Theme: Discombobulated Divisions - the circled letters are rearrangements of the names of the four seasons that are generally recognized in temperate and sub-polar regions of the world.
18A. Sweet sherry, e.g. : DESSERT WINE . [Winter] I never really think of sherry as a dessert wine, more an aperitif, even the sweet amontillado and oloroso versions.
23A. Unbeatable hand : ROYAL FLUSH. [Fall] The Aria hotel in Las Vegas was the subject of some discussion on the blog on Sunday. I hit my only video poker royal flush at the lobby bar in the Aria. I promptly cashed out, never to make another bet all week.
48A. Square-bodied family autos : HUMMER SUVS. [Summer] Horrible-looking things, IMHO.
55A. Pre-holiday mall indulgence : BUYING SPREE. [Spring]. I'd be more of a shopping or spending spree-er if I ever spreed.
38A. It happens four times a year ... and also in this puzzle's circles : CHANGE OF SEASONS. And a nice diagram courtesy of Wikipedia:
Hail fellows, well met! Steve here with C.W.'s cyclical-circle theme. I think those of you solving circle-less might have missed out a little with this one - once I saw the letter-scrambling going on, it helped me figure out HUMMER SUVS when I was looking at a lot of blank space in that area.
A neat theme, but I was marginally disappointed with the aforesaid HUMMER SUVS - you could use either of the "U"'s to make your season and the "scramble-factor" across the four themers was a little inconsistent - SPRING and SUMMER are just split in the middle and reversed, but you'd get FLAL and WINERT if you tried that with the other two. Not a big deal, but I love symmetry.
With the grid-spanning reveal entry, you're looking at 57 theme squares; it looks like C.W. worked pretty hard not to let the fill slump into a rag-bag of crossword-ese, there's nary a clunker to be seen. Hurrah!
Let's check out the rest:
Across:
1. Respectful title : SIR
4. Gnocchi sauce : PESTO. Food! Basil, olive oil, pine nuts, cheeses. Vibrantly green. I go light on the oil, it doesn't need much.
9. First occurrence : ONSET
14. Keats' "__ to a Nightingale" : ODE
15. Stay away from : AVOID. Good advice vis-a-vis hemlock ..
16. With 61-Across, Sri Lankan product : PEKOE and
61. See 16-Across : TEA. Not to be overly pedantic here (Why not? That's what crossword blogs are for!) but there's really no such thing as "pekoe tea". Pekoe is a grade of black tea primarily grown in India and Sri Lanka.
17. Pool user's unit : LAP. 20 laps = 1,000m where I swim. That's my warm-up, then some interval sprints and a 100m kick-social cool-down
20. "__ Road to Glory": Arthur Ashe history : A HARD. I boxed myself into a weird corner here - for no good reason, I filled in AHEAD, failed to notice that REPEY wasn't a word, and thought I'd discovered a new geological feature in AAVINE. Sanity finally prevailed, but only after I thought there were typos in the grid. It turned out it was just me being idiotic.
22. Lip : SASS
27. Hat worn with a kilt : TAM. Popular hat (in crosswords).
30. "Romeo and Juliet" city : VERONA. Shakespeare seemed to like this place - two plays were set here.
31. Laundry slide : CHUTE
33. __ Spumante : ASTI. Italian day today - PESTO, VERONA and now ASTI so far.
36. Here, to Henri : ICI. "You are here" on French mall maps:
37. Album array : PHOTOS
41. Comes to the point? : TAPERS
42. Have title to : OWN
43. Long basket, in hoops lingo : TREY. A three-pointer from outside the line. My pet peeve: Brent Musberger and his "from DOWNTOWN!!!!" call when a three-pointer is made. "Downtown" would be underneath the basket where all the traffic and banging around happens. "FROM THE SUBURBS!!!!" would be more accurate. OK, pedantic rant over (hey, it's a crossword blog, right?)
44. Clear the board : ERASE
45. Daze : TRANCE
47. Only article in a U.S. state capital name : DES. Moines. French for "The Moines". Or something.
52. Burlesque wraps : BOAS. G-rated example:
54. Dot on a map : ISLET
62. Parenthetical remark : ASIDE. Hamlet: (A little more than kin, a little less than kind). Bill the Bard pretty much invented the theatrical aside.
