Theme. ¿Hablas Español? Seven Spanish-language entries stepping across and down the grid as neatly explained by the grid-spanning reveal.
13A. Common refreshment : AGUA. I knew right away that something was afoot when this had no indication of "in Spanish" in the clue.
14D. "I'm outta here" : ADIOS. I like how "Amigo" is another of the seven themers.
28A. Chef's creation : SALSA. Once I saw this I was off to the races. I've never solved a puzzle diagonally before but the other four theme entries went in one after the other.
30D. Buddy : AMIGO
48A. Not us : OTROS. The others.
50D. Figure of veneration : SANTA. All females. The men are "San". When I can't sleep I sometimes try an alphabet run of place names, one for each San/Santa. I haven't been able to come up with a Santa "Z" yet, but there is a San Zaccaria church in Venice.
68A. Museum contents : ARTE. The Keats-Shelley memorial museum is in the house where Keats lived at the top of the Spanish Steps.
and the reveal:
39A. Roman landmark graphically portrayed by this puzzle's circles : THE SPANISH STEPS. Either "Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti" or "Scalina Spagna" in Italian depending on who you ask. You need to get up early to see them this devoid of people:
Buenos dias amigos y amigas! Steve here with Jeffrey's quick Spanish 101 quiz. A neat theme and a tidy grid with only one entry I wished wasn't there (I'm looking at you, S.F. FAN). There's a lot of unusual or unique fill; the whole puzzle feels very fresh. ¡Bravo!
Right then, let's see what else we've got. Ándale!
Across:
1. The 1% in 1% milk : FAT
4. Court activity : HOOPS
9. Baseball's "Georgia Peach" : COBB. Nailed it! Getting better at baseball icons.
15. TV comic Kovacs : ERNIE. I knew the name, but I never saw the show. He died in a car crash here in Los Angeles when I was three.
16. Campers' gathering place : FIRE. Not SITE as I had first.
17. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's forte : TAP-DANCING
19. Actress Lena : OLIN. I always forget her. Thank you, crosses!
20. Amazon's biz : E-TAIL
21. Really dug : ATE UP
23. One may be tipped : HAT
24. Translate, in a way : DECODE
26. Landscaper's contraption : SEEDER. This one is not messing around:
31. Heavenly figure : SERAPH. Top of the heap of the celestial hierarchy. That's one boss angel.
33. Cadillac compact : ATS. It's the smallest of the brand's model line.
36. Soup bean : LIMA
38. Cookout spot : PATIO
43. Big fight : MELEE
44. Elegant molding : OGEE. Comes from "Oh gee, that's some nice molding you've got there".
.JPG/800px-Pirna_Peter-Ulrich-Haus_(01).JPG)
45. Collecting Soc. Sec. : RET. Not RTD, which I tried first.
46. Claim in a tissue ad : SOFTER
51. Brand in a B-52 cocktail : KAHLÚA. Comes from Mexico, appropriately enough for this puzzle's theme. Kahlúa, Baileys Irish Cream and triple sec, layered.
53. Jerks : SPASMS
57. Promise : VOW
58. One rooting for the Niners, briefly : S.F. FAN. Not my favorite.
61. Open, in a way : UNCAP
62. "Iliad" warrior : AJAX. Also a Dutch soccer team. I saw them play in Amsterdam and have a souvenir jersey.
64. Chaucer narrative told by Huberd, with "The" : FRIAR'S TALE. He was mean about a summoner, and so the summoner told a mean tale about a Friar in turn. We read the Canterbury Tales at school, and to the credit of all concerned, our textbook was unexpurgated. It was a lot of fun translating the rude bits.
66. Trim : PARE
67. "__ Doone" : LORNA
69. Produced with effort, with "out" : EKED
70. English assignment : ESSAY
71. Transitory passion : FAD
Down:
1. Destined : FATED
2. Striped stone : AGATE
3. Rapper __ Shakur : TUPAC. A controversial figure; he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996, aged 25.
