Theme: "Ah, Me!" - Clues are key today, all two words in the pattern of * Me.
23A. "Trust me" : TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. For the first/last theme slot, 15's are easier than 13's to deal with.
39A. "On me" : THIS IS MY TREAT. Heard this a lot in Guangzhou.
71A. "Help me" : HOW ABOUT A HAND?. A middle 13-letter entry is like a middle 7 in a 15*15.
100A. "Tell me" : WHAT'S THE STORY?
118A. "Search me" : I HAVEN'T GOT A CLUE. "Beats me" works as well.
16D. "Let me" : I'LL BE GLAD TO DO THAT. Two long 17's in the Down slots today.
33D. "Kiss me" : PLANT ONE RIGHT HERE
I saw no label for Dana Olsen in our blog, so this must be a debut. Congratulations!
This grid is expertly laid out with only 68 black squares, sure feels like it's designed by an old pro.
Across:
Across:
1. Man with memorable thumbs : EBERT (Roger). Straight shooter.
6. Watch displays, briefly : LCDs
10. Indian butter : GHEE. Secret to good naan.
14. Brief concession : I GIVE. The "brief" made me think the answer is an abbr.
19. Opposite of neo- : PALEO
20. Childlike sci-fi race : ELOI
21. __ cloud: distant solar system region : OORT
22. "Amadeus" director Forman : MILOS. Liked the movie. Don't remember the director. Wiki said he also directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
26. Latvians, e.g. : BALTS
27. Caribbean music genre : SKA
28. Extremely cold : GELID. Not a word I use.
29. Mother in a colony : QUEEN BEE. Nice clue.
31. Accuse of misconduct : IMPEACH
35. Soprano Dame Nellie __ : MELBA
37. Westminster gallery : TATE
38. Condiment for pommes frites : SEL. I was surprised that our foodie Steve never had creamed honey. How about you, Marti/D-Otto/Yellowrocks/Avg. Joe?
43. Classic muscle car : GTO
46. Spring : LEAP. Verb.
48. Match decision : TKO. Boxing match.
49. Bad news from home? : YER OUT. Home plate.
50. Quarterback's call : PLAY
51. Voice of the difficult homeowner in "Up" : ASNER (Ed)
53. __'acte : ENTR
56. What a pump may supply : AIR
57. Small amounts : DRAMS
58. Manchester measurement : METRE
59. __ dream: optimist's philosophy : DARE TO
62. Ogled : LEERED AT
64. Expel : OUST
66. Tennessee team : TITANS
68. Linda's role in "Dynasty" : KRYSTLE. Linda Evans. I forgot. We had her a few months ago.
69. Form 1040 no. : SSN
74. Poetic contraction : O'ER
75. Faculty retirees : EMERITI
77. List in a subsequent printing, perhaps : ERRATA
78. Auctioneer's word : SOLD
80. Dixie bread : CORN PONE. I just call it "corn bread".
82. Themes : TOPICS
84. New York governor Andrew : CUOMO
87. Opera highlights : ARIAS
88. Clumsy sort : OAF
90. Three-time speed skating gold medalist Karin : ENKE. No idea.
91. Passed, as a bad check : KITED
92. Students' goals: Abbr. : DEGs (Degrees)
93. Vote out : UNSEAT
96. __ Jima : IWO
98. Edible herring : SHAD
99. Sturdy wood : ASH
104. Is for you? : ARE. I got it immediately.
105. Chamber music piece : TRIO
107. Greet warmly : SEE IN. As I mentioned to Husker Gary, we live in a ghetto area. I seldom open our door. It looks like the drug guy is moving away, so that's good news.
108. Jordan, for one : NBA STAR
110. Goes over again : REHASHES
114. Davis of "Dr. Dolittle" : OSSIE
116. Bit of chat room shorthand : IMO
117. Beth preceder : ALEPH. First Hebrew letter.
124. Nobelist Curie : MARIE
125. Line at the dock : ROPE
126. ER tests : ECGs
127. Like a wolfman : HAIRY
128. Transports using runners : SLEDS. Nice clue also.
129. Fancy pitcher : EWER
130. Actor John __-Davies : RHYS. Wiki said "He is perhaps best known for playing the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy". Another unknown figure to me.
