Theme: 'K, Abe! A promise to the president, or, in this puzzle, a "bake" scramble.
17A. *Hazards for herpetologists: SNAKE BITES. My first learning moment of the day - herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles.
26A. *Square-shaped ice cream treat: KLONDIKE BAR. Never tried one. Am I missing out?
44A. *Novel narrated by a horse: BLACK BEAUTY. I picked up an old copy of this book in a pub in England at Christmas. I'm not sure I'd have remembered if the horse was the narrator if I hadn't skimmed a few pages.
11D. *Pry: POKE ABOUT. I wanted POKE AROUND, but not enough room.
31A. *Doggie bag item: STEAK BONE Food! If you wonder what to do with steak bones, try melting a stick of butter or two and slow cooking (or sous vide) with the bones for a couple of hours, then strain it into a jar and refrigerate it. Use it to toss vegetables in, spread it on toast, toss pasta in it, eat it out of the jar with a spoon, the options are endless.
59A. Breadcrumb coating brand ... or, as two words, what is found in the answers to starred clues: SHAKE 'N BAKE. or "Shaken Bake". Doesn't it strike you as odd that there's an apostrophe to indicate the first missing letter, but not the second?
Nice puzzle from Ed. The reveal helped me complete STEAK BONE, I was at a loss to see what could follow "STEAK". I liked the theme entries going both across and down, and the interlocking of the two down entries with two of the across ones.
As always with Ed, some challenging cluing and some nice stuff in the fill. Let's take a tour:
Across:
1. Mosque leaders: IMAMS
6. Teddy-bearlike Star Wars figure: EWOK. Wicket W. Warrick for example.
10. What many icons open: APPS
14. Prime production: MOVIE. Amazon Prime, I'm guessing. I'd be more inclined to clue it "Prime product", as "production" implies that Amazon was the producer. (In my (humble) opinion.)
15. Vase-making dynasty: MING. Try not to drop it, these things don't come cheap:
16. Legal plea, briefly: NOLO. Nolo contendere, "I do not wish to contend", or "no contest".
19. Ring calls: TKOS. Technical Knock-Out called by the referee of a boxing match. The guy getting pummeled could always plead "nolo contendere" through his mouthguard.
20. Falco of "The Sopranos": EDIE
21. Designer Schiaparelli: ELSA. Thank you, crosses.
22. Classic mother-and-son statue: PIETA. This came up last week, I believe.
23. Didn't emulate Washington?: TOLD A LIE
25. Programming language with a coffee icon: JAVA
30. North-of-the-border gas: ESSO. They have the brand in the UK too. They had a brand of paraffin called "Esso Blue" and when the Police were recording the outro of "Message in a Bottle" they replaced one of the repeated"sending out an SOS" with "sending out an Esso Blue". It was remastered at some point because you can't hear that now.
33. Not sharp: DIM
34. What the fourth little piggy had: NONE
35. Erode: EAT INTO
38. Bettor expectations: PAYOUTS
40. Brought up: BRED
41. Shuttlecock's path: ARC. Fun game, badminton. I used to play against a fiercely-competitive Pakistani lady in London, she'd wipe the floor with me at squash, but we were more evenly-matched on the badminton court, mainly because she hadn't played before!
43. Dols. and cts.: AMTS.
48. Spelled-out strikeouts: KAYS. Baseball's "K". Henry Chadwick "the father of baseball scoring" used "S" to denote sacrifice, and chose "K" for a striKeout. Some scorers mark a regular K for a swinging strikeout, and a backwards K for a batter caught looking.
