The only question on this fine puzzle was whether Timothy was going to group the first or second words of the starred clues below for the theme.
Across starred clues
1. *Subject of a San Francisco museum : CABLE CAR - A mobile National Landmark
37. *Unpretentious : OLD SHOE - The billionaire "Oracle of Omaha" fits this description
12. *Torque-providing component : DRIVE SHAFT - Gets the RPM's from the engine to the wheels
66. Office building feature, which can precede the ends of the answers to starred clues: ELEVATOR - (LIFT to our resident Brits)
ELEVATOR CAR - Here's one for your, uh, car
ELEVATOR SHAFT - Bruce Willis in just such a place in Die Hard
ELEVATOR SHOE - Vive la différence
9. Speculate : WONDER - "I WONDER, WONDER who, be-do-do who, Who wrote the book of love"
15. Intimate meeting : ONE-ON-ONE - Kobe in an intimate ONE-ON-ONE
16. Reluctant : AVERSE
17. Five-pointed, say : STARLIKE
18. Coordinated health program : REGIME - I prefer the word REGIMEN here. Harvard comma redux, anyone?
19. Ticked-off state : IRE
20. Honorary law deg. : LLD - Doctor of Laws (Canon and Civil), hence the two L's. Can also be honorary
21. Debussy contemporary : RAVEL - Most of all remember what happened in this scene with RAVEL's Bolero in the background
22. December purchase for many : TREE - It's been artificial TREES for us our entire marriage
24. Singer Lenya married to Kurt Weill : LOTTE - Kurt's wife LOTTE LENYA is immortalized in his most famous song Mack The Knife
26. Stood the test of time : LASTED
29. Damage : MAR
30. "¿Cómo __?" : ESTA - My Hispanic friend always answers "Muy Bien". She's aware I probably wouldn't understand any other response.
33. Egyptian city on the Nile : ASWAN - Its dam as seen from space
34. Clever : CUTE
35. Laugh syllable : HAR - End of a Ralph Kramden line
40. 1970 Jackson 5 chart topper : ABC - "Simple as ABC, 1, 2, 3, Do Re Mi, Baby You and Me"
41. __ Andreas Fault : SAN - The plate on the ocean side is carrying LA north @ 1.3 "/yr. It could be a suburb of San Francisco in a few million years!
42. Works in un museo : ARTE - Art in a Spanish Museum
43. M16, for one : RIFLE
45. Sharpen : EDGE - At the nursery, we used honing stones to put an EDGE on our knives
47. Half a Western couple : ROY - Roy and Trigger?
48. Less than broadcast : HINTED - Literal me prefers not to have something HINTED at
49. Polite title : MADAM - Dolly played a MADAM named Miss Mona in this film
51. Fermented beverage usually served warm : SAKE
52. Take five : PAUSE
54. N.L. East team : ATL - BOS Braves, MIL Braves and now ATL Braves
55. Nutritional stat : RDA
58. Steal, Western-style : RUSTLE - Even today in Iowa
60. Random way to decide : COIN TOSS
63. Bay windows : ORIELS - Not a stranger here
64. Arrived at, Western-style : RODE INTO - Silly riddle - "A cowboy RODE INTO town on Friday, stayed three days and rode out on Friday" How? Answer below.
