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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