23A. Not a waste of time carving? : WORTH THE WHITTLE. Worth the while.
36A. Tinker Bell's blabbing? : FAIRY TATTLES. Fairy tales.
60A. Municipal mascot? : TOWN CRITTER. Town crier.
87A. Pane in an infested attic? : BATTY WINDOW. Bay window.
108A. Lollipop for a dog? : SETTER SUCKER. Seer sucker.
127A. Butterfly? : FREQUENT FLITTER. Frequent flier.
15D. Duke's Droid? : PATTY PHONE. Pay phone.
78D. Where smoking remnants are stored? : BUTTS DEPOT. Bus depot.
This is our first encounter with Joel D. Lafargue. Google shows has quite a few puzzles in the Simon & Schuster series, apart from his NY Times in 1997.
This puzzle is a pangram, e.g., every letter is used at least once in the grid. It has a total 96 theme squares. Rich's minimum is 84. Gridding gets more challenging if you have over 100 theme squares. Very often you end up with way too many 3-letter words, hence more abbrs & undesirble fill. This grid has 24 3-letter words. Sometimes we get this many in a 15*15 grid.
Across:
1. Pay to see cards : CALL
5. He played Senator Vinick on "The West Wing" : ALDA (Alan)
9. "Ma! (He's Making Eyes __)": 1921 song : AT ME. Easy to get. Don't know the song.
13. Urge forward : IMPEL
18. B&O part : OHIO
19. Mistake : FAULT
21. Marina feature : PIER
22. Mazda two-seater : MIATA
26. Anti-apartheid author Alan : PATON. No idea. He wrote this book: "Cry, the Beloved Country".
27. Art in a park : STATUE
28. Noticed : SEEN
29. Union chapter : LOCAL
31. "Star Trek" spinoff, briefly : TNG (The Next Generation)
32. Alway : E'ER
33. Jupiter, to Saturn : SON. Not the planets I was picturing.
34. Tendency toward disorder : ENTROPY. We used to have a poster using this as his avatar name.
42. Screenplays : SCRIPTS
45. "Not __ eye in ... " : A DRY. 2D. "There'll be __ time ..." : A HOT. 37D. Like __ in the headlights : A DEER. 39. In __: miffed : A PET. 59D. __ the finish : IN AT. 5 partials. 1 more than Rich's Sunday limit.
46. Busy IRS mo. : APR
47. __ Team : DREAM
50. Frome of fiction : ETHAN. Edith Wharton's "Ethan Frome".
51. Farm spread : LEA
52. Type of daisy : OXEYE
54. Be of use : AVAIL
57. Name whose Japanese symbols mean "ocean child" : YOKO. I mentioned this on the blog before.
58. Foul-smelling : FETID
64. Revival prefix : NEO
65. Political theorist Hannah : ARENDT. Well, she does have the political look. Stranger to me.
67. First skipper? : NOAH. Clever clue.
68. Run-down urban dwelling : TENEMENT
70. Not quite closed : AJAR
72. Blade : KNIFE
75. Sushi bar soup : MISO. A little Tofu, a few sprinkles of green onion. Simple & perfect.
76. Amount so far : SUBTOTAL
80. Whom Cordelia called "As mad as the vex'd sea" : LEAR. Cordelia is King Lear's youngest.
82. "Maybe later" : NOT NOW
86. It has a Bklyn. campus : LIU (Long Island University). Splynter knows. He attended RPI though. Same as Spitzboov.
91. 27-day pope of 1605 : LEO XI. Such a short reign.
92. __'acte : ENTR
94. Range rover : STRAY. Nice clue.
95. Blue shoe material of song : SUEDE
97. Limo passenger, often : VIP. We saw a beat-up limo in flea market last week.
98. Place and Kett : ETTAs
100. Flight units : STEPS
103. Moo goo __ pan : GAI. Literally "Chicken" in Cantonese. Mandarin is "Ji". Quite different. "Ye Ji" means "wild chicken", slang for "hooker".
104. "Smooth Operator" singer : SADE. So, Grumpy, what kind of music do you like?
105. Eponymous microbiologist Louis : PASTEUR
111. Most cherished : DEAREST
114. "Norma __" : RAE
115. Previously : AGO
116. "Color me surprised" : GEE
118. Airbus A380, vis-à-vis most other planes : WIDER
119. Bond foe : DR NO
121. Clumsy mistakes : BLOOPS
125. Breakfast cereal prefix : ALPHA. Alpha-Bits.
130. Franny's title brother, in a Salinger novella : ZOOEY."Franny and Zooey". Learning moment for me. I think it's time to put Zooey Deschanel on the clue map. She's everywhere now.
131. Support girder : I-BAR
132. Yes-Bob link : SIREE
133. Italian peak : ETNA. In Sicily.
134. Pre-deal round : ANTES
135. Silent yeses : NODS
136. Comes out with : SAYS
137. Retinal cells : RODS
Down:
1. Intimidates : COWS
3. Old Sicilian coin : LIRA
4. Hard-to-win game : LOTTERY. Our neighbor Dwayne won $100K some time ago. Now he lost his house.
5. Like net income : AFTER TAX
6. __-di-dah : LAH
7. Club charges : DUES
8. Angels' div. : AL WEST. Pujols is heating up.
9. On-target : APT
10. Best-seller list datum : TITLE
11. Juicy gourd : MELON. I love seedless mini watermelons. You? I wish I could grow them in MN.
12. Raises : ERECTS
13. Plead with : IMPLORE
14. "O patria __": "Aida" aria : MIA
16. Thames school : ETON
17. Kent's Smallville sweetie : LANG (Lana)
20. It's periodically rung out : THE OLD. [Deskpalm!]
24. "The Kingfish" Long of early 20th-century politics : HUEY (Long). For Haltool. I thought his nickname is "The King" due to "All the King's Men".
25. __ tube : INNER
30. Circle piece : ARC
35. Sympathetic sorrow : PITY
36. Farmer Al __: Paul Terry toon : FALFA. Did you nail this, eddyB? I drew a blank.
38. Boiling : IRATE
40. Check for fit : TRY ON
41. Burn the surface of : SEAR
43. Hoodwinked : TAKEN
44. Schnozzola : SNOOT
48. Prefix with fauna : AVI
49. Quarterback Hasselbeck : MATT. For the Titans.
52. Pin money source : ODD JOB
53. Furry sci-fi creature : EWOK. "Star Wars".
55. Gossip page pair : ITEM
56. Colleague of Trotsky : LENIN. "Colleague" struck me as funny. I guess I'm used to the "Comrade" address.
61. Turkic flatbread : NAN
62. Hot dog topping : CHILI. Recipe for disaster.
63. Do some cobbling on : RESOLE
66. Cheerios : TA TAS
69. Dust speck : MOTE
71. Band with the 2010 album "Infestation" : RATT. Very helpful clue.
73. Wetland : FEN
74. St. Louis's __ Bridge : EADS. Named after its designer Eads.
76. Catch some z's : SLEEP
77. Utah's __ Mountains : UINTA. I can never remember this name.
79. P.O. deliveries : LTRS
81. Coloring cosmetic : ROUGE
83. Evans's news partner : NOVAK (Bob). Heavily involved in the Valerie Plame leak scandal.
84. Nitrous __ : OXIDE
85. Drop remover : WIPER
88. China's Sun __-sen : YAT. Chiang Kai-shek succeeded him. They were brothers-in-laws.
89. Forks in the road : WYES
90. Have on : WEAR
93. Assess : RATE
96. Neutralizes, as a bomb : DISABLES
99. Shipping routes : SEAWAYS
101. Hidden : PERDU. I thought it's "Lost" due to English translation of Proust's "A la Recherche du temps perdu".
102. Rude looks : STARES
104. Moped's cousin : SCOOTER
106. Rhody the Ram's sch. : URI (University of Rhode Island)
107. Brightly colored perch : REDFIN. OK, makes sense.
109. Court activity : TENNIS. Not judge's court.
110. Fruit with a wrinkly rind : UGLI. Quite juicy and sweet.
112. __-Croatian : SERBO
113. Traction aid : TREAD
116. Mideast strip : GAZA
117. Tar Heel State university : ELON. I bet Jayce has a better & topical clue for ELON.
120. Another, in Ávila : OTRA
122. Bart and Lisa's bus driver : OTTO. "The Simpsons".
123. Await judgment : PEND
124. Ladies in Mex. : SRAS
126. Half a bray : HEE. Hee-haw.
128. PT separators : QRS. Man, alphabet. P Q R S T.
129. Enchanted : FEY. JFK once described Jackie's style as "fey". That's how I learned this meaning.
Answer grid.
C.C.
28 comments:
Morning, all!
