Solution to Evan Birnholz’s April 18 Post Magazine crossword, “Corporate Retreat”

2. Next weekend’s Post Magazine puzzle is going to be one of mine from the archives. I updated a few clues to keep it current, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it whether you remember it or if it’s new to you.

A fair number of these wacky answers feature an ANIMAL (26A: [Eagle or beagle, e.g.]) of some kind, like OX UNIVERSITY, APPROVAL RATS and WREN LANGUAGE. There’s no reason for that other than the fact that strange phrases based on animals amuse me more than other strange phrases. I’d pay to see Congressional approval ratings be replaced with approval rats for a day (they might help Congress’s approval ratings to go up, honestly).

Some answers I left on the cutting room floor include TORY NERVE (based on AUDITORY NERVES without the car company AUDI), ZEN SHIP TEST (based on CITIZENSHIP TEST without the bank CITI), and ALL ROADS LEAD ME (based on ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME without the landscape maintenance company TORO).

Source: WP