Battery-powered string instrument player / FRI 10-16-26 / Flow down the neck / Foe of Dr. Eggman, in video games / Cuban poet/philosopher José / 2011 platinum single by Tyler, the Creator / "___ Share of the Night" (acclaimed 2019 Mariana Enríquez book) / Mideast salad, in one spelling / Art movement proclaimed in a 1916 manifesto

Constructor: Adam Shapiro

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: José MARTÍ (9A: Cuban poet/philosopher José) —

[statue of MARTÍ in Havana]

José Julián Martí Pérez (Spanish: [xoˈse maɾˈti]; 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. He was also an important figure in Latin American literature. He was a political activist and is considered an important philosopher and political theorist. Through his writings and political activity, he became a symbol of Cuba's bid for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 19th century and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". From adolescence on, he dedicated his life to the promotion of liberty, political independence for Cuba, and intellectual independence for all Spanish Americans; his death was used as a cry for Cuban independence from Spain by both the Cuban revolutionaries and those Cubans previously reluctant to start a revolt. [...] Martí was killed in battle against Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos, near the confluence of the rivers Contramaestre and Cauto, on 19 May 1895. [...] The death of Martí was a blow to the "aspirations of the Cuban rebels, inside and outside of the island, but the fighting continued with alternating successes and failures until the entry of the United States into the war in 1898". (wikipedia)

• • •

An absolutely killer Friday, best I can remember in a long while. From the opening salvo, I was like "Dang ... this puzzle's not ****ing around. Alright alright alright, let's go!" Putting Britney Spears over an EPISTOLARY NOVEL (in my mind, it's Clarissa, but insert whatever relevant title you like) has to be one of my favorite marquee answer juxtapositions of all time. Talk about your unlikely friendships, your improbable pairings, your cheese and apple pie (I hear it's good, though I haven't tried it). Dizzying literary highs, delicious pop culture lows! (no offense, Britney, I secretly love that song). The great thing about "OOPS! ... I DID IT AGAIN" is that it's a useful refrain to have on hand when, say, you can't put in the wrong letter the end of YENT- (25A: Spiller of tea), or confidently write in TIE GAME only to find out that the real answer is TIE VOTE (12D: 20-20, e.g.). "[Sigh]. That is just so typically me."

I realized as I was solving this how much I had missed *fun*. There was almost no point of this puzzle when I wasn't having *fun*. Not only were there many entertaining marquee answers, but the cluing was playful too—not terribly difficult, most of the time, but slyly misdirective or cheekily vague or otherwise humming. Two days ago we got a puzzle where all the clues seemed out of a box (a musty box) and here, most of them feel like care was put into them. You gotta have some straightforward stuff so people can get their toe- and/or footholds, but otherwise, yeah, liven things up a bit, it's nice! The second bank of marquee answers was almost as good as the first. A FEEL-GOOD MOVIE followed by TAROT READINGS does sound like a nice date night. Might even put you on CLOUD NINE. The marquees at the bottom were my least favorite of the bunch, and they were still like an 8/10. And the great thing about the puzzle is that it didn't short-change us on the shorter fill. First of all, you never feel like you're drowning in 3-4-5s. Second, what 3-4-5s there are are mercifully clean. FIT FILTH IDAHO TIRED DOOR ASS KITS ... I can live with these! I balked at the fill precisely once—EBOW over YOS. I guessed the former off the "W" but I can only kinda sorta picture what that is (besides one of your uglier E-words) ("oh now, they decapitated Tim TEBOW!"). As for YOS, plural exclamations, never welcome, but the clue actually made me laugh, and thus softened the experience (49A: Rocky openings?). "Yo, Adrian! ... I said 'Yo!' How many 'YOS' I gotta say, baby!?"

I should've made the Word of the Day EPICENE (3D: Not gendered). It's a word I've seen but could not define for you right now. Not gendered how? Grammatically? Let's see ... yes, grammatically. But also:

adjective

1. Having characteristics of both sexes.
2. Having characteristics traditionally ascribed to the other sex, especially as a male who is considered to be effeminate.
3. Having no characteristics of either sex. (American Heritage Dictionary, 5th ed.)

