17. Office evaluations : JOB RATINGS.
23. Posh Riviera residence : SEASIDE VILLA.
46. "That's my general impression" : I'M PRETTY SURE.
58. Summer venue where kids can clown around? : CIRCUS CAMP.
And the reveal, sitting smack in the middle of the grid:
37. Mischievous ones hiding in plain sight in 17-, 23-, 46- and 58-Across : TROUBLEMAKERS.
BRAT, DEVIL, IMP and SCAMP all span more than one word.
My Thursday friend JW is back. 78 words and 42 blocks is a lot for an end-of-week puzzle, but theme entries of 10, 12, 13, 12, 10 make it tough to create a simple grid design. This one includes long 9- and 10-letter down entries to add to the mix. None of those down entries came immediately to mind, so this seemed tougher than a typical Thursday for me.
Across
1. 122-square-mile republic : MALTA. Oh good grief, who has memorized the acreage of every republic? Tough start.
6. Three or four, say : A FEW.
10. Incise with acid : ETCH.
14. Voiced : ALOUD. Not "spoke."
15. Racing sled : LUGE.
16. Mozart's "__ fan tutte" : COSI. Gimme. "Thus do all (women)."
19. Industrialist who's had his ups and downs? : OTIS. HaHa - the elevator inventor.
20. Plenty : A TON.
21. Syncopated work : RAG.
22. Fla. neighbor : ALA.bama
29. Peaceful harmony : AMITY.
31. "Bravo!" relative : OLE.
32. Tied (to) : WED.
33. Riga native : LETT. If they are from Latvia, why aren't they called "Lats"?
34. Bamboozle : FOOL.
36. Damage, so to speak : COST. When you ask your mechanic, "What are the damages?" be prepared for even more - to your wallet.
40. Acute : KEEN.
41. Troubadour's offerings : AIRS.
42. Sinus docs : ENTs. Not to be confused with Tolkien tree folk.
43. Western treaty gp. : OAS. Organization of American States. Originally just the US and South American states, it later included Canada and the nations of the Caribbean.
44. One in a sports page column : WIN. I don't get it. "One" as in the #1 team? Or just a win that gets written up? [Update: The "columns" would be WINs-Losses-Ties. Thanks for enlightening me, TTP!]
45. Art print, briefly : LITHO. I toyed with "repro" at first, but that wasn't going to work very well.
50. Wear (through) : EAT. Such a small word, but it gave me lots of trouble.
51. Huffington Post parent co. : AOL.
52. Whiskey choices : RYES.
56. "Sea Change" musician : BECK. "Lost Cause" is one of the best songs on the album, IMO.
61. Seize : TAKE.
62. Pen sound : OINK.
63. Part of a TV signal : AUDIO.
64. Milquetoast : WUSS.
65. Pine for : MISS.
66. False __ : START.
Down
1. Subject of clothed and nude Goya portraits : MAJA. We have had her...
2. Frequently : ALOT.
3. Gray wolf : LOBO.
4. Becomes even more charming, say : TURNS IT ON. This is one of the long down answers that wasn't at the tip of my tongue.
5. Org. promoting water fluoridization : ADA. American Dental Association.
6. Police profile datum : ALIAS.
7. Spore producers : FUNGI.
8. Custard component : EGG.
9. Broncos wide receiver Welker : WES. Formerly of the New England Patriots...who are doing just fine without him, thank you very much!
10. USDA inspector's concern : E COLI.
11. Gross figure : TOTAL WORTH. TOTAL (sales?), (costs?), (value?)...
12. CBS series set in a lab : CSI. Crime Scene Investigation.
13. Presley's "(Marie's the Name) __ Latest Flame" : HIS.
18. Serving aid : TRAY.
22. Street sign abbr. : AVE.
24. Words to a traitor : ET TU. Another one of those little entries that gave me fits.
25. Seals the fate of : DOOMS.
26. First name in jazz : ELLA.
27. On a smaller scale : LESS SO.
28. Home security letters : ADT. American District Telegraph. I have Discount Alarm, and pay half the price of ADT.
29. Orioles, e.g., briefly : AL TEAM.
30. Buildings from a plane, metaphorically : MERE SPECKS. Another long down answer that wasn't on the tip of my tongue.
34. City northwest of Detroit : FLINT.
35. "A hot temper leaps __ a cold decree": Shakespeare : O'ER.
