Theme: Fish Wrangler — Fish puns!
Theme answers:
- 17A: Price decrease for a stout-bodied fish? (GROUPER DISCOUNT).
- 25A: Habitat for orange fish? (ROUGHY HOUSING).
- 45A: Road for Minnesota's state fish? (WALLEYE STREET).
- 57A: Verdict for a tropical fish? (SNAPPER JUDGMENT).
I was up late watching the American Idol finale so this is going to be quick. I figure this is really the last time I can slack off because starting next week I have to get serious. We'll see how that goes I guess.I liked this puzzle just fine. Very cute theme. How did I know the walleye is the Minnesota state fish? I guess we just learn some things by osmosis.
Random tangents:
- 15A: Pat's partner (VANNA). I had no idea where this one was going. With *ANNA in place I had … nothing.
- 35A: 1997 Smith/Jones film, briefly (MIB).
- 37A: TomTom or Magellan unit, for short (GPS). A couple years ago we took a small plane for the last leg of our trip to Nosara, Costa Rica. Usually we just drive it, but we thought it might be fun especially for the kids. So we board the plane, I'd say it had, I don't know, 24 seats. Not super super small, but pretty small. We're sitting pretty close to the front and we can see everything the pilots are doing because there's no door to the cockpit. The first thing PuzzleHusband notices is that the GPS they're using is exactly the same as the one we have in our car. Confidence inspiring! (It did turn out to be pretty fun though.)
- 48A: "Enough!" ("CEASE!"). I'm gonna start using this with the PuzzleKids. I think it will make them laugh.
- 60A: Boy leader? (ATTA). The "word" atta comes before (i.e., leads) the word boy in the phrase "atta boy."
- 4D: McMuffin meat, maybe (SAUSAGE). Remember Father Guido Sarducci from the early days of Saturday Night Live? His real name is Don Novello and he had a book out back then that was really funny. The book was full of letters he had written to famous people, corporations, etc., and the responses he got. The letters he wrote were dumb. I mean, really dumb. For example, he wrote to McDonald's asking why they always pictured jelly in their advertisements for Egg McMuffins because, obviously, no one would put jelly on an Egg McMuffin. He got a very serious response from the company explaining that some people removed one half of the breading from the sandwich and would eat it with jelly. Maybe that doesn't sound all that funny the way I explain it, but trust me. It's good stuff.
- 6D: Not any (NARY). Started out with none. I've gotta believe I'm not alone there.
- 38D: Greek sea god (POSEIDON). Ever since PuzzleSon read the Percy Jackson series he's absolutely convinced that PuzzleHusband is Poseidon. Maybe I should tell him the story of the first time PH went boogie boarding in the ocean and he got caught by a big wave and lost both his flippers and his wedding ring. (We'd only been married seven months at the time. Sheesh!) I'm confident that would not happen to the Greek God of the Sea.
- 14A: Musical with the song "Another Pyramid" (AIDA).
- 36A: __ Lingus (AER).
- 42A: Muffin topper (OLEO).
- 44A: Ship of Greek myth (ARGO).
- 50D: Bygone ruler TSAR).