65. Rite-related : SACRAL
Down
1. Right triangle ratio: Abbr. : COS - COSINE = Adjacent side/Hypotenuse ratio
2. Naysayer : ANTI - The word that drives our partisan Congress
3. Really hard test : BEAR
4. Lynn with the album "I Remember Patsy" : LORETTA - Before she played Mrs. Clark Griswold, Beverly d'Angelo was Patsy Cline in Coal Miners Daughter
5. Phot. lab request : ENL - Enlarge
6. Ready to strike : COILED
7. Bracelet site : ANKLE - Yeah, I put WRIST first too
8. Sax, e.g. : REED
9. Simple card game : WAR - High card wins
10. Out in the open : OVERT - As opposed to HINTED
11. Prove false : NEGATE
13. Salinger title 13-year-old : ESME - For ESME - With Love And Squalor
14. Rod attachment : REEL
23. Clinton's attorney general : RENO - Janet got the high profile Elian Gonzalez and Waco Compound cases
24. Shop class fixture : LATHE - C.C.'s favorite use of a LATHE
25. Longtime Hydrox competitor : OREO
26. Run out : LAPSE
27. Syrian leader : ASSAD - He seems unable to stop the horrors going on in his country
29. Dank : MUSTY - Crank up that dehumidifier
31. Set aside : TABLE - Where legislation goes to die
32. Moved like a pendulum : ARCED
34. Data storage medium : CD ROM - The more likely modern choice below
39. Composer Satie : ERIK - French composer and pianist unknown to me
44. Sluggishness : INERTIA - Newton's first law of motion - Objects at rest want to stay at rest
46. Parade time : EASTER
48. Silver __, compound used in film : HALIDE
51. Bar patron's option : STOOL
52. J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson, e.g. : PROS - Pro golfers. Bubba has made over $6,000,000 so far this year
53. Atmosphere : AURA
54. Part of a plot : ACRE
56. "Stop it!" : DON'T
57. About : AS TO
59. Immigrant's subj. : ESL - English as a Second Language is a big deal here with our influx of Hispanic workers
61. Ariz. neighbor : NEV - That's how they share the Hoover Dam
62. Campus org. : SOR - My daughters were in the same ∏ßØ Sorority
Riddle Answer - His horse was named Friday. Note to self - "Keep day job!"
I'm sure your comments on the next page will give us all a LIFT!
Husker Gary
Notes from C.C.:
Crosswords LA Tournaments
will be held on Oct 24, 2015 (Saturday) at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
You don't need to be a wizard solver to participate. As you can see, they have four
brackets for different skill levels. Or you can just be a spectator,
solving at the same time with other competitors but your grids won't be
scored.
It's an annual charity event Elissa Grossman started in 2009 to raise money for Reading to Kids. I'm honored to be one of the constructors this year. The editor (Puzzle Wrangler) is the amazing Todd McClary, a regular contributor to the CrosSynergy puzzles.
I
hope our readers in LA area will attend the event and mingle with your
favorite constructors, bloggers & fellow solvers. Will you be there,
Steve?
42 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Timothy and Gary!
Still don't get the theme.
PSI and ABC were perped. No cheats.
Time for bed!
Cheers!
Did Della STREET have any connection to Lois & Margot LANE?
DNF. Was down to one natick at 32d+40a, and decided to hit the check button before reveal. To my surprise, half the perps to 32d were wrong! Once I dealt with that, I didn't need the reveal after all! GINTER>HINTED, HAH>HAR, IODIDE>GALIDE>HALIDE.
The theme was also a washout for me. I had CABLE CAR, DRIVE SHAFT, & SWING MUSIC and couldn't see anything in common. Then I saw ELEVATOR was the unifier (but avoided reading how), but while ELEVATOR CABLE was obvious, ELEVATOR DRIVE and ELEVATOR SWING were gibberish! The center word would have just made things worse, since I was thinking of the transporters, and didn't even think of the fashion meaning until just now as I pre-write this! Until now, I'd been thinking of the elevator brake shoe, Otis' invention that made elevators practical.
I like to ride an ELEVATOR,
And even more an escalator.
A teleporter beam
Would be my dream!
How would it feel? I'll tell ya later!
I looked up the limerick Bluehen mentioned yesterday, and was disappointed -- the middle lines scanned poorly, made no sense grammatically, and were neither funny nor particularly risque. So here are my own versions, one dirty and one crosswordy:
To his bride said the LYNX-EYED detective,
"Can it be that my eyesight's defective?
This clue I just read
Makes no sense in my head,
Or is it a trick of perspective?"
To his bride said the LYNX-EYED detective,
"Can it be that my eyesight's defective?
That slot in your crotch
Is crosswise, is it not,
Or is it a trick of perspective?"
Very nice puzzle today.
Good morning all back from a slow fast day.
I pretty straight forward Thursday, with CABLE CAR very misleading as both parts work with ELEVATOR. ROY RUSTLE RODE IN seem a mini-theme, ERIK Satie has become known and HALIDE filled.
