Words: 70 (missing Q,X,Z)
Blocks: 34
Hi
there~! Splynter back with less work and more blog this week. Today's
puzzle from David (see C.C.'s interview) had clues that were either
gimmes or complete misses for me. I either knew it, or didn't, and
nothing was going to help me "45A." Just a few too many 'half-word' clues for me, too. The SW was utterly wrong on my
first pass, and combined with the proper names/places, just wouldn't
open up. Add in one more red-letter cheat, and that's my story, an' I'm
sticking to it. A
non-intimidating grid with only the two spanners and four 10-letter
fills;
5. Intuition : GUT FEELING
10. Line diagram : FAMILY TREE
25. Computer screen? : SPAM FILTER
26. Act too hastily : JUMP THE GUN - a line from Van Halen's "Secrets", too
Cathedral / Secrets (lyric at 3:14)
ACROSS:
1. Jet : INKY - I figured we were looking for 'black', and ONYX worked, but 4d. would have started with "X"
5. Govt. property overseer : GSA - the crossing of 7d. stymied me, so the "A" was red-lettered
8. Artists' pads : LOFTS - a gimme
13. Great __ : DANE - I wanted "SCOTT~!"
5. Govt. property overseer : GSA - the crossing of 7d. stymied me, so the "A" was red-lettered
8. Artists' pads : LOFTS - a gimme
13. Great __ : DANE - I wanted "SCOTT~!"
14. Gets onstage : CUES
15. Detached : APART - oops, not ALOOF
16. Slid across the pond, maybe : ICE SKATED
18. Start of a noncommittal RSVP : WE MAY
19. Last-minute number? : ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE - 11:59. Here's another way to say Eleven Fifty-Eight
15. Detached : APART - oops, not ALOOF
16. Slid across the pond, maybe : ICE SKATED
18. Start of a noncommittal RSVP : WE MAY
19. Last-minute number? : ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE - 11:59. Here's another way to say Eleven Fifty-Eight
21. Awards for "Rent" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" : OBIES - I put it in, but then I thought 4d. might be "EULOGIES", and took it out
22. Cads : HEELS
23. San Francisco, to most Californians : UPSTATE - We have "upstate" in NY, too - hello Argyle~! When I talked to the admissions woman at Delaware Tech last year, she suggested taking classes at the campus "upstate" - Delaware is too short to have an "upstate"
26. Rice on a field : JERRY - WR, mostly for the SF 49ers of the NFL
27. Laid-back : TYPE B - I'm Type C - clueless....
28. Big lugs : LOUTS
30. PC-checking org., at times : TSA
33. Word of regret : ALAS
34. Pebbles bearer : WILMA - the Flintstones "10d."
22. Cads : HEELS
23. San Francisco, to most Californians : UPSTATE - We have "upstate" in NY, too - hello Argyle~! When I talked to the admissions woman at Delaware Tech last year, she suggested taking classes at the campus "upstate" - Delaware is too short to have an "upstate"
26. Rice on a field : JERRY - WR, mostly for the SF 49ers of the NFL
27. Laid-back : TYPE B - I'm Type C - clueless....
28. Big lugs : LOUTS
30. PC-checking org., at times : TSA
33. Word of regret : ALAS
34. Pebbles bearer : WILMA - the Flintstones "10d."
35. Drop : DRAM - I was looking for the verb, not the noun
36. Bringing it up can lead to a fit : HEM - ah, my kind of clue~! Thanks for covering lat week, CED~!
36. Bringing it up can lead to a fit : HEM - ah, my kind of clue~! Thanks for covering lat week, CED~!
I found this one, too - my that's short~!
