This is our 8th puzzle from Chuck, and my 5th time blogging his work. Chuck began making puzzles in the '90s with his first 33 publications in the NYT. His last appearance here was in 2019 on a Wednesday where I was pinch-hitting. We have had a number of "one word is the clue for the theme answers" puzzles before, but MONITOR made this effort unique. It can't be a spoiler to mention that the four grid spanning answers are all clued that way. I was surprised to learn that MONITOR had never been a clue in the LAT! Until today. It has only been used twice in the NYT, both in the '90s, and once in USA Today. I also still remember the story from the Civil War of the first battle of two ironclad warships. The Union Monitor, and the Rebel Merrimack (rechristened Virginia). HISTORY.
With 60 spaces committed to 4 answers, there was not much room for long sparkly fill, but we are treated to E-TAILED, SPATULA, BRIDGE TOLL, and LONG MEMORY, my favorite. It reminds me of the amazing phenomenon of a wife's ability to never forget a transgression, yet always needing help to find the keys. I have again highlighted in red the two entries that make their crossword puzzle debut.
Theme:
17A. Monitor: OLD WORLD REPTILE (15). They are now roaming here in FLORIDA.
26A. Monitor: HALLWAY OVERSEER (15). The human type of monster, at times.
46A. Monitor: COMPUTER DISPLAY (15). A CSO to so many here, but especially -T and TTP who are invaluable in bringing some of us into the 21st century.
60A. Monitor: IRONCLAD WARSHIP (15). Okay, I already did this one.
The rest.
Across:
1. Drops from a workout: SWEAT. A great visual start, though we are not ready to go back to the gym yet.
6. Singer who co-founded the AIDS-fighting Product Red: BONO.
The concept was founded in 2006 by U2 frontman and activist Bono, together with Bobby Shriver of the One Campaign and DATA.
10. Grand slam quartet: Abbr.: RBIS. Baseball.
14. Was obligated: HAD TO.
15. Aspire laptop maker: ACER. A Taiwanese computer company.
16. Danish architect Jacobsen: ARNE. This MAN.
20. Sold online: E-TAILED.
21. Progressive promoter played by Stephanie Courtney: FLO. We all know (love/hate) FLO but not STEPHANIE.
22. Accomplished: DID.
23. Sever, with "off": LOP.
24. Elegantly groomed: SOIGNÉ. A Friday French fill.
32. Brief "I think": IMO. In My Opinion.
33. "Meh": SO SO.
34. H.S. ordeal: SAT.
35. Bring together: SYNC.
37. Mozart title word meaning "all": TUTTE.
39. Fluctuate: YO YO.
42. Noir film weapon: GAT. The gun needed to shoot people.
44. Zig or zag: VEER.
45. Supervillain Luthor: LEX. Was he, or was he just misunderstood?
51. Common soccer tie: ONE-ONE. Nil-nil?
52. Suffix with propyl: ENE.
53. It may be glazed: HAM. Sorry, I am not a Ham expert, unless you mean acting.
54. Stipulations: IFS. Ands, or buts. My parents did not want any of them.
56. Hash house tool: SPATULA. My mind always goes here.
63. Outlying area, briefly: BURB.
64. Pod in Southern cooking: OKRA.
65. Civil penalties: FINES.
66. Novelist Seton: ANYA. This PERSON.
67. German no: NEIN.
68. Nectarine center: STONE. LINK.
Down:
1. Enclosure for piggies?: SHOE. This little piggy went to market...
2. Basketball Hall of Famer Frazier: WALT. Now more famous for
3. Icelandic literary work: EDDA.
4. Whenever one's heart desires: AT WILL.
5. Like pitches in the dirt: TOO LOW.
6. Short on tread: BALD. Tires.
7. Monk's condition, in the TV show: OCD. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It is a blessing and a curse for Monk.
8. Indoor ball brand: NERF.
9. Warning words: OR ELSE.
10. Pixar's aspiring chef Remy is one: RAT.
11. Fee for crossing: BRIDGE TOLL. Very common going in to or out of Manhattan.
12. Queued up: INLINE.
13. Farm equipment: SEEDER.
18. Meal: REPAST. Do you past again?
19. Possessive on a stock index: POOR'S. A Standard fill.
25. "Good gracious!": I SAY. Miss Molly?
