Theme: An ODD NUMBER of Songs (Thanks, Crockett1947)
20A: Blondie number: ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
41A: Commodores number: THREE TIMES A LADY
59A: Vogues number: FIVE O'CLOCK WORLD
A couple of things first:
1) For your information, the record for letter S appearing in a 15*15 NY Times' grid is 35, so Michael T. William's Saturday snaky puzzle (28 S's) is not too wild.
2) As you probably already know, besides Josiah Breward, our editor Wayne Robert R. Williams' other alias name is Willy A. Wiseman. It's an anagram of "i.e. Wayne Williams".
Quite a few unknown words/names in today's puzzle. I've never heard of ZEREX, AKIM. GOMER & ACTH. But I am just so smitten with those expensive & scrabbly letters (Z, X, K, Y, and V) in the grid. And I LOVE (15A: Adoration) the "songs with numbers in the title" theme entries. Ravishing!
ACROSS:
14A: Pituitary hormone: ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic Hormone). Too complicated for me to understand.
16A: "The Age of Anxiety" poet: AUDEN (Wystan Hugh Auden). The poem won him a Pulitzer prize in 1948.
17A: Wolf in Oaxaca: LOBO. Spanish for wolf.
23A: Sandberg of baseball: RYNE. He was inducted into Baseball HOF in 2005.
24A: Bobbsey twin: NAN. I am so tired of this clue. If you don't like Indian bread NAN, try Talese NAN then.
28A: Apothecary's amount: DRAM
33A: Astrologer Sydney: OMARR. Got him today.
37A: Tracy Marrow's stage name: ICE T. One of a few rappers that I know of.
46A: Pyle of classic TV: GOMER. A complete stranger to me.
55A: Certain fraternity letters: XIS.
65A: Actor Bridges: LLOYD. I don't know him. Lucky guess.
67A: Comic canine: ODIE. Garfield comic strip.
71A: Hallmark product: CARDS. Wow, I had no idea that the plural form of product is still product.
72A: Miniature race car: KART. I really like the 2 K's in today's puzzle.
73A: Formerly, once: ERST. He is back!!
DOWN:
3D: Swiss rescue breed: ST. BERNARD. Nana (Peter Pan) is one.
4D: Ostentatious: SHOWY
5D: Assassin: SLAYER. Buffy is one.
12D: Prestone rival: ZEREX. What is it?
27D: "As I see it" in chatroom shorthand: IMHO (In My Humble Opinion). JMO next time please!
29D: Actor Tamiroff: AKIM. Nope, not familiar to me. Would've not got it without the across clues.
38D: Portable audio-video device: CAMCORDER
39D: German river: EDER. Or ELBE sometimes. EGER is also a river in Germany, isn't it?
40D: Neophyte: TYRO. Can be spelled as TIRO as well.
48D: Mass departure: EXODUS
50D: Like broken promises: UNKEPT
52D: Company with a spokeduck: AFLAC. Love those Yogi Berra commercials.
53D: Cohort of Jane and Laraine: GILDA. Unknown to me. I got it from across clues.
54D: French auxiliary verb: AVOIR. Only 2 auxiliary verbs in French: AVOIR and ÊTRE.
56D: Loose: SLACK
58D: Boxer Archie: MOORE. Unknown to me. Only know Demi __ , Michael __ and Roger __.
64D: Artful: DEFT
Sorry about my flip-flop on theme summary today. But White Rose Movement's Love is a Number immediately popped into my head after I got all the songs with numbers and spotted LOVE on the upper middle corner.
C.C.
20A: Blondie number: ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
41A: Commodores number: THREE TIMES A LADY
59A: Vogues number: FIVE O'CLOCK WORLD
A couple of things first:
1) For your information, the record for letter S appearing in a 15*15 NY Times' grid is 35, so Michael T. William's Saturday snaky puzzle (28 S's) is not too wild.
2) As you probably already know, besides Josiah Breward, our editor Wayne Robert R. Williams' other alias name is Willy A. Wiseman. It's an anagram of "i.e. Wayne Williams".
