First part of an ancient Greek ode / SAT 3-16-24 / Fluffy toy, familiarly / Flag carrier of Panama / Go for it, slangily / Ren Faire rides / Small bit of mint? / Accessories that sound like a snack brand

Constructor: Carly Schuna

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: flag carrier (49A: Flag carrier of Panama = COPA) —

A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. (wikipedia)  

Compañía Panameña de Aviación, S.A., (commonly referred to as Copa and branded simply as "Copa Airlines") is the flag carrier of Panama. It is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, with its main hub at Tocumen International Airport. Copa is a subsidiary of Copa Holdings and a member of the Star Alliance. The airline is also the main operator and owner of Colombian airline AeroRepública, currently known as Wingo, previously known as Copa Airlines Colombia. // Copa was founded in 1947 and it began domestic operations to three cities in Panama shortly afterwards. The airline then abandoned its domestic flight in 1980, in favor of international flights. In 1998, Copa formed a partnership with Continental Airlines, adopting a similar brand image and using the airline's OnePass frequent flyer program. (wikipedia)

• • •

[Buddy!]

A much smoother experience today, with far fewer grimaces. This one has the kind of sparkle and whooshiness that I associate with the better Friday puzzles. The longer answers really shine, all over the grid, and the grid itself is built for zooming around—lots of access points for every section. The whole experience started out pretty crummy, with a twin-cluing scheme that I didn't particularly care for: 1A: Word of elaboration (ALSO) x/w 1D: Elaborate (ADD). I guess the clues there work OK, but when my first dip into an empty Saturday grid feels like a cutesy ambiguity trap, I get put off. You ever get stuck on an inscrutable "?" clue, check that answer's first cross, only to find yourself staring at yet another "?" clue, and you're like "Why lord why!? Make it stop!?" That's how I felt. "[Word of elaboration]? That's kind of vague, let me check the cross ... aw, [Elaborate]!? Really? Come on ..." And then my first answer in the grid was the always-unloved SESH, so as I say, takeoff was pretty bumpy, but I managed to go from SESH to SHOOT (no idea what followed) PASTE POM MELODIC CAGE EGAD ... and then I wanted DEBUNK (42A: Prove false) but wasn't too sure about that "K" and so held off and went down the grid with EYE TESTS instead. That's top of the grid to bottom of the grid, SESH to EYE TESTS, with hardly a pause. From there I had traction. I worked from EGAD back to the top of the grid, and from there, the long answers started to pop, colorfully, into view: SHOOT YOUR SHOT! DEEP FAKE! BRIOCHE BUN, mmmm. Good stuff.

After that initial struggle in the NW, the NE ended up being Monday-easy. OK, maybe Tuesday-easy, but easy. Set a match to it and whoosh, up in flames and then to ashes, as fast as I could blink (give or take). So like yesterday's puzzle, this one had some difficulty unevenness, but overall, since there weren't any real "WTF?" sticking points for me, I made consistent progress and so didn't feel the unevenness so much. Couple of names I didn't know (the writer, the airline), but the surrounding fill took care of those answers, no problem. The cluing felt pretty properly Saturday today, if a little on the easy side. Vagueness and ambiguity made for a few puzzling moments. I had O--YED in place and *still* had to think about what the answer was supposed to be at 6D: Let through (OKAYED). I asked my brain for help but it was like "Look, we've got OBEYED, and that's all we got." "But that doesn't make sense." "Man, we've got what we got, don't blame me. You want OBEYED or not? Oh hey wait ... [pushes some boxes out of the way in the warehouse of my mind] ... looks like there's this OKAYED sitting here. It's dusty and the box is kinda dented, but ... you want it?" "Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, brain." Also wanted BAE before BOO (38A: Sweetie), ATLAS before US MAP (19D: Geography classroom staple), DEAD before REAL (30D: Very, informally), and ACUTE before ASKEW (22D: Word that, when searched, causes Google to display all results at an angle). Initially thought the [Metalworker's union] had something to do with WELDING, but neither WELDER or WELDED made sense. Then I remembered (vaguely) that a SOLDER was a thing. My daughter occasionally builds stage sets and knows how to weld. I don't know if she knows how to ... sold? Is that a thing? A verb? No. A SOLDER is an alloy used to join metal, or (as a verb) the act of doing said joining.

