Saturday Themeless by Craig Stowe
As always, thanks to Rich et al. for accepting my work and improving on
it. I am always amazed when a puzzle is published. I'm a little puzzled
about having 20 crosswords in the LA Times however. My information
suggests this is lucky number thirteen but I am notoriously bad at keeping
records.
I've posted a bit about myself before but in case you missed it... I was born and raised in a small town in Newfoundland, Canada (you'll find two Newfoundland references in Craig's puzzle) but have lived in Toronto, Ontario since 2000 (you are all welcome to visit anytime; shout out to all my Canadian neighbours!) I work as a kitchen porter in a rather large hotel, which is even less exciting than it sounds. I solve and construct crosswords in my spare time.
Cheers!
I do have to call Craig to account for using DERAT on 9/14/20 but otherwise
I enjoy his puzzles and this one took some real effort but that is why we do
these!
Across:
1. It's often served in a narrow dish: OLEO - Yeah, I thought of a banana split first too
5. 1996 romcom titled after a 1963 hit song: ONE FINE DAY - This got a meh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I'd much prefer to let you listen to the great 1963 song co-wrote by Carole King and sung by the Chiffons
15. Spots: LOCI.
17. River near Rugby: AVON - The Avon River wends its way from Rugby to another city upon the Avon
18. Elemental measurement: ATOMIC MASS - The average weight of the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom
19. Gossips: YENTAS
22. Thought from Descartes: IDEE - Descartes avait beaucoup de bonnes IDÉES (DESCARTES had many good ideas)
23. Hand-played drum: TOM-TOM.
25. Steps in for: ACTS AS - I'm waiting to sub again for a few weeks
27. Post-9/11 musical about the diversion of flights to Newfoundland: COME FROM AWAY - A wonderful musical about an event in Craig's home province
30. Comparable (to): AKIN.
31. Joe, commercially: TRADER - This one in Lincoln is frequented by both my daughters
32. Partner of to: FRO.
35. Linguine sauce: PESTO.
37. Old California fort: ORD - It is now inactive after training thousands of soldiers on Monterrey Bay
38. Small shoot: SPRIG and 56.
Shoot: STEM.
40. Fantasy creature from the Old English for "giant": ENT - A familiar crossword creature
41. Turn out to be: WIND UP - Harry Truman often wondered, "How did I WIND UP being president?"
44. Single: LONE.
45. "Blue Sky" Best Actress Oscar winner: JESSICA LANGE.
40. Fantasy creature from the Old English for "giant": ENT - A familiar crossword creature
41. Turn out to be: WIND UP - Harry Truman often wondered, "How did I WIND UP being president?"
44. Single: LONE.
45. "Blue Sky" Best Actress Oscar winner: JESSICA LANGE.
47. He debuted at La Scala 12/26/1900: CARUSO - One of the first singing voices to be recorded. This one was recorded in 1895. You gotta search to find Enrico's name on the label
50. Puts up: ERECTS.
51. With 52-Across, type of barbecue: OPEN 52. See 51-Across: PIT - This one is the famous Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX just south of Dripping Springs
55. Crackerjacks: ADEPTS - The BBQ above has many ADEPTS working with it
57. Keeping tabs on: MONITORING - Do you remember the movie where we were MONITORING Soviet activities but got fooled by a computer? (*Answer below)
60. Store: MART.
61. Witness to Padmé and Anakin's wedding: AR TOO DE TOO - Can you find him in this picture of the Star Wars nuptials?
62. Fever with chills: AGUE - A vowel-rich malady
63. Intimidates: STARES DOWN - Larry David's main "lie detector" move
64. Swarm: TEEM.
Down:
1. Skin care brand: OLAY - Aveo didn't work out
2. Romantic keepsake: LOVE TOKEN.
3. Janet Yellen, e.g.: ECONOMIST - Here 'ya go
4. Soothing compound: OINTMENT.
5. In certain respects: OF A SORT - I'm a golfer OF A SORT
6. With 59-Down, later: NOT and 59. See 6- Down: NOW.
7. Piccadilly Circus statue: EROS - The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, popularly but incorrectly known as "Eros", is a fountain surmounted by a winged statue of Anteros, located at the southeastern side of Piccadilly Circus (square) in London, England.
