Theme: Love Thy Neighbor - The neighboring states are so close that they're practically sitting in each other's lap, as the reveal neatly sums up:
47A. What the answers to three "pair" clues share, both in this grid and in reality : STATE BORDERS
19A. Midwestern pair : NEBRASKANSAS
26A. Northeastern pair : MAINEWHAMPSHIRE
42A. Southwestern pair : NEWMEXICOLORADO
Nice puzzle from Pawel. I tumbled the theme after seeing COLORADO emerging from the crosses and things were pretty plain sailing after that. A very clean grid with the two pairs of stacked 9's and a lot of solid white areas. The fill had some really nice stuff - those aforementioned 9's and some tricky partials in the downs.
Let's see what jumps out:
Across:
1. Many opera villains : BASSI. Really deep-voiced. I can spoof a basso profundo speaking voice, but as I can't sing a note that's about as far as I get. I have to channel my inner Paul Robeson. Come back and watch this great piece of history from 1949.
6. Georgia __ : TECH
10. '70s Israeli prime minister : MEIR
14. Ration out : ALLOT.
15. Antioxidant-rich fruit in smoothies : ACAI BERRY. Goji berries fit the bill too, so you need to wait for the crosses.
17. Some earrings : HOOPS
18. Celestial explosion : SUPERNOVA. This was a tough corner. If you don't know MEIR, I'm not sure you'd be able to unpick the triple three-letter downs.
21. Japanese prime minister since 2012 : ABE. Shinzo. Is he "honest" too?
22. Cold War weapons : ICBMS. Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. They pack quite an unpleasant punch.
33. Ready followers? : OR NOT. I tried SET-GO first, which caused some problems later.
34. Jumper cable connection : ANODE
35. Did lunch, say : ATE
36. Morse clicks : DITS. D--S and wait for the crosses.
37. Fly catchers : MITTS. Nice one. Fly ball in baseball. Some of the catches can be pretty spectacular:
38. Corp. money execs : C.F.O.S
39. Puerto Rican pronoun : ESO. That.
40. Bandleader's cry : HIT IT!
41. Ring figure? : CARAT. Nice.
45. Queen __ lace : ANNE'S. Also known as the wild carrot. The roots, leaves and flowers are all edible. I'll leave the eats, roots, leave humor to the peanut gallery, tempted as I am.
46. Lode load : ORE
55. Soldier of Fortune subject : MERCENARY
58. D-sharp equivalent : E FLAT
59. Grifter : CON ARTIST. Do any of you watch the "Cooks vs. Cons" on the Food Network? I enjoy the show, but have you noticed that most of the "pros" who lose out are personal chefs, not restaurant chefs? Big difference in standards. One of the winning contestants who had me totally fooled appeared in one of the early episodes - she was French, and turned out to be a barber in New York City.
60. __ del Sol : COSTA. On the Spanish Mediterranean. One of my favorite soccer players, Diego Costa, looks like he might be leaving my club Chelsea, and returning to his old one, Atletico Madrid. Hasta luego, y gracias Diego! Of course, there's also this:
61. Prepare for mailing : SEAL
62. On the less windy side : ALEE. I learned the lesson early - if you're at sea and you experience what is kindly known as reverse peristalsis, then you'd better be on this side of the ship when you start to feed the fishes.
63. Woods components : TREES
Down:
1. Automobil route : BAHN. It can also be a rail route: Deutsche Bahn AG is the company that operates Germany's rail networks, among others.
2. Healing salve : ALOE
3. Frustrating roommate for a neatnik : SLOB
4. Many opera heroines : SOPRANOS. Nice tie-in with BASSI at the top.
5. "I'll take that action" : IT'S A BET
6. Checklist item : TASK
7. Galápagos locale: Abbr. : ECUA. Ecuador. I stumbled around here a little, I tried AGUA which caused me some confusion for a while, and made no sense whatsoever given that we are told we need an abbreviation.
8. Bos'n's boss : CAP'N
9. Hustles : HIES
10. Stand-up sort : MENSCH
11. Mancinelli opera "__ e Leandro" : ERO This trilogy at 11D, 12D and 13D would have been a total bust for me if I didn't know Golda MEIR. I'd have WAG'ed at ARO, ERV and NO IDEA which would have left me looking at MAE-
12. Robbins of Baskin-Robbins : IRV
13. Shaggy Scandinavian rug : RYA
16. Slow-cook, in a way : BRAISE
20. Give a darn? : SEW
23. Former African secessionist territory : BIAFRA
24. "The Wind in the Willows" character : MR. TOAD. It's a fun book. I never understood how Mr. Toad could escape from jail, go home to reclaim Toad Hall, and the police never bothered to come over and pick him up.
25. Handles : SEES TO
26. Italian headquarters of Maserati : MODENA. Also Ferrari's HQ. Lamborghini had a factory there too, but forget all about that. Balsamic vinegar! Yay!
27. Out of the sack : ARISEN
28. Around, so to speak : IN TOWN
29. French-speaking republic : HAITI
30. Escapade : ANTIC
31. "Crossroads of America" in Indiana, e.g. : MOTTO
32. Law-and-order gps. : P.D.S Police Departments.
37. Pancake-making aid : MIX.
38. Nurtured : CARED FOR
40. Mother of Pearl, in an 1850 novel : HESTER. Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter".
41. PC part? : CORRECT
43. Cantina quaff : MESCAL
44. Head of England? : LOO
48. Masonry support : ANTA. The support between the pillar and the roof. Here's one at the Athenian Treasury:
49. Word with coat or shirt : TAIL.I still have my tailcoat, formal wedding-wear in the UK. I haven't worn it for 30-odd years though.
50. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
51. Bunch of bits : BYTE. Nice
52. "What __ could I say?" : ELSE
53. Evaluate : RATE
54. D.C. Metro stops : STAS. Stations on the Washington D.C. transit.
55. Escher and Hammer : M.C.S. The rapper and the graphic artist come together harmoniously.
56. Fair-hiring letters : EOE Equal Opportunity Employer.
57. Protein-building molecule : RNA
I've been in San Antonio for a couple of days and went to check out the Alamo. Everyone tells you it's not as big as you expect and they're right!
Here's the grid, and I'm heading out to the airport!
Steve
Note from C.C..:
Here are three sweet pictures of Bill G's new granddaughter Bella. Bill said she is about 5 weeks old now.
47A. What the answers to three "pair" clues share, both in this grid and in reality : STATE BORDERS
19A. Midwestern pair : NEBRASKANSAS
26A. Northeastern pair : MAINEWHAMPSHIRE
42A. Southwestern pair : NEWMEXICOLORADO
Nice puzzle from Pawel. I tumbled the theme after seeing COLORADO emerging from the crosses and things were pretty plain sailing after that. A very clean grid with the two pairs of stacked 9's and a lot of solid white areas. The fill had some really nice stuff - those aforementioned 9's and some tricky partials in the downs.
Let's see what jumps out:
Across:
1. Many opera villains : BASSI. Really deep-voiced. I can spoof a basso profundo speaking voice, but as I can't sing a note that's about as far as I get. I have to channel my inner Paul Robeson. Come back and watch this great piece of history from 1949.
6. Georgia __ : TECH
10. '70s Israeli prime minister : MEIR
14. Ration out : ALLOT.
15. Antioxidant-rich fruit in smoothies : ACAI BERRY. Goji berries fit the bill too, so you need to wait for the crosses.
17. Some earrings : HOOPS
18. Celestial explosion : SUPERNOVA. This was a tough corner. If you don't know MEIR, I'm not sure you'd be able to unpick the triple three-letter downs.
21. Japanese prime minister since 2012 : ABE. Shinzo. Is he "honest" too?
22. Cold War weapons : ICBMS. Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. They pack quite an unpleasant punch.
33. Ready followers? : OR NOT. I tried SET-GO first, which caused some problems later.
34. Jumper cable connection : ANODE
35. Did lunch, say : ATE
36. Morse clicks : DITS. D--S and wait for the crosses.
37. Fly catchers : MITTS. Nice one. Fly ball in baseball. Some of the catches can be pretty spectacular:
38. Corp. money execs : C.F.O.S
39. Puerto Rican pronoun : ESO. That.
40. Bandleader's cry : HIT IT!
41. Ring figure? : CARAT. Nice.
45. Queen __ lace : ANNE'S. Also known as the wild carrot. The roots, leaves and flowers are all edible. I'll leave the eats, roots, leave humor to the peanut gallery, tempted as I am.
46. Lode load : ORE
55. Soldier of Fortune subject : MERCENARY
58. D-sharp equivalent : E FLAT
59. Grifter : CON ARTIST. Do any of you watch the "Cooks vs. Cons" on the Food Network? I enjoy the show, but have you noticed that most of the "pros" who lose out are personal chefs, not restaurant chefs? Big difference in standards. One of the winning contestants who had me totally fooled appeared in one of the early episodes - she was French, and turned out to be a barber in New York City.
60. __ del Sol : COSTA. On the Spanish Mediterranean. One of my favorite soccer players, Diego Costa, looks like he might be leaving my club Chelsea, and returning to his old one, Atletico Madrid. Hasta luego, y gracias Diego! Of course, there's also this:
61. Prepare for mailing : SEAL
62. On the less windy side : ALEE. I learned the lesson early - if you're at sea and you experience what is kindly known as reverse peristalsis, then you'd better be on this side of the ship when you start to feed the fishes.
63. Woods components : TREES
Down:
1. Automobil route : BAHN. It can also be a rail route: Deutsche Bahn AG is the company that operates Germany's rail networks, among others.
2. Healing salve : ALOE
3. Frustrating roommate for a neatnik : SLOB
4. Many opera heroines : SOPRANOS. Nice tie-in with BASSI at the top.
5. "I'll take that action" : IT'S A BET
6. Checklist item : TASK
7. Galápagos locale: Abbr. : ECUA. Ecuador. I stumbled around here a little, I tried AGUA which caused me some confusion for a while, and made no sense whatsoever given that we are told we need an abbreviation.
8. Bos'n's boss : CAP'N
9. Hustles : HIES
10. Stand-up sort : MENSCH
11. Mancinelli opera "__ e Leandro" : ERO This trilogy at 11D, 12D and 13D would have been a total bust for me if I didn't know Golda MEIR. I'd have WAG'ed at ARO, ERV and NO IDEA which would have left me looking at MAE-
12. Robbins of Baskin-Robbins : IRV
13. Shaggy Scandinavian rug : RYA
16. Slow-cook, in a way : BRAISE
20. Give a darn? : SEW
23. Former African secessionist territory : BIAFRA
24. "The Wind in the Willows" character : MR. TOAD. It's a fun book. I never understood how Mr. Toad could escape from jail, go home to reclaim Toad Hall, and the police never bothered to come over and pick him up.
25. Handles : SEES TO
26. Italian headquarters of Maserati : MODENA. Also Ferrari's HQ. Lamborghini had a factory there too, but forget all about that. Balsamic vinegar! Yay!
27. Out of the sack : ARISEN
28. Around, so to speak : IN TOWN
29. French-speaking republic : HAITI
30. Escapade : ANTIC
31. "Crossroads of America" in Indiana, e.g. : MOTTO
32. Law-and-order gps. : P.D.S Police Departments.
37. Pancake-making aid : MIX.
38. Nurtured : CARED FOR
40. Mother of Pearl, in an 1850 novel : HESTER. Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter".
41. PC part? : CORRECT
43. Cantina quaff : MESCAL
44. Head of England? : LOO
48. Masonry support : ANTA. The support between the pillar and the roof. Here's one at the Athenian Treasury:
49. Word with coat or shirt : TAIL.I still have my tailcoat, formal wedding-wear in the UK. I haven't worn it for 30-odd years though.
50. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
51. Bunch of bits : BYTE. Nice
52. "What __ could I say?" : ELSE
53. Evaluate : RATE
54. D.C. Metro stops : STAS. Stations on the Washington D.C. transit.
55. Escher and Hammer : M.C.S. The rapper and the graphic artist come together harmoniously.
56. Fair-hiring letters : EOE Equal Opportunity Employer.
57. Protein-building molecule : RNA
I've been in San Antonio for a couple of days and went to check out the Alamo. Everyone tells you it's not as big as you expect and they're right!
Here's the grid, and I'm heading out to the airport!
Steve
Here are three sweet pictures of Bill G's new granddaughter Bella. Bill said she is about 5 weeks old now.
50 comments:
FIR! And with a few uncertain WAGS, I honestly didn't expect it! Too many to list, but most had solid enough perps. I did have MieR > MEIR, ACiaBERRY > ACAIBERRY, Eeo > EOE -- there was a pattern there! Also CAPt > CAPN, STnS > STAS -- another pattern! ANTA was a completely new word to me that as a Freemason I should have heard before, since we talk a lot about pillars in our rituals!
How come BASSo goes to BASSI, but SOPRANO doesn't go to SOPRANI?
Now to what Erato and Thalia can invoke in me...
{B+, A.}
An antioxidant BERRY to keep in supply
Is the palm TREE purple fruit, AÇAÍ.
You can try it
In a new age diet.
The taste may make you heave "a sigh"!
I.C.B.M.S must fly over the pole
In order to reach their explosive goal!
While the "honeydew"
'Neath the North Pole LOO
Is the icy B.M.s dropped thru the hole!
Good morning!
I like geography (except for African geography), so I got the theme early. Nicely done, Pawel. Interesting write-up, Steve. DW also went to San Antonio a couple of days ago to see an exhibit. I begged off due to the expected triple-digit heat.
Speaking of regulatory organizations like Deutsche Bahn AG, in Texas we have the very powerful Railroad Commission. Nothing to do with railroads...they regulate the oil and gas industry. Go figure.
If the R-H support, as shown, is an ANTA, does that make the L-H support an UNKA?
Congrats on the new granddaughter, Bill G. Cute.
Hi Y'all, Another enjoyable challenge from Pawel. Thank you. Also thanks, Steve. Enjoyed the BASSo.
Caught on to the theme at NEBRASKANSAS and just kept plugging the holes.
Learning experience was ANTA. Also didn't know ERO, IRA, MODENA & IRV. They all perped well.
Had no idea who Escher & Hammer were. When MCS appeared I decided they must be event hosts, a/k/a eMCees
With HE I confidently filled in HESTER although I didn't remember the baby's name.
I thought the Galapagos were near to Chile but perps insisted it was ECUA. I'm still trying to memorize South American country locations. Finally I pretty well know Canada. I think so. Maybe.
BillG: Bella is so cute and certainly has a handsome and proud big brother. I think he must look like you at that age.
My son drove from Houston to NE Kansas yesterday evening in ten hours. They enjoyed seeing all the city fireworks displays along the way as they sped through. He said Dallas downtown buildings had spectacular displays on the glassworks. All the southbound lanes had traffic jams but they were northbound with little traffic. They left Houston too early for fireworks. When they got home in the wee morning hours, they slept in the car because they weren't expected until afternoon. Didn't know what DW would do if she heard "intruders".
Good Morning:
This gave me a run for my money in a couple of areas but, after a fashion, everything fell into place. Even knowing Meir, I still had trouble in that NE corner. Clever theme and some tricky cluing made for an enjoyable. if not easy, solve.
Thanks, Pawel, for a Thursday stumper and thanks, Steve, for the fun expo.
CED from last night: I am still laughing over that picture.
Bill G, Bella is tres belle. She has quite a head of hair! Jordan looks so big-brother proud!
Have to run-have a busy day ahead.
Have a great day.
Interesting theme = I never realized that these close states also had the letters overlap. Once I figured out it was NEBRASKANSAS instead of NEBRASKA IOWA, it made the rest of the puzzle much faster!
Steve - if you ever end up back in SA (or for others who visit there) the IMAX movie near the Alamo that tells the story makes the tour more interesting and it was well done.
Congrats on the new baby Bill G! I just got back from a medical mission in El Salvador and saw many hermosos bebes in the clinica !!
ANTA....okay I believe you. I really liked the Mother of Pearl clue for HESTER.
Isn't it fun that two of the state pairs end up having 15 letters.
Well done Pawel and Steve as always.
Good morning all!
Nice offering from Pawel with some clever and tricky clues; made me think without too much frustration - perfect Thursday puzzle.
Thanks, Steve for a fun tour. I've been meaning to watch "Cooks vs Cons" - thanks for the reminder. I do keep up with "Chopped" and "Next Food Network Star" ( none of the contestants have really made an impression on me this season. Will be interesting to see who wins)
Like Steve, the STATEBORDERS theme wasn't clear until my aha! moment after COLORADO emerged. It clicked after that but still had some stumbles:
Had Nukes>ICBMS and Dots>DITS
The NE corner gave me the most trouble. Thank goodness for MEIR, BERRY and NOVA which allowed me to perp ERO, IRV and RYA.
BIAFRA, MODENA and ANTA were also unknown.
Favorite/clever clues/fills : "Fly catchers">MITTS, "Ring figure?">CARAT, "Give a darn?">SEW and "Head of England">LOO
Bill G- oh my goodness, Bella is absolutely adorable! Jordan looks like he's enjoying his role as big brother. What a proud Grandpa you must be :) Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.
Rainy here today- a good excuse to stay indoors and get some housework done. Boo! ;)
Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Thank you, Pawel Fludzinski, for an interesting theme and good puzzle.
What a clever mash-up of STATE BORDERS! It's an entirely new way of looking at them.
MEIR filled easily but since I've never heard of goji berry no decision had to be made about ACAIBERRY. And though the downs dominated this solve I failed to check MOTTO/MITTS. Drat! I had MITeS.
I love being reminded of past trips and COSTA del Sol brings back some good memories as does MAINEWHAMPSHIRE where my sisters and I took a road trip last summer. The hundreds of TREES lining the auto BAHNS are particularly memorable.
New word for today is ANTA.
I'm surely glad Steve explained MCS because I had no idea who or what that was.
Bill G, Bella is beautiful! Congratulations!
Have a spectacular day, everyone!
Puzzle was well done but seemed easy for a Thursday. Ero and Anta were perps but the rest was a speed run. Got the theme early and that surely helped. Favorite clue: PC part? The right answer is Correct! Fly catcher was a close second. And sorry for Steve - no (real) food! But still a great write-up. Maybe next week. Have a wonderful alternate hump day everyone. JB2
I solved the puzzle last evening. The theme really helped.
Went to bed and fell asleep.
Awakened shortly after midnight by a 5.8 earthquake 120 miles away. Then an aftershock. No reports of damage anywhere in the state, only power outage. People are being asked to check gas lines and propane tanks this morning.
Montana
FIR, despite my doubts. Like Steve, I wanted "set-go" and had to wait to determine "dits" or "dahs". I used to be able to send Morse code at about 20 WPM, but could only receive about 10 WPS, partially because I couldn't print much faster than that.
My last to fall was the SW corner. CON ARTIST tie-broke EEO/EOE and gave me MCS and RNA. My favorite Escher is "Relativity", the one with the stairs.
Erased road for BAHN and share for STATE, in addition to set-go. Tons of unknowns - ERO, IRV, RYA, MR TOAD, MODENA, HESTER and ANTA. Had the perps not been so cleverly placed, this would have been Friday - Saturday difficult.
I remember BIAFRA. Sounds like something a state might ask for when it can't stand on its own.
Thanks for a doable challenge, Pawel. And thanks Steve for another interesting reveal. And thanks CC for adding Bella's pictures. Spoil her rotten, Bill G.
