Queerty Crossword #181

**Across**\
1A: ||**parts in Cars**: “piss tons” homophone||\
8A: ||**Holes**: ANUCLEAR* with R (engineer in the end) cut||\
9A: ||**a bit of poetry**: “spawned e” homophone||\
**Down**\
1D: ||**melodramatic books**: P U + LPS||\
2D: ||**weirdo**: S[t]ICK O[u][t]||\
3D: ||**hard**: ToAdUlT||\
4D: ||**“Get rekt”**: OW +NED||\
5D: ||**part of movie**: “seen” homophone||\
6D: ||**to emphasize**: sHARPie||\
7D: ||**money**: W (any one of WWW) + AGE||

4D is insaneee I can't believe you made it work

Haha, yeah I just kinda stumbled into it, and was like, "wait, no way"

Ditto on 4D, really smooth. The only one that felt a bit strained to me was 9A, especially when it’s already a pretty tough word as is. Otherwise really enjoyed this puzzle, I love your creative clueing style!

Thank you! & yeah, I agree, 9A's wordplay has a bit too many tricky things going on for my liking. I added the 4-letter crossers to mitigate the tougher 8a/9a fill, but I may try to reword it—was there a specific part of the clue that you thought was unfair?

The main thing that threw me off was the homophone + transformation (ie putting e after spawned before homophoning it), which isn’t outright unfair but just isn’t something I’m used to seeing. I could imagine it being alright in other cases, but again it’s really just the combo of tricky wordplay AND tricky answer. FWIW, I found 8a easier since with an anagram I at least know which letters I’m working with.

Loved this - challenging and witty. 1 across really made me laugh!

Cryptic 38: Cars, Holes, Fortnite

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