Theme: Add-oons. Take a noun, add an "oon" and clue the resulting object in a witty fashion.
17A. Parody involving molten rock? : LAVA LAMPOON. Anyone own up to having a lava lamp?
28A. Wind god's whaling weapon? : AEOLIAN HARPOON. Loved this one. The aeolian harp is played by the wind.
48A. Blubbering Belgian? : WAILING WALLOON. Very nice! The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is more "properly" known as the Western Wall.
61A. Hollywood harlequin? : FILM BUFFOON. I'm definitely not a film buff, most of the movies each year pass me by. I don't particularly equate "harlequin" with "buffoon" though, the character is usually portrayed more as a trickster than a fool.
Morning! I enjoyed Matt's word play in this one and some solid construction with the four themers; two nice long downs and some good fill with ALCOVE, ESPRIT, CORTEX et al. Two clunkers though - I'm looking at you, IREFUL and the clue for ELEM (tchr). Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Library recess : ALCOVE. Also a posh-looking hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
7. Brief amt. of time : NSEC. Nanosecond. One billionth of a second. That's really brief.
11. Karaoke need, briefly : MIC. I was pretty much forced to sing Karaoke at a bar in Kowloon where my colleague and I were the only westerners. The only song on the menu that I recognized was Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The result was not pretty.
14. Slanted : LEANED
15. With 34-Across, concert band instrument : ALTO.
16. Big fuss : ADO
19. Sneaky job : CON
20. APA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. American Psychological Association.
21. Med. test : EKG. Fill in E_G and wait for the cross.
22. Eight-time co-star of Joan Crawford : GABLE. Ooops. Joan Crawford in the clue should result in Clark Gable in the answer.
24. Teeth: Pref. : DENTI
27. Note : MEMO
33. Crybaby : MOANER
34. See 15-Across : SAX
35. Arctic flier : SKUA
36. Stalling-for-time syllables : ERS
37. Honor earned by 27 Super Bowl QBs : MVP. Refreshingly, the Denver Bronco's pass rusher Von Miller won the award this year, only the sixth player from the defensive side of the ball to be named MVP.
39. Light lead-in : TWI-
41. Scoreboard fig. : PTS.
42. Director Preminger : OTTO
44. It borders It. : AUS. Italy's neighbor Austria. I've skiied between the two.
46. Sparkling wit : ESPRIT
51. 8th-century Japanese capital : NARA. 奈良市 Capital of the Nara Prefecture in southern Japan. Who knew?
52. Runs while standing : IDLES
53. Try a new color on : RE-DYE
55. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Ms. Thurman played the role of Henry Millers' wife in a loose adaptation of the Anaïs Nin book.
56. Repeat, but more softly each time : ECHO
60. First name in shipping : ARI. I wonder how many news stories in the 60's led with "Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ...."
65. Java : JOE. Coffee. Two Javas today. Just needed the programming language for the trifecta.
66. Eclectic quarterly digest : UTNE
67. Hard to read, maybe : SLOPPY. My handwriting has definitely got sloppier over the years.
68. Animal in some fables : ASS
69. He says to Cordelia, "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" : LEAR. The king speaks to one of his daughters. It's worth remembering his other two daughters too - Regan and Goneril - they crop up in crosswords quite frequently.
70. Cerebral __ : CORTEX
Down:
1. __ breve : ALLA. Waited for crosses to tell me whether this was DEMI or SEMI. In hindsight, I was going to be waiting a long time. Apparently, in music time-signature terms, it is "a simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". I didn't understand a word of that. It has its own symbol though, so it must be important:
2. Pastures : LEAS
3. Home team at Cleveland's "The Q" : CAVS. NBA's Cavaliers play at the Quicken Loans Arena.
4. Uninterrupted : ON AND ON
5. Mph : VEL. ocity.
6. Former PBS host LeShan : EDA
7. Place setting items : NAPKINS
8. Tough march : SLOG
9. 1940s stage for Ike : E.T.O. WW2's European Theater of Operations. I wonder if Churchill and Ike argued whether it should be spelled (or spelt) Theater or Theatre.
10. __ eel : CONGER. They love to hang out in wrecks and can grow to quite a fearsome size.
11. Apple with a Force Touch trackpad : MACBOOK PRO
12. Fan club focus : IDOL
13. Lane-closing sight : CONE. Usually accompanied by a sinking feeling and another delay. In the UK at one time there were so many lane closures on the freeways and no sign of any work being done that you could actually call "The Cones Hotline". No-one really knew what the hotline was meant to achieve and it became a butt of many jokes.
