Good morning, once again, cruciverbalists. After taking last week off to be the subject of an alien probe, this Manatee has once again put flipper to keyboard to recap a puzzle. The aliens, in turn, have continued to act a bit otherworldly. In the Manatee's last write-up, we shared a theme of Jumping Jacks and one of those Jacks was Jack Sprat. Well, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction as today our constructor, Jerry Edelstein, reveals today's theme to be none other than:
57. ACROSS - Nursery rhyme guy whose last name inspired the answers to starred clues?: JACK SPRAT.
Eerie coincidence aside, this was one of the more straightforward themes that we have seen in a while. All of the theme answers below are anagrams of SPRAT. That is, if Sprat is a "word". If SPRAT isn't a word then, per last week's comments, all the theme answers are Jumbles of S P R A T.
17. ACROSS *Helmet part: CHIN STRAP.
23. ACROSS *Diamond protectors: INFIELD TARPS.
35. ACROSS *Unlikely roles for mimes: SPEAKING PARTS.
46. ACROSS *Crustacean catchers: LOBSTER TRAPS.
ACROSS:
6. "Sistas" and "Being Mary Jane" cable channel: BET. The Black Entertainment Television networks.
9. Toaster, often: EMCEE. Were we duped, initially, to think of a kitchen appliance? In this instance, the TOASTER is the person who makes a toast to the Toastee.
14. Like Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis: ALONE. In 1927, at the age of twenty-five, Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York, USA to Paris, France. The flight took more than thirty-three hours and he did it ALONE in his plane which was named The Spirit of St. Louis. We could spend days, here, discussing the Spirit of Lindbergh, himself.
Charles Lindbergh
15. Former boxer Laila who wrote "Food for Life": ALI. Laila ALI is the daughter of Muhammad ALI. Nature or nurture?
Muhammad and Laila ALI
16. Ancient Greek physician: GALEN. Although he did not discover circulation, GALEN did discover that arteries carried blood.
1Claudius GALEN 129 AD - 210 AD
19. Pick at the polls: ELECT. More than enough has been written on this topic recently.
20. In __: as found: SITU. Latin for "on site" or "in position".
21. Tate Modern collection: ART. In its present incarnation, the Tate Modern was opened on May 11, 2000. It holds the national collection of British ART as well as international modern and contemporary ART.
22. Taj Mahal location: ASIA. Using this approach a virtually unlimited number of clues could be used for this answer. But, it cannot be denied that Agra is, indeed, located in ASIA. I first put in AGRA because that is where the Taj Mahal is located and two of the letters worked.
The Taj Mahal
28. Chip raw material: POTATO. Silicon would not fit. Both POTATO chips and Silicon chips have enriched this Manatee's life immensely.
30. Hosp. areas: ORS. Operating Rooms
31. Half a cocktail: TAI. One version of the classic Mai TAI is made with three types of rum (light, gold, and dark), pineapple juice and orange juice.
32. Neat as __: A PIN. Just how neat is a pin? The expression was originally meant as in "As neat as a new metal pin." That doesn't really explain much, does it?
33. Artist Yoko: ONO. Oh, no! ONO again!?
34. Scuttlebutt: DIRT. Scuttlebutt has a derivation similar to that of trading gossip (DIRT) around the office water cooler. Scuttlebutt is a nautical term for a cask used to serve drinking water on a ship.
39. Pol. units until 1991: SSRS. The Union of Soviet Socialist RepublicS was formed in 1922 and it dissolved in 1991. It's various components live on in crossword puzzles.
40. "The Sign" pop group __ of Base: ACE. A Swedish music group.
41. Start to commute?: TELE. The question mark tips us off that we are not to take this clue literally. Many people are TELEcommuting during the COVID crisis.
42. Previously: AGO. Did you know that The Rolling Stones covered "Going to A GO Go" ?
Next week, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cover "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy".
43. Polished off: ATE.
I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing
44. Sign usually seen at night: CLOSED.
50. Golfer Poulter or Woosnam: IAN. The first name of both gentlemen.
51. Hybrid Jamaican fruit: UGLI. An UGLI is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefuit. The name is a registered trademark. Would a competitor really wish to steal it?
Preparing to BRINE a Brisket
to Make Corned Beef
59. Gulps down: CHUGS.
60. Boat on a 40-day mission: ARK. What's a cubit?
Noah's ARK
61. Clinton running mate: KAINE. In 2016, Hillary Clinton's running mate was U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Did you remember the answer to this one? Perps came to the rescue for this solver.
62. Halley's __: COMET.
Halley's COMET
63. Grill fuel: GAS.
DOWN:
1. Brits' raincoats: MACS. Abbreviated version of a MACkintosh which is named for its Scottish inventor, Charles Macintosh. The K was added later.
2. Pre-college, briefly: ELHI. I have never heard this word used outside of crossword puzzles where it has appeared (too) many times.
3. "Stop stalling!": DO IT.
4. Recurring payments: ANNUITIES. To purchase ANNUITIES you pay a lump sum of money to an insurance company (or other issuer) and they guarantee to pay you periodic fixed sums of money that can last a lifetime.
5. Article in Elle France: LES. This Manatee never knows, until the perps, if it is going to be LES, CES, MES, or DES. There are other possibilities, also.
