Theme: CEES (59D. They're hard in across answers and soft in down ones) - The 14 Cs (Record is 18) are hard sound in Across answers and soft sound in Down ones. Like Don's "Hard G" and B -29 puzzles, the four two-word theme answers (with initials C.C. and second C falling into the very middle of the long theme answers) are nominal and serve to cohere the letter C theme:
16A. French Open surface : CLAY COURT. According to Wikipedia, the French Open is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world. Clay courts are made of crushed shale, stone or brick. Francesca Schiavone said about how the clay court tasted: "It was good. So good."
22A. Cramming session : CRASH COURSE
51A. Joker on the line : CRANK CALLER
61A. Just fall short : COME CLOSE
34D. Piano benchmark, and a feature of 16-, 22-, 51- and 61-Across: MIDDLE C. Today's constructor Don Hard-G Gagliardo (with wife Barbara) is a piano technician.
Melissa Bee here.
Notice the C lands appropriately in the middle of COME CLOSE? Brilliantly executed, Don, and what a perfect tribute to our leader C.C. and her Crossword Corner creation! (See Don's note at the bottom.)
Additional hard C (Across) entries:
8. Strip in the paper : COMIC
31. 1944 Normandy battle site : CAEN. Western France. Battle map.
54. Sway on a curve : CAREEN
58. Actor Cage, casually : NIC. Nicolas Cage.
60. Where to learn une lecon : ECOLE. French. une lecon = a lesson. ecole = school.
Additional soft C (Down) entries:
1. It's sold in cakes : RICE. I wanted soap.
2. Interweave : ENLACE
3. Regatta action: BOAT RACING
5. Prey (on), cat-style : POUNCE. Great word.
8. Makes reference to : CITES
12. Disney Store sales : CELS
17. Rain storage reservoir : CISTERN. My grandmother and her sisters had a smaller version of this to collect rainwater. In some states it's illegal to divert and collect rainwater. Insanity.
46. Domestic-looking wildcat : OCELOT. Beautiful.
48. Old cold-block bringers : ICE MEN
54. Give up : CEDE
55. Sharp : ACID
61. '70s-'80s Dodger third baseman Ron : CEY.
Across:
1. Self-titled 2000s sitcom : REBA. Something about her voice … I can't listen.
5. Missal site : PEW. From Wiki: A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.
13. Part of, as a surprise party plan : IN ON
14. Mitchell of music : JONI
15. Blown away : IN AWE. As i am of this puzzle.
18. Innsbruck is its capital : TYROL. In Western Austria. Had no idea. Brrrr.
19. Knock off a sub? : EAT. Sandwich. Great clue.
20. "There __ 'I' in 'team'" : IS NO. teiam. Problem solved.
21. Odessa natives : TEXANS
25. China is in it, with "the": EAST. So easy it was hard.
26. Disbelieving dying words : ET TU. And you, Brutus? Shakespeare quote from Julius Caesar, used in western culture to signify the utmost betrayal.
27. Coat on the slopes : SNOW. Parka wouldn't fit.
33. Look : SEEM. Got me for a sec, i wanted a verb.
35. Lamb's mom : EWE
36. Sot's milieu : SKID ROW. Sot = drunkard.
39. Fixed income STIPEND
41. Letter writer? : PEN. Nailed it.
42. Makizushi wrapper: NORI. Makizushi is literally "rolled sushi". Maki = Rolled. Wrapped in nori seaweed.
44. Took much more than one should have : OD'ED. Overdosed.
45. Legendary Greek vessel : ARGO
47. Francesca of "Collateral Damage" : NERI. Pretty.
49. Meat source : DELI
57. Ballesteros on the links : SEVE. Spanish professional golfer, former World No. 1.
63. Prehistoric beasts, briefly : DINOS. Dinosaurs.
64. Urgent care abbr. : EMER. Emergency.
65. "It's crystal clear" : I SEE
66. Online social appointment : E-DATE
67. Craving : YEN
68. Catfish Row opera heroine : BESS. Gershwin's instrumental adaptation of scenes from his 'Porgy and Bess.' We miss you, Clear Ayes.
Down:
4. Some : ANY. Would you like some/any?
6. Implants deeply : ENROOTS. New word for me.
7. Amusing quality : WIT
9. Colorful quartz varieties : ONYXES. Beautiful red onyx.
10. Wellington __, New York Giants co-owner for 45+ years : MARA. Died in 2005.
11. Arms-up declaration : I WON
14. Kid around : JOSH
21. Faithfully following : TRUE TO
23. "Sing __ Song": Merle Haggard hit : A SAD.