23. Gear on stage : AMPS. Jackson Browne was a great songwriter, but the final rhyme in this snippet from "The Load-Out" is a bit of a clunker! Great song and segue though.
25. Kind of tchr. : ELEM. That's a pretty horrible abbreviation for "teacher".
26. Buddhist state : NIRVANA
27. Klinger's first name on "M*A*S*H" : MAXWELL. I wonder how often this actually came up in the series? Solid crosses.
28. Vital supply line : AORTA
29. Where to find Java : EAST INDIES. I tried to make "Indonesia" fit for a while.
30. Magic show prop : HAT. Where all the Easter bunnies go back to sleep when they've finished their egg-rounds.
31. __ the cold : OUT IN
32. Democratic donkey drawer : NAST. He was responsible for the Republican elephant too.
33. Litter cry : MEOW
38. Wrinkly little dog : PUG
40. __ Royale, Michigan : ISLE. A new one on me. I find it is in Lake Superior, and the US-Canada border does a little jig around it. It looks a lot closer to Minnesota than the UP though, I think the folks of Grand Portage, MN have every right to be peeved.
43. Skin care brand : OLAY
45. Pool party? : SWIMMER. Nice clue; party in the sense of "party of one".
47. Be the subject of, as a painting : POSE FOR.
49. Furious : IREFUL. Ugh! What a horrible word. It's a bad sign when you Google a word and the first results page shows dictionary definitions and two video game references.
50. Not much at all : A DAB. Hesitated at "A TAD" and waited for a helpful cross.
53. Indian noble : RAJA
54. Love deity : EROS. He and his Roman counterpart Cupid were always shooting off arrows and making people miserable.
55. Forearm bone : ULNA
57. Egyptian Christian : COPT
58. "The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul": Dickinson : HOPE
59. Cameo stone : ONYX. Most often carved with a head in profile, but there are other more intricate examples.
62. Suburban trailer? : -ITE
63. The Trojans of the Pac-12 : U.S.C. The University of Southern California, or as often dubbed by Bruins from cross-town rivals UCLA "The University of Spoiled Children" (or after the Reggie Bush affair, U$C).
64. "Alice" spinoff : FLO. Never heard of the original series, let alone the spinoff. Thank you, crosses. Here's actress Polly Holliday as Flo:
Fun Thursday ride. Here's the grid ......
Steve
17A. Parody involving molten rock? : LAVA LAMPOON. Anyone own up to having a lava lamp?
28A. Wind god's whaling weapon? : AEOLIAN HARPOON. Loved this one. The aeolian harp is played by the wind.
48A. Blubbering Belgian? : WAILING WALLOON. Very nice! The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is more "properly" known as the Western Wall.
61A. Hollywood harlequin? : FILM BUFFOON. I'm definitely not a film buff, most of the movies each year pass me by. I don't particularly equate "harlequin" with "buffoon" though, the character is usually portrayed more as a trickster than a fool.
Morning! I enjoyed Matt's word play in this one and some solid construction with the four themers; two nice long downs and some good fill with ALCOVE, ESPRIT, CORTEX et al. Two clunkers though - I'm looking at you, IREFUL and the clue for ELEM (tchr). Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Library recess : ALCOVE. Also a posh-looking hotel in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
7. Brief amt. of time : NSEC. Nanosecond. One billionth of a second. That's really brief.
11. Karaoke need, briefly : MIC. I was pretty much forced to sing Karaoke at a bar in Kowloon where my colleague and I were the only westerners. The only song on the menu that I recognized was Barry Manilow's "Copacabana". The result was not pretty.
14. Slanted : LEANED
15. With 34-Across, concert band instrument : ALTO.
16. Big fuss : ADO
19. Sneaky job : CON
20. APA member?: Abbr. : ASSN. American Psychological Association.
21. Med. test : EKG. Fill in E_G and wait for the cross.
22. Eight-time co-star of Joan Crawford : GABLE. Ooops. Joan Crawford in the clue should result in Clark Gable in the answer.
24. Teeth: Pref. : DENTI
27. Note : MEMO
33. Crybaby : MOANER
34. See 15-Across : SAX
35. Arctic flier : SKUA
36. Stalling-for-time syllables : ERS
37. Honor earned by 27 Super Bowl QBs : MVP. Refreshingly, the Denver Bronco's pass rusher Von Miller won the award this year, only the sixth player from the defensive side of the ball to be named MVP.
