Theme: None
Words: 70
Blocks: 34
I am very disappointed with my performance on this puzzle - I had to cheat and look up four answers, all proper names, so I could give myself a fighting chance on any solution at all; even then I was not thrilled with my lack of ability - I was just not on Mr. Farmer's wavelength. I looked, and his only blogged puzzle was back in 2009 - that one had lots of full-length proper names, too; today we have:
16A. The Bucharest Buffoon of '70s-'80s tennis : ILIE NĂSTASE - which I had to look up, along with 24A, 45A and 9D
Triple 11's(!) and triple 8's, which deceived me into thinking I would get a hold early with the resulting series of 3-letter words, but NOPE (BTW, I had this for UH-UH, 50A) - I have added a "*" to the clues where I smacked myself for missing the point; e.g.;
8D. Made 60-Across for technocrats? : ANAGRAMMED - * "technocrats" threw me, since I did not know this was a group of people, but all we needed was the 10 letters rearranged into "trench coats" - which I nailed, and thought I was doing pretty good - I had the whole SW corner done....
Oh well, Happy "STPAT" day - On-ward~!
ACROSS:
1. Outlying expanse : LEA
4. Fay Wray in "King Kong," to movie buffs : SCREAM QUEEN
15. The Giants retired his #4 : OTT (Mel) - standard CW, and
17. Unit whose symbol is an omega : OHM - heck "OH" is part of the word "OH-mega"
18. Military communications branch : SIGNAL CORPS
19. Site of Cretan ruins : KNOSSOS
21. Shine, in ads : GLO - Like "Mop N Glo"
22. Blofeld's constant companion, in Bond films : CAT - * I was looking for a proper name here, like "Mr. E", or something like that
23. Goes unhurriedly : MOSEYS - * spelled it wrong, MOSIES
24. Joel Chandler Harris's brother? : B'RER - * didn't recognize the name, and so this was harder than it had to be
25. Tennis score word : ALL - not ACE, LET, ADN (yeah, I know, ADIN)
26. Take __ at : A STAB - not "A LOOK"
27. Dock bloc, briefly : ILA - International Longshoreman Association
28. Ford from Tennessee : ERNIE - before my time; someone can link "16 tons"
30. Big party bottles : MAGNUMS - Champagne size
33. River through Hesse : EDER - Not RUHR, SAAR, etc. - Map; high in the middle
34. Calls the game : UMPIRES - Did you nail this, C.C.? (From C.C.: No, I'm stupid! I did nail 15-Across OTT.)
37. Some saints : MARTYRS
39. Mates : PALS
40. Doesn't come through : RENEGES
42. Glide : SKATE
44. Proof abbr. : QED
45. El __: Peruvian volcano : MISTI - * Had to Google
49. Ahem relative : HEY
50. Curt turndown : UH-UH
52. "You've done enough" : NO NEED
53. Bar order, initally : IPA - Beer? I guess....take a look (From C.C.: IPA = India Pale Ale)
54. Cologne "never" : NIE
55. Took a vacation : GOT AWAY
56. Colonialism : FOREIGN RULE
59. Manual transmissions?: Abbr. : ASL - * D'oh~! American Sign Language
60. Garb for Columbo and Clouseau : TRENCH COATS
61. Coalesce : GEL
62. It's highly classified : STATE SECRET
63. Sounds omitted in transcription : ERs...
DOWN:
