Old rival of MGM / MON 4-26-21 / Locale of many White House photo ops / Only daughter of Elizabeth II / Lady first female member of Parliament

Constructor: Eric and Lori Bornstein

Relative difficulty: Challenging (30+ seconds over my usual Monday time)

THEME: FOOD COURT (35D: Feature of many a mall ... or a place for 20-Across and 26- and 30-Down?) — fast food places that have "court"-related words in their names:

Theme answers:

• WHITE CASTLE (20A: Figurative site of a 35-Down)
• BURGER KING (30D: Figurative ruler of a 35-Down)
• DAIRY QUEEN (26D: Figurative ruler of a 35-Down)

Word of the Day: MSRP (41A: Starting point for a car sale negotiation: Abbr.) —

The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product. The intention was to help standardize prices among locations. While some shops/stores always sell at, or below, the suggested retail price, others do so only when items are on sale or closeout/clearance. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's a good theme. I just don't understand why they didn't slot this on Tuesday, or even Wednesday, since it would've fit much better there. So many things make this measurably tougher than a regular Monday puzzle (still easyish in absolute terms, but way way off of Monday-average). The gigantic open spaces, for one. There's almost no way you can have a triple-stack of 9s like that (in the middle, where the revealer is) and still keep things Monday-easy. Open space like that is a hallmark of Fri / Sat puzzles. And you've got similar open space in the SW and SE too, with 10s stacked together in each case (I realize "stack" isn't the right metaphor, but you see what I mean ... they're abutting ... "pillars"?). Big chunks of white space means the difficulty level goes boop boop boop, up. Add in the fact that all the themers are cross-referenced, so there is absolutely no way to get them from their clues alone. You have to hammer away at crosses *or* go solve the revealer and then maybe, possibly, have a chance at understanding how it relates to the theme clue. That is, WHITE CASTLE clue has nothing specific to do with WHITE CASTLE, and ditto BURGER KING and DAIRY QUEEN. Themer clues with absolutely no literal, direct information about the themers themselves, that's practically unheard of on Monday ... For A Reason. It adds a good chunk of difficulty. It slows you down. Now ultimately, it was all doable, but a good Tuesday puzzle should go on a Tuesday. Not sure why that's so hard. Is there a real dearth of decent Mondays? Bah!

Also had no idea who Lady ASTOR was (66A: Lady ___, first female member of Parliament) (I mean, rings a bell, but ... shrug). Same with Chris REDD. Happy to know there's another REDD out there besides FOXX (or former NBAer Michael), but I am semi-exhausted by the idea that I should know every single current and former cast member of SNL. It's bad enough that I have to see SNL in roughly every other grid. I do not f*** with that show. I find it wearisome, and honestly I have never forgiven Lorne Michaels and Joe Pesci for what they did to Sinead O'Connor 30 years ago. Grudges: I hold them. Still, Chris REDD, cool, I'll try to remember that. Had RATES instead of RAGES at 6D: Rants and raves, which made A-GAME so so hard to see (18A: Best possible athletic performance—such a weird and mildly misleading clue; if a player "brings their A-GAME," they are playing at *general* peak ability, yes, but that doesn't mean that individual "performance" is the "best possible" (which is what the clue seems to imply, as written). Had ANYHOW before ANYHOO (4D: Informal segue). I guess "informal" should've tipped me off. ANYHOO, all these little hiccups, combined with a harder-than-usual-Monday theme, put this well outside normal Monday difficulty range. The fill is largely fine, except the SE, which is quite poor (ANGE on a Monday? In a corner that's already desperate for even adequate fill? Blargh). So yeah, if you'd given me this tomorrow or the next day, I would've liked it a lot. As it is, I like it a little. That's not bad. Could be worse. I don't really believe that WHITE CASTLE is a FOOD COURT restaurant. But I'll let it slide. Have a nice day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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