Theme: Tribute to a Comedian
17A: George Carlin album: CLASS CLOWN
40A: George Carlin album: OCCUPATION: FOOLE
63A: Classic bit from 17A: SEVEN WORDS
Several months' late, but better late than never. I am sure this puzzle was submitted to our editor in late June or early July.
This constructor is new to me, but I did not encounter any unusual heavy fighting solving his gird. Many of the clues feel very familiar, so I am sure lots of editing was done.
I don't like the VOC clue (32D: Type of sch.). I would change VEST (32A: Three-piece piece) into REST, so 32D would be ROC, which is often clued as "Mythical bird of prey" by Williams.
Across:
1A: French cleric: ABBE. Curé is French for cleric too.
5A: Discomfit: ABASH. I am only familiar with "unabashed".
16A: New Greek coin: EURO. I like this clue.
20A: Well-plumed bird: EGRET. What are they looking at?
37A: Like some peanuts: SALTED. I like my nuts to be honeyed. I love HONEY (9D: Bee product), don't you?
43A: Tight spot: CORNER
49A: Tex. campus: SMU. Bush Library will be built in this campus. SMU is Laura Bush's alma mater.
51A: Goddess of folly: ATE. Learned from doing Xword. She is Zeus's oldest daughter. Wikipedia says ATE is also "the action performed by the hero, usually because of his or her HUBRIS that leads to his or her death or downfall."
53A: Layer: STRATUM
58A: Secret assembly: CONCLAVE. I always associate CONCLAVE with cardinals' mystifying process of electing a new pope.
68A: Guitar ridge: FRET. No idea. I don't know anything about guitar. See this diagram: 4 is FRETS, and 20 is fretboard.
69A: Ferrell or Banks: TYRA. Banks is the supermodel. Ferrell is in "White Man Can't Jump" starring Woody Harrelson. Very noisy movie.
70A: Steisand film: YENTL. I've never seen the movie. YENTL, Yenta (Busybody) and Yente ("Fiddler on the Roof" matchmaker), so confusing.
Down:
2D: Protuberance: BULGE. Wikipedia says "The Battle of the BULGE was the bloodiest of the battles that U.S. forces experienced in World War II. The 19,000 American dead were unsurpassed by those of any other engagement". Including all the battles in Vietnam War, I suppose?
5D: Coll. sports grp.: ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). See this list of ACC members.
6D: Dance in France: BAL
11D: Top of fraction: NUMERATOR
33D: "The Name of the Rose" writer: ECO. Here is the book cover. ECO has been clued as Author Umberto" several times in our puzzle before.
34D: Moocher: SCROUNGER. My favorite entry. Lots of consonants.
39D: Scottish river: DEE. I guessed. I could only remember TAY. Here is the map. It's in Aberdeen.
41D: Flower element: PETAL. I always thought of "Bouquet" as a bunch of flowers, had no idea that it also meant SCENT (49D).
47D: Unsparing: SEVERE
50D: Comic Amsterdam: MOREY. No idea. I got his name from across fills. Is he in this "Dick Van Dyke" picture?
57D: Sail supports: MASTS. I like the intersection of MASTS and TARS (71D: Old sailors).
60D: Bayh or Hunter: EVAN. Know Senator Bayh, not Hunter.
65D: Org. of Ducks and Rangers: NHL. I want the clue to be "Org. of Penguins and Ducks".
C.C.
17A: George Carlin album: CLASS CLOWN
40A: George Carlin album: OCCUPATION: FOOLE
63A: Classic bit from 17A: SEVEN WORDS
Several months' late, but better late than never. I am sure this puzzle was submitted to our editor in late June or early July.
This constructor is new to me, but I did not encounter any unusual heavy fighting solving his gird. Many of the clues feel very familiar, so I am sure lots of editing was done.
I don't like the VOC clue (32D: Type of sch.). I would change VEST (32A: Three-piece piece) into REST, so 32D would be ROC, which is often clued as "Mythical bird of prey" by Williams.
Across:
1A: French cleric: ABBE. Curé is French for cleric too.
5A: Discomfit: ABASH. I am only familiar with "unabashed".
16A: New Greek coin: EURO. I like this clue.
20A: Well-plumed bird: EGRET. What are they looking at?
