Wednesday, November 8, 2017

My time: 7:56, thirty seconds over the record.

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Joel Fagliano and Sam Ezersky constructed today's puzzle, which has a theme that is in need of a capper.  A punchline.  Something that tells us why the first initial of three examples of a thing should spell out the prefix to a new word.  And that convoluted attempt at explanation shows how desperately the theme needs a reason to be.  Example: "Heart, U2, Slayer" gives the answer HUSBANDS, because H, U, S, and they are BANDS, and... I don't know why.  Another example: "Polo, archery soccer" gives us PASSPORTS.  Ha ha!  PAS and SPORTS!  Er... ha?  Last: "Midas, Agamemnon, Richard" gives MARKINGS, which should be *MAD KINGS, because that would be meta and fun.

KABUL, Afghanistan, speaks Pashto, but don't forget Dari.

"Triple Crown venue" is BELMONT, which is a park in Elmont, New York.  The other two legs of the Crown are at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, in Maryland.

Despite being a Greek myth buff, as I think I've stated, I didn't immediately recall "domain of Pan," which is ARCADIA.

"Supreme Egyptian god" also held me up.  They have it AMEN-RA, which I feel is a major misstep, as the approved spelling is Amun.

"Hetero, say" is NON-GAY.  Ha!

Totally new to me department: GROSZ, which it turns out is 1/100 of a Polish zloty.

Hey, it's our old long-lost friend ROSS SEA, from August 25.

Clever clue: "joint release?" is PAROLEE.

That's it!  I'm GHANA, TILL tomorrow. Probably.