Theme: "Lend Me Your Ears" - EAR is added to each theme entry.
22A. Candy served on a corporate blimp? : GOODYEAR GUMDROPS. Goody gumdrops. We also have Goodyear's headquarters AKRON (45. City on the Ohio and Erie Canal).
36A. Often censored musical groups? : SWEARING BANDS. Swing bands.
67A. Rather uninspired cocktail? : DREARY MARTINI. Dry martini.
95A. What happens at the southern terminus of Interstate 65? : MOBILE APPEARS. Mobile app.
115A. Pair of lustrous Kleenex? : TWO PEARLY TISSUES. Two-ply tissues.
15D. First asp most likely to bite when the group is disturbed? : NEAREST OF VIPERS. Nest of vipers is a new phrase to me.
42D. How sundaes are often served? : BEARING CHERRIES. Bing cherries. I would not know how to clue the entry to give it surface sense.
Jeffrey has been raising the bar on letter addition gimmick. No one-letter for him. Most of his puzzles has 3 or more letter strings. Very hard to pull off. He's a master.
Jeffrey has been raising the bar on letter addition gimmick. No one-letter for him. Most of his puzzles has 3 or more letter strings. Very hard to pull off. He's a master.
The ten 8-letter fill really shine in this grid. Eight of them are stacked in a 140-word grid. Stunning.
Across:
1. "That's a __" : SHAME. Tricky clue, as the answer could be BIG IF, FIRST, GIVEN, etc.
6. Brie-ripening agent : BACTERIA
14. SASEs, e.g. : ENCs
18. Skulking milieu, with "the" : SHADOWS. This is a new expression for me.
20. Considering identical : EQUATING
21. Aviation prefix : AERO
24. "Better Call ___" : SAUL. "Breaking Bad" spinoff.
25. Fine netting : TULLE. Named after the French city where it's first made.
26. Discipline that often emphasizes breathing : YOGA
27. LAX report : ETA
28. "Rigoletto" composer : VERDI
29. Uses a rudder : STEERS
31. "Say it soft and it's almost like praying" song : MARIA. "West Side Story".
34. "Success!" : I MADE IT. Sparkling fill.
40. Former NBA exec Jackson : STU. Don't know him.
41. Network with its HQ in Ottawa : CBC
44. Very long time : EON
46. Put into words : STATED
48. Harvest units : SHEAVES
50. Airline with blue-striped jets : EL AL. What's the best airline you've flown?
52. Get bluffed out, say : LOSE
53. Biblical landing site : ARARAT
54. __ agent : SECRET
58. Disengaged : ALOOF
61. Element #5 : BORON
62. Quotable late athlete : BERRA
63. "In spades!" : IS IT EVER. Another great fill.
66. Label for the Swedish duo Roxette : EMI. Guessed.
71. Suffix with concert : INO. Not INA.
72. Prom limo, e.g. : RENT A CAR
74. Alberto VO5 competitor : BRECK. I use neither.
75. Barcelona bar fare : TAPAS
77. Fancy dos : GALAS. Not hairdos. Look at her braids. Lovely.
78. Rusty nail liquor : SCOTCH. Here is the recipe. With Drambuie.
80. Ancient warship with two decks of oars : BIREME. Learned from doing crosswords.
81. Connect with the space station : DOCK
83. Eucalyptus, for one : TREE
85. Bucket list list : DESIRES. They're indeed all desires.
86. Ready to mate : IN HEAT
89. 2005 "Survivor" island : PALAU
92. Nemo's realm : SEA
93. High-speed letters : DSL. I'm jealous of TTP's high speed.
94. Stroke from Venus? : ACE. Venus Williams.
99. Relevant : GERMANE
101. Iraqi port : BASRA
102. Fluid transfer tool : SIPHON
107. Jones with nine Grammys : NORAH
108. Ring legend : ALI
111. Italian man : UOMO.
I know it simply because of Giovanna, who used to be the
editor of L'Uomo Vogue. Leggy, but she just got married, Splynter!