36. Butcher's offering : CENTER CUT. Not my first thought.
38. Worms, perhaps : BAIT.
39. Actor Dullea : KEIR. You may remember him as Dr. David Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey." Or not...
40. Showy carp : KOI.
44. Moisten : WET.
45. Ripsnorter : LULU.
47. Does some gardening : RAKES. Been doing plenty of that the last couple weeks. We finally hired a crew to come in and help, and they ended up taking out seven pickup trucks full of leaves!!
48. Incredible stories : YARNS.
49. '90s White House cat : SOCKS. The "First Cat" of the Clinton era.
53. When tripled, a story shortener : YADA...yada...yada.
54. Muslim dignitary : EMIR.
55. Pal of Rover : SPOT.
56. Incidentally, in textspeak : BTW. "By the way..."
57. __ de parfum : EAU.
58. Kin of org : COM. Both url endings.
59. Trio on Big Ben : III. Nit: "Big Ben" is the name of the bell in the clock of Elizabeth Tower, not the clock itself.
60. Sweden-based carrier : SAS. Scandinavian Airlines System.
I'm off to see what kind of trouble I can stir up now...
Marti
56 comments:
Morning, all!
Made slow but steady progress through most of this one with a few write overs here and there (I had A LOT for 20A and then had to change it once I realized that was the answer to 2D, had WIMP instead of WUSS, etc.). But in the end I had to put on the red letter help to get the crossing of MERE SPECKS (which I just couldn't parse) and BECK (who I just didn't know). SO a DNF for me today.
The theme was cute, and I did get it before finishing the solve, but I didn't need it. Still cute, though.
Good morning all. Thank you Jeffrey and thank you Marti.
Perps to the rescue ! Saw BRAT and DEVIL pdq, then the clue for unifier.
MAJA ? KEIR ? Sea Change Musician ? SOCKS ? (I always think BOOTS instead of SOCKS). Had a hard time figuring out MERE SPECKS. And LESS SO. Also Had UNITY before AMITY.
Other than that, it wasn't much of a fight. Coincidentally, I received a call from my friend in FLINT yesterday morning.
One in a sports page column ? The columns would be Wins, Losses and Ties.
Last night I linked a photo of the storm blowing into Buffalo. There was a series of them. NBC took that series of photos and made a
Time Lapse of the Buffalo haboob. Snowfall is 8 feet and climbing...
Anonymous T @ 9:49 last night. As if ! :)
I actually found pics of our computer vans but they didn't show the keypunches, sorter or the system. Then I found separate pics of an actual processor unit, and then the mag card reader / console in the computer van, but not all together.
TTP re: WIN. Oh, duh!! I've added that bit to my write-up.
I think JW created this puzzle knowing our resident Thursday thriller would relate to the theme. I agree that Jeffrey really makes us work to finish his grids.SCAMP is a fun word. The theme was well hidden but very consistent.
Cluing was challenging, and I do not understand Troubador' s offering: AIRS but it all filled.
Thanks guys for the early morning workout.
Hello Puzzlers -
What Marti said! I confidently put down Latts for Latvians, because I forgot. And Big Ben is the bell, not the clock. Otherwise, straightforward chugging today.
I'M PRETTY SURE we've had Maja before, but I'll be darned if I can remember that name.
Good Morning, Marti and friends. After the first pass, I got the TROUBLE MAKERS then found the BRAT. After that, the rest of the little IMPS, SCAMPs and DEVILs fell into place.
MALTA did not come easily to me. I needed the perps to give me 4 of the 5 letters before the name of the republic came to me.