63. Piece of cake : LAYER.
64. Tach reading : R.P.M. Why do automatic transmission cars have a tachometer? There's nothing much you can do about the revs ..
65. Package sealers : TAPES
66. Decorative pitchers : EWERS
67. Critter in Egyptian art : ASP. Critter is a nice term for a hooded, extremely poisonous and aggressive cobra.
Down
1. Like some eclipses : SOLAR
2. One of three Hells Canyon states : IDAHO. I trotted off to the interwebs to find out why there's no apostrophe anywhere in "Hells" and drew a blank. I did discover that the mountain that forms the canyon is named "He Devil" which leads me to believe that the Idahoans must have rationed apostrophe usage on geographical features. I still think it should be "Hell's Canyon" though. Pedantic, moi? Oh wait - that's what crossword blogs are for!
3. Square things : REPAY Chlecho with 28D
4. Kayak mover : PADDLE. Not really, it's me wielding the paddle. Especially when I'm in a twin kayak and I look around to see that my paddle-partner is laying flat out with her paddle across her knees sunbathing.
5. Night before : EVE
6. Distress signal : S.O.S.
7. "Whether __ nobler ...": Hamlet : 'TIS. Asides in 62A, a soliloquy here, Verona earlier. Elizabethan Hall of Fame Playwright day today.
8. Ukrainian port : ODESSA
9. Stops wavering : OPTS
10. Dinnertime TV fare : NEWS. Usually in LA featuring any one of a) high-speed freeway car chase b) weather extremes or c) totally unsurprising "celebrity" "scandal". Or all three.
11. Snow runner : SKI
12. Ages and ages : EON
13. Place to start a hole : TEE. Fore! The first tee at my local course, DeBell in Burbank. I usually boom my first drive over the tall tree you see to the right and onto the street. Others hook theirs into the barranca on the left or squiff one into the rubbish in front. Then we all agree to forget that it ever happened and take mulligans.
19. Cheer from the crowd : RAH!
21. Steep-sided valleys : RAVINES. Not AAVINES which had me wondering ....
24. Wendy's side : FRIES. You want fries with that? What a strange question! Here's the current Wendy's TV commercial pitch-person. Note the complete lack of red hair. I do like the fact that her husband is the manager at the Grammercy Tavern in New York. Food!
25. Maniacal : LOCO. El Pollo Loco! Food! I love this puzzle.
26. Military outfit : UNIFORM
27. Private instructor : TUTOR
28. Square things : ATONE Clecho with 3D
29. Like many a dorm room : MESSY
31. Half a dance : CHA
32. Party organizer : HOSTESS
33. Did one's part? : ACTED
34. Admonishing response to "Mine!" : SHARE!
35. Spanish finger food : TAPAS. I can't keep up with the Food! Tapas were originally "covers" or "tops" to put on the top of your glass of sherry (18A!) to keep the flies out.
37. Tubular pasta : PENNE. I linked "Penne all' arrabbiata" at the Star Wars Canteen last time out. This week, why not combine this with 4A and try some pesto on top?
39. MBA hopeful's test : G.R.E. Seems awfully complicated. I'm not sure I even understood the rubric of the Wiki entry.
40. Took a dip : SWAM. Head back up to 17A and do 20 laps.
45. Struggle : TUSSLE
46. Old-time broadcasters : CRIERS
48. Crone : HAG
49. Extreme : ULTRA. "A Clockwork Orange" placed the word "ultraviolence" into the lexicon.
50. Some execs : VEEPS
51. Passport image : STAMP. My old passport had over 100 of these. The new one is already up to 20 or so.
52. __ one's time: wait : BIDE
53. Soda machine inserts : ONES. Sign of the times. Time was when a quarter was plenty.
55. Nocturnal flier : BAT
56. NATO founding member : USA. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization gets the "no longer an abbreviation" nod, along with our homeland.
57. Chihuahua complaint : YIP. Sorry, did I step on your paw? I didn't see you there ...
58. Handle without care? : PAW. Stop complaining, serves your paw right!
59. Reuben bread : RYE. Too much Food! I ate this version at Katz's on Houston Street in New York's Lower East Side. The pickles are awesome!
60. Slogan ending? : EER
I have to go and lie down after all those calories. Here's the grid.
