Gridiron group rebooted in 2020 / MON 2-20-23 / Kitchen gadget for the health-conscious / What kosher seafood has that nonkosher seafood does not / Cocktail made with whiskey honey and lemon / Enthusiast's mag

Constructor: Emily Carroll

Relative difficulty: Easy (a Downs-only breeze, so I'm assuming a breeze in general)

THEME: FUSE BOXES (59A: Electrical panels found in older homes ... or what 18-, 24-, 35- and 53-Across do (regarding each half of each answer)?) — theme answers FUSE BOXES in that they unite two words that precede "box" in a familiar phrase:

Theme answers:

• SOAP OPERA (18A: Daytime television drama) (soapbox, opera box)
• JUICE PRESS (24A: Kitchen gadget for the health-conscious) (juice box, press box)
• TINDER MATCH (35A: Romantic prospect after swiping right) (tinderbox, matchbox)
• SQUEEZE TOY (53A: Stress ball, e.g.) (squeezebox, toy box)

Word of the Day: Squeezebox (see 53A) —

The term squeezebox (also squeeze box, squeeze-box) is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina. The term is so applied because such instruments are generally in the shape of a rectangular prism or box, and the bellows is operated by squeezing in and drawing out.

• • •

This strikes me as a nearly ideal example of a very old kind of theme—the "both words can precede/follow" theme. You can quibble with the idea of "fuse" here, I guess, in that the words that can precede "box" are not actually "fused" together (i.e. SOAP OPERA is two separate words, JUICE PRESS is two separate words, etc.), but since the words appear in a crossword grid and there are no spaces between words in crossword grids, the words *appear* fused as entered, so Good Enough! What's remarkable to me is that usually these types have at least one theme answer, or part of an answer, that doesn't quite work. Either the answer itself feels forced, or one of the base phrases (e.g., today, one of the "___box" phrases) feels forced, but these are all on the money. All four answers are very recognizable and real things (I've never used the Tinder app in my life, but I know what a TINDER MATCH is), and all of the "boxes" are also recognizable and real. It's slightly amazing that so many valid two-word phrases can be made out of "words that precede 'box'" and it's even more amazing that those valid two-word phrases can be arranged symmetrically in the grid (along with the revealer). This puzzle squeezes a lot of juice out of a well-worn theme type. And the grid itself is mostly very clean, so yeah, I'll take this.

I'm assuming that, for those of you (nearly all of you) who solved it normally (i.e. using the Downs *and* the Acrosses), the puzzle played very fast, even for a Monday. I can tell you that from a Downs-only perspective, it was for sure on the easy side. I can't remember a NYT Downs-only puzzle I've solved so easily. With all those long Downs right up front, I thought the opposite was going to be the case, but BLUEJAY was a gimme and a godsend (that "J" really helped put together JUICE BOX, eventually). There were really only a small handful of Downs that didn't go straight in the grid, and those never bogged me down, as the surrounding answers eventually made the answers clear. The most initial holes in the grid came in the NW, where I didn't get - RAPTURE, ANTSIEST, or COMIC at the first go (I thought that last one might be STRIP) (25D: "Doonesbury" or "Dilbert"). But the Downs that actually ended up giving me the most real *trouble* were SCALES (13D: What kosher seafood has that nonkosher seafood does not) and SNYDER'S (43D: Big name in pretzels). I had no idea that SCALES were the Kosher dealbreaker. I knew that shellfish were a no-no, but never thought about the actual parameters. SCALES and fins—that's the deal. Gotta have SCALES and fins or ... not kosher. As for SNYDER'S, I am vaguely familiar with the brand, but no way was I getting that from the clue alone, so I just had to wait for the point when I could infer enough of the crosses to make sense of the answer. I think the "Y" from SQUEEZE TOY was the thing that finally triggered my SNYDER'S memory. I had some trouble with BEASTS at the very end (46D: Wild animals), but the neighboring Downs were so easy that BEASTS became clear rather quickly. 

Aside from ALB and YES'M and the playground retort (truly the worst crossword answer genre) (DOES SO), there wasn't much to make me frown today. As usual, I couldn't remember the vowel that went at the end of PESET- (19D: Bygone Spanish currency). I always want it to be PESETO because of PESO. My brain makes an analogy and won't let go. But I know better than to write it in, and I just wait for crosses to take care of the issue. While I was solving (and not looking at Across clues), I was kinda hoping the STANTON was going to be Harry Dean STANTON. But it's never, ever been Harry Dean STANTON. Just the suffragist STANTON or Lincoln's Secretary of War STANTON. It's time to give one of our greatest character actors his due! In a 60-year career that included appearances in over 80 movies, from Paris, Texas to Pretty in Pink ... it's Harry Dean STANTON. Coming soon, to a grid near you, I hope. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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* This article was originally published here