Theme: "Say Ah" - "Ah" sound is added to each theme entry.
23A. Haggling over a parrot purchase? : POLLY BARGAINING. Plea bargaining.
48A. Hug in the pool? : WATER CARESS. Watercress. The added sound is a schwa sound for me.
73A. Excitement about boxing practice? : SPARRING FEVER. Spring fever.
97A. Venue for unwise investments? : FOLLY MARKET. Flea market. Similar to 23A.
126A. Post-Renaissance gal pals? : TWO BAROQUE GIRLS. 2 Broken Girl. Also a schwa sound for me.
16D. Walden Pond headrest? : THOREAU PILLOW. Throw pillow.
60D. Cold spell in Manama? : BAHRAIN FREEZE. Brain freeze.
Hey,
we have another new constructor! I did not find Jake Braun's name in
our blog labels. Sunday puzzles are very challenging to make, the sheer
size is daunting. I'm always in awe when others make their debut on a
Sunday.
This type of sound change is always hard for me, as my English is very Chinese. I pronounce ISIS as "Asses". I wish the White House and newspapers would stop dignifying those thugs with ISIL.
Across:
1. Rush order shorthand : ASAP
5. Heart, basically : PUMP
9. Expand : SWELL
14. Prefix with sexual : METRO. Metrosexual like Clooney. Armani all the way.
19. 1944 invasion city : ST LO
20. Eye part containing the iris : UVEA
21. Salk vaccine target : POLIO
22. "... O, be some __ name": Juliet : OTHER
26. Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa, e.g. : MAORI
27. Domestic sci. : HOME EC
28. Crunch's rank : CAP'N
29. Get real? : COME TRUE. Nice clue/answer.
31. In the style of : A LA
32. MGM motto word : ARS
34. Acknowledge quietly : NOD TO
37. Last word of Kipling's "If—" : SON. Can you recite the whole poem, Yellowrocks? Also, have you tried long beans? They're very good with almonds too. You should find them at Asian grocery stores.
38. Big picture?: Abbr. : ENL (Enlarged)
39. Rapper __ Jon : LIL
40. Sounds of uncertainty : HAWS
42. Pizazz : OOMPH
44. Bluesy James : ETTA
46. Overflow : TEEM
51. Forgets the words, maybe : HUMS. What's your favorite song to sing in the shower?
54. Story set to music : BALLAD
56. One may be wired : NARC
57. Each : A POP
58. Capital near Casablanca : RABAT
61. Easy-to-make breakfast brand : EGGOS
64. Ding Dong relative : HO HO
66. Cairo's river : NILE
67. Does a classroom chore : ERASES
69. Gutter locale : EAVE
70. Saintly : ANGELIC. That's Argyle, who just got his second puzzle accepted by the NY Times. His first one was published last Oct. He has a 100% acceptance rate with the NYT!
72. "Phooey!" : BAH
78. Tennis do-over : LET
79. DVD box caution : UNRATED
81. Takei role : SULU
82. Capital of Pakistan's Punjab province : LAHORE
84. North __ : STAR
85. Something you break when you leave it : CAMP. Tricky for me. Never been to a camp.
88. Goolagong rival : EVERT (Chris)
90. World __ : POWER
91. Leave : EXIT
92. Kindle competitor : NOOK
94. More spine-tingling : EERIER
96. Level-headed : SANE
100. Makes a move : ACTS
104. Diamond irregularity : FLAW
106. Alpine Austrian state : TYROL. We just had this yesterday. Innsbruck is its capital. Marti mentioned she stayed there last year.
107. Entry level pos. : ASST
109. Item on a Billboard list : HIT
110. Certain camera, for short : SLR
112. Hamm of soccer : MIA.
Bill G, next time you bump into her, just say "Hello Mia, my name is
Bill, do you solve crosswords? Your name appear there often." Maybe you
should print out this puzzle and get her autographed.
