Theme: TRIPLE LETTERS
23A: Gridiron group: FOOTBALL LEAGUE
40A: Past tolerance: ONCE TOO OFTEN
50A: Play by Shakespeare: RICHARD III
65A: Duel: CROSS SWORDS WITH
86A: Leaves in the direction of: SETS OFF FOR
92A: Best type of voting: FREE ELECTION
116A: 18th-century British statesman: PITT THE YOUNGER
A ho-hum puzzle. The theme entries are very dreary, or rather monotonous. TROIKA is a rare spark. Too many suffixes: S, ED, RE and ER. But LOIS, you are one, twice, three times a lady today.
I got very bored and annoyed by these ER's:
36A: Procrastinators: DELAYERS
22A: Ogler: STARERS
124A: Iron wielders: PRESSERS
71D: Doctor, often: DOSER
97D: Compliant one: OBEYER
And EERIER, DIRER, RERUN, REDRY. Very lazy construction.
I do like how TROIKA parallels HORSE, and I am happy to see ONE and UNE (83A: One of the Parisians), NAH and NOS appear in one puzzle. Interesting to see BARE, BATHS (56D: Tubbings), IN A TUB, STEAMS & REDRY (54D: Tower off again) in one grid.
Dislike HONAN (107A: Chinese Province). It sounds so aged. Please clue it as either HENAN or HUNAN next time. And for 123A: British political party: LABOR. I suggest we call Gordon Brown and see if he accepts this American spelling.
ACROSS:
1A: Jonathan Swift or Mark Twain, for example: SATIRIST. Is Mark Twain a SATIRIST?
9A: Spherical: ORBED
20A: Opera-like musical composition: ORATORIO. Saw this clue before.
21A: __Adams (actress/wife of Steve McQueen): NEILE. Nope, I've never heard of her name before. Is she a well known name?
27A: Splits: RIVES
32A: Old sub: U- BOAT
34A: Stat start: RHEO. My first thought was those baseball stats.
45A: Radio host Don: IMUS. "Imus in the Morning". Not my cup of tea.
56A: Naked: BARE. I love this John Collier's Lady Godiva painting. Gorgeous!
59A: Music from the West Indies: REGGAE. Let's Stir it Up with Bob Marley.
70A: Words of wisdom: ADAGE
74A: Column in a wall: PILASTER. Unknown to me. Here is the definition from Wikipedia.: "A pilaster is a slightly-projecting flattened column built into or applied to the face of a wall." See this photo.
78A: Like Silver's rider: LONE. "The LONE Ranger".
79A: Opens an envelope, furtively: STEAMS
82A: Yiddish thief: GANEF. A new word for me. Why don't they spell it as SCHANEF then?
96A: Kennedy insider TED: SORENSEN. I like his book Kennedy.
101A: Joining: UNION
103A: Flex: BEND. I like how it crosses FEND.
114A: Writer Jong and others: ERICAS. Fear of Flying author. I was shocked the other day when I came across her blog, I thought she was dead.
119A: Adventurous rogue: PICARO. Unknown to me. Spanish origin.
121A: Skyrocketing: METEORIC. Hmm, Up and Up.
DOWNS:
4D: Addams Family cousin: ITT. Cousin ITT from The Addams Family. Learned it from doing crossword. ITT Sheraton (Beijing, 1985) was the first foreign hotel chain to operate a hotel in China. Just learned this morning that Sheraton was also the first hotel chain to be listed in NYSE.
5D: Whiskey cocktail: ROB ROY. Named after the Scottish folk hero Rob Roy. Did not know that there was a ROB ROY movie also. In fact, ERIC (106D: Actor Stoltz) had a supporting role in it.
6D: Aggressive poker table comment: I RAISE
7D: Cloud lining: SILVER. Needs to rework on 78A clue: Like Silver's rider (LONE)
8D: Lacquered metalware: TOLE. I like this floral TOLE tray.
11D: Whopper's rival: BIG MAC. No BIG MAC after "Super Size Me"
12D: Solution extracted using a solvent: ELUATE. No idea. The verb is ELUTE.
