Riddles in Buddhism / THU 11-3-22 / Nashville university attended by W.E.B. DuBois / Popular app originally launched under the name Picaoo / Persian for country / Absence of musical ability / University in a town of the same name / Ancient worshiper of Pachamama ("earth mother") / Mineral whose name means crumb in Latin

Theme answers:

• KICK IN THE PANTS (20A: _N___ERS) —"K-I-C-K" actually appears IN THE PANTS (i.e. in the word for "PANTS": KNICKERS)
• ACE IN THE HOLE (25A: CRAWL SP___) (CRAWL SPACE = "HOLE")
• PAIN IN THE ASS (42A: _EABR___) (PEABRAIN = "ASS")
• HOLD IN CONTEMPT (49A: COLD S__U__ER) (COLD SHOULDER = "CONTEMPT")

Word of the Day: Leopold AUER (22D: Violinist Leopold) —

Leopold von Auer (Hungarian: Auer Lipót; June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. [...] Auer is remembered as one of the most important pedagogues of the violin, and was one of the most sought-after teachers for gifted students. "Auer's position in the history of violin playing is based on his teaching." Many notable virtuoso violinists were among his students, including Mischa Elman, Konstanty Gorski, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Toscha Seidel, Efrem Zimbalist, Georges Boulanger,  Lyubov Streicher, Benno Rabinof, Kathleen Parlow, Julia Klumpke, Thelma Given, Sylvia Lent, Kemp Stillings, Oscar Shumsky, and Margarita Mandelstamm. Among these were "some of the greatest violinists" of the twentieth century. (wikipedia)

This started out badly (for me, for the puzzle), but eventually got a lot better. I couldn't do anything with the NW corner at first pass—except INRE, so I just had this cruddy little bit of crosswordese sitting there. I made some headway in the north (EATIN' was the first thing I wrote in the grid with confidence (15A: Garden of ___ (punnily named snack brand)), but then ran into Old Crosswordese violinist Leopold AUER and Absolute Non-Phrase NO EAR and then paused and sighed a little. Felt like it was going to be one of Those Days (the ones where I continue to not understand why puzzles with non-demanding themes continue to have such subpar fill). 

Forward momentum sort of died there, but I picked up the gimme Téa LEONI and followed crosses easily down to the bottom of the grid via ANTIDOTES. At this point, I still hadn't so much as looked at a theme clue. I like to dig into the short stuff before I go after the big game, and this puzzle had A Lot of short stuff. Went back to the NW and got my first pleasant surprise—I'd wanted KOANS earlier at 4D: Riddles in Buddhism but it wouldn't fit, but it turns out I was basically right; I just needed the more elaborate ZEN KOANS! Now we're talking. I feel like at this point, the puzzle got up off the floor and started actually showing some life. And then I sorted the NW and finally looked at the first theme clue. The "aha" at that moment was potent because I got it instantly—the answer, and the whole theme concept, in one bolt! I had so much of KICK IN THE PANTS in place that I actually mostly "knew" the answer before looking at the clue. I had that one moment of [squint] "huh?" and then bam, I plugged "K-I-C-K" into the pants (i.e. KNICKERS) and all was revealed. 

The execution of the theme works out very well all the way through, with rock solid theme answers and remarkably plausible clue creations. I have just two issues, one big one small. The "big" is the idea that "ASS" = PEABRAIN. I could see it was going to be PAIN IN THE [something], but wouldn't write in ASS because, well, that's not what PEABRAIN means. "ASS" has to do with behavior and PEABRAIN has to do with intelligence, and while I can see someone yelling both insults at the same person, they don't feel very equivalent to me. My "small" issue is that there is no "THE" in the final themer. You get three blank-IN THE-blanks only to end with a themer that's just blank-IN-blank. Sometimes last themers are anomalous in a way that makes them spectacular, remarkable in some surprising way. This one just felt like a weak off-brand version of the others. Puzzle ended more whimper than bang. But still, overall, big thumbs-up to the theme today.

I watch "Stranger Things" regularly and still struggled to get ERICA (58A: Role on "Stranger Things"). She is a secondary character, but a memorable one. That is, the character is memorable. Her character name, apparently, not so much.

I initially had "Se7en" as being a movie about the Seven SEAS, which ... would (probably) have been a decidedly less gory movie (36A: The "seven" reference by the film title "Seven" = SINS). Are kids still saying TURNT? I tried to make LIT stretch to five letters, no dice. Had no idea Khan Academy did LSAT prep. They apparently do literally every academic subject and standardized test, so it's not the most helpful or interesting clue. Completely forgot that BEANIE Babies ever existed. What a time-specific fad that was, yeesh. But that fad was instrumental in the launch of EBAY, so ... it was a bizarrely important time-specific fad, I guess. You shouldn't have "Acts" in your (cutesy) PLAY clue (10A: Acts as one?) when you've got ACT in the grid (even if you have tried to clue it as yet another standardized test) (39A: Exam taken by many jrs.). I do like the cutesy PLAY clue, though. "Acts" taken together as "one" form a PLAY, nice. I finished up with BETS, which I needed every cross to get (54A: Goes over or under, in a way). The "Goes" threw me. Gambling stuff often throws me, as I just don't care. My favorite error today was when I thought Persian for "country" might be IRAN. Pretty badass to just name your country "Country," I thought. But alas, it was just the "country" suffix -STAN.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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