Words: 70 (missing J,Q,X)
Blocks: 33
A great puzzle
from our Saturday Stalwart, Sr. Silk - we had to wait a bit since his
last (Apr 5th; almost a month~!) I liked this puzzle because I cheated, W.A.G.ed and actually
knew some things, too - and that means I learned something. Nifty
little pinwheel design with double-word-only stacks in a spiral pattern,
plus a couple more 9- and 10-letter words on the inside as well. The "it looks easy" 4-4-5 across the top was deceiving, to say the least; some of the longer fill:
18a. Bonobo, e.g. : CHIMPANZEE - Also a musician
28d. Australian red formerly called Hermitage : SHIRAZ WINE - a guide for those who can partake of the alcoholic grape
47a. It needs to be refined : CRUDE METAL - Because CRUDE OIL was not enough - how about some crude metal hair band music?
3d. Out of order : ON THE BLINK - When I was growing up, it was usually the TV that suffered this malady
ACROSS:
1. Trudge : PLOD - Um, OK, so, TREK, WALK, STEP....
5. Sonoma County seat Santa __ : ROSA - A WAG off the "O"
9. Square : PLAZA - anyone else in "dweeb" mode here? Oh, that kind of square
14. Late great? : LENO - Ah, the V-8 can - DUCK~!
15. Sci. subject : ASTRonomy - For some reason, I was pre-qualifying this as a "high school" subject, and not Science in general
16. Eponymous golf promoter Samuel : RYDER - His famous Ryder Cup is the prize for the winning team of USA vs. Europe players
17. FYI relative : ATTN.
20. Brief disclaimer : IMHO - Seen frequently here at the Blog, "In My Humble Opinion"
21. Provider of sound testimony? : EAR-WITNESS
22. Saw things : TEETH - Nailed it - did not fool me with "seeing"
24. Priceless? : FREE - Yup
25. Crayola color since 1949 : BRICK RED
28. Diving duck : SMEW - I tried TEAL
32. Uses a management training technique : ROLE PLAYS
34. Title imaginary friend in a Neil Diamond hit : SHILO - I have spent my music links
35. Fast ship : CLIPPER - "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"
36. DVD staple : TRAILER - Annoying, actually - and I do not have Star Wars on DVD - just VHS ( for shame )
38. Silicon Valley college : MENLO - all perps
39. Tempo notation : ALLA BREVE
41. Slow : POKY
42. Liver delicacy : FOIE GRAS
43. "The Wizard of Oz" farmhand : ZEKE
44. San Diego State athlete : AZTEC - Total cheat on my part - Googled it
5. Sonoma County seat Santa __ : ROSA - A WAG off the "O"
9. Square : PLAZA - anyone else in "dweeb" mode here? Oh, that kind of square
14. Late great? : LENO - Ah, the V-8 can - DUCK~!
15. Sci. subject : ASTRonomy - For some reason, I was pre-qualifying this as a "high school" subject, and not Science in general
16. Eponymous golf promoter Samuel : RYDER - His famous Ryder Cup is the prize for the winning team of USA vs. Europe players
17. FYI relative : ATTN.
20. Brief disclaimer : IMHO - Seen frequently here at the Blog, "In My Humble Opinion"
21. Provider of sound testimony? : EAR-WITNESS
22. Saw things : TEETH - Nailed it - did not fool me with "seeing"
24. Priceless? : FREE - Yup
25. Crayola color since 1949 : BRICK RED
28. Diving duck : SMEW - I tried TEAL
32. Uses a management training technique : ROLE PLAYS
34. Title imaginary friend in a Neil Diamond hit : SHILO - I have spent my music links
35. Fast ship : CLIPPER - "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"
36. DVD staple : TRAILER - Annoying, actually - and I do not have Star Wars on DVD - just VHS ( for shame )
38. Silicon Valley college : MENLO - all perps
39. Tempo notation : ALLA BREVE
41. Slow : POKY
42. Liver delicacy : FOIE GRAS
43. "The Wizard of Oz" farmhand : ZEKE
44. San Diego State athlete : AZTEC - Total cheat on my part - Googled it
53. Policy pro : WONK - New word for me; these two across clues messed up the whole SE
54. Transcends : RISES ABOVE
55. Prefix with Aryan : INDO
56. Free __ : AGENT
57. "The Last King of Scotland" tyrant : AMIN
58. Caution to a German shepherd, say : NEIN - Ah, not "HEEL" - that would be a German Shepherd - ah, you deceiver, Barry Silk~!
