Four common terms containing a country name as a descriptive adjective, are modified into amusing new version that sound alike but have very different meanings. This is the first Friday pangram in a long while and my first from Mike in a long while as well. As with many of his works, lots of 4 and 5 letter fill with some interesting medium words like IS INTO, OAXACA, PEG LEG, SEANCE, AT WORST, EQUINES, TEXAS TEA, UNALLIED. I know you are worn out from cooking, smiling at relatives and eating, so on with the show.
20A. WWII personnel from Rio? : BRAZILIAN WACS (13). The base phrase is Brazilian Wax, referring to the complete removal of pubic hair. The HISTORY of the term is debatable, but it may just be that the indigenous tribes that were there before European were one of the Asian strains which grow very little body hair.
25A. Yoko Ono, in spirit? : JAPANESE BEATLE (14). The destructive Japanese Beetle does in fact come from Japan, which has more natural beetle predators to limit their damage. Not to be confused with the German Beetle.
46A. Andalusian plains? : SPANISH STEPPES (14). (Spanish Steps in Rome are must see according to my traveling son. LINK). Steppe is defined as "one of the vast usually level and treeless tracts in southeastern Europe or Asia." (MW).
52A. Brussels-born lumberjack? : BELGIAN LOGGER (13). Belgian Lager beer. They produce over 700 kinds of beer in Belgium, but most are ales. READ. Either of my sons can answer this one better than I. I did stand in line to buy the Trappists' Westveleran XII when it came out.
Across:
5. Old lab burners : ETNAS. I will let our scientists get into a BUNSEN vs. ETNA discussion.
10. Julia's "Ocean's Twelve" role : TESS. First name of actress = first name of character.
14. Teeny bit : IOTA.
15. Repeat exactly : QUOTE.
16. Bar __ : EXAM. February 1974.
17. Wii alternative : XBOX. gaming systems.
18. Prefix with marine : ULTRA.
19. Lawless role : XENA. Nicely phrased; Lucy will live on so people can find an X to grind into a puzzle.
23. Reds, on scoreboards : CINcinnati.
24. French pronoun : CES. Their.
33. EPA standard : AQI. Air Quality Index.
34. 1986 Best New Artist Grammy winner : SADE.
35. Kingdom : REALM.
37. Accumulate : RUN UP. Think of your bar tab.
40. Rio maker : KIA.
41. Leader's prerogative : SAY SO. He has the last word.
42. Place for sweaters? : SAUNA. Rather indelicate... sweat-ers.
43. Place Sundance liked : ETTA. Classic clue misdirection as her name was Etta Place, and the clue masks the capital letter which would have exposed the answer by having the word first in the progression.
45. Illegal turn, maybe : UIE.
50. Joseph Smith's denom. : LDS. Latter Day Saints.
51. __ hours : WEE. Where you could often find my sons playing the Wii.
59. It's done in parts of Switzerland : FINI. French misdirection; c'est fini.
60. Giant or Titan, briefly : NFLER. With the ever increasing size of footballers, this is becoming a doubly true clue.
61. VIII squared : LXIV. Roman math, reminds me LINK. (2:47).
63. Der __: Adenauer epithet : ALTE. Old one.
64. Island tubers : TAROS.
66. Techie, stereotypically : NERD.
67. Wrigley brand : ORBIT. This is my gum of choice.
68. Fishing leader? : GONE.
Down:
1. B'way pickups : TIX.
2. Former Virginia senator Charles : ROBB. Married one of LBJ's daughters and despite rumors and scandals, they are still together.
3. "Like __ not ..." : IT OR.
4. Veracruz neighbor : OAXACA.
5. Some dams : EQUINES. Horsies.
6. Rock's Jethro __ : TULL. Very distinct sound.
7. Claim of innocence : NOT I.
8. Gillette brand : ATRA.
9. Medium setting : SEANCE. Not on your electric razor, but where the psychic's work.
10. Jed Clampett's discovery, in a sitcom theme song : TEXAS TEA. LINK in case you want to memorize the song.
11. Suit : EXECutive.
12. Without : SANS. A French word incorporated into our language.
13. "He'll hae misfortunes great an' __": Burns : SMA. small.
