E-card site with a reduplicative name / FRI 3-27-26 / Reductive neologism for a strong female lead / Epithet for Bill Clinton / George's computer friend on "The Jetsons" / PB&J, e.g., informally / Dish whose name means "barley" in Italian / Direction in many a spaghetti western / Figure in Greek mythology who was brought up by a bear / Like 97% of the United States, per the Census Bureau / Dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter / Affliction known as "cold neuralgia" / Tahoe runner

Constructor: Zachary David Levy

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none

Word of the Day: R.U.D.I. (53D: George's computer friend on "The Jetsons") —

R.U.D.I. (voiced by Don Messick) is George's work computer as well as his best friend in the workplace. R.U.D.I. is sentient, free thinking and openly fond of George, recognizing his value as an employee and friend. His name is an acronym for Referential Universal Digital Indexer. He has a human personality and is a member of the Society Preventing Cruelty to Humans. Though capable and loyal, R.U.D.I. is implied to be antiquated technology, as George mentions his model is no longer made.

In the episode "Family Fallout", the Jetsons are up against the Spacelys on a game show. The last question to come up was "what does R.U.D.I. stand for?" George's response was Referential Universal Differential Indexer – this was accepted by the game show host as the correct answer, even though earlier episodes had it as Digital instead of Differential. (wikipedia)

• • •

I think it's best if I just rate this three stars and call its difficulty "Medium" because I am in no condition to make clear-headed judgments. I'm about 18 hours out from my second shingles shot and I feel pretty terrible. Low-level flu-ish. I did not enjoy solving this puzzle very much, but it seems more than possible that my mild feverishness, poor sleep, and resulting brain fog had something to do with that. So I'll try to keep it mostly just descriptive today ... though there is some stuff I'm pretty sure I'd've disliked even if I were feeling 100%. Things I'd rather never think about like BUBBA and TSA and anthropomorphized computer "friends"—and obscure ones, at that—the idea that anyone in the year 2026 should be familiar with the Jetsons universe to that extent is an absurdity. I thought the clue at 53D: George's computer friend on "The Jetsons" (R.U.D.I.) was talking about their robot maid, ROSIE, and the fact that I know ROSIE is itself a minor miracle considering that show aired before I was born—well, the first season, anyway; there were later seasons (2) when I was a teenager (1985-87), but I was not aware of them. R.U.D.I. was the worst of the proper nouns, for me, but I definitely resented having to know JIB-JAB (I have never visited an "E-card site" in my life and am never going to—people still "send" these impersonal things??) (1D: E-card site with a reduplicative name). NFL coaches, esp. their first names, there's just no way. I do not care. [Some guy's first name] may as well have been the clue for DAN (56D: N.F.L. coach Quinn). The clue doesn't even tell you the team he coaches. It's a really underwritten clue; we don't even learn any potentially interesting trivia. Meh. 

I had trouble getting started with this one, and then some trouble down below (where so many of the proper nouns are), and otherwise not much trouble at all. Worked my way into the NW corner via FEN / OFFS / SANYO / STENO (crosswordese to the rescue!), but I doubted FEN because it gave me what seemed like awkward letter sequences ("EF" "NF"). And so I put BOG in that position for a bit (resulting in "OF" instead of "EF" in 15-Across ... "OF" is of course a standalone word, so I was like "that's probably it, it's probably BOG / ...OF..." No). The clue on RURAL took me every single cross (7D: Like 97% of the United States, per the Census Bureau)—like, I was looking at -URAL going "... AURAL?" The clue is talking about the U.S. as a geographical entity; when you put "Census Bureau" in the clue, I assume you are talking about people. Yeesh. Saying the U.S. is 97% rural sounds like some right-wing propaganda, like when they show you how much of the country voted "red" using a physical map instead of numbers of people (when land, of course, doesn't vote; people do). So bah to that clue for sure. I wrote in FARO (!?) before ORZO at 10D: Dish whose name means "barley" in Italian, which was dumb—I think it's FARRO with two "R"s, anyway. But after a lot of flailing, I got that corner sorted and ... moved on.

Why am I still writing? I need to go be on the couch with a mug of hot water watching old movies until I pass out. I'll end by saying I think the stack in the NW corner is great, and THATAWAY made me smile (maybe I'll watch an old western today...) (33D: Direction in many a spaghetti western). I do not believe in the phrase "ALL OK?" (22A: "Do we have a problem here?"). Like, at all. Cannot hear it. "YOU OK?" I can def hear. "ALL GOOD?" I can kinda hear. "EVERYTHING OK?," sure. "ALL OK?," no. No. The one other answer that made me shake my head impatiently was ARGUED A CASE, which is as paradigmatic an EAT A SANDWICH answer as you're ever going to see ... but then I laughed out loud when that answer actually crossed SAMMICH (!), so maybe the puzzle is doing some kind of meta performance art there. Points for making it weird, puzzle.

Bullets:

• 24A: L.A. subdivision? (LOS) — self-referential. The clue is referring to "L.A." One "subdivision" is LOS, the other is ANGELES. 
• 13D: Reductive neologism for a strong female lead (GIRL BOSS) — oof. This concept. The clue seems to know that it's "reductive" so why is it in the grid at all? GIRL BOSS feminism reinforces gender stereotypes and perpetuates a toxic hustle culture, ugh. The very idea that it's remarkable for a "girl" to be a "boss" is also ... I dunno. A problem, I'd say. Many feminists have written articles critiquing the #GirlBoss phenomenon in the 15 or so years since it first blew up. But the critique isn't only coming from feminists: "In our pursuit of progress and equality, it's vital to understand that the core of our conversations should transcend gendered limitations. The goal isn’t to shift from one catchy hashtag to another, but to reframe our collective mindset, ensuring that aspirations and trends truly represent and resonate with all" (that's Forbes for god's sake). 
• 40D: PB&J, e.g., informally (SAMMICH) — me: "so PB&J ... is formal now?" Also me: "... SAMMIES?" (I hear sandwiches called "sammies" way more often than I hear them called "SAMMICHes").
• 23D: "Squid Game" and "The Red Sleeve" for two (K-DRAMAS) — these are just Korean dramas. Pretty straightforward.
• 29A: One whose work is barely seen? (EROTIC ARTIST)—not really sure what this is. Is it a stripper? A painter? Cartoonist? I got the EROTIC part easily enough, but the ARTIST was less intuitive.

• 14D: Figure in Greek mythology who was brought up by a bear (ATALANTA) — I know her name because it appears in a Donne poem ("Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed"), but otherwise, I honestly know very little about her. She was a "swift-footed huntress" who as a child had been left to die by her father but was "suckled by a she-bear," as was the style of the time. She offered to marry whoever could beat her in a foot race and so Hippomenes got some golden apples from Aphrodite and threw them on the ground, and ATALANTA stopped mid-race to pick them up, and so Hippomenes won the race. "Atalanta and her husband, overcome with passion, made love in a shrine of the goddess Cybele (or of Zeus), for which they were turned into lions" (Britannica). So she had a colorful life.

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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