Theme: None
Total word: 72 / Total block: 30
Average word length: 5.42
This puzzle is framed by triple stacks of horizontal 11s in the top and bottom sections:
4A. Versatile crafts item : PIPE CLEANER. Only know the cleaning pipe cleaner. Not aware of the craft type.
16A. Decisive stroke : COUP DE GRACE. Literally "stroke of mercy".
18A. Eagle, notably : LUNAR MODULE. Was thinking of the band Eagles. This might be Barry's seed entry.
50A. "Mr. Television" : MILTON BERLE. Always nice to see a full name.
55A. Error result, often : UNEARNED RUN. Did you think of baseball immediately?
57A. Region of the North 30-Across : SARGASSO SEA. And ATLANTIC (30. It covers about 20% of the Earth's surface). These two do not consist a mini-theme as they are not symmetrically placed. Just a simple cross-reference.
Barry seems to be fond of clue cross-references now, esp in his themeless puzzles. Also, no more expected pangram. I think he's focused more on clean & smooth fill rather than scrabbliness. He also debuted quite a few new entries in this grid.
Total eleven 7-letter answers, all of them are in Downs, mostly placed in each corner paralleling one another.
Across:
1. Year in Pope Innocent III's reign : MCC. 1200. His reign: 1198-1216. Who knows? Why is he called "Innocent"?
15. "Memories __ Made Of This": 1956 chart-topper : ARE. Easy guess.
17. Sweetie : HON
19. Fills in for : ACTS AS
21. Much cybercommunication, briefly : IMS
22. One of the fam : SIB
23. Beat : THROB. Only one vowel.
24. Bean named for the Italian word for "bean" : FAVA. Good to know.
26. Default consequence, for short : REPO. Oh, auto payment default.
27. "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" author : MEAD (Margaret). Her name escaped me.
28. See 51-Down : SALE. And TAG ( 51D. With 28-Across, bargain hunters' mecca). Tag sale.
29. "Find out" : GO ASK
32. 1970s New York mayor : BEAME (Abe). From 1974-1977. He's in my memory shelf now.
33. Dessert shaper : JELLO MOLD. Did not come to me easily. I don't eat jello.
35. Have an outstanding loan from : OWE TO
37. Lengthen : PROTRACT. I like this entry too.
41. Damage indications : SCARS. What damage?
42. They aren't behind you : FOES. Tricky clue.
43. Under the decks : ALOW. As opposed to "aloft". Stumped me last time.
44. "Listen!" : HARK
45. Swell and dandy : FOPS. Swell and dandy here are nouns rather than adjectives.
46. Not a good thing to make in a restaurant : SCENE. Great clue.
47. Wall St. hedger : ARB (Arbitrager)
48. Salyut successor : MIR. Russian for "peace". De-orb-ed in 2001.
49. Vehement : FIERCE
54. Toon, familiarly, who debuted in "Devil May Hare" (1954) : TAZ. No idea. The Tasmanian Devil.
56. Threshold : EVE
58. German article : DER. German "the".
Down:
1. Sanskrit for "great soul" : MAHATMA. Tagore gave Gandhi this title.
2. Work with hooks : CROCHET. Literally "small hook".
3. Main : CENTRAL. Wouldn't be nice to see this entry in the very center of the grid?
4. Techie training site : PC LAB
5. Markers : IOUS. Don't know this slang meaning of "marker".
6. "I'd like to study philosophy, but I just Kant," e.g. : PUN. Buckeye's style of pun.
