Theme: GIVE ME A SIGN (36. Plea for divine guidance ... and hint to the ends of the answers to starred clues)
17. *Doctor's visit, back in the day: HOUSE CALL. Call sign.
23. *Perry Mason's secretary: DELLA STREET. Street sign.
49. *Rural station at which trains need to be flagged down: WHISTLE STOP. Stop sign.
59. *Expatriate American poet who was a WWII fascist collaborator: EZRA POUND. Pound sign.
Boomer here.
After a long week, Monday has arrived. You would not believe Minnesota's November weather. We had highs in the 60s most of last week, and tripped the 70s for a couple of days. We did not use our furnace or air conditioner at all. Neither did I use the money we saved on golf or bowling. New cases of the nasty COVID are around 5000 daily.
1. Tooth trouble: ACHE. Not for me any longer. Just toss them in a cup before bed and glue them in tomorrow.
9. Place to exchange vows: ALTAR.
14. Debit card reader opening: SLOT. It's incredible how nearly
every business large or small has a reader for a debit or credit card.
Seems that cash might be a virus spreader. Doesn't bother me because I
get a few pennies back from the card company for the purchase.
15. Nasty: MEAN. I MEAN really MEAN.
16. Chili con __: CARNE. Not sure "Y" Jackie Gleason's buddy Art has anything to do with Chili.
19. "Good grief!": EGADS. Please Charlie Brown. Don't say EGADS. Thank you.
20. "The Tomorrow Show" host Tom: SNYDER. "The sun'll come out, Tomorrow". (Annie)
21. Many a psychedelic T-shirt: TIE DYE.
22. Was in first place: LED. Being an electrical retired person,
I thought about Light Emitting Diodes. We installed an LED fixture in
our kitchen after I broke the refractor of the one we had. These LED
fixtures are amazing.
26. Takeoff ests.: ETDS. Bad memories. Sun Country delayed our
departure by over six hours last February on our flight to Las Vegas.
We are not going next year. but if we ever go again it will NOT be on
Sun Country.
28. Bone-dry: SERE.
29. Rehab symptoms, for short: DTS.
30. Chemical relative: ISOMER.
33. From the __: at the start: GET GO. I think if you pass it, you get $200.
39. Golf gimme: TAP IN. There are no gimmes on the PGA tour except in stuff like the Ryder Cup. For me it's a bit of "give and take."
40. Mama Cass __: ELLIOT. "All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray". (California Dreamin' Mama' and the Papas.)
43. "Send help!" message: SOS.
Many people think this stands for "Save our Ship". But really it is
just a distress signal that can be easily sent by Morse code.
46. Brings to a close: ENDS.
48. Beige look-alike: ECRU.
54. German "a": EIN. The first word we GI's learned when we landed in Germany. The second word of course was bier.
55. Fragrant compounds: ESTERS.
56. Rise into view: EMERGE. "When the morning sun, streaks
across my room, and I'm wakin' up from another dream of you." "You know
I love you", - Dolly Parton - Kenny Rogers.
58. Like many attics: DUSTY. We have a very small attic, with just a fair amount of insulation. There is no T206 Honus Wagner card up there. I checked.
62. Muse of poetry: ERATO.
63. Dutch South African: BOER.
64. Mega- or giga- unit: BYTE. I have no way of knowing how many bytes are in this blog.
65. New Jersey's __ Hall University: SETON. Elizabeth Ann SETON was the first U.S, citizen to be canonized a Saint in the Catholic religion.
66. Mannerless one: BOOR.
67. To be, in Latin: ESSE.
1. Baseball bat wood: ASH. Yup, I used the Louisville Sluggers in my youth baseball career. Then along came slow pitch softball and aluminum.
