Words: 70
Blocks: 32
Lots of proper names*, and only six 3-letter words today, but enough clues where I found a foothold, and then gradually worked the puzzle from there. Very little in the way of vagueness, and just a couple of write-overs, for me, as well.
One 15-letter grid spanner;
36A. "Got it?" : DO YOU UNDERSTAND? - I had an inkling about where this was going; just had to wait on a few perps - forced me to change my shirt from a POLO to a "KNIT" (see 34D.)
and one 15-letter climber;
8D. Frustrated cry from an experienced pro : I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS - a five-word answer, (well, 6 technically), and like our Thursday "C", "E" and "T" puzzle, we had a run of 3 "O"s. Like Indiana Jones said in Raiders of the Lost Ark - "It's not the years, it's the mileage".
On w-a-r-d-s ~!!!
ACROSS:
1. Military motto, familiarly : SEMPER FIdelis, the US Marines
9. '90s-'00s Lifetime sitcom in which viewers chose the name of the title character : OH BABY - never heard of it, but easy enough to get; not a "Lifetime" person, you could say
16. Country estates : VILLAS - Not MANORS
17. Making with difficulty : EKING OUT - I tried winging this by filling in ------ING, but I was wrong
18. Slip away : ELAPSE
19. Chat up : COME ONTO - How come no women ever try to chat me up? - oh, that's right, I don't go to bars anymore....
20. Breakfast serving : RASHER - new word for me; had to look it up - both my parents are born and raised in England, but we always had BACON, never "rashers" - bangers and mash, that's different
21. That, to Teresa : ESO - Spanish
22. Many a S.A. miss : SRTA - and again - or is this Portuguese?
23. Adjective often used with skepticism : LIKELY - Tried RARELY first; turned out it was not LIKELY the answer
28. Do as expected : OBEY
30. 38-Down, e.g. : SCHool
33. Its production ended in 2004 with a Final 500 Edition : ALERO - Oldsmobile's last car
34.* "Around the Fish" artist : KLEE - Paul, with a little about the painting here
35. Time spent : STAY
39. Dismayed utterances : YOWs - not really a "dismayed" sound for me; more of a startled response
40. Baking instruction : SIFT
41. Mum : MATER - I am guessing that this is "Brit-speak" for mom - "mum" I get, but I had to look up Mater. If you ask me, Mater is this guy
42. Winter track maker : SKI
43. Pi opening? : OCTO - Ugh ( that's dismayed ) OCTOPI - more than one octopus. The "?" needed....
44. Oscar night sight : TUXEDO - not TROPHY
45. Staples array : TAPE - Strange - I tried PENS again, two weeks in a row. I was in Office Max a month ago - they DO have an array of pens to choose from, I must say
49. Opt for home cooking : DINE IN
51. Sin : TRESPASS - Growing up, I knew that I was not allowed to "trespass" on Selden campus property, but I never quite understood why GOD was unhappy about this....
57. Swatch Group products : OMEGAs - Watches - found here
58. Vote : HAVE A SAY
59. Undisturbed : IN SITU
60. What you might get from a jerk : ICE CREAM - Tried BACK ACHE, but we are looking for a soda jerk, a malted, and so on....
61. Flings : TOSSES
62. Reel from a shot : SEE STARS
DOWN:
1. What some build on : SPEC - this discussion came up earlier in the week
2. "The Heart of Northeast Nevada" : ELKO - More here
3. Do mayhem to : MAIM - meh on this
4.* In-your-face '50s-'60s talk show host Joe : PYNE
5. Hence : ERGO
6.* Longtime "60 Minutes" regular : ROONEY
7.* Hall of Fame Chargers quarterback Dan : FOUTS
9. Superintendent : OVERSEER - this week I have been the "overseer" of nine (9~!) cats, and they have spent most of the time hiding in the closet - I slept on the couch tonight, and caught them all coming down to eat late - Jack, Jill, Patch, Luna, Superstar, Ben, Mr. T, Tommy-boy and Tres~!
