A breakfast favorite takes center stage today as we celebrate National Waffle Day. A beautiful waffle covered with maple syrup and and some strips of bacon? Yum, yum!
Of course this prompts the story of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair when an ice cream vendor ran out of little dishes in his booth but Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire in the booth next door, saw the solution. Using his waffle-like pastry - zalabias, he formed a cone, put the ice cream in it and, voila, a new treat was born - The Waffle Cone!
Across:
1. Karate match exchanges: BOWS.
5. Nickname for Chicago's Ernie Banks: MR CUB - Ernie is always listed as one of the greatest (and nicest) players to have never been to a world series with his then hapless Cubs.
10. Gradually decrease: WANE.
14. Chamber phenomenon: ECHO.
15. Campaign suspensions: CEASE FIRES - Neither a CEASE FIRE, a truce or an armistice is a peace treaty.
17. Biting: ACID.
18. Gadgets with small rotary blades: CAN OPENERS - A lost art?
19. Pub nibbles: NUTS.
20. Corrida shout: OLE - The barbarity of bull fighting repulses me
21. Christmas hymn start: ADESTE - Former students at big box stores tell me the Christmas stuff is filling up their storage areas. (ADESTE shoppers - O Come All Ye Shoppers)
22. Vent opening?: PRE -Late Middle English (in the sense ‘act in anticipation of’): from Latin praevent- ‘preceded, hindered’, from the verb praevenire, from prae ‘before’ + venire ‘come’. (etymonline.com)
23. One in a gun show?: GYM RAT
25. Ax wielder, at times: BOSS - Well, he/she is the BOSS...
26. Lover of Euridice, in a Gluck opera: ORFEO (Italian for Orpheus) - If you must know
28. Anaheim stadium nickname: BIG A.
30. 1843 story narrated by a murderer, with "The": TELL TALE HEART - Poe's short story of a guilty conscience that became a 56.
Heavy burdens: MILLSTONES around the murderer's neck
35. Finger in the dike, so to speak: DAMAGE CONTROL - What my [insert candidate] meant to say...
37. Out until tomorrow: GONE FOR THE DAY - A NASA guy might be "Out To Launch"
39. Essential nutrient: SALT.
40. Split for a union: ELOPE - This cluing flummoxed me
41. Gush: SPEW.
44. Meteorological line: ISOBAR - ISOBARS connect points of the same pressure. It was a windy day in Delaware below
48. Units for many staples: Abbr.: LBS
49. Blowup sound: KABOOM.
51. Bumped into: MET.
52. Didn't make it through committee, as a bill: DIED - Bills to legalize casino gambling have DIED year after year in our unicameral
53. Beyond reason: INORDINATE - This summer's INORDINATE number of butterflies are very welcome
55. Land in a lake: ISLE.
57. Wonder Woman gal pal __ Candy: ETTA.
58. Pompano kin: SCAD.
POMPANO SCAD |
Black Necked Stilt |
Down:
1. Slow cooker associated with Boston: BEAN POT - My friend said Bostonians hate "Beantown" as much as San Franciscans hate "Frisco"
2. Went down, in a way: OCCURRED.
3. Yield sign?: WHITE FLAG - One sports writer called a bad relief pitcher a "human WHITE FLAG"
4. Puts down roots: SODS.
5. "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer" doctor: MCCOY.
6. King's domain: REALM.
7. Worker with rattan: CANER - We had this in a daily puzzle recently
8. "For the Boys" org.: USO.
10. Port vessel: WINE BARREL - BARRELS full of Cockburn's Port WINE near Porto, Portugal
11. "You __ lucky!": ARE SO.
12. "Fiddlesticks!": NERTS.
13. Pair of shoes?: ESSES - Yes, ShoeS has two ESSES
16. Ness, for one: FED - FED accountants did more to put Al Capone away than FED (g-man) Elliot Ness
23. Was a whiz on a quiz: GOT AN A - Curve wrecker!
24. Can't stand: ABHOR.
27. "Sesame Street" segment: ELMO'S WORLD.