7. AQI calculator : EPA. Barry used AQI (Air Quality Index) in his grid before. Twice I think.
8. Windows disk designation : C DRIVE. My recovery is D Drive. I don't really understand why.
9. Auxiliary proposition : LEMMA. Need your help. I don't grok the clue and the answer means nothing to me
10. Strong ones may clash : EGOS. An echo from our hidden EGO on Thursday.
11. Dull ending? : ARD. Ending to the word dullard. Also drunkard. No other way to clue ARD.
12. Ad follower : NAUSEAM. Ad nauseam.
13. Surpass : ECLIPSE
14. Adidas subsidiary : REEBOK
20. Counterworker? : SODA JERK. Why question mark?
24. Tank : FAIL
25. Portmanteau drink : ALCOPOP. Portmanteau of alco(hol) and pop. Barry used this entry in his March 6, 2010 puzzle.
26. It might be a drag : ROAD RACE. Windhover would have nailed this one.
28. Battleground of 1944 : ST. LO. Or CAEN. They are close.
29. Moolah : GELT. Hanukkah moolah.
31. Prudential Center team : NETS. NBA.
32. Ballpark chorus : BOOS
34. G.I. fare : MRES
35. Tin whistle relative : OCARINA. Literally "little goose" in Italian. Oca = Goose.
36. Canary, at times : WARBLER
38. Tipped off : ALERTED
39. Like band shells : CONCAVE. Had to google "band shells" image to see what they are.
40. Grooming tool : TWEEZER. Love my teezer.
41. Detective, in slang : SHAMUS. New slang to me.
42. Business issue since 1917 : FORBES. Wow, such a long history.
45. Espoo natives : FINNS. Espoo is Finland's second largest city. At the bottom. Quite close to Helsinki.
46. City S of Florence : SIENA. In Tuscany.
48. New Mexico county or its seat : MORA. Too obscure for my taste. Three geography clues in a row!
49. Drawing device : FLUE. I sure was not thinking of chimney, Santa!
52. Shogun's capital : EDO. Shogun is derived from Chinese "Jiangyun" (general).
53. Where to see some sleepers: Abbr. : RRS. Railroad "sleepers".
Answer grid.
Blogger's new Spam Filter feature continues to spam comments with blue links in them, regardless of who the posters are. It seems that those linked posts appear immediately once published, but then disappear into the Spam Box until Argyle and I un-spam them. Please have patience. Thanks. Things are fine with normal text-only/link-less posts.
Updated @9:43am: Blogger seems to have ironed out the link problem. Everything is OK now.
C.C.
Total word: 72 / Total block: 30
Average word length: 5.42
This puzzle is framed by triple stacks of horizontal 11s in the top and bottom sections:
4A. Versatile crafts item : PIPE CLEANER. Only know the cleaning pipe cleaner. Not aware of the craft type.
16A. Decisive stroke : COUP DE GRACE. Literally "stroke of mercy".
18A. Eagle, notably : LUNAR MODULE. Was thinking of the band Eagles. This might be Barry's seed entry.
50A. "Mr. Television" : MILTON BERLE. Always nice to see a full name.
55A. Error result, often : UNEARNED RUN. Did you think of baseball immediately?
57A. Region of the North 30-Across : SARGASSO SEA. And ATLANTIC (30. It covers about 20% of the Earth's surface). These two do not consist a mini-theme as they are not symmetrically placed. Just a simple cross-reference.
Barry seems to be fond of clue cross-references now, esp in his themeless puzzles. Also, no more expected pangram. I think he's focused more on clean & smooth fill rather than scrabbliness. He also debuted quite a few new entries in this grid.
Total eleven 7-letter answers, all of them are in Downs, mostly placed in each corner paralleling one another.
Across:
1. Year in Pope Innocent III's reign : MCC. 1200. His reign: 1198-1216. Who knows? Why is he called "Innocent"?
15. "Memories __ Made Of This": 1956 chart-topper : ARE. Easy guess.
17. Sweetie : HON
19. Fills in for : ACTS AS
21. Much cybercommunication, briefly : IMS
22. One of the fam : SIB
23. Beat : THROB. Only one vowel.
24. Bean named for the Italian word for "bean" : FAVA. Good to know.
26. Default consequence, for short : REPO. Oh, auto payment default.
27. "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies" author : MEAD (Margaret). Her name escaped me.
28. See 51-Down : SALE. And TAG ( 51D. With 28-Across, bargain hunters' mecca). Tag sale.
29. "Find out" : GO ASK
32. 1970s New York mayor : BEAME (Abe). From 1974-1977. He's in my memory shelf now.
33. Dessert shaper : JELLO MOLD. Did not come to me easily. I don't eat jello.
35. Have an outstanding loan from : OWE TO
37. Lengthen : PROTRACT. I like this entry too.
41. Damage indications : SCARS. What damage?
42. They aren't behind you : FOES. Tricky clue.
43. Under the decks : ALOW. As opposed to "aloft". Stumped me last time.
44. "Listen!" : HARK
45. Swell and dandy : FOPS. Swell and dandy here are nouns rather than adjectives.
46. Not a good thing to make in a restaurant : SCENE. Great clue.
47. Wall St. hedger : ARB (Arbitrager)
48. Salyut successor : MIR. Russian for "peace". De-orb-ed in 2001.
49. Vehement : FIERCE
54. Toon, familiarly, who debuted in "Devil May Hare" (1954) : TAZ. No idea. The Tasmanian Devil.
56. Threshold : EVE
58. German article : DER. German "the".
Down:
1. Sanskrit for "great soul" : MAHATMA. Tagore gave Gandhi this title.
2. Work with hooks : CROCHET. Literally "small hook".
3. Main : CENTRAL. Wouldn't be nice to see this entry in the very center of the grid?
4. Techie training site : PC LAB
5. Markers : IOUS. Don't know this slang meaning of "marker".
6. "I'd like to study philosophy, but I just Kant," e.g. : PUN. Buckeye's style of pun.
