google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, January 29, 2016, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Jan 29, 2016

Friday, January 29, 2016, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: January 29, St. Agnes Eve, Demonstrably!

Our Friday fellow, Jeffrey Wechsler brings us a puzzle with a TOUCH OF EVIL. EVIL is inserted into the theme phrases to create new and evocative phrases. Since we have Satan injected into the grid, I must wonder if Jeffrey knows that today is a Satanic Holiday known by the name of my theme. It appears somehow this Catholic SAINT , the protector of virgins,  has been incorporated into certain Pagan liturgy. I would guess the puzzle grew from realizing that DISH NETWORK plus EVIL would be a grid spanner. Finding (or rather creating) REVILED SNAPPERS was impressive. Of course it may all be just JW continuing his admiration for Orson Welles, for whom he did an NYT tribute puzzle last year containing the same movie.  I could not find much on the subject of Satanic stuff, which is just as well since we do not talk religion  here. We have tons of interesting long fill like CIRCLET, GENERAL,  SILENT G,  SLANTED, JAPANESE,  MEANTIME, AUTOMOBILE, EXONERATES,  SNAKE RIVER,  VA VA VA VOOM.  Maybe JW will tell us his inspiration, in the meantime let us solve.

17A. Threat to the queen's cotton? : ROYAL WEEVIL(11).  We were amused by a clue with this INSECT. Isn't amazing how soon after the blog discussed the "royal we"  it shows up as part of theme.

27A. Satan's broadcaster? : DEVILISH NETWORK (15). DISH network

43A. Really unpopular fish? : REVILED SNAPPERS (15). Red snapper is very popular in SoFla.

57A. 1958 Orson Welles film noir ... and a hint to 17-, 27- and 43-Across : TOUCH OF EVIL (11).
Having a revealer is what made this puzzle doable. Time to work our way through the mine field of tough clues/fill.

Across:

1. "If I may interject ... " : AHEM. As she cleared her throat dramatically...then she

5. Stops to smell the roses : PAUSES. Sorry but your cigar is almost gone and the...

11. Briquette's fate : ASH. is falling on my carpet. I want you...

14. Passed : GONE.

15. Potassium hydroxide, e.g. : ALKALI. Ok, back to the puzzle, this took the perps to let me know where the clue was going.

16. Siete menos seis : UNO. Subtraction in Spanish.

19. Water source : TAP. How simple.

20. Hersey's "A Bell for __" : ADANO.

21. Wind dir. : SSE. Again....is this familiar Friday fodder?

22. Call forth : EVOKE.

24. Help for a sad BFF : TLCTender Loving Care.

26. Subject of the first picture in Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" : GNOME. Not familiar with this composer or the artist (Viktor Hartmann), and he did not design the Travelocity Gnome.
34. Physical, e.g. : EXAM. Not easy until filled.

35. On the move : ROVING. I had trouble with this clue/fill as the word is in my memory banks associated with 'roving eye' which is not the same as clued here.

36. Plane compartment : BIN. Overhead.

37. Told, as an elaborate tale : WOVE. Rhymes with....

38. Repeating rhythmic pattern used in Cuban music : CLAVE. What?  It does not rhyme with save. Time to LEARN. (3:13)

39. Balderdash : JIVE. According to the online etymology dictionary: 1928, "to deceive playfully," also "empty, misleading talk" (n.) and "a style of fast, lively jazz and dance music," American English, from African-American vernacular, probably of African origin (compare Wolof jev, jeu "talk about someone absent, especially in a disparaging manner"). Related: Jived; jiving. Used from 1938 for "New York City African-American slang."

40. 39-Down carrier : ANA. Wow, we are pulling out all our Friday stuff. This AIRLINE.

41. Deli equipment : SLICER.

42. Protected at sea : ALEE.

46. Rushed : RAN AT. Again simple only after filled by perps.

47. Mauna __ : LOA. Along with KEA, Hawaii volcanic mountains.

48. Expert : MAVEN.

49. "__ Kapital" : DAS. The Karl Marx TOME about economics and society. Read and discuss somewhere but not here.