39. Light lead-in : TWI-
41. Scoreboard fig. : PTS.
42. Director Preminger : OTTO
44. It borders It. : AUS. Italy's neighbor Austria. I've skiied between the two.
46. Sparkling wit : ESPRIT
51. 8th-century Japanese capital : NARA. 奈良市 Capital of the Nara Prefecture in southern Japan. Who knew?
52. Runs while standing : IDLES
53. Try a new color on : RE-DYE
55. June portrayer in "Henry & June" : UMA. Ms. Thurman played the role of Henry Millers' wife in a loose adaptation of the Anaïs Nin book.
56. Repeat, but more softly each time : ECHO
60. First name in shipping : ARI. I wonder how many news stories in the 60's led with "Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ...."
65. Java : JOE. Coffee. Two Javas today. Just needed the programming language for the trifecta.
66. Eclectic quarterly digest : UTNE
67. Hard to read, maybe : SLOPPY. My handwriting has definitely got sloppier over the years.
68. Animal in some fables : ASS
69. He says to Cordelia, "Thy truth, then, be thy dower" : LEAR. The king speaks to one of his daughters. It's worth remembering his other two daughters too - Regan and Goneril - they crop up in crosswords quite frequently.
70. Cerebral __ : CORTEX
Down:
1. __ breve : ALLA. Waited for crosses to tell me whether this was DEMI or SEMI. In hindsight, I was going to be waiting a long time. Apparently, in music time-signature terms, it is "a simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". I didn't understand a word of that. It has its own symbol though, so it must be important:
3. Home team at Cleveland's "The Q" : CAVS. NBA's Cavaliers play at the Quicken Loans Arena.
4. Uninterrupted : ON AND ON
5. Mph : VEL. ocity.
6. Former PBS host LeShan : EDA
7. Place setting items : NAPKINS
8. Tough march : SLOG
9. 1940s stage for Ike : E.T.O. WW2's European Theater of Operations. I wonder if Churchill and Ike argued whether it should be spelled (or spelt) Theater or Theatre.
10. __ eel : CONGER. They love to hang out in wrecks and can grow to quite a fearsome size.
11. Apple with a Force Touch trackpad : MACBOOK PRO
12. Fan club focus : IDOL
13. Lane-closing sight : CONE. Usually accompanied by a sinking feeling and another delay. In the UK at one time there were so many lane closures on the freeways and no sign of any work being done that you could actually call "The Cones Hotline". No-one really knew what the hotline was meant to achieve and it became a butt of many jokes.
- "Hello? Cones Hotline? I've spotted some cones."
- "How many?"
- "About four and a half million on the M6, doing absolutely nothing."
- "Thank you for telling us."
23. Gear on stage : AMPS. Jackson Browne was a great songwriter, but the final rhyme in this snippet from "The Load-Out" is a bit of a clunker! Great song and segue though.
"Now roll them cases out and lift them amps
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs ..."
Haul them trusses down and get'em up them ramps
'Cause when it comes to moving me
You know you guys are the champs ..."
25. Kind of tchr. : ELEM. That's a pretty horrible abbreviation for "teacher".
26. Buddhist state : NIRVANA
27. Klinger's first name on "M*A*S*H" : MAXWELL. I wonder how often this actually came up in the series? Solid crosses.
28. Vital supply line : AORTA
29. Where to find Java : EAST INDIES. I tried to make "Indonesia" fit for a while.
30. Magic show prop : HAT. Where all the Easter bunnies go back to sleep when they've finished their egg-rounds.
31. __ the cold : OUT IN
32. Democratic donkey drawer : NAST. He was responsible for the Republican elephant too.
33. Litter cry : MEOW
38. Wrinkly little dog : PUG
40. __ Royale, Michigan : ISLE. A new one on me. I find it is in Lake Superior, and the US-Canada border does a little jig around it. It looks a lot closer to Minnesota than the UP though, I think the folks of Grand Portage, MN have every right to be peeved.
43. Skin care brand : OLAY
45. Pool party? : SWIMMER. Nice clue; party in the sense of "party of one".
47. Be the subject of, as a painting : POSE FOR.
49. Furious : IREFUL. Ugh! What a horrible word. It's a bad sign when you Google a word and the first results page shows dictionary definitions and two video game references.
