Theme: SHUFFLEBOARD (54. Game played on a floor or table, and a
hint to this puzzle's circled letters- Three types of boards are
scrambled inside each theme answer.
20. Particular: HARD TO PLEASE. Dartboard.
28. Hospital bigwig: CHIEF SURGEON. Surfboard.
44. Formally accuse of wrongdoing: PRESS CHARGES. Chessboard.
Boomer
here.
Melissa lost her internet connection due to the bad weather, so
Manager C.C. called me off the bench to pinch hit. Of course,
Spring training baseball is in session but I looked out of the dugout
and I did not see spring yet here in Minnesota. Continued snow and cold
as March comes in like a lion but hopefully will go out like a lamb.
One more note to follow up on Monday - I am not a big NBA fan however
Timberwolves All-Star, Karl Anthony Towns survived a car accident when
the car in which he was a passenger was hit from behind by a semi
truck. Karl passed concussion protocol and returned to the court
Monday vs. Sacramento and scored 34 points with 21 rebounds, so it seems
he is okay. My bowling is getting better, but nothing over 600 yet.
Across:
1. Old Russian ruler: TSAR. I think this a Bulgarian word for king.
5. Landlocked African nation: MALI.
9. Wedding registry category: CHINA. C.C.'s native country. The wedding registry is DISHES.
14. Famous final question: ET TU. How many eggs did you have for breakfast Caesar ?
15. "Ducky" Mallard's alma mater, on "NCIS": ETON.
16. Support people: AIDES.
17. Prefix in juice names: CRAN.
"Raspberries, Strawberries, the good wine we brew." The Kingston Trio
did not mention cranberries. Not close enough to Thanksgiving,
18. Tends to the lawn: MOWS. I have heard of this, but we are shoveling the lawn here these days.
19. '50s four-wheeled failure: EDSEL. Strange name. Edsel Ford was Henry Ford's son and Henry Ford II's
father. I believe the model came out in 1958, when I was a kid and
everyone visited car dealerships to view the new models. I remember
some dealerships had canvas tarps over their new models until THE day!
The Ford Edsel had a nose on the grill and did not seem to entice
acceptance by the public.
23. Kitchen counter?: TIMER. I use mine frequently.
24. "__ thought": IT'S A. __ bird, __ plane, it's Superman !
25. Place to unwind: SPA.
31. Gig gear: AMP. Okay, but when I see this word, I think of electric current.
34. Lessen: EASE.
35. Tweak, as text: EDIT.
36. Some trucks: DIESELS. Actually auto makers tried to make cars run on diesel but it did not seem to catch on.
38. The North Pole, for Santa: ADDRESS.
Every time we see Santa in a clue, we think of Argyle. Interesting,
the pastor of my church is father Tom Santa. In a previous sermon he
read some interesting mail that he received around Christmastime.
41. Opposite of endo-: ECTO.
42. Flat-bottomed vessel: SCOW. I spell this BOAT.
43. Daisy Ridley's "The Last Jedi" role: REY.
49. Blue Jays' home: Abbr.: TOR. My only touch in Toronto was a plane change on the way to New Hampshire.
50. Mimicked: APED.
51. Small lizard: GECKO. Not a car insurance ad.
57. Fluffy-eared "bear": KOALA. Not a soft drink.
60. Hair-removal brand: NAIR.
61. Vintage ski lift: T BAR. I wish they had these on some of the golf courses that I have played.
62. Arouse, as wrath: INCUR.
63. Basic French verb: ETRE. Still do not like foreign words in puzzles.
64. Theta follower: IOTA. I am not sure if Greek letters are foreign words. This one means a little bit.
65. Tank fish: TETRA.
You won't catch these fish in Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. I think this
is another Greek prefix meaning four or five. I think a TETRA blast
would mean 5 strikes in a row, without leaving a TETRA pin.
66. "Keep it __": REAL. This is a confusing word. I see it in front of "Real Estate". Is there a "Fake Estate"?
67. Provide job support for?: ABET. Five dollars on the Pass Line please.
Down:
1. __ support: TECH.
Someone just called trying to sell me tech support. I lied and said I
don't have a computer. That always makes them go away.
2. Classic Fender guitar, for short: STRAT.
Earlier this month we remembered the death of Buddy Holly 60 years
ago on February 3, in Iowa. Buddy made his Fender Stratocaster famous,
Oh Boy!
