Sunday, July 19, 2026, Michael Lieberman

RAISING CAPITAL

What a cool theme! I had no idea what was going on with this theme for a long time. I knew that dash clues usually mean that an entry is continued into that space, but it took a long time to realize that they were going up, and it wasn't until after solving that I realized that the vertical section of each twisting answer, read from top to bottom, was a world capital. Wow. Let's see if I can find them all:

Lima (Peru)
Bern (Switzerland)
Cairo (Egypt)
Oslo (Norway)
Rabat (Morocco)
Rome (Italy)
Riga (Latvia) 

The crooked entries containing the capitals vary in "goodness," with THANKS/AMIL/LION ("I really, really appreciate it!") and VICT/ORIAC/ROSS (Britain's most prestigious military decoration) being on one end, and EREC/TABAR/RIER (Block someone's passage, say) being on the other. But none is terrible, and really, for this kind of a stunt, they're all perfectly acceptable. And I guess I will say the same for DECLARANT (Person providing a sworn account), and OUTSCORE (Defeat in competition). 

 I enjoyed the literalness, literally, of "Word order" for PHRASING, and in QMCs: "Judge of diamond value?" (AARON) was very good, "Plastic cap?" (CREDITLIMIT) was fun, and "Peak of religion?" (SINAI) got a chuckle. My favorite Non-QMCs were "It's in the pipeline" (GAS) and "They're often covered with dirt" (SEEDS). Apt! 

As for "You're doing it every day" (AGING) ... Too soon!

- Horace