Gail's fun gimmick on this Sunday is right in the title. If you take the TH off THIN, what's left is IN. Gail has removed the TH from common words and left us with nine fun and silly phrases to brighten up our weekend. Seven are across and two are down. C'mon, ya gotta love GAR BROOKS!
Gail's puzzle didn't really offer a (TH)ROUGH WAY to finish and so now let's look at her handiwork in detail
Theme Answers
27. Bud who's been fired? : CANNED BROTH - A fired friend OR... (Is the phrase CANNED BROTH familiar to you?)
29. Search online about auditory issues? : GOOGLE EARTH - "Would someone please GOOGLE EAR to see why Papa can't hear very well" OR a GOOGLE EARTH shot of my house below
46. GEICO gecko's financial counterpart? : CREDIT CARD THEFT - Changing the TH removal to inside the phrase putting our CWD friend EFT in a VISA promotion OR stealing your CREDIT CARD, e.g. using this "skimmer" inside a gas pump
68. One fastidious about table manners? : THEATER CRITIC - "Get your elbows off the table!" OR Bill and George checking out the reviews for Hamlet and Pygmalion
90. Editor's marks in the margin? : LATERAL THINKING -"...er, How about 'Listen to me' rather than 'Lend me your ears', Bill?" OR NASA spinoffs such as where wire developed for space is now used to make lower cost MRI's here on Earth
105. Displeased reaction to election turnout? : VOTING BOOTH - "Only 10% showed up for the primary?" OR a structure invented in Crete, Nebraska 105 years ago by my friend's great grandparents
109. Streams stocked with elongated fish? : GARTH BROOKS - Ugly, long-nosed fish in a small stream OR the performer who added four shows to his scheduled two in Omaha last year after 90,000 tickets were sold
39. Consequence of a heist injury? : THROBBING PAIN - A second-story man falling OR for me, a toothache
42. Part of a project to recycle golf accessories? : TEETH GRINDING - Questionable practice of remaking golf pedestals OR a problem requiring this
1. Let the tears out : BAWL
5. Fast-food pork sandwich : MCRIB - £4.19 in London
10. Oar : SCULL - A boy using two SCULLS (on rope for training/safety)
15. Datebook opening : SLOT - C.C. gives me an occasional SLOT for blogging
19. Ad, basically : LURE
20. "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," for one : ELEGY - Typically a lament for the dead
21. Riveting woman? : ROSIE - Lots of ROSIE'S didn't return to their old way of life after WWII and America was changed forever
22. Break-even transaction : WASH - Raise = $100/mo. Insurance increase = $100/mo.
23. Twistable snack : OREO
24. Rock guitarist Eddy : DUANE - 1958's twangy Rebel Rouser is my fav
25. Bungling : INEPT
26. Off-the-wall answer? : ECHO
31. Sources of complaints : ILLS
32. Porch furniture material : RATTAN
36. Breakfast grain : OAT
37. Course accomplishment : BIRDIE - Golf mini-theme with Irons and Tees
40. High-altitude home : AERIE - One at Kennedy Space Center I've been past many times
41. Maine course : LOBSTER - Nice!
45. 1941 FDR creation : USO - First one opened in DeRidder, LA 10 months before Pearl Harbor
50. "Bambi" role : ENA - Bambi's mother's sister.
51. Talmudic scholar : RABBI
53. Pull-down beneficiaries : LATS
54. Some tech sch. grads : EES - Electrical/Electronic Engineers
55. Spew out : EGEST
57. "Happy to help" : NO BOTHER - I prefer the Aussie version!
