Theme: Get your fat RS out of here! A letter removal puzzle with some real wit offered up for our Friday enjoyment. Each of 4 well known phrases has the letter combination R and S removed, including in the last one where they appear twice in the phrase. Bruce Sutphin had his first puzzle published in July on a Friday (the one adding “TAG”) so I may apply for a job as his blog caddy. Like his first one, I found this very entertaining and creative, but not as challenging as many Fridays. Let us see what he did this time.
17A. Village with very little gardening equipment?: ONE HO
27A. Entrance purchases for a conditioning program?: FI
44A. What Ruth forgot to bring to pool night?: CU
57A. Like calls between drudges?: PE
and the unifier,
66A. Failures (and in another way, a hint to 17-, 27-, 44- and 57-Across): LOSERS, which you must parse as LOSE RS.
Nice theme, let's see some fill.
Across:
1. Gung-ho response: I'M ON IT. Yes boss, my nose is naturally brown.
7. Delay : LAG.
10. Evans of country: SARA, how many for Country Music? (4.02)
14. Buff: POLISH. Not a hunk, and not an Eastern European.
15. Farm female: EWE. Too bad you linked for Thursday, Argyle.
16. Left: QUIT. Left the room.
19. The NCAA's Runnin' Rebels: UNLV. University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Jerry Tarkanian's basketball teams put this school on the map.
20. Lab, for one: DOG. My first grandpuppy is half black lab, half boxer. Big sweetie.
21. Reject: NIX.
22. Sends: ELATES. Like, "Baby, you send me." Very fifties.
24. Jacket label letters: ISBN. International Standard Book Number. Back to acronymville.
26. Get off the shoulder, say: TOW. Nice visual clue.
35. Actor Milo: O'SHEA. A wonderful character actor, whose name no one knows.
35. Actor Milo: O'SHEA. A wonderful character actor, whose name no one knows.
36. Pool game call: MARCO. POLO. A most fun game I played with my brothers. It looks like this, but please turn down your speakers. (3.13)
37. Tiny beef: NIT. You think the other constructors are picking on you Hearti?
38. Fly on a line: LURE. Great clue.
39. Gives credit where credit is due: CITES. Including proper citations is vital in legal writing.
40. On the safer side: ALEE. There is windward and leeward.
41. Rational ending?: IZE. I wonder how mean people rationalize their behavior?
42. "__ it Art?": Kipling: BUT IS. A Poem.
43. 1955 UN joiner: SPAIN. Really I have them all memorized, they joined with Albania, Cambodia and Libya. NOT!
47. Morgan Freeman won its 2011 Life Achievement Award: Abbr.: AFI. American Film Institute.
48. Morning talker: IMUS. He was not my favorite even before this infamous broadcast.
49. Fly over the equator?: TSETSE. The whole fly and nothing but the fly.
52. Pleased cry: YES. More DF; WH, Dennis, I am afraid my video was censored.
53. Droid, e.g.: PDA. Personal Digital Assistant.
56. Slip through the cracks?: OOZE.
61. Run well: PURR. Man the engine on Barry G's 300 really purrs.
62. Unsound: ILL.
63. Like Napoleon: EXILED. Able was I ere I saw Elba.
64. Relaxing locales: SPAS. Hi, mb.
65. The Hartford logo: ELK. A real gimme for our Connecticut group?
Down:
1. Tune carrier: IPOD. No more Steve Jobs.
2. One-track: MONO. As opposed to stereo, not like the mind of most of the macho men.
3. Couturier Cassini: OLEG. Jackie O's favorite and father of Tina, but that's another story.
4. Med. research agency: NIH. Oh wow, surprise an acronym, National Institute of Health.
5. Bar opening?: ISO. Isobar. Meteorology; I personally thought of: "Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see!"
6. Pistons' place: THE NBA. I think this is the first time we have seen the whole name.
7. Last non-priest to be named pope: LEO X. One of the de Medicis. For the ladies....
8. "Isn't that cute?": AWW. Have you seen my sweet bald grand niece? Awwwww.
