Rap's Megan ___ Stallion / TUES 06-25-24 / Fingerprint or footprint, perhaps / Piece of jewelry consisting of a single line of diamonds / art of an African elephant shaped like Africa

Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of June! Hope everyone had a good month. I’ve been watching so much soccer with the Euros and Copa America, and then rooting on former teammates in the track events at the Olympic trials! My former teammates did very well but sadly didn’t qualify for the finals. (You did great, Dana!) Other events have been super impressive, like the women’s 5,000m race, and I’m so excited to watch the women’s 1,500m, too. As I’m writing this, I sadly had to watch Athing Mu get tripped and fall in the 800m run. But maybe she’ll be chosen for the 4X400m relay. She's incredible (and won gold in the last Olympics in both events at just 19 years old). ​​

Anywho, on to the puzzle...

Constructor: Seth Bisen-Hersh and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: TWENTY ONE (33A: Card game whose winning hands can be found hidden in 17-, 27-, 42- and 54-Across) — Each answer includes cards involved in getting “twenty one,” or blackjack

Theme answers:

• SUCKING FACE (17A: Sloppily making out, in slang) 
• TENNIS BRACELET (27A: Piece of jewelry consisting of a single line of diamonds) 
• QUEEN ANNE’S LACE (42A: Wildflower with a royal name) 
• RACER JACKET (54A: Sleek leather outerwear)

Word of the Day: ATTILA (13A: Invader of Gaul in 451) —

The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or r the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition, led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I, against the Huns and their vassals, commanded by their king, Attila. It proved one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. Whether the battle was of strategic significance is disputed; historians generally agree that the siege of Aurelianum was the decisive moment in the campaign and stopped the Huns' attempt to advance any further into Roman territory or establish vassals in Roman Gaul. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later, in 453; after the Battle of Nedao in 454 AD, the coalition of the Huns and the incorporated Germanic vassals gradually disintegrated. (Wiki)

• • •

My first reaction was meh – but I also only saw one of the cards in each answer. I saw “king,” then “ace,” then “queen” and “jack.” Having the answers actually be “king-ace,” “ten-ace,” “queen-ace”, and "jack-ace is pretty impressive. And I liked the first three theme answers. SUCKING FACE is an odd but fun term. TENNIS BRACELET is legit. QUEEN ANNE’S LACE is lovely. RACER JACKET didn’t do a whole lot for me. 

Other aspects of the puzzle were still pretty meh, though. There was more misdirection than I’d expect from a Tuesday. Yes, ATILLA (13A) invaded Gaul, but his attack on Rome is a lot more famous – think Pope Leo the Great coming face to face with him on the outskirts of the city and getting Attila to turn back. ANDALE (44D) is a fine word, but I don’t think of saying that to Goya. Speedy Gonzalez, yes. Goya, no. 

There was a decent amount of Spanish in the puzzle — HASTA, ESAS, ANDALE and OLES. I’m happy I know a lot of Spanish. But I imagine ANDALE, in particular, might have slowed some others. 

The ZIKA virus (6D: Mosquito-borne virus in 2016 news) was unexpected for a Tuesday. I knew this one, but it did take me a while to place and get the spelling right. ENDUE (50A: Provide, as with an ability) is pretty fancy for a Tuesday. The Tuesday form is more “endow.” 

I liked how DESSERT (41D: You might leave room for it) crossed SWIRLS (48A: Vanilla/chocolate ice cream combos, e.g.). I used to get a SWIRLS dessert from Foster's Freeze and loved how that tasted. 

I liked some of the longer answers, too, such as QUEASY, ACL TEAR, GAME ON (though having RAT ON as another answer diminished this one a bit), NINJA, ANDALE, SIM CITY and GOUDA.) Answers like these and COLGATE and DESSERT were just more fun. 

I’m not as sure about PROOFED, RETURNS, TUNA CAN, RARE GEM, WEARIER, and WEEDER. I’m sure WEEDER (34D: Gardener's device) is a category of sorts when you go into Home Depot. But nobody asks for a weeder. It seems more like you’d ask for a hoe or a trowel or a rake or a shovel or something specific.