113. Sycophant : TOADY
114. "Amores" author : OVID. Also 23. Like 114-Across : ROMAN
119. Oracle : SEER
120. Thwart bigtime : SABOTAGE. Another great fill.
121. Take umbrage : BRISTLE. Ditto.
122. Celtic language : ERSE
123. Landscape ruiners : EYESORES. Ditto.
124. Prepare for a dubbing : KNEEL
Down:
1. Make oneself heard : SHOUT
2. Oahu outsider : HAOLE. Cantonese call foreigners "Gweilo", literally "Ghost". Derogatory in its origin, but no negative tone these days.
3. Confuse : ADDLE
4. Press secretary under LBJ : MOYERS (Bill). We also have 43. LBJ biographer Robert __ : CARO. I learned quite a bit about LBJ from Caro's "Fresh Air" interview.
5. Pastoral parent : EWE
6. Nonchooser? : BEGGAR. Saw similar clue before. So no problem.
7. Some tanks : AQUARIA. Spell check needs to recognize that this is a word.
8. Magna __ laude : CUM
9. Little bit : TAD
10. French 101 infinitive : ETRE
11. Card relative? : RIOT. This "Card" clue gets me all the time.
12. Hurting : IN PAIN
13. Power players in state law: Abbr. : AGs
14. Brought slowly (into) : EASED
16. Bite-size veggies : CRUDITES. Great use of the bell pepper.
17. What loners seek : SOLITUDE
18. Snorkel and his peers: Abbr. : SGTs
19. "As I'm thinking about it ... " : SAY
28. Sprawling : VAST
30. "I like that!" : SWEET!
32. It's held in a pen : INK. Not PIG.
33. Share an opinion : AGREE. Boomer unfriended a friend because of political differences.
35. OR personnel : MDs
37. Dawn goddess : EOS
38. Head for the hills : BOLT
39. Tokyo-based airline : ANA (All Nippon Airways)
41. Auto design element : CHROME
47. Natural emollient : ALOE
48. Napoleonic Wars weapon : SABER
49. Property destroyer : VANDAL
51. Ophthalmologist's procedure : LASIK. Any of you had LASIK surgery?
54. Cook, as scallops : SEAR
55. Make the wrong move : ERR
56. Overreact to spilt milk : CRY
57. Film series Vietnam veteran : RAMBO. Also 59. Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer : LIN
60. Canal problem? : OTITIS. Ear canal.
62. Creature : BEAST
63. Bite result, often : ITCH. Our Saturday flea market is located in a big plot of farmland full of trees and weeds. Man, the mosquitoes are wild.
64. Cookware coating : ENAMEL
65. Gift from a lover : ROSES
68. 45 rpm record pioneer : RCA
69. Busts and such : ART. Also 85. Busting org. : DEA
70. __ room : REC
73. Receipts : TAKE
76. Parched : ARID
78. Salmon predator : SEAL. 80. Salmon predators : BEARS. Another clue echo.
79. "E! News" subject : CELEB
81. Evaluate symptoms : DIAGNOSE
82. Superficial look : ONCE-OVER
84. Venerable N.Y. tech school : RPI. Alma mater for Spitzboov.
87. Eastern nursemaid : AMAH. We just had this last Sunday.
88. Cargo measure : TON
90. Gp. following gas prices : AAA
91. Rapid increase : UPSURGE
92. Of ill repute : SEAMY
96. Leave town for a bit : BE AWAY. Not fond of this BE AWAY or IS BAD type of answer.
97. "1984" working class : PROLES. We just had the singular PROLE last month.
98. Audits a course, say : SITS IN
100. Familia member : MADRE
103. Western sheriff's aid : POSSE
104. __ cuisine : HAUTE
105. 1961 Newbery Medal winner Scott __ : O'DELL. For this book.
106. Where KO means Coca-Cola : NYSE. 110. 106-Down debuts : IPOs
109. Brain segment : LOBE
112. Gambling option in many sts. : OTB
115. "The Waste Land" monogram : TSE (T. S. Eliot)
116. DDE's command : ETO
117. River within Switzerland : AAR
118. Drive up the wall : IRK. Our "Hot Cooktop" (GE smoothtop range) light stays on hours after we're done cooking. Very annoying. YouTube has a solution. But too complicated. I think we'll wait until the light burns out.
C.C.
C.C.
35 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Jeff and CC!
Glad to complete a JW without errors and an inordinate amount of time. Theme easily gettable!
