THURSDAY, Oct. 2, 2008 - Samuel A. Donaldson (1980s craze starter / One-named New Age musician / Hogwarts stick / High-school disrupters)

Published: October 2, 2008, 7:07 am

Relative difficulty: Easy-MediumTHEME: NIX ON (62A: Two-time Time Man of the Year (and a hint to 17-, 27-, 41- and 54-Across)) - on is removed from familiar phrases, creating wacky phrases, which are cluedExcellent theme concept, with two truly great theme answers: PICK YOUR POIS and YUK TERRITORY. The s-plural on POIS hurts my ears a little, but dictionary says it's legit. Did not like the clue on either BAT TWIRLER or BRAIN SURGE. TWIRLing does not signify anxiety to me. Plenty of batters TWIRL their bats in one way or another, and I doubt they're all anxious. I'm going to watch footage of last night's AWAY GAMES (29D: Road trip events - Red Sox were AWAY) later this morning, and I'll see what I can see. And [Flood of ideas] is accurate, but maybe too accurate. Feels like a literal clue, not a "?" clue. I think the problem here is that BAT TWIRLER and BRAIN SURGE aren't wacky enough, as phrases, to make the cut of a wacky puzzle like this, especially when their competition is as

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