Theme: Deliver-ANCE - ANCE is attached to the second word of a common phrase.
16A. Communist revenue management?: RED FINANCE. Redfin. The freshwater minnow with red fins. Communist = Red.
21A. Atonement from a soda jerk?: FOUNTAIN PENANCE. Fountain pen. Soda fountain. Atonement = Penance.
32A. Love that blossomed in a music store?: CD ROMANCE. CD-Rom. Love = Romance.
48A. Voice of choice? FAVORITE SONANCE. Favorite Son. Voice = Sonance.
55A. Square up with actor Jack?: PAY PALANCE. PayPal. My first encounter with actor Jack Palance. Wikipedia says he won an Oscar for "City Slickers".
Today's Dan Naddor Index (non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 24. Very high. Great columns of triple 7's in each corner. The total word count is a themeless-like 70.
While solving this puzzle, I thought of Dennis' s trivia on the only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.
Tough slogging for me. Lots of tricky clues. My favorite is NARC (24D. Buster?). I still don't get POS (55. Bldgs. with boxes). PO Box, yes. Why buildings?
Across:
1. Hoodwink: CON
4. Exhausted, with "out": WIPED. Crossing DIE (8D. Go kaput).
9. Exaggerated fanfare: HYPE
13. Mayo is in it: ANO. Spanish for "year". Mayo here refers to the month "may". I was thinking of the sandwich spread mayo.
14. Italian deli offering: PANINI. With a bit of grilled eggplant. Yummy!
15. Skyrocket: SOAR
18. Toro, in sushi bars: TUNA. Toro is the fatty belly portion of the tuna. Very tasty.
19. Become: AMOUNT TO
20. Small batteries: AAS
26. Tarzan creator's monogram: ERB (Edgar Rice Burroughs). Stumped me.
28. Mike famously bit him in a 1997 fight: EVANDER (Holyfield). Tyson bit Holyfield's ear.
29. __ date: SET A. Wrote down UP TO first.
31. Torpors: INERTIAS
36. Faultfinding: CAPTIOUS. New word to me.
39. Old Dodge: DART. And PINTO (14D. Old Ford). Car makers and models are definitely my blind spots.
43. Prayers: ORISONS. Same root with oration. Learned from doing Xword.
44. Edible ginseng plant: UDO. Both the leaves and stems are edible. Japanese veggie.
47. Comic strip cry: WAH. Baby cry?
51. Waitress at Mel's: FLO
52. More isolated: LONELIER
53. Town-line sign abbr.: ESTD (Established)
57. Bum: REAR. I am surprised by the cluing.
58. Starts: ONSETS. Noun "starts".
59. __ station: GAS
60. Dash for a recipe, maybe: SALT
61. Restaurant row?: SCENE. The brawl "row", not those lines of seats.
62. Mexican Mrs.: SRA
Down:
1. Some wine containers: CARAFES. The left one?
2. Another: ONE MORE
3. Surely: NO DOUBT. Of course!
4. Classified: WANT AD
5. Rare way for football games to end: IN A TIE. And EVEN (23D. Neck and neck).
6. Attribute to, as blame: PIN ON
7. Ref. work: ENC (Encyclopedia). Or OED.
10. 1982 Eddie Rabbitt/Crystal Gale duet: YOU AND I. No idea. The tune sounds familiar though.
11. Elixir: PANACEA
12. They can fix slips: ERASERS. What slips were you thinking? Lingerie?
17. Frolic: FUN
22. Clinton cabinet member Federico: PENA. Alas, his name escaped me again. Tony Peña next time, please!
25. Fed the kitty: ANTED. Pot kitty. Nice clue too.
30. "Don't __ innocent": ACT SO
31. AOL exchanges: IMS
33. New Look designer: DIOR (Christian)
34. Food-box word with a cable car in its "o": RONI. Rice-A-Roni, the San Fransisco Treat.
35. Depose: OUST
36. Strongboxes: COFFERS
37. Asian border lake: ARAL SEA. The shrinking sea. Good to have its complete name for a change.
38. Like a deciding moment: PIVOTAL. Pivotal moment.
40. Shade providers: AWNINGS
41. Wheels on a track: RACE CAR. Race track
42. Russell of "Black Widow": THERESA. Nope. I like how she looks.
44. Ben Hogan won it four times: US OPEN. Gimme. Ben Hogan had the most effective swing.
45. Contribute: DONATE
46. First-year law students: ONE LS. First year law students.
49. "Family Ties" mom: ELYSE. Simply forgot.
50. King preceder: A LA. Shouldn't it be "King preceders" (plural)?
54. 2000 Gere title role: DR T. "Dr. T and the Women". So star-studded. But I've never heard of the movie.
56. Mandela's org.: ANC (African National Congress)
Answer grid.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
C.C.
