Theme: Oh Captain! My Captain! Four of them lurking in the grid:
17A. D-Day code name : OMAHA BEACH. Ahab. He of the pathological preoccupation with Moby Dick in Herman Melville's book.
24A. Again : ONE MORE TIME. Nemo, Jules Verne's skipper of the Nautilus. He also popped up in the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - a fun flick from 2003.
49A. Cleaner with a blade : SQUEEGEE MOP. Queeg. Ineffectual captain in The Caine Mutiny. SQUEEGEE is a great brand name.
58A. 1957 #1 song title that appears in the line after "I'm in love" : ALL SHOOK UP. Hook. Another monomaniac, this time in J.M.Barrie's Peter Pan. With pleasing symmetry for this puzzle, Melville provided Barrie with the inspiration for the character.
35A. Indication of cooperation with ones hidden in this puzzle's four other longest answers : AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!
Very nice effort from Bruce, I wonder if QUEEG was the seed that germinated the idea for this puzzle? Enjoyable romp through a selection of Masters and Commanders. Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Moves with effort : PLODS. Also a mildly derogatory term for British policemen, from Enid Blyton's character "P.C. Plod"
6. Golden Fleece ship : ARGO. Aye, aye, Jason!
10. Tach nos. : RPMS. Should be RsPM in Steve World. I find it funny that cars with a fully-automatic transmission have a tachometer in the dash. It serves no useful function whatsoever.
14. Any "30 Rock" episode, now : RERUN
15. Trial version : DEMO. Had "BETA" first. That didn't stay in too long.
16. Tahari of fashion : ELIE. Thank you, crosses. I discover he is an Israel-Iranian fashion designer.
19. Carroll specialties : PUNS. The Mock Turtle's teacher was nicknamed "tortoise, because he taught us". Most of Carroll's puns are homophones - he was writing for a ten-year-old and kept the humor simple.
20. Got elected : WON
21. Influence : PULL
22. Loaf : DOG IT
23. Official lang. of Trinidad and Tobago : ENG. The Queen's version, naturally.
27. Oktoberfest souvenirs : STEINS. Cheers!
29. Actor Stephen : REA
30. Clear : NET
31. Balkan native : SERB
32. "Key Largo" co-star : BACALL. Had the "B", but had to wait. Could be BOGART.
40. Red hair and green eyes : TRAITS
41. Some PX patrons : NCO'S
43. George Lucas' alma mater: Abbr. : USC. University of Southern California here in Los Angeles. His family foundation gave the film school $10m a couple of years ago. He graduated in 1967.
46. Having one sharp : IN G
47. It makes a lot of dough : BAKERY
53. Bishops and pawns : MEN. Chess people, not chess men. After all, there's a couple of queens in there.
54. "The Last Supper," for one : MURAL. Leonardo's masterwork at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milano.
55. NBA part: Abbr. : NATL.
56. Keep __ distance : AT A
57. Pains : AILS
61. Hunted one : PREY
62. Security lapse : LEAK
63. Dr. Evil portrayer in Austin Powers films : MYERS. Funny guy.
64. Lab fluids : SERA. Que sera, sera - whatever lab fluids will be.
65. Garage sale caveat : AS IS
66. Capital on the Aar : BERNE
Down:
1. Masterful ability : PROWESS
2. Soothing brew : LEMON TEA
3. Citrus greenhouse : ORANGERY. Kensington Palace in London have converted theirs to a restaurant. Nice place for a cup of soothing lemon tea. Posh digs. The Peter Pan statue is close by. Our 58A captain would not approve.
4. "I can't believe I missed that!" : DUH!
5. Wisconsin-based tool manufacturer : SNAP-ON
6. Young adult fiction writer Griffin : ADELE. Fresh new clue. Gives Fred's sister, the singer and Jane Eyre's charge a break from crossword duty.
7. Sphere of influence : REALM
8. Sierra or Yukon : GMC.
9. "I'm impressed!" : OOH!
10. Move, roots and all : RE-POT
11. Connect to a power source : PLUG IN. The mobile worker's perennial problem. It's getting easier to find laptop power at airports nowadays though.
