Theme: Hats Off! I mean Hats On! As the reveal helps to explain:
54A. "Shut your trap!" ... and, graphically, what the circled letters do: PUT A LID ON IT!
Three kinds of headgear in the circles: HAT, CAP and TAM, each sitting atop IT in the entry beneath.
This is one of those puzzles where the theme is more incidental than central. You solve as a themeless, then go back and look to see what you missed, which, honestly to my mind, is "not much". Three three-letter circled letters atop of three "IT" two-letter pairs.
The content is pleasing, two grid-spanners, two 11's and two long 10's in the downs, but the theme fell flat for me.
That out of the way, let's see what jumps out:
Across:
1. Distribute, with "out": METE
5. Jets and Nets: TEAMS
10. Kenan's comedy cohort: KEL
13. Like crazy: A LOT
14. Street thief: MUGGER
15. Bullring "Bravo!": OLÉ
16. Tennessee River city: CHATTANOOGA. "Pardon me, boy - is that the ..."
18. Luxury hotel facility: SPA
19. Places: SITUATES. Nice word. Just missing an "O" for the vowel grand slam.
20. Migratory herring: SHAD. High in Omega-3. Whatever that means.
21. Uni- + bi-: TRI-.
22. H.S. exam for college credit: A.P. TEST. Advanced Placement, I believe.
24. Longtime Bob Keeshan kids' character: CAPTAIN KANGAROO. Giving children frightening fashion advice since 1955.
30. Anatomical canals: ITERS. Not only is this a plural, but it also in the singular does not appear in a Google search at all - I gave up reading about nuclear reactors after at least six pages of hits. The word should not be in the puzzle in this form.
31. On the ship: ABOARD
32. Mediterranean peak: ETNA
33. Parts: ROLES
35. Actress Headey of "Game of Thrones": LENA
38. Home of college sports' Green Wave: TULANE. New Orleans school.
40. Certain tanker: OILER
41. Philatelist's pride: STAMP COLLECTION
45. Mass communication?: LITANY
46. Final: Abbr.: ULT. Ultimate? I suppose so.
47. Sounds of disgust: UGHS
48. Calming agents: ALLAYERS
53. "The Producers" screenwriter Brooks: MEL
57. Old __: PRO
58. Becomes used (to): INURES
59. Sinewy: ROPY
60. Common ID: SSN
61. Enclosed for security, in a way: GATED. Communities.
62. Choice word: ELSE. If - Or - Else.
Down:
1. Computers that may run Virtual PC: MACS. Not any more, unless you have a very old one. The Mac motherboard has an Intel chip which runs both the Mac OS and Windows. Your choice.
2. K-12: EL-HI
3. Precisely: TO A "T"
4. Famous final question: ET TU?
5. Pay attention: TUNE IN
6. Film directors' challenges: EGOS
7. Earlier: AGO
8. "A Wrinkle in Time" girl: MEG. Apparently a character in a series of novels first published in 1962. No clue. This might be a tad obscure.
9. Mme., in Madrid: SRA
10. Where to get gefilte fish: KOSHER DELI
11. Sun Bowl city: EL PASO. College Football post-season game.
12. Bring about: LEAD TO
14. Motherly start: MATRI- I've got "-archal" and "-cide". Any other offers?
17. Cheerios: TA-TAS
20. Twinkly, skywise: STARLIT
22. Muchos meses: ANOS. Many months equate to years. as long as there are at least 13 of them.
23. Links letters: PGA. Professional Golfer's Association
24. Fr. company: CIE.
25. Court fig.: ATT. Ball boy? Umpire? Baller? No, attorney.
26. Modern Olympic event one shoots for?: PENTATHLON. You also fence, ride, run and swim. No small feat. It was originally defined as the five disciplines that a cavalry officer must be more than proficient in to be considered one of the elite.
27. Emotional wounds: TRAUMAS
28. Krypton escapee: KAL-EL. AKA "Superman", he who wears his underwear outside of his tights. Truly from another world.
29. Presidential nickname: ABE
33. Somewhat blue: RACY
34. Artist whose apartment overlooks Strawberry Fields: ONO. The real Strawberry Field is in Liverpool, England, it was the garden of a children's home near to where John Lennon grew up.
36. Prefix for movement revivals: NEO-
37. Prince Valiant's son: ARN
39. ICU staffer: LPN.
40. Group of eight: OCTAD
41. Competitive dry spells: SLUMPS
42. Auburn or Princeton athletes: TIGERS
43. Soothed: LULLED
44. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS. The Oracle head Larry Ellison's family name comes from the-then immigrants' journey through Ellis Island.
