Truck maker since 1947 / SAT 7-29-23 / Philosophical denier of duality / Literally way of the gods / Vodka cran alternative / Foods that can be prepared hedgehog-style so-named for the crisscross patterns of cuts / Purveyor of game pieces / Some slow-cooked southern fare informally / Daily Beast alternative familiarly / Song from Company that marks the show's climax

Constructor: Sam Ezersky

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: SHINTO (25A: Literally, "way of the gods") —

Shinto (Japanese: 神道, romanized: Shintō) is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners Shintoists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves. There is no central authority in control of Shinto, with much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners.

A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami(神). The kami are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as kannushi, who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami and to solicit the latter's blessing. Other common rituals include the kagura dances, rites of passage, and seasonal festivals. Public shrines facilitate forms of divination and supply religious objects, such as amulets, to the religion's adherents. Shinto places a major conceptual focus on ensuring purity, largely by cleaning practices such as ritual washing and bathing, especially before worship. Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine, and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms. (wikipedia)

Well I don't think this was QUITE BAD, or bad at all, but I did think "ARE YOU HIGH?" and "I GOT NOTHIN'" many, many times. For the most part, this puzzle wasn't for me, though I did appreciate the fact that it was properly Saturday-tough. The whole early part of the solve was just a disaster. I had CATS and ARIA up there and not a lot else. MEMPHIS BBQ was nearly impossible to parse (3D: Some slow-cooked southern fare). CAMEL HUMPS involved some bit of common ignorance that never would've occurred to me (1A: These don't hold water). TIME OF YEAR had an exceedingly vague clue (17A: Season). So I just got roasted up there. PGA COURSE feels so ... roll-your-own (9D: Pebble Beach or Quail Hollow, e.g.). Like, yes, but also no. GOLF COURSE was what I wanted, but it didn't fit. PGA COURSE. Uh, sure (not UH, YES, which feels like another doubtful thing). Just because the play says she's a "Shrew" doesn't mean she is, indeed SHREWISH (10D: Like Shakespeare's Katherina). That clue felt ... bad. Not sure when any of it finally began to come together with any certainty. I had ventured to other sections of the puzzle and come back to the NW before I finally got a grip. No hope in the NE at first. STAKE before PURSE (32A: Prizewinner's winnings). Never even heard of JESSE (38A: Biblical father of David). I think SCRAP got me going, which is hilarious, since SCRAP is wrong (it's SCRUB). I got COSMO from there, and then maybe OTO- (?) and SHINTO. "EYES ON ME" was probably the first time I felt like "OK, I've got something solid going here," and that moment came very late. I was almost a quarter into the puzzle before I felt like I'd really got my footing.