Titaness who abducted Orion / SAT 8-7-21 / It raised a major red flag / One with key responsibilities? / Composer of many Streisand show tunes

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Welcome back, Crossword-kateers! It's Eli with you for one day more!

I promise it won't be all videos. To the puzzle! I've solved and enjoyed several of Adam Aaronson's puzzles in the past and generally enjoy them quite a bit. This one is an impressive feat, to be sure, but did it make for a fun solve? I could feel the puzzle straining under the weight (IGHT!) of the "IGHT" gag at times, to be sure.

Theme answers:

• LIGHT WEIGHT, EIGHTY EIGHTY, NIGHTY NIGHTY, IT'S ALL RIGHT, SAT TIGHT, MIGHTY, SIGHT, SLEIGHT (Typing it all out makes it feel like We Didn't Start the Fire or It's the End of the World As We Know It is about to break out). Sorry if I missed one or two.

Looking at that center stack, a couple of things stand out to me. Having 28A THIGHS not end with a T (to be fair, not sure how to solve that) alongside 29D HIGH SALARY both feel like trade-offs to make the grid work, but they make the whole thing feel a little less cohesive. More glaringly to me was 26A RUGS crossing 23D AUGHTS. Like I said yesterday, I'm not a constructor, but that U feels like a sore thumb. "RIGS" would be easy enough, but that makes the cross "AIGHTS," which... I don't know, "Slangy assents?" Admittedly it's not an easy fix, it just made it all slightly less satisfying.

I had a bit of a hard time getting a foothold on this puzzle until I found LORELEI (22A - One of the Gilmore Girls). I'm also a bit embarrassed that NENE Leaks got me out of a jam at 46D, too. What can I say? I work in television. I'm also embarrassed how long it took for me to get TIKI (44D - ___ Bar) considering how many of the Thursday happy hours I mentioned yesterday have turned into tiki nights. (IGHT!)

The southeast corner took a long time to fall for me, as well. The corners in general felt a little cramped. Still, looking at the grid, there's a remarkably small amount of weak fill for as much real estate is given to the gimmick. All in all, maybe I appreciated it more than I enjoyed it. That probably sounds more negative than I actually feel about the puzzle, but it's accurate. I did love the clue for EIGHTY-EIGHTY (32A - Grand total? As in grand piano, if you were still working on it). The cluing in general felt really sharp and fun. Also, the triple stack of double-IGHT 11s were all great answers. And the puzzle put up a fight (IGHT!); I do love a good challenge!

Bullets:

• EINSTEIN— "The greatest scientists are artists as well"? Pretty high opinion of yourself there, Albert. What'd you ever do that was so great? Oh. Right. (IGHT!)
• TEXAS TEA— Was this term ever used outside of the Beverly Hillbillies? Well, I've used weaker excuses to post Weird Al videos.

• TEIGEN— I know she's off social media for some kind of bullying thing, but I don't know enough about the situation to know whether I should be concerned she's in the grid. 
• HEINEKEN— Someone in my neighborhood regularly drinks two bottles of Heineken under the palm tree in my front yard and leaves the bottles at the base of the trunk. I'm not thrilled about the litter, but more concerned someone will think I've been drinking Heineken. (Even though I brew my own beer, I'm not snobby about corporate macro brew in general. I just don't think Heineken tastes very good).

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

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