(Note from C.C.: Lemonade just had a surgery for his severe sciatica pain last
Friday. He's now at home recuperating. He already got the post started,
so I'll just complete rest. Let's send Lemonade all our healing
thoughts and wish him a quick recovery. We need the good old Lemonade
back talking about puzzles his way!)
Title: NOPE!
Our new friend Mark McClain delivers a fun comparatively easy Friday.
The letters "PE" are removed from common phrases to reveal a new
entertaining phrase. What makes the puzzle elegant is the first two
relate to bad people and the next two are golf-related. I am not sure I
have seen a "remove letters" that was so precise. CAD CRUSADER required
perps but that opened the rest. There were few 3/4 letter fill and some
glitz with 6/7 fill. I liked TUM TUM, MIRREN, TRISTE, ERRATIC,
RETINAS and TRUISMS. He does this all in a nice pinwheel. Well let's
get to it.
17A. Insensitive zealot? : CA
56A. Reprobate's regular expense? : SINNER'S RE
10D. Golf course equipment of the future? : FLYING CAR
25D. What many golfers regularly engage in? : THE PA
And the reveal:
66A. Casual refusal ... and, another way, a hint to this puzzle's four longest answers : NOPE. Puzzle falls into place with the correct parsing of this word.
On to the rest.
Across:
1. Tablet input : DATA. Your handy i- or Samsung product.
5. Stick (on) : PASTE.
10. Groovy : FAB. Properly cluing this out of use with a passe clue.
13. "The Quiet Man" co-star : O'HARA. Maureen. LINK.
15. Take in, maybe : ALTER. I was thinking duping someone at first.
16. Mauna __ : LOA. 120 feet lower than one of the other volcanoes that are the creation of Hawaii.
19. Wine bottle figs. : YRS. A CSO to our wine peddler Chairman Moe, who can discuss vintages as long as you listen.
(OK, C.C, starts here)
20. Asian capital : HANOI.
21. Where Gauguin painted "Woman With a Flower" : TAHITI.. Here's the painting.
23. Lays to rest : INTERS
26. Eye parts : RETINAS
27. Gung-ho : RAH RAH
28. Concurrent with : DURING
29. Poetic praise : ODE
30. Like Mandarin Chinese, linguistically : TONAL. Mandarin has four tones. So same spelling MA can have four different meanings. In First Tone (Level), MA means "Mother". In Second Tone (Rising), MA means "Hemp" or "Numb". In Third Tone (Falling/Rising), MA means "Horse". In Fourth Tone (Falling), MA means "Scold". This chart has an extra one, but it sounds the same as the First Tone. Dear Jayce knows them all.
32. '80s-'90s slugger Fielder : CECIL. Dad of Prince Fielder.
35. Popular wine region : NAPA
37. Summer Triangle twinkler : DENEB
39. All there : SANE
40. View : SLANT
42. Get rid of : SCRAP
44. Rotation meas. : RPM
45. Downgrade, maybe : RE-RATE.
47. Tot's indigestion area : TUM TUM. We also have 59. Toddler's downtime : NAP.
49. Grows periodically : ACCRUES. As interest.
51. Sad, on the Seine : TRISTE. Je suis triste sans toi.
52. Sweater wool : MOHAIR
53. Rodeo critter : STEER.
55. Item under a top : BRA
61. Funny pair? : ENS. Letters in Funny.
62. Like Mexico's Pyramid of the Magician : MAYAN
63. Part of UTEP : TEXAS
64. Whiskey option : RYE
65. Rested : SLEPT. How many hours of sleep do you get daily?
Down:
1. Bashful comrade? : DOC. Seven Dwarfs. Comrade always makes me think of China & Russia. That's how my Dad and his colleagues addressed one another.
2. "I thought so!" : AHA.
3. 1860s White House boy : TAD. Lincoln's son.
4. Tell, memorably : ARCHER. William Tell.
5. Part of UTEP : PASO.
6. Fronton game word : ALAI. Jai alai court is called "Fronton".
7. Kind of deviation: Abbr. : STD
8. Wobble : TEETER
9. Unpredictable : ERRATIC
11. Big artery : AORTA
12. Rationale : BASIS. Rationale is a favorite word of my old boss.
18. Like wild horses : UNSHOD
22. Duncan of baking fame : HINES. Wow. Never heard of it. I never bake cakes.
23. Shackles : IRONS
24. Clay-court legend : NADAL. "The King of Clay"
26. Yardstick : RULER
28. Reel, for one : DANCE. Hi there Yellowrocks!
31. Fledgling launching spots : NESTS. This clue made me smile.
33. Feedback : INPUT
34. "I wanna try!" : LEMME.
