Theme: "Neon Lightness" - NE (chemical symbol for Neon) is inserted into each theme entry.
27A. Moniker on a box of pasta? : PENNE NAME. Pen name. I like Irish Miss & Blue Iris, so poetic.
29A. Gala for players of small pianos? : SPINET BALL. Spitball. Banned in 1920s. Very dangerous.
48A. Kangaroo from a lab? : CLONED HOPPER. Clodhopper.
65A. IQ psychologist in the crib? : TINY BINET. Tiny bit.
82A. Player asleep on the sidelines? : PRONE ATHLETE. Pro athlete.
101A. Dollhouse wicker chair craftsman? : MODEL CANER. Model car.
104A. Reality show judge in a pouch? : PANEL JOEY. Pal Joey.
36D. Cops' disagreement? : FINEST FIGHT. Fistfight.
40D. "No military bigwigs allowed"? : BRASS BANNED. Brass band. "No military bigwigs allowed" might be a mantra for any party Jill Kelley holds now.
I
just learned the Neon's atomic number is 10. It would be fun to have 10
theme entries today. But 9 is already a lot to deal with.
Gail
started her theme entries in Row 4 rather than the usual Row 3, mainly
because she wanted to put a 9 and a 10 in one row, and she'd have a
2-letter entry in 18-Down had she started in Row 3.
Grid design is very subjective, it often reflects the constructors' personal preferences. Long time Gail fans might have noticed that she likes to put a couple theme entries in Down in her grids, whether a 15*15 or a 21*21.
Across:
1. Show appreciation, in a way : CLAP
5. Slanted column : OP-ED. Per Wiki: abbreviated from opposite the editorial page (though often mistaken for opinion-editorial). PK groans!
9. Show biz type : CELEB
14. Greeting not needing a stamp : E-CARD
19. Inaugural ritual : OATH
20. Links shirt : POLO. Golf.
21. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" singer : ELIZA."My Fair Lady". Here.
22. Leafy recess : ARBOR
23. 1847 novel with the chapter "Life at Loohooloo" : OMOO. Hey, new clue! So many O's.
24. Hgt. : ELEV
25. Like some suspicious contracts : NO BID
26. Is knocked for a loop : REELS
31. Carafe kin : EWER
32. Material that might need waterproofing : SUEDE
33. Track : RUT
34. Picked up : LIFTED. I can't remember who (Bill G, maybe?) linked this picture to the blog before. An Australian photographer turns her 5-year-old daughter into classic works of art.
I like this one too.
37. Strange duck : WEIRDO
39. Bench conference : SIDE BAR. Court room.
43. Alter ego? : ALIAS
44. Hard stuff : BOOZE
45. Attack word : SIC
46. GPS option : RTE
47. Time-consuming : LONG
52. Big name in shipping : ARI (Onassis). Long time ago.
53. Suffix with polymer : ASE
54. Ear-splitting : LOUD
55. Notable time : ERA
56. Stomach creation : PEPSIN. Enzyme.
58. Film with stage scenes : WESTERN
60. ___ clock : ATOMIC
63. Cantina condiments : SALSAS. I like Trade Joe's salsas.
64. Trike rider : TOT
68. Court tactic : LOB
69. True __: exactly as expected : TO FORM. 6-letter partial is allowed in LAT.
72. Weathering the storm : COPING
73. Barricade : RAMPART
77. Iago kills her in Act V : EMILIA.
No idea. She's Iago's wife in "Othello". We also had 3 cases of missing
women this past winter. One was murdered by her husband.
