Theme: "Elements of Style" - Each element is replaced by its atomic symbol.
22A. Pirate once portrayed by Orson Welles : LONG JOHN AG. Long John Silver.
24A. Relative of the Marquis and Montclair : HG MONTEREY. Mercury Monterey. It's a bit tricky to fill the area cleanly with this type of HGM* cluster of consonants.
47A. Annoying with trivialities : NI AND DIMING. Nickel-and-diming.
67A. Electronics tool : SOLDERING FE. Soldering iron.
90A. "Quit dilly-dallying!" : GET THE PB OUT. Get the lead out.
114A. Cartoonist known for his intricate contraptions : RUBE AUBERG. Rube Goldberg.
118A. Music publishing nickname : SN PAN ALLEY. Tin Pan Alley.
35D. Kesselring comedy about the murderous Brewster sisters : AS AND OLD LACE. Arsenic and Old Lace.
40D. Dickens classic : DAVID CUFIELD. David Copperfield.
So
when did you grok the theme? I cottoned onto the gimmick early on, but I
did not remember some of chemical symbols. So I struggled a bit.
Lots
of theme material in today's grid. Nine theme entries with 97 dedicated
squares. Mike could have skipped the middle 11 and gone with eight
entries & 86 squares (Rich's minimum is 84), but he's not one to
take the easy way out. And he's a skilled grid builder.
Today's
puzzle reminds me of this huge periodic table George Barany showed us
when we toured their chemistry department (University of Minnesota) last
winter. You can even touch some of the elements.
Across:
1. Light wood : BALSA
6. Purged : RID. So is OFF.
9. Tray contents : ASHES
14. "High Voltage" band : AC/DC. I was confused by the ACD* start in Kevin's puzzle last Thursday.
18. With 108-Down, tired comment : I NEED. And 108. See 18-Across : A NAP
19. "O mio babbino __": Puccini aria : CARO
20. Speed : TEMPO
21. It's sometimes held in a deli : MAYO. I saw Wasabi mayo in our local grocery store.
26. Genesis twin : ESAU
27. Enjoys an afternoon snack, across the pond : TAKES TEA
29. Old Burma neighbor : SIAM
30. Paradise : EDEN
32. Defense secretary under Nixon : LAIRD (Melvin). Not familiar with the guy. Nixon looks happy in this picture.
34. Pond sounds : CROAKS. Frogs.
38. Shake : DODDER
41. Autobahn rollers : OPELS
43. Some MIT grads : EEs
45. "Got it" : I SEE
46. Co-star of Janeane in "The Truth About Cats & Dogs" : UMA. I like the movie. Just couldn't get into Uma's "Pulp Fiction".
50. Inside information? : X-RAYS
51. __ ordo seclorum: Great Seal words : NOVUS. Latin for "New order of the ages". Such a gap between "age" & "seclorum".
53. Rural expanses : LEAS
54. Smoke source : STACK
56. Sask. neighbor : NWT (Northwest Territories). Unknown abbr. to me.
57. Quiet : NOISELESS
59. Composer Saint-Saëns : CAMILLE. "Danse Macabre".
61. Forest female : DOE
62. Rash type : DARER
63. The Dodgers' Yasiel Puig, for one : CUBAN. Harrowing journey to the US. Every immigrant has a story to tell.
64. Accompany : ESCORT
66. It may be applied: Abbr. : SCI
71. Honorary legal deg. : LLD
72. Sites for sweaters? : SAUNAS. Sweat-ers.
74. Say "ma'am," say : ELIDE
75. Syrian president : ASSAD. Maybe it's better that he's still in power.
77. E.T. from Melmac : ALF
78. With an edge : TESTILY
80. Grainy course : RICE PILAF. Simple & tasty clue. I like my rice bland though.
84. Him, in Le Havre : LUI
85. Shortens : TRIMS
86. Grassy cluster : TUFT
87. Gulf State native : OMANI
88. Skipped Denny's, say : ATE IN. Do you like Denny's?
94. CCV doubled : CDX. 410.
95. Target of a military press : DELT
96. Bigeye tuna : AHI
97. 10-Down creation : WIMPY. And 10. "Thimble Theatre" creator : SEGAR. I totally blanked on the creator. We also have 98. Friend of 97-Across : POPEYE
100. Attaches : ADDS ON
102. Civil rights org. : NAACP
104. File __ : MENU
105. Coastal raptor : ERNE
107. When some seafood is available : IN SEASON. Miss fresh seafood.
110. 1987 "Crying" duettist with Orbison : LANG (K. D.). Gimme for Argyle.