21. Cab cousin : ZIN, Cabernet and Zinfandel.
22. Erodes : WEARS.
25. Shakes : JARS. I guess...
26. Blue shades : AQUAS.
27. Betty Grable, e.g. : PIN UP. very popular with our boys during WWII, I have read.
28. Benefits : SAKES. For all of our sakes, I hope you sussed this.
29. WWI first lady Wilson : EDITH. Woodrow's second wife and the President after his stroke.
30. Pulsates : BEATS.
31. Easy two-pointer : LAYUP.
32. Dinsmore of children's books : ELSIE. No clue, all perps. LINK.
36. Duff Beer seller : MOE'S. Mo' Simpsons and a CSO to our own Chairman.
38. Neutral : UNALLIED.
39. Ohio-based consumer products giant, familiarly : P AND G. Proctor & Gamble.
44. In the most dire circumstance : AT WORST.
47. Has a passion for : IS INTO. Also, 59D. Buff : FAN. He is a car buff was popular when I was a kid
48. Wave checker: abbr. : EEG. Electroencephalogram. brain waves.
49. Stereotypical pirate : PEG LEG. My ex-wife hated that as a nickname.
52. Venom : BILE. One of the first 4 elopements.
53. __'acte : ENTR. French for between.
54. Hardly close : AFAR.
55. Union-mgmt. mediator : NLRB. National Labor Relations Board.
56. Sainted pope called "the Great" : LEO I.
57. Nat, before 2005 : EXPO. Base ball teams, one in Montreal which is now in Washington, both abbreviations.
58. It was nothing for Louis XIV : RIEN. More simple French, and bi-lingual pun.
62. Vacation starter? : VEE. First letter in the word, and the last clue in the puzzle. Still recovering from all the tryptophan in the turkey. Relax and enjoy, thank Mike and thank you C.C., Argyle, JzB, Steve, marti, Splynter and each and everyone of you.
Lemonade out.
44 comments:
Clever puzzle, Mike Peluso, and scintillating writeup, Lemonade. I was unable to check in yesterday, but want to extend my thanks and congratulations to C.C. and the entire team.
Today, Black Friday, marks the opening of a major motion picture with a significant crosswords component. To promote the movie, the producers have created a contest in which you are asked to solve this puzzle [linking to a site created by my friend Ralph Bunker].
Ralph Bunker is also a big fan of A Cryptic Tribute (to the protagonist of the film mentioned in the above paragraph), and commissioned the brilliant Hayley Gold to create this comic about it. Thank you, Ralph and Hayley!
Just enough misdirection to get the brain going again after a feasting stupor. I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.
Morning, all!
I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday and made it back safely.
After getting JAPANESE BEATLE and BRAZILIAN WACS, I figured we were in for a punny good time today. Unfortunately, the other two theme answers were too obscure for me. I figured SPANISH STEPPES was punning on something called SPANISH STEPS, but I didn't know what that was. And I couldn't figure out what the heck BELGIAN LOGGER was referring to. Blame my LDS upbringing for that, I suppose... Fortunately, the perps were there to help me out.
I wish constructors would agree on a single spelling of UIE/UEY and just stick with it...
Good morning!
This one turned into a speed run...all the way to the DNF. Buff is a TAN color, so that gave me TINI as the thing sometimes done in Switzerland. I wondered about that. Bzzzzzzt!
Big plans. I intend to spend the entire day not shopping. It's a tradition which will continue right through Christmas.
Good day to all!
I like your tradition, desper-otto and I'll follow except for the Christmas part. Today starts the decorating.
Thank you to Mike Peluso who made me delve deeply into my memory but OAXACA emerged easily and finally I recalled that CREAM is a group not a dairy product.
Very clever misdirection on dams, shakes,and Giants or Titans. I liked the theme answers but failed to see buff as a FAN so didn't get FINI and forgot to finish the V on LXI_ so FIW. Drat! It's such a good puzzle, too.
Thank you, Lemonade, for your always steady narrative in which I learn much every week.
Happy Friday, everyone! I, too, hope you have recovered from the fabulous feasting.
I've been working/traveling lately but had time to do this puzzle last night.
A DNF, but I got the theme and used very little red-letter help.
No shopping for me today.
Started Christmas season last evening with decorations.
Have a great day, everybody.
Montana
I don't know if this has been mentioned and some of you may have already seen it (no spoilers, please) but last week's episode of Bones was called "The Puzzler in the Pit" (the team investigates the murder of a crossword puzzle master). You can watch it on Hulu (no subscription required).
One letter short! Me too Otto - I thought of this BUFF and put TAN and had no idea on FINI and so TAN/TINI crashed and burned. At least I gave up on a BELGIAN WAFFLE sound alike.
Musings
- JAPANESE BEATLES with talent (3:04)
-I got Cream as a BAND but no… (Kingston is more Mondayish?)
-BAR EXAM RUN UP
-China’s AQI needs some work
-An EXEC that has SAY SO
-I stayed too long in a SAUNA once and found that the locker room floor is not all that comfortable
-ETTA had several nice, uh, Places
-64 is in my rear view mirror
-TIX for Jersey Boys on B’way range from $116 - $268
-Visual NOT I lesson about expecting a reward for no effort
-The JARS those NFLER’s dispense – ouch!
