Theme: Add a little Einsteinium (Atomic Symbol ES)
Back to back weeks of Jeffrey is a new twist on Friday, but the theme of adding ES to the end of the second word of an in the language phrase to completely change the phrase is a classic. (Concise!) The awesome part is that each phrase also completely changes the sound of the second word as well as its meaning. The new phrases are clued with humor. The central grid spanner gives the puzzle a nice appearance. We have all the letters but Q and Z so there are many fun words in the fill plus JW's usual two word fill. CAJOLED, FEEL BAD, GENESES, NEW MATH, GAME FACE, IN UNISON, MILANESE, OLIVE PIT are the features.
31A. Duffer's nineteenth-hole litany? : GOLF GRIPES (10). The grip becomes the complaint for the golfer.
37A. Where some climbers take smoking breaks? : CIGARETTE BUTTES (15). My favorite where the remnant of a cigarette becomes a thing of BEAUTY.
44A. Highlights of the hippo ballet in "Fantasia"? : JUMBO JETES (10). Ah the 747 becomes this CLASSIC.
62A. Milliseconds? : TINY TIMES (9). Do you think of the Christmas Carol or Herbert Khaury?
Well enough of the silliness let's get to solving.
Across:
1. Big name in arcades : SEGA. They lost out to the others like Xbox and Wii in the home gaming but dominate the arcade MARKET.
5. Show pride : BEAM. When you look at a parent watching a child you can see the beam.
9. Speck : ATOM.
13. A or B, in preparations : PLAN.
14. Hard to watch : UGLY. Perhaps this might explain the CLUE.
15. Baseball commissioner emeritus Bud : SELIG.
19. Entry mechanism : STILE. For all you subway riders, this was a gimme.
20. Less prosaic : ODDER.
21. Canceled (out) : XED.
23. __-Picone: women's fashion label : EVAN. Last week it was Anne Klein.
27. High court delivery : LOB. Tennis court in honor of the US Open going on now.
30. Job application ID : SSN.
34. Eponymous physicist James : JOULE. I found him fascinating, his career was not as a scientist but as a BREWER.
36. Star __: Asian spice : ANISE. And a controversial Herbal TEA.
42. "What's in __?" : A NAME? JW loves him Shakespeare.
43. Town in a 1945 Pulitzer-winning novel : ADANO. John Hersey novel.
47. WWII female : WAC.
50. "You're the __ That I Want": "Grease" song : ONE.
52. 1960s educational experiment : NEW MATH.
55. Spirit : LIFE.
57. 22-Down sound : YIP.
59. Vital vessel : AORTA.
60. Amazon transaction, e.g. : E-SALE.
65. Port array : DOCKS.
66. "Amarantine" musician : ENYA.
68. With 6-Down, savings : NEST. Gratuitous referential.
69. It contains diamonds : DECK. Good clue.
70. Deco designer : ERTE. Romain de Tirtoff (23 November 1892 – 21 April 1990) was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, from the French pronunciation of his initials, per wiki.
Down:
1. "SNL" staples : SPOOFS.
2. Loses, in a way : ELUDES.
3. Plant manager's domain? : GARDEN. Really fun misdirection.
4. Clarence Odbody, in a Capra classic : ANGEL. A wonderful character..
6. See 68-Across : EGG.
7. Author Haley : ALEX.
8. Whitman's "Song of __" : MYSELF. Last week he sent Poetry in motion, this week a POEM which I dedicate to the memory of Clear Ayes.
9. Braying beast : ASS.
10. Cabeza, across the Pyrenees : TETE. French equivalent of the Spanish for head.
11. Tapenade discard : OLIVE PIT. A discovery of southern France next to Italy and the land where they speak...
12. Lombardy dialect : MILANESE.
16. Points of origin : GENESES. The Latin plural of Genesis. A different use of ES.
18. NYSE trader : ARBitrage.
22. It may be a toy : DOG. Tricky for such a short fill.
25. Fluish symptoms : AGUE.
26. Doofus : DOLT.
28. Procter & Gamble brand : BRAUN. The razor PEOPLE.
32. Sic on : LET AT.
33. Fascinated by : INTO.
34. Entrance support : JAMB. Door jamb.
35. "Watch how wonder unfolds" snacks : OREOS.
