Theme: DCDD
Words: 72 (pangram~!)
Blocks: 29
This
is number four for DCDD - and I didn't even look at the constructor's
name at first; when I did I remembered that three of those Saturday
puzzles have been pangrams, so I expected the same today - and that
helped tremendously in the NW, because I was blank up there to start.
Today we had one of those grids where one word could keep you from
getting into the individual corners without something to work with - and
I got slowed down by SMOTHERS and SPHERES, which was why my NW was
empty - until I figured the "Q" had to be in there somewhere. Ah,
logic. Caved into red-letters early - hey, I'm on vacation; I'm not working on the puzzle, either....Anyway, chunky 8x7 and 6x7 corners made up the long answers;
1. Most massive of all known elementary particles : TOP QUARK - I'd really like to learn more about elementary particles and quantum theory; a quark is a sub-particle that makes up hadrons, which then make up protons and neutrons. A top quark is as massive as an atom of tungsten; how then can it be in the nucleus~? The more I delve into the subject, the more my brain hurts
1. Most massive of all known elementary particles : TOP QUARK - I'd really like to learn more about elementary particles and quantum theory; a quark is a sub-particle that makes up hadrons, which then make up protons and neutrons. A top quark is as massive as an atom of tungsten; how then can it be in the nucleus~? The more I delve into the subject, the more my brain hurts
14. Unsteady : REELING - reminds me of Steely Dan's song
Reelin' in the Years - check out who the show host is~!
59. Oscillating curve : SINE WAVE
Sign Wave - get it~?
PuNWARD~!
ACROSS:
9. Storage spot : CELLAR
15. Place frequented by John Jasper in Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" : OPIUM DEN
16. Bird of baseball : ORIOLE - not a player's name, but a team's
17. Aptly named heavy-footed bird : MEGAPODE - the Wiki
18. Wow : DAZZLE
19. High school gp. : JRs - ah, not PTA
20. Areas of interest : SPHERES - the three consonants S,P,H slowed me down
22. Night sch. staple : ESL
23. Twelve __: neighbor of Tara : OAKS - I knew what Tara was, but did not know the Wilkes lived next door at this plantation in Gone with the Wind
25. Pre-fax communication : TELEX
26. One who isn't a pro : ANTI
27. Repeated phrase in Ecclesiastes : A TIME - ah; did not know this was a Biblical reference - I know it from Turn Turn Turn, the 60's song from The Byrds
29. Nile reptile : ASP - rhymes
30. Body part : ORGAN
31. Stood for : DENOTED
33. 2000s "SNL" alum : SAM BERG - no clue, all perps
35. Eastern way : TAO
36. Game console with a Mini version : Wii
37. Where many have gone on vacation : FISHING - I put in NO WHERE, since I am on vacation and this time I am not going down to see Mike in Delaware
41. __ zoo : PETTING
45. Get going : IMPEL
46. Pickup hr. : ETA - had me baffled for a long time - good way to clue this answer on a Saturday
48. Mexican title : SEÑOR
49. Animal house : LAIR
50. Polynesian people : MAORI
52. Value : RATE
53. Take responsibility for : OWN - clecho with; 6d. Take responsibility for : ADOPT
54. California city mentioned after Kingman in the song "Route 66" : BARSTOW
56. "Yo!" : "HEY~!"
57. Aficionados' creations that may infringe on copyrights, for short : FANFIC - I had everything but the second "F", and I knew it had to be "F" by the crossing, but this answer just made me cringe; Wiki
61. Cactus spine source : AREOLE - our classic image is no longer available, so here's the scientific version of the cactus variety
63. Persian king : XERXES
64. Hiker's shelter : PACK TENT
DOWN:
1. Steinbeck protagonist : TOM JOAD - could not recall this name from The Grapes of Wrath
2. Run : OPERATE - my PTA kept this from appearing
3. Game item made of cow leather, actually : PIGSKIN - funny
4. In the capacity of : QUA - I know this from the Latin "sine qua non", but did not realize it was an English word, straight up
