Theme: Double Your Fun - The clue is the clue. No reveal needed.
17A. Dickens classic, itemized : A TALE OF CITY CITY. "A Tale of Two Cities".
28A. Smugly prudish sort, itemized : GOODY SHOE SHOE. Goody two-shoes.
47A. Country/western dance, itemized : TEXAS STEP STEP. Texas two step.
63A. Chime in, itemized : ADD ONE'S CENT CENT. Add one's two cents.
Argyle here with the return of Tom to our corner. It's been too long(2013). Two (of course) grid spanners and sparkly fill moves us on to hump day. (From C.C.: No wonder we're out of negative territory this morning in MN. Tom is back! )
 |
| Andrea Carla Michaels, Tom Pepper, C.C. and Boomer |
Across:
1. Wading bird in ancient Egyptian art : IBIS
5. __ of March : IDES
9. Dessert "there's always room for" : JELL-O
14. Like pre-stereo sound : MONO. I understand some albums are more valuable if they are monaural.
15. Geek Squad pro : TECH
16. Stayed home for dinner : ATE IN
20. Attempt to get : GO FOR
21. Natural history museum item : RELIC
22. Type of symbol or appeal : SEX
23. Prefix with skeleton : EXO
24. River inlet : RIA
26. Most fit to be drafted : ONE A
34. One who makes your skin crawl : CREEP
35. At rest : STILL
36. Diner handout : MENU
39. "All in the Family" wife : EDITH
42. Beehive, e.g. : UP-DO. (hair do)
43. St. Teresa's home : ÁVILA. Situated 1132 metres (3714 feet) above sea level on a rocky outcrop on the right bank of the Adaja river, a tributary of the Duero, Ávila is the highest provincial capital in Spain. It is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly in the midst of a veritable wilderness; a brown, arid, treeless table-land, strewn with immense grey boulders, and shut in by lofty mountains. ~ per Wiki.
45. Force out of bed : ROUST
51. Chocolate-caramel candy brand : ROLO
52. "__ Blinded Me With Science": 1983 hit : SHE
53. Fury : IRE
56. Pro vote : YEA vs. 65D. Anti vote : NAY
59. Word before or after "coming" : FORTH
61. Sherpas' land : NEPAL
66. Yamaha with a bench : PIANO
67. Syllables before di or da, in a Beatles song : OB LA. (Life Goes On)
68. "Les Misérables" novelist : HUGO. (Victor Hugo)
69. Proverbial backbreaker : STRAW
70. "Ghost Hunters" channel : SYFY
71. Candid : OPEN
Down:
1. Publicist's concern : IMAGE
2. Wrinkle-removing injection : BOTOX
3. Befuddled : IN A FOG
4. Song sung alone : SOLO
5. "Who am __ judge?" : I TO
6. Offset, as costs : DEFRAYED
7. Caesar's "Behold!" : "ECCE!"
8. 1862 Tennessee battleground : SHILOH
9. Leadership training group, familiarly : JAYCEES
10. List-shortening abbr. : ETC.
11. Hawaiian wreaths : LEIs
12. Lo-cal : LITE
13. Black gemstone : ONYX
18. Fielding mishap : ERROR
19. Ex-Yankee Martinez : TINO
25. Tête product : IDÉE. French head/idea.
27. On the ball : ASTUTE
29. Eye-related : OCULAR
30. Steeple top : SPIRE
31. Joint that may be swiveled : HIP
32. Former : OLD
33. "Xanadu" rock gp. : ELO. Electric Light Orchestra)
36. Pilates class need : MAT
37. Grandmother of Enos : EVE
38. Negative word often spoken in pig Latin : NIX. (ixnay)
40. Of the best quality : TOP SHELF
41. "Quit complaining!" : "HUSH!"
