Theme: Timely - SPRING is placed ahead of the last word in the theme answers.
20A. Have things finally go one's way: CATCH A BREAK. Spring Break.
36A. Mosquito-borne disease: YELLOW FEVER. Spring Fever.
42A. Engage in hard-nosed negotiations: PLAY CHICKEN. Spring Chicken.
56A. Make an annual clock adjustment ... and what the end of 20-, 36- and 42-Across may literally have: SPRING AHEAD
Argyle here. Bill is averaging a puzzle a year.
Across:
1. Easy thing to do: SNAP
5. Lobster serving: CLAW
9. Great time: BLAST
14. Skin opening: PORE
15. Tra-__: refrain syllables: LA-LA
16. Main artery: AORTA
17. Snapchat co-founder Spiegel: EVAN. Only 27 years old.
18. Cyberzine: eMAG
19. Parakeets' quarters: CAGEs
23. Photo __: media events: OPS
24. Charged particles: IONs
25. Intl. news broadcaster: VOA. (Voice of America)
27. Singer's quavers: TRILLS
30. Recently: AS OF LATE
35. Harry's pal Weasley: RON. Harry Potter books.
38. Penne __ vodka: ALLA. Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish made with vodka and penne pasta, usually made with heavy cream, crushed tomatoes, onions, and sometimes sausage, pancetta or peas. Wikipedia
40. Singer Damone: VIC
41. Trig ratio: SINE
47. "Just a __!": SEC
48. Dress-for-success accessory: POWER TIE
49. New York Giants legend with 511 career home runs: MEL OTT. Cool! Whole name.
51. Used a bench: SAT
52. Location: SITE
53. Sponsors' spots: ADs
62. Georgia state fruit: PEACH. But do you dare eat a peach?
64. Smell: ODOR
65. Gold rush animal: MULE
66. "Orange" tea grade: PEKOE
67. Kind of pittance?: MERE
68. The "A" of NEA: ARTS. (National Endowment for the Arts)
69. Drive too fast: SPEED
70. New England NFLers: PATS
71. Barnes & Noble reader: NOOK
Down:
1. Job detail, for short: SPEC. Specification.
2. Old Chevy: NOVA. Production: 1961–1979; 1985–1988. The 1985-88 Chevrolet Nova was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota.
3. "I smell __!": A RAT
4. Crossword solver's choice: PENCIL
5. Remove dirt from: CLEANSE
6. Petting zoo youngsters: LAMBS
7. Bygone apple spray: ALAR
8. Regular pay: WAGE
9. "Not so close!": "BACK OFF!"
10. Extended pd. away from work: LOA. (Leave Of Absence)
11. Golden Fleece ship: ARGO
12. How-to instruction: STEP
13. Soviet news agency: TASS. Founded in 1902, Tass is the fourth largest major news agency.
21. Sanctified: HOLY
22. Declare emphatically: AVOW
26. Drinks in schooners: ALES
27. Maria von __, family singers' matriarch: TRAPP
 |
| Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, Vermont |
28. Rich boy in "Nancy" comics: ROLLO
29. Groom's new relative: IN-LAW
30. Author Hoffman: ALICE. Bio.
31. Foot cover: SOCK
32. French dispatch boat: AVISO. An oldie but goodie.
33. Guiding principle: TENET
34. Standing tall: ERECT
37. Heinz varieties count, to Caesar?: LVII. (57)
39. Those in favor: AYEs
43. Failed suddenly, as a laptop: CRASHED
44. URL letters: HTTP. URL yesterday, HyperText Transfer Protocol today.
45. Political fugitives: ÉMIGRÉS
46. __ profit: make money: NET A
50. __ Brothers: defunct financial firm: LEHMAN
52. Equine outburst: SNORT. Play this good and loud; see who comes to find out what is happening.
53. iPhone downloads: APPs
54. __-sea diver: DEEP
55. Drink with sushi: SAKE
57. Frolic in a lively way: ROMP. Too much sake?
58. Thinking output: IDEA
59. Currency named for a continent: EURO
60. Choir voice: ALTO
61. Student's workplace: DESK
63. Runner Sebastian: COE. He ran a sub-4-minute mile. Roger Bannister was the first person to run a mile under 4 minutes. He died Saturday.
Argyle
40 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Bill and Santa!
Nice, easy puzzle with easy theme!
Didn't know EVAN. VOA was perped also.
Have a great day!
