Our friend the Oreo is such a staple of crossword fare that it's fun to see it given center-stage and the star of the show. All six theme answers have OREO contained within them, and to spice things up a little (if you can have a spicy milk cookie?) each OREO stands alone with no crosses.
18A. One dealing with spirits : LIQUOR STORE OWNER
29A. Tony Award won four times by Tommy Tune : BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
90A. 1983 World Series champs : BALTIMORE ORIOLES
107A. Spanish saint who wrote the encyclopedic "Etymologiae" :
ISIDORE OF SEVILLE
46D. Removed by hand, in a way : TORE OUT
48D. Put up points against : SCORE ON
Hi everyone, Steve here coming off the bench for C.C. I'm really torn about this theme - I saw there was something odd about the grid when I noticed the sets of four lights with no crosses, but it took some time for the penny to drop. The payoff seemed a little meager though - just six theme answers in total and what seemed to me to be a lot of scrappy fill around them.
Having said that, I did enjoy dealing with something unusual, and some of the fill really was a delight. As a bonus, this is a pangram.
Let's have a look at the rest of the solution:
Across:
1. "The Godfather" actor : CAAN
5. Furry '80s fad items : CHIA PETS. I'd have described these as more grassy or mossy than furry
13. Protest of a kind : FAST
17. Gymnast Korbut : OLGA
19. "Kinsey" star Neeson : LIAM
20. "That dress is perfect!" : ITS SO YOU! I've used this myself, sometimes just to get out of the store!
21. It may be uncharted : ISLE
22. Korea divider, briefly : D.M.Z. The Demilitarized Zone is about 2 miles wide and runs east-west across the country at Latitude 38N, or the 38th Parallel in popular parlance.
23. Anti-apartheid org. : A.N.C. Nelson Mandela's party, the African National Congress, which has taken the majority vote in every post-apatheid election, the first being in 1994.
24. Outing that includes birding : NATURE WALK. My friend Heidi and I had a nature walk of our own this morning up to the Hollywood sign - it's a pretty good hike. Here's a view you rarely see of the back of the sign from the top of the hill:
31. Spillane's "__ Jury" : I THE
32. Postwar British leader : ATTLEE. Clem Attlee won a huge majority victory over Winston Churchill in the 1945 election (Churchill replaced him again in 1951) In hindsight, it seems extraordinary that a leader of Churchill's stature could lose an election only two months after the hostilities in Europe ended and the Allies were still at war with Japan. King George VI ("The King's Speech") was reportedly not happy with the result, and when Attlee went to the King with the traditional request for permission to form a Government, neither man spoke for some time. Finally Attlee said to the King - "I've won the election" to get the reply "I know, I heard it on the news".
33. Peach or plum : HUE
36. National Soccer Hall of Famer since 1993 : PELE. Also the Hawaii'an Volcano Goddess, leaving some soccer-mad middle-school pupils confused.
38. Cold War enemy, informally : RED RUSSIA
43. Prereqs for some Harvard applicants : L-SATS. The Law School Admission Test.
45. One looking for stars : TALENT SCOUT
47. Flies across the Atlantic? : TSETSES. I don't think I've ever seen this pluralized before, one always seems bad enough.
49. Caspian country : IRAN
50. Hawaiian coffee region : KONA. I think Pele drank Kona coffee?
51. Volcano output : EJECTA. Oh - a themelet here - Pele and Kona, now Ejecta! This was new to me, I fiddled around with MAGMA and LAVA and variations thereof. Needed the crosses for this one.
53. Made a touchdown : ALIT
54. Timecard abbr. : HRS. Overtime Hours are nice!
55. Vel attachment? : CRO
56. __ Bora: Afghan region : TORA
60. Marge Simpson's mother-in-law : MONA
61. Foofaraw : ADO
62. Harley-Davidson's NYSE symbol : HOG. New to me - I like this!
63. All-in-one Apple : iMAC
64. City SSW of Moscow : OREL. The town was named after the former Dodgers Hall-Of-Fame baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser. No wait - I've been reading too much Wikipedia!
