Bob of old children's TV / SAT 2-15-20 / Chanel fragrance with French name / Epoch when modern mammals arose / Benchmark test for British students / Third largest city of Ottoman Empire

Constructor: Randolph Ross

Relative difficulty: Easy (5:39 at a leisurely, non-speed pace)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: TORTOLA (18A: Largest of the British Virgin Islands) —

Tortola /tɔːrˈtoʊlə/ is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands.^[2] It has a surface area of 55.7 square kilometres (21.5 square miles) with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in Road Town. Mount Sage is its highest point at 530 metres (1,740 feet) above sea level.

Although the British Virgin Islands (BVI) are under the British flag, it uses the US dollar as its official currency due to its proximity to and frequent trade with the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The island is home to many offshore companies that do business worldwide. Financial services are a major part of the country's economy.

On 6 September 2017, the British Virgin Islands were extensively damaged by Hurricane Irma. The most severe destruction was on Tortola. News reports over the next day or two described the situation as "devastation". (wikipedia)

Bob KEESHAN

This puzzle felt like maybe the constructor was reliving the '60s and maybe I really didn't need to know all the details. Like maybe he went AWOL during Vietnam and then met a girl at a diner and they agreed to hook up later at a party ("IT'S A DATE") and then it's all kind of a blur of FREE LOVE and PHONE SEX and lots and lots of HASHEESH and TEA, i.e. smoking cigarettes and watching Captain K-angaroo (Bob KEESHAN!) and honestly don't ask me how SUCK DRY and VEINY SALAMI are involved because I don't want to think about it. This thing felt so conspicuously and deliberately hotted up that when I got to 20D: What are depicted in some blue prints? and had THE SMU- filled in, I knew "blue prints" was a misdirection, but I was certain, *certain*, that that misdirection involved SMUT! If it's "blue" it's gotta be ... THE SMUTTS!? THE SMUTTY!? THE SMUT FX!?" By the way, I do not recommend googling [THE SMURFS smut], as you are (probably?) not going to like what you find. Anyway, despite the high TMI levels in this puzzle, it was probably about as much as I've ever liked a Randolph Ross puzzle, even if it was almost painfully rooted in times of yore. Still, there were too many awkward crosswordy answers and alt-spellings for the puzzle to be truly enjoyable. I felt like I tore through it simply because I'd been doing puzzles for thirty years, i.e. things like SELENE and EOCENE and TAPIR and ACTA and ADE and ESTERS and what not were reflex fills for me. I do enjoy destroying a Saturday puzzle, and the sex and drugs definitely woke me up, but it's still a mixed bag overall, I think.


Watched a character on "Ozark" OD on OPIOIDS last night, so that answer was weirdly fresh (48A: 21st-century health menace). I saw someone online mention that MEASLES fit in that same space, which is depressing (the fact that you might consider MEASLES for this clue, not the fact that it fit). Does Randolph Ross know a guy name "LEV" and is it his birthday because he's getting a lot of leverage out of that letter string today, especially in the SW where it's a LEVfest. Enjoy the FREE LEV, everyone. LEVIES! LEVERETS! ALEVELS! And then later, just when you thought you were LEV'd out: ELEVENTH! Happy birthday, Lev, wherever you are.


I will confess that I had no idea what TORTOLA was and I would've guessed food if you'd just showed me the word. Needed every cross but it didn't matter because that NE corner was so easy. I got in there off of just the -EX in PHONE SEX and took it all down in no time. PELAGE gave me a little more trouble because I really thought that was another word for the sea. The adjective "pelagic" comes to mind. What am I thinking of ... (consults dictionary) ... well, I'm right about "pelagic": "of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea: OCEANIC" (m-w). And PELAGE does indeed mean what the puzzle says it means ("the hairy covering of a mammal"). Weird that those words are etymologically unrelated: PELAGE from Latin via Middle French poil (hair) and "pelagic" ultimately from Greek pelagos (sea). That's all for today, students. See you tomorrow.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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