Theme: Playing with your food again? Four common phrases have one word replaced with a breakfast food item, to create an amusing sound alike phrase, clued in a witty fashion. No unifier today; a day to work hard for our solutions.
20A. Halloween breakfast pastry?: CREEPY CRULLER. CREEPY CRAWLER is the base phrase, a toy from Mattel, I think, where you make cute worms.
33A. Lone breakfast pastry?: CRUMPET SOLO. TRUMPET SOLO; I am sure JzB wishes there were more Trombone solos.
42A. Cherished breakfast pastry?: THE BUN I LOVE. Maybe you remember this song, THE ONE I LOVE my favorite theme answer.
56A. Ones hooked on breakfast pastry? : THE SCONEHEADS. The SNL creation with Dan Ackroyd and Larraine Newman, the Coneheads. I am on a big scone eating kick these days, mostly orange cranberry; I think it is because I am reading too many British mysteries and need my elevenses.
Lemonade here.
Lemonade here.
This was a fun Friday, with some very hard parts, from a fairly new constructor, who had his solo debut here in October, He is a friend of Joon Pahk, another young gun. I thought the theme was amusing, and it being a 4 pronged mini-clecho added to the challenge. Let us see what else Matt had up his number 2 pencil, which made me work very hard.
Across:
1. The word?: MUM. Once you see the answer and picture the phrase, "Mum's the word," this is easy, but there are so many words. Shakespeare said in Henry VI, part II, "Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."
4. You might need to watch yours: STEP. Wow, another idiomatic phrase, this could be a long night.
8. Like some Disneyland passes: TWO DAY. I have only been to Disneyland once, and it was quite small. I moved to Florida just before they opened Disney-world, so I was spoiled. How many have been to both? No more E tickets anyway.
14. Downed: ATE. I may have to eat my words if this does not get easier.
15. __ bene: NOTA. Oh goody, Latin and a common legal term; this phrase, usually abbreviated (NB) means pay special attention to this area. Literally to note well.
16. It may involve an exaggerated age: FAKE ID. Another legal (okay illegal) concept. The greatest one being this ID .
17. With 19-Across, serious warnings: RED. 19. See 17-Across: ALERTS. The highest level; Homeland Security advises we are at Yellow alert today.
18. Not much: A BIT. Another idiom in the first ten clues.
23. 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast, for one: HOAX. Do you think Orson Wells could pull off this in modern times?
24. Keystone enforcer: KOP. Mack Sennet's bumbling bobbys appeared with another crossword favorite Mable Normand.
25. Blazing: AFIRE. Oh, the obligatory A word.
28. Go-aheads: ASSENTS.
32. __'acte: ENTR. My French lesson of the day, ENTRE means between, but French loves elision, so the last E is removed to make one sound for the phrase meaning intermission, or between the act(s).
37. Garden product word: GRO. Scott's bought Sterns Miracle-Gro Products, Inc for their very successful Miracle Gro line of fertilizers. They work, though some say with side effects.
38. Attacks: RUNS AT. Another phrase, but not such a popular one.
39. Igloos and yurts: ABODES. Most of us are familiar with the Igloo, but not a YURT .
41. Sch. attendance notation: ABS. No ladies, not an excuse to show some guy with great abdominal muscles, an abbreviation for ABSENT.
46. End of a boast: VICI. More Latin, just to appease me; VENI, VIDI (I came, I saw) before I conquered.
48. Got for nothing: SPONGED. Well I know sponging off people means getting for nothing, but the tenses made this difficult, especially as the perps were not gimmes.
49. Make official: ENACT. Make into law.
51. Newspaper supply: INK. Don't you just hate the ink all over your hands when you finish reading the paper? Why do I hear Andy Rooney saying that in my head?
52. Islamic leader: IMAM. There is a tremendous variance between Sunni Imam and the Shi'a Imam, with the Sunni, it is more leadership like a Rabbi, and more religious with the Shi'a.
60. Type of sauce served with falafel: TAHINI. This wonderful, creamy garlicky sauce uses the sesame paste as its central ingredient, but many other flavors are mixed in to blend with chicken and other bland food.
62. Gaucho's weapon: BOLA. As kids, my brothers and I tried to make our own BOLAS but we did not have any tall animals, except each other, on whom to practice.
63. Homework amount?: TON. Aww, mom I have a TON of homework!
64. Puck's king: OBERON. More Shakespeare, Midsummers Night Dream, and the Queen was...?
65. "Dulce et Decorum est" poet Wilfred __: OWEN. A much respected but not widely known poet from WWI, who died 7 days before Armistice Day, but did have his thoughts on war preserved and published. Here is more information on him in this LINK .
