Theme: "Em Dash" - EM is removed from each familiar phrase.
23. Tales of woe?: AIL ACCOUNTS. Email accounts.
25. Piggy bank?: CENT MIXER. Cement mixer.
39. Leave politics to wander?: ROVE FROM OFFICE. Remove from office.
48. App for getting a hip escort?: DIAL-UP MOD. Dial-up modem. Quite a few Ups in this grid: 54. Plug: STOP UP. 79. Ties: EVENS UP. 88. Really dug: ATE UP.
67. Precipitation not yet visible?: RAINS TO BE SEEN. Remains to be seen.
85. Mafia hopefuls' repressed personas?: INNER DONS. Inner demons.
92. Musty sheets?: OFFENSIVE LINEN. Offensive linemen.
108. Libertine on screen?: MOVIE RAKE. Movie remake. "libertine" always reminds me of Alec from "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". That's where I first learned the word.
111. Musical works for deep voices?: BASSY SUITES. Embassy suites.
I think this is Blake's first Sunday. And a nicely filled 140-worder. Congratulations!
I enjoyed this theme. The EM's are dropped in various spots. Fun phrases.
Across:
1. Sent regrets, say, briefly: RSVP'D. Sometimes it's RSVP'ed.
6. Tank to go under: SCUBA.
11. Sweater predator: MOTH.
15. Morsel in a linguine sauce: CLAM. Easy to make.
19. Get around: ELUDE.
20. Upstanding: MORAL. Heard from Dennis the other day. He's doing fantastic.
21. Twistable treat: OREO.
22. "The Godfather" enforcer __ Brasi: LUCA. Sleeps with the fishes.
27. High hybrid stat.: MPG.
28. Organization for the 50+ crowd: AARP.
29. Train units: CARS.
31. Musical corps members: FIFERS.
32. Feminist poet Lorde: AUDRE. Read more here. We also have 99. Writer Sontag: SUSAN.
34. Delicate fabric: LACE.
35. Explode: GO OFF.
37. Inflated accommodation: AIRBED.
44. Historian's Muse: CLIO.
45. The Emerald Isle: EIRE.
46. Attack: SET AT.
47. Yemeni port: ADEN.
51. __ Diego: SAN.
52. What some hounds follow: SCENT.
53. Fails to understand: CAN'T SEE.
58. Car dealer's offering: LEASE.
59. Kama __: SUTRA.
61. Illinois-to-Washington family: OBAMAS.
63. Early fur trader: ASTOR.
64. Tired routine: RUT.
70. Busy hosp. areas: ERS. They're building a new hospital in Wuhan in 10 days. During 2003 SARS pandemic, a basic emergency hospital was completed within a week.
71. Absinthe flavoring: ANISE. Star anise is a key ingredient in Five Spice powder.
73. Sarges' superiors: LOOIES.
74. English glam rockers since the '70s: SLADE.
76. Someone to pay?: PIPER. Oh, pay the piper.
77. Big bomb trials: N TESTS.
83. Cher and Che: ICONS.
84. Big __: SUR.
87. Artful: DEFT.
90. Sarah McLachlan hit: ADIA. Gimme for regulars.
91. Basic diamond trio: OUTS.
95. Metaphorical incentive: CARROT.
97. Part of TNT: NITRO.
98. Crimson rivals: ELIS.
100. Winter hanger: ICICLE. Look at the icy road in our mail box area.
103. Burt's Bees product: BALM.
104. Tap lineup: ALES.
105. Neruda wrote one to "things": ODE.
114. Scheme: PLAN.
115. Novelist Murdoch: IRIS.
116. Cyber Monday sector: E TAIL.
117. Tiptoe, say: CREEP. I walk like a penguin when I'm out.
118. Performed on karaoke night: SANG.
119. 'Tis the season: XMAS.
120. Currently: TODAY.
121. Quicker than is prudent: HASTY.
Down:
1. Copier supply unit: REAM.
2. Freudian __: SLIP.
3. One with unrefined tastes: VULGARIAN.
4. Peck in the park, briefly: PDA.
5. An era may be confined to one: DECADE.
6. Camping treat: S'MORE. Never had this.
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7. Brilliant stroke: COUP.
