To online solvers, whenever you see a "-" sign in a grid, it means there's no clue/clue number for that entry. Puzzle software does not allow empty clues, hence editors often use "-" as a signal. Your on-line clue numbers will be different from Lemonade's write-up number.
Today's grid should look like this:
THEME: Water falls. Some of the fill does as well.
Each of the six theme answers requires the word WATER presented top to bottom connected with across fill to complete the fill for the clue. As the Friday Master of Ceremonies, I get these visually creative, but outre puzzles where much of the fill is in un-clued space. When we had Ian Livengood's version back in January, he had the words be read backwards, this time you have to picture the entire answer and figure out what spaces to grab to put it all in. The symmetry of effort is wonderful blending the across and down part of each theme answer, keeping the long fill at 15. This effort is from David Phillips (?) and David Steinberg, one of the wunderkinds of construction, still in high school I think. You can read all about him on his own LINK. let us get right to the puzzle, because like Lucy, I got a lot of 'splaining to do, especially if the online sites numbered wrong again.
1A. Perennial Oscars staple : PRICE W, - No Clue D. : WATER. - No Clue A. : R HOUSE. PRICE WATERHOUSE. (15). We all know this accounting firm tabulates the Oscar votes and places the winner's name in a sealed envelope, to be opened on stage. (Also the basis of Johnny Carson's Mayonnaise jar). Anyway, a very tough way to begin, with 1A unfillable without the perps.
6A. Canoeist's challenge : WHITE W. - No Clue D. : WATER. WHITE WATER (10). I can only think of Deliverance and will never go in a river again.
31A. Prevent that sinking feeling? : TREAD W. - No Clue D. : WATER. TREAD WATER (10). A literal and figurative clue.
45A. Best Picture of 1954 : ON THE W - No Clue D. : WATER. - No Clue A. : R FRONT. ON THE WATERFRONT. (15) The wonderful Brando, Rod Steiger movie.
19 D : WATER. - No Clue A : R VAPOR. WATER VAPOR (10). This clued steamed me.
42 D. River phenomena (or what literally happens six times in this puzzle) : WATER. - No Clue A. : R FALLS. WATER FALLS (10).
Across:
11. Game with pelotas : JAI ALAI. The hard rubber ball used in the fronton, caught in the cesta.
13. Maria ___, the last House of Habsburg ruler : THERESA. Your history LESSON.
14. They're found in bars : SPIRITS. This is doubly true, as alcohol is known as spirits, and I imagine a lot of ghosts haunt the bars.
15. Most comfortable : HOMIEST. This was difficult for me, but I had already committed to doing down clues first, so...
16. Breed canines? : TEETHE. Really fun clue, I could not think of anything which passed the breakfast test.
18. "Peter Pan" character : SMEE. Classic crosswordese.
19. Erase, as from memory : WIPE. The NEURALIZER.(0:56).
24. Ukr., once : SSR. Ukraine was once one of the the Republics.
25. Honey Bear portrayer in "Mogambo" : AVA. Gardner, reprising the role first done by Jean Harlow in Red Dust. LINK. (4:17) Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, what more do you want.
26. Like some labor : MENIAL. Interestingly from the Latin word for house, which is also the root for maison in French and Mansion in English. It referred to 'house workers' who were also called menials.
28. Emotionally strained : TAUT.
30. Cabinet dept. created under LBJ : HUD. Part of his Great Society legislation the Housing and Urban Development Department was created to protect home buyers and foster home ownership and urban growth.
34. Intertwines : ENLACES. Like your fingers in the church/steeple.
36. Pygmalion's statue : GALATEA. Not the Eliza Doolittle story but the wonderful Greek MYTH.
37. Course number : PAR. This clue was average, par for the course.
38. Touched : FELT.
39. "A Tale of Love and Darkness" author : AMOS OZ. This BOOK about the early days of Israel.
41. Native Coloradan : UTE.
42. Financial Times rival, briefly : WSJ. Wall Street Journal.
46. Train with dukes? : SPAR. Not from Downton, but put up your dukes and box.
47. "I hate to interrupt, but..." : AHEM. Not to be confused with 7D. Shut (in) : HEM.
49. Strasbourg's region : ALSACE. This city is the capital of a region that is between German and France and has changed hands often.
51. In a defensable manner : TENABLY.Last week tenable, this week the LY.
54. Biological reversion : ATAVISM. The human tail which is quite evident in a fetus is the classic example.
58. Newborn raptors : EAGLETS. Birds were dinosaurs.
Down:
1. Retiree's attire? : PJS. Just pajama's retiring to bed, not from work, unless you are Hugh Hefner.
2. Knock : RAP. Knock music has no ring to it.
3. "Revenge of the Sith" episode number : III. The last of the prequels. VII is supposedly in the works.
