Curling iron’s practical reverse / SAT 7-16-22 / World Broad nickname of NBA energy dealer / Deep-learning tech / God is one in a 2018 Ariana Grande hit / Google search strings helpful to linguists and literary historians / Curveball stat for brief / Byproduct of kissing a pet, perhaps / Supergroup at Woodstock, familiarly

Constructor: Kameron Austin Collins

Relative issue: Medium to Medium-Difficult (popular culture would possibly get ya)

THEME: none 

Phrase of the Day: The BARNES (28A: Philadelphia artwork museum, with “the”) —

The Barnes Basis is an artwork assortment and academic establishment selling the appreciation of artwork and horticulture. Initially in  Merion, the artwork assortment moved in 2012 to a brand new constructing on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The arboretum of the Barnes Basis stays in Merion, the place it has been proposed to be maintained beneath a long-term instructional affiliation settlement with Saint Joseph’s College.

The Barnes was based in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, who made his fortune by co-developing Argyrol, an antiseptic silver compound that was used to fight gonorrhea and inflammations of the attention, ear, nostril, and throat. He offered his enterprise, the A.C. Barnes Firm, simply months earlier than the inventory market crash of 1929.

At present, the inspiration owns greater than 4,000 objects, together with over 900 work, estimated to be value about $25 billion. These are primarily works by Impressionist, Publish-Impressionist, and Modernist masters, however the assortment additionally contains many different work by main European and American artists, in addition to African artwork, antiquities from China, Egypt, and Greece, and Native American artwork.

Within the Nineties, the Basis’s declining funds led its leaders to varied controversial strikes, together with sending artworks on a world tour and proposing to maneuver the gathering to Philadelphia. After quite a few court docket challenges, the brand new Barnes constructing opened on Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Might 19, 2012. The muse’s present president and government director, Thomas “Thom” Collins, was appointed on January 7, 2015. (wikipedia)

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I loved a variety of this. Positively a fixing journey, undoubtedly worthy of its Saturday place (difficulty-wise). It is a very musical puzzle, and a culturally wide-ranging puzzle, with as many solutions from popular culture (esp. pop music) as there are from what you would possibly name “excessive tradition” or “fancy shmancy tradition” (you recognize, ballet, theater, artwork, classical music, ART FILMS, NASCAR, that type of stuff). Fairly humorous / becoming to place METHUSELAH over DEAR OLD DAD—I like little touches like that, even when they’re unintended. The one reply that actually made me shake my head “no” was (paradoxically?) START A BLOG. That’s a solution that’s going to and EAT A SANDWICH as quickly because the present is over—a Hail-Mary type of blank-A-blank phrase. Though … perhaps that is simply self-hatred coming by way of. The extra I stare on the reply, the extra it seems standalone-worthy. GRABABITE, EATAPEACH, STARTABLOG … nah, nonetheless just a little on the weak facet for me. Really wrote in START A BAND at one level, which appears stronger. I simply could not get “publish” to imply something musical, sadly. Bjork had an album known as “Publish,” as did Paul Kelly, however … effectively, again to the puzzle. Oh yeah, one different factor in regards to the puzzle I did not totally groove on, and that is the clue on SWIM (1D: Get within the ___), and I am realizing now that it is as a result of I actually really need the phrase to be “get within the SWIM of issues,” and that is as a result of I (I feel) am complicated SWIM with SWING. Are they completely different expressions, these? Totally different in which means, I imply? That reply gave me a variety of hassle proper up entrance, and was a giant a part of why I used to be a sluggish starter as we speak. That, and I forgot the Ariana Grande music and had God not as a WOMAN however as a COMIC, which is Elvis Costello, and never even right on that entrance, as a result of the Elvis Costello music is “God’s Comedian,” so God has a comic book, quite than is one. However I (Actually) Digress.

I needed to depart the NW to get any actual traction, and eventually ended up discovering some within the north, after making an attempt SALADS and YAP, I attempted MACARONI (solely half rings!) earlier than utilizing ALOHA to get CALAMARI (13A: Some rings on a plate) after which I backed my manner again to the NW from there.

After this, the puzzle went from being Difficult to being one thing extra like Simple-Medium for me. I knew The BARNES regardless of by no means having been there (noticed a documentary about it as soon as, perhaps?). I knew the “DC” in query at 28D: Emergency gadget in DC (BATPHONE) was the comics and never the capital. I’m studying a (fantastic) new novel (“Mecca,” by Susan Straight) the place at the very least one of many characters meditates on the lyrics to “Route 66,” so BARSTOW was very recent in my head (31D: California metropolis within the Mojave Desert). ONE-ACTER felt too casual for the Wilde play, nevertheless it labored (47A: Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” e.g.). I guessed the COLOR a part of TONE COLOR ‘trigger it appeared … music-y. No concept who HAYLEY Atwell is*, however I do know THOTH, so I labored it out (38D: God with the pinnacle of an ibis). After which I simply type of whooshed by way of the SE and as much as the NE from there. Slight hassle with the SE however Mariah got here to the rescue (I’ll or could not have owned a CD single, or “Ka-dingle” as my pal used to say, of “DREAMLOVER” after I was in grad faculty) (which suggests I most likely nonetheless personal it) (25D: “Somebody to consolation and maintain me,” in a #1 Mariah Carey hit). I beloved seeing HOT COMB right here. There is a fantastic set of brief story-comics by Ebony Flowers known as HOT COMB, all of them targeted on Black ladies, Black households, and particularly Black hair. Cannot advocate it sufficient. And effectively, what else is there to say? … HYPERBOLIC DOG SLOBBER! I am into it. 

A couple of issues left to say:

• 14D: Very, informally (MAD) — I hope at the very least one individual within the blog-reading universe on the market remembered that I wished MAD a number of days in the past for this exact same clue, when the reply was WAY. I truly discovered myself sitting right here making an attempt to Bear in mind My Personal Weblog in order that I may get this reply, LOL.
• 43D: Supergroup at Woodstock, familiarly (CSNY) — Crosby, Stills, Nash & Younger, simply in case that was unclear.

• 33A: Blast from the previous (A-TEST) — A or N or H work, however solely “A” works after the “B” from BARNES, so for as soon as, no hassle with the blank-TEST reply.
• 17A: Identify synonymous with longevity (METHUSELAH) — simply admitting that I had a spelling uncertainty right here on the second “E,” however now that I have a look at the identify, “E” is fairly clearly the precise possibility, in that SELAH can stand alone, and so simply seems … extra proper than SALAH.
• 49A: World Broad ___, nickname of an N.B.A. energy dealer (WES) — I by no means truly noticed this clue. I assumed this was a reference to Russell WEStbrook. It isn’t. It is to a man named William Wesley, Government Vice President and Senior Basketball Adviser to the Knicks who will get name-checked in a variety of rap songs. He’s a giant deal, however it’s … bizarre to not have any a part of his precise identify, or employer’s identify, within the clue, contemplating he is not precisely Ariana- or Mariah-famous. Cool nickname, although. Knickname!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

*I’ve truly seen HAYLEY Atwell in a Marvel film or two. I can not maintain any of them straight, so please do not ask me which of them. Anyway, she performs Agent Peggy Carter within the MCU. I most likely noticed her within the first “Captain America” film (2011), if I needed to guess.

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