8. 1980 teen musical: FAME - My first thought is of Irene Cara singing the fabulous theme
9. "That. Is. Amazing.": I'M IN AWE.
10. Peabody Award-winning Robertson: NIC - Here 'ya go
11. Mutual ill will: ENMITY - A painting by Pitton where 9-year-old Hannibal swears eternal ENMITY for Rome
12. Couples: DUADS - A rare word for a group of two.
13. Discombobulated: AT SEA - I try to remain combobulated and gruntled
14. Those in favor: YESES.
20. Org. involved in the Waco Siege: ATF - A sad event for everyone
24. Turkeys: MORONS.
26. Lot fillers: CARS.
27. __ Spear, easternmost point in Canada: CAPE - It's a 52-hour drive from my house and includes toll roads and a ferry boat to get to CAPE Spear in Craig's home province of Newfoundland
28. Mercredi preceder: MARDI - MARDI Gras (Fat Tuesday) is followed by Mercredi des Cendres (Ash Wednesday) in French
29. Cite as proof: ADDUCE.
33. Sounds about right: RINGS TRUE - The Dewey headline probably did RING TRUE but...
34. Arch with a point: OGEE - All those delicious vowels make this a common entree here
36. Needs to remit: OWES - If you OWE many parking fines, you may find a Denver boot on your car like this one in Chicago
39. Menu venue, perhaps: PLACEMAT.
42. Woodlice, e.g.: ISOPODS - From the Greek for ISO (equal) and POD (foot)
43. Best thing since sliced bread, so to speak: PARAGON - A perfect example of something
45. Lower in rank: JUNIOR.
46. Wasn't behind anyone: LED - Can you tell which horse has LED in the race?
47. Medical events in a 1977 thriller: COMAS.
48. Captain's direction: APORT - When the Titanic crew finally saw the iceberg, the order "Hard APORT" was given which meant turn left away from the mammoth iceberg
49. Last name in fashion?: RENTA - How much would you pay for a fancy label?
54. One of the Jacksons: TITO.
58. Big __: TOE - Probably the only hilarious film scene about a BIG TOE
(*We were MONITORING the Soviets in the movie War Games)
Comment below for Craig:
Notes from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to Dennis, who successfully fought a major health battle last year. His attitude through the ordeals is awe-inspiring. He fears nothing. He's relentlessly optimistic.
Happy Birthday to Dennis, who successfully fought a major health battle last year. His attitude through the ordeals is awe-inspiring. He fears nothing. He's relentlessly optimistic.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteNo circles. No theme. What's not to love? This was a smooth solve, top to bottom. No Wite-Out required. Four nines and six tens brought this one together in a hurry. Thanx, Craig and Husker (I had the same thought about "House"/SEN.)
OPEN PIT: Had to look up the Salt Lick barbecue joint. Driftwood is a major metropolis southwest of Austin, population approx. 150.
FIR on a Saturday! And before I had to leave to visit Alan.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that the statue of Anteros is called Eros even by Londoners who know its real name. The two were twin brothers.
I thought of banana split, too, obviously too long. Alan preferred oleo and I prefer butter, so nowadays it is all butter.
I questioned SEN, but we say Congress has two houses. Confusing nomenclature.
Congress is divided into two institutions: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two houses of Congress have equal but unique roles in the federal government.
Happy birthday, Dennis. Miss your posts. Glad you are feeling better. Stop in when you can.
Good morning. A quiet start for this Saturday.
ReplyDeleteIf you have not watched the musical BEAUTIFUL it is a wonderful experience.
I wonder why Truman is so much on your mind HG?
Turkeys: MORONS ? Why? Peabody Award-winning Robertson: NIC I found his missing "K" on my KNEE.
FLN, thank you all for the especially nice comments.
Well done Craig and Gary.
Happy Birthday and many more Dennis. I am so glad to hear of your recovery.
ReplyDelete"Turkey. Slang. a person or thing of little appeal; dud; loser. a naive, stupid, or inept person. a poor and unsuccessful theatrical production; flop."
