Theme: "PG-13" - 13 entries all start with letters P & G.
23A. It's designed not to be noticeable : PLATE GLASS. Windows. Pretty little corner.
25A. Lawman who killed Billy the Kid : PAT GARRETT. The Sheriff.
30A. Ibsen play with music by Grieg : PEER GYNT. Hey, I even know his mother's name: ASE.
37A. Subject with no depth? : PLANE GEOMETRY. Fun clue.
50A. Former park near the Harlem River : POLO GROUNDS. NY Giants.
53A. Fun-loving female : PARTY GIRL. One of Boomer's favorite bowling centers was closed. They held a fun funeral yesterday.
68A. Where to see an inflation index? : PRESSURE GAUGE. Nothing economy related.
85A. Co-chair of John McCain's 2007-'08 presidential campaign : PHIL GRAMM. I missed him up with Bob Graham.
88A. View from Kuwait City : PERSIAN GULF. Hi there, Doha Doc!
96A. Hardly luxury boxes : PEANUT GALLERY. This always reminds me of Dan Naddor.
102A. Military monetary scale : PAY GRADE
115A. Court quarterback : POINT GUARD. Basketball.
119A. Fictionary, e.g. : PARLOR GAME. Never played Fictionary.
You grokked the theme immediately, right? The title is so self-explanatory.
Despite
the fact that there are no tricky to place letters (Q, Z, X or K) in
the theme set, 13 entries take up huge space in the grid. Once you
construct puzzles yourself, you'll know that this grid is for no rookies
& weak entries like IERE (91A. French suffix with jardin) are needed to make the grid work. Jardinière (Gardener). Love Jardin du Luxembourg. Nice picnic spot.
Across:
1. Within : AMID
5. Earthy tone : OCHRE. Or Ocher.
10. In the neighborhood : LOCAL
15. Riot control weapon : MACE
19. Grabber's cry : MINE
20. Kansas City athlete : ROYAL. For Husker Gary.
21. Cole Porter classic from "Can-Can" : I LOVE PARIS. I really do.
26. Single : UNWED
27. Significant ones? : OTHERS
29. Bad-mouthed : DISSED
32. Rulers in a line : DYNASTS
36. -y plus -y? : IES. Just Y pluralized.
43. Dewlapped critter : IGUANA
47. Grafton's "__ for Alibi" : A IS
48. Bistro : CAFE
49. Battery that's 8.3 millimeters in diameter : AAAA
56. Env. directive : ATTN
57. Wise : SAGE
58. "Angela's Ashes" sequel : 'TIS. I bet Irish Miss & Lucina read both.
60. Jewish campus organization : HILLEL. What does this word mean?
61. Begets : SIRES. This is the year for O* horses. Orb, Oxbow.
63. Swollen : TURGID
65. Dummy : STUPE
67. Union in D.C., e.g. : STA
71. Support : AID
74. Vex : HAUNT
75. Political theorist Hannah : ARENDT. Forgot. We had her before.
76. Have a feeling : SENSE
78. Actress Dahl : ARLENE
81. School in Big D : SMU
82. River isles : AITS
84. "Don't look at me!" : NOT I
92. Scottish turndowns : NAES
94. PC key : ALT
95. Dud : TURKEY
100. Ticked off : MAD
101. Toledo time-outs : SIESTAS
107. Petulance : SPLEEN
111. More cool, man : NEATER
114. Caught congers : EELED
121. "You had your chance" : IT'S TOO LATE. Great entry.
122. Leadoff hitter's asset : SPEED. So, who do you think is MLB's best leadoff hitter right now?
123. Egyptian deity : AMON
124. Winter Palace resident : TSAR
125. Bold type : DARER. No BOLD for this answer!
126. Mitigated : EASED
127. Insurance policy contingency : LOSS
Down:
1. Energize : AMP UP
2. Pooh penner : MILNE
3. Amazed : IN AWE. I'm in awe of this guy's humor & curiosity.
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| Who Am I? Ask Manac! |
4. Block : DETER
5. Web address ending : ORG
6. Ratio indicators : COLONS. I remember someone talked about Golden Ratio on the blog sometime ago. Forgot what it's about. Something to do with hourglass figures.
