We are back under the magic spell of the creative mind of Jeffrey Wechsler. For this opus, he has combined two favorite themes - letter substitution and sound-alike. Of course, his goal is humor with the cluing. He pulls it all together with a very classic grid-spanning reveal smack dab in the middle [etymology is a bit vague- LINK] of the puzzle. Since JW's mind works differently than most, I am not sure what came first, the "T" changing to "V" or the sound changes in the new phrases. Such is the joy of solving. As is usual with JW, he builds a consistent grid with the change in the first word in themer 1/5 and the second word for 2/4. Overall, the puzzle is not one of his most difficult ones with many 3 and 4 letter-fill to keep the solving going. He does add GYM SHOES, VANTAGES and SALES SLIP and introduces LINE C and PAPARAZZO to our vocabulary list. JD, if you are solving, do you still keep a list?
The theme:
17A. Street stand with full permits?: LEGAL VENDOR (11). Legal TENDER is the base phrase.
23A. "Who wants to visit Muscle Beach?"?: VENICE ANYONE (12). TENNIS anyone. Venice Beach California.
45A. Dumps litter in the woods, e.g.?: VEXES RANGERS (12). Baseball's TEXAS Rangers.
57A. King's pulse, BP, etc.?: ROYAL VITALS (11). Royal TITLES.
And the reveal:
37A. Got ready to binge-watch ... or a hint to phonetic changes in four puzzle answers: SWITCHED ON THE TV (15). A classic "reveal" that clearly inspired the creation of the puzzle.
On to the specifics:
Across:
1. Skip: BYPASS. Not the easiest of starts, but straight forward once you see it. The word has morphed from simply not doing something (I will bypass dessert) to become a significant medical term and procedure.
7. Say good things about: LAUD. Straight from the Latin laudare: to praise. We get our academic cum laude but not Lauderdale. More Latin ahead.
11. Umami source, briefly: MSG. MonoSodium Glutamate. We have discussed this new taste sense recently.
14. City grid feature: AVENUE. Perps are streets, among others.
15. Detective's need: INFO. A bit unfair as the phrasing does not suggest an abbreviation, but CLUE.
16. "So there it is!": AHA. Our moment. And ANA and ONO.
19. Filch: ROB. Played by Dick van Dyke when he was young.
20. Tee preceder: ESS. ARR ESS TEE
21. Sufferer cleansed by Jesus: LEPER. Too clearly a religious topic but you can find it in the KJV, Mark 1:40-45
22. See 35-Down: GIRL. 35. With 22-Across, proud parent's cry: IT'S A. One of two for those who hate this paired fill.
26. AFC South athletes: TITANS. With their new "star" quarterback- Ryan Tannehill.
29. Sen. Warren, e.g.: DEM. Senator - Democrat,
30. "... for none of woman __ / Shall harm Macbeth": BORN. Act IV, Scene 1
MACBETH
Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.
SECOND APPARITION
Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
31. Receipt: SALES SLIP.
40. Shutterbug who bugs: PAPARAZZO. The singular of Paparazzi and the topic surrounding the death of Princess Di.
41. Brewer's kiln: OAST. Will Owen host a poem about a boast from a brewer's oast to be read coast to coast?
42. VW Golf model: GTI.
43. Considered to be: SEEN AS.
51. Stout choices: ALES. Some beer punning.
52. Violate a truce: REARM.
53. Onetime part of Portuguese India: GOA. There much to learn about Portuguese Estado da Índia
56. Drug injector: PEN. Linked to 18D. 56-Across prefix: EPI.
60. Tokyo-born artist: ONO.
61. Group with pledges: FRAT.
62. "Quit it!": ENOUGH.
63. Was the boss of: RAN.
65. Pinball wizard's reward: REPLAY.
Down:
1. Farm storage unit: BALE. Not related to Christian.
2. First name in couture: YVES. St. Laurent.
3. Categorizes: PEGS.
4. Carrier with Tokyo HQ: ANA. All Nippon Airways.
5. In a dark mood: SULLEN. Morose, dour, hostile, churlish, petulant, somber, gloomy, ugly, glum, surly, grumpy, bad-tempered, cheerless, crabby, cross, cynical, dismal, dull, fretful, gruff.
6. Winning slot machine line: SEVENS. More gambling. Hmm JW lives near Atlantic City?
7. Where to claim a W-4 head-of-household allowance: LINE-C.
Form W-4 2020
Employee’s Withholding Certificate
Enter Personal Information
(a) First name and middle initial Last name
Address
City or town, state, and ZIP code
(b) Social security number
▶ Does your name match the name on your social security card? If not, to ensure you get credit for your earnings, contact SSA at 800-772-1213 or go to www.ssa.gov.
