Why Is My Money All Wet

Good morning! Thanks for joining me for another Friday puzzle - especially since now it looks like I have competition. The New York Times started releasing a daily “Midi” puzzle, and if you ask me… There are too many crosswords in my NYT Games app now. And this is coming from a guy who loves crosswords - perhaps they don’t scratch the same itch for me the full size NYT ones do. Do you have other places/outlets whose crosswords you solve? Let me know which ones I should be doing 👀

Back to my puzzle, though. This week’s puzzle has its tricky parts if you’re not the strongest name speller, but it should be a fun one overall with a nice, tight theme.

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Why Is My Money All Wet by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

I always enjoy this type of theme and get excited when my brain discovers a new one. As much as I enjoy a clever rebus or hiding words in other words, my truest love is in finding interesting patterns in phrases and words. If you’re an aspiring crossword constructor, compound words are the best place to start finding these ideas - this theme started with me realizing SLUSH FUND was a wet/weather word + a money word, and the other ones rolled in from there.

Even though EARFQUAKE was the hot single from Tyler, The Creator’s “Igor” album referenced in this puzzle, it’s not my favourite. Today, I’m in the mood for the smooth beats of A BOY IS A GUN.

Today’s Theme

This theme is another “tied together by the title” kind of theme - three related phrases whose relation is hinted at by the title. In this case, “Why Is My Money All Wet,” the category is:

Phrases related to money that also have a water/wetness component to them

The three theme answers in this case are MAKE IT RAIN, SLUSH FUND, and LIQUID ASSET.

Two potential entries that didn’t make the cut were MONEY LAUNDERING (felt somehow both too on-the-nose and too off-theme at the same time) and DROWNING IN DEBT (crosswords generally follow a “no bummers” rule, and this felt like a bummer).

Behind the Clues

5A. I was excited to reference [Actor LaBeouf, who is depicted as an "actual cannibal" in a song by Rob Cantor] in a puzzle. The video for Rob Cantor’s song is my favourite type of thing - unnecessarily high effort comedy. Please take a few minutes out of your day to enjoy this masterpiece.

23A. When coming up with the clue [Aquaman and Mera's domain], I had to ask myself - there is an Aquaman, yes, but is there a Ms. Aquaman? The answer is yes, and her name is not Ms. Aquaman. It’s Mera, but you probably already figured that out.

34A. [Where brokers get richer, briefly] is WALL ST, and in addition to being a bit of a bonus entry like the above one (that one related to wet, this one related to money), I also enjoyed the subtle idea that “brokers” get “richer.” Feels a bit like an oxymoron.

4D. Usually, you reserve the longest answers in a grid for your theme answers, but that’s just a guideline. There was a fun opportunity to do a full-length down answer in here, so I got CAST SHADOWS in, which is a fun, unique phrase. I played with a few clue ideas, but landed on teaching you that CAST SHADOWS is [What a sundial's gnomon is designed to do], a nugget of info sure to break the ice at any social gathering.

19D. I spent a good chunk of time trying to become a regular at a local cafe, as it was a bit of a bucket list item. [Orders from the regulars] are USUALS, as in, I want to walk up to the counter and the person there says “Hey Brandon, the usual?” and I say “You know it ;)”. I did get there, kind of, but I’d like to try again in the future.

21D. [Sounds where air is free to come out your nose, like "m" and "n"] is a fun fact I got to learn because I made this puzzle. Try holding those sounds (mmmmmm… nnnnnnnn…) and you’ll see your nose is free to release air - make other sounds like “b” or “s” and your nose closes right up. So interesting! That’s, of course, why they’re called NASALS.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next week,

Brandon