Solution: Flighty sorts, in two senses - NYT Crossword

Sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole of galactic dimensions when I look up something for this column, like the answer for “Flighty sorts, in two senses.” This is a great clue for SPACE CADETS. The term originated in 1940s science fiction, when it referred to skilled people exploring outer space, and had that definition through the 1950s, when the Space Age was starting. People went space crazy then, and there was a moment on a 1955 episode of “The Honeymooners” where Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton buy a television and argue over what to watch. Ed keeps switching to a show about space rangers, and, in exasperation, Ralph calls him a “space cadet.” It’s a funny line, and it comes from one of America’s seminal insult lobbers, but its meaning here was still that of an aficionado of all things space. The term’s second meaning, someone out of touch with reality, came along in the 1960s or ’70s, probably out of drug culture.