Spinny pool shot / SUN 11-12-17 / Alter ego on SImpsons / Buccaneer's quaff / Flower colored by Aphrodite's blood / Fast-paced two-player card game / Alleged psychic exposed by Amazing Randi / Fictional creature made from heat slime / Philbin's onetime morning cohost

Constructor: Ed Sessa

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME:""S-Q's Me!""— phrases that start "W" are changed to wacky phrases starting "SQ" dear lord take me now...

Theme answers:

• SQUANDERLUST (23A: Prodigality?)
• SQUEALER DEALER (33A: Hog seller?)
• SQUINTER'S TALE (57A: Mr. Magoo biopic?)
• SQUIRRELY BIRD (80A: Cuckoo or dodo?)
• SQUARES THE BEEF (102A: Prepares cube steak?)
• SQUAWKATHONS (114A: All-day gripe sessions?)
• SQUIRM HOLES (32D: Ways out of embarrassing situations?)
• SQUISH LISTS (49D: Enumerations of things to be sat on?) 

Word of the Day: EDILE (58D: Early title for Julius Caesar) —

n.

a magistrate in ancientRome in charge of publicbuildings,streets,services,markets,games,andthedistribution of grain. (thefreedictionary.com)

How are Sundays still allowed to be this sickening combo of moth- and cornball? It's "*The* Winter's Tale," by the way, jeez louise, everything about this is wince-inducing. GISINQFEU, you guys, GISINQFEU! That is what I say to this puzzle. The answers were so ridiculous that even though the theme was transparent, I still had not idea what most of the themers were until I had 75+% of the answer in place. The themer clues are torturous. I had to think about the clue on SQUISH LISTS forever before I (sort of) "got" it (49D: Enumerations of things to be sat on?). Me: "You sit on ... a squish?" I guess they are lists of things that you want to squish ... by sitting on them? It's all so, so bad. Theme had me in such a bad mood that I couldn't even joy a wicked clue like 43A: Trouble maker (HASBRO). Took me forever, and when I got it, though I knew it deserved applause, I just gave it the finger for making me have to linger in this putridly-themed puzzle any longer than I had to.


Answers that I labored over:

• 54A: A part of Life? (OAT)— was thinking only board game. Devastating.
• 76D: Vacuum tube component? (DYNODE)— I ... don't know what that is. I kept thinking DYSON...
• 93A: Resembling down (FLOSSY)— I ... also don't know what this is. I know this word as slang for "high-class"
• 12D: Gilbert who wrote "Love and Death on Long Island" (ADAIR)— I ... ??? If the ADAIR's not Red, I don't know it.

There's not much more to say about this. Sunday is currently my most hated day of the week (objectively), and today didn't change anything.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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