Theme: Instrumentals - three four-letter music-makers hidden in the theme entries
17A. What a party crasher may get : CHILLY RECEPTION. You get frozen out of conversations and given the cold shoulder.
27A. 19th-/20th-century South African conflicts : ANGLO-BOER WARS. I knew the Boer Wars, I didn't realize the official name included the Anglo bit.
49A. Horror movie characters : LAB ASSISTANTS. Drinking green fuming solutions or stitching together stolen body parts. Cheerful characters, generally.
65A. Film score component, and a hint to words hidden in 17-, 27- and 49-Across : INCIDENTAL MUSIC. Horror movie lab assistants often get a healthy dose of this.
Morning! Simple enough theme (and a bit of a horror movie mini-theme) today. I'm not sure if I missed something terribly subtle and clever with this puzzle; if I did it went way over my head. A couple of grid spanners, two 13's and a lot of shorter stuff gives us this 78-worder. Let's see what else pops out.
Across:
1. Luxurious : POSH. Hmm. Not sure about this definition of posh. Dressy, upper-class, hoity-toity social circles say "posh" to me.
5. Decorative bedroom item : SHAM. Do Hormel make throws? Spam shams?
9. As such : PER SE. When Thomas Keller, chef and owner of The French Laundry in the Napa Valley was opening his new restaurant in New York, he didn't have a name for it until he realized he kept saying that "it wasn't going to be like The French Laundy, per se". So he called it Per Se.
14. Morales of "Jericho" : ESAI
15. Improbable : TALL. Like a tale or a story.
16. Without stopping : ON END
20. French room : SALLE. I tried SALON first which needed correcting later on.
21. Signifies : MEANS
22. Nuggets' org. : N.B.A. Denver's pro basketball team.
23. Air traveler's concern, briefly : E.T.A. Usually at least half-an-hour later than scheduled in my experience.
25. Mil. group that "teaches you to lead" : R.O.T.C.
33. "Stupid me!" : DOH! Homer Simpson's favorite exclamation.
34. Unlikely prom king : NERD
35. Chocolate-covered caramel treats : ROLOS
38. Starting from : AS OF
40. Event with arguments : TRIAL
43. Habit : WONT
44. NFL's winningest coach : SHULA. Don Shula had 347 victories, 71 with the Baltimore Colts and the remainder with the Miami Dolphins. He also coached the Dolphins to the NFL's only perfect season in 1972 with a 17-0-0 record.
46. In the way indicated : THUS
48. Support : AID
53. Jog : TROT
54. Petty with hits : TOM. His band, the Heartbreakers, helped a little too.
55. Shindigs : DOS
58. Occupied : IN USE
61. Shows of crowd approval : ROARS
68. "Sweeney __ the Nightingales": Eliot poem : AMONG. Crosses for me. A happy tale of murder and deceit, apparently.
69. Newbie : TYRO
70. Italian meat sauce : RAGÙ. Food! Ragù alla bolognese is a well-known variety.
71. Do not disturb : LET BE
72. Promote : SELL
73. Inbox clogger : SPAM. Food? Named for the Monty Python sketch where a diner featured Spam, usually unwanted, in every dish.
Down:
1. Lats relatives : PECS. Your back muscles, the latissimus dorsi, and your chest muscles, the pectoralis major. Anatomy class dismissed.
2. Workplace welfare agcy. : O.S.H.A. I've stopped thinking of this an an abbreviation. Occupational Health and Safety Administration to give it it's official name.
3. Caravel mover : SAIL. Does the sail move the ship or does the wind do it? Discuss.
4. Jewish campus organization : HILLEL. No clue, but the Beth Hillel Temple is just down the street from me which gave me a hint as to what this might be.
5. Mess of a place : STY
6. Hurt : HARM
7. Out of the wind : ALEE. See what good your sails do you when you're out of the wind.
8. Celtics coach before Rick Pitino : M.L. CARR. Complete unknown for me. Boston's NBA coach from 1995-1997. He made a bit of a hash of the last year, leading the Celtics to their all-time worst season record of 15-67. Oops.
9. Lady Gaga, for one : POP STAR. And quite the diva. I love her music and theatrics. She's a great talent.
10. Tolkien forest creature : ENT. The good three-letter Lord of the Rings thing. The bad LOTR three-letter thing is an orc.
11. Trigger guide : REIN. Fun clue. Trigger was stuffed and used to be on display at a museum in Missouri. When the museum closed, Trigger fetched over $250,000 at auction.
