These: Where did you hide all of the Holes?
Keeping to our bi-weekly schedule, we have Jeffrey back this time with a missing word puzzle. In row 1, 8 and 15 (the beginning middle and end) we have a three word string, each 4,5,4; the clue is for a word ending in "HOLE" but the hole is missing. It is an interesting scientific conundrum, can a hole which is nothing be missing? There is much consistency to the grid though a few of the ___HOLE fill are two words rather than a single word. What makes the puzzle a delight is JW's fun reveal which points out that there are nine words that are not, but should be followed by HOLE. Other than that, it is another Friday with high word count and less than 5 letter average fill. The longer fill is varied including ABORTS, LESTER, NO SHOW, SECURE, SPLEEN, SUCCOR, TOO BIG, WADDLE, AM I BEAT, CAPSULE, GADGETS, LOCKS ON, REVERTS, SEVENTY, SLEDGES, BASE CAMP, PUNK ROCK, ORIGINALS, REMINDS OF, with many of them Jeffrey's customary two word fill. Heck out the symmetry. The asterisks immediately warn the solver that the game is afoot, otherwise 1A would be discouraging. WORMHOLE opened my eyes. Lots of nice musical references; let's see how we all did.
1A. *It offers an ocean view : PORTHOLE(4). Well both ports and portholes do, so this was a hard start. PORTHOLE is written both as one and two words.
5A. *Hardware insertion point : SCREW HOLE (5). While completely avoiding all DF comments, this is one of the theme fill that takes two words, always I think.
10A. *Sci-fi shortcut : WORM HOLE (4). Like many, I learned of this method of travel through STAR TREK. Sorry for the ad, but I like the LINK (4:46).
38A. *Means of evasion : LOOP
40A. *Stephen Hawking subject : BLACK
41A. *Orca feature : BLOW
67A. *Geologic danger : SINK
68A. *Serengeti gathering place : WATER
69A. *Home security device : PEEP
And the reveal, which i am sure appealed at least to me and Moe and HG and the other golfers----especially this week of the Open Championship (or the British Open to some).
46A. Quick round ... and, collectively, what the answers to starred clues lack : NINE HOLES (9).
I liked it!
Across:
14. Chevy subcompact : AVEO. Discontinued in 2011, so...
15. Salad bar morsel : OLIVE. This was hard because I think of morsel as part of rather than a whole.
16. Domingo forte : ARIA. You do not have to like opera to like Placido. LISTEN (3:01).
17. Spectator sport since the Edo period : SUMO. Not something I knew but easily inferable.
18. Alpine air : YODEL. A stretch for me.
19. Checker, e.g. : DISC. It took me more than one pass to relate to the checker on a checkerboard being a disc.
20. "What an exhausting day!" : AM I BEAT! JW likes multiple word fill.
22. Pounding tools : SLEDGES. I did not need to be hit on the head with a hammer to get this one.
24. Veto : NIX.
25. Clay, nowadays : ALI. Easy unless you are a sculptor or into pottery.
26. Handy assortment : GADGETS.
30. "Terribly strange" age in Simon & Garfunkel's "Old Friends" : SEVENTY. They are both over seventy now.
34. ICU connections : IVS.
35. Medical unit : CAPSULE. I imagine those who did not like the earlier in the week capsule used as a clue for ROCKET, there will be debate about this clue/fill.
37. "__ you finished?" : ARE.
42. Terrible : AWFUL.
44. F1 neighbor : ESC. If you had to look at your keyboard was that cheating?
45. Makers of wood pulp nests : WASPS. John Lampkin showed us this PICTURE back in December.
49. Gets in one's sights, with "to" : LOCKS ON. As with a telescopic sight on your rifle.
52. Backslides : REVERTS to his/her old habits.
56. Cancels the launch : ABORTS.
57. Fasten : SECURE.
58. "Whip It" rockers : DEVO. Where are they NOW (0:16)?
59. Order outfit : HABIT. Nun too soon.
63. __ on the back : A PAT.
64. Monthly pmt. : ELECtricity bill.
65. Midway alternative : O'HARE. The two major Chicago airports.
66. Choice array : MENU. And the clecho, 43A. Choice array : LIST.
Down:
1. "¿QuĂ© __?" : PASA. The upside down question mark tells you it is Spanish.