120. Tiny particle : ATOM
121. Morning staple for some : LATTE
122. Sharp-tasting : TART
123. More fetching : CUTER
124. Thriller set in the seaside town of Amity : JAWS
125. Hair net : SNOOD
126. One of two Mad rivals : SPY. Oh. "Spy vs. Spy".
127. VP before Nelson : SPIRO
Down:
1. Acrimony : BILE
2. Yucatán years : ANOS
3. Singer Horne : LENA
4. Naturally followed : SEGUED
5. Sm., med. or lge. : ADJ. Of course I was thinking of Sizes.
6. Standing : RANK
7. "Dies __" : IRAE
8. Iditarod conveyances : DOG SLEDS
9. State of disbelief? : ATHEISM. Great clue. I'm still in a state of disbelief.
11. "Let me see ..." : HMM
12. "Aeneid," for one : EPOS. Learned from doing xwords.
13. Thunder predecessors : SONICS. Seattle Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.
14. Autobiographical subtitle : A MEMOIR
15. Elevator feature : CAR
16. Color : DYE
17. Like one saying "Moi?" : COY
19. Detective fond of aphorisms : CHAN (Charlie).
Chan = Chen. Same character in Chinese. Chan is the Cantonese spelling. So you
know just from the name that Jackie Chan is from Hong Kong where
Cantonese is spoken.
23. Funny Cheri : OTERI
25. Salt : TAR
28. Anklebones : TALI
31. Worse, as fog : DENSER
33. Making an impression : DENTING
36. Google entry : KEYWORD. Type in Tilt in your Google search and see what happens.
37. Six-line sonnet section : SESTET
38. Brooks' singing partner : DUNN
39. "Typee" sequel : OMOO
41. Most of a deceptive wad : ONES. I got via crosses. Dumb!
42. Apples, sometimes : PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)
44. Alike, to Pascal : EGAL
48. 1999-2004 Olds : ALERO
49. "What __?": Twain dialogue : IS MAN
50. Sporty Jags : XKEs
52. Bolt of Jamaica : USAIN. Fastest man on earth.
55. Idle colleague : CLEESE (John). Eric Idle. Another great clue. John Cleese had a fantastic interview with Fresh Air last winter.
58. Inferior : LESSER
59. Like cottage cheese : CURDY
60. Rose's title partner : ABIE. Abie's Irish Rose.
63. Provide with a roof : CEIL. Don't see this verb often.
65. It may be filed : CLAIM
66. Showed respect, in a way : SALUTED
68. Rapper's demand : LET ME IN. Of course I was thinking of the singer "Rapper". Here it refers to "knock on the door" rap.
69. Hardly paparazzi quarry : D LIST
70. De __: actual : FACTO
72. Brand named for an old Indian tea garden : SALADA. Did not know this trivia.
73. Envelope abbr. : ATTN
76. Precise : SPOT ON
79. [Alas!] : SIGH
80. Kentucky's __ Arena : RUPP. Name after their basketball coach Adolph Rupp.
81. "One __ land, ..." : IF BY
82. Barney's boss : ANDY. "The Andy Griffith Show"
83. Idée __ : FIXE
86. Storms : TEMPESTS
89. Evidently : IT SEEMS
91. Performed like Buck Owens : TWANGED
92. Minute Maid drinks : HI-Cs
93. Ivy League sch. : U PENN. We have two kids here in Mpls who were accepted by all the Ivy League schools.
96. Invalidates : ANNULS
99. Come to a halt : PULL UP
101. Vivaldi's hour : ORA
103. __-surface missile : AIR TO
104. Protective trench : MOAT
106. '60s Israeli deputy prime minister : EBAN (Abba)
109. Agile : SPRY. One of Boomer's bowling buddy is 92 years old. Still rocks his motorcycle.
111. Some choristers : ALTI
112. Elided adverb : NE'ER
113. Lamb sandwich : GYRO. Gosh, I feel like my screen is still tilted.
114. "The Big Bang Theory" astrophysicist : RAJ
115. Hagen of the stage : UTA
116. Hair accessory : BOW
117. Eisenhower's WWII purview : ETO
119. Carrier units, briefly : ACs
Jazzbumpa sent me these two beautiful pictures from her mom's 94th birthday dinner yesterday. Does your mom solve crosswords, Ron?
