Pam has a fun Wednesday puzzle for us where her three two-word theme answers end in synonyms for THROW that are appended to the BACK of the first word. Thus we have the reveal:
55. Reversions ... or what 17-, 26- and 43-Across all have? : THROWBACKS. We sports fans see this word and immediately think of the old uniforms athletes don occasionally to celebrate teams of yesteryear! Once a year the Steelers dress out in these THROWBACK "bumble bee" outfits of the 1930's:
17. Cold weather groundswell that can cause pavement damage : FROST HEAVE - Water's quirky property of expanding when it freezes can move mountains and sidewalks
26. Ancient siege weapon : ROMAN CATAPULT - Take that you Visigoths!
43. Manufacturer's coming-out event : PRODUCT LAUNCH - Some genius thought Life Saver Soda would be a good idea. Consumers could not get the past the revulsion of drinking liquid candy.
Now let's peruse the rest of fun Pam has tossed, flung and pitched at us:
Across
1. Bucks in the woods : STAGS
6. Ratted out the bad guys : SANG
10. Dept. store stock : MDSE
14. Condor's condo? : AERIE - The view on the way home to the AERIE
15. Prefix with logical : IDEO
16. Dry as a desert : ARID
19. Go for the worm : BITE
20. Wind down or wind up : END - I imagine some barflies wonder as the night winds down where they will wind up
21. Name in Cold War news : TASS - Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Sovyetskogo Soyuza (Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union)
22. Wright who wondered, "What's another word for 'thesaurus'?" : STEVEN
24. Ball catcher : MITT - Evolution
25. Needing wheels : CARLESS
30. "Knock it off!" : ENOUGH
31. Architectural curve : OGEE
32. L.A. NFLer : RAM - Back in L.A. where they should be
35. Tax-free govt. bond : MUNI
36. Good feller? : AXE - This company in Tauranga, New Zealand have them
37. "One day only!" event : SALE
38. Boomer that no longer booms, briefly : SST
39. __ Valley: Reagan Library locale : SIMI - A beautiful place to visit
41. Warring factions : ARMIES
46. Woofer's partner : TWEETER
48. Landed : ALIT
49. Film boxer Rocky : BALBOA
50. Black, to a bard : EBON
51. Syst. for the deaf : ASL
58. Bard : POET
59. Capital of Belgium : EURO
60. Good-sized wedding band : OCTET
62. Cong. meeting : SESS
63. Lawn spoilers : WEEDS
Down
1. Heist target : SAFE
2. Beach bird : TERN
3. Five-time A.L. home run champ, familiarly : AROD - Now an expensive liability
4. APO mail addressees : GI'S
5. Gem mount : SETTING
6. Midday snooze : SIESTA - Una SIESTA me refresca (A nap refreshes me)
7. Some govt. lawyers : ADA'S - I'm betting most of you know these
8. Calif. neighbor : NEV
9. Loses one's cool : GOES APE
10. Pre-1985 communications nickname : MA BELL
11. Car's engine-to-wheels connector : DRIVE TRAIN
12. Surfers visit them : SITES
13. Paradises : EDENS
18. Sub access : HATCH - A tight fit
23. __-blue : TRUE
24. View from Molokai's south shore : MAUI
25. Lab rat's home : CAGE
26. Radiation units : REMS - Dental X-rays expose you to about 3 milliREMS (.003 REM) but you get about 360 milliREMS/year from everyday sources
27. Taxing task : ONUS
28. New England capital : MONTPELIER - the least populous American capital (7,880)
29. Needing a skull-and-crossbones label : TOXIC
33. Actor Baldwin : ALEC
34. Screen door material : MESH - Our MESH is kitty-proof
36. Russia-China border river : AMUR
37. X-rated stuff : SMUT
39. Explorer Hernando de __ : SOTO
40. Conceptualizes : IDEATES - Do you run in a crowd that uses this word?
41. Permit : ALLOW
42. Post-shower display : RAINBOW
44. Mail-in incentive : REBATE
45. They're off-limits : TABOOS
46. Recipe amts. : TBSPS
47. "Yippee!" : WAHOO
50. Gets an "I'm sorry" from Alex Trebek, say : ERRS - He didn't need Final Jeopardy to win, so Buzzy Cohen didn't ERR but jabbed Alex a little.
51. Entr'__ : ACTE
52. Short agenda? : SKED
53. Iwo Jima troop carriers: Abbr. : LSTS
56. Tint : HUE
57. Blackjack component : ACE
Now we THROW control BACK to you, our faithful solvers! Comment away!
