Carpet on the forest floor / SUN 6-28-26 / Intellectual gathering / Architectural feature above a belfry / Little redhead in a long-running Broadway show / Oily fruits / Summary of a contract's details / Souvenir from the seashore / Catchall phrase from Latin

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Christina Iverson

Relative difficulty: Easy



THEME: Down in the Valley — Phrases with the word "like" indicating comparison are reinterpreted as if the "like" were a filler word

Word of the Day: QUARK (11D: Hadron component) —

A quark (/ˈkwɔːrk, ˈkwɑːrk/ ^ⓘ) is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.^[1] All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks, and electrons. Owing to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, which include baryons (such as protons and neutrons) and mesons, or in quark–gluon plasmas.^{[2][3][nb 1]} For this reason, much of what is known about quarks has been drawn from observations of hadrons.

• • •

Theme answers:

• SOLD LIKE HOT CAKES (23A: Was an employee at IHOP, in Valleyspeak?)
• SHOOK LIKE A LEAF (32A: Fanned some Egyptian royalty, in Valleyspeak?)
• WATCHED LIKE A HAWK (47A: Did some birding, in Valleyspeak?)
• STUCK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB (70A: Hitchhiked with a hangnail, in Valleyspeak?)
• DROPPED LIKE FLIES (89A: Made some outfielder errors, in Valleyspeak?)
  
• BUILT LIKE A TANK (108A: Prepared for some new pet fish, in Valleyspeak?)
• WORKED LIKE A CHARM (121A: Performed some witchcraft, in Valleyspeak?)

It's Rafa back again for the last installment of Rafa Rexplacement Weekend™-- I hope you've enjoyed my musings over the last few days. The sun is finally out in San Francisco, it's pride weekend, the vibes are immaculate, and we have a crossword to talk about. Let's get into it.

For some reason it took a while for this theme to click for me, but I really appreciated it once it did. There was something very satisfying in imagining all the theme answers said aloud in a Valley accent, and the scenarios in the clues struck the right balance of amusing but not absurdly far-fetched. Picturing someone sticking out a literal sore thumb to hitch a ride made me chuckle. Themes reinterpreting words are very common to come across, but I've never seen anything playing on filler words, so this felt really fresh. I also appreciated how all the phrases were very well-known. SHOOK LIKE A LEAF is the only one that I don't hear all the time, but it still felt familiar enough.

NIGIRI -- yum!

One thing I noted is that some of the entries had words change meaning and others didn't. HOT CAKES has the same meaning in the idiom and the clue, but FLIES means the insects in the idiom, and the baseball term in the clue. Similarly, HAWK (same) and TANK (different -- military vehicle vs. container for fish). Not a bad thing, just something I noticed.

OJS -- yum!

The fill was ultra smooth for a Sunday -- truly world-class work. Not a lot of contrived entries or crosswordese ... just loads of smooth short fill with lots of possible cluing angles. I find that makes it so much easier to stay engaged with the bigger Sunday-size grids when you're not wincing at all the glue that's holding the theme together. We even get loads of lively bonus entries in GOOD LOSER, SOAP STARS, ABOUT TIME, KNEE-DEEP, etc.

KRILL -- yum! (if you're a whale)

The puzzle was on the easier side for a Sunday for me. This whole weekend felt significantly easier than usual. I wonder if other people also had this experience. Or maybe I was locked in because I knew I was blogging these puzzles. I love feeling Smart and Competent, though, so definitely no complaints about it from me!

Thanks for tuning in for three consecutive Rafa blogs. I'm done with my stint, but I hope to be back soon!

Bullets:

• SALADA (22D: Course in a Brazilian meal) — First time I've seen this clued like this (it means salad in Portuguese) instead of a tea brand, and I'm extremely here for it!
• HELIOS (5D: Greek sun god) — I've been playing Hades 2 on Switch on and off for the last year, and it has taught me pretty much everything I know about Greek mythology. Helios isn't in that game, but now I really appreciate seeing stuff like HERA and ARES in crosswords.
• RAJAH (1A: Counterpart of a rani) — Rajah is a title for a king, while rani is a title for a queen.
• MEN (98A: "It's Raining ___" (gay anthem) — Fun pride month tie-in.

Signed, Rafa

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