Theme: Beware of Star Warts
I am back for week three of my most recent activity as Friday sherpa, which for an unknown reason, I predicted last Friday. Tom F., who does so much for the blog and the bloggers has decided to retire from blogging which leaves you all stuck with me. This will help those who were getting their "thank yous" wrong. At least until Chairman Moe gets to his first Friday frolic.
I enjoy Paul, his puzzles, his visits, and his family updates. I am puzzled by this puzzle which has a decidedly Monday/Tuesday feel. 53 of the 78 words are 3 or 4 letters long, separated with 40 black squares. I love humor 'from pun' puzzles, but these seemed a bit forced, speaking of which I think this would have fit better with STAR WARS DAY, May the 4th. On the other hand, this should keep you all happy on a Friday, so off we go.
The puns are all consistent with the first word a sound-alike to a Star Wars character. Like the famous latex and corn syrup hero
I found them to be a stretch. It did not take away from enjoying the solve, but it required more imagination. Let's look at the themers.
17A. Solo's favorite sandwiches?: HAN BURGERS (10). The Millenium Falcon skipper and father of Kylo.
27A. Vader's favorite treat?: DARTH CHOCOLATE (14). An example of the use of "TH" to replace "K" not!
47A. Wookiee's favorite dessert?: CHEWIE BROWNIES (14). Chewbacca gets the only nickname.
63A. Hutt's favorite beverage?: JABBA JUICE (10). A slight variation as this character is "the Hutt," not Jabba Hutt. I was not sure how well known the juice franchise is, but they are almost everywhere. LINK.
While we already have Darth, there is a dearth of long fill HOUSEPLANT, PARTICULAR, REDCOATS, and TEETOTAL being the crop.
1. Ticket category: ADULT. Not an infraction.
6. Goggle: GAPE. There are lots of G words for this.
10. Request to a prospective guest: RSVP. Respondez S'il Vous Plait.
14. "Paint It Black" instrument: SITAR. The song is older than my wife. They dropped the Sitar over the years.
15. "That's a shame": ALAS. For our Friday Shakespeare quotation, we could clue ______ poor Yorick.
16. "East of Eden" director Kazan: ELIA. His birthday will be Monday.
19. "The Persistence of Memory" painter: DALI.
21. Side in some all-star games: EAST. They have also been known to West, North, and South.
22. Didn't dawdle: ACTED.
23. __ loss for words: AT A.
25. Digging: INTO. Like music, man!
34. Automne preceder: ÉTÉ.
35. Refrain: CHORUS. Don't stop, but sing along.
36. Cabeza, across the Pyrenees: TÊTE.
38. Busy, busy, busy: AT IT.
40. "Friendly Skies" co.: UAL. United AirLines.
41. X-rated material: SMUT.
42. Jasmine __: RICE. The lifeblood of Thailand.
43. Not on the level: ASLANT. The A word...
46. BlackBerry, e.g.: PDA. Personal Digital Assistant.
50. Protective cover: TARP.
51. Canapé topper: ROE. Fishy...
52. Hit gently: TAP ON.
55. Actor Hemsworth: LIAM. LIAM
58. Soak up the sun: BASK.
62. Rapper with a beverage-like name: ICE-T. All 457 episodes. Odaphin
65. No ally of Asta: FLEA. Don't feel bugged by all the references to this dog?
66. Uptight: ANAL. Be still my, heart that is a scandalous word. Does anyone watch the mini-golf show HOLEY-MOLEY?
67. Put to rest: ALLAY. Your fears.
68. What "F" may mean: FULL. On a gas tank.
69. Modest response to praise: I TRY. My mantra when I do my write-up.
70. Brigantine's pair: MASTS.
Down:
1. Far from ruddy: ASHY. At least it isn't Arthury...
2. "Buenos __": DIAS. Bon Jour. Guten Tag.
3. "Cure Ignorance" online anthology: UTNE. Very popular in the CW world.
4. Unwitting test taker: LAB RAT. That seems unfair. They may know what is going on but like the treats.
5. Capote nickname: TRU. True.
6. "Born This Way" Lady: GAGA.
7. Tavern pours: ALES.
8. Hard to please: PARTICULAR. Such a gentle way yo say a pain in the ass. Again, reminds me of MONK.
9. Double curve: ESS.
10. Revolutionary soldiers: REDCOATS. Wearing a bright red coat as you were marching through the forests which were New England does not seem to be a good plan.
11. Deck chair piece: SLAT.
12. Beneath contempt: VILE.
13. Treated: PAID.
18. Part of a boxer's "tale of the tape": REACH. From the tip of your finger to the tip of the finger when your arms are akimbo.
22. The NHL's Thrashers: ATLanta.
24. Cannabis compound: THC. TeteraHydraCannibol, or some such.
26. Discouraging words: NOS. Where never is heard, a discouraging word...
27. Honey: DEAR. Sweet.
28. Room at the top: ATTIC.
29. 1990s Labor secretary: REICH.
30. Boston fern, e.g.: HOUSE PLANT. They are hard to kill, and a common house warming gift. When I started practicing law, I attracted a young lady who ended up moving in with me. The senior partner's wife gave us a Boston Fern. When they came to visit, I was horrified to see the plant very dead.
31. Sonicare rival: ORAL-B. Tooth stuff.
32. Piano practice concerns: TEMPI. The plural of Tempo, a semi-clecho with ...
33. Piano practice piece: ETUDE.
37. Share-a-ride updates, briefly: ETAS.
39. Stay dry: TEETOTAL. The use in temperance jargon was first noted in September 1833 in a speech advocating total abstinence (from beer as well as wine and liquor) by Richard "Dicky" Turner, a working-man from Preston, England. Total abstinence.
