Obsessor over "the precious" in Tolkien lore / MON 3-2-26 / Wild canid of the Great Lakes region / Sequence of steps to accomplish a goal / Year on the Yucatán / Sci-fi series with a "Time Lord" traveling in a TARDIS

Constructor: Leslie Benson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)

THEME: GIVE A SHOUT OUT (36A: Acknowledge during a broadcast say ... and a hint to the shaded squares) — theme answers start with terms that might be shouted out:

Theme answers:

• FORESHADOW (shouted by a golfer) (17A: Hint at, as what's to come)
• STRIKE GOLD (... by an umpire) (25A: Hit the jackpot, so to speak)
• ACTION PLAN (... by a director) (48A: Sequence of steps to accomplish a goal)
• TIMBER WOLF (... by a logger) (58A: Wild canid of the Great Lakes region)

Word of the Day: TIMBER WOLF (58A) —

[buddy!]

The eastern wolf (Canis lycaon or Canis lupus lycaon), also known as the timber wolf, Algonquin wolf and eastern timber wolf, is a canine of debated taxonomy native to the Great Lakes region and southeastern Canada. It is considered either a unique subspecies of gray wolf, or red wolf, or a separate species from both. Many studies have found the eastern wolf to be the product of ancient and recent genetic admixture between the gray wolf and the coyote, while other studies have found some or all populations of the eastern wolf, as well as coyotes, originally separated from a common ancestor with the wolf over 1 million years ago and that these populations of the eastern wolf may be the same species as or a closely related species to the red wolf (Canis lupus rufus or Canis rufus) of the Southeastern United States. Regardless of its status, it is regarded as unique and therefore worthy of conservation with Canada citing the population in eastern Canada (also known as the "Algonquin wolf") as being the eastern wolf population subject to protection. // There are two forms, the larger being referred to as the Great Lakes-boreal wolf, which is generally found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, southeastern Manitoba and northern Ontario, and the smaller being the Algonquin wolf, which inhabits eastern Canada, specifically central and eastern Ontario and southwestern Quebec, with some overlapping and mixing of the two types in the southern portions of northeastern and northwestern Ontario. The eastern wolf's morphology is midway between that of the gray wolf and the coyote. The fur is typically of a grizzled grayish-brown color mixed with cinnamon. The nape, shoulder and tail region are a mix of black and gray, with the flanks and chest being rufous or creamy. It primarily preys on white-tailed deer, but may occasionally hunt moose and beavers.

• • •

The shaded squares are a weird choice. This is an absolutely ordinary first-words (or word parts) type theme. Usually (almost always, as far as I can remember) those first parts are not shaded. Usually the theme clues will be starred and the revealer clue will say something like "... or a hint to the starts of the answers to the starred clues." And then the theme answers themselves will just look ordinary, unshaded. You have to find the words / word parts yourself. No shaded squares unnecessarily telling you "look here!" I don't know why you'd need to also shade those first words / word parts. Why the additional, make-it-super-obvious indication? It's not like the words are hidden or embedded in their answers or anything. Seems absurd. Superfluous. As for the core concept today, it seems a little tepid. These are words that different people shout, sure, but GIVE A SHOUT OUT feels like way too ornate a phrase for a merely shouted word. The "OUT" part was briefly confusing, as I assumed something would be taken "out" of the answers, somehow. The FORE in FORESHADOW is an anomaly, since it's not a separate word like the others. ACTION PLAN is an inherently weak phrase—I've heard of it before, but every time I hear it, I think "so ... just a plan, then?" The phrase "plan of action" somehow rings truer than ACTION PLAN. I wanted a (much) better ACTION answer, is what I'm saying. ACTION FIGURE, something like that. I like that the shaded squares are all shouted words, all shouted in different contexts. There's something kind of fun about shouting these terms in my head to prove the veracity of the theme. But the overall execution just feels a little underwhelming. 

And the fill isn't helping. Audibly groaned at APRS (some things should never be pluralized and this is one of them) (22A: Figs. that include interest), and then again at AREAR (55A: Toward the back), which appears in the NYTXW way way more often than it should, which is never. Hadn't appeared in more than four years before today (good job, everybody!) but there have now been 21 appearances in the Modern Era (bad job, everybody!). ACUTER is a painful comparative adjective. I like this comment from a word reference forum I just found: "The British National Corpus offers ninety-four examples of more acute, and zero of acuter, so it looks like it's unanimous. Don't believe everything you read in dictionaries." AS BAD is AS BAD a partial as you're likely to see (OK, not the worst, but not great) (34A: "There's no such thing ___ publicity"). Then there's the lowest form of fill, the playground retort ("I AM SO!"), and the "anus" passing as "year" (ANO) (8D: Year on the Yucatán). At least they spelled DOCTOR WHO correctly (35D: Sci-fi series with a "Time Lord" traveling in a TARDIS). None of this DR. WHO shenanigans the NYTXW sometimes tries to get away with (nine appearances since '06).

The weirdest answer of the day was definitely SMEAGOL (29D: Obsessor over "the precious" in Tolkien lore). We just had SMEAGOL in the puzzle two days ago (causing no end of spelling trouble for solvers, myself included). And before today, SMEAGOL had only ever been a Friday or Saturday answer. And suddenly it jumps up the easiness scale all the way to Monday? Strange. There have been four SMEAGOL appearances total—two very close to each other in late 2018, then over seven years of silence, and then two more appearances within two days of each other. Congrats to all the solvers who got burned by SMEAGOL on Saturday but then got him today. I think we've had enough, though, now. Back into the volcano with you, Gollum (that's what SMEAGOL is renamed after he becomes corrupted by the One Ring).

Bullets:

• 6D: Bias (SLANT) — in the top half of the puzzle, this clue gave me the most trouble, solving Downs-only. I couldn't think of a synonym for "Bias" besides "prejudice" or maybe "leaning." Just drew a blank. This is not uncommon when solving Downs-only, but what compounded the problem was that I had SEI-E in one of the crosses and the only letter I could think of to go in the blank was "Z." So I put "Z" in and tried to think of synonyms for "Bias" that fit the --AZ- pattern. No luck. Wasn't til later, when I was able to get the final "T" (from STRIKE GOLD) that I realized, with a big "oh, duh," that SEINE was also a viable option there. Nothing else about the Downs-only solve gave me nearly so much trouble. But only because I was dead-certain about SMEAGOL and how to spell it (having seen it just two days ago). If I'd solved this puzzle last Monday, I think SMEAGOL might've held me up at least a little.
• 4D: Knight captures bishop, e.g. (CHESS MOVE) — wasn't sure how I felt about this answer at first but now I think it's probably the most interesting thing in the grid. I suppose at first it seemed a little ... wobbly, somehow. I had this "is that a strong enough standalone phrase? I ... think so?"And now I just think so. No "question mark?" about it.
• 14A: The Potato State (IDAHO) — pfffffft, IDAHO is the Gem State. Their license plates read "Famous Potatoes." My family is from IDAHO so I'm well aware of the state's association with potatoes, and I got this answer easily, but I don't think I've ever heard IDAHO called The Potato State. This is certainly the first time it's been clued this way. It's been clued [Potato state] a few times, with a lowercase "s" on "state," but that's not a title. Wikipedia has The Potato State listed as an unofficial title, so the clue is not wrong. Unofficial, but not wrong. Side note: the state motto of IDAHO is "ESTO Perpetua." This occasionally (seldom, but occasionally) has crossword relevance.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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