Constructor: Simon Marotte

Relative problem: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: ADIA Victoria (51D: ___ Victoria, singer identified or her “gothic blues” fashion) —

 

Adia Victoria (born July 22, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter. In addition to enjoying and writing music, she additionally writes poetry. She is presently primarily based in Nashville. […] Victoria is typically related to Americana music, she has distanced herself from the style, saying, “I’m not an Americana artist. I’ve no real interest in being appropriated by that style.” However, her place appears to have softened as, in 2022, she carried out at a nominations occasion hosted by the Americana Music Association and was nominated for his or her Emerging Artist of the Year award at their twenty first awards ceremony. […] Rolling Stone describes her as “PJ Harvey overlaying Loretta Lynn at a haunted debutante ball.” (wikipedia) [it’s pronounced ‘uh-DEE-uh’ I believe]

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I’m method too filled with Thanksgiving to be of a lot use to anybody, for something, however I’ll give this a (quick) shot. It thought it was first rate. Just tremendous. Very simple. All of the problem got here from a few single-letter errors that I made alongside the way in which. The first, and worst, of those was writing in PANCHO, as in “PANCHO & Lefty,”  slightly than PONCHO, as in raincoat, at 39A: Garment that is pulled over the top. That “A” completely killed me, as I took one take a look at MSA- at 33D: Annual bodybuilding competitors received 10 instances by Iris Kyle and wrote in MS. AMERICA. Sounded proper, felt proper, and ALIT (60A: Came down) “confirmed” the final “A,” so I used to be actually locked in. Total period of time spent extricating myself from this entire in all probability did not quantity to a lot, however contemplating how simple the puzzle was in any other case, it felt like a significant hold-up. I additionally wrote in IPAD as an alternative of IPOD (after all) (32A: Touch, for one), so I had 27D: Performer whose face isn’t seen as a BAD-something or different (as an alternative of the right BODY DOUBLE). Beyond that, the one points I had have been parsing / spelling issues on the slangier solutions. I DON’T felt easy, so I used to be a bit hesitant with WANNA, nevertheless it labored out (6D: Whiner’s “You cannot make me!”). Later, I could not cease studying the reply at 11D: “Beats me” as “I GOT NO ___,” and for the reason that clean was 4 letters, I needed solely CLUE or IDEA, each of which have been clearly mistaken (the reply was “I GOT NOTHIN‘”). I additionally had some hesitancy / uncertainty in that very same nook with  [___ party] (POOL) and the entrance finish of 10D: Enlist (ROPE IN). I feel I wrote SIGN IN at first. But these have been all actually minor frustrations. Mostly I tore by way of this, even with the Thanksgiving Torpor upon me.