Words: 72
Blocks: 34
I have to admit, I turned on red-letter assistance for today's Silkie - I usually do OK with Friday, the 13th - it's Saturday, the 14th that always "gets me" - known as tetradekaphobia; OK, I am making this up, but there is such a thing as tetraphobia, and quite common in Asian (4D.) countries. (C.C., do you have a fear of the number 4?). (From C.C.: 4 has similiar pronunciation as "death" in Chinese, 14 is similiar to "Going to die", hence Chinese do not pick a wedding date on 4th or 14th. Big hotels do not have 14th floor. When I buy apples/pears, I never pick up 4. Always 3 or 5.) Tough way to start this one, but I was able to fix my mistakes on the first pass. Lots of Chicago references*, too....
One 15-letter spanner:
39A. 1960s music phenomenon : BRITISH INVASION - Grew up with English parents, and I remember they had a 4-LP box set of the popular tunes, including this one
and two 11-letter entries:
23A. Justin Timberlake nickname : PRINCE OF POP - I like his solo stuff, including this one; probably have to skip an ad first
47A. "Casino" Best Actress nominee : SHARON STONE - I have linked the "other" scene she was famous for once before
OnwarD~! (10pts)
ACROSS:
1. Rakes : CASANOVAS - all the way down in the online dictionary: rake(2) a dissolute man, esp one in fashionable society; roué
10. Speedy : RAPID
15.* Chicago university founded in 1945 : ROOSEVELT - had enough perps to WAG this one
16. Participate in a secret joint venture? : ELOPE - had the 'goalpost' "E"s, and got it
17. Bag material : ALLIGATOR - this was a V-8 moment for me, then it made me guess incorrectly at half the crossings
18. Orange __ : PEKOE
19. Prefix meaning "beyond" : META - Greek, like the "phobia" I made up
20. Comfort, say : AID
22. Marked simply : X'ed
28. ER workers : RNs
30. SALT topic : ABM - Anti-Ballistic Missile, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
31. Tank top : GAS CAP - well, I knew it couldn't be "TURRET", same clue/answer we had not too long ago; this was a great alternative
33. Party at the shore : CLAMBAKE
38. Sixth-century pope : JOHN I - I tried "LEO VI" to start, then changed to LEO XI - only my "I" stayed
41. "Alice" star : LAVIN - Linda, the main character
42. Tourist information center handouts : AREA MAPS
43. Heavy weight : ONE TON
45. Fjord cousin : RIA - nailed it, but went too far and spelled it RYA
46. Cal. units : WKs - 7-day periods of a calendar
54.* Windy City travel org. : CTA - I am figuring the Chicago Transit Authority
56. Japanese veggie : UDO - not very appealing - image
57. A part of : IN ON
58. Ruth's mother-in-law : NAOMI - Biblical reference; the "AO" connection seemed wrong, then add to that the fact that I had another "A" from "ALI" as the flame lighter; see 59D.
60. Trademarked name for epinephrine : ADRENALIN - had about 4 letters and totally WAGed this one; sounded good to me
64. Stickpin target : ASCOT
65. Popular pie topper : PEPPERONI - DAH~!!! I was locked into dessert pie, not pizza
66. Gordon __: "Wall Street" role : GEKKO - played by Michael Douglas, who starred with Sharon Stone in that "other" movie
67. Campers' tools : TOMAHAWKS - my first try was --AX, so I filled in ESSEX for 53D.
DOWN:
1. Writer's problem : CRAMP - not BLOCK
2. Many an online shopper : AOLer
3.* Longtime Chicago Symphony leader : SOLTI (Georg)
4. Cuisine category : ASIAN
5. Pic source : NEG - I tried JPG after getting my ALLIGATOR
6. Tiny tube travelers : OVA
7. Old Philly stadium, with "The" : VET - Veterans Stadium, and the Wiki
8. "Half __ ..." : A LOAF - an idiom; it's better than 'none'
9. Remove : STRIP - had SCRAP here, as in 'ideas' or 'missions'; I like this answer better - skip the POKER CHIPS and....
