Hip-hop's birthplace, colloquially / SAT 10-10-26 / 1980s chart-topping band with a semi-duplicative name / Peak overlooking the Grindelwald Valley / Animated character with a signature quiff hairstyle / Danny who was UNICEF's first goodwill ambassador / Natives call it Muncibeddu, meaning "mountain of mountains" / Neighbor of Francia

Constructor: David Levinson Wilk

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Frito PIE (23A: Frito ___ (Tex-Mex dish)) —

Frito pie is a dish popular in the Midwestern, Southeastern, and Southwestern United States, whose basic ingredients are chili, cheese, and corn chips (traditionally Fritos, hence the name). Additions can include salsa, refried beans, sour cream, onion, rice, or jalapeños. There are many variations and alternative names used by region. Frito pie can be prepared in a casserole dish, but an alternative preparation can be in a single-serve Fritos-type corn chip bag with various ingredients as toppings. (wikipedia)

• • •

"OH HELL NO" is right. OH crossing OH (at "OH WELL")?! And "OH WELL" absolutely does not mean 8D: "What a pity." I had "AH WELL" there at first, both because it's more apt (apt!) and because, well, surely they wouldn't cross "OHs." Ha. Speaking of Ha, HAHAS, plural, more awful (and improbably plural) noises. Also, speaking of HA, you've got HA, backward, at AH (OK). Then you've also got some OWS (another possibly even more improbable plural). At the level of two-letter noises alone, this thing is off-puttingly cacophonous and messy. With longer, non-noise answers, there are also problems. TO THE SIDE is wobbly and seems desperately to need an "off" in front of it (33D: Where a wallflower often stands). HAD A SOLO not only ate a sandwich, it ate *all* the sandwiches (57A: Played by oneself). The clue on APT TO is completely inapt because the clue is pointedly slangy, whereas the answer ... isn't (31A: Likely gonna). People take GROUP SELFIEs all the time, why doesn't that clue at least have a question mark on it? Do you mean "a lot of people are in the shot"? Is that why it's "a lot to take"? Yeah, that needs a "?" Like the clue on ABET (22A: Do a bad job of helping?). Only that clue doesn't quite work either. I mean, I see what you're doing, if you ABET, you help someone in committing a crime, and crimes are "bad," but ... if you get away with the crime, then you did a good job of helping. I guess the "?" covers you here, but barely. Moving on: this puzzle made me remember MR. MISTER, automatic demerit (38D: 1980s chart-topping band with a semi-duplicative name). Closing: there's just too much tired and / or gunky short fill: ESTOP ORALB ABET STE EES NOTTE PLEBS ULNA OWS TEE ETNA EPI KAL KEW INE AHOK HAHAS EOS SIA ISSA INCA. You might say I chose to focus only on the negative today. To which I'd say, OH WELL—we all make choices.

[I once nearly got beat up for making a crack about MR. MISTER which honestly would've been the funniest reason anyone ever got their ass kicked—I would've had to take ... my broken legs ... and learn to walk again, learn to walk so free; thankfully the kid in the MR. MISTER muscle TEE managed to calm down]

I will say that BOOGIE DOWN BRONX absolutely rules. One full star added to the rating for that answer alone. 

["'Cause we roll with a posse / From Strong Long to Canarsie / QBC, BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, back to Marcy ..."]

Bullets:

• 1A: Artist whose first two initials stand for "Maurits Cornelis" (ESCHER) — too easy, come on. MC ... who else is it gonna be? (Note: If you wrote in HAMMER here, god bless you, that's amazing):

• 20A: Peak overlooking the Grindelwald Valley (EIGER) — an ALP. Forgot it existed. Crosses bailed me out.
• 44A: Round and round and round? (BOXING MATCH) — Pretty short match but OK.
• 50A: Determine the going price? (SET BAIL) — as today's "?" clues go, this was one of the better ones. I was a little worried this clue was gonna have something to do with pay toilets, but thankfully no.
• 59A: Animated character with a signature quiff hairstyle (TINTIN) — more of a comics / cartoon character than an "animated" character, although I guess he was, technically, "animated" at some point. The Adventures of TINTIN is a long-running series by pioneering artist Hergé, master of the ligne claire style. Comfort reading for me. The stories themselves don't matter much—I just want to live in the beautiful worlds he creates (also, they are just at my level of French literacy—so all those years of high school and college French weren't for nought).

• 9D: Sports figure who traditionally wears an orange armband, in brief (NHL REF) — I was not aware the NHL had "traditions." Do the refs perform various rituals, hand down lore, etc. I assume there are rules and regulations. Looks like the orange armband has been standard NHL REF gear for a while now (since the '69-'70 season, best I can tell).
• 24D: Like a sketchy person (SUS) — short for "suspicious." First appeared in 2024 and has come on like gangbusters since, that's right I said "gangbusters!" (this is the 9th appearance). There were 21 pre-Shortz SUSes ("susses?"), but they were all [Swine genus]. Fun fact*: SUS is actually a contraction of "Swine genUS" 

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*this is not, in fact, a fact, fun or otherwise

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