My time: 7:04, three minutes faster than average.
Theme: world capitals replacing semi-homophones in set phrases, and then clued accordingly. So "census taker in India?" is DELHI COUNTER, a play on deli counter. The oddly specific "police dragnet in South Korea?" is SEOUL SEARCH, from soul search.
I had a bit of trouble with "ways to cross a river in Switzerland" (BERN BRIDGES). For some reason I was looking for a river in front of BRIDGES, even though I had already solved the other three with their city names! What a dummy.
"We LIE loudest when we LIE to ourselves," said Eric Hoffer, household name. Eric Hoffer was an American moral and social philosopher. He was the author of ten books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 1983. You don't need to know that to solve the clue; I just thought it would be nice to know.
I don't think I've ever heard of BARUCH College, one of ten senior colleges of CUNY. Baruch College is located in the sunny Park Avenue South area of Manhattan, in the heart of one of the world's most dynamic financial and cultural centers.
I hate the phrase "U.S. OF A." Blech.
The WEI dynasty is here clued as "circa AD 250," but this refers to the Cao WEI or Former WEI, one of the major states of the Three Kingdoms era. The other Wei dynasty is the Northern or Later Wei, about 4th to 6th century AD. Don't mix them up! There will be a quiz later.
"Brew with hipster cred" is PBR. Is it? Is it?!?
Battle of Normandy site is CAEN, a commune in northwestern France. Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror, who was buried there, and for the Battle for Caen — heavy fighting that took place in and around Caen during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, destroying much of the city. The city has now preserved the memory by erecting a memorial and a museum dedicated to peace, the Mémorial de Caen.
"Watches Bowser, say" had me thinking of Nintendo, dammit. It's DOGSITS.
For "skate park feature" I put *RAMP but it's RAIL. And for "If-____ (computer programming statement)" I put *THEN but it turns out to be if-ELSE. It is used to specify a block of code to be executed, if the same condition set in "if" is false.
SOCHI, Russia was the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Six countries participated for the first time in these games: Malta, Paraguay, Timor Leste, Togo, Tonga and Zimbabwe.
Verizon acquisition GTE last appeared on April 26, 2018.
The archaic word EGEST last appeared April 21, 2018.
Clever clue: "Bellyache" is meant to be interpreted as "complain," sort of equivalent to the verb BEEF.
This was a fun one! I enjoyed the wordplay, and some of the refreshing fill. TELETHONS? I CAN'T EVEN!
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