49. Best Buy buys: FM RADIOS. Why do I think of these things as outdated? I listen to the one in my car all the time.
54. Sacked out: IN BED
56. Great Plains tribe: OTOE
57. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL
58. Groups of two: DUOS
61. Poet St. Vincent Millay: EDNA
62. Funny Fey: TINA
63. Meant to be: FATED
64. Road sign animal: DEER
65. Fragrant arrangement: POSY. Carried by ladies in times past to ward off the pungent "aromas" of urban living.
66. Property claims: LIENS
Down:
1. "That's enough, thanks": I'M SET
2. Columbus' world: MONDO. Christopher's Italian world.
3. Be of use to: AVAIL
4. Ready to be recorded: MIKED
5. Use one's eyes: SEE
6. Estevez of "The Breakfast Club": EMILIO
7. Breaking point: WIT'S END
8. Service status: ONE-A. Fit to serve in the armed forces.
9. Metric wts.: KG'S Kilograms. "Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram".
10. Treatment for 17-Across: ANTIVENOM. I had ANTIVENIN first. There are rattlesnakes in the hills around here where I hike. Always good to know where the nearest urgent care location is if the worst comes to the worst. Dogs are more likely to come a cropper than humans though.
12. Novelist's starting point: PLOT
13. Slugger Sammy: SOSA
18. Tolling place: BELL. Is a bell a place?
22. Karachi's country: Abbr.: PAK.
24. "Locked Up" rapper: AKON. I'm not sure I'd describe him as a rapper - he collaborates with rappers on his singles, but his vocal parts are more mainstream than hip-hop.
25. Iwo __: JIMA
27. Drop down: DIP
28. Lines in the sand, perhaps: ANTS. Odd one this - ants marching in line, in the desert or on the beach.
29. Hi-__ image: RES
30. First name in tea: EARL. I love Earl Grey, my favorite tea. Generally understood to be named for the second Earl Grey, Charles, who was Prime Minister in the 1830's and received a gift of the bergamot-flavored blend.
32. Host of the 1950s' "Your Show of Shows": SID CAESAR. Thank you, crosses. Before my time (and geography).
35. Drop off: EBB
36. Keep-on connection: TABS
37. Cal. neighbor: ORE.
39. Sisterhood name in a 2002 film: YAYA. "Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood".
42. Mideast tunics: CAFTANS
45. "The Spanish Tragedy" dramatist: KYD. Alternative title "Hieronimo is mad againe". Here's Mr. Kyd:
46. "I guess it's fine": UM, OKAY
47. Genealogy chart: TREE
50. Largest UAE city: DUBAI
51. Fuming: IRATE
52. Like some casks: OAKEN. I hesitated over this, STEEL being a viable alternative.
53. Downhill runners: SLEDS
54. Fingered: ID'ED. Identified a suspect.
55. Art class subject: NUDE
56. Birthplace of seven presidents: OHIO
59. Oil additive brand: STP. They make gasoline additives too. If you get Marathon gas in your area, it's got STP additives in it to compete with Chevron's "Techron" brand.
60. Org. with Vikings: NFL. The Minnesota Vikings, as local lady C.C. will attest.
And here's the suitably-highlighted grid, and that's this edition of the blog "baked".
Steve.
17A. *Hazards for herpetologists: SNAKE BITES. My first learning moment of the day - herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles.
26A. *Square-shaped ice cream treat: KLONDIKE BAR. Never tried one. Am I missing out?
44A. *Novel narrated by a horse: BLACK BEAUTY. I picked up an old copy of this book in a pub in England at Christmas. I'm not sure I'd have remembered if the horse was the narrator if I hadn't skimmed a few pages.
11D. *Pry: POKE ABOUT. I wanted POKE AROUND, but not enough room.
31A. *Doggie bag item: STEAK BONE Food! If you wonder what to do with steak bones, try melting a stick of butter or two and slow cooking (or sous vide) with the bones for a couple of hours, then strain it into a jar and refrigerate it. Use it to toss vegetables in, spread it on toast, toss pasta in it, eat it out of the jar with a spoon, the options are endless.
59A. Breadcrumb coating brand ... or, as two words, what is found in the answers to starred clues: SHAKE 'N BAKE. or "Shaken Bake". Doesn't it strike you as odd that there's an apostrophe to indicate the first missing letter, but not the second?
Nice puzzle from Ed. The reveal helped me complete STEAK BONE, I was at a loss to see what could follow "STEAK". I liked the theme entries going both across and down, and the interlocking of the two down entries with two of the across ones.
