A meeple is the taking part in piece or token in a board recreation, normally having an especially stylized human type. The phrase meeple comes from mixing the phrases my and individuals. A phrase consisting of blended phrases is known as a portmanteau. Meeple was coined within the yr 2000 by Alison Hansel to explain the picket figures within the recreation Carcassonne. Since the yr 2000, the time period meeple has unfold to explain the token in any board recreation, it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015. The plural type of meeple could also be rendered as meeple or meeples. (grammarist.com)

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Yeah, this was positively the Friday puzzle, or at the least extra the Friday puzzle than the precise Friday puzzle was. The NW (i.e. the beginning) and the SE gave me some bother, however not an excessive amount of, and the remainder of it fell like a souflée would fall if I made a souflée, for positive (although one among my New Year’s resolutions is to prepare dinner extra, so perhaps unfallen souflées are within the playing cards for me, who is aware of!?). This puzzle additionally had the whoosh-whoosh that I search for / need / count on on a Friday, with longer solutions simply capturing all over the place, pew pew pew. I imply, take a look at this opening—that is lower than a minute after I acquired the NW nook beneath management:

AT A MINIMUM led rapidly to STAND-UP GUY and “DID YOU HEAR…?” Just a stunning, vigorous set of longer solutions comes pouring out of that NW nook. They aren’t all stunners, however, effectively, one among them actually is STUNNERS, they usually’re all actually superb. Being in a position to get feelers into each quadrant early appeared to bode effectively for my probably fixing success and … bode effectively it did. It boded, alright. Harbingered and omened and boded. I destroyed the NE part so quick I had ITALIAN LIT all the way in which crammed in earlier than I ever even noticed the (nice) clue (33A: Eco-centric faculty class, informally?)—Umberto Eco is the “Eco” right here. They hid the capital “E” on you and all the things. Wicked. But not depraved, I suppose, in that I by no means even needed to battle with it. Still clue. The SW was about as simple because the NE. Which leaves the SE, the place … OK, look. I do not play trendy board video games, or board video games in any respect, so my having no clue about MEEPLE (a standard time period in the event you play mentioned video games) is irrelevant right here. What is related to anybody with ears and a way of how phrases work is—how on the planet is that time period a singular!? Who let that occur? That is a collective time period. It comes from the mixing of “my” and “individuals,” so GOSH DARN IT, who turned that time period singular, and why did the remainder of you not say, “No, David [I assume that was the culprit’s name], we aren’t doing that.” And it seems to be like SHEEPLE, too, ugh, it is so terrible (esp. as a singular). MEEPLE—OK (although nonetheless uncomfortably infantilizing) as a collective, however utterly ****ing ridiculous within the singular (at the least one individual on Reddit agrees with me, so I really feel vindicated) (I assume MEEPLE was clued within the singular as a result of, effectively, that is Friday they usually needed to **** with us non-gamers. Wait, is it … “avid gamers”? Are board recreation gamers additionally (like online game gamers) avid gamers? Well, you are all MEEPLE to me now. I imply, MEEPLE, what on the planet …?)

I grew up with Cookie Monster and in the present day is the primary I’m listening to that he’s named SID (57D: Cookie Monster’s actual title). Sigh. “C” is for “Cookie,” and that’s, certainly, ok for me. You may’ve put any three-letter title there and I’d’ve had the identical response, i.e. [shrug] OK, no matter. As for THE U. … Miami? Lots of universities are referred to “casually” as THE U. The University of Minnesota, as an example. All over the Twin Cities it is simply “casually” known as THE U. I’m positive there may be some faculty soccer angle right here that makes Miami THE extra iconic U., however I nonetheless say ‘bah’ to this clue. The MEEPLE / SID / THEU onslaught made parsing THESE PARTS actually laborious for a bit bit there. This was the supply of most of my post-getting-started problem in the present day. Very, very localized bother. The NW and the SE: THESE PARTS had been kinda robust. The relaxation, not even shut.

Loved the clue on TIN. I believe I really laughed at its resigned self-awareness (22A: Only chemical aspect whose title suits this reply’s size). Like, “It’s a component, it is three letters, you’ve got solely acquired one choice, genius.” It’s good when clues taunt you. I used to be thrilled to see ANDY Bell—sort of area of interest, as music names go, however proper up my alley, as Erasure performed on my stereo a *lot* in my first years of school. And if ANDY Bell is “obscure” to those that by no means cared about ’80s / ’90s college-radio synth-pop, he is solely 4 letters and the crosses are extraordinarily truthful and it is Saturday, so there. 

I began this puzzle with “NOT IT!” / “TMI!” the place “GOOSE!” / “EEK!” are alleged to be (1D: Kids’ recreation cry / 21A: “Yikes!”). I do not usually “take pleasure in” beginning so badly, however that individual pair of errors made me chortle, significantly the TMI-for-[“Yikes!”] bit. Pretty artistic reply, I believed. I really like the SCARE AWAY / SCREAM / EEK! collective, although I suppose I do not love EEK! and EKED in the identical grid. A minor flaw. Overall, tasty, not GAMY, thumbs-up, see you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. a single BAKED CLAM is … odd (11D: Bit of on line casino restaurant fare?). I believe the clue is referring to the dish “clams on line casino” (?), which, based on Merriam-Webster.com, are “clams on the half shell usually topped with bacon, bread crumbs, inexperienced pepper, and Parmesan cheese and baked or broiled.” (my emph.)