Seems like DENALI appears a lot these days. Viva le Résistance!!!
@Francis And EKED, and TTOP. Haven’t seen Ono for a while, though. (If she shows up tomorrow, you can blame me.)
@Francis I've been appreciating its presence as well!! Long live Denali!!
@Francis Forgive me, my thick brain just got the point. Yes, DENALI is always welcome in my puzzle world. I also wouldn’t be mad to see more clues about a certain Gulf…
@Francis And STY comes up quite a lot. I couldn't shake off the certainty that the solution must be 'mud.' Mud, mud, glorious mud Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood So follow me, follow down to the hollow And there let us wallow in glorious mud. Flanders and Swann 1957
@Francis Awaiting, and hoping for, GULFOFMEXICO
Hi, all. Thank you for a great puzzle, but please know that the term Siamese twin is considered outdated these days (even though it is a direct reference to the Bunker brothers!) Source: have been a pediatrician for 20 years. Thanks!
However, I very much appreciate that there are clues and answers for Ramadan and Tet!
@Deanna Behrens Very fair and very non-confrontational comment. Big, big applause from this corner. I've only recently become aware of that new understanding of how people interpret what we say.
@Deanna Behrens So what is the correct terminology now?
"Didn't I tell you not to talk about the end of this river anymore?" "Me and my big mouth." (Just go with the flow on this one.)
@Mike you delta blow to my hopes of coming up with a good river pun. I’m not in denial, because that’s just a river in Egypt, but perhaps in Denali!
@Mike Hope you don't get a flood of complaints about today's wishy-washy puns...
@Mike I'm just going to come Platte out and say this -- I said it all once, and I'll say it Allegheny -- It's time for someone to put you out of your Missouri. I would Navesink to your level of posting.
@Mike One thing about the Snake's girlfriend—no one would ever say his Miss is hippy. 🐍
@Mike Dam it all, you keep on rolling.
I came here expecting a lot of outrage about SIAMESE TWINS but instead found just a couple of reasonable admonitions not to use the term to refer to people today. In case anyone else is wondering, Chang and Eng were born and lived in Thailand, which was then referred to (by Westerners) as Siam, and according to Wikipedia, the twins coined the term Siamese Twins themselves. Because of their fame, the term came to be synonymous with what we now call conjoined twins. Today, it's just as inappropriate to refer to conjoined twins as Siamese as it is to refer to a person with Down Syndrome (like my little brother) as Mongoloid. So don't do it. I personally find the term distasteful and would prefer not to see it in a puzzle, but that doesn't mean it's not a legitimate answer in the context of the clue or that it shouldn't be allowed.
@Beth I’ll be honest, I did not know this. Thanks for the education. Just another reason I always scroll the comments after finishing the puzzle. Never know what you’ll learn!
@Beth If you're ever looking for something to do in Philadelphia, I highly recommend a visit to the Mütter Museum. Among their collection of medical oddities, they have the plaster "death cast" of the famous conjoined twins, which was taken after their autopsy there. It was determined that they could not have been safely separated, as they shared too much organ tissue. Chang was a heavy drinker, which led to their demise from heart problems.
Great news, Minnesotans!!!! Apparently the constructor has put Minnesota in Canada!!! It's my dream come true! I can't thank you enough, Sam and Jeff. You've made me a very happy man, and most regulars here can tell you what a magical transformation that was.
@Francis Yes!!! I mean I'm not big on poutine but bring on the rest!!
@Francis I'm glad my family got to visit the two great national parks, Paisley and Voyageurs, before the Canadian annexation!
The positioning of the states in the grid as the Mississippi flows through them is mighty elegant. Nicely done, Sam and Jeff.
DENALI! Say it loud and there's music playing Say it soft and it's almost like praying … DENALI I'll never stop saying, "DENALI" The most beautiful sound I ever heard DENALI
@Nancy J. OMG, "Maria" is one of my favorites, and you nailed it so eloquently. Those two lines are just utter genius. I really love Leonard Bernstein's work. I, too, will never stop saying DENALI!
@Nancy J. I see we're back to calling Fort Bragg by its proper name. Good, because that's where I was stationed. (They found a WWII hero with that last name to make it work.)
@Nancy J. I feel like we've been seeing an especially high number of puzzles with DENALI of late! Or is it just that I've been noticing it more?