Seems to be a somewhat antique word for describing gender ambiguity. Here's a colorful example of recent usage—from a 2011 WSJ review of the movie Puss in Boots (2011):

Puss teams up with Humpty Dumpty, a creepily epicene ovoid voiced with eerie plaintiveness by Zach Galifianakis, to repay an old debt by stealing some magic beans from Jack and Jill.

Not sure if Humpty Dumpty has characteristics of both sexes or neither sex. Gonna guess the latter. Anyway, didn't know that one and didn't know EBOW (not really), and definitely didn't know "OUR" (as clued) (30D: "___ Share of the Night" (acclaimed 2019 Mariana Enríquez book)) or "SHE" (as clued) (55D: 2011 platinum single by Tyler, the Creator), but otherwise, I zoom-zoomed and whoosh-whooshed my way through this one, smiling all the way. [just noticed the grid is actually smiling at *me*—up top, with a smile reflection down below 😀]

Bullets:

• 11D: Hot pockets? (RAVIOLI) — this is such a weird fake-out clue. "Hot pockets" makes me think of the frozen food product, which is just ... hot goop in a doughy pouch. But the clue has the "?" on it so I'm trying to think of something hot that comes in "pockets," something in nature, maybe? I get the "-AV-" and consider LAVA PIT, but it's not plural. Then I get a few more crosses and up ... right back at hot goop in a doughy pouch! I mean, I'll take RAVIOLI over Hot Pockets any day, but they basically belong to the same very general category of food. That clue took me on a journey. I liked it.

• 35D: Mideast salad, in one spelling (TABOULI) — spelled it "right" the first time. I'm guessing the other (more common?) spelling is TABOULEH. Checking wikipedia, and ... Whoa, lotsa spellings coming through. "Tabbouleh (Arabic: تبولة, romanized: tabbūla), also transcribed tabouleh, tabbouli, tabouli, or taboulah ..." Upload them all to your wordlists, mad constructors!
• 47D: Art movement proclaimed in a 1916 manifesto (DADA) — it was the "manifesto" part that made me opt for DADA over DECO.
• 9D: Flow down the neck (MANE) — this was the one part of the puzzle that got a little thorny for me. After considering and discarding LAVA (a real LAVA-on-the-brain morning), I had no idea what to do with this clue. Is "Flow" a verb or noun? Down the neck of what? I had -ANE and still no idea until I started to run the alphabet. That "M" was crucial in my remembering MARTÍ's name (I've seen it, but as with so many things I've seen, I forgot it). The MARTÍ/MANE stuff is in the same NE section as the RAVIOLI / TIE VOTE stuff I was also struggling with. Weirdly, it was HOOT that bailed me out. Got it off the "T"! (24A: Riot). That second "O" took out my (wrong) TIE GAME and gave me another much-needed letter in RAVIOLI, and I had things all sewn up in that corner shortly thereafter.
• 27D: Foe of Dr. Eggman, in video games (SONIC) — blah blah blah video games. That's what my brain heard. I had the "SO-" part and wrote in SONIC easily. I have never played that game or seen any of the movies (despite owning a Sega system in the '90s). I just know that SONIC is a hedgehog in a popular video game franchise of the same name, so ... in he went!

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. The Fourteenth Annual (!!) Finger Lakes Crossword Competition is tomorrow, Saturday, October 17! It's a nice, low-key way to spend an autumn afternoon. Original puzzles by Ithaca resident Adam Perl, who has made many puzzles for the NYT over the years. I'll be there! Judging you! Actually, judging (scoring) all the puzzles. Proceeds benefit Tompkins Learning Partners, an adult literacy organization. 1-4pm, Boynton Middle School, Ithaca, NY. If you're local, come on out and say hi and solve some puzzles and meet other people like yourself (they exist!). All the information you need is here.

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