Wow, John has made my first attempt to blog a puzzle since I have been ill a challenge. On the one hand it seems simple with a nice progression from ECONOMY-STANDARD-PREMIUM-LUXURY but there is no reveal. And then we have the four words inserted by JL. They give us Economy/Rat Pack; Standard/Hot Time; Premium/Swamp Gas and Luxury/Eye Liner. Two themes for the price of one. I do not recall ever seeing a puzzle with this duality. All with John's wonderful wit mixed in both the theme and the cluing/fill.
19A. Doppelgänger cast for a low-budget remake of "Ocean's 11"? : ECONOMY RAT PACK (14). The original from 1960 was a vehicle for the Sinatra PACK. The real remakes have not been economy. Which of the movies did you like best?
23A. Usual night in the old town? : STANDARD HOT TIME. (15). The first of two grid-spanners.
42A. Quality marsh output? : PREMIUM SWAMP GAS (15). The silliest of the theme fill.
48A. Gold dust lid cover? : LUXURY EYE LINER (14). Made me think of Elizabeth Talyor as Cleopatra.
In addition to the 58 letters dedicated to the theme, JL includes SODA POP, BUOYANT, TEEN IDOL, LEMMINGS, ROADSIDES and ART DEALER as sparkly fill. I had a great time.
Across:
1. "L'Arlésienne" composer : BIZET. Wow, not a gimme start but lots of challenging letters. LINK.
6. Nutrients in nuts : FATS.
10. Silent signal : NOD.
13. Surface : ARISE. An unexpected definition.
14. Facetious agreement : AH SO.
15. Litter pickup spot? : NAPE. Not only humans do this.
16. Parson's home : MANSE. I learned this word reading British mysteries and watching them on PBS like THIS.
17. Some shoulders : ROADSIDES. Lovely misdirection.
21. Speck in la mer : ILE. French,
22. Sweet climber : PEA. Very important in science RESEARCH. Next to....
32. Entomological case study? : COCOON. JL loves his moths and their stages of life.He was kind enough to provide this picture from his personal stash.
33. Repeated number of curls, say : REPititions. Bicep curls.
34. Bust gp. : DEA. Drug Enforcement Administration. President Nixon consolidated the anti-drug efforts. This is not the group in charge of inspecting bras.
35. Whatever : AT ALL. Used to be one of my favorite catch phrases. Now it is DK/DC.
36. Fanny pack spot : HIP. I see them more in front or back, never on me. Cute positioning with
28D. In like an old cat? : HEP. Just ask Maynard G. Krebs.
37. Backing strips : LATHS. Not to confused with LATHE. Lath 1. a thin flat strip of wood, especially one of a series forming a foundation for the plaster of a wall or the tiles of a roof, or made into a trellis or fence.
39. Liszt's "__ Préludes" : LES. Pretty easy French to fill. This COMPOSER was very popular.
40. Fish house freebie : BIB. Usually with a drawing of a lobster.
41. Sympathize : RELATE.
46. Mayo is in it : ANO. Spanish trick Mayo = May- ANO = Year
47. Fan noise : HUM.
56. Theo van Gogh, notably : ART DEALER. A fun STORY.
57. Orange variety : NAVEL. Seedless and very haughty.
59. Couth he is not : OGRE.
60. Khartoum's waters : NILE.
61. Birds do it between thermals : GLIDE. JL also watches and films birds.
62. Place to take a dip : SEA. And the clecho, 64A. Place to take a dip? : SALSA.
63. Hits up (for) : TAPS. In beer halls you tap your friend next to the taps.
Down:
1. "Whap!" : BAM. Comic book talk.
2. "Dies __" : IRAE.
3. #30 on a table : ZINC. I keep forgetting to not put my glass on the periodic table.
4. Canadian pump name : ESSO. Esso - Exxon.
5. "People" person, perhaps : TEEN IDOL.
