Today's puzzle is by Roland Huget and it appears to be his first LA Times Saturday effort. He has had puzzles on every day but Saturday and Sunday here. Melissa Bee blogged his last LA puzzle sixteen days ago which had a clever GEAR shift gimmick.
Roland has had eight NY Times puzzles and the grids were amazing. I have no personal info on him but I enjoyed scaling his literary hill once I got some toeholds.
Across:
1. Island top: ALOHA SHIRT and 67. Island bottom: GRASS SKIRT. These were very fun top and bottom horizontal clues once I sussed where they were going. Hawkeye's ALOHA (Hawaiian) SHIRT is at the Smithsonian's National Museum Of American History but not currently on display.
11. Beaver young: KITS
15. Dreamer of Greek myth: LOTUS EATER - A member of this classic mythological race ate the fruit of the LOTUS tree which made them dreamy and indifferent (stoned?)
16. Short race, briefly: ONE-K - Redux from last week - a ONE Kilometer (.67 mile) race
17. Celebrated 1981 bride: PRINCESS DI - In The Crown it is stated that Charles was always deeply in love with Camilla but was forced to marry Dianna. Timeline
18. Kyrgyzstan range: ALAI - Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott trekking in the "otherworldly" ALAI Mt. range in south Kyrgyzstan.
19. Italian sonnet closing: SESTET - The Italian or Petrachian sonnet starts with eight lines and ends with six lines. A famous such sonnet is The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus whose closing is this SESTET
20. One may be mounted close to a grille: FOG LAMP -
22. Never encountered before: NOVEL.
25. Sleeper's path: RAILS - The famous Sleeper Car scene in Some Like It Hot. Fun cluing.
26. Didn't lose at all: SWEPT - Winning all the games of a series
30. Athlete's best effort: A-GAME - The Astros always brought their A-GAME but also cheated
32. "Breaking Bad" org.: DEA - I've known many chemistry teachers but none that cooked meth
33. City on the Arno: PISA - The Arno flows west through Florence and then to PISA where it empties into the Ligurian Sea. Several dams on it make it non-navigable by boat
34. Hardly the best smoke: STOGIE - Roger Miller sang of a King Of The Road who smoked "Old STOGIES I have found"
35. Filing aid: TAB - At the top of a cardboard folder or at the bottom of an Excel spreadsheet
36. Item on many a diner check: ENTREE
38. Jazz piano style: STRIDE - The fabulous Oscar Peterson teaching Dick Cavett about jazz piano The first 1:20 explains STRIDE Piano
40. Greek letter: ETA.
41. White water: RAPIDS
45. Early philosophical hot spot: ELEA - Interested?
46. Columbo, for one: Abbr.: DETective47. Point of view: ANGLE
48. Sidestep: AVERT - AVOID? EVADE? Nope...
49. Formal wear: DRESS.
51. One way to think: ALOUD
53. Experiment with Zener cards: ESP TEST.
55. Tree with green-skinned fruit: PAW PAW - Mr. Green Jeans sang Way Down Yonder In The PAW PAW Patch on Captain Kangaroo
60. Opposite of bueno: MALO - ¡Fumar es MALO para tu salud! (Smoking is bad for your health)
61. United Nations goal: WORLD PEACE.
64. King Harald's father: OLAV.
65. Obsolescent media: AUDIO TAPES - This used to be as good as it got for portable music
66. Flier over Hawaii: NENE - State bird that frequently roosts in crosswords
Down:
1. Jungfrau setting: ALPS - Tourist books recommend you make an 5. Trip up: ASCENT and then ride a velogmel down the slope while you are in the Jungfrau area
