Friday, June 10, 2022 - OOH, a Saturday crossword, masquerading as a Friday

A tough Friday puzzle by Blake Slonecker, one of those where for the first 10 minutes or so (your mileage may vary) you wonder if you'll get any answers whatsoever. The cluing was devilishly clever (and we mean that in the best possible sense). Consider 2D, Parisian sweets?, CHERIE; the deceptively simple 6D, Hypothesized, SAID (ooh!) and 39D, Road runner?, ENGINE (egads, who edited this puzzle? Machiavelli?? 😀). Fortunately, the number of pop culture references were in the single digi...