44. So far : AS OF NOW
46. Surgical tube : STENT
48. Wild plum : SLOE
49. Upper bodies : TORSOs
50. Make oneself heard : PIPE UP. Add your two cents.
54. Mountain chain : RANGE
55. John with nine #1 hits in the U.S. : ELTON. (Elton John)
56. Jabbers : YAPS
57. Improve text : EDIT
58. Jewish month before Nisan : ADAR
60. Beriyo smoothie maker : TCBY
62. Repeat : ECHO
64. Put __ show : ON A
Argyle
34 comments:
It's a delight to see this puzzle by my Minnesota friend and neighbor @Tom Pepper. Click on the link for more about Tom. I see that C.C. has provided a picture, which also includes @Andrea Carla Michaels (ACME), whose first name appears today in another puzzle in another newspaper.
@Tom has a real knack for simple, elegant themes like today's, which brought back memories of reading "A Tale of Two Cities" back in grade school ... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..."
@Argyle's write-up made me laugh, especially the picture of Judge Lance Ito along with the FITB clue "Who am ___ judge?" (a phrase brought back by the Pope). Thanks for allowing me to add my two cents.
Greetings!
Thanks, Tom and Santa!
Theme easy and fun. TINO was perped.
Cheers!
Morning, all!
Fun, fast puzzle today with a cute theme that I sussed right away. A little hesitation in the SW with YAP, ADAR and PIANO, but that was a minor speed bump along the way and everything else was smooth.
Fun CW. I got the theme with the first clue, and that helped enormously. Still, for some reason, the fill came slow, almost twice my usual Tuesday time. Terrific write up, Argyle, thanks to both you and Tom.
Good morning!
Just the right amount of spice from Tom Pepper. ITO -- very funny, Argyle.
Can you see a picture of Edith Bunker without hearing "Stifle!"?
TOP NOTCH or SHELF or DRAWER. Apparently there are lots of "tops."
Almost blew it in Texas. Couldn't immediately come up with OBLA, and I thought the channel was SCI-FI, but that wouldn't fit.
Had to look it up, but yes, indeed, you can make TORSO plurable either as SOS or SI.
This was a very fun and fast solve with no complete unknowns. Nice to see one of the Minnesota connection here again.
Yamaha with a bench was cute and poor Tino Martinez did not do well here as the batting coach. LINK . Tino played on the same team in Seattle with Ken Griffry Jr., A-Rod and Edgar Martinez.
Like George, I thought ArgyleArgyle' s link of Judge TOO was brilliant.
Stay warm, we awoke to 50's but nothing like the North has to deal with.
A big fiw today. Guessed scfy for Ghost Busters channel, olla for OBLA & tcly for TCBY. Had no idea about any of the clue answers.
Everything else was very smooth. Theme fills were clever.
Cold as a witches breast lately, predicting first snow storm of the year on Saturday. And so many folks were complaining about no winter.
Straight forward and clever theme. Enjoyed it a lot. And got a genuine LOL from the picture of Judge Ito, Scott. Thanks!
It's still cold here, but improved to around 20. Not a flake of snow in my location, but some in Lincoln, and I hear Omaha is really nasty this morning, where the Police aren't even responding to accidents. Stay safe out there everyone.
Chilly here in Naples at 48 this morning. Pretty easy solve.
Argyle: You were "on-your-game" with the write-up this morning.
Like Avg.Joe said the I TO photo got an actual Laugh-Out-Loud.
Tom: Thank You for a FUN Tuesday puzzle with a great theme theme.
Though I will admit at 59-a, Word before or after "coming" ... I really wanted I'M ... just sayin'.
Cheers!
Good morning. It was a speed run this am, as CITY-CITY basically made the other theme fills infinitely easier than they already were. AVILA and TINO were unknowns filled by perps and TCBY & ADAR were filled by WAGS. There are so many TV channels to list; I remember when the SY-FY channel was listed as SCI-FI years ago.
TOP SHELF liquor- snob appeal for the same booze. Same goes for coffee and wine.
My internet connection died yesterday and I had to set up my phone as a 'hub' to be able to use my computer. Works on the laptop but not the desktop. Waiting for ATT to show up.
Hondo-"Cold as a witches breast lately" You are being PC with that statement. Witches do sometimes have little birds, you know 'tits'.