10. Workout unit : REP
11. Familiar game show address : ALEX - "I'll take Barry Silk clues for $1200, Alex" - Mr. Trebek, of Jeopardy fame
12. It's often seen in a stack : POKER CHIP
13. Apple products : iPOD NANOs - full answer, unique
14. Two-point Scrabble tile : DEE - filled in "-EE" and waited....actually, it can only be "D" and "G" - "B", "C", and "P" are all 3-points; see here
21. Ball game treat : DOG - Hot Dog, which I figured
24. Spanish roads : CAMINOS - oh, so now I understand this car - cute history
25. Drops off : EBBS
26. College World Series setting : OMAHA
27. Bed threads : PAJAMAS - nice, it rhymes
29. Quick trip : SPIN
32.* 1998 N.L. MVP : SOSA - anything to add, C.C.? (Not really!!!)
33. Engine block component : CRANKCASE - got it from the "A" in LAVIN alone - but then again, there aren't many parts to an engine block
34. County fair sight : LIVESTOCK
35. Fighting : AT IT
36. White wine apéritif : KIR - learned by doing crosswords; now it's my "go-to" answer for apéritif clues
37. "1" in Spain, perhaps : ENERO - also crossword knowledge for me; January on the calendar
39. Leave, in slang : BLOW - "let's BLOW this joint"
40. Fruitless : VAIN
44. Vietnam's Ngo Dinh __ : NHU - for those interested, this guy
48. Conform : ADAPT
49. Clown's employer : RODEO - looks painful - image
50. Item of royal attire : TIARA
51. Just about off : ON LOW - ah, like the stove or toaster oven
52. Printer problem : NO INK
53. County seat of County Clare : ENNIS - Ah, not Essex, but I was close; map; in the middle
55. Without restraint : AMOK
58. Noodge : NAG - new word for me; variation on nudge, says my online dictionary
59. Nagano Olympic flame lighter : ITO - strangely, Google goes to that "other" blog site when I typed this in. Midori Ito - this entry was 6 slots down the page
61. Washing machine meas. : RPM - sure, but doesn't the machine swish back and forth? Oh, OK, the spin cycle does get going pretty good....
62. MPG determiner : EPA - Miles per Gallon, tested by the Environmental Protection Agency
63. Bk. after Ezra : NEH - I finally bookmarked a page that links the KJV names, so I can "cheat" in the future
Answer grid.
Splynter
39 comments:
Morning, all!
Man, I started out thinking I was on Mr. Silk's wavelength when I dropped in ELOPE with no hesitation, but that was pretty much the only thing that was easy about this puzzle.
I was so sure that 31A was TURRET and it took me a long time to finally remove it and put in GAS CAP instead. I was also convinced that 38A would be one of the many LEOs (LEO II, LEO IV, LEO VI, LEO IX, etc.)
I almost gave up in the NW since I didn't know the name of any Chicago universities, didn't know the name (let alone nickname) of any Phillie stadia, had no idea what Justin Timberlake's nickname was, figured "tiny tube travelers" had to end in an S, etc. It didn't help that I had BLOCK for 1D, CAM(era) for 5D and ARRAU for 3D. I finally made some semi-educated guesses (PRINCE OF POP sounded like a reasonable nickname and why not have a university named after President ROOSEVELT?) and got the job done up there.
Sadly, I turfed it on the crossing on NHU and UDO. NHU? Really? I should have remembered UDO, but NHU looked so bizarre that I went with NHO/ODO instead and didn't get the *tada* when I finally filled in the NW corner as a result.
Ah well...
Oofta!!! I figured this must be a Saturday Silkie. After the first pass my grid was awash in white space. Little by little it came together, as it usually does with a Silkie offering.
Splynter, I thought your Scrabble-scored "Onward" was cute.