7. __ Regency : HYATT
8. Not at all patient : RASH
9. Ultimatum ending : ELSE
10. Fake it, in a way : LIP SYNC
11. Motor add-on? : OLA. Motorola.
12. Crash site? : COT
13. Part of DJIA: Abbr. : AVG
14. Result in : LEAD TO
15. Romans' 16-Down : MARS. And 16. Greeks' 15-Down : ARES. Skillful placement.
17. Ticket : CITE
18. Founded, on signs : ESTD (Established)
22. Rainbow maker : PRISM
24. Trim : EDGING
28. Nutrition letters : RDA. Old. Now it's RDI.
31. Quite a spell : YEARS
33. They follow springs by about seven days : NEAPS. Happy to learn it.
34. Former Belgian camera brand : AGFA
35. One looking ahead : SEER
37. Yearning ones : PINERS. 69. One wishing for a real-life "undo" button? : RUER. And 90. Poker? : NUDGER. Two ER is enough.
38. Cause of some '60s trips : LSD. So glad I did not get into drugs.
39. Giant rival : EAGLE. Man, football!
40. Follow : TAIL
41. Outback order : RARE. This is the only beefsteak I like.
42. Dixie group? : Y'ALL
43. "No thanks" : I PASS
44. "I follow" : GOT IT
45. Extreme : ULTRA
46. Exceptional : A-ONE
47. What "8" may stand for : AUGUST. So simple. 8 is a lucky number in China/Japan.
51. Like granola : OATEN
52. Mounting aid : STIRRUP
54. Hood with a rod : THUG
55. "Egad!" : YIPES
59. Auteur's starting point : IDEE. But "Auteur" is an English word, despite its French root.
62. Smack-dab : SPANG. Wow, never heard of this word before.
64. Largest of the Mariana Islands : GUAM
65. Cruel type : SADIST
66. All, in scores : TUTTI. Gimme for Pas de chat & Jazzbumpa.
70. Really cool : GNARLY
71. Actress Aimée : ANOUK
72. Agave fiber : ISTLE. Learned from doing Xword.
73. Respect and then some : DEIFY
74. Oscar winner Mirren : HELEN. Truly beautiful. Witty too.
77. Ga. Tech grad : ENGR
78. "Edith, you're __": Archie Bunker : A PIP
79. South Korea's first president : RHEE. Same character as Chinese Lee/Li, as in Ang Lee/Jet Li.
80. Former capital of Italy : LIRA. I bet this clue would stump the Pope (Call me, maybe?). Capital refers to "money" here. Euro now.
81. Process, as ore : SMELT
83. Skewered Thai dish : SATAY. Do you like peanut sauce?
86. Auréole wearer : ANGE. Angel. Auréole is French for "halo" I suppose. What's their AURA then?
87. "The Valachi Papers" author Peter : MAAS. Vaguely familiar. He also wrote the biography Frank Serpico.
89. Hammer home? : EAR. Hammer bone.
93. Bad-mouth : SLANDER
97. Be of __: help : USE TO
98. Self-important authority figure : TIN GOD
99. Computer terminal? : ESE. Computerese.
100. 1986 Best Actress Matlin : MARLEE. No idea. For Children of a Lesser God. She's deaf.
102. One of three 1994 Peace Nobelists : PERES (Shimon). The other two are Rabin and Arafat.
103. Fit for a king : REGAL
104. It shares its airport shuttle with National : ALAMO. Oh, car rental.
105. Distributions to DJs : DEMOs
106. Idyllic places : EDENS
107. Jutting shoreline formation : SPIT
108. Kitchenware : POTS
109. Alaska senator Murkowski : LISA. Won via write-in votes.
110. __'acte : ENTR
112. Recess near an altar : APSE
113. Spanish snack : TAPA
116. Form follower : ULA
117. Rhine tributary : AAR
118. Way to get there: Abbr. : RTE
120. Perplexing : ODD
Happy Birthday to dear Grumpy, who was once very active on the blog. Grumpy's posts were always cheerful & funny. Click here to see more of Grumpy, Sallie & Spitzboov.