37A: Like some peanuts: SALTED. I like my nuts to be honeyed. I love HONEY (9D: Bee product), don't you?
43A: Tight spot: CORNER
49A: Tex. campus: SMU. Bush Library will be built in this campus. SMU is Laura Bush's alma mater.
51A: Goddess of folly: ATE. Learned from doing Xword. She is Zeus's oldest daughter. Wikipedia says ATE is also "the action performed by the hero, usually because of his or her HUBRIS that leads to his or her death or downfall."
53A: Layer: STRATUM
58A: Secret assembly: CONCLAVE. I always associate CONCLAVE with cardinals' mystifying process of electing a new pope.
68A: Guitar ridge: FRET. No idea. I don't know anything about guitar. See this diagram: 4 is FRETS, and 20 is fretboard.
69A: Ferrell or Banks: TYRA. Banks is the supermodel. Ferrell is in "White Man Can't Jump" starring Woody Harrelson. Very noisy movie.
70A: Steisand film: YENTL. I've never seen the movie. YENTL, Yenta (Busybody) and Yente ("Fiddler on the Roof" matchmaker), so confusing.
Down:
2D: Protuberance: BULGE. Wikipedia says "The Battle of the BULGE was the bloodiest of the battles that U.S. forces experienced in World War II. The 19,000 American dead were unsurpassed by those of any other engagement". Including all the battles in Vietnam War, I suppose?
5D: Coll. sports grp.: ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). See this list of ACC members.
6D: Dance in France: BAL
11D: Top of fraction: NUMERATOR
33D: "The Name of the Rose" writer: ECO. Here is the book cover. ECO has been clued as Author Umberto" several times in our puzzle before.
34D: Moocher: SCROUNGER. My favorite entry. Lots of consonants.
39D: Scottish river: DEE. I guessed. I could only remember TAY. Here is the map. It's in Aberdeen.
41D: Flower element: PETAL. I always thought of "Bouquet" as a bunch of flowers, had no idea that it also meant SCENT (49D).
47D: Unsparing: SEVERE
50D: Comic Amsterdam: MOREY. No idea. I got his name from across fills. Is he in this "Dick Van Dyke" picture?
57D: Sail supports: MASTS. I like the intersection of MASTS and TARS (71D: Old sailors).
60D: Bayh or Hunter: EVAN. Know Senator Bayh, not Hunter.
65D: Org. of Ducks and Rangers: NHL. I want the clue to be "Org. of Penguins and Ducks".
C.C.
43 comments:
Good morning, c.c. and gang - still no hammer yet, but I did enjoy this puzzle. Interesting theme with some fresh words as well.
c.c., Morey Amsterdam is the one with the guitar.
Have a great weekend; hopefully y'all will have better weather than we've got.
Dennis,
No "Today is the day..."? What's your answer to my 2D question? Why do you want to be a "dolphin trainer" or "dolphin trainer trainer"?
Crazyhorse,
Are you a fan of Pollock's work? He is too abstract for me.
Doesitinink,
What kind of background is needed to be a SAP Developer? Did you have to go through lots of trainings when you first started your consulting job?
Clear Ayes,
If I could live my life again, I want to be "Deep Throat".
JD,
Good to see you back.
Argyle,
All your theme answers have TEN in them, hence the (Roman) X factor.
Pattispa,
Sorry your "fractal geometry" question has not been addressed. I will ask Martin again next Monday.
Calef,
Thanks for the "bounding main" on Wednesday. What books are you reading now?
Richshif,
Re: DELE. That's why there is a "?" behind the clue. It's intended to mislead. Also, DELE is a well-accepted word, no need for abbreviation hint.
c.c., no, our battles were mostly jungle fights, small-unit action; not like the massive numbers of troops squaring off in WWII or Korea.
I've always been fascinated with dolphins, and think it will be an amazing breakthrough when they finally figure out how to fully communicate back and forth with them. They have such a high level of intelligence.
If I were you, I'd quickly clarify your "Deep Throat" comment; I'll be good, given the new tone of the blog, and leave it at that.
I'm doing the green thing by doing the puzzle online. I did it in 20 minutes!
Dennis she means the FBI agent Mark Felt who gave Woodward & Bernstein Watergate.
anon @6:01, I know what she meant, which is why I suggested she clarify it.