(c) Single or Married filing separately
Married filing jointly (or Qualifying widow(er))
Head of household (Check only if you’re unmarried and pay more than half the costs of keeping up a home for yourself and a qualifying individual.)
8. Author Gide: ANDRE. An Essayist and Novelist I read in college both in English and French. You might like his WORKS or at least his perception. "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."
9. Airborne mystery: UFO.
10. Palme __: film award: D'OR. From the 72nd Cannes Film Festival
11. Super __: MARIO. The co-star of the great NES games. I wonder why they are not the Super Luigi Brothers?
12. Cut off: SHORN. I always think of Samson.
13. Gothic architecture feature: GABLE. Yes, they use Clark's picture on all the throwback buildings.
22. Fitness training apparel: GYM SHOES. I am not sure if shoes are in fact apparel. Look at a mall map for example. It's broken down into Men's Apparel, Ladies Apparel, Children's Apparel, Shoes, and depending on the size of your mall accessories (such as handbags, baby equipment, and jewelry).
If you look at it from a big box store perspective, such as Wal-Mart or Target, shoes are located in a completely separate area away from their core fashion. Men's shoes are never in the men's department for example. Also promotionally, if Target were to have a sale on apparel, such as 25% off all summer fashion, it would never include footwear unless it was explicitly stated.
23. Superior positions: VANTAGES. Ad?
24. Port SSE of Sana'a: ADEN.
25. Source of tweets: NEST. Not the one from Google, but nature.
26. Culinary meas.: TBSP.
27. "Field of Dreams" locale: IOWA. It is in Dubuque County, Iowa, near Dyersville.
28. Vacation option: TRIP.
31. "__ who?": SEZ. Sez me!
32. Hatchet relative: ADZ. An axlike tool, for dressing timbers roughly, with a curved, chisellike steel head mounted at a right angle to the wooden handle.
33. John in Albert Hall: LOO. So why is the term for bathroom in Britain? One theory - when emptying chamberpots out the window, British servants warned passersby in the street below with the shout “Gardez l'eau!” (French for “Watch out for the water!”), which was pronounced “gardy loo” in Britain and later shortened to “loo.”
34. Steakhouse order: LEAN. Sounds to me more like a corned beef or pastrami order.
36. Low mil. ranks: PVTS. And parts of a Howard Stern book title.
38. Old PC monitors: CRTS. Cathode Ray TubeS.
39. '60s musical: HAIR. A musical that began in 1968 reflected the hippies and anti-war and NUDITY! Still talked about, it was a show that impacted Broadway and mainstream counter-culture.
43. Sommelier, e.g.: SERVER. In America often called the Wine Steward.
44. White weasel: ERMINE. White weasel, while alliterative, does not sound appealing. Popular in the pre-PETA days and appearing twice this week in the LAT.
45. Steam, for one: VAPOR. Hence vaping.
46. John Paul's successor: ELENA. Justice Stevens and Justice Kagan. Not Popes.
47. Element from the Greek for "strange": XENON. Also, Xenophobia.
48. Indo-__ languages: ARYAN. How many have watched MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE on AMAZON? Tiny spoiler alert.
49. "Peachy!": NEATO. Keen!
50. 128 fl. oz.: GAL. Right next to...
53. Conquest for Caesar: GAUL. "Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est." Six years of Latin should not go to waste.
54. Lingerie brand: OLGA. This is a deja vu moment for me, but perhaps I saw their products while shopping at Kohls with my wife. LINK. I was sure it had just been in a puzzle here as clued.
55. Grayish: ASHY. We have many variations of this word lately.
57. '60s A.G.: RFK. Robert F. Kennedy was the Attorney General of the US-appointed by his brother.
58. Natural resource: ORE. A natural resource is defined as a resource that cannot be replaced in our lifetime. They include metal ores, fossil fuels, earth minerals, and in some in certain situations groundwater
59. Word with dollar or dog: TOP. Once again we reach the bottom of the puzzle, but come out on top from a very entertaining roller coaster ride.
We have had a great week of weather. Not quite cold enough for a fireplace, but we had fun with the grandkids at their firepit. I hope you all weathered the storm and slalomed your way through Jeffrey's latest opus. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
Happy 82nd birthday to dear Lucina, who's been with our blog for over 9 years. Lucina travels to CA often and has met with a few of our blog (ex) regulars.
