Theme: "Pair Options" - Three options: 1. The complete humorous answer to the clue. 2. The stand alone partners that begin the answer. And 3. The last word of the pairs changes its meaning and used in another stand alone phrase.
23A. Ring from Chuck Berry? : ROCK AND ROLL CALL. ROCK AND ROLL, ROLL CALL.
32A. Tiny decathlon entrant? : TRACK AND FIELD MOUSE. TRACK AND FIELD, FIELD MOUSE.
54A. Contest for a free night at the inn? : ROOM AND BOARD GAME. ROOM AND BOARD, BOARD GAME.
71A. Trait of a gentleman in training? : HIT AND MISS MANNERS. HIT AND MISS, MISS MANNERS.
92A. Show that makes teens cringe? : MOM AND POP CONCERT. MOM AND POP, POP CONCERT.
107A. Fixture that refunds money for unused time? : FAIR AND SQUARE METER. FAIR AND SQUARE, SQUARE METER.
125A. Mess hall handout? : RANK AND FILE MENU. RANK AND FILE, FILE MENU.
Surprise! Argyle here. I had my doubts about this puzzle when it started with AGITA but it all worked out in the end.
Across:
1. Gut feeling : AGITA. A physical feeling, like indigestion.
6. Vegging out : IDLE
10. Bratz product : DOLL
14. "Ain't happening" : "NO HOW"
19. Receive useful information about : GET A LINE ON
21. "East of Eden" director Kazan : ELIA
22. French story : ÉTAGE. Today's French lesson: maison à deux étages - two-storey house.
25. Bizarre : WEIRD
26. "Off the Court" author : ASHE. Tennis great, Arthur Ashe.
27. Willingly : LIEF. Akin to love. I believe we had this before.
28. Lummox : OAF
29. Small batteries : AAs
31. Frat party purchase : KEG
37. Writer who worked on Friday? : DEFOE. Friday is a character in Daniel Defoe's novel, "Robinson Crusoe".
40. Monopolize : HOG
41. Bank features : SAFES
42. Nueve menos ocho : UNO. Spanish, 9-8=1.
43. Off! ingredient : DEET
47. Duck, say : REACT
50. Cybermemos : E-NOTES
58. Respite : LULL
59. "Flash of Genius" actor Alan : ALDA
60. Entrance : DOOR
61. See eye to eye : JIBE
62. Lofty home : AERIE
63. Tex-Mex snacks : NACHOS
65. World leader who said "Every little thing counts in a crisis" : NEHRU. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of independent India (1947–64).
68. __-en-Provence, France : AIX
70. Homer's neighbor : NED. From The Simpsons.
76. "That's it!" : "A HA!"
78. Downed : ATE
79. Passé : DATED
80. Party catchphrase : SLOGAN
83. Like frat parties : NOISY
85. Timbuktu's land : MALI
88. [Oh my God!] : [GASP!]. The brackets indicate the response is non-verbal and why my GOSH was wrong.
90. "Star Trek: T.N.G." counselor : TROI. I believe because the abbreviation was within the quotes and that T.N.G.(The Next Generation) is the common way the show is written, that an abbreviated answer is NOT indicated.
91. Potent start? : OMNI. Omnipotent.
96. Lipton rival : NESTEA
98. "Bummer" : "AW, GEE"
99. Small monkey : TITI
100. Summer overseas : ÉTÉ. In France.
101. Perp's cover : ALIAS. Or 123A. Perp's cover : ALIBI
103. "Uh-uh" : "NAH"
105. Grannies : NANAs
115. Affair twosome? : EFs. The letters 'F'.
116. General on a menu : TSO
117. Dull finish? : ARD. Dullard.
118. Worm, often : LURE. In this computer age, VIRUS was the first thing to come to mind at the word, WORM.
119. Egg cell : OVUM
129. 9 to 5, e.g. : RATIO. Tricky.
130. "The Neverending Story" author : ENDE. German fantasy novel by Michael Ende, first published in 1979.
131. Some bed makers : HOTEL MAIDS
132. Offspring : SCION
133. "Agreed!" : "DEAL!"