36. End of __ : AN ERA.
38. Frying preparation : BATTER. Hmm, tempura.
41. Self-evident actualities : TRUISMS
43. Least spoiled : PUREST
46. Ham's accessory : AERIAL
48. "The Queen" (2006) star : MIRREN (Helen). Amazing actress.
49. Color in "America the Beautiful" : AMBER. "For amber waves of grain..". I got via crosses.
50. Like many bar jokes : CORNY
53. Blow a fuse : SNAP
54. Canvas shelter : TENT
57. Actress Carrie who was married to Dick Cavett : NYE. Stranger to me.
58. Skeletal opening? : EXO. Exoskeletal.
60. Japanese market letters : TSE. Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nikkei Index.
Lemonade & C.C.
40 comments:
FIRbTD. Had to change LETME > LEMME, but found it on my own without needing red letters. Also spotted the gimmick early, tho that stray P in PAR gave me pause.
I haven't been feeling very poetically inspired the last couple days. So in addition to today's lame efforts, here's my latest bit of artwork.
{B-, C.}
The EXOSKELETAL alien who came from DENEB
Was invited to parties like any celeb!
Miles, she'd come millions
To attend some cotillions,
And DANCE like a normal three-hoof-footed deb!
There once was an artist in TAHITI
Who feared that his junk wasn't meaty.
But the more that he saw
Native girls with no BRA,
The more IRON he had for his sweetie!
Good morning all. Thank you Mark and thank you CC.
I did not find this Friday relatively easy. Especially the SW. So many alternate answers with the correct number of letters. ERRATIC would describe my solve today.
scene SLANT merino MOHAIR dirty CORNY debase DERATE simi NAPA
Understanding that PE was missing in the long answers was the Rosetta Stone in my solve.
TRISTE ? perps. What OwenKL said about letme LEMME.
OH, that kind of ham.
CC, thank you for explaining the tonal inflections. I could never speak Mandarin, as I most often speak in a monotone. Also, usually six hours.
TRUISMS - If there are leaks in your RV's plumbing lines, they will be in the most inaccessible areas, and you are going to have cut through the floor to get to them.
Very easy Friday, fun to solve, nice theme. Next week I'll be solving from a cruise ship. I'll be looking for "asea", "atsea", "tar", "ile", and "atoll".
Good morning!
Didn't snap to the theme until the reveal, and then had trouble parsing where to put PE in SINNER'S RENT. The light bulb finally went on. Nicely done Mark, Lemon (Feel better soon!) and C.C. Didn't even need the Wite-Out bottle this morning.
Duncan HINES was a familiar name from my ute. Don't think I've heard it in decades. He's right up there with Betty Crocker, although Betty was imaginary and Duncan was real person.
Earlier this week my wife and I were discussing the missing PE, but not the one in the puzzle, but how the P.E. requirements in school have dropped and that the varsity athletes' physical activity doesn't count as 'exercise' (they have to go to separate P.E. class) but the rest of the students get credit for playing silly non-physical games. Wonder why kids are getting fat? I don't.
I caught the 'missing link' at the CAD CRUSADER and without the missing PE there's no way I would have filled SINNERS RENT because TSE never entered my brain. T.S. Eliot anyone? TRISTE and NYE were all perps. DENEB- I didn't know the astronomy but knew it was a star's name-WAG.
"Ham's" accessory- AERIAL- threw me off the scent as I was thinking biblical, not radio.
Never heard of Duncan HINES? How about Betty Crocker, Uncle Ben, or Anut Jemima? The last three are fake names but Duncan Hines was a real person.
Good Morning,
Lots to do today, so maybe I was in a hurry, but like TTP I found my solve very ERRATIC. At funny with the double ENS, I realized I am never going to get those letter clues--yet EXOskeleton came immediately. I wanted merino for MOHAIR. I am currently knitting with merino. Mohair is itchy for me and it sheds. Thanks, Mark, for the workout.
Nice tour C.C. and Lemonade. C.C., thanks for explanation of tonality in Chinese. I hear it also in other Asian languages and wondered how it worked as I can hear so many syllables. I love how language works.
Feel better, Lemonade!!!
