Cuban dance style / TUE 7--21-26 / 2023 double-platinum Chappell Roan record / Reactions akin to "OMG!" / chocolate bar's pronouns in a corny joke / Awe-inspiring solar phenomenon / Plumbing fixture found under the sink

Constructor: Kenneth Cortes

Relative difficulty: Easy (oversized at 16x15)

THEME: GO OUT WITH A BANG (34A: Finish flamboyantly ... like 17-, 28-, 43- and 56-Across?) — familiar phrases that end explosions:

Theme answers:

• "BADA-BING, BADA-BOOM!" (17A: "Easy-peasy!")
• SANDBLAST (28A: Clean with a rough spray)
• STARBURST (43A: Colorful taffy candy brand)
• "RED WINE SUPERNOVA" (56A: 2023 double-platinum Chappell Roan record)

Word of the Day: HABANERA (9D: Cuban dance style) —

 

Contradanza (also called contradanza criolla, danza, danza criolla, or habanera) is the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the contradanse, which was an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th century, derived from the English country dance and adopted at the court of France. Contradanza was brought to America and there took on folkloric forms that still exist in Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Ecuador.

In Cuba during the 19th century, it became an important genre, the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African rhythm pattern and the first Cuban dance to gain international popularity, the progenitor of danzón, mambo and cha-cha-cha, with a characteristic "habanera rhythm" and sung lyrics.

Outside Cuba, the Cuban contradanza became known as the habanera – the dance of Havana – and that name was adopted in Cuba itself subsequent to its international popularity in the later 19th century, though it was never so called by the people who created it. (wikipedia)

• • •

I wanna say "this was a blast," 'cause, you know, pun, but I'm not sure it rose to "blast" levels. It was certainly enjoyable, though, and very smooth—never got tiresome, despite a preponderance of short answers. There's some mild confusion about whether the ends of the theme answers are explosions themselves (supernova) or merely the sounds made by explosions (boom), and there's a certain sad cessation of the "B" party when you get to the final themer (boom blast bang burst ... supernova?), but all in all, this is clever and creative work. The only difficulty today was figuring out how to spell BADA-BING, BADA-BOOM, since it's a thing I only ever hear, and then remembering the title of the Chappell Roan song (which some of you probably can't "remember" since you didn't know it in the first place—I'm guessing that for a lot of people, that title is going to be the biggest struggle in today's puzzle by far). I actually know the song, but because the clue said "record" (ambiguous!) I was thinking ALBUMS, and so the only thing in my head was ... is it PINK PONY CLUB? No, that's another song! Her one album is titled The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess—I think it was used in a recent clue for ROAN, actually. I'm not exactly in the right age demo for her music, but I generally like it all the same. "OH GROW UP!" I will not.

And now, the history of musical supernovas: a three-part journey. First, there was Liz Phair, who gave us a simple, straightforward "Supernova":

Two years later, Oasis came along and added alcohol:

It took a while, but after nearly three decades, Chappell Roan decided to swap out Oasis's champagne for red wine, and here we are:

There wasn't anything particularly tricky about today's puzzle, outside the theme. I didn't know HABANERA (probably had it in the grid as HABANERO at first) and I wanted "THAT HURT!" to be "THAT HURTS!," which was pretty easily ... adaptable. Had to wait for the Japanese city to develop—got the first few letters and thought NAGANO before NAGASAKI (probably because NAGANO appears in the crossword more often). The only thing I know about NAGASAKI is the nuclear attack, so it's nice to get a different angle on it here (6D: Japanese city that's home to the Chinese Sofukuji Temple). I liked all the animals roaming around the grid—there's some LABS and another DOG and a HISSing cat, plus a BIRD and, and then bam (boom, bang!), out of nowhere: a herd of RHINOS! (46D: Heavyweight beasts, familiarly).


