Defining Cricket
17. Cricket: GAME WITH WICKETS.
25. Cricket: WIRELESS SERVICE.
45. Cricket: DISNEY BUG JIMINY.
59. [Crickets]: AUDIENCE SILENCE.
Four gridspanners !
Across:
1. Center of the Milky Way?: CARAMEL. Thought this might be about the candy bar and not the galaxy, but the use of THE Milky Way, rather than A Milky Way made me wait for a couple of perps.
8. Calder creation: STABILE. Alexander Calder. Here's a pic of his 53' Flamingo 50 ton stabile in front of the Miles Van Der Rohe designed Federal Building in downtown Chicago.
15. First state, in a way: ALABAMA. If the states are listed in alphabetical order. That wasn't my first thought when reading the clue.
16. Journey's end: ARRIVAL.
19. Once, in olden days: ERST.
20. 2000 Bell Atlantic acquisition: GTE. The birth of Verizon.
21. Slashed pronoun: HE / SHE. I struggled with this one. I had the ending HE, and so I tried a beginning SHE, then a nonsensical HER and a HIM. Not surprisingly nothing fit until, as Steve says, "The penny dropped". D'OH !
22. Suspect: PRESUME.
33. Seed-to-be: OVULE.
34. LAX calculation: ETA. Los Angeles Airport / Estimated Time of Arrival. Not that you needed me to spell it out... Oh, by the way, the X means nothing. It's just a filler so the airport code has three letters.
35. Energy source: ATOM. Incredible reactions when harnessed. Atom Ant was a mid '60s Hanna Barbera cartoon. He was incredibly strong. Of course, so was Mighty Mouse and Underdog.
36. They might help you change your position: WANT ADS. One place you might visit if you are looking for a job.
39. Prepare for coating, as aluminum: ANODIZE.
41. Within: Pref.: ENTO. ENdO wouldn't work this time. You must rely on the perp to get the third letter correct.
42. Land of Freud: Abbr.: AUS. I completed a puzzle the other day and the clue was, 'Birthplace of Freud". It needed 7 letters and I confidently entered Austria. The perps didn't support that, and it soon worked out that the answer was Moravia. That answer sent me to the internet.
Both are correct. Moravia was part of the Austrian Empire in the year of his birth, 1856. The area of Moravia became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918 with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When Czechoslovakia broke up in 1993 to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Moravia region became part of the Czech Republic.
44. Scrooge: MISER.
49. Beat by a hair: NOSE OUT. Edge. Made me think of a photo finish horse race.
50. Wheat species that's also a British past tense: SPELT. Not fooled. Wheat belt farmers like PK would know this.
54. Article in Bonn: DER. All nouns in German are either masculine, feminine or neuter. The little word in front, the article, will tell you the gender. Another tidbit ? As you know, in English, only proper nouns are capitalized, but in German, ALL nouns are capitalized.
Here are the German definite and indefinite articles:
der - the (masculine)
die - the (feminine)
das - the (neuter)
ein - a (masculine and neuter)
eine - a (feminine)
Thank you Rocket Languages for the lesson.
Your challenge when solving a crossword is to recognize the gender, but like a number of Spanish clues that don't give you a hint (compare the clue "Other, in Spanish" to the clues, "Juan's other" or "Juanita's other") you are going to have to get the perp to be correct. Or get lucky.
55. Fraternity activity: RUSH. "He doesn't always listen to RUSH, but when he does, the whole neighborhood does too".
63. Like answers that lower test scores: IN ERROR.
64. Pre-owned item: USED CAR. A specific answer to a general clue. Friday worthy.
65. Top-rated TV show of 1984-'85: DYNASTY. Who shot JR ? Oh wait, that was Dallas. This was prime time show designed to be competition to Dallas, and it eventually worked.
66. WWII vessels: PT BOATS. Patrol Torpedo. Saw my first one watching McHale's Navy.
Down:
1. Source of tweets ... or growls: CAGE. Another very good Friday clue that required creative thinking.
2. Defunct fruit coating: ALAR. The FDA approved the spray that was used on apple trees (and cherries) to regulate growth so the apples didn't ripen and fall to the ground too early. A few years later, questionable EPA testing and a questionable 60 Minutes feature story incorrectly terming it a pesticide raised significant public awareness that it was a carcinogenic. Public concern (deemed "hysteria" by many, but especially the apple growers) created the "Alar Scare" that caused the manufacturer to withdraw the product.
