Theme: #2~!
Words: 72 (missing J,Q,X,Z)
Blocks: 32
This is Debbie's second Saturday this year (4/16/16), and a similar
solving experience for the second time, too. A lot of blank space on the
first pass, got just enough from WAGs to get a toe-hold in some
sections, and even the proper names filled in after the fact. A non intimidating grid, with just a couple of 10's and paired 9's;
17a. Enjoy all the seasons : BINGE WATCH - I binge watched all the episodes of "The X-Files" on DVD two years ago
48a. Most, with "the" : LION'S SHARE - this I nailed, and was a huge help in the SW
sONgWARD~!
ACROSS:
1. Object of Canaanite worship : BA'AL - the Wiki
5. Green Goblin portrayer in "Spider-Man" : DAFOE - I remembered this character and the actor
5. Green Goblin portrayer in "Spider-Man" : DAFOE - I remembered this character and the actor
10. Bolted down : ATE
13. Voice from a loft : ALTO - lots of clues with singing/voices today; I was curious about voice classification and found this - I was told in music class back in high school that I was "baritone" - but I can do some high stuff during karaoke
14. Filing aid : EMERY
15. Corporate bigwig : SUIT - went with EXEC, which messed me up in the NE
16. Put in stitches : SEWN - ah, nothing to do with humor
19. "This American Life" host : IRA GLASS - mostly perps and WAGs
21. Hapless toon : COYOTE - my first thought, but I hesitated
13. Voice from a loft : ALTO - lots of clues with singing/voices today; I was curious about voice classification and found this - I was told in music class back in high school that I was "baritone" - but I can do some high stuff during karaoke
14. Filing aid : EMERY
15. Corporate bigwig : SUIT - went with EXEC, which messed me up in the NE
16. Put in stitches : SEWN - ah, nothing to do with humor
19. "This American Life" host : IRA GLASS - mostly perps and WAGs
21. Hapless toon : COYOTE - my first thought, but I hesitated
22. Support providers : CORSETS - as a carpenter, GIRDERS was my first thought; this is a much better image
23. What some pros often do : MAKE PAR - amateur mini-golfers can hit the mark, too
24. Groundbreaking invention : HOE - I thought a "?" would have been appropriate for misdirection - but then again, it really is a ground-breaking invention....
25. Unbranded? : GENERIC - similar to NO FRILLs, as in 1d.
26. Relay link : BATON
29. Friend of Mozart : HAYDN - man, I thought this was right, but hesitated again
30. Army officers: Abbr. : LTs
32. "As if!" : "I BET~!"
33. Longtime CBS head : PALEY - all perps, WAGed the "L"
34. Catchy melody : HOOK - yeah, I tried TUNE but it didn't seem correct
35. Lon of Cambodia : NOL
36. Disguise : COVER
37. Swab : MATEY - not Q-TIP, which didn't fit
38. Doesn't give up on : RETRIES
40. Former SSR : RUSsia
41. Draws out : SIPHONS
23. What some pros often do : MAKE PAR - amateur mini-golfers can hit the mark, too
24. Groundbreaking invention : HOE - I thought a "?" would have been appropriate for misdirection - but then again, it really is a ground-breaking invention....
25. Unbranded? : GENERIC - similar to NO FRILLs, as in 1d.
26. Relay link : BATON
29. Friend of Mozart : HAYDN - man, I thought this was right, but hesitated again
30. Army officers: Abbr. : LTs
32. "As if!" : "I BET~!"
