I love this first time puzzle from Andrew Woodham, who we invite to stop by and tell us more. As you all know I love word play puzzles and this adds a new variation by using sound alike Greek letters to replace words in known phrases. Each of the three themers uses two letters to replace the beginning of each phrase. The reveal is the simple referential answer GREEK LETTERS. We also have some nice fill RECEIVE, LAB TEST, ZEROES IN, SHOTGUNS, SNARE DRUMS and LIQUID SOAP to finish off this debut. Many of the short fill are clearly clued to make sure this Friday is not too easy.
20A. Unused car using some 56-Across? : NU ALPHA ROMEO (12). NEW ALFA ROMEO is clued appropriately.
35A. Movies using some 56-Across? : PSI PHI FILMS (11). SCI-FI FILMS
42A. Compulsive sort using some 56-Across? : PI RHO MANIAC (11). PYROMANIAC.
56A. "Antigone" characters? : GREEK LETTERS (12).
The 2500 plus year old play by Sophocles is the somewhat hidden reveal.
Across:
1. Serious service : MASS. Religion, no comment.
5. Toaster opening? : HERE'S. My first thought was "popup."
10. Moxie : ZEAL. Meh.
14. Settled down : ALIT.
15. Treasure : ADORE. Je t'aime, je t'adore.
16. Crop, say : EDIT. Pictures.
17. Taboo : NO NO.
18. Parade instruments : SNARE DRUMS. Begun with snare drums, but they were led by trombones.
22. It can be bid : ADIEU. Hopefully is a fond one.
23. Coin toss winner's option : RECEIVE. NFL.
27. Large Eurasian group : SLAVS. But where are the Northern SLAVS?
31. Very, to Puccini : ASSAI. Italian word.
32. DJIA company alphabetically following Home Depot : IBM. The THIRTY.
38. PC alternatives : MACS.
40. Dreamers have big ones : IDEAS.
41. A scarf can protect it : NAPE.
45. Yahoo! alternative : MSN. Nope, replaced by Microsoft Edge.
46. "Silas Marner" author : ELIOT. This woman who reminds me of Amy Farrah Fowler.
47. Static source : DRYER.
49. Doctor's order : LAB TEST. I have had more than my share this year.
52. Latin dance : SAMBA. Samba is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Angola and the Congo, through the samba de roda genre of the northeastern state of Bahia, from which it derived. Wiki.
60. Dawn, for example : LIQUID SOAP.
63. Place for pins and needles : ETUI.
64. Amazon ID : ISBN. International Standard Book Number.
65. Unlimited free mileage pioneer : ALAMO. Part of the building of a success story for the Florida based COMPANY.
66. Mapmaking name since 1872 : RAND. Cannot forget McNally.
67. What much insurance covers : LOSS.
68. Family nicknames : NANAS.
69. Wild plum : SLOE.
Down:
1. Heavenly food : MANNA.
2. Audibly : ALOUD.
3. Decalogue delivery site : SINAI. Deca=10: Logue=laws.
4. Wraps not made in delis : STOLES. Do women wear them any more?
5. Jumble : HASH.
6. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA. She wrote, " My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -- it gives a lovely light!"
7. 2013 Katy Perry chart-topper : ROAR.
8. Diamond mishap : ERROR. Baseball.
9. Teacher's note : SEE ME. The dreaded note.
10. Focuses (on) : ZEROES IN. Back again. Maybe as wiki suggests the phrase comes from adjusting a sighting mechanism of a firearm to minimise the discrepancy between where the sight points and where a bullet lands on a target. 12D. Focus : AIM. clecho
11. Part of an academic address : EDU.
13. 62-Down protectors : LTS. Since most quarterbacks are right handed, the "blind side" tackle is critical. LINK. 39D. Common football passing formations : SHOT GUNS. 62D. Snap receivers: Abbr. : QBS.
19. It may be served from an orange-handled pot : DECAF.
21. Orange stuff : PULP.
24. Faith with Five Pillars : ISLAM. Faith, Charity, Praying, Pilgrimage, and Fasting. More religion, no comment.
25. Sirens : VAMPS.
26. Innsbruck iron : EISEN. Now we have German this week.
28. "... __ sure you know" : AS I'M.
29. "Livin' la __ Loca": Ricky Martin hit : VIDA. Dupe? 44D. "__ la vie" : C'EST. Whatever happened to Ricky? LINK.
30. Lighten one's wallet : SPEND.
32. Press : IMPEL.
33. Sri Lankan pop music : BAILA. No idea. Anyone get this without perps?
34. Periodic McDonald's pork sandwich : MCRIB.
36. What alopecia sufferers lose : HAIR.
37. "My word!" : I SAY.
43. Cheri of "SNL" : OTERI. She is a little hyper for me.
48. Yelp users : RATERS. True but ich.
50. 65-Across choice : SEDAN.
