Theme: Compass Pinots - I mean pitons - no, wait, piston? Anagrams of the primary compass points modify a well-known directional phrase; and hinted at by the circled N, E, S, W at the center of the puzzle.
17A. Authentic piece of a holy relic?: TRUE THORN. True North. The magnetic inclination (the difference between True North and Magnetic North) changes over time and also depends on where you are on the globe, but if you were standing at the North Pole and pulled out a compass, it would point you towards Ellesmere Island in northern Canada, more than 300 miles away.
58A. Biblical pronouns read by James Earl Jones?: DEEP THOUS. Deep South.
11D. Place reserved for one reconciling a dispute?: MIDDLE SEAT. Middle East. Funnily, the middle seat occupant on the airplane sometimes is the cause of a dispute over the armrest.
28D. Unwelcome leftovers?: THE OLD STEW. The Old West. Depends how old. Some stews get better left for a couple of days to let the flavors develop. Obviously, there's a tipping point :)
Right then, let's dig into this one. The anagrams don't seem forced in the four theme entries which is great, Debra did have a clever observation that there are anagrams to be had; and the circled letters highlighted in the grid do give you a nudge towards finding the compass points. A great way to solve an anagram is to write the letters in a circle; perhaps that was a subtle hint too, I'm not sure if this was Debra's intention. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I liked it.
Now, let's get to a couple of niggles - I'm thinking that if you're going to use "THE old west" you should also have "THE deep south" and "THE Middle East". These don't really stand on their own, unlike "True North" which doesn't need the definite article. I like consistency and to me this falls a little short. Also, if you're going to use "?" in the clue as the device to hint at the theme entries, you absolutely shouldn't have a clue like 20A. Your mileage may vary, naturally.
Moving right along ...
Across:
1. Ottoman bigwigs: AGAS
5. Wildly: AMOK. Amok is a funny word, you only ever see it paired with "run". I suppose "walking amok" doesn't have the same ring to it.
9. Peaks: ACMES
14. At hand: NIGH
15. Animated explorer: DORA
16. Patterned fabric: TOILE
19. Comedian Izzard: EDDIE. One of my favorite stand-up comics, I've linked to him before. How Britain built its Empire (TV-MA for language).
20. Sound investments?: STEREOS. See intro comment.
21. Like some deliveries: SAME-DAY
23. Indy guide: PACE CAR. Nice clue - "Lonely Planet" would be my first guess, despite having way too many letters. Since 2002, Chevrolet has had the exclusive rights to provide the pace car at the Indianapolis 500, they've all been Corvettes or Camaros, unsuprisingly. I wouldn't want to pace a field of IndyCars in a Chevy Spark.
25. She walked into Rick's gin joint: ILSA. "Play it, Sam".
26. Disastrous: FATAL Yep. Pretty much covers it.
29. Comedian Garofalo: JANEANE. Thank you, crosses.
31. Folk legend Phil: OCHS
32. __ Jose: SAN. Do you know the way?
33. Connects with: TIES TO
36. Arles article: UNE. It seems a shame to consign Arles to a crossword clue. I lived there for a few weeks, and who doesn't appreciate a nice Roman adqueduct?
37. __ West Records: Nashville label: NEW. Thank you, crosses.
38. Rosy-fingered goddess who rises in the east: EOS, Thank you, crosswords.
39. AirPod spot: EAR. Pops up again.
40. Get back in business: RE-OPEN
42. Product prefix that evokes winter: SNO-
43. Die down: WANE
44. Herbie, in Disney films: LOVE BUG
46. Outset: GET-GO
47. They don't last: FADS
49. Part of Curaçao: CEDILLA. The diacritical mark under the "C". The spendidly-named map-maker Heironymus Cock named it "Quraçao" on his 1562 map of the region, but that variant didn't catch on, so Curaçao it is.
51. Rather: INSTEAD
53. Apparel brand with a spinnaker logo: NAUTICA
57. Mesh: FIT IN
60. Red-pencil: EMEND. I had the first "E" already in place, so I wasn't tempted by AMEND.
61. December 24 and 31: EVES
62. "At Last" singer James: ETTA. A lovely song.
63. Georgia team, in sports headlines: DAWGS. Bulldogs, to give them their formal name.
64. Take a chance: DARE
65. Hoarse laugh: RASP
Down:
1. Tiny colonists: ANTS
2. Structural engineering piece: GIRT. Thank you, crosses. Want to know your studs and joists from your girts? Here you go ..
