Worrier's words / FRI 8-28-26 / Houdini specialty / They might raise your kids / Step in the shower / Asteroids system / Natural exfoliant / Brazilian soccer star known for his dribbling flair / Lightning conductor? / Star turns at a concert / Word with live or chicken

Constructor: Jack Hatchett

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: None

Word of the Day: SCREAMO (41D: Rock genre portmanteau) —

Screamo (also referred to as skramz^[4]) is a subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".^[5] San Diego–based bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow pioneered the genre in the early 1990s, and it was developed in the late 1990s mainly by bands from the East Coast of the United States such as Pg. 99, Orchid, Saetia, and I Hate Myself. Screamo is strongly influenced by hardcore punk and characterized by the use of screamed vocals.^[6] Lyrical themes usually include emotional pain, death, romance, and human rights.^[7] The term "screamo" has frequently been mistaken as referring to any music with screaming.^[6][8]

• • •

Hi all! Rafa here covering for Rex, who doesn't have power because of a big thunderstorm. We don't really get thunderstorms in the Bay Area. Sometimes I miss them, but then I remember that they cause so much damage and disrupt travel and make the power go out and then I don't miss them anymore. Here's another weather rant ... we get no rain at all from May to November. Like, zero inches of rain for 6 months. And around late-August (aka now) I start to miss the rain because sometimes rain is nice and peaceful. But then in the winter it'll rain every day for 2 weeks straight and I'm sad because it's harder to be outside and do anything because it's just so cold and wet. So why can't we just have a few rainy days here and there instead of no rain and then daily downpours? Ok, sorry, I'm getting carried away. Let's talk about the puzzle!

I am feeling my love for cats very intensely today so we are getting three cat photos

I really enjoyed this one! The last stretch of puzzles that I subbed on here for didn't really do it for me, so I was glad that I get to blog a puzzle that I liked! There was so much zing with in-the-language phrases like SCREW IT and IT'S A BREEZE and WELL, WELL, WELL, and WE ARE SO BACK. But it was balanced with other highlights like BOOSTER SEATS, the devious [Beamed over] clue for TELEPORTED, and stuff like HONSHU (I love geography facts and plopped this down with no crossings) and RONALDINHO (I'm Brazilian), and another great clue on MEZCAL (and ATARI, and RINSE), etc.

Another good boy

I have to say I have absolutely no idea who HAROLD RAMIS is. Maybe he is super famous and I've been living under a rock. Maybe he's not. I don't know! But it didn't really bother me because his name was fairly-crossed everywhere. TICHA was new to me, too. I had ESCAPE ART / TIRHA for a really long time, and that seemed pretty plausible. Only after really going through every single cross on RAMIS and TIRHA did I figure out what was up. I imagine that the RONALDINHO / TICHA athlete name situation is why they went with PELE as the Hawaiian goddess instead of the soccer star.

One more cat

What else? I'm not sure I buy "the DEEPS" as the bottom of the ocean, and AMALGAMATE felt like a pretty bland / boring word for such a prominent long slot in the puzzle, but overall this was really fun. I won't be back tomorrow (assuming Rex gets his power back...), but it's my (collab) puzzle so I hope you all enjoy it!!

Bullets:

• E-GIRLS (9D: Members of a Gen Z subculture with online origin) — To be honest, I couldn't really describe what a e-girl is, but I know it's A Thing.
• YAK (35A: ___ Polo (sport played in Pakistan)) — I didn't know people could ride yaks! Cool!
• PAW (55D: Print maker) — My cat has never left a paw print because she is clean and perfect and never leaves the house and is therefore never muddy and stinky. (I love dogs, too. But sometimes they are muddy and stinky in a way cats just are not, and we need to acknowledge this!)
• AMIGAS (29A: Compañeras) — Thank you for a clue that allows me to fill in the last vowel instead of leaving it blank because I don't know the gender.

Signed, Rafa

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