3. Arcade pioneer: ATARI. Yup, I had a bunch of these old video game cartridges.
4. "Walk This Way" rap trio: RUN DMC.
5. Many a D.C. landmark: MEMORIAL. I have never visited D.C. I bet it would be very interesting.
6. Perched on: ATOP. Old Smokie ?
7. Good-for-nothing: LOWLIFE.
8. Mini-maps: INSETS. Sometimes on line, you can enlarge them.
9. 14-Across speaker: CAESAR. He's the one who ET TU eggs.
10. Go underground: HIDE.
11. Cards checked at the door: IDS. Saw this in a previous puzzle. I've told you about the IDS tower - the tallest building in Minneapolis.
12. French word in bios: NEE. I think it means "Ma'am, what was your surname before you got hitched."
13. Syst. for the hearing-impaired: ASL.
21. Giggle: TE HEE.
22. Sun Devils' sch.: ASU. I heard that it snowed this year in the state of Arizona.
25. Passover feast: SEDER.
26. Self-assurance: POISE. There seems to be a lot of self-assured POISE going on in the MLB millionaires baseball camps this spring. We shall see.
27. On pins and needles: ANTSY.
29. Curvy letter: ESS.
30. Berlin's home: Abbr.: GER. How can GER be an abbreviation for Deutschland ?
31. Showing mastery: ADEPT.
32. Prefix with brewery: MICRO. If you like a craft beer. My keyboard says it can also be a prefix for soft.
33. Rocker Frampton: PETER. Pumpkin eater.
37. Scrubbing brand: SOS. These are made from steel wool. Be careful.
38. Unlike this ans.: ACR (Across)
39. Technically flawed comic poetry: DOGGEREL.
40. Nerdy sort: DWEEB.
42. Tragic end: SAD FATE. See the Buddy Holly story above.
45. Much of North Africa: SAHARA. Formerly a casino in Las Vegas. The Sahara Avenue is still there but the casino is gone.
46. PC brain: CPU.
47. Noted bunny lover: HEFNER. The last of the Playboy mansions has closed and Hugh left us in 2017. Quite a story.
48. Nova __: SCOTIA.
52. Skewered meat: KABOB. Shish ?
53. Give a political speech: ORATE. Did not care much for the orations at the Oscars. Nobody thanked me.
54. Put-down: SLUR.
55. Turkey bacon?: LIRA. Old Italian bacon as well.
56. "Well, shoot": DRAT.
57. Modeling convenience: KIT. I loved these things when I was a kid. Glued together a lot of planes and cars.
58. Tip jar bill: ONE.
This is an expensive task for our government to print these bills. They
have tried Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, and President golden
dollars, but nothing catches on. People stubbornly continue to fill
their wallets with dollar bills that last about two years, and scorn the
coins which will last a lifetime.
59. Perform: ACT.
Boomer
Notes from C.C.:
The 42nd American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (March 22 to March 24) will be held at the Stamford Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut. For those who attend, don't miss the Cru Dinner organized by the great Mike Alpern, who welcomed his first grandson a few months ago.
The Cru Dinner (6 pm to 8 pm, Friday, March 22) officially kicks off the tournament and is a great opportunity to meet with constructors and fellow solvers. The space is limited, esp this year, so be sure to contact with Mike as soon as possible.
WARNING -- the last poem is about a medical display model.
ReplyDeleteA remarkable woman from CHINA
Thought nothing to do would be fine-a
Than cause consternation
To her adopted nation
Using words that would cause them angina!
An accident prone child in MALI
INCURRED many a significant owie.
The big mysteries
Were how he skinned knees
While just playing Pong on ATARI!
A toddler is oft HARD-TO-PLEASE
His carrots must not touch any peas.
And he'll ACT very ANTSY
If it don't suit his fancy
For his mac to be touched by its cheese!
The GECKO ran out of luck.
He wasn't insured for so much.
It was his SAD FATE
To become "The late..."
When hit by a SHUFFLEBOARD puck!
The CHIEF of a garbage SCOW
Was intent on making it plow
Thru the bay like an eagle
He got engines, DIESEL --
The Pacific Gyre is where he is now!
There once was a girl named Godiva
Who loved showing off her vagina.
The feel was exquisite
When put on exhibit --
It was made of the very best CHINA!
{CC, A, A, A-, A-, A-.} I swear, I had no idea I was writing so many until I started grading them!