Misc.:

• PELE (15A: Athlete declared a national treasure by Brazil after the 1958 World Cup) reminds me of how much soccer I’ve been watching lately and how I’ve been rooting for Brazil! Sad that they tied Costa Rica. But maybe they can pull it all off. 
• Does GOUDA (19A: Mild Dutch cheese) make anyone else think of “She’s the Man”? “My favorite’s GOUDA”? Probably not...
• SIM CITY (25A: Pioneering computer game originally called Micropolis) is so fun and interesting to me. The cities are so odd, and the characters do seemingly whatever they want, and it’s all so weird and strange.
• I remember watching my friend playing softball when I was in junior high, and all I knew how to say was “good EYE, good EYE” (56D) 
• I’ve been on a reading kick lately. (I’m at 40 books so far this year!) “Little Women” from Louis May ALCOTT (10D: “Little Women" author) will always be superior.

And that’s all from me! Hope everyone has a great end of June. And go, USA! 

Signed, Clare Carroll, I may not outpace you at solving crosswords… but try me at the 5,000 meters

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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Japanese art of flower arranging / MON 6-24-24 / Broody subculture / Lively get-togethers / Figurative setting for a shady deal / Take a leap of faith, quite literally / Eruption from a geyser / Computer replication of real-world events, for short / ___ pot, container for rinsing nasal passages

Constructor: Anthony V. Grubb

Relative difficulty: Medium (as a Downs-only solve)

THEME: BODYBUILDING (52A: Weightlifter's pursuit ... or a hint to both halves of the answers to the starred clues) — familiar compound words where first part of the word is a BODY part and the second part is a type of BUILDING (that one might live in ... or part of such a building ... (?)):

Theme answers:

• HEAD/QUARTERS (20A: *Base of operations)
• SHIN/DIGS (31A: *Lively get-togethers)
• KNEE/PAD (38A: *One of a pair that a skater might wear)
• BACK/ROOM (47A: *Figurative setting for a shady deal)

Word of the Day: "The Italian Job" (49D: The "jobs" in "The Italian Job," e.g.) —

The Italian Job is a 1969 British comedy caper film written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres on Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, recently released from prison, who forms a gang for the job of stealing a cache of gold bullion being transported through the city of Turin, Italy, in an armoured security truck. [...] The popularity of The Italian Job led to several parodies and allusions in other films and productions, including the 2005 episode of The Simpsons titled "The Italian Bob", and a re-enactment of the Mini Cooper car-chase in the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest". The film itself was later given a video game adaptation in 2001, before receiving a remake in 2003. A charity event titled The Italian Job, founded in 1990 and held annually, was inspired by the film; as of 2020, it had raised nearly £3,000,000. Marking the 50th anniversary of the film in June 2019, stunt drivers in red, white and blue Coopers recreated parts of the film's car-chase around Turin at the grounds of Mini's Oxford factory. (wikipedia)

• • •

Real journey with this one. Went from not liking the theme, to liking it, to liking it somewhat less after I looked at all the themers more closely. See, at first I thought the themers were linked only by their *first* parts. I could see the body parts pretty early on, but was not at all aware that the back ends of the answers had anything in common. And since I don't read the Across clues on Mondays, I never figured that part out until after the puzzle was done. I finished up thinking that there was some kind of Frankenstein's monster thing going on. Like, the puzzle was "building" a "body" (or ... a good portion of one, anyway) with the front ends of the themers. The body parts alone seemed like a pretty weak unifying factor, so I wasn't that happy. Then I read the revealer clue and saw the way the back halves of the answers also formed a thematic unit, and that made things much better. "Oh, nice," I thought. But then I sat with those back halves for a bit and realized "Nah ... they're not really 'buildings' at all." They're words for places you might live, but QUARTERS or DIGS or PAD might just as well describe an apartment as well as a free-standing structure, and ROOM, yeesh, that's not a "building" at all. It's a building part. And (in most buildings) a small part at that. Familiar words reimagined as places that might house body parts—that's the best I can describe the theme (QUARTERS for your HEAD, a ROOM for your BACK, etc.). "BUILDING" still feels like a miss. It's close, but off. So the theme ends up being kind of a wash for me. There's good ambition here, and the second halves of the answers are definitely doing ... something ... but BUILDING doesn't quite get at it. My only other complaint, themewise, is a small one. I didn't like KNEEPAD because in all the other theme answers, the body part is masked. That is, HEADQUARTERS has nothing to do with an actual human head, SHINDIGS do not relate to your tibia, etc. HEAD, SHIN, BACK, all have different meanings in their respective answers. But the "knee" in KNEEPAD is just a knee. No new direction for KNEE, no repurposing, no metaphors. Just ... a KNEE. So it's a sad outlier, that answer. Far less elegant than its counterparts. 

