Birkin bag maker / TUE 2-10-26 / John ___, longtime writer for The New Yorker / News website with a Latin name / Catholic university whose mascot is a lion, aptly / Viral dance of the 2010s / 20 ounce Starbucks size / Pool from a volcanic eruption / Program for expedited travel between the U.S. and Canada / Reputation or Lover, to a Swiftie / First Oscar winner to be born in the 21st century (for Best Original Song) / Margaret Mead's subject, informally

Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Amie Walker

Relative difficulty: Medium, maybe a little tougher than that (***for a Tuesday***)

[43D: Kylo ___, "Star Wars" antagonist]

THEME: "GIVE ME A HAND" (59A: "I could use some help here" ... or a hint to 17-, 25-, 37- and 50-Across) — theme answers are all things you give hands to:

Theme answers:

• POKER PLAYER (17A: Certain casino regular)
• PALM READER (25A: Psychic who examines lifelines and heart lines)
• MRS. POTATO HEAD (37A: "Toy Story 2" character who says "I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes, just in case")
• CLAP-O-METER (50A: Device measuring audience approval)

Word of the Day: John MCPHEE (44D: John ___, longtime writer for The New Yorker) —

John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is an American author. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists).\ In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career".^[2] Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. (wikipedia) // Coming into the Country is a 1976 book by John McPhee about Alaska and McPhee's travels through much of the state with bush pilots, prospectors, and settlers, as well as politicians and businesspeople who each interpret the state in different ways. // One of his most widely read books, Coming into the Country is divided into three sections, "At the Northern Tree Line: The Encircled River," "In Urban Alaska: What They Were Hunting For," and "In the Bush: Coming into the Country". // Like all of McPhee's books, Coming into the Country started out as an outline that he proceeded to fill in. It is McPhee's best-selling book. // After the publication of Coming into the Country, The New York Times called McPhee "the most versatile journalist in America". (wikipedia)

• • •

A pockmarked, choppy grid that felt fussy from the outset. Something about that NW (and SE) corner is so overly-carved out and ugly, IMO. Just too many black squares for my eye / sensibility. The weirdly offset longer Downs (GETS IN SHAPE / LADIES NIGHT) create this odd over-black-squared phenomenon, which should be innocuous, but somehow made the start of this solve really unpleasant. Starting with threes—and ambiguous 3s at that (I had ZIP for VIM (1A: Pep in one's step) and later PET for VIP (1D: One who gets special treatment, for short) and then, because of PET, EMOJI (!?) for IMAGE (12A: Picture it!)). The fill was pretty bad at the outset, in part because of this short-word glut (IMO ETAIL (ugh), CFOS, FLAM, NAE NAE), so the puzzle started in a hole with me. Things got better when the longer answers started cooking, but still, throughout, the short fill (esp. the very short fill, the 3s) felt relentless. All those 3s in the NE / SW ... and then EKE ANODE STLEO on one line. It was a lot to take. The puzzle was also replete with proper nouns, which ... you know, live/die by them, I guess. I loved seeing John MCPHEE (someone whose writing for the New Yorker I always admire and someone I keep meaning to read more). But then you've got your DAEs and your RAEs and your NAE NAEs and I'm less excited about those. Seriously, has any puzzle gone to the "AE" well more times than this one? Five times! DAE RAE NAE NAE and AERIE! This puzzle deserves a medal. A medael. I don't know for what, but it's Winter Olympics time, and I'm in the medal-giving spirit. Anyway, if you just see past the bullet-riddled grid and the unfortunate short fill, underneath it all is a pretty basic Monday/Tuesday-type theme. I like that the themers don't just involve hands but actually giving hands. It's as if each theme answer might actually say "GIVE ME A HAND" (to the extent that you can imagine a CLAP-O-METER "saying" anything).

[I have no idea what is happening here (I've never watched an episode of Coronation Street in my life) but someone asks "What's a CLAP-O-METER?" so it seemed appropriate]

[Never heard of CLAP-O-METER before—this is what I thought the device was called]

The fill had a decidedly feminine bias, which I noticed and appreciated. MAKEOVERs and MAMA and DARA Torres (40D: Swimmer Torres with 12 Olympic medals) and Margaret Mead (11D: Margaret Mead's subject, informally) and Taylor Swift (14D: Reputation or Lover, to a Swiftie = ERA) and Billie EILISH (21A: First Oscar winner to be born in the 21st century (for Best Original Song)) and MRS POTATO HEAD—a real LADIES NIGHT here at [checks clock] 5:03am. Does MRS. POTATO HEAD come with a Birkin bag? (48D: Birkin bag maker = HERMÉS). Think about it, Hasbro. You can have that idea for free [HASBRO ... haven't seen that in the puzzle in five years ... saw WHAM-O just last week ... sorry, toy company name digression, back to the puzzle]. Even though I don't love the grid choppiness or much of the short fill, I actually think the overall fill is somewhat more interesting than you typically get on a Tuesday. Longer Downs are plentiful and decent (MAKEOVER, GETS IN SHAPE, LAVA PIT, LADIES NIGHT, ABOVE ALL), and if the puzzle runs a little trivia-heavy, a little proper noun-heavy, it does have a lot of personality. 

Bullets:

• 44A: "Don't Tell ___" ("Cabaret" song) ("MAMA) — one of the answers that made this one tougher (than usual) for me. If you want to hide MAMA from me, put it in a song I've never heard of. You could've told me literally anything went in that four-letter space and I would've believed you. "Don't Tell A LIE," "Don't Tell ME NO," "Don't Tell FRED," sure, those all sound good. 
• 68A: Program for expedited travel between the U.S. and Canada (NEXUS) — glad I never saw this clue because yikes, what? I live not that far from Canada and I've never heard of this. Is this a widely known thing? NEXUS? I can tell you that NEXUS has appeared 49 times in NYTXW history (24 times in the Modern Era, 16 times since I started this blog), and this is the first time it's been clued this way. On a Tuesday? OK, like I said, I never saw the clue, so the "difficulty" was lost on me. Weirdly, I never saw the clue on the first three themers today either. Strange. There was just so much short stuff to work that every time I looked up, another themer was filled in enough for me to guess it.

["Canada, oh Canada"]

• 4D: Song suitable for a slow dance (BALLAD) — I wrote in BALLET. I kinda know why ("dance") but still, really bad reflex there.

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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