Saturday, September 30, 2023, Ahmed Bayoumi

Today's five grid-spanning answers took me some time to get - especially the middle one, MARINEBIOLOGIST. I was on the right track from the get-go, but I stayed with my first guess of some kind of 'scientist' for rather too long - resulting in a rather slow Saturday time (43:23). The rest of the grid didn't help. After a first pass, the few answers I knew for sure didn't amount to much (ROLLE, LEST, EAR, INSET, LENDS, MSG, RENEE). In classic Saturday fashion, I was sure I was doomed to a DNF, but thanks to some clear outs and some lucky guesses, I eventually figured it all out. 

Interesting for this solver to see NEPOBABY in the puzzle, and thanks to the clue, I now know what it means - and can see that it makes a certain amount of sense as a term. I first became aware of the word in a relatively recent Connections puzzle. I mis-categorized it partly because I had no idea what it was. I kept meaning to look it up, but now I don't have to. Thanks NYTX!

I had a lot of trouble understanding the clue "Post-op persona, perhaps." The answer turned out to be NEWME. Does the clue relate to cosmetic surgery? Other trouble spots included "Rock band with the 2023 album 'This Stupid World'". I don't know much about YOLATENGO, and didn't know about the new album, but fortunately, I have heard of the group, so when I had enough of the Downs filled in, I finally got it. 

At first, for "Wordle and others" at 43A, I entered 'apps' but when I got the answers to the two-parter "Many people making downloads" (APP USERS), I was pretty sure 'apps' couldn't be correct. Interesting that the constructor thinks Wordle is one of many FADS. :) 

I thought the weakest corner for C/APs was the northwest. AFLOW is a bit too too, and DIVE for "Great fall" is either not so good, or I don't totally get it - always a possibility. :) On the upside, a personal favorite was "Key to understanding ancient history?" (THEROSETTASTONE), but the best of the day was "Detective story?" for ALIBI. Ha! "Be ripe" for SMELL was amusing.

Well, dear Readers, another week has come to a close and I pass the torch to the much more capable crossword hands of our esteemed co-blogger, Philbo. Until next time.

~Frannie.