4. Coop occupant : HEN
5. Sea predator : ORCA
6. "Will do!" : ON IT!
7. Cone makers : PINES. Nicely obscure - I wanted something ice-cream related.
8. Smooth transitions : SEGUES
9. One who might be a CPA : CFO. Because Chief Financial Officer is too long to fit in three squares.
10. Winter warmer : OIL HEATER
11. Holmes accessory : BRIAR PIPE. He also never said "Elementary, my dear Watson".
12. Like a crowbar : BENT
18. Six-time Emmy winner : ALDA. Five for writing, directing and acting in M*A*S*H and one for Best Supporting Actor in The West Wing. His real name is Alphonso D'Abruzzo.
22. Chums, slangily : PEEPS
25. First name in jazz : ELLA
27. "Well, shoot" : DRAT
29. Chinese: Pref. : SINO-. As in the "Sino-Soviet Split" during the Cold War.
32. Colbert, for one : HOST. Currently with The Late Show on CBS. Funny guy.
33. Devices with security cameras : ATMS
34. TV cop with a Tootsie Pop : THEO KOJAK. Didn't even hesitate with this one. I'm not sure how I knew he was called "Theo" but somehow I did.
35. Mindful of one's own needs : SELF-AWARE
37. As __: grouped together : A SET. I tried A LOT at first. Didn't stay in there long.
40. MacFarlane of "Family Guy" : SETH
41. Juicing discards : PEELS
42. "If she did play false, the fault was __": Shak. : HERS. From King John, Act I scene i in which John converses with a character charmingly called "the Bastard".
47. Dust __ : RUFFLE
49. Work : OPUS
52. Fluffed-up dos : AFROS
54. Winter accessory : SCARF
55. Island near Sicily : MALTA. The British Navy used to have a base close to the capital, Valetta. This street, nicknamed "The Gut" was infamous (or famous, depending on your point of view!)
56. Clip : SPEED
57. Enjoy an e-cig : VAPE. E-cigs are getting to have as bad a name as the real things.
59. Pretensions : AIRS
60. Family nickname : NANA
63. Struck (out) : X'ED
65. Slight manifestation, as of hope : RAY
I think that does it for me. Con rapida ... here's the grid!
Steve
There will be an A. I. who'll become SELF-AWARE,
ReplyDeleteHe'll decide to upgrade the body he'll wear!
So to Robo-Marts
To buy some parts,
Where he soon will peruse a shelf o' ware!
Linguistically it's easy to PARE a pear,
And it also makes sense to stare at a STAIR!
If you're willing to reach,
You can impeach a peach --
But DRAT, how could you wear AWARE?
Angel deputies SET heavenly phasers to stun,
But when they arrived, the MELEE had begun!
Demons FIRED away,
Were returned RAY for RAY --
When it was over, the SERAPH had won!
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Jeffrey and Steve!
Figured out the Spanish theme. Took awhile. No problems. Only new thing was ATS.
Have a great day!
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteMildly annoying today due to the lack of circles. Like Steve, I suspected something was up when AGUA was clued as "common" with no reference to SPANISH. I did get the theme reveal, but I totally missed that the SPANISH answers were all in the form of STEPS. To me, they were just random answers that were in SPANISH instead of English, with no way of knowing ahead of time. My fault for not paying attention, since I really should have figured it out even without the circles.
Good Morning, Steve and friends. My puzzle started out with 1-Across reading: The 1in 1milk. What???? That didn't make any sense. After getting F_T, I guessed FAT.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my puzzle didn't have circles. I did wonder AGUA was answer for a Common Refreshment, but just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. I knew the SPANISH STEPS, but didn't got back to see that the Spanish words formed Steps.
My favorite clue was Cone Makers = PINES. I was initially thinking of the highway Cones and wondered if there was a common manufacturer of such cones.
