Thu., 10/30 Jerry Edelstein

[magus]

THEME:   last word of a phrase is an anagram for a national  capital; hence, CAPITAL LETTERS
   
GOOD ONES:    
Crawled, perhaps   SWAM   
   
BTW:   
I had no idea about what the theme was until after a long while I noticed that MORE is an anagram for Rome, then the rest fell into place.  If I weren't writing this I am certain I would have moved on with my morning.  Hope I saved you the effort.   
   
   
   
RATING:    
Three grins = Loved it; Two grins = Enjoyed it; One grin = A bit bland for my taste; One teardrop = Not much fun   

[Thomps2525]

Yep, the last few letters of each of the four theme answers could be rearranged to form the names of four capital cities. How do puzzle makers come up with these ideas? Today's puzzle also includes two words that I had never before seen in a crossword: CASHIERS (used as a verb!) and EPICYCLE (which I had to look up---and now I've learned something about Ptolemy and astronomy).

But 42 black squares? 42? For shame!