61. Smooth transition : SEGUE - Speaking of thermonuclear war...
62. "Hedda Gabler" playwright : IBSEN
63. Colorado county or its seat : PUEBLO - Just west of Pueblo is...
65. Kept for later : STORED - I STORED my Cheesecake Factory Monte Cristo Sandwich for four days and then, uh, pitched it
66. Reunion attendees : KIN
71. Medit. country : ISR
72. Bing's co-star in "The Bells of St. Mary's" : INGRID
75. Use as support : REST ON
76. Oscar winner Williams : ROBIN - Brilliant comic/actor whose dementia drove him to an untimely end
79. March VIP : ST PAT - Inside our ST PAT'S church here in Fremont
80. "Papa Bear" of football : HALAS - George who founded, owned and coached the Da Bears
81. Chicago's "in the Park" time : SATURDAY - "I think it was the fourth of July"
84. Mazda sports car : MIATA - Bought one and then my midlife crisis passed
85. Rocks in rye : ICE - "Oz never did give ICE to the Tinman"
86. Primatologist Fossey : DIAN
88. Easily deceived : NAIVE
89. One-time Capitol Records parent : EMI
95. "Get it done" : NOW
96. Alley game : TENPINS
98. Moto portrayer : LORRE - Some think Slovokian-born Peter's role as an Asian was racist
99. Evens up : ALIGNS - Keeping ALIGNMENT was very important here
101. High bond rating : AAA
102. Willowy : SVELTE
104. Radio-active sort? : CBER - "Breaker one-nine, ya got your ears on?"
114. Rare cry from the slots : I WON - See 88 Across - NAIVE
115. Come from behind : RALLY
117. Asian capital : HANOI
118. Technology prefix : NANO
119. It may be reserved : SEAT
120. Guadalajara gal pal : AMIGA
121. "What the Butler Saw" playwright : ORTON - "A risqué British comedy"
122. Chain with stacks : IHOP
123. Puts in : ADDS
124. Polite title : MADAM
125. Picking out, as a perp : IDING - Sometimes from a police lineup
126. Team that's played in the same park for 100 years : CUBS - Last World Series win predates even Wrigley Field
Down
1. Political coalition : BLOC
2. Intangible quality : AURA
3. Little singer : WREN
4. Ex-Soviet leader Brezhnev : LEONID
5. One getting too personal : MEDDLER - Ann Landers - "Is anything better because I do this?"
6. Caddies carry them : CLUBS
7. Back : REAR
8. "That's not important" : IGNORE IT - "... and it'll go away!" "Right!"