2. Coat-hanging places: CLOSETS. Comes with a shelf to store baseball cards.
3. Elvis classic: HOUND DOG. You ain't nothin' but
4. Website for artisans: ETSY.
5. Show host: EMCEE.
6. Oyster gems: PEARLS. I never found one. Of course around here we only have clams.
7. Amigo: PAL. My buddy Jorge calls me AMIGO.
8. NBC's "Weekend Update" show: SNL. I wonder what they will do now that the election is over.
9. Nail the test: ACE IT. Or make a hole-in-one.
10. Popular beer: LAGER. Not the kind that they sold in Germany.
11. Swapped: TRADED. Sometimes, MLB TRADED players, sometimes we TRADED cards.
12. "But still ... ": AND YET. Rich YETT pitched one game for the Twins but then was traded to Cleveland for a five or six year career.
13. Turns back, as a clock: RESETS. Yup, we did that last week, Still getting used to the new hour.
18. Onetime Leno announcer Hall: EDD.
21. Scary African fly: TSETSE.
22. Island garland: LEI. Oahu to you too.
24. Stories of the Loch Ness Monster, e.g.: LEGENDS. I am surprised that one of these professional sports teams with offensive names has not switched to LEGENDS,
25. Side squared, for a square: AREA.
27. Struck, old-style: SMIT. Never knew this was a word. I've heard of smitten.
31. Actress Longoria: EVA. Not to be confused with EVAN Longoria of the Rays or Giants.
32. Drives back: REPELS.
34. Hodges of the Dodgers: GIL. Great First Baseman for Brooklyn and LA. Finished his career as manager of the Mets.
35. Eye wolfishly: OGLE.
37. Coal site: MINE. The stuff we use in a barbecue is called charcoal and is not real coal.
38. They "finish last," per the title of Leo Durocher's autobiography: NICE GUYS. "May have been about Gil Hodges' Mets."
41. Points in the right direction: ORIENTS. Northwest once became Delta.
42. Wine cask: TUN. Never heard this word, but if you did not like EIN BIER you could get a TUN of wine for two marks.
43. Stockholm natives: SWEDES. Yah sure!
44. "Yeah, right!": OH SURE. Yah sure! again.
45. Occupies, as a desk: SITS AT.
47. Sound investment?: STEREO. Tell that to Charles Schwab.
50. Small squabble: SETTO.
51. Check for fit: TRY ON.
52. Horoscope columnist Sydney: OMARR. Pretty close to our 5th District Representative Ilhan who gets her name in the paper a lot.
53. Gusto: PEP. Once in awhile as I coach high school bowling a
PEP talk may be in order. This year the season is delayed until spring.
I only hope, because we seem to be getting 100,000 COVID positives per
day nationally right now.
57. After-bath wear: ROBE.
59. Tidal recession: EBB.
60. Place to observe animals: ZOO. Something told me it's all happening at the ZOO. Simon and Garfunkel.
61. Actor Billy __ Williams: DEE.
Boomer
36 comments:
Good morning!
Got 'er done in near record time, and never noticed the theme until Boomer 'splained it. Apparently the expression isn't "from the gecko." Learning moment: Seton Hall isn't named after somebody whose first name was Seton and last name was Hall. Thanx, Kurt and Boomer.
Good Morning, Boomer and friends. I sped through this puzzle.
SMIT was only possible due to the perps.
I liked how BOER sat on the BOOR.
QOD: That’s what children are for ~ that their parents may not be bored. ~ Ivan Turgenev (Nov. 9, 1818 ~ Sept. 3, 1883), Russian novelist
Re. Electrical knowledge. After an electrical storm with a very close lightning strike the computer in my BMW malfunctioned and put all the windows down. $3000 damage. Boomer does the lightning/malfunction grok with your understanding?
This was perfect for a Monday. PN's but no Naticks. FLN, Brady was every bit atrocious as Brees was perfect. #MeToo distraction?*
"Ich bin EIN Berliner." I am a donut .
First in sainthood, last in the Big East Conference.(Anne SETON(Hall))
"slow pitch softball and aluminum." Dual abominations.
Re. SNL? Back to covid-19
As Bill Veeck(as in wreck) pointed out. They traded players when depreciation (7 yrs) ran out. Then Free Agency came and fans moaned about players leaving for more money in their pockets?!!
I finally RESET the car clock(pending more lightning)
How about the Redskins renaming to Monsters after the Swamp Things.
