"TURN DOWN SERVICE"
Let's go with the reveal first.
62. Hotel amenity, and a hint to three puzzle answers: TURN DOWN SERVICE. At the end of three across answers, you have to read the intersecting down answer. Very neat !
The theme entries:
16. (across) Blamed for personal advantage: THROWN UNDER THE B, with
18. (down) Clear: BUS.
THROWN UNDER THE BUS - Mark's clue nails it succinctly. In business, politics, sports, personal relationships...
31. (across) Punch with force, maybe: GIVE A FAT L, with
34. (down) Backtalk: LIP.
GIVE A FAT LIP - Nothing figurative here.
44. (across) Chanoyu ceremony essential: JAPANESE T, with
46. (down) High __: TEA.
JAPANESE TEA. - This was hard for me because I didn't know what a Chanoyu ceremony was, but then looked at the other two theme answers and aha ! Changed my 46D from High def to TEA, and that also cleared up the stall where MOOLA belonged.
"The simple art of Chanoyu is really a synthesis of many Japanese arts with the focus of preparing and serving a bowl of tea with a pure heart." - Chanoyu
You would think the genesis of this puzzle was the reveal TURN DOWN SERVICE, wouldn't you ?
Across:
1. Draft category: ONE A. Actually, it's 1-A.
5. Crisply played, in mus.: STAC. Music / Staccato.
9. Qatar's capital: DOHA. Whatever happened to Doha Doc ?
13. Inflammation treatment: CORTISONE. And 39. Ibuprofen brand: ADVIL. Corticosteroids vs. NSAIDs
While we're on the subject, take the pain quiz.
15. Apple product: IPOD.
19. More mean: NASTIER.
20. Sci-fi helmsman: SULU.
21. Burdened: LADEN.
24. Portable chair: SEDAN. Champagne glass: Coupe.
26. "Uno __": cantina request: MAS. "One more" in Spanish.
27. Fundraising targets: ALUMNI.
29. Boar's mate: SOW.
35. Greatly beloved ones: GEMs.
38. He reunited with his fictional ex on Valentine's Day in 2011: KEN. I assume with Barbie ?
41. Backboard attachment: RIM.
42. Place Sundance liked to see: ETTA. Loved this clue / answer. Etta Place
47. Kazakhstan, once: Abbr.: SSR. Soviet Socialist Republic.
49. Waste time: DAWDLE.
50. __ store: APP.
53. Many an Indian: HINDU.
57. Green: MOOLA. Both slang for money.
58. Game with two secret passages: CLUE. No clue on this answer based on the clue alone. Never played it; don't know much about it. Didn't know there were secret passages. But, with C from ACT, -. U from PU
60. Advice: COUNSEL. Advice, advise, counsel and council. Simple nouns and verbs that can easily be confused. Only one of the four works as both a noun AND a verb. Which one ?
67. They can make you better, briefly: MEDs. Medicines, like Aleve and Advil.
68. Basically: IN ESSENCE.
69. Annoyance: PEST.
70. Do, for example: NOTE. Trickery. The musical note. '...Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si are used to name notes the same way that the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, and B are used to name notes in English." - Wikipedia.
71. Cutty __: SARK. The famous fast clipper sailing ship built in Scotland in 1869, now residing in dry dock at Greenwich, London as a museum ship. Some fifty years after her construction, the Scotch whisky was created and named after her. The ship was named for the short skirt worn by the witch in the Robert Burns poem Tam o' Shanter.
Down:
1. Fall mo.: OCT. Month / October
2. Kabuki kin: NOH.
3. Give the wrong change, say: ERR.
4. Acts of reparation: ATONEMENTs.
5. IRS IDs: SSNs. Internal Revenue Service / Social Security Numbers.
6. Talks up: TOUTs. Talks down: Calms.
7. Musical in which FDR is a character: ANNIE. Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Here's the famous scene:
8. Gave up: CEDED. Gave down: See 23(D).
9. Board mem.: DIR. Member / Director.
10. Expresses a preference (for): OPTs.
11. Blah: HO-HUM. Meh.
12. "A Passage to India" heroine: ADELA. Adela Quested - SparkNotes
14. "Lemme!": I WANNA.
17. Age relatives: ERAs. A distinct period of history. eg, The Dinosaur Age or the Ice Age. Thomas Paine wrote The Age of Reason.
21. Delay: LAG.
22. Not quite identical: ALIKE. Like fraternal twins.
23. Comforter: DUVET. What is the best down for a duvet ? Hungarian goose down ? Icelandic Eiderdown ? Best Downs for a Good Night's Sleep
25. It's often served with nutmeg: NOG. Here served in a coupe:
28. "... __ woodchuck could chuck wood?": IF A. "Hey you dang woodchucks! Quit chucking my wood !" BTW, in the Geico Sequels run off, the Racoon commercials are comfortably ahead.
30. Subjects of European trials during the Renaissance: WEREWOLVES.
32. Wd. ending in -less: ADJ. Adjective. The part of speech. This clue stumped me for way too long, and that was with AD- in place ! After finally getting enough letters to see JAPANESE at 44A, it became clear. D'OH !
33. FDR power plan: TVA. Franklin Delano Roosevelt / Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA at History.com
36. Botch: MISDO. Act wrongly.
37. Common sense?: SMELL. Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense. "The most important political tract of the Revolution was written not by a lawyer or university-educated philosopher, but by a former corset maker."
40. Bloke: LAD.
43. It may be tapped into a tray: ASH.
45. Parents, usually: NAMERs.
48. P.R. part: RICO. Puerto Rico.
50. Appear: ACT.
51. Fluff, as pillows: PLUMP. The history of fluff.
52. Blender button: PUREE. The first button I pushed was pulse, but the blend(er) of crossing clues didn't agree.
54. Hopeless: NO WIN.
55. "Beats me!": DUNNO.
56. Up in the air: UNSET. Not yet decided.
59. Aims: ENDs. Had eyes first. Don't know why.
61. Zaire's Mobutu __ Seko: SESE.
63. It ends shortly after 1-Down: DST. Daylight Savings Time
64. __ moment: IN A.
65. "Bad Moon Rising" band, briefly: CCR. Creedence Clearwater Revival.
66. "A rat!": EEK.
Check your answers against this grid:
46 comments:
Good morning!
Tried A BUS instead of THE BUS before I grokked the theme. Otherwise, this was an extremely smooth Friday solve. Spent more time going down TTP's rabbit holes than I did on the puzzle. Thanx, Paul and TTP ("counsel" is the verb/noun culprit).
CORTISONE/ADVIL: I missed two on the pain quiz. I'll bet InaneHiker got 'em all right.
JAPANESE TEA: We were treated to a Japanese Tea Ceremony in Nagoya back in the '60s. I considered it one of the low points of the trip. HOHUM.
I'll bet CanadianEh! got 'em all right also.
Were there trials of WEREWOLVES? Witchcraft fit too, and answers the clue better.
Seemed easy for a Friday. Finished just under 12.5 minutes.
I wanna + Dunno = No win.
DNF. Did not do well. Didn't guess the vague clues for ADJ,. NAMERS, TEA, or MOOLA, and never heard a JAPANESE TEA ceremony called a chanoyu. I had cArERS > NAMERS, and the rest were just blanks until I gave up and looked for the definition of chanoyu, which then gave up the rest.
I got the gimmick at BUS (tho I didn't see what hat had to do with "clear" until reviewing it later), and the reveal led me to figure out FATL IP (I didn't realize it was theme entry before that).
Despite my normal expertise on science fiction and fantasy tropes, I had never heard of WEREWOLF TRIALS before!
Curtis preferred to DAWDLE,
And never did things full-throttle.
He said that IN ESSENCE
He preferred the present,
For the future was usually twaddle!
Our minds so often are LADEN
With facts that already are fadin'.
A miracle once TOUTED,
As HO-HUM is discounted,
And new GEMS are already engagin'!
Great morning all.
Good workout today thanks to Paul.
FIR but took much too long .
Felt THROWN UNDER THE BUS till I saw TURN DOWN SERVICE.
Had been held up at TL,EB,and ET .
Once it clicked the last half of the puzzle went quickly.