Have a good day.
Musings
Good luck Lemon!
-Plenty to love in this just-right Friday puzzle.
-Even in French, this sexist movie would never see a theater today
-Our administrations was RAH RAH on open classrooms but ERRACTIC behaviors SCRAPPED them quite soon
-Serving sentences CONCURENTLY or consecutively is a big deal
-What an interesting TOANL language lesson. That gives me some sense as to the rhythms and tones I hear in that language.
-I was showing how a black light can make items glow. My colleague came in wearing a translucent shirt and asked to have the light put on her. The kids got a good luck at her BRA under her top and her false tooth which did not glow. It was very quiet in the hallway for a long time
-Eight hours per night here
-Almost all science classes use meter sticks and not YARD STICKS but the kids seldom see metric lengths in real life
-Oh, that kind of HAM
-Me too, Otto!
Good Morning:
Getting the theme certainly helped with the solve but I ran into a few hiccups, here and there. Had stand/slant and had to wait for perps to complete Deneb, even though it's not a stranger to CW's. Wasn't fond of rerate but loved seeing "The Pa(pe)r Chase" as that was one of my favorite TV shows. Other than John Houseman, the only cast member whose name I remember is Lainie Kazan who was terrific.
Thanks, Mark, for a fun and clever offering and thanks, CC, for pinch-hitting so successfully. No less than 8 hours in dreamland for me! 🛌
Lemony, best wishes for a speedy recovery and a pain-free future!
Beautiful sunshine today but still chilly temps.
Have a great day.
What a challenge. Thank you, Mark McClain. I agree it was ERRATIC solving and led me on a CHASE all around the grid until I found sold footing. The NE and SE filled first though CORNEAS preceded RETINAS and I always wait for Maun Kea or LOA. AORTA eased it in of course TAHITI is where Gauguin emigrated.
TRISTE is the same word in Spanish for sad so that was helpful. Ham was deviously misdirected and MAYAN aided with Carrie NYE who is unfamiliar. Bill is the only NYE I've heard of.
Still, I had DOM instead of DOC and didn't understand but thought it must be something unknown to me since I didn't see the theme. Drat! But it was fun anyway.
Get well soon, Lemonade. Positive thoughts going to you.
Thank you, C.C., for stepping up and guiding us today.
Everyone, have a peaceful Good Friday.
Good morning everyone.
Ultimately, not too hard, but the difficulty was largely my own doing. Had Merino before MOHAIR, admit before ALTER, and derate before RE-RATE, spoiling the chance to get PAR CHASE easily. But it's Friday.
DENEB = Easy fill. Shares the Triangle apex points with Vega and Altair. DENEB is at apex on the short side with Vega being at the right angle vertex.
Good day to all!
Fun puzzle today from Mark McClain. I caught on to the theme at FLYING CAR(PE)TS. Learning moment was FRONTON as a Jai Alai term. Carrie NYE was all perps. Thanks for the joint expo, C.C. and Lemonade. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Lemonade.
8 hours of shut-eye here, in general.
Enjoy the day!
Everybody must be sleeping in today. Only 7 entries so far and it's almost 10:00am in the East. (Later: 11 now)
Well, this was a killer for me today. I think puzzles with letters taken out are more difficult than ones with added letters. A real challenge. Mark had a lot of good fill today with some very clever cluing.
Some of my missteps were: RAD vs FAB, KEA vs LOA, MERINO vs MOHAIR, AZTEC vs MAYAN, DERATE vs RERATE, DIRTY vs CORNY and I had no clue to the French word TRISTE.
Many rodeo critters are BULLS not STEERs. Bulls are nastier than steers that have been "fixed" and therefore harder to ride. My FIL raised both bulls and steers and they are different.
I spent most of yesterday trying to install a new Verizon modem and WiFi router because my old one kept needing to be reset multiple times a day. Tech support told me to be sure to read the installation manual carefully. The manual was a 4" by 8" piece of paper with virtually no information on it. So, trial and error was my modis operandi in getting it set up. The (old) wireless printers were the biggest problem because the encryption mode on the router wasn't supported by the printers when they were manufactured. I know I went through the installation process over a dozen times before I got it to work. However my new Smart TV will not hook up to the new router. Looks like that will be today's project.
Good one Mark and the joint tour by Lemon and C.C. brought it all together.
Get well Lemon.
