Good or bad vacuum review / THU 6-16-22 / Eventgoers / One performing a palm print analysis / Trochee's counterpart / Facts First sloganeer / Setting for memorable cable car scene in Moonraker / Leads as a D&D campaign / Biblical patriarch with two-syllable name / That's a goldang lie! / Tree in the etymology of gin

Constructor: Parker Higgins and Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Well, I thought it was Easy, but early social media response indicates otherwise, so who knows?

THEME: "That TTTTTTT Show" (i.e. "That 7 T's Show" i.e. "That '70s Show") — OK, that's not the theme, but that is an example of how this theme works: what *sounds* like an enumeration of letters (four N's, eight O's, two T's, ten D's, respectively) is represented in the grid by that Actual Number Of Letters. So:

Theme answers:

• NNNNIC SCIENTIST = "forensic scientist" (NNNNIC => "four N's" + -IC => "forensic")
• TOMOOOOOOOO = "tomatoes" (TOMOOOOOOOO =>  TOM + "eight O's" => "tomatoes")
• CUTIE PATT = "cutie patooties" (PATT => PA- + "two Ts" => "patooties")
• ADDDDDDDDDD = "attendees" (ADDDDDDDDDD => A- + "10 D's" => "attendees")

Word of the Day:"Moonraker" (54A: Setting for the memorable cable car scene in "Moonraker" => RIO) —

Moonraker is a 1979 spy-fi film, the eleventh in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the fourth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The third and final film in the series to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, it co-stars Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Corinne Cléry, and Richard Kiel. Bond investigates the theft of a Space Shuttle, leading him to Hugo Drax, the owner of the Shuttle's manufacturing firm. Along with space scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond follows the trail from California to Venice, Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon rainforest, and finally into outer space to prevent a plot to wipe out the world population and to recreate humanity with a master race. (wikipedia)

Well I'm awake in the middle of the night because of the worst thunderstorm I've ever been in in my life. It's still happening, though the rain and lightning have abated a bit. At its worst, the sky was constant flashing, like God 's streetlights were flickering, and the lightning + thunder were pure assault. I'm awake. Wife's awake. Cats are ... god knows ... all over the house, looking at me like "Why?" So I thought I better sit down and solve the puzzle and post the blog quickly, before the power goes out. While these are perhaps not ideal conditions under which to solve a puzzle, this puzzle was So Good that conditions ceased to matter. In fact, maybe they helped. Maybe the puzzle felt even More delightful than it was because it took my mind off the menacing cacophony. Kind of impressive that the puzzle was able to do that, but the wackiness involved here is such loopy, gonzo, avant-garde, NTH-degree wackiness that I could not resist. I could only succumb to the vibe. I mean, I thought "wow, it takes a ton of courage to just go with eight damn O's in a row" ... and *then* I met the 10 T's. LOL. What a ride. And the grid shape made this solving experience extra-special. The whole thing felt alien, in the best possible way. The mirror symmetry, the stacked Acrosses up top, and especially the column of three 9s at the center bottom, all gave this a look and feel that took it way, way out of the ordinary. And yet not so far that it was undoable. It was, in fact, extremely doable, though I can see (online, already) that people are not grasping the theme concept as easily as I did, and are getting, let's say, frustrated. I completely sympathize with this feeling. And I'm very sorry you didn't grasp the concept in a more timely fashion, because it made the whole solving experience a joy.