Erica Hsiung Wojcik author page

So many debut entries today! DATA CENTERS was my favorite because of its innocent clue. I attended many networking events in my previous startup life. These days, I might enjoy much more nerdy networking parties involving not human, but computer servers.

The pandemic might have made me just a tad antisocial.

I love that Erica didn't stick to a standard "stair stack" of DANCE AROUND / MEME ACCOUNT / SYNESTHESIA, but wove a second one through it. With WILLA CATHER / LOOSE CHANGE / DATA CENTERS, six long marquee entries anchors an impressive center.

Was it just me who saw ME! ME! ACCOUNT as something overzealous people put together?

This is why I stay off social media these days.

What a great clue for VILEST! It's an entry that sounds slightly off — I would likely say "most vile" instead — but a memorable Oscar Wilde quote more than saves it.

I had a rough go with SKORTS / CARLO, weighing SKIRTS / CARLI for ages, especially since CARLI Lloyd is such a famous soccer star. Do golfers not wear SKIRTS anymore? Thankfully, I avoided the I/O error.

There was less ambiguity with SEA-GOAT / SYNESTHESIA. I was 95% sure that intersection had to be an S, but being a Capricorn and never having heard the term SEA-GOAT, I had a tough time seeing it as correct. It is definitely legit, as it turns out.

As much as I used to love LOLCATs, are they still mews-worthy?

Impressively wide-open center in this 66-worder.

Erica and Matthew's clue for CALCULATOR WATCH was so Johnny Be Goode! Playing on a "time machine" could only have been improved by riffing on "obsolescent" more — something like [Time machine from the past?]. Then again, past and future are merging, as my kids are both oddly begging for "play time" on my calculator watch … I HAVE TO ASK and I GUESS SO are both appropriate responses.

Standout clue in [That's just the way it is], a literal description for STATUS QUO, disguised as my standard parental response. Similarly beautiful trick in [What's the Word?], playing on SCRIPTURE as the "word of dad." Er, God.

A ton of clever cluing today. Other highlights:

Servers working around the clock? Surely, it had to be a dig at Amazon's lack of care around their service center employees! Nope, that's their DATA CENTER computer servers, which will likely unionize via ChatGPT any day now.

[High lands] is an oldie for MESAS, but it's still a goodie.

I was surprised to hear backlash around DATED UP a few years ago. Dating up in my marriage is one of my greatest con jobs. I mean, accomplishments! Tough to predict what will raise hackles.

Interesting choice to clue CARLOS to Carlos Boozer. He was on one of the USA Olympic teams, but last played in the NBA a decade ago, and his chances of making the Hall of Fame are slim. Do I have any latent spite that he underwhelmed on one of my fantasy basketball teams?

[Noncommittal assent].

A wide selection of clever clues and some fun entries. Nothing incredibly fresh, but the blasts from the past are appropriate to CALCULATOR WATCH, indeed.

I love dogs. My next-door neighbors' pooch is one of my best friends — especially since I don't have to pick up her poop — and I'm an unabashedly huge fan of Tucker Budzyn. I'd totally get some FUR BABIES if I didn't already have two snot babies.

This flu / RSV season is killing me.

Everyone take note that when the NBA brings back the Sonics through expansion, COURTSIDE SEATs would be an ideal "big ticket item" for your ol' pal Jeff. That level of clever wordplay alone was worth the price of admission.

I wasn't familiar with JUDITH HEUMANN. Thankfully, my guess of NEUMANN made me ASHEN when ASDEN didn't make sense. I enjoyed reading about her; a TREASURE TROVE of accomplishments. She's genuinely an EYE OPENER — I'm putting her book on my TBR pile.

Stairstack grids are commonplace these days, but they can push their boundaries with long entries threaded through their middle triplet. EPIDURAL isn't a multi-word entry that editors tend to prize, but that clue — "labor relief," indeed!

I'd be curious to see what happens when you take out the black square between EASE and VIET. I'm sure it wouldn't be the epitome of EASE, but with a standard pattern like a stair stack, I love seeing how far constructors can push themselves.

NATATORIA isn't in my everyday language, but it's so constructor-friendly. That perfect consonant-vowel allows for it to be worked in swimmingly.

All in all, a solid amount of color and not much gluey short fill to ding.

That stair-stacked triplet sums up my life when Jill is away. She thinks it should be fine (and it really should be), but my SOLO PARENTING experiences have included one child howling so fiercely they peed straight through the floor, one child waking up screaming like a banshee at 2 a.m. with unspecified foot PAIN, and copious, copious issues regarding poo.

WHO AM I KIDDING, indeed.

Also neat to get extra kid-related flavor in the TABULA RASA clue. John Locke may be a great philosopher, but he's never tried to influence a Chen child.

A handful of great clues. USED VEHICLE is on the road again. [Intro to America's pastime] misdirected to the National Anthem, away from TBALL. Jim Horne is an actual symphony conductor, so he knows the score when it comes to a score propped on a MUSIC STAND. Delightful!

A couple of blips. I've had both Pau and Marc GASOL on my fantasy bball teams, but will Pau make the Hall of Fame? Not sure. Crossing GASOL with [Tiny dosage units: Abbr.] which could be MGS or MLS … why not go with the Booker T and the MGS?

I also wondered if the lower-left corner could have gotten more color, helping me WARM TO it more. Turns out that pesky final A of TABULA RASA and Y of TRAGICOMEDY constrain things mightily.

Parenting is often a TRAGICOMEDY of laughter and tears. Thankfully, a great majority of my solving experience was the former. Fun debut that resonated with this father (who is recording every moment for future blackmail).