Left to Right: Chickie, JD, Garlic Gal and Lucina.
June 3, 2015
53 comments:
Hi everybody. I figured out the gimmick even before solving the reveal at the center. I enjoyed the clever puzzle, especially since I could get it all. Thanks Jeffrey. It's satisfying to be successful.
Carol and I FIR in 42:13 min.
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler for your challenging Friday CW. We sussed the theme at 17 A. When I saw that this was a J.W. creation, I knew that we were in for a fun solve.
Thank you Lemonade for your excellent review.
Happy birthday Lucy. May you enjoy many more. The Matriarch of our Assisted Living Center celebrated her 99th B-Day yesterday.
Ðave
One of those days when I found that I knew things I didn’t know I knew. A bit of a slog in spots, but a welcome challenge.
Good morning!
Had lotsa trouble up top -- Silo/Barn/Bale, Sever/Shave/Shorn. (Thank you, Wite-Out.) Kept JAL as my airline for too long. Didn't know which sport had an AFC South, so TITANS was slow to appear. (College football?) The tweet source was NEST, not PREZ. Like Bill G, I sussed the theme before the reveal. Good thing, because I (yet again) failed to read the full clue and didn't realize that the reveal was a reveal. D'oh! Got 'er done in good time, so life is good. Thanx, JW and Lemonade.
Forgot to mention, we had a brief power outage overnight. Not very long, but long enough to confuse the coffeemaker, so there was no hot coffee at the appointed time. Tends to make me grouchy and groggy. Otherwise, I would have skated easily through this one. Riiiiight.
I’m up early today, so already finished the puzzle. Some clever answers, liked VEXESRANGERS. My mini-gripe is too many fill-in the blanks, never get trying to guess an obscure word from a Shakespeare quote.
We’re into the ASHY season in Vermont, technically late Fall. Not a lot of sun in the forecast.
Finished in 15:41. Just "meh." I've come to anticipate a higher level from Mr. Wechsler.
Good morning. Thank you, Jeffrey, and thank you, Lemonade.
Happy Birthday to Lucina !
Also, happy birthday to Anonymous T's mom !
Lemonade, I agree. One of Jeffrey's easier Fridays, but that's ok with me. Still in my funk.
TITANS was quickly determined to be the correct answer because of IOWA, but I wondered how many would try TexANS. Suppose someone had little to no sports knowledge, so they would have trouble with that AFC South clue, and compound it by not knowing "Field of Dreams"
Gotta run. Back later.
Boy, was I all over the place on this Wechsler puzzle. I've never played a slot machine but I thought that some of the various things had to match in order to win. I didn't help that I had filled SOLEMN instead of SULLEN either. I knew 7D was LINE-something but ANDRE & DOR were two unknowns. Anybody out there fill out their 1040 form by hand? I use Turbo-Tax.
I caught the T to V replacement at VENICE ANYONE because LEGAL VENDOR is not an unusual term.
VANTAGE just looked strange without the 'ad' in front of it and I learned the singular of PAPARAZZI, thanks to the LOO. But the SW VEXED me the most. I couldn't get the pope out of my mind for John Paul and the SCOTUS V8 moment hit without injecting the EPI-PEN.
OLGA was an unknown and POCAHONTAS wouldn't fit for the Warren clue.
Lemonade-Keep a list? NO. I like the challenge of having to figure out the unknowns. No Google, no internet, no X-word dictionary. If I'm at a dead end I'll quit the puzzle and pick it up a few hours later. But I know when I lose against the constructor.
jfromvt- my Shakespeare quote fills are always guesses
FIR, but boy-oh-boy did I erase! texans for TITANS, silo for BALE, jal (hi DO) for ANA, abort for SHORN, GYM short for SHOES, and axe for ADZ.
First thought for Steam was the one hit by those one-hit wonders. Still played in sports venues after the home team has clinched a victory.
HBDTY Lucina. As you know, in Phoenix AVENUEs run north/south, starting at First just west of Central. Streets run the same going east. IIRC, each 10 blocks is a mile. So the 5500 block of West Pinnacle Peak would be about 5.5 miles from downtown, close to 55th ave. Really easy to navigate there.
FLN: PK, I chuckled about the terrier story until I read "I would bite her", then I guffawed.
Thanks to JefWech for the fine puzzle. But I also didn't like the LEAN order from a steakhouse. And thanks to Lemony for the fine tour.
No ad, but you sometimes move to find a better VANTAGE point.
