Theme: The Great Divide - four rows of the puzzle contain theme words divided by the black squares, as the reveal tells us what to look for:
61A. #3 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time (as of 2016) ... and a hint to what the black squares are doing in four rows of this puzzle: BREAKING BAD
Firstly ...
17A. Teacher on call: SUB. Our friend Husker Gary knows all about this.
18A. John D. Rockefeller's company: STANDARD OIL
... followed by ...
23A. Record: ENTER
24A. Umbrella part: RIB
26A. Grace word: BLESS
... also ...
38A. Woodland goat-man: FAUN. Be careful doing an image search for this, you might get more than you bargained for.
41A. Arraignment answers: PLEAS
42A. Kitchen pests: ANTS
... and finally
52A. Calf-length skirts: MIDIS
53A. 61-Across kingpin __ Fring: GUS. Cross-referencing the reveal, nicely done.
56A. Subtle shade: TINGE
Well, I liked the theme, one of those which doesn't become apparent until you've filled most of the grid and read the reveal. I did think the reveal was clued in a really clunky way "... (as of 2016)" - surely there's a cleaner and more elegant way to refer to the show rather han a clue which is date-specific.
I watched the first few episodes of the show and got bored with it, I know it garnered all kinds of awards and critical acclaim, but it just didn't grab me.
A couple of clunkers/obscurities in the fill, but mostly OK. Let's take a tour.
Across:
1. Cleared (of): RID
4. Tote bag material: CANVAS
10. Down-to-earth: REAL
14. Chemical suffix: -IDE
15. Even though: ALBEIT. I think this was my word-of-the-day, there's something very satisfying about it.
16. Wrinkly hybrid fruit: UGLI. Also known as a Jamaican tangelo. Ugli is a proprietary name, which really is a play on the word "ugly". It's a grapefruit/tangerine hybrid.
20. Cutlery collection: KNIFE SET
22. Moo __ gai pan: GOO. Food! A stir-fry with chicken and veggies.
30. Bilingual "Sesame Street" Muppet: ROSITA. I didn't know this, but it seemed reasonable that it would be a latino or latina name. I had ROS- in place, and the rest came naturally.
32. Bath sponges: LOOFAHS
34. Most babbling: GASSIEST. Really?
37. Bunk: ROT
43. Racing Unsers: ALS. Al Unser Sr, and, very inventively, Al Unser Jr. Of course, there's a III as well.
44. Preparation period: LEAD TIME
46. German mathematician Bernhard: RIEMANN. Who? I was terrible at math in school, so I never came across this gentleman.
48. Softening: EASING
57. Glass lip: RIM
59. Speed trap equipment: RADAR GUN
65. Check out: EYE
66. "Star Trek" race: BORG
67. Mariner's patron: ST ELMO. He of the fire. He likes to mess with airplanes as well as ship's masts:
68. __ Lingus: AER. The Irish national carrier.
69. Pineapple center: CORE
70. "Mercy me!": OH DEAR!
71. Genetic material: RNA. -NA and wait for the cross.
Down:
1. One who agrees to a dare: RISKER. Yuk. "You risker, you!" said no-one, ever.
2. "Got me": I DUNNO
3. Ledger entries: DEBITS
4. Italian city whose Royal Palace has been used as a set in two "Star Wars" films: CASERTA. I'd never heard of it. 76,000 people live there though, so at least they've heard of it. It also hosted the Eurobasket basketball tourney in 1969, so that's a righteous claim to fame. The palace is big though, it looks like all 76,000 residents could live in it and they could host the tournament in the driveway.
5. Hgts.: ALTS. That's an abbreviation for "heights", apparently, so "altitudes" is the answer. I'd be interested in anyone coming up with an example of Hgts or Alts being used. Washington Hgts or other place names don't count
6. Net or Knick: NBAER. Basketball player, although some fans of those teams might grumble that their players don't play basketball of much quality. They'd probably have done OK at Eurobasket in 1969 though.
7. Starbucks order: VENTI. I can never remember the sizes in Starbucks. I just go for small, medium and large. They seem to understand what I'm looking for.
8. Give a leg up: AID
.
9. Antlered animal: STAG
10. Ballet great Nureyev: RUDOLF
11. Psychoanalysis subject: EGO
12. Actor Mahershala __: ALI. Talented dude. Two Oscars, a slew of other awards and a studio rap album to boot. I'm catching up with "House of Cards" on NetFlix, he has a big role in the show.
13. Rapper __ Jon: LIL' Two rappers in close proximity.
19. High-tech worker: ROBOT
21. Affect: FEIGN
25. Pasture cry: BLEAT
27. Pull down: EARN
28. Opportunity: SHOT
29. Former Air France jets: SSTS. The supersonic Concorde. British Airways had them too, part of a joint venture between the British and French governments. When BA retired their fleet, Richard Branson tried to buy them for Virgin, but BA refused to sell. Odd, considering they didn't pay for them in the first place, the taxpayers did. Branson was livid.
31. Colorado snowboarding mecca: ASPEN
33. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" director Davis: OSSIE
35. Urban Dictionary content: SLANG. You come across some very weird things in there. Much like searching for "faun".
36. Iraq War weapon: Abbr.: I.E.D. Improvised Explosive Device. Usually a roadside bomb triggered underneath vehicles in a convoy in that conflict.
38. One to grow on: FARM
39. Et __: and others: ALII. I had ALIA first, I'm not sure I'll ever know whether to use ALII, ALIAE or ALIA. The first is masculine, the second feminine, and the third neuter. In this clue context, "others" would refer to masculine things. Gender-specific languages really make things difficult!