59. Longtime NFL coach Schottenheimer : MARTY - WAG/perp for me
60. Stop : REST
61. Uruguay's Punta del __ : ESTE
DOWN:
1. Braid : PLAIT
2. "I can do it" : LET ME
4. Phrase in much computer-generated mail : DO NOT REPLY
5. Speed : RACE - RUSH was my first try
6. Federal inspection org. : OSHA
7. Cook quickly : STIR FRY
8. Compete in a strength contest : ARM WRESTLE
9. Jabber : PRATE
10. "Coal Miner's Daughter" subject : LYNN - Loretta
11. Shop shaper : ADZE - LATHE was too long, so I pondered RASP and FILE
12. You might catch a few : ZEES - Had it, removed it, put it back in
13. Father of Deimos : ARES - Greek Gods
19. Patchy : PIED - when this filled, I had to duck again
23. Semiaquatic heavyweight : HIPPO
26. Largest OH airport : CLEveland - Cincinnati's airport is actually in Covington, KY
27. Place to enjoy a sharp drinker? : KARAOKE BAR - musically "sharp", but most of the time, 'atonal' is a better way to describe it
29. Noteworthy events : MILESTONES
30. Abbr. on some city limit signs : ELEVation
31. Had on : WORE
32. Ottawa-based law gp. : RCMP - One of those "ooh, I know this one~!" answers
33. Stick on a fridge door : OLEO - another bit of misdirection that did not get past me - a stick of margarine, not a magnet
34. Tel Aviv native : SABRA
37. Syncopated piece : RAG
40. 1962 hit with the lyrics "the truth could mean I'd lose you" : LIE TO ME
42. Disaster relief org. : FEMA
43. Piquant : ZESTY
45. Split up : END IT
46. Designer fragrance : ck ONE
47. Squeeze : CRAM
48. Baltic seaport : RIGA - No more maps for you~!
49. End __ : USER
50. Noticeable progress : DENT - I am making a dent in my list of
things to get done around here, and it feels good, too. The rental
apartment at mom's house is vacant again, so that needs to be cleaned
up, I just replaced the valve cover gasket on my car, and changed the
plugs; today I tackle the thermostat. Now the battery idiot light came
on in the other car - the list never seems to get shorter....
51. Dollar alternative : AVIS - Rental car places
52. Nearly six-week period : LENT - An educated WAG
Splynter
46 comments:
A lady, by name Emile Jones,
Had a feeling right down to her bones
That her closest of friends
Were the pearls and gems
She sold on-line at her store, E-MILE STONES!
In some BARS they sing KARAOKE.
ARM WRESTLE in some that are smokey.
In some, to pass time,
They sip SHIRAZ WINE.
And in some, brawls put them all in the POKY!
My girlfriend will endlessly PRATE
About her hair, which she keeps in a PLAIT.
Although I may sigh,
I DO NOT REPLY --
But I picture it sheared, on a plate!
Click for a cartoon from Monty.
Well, this was a bit of a struggle. Seven or eight minutes went by with little to show for it. Then I got the NE, then the SW, then the NW. But the SE resisted. I had ROSE where WINE would eventually go and, of course, that didn't help. And SMEW is one of those crossword staples that I can never remember. Anyway, I perped and WAGged my way through.
(Not crazy about the "sharp drinker" clue.)
[31:02]
Morning, all!
Got off to a great start with this one, tearing through the NW section like a hot knife through a stale metaphor. The NE, however, was impenetrable to me at first.
Worked my way through the rest of the grid and managed to get through it OK once I finally figured out that CKONE was actually CK ONE and no C KONE.
Back up in the NE, I was finally able to make some progress due to getting enough stuff lower down to thrown in ARM WRESTLE. Still took awhile, though, as I had RATE and then PACE before finally settling on RACE. Ditto for USDA before OSHA. I"m sure EAR WITNESS is a thing, but it sure didn't jump out at me even after getting ___WITNESS. But what else could it be?