Too bad for MacBeth, that MacDuff was not born, but from his mother's womb "untimely ripped." Caesarean section? Tolkien stole the idea in Lord of the Rings, where "no man" could harm the chief Ring-wraith, but he was killed by a woman and a hobbit.
Nice puzzle. I particularly liked that each of the V-words is spelled differently than the original T-word, which added an extra layer of construction difficulty.
Musings
-Wechsler with a touch of Lemon makes for a fun Friday
-I “TURN ON” the TV, lights, A/C, etc not “SWITCH ON”. Is that verb use an east coast thing?
-The severe spring floods literally BYPASSED our part of town north of the railroad tracks
-C’mon Bill, you couldn’t just say, “No one will harm MacBeth” :-)
-Paul Drake supplied INFO that Perry Mason pieced together
-Weary of war, France and Britain allowed Hitler to REARM
-We saw this lovely, engaging film last night and I’m sure the Palm D’OR people did not
-The movie mentioned above addressed repairing a broken father/son relationship as was done in Field Of Dreams
-We paid $65 for a great bleacher VANTAGE point on Colorado Boulevard a few New Years’ Days ago
-Happy Birthday, Lucina
Good Morning:
Unlike a few other Cornerites, I found this more difficult than most recent Friday puzzles. But I'm not complaining because I have often said I prefer a late week challenge more than a quick and easy solve. Jeffrey must have heard me, based on my struggle with this head-scratcher! I just couldn't get any traction with the theme answers until I read the reveal and then I saw the light! I, too, hesitated at Barn-Silo-Bale until Bypass became apparent. Another stumbling block was focusing on John Paul the Pope rather than the Justice. My only w/o was Axe before Adz. The Epi and Pen duo was fun as was the reappearance of our friendly white weasel, Ermine. I agree that the clue for Lean is off kilter. I can't imagine anyone ordering a lean steak.
Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a crunchy but doable solve and thanks, Lemony, for your expert analysis and witty commentary.
Happy Birthday, dear Lucina, I hope your day is very special! 🎂🎁🍾🎈🎉
Best wishes to your Mom, Anon T.
FLN
PK, I will never see or hear of a Cairn Terrier again without seeing your reincarnated furry self exacting revenge! Bite on, girl! (I laughed so hard reading your post that my stomach hurt!)
It's snowing like crazy but I don't think we're going to get more than a few inches, but probably just enough to affect road conditions.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
Saw JW's name at the bottom of the grid and wondered what kind of mischief was in store for us, today. Kinda got the theme after BYPASSing most of the puzzle to the bottom and gaining a foothold with ROYAL VITALS. The other theme fills came in due course. ADEN was prompted by 4 letters, which excluded Hodeida. LEPER had me scratching my head briefly because I thought his name was wanted. Then I realized LEPER was fine as it was. Fun clue for LOO.
ADZ - I would have thought 'axe' was a better relative to 'hatchet'. Adzes are used for skinning bark off wood and shaping. YMMV
Today is Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) day in the Netherlands. Big deal for the kids.
I love a Wechsler puzzle. As usual I wasn’t sure I could do it, then I suss it out and I’m delighted at the outcome.
Hola! Happy St. Nicholas Day!
I, too, leaped for joy when I saw Jeff Wechsler's name on this puzzle and like Irish Miss prefer the late-week more challenging ones.
After jumping around and finding no joy at the top, I slithered to the bottom where I knew ENOUGH to complete that section. ELENA was slow to emerge as I also was looking for a Pope.
In the middle I recalled IOWA though I don't follow sports and didn't see the movie but the review revealed it. Too, I learned the singular, PAPARAZZO and I loved the clue for LOO, John in Albert Hall. After re-reading the theme answers I caught the TV switcheroo. Very clever, JW!
I've had students from GOA, India, where Portuguese is spoken.
LEAN seemed odd to me as steakhouse order; tonight I'll have a medium rare one at Longhorn's.
Thank you, C.C., for remembering my birthday and thank you to all for the birthday wishes. Sometimes, but not often, I still feel like 28 instead of the reverse!
Have a happy day, everyone!
DNF, & Wees (except 7:46AM)
Nope, never saw the theme...
Hmm, read instead at the Doctors office?
I'll bring my own reading material thank you very much.
Seeing a bunch of sick people licking their fingers
to turn magazine pages just can't be unseen...
Happy Birthday Lucina!
At Yellowrocks suggestion, here is a cake with butterflies on it!
Besides, the one with your name on it seemed to be getting ahead of itself...