40. Hand-me-down: USED
42. Group at Asgard: AESIR. Not really, the AE is a diphthong or ligature - it's a single letter, Æ. Anyway, the æsir are a group of gods in Norse religion who reside at Asgard.
44. Cornea-reshaping surgery: LASIK. I can never remember which is which between lasik and lasix, the anti-asthma drug given to racehorses, so I wait for the cross.
45. One facing charges?: MATADOR. Nice clue.
47. Desert illusion: MIRAGE
49. Ready to roll: IN GEAR
50. Vietnamese-American poker star Scotty: NGUYEN. Never heard of him, but with the G and Y in place it was an easy guess.
51. Biological subdivisions: GENERA
54. Implored: URGED
55. Black: SABLE
58. Japanese soup: MISO
60. Lady of Spain: DAMA
61. Eng. channel: B.B.C. The state broadcaster in the UK, affectionately known as "the Beeb" or "Auntie".
62. Pal of Piglet: ROO. The Ashdown Forest, the real-life home of the Hundred Acre Wood, was scorched by wildfires recently. The temperatures in the UK reached 70F in February. What climate change?
63. Goof up: ERR
64. Extreme: NTH
Here's the grid, with the theme words highlighted in fetching pale yellow. And with that, I think I'm done!
Steve
61A. #3 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time (as of 2016) ... and a hint to what the black squares are doing in four rows of this puzzle: BREAKING BAD
Firstly ...
17A. Teacher on call: SUB. Our friend Husker Gary knows all about this.
18A. John D. Rockefeller's company: STANDARD OIL
... followed by ...
23A. Record: ENTER
24A. Umbrella part: RIB
26A. Grace word: BLESS
... also ...
38A. Woodland goat-man: FAUN. Be careful doing an image search for this, you might get more than you bargained for.
41A. Arraignment answers: PLEAS
42A. Kitchen pests: ANTS
... and finally
52A. Calf-length skirts: MIDIS
53A. 61-Across kingpin __ Fring: GUS. Cross-referencing the reveal, nicely done.
56A. Subtle shade: TINGE
Well, I liked the theme, one of those which doesn't become apparent until you've filled most of the grid and read the reveal. I did think the reveal was clued in a really clunky way "... (as of 2016)" - surely there's a cleaner and more elegant way to refer to the show rather han a clue which is date-specific.
I watched the first few episodes of the show and got bored with it, I know it garnered all kinds of awards and critical acclaim, but it just didn't grab me.
A couple of clunkers/obscurities in the fill, but mostly OK. Let's take a tour.
Across:
1. Cleared (of): RID
4. Tote bag material: CANVAS
10. Down-to-earth: REAL
14. Chemical suffix: -IDE
15. Even though: ALBEIT. I think this was my word-of-the-day, there's something very satisfying about it.
16. Wrinkly hybrid fruit: UGLI. Also known as a Jamaican tangelo. Ugli is a proprietary name, which really is a play on the word "ugly". It's a grapefruit/tangerine hybrid.
20. Cutlery collection: KNIFE SET
22. Moo __ gai pan: GOO. Food! A stir-fry with chicken and veggies.
30. Bilingual "Sesame Street" Muppet: ROSITA. I didn't know this, but it seemed reasonable that it would be a latino or latina name. I had ROS- in place, and the rest came naturally.
32. Bath sponges: LOOFAHS
34. Most babbling: GASSIEST. Really?
37. Bunk: ROT
43. Racing Unsers: ALS. Al Unser Sr, and, very inventively, Al Unser Jr. Of course, there's a III as well.
44. Preparation period: LEAD TIME
46. German mathematician Bernhard: RIEMANN. Who? I was terrible at math in school, so I never came across this gentleman.
48. Softening: EASING
57. Glass lip: RIM
59. Speed trap equipment: RADAR GUN
65. Check out: EYE
66. "Star Trek" race: BORG
67. Mariner's patron: ST ELMO. He of the fire. He likes to mess with airplanes as well as ship's masts:
68. __ Lingus: AER. The Irish national carrier.
69. Pineapple center: CORE
70. "Mercy me!": OH DEAR!
71. Genetic material: RNA. -NA and wait for the cross.
Down:
1. One who agrees to a dare: RISKER. Yuk. "You risker, you!" said no-one, ever.
2. "Got me": I DUNNO
3. Ledger entries: DEBITS
4. Italian city whose Royal Palace has been used as a set in two "Star Wars" films: CASERTA. I'd never heard of it. 76,000 people live there though, so at least they've heard of it. It also hosted the Eurobasket basketball tourney in 1969, so that's a righteous claim to fame. The palace is big though, it looks like all 76,000 residents could live in it and they could host the tournament in the driveway.
5. Hgts.: ALTS. That's an abbreviation for "heights", apparently, so "altitudes" is the answer. I'd be interested in anyone coming up with an example of Hgts or Alts being used. Washington Hgts or other place names don't count
6. Net or Knick: NBAER. Basketball player, although some fans of those teams might grumble that their players don't play basketball of much quality. They'd probably have done OK at Eurobasket in 1969 though.
7. Starbucks order: VENTI. I can never remember the sizes in Starbucks. I just go for small, medium and large. They seem to understand what I'm looking for.
8. Give a leg up: AID
.
9. Antlered animal: STAG
10. Ballet great Nureyev: RUDOLF
11. Psychoanalysis subject: EGO
12. Actor Mahershala __: ALI. Talented dude. Two Oscars, a slew of other awards and a studio rap album to boot. I'm catching up with "House of Cards" on NetFlix, he has a big role in the show.
