Solution: Protest item that leaves a powdery mess - NYT Crossword

Remember way back when throwing a milkshake at a politician was all the rage? A FLOUR BOMB seems innocuous, but it’s actually quite menacing, given the possibility of anthrax, or ricin, or whatever you can imagine that’s white, powdery and hazardous to one’s health. 5D: This is not a particularly blingy word, but it’s a debut, and I thought I’d mention it because it’s one of those peculiar long entries that are easy to guess with a cross or two — I think I figured out STRAIGHTENER with the last “e” and the first “t,” nothing more. As Mr. McCarty notes, this entry crosses another debut, LESBIAN, which I’d assumed had run before.