10.* Swank of Hollywood : HILARY
11. Siren sound : BLAST
12. Meditation goal : ALPHA STATE - I have a meditation group Wednesdays at 11am
13. General headquarters? : BASE - not sure about the "?"
14. Belgian river : YSER - four letters....
23. __ man : LADY'S
24. "__ to You": Whitney Houston's last album : I LOOK
25. Case maker : KEY WITNESS - I was looking for someone who "makes" cases; not this legal version of the person who takes the stand in court
26. Bow wielder of myth : EROS
27.* Journalist Dobbs : LOU
29. Root vegetable : BEET - huh - I WAGed this, and never looked back
31. Like rattan chairs : CANED
32. Plane opening? : HYDRO - Hydroplane, doesn't need the "?", I think
34. Golf shirt, e.g. : KNIT - not POLO
35. Pringles-like Lay's product : STAX
37. Decennial govt. activity : U.S. CENSUS - I knew this, but the "U.S." part messed me up
38. Home of the NCAA's Mustangs : SMU - Southern Methodist University team
43. Relaxant : OPIATE
44. Rabbit ears sporter, once : TEE-VEE - the long abbreviation for Television
46. Zeus' shield : AEGIS
48. Slight sign : TRACE
49. "Now!" : DO IT~!- Makes me think of AHHHnold in Predator
50. "__ expert, but ..." : "I'M NO..." - two answers with "I'm" in them
52. "Just a coupla __" : SECS
53. Split : PART - Irony is that today marks what would have been my 5-year wedding anniversary - but we did 53D three years ago....
54. Like Columbus, much of the time : ASEA
55. Moselle tributary : SAAR - those four-letter Euro rivers; map
56. R. Schumann wrote four : SYMS - as in Symphony? eh, OK - I checked to be sure here
Answer grid.
Splynter
51 comments:
Dang! I got as far as the bacon RASHER link and now I have to go out for some bacon and eggs.
Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.
Fun write-up, Splynter! I didn’t succumb to the RASHER temptation, so I am able to make my comments….
I was all over the place on this one, and had OCTa instead of OCTO at 43A. That left me with I’M***OLDFART*** at 8D. When I finally learned how to spell “octopus”, I’M TOO OLD FOR THIS finally appeared. So that was a bit of V8 moment fun…
Nice fill with OH BABY, COME ON TO and LADY’S man, but those led me to enter “trysts” at 61A when I saw the clue “Flings”. Aaargh, more eraser crumbs!!
I did not remember Joe PYNE or Dan FOUTS, but perps really helped out with those. The last to fall was MATER for “Mum”. I thought that was a really fresh clue instead of the usual “Alma ___”.
Have a great day, everyone!
Morning, all!
Wow, this was rough. In fact, I came really close to not finishing it at all...
Tough spots all over, like in the NE where OH BABY (never heard of it) and VILLAS (I had MANORS) caused me grief. And then there was PYNE (who?) and FOUTS (who?) in the NW. The cross-referenced SMU and SCH in the East gave me fits, and trying ASAP and then STAT instead of DOIT in the SW also slowed me down.
The second hardest spot was the SE, where I had TELLIE instead of TEEVEE and TINGE instead of TRACE. SAAR was a complete unknown, and I totally balked at putting in SYMS (even after I suspected that was what it was). I'm sure it's a valid abbreviation, but it just looks ugly to me.
The hardest section by far, however (and the part where I nearly gave up) was in the West. I had DO YOU UNDERSTAND, LOU and EROS and that was it. I eventually guessed SKI, but that didn't help much. I thought 39A might be D'OHS, but it wasn't. No idea what Whitney's last album was called. Finally, though, like a bolt out of the blue, I figured out KEY WITNESS and that opened everything up for me. I was able to get ALERO and YOW, which let me guess I LOOK and LADYS, and that was all she (or I, as the case may be) wrote!
Double dang! I like crisp bacon but that stuff was brittle; it hurt to eat it. I should have sent it back.
I should have known ..., that NE corner was nothing but trouble for me. No VILLAS in this part of the country. Most of the clues seemed a stretch to me.
What a mess! California/Arizona is just one big inkblot. It took a long time for STAT - ASAP - DOIT and EATSIN - DINEIN to appear. IN SITU and OPIATE were solid from the get-go, but everything else in that corner went through evolution.
