Theme: Chatterboxes - the ends of the four entries are described thus:
41D. Ultimate authority ... or what's hidden in the answers to starred clues : FINAL SAY
Which are:
17A. *Star of Comedy Central's "Insomniac" : DAVE ATTELL. The mark of a good crossword is great crosses, or, as some say, solid perps. I don't know this gentleman, but I didn't miss a beat. Most of it was filled in for me when I went back to it.
61A. *Home business? : REAL ESTATE. Seems to have been boom or bust in my neighborhood over the last 20 years. Right now it seems to be tear down, build the biggest house on the smallest lot and wonder why you're having an open house every weekend for months.
11D. *Popular cosmetic moisturizer : SHEA BUTTER. Making a comeback? Just cropped up last week.
28D. *Leonardo DiCaprio feature : WIDOW'S PEAK. Didn't see it, not sure I'd heard of it. I parsed it as WIDOW SPEAK until I saw sense. Leo got his Oscar for "The Revenant" a couple of weeks ago, to the relief of all his fans.
Salut! Here's a C.C. Thursday with an interesting across/down theme layout. Two 10's horizontally, two 10's vertically mix things up a little. I really liked that the reveal didn't come until way late in the process and helped me with the missing De Caprio entry.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Aboveboard : LEGIT. Had LEGAL first, as I wasn't expecting slangy/something from the clue. Fixed it quickly, but caused a hesitation.
6. Triumphant cries : HAHS. AHAS went in, AHAS came out. This was my tough section. I really need to remember how to spell ACAI (not with a "K") and RUNS LAPS just slotted right in there. Good Thursday stuff.
10. Hurdle for a jr. : PSAT. I was never a jr., let alone a sr. so this whole xSAT thing was alien to me. I'm slowly getting to grips with it now.
14. Lose some ground : ERODE
15. Berry rich in antioxidants : ACAI. Not K. Self-slap upside the head.
16. "Pygmalion" author : SHAW. GBS, or George Bernard. Adapted for a screenplay for the musical "My Fair Lady" with the lovely Audrey Hepburn.
19. Sleek, in car talk : AERO-
20. Best replacement? : STARR. Pete Best. Ringo Starr. We had a chat about "Fifth Beatles" last week. Another of the "Fifth Beatles", producer George Martin, passed away yesterday.
21. Exercises, in a way : DOES LAPS. RUNS LAPS caused me a wobble.
23. Daily Planet VIP : LOIS. I think VIP is a stretch for Lois. She's a beat reporter for the paper.
25. Insensitive : NUMB
26. "The Good Wife" field : LAW. Perps, I salute you.
29. Man cave fixture : SMART TV. Does this mean my home office is a man cave? Maybe I'd better install a couple of beer taps and a refrigerator.
32. Caller in a mask : UMPire. If someone argues a call and he gets mad, is that Ump ire?
35. Get up : ARISE
37. Dupe : FOOL
38. "bye 4 now" : TTYL. Talk To You Later. Although I generally h8 txtspeak, this one is handy.
39. Praise : KUDOS
40. Big letters in home security : ADT. The big question is how many homes displaying the warning signs are actually connected to the network?
41. Islamic decree : FATWA. "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie was a high-profile recipient of a fatwa against his life. If you've not read "Midnight's Children" that won him the Booker Prize for fiction, you might like to try it out. It's quite amazing.
42. "Of __ curls on calmed brows": E.B. Browning : EBON
43. City where Perry's flagship Niagara is exhibited : ERIE. Three times this week - popular place!
44. "Which is to say ... " : I MEAN
45. Viewed : SAW
46. 1988 Oscar winner for Best Picture : RAIN MAN
48. Bread for Reubens : RYE. Hmmmm - capitalized "R" seems a little bit ... not quite right. That reminds me - next Thursday is St. Patrick's Day, and I've got 12lbs of brisket brining in the refrigerator for corned beef. I'll let you know how it turns out!
49. Roasting aid : SPIT
51. Shutter piece : SLAT
53. Smooches : LIP LOCKS. Fun, slangy entry.
57. Justice Kagan : ELENA
60. Snack with a Thins variety : OREO. Snack/Treat/Sandwich staple.
64. Layer on a wall : COAT
65. Not again? : ONCE
66. Mall map symbol : ARROW
67. Press supplies : INKS. Long may there be presses and ink. Nothing beats a book to hold or a newspaper to fold.
68. Got up : WOKE
69. "I rock!" : YAY ME! I got this answer! Woo Hoo!
Down:
1. Spearheaded : LED
2. Big Band and Swing : ERAS
3. C-SPAN subject : GOVT. Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network - no wonder there's an abbreviation for that. Cool that they kept the hyphen.
4. Often unreachable goal : IDEAL
5. Fragrant hybrid blooms : TEA ROSES. A seemingly unending array of names can be found here. In honor of my home state, this is "California Dreamin'":
6. Bean topper? : HAT
7. Didn't have to putt on : ACED. Hole-in-one. In a touching moment, this last Monday pro golfer Ricky Fowler made an ace for $1M playing in Ernie Els' charity tournament in aid of autism research. Els has an autistic son and almost bear-hugged Fowler to death before throwing him into the crowd.
8. Angel hair topper : HALO. Great clue. I made pesto on Saturday and wanted that that to fit! Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese. (Psst! Add blanched spinach leaves and you'll have the greenest pesto you've ever seen).
