Theme: Various kinds of drops - The last word in the theme entries can be backed with DROP.
17A. Stuffy room need : FRESH AIR. Airdrop - Getting supplies in without actually landing.
21A. Smith, to Abigail Adams : MAIDEN NAME. Name-Drop - Claim to know famous people. Abigail was the wife of John Adams.
33A. Mello Yello rival : MOUNTAIN DEW. Dewdrop - A bead of water that forms overnight on blades of grass, if the humidity is high enough. Also the name, Dew Drop Inn; a bar of my ute.
42A. Door-controlling sensor : ELECTRIC EYE. Eye Drop - Used to try to hide the redness after staying too long at the Dew Drop.
54A. 1984 Prince hit : PURPLE RAIN. Rain Drop. The song seems to have a vigorous copyright defense. No clip of the original.
62A. Painted setting behind stage actors, or what the ends of 17-, 21-, 33-, 42- and 54-Across can literally have : BACKDROP
Argyle here. Not as tough as yesterday's but probably some can find some nits.
Across:
1. Curtain hanger : ROD
4. Exec's "Now!" : ASAP. "As Soon As Possible" but they really want sooner than possible.
8. Works for People, perhaps : EDITS. People Magazine.
13. '50s political slogan name : IKE. Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower: "I Like Ike"
14. "Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself" gp. : ACLU. (American Civil Liberties Union)
15. Dead Sea discovery : SCROLL. Ancient text found in caves.
19. Overly affected : TOO TOO
20. Cab ride cost : FARE
23. UFO navigators, so they say : ETs
25. One-one, for one : TIE
26. Messy type : SLOB
27. In and of itself : PER SE
30. Tip holder : JAR
31. Me, to Matisse : MOI. or to Miss Piggy.
32. Language of Southeast Asia : LAO
38. Recipient of much Apr. mail : IRS
39. Baby seal : PUP
40. Overnight stopping place : INN. Do drop in for the night. And 48A. 40-Across postings : RATES
41. Anger : IRE
45. Like very familiar jokes : OLD
46. Acidity nos. : PHs. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. Pure water has a pH very close to 7. - Wikipedia
47. Road crew goo : TAR
50. Resort near Ventura : OJAI
52. Spanish month : MES. No particular month, just the word for month.
53. El Al home: Abbr. : ISRael
57. Purina rival : IAMS. Pet food manufacturers.
61. Error-removal aid : ERASER
64. DVD player error message : [NO DISC]
65. Lago filler : AGUA. Water in a Spanish lake.
66. Bustle : ADO
67. Uses Avis, say : RENTS
68. Put in order : SORT
69. Kentucky Derby action : BET
Down:
1. Repeated musical accompaniment : RIFF. JzB, what say you?
2. Pod vegetable : OKRA. Another podded plant.
3. XING sign critter : DEER
4. "That's the spot" : AAH
5. Takes for a ride : SCAMS
6. Et __: and others : ALIA
7. 17th-century New England settler : PURITAN
8. First name in makeup : ESTÉE Lauder.
9. Anti-rodent brand : D-CON
10. Attaches, as patches : IRONS ON
11. Complete dolt : TOTAL IDIOT
12. Like many NFL replays : SLO-MO
16. Pop singer Lisa : LOEB
18. Dates : SEES
22. More in need of cleaning : DIRTIER
24. Entices : TEMPTS
27. Ballet bend : PLIE
28. Viscount's superior : EARL
29. Traditional New Year's Day procession : ROSE PARADE
30. Planet with the most moons : JUPITER
31. Gold rush figures : MINERS
34. Your and my : OUR
35. Unspecified number : ANY
36. Author Gardner : ERLE. Best known for the Perry Mason series.
37. Gets married : WEDS
43. Contributes for a joint gift : CHIPS IN for the married couple.
44. Melons with wrinkly rinds : CASABAs
49. Very dry : ARID
50. Start serving customers : [OPEN]
51. Courtroom panelist : JUROR
52. Former Ford autos, briefly : MERCs. (usual Mercury Grand Marquis)
53. Acquire, as debts : INCUR
55. For fear that : LEST
56. Shakespearean villain : IAGO. A character in Othello.
58. Many a Syrian : ARAB
59. Airplane __: cellphone setting : MODE. Wiki
60. Parking space : SPOT
63. "Krazy" comics feline : KAT. A fine note to end on.
