Cornet lookalike / SUN 9-12-26 / Previously-unseen sporting result (term coined in 2014) / Distraction-limiting lifestyle trend / Co-Stooge of Larry / Large insect named from Greek myth / Another name for Vishnu, translating to "the remover" / Source of the word "tuk-tuk" used for a motorized rickshaw / Deandre ___, N.B.A. center who was picked first in the 2018 draft / Mabel Mora's portrayer on "Only Murders in the Building"

Constructor: Henry Lin-David and Frank S. David

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Thinking Inside the Box" — theme answers are actually clues to eight four-letter answers sitting inside a box at the middle of the puzzle, unconnected to the rest of the grid:

Theme answers:

• 24A: Certain group of orchestral winds (FLUTE SECTION) => 66A: [24-Across] (STEM)
• 37A: Mechanic's offering (CAR SERVICE) => 37A: [37-Across] (TAXI)
• 41A: Told as a story (RELATED) => 84A: [41-Across] (AKIN)
• 57A: Group project on a winter's day, perhaps (GIANT SNOWMAN) => 89A: [57-Across] (YETI)
• 109A: Qualm (RESERVATION) => 66D: [109-Across] (STAY) (not quite sure how "reservation" = "stay" ... like, at a hotel??)
• 115A: Suitable (APPROPRIATE) => 67D: [115-Across] (TAKE)
• 127A: "Good job!" ("WAY TO GO!") =>  68A: [127-Across] (EXIT)
• 138A: Descended with rappelling ropes (SCALED DOWN) => 69A: [138-Across] (MINI)

Word of the Day: Isle of EWE (53D: Isle of ___ (Scottish locale whose name sounds like an expression of endearment)) —

The Isle of Ewe (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Iùbh) is a small Scottish island on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty. The island is inhabited by a single extended family, the Grants, who have lived at the current settlement on the leeward NE side of the island since the 19th century.

The island is privately owned by GBB Estates Ltd and Crofted by the Grants. The island previously had more families, but these left during the Second World War, when Loch Ewe was used as an important naval anchorage. The isolated position of the island meant that the children had to endure a round trip each day of about 26 miles (42 kilometres) by boat and bus to attend school.

The island remains off grid for electricity and water with this being generated by renewables and back up generators. There remains a single phone cable to the mainland which services the current households and is the only physical connection to the mainland.

Residents and visitors to the island use the Pier at Aultbea daily to travel back and forth for work and supplies.

• • •

I am ready and willing to upgrade the star rating of this puzzle somewhat if anyone can give me an answer to the question, "Why?" That is, "What is the point? What makes the theme cohere? Why are those words in the center and not, I don't know, literally any other words?" I am baffled. Without any clear rationale to the words in the center box, I am left to wonder: why is this interesting? Why is it interesting to have extremely straightforward clues for theme answers that are themselves clues? Why am I enduring barely-a-thing answers like FLUTE SECTION and GIANT SNOWMAN (?!)? I completely understand how the puzzle works, mechanically, but what the point is, where the interest lies, where the hell all the fun is?—I cannot answer any of these questions. I see that the themers, i.e. the clues to the answers in central box, appear in order (i.e first themer is for first Across in the box, second themer for second Across, etc.), and that the themers change meaning when they become clues—that feels like an added layer of difficulty. Structurally impressive, yes, but in the service of what feels like a whole lot of nothing. The puzzle was very, very easy, so I don't know if it will elicit much in the way of negative reaction, but ... as I say, I'm at a loss. If anyone wanted, they could do another puzzle exactly like this, with different theme answers and a different 4x4 box at the center. Every week. For all the Sundays to come. I mean, it would probably take you some time to make it all work out, structurally, but you could do it. Because this puzzle has no actual theme beyond its structure (that I can see). STEM TAXI AKIN YETI? STAY TAKE EXIT MINI? Help me decipher these mystical runes? What am I missing? STAY and STEM are synonyms (meaning, roughly, "stop" or "staunch"). Is that ... something? If I am, in fact, missing something, I pre-apologize and will update the write-up accordingly. But from where I'm sitting right now, this puzzle looks like it's desperately shouting "NOTICE ME!," but has nothing (besides its unusual structure) to show.

The puzzle does have some interesting symmetry. Something about the black square placement in the puzzle was making me mildly queasy, and I briefly thought it lacked any kind of symmetry, but then I noticed that it actually has mirror symmetry along the SW-to-NE diagonal. Don't see that very often.

