Sunday, June 4, 2023, Rafael Musa

FLYING COLORS

Today's puzzle is flying the PRIDE FLAG colors, and using them in punny ways. Each answer in a band of color is paired with its horizontal partner, where the color is part of the answer. As in:

17A (red-shaded squares): Intermittently (ONANDOFF) - 18A: They're right on an election map ... or a description of 17-Across? (REDSTATES)

37A (orange-shaded squares): Olympics no-nos (STEROIDS) - 33A: Screwdriver component ... or a description of 37-Across? (ORANGEJUICE)

So a nice, colorful theme. I like seeing the colors in the grid. I wonder how it looked in print. 

In other news, the puzzle is only 20x21, and maybe that was part of the reason my solve was so fast today. 

I enjoyed the exuberant WOOT ("Yay!," in internet-speak), the uncommon SUCCOR (Relief), and the interesting-but-oh-so-guessable "Language from which Alaska gets its name" (ALEUT). "Unfaithful sort?" (ATHEIST) was very nice, and the pair of "I" clues was fun: "I, in the Greek alphabet" (IOTA) and "I, in the NATO alphabet" (INDIA). 

It's my dad's 91st birthday today, and I have to go frost a cake and then drive out for the party, so that's all from me for today. Frannie takes the wheel tomorrow. Enjoy the ride.

- Horace