Sailor's bearings, to an ancient Roman? / THU 6-11-26 / TV journalist Spencer / Olympic snowboarder Kim / EGOT-winning composer Menken / People one might meet at a drive / Poker holding of four cards of the same suit / Something you might keep tabs on? / Word before baked or naked / Hair style sported by painter Bob Ross

Constructor: Nikhil Bailey

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "... to an ancient Roman?" — answers to theme clues must be read aloud—the parts that sound like letters (e.g. "aye" ("I"), "see" ("C"), etc.) must be understood as Roman numerals and then written into the grid as their English equivalent. So:

Theme answers:

• 18A: "Yes, sir!," to an ancient Roman? = "Aye aye, captain" = "I I, captain" = TWO, CAPTAIN
• 25A: Sailor's bearings, to an ancient Roman? = "sea legs" = "C legs" = HUNDRED LEGS
• 43A: Certain Microsoft office files, to an ancient Roman? = "Excel sheets" = "XL sheets" = FORTY SHEETS
• 55A: Prestigious group of schools, to an ancient Roman? = "Ivy League" = "IV League" = FOUR LEAGUE

Word of the Day: ALAN Menken (11D: EGOT-winning composer Menken) —

Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer and conductor. Over his career he has received numerous accolades including winning eight Academy Awards, a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Golden Raspberry for worst original song. He is one of 22 recipients to have won the competitive EGOT (Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony).

He is best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Menken's contributions to The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) won him two Academy Awards for each film. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), Disenchanted (2022), and Spellbound (2024), among others.

He is also known for his work in musical theater for Broadway winning the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Newsies (2012). He was Tony-nominated for Beauty and the Beast (1993), The Little Mermaid (2008), Sister Act (2009), and Aladdin (2014). His other stage hits include Little Shop of Horrors (1982), A Christmas Carol (1994), Leap of Faith (2012), and A Bronx Tale (2016). (wikipedia)

• • •

The theme *feels* straightforward, but I kept getting tripped up by it because it has not one layer but two—that is, both the sound of the Roman numeral and the meaning of the Roman numeral matter. My first and biggest mistake was thinking I had it when I did not, in fact, have it. I could see that the answer to 25A: Sailor's bearings, to an ancient Roman? was going to start HUNDRED, so I was like "OK, so the actual answer starts with the letter 'C' ... what are 'Sailor's bearings' that start with 'C' ... 'CL-' ... 'CLE-' ... CLEG- ...  what the hell are 'CLEGS'!" And only then did I realize, "Oh, 'C' = 'SEA'! SEA LEGS!" I also misunderstood "bearings" in that clue, thinking it had to do with directions. So I struggled, then half got it, then all-the-way got it. And yet I kept mentally dropping it after that. I wanted to write in "II CAPTAIN" as the answer for 18A: "Yes, sir!," to an ancient Roman?, forgetting that I had to do yet another conversion: not just words to Roman numerals, but then Roman numerals to their English-language equivalent. I think the phrase "to an ancient Roman?" made me really Really want the actual in-the-grid answer to be a Roman numeral. The whole concept here is pretty silly, in that an ancient Roman would not hear the phrase "Aye aye, captain" and think it meant "TWO, CAPTAIN." "I" would not have sounded like "aye" in ancient Rome, and anyway presumably the ancient Roman couldn't speak English at all (since it didn't exist). But if you just let yourself go with the silliness, the theme is kind of entertaining, and sufficiently tricky, I think, for a Thursday.

["Drowning ... in a hundred of love ..."]

I was less entertained by the non-theme stuff. Two of the longer answers, FLUSH DRAW and OPTIC LOBE, were wasted on me, as I don't really know those terms (4D: Poker holding of four cards of the same suit) (40A: Your mind's eye?). They're niche terms that just left me shrugging. I could infer them, but I didn't enjoy them. I know the term FOUR FLUSHER—a great term for one who talks big but can't back it up (i.e. you're playing like you have a full flush but you've only got four of the five necessary cards). A phony, a fraud, a small-time person who puts up a big-time front. I learned the term from Chandler's "Red Wind." I thought the answer might be something colorful like that. But no, it's just the dull FLUSH DRAW. As for OPTIC LOBE, I assume that's the part of your brain concerned with vision. The only word I know that follows OPTIC is NERVE. Anything besides NERVE, I'll just have to take your word for it. And then two other longer answers, OPERAGOER and SALE ITEMS, are flat-out dull. In short, lots of marquee space is wasted on answers that don't have much pop, and certainly hold no interest for me. But the grid holds up OK otherwise; mostly clean, rarely cringey. 

