Theme: Trombone Component - What makes a trombone special, the slide. All four theme entries use a slide to great effect.
18A. It's in front of a catcher : HOME PLATE. The site of some famous slides.
26A. "CSI" workplace : FORENSIC LAB. Their slides are small pieces of glass.
44A. Instrument used in Hawaiian music : STEEL GUITAR. The slide creates the unique sound of these guitars.
57A. Place to make a splash : WATER PARK. A slide that can break a little boy's heart if he isn't tall enough to go on it.
65A. Wall Street decline, or something that might be associated with 18-, 26-, 44- or 57-Across : SLIDE
Argyle here. A trombonist constructing a puzzle about slides. Well done Sir, and C.C. of course.
Across:
1. Passport endorsement : STAMP
6. Field protector : TARP
10. From __: slight progress : A TO B
14. Dramatic solos : ARIAs
15. Jai __ : ALAI
16. Head, to Henri : TÊTE
17. Job for a CPA : AUDIT
20. Oft-pickled veggie : BEET
21. Excavation hole : PIT
22. Noisy ruckus : CLAMOR
23. Captivated : RAPT
25. Game with checks : CHESS. We need an update on the rook table, Splynter.
30. Clic Stic or InkJoy : PEN
33. Pieces by pundits : OP EDs
34. Old Roman coins : LIRE
35. Worldwide workers' gp. : ILO. (International Labour Organization)
36. Clears (of) : RIDS
37. Nincompoop : IDIOT
39. Unrefined deposits : OREs
40. __-de-sac : CUL
41. Soon, to Pope : ANON
42. Pancakes sometimes served with caviar : BLINI
43. Expressive rock genre : EMO
47. "Psycho" motel : BATES
49. Being aired : ON TV
50. Venus, to Serena : SISTER
52. Duke Univ. conference : ACC. (Atlantic Coast Conference)
53. High-ranking Muslim : EMIR
59. Freak out : GO APE
60. Historical periods : AGES
61. Gawk at : OGLE
62. Traffic cone : PYLON
63. Fortified red wine : PORT
64. Ill-gotten gains : LOOT
Down:
1. Swedish automaker : SAAB. Former maker.
2. "Good point" : "TRUE"
3. Assistant : AIDE
4. Restaurant VIPs : MAÎTRE D's. (maître d'hôtel)
5. L.A. winter hours : PST
6. Island retreat for Gauguin : TAHITI
7. Loads : A LOT
8. Aries symbol : RAM
9. Annual report graphic : PIE CHART
10. Sky-supporting brother of Prometheus : ATLAS
11. Rah-rah feeling : TEAM SPIRIT
12. Preminger of film : OTTO
13. Brewpub order : BEER
19. New cadet : PLEBE
21. Second afterthought, in a ltr. : PPS
24. Q&A part: Abbr. : ANS.
25. Ad award : CLIO
26. Strong-arm : FORCE
27. Poppy extract : OPIUM
28. "Sea Food Differently" chain : RED LOBSTER
29. "Crazy" singer Patsy : CLINE
31. Justice Kagan : ELENA
32. Military denial : "NO SIR!"
37. Worldwide anticrime organization : INTERPOL
38. Deer daughters : DOEs
39. For whom Popeye's eyes popped : OLIVE OYL
41. Fall bloomer : ASTER
42. "On the other hand ..." : "BUT..."
45. Pendant with a picture : LOCKET
46. Health supplements co. : GNC. (General Nutrition Corporation)
48. '50s nuclear experiment : A-TEST
50. Give and take? : SWAP
51. "Othello" antagonist : IAGO
52. Musical Guthrie : ARLO
54. Landlocked African country : MALI
55. Apple player : iPOD
56. Thinker Descartes : RENÉ
58. Before today : AGO
59. Some family docs : GPs. (General Practitioner)
Argyle
Note from C.C:
As Argyle mentioned earlier. Ron Toth is Jazzbumpa, our trombonist. This is his debut puzzle. Congratulations, Ron!
58 comments:
Morning, all!
Congrats to Jazzbumpa for his puzzle debut. A nice, easy-breezy Tuesday puzzle, I thought.
All the theme answers were straightforward and the unifier was nice (although, to be honest, I've never heard SLIDE used in reference to Wall Street before). I also didn't realize that PORT was "fortified" (with what, I wonder?) But overall, a very smooth solve.
Sometimes I let rhythm SLIDE,
Syllables I'd else have to elide.
If you don't think my rhyme
Is exceptionally fine,
I'm sorry, but you've no place to hide!
