Something ancient Egyptians used for keeping time / WED 10-7-20 / queen fabulous / Jackson Jr Straight Outta Compton star / 1995 gangster comedy with John Travolta Rene Russo

Constructor: Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Easy (3:23)

THEME:"LOOK MA, NO HANDS" (51A: Cry while doing a stunt ... or a hint to 2-, 7- and 12-Down) — answers are things you could describe as having "no hands" (with a different meaning of "hands" in each instance):

Theme answers:

• WATER CLOCK (2D: Something the ancient Egyptians used for keeping time)
• GHOST SHIP (7D: Vessel found drifting without a crew)
• TOUGH CROWD (12D: Audience unlikely to applaud)

Word of the Day: WATER CLOCK (2D) —

A water clock or clepsydra (Greek κλεψύδρα from κλέπτειν kleptein, 'to steal'; ὕδωρhydor, 'water') is any timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured.

Water clocks are one of the oldest time-measuring instruments. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon, Egypt, and Persia around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, claim that water clocks appeared in China as early as 4000 BC. (wikipedia)

Well Tuesday felt like Monday and today felt like Tuesday so the NYTXW appears to be on some kind of one-day difficulty lag this week, but I don't mind. It's confidence-building. Today's theme is nicely executed, but corny in a way I just don't like, as you probably could've guessed. This was a big dad-joke groan to me. No hands on two of these things, no hands ... offered by the other thing. OK. "Ma" doesn't really factor in, but she doesn't have to. She's just along for the ride. This puzzle's theme is basically an elaborate way of expressing the basic fact that "hand" can mean several different things—an unusual grid and unusual set of themers built on top of some pretty standard wordplay. This got more of an "I see what you did there" than a genuine amused response from me, but I did appreciate the grid structure—themers hanging vertically above an Across revealer is not something you see very often. The additional non-theme long answers hanging alongside the themers give the grid some color, and the fill is generally solid. The only cringey moment I had was at 9D: "___ queen!" ("Fabulous!") ("YAS!"), mostly because that phrase feels very wrong (in the sense of "culturally appropriative") coming from a puzzle made and edited overwhelmingly by straight white guys (the term comes from drag ball culture and "was likely first used by black trans women"). But the term is definitely (white, cis) mainstream now, so I guess it's fair game. I wouldn't put it in a puzzle, but I'm not outraged either. It's just a little nails + chalkboard for me.