I got the theme at TOWN CRITTERS and it helped immensely with the rest of the grid knowing that all the theme answers had double T's in them somewhere. Fun puzzle overall!
I almost crashed and burned at the crossing of ARENDT and ODD JOB. I had no idea about the former, and was thinking the latter was a place where pin money was stored and had ___JAR for awhile. For a bit I even had ODD JAR and was a little mystified...
Elsewhere, I wanted NYU at 86A, especially since I had SNORE for 76D. LIU was a complete unknown and just looked wrong to me when the perps finally revealed it.
I also learned that PERDU means "hidden" and not "lost." Sometimes, knowing a little Latin and/or Spanish works against you, since I knew that Perditus/Perdido means lost and assumed it was based on the same root.
Alan PATON was another complete unknown, but the perps made short work of him. Ditto for ZOOEY. I had no idea that RATT was still around.
Guessed FALFA just because it was so punny.
I really, really wanted DISARMS or DEFUSES for 96D. DISABLES just seems too generic for a bomb.
Here in Taiwan, Sun yat-san is known as "Sun Zhong Shan" and Chiang Kai-shek is known as "Chiang Zhong Zheng" and every city has a street named after either one.
I've been sitting on that all day! I get the puzzle in the Tapei Times. One of two English dailies here. While you are enjoying your evening, my day is just starting!
Love the blog!
Cheers.
James
Good Morning, C.C. and friends. Interesting puzzle. I liked the theme. I caught on to the TTs theme with Tinkerbell's Blabbing = FAIRY TATTLES.
I inherited my grandfather's Victrola and and all his records. Ma, He's Making Eyes AT ME is one of those Victrola songs I have.
I thought of Christina Crawford's book Mommy, DEAREST when I came to 111-Across.
HUEY Long was assassinated in the Capitol building. People still go there to see the bullet hole in the wall.
My sister graduated from URI, so Rhody the Ram was a gimme.
For some reason, I knew about Hannah ARENDT. She taught at the University of Chicago many years ago.
In honor of her, here is today's QOD: Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom. ~ Hannah Arendt
So James, is this, Baroqing Bad(3:52), your own composition?
I turn to Eydie Gorme for Ma, (he's making eyes at me).(3:07)
Not too hard, a few smiles for the punny parts. Shouldn't 101D have been something like "Hidden in Lyons"? After all, we often see things like "House in Madrid" for such commonly known Spanish words as "casa". "Perdu" is surely less commonly used in English than "casa".
Argyle - yes, it is. I hope you didn't wince too hard :p Along with my sad attempt at video editing. The other two are mine as well. I think they are better, more refined. My wife thinks otherwise.
Not that it helped me but I caught the theme at worth the whittle. Still a little sleepy took me time and perps to figure out the other common phrases for the theme answers. I knew 86a had to be LIU (long island University) as there are very few multi campused schools in NY with a campus in Brooklyn and have 3 letter initials. well time to make the coffee its going to be a long day.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Joel LaFargue, for a great puzzle. Thank you, as well, C.C., for a great review.
Sitting in a hotel in Lynchburg, VA, working the puzzle in the breakfast area. Two of my sisters and my oldest daughter wanted to do it as well, so I had the desk print three for them from the Chicago Trib site. We all jumped in together. I won.
Got started in the NE with CALL, OHIO, LIRA, LOTTERY, etc.
Theme appeared with WORTH THE WHITTLE. Very clever. That really helped with the rest of the puzzle.
SERBO-Croatian was easy. Our former Governor from Illinois just went to prison, and he was Croatian. Milorod Blagoyevich.
Did not know NOVAK for 83D. Perps to the rescue.
7D was easy. DUES. I pay more Dues than Carter has Liver Pills.
Meanwhile, off to the funeral in a couple hours.
Heading home tomorrow morning, early.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Sundays take a while but are a real event! Wonderful puzzle Joel, in its cleverness and escape hatches for tough answers. Using the theme and the Farmer answer, I thought of - Alfalfa fight – HAYBATTLE. I know, keep my day job!
Musings
-Duke isn’t royalty or a Blue Devil, perch is not a roost, Jupiter is not a planet, an EWOK is not an ELOI, my billfold seems to be PERDU this morning
-Our Italian tour had a Greek gentleman whose BO had nothing to do with Ohio.
-I’m still working on mistake/FAULT (an error and the blame for it? BTW, here it’s always my FAULT).
-My mid life crisis was a MIATA. Not practical or worth it. In the end, they’re all just tin and rubber.
