Theme: FRUIT COLORED WORDS
17A: Purple creeper?: GRAPEVINE
56A: Green illumination?: LIMELIGHT
10D: Red explosive?: CHERRY BOMBS
24D: Reddish-yellow waterway: ORANGE RIVER
Hmm, how about LEMON GRASS, APPLE PIE, STRAWBERRY JAM, and OLIVE BRANCH? What else?
Another TV guide style puzzle, heavily blanketed with Show biz personality' names, highly inferable though. Great grid structure, very balanced theme entries. The word CELEB is perfectly anchored in the middle of the puzzle. The only flaw with the theme entries is the plural form of CHERRY BOMBS, all the other 3 are in singular form.
I was a venturesome solver this morning. I willfully took a few bold guesses at those dreadful Movie/TV star names, and was stunned again that they turned out to be the correct fills. McCOY, O'SHEA, ETHEL & KOPELL all yielded so easily to me. And I knew none of them. Wow, I've been so encouraged by my recklessness in crossword solving lately.
I did not finish the puzzle though. Could not close the deal on the upper left corner. I simply forgot ALGER, had no idea who was Uncle Miltie, did not know that ABATE can be transitive verb, and I put PAT instead of TAP for "Touch lightly".
ACROSS:
1A: Moderate: ABATE. Always thought ABATE as an intr v.
6A: Sine __non: QUA. Latin: Without which not. Basically it refers to something essential and indispensable. Is this blog a sine qua non to your daily happiness?
9A: "Bones" of "Star Trek": McCOY. No idea. Ferreted out the name by down fills.
14A: Type of pad or brief: LEGAL
15A: WWW address: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
23A: Pierre Auguste and Jean: RENOIRS. Have never heard of Jean RENOIR. The painter RENOIR, yes. Saw several of his pieces at Musée D'Orsay, did not like any. Not to my taste.
25A: Scorch: CHAR
27A: Shirley Temple movie: CURLY TOP. Oh, Shirley Temple, how do I love thee! Adorable.
31A:Musician Hayes: ISAAC. Stranger to me. Easy gettable though.
35A: Cylinder diameter: BORE. Unknown to me before.
37A: Show biz personality: CELEB. Need to reword the clue due to 46A answer (For SHOW).
38A: Muscat's land: OMAN. Muscat is also a kind of grape.
39A: __-pong: PING. Also a huge golf equipment brand. PING sponsors Solheim Cup.
40A: Place for cargo: HOLD. "The entire cargo space in the hull of a vessel."
41A: Fuse, as ores: SMELT
42A: Makes glossy: SLEEKENS. A new verb to me.
44A: Catch red-handed: NAB
46A: Diana of the Supremes: ROSS. Again?
46A: Just to keep up appearances: FOR SHOW
50A: Play lines: SCRIPT
55A: Popeye's honey: OLIVE (Oyl)
58A: Ring-shaped roll: BAGEL. Hmm, BAGEL + cream cheese + lox, sandwich in heaven!
60A: Singer Merman: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I strung it together by down clues.
61A: Comb stopper: SNARL
63A: School paper: ESSAY
DOWN:
1D: Horatio of fiction: ALGER. Clued as "Ragged Dick" author on last Friday's puzzle. I just forgot. I will probably forget it again in 2 hours.
2D: Uncle Miltie: BERLE. Stumper here. Is it gimme to you?
4D: Touch lightly: TAP
5D: Funereal: ELEGIAC. Too sorrowful a word to see so early in the morning.
6D: Witty remarks: QUIPS
7D: Diner brewers: URNS. Another dreadful word to look at despite the cheerful clue.
9D: Fatal: MORTAL. Alright, I got it. ELEGIAC, URN & MORTAL. All Memento MORI.
13D: Poisonous evergreens: YEWS. Did not know that they are poisonous.
22D: Decorative plant: SHRUB
25D: Made well: CURED. I like how CURED intersects with CELEB. Want to cure your drug/alcohol addition? Do crosswords!
29D: Kind of thermometer: ORAL. See 49D.
