Theme: Too Big To Fail - Initials T B.
60A. Diagnostic skin injection, and, based on the initials of their answers, what the starred clues represent : TB TEST
18A. *Military bigwigs : TOP BRASS
58A. *Home mortgage payer's benefit : TAX BREAK
6D. *Off-road two-wheeler : TRAIL BIKE
10D. *Fairy tale porridge eaters : THREE BEARS
27D. *Salon device for one who wants color but not sun : TANNING BED
35D. *"Beetlejuice" director : TIM BURTON
Argyle here. Not much for a theme but Gareth gave us a lot of it.
Across:
1. Hockey stat : ASSIST
7. Hill-building insect : ANT
10. Decorate, as a Christmas tree : TRIM
14. Post office patron : MAILER
15. Podded plant : PEA
16. Sharpen : HONE
17. Ancient region ruled by Athens : ATTICA
20. Section of town, for short : NABE. (neighborhood)
21. Not well : ILL
23. Notifies : ALERTS
24. Indefinite number : ANY
25. Be overly sweet : CLOY
26. "Glee" cheerleading coach : SUE
 |
| actress Jane Lynch |
27. Marching band member : TUBA
28. Black, in poesy : EBON
31. Triteness : BANALITY
35. Earthquake aftershock : TREMOR
37. Chief Norse god : ODIN
38. Dull uniform color : KHAKI
40. Top-shelf : A-ONE
41. __ the Pooh : WINNIE
43. Roll call setting, for most teens : HOMEROOM
45. Frau's refusal : NEIN
46. Basic lessons : ABC'S
47. Slap the cuffs on : NAB
49. Electrical outlet insert : PLUG
50. UV-blocker rating syst. : SPF. (sun protection factor)
53. Cheap cigar : STOGIE. "I smoke old stogies I have found short, but not too big around"
56. Blade that makes a wake : OAR
57. Slip-on, e.g. : SHOE
62. Olympian's blade : EPEE
63. Revolutionary Guevara : CHE
64. Threat-ending words : OR ELSE
65. __ one's way: proceed : WEND
66. Squirreled away : HID
67. Port in southwestern Italy : NAPLES
Down:
1. GE competitor : AMANA
2. The devil : SATAN
3. Show indifference : SIT BY
4. "Would __ to you?" : I LIE
5. Part of a min. : SEC.
7. In a fitting way : APTLY
8. Prefix with natal : NEO
9. Spanish bar snacks : TAPAS
11. Sound of the surf : ROAR
12. The "I" in VMI: Abbr. : INST. (Virginia Military Institute)
13. Sloppy situation : MESS
19. More deeply colored, as a clear sky : BLUER
22. Reluctant : LOATH
25. __-de-sac : CUL
29. 1847 Melville novel : "OMOO"
30. Taboo : NO-NO
31. Gift decoration : BOW
32. Game point, in tennis : AD IN. Last month.
33. Yellow-striped pool ball : NINE
34. Slangy agreement : "YAH"
36. Sleep stage letters : REM. (Rapid Eye Movement)
39. Cuddly-looking Australian marsupial : KOALA
42. " ... bombs bursting __" : IN AIR. Lot of that Saturday night.
44. Heart exam: Abbr. : ECG. (go argue among yourselves)
48. Tree that sounds like a sandy shore : BEECH
49. Elbowed : POKED
50. Snail's protection : SHELL
51. Old West search party : POSSE
52. Big celebrations : FETEs
53. Hearty meal : STEW
54. Scotch __ : TAPE
55. Plow-pulling team : OXEN
57. Staircase part : STEP
59. Yellowfin tuna : AHI
61. Maidenform garment : BRA
Argyle
35 comments:
Not too hard, but I almost hit a DNF because of NABE+SIT BY. "NABE"?! SIT BY!? Huh‽‽ (BTW, when or why did googlefight change their format?)
There once was a hood who lived in a NABE
(I think it was one where the mome raths outgrabe)
Anyway, this hood, he
Was wearing his hoodie
When a jabberwock jumped him, right out on the wabe!
Our hero, though a hood, was still a nice guy,
But he'd forgotten his EPEE, so he said with a sigh,
"Would you mind, Mr. Wock,
If we just sit and talk?
I'm in no mood to fight, so I'd rather SIT BY."
Said the jabber, "'fraid not, I don't chat with brunch,
And you look like you'll be so tasty to munch."
Said the hood, "Well that's that."
From his hoodie pulled his gat,
Twenty rounds, he had jabberwock wings for his lunch!
Morning, all!