37. It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly : S AND P - S&P 500 - the Wiki
38. Choice word : MEENY - eeny is my first choice....
39. "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" author : FLAGG - WAG
41. Raiding group, familiarly : THE FEDS
43. Fool : LIE TO
44. Sand bar : SHOAL
45. Figure it out : FILL IN THE BLANKS - there were a few "Wheel of Fortune" images I would like to have posted, but....
39. "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" author : FLAGG - WAG
41. Raiding group, familiarly : THE FEDS
43. Fool : LIE TO
44. Sand bar : SHOAL
45. Figure it out : FILL IN THE BLANKS - there were a few "Wheel of Fortune" images I would like to have posted, but....
50. Hitching post? : ALTAR - a gimme
51. Group of football players, perhaps : RUGBY TEAM
52. "Mr. Belvedere" actress Graff : ILENE - a WAG
53. Weight : ONUS
54. French bread : EURO - almost got me
55. Square figures : NERDS - I had AREA, then ACRES, and never thought it was something else
56. Gp. using sub titles? : USN - submarines in the U.S. Navy
57. Unattached : STAG - dah~! Not LONE
DOWN:
1. "Thus with a kiss __": Romeo : "I DIE"
2. Table salt, in chem class : NaCL
3. Pants part : KNEE
4. Words said in passing? : YES VOTES
6. Part of WYSIWYG : SEE IS - I am usually pretty good with acronym-type challenges - I nailed this as "what you see is what you get"
7. Home position, for some : ASDF - and then I hit a brick wall with this reference - A S D F on a Q W E R T Y keyboard is called the home row, which I did not know
8. Bar staff : LAWYERS - Dah~! I was in the wrong bar here....
9. Bar tool : OPENER - but the right one here
11. Former leader? : TRANS - transformer
12. Sebaceous gland issue : STYE - nice Saturday cluing
14. "Enough already!" : "CAN IT~!" - I had CUT IT to start
17. Fare on a stick : KEBAB
20. Round Greek letter : THETA - DAH~!! - I had OMEGA, since the E - A was in place....
23. Monument Valley locale : UTAH - half perps, half WAG
24. Sitcom marine : PYLE
24. Sitcom marine : PYLE
29. Overdone : OLD - oh, I get it now
31. Measure of passing time : SAND - like through the hourglass....
32. Organic frozen-food brand : AMY'S - I guessed the "M"
34. One traveling in Old West circles? : WAGON - circle the wagons~!
35. Lowers the volume of, in a way : DEFLATES - no NE Patriots joke~?
37. "SNL" sketches, e.g. : SATIRES
38. Like a bad apple : MEALY - argh~! not WORMY
40. University founder Stanford : LELAND - no clue
42. Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called "Wonderboy" : HOBBS - from "The Natural" - IMDb
43. De Gaulle's birthplace : LILLE - OK, sure - that's too Frawnche for me
44. Keeps away from : SHUNS
45. Willing : FAIN - never heard of this before
46. Briefs covering, in brief : TROUsers
47. Unaligned: Abbr. : NEUTral - two half-words in a row
48. Supergirl's Krypton name : KARA - another "no clue" on my part
49. Irritating blanket : SMOG - I pondered SNOW at first, but snow doesn't irritate me, personally
31. Measure of passing time : SAND - like through the hourglass....
32. Organic frozen-food brand : AMY'S - I guessed the "M"
34. One traveling in Old West circles? : WAGON - circle the wagons~!
35. Lowers the volume of, in a way : DEFLATES - no NE Patriots joke~?
37. "SNL" sketches, e.g. : SATIRES
38. Like a bad apple : MEALY - argh~! not WORMY
40. University founder Stanford : LELAND - no clue
42. Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called "Wonderboy" : HOBBS - from "The Natural" - IMDb
43. De Gaulle's birthplace : LILLE - OK, sure - that's too Frawnche for me
44. Keeps away from : SHUNS
45. Willing : FAIN - never heard of this before
46. Briefs covering, in brief : TROUsers
47. Unaligned: Abbr. : NEUTral - two half-words in a row
48. Supergirl's Krypton name : KARA - another "no clue" on my part
49. Irritating blanket : SMOG - I pondered SNOW at first, but snow doesn't irritate me, personally
Splynter
FIRight! I did use the lack of a ta-da to warn me I still needed to fix some things (FBI>TSA, EDYS>AMYS, DRIP>DRAM, FREE>TREE). Those and the SW & NE corners gave me problems, but I kept picking away at them!
ReplyDelete{C+, B, B-, B+.}
Wait till the last minute, we'll make it on time.
Get there too early, we'll just wait in line.
Nor "fashionably late",
Like folks from UPSTATE,
We'll get to the luncheon at ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE!
There's something moving, below in the lake!
