Reef predator with extendable pharyngeal jaws / WED 11-20-24 / Dapper sartorial choices / Coloring implement since 1903 / Makeshift shield during a food fight / Comic strip with a collection titled "Shoes: Chocolate for the Feet"

Zhou Enlai (Chinese: 周恩来; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade–Giles: Chou Ên-lai; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the inaugural premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1949 until his death in 1976, and concurrently as the inaugural Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1949 to 1958. Zhou was key figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and ally of Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War, later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy, and develop the economy. (wikipedia)

A rebus on Wednesday. Did not see that coming. But then I did see it coming. Pretty quickly. Had the MO- at 2D: Reef predator with extendable pharyngeal jaws and thought "well that's MORAY ... but MORAY won't fit. MORAYS fits, but it's not a plural clue ... [gets first "E" from O'ER] ... if it ends "EEL," then ... wait, is it a "RAY" rebus?" And it was. 

The only questions now were "how many "RAY"s?" and "what's the revealer?" I guess there was some question about whether all the rebus squares would be "RAY," but since it's Wednesday (and not Thursday), I didn't think the puzzle had much trickiness or difficulty left to give. And it didn't. Just a bunch of scattered "RAY" squares, two thirds of which can be found in just two answers (CRAYOLA CRAYON and CRAY-CRAY). I wish the revealer had been more evocative or meaningful to me. I had RAY and no idea what could come before it. I haven't thought of a SHRINK RAY since ... I don't know when. Feels very mid-century comic book to me. How does Ant-Man shrink? I feel like it's not a RAY-based shrinkage, hang on ... oh right, Pym particles. According to an MCU fandom site, they're "subatomic particles that can increase or reduce mass as well as density and strength and are heavily used by Ant-Man and Wasp." When's the last time I saw anyone get shrunk with a ray? In The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), it's exposure to chemicals in an experimental perfume. In The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), it's a "strange fog." I just went and looked up "SHRINK RAY" and it looks like it was popularized in the mid-20th century, primarily by the movie Fantastic Voyage, and then reiterated and parodied in various contexts over the years, including in Despicable Me and (multiple times?) in the Lilo & Stitch franchise. As I say, I'm familiar with the concept, but the phrase itself just didn't spring to mind. If you gave me "Shrink ___" (Password style), I'd say "WRAP." Anyway, yes, you shrink "RAY" in order to fill six squares—a very literal revealer.

The resulting "RAY" answers weren't very interesting in and of themselves, though, and the rest of the grid doesn't have a lot to offer as far as entertaining fill. Things get very choppy toward the middle and we get subjected to a lot of gunk, a lot of ABU PDQ QUA UAE gunk, a lot of NSFW CFOS TSA gunk. Looking it over now, though, I'd say the grid comes in pretty solid overall, especially for a puzzle with so much theme density. Since I picked up the rebus easily, the only trouble came from finding the "RAY" squares (not much trouble at all, actually, despite their being unpredictably located), and then finishing off the puzzle—i.e. picking up SHRINK, which was made somewhat harder than it might've been by the terrible cluing on the adjacent CANE. No one puts CANEs on their Christmas tree. Way too heavy, and anyway grandpa needs his CANEto get around; seems cruel to put it on the tree. The things that are on the tree are candy CANEs. No one says "CANE" without the "candy" part when they are talking about "candy CANEs." The [Christmas tree decoration] is, iconically and only, "candy CANE."CANE alone is garbage. I was like "... CONE?" Little decorative pine CONEs? Seemed plausible. More plausible than (non-candy) CANEs. Bah. That clue is CHUM (61D: Shark bait). 

Further reading:

• 25A: Comic strip with a collection titled "Shoes: Chocolate for the Feet" ("CATHY") — oh right, I forgot about her thing for chocolate. All I remember is her pathological obsession with her weight. And "ACK" (3), of course. 
• 27A: "You should open this on a personal device" heads-up (NSFW)— this clue is just wrong. Plenty of people have "personal devices" on them at work. They might use them at work. NSFW stands for "not suitable for work." It's not the device, specifically, that's in question—it's where you're using it. Yes, don't open the porn site on a work computer, but mainly don't open it in a workplace environment. 
• 43A: Parent working behind the scenes? (STAGE MOM) — this clue is extremely literal, so even though I see the "pun" you're trying to make there, with "scenes" being literal theater / movie "scenes," the clue really doesn't need a "?" at all.
• 56A: Move to the beat? (PULSATE)— I don't think of pulsation as "movement." The blood is moving, the thing that is doing the pulsating isn't going anywhere.
• 1D: Dapper sartorial choices (ASCOTS)— "Dapper," eh? I guess that's one word for it. Here's William Windom sporting an ascot in an episode of Love Boat that I watched recently—we're up to Season 6, and I said to my wife "we're gonna be done soon..." only to check and discover that it ran into a 10th season and there are actually close to 100 episodes left to go. I want to get off, I can't get off, I want to get off, I can't get off. The ship goes to Mazatlan, the ship returns to the Port of Los Angeles, the ship goes to Puerto Vallarta, the ship returns to the Port of Los Angeles. Like Gopher, Julie, Doc, Isaac, Merrill, and Vicki, I seem to be doomed to ride this thing forever (though if I remember correctly, I think Julie's time is gonna be up very shortly...). Sorry, here's the promised picture of William Windom in an ascot (of sorts):

• 2D: Reef predator with extendable pharyngeal jaws (MORAYEEL) — there is one entertaining aspect of this puzzle, which is—it's very fun to say "extendable pharyngeal" over and over again. It's like something out of Gilbert & Sullivan: "In short, in matters vegetable, extendable, pharyngeal, / I am the very model of a model Major-General!"

• 4D: Show on which Julia Louis-Dreyfus got her big break, in brief (S.N.L.) — Julia Louis-Dreyfus was one of two celebrity sightings I had this year (which I don't have a lot, as I live in Binghamton, NY). I stood behind her (and some of her family) in line for ice cream at an indoor food court in Santa Barbara this summer. That was in August. Earlier in the summer, on the way back from our Canadian vacation on the north shores of Lake ERIE, I saw Samantha Bee at a rest area in western New York. As you can see, I lead a thrilling life.

[Here's my ticket to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies' inaugural game against the ERIE SeaWolves (13D: Pennsylvania home of minor-league baseball's SeaWolves); see? thrilling life!]

• 39D: Culture group (BACTERIA) — this clue is good. Nicely misdirective. Another highlight of the puzzle.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]