I fell into that same LEO and TURRET trap, and that slowed things down. I also started with ERG for unit of work before REP finally appeared. But the natick cross of NHU/UDO did me in. Like Barry, I WAGged an O. Since I do the puzzle with pen and paper, there is no "tada" -- just DNF. (Sob!)
A silky smooth Silkie today. No lookups and a fairly rapid solve. The SW gave me my start. The 4 quick acrosses in that corner gave me CASE and TOCK, leading to CRANKCASE and LIVESTOCK which led to CLAMBAKE and BRITISHINVASION. CRAMP was the key to the NW.
I had ERG until I realized it was workout unit, not work unit. Then REP was easy, leading to PEKOE.
I looked for dessert pie topping until I had the RONI cross D'oh.
NHU is hard to spell, but I remembered UDO from class and from restaurant menus.
I worried about ADRENALIN as a brand because it looks so much like adrenaline. IMHO, the brand is poorly named and could lead to confusion.
Splynter, the Japanese have the same feeling about the number 4 and its connection with death. Sets of cups, etc. made for local consumption always have 3 or 5, not 4. If you find 4, the item is made for tourists.
Good music links, Splynter.
Never heard of noodge. Knew adrenalin because I used to sell it. I thought tomahawk was a stone hatchet used by Indians, not campers. Other than that, finished it on the second pass after googling for Solti and Ngo dinh Nhu. And yes, I remember Sharon Stone's first famous scene without her panties on.
Hello Puzzlers -
Technical DNF and WBS today.
That NW corner was spotty until I gave up and Googled ROOSEVELT. Never heard of the place. And that Vietnamese name? Impossible.
I'm struggling with the notion that ADRENALIN is trademarked. I thought it was a science term.
(Silk X Saturday) + Obscurity = Difficulty.
I had a great deal of fun with this Silkie, though my first pass yielded few answers. I finally got going in the SE with SHARON STONE, ADRENALIN (the brand used when I needed help after bee stings) and PEPPERONI opened things up. I then worked backwards finishing in the NW. My new strategy with Barry's puzzle is to not fill in anything unless I feel 100% so I left out TURRET and the other deceptions, and finished in a reasonable time. It is Bastille Day once again.
The sun shines, so I am off
Hand up for thinking writer’s “block” before CRAMP at 1D. I wanted “cam” instead of NEG as a pic source, and “free” MAPS before AREA MAPS. …then at 65A, hand up for being locked into thinking about a dessert pie before a pizza pie.
Lemonade, I think your strategy is a wise one. But if I tried that with every Saturday silky, my puzzle would look like the next five lines of this post:
Happy Bastille Day, everyone!
This was one of the harder Sat puzzles. I'm from and live in Chicago, so I got ROOSEVELT,SOSA,CTA, & SOLTI quickly. BRITISH INVASION also came easily... so I was off to a good start, but stumbled on a number of others. Lots of Chicago themes today.
Adrenalin is a brand name of adrenaline.
Good morning Splynter, CC, et al., Excellent write up with good links. Thank you. That 49D RODEO clown is in big trouble but he isn’t dressed like the clowns I’m familiar with at Rodeos. Freckles Brown was always a favorite funny clown in OK. Regardless of dress, they have nerves of steel.
Besides being Sat, as soon as I saw Barry Silk’s name I knew this was going to be a challenge. Forget a foothold. I couldn’t get a toehold until the far east (ASIAN) side.
16A’s ‘secret joint’ made me think of inhaling, esp next to ‘Orange’as in County? And in the same puzzle as BLOW, CLAM BAKE and AMOK? “Let’s BLOW this joint” takes on a whole new dimension. Party on! Dennis’ FL business venture came to mind with 35D ATIT. I’m sure the Boob & Lube ? is doing quite well in his capable and experienced hands. I’d bet a few POKER CHIPs on it. Other favorites were 31A tank top…GAS CAP..very cute and the word NOODGE. Love that one!