2. Stuff of legends: LORE.
3. Name you might see while listening to Muzak: OTIS - Now that's a cool clue!4. Follow the game?: HUNT Tracking
6. Address: SEE TO.
7. Dines on: HAS.
8. Part of TGIF: IT'S.
9. Sign of trouble: RED FLAG - Smoke pouring out from under the hood?
10. Beaux Arts __: longtime chamber music group: TRIO.
11. Arboreal marsupial: KOALA - Arboreal? ✔ Joey in marsupial pouch? ✔ KOALA? ✔
12. Countertop option: INLAID TILE.
13. Captain, say: TEAM LEADER.
14. Stops pumping momentarily?: SKIPS A BEAT - Also called a palpitation
21. Receive with a shake, maybe: GREET - No shaking hands by GREETERS at our church these days
23. Brewery fixture: VAT.
24. Narcissist's issue: EGO.
26. One flying without a plane?: SPEED DEMON - This one went 462 mph
27. January clearance: WINTER SALE - Lots of nice clothes are on sale but they are all Smalls and Mediums
28. Where there's a will, usually: ESTATE PLAN
29. Equal footing: PAR - My getting a PAR is a 31. Hit opposite: MISS proposition
37. Make room on a drive: ERASE - On your computer hard drive
39. Gun in neutral: REV - Stoplight theatrics
42. Org. that runs the FedEx Cup Playoffs: PGA TOUR - Here 'ya go!
43. Misfortune: ILL.
44. __ volente: DEO - God Willing - This year, DEO volente, the floods will not return to our town
48. Makes adjustments: ADAPTS.
50. Hot spot: STOVE.
52. Beehives, e.g.: UPDOS - The product given credit for making these UPDOS possible like the one we see on Annette Funicello below.
54. Promotional handouts: SWAG - All actors, actresses and directors nominated for an Oscar this year got a SWAG Bag with $225,000 worth of gifts
56. Watered down: WEAK.
57. Longtime MLB star Big __: PAPI - David "Big PAPI" Ortiz got hit with a bullet intended for the man seated next to him last year in the Dominican Republic . He has recovered
58. HP rival: ACER.
59. Old U.S. region?: WEST - How the West was spun
62. Nutritional abbr.: RDA.
63. Fleur-de-__: LIS - Proudly displayed on the New Orleans football helmet
What say you?
FIR, but erased ural for ALAI, roma for PISA, eden for ELEA, avoid for AVERT, and there's a way for ESTATE PLAN, Waited for fbi/DEA and tec/DET.
ReplyDeleteDidn't understand "make room on a drive" until Gary 'splained it, but got all the other clever stuff. Only knew Zener diodes, not cards.
Receive with a shake? Not these days. How about a nice, friendly toe bump?
Really fun puzzle, Roland. Some will carp that a Saturday grid that even Jinx can get is too easy for Saturday, but ignore them. And thanks to Gary for the interesting tour.
Trivia: Zener cards are named for psychologist Karl Zener. The Zener diode is named for Clarence Zener who worked for Bell Labs.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteThat northeast section was the toughest for me, but I got 'er done. Yay! Wanted Dell before ACER showed up. BobB, you forgot philosopher Zener of ELEA. Thanx for the diversion, Roland and Husker.
SEAN BEAN: You may also remember him as Boromir in Lord Of The Rings or as Sean Miller in Patriot Games.
PAW PAW: I stopped at PawPaw's Seafood Restaurant in Lake Charles years ago. Don't know if it's still there. LIU, and it's still open.
Well I've seen ALOHA SHIRTs but never an authentic GRASS SKIRT, but for they were the top and bottom of the fills today. This puzzle was definitely in my wheelhouse today; I almost SWEPT today;finished in under 15 minutes with only one change- FOG HORN to LAMP.
ReplyDeleteSEAN Bean and Big PAPI were the only unknowns. I have not idea what a PAWPAW tree is but have seen it in crosswords before. Ditto for the Zener cards' ESP TEST.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteAs usual, the long, somewhat obvious fill made this a relatively easy solve, although the Central/South West areas gave me fits. I managed to FIR in normal Saturday time of 29 minutes, despite some very tricky cluing. Perps to the rescue on Alai, Elea, Malo, and ESP Test. W/os were Tap/Vat and Rome/Pisa. I liked the symmetry and kinship of Aloha Shirt and Grass Skirt. They even rhyme!
Thanks, Roland, for a fun and challenging solve and thanks, HG, for another sparkling review. The picture of the Koala and Joey made my day!
FLN
Misty, I think I remembered that your Dad's worked for RCA because of my own connection to it for so many years. I still remember a promotion one year that featured a life-sized, stuffed replica of Nipper. Maybe someone would be kind enough to post a link showing Nipper gracing the top of the building in Albany where I worked.
Have a great day.
So many great clues. Filled most of this easily, but for the California coast, three cells wide. I asked for three letters online. I got PISA, NENE and MALO before I peeked.
ReplyDeleteERASE was so clever, but I never thought of computing. I didn't consider DRESS as formal wear.
