Theme: "Going Daffy" - S sound (in various spellings) is changed to "TH".
23A. Quite somber Independence Day? : FOURTH OF GRAVITY. Force of gravity.
32A. Expandable waistline, say? : GROWTH MARGIN. Gross margin. Boomer likes pants with expandable waist.
55A. Ghost from outer space? : ALIEN WRAITH. Alien race.
75A. Big bag of wind? : MIGHTY MOUTH. Mighty mouse.
91A. Jet bridge? : BOARDING PATH. Boarding pass.
108A. The truth about Zeus, Apollo, etc.? : MYTH INFORMATION. Misinformation. Funny clue, "The truth".
37D. Texas Hold'em player's confidence? : POKER FAITH. Poker face.
47D. Parisian pals? : FRENCH KITH. French kiss.
A nice mixture of CE, SS, SE, S to TH conversion. Some first word, some last word. There is no TH sound in Chinese, so "These" and "Those" are quite tricky for me in the beginning, esp "Those". My "The" sounded like "de". A recent NYT puzzle used this exact gimmick.
Marti likes sound change themes, which reflect her innate humor and talent. As a non-native speaker, I often find them hard to grasp and always depend on Lemonade's write-up to guide me on Fridays.
Congratulations to Marti on her first Sunday! You made it. Simple & Elegant grid design & super smooth fill.
Across:
1. Bon mot : JEST
5. Supplies with gear : EQUIPS. With a rare letter Q.
11. Spa sounds : AHs
14. Class without struggle : EASY A. I don't remember any Easy A's in my classes, politics being the most difficult subject, esp after the Tiananmen Square incident.
19. Ticklish Muppet : ELMO
20. Gopher's route : TUNNEL
21. Fire : VIM
22. The sun, for one : G-STAR. I think I asked Spitzboov & Bill G about this or some other * STAR before.
26. Garden hose gasket : O-RING
27. Was perfectly tailored : FIT TO A TEE. TO A TEE or TO A T is not easy to parse.
28. Senators' holdings : SEATS
30. Cornerstone word : ANNO
31. Held title to : OWNED
35. Golf gimme : TAP IN. Yips are not easy to overcome.
38. Corner : TRAP
39. Bart Simpson's grampa : ABE
40. Common blood type, briefly : A POS. Oh, A Positive.
41. Set up for a fall : FRAMED
44. Cape Cod feature : GABLE. Marti was just vacationing there.
47. Dietary supp. watchdog : FDA
50. Car registration datum : MAKE
51. "Return of the Jedi" dancer : OOLA. Learned from doing Xword.
52. Like always : UNALTERED
54. Sooner than, to a bard : ERE
59. Lean : TEND. Make sense when "to" is added.
60. Fence-sit : STRADDLE
62. Conserve, in a way : RE-USE
63. Short hops : JAUNTS
65. They're often full of hot air : FLUES. Lovely. Santa Argyle will like it.
66. Stick (on) : PASTE
67. Bubbly mixer : TONIC
68. Diminished : ABATED
70. Soda bottle size : LITER
71. Chat with colleagues : TALK SHOP. Great entry.
74. Award coveted on "Mad Men" : CLIO
77. Penn of "Harold & Kumar" films : KAL. Very active in politics, one of those Obama re-election co-chairs.
78. Yellowstone feature : HOT SPRING. Nice.
81. Deal : COPE
82. Polynesian pendant : TIKI
83. Country W. of Somalia : ETH (Ethiopia). Do they also have Couscous?
84. Posh : RITZY
85. Rubbernecked : CRANED
87. Break __: take the lead : A TIE
88. RNC's group : GOP
89. Navy mascot : GOAT. Bill the Goat. A live mascot.
90. Else : OTHER
97. Part of an act : SCENE
100. "Say it isn't so!" : OH NO
101. They may be tall : TALES. "May be" in the clue is often challenging but entertaining.
102. Tick off : ENUMERATE
106. Light bulb units : WATTS
111. "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria : ERI TU. Very grid-friendly letter combo, hence its frequent appearances.
112. Capable, facetiously : EPT
113. Incapably : POORLY
114. Had too much : OD'ED
115. Scout's mission : RECON
116. Uneffusive : SHY. Not Marti. She's a passionate person.
117. Blood pressure elevator : STRESS
118. Cold War news service : TASS
Down:
1. Comedian Foxworthy : JEFF
2. Cliff-dwelling race in a 2002 film : ELOI. I definitely needed a "The Time Machine" reference in the clue.
3. Blue stuff : SMUT
4. Storied surprise winner : TORTOISE. Love this answer.
5. Patriot Allen : ETHAN
6. Bartlett specialty : QUOTE. Anyone though of Jason Bartlett first?
7. In need of nourishment, most likely : UNFED
8. "Picnic" playwright : INGE
9. A pop : PER
10. '70s radical gp. with a seven-headed cobra symbol : SLA. Was unaware of their symbol. Quite a disturbing image.