6. Spanish district: BARRIO. A BARRIO is a district of a town in Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries.
7. Get a big grin out of: ELATE. It means "to make someone happy".
8. Money left on the table: TIP. A bit of misdirection. As an expression relating to business dealings, to "leave money on the table" means not to take in money that is available. Here we are supposed to take the clue quite literally.
9. Expels: EGESTS. There will be no graphics for this one!
10. Former first daughter: MALIA.
Malia Obama
11. Proof of legal ownership: CLEAR TITLE. CLEAR TITLE means that there are no other claims on TITLE. This is one form of legal ownership but by no means the only form.
12. Continental trade gp.: EEC. The European Economic Community existed from 1958 until 2009 when the institutions of the EEC were absorbed into the European Union.
13. Sinus doc: ENT. Ear Nose and Throat specialist.
18. 1920s chief justice: TAFT. William Howard TAFT also served as President of the United States from 1909 - 1913. He is considered to have been the most obese U.S. President (and Chief Justice).
22. __ in the bucket: A DROP. "A DROP in the bucket" is an idiomatic expression that means an insignificant amount.
24. Grammy: NANA. Another bit of misdirection by the constructor. A Grammy Award? Nope. Grammy and NANA are synonyms for grandmother.
25. Word with Beach or Island: LONG. Valerie, and her sister Denise, hail from Rockville Center, LONG Island twenty five miles east of Manhattan. The City of LONG Beach lies South of Los Angeles.
The Long Island Sisters
26. Grammatically analyzed: PARSED.
27. Convene: SIT. Meet would not fit in the allotted space.
28. One way to earn $200: PASS GO. A reference to the game Monopoly which was first broadly marketed in 1935.
29. Cause of disgrace: OPPROBRIUM. I do not believe that I have ever before seen OPPRORIUM worked into in a crossword puzzle. Bravo, Jerry! The definition is "the public disgrace arising from someone's shameful conduct."
33. Number of Eagles' Super Bowl wins: ONE. The Bengals, Bills, Browns, Cardinals, Chargers, Falcons, Jaguars, Lions, Panthers, Texans, Titans and Vikings combined have ONE less Superbowl win than that.
34. Play the part of in costume: DRESS UP AS.
36. Beckinsale and Winslet: KATES. Coulda' had a hat trick with Hudson.
37. Bakery employee: ICER. Or, a hockey player hitting the puck over the center line and the opponent's goal line.
38. Resting on: ATOP.
A TOP
39. Cantina condiment: SAL. SAL is Spanish for salt. Cantina was the tip off for the use of a Spanish word as the answer.
43. Ideally: AT BEST.
44. Finally spills the beans: CRACKS. No, it's not a food service reference. Almost everyone CRACKS under enough pressure.
45. Slender: LANK. LANKy is seen in usage far more often.
47. Burn a bit: SINGE.
48. Crown: TIARA.
Miss Piggy Wearing A TIARA
52. Golf lesson subject: GRIP.
53. Country road: LANE.
54. Hwy. through San Antonio and Houston: I TEN. Interstate Highway TEN is 2,460 miles long and runs from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL.
55. Email option, briefly: BCC. When you Blind Carbon Copy someone they can see the email but their identity is concealed from the other recipients. The reference to Carbon Copy seems a bit archaic today.
56. Pi follower: RHO. All that I know about the Greek Alphabet, which is not much, I have learned from solving crossword puzzles.
57. Beemer rival: JAG. The clue and the answer are slangy terms for BMW and Jaguar automobiles, respectively.
58. Reggae Kin: SKA. SKA music is a bit "punchier" than Reggae music which evolved from SKA.
____________________________________________
___________________________________________
MM OUT
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis theme was so obvious that even d-o managed to get it. Have to admit, though, that when CHINSTRAP appeared, I thought the theme might be types of penguins. This one was just right for a mid-weeker. Thanx, Jerry and MalMan.
A DROP -- Yesterday we were able to remove the bucket from beneath the kitchen sink. Have to admit that d-o thought sink fittings were standard. Oops...back to the home center to pick up a couple of adapter fittings. Now it looks great, works great, and the cost of installation was just right.
ANNUITIES -- I get a small one from a one-time employer. Not enough to live on, but it covers groceries.
SAL -- Anybody else think of this product?
I-TEN -- I'll take a CSO for that one, along with a goodly number of other posters here. It runs about 30 miles south of us. My former employer has offices on the I-TEN feeder. (That's the official Texas term for a "frontage road.")
Fast and fun.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember Kaine at all.
25D Word with beach or island. NJ has a Long Beach Island resort.
I think we are past the glitch with the buyer. With David's help we have only one large closet to left pack besides the last minute items I need to use for the remainder of November. David certainly has been a big help and a big comfort. He is very organized and fast.
Fun puzzle. Perfect for a Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteOPPROBRIUM was all perps. Knew it couldn't be right, till it was.
Driving in swing state WI, I noticed this year many more POTUS signs than 2016. Got me thinking that I didn't remember ever seeing a Clinton/? sign. Took me about 20 miles to remember Tim Kaine.
AgaA before ASIA. Pilot before flyer before ALONE. All soon fixed.
Mark, you CW while driving? CWWD is PUNishable in most states.
DeleteThis was a pretty fast Thursday - NE corner was the slowest for me with CLEAR TITLE crossing with GALEN and not knowing which letters to fill in for EEC at first.