48. Bern's river: AARE
49. Auld lang syne: YORE. What? When does "Old time's sake" translate to "Past"? We should be told.
50. Carbon compound: ENOL
51. Tears: RIPS
52. Eye malady: STYE
54. Boar, e.g. PIG
55. Spanish article: UNA
56. Tsk relative: TUT
Quick in and out today - here's the grid!
Steve
54A. "Shut your trap!" ... and, graphically, what the circled letters do: PUT A LID ON IT!
Three kinds of headgear in the circles: HAT, CAP and TAM, each sitting atop IT in the entry beneath.
This is one of those puzzles where the theme is more incidental than central. You solve as a themeless, then go back and look to see what you missed, which, honestly to my mind, is "not much". Three three-letter circled letters atop of three "IT" two-letter pairs.
The content is pleasing, two grid-spanners, two 11's and two long 10's in the downs, but the theme fell flat for me.
That out of the way, let's see what jumps out:
1. Distribute, with "out": METE
5. Jets and Nets: TEAMS
10. Kenan's comedy cohort: KEL
13. Like crazy: A LOT
14. Street thief: MUGGER
15. Bullring "Bravo!": OLÉ
16. Tennessee River city: CHATTANOOGA. "Pardon me, boy - is that the ..."
18. Luxury hotel facility: SPA
19. Places: SITUATES. Nice word. Just missing an "O" for the vowel grand slam.
20. Migratory herring: SHAD. High in Omega-3. Whatever that means.
21. Uni- + bi-: TRI-.
22. H.S. exam for college credit: A.P. TEST. Advanced Placement, I believe.
24. Longtime Bob Keeshan kids' character: CAPTAIN KANGAROO. Giving children frightening fashion advice since 1955.
30. Anatomical canals: ITERS. Not only is this a plural, but it also in the singular does not appear in a Google search at all - I gave up reading about nuclear reactors after at least six pages of hits. The word should not be in the puzzle in this form.
31. On the ship: ABOARD
32. Mediterranean peak: ETNA
33. Parts: ROLES
35. Actress Headey of "Game of Thrones": LENA
38. Home of college sports' Green Wave: TULANE. New Orleans school.
40. Certain tanker: OILER
41. Philatelist's pride: STAMP COLLECTION
45. Mass communication?: LITANY
46. Final: Abbr.: ULT. Ultimate? I suppose so.
47. Sounds of disgust: UGHS
48. Calming agents: ALLAYERS
53. "The Producers" screenwriter Brooks: MEL
57. Old __: PRO
58. Becomes used (to): INURES
59. Sinewy: ROPY
60. Common ID: SSN
61. Enclosed for security, in a way: GATED. Communities.
62. Choice word: ELSE. If - Or - Else.
Down:
1. Computers that may run Virtual PC: MACS. Not any more, unless you have a very old one. The Mac motherboard has an Intel chip which runs both the Mac OS and Windows. Your choice.
2. K-12: EL-HI
3. Precisely: TO A "T"
4. Famous final question: ET TU?
5. Pay attention: TUNE IN
6. Film directors' challenges: EGOS
7. Earlier: AGO
8. "A Wrinkle in Time" girl: MEG. Apparently a character in a series of novels first published in 1962. No clue. This might be a tad obscure.
9. Mme., in Madrid: SRA
10. Where to get gefilte fish: KOSHER DELI
11. Sun Bowl city: EL PASO. College Football post-season game.
12. Bring about: LEAD TO
14. Motherly start: MATRI- I've got "-archal" and "-cide". Any other offers?
17. Cheerios: TA-TAS
20. Twinkly, skywise: STARLIT
22. Muchos meses: ANOS. Many months equate to years. as long as there are at least 13 of them.
23. Links letters: PGA. Professional Golfer's Association
24. Fr. company: CIE.
25. Court fig.: ATT. Ball boy? Umpire? Baller? No, attorney.
26. Modern Olympic event one shoots for?: PENTATHLON. You also fence, ride, run and swim. No small feat. It was originally defined as the five disciplines that a cavalry officer must be more than proficient in to be considered one of the elite.
27. Emotional wounds: TRAUMAS
28. Krypton escapee: KAL-EL. AKA "Superman", he who wears his underwear outside of his tights. Truly from another world.
29. Presidential nickname: ABE
33. Somewhat blue: RACY
34. Artist whose apartment overlooks Strawberry Fields: ONO. The real Strawberry Field is in Liverpool, England, it was the garden of a children's home near to where John Lennon grew up.
36. Prefix for movement revivals: NEO-
37. Prince Valiant's son: ARN
39. ICU staffer: LPN.
40. Group of eight: OCTAD
41. Competitive dry spells: SLUMPS
42. Auburn or Princeton athletes: TIGERS
43. Soothed: LULLED
44. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS. The Oracle head Larry Ellison's family name comes from the-then immigrants' journey through Ellis Island.