Nice and easy Tuesday for me. The theme came quickly and that helped all the way through, otherwise some of the names would have done me in, but all my guesses worked.
Typical Tuesday time. Argyle, funny and useful info.
I wanted CITY CITY (Two Cities) right away, but I though, "You gotta be kidding, WHAT THE..."
(BTW, WHAT THE ... is common as a minced oath for WHAT THE H--- or WHAT THE F---.)
When I saw the other theme answers I knew CITY CITY was correct. Although, all of you thought the theme clever, it doesn't do it for me.
Off to the dentist. My temporary tooth fell out yesterday. With 13 medical or dental appointments this months between the two of us, all I needed was another one. It serves me right for not being more careful.
It's 15 degrees here. It's not the cold, but the wind that is the killer.
Thank you Tom Pepper and thank you SHERPA Argyle. Perfect association to the judge that gained so much celebrity presiding over the OJ trial.
St Teresa's home is new to me. Never heard of it. Sounds charming.
"__ Blinded Me With Science": 1983 hit : SHE. The list I look to shows it as # 18 of the top releases of 1982, but WIKI does show it reached # 1 in Canada for the the last week of April 1983. Made # 5 in the US, but only to # 49 in England. Every Breath You Take was # 1 for the year here, followed by Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Jump, and then Flashdance by crossword favorite Irene Cara.
JAYCEES might be about as close as we ever get to an exact shout out to Jayce.
Argyle’s assessment works for me. A nice puzzle on a snowy, sub day. I had to drive here today and where the hwy shoulders were was anyone’s guess
Musings
-There is no room for JELLO’s CREEPY former spokesman
-I think we all know the cinematic source of this diner MENU
-ROUSTING teenagers out of Disney beds every morning for five days wasn’t easy
-For some of us FURY is a black stallion
-Those Ghost Hunters try to make an entire show out of one strange noise or rush of air
-This Roman said ECCE Homo
-I wonder if I could find my Class of ’64 class ring with the ONYX stone
-Some of those SPIRES are navigation aids out here in the hinterlands
-Gotta deal with sophomores!
Loved the doubles. Nice puzzle with only a hitch or two, temporarily.
Wanted NERD for TECH. I think of the NERD HERD from the NBC show 'CHUCK" from a few seasons ago instead of the GEEK SQUAD at Best Buy. Also, couldn't come up with HUGO at first. Perps solved both problems and filled in enough of the Theme clues to make the implied TWO obvious.
Cold seems to be the norm now. Remember when some were complaining that it was too warm in December. It was 7 degrees here (Central PA) again today. I have a friend in Florida complaining that it is cold there at 60 degrees. I don't have any sympathy for his plight. However I have postponed a planned trip for a few days because of the Nor'Easter predicted for the end of this week.
I hope everyone stays warm, especially all of the Floridians out there suffering from the cold.
Thanks for the concern oc4beach
HG, I have no idea where your menu comes from
Good Morning:
What a fun and clever theme this morning! No bumps or nits, all was solid. Seeing SyFy reminded me of an episode of TBBT when Leonard learned of the change from ScFi and whined that now it read like "Siffy" instead.
Thanks, Tom Pepper, for adding some spice to our Tuesday and thanks, Argyle, for the witty and informative write-up. Loved the tie-in to Ito.
The wind here is ferocious which means I stay put and keep warm.
Have a great day.
Lemon
The MENU is from the movie My Cousin Vinny.
Hi gang -
Very much like the ITO connection.
Not so much the theme, though. Once you got it, it all became too easy.
Otherwise nice puzzle. Not much to add.
Sunny here today, but very cold. 14 now, high of 19.
Cool [perhaps too cool] regards!
JzB
Loved the puzzle...................
Okay, I remembered the GRITS but not the menu
Thank you, Tom, for a fun puzzle! Smooth solve with some challenges.
Argyle, great link in ITO, as all have said. Thanks, too, for the pictures of places and Edith Bunker link. Forgot how funny that show was!
