Greeting that might follow fist bump / FRI 5-31-19 / Group of close friends in modern slang / Sister company of Peugeot / Chemical group with formula -OH / Singer Sharp with 1962 hit Mashed Potato Time / Sort of pricing model with multiple tiers / Uncle main role on Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: No idea (solved on paper, in leisurely fashion; felt normal)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: FREEMIUM (17A: Sort of pricing model with multiple tiers) —

Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a product or service (typically a digital offering or an application such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but money (premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (offline) goods. The business model has been in use by the software industry since the 1980s as a licensing scheme. A subset of this model used by the video game industry is called free-to-play. (wikipedia)

This is a sold grid, but it's filled with things that just aren't that interesting to me. It's a super bro'y puzzle that looks and sounds like a dude who watches a lot of sports at his frat house and is totally gonna get a job on Wall Street as a financial ANALYST after graduation, FAM! Gotta get that lettuce (?), son! (see 57D). There's only one woman in all of the answers (and clues!) (DEEDEE), and she's obscure, and she's only there because she provides useful letters (18A: Singer Sharp with the 1962 hit "Mashed Potato Time"). I mean, there's one BROAD, but that hardly counts (see 44A). The cluing just felt off to me too, all over the place. "WHAT'S NEXT?" is a pretty weird thing for someone who is merely "anxious" to ask. That's someone in the middle of a catastrophe, or series of catastrophes. "I SEE" is a good fit for "Gotcha"—I SEE *IT* ... less so. Then there's M.A. DEGREE, which, first of all, doesn't signal the abbr. in the clue (boo), and second of all, is a redundancy. I mean, if you believe that M.A. doesn't need to be indicated by an abbr. signal in the clue because everyone knows what that is, then you also believe that every knows that what that is is a DEGREE, so why is DEGREE there? "I got my M.A." not (probably) "... my M.A. DEGREE." Bleh. Opening with guns at 1- and 9-Across (a metaphor, and then an actual murder) ... bang bang ... feels very This Puzzle (1A: Stick to one's guns / 9A: Mission for a Mafia member). I enjoyed seeing Uncle PHIL and the GOOD DOGGY. Didn't enjoy too much else. Again, this grid is well built. Just not at all for me.


Got SOFT G instantly (for once!) but (off that "T") thought 19A: ___ bar was TIKI ... my god was TEND a let-down. I'm fine being wrong, but then to have the right answer be that weak (as fill-in-the-blanks go), ugh. That was the only serious snag for me today. Definitely didn't know HYDROXYL, but was able to work through it without too much trouble (9D: Chemical group with the formula -OH). I forgot that TYMPANI was spelled with a "Y" so I freaked out briefly when I had TYM- to start that answer, but ... nope, that's how it's spelled, so all's well. BRO-HUG is pretty much the defining entry for this puzzle, in that it feels like the thing the puzzle is most proud of, and it's the very thing that makes me want out. Oh, wow, this article ("Get Over Here, Man: Decoding the Bro-Hug") (written by a woman!) totally gets me today: after rooting the BRO-HUG in the history of African-American resistance to white norms of social decorum, she goes on: "When you see twenty-something investment bankers using it to greet each other at a happy-hour spot, chances are they’re not using it to subvert an oppressive institution; more likely they’ve adopted the bro-hug for its social function."BRO-HUG to SAKE bomb to CFO—that's a career arc right there. 

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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