131. Kate's TV roomie : ALLIE. Quite a few names in this puzzle.
Down:
1. Skillful, kiddingly : EPT
2. Farm cry : BAA
3. The Hartford logo : ELK
4. Candy company mogul Harry : REESE
5. Suri's parents, in entertainment media : TOMKAT. Happy times. Now North West's parents are everywhere.
6. "Ben-Hur" author Wallace : LEW
7. Tub trouble : CLOG
8. "The Sound of Music" song : DO-RE-MI
9. Edges furtively : SIDLES
10. Parting word : GOODBYE
11. Old TV knob abbr. : HOR
12. La Salle of "ER" : ERIQ
13. Words to Brutus : ET TU. And 18. Being, to Brutus : ESSE
14. "What a loooong day!" : I'M BEAT
15. Really big : GIANT
17. Formal choice : VOTE
24. America's Cup entry : YACHT
25. Obscured by haze : FILMY
30. Louisiane, par exemple : ETAT
31. Mullah's faith : ISLAM. Liked what PK/Jayce said yesterday. That part of the world is a circle we can't square.
32. Reagan's second attorney general : MEESE (Ed). And 42. Reagan's alma mater : EUREKA
34. Followed a trail, say : HIKED
36. Gillette razor : ATRA
40. Piano composition : SONATA
41. Stir up : ROIL
44. Cantina fare : TAMALE. I see this at Trader Joe's. You don't put cheese in your tamales, Lucina, do you?
45. Raw bar item : OYSTER
47. Machu Picchu locale : PERU
50. Corp. exec : PRES
52. Sends again : RE-SHIPS
54. Erie or Huron : TRIBE
55. Comeback : RETORT
57. Marine maintenance site : DRY DOCK. Not a familiar term to me.
60. Bull: Pref. : TAURO
61. Like many home movies : ON TAPE
63. Seashore fliers : ERNS
65. Miss Gulch's bugbear : TOTO
67. Participated temporarily : SAT IN
70. Campfire snacks : S'MORES
72. Johnny's "Edward Scissorhands" co-star : WINONA (Ryder)
73. Cope : HACK IT
76. Genetic strands : RNAs
79. Baseball Hall of Famer Aparicio : LUIS. We pulled an autographed Luis Aparicio card a few years ago.
81. Word with Side or End : EAST
83. Affix, as a button : SEW ON
85. Anne of comedy : MEARA
86. Harder to account for : ODDER. D-Otto, in Mandarin, Yangtze is "Chang Jiang". Chang = Long, Jiang = River. So "Long River". People from Guangzhou/Hong Kong/Macao where Cantonese is spoken will know Yangtze.
89. Spill, with "up" : FESS
93. "Oops" : UH OH
94. Enjoyed a friend's mom's cooking : ATE OVER. Yellowrocks, can you share your recipe for the Green Beans Amandine?
95. "__ Dreams": 1986 #1 hit : THESE. Never heard of it.
97. Once around : ORBIT
100. They may be made after coin tosses : WISHES
101. Former Disney exec : EISNER (Michael)
102. Tell : SNITCH
103. Big name in pianos : YAMAHA
106. Expeditious : RAPID
109. L.A.'s region : SOCAL
110. Smacks into : RAMS
111. Flier to Ben Gurion : EL AL
112. Sinn Fein's land : EIRE. I always associated Sinn Fein with IRA.
113. Production : SHOW
115. Like French toast : EGGY
119. Barbary __ : APE
120. Covert WWII gp. : OSS (Office of Strategic Services). Now CIA.
121. Rapper __ Kim : LIL
122. Sch. with a Narragansett Bay campus : URI
123. Storm feature : EYE
C.C.
Took me a while to suss the theme, since it was in the clues instead of the grid. Enjoyable enough puzzle. I did use the check button once or twice, but no real problems.
ReplyDeleteCCW has little of note today. ST has 1a: WHAT while LAT has 100a: WHAT'S THE STORY, but that's a rather distant correspondence, unless you think the numbers add any significance. Also LAT 28a: GELID, ST 71d: GEL, again a fairly weak congruence.