ReplyDeleteI'm off for my visit. See you later.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Craig Stowe, and thank you, Husker Gary !
Happy Birthday to Dennis !
He quit posting comments shortly after I went blue and started commenting. I'm taking it personal.
That was a tough puzzle for me, and I loved it. Had to piece it together bit by bit.
I chuckled when the penny dropped at "Menu venue, perhaps" for PLACE MAT. Ditto, at "Joe, commercially"
Bigger chuckle reading Husker Gary's quip at "Discombobulated": AT SEA - "I try to remain combobulated and gruntled".
Not 'insects' but ISOPODS.
"Briefly" - Had the FOR A and took a bit of time to determine whether the period was going to be second, moment or MINUTE.
ENMITY - It helps the solve when you see a word used twice and emphasized in the comments the day before publication:
ENMITY
ORD was a gimme, but MADRI and ADDUCE were note. The M and A from those two words were my last fill. Never heard of that musical.
JESSICA LANGE came in a flash just by looking at letters that I already had filled in. The J also ruled out 'demote' for "Lower in rank".
Shout out to TOM and TOM at 23A.
Someday I'm going to binge on the Star Wars movies. I've become somewhat familiar with the names such as Padme and Anakin and many more including AR TOO DE TOO by doing crosswords and general reading, but still had to work hard to get that answer.
At "Big ___", Ten went in w/o hesitation. Another slow down. The B1G football season starts Oct 24 for an eight game conference only schedule. All 14 teams will participate in the (new for this year) Big Ten Champions Week in mid December.
"He debuted at La Scala 12/26/1900": CARUSO. "He debuted at the Crossword Corner sometime in 2012 or 2013, but lurked before he went blue": CARUSO
We have an A&E puzzle with ONE FINE DAY, COME FROM AWAY, & JESSICA LANGE as long fills. Add FAME & COMA to the list. Everybody knows the song but the show-nope. Jessica-yes; the movie & 9/11 play-unknowns. ARTOO DETOO was an unknown but an easy fill after a few perps.
ReplyDeleteIt took a few WAGS to finish. OPEN PIT, ENT, CARUSO
Didn't know 27A but with _____Spear, CAPE was an easy guess
SEN- my thoughts exactly Gary. I guess the Senate is the 'UPPER house' for Craig.
ADEPTS- never knew it referred to a person.
Big _____, "SUR, BEN, TEN"? Had to wait for perps to get TOE.
PLACEMAT- when we eat out, I wipe the table with alcohol wipes and DW asks for extra napkins. She places flatware on the spare napkin but never on the table top.
Lemonade & YR- "Turkeys"- we had 'triple' today at 23A- TOM TOM crossing MORONS. gobble gobble.
Adios
A few big ink blots on my grid today, but FIR. ISOPODS seemed familiar and replaced InsectS. NIC was the only unknown, so that helped.
ReplyDeleteTook me 19:01 today. With the bookend Os in place, I wanted orzo instead of oleo. I didn't think a Sen would be in the house, but I am familiar with the bicameral foundation of our legislature. Resonates became rings true. Don't know Caruso. I dislike the alternate spelling of R2D2 (2 should be two, not too), but I know it's been blessed by the Star Wars universe.
ReplyDeleteI think someone snuck a NYT puzzle in here. Even after two passes, I only had a skeleton filled in, and as expected when I hit the check-all button, nearly half of that went red. But with the help of a couple more checks, I finally finished it without hitting the reveal button.
ReplyDeleteATOMIC MASS isn't just a size,
It's how many molecules inside!
Around they go,
To and FRO,
And the Catholic ones are sanctified!
On ONE FINE DAY
They may COME FROM AWAY,
With JESSICA LANGE,
A Star Wars fan
To see ARTOO DETOO in a tutu sway!
{B+, C.}
ReplyDeleteFIR, despite very poor cluing, such as 10 down and 21 across, etc.
ReplyDeleteYR, I downsized from 4,000 sq ft to 2,500, to 1700, to 1,250 and now 850. It is all good.
