Tuesday, September 5 2023, Alan Siegel

An interesting and informative Tuesday offering today - with SYMBIOSIS the theme!  Three intersecting pairs of answers are living things which mutually benefit from each other's existence:

• CLOWNFISH lure prey to ANEMONEs, which in turn provide stinging protection.
  
  
• TICKBIRDs repay RHINOs for their skin-borne insect meals by keeping an eye out for poachers.  (This one is interesting in that it is such a recent arrangement, evolutionarily speaking..)
  
  
• FRUITBATs feast on the fruit of the FIGTREE, and in doing so, spread their seeds.

CHOCOLATE and PEANUT BUTTER also come to mind, but there was no more room in the grid, plus it's a little off-theme (but, mmmmmm 🙂)

I like this kind of edifying theme.  (Certainly didn't know about tick birds!)  Neat to have them fit together like that.  

Other fun stuff on the way:  "Optical device with segmented mirrors" is an interesting, modern way to describe a TELESCOPE.  Certainly it applies to the James Webb Telescope, which continues to astound, sitting out there in its Lagrange point.  "Arm wrestler's bone of contention" (ULNA) was cute.  I liked the MORAY reference.  The last few times I've vacationed down south, I've been lucky enough to find + photograph moray eels, with their spotted skin and menacing underbites.  Two "Absolutely"s in a row was a nice touch!  Finally, when was the last time any of you put your thumb into a disctionary's NOTCH?  It's been a long time for me.  

Speaking of time, this took me a zippy 3:01 to complete.  (The crossword, not the review)

Until the morrow my friends!

-philbo