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These entries are quite close to 69-Across, where, with a few crossing letters in place, I was quite content to fill in THE SOUTHEAST. I glanced at the crossing Down entries and noted one clue with two possible answers at 56D. “Word before fly,” as I saw it, had to be HOUSE, intersecting THE SOUTHEAST at the U. But I also thought it could be “horse,” and moved on.
Thus, Mr. Seigel had me thoroughly bamboozled, so much so that several ensuing theme clues gave me pause. At 2-Down, for example, I had five letters from crossing entries in “Attraction in 69-Across that’s part of America’s first national park.” The way they fell into place, it sure looked like OLD FAITHFUL, the geyser in Yellowstone, but uncertainty prevailed. The “Attraction in 69-Across that withstands dozens of lightning strikes a year, familiarly,” at 37-Across, could be somewhere in the South, I figured. Same with 4-Down, “Attraction in 69-Across that’s almost 2,000 feet deep.”
Then I reached 28-Across, “Attraction in 69-Across that once froze over for 30 hours in 1848,” and the jig was really up. I had almost every crossing letter here — something like NIAG_RA _A_LS. There was no more room for error.
When you look at 69-Across, there are four crossing Down entries that have two logical answers, one letter apart. There’s 56D, the HORSE or HOUSE fly; there’s also 59D, “‘No,’ in a certain dialect,” which can be NAE or NAW. At 66D, PAT or PET can mean to “Touch gently”; at 70D, “Division for a tennis match,” both SET, a match segment, and NET, a physical divider, are fine.
We now have ingredients for four possible correct outcomes at 69-Across — which, come to think of it, has a very clever clue that went right over my head: “Locale of this puzzle’s attractions (really, all eight of them!).” Let’s see: If we go with NET, HORSE, NAE and PAT, then 69-Across is THE NORTHEAST. Using NET, HORSE, NAW and PET, the same entry will be THE NORTHWEST. If we fill in SET, HOUSE, NAW and PET, THE SOUTHWEST appears. And if we go with SET, HOUSE, NAE and PAT, we get THE SOUTHEAST.
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