9. 10-Down feature : SILENT "L"
10. Item in a five-section Bible book : PSALM. Nice pairing.
12. Boomer advocacy group : AARP. Baby Boomers. It's not abbreviated any more - the company name is AARP, not A.A.R.P.
13. Ark units : TWOS. Don't cubits some into play somewhere as well?
18. Tidy cut : TRIM
22. Lexus GX, e.g. : S.U.V.
24. Exotic vacation : SAFARI. I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" and learned that the word simply means "journey" in Swahili. Nothing to do with wildlife.
26. Lures for anglers? : LAKES. Lovely clue.
27. Its capital is Oranjestad : ARUBA. This is one great example of a clue. My thought process was as follows: You can probably surmise that "Orangestad" might be Dutch, although this is not a city you've ever heard of. So you're narrowing down the possibilities to the Netherlands themselves or the Dutch colonies. The East Indies, Indonesia, East Africa - nope, drawing a blank. Then - whoa! The Caribbean! Didn't the Dutch have .... yeah! Aruba! 69A!
30. "The Kiss" sculptor : RODIN. LIP LOCK!
31. Symbols on poles : TOTEMS
33. Classic hit that begins "And now, the end is near" : MY WAY. Frank Sinatra. Thumper.
34. Control tower concern : PLANE
36. Lad : SON
38. Highland cap : TAM
43. Issue an embarrassing retraction : EAT CROW. Someday I'm going to try crow to see if it's so bad.
46. 2016 Olympics city : RIO
47. On the safer side : ALEE. The quiet side of the island.
50. Maps out : PLOTS
52. Aquarium fish : TETRA
53. Point sets, in math : LOCI. There's a reason my head hit the desk in math classes.
"... ellipses with foci (a,0), (-a, 0) whose generic member we pass through the point (0,t). We look at the locus of the points of intersection of the tangent through the point (b,0)."
On the upside, I did remember enough that when I met Buzz Aldrin at a football game I could casually mention that I was impressed that he basically did a doctorate in orbital physics without ever having to write anything down.
54. One is often used in the rough : IRON. Not me. I had a magic club made by a friend of mine in England that was basically a 5-wood with some voodoo built into it. Unless I couldn't actually see the ball, this thing would work wonders.
55. Ball game : KENO
56. Santa's burden : SACK
58. __ a one : NARY
59. Tiny energy source : ATOM. Packs a punch, though. It's almost 30 years since the Chernobyl power plant almost made the through-the-earth trip to the antipodes.
62. Finch creator : LEE. Atticus. Harper. "Go Set A Watchman" topped the 2015 Publisher's Weekly bestseller list for fiction.
63. Woolly mom : EWE
And ....... I think that about covers it.
Except .. here's the grid.
Steve
41D. Ultimate authority ... or what's hidden in the answers to starred clues : FINAL SAY
Which are:
17A. *Star of Comedy Central's "Insomniac" : DAVE ATTELL. The mark of a good crossword is great crosses, or, as some say, solid perps. I don't know this gentleman, but I didn't miss a beat. Most of it was filled in for me when I went back to it.
61A. *Home business? : REAL ESTATE. Seems to have been boom or bust in my neighborhood over the last 20 years. Right now it seems to be tear down, build the biggest house on the smallest lot and wonder why you're having an open house every weekend for months.
11D. *Popular cosmetic moisturizer : SHEA BUTTER. Making a comeback? Just cropped up last week.
28D. *Leonardo DiCaprio feature : WIDOW'S PEAK. Didn't see it, not sure I'd heard of it. I parsed it as WIDOW SPEAK until I saw sense. Leo got his Oscar for "The Revenant" a couple of weeks ago, to the relief of all his fans.
Salut! Here's a C.C. Thursday with an interesting across/down theme layout. Two 10's horizontally, two 10's vertically mix things up a little. I really liked that the reveal didn't come until way late in the process and helped me with the missing De Caprio entry.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Aboveboard : LEGIT. Had LEGAL first, as I wasn't expecting slangy/something from the clue. Fixed it quickly, but caused a hesitation.
6. Triumphant cries : HAHS. AHAS went in, AHAS came out. This was my tough section. I really need to remember how to spell ACAI (not with a "K") and RUNS LAPS just slotted right in there. Good Thursday stuff.
10. Hurdle for a jr. : PSAT. I was never a jr., let alone a sr. so this whole xSAT thing was alien to me. I'm slowly getting to grips with it now.
14. Lose some ground : ERODE
15. Berry rich in antioxidants : ACAI. Not K. Self-slap upside the head.
16. "Pygmalion" author : SHAW. GBS, or George Bernard. Adapted for a screenplay for the musical "My Fair Lady" with the lovely Audrey Hepburn.
19. Sleek, in car talk : AERO-
20. Best replacement? : STARR. Pete Best. Ringo Starr. We had a chat about "Fifth Beatles" last week. Another of the "Fifth Beatles", producer George Martin, passed away yesterday.
21. Exercises, in a way : DOES LAPS. RUNS LAPS caused me a wobble.
23. Daily Planet VIP : LOIS. I think VIP is a stretch for Lois. She's a beat reporter for the paper.
25. Insensitive : NUMB
26. "The Good Wife" field : LAW. Perps, I salute you.
29. Man cave fixture : SMART TV. Does this mean my home office is a man cave? Maybe I'd better install a couple of beer taps and a refrigerator.
32. Caller in a mask : UMPire. If someone argues a call and he gets mad, is that Ump ire?
35. Get up : ARISE
37. Dupe : FOOL
38. "bye 4 now" : TTYL. Talk To You Later. Although I generally h8 txtspeak, this one is handy.