12. Uppity type : SNOB
13. "Giant" author Ferber : EDNA
18. Give away : LET ON
19. Sufficient, to Shakespeare : ENOW
24. Provide the bank layout to, say : ABET
26. Brag : CROW
27. Court figs. : A.D.A.S Assistant District Attorney(s)
28. Snack : NOSH
29. Horror movie character : GHOUL. More incidental music fodder. Wooo eeee oooo ooooooo ...
30. Hockey legend : ORR
31. Polishes in publishing : EDITS
32. Memorial __ Kettering: NYC hospital : SLOAN
36. Sleep __ : ON IT
37. EPA issuances : STDS. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes standards for clean air, water and what-not.
39. Uninspired : FLAT
41. Tuna type : AHI
42. Unbridled desire : LUST. Or what happens to Trigger when you take his reins off?
45. Shorten : ABRIDGE
47. Assault : STORM. No horror movie is complete without villagers, pitchforks, torches and a good old-fashioned evil house-storming.
50. First-rate : A-ONE
51. Double exposures? : STUNTS
52. Affairs of the heart : AMOURS
55. Dashboard feature : DIAL
56. "I'll pay" : ON ME
57. 2013 Wimbledon champ Andy Murray, e.g. : SCOT. Aye. Rumor has it he keeps his balls in a sporran.
59. Eye problem : STYE
60. Title outranking viscount : EARL. Outranked in turn by a Marquess. Someone's always one-upping you in the peerage stakes unless you happen to be King.
62. Memo letters : ASAP. Everyone's always in a hurry.
63. Capital west of Moscow : RIGA. Capital of Latvia on the Baltic Sea. Nice looking place. Google Maps tells me it's 573 miles from Moscow and it takes about 11 hours to drive.
64. Bathtub buildup : SCUM. Eww.
66. Bach's "Mass __ Minor" : IN B. He wrote a bunch of masses in all sorts of keys (F major, A major, G major, G minor) but they were short masses. The B Minor mass was the only full-length one.
67. Texter's "What a riot!" : LOL. Laughing Out Loud.
Have a great Thursday. Happy Guy Fawkes' Day to Nice Cuppa and any other Brits on the blog - "Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot".
Steve
Oh, and here's the grid:
17A. What a party crasher may get : CHILLY RECEPTION. You get frozen out of conversations and given the cold shoulder.
27A. 19th-/20th-century South African conflicts : ANGLO-BOER WARS. I knew the Boer Wars, I didn't realize the official name included the Anglo bit.
49A. Horror movie characters : LAB ASSISTANTS. Drinking green fuming solutions or stitching together stolen body parts. Cheerful characters, generally.
65A. Film score component, and a hint to words hidden in 17-, 27- and 49-Across : INCIDENTAL MUSIC. Horror movie lab assistants often get a healthy dose of this.
| Cue music "Dah dah DAH!" |
Morning! Simple enough theme (and a bit of a horror movie mini-theme) today. I'm not sure if I missed something terribly subtle and clever with this puzzle; if I did it went way over my head. A couple of grid spanners, two 13's and a lot of shorter stuff gives us this 78-worder. Let's see what else pops out.
Across:
1. Luxurious : POSH. Hmm. Not sure about this definition of posh. Dressy, upper-class, hoity-toity social circles say "posh" to me.
5. Decorative bedroom item : SHAM. Do Hormel make throws? Spam shams?
9. As such : PER SE. When Thomas Keller, chef and owner of The French Laundry in the Napa Valley was opening his new restaurant in New York, he didn't have a name for it until he realized he kept saying that "it wasn't going to be like The French Laundy, per se". So he called it Per Se.
14. Morales of "Jericho" : ESAI
15. Improbable : TALL. Like a tale or a story.
16. Without stopping : ON END
20. French room : SALLE. I tried SALON first which needed correcting later on.
21. Signifies : MEANS
22. Nuggets' org. : N.B.A. Denver's pro basketball team.
23. Air traveler's concern, briefly : E.T.A. Usually at least half-an-hour later than scheduled in my experience.
25. Mil. group that "teaches you to lead" : R.O.T.C.
33. "Stupid me!" : DOH! Homer Simpson's favorite exclamation.