33. Longtime CBS head : PALEY - all perps, WAGed the "L"
34. Catchy melody : HOOK - yeah, I tried TUNE but it didn't seem correct
35. Lon of Cambodia : NOL
36. Disguise : COVER
37. Swab : MATEY - not Q-TIP, which didn't fit
38. Doesn't give up on : RETRIES
40. Former SSR : RUSsia
41. Draws out : SIPHONS
42. Great expectation : HIGH BAR
46. Thunderstruck : AGHAST
47. Right part of a map? : RED STATE - ah.
50. Vocal support : AYES
51. Canadian singer Murray : ANNE - I remembered her
52. School aide : TUTOR
53. Butter from the farm : GOAT - I was well aware this was going to be "BUTT-er", but BULL did not seem right
54. Dead end? : DEE - clever; deaD
55. Eclipses, to some : OMENS - Columbus used one to his advantage
56. Tots : SUMS - ah, not LADS, which I refrained from filling in; British slang "Tot up" for adding together
DOWN:
1. No-frills : BASIC
2. Olds compact : ALERO
3. Doing battle : AT WAR
4. One not likely to succeed : LONG SHOT
5. Forensic competition : DEBATE - I had the "D", and thought it might be "DNA---" - bzzzt
6. Off the mark : AMISS
7. Boston park, with "The" : FENS - makes sense with Fenway Park in Boston, too
8. Address ending : ORG. - website address
9. It'll turn your head : EYE CANDY - you know what turns my head....
so many to choose from.....
10. Unthinking state : AUTOPILOT - my first thought, with the "A" in place, but EXEC did not agree....
11. Game that's hard to lose : TIC-TAC-TOE - hard to win, too, technically - and saves the day in "War Games" - try typing in "shall we play a game" on Google....
12. It's a real knockout : ETHER - har-har
15. "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" singer Leo : SAYER - I didn't know the name of the singer, but I recall the song with the unmistakeable falsetto style
11. Game that's hard to lose : TIC-TAC-TOE - hard to win, too, technically - and saves the day in "War Games" - try typing in "shall we play a game" on Google....
12. It's a real knockout : ETHER - har-har
15. "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" singer Leo : SAYER - I didn't know the name of the singer, but I recall the song with the unmistakeable falsetto style
I could do this at karaoke....
18. Gotten up : WOKEN - RISEN~? AWAKE~? argh~!!
20. Spanish province or its capital : LEON
23. Mobster Lansky : MEYER - no clue, all perps
25. Serious blows : GALES - ah, not fists of fury, fits of Fujita; I noticed with the last tropical storm the "F" classification was now "EF" - it's been 'enhanced'
26. Place for a bargain : BIN - bargain bin
27. Early inhabitant : ABORIGINE
28. Game played in whispers : TELEPHONE - a great game where the initial storyteller hears his message retold, often to a humorous end - I found this link
29. Well-to-do types : HAVES - I pondered "ELITE" and "A-LIST"
31. The limit, perhaps : SKY - confirmed my "TUNE" was wrong
33. Indicates : POINTS TO
34. They can also represent pounds : HASH TAGS - the other other use of "#"
36. Vampire repellent : CROSS - pondered STAKE
37. Faces, in slang : MUGS
39. Macbeth, vis-à-vis Glamis : THANE
40. Commuters : RIDERS
41. Mixed dish : SALAD
42. Great blue wader : HERON
a wader wailer
43. "Blue __": 1963 and 1977 hit : BAYOU
44. Starters : A-TEAM
45. Takes ten : RESTS
47. Review : RATE
49. "Rattle and __": U2 album : HUM
Splynter
42 comments:
Got it! Tho it took a lot of LONG-SHOT WAGs! The NE corner I found hardest, but my last entries were changing uRl to ORG, which let me guess at DAFOE, and more importantly correct BIBLE WATCH! ("To every thing there is a season...")
{C, A, A-, A.}
Should you live in a BLUE or RED STATE
Your vote might not highly RATE.
But if you're in the circle
Of states that are purple,
Your color choice will be up for DEBATE!
BINGE WATCH the Road Runner on TV
You'll feel AGHAST for old Wiley E.!
He's HAPLESS each story,
Then robbed of his glory --
The headliner's the bird, not COYOTE!
I try to set a HIGH BAR
For the art that my poems are.
They're often AMISS
With no Muse's kiss,
But once in a while they MAKE PAR!
A wizard at mechanics and SUMS
Invented a boon for green thumbs!