37. Said "Pretty please" to, say : CAJOLED. Straight out of the French Cajoler.
38. Harmoniously : IN UNISON.
39. Determined countenance : GAME FACE. What a great fill; I have seen many game faces in so many different settings outside of sports.
40. Fall setting : EDEN. Oh this is devilishly clever, the fall of man.
41. Foundation : BASE.
45. Exultation : JOY.
46. Found the right words for, maybe : EDITED. I really like this clue.
47. More affable : WARMER. A tricky clue for simple fill.
48. Swear : ATTEST.
49. Unsullied : CHASTE. Not the word I would think of for these UNSULLIED.
53. Angkor __: Cambodian temple : WAT. This is only a recent gimme: A wat (Thai: วัด wat Lao: ວັດ vad, Khmer: វត្ត wōat) is a monastery-temple in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos. The term is borrowed from Sanskrit vāṭa "enclosure" per wiki.
54. Wavy pattern : MOIRE. From the French moi·ré meaning rippled.
56. Organization name selected over "Buffalos" in a close 1868 vote : ELKS. The BPOE voted 8 to 7. They have counted many Presidents of the US in their membership.
58. Yearn : PINE. This is an interesting word because along with desire, it can signal withering away. From the Latin poena, penalty, from Greek poinē;
61. 63-Down hrs. : EST.
63. Tumblr HQ site : NYC.
64. Jaw : YAK. I guess it is time for me to stop yakking and wish you all a happy long weekend and Labor Day. Thanks Jeffrey and all the Corner. Lemonade out.
45 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks, J. W., for a doable (but long for me) puzzle! Thanks for nifty expo, Lemon!
Never even saw the theme as I was plodding through. Nothing too hard, just no brain tonight.
Got a real kick out or GARDEN!
Have a great weekend!
Blogger Manac said...
Hello Gang,
Got hung up in the North with
Spoofs and Stiles. Just wouldn't
come to me. The rest was fairly easy once
the theme was realized.
Great write up Lemon.
Have a safe weekend everybody!
DNF big time! Nearly the entire NE was a total loss! I didn't know cabeza, tapenade, Selig, Evan-Picone, geneses, and had only the vaguest notion that Lombardy was a district in France - though even if I'd gotten that right, it wouldn't have helped. I had ASS & ATOM, but "storm dir."was entirely too vague. The acrosses from the center didn't help, either. Discard ended in PIT? A dialect ended in ESE? Wow, big whoop.
The theme was a problem, too. I figured OUR GANGES was a mutation of ORANGES, I misspelt JETES as JETTS, thought CIGARETTE BOATS (sic) was a take on ARÊTE somehow, couldn't make anything of TINYTIMES, and didn't have enough perps to get GRIPES or BUTTES till very late.
A Montana hunter from BUTTE
Was never quite sure what to shoot.
If he went hunting bear,
He'd end up dinner fare,
And then get a low Yelp score, to boot!
A dancer who did a JETÉ
Tied her shoe incorrectly one day.
It flew off in mid-flight
And hit a stage light
Which turned it to slipper flambé!
Morning, all!
Got the theme at OUR GANGES, once I finally changed ELIDE to ELUDE. I seriously stared at OIR GANGES for a few seconds going WHAAAAA??? But then the light bulb went on and all was good.
After that, the rest of the puzzle was a delight. Knowing the theme really helped get the theme answers, and each theme answer was a gem I thought.
A few of the tricky clues slowed me down, most notably "High court delivery" for LOB. I was totally misdirected into thinking about the Supreme Court and could only think of LAW, despite the fact that I thought it was a pretty weak answer since the Supreme Court renders decisions about laws and not the laws themselves. So it was a very satisfying V8 moment when I finally figured it out. The clue for EDEN also provided a nice *AHA* moment.
Everything else today was solidly in my wheelhouse. I knew JOULE, ENYA, BRAUN, SELIG, ADANO, ERTE and EVAN (although the latter needed a little prodding from the perps to remember).
