Entry as part of phrase

[cranberry44]

The term "police car dummies" seems to be a legitimate phrase per the Internet. Do you think I can use the entry "car dummies"? Clue: Words with police? or Clue: Police followers? There are, of course, crash-test dummies and dummies in cars that are illegally using the carpool lane. But I don't think I could refer to the later two as "car dummies"? The last two probably could be referred to as "dummies," but not "car dummies," I would think.

[mmcbs]

I don't think so. Don't see any support for this as a "standard" phrase. A dummy in a car is not a "car dummy" any more that a horse in a barn is a "barn horse".

[cranberry44]

I see. I actually did this section twice. Once with "car dummies" and once with "the dummies" (Toy Story 4 group). I preferred "car dummies" because the crosses were more interesting. But I'll go with "the dummies" and see if I can improve the crosses. Thanks, Mark!

[mmcbs]

Ooh, I'm not sure THE DUMMIES is a good idea. Checked the Disney web site on this https://d23.com/meet-all-the-new-characters-appearing-in-toy-story-4/

Heading just says DUMMIES. In order to use "THE" in front of anything it normally needs to be an official thing, such as title of a book, song, commercial name, or standard phrase.

[cranberry44]

I googled "list of Toy Story 4 characters" and Wikipedia has a site just for this. It lists these characters as "The Dummies." So that's where I got the phrase from. But this is an unthemed puzzle; and now looking it over, this section lacks pizzazz. Do you think I could use "outbummin" (out bummin') (one letter short but I can fix the other part of the puzzle to match length). (The end "g" wouldn't work.) Clue would be something like "Wanderin' 'round town"? I think people do say "out bummin,'" as well as "out bumming."

[mmcbs]

Well I did a search for phrases that start with OUT and end in ING, and seem to be all related to compound or phrases where OUT means doing better than (OUTEATING, OUTHINKING, etc.), or standard words such as OUTSTANDING. Googling the term OUT BUMMING gets about 13K hits; OUT WANDERING AROUND gets over 200K.

So, I think it's a risky entry.

Themeless grids (as published in LAT and NYT) are a bitch; that's why I don't do them.

[cranberry44]

I can also use "fordummies" (For Dummies, series title); but I can't think of a "tricky enough" clue for this entry. Too easy of a clue will almost "give away" the crosses. Since the puzzle is unthemed, I'm trying to make it somewhat difficult.

[mmcbs]

Good entry: Clue: Wiley franchise phrase

[cranberry44]

Nice! Thanx, Mark, for coming up so quickly with something that'll work!

[stephenbishop]

car dummies ... test subjects

[cranberry44]

I thought of that too. But the phrase is actually "crash test dummies." I didn't want to risk getting rejected due to incorrect phrasing. But thanks for responding.