24. Salt Lake City university team : UTES
28. Like some pliers : NEEDLE NOSE. These could hurt.
29. Hold title to : OWN
30. Make an honest man of, so to speak : WED
32. Reagan biographer Peggy : NOONAN. Here they are.
36. Place to get naked, perhaps : SPA. I can vouch for that.
37. Flooey lead-in : KER. Usually we see KERPLOP.
38. Birdhouse bird : WREN. So dainty.
40. Zest in a cocktail : PEEL. Cheers.
43. Dander-raising : IRKSOME
50. Showy spring bloomers : IRISES
52. Baseball's Pee Wee : REESE
53. Affirm confidently : AVER
56. TV tabloid pioneer Barrett : RONA
62. Women's __ : LIB
Note from the constructor:
"Like my last puzzle, the inspiration for this puzzle comes from Crossword Corner. When I was reminded about my Hard G Soft G puzzle, I thought I should do a follow-up with the letter C. All the across C’s are hard, all the down C’s are soft. The theme phrase words begin with C as well, and I apologize to Jeff Chen if it appears that I copied his CC puzzle. This puzzle was actually conceived well before that, and took forever to complete. I had much difficulty with it, especially the fill. Rich insisted that I not use abbreviations for the letter C, so I had to design the puzzle very carefully to get the letter C to fall into ideal locations, particularly the down soft C’s. I added one little wrinkle to this puzzle, in case solvers were patting themselves on the back for getting the theme early on in the solving process. I arranged the theme answers so that the second C fell exactly in the center. I call attention to it with the MIDDLE C answer. We’ll see if any one notices that!"
Answer grid.
Melissa
Answer grid.
Melissa
70 comments:
Good morning, MelissaBee, C.C. and gang - I enjoyed today's offering, even though I seemed to have more trouble than normal for a Wednesday. The 'middle C' theme helped fill in some pretty good chunks, but I needed a lot more perp help than I normally would on a Wednesday. And the theme itself was just outstanding - hard 'C's across, soft 'C's down and a 'C' dead center -- nicely done. And what a wonderful tribute to our fearless leader!
Peggy 'Noonan' popped out of nowhere, and I wouldn't have gotten 'Neri' and 'Nori' without it, even though we've had the latter several times. Nice juxtaposition of those two, I thought. Tried fitting 'anywhere' into 36D, but it wouldn't quite fit.
Melissa, great job as always with the blog; I liked the links. Was hoping for a link of your workplace with 36D, but wasn't to be.
Frenchie, I'm really sorry about your dog - I know how gut-wrenching that is, and I'm sure you're getting empathy from a lot of people on here.
Husker Gary, bestbird, creature and anyone else I may have missed - on behalf of C.C., welcome to the blog; you guys are great additions to our motley crew.
Finally driving over to Atlanta tomorrow; stopped at Parris Island on the way down, then got a bit 'sidetracked' in Savannah, which is where I am now. Fun town.
Today is both Presidential Joke Day, and Brother & Sister Day.
Sorry, H.
Hey, great write up MB
This was a work of art; to have 14 across “C” s all hard sounding, and the corresponding downs all soft, is remarkable. We have not seen Don in a while, he must have been working on this puppie.
Loved MISSAL SITE: PEW; both for the pun, and dredging up the memory of Catholic liturgy.
Once again family prepared me for this puzzle; when my youngest went on a school trip to France, he was very impressed with CAEN. A cousin who lived in Hawaii working for a while had NORI sent to her from Molokai (she is there on vacation as we speak). Lots of proper names, some hard for non-sports people MARA, SEVE, Ron CEY.
The NERI-NOONAN cross was hard, sort of, but I put NOONAN in right away, not sure why. I had to let go of the idea of an echo with ODESSA not being the eastern European one.
good to see you are with us D.
Good Morning CC and Melissa Bee. I found today's puzzle a bit of a challenge but liked that there were actually 2 themes ~ both the MIDDLE C and the play on the C sound.
I misread Missal Site as Missile Site, so confidently wrote down Pad. Since the P worked for POUNCE, I had to be convinced to let it go and fill in PEW.
My favorite clues were Strip in the Paper = COMIC
Letter Writer = PEN
I didn't like Flooey Lead-in = KER, and suspect that JazzBumpa will have something to say about that.
A shout-out to Daffy Dill, our resident Odessaian (Odessite?). Still, I wasn't thinking of TEXANS for Odessa natives.
It Ain't Necessarily So is from Porgy and BESS, the Catfish Opera.
Who knows more about BOAT RACING than our old friend, Tony?
QOD: Life is a lot like jazz ... it's best when you improvise ~ George Gershwin
This constructor is very creative. I thoroughly enjoyed his challenge and Melissa Bee's blog.
Innsbruck's capital and Odessa natives made the NE corner difficult for me. After I figured out the odessa reference was Texas, not Russia, it came together. Tyrolean had escaped me. Never heard of Nori or Neri and 32d, Noonan, was a bit of a WAG. I kept trying to make Teri work instead of Neri.
All in all, a fun solve.
Good morning everyone. Nice writeup, Melissa.