5. Ballpark figures : UMPS - dah~! Not ESTS., which I know would have been clued "figs."
7. Lucille Ball, e.g. : REDHEAD
8. Gets down, in a way : KNEELS
9. Scrolls successor : CODEX - Wiki learning moment for me
10. Prominent periods : ERAS
11. Tina's "30 Rock" role : LIZ - never watched it
12. Cough syrup alternative : LOZENGE
13. Home Run Derby competitor : ALL*STAR
21. Counts while working out : REPS
24. Overwhelm : SMOTHER
26. Decision maker : ARBITER
28. Online biz : eTAIL
30. Skips : OMITS
32. Extended period : EON
34. Amaze : AWE
37. U.K.-based personal organizer brand : FILOFAX - no hyphens as I had thought there might be
38. "That comes as no surprise" : "I'M AWARE" - I'm aware that the puzzle beat me up this week
40. First or second, say : GEAR - I prefer Top Gear
41. Bach work : PARTITA
42. Confused : IN A HAZE
43. "Nice try!" :"NOT EVEN~!" - think sarcastic
44. Most dreary, in Dublin : GREYEST
47. Anybody's guess : TOSS UP
50. Medieval clubs : MACES
51. Like the Jefferson Memorial's columns : IONIC - good way to clue this answer for a Saturday
54. Nastiness : BILE
55. Old TV host with an accordion : WELK
58. Kit maker : FOX - the word for fox young is "kit"; I thought it was the group name, but that turns out to be skulk, leash or earth - huh.
60. Quick thinking : WIT - I can think, but not quick enough to be "witty"
15. Place frequented by John Jasper in Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" : OPIUM DEN
16. Bird of baseball : ORIOLE - not a player's name, but a team's
17. Aptly named heavy-footed bird : MEGAPODE - the Wiki
18. Wow : DAZZLE
19. High school gp. : JRs - ah, not PTA
20. Areas of interest : SPHERES - the three consonants S,P,H slowed me down
22. Night sch. staple : ESL
23. Twelve __: neighbor of Tara : OAKS - I knew what Tara was, but did not know the Wilkes lived next door at this plantation in Gone with the Wind
25. Pre-fax communication : TELEX
26. One who isn't a pro : ANTI
27. Repeated phrase in Ecclesiastes : A TIME - ah; did not know this was a Biblical reference - I know it from Turn Turn Turn, the 60's song from The Byrds
29. Nile reptile : ASP - rhymes
30. Body part : ORGAN
31. Stood for : DENOTED
33. 2000s "SNL" alum : SAM BERG - no clue, all perps
35. Eastern way : TAO
36. Game console with a Mini version : Wii
37. Where many have gone on vacation : FISHING - I put in NO WHERE, since I am on vacation and this time I am not going down to see Mike in Delaware
41. __ zoo : PETTING
45. Get going : IMPEL
46. Pickup hr. : ETA - had me baffled for a long time - good way to clue this answer on a Saturday
48. Mexican title : SEÑOR
49. Animal house : LAIR
50. Polynesian people : MAORI
52. Value : RATE
53. Take responsibility for : OWN - clecho with; 6d. Take responsibility for : ADOPT
54. California city mentioned after Kingman in the song "Route 66" : BARSTOW
56. "Yo!" : "HEY~!"
57. Aficionados' creations that may infringe on copyrights, for short : FANFIC - I had everything but the second "F", and I knew it had to be "F" by the crossing, but this answer just made me cringe; Wiki
61. Cactus spine source : AREOLE - our classic image is no longer available, so here's the scientific version of the cactus variety
I did, however, find this; all I can say is "OUCH~!"
62. Takes advantage of : UTILIZES63. Persian king : XERXES
64. Hiker's shelter : PACK TENT
DOWN:
1. Steinbeck protagonist : TOM JOAD - could not recall this name from The Grapes of Wrath
2. Run : OPERATE - my PTA kept this from appearing
3. Game item made of cow leather, actually : PIGSKIN - funny
4. In the capacity of : QUA - I know this from the Latin "sine qua non", but did not realize it was an English word, straight up
