Theme: OM .... G! (Cue crying).
61A. Scream-evoking horror film technique ... and a hint to what's hiding in five puzzle rows: JUMP SCARE
This is one of those puzzles which I call an "aftertheme" - there is no way that the reveal helps you solve the puzzle, especially in this case as it comes pleasingly-placed at the end. Instead you solve the puzzle, find the reveal and then go back theme-hunting to make sense of it.
In my case, I'd never heard of the phrase "jump scare", and with the "J" crossing the unknown "AJA" it took me a WAG to go for the only letter which vaguely made sense and with that I finished the puzzle.
Per our friends at Wikipedia "A jump scare (often shortened to jumpscare) is a technique often used in horror films, haunted houses, video games, and Internet screamers, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a frightening sound, mostly loud screaming".
So now I went back to look for the five puzzle rows, and discovered "TERROR", "FRIGHT", "ALARM", "START" and "PANIC", all synonyms for SCARE and find that they "jump" across a black square in the grid.
Thanks to Alan for treasure hunt!
So there we are. I think it's nice that Rich seems to have abandoned the "circles" gimmick in the puzzles - this is a great example where there could have been circles to point up where the theme entries are. I find the detective work after the fact much more satisfying than being led to water and told to drink.
I don't do scary movies. I snuck into "The Exorcist" at 14 and couldn't sleep without the light on for a month. "The Omen" and "Carrie" didn't do a whole lot to settle my nerves either. Many years later I decided that I was old enough to watch "The Ring" and regretted it for days afterwards. I've cried in all the "Toy Story" movies, what chance do I have with the scary stuff?
So let's go and explore the rest of today's topics:
Across:
1. Egyptian god with an ibis head: THOTH. I thought I knew this one, but I stumbled and stuttered until eventually the crosses helped me out.
6. One who crosses the line: SCAB. Picket lines. I've never been a militant, but I did join a picket line last year and I was cold, wet, mostly miserable but felt I was doing something very right.
10. Blight-stricken tree: ELM. We had three gorgeous elm trees behind my childhood house in England. One year they didn't leaf in the spring. The next year they were dead and gone. They were more than 100 years old.
13. "Donnie Brasco" actress Anne: HECHE
14. Flap: TO-DO
15. Corp. leaders: CEOS
17. Lay to rest: INTER
18. With 42-Across, part of a psychologist's battery: RORSCHACH. Part of the theme. A poll - how many people knew how to spell this right off the bat? I didn't, I had ROR, a blank bit and "ACH". The middle was eventually filled in, but that was a toughie.
20. Seven-time Wimbledon winner: GRAF. Steffie. A class act.
21. Wisconsin city on the Mississippi: LA CROSSE
22. HDTV part, for short: HI-DEF. This was a tricky clue, as HI-DEF forms two parts of "HDTV".
24. They may be civil: RIGHTS. Wars, ceremonies and law didn't fit, so I was left with rights. And right I was.
25. Singing stars: DIVAS
27. "60 Minutes" regular: STAHL
31. Strong brew: ALE. It can be strong, but doesn't need to be. IPA is strong as it was brewed to transport to India in the 1850's and needed hops and alchohol to preserve it in the kegs on the way. The British soldiers didn't object.
34. Deadly: LETHAL
37. West Point team: ARMY. I oddly tried to force "USMA" in here before I saw sense.
38. Prom adornment: CORSAGE
40. Hear about: LEARN OF
42. See 18-Across: TEST
43. Stella __: Belgian beer: ARTOIS. STELLA! The logo is a star - hence Stella - the Star of Artois. I like beer trivia.
45. Düsseldorf direction: OST. Damn. I jumped the gun with EST and then suffered when ARNE didn't look right. I could have helped myself by looking two clues down, and realizing that EASTS and EST probably wouldn't work together in a quality puzzle.
46. Hard work: SWEAT
48. Bridge seats: EASTS
50. __ Zee: Hudson River area: TAPPAN. I was tempted by "ZUIDER" thinking that the Dutch would transport their native names (New Amsterdam, Harlem being anglicised examples) then recalled the bridge. Which I spelt as TEPPAN, I must have had teppanyaki food on the brain.
53. Divine fluid: ICHOR. A completely new one for me. This was my second-to-last entry - ICHOR crossing OSIER was another near-Natick.
57. Laszlo Kreizler, in a Caleb Carr novel: ALIENIST
60. Nylons: HOSE
63. Broadway orphan: ANNIE
64. US Open stadium namesake: ASHE
65. Surrealist Paul: KLEE. He didn't stick to one thing, there's the hand of Mondrian, Picasso and other influences in his paintings.
66. Paragon: MODEL
67. It may be gross: TON
68. Barrie pirate: SMEE. "Peter Pan".
69. Leaders of industry: CZARS. TSARS/CZARS - wait for the crosses.
Down:
1. Fried chicken choice: THIGH. My favorite, not just for fried chicken. The best flavor and easy to cook. I use thigh meat more than any other cut of chicken, when I get my boning knife out, stand back, I can skin and debone 10lbs of chicken thighs in five minutes flat.
2. Painter __ de Toulouse-Lautrec: HENRI. He was nicknamed "Teapot" by the good ladies of the Pigalle and the Moulin Rouge. He was not very tall, but had, allegedly, an impressive "spout".
3. Two quartets: OCTAD. Tried OCTET, didn't work, changed it.
4. Jay Powell chairs it: THE FED
5. That girl: HER
6. Orchestra sect.: STR. I'm never a big fan of this when I see it. Would you know how to shorten woodwinds, brass or percussion? No, and neither would anyone else. Let's consign this to the dustbin of desperate crossword fill.
7. Not very friendly: COOLISH
8. "What __": "Ho-hum": A DRAG
9. Amazon crime series based on Michael Connelly novels: BOSCH. Thank you, crosses.
10. Satellite communications giant: ECHOSTAR
11. Grazing sites: LEAS
12. Soft shoes: MOCS
16. That girl: SHE. SHE and HER today.
19. Old PC monitors: CRT'S. Cathode Ray Tubes, I hate to think how many of these ended up in landfills.
23. Adidas rival: FILA. I think Adidas might look down their nose at Fila being described as a rival. Nike for sure, Puma probably in soccer equipment, maybe New Balance for running shoes. Fila? That's a stretch. How do you pronounce Adidas? It depends where you come from, and Adidas doesn't have a published company "standard" unlike Nike (NYK-ee). If you're from these shores, then you're likely to say "a-DEE-das". If you're from Europe, mostly "ADD-EE-DAS".