6. Cain was one : FARMER. Sad, as he must have been driven mad by the methane gases.
7. Cry to a mate : AHOY.
8. Ruler that doesn't work anymore : TSAR. They all retired?
9. Gender-specific beverage? : SODA POP. Cute, you can have soda pop or white wine mom.
10. Zilch : NADA.
11. Group with many barrels : OPEC.
12. Office staple : DESK. I found this tricky, looking for an office implement..
15. Bite playfully : NIP AT. Puppies! Friends?
18. Editorial override : STET.
20. Buck heroine : O-LAN. A well decorated book about the mysterious East. O-Lan is a fictional character in Pearl S. Buck's 1931 novel The Good Earth. She is a slave of the House of Hwang who gains her freedom when she marries the novel's protagonist, Wang Lung. They start a family in their small country town, and endure grueling times, including droughts, floods, and war. Wiki, Sorry about the broken link.
23. It may be under a rug : SCALP. Rug here being a toupee- nice.
24. Bag carrier : TOTER. Yes it is! 29D. Travel bag attachment : ID TAG. More travel.
25. "__ in point" : A CASE.
26. Cambodia's Lon __ : NOL. LON NOL, a handy palindrome.
27. Bits : DRIBS. Or drabs?
30. Maestro Zubin : MEHTA. John is a most prolific pianist, explaining all the music this week. You can learn more about John going to his blog, LINK.
31. Lightens up : EASES.
36. Gender-specific pronoun : HIM. All perps.
37. Non-suicidal migrants, contrary to myth : LEMMINGS. The MYTH?
38. Heidi got high on one : ALP. My friend Heidi lived near the Devil's Millhopper no mountains..
40. Cheerful : BUOYANT. Maybe if you are a sponge....
41. Julia of film : RAUL. He died much too young. LINK.
43. "All in the Family" spin-off : MAUDE. Bea Arthur as a feminist.
44. About : IN RE.
45. Waldo forerunner? : WHERE'S? I think he is lost forever. Just words that come before Waldo.
48. Cambodia neighbor : LAOS. Both near Thailand.
49. Itch : URGE.
50. Bonus, in ads : XTRA.
51. Lamb's alias : ELIA. And a JL clecho 58D. Lamb's place : LEA. Not the writer but the baby that Mary had.
52. Sharp bark : YELP. Doggies.
53. Simba's love : NALA.
54. Far from harmless : EVIL.
55. Cabs, say : REDS. Not yellow taxis, but Cabernet wines.
Well it was fun to blog but still not 100%. 7 hospitals and 10 doctors so far this year. Glad to be back and to have a JL special was great. Lemonade out. Thank you John.
55 comments:
Hi everyone!
Thanks a bunch, John! Loved this puzzle! Went rapidly. Glad to have you back, Lemonade!
"Les Preludes" was in the "Lone Ranger" soundtrack. (There were several pieces beside the one everyone knows.)
Have a great day!
FIR.
Prescience: Yesterday's l'ick included grape SODA, today's puzzle has SODA POP!
{A-.}
If you want to drink a SODA POP
The place to stop is at Pop's shop!
Down Seven-Up when it's HOT TIME,
That's a STANDARD lemon-lime.
But drop it, Pop hands you a mop to sop!
Good morning!
Welcome back, Lemonade.
I almost turfed it this morning, sitting wondering why a BUSY ANT would be cheerful, and what is an ANS that would contain mayo. Oh, it's an O, not an S! D'oh! Whew! Thanks, John.
A huge DNF today. Never was able to get any kind of foothold for the theme clues/fills.
DO & WIK WAK from yesterday. Thanks for enlightening me. X AXIS....HMMMM.
AHOY, Y'all! Goodie, goodie, Lemonade, you're back, rising like a phoenix from the ashes again! So sorry for your ordeal.
John Lampkin had some tricks in his COCOON today. Always interesting. Even when I got the theme, I wasn't sure I got all the innuendos here. Read Lemony's expo and still not quite sure, I got it all. Anyway, thanks for the mind blower, John.