STU was perped as were CBC, CARO , O'DELL and UOMO. Also guessed EMI. SCOTCH was a WAG from a few letters. Also knew BIREME from working crosswords.
I had LASIK some years back. Took away my near vision but still made an extreme improvement from my 20/400s.
Got a kick out of BEGGARS.
Have a great day!
Some very fun fill in the theme with DREARY MARTINI my favorite. This is the third Sunday this year by JW as he approaches 100 LAT publications since his Saturday debut in 2012.
Not many unknowns but fill like BIREME PALAU I know only from puzzles. Thank you JW and C.C.
Good morning!
Got the theme today. Good thing, because I really needed it for some of the theme answers -- MOBILE APPEARS and BEARING CHERRIES, I'm lookin' at you. Hand up for INA before that pesky O sneaked in. I think "high speed" should be retired as a modifier for DSL. It's faster than dial-up, but so what?
Thanks, Jeff Wex and C.C.
DNF. :-( Several naticks or bad WAGs, mostly in the south.
EQUAlING > EQUAtING + an unknown EtRE in the north.
Didn't get AMAh + NORAh in the SW.
In the south: RtI > RPI, SEedY > SEAMY, and didn't get aAa, uPsuRGE, pALau, BasRA, uOmO.
{B+, A, A-*, B+.} *poems are not necessarily autobiographical.
Benny was known as the Baron of BORON,
Sold enough Borax to wash all of AKRON!
But a stately BIREME
Beat his twenty-mule team,
And broke Benny back to a PROLE or a peon!
Hors d'oeuvres included raw CRUDITÉS,
HAUTE Spanish TAPAS, and fancy canapés.
The egg rolls and sushi
Were appropriately gooshy,
But the ACE of them all was the chips bag from Lay's!
Sometimes when it's DREARY, I SITS IN the rain.
People look at me, and think I'm IN PAIN.
But as I seem to brood,
It's just SOLITUDE!
I'm really smelling ROSES, inside my brain!
It's a SHAME that SAUL is stuck in the SHADOWS
Pledged to keep SECRET stuff he could disclose.
Like how to ENAMEL
The toes of a camel;
Or would VERDI, as a fish, an AQUARIA compose?
Good Morning, C.C. and friends. Fun theme. I figured out the gimmick with the DREARY MARTINI. That helped with some of the other clues.
I wanted my OR personnel to be RNs.
I also though the Fluid Transfer Tool would be a Funnel instead of a SIPHON.
I, too, was thinking of a fancy hairdo instead of a fancy event (GALAs).
Stay warm, everyone. Yesterday I heard that all 50 states had temps below freezing.
QOD: A relationship with young people is important to me. It is important to have a sense of what’s going on in their world and not just my own. ~ Grace Paley (Dec. 11, 1922 ~ Aug. 22, 2007)
A clever theme today that I caught 'ear'ly. But I still had to grind this one out due to multiple unknowns- MARIA, AKRON, ODELL,CARO, UOMO,ANA, EMI, Better call SAUL- and the never heard or seen before vegetable tray CRUDITES. I had filled RUDITES but knew it wouldn't start with 'E'. CONCERTINO was another new word for me as I initially filled INA but the ROSES changed that.
Totally unGERMANE to the puzzle but a couple of years ago we were eating at the restaurant of the World War II museum ( 50 cent pulled pork sliders during happy hour) and I ordered a RUSTY NAIL. The bartender gave me a strange look and questioned me about my drink. I repeated it. She said that the RUSTY NAIL bar was down the street. She had never heard of the drink. The bar is two blocks from the Museum and I had never heard of it.
LBJ- a bigger womanizer than either Clinton or Trump ever hoped to be. He brought women home and had the audacity to make Lady Bird cook for them.
CC, you can fix the stove light with a piece of black electrical tape. Also works with dashboard warning lights.
Good Morning:
Finally, a Sunday puzzle not spoiled by one bad square as was the case the past two weeks. Not to say it was a walk in the park! It took awhile to catch the theme but it occurred at Dreary Martini which brought a smile and a thought of Tin, even though he drinks Scotch, which showed up later. How neat, eh Tin? As CC pointed out, great cluing and fill added lots of pizazz to this challenging effort by JW. Nice CSO to Spitz, Splynter and Moi with RPI. (I'm embarrassed to say I almost filled in RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) before I came to my senses!)
