Bun in the oven so to speak / TUE 9-13-22 / Shop for a loxsmith? / Jason who sang "I'm Yours" / Marsupial stylized in Qantas logo / Instruments played pizzicato in Britten's "Simple Symphony" / Title role for Alan Ladd in classic 1953 western

Constructor: Adam Wagner

Relative difficulty: normal (?)

THEME:"HERE'S THE KICKER..." (51A: Lead-in to a surprising twist ... or a hint to 16-, 22-=, 32- and 45-Across) — themers are all "kickers" in one way or another:

Theme answers:

• FOOTBALL PLAYER (16A: Buffalo Bill, e.g.)
• ROCKETTE (22A: Radio City Music Hall performer)
• UNBORN BABY (32A: Bun in the oven, so to speak)
• KANGAROO (45A: Marsupial stylized in the Qantas logo)

Word of the Day: Jason MRAZ (25A: Jason who sang "I'm Yours") —

Jason Thomas Mraz (/məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002), which spawned the single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)", that reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His next two studio albums, Mr. A-Z (2005), and We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008), peaked in the top five on the Billboard 200; with the latter album spawning the Grammy Award winning singles "Make It Mine", and "Lucky" with Colbie Caillat. 

The album's lead single "I'm Yours", reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, while spending a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100, and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[6] His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word (2012), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest-charting album to date, and spawned the single "I Won't Give Up", which became his second top ten on the Hot 100. (wikipedia)

Short write-up today because somehow I'm writing this at night instead of my usual 4:30am and I really have no business being up this late but I couldn't sleep so ... here I am. This felt long / slow, which is very Very weird considering that it's undersized (14x15). Just couldn't get on the right wavelength. There were names that I blanked on (OCKHAM) or forgot existed (MRAZ), and then a whole lot of awkward / dated fill (RUER, LEK, ECOCAR, etc.). I have never believed in ECOCARs, and I believe in them even less now that electric cars are so common. I'd (much) sooner accept E-CAR than ECOCAR. I'm looking at the grid and seeing AIS and I can't even imagine what its clue was. [... checking...] Oh. Artificial Intelligenceseses? (47D: The Terminator and HAL 9000, for two). Hmm. I think there's a reason constructors haven't tried to make that happen. It just looks / feels bad. It's an OK thing (and a movie title!) in the singular, but in the plural, woof, don't like it. Then there's just a heap of ye olde stuff, your ATATs and NONOs and TSARs and what not. IN THE ZONE and UP IN ARMS give the grid some much-needed life, but the short stuff is really far too bumpy. As for the theme ... it doesn't quite work for me. The revealer has potential, but somehow the execution feels uneven, haphazard. A FOOTBALL PLAYERmight be a "kicker"—that is a position that exists, true—but a ROCKETTE is definitely, always a "kicker." I think of KANGAROOs more as hoppers than kickers. Mules kick. I'm sure KANGAROOs do kick, but, I dunno, kicking's not really a paradigmatic Kangactivity in my mind. And sure, babies do kick in the womb from time to time, so that's fine, but the very phrase UNBORN BABY ... you know, I think maybe all the disingenuously sentimental anti-abortion / forced-birth rhetoric around the "unborn" has just SOURED me on this phrase. It's a perfectly fine phrase. It just hit me wrong, for some reason. I honestly could not come up with UNBORN BABY without a bunch of crosses. The creepy pregnancy euphemism in the clue ("Bun in the oven") was not helping. I just did not share this puzzle's idea of fun.