From late yesterday, Big Easy - If "Free Bird" is the anthem of the South, "The South's Gonna Do It Again" must be its fight song. Wet Willie wasn't a one-hit wonder, but their flame didn't blaze very long. MTB and Charlie Daniels have passed the test of time.
Last night's discussion about the music of our ute reminded me of this non-scary scene from Criminal Minds. I think Reid's got a point.
YR [fln], you mentioned Your Hit Parade. Time-Life put out a series of CD's under that title, each one featuring 20-odd original hit song recordings for each year, 1940 into the '60's. I've converted the set to MP3 files, saved them on a thumb-drive, and enjoy listing to it random-play in my truck. (I blew off 1940-1944 -- before my time, but included every other CD in that series.)
Thursday challenge today. Thanks for the fun Pawel and Steve.
Officially DNF because I did not know Grifter and had enough unknown perps that it would not fill in.
ANTA was all perps. Dahs changed to DITS, and DNA to RNA.
I had blueBERRY before ACAI in my smoothie, which gave me isla before ECUA and held up the NW. I got the theme early but wondered at the repetition of NEW but perhaps unavoidable.
Clever clues for BYTE and MITT.
I am not getting Head of Britain=LOO although I filled it in. Who calls a bathroom a Head? Am I missing somethings?
Montana -Glad you are OK. Must have been scary being awakened by an eartquake.
BillG - wonderful photos of granddaughter and grandson. Go ahead and spoil them.
Warming up today but stil beautiful. High eighties is cool compared to what some of you experience.
Enjoy the day.
CanadianEh: A 'head' is a term used by sailors for a toilet. Dunno why though. I have heard it often in a non-nautical environment too.
Thanks for the nice feedback re. Bella. She is a sweetie though maybe not as mellow as Jordan was as a baby.
I didn't know Montana had earthquakes. Not very often though I'm guessing. Not like southern California.
I'm definitely a music fogy. I like classical music, big band music, 50s rock and roll, and very little of the more recent music. Margaritaville was a favorite but not much since then.
Bill, Bella is adorable and Jordan is so handsome. You lucky grandpa. How is grandma doing?
This was a walk in the park.The theme was apparent within the first minute with downs providing NEBR—K-N---.Getting the theme answers provided tons of perps. I don’t know Escher and Hammer, perps to the rescue, and likewise for IRV. ACAI was a gimme. I never heard of GOJI, so was not tempted by it.
Japan’s Shinzo Abe, pronounced approximately Ah-bey may not be prime minister much longer. From a July 2017 news story, “A local election in Tokyo has put Mr. Abe’s longevity in doubt. Voters for the capital’s metropolitan assembly on Sunday resoundingly rejected candidates from Mr. Abe’s party.” He is dogged by tales of scandal and bumbling.
Having always been a news junkie from pre-adolescence onward I remember the news about the Biafran War and the more than 3 million who died of starvation there.
Have you science types heard about the new kg. standard? Macht nix to us ordinary folks, but to those who need really close tolerances it matters. I just find it interesting.
One of my elder son’s closet friends was an obsessive neatnik in his college days. We were amazed when he married an unusually disorganized (dare I say it) slob. He does all the organizing and cleaning.
D/O how wonderful for you that you have all that music from Your Hit Parade. It was amazing how the writers could think of countless scenarios to stage the same hit week after week.
FLN. Anonymous T, as a kid I thought the pink pickled eggs were lovely. Ours were always homemade and fresh. They remained in the pickling juice just a day or two to become pink and flavorful. We made just enough (not a gallon) to eat them quickly. They can become rubbery from sitting around. Our corner deli makes them and they sell out so quickly they don't get a chance to get old. Pickled eggs produce no more odor than deviled eggs do.
Wikipedia: "The head (or heads) is a ship's toilet. The name derives from sailing ships in which the toilet area for the regular sailors was placed at the head or bow of the ship."
The waste then and now flushes into the ocean. When I was in my Royal Navy reading kick, I looked up many of the nautical terms. They frequently appear in crosswords now.
In Navy boot camp every recruit was automatically processed for a Confidential clearance. After boot camp I was briefly assigned to assist processing the clearance paperwork. We'd interview the recruits in the morning and type up the paperwork in the afternoon. One of the recruits asked me if he could go to the bathroom. I told him the bathroom was upstairs in the first room on the left. As he left his Company Commander came over and reamed me out -- "The head is on the second deck, up that ladder in the first compartment on the port side! Got that, sailor?".
While in that job I was almost court-martialed for smashing a typewriter to the floor -- oops, deck. But that's another story.
Speaking of music nostalgia, while in the grocery store this morning, I heard "Dream" by the Everly Brothers. How's that for nostalgia? The music I normally hear while shopping sounds like a bag of cats. (No offense, Mr. Meow.) I must compliment the management, though, on the polite, helpful cashiers. Today, I was asked 1) Would you like your bags packed lightly?, 2) Would you like your meat packed separately? and 3) Would you like help out to your car? Both the cashier and packer wished me a nice day.
D-N-F ... Thanks Steve for explaining my Ink Blot!
