Constructor: David P. Williams
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: Reggaetón (3D: Reggaetón, e.g. => MÚSICA) —
Ah, my Friday puzzle, here you are. Why do they keep putting you on Saturday? Better late than never. This one had all the bounce and whoosh and smoothness that I was missing yesterday—very much on my wavelength and very very much lacking yesterday's clunky cluing. The long answers through the middle are flawless, and they even have some next-level snazziness—the Downs alliterate (SUNSET STRIP, SECRET CODE, SIERRA MADRE!), while the first two of the Acrosses form an accurate complete sentence (MASTERMINDS PULL STRINGS!). And BASKET CATCH is snazzy all on its own.
You've also got spice in all corners, from the actual spice of SRIRACHA to the avian arias of the BOOBIRDS ("How is that a foul? How? We're ALL EARS, ref!"), from WIFFLE Ball and Reggaetón at the FESTIVUS picnic to the ridiculous verbification of TETRIS (44A: Rearrange to fit, jocularly) (which, fittingly crosses PACK IT IN). And I hit all the lights today—that is, all greens, no reds, zoom zoom, looping around the course like a crazy person. I dropped SUNSET STRIP straight out of the NW, off just the SU-, and then, rather than follow it down, I literally did a lap around the NE corner, taking NESTS through the NE to CIRRI and CINCO and ROMEO and back to SUNSET STRIP. Wheee...!
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I didn't know a bunch of little things, names, mostly, but mostly names I've actually heard of before but just couldn't retrieve from my cluttered brain vault (LUCY, MAV, MARTÍ). Otherwise, there were really no speedbumps at all, which is the one problem with this puzzle: it's not up to Saturday toughness standards. But put it on Friday and you've really got something.
I got ASCII easily but can never remember what it stands for (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, wow, yeah, stick with ASCII). Wait, was King MIDAS real? The "everything I touch turns to gold" one, I mean. I think that I did not know that. I assume the gold thing was a myth. Looks like the famous Midas was a probably real king to whom legendary powers were ascribed (thanks, Ovid and Nathaniel Hawthorne and others!). You gotta ascribe *most* things about a king when he reigned in the 2nd millennium B.C.E, before the (putative) Trojan War! Anyway, Midas's dad was Gordias, of "Gordian Knot" fame. Must've been awesome to live in magical times. Unless you accidentally turned your daughter into gold, that would suck. But we don't live in magical times—we live in the age of ASSHAT, it seems (would love to see this term disappear from my crossword forever instead of seeing it seemingly every other week) (I've actually only seen it four times in the NYTXW ... but twice in six days now!). Put ASSHAT on HIATUS! Also would love never to see TASE, which for me is irrevocably associated with police violence. It was my final word today, and a real downer of a way to end an otherwise joyful solving experience.
Notes:
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Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: Reggaetón (3D: Reggaetón, e.g. => MÚSICA) —
Reggaeton (UK: /ˈrɛɡeɪtoʊn, ˌrɛɡeɪˈtɒn/, US: /ˌrɛɡeɪˈtoʊn, ˌreɪɡ-/), also known as reggaetón or reguetón, (Spanish: [reɣeˈton]) is a modern style of popular and electronic music that originated in Panamá during the late 1980s, and which rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s through a plethora of Puerto Rican musicians. It has been popularized and dominated by artists from Puerto Rico since the early 1990s.It has evolved from dancehall, with elements of hip hop, Latin American, and Caribbean music. Vocals include toasting/rapping and singing, typically in Spanish.
Reggaetón, today, is regarded as one of the most popular music genres, worldwide; it is the top music genre among the Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations and one of the primary modern genres within the Spanish-language music industry. [...]
Several established, world-famous performers—notably Puerto Rican-American Jennifer Lopez and Shakira from Colombia—have embraced the style, recording numerous duets and collaborations with top reggaetoneros. Several other emerging international artists are seeing success in the genre as well, including Catalán-Spanish singer Bad Gyal (from Barcelona) and trilingual Brazilian star Anitta (from Rio de Janeiro). Mexican-American singer Becky G (from Los Angeles, California) has experienced huge success in recent years, as a Latino American artist in the reggaetón genre. In 2004, Daddy Yankee released his smash single “Gasolina”, regarded by many as the first globally-successful reggaetón song; Daddy Yankee is credited with bringing the style to western pop music listeners.
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| [21D: Setting for the classic film line "I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"] |
I got ASCII easily but can never remember what it stands for (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, wow, yeah, stick with ASCII). Wait, was King MIDAS real? The "everything I touch turns to gold" one, I mean. I think that I did not know that. I assume the gold thing was a myth. Looks like the famous Midas was a probably real king to whom legendary powers were ascribed (thanks, Ovid and Nathaniel Hawthorne and others!). You gotta ascribe *most* things about a king when he reigned in the 2nd millennium B.C.E, before the (putative) Trojan War! Anyway, Midas's dad was Gordias, of "Gordian Knot" fame. Must've been awesome to live in magical times. Unless you accidentally turned your daughter into gold, that would suck. But we don't live in magical times—we live in the age of ASSHAT, it seems (would love to see this term disappear from my crossword forever instead of seeing it seemingly every other week) (I've actually only seen it four times in the NYTXW ... but twice in six days now!). Put ASSHAT on HIATUS! Also would love never to see TASE, which for me is irrevocably associated with police violence. It was my final word today, and a real downer of a way to end an otherwise joyful solving experience.
Notes:
- 1A: Old currency of Massachusetts (WAMPUM) — first thought: SALEMS, which is making me cough-laugh at my computer right now. "'Gimme five SALEMS for a quarter,' we'd say!"WAMPUM were of course beads used as a kind of currency by certain northeastern Native American tribes, though it had other functions as well ("storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events").
- 12D: Sub stack? (SALAMI) — sub sandwich. I was imagining a stack of papers for the substitute teacher to grade, and thought "you'd have to make me a longterm sub to get me to do any damn grading, that's for sure."
- 14D: Drag through Hollywood (SUNSET STRIP) — I liked the way it felt for my brain to cycle through the "drag" meanings, from drag show, to the act of physically dragging something/someone, to metaphorically dragging someone, i.e. subjecting them to harsh but deserved criticism ("drag him!") (see Gen Z slang word No. 35, here), to finally the correct meaning, drag as slang for street or road.
- 39D: Shot with English (MASSÉ) — this is a billiards term. "English" is also a billiards term (sidespin applied to the cue ball). So is "shot," I guess. Anyway, billiards is the context. MASSÉ = "a shot in billiards or pool made by hitting the cue ball vertically or nearly vertically on the side to drive it around one ball in order to strike another" (merriam-webster.com).
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