Tobiko or masago / FRI 7-31-26 / Palm-sized pastry / Just OK, in modern lingo / Formal pause in a line of poetry / British counterpart to "Shark Tank" / Certain shot, colloquially / Chain that can symbolize friendship / Energy for distance runners

Constructor: Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: DRAGON'S DEN (6D: British counterpart to "Shark Tank") —

Dragons' Den, also known as Shark Tank, is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is known as The Tigers of Money (Japanese: マネーの虎, romanized: manē no tora), a pun on "The Tiger of Malaya" (マレーの虎, marē no tora), which was the nickname of WWII general Tomoyuki Yamashita. The format was created and is owned by Nippon TV and is distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

Local versions of the show have been produced in over 40 countries, as well as one for the Arab world; in some countries, more than one version has been aired. The first version to air outside of Japan was the British programme Dragons' Den, which launched in 2005; in the several years afterward, most versions named themselves Dragons' Den or variations thereof, though some also used other animals in the title, such as lions. The Israeli version of the show, HaKrishim ("The Sharks"), was the first to use the "shark" moniker, during its launch in 2006. Since the launch of the American version of the show, Shark Tank, in 2009, many versions have been named Shark Tank or variations thereof. In versions where the name of the show contains a creature's name, the investors are referred to by that name. (wikipedia)

• • •

["above all the drama"]

I don't know if I'M IN AWE, but I really liked this one. Might even have rated it a tick higher if not for  the clue on SAM (huge bummer) (12D: Tech mogul Altman), and DRAGON'S DEN (6D: British counterpart to "Shark Tank"). My antipathy to A.I. apostles, as well as to the lionization of venture capitalists, is well documented, so I'll spare you my "GTFO" rant. On Friday, vibes matter and those answers really brought the room down. And we were having so much fun! Actually, I got the cruddy rich-guy answers out of the way early, so the vibes had a chance to recover. After I got out of the NW, things got much, much more fun. SLEEPOVERS! PARTY BOATs! ALL SMILES, for sure. The cascading and intersecting long answers in this one, running roughly NW to SE, were really something. Smooth and bright. And fun! Some of the cluing was really clever today, including two clues with altitude-based wordplay. First, my favorite clue, the one on OPERA BOX (44A: Where to be above all the drama?). Simple, elegant—perfect surface-level idiom, perfect literal description (OPERA BOXes are indeed, literally, above the drama (taking place on stage)). And then there's the clue on AERIAL YOGA (53A: Highly flexible discipline?). You couldn't get me into an AERIAL YOGA class (my local yoga studio tried!), but even though I have no interest in it, I know what it is, and I liked the clue's sneaky use of "High-ly" (to mean "in a literally elevated position"). That's what. the "?" is for—to allow you to bennnnnd the meaning of words in funny ways. The "?" clue worked less well on PARTY BOAT (26D: Venue for events that guests are always on board to attend?). I think the "on board" was supposed to be an idiomatic misdirect ("on board" in the sense of "game, willing, down"), but it didn't land—the "on board" simply said "well it's a boat or a plane or maybe a train." But overall, this was a nice mix of breeziness and challenge, with a broad range of interest and an endearingly playful tone. Never dull. Good stuff.

[29D: "Yellow Submarine" lead vocalist]

As for the difficulty, it was never extreme, but it was enough to make things interesting. From the opening clue (1A: Withholding something?), the puzzle has you knitting your brow. I probably should've gotten TAX immediately ([Withholding something?] = something withheld), but all I could think of was PAY, which I did not write in due to lack of confidence. First thing I actually wrote in: YESES! (2D: Assenting chorus). YAY ME! These early screw-ups were relatively quickly fixed, but I appreciated that the puzzle was at least trying to trip me up. It's Friday, make me (lightly) work! I flat-out didn't know DRAGON'S DEN and totally forgot that GEL was a thing runner's ate. What is the GEL made of? Weird to say that your source of energy is just GEL, which seems to refer to form, not content, but I guess colloquially it's accurate. Because of the DRAGON'S DEN / GEL issues, I could not make the turn into the middle and NE corner, so I ended up going the other direction, which is where things really picked up:

"SO WHAT?!" "I CAN'T EVEN!" Good colloquial energy through here. Plus—bonus Anglo-Saxon poetry content! (CAESURA) (35D: Formal pause in a line of poetry). You can find CAESURAs (CAESURAe?) in later poetry, but it's definitive of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The entire corpus, I think. I know it all alliterates and I think the CAESURA is a more-or-less constant feature as well. Certainly in the poetry I teach. My students will definitely have to know CAESURA for the first exam. 

I managed to work my way back up into the NE despite forgetting the Pride & Prejudice sister and writing in HALOS for TOLLS (23D: Rings), and then MIRE for DIRT (16A: Grime). The toughest remaining part, though, came in the SE, where I thought the ASL clue was GEE???  (43A: What a closed fist with an extended index finger represents, in A.S.L.) (ONE)

I guess that's not really a "closed fist," but it's all I could think of. I assumed the clue wanted a letter. But that screw-up didn't screw me up as much as the way I chose to spell PYOTR, which was PIETR (45A: Pierre : French :: ___ : Russian). I blame Georges Simenon, specifically his first Maigret novel, Pietr-le-Letton (Pietr the Latvian). Well ... it's called Pietr the Latvian, not Pietr the Russian, so ... my bad.

PIETR gave me an erroneous "I," which I used to (ironically!) write in "I RULE!" for 46D: Self-congratulation ("YAY ME!"). Bit of a mess down there. But like the bit-of-a-mess up top (PAY? YESES?), it was relatively easy to clean up. This is what I want from a Friday, as far as difficulty goes—not torture, but ... I don't know, some light impishness and trickery. 

Bullets:

• 55A: Brazilian state whose name is a unit of measurement (ACRE) — I had no idea such a state existed. Interesting way to teach me (adding the more familiar bit about measurement). With ACRE in the puzzle, I'm not sure [Wiseacre] was the best choice for the SMARTYPANTS clue, but then again, I doubt anyone but me and a few other hypersensitive weirdos noticed. 
• 11A: Sex work? (KAMA SUTRA) — another beautiful "?" clue were the surface level is so smooth and familiar and ordinary that you wouldn't see the wordplay coming without the "?" (so, not sex for pay ("sex work") but a book ("work") about sex).
• 7D: Just OK, in modern lingo (MID) — of all the modern lingo (i.e. "lingo" invented in this century), this is maybe my favorite. There's something so withering about "MID." Very useful.
• 36D: Certain shot, colloquially (VAX) — had the "X" and wanted PIX. "But ... PIX? That's plural," I thought. Indeed. It's also wrong.
• 52D: Chain that can symbolize friendship (LEI) — it's a sad commentary on how capitalism-fried my brain is that my first thought for "Chain" here was "retailer." "REI ... do they have a new handshake logo or something?"

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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