43. Balloon filler: AIR.
44. Bellini opera: NORMA.
45. Wee hour: TWO.
48. Blanched: WAN. Ashy?
49. One of six awards for Ursula Le Guin: NEBULA. Science fiction author.
52. Minor argument: TIFF.
53. Free speech org.: ACLU.
54. Zest: PEEL. What you get from an orange, lime etc to add to food or drink.
56. Support beam: I-BAR.
57. Well: ABLY.
59. Is home sick, maybe: AILS. Two words, not missing home.
60. "Go on, git!": SCAT.
61. Custodian's ringfull: KEYS. Very nice picture.
63. __ alai: JAI. Followed by another J
64. Improv session: JAM.
I am tired, busy at work, and out of practice doing this three weeks in a row. I hope you enjoyed Paul's puzzle and the tour. Lemonade out.
69 comments:
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Paul Coulter for your enjoyable Friday CW.
Carol and I FIR in 33:46 min.
Thank you Lemonade for your excellent review. Thank you for coming out of retirement.
Ðave
HANBURGERS for the main course,
Then DARTH CHOCOLATE for dessert,
Baked into CHEWIE BROWNIES
There is nothing better, I assert!
Wash it all down with JABBA JUICE
But an Artoo Detour we might take
To sample some Star Wars d'oeuvres,
And a beautiful three Leia Cake!
{A.}
ADULT drinks made from the grape
Will sometimes leave us to GAPE!
The labels, I mean,
They're sometimes obscene,
But only TEETOTALERS get bent out of shape!
There was a Fleming from the YSER
Who tried to learn the SITAR
But he couldn't ALLAY
From then to this day,
His perception it was a skinny guitar!
{A-, A.}
This was surprisingly fast and easy for a Friday. Knowing the Star Wars characters was a huge help. Like most puzzle puns, the characters' names were slightly stretched, but that was fine with me. Paul, I liked your theme. Lemonade, as always this was a great post. Thanks for devoting so much time to our enjoyment.
Kenny was totally into Star Wars when he was younger. He had several light sabers so that when his friends came over they could have big light saber fights. I knew the characters well, but was not into the details of the stories which I often read aloud to him.
Jayce, thanks.
OKL, LOL.
Thanks, Lemonade. Owen, your poem is particularly apt. Star Wars Menu was my working title, and Leia Cake was my seed entry, though it didn't make the cut. Strangely, for the second time in a row, the crossword gods have decreed that LAT and Universal will run my grids on the same day.
Last night, I finished writing a massive assignment my daughter-in-law Emily,who's a teacher, gave me for Father's Day. It was a 300 page book, each page headed by a question about my life, like "What scared you the most as a child?" followed by a blank sheet. I've been doing a little every evening. Emily plans to give it to Addie and Ava when they're older. My son Dan had to write one , too. We both say, Thanks for the "homework" Em. I'm dreading when she grades it.
I just had to hear the Sitar Paint it Black. This is a pretty well crafted song. I'll leave Yorick to OMK
I got very INTO ELIA's "The Arrangement" one Summer.
Ah, I see your an (Adrian)Monk fan, Lemony. I left him on a submarine the other night and have to finish one of these days.
Yes, a full A , Owen, artfully done.
This was not an easy xword for me. The gettable themes helped fill a lot of boxes that I needed for the LIAMs and NEBULA and other stuff wedged into the back of my brain.
WC
Note: Having the weeks xws in an insert I got mixed up and solved this thinking it was a difficult Thurs. Perhaps,else, I'd have thought it a usual Fri.
WC
Paul, re. "Scared/child". My son considered Disney's Bambi and Snow horror flicks. Couldn't watch them. And he could watch canned horror all day long.
Need I explain?
Oops, Snow White. I thought I had white-horror in there. An APT descriptor
Paul, thank you again for stopping by. The assignment sounds like a ton of fun; maybe she can publish it so all of us parents and grandparents can leave a written legacy of our lives to accompany our DNA history. I agree that Owen's poems today were outstanding and LEIA CAKE really funny.
WC, I have a love/hate relationship with Monk. The show entertains me, Shaloub is a very skilled actor and I have enjoyed his work from WINGS to the Marvelous Mrs. Maisdel but Adrian is an awful human being and Natalie should have killed him long ago.
Good morning!
Sorry, Paul, but your theme just didn't do it for me. I knew the character names, but thought the puns were more lame than funny. But you're such a prolific creator that I can forgive a clunker now and again. The SW gave me the most trouble PEEL wasn't ZEAL, and FULL wasn't FAIL. All fixed before the sun rose. Lemon, thanx for your continuing yeoman service.
SMUT: Excellent opportunity to link Tom Lehrer.
UAL: They're scheduled to lay of 16,000 employees at the end of this month. The lady who just built the house next door is a United mechanic. She's worried.
REDCOATS: Lemonade mentioned them "marching through the forests." I've never understood why a red jacket is de rigueur for deer hunters. Almost ten percent of men are colorblind, and that guy wearing red might as well be wearing camouflage. I also don't understand why they got rid of the yellow stop signs in favor of red ones that "disappear" into the foliage alongside the roadways.
I must've had my hyperdrive on, this Friday flew by in 9 minutes, 20 seconds.
