Theme: Hole Foods. Perhaps inspired by the grocery store sometimes known as "Whole Pay Check"?
The nicely-placed reveal tells us what to look for in the theme entries:
54A. Component of balanced health ... and what each answer to a starred clue looks like it should be part of? : HOLISTIC DIET. "Hole-istic" if you're still at a loss.
And we have *drum roll*
20A. *Beer hall snacks : HARD PRETZELS. This is the outlier - three holes in a hard pretzel, one hole in all the other theme entries.
29A. *Deli snacks : BAGEL CHIPS. Yum. The best part of Gardetto's mix. I make a home-cook gluten-free version for my gluten-intolerant friend.
35A. *Bakery snacks : CHOCOLATE DONUTS.
43A. *Diner snacks : ONION RINGS. I've tried making onion rings at home. I think I am onion ring kryptonite. You wouldn't recognize my efforts as onion, let alone rings.
So ... I'm wondering why the asterisks today? The convention is that if the theme entries are not obvious, then you highlight them, but these all follow the rules - they're the longest entries in the grid, across and down, and, to boot, linked by the common "snacks" in the clues. Maybe one of my fellow constructors/bloggers can shed some light?
Nice puzzle though - I was off to the races with the first few entries and then stalled somewhere in the middle. I like when that happens.
So let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Día de San Valentín flowers : ROSAS. Plenty of these sold yesterday, I'm sure.
6. California's __ Gabriel Mountains : SAN. I can see these from my window most days.
9. Construction rod : REBAR
14. Remove from the bulletin board : UNPIN
15. Blood type letters : ABO. Apparently this is just one of 35 different blood type classification systems currently recognized. We'll have a pop quiz on the other 34 shortly.
16. Like 36 piano keys, traditionally : EBONY. That leaves room for 52 ivories on a traditional piano keyboard.
17. Lewis with 12 Emmys : SHARI. Amazing what a cute sock puppet will do for your career.
18. "That '70s Show" exchange student whose nationality isn't revealed : FEZ. I watched the show, I never realized there was a secret nationality gimmick.
19. Lessen : ABATE
23. Surf and turf, say : ENTRÉE
24. NASA vehicle : L.E.M. Lunar Excursion Module. Also the Apollo 13 "lifeboat"for the crippled command module.
25. Tempe sch. : A.S.U.
28. Time for action : D-DAY
33. Actress Neuwirth with Tonys and Emmys : BEBE. Very talented TV and stage actress, two very different disciplines. She graduated from Juillard.
34. Slim craft : CANOE
41. "Tempt not a desperate man" speaker : ROMEO. He was not long for this world when he spoke these lines - in Hamlet's words he was about the "shuffle off the mortal coil".
42. Pretty good : OKAY. I'd say "Okay" was middling, rather than pretty good. More "mas a menos" or "comme çi, comme ça".
46. California wine valley : NAPA. I recently got to taste a bottle of Chateau Montelena chardonnay, the wine that launched the global recognition of Napa wines when the '73 won a blind tasting in Paris, much to the chagrin of the French. A bottle of the famous vintage is in the Smithsonian. It would be undrinkable by now.
50. Favorite : PET
51. One of three rhyming mos. : DEC. Rhymes with those famous crossword months "Pec" and Sec". Wait - no. Maybe "September" and "December"?
52. Pavement cloppers : HOOVES. Two half-coconut shells do the trick for foley artists. I was told than snapping a carrot in half is useful when a broken finger is called for, and abusing a cabbage with a knife gives you a "crunching stab sound". The wonderful world of sound effects.
57. Lose one's cool in a big way : PANIC. The nerd in me loved the Tesla in the SpaceX capsule with a copy of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" in the glove compartment. "Don't Panic" is writ large on the cover. "Life on Mars" on the stereo was super cool too.
60. Murmur : COO
61. Lift with force : HEAVE
62. Car or tree feature : TRUNK
63. Tote : LUG
64. Film with lots of shooting stars? : OATER. Six Shooters.
65. Ships : SENDS
66. Stat for Clayton Kershaw : E.R.A.
67. Flexible Flyers, e.g. : SLEDS. Capitalization hints that you are looking at a brand name.
Down:
1. Blitzed, in football : RUSHED
2. In stock : ON HAND
3. Peloponnesian War victor : SPARTA. Athens V. Sparta. It lasted for 27 years, and nothing good came out of it.
4. Put on the line? : AIR DRY
5. Wading bird : SNIPE. I tried STORK first, and was gradually rebuffed.
6. No-risk : SAFE
7. Help with an inside job, say : ABET. Apparently you can't just "abet" in law, you have to "aid and abet".
8. Gas pump part : NOZZLE
9. Genuine article : REAL MCCOY. Per the interwebs "the phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies". Google and Wikipedia at your peril.
10. Flows out : EBBS
11. Feathery wrap : BOA
12. House pest : ANT. The moment you see one of the little buggers in the kitchen you need to act fast, otherwise 10 bazillion will follow.
13. Bread with caraway seeds : RYE. Food! Mmmm, Pastrami! I'm in New York - Katz's Deli sounds awfully tempting right now.
21. Insurgent : REBEL
22. Charged fish? : EEL. The electric kind. Apparently they do kick out a pretty good shock.
25. Indigenous Japanese : AINU. Thank you crosses, and a learning moment. Japanese/Russians
26. Notice : SPOT
27. Multi-tools have many : USES
30. Old hoops org. : A.B.A. American Basketball Association
31. Board : GET ON
32. Solo with a Wookiee co-pilot : HAN. "Star Wars" character portrayed by Harrison Ford.
33. Nowheresville, with "the" : BOONDOCKS. I'd have said "boonies", but I guess there's a proper designation.
35. Cut closely : CROP
36. Sharpen : HONE
37. Skip over : OMIT
38. Board bigwig : CEO. Bored bigwig - the CEO listening to the financial forecast from the CFO.
39. Heart test letters : EKG
40. Broth that's the base of miso soup : DASHI. If you have a handy supply of kelp and dried tuna, you can make your own. I get the stuff in a jar, much easier.