QOD: It seems that every time I stick my neck out, I get my foot into something else. ~ Patsy Cline (Sept. 8, 1932 ~ Mar. 5, 1963)
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteIf I'd cottoned to the theme, I wouldn't have entered SALAD or OTHER. D'oh! The Barnacle printed the circles, so there's no excuse. Thanx, JW.
King John was a Shakespeare play? Could'a fooled me. Actually did.
Steve, that picture of "The Gut" reminds me of Olongapo in the Philippines. That's where I learned a different meaning for "short time."
Did not know Alan Alda's real name. Interesting that his stage name is a mashup of the first two letter of his first and last names.
Very, very clever CW, and fun to fill, thanx, JW!! For I believe the first time I managed a JW CW! Terrific write-up, Steve, thanx. My wife had to start work at 7:00am today, I made her bacon and eggs, toast, coffee and O.J., ate breakfast with her, saw her off to work, did the CW. Well, now for me it's back to sleep for a while, then get up and work on the financials.
ReplyDeleteThe Alda family have become a mini acting dynasty with ROBERT ALDA the one who chose the portmanteau as the stage name.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite of JW' s featuring a wonderful visual aspect to the theme. We also get our dose of Shakepeare with a quote from a lesser known play about the very unsympathetic brother of King Richard. Robin Hood does not appear in the play.
Thanks Jeffrey and Steve
Nice section of Rome, many good memories. I wrote a couple of the Spanish words before making the connection with the landmark.
ReplyDeleteNames names names! At first I thought I'd crash and burn, but ended up with only a couple that were completely unknown: the rapper TUPAC, and LORNA. I recognized the Spanish steps right off, but then it took a couple of the circled clues before I realized they would all actually be Spanish. Because of that, my ADIEU had to go and be replaced by ADIOS before things got clearer.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, other relatively unknown entities relied on perps to be deciphered, but I enjoyed getting it all out in the end. Nice Thursday challenge.
Entertaining puzzle - I was in Rome in May and I'm with Steve - I don't think you would ever see the steps that clear of people. I think they must have had to clear them of a few even if it was 4 or 5 in the morning! Glad they were all common Spanish words or it would have been more of a challenge!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve and Jeff!
I got a JW! Didn't know SERAPH or the Shakespeare quote. Sorta knew ATS, FRIARSTALE, ARTE and MALTA. Spelled TUPAC with a K at first. I thought ice cream for cone maker. The waffle cone was invented in our little city, and the original iron is still used. The inventor only recently died, but his restaurant, Dumar's, continues.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Jeffery and Steve for a fun start to this Thursday.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
ReplyDeleteA few ink blots here and there, but I was able to solve and finish the CW thanks to a couple of Google cheats; one for spelling (TUPAC) and one for the island (MALTA). The SE Corner was last to fall as SANTA SPASMS and MALTA were not in my focus.
I didn't see the SPANISH STEPS and also put SALAD in 28a and SAINT in 50d
Interesting that the word SATAN is an anagram for SANTA
Good job Steve in your recap; JW gave us a great theme and puzzle - enjoyed it!
And though I know we are not supposed to discuss/expound on religion or politics, I couldn't help trying to figure out how to limerick a pun, created by one of today's clue answers ... not meant to offend ...
Eric Clapton was known to rebuff
Most religions. He seemed rather gruff
When he wanted to change
Marley's lyric. Exchange
Song's title to: "I Shot the SERAPH"
A relatively smooth week so far. Sussed the theme after the first two entries.
ReplyDeleteErnie Kovacs was a comic genius and ahead of his time. His show was televised live, so all the sight gags had to be done without the benefit second takes.
In the world of digital photography, capturing a scene devoid of people is relatively easy. With the camera mounted on a tripod, take multiple exposures timed several seconds apart. Hopefully, as the people move about, different areas of the scene will be vacant. Using a program such as Photoshop, layer the multiple exposures and mask out the people revealing, if all goes well, unoccupied areas on other layers. Works well if there are not too many people and if they don't linger in one position.
