Words: 72 (missing J,Q,W,Z)
Blocks: 28
I thought I was going to smoke right through this puzzle, and maybe hit
my personal best time for a Saturday - alas, it was not to be. I
started off so well, too....drat. Ran into trouble in the top left
quadrant, with three proper names and a couple of vague clues. So I
cheated on 1d. Then I still did not get my ta-DA~! because of one
letter - more later. As for the grid, triple and double 9-letter
corners with two 11-letter climbers and two 12-letter spanners;
28a. Singer with the 2002 debut hit "Complicated" : AVRIL LAVIGNE
- I knew who it was right away, but then the spelling became an issue.
I was pleased to read she married Chad Kroeger from Nickelback - I like
their music; according to Wiki, the two married in a medieval castle - now that's my kind of wedding~!
42a. Constitution nickname : OLD IRONSIDES - the ship, not the document
onward~!
ACROSS:
1. NASA program for aspiring explorers : SPACE CAMP - love getting 1a. right off the bat~!
10. Subject of a 1964 Time article subtitled "Pictures That Attack the Eye" : OP ART
if it's moving when you scroll, it's working
15. Crowded locale : URBAN AREA -
I was in Dover Delaware helping my good friend Mike move into his new
house; he has several reasons for going down there, and I have taken an
interest in going as well - I can transfer to the local UPS hub by
signing up for school. Mike's new home is about 5mins from the heart of
the city, so "Firefly" was the talk of the town, Bluehen - YoUDee~!
(actually, it'll likely be the Tech school for advertising design)
16. Nikon competitor : RICOH - I WAGed CANON; I could argue I was 40% correct....nice job yesterday~! ;7))
17. Empty entirely : PICK CLEAN
18. Western formation : BUTTE
19. Furniture wood : RED ELM - as a wood worker, I'd really like to get into a project made from something other than pine or oak
20. Clergyman's deg. : ThD - Doctor of Theology
22. Building __ : SITE
23. "Peer Gynt" widow : ASE - and with 24a....
24. Runner-up before RMN : AES - ....a mini-anagram going on
26. Short-tailed weasel : ERMINE
31. Dow 30 company : APPLE
34. Focus of many a botanical festival : TULIP
35. Ottoman bigwig : BEY - I thought it was "AGA", and then "REY"
36. Farm newborn : FOAL - ah, not CALF
37. When many retire : AT TEN - my first fill was TEN PM
38. Great : HUGE
39. Hogwarts redhead : RON - Harry Potter's best bud
40. 1979 sci-fi classic : ALIEN - one of my top five movies
41. Gibson's "Lethal Weapon" role : RIGGS - I managed to recall his first name - Martin - too
45. Sign of anxiety : PACING
46. Allowance holder, perhaps : CAN - JAR, PIG, DAD(~?)
47. Place to see sea monsters, once : MAP
50. "¿Quién __?" : SABE - What is this, Spanish~? Who Knows~?
51. Announcer Hall : EDD
53. Dead Sea stronghold : MASADA
- I recall having watched this in school; even tho I was 10, I remember
thinking the surprise at the end made it a great story - IMDb
55. Pay : TREAT
57. Cepheus neighbor : URSA MINOR - I went with ursa MAJor to start; the "J" made it unlikley
(BTW, if I ever have kids, I'd like to name one daughter Cassiopeia)
59. Floor in the Louvre : ÉTAGE - Frawnche; can't get away from it
60. Quiet break : CEASE FIRE - yeah, that's one way to describe it
61. Corning creation : PYREX
62. Hog support? : KICKSTAND - Harley Davidson "hog"
DOWN:
1. 1978 Toyota debut : SUPRA - DAH~!! I couldn't think of this; Sentra? Celica? I am excited for their new hybrid pick-up, the A-BAT, due for release 2016
2. Looks closely : PRIES - argh~! Not PEERS
3. Tot's song starter : A B C D E - H, I, J, K....now I know uh, sumthin'
4. Decorator's target : CAKE - nice; didn't occur to me
5. Lesotho, for instance : ENCLAVE - OK, so I thought this was a Shakespearean character; turns out it's a land-locked country in South Africa - the Wiki
6. Comparatively still : CALMER
7. Exist : ARE
8. Essence : MEAT
9. Like the ancient Olympic Games : PAN-HELLENIC - "All of Greece"
10. Blake's eye : ORB - if I go to Delaware, I'll have to give up on my blue-eyed girl :7(
11. 15th-century pope : PIUS II - I nearly nailed it; "V" or "I"~?