50. Not much at all : A DAB. Hesitated at "A TAD" and waited for a helpful cross.
53. Indian noble : RAJA
54. Love deity : EROS. He and his Roman counterpart Cupid were always shooting off arrows and making people miserable.
55. Forearm bone : ULNA
57. Egyptian Christian : COPT
58. "The thing with feathers / That perches in the soul": Dickinson : HOPE
59. Cameo stone : ONYX. Most often carved with a head in profile, but there are other more intricate examples.
62. Suburban trailer? : -ITE
63. The Trojans of the Pac-12 : U.S.C. The University of Southern California, or as often dubbed by Bruins from cross-town rivals UCLA "The University of Spoiled Children" (or after the Reggie Bush affair, U$C).
64. "Alice" spinoff : FLO. Never heard of the original series, let alone the spinoff. Thank you, crosses. Here's actress Polly Holliday as Flo:
Fun Thursday ride. Here's the grid ......
Steve
49 comments:
Greetings!
Nice work, Matt and Steve!
Enjoyed the puzzle!
Cute theme!
Only problem was NARA which was perped. (And a WAG after a few letters for MAXWELL.)
I think that they finally finished the roof today. (No more waking me up after 4 hours of sleep or less, I hope.)
Changed from DirecTV to whole house Time Warner. Saves lots of money.
Have a great day!
Morning, all!
I suppose I would have gotten more joy out of this one had I actually heard of WALLOON before. I kept starting at that thinking I must have an error somewhere...
NARA was another complete unknown.
I'm familiar with "ESPRIT de corps", but I never knew that ESPRIT by itself meant "sparkling wit". It didn't help matters that I had MACBOOK AIR instead of MACBOOK PRO for no good reason. Eh, it was just a guess.
What's wrong with "teach." as an abbreviation?
Steve: Nice write-up and links.
Matt: Thank You for a FUN Thursday puzzle. Especially enjoyed the "OON" theme.
Kinda felt like it was a "Tuesday-Level" ... guess I was just on Matt's wave-length.
Fave today ... ALL the booze clues & answers (LOL) ... Wait! There weren't any! ... tears ...
(Guess that makes me a MOANER ... but you'all know how I "Rate-Puzzles" ...)
OK, my "real-fave-today" was 60-a, First name in shipping, ARI since those are my real initials.
Finally, since I work a Tuesday through Saturday schedule ... today is my "Hump-Day."
Cheers!
Clever theme - WSS about the clunkers and WBS was far as ESPRIT. WALLOON came out of the gray matter somewhere as I remembered Hercule Poirot was one (a French speaking Belgian).
I initially put MACBOOK TWO crossed with TDS for the scoreboard figs, but corrected by the perps.
Thanks Steve and Matt!
Good Morning,
Thanks, Matt. This was fun. I cracked the code at WAILING WALLOONS, thought of Poirot also. I recollect that a large community of Walloons settled in Door County, Wisconsin, but I don't recall the details of that history.
Thanks, Steve, for the tour. I really missed the boat on ARI! I was looking for UPS or--don't laugh--Fed as in Ex. ;^) Ha!
Have a fine day!
Quick solve today. LAVA LAMPOON was obvious, setting the theme up right off. I knew WALLOON and COPT from history.
No unknowns, but it took perps to jog my recollection in some. I had S-UA before I remembered I had seen SKUA before.
FLO and ALICE have been in reruns quite frequently.
It's good that we all have different preferences and talents. HG is great with older students and I love ELEM. My least favorite teaching assignment would be middle school. I really like preteens one or two at a time. They are lovely. In groups they seem to be wiseacres or just plain fresh.
My tech should be here any minute
I had trouble with ARI. Even some simple words are Greek to me.
IREFUL is IRESOME.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Matt Skoczen, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
This puzzle went quicker than most Thursdays.
Caught the theme early and it did help. Gave me several OONs.
ON AND ON was my last entry.
Did not know MAXWELL, but a few perps helped.
NARA was perped. Thank goodness I got IREFUL after a while.
Did not know UTNE, and still don't. Got it with only 4 perps.
Good start to the day. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Learning WALLOON and AEOLIAN in theme fills was novel for me. Too many options at the 270˚ heading took some effort but Matt’s puzzle was fun and satisfying on this cool, dreary morning.
Musings
-My physics lab had 8 LAVA LAMPS that fascinated kids and showed convection very well
-Don’t we all know Agatha Christie’s favorite WALLOON who bristled at being called French
-I wonder if the now common phrase ”Drop the MIC” will ever become a CrosswordITE?
-Do you remember “The Big CON” in The Sting?
