Alex M

I just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make “Branzino” an accomplished player of “SKA BASS”. 🤦‍♂️

Quick but interesting Monday. Though I will always cringe with the use of the cutesy SAMMIE. At least it wasn’t SANDO.

Fairly easy solve, though complicated by Pet Shop Boys going through my head on repeat through half of it. IT’S A SIN!

Enjoyed it, even if 13 down implanted Taylor Swift in my head the rest of the night.

I somehow managed to put in DIEHARDS and HOTHEADS for 31 down, before finally getting BOOBIRDS. All of the these fit and seemed to make sense. Fun puzzle, always love stacks!

APU TROLOGY fans will probably hate on me the same way I look down on all the solvers who don’t know my obscure music trivia. But that one, JOSS and KEPIS conspired against me today. Will have to learn about these!

Great puzzle! Slower than my usual for Friday, mostly for my refusal to give up MAYFLIES instead of JUNEBUGS. 🤦‍♂️

I thought KATR(I)NA might be a better clue for 39 across, since a tropical storm technically isn’t a hurricane. Enjoyed the puzzle though!

I would’ve solved this faster, but I GLOMmed on to GIANT SLALOM for over ten minutes before I got CANOE. DEEP SIGH.

Another tough but fair one this week. Would’ve been a lot easier if I hadn’t hung on to SPOONERISM over SLANTRHYME and PINTOBEAN over GREENBEAN.