This is another variation on the one clue fits all. There are four very different variations of the letter A. Two are presented with an apostrophe, two with a following s. All lead to grid-spanning fill, which is awesome. To me, the phrasing of OAKLAND BALL CLUB is the only one I see as bit of a stretch as it sounds so outdated, but still the puzzle is really nicely put together. Jeffrey really packs the puzzle with sparkly fill SNORKEL, YES DEAR, PAPYRUS, PODCAST, EDUCATE, ENROLLS, SLUICED, CLOSEST, OF ONE SIZE and SWEET DEAL. Less than thirty-five 3/4 letter fill! What fun. Okay, off we go- theme:
17A. As : SYMBOL OF ARSENIC (15). Important to know if reading about murder is your thing.
32A. A's : EXCELLENT GRADES. (15). Important to know if you want to read.
41A. As : TO THE SAME DEGREE (15). Important to know if you want to read what he reads.
60A. A's : OAKLAND BALL CLUB (15). Important to know if baseball is your thing.
The rest...
Across:
1. Early Welsh : CELTS. Not Red Auerbach.
6. Subpar performance ... or not : BOGEY. A very wonderful clue, my nomination for Clue of the month. Subpar means less than average, except in golf where below par (subpar) means you did well.
11. School sweater letters : NUS. 13th letter of the Greek alphabet.
14. Wedding, e.g. : UNION.
15. All small, say : OF ONE SIZE. Fits all....
19. Ancient communication medium : PAPYRUS. love the pairing of clues/fill.
20. Modern communication medium : PODCAST.
21. Parts to put together : KIT. When I was young there many of these to help you build a RADIO.
22. Memphis-to-Nashville dir. : ENE. From Graceland to the Grand Old Opry!
23. Washington portraitist : PEALE. George W, both before and after he was president, was the SUBJECT for this ARTIST.
27. Bocelli album that includes "Bésame Mucho" : AMORE.
38. __ work: menial labor : SCUT.
39. Venerate : ADORE. So close to amore.
40. 1992 opponent of Bill and George : ROSS. H. Ross Perot. Still the butt of jokes.
44. What a bump may affect : SPEED. My neighborhood is surrounded by speed bumps- they still speed using our street as a shortcut.
45. Sources of peeps : NESTS. Easter is coming.
46. Nation with a pyramid on its currency: Abbr. : USA.
51. Channeled, as water : SLUICED.
55. Most trusted : CLOSEST.
62. Real bargain : SWEET DEAL.
63. Quarters in the wild : LAIRS.
64. CIA predecessor : OSS.
65. __ bird : EARLY.
66. Not worth it, perhaps : STEEP.
Down:
1. Point of imminence : CUSP. On the cusp of war.
2. Musician from County Donegal : ENYA. Is it raining there?
3. Sagging : LIMP. Two weeks in a row.
4. Keith of country : TOBY. Urban did not fit. Do you all watch The Voice?
5. Underwater aid : SNORKEL. Sergeant? Why not, we grew up together.
6. Leg up : BOOST.
7. On vacation : OFF.
8. Lose it : GO APE.
9. "The Smartest Guys in the Room" subject : ENRON. It was an interesting BOOK and Documentary.
10. Sighed agreement : YES DEAR. Time for the chore jar.
11. 1493 Lisbon arrival : NINA. The SHIP had a great history.
12. Israeli weapons : UZIS.
13. Mennonites, e.g. : SECT. 16A. "Just a __!" : SEC.
18. Heathrow : his :: Orly : à __ : LUI. French gift for Splynter.
23. Vermin : PESTS.
24. Serpico, for one : EX-COP. And so much MORE.
25. Severe : ACUTE. Chronic is the other choice.
26. River in Hades : LETHE. Their beliefs were FUN.
28. Toon with a blue do : MARGE. More Simpsons.
29. Trails for bloodhounds : ODORS
30. Go back to zero : RESET.
31. Swiss borders? : ESSES. SwiSS.
33. __ Palmas: Gran Canaria capital : LAS. In the Canary Islands.
34. Author LeShan : EDA.
35. __ de famille : NOM. The long way to refer to someone's last name. Lesson two for Splynter.
36. Otto minus cinque : TRE. 8-5 in Italian.
37. H.S. equivalency test : GED.
42. Inform : EDUCATE.
43. Registers : ENROLLS. These three all fit together.
47. "Never __ boy to ... " : SEND A.
