Welcome back to Friday, Jeffrey. Today we have another variation of the single clue theme, where each clue is an alternate form of a base word - BIRD. He uses the expanded grid - 16 across by 15 rows - to give us 4 grid spanning themers. Then his skill really goes on display as he sets out a perfectly symmetrical and consistent pattern. 1 is singular - BYRD. 2 is plural - The BYRDS. 3 is plural - The BIRDS. 4 is singular. BIRD. Even "the" is in harmony in 2 and 3. I know many of you do not concern yourselves with themes but they are an integral part of modern puzzles. For any of you who have tried to create one, you understand how much skill all that takes. With 64 spaces dedicated to the puzzle's theme, there is not much room for long sparkle but he does add CASSAVA, ORIGINS, SHEARER, TIGRESS, ENGINEERS, and OH SUSANNA.
18A. Byrd: SOUTH POLE AVIATOR (16). But not the North Pole? Byrd.
26A. The Byrds: TURN TURN TURN BAND (16). More biblical history this week. TURN
49A. "The Birds": HITCHCOCK CLASSIC (16). Loosely based on the 1952 story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier...
BIRDS.
62A. Bird: FLIER IN BADMINTON (16). Shuttlecock? A shuttlecock (also called a bird or birdie) is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conical shape: the cone is formed from 16 or so overlapping feathers, usually goose or duck and from the left-wing only, embedded into a rounded cork base. The cork is covered with thin leather.
Now that you know all of that new stuff, on to the rest of the story.
Across:
1. For that reason: ERGO. I am sure you love COGITO ERGO SUM.
5. Mekong River land: LAOS. It goes alongside Thailand, Mynamar meeting at the Golden Triangle. I am no Picard but that is my picture from 2018.
9. "Settle down!": COOL IT.
15. "Banjo on my knee" song of 1848: OH SUSANNA. I had no idea how controversial this BALLAD was. If you are easily offended, please do not listen. This was not the version I learned.
17. Weapon for Spain's Philip II: ARMADA. One of my favorite chapters in HISTORY.
20. Frivolous: GIDDY. Another celestial euphemism; Old English gidig ‘insane’, literally ‘possessed by a god’, from the base of God
21. Female beast that sounds like a river: TIGRESS. Euphrates to put in that fill?
22. Strengthen: AMP UP. History - 1886 as an abbreviation of ampere; 1967 as an abbreviation of amplifier.
25. __ chi: TAI. T'ai chi ch'üan 太極拳.
35. Top often with an image: TEE. From an August 10, 1979 concert.
36. Showing presently: ON NOW. What are you watching while you solve it? I watch GMA.
37. Power source: SOLAR.
38. Gp. with related interests: ASSN. A fancy group.
40. Provides a buffet, say: CATERS. Who catered your wedding?
43. Disease namesake: LYME. Do we have another puzzle here? Lime Rickey; Lyme Connecticut? You could sneak in "caused by bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi."
44. Staff figures: CLEFS. Music, cute. LEARN.
46. Object of a detective's quest: PROOF. CLUES? OK, not a plural.
48. D.C. VIP: SENator.
53. Organ with a hammer: EAR. Ear bone, also called Auditory Ossicle, any of the three tiny bones in the middle ear of all mammals. These are the malleus, or hammer, the incus, or anvil, and the stapes, or stirrup.
54. Unwilling: LOATH.
55. Root that's a source of tapioca: CASSAVA. A very interesting but complicated ROOT VEGETABLE. In Florida, they are called YUCA and are in all Publix supermarkets. Not to be confused with the Casaba melon
59. Hip-hop star Green: CEELO.
67. Butcher's offering: CUTLET.
68. Many in Caltech's faculty: ENGINEERS. But not Sheldon.
69. Like troublesome mascara: SMEARY. Meh.
70. Forest grazers: DEER. Not around here.
71. Indian music: RAGA.
Down:
1. Aurora's Greek counterpart: EOS. Did the answer finally dawn on you? There was a time I had this fill often.
2. P-like letter: RHO.
3. Atlanta sch. fielding the Panthers: GSU. GEORGIA STATE U.
4. Defeat: OUTGUN. One word, hmm.
5. "Major Crimes" force, briefly: LAPD. A SPINOFF from THE CLOSER.
6. "And giving __, up the chimney ... ": A NOD. Our quotation today is not Shakespeare.
7. Without siblings: ONLY.
8. Encl. to an editor: SAE. Self-addressed envelope.
9. Eggs on crackers, perhaps: CAVIAR. Fishy, not birdy.
10. Starting places: ORIGINS.
11. Little on "The Wire": OMAR. Very strong series.
12. Running behind: LATE.
13. Loving exchanges: I DOS.
14. Works on a route: TARS.
16. Mailing label words: SHIP TO.
19. Westernmost Aleutian Island: ATTU.
22. Join: ATTACH.
23. Granola relative: MUESLI. The main difference between muesli and granola is that while both are made up of grains, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, muesli is unbaked while granola is baked along with a sweetener and oil to bind the ingredients together.