4. Café reading : CARTE. Our French lesson Lolita, for menu.
5. Peace Nobelist two years after Desmond : ELIE. Wiesel. The entire LIST.
6. Time-traveling Doctor : WHO. Who?
8. Pupil controller : IRIS. I love explaining EYES.
9. Swarms : TEEMS.This puzzle teems with tough clues.
10. Scoreless trio? : ESSES. Classic misdirection, look at the clue, don't define it.
12. Formation meaning "neck" in Greek : ISTHMUS. It connects to large bodies, either land or in the body connecting larger parts, such as the Thyroid Isthmus. Not a happy word if you lisp.
13. N.Y.C. country club? : THE UN. Country Club, really cute, but when I first read this I had already filled it in and was thinking of my friend Michael Theun form wrestling in High School.
17. Broke ground : HOED. They are forever breaking new grounds.
20. Co-tsar with Peter I : IVAN V. Love the co-star anagram pun. LINK. Fun stuff you can learn here.
21. TV cook Deen : PAULA. She gets enough publicity without me.
22. Prominent instrument in "Paint It, Black" : SITAR. The psychedelic instrument of choice. LISTEN. (3:40).
23. British nobleman : EARL. Robert Crawley.
27. Biblical cover-up : LEAF. In the garden of Eden after the apple.
29. Snack in un bar : TAPA. We have lots of places serving tapas in SoFla. They are not all Spanish THEMED.
30. Leggy wader : HERON. For Splynter WATCH.(1:55)
32. Couldn't get enough of : ATE UP.
33. American rival : DELTA. Airlines, not countries.
35. "It's Impossible" crooner : COMO. He ended up living in Jupiter, Florida, SONG.(3:14)
36. Watches with wonder : GAZES AT.
37. Sci-fi writer Frederick : POHL. Wonderful imagination, he married his wife when he was 65.
40. Legal orders : STAYS. Hard one, as there are so many Orders, though Stays especially of execution are important.
43. Harvest sight : SHEAF
44. Tower-building game : JENGA. Remember WHEN? (1:44)
46. Cut off : SEVER.
48. Suburban symbol : MALL.
50. Pasture newborn : CALF.
52. ___ canto : BEL. Opera term, HOW TO.(7:32).
53. Mil. ranks : LTS. Lieutenants.
55. Prefix with propyl : ISO.
56. It might be original : SIN. Did you SEE? (1:16).
57. Boulder hrs. : MST. Mountain Standard Time and the time zone where my youngest lives and time for me to wrap this up. So what do you all think of this style of puzzle. Rich does not allow a rebus puzzle, how about ones without conventional structure?
Again thanks to all who enjoyed my Charlotte. i also want to send Marti to the ACPT with our best wishes.
Lemonade out.
87 comments:
Morning, all!
*ouch*
Physically, my shoulder still hurts and I have to go out and shovel this morning. Mentally, I just got my brain slapped around by this puzzle...
I got the general theme idea pretty early on, which let me fill in WATER where the clues were marked with "-". But I didn't expect that some involved two clues and others involved three clues, so that took a lot longer to figure out.
Even when I did finally figure out the entirety of the theme, however, I still had to deal with TENABLY, GALATEA, TELESIS and ALSACE. But still, I persevered...
And then I hit the crossing of AMOSOZ and GAZEDAT. Despite the fact that I actually knew Frederik POUL and Perry COMO, I initially went with GAPED AT, and it looked so good that it stayed there. I had no idea who Mr. or Mrs. AMASOP was, but I had never heard of "A Tale of Love and Darkness" in the first place, so I figured it was just some unknown author with a weird last name. I finally had to turn on the red letter help to find my mistake.
[mollori]
Sorry, make that, "I had no idea who Mr. or MRS. AMOSOP was..."
[yphuall]
Good morning!
I immediately noticed the missing numbers in the grid, and assumed (incorrectly) that the preceding down answer would be paired with the no-number answer. When my RAPIDS turned to WHITE_ I finally caught on.
Still struggled with "Most Comfortable" -- COZIEST, EASIEST nope, HOMIEST. Fortunately, I started with GAZES AT and then wondered about AMOSOZ, but let it stand. Had I started with GAPES AT it probably would have stayed. ATAVISM and TELESIS were all perps -- I recognized them as words once they were complete, but sure couldn't have defined 'em.
It took a while to get going, but it wasn't a particularly difficult puzzle once the theme became obvious. I liked it.
Well, that puzzle just crashed every browser I had repeatedly whenever I hit certain of the boxes. It happened whenever I was mucking about with the unclued spaces. If I clicked on the box for the R in pricewateRhouse, for example... no matter what, crash! Forced me to open Explorer for the first time in years, but crashed that too. Tried both LA Times and Chicago Tribune sites. So, looked like a fun puzzle, I probably could have solved it, but I guess I'll never know. Sigh.
Rojo, you can always go old school. Print out the grid and solve it on paper. I know, that means there'll be no "tada" at the end, but it makes it more challenging.
tough Puzzle Chicago tribune site could not handle the complex fill and would crash after several answers. used the Mensa site to solve puzzle. It was a tough fill as the Puzzle required multiple clues boxes both across and down to get answers.
TGIF
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. YOUCH!! This was a tough puzzle. I must say, I am not keen on these no-clue puzzles.
There were some really good and clever clues, however. I loved They're Found in Bars = SPIRITS.
