Mini 926 (Blank Space)

Very cute, and this style of cluing would also fit in nicely for a variety puzzle in which you only provide wordplay for some of the clues. I was stuck on 2D for a while because ||BLEU|| is also correct in both senses, and 7A was tough ||E+Y(E+B+E)AMS||. I think 12A is wonderful and I think 11A's tricky [before half] works but maybe merits a ? Fun!

yeah I had to think over how 7A works. somehow I forgot there were two spellings for 2D! got lucky there, i guess. i think something like "Smell of waffles before heart transplant's onset" might be better for 11A? i don't think ||midpoint|| is really synonymous with "half"...

From an editorial standpoint, I tend to allow grammatical smudging if it doesn't make the clue too hard and it helps the surface. I also think that if this were a lift-and-separate as [halftime] I would've balked. That said, there are certainly other ways to get there—sort of the beauty of cryptics, and what you'll see in this week's cryptic clue contest over on the Crosshare Discord. But something like [Smell of waffle cut in half with slice of toast (4)] isn't as succinct, y'know? The variations are endless!

4A: ||HAI (yes, in Japanese) + R (“are” in texting, i.e. “for the phone”)||\
6A: ||LO “look” + AF “as f**k”=extremely, short (abbreviated) and vulgar||\
7A: ||E[nergy] + E[nhanced] B[y] E[nzyme] inside YAMS||\
8A: ||B[ig] I[ndustry] + OF + U[niversity] + EL (“train”) + [u]S[e]||\
11A: ||WAF[fles] + T||\
12A:||UNIT - IT inside [d]AT[e]||

Thing that I love: ||🧀. FWIW: 1D > 3D = 9D > 10D > 2D >> 5D||

1D: ||[so]BRIE[ty]||\
2D: ||BLEW (“what the wind did”) homophone||\
3D: ||PARIS - I + ME (1st person object, i.e. “I…objectively”) + A + N[ew]||\
5D: ||c[AM]p + h[ER]o + I CAN (“volunteer’s words”)||\
9D: ||ET (“stranger”) inside FA (“note”)||\
10D: ||MADE reversed||

Fun little aha once I uncovered the theme!

Midi Cryptic 1

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