Dystopian sci-fi film of 1997 / FRI 4-19-24 / Absolute ___ (big and strong person, in modern slang) / TV journalist Tur / Bill with Ben Franklin on it, slangily / Zoetrope creations / 1999 comedy in which Alanis Morissette plays God

Constructor: Kate Hawkins

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: OMNI (38A: Onetime magazine that covered science fiction) —

Omni was a science and science fiction magazine published for domestic American and UK markets. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. It was published as a print version between October 1978 and 1995. The first Omni e-magazine was published on CompuServe in 1986 and the magazine switched to a purely online presence in 1996. It ceased publication abruptly in late 1997, following the death of co-founder Kathy Keeton; activity on the magazine's website ended the following April. // Omni was founded by Kathy Keeton and her long-time collaborator and future husband Bob Guccione, the publisher of  Penthouse magazine. The initial concept came from Keeton, who wanted a magazine "that explored all realms of science and the paranormal, that delved into all corners of the unknown and projected some of those discoveries into fiction". (wikipedia)

• • •

A triviafest that was way out of my wheelhouse. Well, not way out. I was lucky enough to have heard the phrase "Absolute UNIT," (18A: Absolute ___ (big and strong person, in modern slang)) and I remembered tertiary Othello character CASSIO, and that GATTACA existed (and how to spell it) (13D: Dystopian sci-fi film of 1997), and that Inside Out had emotions as characters, but I forgot OMNI existed (in erst-en times) and I'm just going to have to accept that some portion of the world is going to continue watching network TV (and TV news, dear god, why?), but I ... am not. Have not for a while. Who's on SNL?? Billions of people (give/take) have been cast members by now, I have no idea. Somebody? A person's name? Is that it? Great. And "TV journalist," no way, no hope. That was the one that really got me today, because I wrote in FLAP for 8A: Blowback (merriam-webster dot com: FLAP def. 6a. a state of excitement or agitation: TIZZY, UPROAR). It's the UPROAR meaning of FLAP that my brain was clearly thinking of when it chose that word as the answer to 8A: Blowback (FLAK). Obviously KATY is a more namelike name than PATY, but look, if you give me 11D: TV journalist ___ Tur, I don't know ... I've never known a "Tur," I don't know what country of origin that name has, and for all I know, people there have names like PATY. Maybe it's a weird form of "Patty / Patti" or maybe it's some derivative of "Patel," I dunno. But FLAP felt right and that was that. Had to track down that error and that meant running every Across, then starting in on the Downs, stopping at PATY and thinking, "OK, if anything looks suspicious, it's that," and then figuring out my error. More embarrassing for me: I finished the puzzle and had no idea what PGS could mean? (5A: Things attached to spines: Abbr.). Book spines were the first thing I considered and *still* I had no idea. I sincerely googled "pgs" and got only movie ratings, and then tried again and got "Preimplantation Genetic Screening" (!); only after going to a wiki site for abbrevs. did I see that it just meant "pages." The abbr. for "pages" in my world is "pp." Probably in other worlds too. That was one of the more bizarre post-solve googling adventures I've ever been on.

Fridays continue to play like Saturdays for me. This one just did not have enough marquee answers to make the squeeze worth the juice. I count two proper marquee answers. Two? That's at least four too few. VIBRAPHONE and ANIMATIONS are long(ish), and they're fine, but they are not what I would call "marquee"—you need to be splashy, original, fun, some combination of those, to qualify as a "marquee" answer, and today there's just "I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY" and "SOMETHING CAME UP," with only the latter of those two really landing (my one Whoosh moment of the solve). "I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY" really wants to be "I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY" (at least that's the expression my brain was shouting at me when I got the ALL DAY part). The version in the puzzle is fine, just ... formal. So that's two marquee answers, only one of which really hit the mark for me. The rest of the grid is solid enough, for sure, but between the lack of long flashy answers and the insistence on leaning so heavily into pop culture trivia (including for ordinary words like SADNESS, DOGMA, OMNI), this one just didn't resonate with me the way late-week puzzles often do (and the way Fridays used to—I miss fun Fridays; Saturday has taken over as my favorite day of the week this year, pretty solidly).