44. Cath. or Prot. : REL. Catholics, Protestants. Religion. Stir together and stand well back.
45. Christmas eave decor : ICICLE. Nice! Clue of the day for me.
46. "The agreement is off" : NO DEAL
47. Take wing : AVIATE. Here we go again - the verb.
48. Rather put out : PEEVED
49. Starlike flowers : ASTERS
53. Figure-eight steps, in an Argentine tango : OCHOS
54. Posterior : HIND
55. Acidic : SOUR
56. Draped garment : TOGA
57. FG's three : PTS. Three points for a field goal on the gridiron.
58. Exist : ARE
59. Many a "Call the Midwife" character : NUN. I saw a couple of episodes of this BBC series, then completely forgot about it. Thank you, crosses.
So there we are, another Thursday in the books. Back to the west coast tonight and my home timezone, at least for the weekend. According to my chums at united.com, I've already flown 40,129 miles in 2018, and that doesn't include the Delhi-Mumbai return on local airline Indigo. My trip back to LA today will put me right around the 43,000 mile mark. That's a lot of airline snack bag hard pretzels!
I've never seen anything like this though - a United flight from Honolulu to San Francisco yesterday. Google engineer Erik Haddad gets the "cool humor under stress" award of the day for this tweet:
And with that gem, here's the grid!
Steve
The nicely-placed reveal tells us what to look for in the theme entries:
54A. Component of balanced health ... and what each answer to a starred clue looks like it should be part of? : HOLISTIC DIET. "Hole-istic" if you're still at a loss.
And we have *drum roll*
20A. *Beer hall snacks : HARD PRETZELS. This is the outlier - three holes in a hard pretzel, one hole in all the other theme entries.
29A. *Deli snacks : BAGEL CHIPS. Yum. The best part of Gardetto's mix. I make a home-cook gluten-free version for my gluten-intolerant friend.
35A. *Bakery snacks : CHOCOLATE DONUTS.
43A. *Diner snacks : ONION RINGS. I've tried making onion rings at home. I think I am onion ring kryptonite. You wouldn't recognize my efforts as onion, let alone rings.
So ... I'm wondering why the asterisks today? The convention is that if the theme entries are not obvious, then you highlight them, but these all follow the rules - they're the longest entries in the grid, across and down, and, to boot, linked by the common "snacks" in the clues. Maybe one of my fellow constructors/bloggers can shed some light?
Nice puzzle though - I was off to the races with the first few entries and then stalled somewhere in the middle. I like when that happens.
So let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Día de San Valentín flowers : ROSAS. Plenty of these sold yesterday, I'm sure.
6. California's __ Gabriel Mountains : SAN. I can see these from my window most days.
9. Construction rod : REBAR
14. Remove from the bulletin board : UNPIN
15. Blood type letters : ABO. Apparently this is just one of 35 different blood type classification systems currently recognized. We'll have a pop quiz on the other 34 shortly.
16. Like 36 piano keys, traditionally : EBONY. That leaves room for 52 ivories on a traditional piano keyboard.
17. Lewis with 12 Emmys : SHARI. Amazing what a cute sock puppet will do for your career.
18. "That '70s Show" exchange student whose nationality isn't revealed : FEZ. I watched the show, I never realized there was a secret nationality gimmick.
19. Lessen : ABATE
23. Surf and turf, say : ENTRÉE
24. NASA vehicle : L.E.M. Lunar Excursion Module. Also the Apollo 13 "lifeboat"for the crippled command module.
25. Tempe sch. : A.S.U.
28. Time for action : D-DAY
33. Actress Neuwirth with Tonys and Emmys : BEBE. Very talented TV and stage actress, two very different disciplines. She graduated from Juillard.
34. Slim craft : CANOE
41. "Tempt not a desperate man" speaker : ROMEO. He was not long for this world when he spoke these lines - in Hamlet's words he was about the "shuffle off the mortal coil".
"I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.
Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head
By urging me to fury. O, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither armed against myself.
Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say
A madman’s mercy bid thee run away."
42. Pretty good : OKAY. I'd say "Okay" was middling, rather than pretty good. More "mas a menos" or "comme çi, comme ça".
46. California wine valley : NAPA. I recently got to taste a bottle of Chateau Montelena chardonnay, the wine that launched the global recognition of Napa wines when the '73 won a blind tasting in Paris, much to the chagrin of the French. A bottle of the famous vintage is in the Smithsonian. It would be undrinkable by now.
50. Favorite : PET
51. One of three rhyming mos. : DEC. Rhymes with those famous crossword months "Pec" and Sec". Wait - no. Maybe "September" and "December"?
52. Pavement cloppers : HOOVES. Two half-coconut shells do the trick for foley artists. I was told than snapping a carrot in half is useful when a broken finger is called for, and abusing a cabbage with a knife gives you a "crunching stab sound". The wonderful world of sound effects.
57. Lose one's cool in a big way : PANIC. The nerd in me loved the Tesla in the SpaceX capsule with a copy of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" in the glove compartment. "Don't Panic" is writ large on the cover. "Life on Mars" on the stereo was super cool too.
60. Murmur : COO
61. Lift with force : HEAVE
62. Car or tree feature : TRUNK
63. Tote : LUG
64. Film with lots of shooting stars? : OATER. Six Shooters.
65. Ships : SENDS
66. Stat for Clayton Kershaw : E.R.A.
67. Flexible Flyers, e.g. : SLEDS. Capitalization hints that you are looking at a brand name.
Down:
1. Blitzed, in football : RUSHED
2. In stock : ON HAND
3. Peloponnesian War victor : SPARTA. Athens V. Sparta. It lasted for 27 years, and nothing good came out of it.
4. Put on the line? : AIR DRY
5. Wading bird : SNIPE. I tried STORK first, and was gradually rebuffed.
6. No-risk : SAFE
7. Help with an inside job, say : ABET. Apparently you can't just "abet" in law, you have to "aid and abet".
8. Gas pump part : NOZZLE
9. Genuine article : REAL MCCOY. Per the interwebs "the phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies". Google and Wikipedia at your peril.