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| Grumpy & his lovely wife Wilda |
Also want to share with you this wonderful link Bob sent to me. Be sure to watch in full screen. Bob has also been with the blog for a long long time. He rarely comments, but he reads our posts/comments and writes to me at times.
C.C.
36 comments:
Thank you CC for a wonderful commentary and sharing the awe-spring video.
Dedication is turning up, promptly and on schedule, every day, even if everyone else is sleeping late.
Can't believe I'm the first, at this relatively late hour.
Have a good Sunday, and the rest of the week, all that follow.
Hi, all!
(Up too late again!)
Great puzzle, Alan! Super expo, CC!
Had one red letter, dang. Was really tired at the time and just could not accept SPANG!
Watched the season finale of Doctor Who. Am really confused by the ending, even after reading some long blogs. Any opinions, folks? (You can write me!)
Have a peaceful Sunday!
Hello Puzzlers -
My WTF moment came when I got a Ta Da after filling Spang. Never saw that one before. Probably never will again.
Morning, CC! Yep, sussed the theme from the title. Impressive theme density today.
Cheers All
Morning, all!
Yep, grokked the theme right away and it did help in spots.
Mostly straightforward, but I, too, got bogged down in that area near the SE. SPANG was just bizarre and I didn't know RHEE or IERE. MAAS was another complete unknown, as was ANGE. Fortunately, I at least was able to guess PHIL GRAMM (thanks, theme!) In the end, I successfully guessed the crossing of RHEE and IERE, but I still didn't get the *TADA*
I had to turn on the red-letter help to see that I had IDEA instead of IDEE at 59D, which gave me ARANDT at 75A instead of ARENDT. Since I didn't know that 59D was supposed to be French and had no idea who Hannah was, there was just no way I was going to catch that mistake on my own I'm afraid...
[bheales]
Oh -- and with regard to Doctor Who...
Without giving spoilers to anybody who hasn't seen it (and who cares), my interpretation was that the man introduced at the end was a future incarnation of the Doctor who we got to meet early because the Doctor was within his own time stream. Obviously, he does something ominous, but we'll have to wait to find out what that will be.
Happy Sunday, Y’ALL!
Painstakingly close, but was done in by Virginia today. That being said, I really like the “Dixie group?” clue, now that I GOT IT….
The theme buster came early at POLO GROUNDS (go figure!), which helped immensely. I thought we were getting a clecho with “Giant rival,” but Dodger just doesn’t seem to fit in a five-letter answer….
Corrected missteps include TCU for SMU and URL for ORG….
Missteps leading to Red letter help include GRIMM for GRAMM, YIKES for YIPES, and DYNASTY for DYNASTS (PRIYM is a word, right?)….
Speaking of PLANE GEOMETRY, the math side of my brain was trying to calculate what one negative y-axis plus another negative y-axis could possibly mean. Finally gave up and let perps figure it out….
Complete unknowns: Spang, Ardent, and both Stupe and Hillel in dear old Virginia….
Thanks for the shout out, C.C.! I’d post a link to an MP4 clip of some of us wakeboarding on the PERSIAN GULF (taken with a GoPro camera), but (a) the file is huge, and (b) it’s not really mine to share anyway…. There is a bit of controversy as to whether it’s called the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. My SENSE would be - whichever fits best into the crossword puzzle….
Wow, so many ways to go wrong today!
I almost crashed and burned in Oregon. My dewlapped creature was a TURKEY, my Union was an AVE, instead of ATTN I'd written RSVP. Only when the real TURKEY showed up at 95A did things start to work out.