Argyle
45 comments:
Sheriff Ant was an insect gunslinger,
Who was chasing a bee with a stinger.
The bee shook a leaf,
DEW washed Ant off his feet --
"He got the DROP on me!" whined the Sheriff with vigor!
The beauty had one glass EYE as a prop.
She'd use it to TEMPT guys who would stop.
She'd let it fall to the floor
For her gallant to restore --
Her promiscuousness she blamed on her EYE DROPS!
C.C. is in another uber productive period and we get to enjoy all of it.
Very theme heavy yet very accessible puzzle. I especially liked TOO TOO and TOTAL IDIOT. 0JAI and OKRA also were fun.
Good morning!
This one turned into a speed run. Good thing I didn't need the theme to solve it. I thought the theme word for 17a was HAIR -- HAIR drop, he said baldly.
I misread the clue for 11D as a "Complete Do It." I was surprised when IDIOT appeared. I was thinking FARE, but wrote FAIR. That didn't help matters. Looking over the grid, I wondered who the IRON SON was. D'oh! Other than my self-inflicted foot shots, I enjoyed C.C.'s offering.
Good morning!
AAH, just the ticket for a fun Tuesday romp. I really liked this puzzle, for the same reasons Lemony mentioned. I was also impressed with the four overlapping theme entries. That is really tough to do, and still get decent fill in the rest of the gird.
With PURITAN at 7-Down, it would really have been fun to see the clue at 21-Across read, "Pocahontas, to Rebecca Rolfe."
Have a great day, everyone!
Is C.C. using the front or back of the phrases for the theme? I guessed front but laughed when the back was the solution on this fun Tuesday offering.
Musings
-Many modern brides keep their maiden name or hyphenate it. Works for me.
-50 kids in Orlando drinking copious amounts of Mountain Dew…
-Like C.C., Prince is a Minneapolitan
-ACLU sometimes defends speech you might hate
-PER SE filled in and it took a heartbeat to “get”
-Marvin Webster was called the human ERASER because of this ability
-While watching the play Jersey Boys those of us in the audience got excited when we heard the very familiar opening RIFF to Sherry
-OLD joke – “Why don’t they move those DEER crossing signs to less traveled roads?”
-We were the victim of a FARE SCAM in NYC when the cabbie took the long way around. Waddaya gonna do?
-The ROSE PARADE was on my bucket list and it did not disappoint
-Huge JUPITER attracts many incoming meteors and keeps them from Earth
-LEST we forget
-Gotta run. We are planting a memorial tree this morning on Hole #2 for our friend David who was killed in the Pilger tornado this summer.
Happy Tuesday everybody!
No time to do the puzzle - got to get to work - just wanted to say thanks for the BDay greetings from yesterday. Would like to post more, but ever since I've been back in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, there's not a lot of spare time, what with the job and moving into a new place....
What a fun offering from C.C.! And I didn't think it was less "tough" than yesterday...just more Fair! Yesterday I felt like a total idiot. Today was dessert. Such clever clues. Favorite was Works for People.
Good Morning:
What a pleasant surprise to see CC's name so soon after Sunday's gem.
Sort of zipped through with a slight bump or two, but didn't get the theme until the reveal. We'll done, CC, and nice expo, Argyle.
My new iPad Mini is working like a charm and I like its size and weight.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
A little crunchy but got everything without lookups or strikethroughs. Did not fully 'get' the theme until coming here. Very clever. Thanks Argyle.
Guessed at AGUA and MES.
RIFF was a new learning.
2nd outing this week for C.C. Congrats.
Have a great day
CC, I think in generating this puzzle, with perfect clues, no misdirects, an elegant grid, very few TV/pop tie-ins, and a clearly clued unifier for the theme entries, the result was a splendid MONDAY-level crossword.
Happy Tuesday.
NC
Hi Y'all! Hey, it's a good week with two C.C. puzzles already. Fast & fun!. Thanks, Argyle for explaining the theme. Great expo!
Didn't know ACLU had a slogan. Very interesting. All perps.
Never eaten a CASABA. Don't remember ever seeing any in a store here, but probably just didn't look.
Pilgrim before PURITAN.
Gary, some of the crowd in you Marvin Webster poster look really weird! Are they "blow-ups" like someone recently linked? No feet on that biggest guy "standing" on a seat.