9. It involves mapping: GENETICS. Nice misdirection.
10. Gripe: SQUAWK. Not to complain, but I had trouble with this one.
11. Reunion attendee: AUNT, unless you eat outside then it is ANT.
12. Stir up: RILE. Maybe too many acronyms could RILE some bloggers?
13. Off-rd. rides: ATVS. All Terrain Vehicle (S).
18. Worker with light metal: TIN SMITH. Leaves me speechless.
23. Bonkers: LOCO. Spanish.
24. Slush Puppie maker: ICEE, not to be confused with a Slurpee.
25. Radical '70s group : SLA. Symbionese Liberation Army. The captors of Patty Hearst.
27.__ acid: vitamin B9: FOLIC.
28. Amigo on the road: ISUZU. You all remember Joe?
29. Crowd starter?: THREE. Three's a crowd unless you were John Ritter.
30. "Socrate" composer: SATIE. A work for voice and piano by Erik Satie, a crossword specialist.
31. Nice compliment: TRÈS BIEN. You did not think we would get through without at least one French lesson? This catch all phrase means basically "very good" but is used in so many ways.
32. Zhou __: ENLAI, for you youngsters, your history lesson.
33. Happy Meals toy, e.g.: TIE IN. Generally to a movie promotion.
34. Writer of short letters: STENO. Stenographers use Shorthand when taking dictation. This concept was created by Cicero's slave Tiro.
39. Honey : CUTIE PIE. A cutie pie and an aww, this image.
40. NYPD notices: APBS. All Points Bulletin (S).
42. Ones who've got your back, in Internet shorthand: BFFS. Best Friend Forever (S)
43. Future George W. Bush Presidential Library site: SMU. Southern Methodist Universitym where dandy Don Meredith played quarterback.
45. "Hondo" et al.: OATERS. Westerns and a second shout out to HH.
46. Dutch brewery: AMSTEL. What Friday would be complete without a beer reference?
49. A-one: TOPS.
50. Food in a memorable "Seinfeld" episode: SOUP. Actually, many episodes. (3.59)
51. Pound of verse: EZRA. a major poet who was very antisemitic and supported Mussolini and Hitler and denounced the US.
52. White partner: YOLK, ha ha, not a black and white answer. The Yolk is on you!
53. "__ Eterno": 2004 sports documentary : PELE, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time. (3.29)
54. Active sort: DOER, how many of our retired teachers hate the axiom "the who can do those who can't teach?"
55. Addenda: ANDS, why use only four letters when you squeeze out 7?
58. Lascivious leader?: ELL. LASCIVIOUS. Another Df word form Bruce. Yummy.
59. Big name in kitchenware: OXO. Good grief, more good grips!
60. Tecs: PIS. Why not one more; Private Investigator (S).
Answer grid.
Well I had a really good time again, and I hope you all have a wonderful day and week end. Thanks Bruce for the work, maybe just a touch heavy on the acronyms; and "see" you all on the other side.
Lemonade
44 comments:
Morning, all!
Definitely a Friday puzzle, but mostly due to the difficulty of the clues more than anything else. The theme was a good one, especially with the reveal. The only theme answer that didn't quite work for me was FIT CLASS TICKETS. FIT CLASS? I've only heard it called "fitness class" before, but we all know I don't get out much...
Good morning, Lemonade and friends. This has been a really fun week of puzzles and what a great one to end the week. ONE HOE TOWN was my first theme fill, so I caught on early to the missing RS. I did wonder, for a while, why Ruth was specifically mentioned, until I came to the CU(RS)E OF THE BAMBINO. (readers: for a historical novel that discusses Boston during the Babe Ruth era, I suggest The Given Day by Dennis Lahane.)
Lots of fun clues today, along with the ubiquitous OXO. A nice shout out to HeartRx with Tiny Beef = NIT. I had no nits with today's puzzle.
As a reader, I liked seeing ISBN. Hartford Logo = ELK made me smile.
Thanks for the pic of LEO X, Lemonade. Such a cutie - NOT!
QOD: The value of an idea lies in using it. - Thomas A. Edison.
Thanks for the nice writeup Lemonade. I had fun making this one, although it did go through several revisions. I guess the acronyms snuck in there on me each time. I'm hoping to get better with each puzzle. We shall see. Thanks for the comments Barry and Hahtool.
