Fun with Portmanteaus!
17. The ever-increasing size of deer antlers?: STAGFLATION. Stagnant mashed-up with inflation gets you bigger antlers.
36. Adversaries from Avignon?: FRENEMIES. Frenemies are folks that are friendly even with a dislike or a rivalry - friends & enemies combined.
59. Opinion piece with too many qualifiers?: ADVERTORIAL. An advertisement disguised as an editorial.
11. Symposium focused on spider silk?: WEBINAR. World-Wide-Web merged with seminar.
40. Radio program that plays only whale song?: PODCAST. iPod fused with broadcast. Whales come in pods.
Gotta hand it to Katie for another fun theme.
Across:
1. Service singers: CHOIR. In HS, Eldest made ~$400/mo. for leading the CHOIR.
6. __ latte: CHAI.
10. Bygone airline: TWA. Trans-World Airlines.
13. P-A-G-E turner, maybe: VANNA. Ha! Wheel of Fortune. Cute clue.
14. Brother of Groucho: HARPO.
16. Cool, once: HEP. Hip or HEP, wait for the perp.
17. [See: Theme]
19. Flow back: EBB.
20. Alter ego of Harvey Dent: TWO-FACE. #BatmanComics
21. "Let me try": CAN I. May I, I think, is the proper way to ask(?)
23. Like 51-Across: BRITISH.
24. Grammy-winning soprano Renée: FLEMING. Eldest has met her.
27. Above, poetically: O'ER.
28. Board game with forbidden words: TABOO. Couples friends and us played this in college. There's a word at the top of each drawn card and you have to get your partner to guess it without using the five words below. The opposing team gets a buzzer and monitors clue-r. Once, a buddy's girlfriend, who was a bit ditzy, had to get him to guess orange without using the word "color" or "fruit." Her first clue: "It's the color of an orange!" Buzz! Buzz!
31. Actress Davis: GEENA.
34. Makes shiny, in a way: LACQUERS.
36. [See: Theme]
39. Dessert that may be topped with cheddar cheese: APPLE PIE. I prefer ala mode.
 |
| Why? |
42. Bangladesh's capital: DHAKA.
46. Bakery unit: LOAF.
47. Like a big brother: ELDER.
50. Fish and chips fish: COD.
51. Novelist who created the detective Adam Dalgliesh: P.D. JAMES. WikiP says: "Phyllis Dorothy James White, Baroness James of Holland Park, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring the police commander and poet, Adam Dalgliesh."
53. Maybelline product: MASCARA.
56. Walking stick: CANE.
57. Put back: REPLACE.
58. Rec. device: CAM.
59. [See: Theme]
63. Mex. neighbor: USA.
64. "What are you __!?": DOING. "Um, nothing."
65. Best course of action: PLAN A.
66. "Mic Drop" boy band: BTS. K-Pop boy band that we all should know by now.
67. Airport board info: GATE.
68. Teen magazine of the 1990s: SASSY. I did not remember this one on the racks.
Down:
1. Docs sent to potential employers: CVS. Curriculum Vitae. Academics and the (23a) BRITISH use CV instead of resume. I'm not sure about Canada.
2. Panama spot, perhaps: HAT TREE. Cute.
3. Where to find some Cirque du Soleil performers: ON A WIRE.
4. Gold block: INGOT.
5. "Bananaphone" singer: RAFFI. Children's enterertainer.
6. Ballroom style: CHACHA.
7. Find odious: HATE.
8. Glinda portrayer, to fans: ARI.
9. Co. founder's big day: IPO.
10. North African flower: THE NILE. I always read flora at this type of clue :-)
11. [See: Theme]
12. Police alert, for short: APB. All Points Bulliten.
15. __ and for all: ONCE.
