Distance traversed by an arrow / WED 02-05-2025 / Console device with triggers and thumbsticks / Character set for electronic communication

Constructor: Kiran Pandey

Relative difficulty: Easy....? (I thought it was hard while solving, but then I saw my time so I guess not)

THEME: SLUSH PILE / DROPS DOWN — A group of circled letters stacked in the middle are the names of precipitation

Theme answers:

• DROPS DOWN clued as [Opens, as a menu ... or a description of this puzzle's circled letters?]
• LEFT BRAIN clued as [Analytical thinker?]
• CARRIES NO WEIGHT clued as [Doesn't really matter]
• CHAI LATTE clued as [Steamed beverage with spices from the Indian subcontinent]
• SLUSH PILE clued as [Common assignment for editorial assistants ... or a description of this puzzle's circled letters?] 

Word of the Day: "bhakti" (HINDU: One who practices bhakti and puja) —

Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति; Pali: bhatti) is a term common in Indian religions which means attachment, fondness for, devotion to, trust, homage, worship, piety, faith, or love. In Indian religions, it may refer to loving devotion for a personal God (like Krishna or Devi), a formless ultimate reality (like Nirguna Brahman or the Sikh God) or for an enlightened being (like a Buddha, a bodhisattva, or a guru).

• • •

Hey friends, happy Malaika MWednesday! I solved this puzzle while eating a slice of chocolate cake. Also, it's important that you all know I initially accidentally typed "I ate this puzzle while solving a slice of chocolate cake." My quest for NYC Slice Of Chocolate Cake That Costs Under $10 is rabid and never-ending. Currently I am polishing off a slice of "Devil in Ganache" cake from Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery which cost $7.50, or $8.17 with tax. I am literally begging you to give me your sub-$10 NYC chocolate cake slice recs in the comments. I will try every single one of them.

This was a cute Wednesday! Since I am a constructor more than a solver, I immediately had to look at the grid specs. This had 72 words, which is in line with a themeless puzzle (themed puzzles most commonly have 78 words), but it had a higher-than-average number of three-letter words (20) and a slightly higher-than-average number of blocks (40; the canonical themed puzzles has 38, and themelesses have fewer). I noticed the word count while solving, but I didn't notice the other two stats. They're just fun for me to file away in my brain.

It's a fun treat when a puzzle has two revealers, sort of a two-for-the-price of one situation. I really struggle coming up with wordplay, so finding a double link is very impressive to me. The last puzzle with two revealers I remember is this one, although I'm sure there have been others more recently. Do any come to mind for you? Here, I like the second revealer more than the first. SLUSH PILE is a much more evocative phrase than DROPS DOWN, and it more accurately describes what we're seeing. Those slushy things are all piled up in the center. I don't know that they're coming "down," it feels more that they're going across... but I'm nitpicking.

We've had some SNOW in the city recently, here's my beautiful BIKESHARE draped in downy precipitation

Elsewhere, we got some really nice long answers like BOSS LEVEL, WAFFLE FRY, ROT IN HELL and BIKE SHARE. I got a little slowed down by the perpetual "Is it emend or amend?" question, but the crosses helped me out. And I liked the clue [Hawke or Crowe] for ACTOR.

Bullets:

• [You got me there] for TOUCHE — Ugh, I can't remember this reference, but there was a book or movie where a character pronounced this "tushy" the first time they said it aloud to the amusement of others
• [Appendage for a morning glory] for TENDRIL — The word appendage really threw me off here; I associate those with human body parts
• [Gives the thumbs up] for OKS — In tech jobs, we often shorthand this by saying L/SGTM, which means "looks / sounds good to me." I love this term (to me it totally unambiguously means "Yes, I am saying you can proceed with my permission"), and wish people used it more in our day-to-day.
• [Audience member who might be in on the trick] for PLANT — Nothing to say here except that I loved this clue! Such a vivid picture.

xoxo Malaika

Okay, you've made it to the end. You can optionally stick around for my CHAI rant. "Chai" is the Hindi word for tea, and some pedants get grumpy when you say "chai tea" ("That's like saying "tea tea"!!!" they whine) or when "chai" is used as shorthand for the warm, earthy spices (ginger, cinnamon, cardamom) commonly found in masala chai, as it is here. (A "chai latte" might have coffee alongside tea.)

But I wholeheartedly disagree! American English is filled with loan words from other languages that we've twisted and corrupted and embraced to become our own-- that rocks!! And it rocks especially when we do so with food words, weaving immigrant flavors into our own language. That's why we call one hot toasty sandwich a panini (it should be "panino") and why we call one cornmeal dumpling a tamale (it should be "tamal"). CHAI LATTE is a particularly cute example to me, as it's made up of not one but two loan words. That's the American dream, baby.

Any other food loan words you can think of?

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