["Time ... keeps flowing like a river ... to the hundred ..."]

I like that SEA FOG (9D: Ocean mist) crosses "(aye aye) CAPTAIN" and "(sea) LEGS"—I guess I could be mad that "sea" is (kinda sorta) duped, but I'm too busy enjoying the nautical vibes. I think my least favorite themer is FOUR LEAGUE, just because everyone knows the (not really true) story of the "Ivy" part of Ivy League deriving from the fact that the league originally had just four (IV) schools in it. The name for the league actually came from class day ceremonies involving the planting of ivy, starting in the 19th century, but the term "Ivy League" doesn't appear for the first time until the '30s, and it gets used chiefly in relation to athletics. But still: "A common folk etymology attributes the name to the Roman numeral for four (IV), asserting that there was such a sports league originally with four members. The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins helped to perpetuate this belief. The supposed "IV League" was formed over a century ago and consisted of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and a fourth school that varies depending on who is telling the story" (wikipedia). Because the Ivy League comes preloaded with this numerical association, I didn't enjoy FOUR LEAGUE as much as the others, because it was far less surprising. 

I struggled with some longer answers—the aforementioned FLUSH DRAW and OPTIC LOBE, but also ACID TRIP (???). I wanted ACID PAPER. I get that acid comes in tabs, but I still think the phrasing [Something you might keep tabs on?] makes no surface-level sense for ACID TRIP. Tabs can set you on your trip, but you do not keep them on your trip. I also didn't really know MASSLESS. I just let crosses take care of it. As for mistakes, there weren't many. I really enjoyed the one mistake I remember making—namely, "confirming" ACMES (5A: Pinnacles) by writing in CATS / MEWS at 6D: Barnyard producers of 7-Down and 7D: Sounds produced by 6-Down (COWS / MOOS). Barn kitties! They're real! Sadly, not what the puzzle was looking for. Otherwise, this puzzle was something less than an ORDEAL. Nothing overly taxing about it. 

Bullets:

• 1A: Word before baked or naked (HALF) — first thought was BARE, but "BARE baked" ... is once letter short of being a thing (wow, don't search "barebacked" unless you're in the mood for porn). HALF Baked is one of the best ice cream flavors ever made as well as one of the worst movies ever made—the only movie I've ever walked out of (I walked out when I realized that "Simpsons" reruns would be on TV shortly and those would be much more fun to watch, true story).

[good]

[no]

• 23A: Sarcastic laugh syllable (HAR) — laugh syllables, always bad, but I appreciated the "Sarcastic," which at least made the answer clear. Or can HEH be sarcastic, too? For some reason, HAR reads to me like the most sarcastic of the laugh syllables (ha, hah, heh, har ... those are your basics ... I guess ho gets involved from time to time, but usually only via Santa).
• 33A: Met someone? (OPERAGOER) — another longer answer where the second part gave me fits. I got the OPERA part easy but went with ... OPERA DIVA. That's really a someone. An OPERAGOER? That's a Met no one. A face in the crowd. Boo. 

• 63A: Gym units (SETS) — oh, I managed to trip over this a little because REPS shares half its letters with SETS.
• 1D: Jon of "Top Gun: Maverick" (HAMM) — early-morning brain: "ugh who is this Jon actor I've never heard of?" This from someone who watched every episode of Mad Men and even watched The Morning Show until finally Reese Witherspoon's character simply became completely unbearable.
• 28D: People one might meet at a drive (DONORS) — think blood drive
• 48D: "There is no love sincerer than the love of ___": George Bernard Shaw ("FOOD") — where crossword clues are concerned, I am a notorious fill-in-the-blank quotation hater, but I did enjoy hacking my way to the answer here. Seemed worth it. Unexpected and ... probably true. Speaking of food ... I need coffee. Is coffee a food? Close enough.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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