48. Bern's river: AARE
49. Auld lang syne: YORE. What? When does "Old time's sake" translate to "Past"? We should be told.
50. Carbon compound: ENOL
51. Tears: RIPS
52. Eye malady: STYE
54. Boar, e.g. PIG
55. Spanish article: UNA
56. Tsk relative: TUT
Quick in and out today - here's the grid!
Steve
DNF¡ CiE + iTERS on the left, and aLLAyERS + yORe + eNOl + elSE in the SE. One nit: Auld Lang Syne is "For old times sake". YORE = old times = auld lang, no syne included.
ReplyDeleteThe hats in the theme were ridiculously easy, but the IT's below them I didn't see before reading about it here on the blog. (And BTW, that apostrophy is correct.)
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Paul and Steve!
Not difficult. However did need perps with: KWL, ELPASO, KEL, TIGERS and YORE.
Hope to see you tomorrow!
Thalia (Muse of comedy) is with me, but Erato (Muse of lyric poetry) still isn't letting me rhyme, so here are some more zappai:
ReplyDeleteScience fiction themes:
Interstellar travel tales,
A.K.A. STAR LIT.
LENA wins horseshoes!
Grenade rules LEAD TO result --
Horseshoes win: leaner!
Radio sound man
Special effects maven with
His STAMP COLLECTION!
Award-winning scribe
Describes in Olympic terms
His "PEN"TATHLON.
{B+, C, B+, B-.}
A Wrinkle in Time was just made into a movie, so currently shouldn't be obscure :)
ReplyDeleteI entered METE right off, but then thought better of it and changed it to DOLE. Alas, should have gone with my first thought.
I hate when random things get pluralized.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteZoomed through, so much so that I forgot to go back and note the theme. Oops!
I don’t know why I remember Captain Kangaroo so well. Watching TV before going to school was out of the question; I must have watched during summer vacation. An older relative once told me that Bob Keeshan was manifestly under the influence of alcohol while on the air, but I sure never picked up on it. Dunno whether it was true.
Morning, Steve! First thought was matrilineal, as in genetics. Matrimony has a common root, apparently, but doesn’t quite fit the bill.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteZipped through this one, only needing Wite-Out to change HOG to PIG. Forgot to look at the circles, and I'm sure I would still have missed the ITs. Thanx, Paul and Steve.
"Pardon me, Roy, was that the cat that chewed your new boots?"
I remember CAPTAIN KANGAROO and his sidekick Mr. Green Jeans.
Picked up an extra M-o-W route today -- that makes three days in a row that I'm gonna have to shave. Takes the fun out of being retired.
Good morning, everyone. I enjoyed the nice change of pace with your zappai, Owen. This one's working title was "Bonnet On It." My submission had each IT circled along with the hats above them, similarly to how Steve's shaded ITs look in the posted grid. I wanted each 5 letter group of circles to look like a brimmed cap, which is why I only used three-letter hat examples.
ReplyDeleteA few puzzles back, several of you kindly advised me about the doll house I was building for my grand-daughter. I'm happy to report Addie had her second birthday about a month ago, and loves the doll house. Now when I babysit, she always recruits me into playing dolls.
I believe MEG and A WRINKLE IN TIME not only is a movie but was featured in the Jimmy Kimmel visit to the adjacent theater during the Academy Awards.
ReplyDeleteMATRIMONY?
Good to see you Paul, now if you would video you playing with the dolls and post the video...
Thanks Steve
Got it done. Saw the hat theme early on but never saw the "it". 22D. Anos, filled in with perps but never saw the Spanish connection.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Cornerites. Thanks Paul for the puzzle and to Steve for the tour. I hadn't spotted the ITs below the circles, so thanks for pointing that subtlety out. Even so, have to agree that there wasn't a lot of theme meat in this puzzle sandwich.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few unknowns this morning that had to be "perped out." ITERS, KEL, MEG, and LENA lead that parade. I may have to watch an episode or two of Game of Thrones someday as the actors and actresses from that series seem to be becoming ever more popular in crosswords. Nah, don't think that's happening anytime soon, not my cuppa.
APTEST was probably a given for most of you, but not sure we have an equivalent test up here north of the border. CanadianEh!, are you familiar with this one?
A good day to all....
I don’t get the “racy” for somewhat blue??
ReplyDeleteOff color, as in “blue language”.
DeleteYou've never heard of a "blue movie?"
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steve, not much of a theme. And my pet peeve, circles in the grid, which really were incidental for this puzzle. The long answers were pretty obvious, even without the theme, so zipped through this pretty easily.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteMATRIculate?
A peppery puzzle today. Got the theme easily but didn't think so much of it. Had 'wiry' before ROPY.
TSK -Tysk is Danish for German.
ARN - His brother is Galen
YORE - Great clue 'auld lang syne'
FLN - OP-ED - I checked with my son the journalist. Originally it meant opposite the editorial page, but often has come to mean opinion editorial.
