Theme: Moo, Moo, Good!
20A: Dairy exercise?: CHEESE CURLS
51A: Dairy pests?: BUTTER FLIES
11D: Dairy winds?: CREAM PUFFS
29D: Dairy DTS?: MILK SHAKES
A couple of things first:
1) I missed two important theme answers in John Underwood's Feb 6 "KNOT" puzzle. I failed to pick up BOW OUT and SLIP UP. Both are so short that I just did not think they are part of the theme. In his original submission, he has * marked in front of all the theme clues, and his clue for KNOT is "Theme clue, when added to the first word of * entries". The obscure "Interferometer instrument" for AERI is our editor's creation. Underwood's clue is simply "Atmosheric prefix". As for ATH, his original submission is "Olympic VIP". The clue we were given is "NCAA word", which is erroneous since ATH is not a word.
2) For those who don't get the TMS Daily Sunday puzzle, here is a special "Valentine Dream" from a different TMS syndication. Argyle plans to blog it next Sunday. Post-Star only keeps a one-week archive. So, please get it printed immediately.
Back to the puzzle. I really liked those theme answers, so vivid and evocative. I might have done too many puzzles. Now whenever I see BUTTER, I see ram (butt-er). "Hard butter?" for RAM is one of the cleverest clue I've ever seen.
Without the "Dairy..?" clues, I might have had difficulty finding the theme, as the fills for 33A, 40A, 4D and 26D are all very long and deceptively theme-answer looking.
Across:
5A: Payt. option: C.O.D
8A: Violinist Elman: MISCHA. First encounter with this Kiev-born violinist. MISCHA is just a Russian nickname for either Mikhail (dancer MISHA Baryshnikov) or Michelle (actress MISCHA Barton).
14A: Colombian city: CALI. Great nightlife in CALI I suppose, given its title as "Salsa Capital of the World".
16A: Egyptian judge of the dead: OSIRIS. I only knew him as the husband/brother of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. Wikipedia says OSIRIS is usually depicted as a green-skinned because green was the color of rebirth. I was thinking he might be a very jealous husband. What's his Greek counterpart then? Hades?
17A: 1/4 of MXX: CCLV. Roman numeral 255. It intersects 1D: L x XVI: DCCC. Roman 800. Not a great corner there.
27A: Lincoln and Zumwalt: ELMOS. No idea. ELMO Lincoln was the first Tarzan. ELMO Zumwalt modernized the US Navy. And he was the youngest man to serve as Chief of Navy Operations. Interesting quote from him: "There is no black Navy, no white Navy -- just one Navy -- the United States Navy.'' Reminded me of Obama's keynote speech at 2004 Democratic National Convention: ".... there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America".
44A: Celtic Neptune: LER Or Lir. Celtic god of sea. The Greek counterpart is Poseidon, brother of Zeus/Hades/Hera.
46A: Old English letters: EDHS. Sometimes the answer is ETHS. I don't know the difference between the two.
56A: Tarsal bangle: ANKLET. This one is pretty. This one is too much.
58A: Presidential nickname: IKE. I wrote down ABE first.
60A: Conceive: IDEATE. Mine was CREATE.
61A: "The Daughter of Time" author: TEY. Not familiar with this Scottish mystery writer. Oh, the book cover looks quite interesting. Wikipedia says the title of the novel is taken from Bertolt Brecht's play "Life of Galileo", in which the eponymous hero observes: "Truth is the Daughter of Time, not of authority."
62A: German coal region: SAAR. Lower left. New to me. I kept thinking Ruhr, which is a coal region too, isn't it?
63A: Antiseptic surgery founder: LISTER (Joseph). Listerine is named after him.
Down:
5D: 7-time A.L. batting champ: CAREW (Rod). Gimme for any Twins fan. HOFer of course. Shocking to hear A-Rod took steroids. Time for Roger Clemens to come clean has passed. Have to admire Jason Giambi for his honesty.
7D: Remove sweetness: DESUGAR. Not a word to me.
8D: Shed feathers, in England: MOULT. Only knew MOLT.
12D: U. S. Grant's first name: HIRAM. I forgot. Hebrew for "Noble".
30D: Tidal area: MUDFLAT. New word to me. Looks very muddy.
31D: Easy as __: ABC. I wrote down PIE first.