There's Jason SMIT(SA Tennis player)- about as obscure as Matt Batts the baseball player
In 1952 GIL Hodges went 0-21. All the Catholic mothers (including mine) were praying for him.
.
Ok. Do you remember who the "Nice guy" was?
Whoever drank EIN Bier?
WC
*Antonio Brown was signed despite domestic violence issues
**Mel Ott(of xword fame). Leo actually said:" Take Mel Ott, nice guy, but where are the Giants? ".
WC, why isn't a BMW clock smart enough to reset itself?
D-O, I actually thought so too. There may be a setting for auto update. The damage was from the deluge that accompanied the lightning strike.
I had an expensive warranty but they refused to cover the electrical issue not to speak of replacing the rug, console etc.
WC
Good Morning Wilbur Charles and friends. Sorry to hear about the electrical malfunction in your vehicle. What I know is that lightning is nasty with thousands of volts. Cars are normally served by a 12 volt battery. Since car tires are rubber, it normally will resist a lightning's path to ground, however in your case it appears that the lightning invaded the Circuitry of the vehicle and provided several thousand volts to your cars twelve volt system. Sorry for your costly repairs.
Did not know that Seton Hall was named for a women, or a saint, or a Catholic. I guess I assumed Seton was a former NJ Governor or maybe someone that gave a "tun" of money to the school.
A new week begins with FIR. At first I was only doing the across clues but could see that would end up with many writeovers so started checking perps. Maybe one day I'll be at that skill level. Fun theme, easily found. Thanks, Kurt. Hahtoolah, I also saw BOER sitting on top of BOOR. I knew BOER was the word for farmer in Dutch, so LIU to find BOOR came from it. Having farming ancestors (as many do), I don't think of them as BOORs! Thanks, Boomer, for your review. As always you added to my sports names bank.
Have a good start to the week, everyone. We are enjoying more fall color each day!
FIR, didn’t use the theme. Lots of names, some very musty, but this old guy knew most of them.
Good morning everyone.
Easy solve today. Liked the different types of SIGNS. No issues.
Noted the stack of BOER over BOOR.
In Dutch, BOER is pronounced almost like BOOR, but with a deeper 'u' sound. In L. German, my Dad was a Buur (same sound as BOER) and very proud of his profession. [German Bauer]
Good Morning:
This was a speedy and enjoyable solve with no unknowns and no w/os. I needed the reveal before I caught the theme which is fine with me. The Epps entry was coincidental in two respects: Omar Epps played in the TV series House (Calls) and another Omarr appears in the puzzle. I’ve never seen the word Smit, only Smite or Smote. Also noticed Boer over Boor and the ETDs/DTs duo.
Thanks, Kurt, for a pleasant start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the fun recap. Our moderate weather has been very similar to yours but I think it’s coming to an end in a few days.
FLN
I didn’t comment yesterday but I solved the puzzle and really liked the theme. I was surprised that so many posters had such negative feelings about it, but that’s what makes life interesting, so they say.
YR, as someone who made 17 moves in a 27 year span, I agree 100 % with your position on getting unpacked and somewhat organized before using outside help. Good luck and pace yourself accordingly.
Lucina and Ray, enjoy your mini vacations.
Have a great day.
Aah! relaxing Monday puzzle.
Seton was a gimme. Seton Hall is only 25-26 miles from here.
Coal site reminded me of the coal bin we had when I was a kid. The coal man would place a chute in our basement window to send coal into our coal bin. We kids liked to watch. I can still hear the coal rattling down the chute.
EZRE POUND - One of my favorite crossword clues was Pound of poems/Ezra.
220 verses in the King James Bible use the word SMOTE as the past tense of smite. I rarely see SMIT, but often see SMITTEN.
SNL finds fodder in every President's administration. One example, the Jimmy Carter rabbit incident. Also, I am sure that Trump will keep his image front and center with tweets.
CSO to sweet DUSTY.
Drat I missed the every other week recycling this AM. I have tons and tons of it. The truck comes anywhere between 7:00 AM and noon. Of course it came at 7 today. HOA does not allow trash to be put out until late Sun. afternoon. Two weeks from now I will put it out Sunday AM. It will be the last pick up while I am living here. I suppose it would be wrong to place the recyclables in garbage bags and put them our with the weekly trash.
