Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Grace Warrington

Constructor: Grace Warrington and Greg Warrington

Relative difficulty: Medium (7:32)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Alfred BINET (49A: Pioneer in I.Q. testing) —

[there's also a BONET]
Alfred Binet (French: [binɛ]; 8 July 1857 – 18 October 1911), born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet–Simon test. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education asked psychologist Alfred Binet to devise a method that would determine which students did not learn effectively from regular classroom instruction so they could be given remedial work. Along with his collaborator Théodore Simon, Binet published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911, the last of which appeared just before his death. (wikipedia)

Relatedly:

Stephen Vincent Benét (/bəˈneɪ/ bə-NAY; July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body, published in 1928, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and for the short stories "The Devil and Daniel Webster", published in 1936, and "By the Waters of Babylon", published in 1937. // In 2009, Library of America selected his story "The King of the Cats", published in 1929, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub.

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So I have mentioned several times that I finish the puzzle and then print it out so that I can annotate it before writing about it. And I've mentioned that I do that annotation in green pen, and that, in general, wherever there's green ink, there's trouble. The more green ink, the more trouble. It's a bit like a difficulty heat map. Also, potentially, a crap map, since garbage gets green-inked as well as difficulty, but generally, green is evidence of struggle. And so I give you ... what my puzzle print-out looks like right now:

It's all southeast. I don't really remember the rest of the puzzle, which seemed pleasant enough, and which played pretty easy. But once I dropped into the SE, things went off the rails there for a bit. The main problem was me, which is to say, I should've just dropped GLORIOUSLY, even though I didn't really like it as an answer to that awkward clue (28D: How one might emerge with a victory). So, actually, I like GLORIOUSLY fine, but that clue, bah. Anyway, if I had just committed to it, then the EARL / ANDY / SEA part might've come together sooner. But that's not really where the main problem was down there. The main problem ... well, I suppose if you have to pick one, you'd pick, "OH, ME!" (43A: "Alas!"). I've spent years complaining about the only-in-crosswords weaponized quaintness that is the alleged expression "AH, ME!" (51 appearances in the Shortz Era). Well, it turns out there's an off-brand version of "AH, ME!" and it's "OH, ME!" (19 appearances in the Shortz Era), and apparently I've seen it before, a bunch, but sanity has apparently caused me to suppress all memory thereof. Annnnnnyway, that "O" (which I had securely as an "A"—"AH, ME" being clued frequently as ["Alas!"] as well) was in "HOP IN!," an answer I couldn't get from its vague clue (40D: Pickup line—I was like "ooh, it's probably not about picking someone up in a bar ... probably about pickup trucks!" ugh). And then "HOP IN!," in turn, ended up having its own vowel ambiguity problem, i.e. it could just as easily have been "HOP ON!" (in fact, I've forgotten and reforgotten which one is actually in the grid several times just since I've started writing this post!).

And then the "I" in "HOP IN!" crosses yet another answer where, again, the vowel seemed ambiguous. I guess I should've just known the BINET guy. He's been in crosswords before, a bunch. And I did remember him. But I thought he spelled it like the BENET guy (who's a writer/poet ... see both Words of the Day, above). Crosswords teach you lots of names ... and then those names get all smashed up in your head and you try to untangle them midsolve and end up falling on your face. Sometimes. So "OH, ME!" / "HOP IN!" / BINET really knifed me today. Making things worse was DAMSEL bug (never heard of it) and the HEAD part of HOG'S HEAD (wasn't sure ... I know BOAR'S HEAD, but I think that's just a brand of meats and cheeses) (39A: Large wine cask). And then there was the "?" clue on SEASON PASS (45A: Big ticket purchase?), which wasn't helping. No idea how I sorted out that corner when I was staring at HA-EN for 40D: Pickup line for so long (two wrong letters!). But I got there. As I say, there were other parts to this puzzle, but my memory of what they were had faded considerably by the time I wrestled the SE to the ground.

The marquee answers didn't seem very ... marquee. They also just weren't my thing (i.e. golf, recent Star Wars content, gaming). The puzzle seemed to PLAY IT SAFE with the fill, overall. BOSS BATTLE may be new to some of you, but it was in the puzzle four years back (that's how I learned it). The MANDALORIAN has been referenced in the grid many times before. Seen ERAS clued this way a lot now (T-Swift's tour helped popularize the term beyond "social media lingo") (10A: Life phases, in social media lingo). Many of the longer answers in this one are quite solid, but there's not a ton of sizzle. The fill is mostly clean, despite the occasional "OH, ME!" or SERT (a gimme for crossword old-timers, probably not so much of a gimme for others) (50A: Muralist who was a colleague of Dali). My favorite part of the grid was probably CULT CLASSIC (29A: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," e.g.). Enjoy the answer, enjoy remembering the movie. Double enjoy.

No idea what a "double albatross" is, so PAR FIVE was hardish (33A: Possible (but extremely unlikely) setting for a double albatross). It looks like an "albatross" is three under par???? And so double is, what, four under? These are mythical feats, right? Isn't there enough actual dumb golf terminology to know without forcing this nonsense on us? Apparently not. Also no idea about the disavowed agent in the "Mission Impossible" franchise, sigh, why, why yet another tired franchise? You're already leaning into one with MANDALORIAN, come on (20A: Disavowed MI6 agent in the "Mission": Impossible" franchise = ILSA). ON RICE is an iffy prepositional phrase (reminds me of when I encounter the term ININK in the puzzle, which has happened way more than zero times—mild cringe every time). I think TOOK LEAVE is a good phrase but my ears want it to be WENT ON LEAVE (it's maternity leave, in case that wasn't obvious) (18D: Experienced a pregnant pause?). I had to think about how [Secret lover?] was CONFIDANT. I guess you tell a CONFIDANT your secrets. I'm not sure where the "lover" comes in. I don't think of CONFIDANTs as particularly thirsty for secrets. But maybe. The "international chain" at 15A: International chain whose name can be a prefix is the Official Hotel of Crossworld": the OMNI! It's frequently clued as a "luxury" hotel chain, though friends who have stayed there dispute the aptness of this description (no SHADE, OMNI! I don't work for Hyatt! Just saying "luxury" as perhaps lost all meaning in this hyper-hyperbolized commercial world).