11. "__ From the Bridge": Miller : A VIEW
12. Try to whack : HIT AT. And 80. Hit the ball hard : RIP IT. Force!
13. Rocker Patty married to John McEnroe : SMYTH
14. It may be inflated : EGO
15. Equally unlikely : AS RARE
16. Undercover op : STING
17. "Live at the Acropolis" musician : YANNI
18. Incandescent bulb gas : ARGON. I just learned that Argyle has Scottish blood. I always thought he's of Polish root.
24. Word with mining or steel : TOWN
25. Cognac bottle letters : VSOP
29. Inconsequential : SMALL. You can see what a caring person Irish Miss is by the way she treats her ice-maker. I was also moved by the trouble D-Otto and his wife went through to save the squirrel.
32. Test for M.A. hopefuls : GRE. Aren't you amazed by the high GRE/GMAT scores of those foreign students?
33. "Totally awesome!" : RAD
34. Help with a heist : ABET
35. Brings to heel : TAMES
36. Needing assembly : APART
38. Counterfeiter-catching agt. : T-MAN. Seen asked YKK the other day. Did you know some of them are fake?
41. Like most mailed letters : FOLDED
42. Agitates : ROILS
43. On the calmer side : ALEE
44. Pretense : GUISE
45. Pay to play : ANTE
46. Ebenezer's epithet : BAH
48. Parking lot misfortune : DENT
49. Does sum work : ADDS
53. Tweezers holders : ETUIS
55. Together, to Toscanini : A DUE
56. Rage : WRATH
57. Trip odometer button : RE-SET
58. Rogers rival : AUTRY (Gene)
61. Some singers : ALTOS
63. Shocked : JOLTED
64. Egyptian royal cross : ANKH
66. One of five in a kids' rhyme : PIGGY
67. Tannish gray : TAUPE.
68. Snow shoveling aftermath, maybe : ACHE. Not a happy thought.
69. Bad thing on a record : BLOT
70. Austrian city with a torte named after it : LINZ. Linzer Torte. Not familiar to me. Have some!
71. This puzzle's honoree, for one : TOON
72. Jack of "The Great Dictator" : OAKIE
73. Hard worker : PLIER. Not a PLIER here, just a "Hard worker", with curious eyes. Looks like the Saturday Stud is left-handed.
75. Cambridge sch. : M.I.T.
76. Exam for future docs : MCAT
79. Poke : PROD
82. Ore-Ida item : TATER TOT. So many ways to cook potatoes. I liked fried, you?
85. Army sack? : COT
86. Bowl cheer : RAH
88. Capri attraction : GROTTO
89. Deep cut : GASH
90. Most fit to serve : ONE A
91. Leafy alcove : BOWER
92. ORD, on an airline ticket : O'HARE
93. Bit of high jinks : ANTIC. Funny link from CrossEyedDave yesterday. I never knew cleavage is a term in mineralogy.
94. Handles : NAMES
95. Mayan calendar symbol, e.g. : GLYPH. Let's see what happens on Dec 21, 2012.
96. Trivial : PETTY
97. Vibrating night sound : SNORE. Alright, "Vibrating"!
98. Biceps exercises : CURLS
99. Ed Asner septet : EMMYS. His is a record by a male actor.
102. Get an __ effort : E FOR
103. 1871 Cairo premiere : AIDA
104. Sandal revelations : TOES
105. Cuts off : ENDS
107. Icarus's undoing : SUN
109. Tape player spec. : IPS. Inches per second. I googled this before.
110. "Just kidding!" : NOT
Answer grid.
C.C.
23A. Quite somber Independence Day? : FOURTH OF GRAVITY. Force of gravity.
32A. Expandable waistline, say? : GROWTH MARGIN. Gross margin. Boomer likes pants with expandable waist.
55A. Ghost from outer space? : ALIEN WRAITH. Alien race.
75A. Big bag of wind? : MIGHTY MOUTH. Mighty mouse.
91A. Jet bridge? : BOARDING PATH. Boarding pass.
108A. The truth about Zeus, Apollo, etc.? : MYTH INFORMATION. Misinformation. Funny clue, "The truth".
