Polite rejection at a dance / MON 9-8-25 / 2013 movie about an A.I. crush / 4K screen precursor / Bakery display piece / Limited releases on Spotify, informally / Hit on a vape pen

Constructor: Margaret Seikel

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (solved Downs-only—real trouble with that NE section)

THEME: "I'M TAKEN" (39A: Polite rejection at a dance ... or a hint to each half of the answers to the starred clues) — two-word phrases where both words can follow "take a" (or "take the") in a familiar expression:

Theme answers:

• POWDER PUFF (16A: *Pad in a makeup kit)
• SEAT NUMBER (62A: *Assignment on a plane)
• CAKE STAND (10D: *Bakery display piece)
• FALL BREAK (33D: *Days off following October midterms)

Word of the Day: POP TAB (15D: Can-opening mechanism) —

[not found on merriam-webster.com or thefreedictionary.com or dictionary.com etc. There are "pull tabs," and there are "pop-tops," but POP TAB ... unaccounted for]

• • •

Somehow crossword constructors have convinced each other that POP TAB is a thing. Seven NYTXW appearances overall, four just since 2022. I'm guessing that the "tab" part of a pop-top can is what's meant by this "word," but I've never heard anyone actually use it and dictionaries are likewise giving a big shrug. I mean, it sounds like a thing, but I just don't think it's a thing. I start here because POP TAB was at the center of what ended up being the hardest part of the Downs-only solve for me. I had POP TOP for 15D: Can-opening mechanism—likely because that is, in fact, a thing—and that "wrong "-OP" meant that I guessed not one but two bad words for the Acrosses up there: ADROIT (!) instead of AD RATE (29A: $7 million for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, say) and OPERA instead of OBAMA (36A: Winner of 2008 and 2012). I also just generally had trouble with CAKE STAND, and EMIT (I had MAIL) and ATV (thought it might be UTE). Disappointing to be so badly stalled by a non-word, and doubly disappointing to find out that ADROIT (a good word) was wrong and AD RATE (a horrible crosswordese phrase) was right. I now have a bitter, lifelong grudge against the "word" POP TAB. Not sure how I will avenge myself against this "word," but I'll find a way.

As for the theme, I haven't seen this theme type in a looooong time. You see "first words" or "last words"-type things with reasonable frequency, but the "both words" type is hard to pull off, and particularly hard without having to resort to some wonky, iffy, forced phrases. But today, all the phrases are just fine. Solid. Not a clunker in the bunch. I don't know that it's the most exciting Monday theme I've ever seen, but it works. The one inconsistency in the theme ends up being the thing I actually admire the most. I don't know if it was coincidence or planning, but CAKE STAND ends up being an interesting outlier. All the other words in the theme answers can follow "take a" in familiar phrases (take a powder, take a puff, take a break, etc.), but with both CAKE and STAND—and only with CAKE and STAND—does that phrasing not work.*** Instead, it's the definite article you need ("take the cake" and "take the stand") to make the phrases make sense. The anomaly would bug me, but since both words in the anomalous answer do the same thing ... I think of it as a feature (a little flourish), and not a bug.

Not a fan of ACTONE written out like that, especially since ACT I appears so often in the grid. Feels contrived. Also didn't love ROIL as the answer for 32D: Make annoyed. That answer riled me, but it did not ROIL me. You ROIL water (or the waters). I acknowledge that it can also mean "to upset someone emotionally," but I don't have to like it. My interest in vaping is zero, so I had no idea DAB was another word for toke, hit, whatever (35D: Hit on a vape pen). Thank god the crosses on that one were all easily inferrable. I stupidly (and hastily) wrote in YOUTH instead of YOUNG at 7D: The "Y" or Y.A. books. Otherwise, no real problems. Just that POP TAB-area debacle, and even that I was eventually able to work my way through. 

A few more things:

• 24D: Limited releases on Spotify, informally (EPS) — I think I don't understand how "Limited" is being used here. EPS contain more tracks than a single but fewer than an album. The "EP" stands for "extended play." What is "limited" about it? When you talk about "limited releases" in the world of music, you're usually talking about physical media (like vinyl) of which there is a limited number. But obviously on "Spotify," no such "limits" exist. "Limited release" actually has more currency in the film industry. Maybe the clue today was thinking "well, EPS are shorter than full albums, so in that way they are ... limited?" But I don't know.
• 45A: 4K screen precursor (HDTV) — oh, are 4K screens not hi-def. I keep putting off upgrading my TV (and Blu-ray player), mostly because so far I don't have any pressing need. "The blacks are really black, man!"  I'm sure they are. So far, I don't care.
• 2D: Higher than on the totem pole (ABOVE) — not sure why you had to bring a "totem pole" into this. [Higher than] works just fine.Maybe leave sacred objects out of your workplace metaphors. 

Totem poles are sacred objects used by many Indigenous and Alaska Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest to honor a deceased ancestor or share an important event. This idiom denigrates these sacred objects. Further, the idea that the lowest figure on the totem pole is the least important is also incorrect. In actuality, the designs on the bottom are often considered the most prestigious because they are the ones that will be seen at eye level. (Forbes.com)

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

***lol of course you can “take a stand”; I blame post-COVID vax fatigue for my not thinking of that. But my point still semi-stands, in that “take the” works with both elements of CAKE STAND. 

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