Loved the clue on FOOTREST (14D: Dog park?). You park (rest) your dogs (feet) on a FOOTREST. Nice. Didn't love the clue on COPA, partly because it felt like niche trivia, but mostly because ... I just think you shouldn't pass up any chance to Manilow your grid. Missed Manilopportunities make me sad. This puzzle RAN LOW on Manilow. You don't have to go straight at the song, if that seems to obvious for a Saturday. Why not, [Cabana entrance?], something like that. Speaking of "entrance" clues, 59D: Entrance or exit of Target? is a "letteral" clue—the clue points not to something else but to itself, specifically a letter in one of the words in the clue. In this case, the TEE at both the beginning ("entrance") and ending ("exit") of the word "Target." Just want to reiterate one last time how good this grid looks. BEDHEAD PLATELET HOTSAUCE! The friendliness of "GLAD TO DO IT!" alongside the surliness of "NO ONE CARES." That's some peanut butter and chocolate magic right there. All that and Nic CAGE to boot!? Yes. I'll take it. 

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. the [First name in children’s literature] is SHEL Silverstein. He was a writer and illustrator and songwriter, a very familiar name from my childhood. Just learned that he wrote the 1969 Johnny Cash hit “A Boy Named Sue” (!)

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I can relate in Gen Z slang / FRI 6-30-23 / Dancing duo of the early 1900s / "Waiting to Exhale" or "Bridget Jones's Diary," dismissively / Dining option where bow ties might be expected / Endangered predator of the Southwest / Certain modern investment informally

Constructor: Carly Schuna

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: IDLI (48D: Steamed rice cake) —

Idli or idly [...] (plural: idlis) is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from South India, popular as a breakfast food in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolised by the body. [...] To make Idli, four parts uncooked rice (idli rice or parboiled rice) to one part whole white lentil (black gram, Vigna mungo) are soaked separately for at least four hours to six hours or overnight. Optionally spices such as fenugreek seeds can be added at the time of soaking for additional flavour. Once done soaking, the lentils are ground to a fine paste and the rice is separately coarsely ground, then they are combined. Next, the mixture is left to ferment overnight during which its volume will more than double. After fermentation some of the batter may be kept as a starter culture for the next batch. The finished idli batter is put into greased moulds of an idli tray or "tree" for steaming. The perforated molds allow the idlis to be cooked evenly. The tree holds the trays above the level of boiling water in a pot, and the pot is covered until the idlis are done (about 10–25 minutes, depending on size). A more traditional method is to use leaves instead of moulds. (wikipedia)

• • •

This one is trying really hard to be "fresh." Really hard. I appreciate the effort. I do. It's just that the phrasing on that central answer felt off. It has big "I need to make this 15 letters" energy. My daughter is Gen Z and my students are currently all Gen Z (and have been for year now) and "mood" is absolutely ordinary slang, but the phrase I usually here is that something is "a mood" or (more often) "a whole mood." Sometimes in texts or social media posts you just get stand-alone "mood," which concisely conveys the entire "I can relate" sentiment. But "THAT IS SUCH A MOOD," while it's totally comprehensible as is, just feels ... I dunno, too formal? Not even a contraction on "THAT IS"? When you go for something that's super-current, sticking the landing feels important. When I google (in quot. marks) "THAT IS SUCH A MOOD," one of the first hits is the NYT's own crossword blog, and yes, google knows me, and knows that I am a crossword person, and probably knows my favorite drinks and songs and what I had for dinner last night and blood type, but still, if a phrase is perfect, it generally won't return crossword sites on the first page of hits. As for "HELL TO THE NO," it's corny and dated, but I liked it (19A: "As frickin' if!"). I threw that across the grid with a prayer, thinking "lol that's probably not right," so when it was, I was happy. I like "I MEAN, REALLY!" the best of all the colloquial phrases, because it is both current and right on the money, phrasing-wise (48A: "Surely you know that's ludicrous"). I was (much) less happy with CHICK LIT, a stupid derogatory term that I know about but have actually never heard (most everyone I know is a huge reader and it's actually pretty rare for someone to talk shit about an entire category of book, esp. books by and about women (I should add that most everyone I know is a woman)). CHICK LIT also just doesn't have the snap and crackle (and currency) of CHICK FLICK, which is what I wanted when I first read the clue (both titles being most famous as movies, not books—though they were certainly famous books as well) (14A: "Waiting to Exhale" or "Bridget Jones's Diary," dismissively).  