After HAT I was expecting two more types of headgear which sped up the solve. I didn't notice the part IT played here, which made the theme clever. Thanks. Steve.
ReplyDeleteNo nit here: Latin iter (“ passage ”). Noun . iter (plural iters) A passage, especially the passage between the third and fourth ventricles in the brain; ...
Steve, funny comment about Superman's underwear. One of my first graders dressed as Superman for Halloween. His mother had him wear red underwear over blue tights. He was razzed to tears by his classmates.
Matrilineal. Matrimony. Lemon and Dudley, you beat me to it.
A Wrinkle in Time is a Newberry Award winner read by upper elementary students in my school. Auld Lang Syne / yore was a gimme. Both mean long ago.
Off to Alans' commute.
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paul. Quite clever, I thought--even though I didn't see the theme until I arrived at the Corner. The spanners provided perps for some of the down fill where I was stumbling.
Steve, thanks for the tour today. I needed your assistance. Nicely done.
Lots of family names were changed at ELLIS Island. Luckily, none of my four grandparents experienced that.
Many colleges do not give full credit for AP TEST scores. With a 5 (highest) on the English exam, for example, one may have to take another 200 level English class as opposed to freshman Lit/Comp. They seldom reduce time or money spent on courses but do allow for moving up to advanced work. It's unusual to hear of a student who enters college as a sophomore because of AP credit--as was the case in 1964.
I have the Blond Tornado today after preschool, so I must have my lesson plans ready. After lunch at her favorite dive, we will make brownies. She thinks it's funny that I don't like them frosted but "snowy," as she calls it. I dust them with powdered sugar! On to puzzles. Then of course, we shall knit a bit. I knit a row and she knits a row. We should have this scarf done by the time she leaves for college! ;-)
Have a sunny day. I know I will.
No, afraid not... learned something new!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul and Steve .
ReplyDeleteFIR after some changes and WAGS .
The theme came easily enough and helped with ITER .
Also had wiry before ROPY.
Got stuck in the South East until I hesitantly tried ALLAYERS.
Have a sunshine day :-)
Musings
ReplyDelete-Two careless bad cells as ALLEVERS looked good
-Our city council decided last night to not METE out a half million to our failing mall
-Characters/actors in Game Of Thrones are becoming common fare
-An Audrey Hepburn movie scene that features a PHILATELIST (2:24)
-I had to fight making PENTATHLON into a 4-syllable word
-Joann’s family name got shortened to Christo from Christopolas? at Ellis Island
Do you remember what character Bob Keeshan played before"Roo"?
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that when I sail along and have one quadrant left I start to choke.
Thus the SE. Along with ALLEVERS)VOLE I had to change OCTET-OCTED-OCTAD.
Owen, the best part of your daily gems is that they inspire C-Moe. He'll be by. ANON, with a few choice groaners . My Erato needs caffeinated coffee which likes NSAIDS for aches and pains is too steep a price.
Did someone say "Matriarchal" already .
Thanks to Paul and Steve.
WC
PS. My 🍑 🌲 is 🐻 ing delicious fruit
Clarabell
DeleteExcellent Thursday you Corner writers.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Paul Coulter for this challenging CW which I was able to FIR in 29:44. I doff my LID to you just so I can put it back on. I didn't see the circles till I was thru.
Thanks Steve for you informative review.
Ðave
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteHand up for seeing the Lid but not the It! Cute enough theme but not a Thursday-level puzzle, IMO. Meg and Lena were unknowns but perps saved the day in several areas. Didn't care for allayers, though.
Thanks, Paul, for a Thursday treat and for stopping by; glad to hear Addie likes her doll house. Thanks, Steve, for being our gracious guide.
Madame Defarge, I got a chuckle reading about your "itinerary" for the Blond Tornado's visit; have fun!
Have a great day.
Took me a while to get YORE & ROPY. Hadn't seen CIE in a while either. Other than those....smooth sailing.
ReplyDeleteGot TULANE immediately as my daughter is now a Soph. there now. Comes home next SAT. Can't wait!
ROLL WAVE !!
Always delighted to see a Paul Coulter puzzle, although this one turned out to be a bit of a toughie for me. Still, I got most of it and found it a lot of fun. I'm so glad we had circles and I got the hats, but I wish the ITs had been circled too. Thanks for checking in, Paul, and I love the notion that the circled ITs would have given us more visual head lids, as it were. I was so happy to get some of the long fills without any problem, like KOSHER DELI and STAMP COLLECTION. Got KANGAROO, but not CAPTAIN, though I should have since I think I saw him on TV when I was young. Like Wilbur, I too had ALLEVERS, and I never did get ITERS--thanks for explaining that, Yellowrocks. And thanks for the always helpful comments, Steve.
