Words: 72 (missing F,G,J,K,X)
Blocks: 28
I was pretty sure this one was not only going to beat me up and take my
lunch money, but it was planning on giving me a wedgie and stuffing me
in my locker, too. The whole grid remained blank after a full across
and downs pass, save for one or two, and after the second run, it didn't
get much better. My break through was at 26a, because I "knew" who it
referred to, but couldn't recall the name. After that, it was only the
PNW ( for shame, I like that part of the world ) that refused to budge
until I changed one letter in 25a. Triple 9-letter corners, one grid
spanner;
39a. '60s pro-war words : LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
32a. Ram : CRASH INTO - I like getting 9-letter fill from only two crossings; this one I got from just the "C" and the "H"
Ah-ah-ah-aaaaaahnward~!
ACROSS:
1. Chewed the fat : SCHMOOZED - ooh, such a great word~! Although around here, it's not so much chewing the fat as stroking someone's ego with words
10. Aristophanes satire, with "The" : WASPS
15. Obligatory joke response : WHO'S THERE - Knock knock
16. Buddhist who has attained Nirvana : ARHAT - one of two 5-letter "A-r" words I did not know
17. Pellet shooter : AIR PISTOL
18. Informal qualifier : SORTA - It's kinda slangy
19. ER needs : IVs
20. Bowls, e.g. : STADIA - Ah, those kinds of bowls; I was thinking 'games', but not arenas
22. Boglike : MIRY - the "meh" fill for the day
23. Start to do well? : NE'ER - Ne'er do well
25. Suffix with malt : OSE - DAH~! Went with "E"SE first
26. One of a fictional trio : ARAMIS - Here's my cheat point; Knew we might be talking about the Three Musketeers, but I can never recall these names
28. Road Runner, e.g.: Abbr. : ISP - Internet Service Provider
30. Beantown tower, with "the" : PRU - not from 'BAHston', but this sounded familiar - The Prudential Tower - they have a place called the "5-Napkin Burger"~? Sounds like something I need to try
31. Fight sound : POW - Batman taught me all I need to know
10. Aristophanes satire, with "The" : WASPS
15. Obligatory joke response : WHO'S THERE - Knock knock
16. Buddhist who has attained Nirvana : ARHAT - one of two 5-letter "A-r" words I did not know
17. Pellet shooter : AIR PISTOL
18. Informal qualifier : SORTA - It's kinda slangy
19. ER needs : IVs
20. Bowls, e.g. : STADIA - Ah, those kinds of bowls; I was thinking 'games', but not arenas
22. Boglike : MIRY - the "meh" fill for the day
23. Start to do well? : NE'ER - Ne'er do well
25. Suffix with malt : OSE - DAH~! Went with "E"SE first
26. One of a fictional trio : ARAMIS - Here's my cheat point; Knew we might be talking about the Three Musketeers, but I can never recall these names
28. Road Runner, e.g.: Abbr. : ISP - Internet Service Provider
30. Beantown tower, with "the" : PRU - not from 'BAHston', but this sounded familiar - The Prudential Tower - they have a place called the "5-Napkin Burger"~? Sounds like something I need to try
31. Fight sound : POW - Batman taught me all I need to know
41. Idaho's Coeur d'__ River : ALENE - Got this based on last week's puzzle
43. Divinity sch. : SEMinary - I tried ORU to start
44. Follow : SEE - Stared at this way too long;
"Do you follow what I'm saying?" "Do you SEE what I'm saying?"
