Debbie has said she was proud to introduce the fill of NOTORIOUS RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) in a recent NYT puzzle. Jeffrey Wechsler used that fill at this venue recently.
I seemed to move along very nicely and appreciated the clever cluing.
Across
1. Tablets that shouldn't be used with water: I PADS - Oops!
6. Mandela's org.: ANC.
9. Actress Andersson of "The Seventh Seal": BIBI - Her IMBD site
13. Officers-to-be: CADETS.
15. "Just asking": NO REASON
18. Israeli self-defense system: KRAV MAGA - Combat contact in Hebrew. The bemused look on this confident young lady's face should tell you she knows how to employ KRAV MAGA as you can see in this Video
19. Longest note?: SOL - Three letters but I'll bet you've seen it as SO occasionally or even SEW - a needle pulling thread.
22. Notre Dame legend: ROCKNE
24. Sci-fi antagonist: HAL - In 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL even reads lips and turns the tables on his human "masters" who were going to disable him
25. Had a bite: ATE.
26. Palm tree starch: SAGO - The start of the process of making SAGO in Tonga
27. Piece of advice: TIP.
29. Original Monopoly token still in use: TOP HAT.
31. Microsoft line: I'M A PC 3. 31-Across, e.g.: AD SLOGAN - and then...
35. Language group that includes Swahili: BANTU.
36. Poet's preposition: ERE.
37. Beethoven's "Bagatelle in A Minor" honoree: ELISE - Granddaughter's name and the first real piece she learned on the piano
41. "Good enough": IT'LL DO - Understated golf partner says "IT'LL DO" when someone compliments his good shot.
43. Acknowledge quietly: NOD AT.
44. Jerry or Cherry: GARCIA.
47. Meditative sounds: OMS.
49. Poses: SITS.
50. Corrida support: OLE.
51. H, to Hercules: ETA - Ηρακλής (ETA, rho, alpha, kappa, lambda, eta, zeta). Hercules in Greek
53. Expects: AWAITS.
55. "Hold that thought": PUT A PIN IN IT - From WWII meaning to put the pin back in the hand grenade. Maybe that is what this soldier should have done
58. Blackjack need: ACE.
60. Spokane and Omaha: AMERINDS.
61. Christie creation: POIROT - Who's your favorite Hercule? I've named mine is at the bottom of this write-up*
63. Faux elixir: SNAKE OIL - Origin of the phrase
65. Uses roofing material, say: TARS.
66. Get it: SEE.
67. Valuable veins: LODES.
Down:
1. Finishes in the bakery: ICES.
2. Wide view: PANORAMA - An iPhone in the process
4. It's barely passable: DEE - JFK's 8th grade Average of 77.00 would have gotten him a DEE on my grading scale
5. Got booed, maybe: STANK.
6. Egyptian life symbol: ANKH 23. Like some Egyptian churches: COPTIC - The COPTIC church founded by Saint Mark when Egypt was under the reign of Nero retained the ANKH from their pagan religion as a link to the after world
7. True __: NORTH - The variation between true NORTH and magnetic NORTH is called declination
8. Fancy neckwear: CRAVATS - The forerunner of today's neckties
9. Mah-jongg suit, familiarly: BAMS - Short for BAMBOOS
10. "Swords into plowshares" source: ISAIAH - A lovely sentiment
11. El Museo del Oro city: BOGOTA - The Museum of Gold in Columbia contains this display
12. Caught, perhaps: IN A NET.
14. Tour of duty: STINT.
16. It's a bad sign: EVIL OMEN.
21. Theodor whose middle name was Seuss: GEISEL.
26. Member of the fam: SIB.
28. Longtime "SNL" announcer: PARDO - Those of us with some more mileage on our tires remember Don PARDO working with Art Fleming on Jeopardy
