Ancient Brit for whom a language was named / TUE 6-17-26 / Bluffer's giveaway / Very muscular, in slang / Like an image just begging to be captioned and shared / Charitable contributions, collectively / College-credit class that says sayonara to H.S.? / Crustaceans sometimes called "mudbugs" / Open some bubbly with a bang

Constructor: Brad Lively

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: The OLD MAN AND THE SEA (36A: Hemingway tale about an elderly fisherman, with "The" ... or a phonetic hint to four sets of circled letters in this puzzle?) — theme answers contain a letter string meaning "father" (i.e. "old man") and also the letter "C" ("sea"):

Theme answers:

• PAPAL CROSS (17A: Pontiff's emblem with three horizontal bars)
• COMPADRE (29A: Amigo)
• CRAWDADS (42A: Crustaceans sometimes called "mudbugs")
• POP THE CORK (57A: Open some bubbly with a bang)

Word of the Day: GAEL (32A: Ancient Brit for whom a language was named) —

The Gaels are a group of Insular Celtic ethnic groups native to Ireland, parts of Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic.

Gaelic language and culture originated in Ireland, extending to Dál Riata in western Scotland. In antiquity, the Gaels traded with the Roman Empire and also raided Roman Britain. The primary Latin name for the Gaels was Scoti. In the Middle Ages, Gaelic culture became dominant throughout the rest of Scotland and the Isle of Man. There was also some Gaelic settlement in Wales, where they founded petty kingdoms, and in the Faroe Islands, where they were probably the first inhabitants. Gaelic missionaries were influential in Northumbria and the Carolingian Empire. In the Viking Age, small numbers of Vikings raided and settled in Gaelic lands, becoming the Norse-Gaels. In the 9th century, Dál Riata and Pictland merged to form the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba (Scotland). Meanwhile, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King often claiming lordship over them.

In the 12th century, Anglo-Normans conquered parts of Ireland, while parts of Scotland also became Normanized. However, Gaelic culture remained strong throughout Ireland, and in Scotland in the Highlands, Hebrides, and Galloway. In the early 17th century, the last Gaelic kingdoms in Ireland fell under English control. King James VI and I sought to subdue the Gaels and wipe out their culture; first in the Scottish Highlands via repressive laws such as the Statutes of Iona, and then in Ireland by colonizing Gaelic land with English and Scots-speaking Protestant settlers. In the following centuries, Gaelic language was suppressed and mostly supplanted by English. However, it continues to be the main language in Ireland's Gaeltacht and Scotland's Gàidhealtachd (Outer Hebrides and pockets of the north-west Highlands). The modern descendants of the Gaels have spread to other parts of Wales, Scotland and England, the Americas and Australasia.

• • •

Most of this was very easy, but I got a little tangled in both of the long Down answers. Embarrassingly, for someone who studied ancient Britain and teaches medieval British literature, I wrote in GAUL for 32A: Ancient Brit for whom a language was named (GAEL). The GAULs were ancient inhabitants of continental Europe (incl. modern-day France), not Britain. The only defense I have is that both are ancient and both fit the GA-L letter pattern and the Gauls, like the GAELs, are a Celtic group. Also, I had been thumbing through an Astérix book this past weekend, and that almost certainly put the Gauls on my mind. Anyway, that one-letter mistake was right in the middle of the MEME in MEMEWORTHY, a word that is going to be semi-hard for me to come up with under the best of circumstances; with bad crosses in the way, I couldn't finish that answer off even with -WORTHY in place (28D: Like an image just begging to be captioned and shared). MUTEWORTHY? MULEWORTHY? It probably wasn't too long until I had my "D'oh!" moment, but considering I was blowing through the puzzle up to that point, it felt long. I also could not parse AP JAPANESE, first because I didn't know there was such a thing (not offered where I went to H.S. not offered where my kid went to H.S.) and second because the clue is trying so hard to be clever that it actually gets convoluted (10D: College-credit class that says sayonara to H.S.?). You get college credit for AP courses, but in what way does that represent saying "sayonara to H.S.?" You literally take it in high school. It's not not a high school class. If you are getting college credit, you are not "saying sayonara" to H.S., you're simply stockpiling credits for the next stage of your education. There's no "saying sayonara" (or goodbye, or whatever language you want to use) involved. Unless the idea is that you simply might say the word "sayonara" in your AP JAPANESE class, in which case, oof, weak. The cutesy clue is actually a cruddy clue (as so often happens), so I just wrinkled my brow at this one for a bit. Worse, I wrote in ALM (!) at 12D: Charitable contributions, collectively (AID) and "confirmed" it with SUMO (19A: Martial art with shoulder throws = JUDO). So that was fun.

