Put the kibosh on / MON 12-17-18 / Commandeers or a friendly hello to people / Something falling down in children's song

Constructor: Brian Thomas and Andrea Carla Michaels

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:05)


THEME: HI, JACKS! (39A: Commandeers .. or a friendly hello to the people starting 18-, 24-, 51- and 62-Across) — starts of all indicated answers are words that are also the last names of famous Jacks (real and fictional):

Theme answers:

• SPARROW HAWK (18A: Small bird of prey)
• LONDON BRIDGE (24A: Something falling down, in a children's song)
• RUBY SLIPPERS (51A: Dorothy's footwear in "The Wizard of Oz")
• BLACK FRIDAY (62A: What follows Thanksgiving)

Word of the Day: SCOTCH (33A: Put the kibosh on)—

verb

1. 1. 

   decisively put an end to.

   
   

   "a spokesman has scotched the rumors"

   
   

   synonyms:

   put an end to, put a stop to, nip in the bud, put the lid on

   • 
     
2. 2. 

   wedge (someone or something) somewhere.

   
   

   "he soon scotched himself against a wall"

noun

ARCHAIC

1. 1. 

   a wedge placed under a wheel or other rolling object to prevent its moving or slipping. (google)

This works fine, I think, though why I would want to say hi to any of these creeps, I don't know. Actually, maybe Jack Black is a nice guy, I don't know. But you can keep Jack Sparrow and Jack Ruby, and Jack London was a straight-up racist, so ... pass. The grid is a tad (or A BIT) crosswordesey, but it's mostly clean, and the re-parsing of HIJACKS is a solid enough wordplay gimmick for a Monday revealer. No real complaints here. I have more complaints about my own stupid brain, actually, as I have not been able to crack three minutes on a Monday for six weeks now. Before that, I'd never had more than two consecutive solves without dipping into the 2s, but man, I am in a rut. Four of the last six solving times are in the 3:01-3:09 range, so I'm close, I just ... keep missing. Today, I would've had it except for a spectacular face-plant right at the end. I made a very dumb mistake that I would never have made if I could just have come up with SPICE. [Pizazz] to me = ELAN or BRIO. SPICE is something I taste. Something I add to food. I'm not disputing the accuracy of the clue, just saying the association for me was weak. Had the SP- and couldn't think of a damn thing. This led directly to my epic stupid mistake, which was: having BLACK ---DAY in place and writing in BLACK SUNDAY (!?). In my defense, though admittedly it's not much of one, "BLACK SUNDAY" is definitely a thing. It's just not *this* thing. When I noticed I had only a few squares left, but SPN- at 52D: Pizazz, I knew I was screwed. Sure enough, after scrambling to clean up my mess: 3:05. Wah WAH.



Five things:

• 44D: "I'm up for doing the job!" ("SURE CAN!") — ugh, god save me from these "quote unquote" clues. I inevitably mess them up. The English prof in me is super annoyed that a fragment is being asked to stand in for a complete sentence. Bah!

• 36A: Actor Efron of "High School Musical" (ZAC) — middle of grid is super choppy, with lots of black squares and short answers, and we got a little Scrabble-f***ing here with the "Z" and the "J" from JUG. But it doesn't result in forced fill and let's all be grateful they didn't torture the grid in order to turn it into a pangram.
• 58D: Czech or Croat (SLAV) — look, no matter how many times you explain the difference to me, I'm going to confuse SLAV and SERB, I just am. See also, especially, the Baltic and the Balkans. If I think about it, sure. But under pressure? Botched.
• 33A: Put the kibosh on (SCOTCH) — this clue and answer would both like you to get off of their lawns.
• 47D: Like thumped watermelons making a deep sound (RIPE) — the phrasing on this clue is Ugly, and ugh spare me your loooooong and vague and somewhat folkloric clues. "Deep sound"? That is pretty imprecise. Also, "thump" *is* the sound. Don't Get Cute!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld (Twitter @rexparker / #NYTXW)

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