It's Divide and Conquer today, with Splitsville being the theme of the day. There are four pairs of Across answers in the grid, with adjacent sections of each pair - separated by a black square highlighted in grey. As indicated by the answer in the middle of the grid - DOESTHESPLITS - these section pairs, read together, reveal something that is commonly associated with the term "split". For example, "Grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich" = CUBAN, and "Amazon swimmers" = ANACONDAS, side by side making BAN/ANA, which indeed often appears in a split. We also have
- SEVEN/TEN - the dreaded impossible split in bowling
- STO/CK - securities are often split to make them more accessible and easier to buy
- LICK/ETY - in the history of the English language, this word has never been written without being immediately followed by the word "split". It's true! Look it up!
So this is a neat little trick. Because I'm such a spoiled solver, though, I think it would have been neater if the theme answers had all been two words like the SEVEN/TEN one. Of course, ask me for examples and I am unable to provide. How about I stop whining and give the puzzle the appreciation it deserves?
Which it does. There were a few things in the puzzle that I had to look up - like EBRO (the longest river completely in Spain) and SER ("To be, in Havana") <-- there it is, a dreaded Natick. And the SE corner was a disaster, as I'd never heard of the San Bernardino suburb of LOMALINDA, and I have never heard "YAS queen!" as an enthusiastic cry - another Natick (Horace/Frannie/Colum, am I using the term correctly?) and that led me to a humiliating FWTE.
There was plenty of fun/instructive stuff in here too : I did not know that KOA was a Hawaiian wood. "High low voice" (TENOR) was amusing. It was nice to see SANDRA Bullock - one of my favourite actors - make an appearance ... Can somebody please explain ETYMOLOGY to me, as the answer to "Old English, for better or worse"? I feel like I'm missing something.
You're not getting my solving time today, as I made such a hash of things. Better days ahead!
-philbo
FWTE here as well. I entered GnP for “Econ. indicator,” which is perfectly cromulent in and of itself, and SUREtY instead of SURELY, which is, perhaps, less cromulent, but I was confused by the clue (“To be certain”) and I was thus unable to correct either answer because I didn’t know LOMALINDA. So that section was Natick city for me. On the upside, “Rest of the day?” for SIESTA was fun and I love CANARD (“Unfounded rumor”). Sorry to say I can’t help with the ETYMOLOGY answer. I don’t get it either.
ReplyDeleteThe ETYMOLOGY of the words "better" and "worse" is from Old English, or Anglo Saxon. (I didn't know this...I just looked up both words in my handy-dandy desktop dictionary.) Thanks for the SANDRA Bullock shout-out -- now I want to watch "Miss Congeniality" for the umpteenth time!
ReplyDeleteOooh!! Thanks Kelly! This clue is now my favourite of the entire puzzle.
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