24. Like some hotel thermostats: PRESET.
27. Sch. with an Asheville campus: UNC. University of North Carolina.
28. Genetic molecule: RNA.
29. Insensitive, in a way: NOT PC.
31. Neighbor of Arg.: BOLivia. I have a friend from there who keeps going back and forth but no flake. (Bolivian flake was a very popular cocaine product when I was defending drug dealers. No personal experience.)
32. Actress Milano: ALYSSA. In the NEWS.
33. "Whatever you want": NAME IT.
34. Spray with a hose: DRENCH. Ray, maybe "what do you use when a C wrench doesn't fit?
39. It has Giants but not Titans: Abbr.: NFC. National Football Conference.
41. Mythical aerial menace: ROC. Were they a menace? Roc, also spelled Rukh, Arabic Rukhkh, gigantic legendary bird, said to carry off elephants and other large beasts for food. It is mentioned in the famous collection of Arabic tales, The Thousand and One Nights, and by the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, who referred to it in describing Madagascar and other islands off the coast of eastern Africa.
42. Roman sun god: SOL. I mythed studying this ONE.
45. Woolgatherer?: SHEARER. Norma?
47. Order to soldiers: FALL IN.
50. Hollowed-out area: CAVITY. Often in your teeth...
51. Algerian port: ORAN.
52. With less delay: SOONER. Than later.
55. Ozone-depleting chemicals, briefly: CFCS. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are anthropogenic compounds that have been released into the atmosphere since the 1930s in various applications such as in air-conditioning, refrigeration, blowing agents in foams, insulations and packing materials, propellants in aerosol cans, and as solvents. Bad?!?
56. Donor drive target: ALUM.
57. Browser's find: SITE.
58. Ward of "House": SELA.
59. Candy __: CANE.
60. Periphery: EDGE.
61. Burnoose-wearing leader: EMIR.
63. Word with sea or seed: BED. I never saw the clue until now, but as written I think it is hard.
64. Leaves for a spot: TEA. Pip, pip and all that; right Steve and Pedant Brit and the rest.
65. 38-Across relative: ORG.
66. CIA relative: NSA.
Wow! Another JW is in the books. In preparing for my write-up two comments came to mind. 1. it is amazing how many puzzles JW has published here. 2. C.C. has over 300 puzzles in major newspapers since her first collaboration with Don G. This does not count her new run in USA Today. Check them all out. Thanks, Jeffrey and all who read. Be safe.
64 comments:
FIR, but sorta sloggy. Loved the theme and Tippy Hedren.
Good morning. Thank you, Jeffrey. Thank you, Lemonade. (Ans. to 36A is WGN)
Daunting, but solvable. Liked the theme, and that all four were grid spanners.
Got SOUTH POLE, BAND, and BADMINTON in short order, but filling in the rest of those theme parts and all of HITCHCOCK CLASSIC took some doing. Good time solving in a good time for Friday. NE corner was the last to fill. TIGRESS and OMAR.
You know you are a crossword solver (or a WWII buff) when you know ATTU.
CASSAVA is new to me. Not a tapioca fan. At all.
Good morning!
At ease. Nope, FALL IN. Needed the theme phrases to fix that and the other errors, too numerous to mention. The G in GIDDY took an alphabet run, and was my final fill. SOONER -- CSO to Anon-T (I think). Enjoyed the challenge, JW, and the expo, Lemonade.
Well, I did it again. Y? Because I never thought of SMEARY and thus (ERGO) was left with CAVITs. One box Wilbur strikes again. FIW. Ugh.
Other than that how was the play Mrs Lincoln? Typical Wechsler clueing ie entertaining. Just we enough perps to work through it.
I think it was OMK who said "If it looks wrong it probably is wrong". SMEARs was the wrong tense for the clue.
I've done the hideous Saturday and of the three difficult end of weeks I believe that will be my only FIR - Just like last week
WC
But I'm not going to check answers until the write-up. For which I thank Lemonade?
Ironically Phillip brought up TWERKing and he gave an in depth explanation. Interesting how xword clues show up in conversation.
Took too long to give up canape for caviar.
13:30 was my time today. I can't stop hearing the chorus the moment the lightbulb went off for "Turn, Turn, Turn". Had South Pole relatively quickly, but aviator took awhile.
Cassava was new. Smeary was, well, cringey.
Musings
-I’ll bet Jeffrey had this 16-letter fill in the bullpen: Bird - BOSTON CELTIC STAR
-Nice summary, Lemon!
