Theme: Hopping Around - the three circled theme words jump across, down and across.
We get the hint from the final across entry:
71A. Word that can precede the word in each set of puzzle circles : JUMPING. BEAN, JACK and FROG in order of appearance.
and cross-referentially:
1A. Game piece associated with 71-Across : CHECKER. This also subtly refers to the theme. If you look at the circled entries, each successive "move" jumps a black square.
Thursday again already! Steve here with Don and C.C's latest - if you didn't have the circles in your particular publication I doubt you'd have seen the theme at all, the circled letters were very dispersed and wouldn't have appeared in any discernible pattern in a blank grid.
I'm sensing Don's handiwork here coming up with the theme idea, then the details fleshed out by the Dynamic Duo.
Not a lot of constraints with the theme letters, so plenty of room for some interesting fill around them, especially nice are the four triple-stacked sevens in each corner. Good stuff.
Let's take a closer look.
Across:
8. "C'mon, Let's Play" store : TOYS "R" US. I tried to come up with a backwards "R" but could only find this upside-down version: ʁ
15. Estate planner's suggestion : ROTH IRA
16. Chess grandmaster Karpov : ANATOLY. Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов was World Chess Champion for 10 years from 1975 to 1985, ultimately dethroned by Garry Kasparov.
17. Cancún's peninsula : YUCATAN. Home of the Chicxulub impact crater left by the meteorite that apparently did it for the dinosaurs.
18. Copied : XEROXED.
19. "Nurse Jackie" network, briefly : SHO. Showtime.
20. Attempt : STAB
22. Org. concerned with the AQI : EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes the Air Quality Index.
23. VW hatchback : GTI. More accurately, a variant of the Golf.
24. Way out : EXIT
26. Selective socializer, perhaps : SNOB
29. Geologic periods : EONS
31. Soulful Franklin : ARETHA
33. Catch : NAB
34. Swallow up : ENGULF
36. Asks for more : REORDERS
38. Fish used as bait in bass fishing : EELS. Time for the EEL/EELS plural debate. Who wants to go first?
40. Dagger of yore : SNEE
41. Apple music player : IPOD NANO. Introduced by Steve Jobs as "a thousand songs in your pocket". Quite a few more than a thousand in the latest version.
45. Chess ploy : GAMBIT
49. __ Mahal : TAJ
50. Much of Oceania : ATOLLS
52. Cut with teeth : SAWN. Past tense.
53. Pass over : OMIT
55. Recital numbers : SOLI. Italian for solos, I presume.
56. Cool one : CAT
57. Tampa NFLer : BUC. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'll whisper quietly so as not to upset anyone (Pssst! They're not very good!).
59. Polynesian beverage : KAVA
61. Spam holder : CAN
62. Like some skinny jeans : LOW-RISE
65. The United States, to Mexicans : EL NORTE
68. Carrier to Tehran : IRAN AIR
69. Critical : DO OR DIE. A couple of mistakes in the downs (COMP and ECG) had me looking at DOOMDIC and wondering what the heck that might be. Sanity prevailed.
70. Training units : LESSONS
Down:
1. Sound from a crib : CRY
2. Fourth-most populous U.S. city : HOUSTON. Not my first thought, but having flown into Houston a few times, in hindsight it doesn't surprise me.
3. Dürer work : ETCHING
4. Former Labor secretary Elaine : CHAO
5. Word with press or mess : KIT
6. Historic stretches : ERAS. Both eras and eons today.
7. Many a talk show caller : RANTER
8. Wage earners' concerns : TAX BITES. Never heard this term before, but it's obvious enough now I look at it - the bites taken out of your income or profits by taxes. Neat.
9. Person : ONE
10. Easily maneuvered, at sea : YARE. 'Tis an adjective, egads. It crops up in Shakespeare, and probably somewhat infrequently since.
"I do desire to learn, sir; and, I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare." - Measure for Measure
As an example of "don't believe everything you read on the Internet", dictionary.com cites a "yare" usage which is completely wrong - whoever chose the reference totally failed to understand that there is a River Yare in Norfolk:
11. Bus schedule listings : STOPS
12. 1987 film loosely based on "Cyrano de Bergerac" : ROXANNE
13. Suffix with glob : ULE
14. Australian airport, in itineraries : SYD. G'day Bruce!
21. "Timber!" yeller : AXER. Sorry, guys - this word is going on my personal "ouch" list.
23. Awe-full expression? : GEE
25. Revealing beachwear : THONGS. I saw plenty of these when I was in Rio, and that was just on the guys. I'll spare you the visuals.
27. Wake maker : OAR. I'd say it's the boat that makes the wake, not the oar, but I guess indirectly it's true.
28. Small shot : BBS.
30. Sought damages : SUED
31. Repeated notes in Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude : A FLATS. Here's the piece - there seem to be a lot of notes in here which aren't A Flats too.
