Theme: LET'S HANG OUT. Here is today's theme song from my first trombone idol. It's only 1 minute 38 seconds.
All the theme elements except the unifier are vertical, and that means something, as we shall soon see.
3 D. Blood-drinking mammal: VAMPIRE BAT. They are pretty nasty looking, and I couldn't find a suitable pic of one hanging, but it is what they do, so use your imagination.
5 D. High light: CHANDELIER. A ceiling- mounted light fixture that light hangs, shedding its light from above.
7. D Spelunking sight: STALACTITE. A hanging formation formed by the solidification of a dripping liquid. I limestone caves these are mineral formations resulting from the drip of dissolved material from the ceiling. Icicles are also stalactites, though rather more short-lived
9 D. Support for Tarzan: JUNGLE VINE. Or, for George, though not without its mishaps. Anyway something for a swinger to hang onto.
51. Loitering ... or how 3-, 5-, 7- and 9-Down might be seen?: HANGING AROUND. Loitering is a less literal version of hanging. More literally, It's the only thing these danglers have in common.
Hi, gang, JazzBumpa here to hang out with you for a while. There's a puzzle waiting so let's get down to it.
Across:1. It may break and crash: WAVE. The ocean variety
5. It has an eye on TV: CBS. Network logo for the Columbia Broadcasting System.
8. Slightly open: AJAR.
12. Sea that's a victim of irrigation projects: ARAL. It keeps shrinking.
13. Water park feature: CHUTE. SLIDE also fits. Either way, you travel down in or on it.
15. Heavyweight fight?: SUMO. Japanese wrestlers
16. Capital founded by Pizarro: LIMA. Peru.
17. They may draft briefs: PARAS. PARA-legal, I assume.
18. Saloon door's lack: KNOB. Swings both ways.
19. Civil War topper: KEPI. A cap with a flat top and visor of French origin, typically associated with a military organization. Read more here.
20. Tattoo joint?: ANKLE. Flexing body part, not a tattoo parlor. I guess ankles probably get more tattoos than knees.
20. Tattoo joint?: ANKLE. Flexing body part, not a tattoo parlor. I guess ankles probably get more tattoos than knees.
21. Folklore monster: OGRE.
22. Move furtively: SLINK.or SKULK
24. "Breaking Bad" org.: DEA. The Drug Enforcement Administration is tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S.
24. "Breaking Bad" org.: DEA. The Drug Enforcement Administration is tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S.
25. Verne who created Nemo: JULES. In the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
26. Dodger rival of shortstop Rizzuto: REESE. Harold Peter Henry "Pee Wee" Reese (1918 - 1999) played for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and then L.A. from 1940 to 1958. He was a 10-time all-star and inducted into the Hall of fame in 1984. Philip Francis Rizzuto (1917 – 2007) played for the Yankees from 1941 t0 1956. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1994
28. Bucket of bolts: CRATE. Derisive terms for a decrepit automobile.
30. "Evita" narrator: CHE. Ernesto "Che" Guevara [1928-1967] was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
30. "Evita" narrator: CHE. Ernesto "Che" Guevara [1928-1967] was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
32. Gummy bear ingredient: GELATIN. Of course.
34. YouTube clip, for short: VID. Video for long.
37. Prefix with call: ROBO-. An automated telephone call which delivers a recorded message, typically on behalf of a political party or telemarketing company. And the reason why I let all call from unrecognized callers go to the answering machine. They rarely leave a message.
39. Meek: TIMID. Showing a lack of courage or confidence.
40. Tubes on the table: ZITI. Extruded pasta tubes, usually with square cut ends.
40. Tubes on the table: ZITI. Extruded pasta tubes, usually with square cut ends.
41. Sonicare rival: ORAL-B. Makers of electric tooth-brushes.. They are especially useful if you have electric teeth.
43. Get into a stew?: EAT. Here indicating something you can chow down on. Odd though, since the stew actually gets into you.
44. One who digs hard rock: MINER. Ore retriever who might or might not also be a head banger.
45. Wedding reception hiree: CATERER. One who supplies food and the necessary accessories.
47. Pressing: EXIGENT. Demanding and immediate. I had to look it up.
49. Catch a bug, say: AIL. Have an illness. I have a vaccine appointment on Saturday.
50. Energy unit: ERG. A tiny unit. One of my professors defined this as the amount of energy it takes for one fly to do one push-up
58. Magic prop: WAND. A long, thin stick, or rod.
59. Tech company that became a verb: XEROX. A brand name for copying machines that morphed into a verb for making copies.
