Architect I.M. ___ / MON 1-14-19 / "___ ad Eurydice" (Greek opera) / Tippler's favorite radio station? / Peter Fonda title character

Constructor: Craig Stowe

Relative difficulty: Easy-medium



THEME: DISGUSTING— Theme answers contain words you'd say when you find something gross (highlighted by the bubbles).

Theme answers:

• DOUBLECHIN (17A: Facial feature that could be eliminated by cosmetic surgery)
• MAGICKINGDOM (23A: Disney World attraction)
• JUGHEAD (36A: Friend of Archie and Betty in the comics)
• SAYAFEWWORDS (48A: Speak briefly)
• DISGUSTING (57A: "Gross" title for this puzzle)

Word of the Day: PECTIN (6D: Marmalade ingredient) —

Pectin (from Ancient Greek: πηκτικός pēktikós, "congealed, curdled"^[1]) is a structural heteropolysaccharide contained in the primary cell walls of terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot.^[2][3] It is produced commercially as a white to light brown powder, mainly extracted from citrus fruits, and is used in food as a gelling agent, particularly in jams and jellies. It is also used in dessert fillings, medicines, sweets, as a stabilizer in fruit juices and milk drinks, and as a source of dietary fiber.

• • •

It's a surprise Annabel Monday! I had to look up why Rex wanted me to write this week instead of last week and was reminded that that was because last week was his donation pitch. I hope he's ok with me thanking everyone that donated! You're the ones who keep Annabel Mondays financially viable at all!!!! Also thanks to everyone else too for just looking at the days when I blog, even the ones who only come complain that I missed something Rex would've gotten, because hey you're usually 100% right and I appreciate constructive criticism. For real, I don't want to get sappy but I love doing this. I love words.

Anyway, today's puzzle left me with...mixed feelings? I didn't even know whether to call it easy or medium, because while there weren't any quadrants that left me staring blankly at the screen for ages, it took me way more go-throughs and wrong guesses than it usually takes to really get into the groove. I found myself scratching my head at vague clues like "__ put it another way..." and "Come to __" (I was so sure that was MAMA!) and "Metropolitan ___." I guess the puzzle suffered from Blank Overload a little bit. The cluing for ESTA also hit one of my pet peeves; just say the language you're referring to, you don't need to name a region or city to try and be clever, honestly. But I did like parts of the setup, like ABCS on top of SINE. And although I had issues with some clues there were some clues I really liked--the one for WINO was funny! One time my local radio station changed their name to WOMB for a day as a prank, I think it was for Mother's Day? It was funny.

The theme was, y'know, a Monday theme. I don't like when letters are circled but you're not going to really do anything with them--write a phrase, do some unscrambling, what have you--but it did help me with SAY A FEW WORDS and MAGIC KINGDOM (I was so sure the latter was going to be one of the rides), and I've always had sort of a weakness for gross stuff. The word choices kind of reminded me of Garbage Pail Kids, which I never had but always eagerly pored over the ads for in my comic books. I guess I'm a grown-up now and can buy them for myself, but they don't hold quite the same appeal as they did when I was ten and thought anything slimy was the coolest thing on earth.

this is actually the only Garbage Pail Kid I could find on Google Images that didn't make me a little nauseous

Bullets:

• JUGHEAD (36A: Friend of Archie and Betty in the comics) — Speaking of things I loved when I was ten I used to absolutely devour Archie comics! I feel like I've discussed this before on this blog but I never really "got" Jughead until I became a teenager and truly discovered the appeal of food and naps. I can't find it now, but there was this comic where Jughead discovered a crawlspace and made it into a little secret hideaway where he could stash snacks and hide out from his responsibilities to take naps in privacy, and I really admire that. I think we all deserve secret nap rooms.
• ELLE (41A: Fashion monthly founded in France) — Hey! See? This is how I would clue a word that also means something in a foreign language! Not just "Her, in Paris." >:P 
• SETA (31A: ___ good example) — I had thought for sure this looked familiar, like I had seen it as a word in other contexts, but when I did some digging I found out it meant "in biology...any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms," according to Wikipedia. Apparently geckos have them on the pads of their feet to keep them sticky. So I guess that's a bonus Word Of The Day because I already picked out the first Word of the Day.
• OGRE (55D: Menacing fairy tale figure) — Actually these days I think most people's first thoughts when they think of ogres are a little more...layered. (Unrelated to Shrek, but the same goes for orcs, because I feel like 99% of my friends are playing half-orcs in at least one Dungeons and Dragons campaign.)

Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student. For one more semester. Gulp.

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