1. Showing-off expression : LOOK MA~!! "No hands~! - OW ~!!!"
2. Cultural group : ETHNOS
3. Tops : AT MOST
4. Bike passenger's support, facetiously : SISSY BAR - growing up, we had a different meaning for "sissy bar" - this is what you'll find at Google
5. Campaign rewards : CLIOS - * Ad campaigns, ugh - not "SEATS", as in politics
6. Fixes : RIGS
7. Gloaming, in verse : EEN - Evening, as the word is not so much a verb as a noun; = twilight
9. "Atlantic City" director : MALLE - * Googled, this movie
10. Familiarity/appeal measurement used in marketing : Q-SCORE - never heard of it
11. __-Aztecan languages : UTO - The Wiki
12. Sweet pop music : EAR CANDY
13. Trellis for training fruit trees : ESPALIER
14. Sleeping kittens, e.g. : NESTLERS
20. Marine layer : SEA MIST
24. __-ray Discs : BLU
27. Ordered : IN SEQUENCE - * UGH~!, not insisted, or something like that
29. Wine flavored by pine resin-sealed barrels : RETSINA
31. North Sea country: Abbr. : GER.many
32. Give a little : SAG
34. Goes from second to third, say : UPSHIFTS
35. Arrive after a long sail : MAKE PORT
36. Tot lot : PLAY AREA
38. Most aloof : REMOTEST
41. Bk. after Ezra : NEH
43. Joseph Kennedy's middle daughter : EUNICE
46. Underground waste : SEWAGE
47. News opening, often : TEASER
48. Rustic poems : IDYLLS
51. Weather forecast components : HIGHS
52. "Tropic Thunder" actor : NOLTE - Nick, played the "fake" veteran who lost his hands - Robert Downey Jr. as a "brother" steals this show
55. __ gum: food thickener : GUAR
57. Tolkien creature : ENT
58. Bird in a fable : ROC
Answer grid.
Splynter, who will not be consuming any green IPA today....
45 comments:
Hello Puzzlers -
I am humbled. This puzzle beat me up and took my lunch money. Technical DNF today.
I managed to get through most of it unaided, but that northeast was lastingly white. Didn't know the Romanian tennis whiz, didn't know Fay Wray's nickname, completely missed the joke at ANAGRAMMED (clever, that!). We've had the UTO prefix before, but I couldn't dredge it up. Had to Goog that stuff just to get 'er done.
Well done, John Farmer, I liked the challenge. Splynter, thanks for making the same mistakes I did. Kinda like having a support group.
Greetings!
Quite a challenge, John; cute write-up, Splynter.
The clues that you have starred, Splynter, did not cause me any trouble. (Had trouble spelling ILIE, though.) No look- ups, but turned on red letters after a while. Not proud of myself. But time is finite and am still struggling with taxes.
Beddy bye time!
Hav a pleasantb weekend, everyone!
Good morning, Happy St Pats and all that stuff. Thanks, Splynter, for the write up.
This was a Saturday Stumper of the highest magnitude for me. I picked and poked and made changes (nope beore UHUH, advances before UPSHIFTS) and finally had everything but that NE corner that seems to have been a problem for most of us.
I had never heard of 'Bucharest Buffoon' but I had heard of the 'bad boy of tennis' and gave Nastase a shot. I should have known SIGNAL CORPS, but it just didn't pop out until I finally got the SIG beginning.
I never heard of SCREAM QUEEN, wasn't familiar with Q SCORE, and had no idea which of those four letter European Rivers was needed. ESPALIER is new to me, and I just didn't remember Blofeld's CAT.
Aargh! First DNF for a long time, but no nits to pick. Just lots of clever but tough cluing.
Top o' the morning to you!
Definitely a challenge today. I managed to get through most of the bottom half of the puzzle relatively easily, with the exception of SE corner. I had SLUDGE instead of SEWAGE and it took a loooong time for MISTI to reappear from the cobwebbed corners of my mental attic. The clue for ASL was fiendishly clever and, as a result, took awhile to get.
My big trouble spot, however, was in the NE. I actually tried SCREAM QUEEN at 4A my first pass through, but something went wrong and it didn't fit so I abandoned it. Without that, I was lost. Simply did not know MALLE, QSCORE, ESPALIER or SISSY BAR. Could not get ANAGRAMMED or CLIOS from the tricky clues. Thought Gloaming was FOG. Had SET for FIX. Didn't know Mr. Harris's association with BRER Rabbit. Thought NESTLERS was hideously clued.
I finally used IMDB to find out who the director of "Atlantic City" was. The M from MALLE and the U from UTO (which I only barely remembered from the other day) was finally enough to tell me that SCREAM QUEEN was, in fact, correct, and that gave me enough of a foothold to finish. I needed almost all the perps to remember ILIE NASTASE, but at least I knew who he was.
Ah well, I guess this is what Saturdays are for, eh?
Happy St. Pat's Day!
What a struggle! Like several of you, it was the three long entries in the NE corner that just wouldn't fill themselves in. I figured out CLIOS and WAGged SISSY BAR, changed EVE to EEN and old ILIE finally appeared.