60. Source: ROOT. That from which something comes.
62. Harper's Bazaar designer: ERTE. Roman Petrovich Tyrtov [1892-1990] had an illustrious career that included designing costumes and stage sets. Between 1915 and 1937, Erté designed over 200 covers for Harper's Bazaar, and his illustrations would also appear in such publications as Illustrated London News, Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, and Vogue.
63. Absurd: INANE. Silly
64. Swear to be true: AVOW.
65. Tap serving: BEER. Or ALES. Good either way
66. California's Point __ National Seashore: REYES. A peninsula north-west of the Golden Gate with a vast expanse of protected coastline in Northern California’s Marin County with both beaches and a rocky headland.
64. Swear to be true: AVOW.
65. Tap serving: BEER. Or ALES. Good either way
66. California's Point __ National Seashore: REYES. A peninsula north-west of the Golden Gate with a vast expanse of protected coastline in Northern California’s Marin County with both beaches and a rocky headland.
67. Cook Islands export: TARO. Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corms.
Down:
1. Constitutional events: WALKS. Going out for a walk, especially to get fresh air and exercise, often referred to the activity as "taking a constitutional walk." The word "constitutional" refers to one's constitution or physical makeup, so a constitutional walk was considered beneficial to one's overall wellbeing. (Or, as some would prefer to call it, "wellness.") The phrase is more common in British literature than in American letters. Source.
2. Disney mermaid: ARIEL.
4. "Seinfeld" regular: ELAINE.
6. Delta of "Designing Women": BURKE.
8. Try to date: ASK OUT.
10. Love, to Luigi: AMORE. Literal, in Italian.
11. Judicial attire: ROBES. Makes them look judicial, I suppose.
13. One working on bks.: CPA. A Certified Public Accountant works on financial records.
14. Linguistic suffix: -ESE.
23. It may be tapped: KEG. For BEER or ale.
25. Fifth of 12, alphabetically: Abbr.: JAN. When arranged this way, April, August, December and February precede January. Not sure why anyone would do this.
27. Place for shooting stars?: SET. With movie cameras.
29. Free (of): RID. out, out, damned spot.
30. Shoe that's full of holes: CROC. Confuse them with gaiters at your peril.
31. Dance that may involve a chair: HORA. Though not always, it seems.
33. Reddit Q&A session: AMA. Ask Me Anything.
35. Cal.-to-Fla. highway: I-TEN. It spans 2460 miles from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL
36. Gossip: DIRT. I can dig it.
38. Poisonous flowering shrub: OLEANDER.
40. Terraced structure of ancient Mesopotamia: ZIGGURAT. A terraced structure of successively receding levels,
35. Cal.-to-Fla. highway: I-TEN. It spans 2460 miles from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, FL
36. Gossip: DIRT. I can dig it.
38. Poisonous flowering shrub: OLEANDER.
40. Terraced structure of ancient Mesopotamia: ZIGGURAT. A terraced structure of successively receding levels,
42. Naval lockup: BRIG. Shipboard jail.
44. Surrealist Joan: MIRO. Joan Miró Ferra [1893 - 1983] was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist.
46. Magical potion: ELIXIR.
48. Persian king: XERXES. [c. 518 – August 465 BCE,] commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC.
51. "__ Trigger": Bugs Bunny cartoon: HARE. Not sure why I can't come up with the full cartoon. Here are the beginning and end.
51. "__ Trigger": Bugs Bunny cartoon: HARE. Not sure why I can't come up with the full cartoon. Here are the beginning and end.
52. Stud fee, maybe: ANTE. Stud poker, not what you're thinking.
53. Hawaiian goose: NENE. Found only in Hawaii and crosswords.
53. Hawaiian goose: NENE. Found only in Hawaii and crosswords.
54. Anatomy book author Henry: GRAY. Gray's Anatomy is a textbook of human anatomy written by Gray and illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter. It was first published in 1858.
55. Five-star: A-ONE. First rate.
56. Smoked salmon: NOVA. The name for this salmon comes from its origin, in Nova Scotia, Canada, where salmon is cured and then cold smoked. The color is a much deeper pink, almost a burnt orange, compared to other cured salmon. The fish flavor is also a bit more intense than lox or gravlax.
