Theme: "First Cuts"- Saw can follow the first word in each theme answer.
27A. Something to deal with? : COPING STRATEGY. Coping saw. Another puzzle where the first themer starts in Row 4.
42A. Olympic sport since 1988 : TABLE TENNIS. Table saw.
67A. Music in a shell : BAND CONCERT. What's "in a shell"? Band saw.
96A. Mouse feature : SCROLL WHEEL. Scroll saw. This is new to me.
115A More than an idea : CONCRETE OBJECT. Concrete saw. New to me also.
14D. Domino effect : CHAIN REACTION. Chainsaw.
56D. Begging the question : CIRCULAR LOGIC. Circular saw.
Reveal:
119. A kind of one appears in this puzzle's seven longest answers : SAW
As I mentioned a few weeks ago that "we don't often see words that precede/follow theme type on Sundays.
They're mainly the early week domain.Not easy to get a "Go ahead" from
Rich with this type."
I'm not a tool person. When I googled those SAW images, DeWalt keeps showing up. They must be big.
Smooth sailing. The puzzle is solid made and the fill is quite clean. Reminds me of Gail's puzzles.
Across:
1. "Voilà!" : THERE!
6. Midday refresher : NAP. I wanted TEA.
9. "Monday Night Football" airer : ESPN
13. Note-to-self paper : SCRAP. I have lots of cute notebooks.
18. Dealt with a squeak : OILED
19. Busy as __ : A BEE
21. West Point mascot : MULE
22. ORD, on luggage tags : O'HARE. ORD stands for Orchard Field.
23. Clobbered, old-style : SMOTE. We just had it last Sunday.
24. Wine bottle info : YEAR. And 75. Red options, briefly : CABS. Cabernet.
25. Sticking point? : CRAW. Nice clue.
26. Hard to spot : FAINT. Not VAGUE.
30. Fence crossings : STILES
31. "We agree completely!" : AMEN!
32. Brewer's kiln : OAST
33. Pay attention to : HEED
34. Lady lobster : HEN
35. Like granola bars : OATY. Have any of you tried overnight oats? Mine has toasted coconut flakes mixed in, and various berries. So good.
37. Rene of "Nightcrawler" : RUSSO
38. Beyond belief : UNREAL
47. Sickly : WAN. Not ILL.
49. View from Catania : ETNA. Got via crosses.
50. It beat out Madrid as host city for the 2016 Olympics : RIO. Golf
is back to the Olympics after many years of absence. Alas, lots of
golfers skip it due to Zika. We also have 53. Dream Team org. : USOC
51. Unisex wrap : SARONG
52. Back : FUND
54. Sonoran flora : CACTI
55. Brand that evolved from Standard Oil of Indiana : AMOCO
57. Needles : TEASES
59. Bummed : MOOCHED. Not DEPRESSED.
61. Salon indulgence : MANI-PEDI. Don't think I can paint my big toe like this. Pro work.
64. Old hand : PRO
65. Tracy Marrow's stage name : ICE-T
66. Road or gang ending : STER
71. Carnival stop : ISLE. Carnival Cruise Line.
77. Organ with a drum : EAR
78. Thought-out : REASONED
80. Misery : ANGUISH
83. Coca-Cola brand : FRESCA. Not in our house. We're loyal to Pepsi.
86. Gale's 40, on the Beaufort scale : KNOTS. Tiny clue/answer dupe with 3D. Tie the knot on the fly : ELOPE.
87. Sam of "Jurassic Park" films : NEILL
88. Breyers shelfmate : EDY'S
90. Not effective : FUTILE
93. MLB line score letters : R H E (Runs, Hits, Errors)
94. Forum attire : TOGA
95. Air pressure meas. : PSI
98. Rudely sarcastic : SNARKY. Tricky for me to catch sarcasm at times.
100. Some entryways : RAMPS
103. Operate with a beam : LASE
104. Rapper __ Wayne : LIL
105. Falco of "The Sopranos" : EDIE
106. Certain language unit : SIGN. This refer to sign language, correct?
108. Montand of cinema : YVES
112. Make a decision : CHOOSE
118. Ladder units : RUNGS
119. Houston player, to fans : STRO. And 123. 119-Across, since 2013 : ALer (American Leaguer). Glue entry.
120. Penzance pad : FLAT. Got via crosses.
121. Site of Theban ruins : LUXOR. Also a casino in Vegas. Also an ex-Cornerite who liked to attack others. He might be lurking.
