Relative difficulty: Challenging (***for a Monday***)
THEME: Presidents' Day — theme answers = phrases that have the same initials as US presidents (the number of the relevant president appears in parentheses at the end of each theme clue):
Theme answers:
JUST FOR KICKS (JFK) (17A: On a whim [#35])
LEVI'S BLUE JEANS (LBJ) (23A: Denim pants with a red tab label [#36]
FAMILY DINING ROOM (FDR) (38A: Where domestic meals are enjoyed [#32])
"HAVING SAID THAT ..." (HST) (48A: "On the other hand ..." [#33])
GOING WAY BACK (GWB) (59A: In the distant past [#43])
Word of the Day: ZUMBA (11D: Dance-based fitness program) —
Zumba is a fitness program that involves cardio and Latin-inspired dance. It was founded by Colombian dancer and choreographer Beto Pérez in 2001, and by 2012, it called itself the largest international branded fitness program in the world. (wikipedia)
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Alright, so let's start with stuff I liked. Three of these theme answers are really wonderful standalone answers that I would love to see in any puzzle: JUST FOR KICKS, GOING WAY BACK, and especially "HAVING SAID THAT..." If it took presidential monograms to turn up these phrases, then on some level, I guess this theme was worth it. Having said that ... the theme is just OK. GWB stands out like a sore thumb—just not nearly as 3-initial-worthy as the other entries. The first three are solid, then HST comes along and is like "what about me, I'm in crosswords!" and you're like, "sigh, fine, OK," but then GWB also wants to get in the car and it's like, no. No, this is not a clown car, we are full up. I'm also not really sure about the strength of FAMILY DINING ROOM as an answer. How many dining rooms do you people have!? There's the family room, and the dining room, but the FAMILY DINING ROOM is pushing it all a little far. I'm sure the phrase exists, but I'm also sure its currency is weak compared to the other theme entries. But on the whole, the theme is fine. It holds up. It's about presidents, obliquely, and it's Presidents Day, technically, so there we are. There we are. Sadly, there is the rest of the grid to contend with, and that is where things get very, very rough. Not sure where to start. Well, there's the names. Just an avalanche of names, many of them very crosswordesey, but mainly just ... so many. This puzzle starts with three names, bam bam bam (in the Acrosses). Then it treats us to A-LIST and AABOND, bam bam. But back to names: JAKOB (!) JONG DOWD MILLA (!) OLAV AKELA ESAI EBAN, just an absolute crosswordese and/or "haven't thought of them in decades" onslaught. And then the rest of the crosswordese, some of which I haven't seen in a while: YEGG! LIANA!! ALIA ATTA ATESTS (more "A"s!!). And then DO A SET (right before you EAT A SANDWICH, presumably). The puzzle was relentless in its punishingly dated (or just plain odd) fill. If your fill isn't reasonably polished, the best theme in the world isn't going to save the solving experience. This would've been a tolerable experience with a completely refilled grid. The theme holds up today, but not much else does.
I had no idea ZUMBA still existed. Last I heard of it was sometime in 2012, I think. I had a friend who went to ZUMBA classes. Then she moved away and no one so much as mentioned ZUMBA to me ever again, in any context. I assumed it had gone the way of TAEBO (which, for all I know, is still all the rage ... somewhere). I do want to single out "I'M A FAN" (33A: "Love your work!") and especially "HI, HON" (48D: Spousal greeting) as fun little colloquial answers. I'm a fan of both. I wish more of the grid had that kind of personality. I had UNAPT (UGH, that non-word keeps haunting me) before UNFIT (26D: Not suitable, as for a job), and, most obstructive of all, I had A LONG WAY BACK before GOING WAY BACK (59A: In the distant past [#43]); that one Really felt right. Otherwise, not hard, just slowish for a Monday. Enjoy your day off if you've got one. Otherwise, just, you know, enjoy your day. See you tomorrow. Please enjoy this random outraged tweet.
Yeah, why would anyone know who the (zipless) fuck wrote that book!?
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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