65. __ Tin Tin : RIN
66. Old comm. giant : I.T.T. Still going, but no longer the communications giant it once was.
67. The Sunni, e.g. : SECT
68. Pointed : ACUATE
71. Mideast pooh bah : EMIR
72. Small combo : TRIO
73. Equitably divided : PRO RATA
76. Survey an enemy position : RECONNOITER, My word of the day.
79. Rhett's last words : A DAMN
80. Fine-tune : CALIBRATE
84. Tenn. neighbor : N.CAR.
85. Gym safety item : MAT
86. What a criminal might be on? : THE LAM
88. Aptly named shaving lotion : AFTA
93. Miner's dream : MOTHER LODE
97. College sr.'s challenge : G.R.E. Before you take the LSTAT you need to make sure your pass your Graduate Record Examination
98. Classic Jaguar : XKE. Better known as the "E-Type". Here's a lovely example in British Racing Green. Wait 'til I win the Lotto!
I did have an XJS myself, but sadly I needed a Lotto win to afford to keep it on the road, so now I just have the photo-memories:
100. "Hi, sailor!" : AHOY. Very cute clue and answer!
101. Up and running : ON STREAM
106. Lawn liming target : ACID
108. Leader after Mao : DENG
109. Mete (out) : DOLE
110. More spirited : FEISTIER
111. Sommer of Berlin : ELKE
Down:
1. Hardly friendly : COLD
2. Out on __ : A LIMB
3. Visually rapt : AGAZE
4. '60s theater, briefly : NAM
5. Lock up : CLINCH
6. Ones trying to get picked up : HITCHERS. Not one of my favorites - Hitchhikers, surely?
7. Stanford-Binet nos. : IQs Who knew? Not me!
8. It borders It. : AUS. I've skied from Austria to Italy, and back. For some strange reason, you don't need a passport when you criss-cross the borders between France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria on skis.
9. Cutesy-__ : POO
10. Mock tail? : ERY
11. 1992 presidential also-ran : TSONGAS. If I ever knew Paul Tsaongas, I'd completely forgotten about him. Thank you, crosses.
12. Scottish royal family : STUARTS
13. Texter's hedge : FWIW. For What it's Worth, I thought this was something else, IMHO.
14. Looped handle : ANSA
15. Move, as merchandise : SELL
16. "Star __" : TREK
23. When many retire : AT TEN. That's way past my bedtime.
25. Jacques of "Jour de Fête" : TATI. Funniest Frenchman ever, although you might argue that's not saying a great deal.
26. Cramming, say : UP LATE. At least Five after Ten.
27. Scoreboard initials : RHE. I'd love to tell you what this means, but I have no idea, and I watch ESPN 24/7
28. Lace place : EYELET. Really?
30. Burglar's undoing : SILENT ALARM
33. Experiences : HAS
34. Jeep or Land Rover, briefly : UTE
35. Mountain road feature : ESS
36. Room with a sofa : PARLOR
37. "Seinfeld" role : ELAINE
39. 13th/14th-century German mystic : ECKHART
40. Desperate : DO OR DIE
41. Talks and talks : RUNS ON
42. Tony winner Hagen : UTA
44. Word with analysis or significance : STATISTICAL. Loved this one. It's not often you see a "word with" clue where you've got a 12-letter word as the answer.
45. Italian lover's coo : TI AMO
51. Very spicy fare : EROTICA. This was my final fill, I just could not get away from thinking about food (Food!)
52. Slow equine pace : JOG-TROT
55. Bell : CHIMER
57. Mario Puzo novel : OMERTA
58. More likely to be R-rated : RACIER
59. One playing a part : ACTOR
69. "I don't believe it" : CAN'T BE
70. Remote insert : AA CELL
71. Tarzan creator's monogram : E.R.B. I live close to Tarzana, a town in the San Fernando Valley named for Edgar Rice Burrough's hero.
73. Cooking spray : PAM
74. Old vitamin bottle letters : R.D.A. Recommended Daily Amount. I suppose it must be called something else now, given that the clue says "old".