66. Flow out: EBB. Our Crosswordese 101.
67. Henry VIII et al.: TUDORS. The Welsh family which ruled great Britain until they died out when Elizabeth I had no children, and her cousin, James the VI of Scotland became the King, and the first in the house of Stuart. The Showtime series is interesting, though quite explicit.
68. Hitch: SNAG. Another tricky one, as the dictionary has seven meanings for the noun HITCH, plus more for the verbs.
69. Wall St. monitor: SEC. Securities and Exchange Commission.
I would not have been able to finish if it were not for the downs, so we better get going.
Down:
1. Orderly movement: MARCH. I hope these memories are all happy ones Dennis, it is time for MUSIC .
2. Nirvana #1 album "In __": UTERO. And more MUSIC ; I never go into this.
3. Scorned lover of Jason: MEDEA. But I surely love my namesake appearing, even if it is a reminder of the Biatch Medea murdering my poor children in a jealous rage. hey, boys must be boys.
4. Lose it: SNAP. You could say Medea just snapped.
5. Michael's nemesis on "The Office": TOBY. Never have watched the OFFICE .
6. Boarding pass generator: ETICKET. And now our obligatory E word.
7. Sponsors: PATRONS. This was a more meaningful clue when rich people were the Patrons who sponsored artists and musicians, so they could concentrate on their art and not have to worry about working.
8. Brand of nonstick cookware: TFAL.Also known as TEFAL; you think the TE comes from TEFLON?
9. Half a city: WALLA. WALLA WALLA, Washington is where the tribe of native Americans known as the Walla Walla lived before the Whitman family arrived.
10. Michael of "Caddyshack":O'KEEFE. As a young man, he played the caddy who defeated Ted Knight for the club championship in the movie. However, he recently played Wally Wandell in Brothers & Sisters which sounds like Walla Walla. Coincidence?
11. Gallantry: DERRING DO. I wonder if the history of the word relates to DERRINGER or perhaps DERRIERE, both of which can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands?
12. River island: AIT. An ait (or eyot) is a small island. It is especially used to refer to islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England. The words "ait" and "eyot" are not common in modern English, although a few famous writers have used it, including J. R. R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings books, and Charles Dickens in Bleak House. It is also used by Thackeray in Vanity Fair. or so says Wiki. I never would have gotten this, but for perps.
13. NFL stat: YDS. Yards.
21. Show-what-you-know chances: EXAMS. I started with TESTS, but eventually worked my way out.
22. Machinating: UP TO. Another perfectly common word, used in a tense that was confusing. His machinations are deceptive.
26. Prelate's title: Abbr.: RT REV. we had a nice long discussion of Right Reverent some time ago.
27. Unevenly worn: EROSE. Oh, like the AIT which can disappear in the river.
29. Cross words: SPAT. Oh how very punny!
30. Actors Rogen and Green: SETHS. Both started out as child actors, Rogen in Freaks and Geeks and Green in a million guest parts. Rogen appeared in SUPERBAD which I linked above.
31. Big gun or big cheese: SLANG. Completely fooled me for a while, especially another food clue.
33. Desire and then some: CRAVE. Like my wanting some breakfast pastry NOW!
34. Clinton Treasury secretary: RUBIN. Robert Rubin; do we care? How about now, I will give you a hint, his initials are T G.
35. In one piece: UNSCATHED. I love this word, but I did not make it through this puzzle unscathed.
36. Award with a Sustained Achievement category: OBIE. The off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway Awards; a show that makes it up as it goes along; a product of the Village Voicenewspaper.
40. "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," for one: OLDIE. An oldie but a goodie.
43. Broad: EPIC. Huh? I have known some wonderful women, but EPIC?
44. Endangered great apes: BONOBOS. Am I the only one who completely missed out this entire species of CHIMPANZEE .J. Fred Muggs, help me!
45. x, at times: UNKNOWN. In all forms of mathematics, a symbol for the unknown.
47. Baseball star who reportedly said, "I think there's a sexiness in infield hits": ICHIRO. Mr. Suzuki, who came to the US after 9 years of professional baseball in Japan, has had at least 200 hits in each of his 10 seasons, a record, and had 262 one year, another record.
50. Caruso, for one: TENOR. Enrico the singer, not David the whiner.
53. A couple: MATES. Why does that word always make me hear in Australian? Kazie?
54. Acrobat developer: ADOBE. Which is an anagram of ABODE. See above.
55. Rachel Maddow's station: MSNBC. I have never watched this NEWSPERSON .
57. Serious lapses: SINS. Now we are talking, that is all it was, a little lapse on my part.
58. Zeno's home: ELEA.Zeno of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the Eleatic School founded by Parmenides. Aristotle called him the inventor of the dialectic. He is best known for his paradoxes. Paradoxically, I have never heard of him either.