I don't think there's any difference between these puns and the puns that usually appear in the puzzle.
Maybe I'm just glad Mr. Coulter avoided the "artoo" spelling of R2D2.
Also, seems to have a mini "adult" theme, including smut, and another one.
Am I the only one who got the wrong grid at the bottom of Lemon’s write-up?
Lemonade - Emily didn't invent the book. It's called Your Father's Story - it's available from picadillyinc.com But I recommend it only if you enjoy writing longhand. My cursive is fairly neat as it starts out, but my hand cramps when I write for more than a few minutes, then the handwriting grows hard to read.
I found this to be a fun puzzle, even if not at the usual Friday level of difficulty. I finished it right in 21+ minutes, which is about half of my usual Friday solving time. Thanks, Paul and thanks for dropping by. Interesting story about your homework assignment. Better thee than me, my friend. Brilliant tour as per usual, Lemony. I appreciate the time and effort it takes to illuminate these puzzles. Thank you. One question, what grid did you attach at the conclusion of your comments? If that happens to be tomorrows puzzle, I think I should complete it in record time. The reveal seems to by the entry "SKIPADS".
Completed my bike patrol of the neighborhood at 7:30ish today. Another day free of grizzly bears.
Bacon cheeseburgers made with home-ground beef tenderloin tonight, with bacon/ranch baked potato salad, and home made baked beans. . . and maybe an adult beverage or two. Life is good.
Cya!
HG, I guess so, the grid looks fine to me.
Paul, thank you. I will check it out/
Anon 7:18, puns are all in the ear of the beholder. YMMV
Thanks for the heads-up, Husker Gary, and Blue Hen. It's now updated to today's grid.
HURRAY! A sci-fi theme!
I especially liked the answer JabbaJuice.
The bottom left was the last to fill for me until I finally got Asta's bane: FLEA.
Good morning everyone.
Star Wars is not my strong suit, but the names in the theme could be sussed from context.
Found it hard to get a footing but eventually got 'er going on the west and EAST coasts. Thought I might have to concede the center, but then DARTH CHOCOLATE filled in and the penny dropped. Eventually got it all without searches. First wondered what town in France had the Spanish name cabeza, but the perp ETUDE augured for TÊTE; a frequent visitor here. That gave me REDCOATS, after first considering Hessians. YSER was a good guess on the 1914 river. Had 'fail' before FUEL.
The puzzle did have some easy elements as Lemonade said, but it was bright and fun to work on.
Thanks Lemon for your yeoman-like walk-through and to Paul for the challenge.
Bluehen, I assure you that is not tomorrow's grid.
A few weeks ago the puzzle in the Omaha paper had the right clues and the wrong grid. This was on the same day I played the most frustrating course I have ever played.
Bluehen - - I don't think the mistaken grid will be tomorrows puzzle, a themeless. There was a theme and each of the theme fills had an AD removed to give a new fun meaning.
Musings
-I thought my Star Wars character knowledge would run out too soon
-Cluing was sneaky but, hey, it’s Friday. No ally of Asta? :-)
-Obscure (for me) NOR_A/LI_A crossing yielded to a good guess
-A D _ _ T on ticket for me was ADMIT first
-My friend is so ANAL, knows it and mocks himself but can’t stop it
-Substitute Penny for LAB RAT
-Buster Douglas’s REACH of 83”, compared to Mike Tyson’s 71”, helped him in his amazing upset KO
-Captain Sloan tells Hawkeye and BJ they can’t have a new incubator - “It’s my job to say NO”
-Paul, my daughter did the same thing for me but it is done online. Dredging up old memories alternated between sad and cathartic.
Lemonade, I thought you might have been at work and wouldn't see Gary's comment for awhile, so I went ahead and fixed it. You must be tired !
FiR with mucho inkovers, the dumbest: Hessians/REDCOATS. Today I joined those tricked with zest for zeal yesterday: zeal/PEEL. knew from previous puzzles ROE tops canapés. (Fish eggs on top of peas?, yuck). With PA to start almost put PAin in the a _ _ for PARTICULAR.....UTNE? No idea.
Tête opposite été was interesting.
With just last names Vader and Solo in the clues meant the answers had to include first names. A big help toward the solve.
"CHEWIEBROWNIES" IMHO should be an oxymoron.
Even more moronic...
Magic potion container......VILE
Beverly Hills punk....LABRAT
All the oolong in China....TEETOTAL
Apples' supplication: "Please don't ______!" CHORUS
Advice to Bo Peep " _____ alone and they'll come home"....LIAM.
Congressional spy.....HOUSEPLANT
Off to Saratoga 🏇🏇🏇 to visit another friend who just hit 7-oh. (A yoomin not a horse)
Noticed that too and 66A was placed perfectly in the grid
FIR with many many wags.
GAGA,NORMA,REICH,NEBULA,LIAM and others.
Only because of xwords, YSER filled immediately.
Not familiar with the JUICE.
Today is the fourth, but not May.
Thanks Paul & Lemonade.
Good Morning:
This was a quick and easy Friday solve with only a few answers needing perps: Nebula, Sitar, and UTNE. (Does anyone know what UTNE means.) I also had Fail before Full and Tempo before Tempi. My favorite themer was Chewie Brownies. I’ve never seen a Star Wars movie, yet all of these (and others) characters are familiar to me.
Thanks, Paul, for a fun Friday theme and for stopping by and thanks, Lemony, for a lively and informative commentary. We appreciate your unfailing dedication and commitment.
