We meet today to discuss our 20th puzzle from Mr. Edelstein published in the LAT. I blogged his second one back in 2015. We need to locate the five fill phrases where the letters CO are removed leaving a new phrase clued appropriately. This is an interesting puzzle with some new fill in addition to the theme fill. It also features 8 so called "cheater squares" to create a symmetrical puzzle. I have included the grid here to show both the original fill in red and the cheater squares marked with a + sign. He even manages a new three letter fill as well lots of longer fill like ADDRESS, CLEAVES, DISSENT, ELUDING, MASCARA, ROMANIA, ONE BELOW and SEQUENCE.
16A. Result of too many people fishing?:
24. Religious music?: COPIOUS NOTES (10). I like this clue/fill combo.
32A. Well-versed about sailing ships?: COUPON CLIPPERS (12). The fill is actually UP ON, menaing knowing about.
40A. Dispute between polite fellows?: COGENT ARGUMENT (12). This was the biggest stretch IMO. Gent argument just clangs in my ears.
49A. Problems with cellphone signals?: COPING ISSUES (10). I guess we all know pinging as a word now.
62A. "Above my pay grade" ... and, read in four parts, a hint to 16-, 24-, 32-, 40- and 49-Across: NO CAN DO. In three parts rather than the three logical ones. NO C AND O (7). I do love a logical and complete reveal. On to the fill.
Across:
1. Harmonious groups: CHOIRS. Do you all watch America's Got Talent?
7. Maybelline product: MASCARA. A cosmetic for coloring eyelashes, 1883, mascaro (modern form from 1922), from Spanish mascara "a stain, a mask," from same source as Italian maschera "mask" (see mask (v.)). Like the raccoon's mask. Cleopatra used kohl.
14. Role for Miley: HANNAH. Ms. Montana has changed.
15. Sticks: CLEAVES. Not the noun, but the verb. Very tricky.
18. Customer file prompt: ADDRESS. The clue confuses me, the fill became easy.
19. Lincoln and Grant had them in common: BEARDS. Not my first thought either.
21. Meet halfway: AGREE.
22. Show of support: AYE. And, 67A. No: DISSENT.
27. Buoyant wood: BALSA. Ochroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae, containing the sole species Ochroma pyramidale, commonly known as the balsa tree. It is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to 30 m tall. Balsa wood is a very lightweight material with many uses. I did not know there was a Mallo(w) family other than this one.
31. '60s protest gp.: SDS. Students for a Democratic Society. Very big when I was at UConn.
37. Exhilarated shout: WAHOO. Especially when catch ONE.
38. Fencing gear: EPEES.
44. Term.: STA. I actually do not know, but the perps are strong.
47. Practical joke: GAG.
48. Stimulate: PIQUE. Curiosity.
54. __ corda: played using the piano's soft pedal: UNA. The soft pedal is one of the standard pedals on a piano, generally placed leftmost among the pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action slightly to the right. wiki.
55. Orly arrival: AVION. Airplane en Francaise.
56. Like little-known facts: ARCANE. "In his dissent, John Roberts, the chief justice, noted the country had over 10,000 tax localities, many of which have their own arcane laws on how different products should be taxed." The Economist, July, 2018.
59. Hungary neighbor: ROMANIA. Hungary in yellow.65. Dodging: ELUDING.
66. Pushes back, say: RE-ACTS.
68. Antarctic explorer Shackleton: ERNEST. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Irish-born British explorer who was a principal figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
Down:
1. Golden State traffic org.: CHP. California Highway Patrol.
2. "Bali __": HAI. The name refers to a mystical island, visible on the horizon but not reachable, and was originally inspired by the sight of Ambae island from neighboring Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu, where author James Michener was stationed in World War II. wiki.
3. Nearly zero: ONE BELOW. Inferrable new fill, but puzzle critics call this a "GREEN PAINT" fill. But would you have known THIS?
4. About: IN RE.
5. Indian noble: RAJA.
6. Cutting: SHARP. Like wit from our other bloggers.
7. George Strait label: MCA. Music Corporation of America is now defunct, but it was their controlling company that I dealt with back in my music days, most people did not know that MCA owned the Universal Studios.
8. Munic. official: ALDerman.
9. Family ride: SEDAN.
10. Shipped stuff: CARGO.
11. Dodges: AVERTS.
12. Fix some bare spots, say: RE-SEED.
13. Take stock of: ASSESS.
17. Sixteenth-century year: MDI. 1501.
20. Ivory, for one: SOAP. Not from Elephants, thank you.
22. __ Dhabi: ABU.
