Phallic object worshiped as a symbol of Shiva / SAT 6-3-23 / Enthusiastic approval in a text / Byzantine emperor known as "Rhinotmetos" ("the slit-nosed") / Part of the Tuscan Archipelago / One of the so-called eight limbs of yoga / City in northeast France home of the country's oldest church

Constructor: John Westwig

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: SOMETHING / NOTHING / ANYTHING — [shrug] it's ... something, alright

Word of the Day: LINGAM (28D: Phallic object worshiped as a symbol of Shiva) —

A lingam (Sanskrit: लिङ्ग IAST: liṅga, lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary murti or devotional image in Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva, also found in smaller shrines, or as self-manifested natural objects. It is often represented within a disc-shaped platform, the yoni – its feminine counterpart,consisting of a flat element, horizontal compared to the vertical lingam, and designed to allow liquid offerings to drain away for collection. Together, they symbolize the merging of microcosmos and macrocosmos, the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration, and the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence. (wikipedia)

Well, the best part of this is certainly the middle, and I thought that *before* I ever noticed the SOMETHING ANYTHING NOTHING ... thing. It just felt smooth, so I liked it. The one thing I noticed about that section that seemed like a bit of a cheat (i.e. a gimmick to make the Down crosses easier to manage) was the -ING stack. "Really going all in on those -INGs there, yeesh." It was only after I'd completely finished the puzzle that I noticed there was a method to the madness. The discovery was far more a disappointed "oh" than an elated "aha." Do a theme or don't do a theme! This in-between stuff is meh. But as I say, I'm not too mad, because that stack *was* the best thing in the puzzle, so ... whatever works, I guess. The NW and SE corner were fine but not terribly remarkable (SE somewhat better than NW), and the other corners just didn't work well for me, despite having those showy long answers. In fact, it's the showy long answers that fell flat. NEO NOIR FILM feels awful in my mouth. I wanted that answer to stop at NEO-NOIR, which is commonly used as a noun on its own (a substantive, or nominalized, adjective, i.e. an adjective that stands alone as a noun). NEO-NOIR FILM just feels redundant. It's not that the phrase doesn't make sense, it's just ... I'd say NEO-NOIR (alone) or NEO-NOIR MOVIE before I'd say NEO-NOIR FILM. You'd only call "The Usual Suspects" a NEO-NOIR FILM if you didn't know it was a film in the first place. Otherwise, it's a NEO-NOIR. It's the redundancy that's irking me, but I just taught a whole class on Noir (1940-80), so my ear may be way too finely tuned, I'll admit. But ARMY TRAINEE doesn't improve the section. It's fine, but it screams "my wordlist told me to do this." Plus, I already had to linger on a military answer by that point (NCO), and I'd had enough.