34D: Swiss river: AAR. Or AARE. Here is the map. It flows into to the Rhine at the Swiss/German borner.
38D: Brit. quartermaster: RSO. Steve said this last time: "A quartermaster is a supply sergeant or officer in the American military. So RSO must mean Regimental Supply Officer."
41D: Meteorite remains: TEKTITE. Completely alien to me. Dictionary explains TEKTITE as "any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth's surface".
47D: Old comic-strip boy: DONDI. Another unknown. Wikipedia explains that "DONDI's original backstory describes him as a five year old, World War II war orphan of Italian descent. A soldier who was to be his future adoptive father (and who knew no Italian) found the child wandering in a war-torn village repeating the word "Donde" ("where") as he was looking for his slain parents."
49D: Two toppers: TREYS. I wanted THREE. This word stumps me way too often. Shouldn't the clue be "Deuce toppers"?
52D: Lived day to day: EKED. Needs an additional "with "out" I think.
54D: The same: Fr.: EGAL. The noun is egalité. As in the French motto: Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité. The last three lines are Italian, right? What do they mean, Maria?
55D: Carolina rail: SORA. See this picture. Why is it called "Carolina rail"?
C.C.
20A: Dairy exercise?: CHEESE CURLS
51A: Dairy pests?: BUTTER FLIES
11D: Dairy winds?: CREAM PUFFS
29D: Dairy DTS?: MILK SHAKES
A couple of things first:
1) I missed two important theme answers in John Underwood's Feb 6 "KNOT" puzzle. I failed to pick up BOW OUT and SLIP UP. Both are so short that I just did not think they are part of the theme. In his original submission, he has * marked in front of all the theme clues, and his clue for KNOT is "Theme clue, when added to the first word of * entries". The obscure "Interferometer instrument" for AERI is our editor's creation. Underwood's clue is simply "Atmosheric prefix". As for ATH, his original submission is "Olympic VIP". The clue we were given is "NCAA word", which is erroneous since ATH is not a word.
2) For those who don't get the TMS Daily Sunday puzzle, here is a special "Valentine Dream" from a different TMS syndication. Argyle plans to blog it next Sunday. Post-Star only keeps a one-week archive. So, please get it printed immediately.
Back to the puzzle. I really liked those theme answers, so vivid and evocative. I might have done too many puzzles. Now whenever I see BUTTER, I see ram (butt-er). "Hard butter?" for RAM is one of the cleverest clue I've ever seen.
Without the "Dairy..?" clues, I might have had difficulty finding the theme, as the fills for 33A, 40A, 4D and 26D are all very long and deceptively theme-answer looking.
Across:
5A: Payt. option: C.O.D
8A: Violinist Elman: MISCHA. First encounter with this Kiev-born violinist. MISCHA is just a Russian nickname for either Mikhail (dancer MISHA Baryshnikov) or Michelle (actress MISCHA Barton).
14A: Colombian city: CALI. Great nightlife in CALI I suppose, given its title as "Salsa Capital of the World".
16A: Egyptian judge of the dead: OSIRIS. I only knew him as the husband/brother of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. Wikipedia says OSIRIS is usually depicted as a green-skinned because green was the color of rebirth. I was thinking he might be a very jealous husband. What's his Greek counterpart then? Hades?
17A: 1/4 of MXX: CCLV. Roman numeral 255. It intersects 1D: L x XVI: DCCC. Roman 800. Not a great corner there.
27A: Lincoln and Zumwalt: ELMOS. No idea. ELMO Lincoln was the first Tarzan. ELMO Zumwalt modernized the US Navy. And he was the youngest man to serve as Chief of Navy Operations. Interesting quote from him: "There is no black Navy, no white Navy -- just one Navy -- the United States Navy.'' Reminded me of Obama's keynote speech at 2004 Democratic National Convention: ".... there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America".
44A: Celtic Neptune: LER Or Lir. Celtic god of sea. The Greek counterpart is Poseidon, brother of Zeus/Hades/Hera.
46A: Old English letters: EDHS. Sometimes the answer is ETHS. I don't know the difference between the two.
56A: Tarsal bangle: ANKLET. This one is pretty. This one is too much.
58A: Presidential nickname: IKE. I wrote down ABE first.