114. Medicare section : PART B
116. Spotted : SAW
117. Physician's org. : AMA
118. Lively folk dances : HOEDOWNS
121. Fictional plantation : TARA
123. More risky : DICIER
125. "It's my concern ..." : I FEAR
130. "Zoom-Zoom" sloganeer : MAZDA
131. Artist's aid : EASEL
132. "I'm __ here!" : OUTA
133. Durable wood : TEAK
134. Great buy : STEAL. I normally find some spectacular stuff at flea markets, not this year.
135. Fries-to-be : SPUDS
136. Movie critic Pauline : KAEL. Never read her reviews. Was she harsh?
137. Pacing, perhaps : EDGY
Down:
1. Road crew supply : ASPHALT
2. Info provider : STOOLIE
3. Like many barbershop quartets : ALL MALE. And4. Barbershop symbol : POLE
5. Barhopping tour : PUB CRAWL. I used to barhop all the time. Guangzhou is full of great bars & great food.
6. Sch. founded by Jefferson : UVA
7. Grand Marquis, for short : MERC
8. Certain polytheist : PAGAN
9. PR specialist: SPIN DOC
10. Acquired : WON
11. Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : ELI
12. Omar's "Mod Squad" role : LINC
13. Firm symbols : LOGOS
14. Point in time : MOMENT
15. State, to Jacques : ETAT
17. "Breaking Bad" marathon component, e.g. : RERUN
18. Cantilevered window : ORIEL
24. Word repeated after "She loves you," in a '60s hit : YEAH
25. "It's __ sort of memory that only works backward": Carroll : A POOR
30. Homer's watering hole : MOE'S. I'm amazed by Chairman Moe's prediction on Ryder Cup. He said on Sept 26: "My not so welcome or popular prediction: Final Score after Sunday, Euro's 17, Yank's 11". The result: 16½ points vs 11½.
33. Low area : SWALE
35. IRS employee : T-MAN
36. Long-running talk show : OPRAH
41. Play producer : STAGER
43. Sub in a bag : HERO
45. Macbeth, vis-à-vis Glamis : THANE. The Thane of Glamis.
47. Grad school degs. : MBAs
49. Award named for a mystery writer : EDGAR
50. Chilled soup : SCHAV. Cold sorrel dish. Never had it. I don't think I've had sorrel before.
52. "Le Misanthrope" playwright : MOLIERE. His Chinese name sounds very sad.
53. Ghost : SPECTER
55. '50s nuclear trial : A TEST
58. Puzzles in the game show "Concentration" : REBUSES
59. Three-time French Open champ __ Sánchez Vicario : ARANTXA. No idea. Looks harder to pronounce than my Zhouqin.
62. Prefix with sac : OVI
63. Sixth __ : SENSE
65. Scott Turow work : ONE L. One of the few English books I've read.
68. Job detail : SPEC
71. Pinot, for one : GRAPE
74. Fictional bell town : ADANO
75. Mate : GUV
76. Baseball card brand : FLEER. Bygone brand. Nowadays only Topps and Upper Deck.
77. "I have it!" : EUREKA
80. Soviet cooperative : ARTEL. I forgot. Wiki said this term was used "between the 1860s through 1950s".
83. Circle dance : HORA
86. Jump out of one's skin? : MOLT. Cute clue.
87. Coral component : POLYP
89. Head lock : TRESS
93. Sedgwick of "The Closer" : KYRA
95. "I'm ready to sign" : IT'S A DEAL
97. Text message qualifier : FWIW (For What it's Worth)
98. Fools, to Puck : MORTALS. Lord, what fools these mortals be!
99. Wedding site : ALTAR
101. Led : CHAIRED
102. Interval between related events : TIME LAG
103. TV partner of Hutch : STARSKY
105. Unconcerned with right and wrong : AMORAL
108. Branch branch : TWIG. Tree branch.
110. Leveling wedges : SHIMS
111. Dieter's catchword : LoFat
113. Pot starters : ANTES
115. Runner in the woods : BROOK. Lovely clue.
119. Arp genre : DADA
120. Switch : SWAP
122. Cyan shade : AQUA
124. Use as a reference : CITE
127. The Beavers of the Pac-12 : OSU. The Oregon State.
128. Breakfast companion? : BED. Bed and breakfast.
129. Colorado native : UTE
C.C.
39 comments:
Greetings!
Took quite a while. Was amazed when I got the TA-DA w/o cheats.
Thanks, Jake and CC!
Some words really had me puzzled. Particularly ARANTXA and SCHAV. The former had me really perplexed for ages.
Have a good Sunday!
Hello Puzzlers -
DNF. Crashed and burned because I never heard of a Russian Artel, and Arantxa just looked impossible, improbable, and damned unlikely. Still does.
Morning, C.C.!
Morning, all!
Fun puzzle overall today with a few minor nits and one truly ugly section that nearly did me in. I really did like the theme, once I realized that the sound was being preserved and not the letters (my first thought upon getting 23A was "What the heck is PLY BARGAINING"?)
Minor nits included thinking EGGO is the name of the brand, not EGGOS and that LO FAT is a catch phrase and not a catch word.