ReplyDeleteYes, Tom, I did notice Dennis stopped commenting when you started. I am sure it was personal
No, a 1965 episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show "Never Bathe on Saturday" revolved around Laura getting her big TOE stuck in the bathtub faucet
ReplyDeleteHad trouble with the across answers in the NE corner. Misspelled EMNITY (should have been more attentive like TTP) and had FOR instead of NOT, so they led me astray. Other than that, it was a reasonable Saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY DENNIS ! Tonight's "First Toast" is to YOU!
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary: Excellent write-up and links.
Cheers!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI found this to be a Goldilocks situation: Hard parts, Easy parts, Just right parts. i finished in 20 minutes which surprised me as I struggled in a few spots. I had Rep before Sen and I agree the clue is misleading, but it’s Saturday, so no foul. I don’t care for Adepts as a noun either but, again, it’s Saturday. I had no idea who was getting married so Ar Too Dee Too needed almost every single perp letter to complete. Despite my persistence, no Tada came and I had to use the check error function to find where I went astray. My Oven Pit did me in and what I thought was going to be Avast ended up as Avort which went unnoticed, so a big fat FIW. Nice CSOs to Tony (Caruso) and the Tom Tom twins, DO and TTP. I thought the fill was quite fresh and lively, for the most part, and, as mentioned above, there was some crunch but nothing off the charts.
Thanks, Craig, for an enjoyable challenge and thanks, HG, for the A+ summary and sparkling visuals and links. I hope your granddaughter’s special day is filled with love and joy and not too constrained by the prevailing circumstances.
Happy Birthday, Dennis, and best wishes for many more to come. 🎂🎊🎁🎈🎉 Continued good health and Semper Fi!
Lucina, welcome back. Glad you enjoyed your travels, not to mention the respite from the heat.
YR, your new living arrangements will be lovely with all of those updates.
I wish PK would check in.
Have a great day.
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Craig and HG.
ReplyDeleteI thought this CW might have a Canadian constructor (my newspaper gives no credits😒); happy to see Craig today. (This Canadian had no nits with SEN😁). I have been to CAPE Spear and Gander, and enjoyed COME FROM AWAY in Toronto.
Just a few inkblots today. Big Sur changed to TOE, sole changed to LONE, Dix to ORD. Ayes and pros were too short; YESES fit.
SW corner was the last to fall.
THIS Canadian does not use OLEO; we have margarine and it comes in a plastic container. It is not served on a narrow dish - that is for butter.
Big Easy beat me to noting TOMTOM and those turkeys.
I liked the Shoot Clecho.
The rest of my post has already been wonderfully expressed by the last 6 paragraphs of Irish Miss’ post. 💕
Please reread and I will not repost.
CanadianEh!, TTP and I do not appreciate the TOMTOM/Turkey reference. :)
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Newfoundland. Halifax is a far as I managed to get, then on to Sable Island.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Dennis. He was an early stalwart when I first joined this blog 11 yrs. ago. Best wishes.
Toughie today but finally got almost all of it w/o help. Caved for ISOPOD; unfamiliar with the woodlice term. Had 'avast' for the longest time, but then tried APORT, and I got the SW. Good job, Craig.
SEN - - I agree with Husker, they are in Congress; not the House. I think a Canadian could be cut some slack on this one.
OLEO - I will not eat it.
FRONT PAGE - Our paper doesn't normally have big news on the front page. A poor excuse for a newspaper. We get it mainly for the LAT 6 days a week, and for the obits. Sigh.
APORT - Agree it could be a captain's direction . As a steering order, though, the conning officer would use 'right' or 'left' for a rudder order and indicate the amount of rudder, ie. 10º or 'full' or 'hard'. For example: "Left Full Rudder"
Hola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Craig Stowe and Husker Gary! I started solving at 4 A.M. when I awoke quite suddenly, did about half of it then went back to bed. I found the top half more challenging than the southern area but all together it was about Saturday level with no unusual problems.
JESSICA LANGE is among my favorite actresses so I liked seeing her today. I did not even notice TOE because the three layers in that corner filled quickly.
CSO to Tony at CARUSO! And I echo the shout outs to TOM and TOM.
