Puffy, pink protagonist of Nintendo fame / MON 11-2-26 / Upper regions of the sky, poetically / Hexagonal mesh used to fence in poultry / Home installation providing propane to a grill or fireplace / Mountain cryptid whose name inspired a water-bottle brand / "Received and understood," in radio lingo

Constructor: Max Schlenker

Relative difficulty: Challenging (solved Downs-only) 

THEME: "I'VE SEEN THE LIGHT" (60A: "It all makes sense now!" ... or what you may exclaim after combining the ends of 17-, 23-, 36- and 51-Across) — last words of themers combine (?) to make (electric) light:

Theme answers:

• EMOTIONAL OUTLET (17A: Activity that helps one release pent-up feelings)
• CHICKEN WIRE (23A: Hexagonal mesh used to fence in poultry)
• TULIP BULB (36A: Early bloomer?)
• STAY CURRENT (51A: Be up-to-date with the news)

Word of the Day: KIRBY (25D: Puffy, pink protagonist of Nintendo fame) —

Kirby is a media franchise created by Japanese video game designer and director Masahiro Sakurai. The franchise revolves around the titular protagonist and his adventures on the fictional planet Popstar and beyond. The franchise is primarily developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo, with both companies jointly owning the property.

The franchise mainly consists of a video game series, which in turn mainly comprises platformers. The first game in the series, Kirby's Dream Land, was released in 1992. The second, Kirby's Adventure (1993), introduced Kirby's signature ability to copy enemy skills, allowing him to use them to progress through levels, distinguishing the series from other entries in the genre. The series also includes games in the puzzle and racing genres. Sakurai conceived the franchise as a game series for beginners, to which he partially attributes the series' success. Currently, the video game series contains thirty-nine games with over 50 million games sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises.

The franchise also includes an anime television series based on the video games, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, which aired from 2001 to 2003 and also includes a special; and several manga series. (wikipedia)

• • •

After I "combine" an outlet, wire, bulb and current? Who am I, Edison? I just plug in my lamp, and flip a switch, man. It's just electricity. I guess the "combine" thing is supposed to elevate the puzzle above the rudimentary "last words"-type of puzzle, where all the last words have something in common, but whatever scenario it's imagining where "I" "exclaim" something doesn't really land. Still, the theme answers are strong in their own right, and the grid is somewhat more interesting overall than your typical Monday grid, so the puzzle's got those things going for it. The reason the fill is more interesting than usual is precisely the reason this puzzle was So much harder than usual (from a Downs-only perspective): namely, that there were not 4, not 8, not 12, but 13 (!) 7-letter Downs. Four banks of three, each of which was, to varying degrees, a bear. In general, the longer the answer, the harder it is to get with no crosses (which is what you're doing most of the time when you're solving Downs-only), so a bank of three can be daunting, and four banks of three, yikes—odds are you're gonna get hung up somewhere. For me, it was the NW above all. No way I was getting to THE GOAT with no help from crosses (1D: Highest-caliber athlete, to fans) (THE GOAT is actually the highest-caliber *anything*, to fans, but we'll let that go). "HUMOR ME" = brutal without help from crosses (2D: "Follow my train of thinking, OK?!"). Why is there an exclamation point in that clue?! I managed to get EGO TRIP, eventually, even though I wouldn't characterize an EGO TRIP as an "endeavor" (3D: Self-aggrandizing endeavor). Worst of all, I could not see what the first beginning of EMOTIONAL OUTLET was supposed to be, even after getting it down to ---TIONAL OUTLET! All I could think of was NATIONAL OUTLET. Gah! I also had CLOTH as FIBER for a bit (5D: Cotton or silk), so that didn't help.

Other corners were somewhat easier, though again, the clue phrasing threw me. I would never think of a GAS PIPE as an "installation," though I suppose that is a defensible characterization (39D: Home installation providing propane to a grill or fireplace). The PIPE part was quite a chore for me. The NE was probably the easiest of the corners, with the difficulty of the corners getting increasingly difficult as you move clockwise from there. But the part of the Downs-only experience that really got me was not a corner at all. It was the middle, specifically KIRBY. I thought for sure I was dead there. K---B- and no idea what to do. Even now, having looked up KIRBY for today's "Word of the Day," I just ... don't know. Like, it's a familiar pink blob, but I don't think I've known anyone who played a KIRBY game, or ever discussed KIRBY, or anything. Been around over 30 years and ... honestly, I've got nothing. It has made only the faintest impression in my mind. Looking up the NYTXW history of KIRBY, I now see that I had the *exact* same experience the *last* time I saw Kirby in a puzzle, in June of last year:

As I said, the difficulty shot way up for me once I hit the equator of this puzzle, due almost entirely to not knowing what the **** a KIRBY is (see "Word of the Day," above). Apparently the roster of characters in the Greater Nintendo Universe is inexhaustible and it's my sad fate to continue finding this out, in puzzle after puzzle, ad infinitum, like Sideshow Bob, just stepping on rakes, for the rest of my solving life.

So. Here I am again. Just a man, standing in front of a KIRBY, asking "WTF are you?" Anyway, somehow I managed to look at WA-TS and get beyond WATTS and WANTS to WARTS, and *that* is what finally knocked KIRBY loose from my brain. Ugh. Maybe if there had been more KIRBY ... what, movies? Toys? Something? Then his (his?) name might've stuck. Hopefully it sticks now. I still think the hardest part of the puzzle, from a Downs-only perspective, is the NW, but not knowing KIRBY didn't help! So slow. Over 8 minutes on a Monday!? LOL, that's my usual Saturday time. But when you're dead-stopped, as I was several times today, the clock ... doesn't care. 

Bullets:

• 64A: Muscle used in a dumbbell bench press, informally (PEC) — "dumbbell" is totally unnecessary here. Just say "bench press." Whatever "bench press" you can imagine, it's working your PECs, I promise. 
• 4D: Mountain cryptid whose name inspired a water-bottle brand (YETI) — just because a brand is named after something does not mean that thing "inspired" the brand. It's a water bottle. I don't believe the YETI "inspired" the brand. Someone just thought the name sounded cool. The end. YETI do not drink from water bottles. Even an amateur yetiologist knows this. They drink the blood of KIRBYs. Read a book!
• 46D: Nine-time Grammy winner Frank (SINATRA) — me, at first, sincerely: "Why won't OCEAN fit!?"

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
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