Ron, his sister Pat and their Mom
+and+Aunt+Irene.jpg)
Ron's mom (standing) with her twin sister
60 comments:
Took many passes, and I still didn't get it. One natick at SALADA+LUI cross, and befuddled by EPOS, SONIC, and MONTEREY. 40d I was expecting Nicholas Nickleby. Being a big fan of cartoons and comic strips, SEGAR I knew, but for his characters I started with BLUTO & SEA HAG, then PAPPY & POPEYE. The other cartoonist, RUBE GOLDBERG, was my key to the gimmick. A lot of cross-refs, but still needed more, with ELIDE at 74a and in the clue for 112d. The clue for 13d "Thunder predecessors" could have been a clecho for TEMPEST.
DRUMMER IN A METAL BAND
There once was a percussionist, with fingers nimble,
And a Master's in physics, she was no bimbo!
Her custom set was elegant,
Each of a different ELEMENT
She kept the TEMPO with her chemical cymbals!
BTW, did you notice that all 9 elements were metals, and 7 had chemical symbols different from their English names? Only nickle has a symbol consisting of the first two letters of its name, and arsenic two letters from its name.
Uncle! Not my morning. . . . Got it at RUBE AUBERG, but I couldn't remember enough elements. (Remember the 1964 bumper sticker AUH2O?) A DNF for sure. I look forward to reading your comments later today.
Thanks for the challenge Mike. Excellent idea! Thanks, C.C. for the walk through.
Morning, all!
I guessed the theme just from reading the puzzle's title, so that helped things immensely. The only thing it didn't help was to realize that 24A was actually a theme answer. I've never heard of a Mercury MONTEREY before (or a Montclair, for that matter) and thought the clue was referring to a person or perhaps an island. Even after finally guessing the final Y with COY, I still was convinced I must have an error somewhere. I should have realized that it was a theme answer due to the symmetrical nature of the other theme answers, but I didn't.
The only other sticking point was at the crossing of CURDY and TESTILY. I just refused to accept the former was a real word and was looking for a synonym of "sharp" for the latter. I finally accepted that CURDY was the word in question and was very surprised to get the *TADA* with TESTILY staring at me. And then the V8 can hit me...
Worked hard, didn't finish but close. Ceil did me in and I wanted mr. Puig to be a Vulcan but even that didn't fit. Also didn't remember Mr. Goldberg's first name and don't watch Big Bang Theory or recognize Uta Hagen. Maybe I will now though.
Figured out the theme and was concerned because high school chemistry was a long time ago. Had the best teacher, a southern belle who gave the elements such a lovely lilt. Needed perps to get the elements but that's part of the fun, learning via crossword. Thank you Mr. Peluso and C.C.!
Good morning everyone!
Happy belated birthday to your charming mom, Jazzb!
C.C. I laughed out loud when I gg'd tilt. I'm still off kilter, too!
Fun puzzle today. I got the theme immediately at LONG JOHN AG, because I rarely look at the title or constructor before starting a puzzle. So it was right up my alley, and I fully enjoyed figuring out the phrases that contain metals. My favorite was DAVID CUFIELD.
Our front lawn looks like a lumber yard today. Now that the kitchen project is done, we are going to build a new deck out back, and put up stockade fencing around the two properties. [sigh]
Good morning!
Got a late start this morning, but got the gimmick when AG appeared. Finished in good time with only a few stumbles. The worst was TERSELY before TESTILY showed up.
K.D. LANG was a gimme -- I remember that B&W special from PBS reruns. LAIRD was also a gimme. He was our district congressman in my ute. [Just for you, Owen.]
CROAK is meaningful in my neighborhood. We've had lots of rain lately and our morning marches are puctuated by croaks, quacks and caws.