12. Drive on the way to Hollywood? : ACTING BUG - yeah, um, what's an acting "RUG"~?
13. Stinker, in more ways than one : ROTTEN EGG
14. Old Testament pronoun : THEE
21. Backup site : DRAIN
25. One who's easy to take : SITTING DUCK
27. NBA honor : MVP - also MLB, NHL, NFL, etc.
28. Tide alternative : ALL - nice; laundry detergents
29. Tambur relatives : LUTES
30. Most spiders have eight : EYES - I had perps, so it was not "LEGS"
31. High style : AFRO - hair style, that is
32. Place to make a splash : POOL PARTY
- My B-day is in February, so my parents frequently suggested I do a
summer pool party for a better turnout and more fun; I was OK with the
idea because I basically celebrated twice
33. Sichuan native : PANDA BEAR
37. Separate : ALONE
38. __ Honor : HIS
40. Name from the Hebrew for "lion" : ARI
41. Alters on a desktop, maybe : RENAMES - your computer desktop
43. 2002 film with a mammoth co-star : ICE AGE
44. Table linen fabric : DAMASK
47. Fanaticism : MANIA
48. Dress : ADORN - oh, the verb, not the noun - it's part of my "47d"
49. Cut off : PARED - as say, the branches of a shrub or bush
50. Short distance : STEP
52. Square root of neun : DREI - Das German~!
54. Recipe direction : SIFT
56. '60s-'70s soul singer Joe : TEX
58. Ink __ : SAC - "JET" seemed plausible; made me question my "URSA"
Splynter
35 comments:
Started out great, knew 1a and 10a right off, but after multiple passes, and filling in every other sector, the NW remained stubborn, with only SPACE and space (also POURS, which red letters told me was my only error at that point). I even had AREA and CLEAN. Finally had to turn on red letters. Never heard of RED ELM, and 2d went POURS>PEERS before PRIES, which had a lousy clue.
Just finished, so no poem yet. Maybe later.
Morning, all!
Like Splynter, I through down SPACE CAMP at 1A and thought I was off to the races, only to get mired in the mud almost immediately thereafter. I did manage to get through the whole puzzle unassisted, but it took a lot longer than usual and it was a struggle the whole way. Sadly, a lot of it was just making wild guesses based on the available letters. Lesotho is an ENCLAVE? RED ELM is actually a type of wood? Somebody is actually named Joe TEX (or TEX Joe)? ETAGE?
It would have been a total fun sponge, except that the tricky clues were really satisfying to figure out. DRAIN for "Backup spot"? Genius! "Hog support" for KICK STAND? I love it!
I only had ABCDE and ASE in the NW, and was despairing of even finishing this one.But gradually it all started filling in. I figured that 28-D was referring to the laundry detergent, and wanted "Era." But that just wasn't working out too well.
The SE was a lot easier to me, and helped me to claw my way back north. My last fill was RED ELM. Never heard of it, but happily, it gave me my TA-DA!
Like Splynter, I was racing through this in record time, but hit a speed bump in the East. AGA instead of BEY set up ROTTEN GAS and had me guessing that spiders had eight EARS. Took a while to find the ROTTEN answer. RIGGS was unknown, as were ASE, EDD. Never heard of RED ELM either. Fortunately knew AVRIL LAVIGNE thanks to my daughter. Other mistakes: PEERS before PRIES, P-U-II became PAUL II rather than PIUS II. Eventually got to the end but with a typical completion time.
Thanks for the excellent wrap-up, Splynter!
Good morning!