122. Paraplegic "Glee" teen : ARTIE. I think we had this clue a while ago.
124. Dog seller : DELI. Hot dog!
125. Artist with the album "25" : ADELE
126. Voting groups : BLOCS
127. "The Swiss Family Robinson" author : WYSS. I learned this while making a puzzle with Don G.
128. Barfly : SOT
129. "... your laments, / Wherewith you now __ King Henry's hearse": Shak. : BEDEW. This might be Rich's clue.
Down:
1. Puccini heroine : TOSCA
2. Sideline greeting : HI MOM
4. Vitamin A form : RETINOL. Ingredient in eye creams.
5. Steinbeck title place : EDEN. East of Eden.
6. Skeptic : NAYSAYER
7. Provides a false alibi for : ABETS
8. Rush drummer Neil : PEART. Splynter might have linked this picture before.
9. Handles the intros : EMCEES
10. Swells : SURGES
11. Trivialize : PLAY DOWN
12. Dvorák's "__ World Symphony" : NEW
13. Ease : SOFTEN
15. Training guide? : RAIL. Clever clue or a bit far-fetched?
16. "Rule Britannia" composer : ARNE
17. Strokes : PETS
20. Big time : ERA
28. "Ya __ believe!": 1973 Mets catchphrase : GOTTA
29. Like so : THUS
30. Avoid : SHUN
36. "Zeus and the Tortoise" storyteller : AESOP
37. Baltic port : RIGA
39. Permanently mark : ETCH
40. It will get you a hand : ANTE
41. Let go, with "off" : LAID
42. Mine vehicles : TRAMS
43. Point toward : AIM AT
44. Wilderness Road pioneer : BOONE (Daniel). Solving crosswords is how I learn American history.
45. Away : NOT IN
46. Nashville-to-Louisville dir. : NNE
48. Look up to : ADMIRE
52. Maidenhair, e.g. : FERN. I don't know it has a specific name: Maidenhair. Also 58. 52-Down cell : SPORE
54. Cedar Rapids college : COE
60. Numerical prefix : OCTA. Eight.
62. Drops back : EBBS
63. Short races : DASHES
68. Stand up to : DEFY
69. Diner and sleeper : CARS
70. Rhyme writer's Muse : ERATO. She loves our Owen!
72. Sleep soundly? : SNORE. Another great clue.
73. River in Hades : LETHE
74. Ranger of the '50s : EDSEL. I had to ask Boomer for explanation.
76. Suffer : AIL
79. Distorts : SKEWS
80. Hill builders : ANTS
81. Its atomic number is 10 : NEON. Is this a gimme for you? We had a terrifying chemistry teacher and I was scared to attend her class.
82. Prefix with byte : GIGA
84. Army E-7s : SFCs. OK, Sergeant First Class.
85. Despicable character : CUR
89. Forthwith : DIRECTLY. Do you use "forthwith" in your daily conversation? I just use "straightforward with".
91. Response to a doorbell : I'LL GET IT. Nice fill.
92. West Texas grassy plain : LLANO
95. Pulitzer-winning WWII journalist : PYLE (Ernie)
96. An article may be written on it : SPEC. On spec. Same with crossword puzzles.
97. 1968 #1 hit with a four-minute coda : HEY JUDE
99. Chocolate bites : KISSES. And 101. Loves a bunch : ADORES. Sweet.
102. Many nonvoters : MINORS
106. Nine-time Grand Slam singles champ : SELES
107. Author Calvino : ITALO
109. Nettled : VEXED
110. French school : ECOLE
111. Spread : STREW
112. Chesapeake delicacy : CRAB. If you had a choice, would you rather live near the beach or by the mountain?
113. Attack with, as insults : HURL
114. Not bamboozled by : ONTO
116. Outlying mail rte. : RFD
117. Prove untrustworthy, in a way : BLAB
C.C.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mark and CC!