13. Rapper __ Jon: LIL' Two rappers in close proximity.
19. High-tech worker: ROBOT
21. Affect: FEIGN
25. Pasture cry: BLEAT
27. Pull down: EARN
28. Opportunity: SHOT
29. Former Air France jets: SSTS. The supersonic Concorde. British Airways had them too, part of a joint venture between the British and French governments. When BA retired their fleet, Richard Branson tried to buy them for Virgin, but BA refused to sell. Odd, considering they didn't pay for them in the first place, the taxpayers did. Branson was livid.
31. Colorado snowboarding mecca: ASPEN
33. "Cotton Comes to Harlem" director Davis: OSSIE
35. Urban Dictionary content: SLANG. You come across some very weird things in there. Much like searching for "faun".
36. Iraq War weapon: Abbr.: I.E.D. Improvised Explosive Device. Usually a roadside bomb triggered underneath vehicles in a convoy in that conflict.
38. One to grow on: FARM
39. Et __: and others: ALII. I had ALIA first, I'm not sure I'll ever know whether to use ALII, ALIAE or ALIA. The first is masculine, the second feminine, and the third neuter. In this clue context, "others" would refer to masculine things. Gender-specific languages really make things difficult!
40. Hand-me-down: USED
42. Group at Asgard: AESIR. Not really, the AE is a diphthong or ligature - it's a single letter, Æ. Anyway, the æsir are a group of gods in Norse religion who reside at Asgard.
44. Cornea-reshaping surgery: LASIK. I can never remember which is which between lasik and lasix, the anti-asthma drug given to racehorses, so I wait for the cross.
45. One facing charges?: MATADOR. Nice clue.
47. Desert illusion: MIRAGE
49. Ready to roll: IN GEAR
50. Vietnamese-American poker star Scotty: NGUYEN. Never heard of him, but with the G and Y in place it was an easy guess.
51. Biological subdivisions: GENERA
54. Implored: URGED
55. Black: SABLE
58. Japanese soup: MISO
60. Lady of Spain: DAMA
61. Eng. channel: B.B.C. The state broadcaster in the UK, affectionately known as "the Beeb" or "Auntie".
62. Pal of Piglet: ROO. The Ashdown Forest, the real-life home of the Hundred Acre Wood, was scorched by wildfires recently. The temperatures in the UK reached 70F in February. What climate change?
63. Goof up: ERR
64. Extreme: NTH
Here's the grid, with the theme words highlighted in fetching pale yellow. And with that, I think I'm done!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
As a few solvers noticed, there's an extra B in TERRIBLE. Rich Norris, editor for our L.A. Times Daily Crossword editor, apologized for the mistake.
Rich has fixed the mistake. Please click here for the puz file. Here for the PDF. Below is the new Answer Grid.
71 comments:
DNF. A double natick: FEI.N + CASERT. + ..SSIEST.
And even with the reveal, the themers were difficult to find.
It was UNPLEASANT and DISGUSTING what this puzzler had to do!
It was TERRIBLE to contemplate, to think of all that GOO!
It was SUB-STANDARD, it was BAD,
So much BREAKING was just sad,
And the ROTTENEST of all was LOOFAHS used to clean the loo!
Ginsu salesmen were competing at the swap-meet.
Each one said his product was neatest of the neat!
Then a traffic cop
Called on both of them to stop,
To a KNIFE SET fight he'd brought a RADAR GUN as heat!
The artist with the CANVAS was a REAL Old West galoot.
Now he used a paint-gun for what he came to SHOOT.
But he said, "OH, DEAR,
This still-life is so drear!
I just can't make beautiful a bowl of UGLI fruit!"
{B-, C, C+.}
Hi Y'all! Thank you for the challenge, Gary! Thank you for a great expo, Steve.
Without Steve's explanations, I would never have seen the theme. I was looking all over for the word BAD that was separated. Too complicated for me this early in the morning. Never saw BREAKING BAD so didn't know GUS.
Also DNK: RIEMAN, CASERTA, AESIR, NGUYEN -- altho I WAGd NGUYEN since so many Vietnamese have that name but spelling it is always tricky. (Where do they put the "G"?) How they get the pronunciation of WIN out of that I don't know.
Babbling, I wouldn't associate with GASSIEST -- red-letter run for the "G". I suppose if you think of some old fart who is a windbag....
Had trouble spelling FEIGN too. Couldn't remember the "G" in that either. GEE whiz!
Thank you, Gary Larson and Steve!
I sailed along pretty well, until I didn’t! Ditto to what PK said.
Have a good Thursday, everyone. It is snowing again and I am scraping off wallpaper. Maybe I will try marching music to keep up my pace and mood.
Good Morning, Steve and friends. Interesting puzzle. I got BREAKING BAD, but then tried to find the word "BAD" broken up. The only one that worked was SUB STANDARD.
Mahershala ALI had been making frequent guest appearances recently. He was really good in Green Book.
FAUN also appeared in a puzzle recently.
I learned that Bunk is not a Cot, but ROT.
It's "warm" here today. All week it has been in the low 30s each morning, but today it is 40F. And to think a week ago, I was running my A/C!
QOD: Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second. ~ Maurice Ravel (né Joseph Maurice Ravel; Mar. 7, 1875 ~ Dec. 28, 1937)
66 Across is misclued. The Borg is not a race in the Star Trek universe, it is a collective of races that have been (or are being) assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Good mourning!
Yes, it was another DNF for d-o. ROSINA/CASERNA looked just fine. Bzzzzzt! Theme? Nope. Reveal? There was a reveal? D'oh! Zipped right past it. I only knew SABLE as the animal or its pelt, not as the color black. Learning moment. Thanx, Gary and Steve.
Taxing day. Gotta run...
Creative theme - I always wonder how long it takes to come up with the parts- first synonyms of "BAD" - then looking for ways to divide them up into other words that can be close to each other!
Need to head off to work - but update on my brother. Post-op visit - clear margins on the path report and catheter out and no retention! So he heads home today from San Antonio- yay!
