Western settlement area led by Brigham Young / SUN 2-26-23 / Ceramic stewpot / Screenwriter/actress Michaela / Flagella relatives / Adjust the spacing between in typography / Pancake served with sambar / Simple graphics editor informally / Onetime Yves Saint Laurent employer / Condiment drizzled on a taco / Yiddish for pancake

Constructor: Will Nediger

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Double-Doubles" — wacky phrases made by doubling two different letters in a familiar phrase:

Theme answers:

• CHRISTMAS CAR ROLL (23A: Slow-driving holiday parade in December?) (from "Christmas carol")
• ADD MITT'S DEFEAT (37A: Update Wikipedia after the 2012 election?) (from "admits defeat")
• BEE ATTITUDES (52A: Subject of study for an insect psychologist?) (from "Beatitudes")
• "WE'LL COME, MATT" (76A: Promise from actor Damon's friends regarding his movie premiere?) (from "welcome mat")
• "FOR THE ASS KING!" (88A: Words accompanying an offering to the ruler of the donkeys?) (from "for the asking")
• MISS INN FORMATION (104A: Arrive too late to see a hotel being built?) (from "misinformation")

Word of the Day: ETRURIA (10D: Ancient Italian region) —

Etruria (/əˈtrʊəriə/) was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. [...] Rome was influenced strongly by the Etruscans even though it was separated from the early boundary of Etruria by the Silva Ciminia, the Ciminian Forest. A series of Etruscan kings ruled Rome until 509 BC, when the last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was removed from power and the Roman Republic was established. The Etruscans are credited with influencing Roman architecture and ritual practice; it was under the Etruscan kings that important structures such as the Capitolium, Cloaca Maxima, and Via Sacra were realized. // The Etruscan civilization was responsible for much of the Greek culture imported into early Republican Rome, including the twelve Olympian deities, the growing of olives and grapes, the Latin alphabet (adapted from the Greek alphabet), architecture (such as the arch), and engineering elements such as sewers and drainage systems.

• • •

Gonna make this a fairly short write-up today, partly because I've got teaching work to get to, but mostly because this puzzle was depressing. It felt phoned-in. MEH doesn't even begin to cover it. It was almost CYNICal. The core concept is so listless, and yields such mediocre results, that I don't fully understand why it was accepted. You add two letters ... for wackiness ... but why though? I mean, this concept is so basic that the themers really Really need to sizzle, and they barely flicker. MISS INN FORMATION? Where is the chuckle? I see you are doing things with letters, but if that's the end result, what is the point? I will give you "FOR THE ASS KING!" (a nice imaginary toast), and there's a kind of cleverness to ADD MITT'S DEFEAT that I kind of like, but CHRISTMAS CAR ROLL ... CAR ROLL? Really? What is that? That's not even a thing. Is it? I mean, even among wacky things, it's barely imaginable. "Hop in, we're going to a CAR ROLL!" Woof. The theme is just ... limp. Anemic. Startlingly anemic, if that's even possible. I guess those triple 9-stacks on the sides are supposed to provide some kind of distraction, some interesting non-thematic entertainment, but ... well, they're not bad, but they don't do nearly enough to make up for this non-theme. I'm gonna play STEELY DAN now, in an effort to revive my spirits.

TAHOMA!?!?! Yipes. That's a known thing? Thank god "OH, HI" was undeniable, because if you're talking about geographical stuff in the state of Washington, and you give me TA-OMA, well there's only one letter that's going in that space, and it AIN'T "H" (16D: Mount Rainier's ___ Glacier). That was the one "WTF!?" scary moment in a puzzle that was otherwise ploddingly easy. FORELIMB???  (74D: Body part that a dog uses to shake). I guess that's a technical term. I wanted paw, or maybe FOREPAW, but "limb" ... I rarely think of dogs in terms of their "limbs." Dogs shake with their paws, the way humans shake with their hands (Not Their Limbs!!). So weird. As for MSPAINT (85D: Simple graphics editor, informally) ... sigh, I get that people want to be "original" and "debut" answers because ... well, I don't know, maybe there's some feeling of satisfaction there, but it would be great if those "debut" answers were not sad garbage. To be fair, I wouldn't like MACPAINT either, but it's never appeared appeared in the NYTXW before, in case you're a constructor who's really desperate to "debut" something (Please don't)

[Hasn't been used yet!]

I've seen typographically-minded people talk about "kerning" a lot, but I don't think I've ever seen KERN as a verb, so that was interesting (92D: Adjust the spacing between, in typography). The one thing this grid really had going for it was food. Yes, let's DO LUNCH. Let's go. FRIED OKRA, yes, tacos with CREMA, yes, and then, I dunno, how about every kind of pancake you can think of, or ... maybe just DOSA and BLINI and, sure, LATKE too, since that's (apparently) Yiddish for "pancake." We can attack the rest of the pancake family some other day. The other thing this puzzle has a lot of, besides pancakes, is ass. Lots of ass. First there's PATOOT (5D: Tuchus). Then there's the ASS KING crossing the double-ASS of ASSASSIN. There were a few proper nouns I can see giving people a little trouble (REMINI, ETRURIA, COEL), but the crosses are all fair, so I can't see any of those names holding anyone up for too long. Really hope you enjoyed the "humor" involved in this whole double-doubling adventure. This was a sad week for themed puzzles overall. Monday's FUSEBOXES puzzle has looked better and better with every passing day this week. Hope tomorrow's Monday puzzle has the same tight concept, light touch, and rejuvenating energy. See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. looks like it's time for another incarnation of the Boswords online crossword puzzle tournament. This time, it's the Boswords 2023 Spring Themeless League! Here's League organizer John Lieb with the details:

Registration for the Boswords 2023 Spring Themeless League is now open! This 10-week event starts with a Preseason puzzle on Monday, February 27 and features weekly themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and are edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to solve a practice puzzle, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org. 

Looks like I am going to be "competing" this time, especially since I am told you can solve each week's puzzle any time during that week. Hard to say I "don't have time" when it's just one puzzle a week and I can solve it whenever I want! Boswords puzzles are always top-notch, so this is definitely worth adding to your puzzle-solving schedule, if you are the kind of person who has a puzzle-solving schedule (you know who you are, I see you). Give it a shot.

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* This article was originally published here