56. Smoked salmon: NOVA. The name for this salmon comes from its origin, in Nova Scotia, Canada, where salmon is cured and then cold smoked. The color is a much deeper pink, almost a burnt orange, compared to other cured salmon. The fish flavor is also a bit more intense than lox or gravlax.
57. Cuckoo clock feature: DOOR. Whence commeth the bird.
58. Baseball glove part: WEB.
61. Vegas snake eyes: TWO. A pair of one-spot dice.
Thanks for hanging out today, friends. Hope you enjoyed it.
Cool regards!
Cool regards!
JzB
48 comments:
The Tower of Babel was the consummate ZIGGURAT,
To reach to Heaven from where she sat.
Men couldn't fly,
Which is why
They couldn't get to Heaven like a VAMPIRE BAT!
It wasn't EXIGENT that he go right now,
So he was HANGING AROUND to get some chow.
He wove some JUNGLE VINES
And lost track of the time,
Which is why he was late, he did AVOW!
{B-, B.}
Good morning!
Got 'er done in good time. Is it a C or a G? Slowed me down with STALACTITE. Wite-Out-free day, so that's a winner in my book. Thanx, Bryant and JzB. Is this Bryant's debut, or have I been remiss in noticing him before?
JULES: Many people think "20,000 leagues" refers to depth. Nope.
AIL: Dw got her second Covid vaccine yesterday after we snaked around a 3-mile course. It took four hours door-to-door. Dw says it was worth it.
WALKS: We take a daily constitutional -- 3 miles around the 'hood every morning, provided the temp is above 40°. Yeah, we're wimps.
NÉNÉ: Non-migratory and endangered.
This one played very hard for me. Never heard of 40D, so all letters had to be perps. I knew the names for a change, so that helped.
Once I grok'ed "Constitutional" it was a WALK in the park.
I never even saw BEER but remembered ALES from previous until I checked back. N. slowed me down and I worked around it and saw ACT thus the cave HANGer.
Soon as I saw "trombone" I knew it was JazzB who didn't disappoint. I welcome Bryant for a crisp, clear Wednesday offering.
WC
A tough puzzle for a Wed. starting with 1D- never heard of a constitutional WALK. Then I wanted SLIDE instead of CHUTE until I noticed the SD start for STALACTITE.
The WAG to fill the cross of two unknowns- EXIGENT & ZIGGURAT- finished the puzzle.
PARAS- without the perps I would have never filled it as it made no sense to me.
NOVA- had to look at it a long time before I left it on the grid. New to me.
GRAY's Anatomy- never knew his first name.
AMA- Never clicked on Reddit so that was an unknown. Until the GameStop 'short squeeze' a couple of weeks ago I really knew nothing about Reddit and aren't interested enough to check it out.
Another AMA. It is 16.6 miles from my house to AMA, Louisiana. Population 1172.
D-O:
StalaCtite C=ceiling
StalaGtite G=ground
John E--The correct spelling is Stalagmite--M not T. I also use the C/G to remember the two types, so great that you reminded folks.
At first I had CEILING FAN for 5D which held me up for quite a while.
I loved ZIGGURAT and EXIGENT and ELIXER and XERXES. Quite unusual words for a puzzle. I was surprised I actually knew them.
AMA for Ask Me Anything was new to me--Never been on REDDIT.
And I finally learned recently that GRAY is used more in the USA, and GREY in the U.K.
Good morning everyone.
Fun puzzle to solve. Fresh fill, somewhat elusive cluing. Liked seeing (Delta) BURKE. (Love Annie Potts in Young Sheldon.). Also liked ZIGGURAT. More X's and J's than usual. No erasures - - FIR.
Good Morning:
I liked the theme and always like it when the themers are vertical because, IMO, the gimmick is usually less obvious until the reveal clue/answer, making the solve more of a challenge. I liked the cute duos of Door/Knob, Xerox/Xeres, Beer/Keg, and Miro/Erte. I had Nast before Erte, Eminent before Exigent, and Slide before Chute. Zuggerat was unknown but perps were fair. I didn’t care for Paras and I also found a lot of the cluing a tad too cutesy for my taste.
Thanks, Bryant, for a mid-week treat and thanks, JazzB, for the fun facts and enjoyable links.
FLN
A belated Happy Birthday, Keith, hope it was a special day! 🎂🎁🎊🎉🎈
Have a great day.
I am always on point with "Big Easy" comments. Which is not surprising as I am also from Louisiana. Fifth of twelve also threw me. Tough puzzle. Lots of unknowns.