Gender specific beverage = SODA POP. My favorite. LOL!
Last to fill was the center W. Tried SkuLl before finally realizing SCALP after the COCOON hatched. Didn't know Lon NOL, tried POT. (Pol POT was in the Michael Connelly "Finding Moon" novel I read recently.) Got the "O" from that. Tried CASEs before A CASE. TOTER? Sounds like a Brit bookie.
Didn't know MAUDE ever appeared on "All In the Family". Barely remember the show. Not a fan.
Litter pickup spot was not "curb" where I get mine picked up. NAPE perped in and I couldn't make sense of that for a bit. I was picturing brushing dandruff litter off a dark collar. Oh, cats! good one!
For the second time in two days, I got the name backwards, thinking I didn't know Julia RAUL. Duh! Lemony had to set me straight. Of course I remember RAUL Julia.
The sun is shining after two days of wet stuff. Hope to get out and get a couple errands done before sleep overtakes me.
I caught the double themes but the increasing costs flew over my head. My last fill was SCALP for the tricky 'under the rug' clue. I filled REDS by perps, thinking red taxis or semis. Not a wino.
SODA POP- I kept wanting MR PIBB, MR COLA, DR PEPPER but none would fit. Down South it's either COKE or SOFT DRINK.
PK. Lon NOL (Cambodia) is right up there with Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Saddam Hussein, and the Assads (father and son) in his willingness to kill his own countrymen.
MAUDE was Edith Bunker's cousin on the 'All In The Family' show.
Loved the complex theme, from economy to luxury and the double insert.
Econony pack, rat pack
Standard time, hot time
Premium gas, swamp gas
Luxury liner, eye liner
The theme helped make this a Wed. x-word for me.
I'm late. So long. Good-bye.
Good to have you back, Lemony after your long ordeal.
I've learned where WALDO is, it's the town I turn off US-301 on the way to Gainesville FL. An area known as such a speed trap the State Police took over traffic enforcement from the locals.
Don't think of SALSA as a "place" you dip, whether it's a sauce or a dance.
Yes, LEMMING suicide is a myth. In the Disney movie White Wilderness that popularized the myth, the camera crew forced the rodents off a cliff. They're good swimmers, so when they migrate they can jump in a lake and usually make it to the other side.
Welcome back, Lemonade.
Good morning everyone.
Good to see you back, Lemon. Hope you keep mending.
Enjoyed the puzzle. John Lampkin always puts out a good puzzle, made richer with his animal clues/fill as Lemon stated. BZ.
Fairly tough but got through it with 5 white-out squares. OLAN & REP. SW was a cpmplete but successful WAG.
Favorite was the cluing for SCALP.
I learned yesterday, my SCALP biopsy showed basel cell cancer so I will undergo treatment when it is arranged. A MOHS treatment is recommended. You can Google it.
Have a great day everyone. Nice and sunny here.
Thank you John and Lemonade.
Solved about 60 % in the first ten minutes, but it then took forever to get the rest. After getting LUXURY EYE LINER early, it helped me see PREMIUM. I like it when the theme helps with tougher puzzles.
I was a bachelor once, so I know what goes under the rug. You sweep the dirt under there. Tried grime but decided against it. Then thought a little deeper about the progression and "usual" in the clue. STANDARD led to SCALP with the S and P present. Soon the west was won. And it was done.
Mayo is in it ? MIN before finally getting ANO and BUOYANT. Excellent.
Parson's house ? Why parsonage of course. MANSE took awhile, and made me change neon to ZINC. ESSO was a given. That NW was the second toughest area for me.
Cain as one ? Fracticider ?
A couple of other early entries that had to be changed: Ivy to PEA and ice to BIB.
From yesterday... INXS. Parse it as IN XS, and then pronounce it as In Excess.
And Wilbur, east west. We knew what you meant. The other day I wrote that I had to get out of bed in the early morning hours because of calve and thigh pain, and no one took me to task.