Good morning!
I really worried that today would end in a DNF. I finally got the theme when JUMBO JETES appeared. I have trouble relating LET AT to "Sic on"; Set at, yes, Let at, no. That made GOLF GRIPES slow to appear.
Picone, Pictwo -- all the same to me.
Lemon, my image of Tiny Tim is from A Christmas Carol -- I try never to think of Herbert Khaury. Btw, BRAUN is also the brand for the Oral-B electric toothbrushes.
Project for today -- try to figure out how to keep the fire ants away from the hummingbird feeder. My "No Fire Ants" sign isn't working.
Good morning all. Thank you Jeffrey and thank you Lemonade.
That SE corner was filled post haste. Then the SW and entire middle. The top third ? Not so fast. I held on to RUESOME far too long, even though I could not get any traction with it. Took it out. Clarence and Capra finally rang a bell. An annual must watch movie.
Had to throw in a number of guesses just to get going. Some weren't even close. I guessed they spoke GENOVESE as a dialect in Lombardy. It fit. For a few minutes.
Another entry went in quickly, and came back out in about 4,000 milliseconds after I typed it in. OMG ! Orono. I keyed in Orono. Hersey's bell town became Orono. Orono is a college town in Maine. Hersey's bell town is ADANO. I know that. Why did I key in Orono ? Yea, I was talking to myself after that entry.
GENESIS and (The) Fall setting.
Took too long to get, but I loved "Plant manager's domain" = GARDEN. "Honey, I have a new title !"
Did not care for "It contains diamonds" = DECK. I get it, but it just doesn't feel right. A deck yes. But not just deck as clued. Maybe it's just me, but it feels off for some reason.
Great puzzle. Thanks for the write-up, Lemonade.
Misread the tense for 37D and so got CAJOLES, which left me wondering what an array of SOCKS had to do with port. Then sense prevailed.
@Owen - I thing you meant Italy, not France.
Good morning everyone.
Delightful puzzle as Barry G. said. And it paid not to overthink it.
Wanted BPOE before ELKS. Thought of 'brag' before BEAM.
Lucky with WAGs today. Finally got te_e for cabeza and saw it was going to be TETE. Toyed with (South) Tyrolean before MILANESE filled out.
Favorite clues were those for GARDEN, DECK, and EDEN.
Have a great day and weekend.
TTP, I really liked the misdirection of the "It contains diamonds" clue. Had me thinking about mines & baseball parks before some letters got me on the right track. I liked even better than "Plant manager's domain" which is also great. Fun puzzle, with a nice theme. I got it after JUMBO JETES (although at the time I thought the theme was just inserting an "E", not adding "ES"), and it helped with BUTTES and OUR GANGES.
Thanks JW for an enjoyable puzzle, and Lemonade for an excellent summary. Never knew that about ERTE, despite his many cw appearances. Nor that JOULE was a brewer. And the Unsullied clip - never watched Game of Thrones, but that was a great scene!
Glad everyone got this puzzle...................but me!
Good Morning. I knew I was in for trouble when all I knew for sure in the NW was SSN and maybe SEGA-a WAG. The puzzle was still a blank paper until the SE and filling TINY TIMES via perps showed the theme. So I wrote ES at the end of 17A, 31A, 37A, & 44A. The long fills became easier at that point, but I had to look twice at JETES because I am unfamiliar with that word.
Other unknowns were MOIRE, ANGEL, TETE, Tapenade (OLIVE PIT), Amarantine (ENYA). The NW never worked out as PLAN, ODDER, GARDEN and FEEL(I had BAD) just wouldn't click in my gray matter this morning. Same problems as MANAC with SPOOF. A FLAME-OUT today for me-DNF. And Steve, for 'Port array', I initially filled WINES instead of DOCKS.
GOLF GRIPES- having not played in a month, I started Monday's round with the first shot in the water and took a triple, then two doubles, then two singles, then two BIRDIES, and two pars for the front nine. My eighteenth tee shot also hit the water. Start and finish the same way-WET. Final score----------------89.
