Greek letter that refers to a lone wolf, in Gen-Z slang / FRI 10-10-25 / Nonet of Greek mythology / Part of a film studio's overhead? / A.Q.I. measurer / Barrage with insults, in online lingo / Company whose stock price cratered in the early 2000s / Key ingredients in con you bing, a savory Chinese pancake

Constructor: Colin Adams

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: LAVERNE Cox (37D: Actress/activist Cox) —

Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTQ advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category, and the first to be nominated for an Emmy Award since composer Angela Morley in 1990. In 2015, she won a Daytime Emmy Award in Outstanding Special Class Special as executive producer for Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word, making her the first trans woman to win the award. In 2017, she became the first transgender person to play a transgender series regular on U.S. broadcast TV as Cameron Wirth on CBS's Doubt.

Cox appeared as a contestant on the first season of VH1's reality show I Want to Work for Diddy, and co-produced and co-hosted the VH1 makeover television series TRANSform Me. In April 2014, Cox was honored by GLAAD with its Stephen F. Kolzak Award for her work as an advocate for the transgender community. In June 2014, Cox became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Cox is the first transgender person to appear on the cover of a Cosmopolitan magazine, with her February 2018 cover on the South African edition. She is also the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds. (wikipedia)

• • •

The highs here just aren't high enough. The grid is solid. It's fine. But the marquee stuff doesn't seem to have a lot of energy to give. This just seems very tame and unambitious next to most themelesses. Usually you can tell which answers were the "seed" answers, the ones that the puzzle was built around, the ones that the constructor had set aside to use someday because they're fun / cool / unusual. I can't tell what those answers were today. KICKED ASS? BEACH BUM? ALAKAZAM? LIP FILLER? These are the most interesting things in the grid, but these answers are also where interestingness tops out. It's hard to get too excited about OPEN SPACE or RARE BIRD or NFL TEAMS or RETAPES. Again, the grid holds together well, it's competently made, there simply aren't any proper highlights. Also, no real difficulty. And a lot of the fill runs both short (3-4-5) and either overcommon or somewhat ugly (RUNAT ADELE CANI BOK MOS ADUE HOU ILOST USEME ENRON). Lots of filler, not enough killer. 

[38D: Part of a film studio's overhead?]

There were only two points in the puzzle where I had even a moment's hesitation. Trying to turn the corner from the NW up into the NE, I stalled when I didn't know Kaitlin OLSON (I've seen her name, for sure, but that's one of those shows where the world zigged and I zagged—I think maybe I've seen one episode), and then instead of PICO I had NANO at 7D: One-trillionth. NANO is (merely) one-billionth. The NANO error did give me my one memorable, semi-fun moment of the puzzle, when I wanted the ingredient in the savory Chinese pancake to be ONION-something, and while wrong, the correct answer was ultimately in the ONION family—a weird coincidence, which was followed by an even weirder coincidence, which was that ONION actually was in the puzzle, just down below (52A: Bit of a fast-food side order = ONION RING). This weird ONION mistake that revealed near-symmetrical onions in the puzzle was maybe the highlight of my solve, and it was all a bizarre accident. The other moment of hesitation that I had came in the parfait answer. Apparently I don't eat enough parfaits, or even see them, or really know what they are. I think of them like a layered dessert of some type in a tallish glass dish (the kind that allows you to see the layers). And this appears to be basically correct. Somehow I didn't know OATS were involved, at all, let alone as a topping. Just ... uncooked oats? Granola oats? Why would you eat these? Was ice cream not available?

Not seeing any tough spots today. Also not seeing many tough or tricky clues. The "?" clues are all pretty transparent. A BEACH BUM "bakes" in the sun (26A: Someone who spends a lot of time baking?). A CENT is one out of a hundred ... pennies in a dollar (not a very evocative clue) (13D: One out of a hundred?). A BOOM MIC is used "overhead," i.e. above the actors, ideally out of frame (38D: Part of a film studio's overhead?). ANT FARMS are ["Colonial homes?"] because ants live in social groups called "colonies." A+ is a blood type. I don't really understand how your knowledge is wasted in BAR TRIVIA (49A: Where all of your knowledge might be wasted?). I get that your teammates might be wasted, or you might, but your knowledge ... that doesn't really make sense. I see the wordplay the puzzle is going for, obviously, but the phrasing doesn't quite work. (Has anyone ever competed in BAR TRIVIA under the pseudonym BART RIVIA? I'm guessing yes). Then there's the one "!" clue today, which is weirdly in the (imagined) voice of the (inanimate) answer (34A: We're booked! = ROOMS). The "!" signifies that you take the clue extremely literally. Rooms are, in fact, booked (at hotels, motels, Holiday Inns, e.g.). 