-I have lots of TEES bearing the NASA meatball
-There is a huge SOLAR farm 400 yards south of my house
-CEE LO’s F**k You has a less coarse version Forget You
-OUTGUN is used by sportswriters who need for a variety of verbs in their stories
-SHIP TO – We got an Amazon package delivered to our address with our neighbor’s name as the addressee. He and I had a nice laugh about it
-ATTU was the only American soil the Japanese invaded
-It’s a courtesy violation if you putt SOONER than a guy farther away from the hole
-Obscure beyond belief – You’re a true Neil Simon fan if you remember his play where a big wedding day problem is solved with, “Mimsey, this is Borden. COOL IT!”
Thanks, Jeffrey, for a daunting puzzle, but little by little I filled it in. Thanks too, Lemony, for a helpful write up that, alas, pointed out two wrong squares, so FIW today, again! I, like Wilbur, had Y issues only mine was in LYME. My other was the C in CEELO. In both cases the perps didn't tip me off to look again. I tried two other countries before BOL finally worked, allowing me to finish the puzzle. That section was the last to fill.
We sang OH SUSANNA to our daughter Susanna when she was small whereupon she looked for the banjo on her knee. A fun memory.
It continues rainy here today, but cooler. Hope you all have a good start to your weekend!
Good morning everyone.
Another Jeff masterpiece. Luckily, I was on his wave-length today, and got everything without lookups. FIR.
Re: ATTU - - The Japanese also invaded and occupied Kiska. When US forces invaded a few months later, they found the Japanese had left. My ship, the Beale, was part of that re-invasion force. Guam, among others, was also invaded by the Japanese.
Guam was also invaded by the Japanese.
Learned about Attu from a favorite movie, The Big Year. Very enjoyable
FIR, nice challenge, but slightly easier than the usual Friday. Only CEELO was unfamiliar, although I needed a perp or two to jog my memory for many. I had the D and then the E, so BED became evident.
When we went to school, Oh Susanna's racist lyrics had been scrubbed. Catchy tune.
I don't hear cool it much these days.
I'm not a tapioca fan either. I especially dislike the type with large "pearls." We called them fish eyes. Not a fan of bubble tea, either.
I haven't thought of TURN TURN TURN for ages. Happy memories.
A neighbor with a similar address and I often get each other's mail and packages He refused a UPS package addressed to me, but didn't mention I live right up the street. The package was returned to the UPS base and delivered days later.
Interesting puzzle, Jeff. Nice summary, Lemon.
Spitz, the Battle of Guam began on December 8, 1941 -- actually on the same "day" as Pearl Harbor, because Guam is across the International Dateline. When I was there we took a hike to one of the old tank battlefields near the center of the island. There were still American and Japanese tanks to be found more than 25 years later. The tread on one of the American tanks had come loose, but I was amazed that I could turn the sprocket hub by hand after it had been sitting idle in the weather all those years. It must've been well-lubricated.
Finished this Friday right in good time.
Banjo song and staff figures filled quickly along with ARMADA & ENGINEERS.
Byrd - bird theme helped a ton. Have visited Bodega Bay. Thought the final scene of HITCHCOCK CLASSIC film was lame.
Changed thus to ERGO, be calm to COOL IT, plus a couple of others.
SOONER alum.
Thanks JW & Lemon.
MO
D-O - Interesting about the battle site and the tread preservation.
Sorry about the dupe in my post; re-read it 3 times. I think Jeff's puzzle caused brain degradation.
I stumbled across this last night. Very prescient. "Oh Susanna".
Fun puzzle and great write-up.
Fast for a friday imo. As Lemon pointed out, some amazing fill. Cassava, Oh Susanna. I am in awe of the minds that can do this.
Warm one in Chicago but nice. Stay safe and well everyone.
JB2
Good Morning:
I literally smile when I see JW’s byline, especially on a Friday puzzle. As YR stated, this was not quite as difficult as a typical Friday, but it was fun and challenging enough to satisfy this solver. I like this type of theme because it always piques my interest in how the themers are going to be defined. I stumbled out of the gate with O Susannah>Oh Susanah>Oh Susanna; I think the H fixation was probably a Savannah connection. I, too, had canapé for caviar and I needed perps for Cassava, Ceelo, and Omar. I liked the duos of Assn/Org, Tee/Tea, UNC/NFC, and Bot/Cot. My favorite C/A was Wool gatherer?=Shearer. I also liked some fresh, fun fill, IMO, with Tigress, Drench, and Outgun.
Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a very enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for the delightful and detailed summary. Your analysis always does justice to Jeffrey’s talent and strengths.
Have a great day.
This was an easy-for-a Friday puzzle with lots of twists and turns and false starts. I kinda knew the long theme answers but not specifically how they'd be laid out.
Just started reading Moe Rocca's "Mobituaries." yesterday. One of his first obits was for the mythical ROC. (No!! Not Dwayne Johnson, thank God, I love that guy).
