Constructor: Adrian Johnson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: EID MUBARAK (59A: Festive Islamic greeting) —
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Good morning from me, guy who wishes he'd installed his window AC unit earlier (i.e. at all). Yeesh. All the windows open, ceiling fan on, lying on top of covers ... still just miserable. It is probable that I slept, but it doesn't feel that way. Wasn't even a particularly hot summer day yesterday, I'm just not acclimated, I guess. Poor sleep and thick heavy air made lent an overall feeling of sluggishness to this solve, but I'm alert enough to recognize that it wasn't the puzzle's fault. In fact, solving kinda pepped me up a bit. I had a little burst of TRASH PANDA joy when that answer finally occurred to me. I feel like, if I'd been fully rested and the temperature were 10 degrees lower, TRASH PANDA would've come to me immediately, but all I could think of were "humorous nicknames" related to raccoon eyes ... like, maybe you'd call your raccoon "bandit" or something? The whole "nickname" angle made me think I was supposed to know the raccoon personally. Like, "That's Pete, Pete the Raccoon. We call him TRASH PANDA. He loves it. Leave my Froot Loops alone, Pete!" Something like that. Anyway, that answer was blank until I dutifully and methodically went after the short crosses, got POT, guessed HSN (because QVC looked awful alongside POT), and from that "HP" juxtaposition, bam, TRASH PANDA came leaping out at me (in a fun, non-attacky way). The answers undergirding TRASH PANDA were strong as well—that NW corner is probably the nicest part of the grid. You get not one but two spot-on colloquial phrases ("WE'RE SO DEAD,""I WASN'T DONE"). The rest of the grid maybe isn't quite that sharp, but I did enjoy ending (or nearly ending) on "EID MUBARAK," a "festive greeting" that I haven't seen in the grid before (to my knowledge). You see EID all the time, but the full greeting here is something special. I was happy that I remembered the term, and how to spell it. And then in the middle of the grid you've got the symmetrical (and cross-referenced) DNA TESTING and GENETICIST, which is a nice touch (I generally don't want THEMES anywhere near my Friday and Saturday puzzles, but a little lightly thematic symmetrical flourish like this is just fine). All in all, more enjoyable than a NOOGIE, for sure.
Some more points:
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: EID MUBARAK (59A: Festive Islamic greeting) —
Eid Mubarak (Arabic: عِيد مُبَارَك ʿīd mubārak) is an Arabic term that means “Blessed feast/festival'”. The term is used by Muslims all over the world. Internationally Muslims use it as a greeting on the feast. In the social sense, people usually celebrate Eid al-Fitr after Ramadan and Eid al-Adha in the month of Dhul Hijjah (the 12th and final Islamic month). Some state that this exchange of greetings is a cultural tradition and not part of any religious obligation. (wikipedia)
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The puzzle had a slightly dated feel at times. Do NEOPETS still exist? Also, do POKES still exist? I haven't heard anyone use the term "poke" in a Facebook / social media context since what feels like the aughts. The other answer that felt dated was OPENLY GAY (20A: Out in public?). It has something ... shocked about it, something that suggests that not hiding one's gayness is inherently flagrant or ostentatious. We say "out" now because it's neutral. OPENLY GAY feels like a holdover from a time when just ... being gay out in the open (whatever form that takes) was less common, more startling (to straights). It has a mild suggestion of flamboyance, of "shoving our face in it." As if "open" gayness were shameless. As opposed to just, you know, perfectly ordinary. It's a tonal thing. The OPENLY part suggests it's normally (or even properly) hidden. I don't know that it's a bad term; it just belongs to a different era (to my ear). Obviously homophobia is still with us, and people are still closeted, but something about this phrase just sits slightly wrong. When I google "OPENLY GAY" (in quot. marks), the first thing that comes up is an editorial from The Advocate entitled, "Why 'Openly Gay' Is an Offensive Term.""Offensive" is stronger language than I would have used, but the article's worth reading. Here's a taste:
"Openly" is a noxious designation that is not as accepting or as enlightened as it seems. "Openly" is in fact the reaction to disapproval. It expresses surprise, shock, that someone LGBTQ+ is actually, officially, not hiding in plain sight.
I'm not usually that fond of quotation clues (they tend to be less profound than they believe they are, plus they can be very hard to get!), but I actually loved the sting in the Sartre quote re: MODESTY today (38A: "The virtue of the lukewarm," per Sartre). I also loved the clue on ASANA, and that I got it so easily (25A: Difficult position, maybe) (ASANA are, of course, yoga positions). I like less the clue on "STAY AWAY" (14D: Back order?). So is "back" here evoking the idea of "back away!" or "stay back!"? An order ... to back up ... is an order to STAY AWAY? I wanted this answer to have something to do with MASSAGE. "RUB THERE!," something like that.
Some more points:
- 4D: Gathering, informally (SESH) — ah, the dreaded SESH. Ugly-cutesy, this abbrev. I had NEAR 19A: Just about here but then couldn't get S---R to work for [Gathering, informally], so then I tried NIGH, and after hefting and discarding SASH ("a gathering ... of fabric ... somehow?") I remembered (with something less than fondness) that SESH existed. Do I have to tell you it's short for "session"? Maybe I do.
- 18A: ___ Voyage, long-running London based holographic concert (ABBA) — went from "how the hell should I know?" to "Oh, yeah, right." Their last album was entitled "Voyage." I played ABBA on the blog just yesterday. I'll play ABBA on the blog any chance I get.
- 21D: Bit of slow motion, in a way (LAG)— is the LAG the "motion"? I guess so, but something about the phrasing feels not *quite* on the money.
- 55D: Play checkers, informally (REFS) — wow, this clue is really, really trying for misdirection. Mission accomplished. REFS keep players in check, sure. They also sometimes check (i.e. review) footage of a play to make sure the call on the field is a good one. So it works. But my first reaction was definitely "Checkers slang? There's checkers slang? Bad enough I have to deal with all the chess terminology in crosswords, but checkers!? Bridge too far!"
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