34. Unlikely prom king : NERD
35. Chocolate-covered caramel treats : ROLOS
38. Starting from : AS OF
40. Event with arguments : TRIAL
43. Habit : WONT
44. NFL's winningest coach : SHULA. Don Shula had 347 victories, 71 with the Baltimore Colts and the remainder with the Miami Dolphins. He also coached the Dolphins to the NFL's only perfect season in 1972 with a 17-0-0 record.
 |
| "This isn't one of our plays. In fact I've no idea what it means, either" |
46. In the way indicated : THUS
48. Support : AID
53. Jog : TROT
54. Petty with hits : TOM. His band, the Heartbreakers, helped a little too.
55. Shindigs : DOS
58. Occupied : IN USE
61. Shows of crowd approval : ROARS
68. "Sweeney __ the Nightingales": Eliot poem : AMONG. Crosses for me. A happy tale of murder and deceit, apparently.
Apeneck Sweeney spread his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.
69. Newbie : TYRO
70. Italian meat sauce : RAGÙ. Food! Ragù alla bolognese is a well-known variety.
 |
| Mmmmm - Spam-free |
71. Do not disturb : LET BE
72. Promote : SELL
73. Inbox clogger : SPAM. Food? Named for the Monty Python sketch where a diner featured Spam, usually unwanted, in every dish.
Down:
1. Lats relatives : PECS. Your back muscles, the latissimus dorsi, and your chest muscles, the pectoralis major. Anatomy class dismissed.
2. Workplace welfare agcy. : O.S.H.A. I've stopped thinking of this an an abbreviation. Occupational Health and Safety Administration to give it it's official name.
3. Caravel mover : SAIL. Does the sail move the ship or does the wind do it? Discuss.
4. Jewish campus organization : HILLEL. No clue, but the Beth Hillel Temple is just down the street from me which gave me a hint as to what this might be.
5. Mess of a place : STY
6. Hurt : HARM
7. Out of the wind : ALEE. See what good your sails do you when you're out of the wind.
8. Celtics coach before Rick Pitino : M.L. CARR. Complete unknown for me. Boston's NBA coach from 1995-1997. He made a bit of a hash of the last year, leading the Celtics to their all-time worst season record of 15-67. Oops.
9. Lady Gaga, for one : POP STAR. And quite the diva. I love her music and theatrics. She's a great talent.
10. Tolkien forest creature : ENT. The good three-letter Lord of the Rings thing. The bad LOTR three-letter thing is an orc.
11. Trigger guide : REIN. Fun clue. Trigger was stuffed and used to be on display at a museum in Missouri. When the museum closed, Trigger fetched over $250,000 at auction.
 |
| "Don't worry, I'm eating my bedding. Makes me cheaper to stuff when the time comes" |
12. Uppity type : SNOB
13. "Giant" author Ferber : EDNA
18. Give away : LET ON
19. Sufficient, to Shakespeare : ENOW
"If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men the greater share of honour."
- King Henry V.
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men the greater share of honour."
- King Henry V.
24. Provide the bank layout to, say : ABET
26. Brag : CROW
27. Court figs. : A.D.A.S Assistant District Attorney(s)
28. Snack : NOSH
29. Horror movie character : GHOUL. More incidental music fodder. Wooo eeee oooo ooooooo ...
30. Hockey legend : ORR
31. Polishes in publishing : EDITS
32. Memorial __ Kettering: NYC hospital : SLOAN
36. Sleep __ : ON IT
37. EPA issuances : STDS. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes standards for clean air, water and what-not.
39. Uninspired : FLAT
41. Tuna type : AHI
42. Unbridled desire : LUST. Or what happens to Trigger when you take his reins off?
45. Shorten : ABRIDGE
47. Assault : STORM. No horror movie is complete without villagers, pitchforks, torches and a good old-fashioned evil house-storming.
 |
| "Let us in! We want to see Igor!" |
50. First-rate : A-ONE
51. Double exposures? : STUNTS
52. Affairs of the heart : AMOURS
55. Dashboard feature : DIAL
56. "I'll pay" : ON ME
57. 2013 Wimbledon champ Andy Murray, e.g. : SCOT. Aye. Rumor has it he keeps his balls in a sporran.
59. Eye problem : STYE
60. Title outranking viscount : EARL. Outranked in turn by a Marquess. Someone's always one-upping you in the peerage stakes unless you happen to be King.
