Theme: GRAVITY, MAGNETISM and FRICTION, or MASS x ACCELERATION. The 2nd word of common two-word phrases combines with the word FORCE to indicate a body of people organized for a particular activity. I FORCED those physics related ideas on you, but will not apologize.
17 A. *Project with many obstacles : UPHILL TASK. Something difficult to accomplish. I suppose the referent here is Sisyphus. You might need some helpers to accomplish that thing - hence a TASK FORCE, an ad hoc group devoted to completing a specific assignment.
22 A. *E! talk show focused on celebrity outfits : FASHION POLICE. Clothing critics, and a TV show based on their commentary about the dress modes of celebrities. It's amazing how much time some people have on their hands. Police FORCES are units of government charged with the prevention or detection of crime and the maintenance of public order.
47 A. *Britannica, e.g. : REFERENCE WORK. A book or other repository of useful information. Many years ago I contributed a chapter on automotive plastics and elastomers to such a book. The WORK FORCE refers to people engaged in or available as labor within some geographic unit, industry, or business.
And the unifier -- 55 A. Team up ... or, literally, what the last words of the answers to starred clues can do : JOIN FORCES. As indicated in 17 A, to get together for some purpose. The target words JOIN with FORCE to fulfill the theme concept.
UPDATE --
As was pointed out in comments, I missed the vertical theme entries. Mea culpa. Lo siento.
21 D. *1997 movie partly set on a plane called the Jailbird : CONAIR. This gives us the AIR FORCE, a branch of the military with lots of air planes
30. *High-speed skiing event, familiarly : SUPER G. Giving us G FORCE - the FORCE equivalent to a multiple of the natural force of gravitation due to high linear or angular acceleration.
Hi, Gang, JazzBumpa here, getting together with you to make our way through today's puzzle. Let's have at it.
Across
1. One of seven in "Jabberwocky" : STANZA. A nonsense poem include in Lewis Carroll's action-adventure novel Though The Looking Glass. You can read all 7 quatrains here.
7. Shabbat celebrant : JEW. Shabbat is the biblical day of rest, and the source of the English word sabbath. Rosh Hashana, the JEWish New Year celebration was from Sunday through Tuesday this week, so l'shana tova to all.
10. "Baby __": 2008 Fey/Poehler comedy : MAMA. A conflict comedy involving an adoptive mother and the surrogate mother she hires. That's more than I know about it.
14. Like some classroom aids : VISUAL.
15. Angst-filled rock genre : EMO. Quasi-punkish emotion-laden pop music.
16. Disembarked : ALIT. To descend, land or dismount, in past tense form.
19. Wheels for a star : LIMO.
20. __ Grey tea : EARL. My fav!
21. Vacation abode : CABIN. If you can't afford a resort or luxury hotel.
26. Longest reigning Brit. monarch : ELIZabeth II. born in 1926, and still goin'.
28. Neighbor of Venezuela : GUYANA. A small, English-speaking country on the north coast of South America, nestled among Venezuela, Surinam, Brazil and the Atlantic Ocean, but culturally connected to the Caribbean Islands.
29. Discriminatory, as in hiring : SEXIST. One of several possible discrimination types. This one is gender based.
32. Pet adoption org. : SPCA. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
33. Deg. for a suit : MBA. Masters of Business Administration. I have one, but never qualified as a suit.
36. Annexation : SEIZURE. Taking something by FORCE.
38. Put on a pedestal : DEIFIED.
40. Morsel : ORT. Specifically, one left over from a meal.
41. Printed scorecard numbers : PARS. PAR indicates the expected number of strokes a first class player would require to complete a particular golf hole or course.
43. Went (on) monotonously : DRONED. Spoke at length in a boring manner.
44. Monotony : TEDIUM. Possibly the result of the previous.
46. Gp. with mail trucks : USPS. United States Postal Service. Several of my relatives worked there.
52. Cutting : AXING. In my 7 decades of existence on this planet, I have never heard anyone use the word AX as a verb.
53. Leaderless : TIED. This is tricky. With the score TIED, neither competing team is in the lead.
54. Strengthen : GIRD. This is not quite right. To gird is to encircle, or secure with a belt or a sash. You can kind of see where the error comes from.
