Eric Berlin's Friday NYT

Poor Eric, away from home when his fabulous Friday NYT is published. Lucky Eric, away at the National Puzzlers League convention, where he can bask in the glory of being surrounded by people who can appreciate his work.

Ever since Byron Walden published a puzzle with stacked 15's that inadvertently made up a sentence (OUT ON THE OPEN SEA/FRANCIS X BUSHMAN/FELT A LITTLE LOST), I've been reading the crosswords I solve to see if adjacent entries form a cohesive story. Well, Eric's got some long entries that are stacked (but of varying lengths) and read GET A LOAD OF THIS/ADULTERATED/HAUTE CUISINE. The subplot, made up of some shorter entries that follow one another, is JEANNIE/HASSLES/OTTO I. Do you think she fed him a fancy poisoned meal? I don't recall exactly how the show "I Dream of Jeannie" worked, but I wouldn't put it past her to time-travel to the Holy Roman Empire and vex someone other than her astronaut.