Hi Y'all! This was a challenge, but I kept moving and filling bits at a time until I got TADA! Fun even if I did wake up earlier than I wanted to. Thanks, Dana! The long theme ones were tricky but not hard once some perps were in. I hadn't heard of a lot of the names.
ReplyDeleteThanks, C.C. for another interesting expo.
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteEBERT, MILOS, MELBA, ASNER, CUOMO, ENKE, OSSIE, MARIE, RHYS, REESE, LEW, MEESE, SECADA, WINONA, LUIS, MEARA, EISNER...
Sorry, was there a theme?
Seriously, some of those I knew, some I could guess, but most came purely via the perps and it really started getting on my nerves after awhile. Especially since I was too dense this morning to figure out what the actual theme was. I did finally get the *TADA* with no assistance, but I really wasn't enjoying myself at the end...
The Week in Review:
ReplyDeleteM 5:20 T 6:19 W 9:01 T 15:57* F 14:31 S 27:19 S 17:05
The week was going swimmingly until the ol' computer decided to show its age on Thursday by freezing for more than five minutes in the middle of solving the puzzle. Very frustrating. It may be time for a new one. Fortunately things got back on track. Saturday's solution was, as usual, the most satisfying though it certainly didn't start out that way. As for specifics, it's usually either WBS or WEES.
See y'all next weekend.
FYI: Dame Nellie Melba's name is associated with four foods, all of which were created in her honour by the French chef Auguste Escoffier:
ReplyDeletePeach Melba, a dessert
Melba sauce, a sweet purée of raspberries and red currant
Melba toast, a crisp dry toast
Melba Garniture, chicken, truffles and mushrooms stuffed into tomatoes with velouté sauce.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI zipped through this one in much better than normal time. I do Sundays on my tablet, so i had zero ink blots.
C.C., thanks for the insight on Yangtze/Chang Jiang. Back in the early 80's we flew from Guangzhou to Zhanjiang and then on to Sanya on Hainan Island. I guess Zhanjiang must be some other kind of river. And, no, I don't think I've ever had creamed honey. We used to get whipped honey which had a creamy appearance and was spreadable. Probably not the same thing, though.
People who missed LOTR may remember John RHYS-Davies as Indiana Jones' Eqyptian pal in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I can't help but wonder if Jon SECADA sings like a cicada. I sure hope not.
Good morning C.C. et al.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the theme while solving - didn't even look for it, since it went so quickly. Then I looked over the grid when I finished and still didn't get it. D'uh - shoulda' looked at the clues!! So thanks for pointing out what was right in front of my nose, C.C.!
I have never had creamed honey - I only use raw (unpasteurized) local honey because it does seem to help with allergies. d-otto, I looked it up online, and it seems that what you described as "whipped" honey is the same thing as "creamed" honey.
I hope Team USA makes a comeback today, but either way, it sure is an interesting golf match!
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteToday's long theme entries were gettable with just a few perps, so the solve went fast. Melba was an unknown person, thanks Argyle!
Morning, C.C.! You reminded me of two childhood things today. My mom (from Texas) made corn pone occasionally; it was a type of corn bread whose batter was so stiff it didn't need a form for cooking. The batter was traditionally shaped by hand, somewhat like a cookie.
The other thing was Bradshaw's Spun Honey. Family camping trips always involved our old VW Microbus, the old Coleman stove, my obnoxious sister, and a fresh tub of Bradshaw's. It was an aerated honey that had a nice spreadable consistency. It was lovely on toast hot off the Coleman, and smelled good too. I presume that's the same as creamed honey.
I thought this was a honey of a puzzle and enjoyed seeing RHYS (who has appeared in hundreds of roles LINK REESE and MEESE all in the same grid.
ReplyDeleteAl C we miss your daily comments.
Fun puzzle and expo. I blush to say the answer to my favorite clue, EBERT, was all perps. Duh.
ReplyDeleteMany of the names were gimmees: ALLIE, MARIE,MELBA,TATE,CU0MO,MEARA and OSSIE (I really like his movies).