10. Flows out : EBBS
11. Feathery wrap : BOA
12. House pest : ANT. The moment you see one of the little buggers in the kitchen you need to act fast, otherwise 10 bazillion will follow.
13. Bread with caraway seeds : RYE. Food! Mmmm, Pastrami! I'm in New York - Katz's Deli sounds awfully tempting right now.
21. Insurgent : REBEL
22. Charged fish? : EEL. The electric kind. Apparently they do kick out a pretty good shock.
25. Indigenous Japanese : AINU. Thank you crosses, and a learning moment. Japanese/Russians
26. Notice : SPOT
27. Multi-tools have many : USES
30. Old hoops org. : A.B.A. American Basketball Association
31. Board : GET ON
32. Solo with a Wookiee co-pilot : HAN. "Star Wars" character portrayed by Harrison Ford.
33. Nowheresville, with "the" : BOONDOCKS. I'd have said "boonies", but I guess there's a proper designation.
35. Cut closely : CROP
36. Sharpen : HONE
37. Skip over : OMIT
38. Board bigwig : CEO. Bored bigwig - the CEO listening to the financial forecast from the CFO.
39. Heart test letters : EKG
40. Broth that's the base of miso soup : DASHI. If you have a handy supply of kelp and dried tuna, you can make your own. I get the stuff in a jar, much easier.
44. Cath. or Prot. : REL. Catholics, Protestants. Religion. Stir together and stand well back.
45. Christmas eave decor : ICICLE. Nice! Clue of the day for me.
46. "The agreement is off" : NO DEAL
47. Take wing : AVIATE. Here we go again - the verb.
48. Rather put out : PEEVED
49. Starlike flowers : ASTERS
53. Figure-eight steps, in an Argentine tango : OCHOS
54. Posterior : HIND
55. Acidic : SOUR
56. Draped garment : TOGA
57. FG's three : PTS. Three points for a field goal on the gridiron.
58. Exist : ARE
59. Many a "Call the Midwife" character : NUN. I saw a couple of episodes of this BBC series, then completely forgot about it. Thank you, crosses.
So there we are, another Thursday in the books. Back to the west coast tonight and my home timezone, at least for the weekend. According to my chums at united.com, I've already flown 40,129 miles in 2018, and that doesn't include the Delhi-Mumbai return on local airline Indigo. My trip back to LA today will put me right around the 43,000 mile mark. That's a lot of airline snack bag hard pretzels!
I've never seen anything like this though - a United flight from Honolulu to San Francisco yesterday. Google engineer Erik Haddad gets the "cool humor under stress" award of the day for this tweet:
And with that gem, here's the grid!
Steve
The residuum of Valentines seems to have influenced Erato today, to gift us with one longish poem. If you like something serious, just read the first 4 verses. Only continue to the last two by Thalia if you don't mind the mood being broken.
ReplyDeleteEre night's EBONY cloak has EBBED,
And ROSAS and ROMEOS gone to bed,
The murmured COOS
In moonlit CANOES
Have made the ASTERS nod their heads!
Hands entwined like PRETZEL knots,
Promises made on forget-me-nots.
A cape, UNPIN.
A kiss, a sin?
The story in city or BOONDOCKS.
And on the morrow, the ring of HOOVES.
Off to soldiering he is behoved.
He leaves his PET,
Will he forget?
PEEVED and PANICKED are her moods.
Will her Romeo be SAFE, OKAY,
On that foreign, far D-DAY?
Will he return?
Or some SPOT earn
A hero's blood, his bone's decay?
Should he survive, yet not retrieve
Rosa's heart, a sigh she'll HEAVE.
She'll not become
A cloistered NUN.
Swains ARE like ICICLES on the eave.
At first they're shiny, hard and straight.
But then they thaw, to melt is their fate.
They leave a mess
That's soggy wet!
But there's always others to take their place!
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Elliot and Steve!
Did not know: FEZ, ROMEO and AINU. All perped.
PK: Sorry about your SIL.
Hope to see you all tomorrow!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteFell into the STORK trap, but otherwise sailed through this one. Thanx, Elliot and Steve.
As a kid, my sled was a Flexible Flyer. The best hill in town was at the school...steep with a footbridge across the creek at the bottom. There was a metal pole in the center to keep vehicles from attempting to cross. Guess who slid into that pole full tilt and skidded off into the creek?
When I was stationed on Guam, we'd go Boonie Stomping on the weekends. Destinations included the old tank battlefield (complete with abandoned Japanese and American tanks), Marbo Cave, the Nasa tracking station and Talofofo Falls.
Another taxing day...
Thanx Elliot and Steve. FIR with only AINU via crosses. PK. Sorry for your loss . Even tho it may be a blessing the finality of it may still be painful . Glad for you that you have happy memories of her. OwenKL great fun always reading your poems .
ReplyDeletewhat is FIR?
DeleteFIR, finished it right. FIW, finished it wrong.
ReplyDeleteFIR - I thought this one was pretty easy for Thursday; about on par with yesterday's grid. Erased i beam for REBAR (doh), REAL thing for MCCOY, NO sale for DEAL,and rear for HIND.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know anything about That 70s Show, Call the Midwife (CSO to Lucina), or Argentine tango. Also didn't know BAGEL CHIPS, AINU or DASHI.
Thanks to Elliot for a fun, doable puzzle. My favorite was "put on the line?" for AIR DRY. Not a single clunker in all the clues or fills. And thanks to Steve for another informative review.
Clopping coconuts are famous in the opening scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHFXG3r_0B8&sns=em
Didn’t recognize the quote, tried hOMEr and ChOP before the 2nd O led me to ROMEO.
