Hobbled, in gamer slang / WED 10-15-25 / Llama's head? / Tidbit popular in Thai cuisine / Lead-up to a ski jump / Like some briskets and pork ribs, informally / General Motors subsidiary / Sister network of Paramount+, for short

Constructor: Nick Offerman and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging 

THEME: "WHAT A TOOL!" (59A: Something you might exclaim when talking about 17-, 24-, 36- or 50-Across) — familiar phrases that are clued as if they are assessments of tools: 

Theme answers:

• QUITE A BIT (17A: Really spectacular drill component?)
• JIGGETY JIG (24A: Lively kind of saw for cutting intricate shapes?)
• BOSS LEVEL (36A: Truly awesome implement for ensuring stability?)
• MODEL PLANE (50A: Ideal instrument for shaping wood surfaces?)

Word of the Day: jiggety (24A) —

: jerky, unsteady (merriam webster dot com)

• • •

Well I'm not criticizing the work of TV's Ron Swanson. That's just a fool's errand. Offerman is, famously, a handy man (if not literally a handyman)—woodworking, I think, is the thing he does (and writes about) professionally. I heard him talk on a podcast once about Offerman Workshop, and it sounded really cool. I struggled with this puzzle, not because I don't know anything about tools (although I don't), but because the cluing in general was just beyond me much of the time. And some of the answers were, uh, inventive. I don't think I've ever seen BBQED before (it's a debut) (1D: Like some briskets and pork ribs, informally), and WWIIVET ... well that is quite a letter string (3D: One who may have stormed the beaches at Normandy, in brief). Double "W"s and double "I"s! And both those answers come at you right out of the box! INRUN? (15A: Lead-up to a ski jump). No idea. ANT EGG? Double-no idea. "Tidbit"? It's not a literal ANT EGG is it, because that would be the smallest "tidbit" I could imagine. Smaller than an ant, I would think, and an ant's already small. Hang on, gonna do some culinary googling ... huh. ANT EGGs "refer to both the eggs and pupae of weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina, known in Thailand as red ants) eaten in several countries across Southeast Asia, especially Laos and Northeastern Thailand (Isan). They are high in protein and enjoyed for their sourness and pop when eaten along with salads" (wikipedia). Well I can honestly say I had no idea. I know a TURTLE is a kind of candy but getting from that clue to TURTLE was rough for me (32A: Pecan-chocolate-caramel candy). I had ELL before ELS, which definitely slowed me down (33D: Llama's head?). The VANE clue was tough in its vagueness (38D: It's blowing in the wind). I had no idea ON*STAR still existed (48A: General Motors subsidiary), or that TMC was related to Paramount+ (45A: Sister network of Paramount+, for short). So while the theme was of a fairly standard and familiar type, the fill on this one was often clued in ways that were not familiar, or at least not readily apparent, to me at all. So: slowness. Mild slowness, but slowness. 

As for the theme, I have only one question. What (the hell) is JIGGETY? Like, as an adjective? I did look it up, as you can see (Word of the Day, above), but "lively?" Do you really describe anything lively as "jiggety"? I know the word ("word"?) JIGGETY from precisely one context: "... home again, home again, JIGGETY JIG," which is what today's answer is referring to (presumably), but the idea of JIGGETY acting as a real word, modifying anything, let alone a JIG, seems preposterous to me. Unless JIGGETY is Gen Alpha slang, in which case I'll defer to the 12yo linguists among you. This answer feels like an outlier not just because JIGGETY doesn't mean anything to me, but because whatever it means, it doesn't appear to mean the same thing that "MODEL" and "BOSS" mean. All the other theme answers are clued as if they express admiration for the tool in question. Is JIGGETY a term of praise? "Those are some JIGGETY shoes you got there." "He's a real JIGGETY dancer." I've heard of "hot diggety!" (sp.!?). I've not heard of JIGGETY anything (except JIG, as we've established).

I loved the revealer ("WHAT A TOOL!"), which was the easiest themer of the lot. By the time I got down there, it was clear that TOOLs were involved. Nice, lively (jiggety?) way to bring the whole theme together. I thought the fill was pretty jiggety as well, in general. The inventive spellings on BBQED and WWIIVET threw me, but they're fun. CRAFT BEERS and FRONT LINES and THE TUBE and ALT TEXT all add spark. Lots of names today, all of which I was lucky enough to know. I realized just now, typing that last sentence, that I was confusing LORD JIM with LUCKY JIM (the Kingsley Amis novel). The clue even clearly says "Joseph Conrad novel," so I don't know why my brain insisted on changing it, but it did (11D: Joseph Conrad novel made into a 1965 film starring Peter O'Toole). I've heard of LORD JIM, but I have not read (or seen) it. I was surprised that the SEDARIS clue didn't even give you "David" as a helper (41D: Humorist who describes his stint working as a Macy's Christmas elf in "Santaland Diaries"). Even people who know David SEDARIS could probably have benefited from the push. And anyway, there's more than one humorist named SEDARIS, although I guess the "his" in the clue does make clear(er) which one we're dealing with (in a weird coincidence, his sister Amy was namechecked in an episode of Somebody Somewhere that I watched just last night). 

Bullet points:

• 4A: Sign of justice (LIBRA) — a timely answer. My wife is a LIBRA. Her birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday month, LIBRAs!
• 14A: Acknowledgment of applause, maybe (BOW) — my acknoweldger was much more modest. She merely NODded. 
• 34A: Noted chairman? (EAMES) — I thought the EAMES chairs were designed by Charles and Ray EAMES. He would still be the chair man (or "chairman?") but I just wanted to acknowledge the fact that there's also a chair woman.

• 21A: Hobbled, in gamer slang (NERFED) — outside my field of knowledge, but I've heard of it. This is the second bit of gamer terminology in the puzzle, after BOSS LEVEL (a level of video game play where you confront a significant enemy).
• 67A: Cerulean expanse (SKY) — me, a genius: "Ooh, 'cerulean' is blue, so ... SEA!" ("cerulean" is literally SKY blue)
• 33D: Llama's head? (ELS) — "letteral" clues can be tricky in general, but this one was extra tricky since "head," which usually means "first letter," here means "first two letters." Since the head (first letter) is "L" and ELL is how you spell "L" and ELL fit, I wrote in ELL. 

• 35D: Description of an online image (ALT TEXT) — I add ALT TEXT to every image I post on social media and I still didn't get this answer easily. Nothing about the clue suggests the fact that ALT TEXT exists primarily to make digital content accessible to people with visual impairments (although you can also think of it as a way to add bonus commentary to your posted pics).

This was tough but fun. Hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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