I wanted Some instead of A FEW for Three or Four.
I also wanted A LOT 20-Across, but that appeared in 2-Down.
My favorite clue was about Elisha OTIS (1811 ~ 1861).
QOD: Smooth shapes are very rare in the wild but extremely important in the ivory tower and the factory. ~ Benoît Mandelbrot (Nov. 24, 1924 ~ Oct. 14, 2010)
7 pickup loads of leaves? I remember the wonderful smell of leaves burning all over town in the fall. Now that's not PC, but it's OK to put them in plastic bags and let them rot in a landfill. Or, in a really progressive town, compost them, but I'd still miss the smell.
Good Thursday morning puzzle. Got the theme early on but it didn't immediately make everything clear. As I filled in more squares the pace quickened, although I've never heard of "KEIR" Dullea. My paper is creative in printing the crossword: too tiny, too large, today it was elongated.
Good morning!
Marti, it sounds like my solve was a mirror of yours. I stumbled in the same places. MAJA -- "We've had her before..." -- I suspect Goya had, as well.
With the F in place, at 7d I confidently penned in FERNS. Bzzzzt!
Maybe 45a could have been clued as a clecho to LETT: Native of Vilnius. ;)
We're still allowed to burn leaves in our town, though the city is considering an ordinance to limit it to certain days per month. There have been some complaints from folks with respiratory problems. We've got over 100 trees on our lot, so leaf disposal is a big issue.
Marti,
You're welcome. Pretty soon, we'll have you opening the Sports section of the newspaper first ! OK, maybe not. :)
Lemonade, me too. I don't get it either, but it fit. So add AIRS as another one of the words where perps came to the rescue.
My initial UNITY fill, and then the correct AMITY answer, reminded me of some of the town and city names in western PA and eastern Ohio that were coined by the early settlers. UNITY, AMITY, HARMONY, INDUSTRY, ECONOMY, PROSPERITY, FREEDOM... They all have that Amish "feel."
How about Dallas Cowboy "Big Cat" Leon ____ " for 33A ?
@TTP and Lemonade: An AIR is an old word (probably archaic) for a song. Come to think of it, troubadour is an old word (probably archaic) for a singer. So maybe the troubadours would come to town and put on airs?
AIR just means a melody or tune and comes from the Italian word "aria". Anybody heard of "Londonderry Air" (a.k.a. "O Danny Boy")?
Londonderry Air (not to be confused with London derrière).
Edited to add: Barry G. beat me to it.
The top half was a romp. "Naked MAJA" sticks in my mind. NUDE was a big give-away. With that M and the L in LOBO, the tiny republic had to be MALTA. I wanted FERNS but the FU I had called for FUNGI.
Amity, Socks, less so, win, turns it on were gimmees. KEIR was the only unknown, all perps.
I had TOTAL right away. It took time to get WORTH. Also MERE SPECK took a while.
The bottom half was more of a challenge, but quite "gettable."
Barry, Londonderry Air is a good example.
Cute theme. Fun expo, as always, Marti.
We haven't been allowed to burn leaves my whole adulthood. When we lived on a big corner property we had tons of oak trees with their big leaves falling until well after Thanksgiving.The last 2 years before I moved to the condo I hired help who vacuumed them up and trucked them away.
Dudley: "...we've had Maja before, but I'll be darned if I can remember that name."
...I'm sure the face rings a bell, though!
Good morning everyone.
Agree with Marti about the long downs - had to wait for 50% perp help before nailing them. Chuckling at the theme - 2 of them IMP and SCAMP remind me of my Avatar.
Finally remembered SOCKS.
Thought I might need some help to finish, but 2 cups of coffee cleared my head enough to get it done.
re: LETTS - Marti, we have other examples of vowel/consonent shifts. People from France are called French; Flanders are called Flemings, Wales are called Welsh, etc.
D-O - Vilnius is in Lithuania.
SAS is home based at Arlanda(Stockholm) Airport
Spitz, that was my failed attempt at humor. The answer to 45a was LITHO.
