Theme: None
Total words: 66 (Four intersecting grid-spanners)
Total blocks: 30
No theme today, Saturdays are themeless, although I think the answer for 8D. Educated Guesses was a good name for this puzzle. There were a lot of initial fill-ins that I wasn't entirely sure of, but they just felt right somehow.
Al here today, killing time while waiting for some off-hours processing to finish for work.
Total words: 66 (Four intersecting grid-spanners)
Total blocks: 30
No theme today, Saturdays are themeless, although I think the answer for 8D. Educated Guesses was a good name for this puzzle. There were a lot of initial fill-ins that I wasn't entirely sure of, but they just felt right somehow.
Al here today, killing time while waiting for some off-hours processing to finish for work.
Across:
1. McCarthy era phenomenon: RED SCARE. Technically, the second one, from 1947-1957 in which the Cincinnati Reds temporarily renamed themselves the “Cincinnati Redlegs” to avoid the money-losing and career-ruining connotations inherent in being ball-playing “Reds”. The first Red Scare was from 1917-1920.
9. Trysting relationship: AFFAIR. What one "has to do" from Old French à faire "to do".
15. Flattered, in a way: IMITATED. Imitation is the sincerest of flattery -- Charles Caleb Colton.
16. Grand Canal span: RIALTO. Contracted from Rivoalto and named for the canal (Latin rivus altus "deep stream") which it crosses.
17. 1985 John Irving best-seller: CIDERHOUSE RULES. Made into a movie starring Spiderman (Tobey Maguire) and the latest Alfred (Batman's butler) Michael Caine, who also was the lead in a movie called Alfie.
19. Architect Saarinen: ELIEL. And his son EERO (who designed the Gateway Arch among other structures). If you don't know these two names by now, just resolve to commit them to memory if you're planning on doing more crosswords.
20. Baby's asset: CUTENESS.
21. Goes back: RETROGRADES. Straight from the Latin: retro- backwards, Gradus: steps.
24. "Shucks!": RATS. An interjection. Remember Schoolhouse Rock?
25. Displays, with "out": TROTS. Originally connected with showing off horses in 1838, it was recorded as slang later by 1845. A recorded connection with "the runs" precedes both of those by 30 years.
30. Rested: TOOK FIVE. Roughly the amount of time it takes to smoke a cigarette. Here's a better use of your five minutes.
35. Frequent saver: GOALIE. Hurling, association football, Gaelic football, International Rules Football, handball, ice hockey, field hockey, netball, water polo, bandy, lacrosse, floorball.
36. Medical malpractice issue: INFORMED CONSENT. For instance, if someone says OK to having a procedure done, but only because they felt intimidated, whether by the influence of the practitioner's strong expression of convictions, or they were cowed by the perceived difference in education on the subject, then it's an issue.
38. Naval construction worker: SEABEE. CB, Construction Battalions.
39. Garden entrance component, perhaps: GATEPOST.
40. Beefy-T maker: HANES. Tee shirt manufacturer.
41. A psychic may see one: AURA. When there is "a certain air" around someone. From Greek aura: gentle breeze
42. It's right before the end: HOME STRETCH. The straightaway from the last turn to the finish line on a horse racetrack.
49. Goes before: PRECEDES.
53. "Corporations have been enthroned and ___ of corruption in high places will follow": Lincoln: AN ERA.
54. Cryptozoologist's subject: LOCH NESS MONSTER. Crypto: hidden. Zoology: animal studies. (Zoo from Greek zoion, a living being)
57. Celebrate a promotion, maybe: EAT OUT. There was probably a raise involved as well...
58. Grin measure?: EAR TO EAR. A creepy Cheshire cat.
59. Shows exhaustion: DROOPS.
60. Aviation pioneer: SIKORSKY. Igor. A Russian immigrant, he designed the first multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft, the first airliner, Pan-am flying boats, and the first viable American helicopter.
Down:
1. Sous chef's gadget: RICER.
2. '60s boxing champ Griffith: EMILE. Not a boxing fan, unknown to me.