Unless you'd already figured out the theme...(not likely for d-o)...there was an equal chance that "Spelunking sight" would be StalaCTite or StalaGMite.
This was a bit crunchy - par for the course for a Wednesday. I had to wait for perps on the STALACTITE - but I vaguely remember being taught that it had to hold "tight" to the ceiling when trying to remember it instead of stalagmite. Creative theme with all the answers hanging.
Since I had the Z from ZITI - ZIGGURAT came quickly as it referenced in the bible as where Babylonians and others worshiped idols from the high places on the top.
Thanks JzB and Bryant!
Blue skies and 68 yesterday after sub-zero last week - I'll take it - except it's muddy where all the snow and ice melted. It was pretty dramatic an ice jam up on the Missouri river a few miles that formed with cold & snow last week (and made the river levels very low on this side ) broke free and started traveling down - quite dramatic!
https://www.newstribune.com/news/local/story/2021/feb/20/ice-jam-results-near-record-low-river-level/860731/
I struggled with some with the cluing, which seemed to me too clever for its own good.Forced, awkward, somewhat inaccurate, with matchingly terrible solutions. Disliked this from start to end. I just couldn't find much to enjoy here.
FIR in 23. Last to fall was NW; 1A had me stumped for a long time then I perped the AVE part and the light bulb came on, and in went the W. But 1D also had me stumped, even when I filled WALKS, all with perps, I was left scratching my head. It was JzB’s excellent write-up that filled ‘splained it to me. Overall, very nice CW, just right for a Wednesday, thanx Bryant! EMEGENT:EXEGENT:EXIGENT. Oy. Two days after my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and still no noticeable side effects. Hooray!! Anybody have any significant side effects?
Hola!
Thanks to Bryant and JazzB! This was fun hanging around. A few spots were crunchy but long
themers fill quickly and then it's a matter of working off them, like tendrils on a VINE.
The only large cave I have ever seen is Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and it's impressive!
Also impressive are words like ELIXIR, ZIGGURAT, CHANDELIER and Point REYES which could be a Natick for east coasters.
I'm not familiar with Reddit so AMA could have been blank except for the perps.
Traveling on I-Ten all the way to Charlotte with children was quite an adventure!
Nice to see TWO artists, ERTE and MIRO.
Wishing everyone a beautiful day!
I aver and AVOW that I tawt I had a perfect FIR till I got to the bottom and spelled ELIXeR wrong. Then I saw Jazb's reveal; anxious to know how a "grate" is a bucket of bolts, alas another mistake. Like DO I always thought it was spelt "stalagtite. I do remember that STALAC"T"ITES drip from the top of the cave because of the T as opposed to stalag"m"ites building up from the bottom. Then yet another error revealed: I guess there is no: "Rte N" in California (ITEN). 😃
Irish M my synonym collective is not as extensive as yours. I wouldn't have even thought of those alternatives 🤔
But spelled ZIGGURAT correctly without perps. Some very clever clues: "constitutional events," "stud fees," "shooting stars," "digs hard rock" (unless your a talc miner). I appreciated the GRAY's anatomy of a baseball ⚾️ glove
Perpwalked unknows: REYES, NOVA
Yesterday our friend SHREK was just an OGRE, today inspite of FLN's name calling discussions, once again he is crossword shamed as a monster
An excellent movie about the life of CHE: "The Motorcycle Diaries" 2004.
AMORE plus ELIXIR equals Donizetti's famous opera. "L' Elisir d'Amore" The love Potion 💕
Tap serving....AIL
Facsimile....KAPI
"April in ___ " ..PARAS
Not going to Guadalajara.....NOVA
Belated birthday greetings OMK 🎁
I loved today's puzzle! Clearly my long-ago courses on the ancient Near East served me well, as ZIGGURAT was an easy fill. Extra points to OwenKL for using it in a verse!
Thank you, Bryant, Rich, and JzB. Lovely start to the day.
Thank you Mr. Bryan White for a innovative puzzle, and fresh clues. Thank you JazzB for a very nice and interesting blog.
I was sure Bryan White was a past US Supr ct Justice, SCOTUS. Actually, it was a Byron White, who was a conserv. and retired and his post went to Ruth B Ginsberg. He was also a professional football player, from Colarado, and nearly won the Heisman Trophy (runner up -) in 1937 (?). Sports afficianados please take notice of this possibly CW important trivial trivia .....
