Theme: "Yes, But Is It Art?"- Various phrases are reinterpreted as if they're art-related.
23. Molding okra likenesses?: PODCASTING.
25. Accumulation after many oil changes?: BRUSH PILES.
35. Housekeeper-artist barter agreement?: DUSTING FOR PRINTS.
56. Asset for sketching the human body?: A HEAD FOR FIGURES.
80. Traditional Western song to sing while cleaning up the atelier?: GOODBYE OLD PAINT.
98. Sculpting painstakingly, as ice?: LICKING INTO SHAPE.
115. Foundation for nude sketches?: BOTTOM LINE.
117. Color for a "Starry" Dutch classic?: NIGHTSHADE.
This title is so John, a talented artist with a terrific sense of humor.
I'm not familiar with "Goodbye Old Paint", who is the Old Paint in the lyric?
We're treated with a 140-worder with four sparkling long Downs. The clues also have John's hallmark wordplay and clue echos.
Across:
1. They often offer free Wi-Fi: CAFES.
6. Julie's "East of Eden" role: ABRA. Julie Harris. Here she's with Cal (James Dean).
10. Bygone Swedish wheels: SAAB.
14. Suit material: LIBEL. Lawsuit.
19. Tickle: AMUSE.
20. Fruity commercial prefix: CRAN.
21. Up-in-the-air bear: URSA. Minor/Major.
22. "Do __?": I DARE.
27. Therefore: ERGO.
28. Clotheshorse's collection: TIE CLIPS.
30. Singer?: STOOLIE. One who sings.
31. Cube-ic Rubik: ERNO. Rubik's Cube. This guy is 76 years old now.
33. "__ Rebel": 1962 hit: HE'S A.
34. Handles: SEES TO.
40. Dirty Harry's org.: SFPD.
43. Lab eggs: OVA.
47. Schwarz of toys: FAO.
48. Therapist's concern: NEUROSIS. Woody Allen's characters tend to have this problem.
50. Bait: TEASE.
53. Employing: USING.
55. Stuffed shell?: TACO. Great clue.
60. Two-handed tool: SLEDGE.
63. Unable to find the way: LOST.
64. Rates highly: ADMIRES.
65. Stand-up's goals, informally: LAFFS. Laughs.
68. Philippines' highest peak: Abbr.: MT APO. Wiki says the name
of "Mt. Apo comes from Apo, a title of respect meaning "revered elder"
in various languages of the surrounding Lumad tribes." Sort of like the
"Lao" in Chinese then. Lao Tzu, Lao Shi (teacher).
69. Decision maker: CHOOSER.
72. Very little, to Vivaldi: POCO.
75. "Yikes!": SHEESH.
84. Flu symptom: AGUE.
85. "Coffee __?": OR TEA.
86. Minimal: LEAST.
87. High-level banking aids: AILERONS. Airplane's banking.
90. Wanna-__: BES.
91. Augustus' devious wife: LIVIA.
94. Place to make waves: SALON.
95. Conservatory subj.: MUS.
96. Bucolic lines: IDYL.
103. Precepts: TENETS.
105. Pickle pick: DILL.
106. They're depressed during recitals: KEYS. Ha ha.
107. Resolve: IRON OUT.
109. Introspective Randall Thompson choral work with a joyous title: ALLELUIA. Same as "Hallelujah", right?
112. Jr.'s exam: PSAT.
119. Golfer's cry after holing a long putt: IT'S IN. Also 10. Good in golf ... otherwise, not so much: SUBPAR.
120. Unceasingly: EVER.
121. Boxer Oscar __ Hoya: DELA.
122. Sister of Goneril: REGAN. Mean one.
123. "I think of slaying Holmes ... He takes my mind from better things" writer: DOYLE.