39. Praise : KUDOS
40. Big letters in home security : ADT. The big question is how many homes displaying the warning signs are actually connected to the network?
41. Islamic decree : FATWA. "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie was a high-profile recipient of a fatwa against his life. If you've not read "Midnight's Children" that won him the Booker Prize for fiction, you might like to try it out. It's quite amazing.
42. "Of __ curls on calmed brows": E.B. Browning : EBON
43. City where Perry's flagship Niagara is exhibited : ERIE. Three times this week - popular place!
44. "Which is to say ... " : I MEAN
45. Viewed : SAW
46. 1988 Oscar winner for Best Picture : RAIN MAN
48. Bread for Reubens : RYE. Hmmmm - capitalized "R" seems a little bit ... not quite right. That reminds me - next Thursday is St. Patrick's Day, and I've got 12lbs of brisket brining in the refrigerator for corned beef. I'll let you know how it turns out!
49. Roasting aid : SPIT
51. Shutter piece : SLAT
53. Smooches : LIP LOCKS. Fun, slangy entry.
57. Justice Kagan : ELENA
60. Snack with a Thins variety : OREO. Snack/Treat/Sandwich staple.
64. Layer on a wall : COAT
65. Not again? : ONCE
66. Mall map symbol : ARROW
67. Press supplies : INKS. Long may there be presses and ink. Nothing beats a book to hold or a newspaper to fold.
68. Got up : WOKE
69. "I rock!" : YAY ME! I got this answer! Woo Hoo!
Down:
1. Spearheaded : LED
2. Big Band and Swing : ERAS
3. C-SPAN subject : GOVT. Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network - no wonder there's an abbreviation for that. Cool that they kept the hyphen.
4. Often unreachable goal : IDEAL
5. Fragrant hybrid blooms : TEA ROSES. A seemingly unending array of names can be found here. In honor of my home state, this is "California Dreamin'":
6. Bean topper? : HAT
7. Didn't have to putt on : ACED. Hole-in-one. In a touching moment, this last Monday pro golfer Ricky Fowler made an ace for $1M playing in Ernie Els' charity tournament in aid of autism research. Els has an autistic son and almost bear-hugged Fowler to death before throwing him into the crowd.
8. Angel hair topper : HALO. Great clue. I made pesto on Saturday and wanted that that to fit! Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese. (Psst! Add blanched spinach leaves and you'll have the greenest pesto you've ever seen).
9. 10-Down feature : SILENT "L"
10. Item in a five-section Bible book : PSALM. Nice pairing.
12. Boomer advocacy group : AARP. Baby Boomers. It's not abbreviated any more - the company name is AARP, not A.A.R.P.
13. Ark units : TWOS. Don't cubits some into play somewhere as well?
18. Tidy cut : TRIM
22. Lexus GX, e.g. : S.U.V.
24. Exotic vacation : SAFARI. I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" and learned that the word simply means "journey" in Swahili. Nothing to do with wildlife.
26. Lures for anglers? : LAKES. Lovely clue.
27. Its capital is Oranjestad : ARUBA. This is one great example of a clue. My thought process was as follows: You can probably surmise that "Orangestad" might be Dutch, although this is not a city you've ever heard of. So you're narrowing down the possibilities to the Netherlands themselves or the Dutch colonies. The East Indies, Indonesia, East Africa - nope, drawing a blank. Then - whoa! The Caribbean! Didn't the Dutch have .... yeah! Aruba! 69A!
30. "The Kiss" sculptor : RODIN. LIP LOCK!
31. Symbols on poles : TOTEMS
33. Classic hit that begins "And now, the end is near" : MY WAY. Frank Sinatra. Thumper.
34. Control tower concern : PLANE
36. Lad : SON
38. Highland cap : TAM
43. Issue an embarrassing retraction : EAT CROW. Someday I'm going to try crow to see if it's so bad.
46. 2016 Olympics city : RIO
47. On the safer side : ALEE. The quiet side of the island.
50. Maps out : PLOTS
52. Aquarium fish : TETRA
53. Point sets, in math : LOCI. There's a reason my head hit the desk in math classes.
"... ellipses with foci (a,0), (-a, 0) whose generic member we pass through the point (0,t). We look at the locus of the points of intersection of the tangent through the point (b,0)."
On the upside, I did remember enough that when I met Buzz Aldrin at a football game I could casually mention that I was impressed that he basically did a doctorate in orbital physics without ever having to write anything down.
55. Ball game : KENO
56. Santa's burden : SACK
58. __ a one : NARY
59. Tiny energy source : ATOM. Packs a punch, though. It's almost 30 years since the Chernobyl power plant almost made the through-the-earth trip to the antipodes.
62. Finch creator : LEE. Atticus. Harper. "Go Set A Watchman" topped the 2015 Publisher's Weekly bestseller list for fiction.
63. Woolly mom : EWE
And ....... I think that about covers it.
Except .. here's the grid.
Steve
61 comments:
There ONCE was a FOOL in the Land of the Free
Thought, "Now a smart watch is the answer for me!"
But alas, twas no balm,
A bust, a smart bomb.
Thought the FOOL, ever foolish, "I need SMART-TV!"
On their cells, people SPEAK, they TELL of their fate,
CROW of victories, UTTER sorrows, impassively STATE.
The world fades away,
They just listen and SAY,
Or send SILENT text, like TALK To Ya Late'!
I may be a Luddite, a RAINMAN or FOOL,
Constrained to MY WAY, that I ONCE learned old-school.
