Wile E. Coyote's supplier / MON 12-28-20 / UK medal accepted then returned by John Lennon in brief / Like Satan and some owls /

Constructor: Alan Massengill and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Medium (3 flat, I've had a drink)

THEME: apex — themers are all vertical and their first words, i.e. the word at the uppermost part of the grid, all mean "uppermost":

Theme answers:

• ACME CORPORATION (3D: Wile E. Coyote's supplier)
• PEAK PERFORMANCE (5D: Athlete's goal in competition)
• HEIGHT OF FASHION (9D: Absolute chicness)
• TOP OF THE MORNING (11D: Quaint greeting)

Word of the Day: MBE (66D: U.K. medal accepted and then returned by John Lennon, in brief) —

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of the order. [...] The five classes of appointment to the Order are, in descending order of precedence:

1. GBE – Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire^[b]
2. KBE or DBE – Knight Commander or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
3. CBE – Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
4. OBE – Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
5. MBE – Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (wikipedia)

• • •

Like many recent puzzles, this one feels like it was made 25 years ago, but at least this one is solid, as 1995 puzzles go. ACME, PEAK, HEIGHT (metaphorically), TOP, yep, those all mean the same thing, and they all appear at the "top" or their answer, *and* they are all a grid-spanning 15 letters long. Simple, tight theme, elegantly expressed. The fill is ... well, it's from 1995. It's there. It's largely inoffensive. Don't look too hard. Just look at the theme. The theme is fine. 

This one took me in the neighborhood of ten seconds longer than usual, but I'm attributing those seconds to my Manhattan (delicious), because looking over this grid, I don't really see any places that I got significantly hung up. I had ACME but no idea what followed. I had no idea re: PEAK PERFORMANCE because it doesn't sound like what the clue suggests. "What's your goal in this competition, athlete?" "PEAK PERFORMANCE!" No, you want to win. Are you competing? Then you want to win. You want victory. PEAK PERFORMANCE, what kind of mumbo jumbo is that. You're trying to win or what are you even doing. HEIGHT OF FASHION I got off the "H," and TOP OF THE MORNING didn't take me that many crosses either (shouldn't it be "Top O' the morning"— I feel like past crosswords have insisted that that is the expression). Really thought having all the themers being 15s, and not struggling That much with any of them, would put me in a faster-than-average solving situation. But no. Had STAY before STUD (10A: Tuxedo shirt fastener) (You can tell I wear tuxedos a Lot). PDF before GIF (46A: Internet image file, familiarly). Honestly had no idea about WAX until I got all the crosses. Honeycomb stuff is honey. WAX? Sure, but come on—"stuff" should mean what the honeycomb contains, not what it's made of. Bah. The answer that took me longest, and was the last thing I filled in, was INTERACT (58A: Be sociable), perhaps because I haven't INTERACTed with anyone but my wife and cats for, oh, (looks at watch) 8 months. 

British Empire medal abbrevs. (today, MBE) are the absolute lowest form of fill (after plural suffixes), a staple of a bygone era when constructors desperately needed *any* three-letter answers they could get their hands on because they didn't have access to software to make their lives easier and thus make solvers' lives more pleasurable. Such abbrevs. really have no place in an easy puzzle any more. If you're in a real tight spot, OK, fine, but ... well, I see how you've got two themers running through that section, so maybe that counts as a "tight spot" (you've got the awful ACAB in the symmetrical section up top). Still, though, if you're a constructor, consider banishing UK medals from your wordlist, or (better) just making them fill of last resort. Goodbye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Former Houston hockey team / TUE 10-6-20 / Green-skinned variety of pear / Element extracted from kelp

Constructor: Alan Massengill and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy (very, 2:50)

THEME: Frazzle dazzle — just put an "F" in front of phrases where the first word starts with "R," then clue it wackily, tada:

Theme answers:

• FRIGHTFUL OWNER (19A: Scary landlord?)
• FRACK AND RUIN (24A: Anti-fuel extraction slogan?)
• FRANK AMATEUR (48A: One who freely admits not being any good?)
• FRISKY BUSINESS (55A: What Fancy Feast and Meow Mix compete in?)

Word of the Day: ANJOU pear (64A: Green-skinned variety of pear) —

The D'Anjou pear, sometimes referred to as the Beurré d'Anjou or simply Anjou, is a short-necked cultivar of European pear. The variety was originally named 'Nec Plus Meuris' in Europe and the name 'Anjou' or 'd'Anjou' was erroneously applied to the variety when introduced to America and England. It is thought to have originated in the mid-19th century, in Belgium or France. // The two cultivars that comprise d'Anjou pears are the 'Green Anjou' pear and the 'Red Anjou' pear. The 'Green Anjou' pear has a pale green skin that does not change color as the pear ripens, unlike most other cultivars of green pears, which turn yellow as they ripen. The 'Red Anjou' pear originated as a naturally occurring bud sport found on 'Green Anjou' trees. 'Red Anjou' pears are very similar to the original Anjou other than color. (wikipedia)

• • •

There's really not much to say about this one. It feels extremely last-century, in every way. There's a corny one-note theme, with answers that aren't terribly funny, and a grid overloaded with overfamiliar fill of the mostly 4- and 5-letter variety. If you like the theme, you like the theme, I guess, that's a matter of taste, but the grid is truly bottom 10% when it comes to fill. A grid this undemanding, theme-wise, should not have so much tedious old common fill and absolutely nothing snazzy or even interesting going on. "YES WE DO" is, by a mile, the best non-theme answer in the grid (8D: Possible response to "You take credit cards?"), and, well ... that is saying something. This feels like it was written for a lesser paper. It would truly be right at home in any far less prestigious outlet. It's dime a dozen. It works fine, for what it is, but there's just nothing special about what it is. It's filler. It's bygone. I don't get it. And ICERS UIES AEROS SSGTS SSS is a lot to take in a puzzle that isn't offering you anything by way of compensation. So many listless four-letter answers. When your theme has no heft, your grid Needs to be interesting. And today, it definitely is not.

I never saw the theme clues. Can't remember them. I must've looked at the first one, initially, but after that I solved all of them from the back end, based on crosses I had in place, and I honestly didn't even need to look at the clues. I could infer the base phrase, and thus its wacky version, pretty easily from the tail ends of all the answers. -TEUR got me all of FRANK AMATEUR, no sweat. I'm glad I was able to work around those clues, because they are painfully straightforward "?" clues. Not inherently funny, not made funny by the clues. HAHA. Seems like you could've found funnier answers. I wanna say FROTH IRA or FRAILROAD, but then actually don't want to say those things because even an optimal expression of this thing isn't going to be very satisfying. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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