I wouldn't be surprised if MG offers further remarks on the Meta-dependence of Hesse in his website writeup this week, but he has already acknowledged it as a "fudge" and a "big blot" in his Crossword Fiend comment.
That being said, there is at least some historical justification for mixing Hesse in as another truncated "country" name, one I only discovered when I was struggling to make any sense of it, during solving crunch. Trust me, I am no world historian.
As this page (https://history.state.gov/countries/hesse) details, the Grand Vichy of Hesse was once an independent state, led by its own sovereign, and the United States accorded it diplomatic recognition, and sent a consul.
So, at least there's that.
As for America, any fan of Simon & Garfunkel, or West Side Story, or James Brown or, uh, Kate Smith can tell you that America is... yeah.
MGWCC #772 — “World Leaders”
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Joe Ross
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woozy
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Right. Right....
The Hesse thing... that and using 'Merica/America being not worth stooping for. That made the SHAMROC* step so unsatisfying that I assumed it was just a first step in a more robust puzzle.
The Hesse thing... that and using 'Merica/America being not worth stooping for. That made the SHAMROC* step so unsatisfying that I assumed it was just a first step in a more robust puzzle.
Funny story. I was all set to enter Par for the course for the CrossHare midi contest for April but I mistakenly thought midi meant 7x 7 and not 11 x 11. Oops. Well.... Here's a complex but **small** meta on the subject of golf.
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HoldThatThought
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No, no, I simply meant it's what we ethnocentrists colloquially call this place.
Whether we have any "right" to do so, surely we can agree that "America" is used in that manner. Right?
Whether we have any "right" to do so, surely we can agree that "America" is used in that manner. Right?
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HunterX
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Had he gone to my prep school, the teachers would have given him all A's for having the school motto on his arm.HeadinHome wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:52 am My original “solved-but-found-it-odd” post on this thread was inadvertently a nudge, and others kindly threw a blanket over it. I was saying that the clue for the NC motto was really weird, given that the adoption of the motto did not coincide with his stated centuries. Later learned that he was cluing HESSE with that “note…” — it referred to the centuries when Hesse was a German state. So I guess he was trying to help confirm the inclusion of Hesse as one of the world bits, since it was a bit of a stretch.
I also mentioned that my son has that motto tattooed on his arm, and here it is:
456ACAE6-F4C3-49A9-B843-73136EA29111.jpeg
Or D's for having a tattoo while under 18 years old. Not sure which...