Thanks HG for the filling in, super sub everywhere you go.
Would love to be in LA, congrats C.C. on being one of the constructors, a nice recognition.
Now on baby watch for grandchild 2
Happy autumn
Morning, all!
This one played hard for me, although I managed to get through it unassisted at the end. The SE corner in particular nearly did me in with the unknown HALIDE and the really obscure clue for HINTED. It didn't help things that I initially went with SAKI before SAKE.
Elsewhere, I struggled with stuff like OLD SHOE (not a phrase I'm familiar with, as opposed to OLD SCHOOL or OLD HAT) and STAR LIKE. Also, I had no idea who J.B. Homes and Bubba Watson were, so I didn't get that PROS was a golf reference.
Overall, though, it ended up being a bit challenging but ultimately fair and enjoyable. We went to the CABLE CAR museum when we visited San Francisco a couple of years ago, so that was a nice reminder.
Oh, and I'm pretty sure that PSI stands for Pounds per Square Inch and not just Per Square Inch. But I could be wrong...
WBS, with the most difficulty in the SE, and unknowns Holmes and Watson (cute!) and OLD SHOE. [And I agree with him about PSI, too.] LARA was another unknown to me. Didn't realize the theme until after the reveal.
About Lotte Lenya in Mack the Knife, Wikipedia says this: "Weill's widow, Lotte Lenya, the star of both the original 1928 German production and the 1954 [Marc] Blitzstein Broadway version, was present in the studio during [Louis] Armstrong's recording. He spontaneously added her name to the lyrics ("Look out, Miss Lotte Lenya"), which already named several of Macheath's female victims." A little trivia I hadn't known.
Great pictures in the wrapup, HG. You get a 10 in my book.
Thanks to Tim for a tough challenge & to Gary letting me know all was OK with my solve.
The entire Eastern side was a BEAR for me with the NE was last to fall.
18A REGIME still has me befuddled. Tried guy & gal for 47A before ROY. So then I figured 29D was murky and it took a bit of time for MUSTY to appear.
I sat on a bar STOOL a time or two back in the day, also stood at the bar on occasion.
No COIN TOSS needed today. Before the day has ended, going to research SACRAL. It was all perps.
This darn Mac has been screwing me up all week & I'm sure the other user in this household is the cause, although she denies it. Now the avatar has disappeared. Time to put my foot down,the problems could not possibly be my fault!
Good grief! Now the avatar has returned. I have NO IDEA what the heck is going on with this dang contraption.
Good morning from AZ!
I swung when I should have arced. Otherwise, no problems with this one. Writing this on a tablet with a stylus, so "brief" is the operative word.
Brother from FL and I are visiting third brother from AZ. The last time we were together was 1987. Should be interesting.
I remember Lotte Lenya as the razor-shoe harridan in From Russia With Love. Lara Spencer hosted Antiques Roadshow for at least one season. And Old Shoe is a major topic in Wag The Dog--good flic.
Nice job, Husker. Gotta run...
Hello, friends!
This proved to be doable though the center gave me grief. CUTE for clever was a stretch and I never watch morning TV so LARA was unknown. ERIK Satie, now, has become a staple. CDROM finally broke it open.
As for Ariz. neighbor, of the four choices, NEV won out.
HALIDE and SACRAL are new for me but the latter must be related to sacred, sacramental, etc. ORIELS is an old friend, too.
Welcome to AZ, desper-otto!
Thank you, Timothy L. Meaker for a fine grid and Husker Gary, for your illuminating expo.
Have a delightful day, everyone!
C.C.
Congratulations on being a constructor this year! I'm not surprised.
Good morning everyone.
WBS. On the hard side, with some of the oblique cluing, but doable without help. Found that the solve progressed more easily when not over thinking the answer. ie. COIN TOSS.
DRIVE SHAFT - delivers both torque and RPM. Torque X RPM = Power
Have a great day.
Lucina: Four choices? Arizona "has borders with [1] New Mexico, [2] Utah, [3] Nevada, [4] California, and [5] Mexico, and one point in common with the southwestern corner of [6] Colorado. Arizona's border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of [7] Sonora and [8] Baja California". - Wikipedia
WOW !!! Great Job "pinch-hitting" Husker Gary.