3. Barrels into: RAMS.
4. Help the bad guys: ABET.
5. Big mouth: MAW.
6. Political refugee: EMIGRE.
7. Barista's output: LATTES. Didn't we have LATTE ART recently as the answer ?
8. Understood: SAW. Tried got first. No bueno.
9. Start to cycle?: TRI. I had to go from one wheel to three wheels to complete this answer.
10. Many a Middle-earth combatant: ARCHER. When I see Middle-earth, I think of J.R.R Tolkein. You ?
11. Eco-friendly carrier: BIKE. Clever. Bicycle, and arguably, motorcycle when compared other motorized vehicles.
12. Composer Charles: IVES.
13. Plastering strip: LATH.
14. Other than this: ELSE.
18. 1946 Literature Nobelist: HESSE. Perps. Don't know how a person could answer this based on the clue alone, unless they were were a literature expert. It is Friday.
22. __ bargain: PLEA.
23. Sports gp. that originally had "Lawn" in its name: USTA. I usta play tennis. Got smoked in the very first tournament I entered. It was a small town contest run by the parks department. Still have the Wilson T2000.
24. Nasty: MEAN. Ilie Nastase's nickname was Nasty, but I think that was a bit unfair. He was no shrinking violet. That's for sure. But he wasn't nasty.
25. Knocked the socks off: WOWED.
26. Grand Prince of Moscow, 1328-'40: IVAN I.
27. Litters' littlest: RUNTS. Easy to think the response would be singular.
28. John of music: ELTON. Sir Elton.
29. "Barbarella" director Roger: VADIM. I saw the movie but didn't think much of it. Kinda goofy. Would never have got this without the M in JIMINY. And four others.
30. Formal identification: IT IS I. Formal, in the sense that it is the grammatically correct response. Nice clue.
31. Deceive: COZEN. To trick or cheat, or obtain by deception. There's a large law firm in Philly called Cozen O'Connor that has probably had to bear the brunt of many jokes.
32. Board at one's fingertips: EMERY.
37. How "The Banana Boat Song" begins: DAY O. Why was this song popular ?
38. Fills in: SUBS. Substitutes. Husker Gary is apt to fill the void when a teacher needs time off.
40. Drop: OMIT.
43. Soft leather: SUEDE.
46. Takes the stage: ENTERS. Thespians, musicians, emcees, comics, public speakers etc. They all strive to take the stage.
47. Becomes harder to afford: GOES UP. What goes up, must come down. Spinning wheel, got to go 'round.
48. Legal scholar: JURIST.
50. Came out with: SAID.
51. Inconsequential: PUNY. Not of significant concern. Mere.
52. Early banishment site: EDEN.
53. Pre-Euro currency: LIRA.
55. Start from scratch: REDO.
56. Donald, to Huey, Dewey and Louie: UNCA. Comic strip vocalization of uncle. The characters are a Walt Disney production.
57. "Get lost!": SCAT.
58. "... nor shall ever see that face of __ again": Lear: HERS.
60. Excluding: NOT.
61. Shout: CRY.
62. Syr. neighbor: LEB. Syria and Lebanon.
CRICKET markets phones that are mobiles.
ReplyDeleteCALDER's sculptures are STABILES.
Cricket's are wireless,
Calder's have wires, yes.
Chances of confusion a very low percentile!
I wonder if Hermann HESSE
At HE/SHE had ever to guess.
Then men were he
And women were she
And language wasn't such a mess!
Chad was a PUNY RUNT of the litter
Still he was a cute little critter.
Later he WOWED
The racing crowed
When he NOSED OUT a heat, tho littler!
{B, B-, B.}
Hi Y'all! Wow! I always expect difficult from Jeffrey & wasn't disappointed today. Always satisfying to fill one of his and expand my knowledge. Thanks. Enjoyed your expo, TTP!
ReplyDeleteNW went in so easy, I was surprised. Most of the rest was NOT so easy. I knew ANODIZE & VASIM but needed perps to dredge them up. I remembered Roger VADIM caused a scandal when he directed his wife Jane Fonda in "Barbarella".
Last to fill: STABILE. I confidently entered Calder's moBILEs then amoBILE which showed BILE was right. Didn't remember anything about STABILE. LIU after filling with red-letters.
Never heard of SPELT wheat. LIU: ancient wheat variety grown in Europe. Only found in "health food" stores in USA. Nothing we plant in my fields. New varieties being developed all the time of hard red winter wheat for us.
Don't understand the term at 59A [crickets] = AUDIENCE SILENCE. Perped in ____ENCESILENCE then had to red-letter "AU" WAG "D".
Ooops! VADIM not VAsIM
ReplyDeletePK, good morning. And I thought for sure you would have known SPELT.
ReplyDeleteCrickets as an audience reaction ? So quiet you can hear a pin drop, or crickets. As when a joke or comment bombs, and stuns the audience, or leaves them aghast at what was just said.
I'm going to go back to sleep now that I see the blog posted.
