Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: EHUD Olmert (9D: ___ Olmert, former Israeli P.M.) —
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This is a solid effort. SAKE BOMB, EXTRA MILE, and NIGHT OWLS were the high points for me. A couple of the longer answers wobbled, namely FLEW A KITE, which is a 8/10 on the "EAT A SANDWICH" scale of "arbitrary blank-a-blank" verb phrases (extra points for the past tense!), and YOU'VE GOT THIS!, which colloquially, in practice, seems far more likely to be said YOU GOT THIS! I see that both versions are in use, but the full, grammatically correct version of the phrase sounds stilted, like someone trying to use an expression not at all natural to them. In actual speech, in actual practice, that "VE" mostly disappears. Oh, the one other longer answer that I had a bad reaction to, the one that made me cringe and ugh the most, was "I'M HUMBLED," not because it's not a fully real, in-the-language, crossword-appropriate phrase (it is), but because the phrase is always so repulsively disingenuous (18A: Gracious words when accepting an honor). Getting a major award is not humbling. You are not humbled. Never believe someone standing in a tux or a gown holding a gold statue or any other award when they tell you "I'M HUMBLED." They're honored, but they are not humbled. In fact, if you say, about yourself, that you are humbled, it is almost certainly a lie. You are performing humility so that people will think you're not an egomaniac, but brother, in most cases, your fake, self-aggrandizing "I'M HUMBLED" makes you seem like a bigger egomaniac than you'll ever know. Real humility isn't on stage speaking into a mic with an award in its hand. You know what's humbling? Failure. The term "humblebrag" exists for a reason. You can be grateful, that might be a deeply sincere sentiment on the occasion of winning an award, a very good sentiment to express when being honored. But spare me the "I'M HUMBLED." End of Ted Talk.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: EHUD Olmert (9D: ___ Olmert, former Israeli P.M.) —
Ehud Olmert (/ˈoʊlmərt, -mɛərt/; Hebrew: אֶהוּד אוֹלְמֶרְט, IPA: [eˈhud ˈolmeʁt]; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006. Between his first and second stints as a cabinet member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. After serving as PM he was sentenced to serve a prison term over convictions for accepting bribes and for obstruction of justice during his terms as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade minister. (wikipedia)
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Only hangups today were in predictable places, namely secondary characters in shows / books / movies I care nothing about. I know "Grey's Anatomy" was hugely popular, but I don't know a single person who watched it, or at least no one who ever talked about it, or even mentioned it, so ... let's see, I know the kid who starred in "Can't Buy Me Love" grew up to star in the show (Patrick ... somebody ... maybe on the show he's known as "dreamy"? McDreamy? ... yes! Patrick Dempsey!), and I think Katherine HEIGL was on it, at some point, and I know SHONDA how-is-she-not-in-crosswords-more RHIMES created it, and I know it's a medical drama and it takes place in Seattle. After that, I'm out. LEXIE? (14A: Meredith's half sister on "Grey's Anatomy") Yeesh. I just waited around for a name-like entity to appear in those squares. My other name issue was ARWEN, which I kinda sorta remember from watching those Incredibly Dull and Ponderous LOTR movies back in the aughts. But honestly I wrote ROWEN in there at first. One TOLKIEN answer per puzzle is quite enough, folks.
I had BRASH before FRESH (1A: Sassy) (Still. More. Sass. 3-day streak), and MARE before SIRE (figured SIRE was too obvious, whoops) (4D: Part of an equine bloodline). Also "BELIEVE ME" before "BELIEVE IT" (second "IT" of the puzzle, which I normally wouldn't notice, but for some reason, probably because I stumbled on IT, I really noticed IT this time). COLAS before MALTS (12D: Fountain fare). ACRE before DIRT (52D: It covers a lot of ground). Very proud of the musical part of my brain today, as I got "HEY" after only a couple seconds cogitation (I actually had the "NA-NA NA-NA" part of the "Hey, Jude" refrain as an answer in a puzzle the other day, and I'm now realizing that I thought today's "HEY" was also from "Hey, Jude" but now that I sing it out to myself, it's from "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by a group that I'm just learning now is called "Steam." I think the "Na na hey hey" refrain is sometimes shouted at basketball games when someone on the opposing team gets ejected. I could be imagining that. But it feels right. So maybe my musical brain is slightly broken after all, but HEY (HEY), I got the answer right, and I *also* got NBC instantly from its musical clue (32A: Org. associated with the note series G-E-C), so two for two on the music memory front, I'll take it. On that note (!):