Title: Cereal killer on the loose...
Wow! Three JW puzzles in succession and each one a completely different look. Today is totally silly, taking a single letter out of a cereal name to create a very foolish sounding concoction. If he had some deep meaning for the theme I missed it. I found this just plain fun. Lots of substantial and original fill with some Friday words interspersed and his usual multiple word fill. PARFAIT, ON A RIDE, LAVORIS, FLORIST, I'LL HIDE, CLEANER, SETTERS, TRADE IN, PLANARIA, DERRIERE, INCHOATE, ROPE KNOT, ON RECEIPT and ARTICHOKE are all great. So get your milk, and pull up a chair.
18A. Knockoff cereal? : FROSTED F
28A. Cold cereal? : PUFFED
37A. Recalled cereal? : FROOT
48A. Prohibited cereal? : RAISIN B
57A. Mystery cereal? : SHREDDED WH
Across:
1. Did a gondolier's job : POLED. Venice (Vennis) anyone?
15. Freshwater flatworms : PLANARIA. Ucky but interesting to study WORMS.
16. Hiker's challenge : RAVINE. A deep narrow steep-sided valley, esp one formed by the action of running water.
17. Caboose : DERRIERE. Not of the train, but of the body. French.
21. Runner in the Alps : SKI. Nice misdirection.
22. Expire : CEASE.
26. "And if __, no soul shall pity me": King Richard III : I DIE. They did not pity RIII even after Shakespeare tried to help. RGIII anyone?
32. Charged wheels : TESLAS. Electric cars.
35. With 24-Down, course for future pundits : POLI. 24D. See 35-Across : SCI. Political Science.
36. Hägar creator Browne : DIK.
40. "Get off the stage!" : BOO. Hiss.
43. Corrida figure : TORO. The bull.
44. Philosophers' subject : ETHICS.
51. "Ex's & Oh's" singer King : ELLE.
52. MetLife competitor : AFLAC. Insurance companies.
53. Span of note : ERA.
56. Court mulligan : LET. The odd tennis do over on your first serve.
62. Disorganized : INCHOATE. Really more unformed than disorganized, especially in the law.
65. Emmy-winning role for Julia : ELAINE Benes.
66. Mooring hitch, for one : ROPE KNOT. As opposed to a rope loop?
67. More thoughtful : KINDER.
68. Deal on a lot : TRADE IN.
69. Round components, maybe : BEERS. Whew, half done, let me get this round.
Down:
1. Baskin-Robbins offering : PARFAIT. I never knew they had these.
2. Enjoying the amusement park : ON A RIDE.
3. Brand that's swirled, not swallowed : LAVORIS. From my childhood; kids in school drank it for the alcohol content. Scope really derailed this brand, I think.
5. They're forbidden : DON'TS.
6. Little nipper : FLEA. Too many choices.
7. Frolic : LARK.
8. How some deliveries are paid : ON RECEIPT. COD?
9. Brought up : RAISED.
10. Choler : IRE.
11. Mr. Bumble, to Oliver Twist : SIR.
12. __ Bo : TAE.
14. "The Big Bang Theory" figure : GEEK. Rhymes with 25D. "That's scary!" : EEK. 54D. Be offensive, in a way : REEK. Did you watch GOT and the REEK?
15. Freebie from Adobe : PDF. Portable Document Format.
19. Go down : DIP. Love these two together.
23. Prop up : AID.
27. Middle-earth figure : ELF.
29. __ point: with limitations : UP TO A. A partial?
30. Rock's __ Fighters : FOO. When Cobain died, his drummer founded THEM.
31. Penguin's perch : FLOE. Sorry Tin, but it is ice.
33. Edible thistle : ARTICHOKE. Man there is so much more to this thistle (say that fast) than just using it as part of a dip. It has HEART. We miss you marti.
34. "Just another minute" : SOON.
38. Spheroid : ORB. JW tends to bunch his threes to get long fill in the other direction.
39. Ewe or sow : SHE.
40. It may be wired : BRA.
41. Boor : OAF.
42. Peanut product : OIL.
45. Offer to a potential seeker : I'LL HIDE. I did love hide and seek in the back yard.
46. Dry __ : CLEANER.
47. English and Irish : SETTERS.
49. Like some beauty contest winners : SASHED. JW used this image recently.
50. Neighbor of Homer : NED. Flanders on the Simpsons.
58. Indian royal : RANI.
59. "The most private of private schools," to Hugh Laurie : ETON.
