Theme: Who wants cake, or maybe a 7 layer theme?
I would like each of you to write up the theme , which I understand but do not know how to express. First we have a reveal early on with 16A. What each successive starting word of the answers to starred clues is to the starting word that precedes it : SYNONYM (8). We then get our first starred clue/fill, 19A. *Popular clubs : HOT SPOTS (8) but it tells us nothing because first we need a 'successive' clue which we get immediately with 20A. *Ty Cobb specialties : STOLEN BASES (11) and the light bulb goes off because HOT and STOLEN both mean something purloined. But here is the twist, the next pair is STOLEN and TAKEN from 31A. *Dressed down : TAKEN TO TASK (11) with STOLEN now a verb. 38A. *Didn't allow to remain in, as political office : REMOVED FROM (11) gives us TAKEN/REMOVED. We then have REMOVED/DISTANT from 46A. *It's ancient history : DISTANT PAST (11) and we finish with DISTANT/COLD as in the b!@#$ acted so DISTANT. 50A. *They might be knocked down in a bar : COLD ONES (8) And to a second reveal of the brilliant ladder Don Hard G has built we have 56A. What the start of 50-Across is to the start of 19-Across : ANTONYM (8) which reminds us we have gone from the HOT to the COLD and from SYNONYM to ANTONYM. Awesome! 76 letters are theme related! And then he manages to work in AT LEAST, CREATOR. HAIRNET, OVER PAR, PATIENT, PINHEAD, SCIORRA, SEASIDE, ASTINS, CHEAPO, EPILOG, HOOPLA, ON TIME, PANAMA SHANTY, SKYLIT, SOBERS, and TOUPEE. I am worn out and have not even begun....
Across:
1. Birdbrain : PINHEAD. Clecho 46D. Birdbrains : DOPES.
8. Crummy : CHEAPO.
14. Annabella of "Jungle Fever" : SCIORRA. This ACTRESS born in Connecticut has had a very successful career in both movies and TV.
15. Producer : CREATOR. Literally true, but I found the connection slow to come to mind.
17. Equestrian's head cover : HAIRNET. There is always something new to LEARN.
18. Newscaster Lindström : PIA.
26. Pros with schedules : CPAS. IRS 1040 e.g.
30. Save : BUT.
35. Closing words : EPILOG. I never have used this spelling.
37. Hut : SHANTY.Has bad connotations.
42. Trouble : AIL.
43. Barely come (through) : SEEP.
44. Box "b" on a W-2: Abbr. : EIN. Employer Identification Number.
45. Magazine that published advance excerpts from Stephen King's "Firestarter" : OMNI. This was a fine MAGAZINE.
55. Like bogeys : OVER PAR. These days almost all the holes.
60. Playing the waiting game : PATIENT.
61. Resort site : SEASIDE.
62. Pass : ELAPSE.
63. Minimally : AT LEAST.
Down:
1. Some email enders : PSS. I have never used PS or any variation in an email.
2. Dangerous, in a way : ICY. Cold.
3. Writer who said "The only abnormality is the incapacity to love" : NIN. Anais was born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, of Cuban descent. LINK.
5. Els with clubs : ERNIE. More golf.
6. Ancient Indo-European : ARYAN. Quite the HISTORY
7. Hydroelectric facility : DAM.
8. Pack up : CRATE. As a verb.
9. Five-time world champion skater Carol : HEISS. More ICE, but I think even Tin allows it for skating. A quick memory of our dear departed Clear Ayes and all our figure skaters who have come and gone.
11. 5 for B or 6 for C : ATNO. I think the clue needs at least a 'shortly' as neither B nor C as atomic symbols are actually abbreviations.
12. Orpheus, for one : POET.
13. Scraps : ORTS.
15. Elect : CHOSEN. This time not a verb.
19. Leaping critter : HARE. 36D. __-eared : LOP. You like Lola?
20. Sleeps it off, with "up" : SOBERS.
21. Theatrical piece? : TOUPEE. Nice misdirection especially near HARE.
22. As scheduled : ON TIME. Airlines now over state time so they can appear on time.
23. __ choy : BOK. A versatile vegetable. LINK.
26. Windy City travel org. : CTA. I never have used Chicago transit.
27. Colombia neighbor : PANAMA.
28. Actors John and Sean : ASTINS. If you ever wondered why Samwise Gamgee did not look like Gomez Addams, they are not biologic father and son. It is a complicated STORY.
29. Naturally bright : SKYLIT. How many of you have a skylight in your home? I am in a second floor apartment, so...
31. Good, in Hebrew : TOV. Yom tov.
32. Golden __ : AGE. Of comic books?
33. Musical org. based in Kawasaki : TSO.
34. Electrical measure : OHM.
39. Much of Nevada : DESERT.
40. Emotional spells : FITS. Is this now an un-pc term?
41. Strand under a microscope : RNA. Ribonucleic acid.
45. Resist : OPPOSE.
47. Silly : INANE.
48. Good-sized combo : NONET. Nine pieces.
49. Wreck big time : TOTAL. I had one car totaled when I was broadsided.
50. Deal : COPE.
51. Roundish : OVAL. ...ish.
52. "__ Smile Be Your Umbrella" : LET A. Who ever did it better?