3. Chills and fever: AGUE
4. Tibetan leaders: SHERPAS. Not the Dalai Lamas then. I'm not sure I'd call a sherpa a leader, but I guess they are in the mountain guiding sense.
5. Specially formed: AD HOC
6. Saskatchewan city with a 34-foot animal statue named Mac at its tourist info center: MOOSE JAW. Here's Mac, with his "cute" Lego model which looks to be about eight feet tall!
7. NHL great Bobby: ORR
8. Dodge City native: KANSAN
9. "Up and __!": AT 'EM! Funny, I talked about this last week - we had "Up and About" then.
10. Cough medicine ingredient: CODEINE
12. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. He invented and patented the lockstitch sewing machine, and was involved in a protracted lawsuit for five years with Isaac Singer, who was producing and selling machines which violated Howe's patents. Howe won, and made a lot of money over the years with royalties from Singer. He was granted a patent in 1851 for an "automatic, continuous clothing closure", the zipper as we know it today. He didn't exploit the invention, possibly because he was making money from the sewing machine royalties.
13. "Peace out": SEE YA!
18. Marsh duck: TEAL. They can't walk straight, but they can fly in a corkscrew motion at speeds in excess of 50 mph. That's some achievement! The English expression "drunk as a duck" refers to the teal's characteristic waddle on land.
22. Schoolyard retort: ARE TOO!
24. U.S. neighbor to the north: CAN.
26. One of two in Hank Aaron's uniform number: FOUR. There's a mint-condition "Hammerin' Hank" 1954 rookie card on eBay at the moment going for $37,500 if you're interested!
27. Proactiv+ target: ACNE
30. First words in an alphabet book: A IS ... for ...
32. Largest of New York's Finger Lakes: SENECA. I don't know any of the Finger Lakes off the top of my head, but I had enough letters from the crosses to fill this in without a thought.
34. Tart taste: TANG
35. Mega Stuf cookie: OREO
37. Great Basin st.: NEV. National Park in eastern Nevada close to the Utah border.
38. One may be civil: ENGINEER. I used to go to football matches back in England with a friend who was a civil engineer. His language was anything but civil when his team was losing (which was often!)
41. Message board item: POSTING
42. South, in Avignon: SUD
43. Local news segment: WEATHER
45. Settled in for the night, with "down": BEDDED
46. Surfeit: GLUT
47. Fluted on the march: FIFED. I fell for the "PIPED" trap at first, but didn't take long to correct it.
48. Jungian inner self: ANIMA. I think I knew this, but the crosses filled it in for me.
50. Momentary error: LAPSE
52. Fades to black: ENDS
54. Bit: IOTA
55. Stops shooting: CUTS. I like that movie and TV directors still have megaphones; I saw a lot in use when I worked on the lot at Warner Bros.
56. "Stat!": ASAP!
59. Gabor of "Green Acres": EVA. Her sister, Magda, was briefly married to George Sanders, who had been previously married to the third sister, Zsa Zsa. Keepin' it in the family!
I think that about covers it for today. Here's the grid, with the circled "compass rose" in the center.
Steve
17A. Authentic piece of a holy relic?: TRUE THORN. True North. The magnetic inclination (the difference between True North and Magnetic North) changes over time and also depends on where you are on the globe, but if you were standing at the North Pole and pulled out a compass, it would point you towards Ellesmere Island in northern Canada, more than 300 miles away.
58A. Biblical pronouns read by James Earl Jones?: DEEP THOUS. Deep South.
11D. Place reserved for one reconciling a dispute?: MIDDLE SEAT. Middle East. Funnily, the middle seat occupant on the airplane sometimes is the cause of a dispute over the armrest.
28D. Unwelcome leftovers?: THE OLD STEW. The Old West. Depends how old. Some stews get better left for a couple of days to let the flavors develop. Obviously, there's a tipping point :)
Right then, let's dig into this one. The anagrams don't seem forced in the four theme entries which is great, Debra did have a clever observation that there are anagrams to be had; and the circled letters highlighted in the grid do give you a nudge towards finding the compass points. A great way to solve an anagram is to write the letters in a circle; perhaps that was a subtle hint too, I'm not sure if this was Debra's intention. Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I liked it.
