It’s vera soothing / THU 3-19-26 / Voice of the modern age / Master class? / Certain fatty acids, informally / ___ Virtue, three-time gold medalist ice dancer / Exploiting an I.R.S. loophole, e.g. / Word with napkin or nose / Where to find the towns Bigfoot and Tarzan / Operation Neptune, familiarly / Moon that’s a neighbor of Ganymede and Io / Beginning of the spelling of “Hera”

Constructor: John Kugelman

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: OFFSIDES (64A: Certain hockey and soccer infractions … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled and shaded squares) — in order to make sense of the theme answers, you have to take “off” the “sides” (i.e. ignore the shaded square at the front and the circled square at the end); also, the squares that have been taken “off” spell out different “sides” (shaded squares = FRIES, circled squares = SALAD):

Theme answers:

• FOODLESS (17A: A boatload)
• ROMANIA (25A: Resident of Muscat)
• IF AT ALL (33A: Like some flaws)
• EMERITA (45A: ___ badge)
• STORMED (51A: Crooner Mel)

Word of the Day: GOD TIER (21D: Master class?) — 

superior — surpassing others in quality or achievementSlangUS

• The graphics in this game are god tier.  

• elite — belonging to the best or most skilled group
  • His skills in chess are god tier. (Reverso)

• • •

Second day in a row where I finished with an “Oh I see what you did there…” but found the actual solving experience kind of a drag. I think I liked discovering yesterday’s hidden bingo calls a little more than discovering today’s “sides”—that was a real aha, whereas noticing FRIES and SALAD just got an “oh, OK.” I could see that the “sides” of the words did nothing related to the clues, so when I was done I thought “well these had better spell something.” And sure enough. There’s something kind of *shrug* about SALAD and FRIES. Again, I can appreciate the intricate architecture of the puzzle, but solving it was fussy and awkward. And some of the words barely seemed like words. Actually, here I’m mainly talking about FOODLESS (a “word” my software is currently underlining in livid “are-you-sure?” red). I have no problem understanding what FOODLESS means, of course, but I can’t say I’ve heard anyone use it. I’ve probably also never heard anyone say CROSSEST. Again, I am familiar with how basic English suffixes work, I’ve just never heard anyone use the superlative form of “cross.” I’ve heard of Omega-3s, but never just OMEGAS (62A: Certain fatty acids, informally). That may be all for the “is that really a word?” category, but there was other iffiness. Not one but two prepositional phrases? (IN SONG, ON LSD) [days without LSD reference: 0; consecutive days with an LSD reference: 3!!]. Three ISMs!?! (well, two -ISMs and an -IST => DEISM, REALISM, DADAIST). Perhaps the most awkward thing for me was the revealer—I’m used to hearing “OFFSIDES” as the singular. I know it’s technically not—and that the very idea makes some football (i.e. soccer) fans mad—but at least some announcers must’ve been saying the singular with the “S” on the end because I’ve definitely heard it that way a lot. But that’s just a weird usage issue that I got tangled up in—the clue on the revealer is perfectly fine. I just wish I’d enjoyed everything pre-revealer a little more.

Two answers today were great, though. “LOOK, I GET IT…” definitely made me smile (12D: “Hey, no argument here”), and I love the expression GOD TIER, though the clue on it today was hard (21D: Master class?). GOD TIER is going to be hard enough for many solvers—I have a feeling that the older you are, the less familiar that answer is likely to be, as it originates in gaming—but put a “?” like that on it and Yikes. It’s funny that ELITE is also in the grid, since that’s essentially what GOD TIER means. Super ELITE. A tier (or “class”) for the best players (or “masters”). Hence, a “master class.” Clever, tough. Although now that I think about it, I usually hear GOD TIER used adjectivally, and the clue today has it as a noun. Huh. Whatever, I’ll let it slide. I didn’t have any significant trouble beyond parsing those unclued theme answers (FOODLESS! Who could’ve seen FOODLESS coming!?). The only “???” moments I had involved (surprise!) name-y trivia! A famous ice dancer? Yeah, my ice dancer knowledge is, like ice, zero (degrees Celsius). TESSA? If you say so (54D: ___ Virtue, three-time gold medalist ice dancer). I think I actually knew the other names, now that I think about it, except … and it’s a big “except” … well, all I can say is today is the day that I learned that Mr. Hammer is an ARMIE and not an ARNIE (36D: Actor Hammer). That “N” definitely gummed things up for a bit, as I tried to figure out what kind of “badge” started with an “N.” “… is there a NEHRU badge? If there’s a NEHRU jacket, maybe there’s a NEHRU badge? Or … a NASAL badge? NAVAL badge? That’s a little more promising.” Etc. etc. 

Bullets:

• 34D: Choice words (AND/OR) — I don’t love AND/OR as an answer for [Choice words] — “or” is the only one of those words truly reflecting “choice,” though I guess AND/OR does, ultimately, mean x or y or both, and when you put it like that … those look more like options. I suppose we should all just be glad (and/or sad) that ANDOR didn’t get a Star Wars clue.

• 1A: Exploiting an I.R.S. loophole, e.g. (TAX DODGE) — real part-of-speech confusion here, for me. “Exploiting” is a gerund, thus a noun, thus perfectly parallel to TAX DODGE, and yet I kept wanting a present participle (i.e. “-ING” word) as the answer.
• 27A: Clothes that are ready to be thrown away (RAGS) — no no no, come on. You might use old clothes as RAGS (crosswords taught me that), but unless you are a Dickensian orphan, the clothes you still wear are (likely?) not actually RAGS, however worn out they are. And if you are a Dickensian orphan, no way you’re throwing those clothes away!
• 2D: It’s vera soothing (ALOE) — ugh, this puzzle’s ear for “puns” is tuneless. See also that (slightly better) SAMOA clue (51D: Nation whose name sounds like a plea for seconds).
• 27D: Word with napkin or nose (RING) — I figure you get one of these “word with” clues per puzzle. This puzzle went too far and did a second one (55D: Word after finger or poke). That’s an editor fail. 
• 18A: How Jean Valjean repeatedly breaks out in “Les Miserables” (IN SONG) — what the hell kind of clue is this? How else is he going to “break out”? IN A RASH? IN HIVES?

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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