Words: 70 (missing J,K)
Blocks: 30
I felt pretty confident when I
started this Silkie, and I am happy to say, I did not disappoint
myself. VALE at 18a. was my first fill, but I hit quite a few of the
Downs with only a letter or two in place. Just one complete write-over,
and I got my "Ta-DA~!" on a total WAG. Triple 10-letter corners,
though the downs are set inside by one column today. Two 8s and two 9s
wrap up the long answers;
1. Auto discontinued in 1974 and relaunched in 2004 : PONTIAC GTO - I did not know this was coming back for 2014 - at least we get more than just "GTO" in the answer
13. '80s West Coast stereotype : VALLEY GIRL - "ehmegawd, like, totally, I mean was this, um, puzzle like to the max, or did it barf you out~!?"
28. 1988 Radio Hall of Fame inductee, with "The" : LONE RANGER - I have started watching my "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" box set; man is the acting hard on the eyes - and to think I ate this up as a teenager
ACROSS:
11. Short reply : RSVP
15. One pushing the limit : SPEED DEMON
16. Space-saving term : ET AL.
17. Words of resignation : "IT'S TOO LATE" - it's never too late....for ice cream~!
18. Low area : VALE
19. Bygone boomers : SSTs
20. __ curls : BICEP
21. Touring the Getty Center Museum, briefly : IN L.A. - I've since come to recognize this style of clue as meaning "in -- " some abbreviated city
22. Arthur with a Tony : BEA
23. Order with many options : OMELET - I like mine on a bacon burger
25. Stain causes : SPILLS
29. "Follow me" : "THIS WAY"
31. "... but perhaps I'm mistaken" : "...OR NOT"
32. Weather station instrument : RAIN GAUGE
34. Spotted : SEEN
35. Sign of availability : TO LET
36. Filling limit : BRIM
39. Warn : ALERT
40. Reproduces, in a way : XEROXES - nice fill; XEROX was in another Saturday puzzle not too long ago
41. Puffs up : SWELLS
42. Explorer who landed at Calicut in 1498 : Da GAMA
43. Old platters : LPs
44. Saudi Arabia neighbor : OMAN
45. Thai appetizer : SATAY
- never heard of it; my 'other' buddy Mike suggested we go get Chinese
last Friday; instead he took me to a Japanese restaurant - I tried Kani
salad, and it was great ( WAGed the "T")
52. Annex : WING - I can never remember this "other" word for "ELL"
53. Impasse : BLIND ALLEY
55. Suffix with exist : ENCE - existENCE
56. Decisive factor : BOTTOM LINE
57. Suggestive look : LEER
58. One asking a lot of questions : QUIZ MASTER
DOWN:
1. Frat letters : PSIs
2. Accepts, with "in" : OPTS
3. Spot for a snake : NEST
- I once had a Ball Python; ate live mice - such a trip to watch the
litte fellow as it scurried about in the snake's nest, and then - BAM~!
4. Eastern holidays : TETs
5. Binding agreement : I DO
- I was told Thursday repeatedly by several older women that I was
charming, vulnerable, and good-looking; one went so far as to say I'd be
married in a year - we will see....there's not even a girlfriend right now
6. Some brick houses : ADOBEs - very big bricks, in some cases
7. "As You Like It" character : CELIA - A little Wiki for those interested
8. Ally Financial Inc., formerly : GMAC - From the financial bailout of 2008; more Wiki
9. Schlep : TOTE
10. Heart, in hearts : ONE POINT
11. Like some umps' calls : REVIEWABLE - I did not know they reviewed calls in baseball now; I know they review any questionable goal in hockey - in Toronto
12. 1961 recipient of an Honorary Award Oscar : STAN LAUREL
14. Fold : PLEAT - like this~? ( hey, I toned it down....)
24. No __: menu notice : MSG
25. __ ped.: piano music instruction : SOST - sostenuto, "sustained"; the middle pedal of a grand piano