12. Dr. Evil's cohort : MINI-ME
13. Italian sonnet closing : SESTET. Italian referring to the word, not the sonnet itself. The second part of the sonnet being the closing six lines. The first eight are called the octave. Here's Bill the Bard with the closing of Sonnet 18:
18. Subject that may come up in a frank discussion? : BUNS. Nice clue. I like Hebrew National franks.
22. Provided the hands : DEALT
25. Ocean predators : ORCAS
26. Garner : REAP
28. "Su-r-r-r-re" : I BET
32. Pantyhose shade : BEIGE
33. Vegas routine : ACT
34. Tall and thin : LANK
36. Disney daughter of King Triton : ARIEL. The Little Mermaid.
37. Masculine principle : YANG
38. Fridge convenience : ICE MAKER. My fridge doesn't have one. There's no water line to the fridge location, so there's not much point.
39. Point at which commitment occurs : NO RETURN. I'm flying to Honolulu on Sunday. 1,260 miles out from LAX is just about PNR for that trip.
42. Neural junction : SYNAPSE
43. Some road atlas pgs. : U.S. MAPS
44. Knight's attendant : SQUIRE
45. Stone-pushing Winter Olympian : CURLER. I love watching curling in the Olympics. You only get to see the sport once every four years, unless there's an ESPN 24-hour curling channel that I'm missing.
47. Those two : BOTH
48. Self-possession : APLOMB
50. Cushy class : EASY A. This was a struggle - I was trying to think of a luxurious cabin class.
51. Zhou __ : EN LAI
52. Mardi Gras purchases : MASKS
58. Harper Lee's home st. : ALA.
59. Avignon article : LES. Avignon's got a 12th century bridge that only spans a small part of the Rhone. It kept getting washed away in floods and eventually the good burghers of Avignon got sick and tired of rebuilding it so it was abandoned in the mid 1600's.
60. Santana's "__ Como Va" : OYE. Came a little too late for a music link so I'll save it for next week.
And with that, here's the grid!
Steve
17A. D-Day code name : OMAHA BEACH. Ahab. He of the pathological preoccupation with Moby Dick in Herman Melville's book.
24A. Again : ONE MORE TIME. Nemo, Jules Verne's skipper of the Nautilus. He also popped up in the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - a fun flick from 2003.
49A. Cleaner with a blade : SQUEEGEE MOP. Queeg. Ineffectual captain in The Caine Mutiny. SQUEEGEE is a great brand name.
58A. 1957 #1 song title that appears in the line after "I'm in love" : ALL SHOOK UP. Hook. Another monomaniac, this time in J.M.Barrie's Peter Pan. With pleasing symmetry for this puzzle, Melville provided Barrie with the inspiration for the character.
35A. Indication of cooperation with ones hidden in this puzzle's four other longest answers : AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!
Very nice effort from Bruce, I wonder if QUEEG was the seed that germinated the idea for this puzzle? Enjoyable romp through a selection of Masters and Commanders. Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. Moves with effort : PLODS. Also a mildly derogatory term for British policemen, from Enid Blyton's character "P.C. Plod"
6. Golden Fleece ship : ARGO. Aye, aye, Jason!
10. Tach nos. : RPMS. Should be RsPM in Steve World. I find it funny that cars with a fully-automatic transmission have a tachometer in the dash. It serves no useful function whatsoever.
14. Any "30 Rock" episode, now : RERUN
15. Trial version : DEMO. Had "BETA" first. That didn't stay in too long.
16. Tahari of fashion : ELIE. Thank you, crosses. I discover he is an Israel-Iranian fashion designer.
19. Carroll specialties : PUNS. The Mock Turtle's teacher was nicknamed "tortoise, because he taught us". Most of Carroll's puns are homophones - he was writing for a ten-year-old and kept the humor simple.