51. Roadster maker : TESLA. Wow, not on my list. LINK.
53. Music genre word : METAL.
54. Musical Mars : BRUNO. Any watching the new Season of The Voice?
55. Better half? : A-SIDE. Nice rendition of the oft forgotten A-SIDE.
57. Zen riddle : KOAN.
58. Buddhist teacher : LAMA.
59. "Beowulf," for one : EPOS. A singular epic poem..
60. Adjective for rapper Jon or Kim : LIL.
61. Tonic go-with? : ISO. Made famous with gloves.
Hard week healthwise, but we are hanging in. Enjoyed the diversion; hope you all did. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
Splynter (Richard) and I made today's The Chronicle of Higher Education "Shellacked" puzzle. You can click here to solve it. Congrats on your crossword debut, Splynter!
67 comments:
DNF/FIW¡ A natick I couldn't even WAG at I¡M + ¡AILA, and an incorrect WAG at ASSAs + EsSEN.
IIRC, the SciFi channel changed its name to SyFy both because SciFi couldn't be trademarked, but also too much of its programming wasn't really Science Fiction! (At least, not in the opinion of fans like me!)
ep·os (ĕp′ŏs′) n.
1. A number of poems, not formally united, that treat an epic theme.
2. An epic.
I'd say a crossword puzzle qualifies as an epic, wouldn't you?
{B-, A.}
My poems each day, to one who knows,
Are in a form known as EPOS!
When read ALOUD
they're best endowed
With clothespins for to hold your nose!
~><~
A TIPSY TOASTER (an EPOS)
HERE'S where I SAY, I wish the best
To bride and groom, on their LAB TESTS!
No S.T.D.
Should worry thee
When to your bed you go, "to rest"!
This wedding is what love IMPELS,
Not her Daddy's SHOTGUN shells,
Although his AIM
Has garnered fame;
He ZEROES IN, his ZEAL excels!
Married life is C'EST LA VIE!
LA VIDA LOCA flees from thee!
So bid ADIEU
To being two --
And bathroom drains that flow HAIR-free!
Though as a LAMA I'm not known
I'll end this toast with a KOAN:
Your spouse ADORE,
Let RATERS ROAR --
Ne'er post on Yelp your marriage score!
Congratulations Splynter! A wonderful debut and a perfect theme for you!
Greetings!
Thanks Andrew and Lemon!
Several things were perped. Too late to mention!
Certainly never heard of BAILA!
Cough better. Think the swimming broke it up. Well, maybe. Ankle still hurts from where I bashed it trying to get out.
Thanks for your concern!
Have a great day!
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Considering this was a Friday, this was a doable puzzle. Getting the GREEK LETTERS did help with the other theme answers.
Lots of fun misdirections. I really wanted Gin to be my Tonic "go-with", but I do own a pair of ISOTonic gloves. Crop almost stumped me. I was out in the field on that one!
I tried Shawls (which I wear a lot), before the perps convinced me we were wearing STOLES.
My favorite clue was It Can Be Bid = ADIEU.
We haven't seen Cheri OTERI in quite a while.
QOD: I’m scared of everything. I think it’s only sensible to be that way. ~ Christopher Walken (b. Mar. 31, 1943).
Not my favorite kind of puzzle. Couldn't perp the B and I in BAILA. Same with the I in EISEN. Otherwise, glad I stuck with it.
I'm always amazed by the grammatical errors and poor diction displayed in your Friday summaries. Why?
Btw, the original phrase for 35a is Sci-Fi Films, not sci-phi. It is short for science fiction.
Good morning!
Stumbled around, failing to complete any theme answers, until PI RHO showed up. That broke the logjam. MCRIB convinced me the doctor wasn't ordering BED REST. Nope, didn't recognize BAILA -- still don't. Hahtoolah, I also wanted GIN with my tonic until I saw the question mark. Nice debut, Andrew. Thanks for the explication, Lemon.
Hello Puzzlers -
This was a tricky rascal, no doubt about it. Lots of unknowns - Koan, Epos, Assai, Baila to name a few - and I never heard of that Bruno guy. Still, these were all perpable. Eisen went straight in, thanks to Spitzboov, who parsed Eisenhower's name for us last year. Boy, do I wish I were fluent in German.
Morning, Lemon, I had a feeling that 76 Trombones would be featured today.
Hi All.
Andrew (the constructor) here. Thanks for all the comments! This is my first puzzle in a major publication, but hopefully there will be more to come in the near future. Originally this wasn’t planned as a late-weeker, but after a revision that added the two 10s in the NE and SW (SNAREDRUMS and LIQUIDSOAP) it was clear this wasn’t for Mon/Tues. I would have preferred cluing VAMPS as succubi, but you got to appeal to the MASSes. I was also happy with my idea for the hidden reveal, though I was on the fence about which Greek play to use.
Glad you enjoyed!
Wow, except for the SW corner I solved this 1-2-3! So add an extra 10 minutes. I caught on to the Greek letters almost immediately. Great theme. Antigone clue confirmed it.