53. Boring type : DRIP. A 1950s term.
56. Arkansas governor Hutchinson : ASA. How many obscure ASAs are there?
57. Actress Vardalos : NIA. My big fat Greek wallet after her success. We have this new Greek restaurant near our place and we want to eat there but whenever we walk over there are no customers...
58. Abbr. near a tee : YDS. Yards, as most of you read this I am in another charity golf tournament.
59. Assembled : MET. As opposed to a New York Met. Baseball in 50 degree weather....
A classic Don Hard G. Friday, so well put together. Have a safe Halloween and set your clocks back and enjoy the extra hour.
Lemonade out
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63 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks, Don and Lemon. Pleasant puzzle. Enjoyed the references to words.
EIN was perped.
Still sick. (Not getting any better.) Thanks for the good wishes Wednesday.
Thought the crossover between Bones, Sleepy Hollow was cute.
Not the right word, but I am really tired.
The blog box has been growing sideways on me lately. So I create new paragraphs.
But, what a pain!
Cheers!
The more things stay the same, the more they change.
As we proceed down the grid, the starting word for each themed answer is a synonym of the preceding themed answer. When we reach the bottom of the grid, we find that the last of our synonyms is actually an antonym of the starting word in the first themed answer.
or
Exactly what the clues state @ 16a and 56a.
Often, on Fridays, the reviewer tries to be too clever with his summarizing paragraph and thus delivers us a wordy, confusing and mostly vainglorious analysis. This usually leaves me with the impression that this exercise is more about himself than just simply presenting the star of the show, the puzzle. Just my 2 cents worth. YMMV. Or as Gary often points out on Friday: Lemony's paragraph works for me...
Morning, all!
This one took a long time to finish. Fortunately, I'm off today and had the time to devote to it. The theme was very clever, but I completely ignored it while solving.
Many, many false starts today, including NESS for EARP, DODOS for DOPES, TALL ONES for COLD ONES, DNA for RNA and (sad to say) ON RADAR for OVER PAR.
Lots and lots of hard clues that took time to unwind.
Only one total unknown, which was HEISS.
I also misspelled ASTINS as ASTONS, which had me staring at AOL for "Trouble" and knowing that it had to be wrong but unable to figure out how until the light bulb finally went on.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. This puzzle ran from HOT TO COLD. Definitely a Friday-level puzzle with a Friday-Level theme to suss out.
Lots of names but the only one I didn't know was Carol HEISS (b. 1940). PIA Lindstrom (b. 1938) is also the half-sister of Isabella Rossellini. Anais NIN (1903 ~ 1977) wrote erotica. I went to a grade school named after an ASA.
Hand up for Dog-Eared instead of LOB-eared.
One needs to add a PPS in an e-mail? I thought that was only for hand-written notes.
Trick-or-Treaters come by tonight due to the fear of inclement weather tomorrow night.
QOD: I guess the definition of a lunatic is a man surrounded by them. ~ Ezra Pound (Oct. 30, 1885 ~ Nov. 1, 1972)
Morning!
Crashed and burned on this one. I got everything (including the theme) except for western Washington state. I stared at ___HEAD, ___ORRA above SYNONYM to no avail. It would have helped a bunch had I known SCIORRA. For 1a I could see AIRHEAD, but figured that 1d had to be the three letters after the "dot" in the email address. Nope! Totally blew it. No excuse.
I did think the construction was elegant with the word ladder, and with SYNONYM and ANTONYM symmetrically placed. Impressive, Don (hard) G. Today you were the windshield, and I was the bug.
I'd call it "Gossip". I think that game went by several names, but that's what we called it. A circle of people whisper something in the ear of the one next to them, then by the time it gets back to the starting point, it's something completely different.
Great puzzle! A real slog, and lots of erasures and unknowns (all already mentioned). But I did manage to wrestle it to the ground.
I would call the theme a 3 layer Cake. First the Antonyms Hot = the icing and Cold = the Cake.
Now for the Synonyms each Starred clue first word is an synonym for the first word on either preceding or subsequent starred clue.
Now for the Cake every layer cake is icing and a layer of cake. Layer one is Hot/Stolen (Icing Cake) Layer 2 Taken/Removed (Icing/Cake) Layer 3 is Distant/Cold (Icing/Cake)
Initially I had trouble on 11D but with lemonade's help I figured out that the clue and answer make sense as is with no need for additional words.
The abbreviation for Boron is B (coincidentally which is also its atomic symbol) and Boron has the Atomic Number of 5 The abbreviation for Carbon is C (coincidentally which is also its atomic symbol) and Carbon has an Atomic number of 6.
Great Puzzle for a Friday thank you Don for the Eye Opener unfortunately I was not entirely awake for this one.
