At least I figured it out eventually, I guess. But I was primed to be bugged because the theme just never clicked for me (I can see already from early social media reaction that I won't be alone in this). Then, when I figured it out, I dunno, something about the way not just the stress ("weight") but the vowel sound seemed to change in the second syllable of COLOGNE and MORALE really bugged me. So I stumbled to the end never once really being amused by the themers. But then I got NOBEL but didn't know the second part and didn't know NOBEL was the altered word, so that was no help. First themer looks like an add-a-letter theme, and the third themer (which I ran into second) seems to confirm this. As soon as I finished, it dawned on me what the "weight" in the title of the puzzle meant. (wikipedia)ĭidn't care for this much as I was solving, as I had no idea what was going on, and didn't find the puns that funny. Also, magical currency is all metal coins, and there is no paper money. Wizarding money is old-fashioned whilst Muggle Britain was decimalised in 1971, Magical Britons continued with their system of 17 silver Sickles to a gold Galleon, and 29 bronze Knuts to a Sickle. Word of the Day: KNUT ( 94A: Coin in the Potterverse). MAJOR THOREAUFARE (116A: The main food served at Walden Pond?).SEMI COLOGNE (105A: What a truck driver puts on before a date?).I CAME I SAW I CONCURRED (86A: Summary of an easy negotiation?).IT'S NOT ROCKETTE SCIENCE (68A: "Our lab studies regular dance moves rather than high-kicking"?).THE MORALE OF THE STORY (49A: How everyone on this floor is feeling?).NOBEL-MINDED (33A: Like ambitious scientists?).SHIP OF THE DESSERT (22A: Cruise that specializes in baked alaska, e.g.?).THEME: "Now Weight Just a Second" - familiar phrases are made wacky by changing a single two-syllable word from one whose stress ("weight") is on the first syllable to one whose stress is on the "second": it's all chopping and cutting, what the hell?) See also SAWN (weird that both of these -WN past participles are essentially synonymous. HEWED screwed me up because I only wanted HEWN, which of course didn't fit ( 47D: Chopped). What was worst about it was it gave me a terminal "I" at 46A: Diamond Head's island ( OAHU), so naturally (?) I wrote in MAUI. " NOT SO!" feels very formal compared to 37D: "That's just wrong!" Oof, the worst moment for me was writing in UPTICK for UPTURN (32D: Improvement, as in the economy). There are cluable IRMAs, pick one! I always forget ALDEN, so luckily today I got him mostly from crosses before I ever saw his clue. I also really hate the clue on IRMA (17D: Woman whose name is an anagram of MIRA). Not sure " AHA!" is a very good equivalent of 14A: "Like I told you!" I mean, I can hear someone saying "Like I told you!" immediately after saying AHA! but I don't like it as a swap-out. Felt like half my time was spent trying to undo typing mistakes. Also, my fat fingers were typo'ing all over the place. My time was normal, which was weird because I felt very slow. Lempel, whose work is regularly stellar, this feels somewhat below average. The 6+-letter Downs give the grid some solidity as well as some crunch, but for Ms. Just plunk your finger down in the grid, you'll hit something. I won't list all the dull repeaters, the common short stuff that's gunking up this grid, because I don't have to. which may be why the grid overall feels a bit stale. The theme is just fine, and it's pretty dense. ![]() This seems impossible, in retrospect, since every clue begins but I bounce around so much, and "?" are always an extra layer of difficulty for me, so I was distracted and didn't see the coherence (not that it would've helped me solve faster). I was finished before I figured out / realized that the answers had something in common besides puns.
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