Was AEGIS really the name of Zeus' shield? I always thought it was an unusual word for "under the protection" -- never would have guessed it's origin. But wait...aren't the Norse gods collectively the AESIR? Are the two words related?
I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS was my mantra a couple of weeks back, as I was schlepping household furnishings in the hot D.C. sun. For a time I wasn't sure I was going to make it.
Time to go pedal 10 miles on the old bicycle...
The theme for this puzzle should have been EKING OUT, which is what I had to do, bit by bit. My first entry was SEMPERFI, which made the NW corner easy, but that was just a COMEON. The rest was much more difficult. After last Sat. I was determined not to be beaten. I’m glad I stuck it out with no look ups.
I finally guessed DOYOU UNDERSTAND, which led to IMTOOOLDFORTHIS and moved me along more quickly.
I used to like Andy Rooney's musings.
Finding a country estate beginning with V took a while. OHBABY and FOUTS were the only totally new words for me.
RASHER seems to me to be one of those words frequently used in novels, but seldom heard in real life. I have often encountered MATER in British novels, but again, not in real life.
Well my 'Relaxant' is SCOTCH!
To many "?" for me complete.
But all-in-all a nice INK BLOT.
Cheers to all at Sunset.
Morning! Tough, tough outing today.
Hilary was they first fill, followed by obey. Wanted semper fi, but couldn't commit. Finally threw it in and I'm too old for this jumped out with only 2 perps in place. My only objection to that phrase is that the last word was left off.
Challenging, but doable. All you could ask for on a Saturday.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Victor Fleming, for a good puzzle, albeit tough. Thank you, Splynter, for the excellent write-up.
Wow! This puzzle brought me to my knees. Some parts easy, but some tough.
Got SEMPERFI, PLAYROOM, EKINGOUT, and COMEONTO in the NE fairly easily. The wholenthing went south after that.
Tries WOVEN for 31D. CANED came much later.
Had STU for 27D. LOU appeared after a great span of time.
Got OCTO for 43A with perps, but did not understand until I read the write-up. I was thinking of a Greek letter. That's what I get for thinking.
My real hangup was 20A RASHER and 13D BASE. Never heard of RASHER and why General headquarters?, with a question mark? Splynter had the same comment. I had everything but the "E" where the two crossed. I enter an E and the puzzle finished. I must have looked at that for a half hour trying to figure out RASHER. After I finished I pulled the dictionary off the shelf and, sure enough, RASHER is in there. I do like bacon.
Off to the rest of the day. Heading to Pennsylvania Thursday morning. Have a lot to do before then.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Hello Puzzlers -
This was another one of those puzzles that demonstrate how fatigue affects a solver's ability. Tried working on it during the wee hours - hopeless. Tried again after the sun came up - zoom zoom.
RASHER fell early. We munched up plenty in Dublin. The two grid spanners took time, but once firmed up, they sure helped out in the perp department.
I once read that "soda jerk" came from the need to jerk a soda fountain lever just right to get good results. Not sure whether I believe this. Soda fountains were largely passé by the time I had enough lawn mowing money to buy such treats.
Trial and error got Victor’s lovely puzzle done. Erasers are cheap (No to ESCAPE, TVSETS, RATHER, MANORS, IZOD, well you get the idea). It’s funny how one letter can unlock an entire section, e.g. I pulled STAX and RASHER out of my nether regions and voila, the east went down faster than my IRA two years ago.
Musings
-SEMPER FI, Dennis.
-Brother in law had to hurt himself badly twice in softball before he said 8 down.
-EKE in full bloom today
-LIKELY? Really?
-Artist’s name ending in EE? Hmmm…
-Of course MATER is voiced by Dan Whitney from Pawnee City, NE better known as Larry the Cable Guy. He is a big Husker supporter.
-Is OCTOPI 8 π?
-As a young Congregationalist, I was forgiving my debtors while my heathen Methodist cousin across the street was forgiving those who TRESPASS.