20. Got elected : WON
21. Influence : PULL
22. Loaf : DOG IT
23. Official lang. of Trinidad and Tobago : ENG. The Queen's version, naturally.
27. Oktoberfest souvenirs : STEINS. Cheers!
29. Actor Stephen : REA
30. Clear : NET
31. Balkan native : SERB
32. "Key Largo" co-star : BACALL. Had the "B", but had to wait. Could be BOGART.
40. Red hair and green eyes : TRAITS
41. Some PX patrons : NCO'S
43. George Lucas' alma mater: Abbr. : USC. University of Southern California here in Los Angeles. His family foundation gave the film school $10m a couple of years ago. He graduated in 1967.
46. Having one sharp : IN G
47. It makes a lot of dough : BAKERY
53. Bishops and pawns : MEN. Chess people, not chess men. After all, there's a couple of queens in there.
54. "The Last Supper," for one : MURAL. Leonardo's masterwork at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milano.
55. NBA part: Abbr. : NATL.
56. Keep __ distance : AT A
57. Pains : AILS
61. Hunted one : PREY
62. Security lapse : LEAK
63. Dr. Evil portrayer in Austin Powers films : MYERS. Funny guy.
64. Lab fluids : SERA. Que sera, sera - whatever lab fluids will be.
65. Garage sale caveat : AS IS
66. Capital on the Aar : BERNE
Down:
1. Masterful ability : PROWESS
2. Soothing brew : LEMON TEA
3. Citrus greenhouse : ORANGERY. Kensington Palace in London have converted theirs to a restaurant. Nice place for a cup of soothing lemon tea. Posh digs. The Peter Pan statue is close by. Our 58A captain would not approve.
4. "I can't believe I missed that!" : DUH!
5. Wisconsin-based tool manufacturer : SNAP-ON
6. Young adult fiction writer Griffin : ADELE. Fresh new clue. Gives Fred's sister, the singer and Jane Eyre's charge a break from crossword duty.
7. Sphere of influence : REALM
8. Sierra or Yukon : GMC.
9. "I'm impressed!" : OOH!
10. Move, roots and all : RE-POT
11. Connect to a power source : PLUG IN. The mobile worker's perennial problem. It's getting easier to find laptop power at airports nowadays though.
12. Dr. Evil's cohort : MINI-ME
13. Italian sonnet closing : SESTET. Italian referring to the word, not the sonnet itself. The second part of the sonnet being the closing six lines. The first eight are called the octave. Here's Bill the Bard with the closing of Sonnet 18:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
18. Subject that may come up in a frank discussion? : BUNS. Nice clue. I like Hebrew National franks.
22. Provided the hands : DEALT
25. Ocean predators : ORCAS
26. Garner : REAP
28. "Su-r-r-r-re" : I BET
32. Pantyhose shade : BEIGE
33. Vegas routine : ACT
34. Tall and thin : LANK
36. Disney daughter of King Triton : ARIEL. The Little Mermaid.
37. Masculine principle : YANG
38. Fridge convenience : ICE MAKER. My fridge doesn't have one. There's no water line to the fridge location, so there's not much point.
39. Point at which commitment occurs : NO RETURN. I'm flying to Honolulu on Sunday. 1,260 miles out from LAX is just about PNR for that trip.
42. Neural junction : SYNAPSE
43. Some road atlas pgs. : U.S. MAPS
44. Knight's attendant : SQUIRE
45. Stone-pushing Winter Olympian : CURLER. I love watching curling in the Olympics. You only get to see the sport once every four years, unless there's an ESPN 24-hour curling channel that I'm missing.
47. Those two : BOTH
48. Self-possession : APLOMB
50. Cushy class : EASY A. This was a struggle - I was trying to think of a luxurious cabin class.
51. Zhou __ : EN LAI
52. Mardi Gras purchases : MASKS
58. Harper Lee's home st. : ALA.
59. Avignon article : LES. Avignon's got a 12th century bridge that only spans a small part of the Rhone. It kept getting washed away in floods and eventually the good burghers of Avignon got sick and tired of rebuilding it so it was abandoned in the mid 1600's.
60. Santana's "__ Como Va" : OYE. Came a little too late for a music link so I'll save it for next week.
And with that, here's the grid!