Another toughie, two days in a row. Or maybe I’m getting stupider. Anyway DNF the NE and SW corners. STABILE and SPELT did me in.
ReplyDeleteTTP. you are on the JW Friday wheel now. Enjoy. I agree that finding 4 grid spanners that can be clued with one word (sort of) is another example of what makes Jeffrey special.
ReplyDeleteI would guess there are games which have been created against the backdrop of Tolkein's world where archers are shooting at each other.
IVAN I as well as HESSE as clued were all perps. I imagine there are a few who would know all the literature Nobelists and Russian princes but I am not among that small group.
Good to see Will S. continues his appearances. Thank you, Jeffrey and Tom
TTP, I, too, once had a T2000, partly because that's what Jimmy Connors was using. It was around that time that that colored shorts for tennis were just appearing. After meeting someone who invited me to his club I was told when entering that I could not play because of my yellow shorts. I think that white attire is still required at Wimbledon.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteYup, it's Friday for sure; the WICKETS were sticky. Tried ELBA for that banishment site -- nope, earlier still. Tried GOT before I SAW that was wrong. Still, the puzzle was finished in better-than-normal Friday time, so life is good. Thanx, Jeffrey and TTP.
ARCHER: Yes Middle-Earth is a direct reference to J.R.R. Tolkien's (i before e) mythical world. Many of the combatants used a bow-and-arrow.
COZEN: I always liked the law firm in the Three Stooges -- Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
RUNTS: DW's latest feline addition is Runty. She's a good pal of the previous newb, Gomer.
Good Morning, TTP and friends. This was a Friday toughie! I did like the Crickets, though.
ReplyDeleteI confidently wrote in Ouija as the Board at the Fingertips. Nope, we were filing our nails with an EMERY Board.
Hand up for Endo- before ENTO-.
My favorite clue was They might help you change your position = WANT ADS
QOD: Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. ~ James Baldwin (né James Arthur Baldwin; Aug. 2, 1924 ~ Dec. 1, 1987)
I liked this puzzle. Drat, two bad cells which could have been saved by an ABC run for the M. Presage instead if presume. Always interesting info in your blog, TTP.
ReplyDeleteHe/she has always been a problem. I can't imagine why there is no gender neutral singular for they.
I knew spelt. I read an interesting book about how agriculture changed the world If I could remember the title I would read it again.
CRICKET from this corner of 'the corner'. A DNF. Couldn't make the SW work. The number one reason is that I didn't know that [crickets] meant AUDIENCE SILENCE. #2 reason- I know no species of wheat; SPELT would not have ever made it onto my grid. Tried MERE & ONLY for 'Inconsequential' and BUT for 'Excluding' but nothing made sense. Most of the SW was IN ERROR today.
ReplyDelete"Calder' and STABILE- both unknowns; perps
TTP- you left out the accusative and dative case forms of der, die, das-- den & dem
HE/SHE- anybody else notice that a HE/SHE was responsible for the data breach from CapitalOne this week. Ditto for the treasonous Bradley Manning.
Have a nice weekend.
ALAR- speaking of the news media's Fake News, does anybody remember the accusations of spontaneous acceleration on AUDI cars about thirty years ago. Then there was the FAKE news on the spontaneous acceleration on TOYOTA cars a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteNone of it was true but it ended up costing those companies business and Toyota actually paid a one BILLION dollar fine for something that didn't exist.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis type of definition puzzle pleases me because I'm always eager to learn exactly how the constructor is going to define the theme word in several different ways. I never heard of Cricket as a wireless carrier, so that entry required several perps. I know Jiminy Cricket as a Disney character but had to wait and see how he was going to be referenced. The most interesting definition, IMO, is Audience Silence because of the use, overuse, and abuse of the metaphor in today's far from silent political cacophony. Stabile was a learning experience (Mobile is what came to mind, hi PK), and also Cozen and Archer, as clued. My w/os were: Endo/Ento, Ger/Aus, and Elba/Eden (Hi, DO).
Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a nice change of pace, theme-wise and thanks, TTP, for some fun facts and the witty repartee. How are you feeling, BTW?
Dave4, you needn't fear that your late posts will go unread as I think everyone reads the previous day's posts the following morning. I don't eat ice cream often, but when I do, Coffee is my favorite flavor. I used to like Butter Pecan, also, and Maple Walnut.
I watched "Paddington 2" last night and loved it. Does this mean I'm in my second childhood, or just that I'm still young at heart? Oh well, it doesn't really matter, does it?
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteVery good puzzle from JW; always pushing us to the next rung. Got most of the crickets. Ultimately needed help in the SW; could not suss NOT, thus holding up IN ERROR which was not clear right away. COZEN was a new learning.
