Theme: : All Hale! Homophones form the last word of each theme entry, clued accordingly:
17A. Where the farmer relaxed to update the books?: POSTING BALE
27A. Story of how the spider monkey climbed the tree?: PREHENSILE TALE
44A. Obstetrician's job, sometimes?: DELIVER THE MALE
58A. Put the fix in on Black Friday?: RIGGED A SALE. This one was my favorite, nicely done.
A pretty fun theme; I'd quibble for a nanosecond at 27A - the spider monkey is not prehensile, his tail is, which is kind of the point. So a minor demerit for that one, but there again I can't really see any alternatives to fit the four-letter end-of-phrase theme. You might be able to conjur something up with GAIL/GALE or VAIL/VALE, but those would seem forced. So I've talked myself around. I'm sure Steve looked at all the options and settled on the most natural ones, so bravo.
I think this is the second LAT puzzle for Steve, JzB blogged his first back in August 2019. He's appeared in the Wall Street Journal too.
Let's take the Grand Tour:
Across:
1. Turning point: PIVOT
6. Pagoda instruments: GONGS. I wanted WIND CHIMES but was a little discouraged by the lack of room to cram it in.
11. Outdo: TOP
14. Big game setting: ARENA. Nice midirection. I ran through the safari park/Maasai Mara/Serengeti/Okovango thought process before the penny dropped. The Scottish soccer National Stadium, Hampden Park in Glasgow, hosts Scotland's international matches and has a capacity of more than 51,000. Oddly it is also the home ground of Scottish second-division club Queen's Park, who's average home crowd is between six and seven hundred. Yes, you read that right.
15. No-frills type: ARIAL. The sans-serif font. Nice clue.
16. "Yo, Hadrian!": AVE! Not from "Rocky", but a greeting to Roman Emperor Hadrian, who had a wall built between England and Scotland to keep out the marauding Scots. It's not as big as the Chinese Great Wall, but still a pretty impressive feat. The town at the eastern end of the wall is named, appropriately, Wallsend. It's not very tall now, but when the Romans departed as the roman empire dwindled, the locals took the stones to build with.
19. Cooper's creation: KEG
20. Not behind: ANTI. "Behind" in the "support" sense
21. Long-term digs in orbit: Abbr.: ISS. The International Space Station. Some interesting reminiscences this week as it is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission.
22. Landscaping stones: PAVERS
24. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Scherzer: MAX
26. Visibility reducers: HAZES
33. Asian language: LAO
34. Takes up: ADOPTS
35. Cookware brand: T-FAL. The company name is Tefal, a portmanteau of Teflon and Aluminum.
36. Dethrones: OUSTS
38. Low digit: TOE
39. Tries: HEARS
40. One with a password: USER
41. Notably different, with "a": FAR CRY
43. JFK alternative: LGA. La Guardia.
47. Manicurist's tool: EMERY. Not liking this one - it's an emery board, not an emery.
48. NBC skit show: SNL. They tried a "virtual" SNL espisode last weekend, apparently not to great acclaim.
49. Sad-eyed hound: BASSET
51. Moody rock genre: EMO
53. Not too many: A FEW
57. Hundred Acre Wood know-it-all: OWL. I had "WOL" at first, because that's how he spells his own name, and he lives at The Wolery.
61. Med. scan: M.R.I. All kinds of three-letter scans to choose from, so wait for the crosses.
62. "Middlemarch" novelist: ELIOT. George, who was a female. She figured she had a better chance of being published if the adopted a man's pen name for her novels. In Silas Marner, the eponymous weaver, miser and loner adopts an orphan girl. I'm not sure that would fly with Social Services nowadays.
63. Mastery: SKILL
64. Competition pass: BYE
65. Nicks: DENTS
66. Cut back: PARED
Down:
1. Nickname for Haydn: PAPA
2. Press: IRON
3. Cummerbund alternative: VEST. There's a commercial for Capital One airing at the moment where the script misspells it as "cumberbund" (or maybe the actress mispronounces it). Drives me bonkers.
4. As scheduled: ON TIME
5. __ sushi: Japanese sea bream: TAI. Not liking this clue. Tai is the sea bream. It's got nothing to do with how it might eventually be prepared, but no harm, no foul.
6. April 1 array: GAGS. As we've got a San Serif font in the puzzle today, you might like to read about one of the early successful hoaxes pulled off by a national newspaper, in this case The Guardian in the UK in 1977. Here's a great artice about the islands of San Seriffe.
As an aside, the paper was so renowned for typos that slipped past the proofreaders that it became known as The Grauniad to its readers. The best one I saw was the front page banner headline after the 1980 Presidential election which read in 72 point bold "REAGAN WINS IN LANDSIDE".
OK, back to the crossword.
7. Swingers on a perpetual-motion desk toy: ORBS
8. "NCIS: Los Angeles" actress Long: NIA
9. Laverne and Shirley, e.g.: GAL PALS
10. Vulgar content: SLEAZE
11. Is arrested, in slang: TAKE A FALL. I'm not sure I'd heard this idiom in this particular sense before.
12. Exceeding: OVER
13. Cello parts: PEGS
18. Put the kibosh on: NIXED
23. Sporty Chevy: 'VETTE
25. Sounds of realization: AHAS
26. Sophisticated, in a way, briefly: HI-TECH
27. Take a minute: PAUSE
28. Ygritte portrayer on "Game of Thrones": ROSE LESLIE. Thank you, crosses. I watched Season 1 then lost interest. Then I cancelled HBO and that was the end of my GofT-watching.
