Like the architecture of the Alhambra / THU 7-4-2024 / Belgian town known for its restorative mineral springs / Mediterranean appetizer

Theme answers:

• ["Get ready!" ... or what to do upon hearing the ends of the answers to the starred clues?] for HOLD ONTO YOUR HAT
• [One of 32 in London] for BOROUGH ("ough" --> "oh")
• [Teacher in a dojo] for SENSEI ("sei" --> "say")
• [Home to Gonzaga University] for SPOKANE ("kane" --> "can")
• [Environs] for MILIEU ("ieu" --> "you")
• [Drawn-out story of travel woes?] for ODYSSEY ("ssey" --> "see")

Word of the Day: MEZE (Mediterranean appetizer) —

Meze (also spelled mezze or mezé) is a selection of small dishes served as appetizers in Levantine, Turkish, Balkan, Armenian, Kurdish, and Greek cuisines. It is similar to Spanish tapas and Italian antipasti. A meze may be served as a part of a multi-course meal or form a meal in itself. [wiki]

Hi folks! I'm here for an off-schedule Malaika MWednesday, although you should know that I'm writing this on a Wednesday and scheduling it to post on a Thursday. So in a way, things feel correct. Happy July 4th to everyone! I love a holiday that revolves around hanging out with friends and cooking, so this is one of my faves. I'm at the Jersey Shore right now, feasting on watermelon and hotdogs and ice-cold seltzies and all that good stuff.

I really enjoyed this theme! There were a couple things that elevated it from good to great, in my mind. I liked how the revealer had a double meaning. It would have been totally valid to have a revealer as simple as "Star Spangled Banner" or "National Anthem," but here we got a little extra layer of wordplay. (As someone who does not wear hats, it took me a second to realize what it was referencing, but literally just one second.)

In fact, this puzzle kind of managed to combine two themes into one-- the double meaning + the "put all the ends of the words together." Putting on my Constructor Hat here (crossword constructor, not actual building constructor, although man, I wish I were better at carpentry!!), I think it was able to do this successfully because many of the theme answers were quite short. We often see theme entries that are 9-15 letters long, and these were 6-7.

Another thing I liked is how cleverly the themed entries hid the sounds. After "ough" and "sei" (and given the date), I knew immediately what was going on, but I wasn't able to jump around and fill in the shaded boxes like you sometimes can. Instead, I still had to puzzle out how the sounds would appear. I like when a puzzle makes me puzzle! And it also made me reflect on how complicated spelling can be in the English language. Linguists in the comments can correct me if I'm wrong, but this is something that actually works in our favor when it comes to making crosswords. For example, in a language like Italian, nearly every word ends in a vowel. So they couldn't put together a symmetrical crossword unless they also had words like AEEAIIA to intersect... and they don't! Since we have a lot more letter combos, our intersections are able to work out.

The final thing to discuss is the puzzle's layout. I don't know if there's an official name for it, but I call it up-down symmetry, and it's pretty rare in puzzles. I find it very aesthetic though. I would love to see a themeless puzzle with up-down symmetry. Do you think it was done on purpose to emulate the American flag, with stripes going across and a "flagpole" going down? Or do you think it was a coincidence?

Bullets:

• [One of 32 in London] for BOROUGH— That's so many! NYC is the same size but only has five!
• [Ladies who lunch, maybe] for GAL PALS — I don't really understand this clue. I know the term "ladies who lunch" to be a pretty specific thing (wealthy female friends who platonically have expensive meals together), and I also know GAL PALS to be a pretty specific thing (a term the media uses to describe lesbians, because they are unwilling to write about same-sex relationships). It doesn't seem like the clue is relating the entry properly.
• [___ Tam ("Australia's favorite cookie")] for TIM—  (Pictured above) I went to school with an Australian girl and whenever she visited home, she'd bring these back. They're soooo tasty-- similar vibe to Oreos but a different texture. There's a whole thing where you bite off a corner on each end and then use it as a straw to slurp up some milk.
• [Like Red Delicious apples] for MEALY — This cracked me up. I am not a big participant in the apple community (I prefer tropical fruits), and I have known Red Delicious apples to be gross, but never really brought it up. I didn't realize this was like... a known thing we all agree on?? It was just so funny to see a negative adjective used to describe a varietal so objectively. I recently read the (YA) book Tangerinewhich is absolutely not non-fiction but still discusses (among a zillion other things) different varietals of citrus. If you have an 8 - 14 year old in your life, buy them this amazing book!

xoxo Malaika

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