26. Go over beforehand : PRE-EXAMINE
27. Lack of refinement : INELEGANCE
29. Lore : TALES
30. Yesterday, in Paris : HIER - meh, Frawnche
32. Mechanical method : ROTE
33. Init. response team : EMTs
35. Some slow-cooked cuisine, for short : TEXAS BBQ - more good fill
38. Hockey __ : MOM - because "TISSUE" did not fit; anyone care to guess at what a hockey tissue is?
39. Nursery reactions : AWs...
41. World of bugs and plants? : SPYDOM - nailed it with just the "Y" in place
42. Wooden peg : DOWEL -that it is
43. Woody Woodpecker's creator : LANTZ - Walter
46. Jesus of baseball : ALOU
47. Long-tailed monkey : TITI - "Awww...." - hey, this picture led me to some interesting reading on dating
49. Pass quickly : FLIT
50. Artist Magritte : RENÉ - I think this one's my favorite
51. Open hearing, in law : OYER
54. Chicago-based professional org. : AMA
Splynter
49 comments:
The cave man wasn't where he should be
Instead he was shown on TV.
The paparazzi guys
Popped cameras in his eyes,
And said "Oops" to the flash-BLIND ALLEY!
I went to a nude beach one time,
I thought it would be really fine.
But what caught my attention
Was a plumbers' convention;
The horror of each plumber's BOTTOM LINE!
**SPOILER ALERT**
If you work the Seattle Times and haven't done it yet, read no further.
Seattle Times and LAT both had rsvp today. Also LAT had spydom, ST had spymaster.
Greetings!
Well, I'll be! A perfect Silkie! No cheats whatsoever and in allowed half-hour. Thank you, Barry S. and Splynter!
I commented on Friday's puzzle very late last night (or was it early morning). If Steve and Gary will not see this, let me reiterate the HBD wishes!
Hope to have better luck sleeping tonight!
Cheers!
Hi Y'all! Well, another inscrutable Saturday Silkie for me. I muddled through it and filled it with red-letter help. I just don't get him.
I did fill the NW corner then picked and pecked around knowing a few words. Finally, got to the bottom and filled the SE block and worked back up, "cheating" all the way.
Two fills drove me nuts. The world of bugs & plants wasn't "nature" but vertacle SPYDOM which didn't sink in to mean anything but short for "spyder kingdom". Had a good laugh at myself when I saw it written horizontally in Splynter's expo and finally got it. Duh!
Nuts-making #2: 35D Tried "barbeque" early. It fit but turned red. When BBQ perped in at the bottom, I WAGd TEXAS. Made me hungry for it since TEXAS was where I first time ate it. But didn't love this in a puzzle.
RENE Magritte: I'd never seen this particular painting of his before. Look at it long enough and it'll blow your mind -- just like a Saturday Silkie.
Thanks, Splynter!
Spellcheck marked "vertical" but liked "vertacle" in my above post. I've been getting some weird miscues like that lately. I looked it up and the first was right. Somebody is playing games with me!
"Spot for a snake : NEST - I once had a Ball Python; ate live mice - such a trip to watch the litte fellow as it scurried about in the snake's nest, and then - BAM~!"
Such a trip ... you're a ghoulish lowlife.
Morning, all!
Yep, definitely a Saturday level Silkie. It started out impossible but I slowly but slowly made my way through it.
Ended up with two issues. One was the crossing of SOST and TELEMETER (SOST was a complete unknown but I was able to eventually guess the initial letter of TELEMETER simply because I knew TELE meant "distance").
The other one, which actually caused a DNF, was a stupid typo where I put in WALE instead of VALE and didn't notice that REWIEWABLE wasn't a word. Funny that VALE was the first word Splynter entered into the grid, since it's the word that killed me...
Good morning!
Silkie smooth sailing today. SPEED DEMON, VALLEY GIRL and LONE RANGER came to me immediately and I was off and running.
Knew it was LANTZ, but inked in LANCE -- D'oh! Nailed SPYDOM with only the S in place. Un-nailed DA GAMA by entering DESOTO with only the D in place. Oops!
You gotta love a Saturday Silkie that you manage to finish -- and hate one that finishes you. This one came in ahead of schedule, so I loved it.
Good morning!
I think I get into the groove of a Saturday Silkie for some reason, and it makes the solve just flow. Today I filled the NW, then the NE, SW and finally the SE.
