Dead letter in a mail sorter's vernacular / SAT 4-22-23 / Fruit-flavored gumdrop / Overly sentimental fare / Common name for potassium nitrate / Shape of the heart's electromagnetic field / Blah alternative

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Ralph Nader (39D: One with an "If You Choose the Lesser of Two Evils—You Are Still Choosing Evil" bumper sticker, perhaps => NADERITE) —

Ralph Nader (/ˈneɪdər/; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes.

The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, a highly influential critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers. Following the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader led a group of volunteer law students—dubbed "Nader's Raiders"—in an investigation of the Federal Trade Commission, leading directly to that agency's overhaul and reform. In the 1970s, Nader leveraged his growing popularity to establish a number of advocacy and watchdog groups including the Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. Two of Nader's most notable targets were the Chevy Corvair and the Ford Pinto.

Nader made four bids to become President of the United States, running with the Green Party in 1996 and 2000, the Reform Party in 2004, and as an independent in 2008. In each campaign, Nader said he sought to highlight under-reported issues and a perceived need for electoral reform. He received nearly three million votes during his 2000 candidacy, but also stirred controversy over allegations that his campaign helped Republican candidate George W. Bush win a close election against Democratic candidate Al Gore. (wikipedia)

OK, some of these answers are insane, but some of them are *so* insane that I actually kinda like them. NIXIE, LOL, what?! (61A: Dead letter, in a mail sorter's vernacular). Postal worker slang! I'm here for it! What other kinds of crazy terms do those folks have, I need to know. And NADERITE, wow, talk about someone who had completely dropped from my consciousness. The political landscape has, let's say, changed since 2000, which is the last time I remember Nader being truly newsworthy, and I can't imagine anyone actually identifying as a NADERITE, but they must have, right? Think "Bernie Bros" avant la lettre. Mostly guys, really disparaging of the two-party system. I think "Bernie Bros" is largely pejorative in a way NADERITE is (was) largely not, but there's a similar vibe (to be clear, I am officially neutral on this whole "spoiler candidate" topic—talk amongst yourselves, or, you know, don't). NADERITE made me go "whaaaaat?" and then "ok yeah sure, that was a thing ... and certainly an original answer." I was retroactively mad at NADERITE, though, because it kinda spoiled JUNEAUITE for me. That is, I like JUNEAUITE better—it definitely looks more insane—but I couldn't give it all the love it deserved because of the previous -ITE, which made me think "OH HELL NO, not another roll-your-own -ITE word!" But again, the sheer weirdness of both terms, coupled with the puzzle's audacity at including *both* of them in one grid, kinda sorta won me over. The only answers I actually didn't like today were NONPUBLIC (mostly because the clue was so boringly straightforward it felt like a joke (59A: Private)), and WARBLOGS, but in that case, I just don't know what those are. What are those? Blogs about war? Blogs where people just randomly fight? This is my first time seeing the term. Looks like they are what they say the are: blogs covering an ongoing war. Oof, looks like they're also called MILBLOGS, please don't cruciverbially perpetrate that term on me any time soon. The term was coined post-9/11. "Most warblogs supported the US-led War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War from a hawkish perspective" (wikipedia). Barf. But overall, I didn't think the puzzle was barf at all. Hard, yes, mostly, but properly so for a Saturday. And ... if not exactly zippy, at least thorny and strange enough to be interesting.I love the sad, lonely (and ultimately wrong) AT SEA just floating up there in the NW corner, perfectly reflecting my experience of that same corner. From here, I went VELLUM / QUEER LIT very quickly (both terms being very familiar from my day job), and the SW corner ended up being a total pussycat (the nice kind, not the scratchy/hissy kind). After that, I could see from -UPQU- that 35A: They have everyone buzzing (TOSS-UP QUESTIONS) was going to be something-UP QUESTIONS, but absolutely positively could not figure out what those first four letters might be. The word "buzzing" in the clue had me completely distracted. Was the answer about bees, or some other literally buzzing? I could think of only one -UP QUESTION, and that was a FOLLOW-UP QUESTION, so I was still completely locked out of the NW. No path in. I went instead down to the SE, where I hit my second most significant snag: YADA crossing NADERITE and SWANKEST. I had YUCK and then YAWN at 49A: "Blah" alternative, and I really Really liked "YAWN," so ... that hurt. But eventually it was clear that YAWN was the problem, so I pulled it and YADA went in and I "got it"—you'd say "blah blah blah" when representing someone's yammering, or when you just wanted to pass over unimportant talk, and YADA YADA YADA is basically the same. YADA / NADERITE ... rough spot no. 2. After that, I made steady Saturday-style progress through the rest of the grid, no real problems. Being able (eventually) to throw JUJUBE up into the NE corner really Really helped a lot (easy to bring down longer answers when you start with "J"s in the first positions).