Spanx founder Blakely / THU 11-20-25 / Cubing needs / Like an S-Tier video game character / Pixel alternative / Vesper Lynd portrayer in "Casino Royale" / Duds in bed? / "Hail," in Latin / Niihau neighbor / Video game customization, informally / Levi's Stadium player, informally / "Star Wars" character originally portrayed by a puppet that weighed over a ton / Dish that creates an explosion of rich flavors, in modern parlance

Constructor: Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: far too easy

THEME: ODD MAN OUT (57A: He doesn't belong ... or a hint to the circled letters in 16-, 23-, 36-, 38- and 48-Across) — in five long Across answers, circled squares appear in "odd"-numbered squares (1st 3rd 5th or 3rd 5th 7th) and contain a "man"'s name. You have to take that man's name "out" to make sense of the clue:

Theme answers:

• SKINDIVES (16A: Cubing needs — remove "SID," get KNIVES)
• BETTER DAYS (23A: Turns on — remove "TED," get BETRAYS)
• AMBIENT (36A: Make, as money — remove "ABE," get MINT)
• STARMAP (38A: Ensnare — remove "SAM," get TRAP)
• DAMNED LIES (48A: Fops — remove "MEL," get DANDIES)

Word of the Day: S-tier (18A: Like an S-Tier video game character) —

A tier list is a concept originating in video game culture where playable characters or other in-game elements are subjectively ranked by their respective viability as part of a list. Characters listed high on a tier list of a specific game are considered to be powerful characters compared to lower-scoring characters, and are therefore more likely to be used in high-level competitive settings like tournaments.

Tier lists are a popular method of classifying the cast of playable characters in fighting games such as the Tekken and Super Smash Bros. series; multiplayer online battle arena titles such as League of Legends and Dota series; hero shooter titles such as Overwatch and Apex Legends; and action role-playing games with playable party members like Genshin Impact. [...] 

Tier rankings may use letter grades. The competitive community surrounding Guilty Gear Xrd, for instance, ranks characters as 'S', 'S-', 'A+', and 'A', where 'S tiers' are particularly powerful and 'A tiers' less so.^[3] Major video game news websites such as The Daily Dot, Kotaku and PC Gamer have published their own tier lists for popular games. 'S' tier may stand for "special", "super", or the Japanese word for "exemplary" (秀, shū), and originates from the widespread use in Japanese culture of an 'S' grade for advertising and academic grading. (wikipedia)

• • •

The concept here is fine, but despite some colorful long Downs, it played dull for me. I think there were two things blunting what should be an exciting Thursday experience. The first was unclued answers. It was somewhat fun to suss these out, I guess, but the answers that get clued, the Odd Man-removed answers, are blah. Shorter, plainer, with not terribly interesting clues. Cluing the shorter answers meant having a far less lively clue set for the themers. Hard to do much when your actual theme answers are KNIVES, BETRAYS, MINT, STRAP and DANDIES—they're all fine answers, but they aren't exactly novel or sparkling, and the cluing was perfectly straightforward, so yes, you had to work your way around those circled squares, I guess, but the actual clue/answer pairings were hohum. That hohum-ness was intensified by the ridiculously easy quality of the puzzle as a whole. PJS to PSST and on and on with almost no resistance. Figuring out how to handle those circled squares was by far the hardest part of the puzzle, and it wasn't hard. 

I had very brief trouble with ELITE (forgot what "S-tier" meant), SARA (the inventor of Spanx is a thing I'm supposed to know?) and kindasorta EVA GREEN (53A: Vesper Lynd portrayer in "Casino Royale")—actually, I didn't struggle there because most of her letters were filled in before I looked at the clue. But I would have struggled a little if that hadn't been true. Too many short, overfamiliar, crosswordy answers (PSST SOP ELI SEL POR PSAT AVRIL RIRI ALIT NINER EGADS LEONE ANAL ... ESTERS and ESTEE? yeesh...) took the fun (and challenge) out of this one. And yet the theme itself is very clever, conceptually—neatly executed—and those long Downs are nothing to sneeze at—really nice culinary symmetry on SPICE RUBS and UMAMI BOMB. So there were things to like, and things to not like. My main feeling while solving was one of nostalgia for a time when puzzles used to be challenging on a regular basis. I've been solving for a long time and I've been good at solving for a long time, and the difficulty drop is definitely a real thing. I'm not getting better. I'm too old and underpracticed to be getting "better." My skills are probably declining. And yet I'm stomping on Thursdays like they're nothing. It's not great.

Bullets:

• 1A: Duds in bed? (PJS) — a transparent clue, yes, but a good one. Clue on SPICE RUBS, also good (3D: Dry seasons?)
• 26A: "Hail," in Latin ("AVE!") — I think I prefer this as a map abbr. But maybe putting it in Latin was some feeble attempt to toughen the grid up. In Latin, "AVE!" is "Hail!" and "VALE!" is "farewell" (hence the term "valedictorian"—one who says farewell (at graduation)) (this comes up every semester when I teach Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" and inevitably most people have not bothered to look up what "valediction" means—protip for understanding poetry: know what the words in the poem mean!)

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

   And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say

   The breath goes now, and some say, No:

So let us melt, and make no noise,

   No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

'Twere profanation of our joys

   To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,

   Men reckon what it did, and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres,

   Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

   (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit

Absence, because it doth remove

   Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

   That our selves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

   Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

   Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

   Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

   As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

   To move, but doth, if the other do.

And though it in the center sit,

   Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

   And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

   Like th' other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

   And makes me end where I begun. (poetryfoundation.org)

• 47A: Video game customization, informally (MOD) — this puzzle was so easy that even two (2) video game clues didn't faze me.

• 35D: Pixel alternative (IPAD) — I really thought the Pixel was a phone. So many insufferable pre-movie ads featuring Pixel and iPhone having adventures together... Yep, the Pixel is a smartphone. An IPAD is ... not? I'm obviously missing something here. Don't bother to fill me in, it's fine.
• 56A: They may be threaded (BROWS) — forgot this was a thing. Wow, it turns out I had no clear idea what eyebrow-threading actually is:

In threading, a thin cotton or polyester thread is doubled, then twisted. It is then rolled over areas of unwanted hair, plucking the hair at the follicle level. Unlike tweezing, where single hairs are pulled out one at a time, threading can remove short rows of hair.

Advantages cited for eyebrow threading, as opposed to eyebrow waxing, include that it provides more precise control in shaping eyebrows, and that it is gentler on the skin. A disadvantage is that it can be painful, as several hairs are removed at once; however, it can be minimized if done correctly, i.e. with the right pressure.

• 33D: Dish that creates an explosion of rich flavors, in modern parlance (UMAMI BOMB) — I enjoyed this answer, even though I'm not sure how widespread this "modern parlance" is. Maybe you hear it on cooking shows (which I don't watch)? Whatever, it was inferable to me and I'm sure I've heard it before and it's the freshest answer in the grid, so thumbs up.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. This coming Tuesday at 7:00PM there's a book launch event for Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last. It takes place at Judson Memorial Church in NYC and features Natan in conversation with writer Doreen St. Félix. You can find more information and RSVP here. You can read an excerpt from Natan's book at The Nation right now—keep an eye out for familiar names ... ;)

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