60. Rizzoli of "Rizzoli & Isles": Abbr. : DETective.
61. Decrease : WANE.
62. NYC subway : IRT. Interborough Rapid Transit was a private company until bought by the city in 1940.
63. "__ will I" : NOR. Talk about your obscure clue/fill combos. Am I missing a famous quote?
64. IRS employee : CPA. Certified Public Accountant.
Back from a wonderful brief vacation in Denver with both sons, dil and granddaughters. This lighthearted effort is just what I needed coming back on short rest. I hope you had fun and enjoy the rest of April. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
Here are a few great photos from Lemonade's Denver trip.
My day started with this
48 comments:
SE corner nearly bamboozled me, but I persevered and finished without any red! The fun theme held no unpleasant surprises from a computer, nor fortunate misfortunes, i.e. no Apple acks or Lucky harms!
A wedding is planned in the woods, and the reason,
Bride and groom were scouts, in the B.S.A. legion!
They would tie a ROPE KNOT!
The flowers were brought
By the caterer, who used his hot FLORIST/fryer season!
The weather was FROSTED as he went out to SKI;
His breath PUFFED out fog that was easy to see!
Down the slope he was headed,
As the quick turns he SHREDDED --
He skied very well for a circus-RAISED FLEA!
It began as a LARK, with spring in the AIR,
A PLANARIA worm fell for a lady worm fair!
He wooed, "I feel ya
Should give me your cilia
In marriage!" "No, silly, I'm your own DERRIERE!"
{C, A-, A+.}
Morning, all!
Loved the theme today, and also loved seeing some great fill like INCHOATE, PLANARIA and DERRIERE. Wasn't particularly thrilled with ROPE KNOT, however, and that was a bizarrely obscure way to clue SIR. Still, a very enjoyable puzzle.
ARTICHOKES are thistles? Definitely today's learning moment.
Swift is a type of bird, thus its medium is air. That took me a long time to figure out. I thought, for sure, it was "pop" for Taylor Swift.
Good morning!
Liked this one. Even got the theme, and that helped. I got SHREDDED WHAT? immediately upon reading the clue. LAVORIS was popular in my ute. So was Cepacol. Not sure either is still available. Nice job, Jeff.
Lemon, I think the SWIFT mentioned is of the avian variety. Of course, it could be a tune/AIR of the Taylor variety.
I was AWOL yesterday; annual physical in Houston plus a stand-in volunteer gig around here. It's been a busy week.
Sorry, Anon. You were writin' whilst I was thinkin'.
I was actually thinking Jonathan Swift until the light bulb finally went on...
JW got me this week on the cross of INCHOATE & DET. I knew it would be a vowel and picked the wrong one. I was all over the place on the top before it finally filled with OARED becoming POLED, CANYON to RAVINE, APP to PDF, LAPSE to CEASE. Didn't know they even made LAVORIS any more.
The bottom was 'easier' except my wrong guess. Gotta go. Zurich Classic and DR. appt.
I would like to give a big Corner shout out to Beyonce for naming her album, tour and mini-movie LEMONADE
She is such a sweetie
Hand up for Jonathan Swift. Putting WIT in at 20A and WINDUP for antique watches at 12A left the rest of the northeast pretty empty until I backed into it later.
Always thought Foo Fighters got their name referring to kung fu martial arts until I stumbled across a reference to UFOs in WWII https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Fighters
"Puzzling Thoughts":
Lemon, are you getting tired of always doing Wechlers'? Seems to be an ongoing relationship between you two!! ;^)
I cheated a bit here and there, and had a few write overs - e.g., ROMP then LEAP before LARK; REARED before RAISED; OARED before POLED. But once I got RAISIN BAN (my first of the themed answers) the rest were pretty easy. Didn't realize that it was spelled FROOT Loops - most all of those cereals were ones I remember as a kid. SHREDDED Wheat came three biscuits in a paper sleeve. Tasted like paper, too! Couldn't put too much sugar on it to make it edible ...
Today's Haiku:
Penguin's moving away.
Global Warming causing this;
He'll go with the FLOE
Funny, I knew you'd mention Marti today, but I thought it would be with the SKI answer.
Is that Manischewitz you're drinking in that top pic?
Any chance you can lose the neon green letters in your write-ups? I find it very difficult to make them out.
Have a great weekend!
i was drinking the Manischewitz, but we also had some not sweet Israeli red that was popular
hard to type, i have an oblique fracture in my left radius and i am left handed
I guess I was hoping Jeff would take a break this week. But I did manage to wrestle it to the ground. Got the theme with Raisin Ban and that made the other 3 pretty easy to guess with a few helpful perps. Still, there was enough esoterica like Inchoate and Planaria that made it pretty brutal. Hoping for a Silkie tomorrow to get some rest.