Kudos to Don for his CC Tour de Force. Bravo Zulu! I'm still shaking my head about how he did it. When MIDDLE C fell it hit home what the theme was all about. And then with 59d, CEES, the hard C soft C cadence became clear and enabled backfilling of several missed C words. (Noticed there were no 'ch' words like 'church', probably to prevent confusion about the theme.) Liked ÉCOLE. Did not know NERI or NORI but the perps were helpful throughout. No searches needed.
À bientôt
Good morning all, and thanks to Melissa Bee for a great synopsis.
Wow, what fun! Congratulations to Don for making this work.
OK, everyone out there who has had an LAT x-word dedicated to them raise her hand. That means you C.C. Can anyone think of any other LIVING person who has inspired a tribute?
With its multi-layering of theme ideas, this is truly a tour de force for Don, and it must have been a bitch to construct. I'm wondering if he considered working in C.C. RIDER at 17 down to mate with MIDDLEC. Hey, what we need here is more complexity! ;-)
Good Morning Melissa Bee et al.
I loved this puzzle, and have to sing kudos to Don for his ingenuity in executing the theme. And I loved your links and write-up, Melissa – great fun. I especially got a chuckle out of the way you “fixed” 20a. Now I’ll know how to spell it in future puzzles: TEIAM !
The link to Innsbruck was beautiful, and I have skied in the Tyrol many times. Near the ski resort in Solden (above Innsbruck) is a glacier, where one of the oldest mummies was discovered in 1991. His name was Otzi. I wonder what else is buried up there?
I wanted “HEIL” for 11d, but the perps just wouldn’t let me do it!
And who knew that Disney cels like this sometimes reach prices of more than $10,000 at auction? Go figure.
Just a fabulous puzzle. I was all over the place, but was able to complete it all. Great clues, great write-up and a great person to do a tribute to. It is amazing what a really solid theme like this can be like to work out. Fun, fun.
Family coming in town so busy, busy along with getting that kid ready to head off to college. Late August will be really quiet.
Morning, all!
Nice puzzle, great theme(s) and a smooth solving experience. Except, of course, for the NE corner where I came perilously close to crashing and burning. I'm not familiar with MARA or TYROL, so I thought that crossing was a bit unfair. I also couldn't decide between IWIN and IWON for 11D. I was convinced that "Odessa" was referring to something Russian. Oh -- and I couldn't see ONYXES at first.
Eventually, though, I did figure out ONYX, which gave me the X I needed to get TEXANS. Then, I just guessed at MARA/TYROL/IWON. Good thing I solved this on-line, since I never would have known I had finished correctly if not for the TADA! at the end...
Melissa Bee, Outstanding write-up.
What a wonderful trubute to C.C.
Caught on the the "MIDDLE C: and Hard and Soft 'C's fairly quickly.
Boy-O-Boy, what a fantastic theme(s).
I SEE crossing CEES hit with a thud! Duh!!!
Then I took up residence in the NE corner.
Had I WIN as my Arms-Up Declaration.
Had no idea who owned the NY Giants, MARA.
Nor the Austrian state TYROL. Had tyril, and that just didn't SEEM (look) right.
Finally changed that 'I' to 'O' and I WON!
More like a Thursday solve time.
What a nice challenge.
Dennis, I can't remember the shops name but I hope you picked up some Salt-Water Taffy. Savannah is my favorite Southern town.
Hello Puzzlers -
What an outstanding creation! Thanks, Don, and well done. It must have been a project just to collect enough hard C phrases with the centered second C, let alone fit 'em into a puzzle.
Thanks, Melissa, for another good write-up - enjoyed the links! And most of all congratulations C.C. for yet another honor.
Quite a few unknowns in this one: MARA, CEY, NORI, NERI, REESE, RONA, SEVE; and couldn't remember UTES, NOONAN, CAEN. Took quite a while to see CAREEN and EDATE.
Reba was in a sitcom? Why bother?
Innsbruck is among my favorite European cities. I first visited in the summer of '83, and had the pleasure of seeing it from above, from the seat of a rented motorglider.
OK, the "E" answers have gone too far.
I understand using the "web" to purchase something, read an article and get the latest happening.
I accept ETAIL, EZINE and ENEWS.
But EDATE !!! (online social appt.)
If you go on one of those, then when or where, would 36D come into play?
Is the next thing going to be ESEX in our grid?
Good Morning All,
GREAT theme! One of the best I can recall. NE was hardest, toying for "arms up declaration" with 'I'm in' or 'I too'. Finally shifted from Georgia to Texas, and my very last fill was, appropriately, "I WON!".
Although all the proper names were challenging, the theme made this lots of fun --with the hard/soft C trick offering wisps of help & encouragement. Pleasant clues were "missal site" (which came quickly) & "letter writer?" (which needed some meditation, but then cascaded to yield several fills.
A brilliant puzzle!
Good morning all. What a creative masterpiece and quite the tribute to our own C.C. and the creation of this wonderful blog. You should feel special C.C.! Now I can confidently add “ecole” to the list of French words I have been learning from doing crosswords! My only complaint is all the baseball players names as I don’t follow baseball in the least. We had Cey, Reese, and Mara today which I thankfully got via the perps. Unfortunately I did have to hit the g-spot for Tyrol. Even though HeartRX posted a link to a Disney Cel, I still don’t understand the clue/answer. My favorite clue today was “knock off a sub” – eat. Great write up Melissabee!