24. Yelp user, say: RATER. HATER would equally fit here. How many Yelp reviews have you read with One Star because the restaurant wasn't equipped with ESP and didn't know that the reviewer was recently vegan, even when she ordered the medium-rare rib-eye and IT WAS MY FIANCES B-DAY AND THEY DIN LET US SIT AT THE TABLE I WANTED BCOS S/O ELSE HAD BOOKED IT AND THEN CHARG US 4 THE CAKE I BOUGHT IN AND FEED ME STAKE WHEN I TURNED VEAGAN ON FRIDAY. THEY ARE LIARS. I WON GO BACK LOL". I feel sorry for restauranteurs the world over.
26. Brightest star in Lyra: VEGA
28. River of Pisa: ARNO. Yeah, me ARNE looked odd when I goofed on OST/EST
29. Gps. with copays: HMO'S
30. Ride-sharing option: LYFT. I do wonder why Uber and Lyft are always described as "ride-sharing" services? I know you can share a ride with them, but I wonder what proportion of their revenue comes from ride-share? They were never touted as ride-share services, they were launched as alternatives to calling your local taxi firm for a ride, getting stuck on hold, then being told "15-to-45 minutes" and riding in a rattletrap that stank of cigarettes and a driver that refused to take credit cards and complained he wasn't getting enough tips. Uber and Lyft are not perfect, but they are a hell of an improvement over the "service" before.
31. Ballet divisions: ACTS
32. Early movie mogul: LOEW
33. Gaelic language: ERSE
35. Take out __: A LOAN
36. Island rings: LEIS
39. Fox River, in TV's "Prison Break": STATE PEN
41. Spot of wine?: ASTI
44. Source of a homeopathic oil: TEA TREE. I've used this to cure sporadic outbreaks of dry skin. I'll abide by the "breakfast test" and won't gross you out with more graphic descriptions.
47. They may be fake: TANS
49. Slangy nose: SCHNOZ. I have a friend who is an animation artist. I don't drink any alcohol in January; he drew a caricature of me the day I stepped down from the wagon one February 1st on a bar napkin with a crayon. I never thought I had a schnoz, but the artist doesn't lie!
51. Chooses: PICKS
52. Church song: PSALM
54. Passport producer: HONDA
55. Willow twig: OSIER
56. Lively dances: REELS
57. "The Birth of a Nation" actress __ Naomi King: AJA
58. A deadly sin: LUST. These are tricky waters to navigate. As well as the Ten Commandments, you have the Seven Deadly Sins, the Eternal Sins against the Holy Ghost and the Sins that Cry to Heaven for Vengeance. It seemed like every theologian worth his salt came up with a new list. I think we should just be nice to each other and leave it at that.
59. "If u ask me": IMHO
62. Shoebox letters: EEE
63. "Breaking Bad" network: AMC
That pretty much wraps up this Thursday. I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and being extremely careful in these unusual times. If you're starting to get a little stir-crazy and want to talk to someone other than the walls or the dog, please don't hesitate give me or any of the bloggers a shout and we'll be happy to talk crosswords, or anything else. You can zing me an email through my blog link to keep your personal information secure and I'll be in touch. I'm not sure I'll talk any more sense than the dog, but at least the accent might entertain you.
And .... drum roll ... here's the grid!
Steve
61A. Scream-evoking horror film technique ... and a hint to what's hiding in five puzzle rows: JUMP SCARE
This is one of those puzzles which I call an "aftertheme" - there is no way that the reveal helps you solve the puzzle, especially in this case as it comes pleasingly-placed at the end. Instead you solve the puzzle, find the reveal and then go back theme-hunting to make sense of it.
In my case, I'd never heard of the phrase "jump scare", and with the "J" crossing the unknown "AJA" it took me a WAG to go for the only letter which vaguely made sense and with that I finished the puzzle.
Per our friends at Wikipedia "A jump scare (often shortened to jumpscare) is a technique often used in horror films, haunted houses, video games, and Internet screamers, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a frightening sound, mostly loud screaming".
So now I went back to look for the five puzzle rows, and discovered "TERROR", "FRIGHT", "ALARM", "START" and "PANIC", all synonyms for SCARE and find that they "jump" across a black square in the grid.
Thanks to Alan for treasure hunt!
So there we are. I think it's nice that Rich seems to have abandoned the "circles" gimmick in the puzzles - this is a great example where there could have been circles to point up where the theme entries are. I find the detective work after the fact much more satisfying than being led to water and told to drink.
I don't do scary movies. I snuck into "The Exorcist" at 14 and couldn't sleep without the light on for a month. "The Omen" and "Carrie" didn't do a whole lot to settle my nerves either. Many years later I decided that I was old enough to watch "The Ring" and regretted it for days afterwards. I've cried in all the "Toy Story" movies, what chance do I have with the scary stuff?
So let's go and explore the rest of today's topics:
Across:
1. Egyptian god with an ibis head: THOTH. I thought I knew this one, but I stumbled and stuttered until eventually the crosses helped me out.
6. One who crosses the line: SCAB. Picket lines. I've never been a militant, but I did join a picket line last year and I was cold, wet, mostly miserable but felt I was doing something very right.
10. Blight-stricken tree: ELM. We had three gorgeous elm trees behind my childhood house in England. One year they didn't leaf in the spring. The next year they were dead and gone. They were more than 100 years old.
13. "Donnie Brasco" actress Anne: HECHE
14. Flap: TO-DO
15. Corp. leaders: CEOS
17. Lay to rest: INTER
18. With 42-Across, part of a psychologist's battery: RORSCHACH. Part of the theme. A poll - how many people knew how to spell this right off the bat? I didn't, I had ROR, a blank bit and "ACH". The middle was eventually filled in, but that was a toughie.
