Title: Where are the Property Brothers when you need them? At my HOUSE.
Our first Mike Buckley of the year, the last being a wonderful sound alike PUN puzzle which I blogged last July. Today the reveal tells us that we have to add the word "HOUSE" to the end of the theme fill. But this must be in our heads as there are no spaces. The clue makes no sense without the added HOUSE. In the CW world of rebus and meta puzzles, this is a simple version. Long before the reveal, starting with 1A, you know something is up when you cannot make sense of the clues. I got the idea with GLASS, from the old story about people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. That made Bird and Club fit. I had a hell of a time finding twelve after reading the reveal: 41A. See 30-Down : BOUND. 30D. With 41-Across, quarantined, and a hint to completing 12 puzzle answers : HOUSE. My hang up was 1D, which is symmetrical with 54D and must be the 12th, but I was unfamiliar with barrelhouse jazz...anyway there some interesting long fill such as GROANER, CAGIEST, ALL AT SEA, SEPARATE, RINGLING, FELL INTO, RED PLANET and a personal favorite AD HOMINEM. Sometimes the added house stands alone sometimes it just makes a single word. Okay, the realtor is here to take us on a tour.
1A. Frequent flier's respite : BIRD (HOUSE). Birdies fly too you know.
5A. Dressing room of a sort : CLUB(HOUSE). Where HG goes to put on his spikes.
9A. Proverbially exposed place : GLASS (HOUSE). The pun version is about the tribal king who lived in a lavish two story grass hut in the jungle. He got in a competition with another tribal leader and they started having fancy thrones made to out do the other. Sadly the first chief had his thrones in the second floor and they crashed down killing him. Moral: People who live in grass houses should not store thrones.
71A. Coastal attraction : LIGHT (HOUSE). We have a little one we go to at the Hillsboro inlet.
72A. Kids' hideout : TREE
73A. Where an inch may represent a foot : DOLL
1D. Uninhibited jazz style : BARREL
13D. Place of refuge : SAFE
33D. The Twinings shop at 216 Strand in London, e.g. : TEA
38D. Zoo : MAD
54D. 1978 comedy classic : ANIMAL
60D. Theater with no seats? : FULL
And the already revealed reveal
41A. See 30-Down : BOUND. 30D. With 41-Across, quarantined, and a hint to completing 12 puzzle answers : HOUSE.
Across:
14. Trendy berry : ACAI. You know it as LINK.
15. Bausch + Lomb brand : RENU. Clean your contacts.
16. Missouri campus town : ROLLA. Talk about stuff I do not know,you can start HERE.
17. 38-Across nickname : RED PLANET. 38A. Fourth of eight : MARS. Did you watch Matt Damon in the MARTIAN? Thoughts?
19. __ Olay : OIL OF.
20. Bread flavoring : RAISIN. Flavoring?
21. Stand between : SEPARATE. Always dangerous.
24. Kindle downloads: Abbr. : BKS. Books.
26. Multipart opus : NONET. Nine.
27. "The Merry Widow" composer : LEHAR. Hungarian Composer FRANZ.
29. Leitmotif : THEME. Fancy.
31. Park it : SIT.
34. Author of epistolas : PAOLO. Epistles: Paul.
36. Girlfriend of Garfield : ARLENE.
44. Singly : APIECE. Did you KNOW?
46. Percolates : SEEPS.
48. Home in the woods : DEN. Or the jungle.
49. First of 12 : ARIES. Houses of the Zodiac. And, 18. First sign of fall : LIBRA. Hmm, fall starts September 21 which is in Virgo....
51. "__ español?" : HABLA. No intiendo.
55. Be unable to swallow : GAG ON.
57. Summer shade : TAN.
59. Hermione's love : RON. When you saw the first movie, or read the first book, weren't you sure she would end up with Harry?
63. Michener's "The Bridges at __" : TOKO-RI. His books were always so detailed.
66. Appealing to prejudice rather than intellect, as an argument : AD HOMINEM.
"Ad hominem, which stands for the Latin term argumentum ad hominem, is a response to a person's argument by attacking the person's character rather than the logic or content of the argument. Ad hominem remarks are often an example of fallacy, because they are irrelevant to the overall argument. " Also known as politics.