Somehow I managed to dredge up ESPALIER from the depths of memory of some Sunday afternoon PBS gardening program. That allowed the NESTLERS to cuddle. The very last to fall was a WAG of the "I" in the MISTI/RETSINA crossing. (RETSINA sounds like an eye ailment, doesn't it?)
Ten minutes over the time limit, but finally finished. Whew!
I failed only in the SE - TEASER/MISTI/RETSINA never came to me. I didn't think there were too many names... I especially liked ILIENASTASE, not just because of the interesting clue, but also because we are so used to seeing ILIE. There's probably a lot of crossword fans who aren't tennis fans who've had that name beaten into their heads over the years.
The clue for ANAGRAMMED was great!
Nice grid, too.
WEES. Very tough puzzle and a technical DNF for me. Had to goog Ilie, Uto, Knossos, Eder, that cat, and Misti. Vaguely remembered espalier, but wanted to spell it differently. So Mr G cleared that up too. Thought the clue for ESL was pure genius. The rest was just plain hard. All told, though, it seemed a worthwhile effort.
wow. a real bitch. just when you think you can get through these puzzles with ease , one comes along and humbles you. had trouble all the way through. just wasnt into it i guess. had to look up a lot. after i finished was kicking myself.
Sure and begorra , my SCREEN (not scream)queen and no clue on the wine didn’t quite cut it and so I’ll take a 4 cell DNF but loved the exercise today.
Musings
-Usually, I got no shot on directors and have to rely on perps
-OTT, how do we clue thee? Let me count the ways
-Would Rich allow Ω in a clue?
-RAT, BAT, nope he had a CAT
-I was proud to have sussed out BRER
-Those ILA guys gave it to Brando in On The Waterfront
-The Umpire who CALLS the game can also CALL the game if it rains
-Michael Corleone was impressed when he saw a Cuban rebel martyr himself for Castro in The Godfather
-Initially thought going from second to third was about baseball or dating
-Remember Lucy in the vat trying to MAKE PORT?
-Granddaughter is here from Lincoln and just got her Learner’s Permit. I taught her how to ride a bike and so now…
Top 'o the mornin' to ya and a most Happy St. Paddy's Day.
This was the toughest puzzle I've done in a long time. I did finish w/o help although I had a wrong entry with Oder instead of Eder which I learned here. Originally had mosies and ILO but perps corrected those. Tricky clues didn't help but enjoyed the challenge.
I will be celebrating St. Pat's at my sister's along with 40 other family members. I imagine the God-only-knows-how-many-pounds-of-potatoes are being peeled right now! It will be an evening with lots of people, lots of food, lots of noise, lots of Irish music, and maybe a wee bit of liquid refreshments! Can't wait.
A cute story from long ago. My sister is married to a Lebanese-American and when one of their daughters was in first grade, it was St. Patrick's Day and the nun was asking the children if any were of Irish heritage. So my niece popped up and said, Yes, I'm half Lebanese and half Leprechaun!
As my mother would say, have a grand day. Erin go Bragh.
So sorry, Splynter, you did a great write-up, thanks. And thanks to Mr. Farmer for the mental workout.
Do you suppose this is Rich getting even for all of the comments like -- "Are the LAT Crosswords getting easier, or is it just me?"
Husker, good luck with the driving lessons. Hope you're not hypertensive.
Off to pedal my bike around the 'hood.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, John Farmer, for a tough puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for the review.
Wow. This one was a beauty. Very difficult. I, as others, finally finished in the NE corner. SCREAM QUEEN was the last.
OHM came easily for 17A. I worked with ohms all my life. Liked QED for 44A. I have always been intrigued by that phrase, Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
I thought there might have been something tied to St. Patrick's Day in the puzzle, but no. I expect we will see something on Sunday.
Had no idea what ESPALIER was. Perps helped.
The weather so far is beautiful. Put my seedlings out on the deck for the sun. I have about 350 sprouting.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Hello.
Back from taking Jill to the airport.
Started the cornned beef in the slow cooker.
Q Score is a measure of an actor's
popularity and name recognition. Used by producers to fund projects and cast actors in roles. Heigl had a high score when cast and a low score when the film was released released.