Good morning CC, DFs and DFettes...nice puzzle today. Managed to get all of the fills without help except 5A ABASH would not come to mind. Thus I did not get 5 and 6 down as well. I should have known 6D because of ballerina. Must have needed the second cup of coffee today. The ones I did not know came from the perps except as outlined above.
It is going to be in the mid 60's today so I will take advantage of this and go to the links. I will check in later.
@Buckeye I thought of a pepper. Like clear ayes said "go figure".
Anybody else wonder why there was an E in OCCUPATIONFOOLE? Don't know if this is the real reason or not.
Morning, all!
Interesting puzzle today. I started off blazing right through it, thinking it was by far the easiest puzzle I had seen in months, but then I got a bit hung up in the top center section for awhile. I couldn't think of ABASH right off the start and had never heard of ACC or BAL. After getting _AL for 6D, it finally occurred to me that the French word for "ball" might be BAL, which was enough help me remember ABASH. ACC was still a complete unknown, but it looked like it could be a valid acronym for something...
I have to admit I'm not, nor have I ever been, a huge fan of George Carlin. I guessed CLASS CLOWN easily enough and even I knew about his famous SEVEN WORDS (that You Can't Say on Television) bit. 40A totally threw me for a loop, though. I had never heard of it, and I couldn't parse it even after getting OCCUPATIONFOOL_. I was pretty confident that 39D was DEE, but that left me with OCCUPATIONFOOLE, which just didn't make any sense to me. Since 39D was clued as "Scottish river," I started wondering whether the clue was referring to some other Scottish river that I had never heard of before. I mean, surely there are other rivers in Scotland, right? And maybe one was called the Dse River or something.
In the end, I penciled in the E simply because no other letter really worked either. And whaddyaknow, it was right. Go figure. Thank you, Mr. Carlin, for making my morning crossword solving experience a little more surreal.
Good morning C.C. and all.
I was pleased to see a new name on the puzzle today. I thought the c/w was relatively easy. Those clues that didn't come to mind immediately came through the fills.
I don't particularly care for the clue 'Contract in wrinkles' for KNIT. I doubt that anyone who knits would ever describe their work in those terms. I enjoyed the George Carlin theme.
I'm going to have ECO tattooed on my arm! I can NEVER remember his name!
Dick, it turned out to be 13 dozen cookies by the time I finished, so I think we have a spare dozen or two for your horn of plenty.
C.C. I'd guess that the egrets are looking for the other parent to return with more food for the babies. It's likely that both adult birds participate in feeding the fledglings, taking turns.
I hope tomorrow's puzzle isn't a killer. We've had it easy for a while.
Have a great Friday!
I don't particularly care for the clue 'Contract in wrinkles' for KNIT. I doubt that anyone who knits would ever describe their work in those terms.
I believe it's referring to the expression "knitting ones brow," which does indeed involve wrinkling, and not the type of knitting that involves yarn....
Good morning.
Another easy puzzle. I am like Dennis, I think, and waiting for the hammer. It's coming.
Today is Operating Room Nurse Day and National American Teddy Bear Day. The calendar is full of these "teddy bear" days. Seems like we just had one where we were supposed to hug them.
for Barry,
Song by the late Sir Harry Lander about another Scottish river
"Roamin' in the gloaming on the bonny banks of Clyde,
Roaming' in the gloaming wi' a lassie by my side.
When the sun has gone to rest,
That's the time that I love best/
Oh it's lovely roamin' in the gloaming."
Morning all,
Another easy one--I'm starting to dread the weekend puzzles! I had an uncle that was killed at the Battle of the Bulge. I cannot imagine the horror that occurred.
I just read the blogs from yesterday, and I guess I always wanted to be a teacher. Started playing teacher to my stuffed animals at a very early age. On the creative side, I would have loved to have been a Rockette. My parents took us to Radio City Music Hall at a young age and I was enamored.
A little Texas talk from last weekend. My friend and her husband were shopping in a little boutique when she turned around and saw her husband walking out of the store. Another woman nearby said, "Shopping with your husband is as much fun as hunting with a game warden". Only in Texas.
Good morning all!