3. Finished the job: DID IT.
4. Guide: STEER. The verb, not a Sherpa.
5. Swindler Ponzi, at birth: CARLO. The Ponzi Scheme.
6. Sports fig.: ATH. Figure and Athlete, both abbr.
7. Popular '20s auto: REO. Educated Guess, three letters, old car, that had to be it.
8. They're not wild: EDUCATED GUESSES. Intuition isn't entirely psychic...
9. Narrow ridge: ARETE. From Latin "arista": ear of grain. OK, that's what it says, but I don't see the connection.
10. Early Ford supplier: FIRESTONE.
11. Woodland spirit: FAUN. Latin Faunus, Greek Pan. A goat-man/god similar to a satyr. A faun is man still in intimate communion with Nature, a satyr is a man still swayed by bestial passions.
12. Everyone, in Essen: ALLE. alles alles auch sind frei.
13. Suburban followers?: ITES. Suburbanites. A suffix clue made a bit trickier by the plural phrasing, so the sense of individual letters, not the whole syllable.
14. 18th-century sewer: ROSS. Betsy Ross. Sewer = One who sews. Not something with a manhole cover... There is some debate about the story of the flag origin, but the lack of actual records either way makes it difficult or even impossible to prove or disprove.
18. Brewski: SUDS. Beer slang. Using compressed nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide makes the "SUDS" richer, and more aromatic.
22. Ugly buildup: GRIME. from Middle English "grim": dirt, filth.
23. Show approval, or disapproval: RAVE. A rave review, or to show signs of delirium, i.e. rant.
26. Grating sound: RASP. Wolfman Jack comes to mind.
27. It's sold in bars: OLEO. Sticks, maybe. I've never heard of them as bars... Unless maybe as the contents in baked goods...
28. Pie containers: TINS. The origin of the frisbee.
29. Paving stone: SETT. Quarried or shaped to have square edges, cobblestones are natural shapes.
30. Mrs. Addams, to Gomez: TISH. He became especially amorous whenever she spoke French. I wonder if that wasn't put in there to slip something past the censors.
31. Service rank: ONE-A.
32. "Confessions __ English Opium-Eater": 1821 De Quincey work: OF AN.
33. Capital of Hyogo Prefecture: KOBE. Or a dishonored Basketball player. Settled out of court, and is playing again.
34. Shower and change, say: FRESHEN UP.
35. Touched: GOT AT. I thought maybe got "to", got at sounds like more than just touching.
37. Traffic units: CARS. Could have been vans.
41. "Life With Father" co-star Leon: AMES. Before my time.
43. "Night Music" playwright: ODETS. Also before my time.
44. Sought aid from: RAN TO. Frankly Scarlett...
45. "Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889" artist: ENSOR. James. Lots of names today, it seems.
46. Beans of Paris?: TETES. French for "heads".
47. Reason to lubricate: CREAK. I'll put oil on my floor then?
48. Potter of fiction: HARRY.
49. Asked in earnest: PLED.
50. Jungle warning: ROAR.
51. Plasm lead-in: ECTO. Prefix, ectoplasm. Also called the cortex, the outer smooth part of a cell's cytoplasm. Unless you're one of the ghostbusters, that is, then it's just slime from paranormal activity.
52. Half a track sound: CHOO. And the other half is AH. (Correction: The track sound is choo-choo. Thanks, Anonymous @6:54am.)
55. It follows April in Paris: MAI. French for May.
56. Where "Shazbot!" is a curse: ORK. From Mork and Mindy, an alien who reported back to Ork how badly we humans treat each other for very silly reasons. The show jumped the shark when they added Jonathan Winters as a very large baby. Because that just wasn't believable.
Answer grid.
Al
39 comments:
Al Good Morning.
Excellent write-up!
Explained all my misses!
First pass through the grid I think I had about 8 entries. After that it was a letter by letter fight with many write-overs.
After 2 mugs I threw in the towel ... not even close.
Service rank, ONE-A, more of a classification.
When you go in they give you the rank.
I'd list the snafu's but that would take up too much space.
At least I knew Affair, REO, Seabee, Tetes, Tish, Tins and that 18th century Sewer, Ross, clever clue. A few others.
Inkblot Test completed.
Total DNF!!!
Morning, all!