7. AQI calculator : EPA. Barry used AQI (Air Quality Index) in his grid before. Twice I think.
8. Windows disk designation : C DRIVE. My recovery is D Drive. I don't really understand why.
9. Auxiliary proposition : LEMMA. Need your help. I don't grok the clue and the answer means nothing to me
10. Strong ones may clash : EGOS. An echo from our hidden EGO on Thursday.
11. Dull ending? : ARD. Ending to the word dullard. Also drunkard. No other way to clue ARD.
12. Ad follower : NAUSEAM. Ad nauseam.
13. Surpass : ECLIPSE
14. Adidas subsidiary : REEBOK
20. Counterworker? : SODA JERK. Why question mark?
24. Tank : FAIL
25. Portmanteau drink : ALCOPOP. Portmanteau of alco(hol) and pop. Barry used this entry in his March 6, 2010 puzzle.
26. It might be a drag : ROAD RACE. Windhover would have nailed this one.
28. Battleground of 1944 : ST. LO. Or CAEN. They are close.
29. Moolah : GELT. Hanukkah moolah.
31. Prudential Center team : NETS. NBA.
32. Ballpark chorus : BOOS
34. G.I. fare : MRES
35. Tin whistle relative : OCARINA. Literally "little goose" in Italian. Oca = Goose.
36. Canary, at times : WARBLER
38. Tipped off : ALERTED
39. Like band shells : CONCAVE. Had to google "band shells" image to see what they are.
40. Grooming tool : TWEEZER. Love my teezer.
41. Detective, in slang : SHAMUS. New slang to me.
42. Business issue since 1917 : FORBES. Wow, such a long history.
45. Espoo natives : FINNS. Espoo is Finland's second largest city. At the bottom. Quite close to Helsinki.
46. City S of Florence : SIENA. In Tuscany.
48. New Mexico county or its seat : MORA. Too obscure for my taste. Three geography clues in a row!
49. Drawing device : FLUE. I sure was not thinking of chimney, Santa!
52. Shogun's capital : EDO. Shogun is derived from Chinese "Jiangyun" (general).
53. Where to see some sleepers: Abbr. : RRS. Railroad "sleepers".
Answer grid.
Blogger's new Spam Filter feature continues to spam comments with blue links in them, regardless of who the posters are. It seems that those linked posts appear immediately once published, but then disappear into the Spam Box until Argyle and I un-spam them. Please have patience. Thanks. Things are fine with normal text-only/link-less posts.
Updated @9:43am: Blogger seems to have ironed out the link problem. Everything is OK now.
C.C.
Good Morning Everybody,
ReplyDeletePoor spelling caused me the most trouble...that and mixing up Sargasso Sea with Saragosa, Spain, (corect spelling is Saragossa).
Good morning CC, et al., Love Barry Silk but this puzzle threw me a curve. Couldn't get a toehold anywhere, but this is Sat afterall. Didn't expect an easy one.
ReplyDelete12 D 'nauseum' made me laugh as did 49D Flue. I didn't know 25D Ocarina or 41D Shamus or 45A FOPS and probably half of the rest of the puzzle for that matter..9D Lemma? . Loved seeing Milton Berle here tho'. So this was a DNF. Great write up, CC. You amaze me.
I'm off to the boat races, hydroplanes and Jersey Skiffs are my main attraction today. Should be a good time near the
'Atlantic' with some 'fierce' speed. I'm not driving anything so I'll be drinkin' my 'boos'.
Enjoy your day.
I am going to try to illustrate what C.C. said about embedding links(blue links) in your comments.
ReplyDeleteIf I wanted to show an image of 35D. Tin whistle relative : OCARINA, I would have used an embed link, like this:
Ocarina
But now, with the new spam filter, anything with an embedded link is put in a spam log and has to be checked before publishing. (An odd quirk is that it will appear and then disappear.)
So to avoid that, you can enter the address like this, http://www.radio.rai.it/
radiorai/online/ev_images/
Ocarina.jpg
and people will have to cut and paste to see your link. (Another quirk: when you write the address, it runs out of the comment box and won't publish the end, so you must break it into smaller sections.)
Or do it the old way; it will get posted shortly.
Test 1 (Blue Name, Blog Photo)
ReplyDeleteTest 2 (Blue Name, Outside Photo)
ReplyDeleteTest 3 (Black Name, Blog Photo)
ReplyDeleteTest 4 (Black Name, Outside Photo)
ReplyDeleteTest 5 (Anonymous Name, Outside Photo)
ReplyDeleteC.C.
Argyle,
ReplyDeleteMy own link yesterday was not spammed. Let's see if the other three posts from non-blue C.C. are blocked today.
Lemonade et al,
ReplyDeleteAll the posts with links seem to stay at this moment. When you post your comment, please include a blue link. I want to see if the spam problem is solved now.