Good Morning:
This was quite an unusual theme which, even after getting the reveal, was not readily evident. I finished w/o help but stumbled on more answers than normal for a Thursday: Rosita, Riemann, Gus, Borg, Caserta, and Nguyen. Thumbs down to Risker and Gassiest.
Thanks, Gary, for a late week challenge and thanks, Steve, for the grand tour.
Nina, that's wonderful news about your brother.
Have a great day.
This was definitely not a SUB-STANDARD puzzle. And was I ever lucky to finish it correctly. Never heard of CASERTA, Scotty NGUYEN, GUS Fring, or RIEMANN, never watched Star Trek or BREAKING BAD, or knew that 'black' and SABLE were interchangeable. BORG & LIL were perps.
Mahershala ALI- only because he won an Oscar last week. ROSITA was an unknown WAG.
NGUYEN-There are more Nguyen names in the New Orleans phone book than Smith and Jones combined.
Lucina from yesterday- so Elizabeth Warren is a non-white by your definition? She's 1/1000 Indian.
Jayce- You want to know 'what the heck Hispanic actually means?" IMHO, a total BS descriptive word but here it is: "A Spanish speaking NON-Spanish person." If you are from Spain, you are European.
I liked this puzzle, but even with the reveal and Steve's explanation I did not get the theme. With Steve's coloring of the completed grid, the light dawned. CASERTA, ELI M. and GUS were new to me. I thought of FEIGN for affect, but doubted it until I realized it is a verb meaning put on a pretense. So that formed GASSIEST from the informal meaning of gas, talk, especially excessively, idly, or boastfully. I haven't heard that use of GAS and GASSY in years, although I see examples of it on the news every day.
Gassy people do a lot of feigning and gaslighting.
The English/American spelling is AESIR, pronounced icer.
Inanehiker, I'm glad your brother is coming along and will be going home.
Really mid-winter cold here today 10 degrees, February weather. February itself was March-like.
Good Morning,
Thanks Gary for a very doable Thursday. I needed that as I have been under the weather and not really focusing on anything requiring my brain. Thanks for another terrific tour Steve.
Back in business here. Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
SUB - Thought of Husker - first thing.
Did not know some of the performers, or remember RIEMANN for that matter but judicious WAGs and perp application helped me finish without incident. Good Thursday grinder.
Misty - FLN. I agree with you about AT. Having lost my BIL to the disease 4 years ago, it will remind me of a difficult time. Since there is a 2+ months (or so) delay between filming and viewing, it will be even more surreal wondering about his current condition each day.
I wish him well but he has a very tough road ahead.
Terribble?
Good morning. Thank you Gary Larson and thank you Steve.
Well, I got the theme and found the broken synonyms, but I messed up in the NW. I too guessed ROSInA rather than the more probable ROSITA.
Got FEIGN ok, but didn't pause long enough on the windbag clue and entered the U in GuSSIEST.
That left me with the totally incorrect CASERnu instead of the totally unknown CASERTA.
Nearby, I had entered the known word vente for the unknown word VENTI. I met a coworker at Starbucks once about 10 or so years ago. It's the only time I've ever been in one. Anyway, I do know that the umbrella part is a RIB, but I had ReB, so another wrong answer.
Inanehiker, good news about your brother. I'm sure you are relieved.
Madame Defarge, I hope you start feeling better soon. May a little sunshine peek through your windows and brighten your day.
Got BREAKING BAD, but never figured out the theme, which really wasn’t needed to finish the puzzle. Thought it was a toughie. Didn’t get the last two letters of 4 down, the Italian city, but I should have figured it out. Hate it when that happens!
A good puzzle. Fun to see unique words like LOOFAPS.
61 TV show with Bryan Cranston and what black squares have done to four grid rows
Caserta Pizzeria – Home of the Wimpy Skippy. It's in Providence, Rhode Island.
Musings
-DIS GUS T finally appeared and then I sussed UN PLEAS ANT and TER RIB BLE. I looked at IDE ALBEIT UGLI for a long time to keep the pattern and then, lo and behold, Gary switched to using only two words in this brilliant puzzle! AARRGGHH! Shame on you Rich! :-)
-Snow cancelled my SUB job for today
-I watched one episode of Breaking Bad and was repulsed by the incredible violence (man dying in basement pleading for his life, etc.). That’s entertainment to someone
-MIDIS – That’s fashion? (Hmmm… A little curmudgeonly today, Gary?)
-A very funny LOOFAH scene (:18)
-Remember the anxiety-ridden LEAD TIME for Y2K?
-Our constructor is either a math guy or just stumbled onto RIEMANN
-My school has a 15mph speed limit on school days and the RADAR GUN stays busy
-I’m surprised VENTI is not on this list of pretentious words
-All four of the themers could apply to LIL John’s “music”. Google at your own risk
-Our school had many NGUYENS in the postwar 70’s. Wonderful families!
Happy Birthday Maurice! One of my favs.
Duh, I finally get it! Thanx inananehiker! After three explanations and the highlighted grid.
Ted Nguyen... Rock guitarist
Ellen Degenera... TV host into biology
Iduuno lupino... Actor without a clue
Really, really bad
I am repeating my question from 9:08. Would someone please explain the word TERRIBBLE in this puzzle? I am not trying to be a difficult or snarky ANON, but TERRIBLE has only one B and I would appreciate an explanation of this word in the puzzle. Thank you to anyone who can clarify this.
FYI on Lasix (the word that lost out to Lasik in 44D). I didn't know about its use for treating asthma (thanks Steve), but it is also an important drug for treating congestive heart failure (CHF). It's a powerful diuretic used to reduce fluid buildup around the heart. In about an hour I'm taking my 93 year old Mom to a CHF clinic that administers IV Lasix, which acts much more rapidly than the oral form.