-I was looking for reeling _ _ _ _BACK from a shot (For every action…)
-I thought that Siren sound would be heard along the Rhine as long as we have two other European Rivers
-LADY’S man not YOU DA man
-OPIATE as a Relaxant seems tame to me (Morphine, Heroin). Tin’s scotch on the other hand…
Funny how puzzles work, as I found this the easiest Saturday in along while and better solvers than me, like Barry G., apparently struggled. Perhaps because I knew the proper names, I was able to unravel each quadrant. My youngest in town, so you all have a great day.
I first ran into the word RASHER in the mid-70's. I had taken up temporary residence in a Sheraton hotel, and their All American Breakfast consisted of two eggs (any style), toast, hash browns, and a rasher of bacon. According to Sheraton, a RASHER is two strips.
My first job at the age of 14 was working at the local drug store. Alas, my first task was to rip out the soda fountain and put together some shelving for that spot.
Husker, haven't you heard someone say, "That's a likely story" when they mean exactly the opposite? That's how I interpreted that clue.
Marti, loved your OLD FART fill.
No, I don't understand. I'm too old for this. Without Splynter's help I was ASEA.
Of all things, I got YSER and RASHER right away, along with SEMPER FI & MAIM & SRTA & CANED.
Then I got nothing else that didn't have to be erased such as 25d prosecutor. Then I jerked around and put "whiplash" at 60a. Frustrating since I dated a guy in high school whose parents owned a drug store with a fountain and I jerked a few sodas.
In my childhood church we forgave our "debtors".
Otto, my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I made that comment. I fully understand the LIKELY clue/answer but the word "Really?" has become the hallmark of skepticism recently. I just threw it out there and completely understand your comment :-). We had soda jerks in my youth and they lasted until they tore down the building. When I order bacon, I tell the waitress, “I want it hard as a brick!”
I’m off to raise 5 sprinkler heads that are behind growing bushes. The wind has gone to the north and it is very refreshing outside.
For those of you still puzzled by the "?" with General headquarters:
The general would find his headquarters on a military "BASE."
Happy Saturday!
I'm gettin too old for these hard crosswords!
I really enjoy lurking on this blog almost every day. Many smart and witty people here. I have gotten much better at solving since I make it a discipline to finish the LA Times puzzle every day before venturing out. By finishing I mean filling in all the squares, though some turn out to be wrong. I do use a pencil and eraser which I gather is not totally kosher. I see that many of you guys do it in pen, but then write over wrong answers. My question is what's the point in doing it in pen then?
Anon @ 10:59. Just as many of us DO use pencil. What ever melts your butter...
Just found this site. Thank you because this crossword drives me to distraction at times.
Well, Saturdays are just tough for me, although I did get a toehold on this one with HILARY, just about the only name I got. Slowly, slowly, about 3/4 filled in, though I had to cheat to finish the SE corner. But this was still so much better than that miserable puzzle last Saturday, that I'm thankful, Victor.
I tried 'merely' and 'barely' and never thought of LIKELY, which still strikes me as a bit off for this clue. The funniest mislead, to my mind, was the soda jerk.
Welcome, Billy K. I think you're going to like this blog and find it helpful.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Hi everyone:
I thought this was a tough go in a few areas. Had intact before in situ and eye witness before key witness. Finished w/o help but not very quickly. Good challenge, Victor, and lively expo, Splynter.
Went to a farm stand this morning for the first corn of the season. It was 65 cents an ear. (Why is there no cents symbol on my keyboard?). Anyway, I am an absolute corn freak so this better be good!
Happy Saturday!
Irish Miss -- I think the cents sign is missing because it's not worth anything anymore. But you can still post one if you turn on your number lock, and then hold [Alt] down as you type 0162 on the numeric keypad -- ¢.
Make cents?
Hello everybody. Darn good puzzle today. I got it all except one square. For some reason I knew RASHER, but wanted manors instead of VILLAS until OVERSEER showed up. The square I got wrong was the A in STAX. Because I interpreted "Mum" as "quiet" (and I almost actually pencilled quiet in there) I ended up entering MUTED for 41A. STuX looked fine to me, but HYDdO didn't look right. When the light bulb went on, I changed HYDdO to HYDRO, changing muted into muter. I simply shrugged, thought "that's sure ugly," and moved on.