59. Dangle: HANG. How they dangling just does not have the same ring to it.
60. Tater __: TOT. Finally, a food gimme for ORE-IDA.
61. __ Simbel, site of Ramses II temples: ABU. Can you believe they moved these TEMPLES to make room for the Asswan Dam?
This was a difficult puzzle for me, maybe my eyes failing gives me an excuse, but it is mostly stuff I did not know and had to sneak up on, and make logical guesses. I hope you enjoy March.
Lemonade
78 comments:
Morning, all!
I love a good pun (not to mention pastry), and this puzzle delivered. The fill wasn't particularly challenging (except, perhaps, for BONOBOS), but the clues were vague enough to require multiple passes.
In particular, I struggled in the bottom section. Partly due to the aforementioned BONOBOS, but mostly because clues like "Broad" for EPIC and "Serious lapses" for SINS just didn't help.
Aw, c'mon! I've got fasting blood work today. No breakfast pastry for me until after 9:30.
I was looking to put in Danish or doughnut at least but it wasn't to be. Guess I'll link my favorite creepy crawly.(2:29)
Hello all!
Nice work as usual, Lemonade. I must have rolled over on my computer glasses. Struggling with drugstore pair. Thinking of you!
Not an easy puzzle, but doable sans cheats. Cute theme.
Thanks to those of you who wished me well yesterday!
Elle est TITANIA, Lemonade!
No particular standouts for me.
Cheers!
Good morning all. Great write-up, Lemonade.
Medium difficulty for a Friday. I agree with Barry's take, especially about the fill. Once I got CRUMPET SOLO, I knew how the theming should go. WAGS included OBERON and AIT. Favorite clue was for WALLAwalla.
Good to be back,
Enjoy the day.
PS
I found this article
by David Pogue rather amusing. Many comments too.
(Pogue is the multi-talented tech writer for the NYT.)
Good Morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.
Wow, Lemonade, I have to give you mucho credit for slogging through this one. I almost gave up at several points (notably, every one that you mentioned from 1A to 61D). I had to gg three answers - the Nirvana Album, Clinton Treasury Secretary (I agree, "Who cares?"), and the endangered great apes. So, DNF.
But I did like the theme, with CREEPY CRULLER being my favorite. I also liked the long nine-letter entry DERRING DO. I haven't heard that in a long time, and for some reason it reminds me of Jimmy Durante. "Inka dinka doo, derring do?"
Fermatprime, that was a really interesting article. And one of the commenters also made the point - how can you expect to hear a dial tone, when you never "dial" a phone any more? On my iMac, whenever I delete a file there is the artificial sound of a piece of paper being crumpled as you move it to the artificial "trash can" icon. Somehow, it gives me satisfaction to hear that.
Have a great day, everyone!
Lemon: Great, informative write-up.
You hit on just about every one of my mis-STEPs.
Perps to the rescue.
OK, for Henry VIII, I just put in Tyrant at first.
Didn't notice the 'et al' part of the clue.
Then ABU helped me out there.
Never was a Nirvana or 'The Office' fan.
So UTERO and TOBY were completely via the perps.
VICI got my laugh, since I like to say Veni, Vidi, Veggie ... "I came, I saw, I had a salad."
Oh well, a walk on the beach should clear the cobwebs.
Cheers to all at Sunset.
Morning all -
I agree with Lemonade - this was a tough one! Great job blogging, Lemonade.
We're headed to Disneyworld in a few weeks with my extended family to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. Have our four-day passes in hand. Have also scheduled dinner in Cinderella's castle with all the princesses as a surprise for the young girls and my parents. There are some very cool extras you can book at Disneyworld now (behind the scenes tours, etc.) - they really are the masters of marketing. In a good way.
Have a great day! I have to run and pick up pastries...
Good day folks,
Woke up in a hissy mood and attempting this puzzle did not improve my mental state.
Other then the NE & NW corners, the rest of my puzzle looks like a wasteland. A big time DNF. Creepy cruller was the only theme answer I deciphered, the rest I wasn't even close to solving.
The biggest problem was too many unknowns (I had that clue). W/O perp help, I wasn't able to make headway on the theme clues and that did me in. It yurt.
Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend.
TGIF
Lemonade,
Thanks for what must have been a struggle to grope through and produce such an informative blog this morning.