34D: Lowly workers: PEONS. Spanish for peasants.
37D: Storage box: CHEST
41D: Bakery products trade name: SARA LEE
43D: "Love Boat" co-star: KOPELL (Bernie). Unknown to me. The clue for 17A: Purple Creeper & this "Love Boat" reminded me of our purple Vikings' Love Boat Party Scandal.
47D: Downs and Grant: HUGHS. Adore HUGH Grant, have never heard of HUGH Downs.
44D: Musical symbol: NOTE. Has anyone seen HUGH Grant and Drew Barrymore's " Music & Lyrics"?
48D: Actress Tessie: O'SHEA. Stranger to me. Where is Milo? Wikipedia says that Tessie O'SHEA was a guest on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" the night Beatles made their debut.
49D: How a water balloon impacts: WETLY. Hmm, it's an ART to put ORAL & WETLY in the same puzzle, so close to each other, isn't it?
53D: Critical: DIRE. Ugh, this "Silent Tsunami" food crisis. Scary.
57D: "___ Not Unusual": ITS. Tom Jones' song. Not familiar to me. Here is my favorite.
C.C.
17A: Purple creeper?: GRAPEVINE
56A: Green illumination?: LIMELIGHT
10D: Red explosive?: CHERRY BOMBS
24D: Reddish-yellow waterway: ORANGE RIVER
Hmm, how about LEMON GRASS, APPLE PIE, STRAWBERRY JAM, and OLIVE BRANCH? What else?
Another TV guide style puzzle, heavily blanketed with Show biz personality' names, highly inferable though. Great grid structure, very balanced theme entries. The word CELEB is perfectly anchored in the middle of the puzzle. The only flaw with the theme entries is the plural form of CHERRY BOMBS, all the other 3 are in singular form.
I was a venturesome solver this morning. I willfully took a few bold guesses at those dreadful Movie/TV star names, and was stunned again that they turned out to be the correct fills. McCOY, O'SHEA, ETHEL & KOPELL all yielded so easily to me. And I knew none of them. Wow, I've been so encouraged by my recklessness in crossword solving lately.
I did not finish the puzzle though. Could not close the deal on the upper left corner. I simply forgot ALGER, had no idea who was Uncle Miltie, did not know that ABATE can be transitive verb, and I put PAT instead of TAP for "Touch lightly".
ACROSS:
1A: Moderate: ABATE. Always thought ABATE as an intr v.
6A: Sine __non: QUA. Latin: Without which not. Basically it refers to something essential and indispensable. Is this blog a sine qua non to your daily happiness?
9A: "Bones" of "Star Trek": McCOY. No idea. Ferreted out the name by down fills.
14A: Type of pad or brief: LEGAL
15A: WWW address: URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
23A: Pierre Auguste and Jean: RENOIRS. Have never heard of Jean RENOIR. The painter RENOIR, yes. Saw several of his pieces at Musée D'Orsay, did not like any. Not to my taste.
25A: Scorch: CHAR
27A: Shirley Temple movie: CURLY TOP. Oh, Shirley Temple, how do I love thee! Adorable.
31A:Musician Hayes: ISAAC. Stranger to me. Easy gettable though.
35A: Cylinder diameter: BORE. Unknown to me before.
37A: Show biz personality: CELEB. Need to reword the clue due to 46A answer (For SHOW).
38A: Muscat's land: OMAN. Muscat is also a kind of grape.
39A: __-pong: PING. Also a huge golf equipment brand. PING sponsors Solheim Cup.
40A: Place for cargo: HOLD. "The entire cargo space in the hull of a vessel."
41A: Fuse, as ores: SMELT
42A: Makes glossy: SLEEKENS. A new verb to me.
44A: Catch red-handed: NAB
46A: Diana of the Supremes: ROSS. Again?
46A: Just to keep up appearances: FOR SHOW
50A: Play lines: SCRIPT
55A: Popeye's honey: OLIVE (Oyl)
58A: Ring-shaped roll: BAGEL. Hmm, BAGEL + cream cheese + lox, sandwich in heaven!