Definitely some thorny patches today, but I still managed to finish in decent time for a Saturday. I got held up a bit in the NW corner because the only Saarinen whose name I can ever remember is Eero, I didn't realize that John Irving write CIDER HOUSE RULES (I wanted WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP), I have no idea who EMILE Griffith is (or was) and Mr. Ponzi's first name was a complete mystery to me. The combination of RED SCARE, I DID IT and IMITATED, however, was finally enough to get me going there.
The other main tough spot was the SE corner, where I had RAN TO instead of RAN AT initially and had no clue who ENSOR was. Once I figured out the tricky clue for TETES, however, the rest fell into place.
Another great puzzle!
Half a track sound would be half of "choo-choo", as in choo-choo train, no? Not "ah-choo"...
Good morning. Al; very nice commentary. Thank you.
Not much new to say. MAI and HARRY allowed me to get MONSTER and then LOCH NESS, and gradually with EDUCATED GUESSES, the long fills began to fall. A few red letter helps led me to a scrappy finish. Favorite clues were for GOALIE and ROSS.
CIDER HOUSE RULES - one of my favorite movies; directed by Lasse Hallström.
Tschüß ALLE
Good morning All, a bit of a slog this morning. My first pass was almost enough to throw out the puzzle. Patience prevailed and I started to get a few words here and there and finally Loch Ness monster appeared and I was able to get a lot of help from that. Overall the puzzle took a very long time to complete.
Tinbeni, I agree with your comment on the one A answer as it is a classification and not a rank IMHO.
Have lots to do today, all outside, and it is raining. Maybe it will clear up later.
Hope you all have a great Saturday.
Feeling better and back on track today. 22 minutes to completion with no errors. The only one I didn't know for sure was 19A (ELIEL) but figured it out anyway. Good Saturday puzzle.
Hello Puzzlers - Sounds like I had the same trouble as you earlier posters. Went to Goog just once for Cider House Rules (I heard John Irving deliver the commencement speech at Mount Holyoke College ca. 1980, but that wasn't enough to remember his book list).
Inch by inch I filled the grid, but no Ta-Dah. Red letters showed that I misspelled that darn Saarinen guy's name again.
A good Saturday workout, just over an hour, no coffee.
Good morning all.
What is this? Some sort of competition with a couple of you guys telling us how long it took you to get it done?
OK, I'll join. It took me about 20 minutes to get 10 correct answers before I threw in the towel and came here. Do I win?
Great job, Al. Good morning all.
What is this? Some sort of competition with a couple of you guys telling us how long it took you to get it done?
OK, I'll join. It took me about 20 minutes to get 10 correct answers before I threw in the towel and came here. Do I win?
Great job, Al. I still don't get 35D, touched, as got at.
Cheers
Good Morning All, My first thought for 1A was RED BAITING, which was a tactic employed during the HUAAC hearings, but....too many letters. I quickly settled for RED SCARE.
I almost didn't get 17A right away. The title of the book is THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. I've read four or five of Irving's books, but "Cider House" is the only movie adaptation I've liked.
I'm old enough to remember EMILE Griffith's 1962 televised fight with Benny Paret. Paret was knocked out and died about a week later without ever regaining consciousness.
29A SETT was a new one for me.
The SE was the most difficult for me. I didn't know ORK, ENSOR or SIKORSKY and I started out with RUSTY for 47D "Reason to lubricate". Then too, the only "Beans in Paris" I could think of was HARICOTS. I never would have guessed (even EDUCATEDly) that the 15 letter LOCH NESS MONSTER would be the fill that would help me get that corner finished.
I agree with Al (very nice blogging job, BTW) about 35D. Emotionally "touched" should be GOT TO. GOT AT sounds more like being annoyed to me.
Wrong side of the bed, Sallie?
Wrong side of the bed, Sallie?
Sallie and CA:
Re: get at = touch - - on line dictionaries support the definition. I think it's a lame clue. IMHO
Good day, Al, C.C. and puzzlers.
This was part walk in the park, part slog for me. The bottom filled out nicely once I had "Harry" Potter and "precedes" although before that, I smugly filled in "edible mushrooms" in 8D for "they're not wild." Erased that in a hurry and worked my way up but had "Tess" instead of "Tish" so erred with "enforced consent"; well, after some cups of coffee the brain started percolating and "Cider House Rules"
enabled the top to fill in, but not easily.
Hand up for "Eero" the architect; knew it was the father but oouldn't recall his name.