SECADA and ERIQ were all perps. All the others I had heard of, but needed a few perps to remember them.
CC, I never tasted whipped or creamed honey. I'm not a big honey fan, but can eat it occasionally. Honey was quite the fashion in recipes this winter. I didn't make any of them.
GREEN BEANS ALMANDINE
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add 2/3 cup of sliced or slivered almonds and cook, stirring, until butter begins to brown just slightly, about 3 minutes. Pour over hot, cooked green beans. Sometimes I cook the almonds a bit longer, watching them closely and keeping on tasting them until I like the amount of toastiness. If you do this, be careful not to burn them or the butter.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI found the theme a bit bland and thought some of the cluing was off-beat, but finished with ease, so no serious nits.
If this is a debut, congrats to Dana on a job well done and thanks to CC for keeping us in the loop, so to speak.
Dudley, just out of curiosity, do you still find your sister obnoxious, or was that a passing case of young, sibling angst?
Have a great day.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Dana Olsen, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteDid not catch the theme until I finished and came to the blog. Got through the puzzle with few major problems. Took me about 2 1/2 hours. Just getting back from Effingham, IL.
I had to bounce around a lot and slowly filled in words which, in turn, helped with the tougher words.
My last to finish was EBERT. I should have known that, living in Chicagoland.
OORT and MILOS were unknown. Perped them. As was MELBA.
Tried GRAMS for small amounts. Fixed that to DRAMS.
ALLIE again. She has been around a lot, lately.
DRY DOCK was easy. C.C., that is where they take the ship out of the water to work on the hull, etc.
EUREKA College is in Illinois.
I did not get Saturday's puzzle finished. Ran out of time. Maybe I can get it today. I will have a couple hours to kill.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(619)
I could not get out of 2nd gear on this solve. Lots of answers came easily, but never in groups. Never did tie the theme to the puzzle, but that wasn't a hindrance, as all the theme answers came pretty quickly with a few perps. Finished in the Maine block, which gave me the most trouble. Didn't know Milos and couldn't think of Balts, so finally gave in to filling vote for 17d and took my chances. I guess it worked. Enjoyable, overall, but not an overly satisfying finish.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I've ever had creamed honey, C.C. But we don't use much honey. Occasionally on corn bread or meatloaf, but that's about it.
Dumb old rigid ME - the fun theme is in the clues!
ReplyDeleteMusings
-ERRATA – leds, slavs, …on me (here), ekg’s,
-Purveyor of TAKE MY WORD FOR IT (:02)
-Loud bang, teacher turns and says, “OK, WHAT’S THE STORY”
-Today’s MMA wrestling can have a TKO or the man in peril can indicate I GIVE by tapping out
-Yogi expected to hear YER OUT! (:37)
-QB Peyton Manning using OMAHA to call a PLAY(1:20)
-We did SEE IN our cute little neighbor boy selling Boy Scout popcorn yesterday. I’m not sure who I would provide that courtesy in C.C.’s ‘hood.
-I am fairly EPT and mostly gruntled
-Incredible house we saw in EUREKA, California
-Failure to take out Pearl Harbor’s DRY DOCKS and oil depots
-I have many VHS and Beta TAPES I need to digitize
-The KC Royal’s also have a shortstop from Venezuela whose numbers are very similar to Luis’s – Alcides Escobar
-What POTUS’s have been IMPEACHED but not OUSTED or UNSEATED by a senate VOTE?
-Gotta run!
Hello, weekend puzzlers. Very nice expo, C.C.
ReplyDeleteGHEE started me off then PALEO and ERIQ and QUEEN BEE. Talk about eye candy! That's ERIQ La Salle.
One fill quickly led to another and soon the entire west end emerged. Very few write overs on this one. Ironically, at 44D I had TECATE before TAMALE but changed DRABS to DRAMS and all was well.
Thank you, Dana Olsen, and if this is your debut, congratulations! Well done.
C.C.
We make two kinds of tamales, red and green using red chile and green chile. The red contains a beef/pork combination, the green has no meat, but cheese instead. They are delicious and much preferred over the red by many people.
