Default - 323252 Words
New 10L 59S SNAILMAILS

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     ROBERTBORK (60)

The entry MIERS appeared in a recent Unthemely crossword, and I did some research on unsuccessful Supreme Court nominees looking for clue options. I was surprised to learn that only 19 nominees in U.S. history were either rejected or withdrawn — I thought it was a much more common occurrence. Harriet Miers has a good last name for crosswords, but her fame (or infamy) in politics is meager. Bork’s nomination happened when I was in high school, but I remember it being an important topic of discussion even among students.

     SANDCRAFTS (1)

I spent a lot of time hunting down a definition for this reasonable-looking term. Then I discovered that it was a CRUCIVERB acquisition and a theme entry in a puzzle (titled “Lost Arts”), but the CRUCIVERB site failed to tag it as a theme.

     SAWTHROUGH (70)

This entry interested me because it has the potential to be clued as a verbal phrase in both the present and past tense. The past tense version probably has a more solid dictionary value, but the present tense version is more fun — {Slice, as an overcooked roast}.

     TRANQGUN (75)

While watching an episode of Chuck I thought about adding this entry to Default and using it as an Unthemely seed. I also did a quick OneLook check of *tranq* phrases. I added RHINOTRANQ, which makes me think of prescription drug slang more than immobilizers of actual rhinos.