With a purring sound
His machine would break ground --
Farmers marveled to hear his HOE HUM!
Now that was a helluva good puzzle !
Morning, all!
Well, I managed to get through this one unscathed, but it was touch-and-go for awhile, especially in the center section. I was so proud of myself for getting ROONE (as in Arledge) at 33A. Sadly, wrong network and I've never heard of that PALEY guy, so that messed me up until I finally got rid of ROONE and let the perps have their way. MEYER was another unknown and, while I knew that Mozart and HAYDN were contemporaries, I had no idea they actually knew each other (let alone that they were friends). Live and learn. Having RISEN before WOKEN just added to the mess in that section.
Once I finally got rid of ROONE, though, things got a lot better. I was then able to get POINTS TO, GALES and HAVES, and that really broke the whole section open for me.
Good morning!
This may be my fastest Saturday ever. Needed to change RISEN to WOKEN and CLOVE (garlic) to CROSS, but otherwise it was a race to the bottom. Thanks for the softball, Debbie.
I once BINGE WATCHed all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1. It takes a cubic DVD box to house the entire set.
Whose version was better? Roy in '63 or Linda in '77? I like 'em both.
Roy and Linda duet would have been marvelous, I bet.
Thanks Splynter. Aaah, Sugar, Sugar.....!
• I have always known the "Telephone game" as "Chinese Whispers". I suppose that is now considered non-pc/racist.
• I seem to recall this discussion before, but "GOTTEN UP" is surely a synonym for RISEN rather than WOKEN.
• I had a problem with SEWN = Put in stitches. OK, PUT can be used as Present, Past Tense or Past Participle.
But "Put in stitches" = SEW makes sense in the present tense, active voice.
Put in stitches = SEWED is OK – past tense, active voice.
But, Put in stitches = SEWN ? It seems to me that "HAD put in Stitches" would be the appropriate clue.
• Learning moment – TOON mean both a CARTOON FILM and a CHARACTER in the film. I knew the first meaning, not the second.
Good Morning:
This was quite a workout but I finished w/o help thanks to perps and wags. I thought several clues were not so much misdirections but were off kilter, which added to the difficulty of the solve. Woken grates on the ear a little, IMO.
Thanks, Debbie, for a Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter, for the succinct summary.
Have a great day.
HIGH BAR is not a "great expectation" but a barrier to a great expectation.
For Anon 8:30: In usages such as "his performance set the bar higher", the high bar is the goal or expectation.
I loved this puzzle, so many clever clues. "A real knockout" cracked me up. Thanks Ms. Ellerin
Musings
-I thought DAFOE/FENS would be impossible but changing URL to ORG helped
-I am in the middle of BINGE WATCHING this Netflix series just like I did for House of Cards
-12 SUITS fit on a Lear Jet in the last Sunday puzzle I blogged
-Btfsplk and Eyeore were my first hapless toon candidates
-Making PAR this week was even harder after this seasonal event
-Our music appreciation prof said Beethoven had those 14 HOOK notes running around in his head before he used them in his 9th symphony
-RETRIES by Stephen Wright, “If at first you don’t succeed don’t skydive!”
-SIPHONING and locking gas caps were popular in the gas-rationing 1970’s
-I wasn’t in DEBATE but was in DECLAM although I didn’t know the meaning of the word
-I sometimes was on AUTOPILOT when I taught a lesson for the 6th time in day
-Bugsy Siegel and MEYER Lansky built the Flamingo and got Las Vegas going
-IMHO, Roy Oribison’s Blue BAYOU blows Linda Ronstadt’s version out of the, uh, bayou
-He set a HIGH BAR and many followed
21A Coyote
Hi Y'all! Good puzzle, Debbie! WSS (what Splynter said) Pretty much my experience with this, Splynter.
NE corner had to be mostly red-lettered. Enjoy the seasons: not tree peeping or tasty herbs & spices. Even when BINGE WATCH was red-lettered in, I didn't get it. Splynter had to 'splain it. Duh!