ReplyDeleteKAINE came pretty quickly because though he is from Virginia now, he grew up in my area of KC and went to my grade school and junior high.
Thanks MM and Jerry!
The week's trend continues. FIR! I suspected the theme with the second anagram TARPS, though it was fun to have the reveal be JACK SPRAT. Will we see him again soon?
ReplyDeleteLike inane hiker, I struggled most in the NE: GALEN and EGESTS were slow to come. I put in ASIA first, then had doubts, trying to fit AgrA in its place, before returning to ASIA. Lots of ink in that area. POTATO chip was a surprise. And my bucket had A hole in it before A DROP. On the whole a clean grid for a Thursday and the theme made for a faster solve. Thanks, Jerry. Glad to see you back, MalMan. Thanks for all you added to the puzzle.
Glad to hear things are going better for you, YR. Hope everyone keeps CHUGging along as the weekend nears. Have a good day!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThe theme became obvious early on after entering Chin Strap and Infield Tarps, but the revealer was a surprise and a clever one, to boot. Sprat may not be a word, per se, but it is a fictional character’s name, so I think it’s perfectly acceptable to anagram. I’d say the same about Rumpelstiltskin (sp?), too. Ha, Ha. I thought some of the cluing could have been toughened up to a Thursday level, but that’s a minor nit. My Lank started out as Thin and my Asia as Agra (Hi, MM), but other than that, smooth sailing.
Thanks, Jerry, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, MalMan, for a witty and informative summary, not to mention the links and visuals. Glad you’re back in fine fettle. (Whatever fettle might be!)
YR, fingers crossed that the sale stays on track and you’re worry free soon.
FLN
CED, you’re always welcome to join the Blood Mary celebrations, with or without the celery! Actually, I don’t like celery, raw or cooked.
OMK, sorry, no gags or guffaws to report from yesterday. We just chit-chatted about family, plans for the holidays, etc., and savored our delicious Bloody Marys. Our pizza was a disappointment, though. Who ever heard of putting goat cheese on pizza, on top of mozzarella, and arugula and prosciutto and Italian sausage? Oh well, cross that off my list.
Have a great day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-As MM mentioned in his fun write-up, this theme stood out like a brick in a punch bowl
-Extras usually have no SPEAKING ROLES because the production company would have to pay more
-RIBS – I finally told a guy in our teacher golf group who was way bigger than I am to QUIT!
-The astronomer is Sir Edmond “HAL lee”. The singer is Bill “HAY lee.”
-Part of teaching in Nebraska is contributing to your retirement. I now have two nice ANNUITIES
-MALIA and ELENA have joined YOKO here in Crossword Land
-PARSE – The EMCEE had to make the toast with a very old microphone
-Me gusta la SAL y la pimienta en mis huevos (I’m betting you can translate this on your own)
-“AT BEST” and “Ideally” don’t work as synonyms for me. “This policy is AT BEST confusing and at worst counterproductive.”
-Good for you YR! I’d rather move couches than deal with closets and clothes on hangers
"AT BEST" struck me as damning with faint praise as well.
DeleteFIR in a slogfest. The theme saved me on INFIELD___PS. Of course had AgrA first and also had mAI for a while. I would have thought that running for VP would be memorable, but not for me; I needed the perps.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Anonymous T's post of yesterday, responding to mine of yesterday:
ReplyDeleteFirst, don't worry about your words with me... There is no offense assumed or taken... I get confused, too! As noted, the related terminology goes places I haven't intellectually been very often... despite being a gay man and "in" the culture.
The way I understand things at the moment:
-- Cisgender means "at home" with the gender one was assigned at birth... as opposed to being "born" a male but feeling that one is in "in the wrong physical body", i.e., a female in all (most?) aspects (other than anatomical). (Or, vice-versa... born female anatomically but feeling like a male in most/all other aspects.
-- Homosexual means (primarily?) sexually attracted to those of one's own sex.
The difficulty often arises in distinguishing between "sex" and "gender", meaning "sex" (here) refers to anatomical characteristics, while "gender" refers to how one "identifies" - the psychological and emotional affinity with a particular gender. So, one can be of the male sex, but female gendered. Or, of course, vice-versa. (Or, equally "of course", of the male sex and male gendered, etc.)
-- Trans (short for "transsexual") refers to those who are NOT cis-gendered AND who seek to or do live their lives as one of the "opposite" gender (note: not as one of the opposite sex, necessarily, but as one of the opposite gender).
-- Cross-dressing is completely (?!?) different: Also called "transvestism" (which is the more PC term nowadays...) just means wearing clothes (hence the "vest" root in the word...) that are traditionally associated with a different gender. A boy wearing a dress, a girl wearing a necktie. It's no more than that. In fact, most male transvestites are cisgendered heterosexuals who simply enjoy wearing women's clothes... for a variety of reasons, one assumes.
So, gay cisgender = happy/comfortable within the gender assigned at birth (cisgender) and attracted to those of one's own anatomical sex. (That's me.) So, it's not "just homosexual", necessarily. One can be non-cisgendered (born male, but female by affinity) and heterosexual (in that example, sexually attracted to women, as a female-by-affinity).