Hi Y'all! Interesting and enjoyable puzzle, Bryant.
ReplyDeleteNo circles on Mensa, can't open other sites. After the reveal, I looked for BOARD possibilities but didn't find any. I had to wait for Boomer to elucidate. Thank you, Boomer, very much for another fun expo. LIRA perped in and I couldn't figure out what Turkey bacon had to do with that. Bacon in a muslim country? Didn't know they had LIRA there either. Boomer to the rescue.
The thing that struck me most about this puzzle was all the four-letter words beginning with "E" plus a few that seemed related: ETTU, ETON, EDSEL, EASE, EDIT, ECTO, ETRE, + ITSA & IOTA (sorta "e" sounding).
Never heard of RUNDMC
Boomer thank you for stepping in and providing an excellent review. Sorry about the storm problems Melissa.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like this is a debut puzzle and I would not have seen the theme without the circles and of course, the reveal. No real unknowns and I really liked seeing DOGGEREL a word I have not heard in a very long time.
Have a happy hump day all.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHad the circles, forgot to look at 'em, and as a result only got about 25% of the theme. I was looking or the word "Board" to be shuffled in the theme answers. Still, it was all filled correctly, so life is good. Nice debut, Bryant, and thanx for pinch-hitting, Boomer. (It snows every year in northern AZ.)
CHINA: Do brides actually want China these days? We use dw's good China as everyday dishes.
KABOB: CSO to Jayce? Sheesh!
EDSEL: When it came out, that weird oval grill was said to look like a Buick sucking a lemon.
Taxing day...gotta run.
Pretty easy Wed, and the circles didn’t factor into completing the puzzle, which makes it a weak theme IMO.
ReplyDeleteLately it seems like the puzzles have had an over abundance of the same old, same old filler answers we see all the time. TSAR, ETTU, ETON, AIDEs, EDSEL, just in the first three rows of this one, for example. Maybe I’m being too critical, as I do appreciate the effort in creating a puzzle.
Good Morning, Boomer and friends. Oh, the dreaded circle puzzle! I print out the puzzle from Mensa, which has no circles. Like PK, I initially tried to see a shuffle on the work "Board", but no dice.
ReplyDeleteThe Kitchen Counter = TIMER made me smile.
Interesting to have TSAR, CAESAR and ET TU in the same puzzle. The word TSAR is derived from the Latin word CAESAR. Too bad Kaiser couldn't have also been included, since it, too, is derived from Casear, meaning Emperor.
EDSEL Ford died before his namesake car rolled off the line.
Last year we took a bike tour of the MEMORIALS in Washington, D.C. It had probably been 35 years since I had last ridden a bike. But, you known the expression ... it was as easy as riding a bike!
QOD: Your best teacher is your last mistake. ~ Ralph Nader (b. Feb. 27, 1934)
Fluffy-eared "bear": KOALA. Not a soft drink. Not a bear either, but a marsupial.
ReplyDeleteRe IDS: the tower in Minneapolis was headquarters of the Financial Services company Investors Diversified Services when my husband began working for them in 1983. Since then the company is still in existence but has changed its name, first to American Express Financial Services and after a couple of other iterations has finally settled on AMERIPRISE. I'm not sure about the building though, whether, like the Sears Tower in Chicago, the official name has changed but the locals still call it the IDS Tower. I do know my husband is still working at 71, and I keep wishing he'd retire!
My uncle had a '59 EDSEL (bought used.) Not only was it ugly, it was a higher-priced line that came out just as an economic recession began. Sales over three years were only a third of what Ford planned for one.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHad to skip around a little, but got it solved without searches. Even sussed the theme before finishing. Three different kinds of BOARD. Cool beans. Mostly quite common words; DOGGEREL being an exception.
Deutschland - Wiki gives abbreviations as: Dtl., Dtschl., Deutschl. It's DE in URLs.
Off to play some bridge.
Have a great day.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI had the circles and I parsed each entry correctly, but I didn't make the Board connection until I filled in the reveal. My only unknowns were Rey and Strat, and my only w/o was Euro/Lira. Nice CSOs to CanadianEh at TOR and to Lucina at ASU. All in all, an easy, pleasant solve.
Thanks, Bryant, for a mid-week treat and congrats on your debut and thanks, Boomer, for being our DB (Designated Blogger) and for the many chuckles.