26. Quick hellos: HIS.
27. "Making It" co-host Poehler: AMY. With Mr. Offerman.
28. Grudge holder's trait: LONG MEMORY. 'Nuff said.
29. "__ got this!": YOU'VE.
30. KitchenAid competitor: OSTER.
31. Cast a ballot: VOTED. Timely. Please vote, not endorsement included.
36. Mob boss: CAPO. Do they play the guitar?
38. Keystone St. port: ERIE PA. Our longtime CSO.
40. Word of support: YEA.
41. Clearasil shelfmate: OXY.
43. Roman top: TUNIC.
46. Caribbean cigar brand: COHIBA.
47. Practicing for the marathon, say: ON A RUN.
48. 1938 Dupont discovery: TEFLON. HISTORY.
49. Inhales at mealtime: SNARFS.
50. Watch a boxer, e.g.: PET SIT.
55. Advantage: SAKE.
56. "__ Lake": SWAN. EVERYTHING you need to know about the ballet.
57. "Hmm ... don't think so": UH NO.
58. It may be on the house: LIEN. I love the pun, but lien searches are not free.
59. Abbey area: APSE. This was introduced to the NYT by Chuck.
61. Org. with a February All-Star Weekend: NBA. They are playing again. The HEAT won their first game back.
62. Soft and __: deodorant: DRI. I love how Chuck began with SWEAT and ended with a deodorant. I hope you did not have to SWEAT the solve and have enjoyed the tour. In addition to introducing 2 new words today, Chuck has introduced 231 answers to the NYT- the LIST- including such favorites like ISAO and UZIS. Thank you Mr. Deodene and all who read and write.
I am a bit baffled by our new blogging format and incredibly busy at work, but I guess this is okay. Lemonade out.
I had a tough time with soigne and could not get my head around Grand Slam Quartet... I was committed to come up with a singing group - crosses to the rescue. The rest was a fairly fluent fill.
ReplyDeleteMuch appreciated puzzle Mr. Deodene it was a fine Friday wake me up. Lemonade, it was good to see a fellow Floridian back on the Corner.
Should you wish to be seen as soigné
ReplyDeleteIt's best to do it in some BURB like Des Moines.
It's really tricky
To do it in Dixie,
"Way down upon the Soigné River," they'll enjoin!
I.M.O., we should listen to FLO
And get insurance that's not SO-SO.
A rate shouldn't VEER
From year to year
Like a financial type of YO-YO!
{A-, B+.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteWe were only missing NBC RADIO PROGRAM from the list of Monitors. I first glazed my YAM before HAM -- COHIBA looked better than COYIBA. Thought OXY was a laundry detergent. Irish Miss loves to point out the rhyming entries; she must be ecstatic over the SOIGNÉ/SWAN LAKE pairing. Interesting to see CAPO so soon, and in a different role. Very nice outing, Chuck and Lemonade. (I think your "Juuuuust a bit outside" guy must've been doing the commentary on Fauci's first pitch the other day.)
Way back in the Stone Ages, back when 80 column punch cards were used for computer input, the MONITOR was the name used to "monitor" the computer's programs that were running. When punch cards left the scene we called the screen the CRT- cathode ray tube. CRTs replaced by flat screens, now called the monitors.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other monitors. Those were easy fills after a few perps. Had to change RUNS to RBIS, TUTTI to TUTTE, and YES to YEA. ARNE, BONO - didn't know; SOIGNE- never heard of. Finished the puzzle with a WAG at the cross of BURB & COHIBA, changing X-URB to BURB. Never heard of the cigar either. "Making It" was unknown but Poehler is always AMY. SXWA.
SNARFS- I've never heard or read that word except in crossword puzzles. SCARFS is all I've ever heard.
LONG MEMORY- no grudges from me. Life's too short but it takes a long memory to fill some obscure Xword fills.
Along with a messy stylus, Runs/RBIS made a mess. SHOE for piggy home was tricky. Monk is a big fav of mine but I had trouble with the condition. Especially since I hadn't grok'ed the various defs of MONITOR.
