1970 Neil Diamond song about an imaginary childhood friend / THU 7-2-26 / Simple wooden shoes / Website that added podcast info in 2021 / Unadulterated by plastic, say / "Nixon in China" tenor

Constructor: DAVID J. KAHN

Relative difficulty: MEDIUM (Hard to tell based on time with this many rebus squares)

THEME: The 13 Colonies — Thirteen squares contain 2-letter postal abbreviations of the original 13 colonies. Their clues are all themed to early American History.

Word of the Day: OLETA (70A: Soul singer Adams) —

Oleta Angela Adams (born May 4, 1953) is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. She found limited success during the early 1980s, before gaining fame via her contributions to Tears for Fears' international chart-topping album The Seeds of Love (1989). Her albums Circle of One (1991) and Evolution (1993) were top 10 hits in the UK; the former yielded a Grammy-nominated cover of Brenda Russell's "Get Here", which was a top 5 hit in both the UK and the U.S. Adams has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, as well as two Soul Train Music Awards.• • •

Hey again, everyone, Eli here for your Thursday puzzle. I'm coming down off the adrenaline rush of watching the US Men's National Team white knuckle it out after a weak red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina. It's exciting, as someone who has followed the team closely for 20 years, to see them playing at a different level of football. Not the level of a France or a Spain, but this is the first World Cup where they've really passed the eye test of a real soccer team. Belgium on Monday would be tough even with Balogun able to play, but it'll be fun to watch! But you're not here for the World Cup (and if you are, why?). Let's talk puzzle! 

Theme answers:

• DELEGATIONS (18A: Groups at the First Continental Congress in 1774)
• BENJAMIN (23A: 10 Hamiltons)
• PATRIOTS (25A: American Revolution heroes)
• ELECT (36A: George Washington's presidential status on February 4, 1789)
• MDCCC (42A: Last full year of John Adams's presidency)
• US CENSUS (53A: Periodic survey started under Secy. of State Thomas Jefferson)
• MADISONS (58A: "Father of the Constitution" and his family)
• NAVAL (60A: Like the Revolutionary War battles led by John Paul Jones)
• JOHN HANCOCK (64A: First signer of the Declaration of Independence)
• COLONY (73A: American settlement until 1776 ... or a hint to 13 squares in this puzzle)

23A: 10 Hamiltons (kinda)

I'll admit it: I'm the kind of puzzle freak who loves Thursday trickery like rebuses (sorry, Drew Magary). And this one has a lot of it. Like, A LOT. I'm impressed. That's a lot of tricky squares to deal with and the puzzle doesn't show much strain for it. Most of the theme answers worked well. The clue on US Census may be a bit of a stretch, and MDCCC feels like an outlier (I never like Roman Numeral clues, and nothing in the clue indicated that the answer would be Roman numerals) but I can forgive those. A tight, timely theme and a bit of an American History lesson, to boot. Nicely done!

43D: Musical with the song "What's the Use of Wond'rin'?".  Carousel also has THIS song, and since I'm a Liverpool fan in a soccer mood, I'm posting it instead.

The only place this puzzle really felt strain to me was in the SE corner. Crossing OLETA (70A: Soul singer Adams) with SHILO (59D: 1970 Neil Diamond song about an imaginary childhood friend) is just brutal. I like Neil Diamond and Oleta Adams seems cool, but that L is going to trip up a lot of people. Not sure it rises to the level of a full Natick, but it's close. Thankfully, I don't have much else flagged as troubling in this grid. The fill might not be too flashy, but theme more than makes up for it.

51D: Start to live and breathe (Lin-Manuel Miranda getting a lot of play on the blog today)

Speaking of the fill, just a couple of things stood out. I think of Romulus and Remus as twins first, but I supposed SIBS (6A) is accurate enough. I also can't picture SABOTS (39A: Simple wooden shoes) without doing an image search, but I have a hard time thinking of a wooden shoe as "simple." You get a little extra American History at 12D (SENATOR - One whose qualifications are enumerated in Article I, Section 3, of the Constitution). I can't decide whether it's better to have a bonus non-theme entry tie into the theme or if it would be better to clue this as a hockey player. Or maybe, since I'm going so musical theater heavy today, as the baseball team from Damn Yankees. I'm probably overthinking it. Let's move on.

57D: Rowena's love, in fiction

Stray Thoughts:

• 22A: Setting of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (IOWA) — I was 11 and living in Iowa when this movie came out and it was a huge deal that a movie was set in (and, I believe, filmed in) our home state. I have a feeling Leonardo DiCaprio playing a mentally disabled person doesn't hold up well, but I probably won't rewatch it to find out.

• 37A: Chrome alternative (SAFARI) — I recently switched from Chrome to Safari as Google continues to devolve into unusable AI garbage. I'm liking it so far, but if Apple ever stops letting me turn off AI, I'll move on from Safari, as well.
• 23D: Two-Time Tony winner Neuwirth (BEBE) - In keeping with today's blog theme:
  
  
  
• 26D Bug exterminator? (SPY) — I guess I think of them more as bug planters, but I guess a good spy would exterminate them, too.
• 20A: "Les ___" (MIZ) — I think I have to.

That's all for today; I'll be back with you again tomorrow.

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

[Follow Eli on BlueSky]
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