THEME: Tom Swifties — Theme solutions are puns that comply with a particular construction … right here, Wikipedia can clarify this higher than I ever may

Word of the Day: CHOUX (46A: Pastry dough utilized in crullers and beignets) —

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (French: [pɑ.t‿a ʃu]), is a fragile pastry dough utilized in many pastries. Basic elements often solely embrace butter, water, flour and eggs (auxiliary elements and flavorings are additionally added).

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Theme solutions:

• IN VERY POOR TASTE (17A: “You cooked this? It’s *disgusting*!” stated Tom ___)
• INCONSOLABLY (26A: “What do you imply there aren’t any PlayStations left in inventory?” requested Tom ___
• UNIRONICALLY (48A: “I’m anxious I’ll have anemia,” stated Tom ___)
• FRANKLY INCENSED (63A: “You guys are imagined to be ‘Wise Men’ and *these* are the presents you convey a new child?!” requested Tom, ___)

Hi everybody, it is Rafa right here filling in for Rex! Happy to be again to speak a few themed puzzle this time. This is a *very* tried and true theme, which we have seen earlier than in 2020, and in 2001, and in 1994, and in 1988 (!), and doubtless many extra occasions too, however I’m bored with looking.

I’ll quote Rex himself, from his final evaluation of a Tom Swifty puzzle:

Here’s the deal: Tom Swifties … are an outdated factor. They are in corny outdated “joke” books, in all probability, and they’re positively on web sites (over and again and again). In the tip, what you might have are … adverbs. Well, one adverbial phrase, after which adverbs. That’s it. You (sure you) can go to a Tom Swifties web page on the web, simply discover a bunch of adverbs that may match symmetrically in a grid, and bam, you might have a “theme” now, congrats.

That’s a bit harsh IMO, because the finds at the moment do appear novel throughout the style, however usually I agree it may be laborious to get excited a few theme/idea that feels stale with none kind of new twist. Though, I’m certain some individuals recognize a well-done model of a regular idea.

Anyhoo, for this set particularly, I fairly loved the center two, although the primary and final did not fairly land for me. The VERY felt a bit misplaced within the first reply (I believe IN POOR TASTE is the extra frequent in-the-language phrase), and the final one felt only a bit too contrived, although I did recognize the try. But additionally … possibly the frankincense and myrrh aren’t essentially the most thrilling presents, however they introduced gold!!! If I ever have a baby and also you convey me gold as a present, I promise to not make a crossword slandering you.

I had no thought what myrrh regarded like … apparently it is this

Outside the theme, there weren’t any lengthy (>7) slots, however some enjoyable stuff in CHEW TOY, SPA DAYS, and so forth. And fairly clean too, with solely YAR, ECCE, INDC standing out to me as dings. Let’s not normalize IN[city name] as crossword fill! (So simple to say as a solver! If you ever see me utilizing this in a puzzle I make, please don’t maintain this in opposition to me)

This is an apatosaurus. It does, certainly, have a distinguished NECK

I cherished the vibe that ANAL, SEXY, LMFAO dropped at the puzzle! Of course they have been clued much more tamely than they might, however I loved seeing all of the considerably boundary-pushing fill. There have been additionally fairly a couple of enjoyable clue moments. I chuckled on the reduplicative “reduplicative” clues for ISIS and NENE, and was a fan of the contemporary (to me) angles for SMOG, ASAHI, and others. Clue of The Puzzle for me was [One foot in “the grave,” poetically speaking] for IAMB — a extremely enjoyable aha that made the entire puzzle value it! (A foot in poetry is a measure of poetic meter, and an IAMB and a typical sort of foot)