78. Poem of praise : ODE
79. Darts : ZIPS
80. "The Matrix" hero : NEO
81. Mind reader? : EEG. Brain scan. I sure need an Abbr. hint.
87. Do-others link : UNTO
88. "That's awful!" : UGH
89. Common refund source: Abbr. : IRS
90. Eccentric : OUTRE. This stumped some last time.
91. Had leftovers, say : ATE IN
92. Inventor's safeguards : PATENTS
95. Ravel work originally composed as a ballet : BOLERO. She looks so sweet.
97. Transcript letters : GRADES
98. Museum funder: Abbr. : NEA
99. Modern communicators : CELLS
100. Former Mideast despot : SHAH. Oh no, Abejo does not like "despot" for the SHAH. Did you work or just travel in Iran in the 1970's, Abejo?
109. Did a car wash job : WAXED
110. Cold explosion? : ACHOO. And 6. Extremely cold : POLAR.
111. Heaps : A LOT
112. 1968 self-titled folk album : ARLO
113. Flawless : IDEAL
114. "Idol" judge replaced by Ellen : PAULA (Abdul)
115. Plant anchor : ROOT
116. Passion : ZEAL
117. Rock or metal : GENRE. Music.
118. Studied, with "over" : PORED
119. Forfeited wheels : REPO
120. Nod off, with "out" : ZONK
Down:
1. Fowl house : COOP
2. Chanteuse's fabric : LAME. Rich color.
3. Heaps : A TON
4. Series of misses : PHONE TAG. Missed calls.
5. Bet first : OPENED
7. Pre-jr. high : ELEM
8. One seeking justice for the peace? : DOVE. As to Hawk.
9. Harshly rebuked : CENSURED
10. Took off to team up : ELOPED. Marriage.
11. Important drive in Freudian theory : LIBIDO. Wow!
12. Newsweek Global, e.g. : E-ZINE. I thought the on-line version is just called Newsweek.
13. Commanded : BADE
14. Hearing aid of a sort : EARBUD
15. Get started : CREATE
16. Biblical shepherd : ABEL
17. Tape unit : ROLL
18. Their offices often have small rms. : DRs
28. Members of the flock : EWES
30. Bench press beneficiary : TRICEPS. Bench dips as well.
34. Emmy-winning legal drama : LA LAW
35. Brief concession : I LOSE. I LOST fits better, right?
37. Logs : WOOD
38. It's quite a stretch : EON
39. Drink daintily : SIP
41. Sunlit courts : ATRIA
42. Curbs, with "in" : REINS
44. Straightforward : BLUNT
45. Curiosity's milieu : SPACE. Oh, the Mars rover Curiosity.
48. One of two N.T. books : COR. No idea. Corinthians?
49. Surround : HEM IN
50. Round gasket : O-RING
51. Bailiwicks : REALMS
54. Activate without restraint : LET RIP
57. Sit heavily : PLOP
59. Level or bevel : TOOL
60. Battery end : ANODE
61. Competitive by nature : TYPE A
62. "Madama Butterfly" accessory : OBI
66. Desktop array : ICONS
67. Humdrum : TRITE
69. Start a round : TEE UP
70. Movado competitor : OMEGA. Expensive watches.
71. __ status : MARITAL
74. Wild way to go? : APE. Go ape.
75. Do over, as a bow : RE-TIE
76. Popeye and Porky, e.g. : TOONS
79. Round number? : ZERO. Nice clue.
83. Work areas with long tables, briefly : ORs. I was thinking of Splynter's tool room. Not surgical room with "long tables".
84. Where to see rows of booths : TOLL ROAD
85. Color chart components : HUES
86. Copier tray abbr. : LTR
87. Hoops franchise born in New Orleans : UTAH JAZZ. Originally New Orleans Jazz. They moved to Utah in 1979.
91. Inland Asian sea : ARAL
93. Make beloved : ENDEAR
94. You might get stuck with it : NEEDLE
95. Heston title role : BEN-HUR
96. Chant in a ring : OLE OLE
97. Depressed area : GHETTO
99. Butter-yielding bean : CACAO. Had hot cocoa yesterday. Cold and chilly here. But we're going to be in 90's next Tuesday.