I watched two powerful movies this week, both were disturbing, yet honest, if brutal, depictions of the heights of sacrifice and bravery and depths of depravity and evil of humanity: 1917 and The Joker. Both were hard to watch but I came away with a renewed awareness of the terrible tolls of wars and the ravages and consequences faced by those suffering from mental illness.
Bluehen @ 8:24 ~ What time is dinner? ��
Have a great day.
Google made me sign in before my comment was posted and that process caused my 😉 to morph into ??. Sorry, Bluehen!
I dont know when I got here but the answer grid at the bottom is in an alternate universe.
I'm not complaining, who wants to see it again.
Lemonade, you did a great, always funny, always charming job. Such jobs are tough and time consuming, --- so for all the reviewers out there, our collective thanks, Really !
Mr. Coulter, a very nice and relatively easy puzzle , Not that I'm complaining. Thank you for the theme and long fill.
Why did the British choose Redcoats ? Maybe, over the years the British thought that the color struck terror in the hearts of the enemy. Maybe, this was true, with relatively uncivilized and undertrained foes, in the third world, but the disadvantages with other armies, were obvious enough. They did look very smart when on dress parade though, and still look very striking.
Created by Eric Utne in 1984 as a way to “bring people what I thought was the best that was out there,” the Utne Reader started life as a 12-page newsletter that summarized articles in other publications.
Fast, easy Friday.
Stay well all!
JB2
From the modern perspective, the retention of a highly conspicuous colour such as red for active service appears inexplicable and foolhardy, regardless of how striking it may have looked on the parade ground. However, in the days of the musket (a weapon of limited range and accuracy) and black powder, battle field visibility was quickly obscured by clouds of smoke. Bright colours provided a means of distinguishing friend from foe without significantly adding risk. Furthermore, the vegetable dyes used until the 19th century would fade over time to a pink or ruddy-brown, so on a long campaign in a hot climate the colour was less conspicuous than the modern scarlet shade would be.[50] As formal battles of the time commonly involved deployment in columns and lines, the individual soldier was not likely to be a target by himself.
From Wiki
JB2
Paul, I would like to compliment you on your Star Wars PUNishment. I had to turn Red Letters on when I only had about half of the blanks filled in with none of them being the theme clues. After a couple of red letter corrections the light bulb turned on and I was able to fill in the rest of the puzzle. It was still a DNF because I needed the
Red Letters.
Lemon did a great job of guiding us through the universe that Paul created.
Like I said yesterday, I dislike ALOE and 4 letter European rivers. No ALOE today, but YSER was there.
A couple of errors I made along the way were PALE before ASHY, PAT AT instead of TAP ON and PORN before SMUT. Perps fixed them.
The rain appears to be over and we are into a cool down. It looks like the harbinger of the Fall that is coming. The Weather Channel is predicting snow in the higher elevations of the Rockies next week. So, I guess we should enjoy what we have.
Our local school district that opened over a week ago, has declared a "Snow Day" today so that they can analyze the Covid19 data to see if they have to go back to full on-line learning. They've had no students or teachers test positive, but with the PSU students back on campus the number of positive cases is increasing and the Governor's guidelines for closing are approaching.
Stay safe everyone and please wear your masks.
Delightful Friday puzzle, Paul--I really enjoyed it, many thanks. I too have never seen a Star Wars movie, but the characters' names were familiar enough that I got the beginnings of all the theme answers. That helped a lot. And lots of clever clues, like the ones for RSVP and ICE T. So, thanks again, Paul, and many thanks for your hard work, Lemonade.
I had a slightly tough beginning because I put PALE before ASHY and wanted AIRES, which didn't fit, before I got DIAS. But getting both ELIA and DALI in the other corner was a big help. Got ETUDE instantly, but them put SCUM before I finally had to change it to SMUT. Tried to think of fictional dogs who might be very different from ASTA--oh, FLEA! Cracked me up. All these moments made for a lot of fun.
Owen, your first food poem was a total treat.
Have a good Friday, and a great weekend coming up, everybody.
Measuring REACH is not done with arms akimbo...that would be hard to do with hands on hips...one stands upright and holds arms aloft and to the sides at a 90° angle to the torso, and then measures fingertip on one side to the fingertip on the other.
UTNE....Understanding the Next Evolution.
FIR. While SciFi is not my strong suit I do have a working knowledge of the more popular shtick as well as a few of the more obscure works. The obscure was not required this morning.
Thanks Lemonade for the write-up.
It was nice to see another Tom Lehrer link, above.
Another hand up for "enough already" with the European rivers, ALOE, Oreo, etc.
I had a nice leisurely morning to get around to the puzzle. Visiting cousins at a lake in a very low population county with a very low incidence of COVID cases - a nice break!
This puzzle was a lot of fun - I enjoy the Star Wars movies - but not obseessed with them like some of my friends and family - middle child is definitely in that category!
IM - I enjoyed "1917" as well but felt like I had gone through the emotional wringer - it was so intense and filmed so it seemed there were no breaks in the filming except the few seconds he blacked out!
I had always thought that hunters had the bright orange vests on - because the deer are colorblind so it doesn't warn them off - but other hunters can see each other and not accidentally shoot each other!
Thanks Lemonade for continuing the Friday blog weekly again! and thanks to Paul for the puzzle and stopping by!
Puzzling thoughts:
At first glance, the number of “blocks” (aka, black squares) made me think this wasn’t a Friday grid.