ReplyDeleteLoved your Blond Tornado story, Madame Defarge.
Sadly only six people showed up for my last class on Henry James yesterday, but it was still a quorum and we had a fun discussion. I'm thinking of doing the senior class on James Joyce next Spring, but will have to work with the idea this summer.
Have a great day, everybody.
Where do you teach? I’d love to attend your classes!!
DeleteI may have mentioned before just how much I dislike ELHI. It elicits 47-A: UGHS.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t know that ITERS applied in the human body, but it makes sense. YR mentioned the Latin connection. It’s also the basis for ITERations (going over and over the same road).
Mme D, our older son did in fact enter college with enough hours to qualify as a sophomore. Didn’t keep him from having to spend 4 years there anyway, but it did mean that he was able to take more coursework in his major field. (Besides, he loved the marching band so much I think he’d have stayed anyway.)
My mother used to make "blonde brownies" that were dusted with powdered sugar instead of being frosted.
Have a great day, all!
Before there was Captain Kangaroo there was Clarabel (Howdy Doody Show). I had outgrown that stuff at the age of ten..
ReplyDeleteMisty, too bad we can't audit your Joyce class*. Could you title it "Joyce for Dummies"?
WC
Do you know any teenagers to set it up online?
Very enjoyable puzzle!
ReplyDeleteWEES! I had to change several things that did not make sense
to get it right..
NEVER SAW THE "ITs" under the hats until I read the Blog!
(Owen, You sure? It's???)
HeHe, Matri prefix, find more, no prob...
All I have to do is open a dictionary to find a whole bunch!
(Then I realized, I have not seen my dead tree version dictionary
since I have had a computer!)
Thank you Paul for visiting and explaining,
I for one thought this to be a great puzzle with the It under the hats.
Why on earth would an editor take out the additional circles?
I wanted to link a pic, but Pinterest has put a lid on Hot Linking many of their pics.
It read:
Please put the lid down before you flush,
unless you're going to buy me a new toothbrush.
I tried to find other silly links, but they too all went down the crapper...
Still looking for links...
I'm in a rush again today but I finished Paul's puzzle BRIM-ful of sparkle. Thank you for stopping by, Paul, and I'm so happy your granddaughter liked her dollhouse.
ReplyDeleteITER is the Latin word for road and it appears as a root in many English words relating to roads and travel, itinerary, itinerant, etc.
Now I have to go. More later.
Thank you, Steve, for your usual witty expo.
Have a delightful day, everyone!
Thanks to Mr. Coulter for a semi-easy puzzle – and to Steve for the hilarious review. That ITERS word can only be found in crossword puzzles. I wouldn’t mind if it was retired!
ReplyDeleteMy contribution to literature, below, may not live too many ANOS.
Fate has mete out a lot of roles for me. An allayer of fears or traumas, I suppose, could be counted as one, but that wasn’t my specialty.
My client called me to her apartment over on Etna Road, in a part of the town where more muggers walked the street than pedestrians. It was a starlit night, but I could barely make out the lights from Ellis Island across the harbor.
She lived above a Kosher deli and as I walked up the stairs that led to her apartment I could smell the shad fishes I remembered when my grandmother would stink up the house with her horrible concoctions. I loved my grandmother but not her cooking.
She opened the door and a country tune was playing off the record player. The Statler Brother’s, with the line, “Smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo…”
She smiled wide, “Hi ya, tiger! Come on in.”
“This is business Meg, what seems to be the problem?”
“Mel,” she said softly, pouting. “You Used to mix business with pleasure. Well it is late.” She could see I wasn’t in a mood, “Okay – it’s my stamp collection. It’s disappeared.”
“Uh hu. Stamps – they worth money?”
“Half a million,” she said.
My eyes squinted like there was a stye in it, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She shook her head, “’Fraid not, honey. I inherited it from my uncle Abe in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was a pro footballer with teams in El Paso and liked a litany of sports, pentathlons and such. Went to Tulane, fixed computers, specialized in Macs. He died last year at the age of fifty! But, he invested well. I got the stamp collection, my sister Lena got stocks and bonds.”
“Your little sister Lena – I remember her, well.”
“Put a lid on it, mister.”
“Skip the jealous routine – when did you see her last?”
“Why? She couldn’t have taken it!”
“No? I think I should pay her a visit.”
“Oh, you would like that!”
“I said cut it out. What’s her address?”
She stewed for a minute and fished around in her phone for the address and rattled it off to me. The sister lived on Anos Street; must have moved from her gated home when she divorced a few years ago.
I quick ride aboard a subway car and I saw her street passed the docks with the oilers, where they slaughtered pigs to make the bacon. Actually, the place fit her to a “T”.