Puzzlewise I was short-circuited today. I got all the NW corner, but most of the rest was a complete mystery. I did have a few surprising wags elsewhere that worked though: WARBLER, CONCAVE, COUP DE GRACE, EVE.
ReplyDeleteMostly I was stumped by the slang and things like Milton Berle, who was on TV before I was here to get familiar with him or his title as Mr T. I also had TRIMMER for TWEEZER which kept the SE from falling.
Yesterday I had a bunch of links to the Traveling Wilburys because of their connection to Jeff Lynne, but nobody commented on them. I think the music is great, so here, in the spirit of contributing to the blue experiment, is one of them again.
Good Morning C.C. et al.
ReplyDeleteOooh, where to begin with this one? First of all, it’s going to take half of my Saturday to clean all the eraser crumbs off the desk, the keyboard, the floor, the cats…well, you get the idea! I love Barry Silk puzzles, but this one seemed especially elegant to me. Even simple clues like 23a. “Beat” gave me AHA moments. I had filled in “THRO-“ but the “B” didn’t come until 4d. “PCLAB”… Oh – "heart"!!!
Chuckled over 12d. “Ad follower”, 26d.“It might be a drag”, 42d. “Business Issue since 1917” and 49d. “Drawing device” (Who DIDN’t think of a writing instrument?)
Had a huge stumble when I confidently put “FINNS” into 46d instead of 45d. My dad was born in Helsinki, so that was a given! But finally saw the error, and got a toehold in the SW corner with “MILTON BERLE” and “SARGASSO SEA” (I love geography!)
I know I should probably defer to Tinbeni for a reference to 25d. “ALCOPOP”, but here is one from
Bacardi.
Have a great day everyone – I’m off to do some yard work.
CC and Argyle -( I really don't want to interfere with your rigorous beta testing ...)
ReplyDeleteCC- I followed your excellent blog, and filled in todays puzzle.
I have cleaned up my blog profile ... no more Anons...
A Lemma, is a stepping stone to the proof of another statement.
( Think ... a 'given - already proved' ...a midway point, where you can rest ... on your journey to a far off city ...).
A Corollary is a statement that follows from another ( proven ) statement, like say, a Theorem.
( Think ... another interesting city, I could visit ... after I have reached my main city destination ...)
Corollaries are more common in high school geometry, onwards ... Lemmas are more familiar to math majors, in college.
If you have not read the mega-bestseller ' Outliers ' by Malcolm Gladwell, please do so. He has an interesting chapter on why (some) Chinese ( mainly from South China .... ) are so good in Math.
I asked my Ophthalmologist, Dr. Huang, ( also classical pianist, chess grandmaster etc. ) about Xi'an. He says it is central China. Although he has no time for crosswords, he has assured me that he will visit your blog.
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a challenging puzzle today, what with the misleading clues and all, but ultimately doable and very satisfying. I don't normally look at the creator's byline while (or before) solving, but as soon as I saw the clue for 7D ("AQI indicator") I knew I was doing a Barry Silk puzzle. As far as I can recall, I have only ever seen AQI in his puzzles, although usually it's an answer and not a clue. Another tip off was ALCOPOP, which I remember having trouble with last time it appeared (it was in a Silk puzzle, right?).
Have a great day, all! It's "Tax Free Shopping Day" here in MA, and we're planning on hitting the malls hard today to get a bunch of stuff we're been putting off buying for awhile (furniture, electronics, etc.)
alow - nautically means rigging that is near the deck as opposed to high above the deck (aloft). It does not mean below deck.
ReplyDeleteTook 46 minutes but I got them all. 8D was the last fill, which I did not know for sure. Had to dig deep for this one. A good Saturday challenge.
ReplyDeleteGood morning C.C. and the mad spam blocker:
ReplyDeleteI am really getting to be on Barry Silk’s wave length, and while it took me a little while, this was a pretty smooth run for me. I like long stacks, because if you get one it really helps with the companion short words. PIPE CLEANER brought back lots of memories from my childhood. I was not very good at this twisted art form, but it was fun.
I think most of you will realize you know the term LEMMA from the common word, DILEMMA, which just means you have two propositions to choose from (DI being a Latin prefix for two).
My favorite clue was JELLO MOLD I have always love the J E LL O sound, and have fond memories of watching the jiggly dessert on SOUPY SALES’ show.
Speaking of old TV, I enjoyed the reminder of MILTON BERLE who I believe was the pioneer of comedy in drag (DAME EDNA, did you know?) as well as reportedly having an enormous snake in his pants.
Well off to the sun, enjoy all. My kids will be arriving later today and tomorrow.
I have always seen ad nauseum spelled with a u, not an a. God I hate the silly spelling variations used in crosswords! That stumped on the cross "go ask" for 15 minutes!