29. __ public: NOTARY
30. Cricket, for one: SPORT. One that is incomprehensible to many who didn't grow up watching or playing it. The long-form version of the international game is scheduled for five days and, more often than not, no-one actually wins. The Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia is cricket's largest ARENA, it has a capacity of over 101,000.
31. Tee size: LARGE
32. Idina's "Frozen" role: ELSA. I still haven't seen the movie, but I'm getting pretty good at the character's names.
33. Vibrant, as colors: LOUD
37. Cuts back: TRIMS
39. "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," e.g.: HYMN. This one passed me by. My knowledge of hymns comes from the venerable "Hymns, Ancient and Modern (Revised)" issued at school and published in about 1805, so the "modern" bit was all relative. You were given a copy on your first day at Grammar School and woe betide you if it was lost or defaced.
41. Good for growing: FERTILE
42. Do a lawn job: RESOD
45. Went off course: VEERED
46. Yukon neighbor: ALASKA
49. Have a rough night at the comedy club: BOMB
50. Not as planned: AWRY
51. Four-award acronym: EGOT. Someone who has won all four "major" entertainment awards - An Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony - has an EGOT.
52. 1969 MLB upstarts: METS. The "Miracle Mets".
54. Midway event: FAIR. The world's first Ferris Wheel was erected during the 1893 World's Fair on the Chicago Midway, the original "Midway".
55. Redbook rival: ELLE. I don't think I'd heard of Redbook, but let's face it, I'm not exactly their target demographic.
56. Fuse: WELD
59. Sling spirits: GIN. Spirits? Spirit, surely. Maybe the constructor or the editor were mixing cocktails when they decided that a plural clue should reveal a singular answer. The classic Gin Sling is gin, simple syrup, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters, soda and a lemon spiral. Cheers!
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60. Deadly biter: ASP
And there we have it, another puzzle wrapped up. Here's the grid, and I hope everyone is behaving themselves, keeping safe and "All Hale!" in ths spirit of the theme today.
As a reminder, if you want to chat about the crossword or anything else, send me your number to the email address in my profile and we'll connect.
Steve
17A. Where the farmer relaxed to update the books?: POSTING BALE
27A. Story of how the spider monkey climbed the tree?: PREHENSILE TALE
44A. Obstetrician's job, sometimes?: DELIVER THE MALE
58A. Put the fix in on Black Friday?: RIGGED A SALE. This one was my favorite, nicely done.
A pretty fun theme; I'd quibble for a nanosecond at 27A - the spider monkey is not prehensile, his tail is, which is kind of the point. So a minor demerit for that one, but there again I can't really see any alternatives to fit the four-letter end-of-phrase theme. You might be able to conjur something up with GAIL/GALE or VAIL/VALE, but those would seem forced. So I've talked myself around. I'm sure Steve looked at all the options and settled on the most natural ones, so bravo.
I think this is the second LAT puzzle for Steve, JzB blogged his first back in August 2019. He's appeared in the Wall Street Journal too.
Let's take the Grand Tour:
Across:
1. Turning point: PIVOT
6. Pagoda instruments: GONGS. I wanted WIND CHIMES but was a little discouraged by the lack of room to cram it in.
11. Outdo: TOP
14. Big game setting: ARENA. Nice midirection. I ran through the safari park/Maasai Mara/Serengeti/Okovango thought process before the penny dropped. The Scottish soccer National Stadium, Hampden Park in Glasgow, hosts Scotland's international matches and has a capacity of more than 51,000. Oddly it is also the home ground of Scottish second-division club Queen's Park, who's average home crowd is between six and seven hundred. Yes, you read that right.
15. No-frills type: ARIAL. The sans-serif font. Nice clue.
16. "Yo, Hadrian!": AVE! Not from "Rocky", but a greeting to Roman Emperor Hadrian, who had a wall built between England and Scotland to keep out the marauding Scots. It's not as big as the Chinese Great Wall, but still a pretty impressive feat. The town at the eastern end of the wall is named, appropriately, Wallsend. It's not very tall now, but when the Romans departed as the roman empire dwindled, the locals took the stones to build with.
19. Cooper's creation: KEG
20. Not behind: ANTI. "Behind" in the "support" sense
21. Long-term digs in orbit: Abbr.: ISS. The International Space Station. Some interesting reminiscences this week as it is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission.
22. Landscaping stones: PAVERS
24. Three-time Cy Young Award winner Scherzer: MAX
26. Visibility reducers: HAZES
33. Asian language: LAO
34. Takes up: ADOPTS
35. Cookware brand: T-FAL. The company name is Tefal, a portmanteau of Teflon and Aluminum.
36. Dethrones: OUSTS
38. Low digit: TOE
39. Tries: HEARS
40. One with a password: USER
41. Notably different, with "a": FAR CRY
43. JFK alternative: LGA. La Guardia.
47. Manicurist's tool: EMERY. Not liking this one - it's an emery board, not an emery.
48. NBC skit show: SNL. They tried a "virtual" SNL espisode last weekend, apparently not to great acclaim.
49. Sad-eyed hound: BASSET
51. Moody rock genre: EMO
53. Not too many: A FEW
57. Hundred Acre Wood know-it-all: OWL. I had "WOL" at first, because that's how he spells his own name, and he lives at The Wolery.