16A. Communist revenue management?: RED FINANCE. Redfin. The freshwater minnow with red fins. Communist = Red.
21A. Atonement from a soda jerk?: FOUNTAIN PENANCE. Fountain pen. Soda fountain. Atonement = Penance.
32A. Love that blossomed in a music store?: CD ROMANCE. CD-Rom. Love = Romance.
48A. Voice of choice? FAVORITE SONANCE. Favorite Son. Voice = Sonance.
55A. Square up with actor Jack?: PAY PALANCE. PayPal. My first encounter with actor Jack Palance. Wikipedia says he won an Oscar for "City Slickers".
Today's Dan Naddor Index (non-theme entries with 6 or more letters) is 24. Very high. Great columns of triple 7's in each corner. The total word count is a themeless-like 70.
While solving this puzzle, I thought of Dennis' s trivia on the only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.
Tough slogging for me. Lots of tricky clues. My favorite is NARC (24D. Buster?). I still don't get POS (55. Bldgs. with boxes). PO Box, yes. Why buildings?
Across:
1. Hoodwink: CON
4. Exhausted, with "out": WIPED. Crossing DIE (8D. Go kaput).
9. Exaggerated fanfare: HYPE
13. Mayo is in it: ANO. Spanish for "year". Mayo here refers to the month "may". I was thinking of the sandwich spread mayo.
14. Italian deli offering: PANINI. With a bit of grilled eggplant. Yummy!
15. Skyrocket: SOAR
18. Toro, in sushi bars: TUNA. Toro is the fatty belly portion of the tuna. Very tasty.
19. Become: AMOUNT TO
20. Small batteries: AAS
26. Tarzan creator's monogram: ERB (Edgar Rice Burroughs). Stumped me.
28. Mike famously bit him in a 1997 fight: EVANDER (Holyfield). Tyson bit Holyfield's ear.
29. __ date: SET A. Wrote down UP TO first.
31. Torpors: INERTIAS
36. Faultfinding: CAPTIOUS. New word to me.
39. Old Dodge: DART. And PINTO (14D. Old Ford). Car makers and models are definitely my blind spots.
43. Prayers: ORISONS. Same root with oration. Learned from doing Xword.
44. Edible ginseng plant: UDO. Both the leaves and stems are edible. Japanese veggie.
47. Comic strip cry: WAH. Baby cry?
51. Waitress at Mel's: FLO
52. More isolated: LONELIER
53. Town-line sign abbr.: ESTD (Established)
57. Bum: REAR. I am surprised by the cluing.
58. Starts: ONSETS. Noun "starts".
59. __ station: GAS
60. Dash for a recipe, maybe: SALT
61. Restaurant row?: SCENE. The brawl "row", not those lines of seats.
62. Mexican Mrs.: SRA
Down:
1. Some wine containers: CARAFES. The left one?
2. Another: ONE MORE
3. Surely: NO DOUBT. Of course!
4. Classified: WANT AD
5. Rare way for football games to end: IN A TIE. And EVEN (23D. Neck and neck).
6. Attribute to, as blame: PIN ON
7. Ref. work: ENC (Encyclopedia). Or OED.
10. 1982 Eddie Rabbitt/Crystal Gale duet: YOU AND I. No idea. The tune sounds familiar though.
11. Elixir: PANACEA
12. They can fix slips: ERASERS. What slips were you thinking? Lingerie?
17. Frolic: FUN
22. Clinton cabinet member Federico: PENA. Alas, his name escaped me again. Tony Peña next time, please!
25. Fed the kitty: ANTED. Pot kitty. Nice clue too.
30. "Don't __ innocent": ACT SO
31. AOL exchanges: IMS
33. New Look designer: DIOR (Christian)
34. Food-box word with a cable car in its "o": RONI. Rice-A-Roni, the San Fransisco Treat.
35. Depose: OUST
36. Strongboxes: COFFERS
37. Asian border lake: ARAL SEA. The shrinking sea. Good to have its complete name for a change.
38. Like a deciding moment: PIVOTAL. Pivotal moment.
40. Shade providers: AWNINGS
41. Wheels on a track: RACE CAR. Race track
42. Russell of "Black Widow": THERESA. Nope. I like how she looks.
44. Ben Hogan won it four times: US OPEN. Gimme. Ben Hogan had the most effective swing.
45. Contribute: DONATE
46. First-year law students: ONE LS. First year law students.
49. "Family Ties" mom: ELYSE. Simply forgot.
50. King preceder: A LA. Shouldn't it be "King preceders" (plural)?
54. 2000 Gere title role: DR T. "Dr. T and the Women". So star-studded. But I've never heard of the movie.
56. Mandela's org.: ANC (African National Congress)
Answer grid.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
C.C.
