20. "The Iceman Cometh" playwright: EUGENE O'NEILL.
28. Sir Winston Churchill's ancestral home: BLENHEIM PALACE.
39. Victim of Artemis, in some accounts: ORION.
47. Cocoa butter treat: WHITE CHOCOLATE.
57. Passenger compartments, and an apt description of this puzzle's circles: CAR INTERIORS.
Without the circles, I never would have seen the cars. It must have taken maxima focus for Ms. Gelfand to roundup this theme. Such a clever word wrangler and explorer. She's a real trooper.
Across:
1. Aesop's "The __ in the Lion's Skin": ASS. Read it here.
4. Rips off: ROBS.
8. Batter's position: STANCE.
14. Phone ringing onstage, perhaps: CUE. Not enough letters for prop.
15. "Star Wars" critter: EWOK.
16. More homey: COZIER.
17. "Don't know yet," on skeds: TBA. To Be Announced.
18. iPad model: MINI.
19. Ways to go: ROUTES.
23. Emmy category: DRAMA. 2018 winner for outstanding drama series was Game of Thrones.
24. Fed. accounting agency: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.
25. Winery vessel: VAT.
33. Pulled in different directions: TORN.
34. High-end watch: ROLEX.
35. Quick punches: JABS.
42. Cream of the crop: BEST. Be cream of the crop.
43. Pungent: ACRID.
45. "NFL on CBS" sportscaster Gumbel: GREG.
53. Stage background: SET.
54. "__-ching!": CHA.
55. Single-handed: ALONE.
61. Italian sub meat: SALAMI.
64. Facility: EASE. Don't see this usage often, "a natural aptitude."
65. Stroller rider: TOT.
66. Gets dolled up: PRIMPS.
67. British singer __ Ora: RITA.
68. "True Detective" network: HBO.
69. Certify: ATTEST.
70. No longer fizzy: FLAT.
71. "Uh-huh": YEP.
Down:
1. Played the part: ACTED.
2. Commuter's destination: SUBURB.
3. Action star Steven: SEAGAL.
4. Leftover: REMNANT.
5. Toddler's scrape, to the toddler: OWIE.
6. Irish singer/philanthropist: BONO.
7. Onion exterior: SKIN.
8. Act frugally: SCRIMP.
9. Handy strip of computer icons: TOOLBAR.
10. Blue, in Barcelona: AZUL.
11. Insect egg: NIT.
12. Chute opening?: CEE. Can't fool me with "opening" any more.
13. Stumbling sounds: ERS.
21. Suffix with morph: EME.
22. Around the 30th: Abbr.: EOM. End of Month.
25. Low-lying area: VALE.
26. Breezes through: ACES.
27. Written words: TEXT.
29. Follower of boo, woo or yoo: HOO.
30. Choose answer (a) instead of (b), say: ERR.
31. "The Princess Bride" swordsman __ Montoya: INIGO. Click below to see Mandy Pitinkin's favorite line from the classic movie. (1:50)
32. Arcing shot: LOB.
35. Top-grossing film of 1975: JAWS.
36. Ice pack target: ACHE.
37. Tube rider, perhaps: BRIT. Interesting. (3:38)
38. Grab a chair: SIT.
40. Tolkien creature: ORC.
41. "The Matrix" hero: NEO.
44. Literally pulls up stakes: DECAMPS. Relocates.
46. Give the evil eye: GLARE AT.
48. Resurrection figure: CHRIST.
49. Japanese yes: HAI.
50. "True Detective" star Mahershala __: ALI.
51. Like some grins: TOOTHY. See above.
52. Dress for the choir: ENROBE.
56. Legally prohibit: ESTOP. "A legal bar to alleging or denying a fact because of one's own previous actions or words to the contrary."
57. Got to the party: CAME.
58. Lightweight ball brand: NERF.
59. Shadow: TAIL.
60. "¿Cómo __ usted?": ESTA. Spanish: How are you?
61. Massage venue: SPA.
62. Hotel lobby display: ART.
63. Illuminated: LIT.
49 comments:
Weird. I was examining the long entries for a theme, finally gave in and read the reveal: ...this puzzle's circles. Circles? Well wadaya know, I hadn't even noticed them I was so intent on the entire entries!