61. Med. scan: M.R.I. All kinds of three-letter scans to choose from, so wait for the crosses.
62. "Middlemarch" novelist: ELIOT. George, who was a female. She figured she had a better chance of being published if the adopted a man's pen name for her novels. In Silas Marner, the eponymous weaver, miser and loner adopts an orphan girl. I'm not sure that would fly with Social Services nowadays.
63. Mastery: SKILL
64. Competition pass: BYE
65. Nicks: DENTS
66. Cut back: PARED
Down:
1. Nickname for Haydn: PAPA
2. Press: IRON
3. Cummerbund alternative: VEST. There's a commercial for Capital One airing at the moment where the script misspells it as "cumberbund" (or maybe the actress mispronounces it). Drives me bonkers.
4. As scheduled: ON TIME
5. __ sushi: Japanese sea bream: TAI. Not liking this clue. Tai is the sea bream. It's got nothing to do with how it might eventually be prepared, but no harm, no foul.
6. April 1 array: GAGS. As we've got a San Serif font in the puzzle today, you might like to read about one of the early successful hoaxes pulled off by a national newspaper, in this case The Guardian in the UK in 1977. Here's a great artice about the islands of San Seriffe.
As an aside, the paper was so renowned for typos that slipped past the proofreaders that it became known as The Grauniad to its readers. The best one I saw was the front page banner headline after the 1980 Presidential election which read in 72 point bold "REAGAN WINS IN LANDSIDE".
OK, back to the crossword.
7. Swingers on a perpetual-motion desk toy: ORBS
8. "NCIS: Los Angeles" actress Long: NIA
9. Laverne and Shirley, e.g.: GAL PALS
10. Vulgar content: SLEAZE
11. Is arrested, in slang: TAKE A FALL. I'm not sure I'd heard this idiom in this particular sense before.
12. Exceeding: OVER
13. Cello parts: PEGS
18. Put the kibosh on: NIXED
23. Sporty Chevy: 'VETTE
25. Sounds of realization: AHAS
26. Sophisticated, in a way, briefly: HI-TECH
27. Take a minute: PAUSE
28. Ygritte portrayer on "Game of Thrones": ROSE LESLIE. Thank you, crosses. I watched Season 1 then lost interest. Then I cancelled HBO and that was the end of my GofT-watching.
29. __ public: NOTARY
30. Cricket, for one: SPORT. One that is incomprehensible to many who didn't grow up watching or playing it. The long-form version of the international game is scheduled for five days and, more often than not, no-one actually wins. The Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia is cricket's largest ARENA, it has a capacity of over 101,000.
31. Tee size: LARGE
32. Idina's "Frozen" role: ELSA. I still haven't seen the movie, but I'm getting pretty good at the character's names.
33. Vibrant, as colors: LOUD
37. Cuts back: TRIMS
39. "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," e.g.: HYMN. This one passed me by. My knowledge of hymns comes from the venerable "Hymns, Ancient and Modern (Revised)" issued at school and published in about 1805, so the "modern" bit was all relative. You were given a copy on your first day at Grammar School and woe betide you if it was lost or defaced.
41. Good for growing: FERTILE
42. Do a lawn job: RESOD
45. Went off course: VEERED
46. Yukon neighbor: ALASKA
49. Have a rough night at the comedy club: BOMB
50. Not as planned: AWRY
51. Four-award acronym: EGOT. Someone who has won all four "major" entertainment awards - An Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony - has an EGOT.
52. 1969 MLB upstarts: METS. The "Miracle Mets".
54. Midway event: FAIR. The world's first Ferris Wheel was erected during the 1893 World's Fair on the Chicago Midway, the original "Midway".
55. Redbook rival: ELLE. I don't think I'd heard of Redbook, but let's face it, I'm not exactly their target demographic.
56. Fuse: WELD
59. Sling spirits: GIN. Spirits? Spirit, surely. Maybe the constructor or the editor were mixing cocktails when they decided that a plural clue should reveal a singular answer. The classic Gin Sling is gin, simple syrup, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters, soda and a lemon spiral. Cheers!
60. Deadly biter: ASP
And there we have it, another puzzle wrapped up. Here's the grid, and I hope everyone is behaving themselves, keeping safe and "All Hale!" in ths spirit of the theme today.
As a reminder, if you want to chat about the crossword or anything else, send me your number to the email address in my profile and we'll connect.
Steve
63 comments:
Good morning !
Loved it. Thought there were some really great and fresh clues today. My only nit was one of Steve's: Manicurist's tool for EMERY.
Started slowly, bot mox NIX as it finished in a flurry.
PREHENSILE TALE was the first of the themers to FALL, and that one gave a pretty good hint to what the rest might be. POSTING BALE was my favorite. Instant visual.
At "Cooper's creation", I first thought of barrel and stave before KEG.
No idea on ROSE LESLIE. All perps. Never watched Hunger Games of Thrones.
No idea on cricket and no real desire to learn, other than wondering if, like baseball, the defense possesses the ball...
Yesterday was to be the first day of our 26 week golf league. The governor closed all courses through the end of the month at minimum. We couldn't have golfed anyway due to the inch or so of snowfall.