Steve
ReplyDeleteGood morning all. Thank you Bruce and thank you Steve.
Thought I was going to get stuck around the 20 minute mark with about 60 done, but PROWESS came to me after I gave up on finesse, and the entire NW corner fell rapidly.
Went from taupe to brown to BEIGE and then saw AYE AYE. With that Y, YANG made me change from SQUEEZE MOP to SQUEEGE. That finished off the center mess.
And then DUH, ALL SHOOK UP. With that clue, I went to the song that starts off with "I'm in love with the girl that I'm talking about, I'm in love with the girl I can't live without..." For your listening pleasure, let's go back to the 70's with Bad Time (to be in Love) Grand Funk Railroad .
Clocked in at 25:08 on the official timer. I'm happy with that.
Gotta run. 7AM appointment.
FI by Ta-da! Filled, but no ta-da, so went looking and found the problem before I had to go to red -- bEta > DEMO. Needed the reveal to see the gimmick, but it made the theme easy to see.
ReplyDelete{A, A, B, A-.}
CAPTAIN AHAB was the white whale's bane,
Who'd taken his leg on the frothy main!
A sharp harpoon
Spelled BOTH their doom --
I swear, or Ishmael's not my name!
The Nautilus was the REALM of CAPTAIN NEMO,
Under the sea for leagues it would go!
Navies would track 'im,
He'd battle the Kraken --
All powered by squirrels he'd taught how to row!
CAPTAIN QUEEG was in charge of the Caine,
Did it so poorly it caused sailors pain!
Relieved of command,
TRAITS got out of hand,
Was or wasn't the CAPTAIN insane?
CAPTAIN HOOK was plagued by an alligator.
It had eaten his hand, and admired the flavor!
Moored in a bay,
The pirate was PREY
To the saurian's lawyer, a sharp litigator!
When writing my poems today, I had to look up Capt. QUEEG (I never read the book, so didn't know the plot), and was amazed that Wikipedia suggested CAPTAIN SQUEEGEE! Their music sounds nice to me on this video, but I have no idea what the words are!
ReplyDeleteContinuing the theme of unknown lyrics, one of the few things I learned in grade-school French was a song "Sur le pont, Avignon, on ye dancers on ye dancers", which I learned meant "on the bridge at Avignon", but not much else. Now 50+ years later I learn that there is no bridge at Avignon?! Amazing the things I never knew! Thank you Steve!
Amazing also is how many other nautical themed words are in this puzzle: ARGO, BEACH, MAPS, ARIEL, ORCAS.
Good mornin', Captain! (What song is that from?)
ReplyDeleteI liked this one; nice 'n' crunchy. ORANGERY looked wrong. Don't recall seeing APLOMB or PROWESS in a cw before. It had to be a MURAL, because fresco was too long. Thanks, Bruce and Steve.
"Have some madeira, m'dear.
It's ever so much nicer than beer.
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say 'Yes.'
The evil gin does would be hard to assess.
And besides, it is inclined to affect me PROWESS.
Have some madeira, m'dear."
ICE MAKER in our fridge has been broken for years. DW drinks wine, and I prefer beer, so it's not a problem. Hey, Tin, have you got an ice maker?
D-N-F ... and D.O. I have an "_ _ _ MAKER." (Never used, lol)
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Good Morning, Steve and friends. Interesting puzzle. I didn't try, however, to look up the "shook-up" captains.
ReplyDeleteHand up for wanting Beta before DEMO. I was also sure that the portion of the NBA we were looking for was Ass'n instead of NAT'L.
My Mardi Gras purchase is more likely to be Beads before MASKS.
Cold out there. Stay Warm.
QOD: I thought acknowledging praise meant you were arrogant, but I’ve learned that knowing your strengths enables you to make use of them. ~ Donna Brazile (b. Dec. 15, 1959)
Pretty easy for a Thursday, but no complaints here. Time to get to my morning workout after my three crosswords.