60A: Singer Merman: ETHEL. Unknown to me. I strung it together by down clues.
61A: Comb stopper: SNARL
63A: School paper: ESSAY
DOWN:
1D: Horatio of fiction: ALGER. Clued as "Ragged Dick" author on last Friday's puzzle. I just forgot. I will probably forget it again in 2 hours.
2D: Uncle Miltie: BERLE. Stumper here. Is it gimme to you?
4D: Touch lightly: TAP
5D: Funereal: ELEGIAC. Too sorrowful a word to see so early in the morning.
6D: Witty remarks: QUIPS
7D: Diner brewers: URNS. Another dreadful word to look at despite the cheerful clue.
9D: Fatal: MORTAL. Alright, I got it. ELEGIAC, URN & MORTAL. All Memento MORI.
13D: Poisonous evergreens: YEWS. Did not know that they are poisonous.
22D: Decorative plant: SHRUB
25D: Made well: CURED. I like how CURED intersects with CELEB. Want to cure your drug/alcohol addition? Do crosswords!
29D: Kind of thermometer: ORAL. See 49D.
34D: Lowly workers: PEONS. Spanish for peasants.
37D: Storage box: CHEST
41D: Bakery products trade name: SARA LEE
43D: "Love Boat" co-star: KOPELL (Bernie). Unknown to me. The clue for 17A: Purple Creeper & this "Love Boat" reminded me of our purple Vikings' Love Boat Party Scandal.
47D: Downs and Grant: HUGHS. Adore HUGH Grant, have never heard of HUGH Downs.
44D: Musical symbol: NOTE. Has anyone seen HUGH Grant and Drew Barrymore's " Music & Lyrics"?
48D: Actress Tessie: O'SHEA. Stranger to me. Where is Milo? Wikipedia says that Tessie O'SHEA was a guest on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" the night Beatles made their debut.
49D: How a water balloon impacts: WETLY. Hmm, it's an ART to put ORAL & WETLY in the same puzzle, so close to each other, isn't it?
53D: Critical: DIRE. Ugh, this "Silent Tsunami" food crisis. Scary.
57D: "___ Not Unusual": ITS. Tom Jones' song. Not familiar to me. Here is my favorite.
C.C.
Good morning, C.C. and gang - Wow, what a colorful and quick week so far! Another smooth flow with a bit of 'perp' help. I'm beginning to miss the weekly 'hammer'; is it me, or are the puzzles getting easier?
ReplyDeleteC.C., Milton Berle is a familiar name to anyone with a few decades on them.
Oh, and you should see what a cherry bomb does to a school toilet...
Good morning cc and other bloggers. The crossword today was easy and completed in about 8 minutes. I do not understand 24D as it filled in to be irangeriver and then I realized that I had spelled 23A as reniors in lieu of renoirs. Made a great difference.
ReplyDeleteGood morning CC and everyone else. I aced this one today. It must have been REAL easy for me to get it so fast. CC, you cracked me up with the video of Tom Jones. I saw him live once........He's, um, how can I say this? Well, once was enough for me! hahaha Do you know what his "trademark" was? If not, I will send you an email about it. UGH
ReplyDeleteHave a great day everyone!
cc I think Hugh Downs was a host of some sort on TV. I remember his as being tall with light curly hair.
ReplyDeleteGood morning. When I first went to the site it was still on Monday's puzzle. Got up too early I guess.
ReplyDeleteAnother Star Trek clue. Isaac Hayes was the voice of Chef on South Park and the "kingpin" (or whatever) in "Escape from New York" with Kurt Russell. Uncle Miltie - brings back some memories.
Dennis - you didn't try that toilet bomb did you? I know what they do also (don't ask how I know).
Olive is in the puzzle albeit as Olive Oyl (55A).
Sleeken is in several dictionaries.
7 1/2 minutes. Yay! The puzzles do seem to be getting easier.
cc Isaac Hayes was a soul and funk singer but he had a quality that appealed to my ear. Used to listen to him a lot.