Sorry I haven't been around much. Not been feeling well, combined with writers block. Don't know what the ailment was, so not sure if it's over yet. Been taking some probiotics in hopes that will help clear it up, and living on Pepto. It's been intermittent for about 2 months now, but Sunday was particularly bad. Enough whining, let's get on to my forte!
A lobster CLAW can close with a SNAP,
As can the jaws of a sewer RAT.
They're not prone to ROMP,
They'd much rather chomp,
Unlike the LAMBS who'll SNORT for a PAT!
A star may die with a mighty BLAST!
With a NOVA bright it will breath its last!
Its IONS take flight
At the SPEED of light --
Their seat-belts weren't fastened when their star CRASHED!
It was time for the burglar to CATCH A BREAK.
The security cameras were obvious fakes!
He'd NET A PROFIT
If he could unlock it --
So he used his crowbar to BREAK A CATCH!
{B, A, A-.}
Good morning!
Missed the theme this morning. Oh, I see you're surprised. No problems, other than the mess I made by skipping the R in SPRING AHEAD. Wite-out, please. It's finally started to get light while I'm getting up in the morning. That means it's time to change the clocks to keep that pesky sun at bay. I also need to pick up a handful of 9V batteries for the annual smoke alarm ritual. Spring is here. Thanx, Bill and Argyle.
AVISO: Haven't seen that one in quite a while.
VIC: Haven't heard Vic Damone in ages. Bill must be of a "certain age."
NOOK: Reminds me that I'm gonna have to "spring" for a new Kindle soon. The touch-screen doesn't react well to cat claws. It's getting hard to see the words among the gray splotches. I'll wait for Amazon's next sale.
Taxing day. Gotta run...
If you are an Erie Canal buff "aviso" is a given.
FIR, only erasing "assn" for ARTS. Oh, THAT NEA. Didn't know EVAN Spiegel, RON Weasley, ALICE Hoffman or AVISO. Thanks to Bob Niles for noting the Erie Canal connection - I can stop rolling my eyes at the Frawnch lesson. Favorite was the clue for LVII.
Thanks Bill Z and Santa for a fun Tuesday.
desper-otto said...VIC: Haven't heard Vic Damone in ages. Bill must be of a "certain age."
Unfortunately he passed a couple weeks ago. R.I.P.
Smooth solve except going with the NEA as National Education ASSN - rather than Nat. Endowment for the ARTS at first. Usually I wait for perps on those - but was in a hurry and then spent time erasing! Learning moment for today AVISO.
Had a movie night at my house last night - we watched "Wonder" with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson since we had read it for book club but many of us hadn't seen the movie yet. Very enjoyable but bring kleenex for the end (in a happy way).
Thanks Argyle and Bill!
Smooth sailing today, I had POWER, but needed perps for TIE. I was thinking power suit.
Hi LA L A Linda. Miss you.
AVISO is old crosswordese.
From Defintions.com “Modern avisos have grown to become combat-capable ships, smaller than a corvette but larger than patrol ships. They typically have roles in anti-submarine warfare and coastal defence. In NATO classification they are usually recognized as corvettes.”
I like Kirin or Asahi beer with sushi. The only sake I like is very expensive. I don’t care for the regular kind.
We will spring ahead this weekend, but it is not spring here. Tonight we will have another major snow storm with predicted massive power outages, even as the outages from Friday's storm are not all resolved.
Good morning everyone.
Don't remember Bill Z. from before, but I'll go with what Argyle said. Got all the fill without incident, but couldn't suss the theme 'til coming here. Remember AVISO from earlier cw's.
Very fond of peaches. PEACH pie is a favorite desert.
Hi All!
A fun ROMP that was done in a SNAP. Thanks BillZ; lots of sparkle in this one - a real PEACH.
I started the puzzle in the car while driving Youngest and her friend to school. As I'd PORE (um?) over the clues, I'd call out ones I'm sure they'd know... When they both got 11d, we all broke into And countless screaming ARGOnauts... [TMBG - a great song to juggle to; juggling: an ART just below puppeteer:-)]
Thanks Argyle for the expo and telling me who RON and VIC were. I too was pleasantly surprised, though stumped for a SEC @ too many blocks for OTT; oh goodie! MEL.
For what it's worth, in TX, no one was taken aback by the horse sounds (it's Rodeo time ta'-boot). And why not PEACHes? [3m]. I can't wait for 'em with vanilla ice cream.
WO: PLAY hard bal [oh, crap]
ESP: RON, VIC, LOA, AVISO (nice under ARGO)
Fav: I'm going with seeing all of MEL. I've got SPRING FEVER and can't wait for the Astros to take the field.