Musings
-Good teacher JOB RATINGS don’t get you another nickel
-An hour from home – “I’M PRETTY SURE I put the garage door down”
-Have you ever regretted a thought that you had and suddenly heard you say ALOUD? Me too.
-96mph on this vehicle? Right!
-In 1853 OTIS, as you can see in this picture, had the rope cut on a lifting platform and his safety brake stopping him to sell his elevators
-BALT, LATT, LETT, SLAV, SERB,…
-I was quoted $199 for the COST for brake work and flipped when the bill was $300. I got A TON of free oil changes to make up the difference
-The 76ers have yet to get a 1 in the WIN Column
-How will WES feel 20 years from now after so many concussions?
-My TOTAL WORTH is fairly GROSS
-Aha, I thought. Worms is the German city. Oops.
-The early snow has cut RAKING season short
-What musical named an activity that Help you cultivate horse sense, And a cool head and a KEEN eye.
Good morning,
I'm not going to read the 15 comments quite yet because you probably breezed thru this. YIKES! It was a head scratcher!
Don't remember Maja ♫♪♩♬ or Wes ♫♪♩♬ or Keir
But my favorite was yada, and your write up, Marti.
Have a good day all.
PS..I LOVED yesterday's puzzle, C.C., but was subbing and had no computer access. Spent the rest of the day in the waiting rm. at the hospital while my friend's husband had an ablation heart procedure...something I had never heard about this technique.They map the inside of the heart and then laser the nerves that are causing the arrhythmia.
Hi gang -
Typical Thus. Went from "I'm never going to get this thing.' to It's all filled in, with a lot of huffing and scratching.
Check the waist line on that MAJA. I think she's photoshopped.
Cold and snowy here.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good Morning:
Well, this was quite a workout but finished w/o help, although not very quickly. Hand up for Lattl/Lett and rot/ate. Loved the theme, especially getting an Imp and a Scamp!
Thanks, JW, for a Thursday challenge and thanks, Marti, for pulling it all together.
My furnace repairman is here for the winter tune-up and to replace the inducer motor and switch, at a "Cost" of $500.00.
RIP Mike Nichols.
Have a great day.
desper-otto@9:13: Spitz, that was my failed attempt at humor.
That was pretty funny, but your MAJA/GOYA suspicion was much more humorous.
D - O @ 0913. Didn't get the clecho thing at first. Guess I shouldn't post until I'm wider awake.
Clever comment.
Greetings, friends! Nicely done, Marti, thank you.
WEES. Not much to say after all your comments except that I enjoyed Jeffrey's offering. Liked the parallel placement of ALOUD/AUDIO at opposite ends and the clue for OTIS, the elevator guy which promoted the building of skyscrapers.
I hand my head at not recalling MAJA which I spelled MAYA and YOBRATINGS made no sense but I'll blame it on not enough coffee.
desper-otto:
You're very funny today.
Hand up for UNITY/AMITY.
Have a lovely Thursday, everyone!
Oops. Correction:: "I hang my head" see, not enough coffee yet.
No Photoshop in the 1700's. I agree that the Maja figure, both nude and clothed, seems too perfect to be real. I have read in several places that "it remains ....likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite."
Now come along you pedants. I never heard anyone in London look up and say to their kids, "Oh look, that's the Clock Tower (or recently renamed "Elizabeth Tower").
No, they will look up and say: "That's BIG BEN, son".
Yes, Big Ben was the name given to the bell, but it is now, by extension, the name of the bell, clock and tower. That's what the locals call it. That's what Brits call it. Ergo, it is correct.
LETTS be clear on this one.
NC
Fun run today! Hand up for ALOT in the wrong location first, LATT before LETT, and UNITY before AMITY.
Niagara missed the snow cloud that settled over Buffalo on Tuesday but we got over 6 inches yesterday. Enough to double my commute time home from work and make me late finishing C.C.'s lovely puzzle yesterday. Appropriate CLOUD theme also.