ReplyDeleteNice creative Thursday with a little crunch. WEES about BETA before DEMO and BEADS before MASKS, but corrected by perps. I didn't remember that a SQUEEGEE MOP had a blade but it couldn't have been anything else by that point in the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve for the write-up - the picture of the ORANGERY - was that where the scene from SHERLOCK was filmed where Watson has his wedding reception?
and thanks Bruce for the puzzle.
Great puzzle and puns. Seeing AHAB in the circles right off, I deduced AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN in the reveal from only the Y and looked for more captains in the circles.
ReplyDeleteBETA before DEMO. EASY A was an easy fill. I took first year Spanish in college for my easy A. My only use of it now is in X-words.
RBIs forms the plural the same way RPMs does. To move the S would look and sound awkward. We say RPMs not RSPMs.
The evil Dr. Evil did me in. I successfully WAGged the Y in MYERS and OYE. But, the first I in MINIME crossing EL-E took a red letter alphabet run. One assisted cell.
I read several historical novels about the French revolution. The palace had an ORANGERY.
Keep warm and enjoy the day.
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteFound "AHAB" first as I already had OMAHA BEACH, and I was off. Favorite today was the subject of a frank discussion: BUNS. I always like D-Day references. Dad landed at Utah--pronounced "ooo-ta." When I visited Normandy, I had to find a tour guide who went to Utah as not all do. Moving experience. I brought some of my dad's things to the Musee there.
Nicely crafted puzzle, Bruce. Thanks for another fine tour and links, Steve. Safe travels.
I'm still up to my ears in yarn, but not a bad way to keep cozy here in Chi-beria.
Have a good day, and stay warm.
As I PLODded through this puzzle, it came down to a uneducated WAG at the cross of Dr. Evil's cohort and whoever Tahari is- both unknowns and never heard of before. I guessed "I" for Ms. ELIE and had to settle for MINIME, which looked strange but after reading Steve's expo turned out to be correct. MINI-ME and ELIE is a man. And then there's ORANGERY- that's a new one for me, along with King Triton's daughter ARIEL and ADELE Grifin. All perps. My 'outdoor' ORANGERY contains two orange trees about 50 feet from my back door.
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks- no red letter help for me - I solve the puzzles from the newspaper.
RPMS- since RPM is now a vowelless word I guess RPMS is correct but technically Steve is right. Just like Mother-in- lawS and the such.
Mardi Gras MASKS- The riders on the floats wear them but nobody else does, unless they are from out of town. Hahtoolah- my wife is riding in NYX and I have grosses and grosses of beads for her to throw.
'George Lucas' alma mater'- Modesto Community College- he later went to USC
ReplyDeleteDNF today. Too much on the plate with holiday's fast approaching. I will be absolutely delighted when I wake up on 01/02/'17. I hope this is just an off year for Lucy & I, but we have never been so ill prepared for "the season".
If I have a moment or two, before I read the comments I'll take another shot at the puzzle.
We are going to be in an ice freeze with strong winds tonight and tomorrow. Then fall weather supposed to return.
Thank you, Bruce Haight; I liked your pirate based puzzle and saw them inside the circles right away.
ReplyDeleteSTEINS at Oktoberfest and MASKS at Mardi Gras amused me. I thought of beads but bided my time until I was sure of MASKS. The only EASYA I ever took was art and learned calligraphy which has been a useful skill.
A restaurant here in Scottsdale is called the ORANGERIE.
GMC puzzled me for a long time until realizing that Yukon and Sierra are cars. DUH!
Thank you, Steve; I enjoy your commentary. Aloha and Mele Kalikamaka!
Have a marvelous day, everyone!
Bogart could not have been an answer since he was the star and BACALL the co-star.
I wanted BEADS too, but then I remembered that only krews, men and exceptionally modest women actually buy them. I had SLAV before SERB as my only erasure, but I did have to Google ALL SHOOK UP. I had HOOK UP, and got hung up on the notion that the term was used in the 50s. My only defense is that Elvis was before my time, but I am familiar with his music because of my two elder sisters.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the puzzle except for needing to guess the cross of ELIE Tahari and SESTET. C'mon, Bruce. I tried to find a squeegee mop and the only thing I found was something on Amazon that looked like one of the gimmicky "as seen on TV" products. I'm not sure its a thing, as they now say. But at least that one was get-able.