Nice theme! I have lots of saws. The table saw from sears we bought was difficult to put together.
Didn't know PEART or HEY JUDE. They were perped and wagged. Otherwise OK. Had ill first before WAN.
People with (illegal) fireworks around here have been keeping me awake for three nights so far. (Dog gets antsy.)
Have a great day!
Sunday early-lurk say:
ReplyDeleteMark, anyone who drops Peart in a pzl is awesome in my book. PEART is only the 2nd greatest rock-drummer ever. (We can argue later about Moon (#1) & Bonham (#3) later).
RUSH had a fun sense of humour too and did Funny or Die. (for nerds only).
Full disclosure - Rush is, like, totally, my favorite band, like, ever.
Thanks for the write-up and letting me Sunday-lurk C.C.
Have a great day everyone!
Cheers, -T
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteHad a great (albeit expensive) time at dinner last night. I was able to get a new family picture taken which I'll share as soon as I remember to get it off my camera.
Puzzle was fun. Like C.C., I've never heard of some of the saws, but that knowledge wasn't needed to solve. In fact, I had to figure out the theme in order to get the theme answer, since I wasn't familiar with WYSS and had no idea what the first letter was until I looked at the theme answers to figure out what was hidden in them.
A few unknowns today, including the aforementioned WYSS, SFCS and PEART. SFCS in particular caused a bit of grief since I tried SGTS at first. And there were a few missteps, such as HIND before FUND and HEY GIRL before HEY JUDE. I eventually got those sorted, however.
OK, I forgot I had already saved this picture my mom took of us before we left for the restaurant (artfully cropped because none of us were wearing shoes yet).
ReplyDeleteGreat pic BG.
ReplyDeleteTRACY MORROW? Nope no bells rung here. WYSS? No memory. SCROLL saw..I never watched GLEE
I liked the CLUING and do appreciate the music references.
Fireworks here and rain as well but no foxes.
Enjoy
FIW. Had to hit the red in order to find out why I got no VOILA. I had BULGES instead of SURGES, CLAW instead of CRAW. EBPS instead of ESPN I saw, but the perp was so strong I chalked it up to being a channel I didn't know about.
ReplyDeleteIi had 6 of the 7 theme entries before I SAW the theme, and it was no help with the 7th, but did give me the reveal at 119d.
ERATO was a gimme for me. My last fills were around SPEC or EDIE.
{A, C, C-.}
In writing my poesy, I often have MOOCHED
On my Muse, ERATO, whenever she mused.
Once a swim in the LETHE
Left her libidinous and testy,
So she sought horny sex, and got LAID and be-moosed!
(Still not satisfied, she also got cariboused!)
There once was a mouse who had a SCROLL WHEEL
(Also some buttons, but they had less appeal).
Rotating it worked
Like a coffee-pot perked,
CIRCULAR LOGIC made the circuits unreel!
There once was a crow with a very loud caw
Until he went hoarse -- something stuck in his CRAW!
A horse told him, "eat hay",
But the crow told him "neigh,
It's only milk shakes I'll drink with that straw!"
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis one seemed very easy, even though I totally missed the theme. I do own four of those seven types of saws: table (Ridgid), circular (Craftsman), coping and chain (Stihl).
COE was a gimme. Our little radio station was just a couple blocks up First Avenue from the campus.
If you watch Blue Bloods you'll hear FORTHWITH at least once an episode -- I think it's a requirement. "Dispatch, officer down, we need a bus forthwith!"
I thought LLANO was a South American plain. West Texas? Learning moment for me.
T- Ginger Baker
ReplyDeleteHello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteTDNF for me today. Sailed through the whole thing until the pesky SE corner. Had Concrete but could not anticipate Object. Could not settle the lycée/école dilemma. Could not work out Hey Jude, Blab, Bedew, or Yves. Needed red letter help. Grrrr!