61. Giggly Muppet : ELMO.
62. To and __ : FRO. Back and forth.
63. Poker challenge : I RAISE. This increases the size of an existing bet in any round. Other players must match the total bet or fold.
64. Academic leader in NBC's "Community" : DEAN. A sit-com with an ensemble cast based on life and experiences in a fictional small junior college town in Colorado.
65. Author Kesey : KEN. [1935-2001] Counter-culture figure, experimental drug user and author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
66. Kind of tax : ESTATE. A tax levied on inheritances totaling more than $5.45 million in value.
Down
1. "Law & Order: __" : Special Victims Unit. Never watched it
22. Handy "Mr." : FIXIT. Home improvement and DIY maven. I do not qualify.
60. Get : SEE. Understand. Do you see it?
Well, that ends this little get together. I had my nits, but overall - not bad.
Cool regards!
JzB
Down
1. "Law & Order: __" : Special Victims Unit. Never watched it
2. It often comes to those who wait : TIP. For the restaurant wait staff. Nice misdirection.
3. Volcanic fallout : ASH. Solid residue from an eruption, Cf Pompeii.
4. Rapa __: Easter Island : NUI. This name refers to the island itself, the Polynesian inhabitants of the island, and the language that they speak.
5. Popular mall jewelry store : ZALES. U. S. jewelry retailer started in 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas.
6. Mosque-goer's deity : ALLAH. Same God, different language.
7. Like Cain, of Abel : JEALOUS. The adjectival form of a destructive emotion relating to desire about someone else's position, possessions, or relationships.
8. Leading characters in "Mork & Mindy"? : EMS. Characters, as in the repeated alphabet letter beginning the two subject words. I am deeply annoyed by this type of self-referential clue.
9. Stir-fry pan : WOK. Shallow round bottomed cook ware item.
10. __ Yousafzai, sharer of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize : MALALA. Pakistani activist for female education.
11. Cover story : ALIBI. A claim that you were not at a crime scene when the event took place
12. Copycat : MIMIC. One who lacks originality in thought and action.
13. Make things right : ATONE. Make amends. But will it erase hard feelings?
18. Course where tangents are relevant : TRIG. No indication that trigonometry should be abbreviated? This is not the sort of tangent off upon which one may go rambling, but rather the mathematic function that is equal to the ratio of the lengths of the sides opposite and adjacent to an angle in a right triangle.
21. *1997 movie partly set on a plane called the Jailbird : CONAIR.
If you're into that sort of a thing
22. Handy "Mr." : FIXIT. Home improvement and DIY maven. I do not qualify.
23. "Master of None" star __ Ansari : AZIZ. He also created and writes this Netflix series, the G-Man tells me.
24. "Law & Order" gp. : NYPD. New York Police Department, in custody of a chlecho.
25. Couldn't sit still, say : PACED. Walked nervously in some relatively small space.
26. Exxon, once : ESSO. Mega corporation and petroleum products retail outlet.
27. Lustful look : LEER. I prefer to Ogle.
30. *High-speed skiing event, familiarly : SUPER G. Set on a down hill course with widely set gates, with more turns than the down hill event, and greater speed than the giant slalom.
31. Discipline : TRADE. The only sense I can make of this is that one definition of "discipline" is "a branch of knowledge," and a trade is a job category requiring skills and training, so there is that kind of a connection. Still seems like a stretch. Do you think of plumbing as a discipline?
33. Capital of Belarus : MINSK. This city has existed for over 1000 years and now has a population over 2 million. Belarus is located east of Poland and south of Lithuania and Latvia.
34. Honk : BEEP. Blow your own horn.
35. Tacks on : ADDS.
37. Green land? : ERIN. The Emerald Isle, The Auld Sod, etc.
39. Bridge table quorum : FOUR. A four-handed card game.
42. Vacuum effect : SUCTION.
44. Ligament kin : TENDON. Both are types of connective tissue. Ligaments connect bones or cartilages, or hold joints together. Tendons connect muscle tissue to bones.
45. Lo __: noodle dish : MEIN. Mein refers to noodles made from wheat flour. Maybe someone who knows more about it should elaborate.
