Alternative to a spicy Dorito / THU 2-20-24 / Blue man group member? / Digital work fueled by machine learning, in brief / Who said "A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture" / Move after a touchdown / Lynchian or Felliniesque, say / Sensational, on Broadway / Virtual storefront in an online marketplace

Theme answers:

• TWENTY-ONE ACROSS (20A: This clue)
• FOURTEEN LETTERS (37A: This answer)
• WEDNESDAY PUZZLE (51A: This crossword)

Word of the Day: TAKIs (41A: Alternative to a spicy Dorito) —

Takis are a Mexican brand of flavored rolled tortilla chips produced by Barcel, a subsidiary of Grupo Bimbo since 2019. Fashioned after the taquito, it comes in numerous flavors, the best selling of which is the chili-lime "Fuego" flavor, sold in distinctive purple bags, introduced in 2006. Besides the rolled corn chips, Takis produces other snacks with the same flavor lines, including different potato chip varieties, corn "stix", popcorn, and peanuts.

Takis were invented in Mexico in 1999 and introduced to the United States in November 2001 (originally as Taquis, before being renamed to Takis in 2004) and Canada in 2015. Barcel originally intended to aim Takis towards a Hispanic demographic, but its popularity has quickly spread among Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

The one thing that keeps this puzzle theme above water is the fact that all the themers relate to the puzzle itself—that is, that the stuff that is "one off" is all part of a coherent set. I never really like the cutesy, precious, self-referential type of themes (which often strike me as smug and self-congratulatory, as if the puzzle were full of excessive self-regard), but today, the meta quality gives the theme coherence. I mean, there are infinite answers that could be clued in a way that is "one off," so you need something, and the puzzle itself ... will do nicely. The themers are also all fifteen letters long, so there's a physical, structural coherence to the themer set as well. That said, huge shrug—that is how I felt. To me, the answers were simply wrong, but they were easy to get, so I had a strong "who cares?" feeling while I was solving. And then because of the absurd revealer placement, I didn't see ONE-OFF until near the very very end, which would have been fine, ideal even, if the revealer had been really clever or crossword-related or anything. But it's just ... ONE ... OFF? Yeah, I see that. Obviously everything is ONE OFF? That's all you got? ONEOFF? Pffffffft. Major anticlimax. 

Further, the physical location of that revealer is one of two completely inexplicable choices made by this puzzle. So ... this puzzle is in English, and in English, we read left to right. Why in the world is the first part of ONE-OFF on the right side of the grid? Put ONE where BAS is, put OFF where NES is, and now the revealer reads correctly: top to bottom, left to right (ugh, just writing BAS and NES is reminding me of how unpleasant the non-theme part of this puzzle was). Was it really impossible to make ONE and OFF work in the much more sensible positions? Anyway, themewise, this puzzle ... let's say it makes the most (or a lot) of a pretty weak concept. Usually things are the other way around—great idea, poor execution. Today, weak idea, but ... good job getting the themer set to cohere as well as it does. Next time don't botch the revealer placement. Unforced error. Hell, with all those three-letter answers on the same rows as ONE and OFF, you had *tons* of placement options. Better to get creative and break symmetry completely (with ONE and OFF one atop the other, or on the same row, or even as successive answers) than do this awkward backward garbage.