Science GRIPES- Learning Chemistry using Calories and Physics using Joules. Then I took meteorology courses. 4.184=J/C and mmHg to Bar to psi to torre to Pascal and I was scrambling because I was taking courses in Physics, Analytic Chemistry, and Meteorology in the same semester . I'm just glad I was good at math.
Thanks, Jeff, for the morning brain workout and Lemonade for the write-up.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
Not embarrassed to say that I had to cheat a few times to jump start the puzzle; like the hippos in Fantasia I "danced" all over the grid, trying to get a "foothold" on one of the corners; I think I completed the NE first, and the SE was last to fall
So, Lemony, when I watched the Hippo Ballet (to the "tune" from Dance of the Hours) I immediately thought of this rendition from Allan Sherman
BTW, being a golfer, 31a pretty much hit home, but I've chosen to use the 19th hole as a place for imbibing, not griping !!
This was a typical Friday offering; will expect nothing less than a severe Silkie tomorrow
Good Morning:
While this wasn't a walk in the park, I found it easier than usual for a JW offering. The theme came early on which helped with the solve. I think my only w/o was yap before yip. Never knew Braun was a P and G product.
Thanks, Jeffrey and Lemony, for a fun Friday feast.
In reply to Mr. Gay Googler's late night post, "....we should be very clear to distinguish between the message itself...rather than the messenger." : If the message is mean-spirited, then the messenger is mean-spirited.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Jeffrey, for another fun puzzle. Really liked the theme and entries. Favorite was JUMBOJETES!
Lemonade, another great write-up. Where you guys find all these links is amazing. Thanks so much!
Greetings, friends!
Finally, I entered into Jeffrey's wave length and his many misdirections. Like many of you, OUR GANGES set the theme for me and I knew what to look for.
Though it was not easy, it was doable. NEW MATH was a given as I recall the many workshops we attended to learn the methodology.
Great cluing for DECK and GARDEN. Thank you, JW and Lemonade for an always thorough analysis.
Oh, oh, I see a misspelling in my grid, GENERAS (which I know is incorrect) and GRIPER. Drat! Sometimes I don't check my work.
Have a great day and holiday weekend, everyone!
Another place to find diamonds. Link
Steve: Italy is what it is. France is what I thought it was!
I liked this puzzle a lot! Devilish but sensible cluing, and plenty of interesting fill. JUMBO JETES gave me the theme. A beuatiful puzzle, Mr. Wechsler. Thank you.
Very enjoyable puzzle and write up. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemon.
Hand up for thinking I had to add an "E" and not "ES." It didn't really affect the end results much. Also, hand up for agreeing with Irish Miss and her analysis of mean-spirited posts.
What do you think of the new Google logo? I much prefer the old one. I wonder if they will reconsider, sort of like New Coke years ago.
D-Otto get some DE Diatomaceous earth and sprinkle that around what ever your feeder is hanging on and voila no more ants that fast and simple !!!
NE corner did me in too. Had 3 words that I couldn't get !!
Thanks Jeff, for crunchy but MOSTLY doable puzzle.
My first theme answer that came was JUMBO JETES, although I had JUMBO TUTUS to start with. Then CIGARETTE BUTTES was easy. I had GANGES so OUR GANGES was easy also.
Most of the rest sussed out with perps. But the Southern 12 squares of TINY, ENYA, and DECK were done by cheating. The NW corner I cheated and looked for SPOOFS.
For 52A I had NEW MATH but was afraid to put it in until I had perps because it seemed too easy and the ‘60s had many educational experiments. Here is Tom Lehrer’s song New Math [by lipsynchORswim]. It includes a white board demonstration given by the song. It was in last Friday's JW puzzle.
NEW_MATH
Did anyone else think of the 1966 Robert Rimmer novel, The Harrod Experiment NEW_MATH. Very sexy.
Whoops, 2nd link for Harrod Experiment should have been
HARROD_EXPERIMENT
OK - here are a few efforts on today's theme:
BASAL SEX? = FLOOR MATES
ENTRY-LEVEL SEX? = DOOR MATES
DO THEY PROMISE SEX IN THE AFTERNOON ? = HIGH TEASES
VAMPIRE GARB? = NIGHT CAPES
CARBONATED PONTIFFS? = SODA POPES
OUTSMART 8 and 27, FOR EXAMPLE ? = FOX CUBES
CARE ABOUT STARES? = MIND THE GAPES
DISPOSE OF THE ENEMY? = EAT ONES HATES
NC
Hi gang -
Excellent puzzle and a fine Friday challenge. Made it through - slowly.