Enjoy your day.
Good morning:
This started out smoothly enough as casanovas and alligator just jumped out at me. What I thought was going to be a walk in the park ended up being a slog through the mud.
Went astray with turret, and block for cramp. Couldn't get adrenalin even though I had most of the fill; needed red letter help to finish. Thanks, Barry, for your usual headache-inducing mind boggler, and thanks, Splynter, for your usual soothing expo!
Just got back from the Farmer's Market; bought some great looking corn, wax beans, tomatoes and fresh Long Island littleneck clams and sea scallops. (Scallops were $20.00 per pound so I hope they are good.)
Happy Saturday to all.
Good morning everyone.
The CW seemed a little harder than ususal for a Silkie - had to use red letter assist in the NW. WAGs included CAMINOS, ROOSEVELT, ENNIS and CLAMBAKE. Liked the cluing for GAS CAP, POKER CHIP and ENERO. New word learned is 'noodge'. (My spell checker is having spasms.) Really don't like AOLER - Like dragging your fingernails over a chalkboard. The life of CASANOVA was featured in a recent Smithsonian issue - A very interesting life. Died in Dux? castle near Prague.
Today is Bastille Day.
Adieu à tout le monde.
This is really interesting. I normally don't like themeless puzzles and the ones on Saturday are too hard for me to enjoy. But in spite of Splynter's and others' experiences, I managed to solve most of this one unaided.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you (once again), Barry Silk for a good, but tough puzzle. Thank you, too, Splynter for the great review.
This puzzle beat me up. My first pass through yielded only a few words. Got NAOMI right off the bat. Then CTA, and AMOK.
PEPPERONI came easily.
All those got me started on th South.
PEKOE came easily since I am a tea drinker. ELOPE and XED helped in the NE.
What goofed me up in the NW was 6D. I had IVS. OVA came a long time later. That corner was where I finished.
Family reunion today in Edinboro, PA, just outside of Erie.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Irish Miss, we just had scallops last night - they were delicious! You really don't need to do a lot to them, just pat dry, rub with olive oil, sprinkle kosher salt and freshly ground pepper on them. I threaded two skewers (soaked in water first) through them to make it easier to flip. Cooked 2 min one side, until there were grill marks, flipped them over for another couple minutes. Then I just finished them with a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar. Delish!!
First Time Commenter here, so ANON for now.
I have to comment. This puzzle drove me META crazy. I had to ADAPT to what seemed to be some real stretches. A LOAF ?
What a day to choose to do at the Master level. No Red Letter help, and no searches, but it took me an hour and 49 minutes to get through it. I also choose not to fill until I can prove or am highly confident of the answer. So OVA and VET proved ROOSEVELT, which I believe is one of the City Colleges of Chicago here. That made CRAMP inevitable. CASANOVA became a must with ASIAN, but I didn't know why. SE corner was toughest but I wasn't about to stop until I got my just dessert. Little did I know it would be PEPPERONI.
This was one tough RODEO. Great puzzle and great write up !
I remembered why I think of them as the "dreaded" Silkies this morning. All I got on my first round was NAOMI--thanks to all that Bible training in parochial school. All my other reasonable guesses (BLOCK, TURRET, LEO VI, ERG, etc.) didn't work, of course. I was afraid to put in half (A LOAF), which, of course, turned out to be right. And so on, and so on. So this took tons of cheating to finish.
I should have gotten CAMINOS since California has the 'El Camino Real."
My mom and I spent a month in County Clare, Ireland, once, many years ago, but we never visited ENNIS.
Also, I should have gotten ALEX since my husband and I are huge Jeopardy fans. Is he out of the hospital yet, and will he be out before the pre-taped shows run out? It's almost impossible to imagine anybody else as the host.