Nice and easy Monday outing. I had about half of the theme answers filled in by the time I got to the theme reveal, and getting that let me quickly fill in the rest of the theme answers. I agree with Owen that NABE is ugly fill, but fortunately I have seen it in puzzles before and remembered it, so when I got to SIT_Y/NA_E I was able to throw in the crossing N without much thought.
Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I thought this was a tad difficult for a Monday. ASSIST didn't immediately come to me, so it is never good when I can't get the 1-Across on the first pass. The TB theme, however, i got after getting the first two starred answers. All your Tuberculosis questions answered.
NABE? I have never heard this nickname for a neighborhood. Hood, yes; Nabe, no. Hence, this was my last fill, despite not much caring for SIT BY.
Violent storms passed through here yesterday. Hope today is calmer.
QOD: Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. ~ Dalai Lama (b. July 6, 1935)
Good morning!
Nice easy Monday romp. Thanks, Gareth and Argyle. SO to Abejo with TUBA. I've always heard NABE refer to the neighborhood theater rather than the neighborhood. Learning moment: ATTICA isn't just a prison anymore.
Nabe?
Lazy construction.
Nice Monday run, only overwrite I can remember was SHRUG before SIT BY. WEES about NABE. On the other hand, I liked fill such as ATTICA, CLOY, BANALITY, KOALA.
My son was explaining to me just yesterday that in the more usual EKG, the K derived from German. Fortunately the answer was all filled in by the time I noticed the clue, so no need to guess (or leave the center letter blank).
Thanks Argyle! Loved the photo of Napoli.
NABE is slang for neighborhood or neighborhood theater. FOR SHORT in the clue should help to make it acceptable, in the the same way as SLANGY AGREEMENT does for YAH.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gareth Bain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Thank you, D-O, for the TUBA shoutout. I played a week ago in a parade in Geneva, IL. Swedish Days Parade. I am 3/8 Swedish, as well.
I, also, could not get started in the NW, so I headed East. Got through the puzzle fairly easily. The NW corner was my last to finish. Got ASSIST, MAILER, ATTICA, AMANA, SATAN, I LIE, SEC, and TRAIL BIKE. Then I sat there looking at one open square. Finally SIT BY became obvious and therefore I got NABE. I have never heard that term before, NABE. But, now I have. OK.
Theme was easy. Had most of them before TB TEST arrived.
I tried LEARY for 22D. KHAKI made me change that to LOATH. Only inkblot.
I have heard that TANNING BEDs can be dangerous. Never used one. I use old Sol when I am working outside.
Started the Sunday crossword while traveling back from Pennsylvania yesterday, but I was so tired I could not concentrate. I may try to finish it later today.
See you tomorrow or maybe later today.
Abejo
( )
Good morning everyone.
Funny to see Gareth on a Monday. But it sported his trademark brightness.
Liked the long downs. The grid layout augered for a more compartmentalized cw, but the impact on solving cadence was minor.
AMANA - GE is such a huge conglomerate that it must have hundreds of competitors. Fortunately Amana came quickly from the perps.
KAHKI - Whenever we were in ranks in Service Dress KHAKI, there always seemed to be many shades of khaki (color). Always wondered if the hue was difficult to standardize.
Have a great day.
Augur
I am a huge fan of Gareth and his puzzles as well as his efforts at Crossword Fiend and i agree that much of the long down fill was fun, but I think the entire NW corner could be redone to eliminate the long out of use NABE, the never used MAILER (as clued), the not Monday friendly ATTICA (as clued), AMANA which is actually a Whirlpool product and the never heard of SIT BY (as clued).
Hope you all had a wonderful week end and holiday.
Hello, Friends!
What a nice, easy sashay this was with no ASSISTance. No BANALITY either. Very clever. I thought of Abejo at TUBA.
NABE is new to me also. Years ago all teachers had to go in for a TB test. It was discontinued in the 80s.
Have a super Monday, everyone!
If only Friday and Saturday could be like today's puzzle........................
I can't resist putting in my two cents about NABE. It appeared in the puzzle on Saturday, January 24, 2015, clued as "Local theater, informally". Crossed with an unknown director (Nicolas ROEG), it resulted in a DNF (FIW?).
I didn't like it then and I don't like it now but I wasn't going to be fooled again.
See y'all on the weekend.
Good Morning:
An easy, breezy romp, per usual on Mondays. Liked the Three Bears and Koala; I have a collection of bears, all sizes, shapes, and colors.
We have seen nabe before, usually clued referring to the neighborhood theater, as mentioned above. Personally, I have never heard the expression used.
