Today's theme answers are cities that have world-famous names, but that are located elsewhere. For example, the"City where you won't find the Eiffel Tower" is PARISTEXAS. The puzzle also includes ATHENSGEORGIA ("City where you won't find the Parthenon"), both of which are in John Prine's song "(We're Not) The Jet Set." If you haven't heard it, you should check it out. I've never been to either of the other two theme answer cities, NAPLESFLORIDA and TOLEDOHIO, or, for that matter, their more famous counterparts, although once I heard my sister's mother-in-law talking about "their place in Naples" and I was all excited to try to cadge an invite. Imagine my disappointment when I realized it was the *other* Naples. I have been to Paris, France and Athens, Greece - both are definitely worth the trip. This pandemic has my Seoul ITCHing to Rome, but instead I'm Stockholm. I miss travelling!
I thought I detected bonus travel material with "Russian 'no'" (NYET), "Tehran's land" (IRAN), FERRY, ATSEA, EDAM, and VENTI - just kidding with that last one!
As I made my way through the rest of the puzzle, I enjoyed NERDALERT ("'Here comes Poindexter!'") and its symmetrical opposite INALATHER ("All riled up"). I also liked "Fading stars" (HASBEENS), "Join in couples" (PAIROFF), and "Get ready to hem, say" (PINUP) - accurate!
I almost got shanghaied by "Rings, as a church bell," where I put 'tolLS' instead of the correct PEALS, and PASCHAL for "Easter-related" might have been a challenge for some, but overall, a fun theme that was right up my ALLEY.
~Frannie.
I've not been to any of the theme cities, as yet, nor have I been to any of their counterparts. The closest I've come to the counterpart cities is Naples, which is not terribly far from Rome. That said, none of the answers had me stumped, not even PASCHAL, and I ended up with one second longer a solve than last Monday at 5:01. I didn't know that IRAN was on Frannie's travel list; she'll have to let me know how it is.
ReplyDeleteLovely puzzle and fun theme. I have been to none of the replacement cities, but three of the originals.
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