52. Make whole : UNITE.

56. First woman to land a triple axel in competition : ITO. An amazing skater and a reminder of our dear friend Clear Ayes.

60. Revival prefix : NEO.

61. Overshoot : EXCEED. Expectations.

62. Bear's cry : SELL. Appropriate reference to the stock market now.

63. Philosophy : ISM. Hence Marxism.

64. Trinket : DOODAD. Last week doodah...

65. Town near Padua : ESTE. More fill completely unknown. But I guess I can LEARN.

Down:

1. Indian district with three World Heritage Sites : AGRA. Only ONE of which is the Taj Mahal. A young lawyer and his wife toured there but I did not remember the details.

2. Rain protection : HOOD.

3. Irish musician with four Grammys : ENYA. Four letter singer, I did not go with Bono.
4. Transitional period : MEANTIME.

5. Hand analog : PAW. Give me your paw.

6. Pub array : ALES.

7. Oahu entertainers : UKES.

8. Keep : SAVE.

9. Manning taking a hike : ELI. Love the humor here, though despite two Super Bowls many do not love Eli any more. Peyton will try for his 2nd again.

10. 26-Across feature : SILENT-G. Cross reference, hmm there are more.

11. Lot occupant : AUTOMOBILE. I nailed it. It really got me going in solving.

12. Part of Oregon's border : SNAKE RIVER. In this map it is in yellow, Columbia purple. Can you find where CED's camera trip was yesterday? Hell's Canyon would fit the theme today.
 
13. Last thing in Pandora's box : HOPE. What a fun STORY. He name is from the Greek, the pan meaning "all" like in a pangram and the dora meaning gift.

18. Relax : LOLL.

23. "Cross my heart," e.g. : VOW.

25. Round ornament : CIRCLET. Not really up on this jewelry; seems like a tiara to me.

26. Vague : GENERAL.

27. John of Scotch fame : DEWAR. Do they make any good scotch? Tin?
28. Clears : EXONERATES. What a great word.

29. Ed Norton catchphrase on "The Honeymooners" : VAVAVAVOOM.
30. Firm : SOLID.

31. Climate control systs. : HVACSHeating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning

32. Jewel thief portrayer in "The Pink Panther" : NIVEN.
33. They're often bent : KNEES.

39. About 125 million people : JAPANESE.  What a random clue.

41. Not objective : SLANTED.  So many political comments come to mind....

44. Halogen suffix : INE. Can you name the five? Is there a 6th waiting to be discovered?

45. High hair style : POUF.

48. Revealing apparel : MINI.
49. Household glue brand : DUCO.
50. Served very well : ACED. Tennis, anyone.

51. __ butter : SHEA. Also a stadium at one time.

53. "Variations on 'America'" composer : IVES. A wonderful composer (or so I am told) though I only know James Merritt Ives.  LISTEN.

54. List : TILT. If your ship is listing, I hope you swim.

55. How she looks in Paris? : ELLE. Cute clue.

58. Good Grips kitchenware brand : OXO. We get this brand often.

59. "They say there is divinity in __ numbers": Falstaff : ODD. We end with our Friday Shakespeare, this time from the third and final appearance of Falstaff. It is said the play was written at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I.

One last St. Agnes fact; it is a very famous poem by Keats, a poet whose work JW had in his 1/15/16 effort. Coincidence? Okay I talk to myself too much, but now I can talk to you all. Enjoy. Thanks Jeffrey and all who read. Lemonade out.

44 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Well, anther Wechsler conquered! Super!

Good work, Lemon!

The following were perped: ESTE, CLAVE, ANA.

Time for bed!

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Definitely a challenging Friday effort today, but doable in the end. I struggled to get CLAVE, DUCO and POUF (all unknown) as well as JIVE and GNOME (as clued), but the perps came to the rescue (eventually). CIRCLET was another unknown that I just guessed might be a thing, so the crossing of CIRCLET and CLAVE was my biggest leap of faith.

Loved the theme!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I found this to be one of the easier Friday-level puzzles for me. The first half filled itself in with little effort. I immediately got ROYAL WEEVIL which helped immensely. I had some wonderful RED SNAPPER over the weekend. Nothing REVILED about that meal.