68. Large green moths : LUNAS. I always think of John Lampkin.
70. March Madness initials : NCAA.
Down:
2. Climber's tool : ICE AXE.
3. Salad slice : RADISH.
4. Tango moves : DIPS.
5. Original Model T need : CRANK.
6. Writer Deighton : LEN.
7. Arles articles : UNES. French.
8. Hydrocarbon obtained from crude oil : BUTENE.
10. French wine valley : LOIRE.
11. Totally confused : ALL AT SEA.
12. ATM feature : SLOT. There are lots of them.
22. Hair-styling stuff : POMADE. I will always remember Dapper Dan.
25. 1944 French battle site : STLO.
28. Choir recess : APSE.
32. B&B, maybe : INN.
35. Titania's husband : OBERON. Our Friday Shakespeare; A Midsummer Night's Dream.
37. Sax-playing Simpson : LISA.
39. Tailless simian : APE.
40. Big name in traveling shows : RINGLING.
42. Branch structure : NEST. This took awhile; a nest built on a branch?
45. Most foxy : CAGIEST.
47. __ Penh : PHNOM. Cambodia.
52. Super Bowl 50 champ : BRONCO. Good luck Peyton.
53. "Because you're worth it" brand : L'OREAL. This may be the first ad.
56. Islamic deity : ALLAH.
58. Make amends : ATONE.
61. Case for notions : ETUI.
62. Follower of Pepé Le Pew? : ODOR.
64. Big-hearted : KIND.
67. Weed tackler : HOE.
Well I hope you did not find too many weeds in this Friday frolic. Thank you Mr. Buckley and all of you who read. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
The fifth Minnesota Crossword Tournament will be held at the Landmark Center in St. Paul on June 12th, 2016 Sunday. Please click here for more details. Here is the direct registration link.
Jeffrey Wechsler will arrive here today. Welcome to Minnesota, Jeffrey!
61 comments:
How cool, I really would love to be there for your tournament. Minnesota rocks.
{B, C, C+, B-.}
The guys in the gang all wanted a CLUB HOUSE
Where girls couldn't come, so they builded a TREE HOUSE!
But as they grew older,
And hormones grew bolder,
Their NEST they found UTILE as a place-to-make-out HOUSE!
The MARS-man arrived from his homey RED PLANET
Where gambling was rare because Martians ban it!
He sought casinos in Nevada,
But because he "no HABLA",
Blew his wad in a bawdy-HOUSE, to a SLOT machine -- named Janet!
The maiden in LIBRA saw the scales were just right,
So she ran off with ARIES in the dark of the night!
But the old goat was a CRANK,
And his ODOR quite stank!
So she headed back home on a LUNA Lines flight!
The party was rolling, the DIPS were tex-mex
Everyone having fun, even some with an EX!
Each guest had their dish
Of a common snack mix --
The host was on budget, and so SEPARATE Chex!
Hi Y'all! Today my mind is like the proverbial cuckoos NEST. This one flew right over it. Thought a lot of the answers were odd but I just kept fillin' 'er in -- actually time after time because I kept loosing the puzzle and reconstructing it. That's kind of like a frequent flier with no respite in sight a/k/a BIRD brain. Thank you, Mike for a good pastime filler. Luckily Lemony filled me in on the real significance of the puzzle. Thanks, Jason.
I once spent a week on vacation in Rolla, MO, while my teenaged son went to engineer camp to see if he wanted to major in that in college. He came away enthusiastically knowing he did. I, on the other hand, learned I could survive as a single person seeing the sights. My husband had a last-minute emergency on the farm and couldn't go as planned. I hiked alone midweek in August in Mark Twain National Forrest and didn't see a person anywhere. Thought later, if I'd fallen and hurt myself I could have been there a long time. No one knew where I was.
No idea who Hermoine loved. I was thinking Greek goddess or opera and was shocked when RON perped up. Even then I never thought of H. Potter series.
Gee who do we know who does the Ad hominem thing? This was a learning moment for me. Didn't know the phrase until Lemony explained.
Morning, all!
Having done plenty of rebus puzzles in the NYT, I caught on to the gimmick pretty quickly. It would have been nice had the theme answers been clued with a star, of course, but whatever. Still pretty slow going for me, though, due to not knowing stuff like BARREL (as clued), ROLLA and TOKORI. They all looked wrong, but I eventually just had to trust from the perps that they were right. And they were!