SUB - CSO to HG as TTP said. BTW, HG is the chemical symbol for mercury - (hydrargyrum in Latin)
MAW - German Maul, L. German Muul, Dutch muil. As kids we sometimes were admonished with the above if we tended to get mouthy.
Almost all trans persons consider "he/she" offensive, except for some hermaphrodites with body parts of both genders.
ReplyDeleteI think the word was not used that way in this puzzle.
Dictionary.com "a combined form used as a singular nominative pronoun to denote a person of either sex:
Each student may begin when he/she is ready."
When you are speaking of a mixed group it would be awkward to use he in the above sentence.
Ask your mentor what he/she thinks would be the best option. (if the mentors are both men and women).
We have been taught to use the male pronoun in the above situations, but that is being rethought these days.
DNF. I WAGged SmELT as the type of wheat and Limey past tense, as in the childish "whoever first SmELT it, dealt it." Not being confident I Googled it and fixed that entry, which opened up the Chula Vista region. Erased JIMmmY, edge OUT, urchin for ARCHER, that for ELSE, but for NOT, hey for CRY, UNCl, and hand up for "got" and "elba".
ReplyDeleteCSO to Abejo and me at GTE. I was acquired and retired.
Lots of LATH in my 105 year old house.
Nice picture of a STABILE, TTP. I think that modern outdoor sculpture plays an important role in society. When someone is trying to find a government building, HE/SHE can just look for "art" that no one would buy with their OWN money, and voila - there's the government!
I remember from elementary school learning about HE/SHE/it. Tittering response was "he did"?
FLN: Dave I always read FLN before reading the current day's blogger. WC - Good thing you didn't take Phil to see Old Yeller.
Thanks to JeffWech for another fantastic puzzle. And thanks to TTP for the extensive review.
I love Jeffrey Wechsler puzzles but figured this was going to be a Friday toughie. It was, but I did much better than expected getting big chunks before I ran into trouble. Never for a second thought of Milky Way as a candy, so that made the start a bit tough. But I got VADIM without any problem because I remembered that he had been married to Jane Fonda. Got DISNEY and PT BOATS early, and that helped with those areas. But never heard of COZEN, and _OSE OUT drove me crazy because I could only think of LOSE OUT and that certainly isn't a winner. Anyway, lots of fun--many thanks, Jeffrey. And TTP your explanations and information were great this morning--thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend coming up, everybody.
Fantastic Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeffery and TTP.
ReplyDeleteYes, this CW was a workout (others must be taking longer to solve before posting today).
But I got all the crickets and finally finished. NE corner was the last to fall. HE/SHE was an AHA moment.
Calder created a STABILE for Expo 67 in Montreal.
TroisDisques
I wanted But before NOT. Hand up for Uni before TRI; then I smiled when BIKE appeared.
CSOs today include SUB (HuskerG) and RUSH (AnonT) (I'll let him link his favourite song!)
Some of our small bakeries make a bread with SPELT flour. I loved this clue.
Enjoy the day.
Jeffery's SW corner gave me some momentary trouble, but was able to get thru it. Actually, one of the easiest Friday puzzles in a long time... at least for me.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI like how politics are banned here but some insist on posting their opinions and outrage. Unappreciated. One in particular cannot seem to help himself and keeps doing it with no penalty. Especially since most of what is posted is old incorrect info. Or just plain wrong.
Anyway, this Friday puzzle by JW had the usual false starts. Tough as well. Appropriate for Friday.
Some markovers, of course....GOT/SAW, PRESAGE/PRESUME, MERE/PUNY. Not as many as yesterday.
So, toughies yesterday and today....cannot wait til tomorrow.
See you then.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteFun Friday! Thank you, JW and TTP for all the amusement!
ALABAMA did not fool me and that started me off. I was a fourth grade teacher, after all, and using the dictionary and alphabetizing is a major activity or was in those days.
And with a question mark in play I knew Milky Way did not reference the galaxy but my favorite candy so waited for a few perps and CARAMEL emerged.
As has been noted, this was fairly easy for a Friday, but it took some out of the box thinking as JW's puzzles usually do. ARCHER, for example, was not one of those strange Tolkien creatures.
Like others I didn't understand AUDIENCE SILENCE but the explanation makes sense and I never saw either DYNASTY or Dallas since I was teaching a night class during all that time but I certainly heard the buzz about them.
Is Cricket WIRELESS a regional SERVICE for someone to have not heard of it? It's common around here.
USTA baffled me as did COZEN which after I'd written it, I LIU but had G instead of T because I thought it referred to golf and didn't think of tennis. Drat!
Thank you again, TTP and JW! Are you feeling better, TTP?
Have a splendid day, everyone!
PVX, are you referring to something that has been deleted? I re-read all of today's comments and I don't see anything that's remotely political. Un-PC maybe, but not political.
