See the 6 answer words debuted by David Gray.
S | L | I | P | U | C | L | A | E | L | I | A | S | ||
L | I | N | E | S | P | A | N | T | O | N | T | O | ||
U | N | C | L | E | B | U | C | K | C | O | D | A | S | |
S | K | I | E | D | T | A | K | E | S | I | T | |||
H | A | S | N | O | M | O | R | E | T | E | A | R | S | |
E | G | O | A | K | A | A | G | E | N | O | T | |||
S | E | R | B | A | S | H | R | A | S | T | A | |||
S | A | Y | S | A | Y | S | A | Y | ||||||
N | A | S | A | L | T | E | E | E | D | E | N | |||
B | T | W | L | O | S | A | L | I | A | T | E | |||
C | H | E | E | S | E | C | U | R | L | S | Y | I | P | |
L | A | S | T | D | O | N | L | A | T | C | H | |||
V | E | R | S | A | W | H | A | T | A | J | O | K | E | |
O | T | T | E | R | L | I | S | A | A | N | E | W | ||
L | E | O | N | S | S | P | U | D | R | A | T | S |
This is my second puzzle in the NYT. I submitted this last year in January, so I don't remember what the inspiration was for the puzzle. The song in the central theme answer may have come on the radio and put the idea in my head.
I hope I succeeded in making the theme answers (as in Say ___) amusing and lively. The solvers will be the judge. Will asked me to change a couple of entries: METTA and SNA, 64 and 60 across respectively. Never having had to take out words in random places before, this was a bit worrisome because it can get messy fast, but it turned out to be a rather quick fix.
My favorite clue was for 73A (RATS) "They're not part of the 'family' any more" Not really a Monday clue, but I thought it was funny.
Now I must say that this is a special puzzle, but not for anything in the puzzle itself. It's special, you see, because by pure luck, Will chose to run it on my birthday. Thanks Will!
S | P | A | T | I | T | C | H | S | L | A | S | H | ||
H | E | S | S | N | E | H | I | C | O | P | T | O | ||
A | R | I | A | H | A | I | L | O | A | S | I | S | ||
Q | U | A | R | T | E | R | P | O | U | N | D | E | R | S |
H | R | S | S | E | E | |||||||||
A | D | M | I | R | E | F | L | U | D | A | T | E | ||
B | U | E | N | O | B | O | A | R | D | U | A | L | ||
H | A | L | F | B | L | O | O | D | P | R | I | N | C | E |
O | N | E | I | O | R | L | Y | A | C | T | I | N | ||
R | E | E | D | R | E | S | F | I | E | S | T | A | ||
E | O | N | P | A | S | |||||||||
F | U | L | L | M | E | T | A | L | J | A | C | K | E | T |
U | S | A | I | N | E | S | A | I | R | A | R | A | ||
D | E | N | T | I | L | E | S | T | A | M | I | S | ||
D | R | A | Y | S | L | A | M | A | B | A | C | K |