The decision between Stalacs and Stalags has already been discussed in detail, as above. I was familiar with Xerxes, and faintly about Ziggurat, though I should read a lil more about it.
I was very familiar with Xerox, and Mr Chester Carlson, Wikipedia biography, and entire development of the xerox process , who practically invented the process and Xerox gave stock, now worth over a billion dollars to the Univ of Rochester, NY.
The wiki article is fantastic, and I highly encourage you to read it. It will reinforce in you the indomitable passion of an individual, and the faith and will power that can move mountains.
have a nice day, all.
Musings
-Clever cluing to the max! Constitutional, stud, stew, et al…
-I had S T A L A _ _ _ _ _ before the C and not the G appeared. STALACTITES stick tight!
-Getting rid of teenage LOITERERS
-The Nautilus traveled a distance of 20,000 leagues while only being a max of 4 leagues under
-There’s a ROBO caller who seems very concerned about my student loans of 52 years ago
-Lived a MINER, forty-niner and his daughter ______
-Pressing turned out not to be IMINENT.
-Tell teenagers, “Ask Me Anything” at your own peril
-I was very happy to relearn ZIGGARAUT
-That ball glove stirred some great memories. Wanna buy Babe’s?
Fun but difficult puzzle. Some obscure clues. What is the significance of bugs bunny’s cartoon Hare Trigger? Who knew the Harper Bazaar designer from over 100 years ago?
FLN, belated happy birthday to OMK.
HG, I think that playground noise maker is the most abhorrent thing I have ever heard...
(We always used to hang around the school playground at all hours)
I have a problem that while I cannot hear high frequencies,
I can feel them. Like a tingling in the back of my neck!
It made itself evident to me years ago when I went into large department stores
And immediately felt it. I always complained to the store manager that they
Turned off the alarm bell only to the ultrasonic burglar alarm, but left the sound emitter on
Thinking no one could hear it.
you can test your hearing here...
Curious, I ran the test, and stopped hearing the tone around 5,000 hertz,
But started hearing it again for a moment around 8,000 hertz.
Anywho, on with the day...
Challenging Wednesday puzzle, but still fun--many thanks, Bryant. Also appreciated your commentary, JazzB, thanks for that too.
I was delighted that I got JUNGLE VINE and HANGING AROUND early on, and that helped with the eastern and southern areas. Surprising to find all those Xs with words like XEROX and XERXES--very unusual and clever. And then two Z words, ZITI and ZIGGURAT--don't remember ever seeing that in a puzzle before. The funniest clue was "one who digs hard rock," which should have made us think of a music fan, but I figured out instantly that it would be MINER. Again, lots of fun, thanks again Bryant.
Have a good day, everybody.
Enjoyed the HANGING AROUND theme. I have photos of all of the theme answers that HANG down. But, instead I will share...
Here are photos of us at Point REYES with my friend Virginia and her friend visiting from Asia.
The first time I was at Point REYES I was a student at Berkeley. A student friend Lise took me on an adventure out there in her ancient VW Bug. Lise was a free spirit who did not care that her fuel gauge was broken. We were all the way at the end of the point when she rain out of fuel.
We walked up to a farm house and begged for fuel. The guy was very nice and said "It happens all the time!" He sold us a gallon or two for a dollar or two and we were on our way.
Here is a ROBO CALL I got yesterday.
That site keeps records of actual calls and helps you block them in the future.
A family friend and her late husband who were AVID baseball fans, collected memorabilia for YEARS. In fact, an entire bedroom was dedicated to their signed bats, signed baseballs, jerseys, etc., etc. After the husband died she proceeded to sell them all and is now living on the proceeds. I often met her at the post office when she would be shipping something to far off places.
I googled vampire bat and the following result. I don't know if will appear when you go there.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vampire+bat&rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS928US928&oq=vampire+bat&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7j0i131i433j0.8496j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Thank you Bryant for the INVITATION - it worked out just fine. And thanks JB for a most musical REVIEW, balletic even. But most of all I want to thank all of LOAFERS and LURKERS who HANG OUT on the CORNER and make it such a fun place to LOITER.
8A How many times do we have to tell these constructors that it's not A JAR, its A DOOR? But then I guess that answer was reserved for the CUCKOO.
33A Before SIRI there was AMA, the Electronic ORACLE (a CSO to LARRY ELLISON).