60A: Conceive: IDEATE. Mine was CREATE.
61A: "The Daughter of Time" author: TEY. Not familiar with this Scottish mystery writer. Oh, the book cover looks quite interesting. Wikipedia says the title of the novel is taken from Bertolt Brecht's play "Life of Galileo", in which the eponymous hero observes: "Truth is the Daughter of Time, not of authority."
62A: German coal region: SAAR. Lower left. New to me. I kept thinking Ruhr, which is a coal region too, isn't it?
63A: Antiseptic surgery founder: LISTER (Joseph). Listerine is named after him.
Down:
5D: 7-time A.L. batting champ: CAREW (Rod). Gimme for any Twins fan. HOFer of course. Shocking to hear A-Rod took steroids. Time for Roger Clemens to come clean has passed. Have to admire Jason Giambi for his honesty.
7D: Remove sweetness: DESUGAR. Not a word to me.
8D: Shed feathers, in England: MOULT. Only knew MOLT.
12D: U. S. Grant's first name: HIRAM. I forgot. Hebrew for "Noble".
30D: Tidal area: MUDFLAT. New word to me. Looks very muddy.
31D: Easy as __: ABC. I wrote down PIE first.
34D: Swiss river: AAR. Or AARE. Here is the map. It flows into to the Rhine at the Swiss/German borner.
38D: Brit. quartermaster: RSO. Steve said this last time: "A quartermaster is a supply sergeant or officer in the American military. So RSO must mean Regimental Supply Officer."
41D: Meteorite remains: TEKTITE. Completely alien to me. Dictionary explains TEKTITE as "any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth's surface".
47D: Old comic-strip boy: DONDI. Another unknown. Wikipedia explains that "DONDI's original backstory describes him as a five year old, World War II war orphan of Italian descent. A soldier who was to be his future adoptive father (and who knew no Italian) found the child wandering in a war-torn village repeating the word "Donde" ("where") as he was looking for his slain parents."
49D: Two toppers: TREYS. I wanted THREE. This word stumps me way too often. Shouldn't the clue be "Deuce toppers"?
52D: Lived day to day: EKED. Needs an additional "with "out" I think.
54D: The same: Fr.: EGAL. The noun is egalité. As in the French motto: Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité. The last three lines are Italian, right? What do they mean, Maria?
55D: Carolina rail: SORA. See this picture. Why is it called "Carolina rail"?
C.C.
66 comments:
Good morning, C.C. and gang - I really enjoyed the theme today, but had a problem with some of the other answers. Never heard of 'desugar', and I didn't like seeing two Roman numeral answers in the same puzzle. Also needed perp help for 61A. I knew Lister because we used Lister bags in Vietnam for water; you'd hang them from trees - the canvas would sweat and keep the water somewhat cool.
I'll bet C.C. loved seeing Rod Carew clued; just a tremendous hitter.
Today is Umbrella Day; we'll need it here in the Philly area.
Today's Words of Wisdom, short and sweet: "Old age ain't for sissies". -- Bette Davis
Just did some quick research - it's not the same 'Lister'; the one I was talking about (William John Lyster) came up with the sterile water bag we knew as 'Lister bags', but it was Joseph Lister who's considered the 'Father of Antiseptic Surgery'.
Good morning CC and all, …….a nice easy walk in the park today, except for two words. I did not know 8 and 16 across which prevented the solution to 12D. The remainder of the puzzle was quick fills but needed perp help in the SE corner.
Hope you all have a great Tuesday. It will be in the mid to high 50’s today so golf cannot be far behind
CC & Dennis-
I agree. Even if 'desugar' is technically a word, it's a very impractical one. If you do not want something sweetened in the first place, why would you add sugar only to 'remove sweetness' later?
I wonder if Lister is also the inventor of "
listerine antiseptic"
Dennis,
Oh, "Umbrella Day". Do you know why most of the mushrooms are umbrella-shaped while MOREL is not? Wish Rod Carew were more friendlier. He is just so icy in person.
Anonymous @ 5:44am,
Who are you?
Dick,
I think he is.
Argyle,
Can you help me locate the EAT A PEACH thread in our blog? I don't have any recollection of the topic. I like your clues for UNDER THE GUN.
Barry G,
Now I have this ADE-Barry automatic trigger reaction.