He'd tried to avoid racism since he was a TOT.
Color-blindness is a virtue is what he was taught.
But 'twasn't any use
To this biased youth --
He still had a prejudice for WHITE CHOCOLATE!
Hi Y'all! Enjoyable puzzle, Susan! Enjoyable expo, Melissa!
No circles. Reveal was slow in perping in. ECHO was the only CAR model I would have recognized as such. In other words, I did not get the theme. Still plugged away and filled the puzzle.
Last to fill "O" in EOM/OMB. Tried End before the "M" perped in. Couldn't come up with the name for OMB initials until Melissa explained. For some reason I had trouble with mostly three-letter words today. Did not know ALI, RITA, morphEME (not ine), NEO.
Never heard of that Aesop's tale, "The Ass in the Lion's Skin". I've met a few though.
Right now, my world is completely silent. It is eerie because I live near enough to a busy intersection to always hear traffic sounds -- even at 4:30 a.m. I looked out. Snow is all melted in my front yard and most of the backyard but all my neighbors' yards still have snow. I feel like I'm in the "Twilight Zone" right now. Very Strange!
Since the LA Times site has banned my ad blocker I have switched to the Mensa site, which doesn't display circles. Therefore, I couldn't see the connection with the reveal. Finished it anyway.
Knew ALI Mahershala, not for "True Detective" but for his portrayal of Don Shirley in the movie "Green Book".
Hesitated at 71A before entering YEs instead of YEh. Turns out I would have been wrong either way.
Good morning!
Had the circles, and they even helped in getting the I in BLENHEIM. Weird. I usually forget to look at 'em. oRIOn sounds like it could be a car model, itself. Tried BRET for that gumbo guy, but GLARE led me to GREG. Speaking of sportscasters, anybody else surprised at Bob Costa's departure from NBC...or how old he is? A 3-letter Tolkien creature could be ENT, ELF or ORC -- let the perps decide. Thanx for the mental exercise, Susan, and for the tour, Melissa.
ALI and RITA unknown. IMPALA was the only one that brought CAR to mind before the reveal. Kept thinking prefix instead of suffix for EME.
Costas is 66.
Except for the odd EOM which I thought this was a very fair Wednesday. I know the texting world has made us familiar with so many initialisms, but this is not one I have ever seen or heard. I did know OMB so all is well.
Thanks for the tour melissa, especially the look inside the tube. Thank you Susan
DNF. My printer is out of black ink and I played on line at LAT. Growing pains with the platform and not knowing where Churchill was born exhausted my P&P. Turned on red letters and fixed AZUe and maybe one or two others.
"The Ass in the Lion's Skin" made me think of Peggy Bundy, but she wore leopard skin clothes.
PK, we are adjusting to quiet as well, but for a different reason. Our home is two blocks away from a Level One trauma center, and we get sirens and helicopter operations all day and night. We're camping on the edge of the Ocala National Forrest, and most of the sounds are from sand cranes flying in for their daily handouts from a few permanent residents.
I should be back on paper tomorrow, although I have surrendered to the LAT demand that I watch the 15 second commercial.
EOM is very common for us in the accounting world. It appears on every invoice we send out.
Never knew it was used in the texting world.
No CHA-ching for a finish, just a blah- it's over. Perps to the rescue. BLENHEIM PALACE & MorphEME (never heard of either) and ORION, HBO, AZUL, RITA Ora, ASS, ALI filled by perps. But it's a Wednesday and there were no ERRors on the fill.
The theme should have been DISCONTINUED car interiors. ECHO & NEON are long gone; IMPALA's last year is this year.
PK- I'm with you on the Aesop fable; never heard of it either. And speaking of ASS, Greg Gumbel's brother Bryant definitely fits that description.
Fun puzzle today .
Thanks Susan and Melissa .
Good workout and review.
Thanks PK for the chuckle and Owen for the poetry.
FIR but needed some LIUs to make sure.
The most unkown was EME for the end of Morph.
Caught the theme with IMPALA and it helped with
the rest.
