Theme: Edible Apparel - take a food item and the clue turns it into something to wear:
17A. Jewelry to wear for a good cry?: ONION RINGS. The first time I tried making onion rings all the batter ended up in the pan and the rings came out bald. Not what I was looking for!
61A. Warm stole to wear on Thanksgiving?: TURKEY WRAP. All stoles are wraps, but not all wraps are stoles. That's fashion sense for you.
10D. Headgear to wear while truffle hunting?: MUSHROOM CAP. Is a truffle a mushroom? Nice clue though. Here's a truffle pig - if the pig finds a truffle, you have to be quick before he eats the whole thing. That's an expensive piggy-snack!
24D. Shoes to wear when driving a junky car?: LEMON WEDGES. There are a few "how to" videos on YouTube which detail how to cut citrus wedges. How can the video run for 80 seconds? Are they teaching you how to make a knife first? Incroyable. Cut lemon(lime) north-south. Cut wedges. Don't cut yourself. Rinse. Repeat. What was that, five seconds?
Today we have an across-and-down theme from Susan. Nice plays on words for the theme entries and all "in the language" and some fun in the fill too. Let's go look:
Across:
1. Noisy with activity: ABUZZ.
6. A bit cracked: AJAR.
10. Fem. counterpart: MASC.
14. Southeast Asian capital: HANOI. Vietnam's capital city. The Old Quarter is very colorful - and moped-friendly!
15. Place to bowl: LANE.
16. Golden rule word: UNTO.
19. Toffee bar with a crown in its logo: SKOR. Assuming that Hershey's meant that the name of the bar makes you think "Swedish" (especially with the crown) you'd have thought they'd have named it SKÖR, with the umlaut, as that means "brittle" in Swedish, a good name for a brittle toffee bar covered in chocolate. But they didn't - the named it SKOR, which means "shoes" in Swedish. So if you think Hershey's chocolate tastes like old shoes (and I do), then apparently the company agrees with you.
20. Thus far: YET.
21. Procure: GET.
22. CenturyLink Field NFLer: SEAHAWK. Wow, that's some formidable Caps/Lowercase/Caps/LowerCase/Caps clueing.
24. Support under the table?: LEG.
25. "I wouldn't __ you wrong": STEER.
26. Poem often starting with "There": LIMERICK.
30. Lasso loops: NOOSES.
34. Sistine Chapel ceiling man: ADAM.
35. Giant Giant: MAYS.
37. __ Dame: NOTRE. It's sad looking at Notre Dame cathedral at the moment with no spire after the fire last year.
38. Like New York's Chrysler Building: DECO. I often stay at a hotel close to the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. Depending on the luck of the draw, I either get a view of the building looking south, or a generic view of Lexington Avenue looking north.
39. Church leader: ELDER.
41. Gold source: MINE.
42. Brings home: EARNS.
44. Extended ride?: LIMO.
45. "At the Movies" segment: CLIP.
46. Reduce speed: SLOW UP. You can slow down too, but you can't speed down, although you can speed up. What a confusing language we speak.
48. Breaks, as the law: VIOLATES.
50. Clear in class, maybe: ERASE. Mostly whiteboards now. When I was at school it was a dusty job to wipe off the chalkboard from the previous class, usually given to the kid who was last through the door. (Me).
52. Weather report backdrop: MAP.
53. Most loving: FONDEST.
56. Chivalrous title: SIR.
57. "Knives Out" actress __ de Armas: ANA. I should watch the movie, it's got a great cast and excellent reviews.
60. Awestruck: AGOG.
64. Turn over: CEDE.
65. Comics canine: ODIE. Garfield's doggie chum - or nemesis?
66. None too worldly: NAÏVE.
67. Light tops: TEES.
68. Sandberg with nine Gold Gloves: RYNE. Baseball. Imaginatively (!) nicknamed "Ryno" he played second base for the Phillies and the Cubs before retiring in 1997.
69. Dental exam component: X-RAYS. One part of a dental exam that doesn't make me sweat. I'm not particularly fond of dentists, I was tortured as a small child by them and I've never forgiven nor forgotten. My current team are great though!
Down:
1. Sea greeting: AHOY!
2. Curse: BANE.
3. Textbook section: UNIT.
4. Where the wild things are: ZOO. Not really, they're not exactly wild if they're in a zoo? Maybe wild at being incarcerated.
5. Witty retort: ZINGER.
6. Landed: ALIT.
7. "Surf City" duo __ and Dean: JAN. Still a fun ditty from 1963. The lyrics might not exactly be PC nowadays.
8. Inner turmoil: ANGST.
9. Viewed anew: RE-SEEN. I suppose so. It took me a while to come up with an example of usage.
11. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" singer: ANKA.
12. Put in the overhead bin: STOW.
13. Popped top: CORK. I've got one in my hand right now. My Home Happy Hour chardonnay from the Central Coast.
18. Prevailing power: REGIME.
23. Ages and ages: AEON.
25. Perform a long jump?: SKYDIVE. No thanks. The only time I'm jumping out of an airplane is if it's on fire and it's on the ground.
26. Puts on cargo: LADES. The next time I'm putting my groceries in my trunk, I'm going to remind myself that I'm "lading". Sounds both strenuous and posh.