{C, A+,A-; welcome back}
Cheers, -T
Musings
-Granddaughter will kittysit for us during SPRING BREAK so we can go to AZ for SPRING TRAINING. Hmmm… BASIC TRAINING would have worked for fill today
-NO DST SPRINGING AHEAD in most of AZ in summer. They don’t need more sun!
-SINE of 39.7˚? Then - look it up. Today – Say “SIRI, what is the SINE of 39.7˚?” or enter 39.7 in an APP
-My golf course opened Sunday. OF LATE – Today snow and high winds!
-Scroll down to see a long list of what might be lost if NEA funding is cut.
-Mom did crosswords in ink, not her son!
-WAGE threat?
-A common BACK OFF SITE/SIGHT around here
-ROLLO, RICHIE Rich had too many letters
-I should have listened when Joann told me not to go into business with her brother (my Brother IN-LAW)
-“Heinz varieties” was at the bottom of the column of clues. I didn’t see the “count, to Caesar” at the top of the next column until later
Good morning!
Thanks, Argyle, for the tour and links. I agree it was nice to see MEL OTT's full name. Thank you perps forLEHMAN Brothers. I definitely needed the reveal to catch the theme. Thanks Bill Z. for today's entertainment.
Enjoy the day!
Good Morning:
I thoroughly enjoyed this "timely" offering because I had no idea what Break, Fever, and Chicken had in common, so getting the reveal was a resounding AHA. I fell into the Assn/Arts trap but only for a minute or two. Other than that, smooth sailing all the way. Glad to see that Mr. Ott finally got his due respect.
Thanks, Bill, for a Tuesday treat and thanks, Argyle, for the spot-on summary. Enjoyed your poetic license, so to speak. 🍑
Have a great day.
Good morning Cornerererers,
Mucho Grascias Mr. Bill Zagozewski for this Easy Peasy Tueasdy Pueazzley. I FIR in 17:26.
The same to Argyle for the excellent review.
2D Old Chevy: NOVA. You may have hashed this before, but I understood that this car would not sell in Mexico because "No va" translates as "not going."
Oops, I just LIU. There's one major problem with the story: It never happened. As a matter of fact, Chevrolet did reasonably well with the Nova in Latin America, even exceeding its sales projections in Venezuela. The story of the Chevy Nova is a classic example of an urban legend.
I have "Nova" en mi cara.
Dave
Whew! I got it, I got it! Fun Tuesday puzzle--many thanks, Bill! Had a stupid scary moment at the end when I wanted to put BOOK for that Barnes & Noble reader but clearly LEHMAB was wrong. But why would someone wanting to read in a Barnes & Noble store have to sit in a NOOK to read? I clearly never heard of that device but thankfully went with it and so solved the whole puzzle correctly. Whew! Big relief! Great write-up, thanks, Argyle.
I don't know my sports but MEL OTT shows up in so many crossword puzzles that I nailed with one without any problems. But AVISO stumped me a bit, so thanks for giving us the information, Yellowrocks.
Owen, I hope you feel better soon. Really enjoyed your limericks this morning.
Have a great day, everybody!
What a fun ROMP today! Thank you, Bill Z! And thank you, Argyle, for 'splaining the theme; you always impress me with beautiful photos.
PENCIL is definitely my solving choice.
CSO to my mother, LALA. Her actual name was Candelaria but they always called her LALA. Hi, LALA Linda!
Yes, VIC Damone died not too long ago.
AVISO, a BLAST from the past.
Orange PEKOE is one of my favorite teas. Gary, yes, chamomile is usually sleep inducing. Bigelow also has Sleepy Time tea. Add some honey and you should sleep like a LAMB.
Hand up for ASSN quickly erased to ARTS.
Have a PEACHy day, everyone!
Owen:
I hope you will soon feel better. Your muse is with you, though!
The NOVA joke is believed to have been started by a comedian.
Steady, enjoyable solve! I had to finish the whole puzzle before I got the SPRING theme, though. Cute!
Yes, a rare chance to see MEL OTT in his full glory. Several unknowns: EVAN, ALLA, ALE connected to SCHOONER, AVISO, LOA, ALICE, but all had fair crosses.
Lucina: Thanks for the learning moment about the NOVA story as an urban legend! I think I have repeated that falsehood.
Here is a detailed account of how and why the NOVA story is an urban legend.
Bob Niles: What is the AVISO connection to Erie Canal? Google is not helping.
Here is one photo of me in the HOLY Land.