MONK MODE? Ugh, what are we doing here? "Lifestyle trend"? I cannot sigh hard enough. The very phrase makes me tired. This is insulting to monks. Is this where you go on some kind of no-media diet or retreat? Can you see me rolling my eyes or hear me booing you. "Monk"? Yeesh, please stop. Also, SCORIGAMI, LOL, what? "Coined in 2014"? Why is that information salient? Why are you making me look this up? If this doesn't involve folding up a scorecard to make a crane, I'm going to be very disappointed ... 

In sports, a scorigami (a portmanteau of score and origami) is a final score that has never happened before in a sport or league's history. The term was coined in a 2014 article by sportswriter Jon Bois for American football scores in the National Football League (NFL), and is primarily used in this context; it has also been applied sparingly across other sports leagues. (wikipedia)

OK, but ... why is the pun on "origami????" Origami ... has happened before. I did not know these "first ever game scores" had a name, and now I wish I still didn't know. I have no idea what an ATLAS MOTH is, either, but at least that sounds real. The only moth species I know is the IO MOTH. I think. I don't spend much time lepidopterizing, I'll confess.

I had trouble almost nowhere. The center was the part that probably took me the longest, and then only because it came last, and I had nothing to build off of. But in the end, TAKE crossing AKIN got me going and the rest was easy. In the main part of the grid, I didn't know MONK MODE or SCORIGAMI, but got them both fairly quickly from crosses. I had STREUDEL instead of STREUSEL for a while (106D: Topping for an apple crisp), which meant I was in the dark for a bit about SCALED DOWN. I think the diciest moment of the solve had to be that AYTON (??) / STOMP cross, especially since STOMP could quite easily be STAMP (141A: Step forcefully). AYTON seemed more ... name-y, I guess, than AYTAN, so that's the vowel I chose (119D: Deandre ___, N.B.A. center who was picked first in the 2018 draft). Has Deandre AYTON done anything noteworthy in the past eight years? Also, why has DEANDRE never been in the grid? That's a name built for crosswords! AYTON seems like a solid pro, but there's nothing on his resumé (besides the first overall pick thing) that makes him particularly gridworthy. No championships, no All-Star appearances. Still, he's 7'1", that's remarkable. So is the fact that from 2022 through 2025 he made over $30 million/year (4 years, $133M). I sorta like his name. Like a beheaded PAYTON or DAYTON.  I don't love the AYTON / STOMP cross, but I do think AYTON should develop a little scoring dance called the AYTON STOMP. Like the Ickey Shuffle, only ... stompier.

[61A: ___ Simmons, founding member of Kiss]

Bullets:

• 86A: Another name for Vishnu, translating to "the remover" (HARI) — it's surprising how easy this puzzle was given that this is, what, the fourth answer, at least, that I've never heard of—one that, like AYTON and SCORIGAMI, I couldn't even begin to infer. The only HARI I know is Mata. (In case you were thinking of the phrase "Hare Krishna," as you can see, the spelling is different) 
• 117A: Source of the word "tuk-tuk" used for a motorized rickshaw (THAI) — wanted URDU here. This was in the AYTON STOMP corner, adding to the difficulty of said corner.
• 134A: Co-Stooge of Larry (MOE) — OK, I like "Co-Stooge," thumbs up for that "word."
• 6D: Scampered away (SKEDADDLED) — easily my favorite answer in the grid. It's got a bounciness that most of the rest of this grid is lacking.
• 3D: Cornet lookalike (FLUGELHORN) — like SKEDADDLED, this one's just fun today. (Because of kerning issues, I keep reading this clue on my puzzle print-out as [Comet lookalike])
• 25D: Mabel Mora's portrayer on "Only Murders in the Building" (SELENA GOMEZ) — SELENA GOMEZ was in a clue for MABEL at the end of last month, and now here we are in a reverse situation. Nice full-name appearance for Ms. Gomez, whose name I misspelled as "GOMES" for some reason, my apologies to her and her cosmetics empire.

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a reminder—on Thursday, September 17, at 7pm in Jersey City, NJ (just across the Hudson from Manhattan), I'm doing a little fundraising event for the world's greatest radio station, WFMU, hosted by DJ (and avid crossword solver) Evan "Funk" Davies. It's the WFMU Crossword Meet-Up! Longtime NYTXW constructor Gary Cee will also be there. We'll be sharing our WFMU-themed crosswords and talking about crosswords and generally just hanging out and having a nerdy good time, so if you're in the New York metropolitan area and have the time and inclination, please come out and say hi. More information here.

  

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