Bullets:

• 21A: Awe-inspiring solar phenomenon (AURORA) — I didn't know it qualified as an awe-inspiring solar phenomenon without the "Borealis" after it.
• 43A: Colorful taffy candy brand (STARBURST) — You know, I ate STARBURST throughout my childhood and occasionally in my adulthood and I never thought of them as "taffy." I'm not disputing the description. It's just ... taffy occupied a completely different slot in my brain's candy categorization. You'd see it pulled at the fair, or else get it in individually wax paper-wrapped little pieces. Also, I think of taffy as way chewier than STARBURST. Salt water taffy, that's what I'm thinking of.
• 39D: "___/she" (chocolate bar's pronouns in a corny joke) ("HER") — is this the corny joke? This clue right here? I guess I can imagine a chocolate lover saying "my pronouns are Hershey." My experience is that lots of people don't exactly have a sense of humor about pronoun jokes. I think this is a non-boring way to clue HER, so I'm for it.
• 56D: World of Warcraft, e.g., in brief (RPG) — minor trouble here in the SW as I wrote in WOW here ("WoW" = a common abbreviation for World of Warcraft). I then wrote in WELPS for 63A: Reactions akin to "OMG!" (GASPS). "Welp" is far more a resigned exclamation than it is an "OMG!" equivalent. Even after changing WOW to RPG (role-playing game). I wanted GULPS before GASPS.

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Coolness, in Gen Alpha slang / MON 6-1-26 / High-waisted fashion trend of the 1990s / Physiques that aren't quite perfect / Superfan's ticket purchase / It measures audience feedback / Pouncing predator / Southernmost country in Central America / Reality show starring the "Fab Five"

Constructor: Kenneth Cortes

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)

THEME: CAME OUT ON TOP (43A: Emerged victorious ... or what this puzzle's constructor did, as indicated by the shaded squares) — the shaded squares at the "top" of the grid contain a message: "MOM, DAD ... I'M QUEER!" 

Theme answers:

• MOM JEANS (3D: High-wasted fashion trend of the 1990s)
• DAD BODS (4D: Physiques that aren't quite perfect)
• "I'M THERE!" (9D: "Sign me up!")
• "QUEER EYE" (10D: Reality show starring the "Fab Five")

Word of the Day: CLAP-O-METER (30D: It measures audience feedback) —

A clap-o-meter, clapometer or applause meter is a measurement instrument that purports to measure and display the volume of clapping or applause made by an audience. It can be used to indicate the popularity of contestants and decide the result of competitions based on audience popularity. Specific implementations may or may not be based on actual sound level meters. Clap-o-meters were a popular element in talent shows and television game shows in the 1950s and 1960s, most notably Opportunity Knocks, but have since been supplanted by other, more sophisticated, methods of measuring audience response.

Today, various digital implementations exist across different platforms. Mobile applications for iOS and Android offer portable measurement, while specialized browser-based tools or PC software provide solutions for live events. Some free-to-use software, such as the "Applaus-O-Meter", provide full features without advertisements or in-app purchases, often including event management tools like integrated timers. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well it turns out I'm not made of stone. I sat here looking at the message in the shaded squares thinking "well, that's an interesting theme for the start of Pride Month" (Happy Pride Month, btw), and then (beat, beat) I was like "wait a minute ... is he ... is this ... no? that can't be right." Since I was solving Downs-only, I pieced together CAME OUT ON TOP but I never saw the clue until I was finished. And omg, there it is: "What this constructor's puzzle did..." Now I've been solving puzzles forever—forever, I tell you!—and I've seen constructors do a lot of creative things. Marriage proposals, that's been done a bunch. Election predictions—that one was famous! And while I've seen a number of insanely creative queer-themed puzzles, I have never, and I mean never, seen someone come out (To Their Parents!) in a crossword puzzle. I printed out a clean puzzle, took it into my wife, and said "you have to solve this right now." She also solves Mondays Downs-only, and two minutes later she marched into my office holding the puzzle up with just the shaded message part filled in, looking at me with amazement. I was like "I Know" and suddenly there were tears in my eyes goddamn it, what the hell, this is not supposed to happen. Puzzles are not supposed to be unaccountably moving. I'm supposed to come up here on Sunday evenings, knock out the Monday puzzle, do my little write-up and then go to bed, happy in the knowledge that I get to sleep in tomorrow! It's Monday! Mondays are light, breezy, badda boom, done and done. But no, this puzzle had to go and get all emotional and joyful and ... original on me. And aside from being an important life event (!), the theme is actually well executed. Nice little play on words. Clean fill. Snappy longer answers. If this doesn't deserve five stars, nothing does. Congratulations, kid. I hope your parents are proud. You certainly should be. 