Hand up for YIKES before YIPES, also TACO before TAPA and OCHER before OCHRE.
With a metro-area population of 6.3 million, you'd think Houston would have more than seven bowling centers. The nearest to me is more than 40 miles.
SPANG. Really? And IES? Got 'em. Didn't like 'em.
Good morning C.C. et al.
And happy birthday to Grumpy 1!! I miss you, and hope you still look in once in a while!
C.C. thank you so much for posting that link from Bob. That was the best tourism video I have ever seen, bar none! I have been to Alta. and have to say that it is even more breathtaking in person, if that is possible.
PG13 gave away the theme as soon as I saw the title, and I was off and running. Whenever I got stuck, I looked for a PG phrase. So it went really fast for a Sunday.
I did not remember Phil GRAMM immediately, and had SPANk instead of SPANG for a while. I don’t think I have ever heard that word used for “smack-dab” but I will trust Rich on that one!
Have a great day, everyone, and do something fun:
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” Jim Rohn
(Where is Hahtoolah?)
C.C.: Hillel
is the name of a very famous rabbi who lived about 2000 years ago. The campus organization is named after him.
Hmmm. According to the online dictionary, Spang means "directly, exactly. The bullet landed spang on target." So why have none of us ever heard that word before?
This was the most difficult of the week for me. I missed one cell GRAHM for GRAMM and HAAS for MAAS.
There were so many clever misdirections. Bold type had me going through all the type faces for a while. I lked Y plus Y.
I knew SPANG right off. To me it's backwoods talk: Beverly Hillbillies, Tennessee Ernie Ford, etc.
I read TIS and Agela's Ashes. It was a historical education regarding that place and time.
Happy birthday, Grumpy. I always enjoyed your posts. Please let us hear from you from time to time. Great traelogue.
To me Y is spelled "wye" or "wy." How does that become IES? Anybody?
Good Morning:
Very obvious theme made the solve relatively easy. Never heard the word spang but Arendt, Maas, Hillel, etc. were knowns. Peanut Gallery brought a smile as I believe that was how the audience of children was referred to on The Howdy Doody Show, many moons ago.
Thanks, Alan A., for a fun romp and thanks to CC for her usual concise and informative expo. And, yes, CC, I did read Angela's Ashes and Tis. I also read his third memoir, Teacher Man. While he suffered a horrible childhood, I believe his adult years were happy and fulfilling.
Bill G. - I hope Barbara isn't in too much pain and will improve a little each day.
Can hardly wait to see what fun and frolic the KK (Katzenjammer Kids, aka CED and Manac) will conjure up today! (-;
Lucina - Thanks for the info on those books.
Ferm - Glad to hear I wasn't alone in my reaction to Elementary.
Have a great Sunday.
D-O, it the "plurable" end of some words. For example, more than one PARTY would be PARTIES.
YIPES, ISTLE, HILLEL, STUPE, YALL made the East a slog but I “got ‘er done!” .90” of rain has everyone smiling around here.
Musings
-I won $30 in a 4 man scramble yesterday, so now I’m a pro ;-)
-Hondo knows about the famous home run in baseball history at the POLO GROUDS and who was on third
-Revised Mae West line – “Good girls go to heaven, PARTY GIRLS go everywhere”
-Those of us with a few miles on us remember this PEANUT GALLERY
-Great NBA POINT GUARDS have supplanted the 7’ giants in importance
-Thanks for the shout out, CC, I started following KC Baseball when they were this team
-Fabulous IT’S TOO LATE with lyrics (4:05)
-Royal and former Husker Alex Gordon is a great LEAD OFF HITTER this year
-90% of the RASH things I do turn out to be a TURKEY
-Beyonce may have LIP SYNCED at the frigid inauguration, but who cares?
-New EAGLE football coach is making some unappetizing changes
-A good steak at THE OUTBACK in Nebraska? I PASS.
-HAMMER in the ear? Yes. STIRRUP? Not so much today.