46. Final: Abbr. : ULTimate
47. Common sense : SMARTS - I'm writing a satirical book about Common Sense, and how it's not that common anymore
49. Pujols' team, on scoreboards : LAA - L.A. Angels - C.C. has more on this guy
51. Holliday companion : EARP - Ah-HA~! DOC Holliday, that is....I missed the second "L" in there. A friend at UPS just got me interested in this group - Love this song~! (yes, spelled wrong)
55. Seconds : MORE - "Please, sir, may I have some seconds?"
56. Silicon mineral : QUARTZ - I figured why not, it fit, and it stayed
59. Long, on Lanai : LOA - Hawaiian
60. Hillside entrances : ADITS - BANG~! I threw this in, and it was right; learned from doing crosswords, though during the week it's usually "Mine entrances"
62. Convinced of : SURE ABOUT
64. Sad : TEARY
65. Bronson film with four sequels : DEATH WISH - Never saw any of them - IMDb
66. Spanish heater? : EL SOL - Total WAG that totally stayed - didn't realize it til I started on the write-up
67. Illegal heaters? : ARSONISTS - Ah. Clever.
DOWN:
1. Beau : SWAIN - straight up definitions....uh, pun intended~?
2. Leek relative : CHIVE - Anyone go with ONION to start?
3. Game sometimes played near a garage : HORSE - I've played this before, but basketball is just not my thing; the first person to spell HORSE loses
4. Twin Cities airport, on luggage tags : MSP - Gah~! C.C. will be so disappointed - I knew where we were talking about, but I didn't know the three-letter airport & Airport code for Minneapolis/St. Paul
5. Milo's pug pal, in a 1989 film : OTIS
6. "Enough already!" : "OH, STOP IT" - Yesterday I rolled a BBQ off a pallet at the Home Depot and the asst. store manager said "don't break it before you build it~!"; I responded "Oh, stop it~!", which was pretty bold - I wouldn't have said that a month ago
7. Frat letters : ZETAs
8. Diminish, in a way : ERODE - I tried ABATE
9. Sub base? : DELI - Good one
10. Common word in history texts : WAS - I tried ERA; this was my last fill, crossing Buddhist and Aristophanes - and an educated WAG
11. Food court lure : AROMA
12. Gulf Coast trawler's gear : SHRIMP NET - Pretty sure we were looking for a "net"
13. Like some anthems : PATRIOTIC
14. Doesn't give up on : STAYS WITH
21. Lake Thun feeder : AAR
24. Taken off : RISEN - ah, like airplanes
27. "You can call me he. You can call me she" speaker : RUPAUL - More here
29. Least extroverted : SHIEST
30. Campaign pros : POLS - Politicians
32. Yearbook signer : CLASSMATE - another 9-letter fill I got from just the two "A"s
33. Great teacher, often : ROLE MODEL
34. Some prayers : AVE MARIAS
35. Barely beat, with "out" : NOSE
36. Lilted sound : TRA - Um, OK
38. Like aspen leaves : OVATE
40. Be virtually the same as : EQUATE TO
45. Office suite door abbr. : ESQuire
48. Derivative of the past : RETRO
49. '80s "PM Magazine" host : LAUER - Matt
50. "Behind the __ I'll convey myself": Polonius : ARRAS - Learning moment; The other "A-r" - I did not know this was a 'tapestry'
52. Schwarzenegger's middle name : ALOIS - I liked him best in "Predator"
"If it bleeds, we can kill it."
53. Get up : ROUST - Tried ARISE, AROSE, etc
54. They may be winding : PATHS - sounds romantic
57. Approval letters : USDA - USDA approved for your consumption
58. 1984 Hugo Award winner Timothy : ZAHN
61. One has one: Abbr. : SYLlable
63. The Bahamas were once part of it: Abbr. : BWI - British West Indies
Splynter
Any rhythm is missing, but at least these have a limerick rhyme scheme:
ReplyDelete"Knock knock." "Whose there?"
"No, you say WHO'S THERE?"
"I said who's"
"No you said whose."
"Finish the joke." "Just the Grinch, no Whoes here!"
Let's just give up on rhymes completely:
"Knock knock."
"Who's their?"
"No, you say WHO'S THERE?"
"I said there."
"No you ... anyway, they're!"
"They are there? OH, STOP IT! *Sob*"
"Aw, there there now."
"Knock knock."
ReplyDelete"Who's there?"