37D. Texas Hold'em player's confidence? : POKER FAITH. Poker face.
47D. Parisian pals? : FRENCH KITH. French kiss.
A nice mixture of CE, SS, SE, S to TH conversion. Some first word, some last word. There is no TH sound in Chinese, so "These" and "Those" are quite tricky for me in the beginning, esp "Those". My "The" sounded like "de". A recent NYT puzzle used this exact gimmick.
Marti likes sound change themes, which reflect her innate humor and talent. As a non-native speaker, I often find them hard to grasp and always depend on Lemonade's write-up to guide me on Fridays.
Congratulations to Marti on her first Sunday! You made it. Simple & Elegant grid design & super smooth fill.
Across:
1. Bon mot : JEST
5. Supplies with gear : EQUIPS. With a rare letter Q.
11. Spa sounds : AHs
14. Class without struggle : EASY A. I don't remember any Easy A's in my classes, politics being the most difficult subject, esp after the Tiananmen Square incident.
19. Ticklish Muppet : ELMO
20. Gopher's route : TUNNEL
21. Fire : VIM
22. The sun, for one : G-STAR. I think I asked Spitzboov & Bill G about this or some other * STAR before.
26. Garden hose gasket : O-RING
27. Was perfectly tailored : FIT TO A TEE. TO A TEE or TO A T is not easy to parse.
28. Senators' holdings : SEATS
30. Cornerstone word : ANNO
31. Held title to : OWNED
35. Golf gimme : TAP IN. Yips are not easy to overcome.
38. Corner : TRAP
39. Bart Simpson's grampa : ABE
40. Common blood type, briefly : A POS. Oh, A Positive.
41. Set up for a fall : FRAMED
44. Cape Cod feature : GABLE. Marti was just vacationing there.
47. Dietary supp. watchdog : FDA
50. Car registration datum : MAKE
51. "Return of the Jedi" dancer : OOLA. Learned from doing Xword.
52. Like always : UNALTERED
54. Sooner than, to a bard : ERE
59. Lean : TEND. Make sense when "to" is added.
60. Fence-sit : STRADDLE
62. Conserve, in a way : RE-USE
63. Short hops : JAUNTS
65. They're often full of hot air : FLUES. Lovely. Santa Argyle will like it.
66. Stick (on) : PASTE
67. Bubbly mixer : TONIC
68. Diminished : ABATED
70. Soda bottle size : LITER
71. Chat with colleagues : TALK SHOP. Great entry.
74. Award coveted on "Mad Men" : CLIO
77. Penn of "Harold & Kumar" films : KAL. Very active in politics, one of those Obama re-election co-chairs.
78. Yellowstone feature : HOT SPRING. Nice.
81. Deal : COPE
82. Polynesian pendant : TIKI
83. Country W. of Somalia : ETH (Ethiopia). Do they also have Couscous?
84. Posh : RITZY
85. Rubbernecked : CRANED
87. Break __: take the lead : A TIE
88. RNC's group : GOP
89. Navy mascot : GOAT. Bill the Goat. A live mascot.
90. Else : OTHER97. Part of an act : SCENE
100. "Say it isn't so!" : OH NO
101. They may be tall : TALES. "May be" in the clue is often challenging but entertaining.
102. Tick off : ENUMERATE
106. Light bulb units : WATTS
111. "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria : ERI TU. Very grid-friendly letter combo, hence its frequent appearances.
112. Capable, facetiously : EPT
113. Incapably : POORLY
114. Had too much : OD'ED
115. Scout's mission : RECON
116. Uneffusive : SHY. Not Marti. She's a passionate person.
117. Blood pressure elevator : STRESS
118. Cold War news service : TASS
Down:
1. Comedian Foxworthy : JEFF
2. Cliff-dwelling race in a 2002 film : ELOI. I definitely needed a "The Time Machine" reference in the clue.
3. Blue stuff : SMUT
4. Storied surprise winner : TORTOISE. Love this answer.
5. Patriot Allen : ETHAN
6. Bartlett specialty : QUOTE. Anyone though of Jason Bartlett first?
7. In need of nourishment, most likely : UNFED
8. "Picnic" playwright : INGE
9. A pop : PER
10. '70s radical gp. with a seven-headed cobra symbol : SLA. Was unaware of their symbol. Quite a disturbing image.