Quite a few unknown words/names in today's puzzle. I've never heard of ZEREX, AKIM. GOMER & ACTH. But I am just so smitten with those expensive & scrabbly letters (Z, X, K, Y, and V) in the grid. And I LOVE (15A: Adoration) the "songs with numbers in the title" theme entries. Ravishing!
ACROSS:
14A: Pituitary hormone: ACTH (Adrenocorticotropic Hormone). Too complicated for me to understand.
16A: "The Age of Anxiety" poet: AUDEN (Wystan Hugh Auden). The poem won him a Pulitzer prize in 1948.
17A: Wolf in Oaxaca: LOBO. Spanish for wolf.
23A: Sandberg of baseball: RYNE. He was inducted into Baseball HOF in 2005.
24A: Bobbsey twin: NAN. I am so tired of this clue. If you don't like Indian bread NAN, try Talese NAN then.
28A: Apothecary's amount: DRAM
33A: Astrologer Sydney: OMARR. Got him today.
37A: Tracy Marrow's stage name: ICE T. One of a few rappers that I know of.
46A: Pyle of classic TV: GOMER. A complete stranger to me.
55A: Certain fraternity letters: XIS.
65A: Actor Bridges: LLOYD. I don't know him. Lucky guess.
67A: Comic canine: ODIE. Garfield comic strip.
71A: Hallmark product: CARDS. Wow, I had no idea that the plural form of product is still product.
72A: Miniature race car: KART. I really like the 2 K's in today's puzzle.
73A: Formerly, once: ERST. He is back!!
DOWN:
3D: Swiss rescue breed: ST. BERNARD. Nana (Peter Pan) is one.
4D: Ostentatious: SHOWY
5D: Assassin: SLAYER. Buffy is one.
12D: Prestone rival: ZEREX. What is it?
27D: "As I see it" in chatroom shorthand: IMHO (In My Humble Opinion). JMO next time please!
29D: Actor Tamiroff: AKIM. Nope, not familiar to me. Would've not got it without the across clues.
38D: Portable audio-video device: CAMCORDER
39D: German river: EDER. Or ELBE sometimes. EGER is also a river in Germany, isn't it?
40D: Neophyte: TYRO. Can be spelled as TIRO as well.
48D: Mass departure: EXODUS
50D: Like broken promises: UNKEPT
52D: Company with a spokeduck: AFLAC. Love those Yogi Berra commercials.
53D: Cohort of Jane and Laraine: GILDA. Unknown to me. I got it from across clues.
54D: French auxiliary verb: AVOIR. Only 2 auxiliary verbs in French: AVOIR and ÊTRE.
56D: Loose: SLACK
58D: Boxer Archie: MOORE. Unknown to me. Only know Demi __ , Michael __ and Roger __.
64D: Artful: DEFT
Sorry about my flip-flop on theme summary today. But White Rose Movement's Love is a Number immediately popped into my head after I got all the songs with numbers and spotted LOVE on the upper middle corner.
C.C.
51 comments:
Hello everyone. Todays puzzle was easy and did it in Dennis time plus some more. Did not know Omarr Sydney for 33A and did not know Tracy Marrow's stage name otherwise did OK. The time theme quickly jumped out at me so the longer crosses were easy. Hope you all have a great day as I watch more rain fall on the Berg. Go Pens!
Good morning, C.C. and gang - found this one snag-free this morning; the three musical answers came quickly, and then the rest fell into place around them.
Sounds like yesterday's puzzle was a beauty - when's the last time we had a real 'hammer' during the week?
C.C., Gomer Pyle was a TV series featuring a country-bumpkin Marine played by Jim Nabors.
Zerex and Prestone are both antifreezes.
And yes, a 'product' can be expressed as a plural.
Hope everyone has an outstanding day - we here in the NE are still waiting for a prolonged stretch of warm weather this month.
Oh, and mkatesq and dick, congratulations on the win; Pens vs. Red Wings would make for an amazing S.C. finals.
cc Zerex is a brand name for antifreeze.
