Sunday, January 28, 2024, Nathan Hasegawa

Hello folks! I'm back for another week of blogging. Things have changed mightily since I last posted. I'm now living most of the week in Manhattan, working in New Jersey, and commuting back to Albany on the weekends. Everything is very new and exciting, but also still a little unsettled. As always, it's nice to have the crossword as a throughline!

Today's puzzle brings back memories of summers at the beach, going to the boardwalk and playing stupid games for small amounts of money to try and win useless stuff! But also having fun doing it. WHACAMOLE was always a favorite of mine. It's more about getting into a rhythm than it is force or precision. Certainly winning was a SMASHINGSUCCESS!

The five spots the plastic animal could pop out of are represented in their traditional setup as circles in the grid. Four of them are filled with the rebus "hole" while the fifth is the eponymous "mole" rebus, above whose head the [MALLET] is poised to whack. Very elegantly done.

The best rebus associated answer is 58A: Approach something with gusto (GOW[HOLE]HOG) because the word is hidden inside another one. The other hole rebus answers are all just that: holes, such as [HOLE]INONE, or FOX[HOLE]. 60A: What's the matter? [MOLE]CULES is very nice. It turns out that [MOLE]SKIN cotton is not actually made from the animal's hide. But still, it is called that because of its resemblance, so this is not a hidden rebus either. But I'm just being picky because I can, since I didn't make the puzzle.

Other fun bits include:

23A: Mnemonic start (SILENTM). I thought I wasn't going to be fooled by these sorts any more. Guess I was wrong.

13D: Make perfect, maybe (PRACTICE). Hah!

88A: 2017 musical retelling of the stories of Henry VIII's wives (SIX) - we saw this in London in the East End, and enjoyed it very much. It had a surprising twist, but was also surprisingly short.

86A: Knuckle-headed act? (NOOGIE). What a good note to end on.

- Colum