Monday, November 11, 2019

Monday, November 11, 2019, Evan Kalish

3:52

Happy Veterans' Day to all of our thousands, nay, millions of readers. I'm just going to keep running with my little fantasy, and nothing any of you can say will stop me. I'm also studiously avoiding looking at the number of hits our posts get.

Today's theme (maybe or maybe not appropriate to the day) is THINKTANK, as in, "Imagine the word 'tank' after the ends of each of the long theme answers." If you do so, you get new standard phrases. I like the theme because I did not see it coming at all until I finished the revealer. In addition, the initial word in each "tank" phrase must be reinterpreted to understand the new phrase. Thus, POOLSHARK refers to a hustler, but "shark tank" to the sea creature.

On the plus side, SEATURTLES.

Everybody loves SEATURTLES.

See how amazing SEATURTLES are?

On the negative side, ALGALBLOOM. YUCCA.

I'll note 59D: Take a ____ (protest, in a way) (KNEE). That's timely and well worth highlighting. I also sort of liked how ENOKI and ASAHI mirror each other. Best clue of the day is 41D: One with a first-person narrative? (ADAM). Good stuff.

- Colum

3 comments:

  1. 4:47

    I wonder if it was intentional to run this "TANK" puzzle on Veterans Day. I would say almost definitely. Other things that could be taken as military-related are TEARGAS, PLANE, SHOT, SCRUM (maybe), and DREAD.

    Lovely SEATURTLES.

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  2. Also, in re readers, I almost never think about the audience beyond you and Huygens, but that's enough for me, I guess. :)

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  3. 5:36
    Well, it's nice to be thought of; thanks Horace! I, too, didn't see the theme coming. I have two BOBBYSHERMAN[TANK] albums, and saw the oddest version of a WINDMILLDUNK[TANK] at a Medieval festival that Sue and I enjoyed in a Medieval village (Murlo) in 2012. It consisted of a bench, on which the participant sat, a target paddle, and a pail of water over the victim that would tip if the target were hit. It was a relatively popular attraction that day, although neither of us tried our hand at it.

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