Well after marti had another puzzle run with Jeffrey ending last Thursday, he is back to Friday with a puzzle right up my carbohydrate loving alley. As we discussed earlier in the week with the WHERE/WARE/WEAR/WERE sound, a puzzle based on sound-alike humor can be under-appreciated by those who speak very differently from the constructor. For me, while 16 across was easy, I do not say 'HALLA' I use the "CHHH" sound, so the HOLIDAY transfer was not there, but it really did not slow me down. All of the puns require some regional accent but I found them all very entertaining, especially in the context of the limited field of types of bread. Jeffrey fills out the theme with two grid-spanners (my guess is RYE sense of humor was the inspiration) and a built-in reveal which I did not need. The rest is fairly straight-forward with lots of 6's and a couple of 7s and 8s. The list is ACTION, ARARAT, HANNAH, LOOK TO, MISHAP, NOISES, OOLALA, OPPOSE, ORANGE, PASTOR, RAMMED, RIYADH, ARCHAIC, BETIDES, ARRANGED, ERIC IDLE, with some also returning fill from recent puzzles. It played like a Thursday for me.
16A. Good feelings during Jewish bread celebrations?: CHALLAH DAY CHEER (15). HOLIDAY Cheer was enough for me to get his idea, if you have not had French Toast made from Challa you are missing a real treat.
25A. Cautionary tale about Greek bread? : PITA AND THE WOLF (14). PETER and the Wolf is a crossword regular (see yesterday) and the boy who cried wolf still gets much play. My favorite of the fill, if not of the bread. Pita is so thick.
45A. Baker of only one type of Indian bread? : NAAN CONFORMIST (14). NONconformist. Is there a variation in saying NAAN? I like it infrequently.
62A. Ability to laugh at deli bread ... and at three other answers in this puzzle? : RYE SENSE OF HUMOR (15). WRY Sense of Humor. I grew up with caraway seeds.
I cannot think of any English muffin, brioche, croissant, baguette or focaccia pun so on to the rest.
(ooo, maybe something about a CROSS AUNT?!?)
Across:
1. Flock leader : PASTOR. Not of sheep...no religion no politics, no picture of Tammy Faye. This was easier because of yesterdays clue/fill.
7. Old : ARCHAIC. What a nice old word.
14. Film genre : ACTION. When asked who the best present day action movie star is, Dolph Lundgren suggested perhaps it is this STAR.
15. Co-creator of the Rutles, a parodic band : ERIC IDLE. The parodic addition seems unnecessary.
18. iComfort maker : SERTA. SEALY has the same number of letters. Anyone else tempted to put in APPLE?
19. Spiritualist's sighting : AURA.
20. Greek peak : OSSA. I do not associate Greece with snow; this is near Mt. Olympus?
21. Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer : LIN. The now almost forgotten Jeremy is replaced by MAYA. Not to be confused with 40A. Draw, as a portrait : LIMN.
23. Newspaper thickener : ADS. Especially on Sundays.
33. Scores : MANY.
34. Big opening : MAW. Usually associated with a voracious animal's mouth.
35. Calf neighbor : TIBIA. Muscle and bone.
36. Scraps : ORTS. Those little leftover pieces of food, I think from German. Not to be confused with 49A. Conquistador's treasure : ORO. Spanish for Gold.
37. Commandment word : SHALT.
41. Home of minor league baseball's RubberDucks : AKRON. A cool unknown. LINK. Damn, Styx is playing there tonight.
43. Friend of Eeyore : ROO. Kanga's little one in Pooh's world.
44. Signs of island hospitality : LEIS. The bad double entendres are too easy.
50. Decorative swimmer : KOI. They often look like huge goldfish but are variations of Carp.
51. Mont Blanc, par exemple : ALPE. Fill for marti.
55. "A good deed __ ever forgot": "Huckleberry Finn" : AIN'T. Unremembered but easy fill.
