Constructor: Robyn Weintraub

Relative problem: Medium

THEME: none 

Phrase of the Day: TAMRON Corridor (25A: ___ Corridor, former “Immediately” host with a self-titled daytime speak present) —

Tamron Corridor (born September 16, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist and tv speak present host. In September 2019, Corridor debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime speak present, which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award. Corridor was previously a nationwide information correspondent for NBC Information, daytime anchor for MSNBC, host of this system MSNBC Stay with Tamron Corridor, and a co-host of Immediately’s Take, the third hour of Immediately. She hosts Deadline: Crime on Investigation Discovery channel. In summer season 2016, Investigation Discovery premiered the TV particular Weapons on Campus: Tamron Corridor Investigates, which commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the tower capturing on the College of Texas at Austin.

• • •

My grid screenshots normally characteristic a highlighted phrase, which has no significance past the truth that it is normally the final reply I bought (the software program highlights no matter reply you are engaged on). This is the reason so usually the highlighted phrase seems on the backside of the grid—I have a tendency to resolve from prime to backside, you already know, like regular folks. And normally this highlighted phrase, this final phrase I bought, is a brief phrase. Longer solutions could also be powerful to get a grip on at occasions, however in addition they are likely to topple with just a few letters in place, and definitely once you’ve bought the overwhelming majority of a protracted reply, until it is a correct noun you have by no means heard of with an uninferrable spelling, that reply sometimes reveals itself shortly. However at present, hoo boy. OK, let me again up and say that I believe it is a good puzzle, with superb marquee solutions, all of the colloquial, chatty goodness I count on from a Robyn Weintraub puzzle (“IT’S ME AGAIN!” “I SPOKE TOO SOON!” “DRINKS ARE ON ME!” “COME ON DOWN!” “APRIL FOOLS!”). Vibrant, full of life stuff. It appeared like there was simply … extra brief fill at present, or perhaps the clues on it have been simply almost-all-over difficult / fussy, or perhaps I simply missed the cluing wavelength, however the resolve felt somewhat extra plodding, rather less whoosh-whoosh than Robyn’s puzzles usually really feel.  However “plodding” is just too harsh—I imply plodding by comparability to that implausible longer stuff. Anyway, extremely pleasurable, as regular. Till the tip, once I got here to a lifeless cease: two clean squares and no IDEA. 

Unsurprisingly, the first drawback concerned decoding a “?” clue, sigh. I’ve bought -O-A PARTIES at 25D: Enjoyable occasions between the sheets? and I can not for the lifetime of me work out what phrase that’s up entrance. Worse, I’ve bought TAMRON as CAMRON (25A: ___ Corridor, former “Immediately” host with a self-titled daytime speak present) and RAGES as RAVES (31A: Blows wildly), so my first reply there finally ends up being COVA PARTIES, which feels like, what, events the place your mates come over and deliberately catch COVID from you? Are there “sheets” since you are all in mattress sick? I do not know. In some unspecified time in the future I managed to each pull the “C” from CAMRON *and* think about RAGES as a risk as a substitute of RAVES, and so lastly I noticed TOGA, however truthfully, earlier than that, I used to be like, “… SOFA PARTIES? What is occurring!?” Do folks nonetheless have TOGA PARTIES? I really feel like that fad peaked 45 years in the past, with “Animal Home,” and has been slowly and/or shortly waning since. TOGA PARTIES are a phenomenon that (apparently) fully dropped off my radar.

Errors? Sure. ENOS earlier than AMOS (22D: First Hebrew prophet to have a biblical e book named for him). Wait … that is perhaps the one precise mistake till the TOGA fiasco on the finish. I positively struggled a bit right here and there. Did not comprehend the AKA clue in any respect (24D: Lead-in to a road title, maybe) till I noticed “road” was metaphorical (i.e. “road title” as in “alias,” versus “given title”), and never, like, Elm Road or one thing. I learn “autumn” as “aluminum” in 42D: Sweet model with autumn-colored packaging and nonetheless bought REESE’S simply, although I did make a “huh? unusual…” face, I am fairly certain. I do not assume I knew that BOLO was something besides a string tie, however (sadly) I *have* been to a SBARRO or two in my life, so BOLO did not buh-low up the puzzle up for me. Oh, and I wrote in ABET as a substitute of ASST for some motive. Intuition, in all probability. My fingers simply bought forward of my mind (2D: One who helps out briefly). One thing about serving to out, beginning “A” and ending “T”? No method you are going to preserve my palms from attempting ABET, even when it is not even the fitting a part of speech for the clue.

I’ve seen the [Hall of fame] clue for DARYL (and ARSENIO et al) earlier than, so the [Hall of fame collaborator?] clue was clear to me, nevertheless it’s nonetheless cute. I do not love the punctuation on it. It appears to be in a form of grammatical no-man’s-land, which explains the “?.” I additionally do not love that “Corridor-of-Fame collaborator” does not actually imply something, as a base phrase, collaborating not being a factor there’s a Corridor of Fame for. And but I really like Corridor & OATES (who I assume favor to be referred to as by their official title, Daryl Corridor & John OATES?—I realized this from Mark Goodman (in all probability) on Sirius XM’s “80s on 8” channel): “Although they’re generally known as Corridor & Oates, Corridor has been adamant concerning the duo being referred to as Daryl Corridor & John Oates – its official title” (wikipedia). So there you go. Christopher Adams might be with you tomorrow, after which I will be rejoining you from the shores of Lake Michigan on Sunday. See you then.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. Breakout was an precise online game, which is the important thing to (totally) understanding 1A: Breakout firm of the Nineteen Seventies (ATARI).