Plastic explosive used in many demolitions / THU 10-9-25 / Cutesy name for a certain leviathan / Some ancient Italians / Storage device that has fallen out of fashion / One of 300 at the National Mall / Fictional character who says "I am a brain ... The rest of me is a mere appendix"

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ALL THUMBS (58A: Klutzy ... and a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across) — clues describe thumb positions and answers indicate what those different positions mean; you basically just have to insert "thumb(s)" after the number in each theme clue:

Theme answers:

• "NO WAY, JOSE" (17A: Two [thumbs] down)
• "I NEED A RIDE" (25A: One [thumb] out)
• NOTHING TO DO (35A: Two [thumbs] moving around each other)
• "WORKS FOR ME" (49A: Two [thumbs] up)

Word of the Day: SEMTEX (13D: Plastic explosive used in many demolitions) —

Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications.

Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B 1 and then under the "Semtex" designation since 1964, labeled as SEMTEX 1A, since 1967 as SEMTEX H, and since 1987 as SEMTEX 10.

Originally developed for Czechoslovak military use and export, Semtex eventually became popular with armed groups and insurgents because, prior to the 2000s, it was extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103. (wikipedia)

• • •

Took me longer than it should have to figure out how the theme works today, though maybe I'm being too hard on myself. By "longer than it should have," I mean that I got the revealer and didn't understand it right away. At that point, I had only one theme answer in place ("NO WAY, JOSE!"), and I just didn't know what to do with ALL THUMBS. With the "ALL" part in particular. Didn't help that "Two down" looked like it might have some kind of crossword meaning, like maybe 2-Down was involved (?). I think I had to get "WORKS FOR ME" in order to finally see the whole thumbs-up / thumbs-down thing. Even then, I had NOTHING ___ at the center answer and no idea what it could be. Two [thumbs] moving around each other??? I actually tried to do this, physically, at my desk here, just to see if anything would come to me, and I quickly realized I had no idea what "moving around each other" even meant. Moving around each other ... how? I was kind of holding my thumbs toward each other and then cycling them around each other, almost like I was pedaling a bike with my hands. The word you really need here is "twiddling," but maybe [Two twiddling] was thought to be either too much of a giveaway or just too weird-looking. Anyway, "moving around each other" did nothing for me. I think I had "NOTHING TO IT!" there for a bit. Which brings me to the main reason that central answer just doesn't work. All the other answers are clear, standalone, familiar expressions that one might say, and the thumb gestures stand in for those expressions more or less accurately. "NOTHING TO DO" is not a common spoken phrase the way the others are. It's a state of being, as in "I have NOTHING TO DO." I can imagine someone saying "NOTHING TO DO," but that's very different from its being a meaningful expression on its own, the way, say, "NO WAY, JOSE" is. With the others ... I don't think of "NO WAY JOSE" and "two thumbs down" as equivalent, but they're ballpark, both expressing a negative reaction, and the others work at least equally well, so OK. But NOTHING TO DO is an outlier, and an awkward one.

The cluing felt hard today, or hardish, though the only thing in the puzzle that I didn't actually know, in the end, was SEMTEX. Oh, and EFT, which I just keep forgetting, apparently. Electronic funds transfer?? Yes. I am old school, in that I expect my EFTs to be Newt-onian (an EFT is a juvenile newt, as any longtime solver knows). This is only the fourth financial EFT, as against 68 amphibious EFTs in the Shortz Era alone (192 all time). I had to work a little to get LATINS, which is deeply ironic, as I just finished teaching the Aeneid for the umpteenth time, and it's the LATINS, led by King (... wait for it...) Latinus, that Aeneas encounters when he lands in Italy, and the Latin king's daughter, Lavinia, whom he must eventually wed (after a stupid war that goes on for five books just 'cause Juno wants to make it all as painful as possible, even though she can't stop it (because Fate!)). I do not really buy DO HARM as a standalone phrase. DO NO HARM, yes, that is a phrase, a very specific and meaningful phrase where the Hippocratic oath is concerned. DO HARM sounds like the terse direction of a sadistic interplanetary emperor. The rest of the fill seems fine—no strong reactions.

Bullets:

• 32A: One of 300 at the National Mall (ACRE) — at first I was like "... STEP?" Like maybe that's how many steps there were to the top of the Washington Monument, or the Lincoln Memorial (lol that would put Lincoln very, very high up). 
• 39A: Marvel series focused on Thor's brother (LOKI) — so ... just [Thor's brother], then. Not sure why all the other words are necessary if you're just gonna end up at [Thor's brother].
• 55A: "The Burghers of Calais" sculptor (RODIN) — No idea what this is. I know that RODIN is a sculptor, and that's all I had to know. Let's look at some art, shall we?

[oh hey, it's at The Met: "The monument commemorates the heroism of six leading citizens (burghers) of the French city of Calais. In the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, they offered their lives to the English king in exchange for the lifting of his siege of the city. By portraying their despair and haunted courage in the face of death, Rodin challenged contemporary heroic ideals and made an event from the past seem immediate and real."]

• 35D: Annual breast cancer awareness observance (NO BRA DAY) — I did not know this was a thing, or still a thing. Seems like an impractical option for many women. According to wikipedia, "The day is controversial as some see it as sexualizing and exploiting women's bodies while at the same time belittling a serious disease." I misread the clue as [Annual breast cancer awareness month] and, having the "NO-," wrote in NOVEMBER (which fits ... it's wrong, but it fits). Breast Cancer Awareness Month is actually right now, October, and NO BRA DAY is next week (October 13)
• 39D: Heroine of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (LEONORA) — I must've seen LEONORA a bunch over the years, as an answer as well as in clues, because I plunked her down with just a few crosses despite knowing nothing about this opera.

• 48D: Cutesy name for a certain leviathan (NESSIE) — "leviathan" makes me think "whale," and I was like "did Ahab have a 'cutesy name' for Moby-Dick!? WHITIE?" But no, "leviathan" is just a gigantic (watery) creature, so ... the Loch Ness Monster, aka NESSIE.

[I own this cutesy Moby-Dick shirt—design by Kate Beaton]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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