ReplyDeleteAd NAUSEAM comes from NAUSEA, which is why it is spelled with an A; with U it is a spelling ERROR though no unearned runs.
ReplyDeleteKazie et al,
ReplyDeleteOK, so far, so good. No post has been blocked so far.
Space and baseball are two foundations of my life and not seeing the Eagle as the LEM for Buzz and Neil and failing to see error as a component of America's pastime was maddening but fell later rather than sooner! I did get the MIR reference however.
ReplyDeleteThe only SHAMUS I have ever seen are black and white and live in salt water stadia.
Perry Como's song (ARE) and MILTON BERLE were testimonies to my birth certificate and brought back good memories.
NM geographical references usually are TAOS and so my world expands.
COUPDEGRACE was a nice gimme but CDRIVE did not displace ADDRESS until I got PIPECLEANER.
I tried to tie business issue to Federal Taxes until the magazine reference hit me in the head.
My wife and I went to see the chickiest chick movie in all of chickdom last night - Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts (tedious beyond belief!! 133 minutes to come up with "Life is hard and happiness is not a birthright") and there was a MAHATMA reference which helped this morning.
I got about a 95% today and will give myself an A- and move on.
Enjoyed the "mini" space thingy,
ReplyDeleteECLIPSE, LUNAR MODULE and MIR.
Liked that ROAD RACE crossed REPO.
Had a laugh at FOPS, sweet and dandy.
The year of Innocent III reign MCC is a great example of a lousy Roman Numeral clue. Getable from the perps, obscure history reference.
Then I looked up "portmanteau" (a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings: "smog" is a blend of "smoke and "fog")... well that was the COUP DE GRACE.
Avatar said: "Put down your pen, walk away from this grid! It's one thing to have that JERK with the SODA but this is blasphemy! ALCOPOP is for that TWERP from yesterday!"
So today is a FAIL.
Tinbeni - thanks for saving me the trouble of looking up 'Portmanteau '... Somehow I thought that it was some type of luggage.
ReplyDeleteTinbeni - Portmanteau - Also means, ' ...a large travelling bag made of stiff leather ... popular in UK , Eur, 19th Cent. ... and folds like a clam shell ... etc.'
ReplyDeleteIn any case, if I had used this definition, the answer would have confused the heck out of me. Maybe you are a person I should ask ... is there a special luggage, in which one could/would carry alcoholic drinks ? ... maybe a hidden lining, in which one could store liquor ... like a (hot ) water bottle ? lol ;-))
Nap time Dream Along With Me
ReplyDeleteLemonade - if you are still there ... I read your post, and hear you loud and clear ... but - I have always thought .... Ad Nauseum ... 'looks' more 'reasonable and appropriate'.- ... something a kid might feel after a day at the museum.
ReplyDeleteAd Nauseam ( the correct spelling ) ... appears to have something to do with 'inseam', which is confusing ... PLUS, ( I think ) we pronounce it like an ... 'umm'.
I think somebody should appeal to the 'powers-that-be', to formally allow for this 'um' spelling,... as an appropriate alternative, in light of users convenience and preference ?
IOUS is actually plural for IOU, an abbreviated form of I owe you, whilst marker is an obligation of debt, typical usage in gambling.
ReplyDeleteI believe that creator made a mistake, as a more reasonable ending is an E, so that it is a crude pronunciation of "let me"
ReplyDeleteLen
We don't often see LEMMA by itself, but dilemma (double proposition) is much more common, a situation with only two choices, both unfavorable.
ReplyDeleteGood Day All,
ReplyDeleteSlow but steady progress was enjoyed until I hit the south side like a brick wall. NE was slowed by 'lunar LANDER', but 'lemma' helped here. Erred with 52d 'Yen', 41d 'shadow', 25d 'alcohol' which brought earlier progress to a screeching halt. Didn't know Milton Berle, whom I can barely recall.
Re 'lemma': In math a big proven result is called a 'theorem', a result of lesser significance a 'proposition'; a 'lemma' is a stepping-stone result (or tool) used to prove a proposition or theorem. The Greek means something like "something taken for granted". Strangely, lemmata aren't taken for granted-- rather they still need to be proved. Axioms & premises are taken for granted.
This was a real slog for me. I really wanted 4a to be 'hot melt glue' and 18a to be 'lunar lander'. after getting 6d 'pun' and 7d 'epa', I changed 4a to 'tape measure'. I couldn't make any sense of any thing else in that corner, so moved on.
