Today’s puzzle employs the well-known mnemonic for the Great Lakes: HOMES, for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. But our favorite member of the commentariat (LMS) suggested a better one, one that uses their full names. It’s Leon Likes Licking Luscious Lollies. Lake Huron, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Superior. Much better.
For those of you keeping track of the tuchas sightings, I did get a response to my post on whether ERSE should be considered a variant of ARSE. Here’s the reply: “I considered ERSE as being, perhaps, an Irish AE [“Ass equivalent”]. But if you don’t draw the line somewhere, you’ll never hit bottom.” My response: “I agree. Sometimes it’s best just to turn the other cheek.”
Favorite clue/answer today: “Slept soundly?” Answer: SNORED.
SMEW and MERL are two birds that appeared in the puzzle yesterday and today. Both are new to me, which means nothing: if the bar on bird knowledge for me were any lower it would be underground. The smew is a species of duck.
The merl is a dark European thrush.
Today’s theme worked with the idea of a LINKING VERB. I tried to understand what that is, but it eluded me. I’ll just copy this from wikipedia for you in case you can make sense of it:
A linking verb is a verb that describes the subject by connecting it to a predicate adjective or predicate noun (collectively known as subject complements). Unlike the majority of verbs, they do not describe any direct action taken or controlled by the subject. [I fell off the truck at “predicate adjective.”]
This might help: The following sentences include linking verbs:
Roses are red.
The detective felt sick.
The soup tasted weird.
Frankenstein’s monster resembles a zombie.
He quickly grew tired.
You are becoming a nuisance.
Fortunately, understanding that was not needed to solve the puzzle. The theme answers just had the letters V-E-R-B “linking” two words. E.g., NEVER BETTER, clued as “Upbeat response to ‘How are you?’” (It also occurred in OVER BUDGET, COVER BAND, and RIVER BASIN.)
LMS, who is a teacher of problem children, had this to say about “never better.” “In my experience this response always feels forced and shrill. Like the person is determined to feel this way come hell or high water. I guess I admire that, but it’s not the way I roll; I prefer to publicly wallow in my misery. Every Monday we’re supposed to fill out this Monday “Check-in Survey” to report our mental state, and I always check the one that says I’m overwhelmed and need help. I add in the note that I cry all the time. No one has touched base with me, so why are we even being asked?”
The “linking verb” theme inspired some terrific wordplay in the commentariat. One fellow applied the concept to “sausage links.” Here were some of his invented clues and answers — see if you can find the “sausage link” in each:
- Is carrying our own home-grown virus?
- Bushy Bahamas sight?
- Jacob’s brother’s to-do list
Answers:
- HAS A USA GERM.
- NASSAU SAGEBRUSH.
- ESAU’S AGENDA.
And that inspired another to work with “Bobolinks” to come up with words linked by BOBO.
Two of these were:
- Requests for skewered meat
- Nerdy reed player
Answers:
- KABOB ORDERS
- DWEEB OBOIST
OK, everybody. It was a long day. I’m going to end it by watching the Phillies pummel the hated Astros — a bunch of dweeb oboists, if you ask me.
The Wellington Files 