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Constructor: Olivia Mitra Framke and Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative issue: Easy
THEME: TRI-STATE AREA (54A: U.S. geographical grouping … or a touch to 20-, 27- and 47-Across) —theme solutions are three states all run collectively (with overlapping letters), clued by the states official self-designations (e.g. Show-Me, Golden, no matter):
Theme solutions:
- OHIOWALABAMA (20A: “Buckeye-Hawkeye-Yellowhammer”)
- MAINEBRASKANSAS (27A: “Pine Tree-Cornhusker-Sunflower”)
- VERMONTANALASKA (47A :”Green Mountain-Treasure-Last Frontier”)
Word of the Day: EREBUS (8D: Deity born from Chaos) —
In Greek mythology, Erebus (; Ancient Greek: Ἔρεβος, romanized: Érebos, “deep darkness, shadow”), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness and one of many primordial deities. Hesiod‘s Theogony identifies him as one of many first 5 beings in existence, born of Chaos.(wikipedia) (my emph.)
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Tuesdays and Thursdays would possibly get a bit abbreviated for some time, since I remedy and write very first thing within the morning after which flip round and educate shortly thereafter. And since I’ve a 7-something AM bus to catch, and I do not prefer to be rushed getting out the door, I can not linger over these write-ups the best way I generally do on T and Th. Then once more each time I say the write-up goes to be brief, I find yourself going into regular writing mode and doing the identical factor I all the time do, so who is aware of? I’m already losing helpful time writing about the truth that I haven’t got that a lot time! The level is, if T and/or Th appear clipped within the close to future, now you understand why (or what my official excuse is). My cat (OLIVE!) woke me up at 3:30am in the present day, so I Have More Time Than I Want Actually. But nonetheless, 5:30am end time goes to be the objective! We’ll see how that works out.
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| [I let her sleep. Anywhere. She is less obliging.] |
I used to be completely satisfied the puzzle obliged my schedule in the present day by being simple, however that is one of many few issues about it I genuinely preferred. I do not fairly perceive how this rises to NYTXW ranges of Thursday trickiness. I’ve seen some model of this conceit earlier than, I’m pretty positive, however that is not the issue—the dullness of the general thought is the issue. Yes, you may run state names collectively, lots of them famously share letter strings, so what? TRI-STATE AREA is a nice phrase however I do not consider a crossword reply as an “space” and there is nothing explicit pretty or intelligent or humorous about three state names mushed collectively, so I suppose I’m simply failing to see the enchantment, significantly the *Thursday NYTXW!* enchantment. And as for the tri-state Frankenstein’s monster solutions … there actually ought to be a better bar for quantity of overlap. Something to make the idea appear uncommon and worthwhile. What I’m saying is that the overlaps are rather more attention-grabbing after they comprise two or extra letters—VERMONTANA! That’s virtually enjoyable. But when the overlap is only one letter (as it’s, twice, on this puzzle) … that hardly appears value doing. An inexpensive strategy to get overlap. There’s not even entertaining wackiness to offer some auxiliary enjoyment. VERMONTALASKA is form of enjoyable to say, however the others, not a lot. Hard to know the way to say NEBRASKANSAS since whichever approach you select, you butcher one of many state’s precise pronunciations, and with OHIOWALABAMA you may’t even hear the IOWA half. It’s prefer it’s not there. I’m simply discovering it laborious to see the Thursday-worthiness in the present day.
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| [I don’t love APER, but I really don’t love ICAL / ACER, so I prefer this way … oh wait, you could turn APER into AVER if you want! Yes, I think that’s even better.] |
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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