32. Square measure : AREA
35. Dunham who created and stars in the HBO series "Girls" : LENA. Thank you, crosses.
37. Reps. counterparts : DEMS
39. Hoodwinks : SNOOKERS. I use the word in the "stymies" or "impedes" sense rather than "trickery" that is implied by the clue. You snooker your opponent in the billiards-style game by putting the cue ball in a position that leaves your opponent with no clear shot at his next ball.
41. Jurist Lance : ITO. Not a member of a jury, but a judge or lawyer. Judge Ito is best-known for presiding over the O.J.Simpson trial.
42. Spray on a pan : PAM
43. Lake Huron natives : OJIBWAS. Cheers, crosses! They speak Ojibwe, of course.
44. Earthenware pot : OLLA. Food! finally! Here's some traditional frijoles de la olla:
46. Martini & Rossi parent company : BACARDI
47. "Include me" : I WANT IN
48. Demolition stuff : TNT
51. Dance music provider : LIVE DJ. Probably "Lil" somebody.
54. Chances to play : TURNS
58. Trendy hi : CIAO
60. Six-time All-Star Moises : ALOU
61. Firm: Abbr. : CORP.
62. Rap name adjective : LIL. Lil Wayne, Lil' Kim, Lil Fizz, Lil Scrappy and doubtless many others.
63. Mine output : ORE
64. Committed thing : SIN
66. __ de plume : NOM
67. Neurologist's tool, briefly : EEG. Not ECG which was my first knee-jerk reaction. "Encepha" not "Cardio". Blindingly obvious, really.
That's about it from me. I'm heading home from topping up my accent in the old country, and I think I ate enough Indian food to feed a regiment. Here's the view out of the window - that's Iceland down there, looking chilly (not chili!)
And ... here's the grid.
Steve
We get the hint from the final across entry:
71A. Word that can precede the word in each set of puzzle circles : JUMPING. BEAN, JACK and FROG in order of appearance.
and cross-referentially:
1A. Game piece associated with 71-Across : CHECKER. This also subtly refers to the theme. If you look at the circled entries, each successive "move" jumps a black square.
Thursday again already! Steve here with Don and C.C's latest - if you didn't have the circles in your particular publication I doubt you'd have seen the theme at all, the circled letters were very dispersed and wouldn't have appeared in any discernible pattern in a blank grid.
I'm sensing Don's handiwork here coming up with the theme idea, then the details fleshed out by the Dynamic Duo.
Not a lot of constraints with the theme letters, so plenty of room for some interesting fill around them, especially nice are the four triple-stacked sevens in each corner. Good stuff.
Let's take a closer look.
Across:
8. "C'mon, Let's Play" store : TOYS "R" US. I tried to come up with a backwards "R" but could only find this upside-down version: ʁ
15. Estate planner's suggestion : ROTH IRA
16. Chess grandmaster Karpov : ANATOLY. Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов was World Chess Champion for 10 years from 1975 to 1985, ultimately dethroned by Garry Kasparov.
17. Cancún's peninsula : YUCATAN. Home of the Chicxulub impact crater left by the meteorite that apparently did it for the dinosaurs.
18. Copied : XEROXED.
19. "Nurse Jackie" network, briefly : SHO. Showtime.
20. Attempt : STAB
22. Org. concerned with the AQI : EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes the Air Quality Index.
23. VW hatchback : GTI. More accurately, a variant of the Golf.
24. Way out : EXIT
26. Selective socializer, perhaps : SNOB
29. Geologic periods : EONS
31. Soulful Franklin : ARETHA
33. Catch : NAB
34. Swallow up : ENGULF
36. Asks for more : REORDERS
38. Fish used as bait in bass fishing : EELS. Time for the EEL/EELS plural debate. Who wants to go first?
40. Dagger of yore : SNEE
41. Apple music player : IPOD NANO. Introduced by Steve Jobs as "a thousand songs in your pocket". Quite a few more than a thousand in the latest version.
45. Chess ploy : GAMBIT
49. __ Mahal : TAJ
50. Much of Oceania : ATOLLS
52. Cut with teeth : SAWN. Past tense.
53. Pass over : OMIT
55. Recital numbers : SOLI. Italian for solos, I presume.
56. Cool one : CAT
57. Tampa NFLer : BUC. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'll whisper quietly so as not to upset anyone (Pssst! They're not very good!).
59. Polynesian beverage : KAVA
61. Spam holder : CAN
62. Like some skinny jeans : LOW-RISE
65. The United States, to Mexicans : EL NORTE
68. Carrier to Tehran : IRAN AIR
69. Critical : DO OR DIE. A couple of mistakes in the downs (COMP and ECG) had me looking at DOOMDIC and wondering what the heck that might be. Sanity prevailed.