Thanks to Bruce for a fun, crunchy puzzle and to Steve for the interesting tour through Bruce's brainchild.
BigEasy:
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know motherS-in-law is still the correct version.
I found this one difficult. Some of the clues just seemed strange to me, such as 17a. The code name for DDay was Overlord. Omaha Beach is a place. No, it's true that's not the geographical name. It's a designation for a part of the coast of Normandy, so I guess in that sense it's a "code" name. I just never thought of it that way.
ReplyDeleteMural also seemed strange. I just wasn't on Bruce's wavelength!
Steve, thanks for walking us through it.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle and theme today. like how Bruce linkedthe very common AYA AYE to 3 different storied captains. Pulled words like SYNAPSE and ORANGERY out of my brain, too.
CURLER - Hand up for being a CURLER for 10 seasons. Utica's facility has 6 sheets, one of the larger venues in the East.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Great job Bruce and Steve!
-AHAB was looking me right in the face but it took NEMO for me to see the theme.
-S_STET/ELI_ took a game of vowel roulette and I got it.
-A recent “Captain QUEEG” who sailed on in horrible conditions
-Sometimes I check the RPM’S in my quiet car to see if the engine is running. DUH!
-Queen’s ENG – Patton speaking – “…because I believe with Mr. Bernard Shaw that the British and the Americans are two peoples separated by a common language”
-Howard Hawks said of BACALL: "Bogie fell in love with the character she played, so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life."
-Our BAKERY has its lights on by midnight to start making next day’s goodies
-Are you being DEALT “seconds” (:43)
-We used to buy, grow and REPOT Christmas plants until we found out they are toxic to cats
-Number 1 troubleshooting question
-Some baseball peeps now say RBI and not RBI’s to acknowledge the R stands for RUNS
-D-O, that songs contains the lyric “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha”
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis has been a week full of fun, interesting, crunchy but doable puzzles. Had no inkling of the theme until the reveal which is fine with me. Needed a wag for the Elie/Minime crossing and needed Steve's expo to parse it as Mini Me. Also, missed mural entirely as the downs just filled themselves in. I did put Bogart in first which, as Lucina mentioned, didn't fit the clue of co-star. I liked lemon next to orange(ry) and I love the word "aplomb." (My husband use to say "aplum.")
Thanks, Bruce, for your craftsmanship and cunning and thanks, Steve for your jolly good humour and guidance. Have a wonderful time in Hawaii. Will you be spending Christmas there?
As Hondo said, frigid weather and blustery winds for now, then a short reprieve, and then back to frigid again. Brrr!
Have a great day and stay warm.
Hey--hey! Little water boy, bring the buck-buck-bucket round, ha ha!
ReplyDeleteAn all time favorite here.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteMostly straightforward, but I did get Naticked at Sestet/Elie.
Morning, Steve, thanks for the clarification, particularly about the above-mentioned Sestet.
Mme. DeFarge 8:29 - I smiled right out loud at Chi-beria! Reminds me of this story: an Australian friend of mine employs young pilots, and as their experience grows, they generally seek fancier flying jobs. Often that requires leaving sunny Queensland to find work. One young fellow was offered a job in Chicago, in January. So the young pilot packed up his belongings and left the hot Australian summer for Chicago. He had never seen snow, and didn't own winter clothing. Said his former boss: "It was a bit of a shock." :-)
I enjoyed the puzzle as usual. Thanks Bruce and Steve.
ReplyDeleteGary, speaking of quiet cars... Our first Toyota was a used 1993 Camry. I took Barbara to lunch and found a parking place across the street from the restaurant. When it came time to leave, I patted my pocket to get my keys but...only an empty pocket. I looked around the table and under my chair but no keys. I walked back across the street to see if I had left them in the car. Sure enough, there they were hanging from the ignition switch. And, the car was running! I had left the motor running and it was so quiet, I hadn't noticed. It was sitting there running with the windows open all the while we were having lunch.
