Violinist Leopold / Taradiddle / THU 3-4-21 / Retired pugilist Ali / Origin of water clock technology / Birds with S-shaped necks / Divisions of a krone

Constructor: Blake Slonecker

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: NBA / JAM (38A: With 39-Across, classic sports video game ... or a hint to four squares in this puzzle) — "NBA" is "JAM"med into four squares in this puzzle:

Theme answers:

• NEWBORN BABIES / FANBASE (18A: They're swaddled and coddled / 9D: Beliebers or the Beyhive, for instance)
• BEANBAG CHAIRS / WIN BACK (3D: Seats that sink / 20A: Regain, as affection)
• SUSAN B. ANTHONY / PINBALL (58A: Co-founder of the women's rights newspaper The Revolution / 53D: Bumper-to-bumper activity?)
• CANADIAN BACON / GUN BANS (26D: Eggs Benedict component / 57A: Some measures championed by the March for Our Lives movement)

Word of the Day: Leopold AUER (40D: Violinist Leopold) —

Leopold von Auer (Hungarian: Auer Lipót; June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor and composer, best known as an outstanding violin teacher. [...] Auer is remembered as one of the most important pedagogues of the violin, and was one of the most sought-after teachers for gifted students. "Auer's position in the history of violin playing is based on his teaching." Many notable virtuoso violinists were among his students, including Mischa Elman, Konstanty Gorski, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Toscha Seidel, Efrem Zimbalist, Georges Boulanger, Benno Rabinof, Kathleen Parlow, Julia Klumpke, Thelma Given, Sylvia Lent, Kemp Stillings, and Oscar Shumsky. Among these were "some of the greatest violinists" of the twentieth century. (wikipedia)

Well, for a puzzle that began with the clue [Taradiddle] (i.e. with cloying quaintness), this one turned out OK. The theme was really, really simple—simple conceptually, simple to uncover—but somehow it was still fun discovering all the "NBA"-containing answers, which were By Far the most interesting things in the grid. Figuring out it was a rebus went something like this. A. realize that it is Thursday, which is the most likely rebus day of the week; B. Get to [Regain, as affection], realize it has to be WIN-something, but there aren't enough spaces for any answer to make sense; C. get the "K" from DANKE (4D: Counterpart of "Bitte"), realize the cross *has* to be WIN BACK; D. see that "NBA" (a meaningful entity) can fit in one square; E. make it fit. That's probably a few letters too many, it all happened so fast, but hopefully you can see how the rebus came into view. By far the most important solving step in that progression is A: if you don't know to look for rebuses, don't at least have them on your radar, then a puzzle like this can, of course, destroy you. But if you were aware of the possibility, then this one was very easy to see. I hit the revealer shortly thereafter, which told me that "NBA" would be the only letter sequence I'd be looking for (before that I thought I might have to hunt down the initials of all four major U.S. sports leagues). I knew what NBA JAM was, which was undoubtedly a huge advantage in solving this thing quickly. Very easy to discover, and repetitive in its expression (NBANBANBAetc.), and yet, as I say, those "NBA" answers are all pretty delightful. While I like BEANBAG CHAIRS as an answer, points off for not breaking "NBA" across the two words in the answer (as all the other longer theme answers do—actually, SUSAN B. ANTHONY breaks across *three* elements). But eight pleasing theme answers, no clunkers, that's not bad.