Jeannie, I think "cel" is for "celluoid" (which comes from "celluose"?), the name for the old clear plastic sheets on which the cartoonists drew each & every frame of an animated cartoon.
Great writeup Melissa Bee and a wonderful blog and VERY interesting linkups. It made my visit all the more worthwhile.
Don. G. - your construction is fabulous, ( we all admire you ...) and charmed my heart...
... AND a well deserved tribute to our Queen Bee ... CC.
Melissa, this is perhaps the first time I have (consciously) read your blog. Your linkup on 'collecting rainwater' was mind blowing ... and I thought Utah, with all those Mormons, would be at least the sanest state in the nation !!! Well, live and learn.
One of my books, I'm reading - Robbing the Bees , by Holley Bishop - a non-fiction on bee keeping and honey gathering through the ages.
Did we know ?
1. A hive is 99 percent female ... unfortunately, ... unlike Husker Gary's tasselled corn, ... as yesterday,... the bees still need ( a few token ...) males to reproduce...
2. Bees live for only 6 weeks, and fly for only 3 weeks ... and have the good sense to fly out of the hive, when their time has come, to die. Only the queen lives for upto 2 years. One summer may see upto 7 generations of bees.
3. The study of pollen and spores found in honey ... whaaat is it called ? ... Yep, you guessed it ... Melisso-paly-nology ! ... No kidding, check it out.
Hat's off to Don for a really great puzzle. There were several clues that had me wandering off in the wrong direction. I guess I need a 'crash course' to get 'in on' Don's way of thinking. We've seen it recently but It still took a while to parse ODED into OD'ED. I finished with no mistakes and no help, but I sure bounced around all over the place. The middle C clue, the C sounds clue and spotting the CC pattern gave me some traction in several areas.
Dennis, I haven't been in Savannah in close to twenty years, but I remember some fun times along Factor's Walk and some great seafood there.
Presidential joke day? Nah, I'm not going there!
Texans was my first guess and confirmed quickly with Onyxes. That corner filled easily except it took some doing to dig from my memory the fact that cartoon cels is spelled with one L. It just didn't look right. Sixty years ago, our neighbor's daughter worked for Disney, painting the cels.
Hahtool, I thought Ker-flooey was great. I usually hear a loud kerchunk just before things go kerflooey.
Did anyone else notice there is a silent C smack dab in the middle of the puzzle?
Easy Wednesday puzzle. No real challenges. 13 minutes.
Some images from the Farnborough Air Show (July 25)
Avro Vulcan
Flying WWII Warbirds
Spitfire
Hurricane
Catalina
Had STLO for Normandy battle site and battled NE corner for a while. IRATE for blown away didn't help. Couldn't get the Ukraine out of my mind for Odessa nor a holdup for Hands-up declaration. They came eventually. I now too have ECOLE firmly ensconced in my brain (especially since this is the first August since 1950 I am not going to one!)
Theme revelation of MIDDLE C and CEES made me laugh out loud. They remind you why I do these exercises.
115 heat index here in corn country but break is coming this weekend. Everything is as green as can be (not like Russia!) because of all our rain. People in western part of city are pumping perfectly good water out of the ground and out into the gutter because our water table is so high as we sit astride the Ogallala Aquifer - the highest quantity and quality of water in the world.
Smack dab in the middle of the puzzle is a black square.
ps On Presidential joke day, am I the only one who remembers Vaughn Meader?
Ron Cey had a decent Dodger career but was known as the Penguin for his walk.
Vidwan,
Only 25% of a detasseled seed corn field retain their male member (tassel) and the other 75% have theirs forcefully removed by machines and kids. The whole field retains their female part which is the kernel/seed. Each kernel has a dedicated "silk" that transfers the pollen from the remaining tassels to each location on the cob.
The female ears are harvested and they have the positive characteristics of the cross of the parent plants.
The seed is so high tech now that bags sell for over $300/bag. If such hybrids were available 80 years ago, it might have mitigated the Dirty Thirty's.
@ Tibini, you are correct, so therefore you agree with me.
Good Morning all,
Before I read today's blog, I wanted to give some shout outs for yesterday's. When I sat down at 9, I realized it was way too late to check in.
Argyle, superb write up and music links.Was unaware that Ft. Knox held money from foreign nations, unless we borrowed it.
KQ, the pictures of the tar pits brought back sweet memories, as I lived off of Wilshire Blvd as a kid and was mesmerized by that place. It didn't have a museum, just bubbling and oozing pools of tar.I took the city bus to get there quite often while my sisters were probably shopping in May Co.
bestbird, love your avatar, and bookmarked the veggie link. The cardon plant looks just like my artichokes, which I used to use for my art class. Patty pans were the only squash my girls would eat without disguising them. My sil's mum (from Wales) made parsnips last Thanksgiving for us all. Haven't seen rutabagas since force fed as a kid..must have been cheap.
