Metonym for the US Congress / WED 3-23-22 / Place to play dodgeball, informally / roll Brits term for toilet paper / Culture that introduced popcorn to the world

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: flips and flops of various kinds — all clues are [FLIP] (2), [FLOP] (2), or [FLIP-FLOP] (2); I don't know why, they just are:

Theme answers:

• 26A: FLIP (QUICK SALE)
• 20A: FLOP (EPIC FAIL)
• 26A: FLIP-FLOP (CASUAL SANDAL)
• 45A: FLIP-FLOP (POLICY CHANGE)
• 53A: FLIP (COIN TOSS)
• 60A: FLOP (PLUNK DOWN)

Word of the Day: KOLA (17D: Caffeine nut) —

The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus Cola, placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola species are trees native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. Their caffeine-containing seeds are used as flavoring ingredients in beverages applied to various carbonated soft drinks, from which the name cola originates. [...] The kola nut has a bitter flavor and contains caffeine. It is chewed in many West African countries, in both private and social settings. It is often used ceremonially, presented to chiefs or guests. In folk medicine, kola nuts are considered useful for aiding digestion when ground and mixed with honey, and are used as a remedy for coughs. Kola nuts are perhaps best known to Western culture as a flavoring ingredient and one of the sources of caffeine in cola and other similarly flavored beverages, although kola nut extract is no longer used in major commercial cola drinks such as Coca-Cola.(wikipedia)

I don't get this one. I don't get what's supposed to be cute or whimsical or fun about it. Mostly I don't get why the clues are in ALL CAPS. That was very confusing. I figured it was because some kind of word play was going on, so that when I looked at, say, 16A: FLIP, I was supposed to interpret the clue as "Big flip" -- this sense was DEEPENed when I got to 20A: FLOP, which was EPIC FAIL, which is indeed a "Big flop," so ... but QUICK SALE is just a "flip," so ... so ... yeah, I don't get it. I also don't get the progression of theme clues. I get the first bit: FLIP, FLOP, FLIP-FLOP, but then ... there's nothing else except three more of the same, and not even in reverse (symmetrical, chiastic) order—that is, the lower-grid FLIP and FLOP don't correspond to the FLIP and the FLOP in the upper grid. So the caps make no sense, and the order of the clues makes no sense, and the underlying premise is remarkably thin. Plus, what does it get you? Clues as answers. Yuck. QUICK SALE is not a thing. That is, it's a clue, but it's not an answer. See also CASUAL SANDAL. The other themers at least stand on their own, but overall this theme just feels a mess, conceptually and executionally. But there's ... a lot of it. Which I have never understood—this tendency with weak / thin themes to imagine that what will make up for the weakness / thinness is more-ness. Six themers! That'll make it work! :(

I (mostly) think of PLUNK DOWN as something you do with money so the PLUNK part of that answer was oddly hard for me, especially because it intersected INSPOT, which ... who says that, esp. now?? That sounds like a way to describe a NYC nightclub circa 1952, not a place where the "cool kids" (whoever they are) hang out (47D: Where the cool kids go). Thought LOO might be LAV. And I am doomed to wander the crossword world having absolutely no idea about the "Grey's Anatomy" universe. Slightly absurd how many characters from this show I'm supposed to know, but we all have our crosses to bear and this is mine—which is to say ADDISON, shmaddison (49A: Dr. Montgomery on "Grey's Anatomy"). The only ADDISON I know is a disgraced former Chicago Cub (glad this clue wasn't about him).  Oh, I guess I know ADDISON and Steele, founders of The Spectator magazine, but they seem like pretty tough fare for a Wednesday. And then crossing ADDISON was DITTO, which seems easy enough, until you realize the first "T" and the "O" also match up with "ME TOO," which seemed more than plausible for that clue (51D: "So do I!"). That's a kealoa* I didn't see coming—had TUTOR written in, then pulled it because "ME TOO" seemed so right. This is all to say that everything from the "P" in PLUNK DOWN through ADDISON and down to DITTO (i.e. the SW corner, roughly) gave me far, far more trouble than anything else in the grid. I don't even know what happened in the rest of the grid ... [scans grid quickly] ... not much. 

Explanations / observations:

• 1A: Quite dry, but sparkling? (BRUT)— I don't get the "?" on this clue. Am I supposed to imagine the clue refers to conversation? Anyway, I wrote in ASTI here, of course, despite the fact that ASTI is not "dry." 
• 9A: Instrument with 47 strings and seven pedals (HARP)— I wrote in LYRE. Thanks, "R." Kealoa!*
• 4D: Like whatever comes after "How should I put this?" (TACTFUL)— I mean, in theory, but in no way necessarily. If anything, the "how should I put this?" calls attention to your performative "tact," which makes the harshness of the underlying assessment all the harsher. 
• 34D: One of a pair in the mule family? (CLOG) — this kind of mule:

• 56D: Flare up? (NOVA) — because it's up ... in the sky? Maybe? Anyway, a NOVA is an event created by two stars in a close binary system (he said, authoritatively, having just read a wikipedia page):

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

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