But it's time we all WOKE,
We'll ARISE, and revoke
Siri, Google and Watson, before A.I.s rule!
This one was beyond me. Ran out of time and finally had to Google Oranjestad to get ARUBA to remove EXTOL and replace it with KUDOS.
Gotta run...
Did you notice the bonuses? 43d fit the pattern (eat CROW), and 38a had another theme-fitting word buried in it (TALK).
9d I have a problem with, though. The L in PSALM is not silent, but the P is! That would have changed FOOL to FOOP, as in "As teenagers, we all did it in one swell foop."
9d I agree that the silent letter in psalm is the "p", not the "l".
Found this CW surprisingly easy for a Friday. I guess I was, for once, on the same wavelength as C.C. I've been to Aruba, so that helped. I agree with Owen, though, I entered SILENTP for 9d. The L is NOT silent, the P is! The rest fell into place straight away. I loved it! I can almost never zip through a Friday CW. Thanx, C.C.! Thanx for the great write-up, too, Steve!
Good morning!
Wasn't familiar with DAVE ATTELL, and as a result the upper midwest is "snow covered" with Wite-Out. Didn't help that I put SHAW where ACAI needed to go. Almost got me, C.C. Steve, thanks for 'splainin' the LEE/Finch connection. I was thinking of Stan Lee and some super hero named The Finch -- doesn't sound too super, though. Sorta like the Mighty Pigeons, the H.S. team name of my ute.
REAL ESTATE reminds me of the dichotomy which has developed in our area. Our litle "town" is comprised of modest homes on large lots. Right next door a new development is going up with McMansions on eensy-teensy lots. I don't want to be able to shake hands with my neighbor, dining room to dining room. Driveways aren't long enough to park a vehicle, and the streets are too narrow for on-street parking. Not my cup of meat.
Fred, it's only Thursday.
Back again...
As I mentioned, this one defeated me. Unlike Unclefred, I found this to be one of the hardest -- if not the hardest -- LA Times puzzles I have ever done, regardless of the day of the week.
DAVE ATTELL was completely unknown to me and I had DAVID SPADE at first. Once I got the theme, I knew SPADE wasn't right. Sadly, I had RAGU instead of HALO for "angel hair topper" and thought that the right answer must end with ALLEGE. It didn't help matters that I had SNIP instead of TRIM, LANE instead of LOIS and LEGAL instead of LEGIT. "Best replacement" meant absolutely nothing to me (thanks to C.C. for explaining that), so I couldn't come up with STARR. And even when I finally guessed SILENT L (and I agree that's a damn poor clue since its the P that is notable silent) and figured that there was some sort of TV in the man cave, I couldn't think of SMART TV to save my life what with all the other wrong answers I had in place.
Down in the SW, I figured that 28D ended in SPEAK, based on the theme, but I couldn't figure out what sort of accent Leo was noted for. My EXTOL instead of KUDOS error totally hid WIDOWS PEAK from me, and it didn't help that EBON wasn't something I could guess.
Anyway, as I mentioned, I finally googled to get ARUBA, and than cleared up the entire SW section in one swell foop. I then went back to the NW and figured out that 8D had to be HALO (which I should have done much earlier since I actually ended up spelling RAGU as RAGO due to DOES LAPS and didn't notice the incorrect spelling at first). That got me HAHS, which got me HATS, which got me to somebody with a last name ending in TELL. I was then able to replace LEGAL with LEGIT and the rest fell into place.
Tough, tough going for me. KUDOS to those who sailed through it with ease!
35A "Get up" = ARISE is correct; 68A "Got up" = WOKE is incorrect. Today is one of many I delayed getting up on awakening by hours.
Other fouls: "Not again" = ONCE; "Lad" = SON.
I, too, have pronounced the L in PSALM all my life, as I pronounced the L in WALK and TALK when a child, until my mother corrected me. She never caught me pronouncing the L in PSALM because religion was not discussed at the table. But the dictionaries do say that the L in PSALM (as well as the P) is, in fact, silent: "sahm."
Slow and a little tricky, but nice theme and always enjoy having the vertical as well as horizontal theme answers. WBS I took a step further started at KENT then LANE and finally to LOIS - didn't think the clue led to the answer being the first name. I guess that is just the deceptive Thursday type cluing.
I also pronounce the L in psalm and three dictionary sources I looked up showed you could pronounce it or not, both variations are acceptable. I have never heard of anyone NOT pronouncing it- another one of those regional preferences?? Not sure, as my husband has attended seminary on both coasts and the Midwest and haven't heard it any of those places.
Thanks Steve and CC!
Hola y Buenos dias!
Thank you, C.C. and Steve. This was surprisingly easy for a Thursday even with the unknown DAVE ATTELL. No problem with SILENT L, that's the way I pronounce it as Anonymous said, "sahm."
SHEA BUTTER is generally used daily by pregnant women to avoid stretch marks including myself at the time.
Steve, I had to laugh very loudly at your UMP ire joke and my arrival at ARUBA was very similar to yours as well.
Have a delightful day, everyone! It's still glorious weather here.
Rain Man was Best Picture in 1989 not 1988.
I learned something else this morning: The silent L in PSALM sent me running to the dictionary, where I found the L's in CALM, PALM and CAULK also silent.
Good Morning,
I am off my game today. I struggled here. I wonder if I found my long ToDo list a distracting annoyance. Favorite: HALO. I wanted a sauce for that angel hair pasta! I couldn't get over Tigger's T.T.F.N until I found MY WAY and realized we were texting!!
