J

“Windy part of a kite” got me good.

A longer solve for me than usual, but what a fun and enjoyable theme! It took me ages to figure out that the - clues went not just down but up. I've seen GOOD-OH used exactly once in my life, and that was in Agatha Christie's "4:50 From Paddington", where a character is practicing talking "Australian". Fortunately it's one of my favorite Christies, so the memory saved me here. The last clue to stave off the happy music was 32A: Faced with STRAP_ANGERS, my brain decided that it was perfectly likely for subway commuters to have acquired--or given themselves--an adventurous, swashbuckling handle in the form of STRAPrANGERS. Might give a bit of a kick to the morning commute!

Was able to clear most of this without help but the top-middle portion slayed me -- a stack of 4 unfamiliar terms (MRSDASH, PDQ BACH, ROUGHAGE, AGIO) crossing an equally unknown term in DOGES and clues unguessable without crosses in MRMAGOO, ARCH, SHADE. I'd also never heard of YOUNG TURKS, so that entire area was a bit of a mess. Theme answers were fun, and as someone who grew up in the 80s, GITANOS shook loose some long buried memories! The days of high-waisted jeans...

The cross between LIPASE and LAHR was a complete natick for me, but otherwise this was a smooth solve with a super fun theme! Lovely way to end the week.

I like that both OUTS and bUTS fit for 31A (fortunately 3D made it clear which one it was.) Fun theme, once I could convince myself that it had nothing to do with LIFE OF Pi--17A was the only one I came close to figuring out from crosses prior to the "oh THAT'S the theme!" lightbulb.

Though familiar with the poem, this puzzle stumped me badly until I finally realized that the themers were one big run-on sentence and not complete in and of themselves. Fun once that bulb lit up! I did need to run the alphabet for 60-down, and still don’t understand the connection between “Throw” and PEG.

Smooth solve with no hints or look-ups, although the crossing between ICEMAN, CORFU and BOWLGAME was the last to fall as Top Gun, distant isles and football are all subjects that tend to be "Greek" to me. 16D gave a bit of trouble as well, going from wonderBRA to PushupBRA until finally PADDEDBRA fell into place. The themed clues were my favorites. Looking forward to 98A down the line...