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[C]ritical race scholar, journalist and activist El Jones... says, “The caucacity of it all is that not only can everything that we generate be taken and used, but then white people can turn around and say, it was never yours in the first place — claiming to be the expert on blackness,” explaining that it is audacious for a white person to rewrite the origin stories of Black colloquialisms....

“Caucacity” — a combination of “Caucasian” and “audacity,” is a term coined in 2019 by the Bodega Boys podcast, and has been used all over social media as a way to “marvel at the baffling behaviors of white folks” and capture their “willingness to take bold risks” due to the comfort that privilege provides.

That is, the phrase expresses a belief in the superior position of white people. It's critical of that perceived position, of course, but don't be so rigid. It also reinforces the idea that the high position of white people is real. 

[I]s that really what we want to watch as viewers — someone just putting together a puzzle they already learned how to solve before they even stepped on the beach? 

Okay, let me nerd out in my particular lane of nerdery — language usage. I have no problem with Ross writing "before they even stepped on the beach." But I don't like the wording in the headline "before they even step foot on the island." 

It’s true that set foot in is far and away the more common phrase. And thirteen citations that include set foot in are scattered around the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest of which (illustrating the use of the now obsolete and rare word reguerdonment, meaning “reward”) is from 1599. But the version you don’t like, step foot in, is also in the OED, with citations dating back to 1540. According to a note under step, it’s now seen and heard only in the United States. 

The question remains whether we ought to consider it a mistake. Citations in the OED include, without demur, many words and phrases widely regarded as incorrect—for instance, baited breath, free reign, hone in, and all ready meaning “already.”... 

Language geeks have given the name eggcorns to usages of this kind—“spontaneous reshapings of known expressions” which seem to make sense. (Eggcorn is itself an eggcorn, for acorn.) Whether step foot in is, or originally was, an eggcorn has been hotly but inconclusively debated. However, no one argues that set foot in is anything other than standard English. So step foot in is one of those phrases that we’re probably better off not using even though there’s little reason to object if others use them.

But "we’re probably better off not using" conflates our own word choice and our disapproval of the words other people use. I'm always going to say "set foot" myself, but I will look somewhat less askance at "step foot" from here on out. I mean: the 1500s. That's got to earn some respect. 

By the way, this is a usage question I've thought of a lot, because I taught the subject of personal jurisdiction for many years, and in that context, defendants would often argue that they're not subject to jurisdiction because they'd never "set foot" in the state, and every so often you'd see "stepped foot," which stood out like a sore big toe.

ADDED: Is "nerd" in the OED? Yes, but only with an excessively negative definition: "An insignificant, foolish, or socially inept person; a person who is boringly conventional or studious." The oldest appearance in print is:

1951    Newsweek 8 Oct. 28 In Detroit, someone who once would be called a drip or a square is now, regrettably, a nerd.

It came from Detroit! 

It was just a small outburst. A "ha." But it was huge, because I've gotten so many clues over the years that went for humor and not one thing had burst through my steely exterior until yesterday. 

I don't want to spoil the puzzle for you, and frankly, I don't want to have to explain the theme, which is a tad complicated. I'll just say: 88 Across. Finally, a crossword answer that made me laugh. 

Do the puzzle yourself, or read Rex Parker's write up, here. 

A little music to puzzle over:

The term peripatetic is a transliteration of the ancient Greek word περιπατητικός (peripatētikós), which means "of walking" or "given to walking about." The Peripatetic school, founded by Aristotle, was actually known simply as the Peripatos. Aristotle's school came to be so named because of the peripatoi ("walkways", some covered or with colonnades) of the Lyceum where the members met. The legend that the name came from Aristotle's alleged habit of walking while lecturing may have started with Hermippus of Smyrna. 

Unlike Plato (428/7–348/7 BC), Aristotle (384–322 BC) was not a citizen of Athens and so could not own property; he and his colleagues therefore used the grounds of the Lyceum as a gathering place, just as it had been used by earlier philosophers such as Socrates....

UPDATE: I've finished the puzzle, and — as I'd expected — "SLOW" was wrong. Spoiler alert: It was the much odder word "LOGY." And "Peripatetic professor" wasn't any particular peripatetic professor. Obviously, "Aristotle" didn't fit, and, boringly, the answer was just "VISITING SCHOLAR." This character apparently had to travel to get to his temporary position, but I'm sure he didn't walk, and I'm sure once he arrived, he got an indoor chamber within which to profess. No one does the walk-and-talk approach to teaching anymore, but they will, eventually, when that app I want springs into existence. Or will it still be "no one," since it will only be an artificial intelligence. That's just one of the philosophical questions you can talk about, once this someone/no one embeds itself in your life.

AND: Speaking of philosophy:

"It's a vicious, stupid, and ultimately inapt title," writes Rex Parker, about the NYT Sunday Crossword, which is titled "Step on it."

Click to spoil the theme of today's puzzle.

"Why the &$#! are you stepping on bees? Or any insect, really. First of all, insects are living creatures, so leave them be. Second, stepping on a louse will do nothing. Like, if that is your method for getting rid of lice, I have Big News for you, and it's not good. Third, gnats? You're trying to step on gnats? What are you even doing? You look silly. The title is both casually and cruelly human-centered *and* stupid as hell on a literal level—even if you got your jollies squashing insects, a good hunk of these just aren't plausibly killable with your stupid foot. Just a terrible editorial decision, that title."

ADDED: Discussing the meat of the puzzle, Rex considers the clue on 104 Down: "Painter Edouard often confused with painter Claude":

Hmm. That reminded me of a question I saw recently at the Bob Dylan subreddit:

Interpretation is subjective. Much of what you see comes from your own mind.

 From "Wordle players break streaks to support New York Times union walkout While it might be a small sacrifice, breaking a streak can be tough. Here’s why" (WaPo).

Other players weren’t aware of the union’s call to skip the daily puzzle. On the Wordle subreddit, some lamented not knowing about the call sooner. On social media, other players declined to break their streak consciously, with some claiming they didn’t see the point, and others not interested in taking such an action....

As The Cut explored in 2019, people can become attached to their streaks, and the bigger a streak grows, the more a person might feel they have to lose by breaking it....

Do you have any streaks that you're truly attached to, that you feel you'd lose a lot by breaking?

I really only have one: this blog. I'm coming up on 19 years of blogging every single day. The longer it gets the more unbreakably magical it feels. Or... no. That's not really true. Going the whole first year without missing a day felt far more significant than the completion of any other year. Now, it's just normal. But don't misunderstand me: I love normal. I'm very happy to have something that feels so good that I get to do every day. 

What's the tag for this? I had to think for a second: It's "superstition"!