62. Memo letters : ASAP. Everyone's always in a hurry.
63. Capital west of Moscow : RIGA. Capital of Latvia on the Baltic Sea. Nice looking place. Google Maps tells me it's 573 miles from Moscow and it takes about 11 hours to drive.
 |
| That's one lovely railway station. |
64. Bathtub buildup : SCUM. Eww.
66. Bach's "Mass __ Minor" : IN B. He wrote a bunch of masses in all sorts of keys (F major, A major, G major, G minor) but they were short masses. The B Minor mass was the only full-length one.
67. Texter's "What a riot!" : LOL. Laughing Out Loud.
Have a great Thursday. Happy Guy Fawkes' Day to Nice Cuppa and any other Brits on the blog - "Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot".
Steve
Oh, and here's the grid:
48 comments:
Thanks, @Steve, for elucidating @Gerry Wildenberg's theme. For some inexplicable reason, I now have this ear worm running through my head.
Regular readers of C.C.'s blog have been very kind and understanding as I've recently been sharing a whole slew of sports-themed "bonus" puzzles. Today, I give you something completely different, Mu, constructed by my friend @John Child. After finishing, you may be wondering, "what's mu?" ... for that, be sure to read the "midrash." Have a fun Thursday!
Happy GuyFawkesDay to all.
I found this to be pretty straight forward with only the Eliot Poem and Steve's comment about a SPORRAN unknown, though M L CARR was buried deep. The theme did not help but they all were four letter instruments, t w o stringed.
No fall here yet.
Be well so.
Today's puzzle composer Gerry Wildenberg comments.
My favorite submitted but not used clue was: 1-Across: Luxe, apocryphally an acronym about travel to India. I liked this not because it was clever (it wasn't) but because it gave me a chance to mention that the: Port Out Starboard Home explanation of posh is oft-quoted but probably baseless.
OTOH, Rick generally improved the clueing. But I'm pleased that many of mine remained.
I look forward to reading the solvers' comments.
Greetings!
Thanks, Gerry and Steve! No problems with this one. But MLCARR was all perps.
Cheers!
Morning, all!
This one got a bit of a CHILLY RECEPTION from me, but I warmed up to it after I completed the solve and was able to finally find the hidden instruments in the theme answers. As with STEVE, I had never heard of the BOER WARS referred to as the ANGLO BOER WARS before and that threw me for a bit. I also hesitated when the first two letters of 8D seemed to be ML, which was awfully unlikely, but then I actually read the clue and the light bulb went on. You can't be a long-time Celtics fan and not know who ML CARR is! Ah, the early 80's glory years...
The rest of the puzzle was pretty straightforward. Guessed CHILLY RECEPTION after getting the initial CH and guessed INCIDENTAL MUSIC after getting MUSIC, so that sped things along. No problem with stuff like HILLEL and SLOAN and SHULA, although I can't help wondering when (or even if) Belichick will ever take that title away from SHULA.
Good morning!
Sports names. Ugh! But at least the perps were kind. Was able to see the instruments once the reveal appeared. The theme wasn't necessary to solve the puzzle.
Sporran, Steve? On this side of the pond we call it a jock strap.
Thank you Gerry and Steve.
I love a fast start. Nailed POSH, PECS, OSHA and ESAI in seconds. Then hit French room and Jewish campus org. Started jumping around. Steve, I would've preferred plush to posh for luxurious. But not enough letters in this puzzle.
Big slowdown was caused by having entered REjEcTION while working that northeast side. I remembered that we had caravel the other day with NINA as the answer. That helped me get SAIL.
Saw BASS and LYRE after studying the theme reveal clue. Then filled in the first O to get OBOE.
Double exposures is a great clue for STUNTS.
Had BRIT before SCOT for Andy Murray. His 2013 Wimbeldon was a big deal for tennis loving Brits. Wanted turtles for chocolate covered caramel treats.
Don't know why I entered TSA for ETA for air traveler's concern. Quickly changed it to ETA because the TSA is a necessary nuisance, and not a concern unless you have something to hide or don't like being groped.
In the end, it was guessing an M where the second L should have been in SALLE and HILLEL that did me in. That would have given me the FIW. Still having no idea, and not wanting to just enter letters until I got the TADA, I changed the game to regular, and much to my chagrin, I got another red-letter at TALe that should have been TALL.
TTP hardly ever EDITS his posts, as evidenced yesterday.
Interesting puzzle. TRIGGER GUIDE/REIN was my favorite.
A SHAM is a pillow cover that makes an ordinary pillow look like a decorator pillow, hence a sham or fake decorator pillow.