Thanks Gareth and Argyle for starting the week off so smoothly.
Have a great day.
Musings
-A very nice Monday, Gareth! NABE was no prob ;-)!
-I’m reading Killing Patton and it shows WWII TOP BRASS machinations brilliantly
-THREE BEARS putting Goldilocks on trial
-I got an Ambien sleeping pill in the hospital and I told the nurses the next morning it was like living through a TIM BURTON movie!!
-A recent silly PEA controversy
-Overly CLOYING elementary teachers can be hard to talk to
-Didn’t we have a discussion about which of these is a TUBA and which is a Sousaphone?
--Uh, KHAKIS
-Pull the PLUG not the cord
-SLIP-ON shoes are more attractive as your feet get “farther away”
-The haunting Who Can I Turn To? came from this paradoxically titled ROARING musical
-We turned up the TV to help Lily tolerate the “bombs bursting in air” here but she still was upset
-Anon. - Friday/Saturday puzzles can be like this. These Jackie Matthews Monday level cupcake puzzles are in our paper everyday
-In what 1962 song do “the bears and the birds tell (ALERT) Clifton Clowers if a stranger enters there”?
Husker, that'd be Wolverton Mountain by Claude King. He also gave us The Comancheros -- remember that one?
"puzzling thoughts":
**Look ma, no ink blots!
**Pretty straight-forward today; left to right, top to bottom; filled in the entire puzzle with perps before even looking at 60a (TB TEST)
**always nice to have a puzzle whose 1 Across clue is one that you know!
**54d was a no-brainer, as I worked for 3M for the first 25 years of my career, and sold a lot of Scotch TAPE
**67a was a gimme, too! Could've been a SO to yours truly . . .
**58a - with some of the candidate's flat tax proposals, the TAX BREAK many mortgagees enjoy could be eliminated. Though I doubt this will; too many homeowners or potential homeowners would be affected. But I hope SOMEDAY the tax laws in this country will be simplified. Sorry if this comment crosses the CC "politics" line
**KHAKI - love the new State Farm commercial featuring the Coneheads
**Congrat's to the USA Women for winning the World Cup Soccer Title
So I was finally able to come up with a limerick that matches the theme of the puzzle - hope you enjoy a moan or groan:
Hamlet's doctor inquired if he
Had developed his cough, recently.
So he gave an injection
To rule out Hamlet's question:
Whether twas "TB or not TB"
Enjoy the week!
Was it just me or was this not as easy as usual for a Monday?
I had to skip the SW initially because I couldn't get any headway at all. Jumped around randomly and started to fill the bottom in. Finally caught a break after getting the unifier.
I knew 6D was some sort of bike and the TB theme helped me think of the word TRAIL. From there I completed the SW and all was well.
Did anyone else put GO ON one's way instead of WEND? I actually have never heard of that word.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend, and came away unscathed. I read abot the horrible mishaps of two guys blowing themselves up. Why do people do such stupid things, knowing the inevitable negative outcome? It's an age old question that will never be solved.
Anyway, thanks for playing today. See ya tomorrow.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Easy breezy romp.
-HG,I'm guilty as charged, at least once. During my time as a kindergarten teacher I was also youth group leader at church. One of the teens asked when we would eat and I replied,"When the big hand is on the 2." Rather than being called cloying I was in for a good natured ribbing by the whole group.
-SIT BY reminds me of numerous crime stories where witnesses SAT BY or STOOD BY, instead of coming to the aid of the victim. On the reality show, What "Would You Do?" some people help the victim and some sit by.
-I learned NABE from doing X words in reference to the neighborhood theater. I looked it up the first time and realized it could also refer to the neighborhood, also. I thought NABE was crosswordese by this time.
-One or two perps gave AMANA away, more crosswordese.
-USPS has an article entitled, "Tips for Frequent Mailers and Small Businesses." It seems like normal usage to me.
- Today is the 7 week mark after my second knee replacement. Last week I square danced two 25 minute sets. Today I walked half a mile on the track at the Y in 15 minutes, slowly but with no stopping, and another 1/4 mile later. I am trying to work up to 1 1/2 or 2 consecutive miles. This week I cleaned, shopped and cooked for our 4th of July picnic to which I invited my sibs. Having had 3 knee operations since January 26 and being in recovery a total of 5 and a half months, I am getting impatient and antsy. But looking back, I suppose I should feel lucky.
Good morning all,
Loved the assists in yesterday's soccer game! Way to go!
