Joseph Knecht

  IT DEPENDS ON HOW YOU SLICE IT (see also 35D) Today's constructor Katherine Simonson makes her LAT debut with 4 across theme clues identified only by trailing question marks.  The clues don't make a whole lot of sense and the two word fills don't make any sense either -- but on closer inspection the second word can be combined with a word embedded at the end of the first fill to make an in the language phrase ... 17. Warmup bands from Casablanca?:  MOROC CAN OPENERS .  This one made a bit of sense.  Here's Ilsa  and Sam warming up in Rick's Cafe in the movie Casablanca ... As Time Goes By 23. Liquid from Munich?:  TEU TONIC WATER . 45. Faucet hardware from Stockholm?:  SWE DISH WASHER . 53. Ice cream treats from Manila?:  PHILIP PINE CONES . I couldn't see any particular connection between these phrases.  Here's the grid ... Here's the rest ... Across:  1. Rudimentary elements: ABCS . 5. Service station job: LUBE . 9. Automaker owned by Stellant

We had a letter deletion theme a few weeks back, but this week our constructors Amie Walker and Wendy Brandes   delete 7 different letters in 7 starred theme clues, which together spell a common ingredient used in baking sweets.   The clue for each themer is for the word that results after a circled letter is removed from the actual fill for the themer, so the actual fill doesn't match the clue .  Thus you'll need one of the down perps to get the actual fill. Got that ?    I'm sure that this theme will not bring joy to all of our solvers but I thought it was rather clever 😀.  To get a heads up on what the word might be, you could start by solving 4D .   Here are the clues and fill followed by the word implied by the clue ... 16A. *Medical breakthrough:  CUR V E . CURE . 18A. *Many a spammer:  BO A T . BOT , as in an app for sending email spam to a distribution list. 38A. *Bae: BOO N . BOO .  Shorthand for this common phrase in

   Living in the Material World Lyrics Today's constructors, Nancy Stark and Will Nediger , tell us a short story via their theme clues -- fabricated out of whole cloth, and revealed in the end to be told in the first person ... 17A. The shady lawyer tried to __ a client's eyes, ...:  PULL THE WOOL OVER . 33A. ... and was confident nobody would __ the scheme ...:  COT TON  ONTO .  As in the phrasal verb . . 43A. ... and sure the client would __, ...:  GET FLEECE D .   60A. ... but I saw everything, so I'm the __!:  MATERIAL WITNESS .  Here's the Legal Information Institute's   definition for our reveal .   But our favorite dinosaur seems to agree with our constructors, WITNESSING to 3 other synonyms related to  MATERIAL :  I thought that WOOL and FLEECE  might be two different fabrics made from the same fiber, but these folks from Montana (who ought to know) inform us that that not the case . Here's the grid ...  Here's the