27. Best possible: IDEAL.
28. Computer shortcut: MACRO. I'm getting used to my new MacBook, and what is lovely is that I don't have to remember "shortcuts" to type accented words - no CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-NUMLOCK-ALT-00085 or something for an umlaut. I can type "U" and hold down the key until a little menu pops up with my dicritical choices for the letter. Saves me a lot of time, especially here on the blog!
29. Word with cold or close: CALL. Do you like getting cold calls? I only ask because I dislike making them, but that's part of my job. My mission is not to intrude, bore or over-promise. If I do that, I've had some quite pleasant conversations.
31. Long-legged wading bird: STILT. That's new to me. STORK didn't fit. STILT? Quite nice-looking though. Learning moment.
32. Banks on a diamond: ERNIE. More baseball. Without baseball, crosswords would be struggling.
33. Oozes: SEEPS.
36. Tractor-trailer: SEMI.
40. Rent sharer: ROOMIE.
43. "Of course!": SURE!
47. Church leader: PASTOR.
49. Vocal cords locale: LARYNX.
51. Cram, say: STUDY. If you're cramming, it's too late, Chillax, take the grade and vow not to backslide on your studies next semester.
53. It's the truth: FACT. Mostly true.
54. S-shaped molding: OGEE. I had a flat on the ground floor of a Victorian house in London way back when. I could recite the interior wall components as I had to replace most of them - baseboards, base caps, panel moulds, chair rails, ogees; plinths aprons and casings and then picture rails and crown mouldings. The crown mouldings were tricky, they were wet plaster which you shaped with a template. Oh, and the ceiling rose around the central pendant light. I'm not sure how I survived that experience.
55. Connecting point: NODE.
56. __-Ball: SKEE.
57. Puccini piece: ARIA.
58. Deep blue: NAVY.
59. Gibbons and gorillas: APES.
62. __ Tin Tin: RIN.
63. __ movie: WAR.
And with that, I guess I'm out of time and out of clues to chat about. Here's the grid!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
Irish Miss (Agnes) and I made today's Universal puzzle. You can solve it here. It's edited by David Steinberg.
17A. Jewelry to wear for a good cry?: ONION RINGS. The first time I tried making onion rings all the batter ended up in the pan and the rings came out bald. Not what I was looking for!
61A. Warm stole to wear on Thanksgiving?: TURKEY WRAP. All stoles are wraps, but not all wraps are stoles. That's fashion sense for you.
10D. Headgear to wear while truffle hunting?: MUSHROOM CAP. Is a truffle a mushroom? Nice clue though. Here's a truffle pig - if the pig finds a truffle, you have to be quick before he eats the whole thing. That's an expensive piggy-snack!
24D. Shoes to wear when driving a junky car?: LEMON WEDGES. There are a few "how to" videos on YouTube which detail how to cut citrus wedges. How can the video run for 80 seconds? Are they teaching you how to make a knife first? Incroyable. Cut lemon(lime) north-south. Cut wedges. Don't cut yourself. Rinse. Repeat. What was that, five seconds?
Today we have an across-and-down theme from Susan. Nice plays on words for the theme entries and all "in the language" and some fun in the fill too. Let's go look:
Across:
1. Noisy with activity: ABUZZ.
6. A bit cracked: AJAR.
10. Fem. counterpart: MASC.
14. Southeast Asian capital: HANOI. Vietnam's capital city. The Old Quarter is very colorful - and moped-friendly!
15. Place to bowl: LANE.
16. Golden rule word: UNTO.
19. Toffee bar with a crown in its logo: SKOR. Assuming that Hershey's meant that the name of the bar makes you think "Swedish" (especially with the crown) you'd have thought they'd have named it SKÖR, with the umlaut, as that means "brittle" in Swedish, a good name for a brittle toffee bar covered in chocolate. But they didn't - the named it SKOR, which means "shoes" in Swedish. So if you think Hershey's chocolate tastes like old shoes (and I do), then apparently the company agrees with you.
20. Thus far: YET.
21. Procure: GET.
22. CenturyLink Field NFLer: SEAHAWK. Wow, that's some formidable Caps/Lowercase/Caps/LowerCase/Caps clueing.
24. Support under the table?: LEG.
25. "I wouldn't __ you wrong": STEER.
26. Poem often starting with "There": LIMERICK.
"There once was a man from the sticks
Who loved to compose limericks.
But he failed at his sport,
They were always too short."
30. Lasso loops: NOOSES.
34. Sistine Chapel ceiling man: ADAM.
35. Giant Giant: MAYS.
37. __ Dame: NOTRE. It's sad looking at Notre Dame cathedral at the moment with no spire after the fire last year.
38. Like New York's Chrysler Building: DECO. I often stay at a hotel close to the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. Depending on the luck of the draw, I either get a view of the building looking south, or a generic view of Lexington Avenue looking north.
39. Church leader: ELDER.
41. Gold source: MINE.
42. Brings home: EARNS.
44. Extended ride?: LIMO.
45. "At the Movies" segment: CLIP.
46. Reduce speed: SLOW UP. You can slow down too, but you can't speed down, although you can speed up. What a confusing language we speak.
48. Breaks, as the law: VIOLATES.
50. Clear in class, maybe: ERASE. Mostly whiteboards now. When I was at school it was a dusty job to wipe off the chalkboard from the previous class, usually given to the kid who was last through the door. (Me).
52. Weather report backdrop: MAP.
53. Most loving: FONDEST.
56. Chivalrous title: SIR.
57. "Knives Out" actress __ de Armas: ANA. I should watch the movie, it's got a great cast and excellent reviews.