What JazzB said. I thought I'd NEVER get this one this morning, and was almost in despair when it slowly, slowly, miserably slowly, filled in. But I got the cute theme early and that helped. And when I got it, I felt like celebrating. So, thanks Jeff, and Marti, I loved your sign-off.
Sad about Mike Nichols, especially for Diane Sawyer.
LOL, Lime Rickey.
Why do I keep thinking KEIR Duella played Dave in "2001"? Must be Hal giving me hints.
Have a good Thursday, everybody.
Sorry, Marti. I just noticed you gave us the KEIR info. I just didn't recognize his formal name.
FYI
The origin of LETT is German, which was the official language of the Baltic states in the first half of the 19th century, and a strong German presence continued until the second world war. I believe the LATVIANS call themselves LATVIANS, not LETTS - the latter name may even be considered offensive for historical reasons - not sure on that one.
And people from France don't call themselves FRENCH (Old English, frencisc), but français(e).
So the "vowel shift" is actually a foreign variant in both cases.
NC
Thanks for the AIR explication, the pieces were in my brain but not together.
I really loved marti's theme choice by the way.
NC, picking on the nitpickers, cool.
Marti- Remember about two weeks or so ago you wrote that the theme for the puzzle that day was one you had recently submitted and was now sure to be rejected? Well, today's theme is almost exactly the same one I submitted to Rich about three months ago. The only difference was my theme hint was WILD CHILD. Needless to say, it wasn't a sale. This happens to me a couple of times a year. The one that bums me out the most was an anagram theme of the word STOP that included OPTS, POTS, TOPS, and SPOT. I convinced myself that it was too simple. That exact theme appeared later in the New York Times. I guess it's true... Snooze and you lose.
I have only myself to blame: "That could be MALTA." Didn't fill it in. "That could be AMITY." Didn't fill it in. And on and on and on it went.
At some point I have to remind myself that there is never a 100% ironclad correct answer. Had I gone with my hunches I could have been celebrating a victory with you fine folks. But that's okay. Still happy to be in your company.
Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler and Marti
False alarm proved to be a false START. Then ALOT didn't cross with itself but IMPRETTYSURE 38d is BAIT only I wrote it into 39d. I had a DEVIL of a time sorting it out and DNF.
Husker @ 9:13
One of my all-time favorites from:
ROBERT PRESTON
I knew this puzzle was going to give me trouble right from the get go....
Oh well, I have been through worse...
Good day! I enjoyed solving this one very much though it was harder for me than the usual Thursday. I didn't use any red letters though I did Google a couple of things.
Barbara has always liked Keir Dullea after seeing him in "David and Lisa," one of our first movie dates at Cornell.
I LOVE The Music Man!
To EXPLICATE means to "make clear."
Needless to say, we will NOT be receiving an EXPLICATION of the puzzle tomorrow.
I know the CW editors have their standards and good standards they are too. But I would have no problem with a puzzle from one of our esteemed constructors appearing with a theme that had been done before as long as the puzzle was original and entertaining. I probably wouldn't even remember that the theme had appeared before and I wouldn't care in any case. Just my two-cents worth.
I can't wait until tomorrow when we will be treated to another of Lemonade's always clear and witty, wonderful explications.
It seems as if the anon@3:03 has started drinking early today. Either that or he might need to go to the doctor to have his tongue removed from his cheek.
NiceCuppa, thanks for the Brit perspective on Big Ben. I withdraw my nit...
Jerome @ 1:14, "I feel your pain..."
Bill G. @ 1:51, it sometimes does happen, that even if I submit a theme to Rich that has been done before in the LAT, he will consider doing it again, as long as the theme entries don't overlap. I just submitted one that he accepted, but I had to change two of the entries that had been used in the previous puzzle. So it's not always a disaster!