Hey, Lemonade, glad you're back in the saddle! Time to create a phoenix-from-ashes theme puzzle!
Thanks for the terrific write up and for using my images. That's one way to get published. ;-)
Yellowrocks @ 8:03 spelled out the double layer perfectly. It's a more complex structure than one would think at first glance.
Best to all, and happy solving--
Good day to all!
Great to have a John Lampkin puzzle, with his usual devilishly tricky cluing. Favorite clue/answer was "It may be under a rug" for SCALP. RAUL Julia was all perps. Misspelling BUOYANT as BouYANT made that little area the last to fall.
So nice to "see" you back, Lemonade. Best wishes for continued healing.
Enjoy the day!
YR: Thanks for broadening the scope of the answers. I knew there had to be more to it. John is brilliant.
Spitz: I googled the MOHS treatment, got to looking at skin cancer pictures and almost forgot about the blog. Think I better get an appointment and see about the brown spots on my back I just noticed.
Good Morning:
If anyone is wondering where I am, I'm sitting in the corner, facing the wall, wearing the tallest dunce hat you've ever seen! Not only did I miss the progression of Economy to Luxury (Thank you, Lemony) but I missed the dual phrases, as well! (Thank you, YR). Complex structure indeed, Mr. Lampkin! Add this complexity to the devilishly devious (but fun!) misdirections, and you have a challenging task and an oh-so-satisfying solve, despite missing not one but two layers of clever craftsmanship. I had Ivy/Pea, Jar/Anō, Floor/Scalp, G'Day/Mate, etc. but, eventually, perps led me to the Tada!
Thank you, JL, for such a special Friday treat and thanks, Lemony, for adding your personal and spot-on observations. Best wishes for continued recovery and good health.
Right now, the sun is shining but the weekend is going to be wet and soggy! The rain will certainly put a damper on the Tulip Festival, crowning of the Tulip Queen, and Mother of the Year award, all Albany traditions on Mother's Day weekend.
Have a great day.
"Way out there" clues today. Can't wait to see tomorrow's puzzle. (Sarcasm)
Thank you Yellowrocks for explaining the puzzle for me
"Puzzling Thoughts":
Lemony, good to see you back doing Friday recaps - hope your progress continues. JL, nice theme and use of double phrases. As I completed each one I was reminded of a rental car reservation I just made. Went with STANDARD (which for Alamo is a Buick Verano, or similar) at a cost of just a $1 more than ECONOMY, but did not need to pay the $15 or $35 a day upgrade to PREMIUM or LUXURY
FLN ---> Anonymous T: according to Wikipedia, Ron Popeil is still alive
I solved the southern part of the puzzle pretty rapidly but struggled a bit elsewhere. I think I had to Google NALA to complete it correctly. Had SHE > HIM and BLT > ANO. The latter was quickly corrected when MAUDE was the only spinoff that fit in 43d. I'm so used to seeing ENERO as the Spanish month answer that I couldn't see the MAYO in the AÑO!
I got a text from one of my wine customers saying that today is National Limerick Day! So at her request, I penned the following:
'twas once a wine aficionado,
Who was skilled at dancing the limbo.
While holding her wine
She arches her spine,
Just to see how Merlot she can go
There's a wine snob I know who converts
To a sweet one, when he eats desserts.
Prefers Port or Sauternes,
And can always discern
When someone tries to serve him Gewürtz
The Wine Merchant has shown us the way,
To detect a wine's perfect bouquet:
If you smell "pencil lead"
Through the nose on your head,
Then it must be a French Cabernet
Moe-Ku:
Composing Carmen
And then L'Arlesienne
Kept Georges real BIZET
Hi everybody. Well, that was a lot of fun. Thanks John and Lemon.
I've often seen a mother cat pick up one of her kittens by the nape of the neck. But did you know...??