Now, let's get to a couple of niggles - I'm thinking that if you're going to use "THE old west" you should also have "THE deep south" and "THE Middle East". These don't really stand on their own, unlike "True North" which doesn't need the definite article. I like consistency and to me this falls a little short. Also, if you're going to use "?" in the clue as the device to hint at the theme entries, you absolutely shouldn't have a clue like 20A. Your mileage may vary, naturally.
Moving right along ...
Across:
1. Ottoman bigwigs: AGAS
5. Wildly: AMOK. Amok is a funny word, you only ever see it paired with "run". I suppose "walking amok" doesn't have the same ring to it.
9. Peaks: ACMES
14. At hand: NIGH
15. Animated explorer: DORA
16. Patterned fabric: TOILE
19. Comedian Izzard: EDDIE. One of my favorite stand-up comics, I've linked to him before. How Britain built its Empire (TV-MA for language).
20. Sound investments?: STEREOS. See intro comment.
21. Like some deliveries: SAME-DAY
23. Indy guide: PACE CAR. Nice clue - "Lonely Planet" would be my first guess, despite having way too many letters. Since 2002, Chevrolet has had the exclusive rights to provide the pace car at the Indianapolis 500, they've all been Corvettes or Camaros, unsuprisingly. I wouldn't want to pace a field of IndyCars in a Chevy Spark.
25. She walked into Rick's gin joint: ILSA. "Play it, Sam".
26. Disastrous: FATAL Yep. Pretty much covers it.
29. Comedian Garofalo: JANEANE. Thank you, crosses.
31. Folk legend Phil: OCHS
32. __ Jose: SAN. Do you know the way?
33. Connects with: TIES TO
36. Arles article: UNE. It seems a shame to consign Arles to a crossword clue. I lived there for a few weeks, and who doesn't appreciate a nice Roman adqueduct?
37. __ West Records: Nashville label: NEW. Thank you, crosses.
38. Rosy-fingered goddess who rises in the east: EOS, Thank you, crosswords.
39. AirPod spot: EAR. Pops up again.
40. Get back in business: RE-OPEN
42. Product prefix that evokes winter: SNO-
43. Die down: WANE
44. Herbie, in Disney films: LOVE BUG
46. Outset: GET-GO
47. They don't last: FADS
49. Part of Curaçao: CEDILLA. The diacritical mark under the "C". The spendidly-named map-maker Heironymus Cock named it "Quraçao" on his 1562 map of the region, but that variant didn't catch on, so Curaçao it is.
51. Rather: INSTEAD
53. Apparel brand with a spinnaker logo: NAUTICA
57. Mesh: FIT IN
60. Red-pencil: EMEND. I had the first "E" already in place, so I wasn't tempted by AMEND.
61. December 24 and 31: EVES
62. "At Last" singer James: ETTA. A lovely song.
63. Georgia team, in sports headlines: DAWGS. Bulldogs, to give them their formal name.
64. Take a chance: DARE
65. Hoarse laugh: RASP
Down:
1. Tiny colonists: ANTS
2. Structural engineering piece: GIRT. Thank you, crosses. Want to know your studs and joists from your girts? Here you go ..
3. Chills and fever: AGUE
4. Tibetan leaders: SHERPAS. Not the Dalai Lamas then. I'm not sure I'd call a sherpa a leader, but I guess they are in the mountain guiding sense.
5. Specially formed: AD HOC
6. Saskatchewan city with a 34-foot animal statue named Mac at its tourist info center: MOOSE JAW. Here's Mac, with his "cute" Lego model which looks to be about eight feet tall!
7. NHL great Bobby: ORR
8. Dodge City native: KANSAN
9. "Up and __!": AT 'EM! Funny, I talked about this last week - we had "Up and About" then.
10. Cough medicine ingredient: CODEINE
12. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. He invented and patented the lockstitch sewing machine, and was involved in a protracted lawsuit for five years with Isaac Singer, who was producing and selling machines which violated Howe's patents. Howe won, and made a lot of money over the years with royalties from Singer. He was granted a patent in 1851 for an "automatic, continuous clothing closure", the zipper as we know it today. He didn't exploit the invention, possibly because he was making money from the sewing machine royalties.
13. "Peace out": SEE YA!