Bravo, Jeffrey, for a very enjoyable, and end(ear)ing Sunday stumper and Brava, CC, for the chatty and cheery (not cherry) commentary.
It's sunny but very cold with 3-6" of snow coming tonight. I don't envy anyone who has to be on the road in the morning. Very cold temps all week and more snow Thursday. Old Man Winter is settling in for a long spell, it seems.
Bill G., I hope Barbara is feeling more comfortable. BTW, "Love Actually" is celebrating its 10 year anniversary and there are some very interesting articles and interviews with the director, cast members, etc. If you have the time, Mr. Google can be your guide. I can't believe it's ten years old, can you?
Have a great day.
The EAR theme helped tremendously. Enjoyable puzzle, Jeff. Not too hard for a Sunday.
I read detective and legal thrillers, so IN THE SHADOWS seems normal. I also read historical novels set in the Mediterranean so I knew BIREME, propelled by slaves who were chained to the ship and who went down if there was a wreck.
I thought of better call MAKO first , but it is better "GET" MAACO, car painting. SAUL was all perps. I was okay with BEARING CHERRIES, in the sense of carrying or holding on top.
My fifth graders read Odell's island of the Blue Dolphin.
Last fill was the O in ConcertinO and rOses. I was thinking of CONCERTINA, a musical instrument of the accordion family. CONCERTINO is one of the solo instruments in a concerto grosso or a short concerto. Learning moment for today.
I might like a light to tell me when the top of the range is still hot. Yesterday I set something on a turned off unit and burned it.
I often serve crudites and dip as an appy. Sometimes at a meal I add a separate bowl of greens for a make-your-own salad, since this person wants no onions, that one wants no carrots, etc.
When I was young I sometimes ordered a rusty nail. Now I prefer Scotch on the rocks. Sorry, Tin. At least, there is your CSO today.
Good morning all. Thank you Jeffrey and thank you CC.
I must have left my thinking cap somewhere. It sure wasn't with me most of the way.
Had to be the longest Sunday that I've completed in quite some time, at 2:21. Even at that, I ended with another FIW.
DREARY MARTINI was my first theme fill. About an hour later SWEARING BANDS was my second. I've said before, I do not do well with these puzzles where letters are added or subtracted from words or phrases.
Plenty of unknowns, but most eventually perped in. eg, BIREME.
Two errors prevented the tada. The first was Considering identical - had EQUAlING rather than EQUATING. That would be correct, but not ElRE rather than ETRE.
Didn't have a wag for either of the "Great Society" president's clues. MOYERS perped in, but the second error that prevented the tada was having CeRO rather than CARO. Yeah, I spelled SHEAVES as sheeves.
Time to fire up the snowblower. We got about 4 inches overnight. Getting a break now, but then another 3 to 6 is projected between 2 PM and late evening.
Then I'm going to look for that thinking cap.
Thank you, JW and CC!! While not easy, this grid was enjoyable and the fill I didn't know was guessable.
Like YR reading has introduced me to many terms I would not otherwise come across such as BIREME, NEST OF VIPERS, and lurking in the SHADOWS. Better call SAUL is best known from being greatly advertised. However, I hit a serious three way Natick at PROLES/UOMO/BASRA which I could not pull out though I knew it. Some Italian terms are similar to Spanish but others are far removed. UOMO is not even close to hombre.
Is BRECK even available any more? I haven't seen it on the shelves in years.
Hand up for concertINA until ROSES/VIPERS changed it.
Today I shall finish my Christmas cards, half of which I did yesterday. Sadly many names had to be removed because of death. I used to send 100 now it's 90.
Have a very special day, everyone!
Hello Puzzlers -
What an impressive Jeff Wex creation today! Favorite theme answer: Mobile Appears. That's imagination.
Not many speed bumps - trireme was familiar from crosswords but not Bireme. Still, it seemed logical, so in it went.
Morning C.C., my best airline experience so far was British Airways. Other favorites have been Qantas, Lufthansa, and Austrian for a variety of reasons; our domestic services are poor by comparison. Personally, I believe that the customers are the problem, more than the companies.
I had LASIK in both eyes some 15 years ago. I still need glasses for distance but they're less than half of their former strength. Not a bad outcome.