As always with Ed, some challenging cluing and some nice stuff in the fill. Let's take a tour:
Across:
1. Mosque leaders: IMAMS
6. Teddy-bearlike Star Wars figure: EWOK. Wicket W. Warrick for example.
10. What many icons open: APPS
14. Prime production: MOVIE. Amazon Prime, I'm guessing. I'd be more inclined to clue it "Prime product", as "production" implies that Amazon was the producer. (In my (humble) opinion.)
15. Vase-making dynasty: MING. Try not to drop it, these things don't come cheap:
16. Legal plea, briefly: NOLO. Nolo contendere, "I do not wish to contend", or "no contest".
19. Ring calls: TKOS. Technical Knock-Out called by the referee of a boxing match. The guy getting pummeled could always plead "nolo contendere" through his mouthguard.
20. Falco of "The Sopranos": EDIE
21. Designer Schiaparelli: ELSA. Thank you, crosses.
22. Classic mother-and-son statue: PIETA. This came up last week, I believe.
23. Didn't emulate Washington?: TOLD A LIE
25. Programming language with a coffee icon: JAVA
30. North-of-the-border gas: ESSO. They have the brand in the UK too. They had a brand of paraffin called "Esso Blue" and when the Police were recording the outro of "Message in a Bottle" they replaced one of the repeated"sending out an SOS" with "sending out an Esso Blue". It was remastered at some point because you can't hear that now.
33. Not sharp: DIM
34. What the fourth little piggy had: NONE
35. Erode: EAT INTO
38. Bettor expectations: PAYOUTS
40. Brought up: BRED
41. Shuttlecock's path: ARC. Fun game, badminton. I used to play against a fiercely-competitive Pakistani lady in London, she'd wipe the floor with me at squash, but we were more evenly-matched on the badminton court, mainly because she hadn't played before!
43. Dols. and cts.: AMTS.
48. Spelled-out strikeouts: KAYS. Baseball's "K". Henry Chadwick "the father of baseball scoring" used "S" to denote sacrifice, and chose "K" for a striKeout. Some scorers mark a regular K for a swinging strikeout, and a backwards K for a batter caught looking.
49. Best Buy buys: FM RADIOS. Why do I think of these things as outdated? I listen to the one in my car all the time.
54. Sacked out: IN BED
56. Great Plains tribe: OTOE
57. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL
58. Groups of two: DUOS
61. Poet St. Vincent Millay: EDNA
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light
"Figs from Thistles: First Fig"
62. Funny Fey: TINA
63. Meant to be: FATED
64. Road sign animal: DEER
65. Fragrant arrangement: POSY. Carried by ladies in times past to ward off the pungent "aromas" of urban living.
66. Property claims: LIENS
Down:
1. "That's enough, thanks": I'M SET
2. Columbus' world: MONDO. Christopher's Italian world.
3. Be of use to: AVAIL
4. Ready to be recorded: MIKED
5. Use one's eyes: SEE
6. Estevez of "The Breakfast Club": EMILIO
7. Breaking point: WIT'S END
8. Service status: ONE-A. Fit to serve in the armed forces.
9. Metric wts.: KG'S Kilograms. "Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram".
10. Treatment for 17-Across: ANTIVENOM. I had ANTIVENIN first. There are rattlesnakes in the hills around here where I hike. Always good to know where the nearest urgent care location is if the worst comes to the worst. Dogs are more likely to come a cropper than humans though.
12. Novelist's starting point: PLOT
13. Slugger Sammy: SOSA
18. Tolling place: BELL. Is a bell a place?
22. Karachi's country: Abbr.: PAK.
24. "Locked Up" rapper: AKON. I'm not sure I'd describe him as a rapper - he collaborates with rappers on his singles, but his vocal parts are more mainstream than hip-hop.
25. Iwo __: JIMA
27. Drop down: DIP
28. Lines in the sand, perhaps: ANTS. Odd one this - ants marching in line, in the desert or on the beach.
29. Hi-__ image: RES
30. First name in tea: EARL. I love Earl Grey, my favorite tea. Generally understood to be named for the second Earl Grey, Charles, who was Prime Minister in the 1830's and received a gift of the bergamot-flavored blend.
