27D. To “Eschew the pews, say” is to ELOPE, using “pews” as a metonym for the marriage altar.
61D. Mind the comma in “An OK place to be naked, once.” This clue is referring to a past time with “once,” and that place was EDEN. Now that I’ve brought it up, though, I can’t think of a single instance in which it is “OK to be naked once.”
66D. “Lead regulator, for short” offers a two-pronged challenge: We may stumble over either the search for an abbreviation or the pronunciation of “lead,” which here refers to the element, and not to a leading figure. The answer is E.P.A.
Constructor Notes
I really wanted to make the “one I” gimmick part of the solving experience, so the first submission of this puzzle had the lone “I” in an unchecked square surrounded with black squares (giving a visual representation of an eye). This required solvers to figure out, through the revealer, that there is only one “I” in the puzzle. Then, observing no “I” yet in the grid (or clues), for them to confidently place an “I” in the unchecked square. Yeah, maybe a little too ambitious. Going back to basics (and proper crossword convention), I settled with circling the “I” and making the crossings related to the theme in a silly way, as both words recount what happened to poor Cy. I also kept the letter “I” out of the clues; it was no longer necessary, but I thought it gave the puzzle a nice added touch without really sacrificing anything.
My favorite edit in the final version is the clue change in 21-down to be a shout-out to Homer — fantastic!
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