124. Stitches: SEWS.
125. Like Florida scrub: ARID. Not familiar with "Florida scrub".
126. Immobile: INERT.
Down:
1. Batgirl garb: CAPE.
2. Love in Spain: AMOR.
3. Thick dessert topping: FUDGE SAUCE. More food item: 7. French wheel: BRIE
4. Source of protection: ESCORT.
5. It has a watery bed: SEA.
6. All of Albee's "The Zoo Story," essentially: ACT I.
8. Spanish spreads: RANCHOS. Not food.
9. One catching with flies, maybe: ANGLER. And 38. It might be caught with a fly: FISH.
11. LAX touchdowns: ARRS.
12. Sun Devils' sch.: ASU.
13. Short-legged hounds: BASSETS.
14. Slimming procedures, informally: LIPOS.
15. Some how-to book targets?: IDIOTS. Idiot's Guide.
16. Unusually energetic sort: BALL OF FIRE. Abejo!!
17. "__ Went Mad": Riley poem: ERE I.
18. __-majesté: LESE.
24. Gems: STONES.
26. It's a blast: H TEST.
29. MSN, for one: ISP. Any of you use CenturyLink?
32. El __: NINO.
34. Show disdain for: SNEER AT.
35. Prohibitions: DONT'S.
36. Type of eye layer: UVEAL.
37. Karmann __: sports car: GHIA. I don't see the beauty of this car.
39. __ facto: IPSO.
41. Philatelist's buys: PANES.
42. Hounds, e.g.: DOGS.
46. Manga series about gaming: YU-GI-OH. I've seen a ton of these cards at card shows. Some are worth hundreds of dollars.
49. Retinal receptor: ROD.
50. Lao Tzu's "way": TAO. We say "dao" in China.
51. Text changers, for short: EDS. Editors.
52. Back in a shell: AFT.
54. Big __: SUR.
57. Scullers' pair?: ELS. Just the two letters in "Scullers".
58. OTC drug agency: FDA.
59. Rapscallions: IMPS. Always makes me think of Spitzboov.
61. All-encompassing: GLOBAL.
62. __ chair: EASY.
66. Ante, e.g.: FEE.
67. Romps: FROLICS.
68. Reply of feigned innocence: MOI?
69. Prepared, as apples for strudel: CORED.
70. Copacetic, in slang: HOTSY-TOTSY. More familiar with hoity-toity.
71. Thomas Gray's "The Bard," e.g.: ODE.
72. Smooching on a plane, for short: PDA.
73. Photo possibilities: OPS.
74. Tractor brand, familiarly: CAT. Caterpillar.
76. Vibration sensor: EAR.
77. Flattery: EGO MASSAGE. Another sparkly fill.
78. First light: SUNUP.
79. "Demian" author: HESSE.
80. Mongolian dry spot: GOBI. My favorite childhood TV drama has
many scenes in the Gobi Desert. The guy on the left grew up in Mongolia
under the care of Genghis Khan, who's so romanticized in many Chinese
novels.
81. Fail to be kept private: LEAK.
82. Pakistani bread: NAAN. Also dal bean: 97. Legume family bean: LENTIL.
83. Slant: TILT.
88. Carefully consider: LOOK AT.
89. Bay State motto opener: ENSE.
92. Intestinal tract division: ILEUM.
93. Grub: VITTLES.
94. More over the top: SILLIER.
99. Ones just hanging out: IDLERS.
100. Zilch: NIL.
101. British actress-politician Jackson: GLENDA.
102. Wi-Fi connection?: HYPHEN. Great clue.
104. Very disappointing turnout: NO ONE.
107. Kin of op. cit.: IBID.
108. __-Rooter: ROTO. Bad service. High price. Don't use them.
109. Over: ANEW.
110. Jamaican citrus: UGLI.
111. "__ no idea": I HAD.
113. 29-day Hebrew month: ADAR.
114. Traveling carnival sight: TENT.
116. "__ been thinking ... ": I'VE.
118. Indian title: SRI.
C.C.
40 comments:
Greetings happy art lovers! Thank you C.C. for the kind words and thorough write-up. Thank you for including the link to Florida Scrub. It's a little-known and often misunderstood habitat, yet it's one of Florida's most bio-diverse and threatened ecosystems. With rampant development, small and isolated pockets disappear overnight, it seems.
Constructors often provide alternate clues to the editor. Here are two now on the cutting room floor:
BOTTOM LINE - Cracked foundation for nude sketches?
LICKING IN TO SHAPE - Tasteful method for tweaking an ice cream sculpture?
Good morning. Slow but steady solve.
C.C., I don't know the song by the lyric, but might recognize it if you sing a few bars. I assume Old Paint is a cowboy's horse. Probably a pinto. Desper-otto will know.