29. Round up: GATHER.
31. Certain eligibility rules: AGE LIMITS - Alcohol AGE LIMITS for every country (scroll down below map)
32. Ali hooks, at times: LEFTS - Ali was not only good at throwing LEFT hooks he was incredible at avoiding them
33. "The Name of the Rose" author: ECO - If you must know
34. Work plans: TO DO LISTS - Mine grew from one to four last week due to my cell phone availability
36. Safety features that have evolved since their inception: LAP BELTS - Neither mom nor baby seem safe here in these early models
38. Spousal consent: YES DEAR - "A soft answer turneth away wrath"
41. Works on pools: SKIMS.
42. __ attack: PANIC - Tony Soprano's Achilles Heel. The ducks he had bonded with flying away triggered this one
45. Spender of rials: OMANI - This bucket would cost an OMANI 3.8 OMR (OMani Rials) or $9.78
46. Stimulating nut: BETEL - Chewing this nut can have horrible consequences. Google at your own peril
47. '50s headline event: A-TEST - The first A (bomb) -TEST was conducted in 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico as a successful conclusion of the Manhattan Project
50. Takes in too much, for short: ODS - See BETEL nut above
52. Spirit of Notre-Dame: DIEU - Que DIEU bénisse Notre Dame (May God bless Notre Dame)
54. "__ my problem": NOT - A mantra for some of us at this popsicle stand
Now don't waffle (you had to see that coming), we'd love to read your comments:
45 comments:
Hmmm...comment-free zone. Good morning!
No theme. No Wite-Out. No problem. Zipped right through this one. Thanx, Ed and Husker.
LBS -- because 30-pack wouldn't fit.
MCCOY -- Tried BONES first.
NERTS -- When did this become a word? I've seen it before in cws, but don't think I've ever heard it.
ESSES -- Had do deep-six a pair of trusty sneaks yesterday. Both soles were peeling off.
LAP BELTS -- They were optional in my first new car. So were backup lights.
BOSS -- Every now and then you come across a boss who's his own worst enemy.
So many CSO; the YES DEAR fill which came so soon after CED's funny link yesterday. The picture of a POMPANO the fish for which my home was named. MR CUB for all of our Chicago poster; and BEAN POT for our New England contingent.
I thought this was a little easier than most Saturday but it was fun as was Gary's wonderful write-up. Thanks, guys.
Good morning. Good to be back in business on this laptop. Hopefully this keyboard will have fewer typos than the last one.
The SW corner kept me at bay for nearly 5 minutes. Did not think of DIEU as part of the ND motto, never heard of ETTA Candy, and had TASKS where LISTS belonged. tBS would be valid for "units of many staples" - sort of - but LBS made more sense and was key to breaking open the corner. The last fill was wagging the E in ETTA. I'm also more familiar with the term SEAT BELTS but it wasn't going to fit with my perps or the number of available squares. Remember the old PSA "And besides, it'll wrinkle my dress." ?
Might need to clean my glasses. Read "ALL HOOKS, AT TIMES" before peering closely and realizing it was an i.
NERTS sounds like a child's candy. Must be a '30s or '40s word. Or regional. I'll try it out at golf after a missed putt and see what happens.
I met and spoke with Ernie Banks a few times at the golf course when he and his buddy came out to play. He was a sincerely nice man, through and through. I never saw anyone talk to him and walk away not smiling. My wife teed off for him on the first hole one day. The next time I saw him he asked, "Where's your wife ?"
United Kingdom - Age 5 on private property. Really ?
Thank you, Ed, and thank you, Husker Gary. Fun puzzle and great review. BTW, they must have a lot of poultry in Oman. Seems inexpensive for a bucket of chicken.
It was a slow start in the NW and after no fills I didn't know if I would BOW out and hoist up the WHITE FLAG. But I told myself BE PATIENT and go on. Moving east, MR. CUB was an easy guess and that got me going. My WINE BOTTLE had to pour back to the BARREL, and that was all the DAMAGE CONTROL I to change this morning. But Mr. Sessa had plenty of long fills today, which I find easier to solve that words that really rack my brain from misleading clues- GYM RAT, BOSS (from ax not axe).
I got ESSES but I don't get it. Are they holding up the word 'shoes'?