9. Tournament pass : BYE
10. __ Lanka : SRI
11. Dance in a line : CONGA - Wedding staple!
12. Apply to : USE ON
13. Slimming option, for short : LIPO - I should call today so Dr. Su could USE it ON me!
14. Release : LET GO OF
15. Term of affection : SWEETS
16. Make more potent : LACE
17. Org. with an Anti-Retaliation webpage : OSHA
18. Red-bearded god : THOR
28. Brings forth : ELICITS
30. Blood work, e.g. : LAB TEST - Even on man's best friend
33. Cultural pursuits : ARTS
34. It may be a sign of stress : TIC
35. Caddy contents, perhaps : TEA - Here's one for our tea fans
37. Ruin in the kitchen : BURN
38. Golfer Aoki : ISAO
40. Purim month : ADAR
41. Lower in price : LESS
43. Comes after : ENSUES
44. Like "American Sniper" : RATED-R - Words and sex don't stop us but violence does
47. Supreme Court appointee after Sonia : ELENA
48. Land on the sea? : REEL IN - Cute clue! Who's landing whom?
49. Stop on a line : DEPOT
52. Tiny Tim's dad : BOB - An employee of Scrooge and Marley at 15 bob/week
56. Graphic beginning? : GEO
58. Be mindful of : HEED
59. Breakaway factions : SECTS - Because of limits on SEX?
60. Iberian river to the Mediterranean : EBRO - Also Spain's longest river exclusively in Spain
63. Kitchen gadget : PEELER - Beetle Bailey's gadget on KP (from Mark Skoczen's March 23rd puzzle)
64. __ Minor : URSA - Contains the North Star
65. Conan Doyle, by birth : SCOT
66. Fate : KISMET
67. Eventually : IN TIME
69. Barely detectable amount : TRACE - We and Omaha got a TRACE of snow on 3.22.16 but NW of here...
70. Tabriz native : IRANI
73. State secrets? : RAT
74. Salad bar choice : ITALIAN
77. Criminal likely to get caught : BUNGLER - And maybe get ROBBING PAIN
78. Portfolio holding, for short : IRA
80. Stage successes : HITS - Like Springtime For Hitler in The Producers! :-)
81. Benefit : SAKE
82. Lady's company? : AVON - We had many bottles of this for the 360 kids on my detasseling buses to repel bugs in the corn fields
83. Trees used for archery bows : YEWS
86. Scuttlebutt : DIRT - What candidates are uncovering on their opponents these days
87. Concerning, with "to" : IN REGARD
91. Parties, to pirates : ANAGRAM
92. Part of IPA : ALE
93. Bit of cybermirth : LOL
94. Picking up : NABBING - Some wonder why Brussels police weren't NABBING the Paris bomber mastermind sooner
97. Goes over the wall? : PAINTS
100. Having a twist : IRONIC
102. Not flimsy : SOLID - Remember the PR IS M reveal on 3.25.16 being clued as Solid
103. Europe's longest river : VOLGA
104. Sing like Rudy Vallee : CROON
105. Plastic choice : VISA
106. Had to pay : OWED - At least the minimum on your VISA
107. Despicable sort : TOAD
108. The Tide : BAMA
110. Dead set against : ANTI
111. Island where Bette Midler was born : OAHU
112. A lock may be in one : KNOB - KNOT was undone by CUBS for my last fill
113. Soaks (up) : SOPS
116. Holiday veggie : YAM
117. __ polloi : HOI - Just us folks or who ALL candidates say they are for until they cross the Potomac
Hanks, Gail, I ink is puzzle's eme was ouroughly enjoyable and not ird-rate to ose of us here! Now let's rill to e comments of oers!
24 comments:
Greetings!
fast
Thanks, Gail and Gary!
Another great puzzle from Gail! Cute theme!
ELEGY was a wag. ORTON and HALAS were perped. Otherwise, pretty fast.
Saw a great Call the Midwife special tonight. Regular shows tomorrow.
Have a great Sunday!
Morning, all!
I did eventually grock the theme, but it tool a little while since CANNED BROth was not familiar to me. I thought the puzzle was relatively easy overall, with my biggest struggle occurring in the NE where I wanted SWEETIE but grudgingly settled for SWEETY instead. That hid the wonderfully clued LOBSTER from sight. Also, I had LETGO__ in place and just couldn't think of how to end the phrase. I did finally think of LOBSTER, which got me SWEETS, LET GO OF and CREDIT CARD EFT.
Thank you Gail and Gary.
Bungling in a clue and BUNGLER as an answer, but I never noticed until the review.
11 seconds over my Sunday target time. Nuts.
Had three theme answers filled before looking at the puzzle title and figuring it out.
Just a few type overs. My initial entry for March VIP was SOUSA, and Alley game started as BOWLING.
Small correction Gary. To me, that looked like a speaker and might be part of an alarm rather than a skimmer. It's a pic of John Garrity of Loxahatchee Electronics Corporation with a mock-up gas pump that houses his security systems. He sells thousands of those $695.00 "Defender One" alarms that prevent skimming. Where were the skimmers found ?
Anonymous-T. I missed both Final Four games. Don't know what happened to OU, but I heard that Nova had the second highest field goal percentage in NCAA history, shooting (I think they said) 71 %.
Good morning!
I liked the puzzle just fine. Solving it with Across Lite, not so much. Thought I'd try it one time rather than print it out. Now I know what to say to those urging, "Try it, you'll like it."