I liked the ALOHA SHIRT beginning and the GRASS SKIRT ending.
At first I thought this was just going to stay a sea of white, but slowly chipped away at the answers! I think I made every misstep that Jinx mentioned in the first paragraph of their post....
ReplyDeleteIt's starting at 30 today but up to 62 by the afternoon - spring is coming- though I'm not looking forward to losing an hour of sleep tonight!
Thanks HG and Roland!
Here ya go, IM.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI didn't find the puzzle as easy as some did. I had to turn Red Letters on with very few words filled in. The Northwest was the last to fall.
I didn't know PAWPAW, ALAI and ELEA, plus I wanted AVOID vs AVERT. Most of the rest of the words were V8 can head slaps when perps filled them in.
Going to a Home Builder's Expo at the local convention center to get on all kinds of mailing lists that I really don't want to get on. But to get their SWAG (mostly pens) you need to give them your address. I use return address labels that I get in the mail from just about every charity there is.
I'm not ready to lose an hour of sleep tonight.
Have a great day, everyone.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Very satisfying and doable.
ReplyDeleteThis started out as a blanket of freshly fallen snow, with only an occasional tuft of grass peeking through. P & P pulled me through and I FIR in 29 minutes. Not bad for me. I must have made every mistake everyone else has admitted to, with a few doozies of my own. I just knew that the answer for 1a had to involve a bikini bra somehow, but I couldn't make it fit. The 1981 bride had to be Diana, wasn't her last name Shepherd? Drat, wouldn't fit. And so on. Knew that the four letter Italian city was going to be the home of Zeno and I filled in the E_EA, but then tried to convince myself that the missing vowel was an exotic one like z or x. (By the way DO, I'm pretty sure what you said at 7:04 was tongue in cheek, but it's Zeno of Elea, not Zener.)
ReplyDeleteChicken pot pie with a biscuit crust for dinner tonight, along with a tossed salad. Roast turkey breast tomorrow. That may be the last of my efforts in the kitchen for a while as half of the frat house is going on the Keto Diet and will be fixing their own meals. Wouldn't be too surprised if the third young lion joins them. If so, I'll be cooking for one. I don't mind that as long as they clean up after themselves.
Started working last night on a dad-joke. I might as well throw it out there for your consideration and to sign off today. "Bad puns become Dad jokes when they are full groan.' I'll let myself out.
Cya!
Fun but typical Saturday challenge. Clever clues .somewhere under this big inky mess there's a FIR crossword puzzle. Whew!!
ReplyDeleteMany multiple corrections and perp self misdirection
Convinced erroneously that "sandals" somehow fit into the island bottom clue.
Where there's a will "there's a way" was too obvious but I fell for it. Gas for FOGLAMP. ..unmet for NOVEL...whites for WINTERSALE. Neither would work with PISA I knew was correct.
Dell for ACER. Video for AUDIOTAPES..alters for ADAPTS.
Like Jinx didnt get ERASE till I read the narrative
Boyhood memories of hanging with Grandpa in the cellar, the only place Gram would let him smoke his STOGIES.
The picture of Annette Funicello beehive. A native Utican.. my wife played with her as kids when Annette then a child star came back from California to visit relatives.
Zener cards? Guess big "PAPI" was a double "PAW PAW"
Just some scattered dirty snow piles left in the Mohawk Valley while it's thigh deep one hour north in the Southern Adirondacks . Went snowshoeing along our frozen lake.
March can be a treacherous month here.
Off to Florida for a weeklong med conference. CME credits required. Expect the usual SWAG.
Have a great week. Wash hands and don't touch your face
ReplyDeleteShot myself in the foot with "there's a way" and never quite recovered. Fun Puzzle.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteGot bolluxed up in the NE. Never did see RAILS and had TEAM playER. I guess we're averse to INLAID TILE (we like our Corian), so flubbed that, too. Had raDIO……… before AUDIO………. Got everything else, though.
I like Roland's challenges; and very good cluing.
DRESS re formal. Tricky. In uniforms, DRESS can mean formal, especially if preceded by a modifier; ie. Full DRESS (whites or blues). Service DRESS would be less formal. JMO.
NE was not fun. Otherwise, I liked it. Loved the island clues.
ReplyDeleteDO @ 9:03 ~ Thank you. That Nipper has been a beloved Albany landmark for many years.