23. Jabber: YAP.
25. Cut or crust opener: UPPER. Boxing or elitism.
26. Seventh in an instructional 39-Down, perhaps: STEP G. Literal, original and...
28. Obstacle: SNAG.
29. Back to back?: ACHE. Again, my brain must be fading cause this is all perps.
33. Pines: LONGS.
34. Very small amounts: IOTAS.
35. Volunteer for another tour: RE-UP.
36. Final Four game: SEMI.
39. Order: SEQUENCE.
41. Eau in Ecuador: AGUA. I wonder why Ecuador? Anyway, my one year old grandson asks for AGUA when he is thirsty.
42. Sister: NUN. That is how many sisters I have.
43. It may be iced: TEA. Not ice.
44. Showed leniency toward: SPARED. Spare the rod...
45. Villa d'Este city: TIVOLI. The MUSEUM.
46. Hostility: ANIMUS.
50. Cattle drivers: GOADS. I did not know this was a spiked stick used for driving cattle.
synonyms:prod, spike, staff, crook, rod.
51. Navel configuration: INNIE. If you said a 'navel' orange, give yourself a gold star (or a navel orange, if you're feeling peckish). Navel refers to the spot in the middle of your belly where the umbilical cord was once attached. Naval on the other hand, pertains to a navy, that branch of the military that operates at sea. Vocabulary.com.
52. Shore bird: ERN.
53. Goal or basket: SCORE.
57. Lenovo competitor: ACER. Lenovo Group Ltd. or Lenovo PC International, often shortened to Lenovo, is a Chinese multinational technology company with headquarters in Beijing, China and Morrisville, North Carolina, United States. Acer Inc. is a Taiwanese multinational hardware and electronics corporation, specializing in advanced electronics technology, headquartered in Xizhi, New Taipei City, Taiwan
58. Bangalore bread: NAAN.
60. Lodging spot: INN.
61. Sports rep.: AGT. Agent.
63. Sot's affliction: DTS. Delerium Tremens.
64. East, in Essen: OST. We have had this German word before.
Well that was a workout even after getting the theme. I look forward to all of your comments; thank you Jerry and all of you who read and a special thanks to those who comment. Lemonade out.
71 comments:
DNF. Couldn't figure out M?D, A?D, ??EAVES in the NE, and proDS and EvaDING in the SW kept me from seeing anything except STA[terminal=station], INNIE, and DISSENT. After red letters, I got ELUDING, but added 50d to the list of blanks, so I was even worse off than before! Needed the reveal to get gimmick, too, so this was a serious washout for me.
HANNA Montana was a Disney creation,
Purest virgin in the entire nation!
Once oh so PIOUS,
She became Miley Cyrus,
With a totally different reputation!
Colonial days, when our states were just nippers
CARGO crossed the Atlantic UPON CLIPPERS.
Imported were books,
Buttons and button-hooks,
(That was before the invention of zippers!)
{A-, A-.}
If you are looking for a challenge in the puzzle world today, C.C. authored the NYT Friday themeless. Be sure to set aside some time.
The reveal was impressive. NO C AND O. It's too bad that it isn't true for 2 of the themers. 24a has two Os and 32a has both a C and an O.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Twice this week the theme has totally eluded me. Tough puzzle. I never got the connection between NO CAN DO (NO C AND O) and the other theme clues. I initially thought that something Above My Pay Grade was Not My Job.
I didn't see the period after Term., so initially tried Sem, as in Semester. When I finally figured out that was not correct, I realized the Term meant Terminal and the answer referred to a Station.
Hand up for thinking that the Ivory referred to a Tusk and not a bar of SOAP.
QOD: After people have repeated a phrase a great number of times, they begin to realize it has meaning and may even be true. ~ H.G. Wells (né Herbert George Wells; Sept. 21, 1866 ~ Aug. 13, 1946)
Good morning!
Tough, tough, tough. Slow, slow, slow. The southwest was the toughest for me. I stuck with OUTIE and CROATIA far too long. No, as expected, d-o did not get the theme. Thanx, Jerry and Lemonade. (Read "Back to back" as "a word which may follow back." Hahtoolah 'splained the STA.)
WAHOO: Hi there, Misty.
MCA: The name was originally Decca and was Bing Crosby's label. I thought George Strait's label was RCA. Caused another slowdown.
