Middling in rank, informally / SAT 11-23-24 / Restaurateur and humanitarian José / 1995 crime thriller named for a line in "Casablanca," with "The" / Full-body armor in science fiction stories / Disney Channel pal of Phineas / Common crab covering / Dangerous place for Indiana Jones / "Tropic Thunder" setting, for short / Nocturnal flier with a distinctive screech / Bootlicking sorts

Constructor: Ryan McCarty

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: GREER Garson (39A: Actress Garson with seven Oscar nominations) —

[as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, 1940]

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson CBE (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was a British-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront; listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-10 box office draws from 1942 to 1946.

The fourth most-nominated woman for the Best Actress Oscar, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying (with Bette Davis) five consecutive nominations (1941–1945) in the best actress category, winning for her performance in the title role as the British housewife in the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver.

• • •

[15D: 1995 crime thriller
named for a line in
"Casablanca," with "The"]

Another highly enjoyable themeless, though perhaps a little less enjoyable than yesterday's, if only because it was way, way too easy. Twelve marquee answers (of 8 or more letters) and I didn't struggle with any of them. I did hesitate at the front end of BATTLE SUITS ("do characters in science fiction wear ... LITTLE SUITS?"), but that's it for struggle. And I had SPEAK ON before SPEAK OF (12D: Talk about), which made "THAT'S A BIG IF" hard to see, for a few seconds. With every other longer answer, the first time I actually looked at the clue, I got it. This kind of success is made possible by working short crosses first, but also, the puzzle was just easy. I got every one of the first five marquee answers I encountered off of their first three letters alone: ILO-, TIB-, YOU-, USU-, TRE-. Those were all I needed. When I dropped those long answers down the center of the grid, 1-2-3, I got suspicious. Can't be this easy. But it was. Wednesday easy for me. But if the ride was over fast, at least it was (mostly) smooth and entertaining. 

There were only three things I visibly, physically, audibly didn't enjoy. One was POOL HUSTLER (31A: Bad person to take a cue from?). That phrase ... just misses the mark, colloquially. It's either simply "hustler" (as in the Paul Newman movie) or "pool shark." Something about POOL HUSTLER feels awkwardly redundant, like someone unfamiliar with the correct term trying to grope for the correct term and missing. Also didn't love BATTLE SUITS, which I'm sure are real things, but ... the phrase just didn't land (32A: Full-body armor in science fiction stories). Kind of flat. I can imagine such suits, but not vividly, not iconically, not like I can imagine Indy in the SNAKE PIT (49A: Dangerous place for Indiana Jones). The one other answer that bugged me today was B-TIER (30D: Middling in rank, informally). People say that? I've heard of B-TEAMS and B MOVIES and maybe B LIST (if there's an A LIST and a D LIST, there has to be a B LIST, right?). And I've heard of GOD-TIER, for sure (the highest level of any category in question). But B-TIER, that missed me. Consider me entirely unshocked to find out that it's a debut. Not Everything "Original" Is Good, I cry, for the umpteenth time.

[God-tier Intellivision game, which somehow does not feature SNAKE PITs]

Those three long center Downs really are impressive, and the whole fat, white, open center ended up being remarkably smooth and creamy. I'm mad at B TIER, but other than that, I'm not really mad at anything. None of it clanks. Ryan makes it look easy, but (as you probably know by now), it is Not.  The only actual resistance I got from this puzzle came in the NE, where I simply could not accept that Jay LENO had ever won the Mark Twain Prize (9D: Winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2014). At four letters and ending in "O," I thought, "LENO? ... NAH, that can't be right." But I floated his name anyway, and ... well initial results weren't great. I wrote in GLITZY before GLOSSY (8A: Superficially attractive), I couldn't get 16A: Something that may be passed down in a family from just RE-, and I forgot José ANDRÉS's name, despite being a monthly supporter of his World Central Kitchen organization (18A: Restaurateur and humanitarian José). I just blanked. It happens. Anyway, LENO's failure to immediately get me those Acrosses up there had me redoubting him, but then OCD gave me the "O" I needed for GLOSSY, and YES MEN confirmed that "Y" (13D: Bootlicking sorts). and so I guess LENO did win the Mark Twain. Huh. Before Dave won? Really?? Wow, OK ... OK. You live, you learn things. 