For all you readers out there, I highly recommend AMOS OZ's book A Tale of Love and Darkness. I loved that book.
MST reminded me that we Spring Forward this weekend and lose an hour of sleep Saturday night.
QOD: The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Mar 8, 1841 ~ Mar. 6, 1935)
[enadab]
[missgie]
Where is Coopers ? Who audited this puzzle ?
Very challenging puzzle David Steinberg and David Phillips. Thank you very much. Was close to doing something else when I saw all of the clues that had a -, but glad I stuck with it. Saw the gimmick with TREADWATER as that eastern area fell first, then the north east with WHITE WATER.
"Most comfortable" was making me uncomfortable. Autofilled EST due to the superlative, and had the O from WHO down, and the I from IRIS, so it had to be cOziEST. No, HOMIEST.
Read way too much into "Biblical cover up" and LOL when LEAF appeared
Was going to have a nit with "NYC Country Club' as too specific, but then had the aha moment.
Perps helped fill THERESA, ATAVISM and GALATEA. Almost filled AMOSOZ, but I still had TENABLe before Y below, and "Legal Orders" -TAES was making no sense. Red letter help gave me the Y and STAYS became apparent.
This is one of those puzzles where I'm glad I had red letter help.
Time to go read Lemonade.
My Red Ink Pen was "no help" at all.
DNF ... **it happens!
Fave today (of course) was 14-a, They're found in bars, SPIRITS.
Cheers!!!
Yikes, this one beat me up. All the way to a DNF. Had Hew for HUD, SheaR for SEVER (and that was my final, wrong, answer). writS for STAYS... the list goes on. Got the theme at ON THE WATERFRONT, but did not know any of the SE otherwise. Im worn out and I still have to go to work. Paper looks like a Rorschach? ink blot. Wonder what tomorrow holds???
ombdge
TTP, Coopers had a breakfast meeting with Lybrand and couldn't make the puzzle today.
Today is International Women's Day according to Google. Any international women in the house?
My real feelings about today's offering ...
Help me, Thumper
Finished with help from google.
I new about atavism but did not know what it was called.
I am lucky to have my 19 year old son in the house. He is my go to movie clue guy. He always can help me.
Thanks for the great write up.
Enjoy your weekend.
Mornin' to all,
Thank heavens that C.C. told us about the Mensa site!
No missing numbers there.
Mainly my problem was a case of 'over-thinking', should have just put in a "w" and gone with that answer.
Glad we have the red letter help.
Was going to say Good Morning.....but is it???
Thanks C.C. for finding the Mensa site for us. All the numbers were there and it is the old format; which is needed for a little ole lady.
Glad of the red letter help today. Otherwise, WBS.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, David and David, for one tough puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for one outstanding write-up.
Well, I got home last night and thought I would download the puzzle from cruciverb. I did, and it worked. I started the puzzle and had all the blank numbers. I went here and there and got a few obvious ones, then went to bed scratching my head.
Got up this morning and went at it again. I think I got WHITE WATER first. Then I had an idea of what was up. Eventually got through it.
TELESIS was not known, but perps helped.
Had TACO for 32D, but eventually fixed that to TAPA.
Did not know AMOS OZ or POHL. I was missing the "O" Figured it was a vowel so I started entering vowels one at a time. When I got to "O" the IPad told me I was done.
I went to this site and saw what the paper version would have looked like. So, I opened my paper and saw that it was much different than the cruciverb version. Missing numbers. I do believe that if i had done the newspaper version it would have been easier for me. I usually do it that way.
I commend the constructors for putting this together. It must have been a bear. I am glad we do not get this type of puzzle too often. I guess once in a while is OK.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(dustdin)
Sorry! I'm learning!
Hi Team,
I liked this one. I'll admit the grid's missing numbers threw me off for a bit, but once I got the first wrap around clue the fill came rapidly.
I wanted HHS (Health and Human Services) for HUD.
Great clues:
- 14A They're found in bars: SPIRITS of Tinbenis
- 16A Breed Canines? TEETHE
- 31A - Prevent that Sinking Feeling: TREAD WATER (that's the first wrapper I got)
It was nice to see Jai Alai and Elie W. clued differently.
Thanks Hahtoola for the reminder about the time change and the most excellent quote!
Enjoy your day.
Good morning everyone,
This was not a DNF today, it was a NEC (Not even close). I"ll take the advice Thumper offered in Tin's link and defer any of my thoughts.
Now I'm off to clear a path or two of wet snow, about a foot and it's still snowing.
Good morning everyone.
Once the way the WATER fill had to work, it was not too difficult to solve. TENABLY in the SW was last to fall. 53d, mil. ranks could have been almost anything, but LTS seemed apropos.
Here is Franz von Suppé's Overture to The Beautiful GALATHEA.
We ate dinner at PAULA Deen's restaurant in Savannah 10 years ago.
Have a good weekend.