Fave today, of course, was 43-d, Cantina quaff, MESCAL ... one of my few gimmies.
Cheers!
Thanks Bill G, YR, and d-otto for the info about head = loo. I guess I have not been on enough boats as I don't remember hearing it.
Learning moment for the day.
Musings
-Just ATE my first meal in 36 hours after getting a clean bill of health from the scope looking at my south pole. Yay!
-NEBRAKSKANSAS made me think of the 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act that tried to prevent Civil War. NEBRASKA _ _ _ _ was IOWA first
-I chose the right vowel in the MOD_NA/_SA area and all was good (ESO Besso steered me)
-My BASS voice in helpful in buffaloing secondary kids. C.C. will verify it is fairly deep.
-Japan and South Korea are uneasy about a potential non-celestial explosion from their unstable neighbor’s ICBM’S
-Our new GMC car’s ANODE connection is under the hood but the battery is under the rear floorboard
-The few competitive cooking shows I’ve seen appear to have rude and snarky judges
-BRAISE - BRASSEIRE and BRASSIERE are anagrams with two very different meanings. The former is a cooking device and the latter is more of a supporting device. The BRASSEIRE is mentioned frequently in The Agony And The Ecstasy as a cooking device for Michelangelo.
-It is a 2.5 hr. drive NE from the Leaning Tower up to MODENA
-Lovely pix Bill!
Well, I got so little on my first run-through on this puzzle, that I turned on the computer to get it ready for cheating. But then, lo and behold, slowly everything started to fill in, and in the end I got the whole thing--a Thursday puzzle yet--without a single mistake! Thank you, thank you, Pawel, and you too, Steve, for a fun morning.
Bella is adorable, Bill G., what a lucky grandfather you are!
Have a great day, everybody!
Nifty puzzle, darn clever theme. I didn't know ERO, IRV, or RYA at all; the ACAI BERRY, Golda MEIR, and SUPERNOVA filled them for me. Loved some of the clever clues, as some of you have already mentioned. Fair hiring? Put in the first E and see if it will become EOE or EEO. Metro stops? Fill in ST_S and wait to see if the missing letter is N or A.
I like M.C. Escher's work. MC Hammer not so much.
Bill G, lovely granddaughter! Thanks for sharing.
desper-otto, your UNKA comment made me laugh.
Montana, I'm glad there was no damage from the earthquake.
Good wishes to you all.
For some reason I spelled MEIR incorrectly, even though I know better. I even said it befoe I wrote it.
A very clever pzl from Mr. Fludzinski. I didn't catch on until I returned to 26A and spotted the overlap between MAINE and NEW HAMPSHIRE. Then everything fell into place, and it was a smooth run straight to my Ta-DA!
Thanks, Steve, for posting the newsreel of Paul Robeson and the Scottish miners. Wouldn't you know that Robeson, accused by our home-grown right-wingers of being a Commie, would find the perfect audience among the union miners? When they called on him to sing, I expected him to pull out some popular show tune like Ol' Man River or a bass-stretching church spiritual, maybe Go Down, Moses. But, no! The sly fox comes up with The Ballad of Joe Hill--the unofficial socialist anthem!
Why waste face time on camera?
Plural of SOPRANO should be SOPRANI.
For those who thought they didn't know who M.C. Escher was--I bet you did.
Check out this link.
Thanks to HG, an interesting dive into 3 very different words.
BRAISER
BRAISE, fry (food) lightly and then stew it slowly in a closed container:
from French BRAISER, from braise ‘live coals’ (into which the container was formerly placed). The container is called a braizer.
For braising, meat is seared at a high temperature and then simmered in a covered pot. We call it pot roast. In our family to make pot roast we sear the meat, beef or pork,in a little oil at a high temperature, browning it quickly on all sides and edges. Then we place it in a Dutch oven and cover it with salt, pepper and sliced onions, securing them with toothpicks if necessary. We add water or canned beef broth to reach half way up the meat and place it in a slow oven. When the meat falls apart easily we transfer the pot to our stove top. After removing the meat and scraping up the bottom residue we add potatoes in a half inch dice and carrot strips quartered the long way. adding only as much water as needed to cover the vegetables half way. Herbs may be added. We place the meat back on top and cook on medium heat. We add more water sparingly as needed. We want the liquid to totally infuse into the potatoes and disappear. The potatoes are filled completely with broth and are brown when you break into them. They are the best potatoes I have ever tasted. Normal pot roasted potatoes disappoint me.
BRASSERIE, an unpretentious restaurant or tavern serving drinks, especially beer, and simple hearty food. From french for brewery.
BRASSIERE, bra. Aren't you glad they shortened it to bra? Originally it was a child's vest or undergarment. It became a bodice and then today's bra. It is related to BRA meaning arm. Spanish brazos = arm.
Glad to hear the Montana quake didn't cause much damage.
Living in SoCal (Southern California, for all you Anti-Abbreviaturs), we are always aware of the possibility, nay the probability, of quakes. We are overdue for a very, very big one. We plan ahead. Nothing can be built these days unless it can withstand a point-8 "seismic event." That is huge, but of course there are such things as point-9 events.