16D: Letter-directing words: CARE OF
17D: Coloratura's piece: ARIA. Did not know the meaning of "coloratura". Pieced this word together from across clues.
29D: Horse-drawn vehicle: TROIKA. I suppose it's Russian for threesome. Here is a Russian TROIKA.
33D: Plural of bonus: BONI. I always thought the plural is bonuses.
35D: Trigger, for one: HORSE. Roy Roger's horse. Trigger and SILVER, where is Mr. ED? Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
42D: Dick of the funnies: TRACY
43D: High nest: var.: EYRIE. Can also be EYRY. A variation of AERIE. I did not know it.
47D: Berlin ice: EIS. Somehow I can never remember this E IS (for Evidence) word.
52D: Collection biz: REPO
53D: Shannon and Crandall: DELS. I know neither of them. I got it from across fills.
62D: MacDonald's sleuth Travis: McGEE. No, not familiar with him. I do know Willie McGee though.
67D: Forceful flows: SPATES
68D: Sports column: WINS
69D: Intestinal prefix: ILEO. Comes from Ileum I suppose.
72D: Cavern, in poetry: ANTRE. It derived from Latin "antrum". I had no idea. ANTRE is French for "den".
75D: Clumps of hair: TUFTS
76D: Modern mail: ENOTE. Is there a ELOVE?
80D: Make off with, biblically: TAKETH
86D: Chinese leader?: SINO. I filled in INDO first, had to scrap it quickly as letter N would not work for 90A: PILE. SINO derived from Qin, the Qin Dynasty. The pronunciation of "Qin" is similar to the phonetic "cheen" (or chin), which is considered by many experts as the root of the word "China". For your information, both Zhou & Qin dynasties had their capital in Xi'An.
89D: Dance wear: LEOTARD. Here is a crew neck sleeveless style.
90D: Indicate: POINT TO
94D: Mississippi city: TUNICA. No, I've never heard of it. Is it well-known?
95D: Where to find 3 men?: IN A TUB
106D: Isinglass: MICA. Got it this time.
111D: Shrek, for one: OGRE. I like how it parallels with ORCS (113D: Tolkien baddies). Here is Enya's May it Be (Lord of The Rings). Enjoy!
C.C.
23A: Gridiron group: FOOTBALL LEAGUE
40A: Past tolerance: ONCE TOO OFTEN
50A: Play by Shakespeare: RICHARD III
65A: Duel: CROSS SWORDS WITH
86A: Leaves in the direction of: SETS OFF FOR
92A: Best type of voting: FREE ELECTION
116A: 18th-century British statesman: PITT THE YOUNGER
A ho-hum puzzle. The theme entries are very dreary, or rather monotonous. TROIKA is a rare spark. Too many suffixes: S, ED, RE and ER. But LOIS, you are one, twice, three times a lady today.
I got very bored and annoyed by these ER's:
36A: Procrastinators: DELAYERS
22A: Ogler: STARERS
124A: Iron wielders: PRESSERS
71D: Doctor, often: DOSER
97D: Compliant one: OBEYER
And EERIER, DIRER, RERUN, REDRY. Very lazy construction.
I do like how TROIKA parallels HORSE, and I am happy to see ONE and UNE (83A: One of the Parisians), NAH and NOS appear in one puzzle. Interesting to see BARE, BATHS (56D: Tubbings), IN A TUB, STEAMS & REDRY (54D: Tower off again) in one grid.
Dislike HONAN (107A: Chinese Province). It sounds so aged. Please clue it as either HENAN or HUNAN next time. And for 123A: British political party: LABOR. I suggest we call Gordon Brown and see if he accepts this American spelling.
ACROSS:
1A: Jonathan Swift or Mark Twain, for example: SATIRIST. Is Mark Twain a SATIRIST?
9A: Spherical: ORBED
20A: Opera-like musical composition: ORATORIO. Saw this clue before.