I hope everyone has a "Good Friday: (Pun Intended)
Hello Puzzlers -
Speedy solve, for a Friday. Sussed the theme early, so that helped.
Morning, C.C., so glad you're at bat today! I really enjoyed your explanation of the tonal details of which I was barely aware beforehand. Over the years, I've wondered what it would take to invent an ideal language, whether it would use a short alphabet (if any), and so on.
Anon from yesterday - harsh? Not intentionally. In my head it sounded funny, but of course these things can go wrong. To those who weighed in, thank you for your faith in me!
We Tartars like our meat as steak tartare,
Not wimpy tofu as they do in La La!
We want our TUM-TUM
To have some fun-fun,
We cheer for our beef, RAH-RAH raw raw!
I thought maybe Ham was one of the little mermaid's friends. (Got a better caption for this?)
Good morning everybody. It's earlier than usual for me to be posting but here goes anyway.
Dudley wrote: "Not intentionally. In my head it sounded funny, but of course these things can go wrong." Yep, that's why emoticons (smiley faces) are useful and have become popular.
Lemon, best wishes!
I LIKED this puzzle, maybe it's because I figured out the clever theme (unlike other days this week). Also, most of the tricky clues popped into my brain while staring at the letter configuration with a few crossing letters. I love when that happens!
It's time for coffee and maybe some Cream of Wheat.
Hoo boy! Sliced, diced, and spun dry. I just couldn't sync with Mark in so many ways. The only bright spot was AERIAL for a ham (I am one, and just yesterday finished all the calculations for a new antenna. I only see them called aerials in crosswords.)
And I usually get around 5 hours' sleep. (Do naps count?) :P
I thought this was well thought out,
but I can't imagine trying to solve this without the reveal...
Note: I deleted the nope pic of a hand holding a multilegged "thing."
just too scary...
hmm, less scary Nope images?
Nope!
No way Jose!
"Puzzling thoughts":
First off, hoping for a speedy recovery, Lemony. Thanks for all of your clever Friday recaps.
Thanks CC for your added comments - what you've done to bring this community together is special
OwenKL - you reprobate you!! 😜 Seeing a different side of you today in your limericks. Me like!
Mr McClain had me guessing too literally with the Bashful, Ham and Tell clues, which made getting DOC, AERIAL and ARCHER a real struggle. I, too got the "theme" with FLYING CAR(PE)TS. SINNER'sRE(PE)NT and CA(PE)D CRUSADER were also quite clever, but THE PA(PE)R CHASE was a bit of a stretch. As a life long golfer I've never "thought" of "chasing pars", but whatever. It fit the puzzle and theme.
Hands up for MERINO > MOHAIR; DIRTY > CORNY; LET ME > LEMME
Anyone else sing in their head, or out loud, the first verse of "America The Beautiful"? It was either AMBER waves of grain or PURPLE mountain's majesty - glad that only one fit!
Thanks for the SO (from either CC or Lemonade) regarding the wine reference. As in life, with wine, age is only a number. It's what tastes good in the TUM TUM that matters! I also liked Owen's MOE / MOHAIR photoshop. The "Chairman" owns no sweaters as here in FL they're seldom necessary.
A haiku for Jason:
Here's to your healing
Lemonade. Can't wait til you
Are back in the pink!
(Get it? Pink Lemonade?!)
A limerick for WC and Owen and -T:
In the winter I often will wear
A nice sweater. While I'm in my chair
Watching the Stooges, Three,
On my HDTV.
And of course, it is made of MOE-hair.
Cad Crusader?
Sinners rent?
Flying Carts?
Cont...
Hi gang -
Best wishes, Lemony - get well quick!
I actually gave up on this puzzle, than came back to it over lunch. Then things well into place. Unlike Cross Eyed Dave, though, I finished without the reveal. For the 2nd day in a row, I totally did not suss the theme. This is an excellent puzzle, marred only by the lame LEMME.
Stumbled in the NE and SW corners. I have a cold, my head feels like its full of cotton, and my thinking is sluggish. That's the excuse I'm going with.
Tigers have been blown out twice already in this young season. Sanchez, long reliever in both those games, has been horrid.
If anyone is interested, here is my summary of the Tigers first 9 games.
I'm a bad sleeper. I'm usually in bed for about 8 hours, but some uncertain amount of that time is spent staring at the walls. So - NAPS aren't just for toddlers.
Cool regards!
JzB
Cool regards!
JzB
How to deal with The Par Chase...