60. Awestruck: AGOG.
64. Turn over: CEDE.
65. Comics canine: ODIE. Garfield's doggie chum - or nemesis?
66. None too worldly: NAÏVE.
67. Light tops: TEES.
68. Sandberg with nine Gold Gloves: RYNE. Baseball. Imaginatively (!) nicknamed "Ryno" he played second base for the Phillies and the Cubs before retiring in 1997.
69. Dental exam component: X-RAYS. One part of a dental exam that doesn't make me sweat. I'm not particularly fond of dentists, I was tortured as a small child by them and I've never forgiven nor forgotten. My current team are great though!
Down:
1. Sea greeting: AHOY!
2. Curse: BANE.
3. Textbook section: UNIT.
4. Where the wild things are: ZOO. Not really, they're not exactly wild if they're in a zoo? Maybe wild at being incarcerated.
5. Witty retort: ZINGER.
6. Landed: ALIT.
7. "Surf City" duo __ and Dean: JAN. Still a fun ditty from 1963. The lyrics might not exactly be PC nowadays.
8. Inner turmoil: ANGST.
9. Viewed anew: RE-SEEN. I suppose so. It took me a while to come up with an example of usage.
11. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" singer: ANKA.
12. Put in the overhead bin: STOW.
13. Popped top: CORK. I've got one in my hand right now. My Home Happy Hour chardonnay from the Central Coast.
18. Prevailing power: REGIME.
23. Ages and ages: AEON.
25. Perform a long jump?: SKYDIVE. No thanks. The only time I'm jumping out of an airplane is if it's on fire and it's on the ground.
26. Puts on cargo: LADES. The next time I'm putting my groceries in my trunk, I'm going to remind myself that I'm "lading". Sounds both strenuous and posh.
27. Best possible: IDEAL.
28. Computer shortcut: MACRO. I'm getting used to my new MacBook, and what is lovely is that I don't have to remember "shortcuts" to type accented words - no CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-NUMLOCK-ALT-00085 or something for an umlaut. I can type "U" and hold down the key until a little menu pops up with my dicritical choices for the letter. Saves me a lot of time, especially here on the blog!
29. Word with cold or close: CALL. Do you like getting cold calls? I only ask because I dislike making them, but that's part of my job. My mission is not to intrude, bore or over-promise. If I do that, I've had some quite pleasant conversations.
31. Long-legged wading bird: STILT. That's new to me. STORK didn't fit. STILT? Quite nice-looking though. Learning moment.
32. Banks on a diamond: ERNIE. More baseball. Without baseball, crosswords would be struggling.
33. Oozes: SEEPS.
36. Tractor-trailer: SEMI.
40. Rent sharer: ROOMIE.
43. "Of course!": SURE!
47. Church leader: PASTOR.
49. Vocal cords locale: LARYNX.
51. Cram, say: STUDY. If you're cramming, it's too late, Chillax, take the grade and vow not to backslide on your studies next semester.
53. It's the truth: FACT. Mostly true.
54. S-shaped molding: OGEE. I had a flat on the ground floor of a Victorian house in London way back when. I could recite the interior wall components as I had to replace most of them - baseboards, base caps, panel moulds, chair rails, ogees; plinths aprons and casings and then picture rails and crown mouldings. The crown mouldings were tricky, they were wet plaster which you shaped with a template. Oh, and the ceiling rose around the central pendant light. I'm not sure how I survived that experience.
55. Connecting point: NODE.
56. __-Ball: SKEE.
57. Puccini piece: ARIA.
58. Deep blue: NAVY.
59. Gibbons and gorillas: APES.
62. __ Tin Tin: RIN.
63. __ movie: WAR.
And with that, I guess I'm out of time and out of clues to chat about. Here's the grid!
Steve
Irish Miss (Agnes) and I made today's Universal puzzle. You can solve it here. It's edited by David Steinberg.
63 comments:
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Susan Gelfand for your enjoyable Thursday CW.
Carol and I FIR in 18:06 min.
Thank you Steve for your excellent review.
Ðave
A fun puzzle, one letter short of a Pangram - I look forward to Pangrams during a Pandemic.
Thank you Susan and Steve for a pleasant diversion before a dental visit.
No real posers but a lot of chuckles.
Good morning. Steve, another very fun write-up but again I have a broken link that will not load. This week it is the SKOR, which almost would have worked for the SCORE themed puzzle this week.
I think it is great that Susan G. made a food-based theme for our resident foodie. I really enjoy your ongoing reminisces from your youth. BTW, we loved KNIVES OUT .
Thank you both for the nice start to the day.
Good morning!
Haha, D-o got the theme. He almost got a DNF. Thought that "Popped top" was corN and SEAHAWN was some guy's name. Finally, corK, popped to mind. Thanx for the outing, Susan, and for the expo, Steve. ("Incroyable?" Merriam-Webster says that's a dandy or fop. Did you mean "Incredible?")
ERASE: I remember the up-down blackboards of my ute that the prof wrote on, then pulled up with a rope, so he could write on the fresh board beneath.
JAN and Dean: I remember hearing them first as Jan and Arnie on Jennie Lee. I won't link it. You can thank me later.
COLD call: Hate 'em. We're on both the national and Texas "Don't Call" lists, not that it seems to make much difference. I have no qualms hanging up on them...usually within the first 5 seconds.
