Office-sharing system in modern lingo / SAT 2-8-20 / Easy kill in Fortnite say / They get big bucks from Bucks

Constructor: Hemant Mehta

Relative difficulty: Medium (6:50)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: HOT-DESKING (3D: Office-sharing system, in modern lingo) —

Hot desking (sometimes called "non-reservation-based hoteling") is an office organization system which involves multiple workers using a single physical work station or surface during different time periods. The "desk" in the name refers to an office desk being shared by multiple office workers on different shifts as opposed to each staff member having their own personal desk. A primary motivation for hot desking is cost reduction through space savings—up to 30% in some cases. Hot desking is especially valuable in cities where real estate prices are high. Research has demonstrated that while there may be cost savings in office space hot desking has significant negative impacts on both productivity and staff morale. (wikipedia)

Enjoyed this one despite never having heard of HOT-DESKING, which turns out to be one of these horrid dehumanizing workplace efficiency capitalist bulls**t things that I wish didn't exist, but oh well. You gotta get your "modern lingo" from someplace, I guess. I couldn't even make sense of the clue on that one, honestly. I figured it was some app-related thing like Slack, where coworkers shared ... work things ... or maybe there was some other app or weird office system whereby you share gossip or trash the boss or whatever. I dunno. I do know that at one point I absolutely had HOT DESTINY written in there. By the way, if anyone develops an intra-office gossip app and tries to call it HOT DESTINY, me and my non-existent lawyers are coming for you. Who is Chris O'DOWD? (21D: "Bridesmaids" co-star Chris). Is he that guy I've seen in *lots* of things but I still somehow don't know what his name is? The Irish guy? Who's in the TV version of "Get Shorty?" Or in that one show ... the show ... I watched once ... damn it, what was that? (looks it up) "Family Tree!"? Yes! He was also in "The IT Crowd," which Netflix really really Really wants me to watch, but which I have never watched. Annnnnyway, yeah, I know his face very well. His name, apparently not so much. Thus, NW corner was a bit of a bear for me. NE wasn't much better until I used EDEN to get HOOD and SITE and SHARP and then REUP OIL UP (not so great, the UP/UP crossing) and FLOP and finally whooshed down the grid with SLIP OF THE TONGUE (7D: Possible insight for a psychologist). Things were much easier from there on out.


Stayed at the bottom and took care of the SW, then went up to the center and *dammit* why didn't I look at the long central Across clue earlier!?!?!? (35A: Musical alter ego of Donald Glover). Total Gimme!! Gah! If I'd somehow *started* there, who knows how much quicker I could've slayed this thing. CHILDISH GAMBINO, kapow! Then down into the SE where only RANDI (???!? ugh more modern biz-ness billionaire tech Facebook-adjacent stuff I don't care about, it's ****ing dystopic, I swear) slowed me down (44D: Businesswoman Zuckerberg, sister of Mark) (if she's legit famous, you do not need that "sister of Mark" bit). Finally finished up back in that little nook in the west, at the bottom of HOT-DESKING, where two little wrong answers, stacked (EENY over SAG instead of TINY (37A: Minute) over SOG (!?) (39A: Go soft, in a way)), had to be sorted out, and then I was done. Normal time.

[be sure to check out GRIM FANDAGO's new EP, "HOT DESTINY"]

Overall, there's very little junk in this one, and lots of fun to be had in the medium-range and longer answers, particularly WEIRDED OUT, DEPLORABLE (wink!), KNEEBOARDS, JOKE WRITER, STRIKES OUT, etc. ANDCO is a FLOP, IMHO, but very few other things made me wince (20A: End of some business names). Thorniest clue, for me, was actually 11D: Packed with plasticware, perhaps (TOGO). I imagined "Packed with" meant "Chock full of" and I couldn't imagine anything just crammed full of plasticware except maybe the upper drawer in my kitchen by the Brita. That seemed an unlikely crossword answer, though. OK, that's all, see you Sunday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. the Bucks are the NBA team from Milwaukee, in case the NBA AGENTS clue was inscrutable to you (34D: They get big bucks from big Bucks).

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