Body Count

Well here is some trivia for you, or rather OWT explosion. Men do NOT have one less rib than women. I mean even though I am sure Adam gave Eve a ribbing about the fruit thing, he did not give her a rib. No doubt that comes from their conversation at the apple tree; "Eve, I have a bone to pick with you..." This also explodes the old saying about doctors and apples, the apple "Dad joke" didn't dissuade me at all.

Ergo, why I do not do cryptics.

But…. if you have MNAT you need to add AOY to get anatomy, not “in”.

I’m not good enough with cryptics to know if this is just the usual AI nonsense or if I’m missing something

Same, along with neglecting half my ribs… ARATOMS??

Hopefully not in Dr Tom’s house to eat his ice cream. Oh wait, that’s math, not biology

Oh, that's GOOD! I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up in a puzzle some day.

Actually I believe I have clued UTICA without a Sisti reference, though only once. If I keep using Muggle specific references I get flak from the Crosshare population who are not Muggles.

Of course, anybody can do Ben ___; Epic Movie...we need levity! Thanks for solving

So you muscled through eh? Not everyone has the backbone for that. I'm keeping all of these responses in a trunk.

and thank God they are, it allowed me to count to twenty!

Yes but I had to keep my eye on it, actually both eyes, all the time. More than once a word got changed in trying to tighten up the grid that would have altered the ANATOMY. That is always a problem when you have a puzzle that relies on blocks of a certain number to give the answer. Glad you enjoyed it.

I do love it when something you see in a crossword so often (SSN) gives you a chance to be creative. Interestingly enough, 12D was prompted by an unusually clumsy pfishing attempt. Essentially it was one of those "You win beeg prize, you send SSN and Bank account to this link so money can go your bank". I mean these should end "we hope you so stupid as us an mak mestake to sned youre infor so we can steel youre cache! Do right away or we giv money someone else!"

and to think; it started with a skeleton of an idea....

Thanks for solving

I guess that would be, "well I almost had it butt...."

YES Right Backs, probably the weakest in the puzzle, but you get to a spot where that is the only thing that really fits well without a major rewrite and a puzzle that needs to be put up and you abandon all etiquette. I had the choice of Real Time Bidding, Row The Boat (A phrase Big 10 fans would recognize because RTB was the mantra of PJ Fleck, Coach of the Minnesota Gophers), or Return to Base (a military acronym). I apologize for the clunky fill.