134. Spanish cordial : ANIS
135. Letter-shaped opening : T-SLOT
Down:
1. Tourist city SE of New Delhi : AGRA
2. Metros and Prizms, at first : GEOs. Little vehicles.
3. Longing : ITCH
4. Grow fond of : TAKE TO
5. __ carte : À LA
6. Hindi is a subgroup of it : INDIC
7. 12-time All-Star Jeter : DEREK
8. Bath sponge : LOOFAH
9. Photographer's order: Abbr. : ENL.
10. Morning brew order : DECAF
11. Norwegian king, 995-1000 : OLAF I
12. Rap name adjective : LI'L
13. "Deck the Halls" sequence : LA, LA, LA. Do rappers have Christmas albums?
14. Some anchors : NEWS MEN
15. Suffix with Capri : OTE. A native or inhabitant of Capri.
16. Verse often about nature : HAIKU
17. Fairy tale baddies : OGREs
18. Divisive element : WEDGE
20. Attending a Dodgers home game, say : IN LA. A stadium without a corporate name, wow!
24. Tenant : LODGER
30. Google revenue source : AD FEE
33. Prynne's stigma : RED A. From Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.
34. "I Feel Bad About My Neck" author Ephron : NORA. A collection of essays.
35. Abbr. on a shingle : ESTAB.
36. Neapolitan song title opening : 'O SOLE
37. Boxer who held titles at four different weights : DURAN. "No mas"
38. __ Gay : ENOLA
39. What-eats-what orders : FOOD CHAINS. Great explanation.
44. Wraps up by : ENDS AT
45. Tokyo, before 1868 : EDO
46. Govt. security : T-BOND
48. Fine-tune : ADJUST
49. Special effects technique, briefly : CGI. Computer-Generated Imagery.
51. Gets jealous : TURNS GREEN
52. "Night" author Wiesel : ELIE
53. Vehicle on a Christmas card, perhaps : SLED
55. Half a fish : MAHI
56. Central Utah city : OREM
57. Average : MEAN
62. Rink maneuver : AXEL
64. Our Gang assent : "OTAY!"
66. Covering up : HIDING
67. Golfer Gary Player's homeland: Abbr. : RSA. Republic of South Africa.
69. Place to be : IN SPOT
72. Pixar fish : NEMO
73. "Let __!" : ME GO
74. One way to cope : ADAPT
75. Drilling gp. : ROTC
76. Like Mr. X : ANON
77. Main website page : HOME
81. Main artery : AORTA
82. Evenings, in ads : NITEs
84. George Harrison learned it in the '60s : SITAR
86. Rack up : AMASS
87. Bar code? : LAW. The legal bar.
89. __-fi : SCI
92. Big pipes : MAINS
93. "Gracias" reply : "DE NADA"
94. High-fiber fruit : PEAR
95. "Ladies dancing" carol contingent : NINE
97. Joy : ELATION
102. Was gaga over : ADORED
104. Got a grip : HELD ON
106. Kitchen drawers? : AROMAs
107. Dreads : FEARS
108. Big name in supplemental insurance : AFLAC
109. Last Supper question : "IS IT I?"
110. Brief interview? : Q AND A
111. "Family Matters" nerd : URKEL
112. Civilian garb : MUFTI
113. Ohio natives : ERIEs
114. Divulge : TELL
120. Concealing garb : VEIL
121. Erase : UNDO
122. Has to : MUST
124. Short life story? : BIO
126. "Wheel of Fortune" buy : AN 'E'
127. FDR home loan org. : NHA. National Housing Agency.
128. ER staff member : EMT
Answer grid.
Argyle
1) Constructors' Notes:
"Don came up with this theme. It is a little inspired by the "Wheel of Fortune" "before and after" trick, or the similar "Jeopardy" occasional category. Don cannot recall the inspirational phrase that kicked it off. It may have been MOM AND POP CONCERT. We reviewed many potential phrases, trying to come up with entries where the shared middle word has a different meaning in the newly formed phrases. The grid went through a couple revisions. We had too many proper names in the first submission."
2) Personal Note:
Very sad news from Creature. She lost her husband yesterday from a fall he took at their cabin. She would like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Our condolences go out to her from here at the Corner.