Addenda (how ‘bout that pluralizing?)
-The road to Hana, HI video yesterday reminded me of a story that a golf partner told me Thursday saying it was the worst 8 hours of his life. He said you had to go so slow and you could see nothing most of the way but his friend wanted to see Charles Lindberg’s Grave out there. He still bristles when he tells the story.
-A great Doonesbury Cartoon regarding a conversation we had here last week about rewarding excellence
D'oh, Doha!
Hello, C.C. and all.
Thanks to Alan Arbesfeld for a rich and dense puzzle today. Most of it filled quickly. I didn't know or recall ARENDT and had ARENDA which of course spoiled TUTTI and my Egyptian god was ATUN, another mistake.
So even though I enjoyed it, I am displeased with myself because this had such good fill otherwise.
Yes, C.C., I read Angela's Ashes but it was so sad I couldn't read TIS. It was heart rending.
In case anyone is interested, our next book is Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (Girl With The Pearl Earring).
Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!
Great puzzle, Alan Arbesfeld!
C.C. thanks for your explanations.
Thanks for the shout-out on TUTTI!
I was going to give up, but thanks to the theme, was able to suss and WAG my way through.
Hand up for YIkES first.The last to fall was PEANUT GALLERY. Grandstands? Bleachers?
Thought -y plus -y was some math.
Thanks C.C. and Doha Doc( V-8 smack)
Is this Corner great, or what?
It sure beats waiting a whole day to see the answers and wondering what the heck does that mean????
Thanks, CC
Hi Y'all! I really liked this puzzle although I got very tired in the middle and wished I'd saved it for morning. Great puzzle, Alan A. A real challenge.
Great expo, C.C.! Thanks for sharing Bob's Alberta link. My last bus trip was through Sask., Alberta, & BC. Very beautiful country. I couldn't believe some women were reading novels instead of drinking in the scenery.
I remembered RHEE from childhood. Another unusual name that captured my "rememberer". (YIPES, the "er" disease is catching.)
I had Arabian GULF until the PG thing sunk in.
Hammer home drove me nuts trying to think of a one-word "made my point" answer. Duh!
Hello everybody. Wow, what a strange puzzle. Pretty much WEES, including what Dudley said about SPANG. I smushed several V-8 cans today, and my forehead hurts like heck.
I agree with you, fermatprime and Irish Miss, about Elementary.
Best wishes to you all.
Hi All ~~
As desper-otto said: "Wow, so many ways to go wrong today!" And I found most of them. There were so many places where my first thought wasn't the right one and/or the misdirection got me. I think that's why I really enjoyed this ~ I had to keep changing my way of thinking.
The theme was obvious and as others have said, it helped a great deal with many of the theme answers: plugging in the P and waiting to see where the G would go. The one that gave me trouble was PHIL GRAMM - had no idea.
~ At 66D - 'All in scores,' I was thinking of tie games in sports.
~ LIRA, DARER and NUDGER - first thoughts were wrong - great misdirection.
~ And then there was SPANG.
~ At 55D - Egad - with the Y in place, I was so sure of Lucina's 'Yowza' and was disappointed when it wasn't! I then went to Yikes and finally YIPES.
~ Thanks for a great write-up, C.C. I enjoyed your pics, explanations and comments!
~ Continued best wishes to you, Sallie.
~ Happy Birthday, Grumpy ~ I miss your posts!
Happy birthday, Grumpy! I miss your posts, too. Maybe you'll check in once in while.
Is the fisherman our obsessive Dave?
The theme was fun & easy, but the fill was tough! I still do not understand 107A petulance:spleen??? (even after consulting the dictionary.) CC, Tx 4 the shout out, but I am not sure I want to be remembered as The American Hobo! Manac,,, did you know that in order to get a New Jersey Fishing License, I had to sign an affidavit that I did not owe child support! (how am I going to feed my kids if I can't go fishing!) Oh, & remember to breathe video was awesome! but now my curiosity is begging me to look at all the other links at the end of that video...