Speaking of ugly, SYMS is.
HeartRx, love how you started out with OLD FART.
Like you, Argyle, the article on bacon really made me hungry. Now I understand why a person would crave and enjoy a bacon butty. The character Onslow on the British comedy "Keeping Up Appearances" often mentioned them, except it always sounded to me as if he was saying botty, not butty. My wife and I recently discovered an "uncured" bacon from Applewood that is pretty good. By the way, I like my bacon floppy.
I love love loved OCTOpi! For some reason I filled it correctly and almost immediately. Musta been on Messr. Fleming's and Norris's wavelength on that one. Or maybe a little pseudopod whispered it in my mind's ear.
Speaking of octopi, I love the word cephalopod, "head with feet." What an image! Come to think of it, are those talking M&M's on the TEEVEE commercials cephalopods? And remember those Fresno grapes, dancing to the song "Oh, I heard it on the grape vine..."? Methinks they were cephalopods, too.
I think my favorite word, nostril, has been superseded. Who could have prognostrilcated such an event?
Okay, gonna go see if we can buy British bacon anywhere around here. It sounds really good.
Best wishes to you all.
Jayce, that uncured bacon goes by the name "side pork" in real life. But I can imagine that may not have much commercial appeal, so I can't fault them for that.
The English bacon does sound good. Never heard of that even though I knew the term rasher
Avg Joe, thanks.
By the way, I always use pencil, not pen, when doing xword puzzles. I have one of those white draftsman erasers that works real well, erasing penciled entries without wiping out the newspaper ink.
Desper-Otto @ 12:03
Thanks for the info but I use my iPad to post. I'll have to check my laptop to see if it has the symbol. It's not important; I was just curious.
Aegis
According to Greek mythology, Aegis was the name of the shield carried by Zeus, as well as (more often) his daughter Athena. Some legends represent it as a garment of goatskin, or an armored breastplate. The gist of the legend, though, is that the Aegis is a protective device. Consequently, it has come to mean in standard English the protection or support of another.
To Julie:
I would have answered BASE much easier without the question mark. That was my point. The question mark after General headquarters really threw me off. Thank you for your explanation, however.
To All: I like my bacon crisp.
Abejo
Irish Miss - For ¢ on an IMac use option +4. Should work on an IPad. ¢¢¢¢¢¢¢
This just in from our household IPad maven: My better half.
¢ is typed by holding down the $ sign then sliding over to the ¢ sign when it pops up.
That holding down the $ sign then sliding over to the ¢ sign when it pops up also works on the iPhone. I just tried it. Thanks for the tip.
Hi everyone. Thank you for your recap Splynter!
This puzzle took me a looooong time to finish. But finally got it. I started off fine with SEMPER FI and FOUTS. That's one sports clue I always know. The year he was a rookie in San Diego, he stayed in my brother's spare room temporarily while he was looking for a place to live. When I came out to visit, I displaced him. That was in 1974.
Never heard of RASHER, OH BABY, PYNE, MATER and STAX. SYMS and SCH and two European rivers drew a "dismayed utterance" from me and it wasn't YOW!
On my MacBook, the ¢ symbol can be found under Edit/Special Characters/Currency Symbols.
Thanks, everyone, for the tip on the ¢ symbol. It works, as you can see.
☺ Special Characters
(make sure the Num Lock is activated, & use the number pad in windows (not the top row #'s)
☺☺☺☺☺
We link a lot of tuneagement on this blog, and IMO that's the best way to find new and interesting music. Good old fashioned word of mouth, but with the modern twist of the referrals being between imaginary friends.
That said, once Hal (the IPad) came into our lives, I've done a lot more playing around with Pandora since we can now pipe it over our stereo via Apple TV. I even became a dues paying member, I like it so much.
But the purpose of this missive is to mention my two favorite "stations" that I've created since this began. Eva Cassidy and Leo Kottke. If you're as tired of commercial radio as I am, and like mellow music, you owe it to yourself to check these two out.