Thank you, C.C., for a perfect Tuesday puzzle! Since I don't get the Sunday NY Times I missed your Sunday puzzle, so this was an especially welcome treat. And it was a delight! My favorite was TIP HOLDER. I wanted to put PEN, of all things, and laughed out loud when I realized it was JAR. Great way to start the day, and with Argyle's always cool expo to boot.
Have a great day, everybody!
"Puzzling Thoughts for today":
My lone write-over today was 7D when I used PILGRIM before reading the Across Clues. Once PURITAN was realized, and I was more careful, the puzzle was completed, top to bottom, with no other errors, look-ups, cheats, et ALIA.
So if yesterday's puzzle resembled a "Wednesday" in terms of difficulty, today's was more "Monday-like". I will admit that I had not figured out the "theme" until solving the SE corner. I didn't put AIR and DROP together right away, but Argyle's explanation provided the "V8" for me. Still, C.C. gave us a good puzzle today with some clever clues and solves. 16D was my lone "perp". Not of my generation!
4/5ths of a limerick today - anyone is welcome to come up with the last line . . . I got stuck!
Like the proverbial "breath of FRESH AIR",
C.C.'s crossword was really quite fair;
Didn't need many perps;
Had no hiccups or burps;
______________________(rhymes with AIR!)
I had barely sat down in my chair
It was a solving experience quite rare.
If I could vote, she'd be my mayor
Lemon likes to NAME DROP Woodstock, "I was there!"
By the way EARL and ERLE were quite a pair.
Argyle: Nice write-up.
It amazes me how many clues I never saw while solving due to the "Across perps" filling in the "Down" answers.
C.C. Thank you for a FUN Tuesday puzzle.
BACK-DROP theme was a nice CSO to OMK ... OUR resident thespian.
If you BET on the horses ... is that a CHIP-SIN?
D-Otto, I have the same problem parsing sometimes. IRON-SON, TOO, TOO funny!
Cheers!!!
Finished it quickly, with time to spare.
Fun puzzle!!
And what Minnesotan doesn't love their native son(s) Prince and PURPLE RAIN! Played it until the grooves were worn.
I'm still waiting for a Bob Dylan reference!
Maybe a new twist on my posts . . . offering up suggestions for completing my limerick thoughts!
Lemon - liked 'em all
Anonymous @ 12:12 - excellent
Literally, I got stuck! But now that I re-read it, and had some help from my friends, I tied in the fourth line (hiccups and burps), and here's what just came to mind:
Like the proverbial "breath of FRESH AIR",
C.C.'s crossword was really quite fair;
Didn't need many perps;
Had no hiccups or burps;
Nor emissions from the derriere!
No Moe. Once was quite enough. Not forced and thus more organic. Do it again and becomes a shtick and we already have TOO TOO many of those.
An enjoyable Tuesday puzzle for the second offering of the week from C.C. No hangups, no erasures.
I see on the Weather Channel that Cave Creek, AZ has been inundated. I've got a good friend there. Hope things aren't too bad.
That was a fun Monday nine-inning outing. Works for People had me flummoxed for a while. Thanks CC and Argyle.
If you like melons, a ripe casaba melon is as good as it gets.
Moe, I think Anon 1:00 is trying to say do not make an ass of yourself just for a rhyme. I like your line, but thought 12:37 had the best meter and sense.
see you all later
Musings 2
-We got in another nine holes after league today and then used our carts to carry water to our new tree in memory of David – LEST we forget
-PK, you’re right. I don’t know what is going on with that background. Maybe this picture is a better indication of his Marvin’s shot blocking prowess that garnered him the name “The Human ERASER”
-Speaking of baseball, check out my KC ROYALS. It’s their best record on this date in over 20 years (20 – 5 in their last 25 games). C.C.’s poor Twins are a little south of there.
-MLB could learn a lot about speeding up the game from the Little Leaguers!
Wow, another C.C. puzzle again so soon! Lovely. I enjoyed it.
Argyle, thanks for the writeup. I enjoy your wit.
Gary, the tree memorial is such a nice gesture.
3003Hola Everyone, A very doable and fun puzzle from our fearless leader. C.C. has provided us with another romp in the Crossword world.
I especially liked the picture of Ojai today. Our favorite southern Calif. town. It must have been very early in the morning as I've never seen the street so free of cars and people! Our children lived there for over 25 years and moved just this last Apr. We'll miss going down to visit them, but will probably go to Ojai just for the fun of it. It is a marvelous little town.