Lemonade,
Who is the editor of your LA Times Sunday puzzle? Rich Norris or Sylvia Bursztyn? Thanks for the Latin plural link. Very helpful, esp the IS to ES one. Always wondering about PENES before.
Martin,
Your highland fellow GOD made me laugh. ROD and RON are OK, they are not etymologically related. Alas, I thought I had a clever way to clue ALAS as wing-related instead of "Ah me" lament.
I bought the paper again today so I didn't have help from red letters. I wanted FEAT for DEED ("Heroic exploit"), IOU for COD ("Payt. option") and ALE for TEA ("Brewed drink"). Unknowns were CAREW, MISCHA, HIRAM, DONDI, SAAR, IRAE and SORA. It only took me about half and hour to fill in the theme fills: I would have filled them in faster but I was on a bus and my pen was running out of ink so I had to press harder than usual. Excuses excuses excuses. Luckily I was able to do the division and multiplication necessary to get 1A and 1D and LISTER was also a gimme: he invented aintseptic and marketted it as LISTERine. Ahhh.
Martin
NYTanonimo,
I got lots of rice last time you linked.
Red Smitty,
Nice to meet you. Good luck with your blog.
Crockett,
Re: Size of Nepenthe Flower. About 7" in full bloom? I don't know. It's supposed to induce forgetfulness and help you quell sorrow and bring you bliss.
Chris & Razzberry,
Great to see you guys again.
LISTER was also a gimme: he invented aintseptic and marketted it as LISTERine.
I just read my own link. Whereas Lister invented antiseptic, the ingredients in Listerine were not what he used as an antiseptic when he was doing surgery. Listerine was actually formulated by Dr. Joseph Lawrence and Jordan Wheat Lambert and they just credited Lister with the idea. My bad.
Martin
good morning c.c. and all,
tricky one today. theme answers/clues were very clever - but a deed is hardly a heroic exploit, and didn't like containing doubtful parts for iffy, why not just doubtful? never heard of tektite, saar or sora, and hated the crossing of cclv and dccc. dondi seems impossibly obscure, and desugar? ideate?? hmph.
would have liked if utter were udder, considering the theme .. but maybe that's milking it.
The Greek equivalent to Osiris was Adonis. In the Greek version, Aphrodite is both his mother and his lover, which sounds insane but then Ishtar was either Tammuz's wife or mother depending on the story. Tammuz, Osiris and Adonis all died and came back to life in mythology and their rebirth was associated with the coming of spring.
I forgot to mention that yesterday was the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated on th 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
Martin
Melissa,
Interesting UDDER comment. 10D can be easily changed into SID. Tough to alter ISTS to ISDS though.
Dougl,
I eat wild rice only when walleye is served.
Jeannette,
Welcome!
Lois,
Hmmm, I need to pay more attention to Ed Voile's style from now on. Maybe his sweet and gentle side is hidden. His name Voile sounds very mellow.
About TEKTITE: I assumed that "Meteorite remains" was refering to a mineral and the suffix -ITE usually refers to minerals, especially minerals that come from meteorites, cf Kryptonite, the meteor rocks that came with Superman from his native Krypton when he arrived on Earth and whose radiation is the only thing he is vulnerable to (besides magic).
Sigh. I'm being a geek again, aren't I?
Martin
Martin,
Did you eat Tang Yuan yesterday? Thanks for Adonis. I keep confusing him with the Hebrew God Adonai. Zeus is both Hera's brother and husband. Which other couple has this DF relationship? Why "Aren't I" instead of "Am I not"? Yours does not sound grammatically correct.
@ melissa bee, I have done a few deeds in my time that I thought were heroic exploits, but maybe only in my own mind!
Good evening from India,
Reasonably easy one today. Never heard of Desugar needed help in the lower right corner
Good morning all:
For those who thought this was easy, I tip my hat, the bottom corner with SAAR was very tricky. IDEATION is a popular word in business writing now, I cannot imagine why. DEED may not be heroic, but we had it recently, so in it went. DONDI is obscure, the story of an orphan italian war child, very touching. It did run for 30+ years, so it was not unfair.
