ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ WET BODIES]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ WET BODIES]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
A celebrity is going to be on the Cape next week. Well, specifically, he’s going to be on one of the islands off the Cape. Needless to say, the paparazzi will be in full effect. But, I’m not worried about it, in fact I’m quite used to it. I’ve lost count of all the humiliating cell phone pictures strangers have taken of me doing mundane things, all of which are tagged and on Facebook. Sheesh. What do I have to do get some peace?
(You thought I was talking about Barack? I think he’s going to be on the other island off the Cape.)
Next week’s a big biking excursion for us. First, Liz and I take a ferry over to Provincetown, then we bike down to the other ferry to Nantucket. Should be a blast. Anyway, we’ve been doing a little bit of training by doing some loops of the Charles River. We’d been using this map to track our distances. But, in our classic map-illiterate fashion, we misread the distances as lengths of one side of the river, not as loops. So, in effect, we were doubling our estimated travel. Good times. If there’s ever been two people who can get lost holding not only a Google Maps printout with detailed directions of how to get from point A to Point B but also a GPS system, it’s me and Liz. Hope we don’t get lost forever next week.
I came up with this theme whilst doing the loop this past Sunday. You’d think the body of water theme presented itself while looking at the Charles or thinking of the ferry. Nope, it was when we had passed a 71-Across truck and I was off to the races.
Share the puzzle. New one on Friday.
Man, that’s pretty clever. You oughta go pro. (Or maybe I’m just not very clever, because it took some head-scratching after the grid was done before I saw the theme.)
Re: 66A, Todd Snider has a song called “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” which is a fine song, but it’s the intro he gives (on the album “Live at Grimey’s”) that’s classic: “So God made Adam and Eve. That’s two people, right? And they had Cain and Abel. That’s four people. Then Cain killed Abel. That’s three people. So Cain goes away . . . and he comes back a few years later with some chick? So this song is about, where’d she come from? And why’s everybody always pushing me around all the time?”
49 across was my favorite clue I have seen in a while. And I knew it right away. Although, I knew it so well, that I noticed that the quote is wrong. It should be “The cause OF and solution to all of life’s problems”. To quote the ever so quotable Homer Simpson.
Good theme. I too took my sweet time figuring it out. Slow brain today.
Would have made a Perfect (and I mean perfect) NYT Wednesday puzzle. Just great. My first five-star rating for you. Can’t say enough good things about the theme cleverness and execution.
rp
Well, I didn’t know 53A coined Straight Edge Movement. Every time I learn something. Fun puzz! Not a hard solve but it took me a while, too, to figure out the theme. Always enjoy those, I dunno why.
Have a good time on the Other Island. Last time I was out there was doing a 2 week gig at The Brotherhood, which the Intertubes tells me is still there lo these many years later. Lots of great memories of those two weeks–have to get out there again some time.
Still haven’t figured out the theme, or the clue for 63D. Nonetheless, another excellent puzzle. Loved the new clue for 67A.
OK, figured out the theme. Not bad, with the caveat that hiding a 3- and a 4- letter word in a 15 theme entry, well, isn’t as impressive as caching longer words in there.
As of today, I’ve announced that I’m available for the 2010 NFL Draft.
Thanks man.
Tough grader. 😛
Should be a good time, I think.
Tough crowd. 😛
Now, if you could have worked Mediterranean in there . . . .
I, like you, have always preferred alcohol over Minor Threat.
No problem doing the puzzle but I don’t get the theme. Small problem tho, a pinto horse is not called a pied horse. They are completely different.
I enjoyed the ANA clue at 24-Down–I expect this puzzle will mark Ana’s first and last appearance in a crossword clued as a 2009 named storm.
I’m surprised the NPL hasn’t drafted you yet….
Only about 8 musical references in this offering, and I’m not even including 29A or 67A! Slacker.
This was a great puzzle–fresh cluing all around. Thanks!
Mark
Never heard of MARALIASSON but unlike the Mon. tennis player the crosses (plus ARAL) worked for me (missed Mon. by two squares). Delightful puzzle with a sea hunt coda!
fun puzzle; i enjoyed.
just curious: what’s your source for minor threat coining “straight edge movement”? (it’s widely known they coined “straight edge.”)
I was surprised twice: 1) the hidden seas (didn’t get it till I read the blog), and 2) that there are (70A) female badgers! Never crossed my mind. I just assumed they split or budded or something….
58A: Europe is a member of the European Union??? Or maybe “membership” …
I’ve heard MARA LIASSON’s name, but since it’s radio, haven’t seen it spelled out. I can’t find my NPR playing cards, is she included in the set?
I couldn’t get the clue either until looking at the blog. No Cs spanning the center of the clue, or at the edges, or underneath, no pans either. Clever reveal at the end.
Have fun on Nantucket. The one time I was there the weather turned and we had to stay an extra day until the ferry was running again. We saw the Maria Mitchell Observatory and home. An interesting woman, the first in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
HOW DARE YOU PUT MINOR THREAT IN A PUZZLE. THE FIRESTORM WILL BE UNLEASHED ON YOUR POSER ASS.
“…First, Liz and I take a ferry over to Provincetown, then we bike down to the other ferry to Nantucket…”
If your on the Bike Trail in Eastham, wave to the houses on the right just before you cross Locust Road…
A propos of nothing, when do we get to see a puzzle with PENIS SLAUGHTER as a theme entry? Your wife is full of great theme ideas.
Discography is okay, though. Like PBR better.
One and done.
Thanks!
Had to use ARAL, natch.
There’s a puzzlemaker in her, most definitely.
v nice! took me 5 minutes to “find” the theme after completion, you bastard.
I was confused because as far as I know, this year’s Ana was never more than a tropical storm — when and where was she at hurricane strength?
I didn’t understand NOP, either, since those are the 14th through 16th letters, not the 12th through 14th. And I still don’t get the theme, despite hints in the comments.
On the plus side, this is the first BEQ puzzle in weeks I’ve *almost* finished without errors in under ten minutes. (Naturally, a rapper and a MySpace factoid screwed me up on the final four letters. :-))
This clue scared me a little, because it said “2009 hurricane”, while Ana never got higher than Tropical Storm status. I thought I had missed an update. We pay attention to those sort of things down here.