For publication, I WILL consider a puzzle, the theme of which has been done before, but never again, undertaken, on an overlapping basis,
PROVIDED, the theme was not previously done before, yet attempted to overlap,
AND ONLY IF, the theme does not have deliberate overlapping entries,
UNLESS those theme entries have purposely been overlapped with the intent to not underlap, and skimmed over,
AND OF COURSE, the theme entries were overlapped consciously to provide for such overlapping as may be necessary for the elegance of the puzzles.
Got it ?
Good, this is going tot be the official policy FROM NOW ON.
Huh ?
Huh ?
Huh ?
When do overlapping entries not overlap and still not underlap ?
I think I have a headache and need an Aspirin.
Maybe Lemonade could use his legal skills and cut through the legalese mumbo jumbo and help us out.
Somebody up there is crazier than a drunk coot in a skunk skin.
WMS ... What Marti Said ... exactly!
Marti: Thank you for a wonderful write-up and links.
Boy, talk about a day when you need a FUN puzzle, that will occupy your thoughts for a while ... well this was just what I needed and desired.
Liked A-LOT crossing A-TON.
Fell into the "Ferns" before FUNGI thingy.
Got-'er-done ... but what a slog.
Can confirm that tonights toast to you ALL at Sunset was very heart-felt and sincere.
Cheers!
PS The last time I went to a funeral was when my Best-Friend, Mr.Heart-Transplant, died almost 5 years ago on 12/2/2009.
[OK, the transplant on 12/3/94 did get him an extra 15 years. So that was a good thing.]
After 2 this week ... I gotta tell ya, I could live without them (the funerals!).
Dan Fogelberg, in the song, The River caught my feeling about this perfectly ...
The River (7:05)
When MY Time arrives ... all I want is a Toast at Sunset!
Hello everybody. Well, for me KEIR Dullea was an immediate gimme. It's the name of the actor who played the other guy that I can never remember. I can never remember the name of the character, either.
We didn't get our newspaper this morning so I had to do the puzzle on line. Probably just as well, because I had to finally turn on red letters in order to finish it.
Didn't understand WIN until reading the explanation here. Thanks, folks, and best wishes to you all.
Greetings!
Nice puzzle, Jeffrey, and swell expo, Marti!
No problems, but took a bit.
Didn't realize Keir Dullea was still acting. (But IMDB gives only 4.8/10 stars for last movie.)
It keeps trying to rain here but then gives up.
Cheers!
Hi All!
Well, Jeffery beDEVILed me today. Thanks Marti for the answers on the left-coast. I got the theme, but not the full fill on theme answers. It was fun, I'll TAKE it.
Oh yeah, it was that bad. 1d = Yoko? -> 1a Yemen. I won't even admit what I tried to shoe horn into 5d. There's so much ink in that corner that I can't read the theater review on the back side. A real CIRCUS.
Hahtoolah - Love the QOD. I studied Mandelbrot's fractals in HS and still love 'em today.
Marti - My favorite BECK song and how I feel about today's puzzle.
Hopefully tomorrow won't be another MISS.
Cheers, -T
Doh! About my performance on today's puzzle, not the puzzle itself. C, -T
Recently, somebody (Lucina?) recommended mysteries by Martha Grimes, so I picked out The Anodyne Necklace since it seemed to have good reviews. I am almost finished it but am whelmed so far. The plot is OK but the protagonist, Richard Jury, seems very uninteresting and one-dimensional. What am I missing?
BillG:
You have to read more. It's actually the detailed descriptions that I love. You get to like Richard Jury with every book and then there are the twists at the end.
The Man With A Load of Mischief is quite convoluted as are The Five Bells and Bladebone and The Grave Maurice.
I most recently read The Black Cat. It's a fairly quick read but what an ending!
Lucina, thanks for the feedback.
Yesterday has come and gone
and today doth linger in the wings
Iced Tea can wait and infuse in confidence
Fresh Lemonade cannot.
Een in the wintry morn
when the sun forlorn is want to shine
The frigid clouds doth appear but ash and wan
Een then - Time or Tide waits for no man.
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