Today I'll start with the reveal. 35-Across. With 37-Across, sentence openings, and what the ends of 16-, 23-, 47-, and 57-Across can be when rearranged : CAPITAL 37-Across. See 35-Across : LETTERS. I had to stare at my grid for a few seconds before the theme hit me.
16-Across. Postal service : EXPRESS MAIL. LIMA, Peru.
23-Across. Brigades, e.g. : ARMY UNITS. TUNIS, Tunisia.
47-Across. "You made your point" : SAY NO MORE. ROME, Italy.
57-Across. Form small teams at school : WORK IN PAIRS. PARIS, France.
Do you know why London was not included in the theme entries?
Across
1. Crawled, perhaps : SWAM.
5. Broadway show whose title woman can "coax the blues right out of the horn" : MAME. I had to hum a few bars before I remembered her name. And I never knew about 26-Down. Arthur who won a Tony for 5-Across : BEA. I have only seen the film version starring Rosalind Russell.
9. Renege, with "out" : COP. I had "opt" and then "bow" before the perps finally led me in the right direction.
12. Andalusian appetizer : TAPA.
13. Accord competitor : ALTIMA. Honda Accord and Nissan ALTIMA.
15. Hole starter : AWL.
18. __-pitch : SLO.
19. Kanakaredes of "CSI: NY" : MELINA. This lady. I recognize her face, but had no clue about her name. All perps.
20. Plastered : SLOSHED.
22. Curled-lip look : SNEER.
25. The tar, in Spanish : LA BREA. Yes, we knew that, didn't we?
27. Anonymous John : DOE.
28. "The Black Cat" author : POE. Three letters? No hint of Abbr? Go with the flow and enter POE.
31. __ moss : PEAT.
32. Mountains dividing Europe and Asia : URAL.
40. Hop follower : SKIP. and a jump.
41. Modest dress : MIDI.
42. NASCAR __ : DAD. A rather derogatory term for middle class men, synonymous with "redneck." The term was used during the 2004 election, referring to the democrats' attempts to regain the southern male vote.
43. Lion or tiger : CAT.
45. Exercises begun in a supine position : SIT UPS.
50. "... if you want to __ man's character, give him power": Lincoln : TEST A. The partial could have been avoided by clueing it as "Head of Italy?"
54. Part of 56-Across : LOCATOR. 56-Across. Google hit : URL. Uniform Resource Locator.
55. Eats pretzels, say : NOSHES.
60. What "I" may indicate : RTE. Interstate. I-90, I-91, I-93 and I-95 all run through Massachusetts. Did you know that even numbered interstates run east-west, and odd-numbered ones run north-south?
61. Common soccer score : ONE ONE.
62. Only : MERE.
63. June honorees : PAs.
64. Blind component : SLAT.
65. Breyers competitor : EDYS.
Down
1. Restrains : STEMS. I'll try to stem my nit-picking.
2. Like Madame Tussauds figures : WAXEN.
3. Traditional temptation : APPLE.
4. "Manhattan" Oscar nominee Hemingway : MARIEL. 1979 Woody Allen film. Her career has spanned nearly 40 years, and she still looks great.
5. Galaxy gp. : MLS. I was clueless. The Los Angeles Galaxy are a team in Major League Soccer.
6. Source of 20s, briefly : ATM.
7. Harmful gas : MIASMA. Great word.
8. One of the Brontës : EMILY.
9. Dishonorably dismissed : CASHIERED.
10. Bird that's probably not wise and certainly not old : OWLET. Cute.
11. Trudges : PLODS.
13. Fit __ fiddle : AS A.
14. One way to think : ALOUD.
17. Mesmerized : ENRAPT.
21. Porcine sniffer : SNOUT.
23. Kazakhstan border sea : ARAL.
24. Collecting Soc. Sec. : RET.
28. IBM 5150s, e.g. : PCs.
29. Furniture wood : OAK.
30. Inner circles, in astronomy models : EPICYCLES. The Ptolemaic universe used EPICYCLES to explain the movement of the planets.