Cheers
{A-, B.}
I had a WSJ grid run yesterday with a similar "downturn" theme. TAKINGTHEPLUNGE was the revealer, with theme answers LEMONDROPS, ICEFALLS, KITCHENSINKS, and CRASHDIVES. The second halves all turned down and all were clued "Goes down." The two puzzles were constructed and submitted months apart, but it happens like this sometimes. I've seen stranger coincidences, with very similar themes by different constructors run in separate syndications on the same day.
Creative theme which was easy to pick up on after the bus filled!
Pain quiz - I got most of them - but some of them the answers were wrong - which is why you shouldn't get medical information off the internet - at least anything where the site ends in .com - okay to look at sites that end in .edu or .gov - they aren't trying to sell you something and they are actual experts!
I enjoyed playing CLUE as a kid - the secret passages allowed you to jump to the other side of the board- from the Lounge you could jump to the Conservatory and from the Kitchen you could go to the study and vice versa.
We had a beautiful snow overnight - but the roads cleared easily - the best combo!
Thanks Steve and Paul!
Owen kl I always enjoy your comments and licks.
I vaguely remembered the clue for namers from a xword some time ago.
Had a few minutes to read the review and really enjoyed that too thanx TTP.
Cheers
Not too hard for a Friday, except for the turned down phrases. They were my last to finish. Cute gimmick.
I like playing Clue. I taught it with modified rules to my grandson when he was very little. Very soon he caught on and I could drop the modifications one by one.
I never heard of chanoyu, but I attended a tea ceremony in Japan and loved it. I was interested in the culture and the ceremony. We were served green matcha in a lovely bowl. It was thick and whipped to a froth. My hostess at my home stay made me the same tea without the ceremony.
A fellow teacher always ordered Cutty Sark.
I wrote DOHO instead of DOHA. One bad cell. ADELA, not ODELL, of course. When I got MAS, I did not go back. I grew bored with Passage to India and did not finish it. I, often think of DOHA DOC. I should have had that A.
50 A This morning I received a strange message in non standard English from APP Store Support. I needed to click on the link right away to cancel an app charge. Phishing. I have no Apple products.
I am having lunch and am spending the afternoon with a long time friend who lives in a fabulous continuing care faculty with lots of activities.
THROW UNDER THE B-US, what brown-nosers try to do when they mess up and try to blame somebody else.
I caught the TURN DOWN SERVICE immediately today but had trouble in the far East. Correctly guessed the unknown JAPANESE T-EA, but was thinking SET before I got to 62A. But the WO___OLVES and DA__LE had me stumped because I had GODS instead of GEMS. I was ready to say no MAS. What to do?
Sweep & mop the entire house and then try to finish. Voila! GEMS, RIM, DAWDLE, & MISDO popped into my head. ADELA & the Chanoyu clue were the only real unknowns.
I like puzzles WITHOUT too much A&E that have vague clues.
I wish KEN would come carry multiple Barbies away from my house. DW want let them go because a great-granddaughter in the future might want them.
Good Morning:
I thought the theme and execution were clever but, alas, I was not on Paul's cluing wavelength. No real setbacks, just a few surprising head scratchers. I played many a game of Clue as a youngster, but those secret passages were long forgotten. I do remember fighting over who would be Miss Scarlett; I guess she was the most glamorous of the bunch.
Thanks, Paul, for a Friday challenge and thanks, TTP, for 'splainin' it so clearly.
Have a great day.
IM, I never wanted to be Miss Scarlet.
FIR, but quite a slog today. I enjoyed the challenge.
Tom, you are just being shy. I am sure with your Southern drawl you would be great.
Paul has really stepped up his publications, as he implied with his WSJ comment. After his debut in the puzzle world in 2015 here February 6, 2015, he did not have another publication for more than a year. 2 publications that year. Now, as approaches 100 mainstream publications, he has 4 already this year after averaging almost 5 per month in 2019. Very impressive.
BE, those Barbies will be worth a fortune one day. I will pay the postage if you want to send them all my granddaughters' way
This one landed in slog territory for me. With stac,chanoyu ceremony,kabuki kin,werewolf trial? Zaire's mobutu and lastly I wanna. Naticks galore.DNF
Wow...hard one for me but finished. Sitting at the airport gate SW Florida airport waiting for my flight back to the arctic circle. AKA central NYS.
