Constructor: Kavin Pawittranon and Nijah Morris
Relative difficulty: Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Der SPIEGEL (58A: German newsmagazine Der ___) —
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Look, it's a SHIT-LOAD and a CRAP-TON and I will die on this (filthy) hill! (32D: Crazy amount => CRAPLOAD). Actually I don't care that much, but those are the expressions that feel right to me, and they both google better than they're oppositely-suffixed counterparts (well, "crap-ton" does ... there are issues with whether you do or don't include a hyphen in your search term). I think "shit-ton" (hyphenated) is probably what I'd say soonest, of the whole lot, followed by "shitload" (unhyphenated) ... I think I have largely phased "crap" (and its assorted variations) out of my life, as it feels like a euphemism that has somehow over time come to sound more vulgar than the thing it's a euphemism for (namely shit). So ... there. I got my one real objection to this puzzle off my chest, right up front. Oh wait, I have one other: who ever heard of reading a single TEA LEAF (30D: What's read in tasseomancy). One leaf? One? "Tasseomancy" has the French word for (tea) cup right in it, so if you are reading what's at the bottom of the cup (which you are) then a single TEA LEAF ... is doubtful, improbable, borderline fantastical. You can, of course, use "TEA LEAF" adjectivally (i.e. tasseomancy = "TEA LEAF reading"), but the way the clue is phrased here ... no. It doesn't work. I like "tasseomancy," though. It's a sweet word, I'd love to see it in the grid itself, but the fact remains, if I found one giant TEA LEAF in the bottom of my cup, there'd be only one possible fate in store for me: "You will be finding ... a new place to drink tea." I just found out that "tasseomancy" is also known as "tasseography,""tasseology," and "tassology," so add those to your wordlists too, I guess. Why not? Just know that it's leaves that are being read, not a single leaf.
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: Der SPIEGEL (58A: German newsmagazine Der ___) —
Der Spiegel (German pronunciation: [deːɐ̯ ˈʃpiːɡl̩], lit. "The Mirror") is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner, a British army officer, and Rudolf Augstein, a former Wehrmacht radio operator who was recognized in 2000 by the International Press Institute as one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes. Typically, the magazine has a content to advertising ratio of 2:1.Der Spiegel is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the Spiegel affair in 1962 and the Flick affair in the 1980s. According to The Economist, Der Spiegelis one of continental Europe's most influential magazines. The news website by the same name was launched in 1994 under the name Spiegel Online with an independent editorial staff. Today, the content is created by a shared editorial team and the website uses the same media brand as the printed magazine. (wikipedia)
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Leaving the tea leaf crap aside now ... I really liked this puzzle. It's got a lot of that whoosh-and-zoom quality that I like to see in a Friday, with lots of lovely longer answers darting across the grid, creating a nice flow, a feeling of openness. I wasn't as whooshy or zoomy as I often am on Fridays, or ideal Fridays, anyway, but that's mostly because I couldn't make anything work at first. I came out of the NW with only EMAG in place (4D: Slate, e.g.). I tried to make the plural of "genus" work at 18A: Subdivisions of families (GENERA), but my Latin totally failed me and after GENUSES (as well as GENIUSES (?) and GENII (!?)) didn't fit, I had to bail out completely. I decided to have at the short stuff in the NE, and that was the right call: HAD ON / KNEE / CLICK / LAX / TOE ... that was the starter kit I needed and then finally, a whoosh, out of the NE and into the middle of the grid via CHEAP THRILL! Thrilling. Lots of excitement and energy in this one, with the thrills and the partying (at the PARTY SCHOOLS) and the dancing (with the SLAM DANCERS). FREUDIAN SLIP rounds out the Big Four answers in this one, and those four provide a great latticework to hang the rest of the grid on.
Didn't like FEELS OKAY both because it's kind of limp as a phrase and because the clue only added to that limpness—[Seems acceptable] is just (synonym for FEELS) + (synonym for OKAY). So you've made your long answer into two boring ones, basically. I also don't get how ILY is something in ASL, since ASL, as I understand it, does not involve (written) letters. I guess you sign the letters, one at a time? But I've seen the abbr. ILY outside ASL, for sure (it's the only way I could've inferred it), so the connection to ASL felt strange / forced to me. The use of "major" in the clue for REST AREA also felt a little forced (27A: Major turnoff, perhaps). I've stopped at lots of REST AREAs in NY and PA. If they're just REST AREAs (and not service plazas, with gas and lots of food vendors and stuff) then I'd hardly call them major. But if you would place service plazas under the very widespread banner of REST AREA, then I guess it makes sense. It's clear why you wanted "major" there—to heighten the misdirection on "turnoff." But when you do that (really push the fakeout meaning), I'll say it's a real ... turn-off ... when the fakeout feels forced.
I thought states had FLAGS, not FAIRS (21A: Most states have state ones), and that families had CELL PLANs, not DATA PLANs (23A: A family's might be unlimited), at first. I also thought that the days of "YAS, queen" were behind us, but apparently that era is still upon us, so that's ... good to know (3D: Praise for a queen). Lots of "S"-enders in this grid. If I draw a (very crooked) line from the "S" at the end of SLAM DANCERS / EDITS to the "S" at the end of PARTY SCHOOLS, I can pick up a total of nine (!) terminal "S"s along the way. Nothing wrong with "S"-ending words, obviously. Just something I've been dinged for as a constructor before, by crossword editors. They can be .... crutches, those terminal "S"s, and in great numbers, they stand out. But if your grid is great then I don't think anyone (but me) is likely to notice or care. And this grid is pretty great. So there. Good day.