I gave up early, when I googled something and the only source given was Crossword Confidential which presented the whole grid. So I left it up and glanced at all the answers I had no idea of, as I needed them. There were 15 of those. I really found no pleasure here today, even the ones I did know were uncertainties because there was no help from perps.
I just looked up cruller because I've never heard of them. they look gruesome to me. Why do some recipes call for UNsalted butter, and then add a ton of it to the recipe?
Good morning Lemonade, CC, et al., Difficult puzzle but fantastic blogging job, Lemonade. Great links and comments. Really enjoyed your efforts more than the puzzle itself, altho' I do appreciate the constructor's creativity and skill. It's a Friday. There it is! It was a slog for me too.
Loved how 1D was March, and immediately thought of Dennis w/46A Veni,Vidi,Vici w/his order just different. Always makes me laugh.
Learned: 11D Derring Do; Tahini, and Bonobos...all new to me.
Laughed at the quote by Ichiro... yeah there's something sexy about infield hits all right. It's all about getting from first base to coming home. Love how THAT section fits THE boast...vidi, vici, veni....as well as 'crave', enact, and 'rub in'.
Argyle: Hope you pass your test w/flying colors. Did you study? I'm home today for the same - or similar- reasons. Toast to you at lunch.
Agree with hondohurricanes & Heartx, impossible!
Wish I could have gotten on Matt Matera's wave length but it never happened. Thanks for a great write up Lemonade.
What happened to my post? Is it illegal to mention the competition?
Suffice it to say I agree with the other DNFs, and am in awe of Lemonade's effort this morning.
have a great weekend everyone.
As the work day starts, I will mention one other interesting coincidence that seem to be common occurrences on my blog days. I had to go get my eye drop scrip renewed and while at Target, I decided to get goodies for the office, for our Friday. I purchased some mini-cinnamon rolls, and some mini-scones, and was most amused when the theme revealed itself. Now that we are all ready for yummies, see you later.
Competition? There is none. Other bloggers, I have never seen C.C. make any negative comments on references to other blogs, or bloggers, and at times we have had dialogue with others. Hey, it is crossword puzzles.
Good Morning, Lemonade and Friends. Great write-up. Nice theme, too. Were the CONE HEADS known for eating pastries? I didn't quite understand the reference to being Hooked on Pastries for that clue.
I especially liked Acrobat Developer = ADOBE. Which goes nicely with ABODE.
I have been to both Disneyland and Disney World. I was visited Disneyland many, many years ago, and Disney World only many years ago. Don't remember the length of our pass, though.
I visited in 2005. It is truly amazing that these huge temples could have been moved. They are absolutely breath-taking.
QOD: I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move. ~ Georgia O'Keeffe (no relation to 10-Down)
Were the CONE HEADS known for eating pastries? I didn't quite understand the reference to being Hooked on Pastries for that clue.
I took it to be riffing on potheads and cokeheads and other people addicted to various drugs.
Uh, it was sconeheads.
Lemonade,
I also had a link in that post--to a cruller recipe. Maybe that was what did it.
The coneheads were always "eating mass quantities". Maybe that was the "hooked on" connection.
H.
The sconehead reference is simply to the phrase "head" meaning someone who is addicted to something, from metal head (liking heavy metal music) to the more traditional pothead and cokehead BG uses. None of the original phrases has any relation to the fill, except the sound. I forgot to discuss CRULLER, anyone not know this dough?
Kazie,
Somehow the Cruller link sent your 8:20am post to the Spam box.
I just un-spammed it and the post now appears in its original time.
This happens occasionally with post with links (Husker Gary was a victim a few days ago). Agyle and I try our best to un-spam legit posts asap.
Argyle,
Hope everything turns out fine.
A reminder for lost posts, if you type your comments in word, and then copy and paste, you have it still available if something happens to your post.
Once you see your post, you can dump the doc.
Good morning, Lemonade, CC and the Friday gang. Fun write up, Lemonade. This was a slow slog, mostly with self inflicted problems. I knew MEDEA but wrote it in as Media. That kept me from seeing CREEPY for quite a while. I finally went back and reread the clue. Duh! MERE? Nope, A BIT.
Very clever and a Friday level. Several unknowns, but gettable with perps. It's a good thing that EPIC emerged via perps. I'm not sure I would have ever gotten it from the clue, although it certainly fits after thinking about it.
Fav was DERRING DO. It was about half filled via perps and just popped out.
I'm going to have to remember RUNS AT as the first thought for an 'agressive act' clue We've seen it several times recently and I still needed a few perps before the light went on.
Happy Friday.
I'm fine now. Had a great sausage, egg and cheese on a toasted hardroll with home fries.