Good morning Bruce,
I think you now have the record for the earliest constructor comment. Come back later in the day and see all the other nice things we have to say.
Hello Puzzlers - I guess I got overconfident after breezing through the West and spotting ONE HOE TOWN instantly. The East proved to be a tougher nut to crack, and the NE corner wouldn't budge. ALUM made sense for reunion, but not as an alum from UNLV. Finally had to red letter to get SQUAWK and finish up.
Nice work Lemonade, and good going Bruce.
OXO seems to make pretty nice kitchenware...
Good day folks,
For sure this was no walk in the park. Never came close to figuring out the theme until reading Lemonade's write up. Fit class tickets was the downfall for me and ended up turning on the red letters.
Have to admit, even though I solved most of the theme clues, they made no sense to me. Now with a informed outlook, they were cute. Thanks again Lemonade.
Well, my "Off-rd.rides" was SUVs
"Radical '70s group" the SDS
And (without thinking) "___acid, Vit.B-9" was Amino.
ATVs, SLA and FOLIC took a while to suss-out.
Sooooo, I guess you could say I took a doable Friday and made it into a Friday War.
ONE-HOE-TOWN got me the 'Lose-RS' theme.
CUrsE-OF-THE-BAMBINO, of course, my fave.
Hey, I'm a lover of the Evil-Empire.
Hahtool: LaHane's "The Given Day" was excellent. I'm a big fan of his books.
OXO two days, in-a-row, is preferable over last weeks Uteri (just saying).
Last to fall was PELE. Didn't see, or ever hear of, this 2004 Sports Documentary.
Cheers to all at Sunset !!!
One hoe town? She must've been quite wealthy.
..and busy!
ONEHOETOWN gave me the theme pretty quickly, and as soon as I filled ...BINO, I made the connection to Ruth and the rest of the phrase filled nicely.
I struggled to make ALUM work at 11D, but eventually erased the LUM and started fresh. AUNT popped in pretty quickly, and that was that for the NE.
The middle west was the last to fall, but once ISUZU popped into my head, I remembered the Amigo and all was well.
Favorite clue? Had to be the village with very little gardening equipment. I'm un-PC and have a very broad sense of humor; loved this.
Bring on Saturday!
TGIF, Solvers all. Nice puzzle Bruce, great blog Lemonade.
Anon @ 8:29.. and probably very busy.
I won't SQUAWK about anything in this one, although it took awhile to suss that particular fill. Fortunately, I knew UNLV and fell back on my rule of checking for 'Q' when 'U' shows up.
Down here in Florida, there's a new twist on the old MARCO Polo game. The reponse is Rubio! instead of Polo!
I see our favorite fly is back in its entirity, nicely clued.
Definitly Friday level, definitely fun. Thanks again Bruce.
Yikes, THAT corner! ALUM for AUNT, RAKE for RILE, DUKE for UNLV, which of course made ELATES impossible. Otherwise....I liked the theme, the cluing, the overall grid!
Yes, it is Friday. You all have a nice (as in "pleasant" - not Nice as in that silly foreign language) weekend!
DNF. I can't abide so many acronyms, names, missing letters and sports references all in one puzzle. The only corner to fall in unassisted was the SW. I've never heard of Ruth as Bambino or of his curse, and my once in a lifetime experience of a baseball game last month was not preparation enough for that.
I had ALUM/AUNT, FOLK/YOLK, NAG/NIT, DALE.SARA, and never in a million years would have seen the theme.
Sorry, but this was definitely beyond the PALE for me. But I did finally remember OXO!
Today is our 39th wedding anniversary, so I'm off to enjoy it.
Now that it's been mentioned, did anyone other than I find the inclusion of Imus and one hoe town a bit amusing? Only someone of his magnitude could have survived that mess.
Good Morning All, Nice blogging Lemonade. Wow, some of those clues were tough, but that is what makes a Friday.
Bruce R. Sutphin didn't make it easy..but the theme phrases, starting with ONE HOE TOWN, were the easiest to fill in, once I got the drift.
As usual the abbreviations were my sweat spots.
I've got to start dragging stuff out for tomorrow's yard sale, so I'll keep this short.
