Savings bank informally / THU 9-17-20 / Superfan of certain 2010s pop star / Food item whose name is derived from comic strip / Gluten-free noodle variety / Thoughtless sender of emails

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium (6:07) (felt easier, but it's Very early in the morning, so I must be running slow)

THEME: AND (39A: + ... with a hint to four pairs of answers in this puzzle) — the black-square formations that look like "+" stand for the letter string "AND" in the answers that run directly into and out of them. So:

Theme answers:

• THE GRAND OLE OPRY (6D: Major Nashville landmark)
• GOLDEN HANDCUFFS (9D: Financial incentive for an executive to stay at a company)
• SHENANDOAH RIVER (34A: Tributary of the Potomac)
• DAGWOOD SANDWICH (41A: Food item whose name is derived from a comic strip)

Word of the Day: APOLLO XI (15A: About 600 million viewers watched its pilot in 1969) —

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours and 39 minutes later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit. (wikipedia)

Quick write-up today. The theme concept was MEH (easy to ferret out, repetitive) but the actual theme answers are all really colorful and interesting, so the monotony of all the AND AND AND business was made up in large part by the AND answers themselves. This looks like an architectural feat—finding words with "AND" strings that line up at just the write places to make the little "+" signs, but honestly there's probably some pretty easy computer hack that lets you search all the 15s in some database and for answers with "AND" strings, and then you can just pick and choose from there. Still, the concept is cute, even if the "black squares-represent-letters" thing isn't particularly original. So I'm more warm than cold on the overall theme. The fill was just middling. Felt weirdly dated. Like, I'm 50 and have never heard THRIFT used this way (1A: Savings bank, informally). I was born the year of APOLLO XI, which I think is normally written with Arabic numerals, not Roman. There are no BELIEBERs any more. They all restocked their CD STANDs long ago, and then threw out their CD STANDs because they either stream their music or have gotten really into vinyl. Only someone Dagwood's age says "YESSIREE" unironically. Or HOORAH instead of "hooray!" Etc. But there's nothing particularly groan-y about the fill. Except BRAHS, wow, no (33D: Guy friends, in slang). That is not a plural noun. At best (very best), "brah" is something you'd use as a form of "bro" when speaking to some guy. But even that is usually "bruh." Your guy friends are not your BRAHS, and if they are, what are you even doing? Get help.