Well, what's easy for some isn't for me, I guess. I ended up g'spotting the Carlin albums because I wasn't getting very far without them, also ECO, because I can't remember him either. But then things fell in fairly well. I hesitated a long time on ABASH because it just didn't seem like a noun to me, but finally put it in since that's all that would fit. The rest fell in unassisted.
Dick,
Bal in French is a dance you go to, like a ball here. Ballet is probably related, but it's the source for ballerina. Very ingenious of you to make that connection!
Hi C.C. and all,
No work today so able to post early. No major problems on todays puzzle once conclave was filled. Thanks to Barry for reminding me about knitting one's eyebrows. I was trying to figure that clue. I did not like scrounger being clued as moocher. To me a moocher is a person who uses what someone has to offer without contributing anything, where as a scrounger would make do or find a use for whatever he or she finds in their enviroment.
C.C., Generally in dealing with wines or cooking when the bouquet is discussed, it is referring to the product's aroma. BTW I still don't like write off for dele even though you feel it is acceptable, but we can always disagree on some points.
Oh forgot one thing, voc for type of school stands for vocational school. Our school system had a Vo-Tech center that serviced 3 counties. They taught HVAC, auto mechanics, electronics, and electricial work.
Another very easy puzzle. When will we get a puzzle to sink our teeth into? I would like a challenge!
ELI Wallach was a great character actor. He played the part of Guido in Clark Gable’s and Marilyn Monroe’s last film The Misfits.
This is a guitar version of Mozart Sonata A Alla Turka, a piece I play on the piano. The CODA begins at the 3:03 mark. cc: The FRETs are the ridges that are perpendicular to the neck of the guitar.
@cc: Yes, Morey Amsterdam is in the picture of the Dick Van Dyke Show to which you provided a link. Here he is in a skit with Dick Van Dyke and Rose Marie.
@cc: I think most people come to SAP differently than I did. Prior to working in SAP, I had worked many years as a mainframe programmer-analyst working in COBOL, BAL (Assembler) and RPG. Oh, and a little FORTRAN. A manager for whom I had worked on a mainframe project was heading up a large SAP implementation project. Based solely on his assessment of my ability to learn and produce, I was brought onto this project knowing nothing about SAP. Everything I know I have learned “on the job”.
@barry: I share your uncertainty about there possibly being another Scottish river by the name of Dse! LOL.
C.C.
Because of age and health problems I'm not really reading any books now. I sleep a lot more than I used to and I watch TV programs that are factual, such as news and weather and History channel. I also use the Web to look things up. The crossword puzzles are a major activity for me now.
In my more active days I studied a lot about religion and history and geography. I seldom dealt with fiction. Thanks for your interest.
Calef.
mark - Buenos Aires
I too, (shame on me) thought a different "deep throat"
Ive never heard of George Carlin so I failed to finish.
Barry (I think) explained "to knit ones brows"
Is there a "Will" Ferrel? Thats what I put, Ive never heard of "Tyra"
In Uk, "To mooch around" - is to do things without a plan eg To mooch around the house is to do a bit of cleaning, read a book, watch tele, think about cooking etc
Another beautiful day here - 80s plus.
Have a good day to all.
Ok, folks, I give! What other kind of "deep throat" is there? I only know of one, which is why I found cc's fantasy to be so shocking!
Good Morning All, I have been a George Carlin fan over the years, so it was a pleasure to see today's puzzle tribute theme.
Nytanonimo, I had the impression that Carlin's FOOLE was his spelling of what a Renaissance or Shakespearean era job title should be.
Post-puzzle I "G'd" the definition of SCROUNGE. I was surprised to see the first listing was "To obtain (something) by begging or borrowing with no intention of reparation". That's the way I've used MOOCH.
I've always used SCROUNGE to mean "To obtain by salvaging or foraging", which was the second listing.
Doesitinink, Were you shocked that C.C. would want to be Watergate's Deep Throat, or Linda Lovelace's character in the movie Deep Throat? Either way, C.C. has hidden depths, LOL.
good morning c.c. and all,
better late than never, yes .. but i wonder why themed puzzles cannot be pushed ahead in the queue to make them more timely? i understand there is a certain amount of lead-time required for editing, etc. .. but it IS a newspaper. headlines and other current events are printed as they occur and those items require editing as well. just wondering.
figured out the carlin theme pretty quickly, but did not know album titles, so had to make a few swags to get it all filled in.
i notice it's pretty common to see lots of food related clues, and today is no exception. honey, tasty, dessert, rye, decaf, ate, oat, stew, brew, tuna, amos (cookies), seedless, and salted. liked faith crossing tao.
c.c.: I don't like the VOC clue (32D: Type of sch.).
why not?