Anonymous at 6:54 is very picky!
I never got the theme until it was explained- very clever!
This didn't present a problem for me because I was clueless on the theme and had to have it explained to me 3 times and highlighted in yellow before I finally figured out what everyone was talking about! I'm just a 71 year old newbie I guess. :-)
Thursday theme-stumper. Thanks for the fun, Gary and Steve.
Hand up for looking for BAD to be broken up across the squares. I did see SUBSTANDARD (and the CSO to HG) but I'm with Anonymous@9:08 & 10:26 re TERRIBBLE. (Even Steve has highlighted TERRIBBL on the grid.) Did nobody else notice this???
Major faux pas IMHO!
I changed Latte to VENTI, Eloi to BORG. Roseta changed to ROSITA.
Perps were required for the unknown AESIR, RIEMANN; I also had to wait for perps to decide between multiple possible chemical suffixes such as -ase, -ose, -ate, et ALII.
My first thought for "preparation period" at this time of the year was Lent. I think of SABLE as a dark brown colour but Merriam Webster gives both black and dark brown as possible meaning.
GASSIEST was my "meh" word for the day. But I accept the "verbose" meaning of Babbling, and PK's "windbag", and YR's excessive talk examples.
FEIGN and ALBEIT are the "quaint" words for the day. "Mercy me" reminded me of my British-born grandmother's expression of "Oh Laws", not OH DEAR.
Just a FYI, Steve, that Lasix (brand name for furosemide) is a diuretic drug ("water pill"). In racehorses, because it "reduces plasma volume, it is believed by many experts to reduce blood pressure in the lungs and prevent bleeds (pulmonary hemorrhages) from occurring during intense exercise" per Equine Health Labs. Apparently it can be given legally for horses in the Kentucky Derby but is banned elsewhere.
Yes waseeley@10:27, it is used in CHF also (and is not an asthma drug).
inanehiker- glad to hear of your brother's good progress.
MadameD - feel better soon
Yes, sad news re AT, although he seems positive.
Enjoy the day.
Missed yesterday, just had trouble finding silly links for spreadsheet.
But I think it was more because I just had no time due to a convergence
of two of my main interests...
Sandyanon, thanks a lot!
I have been trying to avoid The Holiday for years
as it is one of DW's favorite movies. She has it on a player
so she can watch it whenever she gets on a plane.
Now that you have shown me the trailer, I am intrigued.
Dang it! Now I have to watch "another" dang RomCom... (Sigh...)
Anywho, still have not admitted defeat with todays puzzle.
I took it with me to the Dentist (he fixed my tooth without a shot, WooHoo!)
But being a PROcrastinater, I got him, and his assistant to help me
with some of the last stumpers while in the chair in the middle of a procedure.
(didn't work, they couldn't figure it out either...)
2nd day in a row I neglected to post my comment so it sits, lonely on my home computer. I did not finish this one, though I should have.
Anon harping on the spelling of TERRIBBLE; that was Steve's parsing the parts and the author probably meant TER RIB LE
WEES
See you all bright and early tomorrow. Do not forget Daylight Saving Time starts for most of us Sunday at 2:00AM. Hi Lucy. It is by the way "SAVING" not "SAVINGS"
Anon @9:08 and 10:26 ~ I didn't think you were being snarky, I just couldn't believe my eyes or the fact that I never saw the second B. This just proves that, sometimes, we only see what we expect to see. I don't think there is any explanation other than it being an error. Anyone else have any thoughts?
Oh you risker, said no one ever, still laughing and true. I've never heard of Caserta or Riemann either.
Quotes from the internet:
Could a sentient race like the Borg (Star Trek) really exist?
First Contact has a lot of general information about how the Borg became what they are today; basically, they began as a humanoid race seeking physical perfection
Anon is right. There are too many “B’s” in the word TERRIBLE as it appears in the puzzle! I noticed the strange spelling in Steve’s write-up, but let it slide, as I was initially looking for the word BAD to be broken up.
Hahtoolah
(I am away from my normal electronics and can’t enter my account. )
Fun puzzle , great theme . Thanks Gary Larson for an interesting workout this morning and Steve for the review.
Slow but steady won the day with a couple of unknowns IED &. CASERTA.
The cluing for GASSIEST seemed off to me and I settled on thinking maybe it was a typo and should have read Most Bubbling.
As a home kit winemaker I’m well acquainted with bubbles and degassing .
My DE told me that I was a good waiter. I sit here
In the car while she shops at finding fabric for a blanket for our second greatgrand child due in a few weeks.
Cheers
Well, I had an exciting moment when I thought I might have gotten this whole fun Gary Larson puzzle correctly, but I goofed up on one silly word. Had PLACE instead of SLANG for the Urban Dictionary word. But that's still a pretty amazing Thursday solve for me--Yay! And thank you, Gary, for a fun puzzle. My favorite clue was "one facing charges" for MATADOR. Lots of names I didn't know, but just read about ALI in "People" magazine yesterday. And NGUYEN fell into place and looked good for a Vietnamese name. I got BREAKING BAD but like others looked for BAD connections and would never have gotten the theme words without Steve's help--so many thanks for that too.
Good news about your brother, Inanehiker.
Hope you're feeling better, Madame Defarge.
Thanks for the good wishes for Alex Trebek, Spitzboov.
Liked your poems, Owen.
Have a good Thursday, everybody!
So sad about Alex Trebek. I've had two friends with that diagnosis who did not last long.
Thank you, Gary Larson and Steve!
I tried looking for the theme but didn't see BAD broken anywhere! Thank you, again, Steve, for explaining and I see that TERRIBBLE is misspelled. That's BAD!
