Today's task, for me, was slowly working out the central cross - CHICXULUBCRATER (Site of the impact of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago). Those first nine letters weren't going to be filled in without crosses! Luckily, old-timey things like NONEWTAXES (Campaign catchphrase of 1988) and IRONSIDE (1960s-'70s detective series set in San Francisco) helped to get things going.
And, hey, remember yesterday, when I noticed that Le Monde was just one letter off from "lemonade?" Well, today the right edge has LEANDER (Tragic lover of myth) and LEADER (Word finishing ring or band). There's a theme in there somewhere!
Did you also notice that endangErED has the same number of letters as THREATENED (Like the red panda, blue whale and black rhino)? Well, it does. And, for the record, the red panda and blue whale are both endangered, and the black rhino is critically endangered. Sometimes THREATENED indicates a lesser level of concern, but sometimes it is used as a blanket term to cover both endangered and critically endangered, so I guess I have to let this one go.
I really enjoyed the NE corner, with MARIGOLD, GREATSOUL ("Mahatma," in translation), and MNEMOSYNE (Greek goddess of memory) being crossed by DUNGAREE (It may be in your jeans) (we used to call all jeans DUNGAREEs), and the aforementioned LEANDER. Lots of good material up there, and well worth the price of ARN, GTOS, and OSS.
We have a good BUSKER friend, RUCKUS (Rowdydow) is a fun C/AP, and I enjoyed learning that MOHAVE is the "County that's split in two by the Grand Canyon." And although I hadn't heard the term CHIASM (Rhetorical inversion device seen in "Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends") it makes sense, 'cause that "chi" part means x in Greek, right? Plus, I like that expression.
And last but not least, I enjoyed seeing NOLI me tangere (don't touch me), because I just started up another Latin course, and a review of the verb nolle just came up in the last class!
It was a satisfying solve. Congratulations, Mr. Levine, on a Saturday debut!
Colum takes over tomorrow, filling in for Frannie, but I think she'll be back the week after that, and I'll see you again in a few. Until then, Happy Puzzling!
- Horace
Wow, tough, tough, tough for me! I didn't even try to get the asteroid site and kept trying READ MY LIPS for Bush Senior's campaign line. And yes I did note -- the hard way! -- that THREATENED and ENDANGERED have the same number of letters. :-) What a puzzle!
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