Good morning CC et al, I 'LOVE' this puzzle. Pushed 'Dennis time' but like dick, didn't know 33A or that IceT had a real name. Loved the link to Lloyd Bridges. Does anyone remember Sea Hunt? Had to laugh at the memory of the fabulous Gilda 53A. She is so missed. See that we still have 'moore''lies' floating around and I'm sure 'nails' was entered just for dick. Have to go polish my tarnished 'halo'.
Great gams, dennis. Cute pic.
Enjoy this gorgeous day.
Good Morning from the cool, damp, dreary state of NY. Will we EVER have a sign of summer? Global Warming my a**. End of May and our forcast called for possible wet flurries last night. Needless to say I didn't wait up for it!!
Party was great even tho it rainey and misty all PM. Granddaughter got a car for B-day so she was ecstatic. Even the rain couldn't dampen that spirit.
OK, Called Mr Google twice; once for 53d and again for 37a. Was kinda sure about GILDA but had to check and had no clue about ICET. The rest all came together with intersecting clues and took about 1/2 hr. Still not an ace but that's good for me.
CYA later
Stupid keyboard!!!??? RAINY not RAINEY
Good morning everyone!
I didn't have lots of trouble this morning, but I see I wasn't alone on Ice T and Omarr! I too loved this theme, something different.
Sat outside on the patio as I do every morning to do my puzzle and the smoke from the wildfires is very thick today! We actually may get some rain, but not enough to put a dent in them. I was going to paint my fence this week, so that must be why the rain is coming!
Good morning. Another 8 minute job! Dennis probably did it in 5 **&**%%!!!#
Jim Nabors had a fantastic singing voice as well.
Lloyd Bridges - I remember him from "Airplane!" and Hot Shots. Father of Beau and Jeff Bridges. Was offered the role of Capt. Kirk on Star Trek before William Shatner.
Tyro - etymology = medieval Latin for young soldier.
Remembered Sydney this morning.
Nemo is back!
Lots of first names today (some hidden) - Ryne, Alex, Milo, Gomer, Lloyd, Gilda, Karl, Bernard, Akim (Olajuwon - remember him?), Cam (Neely - Boston Bruins), Omar (buried in Omarr - as in Sharif), Tex (Ritter), Andre.
Happy Circus Day! (Ringling Bros. started in 1884). Also, today starts "Work At Home Moms Week."
Have a great day!
Hiya, folks!
Could this puzzle possibly have crammed in any more proper names? I don't mind a few, but it gets annoying when every other clue is the name of an actor, the name of a product, the name of a singer, etc.
I ran into a snag early on when I put ESPY for 5A instead of SPOT, but that eventually got resolved with the cross clues ("perps"?). The rest was fairly straightforward except for 37A / 39D. I put ODER instead of EDER for 39D and therefore ended up with ICOT instead of ICET for 37A. I figured it was just an odd stage name I had never heard of. Oops. I acutally know who Ice-T is, since I watch him regularly on "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit." Had no idea what his real name was, though. Ah well...
Good morning CC and company,
Not too terrible today. A nice start to the morning when I finally made it in to the office. "Dram" got me on this one and for whatever reason, "spot" was troubling me. Eek.
dick - yay Pens! I was so excited watching the game. And a shut out to boot! :o)
dennis - I agree Pens v. Red Wings will be a great match-up. However, I think, very tough for the Pens. They need to rest up.
Have a great day all!
C.C - I checked Sunday's blog just now and left a comment there regarding questions asked.
barry, "perps" is short for perpendicular cousins; just a term we came up with early on to describe across vs. down and vice-versa.
lois, thanks for the kind words - that's my favorite spot to attack the morning puzzles. Also, I thought the couple words you typed after "pushed dennis time" was very telling...
Can't join you yet-they still have Saturday's puzzle online and no Monday puzzle ): .
Good morning everyone. I had a hard time with this one. I got most of it but got stuck on a few. I didn't know Xerex was an anti-freeze.
Lois, your comment from yesterday cracked me up. I sure didn't feel too good all day yesterday from lack of sleep. But I slept 10 hours last night! Feel great today.
Kim, that's awful that you are so close to the fires. I hope it isn't a danger to you. Looks like your fence will have to wait.