Thanks C.C. for the challenge. Also Steve, thanks for the tour, and last week's reminder that carbonara does not need cream. The cheese will do. That pasta water trick is an important one.
Have a lovely Wednesday. Only a few days until DST and the end of the winter of my discontent! I need the light; I may be photosynthetic!
I really enjoy the devilishness of this kind of theme. On one hand the theme is staring you right in the face and screamingly obvious... on the other, it's plainly veiled in a foggy shroud of obscurity. Wonderful.
It helped that I've been to ARUBA three times. I haven't been to Bonaire yet, but made it to Curacao last year.
What made the PSALM clue a Thursday is the fact that both the P and the L are both silent. I have lived in New England and Florida and have never heard the L in psalm; is it "sah lum"?
I really enjoyed this homegrown effort very much for all the challenges mentioned. Steve you will not have to worry about the K is you listen to how you say ACAI .
Rainman while released in 1988 did win at the 61st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honoring the best films of 1988, on Wednesday, March 29, 1989. Semantics.
Puzzling thoughts:
DNF due to the NNW corner; I had RAN for 1d; didn't know DAVE ATTELL so no perps came into play. KIM CATRELL fit, but I knew it wasn't she ...
Only other nit to pick was 7d - clue for ACED. In golf, if you chip in or hole out of a bunker or from the fairway, you wouldn't have to putt on, either. Perhaps a more clever clue, using a golf theme, could have been: "Had to buy your buddies a drink after the round?"
This CC had way more corrections than I normally require (had RACY before AERO; HI DEF TV before SMART TV; HOLE before NARY in 58d). Definitely a Thursday level puzzle
Well, mama said there would be days like these and how right she was. A bid fat DNF for Hondo.
Finished off roughly 25% of the fills, but could not get a foothold. South was fairly successful, but North and Central were seas of white.
Guess I'll just chalk it up to one of those days and try again tomorrow.
Congrats to those of you who nailed it.
Tough sledding today. At least there was a lot of white around after the first pass. Finally got most of it, but Oregon was very stubborn with just Law and Saw. When the penny dropped on Widows Peak it finally came together. But even then I couldn't figure out the theme. Very tough for a Thursday. But I'll take the win despite the beating and move on.
Thank you C.C., and you as well Steve.
Lemonade: I've lived in the midwest all my life (more years than I wish to count) and have never heard it pronounced other than "Salm"; just like the L in "salt".
WikWak
Wow C.C., you gave us a Thursday workout! Thanks Steve for the explanations. I cheered YAY ME appropriately at the bottom corner.
Comments:
CSO to Santa, ERIE again with new clue, I could take a CSO with Niagara and SHAW. TEA again but roses not TAZO, Red Rose etc. We have CARP (not AARP) in Canada.
I had Ahas before HAHS,Kent before LOIS, Ran before LED, Scam before FOOL, Alarm before PLANE.
Re some other comments:
Lad=SON was a meh clue for me also. Got up=WAKE is not 100% but OK with me.
If you only do something ONCE, you do not do it again.
Google "1988 Oscar winner for Best Picture" and you will get The Last Emperor. Better clue would have been "Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1988", or EAT CROW and change to 1989 Oscar winner.
PSALM seems to have regional pronunciation. Silent L seems to be more British. I have never heard the L pronounced here in Ontario. But that did not stop me from wanting the answer to be SILENT P!
Hardest clue for me today was Best replacement and favourite clue was 64A Layer on wall=COAT.
Still mild here but rainy today.
Our Great Plains dialect typically pronounces the L..... Softly, but it's there. More or less like "Sahlm".
I didn't give it any real thought while solving, though, because the L was in place from Fool and the only letter remaining was the L in Silent. When that bulb lit, the L or P controversy didn't even get on the radar screen. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss :-)
Good Morning:
Well, CC sure made me work to complete this one! Held on to swim laps too long so that area was a real challenge for a while. Never heard of Dave Attell but perps took care of that. Also had ahas/hahs; Aruba was a gimme as was widow's peak. After finishing, it took me about 30 seconds to connect the dots to get the theme. As usual, our dear CC, is a bit devilishly deceiving! 😈
Thanks, CC, for a Thursday toughie and thanks, Steve, for the always enlightening expo. You must be having a gang for St. Paddy's Day ☘. dinner, what with 12 lbs. of corned beef! (My sister cooks about 45 lbs. for our gang!)
Nice CSO's to Santa, Abejo, and Boomer, too!
Have a great day.
CC, fun puzzle, though the theme eluded me. Although most of it was fairly easy, I spent a while before I correctly filled the north central region. I was wavering between pasta and angels, too. I misconstrued a few things or that section would have been easy. V-8 can moments. DAVE ATTELL was all perps. I got BEST replacement, but didn't know why. Thanks, Steve.
I had forgotten that the PSALMS had 5 books, but the PS--- gave it away. I have always pronounced it without the L. I am a PK and studied as a DRE, director of religious education. (PA, NJ, MD) I think when some people hear PSALM said without the L they just assume that it was due to sloppiness. Both are correct, 6 of one and a half dozen of the other, TO-MAY-TO, TO-MAH-TO, just like inept and inapt.
The thesaurus gives WAKE and GET UP as synonyms. Synonyms do not have to be perfect in the thesaurus or in x-words.
RAINMAN was a great movie. I have seen it several times. I am a Dustin Hoffman fan.