Good morning.
That was an amusing puzzle to start the day. Nice review as well.
Yellowrocks should be happy with all the A words. A BUZZ, A HOY, A LIT, A JAR, A GOG, A DAM, A RIA, A NA, A NKA :>)
Also liked the puzzle by Irish Miss and C.C. over at the Merriam-Webster site.
-Cute gimmick, Susan. I caught on right away. Fun.
Steve, great post. I had the same thought about slow up and slow down. That reminds that when my boys were young we lowered one son's bicycle seat, so Alan asked to have his "highered."
-I loved your "short" limerick. LOL.
-Surf City brings back more than 50 year old memories.
-I ignore cold calls or immediately hang up. I neither contribute nor buy based on a cold call.
-TTP, you got that right, esp. abuzz, ahoy, agog, ajar, alit.
-In elementary school my kids begged to erase the blackboard and dust off the erasers. Later, I liked whiteboards or similar green boards, but had to be watchful that the kids didn't write with permanent markers.
This was my fav xword of the week. Three MLB Hof'ers helped. Two cubbies and the Giant was MAYS instead of Ott.
Great themes starting with ONION RINGS-Real crispy if I must have them.
Clecho with the J on Dental in 69A. I liked that popped top(CORK)
Let's see the write-up and comments.
WC
Today's took 6:20.
Backing out of "stork" for "stilt" slowed me down a little.
I lived at Surf City NC while stationed at Camp Geiger '68-'69. Colonel shipped me to 'Nam for my own safety.
Then it SEGUed to My Back Pages with Dylan, Harrison,Clapton and others.
I had an asthma prescription that I never took. Effectively an upper. I took one CRAMming for Eco 101 and got a rare A.
My year teaching French 101 I had the rope board. So, I pull on the rope for what I thought was a blank board but quickly faced the class. Then a snigger, a chuckle, a few guffaws and finally the whole class laughing.
I had pulled down a board with a drawing of a naked girl.
I'll have to try those IM xwords.
WC
Oh man, now I'm craving ONION RINGS! Haven't eaten any in years.
Otherwise a fun puzzle, Susan! Thanks, Steve!
This Thursday puzzle seems to have been right in my wheelhouse, as they say around the baseball field. FIR in 5:23 and that was two minutes faster than yesterday. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?
I started at 1 Across out of habit and guessed that the answer might be ABUZZ. Zees are always handy to work with due to the limited possibilities. ZOO confirmed my starting guess and that pattern of good fortune persisted throughout. That I had personal experience with several of the clues/answers did not hurt and I found most of the clue/answer pairs to be straightforward.
I enjoy good meals, and I, as do many folks around here, spend my fair share of time cooking, so the food references were pretty easy to suss out. I prefer ONION RINGS to french fries and I love french fries. Once that answer hinted at a food-oriented theme the other long answers came pretty quickly. STEER was a gimme and that led directly to SKYDIVE which led to VIOLATES. The dog is almost always either Otto or Asta or ODIE. ERNIE Banks and Willie MAYS were players I followed in my youth. The third ball player, RYNE Sandberg was also well known to me. A very close friend is an avid SEAHAWK fan and I was in HANOI not too long ago. Although I was not familiar with ANA de Armas the perps made short work of that. I am not familiar with OGEE…. outside of crossword puzzles….where I have come across it….what, four hundred times!?
Ah, but I was so much older then, and I now suspect that I have been set up for a fall tomorrow and Saturday.
...and with that, in parting, a hopefully-not-too-short LIMERICK:
There once was a lass from Kilglass
Who had a magnificent ass
Not round and pink, as you'd probably think
It was brown, had long ears and ate grass
Musing
-ABUZZ – Walk by a Kindergarten room
-Unlike Steve’s educated palate, mine likes SKOR candy bars :-)
-No COVID here as YET but we got tested Monday and should know for sure in a few days
-ADAM and God are just inches apart in that painting
-The BBC’s Poirot has Art DECO styling everywhere
-Monday was the 51st anniversary of when Apollo 11 ALIT on the Moon (yes, we went!!)
-Thanks for the MACRO tip, Steve. After decades with a Mac, I didn’t know that one!
-I’ll bet you know the setup to this great Churchill ZINGER: “Madam, if I were married to you, I’d drink it” In case you don’t
-COLD Call – A recorded, chirpy female voice has been trying to interest me in reducing my student loans for years
PLAY BALL !!!
Yup, I will be watching the NY Yankee's -v- Washington National's baseball game tonight on ESPN.
Cheers!
PS Husker, I get that same chirpy female's calls also.
Hmmm, been out of college 46 years without any student loans
and they still call about once a week. LOL
Straightforward Thursday puzzle with a couple of Unknowns ANA and STILT.
Filled NOT and waited on RE.
Some baseball for C.C.
Food and drink. Yum!
Is aluminum foil the TURKEY WRAP? My cooking is usually limited to the grill.
Changed RYan to RYNE.
My DW makes the best ever homemade ONION RINGS.
LEMON WEDGES, lime, or orange juice go with dark rum.
MO
Good morning everyone.
Got it done without error or aid. 2 cells wited-out; A and N in AEON. NOTRE was pretty solid. @ 31d, thought of heron or egret, but held off until CLIP loomed and then entered STILT. We've had it before. Like the food-wear theme. Helped make it an easier but fun solve. Like D-O, I finally got SKOR after uncorking CORK.