 |
| Don PARDO Art Fleming |
32. Toots: CUTIE PIE.
34. Royal attendant: YEOMAN - An interesting read
38. Annual Alaskan sporting event: IDITAROD - The route map contains one of our old cwd friends - an INSET
39. 1600 is a perfect one: SAT SCORE - Ah, the old bell curve
40. UFO personnel, it's said: ET'S.
42. Some Spanish speakers: LATINOS.
44. Overshoot: GO PAST - The Eagle Lunar Module did overshoot its landing site by four miles but Neil turned off the computers and brought the craft down safely
45. Smith grad: ALUMNA - Alumna, Alumnae, Alumnus, Alumni
46. Injure again, as a ligament: RETEAR.
48. Run through a reader: SWIPE - Oops!
52. Actress MacDowell: ANDIE - I remember her in one of my favorite movies
54. Coral Sea sight: ATOLL
56. Bulky boats: ARKS - This bulky boat built in Kentucky as a tourist attraction is both an ARK replica and a lemon as it is losing money every year
57. Canaries component: ISLE - The canary shown below on one of the Canary ISLES is named for the islands not the other way around. These volcanic ISLES were originally named canariae insulae ("islands of dogs") for the large dogs that residents kept there
59. Saint-Tropez seasons: ETES.
62. Texter's qualifier: IMO.
So, waddya think of Debbie's puzzle? IMO, it made for a nice Saturday exercise
*My favorite Hercule Poirot portrayer is David Suchet who is the bottom left of the gallery
31 comments:
DNF. ICEr > ICES, rOL > SOL,
Not a clue for KRAV_AGA, WAGed lIBI, which made the mah-jongg suit unguessable, even if I had known it, which I didn't.
It's not just A SLOGAN at Acme Hero Supply
"We make superheroes look really fly!"
We have capes in all sizes, you bet!
Even for your kiddie sidekick CADET!
For magic users, we've got a TOP HAT,
TIP it just right, and villains fall flat!
Is your EVIL arch-foe a serpentine foil?
Defeat him with ease with Acme SNAKE OIL!
Our Service Department is at your disposal
To keep jet-packs and Cat-mobiles mobile.
Your robotic YEOMAN we'll make virus-free,
Just humor him when he SAYS, "I'M A P.C."
Does your NIGHT VISION need sharpening up?
Acme EYE-PADS can bring them to snuff!
And NO REASON to let romance GO PAST
Try Acme Tardinder*, IT'LL DO for an app!
{A.} *brownie points if you identified the portmanteau.
And whether you work the Jumble or not, check out my poem at JH today.
Good morning Corner. My early ANTHEM.
Debbie has really broken out this year with increased publications and some mentoring collaborations. She was originally mentored by Nancy Salomon and then Jeff Chen. She has really benefitted from David Steinberg taking over the Universal crossword.
This was much fun with lots of challenging fill like AMERIND and KRAV MAGA along with PUT A PIN IN IT and CUTIE PIE .
Still adjusting to the time zone; be well all.
18A confidently wrote in iron dome, but perps came up with krav?aga. Had to google to get the m for 9D bams.
51A should be clued "H, to Heracles" - Hercules was the Romanized, Latin version of his name.
I've heard that IDITAROD is missing an "o"
After a stormy night, real stormy, I get a puzzle with Microsoft and Apple crossing on the first clue. And I finished with a correct WAG at 9A & 9D. BAMS & BIBI- don't know anything about Mah-jonng or BIBI Andersson. Mine's a PC and its name is HAL-2. It replaced HAL
BOGATA, YEOMAN, & AMERINDS- I really didn't know but they were easy to figure out. Museum of Mining and American Indian tribes. ELMORE- never saw that movie; thank you perps.
"She spends her free time reading, watching MSNBC"- we know which side of the aisle she's on. Why do I think that? NO REASON.
DEE- JFK's report card. I'll bet Joseph Kennedy didn't have to bribe an Ivy school.
FLN- TTP- I don't do emojis, GIFs, or care what's trending or viral. When I read about 'influencers' getting paid for Twitter or Instagram plugs I just think: "How stupid can people be?" Answer: Pretty stupid.
ISLE, ISLA, ILE, ISLAND- all the same and on that note I'll get out of here.
Good morning!
Nope. Not even close. If I ever knew KRAVMAGA, it's long lost in the plaques of what remains of my brain. Know nothing of mah-jongg, so BAMS was a mystery. That pesky M could'a been almost anything. Bzzzzzzt! DNF. Thanx, Debbie and Husker.
B-E, time to go back to bed and get up on the other side.
Does anyone know why the Elmore Leonard/Get Shorty clue specifies the "original" movie poster? Did his name get removed from the credits at some point or something? To say it has to be the "original" seems oddly specific.