Things looked bleak after the first pass. Only a few words filled in, and some of those were WAGs: ERA (Hi, Marti!), PEERS (Hi, HowardW!), JET (Hi, Splynter!). I was thinking that KICK STAND would be a clever answer for 62a, but JET and STIR wouldn't allow it. D'oh! What really threw a wrench into the works was PAN EUROPEAN crossed by TEN PM. Wite-Out to the rescue. Still, the train made it into the station on schedule.
Splynter, the problem with making a project out of something other than oak or pine is $$$$$$. Really expensive sawdust! Just so you know, ¿Quién is Kemo's brother. And that "Acting Rug"...that's what Pat Sajak wears. You can often see LESOTHO on the manufacturer's tag in your blue jeans or denim shirt.
After yesterday's stumper, this was a Saturday breeze. SUPRA, MASADA, RIGGS, DREI, Joe TEX, ICE AGE, SPACE CAMP, & OLD IRONSIDES were gimmes. The NE fell easily with BUTTE, RICOH, & OP-ART. I wanted LEGS for EYES for a spider.
I worked around the center because I have never heard of AVRIL LAVIGNE- 100% perps,as were DAMASK, SABE, and ETAGE. A few write-overs were changing RED OAK to ELM, DRIVE to DRAIN, and STIR to SIFT.
Joe TEX- " Show me a man that's got a good woman"- I remember that song.
EDD Hall- crazy for leaving to Tonight Show
RENAMES- "Alters on a desktop"- I was thinking about moving icons around
I was thinking MER for MAP when it came to sea monsters
Guess I need to read Peer Gynt. Thought ASE died because of the tune Ase's Death in Peer Gynt Suite. But she was a widow? Or maybe it was a death she was enduring?
This was an example of how much trouble I had getting into the head of the author today. I eventually prevailed but not without help.
Nice Saturday offering, I thought.
Best to all.
Tough sledding from the get-go. I nearly always try to prove a fill with at least one cross, so it took a long while to start. First fills were the mirrored Els of orb/butte and Pyrex/Tex. Never did pick up any momentum, but slowly it all filled in. Final correction was changing April to Avril cuz enclape just wasn't getting it. In hindsight, it was very much like a Silkie. As hard as ebony, but still possible. Good puzzle.
D-Otto,
Made me laugh out loud with your jokes about Kemo and Acting Rug.
Rainman,
Made me look it up. Character list in Peer Gynt begins with "Aase, a farmer’s widow". She dies during the play. (page 52 in the linked version)
Good Morning, all.
Thanks, Daniel, for a little Saturday relief after yesterday's debacle. I agree with what has already been stated. Looks like a lot of us stalled in the same spots. I especially liked KICKSTAND and DRAIN. I thought "Decorator's target" was a great misdirection for CAKE. I chuckled as that played out. I wanted red oak before RED ELM. I still don't see the ACTING BUG as a "drive on the way." I think I'm confused by "on the way." Doesn't one have the bug before the departure? Fun puzzle.
Thanks, Splynter, for your usual excellent run through. I like the red elm link. It would (wood?) make a beautiful piece of furniture. Cassiopeia was the first constellation I ever saw when I was about 7. "Hey, Dad," I marvelled, "Doesn't that look like a W in the sky?" He made me feel like discovered the constellation!
Have a good day, everyone.
I breezed through everything with Thursday speed, except for the NW corner which doubled my time. I knew 1A was SPACE___. If I had realized it was CAMP, it would have helped considerably. I promised myself to remember for next time. It must have been easy for HG. SUPRA was all perps. I liked DRAIN, KICKSTAND and SITTING DUCK.
I have two DAMASK tablecloths. DAMASK is named after DAMASCUS, Syria, famous for its weaving long ago. I think we had this in a recent puzzle.
I thought CORNING was COMING for quite some time.
I toyed with 8 legs for spiders, but the clue said MOST SPIDERS. ALL spiders, except injured ones, have 8 legs.
I missed MASADA and the Dead Sea on my first trip to Israel. I was very sick in bed with the Israeli type of Montezuma's Revenge. Thankfully the group was staying at the same hotel that evening so I didn't need to take the bus. Several years later I visited these two SITEs on my second trip to Israel. Very interesting and well worth waiting for.
Thanks for the excellent review, Splynter.