32. Host of the 1950s' "Your Show of Shows": SID CAESAR. Thank you, crosses. Before my time (and geography).
35. Drop off: EBB
36. Keep-on connection: TABS
37. Cal. neighbor: ORE.
39. Sisterhood name in a 2002 film: YAYA. "Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood".
42. Mideast tunics: CAFTANS
45. "The Spanish Tragedy" dramatist: KYD. Alternative title "Hieronimo is mad againe". Here's Mr. Kyd:
46. "I guess it's fine": UM, OKAY
47. Genealogy chart: TREE
50. Largest UAE city: DUBAI
51. Fuming: IRATE
52. Like some casks: OAKEN. I hesitated over this, STEEL being a viable alternative.
53. Downhill runners: SLEDS
54. Fingered: ID'ED. Identified a suspect.
55. Art class subject: NUDE
56. Birthplace of seven presidents: OHIO
59. Oil additive brand: STP. They make gasoline additives too. If you get Marathon gas in your area, it's got STP additives in it to compete with Chevron's "Techron" brand.
60. Org. with Vikings: NFL. The Minnesota Vikings, as local lady C.C. will attest.
And here's the suitably-highlighted grid, and that's this edition of the blog "baked".
Steve.
45 comments:
DNF. One natick cell: KyD + KAyS. Got the Y by plugging in vowels* until the ta-da. At least I did find the theme okay, and it helped me get the last theme entry. I always think it's a little bonus win when a sussed gimmick helps fill in at least one extra word.
*When I was little, we ended with "and sometimes Y and W." Now I know there are only two obscure Welsh words in the English dictionary that use W as a vowel, and probably as few that don't use Y as such. Anyone know off-hand how many non-Y-vowel words there are? Are little kids today taught AEIOUY properly, or still the stupid way I learned it?
I imagine an IMAM among the EWOK
To pray towards Mecca would need a clock.
And an APP to say
For the time of day,
Which direction it was from their rock!
SID brought for ELSA a bouquet of POSY.
EARL wrote for EDNA a sweet bit of poesy.
EMILIO for EDIE
Made something pretty
By painting her portrait while she was posey!
{A-, A.}
An always interesting duo, Dr. Ed with a Steve exposition; thank you both.
I was surprised you did not know HERPETOLOGY Steve. I guess MUTUAL OF OMAHA'S WILD KINGDOM was not big in Britain.
More interesting stuff: JAVA after learning that they use a lunar calendar; and, PAK after Steve identified his badminton opponent.
A write-up of a puzzle about BAKED and not a single marijuana reference.
Like Owen, I had to WAG the Y on a second try. 'never heard of "the father of baseball scoring" and his K's. -Thanks Steve!
Herpetologists; a relearning-moment for me; I always think of plants or diseases first!
Good puzzle!
Damn, as I hit send before finishing my thought about THOMAS KYD and his playwriting roommate CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE . There is much speculation about all of the leading Elizabethan playwrights, including our boy Will Shakespeare.
Speaking of Queen Elizabeth I, have any of you seen the new movie MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS ? Oo and I enjoyed the REIGN mini-series, but have heard mixed reviews of the new movie.
Owen and JB, I guess you have never watched a baseball game with a strikeout pitcher such as NOLAN RYAN or RANDY JOHNSON pitching, with the fans tracking the performance with their "K" signs.
The influence of HENRY CHADWICK is pervasive in the game now and always. It is amazing how much of what we know about our "national sport" came from the mind of the transplanted Brit. I can understand why Steve, another one of those, honoring him. CHADWICK is another of the many names I have been called by those who cannot remember my last name.
Speaking of Marlon Perkins and Jim Fowler and all the rest, I was rocking my Jack Hanna look at last night's Purim celebration. I have added a photo as my temporary icon
"K, Abe". I remember another's 'line in the sand' (TOLD A LIE?) and it wasn't ANTS, which I got by perps. Nice clue- UM OKAY? The SHAKEN BAKE I never noticed.
The MOVIE clue of 'Prime production' fooled me but it filled the unknown MONDO.
TKOS & KAYS in the same puzzle- KAYO the clues for rappers and unknown writers- KYD & AKON- both unknowns.