At 1A, I was thinking of Ford Mustang but it didn't fit. Perps led me to PONTIAC GTO pretty quickly, though.
I always think of this painting when I hear RENE Magritte.
Finished it all with no cheats, in just under half my usual Saturday time. Thanks, BS!
A typically difficult Silkie for me. The solve was perhaps a little more methodical than normal, as I did fill the NW before moving on. First fill was GMAC and from that I wagged Pontiac GTO and that opened up the corner. The other sections were much more haphazard to fill in, but they did fill. Had no clue on Sost, but it had to be. Final cell was that natick at the T in Titi and Satay. Did a mental alphabet run and picked T. More than a little surprised to find it was right.
Hello Puzzlers -
Just barely squeaked by in that SE section. Same as Avg. Joe, the last to fall was the cross of Satay and Titi. Never heard of the latter, while the former was only dimly recalled from some menu (not many Thai restaurants hereabouts).
Oh for pete's sake... one crummy little empty white space glaring back at me. For the life of me I could not come up with TITI, though I've encountered it a few times before. That left me pinning my hopes on Thai appetizer: SA?AY. Again, no help. I've had Ethiopian food before (which was terrible) but have never sat down to Thai (perhaps I'm missing something).
Otherwise a nimble puzzle that unveiled nicely. Thank you Barry Silk.
Ergo, good Thai is wonderful food. Clearly similar to other Asian cuisines, but maybe a little spicier. And much lighter than Indian fare. Unfortunately, there's no good Thai place in Lincoln that I know of. The few I've tried are passable, but don't rise to good. If you want to try a low risk sample (I.e. not too pricey and not at all snobbish) check out the shop in the food court building by the airport and have Pad Thai with shrimp. At the least it will give you an idea if it's up your alley.
I did this in typical Saturday time. Gimmees: OYER,AFRO, ALOU,and LANTZ gave me a good start in the SE. _U_Z led to QUIZ and I was off and running. SPYDOM was a clever clue and answer. I believe we have had SATAY and TITI several times before.
Splynter your kani salad looks delicious. It reminds me of one I used to make. I haven't cooked Japanese cuisine since my Japanese study group broke up years ago. The only dish I still make is broiled miso salmon.
BBQ gave me TEXAS, then XEROXES. The only poser in the SW was SOST, all perps.
In the NE RAIN GAUGE and GIRL were my lode stars. All of you seemed to have the NW cold. That section slowed me down and negated my fast solve in the bottom leading to an average time, but I got it without help.
Ave Joe, I like some dishes in our Thai restaurant, but I was very disappointed in the Pad Thai. It seemed so bland.
A very tasty Silkie which brings out all kinds of responses as always. I loved PONTIAC GTO over SPEED DEMON. Many memories of sitting in the back seat of a '65 with my brother driving much too fast.
I also liked seeing Vasco da Gama and Walter Lantz maybe because I got them.
Thai food is really varied and often delicious. The hike very spicy dishes, like sezchuan. My girl friend is a Thai cook so I may be prejudiced.
Rain rain go away
YR, our sons introduced us to Thai, and both say that Pad Thai is the starting point to find out if you like it, or not. If you order mild, it certainly will be bland, but if you step it up a notch (or 2), it's quite a bit better.
It's also a good benchmark for the establishment. Kinda like the smothered burrito in a Tex-Mex place....If that's good, everything else is likely to be good as well.
Thanks for the recommendation Avg Joe. (We now have a food court at the airport?) It's been awhile since I last jumped a jet out of Lincoln. Or are you referring to the commercial development area where Cornhusker Highway turns North and becomes NW 12th street?
btw... I started my identity here as Husker Chuck (a.k.a. Ergo), I've now switched to Ergo (a.k.a. Husker Chuck) and eventually will just be Ergo.
Yeah, it's an old marketing ploy. I wanted to establish a certain identity, yet respect Husker Gary's moniker.
Good Morning:
While this was no walk in the park, I finished w/o help in faster than normal time. Only write-over was
DeSoto/DeGama.
