Real life remains quite busy, with only time to solve (with detail logs) the weekly Gaffney puzzle.

I was unsure about this one even when I sent it in (and apparently I got it the wrong(?) way, not sure.)  But I did get the intended pointer to the solution before I sent in my answer, which gave me more confidence.

The puzzle is here and my log is after the cut

0:00:00

Solving in puz.

0:00:23

almost know 1a/1d, going with 5a/5d WORF/WALT to start

0:00:55

ORELSE,REF,FATTENUP finish the top middle

0:01:38

STL/ASK/INK/TORN/GROANED/TOOKALEFT

0:02:34

2d is GOONIES?

0:03:27

OTTUMWA,WEEK,SKIM

0:04:21

22a TRAITOR,27d LASORDA, 33a SUNG

0:05:38

let’s get the top right… SNORKEL for 13d? heh 19a ERATO

0:06:23

10d TORILE, 9a STARS

0:06:59

RETOOLS,SLEEKLOOK,ERLE,YSL,AMATORY,NOMEN

0:07:41

49a SADAT,50d ASTERN, 42a HERR

0:08:19

37d GRATESON, 64a OARS

0:08:36

60a SLEEPWELL? 61d LAO, 57d MESA,TMI,PIP

0:10:01

stuck on bottom right, will come back

0:10:16

52a SENORITAS, 55a TRIBUNE, 39d BESTIES? 39a BOD

0:11:18

OVERATE,EVER, ROBERT

0:11:43

ok, 39d is BESTEST, so 66a is TENTS, RULES, STORE, EASEL to finish bottom left

0:12:20

32d DOH, 31 ASDIDI (been loooking at that for a while), 29d DINESIN (my initial thought)

0:12:58

34d is GRR?

0:13:40

65a is GLEE, 60a is not SLEEPWELL… it’s SLEEP EASY if 62d is EGG

0:14:34

68a GADS, 44d MARSALA, 46d SAYSYES

0:15:41

ok, 38d is KITE, 43a is CRIMES, like I wanted.

0:16:12

58a SIS gives me EXCISED going down, and I’m good if MONGOPARK is right…

0:16:42

googled, it’s MUNGO PARK. ok, happy with the fill.

0:16:52

possible theme answers: TOOKALEFT, SLEEKLOOK, MUNGOPARK, SENORITAS, SLEEPEASY

0:17:26

4 of them end in 4 letter words… 3 have K’s (title is KP duty)

0:19:00

I want it to be OKRA, with all the Ks… although KALE is right there in TOOK A LEFT.

0:19:30

oh, and LEEK in SLEEKLOOK. PEAS in SLEEP EASY. … SENORITAS has NORI?

0:20:44

is something in MUNGOPARK? I guess MUNG.

0:21:17

so, in order by where in word: (MUNG)OPARK, S(LEEK)LOOK, SE(NORI)TAS, TOO(KALE)FT, SLEE(PEAS)Y … now what?

0:23:05

the letters after the hidden word, in grid order: F,L,O,T,Y, not a vegetable

0:24:28

ok, the answer is a four letter vegetable, with a loose interpretation (That I assume could include all 5 of the above).

0:24:48

Is there some way to pick one of them, or do all 5 point to a sixth one? hmmm.

0:27:26

just browsing the grid, the clues, the title, the blog post… put “????:vegetable” into onelook… now going to get a snack. need to activate aha part of brain.

0:28:23

Pausing to get stuff done

0:29:29

OKRA, CORN, BEET, TARO all show up on onelook, (as do things like SPUD and SLAW, which don’t really fit)

0:30:49

hmm, there are 6 Ks in the top half and none in the bottom, and 3 Ps in the bottom and none in the top (counting the middle row in both)

0:32:04

A lot of O’s in the top, but plenty in the bottom too.

0:35:08

ok, so looking at each 1-9 place, in our adjusted order, MSSTS, ULEOL, NENOE, GKOKE, OKRAP, PLILE, AOTEA, ROAFS, KKSTY, with the obvious OKRA in there… but why 5 to make OKRAP? hmmmm

0:37:58

PIP is clued as an orphan, maybe we can ignore him? ugh. OKRA is my guess for now, but I don’t love it.

0:43:54

Stopping the clock. it’s friday. I’ll come back later.

Hmm, looks like I lost some of my log…  When I came back to it on Monday I realized that the 4 letter vegetables started with K-P with O missing… helping confirm OKRA was the likely answer.  Still not confident but Matt confirmed quickly that I was right, which was a relief.