75. Meal starter? : OAT. I had EAT! first.
77. 7 on the Beaufort scale : NEAR GALE. I love the Beaufort Scale names. "Cap'n, it's blowing a Near Gale out there!" "Really? I was expecting Fresh Gale. Wake me if it looks like a Strong Gale, and take down the mainsail the second you feel a Whole Gale or we'll lose the mainmast"
78. How ballerinas dance : ON TOE. No, sorry, this one just doesn't work for me.
81. Violist's clef : ALTO. I recall some rather feisty discussions about clefs a few months ago.
82. Fired : LAID OFF
83. Colossal : IMMENSE
87. Laugh syllable : HAR
89. Not so flexible : FIRMER
91. Word relative : EXCEL
92. Short-legged lizard : SKINK. How I knew this I have no idea, I'm sure I've never knowingly seen a skink. I've seen lots of lizards, just never stopped to measure their legs.
93. Inn employee : MAID
94. Quite : OH SO
95. Labor : TOIL
96. University of Chicago site __ Park : HYDE
99. Sphere's lack : EDGE
102. Cinque e uno : SEI
103. Man cave staples : TV'S
104. Slowing, on a score: Abbr. : RIT. "Ritardando"
105. Member of The Whiffenpoofs : ELI
106. Soft drink ending : ADE
Answer grid.
And a soft blog ending from me. Hope you all have a great Sunday, be safe and see you all soon.
50 comments:
Good Morning, Steve and friends. Interesting puzzle. I immediately noticed the strange grid with the several lines with no perps. I didn't know that was allowed.
I found this puzzle to be rather difficult. Lots of obscure clues. After getting IT'S SO YOU, I saw the word SOY, thought of Soy Milk, so that that was the direction we were headed. Only after I had completed the puzzle did the OREOs jump out at me.
My favorite clue was Lace Place = EYELET.
I also liked Sphere's Lack = EDGE.
My husband spent this past spring semester at HYDE Park at the University of Chicago.
I thought of Star Wars instead of Star TREK.
Stay cool. Yesterday's thunderstorm cooled us off considerably.
QOD: A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Greetings!
Gee, I get to blog at a time when somebody may actually read my offering! (Efforts very late on Thurs. and Sat. Surprisingly, no cheats. Today I had 2 red letters. Sigh.)
Had less trouble with Saturday than I did with this. After I caught on to OREO things went a bit smoother.
Thanks David and Steve! (Love the Jaguar. Pity it's gone.)
RHE, I suppose, is runs-hits-errors. Huh folks?
Also I believe RDA is rec. daily allowance. Huh, again?
Cambodian fellow across the south fence wants to buy the part of my property that is fallow. About half an acre. (No longer have ducks, geese or horse; fruit trees got too expensive to irrigate. The mortgage company would have to OK this. It will have to be a big chunk of money offered to make this worthwhile.)
Hope to get to sleep soon! Happy Sunday, all!
Morning, all!
I thought the theme was very clever, although a bit anticlimactic once I realized that every single one of those odd looking squares had OREO and could therefore just go fill them en mass.
A lot of the non-theme fill really got on my nerves, however. CHIA PETS are "furry"? I know RUSSIA and know it's RED, but I've never heard the phrase RED RUSSIA before. Other complete unknowns included ACUATE, ON STREAM, ECKHART and JOG TROT. All perfectly valid words/phrases, I'm sure, but out of my wheelhouse. After awhile, I just stopped giving A DAMN...
It was nice to see some quality non-theme long answers in the grid, though. I really liked STATISTICAL and RECONNOITER.
Don't you think that the OREOs are sandwiched by the black squares? They look like oreos! If only we had a grid to look at...
ANON @ 6;58. Yes, that's what i liked about this puzzle. The letters OREO are sandwiched by the black squares above and below. When I got ITCAN'TBE, giving a B for the start of a baseball team, I knew it had to be BALTIMOREORIOLES. That let me fill in all six OEROS and made the puzzle suddenly easy.
I have heard of REDRUSSIA and White Russia, and enjoyed a white russian cocktail.