Anon-T, does you Mom read the Blog?
Good morning, everyone! Have to say Jeff made me work hard for the solve today. Just couldn’t seem to get a foothold until midway through the grid and still needed red-letter help to finish. Thanks, Lemony, for helping it all make sense.
I had the same quandary as a few others did at 1D choosing among BARN / SILO / BALE. Oddly enough, my first theme answer was the grid-spanning reveal, which helped with the rest of the themers. Initially filled in PAPARAZZi at 40A until I realized we needed the singular PAPARAZZO. I have a purse full of SALESLIPs after a Christmas shopping foray yesterday. I love the season, but coming up with gift ideas for everyone is always a struggle. ERMINE has certainly been getting a lot of play lately.
A very happy 82nd birthday to you, Lucina. Your posts are always a bright spot in the day.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCINA ... tonight's "First Toast" is to YOU !!!
Lemon: Nice write-up ... though I didn't solve the puzzle.
Cheers!
Great puzzle, but DNF. Tough one for me. My experience was similar to IM's, but I didn't FIR due to two red letters. I would rather red letter what I can't do than fail to complete it. It took me too long to suss the theme. After that things went more quickly. The theme was really clever.
Happy birthday, Lucy. Enjoy your steak dinner.
Outback Steakhouse advertises "OUTBACK CENTER-CUT SIRLOIN. Center-cut for tenderness. Lean, hearty and full of flavor."
Lovely, lovely cake, Dave. Just my style.
I was looking for the pope, too, before Elena.
The first hymn I could play on the piano was "All glory, LAUD and honor" in the key of C Major, no sharps or flats. These days I can't play anything. Too much bridge in the caf with my fiance, instead of piano practice. Also tin ear.
I hear and read LAUDABLE quite a bit. LAUD seems more rare.
CEDave:
Thank you for the gorgeous birthday cake! I love it and virtual cake is all I can have these days.
Yellowrocks:
You haven't told us about your fiancé! Oh, you mean in the past.
All Glory, LAUD and Honor we sometimes sing in our church.
Tinbeni:
Thank you for the toast! I shall have a Margarita tonight to accompany it.
Don't even want to see the answer of this mess. Wexler needs a day job if this is the best he can produce! Inane clues and obscure answers do not a puzzle make ... poetically said. Well, back to hanging up Christmas lights ...a pleasant chore which recessed to tackle this mess. Sorry, Jeffrey,ya' ain't getten' no present from me this year.
HBD Lucina!
Yep, this was surprisingly easy for a Wechsler--a good thing, as I was in a hurry this a.m., overseeing the arrival of our Xmas tree as well as payday for our gardener.
We're squeezing these otherwise routine events in between bouts of rain here in SoCal.
No word here yet from Owen, but we just saw a brief post from him on the Jumble site. He says he is physically OK.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal on the mirror side. It has only one vowel, so pretty useless for anagrams. Unless you're into...
"DIRNDLS,"
it's not for you.
Enjoyed this outing with a JW puzzle - just a few slowdowns eg with how many Ps, Rs, and Zs in PAPARAZZO. WEES with SILO to BARN to BALE.
HG - the Shakespeare quote is cryptic because it's the witches' prophecy and they all talk in riddles. "For none of woman born shall harm MacBeth" made him think he was invincible - but MacDuff who killed him was not "of woman born" but instead "untimely ripped" (sounds like emergency C-section)
Thanks Lemonade and JW for an enjoyable outing!
Happy birthday Lucina- hope you have a wonderful day celebrating!
So glad to hear that Owen is okay.
Have a wonderful birthday, Lucina.
I just posted a complaint about this puzzle entry - basically that a puzzle should challenge a silver, not flummox them. The post wasn't posted. Why?
Happy birthday, Lucina!
I liked this puzzle. Hand up for fiddling around with SILO-BARN-BALE in order to get the NW corner to work. Having ITSA GIRL instead of GIRL ITSA didn't work, nor did having RARE instead of LEAN, LED instead of RAN, AXE instead of ADZ, and REGAL instead of ROYAL. So I had to fiddle around with and change several of my answers to get everything to work out. Plenty of enjoyment, though. Thanks, Jeffrey.
I think any of the sommeliers that I know would be offended to be referred to as a SERVER.
Like Gary, I TURN things on and off. The British, apparently SWITCH things on and off.