99.9% correct...got it all except the M in KRAVMAGA...darn!
Nice Saturday puzzle - not too easy, not too hard!
Never heard of AMERINDS.
BOGOTA - I did my 6th grade social studies project on Columbia long ago, when they were known for their coffee. Think I got a bunch of stuff mailed to me from their Embassy.
Generally steady fill with challenges, but quicker than some Saturdays. I'm with D-O - the cross of unknowns with BAMS and KRAVMAGA brought me a square short of a FIR. I thought the Mah-jongg suit could be BARS or BATS but never got to the right answer!
Thanks HG and Debbie!
I'm guessing that "original movie" was meant to indicate the movie as opposed to the Netflix series.
Sometimes even after three breaks, it's just time to throw in the towel. No idea on the M in KRAV MAGA and BAMS.
Got a chuckle out of Cherry or Jerry.
Thank you Debbie and thank you Husker Gary. Loved the visuals. Enjoyed watching the KRAV MAGA clip. Thanks for the link to the brief explanation on snake oil. Never would have guessed the origin.
Welcome back, Lemonade.
Rapid fill for a Saturday. So encouraging at first but alas DNF. Like others the "m" in the 18 across/9down eluded me. Never heard of either.
For awhile hesitated to fill 8 down "cravats" the clue sounded singular.
Always thought cravat was a fancy way of saying necktie but the the typical googled definition is:
"a short, wide strip of fabric worn by men around the neck and tucked inside an open-necked shirt" I like that as I wouldn't have to constantly retie to get the thin and wide ends the right length.
Temporarily put "isla" as the Canaries are Spanish speaking.
ISLE know better next time.
Good Morning:
It's not often that I am forced into a FIW, but the crossing of two unknowns, Kravmaga and Bams, did me in. That's a Natick, if ever there was one. That said, the rest of the fill was either straightforward or easily inferable. I wasn't keen on Enseat and Put A Pin In It and I Am A PC are new to me. I had Yes Man before Yeoman and Taro before Sago.
Thanks, Debbie, for a Saturday stumper and thanks, HG, for the usual, much-appreciated enlightenment and entertainment. That clip of the coffee-deprived kitty gave me a chuckle.
I had to return a package of meat yesterday that had a Use or Freeze Date of Novenber 1, but, when opened, had an off-odor. I was given a gift card for double the original price. Maybe all chains have this policy, yes? I think I 've only had to return things twice, over a 17 year period, so I guess I can't complain. (I didn't have the receipt so that's why I was given a gift card instead of cash, which didn't matter to me.)
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
On the easy side for a Saturday. Agree with Husker about the clever cluing. PUT A PIN IN IT was not familiar to me, but perps were adamant. Had trouble parsing the NW but finally got it right. KRAV MAGA was a learning. Ultimately FIR.
True NORTH - Variation and declination are interchangeable when applied to the magnetic compass heading compared with true NORTH, and agrees with Merriam-Webster. Dutton's Navigation stresses use of the phrase magnetic declination.
This one seemed fair...
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Debbie Ellerin, for a fi e puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Puzzle was tough, but it is Saturday, after all.
I bounced around and got most of it eventually.
PANORAMA came easily. AD SLOGAN came with many perps and, after getting IM A PC. That iced the NW corner.
SW corner I got with logic, a couple perps and a wag or two. CUTIE PIE was a big help.
POIROT appeared. I have read several of those mysteries. IDITAROD was easy after I got a couple letters. Once I had SCORE, I just plugged in SAT. ELMORE was unknown, but how could I miss with six perps. ELISE I have heard before tied to Beethoven.
The NE corner is another story. Thank goodness I got NIGHT VISION easily. TOP HAT became obvious. ISAIAH was obvious. CRAVATS made sense. ANKH and NORTH were easy with a perp or two. IN A NET worked since I had the NET part.
My hang up in the NE was BAMS and KRAV MAGA crossing. I do not play Mah Jongg. I had the KRAV and AGA. No idea what letter would become the M. So I came here and got the answer. Missed by one letter.
I really enjoyed the puzzle. Lots of good stuff. I will try to remember KRAV MAGA. Now that it is out there we will probably see it again.
As Husker gary mentioned, I tried to look up ENSEAT. Not in either of my two dictionaries, either. When I go to the library next I will see if it is in the OED that they have there.