"SASQUATCH"
"SASQUATCH who?
"Jes' ask what cha want, and I'll try to answer!"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"ROLE MODEL."
"ROLE MODEL who?"
"Rome oughtta do something about those STADIA ruins!"
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"DEATH WISH."
"DEATH WISH who?"
"Dat swish is coming from RU PAUL!"
Mercifully, I quit there. I'll let someone else tackle WASPS, Athos, Porthos, ARAMIS, and JART'agnan, et alia.
Got it filled, but only with red letter help. Except for one trivial spelling error (ALANE>ALENE) and one wag (AAr ✜ PrU), everything was in the NW corner. ONION>OLIVE>CHIVE, MSP>STP>MSP, maltESE>maltOSE, IOTA>BETA>ZETA. After red letters had revealed those errors, I finally had enough perps to guess SCHMOOZED, WHO'S THERE, NE'ER, RISEN, SWAIN, OH STOP IT. Before red letters, I had already corrected EDGE>EASE>NOSE, AIR>TRA, BIRDS>WASPS, ARTHOS>ARAMIS, AROSE>ROUSE>ROUST, ROADS>PATHS, ASSAULT?S>ARSONISTS.
ReplyDeleteAristophanes plays I knew were The Clouds, The Birds, and The Frogs. Didn't remember The WASPS until perps gave it.
Nits: aren't bowls the games, and STADIA the arenas they're played in?
Got it once I had 9 perps, but did not like the clue for WHO'S THERE.
What's up? Captcha has given me just the photos 4 out of 5 times this morning!
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteTypical Saturday struggle, but I eventually managed to muddle and guess my way through unassisted.
Unknowns today included WASPS (as clued), ALOIS, PONTI, MSP and BWI.
Missteps included SMASH INTO instead of CRASH INTO, ESE instead of OSE and KEA instead of LOA.
Really hated seeing MIRY. I suspected it was going to be there after getting the initial M, but I resisted putting it in until forced by the perps.
Everything else was fine. Lots of very tricky clues, but I was on my game today and managed to suss everything out eventually.
I somehow pulled LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT out of thin air which gave me an unwarranted sense of hope. In the end the NW corner, which of course started out empty, was still empty. Then WHOS THERE occurred to me. Which, if I recall correctly (it was mostly all a blur by then), somehow let me abandon the AIR RIFLE (which I desperately wanted to "stretch-to-fit) for a PISTOL. SCHMOOZED gave me the "TaDa!". CHIVE had never occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteI guess it could be described as a WAGfest but maybe I'm not giving enough credit to my sub-conscious auto-pilot. He certainly seems to know a lot more than I do.
[20:07]
Like Splynter, this looked daunting at first. I was afraid I would lose my week long winning streak, but it all came together in good time for a Saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteCRASH INTO and LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT came with almost no perps, providing many "handles" to help me move onward.
I WAGgged WAS as my last fill.
ARHAT, PONTI, and ARRAS were all perps. Looking up the meaning of ARRAS afterward, I remembered having seen it before. These were my only obscurities, all "gettable."
Here we use SCHMOOZED as chewed the fat, just gabbing.
Now I must make an apple pie with a butter crust for the May family get together at my elder son's. It was ordered by my younger son and my grandson for their birthdays. We always have pie instead of cake.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a WAGfest that I can't believe I got the whole thing. Did I start with ONION? Of course. ESE before OSE? Yep! ROUSE before ROUST? You betcha!
ARRAS is usually clued as a tapestry. I sorta agree that SORTA might be a tad slangy. So? I still think that RISEN for "Taken off" is a stretch.
My last WAG was the first U in RUPAUL. When the grid was finally filled, ARHAT and ALOIS just looked wrong. I wasn't sure LAUER was around in the 80's. I threw up my hands and came here for my comeuppance. Whew!
