Joseph Knecht

  Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers Constructors Lewis Rothlein and Nancy Stark have both contributed puzzles to our Corner before, but I believe this is their first collaboration here.    The themers and reveal describe a zero-sum game , which in game theory and economics is defined as a situation involving two sides, where the result is an advantage for one side and a loss for the other, e.g. the game of baseball.  There are also non-zero sum games , e.g. cooperative ventures such as the stock market, where investors pool their resources in hopes of mutual gains.   I think we'll see that overall, this puzzle is really a non-zero sum, "win-win" game, in which Lewis and Nancy reward our efforts with a clever theme and lots of clever clues and fill. Let's start with the two part reveal: 68A . With 71-Across , possible result of my gain ... and what four long answers have undergone?: YOUR .   and...

This looks like a first for Michelle Kenney in the LA Times.  But she has been mentored by Jeff Chen, one of the best in the business.  For a snapshot of how she came to be here check this link at XWord Info.   Today's theme seems multi-leveled.  At the simplest level the themers and the reveal are concerned with some common state changes in water , one of the most abundant substances on the planet.  At a deeper level they seem to hint at state changes to our body politic , something that constructors don't normally deal with in these grids.  But we reviewers have to tread lightly on such matters, so to stay out of trouble I'll try to stick to literal, rather than historic-metaphoric, treatments of the themers and the reveal. 17A. Ended corruption: DRAINED THE SWAMP .  The first attempt to do this was a long, long time ago, and we don't seem to have made much progress: 27A. Vented: BLEW OFF ...

  Same Clue, Different Vibes The Flight of the Bumblebee Rimsky Korsakov  Jeffrey Wechsler visits us today with another reveal-less theme (but you can definitely hear it) based on acoustic signals we receive from different sources (see 61A for a film clip that touches on this theme as well).  The themers may look simple, but coming up with 4 grid spanners that all answered the same 4 letter clue could not have been simple. 17A. Buzz: NOISE MADE BY BEES .  The world may be on the cusp of the tragic answer to Shakespeare's eternal question, " To bee or not to bee ", but on the lighter side here are a lot of bad bee puns . Bee on clover 25A. Buzz: WORD ON THE STREET .   There's a song about this with the lyric, "What's the buzz, tell me what's happening", but I'll leave the googling to you. 44A. Buzz: ASTRONAUT ALDRIN .  Buzz Aldrin ; (born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. ; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer a...