CLAIM is also timely. Got a phone call Friday from Entergy, wanting to know why they hadn't received my claim. One of their utility trucks accidentally knocked down my mailbox a couple of weeks ago. It was no big deal to fix, so no CLAIM.
Tilt was cute, C.C.
68d made me think of this song immediately.
Good Morning, C.C., and friends. RUBE AUBERG was my Rosetta Stone for this Sunday puzzle.
My favorite clue was It's Sometimes Held in a Deli = MAYO.
I wasn't fooled by the Sites for Sweaters = SAUNAS. We've had that clue before.
I wanted Seasonal for when Seafood is sometimes available. At least I was on the right wavelength!
QOD: I can only be who I am. ~ Enya (b. May 17, 1961)
I got the theme immediately with LONGJOHNAG. I had to wrack my brain to recall the symbols. Knowing the word in the theme answers
would be an element helped.
I bought some delicious wasabi mustard this week.
I couldn't watch Pulp Fiction all the way through. UGH!
(SIGH) This sciatica makes me feel like a DODDERing old lady. My GP said it usually disappears by itself in 6 weeks. Alan is also doddering. We are testing for an as yet unexplained pain in his hips and legs.
I had HG MONTEREY but didn't know what it meant. V8 can, please, Marquis, Montclair, Mercury Monterey are all cars.
Very cute theme. Fun expo.
Belated happy birthday to JzB's mom and her twin sister. Great pictures. You both look so young.
The circus was fun. I take Alanevery year for his birthday. I reserved seats in the first row so we didn't have to handle the stairs. Alan could see much better than usual and really enjoyed it more.
Hi gang -
My mom likes word search puzzles, not crosswords.
My sister is a big sudoku fan.
Now, for a shot at Mike's Sunday.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good Morning! What a great start to the day! I got the theme right away with Long John Ag. But I was slowed at 12 down by trying saga, then epic. It finally worked itself out when Siam came into view. Thank you C.C. for your informative write-up and Mike for a clever puzzle.
Have a lovely day, everyone.
The Week in Review: M 5:49 T 7:09 W 10:48 T 12:13 F 10:00 S 13:38 S 25:23
Tuesday: Having been burned on Mt. OSSA last Friday, it wasn't going to happen again just four days later.
Not much else to say. It looks like this week's Friday puzzle may have been easier than usual. Or maybe it was just a "wavelength" thing.
See y'all next weekend.
Found this to be about Thursday level difficulty. The NW was kind enough to yield Long -ohn-- right off, so the trick was obvious, but it got more challenging with HG Monterey since I didn't know the symbol for Mercury immediately. And so it went. I did know all the theme related names and phrases, which helped a lot after a few perps led the way. Even filled in Rube AU berg with no help at all. But the final fill was the C at the Sci and Copperfield cross, and I had to rely on a wag. It worked out.
Quite a bit of crosswordese, such as ceil, epos, irae and fixe, bit they were very helpful, so no complaints.
I glossed over the title, so the aha moment was sussing AUBURG.
Got all the elements, but tripped up in other place and had to google thimble theater, so a DNF. I found the whole thing to be quite difficult.
I can see how this would be a very trick gimmick for a non-chemist.
SN for tin, PB for lead and FE for iron aren't exactly obvious.
Still, quite a bit of fun.
Cool regards!
JzB
Great puzzle, a real challenge. Like Owen, I took many, many passes before everything finally clicked into place. Like C.C., a lot of Periodic Table abbrevations were deep in the recesses of my brain.
After you've finished TILT'ing your Google, try seeing it from the other side of the screen.
Type the URL elgoog.im into your browser ("I'm Google" backwards).
I threw my back out yesterday cleaning the oven. I'm not sure if the moral of that story is to let the oven smoke or get someone to do it for you :)
While not a chemist, I remember the periodic table, so the theme answers generally came without too much difficulty once a few letters were in place. [Although I had forgotten the Mercury MONTEREY model.]
Thought the theme was wonderful. Not so pleased with CURDY (sounds so awkward), and never heard of Brooks and DUNN.
C.C., great writeup, and I enjoyed the link for TILT. That's a fun site, elgoog.im.
Never having taken chemistry, I was at a loss on some of the symbols. I sussed the "AS" for arsenic, but the cross between PB (lead) and RUPP arena left me a DNF.
