Saturday, January 7, 2023, Adam Aaronson

And so the first week of 2023 comes to a close. I haven't had a respiratory virus in several years, folks, and I forgot how awful it can be. Of course I'm lucky to be getting COVID now rather than back in the early days of the pandemic, and the vaccine and boosters made it into a bad head cold rather than a hospitalization. Nonetheless, not a ton of fun. Fortunately, I'm much better now, and looking forward to getting back to normal.

I'd like to address the elephant in the room first: the fact that Cookie Monster has a real name, and that name is SID. Apparently this was "revealed" in 2017, so I don't know how original it is. According to Wikipedia, Cookie Monster originated in commercials in the late 1960s, eventually losing teeth and migrating to cookies as its favorite food. Always one of my favorite Sesame Street characters.

That's a ROI (Reference of Interest) if ever I heard one!

John VENN

I started my solve with SCREAM crossing DFLATS, and then had answers here and there before really breaking in with TENORSAX and COAX. I love that 30D and 14A are opposites (INTHELOOP and OUTOFTOUCH). 

I worked back up into the NW corner with ATAMINIMUM. GOSHDARNIT is a fine 1A answer.

33A: Eco-centric college class, informally? (ITALIANLIT) is a cute clue. It reminds me of the lengths the Joke-a-Day calendar will go to in order to make a pun ("The chameleon mother, upon seeing her camouflage disappear after giving birth: 'I've become apparent!'"). Similarly, 11D: Bit of casino restaurant fare? (BAKEDCLAM, referring to Clams Casino).

The last part to fall was the SE corner, with the colloquial THESEPARTS and SUNDRESSES. It's a fine Saturday themeless, perhaps not quite as sparkly as yesterday's. 9:39.

- Colum