Sudden reversal of fortune, in literature / FRI 6-19-26 / Twin city? / Companion of Ash and Misty in Pokémon anime / Willie ___, first Black player in the N.H.L. / Cut of beef used in Santa Maria-style barbecue / Chinese revolutionary Sun ___ / Cold one enjoyed during a hot wash / Guitarist who played the first-ever rock concert at the Sistine Chapel / Terrorizer of Amity Island, in a 1975 blockbuster film / Mushroom named for its resemblance to a body part

Constructor: Jack Hatchett

Relative difficulty: Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: PERIPETEIA (10D: Sudden reversal of fortune, in literature) —

Peripeteia (/ˌpɛrəpɪˈteɪ.ə/, peripety, alternative Latin form: Peripetīa, ultimately from Greek: περιπέτεια) is a reversal of circumstances, or turning point, within a work of literature. // Aristotle, in his Poetics, defines peripeteia as "a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity." According to Aristotle, peripeteia, along with discovery, is the most effective when it comes to drama, particularly in a tragedy. He wrote that "The finest form of Discovery is one attended by Peripeteia, like that which goes with the Discovery in Oedipus...". (wikipedia)

• • •

Yeesh, what day is it? I thought it was Friday [checks date on computer screen] Ah, I see it is Friday. Huh. Well, this one was harder than most recent Saturdays for me, so I don't know what the heck was going on. Maybe just a wavelength thing. And yet ... I don't know. So many things in this puzzle seem legitimately tough, or toughly clued. We can start with PERIPETEIA, a word that I, a teacher of "literature," have never used in my decades-long career. A word I never hear. A word that really, really, really could've used "Aristotle" somewhere in its clue (the term comes explicitly from Aristotle's Poetics and relates specifically to Aristotle's ideas about tragedy). If you'd just said "per Aristotle," then at least I might've known we were looking for a Greek word. But I was looking for a much more ordinary word, certainly one I might have come across many times in my life, whether it relates to my own teaching or not. But no. This feels like a wordlist word. Something your software suggests, and that works and so you go with it. Unless I have gone completely through the looking glass, it's not an everyday word, or even an every other day word for most people. PERIPETEIA created all kinds of problems, because it made it harder to see that damned mushroom, whose name I've heard of but totally forgot, and harder to get THE, which I had as "AHA!" (?) (32A: Off-grid connection?). I knew the French director was RENÉ Clair, but -HE seemed impossible for the clue. It wasn't til very late in the game, when THE seemed undeniable, that I understood its clue. "Off THE grid." THE is the "connection" between "off" and "grid." Sigh. Good one. You got me. You got me, PERIPETEIA, you got me, WOOD EAR, you got me THE. THE! Upended by a definite article. Not my finest hour.

But that wasn't my only trouble spot. I dropped THAW and "I'M UP" and IRE in right away in the NW and still couldn't see TRITIP (I kept wanting some kind of STRIP) (1A: Cut of beef used in Santa Maria-style barbecue), and W-P- looked impossible (despite WEPT being very very possible), and as for parsing HOME-RUN TROT, forget it, not with that clue (13A: Field trip?). Eventually had the TROT part and still was like "how many TROTs are there? There's TURKEY TROT, and ... ???" The worst thing up there, though, in terms of difficulty, was ROME. I was done with the puzzle and still had no idea how ROME was a [Twin city?]. I actually googled [Rome twin] and the results gave me my one real "D'oh!" moment of the day: ROME was (legendarily) founded by twins, specifically Romulus and Remus. At least I assume that's what that clue is after. If it's not, well then I'm still in the dark. 