33. Coach Parseghian : ARA.
34. '60s hallucinogen : LSD.
36. Old Bristol-Myers toothpaste : IPANA.
37. Beer choice : LITE.
38. College email ending : EDU.
39. Extreme summit : TIPTOP.
41. Former space station : MIR.
44. "Solve __ decimal places" : TO TWO. I was much more ambitious, and wanted to solve "to ten" decimal places.
45. Reddish-brown horse : SORREL.
46. Bagel choice : SESAME.
47. Eat loudly : SLURP. Like cowboys eating beans...
48. Main artery : AORTA.
49. Mars pair : MOONS. Phobos and Deimos.
51. Drew back : SHIED.
52. NFL analyst Bradshaw : TERRY. Former Pittsburgh Steeler. How about those crazy uniforms last Sunday? They looked like jailbird bumblebees!
53. Beasts of burden : ASSES.
55. St. Louis-to-Chicago dir. : NNE.
58. Place to see RVs : KOA.
59. NFL mistake : INT.erception. None for Brady last Sunday.
That's it from me - your turn!
Marti
63 comments:
Morning, all!
The theme totally eluded me during the solve today. After finishing I finally realized what it was referring to, but I still couldn't find all the hidden CAPITALs (I did get Rome and Lima, however).
No major problems during the solve, but a few minor stumbles. I had SLOGS instead of PLODS at 11D and simply couldn't think of anything that would work at 9A. I only know "COP out" as a noun phrase meaning an act of evading an issue ("that's such a cop out!") I've never thought of it as a verb before, and certainly never equated it with "renege". Live and learn.
Elsewhere, I was pretty sure that "I" was synonymous with ONE. The I in I-90 and I-95 stands for Interstate. We have non-interstate roads called RTE 9, RTE 30, etc, but nobody refers to RTE 90 or RTE 95. We actually do have a non-interstate road called RTE 1, and that's all I could imagine the answer was referring to, even though it seemed awfully odd...
Barry G., I had the same head scratching moment for "What 'I' may represent." "I" could represent a lot of things, as in ICBM ("intercontinental") or IBM ("international").
But It could also represent a type of RTE - in this case, an "Interstate" route. Since "I" is an abbr. of "interstate," the abbreviated answer is also correct.
Good Morning, Marti and friends. Interesting Thursday puzzle. I am not keen on Anagrams and had to stare at the last words of the theme answers before the light bulb went on. Especially since MAIL is can be a Letter in my mail box.
Crawled, perhaps = SWAM was a great way to start this puzzle.
I, too, wanted To Ten Decimals.
Interesting to have both URAL and ARAL in the same puzzle.
Hole Starter and Beast of Burden in the same puzzle? Hmm...
I didn't really like RTE as being the answer to "I" (as in Interstate). To continue on the Interstate numbering discussion. Three digit Odd and even numbers also denote whether an exit off the interstate is a spur or a loop. For example: I-110 is a spur in Baton Rouge off I-10. I-210 is a loop in Lake Charles, that lets a vehicle avoid driving through the city.
For Mars Pair i first thought of M and M because I was thinking of the candy company.
QOD: I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn’t irascible. ~ Ezra Pound (Oct. 30, 1885 ~ Nov. 1, 1972)
Good morning!
This was a nice outing from Jerry. Marti, thanks for 'splainin' Galaxy / MLS. The only MLS I knew was a style sheet I was required to buy back in the day. Oh, and London wasn't included because a) it has too many letters (the theme answers have 4 or 5) and b) it has no common anagram. Oh, and the 3-digit Interstates are "loops" (ie: I-610 around Houston and I-410 around San Antonio, whereas I-10 goes straight through).
I remembered quite a bit about Stella Bonasera on NCIS-NY -- but not her real name. The parts I remember were both above the waist.
I am glad a person can enjoy solving a puzzle without 'getting' the theme. That was my case last night. Thanks for explaining the theme, Marti, but I still don't understand what LETTERS has to do with it.
