COBRA POSE). Even though I wasn't certain about COBRA POSE, I could tell from the clue that 50-Down would be YOGIS. "Upward dog" is a yoga pose, so ... it's the only logical 5-letter answer there. I put POSE in at 1A and tested it, and it passed. Then I put YOGIS in and it passed. Here's my very weird-ass opening gambit:

Then I put in COBRA, and ... same. When you get the first letters of alllll the Downs up top, right off the bat, well, you're in a good position. And sure enough, things went very smoothly from there on out, with only tiny bumps along the way. I have no idea whose "motto" CARPE noctem is, but I needed several crosses there. Wasn't entirely sure what incarnation of ESPN was gonna be involved at 9D: Place to hear game results and analysis (ESPN RADIO) ("hear" should've tipped me off, lol). I misspelled Steve YEUN's name (as YUEN). I thought the "pitcher" in 31A: Product pitched by a pitcher (KOOL-AID) was an "ad man" (that is, the advertiser themselves), and not a literal pitcher (of KOOL-AID). Wanted SHIPS before STANS (47D: Is really into, in slang) (if you're really into a couple—in a book or movie or TV series—you SHIP them). And finally, I just didn't know MAIN, although, yeah, I can infer why you'd call it that (61A: One's primary character, in video game lingo). Coulda just shortened the clue to [Primary], but OK, sure, video games, knock yourself out.

Some more thoughts:

• 15A: International grocery chain founded in Germany (ALDI) — ALDI is having a crossword moment. It debuted in 2020, didn't appear again til four years later, but now has appeared three times already this year. In the olden days (pre-2020?) you'd've just made this (Alan) ALDA and forgotten about it. Some would argue that's what you should've done here. I am agnostic on this issue. 
• 18A: Rapper whose father is the jazz musician Olu Dara (NAS) — I got this off "Rapper." Just as EDAM is (per Drew Carey) "crossword puzzle cheese," so NAS is "crossword puzzle rapper" (there are some others, but in three letters, not many). Note: OLU DARA has never been in the NYTXW, despite that catnip first name. OLU appeared once, forty years ago, but then it was clued as [___ Malau, Solomons group]—classic old-school geographic obscurity!

• 55A: Type of alcoholic beverage that originated in the U.K., despite its name (IPA) — more IPA news! I see what the clue is doing with "despite its name," but since India was a British colony, it's not like the British origins of the name are exactly a shocker.
• 23D: Japanese company whose products click with customers (NIKON) — cameras. Kind of bold to leave the "?" off this clue, considering the misdirective wordplay, but I guess the clue is literal enough that it doesn't need one (esp. on a Saturday)
• 26D: Composer of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (GRIEG) — coincidentally, listened to GRIEG's Piano Concerto in A minor yesterday. I put my entire Apple Music library on "Shuffle" and that's what came up first.

• 51D: Cute sound? (LONG "U") — a "letteral" clue, here referring to the "u" in the word "Cute" (that "u" is a diphthong (eeyoo) but the "u" is still long) (an example of a short "u" would be the "u" in "cut")
• 45D: White House daughter of the 1960s-'70s (TRICIA) — initially went with the Yearwood spelling, TRISHA.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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