I was chagrined that it took me so long to dredge up ELIOT. D-O, I, too, had to give up BED REST for LAB TEST. IBM, ISBN, and MACS helped a lot. I am familiar with SHOT GUN formation, but needed many perps to get it.
BAILA and KOAN were all perps.
I loved all the mis-directions, especially better half/A side. DAWN/SOAP threw me for a while.
Place for pins and needles. First thought was my HAND, caused by pinched nerve.
The word stole is not used much these days, I believe, except in reference to ecclesiastical vestments. We call them wraps now. I have two cashmere ones.
Good morning everyone.
Nice chewy puzzle today, but after the Greek letter motif became obvious, things sped up a bit. EPOS was a new learning. Had 'gin' before ISO . LOL. Parsed LIQUID SOAP after a while. (We use Dawn in the kitchen sink.) D'uh.
EISEN - Dudley, I didn't remember that I had so commented before. I was about to do so now, but you saved me the trouble. Thanks.
Good morning all!
Great puzzle from Andrew today- congrats on your debut! Hope to see more from you and thanks for dropping in.
Lemonade - thanks for your fine write up. Best of luck to you with the health issues. I know it's a tough journey.
Started out strong with no problems and got NUALPHAROMEO and PSIPHIFILMS quickly. The GREEKLETTERS reveal took a bit longer because I didn't know KOAN or SHOTGUNS and SEDAN took awhile since I thought the connected clue for ALAMO, "Unlimited free mileage pioneer " was referring to an airline.
Had to Google BAILA because ELIOT wouldn't come to me. Had Neck>NAPE, Epic>EPOS and hand up for Gin>ISO
EISEN & LTS were perped
So many clever clues/fills today, earning my :) mark : ADIEU, ISBN, STOLES, ISO, PULP, DECAF, ASIDE and HERES ( to you Splynter for your CW. Thanks for the link, C.C.! I printed it out to work on later)
Busy day filled with errands- gotta get going.
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Good Morning:
A fun and clever offering from Andrew. However, a DNF because of the Assai/Eisen crossing. Evidently, I'm sorely lacking Dudley's steel trap memory and Spitz's frequent translations. This did nothing at all to diminish the enjoyable solve. Epos is new to me. Had rite/mass and I think of moxie as having courage or pluck.
Nicely done, Andrew, congrats on your debut and will look forward to seeing you again and thanks, Lemony, for being such a devoted and dependable guide, despite your health issues. Kudos to you!
Anonymous @ 7:02 ~ I'm always amazed at the nasty and unnecessary nit picking criticisms displayed in your Friday postings. Why?
Have a great day.
Musings
-ASSA_/E_SEN required a big spin of the Wheel of Letters and it ALIT on I. Yay me!
-BAILA, KOAN,ASSAI and EPOS = equal obscurities with lovely vowels
-ROMEO stood out and ALFA had to be ALPHA so NU made sense and all of sudden “Bob’s you’re uncle” and I was hip!
-My MIL CROPPED out her son’s ex-wife’s images by ripping off her side of any pictures
-Coin toss winners almost always DEFER
-These will really cool your NAPE
-RAND McNally TND 530 truck mapping system
-“Did I just say that ALOUD?”
-My first principal’s notes said, “SEE ME PRONTO!” Yikes!
-My VISA Card was denied in D.C. for SPENDING last week. I called and a very nice man said, “We saw a lot of UBER charges being made 1,000 miles from your house and so we shut it down.” I guess I should have told them we were going to travel. Do you do that?
-Congrats Splynter!
-There’s the bell and here come a gaggle of adolescents!
"Puzzling thoughts":
Excellent puzzle by Andrew today! Congrats on your debut here at the LA Times. As Fridays go, my grid usually looks like a Rorschach test; however, today I finished with not a single ERROR!!
BAILA, KOAN and ASSAI all came via perps; favorite GREEK LETTER fill was the PI RHO MANIAC (compulsive sort)
Great recap Lemon; hope you're on the road to recovery - as well as others here who've been feeling poorly and ailing ...
Owen, good job today! Your EPOS's were more limerick-like.
Speaking of which, here's my "lama" [sic] attempt at one using today's theme:
The Fidelio composer's a man,
Of whom I've become a big fan.
Was in a frat at Purdue,
And drove a used Subaru;
I called it my "Beta-Tau-Van"
(Beta Tau is an actual honorary engineering fraternity)
Many thanks to ALL of those who give of their time and knowledge in the daily write-ups. Minor quibble regarding the explanation for 45a. Microsoft Edge is an internet browser that is intended to replace Microsoft Internet Explorer. As such, you use it to view portals such as Yahoo or MSN or other sites.
Hi gang -
And welcome Andrew.
I do like this theme, though PSI PHI is a bit of a stretch.
Football sub-theme is nice, too.
I can't see ZEAL and moxie as equivalents, though. Googled synonym lists for both, and there is no overlap.
AIM and focus is closer, but still a near miss. That's working too hard to get a clecho.
