Moroccan resort city on the Atlantic / SAT 7-17-21 / Boxer whose full name is made up of only three different letters / Endangered wetlands reptile of the northeastern U.S. / Ones exploited in a capitalist system per Marx / High-flying picnic game

Constructor: Ryan McCarty

Relative difficulty: Medium (Easy for me except the center (Medium) and the NE (yikes))

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: "CRAIG'S Wife" (20D: "___ Wife," Pulitzer Prize-winning George Kelly play) —

Craig's Wife is a 1925 play written by American playwright George Kelly, uncle of actress and later Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and has been adapted for three feature films. // There have been at least three movies based on the play. The 1928 silent version was directed by William C. deMille, Cecil's brother, and starred Irene Rich in the title role. In 1936, Columbia Pictures made a film adaptation [directed by Dorothy Arzner!!] with Rosalind Russell as Harriet Craig. The 1950 film Harriet Craig, featuring Joan Crawford, was also based on the play. (wikipedia) // George Edward Kelly (January 16, 1887 – June 18, 1974) was an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He began his career in vaudeville as an actor and sketch writer. He became best known for his satiric comedies, including The Torch-Bearers (1922) and The Show-Off (1924). [...] Throughout his career, Kelly remained a realistic playwright, unaffected by the experiments of theatrical modernism. Novelist Edward Maisel described him as "a simple moralist using the theatre for simple moral purposes." Kelly's plays are often dominated by characters of monstrous egotism, and he casts a harsh light on their shortcomings. Uncompromising in his vision, he scrupulously avoided sentimentality and depictions of romance. Arthur Willis noted "Kelly appears to be anti-love, anti-romantic love, certainly, and distrustful of the tender emotions." [...] George Kelly, a "life-long bachelor," maintained a 55-year relationship with his lover William Eldon Weagley (27 November 1896 - 16 October 1975), the son of John Adams Weagley and Ella Frances Weagley, up until his death. Weagley was often referred to as his valet. That Kelly was gay was a closely guarded secret and went unacknowledged by his family to the point of not inviting Weagley to his funeral; he instead slipped in and sat quietly on a back seat. (wikipedia) (my emphasis)

Started so fast it made me suspicious. What day is this? Saturday? This is too easy ... surely some fresh horrors await me around the corner (true, more on this in a bit). That NW corner was like dry brush and I was the match, whoosh, goodbye. TYLER URIS SIA, one two three, and every Across from there. The one oh-so-brief pause came when I looked at SPATU--, wrote in SPATULA without even looking at the clue ("what else could it be!?"), then got BOW (22A: Pull (out)), which gave me SPATUB-, and then I looked at the clue (1D: Whirlpools) and, sincerely, for several seconds, I thought maybe the answer was SPATUBI ("a Latin plural?"). I don't think SPA TUBS is a term I've ever heard. There are spas and there are tubs ... and there are tubs at spas ... are SPA TUBS what we call "jacuzzis"? Or "hot tubs"? I guess SPA TUBS is vaguely familiar, but clearly it rang no bells today. Anyway, no matter, still came shooting out of that NW corner and then ... pfft. None of the central Acrosses clicked. The EMOJI part was easy enough, but what came after, shrug, and I could sort of see SLICE, I guess, but that didn't help much.The WA- on the Marx answer meant zero to me, CRAIG'S was likewise unknown, and the Down crosses all got too big from there, so I was just stuck. This is not the first time "stuck" would happen: