RPS

@G.T. Big ups on hitting the five-year mark! I feel honored to have contributed the capstone puzzle

@B Constructor here! It sounds like my puzzle today just didn't really land for you; sorry to hear. Nonetheless, thought I'd take a stab at addressing your points. :) 1. I thought it would be fun to include a personal pet peeve for the ERRING clue. 2. I'd say this clue's vague but not inaccurate. My original was [S as in Seine?] (an S shape in a river is called a MEANDER), but the eds found that too hard. 3. "The assailant buried/lodged the knife in the victim's chest." Not stretchy! 4. Some dictionaries give pretense as a synonym for hypocrisy, so I don't think INSINCERITY is far off the mark. 5. The commenters here seem largely familiar with it, but I'm sorry it didn't click for you. It was actually my seed entry! 6. Main = open sea (as noted by others), course = route

@Mike Sounds like you're keeping up with current events swimmingly!

@SteveG_VA Constructor here! That sounds like the infamous scene from Luis Buñuel's "Un Chien Andalou" -- but there could be a similar bit in the original "Nosferatu" too, I don't recall. :)

@Bruce Horowitz Constructor here! I'm definitely seeing flan recipes calling for double boilers and even specifically labeled "flan double boilers" for sale online. And Wikipedia's page for bain-marie gives double boiler as a synonym. (Can't say I make much flan myself, though! Do you?)

@Caitlin I'll admit the oat bar ambiguity was not on my radar! #TMYK

@Calvin Being of Irish lineage, I tend to favor malarkey. But hokum's perfectly cromulent in a pinch.

@Nick Always happy to introduce a modicum of extra challenge. ;)

@Bill Constructor here! I'm definitely of the wrong generation to have watched this, but your comment was a trip to read, haha. Color me intrigued (and slightly scared).

@Santiago Constructor here! This misdirect was added by the eds (I'd originally just done a cross ref with TOE CAPS) fwiw -- which I found interesting, since they dialed down the difficulty of some of my clues elsewhere. I suppose they were going for better balance in diff across the grid. :) This clue's a little loose to me, but I still like it.

@dutchiris Constructor here! Reading through this comment was delightful, cheers. :)

@Jacqui J A childhood friend and I once braved the Goliath at Magic Mountain together. 85 mph at the depth of its intimidating drop -- I was ashen and speechless afterwards, as my mom recounts to this day. No regrets, tho!

@Careless That would've been rather a cheesy clue.

@john ezra Thanks for the kind words, John!

@Katie Constructor here. So glad you enjoyed it! :)

@Anna A good one to have in your arsenal, in my humble opinion! I'd file it in the "flounce" family

@Barry Ancona You're very welcome!

@Steve L Thanks for solving, Steve! Fwiw, I originally clued the two crossing songs as "Amorous Martin Gaye hit of 1973" and "Dolorous Gilbert O'Sullivan hit of 1972," as I liked the parallelism. :)

@Shari A silver lining, I suppose haha

@JayTee I made this puzzle in Austin, so it was a treat seeing Priya rhapsodize over West Texas (as the Mountain Goats did before her).

@Suzanne Constructor here! Thanks for sharing this -- hadn't heard it before. Amusing :)

@Manhattan A good friend of mine (and wordsmith par excellence) was always playing Billy Joel back in college. One of the deeper cuts he favored was "The Downeaster 'Alexa,'" well attuned to his nautical sensibilities.

@Crevecoeur Cheers! My hope is always that my work will put up at least a modicum of resistance. Who wants a puzzle that's utterly non-puzzling?

@Tricia109 Wow, huge congrats on hitting 1K! And glad to hear you so vibed with my puzzle today. :) Google "Crossword Constructor Resource Guide" and click the NYT link if you're looking to wade into construction. The water's fine!

@Alex Cheers, Alex! You seem to be in the minority with your assessment of the difficulty level there; glad to hear the material was on your wavelength. :)

@DocP Wow, quite a topical bit of trivia there! Congrats on powering through to 1200.

@Katie In the sentence "Bob called Alice and thanked her," the word "her" only has meaning due to the presence of the antecedent, "Alice," the "explicit subject" the clue is talking about.

@Francesco I'm based out of Austin myself! I was a member of the relatively sparse South contingent at the ACPT last year.

@Peter Valentine Would this qualify as meta verse? Evocative!

@albert donsky The headlines rather overstated things with the "bringing them back" business. Mostly a matter of introducing some DW traits into contemporary wolves, iirc.

@Grant Love me an RPG. My friend and I are incorporating some light role-playing elements into the board game we're currently developing. :)

@mnemonica Thank you for the kind words, mnemonica! I'm writing this from Austin, a mere 8-9 hours east of you.

@The X-Phile Cheers! In your defense re: appall, they favor the single-l spelling across the pond.

@D About as positive a review as a constructor could hope for! Glad you dug it, D.

@Lewis Sounds like this one really resonated with you, Lewis! Thanks for detailing your solving experience -- we constructors live for this sort of stuff. :)

@Nancy J. Cheers for the top mark, Nancy! This puzzle seems to have awoken the latent Deadhead in several solvers...

@Sam But of course! Thanks for solving, Sam.