Sweet to have a tribute to a source of many tributaries. My favorite part was the cluing misdirects. Examples: [Keeps burning, say] – Does “Keeps” mean “continues” or “causes to continue”? [Appreciation] – Does it mean “enjoyment of” or "increase"? [Does some creative accounting] – Does “accounting” mean “bookkeeping” or “telling? Map puzzles don’t come around too often. I like them because I’m visualizing a map as I’m solving, adding dimension to the experience. One that strongly sticks in my mind still is Simeon Seigel’s 3/17/24 Sunday puzzle, a mind-blower that I highly recommend. Today’s puzzle tripped off the memory of a song I love that I haven’t thought about in decades, “The Battle of New Orleans” (1959), which started: “In 1814 we took a little trip Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’” So, I not only got a kick out of your lovely theme, Sam and Jeff, but its bonuses as well. ‘Twas a box of goodies, and thank you for making this!
@Lewis We fired our guns and the British kept a comin'
Slights like this are why Minnesota dreams of seceding to Canada
Tonight's full moon, June 10, 2025, is known as the Strawberry Moon. It's SEASONAL, the last full moon of spring and the wild strawberries should be ripe. “Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.” ― Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Ah, how could I not love a mighty MISSISSIPPI themed puzzle!? Well, I could be grumpy about it not including MN but I'm not sure how could could have been implemented above 18D spanning both sides—not that I know anything about constructing. The MISSISSIPPI's headwaters in MN are so lovely though and I'll just be grateful I've been able to dip my toes into it in Itasca State Park. ☺️ I had a few little tricky spots, like putting in brewed instead of SEEPED first at 34A. That really messed me up a bit because I didn't realize Titan was a car and because of the misdirect on the creative accounting, it looked like I was headed toward something with swindled. Couldn't think of anything else STARWITNESS would be, so I ripped the area out. I also had SUPERnovae in for a while at 3D but then it couldn't be ALOE and I figured it had to be ALOE. It's always ALOE. ☺️ Plus, I'm sure perigees was the tip that it wasn't that. And I amazed myself by knowing ALVA off the bat. Anyhow, all good! Despite those, somehow it was my second fastest Wednesday of all time. Not saying I'm ONFIRE but there are maybe a few embers flickering about once in a while.
@HeathieJ You're so lucky – my own embers don't even flicker without being STOKEd, but hey, ALVA also came to me as if it were the most natural of things to remember. Go figure.
@HeathieJ One of my very most favorite Playboy cartoons, which I think I've told before on this forum but it's worth a second glance. And elderly man and woman and laying in bed, obviously "afterwards". He has a mane of white hair and a very self-satisfied smile on his face. The wife is saying, "Just once. Just once I wish you wouldn't say 'Well, there's snow on the roof but there still a fire in the furnace.'"
Francis, 😂 Believe it or not, I do remember you telling me that and It came to mind when I was writing about my embers. Obviously I decided to continue on the path found myself!
@Sotto Voce Sounds like some evidence of embers in ya to me!! 🔥 I've been having a lot of weird issues lately and dizzy spells are one of them. Last night I got up from my chair and the room started spinning like mad, with nothing to hold on to, I fell down and sprained my ankle and hurt my back. Just to say, I'll celebrate every last ember I can find!! 😆
@Sotto and @Elizabeth Thank you both! Falling is pretty scary. I've had some close calls recently with these dizzy spells, but I've usually been near something to hold on to and this time I wasn't. And my husband, who has been trying to watch over me like a hawk, had to be away at work at that time, so of course he feels terrible. And we're supposed to travel out of the country in 2 weeks, so yeah.... I really appreciate your well wishes!! ❤️
@HeathieJ If you haven’t, please speak to one or more doctors. If you’re on any meds, e.g. for blood pressure, please have it checked out. Your body can change over time and dosages may need to be adjusted. Keep on your doctor(s) to diagnose this or get new ones!
@HeathieJ Might be Benign Positional Vertigo. Which can be treated and managed by a series of exercises and postures known as the Epley Maneuver. There used to be videos on-line to do it yourself, but the powers that be have decided you need to see a doctor or therapist to do the maneuver. It's a way of realigning some crystals in your ear that affect your sense of balance. (Not new-age woo woo crystals, but tiny crystals of calcium carbonate.) I had a bout of this several years ago, but I no longer remember the exercises. <a href="https://www.canadianliving.com/health/prevention-and-recovery/article/all-about-vertigo-symptoms-and-treatment" target="_blank">https://www.canadianliving.com/health/prevention-and-recovery/article/all-about-vertigo-symptoms-and-treatment</a>
@HeathieJ Oh, no! I hope you find some relief soon!
