MoriokaBoy

@Grumpy Thanks for commenting! I liked the puzzle. I agree with some of your points and disagree on others. No one can know everything. Maybe you knew the actor at 68A? I didn’t, because I’m not up on current films. But as the spouse of a Japanese, TOTORO and PLUM were gimmes for me. San PABLO? Guess neither of us was aware that the northern section of San Francisco Bay is named for St. Paul. Meanwhile, those more familiar with the SF area gleefully entered those five letters in a trice. In other words, it’s not trivia when you know it. THOU is slang, so I think the clue was fair, because it also included a slang word (“dough”). That word tipped me off that the answer may be a slang word, too. 100% agree that SEEP and “permeate” are poorly matched. I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t feel right. MOPE, though, is a very good match with “to be down in the dumps”, I think. I test the thesis by attempting to use the terms interchangeably: “It was an embarrassing loss, Pierre. You have every right to MOPE.” “It was an embarrassing loss, Pierre. You have every right to be down in the dumps.” Finally, I get that US-based cable programming is unfamiliar to many who don’t reside in this country. MTA may not even be recognizable to citizens of Albany and Syracuse, let alone Toronto! But folks who struggled for those answers might know about titan-begetting gods, Broadway stars, brand-name exercise equipment… and even 17th/18th-century French authors, so it all evens out, no?

@Andrzej Indeed!