Speaking of binge watching, LW and I watched and enjoyed quite a few episodes of The Crown on Netflix while at our son's house in San Diego. He has excellently high-speed internet there, so streaming works very well. We can't stream stuff at home because our stupid DSL speed is sluggishly slow. LW is still mulling over whether to change to Comcast (aka Xfinity) cable, which is the only alternative available here in "The Heart of Silicon Valley."
On a British show we watched on TV last night, they kept alternating between saying "lorry" and "truck."
Good wishes to you all.
Hi All!
Whew! I nearly got a JW Friday but, like yesterday's Cigar, close doesn't buy it.
Thanks JW for the fun puzzle; Thanks Lem for a fine review.
Like Spitz, this was mostly a bottom-up solve but, like BigE, I bounced around alot.
WOs: PoPARAZZi lead to OHIO, ONO in PEN's squares leading to [see Popes below]
ESPs: DOR, ANDRE. OLGA, GOA shoulda/coulda been.
DNF - G-O xing -LGA
FIW: Left the i in PAPARAZZi (that's plural? I didn't know who John LOi was but he must'a practiced, practiced, practiced :-)) and I had ERsINE as a weasel (REARS (it's ugly head)) would surely violate a treaty, no?)
I held off seemingly forever on Silo v. Barn as neither agreed with [is it going to be?] AVENUE. An hour+ into the puzzle, BALE finally dawned.
Re theme: so, I had the TV for a while + ROYAL VITALS and thought there's a VT/TV in each themer!; but, when VENICE beach came to mind, um.... Finally I saw the punny LEGAL VENDOR and then filled SWITCHED ON THE TV with only a few perps in place(whoot!); finally the West fell.
Hand-up for Pope spotting too -- and with ONO in the wrong squares, LEO??* or LEON?* it was going to be. //John Paul I, I assume ;-)
Fav: Alms for an ex-LEPER.
HG - Somewhere I picked up 'cut on the lights.' I think it was from DW and it's a Louisiana thing. Swamp, Hahtoolah, BigE, what SEZ yous?
OMK - thanks for the update on OKL and, no, I'm not into DIRNDLS :-)
I just talked with her and Mom thanks all y'all for Birthday wishes.
//CED, no but I told her of The Corner's hellos and she got a kick out of it.
Lucina - I hope your special day is going swimmingly.
//BTW, it was C, Eh! FLN that first reminded us today's the 6th :-)
Cheers, -T
*Insert random Roman Numerals for '?'
Lucina, I took piano lessons for one semester during my salad days in college. I quit because it was hurting my GPA, and my then fiancé encouraged me to play bridge with him, instead. Private lessons would have been better, but the only practice pianos were in the music school at the college. In high school I tried out for chorus. They asked me to sing solo, so low we can't hear you. Really true! The music teacher actually gave me some unsuccessful private tutoring and then I dropped out. I can play music on the radio very well, however. And, hooray, I can square dance!
Now it's not my grandson who is in trouble, but I am. The Social Security Administration is going to suspend my number due to my criminal activity. Holy terror!
This type of calls always makes me sad. I know very bright, astute people who have become vulnerable and gullible as they aged, my dear departed MIL, for one. These elders are usually lonely. Sometimes the scammer engages them in long conversations to gain their trust and then fleeces them. Many health insurance ads are also deceptively written. I am hoping our generation can learn from our elders.
I renovated this condo when I first came here in 1990, and then again 15 years later. Both times it was fun and challenging, very rewarding and pleasing. I loved the results. Now another 15 years have gone by and my condo is becoming old fashioned and worn. I am realizing I can afford quite a bit more for renovation than I expected to. I would like to stay here for a while longer. I wish I knew how long I will have the good health to do so. If I knew I would be here long, I would please my own tastes and whims with the renovations. Otherwise, I would go for what sells. At the house we owned 30 years ago, just before we sold, I renovated the den. It was so beautiful and comfy I hated to leave. Do these decisions become harder and more challenging as we age?
David recommends hiring a senior care consultant.
In re x-words. What flummoxes one is a piece of cake for other solvers and vice versa. I thought of BORN immediately and was stalled by some clues you all found easy. Yesterday, with my being very interested in dog breeds, the theme was fine for me. For non dog aficionados, not so much. Some topics here are totally in my wheelhouse, some are definitely not. What constitutes too obscure is very personal. I accept what is new to me and learn from it. So much depends on our life experiences.
Bobbi said it all.I usually like a J.W. puzzle but this one was an enormous slog. No fun at all.I usually don't quit but this one made me.