Truism?
& golf truisms...
Thanks for the great write-up C.C. (pinch-hitting for Lemonade - get well soon!). I love these add/drop letter themes - they make for some great (and lousy) puns. Shameless plug: there are about a half-dozen of them in my soon-to-be-published third volume of Unplugged Crosswords, which should be available around the end of this month. Cheers to all!
CED @ 11:53 ---> your truisms are indeed true with regard to golf. Never has a more frustrating and yet satisfying game/sport been invented. As it's been oft asked, "why did they name it "golf"? Because all of the other four-letter words had been taken!"
And with regard to the "par chase" - not sure if Mark knew of this quote when he came up with the clue/solve, but the one I recall - that is similar in meaning - is:
"There are two things that won't last long in this world, and that's dogs chasing cars and pros putting for pars." - Lee Trevino
34-Down. “I wanna try!” : LEMME!
The "wanna" in the clue makes "LEMME" legit, IMHO.
Hope you're well soon Lemonade!
Coincidental to yesterday's puzzle, and the answer of "STEEL CURTAIN", was the passing of Dan Rooney, son of original owner Art Rooney, at age 84. Dan Rooney ran the team during its heyday - which NOT coincidentally has been one of the top NFL organizations for the past 45+ years. One of Dan Rooney's legacies will be his eponymous "rule" that the league adopted in 2006, when it called for more transparency in the hiring of minorities; especially at the head coach position. As Rooney was want to say, he only saw talent, not color.
RIP, Dan Rooney
Well, I was so excited thinking I'd aced a Friday puzzle--woohoo!--but sadly I put LET ME instead of LEMME. Hey, no big deal--I still had a great day, so, many thanks, Matt--and congratulations on the new crossword book coming out! And thank you both, Lemonade, and C.C. for a fun write-up. Feel better soon, Lemonade. I have a neighbor with sciatica, so I'm familiar with how painful it can get.
I guess with Easter Sunday coming up, all I could think about with HAM was food (HAM and EGGS, etc.). Thank goodness the perps helped me get AERIAL at last.
Have a good recovery from your cold, JazzB. And I wish you a lovely cruise, Hungry Mother.
Hope you all have a beautiful Easter weekend coming up, everybody!
The future of Golf Carts?
(Clip is 10 minutes of your life you wont get back.)
but it was nice they included golf shoes...
P.S. the last cart is suitable for the Cad Crusader...
On first pass, I had a sea of white but I persevered and, with just a little red letter help, things filled in. Thanks for the fun Mark, Lemonade and C.C.
Thanks for dropping in Mark.
Best wishes for a full recovery Lemonade.
Thanks C.C. for the Mandarin lesson. Very interesting.
I like to have 8 hours of sleep.
I'm glad that I committed UTEP to memory after a few previous CWs as I needed both PASO and TEXAS today.
I learned ALAI from CWs but didn't know Fronton.
I had Bronc before STEER, Scene before SLANT, LET ME before LEMME.
Unknowns were NYE and DENEB. High school French gave me TRISTE.
Popular wine region could have been Niagara but it wouldn't fit!
I thought Ham was appropriate for Easter but I was misdirected. But we did have INTERS and SINNER'S RE(PE)NT which was appropriate for Good Friday.
Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend.
(Have a great cruise, Hungry Mother)
Got to it a bit late, but the solve came fairly easily for a Friday.
I hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend.
For me, this one was a project puzzle to solve. But I stayed with it and ultimately was educated and entertained. Good work, Mark, my friend.
And best wishes to Lemonade. Look forward to talking soon. Happy Good Friday, everyone.
Seeing "wanna" led me to LEMME but I don't have to like it.
Mark McClain, thank you, for your comments and congratulations on your upcoming book. How wonderful for you!
JzB: Best wishes on recovering from your cold. That's never fun.
And Hungry Mother, bon voyage! I hope you have a great cruise.
MJ, I hope you saw the recipe for flan posted Tuesday, 4/11, I believe.
Be Well, Lemonade! Best wishes for a smooth and quick recovery!
Another happy pzl for me. It looked tough; I thought it could beat me, but it gave way to the persistence of my assault. I thank Mr. McClain for it. This was one where the theme answer at 66A, NOPE, really did help. I might not have reached my Ta-DAH! moment without it.