Nicely done puzzle, however, and enjoyed it.
Thanks, C.C. for your hard work on Sunday's write-ups.
RE 51 across: "The word seclorum does not mean "secular", as one might assume, but is the genitive (possessive) plural form of the word saeculum, meaning (in this context) generation, century, or age. Saeculum did come to mean "age, world" in late, Christian Latin, and "secular" is derived from it, through secularis. However, the adjective "secularis," meaning "worldly," is not equivalent to the genitive plural "seclorum," meaning "of the ages." Thus the motto Novus ordo seclorum can be translated as "A new order of the ages." It was proposed by Charles Thomson, the Latin expert who was involved in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, to signify "the beginning of the new American Era" as of the date of the Declaration of Independence." -Wikipedia. ... The phrase is based on a quote by the Roman poet Virgil who in the century before Christ could not imagine a world NOT controlled by "the gods".
Here's an interesting alternative to the rectangular Periodic Table most of us grew up with.
And here's a "dynamic" Periodic Table.
Finally, here's an article about the Periodic Table as cultural icon (and iPhone app).
One way to remember PB (from the Latin, "plumbum") is to remember that plumbers traditionally worked with lead pipes (when they weren't breaking into The Watergate).
FE (from the Latin, "ferrum") is a little trickier though "ferro-" is a fairly common prefix.
And the Bond villain, Auric Goldfinger, should help with AU. Or, as previously mentioned, there's AuH20 from the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign (for which Hillary Rodham was a "Goldwater Girl"). I actually had a can of AuH20 (it tasted like Mountain Dew). I wish I had kept it.
"Puzzling thoughts":
I figured the theme when I tried to squeeze ARSENIC into a spot where only AS would fit! I got the PB in the phrase, GET THE (LEAD) OUT, as my first two characters, so I knew this one was going to be both fun and challenging. I knew it was MERCURY MONTEREY but forgot HG as the symbol for that element - Chem II class was about 45 yrs ago for me ...
Nice SO to our resident Lightning fan - wonder if he'll change his handle to: SBbeni after this puzzle? ;^)
I got SAUNA(S) from its clever clue, as I used to frequent them a decade ago when I traveled to Europe. Many hotels have saunas, and working up a good "schwitz" after a long day of travel was very relaxing and healthy
Good afternoon everyone.
Interesting gimmick on the theme. Generally felt difficulty was on the easy side.
SAUNAS - Experienced a sauna in our hotel in Helsinki. Juxtaposed with a cool swimming pool, so one could go back and forth.
DENNY'S - OK for us but we prefer 99's or Appleby's. Went to Olive Garden last night. Always enjoy that, too.
Have a great rest of the day.
Hi Y'all! What a mind-taxing puzzle! It's been too long since I memorized (or thought I did) the periodic table. Very little use since HS. At least I caught onto the theme gimmick on the second one. I knew AG, AU & FE, but resorted to looking up the others. SIGH! I also had trouble deciding which longer answers were theme related. SIGH!
Didn't get Military Press until C.C. explained it. I was thinking a war campaign of some kind. DELT, maybe like "in 1814 we took a little trip down the __ to the mighty Mississip..." There's a DELTa there.
Saw Brooks & DUNN on TV the other night, a long overdue reunion. Loved their music.
SONICS should have been a gimmee, but took a while to sink in. Thunder is my favorite team. However, the storm outside tended to make me think of the wrong kind of thunder. SIGH!
K.D. LANG is probably my favorite "girl" singer and that duet is great -- watched the tape many times. So do you think my overtaxed brain could remember her name right away? Nope. SIGH!
Such fun puzzles yesterday and today. Challenging, to say the least. I like Gareth Bain's and Mike Peluso's work, and usually find them hard, if not even a tad fiendish. Today there were some gimmes, such as BALSA, CARO, MAYO, JAWS, SIAM, ASSAD, and LANG to get me started. I caught on to the theme with RUBE AUBERG, and then was off to the races. Well done, Mr. Peluso!
Here is an exciting performance of a popular piece by CAMILLE Saint-Saëns. The conductor must have really rehearsed the orchestra well, because it looks like he doesn't have much to do during the performance, unlike the amazing violinist who is really working out!
