Constructor's Comments
I've taken several stabs at designing a themeless with FEEDING THE TROLL as one of the seed answers. I'm pretty sure the first themeless grid I designed crossed that entry with HOW 'BOUT THIS HEAT (where FOAMS AT THE MOUTH is in this grid). While I was super-proud of my work, it got kicked back to me with the note, "The phrase 'how 'bout this heat' yields less than 10,000 Google hits." Whoops. I really thought that was a thing people said. . . .I'm very happy to have my debut in PSC with this puzzle, and I'm particularly grateful for David's patience as I reworked a corner that wasn't up to snuff. (The original entry for 1-Across was TIPSTAFF.)
Re 37A, the troll is the one being deliberately provocative. One "feeding the troll" is simply replying to the troll, probably in an offended manner, but that's not "being deliberately provocative."
ReplyDelete