18. Final: LAST.
22. Surprise attack: AMBUSH.
23. Peat spot: BOG.
24. Head inside a bar?: FOAM. Cute.
25. Centers: LOCI.
26. Team execs: GMS. General ManagerS #Baseball
29. Run, as dye: BLEED.
32. Likely Super Bowl viewer: NFL FAN. #Football
33. Exist: ARE.
35. Proof letters: QED. "Quod Erat Demonstrandum," aka "that which was to be demonstrated." Having had many math classes, this was easily proven ;-)
37. Fencing sword: EPEE.
38. Lofgren of the E Street Band: NILS. Nils stepped in for Stevie Ray Zandt after Stevie went solo.
39. Weisshorn, e.g.: ALP.
40. [See: Theme]
41. Bed clothes: PAJAMAS.
43. Trees also known as wattles: ACACIAS.
 |
| WikiP |
44. Seoul natives: KOREANS.
45. Oral care org.: ADA.
48. Reveal one's true self: EMERGE.
49. Totally focused: RAPT.
52. Renaissance faire quaff: MEAD.
54. Splashes (over): SLOPS.
55. Actress Gugino: CARLA.
57. "La Vie Bohème" musical: RENT.
58. Baby bear: CUB.
60. Pester: DOG. Bug?, Nag?, Nope: DOG.
61. Through: VIA.
62. __ down the law: LAY.
The Grid:
 |
| The Grid |
My take...
WOs: N/A
ESPs: P.D. James, Sassy (as clued), Acacias
Fav: Clue for Vanna
Cheers, -T
46 comments:
I never heard of an
“advertorial” but I can imagine what that would be like. The other themers were pretty easy to get and I didn’t think the puzzle as a whole was too hard. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I'm still licking my financial wounds this morning. At least that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.
Cruised along until getting mired in the SE. SLOPS didn't occur to d-o, and CARLA was unknown. As a result, ADVERTORIAL never appeared. Wanted ET_S for that "Airport board info" until GATE elbowed in. Not my finest hour. Thanx, Katie and Dash-T.
I don’t get Head inside a bar is foam?
FIR, but hip->HEP, test->LAST, log->BOG, grog->MEAD, and nag->DOG. Got both WAGs @ TWO FACE x RAFFI and DHAKA x ACACIAS. (Pretty easy guesses, but still guesses. At first I thought they were fugly.)
I don't remember which of the Corner ladies came up with "Boys That Sing" for a BTS mnemonic, but thanks!
I remember QED from Pittsburgh's PBS station, WQED. They produced a lot of content when I was an engineer at WMUL.
ADA is so versatile. It can be a programming language, an act of congress, a dentist's organization, or a top prosecutor's aide.
I'm off to an early PCP appointment. It's close enough to walk, and it is already 72 degrees outside, but I need to get home before DW's CNA comes for her Friday bathing, so I'll drive.
Thanks to Katie for the Friday toughie. And thanks to Bayou Tony for another fine pinch-hit homer. I see you kept with the theme and mixed Stevie Ray Vaughan with Stevie Van Zandt to create Stevie Ray Zandt, aka Silvio Dante.
The foamy stuff at the top of the glass is called "head." For draft beer, you pull the tap toward you to get the beer, and push it away from you to get (foam) head. There is actually a specification of how much head should top the beer, but I don't remember what it was. Head supposedly provides extra aroma, but I always thought that it was to increase the profit of the barkeep since air is cheaper than beer.
Took 8:46 today for me to put things together.
I didn't know one of today's actress (Carla), but I knew the other (Geena), nor did I know today's writer (PD James; nor did I know her work). Frankly, I didn't understand a few of the themers either.
FIW. The NW got me as I did not see Vanna as the answer at 13A. And 1D being CVS did not register.
The theme escaped me as I didn't ever hear of advertorial before; the others yes. I just solved without paying the theme any mind.
So I struggled as one does on a Friday, but it was an enjoyable struggle.
Fun Friday with 5 themers! And these are real portmanteaus, not made-up puns. My few unknowns filled in nicely by perps so happy to FIR.
I love the Marx Brothers! In high school I used to watch their old movies and recite some of their lines (occasionally still do!). My favorite from Harpo, " ". Haha HONK!
FIR, about Friday level of difficulty for me. I liked the portmanteau theme. When I sussed that, it sped up the solve. This seemed name heavy, some I knew and some I guessed from perps. I knew DHAKA, but needed help to spell it.
Very occasionally I get suckered into an advertorial. I soon `bow out.
The only wattle I have heard of is wattle and daub, a type of building material consisting of a network of interwoven sticks and twigs covered with mud or clay.
In turkeys a wattle is the bright red skin that hangs from the birds' necks. The fleshy, bumpy skin helps to cool the turkey.