What a wonderful theme. As usual, I didn't see it until I came to this corner and read Lemony's artful expo, but now that I get it, I am in awe. Typical Don HardG Friday level puzzle - challenging, crunchy, but in the end doable w/o cheating. I needed ESP for most of the proper names. Thank you perps. No nits. No complaints. Nothing else.
Cya!
The more things stay the same, the more they change.
"As we proceed down the grid, the starting word for each themed answer is a synonym of the preceding themed answer. When we reach the bottom of the grid, we find that the last of our synonyms is actually an antonym of the starting word in the first themed answer. Or exactly what the clues state @ 16a and 56a.
Often, on Fridays, the reviewer tries to be too clever with his summarizing paragraph and thus delivers us a wordy, confusing and mostly vainglorious analysis. This usually leaves me with the impression that this exercise is more about himself than just simply presenting the star of the show, the puzzle. Just my 2 cents worth. YMMV. Or as Gary often points out on Friday: Lemony's paragraph works for me... "
Yeah, this puzzle made me feel stupid too.
The Equestrian clue was just too, too obscure. That's a foul.
Anon at 6:10 - what is ymmv?
D N F ... jeez, I even set my clocks back an hour ... and still ran-out-of-solving-time.
Don G. Thank You for a FUN Friday level puzzle. (Even though you beat me!)
SCIORRA, HEISS, AT-NO were never going to fall. Sh*t Happens! (As Forest Gump would say!)
OK, COLD-ONES was my fave today. Though SOBERS-up was a close second.
It is NY MET, T-Shirt # 3 to tonight's game.
(When Charlie gave me 4 Met tees ... I thought that was "one-for-each-win" ... and now I learn it was "One-for-each-loss").
Cheers!
Anon@6:10am. Your comment was rather rude. I am certain it is hard work writing up these reviews. Please be a little more respectful.
P.S. Your quote "The more things stay the same, the more they change" has the clauses reversed. Was that a deliberate reversal, vaguely in line with today's theme? If so, very clever. If not, then:
P.P.S. It is based on some Frawnche guy (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr), whose only famous EPIGRAM, not EPILOG, states:
"Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose"
..which is generally translated as "The more things change, the more they stay the same"; and in speech, typically shortened to the first phrase ""Plus ça change…", followed by a pregnant pause, not necessarily because the speaker has forgotten the second clause.
For openers let me state that I did complete the puzzle, BUT it wasn't easy. Talk about a sea of white. Unknowns galore. SCIORRA, PIA, EIN, OMNI, Alley OOP, TSO, NIN, HEISS, TOV, TSO.
The theme was unbelievabley clever. And after I filled ANTONYM, which was one of my first fills, I went back and wrote SYNONYM for 16A. I knew it would be trouble when I couldn't fill either 1A or 1D initially. As a matter of fact, PSS was my last fill along with NIN because SCIORRA was unknown and I put AIRHEAD instead of PINHEAD. My question would be: Why would anybody have a PS in an email? It's not as thought you already wrote it in ink and CAN'T MOVE THE CURSOR above your signature.
I didn't like the clue 'elect' for CHOSEN; 'select' maybe or 'electeD'.
Other misstarts were SUNLIT for SKYLIT, DOG for LOP, DNA to RNA, NESS for EARP.
OVER PAR- I was 21 yesterday with 8 of the 'overs' being of 3 holes. Kept missing 4 foot putts. Well AT LEAST that has ELAPSED and is in the DISTANT PAST, and you can call me a CHEAPO PINHEAD when I play, especially when I fish golf balls out the water that others are too lazy to retrieve.
I had to work overtime today on this one. Have a good day everybody.
oops!
Lemon: I forgot to Thank You for another wonderful write-up.
And I did enjoy the HEISS "On-Ice" link.
I always wonder how much time each blogger spent preparing the daily write-ups.
I do appreciate their efforts and numerous informative links and learning moments provided.
That is why I "toast-them" every night at Sunset.
Cheers!
PS "ymmv" ... it that "Your Mileage May Vary" ???
Yes my "puzzle title" was an intentionally changed version of that french guys epigram. I even googled it and read his wiki to make sure I got it wrong.
Btw, I neglected to say that I think this puzzle was one of my favorites in recent memory. A very fun theme that I don't remember being done before. Thanks Don Gagliardo for being a CREATOR of much enjoyment for a PINHEAD like me!
P.S. Needed to add this so I could add...
P.P.S. YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary
Good morning everyone.
Agree with D-O. Elegant puzzle and use of word ladder.
First found the solve daunting, so picked away at it from the S. Eventually got it all without help. Perps helped with SCIORRA and EIN. Liked the ATNO clue.
OHM - It's usually ohm but amp would have fit the clue and spaces.
EIN - I don't get W-2's 'cause I'm retired. Got strictly from perps. Prefer cluing as: German indefinite article.
A classy puzzle Don (hard)G. BZ
Excellent puzzle that took a long (long) time to finish.
