them's crossing words

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Self-Contained

by Bonnie Eisenman

My time suffered thanks to some crosswordese in the bottom half of the grid, where I plonked PRONOUNS only to erase it immediately afterwards due to the cross "Formerly known as". It has to be AKA, right? Nope, it's NEE. At this point in my crossword solving career I should recognize the telltale signs of a NEE, but somehow it always manages to sneak up on me.

It took me some 4 or 5 passes through the grid for me to finally fill BOTTLEEPISODE. I struggled on the right-hand side thanks to "Jazzercise or spin class, e.g." where I had ___BIKE because I misspelled ROC as ROK. I'm very salty that the crosswordese in this puzzle had me redoing not one, but two separate corners. Although, looking back on it now I'm not sure Jazzercise could ever be done on a bike. But hey, with a name like Jazzercise how can you expect me to take it seriously?

There are some weird takes in this grid. "Low sound?" for MOO is just bizarre, I don't care what the editor says about it being some Christmas carol reference. The clue for BOTTLEEPISODE also has me scratching my head, particularly the part that relates it to the shape of the grid. Isn't a crossword puzzle inherently a confined space? What am I missing? At least the tvtropes entry is a good read.

I love COLOSSUS for some inexplicable reason; it channels positive Shadow of the Colossus vibes. It also reminds me of a bit of trivia that I picked up about the Colossus of Rhodes, where medieval misinterpretation of the ruins had people believing that the statue stood with one leg on each side of the harbor so that ships would have to pass between the statue's legs. Being a Greek statue it's totally nude, so that's just a hilarious image.

You know I solve too many crosswords when I recognize a clue from earlier in the week. TROOP "Girl Scouts group" was clued as "Group of Girl Scouts" in Monday's puzzle. Why do I remember this?

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