Symbol of poison on a warning label / WED 1-25-23 / Persons who identify as female, in an alternative spelling / App with stories informally / Composer of the piano piece played in the Tom and Jerry short The Cat Concerto

Constructor: Nancy Serrano-Wu

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: [Sports bar purchases?] — sports terms that end with words that can also mean "drinks one can order at a bar":

Theme answers:

• FANTASY DRAFTS (56A: Sports bar purchases?)
• PENALTY SHOTS (56A: Sports bar purchases?)
• STAR PITCHERS (56A: Sports bar purchases?)
• TRIPLE DOUBLES (56A: Sports bar purchases?)

Word of the Day: Tang DYNASTY (9D: Tang, for one) —

The Tang dynasty (/tɑːŋ/, [tʰǎŋ]; Chinese: 唐朝), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. [...] Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era. It is traditionally considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of China's most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, contributing with poets such as Wang Weito the monumental Three Hundred Tang Poems. Many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, and Zhou Fang were active, while Chinese court music flourished with instruments such as the popular pipa. Tang scholars compiled a rich variety of historical literature, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. Notable innovations included the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became a major influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, in the 840s, Emperor Wuzong enacted policies to suppress Buddhism, which subsequently declined in influence. (wikipedia)

• • •

[Binghamton!]

This is a solid theme idea. It's a good catch—noticing that sports terminology has a preponderance of drink-related terms (or words that *look* like drink-related terms: "homographs," I guess they're called—spelled the same, meaning something else). Yoking all the clues together via the same clue is a nice touch, and toughens the puzzle up a little bit. "Oh, were you hoping for a different, more specific clue this time? Sorry, have another go." I think the theme is only good for about three answers here, though. DOUBLES feels like a stretch, in that of course one could order a "double" at a bar, but that's just ... more. It's not really a variety of drink, or even a beverage unit. It's two ... of whatever. Most often two SHOTS, which already appears in the grid. Other drinks can be DOUBLES ("... and make mine a double"), but this still feels like it's in a different category from the others. Or else it's reduplicative, which makes it seem like it's cheating, kinda. But I guess in the strictest sense, it still fits the category: at a bar, you can order a draft, you can order a shot, you can order a pitcher, and you can order a double. It's just that with the first three, if you say them, people will at least know what variety of beverage you're talking about, whereas if you just order "a double," people will just wonder if you know what you're doing. Kinda like in "Licorice Pizza" when Alana orders a martini at the Rive Gauche and the waiter asks "Vodka or gin?" and she says, confidently, "vodka-gin." The waiter then tactfully tries to get at the answer another way. "Would you like an olive or a lime with it?" To which she replies, "Yes." 

I had BEER PITCHERS at first because, as sometimes often happens after I get the theme ... I then forget the theme. I turned the phrase over in my head, "BEER PITCHERS ... I guess that sounds right ... "pitchers of beer, BEER PITCHERS ... you'd just order a pitcher ... BEER PITCHERS sounds a little weird, weirdly redundant." That's because BEER PITCHERS was wrong, in no way in keeping with the (already established) theme of the dang puzzle. So that was the hardest themer for me to come up with. The hardest one for me to *understand* was TRIPLE DOUBLES because my mind absolutely and completely blanked on what those were. Again, my brain did not bother to remind me "psst, think *sports*," so all it could think of was hamburgers. Turns out my brain was thinking about the "Double-Double" at In-N-Out (as it often, nostalgically, does—I miss you, Southern California). Anyway, a "triple-double" is a basketball feat in which a player hits double digits in three different statistical categories in one game: points, rebounds, and assists. I think maybe ... maybe you can swap out a different stat for that last one, like blocks or steals, or something, but classically (typically), it's points / rebounds / assists (and yes, I'm now reading that "blocks" or "steals" can count as well ... but in practice most TRIPLE DOUBLES are points / rebounds / assists). 

The fill on this one was just OK. No real high points (except maybe CAT'S MEOW—I love the fact that it got a different animal idiom for its clue: 11D: Bee's knees). MR. YUK is a hard yuck, as I don't believe in that that ... guy? ... has a name (53D: Symbol of poison on a warning label). The only people who have ever tried to foist that "guy's" "name" on me are not people, they are crosswords. Even the spelling on YUK is yuck. I think I never learned this "symbol"—maybe I'm too old. I'm looking at it now and it is Not At All familiar to me. 

I grew up with skull & crossbones as the poison symbol. So maybe I just ... missed the MR. YUK era (which I guess we are still living in?). Still, I've literally never seen the name outside crosswords. I also haven't seen WOMYN since the early '90s, when I guess the idea was to take the "men" part out of "women" (6D: Persons who identify as female, in an alternative spelling). The term now reads as quaint and bygone (it's been criticized as trans-exclusive when used to refer to trans women, as has the much more obviously trans-exclusive "WOMBAN"). There are still a *lot* of alternate spellings out there. Look for "WOMXN" to come to a grid near you ... well, maybe not soon, but ... maybe! (it has a certain prominence within intersectional feminism). As for WOMYN, I guess if you get yourself in a constructing situation where you've got "Y" in the fourth position of a five-letter word, your options narrow considerably. Oh well. Most of the non-thematic stuff was easy today, except for that DYNASTY clue, which is wickedly ambiguous and highly misdirective. Needed the whole front end of that answer before I had any clue what was going on. Is "tang" a flavor quality? No. Is "Tang" a powdered beverage once purportedly drunk by astronauts? No. DYNASTY! I'd've probably clued this via the '80s nighttime soap opera starring Joan Collins, but that is (very much) just me. Really liked the clue today, and it added some needed ... let's say "bite" and not "tang" ... to the grid. That's all. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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