-Is Cam still seeing Von Miller in his nightmares?
-This FILM BUFF best remembers OTTO as loyal Max in Sunset Blvd
-Tech devices relieve people of having to read my SLOPPY handwriting
-Folding a NAPKIN Swan
-I’m typing this on my MACBOOK PRO so I must have a Force Touch trackpad. Who knew?
-Lilacs and road CONES start budding in the spring here
-MAXWELL probably came up as often as Hawkeye’s first name of Benjamin
-FDR POSED FOR a portrait the day he died. The unfinished portrait hangs in the house at Warm Springs, GA.
IREFUL is listed as old fashioned and uncommon these days. I have seen it in several period novels. I think old fashioned and less common words make late week puzzles interesting. And, after getting IRE with perps, the FUL is not a difficult wag.
I have visited NARA. In the Kasugayama Primeval Forest at NARA deer are allowed to roam freely. Tourists feed them so they have become tame and aggressive. Feeding them from your hand hand is novel at first, but they quickly become annoying, trying to snatch treats before you offer them. After a time it made me feel IREFUL.
There are many lovely old temples at NARA.
Just a nit. Nirvana is not a Buddhist state.
Its transcendental state of mind Buddhists
as well as Hindus wish to achieve
Good Morning:
This was a tad chewy in spots but solid perps came to the rescue. Quite a clever and challenging theme!
Thanks, Matt, and thanks, Steve, for a pleasant Thursday journey.
After reading last night's comments, I would like to say that Bill G's ever-present congeniality is surpassed only by his ability to ignore the barbs of the anonymous buffoons. Bravo, Bill!
Have a great day.
ANON @9:18
"It(')s (a)transcendental state of mind Buddhists
as well as Hindus wish to achieve."
Yes it is. So the clue is correct. Just another meaning of state.
Good morning all.
Struggled in the south with Pool party clue despite having SWIM-E. I was thinking of the collective party rather than the individual. When I finally got it (our host today would say "when the penny dropped", that second M made me change IREdUp to IREFUL, and that made FILM BUFFOON obvious, Prior to that breakthrough, I was somewhat determined that the first word must start with a B, as LAVA LAMPOON and WAILING WALLOON suggested common (shared) consonants.
The west side story told a similar tale with whiNER across and wELP down. Must have crossed wires with whelp, which would be somewhat synonymous with litter, while ignoring cry in the clue. In pursuit of a quick Thursday solve, I passed by that troubled area instead of pausing to consider other options. Finally finishing the south and I went back to the troubled west coast to conquer the conundrum. Director OTTO directed me in a different direction. MEOW and MOANER whisked away whiNER and wELP, and then it was done.
AEOLIAN would have escaped me had it not perped in. Unknown to me.
Thank you Matt and Steve.
I think we still have a lava lamp around here somewhere.
I believe Vonn Miller is the ninth defensive player to be named MVP.
Did someone request NIRVANA ? All Apologies (MTV Unplugged)
Also,
ISLE ROYALE, MI is sometimes visible from atop scenic Brockway Mtn on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan's U.P.
If you look at Google Maps directions from Copper Harbor, MI to ISLE ROYALE, it shows it as a 1 minute, .2 mile drive.
It's actually a 3.5 hour, 50 + mile ferry ride across Lake Superior from Copper Harbor.
Who says the people at Google don't have a sense of humor ?
Very challenging but doable Thursday offering. When I completed it at the cross of IREFUL & NARA, I was wondering if the capital was a place or currency.
Steve- there's one more 'clunker' at 5D. 'mph' is NOT velocity; mph is speed while 'VEL' is speed AND direction; scalar vs. vector. I looked up velocity abbreviations and VEL is used in aviation.
I can never remember if it is ALLA or ALLE but the ON AND ON fill solved that one for me. I'm glad I took Geology classes to remember AEOLIAN for wind blown and that basically opened the puzzle for me. I didn't know GABLE, as GWTW is the only Gable movie I ever saw. MAXWELL Smart I know, but not corporal Klinger.
Abejo- UTNE reader is only known for being a Xword word.
Ferma- You may save money for a while but when your 'contract' expires TWC and every bundle provider will drastically raise rates on everything the day it ends. Then it's basically a game of threatening to change providers. I've changed three times. It's disgusting that ALL the telcos/cable/satellite providers offer BETTER prices to NEW customers than they give to their current customers. ATT even has a special department called 'retention' to keep people from switching.
Hi Gang -
I like this theme, and there's a lot of good stuff in this puzzle.
