46D. While I accept that “HI, MOM!” is the correct fill here, it wasn’t first to come to mind. The scene I think of as most “stereotypical” for a Jumbotron is the Kiss Cam, wherein a candid camera compels spectators to lock lips at the behest of a screaming crowd.
Constructor Notes
Matt: I’m excited to see this puzzle run on my birthday! After my previous Times puzzle, Victor wrote me with an interest in crossword construction and had no shortage of theme proposals. After he identified phrases like “Pigs in a Blanket,” it occurred to us that we could represent those expressions using Across and Down crossings.
Since my last puzzle, I’ve started graduate school in architecture and hope to find more time for creating crosswords.
Victor: This puzzle is dedicated to the memory of my father, Gilbert Sloan, who died peacefully on May 24 at the age of 94. While he didn’t see the puzzle in print, he knew it had been accepted. Whenever we would visit, we would work on the puzzle side by side. I got the theme idea from a book about English language curiosities, and realized there were a number of animal idioms in the same form. Matt graciously agreed to work with me. I learned so much in our collaboration.
I am a rheumatologist working for the Peace Corps (I was a volunteer from 1981 to 1983). This October, my wife, Sandra Gong, and I will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We are the proud parents of two amazing daughters, ages 24 and 19.
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