50A The ERG is a unit of energy equal to 10−7 JOULES (100 nJ). A near clecho to 25A?
63A And a CSO to our favorite HIKER. There's got a be a story behind that somewhere.
58A ERTE is another LOAFER who hangs around CWDs quite a lot.
3D A true VAMPIRE story: One summer morning I get a frantic call at work from DW just before she left for work, "Bill there's a BAT in our living room, you've got to come home and do something about it!". "You're sure it's a BAT?" I replied. "Of course I'm sure, I know what BATS look like. It's hanging upside down inside in the corner behind the sheer front window curtains - I must have left the window open a crack last night and it got in." Bill calmly, "Don't worry they're NOCTURNAL animals and it won't wake up until DARK, so we have plenty of time to deal with it". On the off chance that it might be a rare DIURNAL BAT, I knocked off early, came in through the back door and quickly verified that it was indeed a BAT, but that it didn't seem particularly LARGE. I armed myself with a blanket and a vacuum cleaner (I have no idea what I planned to do with the latter). I got up on the couch next to the corner, threw the blanket over the curtain rod, and rod, curtain, and BAT came crashing down on the living room floor with NARY a BAT sound. Apparently BATS are not LIGHT SLEEPERS. I bundled the whole pile up and took it out to the back yard. Ever so carefully I unwrapped the blanket and the BAT,whose wingspan was at least 3 feet or more (maybe more he says, his hands fish-whopper wide apart), audibly flapping, rose quickly into the air, and didn't look back. One of life's little adventures you never forget.
25D Bryant needed to collate the months alphabetically so the 5th being JAN would perp with CRATE. Clever clue.
40D As OKL points out, one of these structures was probably the original TOWER OF BABEL from Genesis 11:1–9. There are about 25 known ziggurats still in existence today, located mostly in Iran and Iraq (modern day BABYLON). They are excellent examples of the advanced craft of MASONRY in the ancient world.
48D I wanted GOOGLE, but it just wouldn't fit. But I loved XEROX crossing XERXES. Anybody know the SCRABBLE score?
Cheers,
Bill
This was an appropriately crunchy Wednesday grid.
Some tough clueing to be found, happy to get the solve.
I see others had SLIDE b4 CHUTE as well.
Appreciate the learning tool from John E, when to use the C vs the G, I like it.
Someone else once posted another....grAy in America, grEy in England....I love these little tools.
Ready to leave for my shot.
Stay safe.
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Bryant and JazzB.
I FIRed and saw the theme, but there was a little crunch today.
Somehow I dredged ZIGGURAT out of my memory bank, along with EXIGENT. STALACTITE was no problem either. I still remember visiting the Luray Caverns in Virginia as a child.
I was ready to claim Canadian disadvantage for “Constitutional events”. Lightbulb moment when WALKS perped.
I smiled at ARAL under WAVE (although it may not have many waves any more); ARAL crossing ARIEL too.
I noted I TEN and ONE A, with TWO thrown in on that Vegas table for good measure.
I also noted the “tap” clecho with the clues for KEG (thought of tapping a maple after yesterday’s sap) and BEER. But no relation to anything that those PARAS may Draft😀
I thought of WC with REESE, and of course INANEhiker had a CSO.
Belated Happy Birthday, OMK.
Wishing you all a great day.
Late start doing puzzle and reporting in, but FIR! I enjoyed the theme and puzzling clues which required a bit of time to see what was meant. Pure entertainment. Thanks, Bryant. Looking forward to your future puzzles. And thanks, JazzB, for your musical review. I like your style too!
Hope your birthday yesterday was pleasant, OMK. And nice to see you again early today, OwenKL. ZIGGURAT and XERXES were both mentioned recently on Jeopardy so they easily came to mind. EXIGENT, not so fast. Perps helped there.
Hope everyone is making progress on the vaccine front. Best wishes!
Hi All!
Ouch - 3 bad squares on a Wednesday?? Thought I'd slept so long it was Friday. Rough cluing Bryant.
But, thanks for the puzzle - it was a noodler but I had fun.
Speaking of fun - Thanks JzB for the expo; enjoyed the music & cartoons.
WO: N/A
ESPs: CHE, BURKE, OLEANDER
FIWs: STALAgTITE | gRATE (hi Ray-O!), EmInENT instead of EXIGENT messing up ZIGGURAT (I thought 2 Gs) and the unknown Persian king.