Frenchie, so sorry about your loss.
Husker Gary, thanks for sharing your article.I loved teaching middle school too. They must have loved your class. I also had a classroom boa c, aptly named "Cuddles", but when it took 2 kids to hold him, we gave him to the junior museum where he went on field trips to schools.
Easily the most enjoyable puzzle for me in a long time. The concept was inspired, and I can only imagine the difficulty of the execution. Too many "favorite clues" to list. So many answers brought a smile once I appreciated the cleverness of the cluing. "Gags" is now firmly ensconced in my Top 2 of favorite constructors.
Melissa Bee: Thanks for another brilliant analysis. Love those links.
C.C.: Congratulations on another well-earned tribute!
Husker Gary: I have a Vaughn Meader album. Poor guy: the events of November 1963 wiped out his career. Just couldn't listen to the album after that.
Husker Gary:
Much thanks for all that info .... there is so much in this world that we don't know.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the name of Norman E Borlaugh, Minnesotan, Nobel Prize, Pres.medal of honor, Cong. gold medal,... who died last Sept... for the enormous work he did on wheat hybrids and fed 2 billion people all around the world. Wiki has a beautiful article on him.
Thanks, Melissa for the great write up. Congrats, C.C. for having an entire puzzle dedicated to you!
And, thanks, Hahtool for the shout out. We are Odessans, BTW.
This was a easy puzzle except for some of the proper names. I had REESE, REBA, and NOONAN immediately, but NERI, SEVE, and CEY were "G" material. Of course, I got TEXAN right off, as well as, for some reason, NEEDLENOSE (pliers.) I knew TYROL, but I thought it should be TYROLI - don't know why. ODED was my tada! entry, but I didn't understand it until I came here. I had all the theme answers before the theme occurred to me. Very clever theme and puzzle!
The clue I didn't like was for CELS. It was too esoteric, but for me most pop culture clues are.
I liked the PEN and PEW clues.
Have a great day, everybody! I intend to enjoy mine.
Good morning Melissa, C.C. and all,
Masterful c/w Mr. G., and a gong xi to C.C. for her inspiration.It took a few perps to fill in Middle C, even though I had the 4 theme fills.It was an ah ha with a V-8!
Couldn't understand how Tyrol could be the answer instead of Austria, and then learned that Austria had states,D'oh!..and Vienna is its capital.
Didn't realize that I too had misread missal site until I read Hahtool's comment.
e-date..ha,ha..boy! things sure have changed..no dinner...no flowers..just xoxo's ?
Having just met someone from Odessa, WA, I was wondering just how many states have this city which was probably founded by German/Russians at one time.Good article.
Good day, Melissa Bee and puzzle folk. Great blog and I'll check the links later.
Congratulations, C.C., on providing further inspiration for a puzzle!
Great and amusing puzzle, Don Gagliardo, thank you. When I saw your name at the bottom, I knew it would be good. And it was!
PEW of course was a given because of Missal and SPA, although I always wear a bathing suit to one.
Even with unknowns MARA and CEY, it all fell easily. Even SEVE Ballesteros because he was in the headlines so many years.
Only JOSH eluded me for a while with JOKE and JEST until COURT emerged.
Lovely, sparkling fill today!
Grumpy 1:
Cute joke.
Dennis:
Savannah is a beautiful town. Did you take the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tour?
Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!
Great write-up, MelissaBee, as usual. I loved the links. I can't resist adding a link for 11 down from one of my favorite movies A Good Year
I Won
Morning all,
I Came Close to finishing this puzzle unassisted but Pew,Joni,Peel and Oded gave me trouble,
besides all that it was fun .
Didn't care much for Sharp/Acid entry , can anyone care to enlighten me ?
I loved the sub-theme of Crystal Clear/ I see ( I C )
wonder if you all saw that too .
Going back to SoCal again trying to find a good place to live / work ,, any recommendation will be appreciated , we are thinking of Irvine, Laguna Nigel, San Clemente area ,,
any advise ?? As an Auto Broker am not sure what to think of those areas. So if you have any input , please feel free to comment.
Both my 3 and 7 year old boys have asthmas , and living in Fresno isn't helping .am guessing these areas I mentioned have good air qualities. Am I correct ??
You're somethin' else, Don. JimmyB says you're one of his favorite constructors. There's a hell of a lot of folks who would say the same thing.
GAGLIARDO
E
M
Good morning MelissaBee, CC, et al., Excellent job, MelissaB. Great links and comments. And what a fantastic puzzle! My compliments to Mr. G for such an ingenious, creative, and intricate puzzle with just enough difficulty to make it fun and doable. Well done! Very impressive! AND can't think of a better puzzle to be a tribute to our own outstanding leader CC herself! CC, what an inspiration you are to one and all! We're so proud of you.