Favorie was "Good in golf ... otherwise, not so much: SUBPAR."
Hotsy-totsy means pleasing. Hoity-toity means snobbish. They are only similar in that they are CONJoined terms also known as reduplicatives. Okey-dokey ?
Hey Ray, Another CONJ word, and BTW, "also known as" is also a CONJunction. A subordinate one.
Hi John, I'm not surprised that your definition for BOTTOM LINE didn't pass muster :>)
Hey ! Pass muster. Passed mustard. Past mustard. A "seed" entry for a theme ! (I'll keep my day job)
Thank you, John. Thank you, C.C.
Good morning!
Well, chalk up two in a row. I WAGged a U instead of an O in MT APO/YUGIOH. Bzzzzzt. "Thanks for playing. Enjoy this lovely parting gift." Briefly tried DIETS for LIPOS, but that didn't pass muster. Yes, TTP, Old Paint is a horse, the cowboy's true love. Enjoyed the wordplay, but John, where were the critters? I liked your "Bottom Line" clue. Cracked me up. Thanx for the expo, C.C.
Wow, seven o'clock and it still isn't SUN UP. Fall has definitely fell. The hummingbirds have usually departed by this time, but we've still got a couple stragglers hanging around the feeder. One more refill, and that'll probably do it for the season.
Do not understand 25A: ...after many oil changes = brush piles?
Re: Florida scrub, I have stayed at Oscar Scherer State Park in the Venice Sarasota area. 1300+ acres of scrub and home to the endangered Florida Scrub Jay. The 1300 acres are totally surrounded by development.
To TTP: One advantage of having a database of every entry and clue since the 1950's is that you can check ideas like yours to see if it passes mustard. In fact, that idea was used in the Washington Post in 2003:
COULDNTPASSMUSTARD 1 Th WaP 03 Had a condiment addiction?
To BobB: Artists use oil paints. It's faster to use a new brush when changing colors than it is to stop and clean the same brush.
Well I got the gist of the puzzle but it was a DNF. ABRA & ACT I were unknowns. I wanted BRIE for 7D but the only name that made sense for "Julie" that ended in RA was MYRA. Even in the AN in place CRAN stayed in a hidden part of my brain.
And like d-otto there was MT APO (A,E,I,O, or U) crossing YUGI_H- I just left it blank. Never heard of either. No clue as to what 'Manga series' is either. It took a while for the PILES and PAINT ends of the theme clues to fill but the others were easy guesses after a few perps. No other problems. I finally realized BRUSH PILES referred to changing paint brushes after different oil paints.
Mr. Lampkin, the ARID fill for 'Florida scrub' seemed weird. I know that the peninsula part is mainly limestone and the ground is very porous, causing sinkholes but I've never heard it called arid. It rains a lot.
'Ghengis Khan romanticized in Chinese novels'- Really? I would equate that to romanticizing Viking plunderers of the Dark Ages. Robbing, stealing killing, and subjugating other countries was the game. And impregnating as many women as possible.
FIW, but enjoyed the attempt.
Favorite clue/fill: nude sketch foundation/BOTTOM LINE.
Thank you John and C.C.
MO
Only just recently discovered that Glenda Jackson was a politician as well as an actress. I just saw her in Ken Russell's 1992 bio-pic "The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax" where she starred as pianist Harriet Cohen, Bax'es long time muse and mistress. A great flick, with Russell himself playing Bax. You can stream it for free on YouTube.
Thanks, John. I guess it would help to have a DB. I also imagine that there are a lot of "Nuts !" expressed by constructors when they discover that someone has already done a theme.
Also, I had Sand Pine as the answer for coastal evergreen in a Joe Deeney puzzle I reviewed on Jan 10th this year, so I read and liked about Pinus Clausa, and read further about "Florida Scrub" at that time.
Desper-otto, thanks. I thought maybe it was a specific horse's name, like Trigger.
But I looked it up and found an old Tex Ritter song, and then Malodorous Manatee (thanks) found another by the man in black.
"Goodbye, old paint, I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne..." cowboy song...
Good morning everyone.
More of a stem-winder for me than John's usually good offerings. But, I had the time and it was enjoyable. Eventually got it all except I needed aid with the SE in ENSE. Some great clues; particularly with the theme phrases.
