I pulled out 30D Helps finish a nursing program?: WEANS because Calah is finally in the last semester of her doctorate of nursing practice program. Completion of the program was delayed due to covid. Hospitals were (and still are!) in desperate need of nurses due to pandemic-related shortages, but since hospital settings were so extra-dangerous and hospitals didn’t have enough PPE for their regular people, nursing schools told their students that they were prohibited from working at hospitals for school credit. They could work for money on their own, but school was staying TF out of it. So it was a year of no clinical hours. Calah used that time to learn to code in Python by taking a Python class through school and by taking classes on udemy, and she learned how to edit video in Adobe Premiere through udemy. She made the best of the situation, but I find this clue to be tone-deaf. If they got a good NYTXW editor, maybe this clue wouldn’t have made it in. So, bad clue, Kyle Dolan. And a no-surprise bad editing job by Will Shortz.
No theme this Friday, so here are answers to some longer clues.
17A Swarmed by mosquitoes, say: EATENALIVE. Story of my life. Ugh. But there was one time when there was a mosquito flying around in our bedroom while we were watching TV. I saw it land on the wall near me, so I slowly rolled to my left and slammed the wall with my open palm. Big splat. What a relief. When I do woodworking, I use my vacmaster to suck up mosquitoes. I’ve stopped trying to catch them in my hands or obliterate them by smacking wherever they’ve landed on me. Given the vacmaster’s 3 horsepower, they never had a chance.
28A Pastry appropriate for a camping trip?: BEARCLAW. Terrifying.
32A One with lots of pull?: BLACKHOLE. Lame.
36A Has a 4.0 average: GETSALLAS. Gets all A’s.
51A What an old car might be sold for: SCRAPMETAL. I originally had SCRAPVALUE, but it was never value.
54A Song title following the lyric “Scuzza me, but you see, back in old Napoli …”: THATSAMORE.
10D Amulets: MAGICCHARMS. As a magician, I can tell you they really work! #misdirection
11D “Sister Outsider” essayist/poet: AUDRELORDE.
22D Antismuggling device: BODYSCANNER. There’s an invasion of them.
27D Means of domestic pest control: RATTERRIER. Are they rats or are they terriers?
32D Grouse: BELLYACHE.
Finished this one in 33:17.