Good Morning:
I struggled mightily with this Wexie, to the point where I was heading for a DNF. Held onto caterer vs florist for much too long and just couldn't seem to break through in a couple of other areas. I thought the Swift medium=air a reference to Taylor Swift's music being played on the air. It took a long time for parfait to fill in, even though I had poled from the get-go. The theme was very clever and some of the cluing was downright devious, but I managed to finish w/o help, albeit in much longer time than usual for a Friday.
Kudos, Jeffrey, for a very challenging offering and thanks, Lemonade, for an excellent expo. (Lemon, I can't believe how much Charlotte has grown.)
Lucina, your last post yesterday gave me a good chuckle! Are you being affected by the scorpion invasion mentioned in the newspaper?
Have a great day.
Hello Puzzlers -
What Avg. Joe said. Being able to guess the theme answers early helped immensely.
FROOT OOPS was my fav until I got to SHREDDED WHAT? A delightful slog while subbing with amazing fill to complement the clever theme as per Lemon’s summation.
Musings
-OARED, ROWED, POLED. Bingo, we have a winner in the NW corner that was my last area
-Where in the world have I been storing PLANARIA that it came out so fast?
-My Swift was in the OIL medium until LAVORIS appeared. Turns out there is a Patrick SWIFT who did work in OIL
-Putting your charged car under these would solve a lot of problems
-I wonder if they teach ETHICS in POLI SCI?
-My cousin works for AFLAC and tried to hit me up for a policy at a family picnic. Really?
-Volleyball serves can now hit the net and they keep playing. No LETS or points.
-We all know that guy who goes to the bathroom when it’s his turn for a ROUND
-Ultimate GEEK t-shirt and revenge
-We have Propped Up some dubious governments over the years
-Jerry went to this heckler’s office and heckled her later in the episode
Good morning everyone.
Nice pictures, Lemonade. Thanks for sharing.
Pretty much WEES. Got the theme with RAISIN BAN, but was unaware of the FROOT spelling so that bolluxed me up for a while.. I eschew sugared cereals. Did have to look up PLANARIA.(Perps were too obstinate.) Perps were friendly in the SW so I got INCHOATE. Scratched my head over ROPEKNOT. Think eye splice is more common on larger vessels. (not a nit).
SHREDDED WHEAT - loved it as a kid. We called them 'bales'.
Some real obscure stuff as with the ETON and ELIS clues.
20 across had me stumped,and I put in "wit" for Swift's medium. Only after looking at the solution did I realize the author was thinking of a "BIRD!" :-(
Rope? Not! -- otherwise a very pleasantly challenging romp.
Fun, fun! Loved the theme and the challenge. Never heard of INCHOATE, but perps came through! Thanks, JW!
Nice write-up, Lemonade. Well done!
I laughed out loud at SHREDDED WHAT. Fun theme. Typically difficult Jeff Wechsler Friday puzzle; an enjoyable way to spend a large chunk of the morning. What Northwest Runner said. Best wishes to you all.
Wow, super crunchy Friday. I agree with the above posters, Swift medium referring to the bird, IMO. Also didn't care for ROPEKNOT, as a mooring hitch is a knot, but ROPE KNOT is 2 words and the clue should have indicated that.
5 in a row, that means tomorrow will be a crusher.
Another fun Friday. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemonade (nice photos also).
I started with a sea of white (thought I was on an ice FLOE with that penguin!) and eventually resorted to red letters. I got RAISIN BAN first (DH's favourite cereal) and laughed out loud when I got PUFFED ICE (poor Tin but at least he got BEERS!) and SHREDDED WHAT. My kids loved FROOT Loops but I would only buy them occasionally because of their high sugar content and dyes. (I'm a Mean Mother!)
Hand up for Rowed/Oared before POLED, Reared before RAISED, and for thinking of Marti at SKI. Noted the different cluing for the common ERA and ELLE. My thought process went through Taylor Swift, Tom Swift, chimney swift before reaching the bird, swift!
Not familiar with AFLAC and IRT but pulled INCHOATE and PLANARIA out of the memory bank.
Enjoy the day.
Happy photos from Lemonade's trip! Good to see them.
I couldn't get started on today's pzl until half way through my first scan. The breakthrough for me was OAF, a frequent pzl pal, and that gave me BOO, BRA, OIL and then AFLAC. I always enjoy seeing how one crack in the dam is followed by a flood -- well, a hearty trickle in this case ...