Timothy: Thank You for a FUN Thursday puzzle. CUTE theme!
I always like a puzzle that comes with a "Learning Moment" ... today's was Silver HALIDE.
Yup, I had wrist before ANKLE ... and coin-flip before COIN-TOSS,
Also needed ESP to get the Good Morning America co-anchor LARA Spenser. I usually have on CNBC or ESPN when I'm solving.
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers !!!
Good morning. Thank You Timothy and H-G !
H-G is to CC as Sean Rodriguez is to Clint Hurdle. Super-sub !
"Intimate meeting" had me WONDERing. Then laughing when thinking about it being used on the street for a b-ball game in lieu of ONE ON ONE.
IDEATE before WONDER, MEAD prior to SAKE, COIN FLIP ere TOSS, SAGAN ahead of RAVEL.
Isn't it wonderful when you get a clue like "N.L. East team" and then can do a quick mental rundown of the teams to figure out which one is the best fit ?
2 NL Central teams (Cards and Pirates) have now clinched a playoff berth. No teams in any other division have clinched as yet. CUBS are on the verge. CUBS and Blue Jays have the best W-L records since the break.
CC, another option for your spaetzle. DW made Paprikás Csirke last night, with galuska (spaetzle). Kiváló ! Easy recipe and another good use for a couple more of those end of season tomatoes.
Fairly easy for a Thursday. Ditto on WRIST before ANKLE and my bar choice was STOLI instead of STOOL.
Musings
-I can’t sub today but Elkhorn (west Omaha school of 9,000 students) has called twice today 2 hrs after school started to have me come in and would have paid me for the entire day. Desperate?
-I just love how the fertile minds on this site push our language (and Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, et al) in different directions.
-Do you find yourself starting sentences with, “In the crossword the other day…”
-Aren’t we the opposite of the people referenced in the Konrad Lorenz quote, “Every man gets a narrower and narrower field of knowledge in which he must be an expert in order to compete with other people. The specialist knows more and more about less and less and finally knows everything about nothing.”
-Congrats to our Mistress Of The Blog who keeps moving higher and higher in the upper echelons of “crossworderie”. We are so lucky to have her here as well.
Almost no hope after the first pass, but things slowly fell into place. Thanks, Timothy, for a fun puzzle!
HG, you write-up was wonderful. Loved the pic of the Aswan Dam from space. Super!
Fun puzzle, thanks for the write-up, HG. In addition to having lifts in the UK, you can also take one to the first floor. The first floor there is what you'd call the second floor here. Ground, First, Second, etc.
I've never played WAR, and thought PONDER rather than WONDER (PAR seemed reasonable for a card game I'd never heard of) so one letter off for me today.
C.C. - I'm hoping to make it to the LA Crossword-fest, I'm trying to juggle a couple of things around so I can go.
Good Morning!
Nice Thursday puzzle. Thanks, Mr. Meaker. Lots of false starts for me, but it did come together. Favorite clue: Part of a plot>>> ACRE. Old English teachers never die; they just keep looking for literary answers! Wanted nitrate for HALIDE, but I finally had a chemistry lesson. I didn't realize COS had to do with triangles. I wasn't allowed, by federal law, to study math past Geometry. Ha! I studied "new Math" for one semester in college. Operating in different bases was a double HA! for me. I do love the math of sewing, carpentry, and knitting. I guess because I can see it!
Gary, Thanks for another enlightening tour. Congratulations, C.C. Well done!
Have a sunny day wherever you are!
Mr. Google:
You, of course, are correct. I confined myself to the U.S. and didn't even consider Mexico, which has the longest border with us. Thank you.
Not bad - an engaging Thursday pzl and a fine exposition from Husker Gary!
But I agree with Lucina that CUTE is a stretch for "Clever." And just to clarify, Kurt Weill (& librettist Bert Brecht, translated by Marc Blitzstein)) never wrote his wife Lotte Lenya's name into the "Moritat" or "Ballad of Mack the Knife." I believe the first time her name was added was when she co-sang the song with Louis Armstrong in 1955. Bobby Darin kept her name when he covered it in a well-known version.
