Bygone brand of weight-loss pills / FRI 5-3-19 / Dessert traditionally served with an RC Cola in the South / Virtual community admin / Spicy Chinese dish with peanuts / CW sitcom/horror drama about medical examiner who eats brains

Constructor: Trenton Charlson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium (5:42)

THEME: none

Word of the Day:"I, ZOMBIE" (13D: CW sitcom/horror drama about a medical examiner who eats brains) —

iZombie (stylized as iZOMBiE) is an American television series developed by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright for The CW. It is a loose adaptation of the comic book series of the same name created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, and published by DC Comics under their Vertigo imprint. The series premiered on March 17, 2015.^[4][5]

On May 10, 2017, The CW renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on February 26, 2018.^[6][7] On May 11, 2018, The CW renewed the series for a fifth and final season, which premiered on May 2, 2019. (i.e. last night!?) (emph mine) (wikipedia)

This is a grid shape that isn't really capable of yielding great results, especially on a Friday. You can go *hard* with a grid shape like this, but you can't go very colorful. Everything ends up kinda gray. Middling. There are no long answers, which is part of the problem. When your grid is predominantly sevens ... well, that sounds OK, except when they all intersect, that means their quality is going to be heavily restricted. Basically, there's no marquee answer, no flashy stuff. The puzzle just sort of gets by. Today's is fine. Solidly built. There are some attempts at flair—RADIO DJ is nice (12D: Record holder), especially with that unusual terminal "J," and I guess TRUE DAT is supposed to be hip and current (15A: "You said it!"), though it's old hat in the NYT by now (third appearance). But any highs are offset by lows like ETTORE (7D: Automaker Bugatti who reportedly said "I make my cars to go, not to stop") (who is lobbying hard to be the next annoying crosswordese name) and the twin -AE plurals (one is more than enough, thanks). Things like DATA SET and ACCRUAL just don't really get the party started. The top half is decidedly better than the bottom half, but overall it's a bit blah. Passable, but blah.

I feel like I could describe most post-Tuesday solves with: "Struggled at first, but then [x y z] and things got much easier." That was certainly true today, where early on I was thinking this was gonna be on the tougher side for a Friday, but once I stopped trying to go down the west side of the grid and went back and looped around through the NE, resistance dropped considerably. AROSE to SIPPYCUP formed the walls that kept me stuck, but once I hopped SIPPY CUP and came down the east coast, things picked up. Probably solved latter 2/3 as fast or faster than the first 1/3 (which was largely the NW corner inside the AROSE/SIPPYCUP wall). Wanted MUD PIE for MOONPIE (a regional thing not from my region) (20A: Dessert traditionally served with an RC Cola in the South). Wanted some kind of -CAP before SIPPY CUP (8D: It might prevent a spill). Misread 27A: Some diving positions as "Some driving positions" and went looking for golf answers like RUFF (Var.?). Wanted SLOPE and SKI-something but couldn't get from 35A: Festival display to POMP. Other than that, my Thomas the Tank Engine knowledge is very rusty (my nephew hasn't been into Thomas for well over a decade), so PERCY needed every cross (52D: Friend of Thomas the Tank Engine). Luckily for me, those crosses were very easy to come by. Why would you do "bygone""weight-loss pills"? Send TRIMSPA back to the '70s or '80s or wherever it came from. Send NOES there too, while you're at it. YESES I can somehow handle, but NOES looks ridiculous.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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