I agree with Yellowrocks that "eking out" is the theme. Finished, but only because I'm stubborn and had a lot of time to kill. (Is it cheating to do it online, fill in all the squares, and then hunt for the errors when I don't get the "Ta-dum!" if all's correct? That tells me I've done something wrong, but not what--had OH BABE and ESER instead of OH BABY and YSER.)
If SAAR was hard, y'all need to study your wine labels more closely. See http://www.binnys.com/images/winelabels/295361L.jpg
Used to drink stuff like this all the time.
I also thought of REALLY for LIKELY, but like MERELY and BARELY, it's an adverb, not an adjective, so dismissible.
We have had South Jersey corn three times so far @ about 67¢ a piece. Twice I tried the microwave method for corn on the cob suggested here last week. Fantastico!
We also like to grate the raw corn off the cob with a special corn grater, add eggs, salt and pepper and just a very little flour. We drop this mixture by spoonfuls onto an oiled skillet and fry it. We call these corn fritters-a tradition on both sides of our family.
ea76801a-38d9-11e1-b935-000bcdca4d7a, can you find a better handle?
As to online, if I don't get the "Ta-da", I'll look for obvious mistakes because they're easy to do online. If I find one and it fixes it, I don't consider it cheating. If I don't see anything, I'll switch to red letters and consider it DNF.
SAAR is a common river/region but the Moselle River, no. I see it clued as a wine though.
Oh, and welcome to the corner.
YR @5:37 I guess the price is going to be high no matter where you live. BTW, on a scale of 1-10, I would rate what I had for dinner a 6 or 7; it wasn't sweet enough for me but it was very tender. Maybe next time I'll try the microwave method if I can retrace the blog on it.
Re. corn; my father used to say to start the water in the pot boiling, then go out to pick the corn. It was his way of saying that the sugar content of the corn starts to decrease right after it's picked. When I used to have a Community Garden plot, I would enjoy my own fresh-picked corn. However, the new hybrid varieties hold their sweetness much better than used to be the case. I've had good corn from the Farmer's Market and even from the supermarket. I'll have to try the microwave method.
There is one source for really good vine-ripe tomatoes around here. With squash, beans, lettuce, asparagus, carrots, etc., usually the produce we get locally is fine.
A little off topic...
I just came across this story and thought some of the famers here would appreciate it.
Article
Video
Btw, click on "show more" under the video to see the lyrics.
bunk? new meaning for me. Could be a good Friday clue for bunk: "place for cows".
Hi again ~!
Avg Joe - I just re-upped my Pandora subscription for the third year - I like Thievery Corporation, and that station has led me to dozens of new trance electronica music - I love it, and for 2.7¢
a day for commercial free, uninterrupted tunes....
(p.s., I had to use the HTML codes for the ¢ symbol - this one in the parentheses I used the link C.E.D. left - and yet there is no cents sign on that list; go figure....)
Welcome to all the new people today, and hope to see more of your comments here.
Splynter
I agree that the shorter the time from field to pot the better the corn. But my married son,DIL and I think corn is growing sweeter every year until it has become much too sweet. We look for tender and milky. Our early corn had just the perfect amount of sweetness for me. Later in the season. NO.
I am eagerly awaiting that "kissed by the sun" taste in tomatoes. I am surprised it it so late in arriving here. Usually they are shipped in by now. I have golf ball size tomatoes on my own plants, about normal for July 7. It will be a long wait for my own.
I'll speak for the male population on this thread and applaud the "tender and milky" concept,
Joe,
I'm in the Bob Seger segment of the population ("Way up firm and high"). And milky.
Avg Joe,
A standing ovation yet!
P.S.
Yes I know.. All men are pigs!
We is what we is.
Greetings!
Really busy day yesterday wore me out physically and emotionally. So I slept and slept and slept (after 7 AM) and arrived here very late.
I persevered on this one--took 54 minutes. No cheats! Thanks Victor and Splynter. Many, many type-overs! Spelled PYNE as PiNE at first. Hands up for "manor." Took a while to get RASHER. I came up with TUXEDO from only the D. Had never heard of STAX.
Have a great Sunday!
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