Knew 16a had to end in BUS but where? Finally caught on to the game with 18d
Beside FATLIP thought 62A would play the same trick. Maid finding a mouse in a hotel bed. TURNDOWNSERVICE EEK!
Council? No COUNSEL.
European Werewolf trials...really?..not Witches..Warlocks...or Wizards?
Imagine the teachers among us must roll their eyes with answers like "I WANNA" and "DUNNO".
Time to board..better not DAWDLE.
Hope the skies are friendly!
Good morning everyone.
Funny, Paul had a similar drop down theme puzzle in yesterday's WSJ which I finished this am before today's paper came.
Had to look up what Chanoyu was, but then JAPANESE TEA fell in easily. Most favorite CLUE was for ETTA. TTP - nice intro.
SARK - One of the Channel Islands near Jersey.
Musings
-The 3 o’clock area proved to be a lengthy but delightful challenge! WEREWOLVES finally appeared and I fought through Paul’s *#!& cluing for MOOLAH, ADJ, NAMERS and DAWDLE! :-)
-Then I tried to make the reveal make sense going down too!
-STACATO from a wonderful musical work
-1 bad cell - Roberto Duran said “NO MAS” (no more) when he quit a fight but ADELA looked wrong
-Wife and daughters laughed hard when I put paprika on NOG
-In the manner of DUNNO and WANNA, I gotta go do my vacuuming and empty the dishwasher!
The turndown trick was too clever for me. Hats off to the successful solvers! I am glad to learn about the werewolf trials. They make today's headlines less horrific.
I get two of the three hints, but can't figure out how eek fits wit turn down service ?
Ron in LA - Not sure if your comment was tongue-in-cheek, but for the record, EEK that intersects with the final E of TURNDOWNSERVICE is just fill, not part of the theme.
Well this was a crunch fest...fair for a Friday.
Like DO, I started with THROWUNDERABUS.
It took a while to see the gimmick. Things went smoother after that..
So...write-overs.... THROWUNDERABUS/THROWINDERTHEB, ALUMNA/ALUMNI, WITCHCRAFT/WEREWOLVES, RES/DEF/TEA.
So not exactly a clean grid to finish, haha.
And on to Saturday.
Hi All!
Shot myself in the foot big-time on this one. DAWDLE is not spelt Dottle; Advice is not NOON TEA [Steve, explain(?)], not JAPANESES-EA (High SEAs works, no?), and it's GEMS not GodS for belove'd ones. I may have re-suss'd things eventually but Army Bro had already given up on his grid and started tossing hints (don't you just hate when someone does that!). Pop's wife cried 'Uncle' after NOUN-ifying Do.
Thanks Paul C. for the puzzle and for stopping by The Corner. I got the reveal long before the light-bulb went on for the turn'd-downs.
Fun Expo TTP - now we all know what a SEDAN is sans four wheels.
Fav: Misdirection at Do; pure evil-genius.
ADJ-less (oh, -less words are all ADJs!) is just evil-ness.
{B+, A}
Yeah, where has Doha Doc been lately?
Denver Brother lands in just over an hour so no more DAWDLing.
Cheers, -T
Almost a Ta~ DA! but not quite. The eastern flank resisted my several attacks.
Mr. Coulter's opus was clever enough to sustain my interest anyway.
For a while, I was sure that the Renaissance trials dealt with the subject of WOMEN ELVES.
(Were they a sub-species, or were all these little folk presumed to be androgynous?)
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal NW to SE.
Its anagram cites a favorite treat for pigs and hippopotami, an...
"OMNIVORA LICK"!
Hi everybody. Lots of stuff to enjoy here. My favorite was the "Etta Place" clue and answer. Very clever.
AnonT, I don't understand your question re. "Advice is not NOON TEA?"
The background music at the supermarket continues and seems to be getting worse; droning and repetitive piffle. (Actually, piffle would be better!) I would pay extra to be able to change it to something I like better. The store manager doesn't seem to have any say in the matter. Aargh! I would go to a different store but I'm used to this one and old habits are hard to break.