2. Reproductive cell : OVUM. Eggs-actly.
3. Takes back to : REMINDS OF. Like my trip to my 50th high school reunion took me back to my childhood.
4. Goldilocks complaint : TOO BIG. Too hot?
5. Protein-rich bean : SOYA. Soy?
6. Blood __ : CLOT. Lots of Blood____fill- TYPE, TEST, LUST, BANK, LINE, MOON, but this is the first appearance of Clot.
7. Unburden : RID.
8. Anticipatory times : EVES. Twas the night before Christmas....
9. More than adequately : WELL. Oh my, you do that so well!
10. Swaying walk : WADDLE. Don't make fun it is MEDICAL (1:36).
11. Art museum works, usually : ORIGINALS. There are some numbered prints, perhaps.
12. Increase : RISE.
13. Pro and mini : MACS. Apple computers, here I come. Did I answer why?
21. Business VIP : EXECutive.
23. Architectural projection : EAVE.
26. Colorado tributary : GILA. They meet on the other side of Arizona LINK.
27. State as accurate : AVOW.
28. Bar __ : TAB. Bar none I am sure this is Tin's favorite.
29. Petulance : SPLEEN. I guess someone venting his spleen can be petulant, but this was all perps.
30. Help : SUCCOR. A nice old fashioned word.
31. Yosemite grazer : ELK. I did not know this.
32. Stadium in St. Pete, with "The" : TROPicana. You know who has juice in Florida.
33. Landscaping shrubs : YEWS. I understand they like shade.
36. Obi, e.g. : SASH. So often OBI is the fill.
39. "Pure, stripped down" genre, per Tommy Ramone : PUNK ROCK. One of the originals.
41. Climber's refuge : BASE CAMP.
45. "__ Got Tonight": 1983 hit duet : WE'VE. He redid it with Dolly Parton.
47. Absentee : NO SHOW.
48. Sci-fi author/editor del Rey : LESTER. I used to read a lot of Science Fiction and Lester was one of many who came out of the 30's and pulp magazines. He was also a very successful editor and was the inspiration for one of the members of Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers.
49. Fills with cargo : LADES.
50. Division symbols : OBELI. These are just ÷.
51. Neo-pagan gathering : COVEN. A Cool CSO to our California group.
53. Nepal currency : RUPEE.
54. Big name in air conditioning : TRANE. I prefer this TRAIN.(4:52).
55. Everything but the liquor : SET UP. The juice, ice and sodas that Tin never uses.
60. Word associated with a light bulb : AHA.
61. Echolocation user : BAT. Using the sound bouncing off things instead of seeing. I know the feeling.
62. Steaming state : IRE. We leave as we came with a bit of misdirection which I hope did not leave anyone hot under the collar....
Well I am certainly getting accustomed to JW and his puzzles, so I had fun with this. I hope you did and enjoy the rest of the Golf while the rest of the sporting world rests. Lemonade out.
39 comments:
Easy and fun solve today.
The God of Crosswords seems to have anticipated the God of Golf by choosing this puzzle in advance for today! I caught the theme almost immediately with WORMHOLE (I'm a big SciFi fan -- I even knew LESTER right away)! A lot of mis-starts slowed me down, but overall not too bad for a Friday! CELL>CLOT, ERAS>EVES, OLD MASTER>ORIGINALS, AVER>AVOW, BELT>SASH, ASSIST>SUCCOR, RELENTS>REVERTS, STOWS>LADES. Perps corrected all with no reds -- Ta-da!
Nit: the prey "gets in one's sight", the predator "LOCKS ON to". That should be either "get", not "gets", or "sights" not "sight"!
Yeesh, I did 3 limericks about HOLES Monday, and two about golf for HG on Tuesday! And now I oughta do one about combining them?!
The eagle is hungry for dinner tonight
The jackrabbit, foraging, GETS IN HIS SIGHT.
The raptor LOCKS ON,
In a dive he is gone,
Which is faster, the bird's or the rabbit's flight?
The North Pole shop is ringing with clamor!
Santa can't find the right size of spanner!