Steve
Note from C.C.:
18A. Sweet sherry, e.g. : DESSERT WINE . [Winter] I never really think of sherry as a dessert wine, more an aperitif, even the sweet amontillado and oloroso versions.
23A. Unbeatable hand : ROYAL FLUSH. [Fall] The Aria hotel in Las Vegas was the subject of some discussion on the blog on Sunday. I hit my only video poker royal flush at the lobby bar in the Aria. I promptly cashed out, never to make another bet all week.
48A. Square-bodied family autos : HUMMER SUVS. [Summer] Horrible-looking things, IMHO.
55A. Pre-holiday mall indulgence : BUYING SPREE. [Spring]. I'd be more of a shopping or spending spree-er if I ever spreed.
38A. It happens four times a year ... and also in this puzzle's circles : CHANGE OF SEASONS. And a nice diagram courtesy of Wikipedia:
Hail fellows, well met! Steve here with C.W.'s cyclical-circle theme. I think those of you solving circle-less might have missed out a little with this one - once I saw the letter-scrambling going on, it helped me figure out HUMMER SUVS when I was looking at a lot of blank space in that area.
A neat theme, but I was marginally disappointed with the aforesaid HUMMER SUVS - you could use either of the "U"'s to make your season and the "scramble-factor" across the four themers was a little inconsistent - SPRING and SUMMER are just split in the middle and reversed, but you'd get FLAL and WINERT if you tried that with the other two. Not a big deal, but I love symmetry.
With the grid-spanning reveal entry, you're looking at 57 theme squares; it looks like C.W. worked pretty hard not to let the fill slump into a rag-bag of crossword-ese, there's nary a clunker to be seen. Hurrah!
Let's check out the rest:
Across:
1. Respectful title : SIR
4. Gnocchi sauce : PESTO. Food! Basil, olive oil, pine nuts, cheeses. Vibrantly green. I go light on the oil, it doesn't need much.
9. First occurrence : ONSET
14. Keats' "__ to a Nightingale" : ODE
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk ...
15. Stay away from : AVOID. Good advice vis-a-vis hemlock ..
16. With 61-Across, Sri Lankan product : PEKOE and
61. See 16-Across : TEA. Not to be overly pedantic here (Why not? That's what crossword blogs are for!) but there's really no such thing as "pekoe tea". Pekoe is a grade of black tea primarily grown in India and Sri Lanka.
17. Pool user's unit : LAP. 20 laps = 1,000m where I swim. That's my warm-up, then some interval sprints and a 100m kick-social cool-down
20. "__ Road to Glory": Arthur Ashe history : A HARD. I boxed myself into a weird corner here - for no good reason, I filled in AHEAD, failed to notice that REPEY wasn't a word, and thought I'd discovered a new geological feature in AAVINE. Sanity finally prevailed, but only after I thought there were typos in the grid. It turned out it was just me being idiotic.
22. Lip : SASS
27. Hat worn with a kilt : TAM. Popular hat (in crosswords).
30. "Romeo and Juliet" city : VERONA. Shakespeare seemed to like this place - two plays were set here.
31. Laundry slide : CHUTE
33. __ Spumante : ASTI. Italian day today - PESTO, VERONA and now ASTI so far.
36. Here, to Henri : ICI. "You are here" on French mall maps:
41. Comes to the point? : TAPERS
42. Have title to : OWN
43. Long basket, in hoops lingo : TREY. A three-pointer from outside the line. My pet peeve: Brent Musberger and his "from DOWNTOWN!!!!" call when a three-pointer is made. "Downtown" would be underneath the basket where all the traffic and banging around happens. "FROM THE SUBURBS!!!!" would be more accurate. OK, pedantic rant over (hey, it's a crossword blog, right?)
44. Clear the board : ERASE
45. Daze : TRANCE
47. Only article in a U.S. state capital name : DES. Moines. French for "The Moines". Or something.
52. Burlesque wraps : BOAS. G-rated example:
54. Dot on a map : ISLET
62. Parenthetical remark : ASIDE. Hamlet: (A little more than kin, a little less than kind). Bill the Bard pretty much invented the theatrical aside.
63. Piece of cake : LAYER.
64. Tach reading : R.P.M. Why do automatic transmission cars have a tachometer? There's nothing much you can do about the revs ..