I haven't seen Sesame Street in a long time but have seen ROSITA in other CWds but had not heard of CASERTA.
SUB, of coursed made me think of Husker Gary.
I consider myself Hispanic because I am a descendent of people from Spain. The word Hispanic is rooted in the Roman word for Spain, Hispania, and describes, according to my Larousse, Hispanic countries in South America as well as those descendent from Spain.
Apparently Elizabeth Warren considered herself non-white because she described herself thusly for most of her life.
Lemonade@10:55
I'm sorry but I don't understand. Did I say Daylight Savings? Forgive me, then, because I'm unfamiliar with the usage since we don't have it here.
Inannehiker:
That is good news about your brother!
Have a beautiful day, everyone!
Bad spellers of the world, untie. Several of us did not notice the misspelling TERRIBBL. Me, too, so I can't fault the proof readers or proof solvers..
Anon @ 0908 - - Good catch. My eyes didn't see that. (Kept reading Air France as Air Force, too.). I could find no reference for the "bb" so I think it was an editor's mistake or wasn't part of the themeage as Steve felt. I see others have weighed in, too.
Lemony. Anon was "harping" on terribble because it is wrong! I dont think its too much to ask that words be spelled correctly in a word puzzle. Its not picky nor snarky.
Lemonade@10:55 "Anon harping on the spelling of TERRIBBLE; that was Steve's parsing the parts and the author probably meant TER RIB LE"
I too had noted the misspelling of TERRIBBLE (and commented on it @10:37); if I had not been writing such a long post, I would have commented on it before our Anon asked again. I too was very surprised that nobody else was noticing this error.
And I disagree with your explanation about Steve's parsing the parts; every other theme answer used every letter in sequence. We would have to Jump over one of the Bs to spell TERRIBLE.
I also think that we must be careful not to jump to the conclusion that ALL of our Anons are "harping". This Anons' request was legitimate and the second request for clarification was based on an honest question and couched in polite terms. I hope that other Anons will not be afraid to venture an legitimate opinion or question because they fear such a harsh reaction from our blog regulars.
(Similarly our Anon@6:54 may be "picky" because he/she is a Trekkie and has a more detailed view of the BORG and thus "race" is a "nose-wrinkling" clue for him/her while it is accepted easily by CW regulars as a more generally descriptive clue.)
End of lecture for the day! (We Canadians may be known for politeness, but we do not always bite our tongue. Are you Americans hearing the news out of Ottawa? Oops, no politics!)
This Thursday puzzle had an extra crunchy grid.
Never saw the theme until I got here, but once I get the solve I’m done.
RIEMANN was an unknown, and I like math.
Markovers..MAXIS/MIDIS, TINCT/TINGE, AEGIS/AESIR.
I thought lady of Spain was DONA, but that means MRS....DAMA is correct for LADY. Live and learn.
AT has a tough row to hoe. What I’m wondering is why they only found it at stage 4...I’ve been having that “test” from the doctor for years, I’m sure hoping that’s not for nothing. Hard to believe a man as smart as AT would not be having that test as well. I mean, nobody likes it but it’s got to be done.
Also, the BORG scared the c#ap out of me...”resistance is futile” always puts the tingle up my spine.
AnonPVX
Are you thinking of "that test" for prostate cancer? Yes that can be unpleasant. But Alex Trebek has pancreatic cancer. As far as I know, it can gi undetected in routine blood tests right up to symptoms appear or it is in a very advanced stage. I dont think he was negligent, just very unfortunate.
My late DH had abdominal pains for years and was misdiagnosed with ulcers. That was in 1993. When the cancer was finally found he lasted for just under a year. I hope Alex has better luck and with the advances in medicine, perhaps better treatment.
Gosh, everything I have to say you all have already said.
1. Immediately thought of Gary at SUB.
2. Also watched 2 episodes of Breaking Bad and couldn't stand it.
3. Saw SUB STANDARD but couldn't find any others. Probably because they were broken up into three pieces instead of two.
4. Wrinkled my nose big time at GASSIEST. Related to that, I didn't know CASERTA or ROSITA so I put in CASERNA and ROSINA. Actually I first thought it was going to be CASERNO and BOSSIEST but FEIGN put the kibosh on that.
5. Didn't see that terrible TERRIBBLE.
6. Also feel sad for Alex Trebek. I hate to say it but I think he won't last long.
7. Learned SABLE can mean black. I was trying for EBONY.
There other things as well but the list is long.
I will say I knew RIEMANN because our best friends (the ones who got their PhD degrees from University of Wyoming in LARAMIE) mentioned him from time to time. They named their dog Rayleigh, which is the name of another mathematician. And to add yet another layer to the construction, her maiden name is Taylor! Sheesh!
Finally, I wouldn't describe a LOOFAH as a sponge; more like a scrubber.
In re "Hispanic," of course I know the word Hispanic is rooted in the Roman word for Spain, Hispania. I guess my question should have been why the heck is Hispanic a separate check box on the US Census questionnaire? If Hispanic is thus a separate "category" then why aren't Italic, Hellenic, Gallic, Teutonic, Slavic, or Nordic also singled out?
Welp, I've blathered enough. Good wishes to you all.
Thanks to Steve for cracking the theme for us. This was way more complex than I knew while in solving mode.
A nice challenge from Mr. Larson; one in which he prevailed--by just a hair. I missed my Ta ~ DA! because in trying to complete the end of FEIGN, I went to confirm the nextdoor "Italian Palace" but found I had it wrong. Once I straightened it to CASERTA, it was easy to finish FEIGN. But by inadvertently hitting on CASERTA I spoiled my innocence.
Rats, doncha hate when that happens?!
