I ended the year with John Lampkin, and I begin with another from the clecho king. This time the theme seems simple, the second word, or second part of a known word or phrase is a synonym for boss. The clecho part is that each are clued with "TOP" meaning the best or the boss. The grid is filled with sparkly stuff like AT FAULT, AURORAS, BAD CALL, DOLLS UP, HAYSEED, I’M TOAST, SPARROW, SPEEDOS, TEARFUL, COPY DESK and SUSPENSE.
17A. Top horticulturist? : BUSHMASTER. This SNAKE breaks into parts for the theme. It is part of the viper family.
27A. Top orthopedist? : BONEHEAD. Any bonehead know orthopedists deal with bones.
36A. Top dairyman? : CREAM CHEESE. Like wheel below, this one needs a "Big" before it to project the same meaning as the rest of the theme.
47A. Top entomologist? : FLYWHEEL. You had to know John would get something buggy into the grid. A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy. Flywheels have a significant moment of inertia and thus resist changes in rotational speed. The amount of energy stored in a flywheel is proportional to the square of its rotational speed. Energy is transferred to a flywheel by applying torque to it, thereby increasing its rotational speed, and hence its stored energy. Conversely, a flywheel releases stored energy by applying torque to a mechanical load, thereby decreasing the flywheel's rotational speed. per wiki.
Picture and captions from John Lampkin:
I don't pretend to be a FLY WHEEL myself, but I do enjoy photographing
them! This bee-mimic Robber Fly captured a beetle and landed on my friend Doug's pant leg. The other members of our group who were 20 feet away were wondering why I was photographing Doug's crotch. Anything for a shot.
57A. Top cinematographer? : FILM LEADER. The TERM is also about movies but I did not know it.
Across:
1. Like Sherlock's game : AFOOT. An A word that is really used, and for a detective story lover, this was a great way to start.
6. Jerk : BOOB. This meaning for the word boob has long been supplanted by the slang word for female breast, which makes JL's intersecting 6D. Museum work : BUST so amusing. The king of the cross-reference strikes again. I found the clue/fill slowed me down big time.
10. Medical ending : OSIS. For some reason HALITOSIS popped into my head, even though HYPNOSIS, OSMOSIS and TUBERCULOSIS are clearly more common.
14. Sierra Nevada tourist attraction : TAHOE. A truly awesome place to visit with the mountains, the lake and the casinos.
15. Bruin's home : UCLA. This took much longer than it should have, perhaps a product of growing up near Boston, though my first answer was CAVE.
16. Leave in a bad way : DUMP. Ah the heartbreak of it all. Any great stories of broken romances? 35D. Like some goodbyes : TEARFUL.
19. East in Ecuador : ESTE. How odd that of all the Spanish speaking countries, JL picked Ecuador. We have clients involved in a big project there.
20. Puncture opening? : ACUpuncture.
21. Lay : PUT. Not sure, Lay Down?
22. Main signal : SOS. In this case the bounding main of the open seas.
24. "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" writer : POE. An interesting and tragic figure. You can read more HERE.
25. Less inclined to ramble : TERSER.
29. Get a leg up ... and down : STEP.
30. Pearl Buck heroine : OLAN. How lucky can I get, we just had this.
32. Playground retort : CAN SO. Can not.
33. Comparable to a beet : AS RED.
35. Private meetings : TRYSTS. Well usually private and naughty.
38. Emulates a fan : ADORES.
40. Lessen : ABATE.
41. Go __ : TO POT. Or Colorado?
42. Rosa's rosa, e.g. : FLOR. Is this flower in both Spanish and Italian?
43. Cut, in a way : ETCH.
49. Homburg kin : FEDORA. Hats off to John, who actually wears hats for getting this fill in the grid.
51. City VIP : ALDerman.
52. Lamp opening? : ELL. The letter, silly.
53. Cannes confirmation : OUI. Must have some French for Splynter.
54. Even so : YET.
55. Applications : USES.
60. Verdant : LUSH. Usually associated with growing things.
61. "Young Frankenstein" Fräulein : INGA. The incomparable Teri Garr and her knockers.
62. "If only!" : I HOPE.
63. I-76 in Penn., e.g. : TPKE.
64. Handy : NEAR.
65. "Good Lord!" : OH GOD.
Down:
1. Chances for a walk in the park? : AT BATS. Some baseball misdirection as the park is the ball park. It is safe to say John likes to be misleading, as in another baseball clue 27D. Mistake at home, perhaps : BAD CALL.
