Rock out on stage? / TUE 7-8-25 / Place for a coin assortment? / One among many on a self-driving automobile / What a pleasure-seeker seeks / British movie star restaurateur Gordon ___ / Seashore, in Spanish / Pop singer Ora

Theme solutions:

• LAGUARDIA (16A: Airport that Captain Sully departed from) (“a + guard”)
• HANNA-BARBERA (21A: Animation studio behind “Scooby-Doo”) (“a + barber”)
• ACHE FOR (34A: Crave) (“a + chef”)
• DOPAMINE RUSH (46A: What a pleasure-seeker seeks) (“a + miner”)

Phrase of the Day: CHRIS Rock (35D: Rock out on stage?) —

Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American comic, actor, and filmmaker. He first gained prominence for his stand-up routines within the Eighties wherein he tackled topics together with race relations, human sexuality, and observational comedy. His success branched off into productions in movie, tv, and on-stage, having obtained a number of accolades together with three Grammy Awards for Greatest Comedy Album, 4 Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Rock was ranked No. 5 on Comedy Central‘s listing of the 100 Biggest Stand-ups of All Time. He additionally ranked No. 5 on Rolling Stone‘s listing of the 50 Greatest Stand-Up Comics of All Time.

After years working as a slapstick comedian and showing in minor movie roles together with Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Rock gained prominence as a solid member on the NBC sketch comedy sequence Saturday Night time Stay from 1990 to 1993. Whereas at SNL, he appeared within the movies New Jack Metropolis (1991) and Boomerang (1992). In 1993, he appeared in CB4, which he additionally wrote and produced. He reached mainstream stardom with Carry the Ache in 1996. Rock continued making specials which embody Larger & Blacker (1999), By no means Scared (2004), Kill the Messenger (2008), Tamborine (2018), and Selective Outrage (2023). He developed, wrote, produced and narrated the sitcom Everyone Hates Chris (2005–2009), which was based mostly on his youth. From 1997 to 2000 HBO aired his speak present The Chris Rock Present.

Rock was solid in starring movie roles in Deadly Weapon 4 (1998), Dogma (1999), The Longest Yard (2005), the Madagascar franchise (2005–2012), I Suppose I Love My Spouse (2007), Grown Ups (2010), Loss of life at a Funeral (2010), High 5 (2014), The Week Of (2018), Spiral (2021), Amsterdam (2022), and Rustin (2023).

• • •

[42D: Spiky hairdos] [image by the great Lynda Barry]

This one did not actually work for me as a result of the revealer simply did not land, or landed awkwardly. I assume I can hear somebody saying “hey, that is A+ WORK you are doing there, Bob,” or one thing like that, however the phrase simply does not roll off my tongue or really feel as coherent as I would like a revealer phrase to me. “A+ EFFORT” appears as a lot of a phrase as “A+ WORK.” The execution of the idea is kind of cute, however the idea itself, the phrase on which the idea is predicated, feels weak to me. I had A PLUS- and needed to suppose for a bit about what may come subsequent—not an excellent signal. The identical factor occurred to me with DOPAMINE RUSH; I may see the primary half can be DOPAMINE however the first phrase that got here to thoughts which may observe it was HIGH. This “what’s supposed to return subsequent?” drawback occurred but once more with MAKES- at 26D: Lets bygones be bygones (MAKES PEACE), though I am unable to actually impeach the proper reply there. Appears wonderful. However MAKES NICE and MAKES AMENDS each tried to get in there earlier than MAKES PEACE. And so time and again I stored having to consider what these latter components of solutions had been going to be, and each time, after getting the appropriate reply, my feeling was various levels of “huh, OK, certain, I assume.” And I do not significantly love the clue on DOPAMINE RUSH. Pleasure-seekers search pleasure from no matter exercise they’re doing. They may expertise a DOPAMINE RUSH, however that is a side-effect of no matter they’re doing. It is like saying thrill-seekers are in search of an elevated coronary heart fee. Not precisely. In a roundabout way. Anyway, all of it works wonderful, however simply felt form of lackluster. However I am unable to dispute the truth that there are “A”s and jobs (i.e. WORK) in these circled squares. The puzzle executes what it units out to execute, and, if nothing else, DOPAMINE RUSH is an thrilling, unique reply.

However again to the remainder of the SW nook. The frilly (and admittedly form of colourful) clue on AHEM held me up in that nook as effectively—not instantly clear (60A: [Um, I can hear everything you’re saying, you know]). I assumed [Set of tenets] was a CREED for a bit. After which there was the toughest (or at the very least most deceptive) clue within the puzzle (for me), which was form of blocking one entryway to the SW nook: that reply was CHRIS (35D: Rock out on stage?). The massive drawback there was that I had the “HR” half earlier than the rest, and so I promptly wrote in SHRED, as in “to play an electrical guitar with nice ability and velocity” (merriam-webster dot com). “Out on stage” is correct sufficient for what Rock does, as a stand-up, however and not using a particular comedy angle within the clue, I missed the wordplay fully. And so the SW was bother. I do not keep in mind a lot of the rest concerning the puzzle. 

Bullets:

• 16A: Airport that Captain Sully departed from (LAGUARDIA) — wow, have not thought of Captain Sully in a very long time. I obtained this reply solely from [Airport…], and did not even discover the latter a part of the clue till simply now. That well-known emergency touchdown seems like recentish historical past, nevertheless it’s been over 16 years now.
• 58A: Place for a coin assortment? (SOFA) — see, youngsters, within the olden days we used to have this factor known as “arduous forex,” and it got here in steel disc kind, and these discs would generally fall out of your pants pockets and into the cushions of your SOFA, and over time you might AMASS fairly a fortune down there. (severely, when does the “cash within the SOFA” bit grow to be out of date?)
• 12D: Seashore, in Spanish (PLAYA) — this was a gimme for me, regardless of my not talking Spanish. PLAYA is in lots of place names, so I simply realize it, as do most of you, I am guessing. However I can see not realizing it, and I may also see not realizing Gordon RAMSAY, which signifies that I can think about somebody having bother within the NE nook. However that somebody wasn’t me.

See you subsequent time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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