Wednesday, 12/27

NYS 5:08
CS 4:19
NYT 3:46
LAT 3:30

I should get back to finishing up my Big Project With a Looming Deadline (and what good is a deadline if you don't use every last bit of it?), so I'll be brief.

The Wednesday NYT is by Manny Nosowsky, and not only are the theme entries a little resistant to solving, but plenty of other clues are on the tough side. For example, ["That just shouldn't happen"] is IT'S A SIN, [A chorus line] is ALTO, and ["Peace on earth," e.g.] is WISH. Super-cute to have [Napoleon's place] lead to both ELBA and BAKERY. The theme entries are all conversational filler that might be attributed to certain types of people; for example, FRANKLY SPEAKING is how a hot dog vendor might introduce a comment.

In the Sun, Tony Orbach and Patrick Blindauer team up for "TD Conversions," in which the theme entries convert T's in base phrases into D's. Thus, "height and weight" become HIDE AND WADE. Favorite clue: [Strange bedfellows might give them to you] for STDS—nice not to limit those letters to being an abbreviation for "standards." I suppose [Flies into the seats]/DINGERS has to do with baseball, but don't know exactly. ARM CANDY and NAME-DROP are the fill highlights.