them's crossing words

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Sleepover Party

by Shannon Rapp

I want it on the record that while I do indeed WFH I have never worked in pajama pants. It helps that I don't own a pair of pajamas.

Today's grid is a rather difficult themeless. At least, I think it's a themeless. PAJAMAPANTS, POLLYPOCKET, and BOXBRAIDS all share some alliterative patterns and the first two have a potential pairing with PANTS/POCKET. Maybe POLLYPOCKET is the kind of thing you'd bring to a sleepover, PAJAMAPANTS the kind of thing you'd wear to a sleepover, and styling BOXBRAIDS the kind of activity you'd participate in at a sleepover? I don't know, I'm just spitballing here.

I dig the wordplay in this puzzle. I felt mighty clever figuring out SCARAB from "Bug in some old code?", where "code" refers to hieroglyphs. Meanwhile "Engage in some next-gen development?", MATE, had me locked in a multi-stage eye roll. The only wordplay clue I'm not a big fan of is "Up to something?" as ABLE. I'm still scratching my head trying to put it together, perhaps the intended misdirect is to think "scheming"? The actual definition feels like it should be "Up for something" instead, the "to" feels errant. Maybe I'm just being pedantic.

I'm fortunate to have solved this crossword with my partner because she plonked POLLYPOCKET from the get-go. In fact, I was in such disbelief that I actually made her erase it so that we could verify a few of the crosses beforehand. I mean, WTF is a POLLYPOCKET? Crosswords with brand recognition always tread a thin line, like yesterday's ABOUTBRUNO that references one of the characters in Disney's Encanto. You either know it or you don't, and if you don't you better hope the constructor dangles some hints. In a themeless I think it's a little less acceptable.

Sidenote, I tried SPAM musubi for the first time two days ago after it was hyped up to the high heavens by my friends. I don't get it. It's a slab of SPAM on top of rice wrapped in seaweed, is this some kind of high culinary achievement? It's not bad but it's not great. It's kind of like an inferior onigiri.

Back to the grid, BONN clued as "Beethoven House home" is weirdly hilarious to me. It's not "Beethoven's home", but his house's home, as if the home of the home requires an extra level of attribution. For those uneducated like myself, the distinction seems legitimate: Beethoven House being a memorial site/museum that also happens to have been where Beethoven was born. I feel like I'm going in circles here.

Speaking of music, I guess the clue "Feldt's collaborator on 'Follow Me'" is supposed to be recognizable. I originally went for the cheeky OMW, since you know, the answer to "come with me" being "on my way". Even though I was way off I prefer my answer. Puzzmo needs some better music taste, for real.

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