I struggled everywhere and picked my way through this puzzle a letter at a time in places. Good Friday challenge. NE was last to fall, for reasons already mentioned.
Still, not a bad end to the week.
C Moe - As a lover of both Beethoven and puns, i am aghast at your mini EPOS - in a good way!
Cool regards!
JzB
I nominate Anon @ 7:02 to prepare the write-up for one puzzle next week. What do you say, tough guy? I'm sure it would be amazing!
Irish Miss,
When Dudley commented that Spitzboov explained Eisenhower last year, it made me wonder why I didn't recall it. I was further puzzled when Spitzboov said he didn't recall it.
So I site-searched the archives. It was 5 years ago on Feb 19th, 2012.
Argyle commented first with, "Eisenhauer is German for "iron hewer"; now we know. But will we remember."
And then Spitzboov commented, "EISEN - AAS - As Argyle said. Eisenhower is a slightly anglicized version of the hewer of iron..."
No wonder I didn't recall it. Before my time here. Puzzle solved.
I've always known [sic] to denote "not my error" when quoting or copying another person's words exactly as written.
Is there a different word that an author should use when they want the reader to know that their misspelling is intentional, as Chairman Moe's statement ?
"Speaking of which, here's my "lama" [sic] attempt at one using today's theme:"
My dictionary says verve, moxie and zeal can all mean energy and enthusiasm.
HG, I had a friend whose brother's Visa was denied when visiting Mexico. We was without funds for quite a while until he could resolve the problem. From then on I contacted my card issuer whenever I left the country. Now it seems this is needed within the country, too. My son and DIL have two cards on the same account. She used hers in Tokyo at the same time he used his in NYC. Their account was flagged, but then the issuer called David and resolved it quickly.
I have trouble proof reading on the screen. When I have something very important I print it to proof it and do much better. I frequently find my errors on the blog after I publish and have to delete the post to correct them. Having a vision problem as Lemon does would make it doubly hard. We know how to write and spell, we just can't proof on screen.
Lemon, I appreciate all the hard work you do for The Corner and the insight you give, in spite not feeling well.Thank you so much.
See, this is the corrected version after I published the first.
Congrats, Splynter and C.C. This sawdust-maker enjoyed your puzzle.
This puzzle was slightly above my paygrade but I persevered and with red-letter help finished. Loved the Greek letter theme when I "got it". Congrats on your debut, Andrew, and thanks for dropping in here. Thanks to Lemonade for explaining and persevering through the health issues. Hope you are feeling better soon.
Nice work today, Owen.
Officially a DNF because of the cross of EISEN and ASSAI (which I should have known from my piano lesson days but I was fixated on Essen). Maybe I will remember the Eisenhower explanation!
Lots of languages today. Greek of course, German EISEN, Spanish VIDA, Italian ASSAI, French C'EST, ETUI and ADIEU, Hebrew-Arabic MANNA, Tibetan LAMA, Greek-Latin STOLES, and even the unknown BAILA which apparently comes from Portuguese (as does SAMBA), and the equally unknown KOAN (Chinese-Japanese origin). Thus endeth the (run-on) lesson!
CSO to Misty with EDU, major CSO to AnonT with Alpha-Romeo, but no Gin for Tin (and he hates ISO!) (I know -bad pun.)
I wanted Elan for Moxie, had Neck before NAPE, Urals before SLAVS (it could refer to a mountain group), and tried to expand Scrip(t) for Doctor's order to fit.
fermatprime, glad to hear the cough is improving and hope the ankle heals quickly.
Wishing you all a great day.
Hello Irish Miss. I've been pleading my case about lemony the liar for years. But the powers here continue to delete my posts so you sheep don't get to know about Jason's past nor his penchant for fabrication. I'm not sure how long you've been around here but lemony likes to correct others in a not so polite manner, so today I was just returning the favor.
Have a pleasant day.
P.s. whitey, bring it on.
Clever puzzle - thanks Andrew and congrats on your first publish!
The NU ALPHA start gave the theme and made the others a lot easier than they would
have been!
Thanks for the blog Lemonade!
HG- I had just been calling to inform for overseas- but now I do it for trips in the USA as well after our son was in Washington DC one summer for an internship and tried to use the credit card at a Target or Wal-mart and it denied payment and then didn't let ours be used either- they always send us an email right away so we can correct the problem. But now I try to do it in advance and it is easy and automated on the phone so I don't have to be on hold. I appreciate their diligence after we were on a trip somewhere in the US and shortly thereafter they checked with us about a charge for paint and home supplies from a store in France!!
CC, one of your regular contributors gets a day off next week. Anon @ 7:02/11:36 has volunteered to do the write-up! I'm sure he is bluffing, since only a coward will hide behind anonymity and take shots at others who toil so hard, but let's call his bluff! Can you arrange it? Thanks.
Wow!
Not knowing what Antigone referred to
made me a goner from the get go...
Very impressive display of wit in the clue/answer combo's,
not just the theme, but all over the fill.