20. Seven-time Wimbledon winner: GRAF. Steffie. A class act.
21. Wisconsin city on the Mississippi: LA CROSSE
22. HDTV part, for short: HI-DEF. This was a tricky clue, as HI-DEF forms two parts of "HDTV".
24. They may be civil: RIGHTS. Wars, ceremonies and law didn't fit, so I was left with rights. And right I was.
25. Singing stars: DIVAS
27. "60 Minutes" regular: STAHL
31. Strong brew: ALE. It can be strong, but doesn't need to be. IPA is strong as it was brewed to transport to India in the 1850's and needed hops and alchohol to preserve it in the kegs on the way. The British soldiers didn't object.
34. Deadly: LETHAL
37. West Point team: ARMY. I oddly tried to force "USMA" in here before I saw sense.
38. Prom adornment: CORSAGE
40. Hear about: LEARN OF
42. See 18-Across: TEST
43. Stella __: Belgian beer: ARTOIS. STELLA! The logo is a star - hence Stella - the Star of Artois. I like beer trivia.
45. Düsseldorf direction: OST. Damn. I jumped the gun with EST and then suffered when ARNE didn't look right. I could have helped myself by looking two clues down, and realizing that EASTS and EST probably wouldn't work together in a quality puzzle.
46. Hard work: SWEAT
48. Bridge seats: EASTS
50. __ Zee: Hudson River area: TAPPAN. I was tempted by "ZUIDER" thinking that the Dutch would transport their native names (New Amsterdam, Harlem being anglicised examples) then recalled the bridge. Which I spelt as TEPPAN, I must have had teppanyaki food on the brain.
53. Divine fluid: ICHOR. A completely new one for me. This was my second-to-last entry - ICHOR crossing OSIER was another near-Natick.
57. Laszlo Kreizler, in a Caleb Carr novel: ALIENIST
60. Nylons: HOSE
63. Broadway orphan: ANNIE
64. US Open stadium namesake: ASHE
65. Surrealist Paul: KLEE. He didn't stick to one thing, there's the hand of Mondrian, Picasso and other influences in his paintings.
66. Paragon: MODEL
67. It may be gross: TON
68. Barrie pirate: SMEE. "Peter Pan".
69. Leaders of industry: CZARS. TSARS/CZARS - wait for the crosses.
Down:
1. Fried chicken choice: THIGH. My favorite, not just for fried chicken. The best flavor and easy to cook. I use thigh meat more than any other cut of chicken, when I get my boning knife out, stand back, I can skin and debone 10lbs of chicken thighs in five minutes flat.
2. Painter __ de Toulouse-Lautrec: HENRI. He was nicknamed "Teapot" by the good ladies of the Pigalle and the Moulin Rouge. He was not very tall, but had, allegedly, an impressive "spout".
3. Two quartets: OCTAD. Tried OCTET, didn't work, changed it.
4. Jay Powell chairs it: THE FED
5. That girl: HER
6. Orchestra sect.: STR. I'm never a big fan of this when I see it. Would you know how to shorten woodwinds, brass or percussion? No, and neither would anyone else. Let's consign this to the dustbin of desperate crossword fill.
7. Not very friendly: COOLISH
8. "What __": "Ho-hum": A DRAG
9. Amazon crime series based on Michael Connelly novels: BOSCH. Thank you, crosses.
10. Satellite communications giant: ECHOSTAR
11. Grazing sites: LEAS
12. Soft shoes: MOCS
16. That girl: SHE. SHE and HER today.
19. Old PC monitors: CRT'S. Cathode Ray Tubes, I hate to think how many of these ended up in landfills.
23. Adidas rival: FILA. I think Adidas might look down their nose at Fila being described as a rival. Nike for sure, Puma probably in soccer equipment, maybe New Balance for running shoes. Fila? That's a stretch. How do you pronounce Adidas? It depends where you come from, and Adidas doesn't have a published company "standard" unlike Nike (NYK-ee). If you're from these shores, then you're likely to say "a-DEE-das". If you're from Europe, mostly "ADD-EE-DAS".
24. Yelp user, say: RATER. HATER would equally fit here. How many Yelp reviews have you read with One Star because the restaurant wasn't equipped with ESP and didn't know that the reviewer was recently vegan, even when she ordered the medium-rare rib-eye and IT WAS MY FIANCES B-DAY AND THEY DIN LET US SIT AT THE TABLE I WANTED BCOS S/O ELSE HAD BOOKED IT AND THEN CHARG US 4 THE CAKE I BOUGHT IN AND FEED ME STAKE WHEN I TURNED VEAGAN ON FRIDAY. THEY ARE LIARS. I WON GO BACK LOL". I feel sorry for restauranteurs the world over.
26. Brightest star in Lyra: VEGA
28. River of Pisa: ARNO. Yeah, me ARNE looked odd when I goofed on OST/EST
29. Gps. with copays: HMO'S
30. Ride-sharing option: LYFT. I do wonder why Uber and Lyft are always described as "ride-sharing" services? I know you can share a ride with them, but I wonder what proportion of their revenue comes from ride-share? They were never touted as ride-share services, they were launched as alternatives to calling your local taxi firm for a ride, getting stuck on hold, then being told "15-to-45 minutes" and riding in a rattletrap that stank of cigarettes and a driver that refused to take credit cards and complained he wasn't getting enough tips. Uber and Lyft are not perfect, but they are a hell of an improvement over the "service" before.
31. Ballet divisions: ACTS
32. Early movie mogul: LOEW
33. Gaelic language: ERSE
35. Take out __: A LOAN
36. Island rings: LEIS
39. Fox River, in TV's "Prison Break": STATE PEN
41. Spot of wine?: ASTI
44. Source of a homeopathic oil: TEA TREE. I've used this to cure sporadic outbreaks of dry skin. I'll abide by the "breakfast test" and won't gross you out with more graphic descriptions.
47. They may be fake: TANS
49. Slangy nose: SCHNOZ. I have a friend who is an animation artist. I don't drink any alcohol in January; he drew a caricature of me the day I stepped down from the wagon one February 1st on a bar napkin with a crayon. I never thought I had a schnoz, but the artist doesn't lie!
