Traditional Mexican stew / THU 6-6-24 / Art style associated with Henri Rousseau / Beanpole material, often / "The most important architect of our age," according to Vanity Fair / Word that looks like an alternative to "tisn't"? /

Constructor: Michael Lieberman

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "I'VE CHANGED" (53A: "The old me is gone" ... or what happened between the first and second parts of 19-, 28-, 37- and 48-Across?) — wacky two-word phrases where the first word ends in -IVE and in the second word the "IVE" ... "changes" ... to "ES" ... (why "ES?" I do not know):

Theme answers:

• MASSIVE MASSES (19A: Services at a megachurch?)
• CURSIVE CURSES (28A: List in a fancy witchcraft guide?)
• PASSIVE PASSES (37A: What a tentative quarterback throws?)
• MISSIVE MISSES (48A: Long letters sent to the wrong person?)

Word of the Day: EMIL Nolde (30D: Expressionist painter Nolde) —

Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.

Nolde's intense preoccupation with the subject of flowers reflected his interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.

Even though his art was included in the Entartete Kunst exhibition of 1937, Nolde was a racist, anti-semite and a staunch supporter of Nazi Germany.

• • •

[Missives. Massive.]

This is one of the weakest Thursday themes I've (!) ever seen, which makes me think I must be missing something ... but I can't figure out what it is. I get that "IVE" changes from the first to the second part of the theme answers, but why does it change to "-ES"? That's what I don't get. Surely the transformation must be meaningful, I reasoned. So I sought for reason and continue to seek for reason, and find none. If the "IVE" had changed into something ... well, something, anything, anything that would lend coherence to the theme, then maybe enduring a bunch of tepidly wacky singsongy themers would've seemed worth it, but without that coherence, what I've got in front of me is a half-baked mess. Totally unworthy of a Thursday, or any day.  So I look forward to hearing what I'm missing, because if there's even slightly more complexity to this theme than what I can see at the moment, that would elevate the apparent quality of this theme considerably. The weakness of the theme answers isn't helping matters. It's hard to get excited about any of these answers—they are very easy to get, but there's nothing to them. They're preposterous, but not in a particularly funny way. Megachurches aren't typically Catholic, but the term "MASS" is, so that was ... weird. Also, passes can't be passive. You have to actively ... throw the ball, however weakly or ineffectually. I do like the word MISSIVE, so that last themer is probably my favorite, just on surface-level word interest alone, but on the whole, this is all very beige (with apologies to beige, which I'm sure is a very fine color in the right context).

The fill has more lows than highs (lots of ATESTS EXO ITPRO ESO-type filler), but there were at least a few answers that livened things up a bit. I like the puzzle's immersion in the art world. Nice to see Henri Rousseau here (last I saw him was in NYC somewhere, maybe MoMA? Yes, MoMA). I've (!) always liked the paintings of EMIL Nolde, so finding out (just now) that he was a Nazi sympathizer who tried to ingratiate himself to Hitler was pretty grim business. Of course (of course!) being a Nazi sycophant didn't pay off, and more of his work was included in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition of 1937 than that of any other artist. Unsurprisingly, he carefully hid his onetime support for Hitler from the art world in the postwar era, fashioning himself as a victim of Nazi persecution (not untrue, just ... not the whole story). Given his association with Nazism, I probably wouldn't cross his name with SHTETL in the future. Just a suggestion. (42A: Historical setting sought in "Everything Is Illuminated")

In addition to the art, you've got the architecture of Frank GEHRY, whose buildings are works of art themselves, and are frequently homes to some of the world's great artworks—see the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, for instance:

[43A: "The most important architect of our age," according to Vanity Fair]

From the world of food and drink, we have tasty POSOLE (15D: Traditional Mexican stew) and my beloved AMARO, a crucial ingredient in many cocktails, including the Black Manhattan (33A: Liqueur whose name translates as "bitter" in Italian). I generally prefer AMARO Montenegro, but I must have half a dozen AMARI (5!) in my liquor cabinet right now, including this one, which I bought on crossword appeal alone (ETNA!), though it turns out to be pretty damned good:

[AMARO dell'ETNA]

Both DEFIB (1A: Apparatus used in CPR training, informally) and GETGO (58A: Very beginning) add a little spice to the short stuff today. On the other hand we've got the intolerable SESH unfortunately elevated to marquee status by its inclusion in the somehow-even-more-intolerable GOSSIP SESH. You've also got the improbable comparative SERENER (41D: Like a Zen garden vis-à-vis a zoo) and the always-ugly-no-matter-how-you-clue-it SNOT (6A: Word that looks like an alternative to "tisn't"?). I like that the puzzle used the proper PROPHESIED (25D: Foretold) and not the awful PROPHESIZED (or the true abomination, PROPHECIZED). Not sure how I feel about PURPLE RICE (16A: Colorful grain). I want to like PURPLE RICE. I've had purple potatoes, not sure I've had ... no, I have had PURPLE RICE. I'm sure. Didn't leave much of an impression. I think I'm officially neutral on this one. ALAS, I'm not neutral on most of the fill, which skews a little crosswordesey and overcommon.