I found the GNOME only after getting the SILENT G.

Hand up for Roar instead of SELL for the Cry of the Bear. Oh, we weren't looking for the animal after all.

DAS Kapital is definitely not on my To Be Read list.

If planes keep cramming people in on flights, we will soon be sitting in those overhead BIN Compartments.

I was not aware that there were so many World Heritage Sites in AGRA. I only knew about the Taj Mahal.

CLAVE was a total unknown and DUCO is not a household brand in my home.

QOD: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. ~ W.C. Fields (nĂ© William Claude Dukenfield, Jan. 29, 1880 ~ Dec, 25 1946)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Was stranded for a time in St. Louis; nothing seemed to "click" there. Finally NIVEN popped to mind and things fell into place. Wanted LAZE before LOLL showed up -- To LOLL is to "hang around" to my mind.

The only Mussorgsky work familiar to me is Night On Bald Mountain. Disney used it to good effect in the "evil" scene of Fantasia.

CSO to IM with DEWAR.

The RED SNAPPER on the menu often turns out to be tilapia on your plate.

Would a mechanical rhythm box in Cuba be called an autoCLAVE?

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Jeffrey! Great expo, Lemonade!

Got the theme but it didn't help. Really meaty fill. Last fill was the "V" in the NIVEN/CLAVE cross. Did not remember NIVEN in that movie. Never heard of CLAVE.

VAVAVAVOOM: Didn't have TV during the Honeymooners era, but WAGd the phrase when three "V's" appeared. How I came up with MAVEN first try before I saw a "V" is a mystery.

CIRCLET, not braceLET or ankLET. Never heard of DUCO.

Can you believe we got SNAKE RIVER the day after Steve mentioned Hell's Canyon & CED had a clip of it. The Snake River Gorge where Evel Knievel jumped is more dramatic. We visited this place at Twin Falls, Idaho. Looks like the earth just split apart there. Very scary drop. A great video is at http://www.smithsonianchannel.com.videos/evel-knievels-famous-snake-river-canyon-jump/27151 (2:30)

Hungry Mother said...

Lots of write-overs today, but it's Friday after all. I'm always amazed at what facts are hidden in my brain; I'm talking about you, DUCO.

Lemonade714 said...

PK's link Evel which not only highlights the coincidences in the fill but EVEL would certainly be an appropriate video for this puzzle. We are amused.

Big Easy said...

The SE of this puzzle dispatched me this morning. I've only known Orson from his wine commercial- 'sell no wine before it's time' but correctly got TOUCH OF EVIL through perps and a WAG because I had already filled the others. The sadistic clue 'list' for TILT got me as I didn't know ESTE, tried FILE, had ELLE but UNITE wouldn't come out of my brain so I filled UNIFY and the unknown (and wrong) YLLE and gave up. I asked my wife if there was a hairstyle called 'POOF' because UPDO or AFRO were wrong. When she said yes, let's just say I blew it anyway.

Other than those problems, the center was difficult, having never heard of CLAVE, didn't know NIVEN or GNOME, and the 'V' was slow to come for the heating and air conditioning system. Thanks Lemonade for letting me know it's for ventilating. DUCO cement why? because ELMER'S or GORILLA wouldn't fit.

Lemonade-Leave ELI alone. His brother, Cooper, and dad, Archie, and the rest of his family belong to our tennis club. Needless to say, they can afford the dues.

D-O- that 'autoCLAVE' would be one hot instrument.

Anonymous said...

And I guess, needless to say, so can you?

Anonymous said...

Once again I am confused by lemony's convoluted ramblings. I'm not sure but I think we celebrated the Feast of St Agnes last week. Too many typos to enjoy this one. Also, through many familiar phrases and a leggy picture, it seems as if he has stolen Splynter's aesthetic.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

SO to Irish Miss - a real DEWAR's fan, and as well named after a Saint

I cheated; twice. Needed NIVEN and POUF

CIRCLET threw me off; I was thinking about an ornament for an XMAS tree

Cute theme; I should've paid attention to whatever blog there was regarding ROYAL WE, as this made no sense once I got the theme.