ERNIE and DAM came quickly, and with that N-M, I was fairly certain it would be homonym, antonym or SYNONYM for 16A. After a bit, lightly keyed in NIN and SYNONYM. Then stuck with that corner, unsuccessfully trying to find the correct fill. Little did I know that NW corner would also be my last area to fill, nearly an hour later.
After that slow start in the NW corner, decided to make a run through all of the across clues, and then make a run through all of the down clues to pick off any low hanging fruit. That tactic helped. Tremendously.
Then it seemed like I had to fill it letter by letter in many areas. EG, having fruit filled PANAMA and ASTINS in the far mideast, a 4 letter magazine with a middle MN combo would be OMNI. Never would have known the answer from the clue. OPPOSE proved OMNI. Likewise, that NT combo above the MN easily led to SHANTY using the clue.
First theme fill TAKEN TO TASK came from that success, and then STOLEN (BASES) as a SYNONYM for TAKEN. I'd hardly say off to the races though. STOLEN lead to HOT (SPOTS).
Took a lot of perp help and some pretty good wags to get home from there. And it was actually Birdbrains = DOPES in the SW that helped me see Birdbrains = PINHEAD in the NW. And then it was done.
Time to go read the write up. Great puzzle Don G !
Hi Gang -
Yes, YMMV is your mileage may vary. To each his/her own. Jedem das seine - nicht wahr?
Brilliant Don G theme. I am in awe.
Had to G-spot SCIORRA and PIA. ELECT for CHOSEN is not obvious, but legit, I think.
DOG before LOP.
I did not like Theatrical piece for TOUPEE. The connection is not at all solid.
I'd say that if any regular blogger here is guilty of making the post personally idiosyncratic, and therefore self-referential, then I am that guy. Any reader reader who does not like the posting of a particular blogger is welcome to not read those posts. I'm quite sure nobody here will be offended by your absence. Better yet, you try writing one of these posts. It's time consuming, mentally taxing, and a pure labor of love.
I know feeding the trolls is bad policy, but I am human and therefore imperfect. Anon @ 6:10, I am sick to the teeth of your constant carping. You lack the self awareness to realize that your comments are really just about you and your tone-deafness to irony. Please either go away or STFU.
/rant
Cool regards everyone else
JzB
P.P.P.S. I thought the theme was very clever, clearly spelled out (but long: it needed reading twice, once before and once after coffee), but it gave me 2 freebies - antonym and synonym - and a confirmation (not necessarily a direct help, as the word usages slyly skipped from one theme clue to the next) that I was on the right track.
• P.P.S. What does PSS mean?
• I thought that 15D CHOSEN was rather obscure. Sure, we say "President-Elect", but that is a post-positive combination, so does not match the clueing. Otherwise, it's mostly used in a Christian context, with the definite article "The Elect" = "The Chosen" (by God, one presumes). Not so TOV.
• 17A. I thought "hair-net" was rather side-saddle/ Downton Abbey. I linked to the Equestrian Statue the other day - NO NET there.
• I also mentioned variants on HOOHA. HOOPLA is one. Anyone else have their favorite.
• 50D. COPE = DEAL? – only in the verbal phrase "COPE WITH". I think this clue should have included "with with". Maybe that was the problem, Rich, eh?
• 20D: SOBERS UP => Sleeps if off. Not exclusive synonyms. The clue in reverse would be OK, but there are other ways to sober up, so a "perhaps" would have been appreciated.
• I've never heard an American say "I'm going to the seaside", only heard it used attributively, as in Seaside Resort. I grew up in England with this very popular ditty:
Oh I do love to be beside the seaside
I do love to be beside the sea
When I'm beside the sea
I'm beside myself with glee
Beside the seaside, beside the sea.
Whenever I hit a golf shot into a bunker, I always sing/hum it aloud (before the inevitable BOGEY), but I sense no recognition from my golfing partners.
Excellent "word ladder" theme. I guessed at SYNONYM with only .....YM showing and it turned out to be correct. The theme didn't help much, but when ANTONYM appeared it helped to fill in COLD ONES. Several names were unknown: Annabella SCIORRA, PIA Lindstrom, Carol HEISS, ASA Hutchinson. For some reason, got stumped for a bit with "Els with clubs", although Ernie ELS is a regular crossword visitor. Also slow on the uptake with ATNO. I have to admit being a little surprised at the "tada" because I thought there were several iffy answers related to those unknowns. Time ended up very good for a Friday -- this week all times have been quick for some reason.
Regarding the theme of a synonym chain ending up at an antonym -- the briefest one may be the single-rung ladder CLEAVE, which means both "cling to" and "split", arguably antonymic meanings.
Thanks, Don(hard)G for a very clever and challenging puzzle. And Lemon for an entertaining writeup. I didn't know all of Anais Nin's names! (And won't tomorrow.)
Happy Halloween all, and remember to set your clocks back on Sunday (for those who obseve DST).