2. Tap : FAUCET. So simple but I started out struggling in the NW corner.
3. "And I'm Cleopatra" : OH SURE. followed by...
4. Awed response : OOH. Now if the next clue were Buckeye state, we would have quite a progression. We also have 59D. Spa sound : AHH.
5. Home of Arizona State : TEMPE. I have quite a few cousins who got degrees there.
7. Calendar pg. : OCTober.
8. Nellie __, character in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books : OLESON. This was all guesswork.
9. Low-grade peer : BARON. Downton Abbey will be back soon.
10. Lyric tribute : ODE.
11. Film genre : SUSPENSE.
12. "My goose is cooked" : I'M TOAST. Two cooking references. Two I references.
13. Small trunks : SPEEDOS. Joe Manganiello anyone?
18. Dawns : AURORAS. Better than my old friend Eos.
23. It may be told in anger : SECRET. 34D. Rage below the surface : SEETHE. 46D. More than dislike : HATRED. Mini-theme? Hmm, some issues JL?
26. Field chirper : SPARROW.
28. Yokel : HAYSEED. Fun fill.
31. Apollo 11's Eagle, briefly : LEM. Thanks JL for the CSO.
36. News editing site : COPY DESK. Where is our newswoman? Do they still have these.
37. Starz rival : HBO. Is this still an initialism for Home Box Office?
38. Liable : AT FAULT. Florida has no fault divorce and car insurance.
39. Dons fancy duds : DOLLS UP. Fun phrase.
42. One may be in your lap : FELINE. The perfect clecho for the Corner. For CED.
44. One may be in your lap : TOY DOG. For Manac.
45. Sleazeball : CREEPO. So many variations of the word creep, but I did not know this one.
48. Puckish : ELFIN. Just watched the final of the Hobbit Trilogy. Filled with Elves who were not ELFIN. I also rewatched ELF for Christmas.
50. Farm sequence? : EIEIO. Old MacDonald would be proud of so many O words.
53. "A Book of Verses underneath the Bough" poet : OMAR.
56. Ship, to the captain : SHE. On the bounding main.
58. JFK alternative : LGA. Three letter airport codes. MSY, MCO, ORD are trickier to suss.
Well another year has begun with a challenging but doable Friday (only 74 words and 34 blocks, so we had to work hard). Thank all for the good wishes after my wedding and have a great year.
Lemonade out.
37 comments:
Truly a red-letter day! I did get it, YET so many misstarts I didn't try keeping track of them all. Probably WEE(IGT)S. Punny funny theme though, so I liked it.
"The game is AFOOT," at Sherlock's
"The Dwarf is again picking locks!"
Said Watson, "Oh, no
I'm aware of our foe.
He's at least two foot six in his socks!"
✻ ❄ ❆ ❇ ❉ ❊ ✼ ❅ ❈ ❋ ☃
Said the top horticulturist to his asker,
"There's no one can clear brush away faster.
I know all the plants
So I make them dance,
And that's why I'm called the BUSHMASTER!"
Said the milquetoast, "Holster your axes.
Your usurping my title just taxes.
Your claim's a disaster
For I'M the BUSHMASTER!
I excel at giving Brazilian waxes!"
Greetings!
Swell puzzle! Thanks John and Lemon!
Took quite a while, but, in the end, no cheats!
Got the theme with CREAM CHEESE. Didn't mean the others were easy to fill!
Went swimming today, after finally declaring the long illness essentially over. Then, after brunch, slept for a few hours until the phone rang. Then slept several more hours! So here I am. And maybe someone will look at my effort here!
Got ELL with all perps. Gosh. How tired was I?
OLESON took a while. Had SECRET in and took it out and eventually put it in again.
Looking for a better New Year!
Cheers!
Good morning!
I can usually suss John's innuendo, but managed to go wrong on this one. My city VIP was first a MGR, and my editor was at the CITY desk. "Good Lord!" was OY VEY -- that really bollixed up Florida. But everything worked out in the end. Fun stuff! Thanks, JL.
Lemon, people get lots of degrees in Tempe -- often over 100.
Lampkin and Lemon, what a great combination. Very witty and informative as usual, Lemon. John, I loved your misdirection and the theme. I caught on to the theme early with BUSHMASTER.
