I'll admit to being a little ATSEA when it came to the NE corner today. It didn't help that I had misspelled OASIS! That fiasco made me take over a minute longer than average for a Wednesday puzzle.
Fun theme, right? The revealer is right in the middle at 36A: Said no ... or, interpreted differently, a hint to entering the answers to 16-, 26-, 46- and 61-Across (REFUSED). The reparsing of the answer leads to the idea that the letter string RERE will be replaced with the "fused" RE. Thus, 16A: Was worth another mention (BOREPEATING) is really "bore repeating." The same trick occurs in the other three theme answers, FAREDUCTION, FIRESISTANT, and NATURESERVE. When I first entered the answers before getting to the revealer, I wondered whether the second word of the phrase was indicative of the trick, as in "Please reserve the extra RE," or some such.
Some fun clues today include 29A: International intelligence organization? (MENSA), 14D: Sort of poem not usually pluralized by adding an -s (HAIKU) - nice ROI there (and see glossary in sidebar for definition of ROI - it's really there now!), and 51D: Leader of Argos? (ALPHA). I was just talking with Frannie over the New Year's about how I don't get fooled by these sorts of clues for letters. But this one took it a step further into the Greek alphabet! Nice.
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| Bach Ma Temple in HANOI |
I'll put in a plug for EZRA Klein here. His podcasts have really helped me educate myself on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and given me insight into each side's viewpoint.
Finally, I'd like to nominate ICARE for the answer that most needs to be removed from the crossword lexicon. I just don't think anybody would ever say this in a non-ironic way. I'm ready to be done with caring in this excellent New Year! Just kidding. I would be happy to call any one of you AMI.
- Colum
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