Big rains due tonight and tomorrow morning. It sounds as if there will be more rain than is typical in this area. We'll see... Watch out Lucina, it'll be headed your way tomorrow.
Italian sonnet;octave,sestet
ReplyDeleteShakespeare sonnet : three quatrains,
Couplet.
Bill G, I can't believe you think it's safe to leave your car unlocked with the windows down in your neighborhood. Try that around here, and you could wave goodbye as your car rolled down the street.
ReplyDeleteSteve, good news! I was just reading the news and came across this report about a new sports channel!
ReplyDeleteDNF on the crossing of dogiT/sesTet
ReplyDeleteCook b/4 Hook (All Scook Up?)
Can you name the other 6 Daughters of Triton?
It's not my job to run this boat, the horn I cannot blow.
It's not my job to say how far this boat's allowed to go.
It's not my job to throttle up, or even clang the bell.
But let this damn boat hit the dock, and see who catches hell.
@Lucina - Good point, I'd forgotten about the pecking order of the star billing
ReplyDelete@Owen - great timing!
Delightful, crunchy Thursday puzzle--many thanks, Bruce. I struggled with this one for a while, but was surprised when it started to fill in, and by the time I got AYE, AYE, I figured out the theme and was able to fill in the rest of the circles. Like others, the Northeast corner gave me trouble and I had to cheat to finally get the MINIME-ELIE cross. And after all was done, I saw I goofed and had DIG IT instead of DOG IT. What does LOAF have to do with DOG IT? (Well, it doesn't have anything to do with DIG IT either, so I goofed all around on that one).
ReplyDeleteBut I surprisingly got USC for George Lucas, don't know how I remembered that. And I think I finally have Charlotte RAE and Stephen REA straightened out. Of course, the biggest hoot, which I didn't get at all until I came to the blog, was the BUNS of the "frank" discussion. (BUNS and PUNS, today).
Always love a bit of Shakespeare, Steve--many thanks! And have a great time!
Have a good day, everybody!
So I did both the puzzles today - this one that I started and got nowhere, then I took the cat to the vet, came home, and solve this SAME one straightaway. So no idea what's in my head, but it sure needed a break.
ReplyDeleteA crunchy Thursday nonetheless, was VERY slow going until after the "cat break". But I got the solve.
First time ever that I got LANK from the clue.
Also - Desper-Otto - in response to yesterday, I wasn't kidding, Google "C-spot". Not G-Spot, I knew that one, haha.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how I managed to solve this crossword. There were enough easy perps that all the answers to clues I didn't know, fell into place. I even got the theme. Great Thursday for me.
ReplyDeleteFlying back to Montana early Saturday morning. Hope to beat the less-than-perfect weather.
My son & grandson may not be so lucky. They fly to Brisbane Saturday night but getting to JFK from CT may prove challenging.
Keep warm. Friends tell me -30° tomorrow in Montana!
Montana
Circles? There were circles? Usually the games.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword/ site shows circles if there are any. Not today. Anyway, didn't need no steenking circles to enjoy the theme, which I thought was cool. Hand up for BETA before DEMO and BOGART before BACALL. And hand up for naticking out at the cross of ELIE and SESTET. I should have remembered SESTET, though.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Bogart, I think his best performance was as Captain Queeg.
I have used a SQUEEGEE many times, but I have never heard of a squeegee mop.
There is, or used to be, a bakery in the town of Yreka, California, called, you guessed it, the YrekaBakery.
Owen, I especially liked your verses today. The one about the alligator reminds me of what Irish Miss said the other day about buying something just because it's on sale. Spouse: "Would you buy alligators just because they're on sale?" Other spouse: "Only if they were high quality alligators."
A fellow I used to know loved chanting, "Dog it, dog it, dog IT." He also liked to say, "Bag it."
And with that, I'll bag it. 'Til tomorrow.