-Statue posing myth
-This is how I was taught ENTROPY
-Every APR I always wonder, “Is sending more money to D.C. the answer?”
-No song with the word FETID (2:45) in it? Not so fast, my friend. The word is at 1:20.
-Carl Perkins wrote and recorded Blue Suede Shoes before Elvis but…
-Milk from COWS in the pasture must be PASTEURized.
-Somebody might mention there were melons and tatas in the puzzle. But not me!
-I’ve never asked for Nitrous Oxide in the dentist’s chair but I’m thinkin’ about it.
-James can actually say, “Maybe I’ll see you yesterday!”
Hahtoolah, re QOD, I heard a memorable sermon once about the prodigal son. Its message was that asking forgiveness is hard but granting it is harder. It is so wrong and counterproductive to carry righteous indignation forever. We are all flawed human beings.
Joann had an uncle who felt wronged on the equal distribution of assets after his parents died because he had taken care of mom and dad in their declining years. He held that grudge for 25 years and only tearfully recanted and made things right in the last months of his own life. He felt “freedom” after that “action”.
Solving this seems faint, but my dad didn't know UINTA either (remember, I'm 2 weeks in the future on Sundays), among other things. I stupidly had FEW for 129D, as in "enchanted few", which made that part a struggle.
Interestingly enough, 36A doesn't need the double T, if you parse it as FAIRY TALES(lies). And I say 89D could jolly well be WOES.
Update to Friday's post: I have seen Brave, which is FANTTASTTIC, and Monsters University will be enrolling summer 2013.
Good morning:
Great puzzle, Joel, and nice expo, CC. Could not for the life of me get 17D. Wanted Lane, or Lana, or Lani. But everything else fell into place.
Have a great Sunday.
,,,still my most favorite Zooey role: the homeless store clerk in "Elf". (duet with Farrell on "Baby it`s cold outside.")
Hello, C.C. and all cyber friends.
Sashayed then strutted through this one today. All those three LTR abbreviations make me crazy! Some I know, some I don't and others simply emerge. I had many FAULTS today, ALAN not ALDA and therefore no DUES and of course no idea about AL WEST.
Also, like Irish Miss, played with the L words, settled on LANA because TNG was unknown.
Pope LEO XI was a Medici, the corrupt family that hijacked the papacy in the Middle Ages. He was 70 when elected.
WORTH THE WHITTLE sitting over STATUE!
My FREQUENT FLI(TT)ER miles have afforded me numerous trips and I am sorry to see American Airlines now in trouble because they have been so good to me.
Thank you, C.C. for explaining PERDU. French still makes me stumble.
My granddaughters are still aSLEEP so it's quiet at the moment.
Fav clue today, farm spread, LEA, That's a new one.
Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!
"Pain Perdu", French for French toast. LOL
Well slap me upside the head, but I swear I pencilled in COCKERSUCKER for 108A before I realized it had to have a double T in it.
Hooray for ELON Musk, that daring, entrepreneurial, founder of Tesla Motors! That guy is busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.
Now I'll read your comments.
Hello everybody. Fun puzzle! I liked the double T gimmick, and the first one I solved was FAIRYTATTLES. What Barry G said about DISABLES. James, I remember the name 蔣中正 in huge characters on the side of a mountain just outside Taipei. This was way back in the early 60's when "retake the mainland" (fangong dalu) was the often-spoken motto among mainlanders in Taiwan. I imagine things are very very different now.
I just cannot not say that the whole Valerie Plame outing thing was despicable and disgusting. Revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative is a serious crime, and everybody who was involved in it is, in my mind, a despicable and cowardly criminal.
I'll be good now.
I do not know if it is week ends or advancing age, but I keep losing comments on Sunday.
An enjoyable solve, though I struggled with WORTH THE WHITTLE, as I know WORT WHILE, WORTH YOUR WHILE but not the one used.
A attorney friend who died recently went to college in ELON, and I do think of him every time.
James, interesting music and videos.
IRISH MISS, when the clue is a last name, then the answer will be as well.
The PGA tournament is in Cromwell
Connecticut on TV now.
Ciao
My "Natick" in this puzzle was the letter I crossing LIU and UINTA. I totally WAGged it and got lucky; otherwise it would have been a DNF.
Argyle, LOL about pain perdu indeed!
Yanno, I wonder how long it will be before, say, Arabic words and expressions become commonplace in crossword puzzles. I know I know, much French, Spanish, and German have been incorporated into English for hundreds of years, and therefore are, I suppose, fair game. Even so, sometimes I can't help buy say "Jeeez" to myself when some of the lesser-known ones show up.