48. Dangerous biter : ADDER. Loved Black Adder.
49. Like 48-Down : SCALY.
50. Unlikely to be chipper : ILL.
51. Acceptable : SO SO.
52. They're often broken : LAWS.
53. Luau entertainment : UKES. This took me much longer than it should have.
54. Suffix with percent : ILE.
56. "Get lost!" : SCAT.
57. Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE. He is so popular these days.
Washington Post Sunday Magazine - March 5, 2017
Sheffer - March 1, 2017
USA Today - Feb. 28, 2017
Washington Post - Feb. 14, 2017
LA Times - Feb. 10, 2017
Sheffer - Feb. 4, 2017
Sheffer - Jan. 17, 2017
Washington Post Sunday Magazine - Jan. 8, 2017
Chronicle of Higher Education - Jan. 6, 2017
58. "Glad to help" : SURE.
59. Kitchen meas. : TBSP. Do not know why but I did not hesitate with this fill.
61. Acct. entry : BALance.
Well on balance I got 'er done which is good. I think Jeffrey has plugged into my subconscious because many of my 'guesses' are spot on. I liked the variety of the fill and I am really now very familiar with the repeating clue puzzle. Quite a bit of French and no Shakespeare, what is the world coming to? Thank JW, see you all next time. Lemonade out. Would any regulars like the filled grid printed in a larger font?
Note from C.C.:
The 40th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (March 24-26, 2017) will be held at the Stamford Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut. For those who attend, I hope you won't miss the Cru Dinner organized by the great Mike Alpern. Lots of fun pictures and FAQ's in that link.
The Cru Dinner officially kicks off the tournament and is a great opportunity to meet with constructors and fellow solvers. And as a newbie, you'll always get a welcome gift! The space is limited, so be sure to contact with Mike (alpernm@aol.com) as soon as possible.
Mike just told me that "we've got 65 of the 80 or so slots filled (yes, it's been busy), mostly with veterans. I'd like to encourage rookies to sign up while there's still room".
I bet our own Jeffrey will be a judge again this year at the ACPT. Kevin Christian also. Minnesota's Tom Pepper & Marcia will attend the Cru dinner. George Barany might be there also.
47 comments:
Hi everyone!
Thanks to Jeffrey and Lemonade!
Not much happening the first time across, but better luck down. Got 'er all sans cheats eventually. Liked the theme.
Have a great day!
Lemon: your intro anticipated one of my poems today!
This is the type of crystal radio KIT I remember listening to when I was a kid.
{A-, C, C+, C+, B+.]
U.S.A. should be a land of no fear,
ONE SIZE fits all is our motto here!
No lords to call SIR,
Equality is SURE!
No one to rule us! -- Coming. YES DEAR.
The journalism student herded the gnus,
The African zoologist heard of the news,
The Greek student, too!
But about the poor Jew,
Oy vey, iz hora meshugoyim, נוס ?
[Translation: Oy vey, is the hora dance crazy, NUS?]
The OAKLAND BALL CLUB may be known AS A'S,
The players all have their Athletic ways.
But to really rule
Takes that bastion of cool:
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, the master of Aaay's!
I have here an authentic painting by PEALE!
If you like, I can give you a really SWEET DEAL!
You think Washington's nose
Don't look right in that pose?
BOGEY played him, you know, in that movie reel!
A SCALY ADDER tempted Eve -- at the market.
With his scale he weighed her fruit to mark it!
Then he'd add up the cost
Of the apples she'd bought,
And RESET his scales to tempt his next target!
Jinx
Bread and butter
Whatever you say when two posts go in at the exact same time!
Good morning!
JW made me work for it, but everything came together on time. Only needed Wite-Out to change NESTS to LAIRS. I would've bet that SNORKEL was one of those LE words. Good thing nobody took me up on it.
Thanx, Jeff and Lemon.
Good morning all. Thank you Jeffrey.
Nice patterns in the puzzle. Noted the four grid spanners and read their clues first.
Three hunches were correct, but not to the exact answers. Figured one of the A's would be something with the AL baseball team. Was pretty certain one would have to do with grading, and one of the two "As" was simile. Turns out that SYMBOL OF ARSENIC was my first long fill.
It was a good challenge working through this. No TADA. Worked my way from TOI to LOI and finally LAI instead of LUI. My French was much better at the very sussable NOM.