Bill G from yesterday - I was aware that Tim Hauser had died. I understand a replacement was hired, but I haven't heard the sound. I heard a rumor that Cheryl moved from California to Massachusetts, for whatever reason; gosh, I'd love to sit and chat with her.
Good day to all!
I loved today's offering, though it took me far too long to solve. Hand up for INa before INO at 71A. Learning moment was UOMO, Italian for man. Scott ODELL's "Island of the Blue Dolphin" is part of our fourth grade social studies/literature curriculum. Thanks for a delightful puzzle, Jeffrey, and thank you, C.C., for the expo and links. I've had my best airline experiences with SAS.
TTP-Check your pillow. That's where I often find my thinking cap when it goes missing. :)
From yesterday: Bill G.-So sorry to hear of Barbara's continuing challenges. Best wishes coming her (and your) way. Lemonade-your Target shopping story was hilarious! Who comes up with such things?
Enjoy the day!
Clever puzzle. Jeffrey's serving up some nice tricky stuff.
C.C. - Jet are an Indian-based airline that I flew a few times between Hong Kong and Mumbai. I think they're my all-time favorite. The Indian food that they serve on board is fabulous and the cabin service is top-class, and that's just in coach.
78-a is my Crossword "Answer of the Year!" ... SCOTCH !!!
Cheers!
Re: 99a
The G*d damn Germans got nuthin' to do with it.
Hi all. I enjoyed this puzzle very much though I found it harder than usual for a Sunday. I figured out the theme (Clever!) early on which helped. Thanks Jeffrey and CC.
Irish Miss, it is hard to believe it's been 10 years for Love Actually. Thanks to you I Googled some of the interviews, etc. Good stuff! My favorite scenes are these two: First, Colin Firth's proposal to Aurelia. It's hard to laugh and cry at the same time but that scene gets to me every time. Second, when Colin Frizzle (sp?) believes in the ridiculous idea that American girls will be crazy about him. He flies to Milwaukee, gets a taxi to a typical American bar, orders a Bud and then you can see it improbably coming true with three/four of the hottest American girls you can imagine; girls who only have one bed and no pajamas. Brilliant! IM, thanks again for the heads up.
MJ, LOL. I looked on my pillow, but it wasn't there either ! Still looking.
Dudley from yesterday, funny about phone remote starter.
Musings
-I loved the Manhattan Transfer Ennui song from yesterday. Speaking of which, I just got home from church
-Ear bug waring - Ain’t that a SHAME (2:26)
-EQUATING intentions with results make some feel good
-Some early cars had a tiller for STEERING but no rudder
-SECRET AGENT – I’m sure Johnny Rivers leapt to many minds here
-ISS DOCKING using the CANADARM
-The absence of any provable SABOTAGE by Japanese at Pearl Harbor convinced Gen. DeWitt saboteurs existed????
-TOADY comes out half the time I type TODAY
-Environmentalist Ted Kennedy called wind turbines EYESORES when they were proposed for Cape Cod
-Sheriff Brian Dennehy paid “in spades” for harassing Sly Stallone as RAMBO
-The “TAKE” on defending national champ Husker VB matches yields $500,000 in profit, which is unheard of in almost all other women’s NCAA programs
C.C.:
My best experience with airlines has been with Lufthansa and Cathay. They offered comfort and superb service.
Worst: Allegiant but then it is an economy, no frills airline.
Bill:
I'm sorry to hear of Barbara's continued problems. It's not easy. But hopefully you both will bear up. Prayers and positive thoughts going your way.
HGary:
Two months ago I switched parishes when I finally tired of the continued ennui in my previous church. I love the liturgy and upbeat attitude of all the priests at St. Theresa's in Phoenix. It's a little farther to drive but worth it!
1A I had Knife
Yup, 99A. First thought for Germane
Bucket List
With that I'll say TTFN
I enjoyed this puzzle and marveled at Jeff's imagination. I laughed out loud at MOBILE APPEARS clue and answer. Genius.
I was sometimes called a Yang Gweizi (foreign devil) when I lived in Taiwan. I don't know why they called me that; I didn't think I was being obnoxious or anything.
I just can't get used to the word crudites.
