Monday, September 27, 2021, Zachary David Levy

Let's start with a superfun clue/answer pair, right at 2D: Each ... as in the price of balloons? (APOP). This really tickled me and put me in a good mood from the get-go. It makes me wonder - is it the price of enjoying a balloon that you will know one day it will pop? Or even sadder, just deflate until it's a shriveled faded mockery of itself. I like to think that this is not a metaphor for human life.

Oof. That got dark fast. Trying to avoid SELFPITY here.

The revealer today is INTHEBANK, which also refers to the last words in each of the theme answers: vault, teller, savings, and deposit. It's a nice revealer - I didn't see it coming, perhaps because I was rushing through as I often do on a Monday to see if I can beat the 3 minute mark (I did not). I am a big fan of PENNANDTELLER, not so much of DAYLIGHTSAVINGS (why do we need it any more?). I'm amazed, as always, by the feats of the human body, so the fact that individuals can propel themselves over 20 feet in the air to cross a bar with the use of a bendy pole is astonishing.

Juana INES de la Cruz

In other news, the odd down answers in the fill are the ones that have to cross multiple theme answers. I have nothing against NFLTEAMS (in fact, I still enjoy watching them despite knowing the damage they can do to the NEURAL networks of those who play the game). SPITED (ugh), CTSCAN, AGGIES. They have varying levels of okay-feelingness, if you will forgive the term I just made up.

I'd like to call SHAME on those who continue to use terms like "ogle" and LEER in the puzzle. Even if you clue it with things like "It's a bad look." Maybe we can just remove them entirely?

But on the whole, it's a fun puzzle. 

- Colum