I have been a waitress at several places. I haven't met anyone who asks for cheese on apple pie, and we are a family of cheese afficionados.
My grandson used to love Raffi's songs for little kids
“Glinda” Never heard her called ARI. Ah it’s not “co-founder” …. Ballroom style?” briefs or boxers? 🤭… Catan, and now another unknown board game, I never heard of, TABOO (is there a shorter version? Tabu).
Not an infrequent CW misdirection using “flower” to mean “to flow” and I fall for it ever time
Hand clap explanation/BLAM? But liked “Head inside a bar” 🍺
I somehow knew CARLA Gugino and FLEMING for some reason but thought it was 2 M’s. RENT is based on the opera “La Bohème” … OIC “La Vie Bohème” is a song from RENT. Have seen it a couple times but don’t remember.
Morning blooming hedge: AMBUSH
Lazy baker … LOAF
BFFs from Avignon: FRENAMIES
Can’t say TGIF as its end of vacation.
Two straight days of enjoyable puzzles! Yesterday it was Kareem, today Katie, Patti's associate. The theme words were real words with clever and novel definitions (clues). The only one new to me was ADVERTORIAL.
Katie managed to avoid using annoying "in-the-language" trivialities. Ditto for those vowel-rich staples spat out by Crossword Compiler, except that she relented for old reliable EPEE.
Her cluing was fair and straightforward, and also clever and creative, especially in her many misdirections. My favorites were probably "Pester" (DOG), and "Head inside a bar" (FOAM).
I did have a potential Natick situation up North, with TWOFACE getting entangled with RAFFI, but neighboring perps quieted them down.
We just had "peats" the other day; today it was the singular "peat."
What a treat to see Renee Fleming! This is a soprano voice for the ages. But she has gone beyond opera, into areas like jazz and indie rock. And how many opera stars have sung the National Anthem at a Super Bowl? (Answer: 1). Renee also speaks and writes about the positive impact and significance of music on mental health.
Thanks, Katie, for an enjoyable Friday-appropriate challenge that showed respect for the solver. And thanks, Anonymous-T, for the helpful recap.
Should I take a Thumper? or just go with this...
I tried the entire alphabet at the cvs/Vanna crossing to finally finish, and nothing rang any bells. When I finally got a Tada, (thank goodness I do these online, the resulting inkblot would have had my shrink put me in a straight jacket.) all I could think was "vanna's not a page turner, she's a letter turner." And then noticed the letters. Which prompted "I hate you...". Thanks a lot for this puzzle, it will be the topic at my next shrink session. ( or anger management class..)
Dishonourable mention: an unfortunate grouping of letters...
I enjoyed Katie's Friday challenge and FIR in reasonable time, without seeing the theme. Thanks for explaining, -T! Your "Get Fuzzy" cartoon was perfect.
Neither had I. I guess it's another name for infomercial that is in on the Op-Ed page of a newspaper. Some writer plugging a friend's product or service.
Musings
-After talking all day for 42 years, my voice is hurting this morning from only three hours of talking to give my NASA presentation to three groups of seventh graders. yesterday. I still had fun!
-Katie’s puzzle was challenging and enjoyable.
-A famous ADVERTORIAL. “Oh, this is not just about working out!”
-Mrs. Thomsen always corrected us: “Can I go to the bathroom?” “I don’t know, can you?”
-It seems I was the only one who first entered BETTE (Davis)
-Put back – A reasonable expectation I should be better at doing
-KOREANS: BTS says PSY (Gangnam Style) paved the way for their success
-20 lashes with a wet noodle for not first thinking of the correct flower!
-Diners who have no rivals for parts of the ACACIA tree
Good Morning:
I really enjoyed this solve because of the clever, fun theme and some very cute but not cutesy cluing. Raffi and Dhaka needed perps but P. D. James was a gimme as I have read all of her Adam Daigliesh novels. I also knew Carla but have no idea why I knew her. I’m surprised that BTS and Koreans weren’t cross-referenced in the cluing. My favorite themer and its clue was Webinar!
Thanks, Kate, for a satisfying Friday challenge and thanks, Anon T, for pinch hitting and keeping us on our toes. Get Fuzzy was a favorite comic, even though I didn’t always “get” the humor!
Have a great day.