Morning, C.C. - Boomer probably explained what a flop the Edsel was, likely the worst in automobile marketing history. Beach or mountain? I'll choose the coastline, myself.
What Dudley said ... except I'll take the coastline of serene mountain lake.
ReplyDeleteMuch easier puzzle than Fridy's or Saturday's. I needed the reveal to get the theme, which helped me with the first part of CONCRETE OBJECT. Knowing HEY JUDE helped with OBJECT.
ReplyDeleteBarry, great pic. My, has your son grown up! Glad to hear you had a good birthday.
Owen, I evaluate your poems just the opposite of you. C B A. I especially liked the last 2.
I knew WYSS. I like the Swiss Family Robinson.
Does it count as a dupe if KNOT has two different meanings, a measure of speed and a kind of tie?
FORTHWITH means immediately, without delay. Directly can have this meaning, too.
STRAIGHT FORWARD means honest, frank. This is a different meaning of directly.
I prefer the mountains to the shore. We enjoy going down the shore a few days every year, but I love the mountains. We spend a whole week every summer in the PA mountains and another week in the WV mountains, plus multiple drives and leaf peeping at other times. Argyle, I love mountain lakes,too. Alan has a shirt that says LAKE BUM, instead of BEACH BUM.
Fun puzzle! Figured out the gig with the first themer, so that helped a lot. Not a speed run, but no major blocks. Knew Hey Jude with just the HE in place......I actually timed it out of curiosity way back when.
ReplyDeleteC.C. I'd say that DeWalt is primarily "Big" because they are in every Home Despot and Lowes, not necessarily because they are good. Though I do have their original miter box.
Jerome, I'd second the Ginger Baker nomination, but my first choice would be LeVon Helm. I saw Ginger in 75, and am amazed he's still alive. You can't run at that pace for very long.
Hi Y'all! Another red-letter day. Try & retry. WEES. Thanks, Mark for the exercise. Thanks, C.C. for everything.
ReplyDeleteLearning moment: I didn't know Penzance was a town in Cornwall, England. I've heard of the operetta "Pirates of Penzance" but thought it was probably an island somewhere. So FLAT wasn't anything I was going to get without perps.
Tried Styx before LETHE. You wouldn't imagine Hades having any rivers of water if it has eternal fire. Hope our western bloggers are okay without fires in their near vicinity.
Carnival stop tripped me up. I wanted "atop" like on a ferris wheel when they let you dangle way up there. ISLE I finally perped but didn't "get" it until C.C. explained. Ironically, my son's family is on a cruise to Alaska this week. I was surprised about this because they are "beach" people.
I like to visit both the beach and mountains for short periods. Prefer the mountains over beaches. However, I'd rather live here on the flatlands. Too much sun makes me ill & I have trouble with heights and driving the S-curved roads.
I still don't get why EDSEL has anything to do with Ranger.
For training guide, I thought of ballet barre (or bar) as a RAIL. It is a type of handrail, even though that is not its official name.
ReplyDeleteWe had a wonderful extended family picnic yesterday. We sent all day on my patio under the patio umbrella. It was one of the most delightful weather days of the year, sunny, warm and breezy, not at all hot or humid. I grilled kielbasi and sauerkraut at noon and served chicken Marsala for dinner. I made the first blueberries of the season into buttery bars with cinnamon and brown sugar to rave reviews. Unfortunately my younger sister was not there because she tore her rotator cuff last week. But it was good to get together with the others.
One of the Edsel models was the Ranger.
Thanks C.C. for wonderful exposition of my first LAT Sunday entry, especially the comparison to Gail's work, which I greatly admire. Since no one else commented, I'll mention that we managed (completely unintentionally) to avoid the two types of saw that are most likely to be in a home tool collection HAND and HACK. Also I discovered that two kinds of saw that I learned to use way back when CROSSCUT and RIP seem to no longer be sold as such, so I avoided them. Apologies for the trivia which were roadblocks to some (WYSS, PEART, etc.) though glad to see they resonated with some solvers.
