Healz

This was my first Wednesday puzzle that I solved without looking anything up or using auto check. I love how crosswording (at least NYT crosswording) is a skill that can be built!

My first Thursday solve with no hints, lookups, or auto checking! That’s probably evidence enough that it was an easier than average Thursday. But I’m not gonna let that takeaway from my sense of accomplishment. Like many others, I was surprised that the answer was MEALY even though that was the only answer I would have accepted. If I’d believed the nyt would include that answer I might have filled it in earlier and sped up my solve a bit :)

I thought 17A was not talking about video calls because I assumed Zooming would require capital. So I was thinking of “zooming” as running. And I solved it to Camelbacks (a defining feature of which is that you don’t have to get out a water bottle so it seemed like a fit for can’t touch this). Suffice it to say it made it impossible to solve the surrounding clues until I finally considered it might be wrong. A fun puzzle!