"Water You Looking For?" - June 17, 2022

[Mister Squawk]

Other rabbits sighted: LOKI's mother was a GIANTESS. The link between Amazon and QUIVER.

Tough puzzle. All of the bodies of water were letter substitutions (HAY-BAY, UIVER - RIVER, RAKE - LAKE) except one. The marginal rhyme of SPREE and SEA. And just for good measure, one of the required grid entries was across and one down.

Anyway, I was scratching my head until Mrs. Squawk looked at LAKE BETTER and said duh, SUPERIOR.

For me, just the right degree of difficulty.

[JeanneC]

Submitted cold motion for Arctic Ocean on Friday. Then saw eyes and spoon and thought another answer could be based on blue lagoon. Hope my first thought was right.

[Jace54]

Sorry but IDLE MOTION doesn't work for me. The solution is stone-COLD obvious.

I agree. The 51D clue for idle is “unproductive”, which does not work for “pacific”. The 1A clue for cold is “Brrr!-evoking”, which also works for “arctic”.

[Ergcat]

Sorry but IDLE MOTION doesn't work for me. The solution is stone-COLD obvious.

I agree! The obvious answer is “COLD MOTION” for “ARCTIC OCEAN”!!! The second definition of “arctic” in Merriam -Webster Dictionary is
“2a : bitter cold : frigid
As in arctic air
b : cold in temper or mood
As in an arctic smile”

[Flying_Burrito]

hmm, ok. landed on wrong beach. I had green bay and red sea very quickly but i did not like the mechanism (one was a letter replacement and the one was phonetics: spree becoming sea to me is a stretch). Then I focused on water sources whereone letter needed replacement: lake, river, tap (in between tsp) and bay: the replaced letters spelled 'rush' and I am like "rush waters, ok this may be the right direction". Under the same logic Yoda was soda (rushy waters, a stretch) so i turned in Yoda Motion

[Deb F]

This one was tricky. After seeing Rake/Quiver/Hay--I knew I was on the right track but Spree was too much of a stretch. My first "aha" was Verdant Hay getting to Green Bay. But I was still hung up on Communist spree. Finally lit on Sea and that opened a lot of possibilities--not just a body of water with the first letter(-s) changed out. Quite diabolical to me.

Have a good week, Muggles.

[eagle1279]

Never close. First rabbit hole was the letters MIST in COMMUNIST. Then I got LAKE, RIVER and BAY but SPRAY for SPREE. Never saw the puns that led to the named bodies of water, and doubtful I would’ve gotten the answer after that. Great job by those who got this one!

[TeaJenny]

I submitted LOKI MOTION for ATLANTIC OCEAN. My logic: the Atlantic is named for the Greek titan Atlas, who held the world (or heavens, depending on the version) on his shoulders and tried to trick Heracles into permanently taking his place. Thus, a "parliamentary act" by a "tricky deity."

[MaineMarge]

I saw the 5 bodies of water pretty quickly. Then Lake Superior, and finished the required laps in record time.
I had a grid error and 2 blanks at bottom left, so didn’t have motion to play with at first.
Toyed with PLUM LOGS for Cranberry Bogs, and searched in vain for something dark to go with BOON to get to BLACK LAGOON (as in the creature who often inhabits my refrigerator)

No quibbles from me with slight variations of pronunciation- thought this was a great meta.

It’s water, water everywhere at our farm pond
October

[Janet P]

Enjoyed this puzzle!
Never saw other answers.
Hope a muggle wins

[otlaolap]

Could not find anything at all to get a grip on solid enough to make a rabbit hole. Spent some time hunting for synonyms, though, and I kept getting attracted to Verdant, wanting to find a connection to Green, just because I like the word and because we (from arid brown California) had just been on a trip to New York, Quebec, and New Hampshire (missing Maine, sorry), where everything is green and wet, when suddenly Green Bay clicked. Then it was simple.

[SewYoung]

Some were not happy with "Spree" to "Sea" because the others were just initial letter substitutions rather than rhymes, but I think that was deliberate so that "Motion" to Ocean" would fit the overall pattern.

[TeamDoubleTow]

I really enjoyed this metanism! I am more ambivalent about the finding the answers that fit as a final step... but I loved that the clues combined nicely to echo the other themers.

[Jeanrosz]

I think Red Sea is wrong..red reef fits which mean Yemeni idea is the only solution for Arab sea…

[higgysue]

I loved this puzzle. I am on shore from one of the themers. I’ll let you guess which one.

[Prozach]

Last Call call was fun. A good team effort. I was stuck with the one letter replacement (Hay/Bay and Rake/Lake) but was far at sea and wouldn't have made it to shore.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

My only quibble with this is ARCTIC means northern. We have an "Antarctic", which is the opposite of arctic, but is also cold. But I have come to terms with the reality that arctic is also now a synonym for cold. I also saw IDLE MOTION as a possibility but had to concede that COLD MOTION was the better answer. And I spent some time looking for a second lake to go with ACHE (Lake Placid?) before I even noticed MOTION.

Still, it was a fun one. I initially wanted to fill in AMAZON when I saw the clue for 25A, and I was saying to myself "communist and verdant, hey that's red and green! Too bad the other themers don't have colors." before I twigged to the full mechanism.

[EmilyW]

I never saw the mechanism on this one. I noticed quiver rhyming with river so I figured that was part of it, which led me to believe that motion was one of the words in the answer since it rhymes with ocean. I wanted the answer to be Loki Motion since it sounds like locomotion and thought that might relate to the water/what are in the title, but I couldn't find any reasoning for that in the theme entries. I think I got stuck on that and wasn't able to see what was really going on. Congrats to all the solvers and good luck winning the mug!

[MajordomoTom]

I'm solidly in seat 1A, shivering on the way to the Arctic.

Note that there are two paths to "OCEAN" in the grid.

MOTION
11D OPEN

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I wanted the answer to be Loki Motion since it sounds like locomotion and thought that might relate to the water/what are in the title, but I couldn't find any reasoning for that in the theme entries.

My brother thought the answer might be HONDA ROPES for "on the ropes" after filling in the grid but before starting to work on the mechanism.