ORFEO, ETTA, SCAD, McCOY, ELMO'S WORLD- unknowns solved by perps. My knowledge of Star Trek is from doing crosswords. Never watched it or Sesame Street.
CAN OPENERS- hilarious video. I wish that I had videoed it when my wife had to show a college student how to open a bottle of root beer a few years ago. We were in a deli and it was in a glass bottle with the non-screw type. The guy couldn't figure it out. A few months back DW bought a very large can of beans for a BBQ. Too large for the electric opener to open it. I pulled out the manual can opener and it broke. Had to use a 'church key' to open it.
Was able to zip through this fairly quickly, which is always nice for Saturday. Did the Friday puzzle earlier this morning, which I found harder than this one, at least until I got Friday’s theme.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Ed Sessa, for fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Well, I am used to getting up at 6:45 AM during the week to guard at the school crossing. So, today, I got up at 6:45 with no alarm. I guess I am training myself.
Made a cup of tea, Earl Grey, of course. Jumped into the puzzle via cruciverb, which has been working lately.
Got it done in about an hour and a quarter. Pretty good for me.
I did not understand 23A One in a Gun show, GYM RAT. Greek to me. I peeped it.
ORFEO was unknown. Perps.
My last to get was the A in EBOLA and SCAD.
Wanted WINE BOTTLE, but ELOPE was solid, so I hung around and got BARREL after I got the long acrosses.
Liked WHITE FLAG. Good clue/answer.
Our dog just arose, so I am going out for a walk with her.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Good morning everyone.
Got it solved without lookups. Some good guesses and I seemed to be on Ed's wavelength today. Favorite clue was for ELOPE. Had Poe before the perps made it ECO. A new learning. Had 'ramrod' before GYM RAT.
DAMAGE CONTROL - My first year aboard our DD, I had the billet of DAMAGE CONTROL Assistant (DCA).
{I can't do anything right with plants. I bought a Venus flytrap, and now it's a vegetarian.}
Good Morning:
I finished this in below normal Saturday time but I needed lots of perps along the way: Orfeo, Big A, Scad, Etta, Mc Coy, Elmo's World, and Gym Rat. The clue and fill for Gym Rat was a mystery until HG's photo and a follow-up explanation from Mr. G. I had Sows before Sods and Bottle before Barrel. Other than those two stumbles, easy sailing.
Thanks, Dr. Ed, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, HG, for making it all make sense.
Have a great day.
G-day mates.
Thank you Ed Sessa for this challenging Saturday CW. I had to reveal square 18 to complete the NE cell.
The "E" at 57 was revealed to complete the CW at the Natick of 57 A ETTA, and 52 D DIEU.
Thank you Husker Gary for your excellent review.
37 A Out until tomorrow: GONE FOR THE DAY - A NASA guy might be "Out To Launch"
He might have to visit his podiatrist about his "Missile Toe" before Launch.
Ðave
Took a while but finally finished though an inky mess with multiple cross outs and corrections...Some very obscure clues but expected for a Saturday challenge.
I remember Frank Burns in M.A.S.H. saying nerts. Maybe it dates to the 50's.
Anon @ 11:16 - Ditto.
A surprisingly smooth solve for a Saturday Sessa. It took just a little over 23 mins., which is Usain Bolt time for me. Not that there weren't any sticking points, unknowns, false starts, etc., but the long solves saved the day, and thanks to them the problem areas were pretty much self-correcting. Thanks for the fun, Dr. Sessa, and thanks for the edutaining explication, HG.
Re. 44a: You are so right, Gary. That was a very windy day in Delaware. January 23, 2016, saw the height of a Nor'easter that buried the east coast in a blizzard from the Maritime Provinces to the Carolinas. Poor little DE got drifts up to 4' and to put that into perspective, I've seen this state grind to a halt with only 4" of snow. Wicked cold, wicked wind, and I was hosting a backyard BBQ. I'M KIDDING!
Now that I have chilled myself to the bone remembering that storm, I'll warm up with a classic comfort food tonight - chili, mac and cheese. I don't do a mashup like most folks. I like to serve them separately, so that the individual diner can mix them or not, depending on his pleasure. (And yes, I'm safe saying "his" in this household nowadays.)
Better get to it. Cya!
Hola!