Good morning!
Caught onto the gimmick before I'd completed the top row, and that helped immensely. Whoa, I'm likely to strain a muscle patting myself on the back. My only major slowdown was SESAME before RAISIN dawned on my bran. Remembered ROLLA; don't know why. Couldn't decide if it'd be XES or EXS. Learned at an early age that AD HOMINEM had nothing to do with making grits. Overall, this was a fun Friday outing. Thanks, Mike, and I forgive you for the awkward ALL AT SEA.
Lemon, the ATM's I frequent have just a single slot. Due to a recent "divorce" from Chase, I now patronize the ATM at the local Walgreens.
Hello Puzzlers -
No TaDa today, turns out that Oberon gets mad if you spell his name as Uberon. And Paulo looked reasonable, too. TDNF.
Morning, Lemon, I quite agree. J. K. Rowling never convinced me that Ron and Hermione belonged together, or for that matter, had any interest in each other. I did get the idea that Hermione, as written, was more gawky and less attractive than her film portrayal.
Morning, C.C. - hand up for wishing I could head to beautiful Minnesota as well! I hope you'll have an enjoyable time.
Tough sledding today, but managed it. Unlocked the key in the SE where Doll sort of made sense as a stand alone and Animal, which was largely filled with crosses, didn't ring a Pavlovian bell until I thought "Hmmmmm. Maybe it needs a House?" With that I was off like a herd of turtles. Didn't know Barrel House like most, but the others were all simple enough. And it was very helpful that I knew Rolla as our daughter lived there for a year. Great school, I've heard tell, but she wasn't enrolled in it.
Lemon, I think that punch line is "Stow Thrones". Otto, go to your room! That was awful.
Yesss. Thank you Joe! I knew something was off with lemony's joke. Stow thrones is how I heard it too.
D-N-F ... That climber's going to have to find a different tool than
an "_ _ _ AXE" at Villa Incognito.
Nice write-up Lemon ... FUN puzzle Mike.
My perps were having a work-out to solve ROLLA, BUTENE, PABLO, and a few others.
TOKO-RI though was a gimmie.
Always glad to see ETUI in the grid.
Time for a walk on the "Dog-Beach" at Honeymoon Island ...
I'll work on my TAN and say "Hello" to a couple hundred pooches.
Cheers!
Well, then! ALL AT SEA fully describes my spot today. I was on the wrong block, in the wrong wheelhouse, and really off base.
Even though ST LO is standard fare, I had something else on my mind today. I tried Utah, as my dad landed there 72 years ago today, and safely at that as the beach was already secured.
Madame is off to knit--that is definitely in my wheelhouse!!
Thanks, Mike and Lemonade. Have a fine day, all.
Nice essay on APIECE, but it does not mean "singly."
Right on, Barry G.: Stars, title, whatever, we are entitled to some indication of a gimmick.
A little crunchy for a Thursday because I didn't fully understand the gimmick, but I succeeded without help. Thanks for clearing things up, Lemony. Now I think the theme is lovely. I wondered why the theme answers sounded a little off, especially BIRD.
$1 APIECE means $1 for each one, $1 singly or for every single one. The two-word phrase A PIECE does not fit here.
Yesterday I had the tech solve my computer problem in a few minutes for $109. Only Firefox was infected. Probably a more tech gal could have done it by herself. I was having problems linking to this blog, but I didn't mention it to the tech. Now that works, too.
Regarding yesterday's hyphen vs dash discussion,technically the protesters are correct, but the standard keyboard has only one symbol which many of us use interchangeably for dash and hyphen, rather than looking up a code and typing it in. Again it's about every day usage vs technical usage. In hand written work we do not consider the length of the dash or hyphen.
To "see" the gimmick, maybe Lemony can highlight all the theme entries in the grid. I recommend lime green.