65. Package sealers : TAPES
66. Decorative pitchers : EWERS
67. Critter in Egyptian art : ASP. Critter is a nice term for a hooded, extremely poisonous and aggressive cobra.
Down
1. Like some eclipses : SOLAR
2. One of three Hells Canyon states : IDAHO. I trotted off to the interwebs to find out why there's no apostrophe anywhere in "Hells" and drew a blank. I did discover that the mountain that forms the canyon is named "He Devil" which leads me to believe that the Idahoans must have rationed apostrophe usage on geographical features. I still think it should be "Hell's Canyon" though. Pedantic, moi? Oh wait - that's what crossword blogs are for!
3. Square things : REPAY Chlecho with 28D
4. Kayak mover : PADDLE. Not really, it's me wielding the paddle. Especially when I'm in a twin kayak and I look around to see that my paddle-partner is laying flat out with her paddle across her knees sunbathing.
5. Night before : EVE
6. Distress signal : S.O.S.
7. "Whether __ nobler ...": Hamlet : 'TIS. Asides in 62A, a soliloquy here, Verona earlier. Elizabethan Hall of Fame Playwright day today.
8. Ukrainian port : ODESSA
9. Stops wavering : OPTS
10. Dinnertime TV fare : NEWS. Usually in LA featuring any one of a) high-speed freeway car chase b) weather extremes or c) totally unsurprising "celebrity" "scandal". Or all three.
11. Snow runner : SKI
12. Ages and ages : EON
13. Place to start a hole : TEE. Fore! The first tee at my local course, DeBell in Burbank. I usually boom my first drive over the tall tree you see to the right and onto the street. Others hook theirs into the barranca on the left or squiff one into the rubbish in front. Then we all agree to forget that it ever happened and take mulligans.
19. Cheer from the crowd : RAH!
21. Steep-sided valleys : RAVINES. Not AAVINES which had me wondering ....
24. Wendy's side : FRIES. You want fries with that? What a strange question! Here's the current Wendy's TV commercial pitch-person. Note the complete lack of red hair. I do like the fact that her husband is the manager at the Grammercy Tavern in New York. Food!
25. Maniacal : LOCO. El Pollo Loco! Food! I love this puzzle.
26. Military outfit : UNIFORM
27. Private instructor : TUTOR
28. Square things : ATONE Clecho with 3D
29. Like many a dorm room : MESSY
31. Half a dance : CHA
32. Party organizer : HOSTESS
33. Did one's part? : ACTED
34. Admonishing response to "Mine!" : SHARE!
35. Spanish finger food : TAPAS. I can't keep up with the Food! Tapas were originally "covers" or "tops" to put on the top of your glass of sherry (18A!) to keep the flies out.
37. Tubular pasta : PENNE. I linked "Penne all' arrabbiata" at the Star Wars Canteen last time out. This week, why not combine this with 4A and try some pesto on top?
39. MBA hopeful's test : G.R.E. Seems awfully complicated. I'm not sure I even understood the rubric of the Wiki entry.
40. Took a dip : SWAM. Head back up to 17A and do 20 laps.
45. Struggle : TUSSLE
46. Old-time broadcasters : CRIERS
48. Crone : HAG
49. Extreme : ULTRA. "A Clockwork Orange" placed the word "ultraviolence" into the lexicon.
50. Some execs : VEEPS
51. Passport image : STAMP. My old passport had over 100 of these. The new one is already up to 20 or so.
52. __ one's time: wait : BIDE
53. Soda machine inserts : ONES. Sign of the times. Time was when a quarter was plenty.
55. Nocturnal flier : BAT
56. NATO founding member : USA. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization gets the "no longer an abbreviation" nod, along with our homeland.
57. Chihuahua complaint : YIP. Sorry, did I step on your paw? I didn't see you there ...
58. Handle without care? : PAW. Stop complaining, serves your paw right!
59. Reuben bread : RYE. Too much Food! I ate this version at Katz's on Houston Street in New York's Lower East Side. The pickles are awesome!
60. Slogan ending? : EER
I have to go and lie down after all those calories. Here's the grid.
Steve
Note from C.C.:
Happy
Birthday to our witty and caring D-Otto (Tom), who has never failed to
welcome a newbie, or answer any blog question, or give comfort to those
in need. Off the blog, he's my trusted friend and adviser, always so
patient with me and so supportive. Thanks for always being here for us, Tom!