I-94 is the northernmost east-west interstate. I live 200 miles north of it. It starts in Billings, MT and goes to the Great Lakes region where it connects to one in Ontario, Canada. I read a lot of information about it this morning. I rarely travel on an Interstate.
Have a good day,
Montana
The LETTERS that make up the names of CAPITAL cities are rearranged.
It's OK to categorize white, conservative, working, Christian, sports loving men. Well, at least that's the vibe I get from MSNBC's hosts. But that's fine, they're gay. AIFILAW.
Solving the puzzle was easily done; catching the theme- it was never caught.
There were a few bumps but no writeovers of the Thursday puzzle. I filled EPICYCLE and knew it had to be correct but was clueless to what it was.
RTE- even and odd numbered Interstates. The even ones parallel (roughly) the even numbered federal highways. Ex. I-10 & Hwy 90, I-20 & Hwy 80, and so on, but together they add up to 100. Mile markers on even-numbered roads start in the west and odd-numbered roads start in the south.
MELINA and NASCAR DAD were the only unknowns that I had to fill. I only know of BEA Arthur as 'Maude', Archie Bunker's cousin.
52D- TERRY Bradshaw. My brother was on Terry's 6th & 7th grade baseball teams with him and played college football with him at La. Tech back in 1966-67. He had 20" biceps in high school and threw bullets when other QBs were arcing passes. When my brother got to college, he told me about other football players who kept shotguns in the trunks of their cars, and that they went hunting instead of going to class. One of these hunting players was none other than PHIL ROBERTSON (Duck Dynasty) who was the first string QB while Bradshaw sat the bench for two years. If he was already rich before the idiotic tv show, there's no telling how much his family is worth now.
Good day,
Slow go today, but got it without any erasures. As usual never even thought about the theme until Marti explained it.
NE & SE corners were lasst to fall. COP out was initial entry and CASHIERED, OWLET, & PLODS came next. Thought about opt first, but pWLET?????
I liked the puzzle, but thought it was a bit easy for Thursday. But what the heck, I thought yesterdays was a toughie, unlike many of you.
Happy the Giants won, but KC has nothing to be ashamed about. They are a young team that should be back in the race next season. Can't remember if I mentioned this previously, but Bumgarner was assigned to Norwich in 2009, the Giants Double A team. Got to know him a little. Nice kid, down to earth. He was in Triple A the next season and the Norwich franchise was in Richmond, Va.
Good morning all. Thanks Marti !
Either I'm not fully awake or it's going to be a long day. Started with STOPS and WAXED. Had TRODS instead of PLODS. Later entered SSW for Chicago-to-St Louis dir.
Never heard of "NASCAR Dad." Thanks for explaining it in context.
That second D gave me CASHIERED. Never knew of the dismiss definition of cashier. Just knew it for clerk, teller...
More on Interstates. The mile markers ascend from south to north, and from west to east in each state.
How the Waukegan school board member addressed the parents and teachers in the audience
My geography is off again....NW & SW were last corners to fall. NE was the first and SE somewhere in the middle.
I managed to stumble onto everything except the NE corner. Couldn't escape OPT for COP. But the rest was definitely no easy run. Never saw the theme at all.
Quite easy for Thursday. I spent very little time looking for the anagrams and waited for Marti's blog.
MELINA and MLS were all perps. EPICYCLES, a new word for me, needed a few perps and a lot of wags.
I am on my third Nissan Sentra. Each time I wanted an Altima, but it is too large for my garage. Because our condo doesn't have a basement or an attic I have the walls of my garage full of shelves, leaving room for only a small car.
I have read many Civil War novels which described the foul air of Washington, DC a MIASMA.
We often call I 80, just the Interstate so no quibble about I standing for RTE.
Here are the rules for numbering interstates and allied routes. They are usually followed, but not always.
Link Interstate numbering
Mari, are you okay? We haven't heard from you in a while.
