Queer heroine in the DC universe / SAT 6-18-22 / Best-selling novel that begins in Pondicherry India / 19th-century activist Dorothea Dix / Performance in Studio 8H / Peshwari raisin-filled fare / Audible finger wags / Fitness activity done while suspended in a hammock

Constructor: Brooke Husic

Relative difficulty: Easy 

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: NAT Adderley (62D: Jazz trumpeter Adderley) —

Nathaniel Carlyle Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was the younger brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, whom he supported and played with for many years.

Adderley's composition "Work Song" (1960) is a jazz standard, and also became a success on the pop charts after singer Oscar Brown Jr. wrote lyrics for it. [...] While he was an integral part of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, this was not the only project occupying his time in his career as professional jazz musician. Since moving to New York, he had been recording outside the Adderley group. He worked with Kenny Clarke, Wes Montgomery, and Walter Booker.

Other projects included the film A Man Called Adam (1966). In the film, Sammy Davis Jr.'s character plays the trumpet. Since Davis could not himself play the trumpet, Adderley was hired to ghost everything that the character played. (wikipedia)

I tend to enjoy Brooke's puzzles (you can see her bylines at The New Yorker and the American Values Club Crossword and all kindsa places), but I think I've done (or tried to do) one too many of her Extremely Hard "experimental" crosswords from her puzzle website, because even though I smile when I see her name, some part of me experiences a Pavlovian flinch, like "oh no ... trouble!" But it turns out that her mainstream puzzles are probably no harder than anyone else's puzzles, actually. They're just far more thoughtful and entertaining than the average fare. I know I'm going to get stuff from outside my specific wheelhouse (SKINCARE ROUTINE stuff, or contemporary pop culture stuff, or maybe science/tech stuff—Brooke's a scientist), but also enough inside-my-wheelhouse stuff (today, comics, ancient libraries, yoga, Macbeth) to make the puzzle feel familiar and welcoming. What I'm saying is that the puzzle manages to have a specific personality while also feeling broadly inclusive. It casts a wide net with its answers and cluing. Sometimes, some younger constructors make puzzles that, to me, feel fresh and new, but in a kind of clique-ish and exclusionary way, like they're meant to be a kind of "f*** you" to some imagined group of "traditional" solvers. This puzzle, however, manages to have something for everyone, while still proudly wearing its values on its sleeve (lots of women, lots of queer visibility, and for Brooke, if I remember correctly, no meat, no guns). Will no doubt deserves some credit for the balance, but it starts with the constructor, and this one is Reliable.