35 comments:
Morning, all. Condolences to Creature if she's reading this. No words of comfort are adequate, I know, but we are thinking of you.
Today's puzzle was very enjoyable overall and the theme was both fun and helpful (i.e., figuring out the theme early on helped me get some of the theme answers).
I almost lost it down South, where ANIS crossed NHA, since both were unknown to me. I finally guessed the crossing "A," though, since I figured ANIS might be related to anise. The EMT/TSLOT crossing was also a bit rough, since I thought EMTs were just in ambulances and didn't know they actually went into emergency rooms.
Nice "clecho" with ALIBI and ALIAS. In fact, I initially put in ALIBI at 101A and then slapped myself when I realized I had misunderstood the clue and that it really had to be ALIAS. And then, of course, I saw the same clue for 123A...
Other than that, LALALA didn't do anything for me and what's the point of drinking DECAF in the morning (unless, I suppose, you work the night shift and are getting ready for bed)?
Creature, we're all sorry for your loss. Our thoughts are with you.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Got the theme at ROOMANDBOARDGAME and then went back up to complete the Chuck Berry entry.
I needed a lot of perp help today. Never heard of DURAN or DEREK. Started with INNY for that Dodgers clue. Doh! Hand up for initially putting ALIBI where ALIAS had to go. I let MAINS ride, but didn't understand what it had to do with bag pipes -- time for trifocals?
All in all, good job, Dynamic Duo.
Hi There ~!
My condolences to Creature, too.
AS for the puzzle, a fun theme that I gathered after getting the first one, ROCK AND ROLL CALL.
I had SHIFT for 9 to 5, but here's a great ratio to remember that uses 9 and 5.
DATED started out as STALE, and I thought DULL ends with "ELS", right after the "EFS" clue - sounded like C.C. and DonG~!
LA LA LA, SLED and NINE were all timely clues
Almost done with the attic
Splynter
Creature: I am so sorry to learn of your loss. Please know that your thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time and know that we are here for you.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. It was rather like the "Before and After" category of a Jeopardy game, and that is one of my favorite categories.
My favorite clue was Kitchen Drawers? = AROMAS.
From this puzzle, I learned that:
9-5 is not a Movie starring Dolly Parton, but a RATIO. Hmm...
A Lipton Rival is not Tetley, but NESTEA.
A Concealing Garb is not a Vest, but a VEIL. But does one keep one's card close to one's Veil?
No fresh MAHI in landlocked MALI.
I lived in AIX-en-Provence in the late 1980s, so that was a gimme.
QOD: Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Don G. and C.C., for a really well done puzzle. I enjoyed very much. Thank you, Argyle, for stepping and doing the review.
To Creature. My deepest sympathy to you and your family on your loss. My prayers are with you.
Well, the first word, AGITA, stumped me. Once I had all five perps I had it.
Of course I had ALIBI instead of ALIAS at 101A. Fixed that once I got the real ALIBI.
Entered BAIT for worm at 118A. Changed that to LURE later.
For 75D put in OPEC. ROTC became obvious soon.
As you can see I had a few write-overs.
The theme came with MOM AND POP CONCERT. From there I got the rest easily. Those all helped immensely with the rest of the puzzle.
Of course, I had no idea of ETAGE. Perps fixed that.
Enjoyed ERIES for 113D. They were also native to my home town area of Erie, PA. The tribe has also been spelled ERIEZ.
Well, off to church, then raking more leaves, then the Bears Game. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Greetings. Argyle, C.C. Don and all.
Creature, my heart goes out to you for your terrible loss. Prayers will be for you today.
The dynamic duo strikes again! Well done! I enjoyed this offering with its many pairs and a PEAR as well.
I would love to say I finished it but AGITA and TSLOT beat me in an otherwise very doable puzzle.
My granddaughters call me NANA so that is always nice to see.
LIEF simply emerged and I had no idea about it so thank you, Argyle, for lifting that VEIL.
NESTLE before NESTEA almost stumped me but ELATION corrected that.
Have a delightful Sunday, everyone!
To our friend dear Creature, our hearts, our sympathies and our feelings are with you at this sorrowful and painful time. We pray that God will give you the courage and strength to bear this loss.
in the "learn something new everyday" category: Mufti--which I only knew as the Islamic scholar instead of civilian garb--had to completely fill in with the perps.