NIGHT SHADE family includes tomato, potato, eggplant and peppers.
BRIE - Love good BRIE. The best I ever had was in a company cafeteria near a Hydro-Quebec power plant in northern Quebec, just south of the Nunavik border.
SHEESH - Hi Jayce.
SLEDGE - I was always in awe when my Dad would wield a 15# SLEDGE to drive tapered locust posts into the ground for cattle fencing. Sometimes he would say "Hau den Lukas". which is the German name for the high striker (sledge) game seen at fairs.
小鬼 out.
Let me first say that I am still seething about yesterday's ridiculous puzzle. There! As for today, it was slow only because I was watching the French Open Men's Tennis final at the same time. What more can be said about Raphael Nadal. Just amazing. Enjoyable, fair puzzle today. Officially a FIW due to a single wrong square at 46D. DNK Yugioh and entered Sugioh instead. Otherwise, a worthy challenge. Got to get ready for Mass now. Everyone stay well in the meantime.
Hola!
John Lampkin! Where have you been? It's been a long while since you gave us a puzzle and this was a charmer! Thank you. It just makes me want more of your clever clues and fill. The lack of crawly creatures was surprising.
I never saw the movie, "East of Eden" but read the book and recalled ABRA.
ASU, my alma mater! One of them. USD is the other.
I'm reading a book by Martin Walker in which the hero, a police chief owns a BASSET. He asserts that they have superior smelling ability, with more than two billion cells.
CSO to Dudley at AELERONS. I really miss him and hope he reads the Blog.
One of my late uncles was a pro at EGO MASSAGE. He had my grandmother firmly in the palm of his hand with his constant flattery. As a result she catered to his every whim which caused consternation with my aunt, his wife.
FAO Schwarz products can still be found at Marshall's.
The clue for LIBEL took me on a material search until I realized that "suit" had a different meaning entirely. Serge and twill did not fit in that sense. I thought TACO and AFT were amusingly clued.
Thank you for explaining BRUSH PILES. That did not occur to me.
YU-GI-OH is totally unfamiliar to me and I doubted its validity. Thank you, C.C. for telling us about it.
And thank you again, C.C., for providing us with your sharp insight.
This was really fun and with only a few letters it was possible to complete the long answers. They were all amusing.
Please enjoy your day, everyone! I hope all in the gulf area are safe.
Musings
-What a fabulous workout! LICKS (not WHIPS) INTO SHAPE isn’t familiar to me but “it hadda be”
-What a bonus to have John drop by!
-_ O N _ S for forbidden was NONOS for a long time and for as often as we see UVEA I should have gotten the adjective
-YUGI_H/MT AP_ yielded the wrong vowel. Put me down for three bad cells sans complaining!
-“He’s A Rebel” – Adolescent girls soon figure out he’s not good for the long haul
-Bill Murray’s ad libbed line - IT’S IN the hole
-The drive from Orlando to Kennedy Space Center goes through a lot of Florida scrub
-Many LEAKS are intentional “run it up the flagpole” trials
-I left part of my ILEUM in an Omaha hospital
-What if they had a war and NO ONE showed up
What a fun, though frustrating for me, puzzle. The theme answers were creative and amusing. Loved GOOD BYE OLD PAINT. I DIW because I know nothing about Manga, and didn’t know the mountain, so I chose the wrong letters and BZZZT.
East of Eden was one of my favorite books, and I liked the movie almost as much because, for once, they didn’t mess with the story. Julie Harris as Abra and James Dean as Cal and Raymond Massey as Adam were magical.
I fell into every one of John’s little traps, such as LIBEL, NEHI ( is John from the Midwest ? - “pop” ), STOOLIE. Sheesh!
A minimum of 3 letter words and proper names added to the quality of this puzzle, IMO.
Wonderful tennis match today. Nasal was incredible. Tonight, it’s GO LAKERS.
C.C., thank you for the excellent tour.
Oh, I forgot to say HOTSY TOTSY means snooty to me. I’m more familiar with HUNKY DORY meaning copacetic.
Saw John Lampkin & knew I would enjoy this Sunday's offering,
But I wish I had access to a dead tree version.