Pretty typical difficulty and time for a Monday CW. Cold here overnight by SoCal standards with lows in the forties. Windy, too. A very large palm frond fell on my car a put a good sized dent in the hood. Palm trees and low-ish temps seems a bit incongruous.
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Kurt and Boomer.
I FIRed in good Monday time (11 minutes online today because my newspaper did not get delivered😒. Time is for interest purposes only and not a contest.)
Hand up for noting BOER and BOOR.
I echo YR’s words about SMIT.
Great-uncle was in a Canadian regiment that shipped overseas to fight in the BOER War. Conflict was over by the time he arrived. We have his spurs.
Beautiful weather here. Taking advantage of it for backyard visits.
Extra caution as COVID cases are rising here also.
Enjoy the day.
Perfect puzzle for a beginner. Actually, almost too fast for a Monday. As others have noted, smit was a real stretch. What to do with the rest of the day now.
Good morning all. Thank you, Kurt, and thank you, Boomer.
Fun and easy puzzle after a restless night.
Boomer, to answer your statement, 21,663 bytes for today's blog without comments. 64,941 bytes when including comments (through Malodorous Manatee's).
Wilbur, is your BMW a convertible ? Just curious.
Boomer is correct. The induced voltages from a close lightning strike can damage the electronic systems in a vehicle. In any car. There may be no visible SIGNs of being struck.
The tires provide a good protection that generally breaks the path to ground, but a direct hit may blow them out. You are actually mostly protected because you are sitting in a sort of a Faraday cage. Unless you are in a convertible, a Corvette, or a Saturn. No Faraday cage effect in a fiberglass or plastic car.
If caught in a lightning storm, just pull off the road and sit on your hands. Don't touch anything metal in the car and don't get out.
Two more days in the low to mid 70s here in the burbs of Chicagoland. Time to, as Hondo used to say, "go chase the leaves."
WC @ 0639 - - If you have comprehensive included in your auto insurance, they might cover most of it. Weather/nature induced. When a deer hit me a couple years ago causing > $7000. damage, the insurance covered it all except the deductible.
Musings
-I saw the SIGN reveal and HOUSE SIGN/CALL SIGN looked like it would apply to both words. DELLA disabused me of that idea
-What 1986 movie featured CALL SIGNS of Maverick, Goose, Ice Man, Jester and Viper?
-Harry Truman’s 1948 WHISTLESTOP campaign helped him pull one of the biggest election upsets of all time
-POUND SIGN - # or £
-There’s an LEGEND that CASS ELLIOT’S voice range increased by 3 steps after she got hit by a falling pipe
-When I play with former governor Dave Heineman, he concedes any putt within 4’
-When the Titanic was sinking it sent out the distress code of the day – CQD (CQ = general call, D = distress)
-Deciding over agonizingly close shades of paint with my lovely bride is not a fun thing for me
-On Sirius “50’s on 5” program, Pat Boone talked about white artists who covered songs like HOUND DOG by black artists. Pat did his share but his Tutti Frutti was nothing like Little Richard’s. Boone’s recording of Fats Domino’s Ain’t That A Shame was Pat’s first #1 hit
WEES ! Easy but fun for me. Thanks Kurt and Boomer. Boomer, your Vikings did it again!
A total Monday pleasure, Kurt--many thanks for this treat. And Boomer, I always end up with melodies in my head after reading your commentary--another pleasure, thanks.
Nice to see ERATO, the muse of poetry, come right after the poet EZRA POUND. His life did not end well as a result of his political decisions, but he was incredibly supportive of so many great modernist poets, including James Joyce.
And then there, right above ERATO, was my sweet DUSTY, my 17 year old dachshund, lost the week before last to a coyote who came into our back yard. RIP, sweet DUSTY.
Have a great week coming up, everybody.
