Protein in a niçoise salad / WED 9-2-25 / School within both Princeton and Carleton? / Console for the game Pitfall! / Reason for a tucked tail, perhaps

Constructor: Michael B. Berg

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:24)

THEME: ZHUZH UP — Fancify … or a phonetic hint to 17-, 23-, 50- and 62-Across

Regular words get the "zh" sound added to them to make wacky phrases

Theme answers:

• [Neutral shade in some Florida décor?] for TAMPA BEIGE
• "zh" gets added to "Tampa Bay"
• [Lighthearted invitation for joining one's sled team?] for SKIP TO MY LUGE
• "zh" gets added to "skip to my Lou"
• [Headline during a zombie attack?] for THE DEAD SIEGE 
• "zh" gets added to "The Dead Sea"
• [Price of makeup at the dollar store, informally?] for BUCK A ROUGE
• "zh" gets added to "buckaroo"

Word of the Day: GENA (Rowlands of "A Woman Under the Influence") —

Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands (June 19, 1930 – August 14, 2024) was an American actress, whose career in film, stage, and television spanned nearly seven decades. She was a four-time Emmy Award and two-time Golden Globe winner, and she was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She rose to prominence for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both of which earned her Oscar nominations. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977).

• • •

Hi squad, and welcome to a Malaika MWednesday! This is a fun one for me, because it's actually Wednesday!! Usually I do these write-ups on Tuesday at around 11pm or just before midnight, and then schedule the post, because I don't wake up early. But I'm in London right now, writing this leisurely at 8:45am, and you will all see it when you wake up. By the way, if there's anything you think I should do in London, Madrid, Paris, or the Canary Islands, please let me know in the comments :)

It's raining here, of course!

This is a pretty standard "add a sound" theme. I'm not a fan of themes where the entries are "wacky." I just don't really think they're funny. (I didn't think they were funny in this puzzle either, alas.) But this puzzle has two things going for it-- first, there is a reason for the wack-ification. The revealer indicates that we are "upping" the instances of that sound in these phrases. Second, this is an interesting phrase! In the Crossword Forum that I'm in, people have discussed the spelling of this one before, and I'm pretty sure we all agreed on what we see here in the grid. It's fun to see in a puzzle, with those Z's and H's. 

(Other phrases that I've thought about the spelling of-- "sesh," as in "jam sesh" and "hun" (or is it "hon"??) as the abbreviated "honey.") 

Merriam Webster seems to agree on the spelling, btw

There's something a little unsatisfying about the fact the word is spelled with a "zh" but all the theme answers use "ge" to make that sound. I wonder if it could have been possible to get any theme answers with a French-ish "j" into the puzzle? I'm bad at brainstorming this kind of thing though. "Add a letter" is way easier to brainstorm than "add a sound." Sound off in the comments with any ideas!

Bullets:

• [A half-filled auditorium, per Robert Frost] for HELL — I had not heard this quip before, and I think it is very funny!
• [Pair of cymbals with a foot pedal] for HI HAT — Whenever I see this word, without fail, I think about the opening lines of Buffalo Stance-- "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce the hi-hat!"
• [World's most-watched television franchise, informally] for IDOL — What???? For real???? This isn't like.... Dragon Ball or something???
• [Greeting that becomes another greeting if you add an A at the front and reverse it] for HOLA — How do y'all feel about clues like this? I think I like them. They're almost like logic puzzles. But I know some people who really hate them.
• [Fairy tale baddie] for OGRE — In slang right now, "baddie" means super hot girl, and this clue cracked me up.

xoxo Malaika

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