Thursday, May 18 2023, Kiran Pandey

Tremendous Thursday offering! Mr. Pandey has gone kinda meta and cryptic on us and dropped some misleading punctuation into several clues, which must be ignored when arriving at the answers.  Why 'meta'?  Because with the punctuation in place, the clues make perfect sense, just not in the right way.  To wit:

• "Slang, for many" = ZILLIONS - the answer's not a word used as slang by many people, it's a slang word meaning 'many'.  "Slang for many"!
• "I, for one" = ROMANNUMERAL, not "Pronoun" or "Iodine".
• "Scientific definition, for short" = ELECTRICALFAULT, not, I dunno, say, "Avogadro No."
• "Length, for example" = SEVENLETTERS, not "Dimension".
• "Anagram, for instance" = ANCIENTS, not "Wordplay".  This is the one that I twigged on.

I love this!  As a cryptic crossword solver, it really rubbed me the right way.  

Even aside from the theme, which I got most of the way through before sussing out, this was a very fun solve.  I entered "Lab" instead of GYM as a science fair location, and "Hub" not WEB for "Nexus", which set me back somewhat (Oh, and "Galas" not FLAPS for "Big to-dos".).  The SW corner just about broke me - eventually guessed EAPOE for 50 down, as hinted by the clue, and finally deduced DOUGIE as the Guy who inspired a hip-hop dance.  Is it Dougie Guy?  Or Guy Dougie?  Or just some guy named Dougie?  I suppose the Internet can tell me, if I make an ever-so-slight effort.  All told, it took me 9:05, and I felt like it was time well spent.

"Low turnover?" (SOMERSAULT) was clever, as was "Mini display?" (KNEE).  

I'd like to dwell on this puzzle some more, but I have to dash, as I have to pay a visit to the hospital at 3:30 am (yes, you read that right).  No, it's not the ICU, not THELOVEBUG nor any other kind of bug, and I'm not being ADMITTED - it's a scheduled MRI to AID the MDs in STUDYing something weird going on with my jaw.  This MIFFs me and I am GLOOMIER and less UPBEAT than I'd normally be.  So, off with me for a couple hours of sleep.  See you on the other side!

-philbo