Changed CAVITY to ravine back to CAVITY (echoes CAVIAR). Didn't think the mascara ans.would end in a Y
Anyone remember "The Gale Storm Show" Oh Susanna ? One of my pre-teen favorites. She played Susanna Pomeroy a cruise director on board a ship.(back when only rich people went on cruises)
ALUM is a abbreviated answer from a clue without one. (I already alerted the CW police). Not sure I agree with GIDDY -frivolous. Power source should take a noun.(the Sun); SOLAR is an adj. (solar energy).I actually held off in that ans. for a bit for that reason.
Leaves for a spot (TEA) a clever but hard to parse clue. Top often with an image (homophone, TEE) popped right into my head. I am wearing one, just.had to look down. Never occurred to me till now that Byrd flew like hishomonym.
Little Ray: "Mom, how does Santa get in our house to leave presents cuz we don't have a chimney?"
Mom: "He knocks on the door and we let him in."
Wha???...
Sorry dear not tonght______ headache....CASSAVA
When repeated 3 times" _____ your boat"....RHO
Hi Ho it's off ______ we go.....TWERK
My balloon deflated. Where'd the ?___..ERGO
Lemonade...how about :
Dame Judi _____ is all wet... DRENCH
https://youtu.be/I0wbYAn8IVw
Have a nice Friday dor some of you sounds lik a FRY day
Mea culpa is a Latin phrase that means "through my fault" and is an acknowledgement of having done wrong.
Catarina Pereira- MEA CULPA Festival Da Canção 2014 (Official Music Video) !
Boy have I done wrong!\
Ðave
Exceptionally easy puzzle for a Friday, only one erasure and didn't have to look anything up.
All that did for me was to give me more time to work in the yard. I can hear the grass calling, "come mow me"
Wechsler on a Friday is scary, but he is fair. I usually have trouble with the same clue being repeated, but this variant worked well for me. Knew all the theme answers. Fun!
Lemonade thank you for the photography shout out! Nice photo and good that you were able to find it!
Here are my photos of Anoushka Shankar as she took her curtain call after performing many a RAGA here last year.
I was very fortunate to see her perform with her famed father some years back, but I don't seem to have any photos of that. When I was searching, I found something else that was quite a remarkable coincidence for today.
David Crosby was a member of the BYRDS and he lives here. I was very fortunate to meet him. He told this amazing story for today's puzzle. Here are my notes:
====
Crosby remembered back to when he went to England with the BYRDS. He was so thrilled to meet the Beatles. And the Beatles were very kind to them. Crosby especially connected with George. He gave George a Ravi Shankar album. George told Crosby later that this simple act led to the Beatles becoming so interested in India. To them going there and adopting Indian music into their own music.
====
So RAGA and the BYRDS have a special connection!
From Yesterday:
Shankars thank you for asking about my belief system. I consider myself to be a Humanist. If you Google "Affirmations of Humanism" there is a wonderful brief list that explains what this means.
SwampCat yes, TAKEI may be more of a superstar now than back when he played SULU.
AnonT glad to know you share my love for watching talks and programs at high speed. Thanks to the clever engineers who figured out how to use Fourier Transforms to do the speedup without having it sound like The Chipmunks.
WilburCharles thank you very much for the "jot and tittle" quote. Yes, that indeed was one of the quotes I had found in my searches over the years. But people love to pick and choose what they want to believe.
CrossEyedDave I sent you an email yesterday to follow up on your question that started the discussion. Did you get it?
Kinda thought we might see this clip of The Byrds in the Corner, or even this one from Hitchcock's The Birds instead of Miley Cyrus twerping, but whatever.
As our dear Misty often exclaims, "Woohoo". Not that I chalked up a FIR, but that I consider a JW Friday puzzle with only four wrong squares a personal victory. Congrats to all of you who did conquer Jeff's masterpiece with such ease. I'll have to put cassava in my memory bank for later use such as asking my DW some time later today, "How's your cassava?"
As expected a JW puzzle was creative and challenging at points!
But a few answers were in my wheelhouse like CASSAVA - in the last 10 years I've been to Ghana West Africa several times for humanitarian medical trips and CASSAVA is their subsistence crop like potatoes, corn,wheat or rice would be here. They grind it down with a mortar and pestle like tool and then form it in to balls that they use with other sauces/soup (and meat if people were more well off - which wasn't where I was) for dishes like Banku and FuFu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fufu
Thanks JJM for the link to the BYRDS song- it was already going in my head but fun to hear all the lyrics.
Thanks Lemonade for a fun tour on the blog!
Mr. Wechsler, thank you! This puzzle was tough but fair and I enjoyed a feeling of triumph when I FIR. Lemonade, thanks for the tour.
