Constructor: David Distenfeld
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (names names names)
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THEME: Mr. and Mrs. ...— actually there's no theme, but those two answers were certainly a thing
Word of the Day: ECOTAGE (26A: Tactic of radical environmentalism) —
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Oh, ECOTAGE, like "sabotage" ... since it's a word I've never seen outside of crosswords (and then only once or twice) I had no idea how to say it or what the -TAGE part was supposed to mean. I figured maybe it was some kind of artwork, like collage or découpage. It's really a godawful, crosswords-only word, and a big part of what made this one less than thrilling to solve. This grid has just one real marquis answer—ESSENTIAL WORKER—and that one had such an "aren't-I-clever?" / "gotcha" trick clue that the charm of the answer's originality was ruined for me (35A: Needed help). So ... the "Needed" is adjectival. :( Big groan rather than joyful 'aha.' I had "ESSENTIAL ... R" and absolutely no concept of what that answer could be. I also had ECOCIDE where ECOTAGE was supposed to be (ECOCIDE, also an awful, only-seen-it-in-crosswords word, but I've definitely seen it more often, and anyway I could at least infer what -CIDE meant, unlike, -TAGE). And then WARTS NOBONES and TARDY were all complete blanks to me, as was REYES, despite the fact that I am literally (very literally) going to be there in under two weeks. Throw in the fact that the long Downs that run through that WORKER section are at least partly inscrutable if you work them from the bottom up ("let's see, sommmmme kind of FIRE .... "sommmmething LATER" ... great ..."), and yeah, huge mess. ECOTAGE really ... ECOTAGEd things up there. Then there was the fact that the puzzle was so painfully desperate to seem contemporary and hip that it just flooded the zone with pop culture names of one kind or another. No one of them is objectionable, but that NE corner, yeesh: actress, "role,""protagonist," made-up word for a type of TV show ... just off-puttingly proper-nounish. To the puzzle's credit, it is appealingly diverse in terms of gender and race. But name bloat doesn't cease to be name bloat just because the names are names you like. I object to a contemporary proper noun like FLO (54D: Popular women's health app) a lot lot lot less (i.e. not at all) because at least it doesn't come from the realm of entertainment consumed on screens—over and over and over. MRS. MAISEL, BRIE LARSON, INHD, yes yes yes, you watch a lot of things, I get it. Pass the mic to a different cultural realm. Please.
And now, "Going Back to CALI," just 'cause ... 'cause I like it, and because I am it (less than two weeks!), and yeah, that's enough. See you tomorrow.
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (names names names)
Word of the Day: ECOTAGE (26A: Tactic of radical environmentalism) —
Ecotage (/ˈikəˌtɑːʒ/ EE-kə-TAHZH) is sabotage carried out for ecological reasons. (wikipedia)
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The MRS. MAISEL / "MR. SANDMAN" thing is cute—a mini-theme that I don't mind at all on a Friday (31A: Emmy-winning title role for Rachel Brosnahan / 38A: 1950s #1 hit with the repeated lyric "Bring me a dream). It's the only really delightful thing about the grid, for me. I was so bummed out by the thud of ISSUE in LEGAL ISSUE (3D: Basis for a case) that it was nice to get things moving in a livelier, more Friday-esque direction there in the middle of the grid with the MR./MRS. pairing. I've been a fully-alert, pop culture-consuming adult for the entire run of modern reality TV, going all the way back to "The Real World," and today, thirty-plus years later, is the first time I'm seeing the term DOCU-SOAP (6A: Genre for "Jersey Shore" and "The Real World"). What an ugly, ridiculous, ungainly, and patently unnecessary term. It is true that I turned my back on that genre a long time ago, when I realized it was designed to bring out the absolute worst instincts in everyone (participants/viewers), so maybe there's a reality TV fandom where DOCU-SOAP is de rigueur but to me it just looks like you misspelled "Duck Soup."
[was gonna play "MR. SANDMAN" here but stumbled on this and was
too charmed to let it go by ... Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) playing "Mad World"
with his daughter, Diva, on guitar / harmonies]
Weirdly, and yes, hypocritically, would've preferred a pop culture clue for MOULD. Briticisms are OK, I guess, but in this case I would've preferred post-punk / alt-rock legend Bob MOULD. He fronted the bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar and has a thriving solo career as well. Tuneful, guitar-driven rock. A really cool, kinda eerie voice. Bob MOULD: definitely better than British fungus.
And now, "Going Back to CALI," just 'cause ... 'cause I like it, and because I am it (less than two weeks!), and yeah, that's enough. See you tomorrow.