And after quickly solving the area of the puzzle, “north of the Mason-Dixon Line”, I thought, hmm - this really isn’t a Friday puzzle
But after struggling a bit with SNIT/TIFF; ABLE/ABLY; SHOO/SCAT; and not knowing what TEETOTAL was, the puzzle indeed met the mid-end-of-week criteria
Thanks Paul for stopping by; as well, L714 for your recap
Owen poems = ��������
As a punster, I appreciated Paul’s Star Wars reference time the food items ... I wonder if he thought this Spaceballs character?
Owen, my original post had two thumbs up. Don’t know why it changed them to ??????
Maybe it’s replying via an iPhone ...
Anyway, good poems today
Friendly Friday. Thanks for the fun, Paul and Lemonade.
I finished in good time, saw the Star Wars theme, but arrived here to discover that I FIWed. I had TEa TOTAL (I always think those abstinence promoters wanted us to drink Tea instead LOL), which gave me CHaWIE.
I found the theme to be a little inconsistent. HAN, DARTH, JABBA required a sound-alike interpretation ( unless there is a JABBA juice? - this Canadian does not know Jamba Juice either), but CHEWIE was an outlier (my Chawie was better IMHO).
But it was a pleasant solve (done on the patio while I BASKed on this beautiful day, beside my 30 year old HOUSEPLANT fern which is out on the patio for the summer).
I was looking for a cat (not a SCAT) as an enemy of Asta, but it was a FLEA.
Hand up for changing Tempo to the plural TEMPI., and for wanting Zeal before PEEL.
ASHY and ASLANT were our meh A-words for today.
ANAL, SMUT, and the F word at 68A gave me pause. And then there was 38A!
We had SCAT and SLAT, JAI and JAM,, ICET and JUICE for the TEETOTALers (plus ALES for the rest).
Wishing you all a great day.
A nice chewy but do-able Friday pzl! Thanks to Mr. Coulter and his Star Wars inspiration!
Everybody: PLEASE celebrate Labor Day with care this year. Stay safe out there!
Fellow Californians, let's all stay Cool & Dry! The weekend promises to be a scorcher, and our fire crews have already had to confront too many blazes and personal exhaustion.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals in all, one on the left and 3 on the right.
In the near side diagonal, there is a most curious anagram : Imagine a potential victim who has a preference for the current COVID-19 virus. I mean one who might prefer to suffer in this pandemic from the novel bug. This person might be said to harbor...
"A CORONA BIAS"!
Finished the puzzle early this morning but had to leave for a hike up Stone Mountain before reading Lemon's review to see how I did. Thanks for stepping up again to help us out, in spite of being busy! We appreciate all your hard work.
Thanks for a doable Friday puzzle, Paul. I FIR, got the theme, and saw ATL, which made me smile.
I had Z on my mind too, not only trying zEaL for PEEL, but also GAzE. Perps fixed both. Had some senior slippage when I wrote RSpv. That slowed me down until I noticed. I TRY to pay attention, but..
Enjoy the new month, you all. We saw yellow daisies blooming everywhere on ST MT this morning, but no hunters wearing bright orange (as required by GA).
Busy day so late start. Had EsmE instead of UTNE fo a short while. Had siPON instead of TAPON and like my first answer. Anyone else?
Chairman Moe, you Spaceballs link gave me a 404 error,
but I think I can read your mind...
Also, you wouldn't believe the things you can find on the Internet...
Hanburger?
Darth Chocolate?
Chewie Brownies?
And Jabba Juice is already a staple at the StarWars Cantina...
Bonus, Chewie honorable mention///
I enjoyed this puzzle in spite of short answer after short answer. I like the theme. For the rest of the puzzle mostly uninspiring clues with common fill, if not crosswordese. At least no Harry Potter, Frozen or Hamilton clues. Goggle: GAPE.??? Anyway, I solved it slightly faster than “Friday average”.
Hi All!
D'Oh! TEE TiTAL/TAP-iN. FIW.
Thanks Paul for the puzzle. Theme was easy but fill elusive (e.g. Ticket category ≠ box seat nor tiers). Fun backstory and your "homework" sounds like a neat idea.
Thanks Lem for the expo. I love Paint it Black - here's The Toronto Trio warming up the crowdwith it. [Alex & Geddy look so happy]
WOs: Away b/f AILS & Shoo b/f SCAT. That held up Florida for, like, ever. Finally thought of JAM (not a 'bit', 'gag' nor a 'set') and re-jiggered the whole area.
ESPs: ASHY (ruddy?), ELIA, ETE, NORMA|LIAM (Hi HG!), TETE as clue'd
Fav: BlackBerry - you might think they're dead but they are still a back-end juggernaut for secure communications (and they bought Cylance last year - I was at the BlackHat dinner for the kick-off / announcement / free meal :-))
{A+ | A, B+}
LOL DR OMK - I had it(C19); not fun. Oh, and I promise not to shoot off fireworks in CA this weekend.
D-O: did you get rain up there? The NPR guy just said 50% chance of rain.
Um, I just had a deluge. Does 50% mean it's only going to rain 1/2 the day? I need to be told - Youngest's 18th outdoor B-Day party today is riding on this.
//Oh, And I knew you'd (or MManatee) come through w/ the Tom Lehrer link :-)
IM - JB2 mentioned the background. UTNE is the name of they guy who started the eponymous magazine (Google at politics peril). I subscribed in grad-school thinking I could become an intellectual. Obviously,... it didn't stick.
C, Eh! - @68a... Yeah, with FU-- filled, um... OK, it's Rich - Fuel? No. FULL!