ReplyDeleteI got pretty good traction in the middle west with the 'atlantic' 'St Lo' crossing and was able to backfill the NW corner and then on down to the SW which filled without a problem. From there it seemed that I had to tease out one letter at a time, but finally got the SE corner. 'Egos' was the key to changing 'lander' to 'module', but then I did what so many others have reported and spelled 'naseam' with a "u". DOH! I never did get 'go ask' with the crossing 'gelt' because of that error. (No, I didn't think baseball, initially, on that clue either)
I was pleased that I either knew or only needed a couple of perps to get Mahatma, Sargasso Sea, Milton Berle and Okarina, among others, but displeased that I would make a spelling error and not tease it out. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.
Good Day C.C.,et al.,
ReplyDeleteA six-pac of D.C.s;[4]walk-arounds;[3] G's;wags and perps galore-it was a ball!
I couln't seem to let 'paper' go;finally 'iou's gave me 'pipe';and so it went.Knew 'uncle miltie' right away-ah!old age has its rewards.
41d-never heard of it;is this how slang gets started?
48a was a g spot as was 7d.
Had 'java',as in coffee bean[sp],which made 'jail' work as slang for 'tank'..oh well.
Spelling was an issue for me,also.
108 heat index will keep me inside.
Grow,grass grow!
Have a great day,everyone!
Can anyone tell me what 34D -mres -means?
ReplyDelete@MrEd, MREs are Meals Ready-to Eat, although the claim of edibility of the same has often been disputed...
ReplyDeleteMeal, Ready-to-Eat — commonly known as the MRE — is a self-contained, individual field ration in lightweight packaging.
ReplyDeleteDo you need a can of V-8, Mr Ed?
MRES
ReplyDeleteMeal, Ready-to-Eat — commonly known as the MRE is a self-contained, individual field ration in lightweight packaging bought by the United States military for its servicemembers for use in combat or other field conditions where organized food facilities are not available. The MRE replaced the canned MCI or Meal, Combat, Individual rations in 1981 and is the intended successor to the lighter LRP ration developed by the United States Army for Special Forces and Ranger patrol units in Vietnam.
Here is a picture of what you get in a MRE.
ReplyDeleteGood morning C.C. and all,
ReplyDeleteTwenty minutes into this , I knew I was doomed..too many unknowns for me, and since the words were longer I could see that there wouldn't be much in perp assistance.Barry's puzzles are usually fun for me.Sigh
Decided to research some of the unknowns,,and I will probably be spammed, but I had never heard or seen an ocarina.
Have a lovely Saturday.
I loved this puzzle ... especially LEMMA ... it was the first clue I was sure of - I was a math major. Thanks for clarifying MRES - I didn't know. I had Jellyroll for the longest time...but when I googled and got BEAME & Portmanteau/alcopop it was obvious that Jellyroll made no sense (boohoo). Also, I had 37a lengthen as 'elongate' and thought I was soooo smart...ha! that turned out to be 'protract' - and finally I was on to the finish line!!
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend - it's still unseasonably cool here in northern California!!! LOVE IT!!
Not to go on ad nauseam, but the a/u diLEMMA is due to the Latin grammar: The preposition 'ad' takes accusative case for its object, and since nausea is a feminine noun, that means adding the 'm' giving nauseam. The neuter nouns ending in '-um' would not change in the accusative, so 'ad museum' = 'to the museum'.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody. Well, I wanted to cry "foul" so many times while attempting (and failing) to solve this puzzle today, that I simply gave up in disgust after an hour of total frustration.
ReplyDeleteSure, once an answer is filled in the clue can then make sense and even provoke an "aha" and a chuckle. But until then, the clue is utterly meaningless because it could be the clue to innumerable answers. The whole puzzle was a massive blank space to me, unfillable. The ONLY entry I was able to pencil in was MILTON BERLE, but that was not enough to get me launched.
As for crying foul, to me cluing FLUE as Drawing device was patently unfair. And, as anonymous@8:59 pointed out, the clue for ALOW was just plain wrong. And who the heck ever heard of BEAME? Do New Yorkers even know of him?
Anyway, I'm not a happy (un)solver today. The fault is not entirely with the diabolical and near-impossible cluing; half the fault is mine for not being on the right wavelength today. And unlike you all with better memories for these things, I did not remember ALCOPOP and AQI, which were therefore utter unknowns to me. (As I said, it's my fault.)
Once the answers were given, I confess I liked and appreciated many of them. then and ONLY then was it possible to see or appreciate any cleverness in the cluing.
Maybe I should go out into the back yard, get BELOW decks, and engage in some loud Tyrolian yodelling :)
Best wishes to you all.
I breezed through about 75% of this puzzle, amazed that I was on Barry Silk's wavelength. Then about another 20% of clues to work through - then that last 5% of things like LEMMA and OCARINA... Thanks for the explanations of LEMMA.
ReplyDeleteSome nice new clueing today, and interesting new words (to me). I especially liked Tank/FAIL and FLUE!
55A I didn't think of baseball, even after it was filled in! Thanks for explaining it, C.C.