Fourteen years ago, DH and I hosted a "sweet sixteen" party for his daughter, on neutral ground so that his ex and her paramour could comfortably attend. The teens spent the whole night TWERKing on the dance floor. My eyes are still burning.
Well, of course a Friday Jeffrey Wechsler was going to be a toughie for me--but I got off to a great start in the northwest corner: got ERGO and EOS instantly and before long OH SUSANNA filled in. Things got harder soon after that, but still, thanks Jeffrey, for getting me off to a good start. And thank you, Lemonade, for a very informative and helpful commentary.
Another favorite solution was EAR--deserves a Woohoo! (Thank you, Shankers, for not being turned off by my puzzle shout). And I got MUESLI--does that possibly come from German, Spitzboov? But I had HUGS before I DOS, and never heard of CEELO. Still, the bottom finished nicely with getting SMEARY (of all things) and DEER.
Picard, I loved your Beatle's story, and always like your fun fill-ins--what do you call that way of using puzzle words in unrelated settings like that?
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
Because I have more Byrds' songs on my playlist than any other artist, I at first tried to make TURN TURN TURN Song work but that bit of fuzzy thinking was cleared up pretty quickly. FLIER did not immediately come to mind as a synonym for Shuttlecock. I had been on Admiral Byrd's flagship on a family trip to San Diego many years ago and I have also been to the Golden Triangle so those clues were solved quickly.
Hi Ho Hi Ho it's now time to give my dish RAGA thorough rinsing and clean up the kitchen.
Puzzling thoughts:
The day didn’t start too well, as I forgot to put the pot under the coffee maker after hitting “brew”, and by the time I realized it, about a half of it had spilled all over the counter, and dripped onto the floor ...
I went directly to the LAT xword today, as I wanted to see if Owen was back ... I usually do a couple other puzzles (sudoku, jumble, et al) to warm up my brain ... but not today ... jumped right into a Wechsler! But since Owen didn’t show, I felt obliged to post ...
A Friday JW/JC delight ... clever theme; informative recap; some clues were a bit obscure, and I had to rely on my GF for knowing ALYSSA Milano, and OMAR Little. Those two entries helped me finish; I did have several write overs: TAE/TAI; I wanted either ENLIST or ENROLL for 22down; has KGB/OSS before NSA in 66d; ON AIR/ON NOW. I had trouble getting OUTGUN. The first OUT??? that came to mind was “OUTWIT”, which is one of the three “OUTS” on the TV show, “Survivor”. OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTLAST
I went to HS with a classmate whose last name was SHEARER. And also one whose last name was Wechsler
Got SOUTH POLE/ BAND/HITCHCOCK/FLIER in the spanners before the rest filled in
HG @ 8:28 —> I know the putting courtesy to which you refer, but our group adopted “ready golf” to speed up the pace of play. I like your Bird/Boston Celtics Star.
A bit lame, but not as controversial as my Moe-ku from yesterday:
Buick built a car
That listens. How does this work?
ENGINE-EARS, of course ...
Wow. I might miss a square once in awhile due to two unfamiliar perps, but this was the first time since I can remember that I couldn't finish a section. Couldn't finish the Northeast. I had ATTU going down through TAI going across. Couldn't get SOUTH POLE "ADMIRAL" out of my mind. Just couldn't pull the trigger on CAVIAR even though I had the AR. Was pretty sure about LATE and ARMADA but couldn't fill it in because I couldn't get off of ADMIRAL. In retrospect, CAVIAR and ORIGINS should have been pretty easy. A bad day but a good, challenging puzzle.
Bob
I can just about handle solar as a noun. For example, "Our house has solar" doesn't sound too bad. What I can't handle is the appearance of "sol" in the same puzzle.
Misti @ 1203: re: MUESLI.
Müsli {n}; Müesli {n} [Schw.] A Swiss German word. It is their term for granola. Very few 'German' nouns end in 'i' where it is pronounced, IMO. I've seen the final 'i' more regularly in Swiss German.
Hi All!
JW got me again. Looked up OMAR, ALYSSA, CAS?AV?, and down-right cheated on LYME.
I did enjoy the theme - HITCHCOCK CLASSIC was my 1st get and filled with only MLB (not right), ROC, and SOONER as perps [note: did fit with other things I wanted but hadn't yet ink'd].
Thanks for the tour Lem. Also for reassuring me that I wasn't totally off-base wanting Yuca @tapioca.
WOs: MLB made sense for 39d; HITCHCOCK undid that so I put 'notes' in for 44a, then PRESET undid all that. Kindafa mess over there.
ESPs: ATTU, ORAN, SELA, CAS?AV? [remember, that ended up a cheat]
Fav: Well, it's not SMEARY.