ReplyDeleteA very straight forward solve that is bittersweet for me because a concrete/brick SAW really damaged my EAR. Fighting off PFC was my only delay
ReplyDeleteMusings
-It’s FAINT but I can see it
-I always find HEN as a lobster amusing
-I wouldn’t go or send my child to the RIO Olympics
-Am I the only one who sees SARONG and whose first thought is of one actress?
-It bugged me to death watching The Tudors on Netflix trying to remember where I had seen this guy before
-One grandson’s league can have games with a lot of R’s, very few H’s and many E’s
-Don’t you hate people who won’t let you merge off a RAMP? There’s a particular SIGN for that guy who won’t let you in!
-Those NAYSAYERS usually don’t have a better idea
-Both Donald and Hillary have peeps that are paid to PLAY DOWN their peccadilloes
-Union Pacific has LAID OFF many workers due to coal cutbacks
-I thought I would sleep like a baby on a SLEEPER CAR from Berlin to Munich. I didn’t!
-Words used to SKEW results
-I don’t use Forthwith and doubt any West Texan uses LLANO
-3” of rain delayed ball game until today. We’re out the door!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI think my brain needs a reboot. I thought I was home free when I wagged the W for Wyss and saw but, for the life of me, couldn't find any saws (adages) in the theme answers. Not only that puzzled (no pun intended) me, but there was no Tada, either. I had no idea where I went astray so I asked for the error notice and found that my hern should have been fern, my hind should have been fund, and my ISOC should have been USOC. So, a big, fat FIW. SFCs replaced Sgts and RHE replaced RBI. Despite my miscues and misses, I enjoyed the theme (once I understood it), some sparkling fill, and clever cluing.
Many thanks, Mark, for a satisfying Sunday solve (my errors notwithstanding) and thanks, CC, for the terrific tour. Hand up for ocean views and all the delectable creatures of the sea, especially Miss Hen(rietta) Lobster!
Barry, glad you had a nice birthday dinner celebration. Nice family photo. (Josh has really sprouted, hasn't he?)
Anonymous T from last night: No tight jeans for me! 😇
I have been subjected to the (illegal) fireworks barrage for the last few nights, although they aren't that close so the noise is muffled, to a degree. Tomorrow night might be a different story.
YR, my sympathies to your sister as I speak from experience.
Have a great day.
FORTHWITH is not used very much by people in every day conversation, but there are dozens of citations in current news publications. Some words are more common in writing than in speaking.
ReplyDelete*John Kerry, the American secretary of state, demanded in an interview that an election should be held forthwith. Economist, May 14, 2016
*The mayors of several cities forthwith issued proclamations recommending the townspeople to advance their clocks. Time, Mar 6, 2015
And as DO said, "If you watch Blue Bloods you'll hear FORTHWITH at least once an episode."
TX has the City of Llano on the Llano River. It makes sense because of the Hispanic heritage in that part of the world. Dictionary says, "Llano - an open grassy plain in Spanish America or the southwestern United States"
Yes, IM, the best part of the shore for me is the delicious just caught seafood, especially lobsters and crab.
Enjoyable puzzle today. Thanks, Mark McClain. C.C., I totally agree that this offering reminded me of Gail Grabowski's style of construction. Complete unknowns such as Neil PEART and Sam NEILL were easily perped.
ReplyDeleteC.C., you asked, "What's 'in a shell'?" Many outdoor bandstands have a curved, concave wall to reflect the music to the audience that resembles a seashell.
Mountains or beach? Ideally I would choose to live in the mountains and vacation at the beach. Life has me living the opposite, but no complaints.
Enjoy the day!
Hey Mark, great puzzle. CC, a wonderful review.
ReplyDeleteUnusual to have a Sunday with a clear run from corner to corner. Started in the SW and headed NE.
I had a problem in the extreme northeast. Had CHAIN and O'HARE, but could not get loosen out of my mind for the clue "ease". I like it when you test for a word you think you know based on the clue (HEN) and a crossing word (SHUN) immediately pops into mind for a clue (avoid) that was drawing a blank earlier. But even with that S_I, "Fence crossings" wasn't making any sense. Worse, "note-to-self" paper only evoked sticky note or Post-It. Rarer didn't fit for hard to spot and barre didn't fit for training guide. Just couldn't make any headway up there so moved on to other areas. After a long break, I came back with a refreshed mind and solved it.