Being a Sinatra fan, MY WAY was a gimme.
Canadian Eh, I agree that saying do it only ONCE, means don't do it again.
C.C. never disappoints! I finished while some biology kids watched a video.
Musings
-DAVE CHAPPELLE was on my radar briefly
-My daughter was told she could not play the flute because her lip had a WIDOW’S PEAK
-M.C. Hammer was Too LEGIT to Quit. I don’t know what it means either
-Niagra EROSION
-“LOIS, you’re a reporter and you can’t figure out the secret right in front of you?”
-UMP Rubric
-RAIN MAN taught Charlie Babbitt a lot about respect for people different than himself
-Seinfeld always felt his apartment was getting smaller when he added a COAT of paint
-I’ve gone 150 mph in a car ONCE. That’s enough!
-How’d Noah round up TWO mosquitoes, and more importantly, why?
-I didn’t have to EAT CROW when the Broncos won, I just had to buy my friend a half gallon of chocolate ice cream
-RIO Olympic issues!
-We have KENO and Power Ball in Nebraska but not slot machines or…
-I thought the PSALM SILENT L would stir up some linguistic dust. I pronounce it just the way Avg. Joe does. Aren’t Midwest pronunciations the standard? ☺
-One more class (1/2 day sub) and I’m off to use my IRONS and hope for another hole-in-one.
Definitely a challenging Thursday, but got 'er done. Thanks, C.C., for another great puzzle.
Thanks to Steve for his great outing!
I did have to look up Shaw & Aruba,
but I am very pleased with myself for puzzling the rest out by myself...
Steve's comment @ 43D made me go looking, & now I have an idea
what crow tastes like after this 8:19 video.
***BEFORE you click this link***
Be warned that this would horrify any gourmet,
& the guy is dropping F Bombs everywhere.
(but after all, he is eating crow...)
What crow tastes like.
For those with tender palates the short story would be:
looks like purple jerky
consistency of pulled pork
smells like feet
but tastes like the kid of beef you might find in Dinty Moore Stew (Yuck!)
Final Say?
Hmm, it looks like Mother Nature added her 2 cents too...
Thanks CC and Steve. I enjoyed that. I finished it with very little help (I Googled DAVE ATTELL). I had the same trouble spots as everybody else with L not seeming silent to me, Ragu insteead of HALO at first, I don't think of AERO when describing cars and I was glad to see EAT CROW instead of Eat Dirt (which has showed up often before). For "Bean topper," I had Tam at first but had to change it later when "Highland cap" showed up. Otherwise, WEES.
LOCI made good sense to me. 1) What is the loci of all points in a plane a given distance from a given point? 2) What is the loci of all points in space a given distance from a given line? 3) (Harder) What is the loci of all points in a plane equidistant from a line and a point?
Have a good day. I must be off, or at least, out of here.
I suppose it is regional, but I have always said and heard it said as "salm." I have never heard anybody say "keep cahm" or "greased his pahm" except when satirically imitating a Bostonian. If somebody asked me "How do you spell pahm?" I would reply "P-O-M." Anyway...
I often wake up without getting up; to me they are not the same thing at all. But again, that's just me, I guess.
Same thinking process about Oranjestad. Got DAVID ATTELL only by perps, just as Steve did.
So, overall, I didn't find the puzzle all that hard, just a little bit weird.
Happy Thursday.
Did not follow my own advice, skipped checking for a theme, and so lost ground on C.C.'s otherwise enjoyable pzl. It started smoothly enough, with several fills in the middle west, center, and SE sectors. But I had to check on the cast list for Insomniac when I found myself stuck at 17A with only DALE. (I mistakenly had GOLF instead of GOV'T at 3D.)
Once the dam was cracked, I went ahead and Googled Oranjestad - for a total of two cheats on this one.
Regionalisms always fascinate me. I say CALM and PALM with an L, but not PSALM. I say every one of the following M words with a different vowel sound and am always surprised that some people don't: When MARY MARRIES MURRAY we will all make MERRY. For me these pairs are not homonyms: TOCK and TALK, WOK and WALK, HOCK and HAWK. Some say PURE and CURE with a YER sound as in "yer out." I use YOU in the middle of them. Whatever floats your boat. English is an interesting language.
Greetings!
Thanks, CC and Steve!
Mostly what Bill G said!
The L was always pronounced in the churches that I attended.
Bill: circle, infinite cylinder, parabola.
Cheers!
Hi gang -
Hidden synonyms! Wow, C. C.!
Nice write up Steve. "Ump ire" - well played, sir!
Gary @ yesterday. Ella is just the best. I am chagrined and abashed to report, though, that I have never played Mood Indigo. Now i haz a sad.
Granddaughter Amanda and her Wayne State dance group performed at an adjudicated regional college dance conference last week, and their routine was selected to go to the national at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D. C. in June. Lots of pride and excitement in our clan. She has one of the featured roles.
Going to grandson Ryan's band concert tonight.
Gotta run.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good afternoon everyone.
Fussed with a potential Natick at the TRIM intersection, but a lucky WAG worked out. Theme also helped me get WIDOWSPEAK, which with ARUBA, opened up the entire SW. Considered 'legal' before LEGIT promised TEA ROSES. Rest of the puzzle was straightforward.
KUDOS to C.C. and to Steve for a well written intro.
Nice Thursday puzzle, not too easy, not too hard. I begrudgingly changed the "P" to "L" but I have always pronounced the "L" in words like Psalm, Palm, Calm. I see by the other comments that I'm not the only one.