Like CA I faintly, and I do mean faintly, recalled Emile Griffith as my DH was an avid boxing fan.
A great xwd today, soundly deserving the name "puzzle"; made me scratch the "tete" a few times, but managed without Google.
I hope you guys finished your game satisfactorily yesterday!
I hope you are having a lovely Saturday! I have a Book Club meeting and then a concert later. Busy day.
Good day to all!
Great write-up and links, Al. Thank you.
I printed out and started the puzzle last night and got almost nothing. This morning's ride was much smoother. Knew enough of the answers in the NE, SE, and SW to complete those areas with perp help, but had to chip away at the NW to complete. Just couldn't remember the first word in John Irving's novel title. Knowing CARLO and ELIEL did help, however, and once I filled in REDSCARE, the area fell. Last word to finish was, aptly, DIDIT.
New word for the day is SETT. Hopefully I won't suffer from lethologica the next time it shows up in a puzzle. Favorite clue, "18th-century sewer".
Enjoy the day!
Good afternoon, everyone!
I've been trolling this site for some time. Decided to finally emerge from the shadows.
Tough puzzle for me, even for a Saturday. The first time through, I got exactly one clue, potter of fiction. Went away for an hour, returned and exchanged my pen for a pencil. The change seemed to free me up and I steadily marched from the SE to the NW.
I didn't know retrograde could be a verb. I had encountered the term during a dalliance with astrology, but it was always an adjective, as in Mercury is retrograde at this time.
Favorite clue for me too was 18th century sewer. Got Ross but had no clue until I read the explanation here.
In general, a good, challenging puzzle. Feels great to get it done.
Well, I'm off to a graduation party for my nephew. Won't be nearly as much fun as the puzzle.
Peace to you all.
Welcome, MikeL! Look forward to hearing from you again.
Felt a couple of earthquakes a bit ago. They were centered in South Central CA, near the border with Mexico. 4.9 and 4.8, respectively, on the Richter Scale, according to the USGS.
Another puzzle that doesn't make sense. Home made answers for tough clues.
Hello everybody.
Solving this puzzle made me feel somehow perverted, helplessly ignorant, and self-congratulatory smug-smart all at the same time. For example, after I got my mind out of the sewer I laughed out loud while filling in Ross. And goalie made me slap my forehead, spit coffee, and giggle insanely when I finally got it. ("Oh, nothing to do with saving money!")
So basically, all I can say is wow, this was a fabulous puzzle! A fine mashup of good bad and ugly in it. Good: the aforementioned goalie and ross. Bad: got-at and oleo. Ugly: choo and one-a.
Oh, I got sikorsky as soon as I saw the last letter was Y, and for some reason my hand almost automatically wrote in freshen up and ear to ear. Many other places I had to erase, though, such as beer instead of suds (the little gray cells were whispering "No Jayce, it can't be beer; that's too obvious.") I also erased flag and slab for 29D before getting sett from the perps. Same with erasing pans to put in tins. Oh, and I was frustrated that communist scare didn't fit for 1A. LOL
Altogether an ear-to-ear grin-producing experience. Maybe I'll take my wife to eat out tonight. After making sure my Hanes don't droop.
As for looking some things up, I only had to look up Cider House Rules and the name of Eero Saalinen's father. (For some reason I thought John Irving was the guy who wrote those disaster stories such as Towering Inferno.)
Best regards to you all.
Good afternoon,
A thoroughly enjoyable Saturday puzzle. Good blogging also, Al. First run led to a few false starts, and a nice gimmee (my dad was a SeaBee). I tried "A Month of Sundays" for the Irving novel, but remembered it was Updike before making a mess of it (I find the two authors similar and am not fond of either). Also blithely (but lightly) penned in "gross negligence" for 36 across, before 32-down ("of an") proved that a mistake. "Took a nap" for 30-across, and so the puzzle went. Plodded along slowly, and finally reached the home stretch, but finished with a some errors. All in all, great fun for a Saturday.
I didn't have a problem with "oleo" or "got at". I took "got at" to mean something made an impact or got past/through indifference, if that makes any sense. Oleo? Well, they might be more commonly called "sticks", but when I picture them, they sure are "gold" bars, just not the kind I was thinking of.