Enjoyed the write-up, Lemon. Have a great weekend, all

Tinbeni said...

D-N-F ... just another Rorschach Ink-Blot-Test ...

Fave today, as if there was any doubt was the CSO to Irish Miss at DEWAR.
And Lemon, the answer is YES! they make several great Scotch's.

Beautiful day, low 60's and sunny as Tampa Bay prepares to be conquered (again!) by the Gasparilla Pirates tomorrow.
Jeez, these Pirates have been raiding and kicking Tampa's butt every year since 1904.

Glad I live in Tarpon Springs ... if they raided here all they would get is some sponges.

Cheers!

Husker Gary said...

A very nice puzzle, theme and summation!

Musings
-A clever look at AHEM and PC language
-Some of the people who have to answer for bad TAP water
-My Physical EXAMS usually EVOKE the phrase “for a man of your age”
-I like Subway sandwiches but I swear their SLICER makes meat thin enough to see through
-Unusual Hawaiian fun on 13,678’ MAUNA LOA
-Warren Buffet – “Buy when everyone is SELLING, SELL when everyone is buying”
-Four letter Indian cwd city, hmmm… what could it be?
-ELI just doing his job, not getting fired
-VW’s automated AUTOMOBILE lot in Wolfsburg takes up 20% of the space
-Being a non-scotch drinking physics teacher, my DEWAR’S is a vacuum-sided flask for very cold liquids
-SLANTED – “Do you agree with Senator [insert name] that we should let all polar bears die?”
-The word TILT on a glass screen ended many games in my yute
-In the MEANTIME, in between time… ??????

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

A Jeff Wex Workout today. That middle section was downright ornery, and I was sure Coif was right. Until it wasn't. The theme saved the day this time - figuring out Snapper cleared the logjam.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a real "Devil" for me but, after much time and effort, I finished w/o help. Never heard of Duco or clave, and although Pictures At An Exhibition was familiar, the subject depicted was not. Filled in Dewar right off, naturally, my CSO, as DO, Tin, and Chairman Moe mentioned. I must admit while I saw the evil in the theme answers, I didn't see the resultant phrases, which I thought were odd but didn't pursue it further.

Thanks, JW, for a toughie but doable and enjoyable offering. Thanks, Lemony, for the detailed summary. BTW, The Feast of St. Agnes is January 21. Can you expand on your comment regarding a pagan connection with this Saint; I've never heard of anything like that.

Have a great day.

inanehiker said...

challenging, but made the solve that more satisfying - lots of replacements like UPDO to COIF to POUF, and learning moments like DUCO and CLAVE. Very clever theme.

Thanks Lemonade and JW.

C6D6 Peg said...

This was easier than a normal JW puzzle, and I really enjoyed the theme. How clever to add a whole word rather than just a letter to make a new phrase! Good job, Jeffrey!

Thanks, Lemonade, for another great write-up. Loved the triple-axle by Midori Ito.

AnonymousPVX said...

This was tough and I feel good about getting the solve.

However, the clue for 9D is nonsensical. Eli is the NYG QB. He's not going anywhere. The Giants didn't even make the playoffs, so there's no hike to take. There last game was almost a month ago. Again, the clue makes no sense.

AnonymousPVX said...

"Their" last game. How I hate autocorrect.

Yellowrocks said...

Clever puzzle, great expo. I was too busy and distracted to give this one its due. I made many, many alphabet runs and red letters. Outside of the puzzle, I have accomplished a lot in the past two days.
HIKE was my favorite.. I think the clue was not about ELI, himself, but about a football move.
WIKI:A snap (colloquially called a "HIKE", "snapback", or "pass from center") is the backwards passing of the ball in American and Canadian football at the start of play from scrimmage.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Looks like Jeffrey is our Man Friday.

Despite a couple nits, this is close to being my all time favorite puzzle. part of it was right in my wheel house - and part of it was somewhere off in a different county. Eventually made it through.

The theme is just awesome.

I know HVAC because it is an automotive term. Had a hard time remembering Niven ,and the subject of the first picture. Have the music in head, but couldn't EVOKE the image. I also went POOF.