ReplyDeleteSOIGNÉ was new for this peu francais guy
I had sURf/BURB. Which gave me NFL/NBA. But ANYl just didn't look right.
POOR'S was familiar but new xword- wise
COHIBA all perps.
I solved this on Tuesday but rechecked and corrected ANYA to keep my FIR string intact.
WC
Hi Y'all! If you have to SWEAT on the first entry, you'd think it would be a hard puzzle. However, I found this easier than many Friday's and fun to fill. Thanks, Chuck. Another great expo, Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI did work up a SWEAT over SOIGNE. Took every single perp & a red-letter run for the "G" but that letter broke loose the BRIDGE TOLL, so was worth it. I'll never be SOIGNE myself. Also DNK: TUTTE, WALT, OXY, COHIBA (tried COronA -- half right, as Splynter would have said).
ARNo before ARNE. Had the FL_ so had to be FLO.
I've glazed many a HAM, but today could think only of a glazed "donut" which wouldn't fit without taking a couple bites out of it.
Went to sleep & dreamed about YR's & CED's storm mess & heard chainsaws. Woke up and the noise continued. Neighbor had a blower on a ladder cleaning out his gutters at 8:30 p.m. No chainsaws. Had a good laugh!
Sportcenter started talking xword.
ReplyDeleteApparently Brett Favre thought xws helped with playbook memorization. Tom is having trouble with a new one after twenty years. Not to speak about "Tight Spirals"*
WC
* A perfect XW-worrd(s)
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteSOIGNÉ came easily after 6 perps. A new learning. Difficult to get it started, but finally realized we were dealing with 4 grid-spanning monitors. OK……. Saw OLD WORLD 'something' forming and thought of the Komodo dragon. Perps soon gave me REPTILE, (POOR'S helped a lot.). Same with HALLWAY…………….. After that, before I knew it I was done. Glad to learn FLO's real name; my favorite shill.
Thanks to Chuck for a nifty Friday challenge, and to Lemon for a fine intro.
TOLL - I believe it is etymologically related to (bank) teller. German has a kin word Zoll; L. German Toll, but they are used in the sense of customs duty.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteToday’s solve was almost as fast as yesterday’s, a very odd occurrence for a Friday. I like definition puzzles and this one was a cut above the usual ones, IMO. I needed perps for Arne, Soigné, Cohiba, and Oxy. I knew Soigné from novels but I always thought it meant suave or sophisticated. Acer (Lucina) is becoming as ubiquitous as Erie (Abejo) and Okra (Louisiana contingent) is bringing up the rear! I liked the mini O theme with Bono, Flo, Had To, IMO, So So, Yo-yo, Capo, and Uh No. Congrats to DO for catching the Swan Lake/Soigné match; that went sailing right over my head. I will, however, claim a huge CSO at Monitor the Ironclad Ship, as the iron plates for it were produced by the Burden Iron Works of Troy, NY. I lived on Burden Avenue all my life, until I got married.
Thanks, Chuck, for a fun Friday solve and thanks, Lemony, for a fun, fact-filled review. I appreciate your attention to details and background information.
PK, I laughed out loud at your Glazed Donut comment! 🍩
FLN
MalMan, I hope we’re all invited to the Pastrami Pigout! 🥪
Anon T, I watched the chess video for 15 boring minutes looking for the dog, then went back and read your post more carefully and then watched it again and immediately saw the dog in the background. You’re right, I thought it was very cute and funny, to boot.
Ray O, all is fair in love and crosswords! But I’ll keep my eyes out for the Crossword Police!
Susan from Kentucky, welcome to the Corner. Become a poster!
History buffs might enjoy the website Burden Iron Works Museum.
Have a great day.
Good job on the write-up Lemon.
ReplyDeleteThis was a FUN Friday puzzle. I really enjoyed the theme.
Peace-Out ...
Cheers!
Grand Slam. Breakfast at Denny's? Nope. singing group? Nope. Was baseball.
ReplyDeleteswagged ARNE. SOIGNE is above my pay grade, but it eventually filled.
Did not know chef Remy. Guessed cAT. mEA made YOmO. bzzt!
