1957 Jimmy Dorsey standard / FRI 2-1-19 / Game-changing invention / Cocktail with vodka triple sec lime juice / Where Delaware Minnesota have farmers / College from which Steve Jobs dropped out / Matthews NBA father-and-son duo / Big-box store with slogan Never stop improving

Constructor: Ori Brian

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (7-something but with an error because I spelled it KAMIKAZ*I*)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: WES Matthews (36D: ___ Matthews, either of an N.B.A. father-and-son DUAD I mean duo) —

Wesley Joel Matthews Jr. (born October 14, 1986) is an American professional basketballplayer for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Marquette Golden Eagles. He is the son of former NBA player Wes Matthews.

Hello and welcome to Februrary. This grid is pretty nice, but the cluing was nowhere near my wavelength and felt too cutesy and clumsy much of the time. Also, this is (or feels like it is) a Very name-heavy grid, which makes for a very jerky solve, as difficulty toggles jarringly between easy ("BLACK MIRROR") and hard ("SO RARE" (!?!?!) or CECE ... I watched that show for a couple of seasons and still didn't remember her name). I don't mind proper nouns or brand names, but sometimes I think constructors who want to show how hip or current or fresh their grids are tend to lean a little heavily on them. I can't tell if UP THE WAZOO is fresh or quaintly retro, but either way it was a nice surprise. POLICE RAID, much much less nice of a surprise. My biggest struggles came in the NW, which was horrible for me. Horrible. Started there, got nowhere, then finished there, and really thought I was going to get stuck stuck. The two "?"-clue Acrosses at HOUSE RULE and ARMS DEAL just about did me in, as did REED (I got in to REED and still forgot it existed) and especially DUAD, which, honestly, you should turn in your constructor's card for letting that "word" anywhere, *any*where near your grid. The word is DYAD. Man ... DUAD is the kind of answer that risks completely and totally overshadowing your other grid accomplishments, so high is its revulsion factor. Origin of all trouble in the NW was 1A: Dentist's instruction (BITE), where I had OPEN, and only briefly considered that it might be something else, but that "something else" in my mind was SPIT. OVERALL, this is a decent grid with not great clues, and I had medium-level fun (this is kind of a negative review for a Friday, since Fridays are usually The Best).


Five things:

• 16A: Common type of TV news broadcast (LIVE REMOTE) — I keep reading this as LIVER EMOTE, which is fitting since the answer crosses WEEPS (14D: Is overcome with joy, say)
• 24D: Twosome (DUAD) — did I mention how bad DU- ... oh, I did? OK. OK, good.
• 47A: Fishing need, maybe (PERMIT) — inexplicably hard for me. I had it down to -ERMIT and was still wondering whether maybe HERMIT (crab?) was some kind of bait (??)
• 48D: Drink that can cause brain freeze (ICEE) — pretty bold move following up one crossword drink (HI-C) with another crosswordese drink That Rhymes With The First Crosswordese Drink
• 9D: Recurrent theme (TROPE) — here's how bad I wanted MOTIF—I literally just wrote in MOTIF as the correct answer in this bullet point and had to correct it. I finally got traction in this puzzle by blunt force, entering the first thing I could think of for every Down in the NE. Buncha mistakes (including MOTIF), but thankfully ROADIE and ATKINS were right, and that was enough.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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