Oh, maybe you meant the blood work. They don't let us have a copy until after seeing the doctor. We can't ask as many questions that way!
Good morning everyone.
Great write up, Lemonade. The few I grokked were right, hooray. I did miss ABODES, even though I knew about yurts. Put in houses.
Glad to see you back Spitzboooov. I assume you are both safe and sound. Any problems with the trip home? Miss Florida?
HeartRX. I must add that I also appreciate hearing my Mac go "swoosh" when my email is sent.
For those going to the Florida Disney (I can never remember which is which) don't forget to go to the Harry Potter at Universal there in Orlando. Smashing.
Argyle, hope you pass your blood test.
Hahtool, loved your QOD. Very funny and probably true.
Cheers
LMNADE714: If you do the puzzle in actual pencil...Papermate Sharpwriter is excellent!...never needs sharpening...writes in #2 lead all the time...nice, medium lines...a pack lasts a long time ("forever" would be hyperbole but it seems that way!)
Thank you C.C.
I feel better knowing that it was the link at fault and not what I was saying.
Lemonade,
I had seen the post up before it disappeared. I only knew it was gone after I returned to read the newer posts. So there must be a delay sometimes.
Lois,
Hope you pass your test with flying colors too.
Spitzboov,
Welcome back! Nice to see you on a daily basis now.
Barry G,
What's the meaning of "riffing on"?
Lemonade, I have been to both Disneys. The first one was CA when I was living in LA. Must have been around '78. The second was FL around '93. I think I liked the CA Disneyland better - it seemed more approachable, somehow. The one in FL is just too huge to even begin to see everything, even with a TWO DAY pass.
I just caught up on the late posts from last night. That was an interesting tidbit about Denali's name, Hahtool.
ClearAyes, it was Creature who asked about knitting. I made several ARAN sweaters back in the day, but don’t have the time for it now. My mother was a fantastic knitter, and we always had drawers full of beautiful hand-made sweaters, hats and gloves. When my oldest sister went to college, she took all her sweaters and swapped them for her room-mates store bought Pandora sweaters. My mother just about had a fit !
Sallie – yes, to “SWOOSH” !
Good morning, counselor. Sorry, but there's no sexy history for DERRING DO. It's from old English: Durran... dare.
Dennis- Congrats on hiring A GERMAN as your new MANAGER. Sales of model HERRplanes will go up. Employee FRAUd will probably go down. Is he a JUNG man?
Good day, Sloggers, er, Puzzlers, speaking for myself only.
Yowza! It was a slog and thank you Lemonade for your enlightenment
It's consoling to know that you, too, struggled.
A very clever theme much too smart for me. I did manage CREEPYCULLER and SCONEHEADS but the others were DNF. Learning moments: TAHINI, BONOBOS, ICHIRO and OWEN. Hate to Google but was forced to.
A good Friday challenge.
Michelle Pfeiffer as Tatiana was fantastic.
Hand up for HOUSES before ABODES on igloos and yurts.
Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!
Thanks, everyone for the clarification on (S)CONE HEADS. I knew the "head" part was the addiction, but I had forgotten that the ConeHeads consumed things in great quantities.
Sallie and HeartRx: I, too, love hearing the crunching paper when I delete things from my Mac Trash can!
I have been only to Disneyland and that was 25 years ago when my daughter was small.
Argyle:
I hope you aced your blood test.
Andrea:
Nice to see ou again. It's been a while.
A hard puzzle for sure. Thank goodness for red letters.
Re. scones. Do you know that in England they are pronounced as if they were spelled skons? They must not have the pronunciation rule that a silent 'e' makes the vowel take a long sound.
Re. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC . If you are looking for an intelligent, moderately-liberal viewpoint to your news commentary, she would fill the bill nicely.
Jerome:
I believe you're thinking of fraulein; after marriage, not so much.
Also, I wanted to ask Abejo, from last night; which lodge do you belong to, that you spent much of the night "tied up"?
Jerome, he's a bitte raw, but working nein hours a day will get him up to speed.
Good morning all,
The spacebar is not working on thisschoolcomputer.Can youbelievethat thisisSiliconValley??argh
Going to be short..YUK!
BasiclyaDNF for me. Too many new words like derringdo, bonobos,ichiro,tahini, so couldn't perp to a finish.
loved Walla,and thought theme was fun, but only got 1st 2 of them. Isn't a cruller just a twisted glazed donut?I liked thembecause I thought they had more sugar.LOL
Hahtool, loved QOD. She was a strangegal,butlove her art.
gotta run...
Wow! A real toughie. Managed to finish, but GG was a vital necessity.