Through the frozen surface, I still see its wake!
The cryptid thing
Is flapping huge wings,
It can't be a manta, it must be an ICE SKATE!
To FILL IN THE BLANKS seems to take all day.
I just want to finish, so I can be on my way!
But they say that this ONUS
Will have a great bonus
Of speeding things up -- says the T.S.A.!
Hunting a room, the raquet-eer was lost.
Ground floor was cramped, street noise wasn't soft.
And an upper floor
She would just deplore --
A good tennis player SHUNS any LOFTS!
Thank you David and thank you Splynter.
ReplyDeleteStarted strong. Nailed HOBBS, S AND P, JUMP THE GUN, WILMA, WAGON, JERRY, and OLD within seconds.
Then started to sputter and finally stalled completely. Almost threw in the towel. Rethought some of my fill after a break. I'm looking at you yaRDS, omEgA, Alone, crtMoniTOR, LEnArD. Yeah, that SW corner, pretty much other than ALTAR and SATIRES was brutal.
Another error ? Measure of passing time. Had Span. Finally for the F in FEDS from DEFLATES, and then corrected to SAND.
FAIN is a new word for me. Never heard of KARA before. She perped in.
Everywhere outside of Cook County and Chicago is downstate, even north and west.
In addition to the technical meaning of WYSIWYG, I think I will always recall this song that was heavily aired on WHOT in Y-town, and radio stations in Pittsburgh, back in the day.
Very nice interview CC and David. Also, good tough debut on the LAT.
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteWhile there were a few gimmes in this one, for the most part I found it very hard to FILL IN THE BLANKS. Tricky clues, obscure names (LILLE, IRENE) and a bunch of missteps (OMEGA before THETA, WAITERS before LAWYERS) all conspired against me today.
Still, I managed to get through most of it in one piece before crashing and burning. The crossing of DRAM and AMYS killed me, although I did eventually correctly guess at the crossing M. It was just a guess, though (although in retrospect it's easier for me to see how a "dram" can be considered a DROP). Never heard of AMYS as a brand and could only think that EDYS now sold organic ice cream. But it just didn't fit!
The worse spot, however, was at the crossing of GSO/ASDF/CUES. The first I vaguely knew, but can never remember if it's GSA or GSO. The second was a complete mystery to me and I just couldn't accept that any word ended in DF. As for CUES... Huh? I get somebody who CUES an actor is the person who gives the actor his lines onstage, but how can CUES mean "Gets onstage"? I'm sure it's obvious, but I just can't get it to work grammatically. Anyway, despite my being grammatically challenged, I figured it was either CUES or CUED. Neither one produced anything intelligible for 7D, however. ADDF, ASDF, ODDF or OSDF, pick yer poison. Tried all the combinations until I got the *TADA*. So, fail.
I knew I should have taken a touch typing course when I had the chance...
And speaking of never remembering if it's GSA or GSO, that should have been "the crossing of GSA/ASDF/CUES," obviously. Even when I get it right, I still manage to get it wrong...
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! Whew! Groan! WSS! Thanks for a mental workout, David! Thanks, Splynter!
ReplyDeleteTried "ebon" for Jet, despite I was the one posting about an inkjet printer the other day.
Got ASDF and it was right! Surprise! Surprise! Everything else I entered the first time through was wrong.
MEENY is just plain mean.
The SE 2/3 stumped me until the end. When I have three or four out of five letters and still don't get it, it is obscure. Hand up for never hearing of AMYS or KARA. Red-letter runs filled it, but I still had questions.
Gets onstage = CUES. Barry an actor will listen for a certain speech onstage as his CUE to come onto the stage.
FAMILY TREE was a sore point since I am struggling with an Ancestry gift that I can't make work.
Bluehen, Bless you. My best wishes for your new surgery. Is Dr. doing the corrective surgery for free?
BillG: You and Barbara are in my thoughts and prayers, too.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis one took the full time allotment, and I think David Liben-Nowell owes me a half bottle of Wite-Out. Still, I muddled through to victory, so there's that. Thought San Francisco would be UPSCALE, there would be bar TENDERS, and WORMY (Hi, Splynter) apples. Had I been solving on-line, I might have thrown up my hands and turned on the red letters. I haven't figured out how to do that with newsprint. My final entry, like some of you, was to WAG the M at the DRAM/AMYS cross. Dram seemed to work, but AMYS was unfamiliar -- still, it was a valid name, so I let it stand. Phew!