I knocked at her door and she peeked out the window. She looked surprised but opened it for me.
“Mel? Haven’t seen you in years. What brings you to me?”
She had a racy getup on with a neo-noir look – I tried not to notice.
“Can I come in?”
Another surprised look, “Why don’t you?” She opened the door wide.
I got right down to business. “Your uncle Abe’s stamp collection has been lifted from you sister’s place. Know anything about it?”
A second later, I heard crash of crockery come from her kitchen and I saw a guy with ropy arms run out a door back. I ran after him. He turned and looked at me.
“Ole!” He shouts, whatever that means.
“Well, et tu!” I shout back.
He situates himself like a fighter and with one punch, I knock him cold to the ground.
Behind me, I saw Lena pick up a valise and she tries to go out the front door. I stop her and she pleads with me to let her go. Wants me to come with her to Mexico and split the spoils of the stamp collection with her.
“Tune in to this baby – drop the bag and join a spa.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits, but she slumps to the floor and I take the bag. In it were the stamps.
I brought them back to Meg and she was more than pleased with me. We listened to some more of the Statler Brothers and I lulled her fears with a “Tut.”
Last to fall was GATED. Interesting clue! For me, the theme was very helpful in solving the puzzle. I filled the circles quickly. When I got the "IT" part of the reveal it helped me fill the answers below the circles. Way cool!
ReplyDeleteDW and I saw MEG in the film version of A Wrinkle in Time last month. I read it as a child when it came out. My friends and I enjoyed the science fiction aspect of it. But there were other issues it raised. This was during a time when the CIA was doing some scary awful things and it was notable that the CIA featured in the book. I thought the film did a good job representing the book. The film was also notable for featuring mostly black actors.
Here are my photos from my visit to STRAWBERRY FIELDS in the puzzle.
Thanks for the learning moment, Steve, about the original STRAWBERRY FIELDS! I loved CAPTAIN KANGAROO as a child. People now might think it was corny, but Bob Keeshan was way ahead of his time bringing educational TV to children.
On Tuesday we went ABOARD a whale watching boat for some good viewing. Hope to have photos to share soon!
"Puzzling Thoughts":
ReplyDeleteA couple WAGs and WO's, but mostly a straight-forward solve. Good job, Paul (and Steve, for the recap). Hand up for OCTET before OCTAD.
When I was about 1/3 through the puzzle, the two long clues I'd solved both had "double OO's"; was wondering if these would be part of the "theme", or maybe just a CSO to Lemony's DW, Oo.
I, Too (another IT?) did not see the ITs beneath the "LIDS". In my newspaper, the "lids" were circled, and I honestly did not look down to see the cover
WC ---> whilst Owen's muse is both clever and creative, I usually don't require much "inspiration" to come up with corny $hit! As I said a few weeks ago, I'm the yang to his yin (or maybe, it's vice versa ...); but together, I hope we bring a few smiles to the Cornerites. My goal for 2018 is to find a Moe-ku or limerick that makes our Swamp Cat laugh. She seems to love Owen's more than mine, but hey, I love a challenge!! 😀
Here is today's offering:
Archeologist
Admonished Thebes colleague who
Opened tomb. TUT, TUT.
From yesterday:
ReplyDeleteThanks William Randolph Hearst for the learning moment about the true meaning of OP-ED. I had no idea! And I had no idea how recent was the creation of this page!
Yes, if you Google search ITER, you will get the nuclear energy company. If you look it up in a dictionary, you will find that ITER is an anatomical passage.
ReplyDeleteScots SYNE comes from the Old English siththan, which also gives us the English "since"; auld lang syne translates as "old long since": i.e., "long ago"="YORE."
I read the Wrinkle in Time series as a kid, of course I don't remember character names.
I had a boss who would make "blondies" (caramel brownies) for potlucks.
TRAUMA is not limited to emotional harm.
ReplyDeleteSequoia is the word. All five vowels and only seven letters.
ReplyDeleteI thought the Latin plural of ITER was ITINERA....
ReplyDeleteOtherwise no issues with a somewhat crunchy Thursday puzzle.
I just want to note a pet peeve of mine. Has made me chuckle for many years- Please forward this to the puzzle authors.
ReplyDelete22 down. Translation of 'YEAR' or 'YEARS' to Spanish is a common crossword question, I found ever since I started doing NYT crossword puzzles in the 80s.
You should stop using it because the answer is impossible using ASCII, and it has a false friend:
ANOS means ANUS, not YEAR.
AÑOS, means year.
https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/ano
https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/a%C3%B1o
<a =href="http://www.strawberryfieldliverpool.com/>Strawberry Field</a>is a Salvation Army property in Liverpool near where John Lennon grew up. It was used as a children's home and Lennon played there.
