I pulled out 55A Cheese whose name is a semordnilap: EDAM because I had no idea what a semordnilap is. I really, really didn’t want to solve around it and for sure not look it up because it seemed to be something I could try to figure out. So I stared at it and realized that it’s palindromes backwards. So then I tried to think of a cheese that’s a palindrome. Nonresultant. But EDAM is a crossword cheese. And EDAM backwards is MADE. So I figured a semordnilap must be a word that isn’t the same word backwards but a different, real word. Which, I guess, semordnilap now is, despite the red squiggly?
No theme, but some other tough clues from today’s puzzle:
18A Social protest lecture series: TEACHINS. Makes sense.
51A Monkey head mushroom, by another name: LIONSMANE. Now, I’ve never heard of either name.
Finished this one in 26:55.
| Day | This Wk | Best | Average | 4-Wk Avg | Streak |
| Monday | 4:31 | 3:49 | 9:26 | 6:56 | 74 |
| Tuesday | 12:22 | 5:22 | 13:20 | 9:09 | 1 |
| Wednesday | 11:20 | 7:38 | 17:09 | 11:51 | 15 |
| Thursday | 13:45 | 12:12 | 28:26 | 25:50 | 1 |
| Friday | 26:55 | 16:23 | 32:42 | 21:02 | 15 |
| Saturday | 27:43 | 33:49 | 30:25 | 14 | |
| Sunday | 15:11 | 54:12 | 47:05 | 1 |