Steve: Excellent, informative write-up. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteJeffrey: Thank You for a FUN Thursday puzzle. Enjoyed THE SPANISH STEPS theme.
OK, I will admit at 13-a, Common refreshment, I really wanted to enter SCOTCH before AGUA.
Also, put in SALAD before that LIMA bean made my Buddy an AMIGO (off the 'M') and SALSA appeared..
Fave today, of course, was the B-52's KAHLUA ... Go figure ... LOL
Cheers!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteMr. Wexler continues to surprise and delight with his creativity and execution. I saw the "steps" but completely missed the Spanish words forming them. I'm not sure whether I need a brain or an eye examination! 🙃. Had Capri before Malta but that was short-lived. Needed perps in several places but they came easily enough. Overall, a smooth and satisfying solve.
Thanks, JW, for your consistently challenging offerings and thanks, Steve, for your wise and whimsical write-ups.
Unclefred, your wife is a lucky woman!
Have a great day.
Totally wish I had found a puzzle with circles instead of sticking with the Mensa site. Super fun, well thought-out, pleasing to the eyes, giggle-inducing puzzle. Great job, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you Steve for the write up as well.
I'd like to think that someone took that magical picture of the steps on a holiday (or the morning after a holiday) at some ungodly hour and they just were lucky enough to be the only ones there. I agree with xtulmkr, Photoshop is more likely though.
Happy Thursday!
t
Good morning. If I knew how to speak Spanish and remembered THE SPANISH STEPS, it would have cut 5 minutes off my finish time this morning. I knew AGUA, ADIOS, SALSA, AMIGO, but the SANTA, OTROS, ARTE 'step' gave me some trouble. The 'Figure of veneration' clue for SANTA (which I didn't know was female- Gen. Santa Ana anybody?) and the tricky clue for SPEEP caused my 'clip' in the SE to stall in the middle of the road. Other Spanish words this morning- PATIO, KAHLUA, LIMA (Peru)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what a B-52 cocktail was or "MacFarlane or 'Family Guy'", but I was fortunate to have a bottle of KAHLUA sitting about 10 feet away and that game me the correct spelling. The bottle was out because my wife's new favorite drink is a 'duck fart'- equal parts Crown Royal, Bailey's Irish Cream, and KAHLUA.
My pet peeve- when the clue is some obscure Shak. quote that maybe 1% of the 1% of the English majors might know. WAG & perp.
I guess TUPAC didn't have his PEEPS to protect him. ADIOS as I am TAP DANCING my way out of here.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteNailed it. Easy one today. Loved the Spanish steps. All circled entries have been frequent visitors to our CW's. We trod THE SPANISH STEPS during our visit to Rome, many years ago.
No searches were needed.
OGEE - From the French and Late Latin. The cross-section of a broad-crested spillway at many dams is typically an OGEE.
SINO - Used in other languages, too. Sinaasappel is Dutch for 'orange'. Literally Chinese apple. Also, species name: Citrus Sinensis.
You frequently indicate themes or clues that are not shown on either the print or online crossword. Where do those come from.
ReplyDeleteI get the puzzle from cruciverb.com's LA Times archive. Circles, etc are always shown. The downloaded puzzle can be played in Across Lite or most any crossword app (I prefer "crossword" on the iPad).
ReplyDeleteAnd--if you prefer paper and pencil, Across Lite has a printing feature.
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:46 - could you give me/us an example of what you mean? The write-up references the current day's LA Times puzzle. Except for Sunday, the puzzles don't have a title for the theme - whoever is doing the write-up that day creates the title on the blog.
ReplyDeleteHola, AMIGOS y amigas! I loved this puzzle and shudder to think what if it had been in French. I'd be toast but I jumped on JW's wave length immediately after AGUA/ADIOS, went right to the theme reveal and filled the rest of the STEPS. I agree that it's almost impossible to find them devoid of people. We took our snacks there, sat down and ate among the multitude.