The only write overs were changing DALE to VALE
and STARE AT to GLARE AT.
OMB was also unkown to me .
Winter’s chill in the air today makes me want to stay in today and curl up with a good book in my COZY reading room.
Cheers
Jinx. You too thanks for the chuckle .
Hello everyone.
Pk, our world is quiet as well. A night of freezing rain on top of snow means little traffic.
The palace and EOM stumped me, too
Thank you Susan and Melissa for a fun start to my day.
Since I do not have a paper version, I use the Chicago Tribune site. It is the same as the LA Times, but I don’t have ads.
Good Morning.
Thanks, Susan, you are indeed a word wrangler. I enjoyed Melissa's explication of the theme--and the hidden autos. I didn't have the circles, but I still had a fine Wednesday romp. Thanks, Melissa.
Jinx: I can't imagine the noisy sand cranes at local "feeders." I can hear them during migration when I can barely see them on their lofty path.
YR: Hope Alan is able to check out in a timely fashion. Too True about hospital releases.
Misty: Break a leg indeed. Wish I could mozy on over. I loved The Dubliners.
Oas: I have to go out for a bit, but I look forward to returning to share your idea of some cozy reading.
Have a lovely day.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Susan Gelfand, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.
Most of this puzzle was doable, maybe a little tough. However, the center was unbreakable for me. Did not finish for that reason. Did not know ORION, INIGO, BLENHEIM PALACE, NEO, EME. And they all pretty much crossed.
Caught the theme, except for RIO.
Had SEDGAL for 3D, because of TBD for 17A.
So, here I am. I hate not finishing. I refuse to look things up.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Good morning everyone.
FLN - Owen, thanks for the Ben F piece.
I had tore instead of TORN, so got Ieigo instead of INIGO. No perp help here. Got the rest of it without mishap. Got the car types fine, but wasn't particularly moved by the theme. First fill was STANCE.
BLENHEIM CASTLE was an early fill. Churchill's ancestor had a military triumpj at Blenheim in Bavaria in the 1704 War of the Spanish Succession. (Blenheim is a hamlet and Town on the northern edge of the Catskills in NY.
BLENHEIM-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Station with 1100 MW capacity is also located there.
I had a question the other day about the names of these puzzles and it was answered, so thank you for the help - it's been on my mind for some time. I enjoy your comments (all y'all). Keep on keepin' on!
Glad for the circles - I knew it would have to do with cars but thought they might all be from the same company.
BLENHEIM PALACE came quickly as I had just toured the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO at Westminster College with out-of-town guests over the holidays. The college in Fulton is where Churchill made his famous "Iron Curtain" speech post WW II with Truman in attendance.
Melissa - enjoyed the clip of Mandy Patinkin talking about "The Princess Bride"
Thanks Melissa and Susan!
It's supposed to warm up to a whopping 40 degrees today -so some of the 12 inches of snow will melt to get ready for this weekend's ~5 inches!
The Aesop fable must've been well-known at one time. Thomas Nast used it as the basis of the cartoon that cemented the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties.
1874 Cartoon
Was a fun enough puzzle, but it was one of those that the theme was irrelevant. Could have completed without the dreaded circles, or the reveal answer.
Musings
-Subbing today. I was alerted by a TEXT at a BB game last night
-COZIER – Some rooms where I sub have couches, bean bag chairs floor lamps, etc
-OMB – Our gov’t has a budget that someone in managing?
-Many feel this is a RIP OFF
-Winston’s mother of course was American. Sound like Downton Abbey to anyone?
-For Gary Cooper, YEP was a soliloquy
-ONION skin paper and an eraser were precursors to the delete key
-The JAWS theme – “Rarely have six basses, eight celli, four trombones and a tuba held more power over listeners. Especially in a movie theater.”
- Some of you, who are my age, might recognize this woman whose name is in one of the fills
Jinx: sounds like a good place to camp. I wonder if those sand cranes are the same as what we call sand hill cranes. I used to know it was spring or fall when the sandhill cranes were calling from high in the sky as I hung laundry on the clothes line. Loved the trilling sound.
Impala? There was an Impala in the puzzle theme? Skipped over that one entirely. Would have known that one.