Also missed the boat on the LETHE. I don't plan on visiting there, so I'm not up on the rivers in Hades. Know scuttle, but not familiar with SCUT nor that phrase. I'll take those two wrong letters and still give my self EXCELLENT GRADES for today's test.
Sluice and SLUICED always first conveys mental images of dams and sluice mills. Then sluice box, like those employed by the gold rushers.
Desper-otto, you were in the ballpark. My initial thought was along the lines of dressing and quartering.
Good workout again thanx . Had to work clockwise on this . After awhile it came together nicely . Had snorkel le , didn't know peale or scut nycop for excop so was slowed a bit at the finish . Good day all, another sunny day in paradisde.
Yes the weather is awesome in South Florida this week, though warming trend (back over 80) with 60 degree mornings so pleasant.
To echo what C.C. said, the ACPT is an awesome event for anyone who has solved a puzzle. The constructors are very friendly and there will be many of the names you know so well, including today's setter JW. You can even solve the puzzles without having to turn them in to see that there are people who solve very quickly. In fact you will get a chance to see them in action. They write faster than I can think.
Be sure and let them know you are part of the Corner- spread the word! I am still limited in movement so I can not be there but give Jeffrey my personal regards.
Had SCARY for SCALY, and read "portraitist" to be "podiatrist" (got the answer, but only by perps).
I had a bumpy start with many possibilities and thinking the paper had a misprint with the As and A's. Many mis-starts too. OUT for OFF, PERCENTAGE for ILE, was it BONO or ENYA, SCENT or ODORS, EGGS or LAWS, OKAY or SO SO? I had PEON work for menial (manual) labor as I had never heard of SCUT work. This hound was on the wrong scent everywhere today but eventually got it done.
'As' for the theme fills I actually filled ARSENIC, GRADES, and CLUB and worked backwards. Nice international puzzle- Wales-CELTS, Switzerland-ESSES, Portugal-NINA, Italy-TRE, Spain-LAS, France-NOM & LUI, Greece-NUS, Egypt-PAPYRUS, Hell-LETHE, England-SIR, Ireland- ENYA, Israel-UZIS, and California-OAKLAND.
D-O, I wasn't sure on the ending of SNORKEL either.
" ROSS. H. Ross Perot. Still the butt of jokes." I wouldn't say that. Twenty-four years later proves he was correct, but how many jobs left the USA and how much deeper in debt are we?
BE my comment on H. Ross was not related to his political career or views - forbidden here at the Corner - but to the jokes about his physical appearance, short with prominent ears. Hey, that sounds like me!
Good Morning:
For awhile, I was afraid that my Wechsler-worship was on thin ice. After the first pass across, the grid looked like a vast, desolate tundra, with a lone, black speck here and there, but mostly nowhere. Then, the downs started to fill in and, slowly but surely, everything fell into place and gave me my hard-earned Tada! I guessed on Bono but Enya won out. No real speed bumps but perps were what saved the day. Very impressed with the 4 grid spanners, especially when they provide such good toeholds.
Thank you, Mr. JW, for testing my mettle and thanks, Lemony, for the terrific write-up. Hope you are getting some relief from the pain.
We are in for a frigid weekend and possibly some snow on Tuesday. I guess Mother Nature isn't quite ready to let go of winter weather.
Have a great day.
I have some touristy stuff to do, March Madness has started, and I'm preparing new coursework for a project management class I teach. Because of that I'm only going to tackle the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday xwords until middle or late April.
IM - Zoe's coloring is a little unusual because of the white in her face. She's only 3, but looks 8 or 10 (I know the feeling). The black and red or or black and fawn brindle colors are fairly common. Just to obfuscate, grey greyhounds are said to be "blue", not grey.
For a baseball fan OAKLAND BALL CLUB was the "A's" gimmie.
St. Pete Grand Prix and the PGA Valspar Championship means my beautiful Tampa Bay Area is on TV this weekend.
Chamber of Commerce is grinning since it is Sunny, 80 degrees and the Golf Course is beautiful.
I'm off to see the Golfer's today ...
Cheers!
Good morning all
I thought this one would beat me but after circling around a few times and doing a little cheating, I finally FIR. Loved the theme and assumed GRADES and OAKLAND A's would be in the fill somewhere. I got EDUCATEd on a few things so thanks to Jeffrey and Lemonade!