ReplyDeleteIt took a while to recall the spelling of TUPAC's name. TAP finished it off. For Sherlock's PIPE I had CEDAR and when that failed to work out, erased, then BRIAR took over and that NE corner was the last to fall since I didn't know COBB but guessed it.
I also tried SWEATER at first but HEATER seemed more logical and OIL followed.
Gracias, sincerely, Jeff W. I believe this is my favorite of your puzzles which always challenge me. And gracias a ti, Steve, for a meaningful commentary.
Hasta luego, amigos y amigas!
Actually, 25D is also a Spanish word, ELLA means she or her, pronounced eh-ya.
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! Muchos gracias, Jeffrey! Hey, I got the entire theme without the circles. Yay, me! Thanks a bunch, Steve.
ReplyDeleteHand up for SALad before SALSA. clEO before THEO.
Didn't know ALDAs birth name or about his family. Interesting.
STair before STEPS. Took awhile to get THE. Never been there, but knew of them too. Duh!
Never heard of B-52 cocktail. Perped KAH and WAGd the rest. Yay, 50%.
Very nice theme today, and guessing the reveal made the rest of it a breeze! Finished in Tuesday time. Like Steve, not a fan of "SFFAN".
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve, for the commentary. You all make me smile at least once during the write-up, if not an out-loud LOL!
Musings
ReplyDelete-Me too Steve!
-TY COBB (:11) was not wanted on The Field Of Dreams
-I wonder if COBB ever tipped his HAT after one of his homeruns
-All the NFL teams have now PARED their rosters down to 52 players
-Time says, going gluten-free is a FAD
-The PINES on our course were being sprayed today and the man doing the spraying was catching a lot of it back on himself!
-This source of heat has largely been replaced by propane on farms here
-Alan ALDA, his half brother Anton Alda and his dad Robert Alda in a M*A*S*H episode.
-Late Show Rankings — Adults 18-49; Total Viewers (my demographic is NOT that desirable!)
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — 0.99 rating; 3.618 million
The Late Show With Stephen COLBERT — 0.60 rating; 2.75 million
Jimmy Kimmel Live! — 0.53 rating; 2.3 million
Late Night With Seth Meyers — 0.45 rating; 1.537 million
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah — 0.45 rating; 1.17 million
The Late Late Show With James Corden — 0.32 rating; 1.23 million
Wow, what a nifty puzzle. True, realizing the words in the circles are all Spanish made solving ever so much easier and quicker, it was still a fun time. As usual, seeing the Jeffrey Wechsler byline pre-biased me to expect defeat, but this time, and one other time if I recall, I succeeded in solving it without having to look anything up. Not a fan of SF FAN, but other than that I liked everything about this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Very clever, muy inteligente, this Señor Wechlser. Has he perhaps already been recruited for our decoding agencies?
ReplyDeleteMany of the Spanish words are so common that I didn't see them as part of a theme. It wasn't until I reached 48-A that I was forced to recognize a theme in operation. OTROS is not so often used by English speakers as AMIGO and ADIOS. When I saw that OTHER wouldn't work, I faced two choices: either to draw on some Latinized jargon, perhaps from the legal profession, or to go with a foreign language. I kept the question dangling for quite a while, but once I filled THE SPANISH STEPS the light bulb popped on! Yes, indeed, VERY clever este astuto zorro, Mister Wechsler...
I usually dread Jeffrey Wechsler puzzles, but this one is going down as a favorite! I almost, almost got the whole thing--messed up only with TOPAC instead of TUPAC ("common liquid refreshment" would have helped me get AGUA). But it was so exciting to get the SPANISH STEPS reveal, even though I didn't get the Spanish word sequence until the blog. I actually wondered why ARTE wasn't just ART. Still, a brilliant puzzle, to my mind, and your expo was totally fun and delightful, Steve. Thank you both for getting my morning off to a great start!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day, everybody!