Oh well, it is a Friday.
MO
Musings
ReplyDelete-CO_IB_/_NYA – I glazed a YAM and guessed an E. A foreign product crossing a proper noun? UH, NO.
-At least the crosses conquered SOIGNE and EDDA is a frequent obscure visitor
-A HALLWAY MONITOR stopped me to see my pass in my first year of teaching
-Stephanie doing a commercial seems fine but but for this guy? Kinda sad.
-LEX Luthor’s renaming of California sites after blasting the coast off the map
-Getting a FINE for rolling through a stop sign when you see others do it constantly is maddening
-Literary people get ANYA and we sports fans get WALT. ONE-ONE
-Rookie teachers – Don’t say OR ELSE unless you plan to follow through
-Saying SEEDER instead of planter will get you some odd looks here in farm country
-“C’mon, one more rep, YOU’VE got this!”
All in all not too bad for a Friday. FIR under ten minutes. The Monitor theme came pretty quickly and that did help quite a bit. I have been lucky enough to share a stretch of Beach with Komodo Dragons which are Monitor Lizards. I have a friend who used to smoke COHIBAs so I was familiar with the name. I concur with Spitzbov's comment about SOIGNE. I also needed perps for ARNE and ANYA, neither of which I knew (wait, that's redundant).
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteInteresting puzzle from Chuck. Definitely a Friday puzzle.
I got the Monitors, but I did have HALLPASS CHECKER before HALLWAY OVERSEER became obvious. Perps to the rescue as usual. In high school I always had a seemingly valid HALLPASS because I could forge the chemistry teacher's signature. It was a scrawl.
Like Spitz, SOIGNE came easily with all six perps. Never heard of it. I guess I don't read the right books.
Be safe everyone. Wear your masks.
Like Irish Miss, I like the definition puzzles, too. This one was particularly good, with four distinct definitions that were not a reach. IRONCLADWARSHIP was particularly impressive to me, because that is exactly how you would describe the Monitor, even if you weren't filling in a crossword!
ReplyDeleteI also had trouble with the grand slam quartet. I originally had MAJS, thinking it was referring to the major golf or tennis tournaments.
Fun puzzle and another great write-up by Lemony.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone snarf down something? Like B-E, I've always heard/used scarf. Apparently there is a regionality to usage.
Like Spitz, it only took me six perps to get soigne. And for grand slam, for some reason, I was thinking of the major awards like Oscar. RBI's was a V8 moment.
Stay safe and well everyone.
JB2
15:04 yesterday and 14:08 today. No help on either. So like PK, I found it a bit easier for a Friday, but I still enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteLike Lemonade said, the theme answers filled a lot of the squares.
I like Flo. I also like the spinoffs with Jamie. The Liberty Mutual commercials are a different story, as are all of the commercials with lawyers soliciting clients for class actions, personal injury lawsuits, and social security disability denial lawsuits.
Full City, St. CSO to Abejo at ERIE, PA. !
It would be, and always was, SCARF for me too. Then I learned of, and always use SNARF for crossword puzzles. Six of one, fifty percent of the other, AFAIC.
To quote Spitzboov, "SOIGNÉ came easily after 6 perps. A new learning."
Cahiba didn't immediately come to mind, but as it started to fill in, I recognized it. Probably because something led me to read about cigars the other day. In fact, I think it was when I was watching Aerial America: West Virginia and I think there was reference to stogies and the once capital of Wheeling. Or maybe it was when someone referenced Roger Miller and "King of the Road"
Well, after yesterday's wonderfully doable puzzle, this was a regular Friday bear for me. At least I got off to a good start in the northwest corner, with SWEAT and EDDA and HAD TO. I had first thought it would be STYS or STIES for that home for the piggies, but then had to laugh when I realized they were toes. So, I appreciated the fun, Chuck--thanks for that. And thank you, too, Steve.
ReplyDeleteSo many different possibilities for so many items. I had DINNER and SUPPER before REPAST finally turned up. Then had DOGSIT and PUPSIT before finally getting the obvious PETSIT for 'Watch a boxer'--but at least I knew right away that the boxer was going to be a dog. I figured either a ROOF would be 'On the house,' or it might be FREE, because you didn't have to pay for it. Oh, LIEN--good heavens, would not have occurred to me. And so it went, requiring lots of cheating in the end. But at least it was a lot of fun.