FM RADIO- try to find one. Almost ten years ago, before I was having a knee replacement I went to Best Buy, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart looking for a small AM-FM RADIO to listen to while I was in the hospital. Not a single one in any of those three retail giants.
Lemonade- that should be half-baked, duh, when speaking about potheads.
Good morning!
Could we describe this theme as half-baked? Stumbled when I tried to EAT AWAY rather than INTO. That Y in KAYS was a WAG and my final fill. Learning moment. (Lemon, when I last watched a baseball game the Braves were still in Milwaukee and Eddie Matthews was playing third base.) Thanx, Ed 'n Steve.
SNAKE BITES: Copperheads infest our area. The bites are usually not fatal, but I'm told they're really, really painful.
MOVIE: Steve, Amazon does produce original movies and series for Prime Video. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is pretty funny. The period ('50s) costumes are great.
SID CAESAR: Some of his bits with Imogene Coca were truly hilarious.
MONDO: Remember More? It was subtitled "The Theme From MONDO Cane" -- a truly terrible movie.
FM RADIOS: I agree, Steve. Nobody buys 'em anymore. I'm listening to "Morning Edition" on KUHT-FM while writing this...streaming on my music server.
Another taxing day...
Good morning. Thank you ED Sessa and thank you Steve. A mondo review.
Didn't see the theme until after the reveal. After solving the clue for the reveal, it was easy to find the mixed up bakes. I remember when Shake 'N Bake first came out - or at least when my mother first used it for chicken. It was better than I thought it would be.
The Y in KYD was my last fill. I don't recall seeing KAYS spelled out before. Just K's in all the baseball coverage as far as I'm aware.
Me too Steve. I was going to put in Steve Allen for that Show of Shows clue, but it had too many letters. But I recognized the name SID CAESER and vaguely recalled him from the late 60s shows like Mike Douglass or the Smothers Brothers.
Yes, you should try a Klondike Bar. As an aside, like seven presidents, the birthplace of the Klondike Bar was Ohio.
Our Bose Wave Radio produces fantastic sound in such a small package. DW's Walkman still works well after all these years. I have an AM transistor radio in the drawer circa 1968 or so that I bought at JC Penney for my mother. It still works.
OWENKL, I was taught the vowels are A E I OU and sometimes Y and W! You are not alone.
Y and W as vowels:
know brew brown plow etc.
they say prey pray etc.
Off to the doctor. have a good day.
Um okay a bell is a place now? I guess there is some bad cluing in every puzzle
Thank you, Ed Sessa and Steve! Today posed a nice challenge.
Around here SNAKEBITES would be from rattle snakes.
EDIE, ELSA, TINA, EDNA are today's puzzle ladies.
CSO to Abejo at EARL Grey tea.
SID CAESAR and Imogene Coca were hilarious!
I read the YAYA Sisterhood years ago. CAFTANS were the rage in the 70s; I had two or three.
Lemondade:
I saw the movie Mary Queen of Scots and enjoyed it though I can't recall anything outstanding about it.
Enjoy your day, everyone!
Musings
-Dr. Sessa generated clever and obscure (KYD?) speed bumps. Steve’s write-ups are always great.
-I’ve told the story of the 100 lb. SNAKE that BIT me!
-Thousands around here are POKING ABOUT their flooded property
to salvage something
-Spelling CAESAR is tough for me
-Palm Beach County Fla., doesn’t allow a NOLO Contendere plea, even to him
-A professional better I know says he sets a PAYOUT and loss target every day at the track and leaves when he hits either one
-I saw this MONDO movie in 1963 and did not “get it”
-Only a fussy physics teacher would say KILOGRAMS measure mass not weight. So I wont’ :-)
-HI-Res vs Lo-Res
-We have an electronic collar to keep TABS on our kitty outdoors
Good Morning:
I had no clue of the theme until the reveal. I did notice a lot of K's but didn't try parsing any adjoining letters. Needed perps for Kyd, Akon, and Java. Liked Payouts over Amts and the CSO to Abejo, our resident "Earl". Learning moment was Black Beauty being the narrator of the novel; I never saw the movie or read the book.