Good Morning:
This started out very slowly but bit by bit I picked up speed and everything fell into place for the tada. Some of the cluing was off-beat, but perps were solid.
Congrats, Don, on a very impressive achievement and thanks, Lemony, for your always informative and detailed summary.
After I posted yesterday, I had company until late last evening so I just read yesterday's comments this morning. CED, you were on my blacklist for the dog-shaming 🐶 picture, but you are back in my good graces with the death by alligator picture, 🐊.
Bill G, thanks for the tender story of the teen buying the doll for that little girl. It's nice to hear about the goodness of people for a change. 💏
PK and Ferm, get well soon.
Have a great day.
If you are curious as to the TSO based in Kawasaki(33-Down), watch the following Tokyo Symphony Orchestra(5:19).
P**5.S
Last time PINHEAD came up, I recounted one quote from a 1980s strip in which the evergreen (but spotty) "ZIPPY the PINHEAD" declared:
I feel like a lost sock in the Laundromat of oblivion.
I use the phrase a-plenty, especially when doing this crossword, but can it be attributed to Bill Griffith? Does anyone know him well enough to ask him directly?
I worked hard on Don’s great puzzle and got ‘er done! I worked from the bottom up because AIRHEAD (air/bird) held me up. I might have preferred this cluing. No need to gild Lemon’s lily except ICY’s SYNONYM for me would be SLICK not COLD
Musings
-I got the clever gimmick at COLD/DISTANT and it was helpful.
-SCIORRA had to wait for PSS and NIN. No clue!
-How’s this for a ponytail maker? (:21)
-OONA chose Charlie Chaplin over her dad Eugene O’Neill
-Very interesting final EPILOG on The Fugitive (2:42)
-We let about 10 years ELAPSE between our cats. It hurts to lose them
-I do ps and pss, esp. if content differs from original text
-Slight delay - NESS was in 1987 and EARP in 1994 for Costner
-I thought 5 for B and 6 for C was CODE at first
-Second largest hydraulic fill hydroelectric DAM in the world
-I’m told those Leaping Critters can be litter box trained
-Wanna see if your flight is ON TIME? Find it and click on it.
-Columbia/PANAMA/U.S. in 1903. In the words of S.I. Hayakawa, “We should keep the Panama Canal. After all, we stole it fair and square”
-Remember the PRODUCER who did Springtime for Hitler?
p.s. Amen brother Jazz! It is possible to read the answers without having to read the text we bloggers work long and hard and lovingly to add.
p.s.s. So there! ☺
A recent clue and fill involved Wells/Welles' "War of the Worlds". Today is the 77th anniversary of that infamous Welles broadcast.
HG Didn't "Springtime for Hitler" have two producers? Or are you talking about who produced the movie? Or am I just more confused than usual?
Argyle: Thanks for the TSO link. Interesting.
Cya!
Yeah, you’re right Bluehen, but Max was a Producer by trade and Leo got sucked into the play while auditing Max and so… Thanks for the gentle reminder. I guess the title of the show/movie is plural. ☺
I worked on and finished this puzzle late last night. I enjoyed it so much I almost said so in last night's posts. But I refrained. It was appropriately hard for a Friday with a very clever theme and some tricky cluing. Well done! Thanks Hard G and Lemon.
WEES. I had trouble with SCIORRA, CHEAPO, HAIRNET, EIN, HEISS, ATNO and maybe some others. Score, Don G. One, Bill G. Zero.
Irish Miss, I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for saying so.
I would think that P.S. is an abbreviation for Post Script where you add something extra at the end of a letter and is not useful in e-mails. I would think that a second P.S. to add another extra thought would be P.P.S. for Post Post Script. P.S.s seems like a plural of Post Script. But maybe I'm confused...
Lemonade, I liked your write-up. Can't easily come up with my own way to explain the theme any better.
I liked Avg Joe's "gossip." Starts out one way and ends up different. An elementary or middle school teacher taught us that same lesson Joe. Totally different by the time it got to the student at the other end of the room.
Got SCIORRA and HAIRNET and HEISS, but wouldn't have learned about them w/o your write-up. I think you did a fine job. I was also pleased that ANON was TAKEN TO TASK for the unnecessary comment.
I tend to think of myself as gregarious, and therefore tend to disassociate myself and not care for ICY people. Tough to do when you and your spouse likes their spouse. Especially don't care for icy and pretentious sales clerks. I like warm conversant types.
Howard W, I too thought of CLEAVE. We had that as an answer before, and after I questioned the clue/answer, someone explained that it had opposing definitions. Never knew it was one of those words. IIRC, there is a term for those types of words.
Big Easy, one of my regular golfing buddies loses focus on the game when he's having a bad round, and becomes (sometimes annoyingly) one of the best ball-hawkers I've ever seen. He gave me another 5 gallon bucket full of Titleists this year. I still haven't used any from the bucket he gave me last year.