I'm surprised more of you don't know Mussorgsky in GENERAL and Pictures in particular. The music was written for piano. There are many orchestral transcriptions. Ravel's is the most widely known and played. Here is an example of how knowing something too well can lead you astray. In this excerpt, the opening Promenade is truncated and the Gnome picture representation starts at 1:05. The picture itself has been lost, but the Gnome is described as "clumsily running with crooked legs." The example illustrates the use of SILENCE in music, following a flurry of notes. So this was my entry for 10D instead of the unfortunate SILENT G.

I dearly love this music. One of the highlights of my musical life was performing this - and it's the only symphony concert I ever played on bass trombone.

I've also performed IVES America variations. They get rather weird.

The CLAVE I learned was simplified - just 1, 2&, 4. Guess I'm not a MAVEN.

I share Gary's DEWAR concept.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Cool regards!
JzB

Lemonade714 said...

Thanks YR for explaining HIKE; sometimes our perspective is limited.

Irish Miss, I am providing a LINK to the Satanic Calendar which many might find offensive. I include it solely for information purposes and only to explain my comment.

BE, I did not in any way mean to disparage Eli but if you watch football there are many comments about Eli both very good and not.

CrossEyedDave said...

From Yest, Anonymous T @ 9:24PM
Re: Interesting lock picking
I had to laugh out loud when I read the second comment under the video.

"Use it to lock up your explosives, problem solved!"

Re: Today, WYS (What Yellowrocks Said)
Limited time today, this was a real pencil buster.
Thank goodness for red letters and alphabet runs...

Lemon, loved the write up, you seem in a very punny mood today...
I was also intrigued by your world heritage site link, I have seen
many of these places on the history channel. Now I can research them further.

I also thought I could do a little cut & paste & see if I could find
any World Heritage Sites closer to home. Bummer!

Pictures at an Exhibition? I thought that was written by Emerson Lake & Palmer? (53:04 Full Album)

Anonymous said...

So lemony, since you know that it is obvious that many would find that "information" offensive, why would include any reference to it in the opening paragraph of a puzzle summary?!?!?! Your leap from "EVIL" to Satan seems a little too dark for this forum.

Upon reading it, I immediately thought of sweet Irish Miss and wondered why you would bring this up knowing her name is Agnes. To the fact that religion is a touchy subject, I also was surprised to read a faithful Jew relate a disparaging devil worshipping "holiday" about a Christian saint. Seems a little over the top for our morning read. I'm glad I had my funnys nearby to lighten the mood. Hell, even the news this morning was more lighthearted than this blog.

Ol' Man Keith said...

"PICTURES at an Exhibition" was the first piece of classical music I ever used in a stage production. The triumphal section ("The Great Gate at Kiev", heard here*) offers a wonderfully pompous entrance theme that I used to underscore the arrival of our high school's student treasurer at a school rally. He was coming to sell student body cards to the assembly, and we wanted to emphasize the importance of his pitch.
Too bad I missed today's theme until I completed the answers. This is one where I'm sure it would have helped to catch onto it earlier.
* To get the full impact of the Mussorgsky piece, cue it up to 4:30.

Oban said...

I solved this puzzle late last night and thought for sure Lemonade, considering where he was back in 1969 and Dudley's late post on yesterday's blog, we would see this title as his theme and obvious musical interlude for this puzzle. Bzzzzt.

Or how about this great song from an old crossword staple? Bzzzzt!

No, I think we'll talk about devil worshipping and extraneously link that to one of my favorite posters here on the blog. Also, I know sweet Agnes does not need me to stick up for her, but what blog veteren doesn't remember the countless times Agens prefers Dewars? Tin is a Pinch man. But, whatever, lemony is funny that way...

CrossEyedDave said...

Lemon, I didn't see the link ( I was too afraid to open it...)

TTP from Yest, (but actually today because the post was 6:59AM)
Your post brought back many memories. I was (sort of) an audiophile
wayback when, except I was broke & could only afford a few trips to Radio Shack.

Around the time of that Emerson Lake & Palmer album, I was building my own stereo.
With limited funds, it was made from garbage I had found.
The left channel came from a battery powered 45 player, the right channel was a small 3 tube
amplifier. For more oomph I got rid of the ceramic cartridge needle & replaced it
with a magnetic cartridge once I found a suitable pre amp.