Online, I just can't seem to help myself & hit the red letter switch when
It is a big puzzle, so it ended up more like a jigsaw puzzle.
You know, 26 letters (minus 5/6 vowels) which one fits?
Though, I tell you I still enjoyed trying to make all the pieces fit...
There were several incomprehensible fills that I could only parse
By reading the write up left to right.
&, if I were a constructor, (which I am not)
I could never ever find a clue that would enable me to use "mtapo."
Silly me would have changed to to mtaco & clued it thousand Mexican snacks...
(Or tasty something or other - mmm-taco?)
(Or mega burrito?)
Anywho,
silly the age link
Themage link!
$&#@%$* autocorrect...
I had sUGIoH, because I had PESTs and MTAP? Seemed like a big waste of time when I was done. I’m pretty forgiving with my puzzles, but this was really bad.
Sorry, I had sUGIsH, which sounds reasonable to me.
Valerie and I FIR but we had trouble in the SW. We had Wanna BET in lieu of Wanna BES and I misread the Arthur Conan Doyle clue in a manner that had me thinking of some of his characters. While Moriarty was clearly not going to work, both IRENE and ADLER fit in the allotted squares. Eventually, though, we worked through that.
The crossing of MT APO and YUGIOH also slowed things down. The fifteen, or so, proper nouns were not too, too many but BES, MUS, ARRS, EDS and ENSE I could have done without and neither of us had ever heard anyone refer to FUDGE SAUCE On the other hand the clues for AILERON and leak and the two fishing-related clues/answers were well done.
Sunday Lurk Say...
Spitz - I love the look on your face in that photo: "I'm going to do this. Stop me?"
C.C. That GHIA is HAIG-ly. //No? Nothing?
//This is a sexxy car [my '86 Spider].
Wendybird - To me, HOTSY TOTSY is sexy not snooty. I love the word copacetic.
High-level banking aids aren't accountants? Mine just emailed - she wants more papers for taxes due Thursday. //Yeah, I'm that lazy. File for extension every year, I do.
CED - I just thought it was the link for the agers :-)
TTP - I should have known DW (PhD English) knew reduplicatives... I was so proud I learnt something (that's in her field!), I ran in to share.
She corrected my pronunciation...
Happy Sunday to all!
Cheers, -T
I always loves me some John Lampkin wit and wisdom; luckily I do not have to elucidate which are which in the delightful puzzle/fill. Great to see you back and on a Sunday.
The bottom line was a bit risque. Thank you C.C. and JL.
Anon-T:
I love that look on your face!
I just finished deleting all the movies my granddaughter had recorded. We definitely have a wi-i-ide generational gap.
I loved this puzzle. So clever and imaginative. The misleading clues were fun and humorous instead of just frustrating.
PESTY??? But the YUGIOH was totally unknown. Perfect Natick with that Mt. Then I spotted BET/BES. HOTSY made much more sense. But…
I labored through and WAGed a lot like ABRA. CRAN/ACTI was a last gasp.
Re. Sherlock. I have my own idea on the "death of Holmes". If anyone cares.
Big E, in case you missed it there is a series called "Vikings". And I'd you really want plunderers try the Crusaders. First Crusade was horrific.
Then there's the defunct 12 Step Group at the nudist colony. Instead of identifying, they compared BOTTOMS
TTP, I thought of pine / ARID for Florida scrub..
Copacetic in no way means HOTSY TOTSY. It just meant All's well". Yep, Wendy, Hunky dory is right on.
No. Tonight it's "Beat LA, Beat LA". And go Rays.
All in all this was as difficult as Saturday for me. The difference is grok'ing Lampkin's style was easier for the vets in here. Granted that was adroit clueing like AILERONS.
WC
FLN ... Anon-T, right on Target!
I feel I need to clarify my post,
I really did enjoy this puzzle, even with the red letters on.
Any incomprehensible fills were perped in,
And fully explained in the write up.
High level banking aids=ailerons is very clever.
But even with the red letters I was totally puzzled by
Suit material=libel because right below it do(blank)? I started
"I care" but never finished because I was totally caught off guard
By the red C.
(Brush piles was tough too)
There were many other sneaky misdirections as well,
Don't believe me?
Wanna bes?