Gail was very punny, and Husker was very informative. Hand up for BOWLING before TEN PINS showed up. At Wally-World you'll find your broth in a box, not a can. I've visited DeRidder, LA. As I recall, the Sabine River bridge on I-10 was closed for some reason, and we had to detour north to find an alternate place to cross into Texas. Don't remember seeing any military there.
Husker, was Penny your waitress at the Cheesecake Factory? And was her prompt service the reason why the Monte Cristo was four days old?
Very creative puzzle and write-up! Love the fun twists for the theme clues and that the constructor changed where the TH was dropped for different theme answers.
Thanks Gail and HG!
Had some trouble getting up to speed on this one. Had to rely on the perps to get the early themers, so it wasn't until credit card eft that it became evident. That helped a lot going forward. Favorite theme was Voting Boo. BTW, Gary, it's worth noting that the company that made all those booths was founded by a woman......and that it very recently closed down despite the national ink it's gotten in the past few weeks.
Thanks for the fun run Gail and the write up Gary.
OPENING DAY !!! ... and NORM (from Cheers) is throwing out the "First Pitch" !!!
It doesn't get any better than this!
Cheers!
Faster than most Sundays. The theme was fun, but I would have been better off without the title. In the paper it said THIS IS IN, which misled me. CREDIT CARD EFT clued me in, which was very helpful, but I couldn't match it with the title.
I am very allergic to AVON Skin So Soft. Achoo, achoo achoo!!!Hiking with someone wearing it made me hang back several yards. HG, I would have died on your bus.
Very windy and cold here, but sunny. The power has gone off several times. We saw a very, very light dusting of snow when we woke up.
Thanks for a great start to the day, Gail and Gary.
The title in my newspaper was THIS IS IN which made no sense. Maybe that's a good excuse why I didn't catch on to the theme until "voting boo."
Thanks to Gary for your very interesting comments and to Gail for your well-executed puzzle.
Go Villanova!!!
Good Morning:
A fun, clever offering from a constructor who never disappoints, IMO. Caught the theme early on and that certainly helped with the solve. Had a few w/o's but all fell into place in the end.
Everything is blanketed with the "white stuff" that fell during the night. We're supposed to have very high winds today and more snow tomorrow. April weather it ain't!
I finally bit the bullet yesterday and did my taxes. What a royal pain in the neck! I'm getting a refund which surprises me because I thought I had adjusted my withholding accordingly. BTW, is anyone aware that the price of a first class stamp is going from .49 to .47 on April 10th? Will wonders ever cease?
Have a great day.
Sorry! I forgot. Thanks Gail and Gary for a pleasant and entertaining Sunday stroll! 😇
Hi there~!
Got the theme at Google EAR, but fumbled about trying to come up with the "INKING" answer. Not sure if VOTING BOO or CREDIT CARD EFT was my favorite. Seemed tougher than usual, but that may be because I had WEEP for BAWL, SWAP for WASH, WICKER for RATTAN, and ERUPT for EGEST.
I prefer this "rock guitarist" Eddie - his Cathedral, not his ERUPTion
Nice write-up Husker, looks like a well-planned neighborhood you're in~!
Splynter
No time to read comments. Later. DNF because of CREDIT CARD EFT but got theme nevertheless. Knew PUEBLO from having lived in Denver five years, eons ago. A slow slog but fun along the way. Thank you, Gail and Gary.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Hi everybody. Thanks Gail and Gary. I really enjoyed that. (I just now finally sussed out Parties for pirates >> ANAGRAM. And I had a half can of V-8 with breakfast too. I may have to increase my dosage to a whole can!)
I wish we'd get a little dusting of snow. It happened at least once before I moved here in 1963.
I visited some Internet friends in Maine years ago and was treated to Moxie, Whoopie Pies and lobster. It turns out there are some learned techniques to eating a lobster correctly.
The damn Dodgers and damn Time-Warner still can't come to an agreement whereby the rest of us folks can watch them on TV, and with this being Vin Scully's last year too. A pox on both of their houses.