Thanks, Dr. Ed, for a Thursday treat and thanks, Steve, for a jolly good write-up. (Is that something you would say, or have I heard too many British characters say jolly good?) Thanks, also, for outlining the theme answers so we can appreciate the symmetry better.
I had a fall the other night which left me with a nasty looking (but harmless) bruise on my upper arm and a painful foot, maybe a sprain as there is some swelling. For the time being, I'm using ice packs and resting it and hoping for the best.
Totally off topic, does anyone know how many hours a 150 watt light bulb should last? I put a new bulb in my lamp about 10 days ago and it died this morning. I bought several of these GE bulbs through Amazon and they all seemed to fizzle out very quickly. Is it possible they were all defective? 'Tis a puzzlement" as a certain King said.
Have a great day.
FIW'd, Ka-os/Kod?
Seek & Ye Shall Find!
(but I gotta admit that clue/ans was a stretch...)
Irish Miss, light bulbs? Ya never know, but mine burn out in threes...
I did however once, get stuck with a shopping cart at Home Depot
that had a broken (thumping) wheel. Light bulbs were in aisle one,
and I must have transverse(d) all 40 aisles before I made it back to checkout.
Needless to say, those light bulbs were toast...
When Men Bake...
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Ed and Steve. (I'll add my thanks for highlighting the theme answers in the grid.) I found all the SHAKE'N BAKEs.
This CW filled in quickly but I was left with a FIW. Like many of you, I did not know KYD and I was misdirected by TKO into thinking those spelled-out strikeouts were KAOS. And we have had those baseball Ks here previously!
I was also misdirected at first by "Not sharp" into thinking of Flat, not DIM; same with "Drop off" thinking "go over a cliff" before EBB.
I wanted Skis before SLEDS fit the spot.
I cringe when I see "Ceasar" salad on a menu, but this Canadian loves a Bloody Caesar.
I had just enough perps to make me think that the "Square-shaped ice cream treat" might be a Blondie of some sort. Oh, KLONDIKE BAR.
BLACK BEAUTY was one of my childhood favourite books.
That "fourth little piggy" could have been in a POKE.
My brother gave me a ged.com with family TREE (some of it back to 1200s) with nearly 22,000 names! He is a serious genealogy researcher.
Two small nits. Steve and others have noted the poor clue for BELL. I agree that the BELL does the tolling within some kind of place ie. a belfry, tower or cupola. A Bell is not a place!
Even if you don't like Metallica, you can listen to the Bell toll at the beginning of this piece.
ForWhomTheBellTolls
Second nit is with the clue "First name in tea"=EARL Grey. EARL is a title and not the first name of Mr. Grey. I suppose the name of the tea has become so commonplace that EARL could be considered to be its first name. I'll concede the nit in that case.
My memorized list of American trivia now includes the birthplace of seven presidents, and the name of the president who TOLD A LIE. (I was thinking of Honest Abe before I remembered the cherry tree story.) And all you Americans have to remember for the Canadian trivia is ESSO. T'ain't fair. UM OKAY.
Wishing you all a great day.
I have a feeling that 18d clue/answer is just a another mistake by the crack team over at the L.A.Times. I have spent way too much time trying to justify the answer. Gave Google quite the workout. I cant find any examples of BELL being a tolling place. If it is akin to horn being a tooting place then, as the kids say, whatever.
I see other blogs and C'eh have the same nit with EARL. I get the nit but also see the justification for the c/a. I think a simple "?" at the end of the clue would have been better word play and at the same time made for no reason for a nit.
Perhaps Rich could crowdsource the editing process with us here down on the corner.
This Thursday puzzle had a bit of crunch.
Agree with others about BELL.
MARKOVERS...EATAWAY/EATINTO....should have been more patient.
Have a great day.
Btw C'eh, I would had preferred to hear Australia's AC/DC's Hells Bells as an example for the tolling of bells. :)
I'd link for ya if I knew how. Sorry.
To disnit,
(dismiss a nit...)
(Oh forget it...)
Earl Grey is the name of a Tea, ergo, 1st name in tea...
And, being CrossEyedDave
I had to look for an instance of a Bell being a Tolling Place.