I read the clue "Rush drummer Neil" and knew Anonymous T would nail it. Here's a sample song from the Toronto trio: Rush - Spirit Of The Radio.
Beau coup great rock drummers. Charlie Watts, John Bonham, Neil Peart, and Dave Grohl would all be up there in my book. As with other drummers, depending on who I'm listening to at the time... Peart may be the only one that has a glockenspiel in his percussion set.
I had never heard of a COPING saw so it took the reveal clue to go back and find all the different types of SAWs.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Argyle too - a lakeside by the mountains sounds wonderful!
Thanks CC and Mark!
Happy Indepence day to everyone - we live in a small enough city that the paper doesn't come out on holidays. We have really needed rain so for the farmers (and my husband's garden) I'm glad it's here - but hoping for all the planners of the 4th of July festivities down by our Capitol that the 3 days of rain will start to let up this afternoon for all the outdoor concerts and activities.
Excellent puzzling experience for me; both theme and fill. Thanks Mark and CC.
ReplyDeleteIt's both the ocean and the mountains equally for me. I enjoy living about a mile from the Pacific shoreline. On the west coast, the ocean seems to moderate the weather. Not so as I remember growing up on the east coast. I've never lived in the mountains but enjoyed visits to the Blue Ridge in Virginia growing up and to the Sierras since moving west.
West, Texas is a town on I-35 about an hour south of the Dallas Ft Worth Metroplex, in an area geographically known as "North Texas." We always stop there and get kolache and strudel at The Czech Stop on our way to Temple. West, Texas is also where the massive fertilizer plant explosion occurred a few years ago and nearly leveled the town.
ReplyDeleteWest Texas is an area generally defined as just west of the Metroplex, extending SW down over to Del Rio on the Rio Grande. The panhandle of Texas is also in West Texas.
Llano, Texas in Llano County is on the Llano River and is on the Edwards Plateau mostly west of I-35 in Central Texas. I've been to Llano and camped at Inks Lake State Park a couple of times. It's west of the "Texas Hill Country" and a short drive from the Centroplex. The Llano basin is one of the best, if not the best, hunting areas in all of Texas. Never saw so many deer as in that area. It's known as the "deer hunting capitol of the world."
The Llano Estacado is a named geographical area of Texas, like "North Texas", the "Texas Hill Country" or the "Edwards Plateau." It is the great grassland and table land of the panhandle and then south and down to arid western West Texas. People that live on the Llano Estacado live in places like Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland. West Texans definitely know the term llano.
The Ogallala Aquifer is in dangerously rapid decline in the southern areas of the Llano Estacado and has been for years, so where they do farm they've mostly turned to crops suitable for dryland farming. The extreme droughts of a few years ago brought near ruin to many ranchers with herds of cattle or other grazing animals on the meager grasslands of the southern Estacado.
The oil and gas rich geologically named Permian Basin overlaps much of the Llano Estacado. They may not be able to grow crops as well, but many there grew massive fortunes instead. Midland Odessa is sometimes called the Petroplex.
Mountains or beach ? Texas Hill Country, maybe with a beach on one of the lakes...
Well, that last three puzzles have all been toughies for me, but enjoyable, nonetheless. So, many thanks, Mark and C.C.
ReplyDeleteSweet family photo, Barry G.
Liked your last poem, Owen.
Have a great Sunday, everybody, and a great Fourth tomorrow!
Quite an enjoyable puzzle today. So much imagination. I feel "Training guide" is a bit of a stretch, and sounds forced. Hand up for filling in TEA, HIND, and HERN. The last letter to fill was the E crossing ICE T and COE; I wanted U for university and figured ICUT was as good a stage name as any.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with MJ in choosing to live in the mountains and vacation at the beach, and I'm totally with Argyle with regard to being by a lake. The reality is we live in a big city, hours away from the beach.
Barry G, thanks for the photograph.
I don't know much about drummers, but I've always been impressed with Mick Fleetwood.