Very dark here today with another cold storm coming from the west. Think this is going to be a long winter already.
Good Morning:
This was an easy Wednesday romp with no w/os but a few unknowns: Blenheim Palace and, as clued, Orion, HBO, and Eme. I liked Eugene O'Neill above Drama. He certainly didn't write any comedies, that Would know of, anyway. CSO to Misty at Hoo, minus the Woo! I saw the cars (circles made that a given) but was still impressed with the reveal. (My first car was a brand-new 1964 Chevy Impala, white with an aqua interior.)
Thanks, Susan, for a mid-week treat and thanks, Melissa, for a fun tour. I particularly enjoyed the Mandy Patinkin video as he is one of my favorite actors. I never saw "The Princess Bride" but I knew Inigo from previous references. I believe Mandy portrayed Che Guevara in the Broadway production of "Evita." He was also the forerunner of Joe Montagna's character on "Criminal Minds."
YR, I hope Alan's homecoming is a peaceful transition.
Have a great day.
"that I know of, anyway." Where "Would" came from is known only to autocorrect!
Wednesday workout. Thanks Susan and melissa bee.
This was a slog for me (I did not "breeze through"=ACE!), and I have a lot (scads) of comment notes on the margin of my newspaper that point out Naticks for me.
These include the cross of INIGO and ORION (as clued & not in the sky), NEO and GREG (WAG), NERF and RITA (FIW using Neff - I should have known NERF but I thought it was referring to bowling balls for Boomer!). I did eventually finish, but was just relieved to be done and neglected to go back and see the theme.
Hand up for not knowing EOM, and also for wanting Morphine. I just looked up MORPHEME (fortunately it filled with perps). Collins English Dictionary defines it as "A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language. The words 'the', 'in', and 'girl' consist of one morpheme. The word 'girls' consists of two morphemes: 'girl' and 's'."
I did remember BLENHEIM PALACE once I had a few letters perped.
I had Opt before ERR; actually I think Opt is a better answer for the clue. Who says that (a) is correct and (b) is wrong! But I am really NIT-picking today. I opted in error.
Para wouldn't fit before Chute. Oh, the first letter, CEE! I think "opening" misled me.
I thought my ignorance of OMB was a Canadian disadvantage, but I see that some of you did not know it either.
I noted ACTED crossing CUE, and then we had "stage background=SET" as well. CSO to OMK and the "break a leg" discussion.
Another CSO to Misty with WooHOO. (Hope your lesson went well today!)
Wishing you all a great day.
Thank you, Susan and Melissa!
This was a fun drive with EASE along the grid. I know and have been to BLENHEIM PALACE but the tricky spelling caused me to rely on perps. Thank you for that interesting information about it, Sptiz.
EWOK and ORC in puzzles are the only reason I remember them. The same with INIGO Montoya.
Today the sky ESTA AZUL and is welcome after yesterday's rain.
One of my grand nieces is planning a destination wedding in Cancun so if I want to go I'll have to SCRIMP between now and November.
CSO to Misty at follower of boo, woo, or yoo HOO!
Have a magnificent day, everyone!
Abejo@9:13, You refuse to look things up?
I felt the same way, until I realized that the Constructor was stuck
trying to finish. Do you think the Constructor did not have to look
up OMB crossing EOM? Do you think they knew for sure there was an meaning
for OMB/EOM? Hey! If the Constructor cheated, I don't have a chance!
So I looked up Churchills birthplace! I don't give a damn anymore
if it will let me get one more AHA moment!
(8d, I had scrape instead of scrimp. really needed that "P" in Palace...)
For me, that last AHA moment is like cracking a bone to get the last piece of Marrow out!
Learning moment: Morph suffix.
Car interiors, Hmm, what kind of car interior would CED like?
OMG! It's a Nightmare!!!!
I did not do this one with EASE, but FIR w/o help. Looking back, I can't see why it was crunchy. My memory does sometimes fail me, as in Blenheim Palace.
We members saw EOM in the financials every month at Vestry meeting. OMB is regularly in the news. I agree, Gary. How much management is actually going on?