At first, I was thinking this was Tuesday and was shocked to find so little low hanging fruit. When I remembered it was Friday and a Lampkin puzzle, I switched mental gears and found this a tad easier than most Fridays.
When I was young a jerk was called a BOOB.
Hope you had a wonderful anniversary yesterday, Marti and Allan.
Morning, all!
I got the theme right away with BUSHMASTER and BONEHEAD, but then things got a little weird. CHEESE doesn't mean anything to me without "big", so I thought CREAM was being used in the sense of "Cream of the crop". And then I went completely off the rails and entered BIG WHEEL instead of FLY WHEEL (not realizing that the punny part was supposed to always be the second word, not understanding that WHEEL referred to anything by itself and not actually reading the clue...)
GO TO POT didn't mean anything to me (I only know GO TO SEED), so it took awhile to dig myself out of the mess I created for myself in the SW, but I eventually figured it out on my own.
In the SE, I needed to get rid of EDIT for ETCH and I WISH for I HOPE before I could make much progress there. I'm a huge Fedora fan, but never heard of a homburg, so I needed a lot of perp help until I could make a guess. And CREEPO? Sure, why not...
Today is Friday, right?
Owen I am impressed at your limericks so soon after a new year celebration.
D-O, yes I have been there and I can confirm dry heat is still hot.
John thanks for the bug pic, I had never seen that kind of fly before. Handsome in a creepy way.
This puzzle pulled lots of things out of the woodwork. On the first pass I had AFOOT, UCLA, ESTE, and EIEIO. I was thinking I'M TOAST but finishied it. Great misdirecting clues. The top solved slowly and after getting BUSHMASTER the theme was easy. The SE was the last to fall as I originally had AAH for AHH (it was OOH, not OHH wasn't it), EDIT for ETCH, and BUT for YET.
The unknowns solved by perps were FLOR, OLESON, & OMAR.
For 61A I kept thinking Frau Blucher with the horse noise for Fraulein INGA, which was a perp.
The top filled in a flash, but I nearly shot myself in the foot down south: IlsA before INGA and I wish before I HOPE. I finally got those straightened out with LGA and AHH.
But then I had *LOR for Rosa's rosa and was wondering how you say "color" in Spanish? Duh! Lemony, in Italian, It would be "fiore" for "flower."
I loved the clue for OH SURE - I'll have to use that one sometime. And I laughed at the one for SPEEDOS - I was trying to fit "saplings" in there until I checked the perps.
Our party is tonight, so I guess I had better go get rid of some layers of dust and cat hair.
After two weeks of no puzzling, I picked away at yesterday's on and off all day and still didn't finish. Today was a little better, but still had to come here to fill in the the top half completely. Next time I travel, I need to get back at the beginning of a week to allow myself to ease into the easier ones after the hiatus.
Needless to say, our trip was wonderful, with lots of hands on bonding with Lea, as she enjoyed her second Christmas--the first she really could understand. Her dad told us that the morning of our departure she went through the apartment saying "Oma, Opa, no?", which made us feel really bad, but she didn't understand the night before, when we told her we'd be going the next morning. Looking forward to our Skype session this weekend.
A fantastic write-up by LEM
And wonderful limericks by 'Wen
As a fan I ADORE
And CAN SO more and more
See the Emperor's new clothes on them!
My resolution to get more workouts got tested here. What a treat!
Musings
-Why NY Giant Fred Merkle got the nickname BONEHEAD for bad base running
-We vet teachers remember fishing FILM LEADER through a 16mm projector
-I’ve been the DUMPEE and the DUMPER
-ACUpuncture worked for my daughter
-“Betcha can’t put your tongue on the flagpole.” ”CAN SO.”
-Airports have to deal with noise ABATEMENT issues
-I ADORE my family, not any performer or athlete
-Manny Delgado frequently sports a FEDORA
-More baseball - Mr. OCT
-Being a BARON and $4 gets ya coffee at a London Starbucks
-Non-Downton fans skip 0 Bates SEETHED after Mrs. Hughes told him Anna’s SECRET. Bye, bye Mr. Green
-The Eagle’s computer got overwhelmed and so Neil Armstrong had to personally land the LEM in the Sea of Tranquility
OH GOD, what a fun start to the year when we have BOOB crossing BUST, GO TO POT, and SPEEDO! And some baseball clues for C.C.
Goodbyes are not TEARFUL when you SEETHE with HATRED and DUMP the BONEHEAD!