8. One may be measured in cups: URN.
9. It's under Wayne Manor: BAT CAVE.
10. French border region: ALSACE.
11. Oft-beaded footwear: MOCS.
12. W. state whose largest city is named for a New England city: ORE. Named after Portland, Maine.
13. Perfect score, often: TEN.
14. Hurry, with "it": HOTFOOT.
15. Challenges for climbers: CLIFF FACES. Three F in a row.
16. Swanky: LUXE.
17. Taiwanese tech giant: ACER. Our monitor.
18. Rover's destination: MARS.
24. ID __: CARD.
26. Tick off: MIFF.
30. Ones crying foul?: REFS.
33. Curved fasteners: U BOLTS.
34. Leapers in a carol: LORDS.
35. Avoided unhappy consequences: GOT A PASS.
36. Muscat's land: OMAN.
37. "Back in Black" band: AC/DC.
38. Pelvic bones: ILIA.
39. Cristo Redentor city: RIO.
40. Job application component: RESUME.
41. Brainstorm: IDEATE.
42. Bleeping official: CENSOR.
43. Joins, as a club: ENTERS.
45. TV chef Lagasse: EMERIL."Kick it up a notch!"
49. Ones taking a lot of interest in their work?: USURERS. Real interest.
50. Org. that sued SeaWorld on behalf of orcas: PETA.
52. Libel, in speech: SLANDER.
55. Comedian Fields: TOTIE.
56. Orchestral winds: OBOES.
57. Milwaukee theater named for a brewer, with "the": PABST.
60. Spanish New Year: ANO NUEVO. Ours is Spring Festival. Tet for the Vietnamese. Seollal for Koreans. All in the same day.
62. One-named Tejano singer: SELENA.
64. Quick, in Quito: RAPIDO. And 90. Lively movement: ANIMATO.
65. Peace Prize-winning relief org.: UNICEF.
66. Hoops jump ball: TIP OFF.
68. "Couldn't agree more": SO TRUE.
69. Roof edge: EAVE.
72. It follows a guilty verdict: SENTENCING.
75. "Bewitched" witch: ENDORA.
78. A and B, on LPs: SIDES.
80. Harmony ruiners: SOUR NOTES. Great fill.
81. "Do __ others ... ": UNTO.
82. Sibilant attention-getter: PSST.
84. Soup step: STIR.
86. "Henry & June" diarist: NIN (Anais)
88. French comics series set in Gaul in 50 BC: ASTERIX. Learning moment for me.
89. Entreaty: PLEA.
93. River where down means north: NILE.
94. "Doubt it": I'LL BET.
95. Sticks by the pool table: CUES.
96. Per se: AS SUCH.
99. In a wily way: SLYLY.
100. Little handfuls: IMPS.
101. Royal Crown, for one: COLA.
102. "Terrible" leader: IVAN.
103. Téa's "Madam Secretary" role: BESS.
104. Home to most of the Silk Road: ASIA.
106. Ingredient in OFF!: DEET.
107. Best Upset, e.g.: ESPY.
109. Shot spot: ARM.
110. Soul supplier: KIA.
112. Blue: SAD.
113. Glass of NPR: IRA.
As Jayce mentioned, yesterday was Chinese Spring Festival. People in Guangzhou like to buy special flowers and golden orange trees for Spring Festival. Supposed to bring good luck.
The big flower markets were closed earlier this year due to the coronavirus. People wear face masks wherever they go. And the face masks are in short supply.
My friend Carmen sent me this picture. Very pretty, right? All her family gatherings and outings have been canceled.
 |
| 蝴蝶兰 (Empress Orchids) & Golden Oranges |
28 comments:
Good morning!
Drat, I succeeded in completing a DNF. With A_DRE, the only letter I could WAG was an N. But that would make the fastener an N BOLT. I came here to complain about that. D'oh. We had both FIFERS and a PIPER in this one. Thanx, Blake and C.C.
ICICLE: That winter scene looks miserable, C.C. I wonder how my sister is enjoying the season after moving from sunny Florida to suburban Mpls.
URN: I wonder how they measure the cups in an electric coffeemaker. I set ours at six cups, and that gives me 2-1/2 coffee cupfuls.
MOTH: I finally retired my 60+-year-old moth-eaten sweater. Replaced it with a nice one from L.L. Bean. Heavier than I expected, but warm.