Boomer
I was following a car on a city street when lightning struck a stepdown transformer on a curbside utility pole. The bolt jumped from the transformer to the roof of the car in front of me and then from the car's chrome bumper to the street. I don't think the driver was aware of what happened. I thought that transformers were grounded and that a car was insulated from ground by it's tires. Guess I was wrong in this instance.
Did you ask for a sign?
be careful what you ask for...
just my luck...
I sure hope this was photoshopped...
And... a traffic report...
CED, that is a great collection of images!
Thanks Kurt and Boomer!
Pretty easy Monday puzzle. Didn’t even take me too long to do it and FIR.
WC, I’ll agree with you about aluminum bats (although they don’t break like the wooden ones do, which is a boon for club and amateur leagues and teams that don’t particularly want to have to keep replacing lumber. And while it’s only a tiny drop in the bucket, I prefer the minute cost savings to me financing the sports programs of my public schools and universities.
Also, I didn’t mind playing slow pitch softball. Yes, I preferred catching fast pitch, but since I was a lousy batter (but an excellent baserunner), I preferred batting slow pitch. Also, there is much more action in slow pitch, because something happens on just about every pitch.
As d-o, WC and mark said, I also didn’t know Seton Hall was a Catholic school. For all the jokes about Seton Hall athletic programs, Wiki says that it is New Jersey's most successful representative during March Madness by number of wins, which I find amazing. Princeton would have been my first guess.
AND speaking of Catholic universities:
Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame,
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky!
What though the odds be great or small,
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to victory!
And can someone please explain to me how that obnoxious Clemson head coach didn’t get thrown out of the game Saturday night?
CED --- GREAT!!!
Puzzling thoughts:
Thanks Kurt Krauss and Boomer for the Monday merriment. WEES, this was not too difficult, and even the harder clues seemed to fill themselves in
SMIT/ISOMER was lightly inked in until verifying when I read Boomer’s recap. The only other SMIT I could recall was actor Jimmy SMITS, erstwhile of NYPD.
TSE TSE seems a bit archaic nowadays in “crossword-ese”. Wonder if/when editors will finally disallow this from their puzzles
ASH was a given, as I always remember, as a youth, looking forward to the equipment truck, armed with new baseball bats, showing up to the field on the first day of practice. I grew up playing “Baseball for Boys” (8-12), and then continued playing as a teen in summer leagues. Nowadays, maple and bamboo are two other woods used to manufacture baseball bats. I was never fond of the aluminum bats, even in slo-pitch softball, but unlike wood, they are pretty difficult to break
BTW, just to let you all know, I’m fine. It was a bit scary for a day or two. Last Tuesday, I took one of those “blue pills”, and ended up with a 4 day election ... 🤡
I had a very bad experience w/ a car warranty company. Long story short: they refused to pay, calling several parts “routine maintenance”, the very first claim, then it took six months and the state of Florida Insurance commissioner to get most of my $3,000 back. I do NOT recommend car extended warranty companies.
Wonderful CW, thanx, Kurt!! I did not know that about Ezra Pound. No write-overs for once! Very nice write-up, as usual, Boomer, thanx!
Thanks Boomer for your wonderful blog and the picture of you and your dedicated street.
To be even more appropriate, they should have a dedicated a Lane or a set of bowling Lanes, to you.
The puzzle was easy, I figured SMIT from Smite in the Bible.
Regarding your baseball card collection, maybe you should make arrangements to sell or dispose of it, while you're still in relatively good health. Either, to a set of other collectors or to a dedicated museum. Just a suggestion from someone who has a pretty big collection of something else.
Unfortunately, all collectors of yore, memorabilia tend to be other Old Men, who eventually Age, and Die and wither or dwindle away. Young collectors are very very rare. Go to any collector's shows or expositions and you can confirm that fact. Only other collectors or professional shops and agencies, appreciate the value of old memorabilia. Just a thought.
I'm with Boomer & Irish Miss. I never heard of SMIT.
I am aware that Shakespeare & the Elizabethans loved to chop off longer words, this making "bitten" into "bit" and "written" into "writ." Maybe this harks back to those olden days.
I join Misty in wishing R.I.P. DUSTY. I extend a figurative scratch behind the ears and those familiar words of canine love, "You good dog, you!"