On the Mensa site I saw the dashes and groaned. They psyche me out. Then I got the newspaper with the un-numbered squares and could see the pattern. In the NW PRICE- was solid and I had ISTHMUS giving me the H, so PRICE WATER HOUSE was easy. I got the gimmick and bucked up, finishing handily with a only few hiccups.
Taco before TAPA, shear before SEVER, gape before GAZE. I Googled Amos Op and found AMOS OZ instead. I am kicking myself for not looking for an alternative for gape. I don't use red letters, so I missed by one letter before I Googled it.
Actually I liked this puzzle better than most with this gimmick. It was quite clever. I no longer do the Sunday NYT because of all their gimmicks.
Interesting write up, Lemonade.
I toured Maria Theresa’s Schönbrunn Palace and gardens in Vienna. They were beautiful and the docent gave an interesting lesson on Maria Theresa.
Thank you Lemonade. I too enjoyed the co-tsar clue. I always enjoy your wit. And links. So much to read and learn. I will have to get back to some of them. Long day in store today.
See all y'all later.
PS, Marti, aren't you supposed to be cramming ? You go girl !
Good morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.
Thanks for the superb write-up and links, Lemony! Great job explaining a very complex theme. Oh, and thanks for wishing me luck this weekend - I have a feeling I'm going to need it!
Our two Davids created a beauty today! I solved this one on paper, and really, really, really loved it! Once I figured out the WATER falls, it was quite easy to see the symmetrical placements, and I just filled those in first. (Was that cheating?) It did make the rest of the puzzle a speed run, as I eliminated many possibilities for the misleading clues that way.
TGIF !!
I had some missteps that actually made for a fun solve. I had COZIEST for HOMIEST, but HEZ didn't look right. I had MANUAL for MENIAL and lived with HOAD until SITAR bailed me out. I had (Nat King) COLE for (Perry) COMO, and since I didn't know AMOSOZ I needed ONTHEWATERFRONT to bail me out. I had TENABLE for TENABLY, EVA for AVA, and, for some reason, SNEE for SMEE.
I ended up really enjoying the puzzle because I needed to undo my own mistakes to finish it off. I thought the WATER gimmick was maybe too easy for a Friday - once you see it, you get 6 free fills. I like the way there were two 3-worders with WATER in the middle, a constructing nicety I only now noticed.
Good Morning All- WHEW! This was a toughie. Thank you Davids for a real brain workout this morning. Like Abejo I started last night (with no red letter help), had LOTS of blanks and KNEW it would be a DNF for me. Printed it out this morning from my home newspaper and got to it. A few more fill-ins later and I decided to start lookups - mostly names, and didn't know pelotas def. I was about to give up, then filling in ONTHEW I saw the rest of the answer as I had some of the SE filled in. That was my aha moment and went back and filled in the rest of the themed answers. Yea!
Hands up for RAPIDS and COZIEST.
Thought of United Nations for 13D, but not abbreviating it. :(
Favorite clues were Scoreless trio (which I got) and Cafe reading (which I didn't get til the end)
Great write-up Lemonade - always appreciate the time you all put in explaining everything.
Thanks lucina and downtonabbey for your good wishes yesterday.
Have a great Friday everyone!
levGove
Oh, and does anyone else hate it when there's a clue that requires specialized knowledge and you don't have it? But then, hypocritically, when there's a specialized knowledge clue that you know, you love it?
Fred POHL is hardly a broadly known SF writer, but for those of us who love the genre, he's a legend. Loved seeing his name in there. Yet the clearly more known and accomplished AMOSOZ made me grumpy...
In over my head on this one. My first encounter with missing grid numbers. A learning experience. I'll be ready next time.
Hello Puzzlers -
What SJSJ Said.(8:50)
Nicely done, David and David! Thanks for a fun and challenging puzzle. I enjoy these creative themes.
Thanks, Lemon, for your writeup. A wave to Marti, have fun and good luck down there in Tournament country.
What a horrible puzzle, wait a minute, TREAD WATER (ironic that I could never do that), now I get it! What a hoot which evoked memories of Ian’s January offering for me too. I just have one letter to check out amosOz/pOhl crossing. Also loved NYC country club clue but I’d be good with knocking it down and putting in 18 holes. Sock it to me Lemon!
Musings
-When I think of “method acting”, Marlon’s On The Waterfront always comes to my mind
-We all hope that WATER VAPOR finds its way to the midlands this summer
-Oops, I had a SPINET piano in my bar – mark up two bad cells (hey, my O was right!)
-My dear friend’s two trips to Europe have been to see impoverished relatives in the Ukraine
-This retiree (I don’t do PJ’S) pitches in on all MENIAL labor here at Chez Schlapfer
-ALSACE seemed to be a prize in European wars
-We saw around 40 Eagles and EAGLETS on a frozen lake on our way to KC last month
-I enjoyed Star Wars I and after watching one sequel, I swore off the franchise. I ain’t Sheldon!
-We’re on our way to the land of Paula Deen next week. S’pose we all can get some grits down there?
-Noblemen – they’re born on third and think they’ve hit a triple
-EGRET/HERON? Picked wrong first. Same with WRITS/STAYS.