Bumgarner certainly delivered last night.
Hahtoolah- Taking the I-210 loop through Lake Charles is a waste of time and gasoline. There's no traffic in Lake Charles. I-610 through NOLA allows you to avoid downtown and the French Quarter.
COP OUT is both a noun phrase and a phrasal verb. When she volunteered to help I knew she would COP OUT in the end. (V)
Some people's claim of being too ill to follow through is a COP OUT. (N)
Some of my friends don't realize that the exit numbers on an Interstate correspond to the mile markers. There are about ten miles between Exit 13 and Exit 23, for instance.
Soccer Mom and Nascar Dad don't seem all that pejorative to me.
Again, in the Civil war novels, soldiers were CASHIERED at a formal ceremony before massed troops where they were stripped of their insignia and buttons, often by means of a sword.
Steady doable puzzle, took awhile afterward to figure out the theme because I was thinking of state capitals (e.g. Lima isn't the capital of Ohio), doh!!
I hadn't thought of NASCAR dad as derogatory - I thought it came up as a male alternate to "soccer mom" when talking about voting blocs.
Not all interstate exits correspond to mile markers. Some are sequential (e.g. Exit 16 comes after Exit 15; or before if you're going the other way). This leads to things like "Exit 15A" if a new exit is added.
Big Easy: fair enough. I have never taken I-210 on my way to Houston. It is a loop, though. but it is an even numbered route, hence a loop. I'll take I-610, not to loop around New Orleans but to go to Cafe Degas. If I want to avoid New Orleans altogether I'll take I-12.
YR, Mari always posted from her job. She mentioned a while back that the blog site has been blocked by her employer. She'll probably be an infrequent visitor going forward.
Good Morning:
A few bumps here and there but finished w/o help. Like YR, I didn't spend much time on the end words, so didn't really get the capitals until reading Marti's expo.
Worth noting: Aral/Ural, Pas/Dad, URL/Edu. Never heard of NASCAR Dad. Thanks Jeffrey and Marti for a "Capital" Thursday.
YR - You must have missed my recent post saying Mari said hello to everyone at the Corner as she can no longer access the blog. (I, too, wondered about her absence, so I emailed her and got this info.)
Have a great day.
Visiting with my son about the blog as I take him to the airport to fly home, He taught me that Hawaii has three interstates - H1, H2, and H3 - which connect important military facilities on the island of Oahu.
Any highway built using funds from the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is called an interstate highway, even if it doesn't connect states.
Montana
Hi gang -
Solved the grid, but the anagrams eluded me.
Enjoyed seeing ONE ONE and TO TWO.
OWLET is great.
When my reddish-brown horse ran away, I was a SORREL loser.
The person who evaluates beasts of burden assesses ASSES.
I just read recently that APPLES were unknown in the middle east in old testament times, and the traditional temptation was most likely a pomegranate.
In a close game, the manager's decisions can win or lose. Yost is terrible. He left his starter in too long, with all three star relievers capable to going two innings each - notably, a mistake that Bochy did not make. And the 5th inning bunt had me swearing.
But Bumgartner was unhittable.
Oh, well. Congrats to the army insects [G I ANTS.]
And at this point, I will SAY NO MORE.
Cool Regards!
JzB
To follow up on Jazzbumpa's post, the Bible does not specify which fruit Eve took. Seems to me that the apple-farmers lobby should get working on that.
Puzzle was just ok today. A little disappointing for a Thursday.
desper-otto wins the comment of the week award.
Hello Puzzlers -
Hand up for Opt before Cop, and both hands up for having no clue how Galaxy and MLS were related. Thanks for 'splaining that, Marti!
Didn't know NASCAR Dad, therefore didn't know it was a pejorative (but now that you mention it...)
The old astronomers really had a tough time trying to figure the apparent retrograde motion of the planets. Then there was that nasty disagreement between Galileo and the church. Ultimately science trumped stubbornness and the heliocentric model came to light :-).