The Grid
37 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Pamela and Gary!
Fun puzzle! Had to WAG MAUI and a few others, but otherwise pretty fast.
Have a great day!
I'm still in the UK so posting early (11 am BST; 3:00 am PDT).
Thanks HG for a comprehensive write-up. I only spotted one TREBEK moment. This is horribly pedantic, but the third S of TASS –
SOVYETSKOGO - should be transliterated SOVYETSKOVO [SAVVY-ET-SKA-VA]. The G is pronounced as a V for reasons I don't recall, but it rolls off the tongue better. The WIKI page is wrong on this too.
Fun H-day level puzzle, but I felt the theme was a bit iffy (and unnecessary) - the "backs" of phrases doesn't sound quite right. . Impressive grid, with some uber-H-day fill but plenty of standard fill, so that all of the unknowns were adequately dealt with by perps
• So, IDEATES rears its ugly head again after a long absence.
• Frankly, I think most of us have seen enough of the "European City Capital " clue.
• Quite an inventive clue for SST.
• WAHOO is N. Amer, so an ASL (Amer. as Second Language) moment for me. I never heard anyone say WAHOO [or IDEATES].
TTFN
Morning, all!
Got off to a slow start with BANK instead of SAFE< but it was mostly smooth sailing after that. Almost went with YAHOO, but decided to wait for the perps to determine the first letter. Cute clue on AXE. Nice theme. And there you have it!
Hello Puzzlers -
Zoomed right through as if a Monday. If we've had Amur before, well, I just can't remember it. 100% perps.
Morning, Husker, I recognize those beautiful ADA's. My favorite was the stunning Angie Harmon.
{A, A-, B-, B.}
As a POET I sometimes am tarred
For writing that's obtuse and hard.
But sad to relate
When I IDEATE
I'm ejected, and dubbed a barred BARD!
Sometimes, when the going gets rough
And it seems we've not ARMIES ENOUGH
It's time to consider,
As a bipedal critter,
We'd be SORE short of sleevies and cuffs!
As Uber expands its new business,
More people will embrace being CARLESS!
Between driverless cars
And robots on Mars,
Will humans join the yetis in Loch Ness?
Fashions come in any tint or HUE,
For widow's WEEDS, only EBON will do;
For men, all that's right
Is plain black and white,
While girls get the RAINBOW to go through!
Good morning!
Yes, Dudley, we've had AMUR before. This one came together in Monday time. The only misstep was SIEGE instead of ROMAN CATAPULT. Thanx, Pam. Another sterling effort, Husker. That OCTET looks downright uncomfortable -- I'll bet the wearer develops calluses on both adjoining fingers.
Had DRIVESHAFT first, but recovered quickly for an easy solve.
Nice, easy eyeopener. Didn't know STEVEN Wright or the AMUR. Had to erase told for SANG and USSR for TASS. Kudos to Pam and Gary.
Fun puzzle. Wanted Bank for 1D, but nothing would prove it, so I waited. No writeovers, no major hangups.
That octet pictured may be a real thing, but I was working on the premise of a group of 8 musicians playing at a wedding reception.
USSR:TASS. Other than that, straightforward, though a slow fill for me (again!). Thanx, Pam!! Thanx, HG for a nice write-up!! Thanx Owen for the grins: A, C, B-, B.
TASS began in 1925, a generation before the onset of the "Cold War"; and the news agency was renamed TASS in 2014.
TBS is a sufficient abbreviation for "tablespoon(s)," both singular and plural.
Greetings to all!
Fun puzzle today. Have never heard of STEVEN Wright, but his name was easily perpped. Liked "good feller" for AXE.
Thanks for the expo, Husker. I have to admit to not being able to parse MABELL before seeing your write-up. Doh! Do not recognize any of your ADAS. TV show lawyers, I'm guessing?
Enjoy the day!
I'm glad I took a few geology classes because FROST HEAVE is not a concern in South Louisiana. Theme was easily spotted after HEAVE CATAPAULT. PRODUCT LAUNCH- I see that the APPLE minions are hyping their new phone that will be launched today. Let's see how many idiots stand in line for days to get the latest phone.
WAHOO- I agree with Nice Cuppa- WAHOO a fish that does about 60mph.
STEVEN Wright- never heard of him.
MA BELL- I still use Att, which split up into regional bells, Att Labs, and Lucent, and ended up back as ATT after SW Bell bought up two of the regionals and ATT labs- so we have the 'new' ATT. Lucent is now part of a FRAWNCH company.