Never did connect to the HOUSE addition everywhere, but got it all eventually except the SE corner. I didn't know the phrase AD HOMINEM, though it does sound familiar now, my lacking sport knowledge sealed my fate for NCAA and BRONCO, neither of which appeared, nor did TOKORI and LOREAL, which were likewise unfamiliar. Since most of this puzzle was filled with wags and perp help, ANIMAL, though familiar, never had a chance either with no perps in sight at this corner.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Good Morning:
This gave me a run for my money for the longest time and the theme took forever to dawn on me. I was silently cursing Mike for the "weird" clues and answers that made no sense. Then the lightbulb came on and all turned out just fine. I initially spelled Toko Ri wrong, as well as butene and Paolo. I had no idea who Hermione was (I was thinking mythology) and I never heard of barrel house jazz. Overall, this was a tough Friday, IMO. Coincidence in having Aries (me) and Libra (my late husband) together.
Well done, Mike, and good job on the write-up, Lemony.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
Never did get the gimmick on completing 12 answers, but got it completed nevertheless. Perps helped and WAGs were lucky.
LIBRA - Extends from 24 Sept. - 23 Oct. Zodiac dates are approximate relative to the sun's position, within a couple days, and are not tied exactly to the SDA of the stars, due to precession. I would give Mike some slack in selecting a very fine clue for 18d.
DNF - I didn't get the theme until everything was filled in by perps and red-letter help. This was a true Friday puzzle for me. Although it was interesting, it wasn't my kind of puzzle.
The team name is the Denver BRONCOS, so I had DENVER before BRONCO. However, the clue was singular and did say champ, not champs.
Oh well not my day. I'll wait for Monday.
Have a good one everybody.
Yep doing well down here in Louisiana. Been busy with the pepper plants and a new small engine repair shop. Still doing puzzles but not a lot of commenting on them.
Too much rain is playing havoc on the watermelon fields. No flooding like Texas where i'm at but some to the south of me got hit hard.
Thanks for the shout out Lemonade ~!~!
Plus Tard from Cajun Country Vendredi Enfin !!!!
Wow! Lightbulb moment when I finally got the theme. Great work. Thanks Mike and Lemonade.
Butane before BUTENE, drips before SEEPS, Paulo before PAOLO held me up.
I saw the theme as HOUSE BOUND with Bound having the meaning of edging (as in a quilt). This indicates the House addition as being all around the edge of the puzzle and completes the theme. Does anybody else see this?
Off to enjoy this beautiful if cool day. Heat is coming tomorrow apparently.
Hi Canadian Eh, awesome catch! It makes the puzzle even more interesting.
CanadianEh! -- I didn't, but now I do. Neat!
Puzzle was a little difficult for me..................but Owens limericks made my day..............
Lemonade, I may not be smart enough to solve the puzzle, so I will refrain from any comments thereon. I found your blog-ging absolutely delightful. The pun moral story about grass houses and stored thrones was just hilarious. I had not heard that before, so your version is as good as any other. An involved reading of Twinings Tea House was like a breath of fresh air and old world charm. ( Although the latest descendant-spokesman appears to have rather very bad teeth, which detracts somewhat from his otherwise gracious speech.) The story on Bedlam mental hospital moved me to tears, and to think that England was considered putatively, to be the most civilized nation on earth, at the time. The heartlessness of it all is so gut wrenchingly sad.
I thank you for all the information you share, and the trouble you have taken to link it. It has given, one person, me, great joy and elation, far more than any puzzle could elicit. Thank you.
Thumper and I will take a pass on this one.
Thanks, Lemonade and Owen, for making me smile.
Stymied by "Paolo" (Italian); "Epistolas" (Spanish) had me insisting on "Pablo".
I haven't read all of the other comments yet. Here, where the local time is several hours ahead of most everybody else, I can seldom post early enough so that everything significant hasn't already been said at least twice before. I really enjoyed this puzzle. It was hard at first. I would get stuck in one area, figure out an answer and then several other unknown answers would start to crumble. I would find myself thinking, "Yay me!" I sussed out the theme about halfway through. Then I got to the 'reveal' and found myself asking, "I get HOUSE but what is the significance of BOUND? I still don't get it. Maybe after I read all of the other posts it will be explained. Let's see...
PK and Anon T, I just went back to look at last night's comments on Blue Hen's Recipes. Wow! Who knew?? Major learning moment for me.
So, Blue? Were you punning or leading us astray?
Clever comment either way.
I suppose we should add a new Latin phrase – AD FEMINAM – now that we have a woman as a presumptive Presidential candidate. I see no reason to be sexist about politics.