51. Chooses: PICKS
52. Church song: PSALM
54. Passport producer: HONDA
55. Willow twig: OSIER
56. Lively dances: REELS
57. "The Birth of a Nation" actress __ Naomi King: AJA
58. A deadly sin: LUST. These are tricky waters to navigate. As well as the Ten Commandments, you have the Seven Deadly Sins, the Eternal Sins against the Holy Ghost and the Sins that Cry to Heaven for Vengeance. It seemed like every theologian worth his salt came up with a new list. I think we should just be nice to each other and leave it at that.
59. "If u ask me": IMHO
62. Shoebox letters: EEE
63. "Breaking Bad" network: AMC
That pretty much wraps up this Thursday. I hope you're all taking care of yourselves and being extremely careful in these unusual times. If you're starting to get a little stir-crazy and want to talk to someone other than the walls or the dog, please don't hesitate give me or any of the bloggers a shout and we'll be happy to talk crosswords, or anything else. You can zing me an email through my blog link to keep your personal information secure and I'll be in touch. I'm not sure I'll talk any more sense than the dog, but at least the accent might entertain you.
And .... drum roll ... here's the grid!
Steve
59 comments:
Egyptian god with an ibis head?
Sure that's not a trombone instead?
It might behoove
Our own Spitzboov
To like this god of the Moon o'erhead!
If you shiver in TERROR at fear of a FRIGHT,
If you quake in ALARM at a sound in the night,
If you JUMP with a START
At an S.O.S. from the dark,
Then don't PANIC at what I look like in the light!
I was as handsome in my thirties as I am ugly in my sixties, an assertion my wife hotly disputes. Note the reveal specifies 5 lines, but not necessarily just 5 words. LETHAL can also be scary, though it's not jumping.
{A, A-.}
Good morning!
I really liked this one, though I relate some of the answers to other things: AJA -- Steely Dan album, TAPPAN -- Obsolete kitchen range, BOSCH -- Derogatory name of the WWII German army. Tried an I in LYFT, but ARMY set me straight. I know the planet HOTH, but not the Egyptian god THOTH. (Is that first H pronounced?) Interesting to see both GRAF and ASHE today. Let's see hands of those who knew how to spell RORSCHACH without relying on the perps. That's what I thought. Thanx, Alan and Steve. (Coincidentally, I DVR'd The Omen this week during the free Starz preview. Haven't watched it yet.)
I've used RORSCHACH as in Blot but relies on spell check. The J as "Psycho" rang the non-existent online bell.
Re. Theme. Never got it. I did find A,C,A,R,E in some of the long row answers. Then again, if you want convoluted themes try Evan Birnholz Wa-Post from Sunday. (The dreaded rebus or is it rebii?)
I hate solving online.
WC
And... I hate not having Preview for the Android any more.
FIW. altar needed to be A LOAN. We've had TAPPAN here before, but I doubt I'll remember next time. ARTOIS too, but maybe I will remember someday.
Fake T _ _ S? Rich would never approve the obvious answer. I was walking Zoe when the V8 cans fell - TANS! TANS! TANS!
You have probably heard the old joke about the guy who was given a RORSCHACH TEST. He identified every image as being something graphically sexual. The shrink said "my God man, you certainly have a dirty mind". To which the guy responded "I'VE got a dirty mind? YOU'RE the one with all the porno pictures!" (And no, I couldn't spel it without perps.)
Remember Click & Clack's contributor Toulouse to Track? I think he was director of Cadillac steering or some such thing.
GTE Spacenet was an interesting business. When our satellites were about to run out of station-keeping fuel we sold them to China. They would position them over their country, then move the earth stations as the birds drifted.
I wanted take out "order". We have been doing that at least once a day as we try to keep our restaurateur friends solvent. Last night our order was for the eighth deadly sin, PIZZA!
TEA TREE oil is supposed to be a fungicide that will work on gross toenails. Didn't do a TON of good for me.
I forgot to look for the theme, but enjoyed the puzzle anyway. Thanks, Alan, for the fun. And thanks to Steve for the interesting review.
What a tragedy! A tractor-trailer rig crashed and burst into flames near Dallas this morning. Nobody was injured, but the cargo was a critical supply -- toilet paper.
'Aftertheme'? I solved the puzzle, looked for the JUMP SCARE (a term I've never heard of either), and never noticed it. It was a WAG because AJA was unknown and so was ALIENIST (or Laszlo Kreizler), another term I've never heard.
RORSCHACH- wasn't he on Welcome Back Kotter? NO, I had not how to spell RORSCHACH correctly.
BOSCH-don't they make appliances, spark plugs, and other auto parts. Amazon crime series or any other movie would be an unknown fill for this guy. d-otto- didn't know about the ARMY name.
Adidas- that was the man's name ADI DASSLER, whose brother Rudolph started PUMA.
LUST- without it, how would anybody ever be born?
Steffi GRAF- Fraulein Forehand, IMHO the GOAT female tennis player. But you can't compare athletes from different eras. Would she beat Serena? Would Ivan Lendl beat Rafael Nadal? Nobody will ever know.
FIR, but it played hard here today. No complaints: it was fun and fair. I tried to misspell LOEW and BOSCH. No other write-overs. I kinda knew OSIER which helped me get ICHOR.
Blog to the rescue on this one! I FIR but I needed to come here to find the JUMP SCARE other theme answers - thanks Steve!
At first I thought it might have something to do with the letters C O R S as they are all in some of the long words RORSCHACH, LACROSSE, CORSAGE - but no...
Back to the trenches today to see patients in person - earlier in the week I was doing telemedicine visits for the first time! My book club on Zoom went well last night - 9 of the 11 people could get on and we had a lively discussion of "Educated" by Tara Westover - I highly recommend this book!
Thanks Steve and Alan!
Me too, Steve. That J in AJA was my last fill, and it was the only letter that made sense.
But unlike you, I bounced around the puzzle and read the reveal clue halfway through. The part about "... and a hint what's hiding in five puzzle ROWS" struck me. It helped me get ROR in TERROR and thus the test would be RORSCHACH. I too had to work out the spelling of RORSCHACH. My first attempt left out the first C. Found the fives scares before deciding to enter that last J.
Hand up for not knowing the term JUMP SCARE.
I drove across the TAPPAN Zee Bridge twice a day for a week some years ago.
