Where Docs and Sheets are stored / WED 8-12-26 / Throw, for instance / Jordan joined it in 1984, for short / 2024 film that won Best Picture / Nickname for MLB's Angels / Greek letter representing elasticity in economics / "Battles" of those busting moves / Mentions by user name on social media

Constructor: Adrianne Baik

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: INTERNET TRAFFIC (38A: Web volume measured in hits ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 49- and 61-Across) — internet-related terms that contain (street) traffic-related terms:

Theme answers:

• GOOGLE DRIVE (17A: Where Docs and Sheets are stored)
• NETWORK SPEEDS (23A: Measurements of Wi-Fi performance)
• COMPUTER CRASH (49A: Major consequence of a virus, perhaps)
• SERVER DELAY (61A: Cause of some slow data transfers)

Word of the Day: ANORA (42A: 2024 film that won Best Picture) —

Anora is a 2024 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by Sean Baker. It stars Mikey Madison as Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, a lap dancer from New York who marries the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch played by Mark Eydelshteyn. The supporting cast includes Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, and Aleksei Serebryakov.

Anora premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2024, where it received critical acclaim and won the Palme d'Or. It was released theatrically on October 18, 2024, by Neon, with Focus Features releasing in other territories. It grossed $59.3 million worldwide against a $6 million budget, making it Baker's highest-grossing film.

Anora received numerous accolades and was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It received six nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, winning five for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Madison), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. It is one of only four films to win both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Picture. (wikipedia)

• • •

Didn't notice the theme until I was nearly completely done. I just thought it was a bunch of dreary computer-related terms. Couldn't see how they fit together. I wish I could say the "aha" moments saved it, but it just wasn't big enough. Connecting car traffic to computer traffic is vaguely interesting, but it's been a central metaphor of the internet forever—remember the "Information Superhighway"?—so it's not like there's a real Revelation here, and several of these terms feel a little wonky. "SITE TRAFFIC" is the "traffic" term I hear the most—it outgoogles "INTERNET TRAFFIC" by twenty-fold. Similarly, SERVER CRASH seems like a more common term than SERVER DELAY (again google agrees). "Delay" is the weakest link of the day by far. It just doesn't evoke either world (digital, automotive) very strongly. And then NETWORK SPEEDS seems strange in the plural, when none of the other theme answers are in the plural. Plus, again, the term I think of is "INTERNET SPEED(S)," not "NETWORK SPEED(S)" (and again, google agrees). So the terms just don't land as perfectly as they ought to. But maybe, the whole topic is kind of dreary. No one likes traffic or crashes or delays. I appreciate the parallel here, but it's just not playful or surprising enough. 

The fill isn't helping matters much. Lots of ultra-common 3-4-5s, with very little in the way of bounce or pop. DANCE-OFFS (11D: "Battles" of those busting moves) and STORMS OUT (31D: Leaves in a huff) give the grid some life, but otherwise, it's just loaded with abbrevs. (LOTR CIA SCI TIK ICU TSPS ARO NBA PARA DMS) and foreign words (OTRA, ÉTÉ, HAI) and a lot of nondescript crosswordese (ALEC, OWLET, LAMA, etc.). We do get a nice cameo from WESLEY Snipes, and the first ever appearance of ANORA, a film title that, given its size and letter combinations, seems like it should've appeared a long time ago (months ago, anyway). A five-letter movie with an alternating V-C-V-C-V pattern sweeps the Oscars—that seems like it would create conditions for a new crossword staple. ANORA is a movie with "Future Crosswordese" written all over it. But for now—it's new. A debut! Let's enjoy the novelty while it lasts. 

I don't see any real difficulty in this grid. HARROW was weird, in that you mostly encounter that word in the adjectival form ("harrowing") (15A: Torment). You very rarely hear about how a monster or serial killer or yeti or whatever "harrowed" the inhabitants of an old house or the kids at sleepaway camp or whatever. I know HARROW as a part of a plow. Actually, no, the plow is a different agricultural instrument. The HARROW is dragged over plowed land to break up and smooth the soil surface.

Bullets:

• 29A: Identity prefix (CIS) — this is a pretty bare-bones, nondescript clue. "Identity" doesn't tell you much. Doesn't make much difference to puzzle difficulty—I don't even remember seeing this clue while solving—but it's strange to follow up an ORNATE clue for ARO (28A: Feeling little to no amorous attraction, in L.G.B.T.Q.+ lingo) with this oddly plain one. 
• 45A: Throw, for instance (RUG) — one of the few times today where the puzzle seemed to try to get a little tricky, playing on the ambiguity of "Throw" (here, a noun, not a verb). I think of standalone "throw" as being more of a woman's garment, a light wrap or scarf, or else a light cover for a bedspread. I know the term "Throw RUG," of course, but this clue seems to imply that "Throw" on its own can mean RUG. Not sure about that.
• 60A: "Sorry, it's ___ from me" ("A 'NO'") — this is one way to get around the Spanish anus problem. The other is by cluing it as a Wheel of Fortune purchase: "I'd like to buy a vowel ... may I have AN 'O,' please?"
• 3D: Bad thing to pull while running (GROIN) — ouch. This answer took me longer than most of the answers in this puzzle because I was looking for a muscle like hamstring (HAMMY?), or else I thought "pull" was maybe being used in some metaphorical / tricky way, the way you "pull" a stunt ... but no. It's GROIN, everyone's favorite-sounding body part. The "moist" of anatomical terms. No one says GROIN or even thinks about the GROIN unless something has gone horribly wrong. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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