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

• THE TIME IS RIPE (15A: A cause to behave this very prompt … or why you may 6-Down 32-Down) (“ripe” right here means “pungent” (def. 5b, right here)—that is why it’s worthwhile to “clear” the clock)
• HAND SOAP (34D: Bottleful that may 6-/32-Down) (a clock has “palms”)
• FACE WASH (39D: Bottleful that 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 Might 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 schooling in Afghanistan, he spent a lot of his time overseas, finding out 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 Nineteen 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 had been mediated by america. Ghani turned president and Abdullah chief government, with energy cut 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 in an effort 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. Nevertheless, 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 appreciated the grid far more than I appreciated 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 principle phrase: CLEAN / ONE’S CLOCK. I can not see “ONE’S” with out pondering of it as self-reflexive. DO ONE’S BEST, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE, ATE ONE’S WORDS … in all these instances, “one” does this stuff. One has loads on one’s plate. One does one’s finest. One eats one’s phrases. However one doesn’t (not not not not) CLEAN / ONE’S CLOCK. That you’d imply you clear your individual 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 alleged to learn “one” as “an opponent”—because the “the opposite man,” not the “cleaner” themselves— … it simply would not work. Too awkward. That sort of kills the theme for me. Nevertheless it’s positively an unique concept, this clock-cleaning pun factor, so I love that, simply as I love 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 are equally lengthy, and not less than as fascinating: 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 immediately. And “mad” is probably an exaggeration. However sincerely, I do not assume ONE’S works, on a basic, basic-sense degree.

Different issues:

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

• 47A: Obama-era coverage whose final three letters spell a distinct Obama-era regulation (DACA) — Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (immigration coverage). ACA is, in fact, Obamacare (i.e., the Reasonably priced Care Act).
• 7D: Wonderland interloper (ALICE) — as a result of Wonderland is full of unfamiliar beings, I did a double-take on “interloper,” prefer it was some sort 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 in another way 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 truly it simply appears sloppy. If they’re inconsistent for a cause,  I can not see it, and in the event that they aren’t inconsistent for a cause, why did no proofreader say “hey, uh … why are these all completely different? Should not we standardize them?”

See you subsequent time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]