11. "__ From the Bridge": Miller : A VIEW
12. Try to whack : HIT AT. And 80. Hit the ball hard : RIP IT. Force!
13. Rocker Patty married to John McEnroe : SMYTH
14. It may be inflated : EGO
15. Equally unlikely : AS RARE
16. Undercover op : STING
17. "Live at the Acropolis" musician : YANNI
18. Incandescent bulb gas : ARGON. I just learned that Argyle has Scottish blood. I always thought he's of Polish root.
24. Word with mining or steel : TOWN
25. Cognac bottle letters : VSOP
29. Inconsequential : SMALL. You can see what a caring person Irish Miss is by the way she treats her ice-maker. I was also moved by the trouble D-Otto and his wife went through to save the squirrel.
32. Test for M.A. hopefuls : GRE. Aren't you amazed by the high GRE/GMAT scores of those foreign students?
33. "Totally awesome!" : RAD
34. Help with a heist : ABET
35. Brings to heel : TAMES
36. Needing assembly : APART
38. Counterfeiter-catching agt. : T-MAN. Seen asked YKK the other day. Did you know some of them are fake?
41. Like most mailed letters : FOLDED
42. Agitates : ROILS
43. On the calmer side : ALEE
44. Pretense : GUISE
45. Pay to play : ANTE
46. Ebenezer's epithet : BAH
48. Parking lot misfortune : DENT
49. Does sum work : ADDS
53. Tweezers holders : ETUIS
55. Together, to Toscanini : A DUE
56. Rage : WRATH
57. Trip odometer button : RE-SET
58. Rogers rival : AUTRY (Gene)
61. Some singers : ALTOS
63. Shocked : JOLTED
64. Egyptian royal cross : ANKH
66. One of five in a kids' rhyme : PIGGY
67. Tannish gray : TAUPE.
68. Snow shoveling aftermath, maybe : ACHE. Not a happy thought.69. Bad thing on a record : BLOT
70. Austrian city with a torte named after it : LINZ. Linzer Torte. Not familiar to me. Have some!
71. This puzzle's honoree, for one : TOON72. Jack of "The Great Dictator" : OAKIE
73. Hard worker : PLIER. Not a PLIER here, just a "Hard worker", with curious eyes. Looks like the Saturday Stud is left-handed.
75. Cambridge sch. : M.I.T.76. Exam for future docs : MCAT
79. Poke : PROD
82. Ore-Ida item : TATER TOT. So many ways to cook potatoes. I liked fried, you?
85. Army sack? : COT
86. Bowl cheer : RAH
88. Capri attraction : GROTTO
89. Deep cut : GASH
90. Most fit to serve : ONE A
91. Leafy alcove : BOWER
92. ORD, on an airline ticket : O'HARE
93. Bit of high jinks : ANTIC. Funny link from CrossEyedDave yesterday. I never knew cleavage is a term in mineralogy.
94. Handles : NAMES
95. Mayan calendar symbol, e.g. : GLYPH. Let's see what happens on Dec 21, 2012.
96. Trivial : PETTY
97. Vibrating night sound : SNORE. Alright, "Vibrating"!
98. Biceps exercises : CURLS
99. Ed Asner septet : EMMYS. His is a record by a male actor.
102. Get an __ effort : E FOR
103. 1871 Cairo premiere : AIDA
104. Sandal revelations : TOES
105. Cuts off : ENDS
107. Icarus's undoing : SUN
109. Tape player spec. : IPS. Inches per second. I googled this before.
110. "Just kidding!" : NOT
Answer grid.
C.C.
Notes from Marti (HeartRx on the blog):
This puzzle started out as a simple Monday-level theme with "s" sound switched for "th". My title was "Going Daffy". Rich really liked the idea, but was concerned that some might think we were making fun of a lisp. So he suggested that I make it into a Sunday puzzle, in order to use the whacky title. I was lucky to fit eight theme entries into the grid, spaced both across and down. I also had to be careful not to use any phrases that contained a word with any extra "s" in it. I hope you enjoy it.
53 comments:
Congratulations Marti ! Argh for me though. An hour and 44 minutes, and had to resort to red letter help. Thank you CC. At 6D, I thought of Pears
Had GROWTH but took awhile to get MARGIN. Had ALIEN but not WRAITH. Had POKER but not FAITH.
Favorite clues / answers ? 4D Storied surprise Winner = TORTOISE. 44A Cape Cod feature = GABLE, 60A Fence Sit STRADDLE, 102A Tick Off ENUMERATE. Most of all, 108A The truth about Zeus, Apollo etc. clue.
Liked the Crossing of BOARDING PATH AND OHARE, and MIGHTY MOUTH and TOON.
I think you should frame and prominently display your first Sunday !