My traveling buddy, Marsha and I went to New Foundland a few years ago because we read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx and we were curious about that area. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, it's a treat. Judi Dench and Marianne Moore are impressive in their roles.
Happy birthday, Dennis! I hope you are handling things well.
Thank you, IrishMiss, for the welcome. Yes, I enjoyed the cool weather!
Have a happy day, everyone!
ENMITY always makes me pause because for some reason my mind wants to transpose the N and M. I have to thing of enemy to spell it right.
ReplyDeleteCraig, thanks for the challenge. HG, thanks for explaining all that I didn't know wrt the puzzle.
Like Spitz, our local newspaper is a poor excuse for a newspaper. It puts its editions to bed so early that the news is usually reported two days late. Obits, comics and letters to the editor are what I read it for now. They no longer even have the LA Times puzzle so that's why I have to do the puzzle online. (When I complained, they basically said "Tough", it was a corporate decision. It's no wonder that McClatchy went bankrupt.)
DUADS and ADEPTS were a couple of words that annoyed me.
My one year of HS French got MARDI for me. I don't remember much else from the class except the days of the week, the months of the year and how to count to ten. However, I think I may be able to ask where the bathroom is in French.
I tried AVON for the Skin Care Brand, but it had to change when the river turned out to be AVON.
It's Saturday and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Stay safe and please wear your masks.
This was a bit 63A for me (intimidating) at the outset. It ended up filling from bottom to top then came to a screeching halt in the NE. I had dyads at 12D and malice at 11D. Also for 6 and 59D I had bye now instead of not now. A disappointing DNF. I bow down to all who sailed through without so much as a hiccup.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteFYI, C.C. has a puzzle "Closing Remarks" today: Universal Puzzle at Merriam-Webster
The Great Compromise "Congress is divided into two institutions: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two houses of Congress have equal but unique roles in the federal government." "To balance the interests of both the small and large states, the Framers of the Constitution divided the power of Congress between the two houses."
FIR albeit with a bit of head scratching. As I.M. succinctly put it, "Hard parts, Easy parts, Just right parts."
ReplyDeleteI had issues in some of the same places that others have mentioned above (ADEPTS, DUADS, ADDUCE and ISOPODS) but, as the possible alternatives were ruled out one by one, those words emerged. MARDI was known due to High School French. R2D2, ONE FINE DAY, FRONT PAGE and JESSICA LANGE were all pretty quick long fills that really helped quite a bit. I wrote in OINTMENT first in the NW and tried to make Taco work with that O. YENTAS LED to OLAY and then the rest of that area fell into place. In the SW COMAS crossing with CARUSO was a big help.
Big BEN->TOP->TOE. The NE came close to being a huge wasteland of DNF. I cry foul with "HOUSE VIP" clue. Yes, Congress is divided into two HOUSES. But we use the word HOUSE to distinguish that HOUSE from the SENate. When I gave in and wrote SEN instead of REP I was able to make that whole area fall into place for a hard-earned FIR! Other than that nasty bit I did enjoy the challenge!
ReplyDeleteHere I was with my mother in Piccadilly Circus. EROS is front and center in the second photo!
Unfortunately, my mother came down with pneumonia right after that. The upside? We got to spend an extra week in London with my father taking us to many more cool places! It also motivated my mother to want us to return there again when she felt better!
From Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteWilbur Charles we put our fingers in our ears when that meteor created the CRATER!
Edward Duarte thanks for your CRATER visit explanation! I did not make the connection to your post until you clarified it.
Vidwan there is an excellent museum at the Arizona Meteor CRATER that answers your question. People want to know "where is the meteor"? The answer is that it exploded in vast numbers of pieces over a huge area. A mining company tried to find "the meteor" and had to give up. But there are indeed pieces scattered all around.
TTP, you agree with what I said at 7:17. I think SEN was a great misdirection. A SEN serves in one of the houses of Congress and a REP serves in the other.
ReplyDeleteI used to buy oleo in a tub. My mom bought it in sticks that fit a butter dish.
Although ADEPT is used as an adjective more frequently, I often see it used as a noun.
He is an adept at generating funds for startups because he has been working with venture capitalists all his life.