ReplyDeleteHugh Downs - announcer for Jack Paar on the Tonight Show, panelist on "To Tell The Truth" and host of the game show "Concentration." Co-hosted "Not for Women Only" with Barbara Walters.
ReplyDeleteGood morning CC and company,
ReplyDeleteA great start to a Tuesday with smooth sailing through the crossword today. Can anyone tell me why whenever I hear "It's Not Unusual", I want to break out into song and dance? Or do I just need to hit the looney bin?! ;o) (Ok, so I started to hear the "Love Boat" theme in my head when I read that clue!) Fun use of "quips" when we tend to get those frequently with these. And, dennis, please don't put school toilet and cherry bomb in the same sentence - I still have nightmares of when a kid did that in the first school where I taught. I was thankful that, at least, it wasn't one of my students!
Have a great day everyone!
You could "hot wick" the cherry bomb with a cigarette so that you wouldn't be in the toilet when it went off.
ReplyDeleteDennis,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, a colorful week so far. Wonder what's on the plate tomorrow. So, what's your answer for my 6A question?
Katherine,
Yes I know! Have never seen him in person though!
Dick,
I am going to give ISSAC Hayes a try later to see how he appeals to your ears.
Drdad,
More coffee! I was baffled when I got your email. But both days are COLOR themes. I guess that's why.
Thanks for the HUGH Downs and ISSAC Hayes information. I shudder every time "Star War" or "Star Trek" or "Lord of Rings" makes an appearance. They are all in your neck of the woods.
Good point on OLIVE/OYL. Nothing to celebrate today? Thank you for pointing out the "Poetry Reading Day" yesterday. I just love so much this e. e. cumming poem Crockett1947 mentioned. It's beautiful.
Mkat,
I could not get your point of the "Love Boat" theme. What am I missing here?
drdad, that wasn't as 'sporting' as lighting it, then seeing if 3 boys could fit through the doorway at the same time....I believe it's also the first time I heard the term "ne'er-do-well".
ReplyDeleteC.C., yes.
ReplyDeleteCC,
ReplyDeleteNothing too profound, just that I could hear the "Love Boat" theme song (or whatever you want to call it) to the show. My mother used to love watching that show, so I heard it every week for who knows how long. Just something I noticed because I immediately could hear "It's Not Unusual" in my head when I read that clue.
NO! NO! The crosswords are NOT getting easier.....we're getting smarter!! Just keep repeating that to yourselves. Did well. No real stumpers. Yes, Uncle Miltie was a gimme. Probably to anyone in our age group who had access to a TV.
ReplyDeleteIs SLEEKEN really a word? Oh, well, it fits so let's use it.
Gotta go..we admitted my mom to the hosp Sun and need to check her progress.
CYA
BTW...Cherrybombs and mailboxes.....anybody ever been there?
ReplyDeletebill, you can pretty much stop at "cherry bombs and". Creative juices were really flowing back then.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, cherry bomb + snowball = kids' hand grenade. Don't try this at home.
Good morning, CC et al, Loved this puzzle!
ReplyDeleteDennis and gang, what great evidence of a mis-spent youth..cherry bombs in toilets! I knew I liked you guys! How about cherry bombs in mail boxes?
Those links,CC! Great job!!! This puzzle and those links were quite colorful all right... stimulating!The Love Boat scandal was quite interesting to say the least. Those Vikings must have been drinking "Barbar" or some other "O-man"ly drink, or maybe the "moon" was full. They gave the Love Boat a whole new dimension!
And then the link for Tom Jones and that O-so-manly voice...and his trademark! Holy Hotpants! Oh my goodness and "goodness has nothing to do with it!!", as Mae West would say. What a way to start the day! Thanks! I'm going to start smokin'...crack..cigars!
Yes, mailboxes also. And we tried wrapping sparklers (about 30 or 40 of them) up in a lot of duct tape, leaving the end of one sticking out, and lighting them. Pretty good bang out of that.
ReplyDeleteHappy National Shrimp Scampi Day!! Yum!!!