Fermatprime, thanks for the RHE explanation, runs, hits, and errors. I'm sure you are correct,
Good morning, folks. Thank you, David Steinberg, for the good puzzle. A little puzzling at first. Thank you, Steve, for the review.
Steve: Nice cars, both of them. I believe Firmatprime answered your questions.
At first I was taken aback by this grid. I thought we always had two chances at a letter. At least in these national newspaper puzzles. Eventually I got OREO and realized what was happening. I felt better. As someone said, the 6 grid figures look like oreos.
My only hangup with the themes was LIQUOR STORE OWNER. I was trying to think of a spiritual counselor, or mystic, or something. I did not have enough of the perps in that area to spell it out for me. Totally did not remember Paul TSONGAS, until I had it.
Thought TSETSES was a great clue/answer. Maybe because I got it right off the bat.
NATURE WALK came slowly.
We seem to get I THE jury several times a year. Makes it easy. I read that book a long time ago. Mike Hammer, the detective.
I have added the answer grid, I hope. C.C. will change it when she has time.
I for got to sign out. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
To quote Lucina, "Yowzah!" This one took the full time allotment. It would have been much easier if I'd noticed the OREOs.
I was going to complain that TOREOUT and SCOREON were unfair since only three of the letters had crosses. I never noticed that the remaining four were a gimme. D'oh!
Hand up for WARS before TREK.
Learning moment: ACUATE I don't recall ever seeing that word before.
Cute idea, Mr. Steinberg. So cute that I totally missed it. Now that I see all those cookies in the grid I can appreciate how difficult the construction must have been.
Hi There ~!
Well done pinch-hitting, Steve - I know what you mean about needing the lotto to keep the XJS up and running.
I figured we would have a simplified theme, and once the Orioles clue showed, I was able to go back and fill in from there, too. Still, quite a construction challenge.
Runs, Hits, Errors it is - baseball scoreboard.
Splynter
Wow, the fact that OREO is visually in the white part -- the cream -- of the cookie is icing on the ... cookie!
Brilliant, David Steinberg!
Good morning:
Quite a clever puzzle, David. I needed some help to finish and didn 't see the theme until I revisited it this morning. (Solving puzzles at 2:00 am is not recommended.). Super write-up, Steve.
I watched The Iron Lady last night. It just proved once again that Meryl Streep is a national treasure!
We are having beautiful weather but would like to see some much- needed rain.
Happy Sunday to all.
Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.
Thanks for pinch-hitting this morning, Steve! I noticed the unusual grid pattern right away, and wondered if it might have something to do with Flags that consist of three stripes (Austria, France, Italy, Ireland, etc). But like others, the BALTIMORE ORIOLES gave away the theme, and I filled in all the others.
The fill was not my favorite thing about this clever puzzle. Some entries had me wondering, like EJECTA (huh?), ACUATE (is that a word?), and "furry" CHIA PETS?? Endings like "vel attachment" for CRO and "Mock tail" for ERY gave me a nose scrunch. Ah well, the unusual theme and elegant construction made up for those, in the end. So I guess I liked it, after all!
My late father A.J. Santora is probably rolling in his grave as this puzzle breaks the most basic of rules, words with no crosswords. How can it be even called a crossword puzzle?
The word Oreo sandwiched on the top and bottom was very clever. Hats off to David for such a complex yet entertaining crossword
Hello Puzzlers -
What Joho said.
I figure this was such a clever idea it doesn't matter if it pushes back the orthodoxy. Really stumbled at ACUATE, however - not a word I hear at parties!
Couldn't think up EJECTA, even though it was heard during a prior volcano visit (the thing was active, tossing out smoking boulders!) Paul TSONGAS is equally hard to remember.
I like the Australian usage of "recce" as a short form of RECONNOITER. I've heard it applied to the scoping out of restaurants and pubs, for instance. Wiki says it's a military term, so its use is probably wider than I would know about.
This one kicked my butt badly. On Sundays we get the answer on another page and I suffered through an hour to get roughly 80% filled, then started peeking. And even though I noticed the odd looking grip before I even started, I didn't notice the oreo's until I was done, so that didn't even help.