57. Blush cause : SHAME. "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." Mark Twain,
65. Planned : ARRANGED.
66. Hit with force : RAMMED.
67. Happens to : BETIDES. Another great word from the past, often with woe, "One of these was punctuality and woe betide anyone who arrived late in school without a very good reason for being so." Fraser, Christine Marion NOBLE BEGINNNINGS
68. Fight : OPPOSE.
Down:
1. D.C. fundraisers : PACS. Political Action Committees are already gearing up for 2016.
2. Pine : ACHE. Not the tree, the yearning.
3. Take the lead : STAR.
4. Slope : TILT.
5. "C'est magnifique!" : OO LA LA. Linda.
6. Genetic messenger : RNA.
7. Ancient landing spot : ARARAT. We had this Mount back in a Gareth Thursday in April.
8. King Saud University city : RIYADH. Did you remember where the H goes?
9. Speculative bond rating : CCC. Oh my, not a good bond, but an extra C shout out for the Corner?
10. Jaunty greeting : HI HO. Be careful...
11. Summer quaffs : ADES. A CSO; thanks JW!
12. Martinique et Réunion : ILES. We have volcanoes and islands this week.
13. Michael of "Arrested Development" : CERA.
15. URL ending : EDUcation.
17. Disney's Montana : HANNAH. THEN. NOW.
22. Pet food creator Paul : IAMS. The story. LINK.
24. Place for quiet, at times : SET. Quiet on the set! Rolling!
25. Yukon warmer : PARKA. Last week ANORAK, this week...
26. Mural beginning : INTRA. I was playing intramural tag football when Kennedy was shot.
27. 1980s-'90s heavyweight champ : TYSON. He was not impressed with PACQUIAO MAYWEATHER fight, and consumers have filed a class action LAWSUIT based on the undisclosed shoulder injury.
28. Grumpy, say : DWARF. More Disney; or not Disney
29. Hesitant thought : WILL I. or won't I?
30. Theatrical honors : OBIES. Off Broadway. (OB)
31. Control, in a way : LIMIT.
32. Followers : FANS.
33. Halloween effect : MOAN. I hope more often than that in your home.
38. Seek guidance from : LOOK TO.
39. Brand for greenskeepers : TORO. Lawnmowers etc.
42. Sgt., for one : NCO.
46. Grand Marnier flavor : ORANGE. A shout out to Amy?
47. Malfunction indicators, perhaps : NOISES. When you start your car and you hear things it often leads to a ...
48. Thing gone wrong : MISHAP.
51. Many an 8-Down native : ARAB.
52. Harp relative : LYRE. Back after LYRA yesterday.
53. Sassy : PERT.
54. Actor Morales : ESAI. He is crossword staple.
56. Composer Rorem : NED. He is crossword staple also.
58. Hardest part : HUMP. Get over the....
59. It's used in rounds : AMMO.
60. Springfield watering hole : MOE'S. Speaking of rounds...CSOs abound for our Chairman.
61. Paris : terre :: Bonn : __ : ERDE. Earth.
63. Word with game or point : END. Which we are near....as we pace...
64. Not to : FRO. Cute
When you have a bread puzzle you are bound to have some crumby clues (LMAO), but I had a fine time and one of my faster Fridays. Damn, I am missing Styx, lemonade out.
46 comments:
For a Friday, not too bad.
Hmm, I used LIMN in a poem just Monday.
Peter AND THE WOLF was in yesterday's puzzle. Yesterday had LYRA & LUTE, today we have LYRE.
Although I know many hate cross-references, I'm still surprised HI HO wasn't linked to DWARF.
There once was a baker, a lazy oaf,
With his ambitious girlfriend did elope
Well, she thought they must
Become upper-crust,
So to make enough bread, he had to loaf!
Morning, all!