ReplyDeleteOooh, a Roland Huget Saturday toughie! Couldn't believe the first across was 10 letters long! Yow! But I worked it slowly like I did yesterday, starting with ALPS and ITS in the northwest and with PAR and PISA in the midwest, and ENTREE got me ERASE which got me RAPIDS. And so it went for a while before I had to start cheating. Still a lot of fun, many thanks, Roland, and always enjoy your write-up, Husker Gary.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your "Dad" joke, Bluehen. And thanks again for remembering my Dad, Irish Miss, thanks to your own RCA work.
Thanks for reminding me that we lose an hour of sleep tonight. I didn't realize that and will have to reset my clocks.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Wow, I had a blast solving this fun puzzle. Great stuff. Some outstanding cluing.
ReplyDeleteLike several of you, I had URAL for the mountain range, then that KOALA made me change that to ARAL, which I just knew couldn't be right. I had forgotten ALAI.
On formal occasions in the military we would wear DRESS blues.
Do FOGLAMPs really help you to see in the fog? I wish I had them on our car while driving on I-5 through thick Tule fog last November.
We still have a bunch of AUDIO TAPES, both cassette and open reel, in our house but nothing to play them on.
There's something melodic to my ear about the word Jungfrau.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Yeah, "we dress for dinner" doesn't just mean "we don't sup in the nude". It means you have to get gussied up before you chow down.
ReplyDeleteLW and I totally hate switching back and forth between daylight saving time and standard time, as do apparently a vast majority of people. And sure enough, every time it happens, news articles are published about how bad the changes are for our health and for the economy, and calls are once again raised to standardize on one or the other throughout the year. And yet nothing is ever done.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle! Several clever misdirections. I made the same mistakes as others. Learning moment for ELEA. Thanks for the information, Gary.
ReplyDeleteWe use the print version of the LA Times, so mine can look pretty messy by the time I finally FIR!
For us, Daylight Savings Time is eagerly anticipated. We love having more of an evening before dark!
ReplyDeleteHi everybody.
ReplyDeleteThanks Roland and Gary! Very excellent!
I agree with Jayce (and most of the rest of you) about the change to DST. Leave the clocks alone!
Jayce, FLN, did you see my comments about what makes a tomato a fruit?
BobB wrote: "Zener cards are named for psychologist Karl Zener." Instead, I always believed they were named for the psychologist Dr. Cards. :>)
In the olden days when I served in Uncle Sam's navy, we had dress blues, but we also had undress blues -- lighter weight material for the jumper top with no piping around the cuffs or back flap, and zipper-fly trousers rather than the 13-button square fly of the dress blues. Undress blues were the winter uniform for personnel assigned to shore-based offices. In those days khaki shirts were only authorized for officers and chief petty officers. I believe, but I could be wrong, that the undress blue winter uniform and undress white summer uniform have both been replaced by a khaki winter/summer service uniform for enlisted (E-1-thru-6) sailors.
ReplyDeleteSuper Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteThis CW required P&P after the initial sea of white. (And yes, wendybird, my page had a lot of inkblots today!) INLAID TILE was the last to fall. But I arrived here to discover that I FIWed by misspelling STOGIE as Stogee (and I wondered how Mess was the opposite of Hit - d'oh).
I did enjoy the Island top and bottom (in those positions and rhyming!), and the clue for OTIS. Plus NENE in the other bottom corner to add to the Island theme.
I didn't understand how "sleeper's path=CAR" until I got here. Rail car!
Hand up for Avoid before EXERT, Tap before VAT, Ural before Aral before ALAI, Whites (or linen)SALE before WINTER.
I waited for perps to decide between LIS or Lys, and OLAV and Olaf.
I wanted the will to be in a safety deposit box but that was excessively long.
Didn't we just have SEAN Bean recently? But it was BEAN that was required that day. No, I LIUed and it was Ivy and BEAN.
Other unknowns included ELEA, Zener cards, and ALAI (but I would have not it if clued as Jai ___).
Yes, elbow bumps are the order of the day here, not SHAKEs.
I think of an ENTREE on the menu at a place which requires DRESS, not at a Diner! And "dines on=HAS" was meh IMO both for repeating dines/diner and just for general Blahness!
Wishing you all a great day.
ReplyDeleteThis Saturday grid has some rather tricky clueing.
Got the solve but not without the usual Saturday corrections.