Good morning!
This was an easier-than-normal Saturday Silkie. I actually solved it top-to-bottom rather than stumbling around in the snow like I usually have to do. I expected a DNF, though, with that C-KONE (Hi, Barry!) thingee. Wow, it was right!
Doesn't ESTE mean east? If so, why is Punta Del Este in the south of Uruguay?
I've never heard of anybody having an ADZE in their shop.
Are there any ducks that don't dive?
WONK is a word that I know, but remained just out of reach. I took a stab at DORK even though I knew it wasn't right. Dork!
Very definite learning experience! Great clues, 57a, 33d, etc. held onto term for 52d -alas, didn't work! Wanted wink for 12d. No way, clay! As I said, learning moment!
CC has blue eyes? Have a good one!
Tore through this one like a herd of turtles. Perhaps a little quicker than most Silkies, but it was still a plod. OTOH, it had all the elements I've come to expect from Barry S. Misdirections and multiple possibilities everywhere you look, but never quite completely out of reach.
Had the OSHA/USDA quandary, but RAtE, while wrong, solved that and gave me ROSA, which cleared up stir fry/deep fry. In the SE, started with DKoNY for the fragrance. Wrong, but on the right track. Didn't know Aztec, but wagged it and it all got straightened out with the help of wonk (which had to marinate for a while before appearing.) Nein is applicable to the breed German Shepard since most trainers use German rather than English.
Only had Rises in the SW, but finally committed to Marty, and that gave me the rest to finish it off. As usual, tough but doable.
One minor nit, but very minor. The organization that promotes arm wrestling (based in Petaluma, just down 101 from Santa Rosa) insists on calling it Wrist Wrestling. This Piece cites both uses, but if you are going to have a sanctioned event and send contestants to the finals, you'd better call it "Wrist Wrestling".
I was hoping for a Saturday Silkie last week, but just had to wait 1 more week! After the first pass, I had the SW corner filled, and a smattering elsewhere, but mostly a sea of white. I kept pecking away, and like Al said, perped and WAGged my way through. In the end, I actually solved this in less than usual Saturday Silkie time, with no red letter help and no look-ups. Yay!
Hand up for USDA before OSHA and TREK before PLOD. Hand up for knowing SMEW, but I can never remember it.
There were many unknowns, such as MENLO, AZTEC, ARES, LIE TO ME, CK ONE but perps and WAGs got it done.
Not being a golfer, I never realized the RYDER Cup was named after a person. I always assumed it was named after the company, but thought it odd. Learning moment.
I still don’t get 58A Caution to a German shepherd, say: NEIN, or 27D Place to enjoy a sharp drinker?: KARAOKE BAR, even after Splynter’s comments. Help?
I took 2 perps to get SHILO, even though I am a Neil Diamond fan. Argh!
SHILO
I completed the NW quite easily then settled down to working in usual Saturday fashion in the other blocks, SW, SE and finally NE. It was a challenge but faster than most Silkies and no look ups or red letters. Lots of fun. Thanks, Barry.
I liked OLEO, EAR WITNESS, and SHARP DRINKER.
I saw The Last King of Scotland, very loosely based on AMIN's life. Forest Whitaker well deserved his Oscar for the ROLE of Idi. The young doctor's role was not well written IMHO.
AZTEC,MARTY, and MENLO were perps and wags. I thought Jersey had the corner on Edison's MENLO (Park). LOL
CK ONE was all perps.
I enjoy SHIRAZ, but even with S-----WINE, I blanked on it for a time.
Great expo,Splynter. Good luck with your TO DO list.
Buckeye Bob, I understood sharp drinker to be a drunk singing sharp (off key) at a KARAOKE BAR. Usually laymen talk of singing flat instead of sharp, but musicians know there is a difference.
HG from last night --
No problem. I briefly wondered why, but quickly set it aside. Life is too short to spend it sweating the small stuff!
Good morning all.
This puzzle was both easy and tough. From 41A POKY (my nickname for the frau), take that diagonal up to the right. Completed all of that in short order, including the TLE from ARM WRESTLE. And then came to a near standstill for the south and southeast.
AZTEC and MARTY were no brainers. RIga and USER came easily enough. Finalized ELEV and WORE with SMEW. But I had to walk away for awhile.