Speaking of Ty Cobb and STOLEN BASES... Legend has it that he would - with great dramatic effect - file his cleats during the game while on the steps of the dugout to put fear in the antonyming basemen. Cobb didn't have suicide steal in his arsenal. More like manslaughter steal.
Hi Jazz,
"Any reader reader who does not like the posting of a particular blogger is welcome to not read those posts. I'm quite sure nobody here will be offended by your absence."
Amen brother! Just pretend there was no post at 6:10a. Problem solved!
I was merely expressing my opinion, analogous to a film reviewer. Perhaps Lemonade is a fine writer but is merely miscast as puzzle blogger. Akin to Marlon Brando in 'The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Also, it is impossible to be sick to teeth of me as I have only posted a few times, usually in response to a trivia question by Husker. Although after one of my earliest post(about 18 months ago), I was admonished by a regular and banished to the obviously more than one disagreeable anon pool. I realize that since I don't distinguish myself from other anons, it is unreasonable for the regulars to identify individual anons but do you really think we are all the same individual? I can only surmise that it is frowned upon to add to the discussion here unless one identifies them self with a moniker.
Geez, thin skin!
Hard to dislike any puzzle that clues for the highly talented and absolutely stunning Annabelle Sciorra in it. sigh…she hits me right in my DNA.
Oh, right, the puzzle - tough but completed. Now, back to Ms. Sciorra…
Well, once again this was a Friday toughie for me, although I actually got most of the bottom half with trouble mainly at the top. And of course I didn't get the theme until Lemonade's expo, and agree that it is incredibly clever. So, congratulations on that, Don, and thanks for the help, Lemonade.
Yep, I too had DOG-EARED for a long time.
Fermatprime, so sorry you're still sick. Take care of yourself.
Have a great Friday, everybody!
I have not read the write up or comments yet,
I just wanted to say...
Pen on paper
approx 1/2 done
SE filled
NW mostly empty
I got Synonym/Antonym - distant & cold & now I am totally stuck...
Kudos to Don Gagliardo for driving me nuts (even tho 4me it's a short walk...)
ACK! I retyped everything on the PC so I could go red letter & discovered
36D is not dog eared?
37A Hut is not a lean to?
One thing about this puzzle is that to go red letter is to ruin it.
You really need the dead tree version to make all the cross connections easier.
Yes, I may have gone red letter.
But I am going back to pen & paper now that I know dog & leanto are wrong.
Now that I am rested, & my blood pressure is back to normal,
I refuse to give up!
You haven't beaten me (yet) Mr. Gagliardo!
Very interesting puzzle and great links here, thanks! I secretly interpret any Swedish reference as a shout out to me so I loved the Pia Lindström inclusion. Åsa being a girl's name here I thought I was getting double attention but it appears Asa has another origin.
Hello Everyone, The Synonym to Antonym Progression completely eluded me. I had so many missteps with wrong entries, that I just came to the blog to see what all the answers were. This puzzle was extremely clever, and extremely complex in its construction. Don G. is one clever guy!
Interesting that Colombia would appear in the puzzle as Panama as it's neighbor. We're going through old photos from our two years living in Colombia and scanning them to put on CD's. Our group of photos that we worked on this week were from the Choco (Jungle) area of Northern Colombia just below the Panamanian border. At the time we were there the travel was only by air and boat--few, if any, roads. Now the Google maps show built up communities, bridges, and roads where only river travel existed 50 years ago. Such is progress.
I'm with CED Don G. drove me nuts with this puzzle. Friday's puzzle is usually not one that I attempt, but today I had some time--soooo to no avail.
Have a great day everyone.
What a puzzle! I would say thanks to Don but my hurt pride at having to use red letters prevents me!
Thanks to Lemonade for the write up. I did not see a progression in meaning, just the same meaning for the * answers. COLD and DISTANT seemed like a separate situation.
As for the hairnets on equestrians. Not a happy camper there!
- Men and short-haired women wouldn't need them.
- Are the REQUIRED for long-haired riders?
- What happened to tasteful long pigtail down the back? Like a Chinese queue?
- Is this an attempt to make women riders more male-looking?
On the other hand, the hair in the helmet could help prevent concussions. And maybe they worry about the pig-tail getting caught in a spill.
I saw a Cleveland Browns football player with a Mohawk and thought that this would hurt the ability of the helmet to protect the sides of his head. But the full-haired players really could do to tuck it in their helmets.
Wikipedia did not list the 1984 film in which Kevin Costner played EARP, so I couldn't even get help cheating.
Happy Halloween to all!
VS
Oh, now I see, I looked up the wrong year, it was 1994 for Costner as EARP.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Don Gagliardo, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade 714, for a fine review.
Nice Cuppa: PS's as in many PS's or plural PS's.
Wow, what a puzzle. As others have said this is one of my all-time favorites.
It is a Friday, so it took me a while. I did, however, think it was easier than most Fridays. The theme helped a lot with several words as I progressed.
Tried KSO before TSO became obvious. 1st inkblot.
Tried ADO before AIL. 2nd inkblot.