We make sure to have earthquake supplies on hand, including our hand-powered wind-up radio. But then we just sorta fuggedaboudit, y'know?
I don't really know how we manage to do that. I mean quakes are always in the back of our minds, but they generally stay there, not intruding on our everyday plans and social events.
I guess this is a human trait, a survival mechanism. Same as people who build cabins in fire-prone areas. We scratch our heads over how folk in tornado states can continue to live there!! And how about those guys who live in areas that routinely flood?! Or endure mud-slides?!!
We're just like the ants who re-establish their food chains right after we hose away their progenitors.
Choose one: Persistent. Stubborn. Stupid.
My pot roast recipe is older than I am, from the "by guess and by golly" era, based on intuition rather than measurements. I am sure you will need to add salt when you add the potatoes, the amount varies upon how many potatoes you add. If you err on the light side you can taste the results and add more in the end, however you cannot remove the salt.
@Anonymous T - sorry, I owe you an answer to your sushi question. I started out learning how to make sushi rolls - once you get the knack of knowing how tight to roll them it's pretty straightforward. All trial and error. There are a lot of "how to" clips on YouTube. I like the "How to Make Sushi" channel with a dude named Davy Devaux.
The nigiri is a little more tricky at first, it looks easy to form the rice balls but it takes practice, and figuring out how to slice the fish the first time or two can be a head-scratcher.
You can source the basic fish from any good market that has a decent seafood department. They'll have ahi, halibut, salmon, shrimp and crab. The crab is usually cooked anyway. You can get top-grade fish mailed to you if you don't have a specialist market near you. Don't worry about whether it's been frozen or not, all commercially-fished tuna is frozen on the boat the second it comes out of the ocean and almost all farmed fish is frozen for transportation.
Get a sharp knife!
Hope this helps
Misty, our son has invited my wife and me to this "new Austrian" restaurant and all the menu items look so good I can't decide. May I presume upon you to offer an opinion of your favorites and what you might recommend? Thanks!
Yellowrocks @ 11:06,
The name-by-association rule, by which the WC or Loo for the "regular" seamen is called the "head" because it is at the "fo'c'sle" or front of the ship, should have a delight in naming the Cap'n's own john.
It must be located near his quarters, in the ship's "Poop."
Yr:
I like your method of cooking pot roast and want to try it. Yum!
Thanks, Steve, for the great recap. I did chuckle at your delicate explanation of how you remember ALEE, but the visual completely cancelled it.
North of NE/KS was a speed-fill - remembered RYA from previous cws, but hit a few snags down south. Remembered Biafra from the late 60's news. Republic of ECUAdor annexed the Galapagos in 1832. I was fortunate to have had the vacation time and a bit of extra cash to visit the Islands during a three-week ecotour to SA - they are truly amazing!
D-O - lol at your personal experience when explaining the location of the LOO!
WikWak - thanks for the Escher link, but I bet I don't! Have never heard of him or seen his work - perhaps my college art history class was lacking.
Anon-T (from several nights ago) - I apologize for the rude choice of the word "wasted." Should have said "researched while waiting for the salad to marinate." Garbanzo bean salad doesn't have quite the nice sound like chickpea salad. Finishing up the last of it today. Will wait a couple of days and then start the second round. I can't believe it's so darn heart-healthy and delicious - usually those two adjectives don't go hand-in-hand.
Happy Friday, everyone!
I got the theme after just filling NEBRA, because I knew KANSAS would follow. The NE was tough with ERO, IRV, and RYA all coming from perps. And MENSCH I would have never filled but the SUPER NOVA and ACAI BERRY were easy fills and allowed the NE to fall after I changed EBAN to MEIR.
ANTA- that's a new one for me. I never read 'The Scarlet Letter' but HESTER was a WAG after a few letters were in place.
MODENA- didn't really know but after your listing of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserait- what's the speed limit?
Steve- I agree with you on the fresh fish. Unless you catch it yourself or a neighbor gives it to you as soon as he gets to the docke, IT'S FROZEN. The proper way to 'refrigerate' fish is to place them in ice water, not on ice. That way you will have 'fresh, unfrozen' fish. I get my shrimp (don't cry; $2.50-3.50/lb) from the docks and it's always in ice water. But I live close to the source.
Jayce, I've eaten in an Austrian restaurant only once in the last ten years, and so am not really up on current specialties. But remembering my youth, the Austrian classics would be, of course, "Classic Wiener Schnitzel," "Jaeger Schnitzel," "Hungarian Beef Goulash," "Kraut Rouladen," all with a side of "Sauerkraut" and maybe an "Austrian Cold Cuts" appetizer. A better bet might be to ask your waiter to suggest some house specialties. In my youth we had virtually no sea food (no refrigerator, probably contributed to that), so something like scallops would have been totally foreign. And the really big Austrian specialty is, of course, dessert! Have a wonderful meal!