One question, if the TOP HAT is one of the original Monopoly pieces still use, are there any others? And what are the new ones? I used to play that game as a youth endlessly. I have not played it in decades. Maybe I will look it up on line.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Folks: I am back.
If I read the internet correctly, the following are recent tokens in Monopoly:
Race Car, Scottie dog, Cat, Boot, Thimble, Top Hat, Wheelbarrow, and Battleship
The Boot, Wheelbarrow, and Thimble have been or will be replaced.
Replacements are: Tyrannasaurus Rex, Rubber Ducky, and Penguin
So, with that, I am out of here.
Abejo
( )
Great Saturday puzzle! I didn’t know KRAVMAGA or BAMS, but got everything else and learned about snake oil too. Love Elmore Leonard’s books - my favorite is Maximum Bob, which made me laugh out loud!
Thank you, Debbie, for a nice workout, and thank you Gary for the informative and very entertaining walkthrough.
Well, Saturdays are toughies, but I got off to a decent start with ICES and IPADS, and then CADETS, and STANK, which gave me ROCKNE. Not bad, for a start. Always nice to see HAL turn up, as he does pretty often. Would never have gotten KRAV MAGA, and even had trouble with CUTIE PIE (okay, it is cute in response to TOOTS.) And I was delighted to see Nancy PELOSI appear. So, lots of fun stuff--many thanks, Debbie. And Husker Gary, I agree with you about liking David Suchet as my favorite Hercule POIROT.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Hola!
This puzzle was both easy and hard and I see that I'm in good company. KRAV MAGA/BAMS was a true Natick as has been well said. Mah-jongg is not a game I'm familiar with and have never before heard of the Israeli self defense system. Now I know.
The rest of the grid came easily and as I sashayed through it I thought, "this won't take long." Hah! Thinking I could work it out, I kept at it but finally LIU.
BIBI Andersson is also unfamiliar to me. I would have known Netanyahu's nickname.
David Suchet is also my favorite POIROT. I own a set of the VCR tapes which I can still play because my player has dual ports.
Several of my cousins are GARCIAs. After Martinez I believe it's the most common surname among LATINOS.
Gary, thank you for the éclat you add to the Saturday blog.
Misty:
It's good to see you today and I hope you are feeling better.
Lemonade:
Welcome home!
I hope you are all having an excellent day!
Owen:
You really are brilliant! I read the poem you linked and can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Excellent puzzle, Debbie. Excellent write-up, Gary. I liked them both.
KRAV MAGA was totally unknown to me, too. I have played Mah-Jongg with my wife's relatives, none of whom, of course, have ever used the term BAM.
My biggest stumbling block was in the center, where I had entered EER instead of ERE, didn't know PARDO, and had CRAVATE (yeah, I felt at the time it looked funny) instead of CRAVATS. So it was nigh unto impossible for me to suss SAYS ME and YEOMAN.
I couldn't see past IMAP (the common email protocol) something, so IMAPC made no sense to me. Which also rendered ADSLOGAN incomprehensible to me.
And then there was AMERINDS, which my mind kept insisting was some kind of fruit.
So, DNF.
I also got a chuckle out of "Cherry or Jerry" and liked David Suchet the best.
Here's wishing you all a good day.
Your kindness brightens my day, Lucina, many thanks. Yes, I am feeling a little better this morning and keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue.
Wow, fast and easy for a Saturday! Yeah! Solving from the bottom up, I hit my comeuppance at the M in KRAV MAGA and BAM. I wagged BIBI, but had no idea of the M Natick. My other sore spot was the L and last A in AD SLOGAN.
Enseat is very rare. So rare I wasn't sure it was correct.
I didn't know why SOL was the longest note, so didn't add the L to SO-. Just this minute I realized that SOL has three letters and do re mi fa la ti do all have two. Duh!
I was mystified by IM_PC. I vaguely remember I'M A PC, now that I see it. I was looking for a type of PC, since I didn't have slogan.
FUN puzzle, David. Great expo, Gary.
I attended my friend's Memorial service today. He bravely pursued a normal life and kept his cancer, diagnosed as fatal, under control for several years. By February, at age 69, he was in the end stage and has failed rapidly since then. He will be dearly missed by me and many.
Hi All!