As I remember, EZRA POUND was also a supporter, pal, and (unofficial?) editor of T.S. ELIOT.
~ OMK
___________
DR:. One diagonal, on the back end.
Keeping with the pzl's reference to DELLA STREET, this anagram mentions the small secluded pathway I used to live on in NW Massachusetts, the road we called...
"SERENE STREET"!
Not funny, but true.
Zip zoop and done, pausing only to squint at that weird looking SMIT.
When I was a student at Yale, one of our professors was from SETON Hall. I don't remember his last name but clearly remember his first name, which was Fred. He had a mannerism when lecturing that looked for all the world like he was sniffling all the time. We all called him Freddy the Sniff.
I have sometimes wondered why the clock in our car doesn't set itself, since our car definitely contains a GPS receiver for navigation. Maybe it's because there are also many models and trims that don't have navigation.
Hand up for thinking Light Emitting Diode at LED.
Boomer, excellent review. Thanks.
CED, excellent pictures. Thanks.
Chairman Moe, excellent joke about the little blue pill. Thanks.
Good wishes to you all.
Keith, was it this kind of Serenity
His son I noticed from an earlier link is the partner of MEARA
WC
Hi All!
Thanks Kurt for the Signs. [And I'll raise CED... :-)]
Fun Expo Boomer - loved the Mama Cass pic!
WOs: wrong Bore @66a; and REwind'd my clock.
ESP: SMIT (?)... [probably more ESPs but I was inkin' pretty quickly]
Fav: I'll go with ASH and maybe relate some baseball stories of my ute.
LAGER - EIN is one of three words I learned while on Army/NATO deployment for 2 weeks in Germany*. The other two were Bier and bitte.
SNL has had lull years but, with Jost & Che writing, I'll bet it'll still be edgy for a while. //anyone catch Jim Carrey's Biden - LOL! (you Google it - too political to post)
You know what's Better than EZRA? [3:10] :-)
Car? Warranty? Insurance? Oy!
Spitz - Youngest was also hit by a deer. The Ford Escort Hybrid was so old insurance just totaled it out. I got a $3k check but she got a 15k car(?!?) //and then she rear-ended another kid who stopped short...
Today, DW's Alfa Giulia seemed to lose power while she was on the freeway. I met her at the mall's parking lot, gave her my car (poor manual transmission :-)), had AAA tow it (on a flatbed) to the dealership, and Lyft'd it home. Thing is, I just (w/in last 3 weeks) paid $$$ for the maintenance! AS YET, they are still doing diagnostics.
WC - lighting nearby can do that. You'd think they'd put more EMP shielding [29:25 and more powerful than lightning (note: I didn't watch the whole thing)] around the electronics -- especially in a high-end car.
@2:21 - My old boss (last company -- not an old man (well, he is 55 :-)) is an avid collector of SciFi memorabilia and comic books (he has 7 of 8 first editions of [title] still in existence!). He has $$$$$$$ sitting in his spacious / shelved home office. I can't imagine what would be lost if a fire ensued. His goal is to open a store-front museum at some point.
Mark - cute 'TUN' of money.
Cute DR too OMK.
C.Moe - last line is hilarious.
Cheers, -T
*pretty cool - we built a field hospital in Germany in one day - x-ray machines and all!
Flying in the helicopter to the site, I saw many nuclear cooling towers.
Wilbur ~ No, NOT that kind of Serenity.
We would've sicc'ed the coppers on him so fast!
~ OMK
Going to apologize for my EMP link (Canada has preppers too?) - Yeah, I should have spent more time finding something better...
I'm fairly certain I've shared this sign I snap'd in Venice before.
Common CED... Whatcha got :-)
Cheers, -T
My best friend Evert Van Niekerek is a Boer.
As a biologist, Isomer was not a problem.
CED - Man,...
I had Cat Woman all cue'd up. For the challenge. #impishSmile
I saw that in a pub's Loo-room south of Florence.
I laughed my butt off when I saw this (Batman!) too.
//and I knew which door to go through!
Cheers, -T
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