I am familiar with MIRY as used in Psalm 40, verse 2. from the King James Version of the Bible:"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the MIRY clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." It appears in many other versions, but not all. It is found in the American Standard Version and the English Standfard Version,among others.
ReplyDeleteSORTA didn't surprise me because the clue used the word "informal."
Got to check my pie.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteA lot of what D Otto said. I got through all but the SE on my own, but once there I couldn't shovel all the snow. Had to look up the Bronson movies (never saw them), that guy Pujols (oh, baseball, not my thing), and Arnie's unfamiliar middle name.
Therefore, TDNF.
Hmmm, interesting. My Captcha is also just the photo. Let's see how this works
Oh, this was brutal! I stretched from the SW to the NE and then had to come here to finish. My hat's off to those of you who made it through this one! Still, it's Saturday, the sun's shining and the garden's calling, "Weed me." Thanks, Mr. Olschwang for a real stretch. I probably could have made it complete with a second cuppa, but there's a lot to get done today. TTFN
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteOlschwang can be knotty, but this one turned out to be doable with some luck. Relied heavily on WAGS: AAR, ALOIS, DEATHWISH, LAA, PONTI, and HORSE. The long 9's eventually turned out to be in my wheelhouse. Liked seeing STADIA. Cute clue for NEER.
SCHMOOZED - Of Yiddish origin. Does not appear to come from the German 'schmusen' meaning to smooch, cuddle, or fondle.
Just returned from the Farmer's Market down by the train station. Picked up 2 elderberry pies. Yum.
Yellowrocks, why does Splynter look daunting?
ReplyDeleteOuch! WES today. Sometimes you've just got to admit defeat, and the SE got me waving my white flag.
ReplyDeleteTime to go hike the Hollywood sign, I'll wave my white flag from the top.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a long and tough struggle and finished w/o help, but took a lot of perps and wags. Hand up for onion/chive, arise/roust, Betas/Zetas, and smash/ crash into.
Thanks, Alan, for a challenging workout and thanks, Splynter, for 'splainin' it all.
A very close friend recently received a Fullbright Scholarship to teach and guide graduate students at a university in Jordan. She and her husband will be there from August of this year until June, 2015. She is a Professor of Nursing at a college in Massachusetts. (In 1988, they left their jobs and spent a year and a half sailing half-way round the world.)
Have a great day.
Hello, Weekend Warriors!
ReplyDeleteLike Splynter, this had me bloodied by the time I finished with my companion, Mr. G., not knowing Arnold's middle name, Pujol (who?)much less his team, nor OTIS.
Otherwise, it was a wagfest as others have commented. Much fun, thank you, Alan Olschwang. But a DNF at PATHS, I had LATHS and ARSONiSTS. Yes, I had ROUSE.
But it was a worthy challenge.
You all have a delightful Saturday! For me, it's two parties, a farewell and a welcome.
Happy Saturday everybody!
ReplyDeleteCRASH and burn today.... 'nuff said....
Confidently wrote in BIRDS for the Aristophshames attire, shamefully erased a half hour later....
That being said, like Mets fans giving Puig a standing O, I must applaud Alan O for a fine, challenging, daunting puzzle, and the SCHMOOZING STOPs THERE....
Finally, Splynter I enjoyed seeking and finding the hidden YETI....
Attire? How about Satire....
ReplyDeleteSo why didn't autocorrect autocorrect Aristophanes as well...?
ReplyDeleteAaarrrggghhh Never got off the ground on this one (except for ARRAS and CHIVE) and even after I started cheating, I had to keep on cheating practically until the end. It kills me that I couldn't remember PONTI (dementia coming on?) and that I didn't get EARP (kept thinking of Billie Holliday [spelling?] and music rather than Westerns). Anyway, terrible way to start a Saturday, especially since most folks seemed to finish without any problem.
ReplyDeleteOh well, at least I got the moderate Sudoku--not much consolation but you take what you can get.
Have a good weekend, everybody!
Hi Y'all! Brutal! 'Nuf said.