D-O, we visited an Internet friend in Maine maybe 10 years ago. She was driving us somewhere. When she got out of the car, she left her keys in the ignition. When I asked her about it, she said it wouldn't be a problem and this way she never misplaced her keys. When we got back to her house, she had also left the doors unlocked and one of her neighbors had left a homemade whoopi pie on the table for us as a sample of a local delicacy.
ReplyDeleteI don't always leave my car unlocked with the windows down but I sometimes do in hot weather. No problems yet...
The Doppler radar shows a green blob almost about to pass over our area.
It took a long time to get AYE AYE. YANG was one of those V8s. And left with ING, I just had to wait for Steve's entertaining and informative write-up.
ReplyDeleteOWEN. all As. Bruce. Nice Thursday workout.
WC.
Re the El Faro sinking. Heard on World News Tonight that despite radioed hurricane warnings, and even warnings from his crewmembers, the captain didn't change course until it was too late. I'm hoping someone will be so kind as to do a proper link - tried one time from the Corner "info desk," never could get it right.
ReplyDeletehttps://weather.com/news/news/el-faro-captain-hurricane-warnings-voice-recordings
So very sad. Stay warm everyone!
Thanks Bruce and Steve for the fun today. My newspaper was late and I finished the CW on the Mensa site with no circles so I didn't totally get the theme until I arrived here. All good.
ReplyDeleteWEES about Beads-MASK, Beta-DEMO, ASSN-NATL. I also had Reach before REALM, Insets before US MAPS, and I really wanted LANK Y.
Irish Miss, I love the word APLOMB and I noted the LEMON TEA and ORANGERY beside each other also.
We had both AAR and BERNE recently which helped that solve. We also had STEIN recently (but the person).
I don't curl but we have plenty of Canadian CURLERs. In fact, Canada won both the Men's and Women's Gold Medals at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Baby, it's Cold Outside!
Bill G: Where in Maine did this happen? We never locked doors when I was growing up. Wouldn't do that now even if I still lived in the Pine Tree State.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteDidn't we just win STEIN'S money yesterday?
Not quite an EASY A today but, through perps & WAGs, I got it all done. Thanks Bruce for the nautical boss-man puzzle. Steve, as always, an informative, witty expo. Thanks.
What seemed to make the puzzle so hard was all the "could-be" answers such that you couldn't get a toe-hold. Eg. Beads/MASKS; hacK/LEAK; Pvt/NCO; hefts/PLODS; etc.
WO: D'Oh! b/f (like) DUH.
ESP+WAG'rs: ELIE, SESTET, ADELE, ENLAI, ING, DOG IT
Re: DOG IT. Never heard of it; I assume loaf as in goof-off and not bread?
Notable c/as: clear -> NET; Provided the hands -> DEALT (I kept thinking 'helps')
Fav: MINI ME. Adding Mike MYERS to the grid... The cherry on top.
{A,A,B,A}
HG - I love IT Crowd!
TTP - I saw Grand Funk last year at Krewe of Bacchus [Mardi Gras!]. Love 'em... But, if you're gonna link GFR, this one's more puzzlepropos. :-)
Cheers, -T
Nice write-up Steve! My original puzzle had SEA CAPTAINS as the last theme entry and Rich thought that was too straightforward. He came up with the idea to have AYE AYE CAPTAIN in the middle - clearly more interesting, though it's always a little less than ideal to have the reveal so early. thanks for all the comments! Bruce Haight
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Bruce. Also, 'I'm your' letter count is same as 'AYE AYE' - I don't know how Rich feels about Grand Funk Railroad though :-)
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
Hahtoolah, it was in southern Maine near Portland, Yarmouth or thereabouts maybe. Actually, now I remember the little town was called Cumberland. It was a nice area. Good people. Good food including lobster one day. I'm not sure I would do well there in the winter these days with all the snow they sometimes have to shovel.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to hear from you Bruce.
If you've never seen IT Crowd (the poster HG linked) click here for Roy's voice. I can hear it through the poster.
ReplyDeleteY'all have a great night. Cheers, -T