Hello Puzzlers -
Well done, Marti! A smooth and clever Sunday puzz to add to your list of accomplishments!
I managed a fairly speedy solve, but still had to look up Oakie in order to get some traction in that little neighborhood. The nearby kith was slow to pop in, until it dawned on me it was themed.
Argyle, Spitz and other up-staters - I'm heading to Waterford NY today for the tugboat festival. It's my first time, I'm assured it's a fun outing.
Morning, all!
Delightful puzzle. The theme was really nice and once I got it (with 37D's POKER FAITH) I was able to go back and fill in some earlier gaps.
The top 2/3rds of the puzzle went by pretty smoothly, but I nearly crashed and burned at the bottom. RIP IT in particular caused me grief, as I simply couldn't think of anything that would fit after getting the initial R.
I initially had ARBOR for 91D and only removed it when I finally realized that 100A must be DENY. Of course, 100A ended up actually being OH NO (I like DENY better), but it least I got rid of ARBOR and eventually thought of BOWER.
Oh -- and I was thinking of the wrong type of "tick off" for 102A and had MAKE IRATE for awhile....
Good morning, C.C. and friends. Great Sunday puzzle, Marti. I especially liked. FRENCH KITH.
I was momentarily led astray by the Cape Cod clue. I initially thought of Beach. The perps reminded me of the House of (7) GABLES. (Hawthorne was from New England!)
If I remember correctly, this is Kazie's and her husband's 40th. Happy Anniversary.
Greetings!
Still can't sleep. So here I am.
Loved the puzzle, Marti! Thank you so much! Fine expo, CC. No cheats necessary for this one, and not too long.
Cottoned to theme early on. Got it right away with FOURTH OF GRAVITY. Favorite: ALIEN WRAITH.
Really loved all of the humor in yesterday's blog!
Cheers and good night, I hope!
Hi There~!
Well done, HeartRx~!
I filled in FOURTH OF GRAVITY, but it took a second to figure out the gimmick - oh, Daffy ~!!
I liked the twist on "tick off" with "enumerate", and happy to see FIT TO A TEE spelled out as well.
Thanks for the picture, C.C.; I still have that speed square and Ryobi battery saw - still going after 12 years ~!
Splynter
Well.
My idiot newspaper has the title as Going Daddy not Going Daffy.
Couldn't figure it out until I read it here.
Oh well I did get it finished.
Hi, McPoke. I was wondering; can you add an avatar without giving an information.
Dudley, I was at the Tug Fest yesterday. They have some nice boats this year, as usual.
2012 Tugboat Roundup Link.
I believe Daffy would have lisped the "ti" in Mythinformation, and fairly wetly too.
If the Roundup doesn't float your (tug)boat, come on up to the Washington County Cheese Tour.
Good morning, C.C., and congrats on your first Sunday puzzle, Marti. It was "Going Daddy" in my local paper too. I wondered why Daddy was a TOON.
I zipped and zoomed through this one until I got to the mid-Atlantic region. OAKIE and PLIER were very slow to appear. I thought Zeus, Apollo, etc. might be the MYTH UNIVERSE.
While reading C.C.'s comments, I realized that I'd totally missed quite a few clues because they were already filled in.
I guess you'd say somebody was EPT in the same way you'd refer to the weather as clement. I thought the clues for ENUMERATE and FRENCH KITH were very cute.
Time for that bike ride. It's finally warmed up enough to ride. Can you believe it? Just two days ago we were pushing 100! Today I've remembered to take some bread for the Muscovy ducks and Australian black swans that live on Pine Pond.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Marti, for an excellent Sunday puzzle. Congrats on your first one! Thank you, C.C., for the nice review and good comments about Marti.
Got started easily in the NW. Did not know 6D, even though I live in the town of Bartlett. I also wanted PEARS, but perps prevented that. Finally QUOTE became obvious.
Big trouble in the NE. I wrote in GLOBE for 22A very confidently, since I already had the G from EGO. Finally, at the very end, STING popped into my head and GSTAR worked. That was my last corner to finish.
First theme answer was MIGHTY MOUTH. Now I had it. That helped a lot with the entire puzzle.
112A really stumped me for a while. I kept thinking of INEPT and therefore EPT, but never heard of that word. Was not sure of GLYPH either. Tried it and it worked.
Had DURESS for 117A for quite a while. Finally NOT and IPS fixed that to STRESS.
Fun puzzle. Thank you, Marti.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Great puzzle, Marti! Challenging but entertaining! Nice start on a Sunday morning. I like some chuckles along the way. Thanks for your input, C.C.
