Traditional circular dwelling / MON 5-4-26 / Culinary personality Lakshmi / Suddenly feels repulsed by a romantic partner / Slogan encouraging the use of seatbelts / Simple game requiring steady hands / Fasten, as a ship's rope / 2017 Pixar film set in Mexico

Constructor: Kate Schutzengel

Relative difficulty: Easy? (I once again failed the Downs-only solve bec. wtf is an AMENITY KIT lol)

THEME: GETS THE ICK (58A: Suddenly feels repulsed by a romantic partner ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 37- and 48-Across) — there are two "ICK"s in each theme answer

Theme answers:

• CHICK FLICK (17A: "Sleepless in Seattle" or "Legally Blonde," informally)
• BRICK BY BRICK (23A: Methodical way for something to be built)
• CLICK IT OR TICKET (37A: Slogan encouraging the use of seatbelts)
• PICK UP STICKS (48A: Simple game requiring steady hands)

Word of the Day: SKYE terrier (56D: Scottish terrier breed) —

 

Skye terrier, breed of dog that was originated as a hunter on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and has remained relatively unchanged for about 400 years. In the 19th century the Skye was one of the most popular terriers and was used as a working dog as well as the pet of the nobility. It is characterized as sturdy, alert, and good-tempered. It has a large head, long body, and short legs, and its ears are either erect or hanging. The long, straight coat ranges from black to pale yellowish brown. Adult height is 9.5 to 10 inches (24 to 25 cm); weight is about 24 pounds (11 kg). (britannica.com)

• • •

Two problems. One is a me problem, I guess: I have never heard of this expression. It's so ... depressing, somehow. People get suddenly repulsed by their romantic partners??? I mean, I get that things can go sour, but sudden repulsion? When did people start saying this? It's awful. Anyway, I'll just assume that everyone's been saying it for years and I am hopelessly old and happily married and therefore out of the loop, fine. But there's the second problem, which is much, much more of a problem: how does the revealer work, exactly? I mean, there are two "icks" in each theme answer, I see that, but how does GETS THE ICK "hint" at that fact, exactly. You aren't adding "ick" to anything; the icks are just ... there. In the words that they are in. There's no "getting" of anything. And there are two icks ... why? The revealer is GETS THE ICK, singular. But there are two. For no particular reason that I can see. So it's off on two counts: the "gets" part makes no sense, and there's more than one "ick." If the phrase were GETS THE ICKS ... well, we'd be closer to a functional revealer, but still not there. It's honestly bizarre to me that this puzzle was accepted, as it simply doesn't ... work. The theme answers themselves are colorful enough, with CLICK IT OR TICKET being particularly lively, and definitely middle-of-the-grid-worthy. But conceptually, this thing is D.O.A. 

Also D.O.A.—my attempt to solve this thing Downs-only. I laughed out loud, and continue to laugh out loud, at AMENITY KIT, a phrase I am learning Just Now, despite my having literally spent Thursday and Friday nights in a hotel! I was mentally scanning the hotel room and bathroom while trying to imagine what ___ KIT could be. The only KIT I could think of was a SHAVING KIT. Also, I (wrongly) inferred LUMEN instead of LUMET at 30A, and that "N" really added to my troubles. There finally ended up being too many letters that I had to infer that weren't clearly inferable, and none of them were helping me see AMENITY. G-PS, A-AT, L-NA, LUME-, -RS ... I couldn't fill any of these GAPS (!!!) confidently enough to begin to get a handle on AMENITY. Ah well. That's the danger of Downs-only solving; sometimes you crash and burn. I just wish I'd crashed and burned on something more interesting than AMENITY KIT (a debut answer, unsurprisingly). [validation!—I went downstairs and saw that my wife, also a Downs-only Monday solver, had the entire puzzle finished ... except AMENITY KIT]

SKIPS SCHOOL sounds more natural to me than SKIPS CLASS (29D: Plays hooky), but ... maybe I'm just responding to the alliteration. SKIP(S) CLASS is definitely a thing. Way more of a thing than AMENITY KIT. Besides AMENITY KIT, I didn't have any trouble with the Downs-only solve. Just little stuff. BLAST for BLARE (25D: Play loudly, as from a speaker). MCAT saved me from inferring POP TOP instead of MOP TOP (47D: Exam for a future doc), which would not have occurred to me. Not much left to talk about in this grid besides the short overfamiliar stuff (of which there is a lot). Oh, and IT'S LIT, an expression that somehow already sounds dated. LIT on its own, in this modern sense of "exciting" or "excellent" ("fire"), seems fine on its own, but somehow "IT'S LIT" sounds contrived, like a parent trying to convince their teenager to go to church because the pastor plays guitar or something. "You'll love it, honey. All the kids say that it's really lit!" Now that we've established that it sounds corny, I really want to teach an introductory literature course called "IT'S LIT!" We will read exclusively about things that are on fire (Fahrenheit 451!), or else people who are drunk (Gatsby!). Or maybe, ironically, we'll read "The Little Match Girl." Too morbid? Possibly.

Bullets:

• 17A: "Sleepless in Seattle" or "Legally Blonde" (CHICK FLICK) — still not the hugest fan of this term, which sounds like a derogatory thing guys say about movies that they wouldn't be interested in because they're "for girls." Sleepless in Seattle and Legally Blonde are both good movies. It would not occur to me to call either a "CHICK FLICK."
• 26D: Traditional circular dwelling (YURT) — "Traditional" not really giving you a lot. Maybe add an adjective or something ("Mongolian!"), if only for color.
• 64A: Fasten, as a ship's rope (BELAY) — it gets a little nautical down below, with BELAY following hard on the heels of MAST (62A: Pole on a sailboat). BELAY is obviously the much more technical term. I think it's a rock-climbing term, too, isn't it? Yes.
• 1D: 2017 Pixar film set in Mexico (COCO) — I'm learning that COCO is by far the dominant four-letter animated film in crosswords. You'd think it would be ELIO, but ... I guess that movie wasn't popular enough. 