5. Ballpark figures : UMPS - dah~! Not ESTS., which I know would have been clued "figs."
7. Lucille Ball, e.g. : REDHEAD
8. Gets down, in a way : KNEELS
10. Prominent periods : ERAS
11. Tina's "30 Rock" role : LIZ - never watched it
12. Cough syrup alternative : LOZENGE
13. Home Run Derby competitor : ALL*STAR
21. Counts while working out : REPS
24. Overwhelm : SMOTHER
26. Decision maker : ARBITER
28. Online biz : eTAIL
30. Skips : OMITS
32. Extended period : EON
34. Amaze : AWE
37. U.K.-based personal organizer brand : FILOFAX - no hyphens as I had thought there might be
40. First or second, say : GEAR - I prefer Top Gear
41. Bach work : PARTITA
J. S. Bach: Partita in d minor, 4. (Itzhak Perlman)
43. "Nice try!" :"NOT EVEN~!" - think sarcastic
44. Most dreary, in Dublin : GREYEST
47. Anybody's guess : TOSS UP
50. Medieval clubs : MACES
51. Like the Jefferson Memorial's columns : IONIC - good way to clue this answer for a Saturday
54. Nastiness : BILE
55. Old TV host with an accordion : WELK
58. Kit maker : FOX - the word for fox young is "kit"; I thought it was the group name, but that turns out to be skulk, leash or earth - huh.
60. Quick thinking : WIT - I can think, but not quick enough to be "witty"
Splynter
41 comments:
Let us all hail to old king XERXES
Who could DAZZLE all with his tender mercies!
He beat the Greeks, beat the Spartans
IMPELLED them all to wear kilts in tartans
But sent them a TELEX on each of their birthdays!
LIZ was a surfer babe from BARSTOW
Decided to OPERATE a cigar sto'e
UTILIZED her surfboard
As a advert billboard
So she could hang ten on a "SIGN" WAVE flow!
{C, C+.}
Quick FYI ... the SNL alum is Andy SAMBERG (not SAM BERG). He's now on Brooklyn 99. He also is in the musical group Lonely Island. Worth checking YouTube for their video with Michael Bolton, Jack Sparrow. Hilarious :)
Andy Samberg never appealed to me, coming across as an attempt at cloning Adam Sandler, but Andy keeps BUSY .
The group and song gespenst referenced is LONELY ISLAND
This was very hard: MEGAPODE and PARTITA were out of reach.
I know the term QUARK but not TOP QUARK .
Have a relaxing holiday weekend.
Well the NW did me in with TOPQUARK, OPIUM DEN, and MEGAPODE, even after I had traded ESTS for UMPS and ACTRESS for REDHEAD.
I'm enjoying listening to the PARTITA with Izthak PErlman right now - new word for me.
Have an enjoyable weekend!
Thanks Splynter and David!
Hi Y'all! No where near my comfort zone. NW was the last to fill. Never heard of TOP QUARK (I think nerds just made these up.), MEGAPODE, John Jasper, or QUA. Help, red-letters! Gee, thanks a lot, DCDD. (Looks like a Roman Numeral.)
I did know JOAD and eventually remembered TOM. WAGd PIGSKIN which gave me courage to keep going. Fijian before MAORI.
Didn't know CODEX, or LIZ or TELEX - all WAGS. Never heard of SAMBERG, Andy or otherwise. FANFIC and SINEWAVE were all perps & red-letters.
PARTITA was an unknown Bach ditty. I tried Fugues which didn't fit. Taccota turned red except for the last two letters.
Oh well, the sun is shining here so I'll forget about feeling ignorant. Thanks, Splynter, for your hard work on this.
Great puzzle. Great write-up.
It took all my will power to resist the allure of the red letters to finish things off in the NW. This summer's Saturdays have gone pretty quickly for me, and today I was humbled. I tried "as a" for in the capacity of, "ests" for ballpark figures (but should have realized the clue had no abbrev), and "iterate" for run. My knowledge of Dickens and birds was lacking, and even as a saw quark begin to appear, I couldn't make things fit. Finally it all clicked though.
33A: It's not Sam Berg. It's Samberg; Andy Samberg.
11D: You missed a funny, yes, quirky, yet funny, show.
42D: I had 'daze'. I still think it's better than 'haze'.
58D: Another far fetched clue.
I don't mean to be a downer. It's just my observations.
"A top quark is as massive as an atom of tungsten; how then can it be in the nucleus?"
Normal nuclear matter (protons and neutrons) consists of "up" and "down" quarks. [Proton is up+up+down; neutron is up+down+down.] The top quark is over 1000 times as massive as up or down quarks.
More importantly, though, one can't merely add the masses of individual quarks to arrive at the mass of the larger particles. The energy of their interactions is significant, and as Einstein famously wrote, energy and mass are related. Per Wikipedia, "The rest masses of quarks contribute only about 1% of a proton's mass."
Musings
-FILOFAX, AREOLE (with that cluing) and FANFIC (cringe-worthy indeed) were not coming and so I’ll take two bad cells and get ready to watch the Huskers tonight.
