It seems to me the puzzles over the last few days have avoided the clever in favor of the mundane. Today's puzzle, while a cut above the previous three in this regard, could have been much better. Given the clever quote and the effort it took to find it and then to get it so neatly into the grid, the cluing for the rest have been better.
Some of the entries, for example, seemed tepid and others missed some good opportunities ---
For WISE we got "Sensible"; why not "Chip type"?
For ZEBRA we got "Striped equine"; why not link JOCKS ("Athletic types") and ZEBRA with "Ref of 10 Down"?
For RISEN we got "Up from bed"; it might have been a bit more interesting if the clue were "He is ____!"
31 Across LBS for "Butcher's units: Abbr." and NTWT for "Food-minus-pkg. measure" might also have been liked by "31 Across meas."
For TORT we get "Source of a suit"; it might better have been "Suit maker."
Perhaps I am guilty of Thursday morning quarterbacking, but my point is that there seems to be a more pedestrian cast to these puzzles of late, and that is too bad.
