In the words of the great Amy Reynaldo, "Tuesdays gonna tuez." Today we have familiar generic "[something] and [something else]" phrases that are humorously assigned to specific things. As in "Two things associated with Gene Simmons?" (KISSANDMAKEUP). See, Gene Simmons was (is?) the lead singer for the band Kiss, and he is known for wearing elaborate make-up on stage. Or "Two things associated with the Vatican?" (TOWNANDCOUNTRY), because it is both an independent country (an elective absolute monarchy) and a city. Which I guess can be called a town? Anyway, you know what they mean.
"Two things associated with the tale of Sisyphus?" (ROCKANDROLLER) is maybe my favorite. It's so compact. You've got the rock, and you've got the roller. Heh.
So what else? The musical scale comes into it again, complete with the three-letter fifth note, in "String before fa-sol-la" (DOREMI), I loved the clue for OCEAN (It goes from coast to coast), and AMENITY (Wi-Fi or room safe, at a hotel) is a decorative word. Some nice etymology in "Unit that derives from Old English for 'open field'" (ACRE). That Old English "aecer" and Latin "ager" should both mean "the amount of land that a yoke of oxen can plow in one day" seems to indicate an older Indo-European origin for this word. And that's not really surprising, given the age of agriculture itself.
Anywho.. I enjoyed "Setting for a bicycle race?" (GEAR), and "Place for lions, thieves or a TV" was cute for DEN.
A fine Tuesday.
- Horace
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