You’re either down my throat or up…
◆◆ · By woozy · Published 2023-11-11T00:21:43.199Z
Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is a 10 letter, 2 word lament
This came about as a snide joke by Dr. Tom. I was nitpicking a matter of measuring distances by the Pythagorean Theorem as is my wont. As it was tedious and pointless, I joked that my next meta would be about .... and ....; two things cliched for being intensely unpleasant. Dr. Tom suggested the I'd title it this. Sleeping on it, I realized Damn it, I am going to make this meta, aren't I? And I was right. The meta found itself, as per absolutely no-one's desires, being made.
I guess it's time for nuges:
There are two different mechanisms: one for each fine letter word
One metanism is related to ROOT CANAL and the other is related to COLONOSCOPY
Finding the five themers for ROOT CANAL should be pretty obvious. The five themers for COLONOSCOPY are meant to be hidden or hard to find but their existence is not as obvious as the ones for ROOT CANAL
So finding the five themers for ROOT CANALS have to do with canals....
And the five themers for COLONOSCOPY have to do with ... Colons... Ya know, the punctuation
Perhaps not the most important nudge but the themers are all in the DOWN entries ... because the title is DOWN my throat or UP my ###
So the entries that are canals have the etymology of the name of the canal as the main part of the clue Get it? The root of the name of the Canal.... And they have in parenthesis as description of the canal. I wasn't going to do this and they are really part of the mechanism and actually are a bit distracting, but I figure the grid itself would be too hard if it were just the obscure etymology and .... there is also an irrelevant seeming number
What's the deal with the numbers? Well, I am talking about ROOT canals
Okay, that should get you the first five letter word... Now what about the second word that comes from an entirely different metanism and the COLONOSCOPY part?
There are five clues with colons. (Sometimes they are a bit stretched. And there are some non-metanism clues that should have colons but don't as the colon clues are all hints to themers)
Oh, I guess I should mention this is one where hints in the clues do not refer to those entries at all but... they do refer to other parts of the grid
Anyway, clues with colons... anything notable about those clues
Something grammatical or spelling that is unnecessary but consistently done in all five clues
Something at the end of the clues?
Okay, what to do with those?
The theme is crawling up ones ###. You have five things. Five five instances were the things crawling up ###es. (You are welcome for the image.)
Now collect those ###es
Checking for previous play data...
1A
Polite address
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Across
- 1APolite address
- 5AHow far to take someone down
- 9AWhat part of me to pull when you're having a little fun
- 14ANafnaþulur, Þrymlur I, Sturlaugsrímur VI , Skikkjurímur III give this as an alternate name for 35A's brother. (Good luck with that... )
- 15ACiao
- 16AWhat Rhett Butler did not give
- 17AWhy you are down my throat. (First unpleasant theme of this meta)
- 19AAncient Roman port city
- 20AMedicals tools for observing orifices. One type could be used for a 26D but the more commonly known ones are used for another type of exam (maybe I should have included that procedure in this meta and made this meta triply unpleasant)
- 21A"Toujours ---", Mehitabel's outlook. There's a dance in the old dame yet.
- 23AThe American version of Noughts and Crosses can be abbreviated like this. I've never known anyone who ever did so and it wouldn't save any time in speaking. But one could. And thanks to Wikipedia's disambiguation page, I'm declaring it valid.
- 24ASteer a ship (and the place to do so)
- 25AWhy one might need a 17A
- 27A"Me too!"
- 30AHeaps on
- 32APressingly advocating
- 34AOrg. with a five ring logo
- 35AGod of trickery
- 39AWhat the "ever" stands for in the mnemonic "Do men ever visit Britain"
- 40AMajor artery
- 42A"You want to make something -- --" (Or "-, ---" an ode to being in shape)
- 43AEnthusiasm
- 44AIATA airport code for John Wayne Airport
- 45ADemeanor and bearing
- 47APredict as very likely to occur
- 50AFuzy like a mamoth (or a bully)
- 51ABudding actress
- 54ATax Id.s
- 56AZero score
- 57APascal inspired computer programming language name for Countess Lovelace
- 58AObeyed the edict of Marie Antoinette
- 62AAlleged spy Hiss
- 64ADivider
- 66AToss
- 67A"So the clue is 'tasty treat' and it ends with '?offee'. So what should I put in as the first letter?" "That depends on if you have sweettooth or are a caffeine junky." "Oh, wait, I was reading the wrong clue. 'Celtic neck ring'"
- 68ATahitian double-hulled water craft
- 69AConcern while cluing a crossword
- 70AWhat Isaac named a well (anagram of SEEK, for what its worth)
- 71AIvy League school in Connecticut
Down
- 1Dnamed for the Roman god of war (2116) (Turned out this was a completely erroneous idea)
- 2DPerched on
- 3DSoothing plant
- 4DBand leader with a "Sing along with" show: an icon of his Time
- 5DEven the slightest bit
- 6Dorigins unknown, however the Ministry of Education officially proclaims it is a native word for a place with "abundance of fish, trees and butterflies" (1089) (At the time this was the largest American engineering project to date)
- 7DGreek aspirate
- 8DWonder Woman actress: beloved to her Fans
- 9DMarxist-Leninist who believes a united front is required rather than just communist revolutions. (At least that's how Wikipedia defines it.... Or I could just got with some clue about Little Red Books)
- 10DFt. trios
- 11DFoamy espresso drink
- 12DGives off
- 13DPesky little bugs
- 18DAdd at a point in a script
- 22DSting operation that lead to the conviction of seven congressmen
- 26DWhy you are up my ... (Second unpleasant theme of this meta)
- 27Dderived from a Fu'ail form of a Levantine Arabic word that means liquorice (1444) (Key trade route between Europe and Asia)
- 28DLatin borders
- 29DMausoleum city: the climate varies from monsoon to Arid
- 31DPhysicist that shared a Nobel prize with Schrodinger: I think it had something to do with the health status of Cats
- 33DExhaled in surprise (maybe because 20A were too cold)
- 36D"A Woman -- -- Importance"
- 37Dpossibly derived from the Anglo-Saxon “a safe place for ships” (3136) (World's most visited artificial waterway)
- 38D"Man, you are really annoying!" "Well, - ---"
- 41DJust a little sip: which is more than enough if it is something yucky such as Tang
- 46DMachine for removing bristles from grain
- 48DBig T-shirt size
- 49Dwith a check-mark, the branding of a Trusted Traveler program initiated in December 2013
- 51DHuge mess full of errors and confusion
- 52DCash registers or the cash registered within them
- 53DPain
- 55DPile
- 59D"Where do you want it? Somewhat close to the ropy volcanic rock? Near pahoehoe?" "No, precisely on the sharp spiky volcanic rock. -- --" (alternatively, "Hey, where's Walter?" "-- --" "Oh, what's he doing there?" "Admitting he has a drinking problem")
- 60DAncient eye cosmetic made from ground stibnite
- 61Dfrom the Native American tribe, whose name derives from the Iroquoian word meaning “long tail.”(64) (Where you'll always know your neighbor and pal)
- 63DLetter of the Latin alphabet, used to represent a voiced velar nasal
- 65DDawn goddess