Tried Bugsy. Meyer was ESP. Didn't know most the other names -- even Green Hornet.
Well, guess I know which tune will be floating between my ears today. "I'm going back some day...." Nobody linked it? How'd that happen?
HOOK? Music? Naw! Just pirates or crochet in my book. WOKEN? Is that a legitimate word? Sounds awkward.
Good morning everyone.
About PAR for a Saturday. Got all but the NE unaided. Surprised I remembered PALEY. Did not know that use of HOOK. And thought the TIC TAC TOE clue was amorphous. Should have known ORG and DEBATE, but just couldn't come up with those meanings today. Liked the long downs EYE CANDY and AUTO PILOT. Chortled at the ETHER clue.
Had risen before WOKEN.
Hello Puzzlers -
Had to chip away at this one. The SE corner was particularly stubborn because I didn't think of Blue Bayou, even though I had the B in place, and couldn't think up A Team for some reason. I remembered that we had "tots up" or similar in a prior puzzle, and kept that possibility in mind, but doubted it until the very last.
From yesterday: a busy day kept me from posting, but I just can't miss an opportunity to praise Lager Rhythm! Smiled right out loud at that one. Liked the Feetles video, too.
Morning, Splynter, thanks for 'splaining.
Splynter: Excellent, informative write-up & links. Good Job!
Debbie: Thank You for a FUN Saturday puzzle. Like D-O, probably my fastest Sat. Solve, ever.
Fave today was the Great blue wader, HERON ... I see them hunting lizards for breakfast nearly every day.
Now that it is a beautiful, sunny, mid-80's day ... I'm thinking it is time to "open-the-windows," and turn-off the A/C.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Happy Birthday Eve Husker.
Cheers!
Tough one from Debbie. A true Saturday puzzle.
Like others, I had a few problems/issues with some of the clues and resulting answers. BINGEWATCH, TOTS, WOKEN, and HASHTAGS, were definitely not in my lexicon today. I would have liked Tossed Dish instead of Mixed Dish for SALAD. I did know all of the proper names today which is usually not the case.
I misread Hapless toon as LOON at first so it took a while to correct that one.
Thanks to the HBO, the History Channel, and the Cartoon Network I knew Wilem Dafoe, MEYER Lansky and Wiley Coyote
All in all a challenging puzzle worthy of a Saturday.
Today will be full of Tigers, Lions, Panthers, Bobcats, Cougars, Huskers, Hawkeyes, Buckeyes, Bulldogs, Seminoles, Gators, Longhorns, Hurricanes, Tarheels, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Blue Devils, Bruins, Bears, Mountaineers, Vols, Hokies, Zips, Bulls, a few Aggies and many, many other mascots today. Have a great day of college football everyone.
I know what a PERP is and I even understand what it means to be NATICK, but what are WAGS? Google says it means 'Wives and Girlfriends', but I would doubt that was the meaning unless of course there is corresponding HABS. Thanks.
Dear John at 11:23:
A WAG is a Wild-A**ed Guess ... or, maybe, a Wide-Awake Guess.
We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are." ~ Calvin and Hobbes
Dear Michael at 11:30
Thanks for the quick response. I thought the G might be 'guess' but I didn't have the first two letters. I should have known since I have often found myself relying on WAGS.
"Puzzling thoughts":
This puzzle was a true "War between the States", as the entire "South" (everything beneath NOL COVER and MATEY) was pristine, and the "North" looks like a Rorschach test. Too many errors to mention but the most egregious were MISCLUB before MAKE PAR, and LOST SOUL before LONG SHOT. Had to google a few answers to finish. Have to say I enjoyed Splynter's recap better than the puzzle.
A big ? for the word FENS in 7d. I certainly know Fenway Park but never heard that nickname used
Needed ESP to get PALEY. GALES was an educated WAG. Which, to John Napoli at 11:23, means Wild Ass Guess
Football has officially "kicked off"! I still have a "dog" in the proverbial baseball hunt, but I am much more a football fan
Happy weekend all
This was more fun than usual for a Saturday. Though 75% filled easily, the NE corner truly gave me fits. I had CAToTONIC and knew it wasn't spelled correctly yet it held me up. For the life of me I could not think of COYOTE even though SAYER was in place. Finally had to look it up. I hate to do that.