ReplyDeleteStrawberry Field
ReplyDeleteThis is Roy's link. I believe he added a second = which prevented the conversion
I liked about half of this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAfter struggling through multiple naticks in the NYT today, I welcomed this one. With circled letters, could the theme have been something like "throw a hat in the ring(s)?" As far as I can tell there really is only one iter in the body, but other body parts like heads, hearts, and stomachs lend themselves to plural entries, so I think I can accept this one. I've seen it a few times before, but I'd like to see it clued as "roads to Rome" some time.
ReplyDeleteSorry if this seems little political,
ReplyDeletebut I was poking around the internet looking
for silly hats on "it,"
when I came across something truly disturbing...
This is in the middle of the Pacific.
The "IT" that this lid covers
is a radioactive waste dump built in to a crater left by a nuclear test.
Not only is the bottom, which is a coral reef, not sealed,
it is leaking! Also, made before global warming, the concrete
is expected to deteriorate under rising sea levels.
But no one seems too concerned because the area could not get much worse anyway...
Here is a 12 minute video, which
I admit is one sided, paints a terrifying picture of why we are all
going to Hell in a handbasket!
Try to have a nice day...
Rick.... you are extremely clever. Love when you do these stories
ReplyDelete"I've seen it a few times before, but I'd like to see it clued as "roads to Rome" some time."
ReplyDeleteDear Northwest Runner -- as AnonPVX noted at 12:45, if 'iter' was clued that way, the answer would have to be "ITINERA" (as a 3d declension neuter noun, plural). Or, alternately, as "VIAE."
Yeah, Jayce, I don't understand the objection to ITERS, when we accept stomachs and hearts.
ReplyDeleteI see Roy agrees with my previous post regarding iter and yore. And, the dictionary gives the plural as S.
With pen and paper and online, the diacritical marks and apostrophes are omitted. It can lead to strange answers as Anon says (LOL), but the dropping of those marks is just a common crossword convention. Spaces between word are also dropped. Mensa does not include any of these marks or spaces on their solution page.
Dave, I almost fell off my chair laughing at the cat wash and the septic tank burial.
Moe, good one!
Well, off to my fourth appointment this afternoon. Gotta run.
From my Latin dictionary: iter, itineris.
ReplyDeleteWEES about the cleverness of the puzzle and clues. I liked the long fil, KOSHERDELI, CAPTAIN KANGAROO, STAMPCOLLECTION, etc.
Misty, maybe you could make a You Tube video of your class or a podcast then some of us could participate. Your topics sound really intriguing.
This was a very good pzl. Ta- DA!
ReplyDeleteSincere thanks to Mr. Coulter for providing us with just the level of pzl I find most engaging - one in which I get the feeling I'm smarter than I thought when I started out.
That comes from long, grid-spanning fills that complete themselves once you get two or three letters in place.
And from fills that roll from the end of one perp to the start of another.
I appreciated the distraction today, as I am getting sad news from Florida - that my younger brother is on life support, and his daughter may be facing a decision in just a few days about whether to "pull the plug."
I knew he was in trouble when he was hospitalized for diabetic complications. One bad thing (amputation) led to another (infection), and now he is on a ventilator and "heavily sedated."
Dear Colleagues: I am not religious, a non-theist. But I know Russ would not refuse prayers from anyone kind enough to remember him.
I ask others to join me in wishing him the will to live - or, if this really is his time, to make a peaceful farewell.
____________
Diagonal Report: Just one diagonal today - the mirror line (NE to SW).
What kind (and funny, Wilbur) feedback about my 2019 Joyce class! I teach it at the Senior Center in Laguna Beach, Wendybird.
ReplyDeleteLucina, I'm afraid I know nothing about Youtube or podcast and fear it wouldn't work anyway, because the class depends on my lecture plus slides plus looking up passages in books and the like. But I'm incredibly flattered and heartened by your suggestion--thank you so much.
Rick, I couldn't believe the way you transformed today's puzzle into a clever and funny narrative. I hope Paul will have a chance to read it. Would love to know what he thinks of it.
Ol'Man Keith,
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts headed your way for Russ, his family and especially for you.
~ Bill G
OMK:
ReplyDeleteHow sad to hear the news about your brother. I firmly believe in prayer and will hold him up for strength and grace to accept whatever is ahead for him as well as for you and your family.
Rick:
What an entertaining story as usual from your fertile imagination!
Random House dictionary: anus, anuses
Keith: So sorry to hear about your brother's situation. No good solution there. Prayers for your family in this difficult time.
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! No circles but I did find the LIDS. Thanks, Paul, I thought your Bonnet On It with the visual was cuter. Didn't get the IT until Steve explained. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI tried Jewish before KOSHER, dole before METE. ALLAYERS took ESP then I mentally pronounced it ALL o' Yours before figuring it out.