[Nice to see -- and remember -- TYROL again today, btw.]
The truly ugly section was, of course the clump that included ARANTXA. I struggled with the theme answer in that section simply because I had never heard of MANAMA and couldn't think of BAHRAIN for a long time. I also could only think of POLE at 84A and didn't think of ERASES as being a class chore (as opposed to, say, cleaning erasers). But the big problem really was ARANTXA, since it looked impossible no matter what letters I stuck in. Once I finally figured everything out [me: "Oh... BRAIN FREEZE, DUH!] I looked at what I was left with and was truly surprised by the *TADA*.
We have DNF and TDNF, but we really need a word or phrase for cases where you finish unassisted but have no confidence in your solve and wouldn't know you had finished correctly if it weren't for the *TADA*. I mean, if I were solving on paper today I'd be convinced I had made a mistake somewhere...
Taking the family to the annual Topsfield fair today. If I see a giant tractor, I'll try to have my picture taken.
Good morning!
For once I got the theme early. I started, as usual, doing the across words and glancing at the downs. When METRO appeared I immediately threw down THOREAU PILLOW. I had trouble parsing SPARRING FEVER and FOLLY MARKET after they appeared, though.
C.C., I knew you'd get that baseball card maker right off the bat (pun intended). FLEER looked queer to me. Not as bad as ARANTXA, though. The X is probably pronounced like "CH." Hey, that could have been a theme entry: ARANTXA DRESSING.
Wasn't some Shakespeare character the THANE of Cawdor? I thought that was Macbeth. Oh, well...
This is the first weekend since last spring when we've had mornings that are cooler outside than inside. Should be a nice bike ride today.
The Week in Review:
M 4:47 T 4:55 W 6:14 T 7:34 F 11:52 S 24:59 S 16:03
A speedy start to a smooth series with Saturday's Silkie being the most satisfying solve. A few unknowns today (SCHAV, ARTEL, ARANTXA, Manama) but that's what perps are for. I thought the theme was fun and clever.
As for WBS, I give myself credit even if the last letter might be a shameful keyboard run. As long as I hear the "TaDa!" (without Googling or turning on the red letters of course), it's a win. But yes, this approach wouldn't work on paper.
See y'all next weekend.
CC, thanks for the shout out. I love the poem, "If". I can recite most of it from memory. As a feminist from my preteen years onward, I always thought those traits applied equally well to women.
Link poem
I'll have to look for Asian long beans. What is your recipe for making them with almonds?
Dudley, hand up for stumbling at ARANTXA and ARTEL. I never thought of North STAR.
Informally you can call that waffle an Eggo. I'm okay with one Eggo, two Eggos.
My students loved to erase the board as much as they did clapping (cleaning)the erasers. Now with dry erase boards, there is no eraser clapping. Cough, cough!
To me Concentration involves turning cards face down in even rows and taking turns flipping two at time face up. You win them if they match. I played this for hours with my young grandson. I see no REBUSES in Concentration.
Barry G and Al Cyone, that approach works on paper, too. After I finish and have a word or two in doubt, I declare the answers cast in stone. Then I Google just the doubtful parts, check this blog, and/or type the doubtful ones online to look for red letters. If I am correct I get a mental TA DA. If one letter is amiss I give myself a DNF.
Hi there~!
I have to agree with BarryG on this one - we need a new phrase for getting the solve without feeling the confidence of being correct - and I knew ARANTXA, too.
Did not like OUTA, IMHO....but we had TYROL again, go figure.
Splynter
IDBC!
"In doubt, but correct." Or maybe "In doubt, but clueless!" (Shamelessly stolen fron an aquintence that often says "I may be clueless, but I'm never in doubt")
WEES. No idea on Arantxa, but it had to be. And had an easy time filling Polly Bargaining, but a very hard time making it work with the theme. But I did have that pronunciation issue resolved by the time Folly came along, so it proved helpful. Then with Freeze in place from perps, Bahrain came very easily.
Strange puzzle, but most impressive as a debut.
And congratulations on your second NYT acceptance, Argyle.
Good Morning:
This was a definite FIW for me due to a silly mistake. My eyes saw North-----but my brain saw Seven so I filed in seas instead of star and not knowing Arantxa or Artel, thought I completed the solve correctly. But, no TADA today. (I think I had the same issue last Sunday.)
I didnt't care for outa. Had spinner/spin doc, charged/chaired, and time gap/time lag. In any case, congrats to Mr. Braun for a job well done and thanks to CC for explaining it all.