Katherine: Me too. Sleep solves a multitude of problems. Great recovery!
Dennis: you make me laugh sooo hard. And as accurate as your observation may be, "Idaho" is not a personal statement. I do have some 'morels'.
Songs with numbers in the titles! We could go wild with those: Sixteen Candles, 500 Miles, The Night has a Thousand Eyes, The Twelve Days of Christmas, You are Sixteen Going on Seventeen. I could go on until the "Twelfth of Never" but so could everyone else. I'll just stay happy with the author's choices and say well done.
Just to update you...53 down in today's puzzle is Gilda Ratner. She was married to Gene Wilder. She was on SNL with Jane and Laraine. She died of ovarian cancer at a young age. Thank you for your help every morning. I do turn to you for help and you always came thru. Have a great day.
Gwen
Hi Gwen - it's Gilda Radner, and you're right, she was an SNL fixture back in the day. 'Rosanna Danna' was priceless, especially the "never mind".
Zerex is antifreeze in a blue container while prestone is in yellow container.
Dennis: Rosann Rosanna Danna was hilarious! She went on one time about 'a little ball of spit'on somebody's lip that just danced around...it was great. I saw that ball of spit shortly thereafter on my French professor's lips. He didn't understand why I was continuously laughing. She'll live on forever.
Dennis time for me today. Had to make a few leaps of faith but they all paid off. Lloyd Bridges is the father of Beau & Jeff Bridges. He's best known for the TV show "Sea Hunt" - I loved that show. Gilda Radner, besides the Roseanne Roseannadanna character, did a famous spoof of Barbara Walters (Barbara Wawa) and will always be known for the phrase "It's always something".
Lois, so many lines...
Nice puzzle.... missed out on Omarr and IceT... but then again... as Gilda would say...."It's always something" .... I miss her humor... she was great !!!!
Good morning everyone! C.C., how about "An ODD NUMBER of songs" since one, three and five are odd numbers and there are three theme answers? Just the math teacher in me coming to the fore. XEREX and PRESTONE are anti-freezes. I guess you don't take care of auto maintenance. False starts on 5A (ESPY), 26D (PANS), 45A (misread, so had IRAN), and 46A (just saw Pyle, so put in ERNIE), but corrected them all. My bugaboo was 37A and 39D. ODER is a German border river, but ICOT just doesn't compute. There’s always tomorrow, sigh. The St. Bernard Dog Club holds its annual show in St. Bernard, OH. Congrats to all the Pen fans out there. Now comes the Finals. Barry, glad to see I'm not the Lone Ranger.
Crocket1947,
ODD, that's what is missing! I asked myself several times earlier this morning why 1, 3, 5? Thank you so much. Muscat grape, O MAN, it's sweet!
Dennis,
I want to sit on that chair, can you fish there? Under what condition is the plural form of product is still product? I've seen so many PRODUCTS.
Drdad,
Good observation on the hidden TEX & TEX & OMAR. I don't know who Akim Olajuwon is. When you see Aishwarya Rai in 10 days, don't make the Richard Gere mistake. The nation that offered us Kama Sutra can be very prissy!
Mh,
Dennis time? You mean under 5 minutes? What's your record?
Dick & everybody else,
What is your definition of a good puzzle? Would you classify today's "An Odd Number of Songs" as good or just so so?
Hi C.C. and gang, had some trouble with this on today!
I spelled 23A Ryan so 5D & 21D made no sense for awhile even tho' I knew Andre Agassi. 10D confused me. Is it from "The Simpson's"? I've never watched it.
Barry, I put ODER in fro 39D too, that's because I didn't know who 37A was either, live and learn huh?
Gilda Radner was one of a kind! I loved the skit where she sat on a park bench in her tight hair-net and bopped the guy on the head when he asked her if she "wanted a Walnetto" :) :) I can't remember his name but I am sure one of you will let me know.
Portland weather will be mercifully cooler today...it takes us time to get used to so much sun, I don't like going from 57 to 94F in 1 or 2 days! Thank heaven for central air-conditioning!!!