Steven Wright has a very dry wit. "I played a blank tape in my tape recorder last night. Drove the mime next door crazy. (Not an exact quote, but you get the idea.)
"There's a thin line between fishing and standing around on a bank looking like an idiot"
— Steven Wright
Gary you do such a wonderful job entertaining, thank you.
Speaking of entertaining, you all should listen to or read the thoughts that come from Steven Wright's unique PERSPECTIVE
I think ANGIE HARMON looks better than ever now.
Hurtling toward fall, enjoy all.
Hi
Still moving slowly back to work after bout with bronchitis, but I did take time for C.C.'s WSJ this morning- really well clued and a theme with a perfect reveal.
Husker: Good Job on the very informative write-up & links.
Pam: Thank You for aFUN Wednesday puzzle. Enjoyed the THROW BACKS theme.
Fave clue/answer was the Wright who wondered ... What's another word for 'thesaurus'?" STEVEN.
I've always enjoyed his dry humor.
Needed ESP to get AMUR ... a learning moment I'll probably forget by noon.
I use WAHOO all the time for "Yippee!"
ASL is American Sign Language ...
Cheers!
Good Morning:
This had a bit of crunchiness but nothing too difficult. Steven Wright is new to me as probably most current comics are. I did enjoy some clips of the Carol Burnett show yesterday on Charlie Rose. She, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway were masters of their craft. I agree that Angie Harmon looks terrific. I just saw her in the "Rizzoli and Iles" (sp?) finale. Was her voice always as raspy as it is now?
Anyway, thanks to PAK and HG for a fun solve and summary.
Just heard from my best friend, Anne, that she's coming to town for a quick visit so we're meeting for lunch on September 16th with two other friends. The four of us have been together since the third grade. I haven't seen Anne in four years so I'm pretty excited about her coming, even though the visit will be short and sweet.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Amy, for a nice Wednesday solve. Never heard of FROSTHEAVE, even from coming from Wisconsin....
Thanks, HG, also for your wonderful entertaining write-up. Also thought that OCTET would be uncomfortable to wear!
Also did C.C.'s WSJ and enjoyed that as well!
Hand up for BANK before SAFE then straight forward after that. Here we have no knowledge of FROSTHEAVE but it was perpable. MONTPELIER recalled my recent trip there where we toured the impressive capitol with its original 19th century furniture.
I liked the clue for AXE which made me chuckle.
Thank you, Pam and Gary for a good start to this Wednesday.
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
Musings
-One interpretation of Occam’s Razor is when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better. I searched for OCTET wedding band and I posted the 8-sided band that is an actual “thing” but I’m sure that’s not what Pam intended. Thanks for the gentle correction from Argyle and Joe. Doh!
-In this part of the world, this OCTET wedding band might be used
-Nice Cuppa, your pedantry is always welcome! ☺
"Puzzling thoughts":
Hand up for DRIVE SHAFT before DRIVE TRAIN; my only ERRor.
Did an alphabet run to get ROMAN in 26a, as I had HUMAN in mind before the perps negated that - the Natick of REMS and ROMANS trumped HEMS and HUMAN
HG, nice recap; Pam Klawitter, fun puzzle.
IM @ 9:47: Steven Wright is not a new comic. He debuted in the late 1970's, and his career was probably at its peak during the '80's and early '90's. Used to be on The Tonight Show ...
A limerick came to mind when I saw the word SMUT (yeah, Moe, go figure! 😜). It's not as bad as you think ... actually kind of a poignant twist on today's morals and how most SMUT is no longer sold in magazines, but at SITES on-line:
Playboy Magazine got in a rut,
And decided to stop showing SMUT.
When Hef's mag had its LAUNCH,
Censors still were quite staunch:
All you saw was a peek of her butt!
HuskerG,
I can't say I "run in a crowd that uses" IDEATES, but I have employed it myself. I use "ideate" as a noun, not a verb as Ms. Klawitter seems to be doing. (I never looked it up, so I am probably in the wrong. But in context I think I have been understood.)
Had a funny start to today's pzl. Began scanning as usual at 1-A, but I wasn't confident enough to fill anything until I reached 39-D, over halfway through the grid. From there I found I could leap to the bottom right and fill that corner, then to the bottom left. In this manner I worked my way backwards and finished where I normally would begin, in the upper left sector. Crazy, no?
Still and all, a pleasant experience, for which I thank you, Ms. PAK!
Good afternoon everyone.
HEAVE-HO and away we go. No problems with the solve. Nice puzzle from Pam.
AERIE - Husker's video clearly shows the bird's Joukowsky airfoil profile which allows the bird to fly. Planes' wings have a similar cross section, n'est-ce pas Dudley?
