The factor is, once you come out of that NW nook, you’ve got acquired the entrance ends of all of the lengthy central Acrosses lined up, and people first few letters are all you want for any of them. I went DIRTY-MINDED YAM STEAMED OPEN ARMED FORCES in just about no time. UNPIN was a gimme (36A: Remove, as a corsage) and made the SW simple to get into (although POP GUN was briefly elusive—I had POPPER, i.e. the one … who pops … the champagne, I suppose? (38D: Cork launcher). I additionally needed to kind out which of this century’s seemingly infinite “Star Wars” motion pictures was imagined to go within the slot at 50A: 2016 prequel to the highest-grossing film of 1977 (“ROGUE ONE“). But after that, it was simple to whoosh, proper up the center of the grid with these lengthy Downs. No resistance. Got RANK AND FILE with out ever seeing the clue (14D: Ordinary members). Never ever heard of “DANNY Deever,” in order that was bizarre, however I simply form of tiptoed round him, which was very simple to do, and after that, the east facet of the puzzle fell like dominoes. I went from prime to backside of the grid writing in solutions as quick as I may learn the clues. Once I hit backside, I had solely tiny particulars to work by way of—like altering SNOOTY to SNOTTY (41D: Stuck-up) and remembering that AMULETs are for “sporting in well being” (I consider them as only a jewellery kind). Unfortunately for this puzzle, I ended on the sourest doable be aware: the ridiculousness that’s LET DRY. *LET*??? Do you know the way dumb that sounds, esp. after you’ve got written within the much better, much more acceptable AIR DRY (57A: Put on the road, say)? Oof. LET DRY … I suppose once you AIR DRY issues, you’re, in truth, LETting them DRY … however I’ve written “LOL dangerous” within the margin there as a result of it’s. Unsurprisingly, that is the NYTXW debut of LET DRY. Congrats?