Saturday, October 14, 2023, Byron Walden

What the...

A Saturday themed puzzle? What has the world come to? Cats and dogs, living together?

Actually, I'm glad for the theme, as I FWOE'd, and I was able to fix it because of the MIDAUGHTS. See, each of the highlighted answers has a synonym for "nothing" hidden in the middle. I had never heard of PANZEROTTI, and 20D: Poetic contraction (EER) could also have been EEn. But "zeno" does not satisfy the theme in the way that "zero" does...

We also find "nada" in GEENADAVIS, "zip" in MARZIPANS, and "nil" in 38A" Champaign region (EASTERNILLINOIS). Not "Champagne," mind you, which is how I read it for a long time. And was stymied by the fact that the second half looked pretty darned French. The region in France where Champagne is located is now called "Grand Est," but was previously "Champagne-Ardenne."

SHA / NANA

The cluing and challenging answers befit a Saturday puzzle by the king of tough crosswords, Mr. Walden. 5D: Professional concerned with search engine optimization (EMARKETER) was a hard find. 3D: Boston in the '60s or Chicago in the '90s, e.g. (NBADYNASTY) is excellent.

36D: Live tweets? (BIRDCALLS) as a tricky clue is actually a thing of the past now, I guess, since the platform's rebranding as "X." I expect people who still use the ex-Twitter probably will continue to call their posts "tweets" for a while longer. I myself have never dipped my toe there.

I'm glad to see 41A: Punnery, e.g. (WIT) acknowledged. Too often people turn their noses up at this particular form of humor. But where would we be without it? I'll tell you where. Sadder and less amused.

All right folks. I'm done for the week. I'll say CIAO and turn it over to Horace for tomorrow's review.

- Colum