Ejecta was actually one of the easier fills for me. I remember the term from when Mt St Helens erupted and it was mentioned in many articles that it had a cubic kilometer of ejecta. It's simply the sum total of all material that's displaced by the event including lava, magma and ash.
27D scoreboard initials RHE is for Runs, hits, Errors on a baseball scoreboard.
Has anyone seen a long legged lizard? I mean since the Jurassic Period.
Thanks to all for the RHE explanations - I obviously don't spend enough time at the ballpark.
I also didn't appreciate the Oreo pattern in the grid, certainly clever!
Happy Sunday everybody. I found the grid very offputting until I finally solved the puzzle and saw its significance. I didn't much care for JOGTROT or ONTOE. I think I disliked AGAZE the most. I enjoyed POO though. Hmm...? Otherwise, WEES.
If you look around only once, does that mean you 'connoiter'?
I was hoping Andy Murray would finally get the big one but it was not to be.
Got the puzzle with some help from the answers but didn't understand the theme, so went online to find commonalities. Fenway Park, sinking of the Titanic in 1912 -- looked for something here. Saw, but dismissed, the 1912 oreo info, missed the "milk" for goodness sakes, missed the bars, so your analysis was great for this unusual and fun crossword, not in the usual mode; otherwise I would have been obsessed all day. Indeed it is hits, runs, errors.
David’s puzzle was a hoot! When I saw the “no crosses” areas, I started looking for Chutes and Ladders but OREO was very satisfying and obvious in a hurry.
Musings
-I never had a Ch Ch Ch Chia and tired of the commercials
-Of course we ALL know the song with this lyric, “The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert ISLE”
-Steve, I loved the view from the DOOWYLLOH sign and your write-up. Great ATTLEE story and XJS.
-TALENT SCOUT Tom Greenwade is famous for finding what star from Commerce, OK.?
-6 LEM’s have ALIT on the near side of the Moon and they had lots of VELCRO
-The kids had to CALIBRATE all our physics probes before they used them
-Didn’t we all want to date someone RACIER and FEISTIER?
-I was on A LARK before A LIMB
-HITCHERS were much more common at one time. Who were the most famous HITCHERS in movie history?
-I’ll die before I hear anyone around here call a vehicle a UTE or know who UTA is
-The OATMEAL at McDonalds is great any time of the day
-FIRED ain’t LAID OFF. I've been the latter, never the former.
-A sphere has a non-Euclidean edge. We live on the Earth’s edge.
-The most famous RHE scoreboard ever (scroll down one screen to see)
To summarize my three questions,
1. Who are the most famous HITCHERS in movie history?
2. Who was the Oklahoma superstar that TALENT SCOUT Tom Greenwade found?
3. What show had that uncharted desert ISLE in its theme song?
HG, is this the famous pair of HITCHERS?
Hello everybody. Once I got the first OREO I *still* didn't get it, looking for words other than OREO to fill those other sandwiches. Then BALTIMORE ORIOLES made the light go on, and, as Barry G said, it was automatic to fill in all the rest of the OREOs. In fact, without them, I would not have gotten SCORE ON or TORE OUT. Very clever. I liked it. What Barry Said about RED RUSSIA and JOG TROT. otoh, CALIBRATE and STATISTICAL are awesome fill.
Right you are Marti! I enjoyed the link to the clip from that fabulous movie and the Bugs Bunny/Friz Freleng reference underneath. I’d think about stopping for Claudette Colbert.
How Oreo Cookies are made.
Did you know there are songs about Oreos?
A learning moment for me, "20 stuff Oreo's?"
How do you eat your Oreo's?
Re: Yesterday, Sorry Splynter, when i put on my glasses, what i thought was a cents sign turned into something more like a Russian sickle.
For ¢ sign, using the number pad, with the num lock on, hold "alt" while typing 0162
Husker Gary, i dont know the uncharted desert isle, but it makes me want to ask Gilligan...
Husker -
Ever thought about just how much luggage you'd need aboard the Minnow for a three-hour tour?