I had ITIS before OSIS, LAIR before UCLA, I WISH before I HOPE, DID SO before CAN SO, and RED AS before AS RED.
LOL OWENKL especially the last verse!
A typical Friday. Undoable without red letter help.
31d: Officially LEM was not what the Apollo 11 lander was officially called in 1969. The name "lunar excursion module" (LEM) was used by NASA until 1967. Because
their Public Affairs Office thought that "Excursion" had a frivolous connotation, they shortened the name to "lunar module" (LM), which was still pronounced "lem". Ref: Page 267 of "Moonlander," a book written by Thomas J. Kelly the Grumman Aerospace Corp. program manager of the LM.
Here it is, day 2 of the new year. Hope it's a good one for everyone
From yesterday,
belated Happy New Year/Anniversary to Martin & Allen.
Joyous Noise!
(laughter)
For today,
This puzzle reminded me of the time I was in a local store and the cashier called me "Boss."
I told him it was impolite to insult me,
& then told him this story...
Whew, what a workout! Getting the theme early helped me look for synonyms for boss (Top) but I still had to work hard to finish this one without cheating.
No one else seemed to have trouble with the SW? For the life of me, I wanted CITYDESK and I could not get it out of my pea-sized brain. I knew ADIRES probably wasn't right but ADORES just seemed anathema to me. COPYDESK finally emerged... not sure how, and that fixed things.
Interesting construction and selection of fill: kind of a tough Saturday-like effort but with themes: sex and baseball? SECRET, TRYSTS, BOOB, BUST, ATBATS, with a BADCALL... just a bit of misdirection here and there. Learning points: OMAR, INGA, OLAN, OLESON.
Thanks, John Lampkin, and thanks, Lemonade.
Lots of waxing poetic today but personally I wish I had eaten breakfast BEFORE looking at the Brazilian Wax link.
Happy weekend.
Martin!?!?
#%*€¥&@spellchecker!
Sorry Marti ...
Good Morning:
This was a little tricky in spots, requiring perps and a WAG or two. Wasn't familiar with Oleson and Main signal took much too long to suss. Liked feline and toy dog, and hayseed and dolls up.
Thanks, J L for a Friday challenge and thanks, Lemony, for an informative expo.
Have a great day.
Greetings, word wizards! Nice CSO to LEM and thanks for your analysis.
WEES. Most of the same misdirections occurred to me at 5:00 this morning and as I zipped along in the center, east and south thought, laughingly, JL didn't stump me. Ha! The NW totally stopped me in my tracks. Sigh. A walk in the park was a baseball reference. And I refused to give up GROW MASTER, even knowing it should be a play on words.
After two hours of further sleep and some erasing, BUSH MASTER emerged then BATS, AFOOT, etc. So I limped to home base (!) scarred, but not beaten.
I loved the lap sitters, FELINE and TOY DOG. Of course, TEMPE, ESTE, FLOR and AURORA (my middle name) were givens. With a middle name meaning dawn, you'd think I would enjoy mornings. I don't.
Kazie:
It sounds like you had a lovely time with your Lea.
Happy Friday, everyone!
A real Friday toughie for me. I got the WEST readily enough but had a terrible time getting a toehold in the ESTE. Got the theme, too, but that didn't help much and in the end finished only with a lot of cheating. I realized afterwards that I had actually considered a lot of answers that turned out to be right but wasn't confident enough to try them. I think I need to crank up my courage a little.
Have a great Friday, everybody!
Easy for a Friday...but fun nonetheless...was waiting for something like "a short angry message for Sherlock": crosswordclue
Thanks Lemonade for the kind words in the wrap. I'm sure it's a relief to all of us that you are still married after two weeks and your bride still lets you blog. Wahoo!
Owen @5:39 Brazilian waxes indeed! And you came up with that at the crack of Dawn!
Thank you all for your comments-- we do have fun here. Best to all for a healthy and happy.
JL, I can't believe you remembered her name!
"Puzzling thoughts":
Owen, you "cracked me up" with your last limerick - was a bit surprised to see the link, but unlike Rainman I had already eaten! And while we're on the topic, would you call an esthtititian who applies wax to her OWN genitals a BUSHMASTER-bater??!
John and LEM (with the noticeable SO to the re-capper), good job! I again had to cheat (OLESON) so I am batting .000 for solves - or positively 1.000 for lookups!