(Toaster opening?=Here's. Excellent!)
Lemon, loved,loved,loved, (is that an oxford comma?) Katy perry video!
(Bruno Mars? Eh! not so much...)
Pls note that you can get lost in the sidelinks to the Musicman link.
HG, I wanted to tell you to take the group around the back of the
WWII memorial to see Kilroy, but I guess I am too late.
It is not graffiti, it is actually engraved into the monument!
Anywho, this puzzle beat me up.
(What do you expect from a guy that thought a quad had to be square...)
What a wonderful puzzle! Thank you, Andrew Woodham and for your comments, too. How nice of you to stop by our Corner.
The theme became clear when I saw ALPHROMEO though NU puzzled me at first and I thought it was an ERROR. Great misdirection. The crossing of Italian and German, however, was a big Natick for me and now that TTP mentioned it, I vaguely recall the Eisenhower explanation but certainly did not when solving. Dudley, you have a steel trap memory, indeed as Irish Miss said, to recall that from five years ago!
And I know nothing about Katy Perry's work but ROAR sounded familiar and I loved the "toaster's opening," HERES as in HERE'S Johnny! BRUNO Mars has been featured on Entertainment Tonight which I often watch just to keep abreast of popular culture. I'd really rather have my teeth drilled, but I learn things.
The GREEK LETTERS theme is brilliant! PSIPHI is particularly great and reminds me of the pun conversation from yesterday.
BAILA is, ironically, the Spanish imperative of dance but I had a Y instead of I for some unknown reason. So even though this was a FIW for me, I loved it.
Ferm:
Keep feeling better.
Thank you, Lemonade, for your unyielding persistence in spite of pain and your wise and witty exposition.
Have a lovely day, everyone! Wild and windy here.
Lucina, not so ironic. Baila is so name because of the Portuguese influence on Sri Lanka. I know it's not Spanish but it's close. : )
Another interesting tidbit. Did you know we get the word MOXIE from the soft drink, not the other way around?
Also Jazz, my Dictionary.com app on my iPad show zeal right there in the moxie synonyms list. It's under the Noun:drive for success section.
TTP, sorry for mistaking you for Anon-T the other day. You know what they say, memory is the second thing to go. I am happy that TuneIn is staying tuned in now.
Yep, Dudley, "tricky rascal" says it nicely.
IM, you forgot superfluous, innocuous and irrelevant. I liked the closing "Why".
I too thought of the iron district ESSEN. As I've said before I'm musically challenged although ASSAI has also been used before.
I was trying to fit some kind of squeeze or smooch or some such NO-NO that that ROMEO was doing in the back seat of a car.
Then I reread the clue after getting Antigone figured out. Not the play itself, I'd leave that for YR or IM
Although I'll guess that something really bad happened.
Andrew you had me fooled most of the way. Needless to say write-ups and 'licks were excellent except A+ for Owen. And PwD for C-Moe
WC
Finally! An Anon with input! (12:34)
(actually, there are quite a few interesting Anon inputs here.
-if they are facts and not opinions...)
Learning moment: Moxie!
(I thought it was invented by Mike Myers.)
Moxie -Wiki
But what does it taste like?
I have no idea since I never heard of it...
Luckily for us, the Internet provides an answer.
According to the FBI,
(FireBreathingIdiot, we are talking Internet, remember?)
Moxie tastes like this:
(Hmm, maybe I should taste it myself, after all, I like Cilantro...)
But at 2:30, he uses an interesting butterfly knife to open the dang thingie!
Sheesh! With that thing, I could open 6 bottles at once!
Talk about Moxie!
How do you say Natick in German and Italian?
Thank you for the shout-out, CanadianEh! Have a lunch date with women friends today, but will try to check in again later. Have a good day, everybody!
Another one bites the dust thinking of "Essen" when confronted with German steel.
Dang Dave! I wish I had known about that Kilroy picture at the WWII monument! I think we had the explanation of the “Kilroy Was Here” phenomenon here recently. This is very similar to the 100’s of Hidden Mickey’s at Disneyworld of which this is one
JzB you did not comment on the 76 trombones; have you ever marched playing?
As a child I thought Moxie was the most horrible taste.
Microsoft edge...okay got it. Sorry.
Interesting puzzle. I enjoyed it. It was pretty obvious that some of the clues were chosen solely for the sake of making them difficult. When I came across treasure (noun or verb?) I immediately thought, "He did that on purpose." Dawn is another example.
Lemonade, why do always make a point of saying "No comment" after saying "Religion"? Eg, your comments to 1A and 24D. You do that every time, again and again and again. And what does your comment "True but ich" mean at 48D? By the way, sorry about your back and pinched nerve issues; I truly hope you can get them resolved.
Best wishes to you all.
Re: Essen - is a city in the Ruhr district of Germany. To a German, Essen is also food. It is also the infinitive of 'to eat'.