The explanation of TONAL is much appreciated, although rather frightening. It must be very difficult for those not raised with a TONAL language to learn one. I would be too fearful of mis-speaking, of saying the wrong thing and embarrassing myself and any listeners.
I'll bet there are some good jokes in circulation. Anybody care to share one?
What an excellent puzzle, Mark! Very ingenious. My little grey cells got a good workout today. I smiled at TUMTUM, and, of course, grinned at TONAL.
Here's wishing you a speedy and full recovery, Lemonade. May you regain full mobility.
Thanks for filling in, C.C.
With regard to the TONAL Mandarin Chinese language, I once made up a silly joke which my colleagues did not get at first. I said to them, "Māmā mà mă ma?" After I told them it means "Is mama scolding a horse?" in English they got it. (I told you it was silly.)
Even worse, I once asked some friends how to say "44 dead lions sitting on a rock" in Chinese. The answer involves saying "shir" (and other similar sounding syllables) in different ways, sort of like a tongue twister. Yep, language shir is fun.
As for sleep, I do best getting 9 hours of it daily. It's not age; I've always needed 9 hours.
Seeing that pic of tempura made me instantly hungry! I am now suddenly resolved to take LW out to Half Moon Bay for some fish 'n' tempura.
Best wishes to you all.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Mark! But I needed the reveal to go back and fill some of the theme entries. Best wishes for total recovery, Lemonade! Thanks again for all you do, C.C! Tonal schooling explains a lot about what we hear from Chinese speakers in movies.
Tried Heinz for HINES altho I used some of his mixes long ago. Mostly baked from scratch recipes when my family was growing.
Knew TRISTE from a song/book/movie in my youth.
DENEB is a star? who knew? Carrie NYE? oh!
Very late today because of ERRATIC sleep patterns. Slept from 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. Some 24 hr. periods I sleep 15 hours. Other days I sleep 4 hours. Rarely sleep at night. Sun comes up -- conk out! Sometimes I'll sleep in two to four hour up & down increments. Very annoying since it is hard to get things done. I fall asleep during TV shows I wanted to watch. I resorted to ordering pizza last night rather than grocery shop in the dark after the trolls come out. (I'm not kidding about the trolls there is a crazy old lady living under the bridge next to the best grocery store. She hangs around the store and yells stuff at people.)
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Mark McClain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Lemonade, first things, first. Get well soon!
The puzzle was easy and tough. I got most of it early. Some of it took me many hours.
I could not catch the theme. Unbelievable. Once I got it when I came here, it was simple. Just like me.
One error I had was writing in MERMEN for 48D. Turned out MIRREN was the answer.
ARCHER was clever. Took me a while to figure that out, however.
Never heard of NYE, the wife of Cavett. Oh well.
Anyhow, with all that, see you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
I had a lot of white too. Scared me, I thought of the dreaded DNF. Then tada.
I had ALPACA but a few bars of AtB got me to AMBER.
Lemonade, I hope this operation will relieve your sciatica. Thanks CC, for pinch-hitting.
I noticed on this day in baseball that the immortal George Sisler had four errors in one game. Perhaps it was the onset of the eye infection that impacted his career.
There's a George Sisler park in Tin's tarpon springs. I don't know the connection.
Mark, I think you gave us a crunchy Friday. At the very end, after filling all the theme entries I figured out what NO PE Meant.
Owen, I thought your two 'licks were pretty good. Excellent Haiku Moe and I didn't get a chance to give you a PwD for yesterday's 'lick.
I was spelling Sad TRIESTE which obviously didn't fit. As I said it all came together pretty quick.
Owen, I wish someone had solved one of your cryptics. Then I might have had a chance
Well, as the Frawnche say: Apres Mardi, le Deluge
WC
Oops. Mardi is Tuesday. Vendredi is Friday.
Not really a joke but trying to learn my wife's family's names were an exercise in futility. My sister in law "Cuc" depending on intonation can mean a beautiful flower or the stuff you try not to step in. Unfortunately the normal flat English is the latter. Also my brother-in-law who was fluent in English insisted on naming his son "Dung" which is a perfectly fine Vietnamese name but lead to a difficult childhood.
Feel better l !
Hand up for SCENE before SLANT and DIRTY before CORNY
Also had GIMME before LEMME
Thanks for explaining TSE. And NADAL was just another unknown sports name for me. Needed ESP.
Thanks, CC, for the TONAL lesson.
Fun theme! At first I thought maybe NOPE "another way" was going to be OPEN!
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