super spud

Laborious, joyless slog. After 2 hrs, I pretty much just gave up in the NW quadrant. Congrats on the full cycle to the constructors and all, but seriously, EVENER? FEMININESIDE? Blech.

Subpar cluing, obscure on obscure crosses next to monday-grade easy fill, words that aren't words - there are few things less satisfying than a half-baked potato. You've made me a sad tuber, Mr. Grillo.

Clunky puzzle with some bad clues. I'm sure I'm repeating what others have said, but: APER? SPRIER? ANISES? Yikes. "Auto setting" would have been a subpar clue for STREET even _with_ a ? "Self-care?" for EGO? Come on. EGOISM or EGOTISM, sure, but EGO is too stretchy. Finally, since when is YEAST an ingredient in sourdough starter? This clue is just plain _wrong_. If we define "ingredient" as "one of a list of items required to correctly make the recipe," then yeast is the one thing that is NOT an ingredient in sourdough, because it is understood as "commercially cultivated yeast" (aka instant yeast) in baking recipes, not the wild yeast that is present in everything, which inadvertently becomes the raising agent for traditional sourdough. I'm sure one of you "defenders" can pull up some more complex (usually pro bakery, volume-oriented) recipe that includes instant yeast AND starter made with wild yeast - I've seen and used a couple myself - but the very distinction of sourdough is that the dough ferments (for a much longer time, because it is necessary) using wild yeast, NOT instant yeast that can develop in an hour. To summarize: if you want sourdough in a home setting, yeast is the one thing you are _specifically_ not adding separately, because it would make the "sour" part of "sourdough" harder to achieve, therefore it would be _purposefully_ absent from an ingredient list. Why not just "frequently used dough ingredient"? On a Tuesday, zero problem with that.