18. Marsh duck: TEAL. They can't walk straight, but they can fly in a corkscrew motion at speeds in excess of 50 mph. That's some achievement! The English expression "drunk as a duck" refers to the teal's characteristic waddle on land.
22. Schoolyard retort: ARE TOO!
24. U.S. neighbor to the north: CAN.
26. One of two in Hank Aaron's uniform number: FOUR. There's a mint-condition "Hammerin' Hank" 1954 rookie card on eBay at the moment going for $37,500 if you're interested!
27. Proactiv+ target: ACNE
30. First words in an alphabet book: A IS ... for ...
32. Largest of New York's Finger Lakes: SENECA. I don't know any of the Finger Lakes off the top of my head, but I had enough letters from the crosses to fill this in without a thought.
34. Tart taste: TANG
35. Mega Stuf cookie: OREO
37. Great Basin st.: NEV. National Park in eastern Nevada close to the Utah border.
38. One may be civil: ENGINEER. I used to go to football matches back in England with a friend who was a civil engineer. His language was anything but civil when his team was losing (which was often!)
41. Message board item: POSTING
42. South, in Avignon: SUD
43. Local news segment: WEATHER
45. Settled in for the night, with "down": BEDDED
46. Surfeit: GLUT
47. Fluted on the march: FIFED. I fell for the "PIPED" trap at first, but didn't take long to correct it.
48. Jungian inner self: ANIMA. I think I knew this, but the crosses filled it in for me.
50. Momentary error: LAPSE
52. Fades to black: ENDS
54. Bit: IOTA
55. Stops shooting: CUTS. I like that movie and TV directors still have megaphones; I saw a lot in use when I worked on the lot at Warner Bros.
56. "Stat!": ASAP!
59. Gabor of "Green Acres": EVA. Her sister, Magda, was briefly married to George Sanders, who had been previously married to the third sister, Zsa Zsa. Keepin' it in the family!
I think that about covers it for today. Here's the grid, with the circled "compass rose" in the center.
Steve
Really obscure themes are simultaneously brilliant and dumb. This one goes to the extreme in both directions.
ReplyDeleteAll four directions, actually. Of the four central clues, North and East refer to things in those directions, West is just a word in a name, with no real relation to the direction, and South is the actual direction, but in a different language.
So many place names clustered around the top circle -- MOOSEJAW, CANada, KANSAN, SAN JOSE -- were also a distraction.
But the anagrams in the outer clues were unsuspected until after I completed the puzzle, and tried to analyze the really dumb longer entries. That little compass rose in the center just wasn't sufficient for a theme on its own. 5-across could have been used as a subtle reveal, "Wildly, like the directions for this puzzle".
A CEDILLA will turn a C to an S,
Sometimes can make pronunciation a teçt.
It can make a façade
Sound distinctively odd
With a soupçon of French, at beçt!
{B+}
A bit of a slog and no joy in the end. Borderline dreadful. A voluntary DNF
ReplyDeleteWow, what a tough crowd. I enjoyed the puzzle from Debra who had her debut here on Jayce's 2019 birthday. Coincidentally she had a puzzle published that same day - the Universal.
ReplyDeleteI did not know GIRT enjoyed the CSO to all the bloggers here with SHERPAS and the reappearance of the GABOR SISTERS .
DEBRA come visit and tell us your story; are you related to RAY HAMEL?
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteApparently I have no sense of direction. Once again, d-o was clueless as to the theme. I even had the circles, but didn't notice 'em until Steve pointed 'em out. Had a minor hiccup in Vermont with AWAY were ATEM needed to go. Easily fixed. Got 'er done, so life is good. Thanx, Debra and Steve.
JANEANE: I knew her name, but not the spelling. Perps to the rescue.
SHERPAS: Thought they were exclusively from Nepal. Learning moment.
ENGINEER: Older brother is a civil engineer, but he wound up working in university administration. Go figure.
CODEINE: Calls for a little Buffy Sainte Marie. At only 1:37, very little.
I didn’t get the theme, so I had to struggle a bit. The SW held out against me the longest. My daughter is a Civil ENGINEER, so that was easy. I have my own LOVEBUG, named MOON BUG on its license plate.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Debra and Steve - a fun Thursday puzzle, usually my favorite of the week, and a great run-down, especially shedding light like EOS on the anagram thing. The SW gave me the most trouble, not having understood the role that anagrams played. THEOLDSTEW was a TRUETHORN.
