"Train tracks" or "dimes," in poker slang / TUE 11-10-26 / Coding pioneer Lovelace / Finger workout that may involve pedals / Fashion model Hadid / Important female deer? / ___ Hufflepuff (co-founder of Hogwarts) / Directive on an octagon / Like a broken-down car, typically

Constructor: Sam Koperwas and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: repronounce some words — familiar phrases clued as if one of the words had a different pronunciation:

Theme answers:

• TEARSHEET (17A: Kleenex?)
• DOES THAT MATTER (24A: Important female deer?)
• PUTTING IT MILDLY (39A: Soft touch on a golf course green?)
• GETS THE LEAD OUT (51A: Prepares for a dog walk?)
• TAKES A BOW (63A: Prepare to shoot like Cupid?)

Word of the Day: TEARSHEET (17A) —

In advertising, a tear sheet is a page cut or torn from a publication to prove to the client that the advertisement was published. Media buying agencies are often required by clients to provide tear sheets along with a post analysis of any advertising campaign. With the emergence of online advertising, tear sheets often now appear in the form of a PDF file, known as a "virtual tear sheet" or "electronic tear sheet". Tear sheets are also used by writers, models, and photographers as proof that their work was published. Some advertisers also use tear sheets as a form of direct mail marketing, which aims to cultivate a feeling of authenticity by appearing to be sent by an individual.

In finance, a tear sheet provides a one-page summary of a company or portfolio, containing current and historic information on the company such as market cap, sector, graph of historic share price. They can also be referred to as "Fund Fact Sheets" or "Ditos".

• • •

The theme seems awfully remedial. You just change the pronunciation of one of the words. So ... five random words get new pronunciations. That's wacky? That's fun? I'm actually stunned that the puzzle was accepted, considering competition is supposed to be so fierce. This feels like something I might've been mildly amused by 30 years ago, but it just doesn't have enough heft or oomph or coherence today. I feel like I must be missing something—like maybe the repronounced words have something in common? But no, not that I can see. Puzzle played slowish for me because of the theme type—you basically have to imagine an answer that's not there, i.e. the real, base answer that is being punned on. Needed most every cross to get some of these, starting with the first one, TEARSHEET. In the second themer, DOES THAT MATTER, you have to reimagine the pronunciation of DOES but you also have to reimagine the whole answer out of the interrogative (i.e. out of its question status) and out of complete-sentence status and into mere phrase status. Awkward. Although ... that may be the gutsiest and most interesting sound change of the lot. Every other themer involves much less wackiness, and the humor barely rates a token "I see what you did there" grin. TAKES A BOW? That's not even chuckleworthy. These themers just aren't wacky or funny enough. Plus the grid is a barrage of short answers—all 3-4-5s, very choppy, very DRAB. All that and a gratuitous Harry P*tter reference? Grim. Pass.

No one part of the puzzle was particularly hard, besides parsing the themers. Just names. I only vaguely remembered that Kate MARA was someone (never saw Fantastic Four) (42D: Actress Kate of "Fantastic Four"), and GIGI I just didn't know at all. Not uncommon with me and models, super or otherwise (21A: Fashion model Hadid). And then HELGA, of course (26D: ___ Hufflepuff (co-founder of Hogwarts)). Why the puzzle continues to give air to the work of a wealthy bigot, I do not know. HP's creator is one of the world's biggest funders of anti-trans hate and disinformation. Most constructors I know have eliminated all reference to her or her work from their puzzles. Because she's awful. It's pretty easy. There are other HELGAs. 

Bullets:

• 35D: Finger workout that may involve pedals (ETUDE) — "finger workout" had me thinking this was some kind of TAE BO for your hands. But it's just a piano music term.
• 64D: Mauna ___ (KEA) — the original kealoa*—the rise of the New Zealand parrot (KEA) has made this KEA clue slightly less common. I prefer the parrot. More colorful, less ambiguity.

• 1A: Chatter away (YAP) — love to start a puzzle with not one but two wrong answers for the same clue! GAB ... then YAK ... and finally YAP—I figured it was unlikely that 3D: Thelonious Monk's instrument was a KAZOO).

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

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.   

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