FIR, but erased andre for AUDRE (hi DO), plot for PLAN, moon for MARS, and iran for OMAN. DNK LUCA, ASTERIX, IRIS, BESS, ANIMATO, SLADE, SUSAN, and ALSACE. AL SACE sounds like he could be a sidekick of Virgil Flowers.
My SCUBA instructor would correct us if we called it a tank. "It's a CYLINDER" he would intone. But he would really yell at us if we parked our mask on our foreheads instead of pulling it down around our necks when we were on the surface. He insisted it was a safety issue because of the potential of losing the mask in conditions that would make the mask useful.
I like Burt's Bees products. Howard Stern's cousin sells competing BeeCeuticals.
I may be the only person n my age group who doesn't like ACDC (or any of the other bands featuring screaming front men).
Just about 30 miles east of me, the Saint Johns River flows north. Floridians say it's because Georgia sucks.
Thanks to Blake for the mostly enjoyable puzzle. My favorite was "someone to pay" for PIPER. Least favorite was ASTERIX. And thanks to CC for your usual interesting, informative tour.
I love Asterix, and I was so excited to see him in the puzzle, even though I would also admit that he is very obscure to the vast majority of Americans. I don't remember how I first learned about him as a child in the 70s. I learned about Tintin from my monthly Children's Digest magazine back then.
I'll be doing the puzzle on a plane today,
so, HG,
this should keep you entertained while I am up in the air...
A FIFER and a PIPER met to form a band.
A player of an OBOE also was on hand.
They blew their bleats
And peeps and pleaps,
Till SOUR NOTES they could not stand!
The OBOE player tried to eat
An OREO as a twisted treat,
But crumbs intrude
Inside his tube,
And when they shoot he's called a CREEP!
{A-, A-.}
In earlier days I worked at a book importer, so Asterix was a gimme for me. Don't ask me about the rest of the puzzle...found it pretty challenging!
Fun Sunday puzzle, Blake--many thanks. I got quite a lot of it before needing to start cheating, and enjoyed it. I too remembered ASTERIX from my younger days, and I got a lot of the names quickly: EMERIL, SUSAN, IVAN, IRIS, OBAMAS, and others. I'm a senior so of course I got AARP. Are LOOIES lieutenants? I got it but didn't quite understand it. Some clues cracked me up, like WINTER HANGER for ICICLE. Anyway, lots of fun, thanks again, Blake. And C.C., I've been following the sad news in China on television, how sad to see that lovely flower shop closed at the time of the Spring Festival.
Liked your poems, Owen.
Have a lovely Sunday, everybody.
CED (from last night). I really enjoyed your video of the slight-of-hand magician. Thanks. Enjoyable golf video today too.
Yesterday, Barbara brought home some daffodil buds from the supermarket. None of the buds had opened yet. Today, we have a vase full of beautiful yellow daffodils. (My mother called them jonquils.) They are our favorites.
D-O, I'm guessing coffeemakers are graduated using actual 8-ounce cup measures while most coffee mugs are approximately twice as large.
Finally got this done - started pretty fast then slowed waaaay down then picked up again at the end! I thought many of the theme answers were very clever- favorite (figuratively not literally) was OFFENSIVE LINENS. I'm with CC - lots of UPs! I kept thinking my answer was going to be wrong with another UP - but no! Is that a debut for CLIFF FACES for those who track those things?
Thanks CC and congrats to Blake!
The theme was obvious enough, but it took me an hour to meet the challenge. More names than I like to deal with, but ultimately doable. I had to look at every clue at least once. Very satisfying Sunday offering.
RIP, Kobe.
Musings
-Just back from Midwest Auto Show in Omaha. It was really boring but it marked the 13th year in a row my grandson asked me to go so there was no question about going
-Fabulous puzzle, clever theme
-Meredtih Willson lyric - Headin' for the dance at the Arm'ry!, LIBERTINE men and Scarlet women!
-ASTOR and Astoria have been frequent recent visitors
-Cher and Che do not make my ICON list
-Schools try to discourage hallway PDA
-Every Super Bowl REF hopes he won’t make a call that decides the game
-The pics were beautiful, C.C. but the health situation is scary
-Fabulous videos Dave!! The pro at my course hates when he has carts full of gas and golfers full of alcohol and/or testosterone. Happy Landings my friend!