Misty ~
Looks like I was talking to you (above). We seem to be in the same boat today, just missing our wins by a nose. I would say Congratulations, but I know you are holding out for a complete victory over one of these toughies.
Still--good job, girl!
~ OMK
____________
DR: Two diagonals today, one on each side, crossing at the "E" in PLEAS.
Bear with me on the nearside anagram, for it seems to conjure a strange hybrid beast.
Perhaps in honor of our soon-to-arrive springtime, coupled with the urban settings in which so many of us reside, let us welcome the arrival of ... (drum roll!)...
"RAT REDBREAST"!
(Sor-ree...)
Thinking further on Alex T:
He must certainly be aware that the odds are against him, severely so, and that with the infamously rapid metastasizing of pancreatic cancer he won't last the three years of his current contract.
His calm, smooth video announcement is an act of supreme bravery. I don't suppose many TV emcees or game show hosts would make such a direct statement to their fans. But I think it may be in the highest sense of the profession to put a "game face" on it, and we applaud him for toughing it out in such a cool manner.
The comparison may strike some as too far a reach. But I see in Alex's behavior something akin to Christopher Hitchens' final year. Both are/were public people, celebrities--although in widely different fields--who instead of retreating from their fans saw a personal duty in standing up to their cancer to affirm the life that was left to them.
Bravo to such heroes. They deserve standing ovations.
~ OMK
No, I dont want to harp on this and I even thought I should bite my tongue(or fingers since I'm typing). But something is very wrong here. Is Rich relaxing rules or is he becoming sloppy or [gasp] even lazy? Several of you have pointed out recently how he is allowing certain words to appear both in clues and answers in the same puzzle. Today's terribble blunder is either a major step towards allowing inconsistencies in the theme answers or just a blatant mistake.
If the explanation is that we should ignore the "b" from either riB or Bless then why did the other 3 themers ignore this rule? If it was an oversight, then I will begin to hold the LAT puzzle to a lower standard. Maybe akin to the USAToday.
I visited the 2 other blogs that I am aware of to see what they had to offer to this conundrum. They both ignored it. Bill highlights both B's but spells terrible with only one. Gareth writes in his write-up TER/RIB/LE, but then highlights both B's in his grid. Both blogs have complaints regarding this concern with no legit explanation.
Hello everyone,
As a few solvers noticed, there's an extra B in TERRIBLE.
Rich Norris, editor for our L.A. Times Daily Crossword editor, apologized for the mistake.
C.C.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! For the explanation. Quite a bbig mistake for a otherwise competant constructor and editor.
The bad spelers of the world UNTIED! This is HOUR DEY!
FIR, but have no idea how I managed to do so. LOTS of unknowns.
Inanehiker, super news about your brother.
HG - I thought of that Caddyshack scene as I filled in the sponge.
Erased ebony for SABLE and LASIx for LASIK. Guess I spent too much time at Keeneland in my ute. Haven't played the ponies in many years, but LASIx used to be legal at all the tracks I frequented (and there were many). A horse that was racing on LASIx for the first time often saw substantial performance improvement.
My wife thinks that GASSIEST is a CSO to moi.
In scheduling, LEAD TIME is shown as Lag TIME.
Got extorted today. If I don't send in $1,000 in bitcoin I will have videos of me enjoying porno sent to all my contacts. Should be entertaining, since there couldn't be such videos. Internet resources say this is usually a sign that a user has reused passwords, and for that I AM guilty.
Thanks for the toughie, Gary. I'm pleased to have gotten it right. And thanks to Steve for the fine write-up. Glad there was FOOD! for you.
The extra B escaped me as well. And our always observant Steve. And all Rich's test solvers. It's just so easy to overlook it. Imagine how TERRIBLE Rich feels now.
We've solved thousands of puzzles Rich edited, I think this is the second major glitch in Rich era.
Remember I told you about my MATADATA goof last week? I was extra careful, and I still made that incredible mistake. Rich fixed the error himself. Today's too late for Rich to fix.
Lucy, my reference to you was because you live where Daylight Saving Time is not observed. It has nothing with Daylight Saving/Savings.
Of course, Canadian Eh, your words clarified where I went wrong in trying to defend the puzzle. I am sorry, I think I have gotten overly sensitive about people criticizing constructors and editors but this time the anons were correct. Mea culpa. Frankly, I was not having a good time with the puzzle today either way.
Yes, pancreatic cancer is the trickiest and worst cancer to diagnose. My uncle lasted just over a year, but it was not a fun year. There is no single test to determine if you have it. Good luck Mr. Trebek.
Turning from the Excess of BBBBees today, it's time to work on our Vietnamese pronunciation..
Say this phrase: "singing a song." Simple, wasn't it?
Now, drop the first 's' and say "_ing a song". A bit harder, but the "NG" is part of English usage, usually as a final, so off we go.
Now, drop that fist 'i', and say "__ng a song" (with the 'a' added on to the 'ng')_. Now drop the word 'song,' and you're got the Vietnamese word for Russia, "Nga."
"NGUYEN" is trickier, because there are a diphthong followed at once by another vowel, 'e', and a tone we don't have in English.
Americans can do this -- I did, even coming from Pasadena.
Hi Folks
Terrible job on my part today, I completely failed to notice the extra "B" and even highlighted the wrong bits in yellow in the grid.
I'll go and beat myself relentlessly until I forgive myself.
Thought of HG @ SUB also...
Whilst I enjoyed the challenge,
Methinks this puzzle be overly meetcute...(per se)
Well, enough of that...
Jerome @ 9:56 (need I say more...)
Multiplying B's? Methinks this puzzle is infested!
Hmm,
if a Borg assimilated a Tribble...