We were hoping by tomorrow, the temps would be coming down, but it looks like a hot one.
I'm wishing good health to Abejo's and Lemonade's eyes. Have a wonderful anniversary celebration, Kazie.
To everyone, have a good weekend.
I liked this puzzle quite a lot. It was a slog from the outset, and I had to make more Swags than I'm comfortable with, but most of them were right. So, I was able to declare victory on paper with nary a google.
Can't believe no one has linked This yet.
happy anniversary KZ; Grumpy, love marco rubio as a game; not so much as a senator. Avg. Joe, nice link; you would not want the blogger to use them all up. Imus makes them money so he stayed, though it is hard to believe Bruce was unaware of the connection when he filled his grid, they are so obviously linked.
Good Morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.
Great blog and links today, Lemonade! But, I really wanted a BUFF link from you at 14A.
I hate to be a NIT-picker, but shouldn’t 6D have had a hint to an abbr? And I don’t think of the NBA as a “place”, but rather, a “group”. There, I’ve put in my NITs for the day, LOL!!
I have to admit, when I filled in 17A, my mind just went totally DF. I thought it was just me, but am glad to see others picked up on it. For some reason, I really liked PEON TO PEON, both the clue and answer. I could just imagine them complaining to each other on the phone about their boss:
PEON 1: “Man, that Hannibal had me up at dawn feeding those elephants.”
PEON 2: “Yeah, but I had to clean up after them…”
I didn't mind all the acronyms so much - most were fairly easy to get. Although, I always have to wait for perps to fill SDS Vs. SLA. Loved seeing CUTIE PIE and the full TSE-TSE fly. Good stuff. Thanks Bruce, for a fun Friday!
And happy Anniversary, Kazie! I hope you do something special today.
Thanks Lemonade and BRS,
Great Cosword.
Not wishing to be pedantic, but ACRONYM is, strictly speaking, not a synonym of ABBREVIATION. An "acronym" is a new word made from an abbreviation - e.g, LASER, WAG, etc.
NC
Good afternoon Lemonade and all. Thanks to Bruce for stopping by.
Sic transit Gloria. This one was difficult for me. Too many acronyms an sports names I was not up on; and when they cross each other (several times) like in the NE, I need help. Good parts were, I got the whole center unassisted, the SW, and most of the SE. TRÈs BIEN was a gimme. I was slow to suss the theme but 'got' it with ONE HOE TOWN (LOL). Liked CUE OF THE BAMBINO. Did not like the clueing for ELATES, TOW, and QUIT. AWW seemed exceeding arbitrary. (Maybe my mood at the time.) I'll chalk up ISBN to my aha learning moment for the day. Oh, I really liked the YOLK clue.
Lemon, good luck with your eye consultation.
Have a great weekend
Nice writeup Lemonade, your comments alleviated a little bit of the frustration I had with the puzzle itself. I wonder if I have an upper mental boundary to xword puzzle solving, like an IQ limit, for instance.... ?
I did get 'TseTse' and 'One Hoe town', all by myself.
One point regarding the latter answer - I thought some answers were not allowed on xwords, even if clued innocently.
( Rich's cereal breakfast rule ? ) .
Thus "The --- -- mightier than the sword' - is still a no-no.
What makes the current answer any different ?
Alt QOD: They say that exercise and proper diet are the keys to a longer life. Oh well. ~ Drew Carey
Have a great weekend, you all.
Many think(and hope) that Marco Rubio will be President someday.
Good afternoon everybody.
DNF; got 11 correct answers! Whoopie
Happy anniversary, Kazie. And many more!
Lemonade: I had very good success at Bascom Palmer (it's hard not to think of Bascom Robins). So good luck.
And good luck to Abejo.
Cheers
Good day, Lemonade et al. I wish you well, L, on your doctor visit today and thank you for the informational blog.
Bruce, what a fun puzzle you gave us. I loved all the misdirection though it cost me many erasures but gave me many chuckles, too.
On first pass I filled the names, OSHEA and EZRA, was sure this would stump me, but little by little I cobbled it together.
And I'm slowly catching on to the current lingo of BFF, IPOD, and PDA. I don't mind acronyms and abbreviations if they are recognizable.