21 comments:
Merry Christmas, C.C. and Everyone!
Maybe Santa will bring you that dress Theresa Russell is wearing because you would look good in it.
POS - You have it right there; Post Offices have lots of post office boxes in them.
Off to open presents. Ho, HO, Ho!
MERRY CHRISTMAS, C.C., Argyle and gang - I hope this is a wonderful one for everyone, whether it's entertaining or just relaxing at home.
This puzzle beat me up pretty good. Even when I got some filled in by perps, it took a bit for the light to come on. 13A, for example. I confidently put in 'Salami' for Italian deli offering', and that was a pretty good setback. Not sure I've seen 'captious' before; I love learning new words. Also, didn't know 'toro' referred to part of a tuna; thanks, C.C.
Overall, just an outstanding puzzle for me - tons of tricky clues, good triple stacks and lots of fresh words.
Gotta finish packing and hit the road.
Good morning and Merry Christmas, C.C. and all,
My first time as the initial poster! This was a real grind today. I needed lots of red letter and perp help, but finally finished in 48 minutes. Meanwhile, Jean is still dreaming away with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head. This was a typical Dan Naddor puzzle at his hardest.
I soon figured out the theme being an "ance" ending but had to come here to make the rest of the connection.
I have been designated to provide the turnips for the family feast in Rockport. Julia Childs has an excellent recipe. Jean made two pies, mince and butter pecan. I will get to bring most of the mince home, because few people like it.
I hope Santa found his way to everyone's home. Have a great day.
(Woops. By the time I typed this, I was no longer first. Oh, well).
Good morning!
No time to do the puzzle yet, but wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
Now I need to go slice some fruit for a platter I'm taking to my sister's to go with the breakfast casseroles we eat during a break between opening our presents, and going through our stockings.
Hopefully, I'll find time to the puzzle later in the day.
Jeannie and others in the snow belt, I hope you're weathering the storm okay and will be able to enjoy holiday celebrations!
Have a safe trip, Dennis!
Merry Christmas, sweet cookie.
This was a big slog, but got it done with lots of red letter help. Nice theme.
It is an absolute winter wonderland here. So beautiful for Christmas. A picture from Currier and Ives.
So far, no indication that our flight is cancelled. Seem to be handling the clearing of the snow well.
Waiting for the kids to wake to open the rest of the gifts. We had a lovely time last night with my family and a beautiful church service.
Blessings. Merry Christmas everyone.
Good morning C.C. and all, I have not started on the puzzle yet, but wanted to wish everyone a safe and joyous Christmas day. We have snow on the ground, but is is going to melt quickly with the freezing rain and highs in the upper 30's this afternoon. My wife and I will be going to a lamb roast this evening; it will be held at a backyard pavilion. Should be interesting and maybe wet.
C.C. a belated congratulations on being mentioned in Norris' book. A well deserved honor. Also, thank you for the blog, it has given me many hours of fun since I discovered it more than a year ago.
14D. Old Ford Pinto I thought of Edsel first.
34. Food-box word with a cable car in its "o": RONI. I couldn't get it at first until perps revealed the answer.
This one was really hard for me--lots of empty spaces after the first time through-and the second and third times!Never heard of orisons or "You and I"---but I did get Evander!(did anyone see him with Mike Tyson on Oprah? interesting interaction) Merry Christmas everyone--it is raining very hard here in Michigan, so no white Christmas for us!
Good Morning and a Merry Christmas All, I had just enough time last night to work on today's puzzle. Thanks to Dan Naddor for a twisty, yet enjoyable gift.
The SW was tough with the stack of CAPTIOUS and ORISONS, but Dan always gives us just enough in the perps to get through. Of course, it may be quite a struggle, but that is OK.
GAH is a big boxing fan and had been a Tyson fan until the Holyfield fight. That was horrifying.
That's all the time for now. Travelers have a great time when you get where you are going. To everyone, have a wonderful holiday.
Was not a big fan of the theme wtih an ANCE removed. Why because its there? Once I did get the theme, which took a bit, the puzzle finally moved.
The rest of the fill made up for the theme ORISON and CAPTIOUS were new words for me. Lots of erasing and clean up with difficult places to get toe holds in the puzzle. The SE was the only section that filled up quickly, the rest was a nice work-out.
Merry Christmas to all!
Glad to see that I wasn't the only one who had problems with this one. When I saw Dan's name up there on a Friday I knew it was going to be a workout! I also had SALAMI, but that really messed things up. NE was the last to fall, and I got some help on it from my wife! Maybe I can get her away from Spider Solitaire and into the crosswords!!
Santa, nice avatar. My avatars have been spotty lately, so I don't know if that's new today or when it showed up, but it's cool.
Being called to open presents. Later.