AINU is also a creation-spirit in Tolkien’s mythology, the Ainu later became Valar and Maiar
Happy Valentine's Day for yesterday. David came for lunch and stayed to do repairs I can no longer handle. It was wonderful to see him and to have help. I can't squat all the way down, lift heavy things, climb ladders,etc., things I was still doing at 76 or 77. David and Motoko gave me beautiful flowers. Alan bought me roses. Our Valentine's Day is not a lovers' day, but a family love day.
ReplyDeletePK, so sorry to hear about your SIL. It is hard to see someone you love decline and then to lose them.
Misty, I hope you have a better day today.
IM, I was thrilled for you when Flynn won.
Today's puzzle: WHOLLY fun. I knew Ainu from studying Japanese. Only unknowns were FEZ and CALL THE MIDWIFE/nun.
Hunting SNIPES was a prank, played at camp. Kids were sent into the woods to hunt for snipes. The older kids would claim to have seen several right over there. I am sure some kids realized it was a hoax from the start, but had to play along. I know I did. I knew snipes didn't live in the woods.
Steve, enjoyable expo. 43,000 miles in a month and a half! What an arduous schedule. Like JzB yesterday, I find flying no longer a pleasure.
I keep getting a message that I have issues and should add McAfee Web Protection to my other McAfee products. I also have Norton 360 which comes up clean. I see no overt issues. Is this protection necessary?
Good Morning, all.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elliot for a doable Thursday challenge. I was also sailing away when the wind died. I especially like the cluing for D-DAY, OATER, AIR DRY, CROP, CANOE, and GET ON.
No ICICLES here on Christmas Eve, but they were dangerously abundant after a foot of snow and serious ice damming until yesterday when the temp rose into the 40's. Let the melt begin.
Thanks, Steve, for the tour and all the informative tidbits. You seem to be doing very well for a gent who certainly has chronic jet lag! ;>) You never miss a beat here on the Corner.
PK: So sorry. I am certain your family will enjoy many wonderful memories through the stories you'll tell.
Misty: Today is a new day. Woo Hoo!
Everybody enjoy a great one?
Very easy puzzle for a Thursday, NW to SE without a break, the food connection was easy, but as usual, the HOLE connection flew over my head. Especially missing the BAGEL CHIPS 'holes'- I've never bought any but do the chips have 'holes'? AINU- a crossword oldie, just like ANIL yesterday.
ReplyDeleteFEZ the exchange student, BEBE Neuwirth, DASHI, NUN- all solved by perps or crosses.
Steve- make your own BAGEL CHIPS? You're never home long enough to cook. I also wanted STORK before UNPIN allowed it.
Whole Paycheck Foods, subsidiary of Amazon.com- many people seem to think that 'fresh' and 'organic' mean healthier but there's absolutely no correlation. The younger people are aware of the food borne diseases of the past. Salmonella, botulism, trichinosis and all their 'lovely' relatives.
Change aware to UN-aware.
ReplyDeleteWow! A Thursday IDF (I DID finish!) That’s a rarity. Had some bad starts. REDDOG for BLITZ (an old term no longer used). EGRET instead of SNIPE. I always thought it was fictitious as in “snipe hunt” - that was a group taking a novice into the woods on a prank hunt and then abandoning him.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention that the actor who playe Fez (18 A) is now on NCIS.
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI must be still on Cloud 9 over Flynn's win (hi Tawnya and YR) because I sputtered and stumbled much too long before I got my Tada. I had I beam/Rebar and Horses/Hooves (right church, wrong pew)! Unknowns were Ainu, Dashi, and Fez and Romeo, as clued. I definitely needed the reveal to see the "holey" part of the theme. Lots of fresh fill, in particular, Boondocks and Real Mc Coy.
Thanks, Elliott, for a challenging Thursday and thanks, Steve, for the humorous and detailed summary. Because of your globe trotting adventures and culinary expertise, I've decided to dub thee "Sir Steve, the Galloping Gourmet"!
PK, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Anon T, FLN, I searched high and low for the post by Loren that you referenced but can't find it. Am I missing something or do I need new glasses?
Misty, I hope your day is care free and peaceful.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeletePK - Condolences on the loss of your SIL. Remembering her vivacity is the thing to do.
Misty - I hope things have settled down to a more even keel for you.
YR - I responded to your question Tuesday re: Falling Water, on late Tuesday. It included comments on another FLW house near there.
Got the whole shebang today without searches. OK theme. I don't think whether more than one hole is in the 'snack' matters; I think the reveal covers it.
Knew AINU - Just a few left, mainly on Hokkaido. Not related to any other known language. A real outlier.
Shouldn't the clue for ROSAS have included 'flors' instead of 'flowers'?
Semi-tough Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Elliot and Steve. (All that travel must play havoc with the body clock.)
ReplyDeleteI groaned when I got the theme with HOLISTIC. I had _ _ LIST and _ _DIET and was misdirected to a list of healthy foods. Those snacks would not have made that list with all their sodium and saturated fats!
I started moving Across with little success after the first three and switched to the Downs.
Almost a Natick at cross of BEBE and BOONDOCKS but then the light dawned.
SW corner was the last to fall because I had Dads calling the midwives (never heard of that show), Rear before HIND (hello Jinx), and could not figure out what FGs stood for (and I do watch football d'uh!).
Hand up with billocohoes for the Homer/Chop before ROMEO/CROP mistake.
Hand up also for Real Thing before REAL MCCOY.
I smiled at the Valentine clue at 1A and entered Roses; AIRDRY fixed that.
My Christmas eave had Lights before ICICLE. Great clue, as was the OATER "shooting stars".
I racked my brain trying to remember YR's discussion of Miso soup but required perps for DASHI. AINU was unknown; I was trying to remember Nesei (close but not a match!).
Sympathy in the loss of your SIL, PK.
Hope today is better Misty.
I saw Flynn on the news IM. Gorgeous dog. Hours of grooming required I'm sure.
Enjoy the day.
I totally did not get the theme until I got the reveal. Then the HOLE thing fell into place. Fun ride!