THOTH was unknown but the perps weren't. Ditto with BOSCH.
As long as I have been solving puzzled edited by Rich, it has always been CZARS for business leaders and TSARS for the political rulers.
My backup drive is a Western Digital Passport. HONDA fit in the allotted spaces.
Worked in the yard again yesterday, cleaning out the leaves under the row of spirea. Big job. Worked up a sweat. Got a little rash forming just above the wrist. Must have brushed against some unseen poison ivy when tending to the honeysuckle row the day before. Staying home and staying busy in the yard.
Fine puzzle. Great expo, Steve. I couldn't find the theme answers. I never heard of JUMP SCARE, but wagged the J.
THOTH was all perps. I knew his picture, but couldn't think of the name.
Natick, I looked up the S in ROR(S)CHACH.. I didn't know BOSCH, so that was no help.
ARTOIS and FILA took quite a while to remember.
OCTET before OCTAD.
I have been across the Tappan Zee Bridge several times. I find the highways around there to be very complicated to navigate. I will not drive there alone.
Schnoz reminds me of Jimmy Durante, The Scnozzola. I used to watch his TV show live. It always ended with, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are."
TSAR and CZAR are both transliterations from the Cyrillic.
"The word ‘czar’ is the earlier translation of the word, first seen in 1549 book Notes on the Muscovites by Sigismund von Herberstein, translated into English in 1555.
‘Tsar’, meanwhile, is a transliteration of the Russian, which first came into English around a century later.
Tsar has become the more common English usage, with Czar generally only used to make something feel more historic, which seems to be the case with the title of The Last Czars.
Most newspaper style guides (including that of Express.co.uk) dictate the use of ‘tsar’ over ‘czar’.
However, czar is still in usage, particularly in America, where recent articles from publications like Bloomberg, Fox News and the National Review have all spelt czar with a ‘c’.
When the word ‘czar’ is used over ‘tsar’, it is mostly used to indicate high-level government officials." from the newspaper The Express.
The last line of the quote agrees with TTP.
Isn't it wonderful that crosswords reflect your life, quite often.
I am on a Michael Connelly kick having watched The Lincoln Lawyer two days ago and I am currently reading The Late Show, a Connelly novel about a detective working the night shift in Los Angeles.
Harry Bosch is a legendary character in the "history" of the main character and was the main character in many Connelly novels. He is named after a painter Hieronymus Bosch, known for his mural style and hedonistic paintings, like The Garden of Earthly Delights.
I thought this group would like that tidbit of info.
Hi all. Crossword constructor Alan here. Just wanted to say that my original submission DID have the SCARES in circles. I see what Rich did here - eliminating the circles and saying the SCARES are hidden adds to the concept that they're going to JUMP out at you. However, I made the puzzle and found finding the SCARES difficult! So I think there are trade-offs here. Thanks to Steve for the great review and stay safe out there...
Thks for the info on Lautrec, who knew, lol.
Wilbur, I'm having problems with preview on my Android as well. Do you know what's happening?
Good morning everyone.
Stymied by a Natick in the SW, closed my eyes and pointed, and wrote in AJA and JUMPSCARE; and, voilà , FIR. Didn't look for the theme, though. Just glad I could finish it. Wrote TAPPeN but then knew TEA TREE, so TAPPAN looked right, too.
Stella ARTOIS - Great beer, but on my sierra list because of their deception using 11½ oz. bottles vs 12 oz in most cases.
OST and EASTS are a clecho.
CZAR - I understand it to be a Slavic adaptation of Caesar, just like Kaiser is a German adaptation.
OwenKL - Thanks for the SO (I think). For future rhyming needs the vowel sound in ……boov is like the 'o' in 'cove.'
The SE corner did me in today. Could not finish without turning on Error Check Mode. "Passport producer" totally threw me off, and I had never heard of OSIER or ICHOR.
Thank you for the explanation and for the new term, the "aftertheme." I think that's a fitting way to describe a puzzle like this. Not my favorite, but I'm not one for treasure hunts. I suppose finding the hidden five creates almost a second phase of puzzle-solving, but I prefer when the themes are either amusing or assist in the solve.
Good Morning:
Talk about well-hidden themes! Even after filling in the reveal, it took a while to search out those 5 scary words. I'm glad Rich vetoed the circles because they would have given away the theme much too early and removed any challenge, post solve. Personally, as I've said before, circles don't belong in late week puzzles. That, of course, is JMHO. I liked seeing the two tennis greats, Ashe and Graf, the She/Her duo, and I chuckled a bit at Klee above Smee. Tappan was a gimme as I crossed over it many times when I lived in Connecticut. The new bridge is named after Mario Cuomo. Alienist was also a gimme because I read the book and also watched the TV mini-series adaptation. Perps were needed for Thoth, Aja, Ichor, and Osier.
Thanks, Alan, for a fun solve and for stopping by and thanks, Steve, for the witty and entertaining commentary. I'll have visions all day of you wielding a meat cleaver on those 10 pounds of chicken thighs, though you probably use a more delicate boning knife. How is Jill doing, BTW?
Linkster @ 9:07 ~ I have read several of the Harry Bosch series and enjoyed them. I also enjoyed the movie, The Lincoln Lawyer.
If anyone wants to alleviate their boredom, Words With Friends is a fun game; it's like Scrabble, but has less stringent rules. My screen name is TrojanMiss45, if anyone wants to play.
Stay safe, everyone.
Jinx, you've been certifiably hilarious. I'd say Inane but that name's taken.
John E, I've mentioned "No Preview" in here before. My Android has requested an update so I'll try that.
I tried Lear<LOEW. It's said Coolidge was coolish with excess talk.
I remember deciding to take the TAPPAN Zee bridge and drove by the Statue of Liberty-on the left. Twenty minutes later it was in my right. Phil, age(ish) 5 pipes up:"I think you're lost dad". I ended up in Brooklyn where incredibly nice people gave me directions to 95 and home.
Linkster, doesn't Bosch show up in the Lincoln Lawyer and find he's a half brother of the Lawyer? I liked the Connelly "Lawyer" books.