I had an issue with SALE TAG being a Mecca, until I saw TAG SALE here, and it made sense.
C.C. asked "41A Damage indications: SCARS. What damage?" - SCARS usually indicate skin 'damage' from acne, cuts, scrapes, wounds, surgery, pregnancy, etc.
C.C. also asked "20D Counterworker?: SODA JERK. Why question mark?" - My thought was that Counterworker being clued as one word, gives the impression of the answer being the opposite of a worker (think of CounterClockwise or CounterIntelligence). So the question mark is indicating wordplay for someone who works at a counter, or whose work is to count money. The clue could just as easily been "Counter worker" as 2 words, making it more straight-forward for a Monday puzzle, rather than fun and playful for a Saturday puzzle.
The San Jose Mercury News did publish the clue for 20 down as two words "Counter worker?", with the question mark.
ReplyDeleteOkay, dictionary.com defines ALOW as follows:
ReplyDelete–adverb Nautical .
1. below decks.
2. (on a square-rigged sailing ship) in the lower rigging, specifically, below the lower yards (opposed to aloft).
I hereby cancel and retract my quibble about that.
When Wilma came through South Floirda and many of us had no electricity for more than two weeks, they trucked in MREs for us to eat. They were for survival only, but we survived. MY then teen ager thuoght they were exciting, as were the self heating aspects. SELF HEATING .
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon everyone. Posting late today.
ReplyDeleteWow, a Saturday Silkie. A real nice challenging well textured puzzle. Tough to gain a foothold in the north at first, but after getting ATLANTIC OCEAN and SARGASSO SEA, and finally remembering Abraham BEAME, the cw finally came together. No lookups needed but red letter help was used with MORA. WAGS INCLUDED HARK, ARB, GELT, (German for money) and SIENA. ALso loved COUP DE GRÂCE.
FINNS was a gimme because we attended a conference in Espoo, a large suburb of Helsinki in 1990.
RRS was also easy because sleepers is another word for 'ties', Especially in Britain.
Gotta run, enjoy the day.
Hello all my fellow xword solvers,
ReplyDeleteSidknee - Just wanted to thank you for the flashback! I ate more MREs after Katrina than I care to remember and your link brought it all back to me! We were very thankful at the time to have anything to eat that wasn't cold or stale. Some of them were actually not half bad.
I had a tough time today with the SW corner. Never heard of SHAMU except at Sea World; OCARINA is a new instrument to me; I figured 53D had to do with trains-DOH moment for me; FLUE had me scratching my head; was not on the BB wavelength for 55A; and 57A, well I've said it before and I'll say it again, I suck at geography!
I also had trouble with ALCOPOP. I guess the prior use of it was before we started getting the LA Times puzzle in our paper.
2D Work with hooks-had trouble with this one because I was thinking knitting; crochet only uses one hook.
I hope you all are enjoying the weekend. It looks like the rain is finally gone and the sun is shining here. Not that it makes much difference to me. I sure hope my doctor lets me off "house arrest" Monday!
Is the lovely image in Test 2 link anyone we should know?
ReplyDeleteSpent the morning outdoors in the heat. I think I sun-baked my brain!
ReplyDeleteStarted the puzzle this afternoon but only got four fills (CROCHET, PUN, ARE and MILTON BERLE). Think I'll take a nap and try again later.
Hi, all.
ReplyDeleteThis was a DNF for me. I did get all the long fills, it was those nasty little ones that did me in.
Jayce, no mea culping! You know many other worthwhile trivia! Your usual jollity is missing!
C.C., interesting that I have had no problem with any posts missing or any trouble with links. Maybe I'm just lucky or maybe I'm hitting the wrong times. In any case, things are AOK here. Everything's comin' up roses,aside from the DNF. Great blogging, BTW.
Test 2
ReplyDeleteI stubbed my toes on the top, middle, bottom and both sides of this puzzle. I finally gave up in frustration and came to the Blog for many unknowns. Lemma, Pipe Cleaner, I had Paper Weaver which I knew was totally wrong, but fit, and Beame. Some of these could not be looked up, so I was out there hopping in my bare feet.
ReplyDeleteAfter filling in what I couldn't get, there were many answers that were so obvious that I should have been able to get them without too much work.
Swell and Dandy for me are synonyms for great and tops. So Tops it was instead of Fops! My father-in-law used the word swell all the time and things were always fine and dandy. Oh well, this is what keeps us on our toes.
Have a great weekend, everyone. We are guests this evening at a 50th High School reunion. My husband was their Biology teacher and they were the first graduating class at the newest school built in his district, way back when.
dodo, thanks! Sweet of you to say so, and I do feel my usual cheerful self again.
ReplyDeletextulmkr, do try again.