Got it done but never sussed the theme.
I'm making a guest appearance triggered by CCs NYT Friday offering and my recent return form the UK – so I am still waking up ridiculously early. IMHO, this was harder than CCs above-mentioned themeless.
In retrospect I should have gone to the revealer earlier, after puzzling over PIER JAM and UP ON CLIPPERS for too long. The revealers took 3 attempts to parse correctly, but I got there. This enabled me to suss PING ISSUES, although I have never deliberately pinged anyone with my cellphone, only with a real computer.
The CLEAVAGE issue we had a long time ago, and I recall commenting on it. The OE root words for cut and stick are similar, and other Germanic languages (e.g. Dutch and German) keep both words but maintain a spelling and subtle pronunciation difference. This is presumably why the "stick" meaning has not stuck – it is chiefly "literary" now.
But I still don't get the clue for ACHE - even though I have one from traveling. Anyone?
Over and out
NC
Crunchy, but a lot of fun. It took longer than usual, but I moved faster after sussing the theme. No C AND O at the BEGINNING of each themer. It didn't bother me that there were other C's and O's in the themers. Like DO, I had trouble in the SW. One cheat.
WAHOO, CSO to Misty.
Nice to hear from you, Nice Cuppa. I don't understand ACHE either.
Owen, I liked the first one. Miley sure has changed.
Think "backache". So, "ache" is the back-end of "back", or the "back to 'back'".
I explained ACHE in my original post, but apparently not clearly enough. ACHES is a back(end) to "back" -- backaches.
This was my kind of puzzle! I only had a bit of a hold up in the SW corner, because of PING ISSUES, but got it in the end. However, I didn't manage to suss out the theme, which would have helped in several places. What I did like was the lack of modern jargon, names, and sport references, which had meant yesterday that I only got about half of the grid filled before giving up entirely. A very nice Friday for me!
Thanks Lemonade. I finished fast for a Friday but had absolutely no idea as to what was missing- CO.
CLEAVES means sticks? Never heard it used that way, only to split something, as in CLEAVAGE.
ARCANE- never knew it was plural. Had to change it from ARCANA to make SEQUENCE fit.
GOADS & AVION- took a WAG to get that 'O'.I wanted PRODS and didn't know the 'frawnch' for airplane.
ACHES- I filled it only because it fit. It made no sense until desper-otto clued me in.
Mirriam Webster definition number one
: to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly
Mirriam Webster defintion number two
1 : to divide by or as if by a cutting blow
2 : to separate into distinct parts and especially into groups having divergent views
From the word maven;
"One word is from the Old English cleofian, and means 'to adhere closely and faithfully; cling', as in "to cleave to one's principles." The other word is from the Old English cleofan (with a long "e"), and means 'to split or divide by or as if by cutting blow', as in "to cleave wood," or figuratively as in "that issue will cleave the Republican party." In this case, though the two words were originally distinct, natural language changes have made their forms in Modern English identical, so they appear to be the same word. This is a common process in English, but only attracts much notice when it results in such obviously divergent meanings."
Thanks Barry and Desperotto
D, I did read your original post, but still did not get it (although I still have it) – jet-lag would account for both, I guess.
I pushed show errors as I had no luck CHP and PIERJAM and Sequence Pique Una section. oh I started filling out SLOVAKIA too eagerly:( again no direct appearance.
I am making a business trip to Romania on Monday.
I got the theme early, but struggled. I wonder how you all know HANNAH here. Teenage stuff...
I'm normally anti-themed puzzles, but I enjoyed this one (even though C & O appear in some answers). I finished in less than 15:00, which is a fast Friday for me.
Shackleton's exploration of (and escape from) Antarctica is an amazing adventure:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Shackleton
The fountains at Tivoli are even more beautiful than in the video. The system is the original. The Villa and gardens are stunning.
Good Morning.
I mustn't miss any puzzles during the week. Between missing earlier and my disastrous go at yesterday and today, you'd think I'd never tried this before. Even as I say that, I know I will be missing some next week as I am leaving for Dallas Sunday to help my daughter and her family assess how to get five boys fed in the AM, to and back from schools, and dinner ready. My daughter and SIL are very busy with their work right now, and they need to consider how to do everything in a 24 hour day. I'm cooking for the freezer--part of the dinner solution. They need some help and my 802-mile (ORD to DFW) distance makes my help generally unreliable. ;>)
Jerry, this puzzle was WAY above my pay grade today. I caught some spots with good old P & P. Thanks for exercising my off kilter brain today.