100. One poking around : SNOOP
101. Cooked up : MADE
102. Pullers of heavy loads : OXEN
103. Yokum drawer : CAPP (Al)
104. Catherine who outlived Henry VIII : PARR
105. Soap additive : ALOE
106. Snack brand with a 2012 centennial : OREO
107. Joie de vivre : ELAN. Marti has plenty. I think it's inborn.
108. Potato salad ingredient, perhaps : YOLK
109. Bogus locks : WIG
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers on our blog!
C.C.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteFilling in this big grid was like watching fireflies: a flash here, a flash there, a lot of emptiness in between. After a little while enough flashes had accumulated to show the way. Sussed the theme early, with the help of the title, which helped make sense of the quirky answers.
Happy Mothers' Day, All!
Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!
ReplyDeleteTantalizingly close to finishing today’s offering from GG. Missteps along the way were Lace for Lame, Toe Up for Tee Up, Lets Go for Let Rip, and Zone for Zonk….
I should’ve known to enter Omoo, since Melville’s works were the topic of my senior thesis….
Also wanted Fan for Obi until perps said No….
Brass Banned was the answer that provided me with the theme Rosetta stone….
C.C., you are correct, there are two books of Corinthians….
Elan and Zeal crossing in the SW! Plus 5, count em’, 5 Zeds!
The “Bolero” scene from the movie 10 would surely be Censured, as well as censored, in Qatar….
I don’t know about y’all, but I just don’t feel comfortable wearing Ear Buds….
Anyone remember Red Skelton as Clem Kadiddlehopper, a different kind of Clodhopper…?
Swell puzzle and write-up, Gail and CC!
ReplyDeleteNo cheats whatsoever, but took a very long time. (Could actually read the title, too.)
Got the theme from PANEL JOEY!
Of course, I remember Clem K.!
Happy day to all!
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteI figured out the theme early on (and yes, it helps to be able to read the title) and managed to get all the theme answers eventually. Most came pretty quickly, but I struggled with TINYBINET (I had DREAR instead of TRITE, which interfered with the final letter) and MODELCANER (this time it was COCAO instead of CACAO that tripped me up).
Everything else was pretty smooth sailing, albeit a bit on the slow side. Didn't care for the clue for CREATE ("get started"), especially since "cook up" would have made a nice clecho with 101D. No other nits to pick, minor or otherwise.
Happy Mother's Day!
[cutesso]
Good morning C.C. et al.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple questions that you filled in for me - I had SPACE, but really didn't connect it to the Mars Rover. And I looked at ARI, trying to figure out what those initials stood for. Bug "duh!!" when I read your write up!!
I had boweR instead of ARBOR, and wanted SPINnET instead of SPINET, so the NE was really slow going for a while. I wasn't a big fan of seeing ECARD and EZINE in the same puzzle. UGH !
FINEST FIGHT and PANEL JOEY seemed a bit forced to me, as theme entries go. But the puzzle was still a nice diversion on this grey, rainy Mother's Day. So I'll take what I can get!
Series of misses = PHONETAG. That was awesome!
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day to all.
Good morning, and happy Mother's Day. (or is it Mothers' Day?)
ReplyDeleteThis one took the full time allotment. Since PENNE NAME had extra letters (just like "pluralizable"). I expected all theme entries to be like that. SPINET quashed that idea! And for some reason I tried to morph TINY BINET into TONY BENET.
Just who was the vowel-challenged individual who decided that COCOA beans come from the CACAO tree? Vanna, are you in there?
Speaking of Melville, I took an American Lit course on Hawthorne, Melville and Twain. I didn't care that much for Hawthorne or Melville, but thought Twain would make it worthwhile. The course was taught by a professor emeritus. (I know, I should have known better...) He'd written extensively on Twain. Well, he spent so much time on Hawthorne and Melville that he never got to Twain. He apologized and invited us to read one of his books. Bah humbug!