@bill: glad your surgery went well.
@crockett: nice pic.
@jeanne: great picture. game warden ... lol.
@richshif & clear ayes: i thought the same thing about moocher / scrounger. have never used them interchangeably.
@katherine, flyingears, barb b: where are you?
What is a 'hammer'?
@Clear Ayes: Were you shocked that C.C. would want to be Watergate's Deep Throat, or Linda Lovelace's character in the movie Deep Throat?
Linda Lovelace, of course! She may count herself as a DF, but cc as a porn star? That I cannot fathom.
Robert Armin, who played clowns and fools in Shakespeare's acting company, wrote Foole Upon Foole describing different types of fools. He identifies "a flat foole, a leane foole, a merry foole, a fatt foole, a cleane foole," and "a verry foole." In the passage excerpted here, Armin discusses the difference between a "flat foole naturall, and a flat foole artificiall."
"Natural fooles are prone to selfe conseit,
Fooles artificiall, with their wits lay waite
To make themselves fooles, likeing the disguises,
To feede their owne mindes and the gazers eyes.
He that attemps daunger and is free,
Hurting himself, being well cannot see:
Must with the Fiddler heere weare the fooles coates
And bide his pennance sign’d him by Jacke Oates.
All such say I that use flat foolery,
Beate this, beare more, this flat fooles company."
I lost the meaning of this passage about halfway through. The original page has "s" printed as "f", "u" printed as "v". The references to the Fiddler and Jacke Oates were unknowns. Then, there's the pesky Olde English grammar and other spelling quirks.
The only point to this almost pointless blog post is that George Carlin's spelling of FOOLE had historical precident.
I think I need to go and get a life for the rest of the day!
Barry,
Thanks for the explation re knit, my mother knitted all her life and I never heard that.
Good c/w, fairly easy.
I would have loved to have owned a book store. Since there was one in our mall I opened up a stationery store instead. Unfortunately, I had to sell after a few years due to illness. The book store expanded and now have many stores here in BC.
I now do genealogy, lots of fun!
My father was a bush pilot back in the 30's-40, so many interesting stories.
Have a great weekend all,
Geri
clear ayes,
If you ever see old newspapers here in what were areas settled predominantly by Germans (Milwaukee, Pennsylvania, the first public version of the Declaration of Independence), you'll notice that "f-like s" too. It is the first half of the German "s-zett" or the combined letter ß, which is used still in some German words instead of "ss". They both come from the old Gothic script, which must have come to English via the Saxons.
The "u" and "v" are also synonymously used in Latin inscriptions on ancient monuments.
I meant to say "v" represents "u" on Roman monuments.
My brain is a bit slow, having just returned from a colonoscopy this morning. No polyps found so all good news. But I have the test every five years due to my mother's having died from colon cancer at 67.
Talking of the Battle of the Bulge this morning, my father-in-law was involved in that, later got behind enemy lines somewhere and spent three days hiding knee-deep in water in a flooded basement of a house that the Germans had taken over and were partying in upstairs before he could escape and get back to his unit. Then ended up as a military police guard at the Nuremberg trials before coming home in 1947.
6:21 today. Very easy puzzle with no unknowns, though I confess I didn't know OCCUPATION: FOOLE was spelled with the "E" on the end (the crossing DEE river was a gimme, fortunately).
I never saw the clue for 10a: Contract in wrinkles (KNIT) since I was solving the down clues and it was already filled in. I wouldn't have gotten KNIT from that clue, though.
For those who wonder about rutabagas, you might enjoy the recipe at the Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute
@richshif: DELE is an editor's or proofreader's mark that means "take this out." Hence, to write off. There is a definition here: dele. My wife was an editor, so this was a gimme for me (STET is another common crosswordese editor's mark, in fact, STET is nearly the opposite of DELE).
Kazie,
Glad all went well.
I had that once , a few hrs later I had the cleanest house on the street then I crashed on the couch for the rest of the day. They say you are leagally impaired.
