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Australia
About 11 proper nouns, several clues requiring knowledge of US geography... I didn't actually mind the French (which I could work out on basic principles) or the Hebrew (likewise). Yes, this is a Friday (hardish) puzzle in a USA publication, but I come for witty, clever wordplay (15A) not a gruelling session looking through lists of NBA rookies (23A) or Grand Canyon lookouts (24D)
So glad YINZER didn't make it. Yes, we know you're a US publication. But there's a limit to what your international readership should have to tolerate 😉
A few rewarding clues/answers (I liked 11D), but overall too much like a grinding research project for much enjoyment. Only completed it for the run, coming up to the year.
Very benign, and a personal best for a Saturday (nothing to brag of, my times usually pretty ordinary compared with those claimed by many commentators). Happy 4th of July and 250th Anniversary of Independence for those US citizens who might be reading this!
70 minutes of tooth grinding and lookups. If it weren't for my streak I'd have abandoned it. A few good clues/solutions but far far too many obscurities
@Francis You made me laugh! Thanks! Lucky for me I knew SCHEMA and got TARANA with crossing entries. And this _is_ a Saturday, meant to be tricky But I agree that often arbitrary proper names / trademarks (impossible for non USians, we just don't know who's a big name in such-and-such a field) / sports teams / leagues etc makes lookups necessary and spoil the intellectual achievement of solving a tricky puzzle by using linguistic insights. Happy 4th of July!
Alpha has never been in the NATO alphabet, as "ph" pronounced as "f" isn't a thing in most languages. It's always been Alfa. Similarly Juliett - two Ts, is used as otherwise some users will elide the final T. NATO isn't the only phonetic alphabets around. Others use different words, and may have included Alpha
V unhappy with 28D which clearly should have been WADI, and that it wasn't and was so poorly clued made the center impossible without resorting to help. Agree with others' comments about 38A
Going full steam ahead until I hit 48D/53A, of which I'd heard of neither. Nothing a quick search didn't fix but disappointing for a Monday :( And yes I have noticed it's a United States publication
@Steve L Yes, there's a move to adopt the US term here, although I have trouble saying 'anesthesiologist' without putting on an atrocious attempt at an American accent. Presumably we'd spell it 'anaesthesiologist'. But in communicating with a broad range of English (and other speakers) it becomes necessary to clarify when there are terms with different regionsl meanings. So, yes, I'm a medical specialist who's provided anaesthesia for far too many 3:00 a.m. caesareans.
@Matt Not really, as I learned to my chagrin having (as an anaesthetist - what you'd call an anaesthesiologist) written "Caesarian" under "operation" for many year, only to discover it's actually Caesarean and that I'd been writing it incorrectly all that time 🙄 Cesarean is the North American variant, and it's also valid to not capitalise it. Not super impressed with 1A/9D :(
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