I have heard FACILITY used as EASE.
Seeds are carried with more facility when provided with plumes or wings.
On the whole they are mild and easy-going and even apathetic, but the facility with which they learn is remarkable.
OPT before ERR. Thought of PROP before CUE.
MORPHEME brings me back to by grad school days.
The hospital called me late yesterday with a 9:00 AM appointment to discharge Alan this morning. The only available time for a follow up visit with our doctor was 10:00 AM this morning, so the times had to be coordinated. Alan seems fine. Time will tell. The hospital insisted on making the other follow-up appointments without consultation with me. I had to change them due to conflicting dentist appointments, etc. Madame D and IM, thanks for asking.
Hi everybody.
This was harder than expected for me. WEES. Thanks Susan and Melissa.
I look things up and cheat as necessary. Anything is better than abandoning a puzzle unfinished.
Speaking of Mahershala Ali (50D), if you're watching it, tell me what you think of this season's True Detective. I kinda liked the first season. I suffered through last season but didn't like the conclusion. What about this year?
Gary, she looks familiar but not enough to pull a name out of the memory banks. You got me.
Rosemary DeCamp. Was she on the Bob Cummings show?
EOM is an accounting term, not text-speak at all, SFAIK.
NEON and IMALA I recognized as car names. Vaguely recall RIO, and ECHO not at all.
SFAIK=so far as I know.
Aha, Gary, I got it! Rosemary deCal, right?
DeCamp!!! I hate Spellcheck.
Kindergarten didn't need me this morning, so here I am. Thanks Susan and Melissa. As usual I didn't get the theme (no circles) but enjoyed the romp. Like PK, last to fall was EOM. I also needed err to complete the unknown Blenheim. Could not grok the clue for err.
Owe, loved your poem today!
Thank goodness for nerf balls in my world and my house!!
Have a great day. We are looking forward to a nice rain storm which should replenish our ground water supply.
Sorry about that Owen
Thank you, Becky and Sandy, I had the Rosemary but there is where my brain stopped.
ROSEMARY was in The Bob Cumming Show but before that she was a star in The Life of Riley . She later had a reular part PETTICOAT JUNCTION and The Partridge Family I am sad my brain was so slow. She asted well into her 70s.
-Yes Sandy and Lemon! It is Rosemary DeCamp who I most remember her from this show. You probably also remember Robert Cummings, Ann B. Davis as Schultzy and Dwayne Hickman as Chuck McDonald from that show as well
-Robert, Ann and Rosemary were among the many film stars who started doing sitcoms, many who resented the artistic step down but loved the regular check
PK, yes they are sand HILL cranes. Beautiful (if noisy) creatures. Although it is illegal to feed them, I'm glad that there are a few folks who do. It would be different if the feeders were like us, just around for a few months.
YR, glad Alan seems to be better.
Had to put on the ole thinking cap to solve this one, but had fun working it. Hand up for filling OPT before ERR and preferring OPT because of the way it was clued. Had to change SUBWAY to SUBURB. Don't know if this was a pangram but I did notice the Z, the X, and the J. Ah, no Q.
Lots of rain today.
One of my favorite actor names is Rip TORN.
Good wishes to you all.
DeCamp? Dang. I was sure she was the famous Rosemary Toolbar.
Can it be said of the typical EWOK that he is Woke?
Lotsa rain down here too, Jayce. This state of ours is getting a thorough drenching.
When I filled 20A, EUGENE O'NEILL, I thought this pzl would have a theatrical theme. But no, there were only ACTED and SET in addition. It made me wonder, though, why I never directed an O'NEILL play. I saw many productions of his work, but never directed one.
The closest I came to him was when I was an undergrad actor and played Cocky, a cockney sailor, in one of the sea plays, one-acts based on O'NEILL's experiences as a seaman on cargo ships--the basis for the movie, The Long Voyage Home.
~ OMK
____________
DR: A single diagonal, NW to SE.
Today's anagram seems to be a salute to the UK, a backhanded acknowledgement of the joy experienced by half the voters at the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum:
"BRIT EUPHORIA!"
Hm.
If only they could have foreseen the future. Yesterday.
