Meghan Morris’s New York Times crossword, “Take Two” —Nate’s write-up

It seems to be like some aliens invaded this puzzle’s theme solutions, and it’s as much as us to search out out what occurs after we ship them packing:

09.24.22 Sunday New York Times Puzzle

– 23A: ELECTRICAL OUTLET [What’s in your wallet?]
– 32A: FAKE NEWS [Press junket]
– 43A: SHAVING CREAM [Barbershop quartet]
– 49A: GEOLOGIST [Rocket scientist]
– 68A: USERNAME AND PASSWORD [Security blankets]
– 92A: INFLATION [A drop in the bucket]
– 95A: EXTERMINATOR [Ticketmaster]
– 106A: DRIBBLES [Ballet movements]
– 121A: WORKING WITHOUT A NET [Has no plan B … or, when parsed differently, what each of the starred clues does vis-a-vis its answer?]

Reparsing the revealer provides us our aha second: if we’re WORKING by this puzzle WITHOUT AN ET in every of the themers’ clues, these clues make much more sense! An ELECTRICAL OUTLET is certainly what’s in your wall, FAKE NEWS is certainly press junk, and so forth. I actually loved the aha second on this theme and was actually impressed with numerous the finds! So lots of the clues felt fairly pure / in-the-language phrases, and I liked the reinterpretations of their ET-less variations. The revealer isn’t essentially the most thrilling to me (I might need most popular one thing extra particular like ET GO HOME), however I nonetheless very a lot loved going again to revisit every themer after the sunshine bulb went off. Also, was [Maker of the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game] for ATARI at 70D an Easter egg right here? It appears odd to affirmatively embody E.T. right here, particularly since we would like the themer clues to be ET-less, however I’m very seemingly overthinking that half.

My solely problem with this puzzle was a little bit of the north and SE sections of the grid. I couldn’t work out ALL OF / FAKE NEWS / KEG for the lifetime of me, and the GOT WISE / IN ON bit stumped me, too. [Cottoned on (to)] was actually new to me. I can think about ENOS / TSWANA might be a troublesome crossing for a lot of people.

Other random ideas:
– 1A: TWERK [Do some backup dancing?] – Does it trace to my age that I obtained grumpy when MOONWALK didn’t match right here?
– 74A: SNL SKIT [“Black Jeopardy!,” for one] – For me, this can be a nice instance of an entry that might have simply been clued by a white lens however wasn’t. I want the puzzle had taken an analogous method at 109D by cluing EBONY through the journal.
– 82A: CLEO [Letters to ___ (rock group)] – I’ll candidly admit that I obtained Better Than Ezra confused with Letters to Cleo right here.  My solely protection is that the beginning of the college yr at all times scrambles my mind a bit!
– 81D: OPTICKS [Sir Isaac Newton work on the fundamentals of light] – I didn’t get pleasure from this spelling in any respect, however who am I to argue with Newton!
– 93D: LOAN OUT [Give for a time] – It felt odd to have this instantly after [Excavated, with “out”] at 91D.

Nate on “Wheel of Fortune”

All in all, I fairly loved this puzzle and am curious to see if people can provide you with different reimagined ET-less phrases. What did y’all suppose? Let us know within the feedback – and have a fantastic week!

PS – As a enjoyable apart, I’m excited to share that I’ll be on Wheel of Fortune this week! Tune on this Thursday 9/29 to see if the wheel certainly had any fortune for me. (Check your native listings for time and channel.) I can’t say something concerning the episode till it airs however, as you may think about, it was a dream come true for this phrase nerd to even be a contestant!