Enough of Wilbur
WC
Musings
-Steve’s great summative paragraph is just right for me
-My hometown ELMS disappeared too and then the town planted now doomed ASHES
-HECHE’s career advanced because of the TO-DO over her sex life
-Spell ROHRSACH – Some assembly required
-TAPPAN no longer makes home ranges
-ALIENIST – an obscure job held by an obscure character in an obscure novel to me
-80F weather yesterday required us to get out our garden HOSE
-The cwd ELHI orchestra has a STR section
-America’s first communication satellite inspired this “spacey” instrumental in 1962
-My pre-transistor physics class worked with CRT’s
-I did not know Birth Of A Nation had been remade.
Addendum
-My plumbing expert at Menards got me what I needed yesterday but told me he had been “turned in” to his department manager. A customer had complained he had not given her sufficient social distancing.
-I played golf with four guys yesterday and we may have occasionally violated that rule as well
WC @ 1010 - I wonder if you're talking about the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge which connects Brooklyn with Staten Island and under which the USNS Comfort sailed on Monday.
The Tappan Zee is about 25 miles north of the Statue of Liberty.
Interesting, crunchy puzzle today. Thanks Alan , and thanks for the visit.
Steve, I’ll never look at a chicken thigh the same way!
D-O, the Mardi Gras parade named for the Egyptian god is pronounced TOTH, making the first H silent. We have always been told that’s the correct pronunciation but at Mardi Gras who knows!
I also read about that tragic truth fire in which the Cargo Worth More than Gold was destroyed. Sad...
Owen, both A’s... and beautiful!!!
Dumb autocorrect. TRUCK not truth
Thanx for the THOTH info, SwampCat.
Good morning, everyone! That great “whoosh” you hear is the puzzle theme sailing WAY over my head – thanks for the explanation, Steve. And thanks to Alan D. for a fun Thursday diversion. Nicely done.
I see I’m not alone filling in ASHE at 20A. Nope, he scooted down to the SW to make room for Steffi GRAF. No trouble spelling LYFT since I’ve used the service a few times while traveling. Liked seeing the stacked rhyming pair KLEE and SMEE. We’re singing our PSLAMS while watching live-streamed services these days. DH is a fan of scary movies, but I’ll take a good comedy or musical any day.
I went for a walk around the neighborhood yesterday and was touched to see that some little kid had put a stuffed bear at each of the windows of their house to cheer people up. Made my day.
Take care all!
Oops - we're singing PSALMS, not pslams :)
For me the Natick was ASTI/ICHOR. Thought it might be ASTA/ACHOR.
I really liked that the circles were missing. It made a fun treasure hunt afterwards. This puzzle was great - thanks, Alan, for the puzzle and for dropping by!
Sometimes the circles are helpful, but here the puzzle was better and more themed without them IMO.
Crunchy but still fun Thursday puzzle--many thanks, Alan, and I wish Rich had let you keep the circles. I would never have gotten the theme words without them, and I'm sure there are people out there who don't have a blog to help them find devices like this in puzzles. But with those words the JUMP SCARE theme was a delight, and I was happy to get a number of the names like HENRI and GRAF and ASHE and KLEE and even RORSCHACH (my German helped with that one). I goofed by putting in CORSETS instead of CORSAGE for that prom thing--a CORSET isn't much of an adornment, is it, but hey, my last prom was more than a half century ago. But at least I remembered that nylons were a kind of HOSE. Anyway, thanks again, Alan, and for checking in with us, and neat write-up, as always, Steve.
Have a good day, everybody.
Inkster, we are huge Harry Bosch fans and have read all Connelly’s books about him. We are waiting impatiently for the new TV season, which keeps being pushed back. While waiting, we will watch The Lincoln Lawyer.
Interesting puzzle today with a few learning moments. Did not know THOTH or ICHOR, but got them with peeps. Not so lucky in the SW, which did me in. For some weird reason, I wanted STATE PEN to be Stage Set, did not know ALIENIST and couldn’t see JUMP SCARE. Jack to the rescue, but I can’t count it as FIR.
Thanks for the workout, Alan and for the entertaining tour, Steve.
We went down to the harbor last night to pick up dinner from a favorite restaurant, and all the parking lots are closed off as well as all the parking spaces along the channel. I’m all in favor of social distancing, but I can’t see the harm in sitting in your car to enjoy looking at the water. Oh well, whatever works to get us past this thing.
Hola!
My proudest moment of this puzzle was spelling RORSCHACH correctly! After that, the solve was pretty much downhill with some current unknown facts. To wit: ALIENIST, AJA, STATE PEN and BOSCH; ECHO STAR was a pure guess.
Since I had COOLEST that section was murderous for a long time. Finally I just looked up the unfamiliar terms but then my computer gave me problems and I had to restart it. When COOLISH emerged, it solved a whole host of fill.
I'm happy that I knew TAPPAN Zee from a long ago article in the classroom newspaper My Weekly Reader.
LEIS always recall some very happy memories of Hawaii with my late DH. OSIER is an old CWD term.
Interesting discussion between CZAR and tsar/tzar; I've seen all those.
SCHNOZ also reminds me of Jimmy Durante with his SCHNOZola jokes.
InananeHiker:
I'm so glad you enjoyed Educated by Tara Westover. Our book club also read it and enjoyed the discussion some months ago.
My daughter loves horror movies so this puzzle's theme would appeal to her.
Thank you, Steve, for a lively analysis. Good to know that you like THIGHs best; I do, too. I'd love to hear your accent but not sure if I would call you.
Have a safe and healthy day, everyone!
Oh well,
I will be back later,
can't read the write up or blog right now...
I discovered a side button on my ipad newspaper subscription
to the Star Ledger, which carries the LA Times Puzzle.
The format was much improved, & I was going to rave about it on
the Blog, until I just discovered that the puzzle I did labeled "Thursday"
was NOT the LA Times...
(now "that's" scary...)
So I will be back, "after" I do the "correct" puzzle.
P.S.(a ramble on suitable for Ipad users only...)
I have been using an Ipad for years when on trips
& have been confounded by a linking glitch that has annoyed me
for ages. When I follow a link that connects to anything starting in "Google,"
I CANNOT use the BACK button to return to the Blog. (it justs gets stuck.)
so I have to reload the Blog from scratch to get back to where I was.
