MarkGawron

I liked this. And I think the execution of this theme is a very cool piece of crossword construction. Each "lie" needs to harmonize with three entries, the down answer, the across answer, and the "spike" answer under the blank square. It's like a first step toward a 3D crossword. That's a nice challenge, and nicely met.

Loved this one. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who had 47A be the last to fall. Despite the fact that I had been duly warned in 17-across that a single answer might have two "rebi" in it (I'm going with OnceaMarine's plural), I answered 47A with one rebus, giving "crayzy", quite happy with this alternative spelling and the crosses produced, "bazterium" as the culture group clued in 39D (no doubt some port in the Eastern Roman Empire I had forgotten all about) and "gyareas" clued in 44D as open to interpretation (highly ambiguous symptoms, especially when occurring in series). It was only when the happy sound failed to bleat that I was forced to reconsider. I wonder if "craycray" is making its first NYT Crossword appearance, since Google ngrams dates the start of its meteoric rise to about 2010.