-Thanksgiving staple? Grandma Opal having too much wine and singing Bringing in the SHEAVES
-Was any performer less TAUT than Perry COMO?
-6 letter Sci Fi writer with an A, an M, an I, an O and it’s not ASIMOV? G’wan!
-Serious JENGA
-My dad spent all of his WWII stint on the most famous ISTHMUS in the world - a man a plan a canal panama. The Enola Gay kept him from having to invade the Japanese homeland.
- Off to visit Lemon’s links
Good morning CC & gang.
Terrific expo Lemon
WEES
My laugh out loud moment was when I noticed that the LEAF didn't cover the original SIN. =)
L8R
Wees. Not knowing what the dash meant, my 1st thought was " what a typo'd mess," so i immediately went red letter on the Mensa site.
Very difficult, I am glad I cheated my way thru this one. I had 5 waters before I got the theme, & my opinion of this puzzle is that it is all wet...
Ahem,, sorry,,, actually there is a lot of fodder for funny links, I may be busy all day!
1st, i would like to start with Jenga.
Wow! What a challenge today. Took 35 minutes with red letter and Google help. Very clever once it was figured out.
Liked NY country club,breed canines,pupil controller. (Some teachers have perfected THE LOOK to control pupils - LOL)
Didn't understand SCORELESS TRIO until I read the write-up.Thanks.
Interesting combo of BIBLICAL COVERUP - LEAF and ORIGINAL SIN.
History lesson today also - Austrian and Russian. Enjoyed a tour of Schonnbrunn palace in Vienna (summer home of Maria Theresa)
Jenga again. Mother-in-law played this with my kids when she was 100 and still could beat them with her steady hands!
desper-otto @7:37 - is Canadian international enough??
I used the MENSA site and it worked perfectly. Thanks C.C.
Best wishes to Marti at ACPT.
Thanks for the write up, Lemonade! I'm glad everyone enjoyed our puzzle. I met Dave Phillips at the Silicon Valley Puzzle Fest in 2012. He's studying to be an actuary at Berkeley and recently started teaching a crossword class there!
While at the Silicon Valley Puzzle Fest, Dave showed me a puzzle he'd constructed in which WATER was deleted from ordinary phrases. The reveal entry, of course, was WATERFALLS. I suggested that WATER could literally fall in the grid, and we ended up turning this puzzle into a collaboration. Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy our puzzle!
If you 'got it' and 'figured it' then you 'loved it.'
Ofcourse, it was a clever, brilliant, edgy, diabolical plan - but hey, your brains and superior intellect were more than above it. ( and s---w the other menial, pitiable, puny, ape-like minds.) Bwah-ha-ha !
If you went clueless, did not finish or were left hanging - it was crude, unfair, childish, passe', and many more derogatory words.
You slink to the corner, whine, moan and groan, and lick your wounds.( and rail at God for making you an inferior humanoid.)
Life's like that.
There are some very, very few 'haves' ( Tiger Woods, per example) and many, many more 'have nots'.
I got mine, and aren't I beautiful, handsome. clever, rich and an Adonis/ Madonna to boot.
Marti, GOOD LUCK at the ACPT ( glad, its you and not me ), carry a lucky rabbit's paw, an eastern talisman, a lucky shiny penny, your good luck sneakers, and (if you can) a surreptitious way to ogle Google.
People actually pay to go to the ACPT ? Theres still hope that I might sell at least one of them, the Brooklyn bridge.
Brilliant puzzle, Double Ds! I got excited as soon as I saw the little notice in the LA Times, telling us that the missing clue numbers were part of the puzzles theme. That helped a lot and although I started out with RAPIDS for the canoe challenge, I soon had WHITE WATER giving me a clue to the clues. Not easy, lots of patient work, lots of misdirection, but what fun!
Only problem in the end was the Natick (is it?) of AMOS OZ crossing POHL. I'd never heard of either of them and foolishly went with GAPES AT instead of GAZES AT. Retiree's attire was fun. I retired last year and kept wondering what I wore now that I didn't wear before. Doh! It finally hit me that we were talking sleep-wear here. NYC COUNTRY CLUB was another one that threw me. I kept thinking how the %$##& are we supposed to know this if we don't live in New York and don't play golf! Then it hit me.
Anyway, lots of fun, and Razz, your fig LEAF crossing SIN was a hoot!
Lemonade, fun expo. Have a great Friday, everybody!
Hi Everyone:
When I saw the - no clues, I thought, oh, big trouble but that wasn't the case because I caught onto the theme quickly. However, it was DNF because of the Natick of AmosOz and Pohl, both unknown to me.
In any case, kudos to the two Davids for a clever Friday challenge and to Lemony for his informative and enlightening expo.
Looking out on about 6-8 " of fresh snow. Pretty to look at but I'm glad I don't have to shovel it. Was planning a grocery run but I'm not sure about the conditions on the secondary roads. Maybe later.
Person of Interest was more intense than usual last night, I thought.
Happy Friday.
Hi there ~!
So disappointed that I couldn't finish this without red-letter - the crossing of POHL and AMOS OZ did me in....argh~!!