(Anonymous T's Google photo links were notorious for this...)
& now they have changed formats again requiring many of "MY"
links to go via the same annoying crap. So I have been trying, & digging deeper,
and using non Google links for my links to avoid annoying people.
Well, yesterday I got so stuck in a link, that I started ranting/cursing,
& pushing the back button repeatedly in a fit of exasperation,
& it worked!
No, I am not saying cursing at your Ipad is the answer.
BUT, a simple, (& only twice in quick succession) double
click of your back button will return you to the Blog where you left off.
(Bill G. this means less bookmarks for you...)
(end of rant, or PSA depending on how you click it...)
A bit o crunch in this Thursday grid.
Write-overs...OCTET/OCTAD.
Never heard of JUMPSCARE and I didn’t look for the “jumps”.
I don’t mind a scary movie but I don’t go for the blood bath variety.
The old Tappan Zee Bridge was a bit scary the new one less so. But I fly home now instead of driving.
And on to Friday.
A very good pzl indeed, just right for Thursday.
Got 'em all, 'cept for the JUMP of JUMP SCARE.
This was my Natick, as I didn't know 57D (AJA), and I could have gone with BUMP SCARE, even RUMP SCARE for that so-called "film technique."
Heck, we all used a sudden, surprising change in image and tempo to wake an audience up--and didn't need to dignify it with a name. It was one of many different options under Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt.
(How's that for a moniker?! Misty, your German to the rescue again...)
Anyway, hey desper-otto! I saw that news item too. So much TP lost to humanity! It almost brought tears to my eyes.
This morning my young(er) wife had to show up, masked, at our supermarket for the 7:00 am early-senior-hour shopping, in order to snag one 12-pack of TP (limit one-to-a-customer). SCORE!
Stay well, everybody!
~ OMK
Spitz, thank you for the correction. I did indeed mix them up. Tappan-Zee is north of GW bridge.
WC
Psycho. That movie was my undoing for years of not taking a shower.
And I believe the Verrazano Narrows bridge begins in NJ or is there a separate bridge from Jersey to Staten Island?
And I just remembered one more bridge: Throgs Neck to Long Island.
One thing they all have in common: dastardly expensive.
WC
Your German's pretty sharp too, Ol'Man Keith.
This puzzle defeated me; so many answers I had no way of knowing or sussing, even with perps. At least I knew RORSCHACH TEST and even spelled it correctly. I think it is because my dad was a psychiatrist and I had heard him use the term many times. He even showed me some of the "inkblots" he used in his practice; to me every one of them looked like a flying bat that had been pressed, like a flower, between the pages of a heavy book. "Hey dad, you're the one with all the Chiroptera pictures."
Two steps forward.... Local hospitals just installed equipment for 70 minute COVID 19 test results.
One step back.... not enough reagents to test all patients under investigation....
All hospital personnel must now wear over the ear face mask at all times.
CW... Anyone who claims they spelled RORSCHACH correctly or put LYFT before uber or SMEE before Hook without perps is....well you know who you are.
What is a Throg?
WC @ 1400 - - The Verrazzano Bridge is between 2 NYC boroughs, Staten Island and Brooklyn. There are 3 bridges from Staten Island to NJ: the Goethals Bridge, and the Outerbridge, spanning the Arthur Kill, and the Bayonne bridge across the Kill Van Kull.
Finished the puzzle, then started looking for the "five puzzle rows"
and thought I found the 1st one in "LACROSSE", which has the letters that spell out
"SCARE" included, but "jumped around"/scrambled. So, I thought, AHA! Then, I found
"CORSAGE", which also has SCARE embedded, but scrambled. So, I then was certain I'd discovered 2 of the 5. But the line spacing was off for usual puzzle balance. Though
the revealer could have been a 5th line. So I thought, hmm, maybe Mr. DerKazarian is using row and column as synonyms, so I looked for downs with the same trick and found
"ECHOSTAR", which has the SCARE scramble too! So, I plowed on, looking to "STATEPEN" as the usual place for theme balance in the grid, but no joy. And then I thought, whoa! Where do I find those other 2 scrambled SCAREs? Never saw the real themers until I came here to see the write-up. I too had never heard of JUMP-SCARE, but I like its evocativeness! So, whether intended or not, in addition to the 5 rows of SCARE syns jumping a black square, this one had a 3 themer lagniappe of SCAREs that jump all over the place, not just a tiny bit of gap hopping! Very fun!
Java Mama @ 11:13 ~ Your teddy bear story made me smile. I have a collection of bears adorning shelves in my den, none of which are rare or true collectibles, but everyone has a sentiment and special meaning to me.
Nighthawk @ 3:12 ~ Thanks for sharing your scare-seeking sortie.
Steve said:
Old PC monitors: CRT'S. Cathode Ray Tubes, I hate to think how many of these ended up in landfills.
(A little trivia)
The amount of lead in old CRTs made them too dangerous to dispose in landfills,
So they are recycled. A surprising amount of old CRTs wind up in 3rd world countries
Where cheap TVs are usually their 1st luxury purchase...
Surprisingly, again, is that most of the lead is in the glass and is used
To block harmful x-rays...
Thanks for the puzzle, it aired out my coat...
The Outerbridge crossing was named such not because it is the southernmost NYC bridge,
It was built by a guy named Outerbridge...
I had a few false starts, but the crosses bailed me out. The largest section in most orchestras is composed of strings, usually over half, and strings are the only one that can be recognized by three letters. So STR is always my first guess. For deadly sins, my go-to reference is the movie "Se7en", which as I recall illustrated gluttony, greed, vanity, lust, sloth, envy and vengeance, of which envy and lust are the only four-letter candidates. "Ashe" clinched the choice. A great puzzle, very satisfying. In my youth I liked scary movies, but not the jumpscare scenes so much. Now I prefer a good read. And a challenging puzzle. Thank you.
The old Goethals Bridge
(Built for horse & buggy)
Connecting Staten Island to NJ
Was a scary white knuckle drive when
Trying to pass (or being passed by) trucks.
It scared me so much I would close my eyes to drive across...
Hi everybody. Barbara and I enjoyed a gourmet lunch today; a BLT with avocado on sour dough toast. Delicious!