This puzzle was just too hard for me. I would never have finished it except for red-letter help. Quite a challenge. I learned some new words.
Happy Christmas everybody!
Hi C.C. & gang, a tough puzzle from Mr. Naddor again, we did it half and half again, me online in red and my wife in pencil on paper. Online time today was 23:23.
Here's a Xmas message that seems to fit for today:
A Merry Christmas Poem
'Twas the night before Christmas & out on the ranch
The pond was froze over & so was the branch.
The snow was piled up belly-deep to a mule.
The kids were all home on vacation from school,
And happier young folks you never did see-
Just all sprawled around a-watchin' TV.
Then suddenly, some time around 8 o'clock,
There came a surprise that gave them a shock!
The power went off, the TV went dead!
When Grandpa came in from out in the shed
With an armload of wood, the house was all dark.
"Just what I expected," they heard him remark.
"Them power line wires must be down from the snow.
Seems sorter like times on the ranch long ago."
"I'll hunt up some candles," said Mom. "With their light,
And the fireplace, I reckon we'll make out all right."
The teen-agers all seemed enveloped in gloom.
Then Grandpa came back from a trip to his room,
Uncased his old fiddle & started to play
That old Christmas song about bells on a sleigh.
Mom started to sing, & 1st thing they knew
Both Pop & the kids were all singing it, too.
They sang Christmas carols, they sang "Holy Night,"
Their eyes all a-shine in the ruddy firelight.
They played some charades Mom recalled from her youth,
And Pop read a passage from God's Book of Truth.
They stayed up till midnight-and, would you believe,
The youngsters agreed 'twas a fine Christmas Eve.
Grandpa rose early, some time before dawn;
And when the kids wakened, the power was on.
"The power company sure got the line repaired quick,"
Said Grandpa - & no one suspected his trick.
Last night, for the sake of some old-fashioned fun,
He had pulled the main switch - the old Son-of-a-Gun!
Difficulty level of about 9.9 today, at least to me. I stuggled with this one for a long time before going to Dr. G's place. Had to look at several of them.
My own bumbling messed me up in SW because I misread the 57A clue as "burn" instead of "bum." I put "sear," which fit two of the perps, but not the others. Also, I spelled "Elyse" with an 'i' instead of a 'y,' which messed up the Jack Palance fill. Spent a while trying to find something to fit with Mayo Clinic. When the perps finally took care of that, I laughed out loud at the clever clue. Loved that one!
Good theme.
Hope everybody is having a great holiday and staying warm and safe.
We had a low of 20º this morning. It is up to 49º now. I haven't even gone outside today.
We seem to have a theme of our own here--CAPTIOUS and ORISONS were the last to fall for me too. It was a good workout from Dan Naddor.
C.C. Congrats on the mention in the book. You deserve it.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Warren, Thanks for the poem. I like that trick!
Merry Christmas to all christians. Happy holidays to others. Just thought that I'd chime in that 41D: RACE CAR is a well known palindrome.
Hi Gang -
Merry, Happy, Joyous Holy Day, and/or celebration of your choice.
Holy yikes - what a hard puzzle. this would be in the 10% of hard variety Saturday puzzles.
Mostly great puzzle. I'm not fond of clustered obscurities, though. The CAPTIOUS, ORISONS stack was utterly intractable, as was the UDO - ONE LS cross. Does ONE EL exist outside of crosswords?
I had trouble with words I should have known - frex, took forever to get DONATE.
Busy day - took mom back to T-town; visited with my sister, then took my mother-in-law to her son's house; then back to her house; then picked up her other son at the airport (2 hours late), and brought him to our house. Somewhere in the midst of all this, there was an attempted terror event at DTW.
Back down to T-town tomorrow. No rest.
But, as we often say here - it's all good.
Cheers!
JzB the maybe I'll be the last poster today trombonist
D'oh! I read BUM as BURN and was wracking my brain for a way to make sense of REAR as the answer once the perps filled it in.
Yes, the bottle on the left is the CARAFE. It's nice that some restaurants also sell half-carafes too.
I was thinking lingerie for slips, and wondering what word would fix static cling.
I liked the following: "Don't ACT SO innocent!", PIVOTAL
The lace that Theresa Russell is wearing is beautiful!
I saw "Dr. T and The Women" a long time ago and don't remember much of it, but recall thinking it was much better than I'd expected. I thought it was going to be a more comical role for him as the usual lothario, fooling around with a bunch of women. But as I remember it, I was pleasantly surprised to find his role was a nice, sensitive doctor (and husband, I think). I don't remember it being an awesome movie, but touching and worth your viewing it. I guess it's time for me to see it again too if I'm forgetting so much of it.
Great poem, Warren!
Sorry, that previous post was from me. It accepted my identity when I logged in, but posted it as Anonymous.
Annette
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