So, yes, cisgendered heterosexual is a thing... it's the "thing" that the great majority of people ARE. Fluidity is another thing entirely... it must go without saying (but I'll say it anyway...!) that all of this terminology is "changeable" within any one person given that sexuality and gender can both be fluid throughout an individual's lifetime... the labels we're discussing apply at a given moment in time for some. (Give your daughter my regards! Good for her!)
The pronouns are a whole other ball of wax. That topic drives me nuts, so I'll leave it to someone else to sort out the pronouns. In essence, though, my understanding is that everyone gets to choose the pronouns he or she (!!!) wishes to have applied to him or herself.
Your friend who had surgery is definitely a non-cisgendered trans person. Not all non-cisgendered people are trans (wishing to display or live as the other gender despite feeling that they are more "of" that gender), nor do all take the step(s) of having their anatomy (sex) revised to match their gender (which is, in the current PC, hence called "reassignment" surgery or, even more PC, "gender-affirming" surgery).
I work the crossword and review this blog daily, but very seldom comment as I usually have nothing to add!. But, yesterday/today, I guess I did! I hope this helps sort things out for whomever is interested. And, if any of our homosexual, non-cisgendered, trans, and/or transvestite bloggers have corrections to what I've said, please let me know!
To Anon T, particularly: Thanks for asking! And, many best wishes to you and family!
Barry T.
Opprobrium? Oh really?? All perps for sure. Like others I had Agra before Asia, Mai before Tai, and lean before lank. I barely remember Kaine. Favorite clue was chip material. Last square was the crossing of SSRs and sal. In French it's sel for salt. My former neighbor owns a restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale called Sel. Didn't know what it meant til he told me. Looks like Arizona is one of just a couple states holding up the final outcome. Fingers crossed for XXXXX.
ReplyDeleteXXXXX reminds of that classic NYT puzzle that came out the morning BEFORE the '96 election, with one of the clues reading "The headline of tomorrow's newspaper (!)". The answer could be either "Bob Dole" or "Clinton" and worked with all the perps. A CW masterpiece. Here's the solution:
Deletehttp://www.alaricstephen.com/main-featured/2017/7/3/the-clintonbobdole-crossword
Bill
Barry T, holey moley!! I'm just very content to be a plain old garden variety boring old white guy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnother mostly easy puzzle. Thought we would have a penguin theme when CHIN STRAP filled in quickly. SPRAT put the kibosh on that. I also had Agra before ASIA. Only wite out was where I read a column number incorrectly. FIR.
CHIN STRAP - Very useful while you're on the open bridge in a gale, to keep your cap on. My first captain's gold chin strap was green (from the BRINy)
OPPROBRIUM - Kinda knew it but never used it because I didn't know how to spell it. Perps were generous today.
Manatee; Good intro.
BET was all perps, well once I got the B. Channels like various venues for pro sports have no place in the limited space that is my brain.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading a book about pre-1970 athletes by Bill Heinze. In the Floyd Patterson interview Ali is harshly criticized.
I wasn't sure if it was Acra or Agra. The former fit better but I coulda sworn the daughter was MALIA. ASIA! Aaarrrggghhh!!!! FIW. Very odd clueing, indeed.
I supported an IT System called ORS.
Stop MaloMan! I already have "Purple People Eater" working through my brain. No idea where that came from. Awoke with it.
Nope, but Gore wouldn't fit.
I had Lindbergh ALOFT but LES cancelled that.
There's the other half: EGESTS/EjEcts. And I knew GALEN. What a mess.
IM, I am equally horrified. Goat cheese??? Then again where can you get a decent pizza if your outside the major metropolitan areas. North End in Boston is excellent. I like Hawaiian.
Barry, very informative. You left out "Queer" which once was pejorative but (apparently) has a specific meaning. My post retirement annuity required shuttling passengers from airport to various Tampa Bay destinations. One was an LGBTQ "Convention"? and two strangers had a lively discussion where I first heard "Queer" in it's current context. I like that "fluid" is accepted vs the black and white Gay/Straight.
WC
If it is any consolation, WC, you have returned the "favor". When I was a child I had two small, stuffed creatures. One was of the One-eyed One-horned variety. The other, inexorably linked in my brain, now has Ooo Eee Ooo Ah Ah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang running through my head.
ReplyDeleteFinally a FIR. Almost.put award for MEDAL. the clue for IAN was more appropriate for a Saturday. Spills the beans? Isn't that more commonly "spills the tea?" Chip raw material? "Silicon" doesn't start with a P and end with an O...hmmm. how would Dan Quayle spell it? (Nice misdirection.) Didn't know LANK was an adjective....lanky?
ReplyDeleteA JAG uses lots of GAS. INFIELD TARPS. What do they use in the outfield? One guess.
OPPROBRIUM...aren't we gettin fancy ! But IMHO using real words like that rather than a bunch of obscure proper names that are googled just for fill makes for a real old timey crossword. Its a test of vocabulalry not expertise in some field or foreign language. Just sayin'.
ELHI back to haunt us.... So a pre-grad school must be ELHICOL (sounds like a new plant based fuel)
Malman great illustrated narrative. Did Noah snap that picture just before loading up?