Today's WSJ has a nice puzzle from C.C.
I was on the same wavelength as the constructor today, a straightforward solve for me.
Love the photo of the cat on the screen door. When I moved here a pretty black cat hung around my new house, she then started jumping up and hanging off the screen on my window. She wanted in and was very clear about that. 4 years later she is fast asleep on the other side of the window, very comfy and she wants nothing to do with going outside.
The wonderful birdwing video takes me back some 55 years or so to my AFROTC training where our aerodynamics captain explained the theory that keeps aircraft up. Seems that when the air pressure is denser below the airfoil (wing) it naturally pushes upward, and the way to alter the density of air is to cause it to slow down or hurry up as it passes across the surface. The beauty of this lies in discovering all the different ways of changing density, other than, y'know, "flapping."
"explorer" could've clechoed deSOTO and BALBOA
Well, I was initially a bit daunted by this puzzle, but kept plugging away and slowly, slowly it all filled in and I got the whole thing! WAHOO! Many thanks, Pam!
Great pics, Gary! The picture of the wedding ring really flummoxed me, because, like others, I pictured an 8 piece musical band. Loved the "Jeopardy" photo with that fun contestant, who always patted himself on the shoulders.
Owen, loved your Poet poem. Is that what you'd call a self-reflexive piece of work?
Have fun with your old school friends, Irish Miss!
Have a great day, everybody!
For whatever reason, yesterday's puzzle beat the crap outta' me. If I could make a mistake, I did so I just slunked away and licked my wounds. Then there's today: almost a speed run! Thanks to Ms. PAK for the fun! Great write-up, Gary!
I got the theme eventually. There's a park nearby that has a Pumpkin Chuck on Nov. 1st with Halloween pumpkins using a CATAPULT. There's a small fee charged per pumpkin as a fundraiser.
25a: My daughter ended up CARLESS today so I had the opportunity to pick her up and take her home to check on her doggie who is recovering from pneumonia and to have lunch together. I don't see them very often.
I assumed the Ring Octet was the band at the reception. Don't know any of the ADA's. Must be TV or movie related. Never heard of Steven Wright.
BillG: thanks for the update on you and Barbara. Sending positive thoughts your way.
IM: have fun with your friends! It's good to reconnect!
Pat
Fun puzzle. There were several places I had to fill the perp(s) first to know which alternative possible answer was the right one.
I love Steven Wright's humor.
Best wishes to you all.
Frost Heaves?
Cat-a-pult?
If only product launch...
Throwback?
Very cool WSJ puzzle. I enjoyed it once I finally got Java to allow it in Firefox.
Fun puzzle today! Thanks you Pam! Great write-up, thank you so much.
Lot's of homework but I had to share Steven Wright because he is still one of my favorites...enjoy :)
Happy Wednesday!
t.
Hi All!
ENOUGH fun packed in for a Wonderful Wednesday w/ fresh clues (6a, 19a, 36a, et.al). Thanks PAK. HG - I loved the Jeopardy pic - made me think of SNL's Conery v. Trebek [Google at your peril MA-L]. I thought you were crackin' funny w/ the OCTAL-Band.
WO: RadS b/f REMS. The other inkblots are spelling / dyslexia ERRS (eg. MSDE).
ESPs: TASS, AMUR and whatever 40d is - I gotta look up how IDEATE is pronounced.
Applepos having PRODUCT LAUNCH today :-)
Fav: c/a for 60a. The first T was my last square to ink and I LOL'd when the penny finally dropped.
{A++, A, B, B} {A-}
NC - I saw what you did there w/ ASL - funny.
IM - Sounds like you're counting down the days 'till your visit. Misty - don't call IM's friends old :-)
Tawnya - I also love STEVEN Wright. My fav:
"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
Cheers, -T
Spitz 1:20 - you're right, of course. Low speed wings tend to have generous curves, like that handsome bird's wing. Jet wings have subtle profiles, and they need lots of air speed to work. I still can't believe that a thin, narrow F-16 wing can hold up so much stuff, but it does!
Dudley & Spitz - During my stint at TAFB I saw a B2 taking of while I was driving under (perpendicular) to the end of the runway. I watched it out the sunroof - It just hung there, huge heavy in the sky - very much unlike a brick does. Amazing! I have no idea their wing profile (other than "delta") but wow it was (seemed) slow moving on takeoff!
I had a buddy who was a pilot there - a really smart MOFO with the exception that he'd take these up to "test" right after maintenance!
Cheers, -T
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