Or for that matter, how far from home port you'd normally get in 1.5 hours?
Ah well, Gilligan's Island was fun all the same.
Earlier, I didn't mean to seem as if I didn't like the puzzle. The unusual grid with some missing crosses threw me off but once I sussed out the theme, I was impressed with its cleverness and originality. Good job David and Rich and Steve.
Gary just beat me to the comment that I don't think that being fired is the same as being laid off. I do think that some employers fire someone but call it being laid off to make it seem less negative.
CED, I enjoyed the Oreo video. My mother bought Hydrox cookies and I grew up preferring them. But I guess that Oreos won that competition.
I've been watching Sunday Morning. Good stuff as always. I especially enjoyed the story about the woman who becomes a citizen and her journey helping refugee children.
Leave it to a baseball answer (Baltimore Orioles) to reveal the puzzle theme. Otherwise, this one kicked my arse. Still hurts to sit down....
The Commerce Comet was good, but he was no Splendid Splynter....
Favorite answer was Reconnoiter, which I have been known to carry out at many a Vegas watering hole....
HG - Was the Oklahoma superstar Mickey Mantle?
JOG TROT is a gait used in pleasure horse competition Here is a line from the KCRFTHA 33rd ANNUAL HORSE SHOW schedule:
29. *$300 Jackpot WesternPleasure, OpenWalk,JogTrot,Lope (Pending Sponsorship)
Red Russia can refer to Bolshevist Russia as opposed to White Russia, (roughly Belarus) or the tsarist loyalists.
The Bolsheviks took the color red to symbolize the blood of the workers, and the red flag of the Soviet Union, with its gold-colored hammer and sickle is still recognized today. During the revolution, the Red Army (Bolshevik forces) fought the White Army (loyalists to the tsar); Communists or Soviets are called Reds in popular culture.
Unlike most puzzlers, I like the a words: agape, awhirl, atrip, abed , afar, etc. and find them to be colorful and legitimate. OTOH I do find AGAZE slightly off-putting and rare, although it evidently is a real word.
Am I the only one that put in for 38A : RED MENACE?
I knew our little cadre here would produce the correct answers:
1. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were those famous HITCHERS
2. Mickey Mantle was Tom Greenwade’s famous discovery and “The Mick” had a fabulous career despite bad knees and alcoholism that made him a jerk and killed him with cirrhosis of the liver just after he attempted to repent for past misdeeds.
3. That uncharted desert isle, of course, was home to “Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the professor and Mary Ann.” Two fun questions are 1) If the professor could make all those complicated machines out of palm leaves and coconuts, why couldn’t he fix a freakin’ boat, and 2) Ginger or Mary Ann?
BTW, as I am blogging and reading the World Herald, I am watching the LPGA Open tournament. It has many talented Asian women playing who are dominating the tour. Check the leaderboard and the flags of the countries they represent.
These women have acclimated very well to our culture and language and are flourishing. Sound like anyone else we know around here?
Si, si....
Mary Anne, definitely.
Ginger was high maintenance.
RIP, Ernest Borgnine. Somehow, I felt a kinship with him…
I figured out the oreo after 2 longer clues on the top, but didn't put together the black sandwich cookies with the oreo cream inside until I was almost done. Just knew the layout must have something to do with the theme because it was so odd.
Got everything but acuate and do or die, I kept trying to make doordi_ some kind of one word answer.
Yes, RIP, Ernest Borgnine.
And I thought the two famous hitchers were Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect.
(Agree with TinoTechie!)
27 D- RHE- Runs, Hits, Errors
Guess what I just came across? On a cable TV channel, I found reruns of WKRP, that's what. I hope they are just as enjoyable and funny after a 30-year absence.
Hi, everyone,
Thanks so much for all the feedback--I enjoyed reading it. Happy Anniversary to the Oreo cookie!
David Steinberg
I loved the puzzle, but I did not understand 91 down - word relative - answer - excel.
Hi, Irene
That is Word, as in Microsoft Word, a word processor. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application.
Just the old trick of disguising proper names.
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