Another rainy day.
eddy
Hi, all,
The stuff in the top rows was very hard for me also. I got the SW corner first. Being a Bond fan, I guessed CAT right away. I also recalled RETSINA. I generally red-letter the Saturday puzzle so I can get other chores done, but many of the 3-letter clues involved the QWEERTY method where I guess every single letter until I get it.
I have a science background, so I knew ohm right away. The inverse of the ohm used to be the mho, or ohm spelled backwards, which is so fun! Now, however, some glum lots insist we use the siemens, which makes no sense.
This same lot got rid of the curie as a unit of radiation and replaced it with the becquerel. This unit was, I think, the only physics unit named for a woman.
Anyway, we are having a nice warm sunny day in Northeast Ohio and I am going to go get corned beef somewhere later with friends.
Well, against my better judgment, I did attempt today's TEASER from JF.
Like Splynter, I managed the SW corner very well, in fact all the way up to and including the A STAB line. The east was a different story. I wanted LAHN for EDER, because my students always did a canoe trip on it when we stayed in our sister state, Hesse. I missed MISTI and wanted NO MORE/NEED. I also thought RENEGED needed a U after the G, so resisted filling that in.
I had to come here and cheat unabashedly for the top 5 lines, for the same reasons mentioned here already by others.
Happy St Pat's Day to all for whom that matters. To me it's just an excuse to eat a corned beef roast tonight, which is about to go into my crock pot to get good and tender by supper time.
My goodness, this sure was a toughie. At least Splynter's write-up made me feel better--many thanks for that. I actually thought I had nailed the bottom half and had trouble mainly with the top. But it turns out I ironically missed MISTI because I had 'header' instead of TEASER for the 'News opening.' KNOSSOS was one of those items I knew but couldn't remember the name. My husband and I had a wonderful visit there in Crete some years ago. I also didn't remember the name of Louis MALLE right away, which irked me because "Atlantic City" is a great movie. And seeing NOLTE made me want to cry on two counts. His role in the last episode of "Luck" was so moving, but how could those people not have protected the horses on the set better. After three horses had to be euthanized the show was (properly, I think) canceled.
I just gave a lecture on lots of Irish history and culture at our Senior Center on Thursday, so I am ready for St. Patrick's Day. (Loved your little story, Irish Miss 10:15). I don't like beer but we always have Guinness in the fridge so I'll have to make an exception today.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
"Hello. No one is available to complete your puzzle. Thank you and have a nice day."
Roamin' in the Gloamin'(4:05) sung by Harry Lauder.
El Misti from this NASA site.
Erin go Bragh.
Day 3 & no red letters...
Wees, luckily Umpire & Upshift gave me a toehold that finally helped me fill more than the entire SouthWest. Unfortunately i got blocked by putting 3D:apexes in the NW, and 52A:NoMore in the SE, so my puzzle looks like a big Yin/Yang poster.
I started Googling, but there were so many it got ridiculous, so i came here and let you guys do the work.
IrishMiss: Bravo!
Desperotto: Time Limit? (i will never be that good!)
Well, i hope to spend the rest of the day looking for a good link, and drinking green IPA, (so if i post a really silly link tonite, you will know what happened...)
Question: Does Erin ever go bragh-less?
CED@12:02 -- I have an "expected", self-imposed time in which to complete the daily puzzles. It's shortest on Monday, expanding daily, and then equally long on Saturday and Sunday (Sunday's generally easier, but it's bigger). I over-shot today by a full 10 minutes. But like the cable guy, I got 'er done.
I'm most embarrassed to admit that after all these years I didn't know what gloaming was. Thought of it as grass or valley, or something. And me with Scottish heritage on both sides of the family.
Well, finished w/o help, but had a whole lot of misspellings to correct.
Not only was ERNIE a gimme, I know all the words to 16 tons -- an oldie thing I'm sure.
Was thinking FOREIGNRapE, but no, couldn't be -- (knew Nolte, but not what movies he's been in). Also wanted NFLers before MARTYRS, but it wouldn't fit.
Back in my youth it was, as I remember, ILWU, (Intl. Longshore Workers Union), then ILU, (Intl Longshoremens Union). Apparently it's now ILA? Wouldn't surprise me if they go back to the more PC ILWU. The upshot was that that A replace the U and was the last letter in my puzz.