Hi Y'all! Clever puzzle to learn by, C.C.! The theme took some study, but was good. WEES but the perps cleared up the problems. Always amusing, Steve! UMP ire - Bravo!
Tickled me to find SPIT above LIPLOCKS in which participants trade saliva. This pastime in the same puzzle with FATWA seems daring. I'd guess that would be forbidden to unmarried Muslims.
Thought Leonardo's feature was a movie name so took a while to PEAK at the truth.
I MEAN to start every sentence is annoying, kids.
Must have learned Oranjestad when that American girl disappeared on spring break in ARUBA.
Steve had to 'splain the Finch-LEE connection although I just read "Go Set a Watchman". Not nearly as good as "Mockingbird". No wonder she waited to near death to publish it. Interesting period piece though. Bet it paid well for final expenses.
This was a real Thursday toughie, and if it hadn't been a C.C., I would probably have just given up. My problem was the NW corner because I've never heard of DAVE ATTELL and also couldn't believe STARR was right, although I got it, since I didn't get that "Best" was a name. I also got SHEA BUTTER, but couldn't believe that could be right either. But I still got a lot, and after I cheated to get DAVE ATTELL, it all pretty much fell in place. So thanks, C.C., and you too, Steve, as always, for the expo.
Have a good day everybody!
Hello Everyone,
I had the same problems as everyone else did. P was my first choice, but fool gave me the l for the silent letter in Psalm. Jayce, I think it is a Western pronunciation to include the L--salm. I've always heard and said the L in Palm, calm, and Psalm.
I ALMOST finished the puzzle today, but Dave Attell was an unknown as was ebon. I looked those up and the rest fell into place very easily. Thanks, CC and Steve for a fun puzzle and writeup.
I've been doing the puzzles, but have been so busy that I haven't had time to read the blog until late afternoon or evening. By that time my additions to the comments aren't really productive.
Have a great rest of the day, everyone. We are supposed to have more rain today until the weekend. This has delayed the start of our new deck and we have a muddy mess in our back yard!!
PK:
I also thought LEE's Go Set A Watchman was not up to her standard in Mockingbird which was so rich in detail. It even seems like the work of two different authors.
I absolutely hated this puzzle, and I've never said that before.
I remember reading that Jacqueline Kennedy would turn on the water faucets in attempts to accomplish a Silent P.
I was very interested to see how often folks wanted to declare their feeling for and against pronouncing the "L" in PALM, CALM, etc. Like most, I never thought much about the matter until I studied phonetics as part of my theater training. Then I became aware that I don't say the "L" in these words. But, then, I don't ignore it either.
Yellowrocks @12:29 - I too pronounce all those "M" words with different vowels. Following that lead, I would point out that most of those who believe they say the "L" in either PALM or PSALM are actually not following through on a full "L," but instead feeling their tongues beginning to form the lateral position that starts the "L," but then bailing on the follow-through as the heavy resonance of the "M" interrupts them. It is the tongue's quasi-"L" position that's heard as a coloration of the vowel.
For those who actually say a full "L" in these words, they would be heard changing monosyllabic words into two syllables. We sometimes hear this when people pronounce FILM as FILLUM.
Personally, I probably wouldn't try and clue a word which relies on a certain pronunciation - it never crossed my mind that some people would sound the "L" in PSALM - it's PARM like the cheese to me and I've never heard it any other way (probably because I wasn't paying attention!). I thought is was a neat clue as it could be the P or the L to my ears.
Obviously a lot of people don't agree, so probably something I'd avoid.
Thank you Steve because even though I finished the puzzle, I had no idea what 'FINAL SAY' had to do with the starred answers. I've been out of town since Sunday, endured a 20" rainfall at my son's house in Monroe, LA ( he didn't flood but hundreds of other houses went under water) and just drove in this afternoon.
I wanted AHAS before HAHS forced itself into the puzzle. HAH sounds more like a derisive cry than a triumphant cry ( at least to me). And DAVE ATTELL was 100% perps so that area was the last to fall. TTYL was my only writeover as I originally wrote TATA. The rest of the puzzle was an easy fill.
I had no trouble with 9d OR 10D but I would think it would be a silent 'P'. PSALM, CALM, BALM, HELM all have an "L" sound.
ADT and every other security co depend mainly on land lines. The 'smart' thieves cut the lines first and then leave. They drive around to see if anyone shows up. Then they bust in and leave in case you have a cellular system. If no police or people show up, THEN they come back and clean your house out.
Lucina & PK
JMHO but I thought Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchmen was a very enjoyable book.
Not my favorite book I read last year ... but certainly in my "Top 5."
Cheers!
PS Haven't solved todays puzzle yet ... will solve during my NEW favorite comedy show at 8:30 pm ...
(You-know ... the comedy show that will be on CNN ... lol)
Sorry to go off topic,
But I happened to come across something in yesterdays comments
that is playing on PBS tonight.
The true story that was not revealed until 50 years later
was titled "Secrets of the Dead, The Man Who Saved The world."
Unfortunately the PBS station is on Long Island NY
so I doubt many will have access.
So,
Here it is!
Watch the 1st 30 seconds, & if you don't want to watch the next hour,
you will never know why you didn't kiss your ass goodbye...
You may already know how Rain Man got his name. If no, Charlie (Tom Cruise) was only three when they put his older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), in a home for autistic children, and being just a toddler, thought his older brother was Rainman (Raymond). Since my name is the same, I borrowed or adopted it c. 1990. I loved the movie, too.
Scintillating.