The Downs-only solve was a breeze, which was nice, for once. The last thing I needed was a catastrophic failure to ruin the good vibes of this puzztheme. I did have some trouble parsing APEXAM when it was just APE-AM. I was like "the ape is doing what now? APE JAM? is that something?" But once I got out of there it was smooth sailing all the way to the end. ADMONISH off the "A"! (37D: Give a tut-tut, e.g.). SEASON PASS off the "S"! (29D: Superfan's ticket purchase). CLAP-O-METER off the "C"! (30D: It measures audience feedback). HAT STAND off the HAT, even though my whole brain was like "the term is HAT RACK!" (39D: Place to hang a fedora). I couldn't miss. That is, I couldn't miss until I could. At the very end. The very very end. I ended up at the last clue: 53D: Pouncing predator, and ... uh oh. The answer was not, uh, leaping out at me, and all of the crosses had multiple possibilities. PO-E = POKE? PORE? POPE? POSE? Was it ABIT or ABUT? SOLE, SOME, SORE? SEER or SEAR? But more importantly, what four-letter predator pounces? Finally I was like "hey, what about PUMA? That works. They pounce. Feels ... wrong, but give it a try." And so I did, and ... no "Congratulations" message! What!? "What the hell?! That has to be right!" And it was. See if you can find what I had wrong:

Got a little hasty / sloppy in the SW corner, and wrote in ATONED instead of ATONES (44D: Makes up (for)). If I'd checked the crosses carefully, I'd've noticed my mistake (SADH is not a word!) (61A: It might read "Miss Universe" = SASH). I found the error eventually, and all was right with the world again. And once again, hurray for everyone being able to be themselves and loving whoever they love. Every coming out is a beautiful little victory against the CREEPY people who want us to live in a bigoted DYSTOPIA. Gonna have some RYES tonight to celebrate this damned puzzle (Piña COLADAs aren't really my thing). Once again, hurray for this puzzle. My CLAP-O-METER is at 11.

Bullets:

• 12D: Dated (OLD) — had this as SAW for a second, then noticed that that gave me QUS URA and ENW in the crosses. Very helpful when *every* cross is a fail. No chance you're gonna mistake your dumb answer for the correct one.
• 46D: Southernmost country in Central America (PANAMA) — shall I tell you about my brain's insistence that, and I quote, "there are no Central American countries that start with 'P'!" To be fair(ish), I was actually looking at an answer that started "PL-" because at that point I assumed that MUSC- was MUSCLE (it's MUSCAT) (48A: Capital of Oman).

• 52D: Thin woodwind (OBOE) — brain: "FIFE!" I mean, he's not wrong, but as with SAW (above), those letters just didn't check out.

That's all for today. Hope it's a joyful day for you. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Whom "video killed," in a 1979 hit / MON 8-19-24 / Explosive block in Minecraft / One of four for a square / Hoops player / "Here's a shorter summary," on internet forums / Poorly drawn circle, perhaps / Fern's reproductive cell

Constructor: Kenneth Cortes

Relative difficulty: Well, for me, solving Downs-only, it was Challenging (for a Monday, obviously)

THEME: positionality — theme answers whose first words "TOP" "BOTTOM" "LEFT" and "RIGHT" point to different answers that are "literally" at the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the grid:

Theme answers:

• TOP SIRLOIN (17A: Prime cut of beef ... or 5-Across, literally?) / 5A: Texas Roadhouse specialty (STEAK) ["STEAK" is "SIRLOIN," and it is "literally" at the "TOP" of the grid]
• BOTTOM LINE (62A: Balance sheet total ... or 68-Across, literally?) / 68A: D.C.'s subway system (METRO) ["METRO" is a "LINE," and it is "literally" at the "BOTTOM" of the grid]
• LEFT BEHIND (27D: Abandoned ... or 25-Down, literally?) / 25D: Tush (BOOTY) ["BOOTY" means "BEHIND," and it is "literally" on the "LEFT" side of the grid]
• RIGHT ANGLE (11D: One of four for a square ... or 32-Down, literally?) / 32D: Biased point of view (SLANT) ["SLANT" is an "ANGLE," and it is "literally" on the "RIGHT" side of the grid]

Word of the Day: YABBER (46A: Go on and on) —

Originally Australian.

1. 1841–

   intransitive. To talk; to converse; to speak rapidly or excitedly; to chatter.

   In early use applied (often in contempt or derision) to the act of speaking a language which is unintelligible to the hearer, esp. that of an Australian Aboriginal speaker. (OED)

• • •

YABBER dabber ... don't. Please don't. What is this word? I know the word "yammer." It means "to talk foolishly or incessantly" (i.e. to [Go on and on]). I know the word "jabber." It means "to talk rapidly, distinctly, or unintelligibly" (i.e. to [Go on and on]). But what in the [beeeeeeeeeeep] is YABBER? I mean, I know what it is now. I looked it up. But I've never seen this word before in my life. Putting some Australian garbage (no offense, lol) in the puzzle on a Monday, what the actual heck? All of the OED examples of YABBER are from Australian sources. [Sidenote: it's also a word with seemingly racist origins: see OED entry, above]. Seems bizarre to pretend that this is just a word people (i.e. people in this country) use. It is not. Do you have any idea how much this "answer" messed me up today. Just try inferring a word that you have never seen in your life and are pretty sure is not a word. Solving Downs-only requires working at least partially by inference. Unless you just magically know all the Downs cold, you have to use the Downs you know to get letters that help you infer at least some of the Acrosses, which then help you get the Downs you couldn't get in the first place, lather rinse repeat. But good luck inferring YABBER. And because YABBER crosses BOOTY, I would not commit to BOOTY, which was a thematically crucial element, so ... sigh. This was just one of several problems I had with the Downs-only solve today, but it's the only one I'm actually Mad about because, as I say, YABBER is not a word that people use in this country, jeez louise, come on. Are you sure it's not actually "yammer" and the speaker just has a cold??? 

For the last three NYTXW appearances of YABBER (i.e. the only other appearances in the Modern Era—a Wednesday (2011), Sunday (2007), and Sunday (2002), respectively), the clues all indicated the answer's Australian-ness ("to an Aussie," "Down Under," "to an Aussie"). So this answer (which, again, is YABBER) has never (before today) appeared in an easy, early-week puzzle, and has never been clued without its Aussie indicator. Even in the pre-Shortz era (where the answer appeared only twice (Sun. 1988, Thu. 1979)), YABBER never showed up on a Mon or Tue, and never lacked its Aussie indicator ("in Queensland," "in Sydney"). The Aussie indicator tells American solvers "this is gonna be off" and so your solving brain can loosen up and accept weirdness. Without it, you're looking for a regular word that is used in this country, which YABBER ... isn't. This is bafflingly poor editing. I know it's no big deal because the puzzle is ultimately easy yabba yabba yabba, but it's still bad.