I think this came pretty close!
However there were a lot of near misses...
HeHe, near misses...
Toilet humor, how low can you go...
I'll ring myself out now...
Wait,
just one more..
Tolling Place?
Would "KING" be a acceptable answer for the clue "First name in bibles"?
Maybe for a Saturday puzzle?
IDK. Tough call.
Sorry, to be clear, I'm referring to the King James Bible, not any specific King in the Bible.
When the clapper hits the side of the bell inside the bell, it makes a tolling sound.
therefore the bell is a tolling place. Is that too far out?
Becky
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Ed Sessa, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
Puzzle worked out. Caught the theme after I finished and studied it for a while. Good job, Ed.
A few unknowns, MONDO, YAYA.
My favorite was EARL. Earl Grey is my favorite, and only, tea. Glad to see that Steve is on board with that.
Have to walk the dog and then guard the crossing. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
I'm 50/50, half and half, of two minds about this puzzle. I enjoyed solving some of it, and found some of it to be a slog. Not knowing KYD or KAYS, I did what Owen did: plug in different letters until it rang the bell. My reaction was the underwhelming UM, OKAY. *shrug*
It took crosses to learn whether it was going to be MONDO, MUNDO, MONDE, MONDA, or whatever.
So, I raised him is equivalent to I bred him? *shrug*
Tough call on BELL. I guess I vote with CanadianEh! on that.
Gotta go. Good wishes to you all.
CrossEyedDave ~
LOL. Just to let you know, your attempts at humor are appreciated.
Ta ~ DA!
In answer to "Prime production," I had MOVER first, before overwriting with MOVIE. There were other weird clueings. In addition to questioning BELL as a "Tolling place," I found the nexus of 49A and 46D to be somewhat bizarre. I tried various RADIOS (CB, VH) before landing on FM. The perp fill for "I guess it's fine" was not much help. I mean, who knows whether the hesitant speaker mutters "UH" or even "UB" before saying "OKAY"? It was left to the unknown CAFTANS to settle the matter.
That ruffled me feathers.
Thomas KYD's Spanish Tragedy is rarely performed these days. KYD is mostly remembered for having shared rooms with the astounding genius poet/playwright Christopher Marlowe, and for giving evidence against Marlowe when he (KYD) was on the rack for an "atheist" tract found in their joint apartment.
Great to see SID CAESAR's name. His Show of Shows was the highlight of my week in junior high & HS. I felt a proprietary interest in him, having "discovered" him before his days of television glory in the 1946 movie Tars and Spars.
He could do loudmouth; he could do deadpan. What a brilliant, innovative comic!
In the '80s I used to spot him pushing his cart in our neighborhood supermarket, by the Beverly Center.
~ OMK
Could a tolling place be the round bell like hole at some toll road gates where you could toss in your coins for the required toll?
Here we are for Anon@12:49
AC/DCHellsBells
CED - thanks for the links. That cat ringing the BELL was my smile for the day.
Anon@12:44- Like I said, my nit with EARL was a small one. Any time Rich wants to hire us!
Becky@1:24- Wow, I might stretch far enough to see your point about the tolling place but it just about breaks the elastic!
Oas@2:41-that breaks the elastic LOL!
I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so here goes: My bought on "Tolling place" is that it's an attempt at cleverness by twisting the in the language phrase "Polling place" to fit. That's not to suggest it actually is clever. Just an attempt.....and a poor one. I gave it a D minus and moved on.
Dam autocorrect: Thought, not bought.
CanadianEh! ~
In re. EARL Grey:
Indeed! That's true, too.
Lord Grey's first name was "Charles."
And so, inquiring minds want to know:
Why aren't tea-jokes as popular as tobacco-jokes, of the Prince Albert variety?
~ OMK
FIR, but erased slept for IN BED, POKE ArOUn (ran out of squares) for POKE ABOUT and Steve alAn for SID CAESAR (both were before my time).
HG - They want Bob Craft to go to a herpestologist.