21A: __Adams (actress/wife of Steve McQueen): NEILE. Nope, I've never heard of her name before. Is she a well known name?
27A: Splits: RIVES
32A: Old sub: U- BOAT
34A: Stat start: RHEO. My first thought was those baseball stats.
45A: Radio host Don: IMUS. "Imus in the Morning". Not my cup of tea.
56A: Naked: BARE. I love this John Collier's Lady Godiva painting. Gorgeous!
59A: Music from the West Indies: REGGAE. Let's Stir it Up with Bob Marley.
70A: Words of wisdom: ADAGE
74A: Column in a wall: PILASTER. Unknown to me. Here is the definition from Wikipedia.: "A pilaster is a slightly-projecting flattened column built into or applied to the face of a wall." See this photo.
78A: Like Silver's rider: LONE. "The LONE Ranger".
79A: Opens an envelope, furtively: STEAMS
82A: Yiddish thief: GANEF. A new word for me. Why don't they spell it as SCHANEF then?
96A: Kennedy insider TED: SORENSEN. I like his book Kennedy.
101A: Joining: UNION
103A: Flex: BEND. I like how it crosses FEND.
114A: Writer Jong and others: ERICAS. Fear of Flying author. I was shocked the other day when I came across her blog, I thought she was dead.
119A: Adventurous rogue: PICARO. Unknown to me. Spanish origin.
121A: Skyrocketing: METEORIC. Hmm, Up and Up.
DOWNS:
4D: Addams Family cousin: ITT. Cousin ITT from The Addams Family. Learned it from doing crossword. ITT Sheraton (Beijing, 1985) was the first foreign hotel chain to operate a hotel in China. Just learned this morning that Sheraton was also the first hotel chain to be listed in NYSE.
5D: Whiskey cocktail: ROB ROY. Named after the Scottish folk hero Rob Roy. Did not know that there was a ROB ROY movie also. In fact, ERIC (106D: Actor Stoltz) had a supporting role in it.
6D: Aggressive poker table comment: I RAISE
7D: Cloud lining: SILVER. Needs to rework on 78A clue: Like Silver's rider (LONE)
8D: Lacquered metalware: TOLE. I like this floral TOLE tray.
11D: Whopper's rival: BIG MAC. No BIG MAC after "Super Size Me"
12D: Solution extracted using a solvent: ELUATE. No idea. The verb is ELUTE.
16D: Letter-directing words: CARE OF
17D: Coloratura's piece: ARIA. Did not know the meaning of "coloratura". Pieced this word together from across clues.
29D: Horse-drawn vehicle: TROIKA. I suppose it's Russian for threesome. Here is a Russian TROIKA.
33D: Plural of bonus: BONI. I always thought the plural is bonuses.
35D: Trigger, for one: HORSE. Roy Roger's horse. Trigger and SILVER, where is Mr. ED? Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
42D: Dick of the funnies: TRACY
43D: High nest: var.: EYRIE. Can also be EYRY. A variation of AERIE. I did not know it.
47D: Berlin ice: EIS. Somehow I can never remember this E IS (for Evidence) word.
52D: Collection biz: REPO
53D: Shannon and Crandall: DELS. I know neither of them. I got it from across fills.
62D: MacDonald's sleuth Travis: McGEE. No, not familiar with him. I do know Willie McGee though.
67D: Forceful flows: SPATES
68D: Sports column: WINS
69D: Intestinal prefix: ILEO. Comes from Ileum I suppose.
72D: Cavern, in poetry: ANTRE. It derived from Latin "antrum". I had no idea. ANTRE is French for "den".
75D: Clumps of hair: TUFTS
76D: Modern mail: ENOTE. Is there a ELOVE?
80D: Make off with, biblically: TAKETH
86D: Chinese leader?: SINO. I filled in INDO first, had to scrap it quickly as letter N would not work for 90A: PILE. SINO derived from Qin, the Qin Dynasty. The pronunciation of "Qin" is similar to the phonetic "cheen" (or chin), which is considered by many experts as the root of the word "China". For your information, both Zhou & Qin dynasties had their capital in Xi'An.