Recoil suddenly - SHIES? [22A] To shy away from something means to avoid it, but there's nothing *sudden* about the action, per se. I think this clue was a stretch.
@Dave K. A horse SHIES away from a snake, for example.
@Dave K. Agreed! I didn't enter it at first for that reason. And the clue would have worked perfectly well without the qualifier, so why use it?
TIL that I didn’t know how to spell PLAGIARISMS. A minor glitch in an otherwise smooth solve. I only saw that the circled letters were state codes for pairs of states adjacent to the MISSISSIPPI —MI double S I double S I double P I.
@Marshall Walthew I forgot how to spell Plagiarisms, too. Also, I knew the poet, but spelled it "Geovanni". And I had "yak' for 'YAP', and wondered what the heck a "sukermoon" was. But other than those hiccups, a smooth solve.
@Marshall Walthew I'm pretty sure we had it spelled write and the puzzle spelled it wrong. That's my storey and I'm sticking too it.
It turned out I did not know how to spell TRESTLE: I confidently put in TRESsLE. I was so sure of the spelling in fact that I never for a moment considered it might be wrong. It cost me my gold star (which thankfully I care little about). SENs for "On its way" looked really weird, but I was prepared to accept it rather than notice anything wrong with TRESsLE. It was a hard puzzle for me, and it involved some guesses, but no lookups. I put in DENALI and SIAMESE TWINS with a few crosses, despite never having heard of the names in the clues. Nikki _IOVANNI only made sense with a G, which is good, since GAD is only sort of in my vocabulary, and I could not come up with it today. Torre DEL Greco... Was a minor municipality by Naples (one I have never heard about despite having visited the area recently) the best way to clue DEL? Really weird choice. What's next? A random village in Poland? I probably would not know it, either. I realize crosses took care of it, but still... I don't drink seasonal or flavored coffees of any sort. The pumpkin spice one I learned about from memes, but I've never heard of a peppermint one. Mint and coffee seem like such clashing tastes... Yuck! The revealer made me realize the circled letters were state abbreviations, but that's about it. The only way the theme helped me solve today was to give me MISSISSIPPI once I had enough crosses there to realize the river was meant. The circles I ignored, since I don't know how the river relates to states.
@Andrzej I too wrestled with trestle!
@Sam Corbin, It's a shame we Americans have such a terrible reputation about geography (to say nothing of world history and a lot else). When I was a child in the 1960s, I got a birthday present of a US map as an inlaid puzzle. Each piece was an individual state (except for the very small adjacent ones fused together), so I got the tactile as well as the visual input as to the shape of each one. I loved playing with it, seeing the state nickname and flower on each piece, figuring out where it went and wondering about what to me were exotic western states like Wyoming and Nevada, places I couldn't imagine ever going to. Simple as it was, it was one of the best learning tools I can remember. To this day I can fill in all 50 states on a blank map. Highly recommended for kids or even adults. I hated geography in school and now I find it fascinating. (Travel helped too.) There are great online versions today, like this one: <a href="https://world-geography-games.com" target="_blank">https://world-geography-games.com</a>
@Teresa What a wonderful memory! I had a similar experience with a gift from a WWII buddy of my father's. New England was one big piece, and I suspect New Jersey was combined with Pennsylvania, and to be honest I don't even remember Delaware... ...but I loved it so much. I must have put it together a thousand times in my first house, before I was nine. My US geography is still based primarily on that puzzle.
@Teresa I had puzzle maps of both Europe and the world as a preteen in the early 90s. It was so awesome! Most of what I know about political geography I learned then, and later built upon it.
@Teresa I had a puzzle map like that too! It was a gift from my mother, who was terrible at geography. I loved playing with it and learned the US states very young as a result.
@Teresa Our parents bought “The Game of The States” (1960-61) a Milton Bradley board game for us and we played it over and over and over. Loved it. Taught us the states, locations, state capitals, and trivia about each state. It was fun, too.
@Teresa I had the same (or similar) puzzle as a kid, and I loved it, but I'm still hopeless at geography. When I see a "Direction from Akron to Albuquerque" clue, I skip it and wait for the crosses.
@Teresa My kids had a few different map puzzles that helped them learn geography. Now they do online games. My middle schooler can name and locate most countries now. He beats me when we get to Africa and Central Asia. We also played a lot of Ticket to Ride, which helped with the states. When it comes to the majority of my students, however, it can be frightening how little they know about where they are in relation to the rest of the world. Even basic geography, like which states border our state, can be a challenge for many of them.