That snowfall has all melted, but there's another one dropping down that's due tonight through tomorrow late morning. Too late for this; I've already cut the lawn twice. The winter duds have been put away, and the snowblower and shovels have been relegated back to the shed for about a month now. I don't mind. Not going anywhere anyway, and it means there will be no mosquitoes and flies bugging me when I get back to my lawn and garden work in a couple of days.
FIR, but erased dings for DENTS, nixes for NIXED (read the clue, Jinx), aahs for AHAS (read the clue correctly, Jinx), phone for SPORT, and emmy for EGOT.
I liked trims and pared, as well as fertile and deliver the male.
Vulgar content? Rated "J" for Jinx.
LOUDmouth Golf is John Daly's ugly pants business.
FLN: -T, I was thinking of ISO files too, as well as the standards body itself.
Thanks to Steve and Steve for the fun. The puzzle was quite the challenge. My favorite was "no frills type" for ARIAL. And my favorite part of the tour was the CRICKET narrative. I didn't know how complicated it was until I read Michener's Caribbean.
Good morning!
Yup, I agree. EMERY is not a tool. But I can imagine the exchange in the nail shop, "Ethel, pass me an emery, would ya?" Sanity prevails -- ELSA is back as the Frozen character. Got 'er done in good time, so thanx, Steve squared (great tale about the Graunian!).
ELLE: I'm not sure ELLE compares to Redbook. IIRC, Redbook was a free magazine of the days of my ute. Can't find a reference for that, though.
EGOT: No clue. Thanx for 'splainin', Steve. I guess a Cockney might say, "Eh, 'e got and EGOT!"
AN, not AND.
Very nice and just hard enough. Wanted to start 44A with DELIVERy, but was quickly corrected by perps. No other write-over today.
I really liked this homophone puzzle. Once I caught on to the gimmick, it was quickly solved. Very satisfying. The theme was a great help. ROSE LESLIE and EGOT were all perps. I'm not at all interested in Game of Thrones.
In PREHENSILE TALE I think the key word in the clue was HOW, so no nit.
CUMMERBUND is often mispronounced as cumberbund, Westminster as West Minister, realtor as REAL A TOR. These mispronunciations have not been common enough to become accepted.
In drug deals the king pin often escapes punishment and an underling takes the fall, could be arrested, but not necessarily, but definitely receives the blame and/or punishment.
Eye of the Sparrow is a Gospel standard sung by Mahalia Jackson. Whitney Houston and others.
When his patter goes AWRY the stand up comedian BOMBS.
LIU. Redbook was never free. It was a fiction magazine until the early 80's when its emphasis became the young woman who was balancing family, home, and career. I wondered why Redbook disappeared from supermarket magazine racks. Beginning in 2019 it became an online only mag.
OAS glad to here your sister and BIL are recovering. I wish them daily improvement and good health.
OOPS, glad to hear, not glad to here.
Steve, speaking of typos, when you dropped HBO it was the end of your GOT watching, not GOF.
Thanks for explaining ARIAL
I’ve only heard of EGOT as an acronym in the last couple of years, but Rita Moreno was the first I knew who had won all four.
Not keen on the clue for the 17A, I don’t see how “updating the books” is “posting”
It took awhile, but I FIR. A toughie for Thursday with some difficult clueing. Not many standard crossword answers, which made it a good challenge.
Billocohoes, I believe bookkeepers "post" entries to the ledger.
Good Morning:
This type of theme is fun and a nice change of pace. The tricky and somewhat ambiguous cluing made me work harder than normal to achieve the Tada, but 30 minutes of P and P paid off. Tai was unknown as was Rose Leslie. Game of Thrones and Hunger Games, for that matter, hold no appeal to me. I had Two before Toe (wrong digit) and I, too, questioned Emery, as clued. I liked LGA crossing Large and the duos of Elle and Elsa and Keg and Peg. I chuckled at Yo, Hadrian=Ave.
Nicely done, Steve, and nicely summarized, Steve. Thank you both.
Stay safe, all.
I have baled (hay)
Told a few tales
I am a male
Am in sales & love to sail
ROSE who?
EGOT huh?
Slow to parse HITECH
ekg, ecg,eeg, MRI It could have even been abcd efg
After the first pass I was in a HAZE, but somehow FIR
Is there some method to avoid signing in each time a person wants to comment? My password manager is great except when I can't use it to open a particular site.
Thank you Steve & Steve
Good morning everyone.
Welcome to 1derfool. Hop in; the water's great.
Thursday tough but eventually got it all. Had to WAG HYMN and and EGOT. I was lucky. Got the theme early and prefilled the ……ALE and then got POSTING BALE. . Loved the clue/fill for PREHENSILE TALE. AVE clue was a favorite, too. Good comment, Steve. Locals probably took some stones for PAVERS.
NIXED - Probably akin to German nichts and L. German nix; Dutch niks.
Great intro, Steve. Love it when you talk Brit like "woe betide you".
Thanks for linking the Sans Seriffe article.
Musings
-I struggled to be on Steve’s wavelength which made me love this puzzle! [H]Adrian was my last fill. Duh!
-10 minutes from here Valmont Industries is a huge manufacturer of center PIVOT irrigation units for use all over the world
-Where did Curly sing “There’s a bright golden HAZE on the meadow!”