My paper had Daffy and I caught onto the theme with FOURTH. However, I failed to realize 37& 47 downs were part of the theme for a while. I had "potholders" for 37D and "Away" at 87A so KITH was last to fall. Didn't know KAL or OAKIE and thought PLIER was a bit of a stretch for the clue.
C.C.-The potato dish I make most for just myself is OreIda Potatoes O'Brien with chunked ham cooked in the microwave with light sour cream stirred in.
Good morning all.
Very enjoyable puzzle Marti. Does this complete the cycle for you?
I had to work without the theme as well. The paper had it right, but the paper was late. So, I printed it out from the Trib site, and that hard copy had no theme. Since I'd failed to notice it when printing, I was working without that assistance. It also lacked a clue for 71D, which didn't help. So, had a few gaps until the paper came and I had the full set of clues.
Favorite theme answers: MythInformation and FrenchKith. Favorite clues: Cape Cod feature and Storied winner.
Did not know the SLA symbol, but the clue said it had to be them. Interestingly, this clip shows the same picture of Patty Hurst as the one you put up, C.C. Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
Good morning everyone. Nice bright write-up as always, C. C. Thanks.
Good workout from Marti, but a nice balanced puzzle as C. C. said. Got most of it in due course, but had trouble at the ...KITH/KAL cross. Sort of a Natick. (Knew but did not remember the kith and kin connection). Good job, Marti.
Dudley, can't make the tugboat love-in today. When I was a kid, our cow pasture abutted the canal section of the upper Hudson. There was regular commercial traffic of tugboats and barges. One foggy morning there was a tug and tow moored to our willows along the river.(because the pilot couldn't see the marker buoys.) So, being nosy, I wandered down as close as I could, and the cook threw me a donut. So I had bragging rights at breakfast that morning.
C.C. - TH sound. My parents always had trouble with TH, too. Not easy for German speakers. (My dad always took his 'teess' [false teeth] out to brush them.) A leading TH tended to have a 'd' sound like 'de' for 'the'.
What a fun initial Sunday puzzle from Marti! The first thing I did after finishing was to Google KITH and WRAITH! Ain’t never heerd ‘em afore! Other theme answers were a hoot and I am not averse to learning, so no carping in these quarters.
Musings
-Yesterday was a great day with grandkids and the Husker #1 VB team won but footballers couldn’t have tackled me. I’ll COPE and not STRESS.
-Fun cluing for EPT, ENUMERATE, TOES, GABLE, FLUES
-C.C., politics and history are written with the predispositions of the author – like TASS
-Gophers can make a golf course have many more than 18 holes
-12 garage sales in our ‘hood yesterday saw a lot of Wal~Mart bags being RE-USEd
-100 ml of hot water and then dry ice in a capped LITER bottle is very explosive
-We drove through this Hot Springs last week
-One man’s SMUT is another’s…
-The debate continues as whether Patty was a willing SLA member
-This is/was a packing house town with Hormel’s. Spam anyone?
-I think of Roy and Gene being contemporaries rather than rivals
-Very little Snow shoveling last year and this year the schools HAVE to make up any snow days they get
-Is there a wrong way to prepare TATERS?
-A colleague got fired for using cleavage, hardness and other terms inappropriately in freshman earth science (among other indiscretions)
-Marti, as I have linked before TBBT has a lisper in a recurring role and I haven’t heard anyone protest
Good morning C.C. et al.
Thanks for the kind words, C.C.! If you have never had LINZer torte, you are missing out on a delicious Austrian specialty. I especially like the apricot-filled ones, but they are all good.
Avg. Joe @9:44, no - I don't think I have had a Wednesday or Saturday puzzle.
Spitzboov, I think in every language there are problem letters. For me, it is the German "ch", as in München.
A couple of my favorite theme entries had to be discarded to make this grid:
THUMBER VACATION [Hitchhiker's time off?] - In order to be consistent, I needed the "TH" sound to occur at the end of the theme word.
RANDY MOTH [Luna looking for love?] - I don't think Randy Moss is a household name. He and Brady were unstoppable, and Moss set a receiving record for the Patriots in '07.
But POKER FAITH and FRENCH KITH made the cut - yay!
Speaking of TBBT, have any of you paused the playback right at the end. Some of those written comments are hilarious! But they're only on the screen for about a second. I think that practice started with TAAHM (Two And A Half Men).