Sylvia Burstyn, from LA Times, and in the ironies of life, I studied Latin for six years, used it when I was young in translating a book with one of my brothers and proceeded to forget all about it. Now my son is graduating in Classic Archaeology, and having studied Latin for the past 4 years, is disappointed I dont do ablative absolutes anymore. But as we said in school, SEMPER UBI , SUB UBI!
Have a great Tuesday
@ Lemonade
"Always wear (where) under wear (where) - great Latin 1 memory, thanks!
One more:
"Latin is a dead language,
dead as dead can be.
Once it killed the Romans,
and now it's killing me!"
Mea culpa to all the poetry fans.
For those in need of a crossword fix, here's the link to the USA Today puzzle. Only available Monday through Friday, but it's sometimes challenging and I found it a helpful "release" (easy, girls) when the TMS puzzle is unsatisfyingly simple. Thought I'd share.
Morning, all!
This one proved to be unusually thorny for me, although I did manage to finish unassisted thanks to some lucky guess.
Overall, I liked the theme. I felt, however, that BUTTERFLY didn't really belong. All the theme answers are basically puns, where one word in the phrase is used in a different sense than expected. Thus, a CURL is used to mean a form of exercise instead of a piece of food, a PUFF is used to mean a bit of wind instead of a confectionery filling, and a SHAKE is used to mean a tremor instead of a drink. But a FLY is, well, a fly. A BUTTERFLY may not be as annoying as a housefly, but it's still a fly.
Anyway...
Unknowns today were numerous. I didn't know MISCHA, ELMOR, RSO, SAAR or HIRAM, but I was able to get via the perps. Silly me -- I always thought US Grant's first name was Ulysses. Go figure. I also didn't know TEKTITE, LER or TEY and had to rely on guesses to get the parts where they crossed. Basically, TEKTITE just looked better than anything else I could come up with (I know ITE is usually a mineral suffix, but it could have just as easily been TAKTITE or TOKTITE, I suppose). Oh -- and then there was the crossing of DONDI and EDH. I figured it was either those or TONDI and ETH, but fortunately I guessed correctly.
And, hey -- I actually knew CAREW! Well, I didn't know he was a "7-time A.L. batting champ," but at least I knew he was a famous baseball player.
didn't know tay, ler and carew. cute theme. i knew you'd do well with the art cc! sorry about no caps-on hold on the phone while doing this-aaaah!
Did you eat Tang Yuan yesterday?
Yes, I did.
Thanks for Adonis. I keep confusing him with the Hebrew God Adonai.
It's the same word. Adonai means "lord" so the Jews (who spoke Hebrew) called their god "Adonai" and the Phoenicians (who also spoke Hebrew) called Tammuz "Adoni". "Baal" is another name for Tammuz which also means "lord". The Greeks borrowed Adonis wholesale from the Phoenicians which is why the story of Adonis sounds so similar to that of Tammuz.
Why "Aren't I" instead of "Am I not"? Yours does not sound grammatically correct.
Nice catch. The grammatically correct phrase sounds wrong however to most native speakers because we're used to hearing "aren't I".
Martin
Chris:
Some meories are better than others in Latin class; though now thanks to you and the USA Today I am late to work; you going to expound on their puzzles? 13:31 was not bad.
Zeus is both Hera's brother and husband. Which other couple has this DF relationship?
I misread your question and that's why I didn't answer it: I thought you meant just in mythology.
Scary but true, but in the ancient world (Sumer and Egypt) men married their own sisters to keep property in the family. This was especially true if the family was wealthy. European royals married each other's cousins for the same reason: Charles and Diana were distant cousins and Diana, in fact, had the title of Lady before she married Charles but she was so distantly related to the royal family that she was refered to as a "commoner". Anyway, it's because of real life interbreeding that we know the dangers of interbreeding: hemophilia was common in the British royal family and King Tut had a genetic condition that required him to walk with a cane; he nevertheless married his own sister.
Martin
Good Morning all!
This was fairly easy for me, with a minimum of guessing and cross/perp help, no g'ing and one error--I had ECHS for 46A. I also started with PIE for ABC in 31D.
Saar is a well known river in Germany, giving its name to its state, Saarland, whose capital, Saarbrücken, means bridge over the Saar. In c.c.'s map, it is the state to the south of the one highlighted, which is Rheinland-Pfalz. Basically that whole area is industrial like the Ruhr Valley, which is why after WWI they resented France's refusing to allow the industry to open up there again, crippling the economy of the whole country. This in effect was why Hitler gained popularity by promising to put the country back on its feet when he went ahead with industry there.