Steve, how about those Fightin' Irish? Marti, I hope the cats have returned to normal! :-)
Have a super Sunday.
Wow, Splynter, is that you in your new suit? I wear a suit on occasion; the last occasion was in '96, I believe.
Forgot to congratulate Argyle on his second NYT acceptance. Well done!
IMO, ISIS is a much worse name for the terrorist group than ISIL or IS.
Isis used to be a lovely name for a girl or a business.
Link text
Link text
Hi Y'all! Enjoyed this puzzle, Jake! Thanks, C.C.
Never did figure out the POLLY/plea or FOLLY/flea
connections in the theme, but thought the others were amusing.
The west central bloc was a bugger. I had BAH & SANE but the rest was blank. REBUSES? YR said it for me. ARANTXA, BAHRAIN, ARTEL all unknown. Lucina, isn't the "X" in Spanish pronounced like a soft "H". I remember Bexar County in Texas is pronounced kinda like "Bear".
Two naticks were the last to fill for me: TMA/N/ARC and BROO/K/AEL. The former didn't seem to be suggested by the clue. Didn't know KAEL. BROOK? I wanted some kind of vine.
Congrats, Argyle, on your NYT puzzle.
Good morning everyone.
Got ARANTXA ok from the perps, but was flummoxed by SCHAV - never heard of it before. Theme was kind of 'meh' but I enjoyed much of the rest of it.
26a MAORI - I believe Kiri is English on her Mother's side. I know she was schooled in England. She has a beautiful voice.
6d UVA - I visited the UVA campus last weekend. A beautiful location. The main Rotunda, inspired by Monticello, was closed for major renovation. Much of Virginia is very scenic.
Enjoy the day. 35º here earlier this am.
Musings
-POLLY BARGAINING – Polly Bergen? AH, no.
-Is WATER CRESS an entrée for fashion models?
-FOLLY MARKET of 15 yrs ago
-HOME EC no more, It’s now this
-I googled some LIL JON lyrics. If you’re looking for crudity, profanity, misogyny, violence, drugs…
-Aren’t HAWS verbal turn signals for for these guys?
-Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 BALLAD told a very sad story
-Even modern boards need ERASING
-A veteran kindergarten teacher told me, “Don’t let their ANGELIC faces fool you!
-Volleyball did away with the LET serve in 2001
-What’s incorrect with this EXIT stage left (:04)
-A friend was ecstatic last week because now she qualifies for MEDICARE
-My quartet was ACAPELLA first
-Job for a SPIN DOC
-Is ChairMAN a sexist word?
-A very young Mickey Rooney delivers the line What fools these MORTALS be! (2:17) at the end of this clip
HG - Is HuMAN a sexist word?
Words aren't sexist, people are (or, rarely, aren't). What "chairman" isn't is gender-neutral. Same with fireman (now, properly, firefighter).
Hi again~!
Yep, D-Otto, that's me. The pic was taken in mom's kitchen by my cousin from England back at Labor Day - I needed some one who knows how to take pics with a camera phone, and that was the best I could do. Thanks - and congrats to Argyle for his tremendous success.
Splynter
Good afternoon everyone.
Out for a nice Bloody Mary and breakfast. I don't try to do Sunday's puzzle, but enjoy the comments.
Spitz, according to Roberts Rules, the correct title is "Chair". No gender specification required.
Congratulations Argyle.
Cheers
70a - ANGELIC - What C.C. said. Having had the personal good fortune to meet Argyle in August, I couldn't agree more. Congrats to him on a great accomplishment.
Sallie@12:47: "according to Roberts Rules, the correct title is "Chair"
Actually, on p.23 of the current, (11th) edition, Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (RONR) continues to suggest "Mr. [or Madam] Chairman" as "long-established usage" and refers to "chairperson" or "chair" as variations.
Hi everybody. We're still having trouble staying connected to the Internet. By this time, I'm frustrated and pissed. The Verizon tech is due sometime this afternoon. Grump, grump...
I had trouble spelling ARANTXA also but it's easy to pronounce. It sounds like Arancha. Also, hand up for not knowing ARTEL and SCHAV.
I had trouble understanding the theme since it was adding a sound instead of a letter.
Thanks Jake and CC. Congratulations Argyle.
My father and I visited the University of Virginia several times. Charlottesville and that part of Virginia are very pretty. I was accepted at UVa but went to Cornell instead. I wonder about how things would have been different if I'd gone there...?
