Swing wildly back and forth / TUES 3-31-20 / Tiki bar cocktail / Some future Girl Scouts / Earned in the end

Hi, everyone! It's Clare for the last Tuesday — and also the last day — of March. What a very, very long year this last month has been. I hope everyone and their friends and family are staying safe and also sane while staying at home. I've been cooped up in my apartment for a while now, as my law school class were moved online. I've been stress baking, reading more, having Zoom birthday parties with my extended family, getting obsessed with BTS (they're seriously the best), etc... Plus, lots of time in lockdown means even more time to do crossword puzzles!

Constructors: Christina Iverson and Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty:Pretty easy
THEME: CLAP BACK (63A: Respond quickly and sharply to criticism ... or a hint to 17-, 28- and 46-Across)— The word CLAP can be added to the BACK of each of the theme answers to be a type of clap

Theme answers:

• DISC GOLF (17A: Frisbee sport)
• ROLLING THUNDER (28A: Name of a celebrated 1970s concert tour with Bob Dylan)
• LETS TAKE IT SLOW (46A: "We shouldn't rush this")

Word of the Day:MENSCH (8D: Good-hearted sort)—

Mensch means "a person of integrity and honor." According to Leo Rosten, the Yiddish maven and author of The Joys of Yiddish, a "mensch" is "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being 'a real mensch' is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous." The term is used as a high compliment, implying the rarity and value of that individual's qualities. (Wiki)

I wanted to give the puzzle a hearty clap, but instead it gets more of a golf clap from me. The general approach to the theme of the puzzle seems standard — add a word to the back end of the theme answers — but the revealer didn't really work for me. When I saw it, I expected the work CLAP to appear backward in the theme answers or something like that. And, it would be much more natural to say that CLAP should appear at the end of the word rather than at the BACK of the word, right? It seems significant that one of the constructors noted on Twitter:
Not sure what to make of that — but I do love the clapping emojis! One other nit about the theme: From what I can tell, that Bob Dylan tour was actually called "Rolling Thunder Revue," so...

My biggest complaint was that northeast corner. Having NETTED and EXITED on top of each other and crossing DEEP and ODDS gave me a headache. How many T's, D's, and E's can you fit in 18 letters? (11, if you must know. Yes, I counted.)

The best part of the puzzle for me was the long downs. The construction of the puzzle really seemed geared around those words — BROWNIES; KITTEN HEEL; HATE MAIL; INTIMATE;ONLOOKER; AND LEAP SECOND. I found INTIMATE to be the least interesting, and KITTEN HEEL did give me some pause because I think all of my heels are at *least* three inches high. I think because of the construction, we did get a lot of small fill words (RIO; UNO; IRA; AIL; ADDS; ODDS; etc...). But overall, I liked what the long downs added to the puzzle.

We also got a mini theme of drinks in the southeast corner with MAITAI, ICEE, and SODA. We've also got a small Mexican theme in the southwest corner with GUAC and the Mexican flag. Now I'm craving a margarita — seeing that we're in quarantine rules where, as with airport, anything goes (at any time).

Misc.:

• I still can't believe that ABBA got their start on Eurovision. Here was their winning performance:  
• EGOS (45A: Problems that a group project might face) — More often than not in group projects, I feel like it's more that one or two people take charge while the others are content to just let it happen. At least, that's how every group project I've ever been a part of has gone.
• The best clue/answer for me was 41A: Means justifiers, perhaps, as ENDS.
• I got confused in the southwest corner with 65A: Like the middle band of the flag of México. I had "blanco" instead of BLANCA, and it took me a while to catch that hiccup.
• My Cal-grad sister texted me to tell me she literally grimaced when she was forced to type UCLA into the puzzle. She wants me to tell you that UCLA is merely the No. 2 public school in the country. Can you guess what No. 1 is? GO, BEARS!!
• It blew my mind when someone pointed out to me that "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the "ABCs" are to the same tune. Wild.
• One of the constructors is named ROSS.... and that's the Friends character who made it in. Coincidence? Well, if I ever construct a puzzle, watch out for "County Clare."

Signed, Clare Carroll, social distancer extraordinaire

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