HBD Grumpy!
Spang was a rude awakening. I went through several online dictionaries (option #2) before I found an explanation for this link.
I didn't have my glasses on, & thought -y plus -y was Roman Numeral -V+-V=X. I knew I couldn't put "ten" & went looking deeper. I thought it might be minus 5 + minus 5 = zero, (nil didn't fit either) OMG! try & find a roman numeral for zero. (Yipes!)
I wonder how the Romans could do much math or accomplish much in the way of engineering with their zero-less number system and cumbersome notation. I also wonder if they had fractions, such as two and a half, which is what you get when you, for example, divide X by IV.
Thesaurus.com
Main Entry: peevishness
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: uncontrolled anger
Synonyms: bile, ill temper, petulance , spleen
Antonyms: affableness
Petulance and spleen are synonyms in the sense of peevishness.
I always smile when I see words like SPANG in a puzzle. I can picture the constructor putting it there because it's the only word that fits. Then turning to a dictionary with fingers crossed saying "Please, please, let it be a real word!"
Kind of a cool sounding word... Glad I learned it.
Maybe a little too tricked up in the middle for my liking. I'm with Barry, Irish Miss, & Jayce as to what they said. Dittto.
WEES.
DNF because I had YAle.
Hand up for DYNASTY and YIKES.
SPANG????????????
Like some others, I got the theme right away from the title- this helped a lot.
SPANG????????????????????
I see the snarky anons must be busy again, as moderation is enabled. So sad.
Happy Sunday! I try to finish the puzzle and read all the comments before posting but I just couldn't make it today. The puzzle is long (as usual for a Sunday) and maybe a little harder for me than typical. Plus, I spent a while in the hospital visiting Barbara after her knee replacement surgery. She was groggy and nauseated yesterday but seemed to be much more chipper today. They did something I'm not familiar with called a nerve block to alleviate the pain. I took her iPhone to her so she can stay in touch better. She had her first physical therapy appointment and was expecting a second go-round later. I called Jordan since he seemed apprehensive about his grandma. He seemed relieved that everything was OK. I stopped by the supermarket to stock up on a few things when there is a possibility she will be coming home tomorrow. I wouldn't have guessed that. I hope her recovery is rapid and relatively pain-free. I guess she will get physical therapy in the hospital while she's there, then they will come to the house until she is able to get to their office. Pretty good service!
OK, finally finished with more difficulty than usual. WEES about SPANG. The Ys clue was too clever for me though I enjoyed Y'ALL. I've never heard of or seen an AAAA battery.
The 'moderation' must be a nuisance for all concerned. If our usual snarky anon is responsible, I would enjoy seeing a group stoning.
CC and others: I would be happy to try to explain The Golden Ratio if anyone is interested.
If you enjoy Pandora, you might enjoy creating a Chet Atkins station, buying a CD or downloading these from iTunes. I was playing a CD of him and Mark Knopfler playing various guitar duets. Great stuff! Here are two really good samples.
I'll See You in my Dreams.
There'll Be Some Changes Made.
Thank you, Alan, for a great puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the fine review.
I am in Franklin, TN. Heading back in the morning. Did the Sunday crossword today. Excellent puzzle.
I did not get Saturday's finished. I tried but got stuck.
Not much time to comment. Hitting the hay and then flying back to Chicago tomorrow.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(mytreso)
Well, I sent one message and it did not take. So, I will be brief. Enjoyed the puzzle. Flying back to Chicago tomorrow.
Abejo
(olivine)
Rampy,
No snarky anon last night. Just a proactive measure from Argyle. Poor Santa! He needs some sleep.
Bill G,
Explain away! The hourglass figure is a golden ration, right? Hope you have the most beautiful flowers waiting for Barbara when she comes back home.
Why doesn't the crossword open up to the correct date like it used to?
If you mean WebCrosswords, I'd like to know, too. It happens now and then.
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