Hand up for Silo-Barn-BALE. WEES about nearly everything else. Fun puzzle with a great reveal. Boy, did I ever bounce around the grid on this one! It seemed to take hours to do, but the timer shows only 25 minutes to FIR. If I had done this on paper I would have funded a great weekend getaway for the folks at WiteOut.
Doesn’t matter anyway—I still loves me a Jeff Wechs puzzlement. The explanations from Lemon were icing on the cake.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone.
... and I have no idea how that got posted twice. I’m clueless without a clue.
Interesting personal comments today.
HBD, Lucinda.
Bobbi, this was a very good puzzle with medium difficulty. Wechsler creates satisfying puzzles, IMHO.
I had many interruptions this morning while working on the puzzle and they actually seemed to help. Reading a clue, then coming back and re-reading it can prevent many of the misreadings to which D-O referred.
B-E, you've never played slot machines? They can be awfully fun.
Have a great weekend all.
Alice said... "a very good puzzle with medium difficulty."
Oy! I'd hate to attempt to suss what you consider hard :-)
WikWak - TTP will clean up your droppings as he does mine. BTW, you can select one of your posts and select the trashbin to erase it.
Cheers, -T
This JW was a real puzzler (ouch, sorry), tough to get a foothold. But persistence paid off, FIW. With markovers.
CLUE/INFO, AXE/ADZ, SEEMED/SEEN AS, OIL/ORE.
BOBBI....it’s a late week puzzle and these are tough, breathe. No sense in getting upset.
I love Jeffrey W. Puzzles - challenging, intelligent and fun. My favorite theme answer was VENICE ANYONE.
I am relatively new to the Corner, but I continue to be amazed at criticisms and complaints about the puzzles. Pretty scathing today, actually. I’m with Yellowrocks that we all have different knowledge bases.
Hm. I played Macduff in Pittsburgh, and I always had trouble with that line about being "no man of woman born."
Macduff was "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped." Sure, I reckon ol' Will meant a C-section, but how was that supposed to mean he wasn't "born" in the broad sense of the word?
No, I think the Witches' prophecy was aimed at the "no man" part of their words. Malcolm's army should have sent a woman against Macbeth.
We got off lucky.
It's just like that curse on Shakespeare's grave, where it says, "Cursed be he that moves my bones."
People have been debating for centuries whether to dig down there in search of MSS that might have been buried with the Bard. But the curse is a serious obstacle.
We need to find a "she" to do the digging, right?
~ OMK
BTW, There's probably nothing down there at all.
Shakespeare's body was buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, a place of high respect for the man who was at the time of his death Stratford's wealthiest citizen.
That part of the church is not far from the River Avon, and civil engineers have figured that, given the tidal action of the river, the Bard's bones must have been washed away many years ago.
"Sic transit...."
~ OMK
DNF ...stubbornly stuck with barn for 1d which worked with most of the perps. Only alternative I could think of was silo.
If Macduff was a product of a no frills c. section he still rented his Mom's womb fo 9 months. Always thought that a stretch for Will S.
Didnt know Venice (CA) was the famed muscle beach. My body builder Dad claimed he went to the beach at Atlantic City to lift weights in the 1940s. (No didn't inherit those genes)
The ten leper cure passage where only one proved thankful did not first appear in the KJV as implied but found in all the earlier NT versions.
I didn't think this or Thursday was "easy". I did FIR. I loved the Mario Bros movie with ",The Coopers" in the elevator sedated by "Lara's Theme".
I noticed the 60s AG clue before starting so I filled from there and worked up. However, I got stopped and then went back TO SQUARE ONE.
I see Irish Miss also found this challenging. I was familiar with ANDRE Gide who wrote a short story about a nihilist who throws another passenger off a train for kicks . Like lemony I read AG in the French.
I posted about that Tolkien passage with Eowyn and Merry and the "no man" but the source was not Macbeth.
When LOTR movie followed Star wars some thought Tolkien stole the idea from Lucas.
YR put it well about the different types of solvers. As has been noted the key was grok'ing the themes eg SWITCHING (ON) THE T(and)V.
WC
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
I'm late to the party, but I did this CW this morning. Plenty of P&P required to complete.
The bottom filled first and when the TV SWITCHED ON, the top followed.
That bench won't be big enough for all of us who tried SILO before BALE. (I debated over Shed also.)
I'll join inanehiker in trying all those combinations and permutations of the P,s, R's, Z's in PAPARAZZO . . . and LOO forced that final O.
I was singing, not reciting the alphabet, and wanted LAH before ESS. Meh! I prefer the curves clue.