The whole thing worked quite well, until I tried to build a Bass Booster that I saw in
Popular Electronics Magazine. Unfortunately my Stereo started picking CB Taxi transmissions.

The good news was it stared me building CB radios! (but they never worked as well as that
stupid bass booster...)

Anyway, long segue short, it made me want to pull out this box of 50 year old
Popular Electronics Mags. But they are so old the pages are turning to dust.

Luckily I found an alternative that some of you might like to peruse:

They are all here in PDF format. Just pick a check mark & click on it!

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Great intro, Lemon. Especially liked the map depicting the Columbia River Basin with the SNAKE RIVER highlighted. Hard to believe the watershed extends all the way to Yellowstone, WY.
Finally got the whole puzzle without searches. Took several restarts. Very clever cluing . Juxtapositioning of doable and harder fill just right to afford an eventual solve. Makes me wonder how many rounds of test solving might have been done in its preparation.
INE - Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, and Iodine; what my chem. teacher in HS called the 4 girls. The 5th, Astatine, was not taught. Los Alamos Nat. Lab. says less than 1 oz. occurs in the earth's crust. Unstable; it can be produced by bombarding bismuth with alpha particles.

Yellowrocks said...

Pictures at an Exhibition is one of my favorites, especially The Great Gate of Kiev. Thanks, O.M. Keith
I, for one, did not find Lemony's info offensive. He was not advocating for Satanism. I am sure that there is some evil doer or other associated with most of our given names. That's no knock on us.

Lemonade714 said...

Oban, I obviously needed you around when I was preparing my write up. I do however confess to not remembering book or song titles, so your selections did not come to mind. When Santana played at Woodstock they were a very much unknown group and those three days were a bit overwhelming. I remember the DRUM SOLO by Michael Shrieve more than anything else about their set.

SwampCat said...

Lemonade, the expo was wonderful! If the theme of the puzzle is EVIL, that's what you discuss. Your links to St Agnes and the Satanic calendar seemed appropriate to me. You just explained things very thoroughly. That doesn't seem "religious" to me.

St. Agnes' day was once celebrated on both Jan 21 and Jan 28. I have no idea why! At some point it was officially moved to Jan 21. So both you and whoever commented on it being last week were right.

And the puzzle was certainly devilish! I loved the struggle. Thanks Jeffrey!

Anonymous said...

Selective memory? How many times does lemony claim to remember the most obscure of facts, relating them to a book one of his sons read in class back in high school 20 years ago but now claims not to remember such things. Personally, I read everything he writes with background of suspicion. No offense, Jason.

Jayce said...

Awesome theme. Like Hahtoolah, I zipped through this puzzle more quickly and easily than I expected to. Not that it was easy! Like Jazzb, I love Pictures At An Exhibition, and knew GNOME (called GNOMON in the Moussorgsky piece) right away. I wish I could have been able to attend Jazzb's performance then; I remember how proud he was about it. Well deserved. I guess they never did issue a CD or DVD of it.
I wanted CORONET before CIRCLET emerged. Had RAN TO before realizing it had to be RAN AT. And, of course, entered just the A until the perps revealed it to be LOA and not KEA. Didn't know CLAVE, so looked it up and learned a lot. DUCO Cement used to be a staple in our house; now we use Gorilla Glue or "Household Goop."
Warren Buffet is right about when to SELL and when to buy. I absolutely can't convince my wife of that; she always wants to sell when the price is way down. "Dumping the losers" she calls it. Fortunately I am usually successful in talking her out of it, and when the price comes back up again she's glad she decided not to sell it.
Best wishes to you all.

Steve said...

Nice puzzle - thanks for the expo, Lemonade.

Try "Pictures at an Exhibition" from Emerson, Lake and Palmer for some really awesome 70's prog rock.

