City at the center of "Moonraker," informally / WED 8-6-25 / Proterozoic, for one / Original Monopoly token discontinued in 2013

Constructor: Hanh Huynh

Relative difficulty: Easy (6:12 solving on my phone) (this was a small grid, btw, only 14 rows)

THEME: IT'S NOT THAT DEEP — "You're overthinking this" ... or what might be said about 3-, 9-, 17- and 34-Down?

Theme answers:

• [Item that has to be blown up before being filled with water] for INFLATABLE POOL
• [Minor office injury] for PAPER CUT
• [Quick throw in football] for SCREEN PASS
• [Rejuvenating break] for POWER NAP

Word of the Day: DIP ("When I ___, you ___, we ___" (lyric from a Freak Nasty hit)) —

"Da' Dip" is a song written and recorded by American hip hop artist Freak Nasty. It was released in 1996 as the lead single from his second album, Controversee...That's Life...And That's the Way It Is. To date, "Da' Dip" is Freak Nasty's only top forty hit.

Upon its initial release in mid-1996, "Da' Dip" failed to make an impact on the Billboard charts, charting low on both the R&B and rap charts. The song, however, managed to break through into the mainstream the following year, reaching number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Da' Dip" was then certified gold by the RIAA on April 10, 1997 before reaching platinum certification on June 3 of that year for shipments exceeding one million copies; the single sold one million units in 1997 alone. In 2024, the song gained popularity on TikTok with users recreating the dance from its music video.

• • •

Good morning everyone! (Although it's night when I'm writing this.) Rex is still on vacation, but this is a regularly scheduled Malaika MWednesday. A very delightful puzzle, I thought! 

When I first opened it, the layout threw me off a bit. It has the look of a themeless puzzle, like one of the Kameron Austin Collins grids that takes me over an hour to solve. But the center is chopped up into small words, rather than left wide open. I got thrown off again when I hit 2-Down (which was very early on, I was bopping around rather than going in order). I saw [Six-stringed instrument similar to a cello] and immediately thought "viola!" and when that didn't fit, I prepped myself for a rebus.

This is a VIOL, apparently

But as I made my way through the grid, everything else was fitting nicely, and I soon saw that this was just a standard themed puzzle with a bit of a funky layout and vertical theme answers. My guess is that they are laid out vertically because the word "deep" is associated with up-and-down orientation. I loved the revealer! I use that phrase all the time, it's not just in-the-language, it's in-my-language. And it does perfectly apply to each of the four theme answers. (Actually, I'm not really sure what a SCREEN PASS is so I can't comment there. But I trust it.)

There was some fill that caught me-- I stared at ESAI for a long time, trying to decide if I had an error there. And two-word phrases like DABS AT, OIL UP, and LET DIE can feel a little clunky. (Not LOOK UP though, that sounded very normal to me.) I had never heard of EROICA before (my brain immediately clocked that it's one letter off from "erotica" lol), so that corner was the final one for me to finish.

After looking up ESAI Morales, I realized I know him from a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode that I just watched. (I've been rewatching the show, it's a comedy masterpiece.)

When I'm helping new constructors, I try to steer them away from what we sometimes call List Puzzles, where the theme answers are all just stuff that's in the same category. But List Puzzles work (and, in my opinion, stop being List Puzzles) when the revealer has an element of wordplay to it. This was a perfect example!

Bullets:

• [Bit of gear for an entomologist] for NET — An entomologist studies insects, so I guess the idea is they are capturing specimens using a net
• [Winners of Super Bowl III (and no other Super Bowls since then)] for JETS — This was such a rude clue lmao, love it. Last night I watched the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode about a very depressed Jets fan.
• [Peter Pan transport] for BUS — I had to look this up-- it's the name of a company. I have only ever ridden MegaBus and Greyhound.
• [Animal on a "Hang in there!" inspirational poster] for CAT — This is kind of odd, now that I think about it. You'd think it would be like.... a sloth.

xoxo Malaika

Congrats, you've made it to the end, and now I will talk about Summer Tomatoes!! Please skip this part if you only care about puzzles. I am not growing any tomatoes this year, but I had a good trip to the farmer's market and this is what I made:

I make this savory, jammy, tomato tart probably five times every summer, it is unreal delicious. The crust and the filling are from two different recipe developers, but I combined the recipes and wrote them up here.

A little Snack Plate of peaches and two varieties of tomatoes topped with toasted pine nuts, aged balsamic, basil-infused olive oil, and flaky salt

I made my standard focaccia recipe, but subbed about 20% of the water for tomatoes that I pureed and strained. The color is far pink-er than what you can see in this pic, and while it smelled fabulously tomato-ey as it baked, the flavor didn't come through as much as I had hoped

I served the focaccia with a pretty standard gazpacho that I eyeballed... tomatoes, cucumbers, shallot, garlic, bread, olive oil, vinegar, salt&pep. Apparently garlic is a controversial ingredient(?) but bro it tastes sooo good.

Panzanella with sungolds, peaches, mozzarella, and shallots. I used my focaccia (toasted) for the bread, and I used the basil-infused oil in the vinaigrette :)

xoxo Malaika

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