Scanned smartphone graphics / SAT 9-15-18 / Early major-league game setting / Literary character likened to mute maned sea-lion / Fricassee relative / Cousins of garters

Constructor: David Liben-Nowell 

Relative difficulty: Easy, leaning Easy-Medium (6:14)

THEME: none

Word of the Day:"onboarding" (46A: Those needing onboarding => HIREES) —

noun

1. the action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing a new customer or client with one's products or services.

   
   

   "after the initial onboarding is complete, continue to offer new hires relevant training and development opportunities"(google)

This is a solid grid, though it had a weirdly football-techbro-bizspeak vibe that I did not entirely groove on. Three (!) college football (-related) answers? (OHIO STATE, SCH. AGGIE). SELF-DRIVING CARS and QR CODES, the CEO and his HIREES ... these aren't bad things (well, not bad, crossword-wise), they just aren't things I'm particularly interested in. I do think QRCODES is a pretty great-looking answer, and SAME-SEX MARRIAGE is nice (though not as bold now as it would've been, say, a decade ago) (sidenote: it was the revealer of a Wednesday puzzle back in 2012).   I think my favorite thing in this grid is PIPSQUEAK (39A: Squirt). I just like the way the word sounds and looks, and I like that both the clue and answer have a "Q" in them. The puzzle feels very current, with ERIK Spoelstra instead of Satie, POE Dameron instead of Edgar Allan, and a nice "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018) clue for Michelle YEOH (28A: Actress Michelle of "Crazy Rich Asians"). I'm more of a Satie and Edgar Allan man, myself, but I appreciate the whole living-in-the-present thing. Not so much a fan of ININK, OFFIT, SCH (one of my most hated abbrs.) and COSA, which was the first clue I looked at, and the main reason (I think) that I didn't have a much faster time (1D: Thing: Sp.). Didn't know it, and so the NW was a mess for a bit. Didn't help that I had REY where POE was supposed to go. I also got hung up at 13D: Senate coverage? because I had --G- and I thought the answer was ... [drum roll] ... PAGE. I feel like I could defend my answer in a crossword court of law, but I can accept that TOGA is apter.


Since when are [Howls at night] OMENS? I think you could've used something like "full moon" instead of a wolf howl if you absolutely positively *had* to link successive Down clues there. I don't really like when a month is referred to as a "setting," e.g. 33A: Early major-league game setting (APRIL). I was like "Where did they used to play baseball in the olden days?" Symmetrically replicated my initial trouble in the NW at the very end, in the SE, where none of the short answers in that far corner were making any sense. Totally forgot EWR was the Newark airport code. Looked like  initials of British royalty to me. Edward William ... maybe Randolph or something, I don't know. [Purchase] for GRIP is apt but brutal, and the deception continued right next door with 55D: Cousins of garters for ASPS. So garter *snakes*. "D'oh"! I'M A FOOL! But the far NW and far SE were really the only problem spots for me. Only place I've got serious ink on this printed-out, annotated grid in front of me. Oof, I just saw TAE, which is at least as bad as SCH. ISMS is rough too. But great clue on MEOW (49D: "Got milk?"). Did you know Edison invented TAE Bo? Well, he didn't, but that would've been cool. OK, goodnight.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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