Tried DOG before LOP. 3rd inkblot.
Tried ONE OVER before OVER PAR became the obvious answer. 4th inkblot.
I just cannot imagine how Don G. constructed this puzzle with all these related words, etc. Great job!
Took me a while to get the NE and NW corners. After a couple trial words in each corner, that turned out to be correct, I was good to go.
OK, that is it! See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Theme title: "Same as it never was"... Kinda Talking HEADs.
Thanks D. (hard) G. and Lem. I'll play later and tell you how I TOTAL'd the N. corners. Cheers, -T
Wowie zowie, what an awe-inspiring puzzle! Damn clever, flawlessly constructed, and mostly well-clued. Some of you have already expressed your observations about some of the clues.
Hand up for DOG instead of LOP. I entered HERO for Morpheus until learning he was a POET. Now I realize the hero was Orpheus. I knew Annabella SCIORRA, probably because she is one of the many women on whom I have had a crush. In my DNA indeed.
Best wishes to you all.
OOPs - in my haste - wrong Talking Heads song. Sleep it off :-) C, -T
Egad!
If this were a constructor I did not know (& love), I would have given up long ago.
Not an FIW, or a DNF, possibly a PIA, but a surprisingly good one...
I did have to Google some names.(So Orpheus was a Poet, Heiss, Nin etc...)
8A crummy, ending in O, was below the belt...
17A Hairnet, (I really wanted hardhat.)
11D looked like code to me...
28D Astins ( Holy Crap! What a history...)
32D FOUL!!! my papers clue only had Golden, with no line after it. No fair!
56D ASA? I wanted a better clue. Maybe something referring Asshole Society of America.
But in researching a funny pic, it turns out there is such an organization.
So, not wanting to be a member, I will not comment further...
HG, I thought that vacuum ponytail was a magic trick! I had to watch it 3 times
b/4 I noticed that the hair braid was on the vacuum wand from the beginning!
P.S. 9D Heiss link was great! But it reminded me of something in the puzzle about
miniskirts originating at a horse race in 1965, but I cannot find it now...
P.S.S. PIA = Pain In (the) Ass.
Anon-T, this is exclusively for you: But is it Commercial. All others need not gripe.
Gary, my mother actually worked for Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa at the U of Wisconsin (steenkin' Badgers) back in the 30's. She was an undergrad and worked as a proofreader for some of his published works on semantics. Long before his political career or time spent in internment camps during the war. FWIW, his Grandmother named him after Samuel Clemens because she was reading Mark Twain when he was born in Canada. An incredible individual!
Nice Cuppa, my first thought on Pinhead was Zippy as well.
Bonus Jon Astley track. Again just for Anon-T I'll show you...
Musings 4
-Today we saw Sean ASTIN play an evangelist in this movie. The depiction of racism in Birmingham, AL in the 70’s and the football were great and the emphasis on Christianity was surprising in the atmosphere of 2015.
-Joe, Hayakawa changed my life when I took semantics in college. It drove my soon-to-be wife nuts!
-Jayce, I first thought Orpheus was a MUSE
Ave Joe...
PINHEAD made me think of Bill O'Reilly. He seems to like throwing that word about with whom he disagrees. I like Zippy better.
//Asside for HG - I thought Code too; ROT-3... easy crack.
I've never heard Jon Astley b/f. Oddly, I like it.... The theme is like Hook by Blues Traveler - the intertextuality is compelling. Thanks for sharing.*
Just back from Youngest's physical therapy (ballet leg issue) and time for a nap / WS Game 3.
Before I go - good to see you posting again Chickie!
Cheers, -T
*Sorry Argyle, I know you're going to have to clean it up... but I'm currious if the bots are triggering on "Thanks for sharing" to post DOPE'y ads.
Anon T, I'd lay heavy odds you have.... Jane's Getting Serious
Gary, it's an understatement to say that S.I. Hayakawa had an impact on my life. I wish I could have met the man. I owe my grasp of the language at least in part to him.
Working on a theme here: Easy Jane. If you've heard this one, I'll be shocked. If you don't like it, I'll be very surprised.
CED - re miniskirts. That would have been Jean Shrimpton at the Victoria Derby Day in Melbourne, Australia, on October 30, 1965. Although I read C.C.'s instructions in the Olio How to Link, I still have one foot in the cave when it comes to computerese. I'll try, but at least if you google the above, CED, you will find lots of sites. Thanks. Jean Shrimpton
Lemonade, thanks for your wonderful blog, enjoyed it and learnt a lot.
When you use a term like 'Yom Tov', please explain it. Not all of us know.
Why force us to Google it ? Imagine the time that is wasted, for every blogger to go through the same excersize.
BTW, as way of an explanation, Google says ( I swear -).... "most melacha is prohibited if the Yom Tov falls on a weekday, not Shabbat. "
That makes everything crystal clear.
PPS. Now, what is a melacha ? I hope you got the point. Meant kindly.