-What 1939 role did Buddy Epsen (Jed Clampett) have to pass up because he was allergic to all the makeup?
Thank you Mike and Lemon.
If not for XBOX... sigh, you know the story.
**Spoiler alert**
Answer to Husker Gary's trivia:
The Tin man in "The Wizard of Oz."
Well I did complete the puzzle and the theme came out early with the WACS, but one thing that I didn't like was the cross of two foreign words, FINI and ENTR. The puzzle had the usual amount of unknowns that could only be solved by crosses. TESS, SADE, EDITH, ETTA, ELSIE, MOES.
I had a little trouble in the SE finishing up with EEG. For some unknown reason I filled LXIV for 57D instead of 61A, put in OVER fishing and I knew EPEE had to be 65A. When I reread the clues I realized mis mistake.
This was an easy puzzle for a Friday and compared to earlier ones this week, it was a LAY UP.
TEXAS TEA If the price of oil drops any farther ( or is it further) Russia, Iran, and Venezuela will be in deeper s**t that they are already in.
Bar EXAM- I read this week that a girl who isn't even a lawyer yet already sued whoever administers the exams demanding permission to pump breast milk for 20 minutes DURING the test. The test will be in February. She lost her case. She has brass gonads, filing suit against other lawyers when she's not even one yet.
Black Friday? Who cares. I'm off on a long bicycle ride.
Good morning all,
Mike Peluso, you are just too clever for me.My grid looks like a piece of Swiss cheese! never heard of Cream. Can't fit bunson into E-NA_, and who remembers Julia's name in that role? Yes, the perps do.
I gave it a good effort, and thoroughly enjoyed your write up, Lemon.
No shopping for me today. Gotta deck the halls.
Enjoy your Friday.
Good morning all,
Mike Peluso, you are just too clever for me.My grid looks like a piece of Swiss cheese! never heard of Cream. Can't fit bunson into E-NA_, and who remembers Julia's name in that role? Yes, the perps do.
I gave it a good effort, and thoroughly enjoyed your write up, Lemon.
No shopping for me today. Gotta deck the halls.
Enjoy your Friday.
Good Morning:
A very enjoyable Friday offering. Clever theme and some tricky cluing made this a challenge but highly solvable. (Sp?)
Thanks, Mike and Lemon, for a post-Thanksgiving treat. Speaking of which, our dinner was delicious, with the most moist and tender turkey I've had in a long time. No room left for pie, though, as usual. (Pumpkin, Apple, Chocolate Cream and Banana Cream.). There were 24 of us; noisy but nice!
Have a great day. (I have yesterday's newspaper to catch up on; it weighs a ton with all of the Black Friday ads!)
A few did not work for me. I lived in Suisse Romande (French speaking part of the country) and thought it had a language angle but could not bring FINI home. Left with TINI. One other French word SANS, we have incorporated but with an 's' that got me in trouble a couple of times with my French teacher, sans doute.
Yes, it was clever, but most of my answers were pure WAGS. Never heard ofs such as CREAM and out of wheelhouse things like EXEC didn't help.
But I do have one major NIT: In French, and probably the English equivalent as well, CES, meaning 'these' or 'those' is definitely NOT A PRONOUN!! It's a demonstrative ADJECTIVE! Any word that has to agree in ending or form to match a noun it is placed next to is an ADJECTIVE. PRONOUNS, as the name implies, always REPLACE nouns, so the PRONOUN meaning 'these' or 'those' would have to be 'ceux' or 'celles'.
End of rant.
A little challenging today. WBS about UIE.
Amass before RUN UP and nerd before GEEK. Some Friday level cluing for TESS and ETTA. We haven't seen ETNA for a while.
I had some lightbulb moments with PANDG and EEG, and groaned at SWEATERS.
I noted that the neutral Swiss crossed the UNALLIED clue at 57A.
I do not understand BUFF=FAN (and it seems to be missing from the comments!) Can somebody help??
Lime Rickey: I watched your Hulu link. I'd never seen Bones before. Wow, the acting on that show is really bad! And the scripting's not much better. I noticed the stream carried the logo of our local Fox affiliate, KRIV 26. Is Hulu that sophisticated, or is that the stream everybody got?
Kazie, I was able to get CES clued as a French pronoun. I'm sure glad it wasn't clued as a French demonstrative adjective
George Barany: Tried the oldie puzzle. I am definitely not Bletchley Circle material.