@Teresa Have you tried it with no outlines? Especially tough if you don't allow yourself to skip any states :) <a href="https://www.sporcle.com/games/mhershfield/us-states-no-outlines-minefield" target="_blank">https://www.sporcle.com/games/mhershfield/us-states-no-outlines-minefield</a>
@Teresa So should we all be getting our kids that thing with nearly 11 thousand pieces as a learning aid? I too have happy memories of a USA puzzle and would have loved one of Europe or the world.
@Teresa, Same here. We had two(!) puzzle maps of the United States when I was a kid. I loved putting each shape in just the right spot. I learned early on where each state was in relation to the others, something I still carry with me.
Kudos to the clever one who chose a photo of Omar Sharif playing bridge. Bridge Support
Would have really loved to not see the term “Siamese Twins” used in a puzzle in 2025. We know better.
@Sophie Me too. But see my comment a few down from this one for an explanation of why it's not incorrect as clued. But yeah, I didn't like seeing it there either.
@Sophie I mean that term was named after Chang and Eng and they were literally Siamese-Americans bc Thailand was called Siam then
A delightful midweek solve with a lovely geographic component to boot! I, for one, enjoyed traveling down one of the foremost waterways of the US while chewing on the clues. Kudos to the constructors!
You had me at Nikki Giovanni.
@Chungclan Among all the prize-winning and topical poems there is this one of an childhood memory which will resonate with Wordplay readers. Here is the last verse and a link to the whole atmospheric poem: "The welcoming smile of my librarian The anticipation in my heart All those books-another world-just waiting At my fingertips." <a href="https://internetpoem.com/nikki-giovanni/my-first-memory-of-librarians-poem" target="_blank">https://internetpoem.com/nikki-giovanni/my-first-memory-of-librarians-poem</a>/
Struggled with the sw corner. Not plagiarisms but manner and gain. However I appreciated Menlo park and Edison being so close together. Laughing at myself as I spent 5 months in Australia and know that at a sporting event it’s Aussie, Aussie, Aussie and Kiwi kiwi kiwi but my brain was stuck at Philippines for a while. Fun clues mixed in with a few tough ones. I find it funny that I found the longer ones easier
Ok, so I live 4 miles from EPSOM. Although correct that Epsom Salts are known worldwide, it isn’t table salt but Magnesium Sulfate (sulphate in the British spelling) used as a muscle relaxant in a hot bath or as a fertilizer for your plants. I don’t recommend using it on your steak unless you want to spend the night on the loo, due to its’ laxative effects. EPSOM was a spa town in the 1700’s although little remains today. The Assembly Rooms, once a place to Take the Waters.. is now a place to take in cheap beer as it is inhabited by a national pub chain.
@Jason, I didn't read the clue as implying it is table salt. In fact, I feel most people are familiar with soaking their feet in Epsom salts!
I must confess: I filled in “neW z” for 10D and was prepared to give the constructor a proper eye roll for half the solve. Eventually, I realized that I’m the problem and the puzzle is great!
Percolated… SEEPED and not STEEPED?
@Mady Yes, SEEPED. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/percolate" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/percolate</a>
@Mady I believe that to steep is to soak in, like a tea bag soaking in hot water. To seep is to soak through, like hot water percolating through coffee grounds in a coffee maker (hopefully NOT one of those old-fashioned monstrosities that were called "percolators!").
@Mady Percolated and SEEPED, not only for coffee but also for evaluating the soil and drainage on a property before you put in a septic tank and sewage field. Usually a perc test is a pre-condition when making an offer on rural property to build a home on.
I love a Wednesday puzzle, and this one was in complete agreement with the feeling. I expected it would be a tad more difficult, but I enjoyed it a lot nonetheless. And it impressed me that the states were laid out on the correct east-west sides of the river, and in their respective places north to south. Well done, Messieurs! Talk about PLAGIARISM, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were sued for copyright infringement when they put out this song, <a href="https://youtu.be/yyDUC1LUXSU?si=rE_eOJhT8rJ1rMnW" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/yyDUC1LUXSU?si=rE_eOJhT8rJ1rMnW</a>, by the family members of Marvin Gaye, due to this song: <a href="https://youtu.be/LHjABt8r1vI?si=TQVjX1B_JqV0mEtN" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/LHjABt8r1vI?si=TQVjX1B_JqV0mEtN</a> The latter won the suit, to the tune of 5 million dollars plus a chunk of future royalties, whereas me, I get to just turn it up and dance to both. :-)
@sotto voce Whoa what an expensive mistake!