Nina, I hope the news about your brother continues to be positive.
We're expecting 2-4" of snow later in the day, just enough to make the commute home a little challenging.
Hurry back, Ferm and Dave, we miss you both.
Anonymous T, has DH fully recovered? Was it food poisoning?
Have a great day.
ET TU... How many eggs did you have for breakfast Caesar?
ReplyDeleteBoomer, your reign as king of Corner punsters is ova.
Well hello Boomer. Glad to hear from you. I can easily roll a 600 series in--- 6 games.
ReplyDeleteTSAR & CZAR- they both sound like a slurred CASEAR. As for the puzzle, the circles were obvious and the puzzle was easy with only a couple of unknowns, and since I've never seen NCIS or The Last Jedi, ETON and REY were perps. And then there's K_B_B- just wait for the perps for the vowels. This time it was KABOB but it could have been KEBOB, KEBAB, or KABAB.
Greek alphabet? I was a LOWLIFE in college and frats didn't appeal to me. I knew the symbols for the physics, math, & chemistry, alpha & omega, but the ones in the middle? They're "all Greek to me".
Adios!
Yay! Three days in a row filling in the puzzle without help or asking DH. Thank you constructors and bloggers.
ReplyDeleteTech help and kitchen timer were my favorites because they called to mind my latest experience of helping granddaughter in the kitchen. I instructed her to set the timer for 15 minutes. I would have used the timer on the oven; she immediately said, “Alexa, set timer for ...”.
Way back in my childhood when the first Edsel was introduced, a tornado went through our small community. Word traveled mouth to ear that the wind was so powerful there was a brand new Edsel blown off the road. That fact increased the number of gawkers by a lot; it was a two for one deal to see the tornado damage and the new Edsel.
Best wishes to all of those recovering from traumatic life events. May your strength return quickly.
Did the puzzle. It went very well. Heading out to drop my grandson's BD present off at their house. It didn't arrive in time for his BD on Sunday. UPS had some trouble with rain in the upper South.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bryant. This was pretty smooth for me, but I didn't get the theme with out Boomer's help. That's not unusual for me. Thanks, Boomer. Oh that snow! Love the story about Father Santa!
Where are you Sunshine??!!
Boomer: Good job "Pinch-Hitting" ...
ReplyDeleteThis may have been the easiest Wednesday puzzle solving experience ever.
I couldn't write fast enough ... and my grid was clean.
Off to enjoy Honeymoon Island ...
Cheers!
wBEs. Finally an eraser-free day!
ReplyDeleteI had a little trouble getting DART from ARDT. The others didn't skip around. IT folks would say they operated like a ring-tail counter. Still not difficult.
Recent reports of Peter Frampton's death were greatly exaggerated.
OKL, your sixth offering is akin to lyrics from a John Prine song:
I met a girl from Venus, and her insides were lined in gold
Well, she did what she did said "How was it, kid?"
She was politely told
"Pretty good, not bad, I can't complain
But actually everything is just about the same."
FLN: -T, many auction cars are lease returns and surplus rental cars. Not all are from the dumb masses who buy cars they can't afford.
Critiquing haikus
ReplyDeleteIs just a waste of your time.
Let sleeping DOGGERELS lie.
(Note, this could also apply to OwenKL’s limericks!!)
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Bryant Shain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.
ReplyDeletePuzzle went pretty easily. Cruciverb worked today so I had the circles. Theme appeared easily and I filled the circles.
RUN DMC was not known. Six perps and I had it.
I did know DOGGEREL. Just never expected to see it in a puzzle.
Tried SAD FACE, but ECRE did not look right. So, SAD FATE won out, and ETRE.
Tried PANDA before KOALA worked.
I love KABOBs. I always spell KABAB, but oh well. Last Saturday I had teriyaki beef kababs over rice. They were outstanding. At a restaurant in Wheaton, IL.
Liked HEFNER for 47D.
Have to run. Some medicals tests this afternoon.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Bryant (congrats on CW debut) and Boomer.
ReplyDeleteHand up for looking for the letters in BOARD to be shuffled, especially because I was working from the bottom up today. (But that idea quickly was cancelled because of the different number of circles in each theme answer.)
Yes, I'll take a CSO with TOR (and more Canadian content with Nova SCOTIA).
Perps decided TSAR or Czar, KABOB and all the other vowel options, NAIR or Neet.