This puzzle felt aimed at a younger generation than my own, but that's cool ... and it's not what made it difficult. I struggled a lot, but primarily with the shorter, less generationally-specific fill. So much vagueness. And a host of hard-to-grasp "?" clues. Between the vagueness of 3D: Wear out (TIRE) and the "?"-ness of 1D: Isn't oneself? (ACTS) *and* 1A: Crash protection? (AUTOSAVE), I had trouble just getting started. Hard to get into the western section because of hyper-vagueness of 23A: Up *and* 23D: Well. Two clues, two words, whole lotta shrugging (AT-BAT, APTLY). The -EST suffix on 38A: Bottom (again with the one-word clues!) never occurred to me (LOWEST). I had LOW-END in there, I think. 42A: Hangs on was vague (LASTS). 43D: Business card abbr. wasn't TEL (STE.) (stands for "suite"). Had the CAS- and no idea what [Borrowing option] was supposed to mean. Another inscrutable "?" clue down there with 47D: Brief out line? ("I LOSE") (?) (I guess when you are "out" (in poker?) the "line" you might say is "I LOSE" (!?))(only just now realizing what the "pun" there is supposed to be, i.e. "outline" broken into two words). The SW was somehow also hard, as I initially forgot IDLI existed, and that MIEN clue (49D: Air), again, the vagueness! And INNER, same (60A: Spiritual). PASTA BAR clue eluded me for an embarrassingly long time (i.e. I can't believe it eluded me at all) (59A: Dining option where bow ties might be expected). LOOPHOLE was great but, again, the clue was so vague that I couldn't get hold of it (56A: Way out). What should've been a whoosh-whoosh Friday often felt like a grind. More Saturday than Friday pacing for me today. 

Somehow the clue on ONE-ON-ONE feels very wrong (61A: Like a tryst, usually). Who would ever describe their trysts this way??? Also, did you do a tryst survey? "Usually?" Please cite your sources, lol. I'd guess the number of "trysts" that are ONE-ON-ONE is some number nearly indistinguishable from 100%, but that's not the issue. The issue is this term does not go with that scenario. ONE-ON-ONE is for (non-sex) meetings. Or interviews. Or certain defensive scenarios in sports. I guess Hall & Oates do give you some cover on this one, but still, I'm frowning and shaking my head. Oh, speaking of Hall & Oates, I saw No Hard Feelings yesterday, and it contains a truly great Hall & Oates musical moment—I keep wanting to talk about this movie, but since I saw it cold, with absolutely no idea what it was about before I went in, and was so happy I did, I don't want to tell anyone anything specific. But trust me, there's a Hall & Oates scene, and a great one. Also, the movie as a whole is extremely enjoyable. I haven't laughed in the theater like that in a while.