ReplyDeleteEach First Thursday of the month we have a fun bike ride in the evening called Bike Moves.
My lighted BOA is one of the starring attractions of Bike Moves!
Never watched "That 70s Show".
But here I was in the real FEZ in Morocco.
I still have my Flexible Flyer from when I was a child back East!
No snow here in coastal California. But here we were with our SLEDS at Mount Pinos last year.
Thanks for the classic Flexible Flyer ad, Steve!
From yesterday:
PK: Condolences on losing your sister in law. That is indeed a long life.
OlManKeith: Yes, there is no magic solution to the California drought. We do have a new desalination plant that could serve us in an emergency. Unfortunately, it uses a lot of energy which is what got us in the climate change mess in the first place. Israel does desalination with solar energy now.
"Puzzling thoughts":
ReplyDelete35d ---> SNIP/CLIP/CROP
55d ---> TART/SOUR
9a ---> I BEAM/REBAR
Whole Foods coffee is pretty good, but other than that I don't shop there too often. Trader Joes has been getting my action lately. I do shop @ Amazon but not enough to warrant their "Prime" category. I still like brick and mortar stores
Christmas "eave" ---> ICICLE = brilliant
Moe-ku du jour:
Woke up with a cold.
Tried re-sleeping; but it's hard
To snooze when you sneeze
Those crispy crunchy brown discs in the classic Gardettos are described as rye chips. Is that the same as bagel chips? I never thought so but I've been wrong before. They're my favorite part as well.
ReplyDeleteHello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteThis one was a race to the bottom, such that I missed the unifier’s connection. So thanks, Steve, for clarifying!
PK, allow me to add my condolences. I share in your sense of loss.
Bagel chips
ReplyDeletebagel chips recipe
buy bagel chips
Spitz, I enjoyed your Falling water reply. Thanks you so much. I would love to see both houses.
Musings
ReplyDelete-We met my sister at her “favorite pizza place” in Omaha last week. The pizza was mediocre at best and the ONION RINGS were horrible. I’m glad she didn’t ask what I thought
-Fun theme and only foreign words were speed bumps
-Her costume came UNPINNED or UNHOOKED Sunday but she kept going and kept covered up!
-My MIL’s brother hit Omaha Beach at D-DAY+2 and those images still haunt him
-Elon Musk is proposing to soon fly from London to NYC in 29 minutes. If weightlessness makes you PANIC, you may have to be more conventional
-Our HOA does not allow clothes lines
-Yup, this is what I thought of too
-Billy Joe Royal’s Down In The BOONDOCKS is about the most syrupy song you can imagine
--Biggest DEAL/NO DEAL blunder ever!
-Back to teaching Factoring!
Yr, I was speaking about the Gardettos snack mix Steve had mentioned. I know what bagel chips are.
ReplyDeleteFIR, thank you, Elliot M. Abrams!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing words like NOZZLE, HOOVES, and HEAVE in a puzzle. I'm familiar with AINU so it fell right in place. Nice CSOs to me at ASU and NUN. I love Call the Midwife and watch it faithfully.
BEBE Neuwirth is delightful to watch in whatever she does. In Chicago on Broadway she excelled at dancing.
Yesterday I read Sunday's comments and want to thank C.C. for posting that picture and thanks to all of you for your kind comments. That was another lifetime ago!
Thank you, Steve; whew! I don't know how you do it. I like to fly but that many trips, that often would be a difficult challenge.
Have a magnificent day, everyone!
Hi Y'all! Easier than usual Thursday but fun, thanks, Elliot. Thanks also to our high-flying Steve.
ReplyDeleteWe've certainly had an unusual amount of food puzzles. Wonder if Rich is on a DIET and obsessing about food?
Was it here or elsewhere that I read "A balanced diet is a cupcake in each hand"?
Last to fill was PANIC/TRUNK/Sends area. I've never seen "Call the Midwife" and was shocked to see a NUN show up.
My Flexible Flyer now enjoys life as a be-wreathed decoration every Xmas on my DIL's front porch.
ANT: I found my 3 yr. old daughter crushing ANTs (many years ago) then sniffing her finger. Who knew they had a very sweet pungent odor?
Never heard of BAGEL CHIPS. Didn't realize how limited my food experiences had been until I joined this blog.
Picard, I searched all your Morocco pictures looking for you in that distinctive hat. FEZ is a town? We had an Egyptian exchange student once in our little town. He was so arrogant, they should have sent him to Hollywood where he might have fit in. The only exchange student ever that nobody liked, including his host family.
Thank you for the condolences. My kids are off to the funeral today. I am sad that I couldn't go and see all the nieces and nephews that I haven't seen for quite awhile. We all used to be together at Xmas either at her house or mine. Last time I had it there were 35 of us. Probably well over a hundred now in the family group.
Holly Mackerel! Easy puzzle Mr. Elliot M. Abrams, but wholly worth it. It is a wonder that Steven was able to sum up the whole puzzle entirely on an empty stomach. If you think I’m not making sense, read this story below:
ReplyDeleteIt was safe to say “Sparta’s Re-Bar” was in the boondocks of Napa Valley. I pulled up to the bar and grille and in the parking lot was an SUV with a canoe on the roof and two dog sleds sticking out the trunk. I heard the hooves of a moose trotting on the hard ground in the distance and the coo of a dove close by.
My client, Asu Aba, was slurping on Dashi stock soup and noshing on onion rings. I rushed over to him and shook his hand that was like an icicle. Surprising, because he was an Ainu, and they had excellent cold-climate response. I looked into his soup and saw the head of an eel.
“You like that stuff?” I asked. I was surprised also to hear the chords of an ebony grand piano. The heavyset player looked like he was wearing a toga to tent his obese body.
“I’m on a holistic diet – it’s an acquired taste. Course' it’s not the Real McCoy and its sour, but its close enough.” He called the waiter over then asked me, “Did Shari Fez get in touch with you about D-Day?”