70. Training units : LESSONS
Down:
1. Sound from a crib : CRY
2. Fourth-most populous U.S. city : HOUSTON. Not my first thought, but having flown into Houston a few times, in hindsight it doesn't surprise me.
3. Dürer work : ETCHING
4. Former Labor secretary Elaine : CHAO
5. Word with press or mess : KIT
6. Historic stretches : ERAS. Both eras and eons today.
7. Many a talk show caller : RANTER
8. Wage earners' concerns : TAX BITES. Never heard this term before, but it's obvious enough now I look at it - the bites taken out of your income or profits by taxes. Neat.
9. Person : ONE
10. Easily maneuvered, at sea : YARE. 'Tis an adjective, egads. It crops up in Shakespeare, and probably somewhat infrequently since.
"I do desire to learn, sir; and, I hope, if you have occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare." - Measure for Measure
As an example of "don't believe everything you read on the Internet", dictionary.com cites a "yare" usage which is completely wrong - whoever chose the reference totally failed to understand that there is a River Yare in Norfolk:
"So we turned back into the yare, and sailed up to the mouth of the new cut at Reedham."
They even downshifted the "Y" to try to make it work. OK, rant over, let's move on.
11. Bus schedule listings : STOPS
12. 1987 film loosely based on "Cyrano de Bergerac" : ROXANNE
13. Suffix with glob : ULE
14. Australian airport, in itineraries : SYD. G'day Bruce!
21. "Timber!" yeller : AXER. Sorry, guys - this word is going on my personal "ouch" list.
23. Awe-full expression? : GEE
25. Revealing beachwear : THONGS. I saw plenty of these when I was in Rio, and that was just on the guys. I'll spare you the visuals.
27. Wake maker : OAR. I'd say it's the boat that makes the wake, not the oar, but I guess indirectly it's true.
28. Small shot : BBS.
30. Sought damages : SUED
31. Repeated notes in Chopin's "Raindrop" prelude : A FLATS. Here's the piece - there seem to be a lot of notes in here which aren't A Flats too.
32. Square measure : AREA
35. Dunham who created and stars in the HBO series "Girls" : LENA. Thank you, crosses.
37. Reps. counterparts : DEMS
39. Hoodwinks : SNOOKERS. I use the word in the "stymies" or "impedes" sense rather than "trickery" that is implied by the clue. You snooker your opponent in the billiards-style game by putting the cue ball in a position that leaves your opponent with no clear shot at his next ball.
41. Jurist Lance : ITO. Not a member of a jury, but a judge or lawyer. Judge Ito is best-known for presiding over the O.J.Simpson trial.
42. Spray on a pan : PAM
43. Lake Huron natives : OJIBWAS. Cheers, crosses! They speak Ojibwe, of course.
44. Earthenware pot : OLLA. Food! finally! Here's some traditional frijoles de la olla:
46. Martini & Rossi parent company : BACARDI
47. "Include me" : I WANT IN
48. Demolition stuff : TNT
51. Dance music provider : LIVE DJ. Probably "Lil" somebody.
54. Chances to play : TURNS
58. Trendy hi : CIAO
60. Six-time All-Star Moises : ALOU
61. Firm: Abbr. : CORP.
62. Rap name adjective : LIL. Lil Wayne, Lil' Kim, Lil Fizz, Lil Scrappy and doubtless many others.
63. Mine output : ORE
64. Committed thing : SIN
66. __ de plume : NOM
67. Neurologist's tool, briefly : EEG. Not ECG which was my first knee-jerk reaction. "Encepha" not "Cardio". Blindingly obvious, really.
That's about it from me. I'm heading home from topping up my accent in the old country, and I think I ate enough Indian food to feed a regiment. Here's the view out of the window - that's Iceland down there, looking chilly (not chili!)
And ... here's the grid.
Steve
FIW today :-( . Was certain SOLO was correct, very uncertain about KAVA, so changed it to KAnA, with no effect. Thought ANATOLY might be ANATOLI, and SYD I wasn't sure of, but still no ta-da.
ReplyDeleteWorked it on the Mensa site, so no bubbles. Once I had the reveal, I composed a list* of possibilities and began searching for them, but made the fatal assumption that all letters would be adjacent. I found ARC, ROPE, and two BEAN's, all overlapped. Finally gave up and checked Cruciverb, and at least found the first three on my list were correct, even though I hadn't found them.
Я/я is the final letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, named Ya, and sounded as ya or ja. I like the letter just before it, Ю/ю Yu, sounded as yu or ju. In a serif font, it looks like the Enterprise!
52a cut with saw teeth, not animal teeth, not GNAW.