Had Ross for 14-down, but like MikeL, and didn't get it 'til I came here (figured it was an old word for sewage ditch or something). Also, didn't get 53-across (tried "a sera" as WAG because stuck on separating after the first 'a'). Excellent (and pertinent) quote I will try to remember in the future.
Favorite clues - Ross, oleo, ear to ear.
Clear Ayes (@9:47 pm last night) - laughed a lot, while humming lyrics to the tune of "Riders on the Storm". Classic.
Google home page still has the PacMan game on it. Is this the first Google doodle that has lasted more than one day? Must not play google pacman... Must go muck about in the dirt. The plants won't plant themselves...
OtB
Finally I have a chance to comment--My son has graduated from the University of Florida Law School with honors!! He has also become engaged within the last 2 months.
@ Jeannie--regarding an interpreter for French, I would defer to Frenchie! Lemonade may know the language, but, my money is on Frenchie.
@ Lemonade-- No offense.
Welcome MikeL I hope you continue to post.
Al, great job! Thanks for all the explanations. I never knew what Seabees stood for. I especially enjoyed the link to all the cute baby faces.
I almost gave up when I couldn't get anything started in the NW. EDUCATED GUESSES (my favorite fill) was actually one of my earliest complete fills. Things fell into place after that, with perps and a couple red letters to get me unstuck now and then. The long fills completed pretty easily after the perps gave me a few letters.
I've seen the movie "Life With Father", but didn't know there had been a TV show too.
The clue for HOME STRETCH was clever, in retrospect...
"Sewer" reminds me of something funny from the other day. I was on my way back from lunch and saw a florist's truck. The name included the word "Flower". After doing the puzzles daily for almost the past year, in my mind, I read it as Flow-er!
ipo: Congratulations on your son's accomplishments, and Best Wishes to him!
Hi.
Interesting puzzle today. Easy and difficult at the same time. Some
great clues.
The heavy set lady is warming up for her aria. May be I'll shave off
my play off beard tomorrow.
Stopped at BK for my monthly Whopper and funnel sticks. The icing is too full of sugar.
The Russian window crew were teaching me a lot of "bad" words.
Weird qual day at Indy. The track
got slower as the sun came out.
Andretti Autosports has no car in the top nine.
Get Fuzzy has a reference to educated guesses in the Sunday comics.
eddyB
Morning, All. Good writeup, Al and thanks for the explanations.
This was fun today. Tough enough but not too bad. 'Sewer' stuck as a disposal site even after I saw Ross as the answer. Then the V-8 can! Duh. I put in 'ended' for 3D and 'dicer' for 1D so that screwed up the NW for a while but a few perps led me to 'Cider House Rules' and then things took hold.
15A, 'flattered' was a favorite clue, but I didn't like 'oneA' for 'service rank' or 'faun' for 'woodland spirit' as I associate 'faun' with Bambi's mom. I did not know it was also Pan.
Some erasures, but no lookups. It took me a while, too.
I really love that quote from Lincoln!
Otis, Exactly. Seen,not heard and I have agreed to disagree good humoredly about Jim Morrison. :o)
Hi MikeL, it is always fun to get new points of view. Come back soon.
Congratulations to ipo's son, on both his graduation and his engagement. Terrific!
I gladly defer to Frenchie, though I must confess I have speculated as to her name signifying her linguistic ability in conversation, or in kissing…or both!
Bob it is incomprehensible to me you could finish today’s puzzle in 20 minutes and not finish yesterday in an hour. On the topic of time, I cannot imagine doing a puzzle in 2 minutes could be fun; I wonder where the concept of doing a puzzle fast as a goal comes from.
EMILE GRIFFITH was an interesting boxer for so many reasons, with many epic battles with other welterweights and middleweights, and it is ironic (?) he is mentioned so soon after Max Baer who also struggled after an opponent died from a fight. Emile also was the first known gay boxing champion.
IPO how nice to see you, BTW mange la merde!
Hi Gang
Have been busy with work lately, but did the puzzles and followed the blog this week. I learn so much and often get a chuckle along the way.
Al, good write-up today -- thx.
I had the same problems as others, but it was fun working through the clever cluing.
Talk about BEER being too obvious for SUDS. So I had EMULATED rather than IMITATED - too clever by half!