Lemonade: many thanks for all the help. I get ACHE now, but I'll never see how COPIER JAM works because it does have a C. And . . . . Well, it's time to move on. I have lots to do today.
Have a fine day. Since I probably won't be back tomorrow or Sunday, have a great weekend.
Old fashioned wedding language, "... a man shall forsake his father and mother and cleave unto his wife."
I guess I had a mental block about to back to back=ache. I get it now but it still seems to be a kind of tortured clue.
Thursday’s puzzle was much harder (for me, anyhow). Strange?! Should be the other way around.
Finished in normal time, but never really got the theme until the reveal.
I think this is a better take on No Can Do
This is really good
Enjoy
DNF. A real Friday puzzler. Red Letters and Alphabet Runs were required. The blanks were filled in, but there was no solution of today's puzzle.
The SW was the biggest sticking point today. I had AUSTRIA, CROATIA, UKRAINE and MOLDOVA before settling on ROMANIA. Don't know why it took so long to come to the right answer.
I've got to learn when you see AND in the middle of an answer, it probably means AND, and the letters on either side of it are what's missing or inserted. I just didn't see it today.
Onward to the weekend. I hope everyone has a good day.
Nice Cuppa, I get distracted so easily. I really thought I had commented on how pleased I am to see your comments, but obviously I did not post. While I have not been at the Corner for its entire 10 year + run, I have been here for a long time and it is always especially nice to see people return. It also is great to hear from Kazie who is one of the few who predates me here.
Anon at 9:27, thank you for posting the Shackleton LINK .
Mme. Defarge, the fill is PIER JAM, the "CO" is omitted. I show them with an indication crossing out the CO.
Good Morning:
This was above and beyond normal Friday difficulty (46 minutes) for me, probably due to not seeing the theme for so long. Until I read the reveal clue, filled in No can do and then stared at it, trying to parse it so that it made sense, the theme fill was gibberish. Ah, but then the light went on: No C or O! Still, the SW corner was slow to fall, mainly because of my geographical knowledge gaps: Estonia before Romania and Asissi>Napoli>Tivoli. Goads, as clued, was unknown, so needed perps and Term. Only conjured Neg. or Pos., as in terminals. That whole corner was especially tough to decipher. Rani/Raja and Avoids/Averts were the other w/os. Back to back=Ache had me scratching my head until, finally, I got it; that was the best C/A in the puzzle, IMO.
Thanks, Jerry, for a challenging, satisfying solve and thanks, Lemony, for the spot-on analysis. Very cute picture of Owen. Do Charlotte and Harper enjoy their big-sister roles?
Where is Bill G, BTW, or have I overlooked any recent posts?
FLN
Anonymous T, congrats to you and DW; I think you're both pretty lucky. (I can relate to the "please the family" second marriage ceremony.)
Have a great day.
Congrats to CC on themeless Friday in the NYT. Had to depend on crosses for 62A and even then stared at for five minutes before pulling it apart and understanding the excellent clue.
Good morning everyone.
Quite hard today, but it finally got done. The theme flummoxed me throughout, but after completion and further study, NO C AND O was finally parsed correctly. Favorite was coGENT ARGUMENT. WAHOO, not woohoo; cso to Misty.
WAHOO is a fish related to the mackerel. During WWII submarines were named after fishes including the USS WAHOO (SS-238).
It was lost while transitting La Perouse Strait north of Hokkaido after completing its 7th patrol.
OST - We have it a lot. After Charlemagne's reign his realm was divided and inherited by 3 sons. The easternmost, or Ost marche evolved into modern-day Österreich (or Austria). Hi Misty.
Thank you IM, Owen is wonderful little boy and his sisters mostly love being big sisters. Harper tends be a touch aggressive in her affection at times, but overall they are doing well together. Both little ones do grab Charlotte's glasses too often.
Thank you Spitz, I never connected the dots for Osterreich.
One of the kids in my H.S. class was Jerry Oestreich -- probably the result of a misunderstood question to his grandparents at Ellis Island.
Well, no WAHOO for me today, except for the fun shout-out in the puzzle--many thanks, Jerry! (and Desper-otto and Yellowrocks). And thanks for remembering that I'm from OSTerreich, Spitzboov. I did get the whole south-east before the cheating started, so at least that was a good beginning. And lots of fun items ensued in other places as I moved along. Yes, that was a different Miley when she was HANNAH in the old days. And a lovely reminder of TIVOLI--would love to visit it again, though not likely. Great write-up, Lemonade--many thanks to you too. And yes, I too watch "America's Got Talent."
Loved both your poems this morning, Owen.
Complicated family management, Madame Defarge. Hope it all goes well for everyone.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
Way too tough for me. I looked up TIVOLI and used a map to get ROMANIA, and I STILL managed to get CHOrdS wrong. DNF and FIW Friday!
Favorite learning moment was GOADS, Favorite groaner was "back to back" once I FINALLY got it. Favorite CSO was to our favorite Nun, Lucina.
FLN: -T, you are indeed a silver-tongued devil. PK, I had two older "little angel" sisters. My history teacher called me out in class and said "Jinx, I had your two sisters n class. I just don't know what happened to you".
Thanks to Jerry and Lemonade. I probably won't spend much time attempting tomorrow's grid, I'll just lick my wounds and look forward to Sunday.
Hi Y'all! Real challenge, thanks, Jerry. But I had more WAGs than a dog today. No real unknowns in the puzzle though.
Get the theme? NO CAN DO until Lemony explained it. Duh! Why were CHP, ONE BELOW, & STEP G red in the cw grid diagram, Lemony? Don't get that.
ACHE I got from looking at what I had and taking a WAG. Clue didn't clue me in.
Last to fill was the PIOUS/UPPER/STEPG/APT area. Also had trouble with PIQUE/SEQUENCE and PING/GOADS. I've seen a sharp nail on a stick cattle GOAD but more often electric shock prods after which my husband often got kicked for his efforts.
Didn't know TIVOLI by that clue. Got perps of T__OL_ in place and WAGd TIVOLI. The "I" then let me WAG DISSENT.
No joke, I once interviewed and wrote a story about the King of ROMANIA and his wife Anne. I thought it was a prank that two guys were playing on me, but I showed up ready to go. Deposed by communists in WWII, he was the saddest man I ever met. The royal couple were living a quiet life in Florida and Switzerland at the time I met them. I wrote the story with background from Britanica. I wasn't sure he was the real king until Life magazine came out with his picture years later when communism fell. They came to visit our little communities to get parts manufactured there and unavailable anywhere else. Seemed to enjoy the rural setting.
Jinx: LOL! My youngest son was much like my youngest brother, maybe because my mother and I were each too tired to crack down. My son's first grade teacher and the 2nd grade teacher who knew he'd be coming to her next actually took a special class (over Xmas vacation) to learn how to deal with his creative hi-jinx. They civilized him somewhat. He turned out to be a military pilot which takes a certain amount of dare-devil spirit. Glad we didn't kill that.
Excellent work, Jerry Edelstein! Though I would never have perceived the theme without your outstanding parsing, Lemonade. Bravo!
My CHOIRS sang PIOUS NOTES and STEPG is actually a SEQUENCE of the alphabet. I know BALSA and liked seeing CLEAVES right under MASCARA. It usually sticks.
I suppose eau from Ecuador is for alliteration. The only commonality between Grant and Abe I could see is their BEARDS so that was my next fill after HANNAH.
But all this solving was hard work. The SW fell first and slowly, very slowly, then the SE. Thank you again, Jerry, for forcing me to think a little harder today.
An almost CSO to Misty who usually says woohoo but I don't know who says WAHOO?
Now I'll go see what you all had to comment.
Have an exceptional day, everyone! Woohoo!
Krijo:
HANNAH Montana was a Disney TV show for several years when Miley Cyrus was a child. You could likely find some clips on You Tube is you are interested.
You're right, Lucina--I WOOHOO but don't often WAHOO. Just couldn't resist taking credit this morning--maybe to distract from how poorly I did on the Friday puzzle.
Wow i thought this was easy for a friday. Blew thru southeast and then went northwest to east, skipped to southwest now and then. Usually the midweek puzzles are hard for me. Ta!
Hey Irish Miss. I'm here. Thanks for asking. It's nice to feel wanted/missed. Woohoo!
Among other things, I carelessly cut a corner too sharp while pulling into a driveway and scraped up the passenger side of my Camry. I called AAA (my insurer) and took it to their recommended body shop. I have to bring it in Monday and get it back at the end of the week. So I've been in a funk feeling bad about my dumb accident and the ensuing disruption in my uneventful retired existence. Thanks again for asking.
Yes, I've been watching AGT.
Say, did you see the primetime retrospective of Sunday Morning? Very good I thought. It reminded me of how much I miss Charles Kuralt.
I like ice cream. Hagen Daas is good stuff. But have you noticed they put an unnecessary plastic cover over the unopened pint container? It serves no purpose except to make the container really difficult to open the first time. Also, their 'pint' container holds 14 fl oz instead of 16. The container appears to be the same size as all of the other pints, but it's not. Very sneaky.
PK: You really should write a book about your experiences as a journalist. King Michael I of Romania died just last December at age 96. I remembered reading about his death, since I had just recently returned from Romania, thus the country was still on my mind.
Lucina:
I know the show, however I wondered how come all of you know her (aiming more on the generation gap).
Yesterday we had Nirvana and that caused more problems. Nirvana is probably the biggest band of the 90’s.
Really enjoyed the story on Romanian king. The regime after he was exiled was really tough.
D-O: According to an article in the Smithsonian, very few names were changed by immigration officers at Ellis Island
Krijo, I suspect many folks on this blog became acquainted with Hannah Montana via their grandkids. I'm still waiting to hear how you pronounce your name: Kree-Ho, Kree-Jo, Kry-Ho, Kry-Jo? Or something completely different? Perhaps the K is silent?
Musings
-A windy, cool 27 holes today and then a great gimmick with a tough SW corner here
-Office hero? Anyone who can clear a COPIER JAM
-Dispensing COPIOUS NOTES is not teaching to me
-Genesis 2:24 – For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and CLEAVE to his wife, and they shall become one flesh
-Votes in this partisan Congress follow party line AYE/DISSENT patterns
-Only 25 miles from me
-Golf pro knows about my cwd activites and wondered if I had ever heard of this clue he saw – Hebrew Hammer? Answer at bottom of this post
-It was/is often said that Chicago had the best ALDERMAN money could buy
-My daughter’s friend is a lovely NUN but a horrible school administrator. Changes are in the works
-The Hebrew Hammer was Cleveland Indian Al Rosen
I think I already wrote it once.
It sounds like khri-yoh in my ears. My real name is Juraj. Pronounced like “you’re eye”. It is equivalent of George.
PK, the red are for the fill that has not appeared in any puzzle before; e.g., CHP for California Highway Patrol had not been used. It was unlikely that any of the theme answers had appeared before because of the CO gimmick. My Eastern European background includes people from Romania, Poland and Russia but I did not the whole story of the Romanian King. Thank you PK and Susan.
Hi All!
Quick post before I head for San Antonio (gotta pack!) Thanks Jerry for the wicked-hard puzzle and thanks Lem for re-arranging all the letters in (my) the SW. Special thanks to D-O and Berry T for explaining ACHE!
I got the theme - NO C nor O - but couldn't figure out how it connected w/ the themers with both (COs), some (COs), and none (carbon friendly?)!
Then I totally DNF'd it in the SW. I had deadISSUES then drop ISSUS after I figur'd PARD (bzzzt!) was a Cattle driver. I was with Hahthoolah on Term = SEM... At least I nailed Misty's Wahoo! [hey, it's close Lucina :-)]
{A+, A+}
Thanks for the sentiment IM, I know I am (lucky), but I'm not sure DW feels that way all the time :-)
See you next week MdF - good luck on the JFK freeway!
Welcome back Cuppa! , PK, get that book wrote, Bill G - go w/ Ben & Jerry's (that film is there, me thinks, to protect the product during the flash re-freeze process. I toured the B&J plant when DW & I spent an Anniversary Tree-Peep'n' in VT in '88.)
Have a great weekend all! See you Monday. Cheers, -T
I nominate this mess for “worst puzzle of the year” with a nod to “of all time”.
Who has time to figure out this mess of a theme....not me, life is just too short.
Wahoo, Anon T. Have a good trip to San Antonio.
I second AnonPVX's words ... DNF galore here ... 'ACHE' clued so obscurely ... in California, there are no ALDermen, so no idea what that was supposed to be ... George Strait's label??? I don't even know who this StraIt guy is!
Bill G @ 1:42 ~ Sorry about your mishap but glad that your absence was by choice. I completely forgot about the Sunday Morning special, but I can get it On Demand so I'll watch it over the weekend. Thanks for mentioning it. I enjoyed this past Sunday's show, particularly the Robert Redford interview and the Lanai cat sanctuary segment.
Wonderful (SHARP) 'mment!
Irish Miss, thanks for your sympathetic words. Things are going from bad to worse. The IRS is reporting me to the local police for ignoring their instructions to call them. Apple Care is telling me there's been a breach of my iCloud storage account and I need to call before it's too late. That one really has me worried since I don't have an iCloud account. I seem to be in deep doodoo and it's getting deeper. Geez...
AnonymousPVX, I'm surprised you keep doing these puzzles since they often don't seem to bring you much satisfaction.
~ Mind how you go.
Well, I finished this beast, but take no delight in my Ta- DA!
I confess I did not understand the theme even while working my way through with the aid of all the Ps at our disposal.
After reading Lemon's brilliant exegesis, I can appreciate Mr. Edelstein supreme cleverness. But as he can see from my comments and from the plethora of posts today, the result is too tortured to be the pleasant challenge we seek.
In other news, we got our new iPhone and TV delivered today. WAHOO! (Or "WooHoo," Misty!)
The weekend will be devoted to starting up & get used to these newfangled things...
~ OMK
____________
DR: Despite the busy and overflowing richness of today's pzl, there are no diagonals.
Bill G ~
Damn! Your situation sounds truly parlous.
You left out some details. If the IRS is after you by phone, you know that's fraudulent, right?!
Or did I fall for your gag?
~ OMK
OMK, you bit that line and Bill is reeling you in. I am sorry some did not like the theme, but it was not impssible. You fill in PIERJAM with perps, and let your mind be blank, and BINGO COPIER JAM.
Whew, hard one today. Needed red letters, and even after some answers filled in I didn't understand them. Also didn't figure out where the missing Cs and Os were. Thanks for explaining, Lemonade and others.
I misread the clue for ARCANE as "Little known facts" so desperately wanted ARCANA.
PK, I second Anonymous T's motion: write that book. You're a darn good writer and it's obvious you have much of value to say.
Bill G, I missed you too. Sorry about your scratched Camry.
Good thing that word "unto" is in there regarding the cleaving and wives and stuff.
My brother used to holler "wahhhh hoooo!" a lot, often while pumping his fists. Don't know whether he still does.
The last name of a friend of mine is Dunson. He told me that his ancestors were named Dunston but someone at Ellis Island wrote it down wrong and they've been Dunsons ever since.
Best wishes to you all.
Bill G, I love how you emulate Fred Thursday. I have a fondness for that salutation also.
Assuming Lemonade is right, I withdraw all my sympathy, as little as it was, and abandon Bill G. to his fate with the evil IRS.
And I guess I must also leave him on his own with his lost iCloud files, unopenable HD containers,
... and scraped Camry.
~ Pitiless OMK
Hand up with those who found this challenging! Very few unknowns. Just some really challenging clues. I had NO idea what to do with NO. Very slow to figure out TERM. Nor did I get BACK TO BACK even when I got the answer.
desper-otto, Barry T Thanks for the explanations!
I figured out the missing CO at the start after awhile. Very slow to parse NO C AND O. Then I was amused! My favorite was PIOUS NOTES because it changed the meaning of NOTES!
Yes, CLEAVE has opposite meanings which always bugged me. The Bible uses that STICKS meaning with husband and wife.
Lemonade Thanks for explaining that the two meanings come from different roots!
Last to fall was the SW.
OwenKL, PK, Big Easy Hand up PRODS had me stuck before GOADS (last fill).
AnonT Hand up wanted DROP before PING. The CO theme was essential to solving this. FIR! Wow!
This beautiful NUN was our host at Notre Dame de Laghet in the French Alps.
This was in the same area as the recent SOAP ducks. My friend and guide Steve is with the NUN in the photo. Note his t-shirt from the Santa Barbara French Festival that he created.
Here are a few more of my photos at that NUNnery where we stayed.
Notice the testimonial paintings claiming miracles of survival due to this Notre Dame de Laghet. I have quite a few more photos of them.
Once again here are our family photos at TIVOLI Gardens near our home in Copenhagen.
I assume it was named for the TIVOLI in Italy.
fermatprime Are you finding relief from your headaches?
Thank you all for the kind words about my writing and the King Michael story. Hahtoolah, thank you for informing me he had died. I googled him about a year ago and they said he was still alive then, but Queen Anne had died. He was very young (19?) when he ascended to the throne and instituted reforms that were very popular with his people. I was told the communists who took over did not want to make him a martyr because of his popularity. They gave him a military jeep and he drove out of his country. His wife was never formally crowned and lived elsewhere at the time. While in exile he became a pilot and did test pilot work for one of the well-known propellor-driven aircraft companies. A hobby was restoring old jeeps like the one he escaped in. That was why he came to our rural area several times. The communists followed him around wherever he went except when he came out to the boondocks. They couldn't be inconspicuous there. He did not give newspaper or other media interviews, so I never understood why he agreed to talk to me especially since I didn't ask. He and his wife were just two casually dressed middle-aged folks sitting down to coffee in a little restaurant with friends and talking to me and a compatriot. Heady stuff after I accepted they were really royalty. When I headed out of the door at the newspaper with 10 minutes notice to do the story, our proofreader asked where I was going. I told her to interview a king. She said, "And you're wearing THAT?" Really did wonders for my confidence.
Bill G., I agree the film on Haagen Daz ice cream is difficult to remove. It is there to help us work off a few calories trying to remove it before indulging and also to keep people from dipping in their fingers and tasting it before we buy it. I actually saw a young woman do that a few years ago. I don't mind the film since that.
How many days since Fermatprime posted. I'm getting worried again.
Ah, yes.
I know why I love to be here. After two very bad CW days, I finally had a chance to read all your posts. Your brilliance illuminates me. Merci. Merci.
Anon T, Happy Anniversary to you and Mrs. (Dr.) Anon!!!! Bacci e abracci!! JFK ?? I only know the LBJ and the GHWB! No I won't be doing the TEXpress again. If you ever spent any time listening to Italian, it's all in your brain and will re-emerge with a simple travel course or audio. I heard it all my life, but my elders used it as a code so the kids/grandkids wouldn't know what they were saying. Ha!! I was a good listener (eavesdropper)!! Ciao, Bello!
PK: I agree! Oil up that computer and get writing !!
Thank you all for making my day!
Picard ~
CLEAVE is my favorite among English contronyms, words bearing opposite meanings.
But Dust is another, and Buckle. Left is another fave.
Others are Model, Overlook, Trim and of course Unbend.
Any other pet examples out there?
~ OMK
OMK - FAST - - It means quick or hurriedly in one meaning. In another it means motionless or held tight. Fast ice is in that part of a waterway where it is held tight to the shore and not moving. Hold fast means to remain tightly secured.
OMK, I shouldn't have anything more to do with you after your withdrawal of sympathy, but still...
Regarding contronyms, how about 'weather'? Maybe not as good as cleave.
Spitzboov ~
Well, Fast certainly qualifies as a homograph - spelled alike but with multiple meanings. It doesn't really have a contradictory sense - unless you add an explanation, something like "stuck tight versus has to be loosened in order to move quickly."
And then there's the sense of an ultra strict diet ...
I think my favorite homograph is Run.
Bill G ~
My cold heart must apologize.
With Weather/whether you have a classic homonym, spelled differently but sounded alike. Still, not exactly a contronym, is it?
When I was an undergrad (yes, wa-ay back then), our Speech for Actors teachers taught us to always sound the "h" with a gentle puff of air preceding the "w" in words like whether - so technically the two couldn't exactly be a homonym.
But that practice has gone out of fashion, so you're on safe ground.
~ OMK
OMK, I think you may have missed my intent with 'weather.' How about these two useages?
1. The old boat still weathered the storm. (withstood the attack)
2. The stormy winters eventually weathered the wooden patio furniture. (wore away)
OMK:
We were taught that too! In fact our teacher would have us hold our hands, palm up, and blow on it to feel the air as we said the words. It's doubtful anyone teaches that way anymore.
Bill G ~
I did! I did miss the boat, slipped the ship (& was the loser on the cruiser)! Thanks for explaining my error!
Lucina ~
I still catch myself slipping into that old pronunciation...
Isn't it weird how those old teachers used to have us do unnecessary exercises to follow up those lessons?
I remember our teacher would require us to put our hands on our waists, right above our hip bones, to feel the expansion of our bellies sideways if we were doing proper diaphragmatic breathing. We knew all the while we could look right down to watch our bellies rising!
~ OMK
Busy day, finally relaxed with this puzzler after a LATE dinner (9:15). Shoulda gone to bed!! Got everything but not the theme. Just wanted to add my name to the saying to conveluted themes that make you go through several levels of logic to even understand. I realize the constructors relish archane, complicated themes that only they understand, but,come on! We who are the solving public who are not privy to their mental macinations are held hostage by their elitism.
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