A sail can't move a boat without the wind. But the wind needs the assistance of the sail. Both are necessary. This question is in the realm of "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"
Link How many angels
POSH is very often applied to accommodations, as in a POSH apartment. Here POSH is definitely LUXURIOUS, not hoity, toity. In fact my acquaintance with POSH is almost always LUXURIOUS.
I didn't care for Improbable = TALL
TALL tale, improbable tale
Thanks for the help, but I didn't say I didn't get it. Said I don't care for it. Still don't.
Me too, Steve, I guess it must be that the inclusion of the instruments was INCIDENTAL…
Musings
-Those movie LAB ASSISTANTS generally don’t look like this
-Baseless POSH explanation
-Yup, SALON was no help and HILLE EL was a guess
-In Minneapolis Delta announced our plane was “bad” and so our ETA was extended so we could have a “good” plane
-Even Harvard and Yale are welcoming ROTC back to their campuses
-Movie music title starting with THUS (2:03)
-IN USE, IN USE, IN USE…
-My colleague always said, “LET IT alone”
-Don’t be a SNOB, Steve, my town makes lots of SPAM ☺
-Corollary, which is worse – A sail without a wind or a wind without a sail
-Omahans are upset about the light sentence for ABETTING this crime
-I often have to tell 7th graders to ABRIDGE their story
Somehow I finished Gerry's offering error free, but I wasn't crazy about a bit of the cluing. ButI I guess that's what a Thursday puzzle is all about.
61A would have made more sense if the clue was Show .... instead of Shows.....
OSHA is a welfare agency? Yes, they have a purpose,but IMO it's usually to fatten their bank account. Whenever they audited buy workplace, the discrepancies were minuscule, but the fine was hefty.
I thought KC Jones preceded Pitino, forgot all about ML CARR. Contradicting an earlier post, this long time Celt fan found it very easy to forget ML. Thought it couldn't get worse when ML was let go, but Pitino made it worse.
In spite of all my complaining and the mentioned quibbles about the cluing, I enjoyed the challenge.
Leaf clean up at 50%. Been through the yard twice so far, at least three more to go. Oaks will be last to shed. Week of Thanksgiving all will be done provided it doesn't snow.
Got most of this, but didn't know some of the names like ML CARR, HILLEL and SHULA, and that meant difficulty where they crossed with other vagaries. Couldn't think of ANGLO and tried SUETO to no avail, and ADAS didn't compute with my brain either. DOH is something I associate with the Simpsons, and keep out of my vocabulary. All this meant my midwest area had a couple of blanks, with the rest filled either by guessing or perps.
Hello Puzzlers -
Wondered what the theme was going to be, prior to seeing the reveal. As usual, the sports clues were unknown, but
Morning, Steve, thanks for the classic Python!
The fact that a Scot won at Wimbledon was certainly unknown to me. As I recall there was another Python skit that poked fun at Scotland's reputation for less-than-world-class tennis (as it stood in the 70's). In that skit, an extraterrestrial being - a pile of pudding known as The Blancmange - arrived in England, and promptly stirred up public yearning to move to Scotland. So many Britons made a pilgrimage to Scotland that Wimbedon was left empty, and the Blancmange was able to win a tennis title despite being a poor player. Or something like that.
Good Morning:
This had a bit of crunch but nothing that perps couldn't overcome. Fav clue was Double Exposures=Stunts. After the reveal, the instruments just jumped right out. George Barany, your ear worm was the theme for the Alfred Hitchcock TV show, back in the day.
Thanks Gerry and Steve for a fun Thursday offering.
Have a great day.
I came looking for an explanation of Double exposures? = STUNTS. I filled this one in, but I still can't figure out why. Thanks for the help!
"More hay Trigger?" "No thanks Roy. I'm stuffed!"
Gotta plead a Thumper on the puzzle. But the write up was a lot of fun.
Oh, man! I just got it...
STUNT doubles are exposed on the film during the shooting of their scenes. Boy oh boy, that took twenty minutes longer than it should have.
Thanks again for the write up!
A stunt double is a person who fills in for a movie actor when possibly dangerous physical activity is called for by the script. They are exposed to the camera while performing the stunt.
Thanks, my dumb brain got there only minutes before your response! Appreciate it!
Some crunch today but enjoyable. Thanks Gerry and Steve. I found all the theme music and smiled to find our old friend oboe hidden in there.