42 comments:
Two lame entries and then a moderately good one.
The SEASONS
--- -------
December thru Feb are chilly mint,
March thru May see parsley's tint.
June to August
The curry's hottest,
Sept thru Nov are brown nutmeg's stint.
In summer time the weather's nice,
In fall we drink hot pumpkin spice,
In winter snow
We snowballs throw,
And spring we say goodbye to ice.
To everything there is a season,
Thus wise Solomon did reason.
But crosswords and beer
Are good all year,
And to say otherwise to this crowd is treason!
HBDTY HBDTY HBDTY HBDTY and many more.
Cool.
Very entertaining write up Steve but too early for all that food. Didn't we have the word MOINES meaning monks recently in a food clue?
Fall is approaching, have fun
Morning, all (and Happy Birthday to D-Otto)!
Got through this one easily enough, despite the fact that I had no idea about the theme due to a lack of circles. I thought that HUMMER SUVS was rather awkward, but I got it with a little perp help. For that matter, I thought that BUYING SPREE was a lot less natural sounding than SHOPPING SPREE would have been. Of course, now that I know about the circles and the constraints they put on things, I can understand why those answers are what they are. So it's all good. I just really wish my puzzle had circles...
Steve- Congratulations on your ROYAL FLUSH. I've never played any poker machine or one-armed bandit, but it's always a good play to take the money and run. And Happy Birthday D-O.
This midweek offering was a speed run for me. I looked at the circles after I completed the puzzle. The only change I had on any clue was ACTS to OPTS. I liked the 47A DES Moines clue; never thought of it before. VEEPS- I've never seen an executive referred to by that term. a V.P. is one of the hundreds of vice-presidents of any bank. A VEEP is usually " not worth a warm bucket of spit", to quote Mr. Garner.
After three days at a tennis tournament and playing golf Monday and Tuesday, I got around to reading the previous two days' Wall Street Journals this morning and noticed that it will have a daily crossword puzzle. The paper has always had a Friday puzzle. I'm curious to see how they progress, as the WSJ has the largest circulation of any newspaper.
Just for you Steve
COLUMN AUTOFIT Excel tool
SINISTER WINK Mean Martindale
You make an interesting observation Big E as the one time juggernaut USA Today has slipped to third in US circulation.
No circles, no clue about the theme, no problems.
Found todays offering to be very enjoyable but it wasn't the challenge usually expected for a mid week puzzle. Favorite was 46D, old-time broadcasters/CRIERS. I'm not that old so I wasn't around when the CRIERS were the evening news.
I am looking forward to the upcoming CHANGE OF SEASONS.
Happy birthday D-O. Have a fun filled day.
Good morning!
This one felt like a Monday. It is Wednesday, right? The Barnacle had the circles, so there was no mystery about the theme. Interesting to see ODESSA in the puzzle. There's also an ODESSA in west Texas, a namesake of the one in Ukraine.
Steve, your mention of "barranca" brought back an old earworm. The Kingston Trio's second album was recorded live at the Hungry I in California. One of the songs on that album was a haunting ballad called South Coast. "The [mountain] lion still rules the barranca" at 0:28.
OK, here's a question for you tea lovers. If PEKOE is a black tea, how does it get to be called "Orange?"
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I'm now moving into uncharted waters -- the land of the dreaded RMD. We'll see how that goes...
Happy Birthday D-Otto!! Steve's right on about your many kindnesses.
This was lots of fun for me today--although they always are, even when I flop. I didn't have the circles online, but it still worked fine. I liked seeing TAPAS, TAPES, and TAPER. I was fooled by LAYER, and stalled on ERASE. Clear the board! How did I miss that. I erased the backboard thousands of times--only mine were always green. I'll bet I still have chalk dust embedded in my pores. C.W., thanks for a nice start to the middle of the week.
Steve, thanks for another delightful lap!
Enjoy the day!
Great write-up Steve for a fun mid-week offering by C.W. My only huh? was the C xing 25d and 36a. I thought LOCO was just crazy, not Maniacal (evil connotations).
Like Hondo, I got a kick out of 46d.
PESTO on PENNE? I prefer it on angel hair or, for bite, rigatoni.