//I did like ENGINEERS xing [Boomer!] SOONER
FLN:
1) Ray-O! I near forgot Thalia [In college, DW & I watched Nick @ Nite a bunch]
2) Lucina - Sry. I did say don't waste too much time on it :-)
3) MManatee - Your pastrami pics are 404 - not found
4) Like today (LOL!) you're not subbing for OKL - you're your own brand :-)
@8:02 Anon - yeah, I couldn't see Aviator either until I LIU OMAR.
What's wrong with Mr Tambourine Man Band?
//Answer: 3 too many letters :-)
HG - I too was thinkin' Larry @62a. Didn't see how anything could (at the time) fit with CFCs & CANE
Ray-O: I started Mobituaries. Got 1/2 way through b/f *squirrel!* I've stacks of books I'm mid-way through...
//Love Tracey Ullman's Dame Dench! There's one her shoplifting.
I hope all Cornerites in the Gulf are paying attention to TD 13 & 14.
Now that I have a deep-freeze (pre-pandemic [read February] purchase 'cuz I'm a Boy Scout), anyone have yea|nea's re: generators? I'm looking at a Craftsman - it's the cheapest >6000W I can find that I can pick-up tonight.
Back at it.
Cheers, -T
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
Wow, I got a JW CW . . . but not without a few inkblots.
Byrd was a SOUTH POLE explorer (with a shared E😊) before AVIATOR perped. That NE corner was the last to fall.
ARG changed to BOL.
TURN TURN musician changed to TURN TURN TURN BAND.
I smiled at ROC crossing “The Birds”= HITCHCOCK CLASSIC.
My detective was looking for a Crook before PROOF.
DNA changed to RNA.
GIDDY is not my first thought for frivolous. I think of excessive, an unnecessary expense.
Favourite was the clue for TEA. Earl Grey for Abejo and Red Rose for this Canadian.
DH (and others here) will take a CSO for ENGINEERS. (They are a unique breed💕)
Wishing you all a great day. (Grandkids are having quiet time; I will read your posts later)
Hi Y'all! Fun but tricky as JeffWEX puzzles tend to be. Thanks. Nice theme. Didn't know he had a BIRD brain. Lemonade, thanks for more fun & info.
SW took a while at the last. I had BADMINTON but couldn't come up with enough perps for FLIER. Finally filled it all.
DNK: CASSAVA, OMAR, ORAN, CFCS, NFC, or spelling of ALYSSA.
Interesting that we had CAVIAR & CAVITY & CASSAVA, ATTU & ATTACH, SOONER & SHEARER.
Frivolous = GIDDY? Meh!
ON NOW? I don't watch or listen to anything while I solve. My brain can't stand distractions at my age.
Hola!
WEES. It is so late that all comments are also what I agree on. Thank you, JW and Lemonade. Typically for a JW puzzle, this was challenging but doable. Right away I knew OH, SUSANNA. Our elementary school music teacher loved Stephen Foster's songs so we sang them all.
However, I started badly with IPSO instead of ERGO. Eerily they all fit together even if wrongly.
When it came to all the bird variations, I quickly caught them all. In high school we played BADMINTON so it surprised me to see that in the puzzle. We always called the missive "the birdie".
I love tapioca! And many years ago I researched its ORIGIN and knew about CASSAVA.
CSO to all our ENGINEERS here!
Leaves for a spot is a great clue!
ATTU was featured in a Sunday Morning clip some time ago. Bill G likely remembers.
How does TIGRESS sound like a river? What am I missing? Oh, the Tigres in Iraq.
Well this was fun.
I hope you are having a lovely day, everyone!
AnonT:
It's okay because I learned some new information. Actually prior to having that student named Uriel, I didn't even realize it was an angel's name.
One sense of giddy is "airheaded, dizzy, empty-headed, featherbrained, light-headed, lightheaded, silly." Thesaurus gives frivilous.
With smeary mascara I thought of a crying woman with black mascara streaks running down her face.
YR:
Yes. I assume most of us women have experienced that SMEARY mascara at one time or other. I no longer wear mascara but it could have happened back in the day. . .
Thank you Mr.Wechsler for a challenging puzzle, and Lemonade for your always informative and humorous review, that I enjoy.
I read about the Badminton Bird, ( that I had solved, allright ..) and was obviously fascinated by the selection of feathers of only the LEFT (Wing) Side of the goose. Why Left ? whats so aeronautically special about that side ... are birds naturally left handed ??
So, I went to 'a' source, www.officialbadminton.com/making_birdies, and found that is not the case. But each 'cock' is made from feathers from only side, each feather is cut to an indentical size length, BUT, as nature has it, each feather is slightly differently angled !!
so, a very sophisticated procedure indeed ... and that is only for the selection of the feathers. Plus most of the best cocks come only from Taiwan (which is not recognised by you know who -)... so could we say that the feathers came as an end product of Peking Duck ...?