After erasing 10D, WATCH appeared and the rest flooded in but it took waaaay too long.
Other than the NE, they fell like dominoes, one after the other. MATEY went in, went out, then in again as did SKY. I thought HOOK was a stretch for catchy melody. I also thought of ROONE before PALEY slipped in place.
Thanks, Debbie Ellerin and thank you, Splynter, for your steadfast attention to detail.
Have a splendid day, everyone! Book club meeting today.
Pretty much what Barry G said. I've heard of HOOK in story plotting and news reports, but not familiar with it in music.
I think Beethoven previously used those 14 notes that Gary referred to in a magnificent composition called Fantasy for Piano, Choir, and Orchestra in C Minor, Opus 80.
Best wishes to you all.
Well, I'm always ready for a Saturday disaster, but this one was a real blessing. I got about 3/4 of the puzzle before I had to start cheating a little (looked up DAFOE and SAYER) and in the end had an unfortunate goof when I put in HOOT for that catchy melody, instead of HOOK (never heard of the word used that way). But all else was perfect--Yay! Wahoo!
Many thanks, Debbie and Splynter.
Wouldn't you think with a name like Wylie he'd be a clever, not a hapless, COYOTE?
That "filing aid" clue had me totally flummoxed because I of course thought of computer filing, not nail failing, and so didn't get EMERY until almost the end.
Also, like an idiot, I took "right part of the map" to refer to direction, not politics, and even after I got the answer I kept thinking, wait a minute, California isn't a RED STATE.
Owen, I liked your poems today.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Hook is an industry term. It's that part of the melody that makes a tune irresistible. One of the better known references: Hook
And here's one that's a bit more obscure: Is it commercial
I don't have a preference between Roy and Linda, both had great versions. Today, Linda wins the coin toss Blue Bayou
I was terrific today! Got 'em all w/o a single lookup or cheat! Thank you, Debbie Ellerin, for revealing my genius to me - especially on a Saturday pzl!
Barry G, I see you were another ace. Hands up, everyone who was equally brilliant today!!
Of course, I am not counting my misspelling of EMERY as EMORY. I mean anyone could make that tiny slip. Right? And what does it matter if that gave me FONS instead of FENS for Beantown's park? I've only been to Boston twice, so for all I know Henry Winkler might be a native son. He's got the accent, right?
Hi All!
Thanks Debbie for a fun Sat pzl. I did have to cheat on the names to break things up but overall sparkly fun. Splynter - you know you're the reason why I even try Sats. Thanks.
My 1st entry was 19a. I remember when DW & I had our 1st house and we'd WAKEN on Sat & snuggle to This American Life when IRA 1st started airing... That was BK [before kids]
Fortunately that confirmed "AT WAR" but not so much w/ plaIn @1d [bzzt] - giving into to ALTO fixed that mess.
Googling 5a, 15d, 23d, and 33a made this puzzle possible to complete. And that SUMS it up [my paper has Totals @56a clue].
Like Betsy - LOL at 12d. I'll chalk that up as Fav.
WO - tOOn b/f HOOK (Blues Traveler - listen to the words - it's introspectively funny]
{A, B, A, B}
'63 Roy hands down.
Bill G. Reading Calvin & Hobbes w/ Jordan I hope :-)
Manac - good to see you (and your humour) back!
Splynter - I didn't know about Google's Easter Egg. Thx. The only way to win is not to play...
Off to buy an new cooktop that won't fit the hole in my counter... This house makes me feel like a hapless Toon - it's ACME built.
Cheers, -T
DRAT - I gots ta remember to refresh after drafting - Ave. Joe beat me to HOOK. For completeness Roy. C, -T
Anon-T, just make sure the new cooktop is larger than the existing hole. Smaller would be a bummer.