ReplyDeleteDNF Yesterday, (So I couldn't comment...)
ReplyDeleteAlmost a DNF today, but I finished it by accident!
Started out completely white, and only survived to continue
because of the gimme's, ETA, & Atom.
With just those two, I managed (In an overly long period of time)
to fill in 99% of the puzzle! (Phew! what a workout!)
( I think I bruised my Susser...)
I only had part of the NE corner to go, and decided it was fair to cheat
& look up the name 12d Composer Charles, (in the Blog) as I had no idea who he was,
and I ACCIDENTALLY (I swear!) saw Wickets!
Nuts, Ack! & AAargh!
I coulda finished! I swear I could!...
Anywho, I woke up really late this morning, and I am way behind
in my chores. But luckily I can blame Jeffrey for my Tardiness...
In truth, I know nothing about Cricket...
Why are they all just lying around?
A very strange game, this Cricket...
& now for something completely different...
What is the purpose of crickets being bracketed?
ReplyDeleteMark S
Mark S, I think the brackets are supposed to signify that it's the sound of crickets rather than some type of cricket.
ReplyDeleteCrickets as silence from Merriam Webster:
ReplyDeleteCrickets
Anyone know why the cricket players are lying down in CED's post?
First State always brings to mind the Delaware license plate which has had that slogan on it since 1962. Speaking of Delaware, we miss you Blue Hen. I hope we will hear from you soon.
Delaware didn't fit because I already had a few solid perps
PVX, not really political, but offensive.
PVX, well said. I hope Picard drops in, he'll really like it. Jinx you always entertain but @1:29 was really fun for some of us.
ReplyDeleteBut we're oddly entertained as with Milky Way that most caught on to. That's really the most entertaining aspect of the Corner: how solvers "get" or don't "get" stuff. Speaking of...
I was trying to guess our host (TTP) but just had to look at the newspaper (TBTimes has it) for the constructor.
So I found out here.
WC
Now for xword talk. I could see ARCHERS perping in but resisted because they played such a pivotal role in English history but not particularly in the Tolkien series.
ReplyDeleteeg. Orcs weren't known as ARCHERS although "orc arrows" were the "bane" of Isildur* and Boromir(they'd messed with the One Ring).
ELBA was a banishment site, EDEN was a banished from (site). Are these the type of things the "Fiend" carps about?
If Jiminy Cricket hears Jeff called him a BUG they'll be trouble if he ever visits Disney. And OMK will be the definitive voice vis a vis AUDIENCE SILENCE.
Don't get me wrong. Great xword, great write-up.
It's either IVAN or Peter on those early czars. I should have waited for perps before inking TRI. I "should" have checked the constructor.
What I most remember about DYNASTY was Carrington constantly apologizing for doltish behavior as if that ennobled him. I should have said CAVALIER behavior per the very last post FLN. Speaking of…
Lucina, I'm curious about ice cream and ? Arthritis symptoms??. My fav is Neapolitan and Blue Bell had a sale and I fear I'm over doing it. Old soreness back in the hands.
Enough Wilbur
** Autocorrect fixed this spelling. Amazing what Google recognizes (and NOT)
Oh, does the Fiend review Birnholz' Wash Post xword?
ReplyDeleteMom’s niece and nephew
Were incestuous. Are they
My COZEN kissers?
And, a spoonerism of sorts, too
Musings
ReplyDelete-Ever had one of those days where you are swimming in mud? I am but I finally got to Jeffrey “I Never Disappoint” Wechsler’s great puzzle. I even forgive him for not having a Buddy Holly reference! :-)
-HE/SHE – Washington State Licenses will now offer gender choices of M, F or X
-SPELT not SMELT
-Of course, PT 109 was skippered by a future president
-They have not abandoned LAWN in their name
-This SUB is ready to start filling voids this month, TTP!
Yellowrocks @ 1:58
ReplyDeleteWhy were they lying down?
Possibilities are
A. It was WWII during an air raid
B the batter bit a line drive...
And 3, it was nap time.
WC:
ReplyDeleteI have diabetes, not arthritis so it's the overdose of sugar that causes the pain.
I thought EDEN right away because it was "EARLY banishment site." Elba was later.
TTP:
DAYO quickly became popular because of its snappy beat. I love it!
I'm quite familiar with EMERY and liked the clue. My nails are filed and filled every two weeks.
I've stalled long enough; time to clean the floors.
I liked this puzzle. Managed to puzzle everything out successfully but the timer didn't stop until I changed E to A in LIRA and DYNASTY.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it was fake news or not; I don't know if it really happened or not. All I can say is that IF the Toyota Prius behaved as reported, i.e. kept trying to accelerate even though the brakes were being applied forcefully, I would blame shitty software (ref my comments on the 737MAX MCAS software) for failing to disengage acceleration when the brake pedal is pressed. If the car is trying to rev the engine at the same time as trying to squeeze the brake calipers, then it is simply designed badly. Note, however, that Toyota's "fix" to the "problem" was to (1) abandon one of their accelerator pedal manufactures, (2) shave off the bottoms of the accelerator pedals, and (3) assure that the floor mat remained positioned properly and didn't somehow slip forward and weight the accelerator pedal down. There was no mention of them modifying the software.
So, why oh why are some of you offended at the words "the treasonous Bradley Manning"?
Good wishes to you all.
I've seen crickets used in comics to emphasize silence. When I first filled in "WIRELESS" it got me thinking in terms of radio stuff. I was thinking something for radio hams or something. So I forgot about the phone co. until after I'd looked at it a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I've never noticed Picard being political in his comments here, though sometimes in the articles he links. That may be because my politics match his so well, but I think it's just because I have a narrower understanding of politics as opposed to current affairs than the complainers.
I have a trans sister. She is not a he/she nor a criminal.He/she is a grammatical construct, not a sexuality construct. The gender neutral ID's and passports are not he/she. That word is as hurtful as the n word.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteLeave it to JeffWex to stymie 'ya. Leave it to TTP to 'splain it. Thanks both of you for a timely puzzle - have you seen the BUGs in Vegas? [OK, they are Grasshoppers, not Crickets].
Lookup: Needed the 'D' and 'M' in VADIM for extra-play. Officially a DNF.
WOs: Absolute SILENCE caused quite a mess in the SW; mute b/f PUNY, EMeGRE
ESPs: HESSE, DER, COZEN
Fav: 1d was not PREZ.
Runner-up: Not as clued but RUSH [Nobody's Hero 4:58]
{B+, A, B}
Not HE/SHE but I've seen they/them/tay.
I too was thinking Tolkein and, ORCs being too short, was going for elves. Many were Archers :-)
D-O: is that where Click and Clack got "Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe?"
CED - I'll go w/ 'Nap time' until Steve pipes-in.
Cheers, -T
They, them tay are more acceptable. This is not easy. For most of her life, not matter any inner struggle which I now know existed, she identified to all of us as a boy. When I speak of the childhood pranks "he" pulled, she wants me to say she. It is not easy for her or us. I think no one would purposely choose this fraught "lifestyle."
ReplyDeleteToo many "almost right" fill-ins totally messed this one up. Had answers but not the correct ones...on to Saturday and more frustration!!
ReplyDeleteFunny - how it takes a crossword to remind me of a word like ALAR or the correct spelling of EMORY(the university)/EMERY...
ReplyDeleteI got this one after a few false starts. Ta ~ DA!
But I didn't really "get" AUDIENCE SILENCE. I mean why not STILL SUMMER NITE?
Where are "crickets" in an audience? I suppose you can edit them in from the audio console, but why?
And what is this WIRELESS SERVICE? Does Britain have a broadcast service identified by a "cricket"? I don't remember.
Mr. Wechsler raises more questions than usual.
C'mon--more info, please!
COZEN is a good Shakespearean word.
Taming of the Shrew: "Lay hands on the villain. I believe he means to cozen somebody in this city under my countenance."
Merry Wives: "Out, alas, sir! cozenage, mere cozenage!"
Merchant of Venice: "...for who shall go about
To cozen fortune, and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit?"
Und so weiter...
~ OMK
Jeffrey, ya beat me up again but I got a lot right so I figure I win! I remembered USTA and GTE so that was a step up . I love the Banana Boat Song so that was a gimme. Got PT BOATS of course because of the WWII museum and the fact that they were built here in New Orleans at the Higgins boat yard. I even got HESSE with a few perps. Interesting man.
ReplyDeleteIt’s always hard for me to write ALABAMA no matter how it’s clued. Good one Jeffrey!
Now about those Crickets. Ya got me !!
But it was fun doing battle against you!!!
YellowRocks, I have a trans friend. It’s all terribly hard. There seems to be no easy answer. I guess we just muddle along and try to do what is kind.
ReplyDeleteIs the saying "nothing but crickets" meaning silence an oxymoron?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has been out in woods knows crickets can be very loud, but they do stop chirping when they sense a predator. ????
Once a year our favorite coffee shop has a cricket or two inside. They seem to chirp incessantly and fearlessly.
FLN - also posted this morning on yesterday's blog.