I'm w/you, Melissa, on Reba. Can't take it even tho' I like her. Texas is always my first thought for Odessa. The Midland-Odessa area is an old playground for me - dear to my heart - loved seeing that here. Had to laugh at 44A. Could not grok 'oded' which appeared thru perps.
Tinbeni: have you ever heard of 'sexting' on 'cel'l phones, which may 'come close' to virtual porn? Can you imagine getting that 'crank caller'? 'edating' is so benign in comparison..unless skype is involved, then we would definately have eporn possibly at an e'spa' 'wit'h everything being 'peel'ed off, live, and emer'ging in full color. It's 'a sad' state of affairs and enough to make your 'irises' go blind. But 'true to' the teenage dedication to 'pounce' on and 'deli'ver the n'ewe' and unimaginable, lunch time sexting is now referred to as 'noonan's.
'I see' it at my 'ecole' and know
'ocelot' of cell phones that should be 'wren'ched out the babes' hands and 'ker'plunked into 'acid'. That 'seve'rance may help the state test scores rise. It would be the 'bess't thing that could happen to 'any' of those hormone crazed nit-'wit's.
Enjoy your day. Loved this puzzle and the tribute to our beloved CC.
That was a very enjoyable puzzle. Nice writeup too. Thanks.
Camille, I don't think you can go wrong if you stay near the coast. I'm partial to Manhattan Beach but there are lots of nice places north and south of here.
From yesterday late: Regarding Ocas, Parsnips, etc., I am willing to try anything that somebody else says is good to eat and has cooked knowingly. Most of those things I would be willing to eat again.
Somewhat unusual things I eat: Seafood and fish of all kinds, shad roe, sweetbreads, frogs legs, beet greens, carnitas, chile rellenos, spoonbread, chicken livers with bacon and onions, scrapple and many more things I haven't been able to think of. How about you?
42. Makizushi wrapper: NORI. Makizushi is literally "rolled sushi". Maki = Rolled. Wrapped in nori seaweed.
Make means roll, not rolled.
Maki means roll, not rolled.
12 down? CELS ??? Disney Store sales??? will someone explain, please?? I just don't know what a CEL is!!!
LOVED today's puzzle and the write-up and all the comments.
Thanks for the clarification gGerry. Erieruth, see g
Gerry's 9:35am post for the explanation of Disney sales-cel.
Where do I go to hunt a Deli?
Does their meat taste like chicken?
Good Day to C.C.,Melissa B. and all
Today's puzzle,Melissa's synopsis and Don G.'s interjection knocked my socks offf! What an exquisite treat!
I had to get up and walk around to take it all in and I still had more to take in{C.C. included}.
Thank you,thank you thank you..
Yesterday, I failed to mention the
'typo' clue and it was my biggest Aha moment. I realized that I would have never 'gotten' it. thank you, Argyle.
ENROOTS was my new word- it almost sounds made-up.
I had the NE corner blues,as well.
PEGGY NOONAN was fron 'out of nowhere' for me,too- I'm curious about that 'out of nowhere' place; the twins,NORA and NERI,fell into place.
Thank you,Dennis, for your welcome-it meant a lot to me.
36d had to be included for the rogues and roguesses and ,of course,Melissa B.
HeartRx,I enjoyed your link to Otzi;marked it to share.
Tinbeni,you are a true comedian and my only {twice} lols- the other being your comment on Prohibition.
hope to finish links,later.
I
Did anyone else notice how NORI stacked above NERI?
I was unfamiliar with Ballesteros so thought the answer (Seve), which I didn't recognize as a name, was some sort of golf equipment. (I am not up on golf, either.)
erieruth, as gGerry wrote, cels are clear plastic sheets onto which one of the many drawings that make up an old-style animated cartoon is inked. Many thousands of them would have to be made for a full-length cartoon like Bambi. My friend has one framed hanging on his wall. I remember seeing them for sale at one of the main street stores at Disneyland years ago.
This was a bit hard for a Wednesday puzzle. I have never had to go to the cheat machine (wiki) before for a Wednesday puzzle. But once I informed myself of TYROL, all was clear.
Very clever everywhere.
I apologize for the gaping hole in the comments. It is very apparent that i would have never gotten the 'typo'clue.
I have been trying to quit typing like e.e.cummings and become one of the bunch. It may be too late in life for this.
Again, sorry.
A very late (for me) hi to all.
I did the last two days' puzzles, and enjoyed them, found them easy and yet smart. Today's was even better, a bit harder though. I knew few of the names, but got everything using perps. I knew Tyrol. Innsbruck was the site of the 1964 winter Olympics photo. When we went there, we were shown how the end of the ski jump run stops right at the edge of a cliff overlooking the town. Seems you wouldn't want to go too far!
Hahtool:
Normally sports clues are very obsure for me, but because Seve Ballesteros is Spanish and a big headliner, his name caught my eye years ago. His full name is Severiano Ballesteros, shortened to Seve.
