Like Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk, by birth / FRI 10-3-25 / Service to foster parents? / Professional juggling act? / One end of a lap / Something raised during Oktoberfest / Not listen to, as on Spotify / When repeated, a nonverbal "Can you hear me?" / Graduates in green-and-black regalia, in brief

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Taylor Swift new release day! — jk, there's no theme (Life of a Show Girl does come out today, though)

Word of the Day: Alfresco (43A: Alfresco dining spot = TERRACE) —

: taking place or located in the open air : outdoor, outdoors 

In addition to describing a type of dining, alfresco can also describe a kind of painting. The word fresco, which comes from the Italian adjective fresco, meaning "fresh," refers to a method of painting on fresh plaster. Although the "outdoors" sense of alfresco is by far the most common in current use, the term is sometimes used to describe painting done in the fresco manner—that is, on fresh plaster. (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Lord help me, my first answer was IOWAN (16A: Like Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk, by birth). That's one of those bits of trivia that I feel guilty for knowing. I don't even know *how* I know Kirk is IOWAN, but it's not the kind of "knowledge" I'm exactly proud of. Felt a bit like cheating. If it hadn't been my first answer, if I hadn't whiffed on the first few clues I looked at, I wouldn't have found my knowing the answer so (semi-)embarrassing. But because it's the answer that gave me my first push, I felt like I'd accidentally discovered Easy mode, like the puzzle was stooping to my HALFASS level just to give me a chance. But once IOWAN went in, then bam, it's SKIP (and not MUTE) (1D: Not listen to, as on Spotify) and bam, it's SANDS, which is what I wanted initially but couldn't confirm (1A: Smooths out some rough edges), and bam, it's KNEES (cute; 14A: One end of a lap). And I never struggled again. All 'cause I know where some fictional characters were "born." In the olden days, IOWAN would've been clued via M*A*S*H's Radar O'Reilly (born in Ottumwa). . . actually, I'm not seeing him in any of the clues for IOWAN (or IOWA, for that. matter). How strange. He was iconically from Iowa. Wait, was Hawkeye also from Iowa. Because Hawkeyes are Iowans the way Sooners are Oklahomans, so ... was that entire M*A*S*H unit from Iowa!? No, Klinger was from Toledo, for sure. Oh, and it turns out Hawkeye was, bizarrely, from Crabapple Cove, ME. For future reference, the people used in NYTXW clues for IOWAN include Grant Wood, Herbert Hoover, Buffalo Bill, John Wayne, and Johnny Carson, as well as (back in the day) a senator named Hickenlooper and a VP named Wallace (the very first IOWAN clue, 1944)

After Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk came to my rescue, I was fine. Nothing more than minor hiccups the rest of the way, and even an occasional feeling of whoosh-whoosh zoom-zoom. Like here, for instance:

Those three Downs in the NW did not exactly come charging out of the gates, but once they went in, whoosh, there went WORK-LIFE BALANCE, and the whole grid opened up (33A: Professional juggling act?). Overall, the puzzle felt solid and smooth, if not as spicy as I tend to expect from these (accomplished) constructors. "PLEASE BE PATIENT" is a very real phrase, but it reminds me of being on hold, and of computer voices pretending to care about me or my time or my struggle to talk to a human representative, so I don't like it at all. I do, however, like CRYBABIES and "ASK ANYONE!"—that SW corner is nice. The rest of the long answers are OK, but lacking something in the zing department. The one thing that slowed me down at all today was the compound nature of so many of the answers. I'd get one part of an answer, but somehow the next part of the answer wouldn't come. Had ANOTHER and no idea about ONE (2D: "Apparently we weren't done with these"), DEAD and no idea about LINKS (4D: Bad internet connections?) (I was thinking [Bad internet connections?] had to do with DEAD LINES). Then TAX and no idea about LAWYER (32D: One skilled at withholding details), and GET but no idea about ANGRY (23D: Lose it) (this one really should've come to me right away, but somehow GET AGGRO (!?) was running interference). Otherwise, the only things that made me hesitate today in any significant way were the MDS / DOCUSERIES crossing (27A: Graduates in green-and-black regalia, in brief / 28D: Reality shows?) (didn't know about the colors of the former, and the clue on DOCUSERIES was just too vauge for me to get without that initial "D" ... I wanted FOCUS-something-something). Oh, and I wrote in COLT before FOAL (22D: One under a mare's care). Not thrilled about the two "ONE"s in the grid, though one of the ONEs is part of ANYONE, so it probably gets a pass. Also, two ASSes? One American, one British? (HALFASS, ARSE). I can't say I'm mad about that, but I did notice.

Bullets:

• 14A: One end of a lap (KNEES) — the other end is your hips, or the tops of your thighs, to be more specific. This is the "lap" you make when you sit.
• 19A: "Bygones will be bygone, ___ fadin' into gray" (Taylor Swift lyric) ("ERAS") — you don't have to know the lyric, really. If you have been solving puzzles at all for the last couple years, you know Taylor Swift had a huge ERAS Tour. This is the ninth (!) time that ERAS has gotten a Swift-related clue. Today is the release date of Taylor Swift's much-anticipated new album, The Life of a Showgirl. And so ... a new "era" has begun. The reviews seem good. I haven't heard a note. Let's listen.

[this song namechecks the Plaza Athenée in the first line—I spent one night there in 1987; my first night in Paris, and I spent it at the most expensive and beautiful hotel I've ever been in, before or since. You see, my father made a huge mistake with the hotel booking—what he thought was the weekly rate was actually the *nightly* rate. So we were out of there the next day, off to some hotel with Eiffel Towers for key rings, LOL. But that one night has stayed with me. Step out onto the wrought-iron balcony of your room and hello Eiffel Tower. The robes! The wallpaper! The jet lag! What a time!]

• 37A: When repeated, a nonverbal "Can you hear me?" ([TAP]) — without any "mic" context, this was toughish. Also, you usually follow the [TAP] [TAP] with something verbal, don't you? "Testing" or some such? 
• 56A: Something raised during Oktoberfest (BEER TENT) — not a term I know, though one I can certainly visualize. I wanted some kind of STEIN, of course.

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. tomorrow is the Midwest Crossword Tournament in Chicago. Registration has closed for both in-person and online solvers, but you can preorder the puzzle packs here. Good luck to everyone participating!

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