Took a wag with RAG, and with the TR---ER sussed TRAILER and then MILESTONES. Got stuck again until I thought a little deeper about "transcends."
Finally changed the game to regular. Red letters at 43D. Must have crossed some wires somewhere along the line, because my definition of piquant was originally petty. So now I had pESTY going down and pe--going across.
I could go on. But I won't.
BB, the Alsatian canine would be a German Shepherd. The ethnic person that might tend flocks would be a German shepherd.
D-O, I have an adze in the shed, as well as a drawknife and some other rough and fine shaping hand tools. I don't use them though.
Splynter, what's the deal with linking the A ? I must have missed something.
Good morning everyone.
Yeh! I got it, I got it! After the SE and the NW stayed white for the longest time, the SE finally gave itself up with MILESTONE. Did not know CK ONE or SHILO. Cruiser fit for fast ship But I didn't think they were that fast. When I filled in HIPPO, CLIPPER became an obvious answer. RCMP finally dawned as well as the long downs, enabling most of the NW. Took a chance on PLAIT, a new learning.
NEIN - put on my German hat to talk to the shepherd. What if the shepherd was raised in America?
Always a pleasure to try and solve Barry's offerings.
Hello Puzzlers -
Started off at a Tuesday pace, thinking I'd solve a Silkie in record time, then bam! I bumped into that Neil Diamond song. Now, some of you know that I find N. Diamond to be a wide-scale public irritant, so it should be no surprise that I don't know his song titles. From there down it was all trouble. I had to look up Sabra and Smew to break the logjam. Technical DNF.
Spitz from yesterday - I couldn't guess how "gundecking" came to be used in that way, so I checked Wiki. Sure enough, some plausible explanations were available.
TTP at 8:51 --
Yes, I get that. We are talking about an ethnic person of Germanic origin. But "word of caution" = NEIN?
Maybe I am trying to overcomplicate it. So it is NO, meaning "be careful" or "be cautious"? Is it that simple?
Barry, how do you beguile me, let me count the ways – Beyond-clever cluing (sharp singer, lower case shepherd, Late great…), blind alleys (trek/twist, tines/teeth to start), words I forgot I knew (FOIES GRAS, PLAIT, SABRA, PRATE…), stuff I didn’t know (CKONE, SHIRAZ WINE, ALLA BREVE…) and an underlying sense of “I can do it”. I’ll have a seat in the “got ‘er done” section, please.
Musings
-Remember when we used to fix ON THE BLINK TV’s?
-The only EAR WITNESS in the Trayvon Martin case was the 911 operator
-Those “FREE” things in TV ads come with substantial s&h charges
-I thought Neil’s imaginary friend was the cheap wine Cracklin’ ROSIE (rose’ drank around a fire)
-My great grandfather McManamee was at this SHILOH. He fathered grandma Opal in 1894 at age 63 so he must have made it through somewhat unscathed
-Insomnia? Talk to a gov’t WONK and it’s hello REM
-Our demographics here indicate that, like Joe, a lot of us would know this ARM (wrist) WRESTLING capital of America
-Some experts name the HIPPO Africa’s most dangerous animal (after the mosquito)
-The ELEV of New Orleans ranges from +20 to -8
-Very funny bit - Timmy tells George to “take one dip and END IT”
B Bob @ 0917 - To me it's sort of like cautioning a toddler near a road whom you think may want to dart out into it. You might be saying No, No. (Keeping it as simple as possible.) JMO
Addendum
-Warren Buffet and thousands of his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders have taken over Omaha this weekend and the World Herald is full of that info. Consequently, the LA Cwd took some doing to find. Also, finding any (let alone inexpensive) hotel room or a reservation at an Omaha steak house would are equally hard to find.
BB, yes, you've got it. The ",say" in a clue suggests to that the answer is subject to some interpretation or variability. So while "Nein" would be more than a cautionary command from me (if I were a shepherd) to my German Shepherd, I can accept it as "cautionary."
Not that the clue mandates that there's dog involved. "Nein shepherd ! Drive your flock out of my lea !" :>) Though that's why I liked the misdirection. I can relate it to my boy.