I saw a video of a vet attaching a large paper clip to the nape of a kitten's neck. The kitten immediately went totally limp and stay in a 'catatonic state' until the clip was removed. Kind of a built-in reflex that keep the kitten motionless while the mother is carrying it.
Welcome back Lemony! Fun puzzle and quickly done for a Friday. Minor nit, at least the way I read it - 33a clue is plural "curls" vs answer that is singular "rep." Loved "soda pop" JB2
Multilevel fun today!
Welcome back to blogging Lemonade!
Thanks John!
Biceps curl.
National 'lick* day, eh C-Moe? The only bad 'licks are those not posted? Ok.
Mess'n with MAUDE you're mess'n with Bea
Mess'n with DEA is a bad IDEE
When you're mess'n b'god
Have all your PEAs in a pod
Or they'll find your SCALP in the LEA
Ok. See. You don't have to be POE to give it a try.
WC
Back to the most excellent xword and write-up. Spitz, I hope that dermatology thang goes well. TTP, I had Twain on the Brain eg East is East...
Thanks for the heads up on TBBT finale. Despite everything I do follow it and it seems like I've seen every episode. Fav is I-3. Rehab guy.
In Boston soda was tonic. NAPE was solid but incomprehensible until Lemonade explained it. Welcome back
NILE is a QOD to Splynter but he'll have to explain if he should care to
WC
Oh speaking of 'licks* C-Moe you were cook'n today and A- is right on for Owen.
* My spell check loves 'lick and hates l'ick.
what fun! Thank you, John Lampkin and Lemonade! I'm glad you are on the mend, Lemon.
This took a while to solve with so much amusing misdirection a la JL style but it was worth it. I am surprised, though, to see REP when repeated is in the clue. I hesitated a long time then had HUP/HUP which didn't make sense but neither did REP.
Still, this was great fun and how lovely to start with BIZET. Zubin MEHTA came to mind slowly and I don't think of van Gogh as an ART DEALER but as artist. Yet, he would have to be one, wouldn't he?
MANSE is familiar to me also from British novels.
YR, yes, thank you for further elucidating us on the theme's deeper meanings.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Oops. That should have been HUP/RUP. DNF of course.
Totally missed the progression...
Did have a few look ups,(Bizet/olan)
but entomological case study by John Lampkin was a no brainer...
Don't get me started on economy ratpacking...
Standard hot time?
Wait, what? swamp gas is real?
Luxury eyeliner,hmm,, two thoughts:
"A"
& "B"
Rats! Spam filed again!
(Argyle, pls release me,,, let me go...)
Thank you all for the kind words. I continue full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes. John it is always fun to write up your puzzles.
Lucina - Theo van Gogh is Vincent the artist's brother. JL asserts he (Theo( was an art dealer.
Puzzle seems to have been created by someone who has never lifted a weight. "Repeated number of curls" is to me and everyone else in the gym as a "set". One curl = one rep, repeated curls = many repS, or a set.
Not a fan of the gimmick puzzle, less so when doubled up.
@AnonymousPVX
Indeed I DO lift weights. My fork is very heavy.
REP could be ONE of a repeated number of curls, or ONE of a set of curls.
Good one today. Nice theme, which I got early. Lots of crunch, but I made it through.
Well, this may be one of my best puzzle weeks ever! After the disaster last week, when I started to have errors beginning on Tuesday and getting worse all week, I have completed every single puzzle this week without cheating, including Agnes and C.C.'s brilliant Wednesday, and John Lampkin's wonderful Friday puzzle today! Yay! Hurray! Woohoo! I have never been happier, and on top of all this, we have Lemonade back to blogging, and John Lampkin checking in with us. It doesn't get any better than this! Thank you all!