I thought it was Canadian disadvantage that I thought of popes before Supreme Court Justices, but I see you Americans had problems too. ELENA I learned doing CWs.
But really, can I be expected to know which LINE of your income tax form has that W-4 claim! Perped!
AnonT - I'm sending your mother birthday greetings from Canada!
Good evening all.
Thank you, again, for the continued good wishes for my birthday, everyone! I took a long nap (hello, WikWak) to be ready for tonight. Dinner was fabulous at the Longhorn Restaurant in Mesa (some of you might know it). Mark and I both had Flo's Filet steak, his with mashed potatoes and mine with sweet potatoes all preceded with their yummy bread and salad. My margarita was extraordinary. Sometimes they are so weak it's hardly worth it but tonight it was perfect. My free dessert was a lovely ice cream parfait which we shared. I wore my new red and gold earrings and the beautiful red and black sweater my daughter and her family gave me. It's been a perfect day!
YR:
Thank you for further explaining.
CEDave:
I just went back for another look at the cake. It's just beautiful!
Lucinda - glad your birthday was wonderful . . . and yes, that cake from CED is beautiful!
CanadianEh!: if you think any of us knew that income tax line, I bet you were 100% wrong! Perps all the way. Form W-4? Don’t remember ever seeing it, but then TurboTax does all the heavy lifting around this house every April. Do Canadians have TurboTax-type software, or do you have to slog your way through with pencil and calculator?
Lucina: we stayed in Mesa for a week last month, and ate at what was probably the same Longhorn. Small world. We stayed at a resort on Baseline Rd between the Santan Freeway and Ellsworth Ave.
Gonna say good night before it turns into morning.
Lucina, I always forgot to include my own happy birthday wishes but better late than not at all.
Did you save me any leftovers?
Mind how you go...
~ Bill G
Hi Y'all! Just checking in with 14 minutes left of Lucina's birthday to wish you many more years of good health and happiness. I hope you still read the late night stuff the next day. Flo's filet & sweet potatoes are what I always get at Long Horn.
I really enjoyed the puzzle and found the theme amusing altho there was a big white area in the middle for awhile. Took some study to suss the reveal altho I had figured out the T to V theme already.
W4 form is, I think, the form you fill out at your place of employment when first hired so the proper amount of withholding tax can be deducted from your paycheck. I didn't look it up and it's been 20 yrs. since I had to get new employees to sign them so I can't swear to this.
Lucina - A nap too?!? To echo C, Eh!, sounds like your day was perfect!
I'd split leftovers w/ BillG but I have my own leftovers from this morning's Breakfast Club (my day - Bagels & Lox from Kenny & Ziggy's [Ziggy starts at :37]).
This evening I got to watch Youngest dance for the Winter Show at her HS. Not only was it her dance team, but the dance teams from the Jr. High, and the 6th-grade middle-school. Plus, a local troupe. The whole thing was 2.5h and quite lively to the point you didn't realize it was that long. And, get this, not only was the auditorium (a very nice one with ~1000 seats) it was SRO AND they had to turn away ~70 doting parents from entry re: fire-codes!
Can you imagine that? A high-school show that was sold out?
Oh, and Youngest did great; I'm not not objective :-)
Back to the puzzle. WikWak The W-4 is a 1/4-page Form for your tax withholding that you fill out for an employer (unless you're a 1099 contractor then you better put aside your own ~35%). It's not something filed.
Anyway, I knew it was NOT LINE A ergo it musta be a bit further down.
Re: Turbo-Tax. I gave that up when a) they went to "the cloud" [and My data would NOT be on MY hard-drive] and b) I had two houses & renters and ???
Cue Accountant :-)
Cheers, -T
PK - I just looked it up (to confirm both our stories :-)).
Oy, The W-4 is now a full page with a secondary worksheet and income-tables. Looks like the 1st day on the job is mostly that stupid form [in addition to getting your badge and finding the LOO].
Cheers, -T
ROS I did not mean to suggest the Leper parable first appeared in the KJV, only that was the reference I used for chapter and verse.
I am really late to my own party, but it was fun catching up. My only comment on the limited negativity is that we all hold Jeffrey to a very high standard. But it is not necessary to make nasty comments
Did I really forget to wish dear Lucy happy birthday? Rats, Happy birthday and many more.
The answer to 45 Across is “Vexes Rangers,” but I don’t believe it has anything to do with the Texas Rangers baseball team. When someone dumps litter in the woods, he vexes the Forest Rangers who have to clean up the mess, not the baseball team.
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