Fun puzzle today. I love puns and know my breads, so this was an enjoyable romp in the park for the most part. The only sticky section was in the west where I initially went with SPA and ANKLE. When PITA AND THE WOLF nixed SPA, I then went with SEA. It took awhile to finally give up ANKLE since (a) I couldn't think of a phrase for "hesitant thought" and (b) I've only ever seen LIMN used to refer to writing and not painting. When nothing was working, however, I finally went with LIMN, which got me TIBIA and SET and WILL I finally revealed itself. *TADA*
Good morning!
This was a quick Friday solve, though I suffered foot injuries in opposite corners: Ancient/ARCHAIC and Befalls/BETIDES. Both were quickly resolved.
Lemon, thanx for 'splainin' WILL I -- thought it was some arcane version of the "willies." And aren't goldfish also carp?
HaHa, funny puns! I really enjoyed figuring out each one. In my ignorance though, I had no idea that CHALLAH bread was pronounced without the C. Live and learn.
D'otto, I had the same thought about WILLI. Thanks for explaining that one, Lemony!
I was looking at pics from the 2015 Met Gala yesterday and kept thinking "Who are these people?" I am terribly behind in my pop culture training, I guess. But it was still fun to see some of the outlandish costumes!
Gong Li looked amazing, others looked dazed
Thanks for the update marti
The western half was a snap because I realized we were looking for types of bread. I needed some perps to complete the phrases in the east. Easier than average for a Friday.
Hand up for wondering if WILLI was a different form of WILLY. Thanks for parsing it, Lemony.
The goyem frequently pronounce CHALLAH with an H sound at the beginning.
A little Jewish girl, on hearing the carol, Deck the Halls, wondered why people would decorate with CHALLAH bread.
These days MAW is frequently used with non-animal connotations.
-maw of the tunnel
-maw of the abyss
-maw of the pit, especially money pit or government money pit. "Much of our taxes disappear into the maw of the Pentagon."
Good Morning.
I do agree this was quite a bit of fun. The theme fell quickly once I found CHALLAH worked with perps. I easy found the bread at the starts, but waited for more perps to finish. WBS regarding LIMN. I do love that word.
Like HeartRx, I couldn't immediately parse WILLI, but it was good for a chuckle when I did. Fun morning. Thanks, Jeff and Lemonade.
I live near Richmond, VA where our AA Eastern League team is called the "Flying Squirrels" - the laughing stock of AA baseball. That is, until two years ago when the Akron Aeros (same league) changed their mascot to a Rubber Duck. So, I got that one right away.
I have seen LIMN used just as often in reference to painting, as in reference to writing. Even more frequently, I see it used figuratively. "As she lay before the blazing hearth the firelight LIMNed her every curve." "The morning sun LIMNED the frost lined branches with dazzling diamonds."
Good morning everyone.
Basically easy enough, but got hung up in the central East. Couldn't suss PITA to Peter, so took a red letter 'F' to get WOLF, and that section filled in nicely. Needed perps to get LIMN. Thought the theme was a hoot.
ERDE helped anchor the SE.
Thought BETIDES was ARCHAIC.
Grand Marnier is my favorite liqueur. One of my favorite recollections is imbibing a few in the lounge of the Hotel Frontenac at Quebec City overlooking the spectacular ramparts and harbor as the St. Lawrence River widens to meet the sea.
BH uses it frequently to augment desserts.
Agree with Lemon about the Thursday level.
This one took an extra 10 minutes this morning. I can never remember how to spell RIYADH and was it PASTOR or PARSON, ANCIENT or ARCHAIC, SEALY or SERTA, never heard of CERA, CHALLAH or the Rutles but ERIC IDLE perped his way in. The north was tough but I survived.
I always thought of TIBIA ( and fibula and all the muscles) as being part of the calf, not a neighbor. But I guess it's just the shin.
After PARKA, I guessed AKRON with the tire manufacturers there. SET came from perps as I just couldn't get it until Lemonades write-up.