Quite frankly, I thought the Edsel was a pretty nice car.
Best wishes to you all.
TTP thanks for the interesting info on llano. I was hoping you would weigh in. I have read westerns based in the Staked Plains or Llanos Estacados. So much of this country I have no seen, especially west of the Mississippi.
ReplyDeleteJoe- Saw Cream at the Fillmore in San Francisco in '68.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really hate to say this... I mean, really, I shouldn't bring it up because it's so wrong... but, I live at the base of a mountain, 25 miles from the ocean, 5 minutes from a lake, 2 minutes from a major river, and the sky today is bright blue and it's 78 degrees... and my cooler is filled with ice cold beer.
Jerome, when I saw him his then band was Baker-Gurvitz Army. This was in Tin's back yard at the Big Sombrero in Tampa. They opened for The Eagles......I think. Watching Ginger was like a scene from a sci-fi movie. He was moving 100 times faster than any of the other players in the scene.
ReplyDeleteHere's an 11 year old clip from a Cream reunion at Albert Hall. (No mention if there are 4,000 holes.) But Ginger still looks pretty good for all those hard miles.
Cream
Better late than never I say. My blood pressure has been doing a see SAW since yesterday so I've been dealing with that though I finished the puzzle before going to church where I attended a wonderful liturgy.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mark for a beautiful challenge today. It was slow as a Sunday puzzle should be but enjoyable all the way with only a few speed bumps to interrupt. ESPN took a long while to suss as did STRO though I'm used to ALER by now. What I'm not accustomed to is CABS and ZINS but crosswords have acquainted me with those abbreviations. Of course, CACTI gave me COE and ICET, a surprising learning moment of his name.
I didn't realize the Texas plain was called LLANO and I've driven through it many times. SAW seemed obvious because of cut in the title and I never recall WYSS without a prompt which W gave me. For some reason I wrote METHE instead of LETHE even though ISME made no sense. I just thought I wasn't seeing something. Oh, my, me thinks my brain is slowly doddering.
Barry, what a nice picture!
Owen, not just good poetry but funny, too.
Give me the ocean any day. Too many mosquitoes for me in the mountains.
Warm wishes from the Sonoran desert to everyone!
Jerome - I have to give you Ginger Baker - listing to his solo you can hear how Peart incorporates it into his percussion [PEART is/was a huge fan of Baker and Moon].
ReplyDeleteAve Joe - Re: Cream clip: My education is more complete. Thank you.
[drifting philosophical for a moment] - Nothing great comes all at once - it builds on those before. Think of the greatest comedians, poets, et. al. Brooks built off of Marx and Billy Collins built off of Shakespeare and his ilk. Neil built off of Moon, Baker and White (of Yes).
Our (US) Founding Fathers stole ideas from Locke and Voltaire.
God bless America, and Canada, and AU, and France and all those that hold the ideals of true equality and self governance dear and morally right - the Golden Rule rules. Happy 4th!
Sunday lurk, -T
Enjoy this blog as a long time lurker. I especially enjoyed the clue and answer for 56 Down: Begging the question-Circular logic. Have you noticed how many posers in all areas of the news media will say "begs the question" when they really mean "raises the question" I guess they think it makes them sound erudite, but really it's just the opposite.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the "Spirit of the Radio" clip!
ReplyDeleteIt is one of those songs I would hear (&love) on the radio
but never knew who played it...
(From the useless information files:)
Learning moment: Fence stiles.
(This city boy had never heard or seen of one...)
Which led to a Wiki search...
Which led to a Google Image search...
Which led to this curiosity called a "Clapper Stile."
Which led to (believe it or not) the Roman God of boundaries called "Terminus?"
Which called for more searching, but they are not called "clapper stiles,"
They are (aptly) called "tumble stiles...
Whew! What a journey!
Excuse me, I have some drum solos to listen to....
Enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Thanks Mark and C.C.
ReplyDeleteGreat family photo Barry G.
I got the theme early which helped immensely. My midday refresher was ADE before NAP. I had Snarly before SNARKY. Learning moment re LLANO and Texas.
