Sunday, December 10, 2017

My time: 23:58.

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Erik Agard and Laura Braunstein created this clever Sunday.  The themes clues are actors whose names have body parts in their names.  The body parts are crammed into one square, rebus-style.  So the "actors took on" BIT PARTS for the puzzle.

The squares read the same way both across and down, but with some pronunciation changes.  For example, DON C[HEAD]LE is crossed with LGBT magazine T[HE AD]VOCATE.  And there's O[LIVER] PLATT crossed with [LIVE R]ADAR.  The one that clued me in to the theme first was [EAR]THA KITT.

I've vaguely heard of TALIB Kweli.  He has a beard.

I am the single-most clueless American male about sports, an ongoing series: When it said "nine-time Pro Bowler," I honestly thought it referred to a pro bowler, not a football player.  it's John ELWAY, quarterback of the Denver Broncos and later general manager.  I'm not sure I understand what the Pro Bowl is.

I have a lot of trouble spelling JOHN [LEG]UIZAMO.

It's ETON collar again!

Did you know BANGOR is the seat of Penobscot County?  Did you know there was a Penobscot County?  Me neither.

I've seen Bride of Frankenstein, but I couldn't have come up with the star's name, ELSA LAN[CHEST]ER.

I have not heard of Filipino dish PORK ADOBO.  Traditional pork adobo consists basically of garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaf, ground pepper and water.

I didn't know Hermione's Patronus.  I was never a Potterhead.  I found the first three books kind of derivative and kind of amateurish.  It's OTTER.  Otters are related to weasels, just like Hermione later would be by law.

The TSAR is the wearer of the Great Imperial Crown, also known as the Imperial Crown of Russia.  It is adorned with 4936 diamonds arranged in splendid patterns across the entire surface of the crown.  Bordering the edges of the "mitre" are a number of fine, large white pearls.  So rich!

You measure an ATOM in picometer, but what is a picometer? One trillionth of a meter.

I've heard of the song "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO, but only from some other crossword puzzle.  ELO looks like a bunch of disco Bob Ross clones.

For "crash, with out," I put *CONK, which is more widely used, I believe, than ZONK.

Here's a fun fact, if by "fun" you mean kind of boring: I-20, I-65, and I-85 all meet at ATLANTA.  But according to this map they mean I-75 instead of I-65??

The ION was named by Michael Faraday.  He named it from the Greek word for going, since it goes from one electrode to the other.

For "face-to-face challenges" I put *DUELS.  It's ORALS.  Why are orals (oral exams, I assume) face-to-face challenges?

I learned about the musical "Dear Evan HANSEN" just a few days ago.  I can't recall where or why.

I'm a big comic book nerd, as I've mentioned a few times, but I'm not into manga.  I've never heard of NARUTO.  It was published in "Shonen Jump" in 1997.  It was adapted into anime and video games as well.  I've maybe heard people on the internet talk about this fox villain (?) Nine-Tails.  And I've maybe seen the blond spike-haired guy.

"Where one might raise a flap about a reservation" for TEPEE is a little tone-deaf.

Clever clues: "Dame modifier" is NOTRE.

That's it.  This one didn't drive me in SEINE (like Javert).