Mecca trekker / SAT 1-11-20 / Number six in group of five / Beverage option at early McDonald's restaurants / Acrobat's platform / Rationale for dumb stunt in modern slang / Eisenhower's boyhood home

Constructor: Andrew Ries

Relative difficulty: Medium (maybe? ... I did it slowly, on the clipboard, in the comfy chair)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: BEER LEAGUE (35A: Recreational sports association for adults) —

A Beer League (North American English) is a recreational league for adults to drink beer and compete in different sports. While the pub league (British English) is a form of sports league actually primarily funded by sponsorships from pubs, taverns and bars. The bars often provide funding for a team's uniforms and equipment, and often a free drink for each player, in exchange for advertising the establishment on the uniform and usually naming rights to the team itself. Beer leagues can be of virtually any sport but are usually amateur and recreational in nature, not being tied to a larger competitive league system, and contested by adults. The consumption of alcohol is often encouraged during the contest, as the actual competition is secondary. This is beneficial to the adults that compete in these beer league events because not only are they supporting a small business but are also getting physical activity, all while being social. For example, in Beer League Hockey, over 174,000 adults play. The primary goal of these leagues is to have "organized hockey in its purest form, unencumbered by money, skill, ambition, fans or advancement." (wikipedia) (did BEER LEAGUE write this???)

Dutchess, 2002-2019

HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS. It's early January and that means it's time for my annual pitch for financial contributions to the blog, during which I ask regular readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. It's kind of a melancholy January this year, what with the world in, let's say, turmoil. Also, on a personal note, 2019 was the year I lost Dutchess, who was officially The Best Dog, and who was with me well before I was "Rex Parker." Somehow the turning of the calendar to 2020 felt like ... I was leaving her behind. It's not a rational sentiment, but love's not rational, especially pet love. Speaking of love—I try hard to bring a passion and enthusiasm to our shared pastime every time I sit down to this here keyboard. I love what I do here, but it is a lot of work, put in at terrible hours—I'm either writing late at night, or very early in the morning, so that I can have the blog up and ready to go by the time your day starts (9am at the very latest, usually much earlier). I have no major expenses, just my time. Well, I do pay Annabel and Claire, respectively, to write for me once a month, but beyond that, it's just my time. This blog is a source of joy and genuine community to me (and I hope to you) but it is also work, and this is the time of year when I acknowledge that! All I want to do is write and make that writing available to everyone, for free, no restrictions. I have heard any number of suggestions over the years about how I might "monetize" (oof, that word) the blog, but honestly, the only one I want anything to do with is the one I already use—once a year, for one week, I just ask readers to contribute directly. And then I let 51 weeks go by before I bring up the subject again. No ads, no gimmicks. It's just me creating this thing and then people who enjoy the thing supporting the work that goes into creating the thing. It's simple. I like simple. Your support means a lot to me. Knowing that I have a loyal readership really is the gas in the tank, the thing that keeps me solving and writing and never missing a day for 13+ years. I will continue to post the solved grid every day, tell you my feelings about the puzzle every day, make you laugh or wince or furrow your brow or shout at your screen every day, bring you news from the Wider World of Crosswords (beyond the NYT) every day. The Word of the Day is: Quotidian. Occurring every day. Daily. Whether you choose to contribute or not, I'm all yours. Daily.

How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are two options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):

Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):

Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
All Paypal contributions will be gratefully acknowledged by email. All snail mail contributions will be gratefully acknowledged with hand-written postcards. I. Love. Snail Mail. I love seeing your gorgeous handwriting and then sending you my awful handwriting. It's all so wonderful. This year's cards are illustrations from the covers of classic Puffin Books—Penguin's children's book imprint.  Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, How to Play Cricket ... you know, the classics. There are a hundred different covers and they are truly gorgeous. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just say NO CARD.  As ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support.