Once I got OLESON the rest of the puzzle fell into place; a couple of ink blots when I had CITY DESK for 36d and EDIT for 43a
BOOB, BUST, and BUSH - John Lampkin, my man!! ;^)
Good 'n easy. Probably designed by Mr Lampkin to make me feel good about myself in the New Year...
Thank you, kind sir!
Hi all!
The game with JL was AFOOT from the 1st STEP. The NW FELL & I thought OUI, I areSO (err @32a) NEAR.
Then my BONEHEAD self got bogged in the LUSH fill NEAR the SE. deTest never became HATRED. OH, ??t. Thank GOD for the expo.
From there my puzzle when TO POT, YET I kept trying. Like Kazie, I've not played until yesterday and it shows.
Thanks to LEM for the answers and JL for putting my brain on notice. I HOPE I can get it into gear to CREAM Monday's puzzle.
I watched Little House and knew OLESON. Here's the summary of the program from WKRP S3E3:
Lucille: We only allow the children to watch wholesome, family entertainment.
TV Hostess: Like what?
Lucille: Uh. Well, The Little House on the Prairie. Now that's a fine, wholesome show. It's about blind children out west, and every week they have a fire, or someone gets an incurable disease. We enjoy it very much.
Cheers, -T
Hi all
my bride answers to Oo, pronounced O and we are still quite happy.
JL thank you for stopping buy and for starting my month and year in the right direction
time for more relaxation
what a fun puzzle today :)
i laughed at so many things! when i got to the "one might be in your lap" i looked down to my little Beulah and tried to type CHIHUAHUA but it didn't fit! and then later to find my FELINE sitting behind my head...and oh how i wish the guys at the YMCA pool all looked like that in their SPEEDOS. the two baseball references made me wish for spring.
thanks for the giggles, John. so entertaining!! and great write up (and drool-inducing pictures of course)Lemon!
have a great weekend everyone...
tawnya
Chairman Moe, that was very witty. I was going to say funny, but it didn't make me laugh, it made me think. "Wow, that was good!"
Oh, and it was a DNF for me. I had dress up instead of dolls up (which I like better).
It's really cold out here in SoCal. For us,anyway.
rb
BTW
1. Fermatprime each and everyone of your comments is read NY many, whether early or late.
2. Bill G. I think, like sports announcers, can claim credit for the cold weather in SoCal by his early boasting about the wonderful weather for the Rose Bowl and how most would be envious.
3. CED I have called Marti "Martin" for years.
4. ON C thanks for the poem.
5. Terri Garr as INGA and the famous castle Frankenstein knockers have been linked so many times I thought it was a gimme for all.
Rosa's rosa is also Pink in Spanish and Italian. Flower is fiore in Italian. LGA was named for Fiorello Laguardia. Little flower. Yes it's after 8 pm. No it didnt take me all day I start the puzzle when I get home to unwind with a glass of Rosa's vino
Terrific puzzle. I enjoyed solving it. Thank you John Lampkin.
This was one of those puzzles where I got going in the wrong direction and never could find my way back.
But that's ok. I'm still basking over the unblemished "Smiley Face" offering from yesterday. Never did get around to posting my victory dance. A personal victory like that is equal to a dozen unsolved Fridays (at least in my world) :-)
Had a feeling Inga's knockers would
be linked so here is Frau Blucher
Ray o'sunshine is correct about rosa meaning pink in Spanish; however, to clarify between the flower and the color, it is called "color de rosa " or sometimes, rosita.
Hello Puzzlers -
Late to the party, busy day. Struggled a bit here and there with the puzzle, but got there in the end.
Lucina from yesterday - yes, the actor was remarkable! I was especially amazed at the realistic hand positions he held. Superb casting!
Good Saturday morning, folks. Thank you, John Lampkin, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
Well, I struggled with the NW corner off and on for hours last night. No cigar. So, this morning I got the paper and looked up the solution. I had SKIP instead of STEP and WOW instead of OOH. If I could have straightened those out I am sure I could have gotten AFOOT, BUSH, TERSER, ATBATS, FAUCET, and OH SURE. Oh well, maybe today will be better.
Liked the theme.
The whole puzzle was very good. Lots of off the wall answers which is fine for a Friday. Got everything except the NW corner.
With that, I will start on today's puzzle.
See you later, I hope. Funeral this afternoon for a 91 year old Mason.
Abejo
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