-Incumbents are rarely OUSTED. “Sure, he’s an S.O.B. but he’s our S.O.B.!”
-Judge Judy will stop HEARING cases on CBS next year after 25 years
-Joann is getting a new sink/faucet as I type this. This is a SKILL I definitely do not have
-Most golf leagues will start ON TIME next week. The one for our senior group is still up in the air
-Should I mention there is no such thing as a “perpetual motion machine?” Nah!
-Two friends of mine live in very modest homes but drive VETTES
-LOUD – I was the first to wear non-white shirts with no jacket to teach. Not a good decision
-50 years ago this week, Apollo 13 VEERED off course but made it back
Good morning. This was a FAR CRY from an easy puzzle. Lots of white area on the first pass. I didn't finish ON TIME but at least I didn't BOMB. I felt like taking out a Mossberg 12 gauge and blasting the newspaper. The most trouble was the SW with ROSE LESLIE & EGOT filled by perps. But at least I correctly guessed AVE for the greeting (but not from Hadrian and yes, I was thinking of Rocky Balboa).
What is a POSTING BALE? It was also all perps. I know all about accounting and taking losses. I guess the farmer sat on a bale of hay to do his book work. Couldn't afford a chair & desk.
NIA, MAX Scherzer, TAI sushi, & HYMN- unknowns filled by perps. "His eye..." my mother was a church organist and choir director and I've never heard of that song.
Steve, don't be so sure about the adoption. The screwball rules these days seem to allow just about anything. Remember Shania Twain's song- "I Fell Like A Woman" seems the flavor of the decade. The 'Guardian'- their writers seem a little left of Marx.
Gary- after all this crazy money giveaways I sincerely hope a lot of incumbents get OUSTed.
Thought I FIW....couldn't understand ARIAL as frugal but turned out FIR! clever clue. For once I caught on to the theme early which helped. One correction resow/RESOD
Never think of April fools tricks as GAGS which usually implies jokes. ISS was necessary but cheap fill.
Seems to be an obsession with all things "Frozen" of late ..ELSA etc. (April 16 mini blizzard in the Mohawk Valley..don't need the Icy reminder.). Our little poisonous friend ASP poking his head up once again
"Nicks" are gouges DENTS are sunken areas
Long clues were ingenuous. Now the disingenuous...
"Hemingway or Francis"......PAPA.
"Do a background check in France"....VETTE
"If you dont have a whole wheat loaf I'll take....AWRY
Neo portmanteus (portmanteaux?)....
Fossils of an extinct wooly tortoise...FERTILE
Or....
"Fuzzy ceramic floor covering"....FERTILE
Female surgeon"s resecting tool....GALPAL
This is what comes from putting the snow shovel away too soon. Flurries past the Ides of April.
Husker I thought it was Moe or Larry that sang that song?
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Steve and Steve.
This CW was not done ON TIME and without a PAUSE. More than A FEW crunchy spots to hold me up (ie. cluing for ANTI, ARIAL, ARENA, AVE).
PREHENSILE in a Thursday CW! And I agree with Steve about EMERY, GIN singular with plural clue. But eventually I had the AHAS and finished (figuring out the AIL to ALE helped). But this was a FAR CRY from an easy solve.
PARES fit at 37D but was needed (in past tense) at 66A. 18D required past tense also (NIX sat there uncompleted for quite a while).
I pencilled in One and TOE and waited for perps. Same for Anna and ELSA.
Adapts changed to ADOPTS. I noted PEGS crossing KEG (hello IM), and TAKES A FALL crossing T-FAL.
ROSE LESLIE was unknown. I think I first heard EGOT here, but I needed perps for all the letters.
I think of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" as a gospel song, not a HYMN but definitions vary. Favourite versions also vary between Ethel Waters, Mahalia Jackson, and Whitney Houston. (YR beat me!) Here's Ethel's version and then stay tuned for Mahalia.
HisEyeIsOnTheSparrow
HuskerG - I believe that would be Curly sang "where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain".
Wishing you all a good day. Stay safe.
For reasons unknown my paper, The Arizona Republic, does not print the theme name of the puzzle which is sometimes helpful in solving. In any event, it turned out to be an enjoyable FIR in 25 minutes. Total perps were Roseleslie and egot. Favorite answer was deliverthemale. Every time I see a reference to the 1969 Mets, I weep a little inside for my beloved Cubbies. I started watching baseball when Ernie Banks was a rookie in 1953. He was my childhood hero and still holds a special place in my heart. Too bad he wasn't around to see his team win it all a few years back after a 100 year drought. He was such an uplifting guy. Not the same without him.
Ugh. First post and a FIW. Found most of the same problems as stated above. Natick at keg and peg my undoing. Didn't know cooper or much about cellos. Challenging puzzle. Thanks Steve & Steve for todays tour.
Thursday toughie for me, but still fun--many thanks, Steve. I had trouble until I got near the bottom and then things slowly began to fill in. I got Eliot right away--I know my authors (well, a lot, but certainly not all), and that sweet sad-eyed BASSET came next. After trying AWRY the OWL came in, and so it went. ASP gave me SKILL and then ALASKA. I did eventually work my way back up to the top, but things were a lot harder for me up there. My favorite theme answer was DELIVER THE MALE. Neat moments--thanks again, Steve.