The sleigh's got a new part
From the local sled mart;
If he hasn't a sledge wrench, he'll use a SLEDGE HAMMER!
The gutterman was a specialist in a special way.
He worked only before Christmas and New Years Day.
And Halloween and Midsummer, too.
Folks gave him a lot for what he'd do.
No downspouts, he'd only work EAVES for his pay!
Morning, all!
This one was pretty much undoable for me until I finally figured out the theme, after which it went by pretty quickly.
I knew there was something going on, but I kept trying to fit WARP at 10A and figured there was some sort of letter substitution trick instead of missing word. It didn't help that I was convinced that 20A needed to start with I'M, so once again I thought there was some letter substitution going on since 1D had to be PASA.
Ah well, once I got the theme reveal it all became clear to me and I was able to fill in all the starred clues in a rush. I still struggled with some of the other fill, mostly due to the cluing (MACS, TOO BIG, SPLEEN, GADGETS, etc.), but nothing too bad.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. This began as seeming to be very difficult. My first thought upon reading It Offers An Ocean View was PORT, but that didn't seem complete. It wasn't until I got to the Stephen Hawking clue (on the second pass), that I realized the HOLEs were missing.
Nice Shout Out to our California COVEN!
A Louisiana SINK HOLE that is in the news.
I peeked on my keyboard to find the ESC key.
My favorite clue was Order Outfit = HABIT.
Hand up for going with Too Big before TOO HOT. And I wanted Blood Cell before Blood CLOT.
We have a MAC mini, my Hubby has a MAC Pro, and I have a MacAir, yet it still took a pass or two to come up with this answer.
EAVE and EVES in the same puzzle!
Fun to see both DEVO and a reference to The Ramones in the same puzzle. Both REMIND OF a time in my younger years when we saw both bands in concert.
QOD: A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once. ~ Phyllis Diller (July 17, 1917 ~ Aug. 20, 2012)
Wow this was tough for me to finish as I filled it with many WAGS and perps for unknowns- OBELI, LESTER, TROP, RUPEE and those were the easy parts. I never did get the HOLE theme until the write up; I just thought some of the answers looked strange. From a PORT, one can view the ocean. An orca makes a BLOW. WATER attracts animals. I was thinking SINK from Geology classes and PEEP filled from the perps. A woodSCREW has a point. LOOP and BLACK just fit because of perps but didn't make sense to me. Lemon, it took more than one pass to realize that a checker was a DISC but I didn't fill the 'C' or 'K' until I realized that the 'pro or mini' was referring to the overpriced Apple computers.
Favorite clue- 'Order outfit'- HABIT
I'll give myself a gold start for finishing this one and a dunce cap for not associating the NINE HOLES with the starred answers.
Interesting puzzle! It took quite some time to catch on, but it helped a lot with some of the theme answers. Port stood alone and Screw filled with perps, so it took until Water to get it. Then the others fell more easily.
Old Friends has always been a favorite. Unfortunately, the life long friend it reminds me of died at 42.
Anon-T from yesterday. Breathed is only releasing Bloom County strips on Facebook (at least for now). But you can easily google Bloom County 2015 and see the 4 strips that are out so far. LW liked his facebook page yesterday and the new one this morning showed up automatically. It's nice to have him back!
I think I used a months worth of successful wags today. All of them were in the South as I managed to figure out the North & South. But as others have already mentioned, this was no walk in the part.
LESTER, OBELI, RUPEE, & COVEN were the wags I remember. I'm sure there were others.
Some other back and forth: Chive/OLIVE, ent/BAT, toddle/WADDLE, beep/PEEP, & aver/AVOW.
I was ready to give it up after the first pass which yielded eight fills, but when I solved the North & Central, I had to go for the finish and I lucked out.
Good morning!
Got the theme when my beloved WARP turned into a WORM. That rememinded me of Startgate SG-1 -- they even had a show-within-a-show episode that featured a program called Wormhole X-Treme. Getting the theme helped a whole lot with the rest of the puzzle. SLEDGES evoked memories of the awl field -- if it still isn't working you need a bigger hammer! Still, I suffered a DNF at the hands of JW. I had OBiLI crossing DiVO. Bzzzzzt! Lemon, in Houston it's Minute Maid who's got the "juice."