Hi Everyone ~~
ReplyDeleteI enjoy Gail Grabowski's puzzle and this was a fun Sunday solve. I caught the theme right away with PENNE NAME ~ having the title kind of gave it away. Knowing of the added NE did help with the other theme answers.
This took a while but I had no real problems ~ 'Zone' before ZONK did having me wondering about having 'Yole' in potato salad!
Thanks for clearing up some things, C.C. I had OPED for 5A - slanted column, but had no idea, since I was thinking of a structural column. I agree that 'I lost' seems like a better fit than I LOSE for 'Brief concession.'
Favorites: 10D - Took off to team up - ELOPED, 79D - Round number - ZERO and 110A - Cold explosion - ACHOO.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers ~ including those whose kids have four paws! =^..^=
Photag is website used for sharing photos. I also found some Photag software available for sale on Amazon. Urban dictionary also has an entry for photag. So?
ReplyDeleteJust that it makes PHONETAG a misleading answer. Is it part of the theme? It's mirror image is not.
And how about NEEDLE? Googling edel produced some hits and a few interesting pictures. I think it has German relations.
Doesn't bother me, just sayin'.
No walk in the park but a lovely exercise on Mom’s Day! It took cloNEdhopper for the theme here.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-You are so wrong if you think pitchers aren’t still doctoring the baseball with things worse than spit
-Former son-in-law had very high IQ and low WQ (work quotient)
-I much prefer an ECARD to the $4 Hallmark
-I’ve seen many potential My Fair Ladies that just need someone to believe in them
-The ELEV. Drops 2,500 feet quickly from Mt. Rushmore to Rapid City
-If my neighbor SICced his 130 lb dog on me, she’d just lick me
-My GPS option helped me find the Red Mango store where yesterday
-The best Film with stage scenes
-Do Unto Others variation
-Bolero : Bo Derek = William Tell Overture : Clayton Moore
-Great thing about CELL phones – people can find you. Bad thing about CELL phones – people can find you
-A huge LOG cabin is being built next to the 16th tee box at my golf club
-When BLUNT Simon left IDOL, so did I
-1 COR 13 is the most read verse at weddings where I’ve sung
-TYPE A’s need a different skill set to substitute teach
TINY BINET made me think of someone but I just could not place him. Then it hit me, TY TINBENI.
ReplyDeleteE-CARDs, to me, seem impersonal and lazy.
-A poster sent to me by Montana that is too good not to share with our many, uh, teacher posters Teacher Poster
ReplyDelete-Jenny, I certainly respect your opinion but my e-cards contain many lines of editable prose, beautiful or silly animations, personal pictures or videos, appropriate music, etc. My Hallmark’s get 10 seconds of attention and then… I hope you have a lovely Mother’s Day and sent/received many good cards today!
-BTW, our resident malapropist, Yogi, is 88 today! Great examples
Husker G, Yr teacher poster link wants me to sign up 4 something?
ReplyDeleteDoha Doc @ (Oh, I don't remember, it was this am sometime) Loved all of yr posts 2 date, but have a major nit with yr Clem Kadiddlehopper post! Urban Dictionary! I wanted an actual clip!
Playing major catch up today as I was In DC P/Uing middle daughter from College for the Summer. Fridays puzzle was DNF'd in the Hotel room, & I thought the "out damned spot" theme was ingenious!
My limited memory of The Saturday Silkie was eating Cicadas!
I think if you add garlic, butter, & wash it down with Tequila, even a bumper would taste good! I think this Japanese lady has the right approach!
Good Afternoon:
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle, GG. Caught the theme early on and that helped. Clever cluing and some tricky mis-direction made for a satisfying solve. Thanks, CC, for your neat expo and the shout out.
DO @ 7:40 - Your post struck my funny bone this morning, especially "Tony Benet". I laughed out loud!
Very nasty weather today: chilly, windy, rainy, and just plain dreary.
On the bright side, Happy Mother's Day to all!
Happy Mothers Day!