Alas, the clunkers, though.
And I am less than delighted with the affixes.
We typically call ALLA BREVE "cut time." In most modern usage, it's just a 4/4 time with a tempo fast enough to make counting 2 beats per measure more convenient than counting 4. So a half note gets a beat, and there are two per measure. This was not always the case. Music history can get very confusing regarding some of these details.
I, too, am typing this on a MAC BOOK PRO. I really like the force touch trackpad, as opposed to the force-me-to-go-crazy track pad on my previous lap tap. Has no idea what it was called, though.
SWIMMER for pool party is really tricky. Good Thus. twist.
Cool regards!
JzB
@Yellowrocks-- having spent 35 years in middle schools, as teacher and as assistant principal, I can tell you that these kids are an acquired taste. Even though I've been retired >10 years, I still miss them (a little).
I had Matthew as Klinger's name at first (maybe because I'd just chatted with someone named Matthew) oops. At least I got the "Ma" right. His name came up fairly often. (Is it time to note Hawkeye and Radar's real names for future reference?) Alda and Farr come up as answers a lot, so a variation was welcome.
When Col. Potter had heart to heart talks with Klinger, he often called him Max. Like a parent, he would use Maxwell if he was mad at him.
Let's see - Benjamin Franklin Pierce and Walter O'Reilly, if memory serves...
I enjoyed this puzzle. It was hard for me though. I needed a little help in a couple of spots. I didn't know AEOLIAN or WALLOON.
Re. Big Easy's nit: I understand the difference between velocity and speed as it pertains to a physics class. But that's not the intended audience for these crossword puzzles. Clues aren't always intended to be technically precise definitions but instead, clues to point one toward the desired answer.
Irish Miss: Gee, thanks. That was very kind.
Yes, I got a lava lamp years ago as a Christmas present from one of my kids. Jordan and I enjoy it sometimes though it takes a long time to warm up.
@TTP - thanks for the MVP-count correction, my math was fuzzy. There are actually 10 - four linebackers (including Von), two defensive ends, two safeties, one cornerback and one defensive tackle.
@Big Easy - when I switched from DirecTV to AT&T a couple of years ago, it took me two hours on the phone with the DirecTV "Customer Retention Expert" to get them to terminate my account. The deluge of "come back, we love you" offers over the following few months were frankly embarrassing. The worst were the FINAL NOTICE red-ink mailings; when the envelope was opened it was a "FINAL NOTICE" for a special re-enrollment offer. I still get them, but they've abated somewhat since the merger.
Yay! I got a crunchy Thursday puzzle without cheating! Great way to end the month, many thanks, Matt! I figured out the OON endings early, which helped a lot, but ran into trouble because I didn't know MACBOOKPRO. I finally took a total guess, and was incredibly relieved that the weird bird name SKUA turned out to be right. I also never heard of NARA, but the perps took care of that without any trouble. My dumbest moment came with ARI--I got it, but didn't "get" it until the blog. I too was thinking UPS or something.
Anyway, thanks for the expos, Steve, and have a great day everybody!
Thursday workout today. Thanks Matt and Steve.
I was held up in seeing the theme because I had Weeping before WAILING and Spoof before LAMPOON.
I had Rani before RAJA, checked perps to decide between NSEC and MSec, couldn't fit Irate into the blanks and was sure of LEAR so IREFUL it was! Agree that it and tchr. were meh.
UTNE and SKUA were all perps.
My answer for slanted clue moved from Atilt (dreaded A word) to Biased to LEANED.
I enjoyed the Java crosses.
Isle Royale is actually closest to Canada. Pie Island to the north can be seen from Thunder Bay as can the Sibley Peninsula with the majestic Sleeping Giant.
Interesting history
IsleRoyale
Windhover, I'm glad your wife is all right.
Yep, we had a lava lamp. One day our very young son shook it vigorously; it never worked right again. The "lava" never re-coalesced.
Cool OON theme. I expected all the answers, and clues too, would be alliterations, which sent me on some wild goose chases. Steve, loved your informative and opinion-laden writeup.
Finally got our taxes done. Sometimes Turbo Tax can be very inflexible. Maybe that's a good thing. The difficulty we were having was that a cash dividend was reported on the 1099B as a capital gain with a cost basis of zero. Hey, suits me! I'll happily call it capital gain.
Best wishes to you all.
Imagine somebody asks you, "If XYZ is made illegal and somebody commits XYZ, should that person be punished?" How would you answer?