Days like this, I'm actually glad to have some obscure references I have no idea about but which are clued with enough specificity to make Googling possible. Wouldn't have gotten a toehold otherwise.
I'm also glad to have a smartphone so I don't have to keep getting up and walking over to the computer (or have to sit at my desk to solve).
Just a clue or two made me go "huh?" when I finally worked out the answer. Not sure I'd define The War of the Worlds as a HOAX, per se, as it was Welles' intent to entertain, not deceive (that was the audience's perhaps surprising response) but I actually got that one quickly anyway, and was glad for an "x" that for some reason always makes getting the perp easy for me.
Also, ETICKET for "boarding pass generator." I don't really get that. I see that they're related, but I'm not sure you could really say the eticket "generates" the boarding pass. I wanted "printer" or something like that.
The theme I got about halfway through, but still, working out the puns was a slog.
But otherwise a fine, challenging, fun and mostly fair solve.
Oh, and EPIC for "wide." Meh.
D'oh! I mean "broad." Same difference.
Barry G,
What's the meaning of "riffing on"?
Sorry, musical slang. Literally, a "riff" is "a melodic phrase, often constantly repeated, forming an accompaniment or part of an accompaniment for a soloist."
Idiomatically, "riffing" basically means performing a variation on a theme.
This one just put the big womp on my butt. I'd make a little progress and then run smack dab into a dead end. Obviously another DNF for me. Guess I need to remember to do Friday and Saturday puzzles on line so I can take advantage of a little red-letter assistance.
Thanks, Lemonade, for a terrific writeup which finally helped me make sense of my mess.
Have a great weekend, all.
Good Morning All, I liked the connection of 6D/E-Ticket and 8A/Two Day Pass. I've been to Disneyland about 20 times, starting with teenage dating, daughter's birthdays, out of state visitors and on to accompanying daughter's family. I think I'm done with it now.
I started badly with 1A where GREASE got into my head, even though it was impossible. GREASE is the word after all.
At 4A, I was watching my BACK, so I headed to the bottom and worked backward.
There were no problems with BONOBOS, OBERIN OR TUDORS. Did anyone else learn this mnemonic poem to help remember the wives of Henry VIII? "Divorced, beheaded, died,divorced, beheaded, survived.".
Once I got started, the theme came pretty easily. I love all things bakery-ish. It's a good thing we have to travel so far to get crullers. For better or worse I have a friend who makes pretty good scones.
BillG,
I too pronounce scones as skonns. They are sometimes called biscuits here, but never in British English--biscuits are what are more efficiently called cookies or crackers here. Distinguished as either sweet or savory biscuits.
Denny,
I think you could argue the e-ticket producing boarding pass thing because if you have an e-ticket I think you can print your own boarding pass now.
"Any problems with the trip home? Miss Florida?"
Spitzboov, I did not realize you had hooked up with Miss Florida, and I guess she was upset you were on your way home. Sallie, I am eve more upset I missed that lunch.
Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word! (2:21)
Ugh, A DNF for me. Gagged the one time I tried to watch 'The Office", so I had to G the show. The only character I could find that ended in Y was Andy. I had a couple of other dumb errors as well. 67A Tutors, 47D Ishiro, and 46A VINI lead the list. 35D finished as UNSNATHET.
Bonobos Are my favorite ape. They are known for their hyper sexuality, using it as a greeting and conflict resolution. A cause for excitement such as a new food source of results in an orgy. My kind of party animal.
Off for a weekend of skiing. Have a great one all y'all.
Sorry Marti/creature about not checking the knitting comment last night. I should have taken the time, but I had to finish up my post-chorus glass of wine before bed. :o)
fermatprime, an interesting article. We still have a land line phone with dial tone and everything. It has come in very handy as a link to the world during electrical outages.
Bill G., agree about Rachel MADDOW.
No genuine Devonshire Cream to go with scones? How about: (Pre-apologies to NC, Kazie and anyone else who might not want to do without the real McCoy.)
Fake Devonshire Cream
1 pint whipping cream,
2-tablespoon sour cream,
4 tablespoons confectioner's sugar. Chill bowl and beaters, and then whip all ingredients together in a bowl. Keep refrigerated until serving time. (BTW, It's a pretty good substitute for the real thing.)
Thanks to Lemonade for a terrific write up and 'splainin some stuff.
I stumbled all over this puzzle and, quite frankly, couldn't finish on my own.
I had SIG alerts initially although I did get ABODES.
Had blocks of things filled in with random spaces that defeated me...some WAGs helped a bit but, ultimately, I lost.