Hi All!
Ouch Alan. The SW really hurt. DNF (+FIW at ARNe|eST). And JUMP SCARE? - never heard of it. The rest of the grid was fun, so thanks for that (and for stopping by The Corner).
Thanks Steve for finishing out my grid.
Wonder how your Yelper is RATing the quarantine - Glad I'm not her fiancé.
WOs: OCTet, nIkE, Le CROSSE
ESPs: THOTH, HECHE, ICHOR(?), BOSCH, and not enough perps for more...
DNFs: 57a: -LI-NIS-, 39d: STA---EN, 50a: -APPAN
Fav: ARTIOS - pretty good beer and great Super Bowl commercial w/ The Dude.
{A, B+}
TTP - I wanted Western Digital @Passport too.
YR - I too thought of Durante there (and I know the Mrs. Calabash reference) even though I've NEVER seen the TV show.
Welp, back to work.
Cheers, -T
Ray - O - Sunshine:
So many of you are engineers, mathematicians, etc. and can easily solve some of the physics, chemistry and math clues in a puzzle. But my main talent is spelling and I can visually recall a word so RORSCHACH tripped off easily for me.
CEDave:
Thank you for your continuous supply of humor in these trying times. I really appreciate it.
Well, we had our Zoom session with granddaughter et. al. today. I must say I’m not impressed. It is required to download the app before you can join, which I didn’t know beforehand. So I wasted 5 minutes out of what turned out to be a 10 minute session downloading and figuring out how to use the app. Once finally having joined the group I could not tell if anybody could see or hear me, and the app only showed the person who was speaking rather than showing everyone like FaceTime does. So if someone in the meeting doesn’t say anything you never see them and have no way of knowing if they are even participating. IMO it’s a poor implementation but I suppose it’s better than nothing.
So that’s my report about my experience with Zoom.
Bill G, glad you and Barbara enjoyed a good lunch together.
Jayce@6:48, I had the same problem with Zoom. Others did better, so I will try again.
IM, I like that you included the time of the post you referenced @4:04. Sometimes I have difficulty following the thread without it. Cornerites, please take note.
All my friends, family, acquaintances are well so far. I personally know many who are in financial difficulty.
I hope you all are doing well medically and financially.
We shall overcome someday.
Ach so, Jayce, and for how long have you been seeing these "flying bats", Hmmmmm? Perhaps it is time to check the DSM manual and to diagnose you for...
Die Bats in der Belfry, ja?
(AKA Die Fledermaussyndrom!)
~ OMK
Dash T, I spoke with my brother in Texas yesterday. He won't be getting his pacemaker anytime soon. He mentioned the governor's mandate for a two week quarantine for people coming in to Texas from some cities and some states. And that DPS is enforcing it. Stopping people at the borders. Yeah, and the Lt Governor is an idiot.
I looked at the dashboard for the State of Texas. There's a line that follows I-35 from San Antonio to Austin to the Centroplex (Killeen and Temple) to Waco and on to the Metroplex. Most of my family lives along that line, but as of yesterday my brother said that as far as everyone knows, no one in the family has it. Yet. One of my nieces is a principal in the Austin School District, and her husband is a firefighter / EMT. Of course, he has a more elevated risk of contracting the virus than those of us that can shelter in place, but each and every one of us needs to heed the directives.
Some states and governors don't seem to be getting the message. The governor of Georgia said he just learned that asymptomatic people can spread the virus. Really ? He just learned ? And he's leading a state ?
Of course, it's hard to convince the deniers, or those in sparse population areas that haven't seen the impact. Yet. Like Antarctica.
Just like you'll never be able to convince those that didn't comprehend the Y2K issues.
One of my young neighbors is also foolhardy, as are some of his friends that continue to hang out. He seems to think that it's all going to go away when the weather warms up.
I looked at your County's dashboard. Here's ours: DuPage Co. Health Dept. COVID-19 Dashboard
Jayce, DW has been using Zoom for a couple of weeks with her team. No problems here. Each member that has their camera turned on is shown on top in the "Gallery", whether they are speaking or not. If it is like other video conferences I have used, the meeting host can pass control of the meeting to other users as they present. But in the few glimpses I have seen, it looks as if any of the members is talking, they appear on the main part of the screen. So it seems like the options may need to be adjusted.
My only problem with it was my own. I didn't know she was in a video meeting today, and walked past her temporary office at the dining room table to get a bottle of water from the fridge. The rest of the story was that I was just out of the shower and only had my skivvies on. Note to self: Rearrange DW's setup, and move her to the guest bedroom...
Here's a press release from the FBI's Boston office on Zoom. Some basics for novices. It made the WGN news yesterday morning. FBI Warning on Zoom
@Jayce - if you are in a Zoom session you can click on what looks like the buttons of a touch tone phone in the right upper corner of the black area - and then you are picking "grid view" instead of "speaker view" and you can see everyone at the same time. You can toggle back to speaker view the same way. Easier on a tablet or desktop which has a bigger screen than on a phone.
Bill G your lunch was indeed gourmet! Sounds yummy to me!
I attended (is that the correct word?) a church meeting via Zoom and was just baffled. I could hear what was said... and what was voted on ... but I had no idea who was talking. Perhaps because of the format, everything seems to have passed unanimously!
Maybe that’s an improvement over real life meetings where you can see each other and argue!
Inanehiker, I posted before I read your message. I’ll try your suggestions. I’m sure we’ll be having meetings this way for a while.
I’m also appalled at people who aren’t taking this virus seriously. We have large gatherings of mostly young people run off of our many outdoor meeting places. One of the benefits of our warm weather and friendly outdoor areas is now becoming our main problem. Stay home!!
inanehiker, thanks.
Ol’Man Keith, funny!
TTP, good plan.
Hi Y'all! I enjoyed the puzzle, thanks, Alan, but had no luck figuring out the theme answers within the fills. Thank you so much, Steve, for exposing them to my weary brain. Hope you are staying safe. Are you traveling?
I haven't read beyond the theme answers. Will go rest my eyes so I can do the Fri. puzzle and then read everyone's fine comments when my eyes aren't so blurry. Been a big night for lots of news on Facebook among my friends there. Left me nearly blind.
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