Fav: HARE Trigger - no perps needed :-)
{A, B} FLN: {B, B+}
I was hesitant about NOVA thinking that’s where (Nova Scotia) one type of lox comes from. I was 1/2 right and 1/2 way-wrong. What's the Difference Between Lox, Nova, and Smoked Salmon?. Turns out, I've probably never eaten lox.
I knew the TITE | MITE rule but didn't realize there was a Ceiling | Ground rule (or the letter in said location is different!). I've learned something today so I must be done....
Gray is a color; grey is a colour.
Play later!
Cheers, -T
Thanks to CE Dave, Ray-O-Sunshine, CanadianEh!, ATL Granny and others who I wasn't able to get back to late yesterday!
Thank you very much for the birthday greetings. Means a lot.
A happy PZL today from Mr. White. I enjoyed it throughout.
~ OMK
____________
DR: There is something very special about getting the last laugh.
Not only is it satisfying unto itself, but because it is the final statement, it has that extra oomph of righteousness attached to it.
Now just imagine, if you can anticipate it--if you know ahead of time that you're the one who will be enjoying "TLL," won't that allow you to be even snark-ier about it?
That is what is known as the...
"TOMORROW SMIRK"!
OMK - That's way better than my (opposite diag) JEERIN' BRO :-) -T
Puzzling thoughts:
As Madame Defarge said a day or so ago, I too, have been lax in visiting the Corner the past several days. I am almost caught up on puzzles; only Sunday's remains. Just quite busy, is all. I've been spending my "free time" constructing a few puzzles of my own. I am learning that puzzle construction requires a lot of patience and rework, but damn it's fun!!
Anyhoo, today's puzzle from Bryant White had a lot of interesting fill: XERXES/XEROX/ZITI/ZIGGURAT (new word to me). STALACTITE was one of my mistakes as I had the "G" for the sixth letter, which also made CRATE an error. And I too, had ELIXIR spelled with a second "E". OOPS! SLIDE/CHUTE was my write-over, and for some reason (maybe i need new glasses) I saw the word "expert" in the clue for 67-Across, and never considered that TARO would be one. So that square was left unfilled. Officially: a FIW.
I am guessing by now that many of you here have seen the viral videos of the woman who ran out of hairspray and used Gorilla Glue spray instead. In our second puzzle that runs in the Arizona Republic print edition, a word showed up in it today that sparked a Moe-ku:
Gorilla Glue girl
Was just guilty of having
Too much on her PLAIT
I liked this puzzle very much. So cool to see words like ZIGGURAT, OLEANDER, and EXIGENT.
So, tap serving wasn't PINT and water park feature wasn't SLIDE. That saloon door wasn't missing a LOCK and the furtive motion wasn't SNEEK. Gossip wasn't the verb DISH. Perps got those wrong answers corrected quickly.
LW and I have enjoyed Point REYES many times. It's a nifty place.
Happy birthday, Older Man Keith.
Good wishes to you all.
This is wednesday. 7 d and 40 d never heard of. Exigent is a good answer which i DID know. I took I Ten a lot on my travels. I love gummy bears. Im going to have 65a from a 23d after this puzzle. Not looking forward to tomorrow if the puzzles get harder. Wow. But fun.
"Haze GRAY and Underway" is shorthand for naval surface warships at sea. It is also used to refer to life in a vessel at sea with the working Navy, as opposed to shore postings.
True, D-O
This is the fourth LAT puzzle publication for BRYANT WHITE all in the last 12 months, but what is more impressive is looking at his DEBUT PUZZLE IN THE NYT which goes back to 1991 and Eugene Maleska as the editor. Not quite as amazing as our friend JEFFREY who published his first puzzle in 1969 when Will Weng edited the NYT puzzles. With 11 pre-Shortz puzzles in the NYT and 29 published after Mr. Shortz took over, you should understand Bryant's cluing state of mind.
I loved most of the puzzle for reasons already mentioned and I for one am not fond of Vampire Bats which during the darkest part of the night, emerge to hunt. Sleeping cattle and horses are their usual victims, but they have been known to feed on people as well. The bats drink their victim's blood for about 30 minutes. They don't remove enough blood to harm their host, but their bites can cause nasty infections and disease.
Now it is time for your nap
Known to me: ZIGGURAT (although I misspelled it), EXIGENT, PARAlegal (From CWs), NOVA lox (also from CWs).