I don't often respond to comments on comments, but I wanted to mention a couple of things to Nice Cuppa from yesterday:

1) You completely missed the point about "dated" clues. An SST might be old, but it will always be an SST. "Last year's Superbowl winners" today would be the Patriots, but they won't be this time next year, which is why you don't clue it that way. If you'd have bothered to do some research, you'd find that the Peso/Dollar exchange rate today is 18.26, which is not "about 17" - it might have been 17-something when the puzzle was constructed, but today the clue is wrong. Ergo, you don't clue like that.

2) Hotel rooms in chain hotels are not regular numbers, they refer to floor/room. You wouldn't say that you're staying in room "one thousand two hundred and twenty-six" would you? Neither did the (French) receptionist who checked me in to room 1034 - "dix trente-quatre". You said you weren't sure - now you can be sure.

3) It's France, not Frogland. It's not "fun" or "banter" - it's derogatory.

Thanks!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Doomed in the SE. 54 & 55d xing 62 &65a would never break. TITT & DNF.

To break the NE, I had to G(n)oogle (G)nome. I was on CED's wavelength thinking of ELP. That wasn't my biggest moment of idiocy. I saw ROAYAL WEEVIL and thought we're adding/subtracting letters to make bole ROYAL. Dumbkauff!

WOs: LOL b/f TLC @24a. Hand-up same updo/Afro as all of you. GENERic seemed quite right; perhaps it's spelled GENERAc? V8. DoCO wouldn't glue together the S. Finally I had POoF like Big-E for the coif. Epic fail.

Thanks Jeff W. For the EVIL (>7min) puzzle. Thanks Lem for finishing it in the end.

Fav - DOODAD. I couldn't believe my 1st thought was right! Thingy is to technical; even for a Fri. :-)

D-O: AutoCLAVE was funny. Thanks for the smile.

Of course IM came to mind at DEWERs. Though I was wondering for a spell if it was John crapper (I had reAl for 34a for a while - oh, there's another WO.)

CED - I must'a watched a dozen of the lock picking videos last night. Also, to add to you & TTP... I "built" my stereo w/ bits (receiver, double-tape deck, turn-table, & speakers) from the store - whole. My only hack was hooking the cable line to the 300 Ohm input to pickup FM stations from STL. KSHE 95 was big in the day.

Obligatory: JIVE link (1:27).

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!
Jeffrey's puzzle beat me to a pulp as he normally does on Friday! I worked on it off and on and deceived myself into thinking it would be doable when I had the top half done. Went to the movies to see The Woman in the Van, came back and worked on it a little more, prepared dinner, worked some more on it. Finally, I chucked it and came to see when Lemonade had to say.

Thank you, Jeffrey, you make me think until it hurts. And thanks for the enlightenment, Lem.

I hope you all had a wonderful day! The movie is very good. Maggie Smith at her finest.

Anonymous said...

Wow! How does this author make the leap of association from the theme/unifier of "TOUCH OF EVIL" put forth by Jeffrey Wechsler to "St Agnes Eve", a Catholic/satanic holiday? (No offense.)

That is jut bananaland.

Dudley said...

And now for something completely different: Benny Goodman. And Gene Krupa. And Louis Prima. The entirety of the human race owes them a debt of gratitude for bringing us Sing Sing Sing. I challenge you to name a recorded tune that gets more toes tapping than that one. Krupa's felt-mallet tom-tom work reaches something primal. And the Goodman 'bone section pumps up the air pressure to lofty levels. Yessir, that's one for the ages - all ages!

(In case you're wondering, it just popped up on the radio.)

Anonymous said...

You say it, the ROYAL WEEVIL plays it! Sing, Sing, Sing!

Anonymous said...

lemony typed:

"Irish Miss, I am providing a LINK to the Satanic Calendar"

Huh?!?!

Anonymous said...

RIP Paul Kantner.

More Woodstock

PK said...

"Sing,Sing, Sing" got my ol' wheel chair a rockin'. Remember dancing to this in the late 50's. Little high school. Never seen Bandstand, but man, we could move those country energized bodies. If you got the rhythm in your soul, who cares if the steps are right.

Dudley said...

That's what I'm talkin' about!

Krupa made sure the rhythm reached your soul, tapping it into every nook and cranny.

Dr. Calling It said...

Here lies the worst write-up in the history of write-ups. DOA 01/29/2016