Signature Caitlin Clark shot, informally / TUE 1-14-25 / Emphasized, textwise / Gaelic language / It locks locks into place / Like the yellow polka dot bikini, in a 1960 #1 novelty song / Quadruple award achievement, informally / Friend of Flower and Thumper

Theme answers:

• BEEKEEPER (17A: One in charge of a sting operation?)
• WORLD BEATER (24A: Absolute champion)
• ATTENTION-SEEKER (36A: Publicity hound)
• STORMCHASER (48A: Person often flirting with disaster)

Word of the Day: Craters of the Moon National Monument (62A: Home of the Craters of the Moon National Monument (IDAHO)) —

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is a U.S. national monument and national preserve in the Snake River Plain in central Idaho. It is along US 20 (concurrent with US 93 and US 26), between the small towns of Arco and Carey, at an average elevation of 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level.

The Monument was established on May 2, 1924. In November 2000, a presidential proclamation by President Clinton greatly expanded the Monument area. The 410,000-acre National Park Service portions of the expanded Monument were designated as Craters of the Moon National Preserve in August 2002. It spreads across Blaine, Butte, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Power counties. The area is managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles (1,000 km²) of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles (2,893 km²). The Monument alone covers 343,000 acres (139,000 ha). All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet (240 m). There are excellent examples of almost every variety of basaltic lava, as well as tree molds (cavities left by lava-incinerated trees), lava tubes (a type of cave), and many other volcanic features.

The fill on this one was pretty bad so I was hoping the theme would amount to something, but it didn't. Even if you somehow remain a superfan of HP, I can't see how this anything but dull work. A hot MEH (puzzles literally and figuratively giving me a lot of MEH lately). After slogging through mediocre fill, laden with repeaters and crosswordese (hi, ERSE, not nice to see you again!), I was hoping the theme would amount to something. And then it was just QUIDDITCH. It's 2025, not 2005, why are we still doing this? I had -DITCH and thought there was some "game" I'd never heard of called LAST DITCH. The only other DITCH game I could think of was "doorbell ditch," which wouldn't fit. (Did you know "Doorbell Ditch" is formally (??) known as "Knock Down Ginger" (!?!), and is also known by dozens of other names, all over the world? Rin-Rin-Raja in Chile!? Bel-Twi in South Korea? Knicky-Knocky-Nine-Doors (exclusively in Durham?)? It's "played" all over the world; much more fun reading the Knock-Down-Ginger wikipedia page than writing about this puzzle, but ... back to it). So, what kind of DITCH, what kind of DITCH? ... oh. That kind of DITCH. The author of the HP books has become, in the past decade, a repulsive purveyor of transphobia, yes, so there's that reason to dislike this puzzle, but the biggest reason to dislike this puzzle is that it's just boring—a theme that might've felt fresh decades ago, but now feels bland. 

Do tennis judges really say "IT'S IN"? Like, the announcer might say that, or you (a non-professional) might say that on the court, but that doesn't feel like an official judge's ruling. Too colloquial. I guess it's the interpretation of their little hand movement: "it's on this side of the line, it's on that side of the line, IT'S IN, it's out." Didn't love the clue, but really really didn't love that we get another "IT'S" phrase on the other side of the grid (???): "IT'S HOT." It's ... tiresome how little the NYTXW seems concerned about flagrant dupes like this. It's not just the "IT'S" repetition, it's the specificity of that repetition, i.e. both times the "IT'S" is the first word in a short two-word phrase, which really calls attention to the similarity, like a siren or a flashing red light. It's annoying. But back to that NW corner, which put me off the puzzle early. IN BOLD is kinda ick. Made ickier by the fact that, like a normal person, I assumed a 6-letter "I" answer for 1D: Emphasized, textwise would be ITALIC. If you're going to *surprise* me with an unexpected answer, that answer should be ... good. IN BOLD ... isn't. Also, that is not how I would spell TEENIE, but if the song spells it that way, I guess there's nothing I can do about it.

Average Tuesday difficulty today, after I put that NW corner together. I couldn't figure out what a TMNT costume would look like. Had the "SHE-" and thought "oh, do the Ninja Turtles wear capes?" So I wrote in SHEET (assuming that that's what you'd use for a cape if you were making your costume at home). SHELL is just ... part of a turtle. Any turtle. No ninjaing required. Did not see SHELL coming. Too obvious, I guess. Elsewhere, you've got your classic BAA/MAA kealoa* there (42A: Barnyard sound), but that shouldn't cause real difficulty. You just gotta wait for the cross. Btw, sheep BAA, goats MAA, that is NYTXW standard. You can be mad about it all you want, but that's just the way it is. No outright mistakes in this one besides ITALIC ... except at 59D: Fossil hunters' project (DIG), where I had the "I" and wrote in RIB. I admit it would be weird to make a single RIB your entire project, but ... I dunno, they made a whole movie about a dinosaur RIB once, so why not? (OK, the bone was technically an "intercostal clavicle," just play along, for once!)

Bullets:

• 16A: Signature Caitlin Clark shot, informally (THREE) — seems weird to call a simple three-pointer a "signature shot." She takes a lot of them, OK. But lots of players take (and make) THREEs. Every day, in every basketball game, you can see people taking (and making) threes. Just 'cause you are good at it doesn't (to me) really make it a "signature" shot. Kareem's skyhook, *that* was a signature shot.

• 21A: It locks locks into place (GEL)— "lock" is way too strong a word to describe what GEL does. I know the wordplay seems fun, "locks locks," I get it, but "locks" conveys something much more secure. In fact, it implies a mechanical device, like a hair clip (or something like it), far more than it does GEL.
• 43A: Challenge for a person drawing lots? (ART TEST) — If you are drawing lots (i.e. a lot), then is the "test" really going to be challenging? Presumably you've practiced. Also, do ART TESTs ... exist? Outside of those weird old ads where you were supposed to draw, like, a turtle, and then send it in to be judged to see if you have "talent" so you could then pay to take some correspondence course? Do you know what I'm talking about? This thing—this is what I think of when I see ART TEST:

[Did a turtle write this puzzle?]

• 3D: Popular Thanksgiving item (SWEET POTATO) — just one? Do you all just have ... a whole-ass SWEET POTATO? I've only ever had them (at Thanksgiving) in mashed form. Not a discrete, singular SWEET POTATO in sight.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. Absolutely exhaustive breakdown of the Harry Potter author's descent into anti-trans derangement can be found in this Glamour article. Her earliest comments on the subject of trans people come out sounding almost reasonable, but as time passes, yeesh. It gets ugly. Still, this is the best quote I've read about the situation (esp. the last bit)—from Natalie Wynn (quoted in the Glamour article):

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.  

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