Thank you, Gary; you and some others found this easy? I did not and spent an INORDINATE time on it.
The NW strand filled quickly until I stumbled into ORFE_ and ACEDIT got in the way. It was a long while before that changed to GOT AN A and GYMRAT supplanted ARM___.
Of course I did not know MR. CUB and had to wait for perps.
Poe's the TELL TALE HEART took too long as well.
I'm surprised that "split for a union", ELOPE, is new to solvers; it appears frequently in puzzles I have seen. And isn't NERTS from the Three Stooges?
Also I am not familiar with BIGA for Anaheim Stadium, but it was an easy guess.
WINEBARREL was a fun misdirection as was WHITEFLAG for yield sign.
Thank you, Ed Sessa and Gary. I've seen and solved so many of Ed Sessa's puzzles in my puzzle book and they are always fun.
I hope your Saturday is going well, everyone!
I thought this might be easy getting BOWS,ECHO right off the bat. But then seas of white surrounded a series of bad guesses: like in SW(RAVE/VIRUS.
The opposite corner, SE, was grounded by USSR/YES DEAR. DIEU a spirit? Not around Notre Dame .
LET'S PLAY TWO didn't fit. Obligatory Star Trek with "Mr McCoy". When one can fill three middle 13ers it helps.
Nice to FIR before 2pm.
WC
Oh. College hockey in Boston has a Beanpot Tournament every Feb. After all:
In Boston, dear Boston
The home of the bean and the cod
The Astors speak only to Lowells
And the Lowells speak only to God
FIR, but erased wean then fade for WANE, drats for NERTS, then erased CEASE FIRE until I had to stet it. Also WAGged RAZORS ____ then NANO ______ before finally getting CAN OPENER.
I first heard NERTS in Caddyshack.
We use the top-operating can opener. No sharp edges and the can sort of reseals.
I'm glad that MR CUB was never a MET.
The two most important words to a great marriage? YES DEAR.
I had a friend who told me that he once was telling someone about making a temporary repair to his roof during a rainstorm. He said that the roof stopped leaking, but it was just a finger in the dike. Said some tough-looking woman walked up and walloped him.
I used to watch Sesame Street almost every day when I was an engineer at the PBS affiliate. My favorite skit was this one.
Thanks to Ed for the fun puzzle that even I could finish. I don't usually play on Saturdays, but saw the Sessa byline and thought I'd give it a shot. And thanks to Gry for the interesting review.
Re: 23a. A lousy clue, IMHO: quite obscure. The slang dictionary says --
guns
very strong arms
Man that man had guns !
noun - plural
biceps.
Man, check out these guns!
Bones McCOY was a medical man
But for DAMAGE CONTROL you do what you CAN
You OPEN a part
Of a TELL-TALE HEART
And use a SALT shaker to do a Cat-scan!
He used to drive a taxi and zoom
His fares would bounce to the carrom!
They all said, "NERTS!
This guy is NUTS!"
Now he meditates and drives the KAB "OOM"!
{A*, A-.}
*If you're not up on your Star Trek trivia, C. I'll let someone else explain.
I liked this puzzle and had many of the same experiences you all have already mentioned. I love Ed Sessa's puzzles.
The overture to Orfeo ed Euridice is pretty magnificent.
Waffles & Spaghetti.
Husker: Outstanding, informative write-up.
Ed: Thank you for a FUN Saturday puzzle. Good one!
Yup, I went out this morning and had a Waffle Breakfast!
(Kinda needed after my "Toasting Myself" yesterday on my 67th Birthday.)
Fave today was 5-a, MR CUB ... he was my childhood ideal baseball player.
Cheers!
“... I speak of the pompatus of love.” sounded like SCADS of love to me! See #2.
Ta ~ DA!
Happy to finish a Sessa Saturday pzl with steadily unfolding ease.
So this is National Waffle Day, eh?
I ate an Eggo for b'fast. Does that count? I do like their new "fluffy" Belgian-style jobs, although today I was stuck with one of the leftover skimpy original sized ones.
That's okay; I wouldn't have eaten it if I didn't think I was getting something out of it. Right?