My cheats were SLUICED ( known but forgotten word) PEALE and LETHE (Styx is the only one I know of. Nice link, Lemonade!)
Perps were LUI and ENRON (of course I've heard of them but wasn't familiar with "The Smartest Guys In the Room" reference)
Hiccups: I had OSA before OSS - oops! This made Hula right for me until I got UKES. I had PercantAGE before PercentILE.
Favorites were PAPYRUS and PODCAST- cute pairing. And "What bumps may affect"/SPEED made me think of the speed bumps in the parking lot of our local Starbucks. Can't tell you how much coffee I spilled hitting those things! And this was at LOW speed, easing over them. They were the worst I've ever encountered. They finally removed them- I'm sure many people were complaining.
On Isla Mujeres there are speed bumps everywhere- or as they are called there "Topes" Not fun hitting those in a golf cart and many are hard to see as the paint has worn off or there's no warning sign. So DH drives and I'm his second pair of eyes, looking for them and yelling "Tope"!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Fun puzzle. I worked in horizontal stripes from the bottom up, each stripe being a little more difficult than the one before. Like Big Easy, I got all the last words of the themes first and had to work backwards.
I changed LUI three times and got it with perps.
I was okay with Oakland ball club, just a description, similar to New York team.
Big Easy, the international flavor is interesting. I am glad you pointed it out.
It has been snowing since before dawn. The snow lies only on the grass and parked cars. It melts on the street, so it is no impediment to being out and about. In an abundance of caution there was a two hour school delay. NW of here the snow has closed the schools. To think that yesterday it was 60 degrees.It will be a frigid week ahead.
Alan is still home. Yes, the doctor was trying to cut back the medicine due to side effects. Yesterday he phoned me and we are gradually reinstating the meds. The trade off between handling symptoms and side effects is a very delicate decision to make. All of our Medicaid doctors are excellent. I shudder to think that we might lose our coverage and doctors soon.
Slight delay with NE and NW corners first time around, but one of the easiest Friday puzzles for me. I do mine in pen, no disfiguring crossouts on a Friday puzzle. A thing of beauty to behold.
Good morning everyone.
Eventually got it all. Jeff put up a great challenge as Lemonade made clear. The grid spanners were ultimately quite gettable and served as a springboard to fill in some stubborn perps. Favorite fill was for LAIRS.
BOGEY - Also a term for unknown - possible enemy - aircraft. "Skunk' applies to surface ships.
SLUICED - I think the clue is valid but, as a hydraulic engineer, I've rarely, if ever, seen or used 'sluice' as a verb.
BH came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon, and is settling in. Thanks again for all your good wishes.
Good Morning--and a sunny one at that!
Thanks, Jeff for a fine challenge. I'm glad I binged on all this week's puzzles so I had the advantage of some "foreshadowing." I do SCUT work three or four times a month at our local food pantry. NUs--lettermen at Northwestern no longer wear sweaters. ;^) They are playing some mighty fine basketball! Go Cats! I liked "subpar" quite a bit. Also had PERCENTage before -ILE. YES DEAR is not something I hear often--sigh or not. DH should have been an attorney. . . .;^)
Lemonade, thanks for the tour. I was also successful with guesses. Mine, however, would certainly qualify as WAGS.
Enjoy the day, everyone.
BunnyM -- "Tope!" sounds like something Tinbeni would love to hear.
EXCELLENTGRADES for Jeffrey Wechsler! I slithered into his wave length and finished it in record time for a Friday. Like others, the ends of the themers filled first. Even AMORE as clued was easy to WAG.
I also liked the pairing of PAPYRUS and PODCAST as ancient and modern forms of communication.
Big Easy:
You can add USA to that list.
Thank you, JW. I wish I could go and meet you to shake your hand personally. This was an impressive puzzle.
And thank you, Lemonade, for your yeoman work in spite of pain.
Have a lovely day, everyone! It's in the 80s here, too, Tin.
