Sits legs akimbo, pejoratively / FRI 11-21-25 / Japanese ogre / "Fellow traveler," in Russian / Anne's best friend in "Anne of Green Gables" / Popular perfume named after a singing star / Shakespearean "Hush!" / Juana ___ de la Cruz, classic Mexican writer known as "The Tenth Muse" / Symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt / Certain marketing deluge / Hits up online in a way / Sydney Adamu portrayer on "The Bear"

Constructor: Joyce Keller

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ONI (54D: Japanese ogre) —

An oni (鬼おに) (/ˈoʊniː/ OH-nee) is a kind of yōkai, demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like thunder and lightning, along with their evil nature manifesting in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. They are typically portrayed as hulking figures with one or more horns growing out of their heads, massive teeth, and occasionally a third eye in the center of the forehead. They are typically depicted with red, blue, black, or yellow colored skin, wearing loincloths of tiger pelt, and carrying iron kanabō clubs. They also have three to six digits on each hand and foot tipped with claw-like nails. Oni are able to change their looks to fool their victims into trusting them. Oni can be male or female, but have been predominantly male throughout history. Female oni are sometimes referred to by the name Yamauba. When in disguise, oni are capable of appearing as a man or woman, regardless of their gender. As monstrous as oni are, they have been linked to bringing good fortune and wealth. [...] They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature, and theater and appear as stock villains in the well-known fairytales of Momotarō (Peach Boy), Issun-bōshi, and Kobutori Jīsan. Although oni have been described as frightening creatures, they have become tamer in modern culture as people tell less frightening stories about them like Oni Mask and Red Oni Who Cried.(wikipedia)

• • •

[52A: Insomniac's aid]

This had a decent amount of whoosh, but I wouldn't call it HEART-STOPPING. It started soft, with a name I haven't thought about for years—except when her first name shows up in crosswords (LEA MICHELE)—sitting on top of a slang term that is no longer novel and that I also haven't thought about for years (MANSPREADS) (17A: Sits legs akimbo, pejoratively). But then I came out of that corner with a dramatic zing-zing, as ROCKET SCIENCE shot across the grid in one direction and CHEAT SHEET barreled across it in the other—a moment so nice I took a picture to commemorate the occasion:

After that moment, though, things got somewhat less exciting again. I love the adjectival COME-HITHER (as in a "COME-HITHER look" or "glance" or "stare"), and HEART-STOPPING, while not a descriptor of this puzzle as a whole, is a good answer in its own right. But the other longer answers weren't as interesting, for various reasons, and there was a certain name-iness (and crossing name-iness at that) that was less than enjoyable. All the names are women's names, which is interesting, but still, a glut of names is a glut of names. DIANA crossing INES was a particular non-favorite (44D: Anne's best friend in "Anne of Green Gables" / 55A: Juana ___ de la Cruz, classic Mexican writer known as "The Tenth Muse"). Also, putting one long full celebrity name in a puzzle is fine. Two is pushing it. In fact, AYO EDEBIRI is pushing it in many respects (11D: Sydney Adamu portrayer on "The Bear"). I like her work and don't dislike seeing her name, but y'all are really flooding the zone with her name and name parts and you should really ease up because I've never seen someone's name go from "ooh, fresh!" to "really, her again?" so fast. There have been six AYOs, all of them this year, and, astonishingly, three (3!) full-name appearances for AYO EDEBIRI (again, all this year). A ten-letter proper noun appearing 3x in a year (in six months, actually!) is an unheard of thing. I haven't done the research here, as I can't immediately figure out how to search xwordinfo for answers by length and then sort by frequency and year, but ... it took EMMA STONE (one letter shorter, with more common letters) nine years to get to her fourth all-time full-name appearance; despite her multiple Oscars, including one just last year, we haven't seen her in three and a half years. And that's fine! That's as it should be. Even very famous people should not have their names in the puzzle all the damn time. Respect AYO EDEBIRI by giving her some time off, is what I am saying.

Not sure why HOLE-IN-ONE is fine but HOLES-IN-ONE feels awk. It's a legitimate plural, I just don't like golf in the first place and the "attorneys general" pluralizing of it all doesn't help. I don't really buy "HERE'S WHY..." as a standalone phrase (35D: Lead-in to clarification). Can't say it's not original, but I had "HERE'S HOW..." which also doesn't feel great but feels stronger and more in-the-language (maybe from advertising?) than "HERE'S WHY..." Speaking of advertising and adspeak (one of my least favorite crossword things) ... actually let's not speak about E-BLAST (41D: Certain marketing deluge). The less said the better. As for FIRESTARTER, here is a rare case where I wish the puzzle had opted for the proper noun cluing. [Barbecuer's aid], meh—FIRESTARTER is a Stephen King novel-turned-1980s Drew Barrymore movie. It's been clued that way three of its four earlier appearances, but that's fine. I enjoy remembering 80s movies more than I enjoy thinking about something that literally starts a fire.

Bullets:

• 21A: Settled down (ATREST) — that's AT [space] REST. Hardest thing for me to parse in the whole dang grid. I wanted ALIT and obviously that wouldn't fit and so I just filled the answer from crosses. It took way more crosses than it should have to realize the answer was two words.
• 39D: "Fellow traveler," in Russian (SPUTNIK) — this puzzle was so easy that I didn't even see two clues with interesting bits of trivia in them: this one and the clue on BEES (50D: They have five eyes and communicate by dancing).
• 9D: It may bring out the kid in you (CESAREAN) — never loved the cutesiness of this particular clue (I say "never" because I've seen this exact clue before). Yes, a C-section will get the child out of your uterus, it's true. The wordplay is not unclever. I guess I just find the whimsy unfit for the topic.
• 20A: Symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt (TOAD) — speaking of interesting bits of trivia. TOAD would not have been on my guess list.
• 23A: Shakespearean "Hush!" ("SOFT!") — the "Shakespearean" part had me looking for something British and/or olde-tymey. I had the "F" and thought, "... TOFF? Is that a thing?" before remembering the line, "But SOFT, what light through yonder window breaks? etc." 

• 36A: Popular perfume named after a singing star (RIRI) — Rihanna. Back-to-back days for RIRI.
• 33D: Find fault with, informally (DING) — I wanted DISS. Actually, I wanted DIS and thought maybe DISS was going to be an alt-spelling.
• 4D: Hits up online, in a way (IMS) — do people still "IM" each other? It's not just called "texting?" IM apps are exceedingly popular, but my question is more about the verb. "I'll IM you!" Really? You "text" or "message" someone. Gonna ask my students about this one.

[probably not a great idea to I.M. every woman]

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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