Good observation PK, about all the E words, and Hahtoolah about CAESAR, ET TU, TSAR. I was thinking that this CW would have been appropriate for the Ides of March.
I smiled at AMP crossing Rocker PETER and just below that STRAT guitar; another smile for ATOP beside LOW LIFE.
I also noted TECH support and Support people=AIDES. Can we call them TECH AIDES?? or DWEEBS? (Sorry AnonT! :-)
I also smiled at the misdirection with "Turkey bacon".
Another misdirection for me with "modeling convenience". I was thinking of female models (perhaps misdirected by HEFNER's bunnies) and KIT made partial sense (as in Makeup KIT).
Jinx, re FLN - are those auction cars, repos from a HARD TOP LEASE?
Enjoy the day.
I'm fine with French words - don't like Latin, Spanish, German....
ReplyDeleteWhat causes a shiver is a Rap clue.
Doggerel came from the wood on the hilt of cheaper swords.
Great to get a double Boomer week.
Easy enough solve. I try to get the long fills without too many perps. Then again, solving in pen I don't want to make a mess. So I check a letter or two .
I noticed DART and SURF then forgot about the theme. I drove someone to TPA at 430am so I had 6:00 am breakfast and Xword.
The wrong breakfast appeared on my plate but I asked Mr S. if I should eat it anyway . Then I heard a voice behind me: "I didn't order sausage!". And.. The other guy had put ketchup on the home fries! Yuk.
The BACON looked good.
WC
ReplyDeleteNo circles on the Mensa site, so I didn't even look for the theme. Otherwise it was a good Wednesday level puzzle and Boomer did a great pinch hitting job today.
WRT Edsel: When it came out they said someone took a toilet seat and nailed it to the front of a Ford. It wasn't a big seller back then, but these days as a classic car it is expensive if you can find one.
For a few minutes I had DEN for a place to unwind until SEDER, POISE and ANTSY unwound me.
I think that the prefix for many "juice" brands should be WATER, EAU, AGUA or AQUA, because that seems to be what most are made of. Very little real juice included.
As far as the Hair removal brand goes, I put in the N and waited for perps to determine if it was NAIR or NEET.
FLN HG: I have found a number of solutions to the snowblower chute clogging problem. Most involve spraying all of the surfaces with some lubricant like PAM cooking spray, Silicon spray from auto supply stores or good old WD-40 which I prefer. My son has lined his snowblower chute with UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) Polyethylene sheet which is very slippery and abrasion resistant.
Have a great day everyone.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Fun theme and fill and a bonus Boomer day!
-Subbing has become a test on how well I can play videos on an infinite number of platforms
-In two days this week I’ve shown videos on Romeo and Juliet, Julius CAESAR, SMAW welding, Milk and Self-motivation
-Robotic mowers? Hmmm…
-A very slow contractor INCURRED the wrath of my lovely bride!
-Getting TECH support on the phone by a native English speaker is a great find for me
-STRATS and STRADS are both stringed instruments
-Gotta run!
I loved this Wednesday puzzle--many thanks, Bryant. Worked my way through carefully and had everything in the end but the the very top northwest corner, because I didn't know the "Walk This Way" rap trio. So I worried, but put in CRAN (hoping it referred to CRANberries, and Yay! It turned out to be right and I got the whole thing! Yay! Not only that, but I loved the theme reveal and sure enough, there were all the different BOARDs in the circles. Great fun, thanks again, Bryant. And thank you for standing in for Melissa, Boomer, and for explaining LIRA for that Turkey bacon, which really puzzled me.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite funny answer was getting HEFNER for bunny lover. Haven't thought about him in years.
Have a great middle of the week, everybody.
Hello, Boomer! It's good to see you again! Thanks and congratulations to Bryant Shain if this is your debut puzzle.
ReplyDeleteBefore committing to TSAR I checked 1D, saw it would be TECH and off I raced to MALI then CHINA (though it's the dishes). Overall, this was quite easy.
ASU lives on in puzzledom! Yes, it snows in northern Arizona every winter but this year it snowed at much lower elevations including north Phoenix and north Scottsdale! Here in the lower regions we had an abundance of rain which should greatly help fill our watershed.
My addled brain saw HERETO PLEASE instead of HARD, STRET guitar looked all right and, of course, I've never heard of RUNDMC so there was no way to know if RUNEMC was wrong. DRAT!