Great stuff whatever it was.
Geri
So how long will we be waiting for a Paul Newman based puzzle?
Thanks Geri,
Yes, my burst of energy was this morning before I went, but since getting back I've been trying to nap. The instructions say not to drive or sign anything for 24 hours.
Barry, thanks for the heads up on 'Contract in wrinkles'. Obviously, it never occurred to me to think of wrinkling one's brow.
Jeanne, your dress is really lovely. You must have had a wonderful time at your son's wedding, and I'm sure he is very proud of you.
kazie, we have a lot in common. I have a colonoscopy scheduled for a week from today. Mine will be at 8:00 a.m., so I expect to snooze away the rest of the day. I've had the test once, six years ago. Since my mother has had colon cancer, I need to get on that every five years schedule. Both of us need to play it smart and be tested regularly. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your mother to cancer.
On the subject of George Carlin's albums, I don't know their names. I remember some of the skits, and if you grew up around the time he did SEVEN WORDS, you'd never forget it. Luckily for me, I have a friend in Aberdeen, and knew the river Dee, so the E on the end of FOOLE came easily. Will we always remember Barry as the creator of new Scottish river names from now on?? *G*
It's alternately overcast and sunny here today. It's warm enough to need just a light jacket, and feels almost balmy. Very odd for mid November. I understand snow is predicted for tonight...
I bid you all a good evening.
doesitinink, the young man playing the Mozart sonata in the link you provided would have made an exceptional troubador. Can't you imagine him in a tunic and tights? (Sorry....a bit of DF, there). Thanks for the link.
Richshif, I LOVE the picture of the dog! Is that your dog?
Clear ayes, when I think of scrounging, I think of "Operation Petticoat," where they had to scrounge parts to get the submarine functional to get away from the island, so I use that second definition, too.
Embien, That settles it. I vow to find and sample rutabagas ASAP.
I loved the ARSI site. It kept me laughing throughout. Wouldn't you know it is an Oregonian's brain child? Doesn't that tell us something about the workings of the rain dampened Oregonian brain?
Buckeye, Do you have a brother in Oregon who has a thing about rutabagas?
Kazie, I have seen the "f-like s" before. I didn't know it came to us via the Saxons Old Gothic script. Hope you are resting comfortable and enjoying the leftover effects of your morning relaxing meds.
Thanks for the E on FOOLE explanation clear ayes.
Hi C.C. and everyone, late start today...I had lots of energy too, but it wasn't from any super meds.
C.C. loved the picture of the egrets..the babies are sooo cute.
Embien at 2:34, Great stuff on rutabagas.LMAO. My dad used to call them 'Swedish potatoes'. I do use them when making corned beef for Joe. I have never had them, and you DO have to cook them quite awhile, if you don't chop them fine, or cube them.
Kazie, so glad your test results turned out well.
The puzzle's theme words were hard for me. I loved George Carlin, but had only one of his older albums, and could not remember the title..only answer I was sure of was 63A. Those are fairly famous by now.
Guess the hammer comes tomorrow or next week.
Guday fellows, hale and hearty. No problem with today's puzzle. I did want "DSE" for Scottish River but quickly figured out Carlin's anglicananismish (see Fred)and changed it to an "E".
I do have a friend named Cliff, who crossed a rutabaga with a beet. He called it a "rutabeeta". After cooking it for 98 hours he added chicken and a Mexican sauce and made a fajita which he put into pieces of pita bread. He called it a "rutabeeta fajita in a pita", but every time he would offer it to someone, they would respond, "No hablo español".
He also tried putting the cooked "rutabeeta" in an iron skillet, mixing in fresh garlic, mushrooms and onions with a white sauce. He would add salt and both black and white pepper to taste and stir constantly until the sauce thickened. When it was just right, he would pour that crap out and eat the skillet.
My scientist blogers have not responded to my question of yesterday about male linear thought progression vs. female knowledge of vegetables. Help, Martin, Drdad et al.
Here's Rathcet.
I must be off!
Make that Ratchet.
IMBO
I love HONEY (9D: Bee product), don't you?
I have a student whose English name is HONEY so I'm going to plead the fifth on this one.
Martin
Great entry. Anticipating the next one.
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