• 39D: Reassurance after a loud crash, say ("I'M OK!") —maybe the best clue I've seen for "I'M OK." Paints a vivid picture.
• 48D: Culinary personality Lakshmi (PADMA) — "Culinary personality" is such a weird phrase. "Hey, I met this new woman and I really like her! She's beautiful!" "What's her personality like?" "Uh ... culinary?" "Is she a chef?" "... maybe?" Lakshmi is the creator, host, and executive producer of Taste the Nation with PADMA Lakshmi.

• 7D:  Sound effect for a bop on the head (BOINK!) — maybe my favorite part of the puzzle. I have a smiley face drawn next to it. I'm also fond of YOINK!

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Cannabis strain named for its regional origin / TUE 1-18-22 / Lucy's empty-booth sign in Peanuts / Reform leader memorialized in the Stone of Hope for short / Really overdoing it in slang / Preceded in commenting on an adorable kitten photo say

Constructor: Kate Schutzengel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: THE DOCTOR IS OUT (63A: Lucy's empty-booth sign in "Peanuts" ... or a hint to 16-, 24-, 37- and 55-Across) — "DR" is taken "out" of familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, which are clued wackily (i.e. "?"-style):

Theme answers:

• TWO INK MINIMUMS (16A: Possible requirements for joining a tattoo club?)
• ILL PRACTICE (24A: A healthy person regularly calling in sick, e.g.?)
• UM MACHINE (37A: What a nervous public speaker sounds like?)
• BEAT TO THE AW (55A: Preceded in commenting on an adorable?)

Word of the Day: KUSH (70A: Cannabis strain named for its regional origin) —

Kush generally refers to a pure or hybrid Cannabis indica strain. Pure C. indica strains include Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Green Kush, and Purple Kush. Hybrid strains of C. indica include Blueberry Kush and Golden Jamaican Kush.

The origins of Kush Cannabis are from landrace plants mainly in Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and North-Western India with the name coming from the Hindu Kush mountain range. "Hindu Kush" strains of Cannabis were taken to the United States in the mid-to-late 1970s and continue to be available there to the present day. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well if you're looking for a path to my heart, a "Peanuts" theme is one reasonably certain way to get there. This is a simple letter-removal theme, a wacky concept that is old as the hills but effective if done properly, with genuinely funny answers and a clever revealer. The revealer part, this puzzle has down. I'm less certain about the answers themselves, which seem like they could've used more brainstorming. TWO INK MINIMUMS would've been fine in the singular, but feels awkward in the plural (feels like the puzzle was desperate for a 14 to match the revealer's 14 and this was the best it could come up with). ILL PRACTICE is both awkward and depressing. I would've liked ILL SERGEANT better here, probably. "The practice of pretending to be ILL" doesn't really translate to ILL PRACTICE very smoothly. The main problem is that the concept just doesn't evoke a particularly funny situation. Maybe there's a wacky clue out there that can save it, but this ain't it. I do like UM MACHINE. A lot. Then there's BEAT TO THE AW, which has the best clue by far (55A: Preceded in commenting on an adorable kitten photo, say?), but also has the weakest base phrase. That is, "beat to the draw," while a real idiom, is far far less common and idiomatically snappy than BEAT TO THE PUNCH, or, from another angle, QUICK ON THE DRAW. It's not just the weaker of two base phrases, it's the weakest of three. If you're going to do something basic like "drop-a-letter" (or, in this case, two letters), then those themers really Really have to land. These answers kinda sorta land, here and there. So it's a very fine concept with only a so-so execution.

On first opening the puzzle my heart sank just a tiny bit because the grid is so choppy-looking. Just pockmarked in a way where all you notice is short answer after short answer after short answer, everywhere, all the time. Saturation. This leads to a predictable glut of crosswordese, which is rarely bad on an individual-answer basis, but which can be enervating in any significant accumulation. ADEN ATTA TWERE LEAS ELENA NAS ECO LEIA WWII OLIN ASP APBS etc. I'm not gonna notice a small handful of these, many of which are fine words, but they repeaters, for sure, and today they kinda come at you en masse. Would've been nice to have a little more sass or verve in the longer Downs. There are a healthy *eight* such answers, but there's not much sizzle there. I like the NW corner's HOW NICE / SWOONED ... those seem like a lively pair. But the rest are just OK. And SO EXTRA ... feels a little forced. The "SO" part anyway. I've heard of particularly intense or emotive people referred to (semi-derisively) as "EXTRA," but SO EXTRA feels like an odd hyperbole. EXTRA on its own pretty much takes care of the "overdoing" it. It tends to be a faux-diplomatic, understated assertion anyway. I don't doubt that people say SO EXTRA. I think I'm just opposed to gratuitous SO's (especially since there's already a "SO" in the grid (1A: "I feel pretty, ___ pretty" ("West Side Story" lyric)). 

[just pretend they're saying "KUSH," it's better]

I get that you want to put marijuana in your grid because it feels novel but I'm not convinced KUSH is better than PUSH there, if only because TSKS is such a dreadful plural. TSPS is at least something you see on a regular basis. I'm fine with KUSH in general, but less fine with it *here*. Never gonna like the standardized testing corp. as the clue for ETS (50A: Org. that creates the G.R.E.). Give me extraterrestrials or give me ... well, not death ... just give me extraterrestrials already. All the difficulty on this one came from trying to parse the wacky themers. Otherwise, everything was Monday-easy. This is a promising puzzle. I will spend the rest of the day thinking about Lucy, and there are worse things ...

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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