Speaking of juice, I've been AWOL for the past day or so due to the battle of the utilities. A few weeks back the cable TV folks drilled a new underground cable through my yard and managed to cut into the underground power cable, blacking out the neighborhood. Wednesday the electric folks were back to turn their above-ground patch into a permanent below-ground solution. Guess what? They sliced right through the cable TV folks cable! Now I've got an above-ground solution for my internet connection. Wonder what'll happen in the next 10 days when they come back to bury this latest cable?
Fun puzzle after figuring out the theme. Thanks, JW, for another great offering.
Nice write-up, Lemonade. You outdid yourself on the 9 Holes explanations!
Lemon: Nice write-up and links. Good Job!
Since I always "Pay-as-I-go" ... I never carry a Bar TAB.
My favorite today was the oft-heard TOO BIG ... a CSO to the DF days of the past.
Gimmie of the day was 32-d, Stadium in St. Pete, with "The" TROP.
Raining (again!) today, we ARE now over 30 inches for the year.
Cheers!
Hello, friends!
Thank you, Lemonade, for elucidating the theme. I didn't see it.
Even with a DIW (WARP, DISK)I'm satisfied to have almost finished a Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle.
My main disadvantage is being unfamiliar with modern music although I have heard of DEVO as they were once on Oprah. And I love Simon and Garfunkel, yet don't recall "Old Friends."
HABIT reminds me of my long ago past life.
Have a delightful day, everyone!
Didn't get this at all.
Good Morning:
This was a B E A R! (Goldilocks and all) for me, although I managed to finish w/o help, but it was a looonnnggg process. My numerous w/o's included: sashay/waddle, too big/too hot, Divo/Devo, alt/esc, belt/sash, Crane/Trane, and reminisce/reminds of. After the reveal, some theme answers were easier to get but, for some reason, worm hole took more time than it should have. All in all, I enjoyed the challenge and was pleased to get the tada. Nice CSO to the Coven and, through the theme, all of the Corner golfers.
Thanks, Jeffrey, for a difficult but rewarding mental workout and thanks, Lemony, for the informative expo and the delightful Domingo clip which led me to one of my favorites, Pavorotti's Nessum Dorma, conducted by Zubin Mehta.
Have a great day.
Well, I started this puzzle from the top... And was very happy to finally finish it, only to hear that some thought it easy? (Thank you for your honesty Irish Miss.)
22A Hammers? no... Mallets?, no... (Still swinging away...)
65A Midway alternative? (Only a Chicago native would know this, or a flight simulator fanatic like me...)
44A F1 neighbor (I thought it said Florida neighbor) Ala?
Learning moments: Petulance = spleen? Division symbols = obeli?
Lemon, you seem to reference links at 10D & 54D, but I cannot access them.
Oh well, it felt good to complete this puzzle...
Publlic Service Announcement...
"Puzzling thoughts":
Yes, Lemon, NINE HOLES was a good "theme", but ironically I didn't see the reveal until the very end, as golf/sports themes are rare here at the LAT CW
I cheated a few times but finally finished; I, too thought of Tinbeni when I saw the answer for "everything but the liquor"!
Will be absent from the CC for awhile - taking a deserved "holiday" - see y'all in a few weeks
I'm the queen of mis-starts today. Beside several of the aforementioned errors, add to the mix:
REMEMBERS/REMINDSOF and ONION/OLIVE.
Honestly, my mind was not on the constructor's wavelength at all. With so many wrong entries that seems right, I did not know what was going on. Eventually I hung it up and cried "uncle".
The theme is smart, but I wasn't smart enough to get it due, in part, to all my flaws.
Add that to several unknowns, and there you have it...A super duper DNF. One of the worst ever for me.
Tomorrow's puzzle should be a doozy, so I'll start mentally preparing for it ASAP. Wish me luck.
My best to you all.
Had to work this top to bottom and then bottom to top and still lots of blank. Then I got the theme and it fell to hand.
Kind of ironic that both Simon and Garfunkel of Old Friends are both old and not friends at all. Sad actually, IMHO.