Note also the DASHES in the above; they are trivial on a Mac – it's just option(or "Alt")-dash.
CanadianEh! – I interpreted HOUSE-BOUND that way too initially. But I cannot think of any words using house as the "surround", and it would certainly change the meaning completely. e.g. if I use HUT for HOUSE
CLUE: "SEARCH FOR"
Answer = "UNTO" = "HUNT OUT"
I think that would not be too popular.
OK – off to the TEA-HOUSE. Thanks Lemonade!
I forgot to add, thanks Mike and Lemon.
Speaking of Hermione, I agree she should have ended up with Harry. I think I heard that the author thinks so too. Big mistake if you want a satisfying ending. I've seen Emma Watson on TV several times. She's a very attractive, personable and smart young woman.
Ah, CanadianEh's explanation of BOUND now is making sense to me. Clever. Thanks.
Very difficult puzzle today, made even worse by the fact that I couldn't suss the theme until I got to the corner. Brilliant construction in retrospect. I only got through it with red letters and perps. Thanks for the workout, Mike, and thanks for the erudite explication, Lemony. (You too, CE)
With regard to my culinary comments yesterday, of course they were tongue-in-cheek. But my way of making coq au vin is much better than that pale imitation known as Chicken Ovaltini.
WEES. This was mystifying, baffling, puzzling and delightful! Many times was I ALL AT SEA until the reveal when not just a lightbulb but a giant spotlight erupted in my head. Well done, Mike Buckley! Thank you.
Like others, PABLO seemed right but Portuguese being somewhat close to Spanish prevailed as PAOLO and OBERON emerged or maybe it's Italian. Then Hermione also seemed right out of Greek mythology so when RON appeared it again left me AT SEA. OH, Harry Potter. ROLLA is completely new to me and I feared it would be wrong but held on to it.
CanadianEh! Yes, very good catch and adds another, deeper dimension to HOUSE BOUND as quarantined.
I love this kind of puzzle which forces me to delve further for meanings and symbols. Again, thank you, Mike Buckley. And of course, thank you to our remarkable tour guide, Lemonade, who greatly enhances this learning experience.
Have yourselves a splendid day, everyone!
Super duper nifty swifty puzzle today. I really enjoyed it. Same experiences and thoughts as many of you while solving it. "Epistolas" is also Italian. Best wishes to you all.
Got the theme, but only could find 11 implied houses. Oh, barrel house, I should have known. I go back to the day, and remember barrel house jazz.
Wow! I finally saw HOUSE BOUND and the fuzzy perimeter fill became obvious in this fabulous puzzle that had early struggles balanced with a wondrous payoff.
Musings
-110˚F heat index necessitated an early 18 today!
-Somebody will be on the RED PLANET before I die
-Oh this type of Jazz Barrel! (1:16)
-We enjoyed the RADISHES we planted in late March already
-Uh, Lemon, I put on my spikes on the tailgate of my pickup most times at our lovely, but working class golf club.
-The Martian was a fun movie full of improbable things but, hey, it’s the movies!
-Gotta take the kitty for a walk, now where is her leash?
Usually Friday themes help me solve,
not today!
The only thing missing was the dog house!
Bill G. - Can. Eh explained the HOUSE BOUND schtick really well.
Correct my earlier post @ 0936 to read SHA (sidereal hour angle). Sorry.
I actually did much better on this puzzle than I thought I would, which feels pretty good on a Friday. Took me a while to get the HOUSE BOUND in the middle, and it helped a lot once I figured out how it worked with the rest of the puzzle. So, a lot of fun, Mike, many thanks. And you too, Lemonade, for your always helpful expo.
Very nervous, but still excited, about my London trip tomorrow. Glad I have a friend going with me. I'll miss you all, but look forward to being back on the blog next week.
Have a great weekend and week, everybody!
Knowing how the puzzle is bound by the various houses makes me appreciate this puzzles outstanding construction much more. Thanks for the enlightenment Can. Eh!
FIW. :-( I thought they were spelt AD HOMINyM and LORiAL, decided the "I" was more likely, but when I gave up searching that intersection turned red!
Read the reveal, but didn't understand it until I sussed out the theme on my own, and then backed into the center. Knowing the theme also helped get the final few theme answers.