Write-overs....ORATE/SEETO, TAP/VAT, WOE/ILL, EDEN/ELEA, DELL/ACER, RADIOTAPES/AUDIOTAPES.
So I earned it.
Now that I’ve been retired for awhile I don’t let the time shift/change bother me...I just wake up when I wake up, no longer tied to the time.Last week I had an appointment for my cat at the Vet, to make the 9 AM drop off time I actually had to set the clock radio alarm. Almost forgot how to set it, haha.
See you Monday, enjoy the weekend and the “extra” hour of after dinner sunlight.
Hard but fair. Enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThis is my kind of puzzle: Creative/amusing clues for mostly familiar words and expressions. The crossing of PAWPAW and PAPI was a double Natick, though. Saved only because we did see PAWPAW here not too long ago.
ReplyDeleteHand up I am more familiar with ZENER diodes than ZENER cards. But I did know both. Interesting that they were invented by two different people with this unusual name.
Husker Gary special thanks for the Emma Lazarus poem as a familiar example of the SESTET.
Amusing on a Saturday to have a mini-theme with Island Top and Island Bottom at the Top and Bottom of the puzzle!
We saw plenty of GRASS SKIRTS at the Ventura ALOHA Festival.
I am known for my own collection of ALOHA shirts.
That day I wore a vintage ALOHA SHIRT from the 1960s that I got in a thrift store in Hawaii.
I have KOALA and PISA photos, too, that I have shared before.
From Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteCanadianEh thank you for validating that the START FROM SCRATCH Wednesday theme is still not fully understood.
AnonT thank you for trying to explain it. Yes, I saw the explanation from Jerome. But I still need a few more words of explanation before I have any hope of getting it through my thick skull into my brain.
Why are the letters of SCRATCH scrambled?
Why are there only six circled START letters when SCRATCH has seven letters?
Inquiring but slow minds would still like to know. Thanks!
Bill G, I didn't see your posting last night, but I went back and read it just now. Thanks for the fruit explanation. It makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI, too, like DST better because I prefer having more daylight time in the evening than in the morning. If we ever were to decide to keep the same time all year, I'd vote to keep DST all year. Like AnonymousPVX, we wake up when we wake up, regardless. But it's still a nuisance to have to fiddle with the clocks twice a year. And the times when the TV shows we watch subjectively change, it does throw off our "rhythm."
D-O, that's Zeno of ELEA. Oops, already noted. I knew ELEA but needed four perps. FIR btw. Made my day.
ReplyDeleteI had flop/MISS for Hit opposite
I had my sea of white like others but guessed PRINCESS DI and of course our Boston Sluggah, Big PAPI(POPPY).
Once had all the clues regurgitating in my brain I did my Saturday routine and finally got serious solving at Winn Dixie. I had thought of Head Waiter or Commandeer for Captain. Wasn't thinking of Sports. I got a letter in the mail appointing me a Captain in USMCR. I lost it. 1970.
When I got SKIRT I had an idea for it's 1A counterpart.
Good , doable Saturday XW.
WC
Welcome DST. Most of my clocks reset automatically. I love the long evenings and my body adapts without a hitch.
ReplyDeletePicard, I, too, do not SEE the SCRATCH reasoning for yesterday. I wish the constructor had chimed in.
Many of our diners used the word ENTREES for the main course choices. And fewer and fewer eating places here require DRESS.
I soon will have to bake crustless mini spinach/cheddar quiches for our dance tonight. They make great snacks or hors d'oeuvres and the green fits in with the St.Patrick's Day theme. I use the same recipe in a nine inch pie plate to serve as an entree.
That was one, sweet little puzzle that was right up my alley with ALOHA SHIRTS, GRASS SKIRTS and our beloved NENE. loved it.
ReplyDeleteI really DST as it means I can get the puzzles one hour earlier. Yay!
"Full groan" is pretty good, Bluehen. Thanks for the smile. I've read worse.
ReplyDeleteA solid Saturday toughie from Mr. Huget--worth spending the time. I solved 90%--but only after cheating the 10% for my toehold.
Sorry to see no diagonal possibilities today.
~ OMK
Picard @ 2:00 ~ (and others, too) ~ I, too, was a little confused with the Start from Scratch themed puzzle but here is my interpretation.