I must have been on John's wavelength because even with all the clever misdirections I got things pretty quickly. As an Austrian, I know my Heidi and so got ALP right away. But well, okay, I had BOO for Fan noise before I realized it was a ceiling fan and got HUM, and like others, I had IVY before PEA for that climber. And although I got NAPE, I never did understand that Litter pick-up until Lemonade's helpful lion pic. And I just loved that clever, clever theme progression, which I figured out pretty early although the middles were a bit tough to get. But what a great puzzle--many thanks!
Have a wonderful weekend coming up, everybody!
I'll pile on in re rep. But the editor should not have put a stet on that, so I'll point the finger at him. Perfectly acceptable fill that should have been associated with another clue.
BillG.: Interesting about the clip working on a kitten's nape. I once needed to take a full-grown tomcat to the vet and tried lifting him by the NAPE into an up-ended cat carrier. He went limp and in the curled position all right, but his back feet stuck out enough that they kept catching on the sides of the door and once the hanging stopped, the feet resisted entering the cage. I did a bunch of ups and downs hoping to be quick enough to get him through the door. If I remember right, I finally gave up and he didn't get to the doctor.
Lucina: Theo Van Gogh financially supported his mentally ill brother Vincent all his life and as an art dealer was largely responsible for his paintings being seen by patrons of the arts.
They have a new LUXURY Hotel in Clearwater Beach, the Opal(Opulent) Sands that's ridiculously expensive. Then you have the Wilbur Charles busman's holiday
You take a greyhound bus to st Pete and get a room at one of the drug and flea infested motels on US 19. A weekly bus pass will get you to the beach and it's transferable to the jolly trolleys running along the gulf.
Food? Well along with the McDonald's twofers you have early birds with the occasional splurge at Golden corral.
Get there at 359 so you can grandfather to the steak and shrimp.
Get there on Tuesday and head home on the weekend when your$100 bucks runs out.
Worst case: The benches at Williams park.
WC
Welcome back Lem!
Damned if John didn't Whap/BAM me again. The NW never filled, SouthCenter was messed up by my putting Julia Roberts in at 40d [Ribs at a fish joint? (40a)]. A crash-and-burn DNF - and it's not even Saturday... IM, Pass the dunce-capirote.
John - I enjoyed your effort (COCOON was particularly cute) but BIZET, OLAN, MEHTA [those letters don't even belong in that order!], LES, Heidi getting stoned(?) were all beyond me (oh, that Heidi). Thanks for the diversion though - IN ALL, I had a fun slog through the inky SWAMP that is my grid.
Lem, it is good to see you back [sorry, pun not intended] and helping my Friday Solve. Maynard Krebs ref was a nice touch. It's not too much work [work!] to keep up re-hab. Stay limber my friend.
Fav: LEMMINGS. Every time I see that word, I hear ...packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes; contestants in a suicidal race... [lemmings == commuters in that simile; Police - Synchronicity II] in my minds-ear.
Funny, I had SCALP, NAPE, NIPAT, PEA off-the-bat. It was the composers, French, and a MANSE that got me.
{A+} {Very Nice! - and thanks for the update on Mr. Popeil} {cute CW}
TTP - LOL re: FRActicider; you went WHERES I was goin' :-)
Oh Com'on - REP was fine as clue'd - plus it filled SODA POP confirming my belief that FATS is a nutrient / good for you.
Who else thinks of this @ SALSA. I think the difference between SALSA and Pico is SALSA is cooked. DW says more tomato... Lucina?
Well, my network is protected from the latest nasty [WCry - cryto Malaware that hit Spain and UK earlier] so it's Friday nap time, I'll watch CED's SWAMP GAS [it better not just be a guy farting in the pool] and play later.
Cheers, -T
Musings
-I finished this wonderful puzzle just in time for my early tee time. Thanks John!
-Now I have to head outside for a yard project.
-Re: Last night. Anon T I have never used Edmondo when I sub. Teachers have just given me babysitting chores lately and since I love being around teenagers, all’s well in my world. BTW, most teachers HATE it when you prepare a lesson that is 10X better than what they had planned.