IM, I always wonder why folks still buy incandescent bulbs. Except for my microwave and conventional ovens, I always use LEDs. If you want the light characteristics of a conventional bulb, look for a "warm" designation. Be careful if you are putting it in a globe or other application that doesn't allow air circulation. There are special types of bulbs for those applications. A good one may very well outlast you.
By the way, the original reason that fans in the stands reversed every third "K" was so they wouldn't display "KKK", which offends even more people than I do.
FLN, PK I couldn't stop laughing at your comment about the beef industry still being "afloat" in our country's heartland. I loves me some gallows humor.
Thanks for the fun, easy-for-Thursday puzzle, Ed. I would have clued "what the most recent 44 have done" for TELL A LIE. And thanks to Steve for the fun review. But if you go to all that trouble to find something to do with a STEAK BONE, you need to rescue a dog.
This is going to be short.
It took several times to solve this CW FIR. Thanks Ed and Steve.
Ðave
Hi All!
Thanks Ed for a fine puzzle - even with some half-BAKE'd clues. Excellent Expo Steve - enjoyed the shuttlecock story (among others).
Steve - In researching a comedic hero, Mel Brooks, I 'discovered' SID's Show of Shows (way b/f my time - sorry OMK). Mel & Carl Reiner came up with the The 2000 Year Old Man there.
And, since Lucina & D-O mentioned it: Sid and Imogene Coca
I got to the puzzle / blog early 'cuz I played hooky w/ Eldest (she's on Spring Break) and we put in a garden. Four ROMAs, four Beefs, 6 bells, 2 bananas, 6 basil, 3 Italian parsley, 2 cukes, and various herbs Eldest stuck on the cart. Pic for proof ["front-40"; the back-forty is around the side of the garage]
WO: TeLl A LIE
ESPs: AKON, MONDO
Fav: WIT'S END [me near Carmel, CA] I now use that as my Twitter profile pic - seems APROPOS for the platform :-o
{B+, A}
D-O: Nobody buys 'em anymore? Callin' me a Nobody?!?
I'm in the market for a new AM/FM pocket Radio. I listen to AM every night and wakeup to KUHT in the morning. I Tweeted about turning my old /dead radio into a Raspberry Pi project.
CED - First, funny. Second, I almost went with KA-Os too.
AveJoe - So, the clue was cute-by-half is what you're knelling us? :-)
Cheers, -T
T - 1/3 at best. Maybe 1/4. But it's the only plausible explanation I can come up with for such a lame clue.....an attempt to be clever. Held my nose, but went with it due to perps. Clearly that's not to imply I liked it.
I read the disputed clue as the place where the clapper tolls.
I also mis-remembered the last verse of this poem as "the parson told the clapper, and the clapper tolled the bell."
I just happened on a blurb about a man in Albany, Texas, who crawled under his house to see about a cable television wire because the TV wasn't working. He saw "a few snakes" so he crawled out quickly. He called a professional snake removal company and they pulled 45 rattlesnakes out from under his house. I once lived in Albany, Texas, for nine months. We could drive along the high way at night and see rattlesnakes which crawled onto the road which held warmth after the sun went down. Rattlesnake roundups were a sport around there.
By the way, I knew the meaning of herpetology.
Members of the herpetology society often visited our classroom with specimens and explained to the students the dangers of certain reptiles.
PK:
That would be a frightening situation to deal with!
PK - I just read that re: SNAKES on pA2 in the Chron. Albany, Texas is way NNW of me... whew!
-T
PK, late-late question re those rattlers (Chronicle and on local news here in Houston): Whatever were you doing living in Albany, TX? I've never heard of it before that news clip. LIU, pop. 2,000 in 2010.
I thought of STEAK TIPS. Nothing's too good for Dusty, eh Misty?
I had no clue about Herpetology. The theme helped me close out KLONDIKE and SNAKEBITES. The mint Kbars are my fav but I only buy on BOGO.
.
Well, my first MLB game Eddie Mathews was playing 3B for the BOSTON Braves.
Re. Kraft: Did the cops obtain a court order authorization video and tape? I can assume Yes or else no case. Or else ..!!?
Among other Writeovers I had Hi DEF.
Well, I see I fell asleep before posting. Another ether effort.
WC
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