My wife loves our GSD. She talks to him in sentences. He cocks his head to understand, or perhaps pick up a word or command he knows.
Of course, he does much better with tonal one or two syllable commands. My command to him for to "stop it" is a hard toned NO! "Stay" and "Wait" are an easier tone. And the least stern command is a melodic "OK", which means he can do as he wishes.
I enjoyed the misdirection of the clue, and like Spitzboov, had to parse it in Deutsch. It might be neen in Dutch if it were a Belgian shepherds caution to (perhaps) his Belgian Shepherd Dog.
I just realized I am supposed to be in the city doing electrical work for my BIL that never came to do the finish mudding on my drywall job.
Gotta run. See y'all later !
Brutal
TTP and Spitzboov --
Thank you. I guess I am being dense today.
desper-otto at 7:27 AM --
Your question intrigued me so I did some research. I could not find a reference that gives the origin of the place name Punta del ESTE.
But looking at the map of Uruguay, I see that Punta del ESTE is at the eastern tip (punta) of the southern coast. You can't go farther east. If you continue past Punta del ESTE, you are going northeast.
So that may be it.
Punta del Este Wiki
Good Morning:
I started solving this gem late last night but didn't get very far. Returned to it this am with fresh eyes and a clear mind and after much wagging and helpful perps, finally got the TADA w/o help.
I love Saturday Silkies and this one had some super fill, such as On the blink, chimpanzee, do not reply, karaoke bar, foie gras, arm wrestle, etc.
Another job well done, Barry, and another fine expo, Splynter. Thank you both.
Have a super Saturday.
I actually knew MARTY Schottenheimer, mainly for the controversy over his being fired from the San Diego Chargers. But would you believe, I spelled it with an "i"??? And that really messed me up to figure out ZESTi. (sigggghhhh)
SHIRAZ WINE Was a gimme, of course. Thanks for that one, Barry!
Finally, I have heard of WONK, but not used in that sense. I used to say WONKy when I meant someone was shaky and still a little wobbly from an all-night party. (Never MOI, of course!!)
Fun puzzle, and a nice start to the weekend. Have a great day everyone!
Hello, Super Solvers!
Thank you, Splynter, you always RISE ABOVE the difficulties of puzzling.
And thank you, Barry Silk, for a challenging but doable puzzle. My first scan yielded nada, then PLOD/PLAIT helped to finish the NW.
Slowly, ploddingly I filtered through the curtain of misdirection, chuckled and almost finished. My big fat error at SHIRAT instead of SHIRAZ cost me.
WONK and ESTE were easy but then had to research to see what the heck I had wrong. AZTEC! which I should know since I lived in San Diego during my college years, USD not SDS. And CK ONE is a mystery to me.
Loved the cluing for square, PLAZA and interesting to know that RYDER is named for a person.
Since I love Neil Diamond (sorry, Dudley) SHILO not only filled quickly but is now in my head.
This took me a bit longer than normal because I have a shadow in the form of my four year old granddaughter who requires much attention.
Book club meeting today for which I baked two sweet potato pies. Yum.
Have a super Saturday, everyone!
Hi again~!
Husker, I remember watching the TV repairman using a mirror to see the screen while making the adjustments in the back of the set - packed with vacuumed tubes. It was a piece of furniture, not an appliance or electronic device back then~!
grams, TTP - just an "inside" between me and C.C. - I asked for her opinion on a poem I wrote to "A" - and it goes out with flowers tonight....
Splynter
I'm still waiting for a decent explanation of what a "sharp drinker" is.
And shouldn't OLEO be a stick in a fridge door, not on a fridge door?
I haven't read the writeup or comments yet but I'll just say that this puzzle was just plain too hard for me. I turned on red letters; not to give me the correct letter or word but to tell me when a letter I entered was wrong. Even with that I couldn't finish satisfactorily. So let's see what everybody else had to say. I hope everybody else didn't think it was a 'speed run'! :>)
BTW, a stick "on" a fridge door seems off to me. Who has margarine on the refrigerator door?
Bummpo and BillG:
"stick on a fridge door" OLEO is absolutely correct . Honey, where is the A1 sauce? You dummy, it's on the door! If it was a snake it woulda bit ya!