HBD to my fellow greater-Houstonian D-O!
I'll be back to play later.
Cheers, -T
Hi gang -
HBD, Tom.
Nice puzzle today, no nits. Cruciverb always has the circles.
@ Mr Google yesterday, re: reeling - you might be on to something, I do remember Flying Saucer, and also K.O.S. Radio.
Probably won't check in the rest of the week. Overflowing platter - or possibly clatter.
Winter is coming.
Cool regards!
JzB
Happy birthday, Tom. Thank you for all your kindnesses to me. I hope you have a wonderful day and year.
Blue Iris, it was so good to hear from you this week. I often think of you. Isn't online shopping wonderful, especially when you can't get out to the stores?
I had the circles so I caught on to the scrambled seasons with the very first one.
I am pleased with this coming autumn season. I love it, an entire quarter year to go before winter.
A pretty easy ramble today. Worked from top to bottom in blocks and noticed the scrambled seasons after the first two. Tried to avoid the reveal, but after "change of..." showed up via crosses, I went ahead and filled it in.
Thanks for the amusing and filling write up Steve. But I'd argue that the current Wendy is a Strawberry blonde....and that gives the bonus of another food reference.
Have a wonderful birthday Tom. Despite the dreaded taxable event that comes with it.
D-Otto Happy Birthday !!! The first toast at Sunset is to you.
Steve: Very informative and interesting write-up. Good Job !!!
C.W. Stewart: WOW ! Thank You for a FUN Wednesday puzzle and with a timely theme.
Fave today was 46-d, Old-time broadcasters, CRIERS. When the perps finally filled it, it got an actual Laugh-Out-Loud !!!
Cheers!
Good Morning:
An enjoyable mid-week offering with a timely theme as we bid Summer farewell and welcome the Fall. (Winter can't be far behind, alas.)
This was a very smooth solve with no w/o's. Thanks, C. W., and thanks, Steve, for the "scrumptious" review.
Happy Birthday, Tom, hope it's a very special day. 🎂 🎈 🎁 BTW, what does RMD stand for?
Have a great day.
JzB, thanx for the memory. I bought that K-O-S record back in my ute. I confess, I also bought the Flying Saucer recording linked the other day. Yesterday?
Irish Miss, an RMD is an IRS initialism for "Required Minimum Distribution." After years of socking money away tax-free in an IRA, at a "certain age" the IRS forces you to start taking a percentage out and paying the taxes on it. The tax man cometh.
Hello, friends!
A very happy birthday to you, desper-otto, aka, Tom!
This was fast and fun. Thank you, C.W. Stewart. My newspaper had circles so the CHANGE OF SEASONS happened very quickly.
My BUYING SPREE days are over and it's something I truly relished in my younger days. Now, sadly, it's just another chore and the fact is I just don't need much any more. Recently I did remodel the living room and enjoyed buying new furniture.
Orange PEKOE, I believe, has orange flavor added.
Good puzzle and sparkly review. Thank you so much, Steve. It was a pleasure going out to eat with you!
Have a delightful day, everyone!
Good morning everyone.
Happy Birthday D-Otto. Splice the mainbrace!
Easy solve today. As soon as the grid spanner @ 38a was in, the circles became helpful.
Had 'utter' before ULTRA. RPM was solid.
Favorite clues were those for CRIER and PAW. Liked Chihuahua complaint, too.
Have a great day.
HBTY Tom!
@Lucina - no orange flavor, Orange Pekoe (or OP) is a grade of black tea. Here's one explanation of why "orange", and also shows the other grades.
I got a call to sub this morning and I flipped a mental coin and since it is so windy, I am now surrounded by 30 seniors in Anatomy class! Great write-up by our gourmet Steve. Pedant away my friend!
Musings
-I can hear the non-circle peeps being upset and I can see why
-A very timely puzzle with the Fall Equinox so close. On 9/23/15 at 3:23 a.m. here, the sun will be directly over the equator
-My album is on my phone and my hole-in-one and my kitty get lots of views
-If I do LAPS in a pool, it is like this
-In the wonderful Neflix series, House Of Cards, , Kevin Spacey has many ASIDES he directs to the viewer
-My SEAL process in college letters to Joann, SWAK!