Starting with AGITA and then LIEF and ETAGE was not a good omen for me and this lovely puzzle. It also took longer than it should have because I was doing it while also watching ESPN this morning talking about the incredible upsets in college football and the sickening episodes at Syracuse and Penn State.
Musings
-For the Lord God OMNIpotent Reigneth…. Does music get better than this?
-College sports are rife with men looking for ALIBIS
-9 to 5 wasn’t Dolly, Jane & Lily
-I bought my daughters a TSLOT race car set. It was received, uh, unenthusiastically.
-Daughter won't allow BRATZ dolls in her house
-Baseball in Chavez Ravine, where fans come to be seen, show up late, leave early and make no noise
-Some pious politicians could use that RED A
-Is there a mahi-mahi in that picture?
-OTAY is racist except for Eddie Murphy on SNL
-Yup, I had OPEC drilling
-Vanna, I’ll take an E for e-mail, enote, e-ads, e-reader, e-commerce, Egads!
-My condolences Creature
Nothing to add to the comments. Enjoyable puzzle.
But I certainly want to add my condolences to Creature. I'm saddened to hear the news, and am so sorry for your loss.
Creature, I was shocked and so sad to learn of your loss! I am thinking of you as I know we all are.
Good morning Argyle and all.
I was very saddened to learn of Creature's loss. My Deepest Sympathy.
Surprised to see a Sunday offering from C.C. and Don. Nifty theme. The 'ANDs' were helpful. I felt the cw was of medium difficulty for a Sunday. There were many anchor spots, so the perps were helpful. No searches were needed. My learning today was that AGRA, which we have had, a lot is actually SE of New Delhi. Don't know why, for some reason always thought it was farther west. Lots of 'drawers' in our kitchen today.
Hope you all have a nice day.
Creature, I am so sorry for your loss.
Don and C.C. I am just so impressed by the way you put together a Sunday, making it challenging but not Saturday difficulty. Well done. Argyle, do you ever sleep?
Hello,
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed today's puzzle. Thank you CC and Don for today's effort. Even got agita right away. If I remember correctly, I caused my Italian grandmother numerous bouts of agita in my time.
Creature, my heart aches for you on your loss. Hopefully you can surround yourself with family and friends to give you the comfort you need.
Creature: My deepest condolence to you and your family.
I usually skip Sunday puzzles.
But when I saw it was a Don G. & C.C. thought it might be FUN ... IT was, Thank you.
Argyle: Nice Pinch-hitting.
I'm with you on AGITA. A learning moment right-off-the-bat.
In "Deck-The-Halls" my sequence is 'LA-LA-LA-LA' so I wondered at 13-D, where my last LA was ... and it was watching a Dodgers game IN-LA.
Always enjoy seeing one of my "Evil-Empire" DEREK Jeter in a grid.
With 4 vowels, that Lofty home, AERIE is probably my favortie crosswordese.
Ohhhh, my Tampa Bay Bucs are going to get creamed today in Green Bay.
Cheers to all at Sunset.
Dear Creature ~~ So very sad to learn of your loss. My deepest sympathy, thoughts and prayers are with you.
Dear Creature,you and your family are in my heart.Words cannot express the sorrow we are all feeling for you loss.We are all here for you.
I haven't been stopping by as often as I'd like, but I've been reading the posts most days Today I wanted to add my sadness at hearing about creature's loss.
Both my husband and my hearts' go out to you.
Creature, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. My sympathies are with you.
CC and Don, yuo've managed to slip some rather obscure fill into this one without violating the 'Natick Principle'. Well done.
I really liked the ALIAS/ALIBI pairing, and, yes, I had it wrong at first, too.
The question that I have, though: If I go fly fishing for that half of a fish, do I use a Tse as my LURE?
I can't say there was anything in the puzzle that I haven't seen before, but there were many that needed a few perps to point me in the right direction. The theme came early and certainly helped the solve.
Creature: May the God of all comfort be with you.
Creature: I never know what to say at times like this. I have all the best wishes and hopes for you and your family. I feel like I've gotten to know her a little from this blog and I'm a better person for the experience.
