"Willllburrrrr? Could you have Carol get me some more carrots?" It was a cute idea to include the names of three horses from tv westerns along with the opening of the Mister Ed theme song, but I agree with Mister magus: the theme answers imply that the horses are speaking. Even Mister Ed didn't really speak. I'm sorry if that comes as a shock to anyone...but it's true. Ed's voice was provided by 1930s-40s-50s western actor Allan "Rocky" Lane. His own horse, if anyone is wondering, was named Black Jack. And, by an amazing coincidence, one of the clues in today's puzzle is "Blackjack half." The answer is ACE...but an ace is not half of the score of 21. An ace can be counted as 1 or 11. Face cards count as 10, and of course a 10 is a 10. An ace and a 10---or an ace and a face card---equals 21. The ace can be considered to be half of the number of cards involved but the ace is certainly not half of 21. The clue indicates that the ace is half of 21. It isn't. I'd be willing to bet on it.
Today's puzzle has set a new record with 42 black squares.
