Michael Lieberman’s New York Times crossword, “Length-ening” —Nate’s write-up

Happy November! As we get nearer to Thanksgiving, let’s definitely give thanks for at this time’s enjoyable Sunday NYT puzzle, whose themers are fairly enjoyable :

11.06.22 Sunday NYT Crossword

– 24A: SQUARE EN ROUTE [Why the party’s about to get less hip?] – Square (en) root
– 35A: HOW EN SUITE IT IS [Realtor’s exclamation about a primary bathroom?] – How (en) candy it’s
– 49A: MARINE ENCORE [How Shamu acknowledged the crowd’s appreciation?] – Marine (en) corp
– 70A: EN GARDE IANS OF THE GALAXY [“Prepare for a sword fight, McKellen, Fleming and all other namesakes out there!”?] – (En) Guardians of the Galaxy
– 90A: MAKEUP ENTREE [Dish cooked to smooth things over after a fight?] – Makeup (en) tray
– 106A: CHOPPING EN BLOC [What students in a karate class are often doing?] – Chopping (en) block
– 118A: THE ROYAL ENNUI [Challenge for a court jester?] – The royal (en) we

Each theme entry is a time period or phrase the place “en” has been included (and phrases re-spelled as want be) to elongate these entries in new, enjoyable methods. THE ROYAL ENNUI was simply my favourite, although a whole lot of these have been actually satisfying transformations. One of my favourite kinds of themes, particularly when executed effectively as on this case!

Other random ideas:
– 1A: AT BATS [Opportunities for singles] – I often dislike baseball entries, however I’ll begrudgingly admit to having fun with this clue!
– 100A: THOU [The old you?] – Also cute!
– 93D: ELON MUSK [Business magnate who is a Stanford University dropout] – Ooooooooooof. Brutal inclusion right here, given the timing of this puzzle. Also, the clue appears to indicate that he’s a (profitable) “business magnate” though he dropped out of Stanford… with out mentioning his wild inheritance from his father? An unlucky ding on an in any other case tremendous enjoyable puzzle!