Forgot to thank you, kazie, for the link to Jeff Lynne, so thanks.
ReplyDeleteAnd a shoutout to all of you for contributing toward the wonderfulness of this blog.
Oh, and I had to stop yodelling below decks; it was exciting the neighborhood dogs too much, not to mention "iring" my wife. LOL
LEMMA - dilemma - Here is a picture of an analemma
ReplyDeleteAfter a refreshing nap the pieces fell into place. Still a difficult puzzle for me. OCArINA/ArB was last to fall.
ReplyDeleteSpitzboov, The annalemma curve is facinating. There is so much to learn here on this blog. Thanks to everyone like yourself, who can enlighten the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteI echo Jaycee's comment about the shout out to those who contribute so much to this blog.
Hello C.C. and fellow solvers.
ReplyDeleteThe day is almost over and I just now have time to post. Many loose ends to tie, errands, etc. (the trip, you know, I nave two days left).
I did this on the run, in between the above and as much as I love Barry Silk, this was neither smooth nor silky.
The NW, center, and bottom filled fairly easily and except for a few misspellings, OCARANA instead of OCARINA and ADNAUSEUM, thank you so much, Kazie, for that elegant explanation. It's something I should know but have long ago forgotten.
Before FLUE I had thought both of artistic devices and pulling up, such as a rope for well water, but SARGASSOSEA helped with that. I had no idea about UNEARNEDRUN, just went with it.
SHAMUS (pronounced "shay moose") is one I had heard in old time crime shows.
And finally I had to hit Ggle for BEAME, GELT, MILTONBERLE and I'm sorry to say, Selyut which gave me MIR.
This was a fantastic challenge and worth the work.
I hope you have all had an enjoyable Saturday!
Husker Gary.The drenchingly beautiful lady in test 2 is Li Gong, star of Memoirs of a Geisha, among others, to quote my late husband.
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you for all the explanations, links and descriptions of lemma, dilemma and analemma. This is an incredibly great learning moment.
ReplyDeleteI mean "drenchingly beautiful" was his term. He was good with words! I try to remember the good ones!
ReplyDeleteDilemma: In logic, a dilemma is a statement that can neither be 'proved' ... nor 'disproved' ... based on one premise.
ReplyDeleteSay, for instance:
Premise:- A barber is a person who shaves those who don't shave themselves.
Question: Does the barber shave himself ?
If yes, then he is shaving a person who (already ) does shave himself.
If no, then he is not shaving a person who doesn't shave himself.
Also used in the terms 'horns of a dilemma'.
I forgot to mention how tasty fava beans are. In San Sebastian, Spain we had a really good fava bean soup.
ReplyDeleteC.C.:
The popes, when they are elected, usually take the name of a predecessor and it is uaually the name of a saint. From the early years of Christianity many martyrs who were executed for their faith, were considered saints and honored as such.
The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI; as you can see, there have been fiften Benedicts before him.
Here's a little lemma-dilemma story.
ReplyDeleteWhen I studied at Indiana University, the world-famous mathematician Max Zorn (known for Zorn's Lemma) was emeritus faculty there; his wife Alice was also in math. Max was a kindly man who had survived some aggression from Nazis before escaping to America. In his 80s then, Max would walk everyday to the university, bringing a carafe of coffee. Though he was long retired I was blessed to get to know him a bit, and he'd offer words of encouragement to persist through the challenges. Sadly, one day on his walk to campus he was hit by a car just outside the math building, and he died a few months thereafter. The student newspaper wrote a commemorative article about Max, but when it came to discussing math they mistakenly referred to Max's well-known result as Zorn's Dilemma!
I must note Max's humility. Whenever he was asked to give a talk about Zorn's Lemma he would always point out that it didn't really deserve his name, since the essence of it had been worked out by another mathematician, Kazimierz Kurotowski. I miss Max.
Vidwan- 'Dilemma' is also Basque for 'Bull'. The saying "On the horns of a dilemma" originated from rodeo cowboys in Northern Spain.
ReplyDeleteVidwan- 'Dilemma' is also Basque for 'Bull'. The saying "On the horns of a dilemma" originated from rodeo cowboys in Northern Spain.
ReplyDelete28a sale/These related, 2-part clues irk me.
ReplyDelete20a soda jerk Probably my favorite entry today! Sargasso Sea
27a. protract, a drawing term, too. A protractor is a drawing tool (not limited to) You can see where I was going with 49d drawing tool!
25d. alcopop, this is the first time I've ever seem this word...it's my 'new learn' for the day!
6d. pun-'I was going to be a doctor but I had no patience.' -anon
@Vidwan827- JAT, sometimes it's hard when you over think something...I know I do it from time to time, see 57a-Sargasso Sea, above.
After a certain point, it becomes non-productive.
I'm out.