I loved seeing SOJU (it's been 12 years since its last NYTXW appearance) (51D: Korea's national drink) and I appreciate the effort to be current with HUNDO (49D: Bill with Ben Franklin on it, slangily*), and that clue on UNIT. I didn't know Sadie Hawkins dances were called SADIES, but that was easy to infer. The part of the grid that was hardest for me was the NW. AHAB was a gimme, but after that ... oof. Don't think of ADVIL as a hangover "remedy," no idea who the HEIDI is, "?" clue on ABBOT so no way, and then ... well, I had the "B" at 4D: Cutting insult so obviously that was gonna be BARB ... sigh. I am a big fan of Lionel Hampton and Milt "Bags" Jackson—got a Lionel Hampton CD in the car right now—and I still didn't get VIBRAPHONE right away. I think I got "marimba" confused with "maraca." And then DEBUG ... well, I might've got that, but BARB seemed unimpeachable, so ... train wreck up there. I went clear across the grid without getting any real traction until I finally hit on good ol' EDEN Prairie, Minnesota (25D). EDEN IDEA BEST PLEBE EASE etc. and finally I was off and running. Well, walking, anyway. Sometimes jogging, but mostly walking.

Bullet points:

• 29D: "Alas!" ("AH, ME!") — this remains execrable, one of the stupidest and worst non-things you can put in your grid. I judge it extremely hard. It should be deleted from all wordlists everywhere. Just awful (and the last thing I got today—not what you'd call a fabulous finish).
• 14A: Shell company? (CREW) — the complement of people (company) in a racing shell. I briefly thought this was short for J. CREW, and that they had somehow added a shell to their logo (??).
• 15A: Concept in holistic medicine (AURA) — this is goofy. Does anyone with the word "medicine" anywhere near their names sincerely talk about AURAs? Come on.
• 26D: Choice (BEST) — "Choice" is being used adjectivally here. Think meat. Or think something else, if you prefer. Actually, don't think meat, since the BEST meat is actually "Prime," not "Choice."
• 35D: Surprise, F.B.I.-style (BUST IN ON) — boo to police violence in my puzzle. There are nicer, funnier ways to clue this that don't involve the cops.

Enjoy your Friday. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*re: 49D: Bill with Ben Franklin on it, slangily (HUNDO) — why "Ben"? no need for "Ben" here; "Franklin" is enough. You don't need "Ben" for the shortening or slang part of the answer either, since "slangily" has you covered. Now if you'd just opted for [Benjamin], that would've been completely acceptable—much harder, probably, but still correct, as "Benjamin" is in fact slang for a $100 bill

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Thrice-remade movie / THU 4-18-24 / Saber-toothed tiger in the "Ice Age" movies / Bloomers worn around one's head? / Acre on the ocean floor / Ascent stage for a bird / First name in objectivism / Perfume name with an accent

Constructor: David Kwong

Relative difficulty: Medium

[sorry about all the blue eyes in the grid—I shut my puzzle before taking a screenshot so I refilled the grid with "Reveal All" rather than type it all in again]

THEME: A STAR IS BORN (A STAR IS "B" OR "N") (63A: Thrice-remade movie ... or, when parsed as six words, a hint to the theme clues in this puzzle) — theme clues all start with stars (asterisks), which you have to imagine as either "B"s or "N"s in order to make sense of the clues:

Theme answers:

• ELECTION DAY (17A: *Allot time) (Ballot)
• MOTHER OF PEARL (23A: *Acre on the ocean floor) (Nacre)
• RIVIERA (40A: *Ice is found on it) (Nice)
• THE CRETAN BULL (53A: *Ovid of Greek mythology) (Bovid)
• MCCARTNEY (10D: *Assist in a foursome) (Bassist)
• HATCHLING (32D: *Ascent stage for a bird) (Nascent)

Word of the Day: THE CRETAN BULL (53A) —

In Greek mythology, the Cretan Bull (Ancient Greek: Κρὴς ταῦρος, romanized: Krḕs taûros) was the bull Pasiphaë fell in love with, giving birth to the Minotaur. // Minos was king in Crete. In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, he prayed Poseidon send him a snow-white bull as a sign. Poseidon sent Minos the bull, with the understanding that bull would be sacrificed to the god. Deciding that Poseidon's bull was too fine of a specimen to kill, Minos sent the bull to his herds and substituted another, inferior bull for sacrifice. Enraged, Poseidon had Aphrodite curse Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, causing her to fall in love with the bull. She subsequently gave birth to the half-man, half-bull, Minotaur. Poseidon passed on his rage to the bull, causing him to lay waste to the land. (wikipedia)