From Yesterday:
PK: Thank you for the kind words about my photos. Sorry that you are having these technical problems. What sort of computer do you have?
If you want to update to a new computer for about as little money as possible, I recommend the ASUS Transformer. It is about $280 at Best Buy. I bought it as a travel computer, but my DW uses it as her everyday computer. Just be sure to get a cheap mouse for it as I find the touch pad tricky to use.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Bill Zagozewski, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Zipped through fairly quickly. Only inkblot was when I had to write over the word TAIL and write in CLAW, at 5A.
I also liked LVII. Latin is much favored over french for me.
I also kind of like Orange PEKOE tea, but not as well as EARL GREY.I am working again as an Election Judge at the Early Voting Polling Place this afternoon. Yesterday I took a Stanley full of Earl Grey tea and drank it all easily. Today I am taking two Stanleys.
Gotta run. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Hi! bloggers,
Haven't been around for a while, but never miss your blogging. I especially liked this CR as I finished in record time (for me).
I too got stuck on the A in NEA. I couldn't understand why I had an R when I knew 'Euro' was correct. I had 'Tie but wanted
'suit n tie', never heard ofn 'power tie'
IM hope you are still watching NCIS NOLA as Chelsea will be in another episode at the end of March.
Keep warm.
I found this one a bit crunchy for Tuesday, but it all fell to place in the end. Fun theme. CATCH A BREAK was the last to fall .
I also liked seeing MEL OTT get his due respect. Thanks, Bill Z.
Owen, welcome back. You were missed! Loved today's offering. Well worth waiting for.
I must be OCD fixated on filling in those little white boxes,
because I always fill it all in, and forget to look for the theme connection.
FLN, Multnomah Falls seems worth a visit...
(but where does the water come from, looks like a mountain top?)
62a Eat A Peach!
I don't normally link music, but I get the feeling this crowd is not familiar
with this group. So I saved up all my music links, and
linked the whole damn Album!
I dunno, this clock changing thing just seems like too much work...
And it's been going on for far too long!
Just ask an Indian!
Straight-forward Tuesday solve. Thanks for the fun, Bill Z and Argyle.
Yes, a timely theme again. I smiled when I saw the SPRING link FOR BREAK, CHICKEN, and FEVER. No DST for Saskatchewan also.
Hand up for Tail before CLAW, ASSN before ARTS (I learned the Education meaning of NEA here!), and smiled at the entire name for MEL OTT.
RON Weasley was unknown. I must remember Harry Potter.
I had CLEAN Up before CLEANSE, and once again, waited for perps to decide between Aver and AVOW.
Does anyone else besides me hate it when the anthem singer adds a multitude of TRILLS? Please just sing the anthem as written and don't try to show off your voice.
Interesting to have TASS and VOA.
I loved the new cluing for the Roman numeral.
I saw the CSO to LALA Linda and also one to TIN (ALES).
The Niagara PEACH crop is a favourite August/September treat.
Engage in hard-nosed negotiations=PLAY CHICKEN was also timely with the current NAFTA negotiations and threat of tariff wars.
It remains to be seen who will CATCH A BREAK.
Any more discussion might verge on the political so I will not express my Canadian opinion.
Enjoy the day. Don't forget SPRING (is) AHEAD!
Well I LIU and discovered that technically Saskatchewan has DST all year long! Who knew?!
"Although the entire province is geographically within the MST (UTC-7) zone, the province is officially part of the Central time zone (UTC-6). As a result, while most of Saskatchewan does not change clocks spring and fall, it technically observes DST year round. This means that clocks in most of the province match clocks in Winnipeg during the winter and Calgary and Edmonton during the summer. This time zone designation was implemented in 1966, when the Saskatchewan Time Act was passed in order to standardize time province-wide." (Wikipedia)
Thanks to Mr. Zagozewski for a cute pzl, with - Thank goodness! - a return to diagonals.*
The cuteness to which I allude is partly in the frequent revival of old faves (ALTO, ODOR, AORTA, IONS, etc.) but also in some fresh cluing to reach those familiar fills.
Thanks, too, to Argyle, for pulling steady duty these days and, as is often the case, reminding us of his solid base in modern literature. ("Shall I dare to eat a PEACH?")
My only re-write? BLACK instead of POWER TIE. Perps, as usual, saved the day.
____________
Diagonal Report: *Three in all. The one main line NW to SE, and two sub-diags, NE to SW.
HG @8:49...Am I missing something? What's the gist of your sine(39.7) comment?
What xtulmkr said. I got the answer to 6 decimal places but no bells rang.