After finishing, I had to look up SOLI, YARE, KAVA- none were what I expected -- not solos, not just boats, not coffee.
* bean, jacks, frog, cricket, rope, ahead, arc, Jehoshaphat, Jupiter, gee-wilikers.
The lumberjack fell for her, he had but to ask her.
The woodlot owner's daughter was anxious to answer.
Then her dad shuffled off,
And she became boss,
So instead of her asker, he worked as her AXER!
PAM was a gal, and SYD was her guy,
And KIT was their friend, and KIT was bi.
Then along came Catherine,
Who announced, I WANT IN;
When things got too YARE, KIT and CAT bid good-bye!
The sheep were serene, the little lambs gamboled.
They strayed from the flock, as their little legs ambled.
It was really their GAMBIT
From their shepherd to EXIT;
A wolf might be nigh, or not, the lambs gambled!
ReplyDeleteJumpin’ Jehosaphat ! That was a test. Enough unknowns and 'not quite sures' to make for a good challenge.
There was Y-RE. I knew the grandmaster was either ANoTOLY or ANATOLY, and finally decided it must be an A. That was my last fill and gave me the TADA.
LENA ? Perped. A FLATS ? Yea, that perped & sussed in. GTI ? Perped & guessed the G. Polynesian beverage ? ESP. OJIBWAS ? Needed a little perp help to recall that one.
Opened the puzzle at Chicago Tribune site in addition to the Mensa site so I could see the circles. That helped me in the SE corner as I had entered I WANT TO instead of I WANT IN.
Cut with teeth is a great clue for SAWN. Ditto committed thing for SIN.
Learned that BACARDI is the parent CORP to Martini and Rossi.
She ate her Coke-flavored Popsicle through Chap Stick or Vaseline covered lips as she Xeroxed the papers that had been Scotch Taped together, but only after wiping the glass with a Kleenex and some Windex she found on the nearby Formica counter in some Zip-Loc bags next to the Tupperware, because someone apparently needed a Band-Aid and didn't put it on their boo-boo.
E-G and wait for the C or K. Oh, no need to wait. Neurologists. EEG it is.
Young neighbor is vacationing in Cancun as we speak.
AXER - Would have clued that differently. Perhaps hatchet man.
We get some of those "Many a talk show caller" types here from time to time.
Thank you Don, CC and Steve.
Morning, all!
ReplyDelete*sigh*
No circles for me, so not a lot of joy with this one. The theme remained invisible and I only got the 1A and 71A via the perps. Everything else in the puzzle came as the result of slowly pecking away at the grid. Not sure why everything was so slow today, although stuff like TAX BITES (???) and LIVE DJ certainly didn't help any.
Nice to see ROXANNE (one of my all time favorite movies) in the grid. And today I learned that people apparently regularly use EELS as bait when bass fishing. Good to know!
BTW, I sincerely hope none of our family here were at all affected by the horrific events in San Bernadino yesterday.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteSwell puzzle, Don and CC! Great expo, Steve!
Used to play the etude before right hand badly damaged. Listening to it now.
No problems, but it took a while to remember ANATOMY.
Horrible shooting in San Bernardino yesterday. Am very sad. What has become of human race?
Have a nice Thursday.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice outing from C.C. and Don G. There was even a CSO for Anon-T and me with HOUSTON -- the first word spoken from the moon. I still can't believe that there's not a single PPO medical insurance plan available here. That sucketh mightily.
Remembered YARE from previous cw's. Interesting to see CIAO and CHAO. Thought CIAO meant bye rather than hi. Guess it must work like aloha. If you asked Elaine CHAO and her husband to dinner, would you be inviting chaos?
Admission time. DNF. The "skinny jeans" were LOW RIdE. I never read the clever down clue. Shame on you, d-o.
Being a bit backward, I think the classic SYMBOL was an important factor in the growth of this 67 year old company.
ReplyDeleteThe precision of each of the letters of the theme words hopping over a black square is wonderful. I do love visuals in puzzles.
It is good to have the Corner to come to when so much of the world seems out of control.
Even with the circles, I didn't the theme. It was a DNF for me today due to sloppy guessing and not checking. I filled LEIA for LENA (unknown) and FAVA for KAVA (unknown) and had SPOOFERS for SNOOKERS-looked just as good to me. Forgot about the IPOD NANO.
ReplyDeleteYARE- I filled it only from crosses and looked up the correct spelling of ANATOLY after I finished (almost). Same thoughts as TTP. Hope to never see it again. OJIBWAS- they've come up before but it's always perps for me.
ROXANNE-"You don't have to sell your body to the night"- I didn't know the movie but like the song by The Police. Kinda goes with THONGS and LOW RISE jeans.
