"Duality Quality," 5/7/17

Hi, loyal readers; guest introduction-writer Jamie here. I won't aspire to duplicate Allie's quipping, delightful written voice, or exhaustive lists. Let me get straight to listing a few facts about this week's puzzle that feel particularly salient to me:

• We finished this week's puzzle quickly. (24:33)
• We both enjoyed the theme and the execution of the theme.
• It's nice, I guess, to know that there are enough "Funny Amy"s with precisely seven letters in their last names (POEHLER, SEDARIS, SCHUMER) that one really has to struggle with the clue.
• This puzzle included the word "SWOLE." So.

First Fritz out!
------------------------------

Allie in. Should I take a hint about how "exhaustive" my lists are? Should this be the end of the post?

Haha! Of course not! ONWARD!

Clues I especially liked! Yay!

• I think it's a little unfair to use Game of Thrones clues multiple weeks in a row, but I benefit from it! Not only was IMPS easy enough, JAPES is one of GRRM's favorite Tyrion words. Which drives me crazy. I hate that guy and his stupid addicting books.
• I liked the cluing of Uncle Sam/GOATEED.
• TACOS/GUACAMOLE cross. Happy belated Cinco de Mayo!
• BASELINE VASELINE was certainly my favorite themer.
• Shout out to EMERSON, where my talented sister-in-law Marissa went.
• Took us forever to get ACTUALSIZE for Not blown up. Cute.

I'm too young for this $h*t

• Abie's Irish Rose, which was an audience success and a critical failure, apparently. The Fate of the Furious (aka Fast and Furious 8) of its day.

Really?

• Can we spell go-kart with a c? (That's c for cart, not co-kart.)
• Can we spell schnozz with one z? 

Things I learned today:

• LBO is a Wall St Thing. (Leveraged buyout. Uncle Dicky, if you are ready this, I'm sorry.)
• MIR means peace in Russian. I thought it just meant space station.
• Kachina dolls are from the Hopi people.
• Xian is the home of the Terra Cotta Army. I looked this up and it's pretty amazing. Seems like a good travel goal.

Things I have learned from previous crossword puzzles:

• DORAG. A rapper topper. I mean, I knew what a do-rag was before I started this blog, but I now store it in the part of my brain reserved for crosswordese. I keep it next to EOS. And across from AGLET.

Times I got to use my French major this week 

• No French here? We did get Spanish and Italian though, which are all basically the same.
• Wait there was one! MADAME. Come on though, everyone knows that. I'm not special.
• Also, "The Adventures of Alix" is a French comic book. But I didn't know this. Check out this picture from Wikipedia though: sign me up!
  

Second Fritz out!