“Yeah, she says she is going to aviate tonight to ‘spot the asters’,” I said – alluding to the mission to find the rebel who we believed was using a crop duster to poison the vineyards.
The waiter came over with a basket of rye bread, “Yes sir?”
“Where’s the entrée? I’m done with this.” I could see he was peeved.
“Sorry sir, we ran out of hind quarter boa constrictor – would you care for some bagel chips or hard pretzels?”
“What? That’s all you got on hand?”
Then the piano player gets in a panic. He uses the nozzle of one of the bar taps to spray soda water into his mouth. He is stricken, I unpin his toga and administer several hits to his heart. They happen to have a machine nearby and I lug it over – only to find out its an old EKG machine, not a defibrillator. The episode abates and he says he’s okay.
“Probably got a chocolate donut stuck in my craw,” he said.
My phone rang and it was Shari Fez.
“We caught the snipe,” she said. “He was fueling up the duster at San Rosas and the attendant, Bebe Romeo, smelled the heavy scent of the poison. The rebel heaves a bottle of Nun wine at Bebe and she catches it. She looks at the bottle and says, ‘no deal’!”
That was the end of a era, I thought.
Wonderful Thursday puzzle, Elliot--thank you so much. I got the whole thing without any problems and loved the theme and the reveal. Didn't know AINU, DASHI, or FEZ, but perps filled them in. A delight to see SHARI Lewis with her sweet lamb puppet (thanks for the pic, Steve) and also BEBE Neuwirth. Wasn't she on "Cheers" many years ago? Anyway, a total pleasure, and thanks for giving us ROMEO's speech, Steve!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, what sweet wishes from you all--many thanks, Yellowrocks, Madame Defarge, Irish Miss, Spitzboov, and CanadianEh. I took two Advil PMs at bedtime, and they worked--got a full 7 hours of sleep and feel wonderful today. Thank you all so much for caring.
Have a terrific day, everybody!
I actually was introduced to AINU in this PUZZLE back in 2014.
ReplyDeleteHow about FRUIT LOOPS and BUNDT CAKES?
Funny the Wilmer Valderrama was the wimpy one and now is the testosterone-fueled macho boy on NCIS
Anonymous @ 11:06, it seems some here are not acquainted with bagel chips. My post was for them.
ReplyDeleteGardettos snack mix is a mixture of rye chips (I suspect from rye bread not bagels), bread sticks and pretzels.
AINU and Dashi were new and had to write over REALTHING to Real McCoy. Isn't D-DAY an abbreviation ? I know that all landings were D-Day not just Overlord. Roses instead of rosAs and DEAL instead of DDAY, made a mess instead of AIRDRY. The entire NW gave me a bad DNF as I haven't missed a Thursday so far this year. Oh well...
ReplyDeleteThings to do today...but the golf course is calling to me...Which to do ?
IM - Loren's is the very last post on Tuesday's Log
ReplyDeleteSteve - I couldn't make out what I was looking at out the portal... Oh, it's Flt 1175's engine falling apart over the ocean.
Play later! -T
HI Gang -
ReplyDeletePK - So sorry for your loss.
Quit the AHA moment when I sussed the HOLE theme.
BEBE and FEZ were unknown, but perps helped. BOARD had me thinking lumber.
Had problems in the NW and SE corners, but eventually got it all.
Why the "?" on "Put on the line?" It's literal.
Cool regards!
JzB
No battery on phone . Lost my last post but it was lousy. Steve,omk and Rick get W+ today. I've got copious notes but no juice .
ReplyDeleteWC
Okay let me try this. First I messed up on the clip,clop chop Etc of 35 down I ended up with Lomeo the famous Shakespearean character.
ReplyDeleteOkay enough of voice to text this isn't
going to work either
Later
WC
PK: Yes, FEZ is a most magical city in Morocco. It is almost unchanged for over a thousand years or more.
ReplyDeleteHere I am wearing a FEZ (hat) that I brought back from those travels. Yes, the hat gets its name from the city.
Hand up with billocohoes and CanadianEh I had HOMER before ROMEO. I wonder if it was a deliberate misdirection?
Steve: Thanks for explaining the cryptic FGs!
FLN, Ack! It was HeartRx Birthday?
ReplyDeleteI always thought a Snipe was the mythical beast of campfire stories...
Miso soup broth? (I always thought it was dishwater...)
Gimme a Wonton soup with an extra dose of Chinese mustard for flavor!
Yellowrocks, I believe I have Mcafee web advisor, and it is very useful.
It give you a big "WHOA! DO YOU REALLY WaNT TO GO THERE" when you visit
websites that have been reported to be Spam or Malware sources.
Also,
Has anyone else noticed a difference in Chrome Images?
My McAfee went kablooie and would no longer update.
After an hour of online tech help, they reinstalled it for me
and it seems to be running normally. Except today, I cannot copy Google Images
without either downloading them, or clicking "share."
Is this a McAfee thing? Or did Google change the way images are made available?
The puzzle? Will have to come back and play later, lots of work to do today.
Except to say, "IFIATBS" (I filled in all the blank spaces...)
(Hmm, now I know why we use "FIR".)
However, I think my NorthEast accent screwed me up.
I hear "HOL" and not "HOLE" in Holistic,
so the theme was a V8 can that went so far over my head,
it might hit Tesla's car...
Oh! Almost forgot!
SLeds!
Growing up in NYC, (Tudor City to be exact.) We had no snowy hills to sled!
So we did the next best thing!
Unfortunately, there is a brick wall at the bottom...
Yes, you would sail down the 1st course, miss a few steps on the 2nd course,
go even faster and miss more steps on the 3rd course,
and hopefully end your aviating and land before the brick wall
to only survive by making a screechingly hard right turn.
(Many a sled were lost in this fashion...)
(To quote us dead end kids...)
Helmets! We don't need no stinkin' helmets!
Public Service Announcement:
ReplyDeleteHoley foods you should avoid:
Uh, Ahem! Sorry, I meant this Public Service announcement.