CCC- the name on the bridge over the Mississippi in New Orleans- Crescent City Connection. It will also be the bond rating of the USA if it doesn't quit spending more than it takes in.
But I finished this thing.
Hello Puzzlers -
Hand up for Spa and Ankle at first. Otherwise zoomed right through at Wednesday speed. Loved the bread puns!
Marti 7:22 - I'm with you, few of the folks in those Gala photos were familiar.
Hi gang -
I though Jeffrey's puzzle was a bit crusty, but well bred and ultimately chewable.
Loved it, and after G-spotting how RIYAHD was spelt, was able to rise to the occasion.
Honest assessment. I'm not trying to butter him up.
Slight MISHAP with HIYA for HIHO, but CHEER took care of that.
I've been to AKRON a few times but did not know about their Rubber Ducks.
As Pittsburgh is to steel and Toledo to glass, so is AKRON to rubber. Several decades back, between iterations of the Mud Hens, Toledo's minor league team was the Glass Sox.
Tigers host the Royals this week end. Hope it's fun.
Just read last night that Betty White, at 93, is older then sliced bread. My mom will be 94 next Saturday.
Cool regards!
JzB
Happy days are here again!
Latest addition to our home pictured in avatar. We named him Casey. He's 10 weeks old and comes from a highly reputable collie breeder. Now our household is again complete.
Got thru today's puzzle mainly relying on down clues. Too tired from puppy sitting all night for any comments, just was a fun puzzle. Liked the theme, but as I said. the down clues were the reason for my success today.
Hmm, today I found another reason for posting before reading the comments. (actually before reading the write up)
I got as far as Lemons Cross Aunt,,, & had to stop. ( I really want to read & enjoy this later when I have more time....)
it could be the write up...
It could be all the possibilities...
Or it could be I just need a nap...
What a delight whose elegant theme provided very satisfying payoffs. As usual, there is no need to try and top Lemon’s summation.
Musings
-This culinary neophyte has never had NAAN or CHALLA and only has had PITA at fast food places
-Job description for a PASTOR
-I doubt Scarlett’s ACTION career will last as long as Sly’s or Clint’s.
-Yeah, I put in APPLE and SPA
-Spiritualist’s sighting – gullible people
-I hated the AD-laden Wed. Omaha World Herald on my paper route (pronounced rout!)
-These shoes eliminated my tread mill shin (TIBIA) splints
-The most expensive KOI ever sold!
-Our golf course has carp too, plain clothes division!
-Have you ever “taken arms against a sea of troubles, and by OPPOSing end them?”
-My friend’s daughter lives in RIYADH and can’t drive
-WILL I buy this car or keep what I’ve got?
-I’m a Snapper guy, not Toro
-Who sang, “She's made it clear enough, it ain't no good to PINE” and who is “She”?
Good Morning:
Caught the theme early which helped with the solve, but found the southeast tricky. Took awhile to suss Moe's as I've never seen The Simpsons and Springfield meant nothing to me.
Thanks, Jeffrey, for a fun and challenging Friday and thanks, Lemony, for the usual witty and informative expo. Nice CSO to the Chairman and to JzB (I think) with Akron.
Congrats, Hondo, on the new addition. Love the name, Casey. Enjoy!
Have a great day.
WIMS
HG, Who: Herman's Hermits She: Mrs. brown's lovely daughter
Fun puzzle. Like others, didn't know Challah is pronounced without the C, so finishing that entry was a bit chewy. Thanks, Jeffrey, for a good time.
Lemonade, loved the write-up as usual.
I had more trouble than most here, evidently. But I did manage it and enjoyed the punnishment. Challah was the last to fall cuz that's a word I've never heard spoken....I've only read it, and mostly in crosswords. Well actually the Y in Day/Riyadh was the last to fall since the C obscured the preferred pronunciation in this case. I've also always pronounced Naan as Nan, but that was much easier to figure out.
