"Voila!" / FRI 6-29-18 / They provide quarters for dollars / "This is killing me!" / Luxury bathroom features / Middle of a dash?

Constructor: David Steinberg

Relative difficulty: Standard Friday for me (11:13)


THEME: None

Word of the Day: SCIPIO (38A: Hannibal's foe in the Second Punic War) —

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (/ˈskɪpioʊ/; 236–183 BC), also known as Scipio the African, Scipio Africanus-Major, Scipio Africanus the Elder and Scipio the Great,[3] was a Roman general and later consul who is often regarded as one of the greatest generals and military strategists of all time. His main achievements were during the Second Punic War where he is best known for defeating Hannibal at the final battle at Zama in 202 BC, one of the feats that earned him the agnomen Africanus. Prior to this battle (near modern Zama, Tunisia) Scipio also conquered Carthage's holdings in the Iberian peninsula, culminating in the Battle of Ilipa (near Alcalá del Río, Spain) in 206 BC against Hannibal's brother Mago Barca. 

Although considered a hero by the general Roman populace, primarily for his contributions in the struggle against the Carthaginians, Scipio was reviled by other patricians of his day. In his later years, he was tried for bribery and treason, unfounded charges that were only meant to discredit him before the public. Disillusioned by the ingratitude of his peers, Scipio left Rome and withdrew from public life. (Wikipedia)

Happy Friday, everyone!  We've made it to the end of the week (and oof, what a week. *waves hand in the general direction of the news*).  I'm Ben Smith, your Substitute Rex for this final Friday of June.  You might know me from covering the AV Club or BEQ Thursday puzzles for Diary of a Crossword Fiend, or, if you're part of Crossword Twitter, I'm the person who runs Did The Tuesday NYT Crossword TUEZ.  When I'm not passing judgement on grids, I also co-host a podcast about the Eurovision Song Contest aimed at Americans, if you're into that sort of thing.  Anyways, enough about me, let's talk about today's puzzle from David Steinberg.

As far as BYLINES go, David and I are both within the "millennial" age range (though I'm on the old end of that), which meant that this week's Friday puzzle felt very much on my wavelength.  I'm not the biggest fan of sets of triple-(or especially quadruple-)stacks in a grid, since the wow factor of the long fill stacking neatly often means some less-than great stuff will be going on in the down clues to support it.  This appears to mostly get around that - BADA BING BADA BOOM, IMAGINARY FRIENDS, and DUKE OF WELLINGTON link nicely with only NAWLINS getting a little bit of a stink eye from me along the top, and TALENT MANAGEMENT, CHRISTIANO RONALDO (nicely timed for the World Cup), and MASTER CONTROLLER work nicely on the bottom with only OENO being SO-SO fill.


"AIN'T It Fun" is a great Paramore song that won the 2014 Grammy for Best Rock Song.  Their latest album, After Laughter, was one of my favorites last year and is also worth your time. 

2014 seemed to be a mini-theme in the puzzle, with the NAE NAE dance craze also popping up.  This whole solve was pretty on track for me - the lower right corner took me the longest, since the double A in AARGH looked like a mistake for a long time, especially since I couldn't decide if the grid's desired coffee size was a GRANDE or the heftier TRENTA.  This puzzle made me want to walk to my local 7-Eleven for SLURPEES, so excellent product promotion, NYT.  It also reminded me that the CAPYBARA (39D: Cousin of a guinea pig) is one of nature's chillest animals, as seen here:


I leave you with that image as we head into the weekend.  I liked this one!  I hope you did too.

Yours, Ben Smith, Chancellor of the Exchequer of CrossWorld

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