Rio EL NORTE- the Rio Grande river to us.
ROTH IRA- I always maxed out my contributions to the IRA ($2,000) and 401-k ($10,000) when I worked. I tell every young person to do that instead of wasting their money, but they don't listen. ROTH IRAs didn't start until 1997 and I didn't have a chance to contribute much, as I quit working in 2000.
ReplyDeleteCripes, what a workout. There were so many unknowns," never heard of's, & no ideas about" today, no sense in summarizing them all. I'll just stick to the errors.
69A ended up as doomdin. Eng looked legit for 67D so I flew with it. Ditto with comp for 61D. Had solo for 55A & loved for 51D. Missed the plural for 55A and ,again, loved looked legit. At that point I was so scrambled, did not even give the I a thought.
Everything else was OK, but it was pure luck. North was last to fall. That section was brutal, especially the NW corner.. HOUSTON wasn't on my list of possibilities for 4th largest city. YARE?????? Not being a sailor, I'll accept it.
So a FIW, but it sure feels like a DNF.
Thank you Don & CC.....it was a fun failure for me, Steve, nice write up....helps clear up some of my confusion.
""Timber!" yeller : AXER. Sorry, guys - this word is going on my personal "ouch" list."
ReplyDeleteHand up.
"Dunham who created and stars in the HBO series "Girls" : LENA. Thank you, crosses."
Hand up.
"Rap name adjective : LIL. Lil Wayne, Lil' Kim, Lil Fizz, Lil Scrappy and doubtless many others."
Yeah. Like "Lil Interest."
Okay. Time to STFU.
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks Don and C.C. I worked at this a bit and it finally fell into place. Liked seeing some of the old words: SNEE and YARE. Fun to have spam in a CAN instead of an inbox. The Corner is really on it this morning so WES!
Thanks, Steve, for the turn. I especially like the discussion of YARE. Glad you're back safe and sound after your vocal "tune-up."
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was on the crunchy side, even for a Thursday, but I chipped away and slowly, but surely, I got my tada. A few unknowns but perps came to the rescue. Cute theme, also.
Nicely done, CC and Don; you are still our Dynamic Duo! And welcome " home" to our globe-trotting gourmand and A-one puzzle summarizer, Steve.
Have a great day.
Had neither circles or theme name, so all of that was lost on me, as ususal.
ReplyDeleteHand up for DOOMDIC. Took me a while to figure that one out. Also had to confirm YARE as a word - a new one for me.
Luckily, it's raining in SW Florida, so I had plenty of time and patience to eke this one out. GAMBIT took me longer than it should, but my chess is very rusty.
ReplyDeleteSteve: Nice write-up ... but as to your Tampa Bay BUC comment ...
ReplyDeleteAt 5-6 they have a better record than 12 other teams, which isn't terrible, esp. with a Rookie QB.
BTW ... How's that team near you doing? LOL !!!
Don G. & C.C. Thank You for a FUN Thursday puzzle ... that I solved in my normal Friday time.
Fave today ... you have to ask??? Of course it was BACARDI though I will admit I prefer Appleton Rum.
Always thought that CIAO was a "Trendy Goodbye." (Not a "Trendy hi").
A cold-front is moving over ... gee, the High-for-the-Day is only going to reach 75 degrees.
Cheers!
CC and Don, great puzzle, doable but challenging. I doubted SHN for SHO but didn't come back to change CHAN to CHAO. Drat! I loved the clever puzzle regardless of one bad cell.
ReplyDeleteThis once mighty toy store has major problems these days.
Link Toys R Us
My love of novels about the Royal Navy sailing ships again comes in handy. The novels often refer to the ship been lively and YARE, quick to the helm, easily maneuverable. I have never seen YARE used in any other context.
Canny Irish Miss never needs to say, "I've been had," or "I've been snookered."
She recognizes a scam. This is the way I think of SNOOKERED.
Each OAR makes a small wake on its own, in addition to the larger wake of the boat.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteWow! The theme letter symmetry is perfection itself! Notice how every word's letter sequence matches. Crafty work, DGCC!
Hand up for Yare. That was all perps.
ReplyDeletePerson who called Steve a 'Gourmand'. It is generally understood to mean a glutton. Perhaps you meant Gourmet. An appreciator ( or, a cook ) of good food.
STFU - Southern Farmers Tenants Union ?
I used to have IRAs, and ROTH IRAs and Keogh's etc., until I got laid off. Then I went into business on my own. Now my IRAs are much much larger and lie resident in my mattress in the basement. My heirs will get a treasure map to locate it and pull it out. Hope they use it wisely.
No circles on Mensa, so no shot at figuring out the theme. Still it was a good puzzle to solve. This one really needed perps to solve.