I never get the themes. I did get Spanish Steps ( saw them in '77) but never got the Spanish WORD theme until I was done. Perps gave me "otros" and I was sure I either made some whopping mistakes or otros was a word that I never heard of. The SE corner gave ne fits until I assumed artE was just a pretentious spelling of art ! Good puzzle though. Too clever by half my mother used to say.
ReplyDeleteI always love a few sports fills although AROD appears way too often but not today. Cobb was my hero growing up as a stats loving Tiger fan and some of my great Uncles claimed to have saw him play. it wasn't until I was 50 until I learned he was a racist SOB !!
Barry G. Why don't you go to a site that HAS the freakin' circles so you can quit yer bitchin'. Geez, Every. Single. Time...
ReplyDeleteI
I was on the same wavelength again today, that's some sort of record.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I dislike gimmick puzzles, this one was not a slave to the gimmick and I thought it well constructed and clued. Note the date, not often I'll own up to that.
Fun puzzle, all except for the SE corner...
ReplyDeleteAll I had was Arte,
So I WAG'd the island off Sicily to be Crete?
For transitory passion I had "yen."
Clip being scene did not work out...
The clue for uncap did not help at all...
Opus for work(ouch!)
Kris Kringle is a venerated figure? Yeah,I guess so...
Chaucer???
Scarf, I could not think of "scarf."(maybe I should move to Florida...)
Oh well, at least it wasn't French steps...
Working in East Los for 35+ years this puzzle was very enjoyable. Maybe should have saved it for 9/16/16...Mexican independence day. Didn't need any circles to figure the theme. Always enjoy the crossword puzzles. Later 'all
ReplyDeleteOMK@1:59
ReplyDeleteIt's not unusual to confuse ser and estar since both mean "to be"; in your sentence the correct form is "eres astuto." You likely know that estar indicates physical location and ser is used to mean condition or quality.
Examples:
Este crucigrama es maravilloso.
El crucigrama esta en el periodico.
Chuck- There's a fabulous book titled "A Terrible Beauty" by Charles Leerhsen. It's a Ty Cobb biography. One of the best bios I ever read. There's way too many myths about Cobb. Leerhsen debunks many of them, but has no problem writing about his faults, which were many. Any discussion about Cobb usually includes his racist attitudes, but for some reason we mostly ignore that at the time he played most
ReplyDeleteplayers, managers, owners, and commissioners were racists.
Amazon carries a used edition for about eight bucks. It's also available on Kindle.
Jeffrey- Fantastic puzzle...just friggin' fantastic!
Thanks, Lucina,
ReplyDeleteThat's very helpful. You should take it up with Google Translate, which is where I find most of my idiomas extranjeros. Would it have made any difference, do you think, if I had inserted the comma (that I unthinkingly omitted) just before este? I had intended the phrase as an appositive, not a variant of "to be."
BTW, I usually find Google Translate the most helpful of all the online attempts to provide language bridges. I find they can be quite sophisticated about conversational usage, and they also provide auditory samples.
haha, google translate is useful to translate from a foreign language into your native language... because you can easily spot the mistakes they make. And it will shock you.
ReplyDeleteI once used Google Translate to reply to a Dutch email. The respondent, who thought they knew me, replied in Dutch, and using Translate again I was able to decipher the resulting Googlish to be, "Are you drunk? I can't understand a word you're saying!"
Hi all!
ReplyDeleteWow! Just Wow! Great pzl Jeffrey! Steve, your writeup pales in comparison ;-)
Just kidding Steve, Thank You. -- I was surprised to learn they a) exist and b) not in Spain. Other than a common language, we are separated by prudism - Chaucer's not really taught until College. I recall when DW had the class and explained 'most foul air' out the window b/f the poker up the arse bit - lol.