LONDON does not have too many letters.
Argh! The prior post was mine.
The new OS upgrade on my iPad is buggy. It doesn't like Blogger's text boxes.
Speaking of anagrams, name the country whose former capital city and present capital city are anagrams of each other.
Thanks, Irish Miss and DO, for informing me about Mari. I must have missed the blog that day.
The federal government is pressing to have all the Interstate and adjunct highways numbered by mileage. Some states are farther along than others. I think it is a wonderful idea. The exit signs are easier to see than the mile markers. I gauge my distance from my exit this way all the time.
The transition is being accomplished through a systematic upgrading of existing signing and there is no specific date by which the change must be implemented. some have complied just lately.
The exit are numbered for the nearest mile, not the exact mile. When several exits are close together within the same mile or a new one is added within that mile then the exits are given A, B, and C. In NJ I 80 has Exits 4A, 4B 4C all within 4, give or take, but not 5, miles of the PA state line.
Tokyo/Kyoto
Hello, friends.
Today more than usual, Marti, I'm grateful for your analysis. I didn't even try the theme and some unknowns stymied me though I filled them, MLS and never heard of NASCAR DAD. Also wasn't sure about CASHIERED.
WEES. Although E. A. POE wrote "The Black Cat" there is also a novel by Martha Grimes with that name.
I like TOTWO crossing ONEONE.
Have yourselves a CAPITAL Thursday, everyone!
I actually grokked the theme. The learning moment for me was that a puzzle could give me miasma.
Galaxy gp? LMC? (Large Magellanic Cloud???) MLS?
Belated HBDs to Dodo & CHarlotte!
This was a bit of a Thursday toughie for me--yep, I started with OPT too. But it was really the southwest that gave me the most trouble. However, I did get the whole thing in the end--Yay!--and many thanks, Jerry. And thank you, Marti, for explaining the theme to me. Kept rearranging those words to see which one would work with CAPITAL LETTERS without ever seeing the city names.
Lots of clever pairs in this puzzle, BLACK CAT and CAT, DADS and PAS, EMILY BRONTE and EDGAR ALLEN POE (odd pair, I'd say).
My dumbest moment: got LABREA but couldn't figure it out because I didn't separate it into LA BREA. Doh!
Have a great Thursday, everybody.
Musings
-The Royals did KC proud but you’d think they could’a got one hit off Bumgarner when they needed it.
-Challenging and enjoyable! The NE corner with OWLET and COP took some effort.
-I agree on beast of burden and _ _ _ hole in same puzzle ;-)
-WORK IN PAIRS = A does it, B copies
-Betty White said BEA did not like her at all
-World’s most famous SNEER
-The long jump used to be called “The Hop, SKIP and JUMP”
-The “space” is not a legal character in a URL. So we get crosswordcorner and spell check goes nuts
-Husker looking out his EARHOLE. Believe it or not, the refs missed this call.
-I first thought of this fall BLIND
-Many college FB coaches will get CASHEIRED this yr
-Subbing today I am teaching completing perfect trinomial squares to solve equations and we are rounding square roots TO TWO decimal places
-Phobos is so small, you would weigh 2 oz there. Mass would still be the same but still…
Kinda got SLOSHED watching the World Series last night ...
Sooooooo, since I needed an extra hour of sleep ... all the clocks at Villa Incognito have done the "fall-Back."
Liked the CSO to Hondo at SKIP.
DNF / FIW since I had DAD as both the NASCAR kind ... and the June honoree.
Cheers to the SF Giants (and KC Royals) for an enjoyable series!
Spring Training is just around the corner. lol
Good morning all,
This was an easier Thursday for me. I rarely get the themes, so this was no exception. I'm not a fan of anagrams. Had never heard of miasma, but perps fixed it, and cashiered looked odd.
Is NASCAR dad like pageant mom?
I ??? Ego? not.
Had to WAG the T in the crossing of slat/int to finish without understanding. So thank you again, Marti, for being here.
Good Game 7 last night.