GALEN....Amazing that with all the battle injuries the ancients couldnt figure out that the heart pumped blood thru the arteries until the 1500s
Snare for cheap goods : CHINSTRAP
Repeated three times, start of a round....RHO
What Tarzan uses to hold up his loincloth.....APIN
Forced to go with Dw to the paint store 3 times to change a color I see no difference in. (sorry, in which I see no difference)
Barry T.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post.
I have 2 female to male trans friends. One is married to a woman and are raising the child he had before he transitioned. The other is bisexual. Have had very enlightening conversations with both.
Joseph, Joseph, Joseph! the reason we had only one comment by 8:30 is how long it took to read your comprehensive write-up. By the time I finished, I had forgotten the puzzle. I had to back and reconsider my reactions. I also forgot to hit send, again!
ReplyDeleteFirst, Opprobrium appears to be introduced to any American crossword with today's effort. Nice catch. A nice word, but it is too political. I would not wish to suffer the opprobrium of this caused by more detail.
Second, from yesterday- thank all of you who enjoyed my grandchildren hamming it up for Halloween. I personally was a little taken back at how completely Harper slid into the vampire role. Those eyes...
Third, Tim who?
Fourth. Barry T., I am very pleased you feel comfortable sharing here. One of the things C.C. has tried to accomplish is for all of us to be ourselves without generating personal attacks. Life is not simple.
Fifth, ASIA was diabolical in its simplicity.
Great job Jerry and MalMan
SPILL THE BEANS About 10,600,000 results (0.96 seconds).
ReplyDeleteSPILL THE TEA About 37,700,000 results (0.72 seconds).
I have never heard of spill the tea, but apparently "The expression appears to have originated in American black drag culture: It appears that T, also spelled tea, had a double-edged meaning." Live and learn
Yeah, I think T was just legalized in 5 states.
DeleteTerrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Jerry and MalMan.
ReplyDeleteI saw TRAP immediately and kept circling it as I filled in the themers. Then I got to the reveal and saw that S was part of the theme - SPRAT not TRAP. (I did think that TRAP theme was kind of lame with LOBSTER TRAPS.) NE was the last to fall.
Did anyone enter ASIA first? Agra seemed to be a given until EGESTS and MALIA appeared.
I also changed Ere to AGO.
I waited to decide between Mai and TAI, ERS or ORS.
My "recurring payments" started out as ANNUal ___ until POTATO changed them from outgoing to ingoing to my bank account.
Of course, this Canadian did not know your cable company, BET, or that 2016 candidate, KAINE (but I see even Americans have forgotten him); I had enough perps to WAG TAFT.
Today we do not sear or char; we SINGE.
JAG crossed GAS, but that ARK just floated on top.
I noted I-TEN, ONE (crossing ONO) and ALONE. Also we had acting with SPEAKING PARTS and DRESSED UP AS (appropriate after Halloween).
OPPROBRIUM (from the Latin for infamy) ELATEd me. Lemonade, I fail to see how the word is too political? Perhaps only if the shoe fits?? (I will leave AnonT to link the death metal band from Louisiana!)
PASS GO also brought a smile.
But the biggest smile came when I saw 39D "Cantina condiment". I entered Sel (French salt) before realizing that cantina required the Spanish SAL (and changing Ere to AGO as noted previously). At least today, the condiment was not GRAVY (or Maple Syrup-horrors!)
Thanks BarryT for our learning moment today.
YR - glad the packing is progressing with your son's help.
Even we Canadians are waiting with bated breath to see who you Americans have 19Aed.
Wishing you all a great day.
I knew of Kaine right away ... the bloody fratricidal murderer who killed Able !
ReplyDeletePresumably, after killing Able, he Was Able, ere he saw Elba. Good for him.
Sincere Thanks to Barry T. for his ( her?) long and detailed disquisition, on the various sex(es) and gender(s), all possible permutations and combinations, that has made everything, suddenly, very lucid and crystal clear in my ancient, muddled, mundane mind.
Everything you wanted to know about sexual transpositions and variations, but were afraid to ask.
Clarity, thy source is Wit. Or something like that.
I'm so glad that sexuality is not a taboo on this blog.
So, to parse and reiterate ...
A Trans-gendered Heterosexual is also equivalent to a Cis-gendered Homosexual, is it not?
This is even better than complex Algebra, in that, not only two negatives makes a positive, but two positives can also make a negative.
And Fluidity would be the fourth dimension, of Time on the length, breadth and depth, i.e. space Axes.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks MalMan! Nicely done with the narrative and interesting graphics.
TAFT is special in my opinion because he signed Arizona into the Union back in 1912. Until then we were part of a territory. I also recalled Tim KAINE who ran as Hilary Clinton's VP.
I lived in the BARRIO until the age of 13 and when my mother bought her house in a formerly forbidden part of the city I was shocked at the restrictions written into the deed. Obviously they were nullified by then but no one of a minority race was permitted to buy according to the original terms.
OPPROBRIUM is usually part of some liturgical writings seen during the season of Lent.
Hand up for AGRA before ASIA. MALIA caused that change.
LANK crossing JACK SPRAT made me smile.
Thanks to Jerry Edelstein for today's fun!
Have a wondrous day, everyone!
What a great puzzle. Thanks, Jerry. I agree with Ray O that using words like OPPROBRIUM and other vocabulary workouts is much more satisfying than the trivia contests with lots of pop culture names. It was very satisfying to FIR without much struggle. Clever misdirections
ReplyDeleteSuch as POTATO added to the fun.