And continuing in that vein, or artery...
(Can I do 4 links? ok, here goes, probably land in the Spam file...)
Be nice to that Snarky Anon, It's probably the food he eats...
Holy puzzle, Antman! Lots of fun working this one. Thanks to Mr. Abrams.
ReplyDeleteCertainly one of the learning functions of cruciverbal processing is the discovery - or re-discovery - of the multiple meanings of some simple words.
ReplyDeleteTake "Board," for example. I must have struggled mentally through ten different definitions of the word before I could claim victory over Mr. Abrams' challenge today.
Sounding it aloud only made matters worse, as it opened my search into homonym territory. I had to catch & remind myself that I wasn't looking for an answer to "Bored."
When I finally hit on the right answer - through perps - I was not satisfied. The two words GET ON didn't meet any of my previous thinkings.
It actually took more than a minute for the Ol' Walnut to recognize that "to Board" a ship or plane made absolutely perfect sense.
Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Well, anyway - Ta- DA!
Picard, to continue in my grumpy frame of mind: let me join your worry over what's ahead for our state for water conservation.
What makes our situation even worse is that our current failures are occurring during a relatively strong economy.
The available solutions are very expensive, so this is the time when we ought to be paying for them. But we will wait until we're much deeper into crisis than now, with more major disasters, to spur us into action - and that will likely be at a time when we really can't afford it.
Sigh.
Wilbur C, on a lighter note, I loved your introduction of Lomeo into the Shakespearean dramatis personae. I take him to be an earthier version of his rhyming cousin. He would fall between Othello's ambassador, Lodovico, and the would-be suitor, Longaville, of Loves Labors Lost.
Misty, welcome back to the revived spirit of WooHoo! Let's hear it for Advil. Yay!
____________
Diagonal Report: One center line from NW to SE. No flankers & no mirror action. No hidden message.
.
Anon T @ 12:55 ~ Thank you. I did check Tuesday but for 4:00 in the afternoon. That was nice of her to drop by.
ReplyDeleteCanadianEh ~ I hope the loss of the Gold Medal by your pair skaters was somewhat softened by how meaningful it was for the winning couple, particularly the woman. Our couple didn't stand a chance but they certainly exuded the joy and spirit of just being in the Olympics! And, yes, even non-show dog Bichons require intensive, daily grooming; my husband spent a lot of time each day combing and brushing Fluffy's curly coat. I can't imagine the time required to maintain the "Famous Flynn" look!
Rick:
ReplyDeleteI really like your stories and may I offer a bit of editing advice which likely makes no difference to anyone but a Spanish speaker. Instead of SAN ROSAS you could call the town LAS ROSAS since SAN is masculine and ROSAS is feminine. Your creative imagination could incorporate SAN elsewhere. Though as I said, I'm probably the only one to whom that makes a difference.
Interesting... we learn through the knowledge of others. Thank you Lucina. Rosas to you!
DeleteCE Dave,
ReplyDeleteYou should try homemade miso soup, our dashi is not dishwater, but is very flavorful. Maybe some restaurants tone it down a notch. I know our Thai restaurant gives bland, meh padthai to us Americans unless we ask for a degree of spice.
The things we dared in our youth! Your sledding reminds me of our roller skating. We used to skate down a steep hill over several areas of broken sidewalk, then picking up speed and ending at a busy cross street, avoided by a very sharp turn to the left. Mom would have died had she realized how dangerous it was.
I will email you about McAfee. Thanks for the reply, Dave.
I'm back with a full battery. Lucina, I echo your kudos to Rick and I noticed the CSO and never complimented you on the lovely pictures. And continuing...
ReplyDeleteHG, I had a sil visit with her most excellent new beau. Who also is a former person of the "cloth". He liked a poem I'd written for my sil on the death of her husband. Fastest way into my good graces. And continuing...
Owen. W+++. Elegant verse, tight context all whilst including the various xwords. Touche. And the "thalia" doesn't have to be taken the way the likes of Wilbur etal might choose to interpret it.
Steve you were at the top of your write-up game. Btw, I didn't grok GOT ON until OMK pointed it out.
Misty, I'm glad you're well rested, now flush the Advil PMs down the thalia.
YR loved your post and the answer is NO!!! That is, when invited to"Click here" for added security, RUN. That's exactly how they hack.
And, speaking of Chrome. Somebody's messed up my Android Editor. When I try to touch the edited typo it won't take. The gibberish remains. No more sloppy typing. CED? Anon-T??? I assume it's not blogspot.
IM, I thought you were referring to Loren's NYT post. I saw him! on the 01/21 Rex write-up. "REMEMBER"? (That was the wierd theme clue).
Finally. I saw a 70s episode where FEZ is getting deported back to Argentina.
I liked Magilla's REDDOG.
I have more notes but this is enough.
WC
PS They spiked my decaf again.
Irish Miss @3:26 -
ReplyDeleteYou scared me for a minute because I hadn't been watching the skating today and I thought you were referring to Tessa & Scott. But they are Ice Dance Pairs and don't compete until next week. We are looking for a gold for them.
But a bronze for Duhamel and Radford is a nice bonus. They were happy to get on the podium.
BronzeMedalFeelsLikeGold
I will have to catch up on my Olympic watching!
I mix up SNIPE Hunting with the Running of the Grunion, not realizing that only one of the two is fake and the other one, the real one, sometimes faked by those who seek to mock - or make out - with newbies on their turf.
ReplyDeleteI credit today's pzl with teaching me (after all these years!) that there is such a thing as a SNIPE.
Thank you, Elliot Abrams.
We never stop learning.
WC @ 4:25 ~ I don't understand your comment; could you please explain exactly what you're referring to? 😉
ReplyDeleteCE @ 4:26 ~ Sorry for scaring you! I should have mentioned their names. 😔
51A might have been clued as No. 2 IT Company in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteHG, Factoring? Shudder. Btw. Last night I was in the wading pool and began my timing with the second hand on 12. But after one lap instead of 8, the hand was on 7. So instead of 3 laps for the hand to return to 12, how many laps must I travel now for it to return to 12. That's much better than factoring, isn't
it Owen ?