The difficulty continued down below, with SHOWER BEER, a thing I've never heard of and could not parse, even after I had SHOWER B- (47A: Cold one enjoyed during a hot wash). Then there was the laughable clue on BROCK (45A: Companion of Ash and Misty in Pokémon anime). This could've been any five letters of the alphabet. The idea that my knowledge of the Pokéverse has to go this deep is absurd. Human beings have the name BROCK. Lou BROCK was a Hall-of-Fame baseball player, for instance (6x All Star, 8x stolen bases leader, 3,000+ career hits). But no, we get some random Pokémon character. OK. That SE corner also had the very toughly clued BANK SHOT (35D: What might go off the rails?) (the "rails" are the edges of a pool table). Then there was the end. The very end. The last square. O'REE, LOL, no hope. I know that that name has been in the puzzle before, and I've said "no hope" before, but what can I say, here we are again.* I was staring down ORE- and had already left that last vowel in Sun YAT-S-N blank because I wasn't 100% sure (60A: Chinese revolutionary Sun ___). And so after all that struggle, I found myself hurtling toward Natick—a gaping vowel hole at the intersection of two proper nouns of limited fame. Now before you squawk about Sun YAT-SEN being legitimately famous, I know, I agree, I kinda sorta remember his name from some bygone World History class. He's a major historical figure. But that second vowel, yeesh. Dicey. I said his name in my head and it really felt like "SEN," and O'REE rang a faint bell, so I went with it (51D: Willie ___, first Black player in the N.H.L.). And was rewarded with the "Congratulations" message. A hard-earned victory. A Saturday victory. Or else I'm just off my game and everything in this puzzle is normal Friday fare, which is absolutely possible. Sometimes you just hit a wavelength snag and down you go ...

I enjoyed the challenge more than anything today, despite the fact that it was completely unexpected and maybe excessive for a Friday. HOME RUN TROT over AMUSE-BOUCHE is a nice combo, and FISH 'N' CHIPS crossing PUB FARE worked nicely as well. I like baseball, I like eating, this is good. This almost makes up for the Pokémon. I was lucky that the names today were familiar (well, besides O'REE and BROCK, that is). Not just THOMAS PAINE, but the pop culture names as well: JOHN WOO is famous for his '90s Hong Kong "gun ballet" movies (Gun fu—put that in your puzzle and smoke it!) (8D: Director of "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible II"). THE EDGE is the lead guitarist for U2 (37D: Guitarist who played the first-ever rock concert at the Sistine Chapel). Condolences to everyone wondering who this Mr. THEEDGE was (The THEEDGE! Sounds Seussian!). THE EDGE is featured in the recent ENO documentary, which I watched just two days ago. That is, he was in the version I saw—"The film uses a computer program to select footage and edit the film so that a different version is shown each time it is screened" (wikipedia). ENO co-produced U2's The Unforgettable Fire, and there's footage of all of them writing / recording "Pride (In The Name of Love)," which is pretty remarkable. I guess the big news here for crossword lovers is ... there's an ENO documentary. One iteration is currently playing on The Criterion Channel. Here's your chance to learn all about that guy who's been dancing around your crossword puzzles all these years. He's a fascinating figure. 

Bullets:

• 54A: "That sounds brave ... but very stupid!" ("DON'T BE A HERO") — really resent the "but very stupid!" part of this clue. It's one thing for a venture to be too risky, and quite another for it to be downright "stupid." Was this clue written after a SHOWER BEER? It sounds like it.

• 57A: One concerned with transparency in the workplace? (GLASS BLOWER) — this wasn't hard, but it felt ... only minimally accurate. So much blown glass is not, in fact, transparent.

• 36A: Skater who lit the Olympic cauldron in 1998 (ITO) — Midori ITO, Japanese figure skater who lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1998 winter games in Nagano, Japan. I saw "skater," had the terminal "O," and wrote in ... ONO. I corrected this mistake quickly, but it was still a stupid mistake. First of all, his name is Apolo OHNO (like the exclamation!). Second, OHNO did not win his first Olympic medals until 2002. 
• 33A: Former attorney general Bill (BARR) — between this guy and the idea of a military parade going through an ARCH (such as the one the current president is hoping to build, in honor of himself, I presume), I think this puzzle could've made better cluing choices. Less repulsive cluing choices.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*I was wrong: I've never seen O'REE in the NYTXW before. Today is the first time O'REE has appeared in sixty years! Weird. I know I've seen his name in at least one puzzle before ... just not the NYTXW, I guess.  

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