Nickname for former NBA star Darryl Dawkins / MON 2-11-19 / Amy Adams Emma Stone hairwise / French female friend / Road route for Marco Polo

Constructor: Howard Barkin

Relative difficulty: Easy (2:43, one second off my record, and on an *oversized* grid ... so that makes this a record by a looooongshot for a 16x15er)

THEME: NEAPOLITAN (56A: Kind of ice cream suggested by the starts of 21-, 27 and 47-Across) — themers start with VANILLA CHOCOLATE and STRAWBERRY:

Theme answers:

• "VANILLA SKY" (21A: 2001 Tom Cruise thriller)
• CHOCOLATE THUNDER (27A: Nickname for former N.B.A. star Darryl Dawkins)
• STRAWBERRY BLONDE (47A: Amy Adams or Emma Stone, hairwise)

Word of the Day: Darryl Dawkins (see 27-Across) —

Darryl Dawkins (January 11, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American professional basketball player, most noted for his days with the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career. His nickname, "Chocolate Thunder", was bestowed upon him by Stevie Wonder. He was known for his powerful dunks, which led to the NBA adopting breakaway rims due to his shattering the backboard on two occasions in 1979.

Dawkins averaged double figures in scoring nine times in his 14 years in the NBA, often ranking among the league leaders in field-goal percentage. He also played in the NBA Finalsthree times as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dawkins set an NBA record for fouls in a season (386 in 1983–84). (wikipedia)

Fast as heck, man. When I finished one second off my record, I was like "Ohhhh, so close." Then noticed that it was oversized! So it's not a record, but it's definitely a record for an oversized grid. Always feels good to start the week by crushing a Monday puzzle into the rightfield bleachers. The actual puzzle was kind of a blur, but it felt pretty smooth, and CHOCOLATE THUNDER is worth the price of admission all on its own. Imagine having a nickname bestowed upon you by Stevie Wonder! You can take the Hall of Fame, I'll take that Stevie nickname, thank you very much. I could carp about -IAL (a terribly unappealing suffix, which may be redundant, but even as suffixes go, ugh) and OWER (by far the worst of today's -ER cavalcade), it really doesn't seem worth it. Those are two tiny answers, miles apart, and the theme is so simple, so elegant, so neat, with such solid themers, that I'd rather focus on the craftsmanship. The more puzzles I do, the more impressed I am by anyone who can turn out a M-W (i.e. easying) themed puzzle that just Works. Early-week puzzles are tough to do well (I typically don't like them, because there are so many ways that they can go wrong). I think too many constructors put too much emphasis on tricksiness, and fall too much in love with their own cleverness. Aspirational constructors (usually men) tend to give the easy themed puzzle short shrift, or botch it when they have a go at it because they Try Too Hard (forced themers, too many themers, etc.). A clean and sparkly easy puzzle, with a theme that just Snaps into place, is much harder to make than, say, your average themeless puzzle. I tend to like the latter more because they're harder to screw up. But I admire the well-made easy themed puzzle more than I admire all but the best themelesses. Building one is a underappreciated skill.


Five things:

• 1A: Closes (SHUTS)— first instinct: NEARS ... not an auspicious beginning. Glad I turned things around.
• 43A: Ready to assemble, as a home (PREFAB)— why do I love this word? It makes no sense. It just looks good and feels good to say, I think. Sometimes our responses to things aren't entirely logical.
• 46D: Nickname (MONIKER)— as I was writing this in (off the "M"), I thought "uh ... 'K' ... does this really have a 'K'? ... man, that looks wrong." So I immediately checked the "K" cross and the AKITA went "woof," which I took to mean, "you're good to go."
• 48D: Pacific weather phenomenon (EL NINO) — I'll let Nate handle this one:

19A: TILDE

• 23D: Maneuver upon missing a GPS instruction (U-TURN)— I'd filled in U-UR- before ever looking at the clue and started typing UHURA before ever looking at the clue. Note to self and all: look at the clue first, type (or write) second.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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