I dont want to go past the blog limit, but Tapioca comes from, atleast, two radically different sources. One is the Cassava tuber root, and the other source is the heart of the Sago Palm tree. Both tapiocas are pretty much identical to a novice, but the cassava one is more ecologically friendly, it can be cultivated easily, although the cassava is originally far more poisonous. The skin has cyanogen and cyanide compounds, and can cause Parkinson's etc. The peeling and the further treament of the starch removel is far more complicated, though necessary. Tapioca pearls forms one of my favorite breakfast foods, although it is about 100 percent carbohydrate starch with almost no protein ... and no taste, whatsoever, by itself.
An archangel named URINAL? oh sorry ..Uriel...thought there were only three of us. Me and my buddies Mike and Gabe.
Center did me in! TWERK/NOTPC ..NEVER have even send them anywhere. Looked in EVERT reference book in my library ...NADA! Yep, I'm upset (again) because "Turn, Turn, Turn" is one of my fav songs...play it my piano often. Can someone fill me in on the origins of TWERK ... NOTPC??? After this morning's press conference on our food give away ($50,000 raised, 220 families fed all summer) this entry really soured my day!
Oops! This is BOBBI!
Not PC = not politically correct.
Twerk: leave it to a younger more spry cornerite to explain
Bobbi, congrats on your successful food drive. NOT PC is another way of say one is "insensitive" to a racial or sexual set of people. Usually words like "cutie pie" in a business setting.
Likewise "TWERKing" as a designation has been around for about a decade. It is the dancing version of NOT PC. Miley Cyrus as Lemonade linked has been a "Twerker".
WC
Thank you Jayce, for your kind words from yesterday. Unfortunately, I tend to be too verbose.
Thank you Picard, for the ATOMium picture, which was not of an Atom, but meant to be a crystal lattice structure of several atoms.
Also, Thank you for the picture of Anoushka Shanker. I am indian, but definitely not an indian classical music afficianado. Without intending to be disrespectful, she looks somewhat androgynous ....Maybe, its just my poor eyesight.
A Raga is really a long melody, or a mood. Thats the best that I understand.
Lemonade, Rukh (Roc) does mean a big bird in Arabic. Not of the Seasame Street variety. ;-)
I was confused because in Urdu, it means a 'side', lateral or slope.
ShahRukh Khan (SRK) is one of the top male actors in Bollywood.
Rukh in Hindi ( and coincidentally in the Gypsy Romani language !) means 'tree'.
I learnt a new word, burnoose. Mind you dont hang yourself with it.
Congratulations to CC for her sincere hard work, dedication and passionate productivity.!!
I wonder if there is a word in English or even German, a compound word that could describe a person who can overcome handicaps of a non native language, to become an expert, in a profession .... that most of us who use it as a mother tongue, cannot do ?
A relatively EZ Wechsler, which means still pretty tough.
Appropriately chewy for the old Friday standards, back when we actually got rough pals on Fridays. (The last two Fridays were pieces of the proverbial cake. Yum.)
Maybe the ease of this one means we'll get a break tomorrow?
Picard ~ Thanks for passing along the Byrds/Beatles connection.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Zero. 0.
Erratum!
In my post above, "pals" = "pzls"
~ OMK
Re Byrds-,Beatles. I listen to Beatles on SiriusXM all the time but never knew that connection. Good stuff, Picard.
I liked this puzzle and finished it more quickly than I expected to. Once I got TIGRESS I laughed out loud. Once I got SMEARY I wrinkled my nose. I learned it was neither NOTES nor RESTS, but CLEFS.
"ATTU, Mama?"
"Smee, Papa!"
Vidwan827 - I'm thinking of nuanced fluency, but I don't think that's where you're headed. Good question.
Anonymous-T, I just double checked the links to the photos in yesterday's post. They work as expected from my Chromebook. So, we now have two data points.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you,Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
Just a note, Paul Siple, an Eagle Scout from Erie, PA, travelled to the South Pole with Richard Byrd to the South Pole in the 1920's and 1930's.
Liked the puzzle. The theme was fine. Got them all.
I learned ATTU from doing crossword puzzles.
TWERK was tough to get. Thanks perps.
CEELO was unknown. Perps worked.
CASSAVA was also tough. I don't eat Tapioca either.
Spelled LYME wrong the first time. Finally worked it out.
So, I guess that's it for me. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Thank you for stopping by and commenting, my brother from another mother. Any big plans for "our day?"
More B and B. Beatles and Byrds . PART II .
You win, again!, Jeffrey, but I had so much fun trying I count it a victory of learning. Most of the fun has been mentioned. I liked TEA best. Loved the long theme fills. Thanks!
Lemony you’re a treasure! Thanks for all the chuckles.
Only men would dislike SMEARY as a fill. SMEARY mascara is definitely a thing, and a problem.