~ OMK
Jayce ~
I agree re. Orfeo ed Euridice's overture. For a late Baroque piece, it is a no-nonsense intro. Gets right down to business--with just enough decoration to matter.
~ OMK
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Ed, for a challenging midnight trek thru wordland! I thought the long ones were hard.
Thanks, Gary, for a great expo! Glad to see you agreed there was no theme. I looked long & hard. I never made waffles because my wedding gift iron always stuck the waffles no matter how I tried to correctly season it.
My dad always said "NERTS" but I didn't think that clue was good for that.
ESSES: all perps.
Never heard of just LAP BELTS, ETTA, MCCOY, ORFEO, MRCUB, SCAD.
Hand up for Bottle before BARREL. Got WINE immediately.
Wanted some type of shaver before CAN OPENER.
1843 story, knew it had to be Poe, but tried "Pit and (the) Pendulum" first. Been a long time since I read POE.
Beyond reason = INORDINATE. I realized I did not know the definition when it perped in. LIU. Alas, not in my vocabulary.
My BFF had a large percentage of the shingles blow off her roof in an F4 tornado. She didn't know it was a tornado at the time and didn't go to the basement. She was recently widowed. Bad year for her. A former student came over with tarps and secured the roof before the 6" rain the next night. Whew!
Same BFF messaged me today that our classmate had died. The late friend was my earliest playmate, a Shirley Temple look-alike we all adored through 12 years of school. I set her up on a first date with the man who became her husband for 50+ years. Hadn't seen her for 20 years because of distance between our homes. However, another sad day. Strangely, she was on my mind all day yesterday which was when she died.
Jinx: This just in. The American Tall Persons Association and the Gay Liberation Front have joined forces in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Seems they blew up a 50' dike.
Happy Waffle Day, a salute to my mom's wonderful homemade waffles. I never tasted any better, or even equal. Yummy.
The book, "Men Are Like Waffles-Women Are Like Spaghetti" sounds intriguing. From an Amazon review, "The title refers to the way most men usually compartmentalize their thoughts (hence the waffles because they have little "compartments"), and to the way most women's thoughts overlap (as spaghetti noodles do)." I recently reread a paper I wrote decades ago discussing why men's thoughts are so different from women's. We ought to be more understanding of each other.
I wanted wine BOTTLE before BARREL. Lushes!!
I got ORFEO with few perps -the advantages of having a music teacher ex with his extensive collection of records. So many advantages, but the disadvantage was that all the YES DEARs came from me, nary a shred of compromise.
We love chili con carne with beans and also mac and cheese, but we like them served on different nights, otherwise they are too filling.
LOL Spilt union/elope was a gimme and so funny.
We had an inordinate amount of 90+° days this summer. Today is glorious, in the 70's, not humid, clear and sunny. I wish spring and fall lasted longer.
Nerts seems so old fashioned. I find it in TV shows, movies and novels, but not in everyday speech.
IMO, grading on the curve is inappropriate with a class of equally bright, highly motivated studious individuals, who all score in the 90's.
I love Poe's short stories, including The Tell Tale Heart.
Alan comes home every weekend. Today we bought a unassembled desk for him. It hung out of the trunk of my car, so we delivered it to his home and returned here. Now we are going out for pizza. Truly we both have the best of both worlds.
This Saturday Sessa seemed easier than one would expect....I guess Ed cashed the check, haha.
No markovers today....he definitely cashed it.
TTP...... I just don’t understand the United Kingdom remark...can you elucidate?
I just helped my “guy” clean my gutters....again, full of pine needles. If anyone has “Leaf Filter” installed please comment.
Enjoy the weekend, see you Monday.
PVX, talk about timing... just caught up on the blog...watching the LLWS with HI and LA.
Some future stars in that game, for sure...
It was HG's link at 31D, Age Limits...
Never thought of weightlifters as GYM RATS. A gym rat is a minimally-talented kid who makes the team by practicing all day, then sneaks into the gym after it’s closed to shoot some more - you know, when his only company are the rats.
Harvard, Boston College, Boston U, and Northeastern play in the BEANPOT Tournament, the highlight of the New England college hockey season
Billicohoes, my definition of gym rat is so different from yours and agrees with the Free Dictionary.