ReplyDelete"Begin all over again ... and what 18-, 33-, 43-, and 50 Across all do (ALMOST) as indicated by the circled letters." It doesn't matter that the letters can spell Starch or Charts, it only matters that they all ALMOST spell SCRATCH, but lack the second C. They are jumbled in order to make sensible phrases and circled to aid the solver. I think the confusions stems, in part, from the way the clue is worded, but that ALMOST is key.
Hi Y'all! Great challenge, Roland! Great expo, Gary.
ReplyDeleteDRESS didn't bother me as formal wear. Nothing more formal than a wedding DRESS or prom DRESS.
My DIL was packing Friday for the planned family vacation/company training seminar during spring break when she got word that the national company for which she works had cancelled all such ventures. The destination was a tropic island to which they would have flown. They decided to drive to Nashville instead, then heard about the tornado damage. They had been too busy this week to listen to news. Haven't heard if they went anywhere.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteWhew! I did it. Nearly shot myself in the foot w/ a U left over from 11a [I was sure cUbs or pUps] so I had a UN LAID TILE countertop [um, it's your money...]. KuTs looked very wrong so a mental AEIOUY-run to the Tada!
Thanks Roland for the doable-Sat [my 1st in a while]. Well clued and fun, I say. Thanks HG for the expo - I had to Google who Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott are.
WOs: baDomen / RED FLAG, Ural b/f ALAI(?), FOG horn, Eden/ELEA, eVade/AVERT, nestS / UPDOS
ESPs: ALPS [SEE some y'all know what a Jungfrau is], LOTI SEATER [oh, LOTUS EATER], ALAI,
My solve started at PRINCES DI/LORE/ITS, VAT/EGO/ STOGIE AGAME, DEA, REV eVade, nestS, PAPI, WEST, e--PAW/ACER ----sPEACE, WEAK PAWPAW [now I know nests is wrong...] It was 4 hours off-and-on to finish.
//I was volentold to be at Youngest's school to help host dance competition. Puzzle-played during downtime
Fav: ESP TEST - learnt Zener cards from Ghostbusters. HG's graphic was in mind's-eye at fill.
Picard:
Q. Why are the letters of SCRATCH scrambled?
A. It would be boring if always in the same order(?)
Q. Why are there only six circled START letters when SCRATCH has seven letters?
A. SCRATCH only has 6 letters S, C, R, A, T, and H. All the themers used those 6 letters at the START of the fill.
Bluehen - LOL, er, groan.
Jayce - reel-to-reel? For real? I still have hundreds of cassettes w/ only an old Walkman to play them on - most I repurchased on CD but still only have a CD Walkman and an old "Boombox" to play those on. [I ripped all my CDs to MP3 years ago]
Can't wait for the semi-annual bitch and moan tomorrow at The Corner re: DST :-)
//Jayce - you're starting early :-)
Y'all have a great eve! Cheers, -T
Picard - instead of thinking "letters," think "characters". e.g. PAWPAW only uses 3 characters as does PAPI. -T
ReplyDeleteI was a 1981 bride, perhaps not as celebrated as PRINCESS DI! I remember DH and I (only married for a month) rising early on July 29 to watch the wedding of the century live on the CBC. We will celebrate 39 happy years this year.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, CanadianEh! I am truly glad they have been happy years.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous T, yep, startin' early.
Anpn T I like your explanation of scratch. Makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun and not impossible Saturday puzzle, you have said it all, but I am late because I have been a bit under the weather and relished the relaxation of doing C.C.'s WSJ brought to my attention by Dow Jones. Well, hot damn. That was the most difficult Burnikel brain buster ever for me. Tricky clues, some rare names. it had everything. I will not spoil it as it is still there to solve but thank you C.C.
ReplyDeleteCanadianEh, so glad your marriage & life were more successful than Diana's. Good luck in the future.
ReplyDeleteI had a LOT of trouble in the NE - spent more time on that part than the rest put together. Didn't know KITS, ALAI, STRIDE, or ELEA, so coming up with the long down answers took a while. But I did it!
ReplyDeleteReally liked the several types of symmetry of ALOHASHIRT/GRASSSKIRT: the placement, the clues, the adj + clothing structure of the answer, even the rhyming! A fun way to begin and end the puzzle!
I believe you have mistakenly shown the fruit of a papaya with many many small black seeds in clusters rather than the true pawpaw which has very large black seeds, fewer in number but much larger!!oops....check it out 55 across........
ReplyDelete