Best wishes to you all.
Still-don't-get-its:
5D What is ADJ?
15D Elevator feature = CAR?
17D What is COY about saying "moi"?
119D Carrier units = ACS? Is that air conditioners or aircraft carriers or something else? If the former, where's the carrier; if the latter, it's redundant.
Help.
Plus, 113D: The sandwich is a GYROS, not a GYRO.
Hi Everyone:
Late, late, late due to a trip to the market, bank, and gas station, more unexpected company, and a very late lunch.(Pantry, fridge, wallet, gas tank, and tummy all filled up!)
Liked the puzzle very much, even though I only knew Au and Fe. But the minute I saw the title, I guessed the theme correctly which made the solve easier.
Many thanks to Mike and CC for a terrific start to a lovely, sunny and warm Spring Sunday!
Have a great day.
LW and I haven't eaten at a Denny's since we were poor college students. For breakfast we sometimes go to a place called Holder's to get their thin Swedish pancakes. We used to go to Mimi's often, but it has gone way downhill, it seems. For Italian food we like Amici's. The absolute best pizza we ever had was at a place called Began's Classic Italian Pizza. Unfortunately there is only one of them, in Tempe Arizona, so we can't get them here in San Nosy. I also wish we had a WildFlower Bread Company here, like the one in Tempe; their nine-grain bread is excellent, and lunch there is pleasant.
TMI, huh.
ADJ = Adjective
CAR = What you're riding in when you're on an elevator.
COY = When you say, "Moi?" ("Me?" in French), like Miss Piggy, you know it's about you but you're pretending it's not.
ACS = The Carrier Corporation makes air conditioners.
GYRO
Oh wow, I just noticed the clue for 112D is "Elided adverb" and the answer at 74A is ELIDE. And oh wow, I just noticed OwenKL already referred it it. Sometimes ya spot stuff and sometimes ya don't.
What a hoot after the theme came out. EPOS (not EPIC) and SONICS (talk abut your esoteric sports references) bollixed up that part for a while. I also tried to fit Mercury MONTERREY in somehow.
Musings
-AR AND OLD LACE did it for me. It was the play our school put on after much discussion the night of Nov. 22, 1963.
-I’m so glad to see ASHtrays long gone!
-Bon Scott’s rare signature on this item made for a big price on Pawn Stars
-When he TAKES TEA, Miss Lemon prepares Tisane tea.
-Dr. RAJ’s friend Howard has an MIT engineering degree but, as he is constantly reminded, no PhD
-My “inside info” was a CAT scan at $5,000 a pop
-Many would like to escape the CUBAN paradise
-A DOE and her unusual best friend! (:48)
-Thimble Theater cast
-This Iced LATTE starts many golf days for me
-Idée fixe is a detriment to solving Mike’s clever crossword today
-Hahtoolah, A variation of your QOD - Popeye, of course, said, “I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam”
-Name the song with - “Like a singing bird and a CROAKing toad?”
Anonymous at 2:00:
Anonymous said...
Still-don't-get-its:
5D What is ADJ? Abbreviation for adjective
15D Elevator feature = CAR? the CAR is what you ride in
17D What is COY about saying "moi"? I was thinking about Miss Piggy when I read this clue
119D Carrier units = ACS? Is that air conditioners or aircraft carriers or something else? If the former, where's the carrier; if the latter, it's redundant. Carrier is a leader in Air Conditioners, having their origin, oddly, in Syracuse, NY.
Help. Hope I did!
Hi everybody. I really enjoyed this clever theme and like others, I got it right away at LONG JOHN AG. Thanks Mike and CC.
I got stuck at EPOS. MAYO for 'Sometimes held in a deli' was very clever cluing thought I. When we order a sandwich over the phone for lunch, Barbara wants me to tell them to hold the mayo. So when we get it, I smear on some lite mayo. I can't tell the difference.
Sunday Morning is good as usual. I'm over halfway through.
Thank you, Fact Checker and Chairman Moe. I'll just toss off "Sm., med. or lge." = ADJ as a lame clue.
I don't ride in a CAR on the elevator, I ride in the CAB. And it's not a "feature," in any event; it's the main unit.
