I'm Definitely *Not* The Werewolf

I’ll jump right to it - people have been knocking on my door, rapping on my windows, and stomping on my porch asking when the next workshop is going to be. Well, wait no longer I say, or rather, wait a bit longer, but not much. The next Crossword Construction 101 workshop will be on Tuesday, October 20, at Bent Stick Brewery! I’m planning on having tickets go on sale Monday, October 5 - as newsletter subscribers, you’ll be the first to get the link. Keep your eyes peeled for an email from me next week.

Until then, you should probably get a little more practice in - this week’s puzzle should help in that regard :)

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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I’m Definitely *Not* The Werewolf by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

Last week’s puzzle’s theme was a bit convoluted - this week was a return to what I hope is a simple but well-executed theme.

Not a ton of music in this one, but 42-Across is [Catwalk walk] which reminds me of this Charli song - one of the (admittedly few) great songs off her new album.

Today’s Theme

The revealer for today’s theme is 33-Across:

[Key part of social deduction games and something true of the answers to the starred clues]

That answer is HIDDEN ROLES, and looking at the starred clues, we can see the word ROLE hidden within each of them!

Behind the Clues

12A. [Classic princess topper] is TIARA, though I found out while exploring clue angles for this that beloved Princess Peach of the Mario universe does not wear a tiara! She wears a crown - the main difference being that a crown is a full circle, whereas a tiara is a partial or semi-circle.

23A. I love how many idioms we have for lying. Pants on fire, spinning a yarn, and this one, [One who's "yanking your chain”]. Yes, the humble LIAR has earned many nicknames that I’m sure made sense to someone at some point.

41A. Speaking of Mario - [Inhabitants of Mushroom Kingdom that resemble mushrooms] are TOADS, which was a confusing name to me for many years. Then, I remembered that toadstools are a thing, and suddenly Nintendo was absolved of that particular sin.

4D. If you read [C or B, but not A, of Spice Girls] and thought “Jeez, how many times do I have to tell you, I don’t know the Spice Girls!”, I’ll be the one to break it to you - you should probably have at least a rudimentary knowledge of them because they are going to come up again. In fact, just because I wrote this, I will make sure they come up again. Do your crossword homework!

17D. My test solver was confused by [1 of these equals 2,000,000 beard-seconds] - what kind of unit was this? Time? Distance? This was great feedback that I forgot about and now it’s published. A beard-second is the length the average human beard grows in one second, which is about 5 nanometres. Some will try to persuade you it’s a different, similarly small number, but don’t let those heretics persuade you.

31D. More references to Lilo & Stitch?? Yeah, it just worked out that way. [Disney girl that says "Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!”] is LILO and the dog in question is not a dog, but a blue alien that escaped from intergalactic police.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon

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