However, everything else filled nicely and like others I waited after the N for neet or NAIR. The same with KABOB.
The MEMORIALS in Washington are greatly impressive and the whole city is beautiful, IMHO.
I didn't even see REY and would not have known her.
POISE is the very opposite of ANTSY.
Have a wondrous day, everyone!
No circles either. I saw SURF but not the others. But I did see PRESSBOARD
ReplyDeleteTough, but doable puzzle. Very enjoyable Wednesday challenge.
ReplyDeleteExcept I FIW'd...
My 1st thought for fuzzy eared bear was Panda, but that perped out...
What really got me was The Turkey Bacon crossing Frawnch.
I thought, maybe, Turkey Bacon = lite? As in diet bacon??
but it left me looking at "keep it reel." and I knew it was wrong,
just couldn't fix it...
Bryant Shain, you should be glad I have lost enough Crosswords to
take in in stride...
Learning moment = Doggerel
Addendum:
I groaned at Boomers Et Tu Eggs,
I groaned twice at Jerome D Gunderson's reply...
(Et tu Jerome?)
For all of you in deep snow out there,
ReplyDelete"BE CAREFUL."
I just found out that one of my Wife's best friends Husband
lost the ends of his middle and third finger trying to
clear a clogged snow blower.
Mangled beyond repair...
NEVER, EVER, use your hands to clear a snow blower!
And we just had a lovely all you could eat Sushi dinner out
last week! And now I do not know what to say to him...
re: EDSEL - - A friend during college called it a Mercury sucking a lemon.
ReplyDeleteWC at 1105 - - I had a shipmate who was of Lithuanian descent from the Pennsylvania coal miners who always put ketchup on his eggs Benedict.
CED @ 1358 - You're absolutely right about the dangers of clearing a snow blower jam. I always use a wooden broom handle.
Lost 40¢ at bridge, today. But had some first class chili at the Legion where we played.
My niece works at a high TECH company. Unluckily her name is Alexa, so when people talk to her phones start answering all over the office.
ReplyDeletei'm familiar with RUN DMC, since my daughter was a teen in their heyday. I've seen Rev RUN on Cooking Channel, and I also see he's done a home renovation show.
ReplyDeleteI unscrambled all the circles, but didn't see that they were SHUFFLEd BOARDs.
Today's CryptoQuip was about Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny. Then came here to see bunny lover HEFNER.
Back in HS, I was a nerd, but not a geek nor a DWEEB.
I, too, wanted food, not money, for "turkey bacon.'
TETRA=4. PENTA=5.
ЦАР=TSAR/CZAR.
My idea of tending to the lawn is green concrete.
Bill O - Events make some names tricky. Think about how your life would have changed after 9/11/01 if you were a pilot or passenger checker named Jack. Or what happened to the popular diet candy Aydes after the terrible disease arose in the developed world.
ReplyDeleteC-eh! I parsed it HARD TOP LEASE too when I was checking the puzzle against the key.
I had the circles and liked the theme. I got hung up with RUNDMC, new to me, and STRAT, which is not new, but the last letter escaped me for a while.
ReplyDelete-I-ER? I ran the ABCs for the second blank. Rundmc seemed weird to me, but that gave me TIMER, which should have been easy. TA DA!
I have never thought HEF to be sexy or charming, just creepy and full of himself. I find almost any man who considers himself a great ladies' man is too full of himself to be interesting. In these days of ME TOO, Hef would have had a hard time.
I had HERE TO PLEASE, also. Rereading the clue I said, "Think again. It's just the opposite."
I have often wondered why tetra fish had anything to do with four, so today I LIU.
Wikipedia says,"Tetra is no longer a taxonomic, phylogenetic term. It is short for Tetragonopterus, a genus name formerly applied to many of these fish, which is Greek for "square-finned" (literally, four-sided-wing)." Ah ha! I should have looked it up years ago. I don't believe in "Curiosity killed the cat." I believe in "Curiosity expands our fund of knowledge."
I hope you do not mind that I share my curiosity with you. I am excited about what I learn and can't wait to share it. I love it when others share their curiosity in the same way.
A nice relaxing puzzle today; I enjoyed solving it. WEES regarding TSAR/CZAR and NAIR/NEET. One of my linguistics teachers noted that CRAN is a prefix only to berry and is not found in any other context; I think he's right. I, too, did not know RUNDMC and picked TILER instead of TIMER, which turned out to be wrong; I like TIMER a thousand times better.
