Constructor: Blake Slonecker

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Roger PENROSE (16A: Roger___, Physics Nobelist known for tilings) —

Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS HonFInstP (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and University College London.

Penrose has contributed to the mathematical physics of general relativity and cosmology. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1988 Wolf Prize in Physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking for the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems, and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”. He is regarded as one of the greatest living physicists, mathematicians and scientists, and is particularly noted for the breadth and depth of his work in both natural and formal sciences. (wikipedia)

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On my puzzle print-out this morning, I’ve made dark green lines to section off the NW and SE corner. Those corners I’ve labeled “ENDURED.” The remaining middle chunk, running from SW to NE, I’ve labeled “ENJOYED.”  Hard to overstate how much “flow” matters to me in all puzzles, but especially the tough themeless ones. Really hate being stuck in an airless corner with shortish, garbage-ish fill, waiting for the experience to be over. Really love being out in the open, where words whoosh through one another, and I have lots of room to move. The NW and SE corners feel like afterthoughts—these smaller, cut-off bits that were taking up space and had to be filled but … what are you gonna do with a bunch of crossing 7s? Four 7s crossing four 7s? Nothing good, is the answer, probably. Or, if the 7s themselves are OK (as they are in the NW), man are you gonna pay for them. Today I paid the onerous TINED ANIL EVAL tax. The 7s may be cleanish up there, but the highs just aren’t high enough to warrant the TINED ANIL EVAL tax. But then, once you finally crawl out of that stuffy upper chamber … freedom! I definitely shouted a dirty word on my way out, but it was a dirty word of joy!:

[“F— yeah!”]

That SW section feels like the entire reason this puzzle exists. I’ll take DIRTY WORDS and GENE WILDER with the RED NOSE at the NAVY PIER. Throw in some GRASS and some SONGS and thank you very much. This corner deserves to be ADMIRED because it is the definition of Clean and somehow also Exciting. Mr. SANDMAN (“Yes?”) bring me a GENE! There’s not one entry in the entire SW corner that I would shoot into space (or, if you’re 3-Down, “into space”). The NE corner doesn’t fare as well, but how could it, really? Still, you’ve got CON ARTISTS in your DRUG TRIALS, and that’s pretty cool. I choked a bit on the absurd prepositional phrase IN ARMOR, but otherwise, things look fine up there (no idea who Roger PENROSE is, but that’s obviously on me—see “Word of the Day,” above). But before I went up to that NE corner, I decided to deal with the SE. I suspected it would be about as enjoyable as its NW twin, and I just wanted to get it out of the way. And sure enough, there’s little to love down there. Worse, there’s the “Information Superhighway”-era neologism, NETIZEN, which never fails to make me cringe (35D: Web browser?). Everyone’s stuck in the Web now. You can bury this self-important aspirational coinage six feet deep as far as I’m concerned. TATA, NETIZEN, and take TERABIT with you (I imagine TERABIT is the name of NETIZEN’s dog … actually, leave TERABIT, I like dogs; I’ll rename him PIGLET and give him a good home).

Several wrong-answer adventures today, starting with SARA LEE, bam, right across the top, 1-

Across! (1A: Snack brand that originated in 1919). I was like “Ooh, 1919! Was SARA LEE a suffragette!? Cool!” Alas, no, SARA LEE was a HOSTESS. I also thought [Pooh’s bestie] was RABBIT (this is what happens when the only letter you have to go on is “T” and also you have completely forgotten your Pooh lore because you are no longer six). 

I thought the [Site of Chicago’s Centennial Wheel] was some kind of PARK, and I forgot that you actually say the damn “s” in (W.E.B.) “Du Bois”! (“dew BOYZ”), so the clue for ASONANT had me going “De-BRIE, dew-BWAH, de-BRIE, dew-BWAH … I don’t hear any ‘S’s! How are they different!?” (51A: Like the “s” in debris (but not Du Bois)). I think we’ve covered all my notable struggles today. Let’s see, what clues might need explaining? Well, a “safety” is a defensive position in American football, so tackling is sometimes part of the job description (4D: Safety, often => TACKLER). ROTO is short for “Rotisserie” (45D: Fantasy sports format, informally)—Rôtisserie League Baseball was apparently named after the NYC restaurant where it was first played (La Rotisserie Française). All the other clues today seem remarkably straightforward. I mean, appropriately vague and tough for a Saturday, but mostly self-explanatory once you get the answers. Hope you enjoyed this one, or at least enjoyed the creamy middle, as I did. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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