Spelling Marauder

This was light and clever and cute. Rebus was easy, appropriate for Wednesday.

I thought SARINOTSARI and HOLIMATRIMONY were clever. I thought ALUMNI when ALUMNAE was indicated by the clue was puzzling. If you want alumni as the answer then clue it as mixed genders. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, for example. Erasing women from the language smacks of Pete Hegseth, over at the Department of Defense (oops, Department of War) don’t help him, Will Shortz.

Ian is the Scottish form of John, but in the English language. The Scottish (Gaelic) form is Iain. 😍

Mayor Mamdani was right there.

Got PALATE CLEANSERS right off the bat, which made me feel happy as a grid-spanning start. MBAPPE is not the obscure answer many are bemoaning. I get that it’s a challenging spelling. The French team made it to the semifinals of the World Cup last month, his name, written on the back of his jersey was splashed across tv screens far and wide, as well as in news coverage for an entire month this summer AND he was mentioned in Ted Lasso this week. AESOPICA is an obscure answer. 😜

I’d never heard of spectacled bears before, they sound like they must be Paddington’s aunties and uncles.

Glad that’s over. Not fun.

For 35 Across, Ian is one spelling, in English. Iain is the Gaelic spelling.

What a fun puzzle. I liked the theme, and EYETEETH for canines was so clever. Misled myself with cry for SOB and pest where BANE was the answer, but figured those out and was glad to see PEST find its place. I don’t understand two answers, though, please help. 67A solves to TWPS. I don’t know what that is an abbreviation for. And 110A, STET, is totally unfamiliar to me.

I did fill in the correct one first, but TIL ROGEREBERT has the same number of letters as Gene Siskel, even a common “E” in the fourth position. I used to watch Siskel and Ebert regularly and feel like that knowledge would have annoyed them mightily. 👍

This puzzle felt like the clue to 34A.

Lovely constructor notes - Happy anniversary!

Loved the clue (and the answer) for 14A: “Mouthful for the foulmouthed” 🧼🫧

I had so many wrong answers throwing sections off. The worst in the SE, where I can tell you my guess of GlAmazon starts with the “G” I knew was correct from the cross and uses the same number of letters as the answer, GIANTESS. Misspelling words like BULGaR and being unsure of spellings like ALBUS made it all feel tentative. Good puzzle, though. We don’t use words like OSSIFY often enough.

I had STagE for [It’s a wrap,] then STiLE, before STOLE made me laugh out loud. Excellent clue.

With the lowercase and uppercase letters, I guess the Ohio tractor would look like oHIo, with the lowercase os as tires, as you said. I guess.

I’d never have gotten NONGMOCROP on my own, even though I was on the right track with plant “volunteers.” Smiled happily to see the nod to the very talented Linda ELLERBEE. My copy of her book, And So It Goes, must be many years older than today’s constructor. Do yourself a favor and read it. It’s a treat from the dedication to the last page.

Didn’t get much joy out of today’s crossword puzzle. It was a 2d overall.

This was fun, for the most part. Some of the cluing was terrific - like for the entry MOVIETRAILERS. I thought it was mildly odd to have answers CIRCA and CIRCE in the same puzzle, but no biggie. I thought it was jarring to have ICE in the puzzle three times (17A, 7D, 34A,) but am perhaps a little sensitive just now. All praise Minnesota! Funny I didn’t think of it until I mostly got it from crosses, as I live right next to SANMARINO, California. And once I had an R in fourth from the right in 17A, I filled in Rink. Nope. I was also delayed by YuP in place of YEP, crazy in place of NUTSO, etc. It was nice to be able to make educated guesses based on crosses for people I didn’t know, such as GIA and DIEGO. Nice when that happens. Thank you for a fun puzzle!

Had all the spaces filled, but, horsefeathers! Somewhere there was an error. LentO had been corrected to LARGO through the crosses. What devious trap had been laid for the innocent Monday crossword solver? Oh, nvm, I can’t spell BUOYED.

Enjoyed this one,

14A TRAGIClEad for TRAGICHERO and 37A gps instead of FOB made for some head scratching. I didn’t care for the clue for 25D at all, but found the ONIONRINGS clue sublime at 17A. Nice puzzle.

I don’t get the volume of the wailing over the ESME/GOHAM cross. I’ve heard GOHAM before, it reminds me of a Melissa McCarthy sketch from SNL I’ve tried to link below. TIL it is an acronym. I’ve heard of Edward Cullen, without ever having paid the slightest attention to Twilight. So, I’d never have gotten ESME…who knew vampires had nuclear families? But, anticipating the jewelry fill, like brooch, felt like it allowed for huge leaps forward in the fill. Today was a rare day for me, completion without having to look at the Wordplay column first. Enjoyed this puzzle very much. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DERUj7sxXdq/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/reel/DERUj7sxXdq/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ</a>==

TIL GOLDFISH and RINGTOSS have the same number of letters! And, both have “S” in the second-to-last spot.

I thought this was terrific. Loved answers like “Settlers of Yucatán” and “Sounds like a you problem.” The hardest one for me to get was the wedding - I kept thinking it had to be a version of “rITESINSHININGARMOR,” which doesn’t fit the spaces, nor the theme. I was almost blank in the NE for quite a while because I had mdS, then considered rnS before settling on DRS because ANNARBOR just had to be right. Then, there was the kind of answer I dislike intensely, I had Ouch, then OWie, then finally OWOW. It just feels like lazy, manipulative cluing, not a real, “right” answer. Same when we are faced with Czar one time and Tsar the next. Or Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, without any way of differentiating without crosses. I was also tripped up by having sITT for PITT for a long time. Who is the third LEVY? I knew Eugene and Dan were in S Creek.