ReplyDeleteSince so many middle eastern languages did not include vowels when written, it is no wonder KABOB can be spelled so many different ways. My friend spells his name Sherif, but obviously Sharif is equally valid. They are the same name. (His wife, when excited (i.e. annoyed), calls him Shreef, as in "Dammit, Shreef, what did you do now?!")
Speaking of the spelling of one's name, I have always thought, and still think, IVLIVS CAESAR looks funny as heck.
Misty, last night you mentioned Jeopardy. I, too, have stopped watching it for the same reason you did, and expect to resume enjoying at after this tournament is over.
My favorite DOGGEREL work is The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. I never tire of it.
I have previously expressed my distaste for foreign words in English-language puzzles, as well as my even stronger distaste for cluing them in a foreign language. Yes, I know many "foreign" words are "in the language" but I have seen instances of words and expressions that are not, and that a large percentage of Americans, however well or poorly educated, could not be expected to know. Maybe a term analogous to "Natick" could be conscripted to refer to such instances.
Good wishes to you all.
Jayce, I agree with your and Boomer's (the other day) opinion about including foreign words. When I first started doing cw's a generation ago, I was surprised to see foreign words, but have come to accept them within reason. And why is it only certain foreign languages? French, Spanish, and German and some Latin. I know they have more international cache, but it also seems biased. JMHO.
ReplyDeleteHere is a list of supposed crossworese terms. I totally disagree with many of them being called crosswordese. Wikipedia admits there is not enough corroboration or evidence for this article. Many of the words are common everyday terms: radius radii, damn, tor, herr, frau. mead, ozone, epee,alee, directions such as ESE NNW. These are in the language terms.
ReplyDeleteI find many of the foreign words in crossword puzzles appear again and again. A word that rarely appears would be a foul. IMO, those which appear often just need to be learned the way I must learn the Simpson clan names, in which I have no interest.
crosswordese
I am very interested that the English language is a mishmash of words from many languages, some taken whole and some bastardized. I am very interested in the origins of these words.To each his own. We all like and dislike different things. Some fill I rate a meh, others love and vice versa.
BTW I loved having ESL kids in my mainstream classes.
I'm with you, Yellowrocks ~
ReplyDeleteRegarding "foreign" words in crosswords, I wonder if it is not one of the distinguishing features of English that we adopt such words easily into common use?
From Latin (ad hoc, ad nauseam) to French (brasserie, bon vivant) to German (blitzkrieg), the authoritative OED greedily gobbles them up.
It may in fact be a responsibility of an international language to be so inclusive. Having surpassed French as the modern lingua franca, hasn't English inherited that duty?
~ OMK
I am turned off watching the Jeopardy team tournament. I have stopped tuning in. I love the old format. Don't mess with success.This cast of stars could have made very interesting viewing.
ReplyDeleteSpitzboov ~
ReplyDeleteYes - You are right, sir!
There does appear to be a "bias" toward European languages in the words that are assimilated into English. Speakers of a language tend to pick up words from their neighbors, so I would guess the geographic nearness of Europe to England is a contributing factor.
In the 18th & 19th centuries the British empire extended its reach into Asia, hence the many words adopted from Hindi, such as bungalow, jungle, shampoo, and thug.
I don't think the bias is based on bigotry so much as geography.
~ OMK
My friend, Kathy, loves the movie, How to Train Your Dragon so I accompanied her to see it today and was surprised at the creativity and special effects. It's not one I would have chose myself but I understand her admiration.
ReplyDeleteI am too devoted to Jeopardy! to stop watching even though the tournament format is annoying. I have enjoyed seeing all those past champions and remember their original run. Some of them are quite entertaining and so very smart and quick! But I'll be glad when it returns to its regular format which I think will be after next Wednesday. It's a two week run.
I don't mind foreign words in crosswords and have learned so much from researching them.
Oops. Chosen not chose in my post above.
ReplyDeleteMisty:
Did you see the heartbreaking ending on Murdoch's Mysteries this week? That was so sad.
ReplyDeleteI’m a little late today.
Nice puzzle....I like that the circles didn’t give anything away.
No markovers.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was a REAL treat. Thanks Bryant. Thanks Boomer for stepping to the plate; you hit it out of the park.