Somewhat irregular, its present tense conjugation is:
ich esse
du isst
er/sie/es isst
wir essen
ihr esst
sie essen
Past tense: (I ate, etc.)
ich aßt
du aßest
er aß but in Zurich you would say 'er ass' as the Swiss do not use ß.
wir aßen
ihr aßt
sie aßen
Jayce, I type no comment as a reminder to myself to not put in what I might consider a fun or funny comment relating to religion bearing in mind that many do not expand their sense of humor for politics or religion. At this point I think you are right, I might as well just shut up.
Spitz...thanks for the lesson.
MCRIB = part of the answer in the clue. Isn't that some kind of foul?
Tough tough tough puzzle today, even for a Friday. Never thought I'd finish, imagine my surprise when I did.
Geez, now instead of French we get German. ZEAL was a reach, clue-wise I thought. Although a gimmick puzzle, the gimmick did not run the puzzle, the tail did NOT wag the dog, so to speak. Had LIFE for LOSS 67A at first.
And on to Saturday.
Also…GO UCONN!
Wow!
Fascinating language play today. It took me a while to catch onto the GREEK LETTER theme, and even when I sussed it I didn't get grok entirely, whether to insert English equivalents to the Greek characters or to simply pronounce them (the correct choice) to get the answer. Even so, I don't get why a NEW ALFA ROMEO is an "unused" car. Maybe "unsold," but ....
I needed one lookup, but as it turned out I probably just gave in too soon. It was for ROAR because I wasn't getting anywhere in the center top sector and picked on the Katy Perry clue - figuring everybody else would know that one, so I'd just play catch-up. In hindsight I probably could have cracked it.
Reading the several notes (above) about ESSEN/EISEN reminds me of the moment in HS German class when we all discovered that Ike's name sounded to Germans like a real threat. They all heard "Eisenhower" as "Ironmonger" or "Iron Cleaver," depending on their dialect.
Can you imagine? Summer 1944: they turned on their officially-sanctioned radios to learn of the D-Day invasion and that Allied Forces were coming for them, led by "Iron Cleaver"!
I suppose I should have said coincidentally instead of ironically about BAILA since it is from the Portuguese influence. Portuguese and Spanish are not really close in language origin, but I'm sure there is overlap since they are adjoining neighbors.
Jayce:
I'm not sure I understand your beef with Dawn since it's a one word clue and leads one to think besides the onset of day, to it's next most common usage, LIQUID SOAP. Is that the problem? It's one that is available only in liquid and others, such as ivory, are also made in solid form. So it fits the answer. As for treasure/ADORE, that I can agree with but it's Friday, after all, and cryptic cluing is expected.
I will let the professional copy editors weigh in, but I'd say synonyms are not transitive, but have something of a sibling or cousin relationship. Zeal and moxie may both be synonyms (or specialized meanings) of energy, but they aren't synonyms of each other. Each has a distinct and nuanced meaning apart from the other. If you replaced one with the other in a sentence, the revised sentence would have a different meaning. It one thing to conceal the part of speech as we saw with treasure or to conceal an ambiguous meaning like "farm layer" for either top soil or hen, but even on a Friday, zeal is not moxie.
Went out and got an Italian Beef sandwich for lunch. $6.78. I handed her $22 because I needed a $5 bill. She wanted to give me $14.22 back. She kept looking at the receipt and then looking at me like I was running some kind of scam. When I said, 22 minus 7 is 15, she called the manager over. Meanwhile the line behind me is getting longer...
Desper-otto, as Anonymous T would say, "No worries mate." And yes, I should have suggested a reboot as an initial step in PD.
BTW, do you have any recommendations for a bluetooth enabled portable MP3 player ? I want to be able to listen to music on my portable bluetooth mini speakers while I'm out on the golf course... I've been leaning to the SanDisk® 16GB Clip Sport Plus Wearable MP3 Player.
Lucina, what about this usage ? Earworm:I want you to think (think)
What your family would say
Think (think)
What your throwing away
Now think what the future would be with a poor boy like me
Northwest Runner, I'm with you and JzB on moxie.
TTP:
Of course, Dawn is also a proper name and I have met some! Silly me. It also means an idea that suddenly enters the mind. Oh, that didn't dawn on me until later. At the moment I can't think of any others.
I can't weigh in on moxie because it is not one I use though have certainly encountered it in print. To me it connotes nerve, guts to accomplish something or boldness. ZEAL, on the other hand, means complete and unfettered enthusiasm to accomplish a goal.
Northwest Runner, I believe that there are exact synonyms and close synonyms. My thesaurus shades the synonyms from bright orange to pale yellow, the brighter the color the closer the synonyms are. I believe crossword puzzles have always used merely close synonyms. This is not a vocabulary test, but a game. I adore the nuances of words, but crosswords are not the place to indulge that bent. Some of my friends eschew crosswords for this reason, but it is also the reason so many of us love them. Strict constructionists will be apoplectic, but the rest of us are ecstatic.
Lucina @ 2:55, I agree whole heartedly.