"Meltwater sluiced furiously down innumerable surface and subterranean channels, creating a ghostly harmonic rumble that resonated through the body of the glacier." from Into Thin Air
"Rain sluiced down it all, making Thomas imagine a huge beast cresting out of the ocean." from
The Maze Runner
"The fibers, they explained, get sluiced down the drain when synthetic fabrics, often made up of plastic, go through the wash." from Time, Jan 15, 2015
Musings
-PEALE, LETHE, EDA and SCUT did me in but it was worth it! Oh, I filled the cells but…
-When I could see HARSH wasn’t severe, I confidently put in ACERB and then ACRID with A _ _ _ _ but…
-I caught the A’S iteration in KC after Philadelphia and before Oakland
-BOGEY – One over par or or this one are all I’ve known
-Size SMALL is far back in my rear view mirror
-My childhood friend built many HeathKIT radios. He went on to building MRI’s and is now a multimillionaire
-I remember James Bond using a reed as a SNORKEL in Dr. No
-A delicate BOOST
-Anyone else think of the Blue Do on a SMURF?
-You can always RESET a car wreck on a video game
-GED’s are for people for whom getting EDUCATED while ENROLLed in school didn’t work
-John Wayne in El Dorado, “You left a boy out there to do man’s job” after he shot a man’s son who was left as a sentry
After the first pass, I still had a sea of white (matching the snowflakes coming down outside my window) but eventually it filled in from the bottom up. I did require some red letter help but it is Friday. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemonade (loved all the music esp. Bocelli).
Like Big Easy, I had Out before OFF and percent-age before ILE.
Hand up for trying to fit Urban into the Keith clue.
I changed Okay to SOSO and wanted Grunt before SCUT.
I was EDUCATEd about GRE here but today I needed GED!
This Canadian wanted EGY for the currency with pyramid clue. D'oh - USA has pyramid on dollar bill?! More EDUCATion.
Favourite today - Swiss borders?=ESSES (even has the plural and singular ESSES!)
Have a great day.
Glad to hear Betty is home, Spitzboov.
Continued thoughts re Alan, YR. (Thankful for our Canadian universal health coverage that I commented on the other day.)
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade for a fine review.
Lemonade: Not sure about your Ross Perot comment. I am proud to have voted twice for him for President. He was and is a genius.
I did this puzzle in about two hours. That is pretty good for me for a Friday. I thought this puzzle was excellent. I just cannot imagine how JW constructed this. He must be a genius too, just like Ross Perot.
Took me a while to get PEALE. I remember seeing his name tied to Washington paintings, but could not get all the letters right. Then it hit me.
LUI, the french word, was all perps.
I tried BATS for 52D. Took me forever to get SLUICED. Then LAWS became obvious.
Not sure who MARGE is. Perps and wags.
Tried AGE for 54D. SLUICED fixed that one too. ILE.
I have a lot to do. Will be cooking corned beef tomorrow outside on my gas cooker. Supposed to be cold. Our big dinner is Wednesday in Palatine.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
I enjoyed the puzzle and write up. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemon.
I thought this was pretty hard as is appropriate for a Friday. I loved the BOGEY clue. FIBWRLAGH. (Finished It But With Red Letters And Google Help.)
I always figured I could use a long hose as a snorkel to breathe while sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool. It never worked due to the higher water pressure on my lungs.
All sorts of kits were a pastime as a kid. I was especially fond of Crystal Radios. Some of them were fairly sophisticated. I learned to read schematics and learned how to solder. I had a long antenna strung out of my bedroom window. Thank goodness it never got struck by lightning.
Busy day...
Just finished reading last nights late posts,
Anonymous T, I, and my kids, absolutely love Short Circuit!
Loved the clip!
(Rap, not so much. for me it's kinda like this...
Todays puzzle?
I have no freakin idea! It absolutely killed me!
I think I wasn't even 1/4 way through when I rolled over & played dead!
Anywho, hope to read you all later...
JW's puzzle was on my wavelength today. SCUT work was everything we did as interns that wasn't diagnosis and orders/procedures for treatment - eg drawing blood, starting IVs, putting in catheters. The A's were in KC in my younger years before they became an OAKLAND BALL CLUB and before KC started the Royals as an expansion team.
I had EXCON before EXCOP - vaguely remembered he worked with bad guys- just couldn't remember if he WAS a bad guy!
Enjoying Friday - possible snowstorm tomorrow - we'll see!
Thanks Lemonade and JW!
Got it, but it took quite a while with a lot of writeovers (in ink).
Ugh... now I temember why I always shudder when I see that the Friday puzzle is a JW! As with several others, after my first time through the grid was still nearly pristine. Finally finished in just under half an hour but it felt like the end of an 8-hour shift in the word mines.
Time to get the car detailed since it seems that Chicago isn't going to have a winter after all.
