Thursday, July 18, 2024 - Space, the final frontier ... er, something like that

Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword

An astronomy-themed crossword popped up this Thursday, a theme so near and dear to Mike's heart that he spent ... an inordinate amount of time contemplating the clues. Jean, on the other hand, solved the puzzle at nearly the speed of light, which explains why she looked like a strand of spaghetti as she was finishing up.
Besides the ingenious theme, there were quite a few clues worthy of note in the grid, including 17A, Actor Omar, EPPS (not, as our instincts suggested, SHARIF); 5D, An "e-", one that was first developed in 2003, for short, CIG (if you say so!); 31A, Orthodontic device, SPACER (suspiciously close to the theme, surely no accident!); and finally 9D, Festoons with bathroom tissue, informally, TPS (the second reference to the practice this week, is editor Joel Fagliano's house under attack, and this is some sort of desperate appeal for assistance??
Show note imagery: Harold ARLEN, composer of Over the Rainbow, hard at work.

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