ReplyDeleteHad a few stumbles along the way like LOWRIdE vs LOWRISE, ANATOLi vs ANATOLY and when I filled in the SE with perps, I looked at DOOR DIE and did a head scratch before I realized it was DO OR DIE (DUH - V8 can head slap)
Tin: I'm a little envious of the 75 degree temperature in FL. This morning it was 33 degrees in central PA with some flurries vs. rain. Maybe a trip south this winter would be a good idea.
I hope all is well for everyone today.
Hello, friends!
ReplyDeleteSo much fun for a Thursday, thank you Don G and C.C.!
I have a haircut appt. so no time for comments just to say I got the theme since my newspaper had circles. JUMPING Jehosaphat!
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Great puzzle. My admiration for constructors in general and these two in particular continues to grow. Thank you Don HardG and CC for a delightful puzzle and Steve for an erudite expo.
ReplyDeleteI have caught many a striped bass off the Outer Banks using eels for bait, that one was a no-brainer for me. YARE, LENA, AFLATS, the Italian plural of SOLo, not so much. Perps to the rescue, sometimes ESP.
Prudent Anon, Wiktionary does give "glutton" as the first definition of gourmand, but the second definition is "lover of fine food". I'm sure this second definition is the one IM meant.
TTP Thank you for the link to "Smooth" yesterday. I have been a fan of Santana's since "Abraxas". Unfortunately someone at a college party decided they needed that album (Abraxas) more than I did. Did anyone catch the knockout that Rob Thomas married? I think the song may be autobiographical.
Prudent Anon - Bluehen at 10:43 Is correct; I meant a lover of fine food. Gourmet would probably be a better word to use, but, for some reason, I think more in terms of gourmet food, rather than a person. In any event, I hope Steve knew what I meant.
ReplyDeleteI used red-letter help, then proceeded to deal with re-signing into my email account. I have many programs messed up. I am getting ready to telephone Apple support so I changed all passwords to the same new one, since none seem to want to work. I want to transfer my pictures to computer and external hard drive before I update OSs. Every device wants to update!!
ReplyDeleteI will change to different passwords after I get files reorganized.
Have a good weekend. Probably won't check in again until Monday. TV weather forecaster says we can get out shorts and tank tops for the weekend. We'll see.
If there is a picture of me in Wyoming as an avatar, then I successfully fixed one program? wish me luck on the rest!
Montana
I guess I didn't say in my post that I have pictures on iPhone and iPad to save.
ReplyDeleteComputer is a PC. I don't want to buy a new one.
Montana
What a hoot! Even with the reveal it took some time to find the letters and then WHAM! Adding unique fill, learning and Steve’s summation makes for a great day.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-Does anyone else remember this YUCATAN?
-I am subbing with a PILE of XEROXED papers to use, some of which are my LESSONS I gave her
-Did you have a plus-sized aunt whose hug would ENGULF you?
-Two move checkmate GAMBIT
-Some administrators are worried about the skinny jeans and skin-tight leggings in schools. So had to quit wearing them! ☺
-We are rethinking our vacation in Tehran this year!
-3 and 2, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, score tied – DO OR DIE!
-Second city CHICAGO (my first thought) is now third
-Talk show hosts stir the pot and love RANTERS
-Disney lists the gates where you board for each BUS STOP
-BB’S in someone’s hubcaps were a practical joke of my yute
-Taking TURNS is de rigueur when you sub in grade school!
-More kids coming in, I’m teaching tides today and of course…
@Montana - you can just copy the pictures from your iPhone/iPad to your PC, you don't need anything fancy to do that, just connect the USB cable from your device to the computer and you'll see your iPhone/iPad pop up in your "My Computer" drives. Just click through the folders until you get to the actual pictures. They may be in multiple folders, so just copy the top-level folder "DCIM" and you'll take everything along with it.
ReplyDelete@Irish Miss - I knew what you meant! I'm not sure about the "gourmande" reference necessarily being derogatory - I'm looking at a cookbook on my bookshelves written about 30 years ago by a ground-breaking French chef named Michel Guérard - the book is entitled "Cuisine Gourmande" - I don't think he would publish a book called "Cooking for Gluttons" :)
@Anon 7:38 - ^5 for "Lil interest" :)
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteAs Dudley pointed out, the theme circles are in perfect symmetry, with 180 degree rotation. Elegant. Cleverly original theme idea, too.
Slow grind for me, but i made it.
Lots of fresh fill today. YARE was a total unknown.
Wanted something specific for Dürer work. Put in DER HASE. That slowed things down a bit.
A wreath a' Feanklin?
Time to make my EXIT.
Cool regards!
JzB
Per Wikipedia, you're both right.