-TV dinnertime news is not the staple it once was
-Ah, mulligans!
-Square things was C.C.’s theme a few Sundays ago
-After seeing my granddaughter’s room many times when she was growing up, I was shocked to hear her say her dorm roommate was MESSY
-A PAW on my nose is my alarm clock
-Name the song with – “Using the change, you ACTED strange and why I’ll never know”
-Yikes, I’m surrounded by sophomores!
Thanks, C.W. for a fun puzzle. Very creative and timely. Can't wait for fall to start after the taste we had this past weekend.
Nice write-up, Steve. WOuldn't be your's without mention of "Food!"
HBD D-Otto!
Husker, I don't remember any song with "Using the change" in it. There is one, though, with "You seemed to change." I think some guy named Presley spoke it -- that part isn't sung. The girlfriend in the song was probably too young to be going through "the change."
Thanx for the info on Orange Pekoe, Steve. That actually made sense.
A great Wednesday puzzle--felt much more like a Monday or a Tuesday, and that's just fine with me. The circles helped a lot so I got the theme almost right away, and then I just zipped right through the rest. Many thanks, C.W., and I always enjoy your write-up, Steve.
Happy birthday, D-Otto!
Have a great day, everybody!
Maybe he was using the change to get into the bathroom on the right. :-)
Mr. Norris, attention, s'il vous plaît!
Pedants' Frawnche Corner:
47A "DES MOINES". The "DES" in Des Moines is NOT an article. Although "des" is often used as a ("partitive") article in French, here it is being used as a (possessive) PREPOSITION. The name is believed to be a shortened form of Rivière des Moines = Monks' River.
DO @ 10:01 - Thanks for explaining RMD. No IRA here so I'm not familiar with the term or the process.
Lucina, you and I share the same outlook on buying sprees. At our age, what do we really need? I have dressy clothes in my closet that haven't been worn in years, simply because dress-up affairs are few and far between, although I do have an engagement party coming up next month and since it's at a country club, I'll get fancied up for that evening. 👗 👠 👛 💄 😇
TTP, see your point. Thanks for clarification. I over-reacted. Sorry. The one thing we all have in common regardless of positions on other issues in life is our affinity for crosswords. Like all the regulars on the blog, I look forward to every day's offering. There is hardly ever a day that something is not learned or an old remembrance from past is recalled. Another benefit is that your mind gets a good workout, keeping it sharp, or at least somewhat sharper? As one of my friend's says "Getting old is not for sissies!"
Also meant to wish you good luck in your fantasy football endeavor. I have enough difficulty in our small football pool picking the team who will win straight-up, and predicting the total points on Mon night tiebreaker.
Finally, thanks to C.W. for a very nice, well designed offering, and thanks to Steve for for a highly amusing and thorough review. Time for lunch!
I am happy to report that I did today's puzzle without any help (no red letters, no google, no dictionary). It's a first for a Wednesday.
Easy puzzle today. To continue the pedantry ... few tapas in my experience can be eaten with the fingers. Grilled octopus, meatballs, something with chorizo, spicy potato dishes... yum. But use a knife and fork, please!
Fun puzzle, and great writeup. WEES about it.
HG used another one of those words where you don't HEAR T.
Happy Birthday D-O. In a fine example of "Easier said than done", all you have to do is make sure that you get a rate of return on your post RMD balance to replace the RMD amount each year, and all will be fine. And yea, you are going to find out if you were correct on your (future) tax bracket projections that you made years ago. Well, if you took that into consideration. Going through that now. To convert, or not to convert, that is the question...
I'll be TEEing it in the golf league's final tournament of the year later today. Awards dinner afterwards.
Thought Of Bill G at TUTOR. Thought of that tragedy near the Arizona Utah with RAVINES.
The movie "Friday Night Lights" was based on an ODESSA, Tx high school football team. There's a lot of oil and gas under all those rocks in the basin.
Reading last night's comments, it sounds as if Anon-T is doing a different kind of drilling and mining. Data mining.
OOPS, gotta run. TTYL
Greetings!
Swell puzzle and expo!
No circles. Still can't make cruciverb work. No problems.
Happy birthday, Tom! 😄😃
Was cheated out of second half of rain predicted yesterday. Rats!
Cheers!