Hola y Buenos dias a todos!
Today the crunch level rose and it took me A DAB longer to finish this clever grid. Thank you, Matt Skoczen! I caught the rhyming -OON scheme and that helped with the solve.
WALLOON was fresh in my mind but not for Poirot; during the recent Belgian explosion a reporter mentioned the problems of multi-cultural settlements in a certain area of Brussels including lack of communication among speakers of different languages one of which was WALLOON.
I first gave Klinger the name of MAXIMUS and then in a turn of dyslexia, wrote MAXEWLL. TWI corrected that.
LAVA lamps were never to my liking, but my daughter had one though I doubt if she still does.
Thank you, Steve. I always enjoy your reviews.
Have a great Thursday, everyone!
Good afternoon everyone.
Easy for a Thursday. AEOLIAN came readily from geology. WALLOON, ISLE, SKUA, and COPT were all gimmes. MAXWELL was used on MASH in a rerun this past week, so that helped. ARI made sense but was unexpected. Liked the theme clues, especially WAILING WALLOON. The Walloons' counterparts are the Flemings.
Lots of fresh fill and a good outing. Thank you Matt.
Lava Lampoon?
Aeolian Harp on the Irish Coast.
Wailing Walloon?
Film Buffoon?
Tough, but fun for me! I never "got" the theme, but got all the theme answers, so I guess that's okay. I enjoyed the struggle. Thanks, Matt.
Steve, your witty observations always delight me. Thanks.
I never had a. Lava lamp. Never wanted one. I think I missed an era.
What is an Aeolian Harp? & how does it work?
I agree, Steve, that IREFUL is a clunker of a word. Speak it aloud, and it comes out like a Dorset dialect variation of "Awful"--as in "He's jist an IREFUL Arse, in't 'e?"
Enjoyed the theme, and glad I figured it out early enough to benefit from it. AEOLIAN is a great word. There are too few opportunities to throw it in to normal conversation. I didn't know SKUA, but all the other "obscure" words were familiar enough to me.
I'd love to visit NARA. Japan is one place I have longed to see but haven't had the opportunity. It's on my bucket list. We would have visited before now, except for illnesses that knocked me out of commission in 2012. But now, with improved health, I'm looking forward to making the journey.
Crunchy at least for me. Had sKimmer for 45D, the resulting Kalloon didn't seem right but Walloon was new to me. Should have run the alphabet to get to the W but I'm not sure I would have plugged it in.
@Ol' Man Keith - hilarious. I friend of mine used to live in Dorset and in his impecunious youth he took his car in for the annual safety inspection. The Transport Ministry had recently introduced a new rule regarding cracks in windshields; he had a crack in his and was sure he'd have to spend money from his already-tight budget to replace it. When he went back to pick up the car, he was surprised to be given the road-worthiness certificate. "But what about the crack in the windshield"?
"Arrr" said the old boy. "Tha' 'appened next week, din' it"
I always appreciate reading comments here after one of my LATs appears. So between last Wednesday's (KP DUTY) and today's, I thank you for the kind words and what may be clunker stuff...though, admittedly, it doesn't help a lot when I get a rejected puzzle back for a word here or there that I thought would be cool. C'est la vie.
As a teacher, I only use "tchr." myself in rare occasions and never "teach." For what it's worth, my suggested clues for ELEM had no reference to the word "teacher" abbreviated. My clues referenced "sch." (school) and chemical ELEMents. But once a puzzle is accepted, we lose control of what happens to cluing.
To CrossEyedDave: An Aeolian Harp (a/k/a wind harp) is a musical instrument played by the wind (named for the Greek wind god Aeolus).
---Matt Skoczen
... oops ...
Forgot to mention this morning the CSO to our Avg JOE.
Probably due to only having "one-cup-of-JAVA" before leaving for the P-T-Job.
Jayce: I'll answer your 12:42 question:
"If XYZ is made illegal and somebody commits XYZ, should that person be punished?"
...
... well ...
HELL YES!
I'd QRST them ...
Though maybe UVW would be the proper punishment ...
Ahhhhhh, The Sun is finally "Over-the-Yardarm" ...
Cheers!
Our neighbor invited up out for lunch. It was at a local place called Panera specializing in healthy food. I knew I was in for trouble when most of their salads featured kale and quinoa. I had black bean soup and a half sandwich called Italian. I was hoping for something like I'm used to at the local Italian deli. But no. It had some bland tasting healthy cold cuts, tomato, dense bread, etc. No olive oil and vinegar, no mayo (or Miracle Whip!). The soup was like a bowl of cooked black beans. I felt like stopping on the way home for a grilled cheese. But that would have been rude. Plus I was stuffed full of tasteless healthy stuff.