Good morning:
Hats off to Marti for a challenging and clever Sunday debut. I, too, had arbor before bower, elite before easy A, and estd before anno. Last to fill was the p in glyph which was a guess. I was happy to finish w/o any help, but it took quite a while. Brava, Marti, and thanks to CC for the great expo and shout out.
Dudley, have fun at the Tugboat Rally. I've never been to it but I have been to the Visitor Center and docks which are very nice and well-maintained. Argyle's suggestion re the Washington County Cheese Festival sounds enticing, as well.
Have a great Sunday everyone.
Hello, C.C. and all.
Mati, congratulations on your Sunday debut! It's a hoot.
It was fun sashaying through most of this. Big stumble at Patty SMYTH as I've not heard of her. Finally looked at Mr. G.
And it took much longer than necessary to suss FOURTH OF GRAVITY as I cannot always recall VSOP.
POKER FAITH also took too long but the light finally turned on to finish it when I remembered the theme.
No problem with Bartlett's QUOTE as I have often consulted it.
Hand up for ESTB before ANNO and POSTED then FOLDED, OONA, no, OOLA.
Have a delightful Sunday, everyone!
Dudley:
If you were to feed the ducks here in Scottsdale you would be arrested and fined. The practice has been banned in this area for sanitary reasons.
Musings 2
-I thought of Marti’s theme while I was in church today. Can you decipher the response for the clue Papal arithmetic that fits Marti’s idea?
-BTW, I was bored enough to think of a bunch of others but will keep them to myself.
-Lucina, if you take bread out to the geese here at the Fremont State Lakes, they come running toward you hissing and sticking out their tongues.
-Tug boaters, we did not have that option at the Nebraska State Fair, but you could avail yourself of free rides around the horse race track in $300,000 combines.
-Not only do I admire the effort it takes to make a Sunday (or any day for that matter) puzzle but the fact that Randy Moth, etc. were in the mix and then discarded is amazing. How long must it take to fill the grid, be true to the theme and be clever! My hat is always off to our resident bloggers Marti, C.C., Jerome and all the other constructors. (Sorry if I missed someone by name).
Marti: ALL moths are randy!
I almost never do the Sunday Crossword.
But it is raining Cats & Dogs here so I was very happy to see the offering was from MARTI.
FUN puzzle, enjoyed the theme.
I will admit that I have no idea what you would have after Snow shoveling, 68-D.
A clean driveway or sidewalk?
When it snows here ... we just let it pile-up. lol
The SUN must be setting somewhere ... soooo, Cheers!
What's TBBT?
The Big Bang Theory
Hello everybody. I liked this puzzle a lot. Thank you for creating it, Marti.
Favorite fill is FRENCH KITH, and favorite clue is Sandal revelations.
Could not finish the place where KAL and OAKIE crossed paths, not knowing who either of them is. Had to resort to looking Mr. Penn up. Hand up for ARBOR and ESTB.
Catholic Math?
C.C., I enjoy watching how your mind works.
Best wishes to you all.
Impossible to find the theme when the Billings Gazette titled the puzzle "Going Daddy"!!!
Marti, yes thank you. I did enjoy it very much 'cause I seemed to be on your wavelength. Sussing out the theme helped with the solving. C.C., I enjoyed the writeup too.
Have people replaced "You're welcome" with "No problem" in your neck of the woods? It's become commonplace here, especially among restaurant servers. It bugs my wife.
This puzzle had lots to do with ducks and such so here is a video that made me very nervous. Everything works out well in the end though.
Mommy duck escorting her babies across a busy road.
Jayce @ 1:22, FWIW, my first clue for KAL was "___ Kan: Alpo alternative". Would that have helped?
Marti:
I imagine the Alpo reference might have helped. I only learned about KAL Penn last week when he spoke at the DNC.
BTW, lately he has been e-mailing me regularly!
HeartRx, yes, I would have been able to solve that clue.
I must have missed him at the DNC. Lucina, he wants your, um, vote!
Kal Penn played my favorite doctor on House. After he "died" on that show, I stopped watching House.
Husker Gary, Papal arithmetic would be MATH.
Chuck Lorre is (in)famous for his episode-ending vanity cards.
Favorite clue: Might Mouth (Here I come, to save the day!).
Jayce:
How disappointing! He had me at "I want your . . .
Bill G:
From last night. Thank you. I appreciated that and thought you might still be awake.
Randy Moth just scored for the 49ers....
Marti, Congratulations on yr 1st Sunday puzzle! Unfortunately i am mad enough to chew the pen i used to fill it in!
The Newark NJ Star Ledger also had the theme as "Going Daddy." I actually thought i might have had a chance if i never knew the misrepresented theme, but alas the Blog once again pointed out my DNF that i never saw coming.
