Saturday, September 16, 2023, Jonathan Kaufman

Another themeless, another doubly symmetric grid, another poser of a puzzle! Fun to finish out the week on a high note.

It's funny how a solve goes. You can break in, get a lovely long answer in pat, and then feel completely stymied nonetheless. For me, I got the cross of STAGS and EGALITE (nice crossing there with the "sans" in the down clue), figured out BALDCAP and then saw 14D: What cucumber slices and seaweed can be part of? and plunked in SPATREATMENTS. Okay, I thought - this one's going to go fast! 

After running down the crosses of my long answer and only putting in 39A: Good thing to stretch out before doing yoga (MAT) (hah!), it was time to move on.

Next I got 10D: "That sound isn't just in your head!" (IHEARIT - what a strange C/AP), then IRAS and IRIDIUM (there aren't that many elements that are 7 letters long and start with I - I certainly didn't get it from the ROI clue). This led me into the SE corner, with the excellent clue 37D: They might make it difficult to compare notes (TINEARS), and now I was able to get all of the long answers in the middle.

NINA Hoss

I love GOINGTOETOTOE and 34A: Nihilistic query (WHATSTHEPOINT) is so great. I feel reminded of Lucy Van Pelt pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. HERDMENTALITY is also excellent, as are LOANSHARK and DIDASOLID. Such high quality center fill here.

The other three corners fell in the order of NW, NE, and SW to finish off. SOLANGE is Beyonce's sister. 1D: Site of a sea change? (CABANA) is cute.

The last answer I got was 35D: Credit lines? (HATTIPS). I spent many minutes after filling in the P staring at the clue to figure out why it applied. See, you tip your hat as a way of giving credit to someone. Boy, that is a stretch. 

It's been a fun week! Hope you enjoyed the puzzles as well. Horace takes over tomorrow.

- Colum