The uppity that I wanted yesterday instead of snooty was in a clue today.
Wanting Atts before ADAS held me up.
I had a great-uncle who fought in the BOER WARS. We had his silver Spurs (not sure what has become of them!).
Last fill was WONT as I resisted the ancient usage for habit. But it is valid as in "He was wont to arrive early". (Even my spellcheck wants to change wont!)
Happy Guy Fawkes' Day to Nice Cuppa. Canada doesn't celebrate it.
Another beautiful day here.
Disappointing DNF since most of it seemed easy for a Thursday. Got hung up on ROLOS since I was sure it was ROLLO. I definitely knew it had a double L. But...it's not what you don't know that's the problem. It's what you know that just ain't so!
@HG - I love Spam musubi - it's the first thing I go for at my friend's Christmas family gathering (they're Japanese/American)
Thursdays have become toughies for me, and this one wasn't a speed run, for sure. But I got everything except that stupid SHAM. It had to be either SHAG or SHAM but neither made sense to me as something found in a bedroom. Thanks for explaining, Yellowrocks. And thanks for the puzzle, Gerry, and the nice pics, Steve.
Have a great day, everybody!
Hello, friends!
Thrilling Thursday with a good challenge from Gerry Wildenberg, thank you. POSH most certainly means luxurious as in, what a POSH place you've got here, etc. And thanks to all for explaining double exposure. STUNTS didn't register even after I filled it.
Naming three, THREE sports coaches was out of my wheel house though SHULA seems familiar. Natick at MLCARR/TALL. Saw it but was unsure of it.
AHI is plentiful in Hawaii, in tacos, sushi, grilled, or baked. Not my favorite, though.
Well, autumn has arrived in the SW even with snow in the mountains.
Have a fine day, everyone!
Oh. Thank you, Steve and happy Guy Fawkes Day to you!
Only had to put this one down ... and pick it back up ... 3 times before all the squares were filled in.
PER-SE got the V-8 Can-Smack.
Tach & Brit got write-overs to DIAL & SCOT.
Saw a few GHOULs last Saturday night.
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!
PS Hondo, I'm 100% done with raking leafs since none of them "Fall-Off" here.
Thanks for the lovely Thursday puzzle Gerry and write up Steve.
Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
In a twist, J. D. Rowling named Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes.
And while we are into Harry Potter, in the last book of the series the fact that Ron is with Harry is hidden by putting the GHOUL from the attic into PJs and in Ron's bed. No one will do more than look in the door because SPATTERGROIT is a very contagious disease which covers your face and throat with pustules for months.
I knew SHULA because he is from Cleveland. He coached football at John Carroll U. before he went pro.
My college, Case Western Reserve U. has Jewish student activities at Hillel House. Miyim Bialek, who plays Amy on The Big Bang Theory, came here and gave a talk to raise money for Hillel.
A belated thanks to JazzBumpa for clearing up the meaning of DF.
VS
And they tell everyone Ron has Spattergroit.
I left this out.
VS
Good morning or maybe good afternoon, depending. Count me with the folks who didn't get STUNTS at first. I get it now but it seems like a stretch. I had tach instead of DIAL and didn't know about ANGLO but it all came together finally. I like SPAM OK in smallish amounts. Thanks Gerry and Steve.
I remember all of the leaf raking as a kid. It was a job that never seemed finished. We had a yard with about 1.5 acres of deciduous trees; lots of dogwoods, a big tulip poplar tree, a gum tree and lots of other stuff I've forgotten the names of. We'd rake the leaves into the gravel driveway and then burn them. In later years, that became unacceptable and we'd rake them into the ditch next to the road and the county would come and pick them up.
Thanks Steve, also CanadianEh and Lemonade (Happy GF Day*** to you too, whether you celebrate it or not).
Thanks Gerry. Rich did not butcher the crossword too badly today.
• My only stumble came with 5A**. I had SHA? crossing some obscure basketball coach. I cannot tell a lie that my first thought was SHAG. By some twisted schoolboy logic: SHAG = a POSH carpet IN a bedroom, AND what you might DO on it. CanadianEh can explain the rest if you have forgotten your Austin Powers.
**I had never heard of SHAM in this context, and my MACDict confirms its usage as North American. Much too POSH for us Brits.
• I had never heard of "ANGLO-Boer Wars" either, but that's what Wiki calls them so it must be true. I had BOER WARS written in, then I got the theme and guessed the O to make OBOE, which led to ANGLO.