Liked your poems, Owen--so great to have back.
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
We SNARF down here in redneck country. A SCARF is something Dr. Brix wears around her neck...don't leave home without it.
ReplyDeleteTTP, on what channel do you watch Aerial America? I like it, but I've only found it on the Smithsonian channel. That channel comes and goes (mostly goes) in my DirecTV package.
ReplyDeleteDesper-otto, yes, The Smithsonian Channel.
DNF, I lost it somewhere around the French Quarter...
ReplyDeleteFor the past 3 days, bucket trucks have stopped at our tree carnage
Looked around, and left.
Turns out yesterday's cotillion of Ohio trucks were no different.
Had 6 trucks and 12 guys in hard hats,
And none of them could put Humpty back together again...
Also, it turns out JCP&L are owned by Ohio electric...
(& I thought they drove all the w@y here out of the goodness of their hearts!)
Anywho! There is a lone truck out there now
Stripping the wiring off the entire block!
I guess the dAmage was more extensive than I thought.
I would post video of the discovery and recovery of the Monitor,
But I am running on my iphones personal hotspot,
Which is very slow, and I do not have unlimited data.
So when I do get power back
I will have to go back & look at all the links I missed...
Enjoyed this fun and challenging puzzle. I thought of the WARSHIP first with "Monitor" and finally got to use it near the bottom!
ReplyDeleteI have heard both SNARF and SCARF - I don't know if it is from living different places or because being in the center of the country we overlap how people use language, e.g. I have used POP, SODA, and heard of COKE for carbonated beverages. SNARF is more of an onomotopeia if you have ever watched a boys cross country team inhale massive amounts of pasta at a night before dinner!
WEES about thinking of tennis and golf before baseball with the "Grand Slam" clue- Doh!
Thanks Lemonade and Chuck for an enjoyable morning!
Funny that google wants me to click on all the palm trees in Captcha to post with Lemonade being the blogger today
I meant to say "at a night before a meet"
ReplyDeleteSeemed easy for a Friday. The only thing that threw me off SOIGNE. Figured it out in the end.
ReplyDelete@Irish Miss. Do you still live in Troy? If so we are neighbors.I live in Albany. Nice area.
Re: SEEDER - - Agree with Husker about usage. We always called them a 'planter'; especially a corn planter. Grain/grass seed planters were typically called a 'grain drill'.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chuck D., for this fun Friday feature! And thank you, Lemonade, for your exhaustive narrative.
Hand way up for never having seen SOIGNE before and I am an avid reader and since it's French I think it would have made an impression on me. I learned a new word today and my French vocabulary is increasing!
I also really like synonymous clues and MONITOR was entertaining.
COHIBA is familiar to me but I had CORONA first which soon became clear that it was incorrect. Glazed RAM made me see the error!
OKRA is becoming as familiar as ERIE though we have a more complete fill today with PA included.
The NE corner gave me fits today and finally I lad to LIU ARNE and SOIGNE which I hate like the dickens to do but that's how I learn new things.
Mani-pedi today! Besides the grocery store, it's the only other place I visit.
I hope you all enjoy a WONDERFUL! EXCITING! CHARMING! day today!
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Chuck and Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI was doing well with this CW until I got to the SE corner. Plenty of inkblots there before I corrected Yes to YEA, Dog SIT to PETSIT and ScARFS (I contemplated Skarfs) to SNARFS. (LOL inane hiker re the cross country team!)
But I arrived here to discover a FIW; I had Ret instead of RAT (Erne instead of ARNE).
This Canadian did not know which state was the Keystone one; Google told me Pennsylvania.
I had IRI-PA (hand up for TUTTi before TUTTE). I wanted ERIE but it was too short. UH NO, we need the state too - PA. (And amend Tutti)
I got all the Monitors but did not understand the REPTILE. The WARSHIP was another learning moment for this Canadian.
I smiled at ONE ONE, SO SO, YO YO, and "Zig or Zag=VEER".