Husker, I see your fellow Nebraskan beat me to the Ebsen answer while I was Hulu-ing.
It may not work in Canada but here we have this Definition of buff. See number 2
Canadian Eh: A music buff is a music fan. An auto buff is into automobiles.
Hello Puzzlers -
This looked intimidating at first, but it actually got done without much fuss. Just a few unknowns which were easily resolved by perps. Kazie, I'm glad you pointed that out. I'm not very good at naming the parts of speech, but that one had me suspicious.
D Otto - we used to watch Bones faithfully, but we got sick of it somewhere around Season 5. If it weren't for the simmering hotness of Emily Deschanel, there wouldn't be much to stick to.
Still no power up in the hill towns. It's a pretty day, though, perfect for not shopping.
Well, a usual Friday DNF for me, but at least it's a relief to see that others had trouble with some of the same items I did (e.g. TINI instead of FINI, never having heard of a group called CREAM, etc.). But I did get the country theme early on and so it was fun filling in the long theme answers. And thanks for all the helpful explanations, Lemonade.
So glad to hear everyone seemed to have a lovely Thanksgiving. We did too! Have a great Friday, everybody, whatever color it is for you!
Both author of Puzzle and Lemonade had cogent offerings. Kuddos to you both. AND BOTH ARE INFINITELY SMARTER THAN THIS OLD GUY (78) !! GOOD WORK. signed Candlewood
D-O,
I hear you on 'ces', but 'adjective' would have been sufficiently correct, where pronoun is definitely wrong. The demonstrative part just means that it's emphasizing or pointing something out as distinct from others. I guess I'm just a grammar pedant.
Funny punny puzzle today. Entertaining write-up as always, Lemony!
I wanted "black gold" at 10-D, but then had to sing the song in my head before TEXAS TEA appeared. Now I'll have that ear worm for the rest of the day!
Same nit as Kazie over CES. So no rant needed from me...
Lotsa It'll-Come-To-You-If-You-Look-The-Other-Way moments with this one!
This was a 100% DIY for me today. Helped very much by the theme which lit up for me when I WAGged 46-across. That was easy enough because the original Spanish Steps were a favorite resting spot for me as a youth.
Like Barry G and others I did not understand BELGIAN LOGGER until I read L714's write-up. The difference between LOGGER and LAGER may be just too pronounced for one who teaches IPA vowels.
Hi all!
Happy "I ain't shopping either" Black Friday!
Ah, yes, the SW. I had Buff == Fit as in "Dad, you were so Buff after Basic, when are you going to get fit again?" WEE-little imps they are.
So that changed NERD to tEen, and UNbiased to unallign. (yes, I see the 2 Ls now!). N in FINI was a WAG.
TL;DR: DNF :-(
Otherwise a fun puzzle and great writeup. Thanks Mike and Lem!
Fav: 1a - love the music and mis-direction.
Big Easy - If TEXAS TEA drops to much more its gonna hurt LA & TX - esp the over-leveraged companies.
I do have to go into the city today - Nutcracker opening. Eldest sings at the end of act one*, but alas, no TIX for dad.
Cheers, -T
*it's the bit with the Snow Queen where you hear "Aaa, aaa, aaa, aah aah, aaa, aaa, aah, aah".
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup power trio consisting of bassist/singer Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and guitarist/singer Eric Clapton. White Room(4:56)
We've seen the Cream clue before, but as a little more obvious misdirection. "Cream or ZZ Top e.g." (It might have been The Police), but a clue that begged for "band" as an answer. This time it was tougher to coax that possibility into the open. Took a couple of perps to see it.
Had all the troubles already mentioned, but with Tan and Tini in place I did NOT like it. Erased the T and focused on _an. Finally Fan hit me and Fini made sense. It wasn't an easy puzzle, but I managed to beat it today.
Yes, some confusion over "CES". It is classified as a "demonstrative" in French, which is one member of the larger family of "Determiners", which includes possessive pronouns. But demonstratives are not pronouns.
Confusion may have arisen because "CES" translates to THESE or THOSE, which CAN be pronouns as well as demonstratives.
e.g. THESE are my people (pronoun).
I don't want THIS discussion to go on any longer (demonstrative).
As to "LOGGER" and "LAGER" I read the answer many times but could not get the connection. Definitely a stretch of the American standard pronunciation of O as A, as Ol' Man Keith mentions. To a Brit, their pronunciation is completely different, since we still use the short "O" vowel (yes I know, I am not in Kensington any more).
Yoko Ono as "Spiritual Beatle". Hmmm…..does being married to a Beatle make you a Beatle, spiritual or otherwise?
Final Question: Why is today called BLACK FRIDAY?