//Our 1st thought is better fill :-)
CED - You beat me to C.Moe's (likely) intended link. Your others are funny but you missed the VIRAL Chewbacca Mask Lady.
And to talk about the Star Wars Canteen w/o mention of Eddie Izzard??!?? [MA - 3:09]
HG - I'm not a big fan of Big Bang but that clip was the laugh I needed today. As was Brian's (@9:21a) observation @66a.
Cheers, -T
Paul Coulter thank you for the puzzle and for stopping by. I kept wondering if there was another layer (LEIA?) to the puns. But it seems they are just common terms and phrases twisted to use Star Wars names. Only concern was cross of utterly unknown NORMA and LIAM. WAG to FIR.
Enjoyed seeing PAINT IT BLACK and SITAR. As a frustrated teen I felt the song spoke to me and I loved the SITAR sound.
The first photos in this Jersey Shore set are of us at BRIGANTINE, New Jersey.
Has anyone else been there? There is a beautiful wildlife preserve.
Here was one of our local annual ACLU Garden Parties.
The guy with the big hat in the first photo is an ACLU lawyer. He helped me that year after I was assaulted by the Santa Barbara police while doing my job as a reporter for a local newspaper. I don't know what this country would be without the ACLU.
From Yesterday:
Chairman Moe, AnonT, Jayce, Wilbur Charles thank you for the kind wishes regarding our move. Yes, packing and labeling is essential. DW did an excellent job. But right now I am looking for an important item. I will probably end up buying duplicates rather than go crazy trying to find some missing things.
Chairman Moe thank you for the kind words about my ACADIA photos. I always appreciate an invitation to post my photos!
Wilbur Charles thank you again for the shout outs from the future. Sorry if you have explained this before, but how is it that you are able to see puzzles from the future? Can others have this power, too?
Yellowrocks I am very sorry if I offended you in any way with my question about "Hotel California" and the EAGLES. I sent you an email today to connect about this. I really am curious and look forward to your reply. Thanks!
Hola!
Thank you, Paul Coulter and Lemonade Fine Friday fare! I needed the laughs today because the day started badly. First, no newspaper and that is enough to throw me into a real snit then my printer isn't working so couldn't print the puzzle. I decided to go and buy a newspaper and that started a domino effect.
The nearest convenient store had no newspaper! So I went to CVS which is the next nearest outlet and since I was there decided to get a flu shot. Easy and quick, I thought. No! A long wait ensued so while there I bought a few toiletries for my trip which is coming up next week.
Finally I was treated to Paul's puzzle and then Lemonade's lovely commentary. I'm sorry you are tired but thank you for the effort.
My daughter and s-i-l would love this puzzle. As I have mentioned they are obsessive Star Wars fans with a room dedicated to paraphernalia, books, etc., all Star Wars themed. They were married on May the 4th.
I enjoyed it because I knew they would and I may frame it for them.
TEMPI is actually the pronunciation of our city, Tempe.
Though the rest of the puzzle was easily filled the SE corner (or Florida) gave me fits. I went blank after JABBA and it took way too long for JUICE to emerge but then ALLAY set me at rest. JAM also evoked agony as did NEBULA. I've never heard of Ursula Le Guin nor the award. I might have recognized NEBULA in atmospheric terms.
So, again, thanks for the challenge, Paul. I like the idea of the book you are filling. Your granddaughters will love it!
Please enjoy the rest of the day, everyone!
Picard:
Thank you for your photos. It is always a treat to see them even if I don't comment on them. Keep posting them!
Congratulations on your move; I hope you will be happy in your new digs.
Picard,
Since, TB-Times went to only Sunday and Wednesday editions they compensated by inserting the weeks puzzles into Sunday.
Lucina: You've never heard of the NEBULA Award?!?
I can't believe it; everyone knows that! //he says, tongue firmly plant in cheek*
As a teen, I was really into SciFi. Asimov was my hero; Ursula Le Guin; a runner-up.
Cheers, -T
*well, wes gotsa have some day-to-day continuity on this blog; No? :-)
I have been doing crossword puzzles almost every day since 1996, and I have never seen ANAL as an answer before. I thought it was banned for some reason, until now. Has anyone ever seen this answer before?