"Noun. 1. gym rat - someone who spends all leisure time playing sports or working out in a gymnasium or health spa. addict, freak, junkie, junky, nut - someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction; "a golf addict"; "a car nut"; "a bodybuilding freak"; "a news junkie"
The gym rats I know are totally into the gym and many look like the illustration, overly dedicated and always at the gym. I could go to the Y any day of the week, any time of the day and they were there.
Yellowrocks, that's my understanding too. Tiger Woods was called a GYM RAT by fawning golf analysts. I've heard Bruce Koepka and some of the UK basketball players called that as well. I'm so glad that Alan's new arrangement continues to work out so well.
PK, sorry to hear about your childhood chum's passing. My little graduating class of 30 has only lost one. But we are getting to that age when our numbers will start to dwindle soon.
YR, that may be, but the only times I’ve heard the term used were about basketball players.
TTP, I loved that game!
Last night I finished rereading ECOs Nane of the Rose. Fascinating book. The 2014 edition (the newest I think) has a postscript of 40 pages in which he explains what he was thinking. Almost as good as the novel. And then this morning, here it is.
I also liked ECO and ECHO. Loved ELOPE for split for a union.
Good Puzzle, Ed. Thanks. HG, loved your walkthrough.
What a pleasant walk in the park this was - brisk and therapeutic after yesterdays slug in the groin!! To me a good puzzle needs to teach me something I didn't know. This entry had two such words: Gym Rat (why in a gun show)!and Scad (a fish I never heard of since I only stream fished). Thanks for an enjoyable afternoon!
Watching Saints/Jets preseason game. Yeah I know it doesn’t count but at least it’s football! We get few enough games.
Brees just led a 72 yard 7 play drive ending in a bomb to Thomas in the back corner of the end zone. Ho him. They do that so often it ALMOST gets boring... almost.
Do we have Jets fans here? I know we have Giants fans . Every time Eli makes one of his many appearances someone comments. It’s more fun to have a fan of “the other” team watch together!
Anon PVX @ 1619 said: " I just don’t understand the United Kingdom remark...can you elucidate?"
TTP is referring to HG's link on age limits. The link gives drinking age limits in most countries. In the UK you have to be 5 to drink but 18 to buy.
Swamp - I have two favorite teams - The Cowboys, and whoever is playing the Eagles.
Same term(GYMRAT) applied to basketball addicts and serious training athletes (like Koepka).
Cubs fans of old will tell you that Mr Cub was an outstanding defensive SS when he came up. One of the last of the Negro League players.
WC
Jinx, I hear ya! I’m for the Saints and whoever is playing Atlanta! ain’t sports fun!
I’ve never been a Cowboys fan, but I gotta admit I luv luv luv Dak!!! Classy guy!
Spitz, a vegetarian Venus Flytrap. Very excellent! Does it also avoid gluten?
Jinx, wow! My favorite Sesame Street skit too! Thanks for bringing it back inside my memory bank.
Hey people. There is a football game in ESPN right that actually counts. And as we speak(or type) the vaunted SEC is getting beat. I am rooting for the upset.
Nooooo! Who’s playing?
PVX: Years ago I spent quite a goodly amount having gutter guards installed. Can't remember the brand but they were solid metal not the waffle kind. Two years later I spent a goodly amount to have them taken off. Birds kept building nests in them. We couldn't figure out how the birds entered the narrow gaps. I'm now thinking of taking down my eaves troughs because my new yard men have let my downspouts get so clogged this year.
Hi All!
Late, late, late. Oh, I did the puzzle earlier this AM but I've been caught up today in a labour of love [read: I'm coding a giggly-hack; watch what you click. that and another greater project #Squirrel!].
Tuffed it at NERTS. I had Boys wearing Ax cologne [double SIC] and no idea what a ADESTE is.
Fun puzzle otherwise. ELOPE and GYM RAT was cute.
Spitz - I donno where you come up with your JOD [Joke Of the Day], but I've loved 'em this week.
If I sleep, I'll lurk tomorrow and properly thank Ed for a (nearly) doable Sat, HG for the expo, and y'all for lively post-game commentary.
Cheers, -T
errata say: {A+, B} I got the references :-) -T
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