Clever puzzle though, and I think some of the difficulty comes as newer, younger cruciverbilists enter the field and the pop culture references leave some of us older solvers in the dust.
I agree with who cares on Rubin but actually know who T.G. is...Maddow is one of my favorites although I have to watch via computer.
Show tonight so still have a bit to do. Hope to see a few of the Coven tonight. Cheers.
Lemon, et al, I share some of the concerns already posted as this one got a little “out there” on occasion, SLANG, UPTO, SPONGED, EPIC, … Write-up was extra helpful today on this Slogomatic!
Musings
-Posting late because of funeral and back to Lincoln this afternoon
-State Fair always has the TFal guy hawking cooking utensils
-I have been to Disney World at least 35 times and love it every time!
-I always write in Word where I have my HTML links etc as part of the template and delete after posting!
-Dennis, I hope he doesn’t miss work because of excessive Fahrt s!
-Dang, Argyle beat me to Bird is the Word
-Golf in shorts yesterday, freezing my shorts off today! Cemetery was COLD!
-Do gauchos wear bolos while using bolas?
CA,
It looks as real as it needs ot be for me--thanks!
I like Rachel Maddow too. She researches things pretty well, and sometimes lately there's just so little to watch on TV, I just get stuck on MSNBC, but eventually I get too mad about what's going on and have to escape.
Guess what I found in the local supermarket today? Whoopie pies, that's what? I doubt if they will be up to Maine standards but I'm anxious to try them while remembering the good times we had there.
@Fermatprime, I very much enjoyed the article on analog sounds. Thanks.
Denny, I think epic for wide is OK, especially on a Friday. An epic movie or novel has a wide scope, taking in lots of geography and time.
Hi gang -
Counselor, it's true that trumpets and saxes get more solos than the lowly trombones. The band I'm in gives solos to anyone who wants one. I've riffed quite a bit - and that's on bass trombone!
Mixed result for me today. Like the tasty theme, a lot. Unlike a crepe, though, not a lot of fun in the fill. Upon further review, I do like the fill. Didn't like some of the cluing.
Half a city? Is this better than half a fly?
After two insomniac nights, there were many SNAGS and mis-STEPS. OBERON and MEDEA - perp assisted swags.
BONOBOS was UNKNOWN.
Shouldn't VICI has some hint that it's not in English?
TOBY - SETHS - O'KEEFE - people I've never heard of.
Add a few hits on the g-spot, and it was more work than fun.
Maybe it's just me, though.
Meanwhile, the big bad wolf RUNS AT piggies' ABODES. I think the ADOBE one was UNSCATHED.
Does the Socialist Church have a LEFT REV?
Speaking of left, I loves me some Rachel -- unabashedly left, smart, and scrupulouly honest.
Cheers!
JzB
Argyle: good to know you passed. Cheers...again!!!
CC: thank you...yep, I'm fine...in great shape too. Bought new glasses on the way home and got rimless ones...the guy says to me "You look great in nothing!"...of course he meant rims, I said, Yeah, I've heard that before! He blushed and we laughed really hard.
Jerome: you are hilarious!
Dennis: Great comebacks! LMAO at you guys.
Off to party in Wmsbg tonight. Happy Friday to all! Cheers to you, darling Santa. So glad you're fine...I'll verify YOUR goodness in Dec. I'll put a new spin on 'snickerdoodle'...good enough to eat!!!
WM: all the best for your gallery opening this evening.
Greetings, everyone,
Well, I finished this one but not without some lookups: Ichiro, bonobos, Owen. I put in "gorilla";well, 'great apes', what else? Strangely, it fit for some of the crosses, so I left it in until just about everything else was in, but then I was stuck with "irk", "l___", another "l___"
and "a___",for those three So.Central unknowns (62A, 65A, and 68A) I was pretty sure about "bola", so I erased the "gorilla" and went to Mr. G.
I guess I, too, will have to go to the net and use the red letters. It is the Cruciverb one, isn't it?
@Dodo, I much prefer the LA Times website for the puzzles and to get red-letter help. Others here like Cruciverb which works differently but it will still tell you when your letter is wrong with a X in the square.
@ Argyle - ROFLMAO at your "Bird" word. Wouldn't have thought of it in a million years. Thanks for the giggles on my BD
I'm a Big fan of Rachel Maddow! She's knowledgeable and honest. She can always back up what she says, and if there's any error, she's right theretelling it straight. Bill G, I had to smile at your describing her 'moderately' liberal! You all probably know that she's a PH.D. in Political Sci. Worth watching, Lemon.