And I thought Thursday was a Saturday level, today's is just as difficult.
And I believe as others have stated that the theme answers should at least have the asterisk. Really, no reason not to show that other than trying to make it more difficult to solve. I don't appreciate the author trying to disguise his own theme answers.
So it was solved but without any appreciation.
A Saturday-level epic-fail! Like PK said, I was a meta-less BIRD-brain [I kept thinking VIP Lounge at 1a - right, Steve?]. I just wasn't getin' it. I started OK w/ ICE AXE, OIL OF, LORIE, SLOT, RENU, EXS and then my mind went numb.
GOTO (nor NExt for branch structure (branching logic)) bottom of the puzzle and try again. NCAA, BRONCO, LORiAL, AD HOMINEM, (fixed 53d), ATONE, COON, INTACT. I got more smatterings about but I was stuck; I couldn't see the LIGHT! I looked up 16a, 27a, 34a, 25d (really, Titania isn't OBI-Wan's wife? Sounds Star Wars-y to me). Then I crib'd from Lem to get to the finish.
Thanks Mike for the challenge. I wish I had my thinking toque* on today (@:38) and got First of 12 (days of X-mass? A Beer... Not). Thanks Lem for the writeup and crib-sheet.
Fav: 31a c/a. How many times did I hear "Park it there, boy."
OLK {A+, boo-hiss and "Damn it Janet!", B, B-}.
D-O: LOL HOMINEM and grits!
Lem, so APIECE is Another A-word?
This video doesn't have the sound-effect at the beginning but can you name the puzzle-propos Album? Enjoy.
Cheers, -T
*If there's any reference to Bob & Doug tomorrow, that will be three days in a row of ES-Puzzle-P! Eerie.
OwenKL, Excellent Limerick/crossword tie ins today! (as always...)
Lemonade, had a little trouble with your 1st link , PUN (line 4)
I get a msg that my Google acct name does not have access? & I should change accts?
(Very strange msg)
Re: puzzle, today's strange clues should have tipped me off,
especially Twinings=tea, inch = foot = doll, classic comedy= animal.
but these all seemed normal because even Monday - Thursday clues often don't make sense to me...
While house bound as a clue for all the border words was very clever,
I did not see it until I
looked at it from the outside...
MOUSSE where POMADE belonged held me up too long, and it looked to be proved by NONET and SEEPS.
We've driven through (and a number of times stayed overnight in) ROLLA enroute to Central Texas (or back to Chicago) in the neighborhood of 30 times since we wed. We'd fly more often, but my arms can't take it. She doesn't like flying, and grips me like the talons of an osprey on a fish.
Someone wondered the other day how CC in MN might know of LIRR. IMO, it's fairly common fill for a dedicated constructor / solver.
TTP - LOL. That joke never gets old. Thanks. C, -T
Right after I posted about never hearing AD HOMINEM this morning, I went to the online version of our local paper. The first article I read was one about Charles Koch wanting unity in the Rep. party and included that "new word of the day". Spooky!
Boo Luquette, glad to see your post and know you are okay. You seemed to disappear just after the earlier flooding.
There is a really upbeat tinkly tune called "BARRELL House Rag" that I wish I knew how to link in here. Worth listening to. I googled it because I was thinking my younger son had a piano piece he played in his "rag obsessed" days. Sho nuff, I got to hear it again.
I vaguely remember when I got to ANIMAL this morning, filled by perps, thinking the movie had to be "ANIMAL HOUSE" although being part of a theme still didn't dawn on me. Duh!
Bon Voyage, Misty! Please give us who are HOUSE BOUND trip highlights when you return.
PK, I read the same article in the Houston Chronicle. What a coincidence - I've never read an article containing that "new word of the day," and it appears today in our c/w!
Ear you go PK: Barrell House Rag
Great fun.
It took three of us over an hour, know that those 12 words were off. I said either these are lousy clues, or something really clever is going on -- which was the case
The Ad Hominem clue A 66, I think was off, as it means specifically "to the person" which may or may not be an appeal to prejudice. The interlocutor may actually be stupid and evil, but it would still be Ad Hominem, and a debating foul.
Good job Canadian Eh, I lost the forest for the trees.