This one started out by making me think it was going to be much more difficult than it really turned out to be. All of a sudden I was at the bottom and finished. Took just under 9 minutes. WEES about Mel Ott. Bet we wouldn't know him if his last name had been OZZ!
I despise DST! (Grumbles and mutters to himself)
Weird weather here. Snow and (mostly) ice last night, then by this morning it was all gone. Then we had a little mini blizzard, followed in 15 minutes by weak sunshine. Rinse and repeat--twice. Now it's just kind of gray and glumpy.
Off to the mouse race (I quit the rat race on retiring but it's still a race).
A pretty typical Tuesday puzzle, especially compared to the recent crunch avalanche.
Fell into the same NEA trap as others.
Didn’t understand the SINE comment either.
Go Huskies!
Had extra time yesterday ... so I already did the SPRING AHEAD thing with all my clocks.
Hey, I am NOT losing an hour on my weekend!
Fave today, of course, was the Penne ALLA vodka. Go figure! LOL
Cheers!
Fun puzzle; I liked it. Enjoyed such fill as ASOFLATE, BACKOFF, and CRASHED. New ways to clue LOA and LVII are nice. I got the rich kid's name wrong, entering ROCCO instead of ROLLO; quickly got fixed, though.
Agree with what CanadianEh! said about TRILLS.
If we were to have one time all year I would vote for DST because I prefer to have more daylight in the evening than in the morning.
Speaking of the Chevy NOVA story, I heard that the Commodore VIC computer brought either disdain or chuckles in Germany where "vic" means "f*ck".
We'll watch for Chelsea in NCIS New Orleans.
Best wishes to you all.
LOL!
Only Tinbeni would change his clocks a week early,
and wait for the world to catch up...
:)
Aw Crap!
Hmmm,
I got this, I got this,, Aw crap! I missed it...
Musings
-This may be TMI, but here is what a SIN(E) is The SIN(E) of Angle A in that triangle is (opposite/hypotenuse) 7/25 = .28. If I then ask SIRI what angle has a SIN(E) of .28 she would tell me 16.26˚. Quit, Gary, make it stop!!
Everything, or more than you wanted to know about the numeral 39.7
So I've been around here for several years and witnessed the discussion about DST about 28 times now. Never have I remember it starting this early. I guess as we get older we get crannies. Excuse me as I need to get theses squirrels situated.
As a kid growing up in Portland, annual field trips to Multnomah Falls were de rigur. However my story about it takes place several years later. LW and I were driving to my family reunion in about '02, and at a morning rest stop, I realized I lost my wedding ring! After backtracking to the hotel we'd stayed the previous night, we had to travel on. The reunion was in Kelso, WA, so our route passed the Falls. Since it was part of my childhood, of course we stopped. And in the gift shop there, I found an aluminum ring that matched my old one near exactly! For $2! So I showed up at the reunion with a proper wedding band! Ironically, I lost the new one before we got back to NM! I've never worn a ring before or since, until I bought a Masonic ring recently, but that's another story.
OMKeith: You will find it easier to make your diagonal reports using some established terms. What you refer to as a main diagonal is a Bend Dexter, or just a Bend, and a mirror diagonal is a bend Sinister.
CrossEyedDave: That video of Multnomah Falls is spectacular! Thank you! Definitely a perspective I did not have on the ground!
OwenKL: Thanks for sharing your story of Multnomah Falls and the ring! I have never been good about wearing a ring, either. Too many years of having my hands inside electrical equipment (sometimes high voltage) got me in the habit of having jewelry-free hands.
HG - I did what you said but my British* Siri wasn't helpful. [screen snap].
Picard - LOL Snopes link... I've not heard Fiat = 'Fix It Again, Tony!' since Click & Clack went off the air.
In that vein, I'm reading DW's book that she forgot on her way to Italy: "Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World."** So far, no mention of auto-engineering :-)
Cheers, -T
*iPhone's updates at some point tried to voice->text voice-mails... and made a mess of it. I found if you set Siri to UK or AU English it stops that silliness. #LifeHack.
DW made her Siri an Ausie guy... I'm thinking I should be insecure :-)
**Peter D'Epiro and Mary Desmond Pinkowish
Anonymous T from last night
-Yeah, I got SIGN too when I asked SIRI, “What is the SINE of 28˚” because SIGN is a homonym for SINE. It works very well for other functions like COSINE, TANGENT, etc. When I asked SIRI, “What is the S I N E (spelled out SINE) of 28˚ it worked fine. SIRI, you should listen to what I mean not what I say! :-)
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