I also want to say thanks for people’s birthday wishes last week. Sadly, it was one of the more frustrating birthdays of my life since I tested positive for the coronavirus last weekend. It was able to avoid covid-19 for 3½ years, but it finally got me, and of course it had to strike right before my 40th birthday. Such unlucky timing. All things considered, though, I’m doing fine — I was feeling fairly dreadful the first few days, but I’ve been feeling better lately. Hopefully by next week I’ll be testing negative again, but we’ll see.
Seven starred answers seem to be cut short and don’t fit their clues. 27A: [*NBA Hall of Famer nicknamed “The Pearl”] looks like EARL, but that’s just his first name. Where’s his full name, EARL MONROE? 30A: [*Sculpture garden seen in the video game “GoldenEye 007”] is … STA? That looks like a very unusual clue for STA, an abbreviation for a train station.
There’s a key hint at 129A: [Walking trip that may last from morning till evening … and a hint to this puzzle’s theme] which is DAY HIKE. The starred answers start on one line, then move up to the next row for three letters, then finish on the original line. The letters that move up are the three-day abbreviations for the seven days of the week.
- 27A: [*NBA Hall of Famer nicknamed “The Pearl”] is EARL MONROE, with the raised MON for Monday.
- 30A: [*Sculpture garden seen in the video game “GoldenEye 007”] is STATUE PARK, with the raised TUE for Tuesday. I always liked this level when I played the game a long time ago.
- 58A: [*“Is that all?”] is ARE WE DONE, with the raised WED for Wednesday.
- 60A: [*Michigan city on the Great Lake in its name] is PORT HURON, with the raised THU for Thursday.
- 81A: [*They’re thick as thieves] is BEST FRIENDS, with the raised FRI for Friday.
- 111A: [*Prepares an ambush] is SETS A TRAP, with the raised SAT for Saturday.
- 114A: [*Anesthetizes] is PUTS UNDER, with the raised SUN for Sunday.
I’ve done several “raised letters” themes (see here, here, here, here and here), and I’ve done several themes based on the seven days of the week (see here, here and here), so I guess it was only natural that I would combine them into one puzzle. My aesthetic is always to use real crossword entries on both sides of the raised letters so that it looks like an otherwise normal grid when you’re finished, although I recall gritting my teeth a little knowing that I’d need STA to pull it off. The letter sequence TUE just doesn’t have many options to begin with.
Some other answers and clues:
- 32A: [Bachelor party venue?] is ALMA MATER. As in a place where people with bachelor’s degrees might have a reunion party.
- 46A: [“Nessun dorma,” e.g.] is ARIA. This is from “Turandot” and it’s one of my wife’s favorite arias.
- 1D: [Run uncovered during an NFL game, say?] is STREAK. NFL receivers aren’t the ones streaking, though.
- 31D: [Island nation whose capital was Koror City until 2006] is PALAU. The capital nowadays is Ngerulmud.
- 42D: [Newborn who composed the scores for the “Naked Gun” films] is IRA Newborn. That’s his name, though it’s funny to imagine him composing the music while he was a baby.
- 56D: [“My Dad Wrote a ___” (comedy podcast featuring a series of erotic novels called “Belinda Blinked”)] is PORNO. This podcast is as funny as advertised — Jamie Morton and his friends James Cooper and Alice Levine read through the “Belinda Blinked” books that Jamie’s dad wrote under the pseudonym Rocky Flintstone. It’s NSFW content, obviously, but it’s hilarious.