Rich just sent out a revised grid. I've attached both puz and PDF files at the end of Steve's writeup. If you have problem downloading the puzzle, please email me crosswordc@gmail.com
Hi All!
I did the puzzle while waiting on the Dr. to script me a new round of "don't-smoke" pills. //I was doing so well until DW left me for Russia (and now D.C.!) for 10 days. I will kick this or it will kick me... #Mantra
Thanks Gary for the waiting-room diversion. Steve - we think the same re: GASSIEST and RISKER(?); your comment on 4d made coffee come out my nose. The expo is par (or under) w/ puzzle fun.
WOs: There's a huge spill of ink in the RIEMANN/MIDIS area -- so much so that I'm not sure I FIR :-); Be-ge b/f TINGE; GENEsA (I read Biblical(?) SUBdevisions) b/f something clicked with AER.
ESPs: GUS is one. There's likely many, many, more...
Fav: ALBEIT is lovely even with only one-L (? UNTIE!)
I also liked LEAD TIME - I buffer to give myself (like Scotty) enough time to noodle.
Never saw an episode of BREAKING BAD but the zeitgeist around the show was unavoidable.
{A+, B-, B+}
SUB - Spitz, me too w/ Gary in his NASA shirt. //or stuck in the bathroom w/ a LOOFAH woman :-)
Texas Rep Bettencourt proposed to have a popular vote re: DST. Right, let the masses decide. Oy!
Misty - I love your honesty with the late week grids. You have a great Thursday too.
The Elephant - Alex Trebek is not long for this world. FIL, a hard-ass Marine, was diagnosed with same. Less than 8 weeks later the bells KNELLED (actually, it was 21 GUNs reverberating) for him. RIP Craig.
Back to work (after checking CED's links); Play later. Cheers, -T
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Gary Larson, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
Puzzle was a little tough but I got through it.
I never got the theme until I came here. Then I saw the commentary on the extra B. Of course I did not catch it because I did not get the theme. Oh well.
I saw most of the Breaking bad shows, thanks to my daughter. I still have a CD to watch. I really liked it. Quite a story.
We have ST ELMO Commandery in Chicago.
Liked MATADOR and the clue. Very good.
Off to my Lodge meeting. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Ok, wait...
Rich can retract and subsequently re-clue a grid that's already been published?!? Asgard is, in fact, on line two.
I just caught up w/ everyone and the kerfuffle. Frankly, bee-ing a poor speller I didn't knotice the extra Bea in the TERRIBBLE [sic] grid.
Steve - floggings begin Monday at 2pm and will continue until moral improves. Take a numBer... //no worries Mate, your colour commentary more than made up for Rich's, or forbid! Patti's [will she be CAIN'd? (er...)], oversight.
Nevertheless and ALBEIT, I had fun. No harm, no faul. :-)
CED - too funny.
See y'all after DOZE'n' for 45m.
Cheers, -T
I just returned from seeing Green Book which I didn't have a chance to see before the Oscars were awarded. It deserved it! What an impressive movie and I did not realize it was a true story; well, I had heard that but it didn't register until seeing it. Marvelous acting by both ALI and Viggo, too.
Ditto on the TV series, BREAKING BAD. After two viewings I couldn't stand it and don't know why it received so much acclaim.
Now it's time to prepare dinner.
IMHO TERRIB BLE got way too much ink on the corner today.
Totally liked the puzzle and the double B though noticable wasn’t obvious at a glance because of the black square that separated them. Sometimes the forest is great without inspecting every tree.
Valium anyone?
Lucina. DW and I also took in the movie Green Book this past weekend . We really liked it as well.
Yes Oas, it is only a CW and mistakes happen. I think we were so amazed because (as C.C. stated), Rich rarely misses this sort of thing. But "to err is human" AND he even reworked the grid. Impressive!
Apology accepted, Lemonade.
No need for flogging, Steve. Your write-up was great.
(Some of us just have eagle eyes and these things pop out for us. Maybe I should see if Rich is hiring more proofreaders LOL.)
Think we’re making way too much out of the extra B. It was an error, get over it. Not sure Rich really had to send out a new grid, but nice that he did.
In my earlier post, I commented on LOOFAPS as a unique word. It was, it really was LOOFAHS...duh..hope I’m forgiven for my error..lol...
Time to put terribble to bbed, goodnight and sweet dreams to all.
Rich: honey, sending out the reworked puzzle after we're all done with the old version is a bit like locking the barn door after the horse is gone. Like Abejo said, I didn't get the theme. Also didn't read the grid with the yellow markings that closely after already receiving the info from Steve.
My two friends who died of pancreatic cancer lasted only a few weeks after the diagnosis. I watched from my kitchen window as the one was out in my field finishing my harvest. He thought he had a "little indigestion". He was dead two or three weeks later. Very hard to take. The only consolation was he didn't have to linger long in pain.
Although I dislike puzzles with circles, today would have been a good day to use them with only one B circled.
Thank you, Ol'Man Keith, for the very kind words on my puzzle commentary. But most of all, thank you for the wonderful tribute to Alex Trebek. It's what I've been thinking for the last two days, and you phrased it so beautifully. I only wish Alex could see this well-deserved tribute you gave him.
I always try to get the theme but went off on a tangent. I found B_ ST and added the U. Then I can do found S_TING. Given the background of B B (drugs and narcs) they made sense. But that was just two. Gary was simply asking us to find synonyms for BAD across the long answers.
I had similar problems with FEIGN but further east the COT/ROT; SPOT etc almost dnf'ed me. I finally got the FIR
Another problem was spelling LOOFAH.
I was in and out of this blog all day. As so often happens, I fell asleep reading.
OMK should have seized up the chance to reference "Much Ado..."
WC (better late than never?)
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