Thank you all for the congratulations. It is a collaboration with C.C. of course. I won't feel like a true constructor until I get a solo published. lol I have to get it by C.C. first. If I can do that I'll have it made.
CC, thanks for the helpful advice. The next time I see Mia Hamm, I'll do that and I'll tell her that you said Hi. This area was a filming location for "Against All Odds", "Jerry Maguire, "Weeds" and "90210". Also, many of the LA Kings live here as well as Kevin Nealon, Blake Griffin, Don Mattingly, Nomar Garciaparra (Mr. Mia Hamm), Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and others.
Argyle, did you have to change your style to move from the LAT to the NYT? I'm thinking that some of the time I would be able to tell where a Mon, Tues, Wed puzzle was published 'cause the style of cluing seems a little different.
Frankly, I don't over-worry about clues; that's what editors are for. I agree that each paper as its own flavor of clues.
Good afternoon, gang - pretty much WEES; fun solve, clever theme. Loved THOREAU PILLOW. Congratulations to Jake Braun on his debut.
Speaking of congratulations, CONGRATULATIONS to Argyle on a great accomplishment -- I'm looking forward to your first NYT solo.
Have a great day; good one here, as the Eagles are winning big.
Congrats, Argyle!
I'm with C.C. on this one - I also find these kinds of puzzles something of a challenge due to my British English, and therefore I'm generally underwhelmed as I don't see the sounds the same way - e.g. I don't pronounce "polly" as "pah-ley" nor "folly" as "fah-ley".
BTW, the Austrians spell it "Tirol"
Ditto, there is no "ah" in polly...
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Jake Braun, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Congratulations, Argyle, on your NYT puzzle. I do not usually do the NYT.
I liked today's puzzle. Took me several hours to get it. Do not know how Al Cyone can do these so quickly. Congratulations to you, AL.
I am heading to Walmart now, so I will sign off.
Just saw the Browns beat the Titans, 29-28. They were behind 28-3 and came back. Go Browns, my team as a youth.
See tomorrow.
Abejo
(793)
I was also lukewarm over this theme, and wasn't going to comment today.
But I just had to stop by and congratulate Argyle on his second NYT acceptance! Do you know when it will be published? Some of them wait in line for 3 or more years before they actually hit the paper. Ugh. I just don't have the patience (or probably, that many years left) to wait so long!!
Sunday Morning aired a segment today about a man who, when hearing his daughter being threatened and physically attacked by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, got his pistol, yelled at the guy to back off and fired a warning shot into the wall hitting nobody. Under Florida's mandatory sentencing laws, he's serving a 20-year sentence in prison with no possibility of parole or sentence reduction. Geez. You would think this would be a perfect time for Florida's governor to jump in to commute his sentence, or even President Obama for that matter. Here's the article: Mandatory sentence
Regarding Walmart, there isn't any discount possible for me to be willing to shop there after finding out about the way Walmart treats and pays its employees. Whenever possible, I like to go to local mom-and-pop stores, though they're getting fewer and fewer these days.
You think "Jump out of one's skin?" is a "cute clue" for MOLT? I don't. Ask an animal. Molting is not jumping. (86D)
Re 103D: How do you remember which one was Starsky, which one was Hutch?
The puzzle was easy. I never did understand getting 'plea bargaining' or 'flea market' until I read CC's explanation. The few unknowns were easy to figure out from the crosses.
KAEL LINC 'A POOR' THANE SCHAV ARTEL
ARANTXA Sanchez was an easy fill. I don't know why she started using Vicario, since her tennis-pro brother never did.
I finished this curious offering around noon today, then totally spaced-off coming here to trumpet my victory.
Tis the deed and not the glory (or something like that).
Marti, 2+ years here.
How bout them Royals!!! Did you see those last two catches?!
ARANTXA-" Looks harder to pronounce than my Zhouqin." CC, you are so endearing. Keep pronouncing ISIS as "asses" because this is one the corner can agree upon.
( BTW, the dog on Downtown Abbey is named Isis.)
Loved TWO BAROQUE GIRLS even though I don't watch the series.
Cold soup- No room for Gazpacho or Borscht...SCHAV is unknown to me.
Congrats, Argyle!!!
Interesting Sunday Puzzle, Jake!
Yellowrocks,
I seldom cook by recipes, always by feel. When the oil gets hot, I put in minced ginger and red pepper flakes, then the already blanched long beans, then the already toasted slivered almonds then a splash of good quality soy sauce (like Lee Kum Kee Premium Dark).
Marti,
Probably within a year. Will said he tentatively scheduled it for a Monday.
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