Bullets:

• 1A: Viking of cartoon fame (HAGAR) — a gimme if you're old and maybe even if you're not. This is Monday stuff. It is not 1-Across on a Friday stuff.
• 21A: Christopher Nolan movie with a palindromic name (TENET) — when you say an answer is palindromic, you immediately make it twice as easy to get as it would otherwise be. Every letter. (except the middle letter, obvs) gets you a bonus letter! I don't remember if I saw TENET or not (which is how I feel about most Christopher Nolan movies post-Memento). There's just something slightly sad about TENET sitting over TENT, which now looks like an emaciated TENET. "How 'bout we do TENET again, just ...without one of the 'E's? Sound fun?"
• 30A: The emperor and his subjects in Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove" (INCAS) — another moment where I was unexpectedly entertained by my own error. I had the -CAS and was like "wait ... that movie was about ORCAS? That can't be r— ..."

• 8D: A.Q.I. measurer (EPA) — A.Q.I. is "air quality index." I'm not sure the EPA measures it anymore. I'm not sure the EPA does much of anything anymore. Well, there's a government shutdown right now (right? who can tell with this government...), so almost certainly nothing's happening at the EPA right now. But even if the government were open, I don't see "oversight" of any kind as a real priority for this admin.
• 24D: Greek letter that refers to a lone wolf, in Gen-Z slang (SIGMA) — I like a lot of Gen-Z slang, but this I just rolled my eyes at. This is some pathetic right-wing "manosphere" nonsense. If you really wanna know more about this meaning of SIGMA, here you go. (It is apparently mostly used as a pejorative now, though Gen Alpha apparently knows it primarily as a nonsense term from this one time when a character asked "what the SIGMA?" on Spongebob Squarepants (!???)). The puzzle gave me [Greek letter], that was enough, moving on ...

Actually, not moving on at all. Done. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Plastic explosive used in many demolitions / THU 10-9-25 / Cutesy name for a certain leviathan / Some ancient Italians / Storage device that has fallen out of fashion / One of 300 at the National Mall / Fictional character who says "I am a brain ... The rest of me is a mere appendix"

Constructor: Freddie Cheng

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: ALL THUMBS (58A: Klutzy ... and a hint to 17-, 25-, 35- and 49-Across) — clues describe thumb positions and answers indicate what those different positions mean; you basically just have to insert "thumb(s)" after the number in each theme clue:

Theme answers:

• "NO WAY, JOSE" (17A: Two [thumbs] down)
• "I NEED A RIDE" (25A: One [thumb] out)
• NOTHING TO DO (35A: Two [thumbs] moving around each other)
• "WORKS FOR ME" (49A: Two [thumbs] up)

Word of the Day: SEMTEX (13D: Plastic explosive used in many demolitions) —

Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications.

Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B 1 and then under the "Semtex" designation since 1964, labeled as SEMTEX 1A, since 1967 as SEMTEX H, and since 1987 as SEMTEX 10.

Originally developed for Czechoslovak military use and export, Semtex eventually became popular with armed groups and insurgents because, prior to the 2000s, it was extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103. (wikipedia)