Way to go, Jazz! Enjoyed it!
Jazz & Cuppa, come visit me at the cryptic site! After the first couple days, no one's come by, and I'm getting lonely! I miss you guys posing your own clues. :,(
Good morning!
Thanks for a delightful puzzle, and congratulations on your debut, Ron! As usual, I never looked at the name(s) of the constructor until I had finished it. Was "SLIDE TROMBONE" the seed entry, but somehow ended up on the cutting room floor?
Perfectly simple phrases that gave me absolutely no hint of the theme until the reveal. My only stumbles were putting "A ton" instead of A LOT, and "SEC" instead of ACC for the Duke conference. Both were immediately corrected via perps.
Favorite clue was "Give and take?" for SWAP. Well done, you two!
Good morning!
Nice job, you two! And congrats to JzB...almost made it for Gloria's birthday.
I like my "Sea Food Differently." That's why I don't patronize that restaurant.
Do you add an I to BLIN to make it plurable? I would have thought BLINI was the singular and BLINIS the plural. Never had one, so I guess I never had to think about it before.
Another milestone as our resident musical maven gets to blow his horn in print. A wonderful Tuesday
Thanks guys
d-otto, yes, you are correct. BLIN is the singular and BLINI is the plural. They are also called BLINTZ (pl. BLINTZES.)
Good morning all, and congratulations to Ron on his debut ! Well done. Thank you as well CC. Steve is next.
Seemed to be chock full of fresh words and clues. I liked it.
"For whom Popeye's eyes popped" was my favorite. She didn't seem to have a lot going on. She must have known how to raise his mast.
After "Sky-supporting brother of Prometheus", I thought, "Oh no, another one" when I got to "Venus, to Serena."
There are shorter versions of this video, but it seems appropriate for today's co-creator.
PS, Belated Happy Birthday wishes to your wife.
PSS, I did note there were no Detroit Tiger related clues or answers.
Congratulations on your debut, JazzB. I fine offering indeed. Tuesday level difficulty and clever cluing. Didn't see the theme coming, but it was easy enough with the reveal.
D-O, I'm with you. I don't like paying that much for mediocre food. It's not bad, just not worth it.
Good morning everybody.
Great job JzB!
I've heard of blintzes, but was unfamiliar with BLINI. I don't think I'll be trying them anytime soon.
No nits. This was an easy solve.
Have a great day.
Smooth solve. Congrats to Ron and his mentor CC
Great début, Ron! And congrats to C.C. too, of course. I thought this was a very clever puzzle, linking the very different kinds of slides so smoothly.
My only real holdups were wondering about ancient Roman coins before the obvious LIRE occurred to me, and not knowing GNC or ACC--I had to guess the final C at the crossing.
I've never really known what blini were either. the linked photo makes them look similar to what I grew up knowing as pikelets. I'll have to google both to see if the recipes are the same.
Last week I was at the DKG International Conference in Indy. A really inspiring experience!
The recipes I found were definitely different. Neither seems terribly exciting. I'll stick to my whole wheat pancakes!
Musings
-Hey, I guess there are a lot of slides as Ron and C.C. showed in this fun puzzle. Jazz couldn’t work trombone into this? ;-)
-I spent 8 summers behind HOME PLATE
-Concrete boxes are giving way to WATER PARKS
-Did you ever OGLE a tramp STAMP
-Our local animal shelter had not had an AUDIT for 10 years and then a month ago it was discovered that $250,000 is missing. Hmmm…
-BEETS, you either hate ‘em or love ‘em. I’m in the latter camp
-When we lived on a cul-de-sac, the city tried many strategies to plow the snow
-PYLONS come out like wildflowers here every spring
-Going from CST to PST had me waking up at 4 am
-I liked OTTO in Stalag 17 and this classic
-BUT, BUT, BUT, oh honey BUT, oh baby you know what I like - Ah, the classics!
-Who sang, Little SISTER don’t you do what your big sister done
-Off to… Well you know
Marti,
We could not find a partner for TROMBONE & decided to go with another musical instrument.
TTP,
"For whom Popeye's eyes popped" was my favorite also. Ron's clue. He also used "Pop eyes at" for OGLE as an echo. Ron is very talented with words/clues, but he worked extremely hard also.
Ack! TTP beat me to it...
(I knew I should have fast forwarded thru that video...)
Hello Puzzlers -
Congrats JzB on your debut, and thanks C.C. for "raising" another constructor!
