Like phone numbers in infomercials / SUN 8-2-26 / Useful pointers? / Rudimentary seeds / Safari destinations? / Like toms and drakes / It has a rind but supposedly no rhyme / Divinely elect / Like an honorable knight / The third one is dangerous

Constructor: Ralph Sharaga and Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: Going for a Spin — Selling points for cars get reimagined as clues for a highly-flawed car.

Word of the Day: NEPTUNE (48D: God who aids the Trojan fleet in the first book of the "Aeneid") —

Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus [nɛpˈtuːnʊs]) is the god of freshwater and the sea in the Roman religion.^[1] He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.^[2] In the Greek-inspired tradition, he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto, with whom he presides over the realms of heaven, the earthly world (including the underworld), and the seas.^[3] Salacia is his wife.

• • •

Theme answers:

• OFF-ROAD VEHICLE [22A: "For our ad, how should we list the car that we found in the ditch?"]
• NEW SHOCKS [39A: "... and how do we add that it was just struck by lightning?"]
• LOW EMISSIONS [44A: "... and that the tailpipe is dragging on the ground?"]
• BUCKET SEATS [67A: "... and what about the leaky roof?"]
• KEYLESS ENTRY [82A: "... and the broken door locks?"]
• QUIET RIDE [91A: "... and the defective speaker system?"]
• REAR-WHEEL DRIVE [110A: "... and finally, the missing front tires?"]

It's Rafa again covering the blog today -- you're not quite done with me yet. Will I be back tomorrow? Who knows? You'll just have to come back and check and either by happy or disappointed. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Sunday puzzles. It feels like high highs and low lows. Either they really work or they don't and it's a big slog to get through. I guess it makes sense since it's a regular crossword, but bigger. Unfortunately this one was mostly in slog territory for me. I promise I actually like crosswords ... just yesterday's and today's weren't really my cup of tea. Though I did enjoy this one more, so maybe things are getting better and next week will be all bangers no skips, as the kids say these days.

The original IMAC from 1998

Ok, so, there's a theme. This kind of theme really rides or dies on "was this funny to you" and it just wasn't really funny to me. There's really nothing much else to say here. There just wasn't the kind of whimsy and fun and joy that these kinds of themes can provide. But that is very individual, and I hope that many (most? all??) of you found this theme amusing. It probably doesn't help that I'm definitely not a Car Person. I could not have told you what "bucket seats" were an hour ago. Or "shocks" if I'm being totally honest. Oh, and fun fact: cars are actually one of the safest possible places to be during a lightning storm because they act like a Faraday cage and protect the people inside!

An EEL -- a crossword favorite

Nothing much to say about the grid. It's not flashy, but really clean. Totally does the job. We even get the driving-related bonus in SPEEDERS. Oh, look, I just noticed the TOLL-FREE and FREELOAD dupe. We are living in a post-dupe world, though, and I love it! Dupes are a state of mind. Rid yourselves of the tyranny of dupes and enjoy your crossword without worrying about whether some word appears twice. Everything will be okay!

Another thing: do you guys pronounce SARI and SORRY the same? I think non-US accents are unlikely to, but I polled some US-accent friends and even they seem somewhat split (though same has an edge right now).

Mr. Potato Head and his pink EARS

The puzzle also played a little hard for me. No region in specific was a bottleneck, but the whole thing just seemed to offer a tad more resistance than I'm used to. Not a bad thing at all, but I wonder whether it played similarly for others or whether I just wasn't on the wavelength here.

Anyways, that's it from me today. Maybe I'll see you all tomorrow!

Bullets:

• REVERE 25A: Massachusetts city named for a colonial patriot — I'd never heard of Revere, MA!
• SIDE TRIP 81D: Planned detour — Similarly, I have never heard the term "side trip" but it's very easy to infer.
• RICHER 92D: Like cheesecake vis-à-vis sponge cake — This made me really crave dessert but I'm trying to cut down on sugar so I'm going to be good and resist but man some cheesecake would really hit hard right now.
• AUDI 32D: Mercedes alternative — Look, another car-related entry in the puzzle.

Signed, Rafa


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