Finally, this was Wechsler-tough for me. Three (count 'em, THREE!) lookups in all. Not counting checks and confirmations.
I'm with desper-otto in supposing that "Swift" refers to birds, for whom AIR is the natural "medium." My thinking started with Jonathan Swift, but I couldn't think of anything besides FUN that might apply (awkwardly) to his dark comic style. Taylor Swift came to mind next, and when I decided AIR was the answer, my ol' brain justified it as a variation of "tune" or "song." But I prefer desper-otto's reasoning.
Well, my great puzzle success this week crashed today. I got the bottom half of the puzzle with little problem but had a terrible time with the top half and had to cheat tons in the end, even though I had gotten the theme pretty early. Still, fun, and great wedding flower pic, Lemonade.
At least I got my very first "diabolical" Sudoko ever this morning--made me feel a little less stupid.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!
It took quite a while to get a toehold. SHREDDED WHAT was my Rosetta stone. The gimmick helped tremendously. Challenging and time consuming, but doable. Loved it,Jeff. BTW I am not a fan of any cereal, hot or cold. I can eat RAISIN BRAN,if need be, but without milk. Cereal’s texture with milk is icky to me.
As always, fun, informative and interesting blogging, Lemon. Much thanks.
With a few perps I dredged up PLANARIA from my college days.
I believe INCHOATE as disorganized can be forgiven. INCHOATE typically means not yet completed or fully developed; rudimentary. When you begin a project or essay you have all these random bits and pieces of ideas floating around. They are disorganized and disparate but will come into play soon. As the creative process gels, many of them become organized and coherent. From these inchoate beginnings you achieve success.
In the U.S. the AFLAC spokesperson (duck) is ubiquitous on TV ads. I used to like him, but now he is too much of a good thing.
PK, thanks for your concern. Alan has had 8 out of the 11 past months dealing with pain and physical dysfunction with over-lapping issues. As soon as one problem is resolved another pops up. The latest is decalcifying bones. Years ago we replaced all his teeth with implants. Thankfully he had a delightful respite in the late summer, July, August and September. I am rooting for a great summer for him this year, too. We have scheduled vacations and trips within 3 to 6 hours of home this summer, hesitating to go overseas and be so far from home.
I, too, have been contacted by the FBI, via robo calls. Would you believe it? It might be fun for all us ladies to share a cell. LOL.
Ooh, so late! Though it was hard and daunting, I loved this Jeffrey puzzle! Thank you, thank you. It took a whole lot of head scratching but as each FAKE CEREAL appeared I really chuckled. RAISINBAN was the first and I knew what to look for. Many pitfalls slowed me, REARED/RAISED, ROWED/POLED, BEADS/BEERS (that was a loud laugh when it hit me).
Since I haven't been to Baskin Robbins in decades and have eschewed all desserts had to research PARFAIT and the rest of the NW corner fell. Hand up for thinking Jonathan Swift. I enjoyed All those esoteric words mentioned already.
Thank you, Lemonade, and how nice of Beyoncé to think of you!
IrishMiss:
I have no idea where the scorpion invasion is; usually when new construction starts that brings them out. I have seen a live scorpion only once in my life.
My daughter had minor surgery today so I'm off to visit her.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
If you thought JW gave you a work out today, go printout the CHE PUZZLE crafted by C.C. and Don hard G.
I have been working off and on all day on it and think I may have it done.
Lucina, my longing is for potato chips rather than sweets. I,too, need to keep to a lower A1C. I am keeping my weigh 35 to 40 pounds lighter than a year and a half ago, often with a struggle. I sympathize with facing the tabus. A positive side beyond better health is the wonderful clothing that fits and the compliments.
for the curious, i uploaded my picture leaving the orthopod this am
Lucina @ 2:56 - I may have misread the article but I could swear it referred to Phoenix. OTOH, it could have been a prediction rather than an actual occurrence. Oh well, keep your eyes on alert, just in case. 🦂
Lemony, your picture brought back memories of my hand surgery aftermath. I hope you fare better than I did.
YR, I'm with you; chips rule and 🍿 runs a close second.
Geez, today's write up seems more like lemony's Facebook thread than a crossword puzzle summary.
Thanks for the confirmation Lemony. A few years back I don't think Jayce believed me when I referred to an Orthopaedic Surgeon as an Orthopod. It may not be entirely in the vernacular, but it's a common phrase in the profession, and has nothing to do with crustaceans.