WO: CHIEF SURGons [sic]
ESPs: ETON (as clued) / REY
Fav: I liked DOGGEREL. I've heard the word but didn't know exactly what it meant. I do today.
Honorable mentions: c/as for TIMER & LIRA
{B, A, A, B+, A-, A}
IM - Nope, DW's not 100% yet; still on rice and soup (but upgraded to chicken-fried and won-ton).
C, Eh! - I'm sure of the folks who know me, depending on their geek-level, has thought that about me :-0
Jinx - even if it said one owner? [I suppose the ONE could be a fleet]
Walk this Way, as many y'all know, was originally recorded by Aerosmith. RUN DMC used to rap over a sample of the intro and well, I'll let DMC tell it...
At first I hated that RAP was invading Rock but it grew on me and now I recognize it for the groundbreaking cross-over it was. The video, if you're curious.
YR - thanks for sharing your curiosity / discovery. Um, re: Hef - did you really have to say "he'd have a hard time..." ? :-)
For @11:07 I woke up this morning with a wine glass in my hand... [PETER Frampton 10:39]
BillO & (Hi!) Jinx: I used to work w/ a guy named Chuck. When I'd see him in the hall, I'd nod, and say, "What's up Chuck?"
Cheers, -T
Anonymous T, LOL. You scamp, you!
ReplyDeleteBoomer - I was catching up on my cyber-reading and came across this. If you used Topps.com to buy Baseball Cards in the last four months, change your Credit Cards. Cheers, -T
ReplyDeleteLucina, I've missed only one episode of 'Murdoch Mysteries' a few weeks ago, and on the next episode William and Julia had a baby that looked to be about six months old! Where did that come from, I just couldn't believe it? Then the next episode had the baby, and then there was another with no mention of the baby, but I assumed it was there. And then this last episode finally explained that William and Julia must have adopted a baby without parents, and that's why they were such awkward parents in the beginning. So, it was a sad ending, that they had to give little Roland up (my sweet late husband's name was Rowland). But it was nice to see that they checked the man out to ensure that he would be a loving and wonderful father. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that Julia and William can do this again on their own, if they loved being parents so much.
ReplyDeleteKeith, I was thinking of the integration of "foreign" words into the English language being more the result of a juxtaposition of European immigrant neighborhoods in the United States than in UK English. Of course, Hindi is probably an exception altho there are large groups of Hindus in American cities. As to foreign words in crosswords, it seems to me to be a grin & bear it annoyance. I'm just happy we don't see much Bantu or Swahili. LOL!
ReplyDeletePK - Or, forbid!, Xhosa [QI w/ Trevor Noah - 2:38].
ReplyDeleteMakes ONE wonder what a Crossword Puzzle in South Africa looks / sounds like :-)
Cheers, -T
Misty:
ReplyDeleteThe baby came from two criminals who were killed in one of the episodes but as was revealed in the last one, they were not the real parents. I was so sad that they gave him to his real father but admired that they did that. I, too, hope they have one of their own.
PK:
The only word that comes to mind is jodhpur which comes from India and which I have to look up every time for the correct spelling.
bazaar comes to us from Arabic and is a little easier to spell and in fact, Arabic has provided us with many words but I would have to research for examples.
According to an episode of The Big Bang Theory, Raj stated the word PAJAMAS is from India(Hindi) and a couple others that I cant remember.
ReplyDeleteLucina - you got me. I Googled jodhpur but only found references to a city / travel destination. What does it mean in English?
ReplyDeleteEnglish is a wonderful, almost Democratic, amalgamation "language" of words (stolen?) that 'fit' specific meanings (or, for giggles, confuse the hell out of us). Capiche?
Like OMK said, The lingua franca :-)
Cheers, -T
Tony, Jodhpurs are pants with the poofy thigh area worn by horse-riding people, especially polo players. My niece & family lived in Rajpur, India at one time. Both Jodhpur & Rajpur are places in India, but I haven't quite figured out what the "pur" designates. The pants were named after jodhpur, I read somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhen you see pictures of India, most of the men are in white pajamas as daily ware. How they manage to keep them white is amazing.
PK, Thank you. I just learnt (maybe) two things today. I'll check the Land's End catalog for Jodhpurs :-) C, -T
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks @ 5:27 --What kind of crosswordese list was that? It didn't even have 'Oreo'!
ReplyDelete