Agree with DO. Goldfish are carp.
We've had over 31 hours with no rain :-) Still have storms in the forecast :-(
Glad to hear about the new pooch, Skip!
Hello, friends! Thanks for the recap, LemonADE. I'm so glad you parsed WILL I which seemed like a variation of willy.
OOLALA, Jeffrey delved into Shakespeare with BETIDES. And I jumped on his wave length early on as PASTOR was my first fill. But then had to rely on much perping to complete the picket fence pattern. Funny puns.
I learned about CHALLAH bread on a cooking show and it was pronounced without the C. Good stuff.
Count me in for RIYAHD before RIYADH. ADS set me straight.
However, my deficiency in German kept ERDE from me. I had HAMMER/ERRE so double trouble as I also didn't get FRO. Drat!
Thanks to crosswords, MOE'S immediately came to mind and since AKRON was once the Rubber City, that seemed logical.
Have yourselves a beautiful day, everyone!
"They often look like huge goldfish but are variations of Carp."
Huh? KOI literally means "carp". And goldfish ARE carp.
"Pita is so thick."
Huh? Its a flatbread!
Hallah pronounced with a "C"
Huh? Never heard anyone pronounce with a c.
Did you and caraway seeds go to the same school?
I really believe you are trolling for comments.
P.I.T.A. you are.
I got CHALLAH and the bread theme right away, but had some of the same trouble in the north and mid east as Barry. But in the end it pretty much all fell into place, and I ended up in delighting in Jeffrey's RYE SENSE OF HUMOR. Thanks, too, for the always helpful write-up, Lemonade.
Hondo, congratulations on the new family sweetie.
Have a great Friday, everybody!
CHallah is the correct pronunciation. Obviously you are not Jewish.
In response to all the comments about not knowing the "C" was used in pronouncing the Jewish egg bread; i give you this LINK and reiterate in Hebrew there is a letter that sounds CCCHHHHH, a guttural sound.
You can google and get many sites which pronounce words.
Sounds like Holla-day to me. I'm fine with the punny fill. Roll with it, Baby!
Just to answer the CHALLAH pronunciation inquiries simply. Due to the fact that the CH sound in Hebrew is difficult for most nonspeakers, someone decided to sound the CH as an H, to make it easier. It is also evident in the holiday CHANUKAH, which is also spelled HANUKKAH. among other H beginning derivatives. Probably was a greeting card company.
Thank you Jeff and Lemon.
Finished everything except for the crossing of LIMN and FANS. Came here and went straight to Lemons write-up for 40 Across, and... there's nothing there! Found what I was looking for in the responses, but you got me good Lemony.
Really liked the misdirection of Calf neighbor. Couldn't think of a single state, town or body of water adjacent to California. Sakes...
Hondo - I'm so glad to see you got another dog. And what a cutie - I bet (s)he (?) has already stolen your hearts!
Well, the damn LA Times puzzle web page kept crashing. So many ads all vying for bandwidth. One ad, a video, with sound!, I could not turn off. Kept getting the ole "Script has stopped running" message, causing Firefox to lock up no matter which button I clicked on. Had to restart my computer. This has happened before. I guess I'll have to go back to the Mensa site or find another site.
More erratum from lemony:
Styx is not playing in Akron tonight. I imagine it is a fireworks show set to music by Styx. Meanwhile 111 miles to the ese and less than a 2 hour drive away, there really is a Styx concert at The Stage AE in Pittsburgh. Seats are available.
p.s. Had to choose two pictures of bread to prove I'm not a robot. One pic was Hallah.
Quickest Friday solution for me in a long, long time. Never mind that I settled for MAXY instead of MANY. I thought I'd discover a clever explanation, but it turned out to be just that degree of folly that reminds me that I mustn't get too cocky.
Hi Y'all! Real chuckle-worthy puzzle, Jeffrey, with your RYE SENSE OF HUMOR. And Lemonade followed up nicely.
