Constructor: Larry Snyder
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: ARO (23A: Queer identity whose flag is green, white, gray and black, for short) —![]()
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This one really didn't seem to have that much to offer. Everything seems to be slightly ... "out-of-date" and "bygone" aren't right, but ... past its prime? I mean, THERANOS? (11D: Defunct health technology company that once had a $10 billion valuation). Why would I want to think about that now? I tried hard not to pay any attention to that story *then*. There was a pretty lady .... fraud ... something something? I didn't and don't care. HAUTE CUISINE is a cool answer, but it also feels like a phrase I haven't heard since the '80s (actually, I may be thinking of "nouvelle cuisine" ... yeah, I'm definitely thinking of "nouvelle cuisine," nevermind) (27A: It has high-end tastes). Do kids still play "truth or dare" at SLUMBER PARTYs? (21D: Occasion when one might choose truth). I hope so, that's adorable. Feels quaint, somehow. UTTER ROT? Quaint. "YES, MA'AM"? Quaint. RASSLER? I don't know what in tarnation that is. Maybe it's quaint. "ARE YOU DECENT?" also has a certain quaintness to it. I guess you might ask that semi-ironically today ... or was it always semi-ironic? Who ever thought being in a state of undress In One's Own Bedroom "indecent"? Speaking of "ONE'S" ... ugh, I thought we'd banished the long ONE'S answers from the Themeless Universe. They used to lumber across the grids like dinosaurs, the ONE'S answers. Their leader was A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE (*seven* times in just *four* years, perpetrated by just *three* constructors, what the hell??) (R.I.P., A LOT ON ONE'S PLATE, 2007-2011). Anyway, every appearance of ONE'S makes me wince inside. Sorry, ATE ONE'S WORDS (36A: Had to recant). There are some decent (!) answers floating about. TATTED UP isn't bad (and a nice trap—I wrote in TATTOOED at first) (52A: Covered in ink). PIPE ORGAN and LABYRINTH are solid. But the marquee answers here just don't seem strong enough to carry a Friday puzzle.
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: ARO (23A: Queer identity whose flag is green, white, gray and black, for short) —
Aromanticism is a romantic orientation characterized by experiencing little to no romantic attraction. The term "aromantic", colloquially shortened to "aro", refers to a person whose romantic orientation is aromanticism. // Aromanticism is defined as "having little or no romantic feeling towards others: experiencing little or no romantic desire or attraction". The term aromantic was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018. [...] In the initialism LGBTQIA+, the A stands for aromanticism, alongside asexuality and agender. (wikipedia)
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There were a lot of quaint (old) cluing tricks in the puzzle today. Using "windy" to mean "winding" instead of "blustery" (I think we saw this "trick" very recently, actually) (10D: Windy location of myth? = LABYRINTH). Then there's the use of "number" to mean not a mathematical figure but something that numbs you (2D: Early number? = ETHER). Then there's the TILDE trick, which is a variation on the "letteral" clue (the kind of self-referential clue that is trying to point you to a letter, i.e. [Figure head?] for EFF or [America first?] for CAPITAL A—wow, that clue is cursed, I don't know what came over me, never use that clue, please, thank you). Today, we get [Baño feature], which is not a feature of a Spanish bathroom, but a feature of the word "baño"—specifically the TILDE. Again, an old trick.
I was recently editing a puzzle and wondering to myself, "Is ARO a widely known abbreviation?" Well, it is now. Don't say you haven't seen it. It's been in the NYTXW twice before with this clue (i.e. as an abbr. for "aromantic") (2022, 2023). Before 2022, the only time it had been seen in the NYTXW in *thirty years* was once during the Great Twilight Plague of the 2010s ([Michael Sheen's character in "Twilight"] (!?!?!)). In the Maleska Era, you'd apparently see ARO not infrequently, but clued as stuff like [Orinoco tributary] or [Nigerian native] (seriously, those were the only two clues he used, and he used them a lot: twenty times in total!). If you want to know what Maleska was like as an editor, *that* is what Maleska was like as an editor. Obscure three-letter geographical place names—paradigmatic Maleskanism! Happy to be present for the ARO-naissance. Now so happy to be present for the SRO-naissance, but then SRO never really went anywhere, did it?
Didn't know ITT but inferred ITT from the clue (Wednesday ... Addams Family ... ITT) (50D: Ignatius ___, figure on Netflix's "Wednesday"). Had ARE YOU ASLEEP? before ARE YOU DECENT? and EMMY NOM before EMMY NOD (30A: One of more than 300 for "S.N.L."). Actually, if I'm being honest, I tried to make EMCEES work before either of those answers. EMCEEES!!! (obviously I had the "EM-" in place first). Left the "T" blank during my first pass at MODEL T'S since I don't know my early car models that well and thought it might be MODEL A'S (7D: Tin lizzies). I should add that one to the "quaint" list, above. Oh, and I had RAT before RAG (26A: Unreliable news source). The DECENT / ASLEEP slip-up was probably the biggest obstacle today, but it wasn't that big. I threw down ASLEEP, then immediately tried to cross that with 45A: Singer Marie, but the only [Singer Marie] I could think of (in five letters) was TEENA Marie, so it didn't take me long to pull ASLEEP and (tentatively) write in TEENA. Problem solved. So this one was breezy, but just not as sparkly as I'd like my themeless grids to be.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld