google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, July 19, 2019 Jeffrey Wechsler

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Jul 19, 2019

Friday, July 19, 2019 Jeffrey Wechsler

Breeding Assignment

Jeffrey mates a leading B to the first word of common phrases that start with an R... to a homophone R word... and creates new life with these phrases and definitions.  Breed 'em and weep.  Or laugh, as I did.

17. That necessary morning cup of coffee?: BREWED AWAKENING.   Rude Awakening.

24. Prepare some fish for frying?: BREAD HERRINGS.   Red Herrings.

44. Good nickname for Stephen King?: BRAIN OF TERROR.   Reign of terror.

58. Part of the Hulk's healthy diet?: BRUTE VEGETABLES.    Root vegetables.


I first tried my hand at it with "rags to riches" and came up with "Boasts about personal wealth" for "brags to riches" but the spelling doesn't change, so although it rhymes it's not a homophone and not consistent with Jeffrey's lead.  

How about "Crumple new bills ? for "Break in the money ?"  That might work.   How about "Male chauvinist's belittling comment about a confident, busty woman ?"   Rest assured that I could never make it as a constructor.   Hats off to those with the wordsmith skills.


Let's examine some of the other clues and answers.

Across:

1. Martial arts move: CHOP.   First thought was kick.

5. Lawrence with an eponymous college: SARAH. No idea.  Sarah Lawrence College

10. Oppressive atmosphere: PALL. An air of gloom

14. Dynamic opening: AERO.    The top 10 most aerodynamic production cars.    I guessed the Teslas and the Prius, but not the Alfa that Dash - T's wife drives.   Top aerodynamic production cars.

15. British Columbia neighbor: IDAHO.

16. Court contemporary of Bjorn: ILIE.   First name in the clue, first name in the answer.   Tennis courts.  Borg and Nastase.  Borg beat Nastase in the 1976 Wimbledon men's final.   In more recent news, Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in this year's men's final.

20. Persevere, with "on": SOLDIER.   Having the tenacity to keep going despite the obstacles.

21. Great Society era, with "the": SIXTIES.

22. [There's another doc]: ENC.   Enclosure.   A reference, often in the footer area of an introductory page, that alerts you that there are more documents in the mailer or folder.     There were tons of enclosures in the mailer when I did a ReFi mortgage by mail with Norwest Bank in the mid 90's.  Plus a lot of sticky note arrows telling us where to sign and date.

23. "The X-Files" subjects: ETs.   Extra-Terrestrials.   I learned from crosswords that they eat Reese's Pieces.

31. Nashville awards org.: CMA.   Country Music Association.

33. Very: REAL.     

34. Baku native: AZERI.   Baku is the capital city of Azerbaijan.   "The modern ethnonym "Azerbaijani" or "Azeri" refers to the Turkic peoples of Iranian Azerbaijan and Republic of Azerbaijan. They historically called themselves or were referred to by others as Muslims, Turks, Turkmens, Persians, or Ajams" - Wikipedia.

"Local scientists consider the Abseron Yasaqligi (Apsheron Peninsula) (including Baku and Sumqayit) and the Caspian Sea to be the ecologically most devastated area in the world because of severe air, soil, and water pollution; soil pollution results from oil spills, from the use of DDT pesticide, and from toxic defoliants used in the production of cotton; surface and underground water are polluted by untreated municipal and industrial wastewater and agricultural run-off"  - CIA World Factbook.

Not in our travel plans.  

35. Decided in court: RULED.

38. Show set in Vegas: CSI.  Crime Scene Investigation.   There's a long-running German crime / drama series I enjoy that runs on the MHz channel.   It's called Tatort, which translates to Crime Scene.  I have to read the subtitles to understand most of it.  There's a lot of $10 words in German, like Tatortermittlung, which translates to Crime Scene Investigation.

39. Discontinue: SEVER.

40. Theater area with no seats: AISLE.   Freshness in the clue for a common crossword fill.

41. Work with an Ethiopian princess: AIDA.   Verdi's opera.

43. Lea feeder: EWE.

48. Cedar Rapids campus: COE.   A liberal arts college named for one of the early donors.  Wikipedia tells me that the man that invented CorningWare,  S. Donald Stookey  was an alumni of Coe College.

49. __ canto: BEL.   Italian for beautiful singing or beautiful song.  Various definitions.

50. Truly enjoy something: EAT IT UP

54. Most beneficent: KINDEST.    Like L. Frank Baum's Glinda. 

60. Lot measure: ACRE.   There are 640 of them in a Section.   A quarter-quarter section is 40 acres. 640/4 and the resulting 160/4 = 40,  which is how far it was from our house to the next neighbor when I was growing up.   Well, except for the high school vice principal.   She lived directly across the street.  I had to mind my P's and Q's.  

61. See some sorority sisters, say: REUNE.   I've seen this word most often in crosswords.

62. One of Chekhov's "Three Sisters":  OLGA.
Oh, this is the Chekhov.  Sounds the same, but spelled differently than the Star Trek character.

63. "__ Cassius has a lean and hungry look": YOND.

64. Belgian expressionist James: ENSOR.    Last Friday, I got the answer ENSOR ("Former CNN journalist David") because of the 5 perps.    This time I had 4 of the 5 perps and I missed it.   Didn't get the S in GUS.   D'oh !

65. Oenology datum: YEAR.   Wine related.  As in Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill, 1973. 

Down:

1. Many have meters: CABS.  Taxicabs. 

2. Sub: HERO. Grinder, hoagie.

3. Russian city: OREL.   Did not know, but as Abejo would say, "Four perps and I got it".   This city is also spelled Oryol in English.

4. Ground material: POWDER.    In spices like chili and cinnamon powder, talcum in baby and cosmetic powders, in fireworks and ammunition as gunpowder, et alia.  

5. Cognac cocktail: SIDECAR.   Never had one, but recognized the drink name with a few perps.

6. Month after Shevat: ADAR.   Guessed ADAR and built around it.    It's the one month on the Hebrew calendar that comes immediately to mind.   Elul if pressed for another.   IDAHO gave me the needed confidence.

7. Cold and damp: RAW.  Similar to dank and clammy, but more bitter due to the cold.     Unlike the Arizona weather in the summer.   Hi, Lucina !  Hello, Yuma !  You too, CartBoy !    It's pretty warm right now in much of the rest of the country.

8. Signs of solutions: AHAs.   Or TADAs.   

9. Apt to use more corn?: HOKIER.  I used to be addicted to the hokey-pokey.  But then I turned myself around.  Hey, that was almost Boomer-esque !  

10. Wee: PINT SIZE.

11. Et __: ALII.  "Et alii (masculine), et aliae (feminine) or et alia (neuter), in all cases meaning and others. Mixed-gender groups would use et alii".  - Wiktionary

12. Black Friday likelihood: LINE.

13. Durability metaphor: LEGS.   Usually with has, as in  "That story has legs and we're going to be hearing about it for a long time".    You have to be on your toes and knuckle down as you solve Jeffrey's puzzles, or he'll make your head swim and pull the wool over your eyes.   But if you keep a stiff upper lip and your nose to the grindstone, you can get the upper hand.

18. German article: EINE.    A.

19. Epic film budget line: EXTRAS.   Along the lines of Ben-Hur, with a cast of thousands.

24. Model material: BALSA.    A very light,  yet strong,  hardwood.  It was an answer on Jeopardy!   last week.

25. Dunkin' Donuts option: DECAF.  Coffee flavor without the caffeine.  Not my cup of tea.

26. Is charismatic: HAS IT.  The "it" factor.   The It Factor Quiz

27. Omit, in speaking: ELIDE.

28. "Not happening": NEVER. A different take on never:


29. Expanded: GREW.

30. Royal address: SIRE.

31. Food often served with a mallet: CRAB.    A restaurant in San Antonio features a crab and mallet.
I just checked their prices.  The Snow Crab is now 23 and  the King Crab is now 32, but the Lobster is still 24.

32. Naturalist John: MUIR.

36. Drew out: ELICITED.

37. Indicate: DENOTE.

42. Settler?: ARBITER.   Are arbiter and arbitration arbitrary?

45. Haydn's includes 106 symphonies: OEUVRE.   Complete body of work. 

46. "General Hospital" Emmy winner Sofer: RENA.  Don't remember her, but I remember Luke and Laura.  Yeah,  I watched it for the better part of one year during college.   It was a girlfriend thing.

47. Member of an exclusive network: OLD BOY.    In England.  Not to be confused with a Good Old Boy network in the southern US.   Both can loosely be defined as "who you know and have ins with" but the Old Boy network in England largely stems from relationships and ties to prestigious universities, such as ETON and Oxford.    A new learning for me.

50. Major success of the dot-com bubble: EBAYebay 

51. Oil acronym: ARCO.   Atlantic Richfield Company.   We had the Atlantic gas stations here and there when I was growing up in the Youngstown Pittsburgh area.   Then they became ARCOs, and soon thereafter were retrofitted as other gas station chains. 

52. Dice roll, say: TURN.


53. Hammer part: PEEN.  Only on a few of the many hammer types.  55 Types of Hammers – The Ultimate Guide

54. Numbers game: KENO.

55. Cosmo rival: ELLE.

56. Phantasy Star Online publisher: SEGA.   An online Role Playing Game (RPG). 

57. Bygone dynast: TSAR.   In my mind, the spelling for the hereditary Russian rulers should be TSARs.    The spelling for business leaders and heads of departments should be czars, such as "Energy Czar William Simon".   When solving crosswords, I follow that self-created rule unless the perps force a change.  Rich seems to have the same proclivity.

59. Mouse in Disney's "Cinderella": GUS.    The intersection of Gus and Ensor did me in today.    If I ever knew of this little fellow, I forgot.



And with that, here's the grid:


47 comments:

OwenKL said...

The first and last are the only really good ones, IMHO.

SARAH, a PINT-SIZE physicist dork
Stumbled into the collider in the dark.
When her atoms were split
Her size changed a bit --
Now instead of a pint, she's a quark!

I'll soon be done with my SIXTIES.
That I GREW to this age isn't nifty.
I creak and I moan,
I just want to stay home,
And for EXTRAS I've TURNED very thrifty!

In Lebanon, when things are stable,
They serve carrots and yams at the table.
Foodstuffs that they found,
And pulled out of the ground.
Their specialty's a BEIRUT VEGETABLE!

The taxi driver was raging mad.
He swore because traffic was bad.
His fares felt a PALL
As he'd angrily bawl --
They regretted the CRAB in a CAB!

At Wal*Mart, there wasn't a smile,
As GUS pitched his tent on the tile.
He was by healing potions
Of skin creams and lotions --
He'd dreamed of a topical AISLE!

{A+, C+, C, C, A.}

OwenKL said...

TTP -- Breast assured?

Anonymous said...

Mooning at the Oscars?

Breech for the stars.

Fido said...

Sound heard at the Iditarod finish line?

Bark de triomphe

Big Easy said...

I caught the extra B early working down the left side and the 'semi-homophones' later. July seems to be Jewish months month- ADAR- as I think there have been three so far. I had an EINE kleine (PINT SIZED) problem in the Texas region with four unknowns-OEUVRE, ENSOR, GUS, & RENA- that had to be worked into the grid.

Nastase isn't really a Borg 'contemporary'. He's 10 years older.
REUNE-'most often in crosswords?'- how about ONLY in crosswords
ENSOR or GUS- didn't know any of the three (David included) but guessed correctly
BREWED AWAKENINGS & DECAF in the same puzzle-okay.
SIXTIES-Great Society=Great Big DEBT, entitlements, lazy people who will always be looking for a handout.

Owen- do you want white or dark meat? Oh, 'Breast assured' is what you will get.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I don't think you could miss the theme while solving this one. It sorta rares up and slaps you upside the haid. I liked it. My only misstep was SALE for "Black Friday likelihood." Easily fixed. COE was a gimme; the campus was just up 1st Avenue from the radio station studios. Thanx for the workout, Jeffrey and for the tour, TTP. (I enjoyed your mixture of metaphors.)

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Got the theme on the last two which helped on the other two. My solve could best be described as BRAIN OF ERROR. Groan! Did more red-letter runs than ever before. Doesn't bode well for the rest of my day. Thanks, TTP, for taking on this one.

Lemonade714 said...

Grr.
I just deleted my post. I guess the idea of commenting on a Friday Jeffrey Wechsler witty wonder was too much for my psyche. Very fun puzzle and equally entertaining write-up from TTP made this a great start to the day.

ADAR is very important on the Jewish lunar calendar as it is doubled (ADAR II) to balance the 365 days/360 days discrepancy. It also is the home of the Feast of Esther - PURIM .

RENA SOFER was great as the irritating but enchanting attorney who bedeviled GIBBS on a long arc on NCIS . She is memorable for her striking Blue Eyes .

Anonymous said...

AHA is not a sign of solution; it's a sound of solution.

SEVER means cut, not discontinue – except in the usage "sever relations."

CartBoy said...

You win, JW. Just couldn't connect on your wavelength.

Yellowrocks said...

I discovered the add a B before the R theme early on which was a great help. The theme was fun. I skipped a cell and did not return to it. Dang! I usually circle a skipped cell.
I wagged the S in Gus and Ensor, the only letter which seemed reasonable to me.
I have served decaf to guests who always drink regular and they say how great the coffee is. The flavor of decaf has come a long way. However, I never serve regular for decaf. In a restaurant I saw a waitress pour regular coffee into the decaf pot instead of brewing more decaf. I am sure some customers had a rude wakefulness.
SARAH and IDAHO were my entree into the top tier of the puzzle and to the first theme answer.
I believe in soldiering on when times get tough.
AHA, a sign can be a sound. What the doctor hears through a stethoscope can be signs of disease.
A friend severed (discontinued) our relationship for months. Although we talk now, things have never felt the same.
"Nastase needed 65 minutes in routing the hometown idol, Bjorn Borg, 6‐2, 6‐2, 6‐2. The Rumanian, growing stronger as the match went its one‐way route, needed 23 minutes for the first set, 22 for the second and 20 in the third, in which he allowed Borg only 7 points in the first five games." Dec. 1975.

Anonymous said...

Meh!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Well, it is Friday. But that was mitigated by a fairly decent Wechsler wunderschön Kreuzworträtsel.
Used more white-out than I would have liked. Kept wanting 'opuses' for OUEVRE. Not knowing ENSOR and being fuzzy on REUNE didn't help either. But the theme was masterful.

TTP - Great intro.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

A JW Friday puzzle + A TTP review = a happy Irish Miss. 😎 The theme popped right out early on, but there were still plenty of stumbling blocks: Azeri, Orel, Rena, Gus, Ensor and Coe. Coe appears every now and then but I can never remember it without help. My only w/o was Opuses before Oeuvre; Oeuvre is such a neat word. My favorite C/A was A good nickname for Stephen King=Brain of Terror. I finished w/o help, but it took a while.

Thanks, Jeffrey W, for your usual wordplay wizardry and a pleasing challenge and thanks, TTP, for the humorous commentary and many learning moments, such as the British Old Boy meaning. I also enjoyed your multitudinous metaphors! And, yes, your Hokey Pokey comment was very Boomeresque!

FLN

PK, did you get your banking issue resolved?

DO, did you ever get any more information as to who hijacked your account?

Speaking of banking, yesterday I was cashing a rebate check for $24.00 and the teller gave me the third degree because it was made out to Abnes Davidson. I guess he wasn't convinced it was just a typo.

Stay cool and hydrated, everyone.

oc4beach said...


JW's puzzle was a (Good) Rude Awakening this morning. I saw the B added to the R early and was able to get through the the puzzle in relatively good time for a Friday.

TTP's tour through the grid was an enjoyable experience.

Perps helped a lot today and were totally responsible for filling in a couple of unknowns. OEUVRE especially. They helped with ARBITER because I originally had ARBIToR. I swagged the R in REUNE (didn't really like that word) which finished filling in OEUVRE. I had AZERB at first until SIRE set me straight by replacing the B with the I.

I only know a couple of the Jewish months. Luckily one I remembered was ADAR.

COE College is a small coed college with a shortest name of any college named for a benefactor who donated $1,500 in the mid nineteenth century to help get it started. Now you know.

The Dentist visit yesterday went fairly well. I have a Hygienist who does a great job and is extremely gentle. If she were to leave the practice for another job, I would follow her in a heartbeat. The dentist did a temporary fix by smoothing the chipped tooth so that it's not a problem and we scheduled a visit for next month to build up the tooth.

Supposed to be very hot today. It's already in the high 80's and headed for the mid 90's. I'm not sure that I'm going to be working outside today like I had planned. I need to power-wash the side of the house and the sidewalks. I guess I'll wait for a cooler day.

Stay cool and hydrated everyone.



desper-otto said...

Abnes, no it's still doin' the limbo. The dispute status has been updated from "pending" to "ready for review," whatever that means. The company involved is named Adirondack -- more likely to be one of your neighbors than one of mine. I do wish Ally would get on the stick, assign a new account number, and "unfreeze" my account. I've got bills to pay.

Spitzboov said...

IM @ 1038 - Re: check. I was taught when there is an error in your name just sign it as written and then sign it correctly just underneath. I've never had a problem.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Light in a stud barn – BREEDING LAMP
-Entertaining and infuriating! Thanks Jefferey.
-Semi trailer AERODYNAMICS
-My DOE left the LEA buffet for the EWE
-The traveling 9/11 exhibit was in town last week and gave out every ticket in an hour for 12 sessions. Our guide told us every floor of the Trade Center was an ACRE in size and they just pancaked down on top of one another
-How old do you have to be to remember Clara Bow was the IT girl
-Poor conversationalists never try to ELICIT info from the other person. They just wait for their turn to talk.
-Good OLD BOY networks are not confined to the South
-Many in our town would SEVER relations with Spectrum if we had another choice

mwv said...

@steve (regarding yesterday, and apologies if the protocol here is that I should be submitting this to yesterday's comments...)

So sorry for the misunderstanding yesterday! I didn't mean it to seem like I was taunting you or anything. For sure you are correct that there are no one word anagrams of "anagram," but if you allow multiple words, then Google (very subtly) suggests "nag a ram" (which of course could be reordered to "arm a nag" or "rag a man."

Jerome said...

"... lazy people who will always be looking for a handout"

So, my mother who raised five kids by herself while holding down two jobs as a waitress was lazy because she needed some help from a government program for us to survive.

Take the silver spoon out of your friggin' mouth, Donald.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, TTP, for a fine review.

TTP: Are your Shingles getting better. I hope so. They are a terrible experience.

Well, this puzzle was mega-tough. I am glad I went through it. I am amazed at Jeffrey Wechsler's ability. However, I could not finish without help. That is rare for me, as I usually stick to it for hours on end, if necessary.

Took me a while to catch the theme. BREWED AWAKENING was my Rosetta Stone.

I found some clues and words beyond my capabilities: OEUVRE, ENSOR, OLGA, SEGA, RENA, SARAH, OREL. Got some with perps, but not all of them. Oh well.

Liked ALII. I always like Latin stuff.

HOKIER was great, once I got it. Makes sense.

Well, hot again here today. Humid as well. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Misty said...

Well, it's Friday, so I needed a lot of help with this clever Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle. But I did get the top and central middle and much of the bottom at the start, so that helped a lot. PINT SIZED was cute for "wee", as was EWE for "lea feeder." And of course the theme answers were all funny and clever--especially those BRUTE VEGETABLES. So, many thanks, Jeffrey (I've been a fan of yours for a long time). And I always enjoy your commentary and pictures, TTP--thanks for those too.

Desper-otto, I too had SALE for the Black Friday item.

Liked your last two poems, Owen.

Dave, I tried to call you this morning, but it didn't work. Will try again, but if I don't reach you, I still appreciate your offer to help with the shoulder problem.

Have a good day, everybody.

Wendybird said...

Challenging but fun puzzle and a great write-up. I played the entire clip of The Association - showing my age?
Yellowrocks (from yesterday), yes, I was on the receiving end of a snow job by the campus Snowman - but only once, until I wised up.





TTP said...





Owen, nice catch.

Anon @ 4:49, nice, with an archaic def for breech. Fits the mold of the puzzle.
Fido - no so much, but thanks for playing.

D-O and IM, and the metaphors were all body parts related. Thanks.

Anon @ 7:54, an indication (sign) can come from any of the five senses. "The taste and odor of your steaks were signs that you should let someone else cook for you." Also, look up the second definition of sever in any dictionary.
Don't be afraid to think outside the box. Crossword solving requires lateral thinking.

Yellowrocks, I LIU. Nastase crushed Borg in that match in the 75 season, but Bjorn beat Ilie in the more prestigious Wimbledon championship in 76. Overall, Borg won 67 % of his matches against the aging Nastase.

Spitzboov - wunderschön Kreuzworträtsel ? I used Google translate on that. Beautiful crossword puzzle.

Abnes, I often intentionally misspell different parts of my name on magazine subscriptions, entries, websites that require full names, etc. Then watch for inbound direct mail marketing with the same misspellings. They even show up in online directories. Take that, Lexus Nexus, et alii.

oc4beach - There's no escaping this heat, save staying in an AC'ed environment. Yesterday, a local news station interviewed a woman on the street who happened to be visiting from Texas. She responded to him along the lines that, "No, I'm not used to it. We stay inside in the summer just like you stay inside during a brutally cold winter."

Husker Gary - Breeding Lamp- Good one. Fits the mold.

mwv- Welcome ! I didn't get it at first either. I went straight to an anagram server. But then I did look at the suggestion after searching the word anagram in a google search. Funny.

Abejo (pronounced as Abbey Joe for those that aren't sure) - The shingles pain lingers, rising and abating at all hours. I was up from 1 AM until 4:30 AM this morning. Over all, I think it's on the downhill side, but I have no illusions. A few more weeks can be expected, considering everything I've read.

Misty, I liked BRUTE VEGETABLES best of all as well.


Haiku Harry said...

My two scents ... no puzzle words but keeping with the B “aside”:

Is Darth Vader why?
He wears dark mask, due to his
Black of Confidence

TTP’s recap
While he suffers from Shingles:
Is a brave review

Tinbeni said...

TTP: Excellent, informative write-up. Good Job!!!

Well I needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get OLGA. I didn't know he had sisters.

Cheers!

Haiku Harry said...

Typo on first haiku ...

Is Darth Vader shy?
He wears dark mask, due to his
Black of Confidence

Yellowrocks said...

TTP, that is more confirmation that Borg and Nastase were contemporaries, though Bjorn was a good bit younger.

AnonymousPVX said...


Partway through this I had to check the author....as soon as I saw JW I knew why I was having a time of it.

Finally got the solve, but today there are

Markovers aplenty...ALIA/ALII, SALE/LINE, ISU/COE, OPEC/ARCO.

I left a lot of blanks instead of guessing or there would have been a lot more.

It’s been brutal here in SC....I saw a dew point of 80° Wednesday. Never saw one that high before.

On to Saturday.

Lucina said...

Hola!

What great fun from that word wizard, Jeffrey Wechsler! I caught his wave length at BREWED AWAKENING and loved it!

SARAH Lawrence College and COE easily surfaced and I just kept going and chuckling as it filled. YOND provided a bit of Shakespeare. No problem there.

Even the many unknowns perped: LENA, AZERI, OEUVRE (required every perp for that one). I'm sorry, JW and Rich, but I object to REAL as a synonym for very! REAL is an adjective and very is an adverb. I know, I know, it's in common parlance but I still don't like it.

ENSOR/GUS beat me. I didn't know either.

TTP, your expo was hilarious and informative. Thank you! Yes, quite Boomeresque.

I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, everyone!

Misty said...

Dave, I tried calling again. The number does ring but then stops, and after a minute or so a busy signal comes on. I fear I may not have written down the right number. But again, thanks for the offer and if you have any advice to give on the blog, I'd appreciate that too.

Irish Miss said...

DO @ 11:08 ~ You're right about the Adirondack proximity to me. Sorry you're still caught up in the red tape rodeo.

Spitz @ 11:11 ~ The "check" was a flimsy postcard (par for the course with rebates) that I automatically turned over and signed, without even checking my name. The misspelling reminds me of one of my great-great nieces who pronounced my name Assness when she started talking.

I just came in from the unbearable heat and promptly downed an over-sized portion of watermelon. Hi to CC and Boomer as that is a favorite treat for the dynamic duo!

The heat index forecast is so high for tomorrow that racing at Saratoga has been canceled. Today can't be too pleasant there, either.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DNF, looking up ENSOR and GUS. Erased ENT for ENC, isu (hi PVX), pepper for POWDER, ALIa, no way for NEVER, and sale for LINE (hi PVX, ET ALII). And STILL got OLlA x SElA wrong!

I have had a pretty good run with JeffWech puzzles lately, and was overdue for a smackdown. No longer. Thanks for the terrific stretch objective, Jeffrey. I especially liked [There's another doc] for ENC. I was thinking medico. And thanks to TTP for the tour. I loved all the oldies.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle but couldn't finish it without help. Only a guess got me the "S" in GUS and ENSOR. Thinking about it, I think we've had ENSOR before, but I never seem to remember it. I loved the theme, though, and chuckled at each and every one of the "BR" answers.
Having YUKON instead of IDAHO held me back and I could break that logjam only be looking up ADAR. Having SALE instead of LINE also messed me up in that area.
I like the terms PINT SIZE and OEUVRE. I do not like the term REUNE.
Got trapped by thinking "work" was a verb in "Work with an Ethiopian princess" and even after finally getting the right answer I learned that AIDA was Ethiopian, not Egyptian.
Thank you, TTP, for a delightful write-up.
PK, are your crops finally being harvested?
Good wishes to you all.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I would've nailed this one--if only the natives of Baku called themselves AZEKI. The rest I had eating outta my hand.

Ah, well, we can't know everything, right? I mean, who wants to be a smart Alec?
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Today we have an abundance of diagonals. There's a 3-way on the near side, and one more in the mirror.
The near side anagram speaks to the genetic disposition of a ditch digger. He may be said to have a true...
"DREDGER'S DNA"!

PK said...

Agnes, I have yet to go in and sign an affidavit at my bank. It had not yet arrived at the closest bank to me. Such a run-around. Too hot anyway. Hope the scammer doesn't drain my account over the weekend. Such a trying week and I haven't shared the half of it.

Jace, haven't heard if my last field of wheat was harvested yet. Will call this weekend. Surely with this hot weather the swampy road & field is dry enough for the big machine.

Picard said...

TTP thanks for all the Star Trek graphics.

From yesterday: Has anyone ever heard or used that term SIDE HUSTLE? I never heard that term before. Just "moonlighting".

PK are you serious that you had not been out of the house since March?

Wilbur Charles said...

CSI beat me. 'Set' as a clue "eluded" me. I should have ELIDED the U. I had been thinking CSU for that college and it stuck in my mind. FIW.

Btw, re. General Hospital… What ever happened to FRISCO? Long before texting was an issue, Betsy had a TV* in the car!!! No, I can't watch TV and drive

YR, re. pouring leftover regular into DECAF. I and others are extremely sensitive to caffeine. And yes, the clue was 'contemporary' . The rivals were Connors, McEnroe and Lendyl. But there's few to rival ILIE vowel-wise.*

And we have hors d'oeuvres best understood by contrasting it with chef d'oeuvres. Perhaps it should have been Debussy sauf Haydn.

Picard, SIDE HUSTLE is obscure but I think I have heard it. Whether, usury for bettors that can't pay up is a SH for bookies I can't say.

And I2** never spotted the JW moniker.
I second the suggestion that the blog host put his name at the beginning. I wasn't sure if it was LEM or TTP

But this is WC
** To watch said General Hospital
** We had R2 yesterday
*** Along with ESAI,ERIE, EERO...ET ALII

Yellowrocks said...

I have heard of side hustle. It used to be called moonlighting. One of my side hustles was waitressing to help pay for David's first year of college while I taught school. Later on it was tutoring. To help my retirement income I was a virtual assistant for a construction company for a,while. I loved it. Most of my adult life I spent many hours in volunteer work until five years ago. Now I just read novels and work crosswords. Lazy bum.

SwampCat said...

Jeffrey, thanks... just thanks. So much fun doing battle with you... as always. So many fun, clever misdirections. Thanks!!!

OwenKL said...

Link to Side Hustle.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Even after a "red-letter" cheat, I DNF'd the South - 45d, 47d, COE, nor BEL was known. I did, however, know ENSOR so I've got that going for me. //Y'all listen to the song and you will forever know Belgian's famous (only(?)) painter.

Thanks JW for the delightful wordplay. I saw a lot of Bs & Rs at the beginnings and finally figured out what was going on at BREWED AWAKENINGS [3rd or 4th pass].

Great expo TTP - what Lucina said ++ I love me some Stones. Thanks!

Cheat: Needed a peek at TTPs grid to change SALE to LINE @12d
Fav: ELIDE. Don't know why, but I just like that word. HOKIER as clued was cute too.

{A+, B-, B+, B, A}
Hahaha OMK!

FLN: Picard - Yes I've heard and often use SIDE HUSTLE. To me side-hustle is a little money-maker on the side (selling on etsy, DJ on Saturdays, etc) whereas moonlighting, to me anyway, indicates a second employer / regular hours. Language mavens, what say ye?

Spitz, not only did I want, but I inked OPUS-E (was it Latin-plural? -)) @45d.

Assness, but did he finally deposit Abnes' cheque?

HG - Now I need lookup the average fuel savings those semi-foils (er, air-foils for semis), um, save.

I enjoyed everyone's "theme entries" -- even yours Fido :-)

Cheers, -T

CanadianEh! said...

Ferocious Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and TTP.
This CW was above my paygrade. I started this morning, did my gardening and cleaning, (plus emptied and cleaned out a malfunctioning frig so DH could get the icejam cleared) and came back to it later. I did see the BR and homonym theme (loved BREAD HERRINGS), but required some Google help to finish.

How have I never noticed that it is YOND Cassius not Yon? OMK would have nailed it.
Even after I looked up Baku, I could not figure out that the native of Azerbaijan is called an AZERI.

Alaska, Washington, Alberta are all neighbours to British Columbia, but Yukon fit and I stuck with it for far too long. IDAHO has a measly 45 miles that border BC!

Yes, GUS and ENSOR did me in too.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Yellowrocks said...

To me and others,moonlighting and side hustle both mean another job besides one's main occupation. Some people find more nuanced meanings. As in most cases, our language is never cut and dried. There are many gray areas. Those looking for one, definitive right answer will not find one.
This is why I ducked the discussion of czar vs tsar.

Yellowrocks said...

Dave 4, thank you for the exercize suggestions and the encouragement to keep soldiering on. Although there is still some pain, I can do more before pain sets in. Tonight I was able to unhook my bra from the back at age 81. I still step into my jeans instead of sitting down or leaning on something. I do not leave items on the bottom stair until I need to go up.I take them up many times a day.Lose it or lose

Anonymous T said...

HG - A quick bit of research on the Semi-airfoils...
A piece at the NYT [paywalled] said ~6.6% >efficiency max (theoretical) and Slate says ~10-15% savings. ROI on average (for long-haul at 65mph) is about a year.

So there we are(ish).

Cheers, -T

Scott R. said...

Hello,

Enjoyed Jeffrey's Friday puzzle as I always do...I find them challenging but doable.

But, wondering about "real" as the answer for the clue "very".

I would think it would be "really". But such is modern day word usage. The adverb is I fear a thing of the past. Texting has meant the -ly is too much to add, and the adverb is disappearing from our language...."Drive safe"; "Eat quick"; "Go slow".

But I'm seeking to preserve it wherever I can. So I posted. Maybe I'm missing something grammaticalLY about real vs. really, but I'm hoping to hear from others.

Thanks!

Scott
Founder and President
I.S.R.A.E.L.
(Independent Society for the Restoration of the Adverb to the English Language