I loved the clever theme of this puzzle as I went along, a total joy ride until I came to the very bottom when I got stuck at the cross of TCB_ and S_SY. Never heard of Beriyo or "Ghost Hunters," so had to dig my discarded morning paper out of the trash, open the TV section and look up all the channels until I found SYSY. Cheating, is what we all this, but at least I got the whole puzzle in the end--a huge relief for a Tuesday. So, thanks, Tom, and you too, Argyle. Like others, I loved the Judge ITO pic to go along with the clue.
Have a great day, everybody!
Interesting puzzle. I enjoyed it. Argyle, your ITO connection is brilliant.
It sounds like having storm doors and windows is a boon to many of you, what with the cold.
Big Easy, your AT&T internet outage sounds familiar.
Was raining heavily here earlier, but the front has now moved on.
At our local Safeway, the most expensive wine actually is on the top shelf.
Best wishes to you all.
SICK AND TIRED OF George Barany' endless plugs.
I take it you didn't bother to read George's 'plug' today. Just his name sets you off?
Good morning all,
Mostly a smoothie, but did have a few lumps. Like Misty , I had to cheat to fill S_FY, but it was my silly mistake that did me in. I put oola instead of obla, so didn't see the TC_Y. Had more write overs than usual for a Tuesday: yaks> yaps and rouse>roust. I DID get the theme and enjoyed Tom's cleverness.
As Jayce said, we did have some nice rain earlier, but a rainbow tells us that it may be finished for the time being. These little bits of rain here and there have been most welcome.
Our 1st dog, a white German Shepherd, was named Shiloh...still miss him. For awhile there we were naming all our animals with SH names:Sheba, Sherlock...pretty silly, but that was the 70's.
Definitely a fun puzzle,
I cannot believe I had so much filled in & still
could not complete a single theme answer.
(I think Tom Pepper strategically placed the most difficult perps...)
Finally cracked it when I changed "rouse" to "roust."
(45A, either could have worked for the clue...)
Hmm, how else can I express my felines about this puzzle...
Goody two shoes?
Hmm, maybe I should let Yellowrocks comment on this one....
Hey, I just wanted to add my two cents...
Anyway, take my advice. Two really enjoy this puzzle, don't cheat!
Cool cats, Dave. Very good. Do they give yellow rocks, too? Thanks for the shout out. In fact, I'm off to trip the light fantastic and collect my yellow rocks just this very minute.
We are up to a balmy 27 degrees tonight with just a light breeze. Feels great after this AM.
I'm going to go get the papers, get the papers.
Hi All!
What CED said re: 1st repeated-word blank trying to come up w/ perps in all the theme'ers. Once TOP SHELF fell, the lightbulb went off, and I was done.
Clever Tom, twice the fun! Thanks for the puzzle. Thanks Argyle for your TOP notch write-up. Loved the All in the Family clip.
W/o - I started squishin' xnay in at 38d.
ESPs - 7d, 8d, & 58d
Fav - We got one of each type, AVILA is a CITY, OLD is are my SHOEs, FORTH is a way to STEP, and my extra-fav PIPEUP xing ADD...$0.02. Tom, please tell me that was intentional and I'm not IN A crazy FOG from all the conspiracy theories I follow :-)
HIP made me think of Lucina falling (IIRC) :-( and YR dancing :-)!
JAYCEES made me think there must be plural of Jayce and hence a CSO CSO.
Cheers, -T
Good wednesday morning, folks. Thank you, Tom Pepper, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Finished this late last night and then went to bed. I was tired. I am in the habit of watching Perry Mason after the news. Really like those old mysteries. Last night Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) was one of the guest stars. He looked different with a full head of black hair. Same voice.
This puzzle was more difficult than a typical Tuesday. Once I figured out the theme it sped up a bit. The theme was very clever. really liked it.
Tried NERD for 15A. TECH replaced the NERD after some perps.
Do not get 36D, MAT. Got it with perps. Not sure what pilates are.
Took me a while to get TCBY for 60D. I have not been in one of those for years.
See you later today if I get into Wednesday's.
Abejo
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