Places = SITUATES also took ESP then I sat looking at it until I could justify the clue. I don't use the word except in SITUATion which is more an event than a place.
MATRImony: do you think they called it that because a goodly number of women are in the MATRI-way at the altar? (Stop moaning.)
Cheerios = TATAS. Okay, I'll go along with that only because I know it cheers males to see a lady's TATAS.
CED: you gave me two hearty belly laughs. Both clips were apt for PUT A LID ON IT. You sure won't ever have to wash that cat again. You'll never see that cat again. Too funny.
Misty: I also enjoyed Rick's hard-boiled tale. Very Runyonesque. Now there's a good word to go into a grid. Wonderful how Rick got so many of the puzzle's entries into his story.
ReplyDeleteCE DAVE @ 2:16, how scary!
ReplyDeleteDictionary.com - origin of ITER, 1590-1600; < Latin: journey, route, passage in the body, akin to īre to go, Hittite itar way, road.
You can see the connection with itinerary.
Iter has been known as a passage in the body for more than 500 YEARS. It may not be common in our circle of acquaintances, but I am sure it is common in medical circles, especially in the study and treatment of the brain. You can see the connection with path, journey, road. I have known crosswords that used ITER as Roman road. "With the exception of some outlying portions, such as Britain north of the Wall, Dacia, and certain provinces east of the Euphrates, the whole Empire was penetrated by these itinera (plural of iter)." However, in today's medical usage, the anatomical plural is ITERS.
Thinking of SITUATES as a verb helps this clue make sense. The believer in feng shui situates the front door in the most auspicious direction. Some feng shui minded buyers would not consider my home because the front door was inauspiciously situated.
Keith, so sad to hear of Russ's health situation. You, Russ and your family are in my thoughts at this difficult time. That kind of decision is heart wrenching.
Rick, funny, creative tale.
Have a lovely evening you all. I hope your weather is as mild and pleasant as ours.
Argyle, so sorry to hear of your continuing problems. We surely do miss you and think of you every day. I hope you can enjoy the repartee here whether or not you type answers. We are all pulling for you. I hope our powerful energy reaches you and pushed you forward. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for all you do for Scot and for keeping us updated.
ReplyDeleteHuge yellowrocks for you, Argyle.
Have you seen Jennifer's post about Argyle? I am I the only one to react? Have you read this?
ReplyDeleteHi Bloggers,
Jennifer here. Argyle would like me to update you all that he is still feeling poorly and unable to effectively control his hands in order to type on the keyboard. His hands and arms and legs are spastic. His overall health is a struggle at the moment. He is being monitored by Dr's and I am monitoring their care of our Argyle. As always he misses his work on the blog. He also enjoys the cards and notes sent from you all.
Argyle, I am so sorry you are having such a tough time right now. Praying you get some relief soon. I'm thinking a big hug for you. Thanks for letting us know Jennifer.
ReplyDeleteYR: All I found when I logged onto the Corner just now was Jennifer's note. I couldn't get onto the blog. Finally clicked the title and got a really strange archive piece.
YR - I had to do a search to find her post. It showed the post arriving at 5:51 today, but is not shown on my "Post a Comment On: L.A.Times Crossword Corner" from which I'm writing this. Not that familiar with 'blogger'.
ReplyDeleteWhen I try to get on the blog Jennifer's post comes up and then I click older posts and arrive hete.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, Ol'Man Keith--I just read your note with the sad news about your younger brother's perilous condition. What a difficult and sorrowful situation for your family. I will definitely include him in my daily prayer tomorrow and hope that he might still recover.
ReplyDeletePaul, I'm so happy that you checked in and enjoyed Rick's spoof with your puzzle!
DNF - no time to finish the SE today.
ReplyDeleteFine Puzzle Paul, Tip-o-the-HAT.
Thanks Steve for the Expo - I got here b/f I realized I didn't finish and left my pzl at the office. It being a Thurs, I'm sure I flubbed a vowel somewhere.
{A, C, B+, B} {chuckle}
CED - LOL the dog's how-to re: cat.
Rick - fantastic story.
PK - LOL! Cheerios, Cheers, TATAS :-)
OMK - Positive love to Russ
Jennifer - Read this to Scott. Lot's of love coming from Houston and I finally discovered where to buy stamps. Thank you for taking care of our Marine.
Thanks to all the Cornerites for letting me "listen"-in while my computer did my bidding. Play tomorrow unless work has me swamp'd again. -T
-T:
ReplyDeleteA new Moe-ku for you and PK:
The British toddler
No longer wants TATAS; he
Now likes CHEERIOS
Hello, Argyle; as you can see from the comments, we are all pulling for you and hoping you will soon be yourself again.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, thank you for taking care of our Santa.
Spitzboov, et al, here is the link:
ReplyDeleteJennifer on behalf of Argyle