I live in Auburn, AL And love his crosswords, always challenging, solvable with time, and fun! Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler!
Thank you Lemonade,.... at our age, or at my age, I prefer to forget the anniversary. But the wife and kids are on top of it, thanks to their IPhones. I've had some med issues the past few years or so, who doesnt?, and my poor eyesight compelled me to drop out, and miss important events like Santas passing away...
I noticed your picture of the Golden Triangle Welcome poster, and my first thought was,.... What was he doing up there ?? Wiki says that the CIA considers that area as the zenith of drug and Heroin manufacturing, and lawlessness ..... just next to Afghanistan and Pakistan North.
Then I read your blog, today, and it all made sense. I reasoned .... Ooh, he's just there to recruit possible future clients, of drug dealers, as a Defence Attorney. ;-) Lol.
Plus its probably Oo's family home area.
Plus a belated congratulations on your marriage, and Ooh, Oo's a wonderful person.
Mazel Tov, and much Joy and Happiness.
I want to link an indian song, but the explanations will require another blog post. So.,
I wanted to link one or two indian songs from youtube for the 'Indian Music' clue ... but there are many obstacles, mainly in the language and the lack of subtitles. So, just two songs, which are my favorites.
The first song Halka, Halka Suroor Hai is a song in the praise of alchohol and alchoholism. (!). For the record, I stopped drinking, about a couple of years ago, and might have a drink in the next week,... if I remember. This was because a good friend of mine, is now a confirmed alchoholic... and on rehab for the third time.
But this song is so mesmerising that I love to listen to it every day, and sometimes more often than that. It is a eulogy to drink, and the pleasures and sheer intoxication of drink, and the wonderfulness of drinking.(!)
The song is in Urdu, ( I understand about 50 percent of it ), and was written by Islamic Sufi poets from Iran in the 12th Cent.AD.
Islam strictly forbids alchohol, and muslims are forbidden to drink it in many countries, even today.
However, the Sufis apparently found an exception because both poets, Rumi and Omar Khayyam ( of the Rubaiyat fame -) were fond of drinking alchohol. Apparently with no state consequences.
I am sorry I cannot provide the English translation, because of shortage of space.
Just enjoy the singing, the singer's histrionics, and the audience delirium.
Vidwan - No idea what she was saying but... How does she sing sitting down? That's incredible!
I'm a noob when it comes to Indian culture (outside of food - I loves me some curries). What I enjoyed is that most in the crowd enjoyed the music not considering what others thought of them.
Thanks for sharing and, if you have even 1/2 translation... hit me up on email.
Cheers, -T
The verses go... She is singing to a flask of liquor !
It's a gentle gentle intoxication
This is all the fault of your gaze ( gaze of the liquor bottle !)
That you taught me how to drink alchohol
Your love for me, and your desire for me (2)
( NOTE: This actually means ... My love for you, and my desire for you !!)
Your smoky dreamy vision for me
Has made me into one-hell-of-an alchoholic
Then she describes her love for liquor in more more endearing terms....
In almost all muslim countries, a qawwali (the chorus styled song ) singer cannot be a woman, nor can there be any women or young kids in the audience.
However, in India anything goes.
The singer is possibly a Sikh, and definitely not a muslim. The chorus and musicians have an amiable mix of all religions, including muslims.
The other song I wanted to link ia a dance song from a movie, Bajirao Mastani. The first name was a warrior, the last name was his mistress or second wife. I dont even know the words,or the lyrics, but the dances are wonderful.
PINGA song Bajirao Mastani
And where else can we find 12th century Sufi songs in Urdu on a Friday night? CC founded an amazement here!
Fire in Bodega Bay today@
Sorry Picard, I have just been so busy, that I did not even get a chance
to do Fridays Xword. It is now 5AM EST, & I am finally slowing down,
so you may never see this late/late post.
I got your email(s)
& it all started because of my curiosity.
The meal of the seven fishes was always a big to do on Xmas Eve
at my best friends house, & learning of the Shellfish Prohibition
at my late age was quite a shock! I definitely learned a lot from all the replies.
Thank you all...
As for your email, I only just now figured out that I had to download the 2 attachments to read them. it is a lot to chew on, & they might go down easier with some Tarter Sauce...
W/advise ASAP...
Where is OwenKL?
Lemon:
Re: Thalia,
Dobie Gillis was actually before my time, & I have not seen many episodes.
But Thalia is definitely adorable!
I thought that some one so cute must have acted elsewhere, & looked at IMDB
to find her credits, & was shocked (shocked i tell you!)
that she is actually Tuesday Weld!
(I had no idea!)
Re: your mention of the Mystical Roc...
It reminded me of a Larry Niven short Story Titled "Safe At Any Speed."
Mr. Niven is famous for his SciFi stories Protector & The Ringworld Series.
But his short stories are wonderful!
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