Well, even though this was pretty much of a bust for me, the clues and answers were interesting enough to salvage this Saturday morning.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Hello everybody. Pretty much WEES. Very hard puzzle for me. Hand up for NHO/ODO. Went and penciled in TURRET and then had to take it out. Never did get the SW corner, ending up with TOTEPACKS at the bottom and nonsense for the downs that cross it. Didn't understand ONLOW until reading your comments, Splynter. Man, you're brave to blog on Saturdays.
Wanted WHIPCREAM for pie topping, which also contributed to my downfall in the SW, even though I did finally get PEPPERONI.
The only gimmes were SOLTI, SHARONSTONE, ELOPE, LAVIN, KIR, and GEKKO. Everything else was a struggle.
Mr. Silk, thank you for giving me 90 minutes of pleasure this fine morning.
Good day, Splynter, and weekend warriors.
WEES. Knowing SHARON STONE, NAOMI, LAVIN, and GECKO helped me to sashay through the center, SW and then NE, the NW and SE beat me up badly.
I just cannot accept pizza as a pie and yet I hear it often, so my quest, like Splynter's, was for dessert and it yielded nada.
Finally I googled ROOSEVELT, knew SOLTI and perped all the rest. I thought ALLIGATOR was especially obscure but managed it.
One of several Naticks was NHU/UDO which I guessed wrongly as NHO/ODO.
Then TRAIN instead of TIARA further confused the bottom although ENNIS was a pure guess but maybe I've seen that before. I flirted with ADRENALIN at 60A but that did not seem likely to me. Finally I came here with a few blank cells. Thank you, Splynter.
i thought GAS CAP and ASCOT were clued amusingly as were OVA and PAJAMAS. Bed threads, LOL Mine are sometimes threadbare.
Thank you, Barry Silk and Splynter for a challenging but fun time.
Have a great Saturday, everyone! Wonder if it will rain again. It has been a treat for the parched desert for three days!
whew!
I found another really enjoyable flash mob; this one in Russia. Dunno why but I really love Flash mobs. Click on the box in the lower-right corner to make it full screen.
HeartRx @11:17 ~ Sounds delicious! I don't have a grill so I will probably pan-sear them. I like a spritz of lemon, too. Did you pay as much for yours as I did for mine?
Could you suggest a good balsamic vinegar brand?
Bill G:
Flash mobs are fun to watch! Thanks. I have a friend whose daughter loves to participate in them and I've seen three in which she appears including one in Spain where she lived for a semester of study.
The. Best. Flash. Mob. EVER.
You should find something else to call these things, like performance art. They are not true flash mob.
The performance was scripted, carefully orchestrated, rehearsed and with a film crew that would rival a small film studio. I wonder if the onlookers are really just extras. They must have had permission and permits.
A stage show without a stage.
And yes, I am a cynic and a curmudgeon.
First Time Poster (again) coming through as anonymous. I will create a google account anon. I think that's what I need to do so I don't come through as anonymous...
I'd posted earlier that I thought that Roosevelt might be one of the City Colleges of Chicago. It is not one of the seven. I've lived here (western burbs) 25 years and should have known that.
The comments about Tank Top... I initially and repeatedly thought about the article of clothing, and then finally thought of the armored weapon. So when GAS CAP revealed, I thought it quite the stretch, but that's the joy of puzzles. For me anyway.
Back to cleaning the coils under the refrigerator. My GSD is BLOWing his coat again. I think he must have itchy skin as well, given all of the scratching. Could vacuum every day, but he's worth it.
Dear curmudgeonly Argyle:
I didn't invent the name obviously; I wonder who did? But I do use it 'cause that's what everyone else calls it and understands it to mean. But I see your point. It doesn't keep me from enjoying the performance art though. I don't know why but I find, as it's building, it to be very enjoyable and even emotional.
The ones I don't like are the videos of street magicians like Chris Angel. Some/all of his audience members are clearly shills and he can edit the video anyway he chooses to. Give me a close-up magician any day who can make cards and coins dance to his tune so skillfully that I understand what must be going on but I still can't catch him at it.