Compared to usual Friday offerings, this one felt like one of SubGs "walks in the park". Got the FIR, but had to use a fair amount of WiteOut. Enjoyed the clever misdirection clues. They ended with great V-8 AHA! moments, as opposed to unsatisfactory WTF? moments, making for an enjoyable morning. Thanks, Katie and Anon-T!
I FIR today but it was a struggle. I caught the theme at FRENEMIES but all the A&E clues were unfamiliar tough manage. 8. Glinda portrayer, to fans: ARI.-all perps, as I know nothing about Glinda or ARI.
The biggest trouble I had was in the SE. I knew the capital of Bangladesh, just not the correct spelling. DACCA, DAKKA, DACHA, and finally DHAKA after filling AMBUSH. Ditto for the correct spelling of LACQUER. These days they just call finishes shellac, wood finish, or polyurethane.
I never knew the ACACIAS in both my front and back yards will called 'wattles'. After 34 years they are slowly succumbing to fire blight and I am digging them up, one by one.
SASSY, TWO FACE, CARLA,, RAFFI-unknowns
FIR, but took awhile for some lights to come on, mixed with some of which I had no clue (Carla, pd, Fleming, the Nile, Dhaka, ..), but the one fairly odious and awful clue and answer imho was leading us to ‘blam’! Seriously, is that clue for real? Otherwise clever clueing.
Sorry, that should be Katie.
If I remember correctly, the letters on Wheel Of Fortune would 'turn' to reveal themselves. Now they just 'light up'. Vanna just touches them but they used to physically turn, hence P-A-G-E letters turning.
BIG EASY. Advertorials DO NOT show up on the Op-Ed and editorial pages They're usually marked as advertising, but sometimes they're dressed up as though they're news stories and the advertising disclaimer is easy to miss.
Don't think for a minute that journalists like anything about advertorials except the revenue.
ADA also has shown up in many CWs as a Nabokov title character.
I enjoyed Katie’s puzzle. Lots of good trivia, with Renee FLEMING, GEENA Davis, DHAKA, SASSY, CVs, RAFFI, ARIana Grande, NILS Lofgren, CARLA Gugino, ACACIAS, and “RENT,” perhaps my favorite musical.
The theme didn’t quite seem like a theme, but I got STAGFLATION right away and could tell the subject was portmanteaus. I liked all the answers, though I didn’t fully understand the clues for FRENEMIES and ADVERTORIAL.
DISLIKES: The clues and answers for CAN I and BLAM; the contrived clue for VANNA that some may find clever; THE NILE (I knew I was looking for a river, but I couldn’t come up with a seven-letter one); NFL FAN (wearing green paint, perhaps); the superfluous “in a way” portion of the LACQUERS clue; and the exclamation point in the what-are-you-DOING clue, which threw me by looking like a capital “I.”
I figured the Panama clue was hat-related, but the HAT TREE became passe when John F. Kennedy went hatless at his inauguration. Good. I look awful wearing any hat.
Getting back to VANNA: I like her more every year.
Glinda is the “good” witch of the North in “The Wizard of Oz.” The younger version of Glinda in the prequel “Wicked” was played by Ariana (ARI) Grande in last year’s movie version.
ADA is also the American Disabilities Act - maybe what Jinx was referring to with act of Congress
Yes, You should have said to Mrs. Thomson. “May I go to the can”
All of the clues suggested a different word as part of the portmanteau- Frenemies is French + enemies (hence Avignon) Advertorial is adverb + editorial (hence qualifiers)
Fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, Katie. And always appreciate your helpful commentary, Anon T--thanks for that too.
Well, all the names in this puzzle pretty much produced a publishing CHOIR, I would say. But that's not TABOO in crossword puzzles, so we'd best just CHA CHA through the topics as best we can. As usual, I looked for food items and was happy to see we at least got a bit of fried COD and a LOAF of APPLE PIE.
So, we can stay in our PAJAMAS and enjoy our early lunch and listen to the PODCAST on the radio.
Have a nice rest of the day, everybody.
Hola! What a fun Friday puzzle! Fun because it was doable which is not always the case at the end of the week. However, I still say the clue for 13A is inaccurate as VANNA is a letter-turner. At no time have I seen her turn a page and as has been pointed out, she doesn't even turn them, she hovers. End of rant. At FRENEMIES, I started with FRENCH then soon realized my error.