ReplyDelete'A gourmand is a person who takes great pleasure and interest in consuming good food and drink.[1] A gourmand has also been defined as a person who is "a glutton for food and drink",[2] a person who eats and drinks excessively. [3]"
Cheers!
JzB
Hi Y'all! Very interesting, Don & C.C. No circles so didn't get the full effect of the theme. I was satisfied just to be JUMPING the CHECKERS. Faster than some Thursdays, but no speed fest today.
ReplyDeleteGood one, Steve! Can you post the blog from an air plane? Wow! Makes you higher than Tinbeni on BACARDI.
That Chopin number was about as dreary as our five days of rain during Tgiving week. But the sun is shining this week. Yay!
Last to fill was the YARE/EPA cross. Couldn't figure out AQI. Duh! (Have you seen the pictures of the duck soup China is breathing in Bejing?) Didn't know VW GTI either.
I thought Durer was a painter & carver. Mother had a bas relief picture of his "Praying Hands".
69a DOORDIE parsed as one word. Huhn? Ooooh!
Our Mexican exchange students were from Yucatan so that came easy.
When the rapper clue showed up, my black neighbor was sitting in a borrowed car in his driveway about 20' from my office window playing very loud rap music. Time: 1:30 a.m. I was wanting to give him a LIL something upside his head. I hope the elderly lady he borrows the car from doesn't find the battery dead next time she wants to use her car.
OJIBWAS a gimmee since I recently read a book about them. Can't remember the title. Sorry.
Since you asked:
ReplyDeleteToys Я Us
Courtesy of the Cyrillic alphabet. This letter's name is "Ya."
Like many Cyrillic characters that resemble Roman characters it's often misused as a substitute for unrelated sounds.
My first (and until today only) known use of "yare" comes from Katherine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story" describing the boat "The True Love." Didn't realize there was an eel/eels debate, but if there are two bass and one eel swimming in a pond, how many fish are there, and how many fishes are there?
ReplyDeleteWEES&WOS
ReplyDelete(What Everyone Else Said, but especially What Owen Said...)
Solo was my FIW, but in looking at my inkblot, in addition to
"lineDJ" (Live DJ is an oxymoron...)
(OK,maybe not an Oxymoron, but definitely a rip off...)
That earthenware pot got me again! (Ollo/Kona)
I also see I had both a O & A crammed into the Yare/Anatoly space...
(FermatPrime@5:53, Anatomy?)
The reveal confused me a little bit, the word "sets" made me think
there were 6 sets of 2 circled letters. It took "Alou" to give me Jumping
& an inkling (inkblot) as to what was going on...)
Don/CC, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the English clue to Axer....
Also, I have a request. I do the acrosses first, so,
If & when you have another puzzle that has both Eras & Eons in it,
can u pls put "Eras" first?
Bill G@8:14, I believe it took me just as long to figure out
how you got "doomdic" as it took you to fix it...
Good Luck Montana!
(I just installed new WIFI router, the ABC instructions went ABQ...)
Steve@12:22??? Pls tell me how you hook your phone up to your PC!
(Do you have a Mac?)
I am using Windows 8, & hooking my Iphone4s to the PC makes a chime,
but absolutely no additional drives are listed.
The only way I can get pics from phone to PC is to Email them one by one to myself!!!
I have an IPhone and use windows based computers and have saved my pics on my computer. As Steve said, you go to the Computer Icon, click and it will show what you have hooked up by USB and then the download is easy
ReplyDeleteA loud boom startled us this morning and all the power went off. Seems a transformer exploded on a nearby power pole; the whole neighborhood went dark. Now the power is back on and I was able to have fun working this circle-less puzzle. Loved it. Don and C.C. are a fabulous team! And you, Steve, are a fabulous commentator (as opposed to a gourmand tater.) Thank you all.
ReplyDeleteWhat is awful about the "awe-full" expression GEE is that it is short for JESUS. We had OMG just four days ago. Let's have a little more leg and a little less sacrilege.
ReplyDeleteThe American Heritage Dictionary's second definition of EON, "the longest division of geologic time, containing two or more eras," is horse manure, since an "era" is as indefinite as an "EON." Most dictionaries simply say that an EON is a long time and don't mention geology. A geologic period is an AGE, not an EON. Think Ice Age, Stone Age.
I'll go first on EEL vs. EELS: MINNOWS, not EEL or EELS, are used as bass bait.
71A is an unfortunately misleading clue: There are no defined "sets" of puzzle circles.
51D shoulda had a "for short" in the clue, since DJ is short for "disk jockey." (And, why LIVE DJ? Is there such a thing as a DEAD DJ?)
Nice to have CHAO and CIAO in the same puzzle. And, no, you'd be inviting McConnells (Senator Mitch and wife).