Have a great day.
Hi Y'all! Good one, Jerry! Thanks, Marti! WEES! I didn't come even close to getting the theme. I need a heads-up call when it's an anagram. Never get them.
I did know cashiered was a military term for being dismissed with shame. A "C", "H" & "D" and I got it.
Hahtoolah's QOD prompted me to look up "irascible" and I unfortunately learned another adjective for myself on some days. I'm glad Ezra thinks that makes me "worth a damn". I just thought it made me unpleasant. The older I get the more things I see and hear with potential to make me angry. I was hoping "old" and "mellow" would happen. Apathy would be welcome.
Montana, wouldn't Hawaii's roads be "intra-state" rather than "inter-state"?
Hey, I managed to stay awake during the last two World Series games. Liked game 6. Not happy with the outcome of game 7. At least it was only one point difference.
I finished it in pencil with a lot of erasures. I also wanted OPT. And most soccer games I have been to usually end up ONE ZIP, but then, what in the devil is a kZa. More erasures.
Never got the theme. But didn't need it with Perps coming to the rescue along with a couple of SWAGs. (That's the Scientific variety of a WAG)
Have a fun day everyone.
There's a big ol' blank area in my NW. Sakes... I toyed with the last letters of the long answers to try to fit the theme: L, E, S, S, but that was a dead end. PAIRS and UNITS and MAIL and MORE just didn't have any continuity. Another dead end.
Lots to be learned here today though. CASHIERED and NASCAR DAD were two examples.
Thank you Marti and Jerry Edelstein.
Thank you, Jerry, for a fun puzzle and thank you, Marti, for an entertaining expo. WEES. Went for "opt" and got really frustrated when perps made it COP. I thought to myself, "That's not what I call a renege". Then I read YellowRock's explanation at 8:23 and the V-8 can hit me. Thank you, YR, for showing me the error of my ways and for teaching me to be a little less inflexible in my thinking (not that it will last). Didn't get the theme, but that's not unusual. My goal is to solve the puzzle, if I grok the theme, that's just gravy.
Cold wave coming, stay warm everyone. A chilly day calls for chili!
The long jump (aka broad jump) and the triple jump (aka "hop, skip, and jump") are two distinct events.
CED @ 11:53, funny link to those puppies. The image that came into my mind when I saw MIASMA was the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles." But no way was I going to link that one.
Good afternoon everyone.
Found myself on Jerry's wave length today. Filled mostly from the bottom up. Easy harmony of first guesses and correct perps so no white-out was needed. Nailed LA BREA. Scratched my head over the reveal and then finally saw the capital anagrams in the last words. But by then the theme phrases had been filled in so they weren't much help.
Liked CASHIERED.
Yikes! I thought I'd gotten my limericks posted before my 'puter crashed this morning, but guess I didn't. Been running anti-virus all day, so just getting on to the Corner now!
There once was a fellow from LIMA
Who tried to marry a hyena.
"Her temper's ferocious
And manner's atrocious,
But we both like the same kind of pizza!"
There once was a fellow from TUNIS
Who had a very big... Oops, wrong poem.
There was an old prelate from ROME
Whose head was as shiny as chrome
"I admit that I hate
When kids jeer at my pate,
But it saves so much time when I comb!"
There once was a lady from PARIS
Who felt she was greatly embarrassed.
"I've had Brazilian wax
On my boobs and my back;
I've no choice, because that's where the hair is!"
The fill today had plenty of bright spots and learning moments. Didn't really care for the clue for cop out, but didn't argue with it. Had never heard cashiered used in that context and was glad to learn it.
But the theme? After filling the grid correctly and re reading the reveal, it was apparent that it was an anagram ruse, so I didn't even bother to decode them. Sorry. There's just nothing entertaining about anagrams in my book.
/s/ a crotchety as well as irascible old grump
Lima, hyena, and pizza?
Really?
Greetings!
Thanks, Jerry and Marti!
Yep, more like a Wednesday. (No objections.)