Take good care, my friends, and enjoy your Sunday!
The Story of Creamed Honey
ReplyDeleteOur Creamed honey starts as extracted honey and is crystallized under controlled conditions to ensure a smooth texture and a delectable taste. Creamed honey contains only 100% pure honey. It's delicious on toast, rolls, and biscuits.
Since it is already crystallized, it can be stored indefinitely and never needs to be heated. ~ from my jar of Betterbee Creamed Honey.
This Sunday puzzle was fairly easy but it had way too many proper names that required the crosses to fill. There were ten that I had never heard of or didn't know- MILOS KRYSTLE MELBA ENKE RHYS REESE TOMKAT TOTO SECADA WINONA on top of the ones I knew, EBERT ASNER EISNER MEESE CUOMO ALLIE LUIS OSSIE TITANS (Oilers). I hate to REHASH this but I have never heard or seen an electrocardiogram called an ECG except in a crossword puzzle. 105A-TRIO??? That's the group, not the composition. So much for my complaints.
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of wrong starts with MOON PIES instead of CORN PONE and HANDLE instead of HACK IT. In the South it's called CORNBREAD;the only times that I have ever heard the term CORN PONE used was referring to corny jokes or amateurish acting or something similar to the Grand Ole Opry or Branson, MO. type of entertainment.
I enjoyed the Sunday challenge. Among some others, I didn't know BALTS. Thanks Dana and CC.
ReplyDeleteI love corn bread but with two exceptions. It shouldn't have too much flour in addition to the corn meal. It makes the end product too much like cake. And, the corn bread shouldn't contain too much sugar for obvious reasons.
WEES about not getting the theme until I got here, slowed down in the Southwest but eventually made it through. Wasn't Dame Nellie Melba the soloist for a fete on Downton Abbey that caused a fuss as to where she would stay, being a person of color? If I remember Elizabeth McGovern's character nipped that in the bud as soon as she heard of it.
ReplyDelete@Big Easy-- you can see ECG a lot around medical offices/hospitals. The original EKG came from the way the Germans spelled it electrokardiogram, but many places in US you see ECG for electrocardiogram.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dana and CC!
Took a while to spell KRYSTLE correctly. ENKE was unknown. Was disappointed by theme. Otherwise, OK.
Anybody watch the 6-week season finale of Outlander? Very exciting!
Cheers!
Dictionary definition of TRIO,
ReplyDelete1. a musical composition for three voices or instruments. The Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, by Ludwig van Beethoven is a composition.
2. a company of three singers or players.
There are many quotes and recipes for PONE on the net. “This 100 year old recipe was given to Mrs. Willey by Mrs. Pearl Lyons. She used to cook her pones in a covered spider in a fireplace with hot coals on top until good and brown.”
Many posts remind me of a story told in in India about six blind men who were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body. The one who felt the tail said it was like a rope. The one who felt the trunk said it was like a tree branch, The one felt the belly said it was like a wall. Etc. When they fought over who was right the king explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned.”
See the whole story.
Link story
Lost my link
ReplyDeleteLink story
Where have all the flowers gone, and when will they ever learn in crossword composition that the shorthand for electrocardiogram is EKG, not ECG (thank you, Big Easy).
ReplyDeleteAnd, does anyone really say "ATE OVER"?
YR, thanks for the link to the Blind men feeling the elephant story. Reminds me of the story that Einstein, once said when asked to explain his General theory of Relativity.( - for the nth time -).
ReplyDeleteHe said, he was walking, one day, with a blind man, on a path, along the shore of a pond in a park. There were some swans in the pond.
As they were walking, Einstein saw some white flowers on a tree.
He said,'What pretty white flowers on the tree !'.
The blind man asked him,'What is white ?'.
Einstein said,'White is the color of the swan'.
Blind Man BM: 'What is a swan ?'.
Einst,: 'A swan is a bird with a crooked, bent neck'.
BM: 'What is crooked / bent ?'
At this, Einstein grabbed the blind man's left arm and bent it at the elbow, and using the blind man's right arm fingers, made him feel, the bend on the left elbow.