ReplyDeleteNot much time to comment but only to say how much I liked Gail's puzzle. It had enough cleverness and misdirection to keep me thinking for a long while.
Fav clue:
you might get stuck with it, NEEDLE
Time to go to church and then out to eat.
Have a fantastic Sunday, everyone!
Happy mothers day to all the mom's,
ReplyDeleteFirst crack at a Sunday puzzle in quite a while and the first Sunday success in eons. For once, I picked up on the theme early and that helped, but it was a grind. I found the North and South relatively easy and the two Central sections a grind.
No nits today & I believe most of my likes or other comments have already been mentioned. At least I hope so because I neglected to make any notes as I progressed.
Enjoy the day & do something nice for mom.
Nothing like a home made card or a hand written note/letter from my kids. I have saved every last one! No delete or save button on them!
ReplyDeleteBrings on the water works.
I hope all of you Moms have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteI gave up and I was almost done.
Could not get CELEB (nit), relented to CREATE (nit),TOFORM was TOsize, TOlife, ALIAS was (Alter ego?) -tists, Egotists.
Can't spend all day on something I won't get anyway.
Did someone post a "how to catch a cat" link that shows one by one cats crowding into a cardboard box?
Can't find it. Don't think it's in my email either. If one of you did, could you post it again. I've looked at past posts with no luck.
C.C. those pictures of the little "still life" girl a fabulous!
CED @10:43, to quote the Stones,
ReplyDelete"You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometime,
you just might find,
you get what you need...."
Happy Mother's Day to all. Lovely Sunday from Gail.WEES some real fun.
ReplyDeleteAfter doing this and the NYT my day is half gone.
Have no clue how phototag made phone tag more difficult.
Enjoy all
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Gail Grabowski, for a great puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the great write-up.
ReplyDeleteC.C.: You have quite a memory. Yes, I do not like the term Despot in relation the the Shah. To me it has a negative connotation. However, by Webster it probably is accurate. I like the term Autocrat or King better. Anyhow, my two cents. I lived there for three years and worked there for my company, GTE. I loved it the whole time. Was sorry to leave, but those clowns that took over kind of forced the issue. They are the Despots.
To the puzzle. It was great. Theme took me a while to figure out. I did after getting a few answers, such as PENNE NAME and CLONED HOPPER.
Thought RAMPART was good.
Al CAPP is always one of my favorites.
My wife and I are heading to a brunch for Mother's day. Our daughter cannot make it due to her work.
See you tomorrow. Abejo
(realsef)
(nubtitu)
DANG DANG DANG..... YOLK goes in tater salad,,,,not YOLE!!! Otherwise finally a Sunday finished in toto.
ReplyDelete@ Lemonade714
ReplyDeleteI never said anything about it being more difficult. Also, I referenced photag not phototag.
I was merely sharing my solving experience.
I found it interesting that phoNEtag matched the theme of adding NE to a known word but UTAHJAZZ(phonetag's corresponding fill) did not.
Forgive me for my ignorance of crossword puzzling's unwritten rules. I thought I remembered reading here once that puzzle themes should not appear in non-theme fill.
My comment about NEedle was a poor attempt at humor.
Have a great dayne! (Ron or Taylor, depending on your preference)
Good afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteNEON lightness is apt. Laughing at Dudley's 'here a flash.there a flash' now and then a flash flash.
Sunday's is a stemwinder anyway, but got it all done earlier; then took BH out to Mother's Day Brunch at Turning Stone Casino. One of the best they have had.
Finally got the theme direction with SPINET BALL. Thought cluing for 58a Western, 81a EEG, 10d ELOPED, and 38d EON were quite clever. Many others were good,too.
Only a few words in English form the plural by adding en like in OXEN. ALSO 'children' and 'brethren'. In Dutch most nouns add en to form the plural - boek boeken (book books) kat katten (cat cats).
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers.