Enjoyed your intro, OMaxiN.
Have a good day, everybody.
Shankers, weekday puzzles don't have titles. The daily blogger, Steve today, suggests a title. Sunday puzzles do have titles, but many papers (I'm lookin' at you Barnacle) don't carry the Sunday LAT. Instead, they carry a 2-week-old NYT puzzle.
Musings 2
-Yes, C.E., that was Curly who saw the HAZE on the meadow. However, I don’t know if Oklahoma corn reaches as high as an elephant’s eye.
-We have our EYE on the sparrow, finch, woodpecker, robin, cardinal, junco, squirrel, et al from our dining room table. We also have grackles who are bullies, have an unpleasant song and eat more than their fair share of the sunflower chips. They will be gone by the fourth of July.
-What a pleasure to see new posters!! You are as welcome as you can be.
Shankers@11:13am - There is no published theme for the Monday to Friday CWs (and Saturday is themeless). The blogmaster for the day makes up a theme as part of the description/tour. Sunday's CW has a theme at the top, which often helps in solving the larger Sunday-size puzzle.
Good to see others joining in. Welcome SansBeach and OMaxiN. Also 1derfool from previous days.
16 Across - Adrian was in Rocky not Hadrian
11 down - takes a fall, not take a fall
Came here today for an explanation for GIN. I wanted this to be TEND. ___ and tonic would have worked, or something akin to "gin up". Lots of those 'it's the other known meaning' clues today.
Hola!
This was a FARCRY from being easy for me. It took a long time to launch onto Steve's wave length.
SNL started me off followed by ALASKA then I just jumped around filling pockets until it all came together. I loved the rhyming endings. DELIVERTHEMALE was also my favorite.
I haven't seen Frozen either but am slowly learning the characters' names. Had to wait for perps on ELSA since we had Anna a few days ago.
Gary: would that be Oklahoma?
An EMERY board is what I have been using lately since I can't go to the salon. My nails feel strangely naked with only clear polish.
Shankers:
During the week no theme is posted. The daily blogger creates or infers the theme depending on the puzzle. Only on Sunday is the theme revealed.
Thank you, Steve Mossberg and blogger, Steve. This was fun but challenging and I like that.
BYE now. Be safe, everyone!
Oops. It seems that others piped in about the theme while I typed.
Unknown:
Hadrian was a Roman emperor who, as Steve mentioned, built a wall between England and Scotland. AVE is Latin, the ancient Roman language, for "hello."
@billocohoes - thank you, now corrected
I was planning to move to Florida in the medium term, but I really want to go to Michigan now. Power boats prohibited + sailboats allowed = Jinx in paradise. If it just wasn't so damned cold!
Unknown @ 1215. Steve had TAKES A FALL in the grid, probably a typo in the write-up. I think you could cut him some slack here.
Hadrian was meant as Lucina stated. Seems you're a bit fast out of the chute. I continue to be impressed by the well-done, tight editorial job that is done in presenting these puzzles.
Welcome aboard to OMaxiN. I just stay signed in to Google account; then I can chip in anytime the spirit moves.
This Thursday puzzle had some tough clueing. It IS Thursday, right?
Write-overs...LEGS/PEGS, WICK/WELD.
H.G...I don't believe Apollo 13 ever veered off course. An oxygen tank in the Service Module simply blew up, leaving them in a very tight situation in terms of power to use and oxygen to breath.
And on to Friday. Hang in there, stay safe.
Just checking back in. Thank you everyone for letting me know that early weekday puzzles don't have titles themes. You'd think I could have figured it out myself after doing swords for decades. I thought it was just a shortcoming of my paper. I'm a bit surprised and disappointed that no one has said a word about Ernie Banks. He was SUCH a good man. CanadianEh did you see my remarks a few days ago about living in Toronto and Kitchener? Those were fun years from '69-'76. Learned how to spell cheque the correct way.
Steve and Steve, this was a very good puzzle and tour. I needed Red Letters today, but ultimately I filled it all in.
I wanted Barrel instead of KEG. From my college days KEGs were metal and Barrels were made of wood. Preferably white oak. I have a cousin in up-state New York (Remsen)who built and runs the Adirondack Barrel Cooperage. He makes some of the finest barrels in the business. We both share the same first and last name. Middle one is different.
I also knew LGA immediately. The company I worked for was headquartered on Long Island, NY and I flew into LaGuardia Airport hundreds of times from D.C. and other places. Mostly on the Eastern Shuttle and then the Delta Shuttle. Only flew into JFK once and that was because the plane was diverted due to storms. Had to take the Metrorail once because of a hurricane.
If NASA hadn't brought the Russians on to the space station program in the early 1990's, the International Space Station (ISS) would have remained the Space Station Freedom (SSF). Just think how many crossword puzzles would have been different.
Apollo 13 didn't exactly VEER off course, but they did have to change the course to bring them back home safely.
Still sheltering in place and trying to maintain social distancing on the rare times I have to go to the drug store or supermarket. Getting a little tired of it, but the herd needs protection.
Stay safe everyone.
Oops! Meant xwords, not swords.
