French politico Marine Le / THU 4-4-19 / Cognac age indicator / Feature of cajun country / Iconic introduction in cinema

Constructor: Lewis Rothlein

Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, morning clipboard solve)

my actual annotated puzzle, shown in its natural clipboard habitat

THEME: BACK TO SQUARE ONE (58A: Where you go for a fresh start ... or a hint for four answers in this puzzle) — first square of every themer is a rebus square containing the word that both begins and ends the themer phrase; thus, every answer puts a word inside "square one" and then (implicitly) circles "back to" that same square at the end:

Theme answers:

• [YOU] CAN'T TAKE IT WITH (16A: Saying suggesting that worldly possessions should be enjoyed)
• "[BOND], JAMES" (25A: Iconic introduction in cinema)
• ["DO] AS I SAY, NOT AS I" (36A: Instructor's remark after making a mistake)
• ["NO] MEANS" (48A: Insistent refusal)

Word of the Day: TWYLA Tharp (29D: First name in dance) —

Twyla Tharp (/ˈtwaɪlə θɑːrp/; born July 1, 1941) is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966, she formed her own company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.

From 1971 to 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance toured extensively around the world, performing original works. In 1973, Tharp choreographed Deuce Coupe to the music of The Beach Boys for the Joffrey Ballet.  Deuce Coupe is considered to be the first crossover ballet. Later she choreographed Push Comes to Shove (1976), which featured Mikhail Baryshnikov and is now thought to be the best example of the crossover ballet.

In 1988, Twyla Tharp Dance merged with American Ballet Theatre, since which time ABT has held the world premieres of 16 of Tharp's works. [...] 

Tharp attended Pomona College in California but later transferred to Barnard College in New York City, where she graduated with a degree in art history in 1963. (wikipedia)

I'm going to start by saying I like this puzzle. The idea is clever and the execution neat. Got the first themer and wasn't really sure what I was dealing with. Got stuck on what turned out to be the second themer (25A: Iconic introduction in cinema), having no idea how "[blank] JAMES" could mean anything, or what could possibly go in that square, since the cross ("BAIL [blank]") seemed to be correct without the blank (I mean, BAIL is in fact [One way to get out of jail]). But eventually I had the "ohhhhhhh James BOND" moment, and then the central themer was easy and then I forgot there would be a fourth themer in that SW corner, so minor hangup there, but not really. Overall, the theme was not too troubling, difficulty-wise, and the solving experience was mostly delightful. Mostly.


OK so now that that overall evaluation is out of the way, let's talk about the own goal, the shooting self in foot, the colossal unfathomable embarrassing bad decision to clue PEN as 42D: French politico Marine Le ___. Actually, I'm not sure "bad" or even "negligent" quite captures the nature of this clue. At this point, the deliberate inclusion of a nationalist eurosceptic anti-immigration white politician who has waged an alarmingly successful ("de-demonization"!) campaign to clean up the image of her father's anti-semitic white supremacist party ... the deliberate inclusion of her name part (name part!) over the infinite other clues one might have come up with for the ordinary English word PEN ... it's unfathomable except as a strategy of trolling, an alarmingly amoral tone deafness, or an expression of fandom. Did none of the young puzzbros in the editor's employ flag this? Say "hey ... maybe not ... this?" I mean, as my friend Finn points out, PEN's counterpart PENCIL is right there in the grid, just waiting for a cross-reference. And PENcrossesCAGE. Surely you could've done something cute and puzzly with that. Some kind of same-clue thing ... or something. Literally anything.


This is so much more troubling than if the answer were somehow LEPEN, in which case ... I mean, constructors, please don't put this name in your grids, but if you do, well there's really no other way to clue it. But PEN? Yeah, you can go other ways with PEN. Putting that anti-Muslim French lady in here is just disgusting. Adds to the tenacious "conservative""older""for white folks only" vibe that the crossword too often gives off and has been struggling, especially of late, however awkwardly, to shake. Brutally stupid and shameful.


OK, back to the rest of the puzzle:

Bullets:

• 9D: The way (HOW)— The answer I had here at first rhymes with HOW ... 
• 32A: What one gets after many years of work (OLD)— ??????? One gets this after many years of anything
• 40A: Like a sleeper cell? (ON SILENT)— Very nice. Thumbs up. Appreciative clapping.
• 53A: Part of some Hebrew men's names (BEN) — wanted BIN here but that is Arabic. Good thing I knew the crosswordesey golfer (O'MEARA). This corner was a little tough to get into because, as I said earlier, I forgot a themer was in here, and also SOFA had a tricky clue (37D: Sleeper that never dreams) and I am not confident about my German words (43A: Head: Ger. = KOPF). 
• 13A: ___ Duncan, Obama education secretary (ARNE) — speaking of crosswordesey names, we got a bunch of them today: ARNE CATE GIA and O'MEARA are frequent repeaters. Learn 'em and love 'em. Or at least learn 'em.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. woke up to find roughly half of the #NYTXW response to this puzzle on Twitter was about that stupid PEN clue. Which was predictable. Which is what makes me think the provocation is quite intentional.




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