FAIN is one of those old-timey words, medieval even. "I would fain die a dry death," says somebody in some Shakespeare play. Don't ask me who or in which one. I would fain forget all about it.
Got through the top half handily with anchors in all sectors - NACL, SEEIS, LOFTS, PYLE. After that, it was a bit dicier, but it is done with only a couple of writeovers. Seems I think KEBAB can be KEBOB and I had MEELY which SHOAL quickly fixed. I lived in California for 11 years and while SF is north of most (sans SMF) nobody ever referred to NorCal as "upstate". Hated that clue. Happy Saturday!
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteGot most of it OK. FAIN was unknown and sort of a Natick because I wasn't sure about the I in ILENE. The East was amorphous, too, with DRAM, SAND and MEENY all agglomerated in one heap. Other unknowns were gotten from perps.
Liked the USN clue.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a typical Saturday toughie but, through trial and error, I finished w/o help. I, too, always stumble over GSA vs GSO and, for the life of me, couldn't come up with NACL for ages. ASDF was a little off-putting but worked out okay. Have never bought any of Amy's products but my grocery store carries a huge selection. Didn't know Ilene or Kara but perps did their job quite nicely.
Well done, David, and many thanks to Splynter for the enlightening expo.
Bill G, sending my best wishes for a speedy and smooth recovery to Barbara and will keep both of you in my thoughts and prayers.
YR, you and Alan are also in my thoughts and prayers and I hope you get some answers and remedies soon.
Best of luck to Bluehen.
Everyone else at this Corner, please stay well!
Have a great day.
Bill G -- hope everything is going well with Barbara's post-op and that she'll be coming home on schedule.
ReplyDeleteYR -- hope you can get the doctors on the right page with Alan's (sp?) situation.
The Barnacle prints a Word Search puzzle daily. I don't bother with it, but it's right above the Sudoku, so I do notice the word list. Earlier this week the last word entry was Windhover and today it was Yellowrock. How 'bout dat?
I enjoyed this puzzle. It was a nice mix of downright impossible and absolutely doable.
ReplyDeleteFiendish cluing abounded but paired with “gettable” long fills made for a pleasant, challenging Saturday. David’s interview with C.C. was fascinating as well.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-A GUT FEELING landed me in the hospital for several weeks
-My impatience has made me JUMP THE GUN and regret doing so many times
-I can’t think of one thing in my email that would interest the TSA
-A FILL IN THE BLANK Mad Lib on Fifty Shades of Gray that can be pretty funny or…
-S AND P cluing/fill was one step beyond fiendish
-I assume pols LIE TO me and so they don’t fool me. Waddaya gonna do?
-Many timely rains have eliminated sandbars from the Platte this year
-60 YES VOTES are needed to stop filibusters before YES VOTES can be counted on the original bill. Can you say stalemate?
-I need to get this 4-way OPENER
-What we all think until we need one
-I may never get the vowels right on KEBAB
-I’m of NEUTral Swiss heritage so while you fight, I’ll hold your coat and your money
Good Morning,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the challenge, David, and welcome to the Corner. I was really stuck in the NE--not that it was impossible, but my brain was operating on another wavelength. Favorite: FILL IN THE BLANKS--as we do here all the time. ALAS, not a first pass answer. Lots of lucky guesses for me: KARA, OLD, SAND.
Thanks, Splynter, for the tour. I look forward to Saturdays to experience your wit.
C.C. Thank you for the insight and the interview. Nicely, done.
Have a great weekend everyone. It's supposed to be a bit less humid here in the Midwest. Nice.
P.S.
ReplyDeleteBill G, wishing Barbara and you the best.
Barry G.
ReplyDeleteGETS ONSTAGE = CUES as in "induces or prevails upon [someone to get onstage]"
Is the DANE FAIN for THAT Shakespearian play, or does he need a CUE? Those pesky EUROS – I have a GUT_FEELING that he needs a wee DRAM.