-However, I did wrestle MEGAPODE and PARTITA into submission
-Did anyone else think first of this baseball Bird?
-I felt so smug putting in TYRO for “Not a pro” but alas…
-Grandson is learning that OPERATING a real car is different from his video games
-Baseballs were once made of horse hide but scarcity has converted them to being covered in cowhide just like footballs. BTW, MLB baseballs are hand sewn in Costa Rica.
-Yeah right, Lucille Ball was a REDHEAD!
-Lucy was a natural brunette but chose blonde as her first dye. MGM asked her to become a REDHEAD and she did.
Good Morning:
This was the most difficult Saturday I've seen in a very long time and, needless to say, it was a DNF due to the Fanfic/Fox crossing. Kit maker had me thinking of kits like those for model airplanes, etc., so I was on the wrong path and having never heard of the term Fanfic, abbreviated or not, that area just died. The NW corner had me stymied for ages, even though I filled in Tom Joad immediately., but Top Quark, Opium den and Megapode required some serious time and effort. Barstow, as clued, and Partita were unknowns and Xerxes was Xerses at first. For Bird in baseball, I kept thinking of Mark Fidrich (sp?) whose nickname was The Bird. Wasn't keen on In a haze and some of the other odd cluing and fill.
Thanks, David, for a challenging Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter, for the tour. Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
Have a great day.
Good day!
I left the puzzle this morning because I was not getting anywhere. About ten I came back and threw a in few WAGS, which seemed to work. Left again for struggling with the same issues above. When I came back a bit ago, I finished, but don't understand much of how I did. I had no idea with TOP QUARK, but with the T_P and the K at the end I Wagged that completely. Just an example of how I finished. Favorite was the cluing of KIT between skunks and foxes around here the word was on the tip of my tongue.
Thanks, David. Splynter, I can figure out most "new" words and teen slang, but FANFIC is still beyond me even with your help. Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
This one was too hard for me. A couple of weeks ago someone on here posted her opinion that she gets much more pleasure from solving a puzzle where the answers can eventually be inferred from common knowledge rather than a puzzle that has answers that are mere trivia and you either have the specific knowledge or you don't. I am starting to agree. Answers like SAMBERG (even Splynter thought the name was SAM BERG) and FILOFAX one either knows or does not, and if you don't then it becomes a matter of Every Single Perp to get it and, to me, there is no satisfaction. I know it's a fine line and there are plenty of solvers here who obviously know who Andy SAMBERG is. Just as I know what a TOP QUARK is, but clearly there are some here who do not. Something like MEGAPODE is, to me, a thing to learn about, even though I had never heard of it until today. Something like FANFIC I will very likely forget in a day or two. All in the eye of the beholder...
Best wishes to you all.
Hard! Hard! Hard! That's my opinion today. Thank you, DCDD, for challenging my brain. As I jumped around I managed to fill a few cells, e.g., JOAD but waited for TOM. XERXES came easily and so forth. Finally most of it was filled but like others, failed at kit, FOX and AREOLE. Never heard of FILOFAX and just needed the A.
I guessed wrongly that ROZ was Tina's character but ORIOLE fixed that and changed FEDEX to CODEX. Also I didn't get MEGIPODE. I had ADAPT so MEGIPADE. It didn't make sense but really, I was ready to give up so didn't care.
Thank you, Splynter, for shedding light on the grid. I hope you're having fun on your vacation.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone! No word from d-o?
I just glanced at today's puzzle and surrendered without even printing it out. WAY too tough for my (in)abilities. However I couldn't resist checking in to copy the mail (other ham radio operators will understand), and to brag about getting the JW offering yesterday without help or error. Only my second such success.
DCDD..... well it was over my head in the SW today. Got XERXES, but didn't FANFIC, FILOFAX.... DNF!
Thanks, Splynter, for the write-up. Sorry that you always get the toughies!
Things are getting better in the area. Just a lot of work having people clean out their houses. Streets like like a war zone. But spirits are strong and the volunteers are an inspiration to all!
Well, gosh, I did get a few sections of this, but what a toughie. To keep myself in good spirits on this holiday weekend, I'll just focus on some things I did get, like TOM JOAD and Twelve OAKS and MAORI and SENOR. I also figured out that PETTING zoo. But the one that made me happiest was not only getting A TIME as the repeated phrase in Ecclesiastes, but knowing that it came from Chapter 3, verses 1-11: "There is an appointed time for everything,/ and a time for every thing under heaven." We sadly lost our wonderful neighbor Judy, who lived across the street from me, and her husband asked us to read at her Memorial Mass. I got to read this section from Ecclesiastes, including such wonderful lines as "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" and "A time to love, and a time to hate;/ a time of war and a time of peace."