He wanted to send his daughter to a person who was an adept in Taekwondo, not just any other ordinary trainer.
My father is an adept at golf and likes to haughtily show off that no one has ever scored better than him.
As a politician, he is likely to be an adept at manipulating situations and making the most out of them.
-Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land.
-Thoughtco says,"To calculate the atomic mass of a single atom of an element, add up the mass of protons and neutrons.
Example: Find the atomic mass of an isotope of carbon that has 7 neutrons. You can see from the periodic table that carbon has an atomic number of 6, which is its number of protons. The atomic mass of the atom is the mass of the protons plus the mass of the neutrons, 6 + 7, or 13."
Isn't this a measurement?
-Come From Away was new to me. But no nits for me today.
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks,
I didn't have an issue with SEN being a legitimate answer to the House member clue because I'd come across a very similar clue / answer in another puzzle.
Probably Birnholtz, because he seems to enjoy that type of misdirection more than some other constructors.
Like you said, it's Saturday, so expect the misdirection from what would seem to be obvious.
!st things 1st!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Dennis!
Secondly,
it is hard to make a silly link for
a themeless, but i will give it a try...
This puzzle kicked my butt, with names I could never possibly know,
combined with multi-clue/answer unknowns???
The "reveal" button got a workout today...
(hey! It's not a DNF, I pushed the buttons!)
(said George Jetson...)
I consider myself an experienced BBQer,
but open+pit stumped me...
I dunno, maybe it was growing up in Brooklyn makes
these regional things hard to identify with.
It kinda makes me want to construct my own Xword puzzles,
with familiar dialect, for people like me!
Theonly problem is,
How would you clue this?
Recycling one step beyond polite society?
DeleteNice Saturday puzzle. Lots of blanks at first but eventually things fell into place. The way Saturday should be.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I didn't love, though. SEN is a certain kind of "gotcha" that I'm not a big fan of. I understand the Senate is technically a "house of Congress," but no one really uses it that way. And for "last name in fashion," is Oscar de la RENTA's last name "de la Renta" or just "Renta"? The NY Times, which is generally a stickler about this kind of thing, calls him "Mr. de la Renta" throughout his obituary. Perhaps there is a technical reason why his last name is just RENTA, but this could have been clued differently.
ReplyDeleteLOL TTP, re TOMTOM and turkeys. Rest assured I was not calling you MORONS,😁
Re “House VIP =SEN” - for once, we had a Canadian clue! (Was this Craig’s clue and Rich did not change it?)
THe Senate of Canada is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada; thus the clue made perfect sense to me. Big Easy saw it too (and Spitzboov)
For those of you who have never visited Newfoundland, it is a magnificent trip “on the Rock”. Allow plenty of time to see St Johns and CAPE SPEAR, Icebergs and puffins, but also the western side of the island with Gros Morne National Park, fiord at Western Brook Pond, l’Anse aux Meadows. Be prepared for the distinctiveNewfoundland accent😮
But you will have to wait until the border is opened. This Canadian cannot even get into the “Atlantic bubble” without quarantining for two weeks.
I had trouble getting a TOE hold today until DH suggested that Janet Yellen might be an ECONOMIST. From that point, everything flowed. I did think some of the clues were near-misses, e.g. "in certain respects" is kinda sorta OF A SORT, but not exactly. Thanks to Craig for the puzzle which allowed me to FIR, and to Husker Gary for combobulating it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Craig, for an interesting challenge. I love your country and have spent a lot of time there, frim far west to east coast, although I haven’t been to Cape Spear ... yet.
ReplyDeleteHusker, your tour was just great. I loved the musical clips.
FLN, Picard, I always thought it was “Savage Beast”. Now I’m embarassed at how many times I’ve used it over the years.
I think Julianne Moore, not Marianne, was in Shipping News.
I always thought JRR Tolkien created the ENTS. I didn’t know they were established in myth.
I took quite a while to complete the puzzle, but I eventually FIR. Pretty herky jerky with many frustrated sighs before everything became clear.