So many clever clues but slip through the cracks,OOZE, fly over the equator, TSETSE as well as fly on a line, LURE must be CITED.
I guess I must be the only person on the planet to not know about the CURSE OF THE BAMBINO so I think I'll read that book Hahtool mentioned.
I'm waiting for A/C man as it's 90 degrees inside and that's not good.
Have an absolutely superb Friday, everyone!
I don't understand the quibbling about HOE; it is a valid word for garden tool and frankly that's what I think of when I hear it.
I believe the slang word is HO.
Kazie:
Congratulations on your anniversary! I hope you have a great celebration.
Good Afternoon, folks. Thank you, Bruce S., for a tough Friday puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade714, for a swell write-up.
Well, this puzzle was a back breaker. Enjoyed the theme. Actually got the unifier before any of the theme answers. PEON TO PEON came first, then ONE HOE TOWN. Clever. The others came later.
Had SDS at first, then fixed it to SLA. LOCO and MARCO came real late in the game. TINSMITH and GENETICS came easily.
BFFS came as a Wag. TOW was clever.
LEO X was a Wag, but got it right. Never knew that piece of history. Interesting. Must have been politics involved.
Always like your definition critiques, Nice Cuppa. Keep up the great work.
Thank you, Sallie and Clear Eyes, for your good wishes. Happy Anniversary, Kazie.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Hi gang -
I believe the slang spelling of 'HO' must have an ap'stroph' in ther' som'whe'. And Lucina is right - it is a long-handled garden tool. (Which has its own DF posibiities.)
I had a lot of trouble, especially in the NE, and agree with all of Spitzboov's NITS.
"Sic transit Gloria" always makes me think of the LW (who is half POLISH) falling ILL on a journey. - which has fortunately never happened.
I very much like this theme, and am happy to see the complete fly. "White partner" is a pretty good YOLK. (After decades of pondering, I still have not come up with a pun on ALBUMIN!)
FOLIC acid always makes me think of my mom and my MIL, whose maiden names were both FOLEY. YES - we have a lot of folishness in our clan.
Here's a musical SPAIN TIE IN.
Cheers!
JzB the PEON trombonist
Lemon, the adjective “easy” did not come to my mind today but I am sitting in the garage helping Joann with a garage sale and I had the time. Challenging and fun! The theme helped after I got CUrsEOFTHEBAMBINO. I am nitless about the puzzle and witless in general! Nicely done, Bruce!
Musings
-LAG is so important in golf. The farther the club head lags behind your hands in the downswing, the better!
-Hey, I’m so old I wanted DALE Evans!
-My ALUM went to the reunion
-Tark cut a lot of corners but put a lot of showmanship in UNLV round ball!
-Imus just keeps talking until he implodes. He can be very entertaining!
-PDA is as passé as Pacman
-SLA not SDS
-Struggled to get ISUZU but was proud when I got it.
-Remember when Bill and Ted got Socrates (long a and long o) to come back to today?
-I remember Elaine saying the bisque was the most memorable part of her date
-Happy Anny Kazie!
NYT puzzle was a Silkie today.
Thanks to all for the "anny" wishes. So far I've been busy all day making bread and catching up before the meeting I have attend tomorrow.
Tonight we will eat out--a rarity for us since there aren't too many choices in this little town where we live.
Best wishes to both Lemonade and Abejo with their vision problems. My thoughts go out as well to all affected by 9/11 and its memories today and throughout this weekend.
I had never heard of oxo kitchenware until recent puzzles. Does this make me an oxo-moron? Today I slapped that baby in place at once. Got ONE HOE TOWN okay but little else. Ended up feeling ultra-moron. Oh well, I can look forward to Monday!
Husker - Do you mean the golf club shaft is designed to bend a bit during the swing? I know ZERO about golf.
Dudley, a flexible shaft can increase LAG but the great golfers do it mostly with the “hinging” of their wrists on the backswing and keep their wrists cocked as long as possible. This video explains a little about the concept of Lag and how to better use it.
p.s. Mule Skinners use LAG also to get their whips to "crack". Hinging and unhinging the wrist can generate enough speed to make the end of the whip break the sound barrier (the "crack") and drive a golf ball a bazillion yards! Or in my case, 220 yards!