Amen. Have a wonderful holiday weekend, everybody.
Jayce quoted an earlier lady poster:
"A couple of weeks ago someone on here posted her opinion that she gets much more pleasure from solving a puzzle where the answers can eventually be inferred from common knowledge rather than a puzzle that has answers that are mere trivia and you either have the specific knowledge or you don't. I am starting to agree."
I'll add a third to the motion. Unless the object of these crosswords is to induce frustration, the answers mostly need to be within reach for most of us.
Or, turned around, when was the last time any of us talked about 'top quarks' over our morning oatmeal? How about 'filofax' or 'fanfic' with our filets?
I know people can cite on-line dictionaries in support of some answers, but when the first time I've EVER seen a word in 70+ years of dense reading, is in this morning's puzzle, it's a bit much.
Puzzles with obscure clues and odd word combinations have become common because online solvers can simply plug in letters until something sticks. There's no choice but to look things up if you're using the printed version.
Quite difficult. As I am very busy today, I solved it in threes sittings. FIR finally. I plugged in letters mentally, which I like to do, not using red letters.
MEGA (large) PODE (foot) could be in inferred. -----ARK let me wag QUARK which we had before. The TOP came from perps and made sense. The Q led to QUA and the U to OPIUM DEN.
The top 2/3 was easier than a usual Saturday.
The bottom third was more difficult. FILO was all perps. FOX KIT was cute and gave me XERXES and then I wagged FAX. I knew BILE and MACES, so AREOLE filled itself.
The last to fill was the SE. SINE WAVE was all perps. All seven unfamiliar fill, such as SAM BERG, were available either through wags or perps.
Some days I don't have the patience for a puzzle like this. Being forced to do it in parts to suit my schedule helped.
IN A HAZE, seems natural to me. I spent half an hour today looking for a recipe that I thought was in my purse. It actually was there and I overlooked it twice. Talk about in a haze. We often say in a haze or in a fog.
I totally agree with the earlier lady poster, Jayce and Michael! Got all of the eastern two/thirds quickly but had to look up XERXES, which confirmed FOX. Hated sending TELEXes (noisy, clumsy machines!), often past midnight, to clients in Europe and beyond (during their working hours); my attorneys of course were at home asleep. Never heard of FILOFAX; plus the clue "pre-fax communication"? Is that okay? Had to google "Mystery of Edwin Drood," as my patience was wearing then - did know Twelve OAKS, TOM JOAD, but that was about it in the NW.
Splynter, great 'splanation' as always! But I have to agree, you must have drawn the shortest straw to get the honor of Saturday's toughies.
PK, funny - DCDD (Roman numeral).
Still no word from D-O. I googled Roman Forest Flooding, but couldn't get anything specific about that area - just images throughout the Houston area. Maybe they did in fact evacuate. Montgomery County got hard-hit also.
Have a safe holiday everyone.
Word from DO: He's safe! just no Internet. He called his Brother in FL who called C.C.. I'll let C.C. fill in the game of telephone. -T
I thought this very tough, but at least a straightforward puzzle rather than some gimmicky mess.
Like a couple others, I had to walk away and come back to it....funny how that helps.
Had never seen PARTITA before, and it never looked right but all around it seemed good. I was all proud of myself for knowing DARIUS for 63A, was kind of disappointed when I had to change it to XERXES. Ego I guess. The NW was a mess unti I gots SPHERES, then changed 5D from ESTS to UMPS out of desperation, and then 15A became clear and I just filled in 1A from what was there.
I'd rather work on something like this then some too-clever themed gimmick disaster.
YR: I agree that walking away is a great refresher. I also had to do that today. I need to do it more with puzzles that are difficult or not on my radar.
Anon-T, thanks for being the bearer of good news. Yay, D-O!!!
I want to thank the corner for agreeing that this was a toughie. I did the East first, I had too many fills to think of Mark, the Bird from the Boston area. ESPN did a segment on him and with all the Tiger fans he would be The Bird of baseball.
Not Greg Bird of the X-¥* Yankees.