Btw, if you like your milk or Beer the coldest, put it on the bottom shelf towards the rear. Put that OJ on the door. It doesn't matter if its a little warmer than the rest.
Bumppo, you're on your own with a better explanation of that SHARP singer fiasco. Remember Owen's law!
Challenging but enjoyable Saturday Silkie! I always turn on the red letter help on Saturday to SPEED things up or I would never make a DENT in the housework. Like many others, the NW was the first to fall and many others were perps and WAGS.
DOLLAR car rentals were not known to me although I see they do exist in Canada. RCMP was a given.
Yes Husker Gary, those HIPPOs are deceiving. They look like they are sleeping but apparently they can move really quickly. Like submarines, much of their bodies are below the water and you do not realize their massive size. We saw (from the top of a cliff) a herd of them swimming in Masai Mara Park, Kenya. They come up on land at night to eat and had left large areas of mudslide tracks where they slid back into the water!
Daughter enjoyed Korean version of KARAOKE BAR during her years of teaching there. They are called Noraebang and you actually get a private little room for your group. They are very popular probably because the apartments and homes are very small and there is no room to entertain so you have your party at the Noraebang.
Nice one, Mr. Silk and Splynter!
I seemed to be on the right wavelength today - a pretty quick (for me) Saturday around 25 minutes and some food and drink thrown in to keep the gastronome in me happy.
You (officially) can't get foie gras in California any more - it's been illegal to sell or serve since 2013.
I'm guessing that the Australians were forced to drop the "Hermitage" name so as to not infringe on the French appellation. Interestingly (or not, depending on your viewpoint) the US seems to be moving towards barring the term "champagne" from US-produced wines - one of the few countries to continue to allow it.
Cheers!
Marti - I almost did the same thing with Mr. Schottenheimer - it just looked right, and for a second I couldn't figure out why, then I had my "DUH" moment. It's all your fault!
Musings 2 (OOO songs redux)
- A TV purveyor of OOO, OOO (2:41)
-OOO song from 1958 that reached #1 (2:23)
-Great song with OOO in chorus and MOHAIR suit in the lyric (3:54)
-We’re off to a grad party for my favorite Chinese female who came here when she was 14 months old. – our niece Catherine (3 pix). (CC is a strong second) She is graduating with a $10,000/yr Warren Buffet scholarship and we are so proud.
There's not much better on a Saturday than doing a Silkie, working a few clues, slogging through the laundry, and then back to the puzzle to go, "I get it now!" I'm waiting for the Kentucky Derby, ignoring some house work, and stopping by this site to check on my answers. Hurray, there really is a ck One perfume. Thank you Mr. Silk, I look forward to your puzzles.
Hi Y'all! This felt like swimming in thick mud -- getting nowhere fast. I did finally fill it, but sure would not have without my friendly red letters. When you wait for perps to help and they don't...
Splynter, thanks again and good luck with Blue Eyes.
SMEW: we've had that Eurasian duck before so I WAGd it. One of the few "right the first time" entries today.
CK ONE: never smelled that one coming. It's a perfume? Really? I'm just not into fragrances.
I was sure "piquant" was "tangy". Turned red all three times I typed it in. Isn't there a saying about insanity that would cover that?
Couldn't remember Schottenheimer's first name except that it ended with a "Y", so plunked that in and waited. And waited. Aha!
I remembered SABRA after trying several creative forms of Jewish & Israeli. Thank you Leon Uris for "Exodus".
Never heard "Shilo" before and "Forever in Blue Jeans" was more than a tight fit.
Isn't "Punte" spanish for "point"? So Punte del ESTE is East Point? Took a while to get that. I tried ETAT but that's French. Oh the agony of being mono-ligual!
Splynter,
Thanks for the inside scoop ! I thought I missed something in your writeup.
BB, it happens to all of us. I almost over thought "Ottawa based law gp" today, but after getting the M from MENLO and the P from POKY, it could only be RCMP... BTW, thanks for the wiki link to Punta del Este.
Well, I left at 10:30 to head into the city on the Jane Adams and the Kennedy. (Same road, I-90, but different sections.) Traffic was brutal as always. An hour in, and an hour back. Then an hour to reroute a 120V line, and then wire and mount the new three lamp fixture over the mirror and sink in the bathroom, and back by 1:30.