Today's puzzle didn't do much to comfort me after yesterday's. I did not know YUGIOH, MT APO, ENSE, AILERONS and "Demian," so I had 7 blank spaces in that area. I wanted HOTSY TOTSY but was stuck on Wanna BET. Anyway, I agree with Anonymous T that HOTSY TOTSY means sexy or "hot" in some way. It was nice of Mr. Lampkin to drop by and work through it with us, and of course of C.C. to solve it all.
Wilbur Charles- CRUSADERS? If I watched TV series I would have watched 'Vikings' but that's IF. Other than science shows, I watch ZERO television. OTOH, DW watches soap operas, Hallmark movies, UP TV, WE, and occasionally Lifetime. I dread the start of the Hallmark Christmas movie season- she watches them all.
But don't you know-anything goes in the name of xyz's religion. It's always 'the other side' that is the bad side. "They" are the robbers, pillagers, killers,...etc., not 'us'.
Forgot again ... It's Bobbi
Started the puzzle this morning but didn't get back to it until a while ago. Found I had left one square blank by mistake, so DNF. Dang! I'll blame getting sleepy as my excuse for not proofreading and catching it. It would have taken a WAG to put the O in, as I was not familiar with MT APO and SUGIOH. Oh well, I managed to get everything else, including the theme, leaving me with a good feeling about John's puzzle today. Thanks also to CC for explaining. Looking forward to reading all the comments and reactions to the puzzle.
Oops, while reading the comments, I see another mistake: SUGIOH instead of Yu-Gi-Oh. I see I wasn't alone.
And lastly, Bobbi I hope your "bad chest cold" is all that it is and it's not COVID. May you feel better soon!
WC - Hungry for Holmes.
Big E. It's that Us and Them [Pink Floyd] dichotomy that divides us.
Called Pop tonight. Uncle (same one that thought P==Phone (TxMs, no whiplash - they're fine but another thing to rib Unc about)) has to get surgery Tuesday to scrape his tendons(?!?)
It's Dupytren's disease (nope, I've never heard of either).
Apparently it's something Norwegian genes pass down. That might explain Uncle's (an Italian!'s) red hair too.
//In Italy last year, DW & I happened on a museum with an exhibit on the Vikings "visiting" Italy. Didn't know that either 'till then.
So, Uncle's red-hair isn't really the milkman?
//That's how Pop guiles his little-Bro :-)
Cheers, -T
//for the record - my Uncle is only 15yrs older than me. He's the one that opened my eyes to 60's & 70's rock and roll. Oh, and how to pirate cable TV.
Big E, I was referring to the actual Crusaders. I see NPR had a series described as "A noble mission to free the holy land, or a gigantic expedition of plunder and murder? Some 900 years ago, 10000 Christians answered the ..."
Those Mongols showed up circa 1250, had a genormous battle vs mamluks and the Crusaders were their allies..
Who needs fiction
. WC
One last stab... Anon. T, I think I meant Hoity Toity for snooty. You are right about Hotsy Totsy meaning sexy. It’s fun to be silly.
Wilbur, et al, here's the article that led to understanding another definition of scrub as "vegetation consisting mainly of brushwood or stunted forest growth".
Pinus Cluasa aka Sand Pine or Scrub Pine See the section "Distribution and Ecology"
Wendybird, I wondered why you earlier said Hotsy Totsy meant snooty to you, but I see now that you meant to say Hoity Toity. And yes, Hunky Dory would mean copacetic to me too, rather than Hotsy Totsy. But, the puzzle required it :>)
Lucina, did she want you to delete those movies ? :>)
Dash T, nice car. I don't recall that you shared a pic of it before. Veloce ?
"She corrected my pronunciation..." made me laugh.
"Us and Them" is a favorite Pink Floyd song from a great album.
I'm only 5 years older than my oldest nephew. He has another uncle that is younger than him, if I recall correctly. Never heard of Dupuytren's disease, aka Viking disease. But I vaguely recall something in my past about someone having to get tendons scraped.
Speaking of Vikings, Minnesota all but had the game won this evening and I don't understand the decision. They should have kicked the field goal.
Time for more shuteye.
Usually get in the mind of the puzzler by pre-reading the long word clues. Did not work this time. It was a challenge, beginning to end. Excellent!
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