Not impressed with the theme.It wasn't just the themers but the abundance of unknown names and tortured clues. DNF
Loved the theme. But...(start of rant)...I am growing weary of the increasing use of Movie, TV, and literature fills. Bottom left/center with Asterix (mighty darned obscure) with no chance to use perps to complete when I have never seen West Wing and not aware of Iris Murdoch (never read her books) made it a DNF.
I have counted well over a dozen arts related clues in most recent Sunday puzzles with nary a single clue from the STEM fields.
I fault the editor as much as the puzzle creators for this. Is the LA Times puzzle intended only for those whose background and pastimes include the arts??
Imagine the following clues if you will:
Carcinogen from sandstone: 5 letters
Apollo beep: 7 letters
Lipid ratio improver: 6 letters
'85 Nobel for Medicine recipient: 9 letters
Power that can be connected Delta or Wye: 10 letters
If those stump you, you know how I feel when asked for an Oscar winner from the 60s or a Hip-Hop artist's name. Imagine a puzzle with 12-15 of those.
Sorry for rant, but hope puzzles in the future might be more balanced to those with varying educations, backgrounds, and hobbies.
Answers:
Radon (Radon gas emanating from sandstone formations is a cause of lung cancer)
Quindar (Quindar tones were the beeps heard in Apollo space mission audio communications)
Statin (improves HDL/LDL ratio)
Goldstein (co-winner with Brown for research in cholesterol metabolism)
ThreePhase (Three-phase Alternating Current is used in industrial motor applications)
I liked this puzzle very much. To me it has plenty of challenge yet is doable, has clever clues, and has some nifty fill. It took me a sec to parse GOOFF. I didn't know SLADE or AUDRE so the perps gave the answers. Hand up for changing PLOT to PLAN. I also had to change SNEEK to CREEP and ALLEGRO to ANIMATO. It also took SOTRUE (which made me think of SUTRO tower in San Francisco) to reveal whether it was LOUIE or LOOIE. As for ASTERIX, and his friend Obelix, I learned about him from French colleagues I used to work with. Lots of F's around that OFFICE, GOOFF, CLIFF, and MIFF area.
I'm with Ken I. @ 4:53 --
If there need to be obscure clues, at least scatter them around the various fields of human learning, so there is an even bias and we all have an even opportunity of ignominy.
English glam rockers? Feminist poets? One-named Tejanas? So sorry: not my major.
Whinging, Part 2
Are you as frustrated with single-use plastic containers as I am? Various food items and other stuff often are packaged in a clear plastic container. I try to open it the expected way but often give up in frustration. Then I resort to violence, attacking the package with kitchen scissors.
When you get a little container of medicine, there is often an inner seal that requires tearing and puncturing, leaving little scraps of foil still glued to the inner edge. I'm sure that is a direct consequence of the Tylenol fiasco years ago when somebody tampered with the contents, resulting in indestructible inner seals for medicine containers.
Young people probably accept this as a fact of life. A dinosaur like me yearns for the simpler packaging of yesteryear when you didn't need pliers or a knife to open plastic or medicine containers.
CC thanks for the comments. I love CLAMs and linguini so I enjoyed your photo. If you don't want to go to the trouble of making S'MOREs from scratch, right now you can get S'MORE Girl Scout Cookies.
Hand up a bit too many obscure proper nouns/names: LUCA, CLIO, "Back in Black", BESS, "Best Upset", AUDRE, SELENE, SLADE, TOTIE, ADIE. And why is IAN especially VULGAR? That had me confused for awhile.
Had GO APE before GO OFF. CREATE before IDEATE. Anyone else?
The theme was quite creative and quite challenging. I did not consider it solved until I figured out each EM that was removed. And where it was removed from. Not easy! I am sure it took a lot of work to construct.
Plenty of photos and links from this puzzle. I will pick just this one that I have posted before, but it is not something most people have ever seen.
Here I was with DW and her mother at the real original BAT CAVE from the 1960s TV show.
They are actually called the Bronson Caves and they are near Griffith Park in Los Angeles.
ASTERIX I actually knew from high school French class. Anyone else? FIR.