ReplyDelete37A: SAND P is presumably a very small SAND DOLLAR, or maybe your dog's weekend treat if you live near an ocean SHOAL.
4D: YES VOTES are not the "WORDS SAID". There is only one word said: "AYE".
28A. Are LOUTS "BIG" LUGS? I thought they were synonyms.
51A. Why the "maybe" here. A RUGBY TEAM is a group of football players. There are plenty of other spots on the grid that could maybe use a maybe.
45A. I enjoyed seeing FAIN - perfectly good Skakespearian English.
50A. ALTAR - this clue, verbatim, has been used recently - tut, tut.
57A. TYPE-B – ditto.
54A. French Bread – this clue is getting OLD, if not STALE.
37A & 31D: SAND and SANDP – So, 4 out of 5 ain't MEALY if they are parsed differently?
Notwithstanding, plenty of clever cluing, and just clever enough (thanks to Rich apparently). A few true obscurities - KARA, JERRY, PEBBLES, HOBBS, AMYS, ILENE, PYLE – though well-covered by crosses. LILLES seemed likely to be a major French City; and I actually new LELAND. I dislike the KEBAB word, but only because there seems to be an infinite number of ways to spell it.
Very difficult and time consuming. I red lettered and ABC'd 4 blanks.
ReplyDeleteT-- and DR-- with TSA and DRAM crossing SAND and AMYS
It was really a fun workout. I did not know WYSIWYG, but I allowed SEE IS to stand.
When I was a kid, we used the King James Bible. I remembered FAIN from the story of The Prodigal Son."And he would FAIN have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him."
Healing thought to Barbara and Blue Hen and a wish for a speedy recovery. You caregivers are also in thoughts. You need love, too.
I can't believe how many people I know who have had knees and/or hips successfully replaced, but I also know of way too many do-overs. Madame D, are you next?
Yesterday we had the car and cooler all packed for a week of camping. Then we canceled, figuratively at 11:59. Alan was dangerously dehydrated, which two bags of IV drip cured at the ER. But all the other complaints remain. This is the fifth day he has spent lying down all day. He doesn't even want to go out for a Coke. Unusual for him. I will have to become very pushy on Monday to get this attended to. The doctor who handles this kind of thing is the one whose vacant position is filled by someone new each month. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
ReplyDeleteI think the constructor needed the play-on-words clues to make this a Saturday level puzzle. If you step back after filling it in, most of the answers could be gotten with more simple, straightforward clues. Not to be critical of Mr Liben-Nowell, but if I were to use a baseball analogy, he is like an OLD pitcher who's lost his fastball, and only has curves, sliders, and change ups left in his arsenal. But as others said, after all the write-overs, WAGS and perps, I finished it correctly
Thanks Splynter for the informative recap.
Favorite clue/solve? 19a. Hands down. Getting ELEVEN FIFTY NINE to fit was quite clever and made this puzzle. That I didn't have to use many perps or a WAG was key.
And BTW, I "hit" nearly every curve ball, slider and change up today! 😜 My two biggest roadblocks were putting ATOLL before SHOAL and UP NORTH before UPSTATE. I had a GUT FEELING this was going to be a fun challenge, and it was
Thanks, David, for a challenge this morning. First pass yielded a lot of white, but was able to complete everything but ASDF and GSA. Loved the two long fills the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Splynter, for the write-up, and welcome back!
D-O, LOL on the whole bottle of Wite-Out!
<< I can't believe how many people I know who have had knees and/or hips successfully replaced, but I also know of way too many do-overs. >>
ReplyDeleteDear Yellowrocks:
If I'd a known how much 'fun' it was to get old, I'd'a done it first!
Someday I'm going to write a book about "The 50 Things They Didn't Teach Us In High School," and Chapter 35 or so is going to be about how calcium migrates from bones over time ... and thinned bones don't always go so well with the replacement parts. (Moral: drink your milk, instead of beer or wine, even though the last two are more exciting.)
Michael
D-N-F ...
ReplyDeleteI could go "on-and-on" about the reason for my Ink Blot ...
but I don't really think that is necessary.
Agree with Chairman Moe, ELEVEN FIFTY NINE was also my favorite clue/answer.