I'll take a CSO at AHOY and NAVY. Maybe at SIR, too. (Hard for a 21 yr old Ens. to get used to getting SIRred by a 45 yr old CPO.). Interesting that NAVY and NAÎVE cross.
LANE - In curling, the 'lanes' are called 'sheets'. Ice sheets?
Congrats to IM and C.C. on the Universal puzzle.
Turkey Wrap Yummy!
So much fun today! Thanks, Susan. The Sistine Chapel ceiling fella had to be ADAM because Michelangelo wouldn’t fit. Clear in class for ERASE, and long jump for SKYDIVE we’re just giggle-worthy.
Where the Wild Things Are is one of my favorite kids books. Steve, I agree, in ZOOS the things are not too wild, but then in the book they weren’t really wild either. Good memories there.
I loved the theme and all the yummy foods. Steve, right up your alley. Thanks for the expo.
Where’s Owen? He should be here for his CSO.
Thanks, Susan and Steve! Fun puzzle, and FIR in spite of a few unknown sports items and minor celebrities, thanks to kind perps. It was nice to see ZINGER after the recent discussion of "Oh, snap!" and "Zing!" DH and I just had all the rain gutters replaced because of leaking -- which is not too bad since they undoubtedly dated to 1964 when the house was built -- and the gutter expert explained that our OGEE shaped gutters were not the best complement to the mid-century modern architecture. We now have boxy, rectangular gutters, and DH has learned a word he'll need if he ever wants to do the crossword puzzle.
Two inkovers plus an easy theme not bad for a more Tuesday-like Thursday puzzle. Stork/STILT (bird walking on them?) Stuff/CRAM ... STOW was still in my mind.
To my ear Jan & Dean sound like Beach Boys lite. AEON spelled the fancy way....and OGEE!.... looks like NODE is back.
My first summer job during college was in the last running textile mill in Utica Beaunit Fibers where I mixed dye for Rayon production. There was a whole room of various shades of NAVY blue thread. Here are just a few of "50 Shades of Navy Blue".
"Knives Out" fun flick. ..PASTOR ( It. Pastore "shepherd")
In third grade (1958?) one of the sponges we used to ERASE the blackboard was a real sea sponge probably a remnant from when the school was built in 1925.
Ruler of all The Greek Gods..ZOOS
Heard the wolves _____ at the moon...BANE
I'll crochet while ______ UNIT
And don't forget to..
Social distance and wear a ____ MASC.
Good Morning:
This was a pretty straightforward Thursday with no unknowns and no w/os. I loved the theme, especially the Mushroom Cap entry. I liked the Yet and Get duo right next to each other. CSO to Boomer at Lane and to Spitz and DO at Navy. TTP beat me to highlighting all the A words for YR. Wasn’t fond of Reseen, but a minor (and personal) nit.
Thanks, Susan, for a Thursday feast and thanks, Steve, for being Chef of the day, serving up a saucy and savory review!
My sister and I had a lovely patio dining experience last night at one of our favorite restaurants. First meal out since early March! While chatting away, I suddenly remembered that I withdrew $600.00 on Monday, but couldn’t remember putting it in my “stash” location. I kiddingly said to my sister, “I’ll have to check that when I get home, to make sure it’s there.” Long story short, it wasn’t there, it was mixed in with the junk mail in the recycle bin. Fortunately, I didn’t put the bin out for Tuesday pickup as it wasn’t even half full. I had removed the envelop with the cash and put it on my dining room table. The junk mail must have been on the table, also, and, apparently I just scooped up the whole pile and dumped it in the bin. I learned a lesson, you can be sure!
FLN
oc4beach, good news on your checkup!
Have a great day.
A eon??? Really need some grammatical training here.
What happened to an eon an adventure an adjective, etc??????
Hi All!
Whoot! After yesterday's debacle... Nailed It!
Thanks Susan for the fins Thursday grid. I must have been on your wavelength, 'cuz ink flowed nearly top-to-bottom.
How 'bout that (FLN) Lucina? Steve got all he could eat :-) Thanks Steve for the expo - jolly good fun. //yes, see Knives Out.
WOs: CAse was cold & close[d] b/f CALL, aGEE.
ESP: ANA (and I just watched [and recommended!] Knives Out)
Fav: Mr. Cub himself, ERNIE Banks
ZINGER, ROOMIE, & LARYNX are great sparkle.
IM - Whoa! That's a close call (and lucky you didn't put the recycle out!).
Play later!
Cheers, -T
Too fast for a Thursday. I had to check the calendar. Whenever I see the name Ernie Banks I recall nothing but good memories growing up in suburban Chicago devotedly following the beloved Cubbies even though they struggled mightily year to year. Ernie was always so upbeat and always smiling. The best idol a little kid could ever hope for. Knives Out was a very entertaining movie. Lots of good acting and a fun plot. On the topic of limericks I'm not sure this will end up being posted, but here goes. There once was a man of high class whose gonads were made out of brass. He clashed them together in high stormy weather, and lightning shot out of his a__.
Woohoo! Woohoo! Except for one word (SEAHAWK--I'm not good at sports) I got this entire Thursday puzzle--a huge treat! Many thanks, Susan--and the clever theme fills also made this an extra delight. Just loved having all the corners fill in, and then the middle, and then watching ONION and LIME and LEMON turn up, suggesting a food theme. TURKEY--well, it's a Thanksgiving food. MUSHROOM was the last food to fill in, but what fun.