Barry, thanks so much for your explanation of a topic which has become confusing, to say the least with regard to terminology. I’m printing it out for future reference.
Like others, I fell into the Agra trap before ASIA, Lean for LANK and Aloft for ALONE (that was a real teaser since the ALO.. sucked me in before perps bailed me out).
Thanks MalMan for a great tour.
Hopefully, by tomorrow we can mark this lmterminable campaign FINIS!
Lucina...as a kid I remember my granparents displayed an American flag on national holidays with 46 stars. They immigrated in 1911 before Arizona and New Mexico became states.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteQuestion: If a male Trans-gendered Homo-sexual Transvestite ....
was dressing appropriately to attract a willing equivalent partner, amenable to its fluidity, what costume would it be appropriately analogous to wear ?
These are the sort of questions that they should really be asking on Jeopardy.
MM, re 60A. I was always taught that a "cubit" was defined as "the distance between the King's elbow and the tip of his forefinger. It was later replaced by the yard and the meter because it was too variable. Besides, Kings didn't exist in Noah's day, so how did he know how long it was?
ReplyDelete29D Got OPPROBRIUM after a few perps, but a helper like "heaped" would have helped. There is a whole lot of it going around these days.
55D a lot of definitions replace "carbon" with "courtesy" these days. Prefixing it with "blind" doesn't seem very courteous to me, at least the further removed I become from office politics.
Bill
Well, Thursday puzzles are always a bit crunchy for me, but still a pleasure, like this one. So, many thanks, Jerry--and MalMan, your visuals are always just wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI remembered that Laila was ALI's daughter, but couldn't remember Clinton's running mate. You'd think I'd remember politics better than boxing. Oh, yes, I also got those two KATES. Struggled and struggled to get OPPROBRIUM, but it fell into place in the end. TIARA was easy, and it was also fun to get UGLI.
Have a great day, everybody.
With 8d TIP firmly in place,
ReplyDeleteI would have BET anything the Cable station was TNT...
Learning Moment:
India is in Asia?
Methinks the MapMakers have been moving the furniture
around in Helen Kellers house again...
Irish Miss, No Celery? (Sigh...)
I understand, everyone has different tastes.
But it makes me wonder what your Tuna Salad recipe is...
Feta? on a Pizza? Well, I guess you could,
but it just doesn't seem right...
(hmm, Blue cheese? I wonder...)
2nd learning moment, Opprobrium.
but how to use it?
Lemon, Opprobrium is too Political?
3rd learning moment, Sprat is also a fish...
(& sometimes an Actor...)
You "heap" it on your opponents.
DeleteE.g. In the Scarlet Letter it was heaped upon Hester Prynne. Nowadays it often gets heaped on anyone with whom one disagrees.
DeleteGood morning. An easy Thursday puzzle with only BET & ACE of Base being unknowns solved by perps. I know the order of the ABCs but not after alpha-zeta until I get to omega.
ReplyDeleteIt took a while for OPPROBRIUM to fill, even though I knew it. It's in short supply, as in, the crooks have 'paid their debt to society'. They are still crooks. In Germany the press isn't even allowed to publish the names of criminals.
ANNUITIES- other than shielding a person from lawsuits there's a reason nobody looks to buy one of those on their own; they have to be sold to those who don't know any better. High commissions and your money is tied up with surrender charges.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteWEES said about AGRA/ASIA. WC, I also had SEL/SAL and ALOFT/ALONE. 5-down? I “eat and drink” French, but I will never figure out their language or remember common French words. And yes, EL HI is getting to be trite as xword fill; I swear I’ll never use it in one of my puzzles ... unless of course it’s the only letters that’ll fit! 🤡
INFIELD FLY RULE I know; INFIELD TARPS seemed forced. But that’s a small nit to pick
CED —> loved the OPPROBRIUM links!
GALEN/EGESTS/EEC all fell as WAGS after doing an alphabet run
Without getting political, (I too couldn’t recall KAINE until after the perps filled it in) I’ve often wondered why a presidential candidate doesn’t choose someone more well-known, and perhaps duly qualified to replace them, if needed, as their running mate? Pence, Kaine, Palin, were all a couple of head scratchers.
MM —> glad to have you back on Thursday. Jerry Edelstein, good use of the anagrams
D'Oh! J in Ejects (9d) stayed even after AGRA->ASIA changed. FIW.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
MManatee - What an expo & LOL "What's a cubit?"
//dare I link Cosby?
Thanks Jerry for the puzzle - OPPROBRIUM(?) impressive.
//What's up w/ the politics Rich? H.Ross the other day and now KAINE? Just trying to make us remember the losers?
WOs: NE corner is a mess. Started Breaks b/f CRACKS
ESPs: OPPROBRIUM, jELEN[sic], IAN as clued
Fav: I'll go with KATEs (CSO to DW - right, TTP? :-))
BarryT - thanks for the info.
Most of my friends in the Hacker Community will tell me straight up "it's [him|her|tey|they|etc]." I try to respect their wish but sometimes have a pronoun slip.
WC - Pineapple?!? I'm kidding, it's good w/ Canadian Bacon on a pie. My go-to is "sweep the kitchen" + anchovies. Anchovies keep everyone else away from my leftovers :-)
C, Eh! - I had to Google it. Ah, yes I knew them as Incubus in the '90s.