In addition to D-O's aforementioned flubs, I had THE SPA----STEPS. Roman, you say? SPArata STEPS! Now for the downs. Oh, I get it, must be the SPANing [sic] STEPS - spans the grid... Cute. Can you imagine the layers of ink?
OTHER just added insult to injury until the V8 finally hit.
'Cuz I knew SALad was right [Chef SALad - great c/a! and I had one for lunch...], I can't tell you how many Beans I was trying to think of that started w/ an L that weren't LIMA.
Last WOs - Acts b/f AIRS. Dern b/f DRAT.
Fav: Theme & execution.
{B, A, C+}. #1 cracked me up - I didn't see the . after the I - I thought you were going to write a grade-'A' SELF-AWARE poem. C.Moe - B++.
CED - I had the same gyrations in the SE. W/ TALE in place FAD was the Rosetta. I totally WAG'd MALTA - I still don't think I could find it on a map.
DO & TxMS - Thar's OIL out there. Did you see HChron p1? Made the above-the-fold and it wasn't 'cuz I failed to keep out the hackers!
Hey look, we got all 6 sports - HOOPS, COBB, AJAX (says Steve), SF 49'ers, MELEE [that's hockey, right Splynter?], and RET [golf :-)].
Cheers, -T
OMK:
ReplyDeleteIf I understand it correctly, you meant to say "you are a sly fox" so a comma would be meaningless. Please correct me if I'm wrong about your intended meaning.
For nerds only: Happy Birthday Star Trek.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the Internet great? Some guy (I assume :-)) made this mashup for all to share. Cheers, -T
Jerome, I'm most thankful for your excellent post; I couldn't have been as tactful. I would add that it was Ty that down-and-out old-timers turned to for a handout in later days. He was hazed mercilessly as a deep south rookie in a northern sport.
ReplyDeleteI did this hastily and really inked it up not to speak, incredibly, of being unfamiliar with SPANISH STAIRS and basic Espanol.
KOJAK with two Ks, I even recalled THEO. Hardly watched it but I recall he drove around with a cup of coffee in his hand.
Over two days of xwords all I might have said, was posted. IM, fe., almost to a tee.
I liked all the poetry. Here's my Platonic ditty, I promised:
In the land of the blind the one-eyed reign
Or so the sages speak.
But in the land of the one-eyed men
The two-eyed man is a freak.
I don't know if it's the consensus, but I'd say Tuesday was the trickiest of the week.
GUR
The ogee is cool.
ReplyDeleteGood Friday afternoon, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteI started this late last night and finished today. It was tough until I figured out the theme. Took me a while.
This was one of the best puzzles I have ever worked. The theme and circles were outstanding. The answers in Spanish were a nice twist. Great job!
I had a rough start and wrote in answers I thought were good, but that I had to change later. I have a total of 15 letters that I had to write over. I did get it done, however.
I remember ERNIE Kovacs very well when I was a youth about 60 years ago. One character was the Kapusta Kid in Outer Space.
Anyhow, since I am a day late I will bail out early. As no one will read this anyhow.
Heading to Erie, PA, tonight fore my class's 70th Birthday Party. Since most of the Class of '64 turned 70 this year, we are having a party. Clever.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Abejo, my class did that 70th birthday too. In 2012.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the class of The Great Unread
Ok, don't ever assume these comments won't be read and write something you may be sorry for. :~)
ReplyDeleteArgyle, thanks. Btw. The Great U(n)R(ead) is a little pun of mine off the familiar The Great I Am.
ReplyDeletekazie glad to see you also tried ADIEU before realizing it was ADIOS. At first I thought it would be alternations of Spanish and French.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Spanish Steps about 20 years ago. When I hear "Roman" I think ancient Rome. The Spanish Steps are just a couple of hundred years old.
For once I found a puzzle with the circles! A creative puzzle and a fun solve!