Speaking of Judge ITO and the YUCATAN: The day O.J. showed up in a colorful Mexican shirt, the judge told him, "You're not going to Cancun; you're going to the can, coon." The judge was wrong, of course.
Good evening everyone.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your intro, Steve. Re: ……topping up my accent…… LOL. I once viewed Iceland, too, on a return flight from Oslo. Wonderful experience.
Liked the puzzle, but the nuances brought on by the circles were lost on me since circles are not my forté. Scratched my head over DOORDIE but then finally parsed it to DO OR DIE. Liked the geography: HOUSTON, YUCATAN, ATOLLS, KAVA, and OJIBWAS. HMCS OJIBWA was a Canadian submarine named after First Nations people.
Seems like a waste to use EELS as bass bait, if we're talking about the anadromous eels that habituate the N. Atlantic littoral.
CED and others: I am not the Bill at 8:14. Apparently there are two of us. (I'm obviously Bill G.) I don't know who was here first. I think it was me but I'm not sure. I can see where confusion might arise.
ReplyDeleteLemon, I have tried every which way to connect my iphone4 to my windows 8 PC.
ReplyDeleteIt just does not detect it.
The latest tech advice is to update the phone to the latest operating system (ios)
but the phone is maxed out due to photos.
(talk about a catch 22)
I have 2 choices,
delete all my photos,
or email them one at a time b/4 deleting.
Then I would have room for the updated IOS
Long ago, there was (bluegrass) Bill but we haven't heard from him in a long while.
ReplyDeleteMontana and CED,
ReplyDeleteI DO THE SAME! I have an iPhone, iPad and a PC. I email my phone photos to myself and deal with them there.
Hub and I were at the lake (Michigan ) today and saw a peregrine falcon looking like he was injured. Nope! He was hovering over lunch. I took a photo to send to my birdy son-in-law. I had to send it to me so I could crop it. All worth the effort. A handsome immature specimen. I'd post it here, but I don't know how to.
Montana, you're not alone in the tech department! That's why I keep knitting!!!
Re: DOORDIE, see the section of this article about DORD, starting from the photo of a dictionary page about 1/3 of the way down.
ReplyDelete(Sorry to be posting this so late -- I intended to hours ago but RL interfered.)
PK said
ReplyDeleteI was the anonymous who posted at 12:48. Don't know why my name didn't show up.
Anonymous @ 5:00 - Gee is a short form for Jesus? That's news to me, Gee whiz, oh gee, gee whilickers, ( dating myself) to me, these expressions had nothing to do with Jesus. As far as OMG, what is wrong with saying Oh My God. Or, to some, Oh My Gosh? Your sanctimonious comment of a "little bit more leg and less sacrilege" is contradicted by your final statement which reeks of racism.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteFinally DNF'd w/ 44d xing 55a. HOUSTON's boom is bust for now and friends are AXER-ees. Not a fun week that way.
The puzzle however was entertaining at the day's end. Thank you C.C. and Don (hard) G. I had many bad STABs along the way.
Steve, very nice job, witty write-up, and finish to my pzl. Hopefully we can understand you after the "top-off." :-)
I'm not going to get into all the LESSONS I learned today - I'll just provide one that may give you a smile or two at my dismay:
1) IPOD mini stayed for way too long and I wasted a BUCket of ink there. Catch == ruB (Aye, there's the) b/f NAB @33a spilled more.
2) @50a I entered island early on and thought "cute" when it x'd THONGd. Sure, all wrong, but the imagination... [Splynter link here]
I LOL'd at 24a and 64d - both great c/a's that made the V8-CAN hurt a bit less.
Fav - Theme! The tenuous links between JUMPING things bouncing about and CHECKERS is just so creative.
D-O: HOUSTON was my 1st fill too! But, w/ today's goings on, I thought, we "Have a Problem" w/ <$45 oil. 4th biggest, 3rd to last (now) in new jobs... (behind CHI & Philly IIRC).
Thank you regulars - your posts lifted me up after A FLAT day.
Our HS unofficial fight song: "What's the Senior's battle cry?" "B-A-C-A-R-D-I." I think I may partake tonight.
Cheers, -T
Good late evening, folks. Thank you, Don and C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteStill on the train from Chicago to Erie. Worked the puzzle slowly and finally finished.
Liked the theme. Got JUMPING way before the circled letters.
IRAN AIR was easy. I have flown that airline. (Hava Peyma e Melli Iran)
YARE was a new word for me. Makes sense.
I have purchased a few IPOD NANOS in my life. None for me.
Irish Miss: Good comments! I am proud that we share a birthday.
Hope to pull into Erie, PA, in about 5 hours. My mother's funeral is Saturday.
Let's see if cruciverb works now. I did this puzzle in the Tribune. If it does, I will try Friday's.
See you later today.
Abejo
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