Fancy one-handed basketball shot / MON 10-6-25 / Cat's little pink paws, cutesily / Skaters who do lifts and twizzles / Ralph who ran for president four times / Whoopi's role in 1985's "The Color Purple" / Sun phenomenon that can cause radio blackouts / Popular brand of hiking sandals

Constructor: Hannah Binney

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: PEOPLE FOOD (59A: What a dog desires from the dinner table ... or a hint to 17-, 25-, 36- and 47-Across) — familiar phrases made out of a body part (i.e. parts of "PEOPLE") and a FOOD:

Theme answers:

• FINGER ROLL (17A: Fancy one-handed basketball shot)
• ARM CANDY (25A: Good-looking companion on the red carpet, say)
• KNUCKLE SANDWICH (36A: Punch in the mouth, slangily)
• TOE BEANS (47A: Cat's little pink paws, cutesily)

Word of the Day: twizzle (28D: Skaters who do lifts and twizzles = ICE DANCERS) —

 

A twizzle is "a multirotational, one-foot turn that moves across the ice" in the sport of figure skating. First performed by David Grant in 1990, the International Skating Union (ISU) defines a twizzle as "a traveling turn on one foot with one or more rotations which is quickly rotated with a continuous (uninterrupted) action". It is most often performed in ice dance, although single skaters and pair skaters also perform the element. Twizzles have been called "the quads of ice dance" because like quadruple jumps in other disciplines, twizzles are risky and technically demanding.

• • •

[George "The Iceman" Gervin]

Ah, I like this one, mainly because it reminds me of my former dogs and current cats. My cats want nothing, or very little, to do with PEOPLE FOOD. Alfie will lick an ice cream bowl, sort of, sometimes, but mostly they just want their cat food. Or their treats, they really live for those Greenies. Every morning, after second breakfast (yes, second breakfast, don't ask), Ida gets up on the counter while I'm making coffee in anticipation of a little game I call "playing treats." "You wanna play Treats?," I ask. She does. So I get out the little plastic carton (we buy them in bulk), and I shake a few into my palm and then I bounce them across the counter and onto the floor and she chases them like they're prey. Alfie needs to have his Treats handed to him daintily. He does not play Treats. Too lazy, or too dignified, not sure which. But Ida goes sliding across the kitchen tiles, or the wooden floors, swatting and batting and devouring every treat I throw for her. But PEOPLE FOOD? ...  I've seen these damned cats turn their nose up at tuna. Honest-to-god tuna, and they're like "meh, where is kibble and/or Treats!?" Weirdos. My dogs, on the other hand, would eat anything. Dog food, PEOPLE FOOD, cat food, dish towels that got soaked in turkey drippings, whatever. But only the cats have TOE BEANS. Alfie has the best TOE BEANS. His paw pads are all dark except one on his forepaw, which is pink, so he has a special weird toe bean. My daughter once had a t-shirt made for me, based on the (now long canceled) TV show Alphas, that said "ALFIES" on it. It mimicked the logo of the show (multiple cat silhouettes instead of multiple human silhouettes) and then had a little cat paw icon with Alfie's signature toe bean anomaly. Here I am wearing the shirt at an Elvis Costello concert a few years back, the only time I've ever been recognized by anyone outside of a crossword tournament (Elaine here was like "I know you" and I'm like "uh ... I don't think so" and she says "Rex Parker?" and I was like "Whoa, yes, OK, hi.")

And here is Proof of Toe Bean:

Today's revealer really did its job. I thought there was some kind of hand theme going on—I had the FINGER and KNUCKLE answers and didn't recognize ARM CANDY was even part of the theme, so when I hit PEOPLE FOOD, the whole concept locked into place. I hadn't even thought about the food angle. When I'm solving Downs-only, I don't tend to think too hard about the (Across) themers unless / until I have to. So the revealer revealed, and all the theme answers are interesting phrases, and the grid is clean, and I didn't get tripped up anywhere, so I'm pretty happy.

[Dutchess and Gabby eying the PEOPLE FOOD]

I had one initial error today. I wrote in "DON'T STAND" (?) instead of "DON'T GET UP" (3D: "Stay seated"). I got out of that one when I ended up with SENE at 23A, which is obviously not a thing. At first I thought maybe EPIC was wrong (24D: "Beowulf" or the "Iliad"), but then I decided STAND was wrong, and GET UP slid right into its place. I didn't make a mistake with WENT, but I balked at it and refused to write it in because the clue seemed off (39D: Left the area). I mean ... [Left] would do just as well. What's this "the area" stuff?? It adds nothing. That's a better clue for, say, WENT AWAY, not just WENT. So as I say, I just left it, and ended up finishing with it, which is why it's highlighted in today's answer grid (above) (the highlighted answer is almost always the very last thing I entered in the grid—I just leave the cursor where it is, take a screenshot, and that's that).

[10D: Music genre for Bob Marley]

Additional notes:

• 31A: Whoopi's role in 1985's "The Color Purple" (CELIE) — this seems hard for a Monday. I never saw it, as it's an Across answer. I think I would've remembered the name, but I'm not sure. It's funny (-ish) that CELIE is the second Whoopi role I can think of that appears from time to time in crosswords. The other is ODA Mae Brown, the character she played in Ghost (for which she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) (ODA is also old school crosswordese, most often clued as [Harem room] or [Seraglio section]). CELIE has now appeared in the NYTXW 14 times, all of them with a Color Purple-related clue.
• 33D: Secret compartment, informally (HIDEY HOLE) — one of a very nice set of four long Downs today. Here's Chippy, our resident (front porch) chipmunk, in his HIDEY HOLE (of sorts):

• 43A: Popular brand of hiking sandals (TEVA) — the very phrase "hiking sandals" sounds like an oxymoron to me, but as someone who has developed toe (bean) blisters lately due to semi-dramatic increase in walking, I may have to look into some free-toe alternative to normal footwear. Or else just tape my toes. Or get a shoe with a wider toe box. Or just lie around on the couch watching movies and stop walking altogether. Somehow running (which I also do) has never given me blisters, but walking ... bah. I feel betrayed by walking, honestly.

Thanks to Rafa and Eli for filling in for me while I recovered from facial surgery that was way more ... involved (and gruesome) than I thought it would be. Basal cell carcinoma on the nose ... I've had better times at the doctor! Anyway, I get to wear a nose bandage for a couple weeks, so I'm gonna get a fedora and a suit and pretend I'm Jake Gittes from Chinatown. I'm sure that reference will go over Big with my students.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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