Now on to the puzzle!
The grid is really nice, especially through the middle. I am almost never on Ries's wavelength, and often find his clues precious and irritating. Loved this grid, didn't enjoy solving it much. Was put off the puzzle early byTIN (5A: Food drive donation). In the U.S. we definitely donate cans. If you want me to donate to your food drive in Britain, just say so, and then I'll bring a TIN. This is the kind of irritating I'm talking about—trying to make every clue oh-so-cutesily slippery, and as a result, having answers that give you an "oh really?" or "ugh" feeling when you get them. YOLO is no longer "modern slang." People said YOLO for about six months in 2013, I think. This clue is puuuure NYT. "Hello, fellow youths!" And STENOG, what the actual *&%^? I got it pretty easily, actually, as I worked that NE corner from the inside out, and the STENO part was undeniable, and I knew it wasn't plural, so ... just as I've seen "photographer" horribly abbr'd to PHOTOG, so I inferred STENOG. Woof, that is hard to look at. I know several people were severely thrown by that "G"; perhaps you were one of them. "CAL-Mex" is annoying because a. what is that? (I grew up in Cal) and b. it's so *clearly* trying to get you to guess TEX so that later it can go "ha ha, fooled you." This is a 6-year-old's idea of a clue.


IN-APP PURCHASE is one of those answers that is very current and fresh (normally good), but ... adds zero life to a puzzle. Solving that one felt like getting email from a corporation's mailing list. Dry and lifeless and nothing I care about. No one is *literally* "covering" their SECRET RECIPES in a kitchen. Like you'd take your little notecard out and then hover over it all evening while you are cooking with people you somehow don't want to see it!?!? I get it, you wanted to be like "oh, covered ... maybe it's some kind of pot or pan or steam cooker ... or maybe it's something to do with aprons ..." I'm all for misdirection, but the actual answer better make Perfect sense when it emerges, or else boo!


I always feel bad when all my gimmes are crosswordese (or crossword-common stuff), but I guess that's why experience pays. Here's what I knew cold: MRE MIR AGARS EUR ADEPTS ELEGY DEMOTAPES and NENE (that cutesy clue, I liked!) (7D: Double birdie?). I was smart enough to know that I didn't know TEX-Mex but I wasn't smart enough to know that I *did* know ALECK (that is, I thought ALECK was doing the TEX thing, i.e. being the obvious answer that was obviously a trap) (that is, I wanted ALECK but held back because I thought "no way, too easy"). Mistakes, I made a few, and not too few to mention here they are: UNCLEAN for BESMEAR (3D: Dirty, in a way), which led to the *very* persuasive PANE at 33A: Place for a bead (PORE). Considered AREA MAP before ROADMAP (1D: It shows the way). CAN before TIN (obviously). BEET red before RUBY red. . . actually, I think that's all the actual mistakes I made. And I made them all early. Whoops, nope. I made a pretty big mistake with "GO AHEAD"at 40D: "Be my guest" ("GO FOR IT"). Might've put HUTU (?) instead of ZULU at 54D: Origin of some lyrics sung in "The Lion King"but I worked out EMILE ZOLA before that, so mistake avoided (52A: Nominee for the first two Nobel Prizes in Literature (1901-02)). Puzzle could use more feminine energy. There's just poor ALICE down there, all ... still (48D: "Still ___" (2014 drama that earned a Best Actress Oscar)). RUBY could've been a woman, but instead it's a color. Well, at least it wasn't cross-referenced with RIDGE. We can all be grateful for that.


Notes:

• 44A: Acrobat's platform (ADOBE)— ADOBE makes Acrobat, the software you use to read PDFs. So, yeah, not the kind of acrobat you were maybe thinking of.
• 26D: Top of a chain, maybe (RIDGE) — so ... a mountain chain.
• 4D: Rationale for a dumb stunt, in modern slang (YOLO) — stands for "you only live once," in case you didn't know; feel free to go back to not knowing, as you aren't likely to hear it in the wild any more, I don't think.
• 23A: Number six in a group of five (E.S.P.) — you have five senses, and so ESP here is a sixth sense, but it's also not real, so not part of any actual group, so I do not like this ESP-legitimizing clue at all.
• 437D: Finger food at a pastry shop? (BEAR CLAW) — a BEAR CLAW is a pastry shaped like, well, a bear's claw, so I guess the "?" joke here is that when you eat it you are eating ... the bear's fingers? ... do bears have fingers?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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