Hi All!
Thank you Susan for a fun, doable (without ERR!), Wednesday puzzle with a timely (to me - I need a new ride) theme that actually aided in the solve.
Thanks mb for the expo - your aside at 42a was LOL!
WOs: O'NEILe, guessing at 57a, I put 'Cars' at the end of the reveal answer.
ESPs: EUGENE ONEILL, BLENHEIM PALLACE, INIGO, ALI, RITA, ORION, as clued [that's where the theme came in, was it geO or RIO?]
Fav: JABS xing JAWS tickled me.
Runner-up: SCRIMP xing OMB. Read into it what you want :-)
Theme also helped @28a - I had PALACE, so IM for the IMPALA.
Anyone else read 'Homey' as Homely? I did until the Z perp'd in. D'Oh!
{Solid A} -
Good news (so far) YR. Thanks for the update.
I don't see anything wrong w/ EOM. We use EOY (year) and EOD (day) all the time in scheduling projects and tasks, respectively.
That said, I'm with Abejo -- it should be TBD - TBA implies you've determined when but you're not ready to announce it just yet.
OMK - Woke EWOK? //groan
BTW, you missed your CUE. ART might fit in there too.
Brilliant DR! //think GB take a mulligan and just re-vote b/f 25 May?
C, Eh! (er, you too CED!) - Thanks for looking up morpheme; I knew I knew it from somewhere but I couldn't place it. DW taught me that and phoneme (unit of sound - here's the 44 in English) years ago.
Cheers, -T
Decamp really did mean pull up stakes when we were tent camping. I thought that would be the origin of pull of stakes. No. In early America the settlers would surround their settlement with a palisade of wooden stakes. When they moved their settlement to a new location they pulled up the stakes and took them along for their new palisade, easier than fashioning new stakes.
This was well above the usual Wednesday difficulty, IMHO. Themed but no giveaways, nicely done.
Markovers....SUBWAY/SUBURB, AZUR/AZUL, OPT/ERR, STAREAT/GLAREAT.
Happy to get the solve on a puzzle like this.
This wasn't hard for me. EME was solid but completely unknown. I have a new phone. I can post right on the phone without the gobbldegook that would appear on the other .
I'm at the end of "Lincoln Lawyer" . I can see why it was a popular movie.
So .. Who was that "F" guy from yesterday?
WC
Re: WC @4:08 PM
The "F" guy was Benjamin Franklin. See OKL post on yesterday's blog @ 2:51 AM.
Well I did this fun puzzle so quickly this morning that I never had time to come to the blog. My "Dubliners" class went well, so many thanks for the kind comments Madame Degarge and Lucina and others, and after a nap I finally decided to check in and thank Susan for a fun puzzle and enjoy Melissa's always neat write-up. And then a special delight: I had filled in HOO but never thought of my WOOHOO until I came to the blog and saw your comments, Irish Miss and CanadianEh. So many thanks for the sweet comments, everybody!
So glad Alan is okay, Yellowrocks.
We're supposed to get terrific rain tonight and tomorrow, but I wish us all a good tomorrow!
Plenty of unknowns! Including some of those CARs. I never heard of RIO as a CAR. IMPALA was the one CAR I recognized and then ECHO and NEON made sense.
Hand up for OPT before ERR. That had me stuck for awhile. I am ASSuming that was an intended misdirection.
Never heard of Mahershala ALI. Apparently he is not related to any other famous ALI. Hand up RITA also unknown. Learning moment about BLENHEIM PALACE as well as ORION.
I have heard of Bryant GUMBEL. Never heard of GREG GUMBEL. Having that crossed with utterly unknown weird INIGO made it my last shaky fill. FIR!
A bit crunchy for a Wednesday, but I was happy and satisfied in the end!
Here we were with the SEAGAL family at Thanksgiving.
Yes, Steven SEAGAL is not there. But my graduate school friend Paul is at the far right in the photo. He is Steven SEAGAL's first cousin. Their fathers are brothers. We have never met the famous SEAGAL who pronounces his name differently to set himself apart.
You got me, Picard . I saw the resemblance and thought Steven had put on a few pounds
WC
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