I was red-hot this morning and couldn't be stopped. Got the scent of the theme early on and didn't miss a beat. I think I could finish faster if I wasn't left-handed (how many of you are also?). The problem is that while I'm writing in the answer my left hand is covering the clues. I can't read the next clue until I withdraw my hand and, once I have the answer to a clue I have to re-position my hand. That sounds really lame but I think it actually slows me down when I'm flying through a puzzle like I did today.
ReplyDelete"Life is a bowl of cherries!"" as Uncle Miltie might have said and so was this xword. Lois you crack me up -- one of our best punsters here. Just where the 'ell is the orange river though and don't anyone tell me it's out here in the orange groves! Onward--I couldn't hear the Love boat theme but did hear "space, the final frontier" and its alien-type noise.
ReplyDeleteThomas -
ReplyDeleteOrange River
Went fishin' with CBs before! I agree with Dennis - CBs & let your imagination run wild.
ReplyDelete2 sub 10 mins in a row. What will Friday hold for us at this rate.
All of these colors remind me of rainbow sno-cones.
Bill is right !!! The puzzles are not getting easier... we are getting smarter.. :):):) At least that is the way I would like to feel today.... I Aced it !!!!
ReplyDeleteDr.Dad,
ReplyDeleteLike Thomas I never heard of the Orange River.
Thanks for the link.
Dr.G
Want some colored snacks to celebrate the "National Shrimp Day?" Have some, with the Babe!
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone. Yes, C.C. Uncle Miltie was a gimmee -- those of us older than dirt know him well. Mis-did SEAR for CHAR, but discovered my error. Didn't know for sure how to spell ELEGIAC -- had the I and A reversed at first. Slow start, but under 9 1/2 minutes. Never heard of the Orange River.
ReplyDeletec.c. not a bad snack tray.
ReplyDeleteC.C., you need peanuts and cracker jacks with the Babe.
ReplyDeleteDennis,
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Cracker Jacks, I've never seen a Babe Ruth Cracker Jacks card, have you? What's his earliest card?
Did you know that Cracker Jack is singular? No such thing as Cracker Jacks, LOL. Check out the words for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
ReplyDeleteHi C.C. and all you wizards!
ReplyDeleteNewcomer and a rank amateur. Hard to believe you all finish these puzzles in five minutes or less. Takes me an hour usually and with the help of google, dictionary and C.C.!!!!
But I sure enjoy trying and surely get a bang out of the comments.
Hope you can put up with me.
Happy day everyone.
C.C., Babe Ruth's rookie card is a 1914 Baltimore News card. I think one sold a while back for $200,000. Not sure if he was ever on a Cracker Jack card.
ReplyDeletethanks doc..it all comes back now..the orange free state, will of o and even the house of bernadotte (in sweden) who are married into the mix. nice pic...want to go to s africa soon--have been raising rhodesians for years.
ReplyDeleteThe wealth of knowledge that gets displayed here is incredible! I always thought it was Cracker Jacks but it's not. The brand name is Cracker Jack and I think over time the public got to referring to the snack in the box in the plural sense.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Crockett.
drdad, that is hysterical! I love duct tape. That is the best stuff ever! I esp love how it holds mouths shut and hands tied. I'm such a good mother! Never thought about using it as the bonding agent for sparklers! July 4 is coming soon too. I'll be on the wide open OK plains. We ought to be able to see that blast from a distance. Thanks for the tip! Now can you explain the "hot wick" more explicitly?
ReplyDeleteLois, how did I know you'd would be interested in a 'hot wick' explanation?
ReplyDeleteDennis, you do make me laugh! A good man is hard to find and vice versa. I just thought it might be speed things up, or spice things up. Whichever! Just blame it all on Tom Jones!
ReplyDeleteLois and Dennis - minds in the gutter? LOL.
ReplyDeleteTo hot wick a firecracker is to light a cigarette and then stick the fuse of the firecracker through the cigarette below where it is burning. When it burns down far enough the fuse lights and bang! Of course when that happens you can be far, far away.
What other types of hot wicks are you familiar with?