• • •

Took me longer than it should have to figure out how the theme works today, though maybe I'm being too hard on myself. By "longer than it should have," I mean that I got the revealer and didn't understand it right away. At that point, I had only one theme answer in place ("NO WAY, JOSE!"), and I just didn't know what to do with ALL THUMBS. With the "ALL" part in particular. Didn't help that "Two down" looked like it might have some kind of crossword meaning, like maybe 2-Down was involved (?). I think I had to get "WORKS FOR ME" in order to finally see the whole thumbs-up / thumbs-down thing. Even then, I had NOTHING ___ at the center answer and no idea what it could be. Two [thumbs] moving around each other??? I actually tried to do this, physically, at my desk here, just to see if anything would come to me, and I quickly realized I had no idea what "moving around each other" even meant. Moving around each other ... how? I was kind of holding my thumbs toward each other and then cycling them around each other, almost like I was pedaling a bike with my hands. The word you really need here is "twiddling," but maybe [Two twiddling] was thought to be either too much of a giveaway or just too weird-looking. Anyway, "moving around each other" did nothing for me. I think I had "NOTHING TO IT!" there for a bit. Which brings me to the main reason that central answer just doesn't work. All the other answers are clear, standalone, familiar expressions that one might say, and the thumb gestures stand in for those expressions more or less accurately. "NOTHING TO DO" is not a common spoken phrase the way the others are. It's a state of being, as in "I have NOTHING TO DO." I can imagine someone saying "NOTHING TO DO," but that's very different from its being a meaningful expression on its own, the way, say, "NO WAY, JOSE" is. With the others ... I don't think of "NO WAY JOSE" and "two thumbs down" as equivalent, but they're ballpark, both expressing a negative reaction, and the others work at least equally well, so OK. But NOTHING TO DO is an outlier, and an awkward one.

The cluing felt hard today, or hardish, though the only thing in the puzzle that I didn't actually know, in the end, was SEMTEX. Oh, and EFT, which I just keep forgetting, apparently. Electronic funds transfer?? Yes. I am old school, in that I expect my EFTs to be Newt-onian (an EFT is a juvenile newt, as any longtime solver knows). This is only the fourth financial EFT, as against 68 amphibious EFTs in the Shortz Era alone (192 all time). I had to work a little to get LATINS, which is deeply ironic, as I just finished teaching the Aeneid for the umpteenth time, and it's the LATINS, led by King (... wait for it...) Latinus, that Aeneas encounters when he lands in Italy, and the Latin king's daughter, Lavinia, whom he must eventually wed (after a stupid war that goes on for five books just 'cause Juno wants to make it all as painful as possible, even though she can't stop it (because Fate!)). I do not really buy DO HARM as a standalone phrase. DO NO HARM, yes, that is a phrase, a very specific and meaningful phrase where the Hippocratic oath is concerned. DO HARM sounds like the terse direction of a sadistic interplanetary emperor. The rest of the fill seems fine—no strong reactions.

Bullets:

• 32A: One of 300 at the National Mall (ACRE) — at first I was like "... STEP?" Like maybe that's how many steps there were to the top of the Washington Monument, or the Lincoln Memorial (lol that would put Lincoln very, very high up). 
• 39A: Marvel series focused on Thor's brother (LOKI) — so ... just [Thor's brother], then. Not sure why all the other words are necessary if you're just gonna end up at [Thor's brother].
• 55A: "The Burghers of Calais" sculptor (RODIN) — No idea what this is. I know that RODIN is a sculptor, and that's all I had to know. Let's look at some art, shall we?

[oh hey, it's at The Met: "The monument commemorates the heroism of six leading citizens (burghers) of the French city of Calais. In the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, they offered their lives to the English king in exchange for the lifting of his siege of the city. By portraying their despair and haunted courage in the face of death, Rodin challenged contemporary heroic ideals and made an event from the past seem immediate and real."]

• 35D: Annual breast cancer awareness observance (NO BRA DAY) — I did not know this was a thing, or still a thing. Seems like an impractical option for many women. According to wikipedia, "The day is controversial as some see it as sexualizing and exploiting women's bodies while at the same time belittling a serious disease." I misread the clue as [Annual breast cancer awareness month] and, having the "NO-," wrote in NOVEMBER (which fits ... it's wrong, but it fits). Breast Cancer Awareness Month is actually right now, October, and NO BRA DAY is next week (October 13)
• 39D: Heroine of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (LEONORA) — I must've seen LEONORA a bunch over the years, as an answer as well as in clues, because I plunked her down with just a few crosses despite knowing nothing about this opera.

• 48D: Cutesy name for a certain leviathan (NESSIE) — "leviathan" makes me think "whale," and I was like "did Ahab have a 'cutesy name' for Moby-Dick!? WHITIE?" But no, "leviathan" is just a gigantic (watery) creature, so ... the Loch Ness Monster, aka NESSIE.

[I own this cutesy Moby-Dick shirt—design by Kate Beaton]

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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