From yesterday:
Jayce thanks for validating that REINSTALL was also your guess before REINSTATE.
And hand up I did know HAMMURABI and agree this is something worth knowing. For better or worse, this CODE of laws was at the root of much of modern law. Including the Golden Rule.
Wilbur Charles I agree that as harsh as the HAMMURABI CODE was, it was less harsh than what came before. I once heard a rabbi explain that the Golden Rule is not meant to say that one must punish the loss of an eye with the loss of another eye. Instead, it was meant to say DON'T do anything WORSE than equal punishment.
This one was not my cup of tea - maybe too many themers? I dunno, it seemed like homework.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Blake Slonecker, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Most of the puzzle went easily. There were a few tough spots.
The theme appeared after a while. Pretty clever.
Of course I liked BASSY SUITES, since I Play a Bass (Tuba).
I remember LUCA BRASI from the Godfather movie. That was a great movie and then I read the book, which was even better.
The fur trader ASTOR. Seems to be a regular. John Jacob.
I wound up climbing some CLIFF FACES in Iran. I foolishly followed my friend up this mountain and found that I could not go back down. The only way was up. Well, I lived through it.
Got back from Pennsylvania today about noon. It was a tiring long weekend. When I got home I discovered that my sump pump in the basement failed. So, I had to quickly rig up my backup pump and get it working. The problem is it has no float to turn it off. So, I have to go down once in a while and shut it off so it does not run out of water and could burn up. Tomorrow I will replace the bad pump with a new one.
So, with that, I am hitting the hay. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
I think most coffeemakers go by 6-ounce cups, although I don't think anyone drinks 6-oz cups of coffee anymore.
Bill G @8:17pm - Thank you! Single-use containers - I thought it was just me with progressive thumb weaknesses. My plan of attack on the top lid is a sharp knife stab (or two..or...)
Enjoyed the puzzle. For some dumb reason (maybe because it was 1:30 am) I instantly filled in PETER for the clue "someone to pay" since I already had RAPIDO. Dunno 'bout that one. Perps made me change my ways.
Had a bad day ...sick, bad news, lost wallet. Then sought solace in this clunker. Things only got worse. First, the truly not clever, inane theme, then the attempted cutesy def. Lastly the absolutely incorrect clues (I found five). C'mon, LAT editors, do your jobs! Good fodder for my fireplace!!!
Could someone tell me why my post of a few minutes ago was deleted? I think that all opinions on the LAT Sunday puzzles should be shared. I usually put why I enjoyed the puzzle. Occasionally I also put my displeasure, as I did today. To me it was an in solvable puzzle without be cheating ... and I still do! The theme was ultra-silly, and the defs were inane. Am I not allowed to write my opinion here??
I wonder why those folks who always gripe and never have a good word for the puzzle still do it. And with that (since everything worth saying has already been said) I am off to play radio. (I did like the FFF in 15 d)
Uh, Bobbi, I think you needed to REFRESH your display. Your whining post was right there for everyone to see with the same complaints as the second one. Sorry to hear you've not been feeling well, and hope you find your wallet with all contents still intact! Weak theme? There are how many syndicated daily themed crosswords -- 4? 5? 10? That's several thousand a year, and themed puzzles have been the standard for 30 or 40 years. How people still manage to come up with new ones is a wonder to me!
Cutesy clues? Try your hand at a simple cryptic every once in a while for perspective! I tried to read James Joyce's Ulysses because I was told much of it could be read as cryptic clues. I never found any, and gave up less than half way thru. (Maybe I needed Margot Norris to guide me thru back then).
At first I had PETER but we "borrow" from Peter to pay Paul.
And here I was thinking it was Salem ORE. As in the Capital.
I thought I FIR but even guessing the A in ADIE(I hadn't seen that name) I had TALC,TESS and ANICATO. Duh, lip BALM.
Very entertaining xword. After grok'ing the theme I still missed "LINE(ME)N".
And I must have dozed before posting.
WC
Ps. Owen, are you saying "Joyce" misytyfied you until read that author's guide?
Loved the theme! Especially clever that the EM showed up in various places.
I’m always dead with some of the current music stuff, but thank heaven for Perps and lucky Wags!
So sad about Kobe and his daughter as well as the OC Coll. coach and his family.
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