Actually a ROYAL FLUSH is not an "unbeatable hand" (23A). Five of a kind – even five deuces or five treys – will beat a royal flush (but it takes a wild card or a stacked deck).
Should the 31D clue be "A third of a dance? CHA-CHA-CHA!
Easy puzzle today. To continue the pedantry ... few tapas in my experience can be eaten with the fingers. Grilled octopus, meatballs, something with chorizo, spicy potato dishes... yum. But use a knife and fork, please!
"puzzling thoughts":
HBTY, Desper-otto!
Pretty straight-forward puzzle today; my print edition had the circles, so once I got WINTER and autumn to "FALL", I could see that some reference to SEASON(S) was inevitable.
Today I tried solving left to right and north to south, pretty much for the entire puzzle. Don't know about others, but every day or so I change up my routine just for fun. Sometimes I will start in the very bottom right corner, and go "Hebrew-style", from right to left. Makes it difficult that way, especially when there are long spanners. Like today's 55a, in right to left fill, would be EERPS GNIYUB. Not a phrase often used by constructors . . . ;^P
I had DEBUT before ONSET in 9a; and started to misspell SHUTE with SHOOT in 31a; other than that, my pen-filled puzzle page looks pretty pristine . . .
A short limerick for the candidates on CNN tonight:
The debaters cannot use any note;
All of their facts they have studied, by rote.
But beware to the clown;
Who will "monkey" around,
The objective is to WIN the "swing" vote!
Musings 2
-In the rush to get to the next class, I forgot to wish Otto a Happy Birthday!
-Nothings says excess like HUMVEE's
-The changing to Fall is something I also look forward to (to which I always look forward/I eagerly anticipate)
-Joann offered me a Shopping SPREE for my birthday and I couldn’t think of anything to SPREE
-TTP, I had to back to see what “don’t HEAR T” word I used
Happy birthday, Desper-otto! And many happy returns.
This puzzle didn't seem to be at the usual Wednesday level. Pretty much a speed run, with one trip through the acrosses and downs and "Tada". The Mensa site didn't have the circles, so I missed out on the theme until I got to Steve's eloquent expo. Thanks, CW and Steve.
Like several others mentioned, I can't wait for the Fall season to arrive. It's my favorite season. In two weeks BH and I will be in the high country of WV leaf-peeping. Always a great trip.
Cya!
Trying to remember the puzzle I did early this morning.
I see by the inkblot that my slice of cake was interrupted by a rye sandwich...
Loved Steve's take on the puzzle!
Alas, soon it will be just a memory.
Gratuitous cat pic.
(Not so long ago...)
HBD Desper-otto, Here is a slice for you!
Hooray for Rigatoni, Anon T!!!
Another way to beat a ROYAL FLUSH – and without wild cards or a stacked deck – is with another royal flush. In whist and bridge, the suits (as well as the cards) are ranked: Spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. Few play with suits ranked in poker, but it can be done with house rules. By such rules, a royal flush in clubs can be beaten by a royal flush in diamonds; a royal flush in diamonds or clubs can be beaten by a royal flush in hearts, and royal flushes in hearts, diamonds and clubs can be beaten by a royal flush in spades. Thus with suits ranked,75 per cent of royal flushes can be beaten.
John28man
Good to see you
Seems like an EON since I solved this puzzle (it was only this morning).
Steve - Re: your pic of a Reuben and the yummy pickles. I wanted to go to Kenny & Ziggy's today even though I read last night there's a pizza joint that has a real Jersey-style Italian dog (YIP!) I wanted to get my PAWs on.
Alas, our 11:00a got MESSY and ran 'til 12:30; down to the cafeteria.
PESTO PENNE w/ meatball TAPAS (I'll OPT to use a fork) & ASTI followed by a DESSERT WINE... Gosh, I'm ULTRA famished.
Today's Fav - 46d c/a.
Runner up... as I filled in 38a I got this ear-worm byThe Byrds.
TTP - Yep, I was Splunk'ing data.
Cheers, -T
Steve:
Thank you for the information on Orange Pekoe. It's very interesting. My learning point for today.
IrishMiss@12:31
Yes, I know what you mean about having dressy clothes hanging unworn. If I do buy any clothes, it may be that ones I have are too old and might need replacing. But if I do buy an item, I get rid of two.
Post a Comment