When I got to the last Across clue in the grid ("A 50/50 chance ... or a description of the lengths of this puzzle's Across and Down answers, respectively), I thought it might indicate that there was a trick to the puzzle - unusual for a Friday, but not unheard of. And there was a trick of sorts, but it was pulled off by the constructor rather than the solver: all the Across answers are an even number of squares and all the Down answers are an odd number of squares. Not being a puzzle constructor myself (yet!), I don't have a good understanding of how difficult this type of thing is to do, but, going by the fact that I've never seen this kind of thing done before, I'm guessing it's either very difficult, very creative (maybe no one ever thought of it before?), or both. It seems pretty neat to me.
Additionally, there wasn't much funky fill fall out from the fancy formation, and there was a bunch of clever and fun C/APs, including "Journalist's secret" (SOURCE), "Explosive feedback?" (RECOIL), "Bottle of rum go-with" (YOHOHO) - lol - and "Board, so to speak" (MEALS). I also enjoyed "Showbiz sappiness" (SCHMALTZ), "'Can we talk?,' tersely" (AWORD), "Get drunk, formally" (BESOT), and "Ring bearer of note" (FRODO).
For "Davy Jones was one" I first tried 'sailor,' but the correct answer was MONKEE. Heh. "Bank regulator" at 2D had me kerflummoxed, but fortunately I couldn't think of any suitable five-letter financial institution employee and LEVEE eventually appeared and saved the day - for once. Too soon? To end on a positive note: YESINDEEDY, ITSADEAL, YOUBETCHA, AGREE, OKEYDOKEY.
~Frannie.
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