NC
Cuppa - Most think it's because today is when merchants' books go from red to black (loss to gain). However, Marketplace had a more nuanced history yesterday.
Anyone else know better?
Cheers, -T
"Puzzling Thoughts":
Hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday; I over-ate but tend to do that at buffets
I did not know about SPANISH STEP(PE)S so oddly enough, my alter ego MOE became MOËT in 36d; the SE corner was last area to fall. I did not fall into the SW Corner trap - only issue was that I though FINI was spelled FINIS; didn't see UNALLIED until the D in NERD perp'd it
Lemon, when I visited your link to the "When I'm Sixty Four" Beatle's song, I found another rendition I liked as well. A Capella Barbershop Quartet musicneeds a comeback.
Argyle - nice link to White Room by Cream; I was a big BUFF of theirs back in the day
My limerick for today:
If you're feeling a trifle bit lax,
Why not opt for a BRAZILIAN WAX?
If you then, fandango,
While going "commando",
Just be sure that you don't wear wool slacks!
Good afternoon everyone.
What a nice juicy puzzle today. Superb misdirection permeated the solve, but with patience, it was all gettable. My favorites were the clues for ETTA Place, and EQUINES. Wanted 'earthen' dam at first. Liked the BRAZILIAN WACS clue, too.
Enjoy the day.
Greetings!
Thanks for interesting puzzle and expo, Mike and Lemon!
Took a while, but I muddled through it to get the TA-DA.
Had trouble with UIE. First had Uey, but Moys made no sense. My knowledge of Simpsons is marginal, so brain took a while to fix this.
Had a nice dinner at relatives of a good friend. This has been an annual affair for at least 5 years. Was 5 hours on the road and in wheelchair, and food had sugar, salt and gluten. However, turkey was organic. A positive experience overall.
Cheers!
Moe, I really liked your barbershop link. I'll bet Barbara will too! Thanks.
Here's another by that same quartet, an old Ricky Nelson song Hello Mary Lou
Thanks Lemon @10:44 and desper-otto @10:45 for the FAN=BUFF explanation. Lightbulb moment as I have heard it used that way occasionally but I was thinking of the cooling fan. Duh!
Hello all. I finished this puzzle around 3:30 or 4 this AM. Then almost slept in and have been busy all day. Not shopping either. Thank you Mike Peluso and thank you Lemonade.
"Place Sundance liked" amused me. I think Butch did too. "It's done in certain parts of Switzerland" was another good one. I only need the F from FAN for FINI. Clever clue. I also was fond of the "Betty Grable e.g." clue. Was she a movie star as well as PIN UP girl ? I'll look it up later.
BELGIAN LOGGER was my first theme entry. The Chimay Ales are worth every penny. Stella Artois is also a good Belgian and more commonly available.
BRAZILIAN WACS was my last theme entry. Specifically the C. But the C in EXEC was the only thing that made sense.
lager
[ ˈlägər ]
logger
[ ˈlôgər, ˈlägər ]
In some parts of the country lager and logger are pronounced alike.
I failed at puzzle today.....enuff said'.....
I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving.....
Dudley, your thanksgiving trip and celebration sounded absolutely fantastic.... :) I am so glad it all worked out well....
thelma :)
I would suggest the final grid was result of offering a pangram for this Friday offering.
I personally pronounce LOGGER and LAGER exactly the same. Perhaps it is regional. I grew up in Hazelwood.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Mike Peluso, for a fine puzzle. Thank you. Lemonade, for a fine review.
First, I would suggest that Jiminy 7:31 PM, Go Pound Salt!
To the puzzle. This was tough, as a Friday should be. I thought I got it all until I came here, then found a couples errors. Had UEY and MOYS. Should have been UIE and MOE'S. Had TAN and TINI. Should have been FAN and FINI.
Got TRIO, but no idea what that is.
I wish they would ban french from American crosswords. My two cents.
Liked the theme. JAPANESE BEATLE was my favorite.
SAUNA was a good one.
43A, ETTA was unknown. I got it with perps but had no idea what it meant until I came here.
My shingles seems to be abating. Still not comfortable, plus I lost my voice. Not sure what caused that.
Anyhow, see you tomorrow.
Abejo
(713)
I'm back. Eldest related that two of the base players said she and the others did great tonight.
I happened to catch a best-of-food Dinner Party Download (the leftover edition) while waiting outside the stage door. The episode included the
history of ORBIT.
Bill G. - more WKRP Suits v. dungarees SANS EXECs.
Cheers, -T
AnonT, that was fun. I didn't remember that episode and I thought I knew them all. Bailey Quarters was so appealing.
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