BTW, yesterday I had the most trouble (red lettered it) with FRITO being a relative of RUFFLE. I have never heard RUFFLE and FRITO used in the singular for these chips.
Good morning everyone.
Relatively easy Saturday. Some good nucleation points to grow the solve: OLD IRONSIDES, URSA MINOR, ROTTEN EGGS. A little Frawnsch - ETAGE, German - DREI, and Spanish - SABE. Liked the clues for SITTING DUCK and AFRO. Had good luck with WAGS today.
52d - DREI. Why leave 'square root' in English? From Beolingus: Die Quadratwurzel aus 9 ist 3. The square root of 9 is 3.
¿Quién? wasn't anything to write home about, either.
But that's Saturday.
Good Morning:
I was just not on Daniel's wavelength with this puzzle. First pass gave me very little, except discouragement. But I persevered and, bit by bit, I finished w/o help. But, I spent far more time solving this than I have ever spent on a Silkie. As I said, different wavelengths.
Good job, Daniel, and thanks, Splynter, for the concise expo.
Have a great day.
This was a fun, challenging, but relatively quick solve. Thanks, Daniel, for the enjoyment.
Splynter, another great expo.
What a great Saturday exercise here in Room 4214! The NW gave up easily and off I went. Thanks Dan!
Musings
-celine dionNE fit early but gave way to AVRIL
-I like the Huntsville, AL SPACECAMP the best
-Teachers will PICK CLEAN any table of freebies whether they need ‘em or not
-This BUTTE is visible for hours when driving from Cheyenne, WY to Yellowstone
-Is it surprising to you to see where AES got his runner-up 1956 votes?
-Isn’t wearing ERMINE and mink très gauche today?
-Retire time? When the Benadryl kicks in
-Cepheus is circumpolar meaning you can see it every night from the Northern Hemisphere
-German and British soldiers breached “no man’s land” and sang Christmas carols side by side during the 1915 Christmas Cease Fire. Let the vainglorious generals and politicians fight the wars!!
-Splynter! I thought you’d have a leggier Harley support! Ah, you saved ‘em for ADORN.
Yellowrocks- RUFFLES have RIDGES is an old commercial for a type of potato chip, made by the FRITO-Lay division PEPSI-co.
Big Easy, yes I got that. You missed my point. I never heard someone say, "I ate a Ruffle, then I ate a Frito." They do say, "I ate Ruffles and Fritos."
"Nobody can eat just one!"
No joy today either, the SW totally kicked my butt. No way to get a foothold and nothing to build off.
A tough week for me.
That's how messed up this puzzle was for me - I meant the SE kicked my butt.
I need a nap.
Devilish. Did a lot of head scratching and guessing. Ultimately satisfying.
Very ponderous start to my day today. I'm moving slowly in June gloom weather; the dogs are lethargic, and the puzzle fill felt like creeping molasses.
Madame Defarge @8:36, I think those who make it big in Hollywood need the all-out drive, the acting bug, all along the way. They face so many obstacles and so much discouragement that they need a lot of drive to keep going strong for a long dry period.
My drive has about dried up now that I reached my goal, but I did force myself to the gym today and I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the Y pool tomorrow. As for the long delayed tasks waiting for me during these past weeks of being patient, as well as care giver, I have no drive to take them up.
Howard W. Ha ha. I wondered who would pick up on "Nobody can eat just one." You didn't disappoint me.
HowardW, thanks very much for the Peer Gynt information. I was just too busy to look it up.
This is Aase's Death, aka Ase's Death, part of the Peer Gynt Suite, which premiered with the Ibsen play and is some of the most beautiful Grieg works.
Grieg's Ase's Death
This isn't necessarily the best version of Ase's Death... there are many, some faster, some slower in tempo, on YouTube, et al.
Hi all!
My normal Sat grid... A smattering of ink (from a SAC not a pen) islands in a white sea...
I thought I was going to make up for yesterday's disaster w/ SPACECAMP, PeerS, and ABCDE right off the bat. PIUS?I revealed OPART & RICho & ORB. legs (bzzt), PYREX, MASADA (we had that a few weeks ago and it stuck!). That gave me Stir (not SIFT).