• ***Sadly, bonfires (except on the beach) and fireworks for personal use/pleasure are verboten in Southern California. My favorite as a lad in the old country was the Catherine Wheel*, which was a tight spiral filled with gunpowder that you nailed to a tree. Once lit**, it spun around at high speed producing a fabulous display of sparks and colors.
*Named after Catherine of Alexandria, who was condemned to death by being "broken on the wheel". No further detail required, I think. Definitely not a POSH way to go, although a better deal than poor Guy Fawkes.
**I suddenly remember the instructions on home fireworks. It was always:
"LIGHT BLUE TOUCH-PAPER AND RETIRE"
Well, if you insist.
Steve @ 10:48 - You've piqued my curiosity; what is Spam musubi? (Which pesty auto correct changed to must I!)
I thought this a straightforward Thursday puzzle, crunchy and solvable. Also enjoyable.
Hello Everyone, If I had gone back and checked my grid before coming to the blog, I would have discovered that I left out the T in tall and the R in Per se. I had moved on before finishing up the top area and so--I had a DNF today. I did get the theme--second day in a row.
I had much the same experience as the rest of you, fairly easy, with a few Thursday clues thrown in. Anglo Boer Wars came with the perps. I have always heard of them as the First and Second Boer Wars. Neither First nor Second would fit with answers already in place. This was an enjoyable puzzle none the less.
Thanks Steve for the writeup. Your help with explanations is always appreciated.
Have a great day everyone.
Re: Saran, from yesterday.
I just discovered that this product is indispensable if you
want to stop guacamole from turning brown. Simply press directly onto
the top of the Guac creating a seal with no air before applying the lid
to your container. Perfectly green guacamole for those who like their
leftover guac on toast for breakfast with a little red pepper flake.
Tougher than the average Thursday and with THREE complete unknowns it was a DNF. I correctly got M.L. CARR but the cross of HILLEL & SALLE got me. I initially wrote SALON and wanted TSA for ETA but eventually changed it to SAL_E and ETA after I filled LET ON. I had a 1/26th chance of correctly spelling SALLE and wrote T instead of L. I also wanted GHOST for GHOUL but know SHULA was correct so it was not to be.
The long theme fills were easy but I had no idea of the reveal until 65A gave it to me. The only other write-over was changing MAIM to HARM. Seeing WONT without the apostrophe just looks strange.
CED- If you want to keep air of of Zip-Loc bags just insert a STRAW, inhale, and close it up. Guacomole- there shouldn't be any LEFTOVERS- eat it all. Run out of chips? Finish with a spoon or better, use your finger.
CED:
Thanks for that useful hint but as Big Easy says, there are never any leftovers.
Hi Y'all! Hard but fun puzzle, Gerry. Fun expo, Steve.
Last to fill was a nitick for me ONEND/REIN cross. ONEND still doesn't mean "without stopping" to me. It means, like my hair does after sleeping on it wrong: stand up ONEND. I might have caught on to "trigger guide" sooner if I hadn't just watched the 60 Minutes special on "smart guns". Oh, a horse, of course. I didn't even read the NBA clue. Duh!
New to me: ENOW. MLCARR: the Celtics haven't faired much better the last few years since they traded off Pierce, Garnett and What's-his-name. ENOW, already!
I parsed PERSE as one word. Huh? All perps.
With SHU I WAG'd LA, although I had no idea where he coached. That worked.
Professional lawn men don't rake leaves anymore. They blow them into winrows and then grind them up with the mower. Makes great mulch under my big maple where nothing will grow. Blows my mind that the little ground up particles don't blow around in the wind where the uncut leaves do. Guess it's a lession in "lift" for flight.
Excellent puzzle today!
(I'll even forgive the French & sports names!)
My 1st pass only revealed about four fills, but my patience was rewarded.
In the end I had to look up the Hebrew crossing French, but it was worth it to
discover that last hidden bloody instrument!
6D maim b/4 harm (I don't understand it, I am not a violent person at all...)
I would join in the the sail versus wind discussion, but some people already
think I am a blowhard...
Gerry Wildenberg, thanks for dropping by & enlightening us about P.O.S.H.
Also, (if you want to know)
I did the puzzle in pen, & being unsure I can barely read my answers because
of the lightest chickens scratching I have ever used...