As I've said before, I really enjoy Saturday Silkies. They usually require patience and perserverance (and sometimes teeth gnashing and hair pulling!), but the fun and satisfaction of the solve is well worth the effort, IMO.
Thank you, Barry, for keeping us on our toes, and thank you, Splynter, for your always edifying expo.
Gloomy and rainy and cool. I think Fall is knocking on the door.
Have a great day.
Musings
-Barry’s puzzles always extend my feeble skills but I get ‘em and have much fun en route!
-RSVP opened VALLEY GIRL and REVIEWABLE and Hi-Ho Silver away!
-Range finder on my iPhone
-The old LONE RANGER’s weren’t winning any Emmy’s either but, hey, I was 10
-I quit the Y and now do BICEP CURLS at home
-This art philistine was more taken with the incredible grounds at the Getty
-Merriam Webster says ËˆĂ¤m-lÉ™t, despite that pesky first “e”
-Our RAIN Gauge has over flown and Bill’s has dust
-XEROX is last on this list of now eponymous brand names. Wow, I just used eponymous in a sentence!
-It’s Saturday and so I had a plumber’s snake in a CLOG first
-GMAC and I owned many cars together
-Hilarious telling of The Miller’s TALE in Big Bang
-There’s plenty of room for Husker Chuck! BTW I didn’t see you at The Texas Roadhouse last night!
-Cakewalk - name the song with “Rooms TO LET fifty cents”
Ergo, I'm talking about that weird stand alone building on NW 12th just a bit N of Adams, W side.
HG, King of the Road.
Captcha: iftensua.....Iftensua, you gotta learn to relax!
Husker, that'd be King Of The Road. Who'd a thunk Roger Miller could sell records with lyrics like, "England swings like a pendulum do. Bobby's riding bicycles two-by-two..."?
Philosophical question. Why is it that the smoke alarm always begins it's once-per-minute low-battery-chirp sometime between midnight and two am? And when you've got three of 'em within an 8-foot span, it's really tough to figure out which one is chirping!
Good Saturday Silkie offering. At first you have all these blank areas, then slowly you begin to get on his wavelength and it all comes together. Very enjoyable.
Or should it be "bobbies?" It definitely shouldn't have an apostrophe. Mea culpa.
Avg Joe, you get captchas that are words? I've seen nothing but house numbers since "Camiocam" got stifled.
11A RSVP is not a "short reply"; it is a short request for a reply.
desper-otto, speaking of tua culpa and "shouldn't have an apostrophe," it's "its," not "it's."
Good point! That darned smoke alarm should know better!
Greetings, weekend wizards!
I do love a Saturday Silkie! It took a while to get into his wave length but after a few stabs, I was on my way and finished the SW then moved on to the NE, etc., etc.
Walter LANTZ did not immediately jump out so had to research (read: Google) then the SE came together. SATAY seemed familiar.
The NW however, did me in as GTO was nowhere near my fill and I can never remember the meaning of schlep. But it was fun, thank you, Barry Silk and you, Splynter. I had some of the same experiences as you.
Book Club meeting today.
Have a SWEll Saturday, everyone!
I agree the 11A clue is a little awkward, but if you look at REPLY as an imperative verb instead of a noun, it's not too bad. Short for reply (a command politely stated) is RSVP.
Short LET IT STAND(as an imperative) is STET.
BTW I see that a more current spelling of SATAY is SATE. Beware, some late week constructor may spring that one on us.
Yay! I danced half of one tip (or set) last night at the square dance, only 8 minutes, but progress after sitting on the sidelines for two months. I had cortisone shots in both knees yesterday morning which dialed the pain back from an 8 or 9 on a scale of 10 to a 4 or 5. I was back to my old time per mile on the exercise bike at the Y this AM. The shots in the late spring did not work at all, but I continued with the gym and using the stairs several times a day. I guess this is the last set of shots before January replacement surgery.
Good morning everyone.
Splynter - You're in good form today. Thanks for the intro.
Since it was a Silkie, I had to do it and was glad I did. AH the ELEGANCE. Had to sashay to the bottom to get started, but then went up and finally went left. Finished up in the NW. !0 letter stacks were easy enough once a few perps were in place.