Not enough "leggy" in the clip, Lemon, but there was a brief moment...
HeartRx, to answer you question about my "EST", $18K.
Splynter
Hello! Great expo as ever, Lemonade, and no STAY on the execution of this clever, clever puzzle!
Thank you to both Davids for the challenge. For me these tricky ones seem impossible at first glance, but by skipping around, filling a cell here and a cell there, WATER FALLS gave me the Rosetta Stone, to use Hahtoolah's phrase.
From that I filled all the WATER gaps and was off and running.
I have also toured THERESA's exquisite palace in Austria as well as read her daughter's biography, Marie Antoinette, so that came easy.
But wait, a natick at POHL and AMOS OZ prevented my complete victory as I googled them both.
Thank you, Hahatoolah, for the book recommendation as I'm in a dry spell at the moment not having found a really good one to sink into.
Mari, I agree with your choice of clever clues.
Have a delightful Friday, everyone! The skies have opened up for us with much needed rain.
What Tinbeni said.
Disliked this immensely.
I thought the best one I remember of this sort was Merl Reagle's 76 trombones puzzle.
Merl’s [Instrument in the band] answers include GONG, CLARINET, EUPHONIUM ,TRUMPET, BASSOON, HORNS, TYMPANI, REEDS, and BASS.
Watch as he incorporates the clue numbers (76) (110) and it winds all over to quote: "76 trombones led the big parade with 110 cornets close at hand.
Now THAT was a FUN puzzle!
MERL REAGLE
And Good Luck Marti!!
Extremely clever, but tough. I finished, but the Tribune needs to TOTALLY re-think its use of which Java applet it wants to use. This new one they started using this week crashed on me at least 1/2 dozen times before I finally decided to do it with pencil & paper.
Where else do you all go to do the puzzle online where it's not so screwed up?
IrishMiss:
Agreed, Person of Interest was a real nail biter. Great timing all around.
I found it at MENSA. Here's the link for anyone that wants it.
http://www.us.mensa.org/AML/?LinkServID=9C6D60CE-E081-4C23-C43F546F9F20DE10
Bye Bye Tribune!!
When puzzles are more irritating than interesting, more frustrating than fun, I tend to lose interest.
Hi gang -
I thought this would be a huge DNF, but with a lot of perp help and more perseverance than it was worth, eventually got through with one error so dumb I won't even own up to it.
MANUAL for MENIAL slowed me down a bit.
Without taking anything away from the considerable skill, ingenuity, cleverness and creativity of the constructors, I'll just say if I wanted this kind of gimmicky nonsense, I'd get my puzzles from the NYT, not the LAT.
Cool regards!
JzB
my latimes website won't work....where else can i get the puzzle?
The link for the LA Times is HERE
thanks jjm
webcrosswords.com
Takes seconds to load, no ads.
Click on L.A. Times at the top.
"Options" send feedback to editor.
feedback@latimes.com
Let's all tell Rich Norris what we think of the puzzle. ;)
I wanted to link a visual tour of Frank Lloyd Wrights Falling Water, but they get pretty boring.
On the other hand, this one page can keep you busy for hours...
Or, you could have some fun with a waterbed...
But what i really wanted to link was an exciting white water kayak ride, Unfortunately I never got past this one at Butt Crack Falls.
I'll cast my vote in the "enjoyed it" column. But I do the dead tree version and had the blank cells, which gave instant insight into the gimmick. Had it been online, I doubt I'd be as charitable. It had a lot of esoteric elements that can only make sense if you've worked a lot of crosswords, but it was gettable and the construction was a masterpiece, IMO.
This wasn't a picket fence, it was a zoysia grass lawn established from plugs. Had roughly 50% filled in, then HTG for Elie and Como, but that gave me enough to finish eventually. Galetea, Telesis and Atavism were all perps. Amos Oz was a strong wag. On The Waterfront was a leap of faith with only the first 3 and the final letter in place, but the time frame was right and hey, it fit. That then gave me enough to get the theme by filling in 42D/A.
All in all, it was more work than preferred on a Friday, but it didn't feel entirely like time wasted.
Happy Friday! I didn't understand the significance of the hyphens until I came here but I got it done and enjoyed the process, much more so on Friday than I usually do on themeless Saturdays.
Gary, "I coulda' been a contender!"
Our 30-year-old deadbolt on our front door decided to jam last night. Our neighborhood locksmith came by this morning fifteen minutes after I called and fixed it easy-peasy for $69. Seemed reasonable. So if you were planning to ransack our house, be fair warned.
Actually, we did have our house broken into about 40 years ago. Also, one time we had a high-school girl babysitting, we got home and found a guy with a pistol hanging at his side to greet us at the door. The girl had heard a noise in our backyard (our cat climbing the wood fence), called her father and he came by with a gun. Geez...
CanadianEh@9:46 -- yes, that should certainly count. Enjoy your special day.
CED@1:38 -- DW and I toured the Falling Water house about 10 years ago. It's cost more to stabilize the cantilever to keep it from falling into the river than the whole house cost to build. Managed to throw my back out traipsing around the grounds. By the time we got to Baltimore, I decided to take my sore back home to Texas and let DW continue the vacation on her own.