Also,
The top of my paper has the most curious hieroglyphics:
_erae
_erbe
_erce
_erde
_eree
_erfe
All because I knew 55DTach had to be wrong, but knew nothing of the name clues.
So I thought 57D 2013 Wimbledon champ Andy Murray "E.G." was "Acer."
Which reminds me, for you Dudley (@9:48)
Note: for those who hate seeing part 3 before parts 1 & 2
pls copy Monty Python - Science Fiction Sketch (Part3) into your browser
exchanging the number 3 for numbers 1 & 2...
On to the next puzzle!...
PK, when I came home from Japan I stayed awake for hours ON END, i.e. without stopping. I studied for hours ON END for my Master's exam. We were asked 3 or 4 surprise essay questions which would take several hours to answer with details and citations. The questions could cover any material presented during the entire master's program. I hear they don't require this any longer because it takes too much time to correct it.
I am rather surprised by the head scratching over SHAM. Shams and dust ruffles for beds are commonly sold as sets here in every department store and online. I have had several sets and so have my friends and DIL. BTW, we do not live in POSH quarters.
SARAN used to be so super clingy it was hard to handle. I stopped buying it. This week I tried Saran again. It is now appropriately clingy without being hard to handle.
Big Easy, I have to try your Ziploc bag and straw suggestion.
A pretty good puzzle, PER SE. Wanted INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC but it was too many letters; took a while to get the correct answer. Not exactly a POSH NOSH, but a delicious RIGA RAGU.
Nuggets' org? Have no idea.
NFL's winningest coach? I have no idea.
Celtics coach before Rick Pitino? Nary a clue.
2013 Wimbledon champ Andy Murray, e.g.? I dunno.
Hockey legend (three letters)? Yep, I knew that one.
Best wishes to you all.
What TTP said.
Hi All!
50% of WAGs worked today so FIW (I've always said DNF 'cuz it ain't finished), but I guess folks are WONT to say FIW. So, I'll join in :-)
Fun(ish) puzzle Gerry; thanks for pop'n' in. While I do like luxe c/a for POSH I'd have never gotten started. Steve, I loved the Young Frankenstein references, but the Python link was the icing.
1st NERD TRIAL question:* "Can you recite Holy Grain?"; Next: "Parrot Sketch?, Life of Brian?, SPAM?" et. al. ON END. "OK that's good, now what's the 1st bit in the 4th** octet in a IPv4 header MEAN?"***
I was stuck on INterstitial MUSIC for a loooong time and tried to make it fit (maybe drop a letter or two is the theme?).
Once I got GHOUL, 27a finally came to light. Final wrong squares 4d x 14a (I had a U), 4d x 20a (me: T).
I did like STY and STYE in the same pzl.
W/os - to many to mention. I'll just say Duke b/f EARL to give you another ear-worm.
Fav - REIN - got it off the bat! STUNTS made me giggle too since I linked FALL GUY last night and it still took me forever to "get it."
Time travel CED - Here's LET (it) BE, hopefully w/o rap MUSIC commercials, to calm you.
Dumb question to Steve & NC - Is Guy Falks Day celebrated b/c he was a hero or 'cuz a SCUM traitor was killed? I know Anonymous has picked up the mask as their moniker but their celebration is that GF was a rabble-rouser. No, I've never watched the movie.
Cheers, -T
*yes, I do ask these Qs in interviews
**zero-indexed
***trick question - It's 'Reserved for Future Use' unless you follow standard RFC 3514. Sorry folks, but there's no HARM in NERD humour :-)
On Elementary tonight, Sherlock used the word "wont". I had to laugh.
Anonymous T
Thanks, Let It Be works perfectly with the worthless hieroglyphics I created
trying to solve 71A (let be)
& it's a FIW only if there are no blank spaces left,
or if what was blank spaces is now an inkblot,
or if you got really pissed off & dumped an inkpot
on the puzzle. That would be a definite finished it wrong...
& ACK!
How did you catch me time traveling!
(unless you were time traveling yourself...)
CED 3:30 - That's the one! I had forgotten that The Blancmange had its plans foiled when it was eaten by the suburban couple. It's been ages...
CED - Well heck then. My only true DNFs are some Friday & all Sat. pzls (and most sats are TDNFs - oceans of white). I'll WAG my butt off if there's only a few blank squares and win some / lose some.
Thanks for the bonus Python!
re: ACK! - Oh, you haven't seen my Tardis?
Cheers, -T
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