TTP, it seems today's young can't cope with things like that. They need the automated cash register to compute the simplest change.
I like the Four Seasons song. It's you're throwing away, not your throwing away. Proof reading mistake?
Lucina, I was just using your comment as a segue to link that song. :>)
Y-R Oops, I propagated the error. I copied it verbatim from Google Play lyrics. Didn't notice it. If I had, I would have included [sic} after the word your to indicate "not my error."
I wonder what word, if there is one, akin to sic, that is to be used when the author wants the reader to know that he or she has intentionally misspelled the word, such as Chairman Moe and Anonymous T are apt to do from time to time for humorous effect. Perhaps there isn't.
Good day to all!
Thanks for today's wonderful puzzle, Andrew Woodham, and congratulations on your debut. I hope we'll see more from you. My favorite clue/answer today was "Better half?" for A-SIDE. BAILA and KOAN both needed 100% perps. Thanks for the expo and links, Lemonade. I hope your health issues are resolved soon. You too, Fermatprime.
Enjoy!
Andrew: Thank you for a FUN Friday puzzle. Enjoyed the GREEK LETTERS theme.
Lemon: Nice write-up. Good Job! Think I'll take a "Anon @7:02' now ... LOL
Well March went "Out-Like-A-Lion" ... it rained and wasn't sunny until 10:00 am.
But the SUN is over the yardarm ,,, Sooooooooooooooooooo ...
Cheers!!!
I wasn't saying they are bad clues. Not at all. I was simply noting that the attempt to make tougher, Friday-level clues seemed more obvious today.
Best wishes to you all.
I'm glad the perps were solid because BAILA, KOAN, and EPOS were only filled because of the perps. It took a while to get schtick of the double GREEK LETTERS. I had NU and ROMEO but the APLHA was late because of the 'Decalogue' clue for SINAI. I only got it after filling the PSI-PHI- FILMS. But everything made sense after about 15 minutes. ALAMO and ROAR were just WAGs.
Hi All!
It was all GREEK to me for a long time today I tried to interweave doing the puzzle and work and flubbed so many times I printed a new copy from Mensa's site to start over when I got home.
NU AL---ROMEO? Problem a) I was looking at 65a so NU seemed like marketing at ALAMO [dyslexia!]; b) WTF? - It's Alfa ROMEO [Hi C,Eh!] ! Rich must be stoned...
OH ****! ... When I finally realized it wasn't GREEnLETTERS. [right, CED?? What's an "Anti-Gone?" Must be a "Stil'a-HERE'S"]
Thanks Andrew and congrats on this fine puzzle. Once the IDEAS in your HAIR DAWN'd on me I saw the fun. I coulda used less x-ref c/a but, well, it is a Friday.
Thanks Lem for the expo - I used your grid for two cheats: ASSAI and BAILA [and didn't trust you on BAILA so put in a Y later for Pyro :-). D'Oh!]
I won't bore w/ ERRORs & ESPs and just move on to
Fav: SLOE. I nailed it despite the fact there was no Gin. :-)
ISBN & DRYER were a pretty cute too.
{A,A+ ; both LOL} {cute}
HG - Yes, I let my CCards know when I travel. 12 or so years ago, MasterCard turned down a breakfast for 16 at iHOP [visiting .EDU friends in CA w/ all our kids]. Not nice when you say "I'll treat" and Bzzt. Tho, now I think AMEX knows where I am because they paid for the flight there.* :-)
@11:36 - we know. Try to be more like @12:34 and inform [interesting re: Moxie; thanks for followup CED]
@10:47 TTP [sic-pun] ? :-)
Cheers, -T
*so I setup a FakeBook account to take down some radicals in [REDACTED]. I don't use FaceFriends but it seemed like I had to use my phone to register the fake account. Sonova... my next-door neighbor was the the 1st 'Friend' suggestion. She must have uploaded her contacts which has me cell for emr.... Big data gone bad.
HG:
I usually notify the credit card company if I'm traveling especially out of the country but also domestically.
CED -- I forgot... I know you were expecting Kilroy link from me.... His brain was IBM.
TTP - No worries mate, you can enjoy too :-). -T
That's it! I figured out the sub-theme Baseball and Football. ERROR xing RECEIVE clue'd me in. Or is it just my MANIA Andrew?
Hi again :)
I didn't have time this morning to post these links about B Sides that became hits. ASIDE jogged my memory of reading about songs that are in many cases the "Better half". Both pop
and some rock
We also notify our bank when traveling. We actually go to the bank to do this. The first time DH called to notify, he spent forever on the phone answering a lengthy list of questions, many of them obscure and some he had trouble remembering. In person- we just show our ID's and give them the card(s) we'll be using while gone and they just type a note on the account ( we have a separate checking account w/debit cards specifically for vacation. ATM scamming is a big problem in Mexico. We can transfer money online (using a VPN) from one of our other accounts just before going to the ATM. Even though they're linked for us, if someone clones the card they could only access that card/acct. We also change our PINs when we return home and only leave about $20 in the acct while not using it. So far, no problems- knock on wood!)
