Tupper of Tupperware fame / FRI 12-8-17 / Orange soda loving character of 1990s Nickelodeon / Queen hit with lyric so don't become some background noise / Alexander pioneer early head of New York's subway system

Constructor: Paolo Pasco

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (for others, probably—harder for me)

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: DERNIER CRI (18A: Latest thing) —

noun

noun: dernier cri

the very latest fashion. (google)

Man, this has been a rough week for me. The kind of week that makes me start worrying about my age. My times have been terrible, which wouldn't be so bad (we all have bad weeks) except the kid who posts his times on Twitter every night has set personal best time after personal best time. Even looking back over this completed grid, I have no idea how I could've come close to a personal best time. I mean, it wasn't a disaster (ca. 7 min.), but it was 2x personal best, and more like a Medium Saturday for me. And I have historically done very, very well on Paolo's puzzles. This has always pleased me, as he is young enough to be my son (he is, in fact, the same age as my daughter). So for a while there I could fancy that my "wavelength" was that of a high school senior. Apparently no more. Although ... it wasn't the "youthful" stuff that got me. In fact, there's not a lot that's especially TEEN about this puzzle. Maybe KEL, but honestly, original "Kenan & Kel" watchers are like 30 now. No, the stuff that got me was, like, ORR (?) and DAE (??) and then the clues, dear lord. I could've stared at 1D: 15, 30 and 50 are common ones and never ever come up with SPFS. I had SPI_E and still zero idea what 9D: What may be on the horizon? wanted (SPIRE). EARL Tupper?! Jeez louise, no (21A: Tupper of Tupperware fame). NANANA and not LALALA (8D: Refrain syllables). I'M IN LOVE and not I LOVE YOU (30A: Comment from the smitten). I won't even bore you with how many different answer went into the grid ahead of POPO (15A: Law force, slangily). DOZE and then WINK before WANE (24A: Start to go out), WAKE before WAVE (24D: Aspect of hydrodynamics), and on, and on, and on. How in the world does 17: Truth we hold to be self-evident? (FACT) work? That is, how is [Truth] not enough there? How does "self-evident" come in? I get that you're evoking "...we hold these truths to be self-evident..." but ... why? I was looking for "self"-related stuff. Grr.


But the grid is, its longer parts, fantastic. So much fresh fill. Long answers cascading into each other all over the place. I think the grid was Inside Puzzledom in a way that I am not. I have less than zero interest in ESCAPE ROOMs. I don't think I even know what a PUZZLE BOX looks like. I got those answers without too much trouble, but those answers seemed to be winking at people who weren't me. The bottom half of the grid was much easier for me, with only DAE / THEELEMENTS giving me significant trouble. NEKO, gimme (53A: Indie singer ___ Case), SUBTWEET, for Sure a gimme :) (34D: Social media post that refers to another user without directly mentioning that person) ... but that whole area N and NE of BATCAVE, yikes. Disaster. Didn't love the clues on this one, but I can't fault the grid. It's lovely.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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