Notes:

• 33A: Stories that can be read both forward and backward? (SAGAS) — that is, the word itself ("SAGAS") can be read both forward and backward, i.e. it's a palindrome.
• 35D: Gives the quick and dirty (RECAPS) — "the quick and dirty" as in "the lowdown," "the deets" ... when you're filling someone in on the latest news / gossip.

• 44A: Spot-checked? (DOG SAT) — an amazing clue that I never saw, so easy was that SW corner. I dove into that corner and whooshed through it so fast that I looked back and thought "DOGS AT, what the hell does that mean? Can you 'dog at' something? Or maybe it's a partial? "Where my DOGS AT!?"

• 46A: Easily stacked pet food (TUNA CANS) — "pet food," you say? I've been eating "pet food" all these years?
• 40D: Anchor, e.g. (RACER) — the “anchor” runs the last leg in a relay race.
• 50A: Common crab covering (OLD BAY) — this is a proprietary herb & spice mixture made in Baltimore, MD, specifically for use on crab and other seafood (apparently meat and poultry as well, why not?).

• 5D: Disney Channel pal of Phineas (FERB) — never seen an episode in my life, but the title is exceedingly familiar. I probably would've spelled it "PHERB" if you'd quizzed me, but in four letters, had to be FERB.
• 25A: Alert to prejudice (WOKE) — I only ever hear this term pejoratively or ironically now. I have this cartoon hanging next to my desk, a parody of right-wing reaction to the Binghamton University campus under outgoing president, Harvey Stenger:

• 38A: North ___ Sea, body of water since the late 1980s (ARAL) — if a sea shrinks for long enough, it eventually becomes multiple, smaller seas, apparently. The ARAL Sea has been shrinking in crosswords (and irl) for many years now. According to all the archived ARAL clues I read just now, Russian irrigation projects are apparently to blame. It's appeared in crosswords since 1942, but the first reference to its shrinking came in 1999: [Shrinking sea] (1/4/99).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Makeup brand known for its risqué product names / FRI 11-22-24 / Macronutrient grouping? / One with an "accept all cookies" policy? / Understudy opportunities? / Daisylike bloom / Hermès competitor

Constructor: Sarah Sinclair and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Daisies (12A: Bunch of Daisies => TROOP) —

Daisy is the initial level of Girl Scouting. Named for Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, they are in kindergarten and first grade (around ages 5–7). They meet in minimally groups of five girls with two adult leaders who help the girls plan activities to introduce them to Girl Scouts.

Daisies earn the Promise Center and Petals, which focus on the Girl Scout Law and are placed on the front of the tunic in a daisy design. They also earn Leaves and Journey Leadership Awards. Their uniform consists of a light blue tunic. They may also wear their tunic with a white shirt and khaki bottoms or with an official Girl Scout Daisy uniform. The Girl Scout Membership Star is worn with blue membership disks and they wear the Girl Scout Daisy Membership Pin.

Daisies use the Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting for Daisies and the National Leadership Journeys to work on activities, may camp only with a parent present, and have the option to sell Girl Scout cookies. They may earn the Daisy Safety Award and the Bridge to Brownies Award. (wikipedia)

• • •

I really loved this puzzle, so I'm going to start with the worst thing about it, just to get it out of the way. And that worst thing is NARS (23A: Makeup brand known for its risqué product names). I don't so much object to a brand name I don't know—you get those from time to time. I just object to that name's being so incredibly, improbably ugly. Especially for a name attached to a beauty product. NARS? That's not a brand, that's a typo. Maybe you meant MARS—that's a cool-sounding name. But NARS ... NARS is one letter short of NARDS, which, of all the slang for testicles, is probably the least mellifluous. I got NARS entirely from crosses and just ... stared. Checked and rechecked the crosses, sure that one of them must be wrong. But nope. Nowhere to go but NARS. Thank god I knew that it was PRADA (9D: Hermès competitor) and not PRADO (which is a museum). Fashion name crossing fashion name at a vowel—that is maybe not the best choice. PRADA is (arguably) universally known, so that probably gets you out of Natick territory. But you're near Natick. You're close by. Like ... in Needham. That's what a near-Natick is called now: a Needham. 