TELEMETER clue - On our conning bridge we used a device called a stadimeter to keep station in a formation or to make an RAS approach to another vessel. It was optical and input was usually other vessel's height above waterline. Device gave distance to the object. Of course, we had radar, but for closer distances in good visibility, the stadimeter was better.
Belated birthday greetings to Steve and Husker G.
Happy Saturday everybody!
Current score: Silk 100s, Doc 5!
And in less than half an hour, Woo Hoo!
No bloody clue, but Big Thanks to perps: SOST, HIER, and SATAY....
INELEGANCE, imho, is a great example of the word fitting the description....
Watching Nic Cage "act" in VALLEY GIRL might lead to gagging with a spoon....
Speaking of movies, the recent LONE RANGER was way too long, but Johnny Depp's version of Tonto was hilarious....
The GOAT is coming back in 2014? Wow!
A heart is certainly ONE POINT, but if you manage to Shoot the Moon your opponents get 26 points....
Finally, the one REVIEWABLE play from last night's game went the Dodger's way, but it did not factor into the final outcome - Go Giants!
A Saturday Silkie - and I only had to cheat twice! 96% success!
After my initial gape at all the 10-letter blanks, I got only BEA and AFRO the first time through. Then the SW corner cracked. For a while I had DESOTO instead of DA GAMA, but that didn't last long.
Never heard of TITI monkeys before. (Thanks, Splynter, for the pic.) SATAY was a WAG; I'd heard of it but didn't remember its meaning.
I wish I could claim 100% like fermatprime, Barry G, HeartX, and many other champs, but oh well, I really don't mind being beaten by Mr Silk. My record so far for his pzls is about 50/50. At least I kept this one down to two Googles-- 40A and, more embarrassingly, 1A.
The last time that I lim'ricked a Silk,
I cajoled that I thought I'd been bilked.
My BLIND ALLEY (impasse);
Today I can't amass,
Enough smarts to solve clues of this ilk!
My "puzzling thoughts" . . .
**OK Mr. Silk, today you had me at SPEED DEMON, 'cause I was just flying through the NW and NE. And then, like well-cooked TEXAS BBQ, I hit my BLIND ALLEY. I was like DA GAMA - totally "at sea"!
**Where to begin with the write-overs: DESOTO before DA GAMA; LANCE before LANTZ; NET before MOM in 38D; misspelled GAUGE in 32A which temporarily screwed up 11D; had BENCH before BICEP; had FADE, then FLIP before FLIT; had SPYING before SPYDOM, ET AL
**My favorite clue/solves were: 11A, 16A, 36A, 43A, 48A, 10D, and 13D
**My look-ups were 42A (DA GAMA) and 25D (SOST). Once those were confirmed, the rest, finally came into view - PHEW! (from yesterday)
**Nice recap Splynter!
Today's puzzle seemed to fall in place for me. For a Saturday puzzle I don't get to say that very often. Little GTO, you're really 'did me' fine and made the NW fall into place immediately. The only trouble on the left side was SOST, which I should know as I am looking at my piano. I never had an occasion to use any pedal but the right one.
Desper-Otto--- DeSoto was made by Chrysler and not in India. Hernando DeSoto went west; DaGama went east.
The only other unknowns that were easily solved were SATAY CELIA and HIER. My favorite clue was 41D, completely misdirecting, and I kept wanting to put some biological prefix to DOM and SPY fell after I guessed on REVIEWABLE umpire decisions, which I did not know about. How will they throw out the managers if this is allowed. Watching a manager argue with an umpire is probably the most enjoyable part of a baseball game.
OwenKL - @ some ungodly early hour at which I was still asleep . . .!
Limerick #2 was really clever
Lemony @ 9:08
That German Riesling I poured a few weeks ago is a great match for Thai food. Next time I'm over I'll have to give you a sample . . .
I must have been on Barry Silk's wavelength today. I solved this puzzle with one write-over. I had Iran before OMAN. The T in SOST was a WAG.
When I was in high school, I was an assistant in the biology class for one semester. One of my duties was to feed mice to the classroom boa constrictor. I refused to do that, so one of the boys in the class did it.