I think I'll take the rest of the afternoon off.
Have a great day everyone !
PK:
You got it! Soon you'll be speaking like a native. Punta del Este means East Point.
Only one look up (CK One) and one mistake (User/Marty). That's a record for me with a Silky. Pretty easy today, actually. So I had to post even though I don't, usually.
HG, I LOVE The Manhattan Transfer! They are great singers and put on a fun show with clever choreography and costume changes.
Here's another favorite. OPERATOR
Great to be refreshed by Silk!
I used to think the long fills were the hardest to do, so when I first looked at this one-- with all but two fills requiring four letters and up-- I nearly despaired. But I reminded myself that long fills are often easy, I rallied and gradually, eventually... Knocked It OUT OF THE PARK!
Much of this one was won by perps, but also by grokking several longer answers based on just a few letters. ALL was enough, for instance, for my old brain to flash onto ALLA BREVE; CK was enough to get BRICK RED; and B_VE was enough to hit on RISES ABOVE.
In the end it's often pattern recognition, and a real pleasure to watch the mind at work. Splynter reminds us of the worth of WAGs, and I'll just add that what feels like a stab in the dark, or WAG, is often successful patterning.
Thursday puzzle was the equivalent of the Poseidon Adventure. Yesterday came together like a dream sequence and today I had more than few strike outs once I committed to "rose" for the close to shiraz. Finally had a sudden epiphany and when "wine" got appended the whole thing came together in a rush. Thanks for the fun (well, Thursday was not fun so much as a nightmare).
So nice to have the Manhattan Transfer links from Husker and Bill G today! I could listen to them all day long.
I think I will.
This puzzle took me a long time to solve, but I finally did it. A big problem that slowed me down was 3d. Since there were several Zs in the answers, I thought it must be ON THE FRITZ. BRICK RED finally changed that to ON THE BLINK. I've never been a Neil Diamond fan, so SHILO was all perps.
Have a great weekend everyone.
What more can you ask Saturday Silkie and Splynter Splaining...
Too much for me!
And, I hate captchas! How many times do I have to post this puny post??
Mary, too much for me too. But it's enjoyable being able to hang out with so many pleasant people who are smarter than I am.
I just watched a California colt win the Kentucky Derby. He is no Silky Sullivan but then, who is? So today with the Kentucky Derby winner fresh in my mind along with the name of today's puzzle constructor, here is a brief history of the greatest come-from-behind horse in history. The first video is of Silky Sullivan winning his famous race in 1958, coming from 41 length back. He was so far behind, the camera had to pan way back to even find him in the backstretch. Silky Sullivan
It makes me smile.
This second video includes the same race interspersed with some fun music and some other stuff. More Silky
Hi all!
I started this Silkie at 10a and kept working on it between chores and errands. Still nope. IMHO I'm just too dense to get through a Saturday. Thanks Spynter for the writeup / all the answers in the east & south.
My only errors in what I inked was ONTHEfritz/lazy (hey, slow=lazy works!) 51d (the only thing other than ZEEK I had in the south) was way wrong with Euro. Oh well, Monday is just around the corner...
I enjoyed everyone's posts & links over the last few days (OOO cupcakes & Scrabble Art stand out at the moment). Thanks!
Cheers, -T
Good Sunday morning, folks. Thank you, Barry Silk, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for a fine review.
Started this last night, but ran out of time (got tired). Finished this morning. It was tough getting started, but it was one word at a time.
Had ROLE PLAYS early, but changed it due to entering ON THE FRITZ for 3D. Turned out late in the game that ROLE PLAYS was correct. Then I got ON THE BLINK.
There was a big thing in Chicago a couple years ago about FOIE GRAS being banned from menus. I guess it was the way they obtained the livers. I think the whole thing blew over.
ZEKE was a wag after a couple perps to get started.
AVIS was good. I was looking for money for a while.
Seemed to remember SABRA from some books I have read about Israel.
Tried SNEAD for 16A. Nothing was working in that corner. Got a Y with Loretta LYNN and then RYDER hit me. We just had the RYDER Cup at Medinah CC, in Medinah, IL.
Now I will try the Sunday puzzle. see you later today.
Abejo
(beesma considerable)
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