I can speak French without being COY (and Miss Piggy is not coy to begin with; she is ostentatiously piggy).
And GYROS is correct; GYRO is wrong.
Another nit to pick: The "Rash type" (62A) is not the DARER, it is the DAREE (or DAREDEVIL, if you will).
Hello, friends!
Very late to the party today. I'm tired from yesterday's return journey and also distracted. My niece is in a coma so it won't be long now before we receive that final phone call.
I really liked today's offering by Mike Peluso who always make me think outside the box, in this case the box containing the periodic elements. So clever. I know AU, FE and AG. Looked up the others.
Most of it was fairly easy fill but those sports clues leave me hanging. CUBAN worked out because I knew CIEL and then there's French. FIW at LUI. Didn't know it or DELT. SALADA was a total stumper.
Thank you, Mr. Peluso and C.C.
JazzB: It's wonderful to still have your mother! I hope she had a delightful celebration.
Have a joyful Sunday, everyone!
Anonymous @ 3:25
Glad to help
Here is a link to elevator terminology. I see that CAR is the defined term for the passenger compartment, but CAB is also acceptable.
The 5d clue/solve (listing abbreviated sizes as adjectives) was definitely misleading. I struggled with it until it dawned on me that sizes ARE adjectives. Not a favorite, but it made you think
Jayce, I often skip the classical entries or just listen to them but I got hooked on your link. Outstanding!
... and I loved her dress.
Anonymous at 2:00 and 3:25:
It's just a crossword puzzle. You either get it or you don't. You either like it or you don't.
I used to pick nits but life's too short. Especially when Yellowrocks is sure to stop by and cite some obscure usage from the 16th Century.
Definition of GYRO: a sandwich especially of lamb and beef, tomato, onion, and yogurt sauce on pita bread . GYRO is a single sandwich. GYROS are more than one sandwich.We had many a gyro in Israel.
ANON, your definitions are quite narrow. Nothing is quite that pat.
I have often heard the elevator cab called a car. It IS the main feature or main unit, just as the movie that was advertised is the main feature.
MOI, rather than being just a french word, brings Miss Piggy to mind for many of us. She says MOI facetiously. She does act coy and insincere.
From the cast "... the COYness hiding the aggression; the conflict of that love with her desire for a career; her hunger for a glamour image; her tremendous out-and-out ego -- all those things are great fun to explore in a character." -- Frank Oz in The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 1979.
This is not from the 16th century, but is common usage today.
Jayce: Brava! Thanks for sharing that.
And I'd agree. They were very well rehearsed. Nobody sees what a conductor really does in the performance. That's just for show. The real work comes in the rehearsals.
I was about to give up slogging when I got LONG JOHN AU and then V8 moment HG MONTEREY.
Being an actual MS in Physics, and no bimbo I was encouraged to keep going. I will admit I keep a periodic table on my fridge. This began with reading the Periodic Table Mysteries series by Camille Minichino and trying to keep them in order.
I always remember "Hold the Mayo" because it was a reference to a person named Mayo when John F. Kennedy ordering deli carry out for a diplomatic meeting in a comedy album named "The First Family". The thrill was gone when we lost our beloved JFK.
And I just read this about the album The First Family, which was recorded before a live audience.
'Meader later revealed, "A lot of people don't know this, but we recorded The First Family on the night of October 22, 1962, the same night as John F. Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis Speech. The audience was in the studio and had no idea of the drama that was taking place. But the cast had heard the speech and our throats almost dropped to our toes, because if the audience had heard the Cuban Missile Speech, we would not have received the reaction we did."
Greetings!
Swell puzzle, Mike! Nice expo, CC!
Loved the theme. Visible immediately. No problem (except at first I permuted AG and AU in my mind)! Several WAGS, like SEGAR, RUPP and CUBAN, from a few perps.
Great pictures, JzB!
So sorry, Lucina.
Always appreciate your explanations, YR!
Jayce: Love the violin link! Followed by a favorite concerto (and who knows what comes next)!
Cheers!
Lucina, I'm so sorry to be reminded about your niece. I know it will be a tough time for all of your family. Best wishes and good thoughts.
I hope you were able to record Sunday Morning. It's all good but I especially enjoyed Jane Pauley's interview with retiree-to-be, Dave Letterman.