Lots to do today.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, everyone.
Greetings!
Thanks, CC and Argyle! Easier than Monday! No nits nor cheats!
Swimming partner still sick. (Sob.)
Cheers!
Chairman Mor @ 11:26,
...AND MADE MY FIVE MINUTE FINISH QUITE RARE!
I like the idea of line-less limericks. Literally. Let's leave all five lacking lyrics.
Average Joe.... I hope your friends are ok.... I too heard this morning that Cave Creek got hit hard..... try CBS5AZ.com or ABC15.com... maybe you can get more news from them... Fox is 10 and NBC 12...
It rained like sin here and left a lot of standing water , but it is lovely now.... I have the house standing wide open.... can't do that in Aug very often... :) 78º on my deck.... with horrible humidity... 98º :)
Thelma :)
Tinbeni @12:23: (Does anyone really remember back that far!?). As for your parsing problems, maybe you have been PINCHing to excess! Hehehehehe
What a fun day, thanks to C.C.
Why do some comments appear twice...or more? Mine did, and it was a big nothing I posted only once. I did have to try twice to get the robot-capture right. Maybe it went through even though I got a message that said I had the numbers wrong. 'Tis a puzzlement!
Thanks Thelma. I did call my friend and their house is dry. But it was an interesting commute to work today. He said all the neighbors left at the normal time....and we're back home in 5 minutes. All roads were under water. "A snow day in Arizona" in his words.
Thanks C.C. for an enjoyable Tuesday puzzle that was a quick solve even after working all day.
Only problem I had was the CASABA melon. I don't think we get them up here and it took a while to remember the name. We have honeydew melons but they are smooth.
Like Swamp Cat @6:45, I got the message that I had the numbers wrong but when I entered the new numbers, both posts had been published. Strange.
Average Joe... glad your friend is ok... I think there were lots of road closures around the area... I have not turned the tv back on since this morning, but I do hope they had no more storming out where your friend is.... it was quite nice here all day after the morning storms and now it is thundering and lightening and raining hard.... :(
"Here" is Glendale AZ... :) :)
Have a good evening....
thelma :)
Good evening, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Well, I was solving this puzzle on the train this evening And was so engrossed I missed my stop. Got off and caught the next outbound train to Medinah, where I was getting off. That is not the first time I have done that.
Puzzle was swell. Zipped through it. Theme was fine. All came together when I was done and had a chance to examine it.
Liked ERLE. I think I read every Perry Mason book as a youth.
CASABAS was not known. Perped it.
I use Airplane MODE constantly. It disconnects me from the Internet and saves me minutes on the IPad. With my phone it saves me battery.
I cannot remember the last time I had a MOUNTAIN DEW. I am not a pop drinker.
Not sure I am familiar with RIFF. In a brass band we do not see that stuff (I think).
Hope to do the puzzle earlier tomorrow. I have a Gardeners' Potluck to go to for lunch and a Lobster Fest/Steak Fry in the evening.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(camiocam)
I just got another unwanted phone call from Linda who was offering her neighbors free Bible study. I felt like yelling at her but I just said, "No thank you Linda." What next?
Hi All!
Well another C.C. ASAP - how delightful.
Only issue with the puzzle today was 44d's melon - I wasn't thinking old lady - really - just Cantaloupe - but no go. Never heard of a CASABA(S). Yeah perps!
HAIR DROP - same issue, but was fine with it until Argyle (Thanks!) ERASED my SORTed thoughts. Same issue with PERSE - WTF? PaRSE maybe - nope EARL is solid. Oh, PER SE. Duh. I liked seeing ERLE across the grid - so well done C.C.
Anon - MOI? The shtick? I certainly hope not.
C. Moe - "I Hope Wednesday's not a bear..." My $.02.
H.G. Hurts to think of FIL's tree - same outcome as he :-( It was potted and just couldn't stand the Houston heat.
Thanks C.C. & Argyle - loved the puzzle and love this blog. Day's not complete w/o both.
Cheers, -T
//Any spelling errors are mine - the iPad is not doing it job w/ EDITS...
Did anyone else get the impression that Argyle did not know this was a CC puzzle?
Anon @ 11:37 - No. C, -T
// back to helping Google decipher addresses....
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