MGWCC #947

MGWCC crossword 2:22
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hello, and welcome to episode #947 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, a week 4 puzzle called “Where Are My Glasses?”. this week’s instructions asked for a slightly gross word. what are those theme entries? this wasn’t obvious right away, but they were all eight medium-length (8s and 9s) acrosses:

• {Skate park ride, sometimes} FREE BOARD.
• {Option if you don’t want an Altoid or a Tic Tac} VELAMINT. not familiar with these.
• {Fun-to-say Florida city} OPA-LOCKA. don’t think i’ve ever said it out loud; i only know this from crosswords, where i used to see the partials OPA and/or LOCKA back in the bad old days.
• {Hard to look away from} STRIKING.
• {Squander with worry, as time} FRET AWAY.
• {European six-time NBA All-Star} PAU GASOL.
• {Whence Rihanna} BARBADOS.
• {Unit of frequency} DECIHERTZ. i have never had occasion to use this unit—it’s once every 10 seconds.

once i thought of the right way to interpret the title—as in drinking glasses—i saw BEER hiding backwards in FREEBOARD and then it was quickly over. there is a beverage hidden in reverse in each of these themers, the first letters of which spell out BACKWASH. that is a slightly gross word in the context of drinking, i’ll admit, but it’s also the name of a rare and very beautiful squeeze in bridge, so i do not find this term at all distasteful.

to me, this felt quite a lot easier than a typical week 4, and indeed easier than last week’s week 3. with 8 themers, there was a lot to look at, and the nature of the meta mechanic (reverse hiddens) made it accessible just by looking at what the themers had in common, rather than having to figure out something arcane or reverse-engineer it from sus-looking clues in the rest of the puzzle.

speaking of the rest of the puzzle, the fill was largely fine considering the 8 themers. i looked askance at not-quite-phrases BY GAME and AS A RED, and perhaps EEO/EOE was one too many {“We hire fairly”} abbrevs in the grid (especially with one of them crossing EEAAO, the not-really-an-acronym for everything everywhere all at once). but that’s not much to complain about.

how’d you all find this one?