Melissa Bee:
Great links! I just returned to look at them and loved the purple Irises, but then I am still agog about the purple potatoes from yesterday.
Tinbeni:
Gotta love your rage against the e-chine!
Must go grocery shopping but my legs needed rest after tough yoga today. This is a nice break.
Kazie, what a spectacular photo!
Melissa, good job on the write-up. Do you agree that meat = deli was a poor clu?
Today's offering is more challenging than Jeff Chen's CC theme.
Hahtool said: Did anyone else notice how NORI stacked above NERI?
I noticed it, too but didn't know what to make of it.
Have you ever wondered about the Navy's good food reputation? This could be one of the reasons national Chef of the Year competition. (When I was on active duty around 1960, our destroyer served Baked Alaska on Sunday nights.)
Hello All--what a wonderful muti-layered puzzle. I got the long answers but didn't get the connection to soft and hard C, until I had the clue for 59 D. My aha moment in the puzzle today.
I had to look up Mara and Neri. I also had put in seek for Look, but changed that when the Middle C clue finally fell into place.
Noonan came from someplace in the back of beyond. I hand't thought of that name for eons.
I thought Joker on the Line for Crank Caller and Old Cold-block bringers were both very clever clues. How many of you remember the ice man's truck? We would follow along behind until a few nice ice chips would fall our way. Almost everyone on our block had an ice box. My job was to empty the pan underneath before if overflowed.
Spitzboov, Church would not have followed the puzzle theme. CH in church is a diagraph. C when paired with H changes the C and H sounds entirely. I think you were right when you thought it would muddy the theme.
For those who wanted to see pics of our London trip, here you go:
London 2010
I took over 300 pics and tried to select the top 10%. They're in chronological order and mostly focus on me, my wife, my son and whatever was in the background at the time. My indoor pics of places like the various museums didn't come out too well, alas...
Hello everybody. Thanks for an interesting and informative writeup today, Melissa Bee. Great links!
Man oh man this puzzle kicked my butt down the road and back again. Even after I finally got CLAY COURT anD CRASH COURSE, I still put in DOUBLE C for 34 Down, which of course did me in. For an hour I kept going "STIPEND is right, no it's not, yes it is, no it can't be." Trying to parse TRUE TO as 'TRUETTO' made it worse.
I couldn't get REBA for the life of me, and I too wanted SOAP for 1 Down. Never having heard of Ron Cey, Seve Ballistaros, Mara Wellington, or Francesca Neri didn't help either.
At least I can take some small comfort that I knew Joni Mitchell and knew NORI, ARGO, REESE, and OCELOT. :)
Whew! I ain't complaining, though. Even though I couldn't get on the right wavelength, I did ( and do) still appreciate the cleverness and skill it took to make all those hard and soft CEES.
BTW, the San Jose Mercury News printed the 60 Across clue as "Where to learn une le on" but I was still able to get ECOLE once I got a couple of the perps to it.
Now I think I'll go find Nicholas Cage, say "Hi, Nic!" to him, and see if he hauls off and hits me for calling him that. (Just kidding, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to find him.)
Best wishes to you all.
Melissa B, a great blog job today. Great comments and links.
I enjoyed reading the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by Berendt. It is a non-fiction book about Savannah. There were so many things about the city and it's people revealed.
Gunghy, you came to mind immediately when I filled in the Boat racing answer.
BarbB--It was good to "see" you
today. You need to check in more often. We miss you.
Barry G--I just had to comment on the pictures from your trip. Such wonderful memories you have made in actually being there and bringing back a visual picture to keep forever. Your son had some wonderful special pictures with notable British Icons.
I did like the pictures of him on the airplane. First in the clouds, then exhausted, I assume on the way home.
Barry G,
Wonderful photos. I think you had left already when I changed my avatar to show Tower Bridge opening to welcome you.
I hope you had a great time.
Barry G, wonderful photos, thanks!
Bill G, I love scrapple too, and wish there was some place around here (San Francisco Bay Area) to buy it.
Some Chinese friends tried to gross me out and order me a dish I refused to eat, but I amazed them and ate everything they ordered, including many "off the menu" items such as sea slugs. Yep, I didn't like 'em but I ate 'em just to bug my friends.
Husker Gary, very cool pics, thanks!
Marlin Perkins, I hear deli meat tastes more like salami :)
Time to go outside and do some Tyrolean yodels now. Cheers.
BarbB: I love Albert Finney. Thank you for that link. I have never heard of that movie. Want to find it for tonight. Good to see you too.
Husker Gary: I just had such a revelation of epic proportions thanks to you. The detasseling of a corn results in the maleness of corn being removed, right? That gives a whole new dimension to "eunuchorn". And they said it doesn't exist! Man, that's a load off!
Barry G: Great pictures of you and your family and of London. Brings back memories of my trip a few months ago. I love London and am so glad you had a good time... finally. Thanks for sharing.
@Lois! Ewwwwww! That pun was so bad! Loved it! still ROFL.
