Whew... today's themeless Saturday played much easier for me than yesterday's. I know that sometimes puzzles go more quickly when the constructor's mindset and yours seem to be in sync. But also this kind of grid I find more straightforward as well. The long answers intersect at multiple places separated by a number of shorter answers, which usually give good footholds.
As is often the case for me when solving a themeless, I find my first foothold at the bottom of the long down answers coming out of the NW corner. So ODDS and SPY were my first solid entries, and then I was able to fill in the corner above. Lovely misdirection clue with 4D: Reading, for instance (RAILROAD). So many possibilities! I've never heard of PIRATEBAY. Do you pronounce it the way it looks, or "pie-rat-E-Bay?"
STRANGERTHINGS was a gimme that opened things up well. Also, 28A: Groups with lots of issues to talk through (DEBATETEAMS) gave me a nice foothold, anchored at the end by the extreme gimme TIMOTHEE.
The NE corner had an international flavor, what with GDAY, GRAZIE, IRENE Curie, DEVON, REYKJAVIK (great answer, fun clue), and URAL. That's six different countries referenced in three different continents!
Some other items I liked:
31A: Not-so-big shot (BBS). I was thinking about things like COO, MBA, lay-up? Did not see this one coming at all.
41A: Epitome (HEIGHT). I just love this.
50A: Site of a famous tilt in European history (PISA). Hah!
Fun puzzle today. I had a great week! Turning it back over to Horace tomorrow.
- Colum
"Extreme gimme" - Hah! I had never heard of TIMOTHEE Chalamet, and having never watched STRANGERTHINGS, that took many crosses as well. And speaking of things I didn't know DILI! And I wore plenty of DURAGs in my youth, but never spelled it that way... Still, I got through it.
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