Didn't look for theme late at night.
Cheers!
47 down should not be eat noisily but it should be drink noisily..... This is a no brained!
"47 down should not be eat noisily but it should be drink noisily..... This is a no brained!"
That should be no brainer.
In Spanish LIMA is pronounced with a long i, leema, so the rhyme is valid.
Great limerick, Owen.
Oops. Sorry, that should be "short i).
Slurping noodles is de rigueur in Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNAZmLmyCJk
I'm afraid "Lima" doesn't rhyme with "hyena" or "pizza" no matter how it's pronounced.
OwenKL can do better.
And it's neither a long "i" or a short "i". It's pronounced as a long "e". Just like the "i" in "Lucina".
Short e is pronounced "eh" as in pet, met, wet, let, set, etc.
Suuuuure, we observe "Pa's Day" every year.
I do like that word MIASMA. CASHIERED, too.
In my line of work, calculating to three decimal places is the norm.
Didn't get the theme until reading all about it here.
I don't know how "Bones" is doing in the ratings but they are flush with commercials.
and I thought ASSESS were the answer to 'breasts of burden'.
Okay. But does it pass the breakfast test ?
and the noxious gas is 'Mi As', Ma ? seems pretty obnoxious to me.
and don't even get me started on Labrea ? sounds like a private body part of a certain sex.
was that the Easter Egg in the theme ?
I too looked up 'irascible' from Hahtoolah's quote, ( 6:56 am) but I still don't understand it. Do you have to be short tempered to be important ? Probably explains why there are so many petulant, ill tempered people in this world. Everyone has a big ego and thinks they can appear important if they display a mean streak.?
MLS was the only word that befuddled me today, so thanks Marti for explaining that one. I'm surprised no one has mentioned that MIASMA single-handedly (single-wordedly?) lost Jimmy Carter his re-election. And 9a I miss-read renege as renegade, and confidently put out-LAW. Otherwise, WEES, and thanks to those noting odd word connections throughout the puzzle!
I thought Jimmy Carter's word was malaise.
AAARRRGGGHHH! You're right YR! I sould have done a fact-check before opening my big fat keyboard!
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Jerry Edelstein, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for a fine review.
Got through this fairly easily today and tonight. Lots of unknowns, but lots of perps to decipher them.
Never got the theme. I saw MAIL and LETTERS as some sort of relation, but nothing else made sense. Got them all, but never figured them out until I came here and saw the explanation. Good job to the constructor!
Got through this much faster than most Thursdays. I will probably pay for that tomorrow.
I tried KNOW A for 50A. Then with a couple crosses, fixed that to TEST A.
SIT UPS reminds me that I probably would be much stressed to do a couple of those. Maybe some day I will try. My back is a little sore from cutting down two ash trees in that last two weeks. That was exercise enough.
My favorite disappearing lake again, ARAL.
Anyhow, I have lots to do before I hit the hay. See you tomorrow, hopefully earlier.
Abejo
(645)
I forgot to mention, I live near I-90, with I-190, I-290, and I-390 near me as well.
Abejo
Hi All!
Fun puzzle from Jerry and great write-up from Marti - thanks for MLS and CASHIERED explanations and the theme (forgot to look).
I'd like to say I "got" the whole puzzle, but MIL stopped by and dropped hints to 1a, 1d, and 5a. Well, that got me PLODding through the rest.
WEES - ASSES / holes, and other fun cross-references.
Hahtoolah - There's an I-610 in HOU too. It's pretty much a circular parking lot from 6-9a and 4-7p.
Big Easy - MIL went to Neville High in Monroe, LA w/ TERRY. I went to La Tech, but missed him by TWO decades (I graduated in '93).
Eldest had "open mic" night with theater class this eve. She belted out Bohemian Rhapsody which made everyone SIT UP and take notice. One kid had some great (albeit disturbing for her age) poetry.
Marti - I won't link Blazing Saddle... SAY NO MORE.
Cheers, -T
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