Because of the Downs-only thing, I could only really see half the themers. Even though I had STEAK / TOP SIRLOIN, and BOTTOM LINE / METRO filled in, I had no idea how they were thematic (or even that they were thematic). The only themers I could see were the "LEFT" and "RIGHT" ones, and neither one of them—neither the long answers, nor the short answers they referred to, were clear to me at first pass. [One of four for a square] was *particularly* hard, since I wanted something having to do with "SIDES." I eventually figured out LEFT BEHIND, but even then I was like "how is your BOOTY 'literally' your LEFT BEHIND? I thought it referred to your *whole* behind..." It just took a while for the gimmick to register. I'm honestly surprised that I managed to finish without cheating (i.e. looking at Acrosses). I had "I BUY IT" before "I SEE IT" (10D: "Yeah, that seems plausible to me"), because "I BUY IT" is obviously better, as well as just more interesting, so ... yeah, that didn't help with my RIGHT ANGLE / SLANT problems in the NE and E. It took some Doing to infer STEFANI, which is the only way I managed to see BY FAR (29D: Without question). I had ESTEEM (?) before ASSESS (34D: Judge the value of). I absolutely (!) blanked on ABSOLUT (after STOLI and SKYY I was out of ideas) (Did I mention I hate vodka and don't understand why anyone drinks it? True story). And while I wanted BALLER fairly early, I had trouble committing to it (47D: Hoops player), mostly because BALLER has come to have meaning far beyond the basketball court. As I say, I feel lucky to have finished clean.

But OK, putting aside the Downs-only shenanigans, what about this theme? I dunno. Top bottom left right. It's kind of fussy, esp. for a Monday. I mean, there's some cleverness there, but you could do this theme with all kinds of TOP, BOTTOM, LEFT, and RIGHT-starting answers. The themer set feels arbitrary, not particularly tight. Overall, the puzzle's fine, but it doesn't have the perfect snap and the elegant simplicity that I crave in a Monday.

Notes:

• 10D: "Yeah, that seems plausible to me" ("I SEE IT") — did anyone else initially read this sarcastically and want to write in "I'LL BET"? Something about the "Yeah..."
• 20A: Tongue-tingling taco topping (HOT SALSA) — I would not call the mouth sensation that I get from truly HOT SALSA a "tingle." That is too weak and vaguely pleasant a word to describe it. If the salsa is merely "tongue-tingling," it's mild. Tongue-searing, tongue-scorching ... if you absolutely must have your four-part alliteration, maybe "tongue-torturing"? "Tongue-torching"?
• 36D: Whom "video killed," in a 1979 hit (RADIO STAR) — love remembering this song, but hate this phrase as a standalone answer. It doesn't have enough standalone power, not enough currency or meaning outside of this song.
• 13D: Through which we sniff, snort and sneeze (NOSE) — what kind of quaint-ass phrasing is this? There are rules about clue and answer being the same part of speech. A prepositional phrase should not be able to clue a noun. And again with the alliteration? A little goes a long way, I swear. [Singer Simone], [Soothing succulent], [Sign for the superstitious] ... maybe tap the brakes.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. The OED is full of gems...

1. 1969

   Few Australians can speak English. Most have learnt from disc jockeys and yabber in an odd language called Strine.

   Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney)  No. 69. 1/2

STRINE (6) actually made an NYTXW appearance on a Sunday back in 2019, when I called it "the most obscure thing I've ever seen in the puzzle"

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Crispy plantain chips / MON 10-30-23 / Freshwater eel of Japanese culture / Colorful marine invertebrate /

Constructor: Kenneth Cortes

Relative difficulty: Easy (Downs-only, no trouble)

THEME: BRIGHT IDEA (56A: Stroke of genius ... or the theme of this puzzle)  — "IDEA" appears hidden inside three theme answers; the grid has been weirdly dimmed, so that the "IDEA"s (which appear in regular old white squares) appear "BRIGHT":

Theme answers:

• STUPID EASY (18A: Not difficult at all, in slang)
• GUIDE ANIMAL (26A: Seeing Eye dog, e.g.)
• HIDE-AND-SEEK (44A: Game in which one might shout, "Ready or not, here I come!")