I bombed out in the NE [needed to 'phone a friend' re: KRAVMAGA and lookup BIBI]. I really STANK-up the SW by entering CAPITALs for Spokane and Omaha (er, that's Olympia and Lincoln, respectively, Moron!) //at least I got the right homonym for capital ;-)
And, yet, with all the cheats, I still FIW w/ ANnIE MacDowell.
Thanks Debbie - very well clued puzzle but, alas some stuff I just didn't know [Saturdays are my "learning days."]. Thanks HG for the detailed expo heightening the lessons.
WOs: ACA b/f ANC b/c Ascot had to be [I can add extra Ss & Ts, No?].
ESPs: SAT SCORE - I kept thinking of perfect square or address for a White House, ELMORE, ROCKNU (I assume not a SIB of Quasimodo), more I'm sure...
Fav: clue for CUTIE PIE. I was still thinking toots=verb, plural b/f I realized it's what you DON'T call your waitress.
A tribute to Don PARDO who also announced SNL.
{A+ //Tardinder(?), Really? LOL}
LOL on your last line Ray-O-Sun
My buddy does KRAVMAGA (the friend it phoned/txt'd) a few nights a week. We tease that he's play-fighting with his buddies. //Actually, I admire it and want him in my fox-hole. But we will still tease the hell out of him and his bunker-mentality ways.
BigE - read my FLN for what I think of people's vapidity. Or just listen to this Refreshments' song. :-)
I've played Mah-jongg but didn't know the colors were "suits" nor what they were called. If I were to play again, I will certainly need a refresher.
HG - There was a guy who flunked out of Basic Training because he almost blewup himself and Drill after pulling the PIN.
Welcome home Lem. Nice to SEE you're feeling better Misty.
Cheers, -T
I earned a Ta~ DA! minus one, all because of that *#@! BAMS/KRAV MAGA Natick. Along with Irish Miss and a host of others who know nothing of Israeli Defense and Mah-Jongg suits, I count myself in elite company today.
My only personal connection to today's pzl is the ETE I spent just outside St. Tropez (at St. Maxime-sur-Mer). Those were the days, my friend...
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal on the far end.
The anagram: The apprentice baker was not sure how much of the leavening agent to use with a batch of 5 loaves of bread. Just when he was about to add more of the cerevisiae fungus to the new dough, a master baker saw what he was about to do.
“Stop, “ cried the senior artisan, “I’m sure you have enough. Be sure you make these…
“NO YEASTIER!”
I usually don't even look at the Saturday puzzle because they are too hard for me. It's raining all day today so I thought I'd try it for a change. Glad I did! I got at least half of it right on my own! I also needed several peeks at the grid. Thank you, Debbie Ellerin for the fun time and thanks H-G for the write-up.
I used to play Mah Jongg so I knew the BAMS.
38D Annual Alaskan sporting event, IDITAROD: if you're interested in one man's experience competing in this race you may enjoy reading "Winterdance The fine madness of running the Iditarod" by Gary Paulsen. He decided he wanted to get a team of dogs, train them and compete in the race. What could possibly go wrong? Some of it is laugh-out-loud funny, there are a couple bad incidents, but it's his reality.
Have a good evening.
Abejo - thanks for looking up the new Monopoly pieces. Growing up, my family played every week and Step-mom was ruthless. If I every play with the new Monopoly set, I'm going with Penguin (I was usually the boot) so I can do my best Burgess Meredith impersonation as I build hotels on Baltic Ave and Park Place while crushing the little people :-) //read all about it! The history.
OMK - LOL DR.
Pat, nice to see you back at The Corner.
Cheers, -T
KenoRunner, thank you for explaining the "original" Get Shorty comment! I'm sure you are right that is what the constructor meant. I did not know there was a series. It's still a bit odd to me because Elmore Leonard was not the movie screenwriter, and both the movie and the TV series are based on his novel, but it makes a lot more sense than I had originally been thinking! So thank you again!
-Anonymous at 7:09AM
I must remind you all using "Indian" in conjunction with our Native Americans (as in Amerinds) is perpetuating a mistake Columbus made in s letter to Isabella over 500 years ago. Please show respect to our Native American heritage by disallowing clues that refer to them as a"Indian"!
Bobbi - This blog does not create the clues. They are developed under the aegis of the LAT. If you have an issue, write to them.
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