Well, this was, of course, a real Jeffrey Wechsler Friday toughie for me. I was afraid I was just going to have to leave this one altogether on my first scan through it. But that row of 3 letter downs in the middle saved me, and helped me to get EXCELLENT GRADES (not me, just the puzzle answer) and TO THE SAME DEGREE. So, after that, things did start to fill in slowly, but I still had to do a lot of cheating. Got ENYA, but not TOBY (also wanted URBAN). Would never have gotten BOGEY since I know my golf only from crossword puzzles. Got EDUCATED (okay, me, sort of) but still had to cheat down south since I would never have gotten OAKLAND BALL CLUB. Still, a fun puzzle in many ways, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Loved the clue for MARGE Simpson.
Great expo, Lemonade, and feel better soon.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!
Nice to see my WAG machine working so well! Mr. Wechsler's formidable challenge required only one cheat (PEALE because obviously STUART wouldn't fit) to get me rolling - and the rest just poured out of the old walnut.
And nice too to see CELTS in the preeminent slot, especially as ID'd with the Welsh. My Welsh grandmother (and Cornish grandpa) are the reason Ancestry tagged my spit as 58% "Irish"! Turns out, Ancestry has a habit of calling any Celtic DNA "Irish." But Celts were all over western Europe and the British Isles back when, and I'm sure many of our tribes would prefer to be known more precisely, either as Celts or by their proper nations.
Enough venting. I got a real kick out of today's pzl. The first long fill to come my way was OAKLAND BALL CLUB, which really helped me suss the theme. There were several surprises (besides PEALE) that made this a true learning experience. I didn't know that A was the SYMBOL OF ARSENIC, for example, and I'd nearly forgotten (appropriately?) that LETHE was the other river in Hell. (And how convenient for James Joyce that the River Liffey runs through Dublin...)
Thanks to Lemonade for a fine exegesis!
inanehiker, I read that the term scut work originated in the medical field in the 60's and was just as you described. Then the use of the word spread to other fields.
A new clerk in my son's office was asked to hole-punch papers and make a notebook for a new senior level hire. She said that was not her job and put the unpunched papers on the new exec's desk. The irate boss asked her if he should pay the new $100,000 a year senior exec to punch his own notebook or a $15 an hour clerk. She didn't last long, refusing scut work.
It has turned out to be a very nice afternoon,sunny and warmer, but our dance for this evening is canceled. When the TV weather people say untreated roads will freeze over this evening many people stay home. It usually turns out that the roads are fine, even the local ones, because they have been well salted. The only care needed is for sidewalks, driveways and some parking lots. I am timid on the ice, but I don't let the unnecessary hype scare me.
HGary:
As far as I know the GED is taken by those who dropped out of school or somehow failed to earn a diploma. Having tutored students for the 4 part test, I know it to be challenging. It requires knowledge in Math, English, History and Science.
WOW !!! ... what a way to spend a Winter's Day ...
Gal-Pal and I must have walked 6 or 7 miles around the golf course.
It never got above 76 degrees ... with a few puffy white clouds providing some shade.
(But it is very apparent I got a wee bit of sunshine. LOL)
Watching the PRO's tee-off ... it is obvious they don't "play" the same game of golf as I do.
Talked with quite a few who said they were there until the last golfer finished.
Have to admit ... after approx. 4 hours it was time to leave.
Professional Golf watching desire sated!
And since the Sun is over the yardarm ...
Cheers!
A very impressive puzzle. Jeffrey Wechsler is truly a master. I feel good that I solved it all without needing red letters or to look anything up.
I enjoy reading all your comments.
OMK, AS(As) is the symbol for arsenic. JW needed to balance all the clues to include A and S. The symmetry was part of the awesomeness.
What the !@#$%^& was that! NO CHANCE. Kudos to anyone who got more than half. After about thirty minutes I felt like Freydo in the Godfather...Michael I'm smaht...I can do things. Apparently not a Friday crossword !
French...Italian...obscure painters and Nobel Prize winners ..LeShan Who ??? What's an Enya? a river in Hades that's not the Styx ? Classical music album names ?? ( I did download his "Time to Say Goodbye") Why is Nu the school sweater letters ?
I am going to go spend an hour doing Quantum mechanics so I feel like I still have half a brain ! QM is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer compared to this puzzle. Some sassy partial differential equations and tensors to ease the soul !!