OK, now that that's out of the way, what a great puzzle, just loaded with marquee answers of real distinction. And they really let loose the "?" clues today (8!), but in a way that somehow managed to feel non-obnoxious. They were mostly simple and cute and right on the money, starting with the winner at 1A: One with an "accept all cookies" policy? (SANTA). Iconically, that's Cookie Monster, or me, but neither of those fit, so I had to work a little to get SANTA, and getting it made me smile. Make me work a little, make me smile. I'm not looking for anything more than this on a Friday. The grid was delightfully uninundated with names. This cleared the way for the marquee name, so it could really shine—loved the way OLIVIA RODRIGO dropped down the damn center of this puzzle like a dagger, like tada! All other names step aside, the headliner's here. I wish the clue for her had been less boring (13D: Youngest artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100)—something more personal, or more specifically tied to her songs / albums, but I enjoyed seeing her nonetheless, cutting through 8 (8!) answers of 8 (8!) or more letters. She's really holding it all together. I'm a fan (of her in this puzzle, of her irl). I also love that she took The Breeders with her on tour. Such a bold choice. "Kim Deal [of The Breeders] said it was odd at first, but after learning Rodrigo knew St. Vincent and is a fan of Billy Joel and Sheryl Crow, she said "[Rodrigo]'s just really into music. Knowing that, it made more sense. She just really liked us!"" (wikipedia). The kid's got good taste.

[gratuitous Kim Deal content—new fantastic album out today]

Thirteen answers of 8 or more letters and not a clunker in the bunch. Love the unusual juxtaposition, like KIDS TABLE and BEER HALL ("You kids stay there, the grown-ups are ... going out for a while"). Or the politeness of "NO, I INSIST" alongside the rude impatience of TOOT-TOOT. I love the shade of "former" in 20A: Google's former motto ("DON'T BE EVIL"). I mean, there's no other way to clue that, but still, it's a reminder that their putative values have, uh, changed (evil is, as you maybe know by now, quite profitable). I also loved how the answer to 52A: Field of stars? was ASTROLOGY and not ASTRONOMY (which wouldn't fit). "In astrology, stars are seen as celestial powerhouses, radiating their energy and influencing our lives in profound ways." The clue felt like it was trolling astronomers and other science types, and that's fine by me. I liked the BLIND DATES with MERE MORTALs and the OLD NORSE guy who SLEPT LATE and I even liked LOLING, as it is an abbreviation I've actually used and it crosses NARS, which deserves to be LOL'd at.

Initial mistakes were few and unserious. RACY before SEXY (18D: Like many Halloween costumes), OPEN before SPIT (18A: Dentist's directive), BATS before ANTS (7D: Creatures that sleep by taking hundreds of minute-long naps throughout the day). Other than that, the only significant resistance in this thing came from the SW corner, where I found BETRAY very hard to get ahold of (40D: Reveal unintentionally). I wanted BLURT or BLURT OUT or BLAB or some other blithering "B" word. Also had some trouble parsing EASY A'S from the back end, especially given that "?" clue (57A: Understudy opportunities?). I was like, "... 'YAS! YAS!'? Is that something people ... exclaim? ... I don't get it." But no, it's EASY A'S, and the clue is actually great (after all, EASY A'S are classes where you can understudy (i.e. not study much at all) and still do well).

Notes:

• 15A: Macronutrient grouping? (AEIOU) — we just had a whole supervocalic lesson here on the blog a few days ago, and bang, here we are again, with a word that contains each of the five vowels (AEIOU) only once. That's what a "supervocalic" is. Slightly weird to call them a "grouping," since the vowels are dispersed throughout the word (and don't appear in order). But I think the "?" on the clue takes care of any imprecision in the clue phrasing. It's a nice misdirective clue, actually.
• 30D: ___ Annie, role for which Ali Stroker was the first wheelchair user to win a Tony (ADO) — not being a musical aficionado, I know about ADO Annie solely from crosswords. She is a character in Oklahoma! and not, as you might expect, Annie Get Your Gun. I'm not sure ADO Annie even owns a gun. I mean, it's Oklahoma Territory in '06, she probably does. But nobody was yelling at her to go get it, is my point.

• 10D: Daisylike bloom (ASTER) — nice, unforced "Daisy" callback. The ASTERs are particularly lovely around here in autumn. Though you wouldn't know that today, as (for the first time this season) the ground is blanketed in snow.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. looks like this is actually the second appearance of NARS in the NYTXW, and I was equally mad about it the first time.  

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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