89D: Dance wear: LEOTARD. Here is a crew neck sleeveless style.
90D: Indicate: POINT TO
94D: Mississippi city: TUNICA. No, I've never heard of it. Is it well-known?
95D: Where to find 3 men?: IN A TUB
106D: Isinglass: MICA. Got it this time.
111D: Shrek, for one: OGRE. I like how it parallels with ORCS (113D: Tolkien baddies). Here is Enya's May it Be (Lord of The Rings). Enjoy!
C.C.
Happy Sunday!
ReplyDeleteYes Mark Twain was also a satirist. I remember him writing something about the errors in James Fenimore Cooper's "Hiawatha" that was satirical.
Didn't know Neile Adams, only Ali MacGraw.
I think of Eric Stoltz as a supporting actor in Rob Roy. Liam Neeson was the star.
Troika (threesome) will get Lois excited.
Rob Roy and Roy Roger's Horse. Also, MacDonald's Travis McGee and McDonald's Big Mac. Nice to see Crossswords in a crossword puzzle.
No googling this morning but the perps were a must to get some of them. Never heard of Tunica. I agree with C.C. on Hunan. Didn't like Bonus plural and Boni.
Have a good one.
So sorry. It wasn't Cooper's Hiawatha (I don't think he wrote anything like that). Rather, it was about either Cooper's Last of the Mohicans or The Deerslayer. In any event it was a pretty scathing treatise on Cooper's literary abilities.
ReplyDeleteC.C. - no post for Saturday?
ReplyDeleteDrdad,
ReplyDelete"C.C. - no post for Saturday?" That's for my question for you. 1A clue sounds redundant, doesn't it? I've corrected the ERIC Stoltz mistake. Did you see the movie? I failed to notice several things you pointed out, esp crosssword, thank you. Did you notice that LOIS FET Troika?
Good morning CC et drdad: Thank you for the fabulous links, CC., esp Bob Marley. What a loss! I agree w/you drdad, it was clever having 'crosswords' in the puzzle. It was 'a-cute' one. Loved all the 'horse' references and drdad, you're right 'troika' got me excited. Then when 95D 'came' where to find 3 men? I know, I know! With me 'in a tub' 'or-bed'(9A). There's no 'escape'. Glad to see 'lens' for our previous contest...just waiting for 'wide angle' to be clued next. 'Rye' made me think of the JDSalinger book, 'Catch 'her' in the rye' above 'bare'. Made me laugh. All in all not a bad one for Sunday and the 3 word answers.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy this gorgeous day!
CC: You are soooo clever and funny! I love how you put LOIS together....and as a 'lady' no less. I must say that being a 'lady' is highly overrated. Much prefer the 'meteoric' free spirit.
ReplyDeleteLois,
ReplyDeleteDitto your point on Bob Barley. Do you like Peter Tosh also? Your "CatcHER in the RYE" and ORBED comments made me 79D. Ha ha, now I see you got LOIS.
Bob Barley? Wasn't he in "Catcher in the Rye"?
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone. I had to check in today to see all the great links from CC, and read all of Lois' clever remarks. AND all the rest. No puzzle for me today.
ReplyDeleteTill tomorrow.
Enjoy the great day.
No, wait, I was thinking of Joyce Carol Oates...
ReplyDeleteStumbled across your blog a few weeks ago. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteAs you seem to have some passion for the grand game of baseball, Del Crandall was a catcher for the Milwaukee(now Atlanta)Braves. Del Shannon sang the 60's classic "Runaway." Sadly, he later took his own life.
Keep up the great work.
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI have been lurking in the background for several weeks and decided to join the fun. C.C. you make doing crosswords even more enjoyable. Reading the blog has really helped me to improve my crossword skills. I anxiously await Sunday's answers since I actually get the crossword on Saturday p.m. Have a good holiday, everyone.
Dennis: I think Barley/brews WAS the book...along w/most of my other favorite activities. I don't know Joyce Carol Oates though. Where have I been, right? What's your favorite from her?