Musings II
-Lucina, that is what I meant. Some kids struggle in a standard school setting and the GED is a great option for them. A good friend of mine teaches a GED course and has enjoyed seeing those students succeed.
Tin. Let us know how things are out at innisbrook. I went two years ago
Great puzzle, Jeffrey, and wonderful write-up, Lemonade. Thanks to you both. I agree that the clue " Subpar performance...or not" for BOGEY was fantastic. Also liked "Swiss borders?" for ESSES.
Have a great evening!
Disregard previous reply. Thx Tin. Great account
Tinbeni-watching the pros? You mean you don't usually land the fairway off the tee, hit wedge shots that either stop dead or back up, come out of the sand close enough for a tap in putt, or hit it 300 yards off the tee. The best pros may hit G.I.R. 70% of the time yet they shoot under par.
A tennis pro friend of mine and another very good player played a match against two New Orleans Saints defensive backs. It was amazing watching how fast those backs could run-backwards. They ran down everything and hit the balls back. Until you see them from 20 feet away it's hard to imagine how fast and talented pro football and basketball players are.
I got a good start at breakfast but didn't get a chance to ink anything more until seven pm. Then the rest fell, SCUT and LETHE finishing it off. My write overs were CHEAP/STEEP and OH DEAR before counting.
A friend does SCUT work for Bocelli so I asked his wife for the name of the album. Nothing except"duh" when I texted the answer.
My take on BOGEY was that one over par is not sub par for the average golfer. That's a 90 on par 72.
I call the water ways around St Pete, SLUICES. To deaf ears. USA had to be a 16 oz V8 can.
Misty hit the nail on the head about the 5*3s in the middle making this Wechsler Fri into perhaps a crunchy Thurs.
Speaking of Thur, I never got it out of the sleeve and then misplaced it. I hope I have time for Saturday.
QOD to Owen and his usual excelicks
Said the owl to the African antelope:
Who GNU
Good night from this night owl
WC
Ps. Lemony, great write-up. Now to get back to your links
Dashing through the snow,
In a grid that's not so grey,
O'er the fields I go,
Not getting s*** along the way
Sorry, for being off-season; I know it's almost DST (for those in humble observance)
This puzzle took me forever to cheat my way to a DNF/FIW. The East was Wednesday-level. I started with ENRON [burn over LETHE! - those SCALY wankers hurt many a friend], UZIS, SECT, MARGE, etc and worked out from there. However, the middle bits, LAS, EDA, NOM (as clue'd), never let me ADORE the middle. And, I over/under thought 41a; the word 'as' never crossed my mind!
Oh, well, all the SAME I had fun in the mud (of ink). Thanks for the fun JW - I enjoyed the damn clever clueing. Thanks Lem for the middle bits and expo; I LOL'd @ the Fonz intro - I was looking for him in the themers.
Notable WOs: I had EXCOn b/f I looked up Serpico. Ooops. Wrong side of the LAW. Too, I SNORKle'd (Hi D-O)
FIW - I had age (hi again BunnyM) as percent's suffix (54d) and left the A in SLUaCED.
Fav: LOL'd at 10d. Coulda been a clecho @58d. [shhh, don't tell DW]
{A+,? (Oh. -C), B-, A}
HG - GEDs are also for bright kids that get bored w/ HS. DW got hers at 17 and skipped the last 1/2 of Sr. year. She went on to 1) skip me out of class [call on the intercom(unication) '-T report to the office, your aunt K is waiting for you'] and 2) get a PhD in English.
ChuckL - Is the cat dead yet? BTW, did you see the work on time crystals published last week? [I picked this article for link due to the intuitively obvious Dr. Who headline].
CED - You're late? I'm later 'cuz I just wasted 2 hours on your Input... :-)
SPEED? No man, Labrador.
Cheers, -T
Thank you, Wilbur!
Thanks for explaining the BOGEY clue which I had no idea about. FIR anyway.
Got stuck for awhile thinking it was OAK BASEBALL CLUB. I figured BASEBALL had to be there and that they were lax on making OAK an abbreviation. That is one of the few sports teams I know about.
The west was tricky w PEALE/LETHE/SCUT unknowns crossing.
Did anyone else like that ENYA crossed CELTS? She is a CELT.
Hand up for SCARY ADDER before SCALY ADDER. Even though mostly I like snakes.
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