47. Threw a fit : RAGED. Anger
48. Forced absence : EXILE. An order to go away and stay away, banishment, as punishment for some offense.
49. Terra __ : FIRMA. Sold ground, good old Mother Earth.
50. Cellphone self-pic of a group, slangily : WEFIE. Evidently the collective equivalent of a selfie. Who knew? But here is an example.
51. Smells : ODORS. Aromas. All suggest different nuances of meaning.
55. N.Y. airport since 1963 : JFK. The eponym was president during the 60's and assassinated while in office.
56. Miner's matter : ORE. Pay dirt. Can you dig it?
57. Chinese zodiac animal : RAT. By this reckoning, my Lovely Wife is a RAT and I am a dog. Arf!
58. "The World Factbook" org. : CIA. Central Intelligence Agency, where the word "Intelligence" refers to gathered information, not intellectual capability.
59. Inexact fig. : ESTimate. An approximation that should be better than a guess.
Well, that ends this little get together. I had my nits, but overall - not bad.
Cool regards!
JzB
38 comments:
{B+, A-, A, C+.}
A bold caballero from GUYANA
Would never wear a yellow bandana.
He feared, should it drape
When he met with an ape,
He might be mistook for a banana!
A popular singer named P!nk
Had a tour that took her to MINSK.
Her gyrating feature
They thought was a SEIZURE;
Though it drove several rabbis to drink!
The stripper had tattoos to flout;
On her body they traced down a route!
So when men would LEER
From those, down to here,
They were checking a REFERENCE WORK out!
A VISUAL dear to paparazzi
Is a dowdy dress worn by a hottie!
It will let off the leash
The FASHION POLICE,
And be RAGED at by the chic couture nazi!
You forgot to put the SUPER G and G FORCE in the theme section.
Greetings!
Thanks Julian and Jazz. I really appreciate a thorough write-up, Jazz!
Did not know MALALA or WEFIE, but managed to wade through.
Have a great day!
Good morning!
Julian often leaves me out on a Lim, but today was a WOK in the park. I did get the theme, but like JzB, didn't notice that SUPER G was one of the theme answers. Nice puzzle, Julian. I didn't understand EMS until coming here. Thanx, JzB.
Even all these years later, GUYANA still seems synonymous with deranged cult leader Jim Jones in my mind.
Nice CSO to Abejo with EARL Grey.
Never heard AX used as a verb? My former boss always AXed questions.
I'm used to Julian's puzzles being on Saturday and very challenging. So it was nice to have his usual creativity with a more accessible Wednesday puzzle!
WEES about SUPER G for G FORCE in the theme as well as CONAIR contributing AIR FORCE. So 3 across theme answers plus the reveal and 2 vertical theme answers.
Thanks JazzB and Julian!
Good Morning:
An enjoyable Wednesday-level offering from Mr. Lim. Didn't understand Ems until coming here and I agree that Discipline/Trade is a stretch. It may be technically correct but it still grates. Small nit, though, in an otherwise perfectly fine puzzle. Never heard of "Wefie" but it makes as much sense as other present-day slang. Earl Grey is becoming as ubiquitous as Abejo's other CSO, Erie. And Malala is getting her share of recognition, deservedly so.
Thanks, Julian, for a mid-week workout and thanks, JzB, for your always entertaining and erudite expo.
Have a great day.
I concur, this was an easier than usual Julian Lim puzzle. AZIZ was a total unknown and IRAISE as clued as well as WEFIE caused problems. Any time they form a huddle, large or small, my family takes dozens of WEFIEs but I didn't realize they had a name. They are posted on Facebook.
EMS/EMO forced a FIW on me. I had ETS.
Thank you, Julian and Jzb; I appreciate your detailed analysis.
Have a terrific day, everyone!
Got most of the way through today's offering, but finally gave up and looked up Ansari on my DirecTV Genie. Thumped my forehead when that gave me ELIZ. Didn't know anything about Jabberwocky, including its stanzas. Other unknowns were Baby MAMA, Rapa NUI and Lo MEIN.
Erased Excise for ESTATE and Kayes for ZALES. Wouldn't have gotten FASHION POLICE without the theme. I had three favorite clues - Leaderless for TIED, it often comes to those who wait for TIP, and leading characters in Mork and Mindy for EMS.