Several things made me skew up this puzzle.
1) wrong theme
2)41A i had blamed instead of framed, which i could have recovered from, except:
3)I was sure, positive, that 91A jet bridge had to, must be, "boarding ramp." Plus, not looking for lisps, & a "toon" daddy, pass/path was inconceivable.
(plus after just flying to Naples, climbing up & down that ramp they call a "jetway" was on my brain.)
But, in the end, i can only blame myself for screwing it up, because the Blog pointed out that 102D is not "get an "a" for effort." Anumerate completely blew past my radar!
Oh Well!
No crossword blog about Daffy Duck would be complete without this clip.
Unfortunately, the best part is the lead in that forces Daffy into this act. But the complete clip does not appear to be available.
Just back from the Tugboat Rally. Lots of interesting boats, good weather, and a good crowd! The downside: way too many vendors selling absolute crap.
The canal facilities do look very well maintained.
CED, I loved the Daffy Duck clip. Since you seem to know, what lead up to his cartoonly demise?
Feels like east coast weather; warm and humid.
Here's a cute slide show of 13 Yawning animals..
Marti: I just watched Rory McElroy win his 2nd golf tournament in a row. I have a question maybe you can answer. When you attend a big golf tournament like you did last week, does your entrance ticket allow you to go anywhere you want? Or does the ticket limit you to certain hole areas? You said you saw Louis on the 6th to 9th holes. Do they charge more for the 16th to 18th holes?
All this talk about tugboats has resurrected a distant memory of a children's story called Little Toot.
The one I remember the best was Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel though.
congrats marti!!! well done and much enjoyed :)
PK, the "Champion" ticket that we purchased allowed us to go anywhere on the grounds. In order to sit in certain grandstand areas, you had to pay more. But I would rather wander around the course at my leisure than be stuck in a specific seat.
Rory sure can play, can't he? I would have liked to have seen Mickelson win, but you can't beat talent like that!
Hello all. Late to the blog by east coast standards, but it's just BBQ time here in CA.
Congrats to Marti...WOW...a SUNDAY! Our newspaper publishes the NYT's Sunday puzzle so I have to print out the LAT. I'm glad I did, or I would have missed your Sunday debut.
I missed "EPT" so it was a DNF for me. And I had the hardest time
trying to figure out the theme...duh.
Let's hope for a 6 minute Monday!
Ciao for now
I always loved tugboats, & i think it was because of a story in a golden key book about a toy tugboat that got away from a little boy in a stream, & had a great adventure traveling all the way to the sea.
Bill G.
Disney's little toot.
Daffy's demise in the above clip came because every time Bugs Bunny went on stage, he received applause, but poor Daffy only ever got crickets. No matter what he did. Until this last one time only performance!
Yes, I was bored stiff at a Catholic Mass and the Papal arithmetic would be Catholic Math.
All right, one more - Salt water cleansing in Santiago
CHILEAN SEA BATH
All right, one more - Narrow, breeze-blocking board
WIND LATH
All right, done! I'll take the others to my grave!
CED, thanks for Little Toot. It brings back fond, very old memories. I'm going to be sure to show it to Jordan the next time he comes over.
Gary, good ones!
Marti: My weekend was filled with meetings, friend`s receptions for various achievements etc. more so than usual...but when I saw it was your puzzle, I tried it. I really enjoyed it...just didn`t have time to finish it without cheating.
All of the theme clues were so clever. Why couldn`t the gimmick work in reverth (osmosis)? Like: "moss balls" "firth grade" and "sierra myth?"
Very fun puzzle today! As a kid, I lithped, and was prodded by my very dear, fun-loving Uncle Bob to recite Sally sells seashells by the seashore and it worked! Speaking of seashores, Cape Cod, one of our favorite places ever, was in the grid today, but I was thinking penninsula SE of Boston, not the house! Didn't care for 47D clue, thought it could have been Parisian smooch (didn't get "pals"). Great time all in all!
Parisian smooch is French kiss.
Parisian pals are French kith, kith meaning friends(from the phrase, "kith and kin".
Thank you, Argyle, I learned something new today, I had never heard of the word "kith". A PS to the puzzle, love the Navy goats, but better love the Army mules! Have been to the last 4 Army-Navy games, too bad Army always loses. Fantastic times, games, people, show of support for our military. Our son is a West Point grad, serving active duty here at home (thank God). If you ever have a chance, go to an Army-Navy football game, tailgate, etc., it's a really great thing.
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