APPLE is Dow #1 so ALL filled (I use the no perfume version). ICE AGE was easy as I've seen it w/ the kids a few hundred times.
I thought I could pick away at the rest - RIGGS (Googled) - HIS, and nothing else. TDNF. I thought wrong; no makeup test today :-)
Oh, and Hog support? has nothing to do w/ a middle-manager asking the helpdesk 20 questions after the original issue is addressed (ADORN'd?)...
Thanks for the fun Daniel. Thanks Splynter for 'spalin' things.
Growing up, I always wanted to go to SPACE CAMP in Huntsville, AL, but in a family of 5 kids, no $$ for it. The closest I got is the hard-copy of this book from a friend. I still have and browse it on occasion. On the plus-side, I have been blessed to consult at JSC.
Cheers, -T
Gary ! Glad to have your musings! YAY,
Did the puzzle late today, since we were off on our adventure. Ended up dinner at a winery, symphony pops concert of Broadway music with 2 excellent soloists, an overnight at a B & B with a yummy brunch (apricot French toast and an asparagus/ mint Frittata among other things) and then came back to immediately go to a funeral this afternoon.- ahhh the circle of life....
This was a really tough one, but satisfying to FINALLY get through.
Thanks, Splynter and Daniel!
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Daniel Nierenburg, for a fine puzzle. Thank you Splynter, for a fine review.
We are heading back to Chicago from Louisville, Colorado, from spending a week there on a church mission trip. We worked hard all week, but it was very rewarding.
I started the puzzle about an hour Fter we left ths morning. Just finished about nine hours later. I did not work on it constantly, but off and on.
This was a good Saturday puzzle. Pretty difficult, as always. Got through it all, unassisted.
I wound up doing the south first. I could get no where in the north west.
PYREX was easy. As was MASADA. KICKSTAND was very clever, took me a while to get it, though.
Liked OLD IRONSIDES. My wife and I toured it many years ago while in Boston visiting my sister.
AVRIL LAVIGNE was nknown, but perps fixed that.
All in all, I worked my way through this puzzle for about 600 miles. Glad I stuck it out and finished.
See you tomorrow from Illinois.
Glad to see Husker Gary is doing fine.
Abejo
( )
Hello Friends!
It's so late I missed the party but that's because I was at a different one, a reunion of some retired teachers. We had a HUGE gabfest and I ate until I was stuffed.
I started the puzzle before leaving and had all but the SE finished. Looked up URSAMINOR and that brought all the rest together. Also, didn't know RIGGS so had to look for that, too. AGA was stuck as the Ottoman bigwig so finally I erased it and all fell into place. I knew AVRIL LAVIGNE but had to check on spelling her last name. A big error was unthinkingly filling ROZ as the redhead because I've heard my granddaughter talk about her and so I didn't check the whole word downward.
Thanks, Daniel, for the challenge and Splynter for the expo.
I hope you have all enjoyed your Saturday!
Surprised myself at how fast I solved this one without help. My first pass turned up very little, but then it all came together.
I had to laugh with the hog support - I got it right away because I have motorcycle on the brain. Actually, among Harley guys, it's normally referred to as a "jiffy stand" or a "side stand"
PRIES really was unfair
Here's a bit of fun that I wanted to post last Sunday for Father's Day" but couldn't find it. The director was kind enough to send me the link this week. Cheers, -T
Nice to have a challenging puzzle that's solvable for me after yesterday's debacle. Not really sure why some misleading clues make me go, "Aha," when I get them (like today) and others make me go, "Really?," like yesterday.
AnonT, I enjoyed your Fathers Day short film. It had a nice feeling about it.
I am getting shut out on the conjunction viewing last night and tonight. Cloudy.
Bill G. Assuming I know what / where I'm looking I got to see the conjuction again earlier tonight. Now we have a different light show moving in from the north. The lightning is cool (and starting to cool things off a bit).
Glad you enjoyed the short. The kid on the lawnmower made it with iThingies when he was 14. Cheers, -T
Greetings!
Thanks, Daniel and Splynter!
Took a while, but got her done sans cheats.
Was watching Skyfall with Harv. Anybody like it?
Cheers!
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