Happy Mothers Day! It took a while, but I managed to finish today with only a few minor issues. The NW was my worst area to solve. I had PENNE NAME right away, which gave me the theme, but it took forever to figure out "series of misses" to be PHONETAG.
ReplyDeleteI did not know the UTAH JAZZ started in New Orleans, but now the name makes more sense.
I was a fan of Ravel's BOLERO, long before Bo Derek was even born!
BTW, the B-side of the LP is titled "La Valse"- a word that was commented on a while back here on the blog.
Hand up for YOLe instead of YOLK!
61Rampy, are you talking about the Bolero LP? As I recall, the B-side of mine was Pavane For A Dead Princess. I can't remember which orchestra was involved. I do remember that Bolero got pretty distorted during with the crescendo at the finale. The inner grooves of the vinyl just couldn't handle it.
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's Day to all of you mothers and grandmothers! Barbara and I had a brief discussion this morning if it should be written Mother's Day or Mothers' Day. Both make perfect sense but the first one seems to be used most of the time by most people. (I now see that D-O had the same question.)
ReplyDeleteThis was an enjoyable solve for me. I could sense that this was the work of a gifted CW puzzle constructor.
Gary, I had the same trouble as CED with your teacher/poster link. I even tried to sign up but it got me into a cycle and I finally just forgot the whole thing.
Yes, the Jazz makes more sense knowing that they came from New Orleans and the Lakers make more sense knowing that they came from Minneapolis.
Hello everybody and happy Mother's Day greetings. Man oh man I found this puzzle to be very hard; it took me a long time to finish it. But it was worth it.
ReplyDeleteDohaDoc@12:31 BIGSMILE (sometimes emoticons just don't do it :)
ReplyDeleteBut funny you should mention that, because the next link (in my link) was Lucille Ball & Red Skelton together in a sketch I had never seen before, (& while I did not want it, I found I needed it..)
"(:)"
Dang, those emoticons just don't do it for me...
& not too many links after that was
ReplyDeleteJerry Lewis & Red Skelton that I had never seen before... ( note that when it happened, it was so so, but now that so many years have passed, & it cannot be repeated, it is priceless (10:44)
Argyle, I gotta get outta here! I got an email 2 days ago that world golf tour is giving a Mothers day special! cabo del sol (normally 60 credits)for free! I gotta check out the stroke play!...
Argyle, my apologies for recommending Cabo Del Sol,,, It sucked! Why they would expect you to pay 60 credits i do not know... The whole thing looked fake. I the went to Whistler & it also was not up to par...
ReplyDeleteI am going back to congressional...
Now you tell me...I'm on the first tee.
ReplyDeleteHAVE A GREAT DAYNE???!!??
ReplyDeletehave a great dane?...shirley this theme has been done before. Hearti?
Our son, daughter and grandson took us out for a picnic for Mother's Day. We went down to the Palos Verdes peninsula to a park. Interesting, this area has lots of micro-climates. When we left our house, it was in the low 70s. Where Fermatprime lives, it was probably in the high 90s. This little park overlooking the ocean was about 85. We sat in the shade so it was OK.
ReplyDeleteD-O: you are making me work & think for this! Bolero . Not a good time of day for this, but lets try anyway. My Mom bought this album way back around 1960 or so. Its the one I was thinking of.
ReplyDeleteHow does CED do this so well? post links, that is)
Boléro, Maurice Ravel's most famous musical composition, was premiered at the Paris Opéra on November 22, 1928. What does this fifteen minute piece of orchestral music have to do with Bo Derek, born in November, 1956? In 1984, Bo Derek did star in a movie with the same name (one of the worst films EVER released), but that debacle had nothing whatsoever to do with Maurice Ravel's symphonic materpiece!
ReplyDeleteBolero was in the movie, "Ten", that also starred Bo Derek. That is the famous connection. Her movie, "Bolero", did blow, I understand.
ReplyDelete