Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Aldis Hodge (25D: ___ Hardison, Aldis Hodge's character on "Leverage" (ALEC)) —
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This managed to be properly tough(ish) and have a lot of that zoom-zoom whoosh-whoosh feeling I look forward to experiencing on Fridays. Like many of Erik's puzzles, this grid is consciously, pointedly, even provocatively inclusive, by which I mean you can feel how whole-heartedly it's trying to represent various kinds of experience that crosswords have historically ignored. Even modern crosswords tend to hew to an imagined "norm" or "mainstream" that has been, unsurprisingly, straight, white, male, Anglo-American-centric, etc. That is, puzzles have tended to look a lot like the people making and producing and especially editing them. Today's puzzle moves its lens all over human experience, all over the globe, while still managing to feel pretty damn mainstream. Basically it was always a lie that being inclusive meant sacrificing mainstream appeal, and this puzzle proves it (as do, increasingly, many puzzles, both in the NYTXW and (esp.) other venues, including, most notably, all the puzzles at the AVCX, as well as the L.A. Times (under Patti Varol's new leadership) and the USA Today (under Erik's own leadership)). The longer answers had so much energy and sizzle. But inclusiveness is hardly the puzzle's only asset. Yes, GENDER EUPHORIA is a wonderful burst of trans-positive joy, but its symmetry-mate on the other side of the grid, ONE STEP AT A TIME, involves a really clever pun clue (which is a high compliment from me, I assure you) (5D: Not in bounds?) (not "bounds" as in "boundaries" but "bounds" as in "leaps & bounds"). And though it's not that showy, I loved the pairing of "NO COMMENT" over "THERE IT IS..." I just imagine someone saying they have NO COMMENT and then not being able to contain their COMMENT, and then some nearby party, who just *knew* there was going to be a COMMENT, exclaiming, "THERE IT IS..." It's a whole short story, is what I'm saying. A wide-ranging lens, a strong colloquial sensibility, and a great sense of fun—that's this puzzle's winning combination.
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And yet the puzzle wasn't easy for me. I had to earn the whoosh. I put in LINGO right away at (1A: Jargon), but in the back of my head I kept thinking "ARGOT also fits" and then I also maybe wanted MONO at 1D: Like old-fashioned sound reproduction (LO-FI), which obviously doesn't start with LINGO's"L," so I ended up pulling LINGO before eventually working my way back there via SECTS / OCEANS / ICONS. Once I realized it was FORTE and not FORCE at 17A: Strength ... bam, I just exploded out of that section. Great feeling.
I haven't yet mentioned the fact that the grid is absurdly smooth. There's a lot of short stuff, but the closest it comes to grating is stuff ACER and ITSY, and that's not very close, especially when your marquee answers are paying off the way the ones in this puzzle are. Strategic use of cheater squares* (under LOFI, above MBA, and their symmetrical counterparts) undoubtedly helped manage the fill around those longer answers in the middle, resulting in an overall immaculate grid. Hope you found things to like about this puzzle. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: Aldis Hodge (25D: ___ Hardison, Aldis Hodge's character on "Leverage" (ALEC)) —
Aldis Alexander Basil Hodge (born September 20, 1986) is an American actor. Among his significant roles, he played Alec Hardison in the TNT series Leverage, MC Ren in the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton, Levi Jackson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, Noah in the WGN America series Underground, Matthew in Girlfriends and Jim Brown in the 2020 film One Night in Miami.... He will play Carter Hall/Hawkman in the upcoming DC Extended Universe film Black Adam. (wikipedia)
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Here's the whoosh-whoosh I mentioned up top: bold, bright longer answers just shooting out of the NW and then across the center:
I struggled with short stuff, mostly. Didn't know you needed to have a whole damn MBA just to get a job in "marketing," but I guess for certain jobs in marketing, yeah. Association just wasn't strong for me, so I waited for crosses to help me out. Also could not get hold of the neopronoun FAE, despite its "folklore" hint. Once I got it (via AGES, which was also hard (29D: Characteristics that rarely change in cartoons)), I realized I had probably heard of FAE in this context before, but despite knowing a number of nonbinary people I don't know anyone personally who uses neopronouns, so they just don't come readily to mind yet. Don't really know what "Leverage" is but now that I see Aldis Hodge's face, he definitely looks familiar. Is it weird for an actor to play a character whose name is so much like his own? Aldis playing ALEC? A.H. playing A.H.? I've typed some version of "Aldis Hardison" a bunch of times this morning, a confusion no doubt exacerbated by the fact that I am a big fan of NZ musician Aldous Harding.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld