Theme: "For Starters" - Each theme entry is mash-up of three types of item indicated by the circled letters.
22. Three types of (see circled letters: MAP): MERCATOR AREA POLITICAL.
32. Three types of (see circled letters: JET): JUMBO EXECUTIVE TURBO.
50. Three types of (see circled letters: MAN): MINUTE ANCHOR NEWSPAPER.
76. Three types of (see circled letters: CAT): CALICO ABYSSINIAN TABBY.
90. Three types of (see circled letters: CAR): CITROEN ACURA RENAULT.
108. Three types of (see circled letters: ART): AVANT-GARDE ROCOCO TRAMP.
In
the old Tribune Media Daily days, sometimes we had "Three types of
trees/fruits" themes. Just a simple mashup with convenient letter counts
Paul's
take is different. The what in "Three type of ..." is circled and those
three letters start each of the theme entry component.
I
particularly like the CAT and CAR ones, as the answers are indeed "type
of...". MAN are just words that can preceded MAN. Same with MAP and
JET.
Across:
1. Eponymous Chanel perfume: COCO.
5. Eagerly enjoy, as praise: LAP UP. And 24. Eagerly enjoy: EAT UP.
10. Latitude: PLAY.
14. Not barefoot: SHOD.
18. Banned fruit spray: ALAR. University of Minnesota just developed a new apple called "First Kiss". Supposed to be better than Honeycrisp.
19. Gladiator's realm: ARENA.
20. Pull-up beneficiaries: LATS.
21. Mold: SHAPE.
26. Naturally lit room: SOLARIUM.
27. "500" initials: S AND P. Standard & Poor's 500.
28. Stick in one's craw: RANKLE.
29. Q and A part: Abbr.: ANS. Answers.
30. Allocate, with "out": METE.
31. Word often paired with "great": LATE.
40. Mimics: APES.
41. Gadget's rank: Abbr.: INSP. Inspector Gadget.
42. Ann and May: CAPES.
43. Much of "Deck the Halls": LAS.
45. Eclipse, maybe: OMEN.
46. Wharton postgrad awards: MBAS.
48. "Bravo!": OLE.
49. Speech problem: LISP.
57. Resting place: BED.
58. Reception vessel: URN.
59. Most healthy: HALEST.
60. More than proper: PRISSY.
61. Electrolysis particle: ANION.
63. [not my error]: SIC.
64. Solemn: STAID.
66. "__ in the Boy's Room": 1973-'74 hit: SMOKIN.
69. Prepares to transplant: UNPOTS.
72. Control: OWN.
73. Small batteries: AAS.
80. "Chestnuts roasting __ open fire": ON AN. How I miss freshly roasted chestnuts. Popular street food in Xi'an in winter months.
81. Supermodel Carangi: GIA. Played by Angelina Jolie.
82. "Hamlet" quintet: ACTS.
83. Clambake trash: COBS.
84. Graphics file extension: TIF.
85. "Let's Make __": A DEAL.
87. Hit the bottle: TOPE.
89. History Muse: CLIO.
95. Les États-__: UNIS.
96. Gray matter?: Abbr.: ANAT. Gray's Anatomy.
97. __ es Salaam: DAR.
98. "The Birds" actress: HEDREN. Tippi. Mom of Melanie Griffith, mom of Dakota Johnson.
101. Special Forces cap: BERET.
103. Causes of fear: BUGABOOS.
111. Confine: LIMIT.
112. Works in the garden: DIGS.
113. He's got the life: RILEY. The life of Riley.
114. "Tosca" tune: ARIA.
115. Swing noisily, as a shutter: FLAP.
116. Omegas' counterparts: ZEES. Not the watch Omega.
117. Chip dip: SALSA.
118. Ballpark figs.: ESTS.
Down:
1. Pic takers: CAMS.
2. Parkay product: OLEO. We also have 53. Eclectic mixes: OLIOS.
3. Director Reiner: CARL.
4. Marine predator: ORCA.
5. About one-third of MLB players: LATINO.
6. Fire up: AROUSE.
7. Waves overhead?: PERM. Literally.
8. Acapulco article: UNA.
9. Astronomical measures: PARSECS. New to me. Google shows that it's about 3.26 light years.
10. Mars, for one: PLANET.
11. Sgt. Friday's force: LAPD.
12. Resting on: ATOP.
13. Designing initials: YSL.
14. Black eye: SHINER.
15. Online break-in: HACK.
16. Australian export: OPAL.
17. Remove from a manuscript: DELE.
21. Prestige: STATUS.
23. Many Qatar natives: ARABS. My friend Chris used to live Bahrain.
25. About to explode: IRATE.
30. Stand-up sort: MENSCH. Consonants-rich.
31. Star of the animated short "Two Scent's Worth": LE PEW.
32. Farr of "M*A*S*H": JAMIE.
33. Flip over: UPEND.
34. Computer list: MENU.
35. Chinese city known for its Terracotta Army: XI'AN. Gimme for you, right? I've been linking the soldiers from time to time. Hahtoolah said hello to them a while ago.
/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/d9/92/d9924b4e-6170-4b90-b45b-2c7e6b12cefb/19380290525_10b47f48e5_o.jpg)
36. PC screen images: ICONS.
37. High-end hotel employees: VALETS.
38. Radar screen images: BLIPS.
39. Havens: OASES.
44. Agile: SPRY.
45. Fed. fiscal agency: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.
46. Fine wool: MERINO.
47. Bath in Baja: BANO.
49. Made, as a bet: LAID.
51. Roman garment: TUNIC.
52. Door fasteners: HASPS.
54. Prefix with linear: RECTI.
55. Salmon egg deposits: SPAWNS. Full of Omega-3.
56. In __: published: PRINT.
61. Analogous: AKIN.
62. Nile valley native: NUBIAN.
65. Perfectly: TO A T. Parsing!
66. Many a bagpiper: SCOT.
67. Bouncing off the walls: MANIC.
68. Norwegian king, 995-1000: OLAF I.
70. Spiral-horned African antelope: NYALA. Learning moment for me.
71. Attack verbally: SNAP AT.
73. Bubbling hot: ABOIL.
74. Monastery head: ABBOT.
75. Part of CBS: Abbr.: SYS.
77. Author James and baseball's Tommie: AGEES.
78. Cake-decorating artist: ICER.
79. Censorship-fighting org.: ACLU.
85. Gulf War journalist Peter: ARNETT.
86. "Nothing __!": DOING.
87. Radio knob: TUNER.
88. Figures of speech?: ORATORS. Great clue.
89. Diamond weight: CARAT.
91. Root vegetable: TURNIP. Have you tried pickled turnip? You need beets for color.
92. Gentle touch: CARESS.
93. Brings out: EDUCES.
94. Major Japanese port: NAGOYA. Very crowded during cherry blossom period.
98. Not quite a majority: HALF.
99. Bad to the bone: EVIL.
100. Spanish lady: DAMA. I thought it's DONA.
101. Cheese on crackers: BRIE.
102. Barely beat: EDGE.
103. Cotton capsule: BOLL.
104. Highlands hillside: BRAE.
105. Pair in a dinghy: OARS.
106. Bypass: OMIT.
107. Resorts with body wraps: SPAS.
109. Carpentry tool: ADZ
110. Langley org.: CIA.
The
CT scan Boomer had on Tuesday showed a few bad spots on his back.
We're going to have more MRI scan and bone scan next week.
C.C.
47 comments:
FIWrong. ruN > OWN, which made TRAT > TO A T and SPAuNS > SPAWNS. I also didn't know how to spell MERCATeR nor recognize the word AReUSE.
She had traveled many a PARSEC before she settled down.
On an alien PLANET, no humans to be found.
She married to a native, his SHAPE he did disclose.
He had too many fingers, he had too many toes.
He had a Swiss knife of "other things" beneath his dressing gown!
A tabby courted a calico
Why he did he didn't know.
His balls removed,
He was a prude.
But she had a soft BED of MERINO!
{B-, B.}
As C.C. notes, we used to regularly see the tired theme of "Three kinds of... say, table" - producing a random answer like DINNERENDMULTIPLICATION. These were among my least favorite themes. This puzzle is my take on turning it into something interesting. But I wonder if this was only interesting to a constructor, because it hadn't been done before, or if it was actually enjoyable to solve. Please let me know your thoughts.
Making the threesomes all grid-spanners was trickier than I expected. My original submission included HOMBURGASTRAKHANTOQUE, but Rich thought many solvers would be unfamiliar with Astrakhan. There wasn't much other choice for the A in HAT. I also had WORLDAIRREVOLUTIONARY, but I have to agree with Rich that WAR is an unpleasant topic for a crossword.
Good morning!
Had the circles and got the theme early on. That didn't help with the spelling of ABYSSINIAN -- a very deep subject. After getting TRAMP art, I had to visit Mr. G to find out what it was. Learning moment. I've been to China, but not to XIAN. Checked NAGOYA off the bucket list back in '69. Did not know that Tippi Hedren was Melanie Griffith's mom, another learning moment. Tippi was one of Hitchcock's icy blondes along with Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Janet Leigh, and Kim Novak. Thanx, Paul and C.C. for the morning's diversion.
Good Morning, C.C. and friends. I loved, loved, loved this Sunday puzzle. I generally don't like puzzles with the circles, but this one worked for me. I caught on to the gimmick with the various CATs = CALICO, ABYSSINIAN and TABBY.
Nice shout out to C.C. with XI'AN. It was just about a year ago that I was saying "Hello" to the Terra Cotta Warriors.
I, too, was amused by having OLEO and OLIOS in the same puzzle.
I tried As In before arriving at AKIN for Analogous.
MENSCH is a Yiddish word. High praise to be considered to be a mensch.
My favorite clue was Waves Overhead = PERM.
QOD: In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. ~ Dwight David Eisenhower (Oct. 14, 1890 ~ Mar. 28, 1969)
Good Morning:
Hey, Paul, thanks for dropping by. I have no complaints about the theme but the number of unknowns (to me, anyway) was overwhelming and caused a FIW and, to add insult to injury, I spent 1:15 on the solve with no reward! Nyala, Nagoya, Par Secs, Bano, Dar, TIF, Gia, Nubian, Xi'an, and Anion. Phew, what a motley crew! On the plus side, I had only two w/os: Dane (as in Great Dane) before Late and Repots before Unpots. I missed the Olios/Oleo pair but did notice Brie and Brae.
Thanks, Paul, for the mental workout and thanks, CC, for the grand tour and commentary. Best wishes to Boomer.
Have a great day.
I love Honeycrisp apples. Delicious apples not at all. Do you know why Delicious apples are so popular? Because they taste good? No way. They make good pies? Not at all. They are bulletproof and will keep in cold storage forever.
I, too, loved, loved, loved this theme. I caught on almost immediately MERC suggested MERCATOR, which suggested MAP. The theme helped tremendously in the solve making this an easier than normal Sunday. Only fill that I hadn't heard of was NYALA, TIF and TRAMP, but easily perped.
I loved PERM and CAPES.
Although red Delicious apples are not suitable for pies the golden ones are widely recommended. I use a mix of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. The extended family always asks me to bake the apple pies.
The iconic Tsukiji fish market in Japan has moved after 83 years in its historic place. Many are upset about this.
Owen first offering is great!
Loved your puzzle, Paul!
I, too had "as in" but never noticed that "smosin" didn't make sense.
Prayers and best wishes to Boomer.
FLN:
I had BETE, then CINE and finally saw the coffee. That gave me CONJUGATE, Duh. I couldn't fit NORSE and JUST....but they had to he right. So, goodbye INFERS here's UTTERS. Then I was lost. I had wanted STASHED. I was forced to finally keep STETTED(Ugh) never thinking of editors (ugh???*)
So. I actually FIRed this beast. I couldn't come here yesterday because I was ready to keep hacking away for the rest of the week (or month).
So I'm to late to post so I'll put this into Sunday. I see D-OTTO had BETE and MERE.
WC
Having only heard some grouchiness about XW editors . In a friendly way of course.
MENSCH is also a German word (or Yiddish got it from German) for "man", but the definition here is the Yiddish meaning.
I knew PARSEC from the old Star Trek series, but never heard of TRAMP Art.
Had elAnd before NYALA
The Life of Riley was an old sitcom starring William Bendix, but I'd be curious where the original phrase came from.
Paul C,
I wish that the "HAT" trio had made it into the puzzle. TOQUE has a "Q" that would have completed the alphabet in this puzzle. I always appreciate the extra effort and skill needed to do that!!!!!!!
Musings
- ASTRAKHAN HAT would have been as unfamiliar as TRAMP ART to me Paul in your wonderful puzzle. Thanks for the insight too!
-This live MERCATOR Projection MAP makes a circular orbit look like a wave
-A very revealing POLITICAL MAP
-Separating H2O into H and O via ELECTOLYSIS and “popping” the H was always popular in my lab
-Tippi HEDREN had to fight off sexual advances from Sean Connery and Hitchcock
-NASA says we might be on MARS when I am 84
-VAL’ ETS/VAL AYS’ seems to depend on what side of the Atlantic you are on
-Fine wool M _ _ _ _ _ is not MOHAIR and _ _ A _ _ antelope is not ELAND
-If you LAID money on the Huskers yesterday (-3½) you would have won as they got EDGED by 3
-Seeing an ICER do this fascinates me
I do the puzzle online at the MENSA site... so no circles. I got parts of the theme, but not all. A DNF for me this AM. Lots of unfamiliar words for me.
Best wishes to Boomer.
Going out for my bike ride before the Bear game. Beautiful day here.
Hi Y'all! Very meaty puzzle today and pretty chewy in places. Thanks, Paul for some fun learning experiences and for stopping in. Always interesting to see how the constructor's mind works.
No circles, but I got the theme with JET which helped on the others but was still tricky. Never heard of MERCATOR MAPs or TRAMP ART but with ROCOCO what else could it be but ART.
DNK: ANION (LIU when done), GIA, TIF, DAR, NYALA, NAGOYA. Hand up for Dona before DAMA. Never heard of the latter.
C.C.: Thank you for another great expo. Praying that Boomer's reports will be good news. Such an anxious time for you both, I'm sure.
Hello Puzzlers -
Definitely some pepper in the mix today. Paul, nice to hear from you, and I admit I’d never have gotten astrakhan without lots of perp help.
What Bob Niles said. Delicious apples are misnamed, as far as I’m concerned. The fact that they survive, say, Christmastime shipping in gift boxes from Washington and are still edible in March does not endear them. They’re more like today’s boring tomatoes.
Morning C.C., I’ve only had fresh roasted chestnuts once, in Manhattan in December. They had a mealy texture, and I wondered whether I had been served poor quality nuts or if that’s just how they are.
I assume there are tea drinkers here at the corner. I’m not very knowledgeable about tea, but I have observed one thing over many years: there are zillions of teas out there that smell delightful, but have nearly no taste. Why is that? It seems to me that if you can steep out the aroma chemicals, the taste should follow right along. Anyone?
Thank you, Paul, for this delightfully meaty puzzle! Unusually for me, I saw the theme at three kinds of MAPs! MERCATOR MAPs were once the main ones published in text books.
Though I bumped against many unknowns, perps helped with all. Drat! MANIC and OLAF beat me; I had PANIC and OLAV. Otherwise it all fell in place.
DAMA means lady; dona (I can't do tilde) means Mrs. but it can mean lady if it's a title. E.g. Dona Diana, Lady Diana. Dona Diana es una DAMA.
Thank you, C.C., and thank you for the news about Boomer. I hope all goes well.
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
How nice of you to check in with us, Paul. It's always fascinating to hear the choices constructors must make, keeping solvers in mind. Sunday puzzles are always toughies for me, but I got lots of corners and sections everywhere--just not the theme. But I made a good guess when I got RENAULT that the other items were going to be the names of CARs. Anyway, lots of fun, many thanks, Paul.
My favorite today was "The Life of RILEY," which evoked a wonderful childhood memory. In my first year in this country when I was 10 we lived in an upstairs apartment without a television. On Friday nights we went to church and had dinner afterwards in the bar downstairs from our apartment, which had a television. We became hooked on William Bendix in "The Life of RILEY." Would love to see it again to remember what made it such fun.
C.C. your write-up was a huge help. I still don't understand how TRAMP is an ART, but you cleared up many mysteries. And thank you for the update on Boomer. He'll be in our hearts and thoughts next week.
Have a good week coming up, everybody.
Lost, lost, lost. I had no idea where this was going, couldn't make any connections, and quit out of frustration. My problem I know, and I thought I gave up too easily, but looking at the answers still left me on the outs.
-Misty, Here’s some 1950’s Life Of Reilly for you
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Paul Coulter, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Most of the puzzle i got through fairly easily. The theme appeared early on and it did help me. I liked it.
HEDREN was unknown. Perps. Even though I had seen that movie a hundred years ago.
DAMA, a new word. As was NYALA. Same for PARSECS. OMB was perped. After I saw it here it makes sense. MERINO was unknown. Anyhow, perps helped with a lot today.
Off to a funeral service for an old friend. He lived into his 90's, and he had a good life.
Best of luck, Boomer, in your upcoming tests.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
At 25 minutes, about a typical Sunday solve. Loved the theme, Paul, and the way you implemented it. C.C., you were right; I saw the SO to you with XIAN right away. I have never been there but my parents managed two trips there before their health caused them to stop travelling.
PARSEC is a portmanteau of PARallax of one arcSECond. It’s been in use for just over 100 years now, and being typically a shorter distance than a light year is often used when describing less distant objects like those within our immediate (relatively) neighborhood.
Wanted ZEdS for ZEES at first but that didn’t work. **POTS and let the perps decide. Unfamiliar with TRAMP art, but that’s what it had to be. BUGABOO(s) is one of my favorite words. HALEST, not so much. At 103D, I immediately thought of the boll weevil song from the late ‘50s or early ‘60s, by Brook Benton. I think it was written by Tex Ritter. It’s always nice to see our friend Pepe LePew.
Whoa—if I don’t get a move on I’ll miss my first after-lunch nap! Have a great day, all!
First of all, good luck to Boomer on the scans. DW is having a knee replacement next Monday; she has a fractured medial condyle on her left femur that just won't heal. She found out two months ago that she had a broken leg but she didn't know it. It just hurt. Enough bad news.
As soon as MERCATOR and POLITICAL appeared from perps, MAP was obvious. The other theme fills, aided by the circles, were mostly easy. Just spelling ABYSSINIAN correctly took perps. With CITROEN & RENAULT in place I kept wanting another "frawnch" car because NYALA and its cross with GIA took an educated WAG; never heard of either. ACURA fell into place.
INSP Gadget, HEDREN, XI'AN,TRAMP art, NAGOYA were other unknowns filled by perps. 5A-I filled EAT UP but it showed again at 24D and it became LAP UP.
HEDREN, Griffith, Johnson- nepotism or getting your foot in the door ahead of everybody else. Kinda like Harvard and the Ivies and TULANE for JJM.
JJM- where is your bike ride, if in NOLA. I ride from Audubon Park to Kenner and back on the levee. 24 miles on my odometer.
Honeycrisp- I love them but once got a bag that had mainly bad apples that I had to toss. I called the grower/packer and they informed me that Honeycrisp are very hard to grow and that they must dispose of almost half their crop. Hence, the high price. I stick to Fuji.
Husker Gary, I can't believe you found an episode of "The Life of Riley" for me to watch! It was amazing and a comic delight--just like in the fifties when I first probably saw it! Thank you so much! What an incredible treat!
This was one where the theme answers came quicker than the fill once the theme was clear. I knew MERCATOR had something to do with maps but I couldn't have told you what. WEES about TRAMP ART. I waited for perps to see if it would be TABBY or Tiger cat. I always have to wait for perps to see if it will be OLAF vs Olav and which if any Roman numeral will follow - kind of like the Leos and Ottos.
Thanks CC and Paul!
I liked this puzzle and appreciate the usage of the three circles for each long theme answer. Nicely done. Hand up for filling ELAND and then having it eventually morph into the unknown NYALA. I noticed LAP UP and EAT UP as well as OLEO and OLIOS; there's also OLE. Another hand up for entering Great DANE and watching it morph into LATE, which as far as I'm concerned is an equally fine answer to the clue. If I had three hands I'd put the third hand up for letting the perps determine --POT. XIAN was a gimme but GIA Carangi was not. After filling all the cells I didn't get a Tada, and was able, without red letter help, to get the Tada by changing KARAT/KLIO to CARAT/CLIO.
Paul C., yes, I found it to be an enjoyable solve. I like what you did there.
Best wishes to you all and especially to Boomer.
Chiming in here. I liked this puzzle a lot as well. Once the theme was discovered, it helped a lot, and it was fun figuring out which three things were needed and then using them to aid in solving some of the downs.
Not too many complete unknowns -- one example, though, was 66 across, "Smokin" in the Boy's Room. With pop music of almost any era, my expertise consists of huge gaps punctuated by small bits of knowledge! And I'd never heard of Tramp art either, but now know something about it, courtesy of Google.
Looked up "life of Riley", derives from an Irish ballad about Willy Reilly of County Sligo. He ran off with the daughter of a wealthy landowner 200 years ago.
Phrase finder
WikWak, if a PARSEC - 3.26 light-years, it's not shorter than a light-year. Astronomers use parsec because it's easier to calculate from observations.
Dudley, when I see other people drink tea, it seems they leave the bag in way too short a time. Brewing tea from leaves in a pot may be different.
So Husker Gary, what do you think your political map reveals? That Republicans (who got fewer votes) carried the counties where many fewer people live?
Two of my sisters who were in China recently, talked of how staggeringly impressive the terra cotta soldiers appeared. They were in Tibet and loved the culture there as well.
Paul you do keep pushing the creative envelope. Putting together two 21 letter fill as part of the theme, breaking all 6 themers into three parts, the first letters of which spell a word that describes what the three are - incredible. I started very slowly as CAMS did not come to mind easily. After that, it was perp, perp, perp.
WEES about unknowns
Thanks, PC and C.C.
Marnie
I was trying to come up with that name. I remember Tippy HEDREN and that movie. I expected another Psycho. I see the movie is now considered ART. And I see Husker Gary found a similar link.
I had SNIP AT and TRUE thus ICES for those Hamlet ACTS. I'm waiting to see if it's BANA Or BANO. Oops, FIW, I had BANA . Maybe I should take reverse ESL
The only caffeine I tolerate is in McDonald's icetea.
WC
Paul Coulter Thanks for stopping by! I really loved this theme. Even if it were three kinds of a thing it would be clever. But having the first letter of each spell what ties them together was brilliant! I am glad you did not do the HAT one, though. I never heard of any of those HATs.
Only BUGABOO for me was the double Natick crossing of GIA/NYALA. A total WAG. Never heard of HEDREN or DAMA, but that was an easier WAG. CARAT can also be spelled KARAT. Had to WAG that crossing with unknown CLIO, too! Glad to FIR!
Yes, CC, thanks to you for making XIAN a gimme for us! Somewhere I have photos of the terracotta soldiers from more than one US tour.
Lucina thanks for explaining DAMA.
The counterpart of OMEGAS are really "O"s. But it is a counterpart in that it is the last letter of the corresponding alphabet.
Here are my photos of the GLADIATOR ARENA in Rome.
Also known as the COLOSSEUM or COLISEUM. Notice the TABBY CAT in the fifth photo!
Keith, your comments about Jacquetta of Luxembourg have intrigued me. I can find no Real history of her.
Philippa Gregory has a fictionalization called the The Lady of the River. Her research is usually fairly good but it is fiction. She says in the introduction to this book that women in general during this period ,15th century, are usually overlooked by male historians and Jacguetta particularly. ( Then the Victorians romanticized everything which is worse!!)
That’s why she writes these novels. But they are still novels!!
Do you have any reputable sources to suggest?
I believe the counterpart of the Roman letter O is the Greek Omicron "(uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, literally 'small o': όμικρον < ὂ μικρόν - ò mikrón, micron meaning 'small' in contrast to omega)" which is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
Jayce, that is my understanding also.
Swampcat, I can't attest to the reputability of the writers, but when I googled her, there were many different articles. They were in general agreement about her life, as far as I read. She seems to be a real, historical figure, the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV, as well as 13 other Woodvilles (!).
"Until lions learn to write, all the stories will glorify the hunter."
Sandy anon, she did seem to have been quite fertile!! Even if the numbers are in error...well... there were a great number of kids!
Bill G... amen!!! LOL
Sandy, I really do appreciate your help. But you should know I distrust “googling” just as I distrust novels. Anyone can post to the internet. I use it, as you have, to get an overview. Yes Jacquetta was real. Yes she had kids. But from there we need serious scholarship.
So glad we dug into this together!! What fun!!
Very true. But there are serious writers on almost any historical topic to be found via googling -- eventually. My problem is that when. I get interested I keep going and going. Sometimes the search peters out but sometimes it leads to solid information. Anyway, as you said, it's fun.
Billocohoes: you’re absolutely correct. Mea maxima culpa. I really DO know better but what I am pleased to call my mind must have been elsewhere at the moment of posting. Probably because I missed my second mid-afternoon nap. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
At least we don’t have to try to calculate the distances in Ångströms…
SwampCat, thanks. I grew interested in Jacquetta when you mentioned her primarily because I've always been interested in that period of British history. Found on Amazon this book: The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485 (Oxford History of England) Paperback – September 16, 1993. Just ordered a used copy. Don't know how much about Jacquetta will be in it but know that I'll enjoy reading it. Thanks again.
OK, I'm a stickler, but MERCATOR the angle of the line of sight of a map (perspective). Any "kind" of map (area, political, geographic) can be shown in the MERCATOR perspective.Yes, I know! "Picky, picky" but much more accurate!!
This puzzle was a bore and a chore to struggle through, with nothing to redeem it at the end. Moldy, old, rehashed X-wordese (ALAR, METE, APES, OLE, AAS, ONAN, ARIA, ORCA, YSL, DELE, OASES, HASPS, ABOIL, ICER, ADZ,) that no one uses in the real world. Too much reliance on foreign words and places (UNIS, DAR, BANO, UNA, DAMA, XIAN, NAGOYA, BRAE), obscure names (GIA, CLIO, OLAFI, AGEE, ARNETT) and abstruse arcana like ANION, TIF, TOPE, NYALA, PARSECS (really, PARSECS?), and EDUCES. "Eagerly enjoy: LAP UP" and "Eagerly enjoy: EAT UP" in the same puz. "OLEO" and "OLIOS" in the same puz. The word "AND" or "A" dropped gratuitously between letters to create SANDP, QANDAS, and TOAT, wtf? And as usual, a plethora of 24 abbreviations, some of which aren't clued as such. (PERM for "permanent", DELE for "delete" and LATS for "latissimus" may indeed be in the language, but they're still abbreviations; that should have been indicated in the clues.) What ruined the puzzle beyond hope is forcing themers into it that don't match, aren't funny, give no "aha" moments, and attempt cleverness but fall flatly and squarely onto their faces. Jumbos and turbos are kinds of jets, OK, but an executive jet is a description of someone who owns it, not a mechanical type. This could have been wacky/funny by cluing vastly different types of jets (from spas, a garden hose, the Elton John song, an ink printer, etc.) But instead it just... sits there, and fails to do anything, including being consistent. Do most people know what a mercator map is? I doubt it. It's certainly not familiar enough to use in a themer. More importantly, though, a mercator and area map both depict specific land masses with set borders. Political maps do not; the red and blue states shown during elections are hazy generalities at best. Calico and tabby are colors of cats; Abyssinian is a breed. No issues with the names of car manufacturers; if unimaginative, at least they matched each other. But the Art themer misses the mark entirely; avant-garde describes more of an approach or mindset across many art movements, rococo a style of design and architecture in Europe from 1730-80, and tramp art a type of handicraft involving remaking cigar boxes. The three terms just don't seem to fit together, like, for example, Cubism, Impressionism and Surrealism. What irritated me the most was the "man" themer. I know it's all in fun, but the terms Anchorman and Newspaperman went out in the 1960s and there's a reason for that- they were sexist. We now use the term Anchor for both men and women in the former case, and Reporter or Journalist in the latter. Which makes Minuteman, a revolutionary war term, stick out like a sore thumb. A house shutter bangs or slams, not flaps. No one describes the healthiest person in the gym as the "halest". People don't un-pot plants, they re-pot them. Omegas are "zees" to no one but a crossword constructor or editor. To snap at someone is to respond rudely, but is hardly a verbal attack. The person who frosts your cake is a decorator, not an icer. Pluralizing "spawn" as a noun and referring to more than one "oasis" at a time is awkward, but pluralizing the singing note "la" is just plain wrong. Too many errors and not enough fun. Sorry, I love the language too much to let this one slide.
Husker Gary and billocohoes:
This Time Magazine article claims the real reason for the Electoral College was to appease the slave states. No other country has such a distortion of "majority rules"
http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/
Marycat:
You may have some interesting points. But it is really hard to read such a huge solid block of text.
Marycat - tell us how you really feel :-).
You may love the language but, apparently, abhor white-space to aid the reader.
As for 'halest', I just discovered that word in John Cleese's So, Anyway somewhere between pp72 & 90 [sorry, I'm reading from paper so I can't Ctrl-F it easily].
I enjoyed lurking /reading everyone today! Boomer - let us know how you're really doing tomorrow.
Cheers, -T
Loved this inventive puzzle. Unfortunate natick in the supermodel (81a) area which I see others had problems with. I guessed “nyala” (70d) but not knowing the author & bb player in 77d I guessed “pia” for the model ... wrong! Oh well, lots of other fun stuff in the puzzle amply covered above.
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