Bullets:

• 14A: Beanpole material, often (CANE) — the only way I know the (plant) term CANE is in the term "sugar CANE." I have no idea what a "Beanpole" even is besides a metaphor for a skinny person or else maybe that thing that Jack climbed up, but no, that's a beanstalk. This SNOT CANE NAIVE section was probably the thorniest thing in the grid for me, although the GUT USHERS POSE part took some work as well (ballparks have USHERS? ... yeah, come to think of it, I guess they do—I just think of ushing as being more of an indoor, theater-based activity). 
• 7D: Art style associated with Henri Rousseau (NAIVE) — side note: I don't think there should be any stray "IVE" letter strings in an "IVE"-based puzzle.
• 42D: Some sandals (SLIDES) — OK I don't know what these are. Clearly I don't wear sandals. Looks like SLIDES are just flipflops without the strap separating the big toe from the other toes. You just ... slide your foot in, I guess.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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Feeling that can be caused by the final three letters of this answer / WED 6-5-24 / "Obsequy" and "exequy" are fancy terms for these rites / Their drawers might contain drawers

Constructor: David Rockow

Relative difficulty: Easy (20:57 while teaching my boyfriend how to solve puzzles)

THEME: DUCKS IN A ROW — State of order that this puzzle fails to achieve? There are four types of ducks in this puzzle, whose names appear on two different lines-- i.e., they're not "in a row," because they're in two different rows.

Theme answers:

• FLAT EARTHER for [One who might object to the phrase "around the globe"]
• "TEA" combines with "L" on the line below to form TEAL
• SMALL ARMS for [Easy-to-carry weapons]
• "MALLAR" combines with "D" on the line above to form MALLARD
• SPIDERWEB for [Collection of fine threads]
• "E" on the line below combines with "IDER" to form EIDER
• LAND LUBBERS for [Unlikely sailors]
• "R" on the line above combines with "UBBER" to form RUBBER

Word of the Day: WESSEX (Bygone kingdom of ancient Britain) —

The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until England was unified in 927.

• • •

Hey folks, and happy Malaika MWednesday to all who celebrate! I found this puzzle to be very breezy, the slower time is because I solved it alongside my boyfriend who has been solving puzzles for only a couple of weeks now. I think it's very fun watch where he gets stuck and which clues are easy for him. Anyway, please let the record show that this is somehow the second Duck Puzzle that I have reviewed while subbing for Rex!!

I think this theme is very well-done and fitting-- sometimes it's hard to make the geometry of a theme answer line up with the wording of the revealer (a 15x15 crossword is soo constrained), but in this case the ducks quite literally are not in a row. My biggest complaint is that only two of terms are Known Ducks to me-- when I got TEAL early on, it didn't really help me figure out what was going on. (I was able to clock that EIDER is a bird because I'm familiar with "eiderdown" but didn't realize it was a duck til I got the central answer.) I also liked that RUBBER was saved for last because it's a little different than the others.

There was quite a lot of medium-length fill in here, and while most of it was fun (GRANDMA, PUFFIN, T-SHIRTS, ARMOIRES with the cute clue), I must call out DAIRYMAN because I simply refuse to believe that's a thing. When I go to the butcher, he is not my beefman!! When I get my produce, he is not my fruitman!! Am I totally off base here? Is this something that people know?? Maybe I'll ask my aunt who lives in Wisconsin.

I cannot believe puffins just look like this.... birds are crazy

Other tricky spots for me were HGT (a made up abbreviation, in my opinion), LYRA (I wanted "lyre," or at least a reference to His Dark Materials), and AER (I had no idea what AER Lingus is, although don't worry I did Google it after solving and... will probably immediately forget). It's impressive that in a grid so packed with theme material, there were only four entries that I wasn't a fan of! This is probably because David used a couple more black squares than average (themed puzzles tend to have around 38; this had 42), which is exactly what they're there for, in my opinion-- to make the rest of the entries smoother.

Bullets:

• [Mine is ⬛️⬛️⬛️-⬛️⬛️-⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️: Abbr.] for SSN— This was a great new clue for a frequently-seen entry
• [____-violence (really tearing into an Indian appetizer?)] for NAAN — Oh man I did not like this... so weird! Is it a pun? Is it trying to be a joke? Honestly I just think this is confusing and out of place.
• [Judo rank] for DAN — This was one of my final entries. I'm very unfamiliar with judo, and was looking for the entry to be something I was unfamiliar with, rather than a term I know by a different meaning. 
  

xoxo Malaika

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