No speed bumps today, but the theme was a mystery until the reveal. Today's D'Oh! learning moment: Mali. I just took it for granted the country was in Southeast Asia, maybe near Bali. Never knew it was in Africa, easily my least-familiar continent.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Ron Toth and C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Wow, great debut Jazzbumpa! Congratulations.
This puzzle was fine. Good Tuesday level.
BLINI was not known to me. After the explanation, it made sense.
I also liked OLIVE OYL. Good clue/answer.
Theme was excellent! All add sense. Clever.
I have not eaten at Red Lobster in decades. Nothing against the place. I just am not a big sea food person. Friday night fish fries are about as much of that as I get.
Liked the Patsy Cline link. She is one of my favorites.
Best part of this puzzle was just getting to it via cruciverb. I had a terrible time yesterday, but got it done at midnight.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(11)
Timing is everything...
I want one...
just for fun!
I found this under hold my beer!
Of course slides do have their ups & downs...
Obligatory photoshop...
???
Seriously?
Hmm, I may have gone overboard with the links...
Hi gang -
Thanks for all the encouraging words.
As suspected, the trombone was the inspiration, but we couldn't find a way to make it work in the grid.
But SLIDE was a versatile enough seed to build around.
Barry -
Fortified wines like port are built up with a distilled spirit, often brandy.
Argyle - thanks for the nice write up.
C. C. - thanks for the opportunity and the mentoring.
Owen - very clever today. I will visit your cryptic site. Been up to my eye-balls the last few weeks.
TTP - I saw the vid on FaceBook yesterday. Pretty amazing.
Cool regards!
Ron aka JzB
CED, that guy sliding onto the grater looks a lot like Alton Brown. Your indoor circular slide reminded me of a house in Minneapolis that I visited years ago. The owner was the big boss of the radio station group. He'd installed a brass fire pole in the kitchen so the kids could SLIDE down for breakfast from the upstairs hallway. Naturally we all had to try it.
Morning all
Nice and easy ,
Regarding Emir , i don't believe the term is related to the Islam religion as much as a royal term found mainly in the Muslim countries , like the Emirates , where as Imam , Grand Mufti and Ayatollah are Islamic titles , IMO.
Good day, puzzle people! Congratulations, Ron Toth, AKA, Jazzbumpa! And to C.C. for her generous mentoring.
Well, I slid through this in fine fashion and good time. Until the reveal, had no idea what the theme would be. Very clever! Fun to see GO APE and OGLE close by each other.
Had to erase IMAM and replace it with EMIR. I think Zcarguy is on to something.
I've had BLINI with fruit and cream. Delicioso!
Thank you, again, both. It was fun!
Have a delightful Tuesday, everyone!
Can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Theme so much ... and the V-8 can smack at the SLIDE reveal,
and who C.C.'s co-constructor "really" was our Jazz!
Probably only heard the term for a Wall Street decline "SLIDE" a bazillion times watching CNBC over the last few years.
OK, that's exaggerating ... I have only heard that term a million times. lol!!!
Faves today, of course were PORT and BEER and the CSO to OTTO.
Cheers!!!
Good morning everyone. Apt comments, Argyle, about today's collaboration.
As the Hamburgers would say about today's theme: "Einen Guten Rutsch!" (a good slide)
Interesting theme with eclectic samples of SLIDES. Easy but enjoyable solve. No lookups or white-out were needed.
SAAB - Don't believe they make cars anymore. Started out as an aircraft manufacturer, I believe.
A TO B - Took a while to parse.
BLINI came easily - saw it on "The Chew" recently.
BZ to Ron and C.C. on JazzB's first outing.
Have a great day.
Good morning all,
This one was a lot of fun...lots of fresh clues. A new acceptable word list came out this morning which included emo, which was for Scrabble players.
Bumpa, it was exciting to see your name on the CW, alongside C.C. Way to go!
TTP, I laughed all the way thru that video.
Have never had a blini, but remember having cheese blintzes at IHOP while in college.
Oooh, a JazzB. and C.C. combo on a Tuesday morning--how exciting! I found this a totally delightful speed run until I hit a problem with GN_ and AC_. Is that what we call a Natick, when two intersecting clues are so obscure that some of us can't get them? But otherwise this was so much fun with Food (Argyle's blinis made me hungry and I haven't even had breakfast yet), Drink (thought of Tinbeni with PORT and BEER of course), Music, doable Baseball (of course), and even OPIUM (gasp-not my thing although I love poppies). Thank you so much, Ron and C.C. for this wonderful start to my day.
Have a good one everybody!