And I enjoyed your commentary, as always, Steve.
Interesting to have two church leaders--ELDER and PASTOR-- this morning. Hey, I did get a sports figure after all: ERNIE Banks. And I always enjoy seeing ODIE turn up in puzzles.
Irish Miss, how thrilling to have you and C.C. publish a puzzle! Congratulations! Very exciting--I'll have to see if I can find it.
Have a great day, everybody.
Hola!
You are all so entertaining! Thanks for the chuckles.
Steve, I'm so happy for you that you had a food themed puzzle!
And we had a bit of school related fill at MAP, ERASE, STUDY and UNIT. What's this about retractable chalk boards? I've never seen one or heard of one. Only retractable MAPs.
I still haven't met our PASTOR and it may be a long while before it happens.
Yes, Steve! You must see Knives Out. It's a really good movie. And I'm sorry but I do not like cold CALLs. I usually hang up and then block them.
thank you, Susan Gelfand, for the fun.
Enjoy the day, everyone! Continued WARM wishes from AZ.
Yes, OwenKL is AWOL. Pls report!
I thought this theme would be perfect for some CrossEyed Visuals,
but maybe not...
Onion Rings?
Turkey Wrap??
Mushroom Cap???
However, Lemon Wedges worked out better than I thought...
Speaking of Lemon Wedge how to videos,
there are many, why I don't know...
But it did remind me of a how to cut an orange video
that turned out to be a lemon!
The reason you do not see this type of wonderworksvideos with limes &
lemons, is that it doesn't work!
I tried the orange section pop up technique
with local store bought oranges, & it will
make a huge mess. Because they are not the type and species
of orange you see in the above video...
However, I did have success cutting local (as in storebought) orange
peels into two halves! (suitable for repackaging into lunchboxes)
This is awesome for camping trips, as one side of the peel makes a bowl,
& the other side makes a perfect candle, already equipped with a Wick!
Just add oil & light!
(just do not use the good olive oil...)
I would love to add a bunch of these around the Pumpkin Jack-o-lantern
(with assorted faces)
but I don't think anyone is coming this year:(
COLD CALLS We often get calls to renew the warranty on my husband’s 20 year old Toyota Camry.
GUTTERS One nice thing about living in AZ is most houses don’t have gutters. One bad thing, the monsoon has moved in and high humidity has replaced our “dry heat.” IF we are lucky we might get a spit of rain.
Steve, husbands old Mac is dying, and he is thinking about a new one. What model did you get?
Off to do the Universal puzzle.
Mask up, be well.
Irish M.
💰💰💰 tossed out with the trash?.. Hmmm what's your street address in Troy and what night is trash night...🤑
The Universal Puzzle was a very pleasant solve. Thanks to you and I.M. for the puzzle, itself, and to you, C.C. for the link. For some unknown reason the puzzle has yet to appear in my Shortyz app.
Very amusing visuals, CED. Thank you.
There is a device, a call blocker, that you can attach to your phone line that will hang up after one ring. I've had one for a couple of years now and have blocked 300 numbers.
IM! What a fun puzzle extending our baseball today.
I went to crossword fiend, but they don't have an expo of your grid :-(
My last fill was 1st 3 letters of 23a 'cuz I misspelt 19d. That V8 can hurt :-)
Thanks You & C.C.
Cheers, -T
Ha, thanks for the images.
FIR in pretty good time for a Thursday. I too had stork until it was obvious that it was stint.”And that’s why his no one picks!” (The end of the limerick;))
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Susan and Steve.
I got more than half of this CW finished on the drive to pick up the grandchildren. (Yes, I may be AWOL for a few days!)
I smiled at the themers . . . and even thought back to those awful gravity WEDGES from last week. (And ZINGER reminded me of the Oh Snap conversation too.)
Hand up for Stork before STILT, and Corn before CORK.
Almost a Natick at the cross of RYNE and SKEE but I WAGged the E.
I too thought of Ott before MAYS filled the spot properly.
ANA was all perps. SEAHAWK was all perps also; even DH does not know all your NFL fields!
I smiled at AHOY crossing HANOI.
I wondered if we had a pangram but couldn’t find a Q. Didn’t have a chance to check the rest. Was that the missing letter linkster@6:03?
Moodnuck@11:34- AEON (all one word) is an alternate and probably archaic spelling for eon. It would be an AEON before I would ever use it in my speech or writing.
HuskerG- hope that test is negative!
Wishing you all a good day. Stay safe and wear a MASC (hi Ray’o)
This Thursday grid filled quickly.
No write-overs today.
So the Yankees play tonight and there is also a car race...it’s been awhile since I had to chose. Not a complaint!
On to Friday.
Mask Up, Stay Safe.
IM & CC,
I took a look at your puzzle,
Wag'd the top row & 1 down, & thought,
"this is going to be too easy"
& went to clean the house...
When I came back for a break,
I got smacked with Pesto ingredient IS NOT PINE NUTS?
after realizing 1d would not work...
(very sneaky...)
Actually there were a couple of tough nuts in there...
Here is my score!
Congratulations!
Total Letters:187
Letters you solved:187
Letters computer solved:0
Completion time:02:38:50
CLOSE
Speaking of Nuts!