Anyway, a fine, fun Saturday LAT puzzle. Equivalent to a Thursday NYT, IMO.
As a footnote to last nights posting of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, here's the scene from the movie Always. The song gets a little lost in the action, but it still gets the point across and is nearly as beautiful as the uncluttered version. Good movie too. I'd recommend it highly if your Netflix queue is short.
My Corned beef won't be on for a few hours. I prefer it boiled rather than in the slow cooker, cuz it doesn't shred so easily when you slice it. Usually takes about 3 1/2 hours.
A real toughie for me but I got thru it with a little help from my reference books: Movies, World Almanac, Websters (for spelling). I knew espalier but had an N where the L was supposed to go. I suppose it's cheating but I don't feel bad when I do the physical research as opposed to Google. Anyway, that's just me.
BTW: This Blog is a whole lot nicer than Rex Parkers. Alot of complainers and nitpickers on his site with too much criticism directed towards the CW constructors. Ces La Vie. A top of the top of the moring before SP Day.
Hello,
just fyi, OHM is named after a man named Georg Simon Ohm. I came across him reading an old encyclopedia I have. I have ohm described as: a unit of resistance in a little list of puzzle words I have written down.
Sorry, my memory failed me. ILWU is a West coast union while ILA is the East coast version. I don't know where ILU cam from -- I think another crossword and meant something else.
Loved this one. ANAGRAMMED was just excellent. Went slowly, slowly around and around filling in a little more each time and then a couple of AHAS! and done.
Kept wanting 12D to have something to do with the band Sweet every time I looked at it - GLAM ROCK was my first thought.
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.
Erin Go Bragh!
Hello everybody. What Splynter, Dudley, Grumpy1, Barry G, and most of the rest of you said. Pretty much all the same trouble areas.
I have heard of Louis Malle (wasn't he Candice Bergen's husband?), but didn't know he directed "Atlantic City," a movie that I saw.
Wanted MARRIED instead of MARTYRS for way too long, and not knowing the perps didn't help.
A technical DNF, but the struggle was lots of fun. Climbing a mountain can be fun in itself, even though one might not reach the summit.
Our newspaper printed "Bar order, initally" for 53A, and for a while I thought it was deliberate and held some sort of secret meaning. Even after getting IPA it was still a mystery to me what the heck IPA is. Now I know.
Here's wishing you all a good day.
Splynter: Great write-up & links.
N.E.C. (Not Even Close!)
First pass I had ILIE NATASIE, CAT, ERNIE & TRENCH-COAT.
Worked on and got the SW. Fave was the STATE SECRET.
Then I put in Q-SCORE which gave me the last part of Fay being QUEEN.
Well, I thought she was a BEAUTY (it fit) ...
and that led me to that Bike passenger support being a "bitch-BAR" (Hey, my friends with HOGs call them that all the time).
Knew the IPA not the wine.
KNOSSOS, MISTI & RETSINA were learning moments & WTF's.
Finally punted with a lot of blank blocks up north.
Hmmm, I think I'll wear green today.
Erin Go Bragh.
Cheers!
I suss, you suss, we suss, they suss... a heck of a lot of sussing going on at my house this a.m., but I did finish without help.
AFL-CIO? IWA? ILA? SPCA? I just wait to see what works! We have espaliered magnolias in our courtyard, I have some ear candy on my Ipod and when in doubt - Ott/Orr; Andre Agassi/Ilie Nastase...whatever. I guess I was lucky.
"Fiendishly clever - ASL" you got that right Barry.
Happy corned beef everyone.
Hola Everyone,
Proper names--UGH! I never manage to finish a puzzle on my own with so many proper names for answers. I did get some of the fills, but there were more white squares left than those filled in.
I just wanted to give everyone a high 5 for a Happy St. Paddy's Day.
It is gloomy and damp here today after a real soaking rain last night. But with only a 33% of average rainfall for our area this year we needed this desperately.
Rain makes our surrounding hills very green.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
Our granddaughter will be here all week for her spring break from school. There won't be time to even do the puzzle, much less get on to read the blog. I'll catch up when I can.
this sucker killed me!