Btw, I too, had trouble with the NW to start. A veritable Rohrschach inkblot.
Did I mention they slipped in an EKG during my cardio?
Was it Cat Stevens and which Beatle on EBONY and Ivory? I have Beatles channel and Cat was talking about meeting the Beatles for the first time .
WC
IM, I referred to Loren posting on the Rex Parker NYT xword blog for Sunday 0122.
ReplyDeleteThe second part was my referring to the obscurely clued theme. You'd have to have done the xword. I see some of our LaTimes xword people over there. I do them a week or more late and it takes me a week or more.
But I don't think NYT blogging is encouraged here.
WC
Thank you, Ol'Man Keith. The Advil PMs were a lifesaver last night, but I promise I'll take them only when I really need them, Wilbur.
ReplyDeleteHi. Gary, I've always liked factoring. Sort of like a little puzzle to solve.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry too much about Advil PM. They just added Benadryl, a mild allergy medicine into the Ibuprofen. Benadryl has a tendency to make people drowsy as a side effect.
Ebony and Ivory was done by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.
ReplyDeleteKind of a breezy Thursday puzzle, I thought yesterday’s tougher. But always happy to get the solve regardless of the day of the week.
Ok. 3 40 second laps was 3*40=120 which is divisible by 60 ergo, at 40sec per lap the second hand is back to 12 every third lap. Now...
ReplyDelete35 sec/lap is messier. Let's multiply by 2 and find a product divisible by 60. So...
140,210,280,350... Ah 420(6*7) or 6*2 or 12 laps. Let's check. 1-7,2-2,3-9,4-4,5-11,6-6,7-1,8-8,9-3,10-10,11-5,12-12. Bingo.
Now .Isn't that more interesting than factoring? BillG notwithstanding. Then again I'm really rusty when it comes to factoring.
When I worked that out while walking in the pool I got a whole mile in.
WC
Misty, there's the key to insomnia: fun with Wilbur's math. Btw, the ingredient in all the sleep aids in diphenhydramine.
Allegedly, non habit forming, available under many brand names. I was more concerned with the NSAID(Advil).
Then again, taken occasionally, no problem. It's Wilbur who can't take them and does occasionally.
WC
A late Hi All!
ReplyDeleteI had a round-table dinner tonight and just finished catching up w/ everyone. IM, yes, that was me @12:55 @work.
Thanks Elliot for this HOLISTIC puzzle -- I love that word; always makes me think of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Thanks Steve for the great expo and for introducing me to Erik's Twitter feed.
ChuckL - I feel you. The NW was my last to fall (after struggling w/ the SE). Was it UNPIN or TAC(?); OSPRY didn't work; and ----PRETZEL? Yo' Beer's in the clue! [oh, not beer-pretzels (with a nice side of mustard whilst sipping a micro-brew pint)]
WOs: sec(t) b/f REL, rear b/f HIND (Hi Jinx & C,Eh!), started backfilling potato from CHIPS (oops), and I was going to call foul on Anises but things turned-up ASTERS, er, ROSAS.
ESP: AINU & DASHI. It's not that I've not seen those before but that information is locked in the deep recesses of my mind stuck in a disUSEd lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of Leopard'. //apologies to Douglas Adams.
PETSs: c/as for OATER and ICICLE
{your muse-i are strong} {nice}
Like CED & M. Go-Rilla, I too thought SNIPEs were completely fictitious. Thanks Elliot & YR for learnin' me.
YR - mostly it's just "surf protect" to inject itself into your browser and protect you while you surf for porn or click "act now" links in your phish. Don't bother IMHO. It just filters URLS. We use URL filtering at the edge of our networks because, face it, guys on off-shore rigs do both :-)
Jayce - I also fell into the board homonym issue and justified GET ON as in "GET ON with it." Like Miss Sweetie Poo says at the IgNobels, "I'm Bored". Steve finally provided the face-palm inducing V8!
Now, on to Rick's story.
Cheers, -T
Misty, BillG, WilburCharles and OlManKeith: If the Advil PM helped you sleep, good for you. But be careful. It is very easy to become dependent. The quality of sleep is diminished. And you should never drive after taking such medication. The impairment is worse than for alcohol and lasts into the next day.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was a pharmacist and he hated "cold remedies" and other "combination medicines". At best you are paying ten times the cost of the drug you need on its own. At worst, you are taking another drug that could hurt you. If you want Benadryl, the generic version is cheap.
One more important note: I once took Benadryl and found that I could not sleep at all until it wore off. About ten percent of the population has a "paradoxical" response to this drug that causes extreme agitation. I discovered the hard way I am one of them.
OlManKeith: You understand one of the most frustrating aspects of our political system: What is best policy is often least popular. Yes, during bad times no one wants to raise taxes. And during good times, no one wants to raise taxes or put money aside for when it will inevitably be needed later.
The fuel tax was initiated by AAA (auto club) about 100 years ago. It was historically the most popular tax. But in recent decades it has fallen far below what is needed even for basic maintenance, let alone to keep up with needed new infrastructure. The further we get behind, the bigger the needed increase. Which makes the needed increase even more unpopular. I heard on the news tonight that President Trump wants an increase of 25 cents in the Federal fuel tax. Better than nothing. But still about an order of magnitude below what is needed.
Rick - I really like your gumshoe-style style that draws one in and how you weave xwords into the details. Thanks for the effort mate. -T
ReplyDeleteThe 3 P's:
ReplyDeletePicard, politics and pictures.
Look at me and let me tell you about politics. What's your agenda?
Thanks for the warning, Wilbur and Picard. Maybe I need to much more careful than I feared. I'll keep your concerns in mind.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:37 You seem to be very selective in pointing out what is political. Besides, Picard was just responding to Ol Man Keith.
ReplyDelete