Al Rodbell, please reread Lemon's excellent quote and example for Ad hominem. You may be correct in one sense, but phrases often have several meanings or usages. Lemon's meaning is very common and also appears in dictionaries. It is the one most familiar to me.
Avg Joe and PK, thanks for the lively Barrel House Polka.
What a perfect day, in the high 70's and sunny with a light refreshing breeze. It doesn't get any better than that.
Lemony, maybe you can now go back and highlight the theme entries in the grid (see comment at 9:04). For posterity's sake.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Mike Buckley, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
started this last night on the train from Chicago. Worked on it again as I approached Pittsburgh. Finished as I got to Johnsonburg. It was not easy.
I basically bounced around and entered a word here and there as they seemed obvious. DIPS, LEN, DEN, MARS, ALLAH, NCAA, etc. Then I just built upon those. I would suspect I spent at least six hours on this puzzle. Of course I was not doing anything else.
Finally got HOUSE BOUND. That did not help me with the 12 words associated. Figured it out when I came here.
I remembered the bridges at TOKO RI, however, I was not sure. That area lagged for a while.
GAG ON took me forever.
I like the word UTILE.
I am now in Johnsonburg. I brought a lot of rhubarb from my patch in Illinois. My wife's cousin is now baking a pie. Should be ready in about ten minutes. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Abejo - UTILE's opposite seems like an F-word to me. //ducks. C, -T
Sorry to be so late in posting. I finished today's pzl on the road as my wife drove us to look for a new sofa.
I have to say this was a crazy Xwd experience from Mr. Buckley, but I came out ahead of the game, with all blanks correctly filled.
It seemed way too easy at first, especially for a Friday challenge. I was surprised at how I was zipping through, finding all answers great and small--until I hit my final road block. For me this was the middle upper sector where I was hung up for the longest time with "ALU_" where CLUB would eventually be. (I had answered "Original Model T need" with A LINE.)
There was no special reason, no clever error, that accounts for my holdup, just a regular combination of wrong guesses. It might have helped if I had understood the need to bind HOUSE to all the theme answers, but I didn't get that until well after I was done.
Still and all... Ta-DAH!
I'm told when I was born OBERON (which means "bearlike") was considered for me. I think I would have liked that better than Owen.
I think it was good that Hermione ended up with Ron. He grew from comic relief to being a major character thru the course of the novel. And Harry getting the girl would have been a cliche, and turning cliches around was what made Rowling's book stand out.
Desper-otto: how can your ATM only have one slot? Shouldn't there be at least 3? Card, deposit in, cash out? If you mean you deal with a cashier, then there wouldn't be any slot at all!
CanadaEh!: thanks for the expansion on BOUND!
For those who like colored grids, here's
Thursday's grid
Friday's grid.
CED: {B, A, C.} Also possible were OUT-HOUSE, DISORDERLY-HOUSE -- Oh, wait, those were both hiding in today's poems!
Misty: Bon Voyage!
" ...If you mean you deal with a cashier, then there wouldn't be any slot at all."
To paraphrase a Friday quizzical crossword cluer - female cashiers do indeed have a slot, of a kind.
If its good enough for a puzzle, its good enough for the blog.
How crude!
After tackling this puzzle, I am happy to know something about dashes and hyphens. Many software programs will give you a dash when you type two hyphens and hit the space bar as an autocorrect.
OBERON had a crush on Titania
More than a crush, it was a mania
All thru Greece he hunted
But at the border he punted
Even gods fear to tread in Albania
I'm really going to be the GUR as it's Monday morning and Owen surely has his limericks already posted (they made up in humor what you undergraded(sic) them overall.
My son's reading comprehension is all because of Rowling and Harry. I read along with him but never got to the final books. Ron had to end up with Her mi own E
Opened the blog and saw HOUSE and said "Do I have the right day?". Despite missing the theme entirely I only missed the O in PAOLO and OBERON
Nice to see Greek rhetoric and logic from my liberal arts days of yore making an appearance. Don't forget the true meaning of 'begging the question '.
I actually started Sat and said "oops too hard better do Friday ' and then had that atrocious slog.
I agree with Anon that asterisks would help us seniors
Then again I was tired. Saturday will take all week to finish
Don't get me wrong Mr B. Brilliant puzzle
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