Count me in the "like" column with AvgJoe and for the same reason, done on paper. It seems a fitting challenge for Friday and since taking my time and mulling it over while drinking coffee is my style, this was a worthy end of the week and start of the weekend endeavor.
Mari:
Will we see you tomorrow?
Abejo
(itlesti)
Finally got it! I liked it. No problems in print version, except the solution!
A couple of cheats(dig through wik-p) lots of head scratching, started to fall into place.
Got the theme, PRICE and its thread was a hard one.
When I started, got WATER in two places, thought "That's illegal!" then saw they were in the no-number spaces and got the theme.
Good Day to all
HOla Everyone, A real DNF for me today. I only had about 1/2 of the puzzle finished--what I had in was correct--but too many blank squares to get anything to make sense. WEES as to the rest of the comment.
Thanks, Lemon for the great writeup. If it wasn't for our wonderful commentators each day, where would we all be? Unlearned!!
Our C.C. is our International Woman every day, not just today.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, everyone.
Thanks for the Mensa link with the old school Java! That's how I like it. Unfortunately, I had to read through comments to find it, so had a significant number of answers revealed before I could get to the puzzle myself. Really killed the enjoyment of what could have been a really fun puzzle. I did finish in pretty short order, but already knew the theme, and AMOSOZ and SPIRITS, so technically a DNF for me.
I was lost in the weeds, which were completely surrounded by ozone, and then Price Waterhouse came together and suddenly the whole puzzle fell into place. Those "epiphany" things really are something when they finally occur.
Dayle and Tony Michaels, glad to hear from you, even with disparate commentary.
David S., thank you for stopping by, and do put in perspective, this young man is a teenager. With the puzzle printed out, except for the crossings already mentioned, like marti, i thought this was very doable.
Been at the doctor getting poked, prodded and checked from stem to stern, literally sadly. I told the doctor he was going to have to get me flowers if continued the exam any longer. Back to work in time to settle two maters and now the week end. Hope you all have a great one.
SJSJ, I really enjoy when you and other constructors weigh in on the puzzles; while we have marti and C.C. here, it is nice to get others views especially on unique ones like this.
Jeapordy fans, you have to tune in today, if for nothing else than the Final Jeapordy question. I drew a complete blank, but when revealed it was "Of course!" A true D'oh moment.
But wait, there's more!* As a bonus if you order now, one of the categories in the last round is "Norm de Guerre".
(*Just pay separate shipping and handling. Operators are standing by.)
I almost embarrassed myself when leaving Subway with my newly-purchased sandwich. I started to Push on the door clearly marked Pull. That seemed odd because I thought most businesses had to have doors that open outward so that if there's an emergency with people crowded against the door trying to get out, the people don't get trapped against a door that only opens inward. It reminded me of this classic cartoon by Gary Larson.
School for the Gifted
For a minute there I thought I had tripped on my shoelaces and fallen into a NYT'S puzzle.
Loved every minute of it. My paper looked a tad bit messy upon completion, but what the heck, it was completed.
Thank you David Squared.
We actually caught on to the WATER and went ahead and put it in six times.
Most of the names were unknown and needed perps and red-letter help. Still enjoyed a casual, no-pressure solve.
HG, we ate at Paula Deen,s restaurant, Lady and Sons, while in Savannah two years ago. It was a small southern buffet style Our server was going to college in Savannah and very friendly. We scheduled our trip thru Southern Vacations.
Are TAPAs the same as a Spanish hors d' oeuvres??
I had never read Pygmalion and GALATEA. Now I understand how it translates into something created, as in My Fair Lady.
Think of SITAR in Beatle's music, but not Rolling Stones collection. Learn something new everyday.
Kansas City, KS has an excellent WWI museum on Pershing Ave.( Black Jack Pershing was from KC.) We visited it this last year. AlSACE Lorraine was the Western Front. The Treaty of Versailles, in 1919, returned it to France.( It was given to France permanently after WWII. BTW, No Man's Land was on the Eastern Front. The museum has a very interesting web site.
CED, did you noticed the quote near the bottom of your numerous waterfall pics?
" The thing about quotes on the computer is you can not confirm their validity."----
Abraham Lincoln
Hope everyone has a good weekend, including Marti!
Hi Y'all, I would have had no chance at all on this puzzle if I hadn't clicked on the wrong box and brot up C.C.'s explanation about "waterfall". So the puzzle wasn't quite as brutal as it could have been. I didn't get a start until after 4 p.m. because of a visitor then grocery shopping. I was really too tired to start something like this, even with red letters. Got interrupted three times to boot.
Yes, it was clever. Yes, I "got" it. But I would prefer never to see another like it.
Found out today, my elder son and his family are taking a Disney cruise of the Caribbean at the end of the month. I told him to pack his portapotti and water wings. I suppose its going to be hurricane season too!
They went to Mexico the year all the headless bodies started showing up down there. Why did I get all the anxiety and they remain calm?
