Jack

"WHAP?" c'mon....

To me, it always was and always will be the Tappan Zee. You just cannot make up a cooler name than that.

About ten clues in .... "Rebus?" Another ten clues .... Rebus suspected About halfway .... Rebus confirmed! It's been awhile. I've been waiting for one. Thanks!

I never thought I'd see a puzzle I actively hated. It didn't start well with the muffed print edition, over which I labored thinking it was some kind of hidden start word trick (e.g. no 5A), or the answers were split across black squares. But the rebuses just never really clicked and after having to look up too many answers, bailed out. "Nuclear Fusion" turned out to be a red herring. I'm sure there is a fun theme here and it looks like a lot of people caught on to it and enjoyed it, but mine is in the trash.

2D. Really? Ugh .... How about "North Carolina college" ?

"donezo?" Never heard it.

It's been a long while since I've played the board game, but memory (what little I can rely upon it these days) serves up "Take a Ride on the Reading".

Well that was different! Tegan and Sara totally stumped me, had to fill in around. Very happy to see my alma mater's spirit animal (mascot) in the crosswords. A hokie is a young turkey, by the way. "When I'm .... " what??? "Final ..." what??? Oh haha! Thought maybe a rebus was incoming.

Too early in the day for a rebus. But the rebus arrived despite my protestations, and once the coloring implement was discovered, the game was afoot!

Relief after yesterday ... which still sits unfinished. This one went by in a breezy 9:00, a personal Monday best. Perfect in all respects, and a great way to start the day.

Wow, harder than expected. Got the center top/bottom down almost immediately, but it was a slog through the rest. I would Vouch that some of you were able to Streak By me in your solve, maybe even land this one in your Top Ten Wednesday solves? But no Ire from me; that would not Befit an amateur lest I am Foulded and labelled a Bad Egg. Anyway, my Roomba is on the fritz so I need to go call for some IT Help. Prosit!

Oh dear God. Bad acid flashback to last Sunday.

MEATWAVES would have been funnier and would have given MEH across. Meh.

"LATEN?" You mean to make later? That's a bit of a stretch but ok. Interesting photo.

I really hope INSPO doesn't become a thing. "Merch" is bad enough.

Another fun solve, just the right amount of difficulty for a Wednesday morning. Not sure about 1A ("Isn't it missing an 'E'?") but ok. 46A was a fun get. I didn't know that radon tests were still a thing; we did those in the 80s and 90s, and now I never hear about them.

Loved it. Thought about the six being opposite the one, two opposite the five, to maintain dice symmetry, but that's fine. It was probably not an easy puzzle to construct! 50D is a complete unknown to me. "Betty Frenemy" unlocked a lot, as did 14A and 17A which were insta-gets.

Re: 29A. There was an old computer game called Colossal Cave and it involved navigating a maze of twisty passages, all alike; or a twisty maze of passages, all different. It was entirely text based and had rudimentary language understanding. This was 1978, remember. To achieve the high score of 350, one had to encounter the pirate, who would steal whatever treasure you were carrying and HIE off with it. I rarely see that word any more, and it was a delightful to have it appear this morning.

LOOKIELOO?

3D - Did not like at all. Never heard the phrase. 9D - That was close to ... umm ... something a little different. 17A - Thought we were going to get some Bard here. Other than that, pretty straightforward.

That was fun! A Lot of fun... Didn't see "Gate" but then it dawned on me. The A/B thing appeared really early with NY Pro Athlete. Wait, which one? There are three! Thanks for a fun Thursday puzzle.