Mr. Wechsler's puzzles have kicked my tail recently, so I was quite pleased with myself for completing this one today. Like others, I didn't see the theme at first and had white space all over the grid. After two passes with little progress, I just figured I was gonna have my hat handed to me again by JW. PORT and WATER seemed to work on their own and a SINK is a geologic feature, so I never thought the "lack" mentioned in the reveal was an entire word -- I figured it would be a letter. Once the "Aha" moment occurred, things fell into place much more quickly (with lots of perp help today).
Nicely done, Mr. Wechsler.
Last Limerick for awhile . . .
Juarez physicist thought it was "nada",
To complete his research in Nevada.
And to prove he's no hack,
He discovered the BLACK!
Now he's gotten the "HOLE" enchilada.
OBELI was my learning moment today. I started 50D with ABACI--far out I know, but it seemed like a connectable stretch (both uses dealing with math)-- but the perps brought me around.
Just one lookup, otherwise a success after a slow start.
BLOW HOLE was my reveal as Lemon said the rest of the fill was fun too!
Musings
-Golf early in the a.m. with heat index 100˚F+. Front and back NINE HOLES!
-My house siding is fiber cement siding. You need a pilot hole for every SCREW HOLE
-Reverse PEEP HOLES - hilarious (:55)
-Missing an easy putt, is said to “choke on the OLIVE”
-How did YODELing make it from central Europe to the old west?
-A very famous “GADGET” in history
-What a great feeling when they take out that last IV line and you can walk around free!!
-WASPS nests are one targets for Billy The Exterminator on The History Channel
-One fighter LOCKING ON to another
-Late Night Catechism with a nun in full HABIT was a fun night of theater last night
-I think ¿QuĂ© PASA is Spanish for “Wussup?”
-If you’re in post op, count on multiple heparin shots to prevent blood CLOTS
-In Back To The Future Marty asks for a TAB (Soda in the future) but the cafĂ© owner says he can’t give him one because he hasn’t ordered anything. Then he orders a Pepsi Free and…
Not down the rabbitHOLE. Today. Fun puzzle with AHA moment when I got the theme.
Too hot before TOO BIG held me up. I must remember OBELI.
Off to more Pan Am games.
Hi everybody. That was tough for me. I eventually finished but it was a struggle. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemon.
A learning moment for me today was OBELI or the plural for this division sign (÷). Though a math teacher, it was new to me. I hope I can remember it and so increase my storehouse of mostly useless information.
Here's one for you. Many fractions are represented by a repeating decimal. For example, one-third is 0.33333... It is often written as 0.3 with a horizontal bar over the three. That bar is called a Vinculum. So 0.45 with a vinculum over it would be 0.454545... or 45/99 which reduces to 5/11. Aren't you glad you paid attention to fractions back in fifth grade?
Does your car have passive air conditioning when parked outside on a hot, sunny day? I crack the sun roof and crack both front windows. The hot air rises out the roof and is replaced by cooler air coming in the windows. It reduces the inside temperature by as much as 20 degrees I'm guessing.
Hi all!
Whoot! I got a Friday. I got a Friday*... [happy dance]...
Puzzle started slowly... NW TOOhot, moved to NC, SOYA, OLIVE, CLOT (yuck), YODEL? comeback...
NW... "It's a WORM HOLE dern it. Why does nothing fit?" I read the theme clue, filled 10a and Bam! - Off to the races. NW was still last to fill w/ one exception...
Thanks Jeff for a great (for me) puzzle. I had fun AHA moments. Thanks to Lem for the writeup and kicking-off the post-puzzle-party.
Gimme - I've flown in/out of both OHARE and Midway.
WO/s: 14a - Nova?, Volt?, perps... 20a - i am BEAT (wanted letsEAT for the longest time). 3d. REtuNs um, what?
Last bit of fill was 44a. F1 neighbor? _S_; hummm, K or Q, Kn? Nope not chess. Um, airplanes... "I need some help here..." V8 moment.
WEES re: HABIT c/a.
Learning moments - OBELI... Who knew? YEW is a shrubbery. I only knew it made bows.
Fav - Them BATS is smart, they use radar. (you may need to turn up the sound). 60d c/a pair is close runner up.