Barry G.:
Thank you for sharing your wonderful pictures. It does look like you and your family enjoyed yourselves. Cute ones of your son. How was the weather? I see some jackets being worn in a few of them.
Lois:
Too much! Still laughing.
Lois,
Eunicorn, TOO FUNNY!
Yes detasseling does provide for CORNUS INTERRUPTUS but plant life is very forgiving!
Thanks to several for the CEL explanation. I always learn something new from this blog - I read it every day, but seldom post a comment.
I hope it isn't irksome to have a yen for a crash course in CELs.
Hi gang,
MelissaBee, a wonderful job as usual, enjoyed your links.
Lois, I am still laughing at your eunicorn!!
Husker Gary, yours too.
Late getting to this puzzle and there were a few I had no idea about but managed to finish.
I can't listen to Reba or anyone else with 'that' accent. Same with the Brooklyn accent. Don't know why that bothers me.
We had a great time meeting with Dick and his LW, JD and her LH. I will put pictures on here as soon as Joe shows me how to separate them and label them. Only unfortunate part of our time together was the weather: too cool and windy. There was an article in our newspaper today about that very thing: the sun has disappeared on the Oregon coast this year. They haven't seen that in anyone's recent memory!
Frenchie: I am so very sorry about the loss of your dog. Most of us on this blog have loved and lost a dear pet, so you have many kindred souls here.
Barry G: great pictures of you, your wife and cute little boy! He sure looks like he enjoyed the trip.
The weather you were in was much like we had on our coast.
Good to be back among you all...hi and welcome to all the newcomers, stay with us, we love your comments.
Barb B. good to see you again too :)
Hi gang -
Wow, and another wow. I SEE. Amazing puzzle, terrific blogging, and a eunochorn, too! Almost too much fun to tolerate.
Hatool - You're right, I'm not thrilled with any part of KER-flooey. But I take to heart what Dan Naddor told us. For a puzzle this great, you have to give a little to get a lot. And, I AVER, this one gives a lot.
Breezed through the top half, but here's A SAD song -- could only COME CLOSE in the bottom.
It's IRKSOME to have to rely on red letters, but all together, a great puzzle experience.
ZEST!
JzB
C.C. Congratulations!You deserve the tribute! You're one in 1,000,000!
And hello, everyone. Everything I feel about this puzzle has been put down already. Loved it! I'm surprised at how many of the answers were, well, maybe not gimmies, but at least recognizable; like Cey, forinstance. Somewhere in my deep, dark memory, my younger daughter had a friend with either the same name or the same-sounding name.
Peewee Reese came after the r e were entered. I first wanted Rose, he's the only other baseball player I recognize. But I knew Seve, ecole (of course), Reba,
Caen,Tyrol. I could see that Ukraine would never fit so what else? Texas!Noonan was a gimmie, and wasn't Argo in a Xword a few days ago? Same with et tu, Like several times a week!
Anyway, it did a lot for my self-image, which really needed it becaue of the rotten time I am having with Literati. Do any of you play it?
The theme phrases were great and came smoothly. I got the C.C. after the first one but the Middle C came after I got here.
Thanks, Melissa Bee, for a terrific blog. And your links, too.
Tenbeni, I'm glad you took the fall on the black square. You saved me much humiliation!
How was the weather? I see some jackets being worn in a few of them.
Actually, it was quite nice. It was a bit chilly in the mornings when we set out, but by midday it was up to the low to mid 70s each day. It only rained one day, and that was only for 1/2 hour or so.
Jayce, I can get scrapple at two local supermarkets. It comes in a frozen one-pound block made by Jones Farm I think. It's found in the speciality frozen food area with things like tempura shrimp. Let me know if you can find any.
BillG, I have quite a gustatorial history. My mother cooked sweetbreads, beet greens (and all other greens), chicken livers (and gizzards, which I prefer) and calf liver quite often. I was the only one of the kids who liked most of these. She also cooked scrambled eggs and calf brains often - I loved those. We had crawdad tails when we lived in Oklahoma. My brothers and I would fish them out of their holes and mama would cook them - YUM! I've had rabbit and possum. (We was po'!)
I ate frog legs once (in southern LA) and liked them, but I thought they were a mite expensive for what little meat there was.
Chili Rellenos are my favorite food if they are done right. There used to be an "all you can eat" Mexican food buffet here that had the best ones ever, but they went out of business. I was sooooo skinney then, but I would pig out on chili rellenos till I could hardly move! I wish I knew where that cook went! (Not really. I'm not skinney anymore.)
I like scrapple, too, but don't have it very often.
Daffydill: MMMM Beat grees. The very best of any cooked greens IMHO. Sweetbreads were something my mom used to make and rave about when I was a kid, They seemed revolting to me then. Many years later my DH and I were out to dinner where they were on t he menu and I triedthem again. Wow! They're delicious. Rutabagas are also a favorite of mine, which I may have mentioned before.
I've got an order in for some from our local farmers' market.
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