STALA - - ITE and wait for perps; GRAYs is the only anatomy book known to me; constitutional WALKS: light bulb moment; seen Reddit's AMA in previous CWs but could not recall.
As I've said before: À chacun son goût.
>>Roy
Picard: I enjoyed the pics of Pt. Reyes. Beautiful beach.
Curmudgeon...for the lady who opted to use the gorilla product as hair gel..I believe it's à chacun son glue 😁
Chacon a son gout. Everyone has his gout (thing that pains him greatly).
Vidwan, what was Byron White's nickname as a college HB?
IM, how about XEROX and XERXES(Infamous as foe of Leonidas' 300). Ah, waseely noticed it first
Picard, Point REYES is an interesting place, lots of them out west, eh?
Did anyone else alphabetize the months in their head. I got the four<J and guessed JAN.
Re. REESE. On top of my Rickey book I found HoF (Baseball) anthologies for 1989,90 containing 25 articles apiece on everything baseball. Including baseball at Vassar and Smith etc in early 1900s(before softball)
Lol on that Moe-ku. Stranger than Fiction
Jayce I was taking anti-gout medicine for years. After eliminating red meat and shell fish I haven't had an attack and dropped the med. I had a med. for an actual attack but it's bad for my kidney. My Dr said once "You ate the Captain's Platter!!!?". I think it was the oysters.
WC
Ps, I can never gauge difficulty. I thought this one Monday easy and vv.
I liked that the theme answers were vertical to emphasize the theme. Very clever. But IMHO... EXIGENT, STALACTITE, ZiGGURAT & PARAS are not really Wednesday fill words. And the clue to (25D) JAN was pretty bad. Who arranges the months of the year alphabetically?
Byron "Whizzer" White
waseeley- I think that Scrabble score would be 39 for starters. (You would need the X and both blank tiles.) But depending where the tiles were placed, you could add on Double or Triple letter and Word scores. The lady in my link the other day also got 50 points for using up all her letters (emptying her tray).
Picard- beautiful photos at Point Reyes
John E @ 8:36, et alii:
Handy mnemonic: the 'mite's go up, and the 'tite's go down.
Very late! Pretty easy solve for me (just a couple of perps), until I got down to EXIDENT/MIRO/ZIGGURAT. Finally, I threw an “ID” in there. Wrong! Sit down, chump!
Harry Truman always took his morning constitutional.
I always have to refer to the ceiling/ground too. Had to wait for the “C” in CRATE.
I live three miles south of I-10. I might have mentioned it before: There is a stretch between downtown and me that is said to be 26 lanes wide, counting the main lanes, the HOV lanes and the frontage road lanes AND depending on who is doing the counting. I’ve driven it often enough, but I’ve never actually counted them. I THINK the only part I’ve never driven is from just west of Phoenix to Palm Desert, about 250 miles. I feel like I could probably drive it blindfolded. I certainly know all the places to eat, and I DO travel on my stomach.
From Wiki: “Interstate 10 (I-10) is the major east–west Interstate Highway in the southern United States. In the U.S. state of Texas, it runs east from Anthony, at the border with New Mexico, through El Paso, San Antonio and Houston to the border with Louisiana in Orange, Texas. At just under 880 miles (1,420 km), the Texas segment of I-10, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest continuous untolled freeway in North America that is operated by a single authority. It is also the longest stretch of Interstate Highway with a single designation within a single state. Mile marker 880 and its corresponding exit number in Orange, Texas, are the highest numbered mile marker and exit on any freeway in North America. After widening was completed in 2008, a portion of the highway west of Houston is now also believed to be the widest in the world, at 26 lanes when including feeders.
“More than a third of I-10's entire length is located in Texas alone. El Paso, near the Texas–New Mexico state line, is 785 miles (1,263 km) from the western terminus of I-10 in Santa Monica, California, making it closer to Los Angeles than it is to Orange, Texas, 857 miles (1,379 km) away at the Texas–Louisiana state line. Likewise, Orange is only 789 miles (1,270 km) from the eastern terminus of I-10 in Jacksonville, Florida.”
Non-Texans dispute the "widest in the world" claim. I don't know/care one way or the other, so don't blame me.
The Thursday puzzle should be available, so I’ll print it out and mess around with it for awhile.
Picard, I’ll look at the photos later. I'm sure that they are excellent.
Wilbur Charles, yes shellfish are among the foods that are high in purines and can therefore aggravate gout. I currently take allopurinol to keep the gout away.
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