ReplyDeleteOne tiny thing Steve, you mention the difference between True North and Magnetic North, I'm inclined to say that term is "declination" :-)
Happy Thursday everyone!
I despise foreign words crossing each other, and today's intersection of Sud and Sedilla is no exception. Clever usage of the theme, but I didn't notice them until after solving. Took just over 12 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWell this one of those times where I had solved the puzzle - but didn't get the theme until I came here! I had PIPED before FIFED and AMEND before EMEND as Steve pointed out were easy places to screw up - but perps took care of most of those in the end!
ReplyDeleteI thought the clue "Part of Curacao" should have had a question mark at the end - like those clues that want the letter of a word for an answer like DEE or ESS. From what I had filled in when I got to that clue - the end could have been ISLE or ISLA which again slowed things down until perps took over!
With the influenza season raging on, sometimes codeine cough syrup is the only thing that will give someone relief from the cough enough to get some much needed sleep!
Thanks Steve and Debra! Off to work!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis is the first puzzle, in memory, that I finished without having the slightest idea of what the theme was. I will give props to the constructor for imagination, but, overall, I'll defer to Thumper. Also, it was a rare FIW because the Moose's Jaw couldn't get past Jam or Jar and not knowing the record company sealed my fate. My only w/o was Near before Nigh and I needed perps for Nautica, among others. Girt is a new word for me. Several CSO's to CanadianEh with Moose Jaw, Can., and Sud.
Thanks, Debra, for an ambitious effort and thanks, Steve, for a rollicking review, filled with those tasty tidbits about the mischievously-named map maker, Elias Howe's fortunes and misfortunes of the "daffy" duck! Good fun.
Thank you all for your kind thoughts and condolences.
Have a great day.
The dreaded Undo key struck again. The last part of my comment to Steve was "Elias Howe's fortunes and misfortunes, and the antics of the "Daffy" Duck."
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the puzzle and Steve's POSTING.
ReplyDeleteI found the compass rose right away and knew there had to be more to the theme. I didn't find the anagrams by myself. No wonder the long answers were a little odd.
Our current puzzles are getting very ANTSy.
The SW held me up a bit. I studied Jung, not my favorite subject, but I took too long to think of ANIMA. Guessing DAWG was my Rosetta stone there, finally. SUDS before FADS. PIPED before FIFED.
Getting MOOSE JAW with just a few perps helped as did the compass rose.
Alan has DVDs of all the LOVE BUG movies but often watches a single episode over and over. He has all the complete seasons of many old sitcoms and watches a single episode continuously. I guess, whatever turns you on.
Cedilla is a loan-word from the Spanish which English has adopted, just like umlaut, which we adopted from the German dropping the capital U.
"If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, you're drunk. Ducks don't talk."
Hola!
ReplyDeleteI am still laughing out loud at DEEP THOUS. It just strikes me as funny.
Thank you, Debra Hamel for today's fun.
Thinking about TRUE THORN is a good way to start the second day of Lent.
I remember seeing a movie with JANEANE Garofalo and Uma Thurman but can't recall the name.
What nice CSOs to Canadian Eh, at MOOSEJAW and CANada. I see, too, the CSO to Spitz and Irish Miss at SENECA.
I am allergic to CODEINE.
One of my uncles was named ELIAS (in Spanish pronounced eh-lee-yas). He was born with rheumatoid arthritis and was severely crippled.
Thank you, Steve, for your always enjoyable commentary.
Have a peaceful day, everyone!
Tough 0ne. DNF. Didn't get the compass circle. So many names I didn't know. Obscure.
ReplyDeleteFor me this was a Saturday plus puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAfter almost getting there the Mid WEST was a bust and I DNF. The rest an inky mess JANEANE is one of my favorite comedians (comediennes?) Spelled her name wrong multiple times. "Theethous" instead of DEEPTHOUS. Fans (they don't last either) instead of FADS...All perp walked.
Was about to call Can Eh as a "Lifeline" but suddenly head slapped MOOSEJAW.
Just last night I sat thru TWO AND A HALF hours of "Ford vrs Ferrari" and it never occurred to me that "Indy" did NOT refer to Indiana Jones or an independent film. Only the perps solved that.