Barbara got me a clever little toy. It's a cylindrical plastic aquarium filler with distilled water and two fake jelly fish. A quiet little pump keeps the water and jelly fish moving in a realistic fashion. Changing colored lights add to the pleasant effect.
Bill G - it was the wrong-headed rationalization that NOON TEA must be British slang for Advice to justify my fill at that time. :-) -T
This one was too tough although I came relatively close. Ink was a bad genre after writing CEE and WITCHCRAFT. I managed to get the WEREWOLVES. But…
I just didn't have the imagination to GROK ADJ(Why the "-"?; Why not just less).* I was thinking of an address-less letter(ADR). But…
My big mistake was DOTERS/NAMERS caused by having DODDLE and when the W fell not spelling DAWDLE correctly. .
I think I did well to get the rest. I wasn't sure if it was HINDU/i , NOWAY became NOWIN. RICO and NOTE were big surprises.
For me, in my fourth year possibly the most difficult xword I've attempted including Saturdays and NYT Sundays.
.
Mostly I blame CC for providing this entertaining forum else perhaps I'd have put this down until RAPADESE-CEE made sense.
Maybe some days we are smarter than others. I think experience with the type of clueing that Paul provided might be "apter".
WC closing with arcane crosswordese
*Yes, '-ly' would have meant ADV
PS. I've got to get some wite-out
Doesn't the theme also include BUS service, LIP service and TEA service?
Anonymous 3:06 - Yes, the Down answers BUS, LIP, and TEA are referred to by TURNDOWNSERVICE.
I 8 Downed this puzzle
(in other words)
(CED CEDED this puzzle)
I can't say DNF, because I was so intrigued
I started stealing answers from the Blog just so I could
"maybe" get a few AHA moments, & inked it all in via cheating...
Bill G,?
You posted Jellyfish?
I appreciate the info,
but a picture is worth a thousand words...
& a video is a waste of time...
Anywho,
this is how Mr. Meow experienced this puzzle...
And,
If you don't like mints,
(dark chocolate would be nice...)
I wouldn't mind staying at this place:
But my brand is 100's for that silly millimeter longer!
Ju in case you're interested, <href a="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf_witch_trials></a>.
Just in case you're interested, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf_witch_trials></a>.
Just in case you're interested, .
Hola!
I almost missed the party! It's been a busy day and I did the puzzle off and on, including going to the nail salon in preparation for tomorrow's wedding.
Once I caught the gimmick with the downward BUS, the rest of the themers were fun. But EEK didn't follow the pattern. CLUE was one of the games we played in my younger days along with Monopoly, checkers, and UNO.
Apparently we've seen Zaire's Mobutu SESE Seko enough times that he popped out easily. I also liked the clue for ETTA.
Not much more to say except that WEREWOLVES was a surprise answer which I LU.
Yes, I did roll my eyes on seeing DUNNO and WANNA. Eventually I'm sure they will be recognized as standard in the language. I just heard Nora O'Donnel of CBS say WANNA.
I thought DUVET is the cover for the comforter, not the comforter itself.
It's time to get ready to go to dinner.
I hope you are all enjoying your day!
Here's another linkto those grisly werewolf trials .
Btw, another dead end was RELS for the R in PR. But I needed that I in HINDU even though it's perps were far from solid.
WC
Fun afternoon and luch with my long time friend. We used to hike together and we still square dance together.
I had several duvets. I agree with Wiki. "A duvet from French duvet, meaning 'down' is a type of bedding consisting of a soft flat bag filled with down, feathers, wool, silk or a synthetic alternative, and typically protected with a removable cover, analogous to a pillow and pillow case."
Anon @3:06, I missed an important part of the theme. "Doesn't the theme also include BUS service, LIP service and TEA service?" Very astute. This makes the theme even better. Thanks, Paul.
No dinner for me tonight. Our Chinese New Year lunch was more than ample.
Bill G, about objectionable "mood" music: We have a restaurant which plays such loud music you cannot converse with someone sitting elbow to elbow with you. I will never return.