Bob
Bob:
Excessively exacting wp Evan Birnholz Sun Mar 01, 2020
25686 Like a nitpicky stickler wp Evan Birnholz Sun Dec 08, 2019
25183 Highly nitpicky wp Evan Birnholz Sun Nov 03, 2019
25045 Like Felix Unger, e.g. lat Debra Hamel Tue Oct 08, 2019
25000 Fussy to excess nyt John Guzzetta Tue Sep 24, 2019
24972 Overly neat, say lat Evan Mahnken Tue Sep 17, 2019
24911 Extremely uptight wp Evan Birnholz Sun Sep 01, 2019
24812 Fastidious to a fault nyt Samuel A. Donaldson Wed Aug 21, 2019
24813 Fastidious to a fault nyt Samuel A. Donaldson Wed Aug 21, 2019
24771 Meticulous to a fault lat Craig Stowe Tue Aug 06, 2019
24770 Meticulous to a fault lat Craig Stowe Tue Aug 06, 2019
24735 Nitpicky uc Max Carpenter Mon Jul 29, 2019
24591 Really uptight uc Jules P. Markey Thu Jun 27, 2019
24342 Really uptight uc Daniel Raymon Sat May 04, 2019
24346 Nitpicky to a fault ucs Anne Flinchbaugh and Erik Agard Sun Apr 28, 2019
23218 Highly persnickety nyt Jamey Smith Fri Mar 15, 2019
23201 Obsessive about details nyt Alex Vratsanos Tue Feb 26, 2019
22968 Super-uptight nyt Sam Trabucco Thu Feb 21, 2019
22884 Obsessive to a fault nyt Thomas van Geel Mon Jan 28, 2019
22423 Excessively scrupulous wp Evan Birnholz Sun Oct 21, 2018
22421 Overly meticulous wp Evan Birnholz Sun Oct 07, 2018
22260 Like neat freaks lat Gary Larson Sun Aug 12, 2018
22162 Compulsively neat, say lat Roger & Kathy Wienberg Sun Jul 22, 2018
21991 Seriously uptight nyt Timothy Polin Sun Jun 24, 2018
21989 Beyond stuffy nyt Andrew Kingsley Fri Jun 22, 2018
21973 Overly fussy nyt Richard F. Mausser Wed Jun 06, 2018
21903 Fussy to a fault nyt Peter Gordon Wed Mar 28, 2018
19598 Hypermeticulous nyt Matt Ginsberg Thu Sep 21, 2017
19514 Like a control freak nyt Damon Gulczynski Fri Jun 30, 2017
19511 Annoyingly focused nyt John Guzzetta Tue Jun 27, 2017
19460 Overly fussy nyt Natan Last, Finn Vigeland and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class Sun May 07, 2017
19234 Way too uptight nyt David Poole Tue Jan 10, 2017
20318 39-Across, informally nyt Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen Sat Nov 19, 2016
20274 Meticulous to a fault nyt Timothy Polin Thu Oct 06, 2016
20193 Like a neat freak nyt Jerry Miccolis Sun Jul 17, 2016
20173 ____-retentive nyt Kevan Choset Mon Jun 27, 2016
20653 Rigidly uptight nyt Timothy Polin Mon Dec 14, 2015
20613 Like a control freak nyt Ruth Bloomfield Margolin Wed Nov 04, 2015
20461 Excessively focused on something nyt David Woolf Mon Jun 01, 2015
20417 Like neatniks and clean freaks nyt Damon J. Gulczynski Sat Apr 18, 2015
20798 ____-retentive nyt Jacob McDermott Tue Nov 18, 2014
20792 Uptight, informally nyt Daniel Landman Wed Nov 12, 2014
20770 Uptight, informally nyt Patrick BlindauerTue Oct 21, 2014
20751 Obsessive, say nyt David Woolf Thu Oct 02, 2014
18592 Fastidious to a fault nyt Tim Croce Thu Dec 26, 2013
18517 Like a control freak nyt John Farmer Sat Oct 12, 2013
18080 Uptight, informally nyt Michael Sharp Tue Jul 31, 2012
18026 Chem. assay nyt Joe Krozel Thu Jun 07, 2012
17841 ____-retentive nyt Brendan Emmett Quigley Wed Jan 04, 2012
13819 ____-retentive nyt Charles Deber Sun Apr 05, 2009
8727 Freud subj. wp Frank Longo Sun Sep 21, 2003
3582 Topic for Freud:sn Shirley Soloway Mon Oct 15, 2001
899 Psychological work: nyt Frances Hansen Thu Jun 03, 1999
The word is an accepted psychologic term:
I enjoyed this puzzle. I usually like this type of theme and I liked today's, but there's one thing I don't get, in spite of thinking about it for half an hour. Here's what I don't get:
I see HAN is the substitute for HAM, DARTH is the substitute for DARK, and JABBA is the substitute for JAMBA, but what is CHEWIE the substitute for?
It took changing PALE to ASHY in order to make sense of the NW corner. It also took changing SPAT to TIFF to make sense of the SW corner. Of course I know nothing, nothing I tell you!, about who the NHL's Thrashers are, so ATL filled solely by perps.
The last name of optometrist whom I see is JAM. Once (and only once) I called her "Marmalade" but she (rightly, I see now) didn't like it.
I was relived that it was HOUSEPLANT and not some Latin taxonomic name.
OwenKL, I loved your verses today. Terrific!
I think ELIA Kazan was an extremely talented director.
Irish Miss, I agree the ravages and consequences faced by those suffering from mental illness is horrible. What is tragic is that there really isn't any infrastructure (i.e hospitals) to properly treat them and care for them.
Anonymous T, you are funny and simpatico, man. I appreciate it.
Good wishes to you all. Keep on staying away from unmasked persons.
Anonymous T ~
Glad you are OVER the virus now. No, I imagine it was "not fun" at all. I have a hunch that these younger folk (I was gonna write "kids") who think it funny to party down & take a chance on getting sick don't have a real idea of how miserable they can feel.
They have benefited from vaccines all their lives, and most of them have only witnessed glamorous movie scenes of sickness.
Clean sheets and a sweaty brow.
I am guessing that if one is relatively healthy but gets infected and actually develops COVID symptoms, they may be lucky not to die, but they're probably going to feel about as bad as I did with a very serious Flu a few years back.
(Not a casual "I-gotta-cold" kinda Flu, but the real McCoy.) That's when you are gonna wish somebody would put you outta your *#@! misery.
Is it like that?
~ OMK
Picard, your comment was neither snarky nor mean, so I decided to overlook it. Thanks for caring. However, as Jayce detected, it did have a whiff of a "How could you not know that!" put down. Peace, man. Still friends.
