RDJ

Don't spray anything. Put out Terro bait. It works.

I feel like there should be more comments on SLUE. I got it with crosses after abandoning SPIN, and it just didn't look right, but I left it and carried on in the NW. Even when I got the jingle signifying a successful completion, it still didn't look like a real word to me. But it was. I looked it up and found that SLUE is indeed defined as a sudden violent turning often about an axis. I infer it is a sailing term because one definition refers to a mast as a specific example. I don't sail much, and never in such rough weather that my mast SLUEs. But the nautical lexicon is bottomless compared with my limited vocabulary. I also found some talk about whether it should be spelled "slew" or even "slough" but those are other words entirely so I think those are just the usual confusion you find in Reddit discussions. So TIL'd something! That means I can slack off for the rest of the day!

Just when I think I am really improving my times, NYT comes to remind me that the puzzles really were a lot harder years ago, and they still can be if the constructor and editor are so inclined.

Never heard of the word ALOP before. I am still not convinced. I am not conspiratorially minded, but it does seem at least plausible that all the confirmatory definitions of ALOP that I found after a Google search, were planted post hoc by the constructor. Otherwise a great puzzle! THEIRO[NL]ADY got me onto the theme early on, but did anyone else get hung up on LENIN[GR]AD instead of PETRO[GR]AD? And did the constructor have that potential confounder in mind? Whatever. Thanks for the challenge.

It has been several years now since Car Talk went off the air. and so I expect that the phrase "SONJA Henie's tu-tu" is going the way of Fibber McGee's closet.

I picked up on the theme early, and as a result I whipped through this faster than my usual Thursday. Yay me! No boasting here--this is a rarity. More common is that I simply take forever to pick up on the theme and complete the puzzle without some help. Add to that the times I breeze through the puzzle but even after it's done I have no understanding of the theme until it is explained to me. I have a lot to be humble about.

This was one of those times when I learned a whole new word when I filled in the very last square, which was an educated guess. The guess was the [P] added to the INS in 53A. [P]INS means “saves, as a digital location”? OK, I guess I can see it in retrospect—you “pin” a particular post at the top of your feed in Threads or Bluesky, so it’s the first thing other people see when they go to your page. It make more sense than [B]INS, [F]INS, [G]INS, [S]INS . . . So that finished my 44D entry, S A [-] I D. SA[P]ID for “Pleasing to the palate”? Never heard of it. But what’s the worst thing that could happen if I just put in the “P”? The admonition to “keep trying”? I have seen that plenty of times and survived/ Unexpectedly, entering the “P” immediately set off the bells & whistles. Learning a new vocabulary word at my age gives me some degree of satisfaction.

I got 52D first, then saw 56A and thought, "How clever! Crossing HULU with HULU." Then I couldn't figure out why, when I completed in record time, I did not get a "Congratulations" message. I scanned and scanned for spelling errors and overt mistakes and saw none. Had to check. Interesting how that resonance in my brain--HULU and HULU--led to such a blind spot. Plus: I hear a lot more about HULU than the HULA, and maybe I have come to think of HULU itself as a Hawaiian dance.

Did anyone catch the concurrence of DEV and PATEL? Re: DOULA--if this word is questionable because of its etymology, it's not the fault of the constructor, who is merely applying a brilliant clue to what is now a common and tacitly accepted word. Rather, it is the fault of the culture that adopted it.

Unusually tepid review, Deb. I takes a certain type of cruciverbian to compare one puzzle to another from >10 years ago. I am not one of them. Just like my grandchildren--I love each one in their own way. No criticism intended. In fact, it's good to know the NYTimes is not playing mere cheerleader, not even for its own product. ;)

I'm always humbled when I finish a Thursday fast, only to find that my understanding of the theme was partial at best. I appreciated only three of the "BACK"-containing clues. (BACKSEATDRIVERS; BACKLESSDRESS; BACKTRACK) Only when I read Deb's explanation did I realize there were 12. So only a partial victory.

Well! At least you didn't need to fill in the black squares to get the "you solved it" message! I never would have gotten it then. Great puzzle!