Never had Lasik, but a friend did and was glad of it. I have been considering IOL and will probably have to make the commitment in a few years, due to gradually worsening cataracts.
Bill G, I truly hope and believe Barbara will get better, because her experiences are very similar to those of my sister, who is fully recovered and healthy today. Beaming positive energy to you and her.
Best wishes to you all.
Slow going but I finished. CRUDITES is a new one. I'm still trying to work TIDbit in. BEGGARS will be Choosers. Is that the idea.
Where's Hondo? We just talked about Walt Alston and that '55 WS. Yogi hit the ball that Amoros caught. And Billy O'Dell was a pretty good pitcher.
I was thinking Anka and'Thats Amore'. Triremes battled at Actium until Cleopatra abandoned Marc Anthony and made a Run for Alexandria.
This was a sticky Sunday But I liked it, thanks Jeff. And CC. Owen. Nothing less than an A-.
Btw. There was no CONCERTINO in the Tampa Bay Times version. Oops. You were talking about the extension. I never saw the clue; I'd perped it in.
WC. A little Early. I'll be back.
Dudley and Bill G - Your exchanges about Tim Hauser piqued my interest as I had never heard of him. I checked with Mr. G. and, lo and behold, he was born in my hometown of Troy, NY! The family moved to California when he was 7.
Bill G, glad you enjoyed the "Love Actually" material.
I used to take pride in my almost-perfect memory and my beautiful Palmer Method penmanship, but neither is anywhere near its former self. And, TTP, my thinking cap is sometimes AWOL, as well! I ordered 5 gift cards for birthday presents and what motif did I pick? Christmas themes! Oh well, I guess the thought is what counts.
Very nice puzzle today. The theme helped me through the long answers. Some very tough fill, but all gettable.
Four years ago I had LASIK to correct my astigmatism. Now I see distance without glasses and readers for close up including of course reading.
IrishMiss:
Join the club! I do things like that all the time.
IM 4:25 -
I don't know whether we learned the Palmer method or some other, but whatever the case, our school didn't seem to spend more than a bare minimum of time on penmanship. By the fourth grade, penmanship was taught as a punishment whenever the class misbehaved. My chicken scratch certainly didn't benefit much from that!
I bet things are much worse in today's schools.
Just discovered a file "Apps removed while refreshing your PC" dated to April when I moved to Windows 10. There are ninety [90] of them!!! And it doesn't even list the suite of puzzle-games I know got erased then! Many I don't recognize, some are essential ones I have already had to replace, and others are ones I rarely use, but depend that they would be there when I needed them! Now I know why PDFs have been defaulting to my browser -- Adobe Acrobat is gone! No wonder I've had problems with maps, Google Earth is gone! Amazon Kindle is gone! Avast antivirus is gone! Google Chrome is gone! Malwarebytes anti-malware is gone! Powerpoint viewer is gone! Ad-Aware anti-adware is gone! And so many others!
So far no Monday puzzle on Cruciverb. Fingers crossed for the morning...need puzzle and coffee (to be followed by snow removal, of course)
Sunday Lurk say... Bill G - good wishes always your's & Barbara's way. Stiff upper lip and all that my friend.
Manac - Too much! Links were LOL! Thanks.
C, -T
Hahtoolah noted: "Stay warm, everyone. Yesterday I heard that all 50 states had temps below freezing."
True, but here in California you have to 'go up' to freeze -- the operative word is not 'all around.'
"I just can't get used to the word crudites." Dear Jayce, it may because it is so, well, ah, crude.
Today's c/w was an exercise in eye strain: how do they get type that small ... or have my eyes achieved new heights in fuzziness?
I had cataract surgery 7/15. I have progressive lenses but I need to bite the bullet and carry around a 2.0 or better pair of readers.
As I mentioned in another of my ethereal posts: the 'saboteurs' on Pearl were German(a whole family, right under everybody's nose).
If they had been Japanese the father would have been shot for treason. As it was they were merely interned for the duration.
After 75 years are we finally ready to acknowledge that the Nazis were behind Pearl harbor? Not to speak of the Brits knowing all about the impending attack and remaining mum. Eg. Enigma.
WC
let not man put asunder
not, let no man put asunder
duh
It depends on which Bible you believe. And I believe you missed the right comment page by nearly six months. Duh!
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