Oc4. Coincidentally we were taking about a bar in nearby Remsen NY that was heavily fined for continuing to serve booze. They claimed it was just done while the patrons were waiting for their take-out bar food...lol
Took some time to get this one. Enjoyed it and there were some dandy clues. My low digiet was two until finally the case of V-8 fell on me. And I didn't get arial til I came here. Good puzzle and always appreciate the effort Steve (and all the bloggers) puts into the write ups. Never fail to learn something.
Be safe everyone.
JB2
Nice crunchy puzzle today - sadly I FIW but still appreciate the many clever clues. My favorite was “Yo Hadrian”/ AVE. It pulled from several knowledge bases.
More mentions of my favorite musical, Oklahoma! I think I know all the words to all the songs. One of my favorites is “Poor Jud is Dead”. Also, “Everything’s Up To Date in Kansas City”.
Shanker, Jack reveres Ernie Banks! Joy reigned in our house when the Cubs finally won the World Series after so long. One of our good Cubs fan friends has a dog named Ernie Banks.
I agree with the comments about emery, and I have never ever watched Game of Thrones.
Looking forward to final college championship matches on Jeopardy .
Thank you Steve and Steve for a fun outing.
Especially enjoyed all the misdirection's today,
1A turning point had too many letters...
Pagoda instrument makes me think of Tiako. (Japanese drums)
No frills type really had me going...
not behind=anti (devious!)
Coopers do makes kegs as well as barrels (as well as water towers in NYC)
Learning moment=TFal is a Portmanteau
(OXO is a Ambigram...)
Ave to Lucina for Splainin' Hadrian!
Anonymous @ 1:52
Well yes, your low digit would be two, if you were a Camel...
(I would have posted a pic of Camel Toe, but the Breakfast Crowd would have sent me hate mail...)
Chores to do... Be back to play L8r...
Ack!
I forgot!
Steve: re: gin=spirits ( not spirit )
We could discuss this one for some time,
but Spirits has become the Generic term for Alcohol.
However, If you wanted to bet a drink on it...
Oh, & one more...
Competition Pass=Bye
Pls note that it is not Cricket to use British Sports Terms
in a USA puzzle! (A terrible pun that Steve will get...)
A toughie today.
I did all but the NE corner, where I settled for WIN instead of going all the way to the TOP.
I held back on ALASKA for a while, because I know the Yukon and the Yukon River are part of ALASKA (as well as of Canada), so it seemed strange to think of the state as a "Yukon neighbor." But I guess it's OK.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One each to a side = Two.
The front end diagonal anagram names a forceful stimulus that depends on the gentle persuasion of a musical breeze. I mean an...
"AEOLIAN PROD"!
Speaking of Jeopardy last night on the subject of baseball the clue was to identify the player who broke the color barrier in 1947. A gal from USC rang in and responded "Babe Ruth". I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so hard. Not only was the Babe white, he was dead by 1947. Oddly enough, she won the game and is in the two day final starting tonight. She will, I predict, get destroyed by the other two finalists from the Universities of Minnesota and Indiana
Shankers @ 1441 - Yes, I saw that, too, Cant't believe her answer. BTW, tho, The Babe died in August of 1948. (I saw part of his funeral procession on 5th Ave. in NYC.)
"No-frills type": ARIAL. Five perps and I still couldn't get it. Then the V8.
Oops, that was quick. A Cooper makes KEGS not keys. Aaarrgggh!!! FIW
I think the "Yo (H)Adrian was a CSO to Rocky's Belle.
I am with PVX, is this really Thur? But I found traction in the South and worked my way North. I needed to reverse IT to HI to find PREHENSILE. I had no problem with GIN as in "What kind of spirits do you have?". We have vodka,gin and tequila. "No Scotch?".
WC
Ps, Ernie was one of the trivia answers to "Name the MLB'ers who won consecutive MVPs? It was Maris, Banks and Foxx? until the steroid era. Oh yeah, Mantle and Berra.
Oops, I forgot Hal Newhouser from the War years.
WC, ARIAL was my last fill. How clever and devious. I agree with you and CED about gin being fine for spirits with the S.
Wiki. Kegs can be wooden and do not necessarily contain beer or wine."Traditionally, a wooden keg is made by a cooper and used to transport items such as nails, gunpowder, and a variety of liquids." We saw a colonial re-enactor making barrels in Williamsburg, VA. One of my favorite activities in Williamsburg was visiting the craftsmen demos.
I was surprised that none of the "youngsters" on Jeopardy last night knew Jackie Robinson.
If you think of Yukon as Yukon Territory, Alaska is its neighbor. I have read a lot about the Klondike Gold Rush in Canada. Just as in California, the money to be made was in the businesses supporting the gold rush, not so much in finding the gold. I tutored a student writing a research paper about this. I loved doing research papers, my own and helping students do theirs. That yen is satisfied now in my LIU mania here.
-T did you get my email containing the suspect email I sent you Tuesday (to the ...186gmail account)?
Farmer Fred should have found a safer place to update the books?
I know there is a story behind this one...
Obstetrician, You had one job!
This sale should have been rigged better...
Been enjoying solving the puzzles and reading all your explanations and comments this past week.
I guess recovering from whatever the heck I was ill with the past couple of weeks takes a lot of energy; I've been quite fatigued and sleeping 10-12 hours a day. Thankfully, I now feel fine otherwise.
Best wishes to you all.