We also had YEA and NEIN.
Did you all wait for a perp to decide between APSE or Nave (the P in Warship decided it for me)?
Another hand up for Roof before LIEN.
I missed the SWAN, SOIGNE pairing, and the SWEAT, DRI beginning and end.
ETAILED today. The E words are becoming as ubiquitous (I dare our constructors to put that word in a CW!) as the dreaded A words LOL.
CED and YR - glad you are safe and hope your power etc. is restored soon.
Thanks for posting.
Nice to see some new folks here. Where are my fellow Canadians?? Maybe Alex Trebek will join me, as apparently he does the LA Crossword. Does he read us??
Wishing you all a good day.
FIR with one over-write: YOUVE 4 YOUSO. Very nice theme and themers. Whenever I think of COMPUTERDISPLAYs, I think of greenscreen CRTs and remember how happy I was to get away from Teletype paper.
ReplyDeleteFinished the puzzle early today but waited until after our weekly walk up and down Stone Mountain (wanting to do that before it got hot) to read the Blog and comments. So after lunch, I came here to find I had one bad square!
ReplyDeleteMy mistake was the B in Cohibas, not noticing that surb didn't work well. Most of my puzzling time had been spent getting the G in soigne, and realizing it was a bridge toll. Of course! So one error today but very enjoyable in spite of that. Thanks, Chuck and Lemonade, for making it all possible.
Looking forward to the weekend and hope you all are too.
This was a bit crunchy for me in spite of knowing SOIGNÉ. I’ve heard it often maybe because of our French influence. Or maybe we are just more SOIGNÉ than most! Thanks, Chuck. And thanks for the informative expo, Lemon.
ReplyDeleteI liked SHOE for those little piggies, and I’m glad all southern cooking had to put up with OKRA this go round. Loved the new clue for HI’S.
Owen, you are on a roll! A-plus for both.
Anonymous @ 12:12 ~ Yes, I still live in Troy, not on Burden Avenue anymore, though. Hi, Albany neighbor, welcome to the Corner!
ReplyDeleteStarted off easily up in the NW corner--and grew progressively harder.
ReplyDeleteThe toughest sector for me was the SE. The cross of ENE and SNARF (SNARF? I have lived in several parts of the country but missed the pleasure of this regionalism) made things difficult, and other factors contributed.
And didn't it make me feel Cool to get SOIGNÉ right off the bat?
It was fun for the most part. My thanks to Mr. Deodene.
~ OMK
____________
DR: We have a 3-way of diagonals on the near side.
With apologies for verging on the political, today’s central anagram celebrates the beatified condition of a figure emblematic of the innocence of such Black victims as young Trayvon Martin.
It shouts out to…
“SAINT HOODIE”!
We have an orange cat who, from an early age, proved himself to be a real escape artist. DW named him Houdini, but to me has been and will always be "Hoodie."
ReplyDeleteLemonade, can you share where you get those LA Times stats (such as MONITOR never appearing in a puzzle, when a constructor last appeared, etc.)?
ReplyDeleteHand up for never having heard of SNARFS. I was sure of ScARFS, and although I wasn't happy with PROPYLEcE, I let it go, misinterpreting the learning moment. Otherwise, no worries and lots of fun. Thanks, Chuck and Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much overlap SE NE would have with central MO as far as regionalisms would be concerned. But I find familiarity with both snarf and scarf as synonyms for "wolf down", just like inanehiker did. The biggest stumbling block for me was Soigne. Not a clue. At all!! But to compound that problem, I had to stare at PO_RS for a couple of minutes to get it as clued. "Standard & _____" would have been a slam dunk, but not Friday worthy, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, after I spent too much time way down upon the soigne river, I got er done. Fun puzzle and a FIR. Thank you Chuck for the challenge and Jason for the afterword.
Avg. Joe ~
ReplyDeleteThat's good.
"Soigné River" is good.
~ OMK
Ok, we got power back!
ReplyDelete(Yay, now I have t9 vacuum and do laundry)
But still no internet.
Besides deal8ng with the insult to injury cable tv/internet company
(Send 250$ and we will contact you with a new deal for $350-)
I am trying desperately to play a dvd via the new smart tv,
Which has to be the damn dumbest th8ng ever..