CED - thanks for more time-killing links! :-)
Back at it. I was off for 4 days to spend time with Eldest. >500 emails in my inbox and, apparently, no one was watching the ticket queue. Returning from PTO sucks :-(
Cheers, -T
Thanks for your suggestions re suv swerving into the adjacent right lane. Per your advice, I had it realigned plus brakes and tires checked. One week later, steering wheel is occasionally strongly pulling to the left while on the freeway. Not an automatic lane adjustment.. Any further suggestions would be appreciated.
DeleteDouble D'Oh! - This is the Incubus video I meant to link.
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
-T - I am pleased to learn that someone (perhaps many more, perhaps not) picked up on the reference. Of course, it leads inevitably to the deeper existential question of "Why is there air"?
ReplyDeleteNot a fan with authors getting that cute with three- and four-letter fill. So ASIA instead of AGRA rankled my feathers, but no big deal. On par with violating the OTROS/OTRAS unwritten rule.
ReplyDeleteBob
One of the current heap-ees out there is Jack SParrow(aka Johnny Depp) for a domestic altercation
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Feta was Goat Cheese.
Interesting that Laila and Malia are more familiar than Tim KAINE. Next to Saturday's xword(typically hard) is the usually to easy xword which is a bit of a challenge on Saturday. The clue for CAIN was early farmer. Do I have to reread my Genesis?
Now Friday is harder even than the typical. I got baticked in an unusual culinary corner which I hope I successfully WAG'ed my way out of.
I have the answers but I'll recheck before reading the write-up.
In a bypass-ops conversation I was informed that my lovely and most skillful heart surgeon was "once a HE!". My response? "I'd choose her/him again"
WC
Ps, -T? Cosby! Talk about OPPROBRIUM
Irish M ~. Well, thanks for remembering--and for trying. I admit I am disappointed, but you are entitled to your privacy (no matter how dull... )
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your pizza was all that bad. Or was it the combination of pizza with Bloody Marys? I mean, how much tomato can a palate absorb?
Your revulsion at the goat cheese reminds me of the national bias that sometimes prevails when creating pizza.
Some decades ago my wife and I were driving along the coast from Italy into France. One day we stopped on the Italian Riviera for pizza and it was deliziosa!
Two days later, after we crossed into France, we saw pizza advertised again--and stopped to try it. Bad idea. Somehow jambon lacks the flavor of prosciutto. But the worst was the substitution of gruyere for mozzarella. We had the smooth creamy taste of the Italian cheese in mind as we bit into the French attempt.
How sad we were that day! When heated, gruyere forms into little granules, tasteless and gritty.
Sheeesh...
Funny. I thought of EJECT but somehow knew it would be wrong so saved myself some extra ink.
~ OMK
___________
DR: A 3-way on there far side.
Let's look at the central diagonal--PARSED here it for its anagram:
Poor Odysseus!
Homer recounts his long, long voyage home after the conquest of Troy.
Among other hindrances to smooth sailing we read of episodes dominated by Calypso, by Circe, and by the Sirens, each of them a great delay in Odysseus' return to his loving wife, Penelope, and home.
We know there were multiple Sirens, but who today recalls how many different Calypsos laid claim to Odysseus' time?
How many sorceresses did he encounter before he had to deal with (here it comes) his...
"NINETIETH CIRCE"?!
(a 14-letter anagram!)
Thanx Jerry for a fun Thursday CW!! And thanx MM for the wonderful write-up. Last to fill was NE, as AGRA was just stuck in my head for the longest time. OPPROBRIUM is a new word for me. SSRS took I while to turn on the light bulb over my head. Overall a pleasure, with just the one write-over (AGRA:ASIA).
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I surprisingly got the theme and reveal early, but things did go south later.
ReplyDeleteHad ERS before ORS. One of my planespotter buddies was in an OR this morning. We’re waiting for an update.
SSRS didn’t even occur to me, and I didn’t know SAL or OPPROBRIUM. Seems like a highfalutin way to say, “Shame!”
Never heard of ACE. Perps got it.
Remembered KAINE, because among my bad habits is political junkie. I’m just not a very good one. I was pretty sure it was, “K”, but then I got to fighting with my other self and put in “C” anyway, just so I would miss it. I hate it when that happens! Didn’t know SKA anyway.
Beautiful downtown Clodine is three miles south of I-10. There are portions of it west of downtown Houston (lovingly referred to as the Katy Freeway) where it is 26 lanes wide! At 2,460 miles, it is the fifth longest interstate highway in the US. I think the only part of I-10 that I have NOT driven is the 260 miles between Phoenix and Palm Desert. The rest of it --- MANY, MANY TIMES! The maximum speed limit is 80 MPH, between the Kerr and El Paso County lines. Lash the steering wheel, set the cruise control, and take a nap. (NO, not really, but there are portions where it looks like one could!)
Lemon, with my poor excuse for a memory, I have to jot down my comments in a Word document as I read the other comments. I even make notes to myself alongside the grid, as I’m trying to solve the puzzle.
Chairman Moe ---Also, without being political, all three you mentioned were former governors. I assume the thinking was that a former governor would have an easier transition, should he or she have to assume the presidency.
