Saturday, November 4, 2017

My time: 39:05, maybe the longest time yet?  I don't keep track.  But blech!

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Michael Shteyman brings us a Staurday theme that has no reason to be and is annoying.  The conceit is that three clues STRETCH THE TRUTH: that is, they feature the letters T, R, U, T, and H in order, but not consecutively.  As in THROUGH THE YEARS, BUTTERNUT SQUASH, and DON'T ARGUE WITH ME.  Sorry, but that theme is stupid and I hate it.

But let's not fully blame the insipid theme.  Part of the blame must accrue to how few of the clues were in my wheelhouse this week.
 
I don't think of AMOUR as necessarily an "undercover lover" being a Francophile as I am, but there it is.

I didn't know OPEL has the slogan "Wir leben Autos."  Here's the story.

POLA Negri is a silent-era actress.

Another problem I had was putting *REC'T for "rebate requirement" when what was required was "RCPT."  Similarly, I put *STA for "RR stop" but they wanted "STN."  Ugh!

ANTIGUA's highest point is apparently Mount Obama.  It was called Boggy Peak until 2009, when it was renamed in favor of the best U.S. president of the 21st century.

The Ronald Reagan Medical Center, however, is in UCLA.

Have we heard of OLIN College, an engineering school in Needham, MA?  No, we have not.  We have only heard of Lena Olin.

"Alternative to Twinings:" AHMAD TEA.  I'm a tea drinker and I've never heard of it. It's a London company that was founded maybe in the 1980s?

You know the mai tai, but do you know MAOTAI, a brand of Chinese spirits?  Bu, ni bu zhidao.

Hey, it's PASS RUSH again!

For "one joule per second" I had *WORK but it's WATT.  I'm no science guy.  A joule is the unit of work, dummy!

What's PASO Robles, CA, famous for?  Hot springs, wine, and olive oil.  Not really things I go nuts over.

Hiawatha was a MOHAWK warrior.  Or perhaps an Onondaga --- the history is murky.

For fix I put and stuck with *SEW, and for the longest time was looking with bafflement at its cross, *STREW TO THE TRUTH (????).  But here fix doesn't mean repair but SET, as plaster.

Whew!  What a slog.

Clever cue: "spelling aid" (for which I smugly had *WAND right off) is MOJO.  "Goes on... and goes off" is RANTS.  "Big tower letters" is AAA.