Even though I had to have help, I enjoyed JL`s puzzle and JzB`s write-up.
The Wednesday puzzle is usually the first one I work in the week, as Monday and Tuesday are not challenging. But it was a DNF today. I didn't know 1A or 1D and misspelled NUI as NUA. I correctly guessed STANZA but the _P HALL TASK got me.
Baby MAMA, DEAN, AZIZ, and definitely WEFIE were unknowns perped today.
PARS- I got my first one yesterday on the 6th hole, after one single, three doubles, and one triple BOGEY. Finally started playing okay with four more PARS, a snowman (8), and two rare (for me) birdies on the way to a 90.
Good day to all!
Enjoyable puzzle today. Fabulous, detailed expo. Many thanks, Julian and Jazzbumpa. Liked the clue "It often comes to those who wait" for TIP, and agree with you, Jazz, that TIED for "leaderless" was tricky. Have never heard the term WEFIE. Nice to have a Julian Lim puzzle that I was able to finish without help.
Enjoy the day!
Really enjoyed the puzzle and JzB's write up was outstanding today.
I had CONDO before CABIN became evident. I didn't know EMO, DEAN, KEN,or AZIZ, but perps took care of them. Otherwise it was a smooth sail today.
Today is National Do Something Nice day and National Teachers' day, so, go out and do something nice for a teacher. Have a great one.
Actually SUPER G and CONAIR (Air Force) are also starred and part of the theme.
We are shutting down soon for the hurricane, so be well all. Hopefully I will have some power somewhere for Friday. All in Matthew's cone- be safe
Entered Rapa TUI but changed it to NUI because of STANZA.
I never knew the origin of Jabberwocky. Thanks JzB. I always knew it as a descriptive for a young child that talked all the time.
We stayed in CABINs at the Keeweenaw Mountain Lodge in Copper harbor, MI. The lodge and cabins were built to put men back to work using WPA funding in the 30's.
Leaderless = TIED gave pause. It was tricky. Good clue.
Copycat : MIMIC. WJzBS.
Hi gang -
Yes on CONAIR and SUPER G. Fixerated; and thanks to those who caught what I missed.
Jays needed 11 innings to dispose of the Orioles last night. Mets - my sentimental NL favorite - host the Giants in the NL wild card tonight.
Brad got rehired by the Tigers, I'm happy to say.
Lions season is already a bust. I expect this to be Caldwell's last year here.
Fortunately, there is still music.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good morning everyone.
Good intro, JzB. Generally agree with your take.
Got the theme as I was finishing, but didn't need it. Sometimes have trouble with Julian's offerings, but not today. No searches needed. Only erasure was in getting the spelling of GUYANA right.
Favorite clue was for TIP.
Have a great day.
Jazz: Outstanding, informative write-up & links.
D-N-F ...
Didn't get MALALA, my handy guy was Mr. CLEAN before Mr. FIT-IT (geez, that area was messy).
Also had raM before RAT appeared from that first "T" in ESTATE Tax, (esMate tax didn't make sense).
On-the-Other-Hand, It was a nice Rorschach Ink Blot.
Being on the Gulf Coast, NOT in Matthew's path ... I'm glued to watching the Weather Channel.
Sun is "Over-the-Yardarm" ...
Cheers!
Thanks, Julian, for a fairly smooth Wednesday. Guessed at the M in MALALA and MAMA, so FIR.
Also didn't notice the CONAIR and SUPERG as part of the Forces. Thanks, JzB, for a great write-up.
Stay safe for all those in Matthew's path!
SHOES, SHIPS, SEALING WAX, CABBAGES, KINGS, BOILING HOT SEA, PIG'S WINGS
Count = 7. Nothing fit. Whoops! That's The Walrus and the Carpenter.
Did not Like 26 A. Its ELIZABETH THE SECOND. I wrote in QEII (25% correct) at first.
Did not like TRADE = DISCIPLINE either. In this context, a TRADE requires specialized knowledge, but has a clear implication that it is something you get paid to do (unless you work for the Donald, perhaps). DISCIPLINE refers to a specialized branch of knowledge in higher education, not the thing you get paid for.