Oops--just realized California is on the left side of the map, not the right side--I guess in both senses of the word. Looks like I'm still waking up on my Saturday morning.
What is there about a pop song that reaches out and grabs onto a part of your brain, usually right way and then sticks there? That's a hook. Here are some songs with great hooks.
YMCA
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
The Twist
Stayin' Alive
She Loves You
I will Survive
Sweet Caroline
D-O - that's the problem. It's a 30" wide (standard) and 24-1/2" deep GE Profile w/ the knobs hanging over the cut-out bullnose of the counter. They don't even make parts for it any more. I had to go to one of those high-end custom stores [thanks dude at Home Depot for telling me about the place!] and they will have a customizer put it in. My wallet hurts.
Misty - I wasn't going to call you out on it - maybe you did it on purpose. For what it's worth, I LOL'd on both levels.
OMK - Cripes! I did that too re: EMoRY and didn't catch it during Splynter's expo. Cheats & FIW?.. Just another Sat :-)
Cheers, -T
Okay, I absolutely capitulate on HOOK. Music definitely has it. Thanks for the links and examples, everybody. (Linda Ronstadt could have sung the phonebook and still sounded fantastic. She woulda had me at "A1 Plumbing.") Sweet Caroline, yes!
oc4beach: Liked your long list of mascots, though (of course) I have no idea which goes with which school. Two were particularly problemmatic, so I looked them up, and coincidentally they were playing each other today: Tennessee (Volunteers) Vols vs. Virginia Tech Hokies at Bristol Motor Speedway (!?). Vols was clear, but what was a Hokie? That took further research.
The HokieBird... The bird is a "HokieBird" which has evolved from a turkey. Virginia Tech teams were once called the "gobblers"!
I had a whole lot of white on my first pass and got the SE filled first. Got my toeholds with RED STATE and HASHTAGS. Finished easily in spite of unknowns.
MEYER Lansky- Mafia finance chief. If you remember Hyman Roth from the Godfather movie, his character was portraying Meyer Lansky.
Blue BAYOU- Linda Ronstad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qqvdOwoN-Y
Roy Orbison's original https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGB9cvWdn04
The clues for DEBATE and EYE CANDY just baffled me for a while. Been seeing plenty of EYE CANDY today while working a tennis tournament. Splynter would like all the long legs and short skirts. I was thinking of two coroner's competing and some type of wrestling hold.
FENS-knew of Fenway Park and the Green Monster but had never heard that term but it fit and the crosses were solid. TELEPHONE game and the U2's 'Rattle and HUM' were all crosses; never heard of it either.
I thought I was the only one who ODs on binge watching Stargate SG 1 and X Files! I have the whole series of both...and yes, they do take up much real estate!
Wow. Nailed a Saturday in its entirety in record time. Saturday completions for me are exquisitely more rare than the cherished Sunday grid.
Had enough leisure time left to crank out another 1,000 words on the latest novel.
A benchmark Saturday!
Thanks for the Roy O. & K.D. Lang link. I had to link and BINGE WATCH about six songs then (side-link) listen to Shaq's speech at the Hall of Fame induction. He's too funny! An hour well spent.
Blasphemous as it may be I like Ronstadt. It's my ear worm repellent
Good Sunday afternoon, folks. Thank you, Debbie Ellerin, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Slynter, for a fine review.
Could not get this done on Saturday, but finished today. It was tough.
Spelled SIPHONS wrong. Used a Y for the I. Took a while to get that.
NE corner was real tough. Getting GENERIC and MAKE PAR helped a lot. ETHER was easy, but could not figure out ATE for a while. No idea who SAYER was or is.
Anyhow, Monday will be a refresher.
See you then.
Abejo
( )
Well, here I am, speaking to the ETHER.
I had a pleasurable Tuesday going when I got hit by a white out, full Saturday storm.
Speaking of wite-out, along with AROSE I also had MOPUP for Swab
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