Glad you liked it, Argyle. I like her dress too.
Cheers to Avg Joe and Fermatprime. Salud!
Jayce, thanks for that link. That Jansen woman in the backless dress really knows how to saw on a fiddle. I'd love to hear what she could do with "The Devil Came Down To Georgia."
Hello Puzzlers -
Began this puzzle in the wee hours but had to set it down until now. Grokked the theme right away at Long John Ag, but still struggled a bit since it wasn't always obvious when a theme answer was expected. Got there eventually.
About Gyro sandwiches: I speak neither Greek nor Turkish, but I was told years ago while traveling in Turkey that Gyros and Donor Kebabs are exactly the same thing. The Turkish word "donor" means "rotating", just as the Greek word "gyro" does. It refers to those vertical rotating spits on which the meat mixture is cooked. I was also told that there is a lot of cultural overlap between the two countries, but long-standing animosities get in the way. So it goes.
Very busy day, between piano recitals & choral recitals it was a Mr Mom's Taxi kind of day. I did try to do the puzzle, but now looking at it, I am glad I didn't have the time to get frustrated...
Nit free at last @ 4:10, LOL! ( Timing is everything...)
I did notice the puzzle omitted a very volatile element...
I am old enough to be very familiar with Popeye, however I never I never saw his first cartoon. (with Betty Boop!)
Dudley said, "but still struggled a bit since it wasn't always obvious when a theme answer was expected."
I had exactly the same experience. I would stumble upon a theme answer and then figure out that I needed an element's symbol.
My paper didn't have a theme. That seemed to help some of you.
These nit-picking anons really get to me. Something seriously disturbed about them. If you guys have nothing better to do than downgrade bloggers, go to some other site. I've learned that those whose lives are so very boring have to insinuate themselves into others lives to make up for their shallow existence. Hope you feel better about yourselves by putting down others. My suggestion? GET A LIFE! Preferably somewhere else....There, I said it, and I feel better for doing so. No apologies...
Feeding the troll says...
Anon @6:09 - if you don't like obscure then don't play. Every YR post I've read from her is spot on and/or informs me.
So, what coneyro said: Get a Life (@2:10) and stop being a (B)oron. C, -T
Dudley:
Turkish and Greek liquor suffers the same fate. Both Raki (Turkish) and Ouzo (Greek) are the same but have different names. I love them since they are both anise (licorice) flavored.
coneyro and AnonT:
Thank you. I completely agree with you.
SNL's site moved on and changed my link so here's Shatner addressing Trekies.
The prevailing wisdom is "Don't feed the trolls." But I agree that it feels good once in a while to tell them off. People ought to be told that their behavior is unacceptable and shallow. If we're all silent, it sometimes seems as if there is some tacit agreement. I feel better too. :>)
A delightful romp through the periodic table today. Sunday puzzles with their overblown 21x21 size usually mean we're in for a slog; not so this time. GETTHEPBOUT is without question the star of the show, but all the theme entries are solid. The car model doesn't scintillate; still, that symbol has no letters in common with the English name of mercury, so it's at least mildly interesting. Some of the fill gets a bit CURDY here and there, but that's inevitable in a big grid. Kudos to the constructor!
Just finished. I was out of town. My only question? I think the veeps should go Spiro. Gerald, Nelson. I found that clue sort of wrong. Maybe I am the only one. Really enjoyed the theme. I learn something every day. Today I learned about Popeye.
I agree. Although the entry, "127. VP before Nelson : SPIRO", could be construed to mean any earlier VP, the one directly before NELSON would be GERALD. Rockefeller became VP when Nixon resigned and Ford became president.
Good catch. Constructors, take note.
Just getting around to this puzzle. Finished it without much trouble, but maybe chemo-brain is kicking in. I was able to work out the answer to 41 down - "Most of a deceptive wad" (answer "ones), but I don't understand the clue, don't understand the answer or how they relate to each other. If anyone gets this far down the comments at this late date can you unconfuse me? Thanks
That would be those posers with a big wad of money but it is mostly one dollar bills with some big denominations on the outside.
I remember when some of the old farmers around here would have a roll of twenties(no filler) in their pocket big enough to choke a horse. And in the other pocket was the big stuff.
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