Unlike some of you, I thought this was pretty hard; like a Saturday puzzle with a theme. I started in the upper-left corner as usual and immediately ran into trouble. The theme came to me quickly and helped with the solving. Very nice puzzle; hard but fun.
Creature, my heart goes out to you in your sudden loss. May God comfort you and may the thoughts and prayers of your friends sustain you.
This is a lovely, fun puzzle, doable with no red letters or Mr. G. but with unusual and thought provoking fill. Great job, CC and Don!!
*It was nice to see MUFTI for civvies. My mother used to use it. PS Mom, too, was a reader and a x-word nut. Unfortunately, in the end her brightness was dimmed by Alzheimer's.
*ETAGE 22A I thought right away of floors in a building. I had -T-GE. I know etagere (poular this days, esp. for curios) was a set of shelves, so I wagged etage. (Is it the same root?)
*AGITA, that shaky feeling in the pit of the stomach, seems common in this unstable economy.
* I had ALIBI at 100A, until I needed it for 123A. and switched to ALIAS.
I've always thought "OTAY" to be a childish misspronunciation, rather than an ethnic one.
Creature, I'm so sorry to hear of your husband's accident. My thoughts are with you...
I wanted to extend my condolences to you, Creature. I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you know that we are thinking of you and hopefully this is a little comfort at this time.
I don't usually do the weekend puzzles, but I logged on to see if my Saturday effort was correct. I did three puzzles while watching two football games. The Stanford/Cal game was very late here on the West Coast and i'm sure my grandson was watching in the Boston Area. It was about 1:30 in the morning back there when the game was finally over.
Have a great rest of the day, everyone.
Creature,
My deepest condolences for your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
I think C.C. and Hard G. must have more puzzles published in the LAT in the last year than any other constructors. I'm curious if you have had puzzles published elsewhere or just the LAT?
We've had some serious rain here this morning. Very enjoyable. Makes me want to take another nap.
Sunday Morning was good as usual today. So fat (lard) tastes good and isn't so bad for you in moderation. It was sad to see the newly-poor folks lined up to get free food at places where they used to contribute instead during better times. It's stories like this that affect my political values.
Here I am thinking about the rain and a favorite TV program while Creature must be thinking about going through life without her long-time partner. Sad.
Creature, I am so sorry for your sudden loss. I hope you know that you have many people cyber hugging you right now.
Creature, I hope you find comfort
in your God's arms.
Sports don't seem important today.
Can't seem to watch them and think of you.
Take care. eddy
So sorry, Creature, you're in my prayers.
Nothing to say about the puszle after hearing that.
Bonnie got a new iPhone. I was playing with its Personal Assistant, Siri. It's really amazing, almost as amazing as Watson was on Jeopardy. It answered all of the questions I threw at it. Finally, I signed off by saying, "I think you're a conceited jerk!" It responded, "Who knew?"
Oh my Creature such sad news. My thoughts are with you.
CC congrats on a well done Sunday puzzle by you and Don. Keep em coming. The puzzles you two construct are always keepers.
Dear Creature,
My thoughts and prayers go to you at this time of loss. We don't know how wonderful something is until it is gone. Thankfully, there are memories.
Thanks to all who wrote in. C.C. and I got ambitious with the grid, putting in nine entries. That made it super hard to fill. That fact just came back to me as I worked the puzzle today.
Bill G. might be right. I do not keep track of how many puzzles C.C. and I had compared to others, but I am thrilled that there has been a great creative spark between C.C. and me. We love to kick around puzzle themes. That seems to be an edge, to bounce ideas off of someone else. It is also hard work, and sharing it makes it go so much easier. I am very fortunate to be working with Zhouqin.
Why every Sunday puzzle is NOT the one published in the Los Angeles Times.....
Today we have Swapping Spree by Merl Reagle
Oops. I made a mistake. There were seven theme answers. They were all fairy long, and that is why it was challenging to fill.
Dear Creature, the sudden loss of a spouse is so traumatic. Learning to let yourself grieve and keep your composure is so difficult, a stunning new world. May you find comfort in memories and the friendship of others.
-PK
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