BiilG,
I've heard that when performance artist are involved it is called a "smart mob". I still love term flash mob and wish it would happen around me once in my life. The spectators look exhilarated, I think it appeal to us because it demonstrate the unity of the human experience for one brief moment. My favorite was the Christmas food court flash mob while people around them stopped shopping to be brought back to the spiritual meaning of the season.
Irish Miss, we paid $16/lb.
Anon @ 1:54, don't buy the stuff in the grocery store. Those are usually just colored with caramel and sweetened with sugar. Look for a good, Italian balsamic vinegar from the Emilia-Romana region that has been aged more than 15 years. It should be almost like syrup. I usually pick some up whenever I am over in Austria or Germany - the brands that would cost $50 or more here in the states are only 10-15 Euro over there!
Bill G., "flash mob", "performance art" or whatever, it was a great video of lots of young people having fun doing what they do best - dancing for the sheer joy of it!! (I have a feeling that the father of the bride paid for it, though...)
My comments were lost to cyberspace somehow.
Saturday Silkies usually leaves me in the dust, but today I got 16 fills the first pass-thru and slogged the rest.
Docs call for adrenalin or epinephrine...which ever comes to mind first in an emergency situation. Nurse probably already has it in her hand.
I don't have trouble with the Bible books. My children had to learn the 66 books, in order, in 4th grade Sunday School. Mom (me) memorized them while testing on the way to church.
We have red squirrels in Kansas. After I read your comments yesterday, I wondered if it is gray squirrel causing all the damage. I have never had wiring, flowers, etc. bothered here. They do eat birdseed if you don't put corn out for them.
Noticed I forgot the "s" on appeals and demonstrates in prior comments. Husband needed me outside.
For those of us who seldom go to Europe and can only afford $15 a bottle for balsamic vinegar what do you recommend?
I did a quick look through to see what jumped out first. That would be BRITISH INVASION. Man, I loved those Beatles!
Most of the rest of it sucked. GASCAP- seriously?
PEPPERONI got a head slap and a duh. The rest was a comedy of errors but if I had paid for this I would get my money's worth for the amout of time it took. (Kind of like my golf games).
Just home from OMAHA, site of the College World Series in June, did the puzzle and am just stopping in to say hello and let you know the heat hasn’t gotten us yet. I did see tOMAHAwk twice.
We ate at Joe’s Crab Shack and I have to learn a faster/better way to extract the meat from those claws. Any advice?
Hey Gary,
We've got a Joe's Crab Shack locally. I wonder if it's the same organization? It is hard to get the crab out. We sometimes get large crab legs at Costco. The large ones are easier to manage with a simple nutcracker and kitchen scissors.
Marti, I thought whoever choreographed the dancing in "Puttin' on the Ritz" performance did a brilliant job. It was fun to watch and much more enjoyable than lots of the popular hip-hop moves these days. But then I'm such a fogy...
A couple of weeks ago, I commented that a great fill for "Tank Top" would have been GASCAP instead of TURRET. That'll teach me. Today I saw the clue and immediately filled TURRET. Recovered eventually. GECKO was an aha! ... almost, later fixed thanks to the perp.
I had most of the same experiences evryone has already commented on, so I won't. A really enjoyable Saturday.
I did get a little help, however; I was out shopping for a new car for the little woman today, and the salesman had a faint Philly-area accent, so I asked him about old Philadelphia stadia. "Oh, you mean the Vet?" Bingo! With that, everything eventually fell, and I felt so good that we drove home in her new Prius v. It will share the garage with my older Prius II; hoping maybe they'll breed.
Why no further discussion of 10-D "REP" as answer to the clue "workout unit." That's short for "repetition," no? So, shouldn't the clue have been "brief workout unit" or "workout unit (abbr.)"? That's a foul.
I got sidetracked with "LAP" (but couldnt find a five-letter word for "speedy" beginning with L (10-A).
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