Good Morning, Cruciverbalisits! Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Friday puzzle by Jess Rucks. From Jess' website:
Jess Rucks (she/her) is a crossword constructor living Colorado; she is a Minnesotan at heart. Her puzzles have been published in The New York Times, Apple News+, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Universal, AVCX, AVCX+, Boswords, Puzzmo, and The Inkubator. She runs the monthly Constructor Spotlight feature at Daily Crossword Links. Jess is also a licensed school counselor and a licensed professional counselor candidate who provides clinical play-based therapy to elementary students in schools.
Today, Jess takes us on a visit to the third dimension. Well, to 3-D anyway. Each of the four themed-answers consists of words containing the letter D three times. For those seeking an introduction to said letter:
Yep, that's it. Simple and yet quite elegant. Here are the places where the gimmick is employed:
16 Down: 3D film?: DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. A 1999 satirical mockumentary movie.
25 Down: 3D puzzle?: WORD LADDER. A type of puzzle progression with which most crossword solvers are familiar.
47 Down: 3D animation?: DONALD DUCK. No introduction needed.
59 Dow: . 3D printing?: DAVID COPPERFIELD. Printing? That threw this solver for a while. Aha! A book is printed.
This is how is all looks in the grid:
... and now for the rest of the story:
Across:
1. Blush wine: ROSE. ROSE wines incorporate some color from the skins of the grapes but not enough to qualify as a RED wine.
5. Howling canine: WOLF. Not a tooth ache.
9. [She said what!?]: GASP.
13. Loot: BOOTY. Not being used, in this instance, as in "to shake one's BOOTY".
14. Geometry calculation: AREA. Width times length.
15. Harmonizer, often: ALTO. See also 21 Across. Very clever of Jess to work this pair, and 6/23 Down, and also 58/60 Down into the puzzles. Brava!
19. Buffoons: OAFS. What is the difference between a cat on a couch and a dim witted cow? One is a cat loaf and the other is a cattle OAF.
20. Some ER pros: RNS. Registered NurseS
21. Soprano's part, usually: MELODY. See Also 15 Across. Hmm, it's capitalized but it is not, this time, a reference to this guy:
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| Tony Soprano |
23. Forever and a day: EON. A time span often referenced in our puzzles . . . but, fortunately, not spent solving them.
24. Sweet start?: SEMI.
29. Fragrant latte: CHAI. Frequently served up in our puzzles.
33. Drag icon with 14 Emmys: RU PAUL.
34. Throw on the floor: RUG. Throw is not used in the clue as a verb. A throw RUG.
35. D.C. summer hrs.: EDT. Eastern Daylight Time
36. Globes: ORBS. If the theme had been 2D instead of 3D I could have gone with the John Hartford song here. Oh, 'common, I'm not the only one who thought of that!
37. Hieroglyph beetle: SCARAB.
40. __ Pueblo, New Mexico: TAOS. A World Heritage Site.
41. "Seize the Awkward" spot, e.g.: PSA. Public Service Announcement
42. Fix, in a bad way: RIG. As in to rig an election. There was also a line from Stan Freberg - "You mean to tell me that, on top of everything else, this ship is RIGged!?"
43. Hang out after checking for rain?: AIR DRY. Hang something on the clothesline to dry.
45. Basic French verb: ETRE. Être meaning "to be" and avoir meaning "to have" form the bedrock of French conjugation.
49. Step on someone's toes, perhaps: TRIP. A clue to be taken literally and not idiomatically. Still, a bit of a stretch.
51. Alias indicator: AKA. Also Known As.
52. Cuban ingredient: HAM. As in a Cuban sandwich.
54. Native Nebraskans: OMAHAS. . . . and, without the S, an eponymous city. Speaking of which:
57. Reggae kin: SKA. Everything You Need To Know - Ska vs Reggae See also 32 Down.
58. "Queen of Country" McEntire: REBA.
Fancy
63. Corp. bigwig: EXEC. Abbreviated clue, abbreviated answer. EXECutive
64. Boo-boo: OWIE. Kidspeak.
65. Animal whose name means "eater of bark" in Algonquian: MOOSE.
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| Thanks, perps. |
66. Entitled men?: SIRS. Men with titles.
67. Snow day toy: SLED. Hi, Calvin! Hi, Hobbes!
68. Field for Kahlo y Burga: ARTE. Today's Spanish lesson. Art, in English.
67. Snow day toy: SLED. Hi, Calvin! Hi, Hobbes!
68. Field for Kahlo y Burga: ARTE. Today's Spanish lesson. Art, in English.
Down:
1. High point of hospitality?: ROOF TOP BAR. Another clue meant to be taken literally.
2. "My b!": OOPS. "My bad!" What’s the most terrifying word in nuclear physics? Oops!