Though, ICE-SKATED was a close second. You can't ICE SKATE on our NEAT ponds.
Receiving a delightful light-rain, cooling off my area. Guess I'll watch the Olympics.
A "toast-to-ALL" at sunset.
Cheers!
Fun challenge? Not for me. It was a death struggle in many places and I failed to FILLINTHEBLANKS at SAN_P/OL_ though I got about 90% then looked up FLAGG and JERRY and though I had _ERRY had no idea if it was H,P,T or some other letter since I don't know players' names. However, the J immediately gave me JUMPTHEGUN and opened wide the entire south.
ReplyDeleteThe NW filled quickly so that fooled me into thinking it would be easy. It wasn't and took too much time. Ah, well, it's Saturday.
FAIN and LELAND gave me a boost in the SW but had no idea about ILENE. How many decades has it been since Mr. Belevedere hit the screen?
Thank you, David Liben-Nowell for the mental workout and Splynter for the gratifying review.
Best wishes and prayers to Alan & YR, BlueHen and Bill G and Barbara. I'm so sorry to hear of your respective woes.
Enjoy your day as best you can, everyone!
Definitely a red letter day,
ReplyDeletespent most of it trying different letters until they stopped being "red."
(dastardly clueing...)
I also had a puzzle trying to find last nights late night Blog entries
because the usual links took me to Thursday. Fridays Blog can be found here,
below the write up. For some reason the only way I can access it is via the
the dated links on the lower right side of the Blog page.
HG, that "thingie" youposted looks so useful, I thought it needed a link,
but it was hard to find in English...
Blue Hen, good luck, I hope & pray your ordeal will be rectified soon.
I printed out your post so DW could read it. She is now completely healed
and walking around like she was 40 years younger.
I am not a doctor, but an earlier post rang a bell when they mentioned "calcium."
Last year I had a terrible time healing from a a bone bruise on my tibia caused by
stomping on cans for recycling. After 6 months of excruciating pain I went to a sports specialist who cured me with calcium + vitamin D3 supplements, plus a hormone nasal
spray that helped bone production, combined with shunning anything that contained Advil,
which slows calcium absorption and contributes to weak bones.
Like I said, I am not a doctor,
but I would question why they are not giving you everything you need to produce healthy bones,
and recommending avoiding things that inhibit bone healing...
Here is a rebus poeticus hellenis horribilis, inspired by today's crossword - probably best attempted in a Dick van Dyck cockney accent.
ReplyDeleteAlpha, Sigma, Delta Phi
αρτνκρ
δβκχ
φξυρ
ζηφνπ
If there is anyone out there who gives a monkey's armpit, the first character of the last line should have been "σ" rather than "ζ".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cartboy: UPSTATE is a New York direction, definitely NOT Californian. I was born and raised in "The City" (which, incidentally, is what many N. Californians actually call SF) but have lived for the past 36 years in SoCal. I have never heard "upstate" used as a direction for SF, or for anything up north.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I can release my ire at today's pzl. The pzl itself was both clever and tough. Mr. Liben-Nowell deserves all the credit he's been granted. Unfortunately, it was just that stubborn that I didn't give it the patience it might otherwise have deserved. My loss.
I have never heard the term "upstate" used in Calif. If talking about SF it is the City or the Bay area.
ReplyDeleteNice Cuppa @1:06 & 1:23,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your Hellenic rebus is brilliant, but my sophomore Greek could only take me as far as pronouncing the phonemes that go with the letters. To help me (and maybe a couple of others), could you add a clue or two? Maybe, for starters, whether we should try pronouncing in true Greek fashion or in our more usual Anglicized way?
Ευχαριστώ !
Thanks for the good thoughts and kind words. I will relay them to Barbara.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Keith and others; having lived in southern California since 1963, I have NEVER once heard San Francisco referred to as 'upstate.' I can see where you could call it that but nobody does. Where we went to college was called upstate New York though. That would have made the clue more realistic. I'm surprised the editors and test solvers didn't change that one.
UPSTATE? Um, no. Never. There is nothing that any Californian anywhere would refer to within California as upstate. (Of course there is upstate New York.) If it's San Francisco and 7 letters, it's THE CITY. Always. Every time. Northern California can be called NorCal, just as southern California is often referred to as SoCal. Never ever "upstate."