That's all. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Ingredient in lemon curd / TUES 6-7-22 / Many a mideasterner / Short pants? / Much of Chad and Mali

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare, coming at you a little delayed — this time for the first Tuesday in June. I’m on a little vacation in Berlin and enjoying the trip a lot; I was in Prague before this and am heading to Dublin soon. The weather has been almost perfect, the food has been delicious, and the company has been just alright (hi, Dad!). I’ve been trying to get up to watch the Warriors in the NBA finals, but this time difference has the games in the middle of the night, so it’s pretty challenging! Fingers crossed they pull it off. Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor: Carly Schuna

Relative difficulty: Fairly easy

THEME: TECH BOOMS (58A: Big times in Silicon Valley … or a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across?) — Each theme answer relates to technology and ends with something that might make a “boom” sound

Theme answers:

• PHOTO BOMB (17A: Make a goofy appearance in someone else's picture) 
• TWEET STORM (25A: Multipost rant online) 
• COMPUTER CRASH (35A: What the "spinning beach ball of death" might indicate) 
• EMAIL BLAST (49A: Message sent to many recipients)

Word of the Day: Bo DEREK (61A: Actress/model Bo)  —

Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins, November 20, 1956) is an American actress and model. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy 10 (1979). Her first husband John Derek directed her in Fantasies; Tarzan, the Ape Man (both 1981); Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), all of which received negative reviews. Widowed in 1998, she married actor John Corbett in 2020. Now semi-retired, she makes occasional film, television, and documentary appearances. 

• • •

That was a pretty nice puzzle; and, it turns out it’s a debut from Carly Schuna. The theme was current, and the theme answers worked well together. I sort of saw where the puzzle was going but didn’t know how it would pull together for the revealer, and I think the revealer mostly works. I’m not sure about whether “boom” works for all of them, but I didn’t really mind because the theme felt clever. 

Some of the fill of the puzzle struck me as a little uncommon, which is probably part of the reason I enjoyed the solve. Like, having RAVEN (20A: "Nevermore" speaker, in poetry) in the puzzle instead of the usual “Poe” was a nice change of pace. Or, even some of the fill just at the top — BORAX, SNOTS, SABLE. You don’t see those much. 

The long downs, as usual, were my favorite part of the puzzle. Seeing DAMMED, CRUMPLES, and MIMICKED was fun. My favorite clue/answer in the whole puzzle was 12D: Subway line as EAT FRESH. And, just next to it, I really like how PROLONGS (11D: Drags out) is a down and feels apt. The sports terms were nice (REB, PACER, MLB), even if they were relatively basic. 

33D: "What's the big idea?!" as HEY made no sense to me, though, and I spent quite a while there figuring that something must be wrong for that to be the answer. Also, do people really call Arnold Schwarzenegger ARNIE (40A)? Seems odd to me. Some of the puzzle seemed geared a little older (BUSMAP, PBS, DEREK, BORAX, MRT, ALF, SAL, etc…), but you also had these very current tech terms as the theme; so, it was a slightly odd juxtaposition. 

Not too much else to say about the puzzle! Nice debut, good theme, some surprising fill. Good start to the day.

Misc.:

• 31A: Annoying complainer = both my dad and me on this trip; the number of times we’ve each complained about our feet hurting from all this walking (I hit 50k steps in one day!) is astronomical. 
• 51D: Impressive venue to sell out… ARENA. That’s cool and all, but try being BTS and selling out a stadium four nights in a row, as they did in the new Las Vegas stadium. That huge theater where the Grammys were held days before? That was the overflow room BTS used to live stream the concert for those who couldn’t get tickets to the stadium. 
• I only know it as the “rainbow wheel of death” and not the “spinning beach ball of death” (35A), but a quick Google search tells me I seem to be in the minority on that one. I like my version better. 
• SHARKS don’t have bones (27D)? I feel like, somewhere in my brain, I’d registered that before but then forgot. How odd! I’d say that fact makes them seem less scary somehow, but I’m still terrified of them. I remember some years ago getting the chance to get a scuba diving certification but having a meltdown because I’d be in the ocean with SHARKS. (I persisted and didn’t even see any.)

Signed, Clare Carroll, “Ich bin ein not a Berliner”

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