First had SOAP coming in bars. Then OREOs. And ROSS for sewer was only through perps.
Loved the mugs (MOUE?) of those babies, Al.
Have a great Saturday night.
Lemonade
My goal for a LAT is one mug of coffee. And I am a sipper not gulper.
As for Bob doing today in 20 min. and not yesterdays in an hour. Well I equate some puzzles to surfing. Sometimes you catch the wave while others are still paddling. Today, I forgot my board.
OK, for Brewski, I slammed down the SUDS.
Hey, life for me is not only Avatar!
Then I had what I now think would be called 50yo brain farts.
As an example, for "Baby asset" other than 'exemption' (which was too long) I had nothing ... nothing.
CUTENESS never entered my brain, ever.
Probably since I never had kids.
Then after my "gold" bar snafu, oleo, which are golden, sold in sticks, just would not emerge.
So it is a LAT DNF, no biggie.
Then I nailed the NYT in probably my fastest Saturday time ever. Go figure.
I started watching NCIS about half-way through its run. There is a cable channel running old episodes. I am enjoying seeing some of the earlier ones. I really like Sasha Alexander and her character, Kate. I wonder why they wrote her out of the show. I like Ziva too though.
I wonder if there are a number of others who don't enjoy difficult themeless xwords as much as ones with themes. If so, that might account for the fewer number of posts on Saturday.
"Mange la merde!" Not a nice thing to reply to what sounded like a joke by ipo.
Doesn't that mean 'eat sh*t'?
Classless.
Yes anon, it does mean that, and BTW Lemonade, it'd be more correct to say Mange de la merde, since the particle is implied in the English from which it is merely a translation but not common slang in French. My students used to delight in finding excuses to say that to each other.
Great blog today, Al.
But the expression is 'Alle alle auch sind frei', meaning literally 'everyone, all are also free', used in hide and seek games to inform players that the round is over and to come out of hiding. 'Alle' is plural to go with the plural verb 'sind'. 'Alles' is the neuter singular form.
I didn't get here until now but got the CW out much earlier, only after much googling and many WAGS--very few 'educated guesses'. Too many names and contrived connections for my liking.
Had a busy day with our son and d-i-l. Most of my possible comments on the puzzle have already been made, so I have nothing more to add.
Kazie said: Alle alle auch sind frei It's been slanglicized to "Olly olly oxen free" and other variations.
Kazie and Sptiz:
Upon reading the clue "everyone in Essen" the "alle" came to me automatically and simultaneously, the hide and seek game from childhood. I had no idea why; thanks for the explanation as we did say "alle, alle, oxen free." Language is weird sometimes, especially when learned by hearing only.
I hope you "alle" have a good evening.
I appreciate the kind words from Anonymous, and while I recognize your technical skill in French Kazie, the writing was not intended to be anything but silly, and certainly not a literal or grammatical imprecation. I would not want to be the grammar police for this blog in any language.
My teasing of IPO was related to her having a son who unknowingly has followed in my footsteps through law school. I congratulate her on her parenting skills, and her son on completing another phase in his life.
And I am sure she and Frenchie both understood my comments were intended only from the joy of life.
Bull.
lemonade,
My comment was based only on the grammar angle. I didn't know why you said it, but I'm sure Frenchie did. I was amused because my students just translated it literally from English, and that's what I thought you had done too. It seemed strange to see it again after all these years.
Goodnight all(e)!
3 and a wake up.
The time it takes to do one of these puzzles is more or less irrelevant. I just find it interesting to record my times, partly as a measure of how hard the puzzle is and partly of how well my mental processes are working. I had a very bad day yesterday, felt very lousy, and just couldn't concentrate. I also had no patience for a puzzle that needed it. I'll probably never complete one in much under 10 minutes because of the methodical way I usually work my way through each one. There's a happy medium somewhere between speed and accuracy which I'm usually trying to find each day. I'm not very competitive by nature, but skills tend to grow with practice and a bit of personally applied pressure.
As kids we thought it was "Olly olly income free!" but we were never sure...
Good Night Olly!
@L714-Mon ami savant, j'ai compris que ces remarques ont été identifiés par une personne autre que vous, ce qui me trouble la raison pour laquelle vous présenter des excuses.
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