Matthew

@Spacebabe Isn't the NYT Corporation a US publisher, though? Wouldn't one expect its puzzle to be US-centric? When I've tried the Times of London puzzle, l've found lots of UK-centric clues. I'd have been surprised if that hadn't been the case.

@Francis If you were living in Big Swamp when you got started with the crossword, then you did know at least two words of French ;-)

@Andrew Understated, arch, and timely. The trifecta! Nicely done!

@Ed Hey! Calm down, you two! It's a floor wax _and_ a dessert topping! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlhHakrKeE" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlhHakrKeE</a>

@Adam Funnily enough, people I grew up with do (or at least used to) also say "snooze alarm" as well as "snooze button", and the expression was one of my brother's pet peeves. He would always ask, "What's a snoozle arm?" :-D

@K. H. Since when? I would pronounce beamer and beemer exactly the same, but not bimmer. To me it's like the difference between sleeping and slipping. Not a mistake I'd want to make irl, lol.

@Andrzej AKA Yodamlet?

@Steve L Thank you! I checked the comments specifically because of this clue. I was unaware of the shift in standardized testing for business school applicants, given that my peer cohort were applying to graduate programs decades ago. Back then, the business school aspirants spoke only of the GMATs. Thanks for looking it up and posting it here. Another fun way for constructors to trick us thwarted, lol.

@Mark I only got it when I thought back to the mad dash for seats at those festival seating concerts of my youth. The political idea never even dawned on me until I saw your comment [facepalm and lol emojis].

@Beth Back in the '80s I experimented with seaweeds and macrobiotic cooking and have most definitely used agar (often called agar agar back then) in my cooking. It took some trial and error, but done it right, it can contribute to some marvelous dishes. Of course it's used in industrial food production, but so are such strange ingredients as "milk" or "wheat". Who has ever heard of those? ;-)

@Turing ¡Felicidades!

@Steve Just had to play one of the reavies, didn't you? :-D

@John I was thinking the same thing. Just because a word is commonly misused (or in this case, incorrectly altered due to confusion over the -s being presumed to indicate the plural, which for a Latin loan word is not necessarily true, as we see with "biceps") doesn't make it correct. Your suggestion would have been a good "preventative" measure ;-)

@Bruce I managed to solve correctly and even understood the theme by the end, but made sure to run a post-solve Google search on this strange new thing called an ACUNIT [facepalm, lol] :-D

@Bill in Yokohama Sorry, Bill, but it's not always the case. Not in my US family, at least. My mother would've had a conniption fit. And you'd better pronounce the 'd of "you'd better" or you'd live to regret it.

@Red Carpet Same here :-(

@Francis Yes! Having been born and raised on the shore of one of the Great Lakes I was confused by the cluing on that one. I actually figured out today's trick on my own (a rare occurrence for me on a Thursday) but came here to see if anyone else had picked up on that. I grew up being taught that they were indeed an inland sea, but I double-checked and it looks like some parts of the interwebs quote scientists saying that they are technically not, but are typically referred to as such. That said, the good old Wiki-Waki calls them an inland sea without flinching right in their introductory paragraph (at least as of a couple of minutes ago). In any case, the team name made perfect sense me without any need for qualifications. Well, c'est la vie. I knew the answer, regardless :-)

@Gregg Same sticking point, but I went for mad season, as in mad March hares! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@Jen I don't mind lookups, as I quite like crossword-inspired learning, but my preference is to fill in everything correctly by crosses and good guess work, and only then go into the research phase. I get a bit frustrated with myself when I have to look things up before correctly completing the grid, which is to say that I often get a bit frustrated with myself ;-) But that never outweighs the pleasure of solving.

@Steve Demuth Same here. I was happy to manage a correct solve without being able to figure out the theme, but even after reading the column, I'm still a bit confused by some of them. Maybe there'll be a delayed "click" at some point in the future.

@CCed I take the reason for this thread to be not necessarily crossword related comments, but more about forming a friendly online community, where we can share personal messages. If so, I think it's a lovely idea!

@Lpr Had to ping-pong (table tennis anyone?) between Diane and I?a to get the solve, but it eventually worked. Now, the research phase begins :-)

@Patrick Ryan Came here for this one, too. In my case, I'm not annoyed, just mystified by this one. Got it by letting the crossings guide me, though, so it wasn't upsetting; just a really odd reach.

@Doug TIL of the SMEW. I don't think I'll ever stop creating opportunities to use this word. Apparently it's been in the puzzle a lot and I'm a long-time solver, so I can only guess that I must've cross-solved it previously, without going back over the puzzle. It definitely would've caught my attention if I'd been paying attention at all. And SMEWs are so darned cute! Just love 'em. Glad there are people around who know about them :-)

@Bill in Yokohama The 'd was merely an added bonus. You are most welcome.

@A.S. I actually posted in the comments at least one of the times this came up in 2022. And here we are again...

@BR I would feel as if I'd been tricked into spelling it out by such a clue. I wouldn't know the answer as clued and then there it would suddenly appear as I filled in the crossings. Ouch.