My FATAL errors were OCHS..no clue. Arles article le, la, or "les", forgot that Proactiv+ is for ACNE not a probiotic..actually considered to fill with "Anal" at one point. ..lol
Thought Leftovers was plural, I assume it's a collective singular. But stayed with "dayOLDSTEW too long.
OREO...Gave them up for Lent
Is it true that when asked to invent the sewing machine Elias queried..
"HOWE?" And that "Dora the explorah" is actually from Bahston?
When God touched our New York state he created the Fingers Lakes. Either to bestow a blessing or rip it out and start over.
Woke up to another Mohawk Valley snowstorm.
Enjoy the rest of Thor's Day
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Debra Hamel, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was tough. I stuck to it and persevered. Never looked for the theme. I should have but am in a hurry. Once I got here and saw the theme I thought it was outstanding! Great job!
Lots of tough answers. Perps and Wags all the way.
I also liked DEEP THOUS. Very clever.
We get OREO again. Real crossword staple.
Also liked SHERPAS. A little misdirection.
Have to leave for a meeting shortly. See you tomorrow. Tomorrow there is no school so I can sleep in a little late.
Abejo
( )
Musings
ReplyDelete-Subbing today involves merely sitting and watching bad math teaching and fighting the urge to tell the teachers a better strategy
-I tried to make sense of the gimmick but just let Steve do it for me
-“When whippoorwills call and evening is NIGH,” where do you go?
-JANEANE is in the 7th season of my current West Wing bingeing
-My very Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids work better than air pods
-People from MOOSEJAW are called Moose Javians. You’re welcome.
-I had a Village Inn lemon pie this week that was void of any TANG
-A friend of mine runs the local animal shelter but several bad POSTINGS have made her life miserable
-Love the limerick, Owen!
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Debra and Steve.
ReplyDeleteI thought this CW was brilliant, even though I had several inkblots and actually FIWed.
I put an O at the and of ANIMA (giving me DOWGS).
Although I did see the scrambled directions in the themers, I totally missed the circled NESW rose until Steve pointed it out. And then OwenKL mentioned SUD! I'm in awe of the construction. (DW is a mechanical ENGINEER and 2 sons are civil; I still wanted Girder before GIRT but it did not fit.)
Hand up for wanting Near before NIGH. I changed Away to AT'EM. Edit was too short but EMEND fit the spot.
I wanted Ebbs before ENDS, and noted WANE also (clues could have been exchanged!).
My mind was in THE OLD WEST and was thinking of guns with 55D "Stops shooting". Oh, movies -- CUTS.
I forgot Herbie (doh) and had Lone Bus; the S changed to G with Engineer, but NEV was slow to appear for this Canadian.
But I did have some Canadian advantage today with CAN. and MOOSE JAW (all I remember of a visit there was a huge thunderstorm). LOL re calling me as a lifeline, Ray.
JANEANE was totally unknown. CEDILLA perped, thankfully.
Wishing you all a good day (and no coughs needing CODEINE).
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteTouch-and-go for a while but I was able to FIR due to strategically placed doable perps. No other help was needed. Thinking of an animal motif in Sask., I quickly entered MOOSE JAW. JANEANE came from perps although I knew who Garofalo was. Thought of C. Eh! @ CAN and Lemon @ 'Peace out'. I think he says that. Had 'near' before NIGH. Had 'piped' before FIFED which FIT IN a lot better.
SENECA Lake - While in the Civil ENGINEERING Masters degree program at SUNY Buffalo, (Hi Misty), we made frequent field trips to southern SENECA Lake for a limnology course I was taking.
I had completed most of the puzzle and three of the compass points fills before I DEEP THOUS enlightened me. I never noticed the circled letters. But it required solid perps and WAGS to finish.
ReplyDelete'Part of Curacas'- okay, the Carribean island or the citrus peel alcohol? Neither. Diacritical mark of foreign languages- not things I know. CEDILLA- all perps. So were JANEANE Garofalo, SEE YA, and EDDIE Izzard. I've never heard the term "Peace Out". I only filled GIRT because it sounded like 'girder' and the perps were solid.
MOOSE JAW stacked next to CANada was nice.
LSU 37- DAWGS 10 on the way to the National Championship.
Anon@7:31- I agree about the foreign words crossing. Luckily I knew SUD.
Gary- if students were FORCED to learn how to ADD and their MULTIPLICATION TABLES at an early age, higher math would be a lot simpler. But they use calculators and as you know, GIGO. Just like your ABCs you need to know some things without having to think about it.