WDoS (What Desper-Otto Said)
Yes, going out on a Lim with Julian was cause for hesitation today,
but it is a Wednesday puzzle, so I thought I had a chance.
In the end, FIW.
( I spelt/spelled Guiana wrong...)
(really kicking myself for not getting NyPD)
but I was sidetracked by Super G (never heard of it)
and 1d SVU. Thought both were wrong but the perps were right.
Totally distracted me from where I actually went wrong...
Ditto on finding a silly pic for the theme,
I just don't have time to find a silly pic that is politically correct.
(hmm, try & find anything politically correct these days...)
Oh well, enough of this,must get outside & enjoy this glorious Fall
b/4 Mathew gets here!
Hello Puzzlers -
What Lucina said. I found this one less daunting than the usual Julian, and I didn't know there was a name for that group photo.
Our local symphony orchestra is directed by a particularly energetic man with a big personality. He's a hoot. One of his signature actions is posing with a soloist in front of the whole orchestra for a cell phone "wefie" - a thoroughly modern thing to do, and a good way to dilute some of the traditional stuffiness we associate with the Symphony world.
Morning, JzB, I bet you're not stuffy in an orchestra setting!
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Julian Lim, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Jazzbumpa, for a fine review.
Yes, my tea made it again. EARL Grey. D-O remembered. I see Jazz likes it as well. It is the best!
Puzzle was a little tougher than I expected. Lots of inkblots. Especially when I started to write in ENCYCLOPEDIA for 47A. Got it all in except for the last letter. That is when I realized it was wrong. So, eventually REFERENCE WORK made the grade.
Wrote in ISLAM before ALLAH. Did not read carefully. Noticed JEW right next to ALLAH. That is where they are in the middle east as well, right next to each other.
Took me a while to figure out the theme, but it worked.
Wanted Terra COTTO, but held off for FIRMA after a crossword or two.
GUYANA took a few perps.
Got to start cooking a whole bunch of chicken for our Commandery dinner tonight.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Well, I didn't quite make it, but it was a Julian Lim puzzle, and still a bit of a toughie for me. I had GAYANA and that kept me from getting JEALOUS. But it was still fun and I did get the theme. And I liked your expo, JazzB.
Busy day. Have a good one, everybody.
Enjoyable CW today. Thanks Julian and JazzB.
Saw the CSO to Abejo with EARL Grey.
I also noted no indication of short form for TRIG.
Leer today instead of Ogle, and MALALA again. ORT is an old CW favourite that I learned in the distant past and haven't seen for a while.
I was misdirected with "degree for a suit" and was looking for a law degree not MBA!
I had Acrid before AXING.
"Gp. with mail trucks" could have been Canada Post but it wouldn't fit.
We don't have ZALES in Canada but they bought out Peoples Jewellers and they are a "popular mall jewellery story" (note Can. spelling)
I think of GIRD=strengthen in the sense of "gird up your loins".
Blue Jays and Orioles were TIED for 11 1/2 innings last night but Toronto won the wild card game!!
I too have never heard of WEFIES but this is the group selfie that comes to my mind.
Ellen2014Oscars
Enjoying our beautiful sunny day!
I agree with what all of you said about this Julian Lim work, including nits and favorite clues.
About MEIN: Mien (also spelled myan, pronounced like "man" with the "y" sound between the m and the a) means noodles in Chinese. I don't know why it is spelled mein in English, perhaps because English speakers pronounce it as "main." Anyway, chow mian means fried noodles and lo mian means boiled noodles. Please pardon my spellings; there have been several methods for Romanizing Chinese sounds over the years and I confess I am not very familiar with the latest, official Pinyin. If I were, I would spell chow as cao, which would be of no help to non-Chinese speakers. (Heck, spelling chow as cao, chee as qi, and so forth, confuses the crap out me, and I honestly don't like it.)
Best wishes to you all.
Nice Cuppa- if you are so snobbish thinking that a TRADE is not a 'discipline', try repairing your own pipes, drains, wiring, air conditioner or any other thing that needs repair.
It requires a lot of 'discipline' to accomplish those tasks.
Musings
-I needed the reveal but was entertained on the way
-Is there anything more trivial than FASHION POLICE?