Paul Coulter thank you for a creative and well constructed theme. FIR. But I did not get ETTA PLACE until reading the TTP review.
And I still do not get how -less relates to ADJectives? I got ADJ thanks to crosses. But I just don't get how that clue makes sense?
I think Anon at 3:06PM noticed something cool that Paul Coulter apparently did not design into the puzzle? Or am I misunderstanding Paul's reply?
Here I was with my family on a Thames River cruise getting to see the CUTTY SARK in 1972.
My mother posed with the boat at Greenwich because the boat had the exact same name as her. What are the odds?
From Tuesday:
Elsie thanks for the link to the Eric Clapton/Cream song "Anyone for TENNIS?" Learning moment that the expression is a reference to the idle rich.
I think -less relates to adjectives because words like useless, baseless, and hopeless are adjectives. Wd. implies an abbreviation so, ADJ should work as an answer. (I had trouble parsing the clue, too, during the solve.)
I dunno, CED .. $90 for synthetic jellyfish??
As in a Saturday theme-less xword. Both Adjectives for the noun "xword".
Picard, you are a walking "Been there, done that" kinda guy.
WC
Picard - her name was Eleanor or Rose? :-)
Roy - Your html was almost right. You missed the end-" before the >
Cheers, -T
Paul could have thrown me under the bus for not explaining in more detail. I put the reveal "Turn Down Service" ahead of the theme answers in the review, even labeling them as reveal and theme answers, thinking that it would make the gimmick obvious.
Yes, each of the three letter words at the end of the phrases is a service. They are all turned down from the majority of the phrase. Thus, Turn Down Service. I guess it wasn't as obvious as I thought it was. I should have written bus service, lip service and tea service.
Paul, thanks for explaining while I was away today. Neat on the coincidence with your Plunge puzzle.
And Spitzboov, to finish the NYT and then solve this one right afterwards...
Lucina, I thought you would have liked how I worked the quote about Thomas Paine's Common Sense tract into the review after the commentary about tract the other day. Especially since you referenced that specific tract.
Dash T, not only Sedan, but also a Coupe with no wheels. Hope you are enjoying the time with your little (er, um younger) brothers, and not freezing your whatya call em's off. BTW, that's Clyde Drexler of the U of H Cougars Phi Slamma Jama fame dunking that ball. He's doing it as Portland Trailblazer. They called him Clyde the Glide. PK would have know that, I think.
Desper-otto, yes, counsel, and you were first to ring in with the buzzer.
Wilbur, I've been meaning to ask you, do you think it was a Boston sportswriter that did not not give Derek Jeter the nod ? I can't imagine how any voter would not have him on the ballot. He should have joined Rivera as a unanimous election into the HOF.
Time to hit the hay after a very long day.
Read you all tomorrow.
Spitzboov thank you for the "-less" explanation. It still seems a bit... odd. Plenty of challenging cluing today to go with that. I was slow to get how "Do" gave "NOTE" as well.
Wilbur Charles thank you for the kind words and encouragement. It may seem at times like I am a "Been there, done that" kinda guy, but believe me I am deeply grateful for each of these experiences.
We did not have a lot of money when I was growing up. But we had some amazing opportunities and my father made each one count. He was a research biologist and he traveled often for his work.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s the airline industry was regulated. The airlines were able to compete by offering free rides to family members when an adult had a full fare. The hotel was covered by my father's work, too. Food was the challenge; we ate very cheap meals and shared them! That is how we got to go to so many cool places.
AnonT thanks for the eagle eye and question about the Thames River boat and my mother. My mother's first name is Eleanor and her middle name is Rose. So, she is Eleanor Rose. Exactly the same as the name of that boat. We were all quite surprised!
Bill G and CrossEyedDave thanks for the jellyfish. Way cool video. I like to eat jellyfish, but probably not those!
TTP:
Yes, I noticed that you mentioned Thomas Paine's TRACT though I did not realize it referred to my mentioning it. It seemed like a coincidence.
Picard:
Speaking of coincidences that is a remarkable one, your mother's name being the same as the name of that boat! It's an unusual pairing of names, too.
Your photos and "travelogues" are always impressive.
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