The completion time is not the time spent on the puzzle,
but house cleaning.
(& I am not finished yet!)
Congrats to Irish Miss & C.C. on making the Universal puzzle! Cool!!
And congrats to you, Misty, for getting most of today's pzl. That earns a "Woo" if not the "Hoo."
How much of SEAHAWK did you miss? Most of the perps should have helped, but was it the "a" in the archaic spelling of AEON?
Maybe the other "a" at the end of ANKA?
~ OMK
____________
DR:. Just one diagonal--on the short end of the stick.
Let's see what anagram it yields...
Here's one!
When they get angry, or when the sun exacts more than an increase of melanin in the napes of southern farmers, we may find an abundance of…
“HOT REDNECKS”!
Good morning everyone. Steve, the pig needs to be paid for its labor. But you can also eat the pig later when it fattens up.
The theme was an easy spot after ONION RINGS in the NW. That area took the longest to fill with the first word starting at the beginning of the alphabet (AB) and ending toward the end (UZZ). The rest of the puzzle was a speed run from NW to SE fill with ANA being the only unknown filled by perps. Had to change STUFF to STUDY for 'Cram'.
Gary, your palate must be similar to mine. Forget the 10 spices and zests; I don't notice them when somebody adds them to food. Omaha Steaks, ribs,...etc.- they don't need all those exotic add-ons.
Swamp Cat- the Audubon ZOO has a jaguar that is definitely wild. Two years ago one got out of its enclosure and killed 8 animals (alpacas, foxes & and an emu).
It's bad enough I'm slapping my head and pulling our the grays to get through a puzzle plus hardly ever parsing anything but the most obvious themes.
I've seen Cornerites refer to a pangram. (Probably not ridiculing grandma I'm guessing.)
So I LIU:
"Pangrams are words or sentences containing every letter of the alphabet at least once; the best known English example being A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog ."
So are we talking the whole puzzle containing all the letters or just part like all the longitudinal or all the latitudinal answers? 🤔.
And..what's penalty from the Crossword police for failure to recognize one 😳
Susan, great Thursday puzzle. I enjoyed it immensely and Steve added to the enjoyment.
I had one change today. SEOUL before HANOI. Plus there were a few unknowns, RYNE, SKOR, and ANA. Perps pitched in and saved the day.
Also an enjoyable puzzle by C.C. and IM.
IM: Thanks for the nice words about my pacer news. I hope you are healing.
Today I had to do the puzzle in the afternoon, after I went to the dentist for my six month cleaning and check-up. No issues there either.
HG: like others, I recommend "Knives Out". It is an Agatha Christie type thriller. If you watch it, please let me know what you think about Daniel Craig's accent.
Cloudy day with a little rain which we need.
Be safe everyone and wear your masks.
Careful who you callin' a red-neck OMK :-)
oc4 - IMHO, Daniel Craig's drawl was kinda silly. Like Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins. [ignore the first 20 seconds]
Ray-O'Sun: Yep, you nailed it - pangram is a Pan on the Grands... Makes fun of the Boomers and older that don't know the hep lingo. :-)
OK, yes, it's all 26 letters used within the entire grid. Sometimes constructors force it (and you can tell from the clunkers) but, when done right,... *chef kiss*
Cheers, -T
AEON is one word. It's an alternative (older, British) spelling of "eon."
Big Easy, I’d forgotten that jaguar! That’s was awful. At least it was at night and there were no visitors .
And wasn’t there once a gorilla that got loose and just wandered around.
Puzzling thoughts:
Thanks Susan G for a fun run today; only hiccups were ANGER/ANGST and RESEES/RESEEN
I know I’ve SLOWed down and sped UP; I guess poetic license applies to xword puzzles, too 😀
Of course I enjoyed seeing LIMERICK, although mine usually can’t hold a candle to Owen’s ... but in his absence I’ll toss one in later ...
Truffles and MUSHROOMS I guess do share a few similarities, but the ones the pigs source out with their snout are more expensive
Congrats to Agnes and C.C. for the puzzle today. Plate Appearance was a great unifier especially today; the beginning of the 60 game MLB season ...
Ok - my LIMERICK submission ... I know; I’m no Owen ...
The Waste Management worker, turned hawker,
Runs a carnival game; a real shocker!
Player throws a SKEE ball
At milk cans; hopes they'll fall.
When they miss, he becomes a trash talker.
Boo-Hiss C.Moe,
You spoiler! //IM & CC's puzzle was fun
Nice Moeku, biatch! //that's the best trash I can talk at The Corner :-)
Speaking of spoilers - I had to make sure this Daniel Craig: Knives Out interview wasn't one.
I'm bound to over-post today, ain't I? :-(
Cheers, -T
No Comment ;-)
Sigh. For some reason the Universal puzzle did not print out in grid form and I don't like to solve them on the computer. That's never happened before.
Today was mani-pedi day for me so I just spent a glorious time being pampered.
And it's taco Thursday tonight.
Again, if you haven't seen Knives Out, do it.
Thank you, Ol'Man Keith. I got ANKA, and it was AEON that got me. I didn't know what to put in to go before EON and stupidly put a C.
Lucina, I had the same problem with Irish Miss and CC's puzzle--there was no way to print it and trying to do it on the computer just stumped me. But I'm sure they got lots of great reviews.