ReplyDeleteC-Eh! - thanks for clarifying that your reference to KPS was a typo, and to Anon-T. I now see what you were getting at - so Kilometres per hour is not abbreviated KPH but KM/H. Sort of makes sense, though it seems strange to me that they'd use a capital letter from the middle of a word in an abbreviation. Or was kilometres originally written as kilo metres? Using all caps makes it look more like an acronym, in which case it would have to be KPH. I just wondered where the criticism of KPS was coming from when it wasn't even in the puzzle. IM mentioned it 1st @ 0753 "My w/os were Manse/Manor and KMS/KPS", and Bill G. referred to it again @1214 am. Maybe they were all typos.
I couldn't have made much if any headway at all on today's puzzle without red letters. Usually do it the night before on Mensa, but didn't last night, so tried it in the paper this am, and got only a few answers in the whole thing, mostly downs. IVES was a gimme, LIRA came up after getting red with mark & franc. JW puzzles often befuddle me, but I'm always pleased to be able to complete them, even with help.
TTP I appreciate your writeup a lot. So glad to hear Ives' "Country Band" - a great example of the polyrhythmic and stacked harmonic style for which he's known, at least in one of his compositional periods. It's said his father was a town band leader, and Charles was impressed watching parades and hearing the different bands playing different tunes in differing keys and meters covering and blending into each others' sounds. Could be true. Check out his 3rd Symphony, one of the side links to this on Youtube.
Also thanks for linking Spinning Wheel. In the late '60's & early '70's I was a Navy Band vet, going to the closest thing I could afford to conservatory, and VERY serious (read:snobbish) about music. If it wasn't symphonic, jazz or opera it wasn't music. All pop of all kinds was pure crap, made by unschooled stoners who just decided they could get rich by picking up an electric guitar and screaming into a microphone, making more noise than the next guy without ever bothering to learn anything about music. Then somebody borrowed my car and left the radio on a pop station. When I started it they were playing Spinning Wheel, and a revelation occurred. I couldn't believe that REAL MUSIC was popular! It checked all the boxes for me - real learning, musicianship and creativity in composition, arranging, and playing. Improvisation matching the best of jazz - turned out the players were all experienced jazz and studio musicians. A band with real instruments that require musical study to learn to play that well - trumpet, sax, trombone - not just screeching distorted guitars. Virtuoso keyboard playing featured, and the amazing pitch and emotional ranges of David Clayton Thomas' voice, which he used with such intelligence and extreme musical sensitivity ("Lonesome Suzy"). I bought all their albums as they came out, and was even more blown away when BS&T4 featured Dave Bargeron, their trombone player, playing my instrument, the tuba on several pieces! He even had a brief tuba solo in "Go Down Gamblin'"! And absolutely magnificent trombone solos in "John the Baptist" and "Redemption". Yes I still listen to them a lot, along with several of Chicago's tunes of the same era, for a lot of the same reasons (James Pankow).
I do proofread, but belatedly realize that in my 1920 post I may have offended some. If you love guitar and/or are trying to learn it, and felt I was dismissive of or bigoted against you, I humbly apologize. I was describing my state of mind when I was immersed in the study of historic European art music and making my living playing some peripheral form of jazz - mainly what was pop throughout the previous generations. When rock & roll started edging out Sinatra, Basie, Ella and Ellington I resented it and had a strong emotional reaction that has lasted most of the rest of my life. I still don't like all the screaming that passes for singing or the screeching distorted guitars. But I certainly respect anyone who loves and makes any effort to learn anything about any aspect of music.
ReplyDeleteYR, I don't think anyone chooses their sexual identity under normal circumstances. I am hetero, but don't remember making that choice. In fact, if I could pick I would probably choose to be bi - doubles the possibilities. (There is an old expression used by some imprisoned folks that they become "gay for the stay", but those aren't normal circumstances.)
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good thing that most of the first world recognizes the value of all sexual identities. However I am against the current trend to accept a person's word that they ARE whatever gender they decide to be on a given day. If the trend continues, we are seeing the end of women's sports teams. Weight lifting and track & field are already ruined.
I'm sure that your sister has been consistent throughout her life. I hope she finds peace in these more enlightened times.
Mike Sherline @ 7:20 ~ My KPS was definitely a typo. 🙊
ReplyDeleteMike Sherline, all of my family are classically trained musicians. I , in order to participate, bought a baritone ukulele. I’m quite good and refuse to be intimidated.
ReplyDeleteI was not at all offended by your remarks. We all do what we do!!
SwampCat - thanks. Proof again that you're the coolest. When we moved to Hawaii my I semi-joked about learning uke. While I was looking at one in the store withe the owner explaining the different tunings to me, my wife bought it without my knowledge. So I got a self teaching book and started learning it. I was frustrated at having such a limited range on the bottom, so after some research changed the tuning to baritone, got another book, and started over. Since i don't play it very often I tend to have to look up a lot of the chord positions again every time, but at least I learned that memorising the positions was a better way to learn them than figuring each one out by spelling out the notes in the chord and finding a way to get fingers on those notes on the strings simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congratulations on your musical accomplishment.
IM - I figured your KPS was a typo too.
An example of crickets during silence
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks,
The stoppage of play Cricket Picture
is one that they use every time there is a stoppage of Cricket
for any reason. It has been used so many times that it is hard to track down the original reason. My personal favorite is the Nap answer, as it explains how
Americans stole baseball from English Cricket.
They took the ball, the bat (slightly modified.)
& the nap became our beloved 7th inning stretch...
Daughter #3 just encouraged me to listen to some music
that reminded me of Crickets:
4,33 by John Cage
P.S.
Here is the complete Bugs/Daffy crickets thing if you are interested...
How about these Crickets
ReplyDeleteHG should appreciate this
WC
I constantly hear crickets in my head. It's tinnitus and usually I can ignore it or tune it out depending on the weather pressure. Right now it sounds like a huge chorus of them. When it first started many years ago I would question the exterminator when he came and he looked at me strangely. Eventually I realized it was and would always be inside me.
ReplyDeleteCED - Bugs & Daffy clip is the proper [Crickets] explainer.
ReplyDeleteOMK - Cricket Wireless is a low-cost provider that, last I heard, buys spare capacity from Big Cell and sells no-frills plans. Their AD. In their early days you'd see the Cricket stores in the same parts of town as pawnshops and payday lenders.
Mike - and some of those non-musical rock guitar strummers turned into real musicians over time :-) //did you listen to my RUSH selection?
Lucina - BIL has tinnitus and has to run a fan at his head to sleep. I hope yours isn't that bad.
WC - when HG mentioned it, I smiled because i wanted 'Rock and Roll Band' [15], 'Buddy Holly Backup' [15], or some such too. Thanks for the link. //BTW, I'm listening to something about Elvis on NPR and Ed Sullivan didn't want him on the show [Rock'n'Roll then was for stoners and such] so he first appeared on The Dorsey Brothers' show in '56.
Cheers, -T
Anon-T @1226 - I know some did learn musicianship and grow/evolve. Frank Zappa, for all his youthful outrageousness, turned into a competent, sensitive and very interesting composer for orchestra and other ensembles, while still strutting and prancing on arena stages. I always check out your links, but don't often listen all the way through. I may occasionally hear something I consider musical, but for the most part it's just not to my taste.
ReplyDeleteAnonT:
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about your BIL's serious tinnitus. Mine is bad but not so bad I can't sleep. As I mentioned earlier, it seems to depend on the weather so often it's just a background noise.
Am I the only one who is bothered by these puzzles that are aimed at a microscopic portion of the American public (MENSA??)and not to a more general audience? Shouldn't the nearly twelve years I spent in a dozen colleges in the USA and Europe prepare me to solve a small puzzle like today's LAT puzzler??! Yes, I AM frustrated. I absolutely cherish the time I have spent solving LAT puzzles over the years (almost 50!!!) but puzzles like today's really upset my whole day. I still don't understand the conveluted thinking behind five of the clues. Needles to say, the next time I see Wechlers name on a puzzle, the paper gets tossed.
ReplyDeleteBobbi - may I ask which 5? JW's puzzles are hard but mostly fair (he does tend to 'vague clue' perps to the point that, if you don't know at least on thing in a corner, you got nuthin'). I had fun w/ the puzzle but needed to Google 29d to get the MINY to finally get that DISNEY BU- -I-INY.
ReplyDeleteMikeS - I get the 'not my cuppa.' I raised Eldest on The Beatles, RUSH, They Might Be Giants, Zeppelin (when she was ready for it...), The WHO, The Stones, et.al.
And what does she do?
Studies Classical Opera and plays violin (on my dime!) at OU [insert obligatory #BoomerSooner].
Cheers, -T
-T @0220 - I'll go ahead & put this here because I know you check the late posts. Kudos to your daughter for finding her own way, and to you for accepting, encouraging, and paying for it, even though it's far from your musical experience and preference. I'm sure she'll end up being a much more well-rounded musician than I am for having grown up under your guidance.
ReplyDeleteSome puzzles which I deem quite hard are easy for some solvers. I shrug it off. C'est la vie Some puzzles that I breeze through, others find very difficult. We all have different wheelhouses, different areas of knowledge. Some of us like puns and misdirections, some don't. Thursday, I liked the way the second part of the answer dropped down. Some hate gimmicks like that. Overall I believe that the LAT puzzles have not gotten harder.
ReplyDelete"You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
So fun..the wife and I are rookies but pretty good together..was not familiar w/stablile and changed the correct "z" in anodize to "s" as not familiar with "cozen"..always nice to learn something new though at our age the hard part is trying to remember!
ReplyDelete