I didn't see the anagrams of the ordinal directions until I came here. I did notice that the directions appeared in each clue for the circled letters (the word West in the clue for 37 across, North in the clue for 27 down, East in the clue for 38 across, and South in the clue for 42 down).
ReplyDeleteI actually had a pretty good start in the mid- and north-east with this Thursday toughie, which I still really enjoyed--many thanks, Debra. It also helped that I got nearly all of the female names, including DORA, ILSA, ETTA, EVA, and EOS. Only JANEANE was unknown to me and made that middle section a bit crunchy. Like others, I also put NEAR before NIGH, and wanted to put STEREOS but worried it wouldn't be right. Never got the theme, but no real issue for me. Lots of fun in spite of tough places, so thanks again, Debra. And always enjoy your comments, Steve.
ReplyDeleteOwen, this may be one of my favorite poems of yours--brilliant!
Have a good day, everybody.
FIR, but it seemed to take longer than third grade. Erased twill for TOILE(?), grade for EMEND, are not for ARE TOO, push pin for POSTING, dims for ENDS, DAWGS, then re-entered, and hand up for pIpED. Total WAG at SUD x CEDILLA. I thought "SUD" was German.
ReplyDeleteDNK TOILE, New West, GIRT, or ANIMA.
I thought of the Geico Gecko at "comedian izzard".
I know JANEANE Garofalo from Air America talk radio. I think of her as a mirror image to Michael Savage. He is a perpetually pissed off neocon; she is a perpetually pissed off paleolib.
I actually liked this puzzle (except for the Natick), maybe because it stretched my solving ability. I got the theme, probably because I was looking for help to finish the San Onofre area. Thanks, Debra. And thanks to Steve for another fun expo. What are you guys going to call soccer when the NFL expands to Merrie Olde England?
Well, I finished it.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't crow about it as I had to look up several names
as I had no idea who they were.
( I also looked up Jungian, but that didn't help at all...)
Start b/4 get go... (tangy Oreos put a stop to that...)
Learning moment=Girt
Never saw the theme, (thank you Blog) as I was too busy
looking for an explanation in the cluing which never came...
Just an afterthought, not that it could be done, but wouldn't
it be fairer theme cluing to mix up the NEWS to signify anagrams?
My Star Ledger gave the clue for 49A:
Part of Cura
ao
(just like that???)
(on two lines???)
They claim they can't fix it because that is the way they
get it from "The Syndicate."
I would be very interested to know how it was clued in
other papers, & send the info to the Star Ledger with a note
stating "if other papers can print it right..."
Bad compass jokes:
#1
#2
Well, I clearly neeed direction in finding silly links
for this theme, so, to sum up,
How I know Eddie Izzard
(was previously posted on the Blog, that's how I know...)
ReplyDeleteWell, I got the solve. But not fun.
I thought 2D ridiculous, until 30D. Both just terrible, IMO.
Then the NATICKS....maybe Ms. Hamel should be made aware of what they are and why they should be avoided.
And the circles...if you’re going to have them, why not circle the ACTUAL jumbled directions instead of the compass points in the middle?
Anyway...
Write-overs....NEAR/NIGH, PUSHPIN/POSTING, PLUS/GLUT.
And on to Friday.
Owen,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Misty about the brilliance of today's poem. Wow!
I liked this puzzle. I saw and filled the four circled letters but the subtleties of the theme whooshed right over my head. In hindsight I agree it is brilliant. Knew Ms. Garofalo but didn't know how to spell her first name. At least I did put in FIFED on the first pass. Wanted BEETLE or VWBEETLE but they wouldn't fit, and even after getting BUG from the perps I still didn't get it. Brain must be on idle today.
ReplyDeleteOwen, I agree with Misty that your verse is brilliant.
Steve, I always enjoy your write-ups.
Good wishes to you all.
Oh yes, Piped b/4 Fifed...
ReplyDeleteJust Bookmarking my place...
We have enjoyed the two references to Saskatchewan lately, as that is where we were born and raised. We have seen Mac the Moose many times. This puzzle was in our wheelhouse, we noticed the NSEW rose immediately and sussed the theme. That is not always the case! As an aside, Buffy St Marie was born in the Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. She was adopted as an infant and the U.S. became her home. We were privileged to see her perform. Best wishes to you all!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an average difficulty Thursday; I guess some others beg to differ.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t need or know the theme for the THORN and SEAT answers, but finally got it and it did help in getting STEW and THOUS.