Hope you all have a great day,
Carol
Please pardon my typo's,
Carol
got tripped up by 'dram,' and put drop instead, didn't know ice t's real name, also didn't think hallmark product answer would be plural, so tried to put 'candy.'
53d made me smile .. my favorite rosanne rosannadanna speech was about the 'presidential erection.' nevermind.
nice to get nailed again, one way or another .. and crossing 'three times a lady' even. LOVE that.
Carol, I believe you're thinking of the Arte Johnson/Ruth Buzzi skits on Laugh-In; they were outstanding.
dennis: yeah, I've said that before too.
C.C., yes, it's a great fishing lake - lots of bass, pickerel, etc.
Good for swimming too, although with snapping turtles also populating it, I have appendage anxiety.
melissa: How funny! Great observation on the intersection of Nails and 3X a lady. Love your Gilda memory.
Dennis: I was referring to your 9:11 comment. It's amazing how creative some guys can be!
Carol, I concur with Dennis. It was Arte Johnson and Ruth Buzzi. Gilda Radner came much later.
How embarrassing!! You are correct, I don't know how I got that mixed up!Thanks for setting me straight...I loved watching both shows.
Dick et al,
Please don't answer my 12:01pm question regarding your definition of a good puzzle here on today's blog. I've just published one special entry for that topic. Let's discuss it there. Thanks.
Melissa,
I 15A your observation on 3X & One Way or Another & NAILS connection. It's EXCITING.
My paper (AM New York) was screwed up today. They posted the wrong puzzle. A puzzle I've seen last week or a couple of weeks ago???
So I played one online today.
I can't belive I'm the only idealist 31A. The rest of you knew it was Milo O'Shea 32D and not Tilo?
Funny mana,
What time did you go to Chicago Tribune's website for the on-line puzzle? I don't believe it was available until 9:30am this morning (see NYTanonimo's comment at 7:16am).
Argyle,
MILO O'Shea has appeared in this TMS puzzles so many times that his name has become a gimme to me. I used to be an idealist too.
Lois your 7:36 comment about having 'morels'is a good thing as I was wondering if you had any morals or is it the other way around you have morals but no morels.
cc interesting the NYT puzzle today also had a numbers theme.
Dick,
What's so special about today then? Drdad only said it's "Happy Circus Day".
Dick: Morals are a good thing, but 'morels' are better. You know, the philosophy of 'a good man is hard to find' & vice versa.
Dick: The end to that previous entry is: 'I've got both.' For some reason, it went prematurely.
Dick: oops! another premature ending. "That happens sometimes" was what I was going to say... rather obvious now.
Oh the online version was fine. I meant the paper. The paper had the wrong (old) puzzle...
salut les amis! now that the sun has couche (cache for xword droids) we can open the doors in scorching socal...this puzzle moved quickly as befits a Monday...always running across Oman in the puzzles...has anyone been there (or read Camus?)...finally a bit of Deutsch with erst (though I suppose erst-while makes it slightly English) and overly religious a-dieu put in a visit too...cheers allihopa
C.C. I got this one in about 13. Think I'll quit timing myself. It's more fun for me to not think about rushing. I'll never beat Dennis anyway!
Jim Nabors of Gomer Pyle fame is a wonderful singer. He's nearly 78 now. For more than two decades he's sung "Back Home Again In Indiana" before the Indianapolis 500 race. Last year he was too ill to make the trip from his home in Hawaii. Don't know if he's supposed to be there this year or not; haven't heard yet. He was on a lot of other shows as well as Gomer Pyle. Close friend of famous comedian and actress Carol Burnett.
Akim Olajuwon is a retired NBA player. He was very, very good.
Been raining all evening here in southwestern Ohio. Good night, all.
Kit
C.C. Just went back and got your info on the foreign language puzzles. Thanks so much. I can get the occasional French or Spanish word that is in common usage; otherwise, I'd be completely lost. I think what you do is really remarkable. Keep up the good work; you're an inspiration.
Kit
Thomas,
Did Camus write a book about OMAN or what? What's the tie here?
Kit,
Thanks for all the information. I have not reached the level where I feel comfortable timing myself.
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