Wow! This one filled so fast from NW to SE that I didn't even look for or notice a theme until I filled EEL BROOKS and then it hit me. Duh. my only mistake was misspelling INEPT as 'ineTP' and that quickly corrected itself. The three unknowns, ORTON, IBSEN, & ELEGY, were rapidly filled by perps and I had to go back and look at their clues to make sure they were right.
Yea, I WON this morning.
As far as credit card skimmers are concerned, gas pumps have another 17 months before they will be required to accept the cards with chips or the station owner will be liable for all fraudulent transactions.
Bill,
If you have ESPN, you can watch the Pirates Cardinals game that is starting now.
I just got back in the nick of time from Lowes. Found the fungicide I need for my flowering crab, but it's too windy to spray, so it looks like I'll have to watch the baseball opener.
Fun puzzle. Thanks for the expo, Gary.
Hey Tin Man - Did you have to close your eyes when you filled in 85A?
Joe Orton was a hugely talented playwright; his life sadly and violently cut short.
I have to do this fast so I hope I am not repeating.
My favorite Super Bowl Ad with an ECHOgram
Doritos_Ad
After working on this weks's puzzle, we are awarding Gail the "Marisa Tomei" award - "it's a bullshit clue". Clues?? Take you pick.
Fun puzzle! I didn't get the fanfare after filling in all the cells; it turned out to be a typo: I hit the A key instead of the S key. A really cool theme, I thought. I always like a Gail Grabowski work.
Hi Y'all! Sorry, but I'm VOTING BOO to this theme. The title said "Thin is in" when obviously TH was out. Annoyingly misleading and forced pun-wise. But I'm almost never on Gail's wave-length. I caught on to the trick finally with GAR BROOKS which helped with about three higher theme fills. Last fill was the "R" for REEL IN/CREDIT CARD EFT with an alphabet run. Made absolutely no sense to me, since I thought CARDEFT was one word. Finally remembered about that little newt. But by then I was entirely out of sorts. And I woke up in a good mood.
On the other hand, Gary's clip of the REEL IN made me laugh out loud so I sat and watched that awhile. Took away some of the PAIN of the puzzle. Thank you very much!
Actually I did pretty well filling about two-thirds of the thing. NW & NE were snowed in until the last. MCRIB was my only fill.
I was about half done when the puzzle disappeared so I had to reconstruct and didn't remember some of the perps I struggled with the first time. I did fill the whole thing thanks to red flag warnings. Windy today so I think my internet provider cable must be shorting out.
I was in a good mood because my daughter & SIL took me to dinner yesterday for a late birthday treat then out to a little lake where the city has developed a gorgeous garden with thousands of tulips in bloom as well as flowering trees. My foot is healed enough to let me walk through this magic place. So lovely and fragrant. We watched a bald eagle aerie across the lake for awhile, but the eagles weren't in sight anywhere. Lots of ducks & geese & even a bride arriving for her wedding in the garden house where we had our family New Years party.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Gail Grabowski, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Gary: I liked the package of Earl Grey Tea you displayed. That is my tea!
Puzzle seemed easy for a while, then got tough. After a while I figured out the theme and that helped a lot.
My favorite was CREDIT CARD EFT. EFT Is is one of our crossword staples.
SCULL reminded me of a book I just read, "The Boys in the Boat." One of the best books I have ever read. True story of the Sculling team from Seattle, WA, that made it into the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. I could not put the book down.
Took me a while to get SATURDAY at 81A. That little area was tough.
Well, we will see what the CUBS do this year. I am going on the 14th.
See you tomorrow, or maybe later tonight if I can get through the Saturday puzzle. I got it about 80 percent, but am stuck.
Abejo
( )
Why is CUBS printed in gray and red?
This is just the way the online solve works. The grey and red are the highlights used on the word being worked on. CUBS just happen to be the last word.
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