Husker Gary, I loved your musings today more than usual. Thank you for them.
Best wishes to you all this fine Sunday.
Musings 2
-Thanks for the kind words, Jayce!
-Abejo, Illinois seems to have more crooks feeding at the public trough than “Carter has (liver) pills”. Haven’t heard that phrase since mom died.
-Huey Long would have fit right in
-Lucina, grandkids sleeping until 11 a.m.? They get up at 6:30 am here at Papa’s house expecting food and fun.
-The Medici’s bought and sold the papacy for a long time. The wearer of the “ring of the fisherman” is still just an old man selected by other old men.
-Tin, it looks like you are going to need NOAH down there! Put two of every type of scotch on the ark?
Lots of scrabble points in today's puzzle!
Could've used the clue "Bond foe" for 52 down as well as 119 across.
Took a while to associate Patty with Duke, she's been out of the limelight for a while now.
Melons? Ta Tas? Ye Ji hookers? Cocker Sucker? TGIS....
HG@1:49
Remember that your 11:00 A.M. is our 9:00 A.M
They stayed up quite late last night, indulgent Nana that I am.
Punny puzzle, informative write up. My head has a V8 can dent. I muffed this quick and easy puzzle with one wrong letter which I “shoulda” known. Dang nab it.
I saw Kent and Smallville and thought of old fashioned Lois LANE. That produced TNE for the Star Trek spinoff, which I figured I didn't know. TNG, The Next Generation. I knew that! ARRGH!
I knew MIATA, a dream car I fantasize about, but which is totally impractical. If I were rich, I would have one as my vanity car.
From 9A onward, "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me" played in my head for hours. Thanks for the Edye Gorme link.
PERDU is often spelled PERDUE and is an adjective referring to a hidden military assault corps. I nailed that one.
Ko in Japanese is a common diminutive ending for a girl’s name, similar to –ette, Annette, Yvette.
The theme answers were very clever.
Yellowrocks: Trying to enlarge your avatar, I noticed where you said you liked historical novels. If you can get past the definite Christianity bent, Gilbert Morris writes detailed Civil War and other period fiction. He has/had access to personal diaries and letters which gave great insight to the great generals and battles of the war...while writing compelling stories. I`m reading the last of the triology "The Last Cavaliers"...but I keep the cover hidden. It`s called "Surrender" and has a winsome beauty on the cover. Looks like a "bodice ripper" and I don`t care for such.
Here is a partial list of his works
Fun puzzle, great commentary.
Got all the theme answers today except two:
108a where I put muTTERSUCKER. I still don't like WYES for that clue. How in the heck are flight units "STEPS". Didn't help that I put in RATz.
Also hung up on 78D where I got the BUTTSD. Never would I have come up with ALPHA, especially since I put in GiZA, although I knew better.
I should google it but didn't PERDU have something to do with harems and coverings for Muslim women? That's what I thought of when the word appeared.
Went to the movie about Dr.NO on my honeymoon.
Al FALFA was a given for a farmer.
Fun day yesterday! No puzzle. Went to a reunion of my parents' descendants. 39 out a possible 48, including spouses. My brother has a beautiful flower bedecked yard with a nice sized pool and lovely home equipped for entertaining.
All 16 of the youngest generation, ranging from 14 years to 21 months, splashed in that pool until the place was very humid from all the cannonballs and belly flops. Hot, but bearable. It was the first time that many of the youngest generation was present.
My niece's family who are economic missionaries to India were there. Very interesting saintly people. Hadn't seen them for five years.
My niece said she gathered a group of native women to work in the textiles craft shop she started. She passed a paper and asked them all to write their names on it. She was absolutely floored when none of them could write. Little white girl from an affluent U.S.A. neighborhood had a major culture shock. But she has persisted and they now have an income for people who had none.
Greetings!
Very nice puzzle, Joel; fine expo, CC.
Favorite answer: NOAH. Maybe because it was obvious and very funny.
I have been suffering from scary tingling sensation all over the place. Anyone have that problem?
Was reading Mary Daheim's latest Emma Lord mystery, The Alpine Winter. Very difficult to put down. The best yet? I hope the series does not end with "W."
Cheers!
Anonymous @ 4:35 Thanks for suggesting Gilbert Morris. Civil War historical novels are one of my favorite genera.
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