JJM, from your avatar, I see that you must be a fellow Akita owner.
Once again I did well on a Silkie. I only had 12 blank squares when I turned on RED LETTERS.
I guess its progress that I look forward to them.
C E Dave, I see the Star Ledger confined the crossword to above the fold today and stopped listing Amy as the constructor every day. Barry got the proper credit. Yay! Did you complain?
Nancy: When our kids were young, they had the opportunity to bring home a classroom snake over the holidays. We found out we would be expected to feed it baby mice. We pleasantly told our kids that they weren't going to be able to babysit the snake. If it happens in nature, OK. But not under our roof. I did enjoy a tarantula later on.
Hi All!
Bill was the tarantula baked, fried or sautéed? :-)
I really stink at Sat puzzles. I almost got the NE, but 11d was indecipherable as I misspelled GAUGE. Even as I saw the W (29a) stacked on the U from GuaGE and thought "there's not such thing as a triple-U," I didn't fix it.
I thought I started off strong - Dodge dart_ Doh! Knowing that, I tried to replace each letter down. 2d Lets (in) fit w/ SSTS. At least I got TETS right.
ALLS Well anyway. I love to fail, that's the only time I learn and I'm good at it :-).
Ave Joe - I love Shrimp Pad Thai. There are two places in town that my buddy & I frequent just for it. Also, I order spaghetti & meatballs at Italian restaurants for the same reason you mention Pad Thai - if they can get that right, the rest of the menu must be good and I'll be back.
Cheers, -T
My next door neighbor was quite taken with this puzzle; I, not so much. I like a bit more wordplay in my puzzles, but 41 down, "world of bugs and plants," had me scratching my head for a while.
Although I solved the puzzle without any assistance from Mr. Barney Google, I wasn't sure about 25 down, "____ ped.". I wanted to put in "soft," but that would have made 34 across "feen," which made no sense. So I went with the "s" even though I wasn't familiar with that abbr
I was watching The Guns of Navarone and in the scene where they discover who the traitor in their midst is, David Niven says, "QED".
AnonT, the tarantula enjoyed crawling up my arm onto my neck and head. It used to freak out my students. Alas, it did meet an untimely end. I put its tank outside in the fresh air and sun. The heat must have been too much for it and I cooked it. Sad...
An odd little thing happened just now while I was on a short bike ride. A fellow knocked on the door. Barbara answered and recognized the fellow who, in past years, had painted a decorative version of our house number on the curb. He wondered if we still lived here or had we sold our house to a gay couple. We have a colorful wind sock hanging out front that Barbara bought at the local fair. I has all of the bright colors of the rainbow, basically ROY G BIV. It turns out they are also the colors of the LGBT community celebrating gay pride. Who knew? Maybe we should hang the Scottish family crest instead?
Ooh, I like The Guns of Navarone too. I've seen it in the movie theater and a couple of times since on TV.
Speaking of movies, I finally watched the entire Captain Phillips. My nerves are still jangling from the tension. Now I need something a little less intense; I'll have to check my queue and order a comedy. Any suggestions, anyone?
Irish Miss, Love Actually for sure. If you've seen it already, you'll probably enjoy it a second time. Or how about North by Northwest, or The Sting? Toy Story or Up or The Great Escape or The Princess Bride or Rudy?
Those are some of my favorites of a lighter nature.
BillG, I'd say you can go ahead and keep that rainbow wind sock flying.
Dick Lemon, I think you are right. We will.
Speaking of movies, I recorded and am rewatching a movie we really enjoyed when it first came out (2000). It's Finding Forrester with Rob Brown and Sean Connery about a young black man and his experiences in private school and with a new friend, a reclusive one-book author played by Connery. Really good we thought.
Bill G. - Thanks for your suggestions. I've seen most of the movies you mentioned but I was thinking of something more current. Has anyone seen Last in Las Vegas with Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, and (I think?) Robert DeNiro? It's harder to find a good comedy than a good drama, IMO.
I agree! Finding Forrester is a really good movie.
Radio is another one.
IM - check out Lego the Movie if it's available. It's funny and poignant. C, -T
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