It also works when you use a fly swatter.
Husker, it also works great when flinging apples with a stick and fly fishing, too.
Hi All ~~
I had a very slow start on this one. I had to leave for a while and when I came back I was able to finish most of it. But a few clues had me stumped. I can't believe I had to look up ICEE ... I don't know what I was thinking. And THE NBA ...I wanted a specific site ... guess I overthought that one!
Thanks for the great write-up, Lemonade ... you helped it all make sense.
~~ CUE OF THE BAMBINO was my first theme answer. I have to say I think the "curse" is upon the SOX once again ... sigh.
~~ I've always thought Milo O'SHEA has interesting eyebrows.
~~ I loved the precision demanded by the Soup Nazi on "Seinfeld!"
~~ I thought of: Marti~~NIT, Lois~~YES, my cats~~PURR, my auto insurance~~Elk (Yep, 'The Hartford', Lemonade) and thehondohurricane~~HONDO.
~~ Favorites were 'Fly over the equator' and 'Crowd starter.'
Definitely a challenge but lots to like in this puzzle!
Enjoy the evening ~~
My wishes for good health to Lemonade and Abejo.
Happy Anniversary, Kazie!
Thanks for all the kind words today everyone. Glad most people enjoyed the puzzle.
Hola Everyone, A DNF for me today. I had about 3/4 of the puzzle done, but couldn't figure out the NE corner. Could be because I put in Dale Evans instead of Sara Evans and Alum instead of Aunt. Oh well, there is always Monday.
I did think some of the misleading clues like Jacket label letters and Writer of short letters were fun.
Happy Anniversary, Kazie. Have a wonderful night out.
Good luck Lemonade and Abejo with your eye consultations.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and take a moment to put out your flag in honor of those who died on 9/ll.
Bernadine Healy Loop - the first female director of the NIH - the National Institutes of Health, died in Cleveland OH on August 9 - at age 67, of a brain tumor.
She graduated first at Vassar, first at Harvard Med school, was a cardiologist, and one the first female prof. of Medicine and Cardiology at Johns Hopkins.
She was also (past ) president of the Am. Heart Association and (later ) the American Red Cross - especially, during the 9-11 attacks.
During the post 9'11 attack, she had argued for the reservation of some of the funds collected for 9/11 to be used for subsequent disasters. She felt too much money had been collected, and some of the money could be more effectively, and optimally, used for future disasters. She was criticized for this, and immediately resigned.
For details of her life, pl. read wiki.
back from new doc, more tests next friday. encouraged if not yet better. thanks for all the kind words
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Look this up to try to perp that, nope didn't help, so Googoolala that to see if it helps reveal another but nope nary a dent. Hadda look up about 30% of the entries and still a big fat DNF. Oh well, I'll chalk it up to my having put in 7 hours of energy-consuming brainwork today before allowing myself to read the paper and do the puzzle. Best wishes to you all :)
Thought todays puzzle was stupid. Finished though. Put solo first for mono. Loved and love icee. Remember the SLA and Patty Hearst? Also did you know there were 12 question clues and one "Say", that is the most i can remember for a friday. Also a. Lot of stump the chump questions like loco and aww pistons place. Other than that standard friday. Have good week and dont forget to watch football!
I loved the puzzle with all its fun Friday clues! I liked ISBN, but didn't understand the BAMBINO clue until I came here.
I don't catch Jeopardy very often, but saw the 2nd half today. TRES BIEN was an answer there today too! The category sounds like a nightmare for some of us bloggers - French anagrams! But they were fairly do-able. Too bad our favorite king of anagrams is still MIA. I hope you check in and say "Hi" one of these days, Jerome!
I'd done the puzzle online last night, struggling through all its misdirections. Then at the end of my work day, I was waiting for something and pulled out the newspaper, doing the puzzle again. It was fun zipping through a Friday puzzle! But seriously, I think it helped cement some of the things I'd learned the first time through.
Happy anniversary, Kazie!
Lemonade, I'm glad you got some promising news!
Annette:
I saw Jeopardy! as well and thought of our "French lessons" here. I managed about three of those anagrams, including "tres bien."
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