Not being more than self-taught in Italian, this is just a guess, but the quote under the link of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité looks to me like "Workers' freedom--a word which we Italians have confused with workers' service". Let's see if I'm close when Maria weighs in on it.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Sora \So"ra\, n. (Zo["o]l.)
A North American rail (Porzana Carolina) common in the
Eastern United States. Its back is golden brown, varied with
black and white, the front of the head and throat black, the
breast and sides of the head and neck slate-colored. Called
also American rail, Carolina rail, Carolina crake,
common rail, sora rail, soree, meadow chicken, and
orto.
Good Morning All, I really liked the clever theme answers. They didn't give me too much trouble. It was the bottom third that had me wondering what I had done to Jo Vita to make her dislike me?
I didn't know EDHS, IDEATE, TEY, SAAR or SORA and for some reason TREYS just didn't come to mind.
I wrote down "même" for 54D. Way back in high school French class, EGAL meant Equal and MEME was Same. How about it, Kazie?
I'm with Melissa bee on DEEDS. What about Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?
LOL at Dick@6:24 When I was a lot younger a common euphemistic question was "Did you do the DEED?", DEED meaning sex. I'm sure Dick's deeds were truly heroic!
Good morning C.C. and friends,
I read through some of the clues before starting and thought "oh no! This is going to be awful"...I just kept on filling in the few words I knew for sure and the rest actually began to emerge. I agree with Melissa bee, too many were just obscure and the Roman Numerals always ruin me. The theme was cute and clever.
Got a lot of exercise today dancing around this puzzle, but, like yesterday managed most of it.
I wanted MARINA to start for 30D and had to take it out again. Didn't know Lincoln and Zumwalt...and so on. I actually got the theme answers today again...whoo hoo!
C.C. MOULT...in England a lot of words have a U still in them that we seem to have discarded in the US. COLOR/COLOUR is and example.
Josephine Tey's Book "Daughter of Time", if I remember correctly, is about a detective who, while in hospital, solves the mystery of the murder of the two princes on the Tower of London. It was thought that Richard III had them murdered so he could take the throne of England after his brother's death, which he did after the disappearance of the boys, whose bodies were eventually unearthed in the 20th century(I think) in the Tower. Richard was so completely hated that even after his death, they dug him up, dismembered him and dragged the bits through the streets(same with Oliver Cromwell). That's really holding a grudge! My daughter...an English history buff, thought the English a particularly bloody lot...as she said, "dig them up and kill them again!"
Interestingly, the Tey book was used in a Martha Grimes novel and was given to a detective who was in hospital as inspiration and he attempts to solve a crime from his bed...art imitating art.
Hi c.c. and all:
I did some googling on this one! Didn't know Tey, Tekite, Lister or Mischa. As MelissaBee said I didn't like deed for Heroic exploit, nor 1D or 17A Roman numeral crossings. As others have said, I also put in pie at first instead of ABC. The rest of the puzzle went well, and I did get all the theme answers which helped in solving some of the other words.
Thanks c.c. for the puzzle and you too Chris in LA.
Wolfmom: Thanks for the history behind "Daughter of Time", very interesting!
Have a great day everyone!
Sorry...I have to make a correction. During repairs being made to the White Tower in 1674(see, I was WAY off on this), the bodies of what were thought to be the two princes were found in chest in a walled up staircase. What I was thinking of was a contemporary(1933) examination of the bones. Info comes from the book by Alison Weir, "The Princes in the Tower". I had read it quite awhile ago and had to back and recheck it.
Also, C.C. Re: 2nd anklet photo...where else is a "working girl" going to keep her phone?;-)
Clear Ayes,
You're right, égal does mean "equal", but it also means "same", as in "ça m'est égal" = "it's all the same to me". A lot of people simply shorten that to égal, when put on the spot to make a choice. e.g.:
On va au théâtre, ou au ciné?
--Égal, tous les deux sont bon!
Sorry--tous les deux sont bons!