I learned to eat APPLE PIE topped with cheese in the convent and it is surprisingly good. It may well be a German or Swiss custom as the Order was started in Switzerland.
Enjoy your day, everyone! It's a nice one here.
Anon-t, thank you for your helpful and entertaining narrative.
Creative puzzle not unexpected from Katie Hale. Humorous cluing with the themers - like 36A ..".from Avignon" - so French thrown in with the portmanteau of friend/ enemies - FRENenemies and 59A ..."with too many modifiers" so ADVerbs with the portmanteau of advertisements with editorial to make ADVERTORIALs
I'll take my APPLE PIE ala mode with vanilla ice cream before the piece of cheese
I spent many an hour listening to RAFFI with my kids on cassettes and now with the grandkids just telling "Hey Google or Alexa, play 'Baby Beluga by RAFFI"
Our family enjoys playing TABOO
Thanks Tony for blogging today
I see Anon at 11:52 had the same ideas about the theme answers as I did - probably typing at the same time ;)
V-A-N-N-A W-H-I-T-E
⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️
Always wondered how Vanna knows which blanks to touch when a contestant chooses a letter. LIU Apparently she know the answer (duh🙄!).
I don’t watch the show often but what would happen if she touched the wrong blank? Apparently she did this once back in the day when she had to physically turn the square. 🫣
Also DW has to constantly explain to me the complicated way a contestant wins the big prizes. 🤔
NW corner beat me up pretty good. No clue on "Vanna" nor "Choir". The theme was cute. Good Friday exercise.
To both responses - BINGO!
I was proud of myself for slogging through most of this namefest (20 names. 13 DNKs) but like D-O, got stuck in the SE and ended up with a DNF. So much for my Friday efforts. Thanx AnonT for the nice write-up.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Katie and AnonT.
I FIRed eventually, and saw the portmanteaus.
Just a little crunch,, appropriate for a Friday.
Like HG, I wanted May I not CAN I.
And I saw ACACIAS like HG’s link in Kenya. They have thorns that giraffes’ tongues are adapted to chew around safely.
VANNA was an Aha moment, while THE NILE was a bit Meh.
My daughter loved RAFFI on tapes in her Fisher-Price tape recorder
(and Baby Beluga was a favourite inanehiker). He is Canadian-Armenian.
My dad used to say “APPLE PIE without cheese, is like a kiss without a squeeze”.
USA may be Mexico’s neighbor, but it is Canada’s neighbour. Sadly the relationship is rather strained at the moment.
Canada has a lot of BRITISH influence in our history, but we sometimes use a mixture of words. I hear resumes more than CVs, AnonT.
Wishing you all a good evening.
IIRC, ATLGranny came up with the BTS memory trick. I used it today, too.
Nice one, Misty! I want to stay in my PAJAMAS and eat a LOAF of APPLE PIE while listening to a PODCAST.
Thanks for the fun puzzle, Katie! Great clues -- especially VANNA and CHOIR.
I had bEer before MEAD and bOAr before FOAM. I thought a bOAr's head hanging in a bar was a thing. Also, I think Boar's Head is a type of beer. I eventually sorted that out.
My neighbor's ACACIA tree is the bane of my backyard patio.
Welcome back, Darren / L.A.! When you are around I'm not the last to post.
Thanks to -T for adding to the fun! Good to see you taking the lead again! I always read it the flora way first, too.
Good reading all your comments.
Anon: I agree with your interpretation of ADVERTORIAL. My first draft was to enter ADJECT, but had to do a rewrite.
Farmer’s getaway after a crop failure: Agrication
Yep, Sumdaze, I’m bringin’ up the rear again; old rock’n’roll habits never die, they just sleep later 🤣 Thanks for the howdy!
Fun romp from Katie, and a good run-through compliments of AnonT. The portmanteau angle was a slam dunk when I got STAGFLATION; I grokked the theme thanks to that one, and pretty much cruised to the FIR. Actually this cw wasn’t as hard as I’d expect a Friday to be, so I got no gripes with it. Fun puzzle!
Now on to Saturday’s (yeah yeah, I’m still a bit behind…😵💫)
====> Darren / L.A.
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