I am home, thank goodness.

This is a new one for me. I'm posting via SAS's free wireless in mid-Atlantic. Very civilized airline.

Spent a odd, cold, dark Thanksgiving in Stockholm. Had Baltic herring and reindeer for Thanksgiving dinner. I was there for the strange European custom where they bring in an outside scholar to give Ph.D. candidates a public examination before giving them the degree. Too hours of questions in a foreign language (English, because I was the examiner) in front of an audience of fifty people. Chilling prospect. I'm so happy that we don't do the same the US.

Puzzle questions:

The only ones I have left are the poker star between the two Phils, the expression connecting boot and operating system, the song and the band between drugs and bomb, the clue to the left of plastic surgery, and the location of MASH.

None of the previous clues have helped, and I've looked for things like the MASH location to no avail. At this point, I just want to fill in the answers and be odne with it, move on to the meta, and then, you know, life.

megan,
for the location of M*A*S*H, the spelling is tricky. Try the one on the Wikipedia page.

On the last one, it is what you think it is, megan.

Thanks dcp, for some reason I was sure it was Panmunjam. That town doesn't look or sound at all familiar.

Megan, for the others, the first is a poker player with a nickname suggesting he talks a lot; for the second, combine boot with the second word from a term for someone who never pays for himself. For the 4th, think somone who has had a lot of plastic surgery (male).

Back with the 3rd hints in a moment. Nicole broke down the one directly right of drugs here: Nicole "Natter 48 Contiguous States of Denial" Nov 25, 2006 7:53:04 pm PST

Once you have that, try googling the phrase, using quotation marks.

The answer for the MASH location is weird, and wrong. The M stands for MOBILE! There was no one location. I remember them mentioning that place a bunch of times, but usually as someone was just coming from there or going to there, and there were a bunch of other places they mentioned just as often, too.

The only ones I'm still missing are one British band -- the one that's two words, each five letters, and the two three-word phrases in drugs .

Hil, for the second, see my third hint to Megan above. For the first, think sporty and posh.

Oooh, thanks. Now, all I've got left is the thing linked to that last drugs one, and one more magazine -- the seven-letter one that's at about 2:00, between Forbes and People.