After laughing over the CHALLAH DAY, my anticipation for the next theme entry was heightened. But if "CH" is pronounced as "H" only , wouldn't we get 'HALLA DAY 'HEER?
Hmm..."hardest part" = HUMP. Is Jeffrey being naughty again? And then LEI...
"It's used in rounds" turned out to not be "alto". I was thinking of singing rounds like "Frere Jacques," not bullets.
My son in OKC sent me a picture of water pouring into a friend's underground tornado shelter. Son has one like it in his garage, a cement vault with a stairway and flat lid. He hopes his shelter is high enough on a hilly lot that won't happen to them. One woman drowned in hers after all the rain they got with tornados this week. Another family had water pouring in with debris piled on the door so they couldn't get out. Luckily, a neighbor heard them shouting and banging and got them out. I asked my son if the shelter was where gasoline could leak into it if a car got blown over or smashed up. He probably won't like me asking that.
Great blog, Lemonade. Charming, good humor.
The Ch in Challah (bread) and Chanukkah is the "Kh" sound as in 'Khan' .
The Chengiz Khan, Aga Khan, or Kublai Khan etc.
How to pronounce Challah . Youtube, 12 secs.
Unfortunately, I'm not jewish, so this is only second hand knowledge.
Wonderful news about Casey Hondo
I am going to babysit one of my grand puppies for a week
Soon
Jack Russell who loves attention
And then there's chutzpah.
And chorizo. haha.
There are variant spellings and pronunciations of Chanukah and Challah in English because our alphabet has is no exact transliteration of the the Hebrew letters. Therefore our pronunciation has become Americanized. We have borrowed many loan words from other languages and changed their pronunciation. For instance, we distinctly pronounce the s in Paris, but the French do not. Other countries pronounce words they borrowed from English differently from the way we do.
C'est la vie. Live and let live.
Jayce raises a valid point. I had a Latino friend a few years back that drove a Chevy and also rode a Harley shovel head. He pronounced both with a hard "CH". It became a joke between us, but he wasn't about to change.
Celebrate diversity. It's a wonderful thing.
I'm chortling over all this ch business. Hope it's not a chimera.
Spitsboov, chortling is about all we can do!
Lemonade @12:26, thanks for pointing out that is NOT a hard, Americanized CH sound as in CHoice...but a guttural Hebrew sound that most non-Jews struggle with.
So both sides are right!
Just to muddy the waters... at the JCC where I worked for many years Nobody pronounced the CH!
Diversity, indeed! Heheheheheeee
I was looking for a new book to enjoy, both at the coffee shop and to read before going to bed. For some reason, Louis L'Amour popped into my brain and I downloaded "Last of the Breed." He is such a good story teller.
Someone here recommended the Dana Stabenow mysteries with Kate ...whoever...and I have now read two and am into the third. Great reading! Very different. I can't even remember her last name.
Thanks...and I'm sorry I forget who to thank !
Bill G, Louis L'Amour was my father's favorite. Enjoy!
Easy today.
Busy week with visitors and beautiful weather and then work today prevented me from getting here to post. But I did manage to finish most of the puzzles this week.
Fun one today.
Yes Spitzboov, the Chateau Frontenac is beautiful, summer or winter!
Tin, Montreal finally showed up to play and extended the series. Should be interesting Saturday!
Hi All!
Too late to really play today...
If this were Sat, I'd feel good about what I got, but Jeffrey kicked my butt again. I enjoyed the puns I got, but I'm unfamiliar w/ CHALLAH (I've heard it, just don't know it) and the NW stayed mostly blank. Thanks Jeffrey for a fun pzl and Lem for the writeup.
Fav - 62a. Fun spanner.
Hey, Paul in Montebello - Easy today is little praise / criticism. Say something.
AveJoe & PK - thanks for checking in. Good to hear all is well with y'all.
Cheers, -T
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