Yes, SW got me too and the reason why? "I'm such a stupid". I thought the Club was a guild or secret society and Mases sounded "close". But as Jayce or someone said "If it's close it's probably wrong"
That would have got the C in FANFIC. Enough. I coulda, shoulda.
I think Sydney Carton got pulled out of some kind of DEN too.
Owen. Solid W's today. You're a hard marker. Btw, Xerxes suffered a Phyric victory at Thermopolae and a later disaster at ???
I had Darius at first.
One doesn't have to be an ALL-STAR to be in Home run Derby.
Splynter, enjoy your vacation. Find where CLEAVAGE occurs in the literature 😂
To wrap up. Latimes constructors try to serve all generations of solvers and different knowledge bases. All of this stuff in retrospect was perpable or guessable.
I'm except SAMBERG. Never heard of him
Like last night I could have sussed BArrY LEAVES. I blame myself.
So I'll give DCDD a W.
And Wilbur a W-.
Oops. X-¥ = Expletive Deleted
WC
Ta- DAH!! minus 1.
Whew! The "minus 1" is for the same goof that Splynter confessed to, missing the second "F" in 57A - FANFIC.
I didn't even consider the "F," as I was torn between an "L" for FANLIT and the one I settled for, a "P" for FANPIC. I was aware of FANLIT, where the aficionados create their own literature, and guessed that FANPIC might be respectful mimicry of the drawings in graphic novels. (And I was willing to accept POX as the mysterious "Kit maker" at 48D.) But nope, I was wrong: FANFIC has obviously taken the place of FANLIT.
So, at least I finished with only the one stupid wrong letter. This was a super chewy pzl by Mr. DCDD - an excellent challenge, well explicated by Splynter! I see that its chewiness factor is attested to by several of my esteemed colleagues, so I wasn't hallucinating. I was certainly tempted to cheat but managed to limit my peeking to a couple of confirmations. All in all, I feel good about my finish and am happy to count this as a victory. Nice to learn about the TOP QUARK and such along the way, as well as to notice that DORIC and IONIC occupy the same number of squares, as do MISSING and FISHING and just about every Persian king you can think up, from DARIUS and CYRRUS to XERXES himself.
Just breathed a tremendous sigh of relief hearing that DO is safe! Thank you, Tony.
A brief follow-up to yesterday's chat about the volume of musical performances. (Kids, these days...!)
PK, I found it très amusant that the wedding band said they couldn't turn the sound down - as in physically, literally couldn't.
Ye gads! I guess their amps only go down as low as "1" on the usual 10-point dial, and that "1" these days is equivalent to 58 or 83 back in "the day." But I'd suppose there's always a lower setting.
If they don't have a zero,
they must have
Pull the *#@! Plug!
Misty, yes, matinees are often filled with seniors. Probably because the thrill of staying out late has dissipated.
We have subscriptions to Saturday matinees at SCR's Argyros stage. We started in my 60s when the audience seemed ancient. Funny how the crowd around me has grown so juvenile over the years. They've morphed to younger versions of themselves.
I wear a hearing aid some of the time. Happily the actors are usually audible without it because when there's a lot of bridge or background music I often have to take it out!
HEY All!
Oh the errors of my ways...
WEES, I struggled with Mr. 1,600's [If I did my Roman Numerals right] puzzle. Not only were some of these c/as out of my wheelhouse but clue-misreads [missed the word particle after element - I was into Einsteinium by then] and mis-spellings [looking at you TOM JODE [sic]]. I can't say I finished a whole corner on my OWN. I did best in the SE (damn ruCK TENT!)
I did nail SAMBuRG (almost) and WELK - pride because I usually fail w/ names (see LIZ, I'da swore she went by Tina in the show)
Thanks Splynter for, once again, letting me crib from your grid.
I enjoyed the Steely Dan selection and the associated Cactus pic; Sadness, I had two Pericrpeli (?) on my cactus and one fell off during the storm. This big-guy only blooms 1/year. I hope the second flower makes it.
{B-, B}
WC - The Home Run Derby is part of the ALL STAR game celebrations. I think all the batters (not 13d) are, in fact, ALL STARS. I await getting schooled.
OKL - so no English explanation for the genius?
I'll play later... All the excitement around D-O has worn me out. Nap time.
Cheers, -T
Tony, thank you for the good news about D-O. What a relief to know he's all right!