Ave Joe - thanks. I don't do FaceFriends, so I'd have never known.
From last night - still and open question - anyone use a vehicle transport service?
Cheers, -T
*put a vinculum over that :-)
Ave Joe - A double-thanks. I just read Bloom County 2015... The Atticus Finch one was LOL! C, -T
Anon-T. Glad you liked it. I suspect it might be more widely available as time passes. But it's pretty clear it won't go back into syndication. I don't do Facebook either, but LW does, and I can piggyback off that so I'll get my fix.
I have used a transport service about 15 years ago. From Phoenix to Lincoln, and it cost $800. It was just a local guy that was referred to me by a friend, so that's of no help to you. But it might give you a price point for comparison. That's about 1,200 miles, IIRC. And if weight is a consideration, it was a Celica GTS, which is prolly about the same as a Spyder.
Greetings!
Thanks, Jeff and Lemonade!
Fun puzzle, once I realized what the reveal meant! No cheats. Not very long.
Hand up for TOO HOT at first. A PhD in math does not mean that you have heard of OBELI.
Misty: still in my thoughts.
Cheers!
I have to wonder if Obeli has a point, or if he is round headed.....
Anon-T, I just heard from a close friend that I had alerted to the return. His reply was: "You have brought me great joy! I laughed out loud again."
Ave Joe - so everyone knows, I'll make it a clidk away...
We rejoin our Bloom County friends... Opus, caught in a time CAPSULE, has been asleep for 25 years... He learns there is a such a thing as the Internet (and suds + nuns' HABIT is not something you Google), and then discovers today is 25 years ago all over again. How AWFUL.
Breathed is so quick to wit in just a few panels.
Cheers, -T
The vinculum.
33.3̅3̅3̅
What? No posts since 5:17?
It's time for the late nite crowd to appreciate this puzzle!
(Actually, I started at 5, but accidentally hit the X button & lost everything saved...)
(I have been watching Good Eats Videos ever since...)
(Help!)
My favorite Porthole...
The clue said Hardware Insertion Point...
Wormhole? (if u find it, leave the dang thingie alone...)
Loophole? (Yeah, I can still post...)
Black Hole... (See Wormhole, leave the dang thingie alone...)
Blowhole! (Sorry, but it was the only clean link I could find...)
Sinkhole? Sorry, they were not funny, until...)
Waterhole Smarts...
(P.S. HG, I have a bunch of hole in one funnies saved, just don't know how to spring them on you yet...)
& finally, Personalize your peephole!
I find it absolutely amazing that in the time since four service members were gunned down in what was obviously an act of terrorism, there hasn't been one mention on the blog. No expressions of sympathy, concern, anything. I think it speaks volumes about the political leanings of the members here. Pathetic.
Luckily, this is a Blog about the Crossword Puzzle of the day. We come here to puzzle the meaning of things, without politics, & explore the "what if".
If you can spare a hour...
What if you were the the missing piece in a plot hole?
Prepare to have your mind blown...
After I figured out the key word, "hole", it was easy.
CrossEyedDave, I've been lurking on this blog for quite some time, and there have frequently been comments regarding a news-worthy tragedy. There's no excuse for the lack of even one single comment. Except the obvious one.
CED - I'm still up playing!
Eldest & I went to the Cantina for dinner. It was nice, she can drive w/ an adult in the car and I could finish my beerssss... :-)
Funnny links. I'll be back in 58m after Borg episode. Cheers, -T
Samuel Johnson:
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
CED - did I miss another spin-off of STNG or is that a fan-film? If the latter, it was quite good and pretty funny (I love Q). Thanks for sharing. OKL - I think you'd like it too.
Ah, WELL, Mr. Patriot... Since nothing is really known, nothing can be said. Mind you, I'm a Vet as are all male members of my* & DW's family. My 'lil bro is in [redacted] now helping the [redacted] get [redacted] until [redacted]. The incident today is a bad thing, but we don't know enough yet to make a judgment. As for politics, good luck guessing mine or anyone else about the CC. That's the rule.
Cheers, -T
*except my stoner uncle - good hardworking guy, just not into that man...
Left alone handed Stratocaster
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