Chewy barbecue bits / SAT 6-29-24 / Magazine with a "Skater of the Year" award / Exploding part of a touch-me-not / Parsons who worked on "Abbey Road" and "The Dark Side of the Moon" / Down during difficult times? / Modern medium for jotting things down / Touristy district in Rome

• • •

But beyond this random piece of skating trivia, there were other "???" moments in the SE, the worst of which, for me, was TRAIL AWAY (46A: What a speaker might do if nobody is listening to them)—specifically the "AWAY" part. The phrase is "TRAIL OFF," isn't it? I mean, don't answer, it definitely is. When I got TRAIL and OFF wouldn't fit I made the saddest/angriest face. But oh, before that, I had to actually *get* to TRAIL, and that wasn't easy, what with GRAM Parsons sitting in on the Abbey Road and Dark Side of the Moon sessions, dear lord! I had just listened to a series of podcasts about GRAM Parsons, so I should've known the timeline and especially the catalogue was wrong here, but, I mean, famous musical Parsons, four letters, the "A" works ... I was semi-locked in. Gah! (43D: Parsons who worked on "Abbey Road" and "The Dark Side of the Moon" = ALAN). I also encountered my third "ON" of the grid down here (READ ON, after ON HAND and ADD-ONS), which is a teeny thing, really, as glitches go, but my accumulated good will from the previous 3/4 of this puzzle felt like it was draining away, so I was feeling every little imperfection. Trivia nearly killed me (THRASHER) but then trivia really bailed me out, as Aidy BRYANT is a very familiar name to me. Stunned to discover AIDY has been in the grid only once (Oct. 2023). That's a name built for crosswords. Today's BRYANT clue doesn't even contain "Aidy," which made it hardish. But I could infer it from a few crosses. Anyway, this corner was a mild bummer, but my overall experience was something close to elated. And check out Aidy BRYANT in Shrill, it's very good. 

Back to the elation. Nice to have a big fat gimme at 1-Across today (1A: Sound from a kid = MAA). Gave me all the first letters in a bank of 6-letter answers, hurray. ADORED and AIN'T SO to POD and MESS UP and bam, the whole far NW is set before I have a chance to think. But now I've got EID ... and, uh ... if the next bit is not MUBARAK!, I confess, I give up. I *should've* known EID AL-FITR (which would've fit ... r), since that's the EID I know—the feast celebrating the end of Ramadan. But I didn't even have that in my arsenal. And EID AL-ADHA—totally new to me today. But if it's one of the two main Islamic holidays, I can't exactly complain it's obscure, now can I? I enjoyed learning that there's more than one EID, and I especially enjoyed that I was able to learn this without my grid absolutely blowing up—all crosses fair! And I'm grateful that EID AL-ADHA introduced a little struggle into my solve (which needed it). My main experience of the NW was not the struggle caused by EID AL-ADHA but the explosion of great answers that started here and then shot across the grid in all directions. STRESS EAT (19A: Down during difficult times?) and SNOW ANGEL (17A: Something that's made lying down) into THEATER DISTRICT (getting DISTRICT was my first big whoosh) (6D: Play area), and then onto the UNEVEN BARS and getting down with the BOSSA NOVA, with very little trouble. And the hits kept coming: "I WON'T BITE"! RUSSIAN SPY! (great clue) (36A: Red plant?). RIB TIPS! (29A: Chewy barbecue bits). And "JUST FYI," so good, so colloquially on-the-nose (33A: "In case it's of interest ..."). I had just the terminal "I" and thought "what the hell!?!?" So nice to go from "what the hell!?!?" to "Oh, wow, yes, that's it. Seemed impossible, but ... there it is!"

I think I've covered my only real sticking points today. I absolutely botched AKON by totally misreading the clue. I kept thinking the last letter was moved to the front instead of the front to the back, so even after I'd finished the puzzle, I was wondering where the Hell NAKO, Hawaii was. You have no idea how many four-letter singers I tried in there. "ENYA? ... BONO? ... CHER? ... NE-YO? ... come on, one of you gotta have a Hawaiian name in you somewhere!"AKON => KONA. That was the key. 

Notes:

• 24A: Exploding part of a touch-me-not (POD) — no idea what this is. Looks like it's a plant that recoils from touch, also called a "touch-and-die" and "shameplant," wow. In addition to recoiling, they have seed pods that "explode," it seems. In addition to never having heard of this, I misread the clue (again!) as "Exploring part ..." and so was looking for "tendril" or ... I don't know, something, "reach-out-and-touch"-y like that. "Touch-me-not" apparently has (human) sexual meaning as well as botanical meaning. I'll leave you to explore (!) that meaning for yourself.
• 27A: Online chatter? (BOT)— chatBOTs are a pretty common (and horrible) feature of online life, especially if you're trying to deal with, say, your local internet service provider or the power company or whatever.
• 31A: 1990 civil rights legislation, for short (ADA) — Americans with Disabilities Act
• 2D: "You're lyin'!" ("AIN'T SO!") — after "ARE NOT!" wouldn't fit ... "AIN'T SO!" didn't take too long. I had yokel-speak on the brain because we're in the middle of a two-part Love Boat episode where Donny Osmond is an aspiring singer about to get his big break (singing on a cruise!?) but his "mountain folk" family has decided to show up and see him and he's embarrassed by their country ways so I'm sure he's gonna learn some kind of lesson about being yourself and loving your family blah blah blah. Anyway, his mom is played by Marion ("Mrs. C") Ross and his dad by Slim Pickens and his sister by Loni "I used to be in crosswords more" Anderson, who they've got done up as a pure "hillbilly" caricature, from the look to the accent. Kind of a cross between Ellie Mae (Beverly Hillbillies) and Daisy Mae (L'il Abner). Loni's engaged to some farmer guy but now that she's on this cruise, she's seeing what the big wide world has to offer, and this includes the notoriously sexy Rich Little yes that Rich Little no I am not making this up. Rich Little is the record producer or agent or I forget what but he's the guy who's gonna "discover" Donny Osmond ... but now he's hitting on Donny's sister Loni ... who is already engaged. What will Mrs. C think!? I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out once I watch Part 2. I forget why I started telling you all this in the first place. 

• 10D: Modern medium for jotting things down (NOTES APP) — not an exciting answer, but original, probably, and very real. I use a NOTES APP all the time when I've got text I want to retain or ideas I need to dump and I don't know what to do with them just yet.
• 31D: Robbins who co-wrote the "Rocky" theme "Gonna Fly Now" (AYN) — the kind of ridiculous trivia you resort to when you Know your puzzle is gonna play too easy. If it ain't Rand, then I AYN't gonna know what you're talking about. 
• 48D: Make rent (RIP) — "rent" = "torn" here.
• 54A: Something seen in a demo, for short (TNT) — "demo" = demolition. So I just learned that "dynamite" and TNT are not the same thing, and that where demolition is concerned "The industry’s material of choice remains dynamite, especially in concrete demolition and large, complex applications." (on-sitemag.com). Here's more, from wikipedia:

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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