Evan

Looked up definitions online for "verklempt", (sounded German to me), and found "overcome with emotion. And "plotzed", found "extremely drunk". Hadn't heard either of these words before.

I did not find the puzzle to be easy but that is probably because I did not pick up on the BEFORE/AFTER theme. Still, I was able to solve it in a record 3 hours! ;) One clue did bother me a little; "Buck, in slang" is a "smacker". But isn't a buck slang also? Slang for a slang? Just me.

Thanks for explaining 26A! Even after solving the puzzle I still didn't understand that clue.

I got the "Bump in the road" theme fairly quick and that really helped with many of the solutions. But I got stuck in a couple of the corners for a while. I had "POUR" for "Prepare for a shot" and other clues just weren't clicking. I find if I stare long enough at the puzzle however, more options start to surface. Sure enough, "POSE" presented itself and the rest "CLUCK"(ed)!

This was almost a "gotcha" by the constructor. But I don't know if it was intended. I was not familiar with Ne-Yo. (Now I am.) I had SIP for "Soak (Up). Therefore going down I had Neyi. With the puzzle filled in I got the message I was close but not quite. As I checked for spelling errors I searched Neyi and found Neyi Zimu, also a singer. <a href="https://spiritmusicgroup.co.za/artists/neyi-zimu" target="_blank">https://spiritmusicgroup.co.za/artists/neyi-zimu</a>/ Still thinking that was correct, it took me some more time to change SIP to SOP. A better fit for the clue.

What is MWAH? Something With A Hug? Heard of SWAK before, which is what I originally had. But not this.

Like most crossword puzzles, especially the harder ones, I try to get a foothold and build from there. I got the Rebus with BrEYErs ice cream and Shut EYE. Then from the main clue which said there where eight such squares, I was able to find the rest.