Mobile homes punnily / SUN 7-2-23 / Stephen K. ___, British stand-up comedian / Peacock seen on TV / Linguistic group including Zulu and Xhosa / Collegiate beaver mascot whose name is its school spelled backward / Angles above 90 degrees?

Theme answers:

• "THEELEPHANTMAN"
•  WHEELESTATE  (22A: 1980 film that led to the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup / 26A: Mobile homes, punnily)
•    TOLLBOOTHS
• PIRATESBOOTY (32A: Coin toss spots, once / 39A: What "X" could mark on a map)
• SYMBOLICLOGIC
•      NBCLOGO (69A: In which "P or Q, but not both" is represented as (P∨Q)∧¬(P∧Q) / 74A: Peacock seen on TV)
• "YOUFLATTERME"
• DECAFLATTE (95A: "Stop, I'm blushing" / 103A: Evening coffee order)

Word of the Day: Emily OSTER (123A: Author/economist Emily) —

Emily Fair Oster (born February 14, 1980) is an American economist and author. She is currently the JJE Goldman Sachs University Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, where she has taught since 2015. Her research interests span from development economics and health economics to research design and experimental methodology. Her research has received exposure among non-economists through The Wall Street Journal, the book SuperFreakonomics, and her 2007 TED Talk.

Oster is the author of three books, Expecting Better, The Family Firm, and Cribsheet, which discuss a data-driven approach to decision-making in pregnancy and parenting. (wikipedia)

As I indicated yesterday, the write-up is going to be a little short today because I'm tired from driving much of the day. Woke up at 4, solved and blogged, fed cats and ate breakfast, then drove to Saratoga Springs to visit my wife (away at a writer's workshop), then bopped around the town for a bit, then drove home again. During the return journey, I was daydreaming or otherwise up in my head and missed the 88 turnoff and was heading toward *&$%-ing Utica (!?) when I realized everything looked ... wrong. Had to take a detour through the backwoodsiest parts of central NY to finally rejoin the 88 and then home feed cats dinner Manhattan and now solving / writing. Blog drive enjoy Saratoga Springs drive blog, that's the day. So my brain does not feel fully up to evaluating / discussing this puzzle. I think I don't quite get the theme. I do get that the shoes are "big" in that they are two stories tall. It's weird, though—since the "shoes" don't occupy one cell, but two different cells, one atop the other, it's more like ... two shoes than "big shoes." And I don't understand the title. What is "About Two Feet" playing on? My Left Foot? About a Boy? Two Left Feet? I feel sure there's a pun in there somewhere, but I can't see it. I keep saying it out loud, over and over: nothing. Anyway, clearly I don't fully appreciate this theme. A few of the theme answers are very nice ("YOU FLATTER ME,"THE ELEPHANT MAN), but the theme itself ... I mean which is it? Are there two feet, or is there just one big shoe? I guess ... two feet in the Acrosses, one big shoe in the Downs? NBC LOGO feels forced (fine as clue for PEACOCK, not as an answer unto itself). I've never heard WHEEL ESTATE. Ever. I like it. But it feels made-up. And yet I like it. I want it to be real. So let's say it's real. I actually appreciate the weirdness of the whole theme concept today, but there's something in the execution that just doesn't quite come together for me. Big shoes v. two shoes? What am I supposed to be seeing here?

The things I really like about the grid are smaller, mid-range answers like "BUT WHY?" and TECH HUB and even RED DWARF, PROP BETS and AUTOPAY. Hardest part of the puzzle for me by far was the front end of SYMBOLIC LOGIC (never heard of it—only got SYMBOLIC, in the end, because it's a word I could recognize). The crosses were almost ungettable for me. That NYT clue was baffling to me (61D: Sullivan's opponent in a landmark free speech case: Abbr.) as was this AMOS person, of whom I've never heard (62D: Stephen K. ___, British stand-up comedian). OTOE required first and fourth crosses (73A: ___-Missouria Tribe). So that section was a yikes. Nothing else really rose to the level of threat. No idea about OSTER, so that bottom section could've been dicey, but the crosses were all fair. Had LIE-INS before DIE-INS, so got a bit flustered there (100D: Attention-grabbing protests). It seems like you can spell LAH-DI-DAH all kinds of ways (with and without the various "H"s), so that was interesting (87A: Highfalutin). But overall, it was pretty doable. I mostly enjoyed the solve. Just wish the theme had clicked better for me. Hope you dug the theme more than I did. My cats are screaming at me now, so I gotta go. 

Oh, one last thing. It's a new month, so time to highlight the best NYTXW puzzles of last month (two themed puzzles, and one themeless). So here it is, the Best of June 2023:See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. Calling asana "angles" is bizarre (46D: Angles above 90 degrees? = HOT YOGA). Yes, Triangle Pose exists. Still. Bizarre.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]