-A teacher who DRONES on with no VISUAL aids in should be fired
-Hitler annexed Austria but SIEZED Poland
-A swing-from-the-heels PAR 5 for me is a ho-hum PAR 4 for the pros
-What, Jazz, you’ve never heard, “I want to AXE you a -A meatpacking plant in Colorado just fired hundreds of Mosque Goers who needed to stop and pray to ALLAH five times/day, twice while the production line was moving
-I have to GIRD my loins to face Kindergartners!
-Seeing MALALA again is great because she is a hero of mine
-Eddie Murphy ALIBI, “I was not picking up a transvestite prostitute, I was just offering a hooker a ride home”
-The sports language is “The REF will TACK ON 15 yds for that personal foul”
-When I have kids dissect a chicken wing, they are giddy when they can make the “flipper” move by pulling on exposed TENDONS
-There is really no such thing as SUCTION. It is just high-pressure fluid pushing toward a low-pressure area.
I don't think TRIG needs an abbreviation warning; it's in the language all on its own.
Gary, I completely understand and agree with what you said about there being no such thing as SUCTION. Air molecules can't pull, only push. But, but..., "There is no gravity, the earth sucks!"
My Xwd, my tutor.
"Who knew?" Exactly, Jzbmpa! Who knew that a WEFIE was a real thing? After filling it, I checked with my wife who is knowledgeable in ways I am not. She had to confess ignorance too, but now we are both that much wiser.
Let's see: In February of 2010 there were exactly 1,033,322 words in the English language, with a new word coined every 98 minutes. I don't think it requires TRIG to calculate how many English words we had as of 11 am PDT on 5 Oct 2016, but in Ol' Keith's household it was bumped up by a factor of... Lessee now... a factor - of ...
Thank you, Mr. Lim.
Hi Bill G,
I was just going to state the same. Especially in the specialized language (argot) of education, perhaps.
Didn't need an abbrv indicator for TRIG because it is already implied. TRIG, Calc, Psych 101, etc. One of the first school related ones we all may have might have been PhysEd. I would surmise that pretty much everyone knows they are abbreviations.
JzB, yeah, I was disappointed when they didn't quite make the cut. My Pirates were out of contention weeks and weeks ago. OK, a couple of months ago. Good to hear Ausmus kept his job.
Pretty easy today, but enjoyable solve. I didn't use the theme to help me out. I always enjoy any mathematical references.
Gary and Bill G are, of course, correct. The clue is correct, too, vacuum effect - SUCTION, emphasis on effect. Our destroyer's main condensers pulled a vacuum -er-SUCTION of 29 " Hg for the exhaust of the low-pressure turbines.
SUCTION 101: -P=(nr)T/-V. Play later. C, -T
I just want to comment on Sunday's puzzle. It was great fun and though I knew only about half the Beatles songs, I liked recalling them. My favorite clue was 2D, POE embedded in POEM. Great stuff from Patti and Thomas Bianchi. Thank you, both! C.C., I really enjoyed your commentary. It was sparkling and you seemed relaxed which if you're usually not, it's understandable given your schedule. The comments from the all you Bloggers was really entertaining!
Not going to get into the "SUCTION" debate ...
Just know that at times @ Villa Incognito ... when Gal-Pal visits ...
Fave today was ALIBI ... a 90 proof whiskey that was on sale at $ 7.99 for a 750 liter bottle at B-21 ... the liquor store 160 steps from my front door.
(Dang, I need a phone with GPS to locate a liquor store near by ... LOL!)
Cheers!
Hurricane Matthew might kill off some of those Zika West Nile Malaria Yellow Fever mosquitoes that inhabit Florida.
Public service announcement #1
Speaking of sucking...
Gratuitous cat pic...
Anywho, keeping an eye on Mathew
because Hurricanes not only blow, they suck!
Just winding down says:
Thanks Jullian & JzB. I finally got a Lim! Oh, it's only Wed
Fav: I RAISE xing SEE (your raise and call). There were other great c/as but I need sleep.
Y'all in FL stay safe. At least TIN has his provisions laid in.
Cheers, -T
MALALA was a gimme. It was a privilege to see this courageous young woman in person.
Here http://swt.org/events/highlights2015/20150627-040-Malala.JPG are my photos.
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