Good Afternoon C.C. and Co.,
ClearEyes,
It has never occurred to try to use brown rice for risotto. I have a package of short grain sweet brown rice that I purchased from a local Asian food store. I am not sure if you can find the brand where you live. The grains are about the smallest that I have seen for brown rice; very close to the size of the grains of Arborio rice that is typically used for risotto. It might work fine, but I doubt it would ever turn out quite as creamy.
I also wanted même for 54D, as in "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" ("the more things change, the more they stay the same".)
I had not heard of the The Daughter of Time, but judging from the book's cover I am guessing the story must be about the 'War of the Roses'. For those who like good fantasy writing, I heartily recommend George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. He loosely based it on the War of the Roses.
"I'm being a geek again, aren't I?"
Poor Martin. His English is not very good looking.
It's bedder than hers, though.
MOULT is another British original, like colour, or honour that seemed to shed the "U" in America.
Rod Carew was a great hitter, and I surprised it did not psawn at least a reference to the A-Rod confession, though using stimulants in sports is hardly new. If you read Jim Brosnan's "Long Season" or Jim Bouton's "Ball Four," you see it generally is not even the players who look for the edge. Steroids were not understood, not banned, not illegal: how many can be certain that with a multi-million dollar reward, they would not try?
Well, I am back being obseessed having done USA Today and LA Times also.
Ciao for niao.
Clear Ayes and Promise,
If it makes you feel any better, I also thought of même first, but I already had ergo giving the g in the middle, so didn't really hesitate.
Lemonade and Wolfmom,
As you both pointed out, the "o" to "ou" is a common difference in American and British spelling. The English kept the adaptations they made when French was the preferred language of the court after William the Conqueror's takeover. Ironically, the American dropping of the "u" is a return to the original Latin spellings of many of these words or their roots.
Good morning, everyone. I was so proud that I knew MISCHA, HIRAM, and TEKTITE. I didn't know OSIRIS, LER, ELMOS -- all solved from the perps. I didn't care for the clue for 49D. I think "Deuce toppers" would be more fitting.
Have a great Tuesday!
I had six incorrect letters, way too many for a daily puzzle! There were so many terms that I did not know that crossed each other…TEKTITE crossing with both LER and TEY, SAAR and SELA crossing with SORA, CAREW crossing with BTW (I had “btb”) and DONDI’s cross with IDEATE. Despite these many errors, I did get all the theme answers and the Roman numeral arithmetic!
My only issue with the puzzle is the clue “the same: FR” for 54D. EGAL means “equal”, while même means “same”. And really, is DESUGAR a word? And how would one go about DESUGARing something?
LISTER’s facial adornments would be called “mutton chops”, yes?
Kazie: That makes so much sense. You know how you know various things and just don't put them together? The French/English combinations are so obvious when you point it out. Thanks.
I also agree with Crockett on Duece Toppers...much better clue.
Ink,
See my answer to Clear Ayes on égal @ 12:34.
@ clearayes I guess the deed(s) was/were heroic as I still remember some.
Oops, DEUCE toppers...
I looked up DE-Sugar in a really big dictionary and, as a word, it doesn't appear to exist. You can DE-Sulfur something, so maybe the xword designer just assumed it would be ok.
I am not exactly sure you could de-sugar anything that was already sweet. Things can be UN-sweetened or UN-sugared...hmmmm? I think we need a food chemist for that answer.
@ Lemonade re: USA Today - sorry, I don't have CC's stamina, but I'm glad you enjoyed the link! Hope you eventually made it into work.
good afternoon, c.c. and all
Kazie, you put me to the test, hopefully i can oblige . . oddly enough had not seen "egal" as that corner got filled in by perps but I think the words meme and egal though having the same meaning have a different connotation , as egalite' meaning equality for all .
c.c. inre Dondi, allthough the story rings true and good, i have difficulty with it because "donde" is a spanish word not italian.
The puzzle not too easy for me, could not finish it until i came here and i still dont' have 23A nor 13D . . . just missing one letter
Maria, 'AAA' and 'assay'.
Dennis , you are a prince
NYTanonimo, I got quite a bit of rice too
thanks
About the tag questions "Aren't I?" and "Am I not?" I had a teacher who would turn pale if she heard any of her students say, "Ain't I?" She told us, that if we weren't disposed to use the more formal "Am I not?", we should use the contraction, "Amn't I?"