Texan Miss, maybe you meant to link Jean Shrimpton (recollects on - ) the causes of a stir on Victoria derby Day, 1965 .
.... and she didn't even take off anything ?
Hi Y'all! This puzzle is interesting and awe inspiring, Don! How long did all the interweaving take? Lemony, WOW, good job on a hard one.
This puzzle took me twice as long as any other this week and the same time as last Sundays. Without red-letter help, it would have been impossible. (PINHEAD, DOPE, DRIP - all shoutouts to me.) Only four entries didn't turn red on the first try: DAM, ORTS, OVAL & MET. HEISS only took two tries because I tried to start it with a W. One entry took six tries. Mostly I just picked and WAGd my way through. Wasn't really hard when I got it filled and looked it over. Sure, PK, try to convince yourself!
A synonym for Don G. is TRICKY.
ATNO time did I understand this clue until someone here explained it. I didn't even get Lemony's explanation. Duh du jour!
Equestrian headcover wasn't "Helmetted". I think women wore the HAIRNET aka snood to keep the hair from whipping around the face and to look neat during dressage.
Generally, YOM means DAY. So YOM TOV literally means good day. It is however used to signify certain special days which are often sacred. Each Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is considered a very holy day and there must not be any MELACHOT (the plural of MELACHA) There are 39 types of activity that are forbidden in the Torah on these days. Work is very much part of the things we are to not do to honor creation and rest on the seventh day.
I do want to let everyone know that today was number 3000 here at the Corner. Congratulations C.C. om another milestone.
Met's Win!
Met's Win!
But NOW I find myself in a conundrum ...
When the game came on ... I was sitting outside, reading a wonderful book, a Phyrne Fisher Murder Mystery (Kerry Greenwood is becoming a favorite Author!) ... and I had NOT put on the NY Met # 3, T-Shirt ...
And then they win ...
So I guess I am stuck with wearing a "Market Street Inn" (Salisbury, Maryland) T-Shirt again tomorrow ...
Met T-Shirt # 3 will be held in reserve.
Oh well, at least it is a "Series" to those of us who LOVE baseball ...
For the rest of you ... who do NOT watch any sports ... No biggie ...
I have a borther who lives in Burbank ... when I phoned him about the Super Bowl the last time it was in L.A. ... he did not even know it was Super Bowl Sunday.
Yeah, He isn't into sports ... but his little brother is ...
And that is what makes this A Beautiful World!!!
Cheers! ... To the Met's ...
Ohno, Anon not Apollo !@ 8:16 - Thank you! for your correct link! I now know I've got BOTH feet in the cave. My link was a no-go!
Congratulations Mets!
Congratulations on blog 3000!
This meant for everyone.
Everyone that enjoys music. It's fairly new. It's hip.
Outta My Mind
Hi all!
Dan (hard) G. does it again. Same as it never was...
Surprisingly, w/ only DAM I got 16a and then 56a. Then went back to the theme answers. The fill around 'em was still hard (G). DNF.
Both N. corners were my downfall. I had IfY for 2d and kept thinking what's an El? at 5d (oh, golf...). @8a I had lousey, but that looked wrong ('cuz it is), and the HAIR NET was Horse???, HARness. I can't read the rest through the layers of ink.
The SW corner gave me fits too. Tall ONES are just as yummy as COLD ONES, and OnEover is +PAR.... I finally got that corner at last.
Thanks Lem for fixing my missteps and for the wonderful (and apparently thankless) writeup.
My 1st fill was SOBERS - I recall a poem where the old lady kept going to the shed for her elixir and making a bigger and bigger scene of herself in her nightgown. The refrain was "sleep it off old lady." IIRC it was Rhys. Anyone know that poem? YR?
NC - I heard that French phase 1st in Circumstances (more RUSH! :-)). Even if you don't like RUSH, tell me, what rock band makes a 12 yro go lookup words?
JzB @10:08a - Rah, Rah!
AveJoe - The last song you posted rings a bell ever so gently. I would ask for your chips on that bet, but you may be right...
METs win, so AT LEAST 2 more games!
Time to go back and find the HG link that CED mentioned.
Cheers, -T
@anon 11:58p
Have you heard about this guy yet?
It's awesome stuff. You're gonna love it.
I just looked it up. Rhys wrote the short story Sleep it Off Old Lady. Now it's coming to me... It was DW's grad-school friend that wrote a poem in response and distilled the story rather humorously.
DW's friend was wicked-funny... She had another poem called (IIRC) "Flashing the Missionaries" that I can still picture in the mind's eye. It was about a proper southern girl who, while riding her bike, lets the wind ride up her skirt to give "those boys" a glimpse. Hangin' w/ the Humanities crowd was fun. Cheers, -T
A@12:32: Thanks for the tune... Everytime I hear I hear "Right Place, Wrong Time" I have to remember Winter & Dr. John not Boz Scaggs. I don't know why they're entangled in my (PIN) HEAD, but they are. C, -T
Anon@1232a
Yes, their new stuff is incredible.
This not withstanding.
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