CrossEyedDave @ 12:46PM:
ReplyDeleteThe "Maui News" had 49 Across clued all in one line with the proper tail on the second c. At the bottom of the puzzle, it shows the copyright symbol then "2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC)
Cool verçe, Owen! I wonder if your reçent cryptic experiençe is adding to your playfulness...
ReplyDeleteNearly got to my Ta ~ DA!, but failed in the SW corner. I just didn't want to give up on PIPED--INSTEAD of FIFED.
~ OMK
A better clue for 47D...
ReplyDelete"Arrested by a sheriff's deputy in Mayberry NC."
I thought the anagrams were fun. I liked the circled letters in the center as a simulation of a compass rose. I did not love that the clues for those circled letters actually contain the words "north," "east," "south," and "west" in them. A subtle reference would have been better -- something like "neighbor above the US" rather than "neighbor to the north."
ReplyDeleteAnd I REALLY did not like that the "south" answer was the word "south" (albeit in another language). That's way too on-the-nose. But it was nice that there were three references to each direction (the anagram, the clue, and the circled letter).
Hi everybody. I finished the puzzle with some difficulty but had the same frustration as many of you guys with the theme. I saw the four letters in the center but that didn't steer me towards finding the four directional anagrams. Now that I know what's going on, it all seems pretty clever. When I was in the midst of it though, it seemed very frustrating instead of clever. Rats!
ReplyDeleteThe finger lakes (Cayuga) brought back memories of Cornell, some good and some not so good.
~ Mind how you go...
Miraculous FIR. SW had me. I stuck with PIPED too long. Like I just read I was thinking of LOST DOGS. And.
ReplyDeleteMesh the fabric. REOPEN got me the P. Inking EBBS before ENDS slowed me down.
I'm still hurting from the Saturday disaster.
Did I mention our late, lamented conure was named EOS.
After Steve explained everything I now greatly appreciate Debra's sparkling creation.
TRUE THORN… We have "Fake News" the middle ages had fake relics. When the first crusade was besieged they came up with the Spear that pierced the Lord and pulled out a victory.
SUD and UNE befuddled, eh? My Bane is pop culture. My Sunday Birnholz is themed with "popular" songs which Anon-T would reel off in a sec.*
I think I could count nearly a dozen old xword chestnuts today from ACME through ETTA.
Anon, your "too obvious" went right over everyone's head except Brian. All of it went right over my head.
WC
-T, my son Phillip was trying to teach me Metallica last night. I told him all that stuff was just cacophonous noise.
Curaco, with the doodad, is shown correctly on the digital version of the Virginian Pilot. Don't know if it works, but here's a link to it.
ReplyDeleteRay-of-sunshine did it again @ 4:18
ReplyDelete( I wuz Fifed!...)
Thank you Brian @ 2:55,
(figures I would have to go off the Mainland to find some sanity...)
Jinx, the link works!
(but I have to pay 99 cents to see more than the page one...)
I will tell the Star Ledger to put up a buck if they want to see
how inept they are...
A better explanation for the 37d clue is not the Great Basin National Park, but the Great Basin itself which includes parts of several states, Nevada covering most of the basin
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteDNF - no idea xing of SUD & CEDILLA. Thanks Debra for the crunchy puzzle with a puzzling theme. Thanks Steve for explaining the anagrams.
WOs: hand-up Near/NIGH, Away/ATEM
ESPs: yes, thank you very much
FIW: ACHE for ProActive+
Fav: EDDIE Izzard - I love his standup.
Runner-up: JANEANE Garofalo. Loved her in Reality Bites.
{A}
WC - On Metallica we agree.
Back to work.
Cheers, -T
Well, I voted. I was going to skip it because I would be happy with any of the candidates but a nagging, guilty feeling began to come over me and I dragged myself to the new voting place using a new electronic ballot. I mostly got the hang of it with help from the really nice people volunteering to man the polling venue. The important thing is that I got a sticker that proclaims "I voted."
ReplyDeleteBillG - I love the "I voted" stickers - It conveys "I claimed my inalienable Right and did my civic duty." I always paste them in my wallet.
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T