derek

One of my favorite Thursday puzzles of all time! V/V stars.

Loved this one... even in its most esoteric moments it still felt fair, and out-of-the-box thinking was rewarded over familiarity with trivia. A great example of how even unorthodox fill (what the hell is an EARLAP? who on Earth calls cassava MANIOC?) can work if more accessible crosses are available as stepping stones. That balance is make-or-break for later week entries and this puzzle nailed it. Fun!

Felt like a genius typing BULLFROGS in 37A, and so many crosses worked that I fought tooth and nail to keep it in there. Finally realized that WHATABOUTS*M was WHATABOUTISM and revisited it. Fun puzzle.