What a nightmare!
Ain't it the truth, CED? Those new TV's are so simple that only a child can do it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chuck and Lemon!
ReplyDeleteI’m kinda disappointed with myself, because I saw and figured out the MONITORS pretty early, but I drew a few (stupid!) blanks elsewhere, for a great big DNF.
My biggest problem was RBIS. Baseball (my favorite sport, back when sports mattered to me) never occurred to me. Like others, I was thinking of grand slam tournaments or some kind of artistic grand slam and completely missed the obvious. Duh! Then, when I read the expo, my first thought was, “No! No! No! Unfair!!!” However, upon further review (and after some not-so-deep thought), I’ve changed my mind! BRILLIANT!!! To make it even harder on myself, I had the "R" and the "B" from the perps, but I couldn’t decide whether it was INLINE or ONLINE, and had no clue about SEEDER. Just couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
I also managed to mess up the southwest corner, not knowing either COHIBA or ANYA. I also didn’t know EDDA, SOIGNE or TUTTE, but perps took care of them. I also ETRADED before I ETAILED, and I had IRONHULL before IRONCLAD, but I fixed both of those.
James Bond was (sorta) saved by a Komodo Dragon in Skyfall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28-7j8dnUAw
GROSSNESS ALERT!!! Snarfers were the kids in the school cafeteria who snorted while they were scarfing their lunches. (Sorry. You may unsee that one now.)
Excellent puzzle. Sadly, I flubbed up in some of the places others did - scarfs/SNARFS, yes/YEA, uhuh/UHNO, so FIW. Four years of French made SOIGNE easy. I thought the long theme answers were very clever. So, thanks Chuck, for the workout, and thanks, Lemonade, for the tour.
ReplyDeleteAnother question: DR, you always spot diagonals, but I can’t ever find them. Where should I look ??
Canadian, Eh - I’ll be a designated Canadian to keep you company. I spent two months every summer from age 7 to age 17 at a wilderness sports camp in the Georgian Bay area. I always wanted to live there when I grew up. Alas, not meant to be, but I go back for reunions every few years and feel such a TUG.
After getting out of the starting blocks in rip roaring fashion in the NW all of a sudden I was swimming in molasses. I admire those who thought today was a romp in the park. I had runs before rbis Amana before Oster, voter before voted, dogsit before petsit. DNK either Cohiba or soigne but sussed them. Even though this was ultimately a FIR, in took an inordinate amount of time, at least for me personally. I feel a bit beat up actually. I will blame it on trying to watch the PGA championship at the same time. Gotta blame it on something, right?
ReplyDeleteI struggled to solve this puzzle, and entering wrong answers didn't help. Eg, I had EYE instead of HAM (my eyes have often glazed over in meetings), SOCK instead of SHOE, CUT instead of LOP, NILNIL instead of ONEONE, and because I misread suffix as prefix I had ISO instead of ENE. Oh yes, and VARY instead of YOYO. So I really got a lot of holes in my feet. At least I didn't fall for ROOF. Like many of you, it took all six perps to get SOIGNE.
ReplyDeleteI liked the puzzle, though. Good wishes to you all.
Wendybird @ 5:31 ~
ReplyDeleteA diagonal is a direct line of fills starting in the upper left corner and finishing in the lower right corner of the grid. If you encounter a black square on the way, it is no diagonal.
Or, you can have an opposite (mirror) diagonal running from the top right corner to the bottom left.
Once you find either or both of these, look to see if you can find shorter diagonals, flanking these. You can often find a diagonal (sub-diag) on top and on the bottom of one of these main diagonals. This makes a three-way (3-way). But these do not count if there is no main diagonal to anchor them.
A 5-way is theoretically possible, but unlikely.
Once you have found any of these, you can search them for anagrams. I usually stick to the main diagonals for these, but you can look at the sub-diagonals too.
Good luck!
~ OMK
Wheels, the sites are subscription sites that I pay for. I would be happy to share the links if you want but you will pay for access. Let me know at my email address.