ReplyDeleteWow a real toughie today, so much so that I put it down a couple,of times in frustration. However, plain stubbornness prevailed and so did I.
ReplyDeleteNice to end the week successfully, see you Monday.
And, FWIW, "upstate" in New York begins at the Bronx border ... lived in Yonkers for 3 years and as a native Californian laughed when people told me I was living "upstate."
ReplyDeleteWhat Tin Said... Big fat DNF.
ReplyDeleteFunny about the solving experiences, there were things I got, like GSA, ASDF, CUES, WILMA, JERRY, w/o a perp and other's y'all got that I didn't "clue-in" on (Indi not NEUT still sits under a PYLE of an INKY mess).
Thanks David for a fun challenge - you win. Thanks Splyter for the expo and Van Halen to up my Sat.
Hand up for Tenders @8d...
A terminate walks into a pub and asks "Is the bar tender here?"
Also hand up for trying every vowel ('cept Y (sometimes)) for KEBAB.
Fav c/a for ALTER and SPAM FILTER.
{B-, C+, B+, B+}
HG - never heard the WYSIWYG song. Thanks. WYSIWYG was a breakthrough in GUI design; but you know that. Also, yep, !Chicago == downstate, IL. My FAMILY (R) hate that the Blue city always caries the state.
Feign I know. FAIN - I can't even pretend...
I'll play later. Gonna go see what Youngest learned in a 2 week ballet intensive.
Cheers, -T
Really enjoyed this one. Like others I was clueless, so to speak, with fain. A perfectly fair Saturday word as it turns out though. I wanted "slid across the pond" to be a British expression but -alas- it was not to be. Had to work out the right spelling of kebab to make things work out. My favorites were hem and spam filter.
ReplyDeleteYR,
ReplyDeleteYes, I have to have my Johnson an d Johnson Depuy hips replaced. They are leaching cobalt and chromium into my blood. My numbers are low so.I am waiting for a good time outside of life events. Probably the first one within the year. Im waiting to get past a number of family events. Eeeeech!
I hope Alan will do better next week.
Stay well. Extra thoughts and prayers for you.
Great puzzle spent a lot of time on it then got company so I had too come back to it.
ReplyDeleteHands up for LONE OMEGA SPAN TENDERS I had WOOL for SMOG SHIES for SHUN as in she SHIES away from the boys at the dance. French bread had me since I wanted Pan then thought of MOOLA Yes french cabbage LOL.
Finally turned on RED LETTERS and to my surprise no red showed up. Finally finished with the help of 2 red letters showing and the V8 can hitting me. I only had 5 or 6 letters missing when I did turn the red on.
Splynter missed you r pic last week but the one that is on here shows you have good taste for sure..
Plus Tard from Cajun Country ~!~!
Learning moment: WYSIWYG
ReplyDelete(I thought it said WizzyWig...)
I also had THE CITY for San Francisco which is what they call it. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and in SoCal. I have never heard San Francisco or any part of California called UPSTATE.
ReplyDeleteFAIN/ILENE rather unfair. Likewise DRAM/AMY'S. Never heard of AMY'S. As with Edy's I am guessing this is regional which is really quite annoying and unfair.
I think of "Figure it out" as referring to figures, i.e. math. FILL IN THE BLANKS doesn't seem to be a good fit for that clue.
This was way to difficult for me. However, I kept at it all week and last night I wanted to give up. This morning the last few(N,NW) fell.
ReplyDeleteSo much satisfaction when I finish, so much despair if I give up and go to the answers.
Some LOUT says " A murderer, a cheat and a liar go into a bar. The tender says, "Hey, it's the Patriots". He hadn't heard my Boston accent yet. My son, who is right now engrossed in the World Series of DOTA2 tells me he heard an interview where Tom admits he adjusts ball inflation to his liking, aways has and every qb has always done it too.
How many million dollars and he said that week one.
Btw. Simply answers to complicated clues IS the constructor's art. N'est-ce pas?
Down in the. SE I had PAIN and FREE along with a good many other dead ends
Finally. "I do difficult xwords because I can't do them". Wilbur Charles, 8/13/16