Fun puzzle, some especially good things: AEOLIAN, WALLOON and my favorite...MAXWELL. The LINK .
Thank you for stopping by Matt, glad to see you becoming an LAT regular.
Including the Wailing (western)WALL, HaKotel HaMa'aravi; or right to left Hebrew: הַכֹּתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי was a cool choice. Since the LOON is our official blog bird we salute you.
I leave you with a joke I must get out of my mind...
The young blonde woman goes to the police station to apply to work answering the phone.
The desk Sergeant tells her he must ask her a few questions.
"What is 2 + 2?" " 4 " she answers.
"What is the square root of 100?" "10" she answers.
He then asks, "who killed Lincoln?" "I don't know" she says.
"Well come back and see me when you have figured that out", he says glad to be rid of her.
She calls her roommate all excited, "Not only did I get the job, but they gave me my first case."
Steve- I just had a knock-down, drag out fight with ATT yesterday because they abitrarily tried to raise my bill over $30.00 a month. Luckily, I save ALL paperwork, quoted the day, person who agreed to the original contract, and the all important Conversation number. They ended up agreeing to charge less than they had originally agreed to on the original. There is no REAL price. You have to haggle for it.
Walloons are specifically French-speaking Belgians. And, I just learned, there are 400,000 Walloons in America!
Ellen Burstyn won the 1974 Oscar for "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". (Does this make me a FILM BUFF?). The film spun off to "Alice" with Linda Lavin in the title role from 1976-85, Vic Tayback reprising diner owner Mel. "FLO" spun off from that from 1980-81.
Hi All!
Boy, this one took me a LOONG time but I got it! Thanks Matt for a LOONY puzzle and for stopping by. Thanks Steve for your ESPRIT writeup (on your MAC BOOK PRO high above the Earth?)
ESP: ALLA, SKUA, OTTO, NARA, ARI, and AEOLIAN. WALLOOf would have stayed that way if not for the theme.
WOs: Biased b/f LEANED; yElp b/f MEOW; Ant b/f ASS; IREd-up (before the MOANER); A tAd b/f DAB; mOdEl in b/f POSE FOR; and, OUT of the cold @1st. Oh, and NASh b/f NAST.... See why it took > 3,600bn NSECs?
Fav:. NAPKINS, ER, serviette (Trevor Noah [2:44]).
M'de D. I too thought of Fed (Ex) at ARI's clue!
TTP - My thought/solving process exactly at SWIM-E- to backfill / write-over the south. Also, I was gonna link NIRVANA. We must'a got the same MEMO.
Would this help everyone remember UTNE Reader? I read UTNE in my UT'E-FUL college days.
Since Jayce asked and we're wordies here, I'll leave you (for now) with Missouri's HR 1220 .
So, If you I never did XYZ before and they make it illegal, do you do XYZ just to stick it to the man?
Cheers, -T
Aha - found a better link to Missouri's 10-line Bill. C, -T
Matt Skoczen @2:53
Thanks for the input, but I get the feeling you did not click on my links.
(Maybe I should have worded the link better.)
Anyway, you are missing out on my silliness if you don't go back
& click on my links at 1:36 & 1:50
P.S. Thanks, I did enjoy your puzzle.
CED - the best part of the Making a HARP video was when he said, "It's like playing a harmonica in a toaster..." Beer came out my nose.
Cheers, -T
Thanks Steve. Then 10 it is.
Canadian Eh, I liked your Isle Royale link. Also, local PBS station WTTW aired Joseph Rosendo's Travelscope episode "Surprising Toronto" yesterday. Made me want to visit and explore. Didn't realize that Toronto is North America's 4th or 5th largest city, which would put it just ahead or just behind Houston...
Anonymous T, you could have linked some more Nirvana and I would have listened. Funny state bill from my show me state friends.
Sorry, I'm way late again. Actually did this in my work van Thursday. Von Miller wouldn't have been MVP if they'd correctly him for his headslap on Cam, thus no TD and 15 yards to boot and a Panther win. Oh, I had TDS before the perps
I like to (Wag?) Non-xers for things like LAVA lamps
Finally, conspiracty theiry number 367 had Ari financing the JFK assassination and Winston the brains.
Oh well no one will read this anyhow.
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