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems to be in a good mood so enjoy another double weekend 8-8-2020
OMK thanks for the explanation of crosswords diagonals. Crosswords are like peeling an onion, many layers to explore.
ReplyDeleteLemonade, I am an old time poster who shares a birthday with you. Age and eyesight have taken some toll, as we cross our bridges. I loved your commentary, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI had a tough time with today's CW, but I did better than expected.
The best thing was I learnt about Soigne, ( a word that had escaped me, though I don't know French - ) and I spent a pleasant afternoon reading about Teflon (PTFE) and its physical and chemical properties and about its inventor.
I trust you, and family, are well, in these perilous times.
Be careful, don't go out too often, and mask your wares..
Me too. Again. :P
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in the annals of xword-dom there's one where the diagonal (s) spell out a theme. I don't recall one.
ReplyDeleteWC
ReplyDeleteWikWak, "Me Too" yesterday and "Me too. Again. :P" tonight ?
Wilbur Charles, NYT, March 11, 2010 John Farmer
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Chuck Deodene, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
ReplyDeletePuzzle went fine. Easier than most Fridays. IMHO.
Caught the theme. MONITOR
Hey, my home town made the puzzle, ERIE, PA. About time.
Now that it is late, I am going to hit the floor.
Good Night. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Wendybird - Certainly, you can be an honourary (note the U,) Canadian here. Glad you have such wonderful memories of your summers at camp in Canada. There are some others here (like Shankers and Spitzboov) who have some Canadian connections from previous work on this side of the border. How wonderful it is that on this blog we can be Entr’ Amis!
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chuck for the puzzle. Did it this morning. Required 3 cheats in the North to finally get the solve.
Fun expo Lem. Monitors? Yeah, I have a few. [let me know if you can't see the tweet]
WOs: Supper b/f REPAST (Hi Misty!), I HAVE got this [29d], aXe b/f OXY [I'm sure HG smells the teenage boys], weather vaen [sic] b/f LIEN. Don't you glaze a HeM* b/f sewing your HAM? :-)
Cheats: EDDA, ARNE, spelling of SOIGNE(? - just started typing into Google; auto-fill is fun!)
ESPs: Yes
Fav: SPATULA for exactly what Lem cited. Loved Stripes
I do like a good COHIBA. If I were in Vegas w/ my DEFCON buds, now'd be just about the time to light up.
{B+, A!}
LOL! Though, I can't imagine getting a HOODIE over that 'FrO :-)
FLN - MManatee - your post made me hungry so I put Pastrami in my pending eCart. DW made me pull it out today :-(
//Don't think she spotted the Corned Beef - gonna make Reuben for lunch this week!
PK - Funny dream. Hope CED & YR are back on the mains.
//And I see CED did! -- you'll be happy vacuuming :-)
Vidwan - I remember you! Glad to know you're still out there playing.
C, Eh - I've been to Calgary [the Houston of the North] on business but my fondness is for Vancouver. Did CanSecWest [a hacking conference] in the early 2000's. One year took the fam w/ and we went up to Whistler - lovely! One day I want to hit Toronto just to see the RUSH landmarks.
I can't tell if GothCon [a side party of DEFCON] is winding down or not but I am. *mutes twitch channel*
Cheers, -T
*but seriously, sewers, is hem-glazing w/ an iron a thing or did Mom just make that up 'cuz she overheated polyester or something?
Tony:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by hem-glazing? Basting is what I do; it's a loose stitch to hold the seam in place.
Lucina - before anything Mom would fold the bits to hem and then iron the heck out of it for a crease. Then she'd just sew w/ the machine. That's all I remember.
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
I should not (even though it's virtual) follow the DEFCON 3-2-1* Rule says...
ReplyDeleteWendybird - the Diag is a game OMK plays by himself for giggles. It's not really part of the Constructor's concept (though I have a grid w/ him in mind that I might get 'round to).
That said, the stories he can build behind his anagram-find are quite ingenious.
Cheers, -T
*3 hours of sleep & 2 meals (beer count as food [pork-chop in every bottle :-)])/day, and, and, and, please!, no less than 1 shower during CON
//DEFCON is 4 days long - there's some stinky nerds after 3 days :-)