AS IF anyone cares.
Big Easy, I'm glad you checked in. I was wondering if you were flooded. I was watching ABC World News tonight which had a segment on the flooding with pictures of nice suburbs around Bossier under water. My son lived there a few years ago when he was in the USAF. Glad they moved. I'm glad your son's home is okay. Wonder how Boo is doing?
Thanks for your input CED but I don't think I'll watch the Cuban Missile crisis. I experienced enough terror the first time around as the wife of a military man. I always knew there had to be more going on than they told us. JFK was apparently scared too. Glad there was one sane Russian at least.
Tinbeni, I enjoyed the book. I just didn't think it was as good as her other one.
Actually, in addition to the Bedford Incident,
and many other movies/books,
it was also covered by The Simpsons when Homer
took over a sub as captain & almost started WWIII.
This is how it turned out...
I loved the puzzle although I had to really work at it. Thanks, CC, and thanks Steve.
I have never heard anyone pronounce the L in PSALM....but. enough people have chimed in. Can we call it a draw?
The awful weather has missed New Orleans so far. Our strong winds seem to have pushed it north and west of us. Tomorrow, however, we get the brunt. Everything is closed tomorrow so I guess we'll all just stay inside and hope.
I hope Boo is okay.
Owen, today's poems were the best!
CED @ 1721. Thanks for posting. The USS Cony, whose Cpmm Off and ASW Off are prominently shown, was in the same destroyer squadron as my ship, the Beale. (DesRon 28). I have learned from other sources that the Beale helped in forcing to the surface one of the other subs. (I had left the Beale the previous year.)
Small world.
Tinbeni:
I failed to say that I enjoyed reading the book, but as YR noted, it isn't as good as the first.
Thanks, CEDave !
Looks VERY interesting. I've set it to tape.
The Cuban Missile Crisis meant a lot to our generation. For me it posed a double fright because I was at Yale in grad school when the Selective Service started picking off unmarried grad students. I rec'd my "Greeting" and order to report while we were waiting to see if the Soviet missile ship would cross our blockade line. I was afraid of losing my place at school, so I turned for advice to the campus office for SS affairs. They could see no ground for NOT reporting as ordered - until one clerk (with terrific eyesight) noticed that my draft board's secretary had mis-typed one digit of my SS number. That turned out to be enough to render my notice VOID.
I was really grateful when that error bought me several months' worth of time, allowing me to finish out my school year.
In the long run I wasn't drafted at all. The next year I met my future wife, and by the time they might have come back for me, I was exempt because I was a married man.
And my luck continued to hold in ways I could never have planned. Later on, the draft turned to married men, but by then I was a Dad.
Seems like that was repeated from earlier
Hi all!
YEAY ME! and KUDOS to C.C. for a fun puzzle. Loved it! Thanks.
Thanks Steve for the writeup - ump ire :-) (right before you're ejected).
I can't say if the puzzle was hard or not as I didn't do it at once. I had it next to my keyboard and when my computer was busy for a second or two, I'd look over and "get one" and maybe finish off the area. NE was 1st to fall, then the E and just moved about.
NW was last to fall - I could "see" DAVE ATTELL (I've seen the show), but kept thinking CHAPPELLE knowing that was a different (and much tanner :-)) dude.
WOs: Hand up - LEGal until I got to aDEAL (?), that finished off TEA ROSE for ATTELL. Also had fOCI b/f LIP LOCKING (sniff, I miss DW).
ESP: EBON - the N was an ABC-run.
Fav: c/a for STARR
CED - I liked Homer's alternate ending...
All letters are equal! Pronounce 'em: NUM-Bu and Puh-SA-LeM :-)
Cheers, -T
Ol'Man Keith
Your post(s) made me smile,
because after all the drama with Daughter#3
& her college auditions,it makes me realize
my problems are not so bad after all...
(P.S. She was accepted at Temple/Philly music program/teaching today)
There was an article in todays paper that is worthy of repeating.
It seems there was a Nurse in WWII, who married her injured patient
(Silver & bronze star for gallantry) & never told her children of her past.
In rebuilding an attic,the new owners of the house found and old army issued
suitcase tucked away in the eaves. The contents (& diary) were such that they sought out
the previous owners to return what they had found.
The articles continues as follows:
"The thing that struck me the most was how they didn't wait for tomorrow to live
their lives," Eugene McGarry said."They were very conscious of how short life could be."
A poem in his mothers diary spoke of the generation's sense of urgency in the face of so much loss.
(& I quote because OwenKL has made me appreciate poetry...)
Now the time is all your own
Live and love with a will
Place no faith in tomorrow
For the clock may then be still
The clock of life is wound just once
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour
Anna Mcgarry died in 1989, at age 68.
Walter stayed in the house for the rest of his life, dying in 1995 at age 78.
Their memory lives on...
CED - Congrats to D#3!
Thanks for sharing that story and poem. Beautiful.
Grandpa met Grams at a USO dance shortly after WWII. Gramps was 5'3" (little WOP) Grams was 6'1" - imagine his view while dancing...
Cheers, -T
CED, AnonT, OM Keith and others; I sure am enjoying many of your posts today. Thanks for sharing.
First-time commenter. Great puzzle, CC. Thanks so much for doing this website. I love it. Steve, I believe that 28-Down clue refers to Leonardo DiCaprio's WIDOW'S PEAK feature (his hairline) -- and not to one of his feature films. I too was FOOLed by that SILENT "L" (as I too have always pronounced the "L" in PSALM).
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