Pirates’ assist group? / WED 4-30-25 / Stitchers’ gathering / Different to a blur or pixelation / Wonderland interloper / ___ Ghani, former Afghan president / A motive to behave this very immediate … / Spun some data, informally / Caveman’s overlaying / Apt anagram for “brush”

• THE TIME IS RIPE (15A: A motive to behave this very immediate … or why you would possibly 6-Down 32-Down) (“ripe” right here means “smelly” (def. 5b, right here)—that is why you’ll want to “clear” the clock)
• HAND SOAP (34D: Bottleful which may 6-/32-Down) (a clock has “arms”)
• FACE WASH (39D: Bottleful which may 6-/32-Down) (a clock has a “face”)

Phrase of the Day: ASHRAF Ghani (2D: ___ Ghani, former Afghan president) —

Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 Could 1949) is an Afghan former politician, tutorial, and economist who served because the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 till August 2021, when his authorities was overthrown by the Taliban.

Ghani was born in Logar, Afghanistan. After his grade-school training in Afghanistan, he spent a lot of his time overseas, learning in Lebanon and the United States. After receiving his PhD in cultural anthropology from Columbia College in 1983, he taught at numerous establishments and was an affiliate professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins College. For a lot of the Nineties, he labored on the World Financial institution. In December 2001, he returned to Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban authorities. […] 

In 2014, Ghani turned president after successful the controversial 2014 Afghan presidential election. The election was so disputed that negotiations between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah have been mediated by america. Ghani turned president and Abdullah chief govt, with energy break up 50-50. On 18 February 2020, Ghani was re-elected after a delayed outcome from the 2019 presidential elections. He was sworn in on 9 March 2020. // On 15 August 2021, his time period ended abruptly, because the Taliban took over Kabul. Ghani and workers fled Afghanistan and took refuge within the United Arab Emirates. He later said he left to be able to keep away from additional violence, and that staying and dying would have completed nothing however including one other tragedy to Afghanistan’s historical past. Nonetheless, he was additionally condemned throughout numerous spectrums for abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban and has been accused of corruption throughout his administration. (wikipedia)

• • •

[30A: Alternative to a blur or pixelation]

I preferred the grid far more than I preferred the theme (which I did not actually grasp as I used to be fixing). The primary (big) downside, to my ears, is the ONE’S in the primary phrase: CLEAN / ONE’S CLOCK. I am unable to see “ONE’S” with out considering of it as self-reflexive. DO ONE’S BEST, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE, ATE ONE’S WORDS … in all these circumstances, “one” does these items. One has lots on one’s plate. One does one’s greatest. One eats one’s phrases. However one doesn’t (not not not not) CLEAN / ONE’S CLOCK. That you’d imply you clear your personal clock. However that is not the way it works. You clear HIS clock, or THEIR clock—you do it To Somebody Else. The concept I am speculated to learn “one” as “an opponent”—because the “the opposite man,” not the “cleaner” themselves— … it simply would not work. Too awkward. That type of kills the theme for me. Nevertheless it’s positively an unique concept, this clock-cleaning pun factor, so I like that, simply as I like the general grid form right here—a mirror-symmetry grid with actually deep answer-banks on the underside, the place the majority of the theme materials is. Spectacular that crammed in there with that theme materials are different solutions which can be equally lengthy, and no less than as attention-grabbing: OLD FLAME, SEWING BEE, RESCUE DOG, FLAT FEES. These all gave the puzzle some character. And the form of the grid—with that oddly difficult-to-access lower-center block—was enjoyable to navigate. So I am actually simply mad on the ONE’S as we speak. And “mad” is maybe an exaggeration. However sincerely, I do not assume ONE’S works, on a basic, basic-sense stage.

Different issues:

• 1A: Leafy vegetable with quite a lot of vitamin Okay (KALE) — they need to’ve labored “aptly” into the clue by some means. Vitamin “Okay” feels like one thing I would make up if I used to be attempting to market KALE as a well being meals. Feels like a advertising and marketing gimmick. However apparently it is a actual vitamin. My vitamin alphabet runs out at “E.” 
• 17D: Apt anagram for “brush” (SHRUB) — “brush” might be shortened type of “brushwood,” which is “a thicket of SHRUBs or small timber.“

• 47A: Obama-era coverage whose final three letters spell a unique Obama-era legislation (DACA) — Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (immigration coverage). ACA is, after all, Obamacare (i.e., the Inexpensive Care Act).
• 7D: Wonderland interloper (ALICE) — as a result of Wonderland is crammed with unfamiliar beings, I did a double-take on “interloper,” prefer it was some type of beast I could not fairly bear in mind… a tove or a Jabberwock or a Bandersnatch or some nonsense. Like a jackalope, perhaps. Nevertheless it’s simply ALICE. And “interloper” is simply somebody who intrudes.

One final, tiny factor—I do not perceive why the cross-references are written out otherwise each time for the theme solutions: the clue for THE TIME IS RIPE has “6-Down 32-Down”; for the FACE WASH clue, a slash is added (“6-Down/32-Down”), after which for the HAND SOAP clue, the cross-reference will get condensed right down to “6-/32-Down.” Tiny variations in every iteration, whyyyyyyy? It is weird. Appears intentional, and but the variations are meaningless, so really it simply appears sloppy. If they’re inconsistent for a motive,  I am unable to see it, and in the event that they aren’t inconsistent for a motive, why did no proofreader say “hey, uh … why are these all totally different? Should not we standardize them?”

See you subsequent time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]