C.C.: Are you going to the ACPT, too? If so, good luck to you and Marti!
Alice Gram - I don't know whether you represent Amazon.com or are pure junk mail, but I'll buy the front row center A Line, low cut, deep decolletage, slash slit, wedding dress - in a burgundy. Ship it postpaid to the ACPT tournament tonight. Thanks.
I'm actually a guy, but I aim to make the best cross dressed impression at the Cruciverbalist's ball.
Thanx for explaining the relationship between PRICE WATER HOUSE and the Oscars. I got the unusual and smart theme soon enough but couldn't figure this clue, probably because I never watch the Oscars.
Had cOzIEST before HOMIEST.
This puzzle also served to remind me that Pygmalion is not the girl's name, but the guy's.
No problem with the writers. Was hung up on sci-fi at one point in my life, and on short stories, forever.
Alice Gram, Go ahead and send Daffy Dan the wrapping. I'll take the contents and pay for shipping!
Alice doesn't live here anymore.
Unique puzzle today. Kept me busy this morning. I got the theme pretty quickly. It was a solid DNF for me with the crossing at 37D that many others mentioned. Guess you can tell I don't play golf. Thanks to the two Davids..just don't do it again. I guess I had a love-hate relationship with this one. Good night everyone.
Dang Argyle! You could have at least left her Avatar ;(
Was busy working this day, but I just wanted to say, I loved the puzzle. Once I 'broke' my 'waters', it was all downhill from there.
Just wanted to wish Marti lotsa luck at the ACPT. I've been there before, and trust me, the New Yorker's really put up a stand for formality and pomp and circumstance.
You go Girl ! Give em hell. Just carry a thick tome, like 'Crosswords for dummies', peeping out of your Louis Vuitton, just to psych them out.
When you win, and accept the Oscar, be sure and mention your fellow writers and fellow actors in your acceptance speech, like CC, Argyle, Lemonade, JazzB, Splynter, Melissa Bee, and of course the inimitable Lemonade. We'd all love to see their names in the NYT.
Goodness gracious, if you do badly, just use an alias, like Amy Reynolds or Rex Parker, or better still, Puzzlegirl. Oy Vey, I hope that never happens.
As I said, new yorkers can be a rude and pushy lot, but don't let it get you down, and you stand your ground, girl. If somebody starts giving you a hard time, just drop some names, tell them you're Will Shortz's current GF, and are carrying his baby, and that'll get you front row seats at the dinner.
I'll say 10 Novenas and 20 Hail Marys for you tonight.Win ! Win ! Win !
Are Avg Joe and Daffy Dan drinking together this fine Friday?
Gee, I didnt make it past page 6 on CED's waterfall pics. but I did notice a difference between the "Waterfall Illusion" photos on the top, and a slightly revised version on page 6.
Yeah, And I'm the designated driver!
note to Dan:
When the number of your posts equals the number of empty bottles on the floor, it is time to stop. Posting, that is.
wow! What a great puzzle! Once I understood what was going on, it was so much fun, but then, I cheated my whole way through.Didn't have any time today, so did it at the dinner table.TSK! Kudos to the constructors and to anyone who did it without looking anything up.
Wishing Marti and her DH a great time on their adventure.We're rootin' for you.
When I saw "perennial Oscar staple" I confidently wrote in Streep. That's how far off I was. When I perped PRICE I got the WATERHOUSE connection having just watched the Oscars. I was really proud. (And I don't have much to be proud of often on Fri-Sat.)
BlueIris@6:23
Yes, tapas are a form of appetizers and are sold in Spain at bars. Always in a yummy variety. Beware, they are one price if you are standing but higher if you sit.
PK no hurricanes in March, generally great weather. This week has been awesome.
Speaking of awesome, Dan I want some of what inspired you tonight.
Lemon, Just a sense of humor on a Friday night. But It's not just me.
So, Mind your own business Anon! We're having fun here. It's called " Jocularity"
Hello all,
Challenging puzzle, David and David! Fine expo, Lemon!
Took more time than a usual Friday! A DNF--that mentioned by Barry (C for Z at end of AMOSOZ). Took awhile to remember what the hyphens were used for before.
Had a good swim. Lucky that young friend Sherry wants to get exercise!
Happy weekend!
Do any of you watch the TV drama "Body of Proof" about a medical examiner played by Dana Delaney? I have tried it for the last season or so and I just deleted it from a series recording. I've discovered I don't like Dana Delaney very much and I very much dislike her character on the show. The last show was so annoying that it prompted me to action. No sense wasting my time watching an unpleasant show with unpleasant characters. (I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out...)
Hey all!
As the other David (he's called David; I'm called Dave) said, I'm fairly new to the constructing game, and it was a real enjoyment reading everyone's comments and getting all this great feedback!
Hopefully, this isn't the last you'll see of me. I definitely intend on submitting some more of my puzzles to various venues. (Solo efforts for these)
Thanks for making my debut a good one.
Hi Dave,
Up early or up late? Doesn't matter; stop by any time. May the next time be for your solo effort.
Always some good comments here.
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