It's amazing how vacation makes work so much more difficult. Why work at all? That must be the best solution.
In any case, the NYT crossword always provides a balm to troubled souls, much like WITCHHAZEL does to troubled skin.
Today's puzzle celebrates that Hollywood rarity, the FEMALELEAD. All three movies referenced in the clue are excellent in their own way. I'd rank them as follows: 1. Clueless (I mean, it's based on "Emma," so it's pretty much a shoe-in); 2. Alien (a classic); 3. Mulan (I assume we're talking the original animated rather than the live-action remake - if it were the latter, I wouldn't even rank it).
All of the theme answers start with a noun which traditionally has been female-related. That being said, only "goddess" is currently only associated with females any more. "Witch," "diva," and "queen" can all be male-associated nowadays, although perhaps more in queer or alt communities.
But we should also celebrate the appearance of DIVACUP in the NYT grid for the first time. How often do we see references to sanitary products? This sort of thing should be more mainstream, considering over half of the population uses some version of them. Although perhaps not this product in particular.
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| ARIANA |
Some fun entries in the fill. I liked PALIMONY, PROSECCO, and ACQUIRES. Also, 50A: Queer feeling? (GAYDAR) is a fine clue. Also, 41A: Punctuation missing from "Let's eat Grandma"? (COMMA) is fun, but did we need the question mark?
Okay, FELLAS. Back to work.
- Colum
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