The first of (hopefully) many. No (#) indicators included--words might be (7), or (3,4), or (2-5), or (1,1,1,1,...) ... well, you get the gist. Happy solving!
Nice stuff, ditto on the pronunciation of 1D ahah. Love how the def is disguised in 4D(though some might complain that it should be [Led Zeppelin hit] to be precise — I think they’re known well enough as just ‘Zeppelin’ though!). Not quite sure in what sense ’record’ means ‘high’, and also what makes LEGROOM an American amenity, would love an explanation. Also wondering why you’ve omitted enumerations, I don’t think they’d give the game away for any of these clues. Don’t get me wrong, doesn’t bother me and there’s no reason to blindly do it because of tradition, I’m just intrigued as to what the benefit is?
Thanks for the feedback! As for your questions: 'record' as in perhaps a 'high score', or 'all-time high'; the noun, not the verb. 'legroom' is an amenity for American Airlines, who are certainly known colloquially as just American. I like the added layer of difficulty, especially in small puzzles, of learning that a phrase is actually (2,3,2) rather than simply (7) while surfacing the solve; it also lets me obfuscate potential rebus squares or exclusions in the future. It might turn out to be more frustrating than fun, but I'll let commenters tell me so before I give my mea culpa and add them back in!
Thanks! I’m nowhere near familiar enough with AA to read [American] as the airline ahah, but I see what you’re going for now! Still not sure I 100% buy ‘record’ for ‘high’, I agree that a HIGH SCORE is a record but not so sure about a ‘high’. But that’s just, like, my opinion, man.
Totally get omitting enumerations when you’re doing subversive stuff with lengths and if that’s the plan for this series then I say go for it! Just be wary, since part of the reason it’s a convention in cryptics is because it’s another way to reduce the inherent difficulty of having unchecked cells in every word.
I think the best way to read it is "record temperature" which (at least these days) definitely implies "high temperature"; certainly on the looser side, but maybe we're just on opposite sides of that fine line. :)
I've certainly done many, many cryptic crosswords in my life, so I know how much help enumerations provide; I also tend to make more difficult puzzles in general, so maybe I should see the writing on the wall and just enumerate. We'll see what happens with #002!
This was a superb puzzle. Every surface was solid and inventive, with 5A being the stretchiest for me because the [on the internet] indicator isn't connected to [looking for]. But I really enjoyed this; exactly the kind of cluing I'm looking for. [Jar-Jar] is exactly the right word to choose for a clue about an [alien crew] and [futuristic transport], the [American] misdirect sounds great in the surface, the [urinals] bit is a great anagram, etc., etc. 4D is probably my favorite; absurdity works when earned like this!
Oh, and obviously that's not my real time. I think it was at about 4:50 or so and then I paused it before answering the last question, but when I reopened it, my data had been cleared :(
Thank you so much! With 5A, I'm imagining like a Reddit post titled "ISO pods", so the idea is the whole thought is on the internet--though it is true that the "pods" synonym is a synonym online or not. Either way, I appreciate all the feedback, and hopefully I can continue making puzzles that live up to this praise :)
5A: ISO ("in search of") + PODS
6A: gent[LE GROOM]ing
7A: URINALS anag.
2D: T(ROUGH)S
3D: AX + TOOL anag. + L
4D: KASH(MI)R