Today's puzzle was seriously challenging, but not humiliating. Not so with Jeapordy. I had more bad guesses than good today. Damn good thing I wasn't playing, I guess.
Wees, but DNF.
The NW stumped me, I thought it had to be 1A Oared because the 1D
had to be Oreo"something."
Some other dubious breakfast choices:
A
B
C
D
Lemon, I don't remember seeing that broken arm when I looked this AM?
I, for one, am curious as to how you did that...
Give me some clever zaniness and I'm happy. Thanks, Jeffrey... perfect.
Lemonade- Thanks for the heads up about the CHE puzzle. Tough one (literally), but once you get it it's a super aha moment. Don and C.C. you're both evil!
The crossword setter needs to look up the eang of "inchoate".
He is confusing it, I think with "incoherent".
Raymond, what do you mean? Inchoate cannot possibly be related to incoherent. Did YOU look it up?
YR:
This may be the hardest journey of my life: no sweets and keeping the weight off. I do look forward to shopping for a new wardrobe but I'm waiting to be a size 10 or, could it be possible, an 8? I haven't seen that size since I was 30. At present I'm down to a 12 and everything fits loosely.
Congratulations, Lucina!
Avg Joe, not sure that was me. In any case, I do like the term orthopod.
Wow! Good for you, Lucina. I keep to a size ten. The ego boost and the encouragement from friends are worth it. Frankly my self image is a stronger motivator than health is. Younger clothes are so much fun. I have a few 8s which I aspire to and hang outside my closet and press towatds.I strongly beleve that exercise is the key to weight and glucose control. It lowers blood pressure and cholesterol. It contributes to heart health. The extreme effort is difficult but worthwhile. Take heart. We can do it t together.
it reminds of the man with one leg who was always pestered about how he lost his leg. finally he said to the people asking, " all right, get together, i will answer one question and only one question."
so they asked him the most direct question, " how did you lose your leg?"
" it was bit off " he said.
i my case i fell backwards.
H everybody. You've all been so thoughtful that I thought I would try to keep you up to date on Barbara's medical issues. We went for a followup visit to the doctor today. (She seems very nice and competent.) She took out the catheter and there was an immediate, almost miraculous improvement in Barbara's mood and appearance. Almost all of the discomfort disappeared. The doctor said she would have to come in again for a followup outpatient surgery to try to remove any pieces of the tumor that remained. She said that while it was invasive, that she would try to treat it by injecting stuff into the bladder that would inhibit the tumor's growth. Otherwise, she will need further surgery. So it's hard to know what to make of all of this. I'm worried but the good news is that Barbara feels so much better now that the catheter is out. Here's hoping...
So we went out to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch to celebrate. Soup, Waldorf salad, a small pizza, Arnold Palmers and a shared piece of Key Lime pie for dessert.
Hi Y'all! this would have been impossible for me without red-letters. Caught on to the theme with PUFFED ICE which I found amusing and helpful with the others. Thanks, Jeffrey! Thanks, Lemony, loved your pictures. You look so happy until the break. Best wishes for healing.
Never knew what inchoate meant. Still don't, but thanks for the help, YR. Not sinking in today.
PLANARIA: I googled it after I had it. Still don't know if these worms are helpful, just interesting to study or parasitic.
Had praline before PARFAIT. Never been to Baskin Robbins. I've been on a low-sweet diet since the 70's but it didn't keep the pounds from piling on when I was laid up multiple times. Congratulations on your successful weight loss, Lucina & YR. I haven't worn an 8 since third grade. I weighed 107# when I graduated from high school, was rail thin, and wore a JR size 13 because my bone structure required it -- wide shoulders & hip bones. Oh, and other "outstanding" feminine stuff. I've managed to lose 10# in this calendar year which is nothing short of miraculous for me.
YR: I don't like cereal either, but eat RAISIN BrAN for medicinal purposes with milk and sugarless applesauce on it.
BillG: Thanks for the update on Barbara. Will continue to hope for good things for her. Doesn't sound like much fun.
A Swift is a bird!
Bill, so good to hear that Barbara feels so much better. Thank you for keeping us all in the loop.
Bill, that is good news about Barbara. I wish her continued good health and healing.
YR:
Absolutely about exercise. I believe that is what has greatly accelerated the weight loss. I had been getting slack and skipping it altogether at times, but now with this new diagnosis my motivation has increased and I'm being consistent.
With or without weight issues exercise is very important as we age.
Bill thanks for the update and good health wishes for all who come to hangout at the Corner.
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