• • •

Puzzle felt easy but that doesn't mean I wasn't several steps behind the theme at all times. Theme answers were discernible and (mostly) familiar things, and almost all non-theme fill in the puzzle was short and (therefore?) easy to get hold of, so I moved through the grid without much problem despite having no real idea why the starred answers were what they were (their clues appearing to make no sense). I was well into this puzzle (about half done) before I finally figured out the star trick, and then only because I was forced to—could not think of any answer ending in -RTNEY (was not thinking of names), and there was no way to get into that NE section without following that themer up there, so I had to jump into the void in the far NE and try to get that section with no help from crosses. Luckily I knew 12D: Anna May WONG, Hollywood's first Chinese American film celebrity, so I was able to hack my way through that section without much trouble, then had a "D'oh" moment when I pieced together MCCARTNEY. Only because that section forced me to pay attention to the themers did I stop to think about how "*Assist" could get you to MCCARTNEY and, well, it didn't take long. The * was a B! OK! Stars are letters! What do they spell!? Nope, they're all "B"s! Ballot! Bassist! Why are they "B"s!? Whoops, nope, Nacre, that's an "N" ... so they spell nothing and they're not all "B"s, what the ...? Best not think about it. And I didn't. When I finally got to the revealer (hard because the "N" in BORN was in SNIT and yikes, no idea (61D: Cross fit?)), I thought "Oh, the stars are "B" "O" "R" and "N" I guess" (clearly I hadn't been paying close attention). It was only after I'd finished and literally counted the words in "A STAR IS B, O, R, N" ("7!? But the clue says 6!") that I realized "OR" was one word, and that the stars were simply either a "B" OR an "N."

I think the theme's ingenious. I am less fond of the grid, which, first of all, is sooooo heavily segmented, with  the huge NE and SW sections accessible only by the tiniest of passageways (through the themers), and the very far NE and SW sections really truly sequestered away, and the puzzle in general being so chopped up that you're virtually overrun with 3-letter words—only a couple of non-theme answers (up top and below) are  longer than 5. Lots of hacking through less-than-lovely short stuff, with severely impeded flow due to the grid's segmenting. But the segmentation and preponderance of short gunk don't prevent the theme from shining through. I think it's all worth it, is what I'm saying—the theme is dense enough and weird enough to make the puzzle's infelicities tolerable. 

Hardest parts for me were the "?" clues, specifically that SNIT clue, and then the AIM clue (34D: Sightsee?), which I guess just has to do with putting the sights of your ... gun? ... on something? If your gun has a "sight" then you "see" through it in order to AIM it. As for the SNIT clue (61D: Cross fit?), my brain went all over hell and gone trying to make sense of that one. The craziest thing I thought was that the clue wanted me to tell them what Jesus was wearing on the cross ("fit" being slang for "outfit"). I was like "dang, that's kind of morbid ... wait, what *was* he wearing? Some cloth? Rags? RAGS? Nope, doesn't work." Other difficulty in this puzzle came from those far far NE and SW sections, which I couldn't get into easily, the first time because I didn't understand the theme (see above), the second time (SW), because I only know the word HATCHLING if you show it to me. That is, if you'd asked me to give you a word meaning "nascent stage for a bird," I'm not sure how long it wouldn't taken me (without help) to come up with HATCHLING. I had -CHLING and still couldn't come up with it (!?). Just a total brain meltdown. Lastly, difficultywise, there was THE CRETAN BULL. I've known the story of Pasiphaë and the birth of the Minotaur for decades, but I had no, none, zero, absolutely no idea that the damn bull had a name. I got THE CRETAN BULL and thought "wait wait ... do you mean THE MINOTAUR? It's called THE MINOTAUR! What the hell kind of moniker is THE CRETAN BULL?!" Turns out it's just the Minotaur's dad. Wow. Deep cut, mythologically speaking. Also, "Bovid," great word. I use it occasionally as a late guess in Quordle when I want to burn those back-of-the-line consonants

Bullet points:

• 19A: The False Good Samaritan, e.g. (CON) — no idea. I search it and get crossword sites. I guess this is a type of CON, i.e. scam.
• 29A: It'll all shake out (SALT) — Will it? All of it? Citation needed.
• 3D: Saber-toothed tiger in the "Ice Age" movies (DIEGO) — no idea. This is a very Hollywoody puzzle! Thrice-remade movies and movie tigers and Hollywood Walk of Fame markers and Anna May WONG. Also, RIAN Johnson (I happen to know the constructor and RIAN are friends, so that one actually made me smile)
• 5D: Bloomers worn around one's head? (LEI) — this is great, truly great, and I don't think it even needs a "?"
• 6D: Visitor from a faraway place (UFO) — not necessarily, no. The fact that it can't be ID'd doesn't mean it's from outer space. Could be some kind of kite or dirigible or maybe a pterodactyl escaped from Jurassic Park, you don't know!
• 35D: Name that's an anagram of BREAD (DEBRA) — ah, we're still doing this, I see. Truly the "I give up" of name-cluing. Somewhere, someone named DREAB is sad. "Finally, recognition! ... oh."

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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