Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: January 26, 2021

My time: 7:14, about 15 seconds faster than average.

Theme: "Game in which the answers to the starred clues are legal plays but cannot be formed even if you have both blanks."  Well, I didn't need to know any of the themed answers to know that a game with two blanks is SCRABBLE.

So, the theme answers contain four Zs, or four Ks, or 7 Ss, all of which are not possible in SCRABBLE, which has only one Z, one K, and four S tiles.

Supermarket chain IGA has been in the blog a couple of times now, but today clued as having the slogan "Hometown Proud." 

Here's a truly new item: ICE DAM, a "cold weather roofing problem."  An ICE DAM is buildup of snow and ice on the roof, preventing snow and water from draining off the slope.

I'm aware of the 1933 Glass-STEAGALL Act, but have a hard time spelling the name.

Are some prognosticators really called "crystal GAZERS?"  Not crystal ball gazers?  yes.  Yes, they are.

RPI, the tech school in Troy, NY, appears today for the third time. 

Georgia's state flower the AZALEA came up on June 25, 2020.

Clever clue: "Lava, e.g." is SOAP.

Whew!  I thought this was fairly difficult for a Tuesday.  While I love the theme, I'm not enamored of the words PIZZAZZY or STRESSLESSNESS.  The amount of Zs and Ks in the puzzle necessitate some rare words, like TANZANIA and GAZERS, and odd letter stretches like the eaea of SEA EAGLE.  But beyond that, I don't think words like POTTAGES and PLIGHTS, for example, are typical Tuesday material.