There was one bad sticking point today in my Downs-only adventure, as neither BETA nor SKYDIVE would go down easy. BETA I don't quite get. I mean, yes, second letter of Greek alphabet, cool, got it, but I didn't know I was looking at capital and lowercase Greek letters. I thought I was looking at English and Greek letters. Thus, hard for me. Worse, though, was SKYDIVE, since the clue is, frankly, terrible. Or, I should say, literally terrible, in that it misuses "literally" (4D: Take a leap of faith, quite literally). Sorry, now that I think about it, it's not "literally" that's bugging me so much as "faith" ... and then the fact that "literally" appears to be referring to the "faith" part. There's no "faith" involved in a SKYDIVE. There's physics. You jump, you fall, your parachute opens, ta da. I guess you have "faith" that your parachute will open (?) but that's not "faith" any more than it takes "faith" to step onto a balcony or drive your car. Sure, theoretically, the balcony might collapse or the brakes might not work, but ugh, "faith," no. When you put "faith" in the clue and then say "literally," I think "OK, cool, this is related to religion somehow ... like a conversion or something? Some kind of rite where you jump ... for Jesus?" So even when I got DIVE I was like "... GODDIVE?" Also did not like the "sedan" part of the UBER clue (7D: Sedan summoned with a smartphone, say). I know you really really wanted your alliteration. But "sedan" is so specific that I figured the answer had to be a kind of car, a make or type of "sedan." I think I had E-CAR in there at some point (a term I would never have considered if crosswords hadn't taught it to me (stunned to learn that it's been in the puzzle just once, over a decade ago (?!)). 

Oh, I forgot, there was one other Downs-only trouble spot. It's kinda gross so I think my brain suppressed it there for a moment. I did not know the answer for 31D: Eruption from a geyser. I was worried it was maybe SPUME (!?!?), a word I find kind of repellent. I knew that geysers "spew" ... water? ... into the air. So maybe that was causing some aural confusion. Anyway, I wrote in SPUME but then took out the "U" when KNEEPAD became obvious. But this gave me SPE- ... and once BACKROOM became undeniable, that "geyser" answer became SPE-M. And I ... uh ... well ... things got uncomfortable there for a bit (esp. since an "R" would've given me ERRS at 44A, which is about as over-the-plate as crossword answers come). So there was a lot of looking at clue, answer, clue, answer, wondering what was wrong. Then I realized that STEAM would take me from APOP (a valid answer; 96 NYTXW appearances in the Modern Era) to ATOP (another valid answer; 191 appearances in the Modern Era), and would make ER-S into ERAS; most importantly, STEAM had the advantage of making actual sense for the clue. So STEAM it was. Thanks for pulling me out of an unpleasantly sticky situation, STEAM. I appreciate it. Yay, Team STEAM.

Beyond that, I misspelled IKEBANA (as IKI-!) (43D: Japanese art of flower arranging) and didn't trust THUMBS since THUMBS are (absolutely) not [Rating units for Siskel and Ebert]. The thumb is up, or the thumb is down, but the thumb is not a unit. There are always two. His thumb. And the other guy's thumb. They are either up or they are down, but the THUMBS are not countable, and thus are not "units." Stars are ratings "units." THUMBS are not. That is all. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. LOL at CUTIE (51D: ___ patootie). It's like the puzzle is confessing. "Yeah, you all were right yesterday, CUTEY is an absolutely ridiculous spelling, sorry about that."

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

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