German word that sounds like a number in English / SUN 8-4-24 / Wonderland bird / Place to get a pricey cab

• • •

Like I said, the "punny definition of a common phrase" theme has never been a favorite of mine. It's fine, I'm just rarely wowed by it. Today was no exception. It wasn't a bad puzzle at all, just not for me. The answers were all legitimate weather forecast phrases (one bumped for me just a bit; see below), the clues were fun (if not really funny), and that's all there is to it. 

Theme answers:

• SHOWERS LIKELY (23A: High chance of parties celebrating a baby's arrival?)
• MOSTLY CLOUDY (42A: Like one's mental state before morning coffee?)
• HEAVY SNOW (52A: Terrible TV reception?)
• ISOLATED SPRINKLES (71A: What you might find on the counter after making ice cream sundaes?)
• WINTRY MIX (94A: Eclectic holiday party playlist?)
• MORNING FROST (103A: "The Road Not Taken" enjoyed over breakfast?)
• DAMAGING WINDS (125A: Smashing clarinets and oboes?)

Wow, that's a lot of theme. Mostly these work fine. I have a minor quibble with Isolated Sprinkles, just in that it feels like the one I haven't heard before. It seems legit, but isolated showers is what I hear more often. I get that you already have Showers Likely, but that's another one that feels more arbitrary. Neither of those really hurts the puzzle, just where my eyebrows raised a bit. I also like Mostly Cloudy, but I think of my pre-coffee mornings as more of a haze or a fog than a cloud. Clouds and coffee only takes my brain one place:

The theme density doesn't leave much room for flash in the fill. Not a lot stood out to me, good or bad. On a personal level, I have a distaste for ODEA (117D: Greek theaters) and it's singular friend "odeon." I was a theater major, I love ancient Greek theater, but for some reason this word just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Conversely, YEET (45D: Forcefully throw, in modern slang) is one of my favorite recent words. It always makes me laugh a bit. I also like that Y-AXES (80D: Lines for which x = 0) looks like "Yaxes," which makes me imagine some unread Dr. Seuss story. And hey, look! It's UDON (122D: Noodle used in shabu-shabu). I had too many crosses by the time I saw this so I wasn't able to confuse it with SOBA. But anyone who read my post yesterday will know it could have been a problem. Maybe I should post the Uma/Oprah video again, introducing Udon to Soba... nah, I'll spare you this time.

Parting thoughts:

• 1D: Sounds from a mat (OMS)— Do people actually use "om" as a mantra, or is it just a stereotype? I meditate daily, though not in a form that requires a mantra. I've just never actually witnessed this.
• 27A: Casino fixture (ATM) — Vegas tip: don't use the ATMs in the casino unless you're ok throwing even more money away on fees. Bring cash with you. I wish someone had told me this before I went to Vegas for the first time.
• 81A: ___ for Sore Eyes (punny name for an ophthalmologist's office) (SITE)— These feels like a business that would open next to Bob's Burgers. No complaints from me; I love that show.

• 5D: Title role for Fran Drescher (THE NANNY)— Something I think about a lot is that I have trouble remembering peoples' names and new information, but for some reason I still know every word to the theme song to The Nanny. Memory can be weird.

Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld

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