Word of the Day: TOSTONES (39D: Crispy plantain chips) —

Tostones (Spanish pronunciation: [tosˈtones], from the Spanish verb tostar which means "to toast") are twice-fried plantain slices commonly found in Latin American cuisine and Caribbean cuisine. Most commonly known as tostones in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Florida, Honduras and Venezuela, they are also known as tachinos or chatinos (Cuba), platano frito or frito verde (Dominican Republic), bannann peze (Haiti), patacones (in Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador) and, sometimes, patacón pisao in Colombia. (wikipedia)

• • •

Wait, is "Seeing Eye dog" a brand name? Why is "Eye" capitalized? I would've written it without a capital "E," and possibly with a hyphen. Wow, yes, it's trademarked. Well, you learn something new every day. Or maybe not every day, but occasionally, anyway. I didn't have any problem with the capitalization, but I do have a problem with the answer, GUIDE ANIMAL, which ... are there Seeing Eye warthogs? The only GUIDE ANIMAL I've ever seen or heard of is a Seeing Eye dog. I guess the dogs that don't learn the trademark method can't be called that, is that the deal? Anyway, GUIDE ANIMAL feels ... off. The internet is telling me that a "miniature horse" might also serve as a GUIDE ANIMAL, but I resolutely refuse to believe this. Thumbs down to GUIDE ANIMAL.

Also thumbs-down to this ridiculous grid-dimming gimmick. Any theme that relies on making the grid look this terrible isn't worth it. Anyway, it's not that the IDEAS are BRIGHT so much as that the rest of the dang grid has been miserably benighted. I thought there was a glitch in my software. At least the puzzle was STUPID EASY, so I didn't have to spend too much time staring at this gray monstrosity. STUPID EASY was, in fact, the puzzle's one big highlight—a nice burst of colloquial freshness, and a very clever way of hiding your IDEA. Ironically, the theme answer with the word HIDE in it didn't "hide" the IDEA nearly so well. Always disappointed when "hidden" words don't touch every word in the themer, and the IDEA in HIDE AND SEEK can only wave at nearby SEEK, who sits there cold, lonely, and essentially uninvolved. A dark day, indeed, for SEEK.

My Downs-only solve was quite triumphant today. I flattened this one, with a big assist from the theme, which allowed me to go ahead and fill in all the "bright" areas with IDEA very early:

The only potential pitfalls I could see, from a Downs-only perspective, were both food related. UNAGI came to me pretty easily (27A: Freshwater eel of Japanese culture), but I'll admit I had to think a bit about those TOSTONES (39D: Crispy plantain chips). I read the clue and thought "Oh, come on ... I know those ... I've had those ... what are those?" But I didn't sweat it, I just kept solving, knocking over one Down after another until the only Down I had left was the [Crispy plantain chips]. I had both "S"s and the second "O," but every other letter was indeterminate—that is, it could've been multiple things. TORO could've been BORO, BONDS could've been BINDS or BENDS or BANDS, etc. Eventually I just started from the top and started plugging in plausible letters to see if they rang any bells, and, well, that meant I started with the "T" in TORO, and that was all I needed. I practically shouted "TOSTONES!" And that ... was that. Game over.

Other tiny issues ... As usual, didn't know if it was "F" or "V" in today's OLAF (1D: "Frozen" snowman). I lucked out with those sequential "A"s in SEA ANEMONE (11D: Colorful marine invertebrate)—they were both inferable from the crosses, and then ... well, the answer clearly had to have a word break between those "A"s, and knowing that, SEA ANEMONE came fast. I had some hesitation at BOGUS (48D: Not genuine). I'm not quite sure why. Once I got AFROS squared away (by inference) (50A: Jackson 5 hairstyles), I had the "O," and BOGUS went right in. Oh, and I had to work a bit to get HIP (8D: Cool-sounding body part?), since all I could think of was EYE(S) (because it ... kinda rhymes with "ice" ... which is ... cool???). Wrong kind of "cool," it seems. I continue to not believe that SALSA DIP is a thing (4D: Accompaniment for a tortilla chip). It's just called SALSA. Yes, you can "dip" your chip in it. Still, just SALSA. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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