Thought of Marti with CABS.
Is it just my Canadian St. Catharines newspaper that has the clue for 8D as "Rush drummer Neil, of St. Catharines"? Great local talent!
Happy holiday weekend.
I was somehow on Mark's wavelength today! Seemed easier than most, and I loved every minute of it. WAGS and perps filled in what I didn't know. Thanks
ReplyDeleteOne question...even after C.C.s excellent explanation, I still don't get the answer to 120 A...Penzance Pad. Anyone want to enlighten me?
Owen...I loved them all!
Jerome, I'll be right over.
ReplyDeleteHey, Swamper, come on over... and bring some catfish, gumbo, and dirty rice.
ReplyDeleteIn Penzance, the one of the piratery fame, they let flats instead of renting apartments.
ReplyDeleteAnon...thanks. That makes sense ...sorta.
ReplyDeleteJerome, I make a mean gumbo!! Catfish, you'll have to fry. LOL
Penzance was a popular resort town in 1870s England; Gilbert and Sullivan putting pirates there was a joke, as if today they'd written the Pirates of Hyannisport (or Provincetown, or Carmel.
ReplyDeleteRemember Swiss Family Robinson from my ute, both the book and the Disney movie. Wyss admittedly was "inspired by" (stole from) DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Billocohes, thanks for the Penzance info. A thousand years ago...maybe more....I was in a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates but had no idea it was a joke!. Makes more sense now!! What a silly...delightful ...musical.
ReplyDeleteDo Houston fans actually call their ballplayers STROs??
ReplyDeleteI have been a baseball fan since before Houston had a team, and I have never, ever heard this. But then I've never been to Houston, either.
Sailor:
ReplyDeleteYes, Growing up in IL, we called them the Houston Ass'T-holes 'cuz they always spoiled a good Cubs or Cards season. I came to HOU in '98 and fell in love w/ the 'Stros Biggio & Bagwell in '01. We are finally catching fire this season... Go 'Stros! -T
Oh so close for a Sunday. That darn extreme SE corner befuddled me for hours. Wanted so badly to complete it in its entirety but finally threw in the towel.
ReplyDeleteDid not like CONCRETEOBJECT, STREW and BLAB. Or more accurately, did not like the cluing.
But overall a good brain exercise. Cheers.
GUR here. I huffed and puffed and finished about 300 pm. Except the three letters for something in the long answers which of course were all about SAWS. Finally, I spotted ROLL and ah'ed SUB. And figured ULER was an outfielder for the STROs.
ReplyDeleteNo. I'm not getting 'doddering' I'm getting STUPID! AL'ER just didn't compute.
Lots of messy ink where R H E etc sat. That was my first go-round, then I tried Putouts, Assists and ERRORS. WHEEL saved me, SKEW gave me KNOTs etc
I'm approaching max LTE can't. But. Begging the question is not quite CIRCULAR LOGIC. Best example: Obama is a lousy president cuz he sucks. OK. CR it is.
I meant letter count. Smartphone is to smart for it's britches
DeleteNo politics, please.
DeleteI meant letter count. Smartphone is to smart for it's britches
DeleteIMO begging the question is EXACTLY circular logic. Begging the question is often used incorrectly, as was pointed out this afternoon.
ReplyDeletePer Wiki: “To beg a question means to assume the conclusion of an argument—a type of circular reasoning. This is an informal fallacy, in which an arguer includes the conclusion to be proven within a premise of the argument.”
For example: This product is in great demand because everyone wants to buy it.
Per Wiki: “In modern vernacular usage, "to beg the question" is sometimes used to mean "to invite the question" (as in "This begs the question of whether...") or "to dodge a question". These usages are often criticized as being mistaken.”
Thank you all for the Texas education and Mark for stopping by. MJ nice to see you chipping in also.
ReplyDeleteExactly. As I was giving the example (not mine btw) I realized exactly what Yellow rocks pointed out. I used the Obama quote because it's such a common BtG. It wasn't political on my part. And certainly not my opinion. Boy, is denying being political political?
ReplyDelete