FOOD COURTĮach of the theme entries brought a smile to my face, and while I don’t think of SPLIT PEAS as a side by themselves, they’re all common food phrases and the wordplay is consistent.

Tying the theme together is the central answer, 34a.

They dish out some piping-hot edibles wordplay in today’s puzzle: If Judge Judy and VeggieTales combined their creative teams for a new side-dish legal arbitration show, Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor could write the pilot. NY Times crossword solution, 10 28 15, no 1028 Jay Kaskel and Daniel Kantor’s New York Times crossword-Erin’s write-up Overall a fun puzzle keeping us in the spooky spirit until Saturday gets here.

Don’t know Tris Speaker or his nickname GREY EAGLE.

Could not remember CARY GRANT as being the “Notorious” star (duh!).

For example, WITCHY, BOO, EERIE, and a host of spooky clues ( 28D for example: for IRISH).

There were a lot more Halloweeny clues and entries in the grid than yesterday.

I found this similarity a bit distracting. But in the last two a hard-C sound changes to a G: cool to GHOUL and coast to GHOST. In the first two themers, course becomes CORPSE with the introduction of a P sound, and race becomes WRAITH courtesy of a lisp. But I wish there could have been a little more consistency. Those are all pretty groan-worthy puns, so YMMV depending on how much you like puns. I wish the constructor could have used a zombie pun instead. It is more real than any other themer since a corpse is not actually a monster. Taken without the clue, the entry definitely does not pass the breakfast test. This theme answer is gruesome and not in a fun, Halloweeny way.

Alicia keys diary chopped and screwed