Hi All ~~
I started this puzzle last night while watching late basketball games. I got nowhere. I picked it up again today and got nowhere. To use a word from Marti's puzzle yesterday, this puzzle gave me my "comeuppance!"
I did get ILIE NASTASE, TRENCH COATS and STATE SECRET, but no other long answers. I managed to pick away at a number of shorter answers but I had a pretty empty grid. I finally gave in to Google - a number of times - and then I let Splynter enlighten me. I realized I wouldn't have figured out a lot of it no matter how long I looked at the clues.
I have to say I really didn't enjoy this but I guess it was too clever for me ... I just wasn't on the right wave length. Whew.
Thanks for a really good write-up, Splynter. I really needed your help today!
Enjoy the weekend!
Thought I had licked this one. I did but not with the correct spellings! Oh well. Good clues, diabolical but good.
Difficult for me.
Got MALLE on 1st pass since Atlantic City is my favorite movie. Years ago, I watched it 40 times.
Had raiNClotheS before TRENCHCOATS until I got ANANGRAMMED and it was 2 letters off.
Never heard of SISSYBAR, but guessed it. I'm too much of a sissy for one, since I consider motorcycles deadly.
Expressions such as MAKEPORT are hard for this landlocked girl.
Here's a link to M9 from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's really magnificent.
CED:
Just took your "Accent test" posted yesterday.
Rated me "Northern."
Which seems about right ... since I live in the "Northern" part of Pinellas County, Florida, (just west of Lake Tarpon).
Off to "Tap into some Green Beer!"
Cheers !!!
Some comfort knowing most of us struggled on this. Thanks, Splynter. First pass through I got ETHNic, EEN, ERNIE, EUNICE, and TRENCH COAT. Second pass got LEA and OTT and I was done for the day. Knew several things but couldn't think of the words--even when Splynter gave me the starters. Double DUH!
Twelve hours of sleep made me really loggy.
On March 17, I celebrate the life of my Irish grandpop who died on St. Patrick's day in 1971. Both of his parents were born on the auld sod. There was never a kinder man than my grandpop so I am not sad, knowing he's doing his little jig and grinning like a leprechaun in a happier place.
ANAGRAMMED was "out in lft field", never heard of NESTLERS, ESPALIER (though I have 9 fruit tree or RETSINA (though I'm a wine drinker). Silly, silly. silly! Do we give an award for "Obscurity of Words"? We could call it the "Archaic Euphemism" Trophy. And todays winner is....
WOW! This puzzle totally did me in. In spite of staring at it for a loooong time, I only got about half of it before coming here for the rest.
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.
Top O'the evening to ya! Thank you, Splynter for your gargantuan effort today.
Yowza! A real brain masher today. WEES. You have all hit on my struggles. Late, too, because my shed had to be emptied and readied for its replacement. Luckily my granddaughter is here to help me but then she claimed her reward and we went shopping.
So in summary, I did the dreaded search on Google, dictionary, Bible and finally finished.
I loved ANAGRAMMED though that wasn't my original idea for it.
Happy St. Pat's day everyone! My SIL's birthday, too.
Happy St Patty's Day all,
The harder the clues are, the more I laugh, admire, and swear. Today's was one big riddle for me.Lots of erasing, but still a DNF.Kudos Mr. Farmer, and also to you Splynter.
Loved seeing Knossos..it was so ahead of its time and full of mythological tales.
Avg. Joe, so enjoyed Smoke gets in your Eyes link.
Bill, beautiful M9 link.
I'm w/tinbeny! Whew!!!
ust got across this puzzle two days ago...and it beat the hell out ofme...i cheated! hahaha...not proud though. i got bucharest buffoon right though as i am a tennis fan. but 8 down?...granite wall there. kudos john farmer!!! nice to go up against very challenging creations...thanks for all previous comments, guys. kind of toned down the frustration...
im from the philippines, just got across this puzzle two days ago...and it beat the hell out ofme...i cheated! hahaha...not proud though. i got bucharest buffoon right though as i am a tennis fan. but 8 down?...granite wall there. kudos john farmer!!! nice to go up against very challenging creations...thanks for all previous comments, guys. kind of toned down the frustration...
Allan, if you want to delete one of your posts, click on the garbage pail. I'll take care of it later.
Post a Comment