3. Norm: Abbr.: STD. STandarD.
4. "What-ev-er!" expressions: EYE ROLLS.
5. Gum balls?: WADS. My aunt always put a WAD of Copenhagen between her cheek and gun before swimming . . . She liked taking a dip.
6. Nonprofit domain: ORG. See also 23 Down. A .ORG domain extension is short for organization, and it was initially intended for non-profit organizations. Over time, however, it has expanded to include other groups, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), charities, educational institutions, and community-driven projects.
7. Nocturnal cat?: LEO. You can see the LEO constellation at night.
8. Seed money investor?: FARMER. Cute play on words. FARMERS invest money in seeds.
9. Celtic language: GAELIC. The only GAELIC that this solver knows is Sláinte !
10. Potatoes, in Urdu: ALOO. And now for something completely different...
11. __ finder: STUD. A handy device to have if one is hanging something heavy on the wall of their home.
12. Small bouquet: POSY.
13. Sausage that may be boiled in bier: BRATWURST. Bier, with the German spelling, was the tip off.
16. "__ dare?": DO I.
17. Karenina of literature: ANNA.
18. Ruby, e.g.: GEM. I need a good GEM related pun here but I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
23. Academic domain: EDU. See also 6 Down. The ending for an online domain associated with a school or university.
24. Creator of Sonic and Knuckles: SEGA. A video game reference.
26. Dorm figs.: RAS. Resident AdvisorS or Assistants Dormitory
27. Sink hole: DRAIN. Another clue to be taken literally. A hole in the sink.
28. Hindu goddess whose name means "impassable": DURGA. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps. From Wikipedia:
30. Dish that resembles a jellied meatloaf: HEAD CHEESE. Despite its name it is neither cheese nor any type of dairy product.
31. Endearingly nerdy: ADORKABLE. A portmanteau. Adorable / Dork
32. Teeny: ITSY.
A ReggaeSka Cover
33. Lasso: ROPE.
38. __ rotation: CROP.
39. Many unhappy returns?: BAD KARMA
40. "Ur so right": TRU. IMHO not the best moment in the puzzle. TRU?
44. Investigative journalist __ B. Wells: IDA. A frequent visitor.
46. Moral philosophy: ETHICS. What do you call a guy who believes in ETHICal treatment of spiders? PETA Parker.
47. Spots for hustlers: DISCOS. Do the Hustle.
48. Tahoe, for one: LAKE. Lots of ways to clue LAKE if one heads down this path. That, though, is often an amusing part of these puzzles. One has to figure out if the answer needs to be something specific or general.
50. "Gnarly!": RAD. Power Thesaurus lists 584 synonyms for gnarly.
53. Fit to be tied: MAD.
54. Some Keats works: ODES. ODE to a cold:
When your nose is runny
Some people think it's funny
But it'snot
55. Dress choice: MAXI.
56. Assert: AVER. To AVER is to affirm and to AVOW is to openly declare.
57. Ignored the signs, perhaps: SPED.
58. Real hoot: RIOT. Idiomatic See also 60 Down
60. Real hooter: OWL. Literal See also 58 Down
61. March 14 dessert: PIE. March 14th, or 3/14 or 314 or 3.14 or
60. Real hooter: OWL. Literal See also 58 Down
61. March 14 dessert: PIE. March 14th, or 3/14 or 314 or 3.14 or
62. Not against: FOR. Straightforward.
. . . and, on that positive note . . . well, maybe not just quite yet. If you've got six minutes to spare let Weird Al bracket today's journey through the third dimension:
______________________________________________
Postscript: This marine mammal will be doing some traveling and will miss its next couple of turns in the rotation. Be well, everyone!
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| M M OUT |
9 comments:
This puzzle, although it
looked intimidating at first, yielded its themed fills rather easily in the long run, so I have no complaints about it. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I liked the ORG/EDU pairing, as well as ALTO/MELODY. This was a fun romp with just enough grit to make it a late-weeker. Thanx, Jess and Mal-Man. (I really like that AI manatee on crossword.)