@CED - "not cricket" much appreciated. I have a story from the reverse angle from when I was a youth in the UK. I lived at the time in a historical, but small, city in the south of England. As with most English towns, we were well served with pubs, but, excitingly, a new "American"-style bar/restaurant opened, selling imported beer with a menu of burgers and hotdogs which seemed incredibly worldly and exotic at the time. The beers were Budweiser, Schlitz and Colt 45.
There was a series of Colt 45 advertising on coasters (we called 'em "beer mats") with the theme "It's as good as ...". One of them, and I remember word-for-word as we spent hours trying to figure out what it meant, read "It's as good as a homer in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded".
This was around 1975/1976, and there was no such concept of globalism as we have today. None of us had the slightest idea what it meant, and I mean no-one. It might as well have been written in Arabic.
Bobby Thompson's homer to win the 1951 Pennant actually came with two on. The inning started 4-1 Dodgers but in all the excitement (Whitey Lockman broke his ankle running to third) a run scored to make it 4-2. Apres ca, let deluge(As Ralph Branca might have put it).
Ironically, YouTube TV offered me the 1952 World Series*. In the late innings the ump threw out a Dodger bench jockey. And who was that? Yes, Ralph Branca the victim of the Thompson HR.
WC
Or as the gamblers and bookies put it: The World Serious. Boy, Sports Gambling must be taking a beating
Pps, watch Jeopardy ask about this tonight
My personal feeling is that TAI=sea bream is way too obscure for any day of the week. Way less than 0.1% of the population would know that, and it's not guessable in any way. There are other ways to clue TAI.
I would have asked Steve if Rich was responsible for the Sushi clue, but I figured he would just reply "no, that's mai TAI."
Jinx, groan
Jayce, I am soooo sorry. Like my mother used to tell my sisters, "don't laugh, it will just encourage him."
Steve-Colt 45 belongs in the trash along with Old English 800 and Schlitz Malt Liquor. They pair well with Ripple, Thunderbird, and MD-20/20.
Stuff for winos and street bums.
What I don't get is what "bale" (hay?) has to do with 'books'. I had "dale' as a relaxing location.
Shankers@. 1:21pm- yes I did comment the other day on your note re living in Toronto and Kitchener. I'm sure that experience has given you another perspective on American- Canadian relations (and spelling LOL). I was in Toronto at about that time period for university (saw the helicopter putting the top part onto the CN tower!). Kitchener is great also and the beautiful surrounding area (St Jacobs, Elmira, Stratford, Elora).
waseely@8:55- I think BALE has to do with the Bale of hay that the farmer was relaxing on while he POSTed in his account books. I tried Dale also but perps changed it.
Hi All!
Whowazas! That was a noodler - Wednesday on the bottom and Saturday on top [is that a WoBSoT?]
A solve's beginning: ISS, SNL, RESOD, EMO, METS, EGOT, ELIOT. BYE, OWL, BOMB, MRI, AWRY, BASSET. I lost track after that.
Thanks Steves for the great puzzle and the worthy expo. Mighty fun.
WO: BELT 'till near the very end when POSTING forced VESTS for the final PIVOT at the TOP for the win.
ESPs: ROSE LESLIE, AVE (as clued)
Other themer possibility not mentioned by Steve the Reviewer - Pail/Pale.
I got a kick out of Fair (Fare?) and Pared (Pair'd) in the SE.
I also like the secondary 'beer chasers' - all the themers end in ALE :-)
Fav: misdirection at 15a. I was trying to think of what you call a Plain Jane (in Vegas, a Janet Plane?)*.
Welcome OMaxiN.
Shankers - first, did you go forth as Unknown(?)
Ernie Banks hung up his cleats before I could talk. However, Gramps oft mentioned him when we'd listen on the AM radio to Cubs games in the back yard.
D-O: Did you hear the discussion on Houston Matters re: The Post (v. The Chronicle)?. The Post folded shortly after I got to Houston so I only know The Barnacle.
Jinx - I did not. I suspect Google snarfed the badness for my protection. Send me another message sans the attachment.
Steve (the Reviewer) said: "They tried a "virtual" SNL espisode last weekend, apparently not to great acclaim.**" Um, like all SNL shows? :-)
I saw it and it had both good and meh bits; Weekend Update was good (even w/ the laughing Zoom meeting).
Enjoyed reading everyone today!
Cheers, -T
*Janet Airlines.
**emphasis mine
Jinx: To a PUNisher a groan is even better than a laugh.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Steve Mossberg, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
Worked this while traveling to a Radiologist for a conference. It was a good conference.
Liked the theme, very clever.
Don't get 20A ANTI. Perps worked so I kept it.
62A ELIOT. We just had her recently.
29D NOTARY caught my eye. I am one.
Anyhow, I am going to hit the hay. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
@Big Easy - a little late to pick up on your comment about Guardian journalists being more left-wing than Karl Marx.
I refer you to the rubric at the top of the blog saying "no politics".
I'd also like to add "no ignorance" because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
@Spitz - thanks for the comment re the Anon @12:15, but I never react to those kinds of criticisms, particulary if the commenter doesn't have the courage to put a name or a profile behind the remarks.
I always picture these "keyboard warriors" sitting in the basement of their mother's house in their underwear bashing away at the laptop and saying to themselves "YEAH! THAT'll teach 'em!"
:)
This individual I've come across before, and seems particularly mean, so no "oxygen of publicity" would be great.
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