Razz, a very Happy Birthday to you. You're now on the list as well.
dodo, yeah, I got a laugh out of the 'moderately liberal' tag too.
lois, I doubt there's a finer expert in the land when it comes to comebacks.
I know we have fans of the evil empire on this blog, so Iwaited, but really no comment on RUTH and MANTLE both being in yesterday's puzzle?
BIRD was my first thought as well.
WM, it is always a special pleasure when one of our own does soemthing wonderful. Enjoy showing off your talent. Dennis, Carol and Lois: be careful showing yours.
JzB, maybe we can get John L. to write a piece featuring the stylings of the Trombone.
Razz, a HBDTY, for one of our early members.
Too many funerals
Lemon:
"40000 men and women everyday"
Thank you Hahtool and Lemonade... :o)
Both Jerome and Dennis...too funny...really LOL!
CA...will have to try your "clotted cream" recipe...similar to a later Julia recipe for creme fraiche. Nom...way better than the one I have that seems to require slow cooking large quantities of double cream over low heat for forever and that I have never tried for obvious reasons...:oP
Absolutely beautiful day...
As Gunghy alluded,
BONOBOs are X-rated Chimpanzees. Once seen never forgotten. "Make love not war" is their modus operandi, which is presumably why a/ No-one has heard of them - they are too naughty for prime-time TV and b/ they are endangered: "Make love not war, but make sure you hire a decent security firm" would make more sense in the long run.
Otherwise, I thought this crossword was trying to be TOO clever. The style of the non-theme stuff was great - misdirections galore - but the thematic funky phrases were just too much - and they spoiled it for me.
NC
Clear Ayes:
I can't wait to try your recipe. I drool at the very thought of clotted cream.
C.C. et al: Thanks for the 'welcome back'. Sallie, we had a safe trip back on Wednesday - under sunny skies from Tampa to Albany. Southwest Airlines flight landed 20 min. early! Yes, we will miss Florida and the camaraderie that grew with you and Grumpy and the BH's. Already missing the grouper.
Flying along the NY-New England border with the late afternoon sun accenting the snow nestled in the north-south striae formed by the last ice age caused me to reflect on the glaciers which covered New England and most of New York until about 10000 years ago. Pretty recent in geological time.
Hola Everyone, I Did not Finish the puzzle today. I worked and worked on it and had so many missteps that whole areas had to be erased. Unusual for me as I only got one of the Breakfast treats--Creepy Crumpets. I knew that there were other punny answers, but I just couldn't make them appear.
My first pass over the puzzle only netted 5 answers and I had erased so much that I erased the numbers off the page, so then couldn't find my squares!
Thanks to Lemonade's fine blogging I did fill in the missing parts and things shouldn't have been that hard. I see well, so that isn't my excuse!
JD and I are going to the opening of WM's gallery showing this evening. We're looking forward to a great evening.
fermatprime:
I just now read the amusing and interesting article on analog sounds. Thank you for linking it.
Good night all.
Fermatprime: Your article was most interesting. Thanks for linking it.
I also find it interesting that kids don't know what "twenty to nine" means because they're used to digital clocks.
And why do writers persist in the phone is "ringing off the hook"? Heck, I'm not sure I see the image.
And is it your birthday Jazz? If so, I surely hope it was a happy one, and I wish you many more.
@Sallie, ringing off the hook means either, the phone is ringing so much it jumps off the part it normally rests on (the hook on old-style phones) or, that it rings so often you can't hang up and so it is ringing while it's still in your hand (off the hook). I like the first variation better.
Thanks to all who recommended the Rachel Maddow Show. I just watched it and was impressed! She certainly gets to the heart of matters.
Ridiculous clues!!!!!!!!!
"THE BUN I LOVE" makes me think of the 2 women I know in their 9th month (ie. a bun in the oven).
My sister used to have a pool cleaning device called a "Creepy Crawler".
I thought EROSE was awkward, but liked the following: MUM, STEP, RED/ALERTS, UNSCATHED.
Another midnight approaches, and the end of another blogging day. For all the nice comments, I thank you, and a special shout out to Kazie. Until next time, we are on to themeless
Good Evening, folks. Good puzzle, Matt. Good write-up Lemonade. Thank You for posting, C.C.
I had a fun run with this puzzle until I hit the SW corner. My major malfunction was entering ASSEMBLED for 35D-In One Piece. I never thought that was a bad answer, therefore I missed most of that corner. It fit. It made sense. I just could not take a second look at that answer. Oh well. Live and learn. See you all tomorrow.
Abejo
Mr. Rachel Maddow and Glen Beck have a lot in common. Both are extremists. Both are shills. Both are delusional. Both are a waste of my time.
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