ReplyDeleteSCHMOOZED isn't a word used out here at all. No Yiddish speakers, I ever met. I've known some Jews but they never SCHMOOZED in front of me.
How do you pronounce ALOIS? Like "a louse"? Or is that just Maria's term?
I liked CLASSMATE & ROLE MODEL huddled there together. Must be a Catholic School because the next line is prayer.
SURE ABOUT a DEATH WISH with ARSONISTS. Hmm! Let's ROUST those suckers from such destructive PATHS.
Forgive me the above entries. I just had to get some fun from this otherwise painful puzzle.
Hand up for onion first, etc. For some unknown reason I got Pujols' team right on the first try.
Thanks, Splynter.
Hi again~!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, River Doc~!
Splynter
Enjoyed this one tremendously. Constantly just outside of my grasp, it was a guessfest until the end, but somehow kept moving forward. Finally had to resort to google for two clues to get the SE to fall, because I was stuck on all the proper nouns and could not make ARSONISTS appear.
ReplyDeleteWasn't tricked into ONION, it just seemed too easy for a saturday. I was excited when I was the clue for WASPS, because I've read a lot of Aristophanes, but could only think of The Birds and The Frogs (one of my faves) to fit, and WASPS just wouldn't bubble into my consciousness for the longest time.
Couldn't decide between ROUSE and ROUST, so I put in ROUSE and forgot about it, which was my undoing later. If I had that T instead of the E, I probably would have sussed out ARSONISTS. Oh well.
Second time I've seen that exact clue for NEER this week, do crossword editors group these things together on purpose?
At any rate, a great, thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.
-PG
HI all...
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I even try...
19a, 28a and 4d is all all got. Here's my lunch money Alan, but if you don't stuff me into a locker, I'll do your math homework.
Thanks for the answers and write up Splynter!
Cheers, -T
I really liked this puzzle, but it was a DNF for me. I had ROUSE instead of ROUST and ARRAM instead of ARRAS so wasn't able to come up with ARSONISTS. Since I do the puzzle with pen and paper, I don't have any red letter help.
ReplyDeleteHola Everyone. Too many mistakes to even list here. When you make one error, that compounds on down the line. Oh well, a learning experience for me today.
ReplyDeleteI did think Sorta was a bit of a stretch. I had roll for Deli, and Beta for Zeta, so a whole corner went begging for lack of correct answers.
Saturday crosswords aren't usually on my list of things to do, but I thought I'd give it a go. Didn't happen.
Have a great holiday, everyone. Stay safe.
Ha! Here I thought Pujols was some soccer team from India. I didn't know Arnold's middle name either. A-louse...good one, PK.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful day here in the neighborhood. I just washed the MG in preparation for a little outing tomorrow. MG's, Triumph's, Healey's galore!
Enjoy.
We spent the last 36 hours with grandkids and I just had 4 cells to finish in the SE when we had to leave this morning. We just got back and I filled all 4 cells badly but enjoyed the challenge, Alan. ZAHN, ARRIS and ROUSE/ROUST were my undoing. We spent 5 hours at Omaha’s world class zoo today and saw about 85% of it on a lovely day. What a crowd!
ReplyDeleteMusings
-Oh, the PRO-war slogan, not HELL NO…
-When grandkids tell a “joke”, it’s always a riddle or knock, knock
-We use the Road Runner ISP
-My wife is loaded with SMARTS and I just a bunch ‘o degrees
-I even thought Billy Holiday might have two “l’s” before Doc came to mind
-The DEATH WISH franchise was cheesy but fed the vigilante instinct in all of us
-Many a manager has regretted a decision when he STAYS WITH a pitcher and does not use a reliever
-The middle school kids signed their CLASSMATE’s yearbooks for hours on Thursday and then went home and put them where they won’t look at them for 50 years
-I’m so tired but Joann wants to go to mass…
This gave me fits and I had to look up Arnold's middle name, but I finished. That was a toughie.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely brutal attack of the red letters... (I am glad I didn't try it in ink, what a mess it would have been.) I actually got several of the long ones after a while, but most of the short fill, like 46a final abbr=Ult had me Bamboozled.