ReplyDeleteJeanne, welcome, on behalf of the group - it's a wonderful group of miscreants.
ReplyDeleteLois, I was just goofing, playing off of C.C.'s mistake, "Bob Barley", with the 'rye' and 'oates' references. It's Stupid Sunday here in Dennis' brain.
Dennis: You are so funny and there's never anything ever 'stupid' about your brain on any day. I googled Oates and seriously wonder where I've been. I learn so much from you & all. BTW, how was the lake? Meet any fish?
ReplyDeleteLois - the lake was/is great; I have the laptop here on the dock, with a strong router in the house. The fish must be hungry -- they're suckers for anything I put in the water today...
ReplyDeleteHey gang, please take a moment at 3pm tomorrow to pause and reflect on the men/women who are standing in harm's way today and everyday, and those heroes who are no longer with us. Thanks.
Dennis: you are hilarious! Are you going to go skinny dipping then? Seems like now is the time to do that very thing.
ReplyDeleteLois, no - I still have 'appendage anxiety' with the snapping turtles.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention there's beavers in our lake?
Hi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for checking in.
The raven,
Except Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Warren Spahn (Spahn, Sain, and 2 days of Rain stuff), I know nobody else from the Milwaukee Braves. Thanks for the DELS information.
Hi Jeanne,
Nice to hear from you. Good to add a Canadian voice to the blog.
Dennis,
In fact, we have MALTS (85A) in today's grid, so my "Bob Barley" mistake earlier is understandable, isn't it? But of course, how could I expect you NOT to take advantage of my innocent mistake? You sinned, creatively!
Dennis: And you can bet I'll be observing that 3pm memorial for all those brave men and women in harms way or not, and for those, who like 'my own hero' husband, who have gone before us in honor of our country...just as I do every day. I'd also like to take this moment to thank you personally, Dennis, for all you have done for us as a brave Marine and for all the sacrifices you made. God bless you. Amen.
ReplyDeleteLois,
ReplyDeleteJoyce Carol OATS was on a TMS puzzle last month, but you were preoccupied with the Mochi Strawberry Ice Cream and other sins at that time. She is a MENSA member also, are you not?
Dennis,
As Nana said, you are a great Marine. You have a sharp mind and high MORAL.
Dennis: I'm dying here! What a lake! Fish that suck, turtles that snap, and beavers ...who are notorious for damming! Solution: either have the beavers dam the turtles and play with the fish, or just 'snatch' some beaver and wear protection. I just hate to waste opportunities!
ReplyDeleteDrdad et al,
ReplyDeleteWhat's your view on LABOR (123A: British Political Party)?
C.C., Don't get the Sunday puzzle. Just wanted to check in to enjoy the comments and wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.
ReplyDeleteDennis, thank you for your service to our country. I have four brothers who served, one in the Navy, one Air Force, and two Army. One of my best friends died in Vietnam. He was a Green Beret. I am very proud of all of our service men and women, and pray for their safety. Where would we be without them? May God bless.
Kit
C.C.-left acomment in Saturday's post as to why I had no comments that day.
ReplyDeleteNope, missed LOIS FET TROIKA.
1A-either Swift or Twain by themselves and you might not get satirist. And no, I didn't like Labor for British political party.
Greetings to the raven and Jeanne.
Dennis, if there's beavers in the lake I can't believe you're not jumping in. Oh, excuse me - you're talking about those furry mammals with flat tails. And I never forget holidays honoring those who serve(d) and sacrifice(d). Thank you for your service and sacrifice.
Kit,
ReplyDeleteThank you for checking in. What puzzle does your paper offer on Sunday?
Drdad,
Now I get your point on 14A. Thanks.
Usually love the puzzle, that is what I missed most while in Mexico, next time will try and download it but not that literate with my 'puter. While looking for clues, found your blog. Now when I have streched as far as I can, then I look up the rest. Sort of cheating, eh? Sharpie (an old gal from BC Canada)
ReplyDelete