I had issues with printing the bonus puzzle as well. But I'm not sure it's the same problem mentioned. My first try resulted in two pages printing, but on the same page. I finally got it right by selecting "print page 1". Not sure if this will help, but it might. Good puzzle!!
Lucina,
Try printing it from this link
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-games/universal-daily-crossword
I liked this puzzle and therefore tolerate RESEEN. LARYNX is awesome fill!
Frankly, I didn't particularly like Knives Out. The story, the way the story unfolded, and the acting all seemed forced, artificial. I felt the only good acting was by Christopher Plummer. And Daniel Craig's accent was awful; I felt he was totally miscast.
Wow, Irish Miss, that was a close call!
If I recall, Charlize Theron was in a movie called Æon Flux.
Good wishes to you all.
Relaxing after work with my mask finally off outside on the deck.
Just finished tackling Agnes and Zhouqin's fun challenge but did it on my phone where frequently my fat thumbs slid into the wrong letters. Have never done a red letter puzzle before. Like being tapped on the shoulder by someone smarter 🙄Interesting but think I'll stick with pen and paper.
Thanks to both of you
Agnes and CC, I enjoyed your puzzle. No prob printing it. I am not sure of the theme. Could someone email me please
Ray-O-Sunshine@3:07
You are correct in that the answers contain every letter of the alphabet
to be a Pangram.
The penalty for not seeing it?
(The loss of One AHA Moment!)
Actually, after years of doing Xwords,
I get excited after seeing an'
x, Y, or Z in a puzzle...
Anon-T,
Tx for the Dick Van Dyke link!
When I saw "Choo" in the puzzle,
I went looking (again) for
Dick's rendition of various sneezes in Mary Poppins.
Unfortunately,
If anyone ever linked it, it is no longer available...
My fav had to be the "the silent ladylike sneeze" (Tissue)
All that can be found of this comedic gem these days
is this
which I include only because it includes a Cat...
Which begs the question,
if he is allergic to cats, why is he sniffing it?
Malo-man said
"Ah, but I was so much older then"
Which tells me he too was directed to Dylan etco from Surf City. Petty, Clapton, Young shared the stage with Dylan and Harrison.
Doing the universal on my Android just wasn't working. Same for the USA today link. Latimes is doable on cell.
Heard today in the car re. All the expletives heard on these "Alt-net" links. Q. What do the "free-expletive" crowd call someone who substitutes "friggen"?
A. Boomer
WC
P.S.
When looking for a Cat Sitter...
A Klingon may not be the best choice...
AH,
Ray-O-Sunshine,
You have sent me to "a dark place..."
You see,
in search of that AHA moment,
I have found one...
Every reference to a Cat in Star Trek The Next Generation
in one clip!
I call it, a CatGram...
(Disclaimer,
10 minutes,
not for the allergic
or anti SciFi)
Dash-T and Jayce: According to an IMDB post, Daniel Craig worked very hard trying to perfect his accent. I think he failed miserably.
Late to the party again. Had to work today and did the puzzle in between visitors. Got the theme, and I really liked the puzzle. Thought it was a little easy for a Thursday, UNTIL…
I got down to the far SW corner and for some reason I ran into a brick wall. I forget which incorrect fill caused the problem, but I just couldn’t get 53, 60, 64, 67A and 53, 54 and 55D. Put AGOG in a couple of times and took it out. Tried all kinds of combos, but couldn’t get anything to fit. I had Wite-Out on top of Wite-Out on top of Wite-Out! I was going to throw in the towel and start reading the expo, but luckily I had more visitors, which took up the rest of the afternoon. Took another look at the puzzle after eating tonight, stuck AGOG in AGAIN, and FINALLY saw FONDEST/FACT (I had always had the DEST), which begat the rest, which gave me a hard-earned (but ridiculously stupidly-fought --- DUH) FIR! The puzzle wasn’t that difficult! I just made it that way.
Didn’t know ANA and wasn’t sure of SKOR, and I thought AEON looked weird, but perps took care of them. Of course, I know MAYS, but I was thinking of the movie at first and wanted ROCK or DEAN. Then I realized that if it were a movie clue, it would probably have been in quotes.
Oh, well, tomorrow’s another day.
WC, you are correct in that I did not miss the reference in your early post in this thread. I have been familiar with "My Back Pages" for decades and with the Dylan, McGuinn, Young, Clapton, Harrison, Petty version in particular since it was released (1992 ?). That version of that song is a true classic. Any Cornerite who reads this and is a fan of "My Back Pages" or of any of the artists would be well advised to track down that version of the song online. I would provide a link but I am writing this on my phone and getting the syntax right is a bit too difficult.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Susan Gelfeld, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
Puzzle was real easy for a Thursday. I worked after I got up. Slept better last night (for a change).
Liked the theme. Clever.
Used a few perps as i went through this. That's OK.
Anyhow, I am getting ready to hit the floor soon. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
LEO3 - MIL & I call it "creating our own puzzle" :-)
Nice to read you're feeling a bit better, Abejo.
LOL Trek's Spot, CED! Thx.
WC & MManatee: My Back Pages
Cheers, -T
IMHO DanielCraig did an incredible character arc and development in Knives Out. I thought his accent was wonderful and funny. Do y'all know how many dialects there are in the south? Plus his pace was a joy (for me, at any rate) to watch and to listen to. And one never knows how much it has to do with the director. I thought he and Ana were core to the movie being such fun. But that's just me.
Becky
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