Ruined city in Jordan / FRI 5-19-23 / Subject of the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views (2022) / One-handed put-back shot / Enemy of Lord Farquaad in film / Its offerings end around 2 p.m. / Something parents might give a teenager, colloquially

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It's always tough to have THE TALK with your kid, especially about the YANKEE SWAP (4D: Christmas party game). They just give you SIDE EYE. Wait ... YANKEE SWAP is a sex thing, right? [looks it up] Oof, yeah, definitely a sex thing, you are not going to want to google that, trust me.* But back to the grid experience—zoom zoom zoom, whoosh whoosh whoosh, all over the place. This puzzle had the buzz and verve and energy I want on Fridays, and above all it had that great feeling of ... acceleration, where I start by hacking awkwardly at the first section, grumbling about "too many '?' clues!" and what not, and making faces at things I don't really know (HICK) or have tried to forget (BABY SHARK) ... it's like the slow climb of a roller coaster. Futzing around, getting nowhere, and then ... you go over the top and then [long drop, infinite screaming]. The momentum of this three-answer long-Down drop carried me through the entire rest of the puzzle. I plunged down and cascaded through those other corners, flooding them with answers, overwhelming even answers I didn't know (ELISE) or partially forgot ("Is ALI an ALI or an ALY?"). It was like one big "OH, NOW I SEE!" Down to the SW, over to the SE, right up the BRUNCH MENU to finish with a (pleasant) THUD back up in the NE. Actually, I never even saw the clue for THUD. I finished with CHOSE. But that doesn't make as good a story as finishing with THUD. Sometimes you embellish for effect. You understand.

The only thing that made me go "no no bad stop" was seemingly the 21st appearance of SUH-WEET in the grid this year. OK, it's actually just the third, but the third in two months, and it's such a conspicuous seven-letter word that when it repeats, you notice, and when it double repeats, you just wish it would go away for a while. PUH-LEASE go away! But that's really it as far as strong negative responses to this one. Very low REPULSE Factor. The grid is clean as all git out. IS IT OK? It is more than OK. No cringing, lots of long, colorful answers, and a grid design that gave the solving experience that ineffable thing I love: flow. Even the "quaint" answer was pleasing to me—I find quaintisms very tolerable if they are also Mr. Burnsisms:

After the NW, not much struggle to be found. I think I had the most difficulty with ... TOLD (?!) (51D: Related). I was very confident in TIED. I was less confident in the resulting alt-spelling of BISIN (55A: Bearded bovine), so TIED became TOED, which also seemed very wrong. And then ADELE came to the rescue (fun fact: I used almost this exact clue for ADELE on the crossword I made for my annual financial contributor thank-you postcards this year ... if ever have to put ADKINS in your grid, now you know how to clue it)

[___ Laurie Blue Adkins ("one-named" singer of "Skyfall" and "Hello"]

This puzzle was so nice I kinda wish it had been a little harder, so I could've spent a bit more time with it. C'MON, Will, more like this. Like, tomorrow, maybe!? Cool, thanks.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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