To hear the fabulous duet, check this from Frau Weill and the great Satchmo!
Musings 3
-Oops, Howard and Keith, you’re right. Thanks for the gentle correction. (See anon, you don’t have to be snarky!). I had always thought Kurt had put his wife’s name in the original. Doncha just love learnin’?
-Side note: Bobby Darin’s Mack The Knife is the only record I liked so much that I ordered the 45 from the record shop.
-I REALLY would like some feedback on REGIME/REGIMEN. I think of my workouts as a REGIMEN and crazy Kim Jong Un’s administrations as a REGIME. An exercise REGIME just clangs off my ears.
Hi gang -
Nicely done, Gary.
Here is some music by Erik Satie that most of you might recognize.
Much to do today. IMBO.
Cool regards!
JzB
Musings 4
-Thanks for the kind words about my blog musings on Timothy’s lovely puzzle.
-I know we’ll all be glad to see Marti’s wit and wisdom back here next Thursday.
-Jazz, being the uncultured lout that I am, I did not recognize those piano pieces. However, in the true spirit of what we do here, I was fascinated to learn the derivation of the title of the composition - Trois gymnopédies . I thought trios would be three and gymnopédies would involve physical activities and I was right. The uniform, or lack thereof was new.
Hi everybody! I enjoyed that but that's faint praise because I like almost all of the LAT puzzles. Thanks Timothy and Gary.
Years ago, we saw "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." I thought it was a total waste of time. It had a weak story and no memorable songs.
When I was working at the classical guitar, I learned to play Gymnopedie No. 1. It came out pretty damn good considering my lack of talent. My teacher was a really good arranger.
Pope Francis almost has my Jewish wife convinced to become a Catholic.
This is a note of followup on an unrelated matter to this blog. To those who may feel offended that I have (mis) appropriated this space, my sincere apologies, and you are invited to ignore this post.
I had posted a note a couple of days ago, about a 14 yr old american moslem kid named Ahmed Mohammed from Irving, Texas who brought in a reconditioned clock, in a pencil case ( Thanks a lot, Owen KL !), as a show-n-tell item, to his school. This 'spooked' his english teacher, ( possibly because he was a muslim ?) and resulted in an interrogation for over 6 hours, by 4 teachers, followed by examination by 4 cops, handcuffs\ in public, a mug shot, a 'perp walk', finger printed and further questioning on a 'hoax' bomb scheme. He was not allowed to contact his parents in all this time. All for a bunch of wires and a circuit board. He had been very polite and never issued any threats, ever. In a city of Irving, near Dallas, which is the HQ of the huge conglomerate, Texas Instruments, the teachers or the cops couldn't imagine of getting one electrical engineer or even a technician, to show them what that contraction was supposed to do. In my mind there is big difference between vigilance and pure racist bigotry.
Well yesterday, he was honored as the Chief Guest, (see photo #3 ) in the very prestigious International Google Science awards.
YEP ! Thats how important this was. Those who teach science will truly appreciate what this represents, and why this was so absolutely necessary.
As we hold dear, our basic freedoms and the Bill of Rights, we should all celebrate this.
Over and out.
DNF, this puzzle gave me a hard time...
45A I had hone instead of edge, which I am still trying to wrap my brain around.
34A clever = cute, hmm,
37A old shoe left a bad taste in my mouth...
Lara crossing Roy? Ouch! My kingdom for another clue! (Although half a western couple is intriguing.)
48A less than broadcast? what kind of a devilish clue is that?
Oh well, the only way this puzzle can improve my mood is to look at the lighter side.
Could this be true? (& would you use it???)
Anyway, there is lots of funny elevator stuff out there, but most of it is warped, sick, and sometimes downright scary. So, here is a lighter clip from a Japanese skit show. (You don't need to know the language, this is universal...)
Got a very late start today but managed to solve it rapidly with a few false starts, namely NOT I for ANTI, PONDER for WONDER, and HONE for EDGE and misspelling ESME as ESMA. I liked the reveal as the last clue and I avoided reading it until the end. I couldn't figure out the theme but ELEVATOR was solved strictly by perps.