Although I like pop, show tunes, folk, jazz, and rock, I mostly listen to "long hair" (classical) music. I can dredge up memories from many, many years ago of some of the songs you and Big Easy named but they are deep in the past. I have never been a follower of bands or music idols by name, even when I liked their music. I remember most of the Your Hit Parade tunes, show tunes and some folk, but not necessarily the performers.
Anal is a word used in polite society to indicate an uptight personality.
Wilbur ~
Count me as an Adrian Monk fan too. I think I saw every episode. My wife & I were glued to the TV week after week. A complex, appealing character, with a deep back story. I am proud to claim that he graduated from the mother campus of my university.
Tony Shaloub is my favorite (living) character actor.
I don't think he is identified with any other role as much as ex-SFPD Detective Monk aka Brother Adrian, Captain Cool, &c.
~ OMK
This puzzle was a strange mixture of “this seems too easy for a Friday” and “oh my... is it Saturday already?
I think I have read every novel Ursula K. LeGuin has written, so the NEBULA award was a gimme.
Fortunately, I already had CHEWIE BROWNIES, so there was no confusion over TEMPO / TEMPI.
My better half and I were just talking about calling the peel ZEST, so no problem there either.
On the other hand...
The shared P in GAPE / PARTICULAR, for some reason, was a major sticking point for quite some time.
LAB RAT took a while too.
All in all about a B- for me; FIR but at the cost of too much skull sweat.
I had more to say but as happens way too often lately I can’t remember what it was.
Mask up. Stay well. Eat a peppermint.
Anon-T:
NO, I have never heard of the NEBULA awards and do not apologize for it, not that you were expecting it. Sci-fi is the very least kind of program I would watch and even if nothing else were on TV, I wouldn't.
As for music, like YR, I love classical and that is always my preferred kind but back in the early 70s before we had KBAQ on radio, I listened to a rock and roll station and quite liked the music of the time, what is now called "classical" rock.
Well, this day redeemed itself for me. Dillard's is having their end of summer sale and at the urging of a friend, I went and found some fantastic bargains. It will be nice to have some new clothes for my trip.
Talk about brain freeze—I clean forgot to thank you, Paul, for working so hard to keep me entertained and you, Lemon, for explaining so well WHY I’m entertained.
Anon-T, 50% chance of rain means that there are 10 guys in the weather office; 5 of them think it’s going to rain and 5 think it’s not.
Lucina - I was playing off yesterday's kerfuffle. "You're lucky your cute," DW says, "'Cuz you're not funny. Even by half."
WikWak - a game of weather-darts :-)
OMK - I chronicled the symptoms back in May. It started as "Am I depressed? Is quarantine getting to me?" Then I'd lose my breath walking the stairs to my computers. As I was coming out of it (2 weeks later), my heart rate would spike to 104 bpm. It was another week b/f I really felt better... you know that It's Party Time feel? [full disclosure: No party - I was just happy to have the gumption to weed the garden].
DW took ~5 weeks to get through. Her heart jumped to 140+ bpm when she was getting back to un-sick. I can see why "underlying conditions" will kill someone. C19 (there's a word beginning with F that's not Full)'s with you.
I read something the other day about athletes who, even asymptomatic, had (and I'm trying to remember here) ~25% had increase in heart size.
//here: a lazy Google (as opposed to Goggle - how many times did I read that wrong?)
Back to funner things. Picard, did you get that basil in the ground?
Cheers, -T
WikWak, back in my coat and tie days, in the early 1980's, I was sitting in a hotel in Dallas TX having a drink at the bar. There was this kind of globe shaped fountain thing. All of a sudden I realized that I was looking at where some of "The Lathe of Heaven" had been filmed.
Thanks to a couple of sorta educated guesses, FIR. UTNE and YSER escaped me. I didn’t know which awards Ursula had won; the only one I could think of starting with “N” was Nobel, and I knew that wasn’t correct. Finally, I remembered NEBULA, after I figured out JABBAJUICE.
While it wasn’t too hard to see what Paul was doing with the Star Wars stuff, it took the perps to make some of it fall into place. I liked it!
Thanks Paul and Lemon!
Jayce - I had the same issue with the theme @ 1:47pm
Nobody else has commented about it and I thought that I was the only one missing something. My Chawie misspelling went better with the theme😃
Picard - glad that you got moved and are settling (even if a few things are yet to be rediscovered). And like Lucina, I enjoy your photos but don't always come back to comment.
AnonT - I got your NEBULA humour!
Yes CanadianEh, I saw your comment. Sorry I neglected to acknowledge it. So, can anybody explain to her and me what CHEWIE is a pun of? Thanks!
Jaycee, my guess was chewy (CHEWIE) brownies as opposed to cake-style brownies
Anon-T:
All joking aside, I hope you take care of yourself! I like you like a son so please stay well.
Youngest just finished her "social distance" 18th B-Day party w/ 3 of her (mask'd) BFFs in the driveway. They projected some crappy movie on the garage door so they could pan it.
I was inside the garage listening to their *critiques* (and reading the paper - anyone think... No, too politics) - Youngest has some funny (peculiar & ha-ha) friends.
Lucina - I'm all good. Thanks for your caring.
Jayce - I caught you; you too C, Eh! Appreciate it. I try to be funny but... #DadHumour
MManatee - The Lathe of Heaven? That's pulling up some obscure (good) stuff. Cool story re: Dallas.
Cheers, -T
OMG, you have an amazing data base.
Thank you Lemonade! Looks like a couple dozen times over the years.
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