My heart smiled when I saw the abundance of three-letter fills! Surely this would be an easy pzl for this smug (lazy?) solver to gain a foothold.
Ah, but ain't Mr. Lampkin an old Slyboots? The first couple of threes-ies were easy enough, but they soon turned into matters of interpretation. They could go in several directions and needed perps to narrow the field--rather than serving themselves as keys to their sectors.
But All's Well that &c. &c. Happily, this Friday opus yielded to plain perseverance. While I might have preferred to stay lazy and have it all handed to me, I found myself responding to the call to take this one seriously. I gathered my wits and, as Mrs. O'Neill urged me back in 4th grade, "applied myself."
And Ta-DA! I applied myself liberally and the results were quite satisfying. Although there was no reveal (they're for babies!) it was easy enough to catch onto the theme(s) in play.
My favorite misdirection was one that maybe misdirected only me. Hands up for first responding to 45D with KILROY! Damn! He was the perfect answer. A 6-letter character as ubiquitous in his day--maybe more so!--than that simp, "Waldo."
But, alas, KILROY's day has passed, and only a few of us here actually chalked his charming visage in unlikely places.
OMK - OK, I didn't go w/ Kilroy @45d but I can see that. Some of us "younger crowd" (if I can count myself as young) knows Kilroy from Styx [and then further back-study to get the WWII ref]. They (Styx) even made a movie [don't bother; I'd love to see MST3K pan that!] that hits the same theme as RUSH's 2112, Floyd's The Wall, Rand's Shrug, and Orwell's '84 - individual vs. ALL.
HG - With your background, I'm sure the IDEEs you can connect in students' TETEs dwarfs what the "sick" teacher had planned. We had teacher's day last week and I know the ones that imparted "AHAs" in my head. Keep up the good fight.
CED- that SWAMP GAS vid was neat. I will try that at home :-)
Now, about my nap... C, -T
Unlike some, I love clever themes like this.Thanks so much, JL.
As an elementary teacher I prayed for subs who would teach the concepts I would have taught. I would request him or her every time.I hated for my kids to lose a day to mere babysitting. I evaluated the subs by what the kids learned. No jealousy.
Alan does not have pneumonia and has good lung function. Maybe his low oxygen level is due to a cold.
Oops. My brain took off on vacation again. Thank you, PK. It didn't register that the clue said Theo and not Vincent. I'll blame it on the aging process which is quickly gaining momentum.
What a wonderful puzzle. So well constructed and clued! Loved it.
Having spent a great deal of time with doctors recently, PK the issue of oxygen levels in Alan may be related to his heart function. All patients really need to ask many questions.
YR, I certainly like themes. I can understand Saturday because it's"take no prisoners day" but for the rest, the theme is the puzzle. .
WC
Lucina - Theo was the low-level street-art dealer but Vic was the eyes and ear of the operation...
//ducks -T
I was going to point out the same thing. A bunch of reps is a SET, as in "do 3 sets of 10-12 reps."
It seems to me that a "repeated number" strongly implies a plural answer.
The bottom South was a real killer for me. I had the more logical ASKS for TAPS, which to me suggests appointment to a position rather than borrowing. Mistakenly had DRIPS for DRIBS (leading to an iffy DIP for BIB) and ELIS for ELIA. So hopeleasy muddled until red letter help let me clean out the mess. Fair but tough BOUYANT never crossed my mind without correct perps. I thought the rest of the puzzle was a good challenge.
REP was definitely my second guess, but I rejected it as a poor fit over SET.
I got that there was an insertion. Totally missed the ECONOMY to LUXURY progression.
But I still don't get the insertion words RAT, HOT, SWAMP, EYE. Is there a special pattern or meaning there?
Can anyone explain that? Or am I looking for one too many levels of meaning?
Yellowrocks comment at 8:03 AM summed it up best.
Thanks, Argyle and Yellowrocks!
I did get that level of meaning! I was probably expecting too much to think there was one more level of meaning! Thanks!
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