And, Jayce, I just looked at the dessert menu, and I'd probably go with the "Apfel Strudel."
Fun puzzle from Pawel. Like Big Easy, I got the theme with NEBRA, and sailed on. ANTA, ERO, and IRV were all perps, and yes it definitely helped knowing MEIR to fill the NE. Favorite clue was "Mother of Pearl" for HESTER. Thanks for the expo and links, Steve.
Bill G.--Thanks for sharing the sweet photos of Bella and Jordan.
Enjoy!
WIKWAK: Thanks for the Escher link. I've seen those stair prints somewhere, but the name and other art were not in the least bit familiar. I spent one year as a visiting art lady for our school systems so I did a lot of study and research. Escher was not included, apparently. Kids might have liked his wacky stuff.
I read the other day that Yellowstone is experiencing more than usual earthquake activity. Wonder what under the world is going on?
All you cooks make me hungry and I just ate. If I still cooked, I'd weigh 600#. I sure cooked a lot of big meals in my other life.
Hi All!
Steve Said... "[...] was a tough corner. If you don't know MEIR, I'm not sure you'd be able to unpick the triple three-letter down."
And he's right! I could only think Bibi and all the ABC-runs in the world weren't going to get me piece together Mensch, Ero, Irv, nor Rya. A Google for MEIR (D'Oh! - I should have known!) got me across the finish-line. Drat too, one or two perps would have jogged my memory on MEIR... If I only had a perp (or a brain)...
Thanks Pawel for a fun puzzle that seemed at first an exercise in frustration (Who?, What?, I don't even understand the clue!?!) until the theme dawned on me at -EW-XI--LO--O; that finished the pairs with MAI, NSAS, and the reveal. Whew! Creative & clever theme and execution. Nice.
Thanks Steve for the expo (esp. HESTER) and making me feel just a bit better about failure in the NE. Thanks for the Sushi how-to; it may take me a year to get up the nerve but I'm going to do it.
WO: EEO (hangs head in shame)
ESPs: In addition to above, MODENA, BIAFRA, ANTA, HESTER
Fav: c/a for BYTE
Runners-up: c/as for MCs and CORRECT
Clue for SEW was pretty dern cute too.
{B+, A -LOL}
Emailing C.C. is one way to get us pics of your grands :-). Nice shots of Bella and Jordan; I know you're proud!
D-O: Well there we go, scientific proof of our connection to music or our ute.
MC Escher's Relativity for Jinx.
YR - I was meaning putting pickled eggs in a bar (not the eggs itself) - if you've ever been around someone who's put both in their belly...
Also, re: un-salting. I learnt that the hard way with Hambone-Bean-Soup. We tried to eat it; Nope.
TxMs - glad you're enjoying it. I wasn't taken aback by "crude word 'wasted';" no harm, no foul. Perfect to cut the heat too, eh?
A woman in a head-scarf in a Maserati sedan wanted in front of me to hit the on-ramp today... I mean. it is a Maserati, but a sedan? I let her in (but a sedan?). Thought, I BET it still does 185.
Cheers, -T
Misty, thank you for your response. I've had my eye on that kraut rouladen. Dessert? Yes!
I was waiting on the dermatologist so I did the first two quads in my head. When the pen came out I figured out the STATE BORDERS.
Living in NEW HAMPSHIRE helped. IRV,ERO,RYA??? MEIR saved the day. I was thinking of the OIL the cook puts on the PAN for the CAKES. YR can you believe Pavel uses a MIX?!
I was going to SCAN those letters but I knew MESCAL.
Sunday night at 8 MLB channel is reviewing the 1967 Redsox pennant chase.
I'll be curious if they allude to the beanball war that culminated in Tony C getting struck.
Steve you must adore that grandchild. Owen, nice pair as the FedEx man said.
I have a good Marine Corps HEAD story. All those terms found there way to us.
WC
Big Easy - that's cruel!! Shrimp for $2.50/$3.50 per pound?! Driving from Houston to Freeport/Galveston to snag a fresh catch will cost over two times as much.
Jinx - I too filled in too quickly: sHaRe borders.
Thanks, Anon-T, I feel much better.
G'night all.
Big Easy - forgot to calculate gas costs to get there ... figure in four times as much.
Learning moment for me that there are people who never heard of ESCHER! One of my very favorite artists. Thanks for the links to enlighten those who have never had the joy.
Fun theme that mostly went quickly and smoothly for me.
Hand up with Big Easy and others on these unknowns:
ERO, IRV, MODENA, RYA, ANTA. Saved by ESP.
BIAFRA was big in the news when I was a child. About the same time as Bangladesh. Huge suffering for similar reasons: Political punishment of the innocent through starvation.
Don't really get how IN TOWN is around?
I did read The Scarlet Letter in college. But I did not realize the connection until I solved HESTER w perps as I did not remember Pearl.
Picard - I thought of In Town as being around (in the sense of available) as opposed to being away.
Right. Out of town, you're not around; in town, you are around.
Thanks, CanadianEh and Argyle!
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