'Aaah ' said the blind man, 'now I know what white is'.
Bill G, your comment about sugar in cornbread and too much flour making it cake-like reminded me of comedy routine by Mark Lawry...See "Take a pill and cook the...Comedy by Mark Lawry" on youtube. If someone could link I'd be most appreciative!
ReplyDeleteAnon@2:58. You are only experiencing one part of the elephant. Many of us have experienced the test being referred to as an ECG.
ReplyDeleteDo you have kids? My own kids growing up used to ask to EAT OVER Joe's house or sleep over Joe's house. The word AT was omitted. My students during my entire career used this idiom.
Blue Iris, is this what you wanted? Very funny. I hadn't heard it before but it sounds like we are of like minds about cornbread. Thanks. I enjoyed that.
ReplyDeleteMark Lowry/cornbread
A comedian that doesn't swear...a rare and beautiful thing.
ReplyDeleteECG is now the accepted norm in medical circles, rather than EKG which was from the German spelling.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Mark Lowry before but, in another sense, I'd heard people like him often. I grew up in Virginia and went to a Southern Baptist church. When it was time for a revival service or a guest preacher, they would often sound EXACTLY like Mark Lowry. I'm guessing he was pretty close to being a preacher himself. I don't know why they all sound alike. Is it because they're from Texas? Do they practice their delivery with a tape recorder trying to emulate all the other Texas preachers? He's a funny guy and likes corn bread the same way I do. I grew up with certain vegetables overcooked by today's standards. They tasted good to me though I like the more modern approach too.
ReplyDeleteI love Cornpone, don't you?
ReplyDeleteMacGyver Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Bill, just getting back here. Thanks you for helping me connect. Mark is a singer with the Gaither quartet , but he is a very funny guy. We enjoy clean humor. We also enjoy Brian Regan and Tim Hawkins bits on youtube. Our son took us to see Brian Regan a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteOwenK, As a child, we use to go to Dogpatch, USA in Arkansas on vacation. It was an amusement park with characters walking around. Somewhere there is a picture with me standing by Lil Abner. They had the Cornpone statue on the grounds.It closed down quite a while ago.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of humor, I'm a staunch advocate of funny humor. Clean funny humor is great. I'm OK with off-color or somewhat dirty humor as long as it's funny. I have one friend who doesn't understand that concept. I cringe whenever I can see that he's about to tell a joke. His 'jokes' are always really foul and never funny. It's as if the foulness is it's raison d'être. He's a bright and respected English teacher but his taste in humor is much different from mine. If I can sense that he's about to tell a joke, I'm torn between finding an excuse to leave or stay around to observe the awfulness of what's about to transpire; sort of like gawking at a car accident on the freeway.
ReplyDeleteInane Solver2 Thanks for thinking of me. I couldn't sit through that inane girl's remarks about why she left Japan, nor the comments afterward. And she is considering becoming an attorney?
ReplyDeleteThere is a large part of Japan's history that I do not admire. Its military expansionism and taking over other countries, including Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, among others from 1868-1947 was heinous and led to many accusations of war crimes. Japan's treatment of prisoners during WW II was atrocious.
My personal experience of Japan is all post war and gentler.
One of my sisters and I went out to eat today and they served big, puffy warm rolls with creamed honey. Yummmmm.
ReplyDeleteThe coffee shop around the corner serves some breakfast food and lunch creations. I'm tempted to try their buttermilk biscuit, mushroom gravy and fried egg breakfast special. I like real buttermilk biscuits almost as much as cornbread (low on flour and sugar of course).
ReplyDeleteD-Otto,
ReplyDeleteThe Jiang in Zhanjing indeed means "river". Its nickname is "Harbor City". Because Chinese has 4 tones, Jiang can also mean "Talk". Also a surname, like Jiang Jieshi, known to Americans as Chiang Kai-shek.
Yellowrocks.
Thanks for the recipe. I'll replace olive oil with butter (I don't eat butter).
Irish Miss,
Your comment to Dudley reminds me of the meat grinder and your naughty brother!
Blue Iris,
I've been eating your Bird Seed Salad all summer. Tried many many variations. Still not tired yet!