Constructor: Rose Conlon
Relative difficulty: Medium
![]()
THEME: SIGN FOR DELIVERY (37A: Accept a package formally ... or a hint to 17-, 29-, 45- and 62-Across)— ordinary phrases that can also be understood as punny descriptions of different phases of childbirth, if you want them to be...
Theme answers:
![]()
I wonder if gender had anything to do with how long it took the average solver to figure out what the theme was supposed to be. It probably didn't take me that long, in terms of actual minutes spent, but I don't think I've spent "minutes" trying to figure out a Wednesday theme in a long time, if ever. Because there's such a thing as a "water sign" (Scorpio, for one) (but not Aquarius, weirdly), and the last themer starts with "water," I thought the "sign" in the revealer had something to do with the zodiac. At first. When that didn't pan out, I thought of street signs ("Bump!"), but no. And so on. I had to exhaust the "sign" angle and move over to alternate meanings of "delivery" before the "aha" *click* finally happened. This is a very cute concept; my brain was just very slow to pick up the gag. I'm not sure what phase of childbirth BUMPY RIDE is supposed to refer to ... Is the kid still kicking, or is the ride to the hospital (!?) supposed to be bumpy. Or is this a "baby bump" reference? And the kid is just "riding" ... in the "bump"? All of the above!? That part wasn't completely clear to me. But aside from the fact that I would never formally name the time it takes me to get a drink of water during a workout a WATER BREAK, these theme answers all seem fun and fresh, and the non-theme stuff is pretty strong overall. My first word was ÉTÉ followed shortly by EKE and DELINT and ECIG, and then (improbably) a reappearance of Monday's old-school crosswordese AKELA, so I was worried the puzzle was going to be a BUMPY RIDE indeed, but then things leveled off, i.e. the fill got better. It even got a bit flashy in the longer Downs (MANSPLAINS, URBAN CAVER). So I didn't enjoy feeling like an IDIOT for the 2 to 3 minutes it took me to understand what the hell was happening with the theme, but otherwise I liked this much more than I like most Wednesdays.
["Look what I got! Now people will stop intentionally ramming our car!"]
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- GUT FEELING (17A: Sneaking suspicion)
- THE KICKER (29A: An ironic punchline)
- BUMPY RIDE (45A: Rough flight)
- WATER BREAK (62A: Reason to pause a workout)
Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking is a 2017 cookbook written by American chef Samin Nosrat and illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton. The book was designed by Alvaro Villanueva. It inspired the 2018 American four-part cooking docu-series Salt Fat Acid Heat. // A reference book, the cookbook is focused on teaching techniques and structured around the four titular elements: Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat. The book explains what they are and how to master them in your cooking in order to become a better, more intuitive cook. Nosrat explains that these are the defining factors which determine the flavor and texture of food every time you cook, calling them the "cardinal directions" of cooking. The goal of the book is for readers to leave with a new cooking philosophy. [...] Nosrat started working on the book around 2009/2010 when Michael Pollan, an author and cooking student of hers, learned about her four-part system and encouraged her to write a book about it. She developed a curriculum based on the concept and taught many classes on it to develop the material. Throughout the process, Nosrat would note which concepts were easier to convey visually and started to design diagrams to help explain them. These also formed the foundation of diagrams in the book which give an overview, for example of sources of acid or salt.
• • •
'ROID RAGE feels oddly dated to me now. It once would've seemed like a sassy, modern expression, but now it feels weirdly '90s — like something no one says anymore. It also feels more mythical than real. I go to the gym regularly, and I've seen some bad behavior in there, for sure, but I've never seen 'ROID RAGE. My trainer is a bodybuilder—I'll ask her if it's (still) a thing the next time I'm in there (Friday). I thought TAMARI was just another word for "soy sauce," I had no idea it was uniquely "gluten-free."Allrecipes dot com talks about TAMARI and soy sauce as if they were in fact different things, but I think TAMARI's just a subset of soy sauce after all:
Tamari and soy sauce may look similar, but there are many differences between these two condiments. Soy sauce is common throughout all of Asia, but tamari is wholly Japanese. Tamari is the liquid that is pressed from fermenting miso paste, however soy sauce is made from fermenting in tanks with grains, in a method that's similar to beer making.
Cool, cool, I'm learning food things! Speaking of food things, you should definitely check out "Salt Fat ACID Heat" (the book and the Netflix documentary) if you haven't already (7D: "Salt Fat ___ Heat" (popular cookbook)). Samin Nosrat is a very engaging writer and host. She also does a really charming and informative food podcast with her friend Hrishikesh Hirway called "Home Cooking." Ooh, and I think she also made an appearance on Michelle Obama's Netflix food series, "Waffles + Mochi" (yep, first episode!). Anyway, crossword constructors, I've never seen SAMIN in the puzzle before (or NOSRAT, for that matter), so ... you know ... nudge nudge.