Enjoyed today's CW, but was surprised to see banality, loath and cloy on a Monday... although easily filled. And Omoo..why can't I remember the word, not just the O. Nabe... if you say so.Can't complain. I'm not the one who spends hours creating these beauties for us. Thanks Gareth.
Lucina, I still must be current with a TB skin test in order to sub...had one last year. Different rules from state to state. Look what is happening in CA about having all children vaccinated before K.
Have a lovely week.
YR, SIL was scheduled for a knee replacement a month ago. She had some slivers in her leg from working on her bromeliads, and the doctor cautiously cancelled due to the chance of infection. Now she's on the waiting list for another surgical opening. Any words of wisdom I should pass on to her?
D/O, my best advice to anyone with knee, foot, and/or leg pain, and contemplating surgery would be to work toward an ideal BMI. (Every pound lost helps.)I started counting carbs because my A1C was high. That led me to start losing weight which encouraged me to diet in general. I lost 45 pounds in 6 months. Also, it gave me a healthy glucose level which aids healing. Being slim tremendously reduces the burden on the lower extremities.
Being fit helps a lot, too. I have been exercising at the Y for several years. I hiked and square danced until just recently when severe bone on bone arthritis called a halt.
A few weeks before each operation I hired a personal trainer at the Y to do aquatic PREhab. It helped to strengthen my legs and inner core painlessly. I highly recommend it. I will very soon rehire the trainer for aquatic REhab. I took in-home PT for a week after the operations and then out-patient PT twice a week ever since. Only 2 or 3 more weeks of PT to go, I hope.
Good luck to your SIL.
'Twas Brillig,
The brightest thing 'bout this bench-test been:
CHE clued as "REVOLUTIONARY"
'Twixt bays to ballistics:
Total 'blivion? Try Bolivia!
Terrorist's Bedtime
Tata.
DNF, my ancient Greek region WAG was Ithaca (17A). I did change the I to an A, & the A to an I, but could not erase the inked in "H." That left me with 3D SI(H)-y crossing NA-E. In the ensuing Alphabet run, the "B" was discarded as being as preposterous as all the other letters...
CC: The missing hammock picture is a puzzle!
It is not on my phone.
It is not "in the cloud."
It is not in my downloads.
It is not on Facebook.
I did check my picture collection on Shutterfly, & it turns out 3 albums of pics are completely empty? I have asked Shutterfly if they are lost forever, & they are looking into it...
Well someone in the Tampa Bay Area, having an operation this Thursday, is going to very happy THAT I donated a pint of blood today.
As for this puzzle ... thought it appropriate that SATAN crossed NABE
and NINE crossed NEIN.
If a clue is going to have Scotch____ ... I would prefer the answer be something liquid that I could enjoy.
Therefore my "boo" today goes to Scotch TAPE.
As such, this puzzle doesn't get ANY Cheers!
Back to the corner after a long weekend vacation at the cottage with all the family. Great fun and beautiful weather.
Good Monday puzzle with just a little crunch. Hand up for Go On before WEND. WEES about NABE but I thought it was just a Canadian not knowing a regional expression.
I must read the previous day's' blogs to catch up on the news.
YR, you are to be commended for your efforts to aid in your recovery with diet, exercise. It certainly seems to have worked!
I find it amusing that people have to post every time they do something charitable.
-You got it right, Otto! Clifton must have one “good lookin’” daughter!
-Rock on YR!
"The BANALITY of evil"
TALIBAN Y - Chromosome that creates religious zealots?
Greetings!
Thanks, Gareth and Santa!
Great fun!
No problems!
Cheers!
Hi Puzzle Pals!
++ to what conerro said - I bounced around a lot w/ NW left last to tackle. The theme helped me get 'dirt' out of my head and go w/ TRAIL @6d. That broke up the NW until a shortened ABCS run at SIT_Y got me the "Whoot!"*
I called it! I knew exactly Tin's response to 54d's c/a. :-)
Lot's of fun Gareth (not my existence's bane today). Thanks! Argyle - great writeup as always. Thanks for spelling out 12d's VMI - I had NO, I mean NO clue there...
W/o - nth b/f ANY at 24a.
Fav - TAPAS - I can't wait for the food trucks next Tues!
In the spirit of HG's PEAs link &10d...
PEAs Porridge hot
PEAs Porridge cold
PEAs in the Quac?
Now, that is bold!
Cheers, -T
*The newspaper doesn't have TADA sound effects - I must add my own :-)
AnonT:
Do you mean Guac?
Lucina:
Son of a BEECH!
Yes, I did... Oh, well; tomorrow starts in 5 hours.
Cheers, -T
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