I had an interesting idea for today’s puzzle that I spent a few hours on, but sad to say, it just didn’t come together. So I took what would’ve been the theme revealer at 1-Across and just made it a 3x3 themeless instead, sticking in more colorful, indirect clues that would’ve been too much for the original themed puzzle. Can’t win ’em all, but sometimes moving on from a loss leads you right to the next win.
New puzzle at the usual spot. Enjoy!