Great clues, as have already been mentioned. Plant manger's domain was my fav.
I knew JETES from my dancing granddaughters. My GOLF GRIPES were so bad I finally gave up. BIG EASY - 89 would have been a wonderful score for me.
Loved CC's puzzle yesterday. We came home from Toledo through a heavy rain storm to no internet nor house phone, and unable to change the channel on the TV. So I could neither come here nor watch the Tigers' latest debacle. The pitching is UGLY!
Saying a DECK contains diamonds is just calling a spade a spade. No big deal.
I used to get all the ENYA fill, but now she's two-timing me.
Happy Labor Day weekend everyone.
Cool regards!
JzB
Interestingly, In music "IN UNISON" means without harmony.
Are the CHASTE chased? If so, by whom?
Cheers!
JzB
Tough - and doable, the best kind. I had no idea of a theme until logging on.
Here are a couple more. Off to work now.
WHERE SCOTS PRACTICE SKIIING? = TRAINING BRAES
DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW? = THE LIGHT GROWS DIMES
NC
NC, those are pretty good. You've got a real talent.
Boo luquette: I don't have any diatomaceous earth. I'm not sure where you'd go to get some. I've only heard of using it as a fillter medium in reverse osmosis watermakers. I tried a liberal sprinkling of Ortho Fire Ant Killer. I'm waiting to see if it has any effect.
D otto Lowes Home Depot but don't get the pool filter kind. Get the natural. You can mix with water also and clean your insides with that stuff. People drink it every day for health purposes.
d-o said..."I don't have any diatomaceous earth. I'm not sure where you'd go to get some."
You don't have to go anywhere.
Amazon.com
You got it, Jazzbumpa, re "IN UNISON."
As for 35D: Where would crossword puzzles be without OREOS? Perhaps even more useful than AJAR.
NC, awesome!
Naval semaphores?= SALT CODES
Difficult exam questions?= TEST BANES
Beeps?= SHORT TONES
Christmas seating?= YULE LOGES
Beyond the atmosphere?= APRES SKIES
Venetians in blinds?= HUNTING DOGES
And one which doesn't follow the two-word pattern:
Crown sites?= KING DOMES
I figured I'd never be able to do a Jeff Wechsler Friday, but I nearly, nearly got the whole things, except for just a few letters in the NW corner. And I got the theme early on, so doing this was actually a lot of fun. Many thanks, Jeff! And you too, Lemonade.
Fun poems this morning, Owen.
Have a great day, everybody!
Subbed today and loved all the theme fills but, come on, JUMBO JETES!
Musings
-I had no PLAN B if I didn’t get a teaching job
-I loved the Common Core New Math SPOOF
-SNL SPOOFS seem to gouge both sides of the aisle
-Grade school Hamburger bun fold and the
hot dog bun fold
-A new version of ALEX Haley’s ROOTS is headed for 2016 TV
-Not much else to say after, gasp, working a full day!
Jeff, you win! Interesting puzzle, but out of my league. Lemon, the expo made it all worthwhile. Thanks!
Owen, I loved today's poems, but yesterday's were the best you've done!! Thanks for enriching us!
Didn't get to paper until late afternoon.
CIGARETTEBUTTES was first in. The ES connection didn't come to me. I just thought of the play on word aspect. Nevertheless, they all went in without a problem.
Only NW gave me a headache. Forgot about SEGA, so I had no edge to fill in the rest of that corner. Couldn't figure 1D, 2D or 3D. In the end, this corner was the only partially filled spot. Darn, I almost had it all.
OREOS, again! Enough is enough...
NEWMATH or old, one subject I never cared for in school. As a cook and baker I am proficient in measurements and basic math, but algebra, geometry etc. is way out of my comfort zone. My husband, on the other hand is a bit of a savant. He can solve a math problem in his head, while I'm still trying to decipher the question.
