Dissension cause in Greek myth / MON 4-6-26 / Jedi who trained Luke, formally / Shipping company with a red-and-yellow logo / Poker tell, perhaps / Food court loiterer, say / Certain submission moves in wrestling / Fence-sitter's response

Constructor: John Ewbank

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

[11D: Jedi who trained Luke, formally]

THEME: APPENDS (37A: Tacks on ... or, when parsed as two words, what 17-, 28-, 47- and 63-Across all have?) — every theme answer "ends" with an "app":
Theme answers:

• BAT SIGNAL (17A: Gotham City SOS)
• APPLE OF DISCORD (28A: Dissension cause in Greek myth)
• "CUT ME SOME SLACK" (47A: "Take it easy, will you?!")
• EYE TWITCH (63A: Poker tell, perhaps)

Word of the Day: APPLE OF DISCORD (see 28A) —

In Greek mythology, the Apple of Discord (Ancient Greek: μῆλον τῆς Ἔριδος) was a golden apple thrown by Eris, the goddess of strife, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. She was not invited to the wedding and threw it out of anger to ruin the gathering (after showing up uninvited). It sparked a vanity-fueled dispute among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that led to the Judgement of Paris and ultimately the Trojan War.

In common parlance, the "apple of discord" is the core, kernel, or crux of an argument, or a small matter that could lead to a bigger dispute. (wikipedia) // 

Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge, she brought a golden apple, inscribed, "To the fairest one", which she threw into the wedding. Three guests, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, after some disputation, agreed to have Paris of Troy choose the fairest one. Paris chose Aphrodite, she having bribed him with the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus. Consequently, Paris carried Helen off to Troy, and the Greeks invaded Troy for Helen's return. Eris's Apple of Discord (or her not being invited to the wedding in the first place) was thus the instrumental casus belli of the Trojan War. (wikipedia)

• • •

A very basic "last-words" theme type with a somewhat clever revealer and themers that not only fit the theme perfectly but that are colorful and interesting answers in their own right. In short, the theme is basic, but it's well executed, and almost nothing about it gave me an EYE TWITCH, so nice job. I've used only two of these apps (Twitch, Slack). Discord is a messaging system used primarily but not exclusively by gamers. I know there's a Crossword Discord, for instance, though I have never gone there. Signal is another messaging system. It's known to me primarily because the buffoonishly incompetent Secretary of ... is it War now? [Hard eyeroll]. Anyway, that guy violated Pentagon regulations by carrying on official business on Signal, potentially endangering service members by discussing ongoing operations in a non-secure environment. Signal is an encrypted messaging service. Aside from very dumb and careless government officials, I associate it with journalists, many of whom use it to communicate with sources. But my specific experience of these apps doesn't matter—they are all very popular one-word apps, making them perfect fodder for a puzzle like this. 

The Downs-only solve was a cinch today. The only part that gave me any real trouble was the NE, where MASTER YODA was not something that came easily to me. Not a title of his that stands out in my memory. I'm sure Luke called him that at some point, but it doesn't exactly feel iconic. Then again, I gave up caring about all things Star Wars decades ago (during the years of the awful second trilogy), and I haven't revisited the original three movies very often over the years, so maybe the phrase MASTER YODA has more currency than I remember, or gained more currency in the 21st century. I tried to write in MANDALORIAN at one point (clearly I have not seen that show). The real issue in that corner wasn't MASTER YODA so much as LEG LOCKS, which I had as ARM LOCKS (there being nothing leg-specific about the clue) (9D: Certain submission moves in wrestling). With ARM in there, MASTER would not work with the Acrosses in that corner, so I pulled MASTER for a bit. Went away to solve other parts of the puzzle, then came back, thought "this has to be MASTER," and only then did I consider pulling ARM and inserting LEG. Puzzle mocked me by giving me ARM ... later (37D: Possible causes of in-flight disputes). I really like the symmetry of LEG LOCKS and ARM RESTS. Love happy accidents like that. The only other "huh?" moment for me came with GQ STYLE, but as with MASTER YODA, it's the first thing I thought of—I just wasn't sure of it. I know GQ, but not GQ STYLE, which feels ... redundant, as I thought GQ always dealt in some way with style (i.e. men's fashion). So I was tentative with STYLE, but it turned out to be right. No other problems with the Downs-only solve today.

Bullets:

• 1A: Sound at the beginning and end of a meditation, perhaps (BONG) — that's your clue for BONG? You'd think you'd go in a, let's say, different direction. I mean, you've got a WISP of smoke in your very next answer, so ... (5A: Bit of smoke).
• 51A: Food court loiterer, say (MALLRAT) — what year is it? I don't think MALLRATs have existed in any numbers since roughly the time immediately following the release of the movie MALLRATs in the mid-'90s.

• 52A: Shipping company with a red-and-yellow logo (DHL) — not a very evocative clue. Solving Downs-only, I made this DHS for a bit, thinking of designated hitters (in baseball), though DHS is more common as the abbr. for one of our more abolishable Cabinet departments.
• 57A: "Freddie Mercury" or "Lady Gaga" (ALIAS) — no one would call those "aliases." They're stage names. Also, weird to put those alleged "aliases" in quotation marks, since that's simply how they're known.
• 27D: Kind of deer (ROE) — I'm guessing there were a lot of DOEs out there, at least for a second or two.
• 32D: ___ Maradona, Argentine soccer legend (DIEGO) — I don't know tons about soccer, but this guy was worldwide famous when I was in high school, and his name (and face, and demeanor) have stuck in my mind ever since. His most famous game was probably the World Cup quarterfinal against England: "In the 1986 World Cup quarter final, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history for two different reasons. The first goal was an unpenalized handling foul known as the "Hand of God", while the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002" (wikipedia).

• 49D: Go live on the internet (STREAM) — fitting that this crosses the TWITCH answer, since TWITCH is a STREAMing service. I read the "live" in this clue as if it rhymed with "give" and I was like "you go live there, buddy, I need to spend more time outside looking at birds."

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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