A few unknowns were LLD, SACRAL, and LARA (I don't watch it either, H.G.). I have a mental problem (not that kind) with the spelling of both SAKE and ERIK, wanting SAKI and ERIC and am glad they crossed. ORIEL and LOTTE are words that I learned from doing crosswords and have never seen them anywhere else. OLD SHOE was guessable but a new term for me; OLD SCHOOL is what I have always heard. MADAM is usually followed by I'M ADAM.
Barry- you are correct on PSI. Madame Defarge " I wasn't allowed, by federal law, to study math past Geometry." Where did you go to school?
But anyway as Roy would sing, "Happy Trails to you" until maybe tomorrow.
The sparkle today is from Gary's blog. Fun!!
I agree that REGIME is commonly used as in definition one, but it is also fairly commonly used as in definition 2. I have frequently seen this usage, so only needed a cross or two.
Thanks to Vocabulary.com.
1. The organization that is the governing authority of a political unit
2.(Medicine) A systematic plan for therapy often including diet.
I also had no nit or holdup with CUTE. It can be pejorative. “Too cute for words.” “Don’t be cute with me. “
Dictionary.com:
CUTE: affectedly or mincingly pretty or clever; precious:
The child has acquired some intolerably cute mannerisms.
Also I have no nit or problem with OLD SHOE
Dictionary.com "noun, Informal. 1. a person or thing that is comfortably familiar and unpretentious: Uncle Will is a lovable old shoe."
I was expecting yesterday to hear from the many historical fiction buffs on the Corner. Lately I have been reading in other ares, but historical fiction is my first love. What are your areas of interest? We have had very few book talks lately.
My goodness, I didn't think I was going to get this one in the end, even though so much of the puzzle filled in easily. But couldn't shake MOIST for ages which meant that I had no clue about OLD SHOE, which I still find a bit peculiar and silly. I got all the ladies--LORETTA, LOTTE, DELLA, ESME, and MADAM, but still had a bit of a struggle. But after a cup of afternoon tea, it all fell into place, thank goodness. Husker, I loved your photo of that ELEVATOR CAR.
Am anxious to hear how Irish Miss is doing. Hope she can check in tomorrow.
Have a good afternoon and evening, everybody!
YR:
Have you read Necessary Lies? That could be considered historical fiction of a very recent occurrence. It's well written and a good, interesting read. Another one our book club enjoyed is The Nightingale. That is excellent.
Necessary Lies covers the laws regarding forced sterilization in North Carolina and The Nightingale takes place during WWII and some members of the resistance.
I'm not sure if those fall into your areas of interest but I highly recommend them.
This 24/7 ubiquitous news cycle on so many outlets on any single topic drives me mad. I admire the pope. I am interested in news about him, but, to the exclusion of all else that is occurring in the world or the USA, no way! I can tune in tomorrow and will have not missed a thing. Any issue I take any interest in is dampened by the saturation coverage. Enough already! Time to finish my latest Kindle book.
Cool puzzle, a tad easier than I expected. Yep, wrote in WRIST. Had PONDER crossing with PAR, which now I know was not what was wanted.
I smiled at MUSTY, remembering what Misty said she'd have to name the puppy if her Misty and Dusty were to have mated.
YR: Tune into BBC World Service. It will broaden your horizons.
Thanks, Lucina. I will check them out. It is exactly what I was looking for.Thanks.
Old Man K
Great Satchmo clip. Thanks!
Big Easy
JK!! ;-)
Madame
Historical Fiction is my what I read. One of my favorite authors is
Tracy Chevalier- Girl with the Pearl Earring, I also loved her book about finding fossils called Remarkable Creatures
I also like Alice Hoffman's "The Dovekeepers"
An author you might not have heard has written two books that I enjoyed by Ann Weisgarber
The Promise and The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Q: My wife is two months pregnant now. When can we expect the baby to move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.
YR:
I second Klilly's mention of Tracy Chevalier. She has written several books that are based on historical women.
Two others we read and loved are Isabella, The Renaissance Queen by Nancy Rubin and The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson which you might have already read since it's from 1983. I read that one three times.
BillG:
So funny!
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