Either I’m losing my wits or this week has been unusually challenging. Not complaining, enjoying it very much, but today took me 12m29s which is a little long for a Wednesday I think.
@Byron If you’re losing your wits, mine have packed their bags and gone across the Mississippi. I’m clocking in at over half an hour. Here’s to improvement, though!
@Byron I agree! Unusually challenging, in the best way... I don't particularly keep track of my times, nor play for time, but have noticed the puzzles have been "stickier", and my times longer as a result. (And there is thought midlife senility was kicking in. Glad to hear I wasn't alone in feeling the challenge!)
@Byron @G Same here! Thanks for the much needed validation. 😂
@Byron these do not need to be mutually exclusive issues. Or….correlation is not causation.
Apparently, in my part of the world we have SUkER MOONs.
Clever puzzle and a nice workout. Took a while to tumble to the trick but that was a a big turning point. A lot of working the crosses but then just a bunch of nice 'aha' moments when I finally had enough for something to dawn on me. Appropriate puzzle find today. A Wednesday from May 24, 2000 by Chuck Deodene. Six down theme answers with unusual clues. Some examples: "Noted epistle writer [Minn.]" SAINTPAUL "Carthaginian general [Mo.]" HANNIBAL "1970's-80's TV title role [Ill.]" QUINCY "Former Olympics sport [Wis.]" LACROSSE And then the reveal. Two across answers: 18a: With 62-Across, theme of this puzzle : CITIESONTHE 62a: See 18-Across : MISSISSIPPI Don't recall seeing another one quite like that. Here's the Xword Info link. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2000&g=62&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2000&g=62&d=A</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta, "Carthaginian general [Mo.]" HANNIBAL Oddly enough, there’s also a Carthage, Mo. It’s the county seat of Jasper County, about 10 miles from where I grew up.
Anyone else get HAT (for Yogi Bear)… BAT (for Yogi Berra)… before finally realizing that MATs are for yogis?
@Gurdog Yep. I was straight in with hAT, thinking I was so clever to remember the Hanna-Barbera cartoons from childhood. ‘I bet loads of solvers are looking at the spiritual yogis’ I thought, smugly. 🤦♀️
Committed the sin of forgetting Edison’s middle name. Shame.
@Evan I couldn't believe I remembered that. I'm pretty sure I learned that more than 30 years ago and never thought of it again until today. I can't even remember what I had for dinner three nights ago. Brains are incredible.
I enjoyed that one. TIL that there's a Menlo Park in N.J. I'd always imagined the "Wizard of Menlo Park" worked in California! The circled letters were no help in getting the theme, but it was pretty obvious from the clue and crosses. The "supermoon", as others have remarked, is something concocted by an astrologer, and shouldn't be taken seriously---it's not that super. For the full story, see here: <a href="https://oikofuge.com/blue-supermoon-part-two" target="_blank">https://oikofuge.com/blue-supermoon-part-two</a>/ The clue works fine for Chang and Eng Bunker, who were of Thai heritage and called the "Siamese twins" in their lifetime, but please don't generalize the name to conjoined twins in general. Saint Martin, BTW, is only the French half of a Caribbean island. The other half is Sint Maarten, which is Dutch.
@Oikofuge "Generalize to ... in general"? Gah.
@Oikofuge And speaking of said wizard of 42D, there he is in 52D.
@Oikofuge Even as something of an amateur astronomer (when I lived where the stars were visible, until I move from Honolulu to Oakland), I never suspected "supermoon" had anything to do with astrology. Again TIL something new, thank you.
@kilaueabart The BBC insists on reporting every impending "super"moon at the end of the national evening news. But for some reason they never mention its supposed association with the "geocosmic shock window". Can't think why.
@Oikofuge Agree that we can accept Strauss's Gypsy Baron, Matthew Arnold's Scholar Gypsy, and a host of violinists and guitar players works without generalizing.
My grandfather's family is from Torre DEL Greco where they grew, canned, and sold tomatoes. He emigrated to the US around 1900 and imported and sold them here. The company exists today as Luigi Vitelli; Luigi was my grandfather's uncle. Their website tells the story. Also noticed ALVA and Menlo Park in the same puzzle, interesting.
I really thought you meant Yogi Bear! he has a hat AND a tie, and i kept switching between those two up until the last few words!