I was certainly gruntled and combobulated along the way.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Like CanadianEh, I also was thrilled to see Canadian references in the puzzle. I understood SEN to be the Canadian appointed member of the Upper House of Parliament. In respect to Newfoundland, they refer to mainlanders as "come from away". The play Come From Away has an American link. Flights were diverted to Newfoundland during 9/11, and Newfoundlanders were hospitable hosts to our American friends.
ReplyDeleteI loved the photo of Picard and his mom in Picadilly! Keep those photos coming Picard! We don't always comment, but we do enjoy travelling the world with you.
Man oh man, I can't believe I typed a zero instead of an O in OLE0! The clock didn't stop so I knew there must be something wrong but I couldn't find it. Had to do a Check Grid to reveal it. Dang.
ReplyDeleteI found this to be a very difficult puzzle. So many answers I simply didn't know, but perp by perp I filled them. I'll remember a few, such as CAPE Spear and maybe ONE FINE DAY, but I suspect I will soon forget COME FROM AWAY.
I learned MORONS are turkeys, or maybe it's turkeys are MORONS. I have never interchanged the two in my mind. I learned it was FAME, not HAIR or RENT, which are the only 4-letter musicals I could think of. Of course FAME was my last choice. Grr. I knew Janet Yellen used to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve, so wanted FED-something until I was disabused of that notion.
At least I knew EROS (thanks to Steve), MARDI, and CARUSO right away. TRADER was fiendish but felt rewarding when I figured it out. Lots of extremely sparkling fill; I especially like PLACE MAT and FRONT PAGE.
An observation about the "new" blog format from my point of view as a commenter. I notice there are (obtrusive, IMO) ads right in line with the reviews. Since most reviewers post pictures in line with their commentary it causes confusion, and, frankly, dismay, to suddenly see an big ole ad right there and have to take a few milliseconds of mind-boggling to realize it is not part of the write-up. For example, explicitly, in Gary's terrific write-up today, there is an "Uncensored Rare Photos" ad right after his picture of Toronto, and a "Simple Driver Updater" ad between Gary's "Gossips: YENTAS" explanation and his "What business is yenta in" cartoon. New is NOT better, darn it!
Now to read all your comments.
I don't have those interfering ads in Gary's blog on my computer, tablet or phone. I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteI researched where "measuring" atomic mass comes from.
"The atomic mass of an element is the average mass of the atoms of an element measured in atomic mass unit (amu, also known as daltons, D). The atomic mass is a weighted average of all of the isotopes of that element, in which the mass of each isotope is multiplied by the abundance of that particular isotope."
Those in-line ads don't show up on my iPad or my iPhone, only on my PC running Edge as my browser.
ReplyDeleteHoly cow, I just refreshed the crosswordcorner.blogspot.com page and all those ads disappeared!
�� Doody doody doody doody ��
LfromAlberta - great to have another Canadian chime in today😊. Comment more often.
ReplyDeleteI get ads on the right side of my iPad and I can just ignore them.
I’ll have to check on my PC.
CanadianEh, yeah I get ads on the right side of the screen and, like you, easily ignore them. Now, as I type this, on my PC, there are no ads interposed with Gary's write-up. I don't know why they disappeared. Mysterious.
ReplyDeleteOh, Tony and anyone else who might be interested, I came across an article in Ars Technica that I think you'll enjoy reading. It's entitled "When coffee makers are demanding a ransom, you know IoT is screwed".
Good wishes to you all, and keep on staying away from turkeys who aren't wearing a face mask.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I appreciate them, both good and bad, as it helps inform future puzzle-making decisions.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the intro to today's puzzle I realized it was time for an update. I used to be a kitchen porter, until I moved to receiving, until I wasn't working. Like everywhere the pandemic has caused havoc here in Canada, particularly in the hospitality sector. Fortunately our country is doing what it can to support those affected by COVID. So even though I haven't been to work since March, I am technically employed by the same hotel :-) In the meantime me and my husband live the 2020 lifestyle in downtown Toronto. I hope people are staying safe and best wishes to everyone affected by this horrible virus.
I'm glad Rich kept the additional Newfoundland reference. As you might've guessed, COME FROM AWAY was the seed entry. When Ms. LANGE appeared as a viable match it was too hard to resist. I'm surprised Rich accepted the puzzle as I think of it as a little clunky looking back at it - but I'm happy he did!