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS: It has its moments. Ellen Barkin is hilarious as a human "lawn dart." Allison Janney is memorable as Barkin's trailer-trash friend. And you'll howl at Denise Richards' song for the pageant talent.
Mal-man mentioned John Hartford. John had a tongue-in-cheek comment regarding the little Warby girls in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? -- "Those girls can flat sing."
Yay, the A/C is working again. Repair guy replaced a pressure switch a week ago and didn't get the fittings tight enough. A slow refrigerant leak caused the unit to fail seven days later on one of the hottest days of the year.
FIR, but rum->HAM, fat cat->FARMER, dee->GEM, and durge->DURGA.
Never heard of "Seize the Awkward." Combined with my b, adorkable, and ur so right / TRU, this puzzle ranks high on my poor choices scale. Reminds me of folks my age trying (and failing) to look cool when texting, or using texting abbreviations like LOL when talking to someone.
Unlike .gov, .mil and .edu, .org and .net have no constraints. I once had a .net and a different .org URL, just because the .com wasn't available.
FLN - Darren, when I read your "hale" comment, I read "haole" and wondered what you meant. Oh.
Thanks to our MalMan for the fun review.
I didn’t get the 3D part of the themer clues till I had them all filled with perp help. FIR in 18:55 which tells me it’s a Friday difficulty level, for me anyway. I’m guessing not many of us knew DURGA or ADORKABLE. I liked the clues for BAD KARMA, FARMER, and DRAIN. Thanks Jess for the morning challenge and to MalMan for the expo, enjoy your time off!
I'll be back in a bit to comment on today's puzzle. But I'm wondering if anyone had a chance to catch our editor Patti Varol's crossword in Monday's New York Times.
I thought it was pretty clever and challenging. She had five theme answers symmetrically arranged horizontally, with letter lengths from top to bottom of 10, 11, 15 (grid-spanner), 11, and 10. The first two letters of the theme answers were AA in the top one, followed by AE, then AI, AO, and AU in the bottom one. So the second letter is the five vowels in order.
Quite elegant and clean. The ten-letter AA one at the top turned out to be AARONJUDGE. Interestingly, the G was crossed by ROGER (Maris), another baseball star. C.C., were you advising Patti?!
NYT has a commenters' blog similar to ours, and the comments were generally varied, but overall favorable and positive. One guy said it was "the hardest Monday I've maybe ever done." Go, Patti!
FIR. I didn't find today's presentation to be very hard for a Friday. I got into a little trouble when I misspelled chai, reversing the A and the I by accident, but soon saw the error of my ways. Filling answers rapidly is never a great idea.
But the theme eluded me and I had to come here to have it explained to me. Doh! Of course, it's so obvious!
So overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 7:59 toDay to get to the enD of this crossworD puzzle.
"Durga" was a complete unknown.
Poor Norm at 3D with his "std". The foreign language lessons today were ok (aloo and arte).
Good Morning:
The theme was obvious early on but it took some thought to come up with the appropriate fill. While it’s not an old-fashioned Friday stumper, it’s a cut above the add/subtract a letter exercise. Durga needed perps and Adorkable needed the heave ho. Tru and Oops could have been clued less “cutesy” but, overall, the theme and solve were lighthearted enjoyment.
Thanks, Jess, and thanks, MalMan, for the usual puns and fun. Safe and enjoyable travels.
Have a great day.
I enjoyed Jess's challenge today, but if you're making a grilled cheese sandwich, please by all means do not use HEADCHEESE (30 Down). It is not cheese! The "head" in this case is quite literal.
In the puzzle there were some clever touches by Jess that I liked, such as ALTO and MELODY anchoring the NE.
The 3D theme was amusing, and I liked that two of the four theme answers were grid-spanners.
Husker Gary evidently has been holding sway with the powers-that-be: the other day we had OMAHA, and today, OMAHAS.
There was a cartoon in MalMan's recap that resonates in this neck of the woods, where the guy says, "Crop rotation is the key, cereals followed by wind turbines." Tehachapi, being a very windy--and agricultural--place, has the largest wind farm in the country (1550 MW).
Thanks, Jess, for providing us an enjoyable and challenging diversion. And thanks, MalMan, for so dependably and entertainingly holding down the recap fort today as usual.
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