This was a surprisingly difficult Monday for me. I started last night and almost completed it, but my eyelids got really heavy, and I stopped. When I picked it up today, it was still tough! But I got through it. Definitely weird to claim to have gotten through a Monday.

I pulled out 51D Scent of an animal: SPOOR because I’d been unaware of this term.

Etymology time! From the Online Etymology Dictionary!

spoor (n.)

“track, trace,” 1823, used originally by travelers in South Africa, from Afrikaans spoor, from Dutch spoor, from Middle Dutch spor, cognate with Old English spor “footprint, track, trace,” from Proto-Germanic *spur-am, from PIE *spere- “ankle” (see spurn).

So there you have it.

The theme of this puzzle is homophones.

17A “So, this red thing, Mom? This is not good.”: BEETREPORT. Like a beat report. But with beets.
27A “The French one is my favorite. Wait, no, the pretzel one.”: ROLLREVERSAL. Like a role reversal but with bread.
48A “Eww, mollusks … I don’t know, didn’t this make me sick last time?”: MUSSELMEMORY. Like muscle memory. Speaking of which, I went to the driving range a couple weeks ago, and I hadn’t lost my swing. I may have mentioned that, but it bears mentioning because I am proud of that. Also food poisoning is no joke.
63A “Wow, Mom, this is like at a restaurant! Dibs on the chocolate pudding!”: MOUSSECALL. I don’t understand this one. Also mousse is meh. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned my feeling about mousse recently.

Finished this one in 13:26.

Day	This Wk	Best	Average
Monday	13:26	3:49	9:30
Tuesday		5:52	13:43
Wednesday		7:38	17:38
Thursday		13:09	30:17
Friday		16:23	35:58
Saturday		27:43	37:21
Sunday		15:11	1:00:17