Daughter #2 had her card denied in Vegas last year even after calling to notify them of her travel dates. Someone forgot to note her acct. So yes, best to let them know for foreign and domestic travel.
Daughter #1 started working for our bank several months ago. She can't do anything with our accounts personally but can ensure that a coworker gets it taken care of properly. Nice to have connections :)
DO- we use our Delta AMEX for plane tickets, so they told us no need to notify- "we know where you are". Capital One also told DH the same thing but we're not sure how they know? Hmm...
One of my errands today was stopping by the vet clinic to pick up an RX for my dog. The staff was taking care of a four day old kitten that had been left on someone's front porch. The Mama cat was nowhere to be found. This kitten was so incredibly tiny with the sweetest face and crying up a storm! The staff are taking turns caring for her at night, bringing her home with them as she has to be bottle fed every three hours. They're looking for a permanent home for her, so they let me take pictures and I posted them on Facebook. I'm sure she'll have no problem getting adopted. My bet is that the staff will be fighting over her, lol. I was tempted to say I'd take her but with my senior dog and our cat (she's an outdoor cat but I'm trying to convince DH she belongs in the house. I'm losing the battles but hope to win the war, lol) With my back issues, tending to an 18lb dog that's blind and has back issues of his own- well, it' can be tough. But I wouldn't trade him for anything! He's a gem ;)
Time to go work on Splynter and C.C.'s puzzle I printed earlier!
Grumble, grumble...
Remember I lost my wallet a week or so ago? Nobody every returned it. I also lost my Nook at the same time. I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday to buy a replacement. Bad news: They don't carry the old model I had. Good news: One of the new ones has more features and was cheaper. It operates on the Android OS which I know nothing about. So far I haven't been able to convince it to recognise my non-Google e-mail address which was the connection between my old Nook and all the books I had purchased. I found the setup procedure not very intuitive and frustration quickly set in. I'm becoming more of a Luddite I guess. After spending time listening to their terrible 'music' while on hold, I'm supposed to go to Barnes and Noble Sunday or Monday to meet with their Nook person. I hope that will give me some more confidence and straighten out my problems. I hope that once I learn the new interface, I will enjoy it as much or more than my old one. Grumble, grumble...
She showed a lot of [MOXIE/ZEAL] in rising from a match-girl to CEO. In fact, [MOXIE/ZEAL] was her trademark and forte. When others gave up, she kept at it. Matches, once known as lucifers for light-bringers, had through her [MOXIE/ZEAL] been the start of the world-wide corporation that was Lucifer, Inc.! Her underlings drank in her [MOXIE/ZEAL] in their own quests to succeed!
Okay, maybe that last one was going a bit far.
I've been having problems with PayPal comparable to the discussion on credit cards. Someone used my account to buy a $25 gift card. Easily refunded, but now my account is on hold until I convince them it's really me, except they won't tell me how to do that! A simple phone call might straighten it out, but for a deaf person, that's easier said than done!
For [sic] to original stuff, air-quotes or italics sometimes work, but it depends on how much emphasis the word needs. My "whore-ed" pun recently might have used it, but sometimes the odd word is incidental, like a few weeks ago when I used betta' for better so it would come nearer rhyming with the punchline "beta". A superfluous apostrophe or hyphen can help, too.
Late getting back to the party.
TTP, Spitz, Lucina, IM, and others: I am absolutely gob-smacked to learn that the Eisenhower post was so long ago. I really did have the sense that it was just last year. Never occurred to me to search for it...
I'm moving on. Never have I read so much nit picking, complaining, moaning, whining, this isn't a synonym, where is my pacifier bunch of solvers in my life!
At a LOSS re: me thinkin' Baseball sub-theme? Well, Baseball starts this weekend... I can imagine the STOLE'n bases, the ROARs of the MASSes, the pitchers taking AIM at a NO-NO.
Anyone recall the record 6-pitcher NO-NO of '03 -- 'Stros vs. Yankees?. [full game - FF to 2:21:00 for the 9th b/f the Fat Lady Sings and they bid ADIEU.]
Don't be Fooled today. Cheers, -T
@anon 1141p: Now that's Moxie.
And even ZEAL! Wait, that's redundant.
Loved the theme! But hand up for FIW because of the unfair crossing of ASSAI/EISEN. I, too, WAGged ASSAS/ESSEN.
IBM/BAILA was not quite as unfair. I never heard of BAILA. But if you got I-M you just needed to do an alphabet run. The stocks in the Dow Jones are all famous companies, so IBM became clear as soon as I began the alphabet run.
Can someone explain LTS? It is an abbreviation that Google can't solve, even when combined with "football".
Didn't parse ASIDE to A-SIDE until I read the write-up. Thanks!
Did not know ELIOT as clued. Learning moment.
LTS was explained in the write-up. Left tackles.
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