Anyone else a little taken aback by the awkward plurals in the last two puzzles? PLAGIARISMS? TARO ROOTS? Technically fine but aesthetically meh.
@Flannery You'll often find plurals in Crosslandia that are rarely found in the wild.
@Flannery I can't imagine calling more than one taro root dug up anything like "three taro root." If you cook with taro root(s)" then taro root is the ingredient.
Today's puzzle made me think of the classic Gary Gulman bit about the committee formed to create two-letter abbreviations of the states. If you haven't seen it before (or even if you have), it's worth a listen: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLECCmKnrys" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLECCmKnrys</a>
@The X-Phile, Highly recommend this. It’s hilarious. Thanks for posting it.
Looking forward to puzzles authored by you on pop and rap hits from the 2000s, the “Columbo” detective series and styles of pants. Make them Sun-Wed. I don't do Thu -Sat. Too hard.
Nice one. The Erie Canal runs through our town and we have one trestle in the center that gets the trains across and four bridges for cars. As teenagers, we’d sneak up onto the one trestle (because we were stupid and immortal) and jump off into the (nasty) water. TIL they’re not trestles. The supports are. And the bridges for cars are *just* as much trestles as the train tracks! I’m not sure my brain can handle this before my cuppa is gone. And now *I* gotta tell everyone. Hubby took it (pretty) well… It’s gonna be a tough time for us in our little town. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.
@CCNY "I've got a mule and her name is Sal...." Yep - earworm. 👂🏼🪱
You guys forgot Minnesota.
@Red Carpet Which side would you put Minnesota on?
@Red Carpet Now I’m day dreaming* of crossing the Mississippi into Minnesota when the leaves turn, gorgeous. Good, quick solve, only slowed down by my bad spelling and fat fingers. Gave up on making four letter words out of the circles, only saw the abbreviations after I was done. *It’s still daylight here.
@Steve L Alas, that is the tragedy of it. When I figured it out, I sniffed dejectedly for a moment, looked back at the grid and thought that it would probably be impossible or at least really tough. Ah well, we know whence the ol’ mighty Mississippi begins its journey.
The land of 9,999 lakes? If I found my way to Minnesoter... (The Dandy Warhols)
@Captain Kidnap One of my favorite bands as a teen!
Just here to say that it's nice to see Jennifer Egan name-checked, I love her books. How cool that must be to have your name in the NYT crossword!
Really enjoyed this one! The map theme was really fun, and once the theme was clear the rest of the puzzle unraveled relatively quickly. The only sticking point for me was the NW corner - I had YAk for a while, then YAm. As a YAPper myself, I'm surprised it took me so long to get! In brighter news, I've learned about perigees today - and isn't learning the point of the crossword? ;) Small quibble with the cluing for DROVEAT, since it is typically used to mean explaining rather than suggestion. I could accept the roundabout cluing, but since it was crossed with a name, it made it difficult to parse. Overall a great Wednesday puzzle!
Very clever grid for the fun theme and just right for a Wednesday.
I absolutely loved this puzzle, and the end result was sublime, IMO. I could totally picture Old Man River meandering down to the Gulf of Mexico. Off to a seafood dinner on Cape Cod; perfect ending to a delightful Wednesday.
TTOPs, ALOE, and ELIE Wiesel... it's summer on the grid!
@Neal S. I'm sorry it's going over my head, but would you kindly explain how ELIE Wiesel factors into Summer?
In my youth, a shortwave listening hobby helped me learn about the locations of other countries. That interest led me to amateur radio and with it come the "DX-Petitions" to far away places with strange sounding names. Did all of that help me with today's puzzle? In a round about way it helped me spot the two letter state abbreviation motif.
@Call Me Al So you're really Call Me ALABAMA?
@Call Me Al If you still have an interest in shortwave radio, perhaps you'd enjoy Season 2 of this podcast! I found it pretty eye-opening, but admit I didn't know much about it. (Website layout is a little unclear: Season 2 was four parts starting with "Fishing in the Night" published May 7th.) <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/divided-dial" target="_blank">https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/divided-dial</a>
I always love and appreciate a theme that incorporates across and down answers especially when they cross (or in this case they border). And the tears that I cried for that woman Are gonna flood you, big river, And I'm gonna sit right here until I die.
Another river song, for your earworm pleasure. An early version, with Ike hanging around in the back. At the end, the dancers do the Swim. Rollin' on the river . . . <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgjAO9_FCMI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgjAO9_FCMI</a>
Fun theme with just the right amount of trickiness for Wednesday