New York Times, Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Telling a zombie to hurry up and LOOK ALIVE is hilariously punny! Enough to make one roll their eyes (right out of their sockets). I bet if a head chef told their omelet cook to GET CRACKING, he'd have egg all over his face (from the dozen thrown by said cook). Along with a server being impatiently told I'M WAITING, this is my type of restaurant.

Taste in humor is so subjective, especially when it comes to puns, but these were my jam.

Not so much a batter being hurried by saying ON THE DOUBLE. It felt so strained, like something out of an Abbott and Costello early draft that got scrapped. And HIT THE GAS was apt for a nitrous user, but it sure would have been nice to pun on a profession, like the others. Perhaps a hot air balloonist?

With six themers, sometimes interlocking pairs helps with real estate. There's something efficient about packing ON THE DOUBLE and HIT THE GAS tightly into the top left. However, it often causes problems in the crossing region. Today, HOB is an unfortunate by-product.

I do like how Lee used a cheater square in the very NW corner though, which I'm sure facilitated better cleanliness as well as some fresh MAISEL fill. Curious that MAISEL has only been used once before — by Lee!

The rigid grid skeleton put too many constraints on the grid design, forcing so many trade-offs. There is a case to be made, though, that getting interesting METEOR GRENADE BEST MAN (now there's an image!) might stave off the AGUE that comes from HOB DOI IRES MAL SGT.

I enjoy a solid profession-pun theme, and many of them hit my sweet spot. Cramming in six of them, not all of which elicited a laugh, made it feel like a rush job (sorry). Still, there's something to be said for the "more is more" approach when it comes to puns, since tastes vary so widely. That does increase the chance that at least a few land for most everyone.