For a Friday, it wasn't too difficult. A nice end of week effort.
Enjoy, but be safe this weekend...
Lucina, so sorry to hear of the passing of your long time friend.My deepest sympathy.
Good add a letter(s) puzzle.
IMO the new math failed partly because many teachers and parents did not understand it. Although I understood it I found it too convoluted for elementary students.I tutored a very intelligent middle school student who moved here from a new math background.She was totally lost and could not handle basic operations.. In a few short sessions of traditional math she was on top of her game. She had tons of questions which we always explored. Her new math teachers blew off her questions.
somebody explain the new math
New math is exactly like the Oxford comma. Exactly.
Anon @ 1953:
New Mathematics or New Math was a brief, dramatic change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools, and to a lesser extent in European countries, during the 1960s.
The phrase is often used now to describe any short-lived fad which quickly became highly discredited.
The name is commonly given to a set of teaching practices introduced in the U.S. shortly after the Sputnik crisis in order to boost science education and mathematical skill in the population so that the intellectual threat of Soviet engineers, reputedly highly skilled mathematicians, could be met.
Hi all:
I'd like to say it was just the NE, but I have to FACE it, it was most of the north. Jeffery showed me what I a DOLT I am and now I FEEL BAD, I do ATTEST.
First theme crack was TINY TIMES. Since the E wasn't a U, it wasn't a vowel progression, so ES at the end of each theme answer. That helped. It also changed rAMp (@34d - my paper printed Entrance upport) and I got JUMBO JETES, JOULE, GOLF----ES and a few others.
The bullet in my foot was step for 13a, then SEGA(?) -> ShOrts for 1d... Oh, what a mess. I did have fun Jeffrey, so thank you kindly.
Lem - thanks for clearing up the N for me and the amusing links.
W/os - so many; but the UGLY(est) was ERno @70a. I kept trying to re-arrange it until NEW MATH appeared and then the downs made him ERTE.
Runner up Favs: what Spitz said.
Fav: BASE (2, 8, 10, 16?) xing NEW MATH
NC - Cute. I like.
D-O: Amdro Fire Ant bait is my goto. Ants / mound is dead in 24 hours.
coneyro - How can you have too many OREOS?
59a reminded me - I'll be in Vegas in a few weeks at .conf and I need to brush up on Black Jack. Last year, not knowing how to play, I walked out up (a buddy helped me play splits and whatnot).
Cheers, -T
I was taught NEW MATH and metric units (SI) in the 70's from 4th to 10th grades (I think in '81 Reagan got rid of it? - anyone?). NEW MATH, the way I saw it, was changing BASE. The goal was to understand relationships and that nomenclature didn't matter. Whether it launched STEM careers or not? - well, I'm pretty damn good at it.
I do get the faddishness of it as OUR "leaders" push STEM but think building a web page is teaching kids to code/program.
Big Easy - I was in EE and had to take Mech E & Thermo one quarter. I only knew my formulas/relationships in SI. So I converted BTUs, etc. to SI, solved the problem, and then converted back to Imperial units. Ace'd it.
Cheers, -T
Lucina, so sorry to hear about your long time friend. Garlic Gal, Chickie, "lurker J" and I had lunch yesterday down in Morgan Hill. We, of course, talked about how great all of you are who come to the Corner daily. By the time we get to the blog, there are over 40 posts to read and you've all taught us well.
This is the 1st evening all summer that we have worn a sweatshirt on our after dinner walk. YAY...Fall is coming...maybe some rain for us in a few months.
Ooops. I came back to the corner and realized I had a brain-far..., er, BURP. I was thinking of when I was 10 but typed 10th grade when NEW MATH went away - it was from 4th to 6th grades...
JD, thanks for the update on Garlic G. I've missed her postings. Just 'cuz there's 40+ posts is no reason not to pipe in :-)
Cheers, -T
JD our commenters are so diverse that 40 posts seldom exhausts the perspectives on the puzzle. We have had 80 to 100 posts where the last ones were well worth reading. It also is nice to know all are well
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