"That was a tough puzzle for me, and I loved it. Had to piece it together bit by bit." You took the words out of my mouth, TTP. Mea culpa, I capped ENMITY but didn't know where or when it was clued*.
ReplyDeleteWhat made this doable were clues like MARDI and JESSICA LANGE / JUNIOR with a couple of perps. I had to ink over AVAST. How to spell R2D2 was the question
Wendy, good point about JRR's ENTS. He admitted that his only creature creation were hobbits.
Jaycee: Speaking for the xword jury(YR,IM,...) We'll give you a FIR on the zero/O.
WC
* I too often wonder if a clue came from Evan Birnholz Wa-Post
I vote we throw him into the “open pit “ bbq!
DeleteI certainly didn't hate this puzzle as I FIR! I finished it early this morning and looking over now after reading the blog and comments, I can easily see my trouble spots. Lots of ink used before ONE FINE DAY and ATOMIC MASS filled in. I tried other__DUCEs before perps filled in the A and D. It amused me that in spite of shopping at TRADER Joe's yesterday, I didn't think of putting Trader in front until HG's review! Thanks, Gary, and thank you, Craig, for a challenging puzzle and for stopping by to update us.
ReplyDeleteStay safe everyone and enjoy your evening.
Yentas and Frontpage opened up a lot today’s.
ReplyDeleteStarted out top heavy
Bought Halloween candy too early, already half way thru one bag.
Snickers are my fave, what are yours?
Home Depot for liquid plumber yesterday, a worker was putting up Xmas displays.
After retiring a few years ago and loosing all those friends, I started a French club here in Eagle Rock west of Pasadena. Did great for a year until covid hit.
ReplyDeleteWe met touts les mardis soirs.
Happy birthday good wishes, Dennis.
ReplyDeleteJayce, I say you FIR, thumbs up for you.
ReplyDeleteOk
ReplyDeleteI can’t wait, after going to Home Depot, it’s officially XMAS Season!
Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.”
”I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
Finally did the puzzle - challenging but doable! We tackled our basement today - taking advantage of 2 kids home for a visit - and our move out date is by October 16.
ReplyDeleteLots of chuckles as they went through stuff from grade school, etc.
But I am worn out - so
Thanks to HG and Craig!
HBD to Dennis!
Thanks to Mr. Stowe for the puzzle, and HG for your commentary.
ReplyDeleteI am writing mainly to wish Happy Birthday to Dennis. He was one of the mainstays of the blog, alongside C.C., ... from god knows when. His' used to be the first blog comment of the day, most times.
He is an exMarine. and owned a toy store with railroad trains and puzzles in New Jersey ... and always had a special note about why each particular day was a special day,.... This was for every day. I used to look forward to his special notes for that day.
Then he moved to Florida. I hope he is coping well with his health problems.
Like the tides, and the Earth, we all get older, and we move on .... but the memories are the windows of the soul, and stay with us till the end. Take care friend.
Sweated through almost two hours on this one. MANY words/clues I've never seen before. NE quadrant almost did me in. References to 30-40 year old musicals a real drag looking up. I've actually been to CAPE SPEAR, CANADA back in the days when flights to Europe took the polar route. Bad winter weather forced our plane to refuel there!
ReplyDeleteWould have clued WIND-UP as"Essential part of a pitch"!
Wendybird:
ReplyDeleteThank you for the correction of Julianne Moore. My 82 year old mind thinks it still has a memory and refuses to look up information. I'll speak to it about that.
Appreciate your refusing to give up on memory issues.
DeleteI saw The Shipping News some years ago. Excellent flick. Directed by Lasse Hallström.
ReplyDeleteIs Anon-T AWOL? Has he checked in lately? Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteSpitz:
Yes, I agree about The Shipping News. It's excellent.
Unknown@ 8:59pm- I think your plane would have landed and refuelled at Gander, Nfld. That is the location of the story COME FROM AWAY where all the planes landed on 911. CAPE SPEAR is about 150 miles NW up the Trans Canada highway (130 miles as the crow or Canada Goose flies).😁
ReplyDelete