Stern competitor once / FRI 1-25-19 / Big name in cookware / Longtime Yankee teammate of Sandman / Where TV's Flo waitressed

Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (5:05)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ADP (43A: Payroll service co.) —

Automatic Data Processing, Inc., commonly known as ADP, is an American provider of human resources management software and services. As of 2010, ADP was one of four American companies to have a AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Moody's. (wikipedia)

Wow this one ran the gamut ... or my emotions ran the gamut, maybe that's the better way to put it. Dizzying highs, terrifying lows, creamy centers. There were a couple things, like TRUE-TO-SIZE and "ME AGAIN!," that seemed delightful. Interesting and different. But then the whole NE corner was pretty blah, what with STUPES (people say that?) over ATTA, crossing TETE-A-TETE (a 9-letter word I weirdly feel like I see a lot). Then there was stuff like RAN TRACK, which felt slightly "green paint"-ish (i.e. like a phrase someone might say, but not so great as a stand-alone answer), and MALAPROP, which really feels like its missing its -ISM. A [Language blooper] is a noun, and the noun is "malapropism." From Mrs. MALAPROP. Or so I thought. I got that one easily enough, it just felt weirdly incomplete.


Then there was the "what? ... oh ... oh yeah, that's pretty cool" feeling of letting the clue for SOCIETY kinda wash over me (39A: Upper crust). Then there was the harrowing near-trauma of not one but two total-guess crosses. NE- / -OREY had me guessing "C" solely because COREY was the only name I could make from -OREY (that, and COREY Pavin *kinda* rang a bell). And then there was EMM- / -DP. Even though I've seen ADP before, it's such a horrible boring bad corporate initialism that there's no way I'm ever going to remember it. And as for EMMA, I just *could not* figure out what the clue was on about: [31D: Top name in a Social Security Administration list every year from 2014 to 2017]. It was the "a SSA list" bit that confused me. I think of social security as something you collect. When you're older. I don't think of SSA as a keeper of *baby name* records. I mean, it makes sense. but the vague "a list" left me at sea. As with COREY, I guessed EMMA just because EMMA is a name. I thought maybe EMMY or even EMME (is that someone?) but in the end I just went with the odds (i.e. the most common name I could make). And, bingo! So I was pretty fast, and I guessed right twice. So the adrenaline rush of near-failure and the quick completion kind of offset my annoyance at having to guess in the first (and second) place. Whole thing felt uneven but not unsatisfying.


Five things:

• 23A: "Planet Money" producer (NPR)— wrote in CNN, ugh. Having NPR and IRA Glass in the same grid should be illegal based on too much on-brandness, NYT.
• 44A: Figures by a float (PARADERS) — even though my first thought was a *parade* float, PARADERS ... was not a word I considered, or would consider in ordinary conversation, I don't think. 
• 1D: Draft pick (STEIN) — you 'pick' the *container* ... of your 'draft'? This feels odd.
• 18A: Possible reply to "Who's responsible?" ("NOT I") — and then there's the possible reply to "NOT I," which is of course NORI.
• 50D: Lacking face value (NO PAR) — shoot all the --PAR answers into the sun. Well, both of them: NO and his brother AT. Also all weird bridge answers, while you're at it. Bye bye, ONENO! See ya, TENACE! Not sure why I'm going after bridge, since it didn't do anything to me. Not today, anyway.

Constructor count: Men: 22.5 / Women 2.5 (today's constructor accounts for two of those)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. I love baseball but that's an Awful lot of four-letter baseball names: MAYS and then *stacked* AROD / RYNE. Lots of people aren't so conversant in sports, so crowding a small area with names from the *same* sport seems a little mean

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