ReplyDeleteThere was one learning moment, after I Googled it. But now I can't remember what it was, nuts!
3D Horse had me going, because I remember it as Buck Buck! (or johnny on the pony) As taught to me by the one & only Bill Cosby.
Note that this clip at 9:18 is long, but is actually two stories. the 1st 4 minutes explains Buck Buck, & introduces Fat Albert. The 2nd half is just hilarious...
Well, this was my usual Saturday experience; more in line with AnonT, CED and Chickie than Nancy. I had no trouble with SCHMOOZED, SORTA, ARAMIS; didn't know PRU, RUPAUL and lots of other stuff. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteAnother chapter in the exciting life of a retired middle school teacher. I went to the supermarket. It was filled with people who looked sorta like me. But then there was a youngish woman in tight jeans and stilettos. Dunno why. I would've spent more time in her aisles but she walked faster than I did.
Barbara wanted to go out to a local Thai restaurant for lunch. She always gets the same thing, coconut seafood soup. Delicious! The soup, Thai iced tea and some shrimp appetizers were plenty enough.
Mostly red-letter help and guesses today, although WHO'S THERE and LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT bubbled right up from the past.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and son drove 4 hours to St. Paul,KS to celebrate his uncle's 90th birthday and see some cousins. My husband has 55+ cousins.
I was sad not to go, but can't take a round trip and no hotels could be found this weekend.
We hope to have a BBQ at the lake on Monday. Any other big plans for the weekend?
BTW, Husker Gary included a link to see the Brian Sisters this week sometime and I spent the day reading about them on briansisters.org
Even with help (several look ups) this was a beast. Hoping for easier Sunday one! Since I live in SASQUATCH territory (Pac NW) I got that and Coeur d'Alene. As a rock hound I look for QUARTZ all around all the time. Then I was in Nam during the LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT movement.
ReplyDeleteFor those that missed the DEATH WISH movies, you really did not miss anything!
ReplyDeleteActually, you did, Jeff Goldblum's 1st appearance in any movie, as Freak#1
ReplyDeleteOuch!
ReplyDeleteDNF.
Had the same troubles as most.
Arsonist just never came to mind
and schmoozed gave me fits.
Speaking of Crash Into
Oh wait... That was my PSA for the day.
I meant Crash
I enjoy seeing different species being pals. Without the Internet, I wouldn't be aware of this happening. Here is a bear/lion/tiger group who enjoy each other's companionship. (BTW, I had to look up whether it should be other's or others'.)
ReplyDeleteBLT buddies.
Blue Iris, sorry you couldn't find a hotel...
ReplyDeleteCED, unless I misunderstood you, Buck Buck sounds like a much different game from Horse. In Horse, you are just matching each other's basketball shots. "OK, I'll spin around, shoot left-handed from the freethrow line and it has to bank in off the backboard."
98% I had to start and stop twice before finally nailing all except OH STOP IT. I had STOW instead of STOP - and couldn't figure how ISW was an answer for "Road Runner." I had no idea that RR was an ISP - must be his night job...
ReplyDeleteJust finished MARTIN EDEN and THE CALL OF THE WILD. After all these years I have become a Jack London fan. Who knew he wasn't just for Junior High?
ReplyDeleteHi again...
ReplyDeleteI just finished Dave Berry's You Can Date Boys When You're Forty. Funny stuff.
CED - I wasted too much time watching old Coz' bits. Thanks.
Since I only got 3 today, I went searching for Father Guido Sarducci's "3 lousy miracles" bit he did on SNL. I couldn't find it. Instead, I'll leave you with Five Minute University.
Cheers, -T
Finished with the help of Google. I call shenanigans on the clue for arsonists. And a big fat ugh! for the whole thing. Not fun.
ReplyDelete