Good Morning:
Congrats to Ron on his debut in print. I always check the constructor's name before I start the puzzle and when I saw Ron Toth and CC, I thought, "Who the heck is Ron Toth?" Was delighted to learn that he's our very own JazzB! Nice job, Ron, and kudos to CC, for her efforts and encouragement.
Liked the theme, even though it was unknown until the reveal. Nice that CC had a baseball answer, home plate, and Ron had a musical reference with steel guitar. CSO to Otto and Tin, with Port (Any Port in a Pinch!)
Going to my BIL's birthday party tonight. Menu is all Lebanese food: Meat Pies, Spinach Pies, Kibbee, Tabooleh, Chicken and Rice, Shishbuttik (sp?) plus marinated, broiled chicken wings. My favorite is the Kibbee, raw, sort of like steak tartare but with different seasonings.
Have a great day.
I enjoyed this one very much. I just flew through it admiring the clues. Fun theme. Thanks Ron, CC and Argyle.
I'm a big fan of Patsy Cline; both her and Hank Williams (the elder version).
The cheese biscuits at Red Lobster are reason enough to enjoy the place. My parents used to love it. They would go there at dinner and ask for a lunch (smaller) portion. It suited their appetites better and was cheaper.
Greetings!
Congratulations on your debut, Jazz. A very enjoyable puzzle, Jazz and C.C.
And a belated Happy Birthday to Gloria. Hope it was wonderfully celebrated.
Needed help from DH for SLIDE, in that I never pay attention to what Wall Street is doing. And then it all made sense.
Great puzzle.
Cheers
Ron/Jazzbumpa (and C.C.) - excellent puzzle. WEES, some new and refreshing clues; easier than most but thought-provoking. Look forward to more from you two.
As for a rhyme today, not really a limerick and a bit more "colorful" than others I've penned on this site. But one I always love. Has to do with one of today's solves, MALI. And it involves a contest between two rhymers who were asked to come up with a poem whose last word is a city in MALI . . .
#1)
Across the vast Sahara sand
Rode a desert caravan
Air was hot; sky was blue,
Destination: Timbuktu!
#2)
Tim and I a camping went
Met three trollops in a tent;
They being three and we just two,
I bucked one and Timbuktu!
Hi Y'all! Hope C.C. & Ron had as much fun constructing as I did solving. Thanks!
Hand up for natick at ACC/GNC cross. The "C" was my last square to fill.
I tried BLINy, then a "z", then a "t", before an "i". I knew how it sounded and what it was.
I knew ATLAS was a supporter. Didn't know he had a brother.
Kazie: What is the DKG International Conf.? DKG isn't familiar.
Hand up for thinking those cheese biscuits are worth a trip to Red Lobster. I like their food. We're so far from the ocean, their seafood is a treat.
I've been getting strange text messages for the past half hour. One sister-in-law had knee replacement surgery. I got a text from her daughter saying SIL was out of surgery and doing well. Then I got a text with an unknown phone number only. I punched a button which called the number which turned out to be my SIL's good friend in Pennsylvania. Then I got another text from a second SIL saying she was praying for me, which I think was supposed to go to the first SIL. I don't know how to text. I think some other family members don't know how either.
Hello everybody. Fun puzzle today. I thought the same thing that Irish Miss did: "Who the heck is Ron Toth?" Was delighted to learn that he's our very own JazzB!
As Misty said, I hit a problem with GN_ and AC_. For me it was a Natick, made especially more difficult for me because "conference" was in the clue and therefore I could not convince myself that the required letter would be C.
Loved the OLIVE OYL clue and loved the tricky letter sequence of MAITREDS. Good clues for RAPT and for SWAP, too.
Best wishes to you all.
Owen
Have been meaning to since our forced exile to Crypteria.
Will start tomorrow - busy day today.
NC
Congratulations, Jazz! It is a fine puzzle indeed! Clever, different... nice fill. So go ahead, toot your own horn... you earned it.
Hola Everyone, Congratulations, JzB on your debut puzzle. Good job!
I think this was probably one of the fastest puzzles I've ever done. I was on Ron's and C.C.'s wavelength for sure. I even got the theme for once.
My favorite clue: Apple player
I've never eaten at the Red Lobster so that answer was total perps. I guess their food is good, we just have other seafood restaurants that we like.
I picked peppers yesterday, so it's pepper jelly making day.
Have a great day, everyone.
For oyu BG and for Splynter, markets are forever sliding and rebounding I direct your attention to LINK ! Also to LINK 2.
Congratulations to JazzB, Ron Toth, and C.C. for a very nice collaborative puzzle. Enjoyed it very much.