My sister is a trans, but I find the whole pronoun touchiness difficult. If what we should use is what each individual prefers to be called, especially if they don't look or act like their preferred gender, it is easy to make unintentional mistakes. If the use of the wrong pronoun is mocking, of course it is wrong. If you are describing what your little brother did when he said he was a little boy, should you recall the incident with a "she"? I believe the hurt taken should be in proportion to the intent. So many PC hurts are totally unintentional. When someone hurts me in any way and I find it is unintentional I am very relieved and give the person a pass.
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle and solved it relatively quickly. Love all the anagrams of SPRAT. Also liked the character Spratt in Downton Abbey, so well played by Jeremy Swift. (I wonder why his name and character are nowhere to be found in the various lists of cast members.)
ReplyDeleteHand up for putting in AGRA at first, and for waiting for the perp to determine MAI or TAI, ERS or ORS. Also hand up for not remembering who Clinton's running mate was, although after solving the puzzle I do now remember him.
How the heck is the word OPPROBRIUM, a wonderful crossword word, too political?
Would the word IDIOT in a crossword puzzle be too political? (It's been in the LAT puzzle many times.)
Good wishes to you all.
I forgot to mention that the local Fry's Electronics store used to be jokingly referred to as a good one-stop-shop place to get both POTATO chips and silicon chips.
ReplyDeleteI always get a kick out of all of the impulse buy food items that Fry's places along the path to the checkout counters. The local Fry's looks like a ghost town these days and, from what can be learned online, that is not an anomaly.
ReplyDeleteMalMan:
ReplyDeleteDo you ever to go Fry's on a first Wednesday, which is senior 10% discount day? It's a clash of carts! I go to the one on Miller and Indian School Road though in the past I have gone to the one on McDowell and 77th St but that one is a disaster.
Lucina - I have been known to go to Ross on Senior Tuesdays but I have not intentionally checked out Fry's on that day. Here in California the 10% discount just covers the sales tax. The Fry's I shop at is in Woodland Hills, CA and the shelves have been quite empty the last several times I have gone in.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Fry's here is cavernous, empty.
ReplyDeleteOPPROBRIUM seems to have stirred a lot of touchy reaction.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, it has my vote for being a favorite word, a comfortable, euphonious word.
Pleasant to say, even though it suggests an unpleasant context.
Some words are just fun to pronounce. Like "Zimbabwe."
It is a word for deep sounding.
Not quite a Tuba. In an orchestra, I'd assign it to the Bassoon.
~ OMK
Ol'Man Keith, I enjoy reading of your points of view, as for how words sound, for example. I enjoy your observations because I see quite a few things the same way as you do. Not all, of course, as your background and mine differ in many ways too.
ReplyDeleteSo, Misty, I gather the issues you were having with that one eye of yours healing after the cataract surgery are fully resolved now and your vision is excellent now? Also, how's that Prevagen working out for you? Do you feel any different? How can you tell if it's working?
OMK said: "Some words are just fun to pronounce. Like "Zimbabwe.""
ReplyDeleteFor me, too. 'phantasmagoria' comes to mind.
In German: Gemütlichkeit (coziness) and Frucht (fruit).
in L. German: Schü (gravy). [drag out that u umlaut] Also Lüüd (people)
in Dutch: veroveraar (conquerer)
OMK - I can eat lots of tomatoes (I love a floating salad - we call it dunkie: dip your bread into!) in a sitting but that's Italian for you.
ReplyDeleteFun DR.
LeoIII - Seemingly longest trip ever was after Basic: El Paso -> San Antonio on I-TEN.
Forty 18yros on a bus and one us bribed* the driver to pull over and get beer. After 8 weeks of no booze most of us were out after 3 cans.
I slept for a while but we were still >3 hours out when I woke!
YR @4:32 - moving with grace...
Did the buyer come back to the table?
Moving to Houston from OK, I was so excited there was a Fry's near(ish) [Southwest Freeway & Belt). They had all the nerd toys, Jolt cola, and POTATO chips!
Last time I was there (year ago(?)) it looked like Radio Shack in their last throes...
D-O: Feeder-roads are amazing! Especially, if you've tried to get around in California or Boston... //There's no room to exit!
For no one asking for it - ACE of Base.
I kinda remember them from the '90s.
Cheers, -T
*not really sure how it happened --I just remember a cooler full of beer getting dragged on the bus.
Dash-T, I'll see your Ace of Base with an Ace Which I dredged up today out of boredom while waiting for election results.
ReplyDeleteIsn't pompas ass redundant?
ReplyDeleteAveJoe - thanks for the tune.
ReplyDeleteYoungest just came out with some memes on her iPhone re: Election Count:
Echibit A.
Exhibit B. //Blues Clues for those that don't know. She watched when she was a 5yro.
I'm trying to stay off-line and watch PBS's mystery night but...
Cheers, -T
Buyer is a nervous Nellie. This is her first house of her own. She questions and drags everything out to be extra sure. I think it will work out.
ReplyDeleteWilbur Charles @ 3:48: -
ReplyDeleteGenesis 4:2 - Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
>>Roy
Sasses, pulling to one side when driving (not braking) is almost always an alignment problem. But you said you dealt with that. So...?
ReplyDelete~ The earth's rotation on its axis really makes my day...
SASSES,
ReplyDeleteHave you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in again? :>)