Jayce@12:58 & Michael:
I have to agree. Although I enjoyed fill like DAZZLE, seeing TOM JOAD, and learning FANFIC. Presumably that stands for fan fiction. And I always chuckle realizing that two semesters of trig actually help me in solving puzzles. To wit: SINE WAVE.
I finally Googled Megapode and this is what I found: The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae.
megapode: (family Megapodiidae), any of 12 species of Australasian chickenlike birds (order Galliformes) that bury their eggs to hatch them.
They are found in Australia and South Pacific Islands a/k/a "down under". No wonder we had trouble with this. Not the usual tourist sight when you visit these places. Now we can add them to our vocabulary with EMU, MOA, Nene & platypus. However, they probably have too many letters to enjoy a frequent crossword life.
Tony, thanks for the info about D-O. It's amazing how fond one becomes of internet friends that one has never seen but still worry about.
I'm glad desper-otto is okay.
🅾️ Tony: I think you wanted OMK≠OKL for très amusant = very funny ?
☯️ Having written my share of FANFIC in my time, that was a gimme for me.
🕉 vILE>BILE almost kept me from getting BARSTOW (which had started out as NEEDLES), so that section almost killed me.
🎻 PARTITA was unknown.
🐥🦆 MEGAPODE was inferable, but MEGA or MEGO, and POD or PED?
📜 BOOKS > CODEX. Interesting parallel between "after scrolls" and "before fax"
⚛️ I wanted HIGGS BOSON, not TOP QUARK, but looked it up just now, and
Higgs has mass 125.09±0.21 (stat.)±0.11 (syst.) GeV/c²
while Top has 173.34 ± 0.27 (stat) ± 0.71 (syst)10⁰ GeV/c²
Heard from D-O ... he'll be "back on air" soon, "maybe tomorrow."
PK, second your thoughts @ 5:54.
Didn't even look at the Puzzle until the Alabama/FSU game got out of hand. Between the driving range and choice of 20 football games Saturday crosswords are very low priority. I knew 1a was some kind of Quark but my physics degree is so old they were still debating the existence of quarks when I went to school. I don't know the theory behind Higgs Bosons or Top Quarks but I do know that all sorts of crazy things happen in a particle accelerator and quantum mechanics predicts particles that make no sense until you realize that there existence is in nano seconds. But the Northwest kept me from a Tada once again. I was proud to pull Filofax from some dark recess of the mind.
Ms Irish...I thought of Mark "the Bird" Fydrich as well instead of the obvious team names but oriole became obvious. Good hard Saturday puzzle.
I first thought of Larry Bird.
OKL - D'Oh. Yes, I meant OMK. Ol' Man Keith - does the joke FLN translate [com'mon you know I love funny]?
What a relief to hear about DO today. PK, yes, It is odd (in a good way, I think) that we can care about folks we only eMet. There are kudos to go all around with current and ex-(read: lurk)cornerites that tried to check on DO. TxMS - glad to hear you got a call through directly..
Cheers, -T
Was expecting an elementary particle to end in -ON. When it didn't I realized it must be a QUARK.
Thanks HowardW for explaining to others how the sum can weigh less than the parts! This explains fusion nuclear energy. The binding energy has an equivalent mass. Put the massive pieces together and you get something less massive plus a lot of energy.
I may know about the TOP QUARK but forget about those entertainment names. Never heard of SAMBERG or LIZ.
Thought the FOX clue was clever. That gave me XERXES. Which had me thinking the personal organizer was a ROLODEX. Was I the only one? Never heard of FILOFAX. Crossing it with FANFIC was challenging or even unfair.
PARTITA was also unknown. PACK TENT, too, but it makes sense.
NW was the last to fall. Indeed, the Byrds song helped give me A TIME. I am a devout atheist, but I know quite a lot about the Bible.
Learning moment about the MEGAPODE which was new to me.
Hand up this was quite a challenge, so I was happy to FIR.
I haven't done Sunday's puzzle and just did Saturday's, which was a DNF. I 'had' to go tailgate at the Superdome for the LSU-BYU game. Three complete unknowns in the SW stopped me cold. FANFIX, FILOFAX, AREOLE and the very clever clue - "kit maker" FOX.
I hd FAN_IC and FILOF_X but if I had correctly WAGged the fills it would have been sheer luck.
I had never heard of a PARTITA either but the crosses filled it for me.
It's a little eerie that you posted the "Reelin' in the Years" clip the day before Walter Becker's death was in the news.
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