Thank you Argyle for a nice review. Thank you TTP for the video of the cows coming home. They appear like harmless, genial, lovable pets. Now I feel bad. I remember a farmer once told me that he never 'named' any of his cows, bulls or cattle, because ....
Thanks CED for all the cute and funny links. I have learnt so much from you.
PK --- the DKG stands for Delta Kappa Gamma - an educators group/society.
Happy Day, all.
Thought I had this one down, but a GNU (perhaps like This?) settled into the place reserved for GNC -- and would not budge!
Enjoyable pzl overall-- thanks to Mr. Toth and C.C.
red Lobster used to be a great deal back in law school where a lunch portion was $1.99 which when you are being paid $1.90 per hour was important. They have gotten much fancier and pricier, though I like the Tilapia and roasted veggies in parchment
Lemonade714, do you even proofread bro?
I agree with ZCarGuy.
Emir, or Amir, or Ameer, is not a religious title, but a temporal rank. It means commander, general, prince or nobility. True, it is used mostly in the Middle and Near -far East, which are mostly muslim majority nations - the exceptions being Lebanon and India, but the word Muslim in the clue makes it unnecessarily religious. In India, it is used commonly as a designation for a rich person, of any religious persuasion. But, considering the fact that crossword clues, have been generally lax where alien cultures are concerned, I would suggest to let the matters SLIDE.
I try to proofread, as well as rely on spell check. Vision is however problematic and I know I miss many typos.
Yadda, yadda, yada...
Why do you feel obliged to bother to respond.
Ego. Same reason for 75% of this blog's posts.
Congratulations, JazzB. This was a fun puzzle, but I'm one of the few here who DNF. I didn't know GNC or ACC, so I had an A in place of the C.
ploughJzB, congratulations on your debut. Very enjoyable puzzle, you two. And an always enlightening expo from Argyle. Straightforward solve except for imam/EMIR, but perps corrected that. I wish that I had never watched yesterday's Ohio Express video. That dratted song has bored into my brain and won't go away. BAH!
Congrates! And thanks, thanks, thanks! Fun! Fun! Fun!
Congratulations, JzB, on your debut puzzle! Thanks, C.C.,for mentoring new constructors. The end results are awesome!
I had two write-overs and no other problems. I didn't get the theme until Argyle stepped up to the plate and explained things.
Happy belated Birthday, Gloria.
I hope everyone has a great week.
Pat
Greetings!
Swell puzzle, Ron and CC! (Congrats to JazzB) Fun expo, Argyle! Theme easy to find. No problems, no nits!
Cheers!
Hi All!
Congrats JzB on a LAT debut! You and C.C. did a TRUEly swell job as did Argyle with the write-up and CED w/ the links (glad I didn't open those at work!).
I saw Ron & C.C. and thought - Ron? Gloria-who-had-a-birthday-yesterday's husband JzB? Yep.
So many great c/a pairs to GO APE for: WEES 39d; Baseball at 6a & 18a; CHESS - my other favorite pastime; FORENSIC LAB and MAITREDS are further sparkle. Pzl certainly wasn't the PITs!
Hand up for alphabet-run at 52a / 46d. Only took three tries! Write-over at 60a - eras before AGES.
Menu at The Old Coffee Pot in NOLA had BLINtz not BLINI; eldest enjoyed it sans caviar.
Cheers, -T
one more time?
I should have quadruple-checked BLINTZES. C, -T
AnonT: Boy, those breakfasts sound good. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals. I'd be tempted to try the Eggs Conti but they all seem appealing. I've just checked again and I would be happy to try the next five too. Yum!
Bill G - they are good! DW had the Eggs Jonathan, I had Sis' Soul Food, and youngest had the pancakes. Top w/ lattes for the kids, a mimosa for DW and couple of Bloody Marys for me and we were set until dinner ;-) Cheers, -T
Oy thinketh a loth
Of thine puzzle cloth
That Toth doth wroth
Maketh mouth to froth
An mae mind to roth
Alas, pleaseth mae noth.
Yay ! It rhymes. ;~x)
Now, proceedeth to fooleth ze roboth.
Did anyone read the AP article (google Italie) that 5,000 new words were added to the Scrabble dictionary? Apparently "te" is acceptable as "ti" for 7th tone; so's chillax, buzzkill, schmulz, sudoku, and another fun pastime, geocache. That'll change the board's ATLAS!
PPS - I got one of Owen's cryptics over there!
Cheers, -T
Here's the Scrabble story link I just found and should have provided, BUT, I was being a PLEBE. C, -T
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