As for the theme, it's ridiculous (complimentary). I can't say I love it, but I can say that it's weird—weird enough to be interesting. Themes involving nonconsecutive circles are always dicey and usually result in a "who cares?"-type situation, but this one is whimsical in a semi-entertaining way. Plus it's timely, with Father's Day just a few days away. I guess we can be grateful that this ran midweek instead of Father's Day itself, as it's hard to imagine this theme holding up over the length and breadth of a Sunday-sized grid. But for a Tuesday, I thought it worked fine. Two of the circled-letter configurations actually give us "The Sea and the Old Man," but for me, the reversals were part of the puzzle's charm. There is something slightly grating (to my brain) about the revealer being a famous title but leaving out a word in that title (in this case, the "The" at the front of The Old Man and the Sea). Like, if you tried to put LONGEST YARD or RIGHT STUFF in a puzzle, I would be mad.  Not big mad. Little mad. There's something about titles, esp. titles being used as theme revealers, that should be respected. But you gotta lop that "The" off to get the revealer to fit, so ... OK. Fine. I guess it's worth it. But only just.

Bullets:

• 11D: Really booked it (HAULED ASS) — The ASS Era continues unabated in the NYTXW. ASS-containing answers are up 55% since 2020 (I made that stat up, but it feels true). DEAD ASS (2 appearances) debuted in 2022. HARDASS (four appearances) debuted in 2019. HAUL ASS (2 appearances) debuted in 2018. HAULED ASS (now two appearances) debuted just last year. O brave new world / That has such asses in't!
• 44D: Animal symbol of the University of Minnesota (GOPHER) — you see Yale-related answers in the puzzle so damn much that it's nice when other schools get some airtime for a change. It's especially nice when the school in question is in one of your favorite cities and your own daughter went to said school. 

• 35A: It scratches the itch (NAIL) — as in fingernail. Or toenail, if you're being creative. Or a carpentry nail, if you want to make people start worrying about you.
• 5D: Very muscular, in slang (JACKED) — I wanted SWOLE, so much that I was almost prepared to create the answer SWOLED.
• 59A: "Logan" actor Jackman (HUGH) — You know who's JACKED in Logan? That's right.

• 8D: Place for the highest-scoring golfer (LAST) — oh right, because a high score is bad in golf. Briefly thought there was some damned golf slang I'd never heard of, like LAFT or LASH or something.
• 4D: Exam for a future J.D. (LSAT) — this puzzle is really into exams. There's the LSAT and the GRE, then the AP JAPANESE exam (can't get that college credit unless you take the exam). On top of all that, we get 54D: Crushed, as a test (ACED). We get it, you went to school, take it easy.

[55D: Word sung over 100 times in "___ Are You" by the ___]

• 10A: Obsessive captain of fiction (AHAB) — our fourth (!) AHAB since May 31, and June is only half over! We went five months without an AHAB and now we get four of them in just 17 days. Bizarre. There have been far more AHABs of late than there have been Star Wars references. It's actually been an eternity since the last explicit Star Wars reference. I ended up counting a clue that made an oblique reference to The Mandalorian ([This is the way: Abbr.]) as a Star Wars clue, but I was being *very* expansive in my definition there. If we ignore that clue, which many people didn't know was Star Wars-related at all, then it's been something like three weeks, I think. I stopped keeping track and don't want to go back and search right now. Anyway, I would like to thank management for toning it down, Star Wars-wise. Now if you could get AHAB under control, that would be great.

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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