Peabody-winning journalist Steve / FRI 5-8-26 / Ding thing? / Tuber that's the source of tapioca / Mammoth's home, for short / It's usually followed by an "s" / Humor without a traditional punchline / Cartoonist who popularized the Democratic donkey / Where to see fresh coats of white? / One of two in Raphael's "Sistine Madonna"

Constructor: Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schorkopf

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Steve KROFT (51A: Peabody-winning journalist Steve) —

 

Stephen F. Kroft (born August 22, 1945) is an American retired journalist who was a long-time correspondent for 60 Minutes. His investigative reporting garnered widespread acclaim, winning him three Peabody Awards and nine Emmy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 2003. [...] In 1990, he became the first American journalist to be given extensive access to the contaminated grounds of the Chernobyl nuclear facility, and his story won an Emmy.^[8] After allegations of infidelity surfaced in the 1992 presidential election, then-Governor Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, gave an exclusive interview to Kroft. The interview was one of the defining moments in the election. [...] Kroft asked Clint Eastwood how many children he has while interviewing the highly secretive actor in 1997. When Eastwood responded "I have a few," Kroft broached the subject with a declarative question: "Seven kids with five women, right?"—actually a conservative estimate, but at the time an unprecedented statement. Eastwood did not answer and stared at Kroft in silence for 30 seconds. [lol] (wikipedia)

• • •

This was fun, but way harder than I'm used to Friday puzzles being of late. No whoosh or zoom for me today, as three out of the four quadrants involved some amount of struggle today. Of the longer answers, SEX MANUALS and "WHEN IN ROME..." went in pretty easily, but all the rest had me stopping and thinking. Only the NE corner, the last section I solved, ended up being relatively easy, and that's because I. had the bottom of those longer answers already built—the SKIP from SKIP STONES went up into that corner and everything worked out from there. But back to the beginning—yeesh and yikes, that little 3x4 section at the far NW was very, very hard for me to nail down. -A-ESON (1A: Criticizes, in modern lingo) + -TT- (1D: It's usually followed by an "s") + -S- (19A: Hollywood is on it: Abbr.) + -EX- (3D: Ding thing?) had me worried I was losing my mind. Eventually I got HTTP and HATES ON and it all fell, but every clue in there had me mystified for a bit. Elsewhere, the plural of MED SCHOOLS was hidden / invisible (28D: Where to see fresh coats of white?), so even though I wanted SCHOOLS, I pulled it. I had no idea who Steve KROFT was (turns out, I know who he is, but only by face, not by name). So the SW corner fought me a little as well. 

And then there was the SE corner, which was giving me nothing until I finally got to a gimme: KOFI (54D: ___ Annan, former U.N. secretary general). I was able to build back from there, through the gratuitous Taylor Swift reference, through RONDA (another answer, like MED SCHOOLS, that I had but then pulled), back to ... MANIOC!? (46D: Tuber that's the source of tapioca). LOL, "She's a MANIOC, MAAAAAANIOC!" I swear to god I wrote TAPIOC in there for a bit. I guess I've heard of MANIOC but hoo boy, not a front-of-the-brainer. I think I had CASAVA in there at some point too, and I was close: cassava is another name for MANIOC, but as you can see, "cassava" has two "s"s, not one. sigh. That "N" in MANIOC was elusive because I don't know what a Chilango is (someone from Chile, I'm guessing, now) [nope—a resident of Mexico City, lol, no hope of guessing that],  ... let's just say the missing tilde on that "N" is somehow extra grating today. SEÑOR. It's SEÑOR. Not SENOR. . . Pfft. OK, I think that's all the SORE SPOTS. Again, I think the grid is good today, I just was not prepared for this kind of a struggle on a normally breezy Friday.

Today's marquee answers are more than up to the job (that job: being sexy and/or flashy and/or generally interesting). ANTI-COMEDY was the only thing that landed with a thud for me, mostly because I don't really believe in it (11D: Humor without a traditional punchline). It's still comedy, right? I'm not sure which comedians are allegedly anti-comedians. The two main figures who get cited on the ANTI-COMEDY wikipedia page are Andy Kaufman and Norm Macdonald ... yeah, OK, that helps a little. Still, "subverting normal joke structure" is just a form of comedy. Subverting normal structures is a standard thing that happens within all arts. I just think ANTI-COMEDY is a stupid label. A real term, but a dumb one. But this is a personal opinion, not a genuine fault with the puzzle. And as I say, the other longer answers really sing. SKIP STONES, SINK HOLE, "WHEN IN ROME..." ... I love that SEX MANUALS and STARTER KIT are in symmetry. Makes me wonder what kind of STARTER KIT we're talking about. What kind of "gear" you got there, buddy? (30D: First gear?).

Bullets:

• 17A: One away from one's duties? (TAX EXILE) — at first I thought this was going to be something about going AWOL, but no, "duties" = taxes. Really thought throwing TAX into that far NW corner was going to bring it right down, but even with the "X," as I said above—rough going up there.
• 18A: French exit (SORTIE) — literally the French word for "exit." The clue is playing on this meaning of "french exit": "a departure from a location or event without informing others or without seeking approval"

• 48A: Mammoth's home, for short (NHL) — I forget which team this is. LOL there's a Utah Mammoth now? Yes, since 2024, there is. My sports IQ really fell through the floor when I gave up network/cable TV (and therefore ESPN).

• 3D: Ding thing? (TEXT) — as someone who has all sounds on his phone turned O-F-F (because they are a public nuisance), this clue really really missed me. SEXT seemed more likely, somehow (Does "Ding" have sexual implications? Maybe not. But somehow, with the winky little "?" at the end of the clue, it feels like it does...) 

• 10D: Accessory turned down on a cap (EARLAP) — never gonna get over how this is basically the same thing as EAR FLAP. Like, someone was just lazy and didn't want to say or write the "F" and so now we've got a stupid variant (not sure which spelling is the variant, actually). Literally, the meaning of EARLAP is EARFLAP. Come on. Can we not collectively agree to throw one of these terms in the sea?
• 39D: ___ Theatre, Atlanta art house named for a fictional estate (TARA) — the "estate" here is the one from Gone With the Wind. Feels like the clue is going out of its way not to mention Gone With the Wind, possibly because it sentimentalizes the "Old South," but the clue somehow has the opposite effect, highlighting the title by referring to it elliptically. Anyway, if you are unfamiliar with Gone With the Wind lore and don't live in Atlanta, I imagine this clue might've been baffling. TARA used to be clued almost exclusively as this estate, or as a place in Ireland. These days, it's much more likely to be someone's name—historically, skater TARA Lipinski has dominated (since her first appearance in 1998), but actress TARA Reid has gotten a lot of play (disproportionate to her actual fame, one might argue), and writer TARA Westover (Educated) also appears from time to time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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