Italian automotive hub / SUN 11-8-20 / Word capital established in 1535 / Marauder of old / Farm-to-table consumer / Starting piece on a1 or h8, say

Constructor: Caitlin Reid and Evan Kalish

Relative difficulty: Medium (10-something)

THEME:"Wait, What?"— in theme answers, long a sound (as in "wait") is changed to short u sound (as in "what"), with wacky results:

Theme answers:

• "YOU GOT THAT STRUT!" (22A: Compliment to a runway model?)
• CUSS SENSITIVE (31A: Easily offended by foul language?)
• "WHY THE LONG FUSS?" (45A: Question to a tantrum thrower?)
• "RUDDERS OF THE LOST ARK" (63A: Relics proving how Noah steered his boat?)
• LOADED THE BUSES (83A: Prepared for a field trip?)
• MUCK-UP ARTISTS (95A: Masters of slapstick?)
• THE NUMB OF THE GUM (109A: Title for an oral surgeon's handbook?)

Word of the Day: KEGELS (67D: Pelvic exercises) —

Kegel exercise, also known as pelvic-floor exercise, involves repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor, now sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Kegel muscles". The exercise can be performed multiple times each day, for several minutes at a time, but takes one to three months to begin to have an effect.

Kegel exercises aim to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles have many functions within the human body. In women, they are responsible for: holding up the bladder, preventing urinary stress incontinence (especially after childbirth), vaginal and uterine prolapse. In men, these muscles are responsible for: urinary continence, fecal continence, and ejaculation. Several tools exist to help with these exercises, although various studies debate the relative effectiveness of different tools versus traditional exercises.

The American gynecologist Arnold Kegel first published a description of such exercises in 1948. (wikipedia)

I want to apologize to those of you who read me only on Sunday. Well, not apologize ... but I do feel bad, as I realized today that I haven't actually *enjoyed* a Sunday puzzle since something like August. I enjoy puzzles every week. Mondays and Thursdays and especially Fridays and most of the time Saturdays, these are reasonably frequent sources of joy for me. But some people just do the Sunday, the big one, the marquee puzzle ... which also happens to be, without a doubt, the weakest day the puzzle has to offer. This is, of course, totally upside-down, as it's the puzzle with the most hype, the one people have heard of (and erroneously think is the most difficult). But man it's like they can't find anyone to come up with themes of genuine cleverness and wit and interest, that are fun to solve, that aren't in some way tedious. I feel like the puzzle veers wildly between "stunt puzzle / architectural feat that hurts to solve" and "wacky sound-change theme from 1995," more or less. Today, we get the latter. The wacky results are just corny / groany. I guess THE NUMB OF THE GUM, with its double sound change, is supposed to be some great exclamation point on the whole thing, and it's arguably the best of the lot, but the lot ... is not best. Be best! (LOL, how were the last four years real?)