For anyone who is an Anglophile, or who just might want to know the monarchs of England for future crossword or Jeopardy use -
English Monarchs
Willie Willie Harry Stee
Harry Dick John Harry three;
One two three Neds, Richard two
Harrys four five six... then who?
Edwards four five, Dick the bad,
Harrys (twain), Ned six (the lad);
Mary, Bessie, James you ken,
Then Charlie, Charlie, James again...
Will and Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges four, Will four, Victoria;
Edward seven next, and then
Came George the fifth in nineteen ten;
Ned the eighth soon abdicated
Then George six was coronated;
After which Elizabeth
And that's all folks until her death.
- Anon.
For any sticklers, the poem starts with the Normans and William the Conqueror in 1066. It also leaves out Matilda and Jane. I supposed the reason there, is that their reigns were disputed, or "Anon" couldn't figure out a rhyme for Matilda.
@maria You should have seen him before lois kissed him!
ribbit.
7D: Remove sweetness: DESUGAR.
It is a word used by computer programers; syntactic sugar, a term coined for additions to the syntax of a computer language which do not affect its expressiveness but make it "sweeter" for humans to use.
I doubt Jo Vita had that in mind when the clue was created but if so, it should have been connoted.
(See, I learned my vocabulary lesson from the other day.)
18:58 today. I certainly had a lot of trouble with this puzzle.
I found it rather curious that some of the longer entries (DIVE BOMBERS, TURN ABOUTS, and TAKES AFTER) had nothing to do with the theme. Maybe the constructor ran out of dairy-based ideas?
I also disliked the NW corner, what with two crossing Roman numeral math problems.
Oh well, not all the puzzles can be scintillating.
Three inches of snow here in Oregon today--ugh! And here I was thinking about going to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner tonight and having profiteroles for dessert (CREAM PUFFS). profiteroles
Argyle, WOW, great information on DESUGAR. I'm looking forward to your Valentine puzzle blog on Sunday.
Crocket1947 and Dennis, Funny froggie stuff.
Embien, The heck with avoiding white flour and sugar. Who can resist a profiterole?
Embien...totally there with you on the profiteroles, especially if they are filled with espresso ice cream and covered in dark chocolate sauce...yum, yum, yum!
ClearAyes...loved the British Rulers poem! It's always so difficult trying to keep them all straight.
Argle...the desugar info was really interesting, I went to the link...Thanks...who knew???Certainly not me.
Maria,
we were waiting for your input on the Italian quote in c.c.'s link on her original post for 54D. It was an Italian statement superimposed on the painting of lady liberté holding the standard--I can't remember who painted it, but go to the link, and you'll see it.
I hadn't thought about the donde story, but you're right--it's dove in Italian, isn't it?
Now I've seen it all. 5a payt. option=cod.
Where did you ever see payt. used to designate "payment". I'm convinced that puzzle makers use whatever they have to to finish a puzzle.
Kazie@6:21 Eugene Delacroix
I think a 'pretty' ankle bracelet is very alluring. Any other guys think so?
Actually, I was not as late as I expected, and enjoyed all of the puzzles. Appreciate the Dondi info, I do not speak Italian, and assumed the Italian word would be similar to the Spanish Donde, so...I assume the Italian is pronounces dough-vay (?).
C.C. Voile, is from the French for Veil, and it is a very soft, almost transparent cloth used in dressmaking and for curtains. Your insinct about softness is pretty solid.
I like the kryptonite reference, though I hated the many colors, red, green, blue that each had their own result, but then again there was Bizzaro world.
Luxor, I agree - and they can leave the nicest imprint on one's back...
Oh Prince Dennis, is that called "getting a grip on things"?
Just a form of leapfrog.
Wolfmom,
Thanks!
Oh boy,
c.c. and Kazie, i was pretty rattled this morning before the c/w as i had an early Condo meeting including Public Works officials, soo I do not know how i overlooked C.C.' s original question inre " Liberte' egalite & fraternite' " but to finally answer that, i' ll say as an italian born i have always known it to mean " Liberty, Equality,Brotherhood "
now if you want it in Italian . . .
" Liberta', Equalita", Fraternita "
however a few others here had french in school, whereas i had english as a second language after latin
anyway, i certainly enjoyed the attention
arrivederci ( seeya )
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