Today's performance is by Joseph Gangi, who last entertained
us on November 23, 2020 with themes played by STRING TRIOs. Today he
asks US to do the work and INTROSPECT on our mixed-up I's
spread among 5 themers:
19. *Like some pages in used books:
DOG EARED. Just for the record,
I'm a bookmark person, but in the interest of fairness,
here are some rants, er, testimonies, from dog earers.
33. *"Mean" Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman:
JOE GREENE. I immediately
thought of his name when I saw this clue, but it turns out that this was not a
very kind moniker for this likable, outstanding professional. Per the
Wikipedia: 'Although it stuck with him throughout his professional career due
to his playing style, Greene himself was not fond of the nickname, insisting
it did not reflect his true character. "I just want people to remember me as
being a good player and not really mean," he said. "I want to be remembered
for playing 13 years and contributing to four championship teams. I would like
to be remembered for maybe setting a standard for others to
achieve.'
This article
reveals various theories as to how he got the nickname.
38. *Arcade
staple: VIDEO GAME.
PONG, for two players, developed by Atari was the very first commercially
successful video game. In fact it was the first (and only) video game I
ever played, back in my ute at one of the College Park delis when I was at U.
of Md. I recall the version I played being a lot slower than this:
4. *Metaphor suggesting suspense: EDGE OF ONES SEAT. DW and I are frequently on the edge of our seats in the evenings, as we watch a lot of British mysteries ...
15. *Is a fifty-fifty proposition: CAN GO EITHER WAY. ... however in most British mysteries it's the cops who usually win and the perps who usually lose.
And the REVEAL that UNMASKS us ...
53. Secondary persona, or what's hidden in the answers to starred clues: ALTER EGO.
Here's the grid. A particularly nice touch is the intersection of
the themers 19A and
38A with 4D
and 33A and the reveal at
53A with
15D:
This is then followed up with a COMPLEX of blogger bling-worthy clues
...
Across:
1. Anger: BILE. Before this perped into place I tried FURY and
RAGE
Here's what Webster has to say.
5. List member: ITEM. Or a famous couple name-dropped into the
National Enquirer.
9. Reheat, in a way: ZAP.
12. "That's on me": I DID. I couldn't get "My treat" to fit.
13. Service station sections: BAYS.
14. Crime site: SCENE.
16. One may symbolize friendship: RING. However in the
Lord of the Rings,
ONE RING
symbolizes the exact opposite.
17. Gets with difficulty, with "out": EKES. Also a homophone
of the word often used when one is cornered by a mouse:
18. Ctrl+V, commonly: PASTE. A text editing shortcut - think "moVe". Others include Ctrl-C (Copy) and Ctrl+X (Delete), both precursors to Ctr+V.
21. It arrives just before Christmas, for many: WINTER. Just before the arrival of the Winter Solstice on 12/21, we celebrate DIL's BD (12/16), next to youngest GS's BD (12/17), 2nd oldest GD's BD (1219), not to mention the little matter of Christmas . There is a lot to celebrate in this season!
22. Substituted (for): STOOD IN.
23. Send an IM to: PING. Not to be confused with 38A. This was my last fill, as I was perhaps too close to it. I'd don't do a lot of IM'ing, but I used to spend a lot of time PINGing. It was originally a submariner's term for an acoustic echo used to track enemy ships, reefs, and other hazards. The term was picked up by early network engineers as a simple test for remote devices on a network and as a rough measure of connection speed. As all things IT are comprised of acronyms, they gleefully nicknamed the command "Packet INternet Groper".
Here's an iconic scene with the first type of ping in "The Hunt for Red October" with the great Scottish actor Sean Connery, who we lost this past year. The "One Ping Only" is about 28 seconds in (you might need to turn up the volume, as submariners tend to talk very quietly):
24. Public health org.: FDA. As in the Food and Drug Administration, much in the news these days.
25. Card game cry: GIN. As in GIN RUMMY. Also slang for an enGINe, à la Eli Whitney's cotton gin - "a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are then processed into various cotton goods, while any undamaged cotton is used largely for textiles like clothing. The separated seeds may be used to grow more cotton or to produce cottonseed oil":
26. Like some exams: ORAL. These come in two varieties: PhD and DENTAL.
30. MLB's Angels, in sportscasts: HALOS. The result of a Westward ho expansion, the Angels were founded in 1961. Apparently they derived their name from their original location, Los Angeles, but latter moved to Anaheim, resulting in much controversy and much confusion (to me at least!). A CSO to any sports fans who can 'splain it to us.
35. Before, in Brest: AVANT. Both in time and space. Often used in artistic and fashion statements, as in AVANT-GARDE (i.e. at the FOREFRONT):
36. List-ending abbr.: ETC.
37. Helpers: AIDES.
40. Puts away: STOWS. E.g. freight, food, 36A.
41. Pre-event periods: EVES.
42. Chemical suffix: ANE. Organic compounds, consisting of saturated hydrocarbons, i.e. chains of one or more CARBON atoms (valence 4) with connections to the maximum possible number of HYDROGEN atoms (valence 1). Here is a PROPANE molecule:
|
| Propane |
43. Fire remains: ASH. Also makes appearances in Xwds clued as
the wood used for baseball bats.
44. Calls in poker:
SEES. These are synonyms, although
CALL seems to be preferred.
46. Criminal: ILLEGAL.
50. Tell when one shouldn't: SQUEAL. Except for a
WHISTLE BLOWER reporting criminal activity, who really
SHOULD. "If you see something, say something!"
54. Distinctive characters: AURAS. E.g. sported by the Angels.
55. Verdi solo: ARIA. Italian for "air". Also an
OPUS (Latin for a single WORK) in a dramatic or comic musical
sequence known as an OPERA (Latin plural for WORKS). Often
clued with VERDI, but PUCCINI, ROSSINI, BIZET, et.
al. wrote a lot of ARIAS too.
56. Paintball souvenir?: WELT. Ouch!
57. With 7-Down, teary: MISTY. A CSO to our Misty.
Hope you're not teary today though!
58. Tolerate: BEAR. A clecho to 52D.
60. LAX info: ETA. When I use to travel a lot for work, the E definitely stood for ESTIMATED!
61. Rogues: CADS.
62. Trees used to make bows: YEWS. A very strong, yet flexible wood.
Down:
1. Fowl: BIRDS. Also British slang for WOMEN.
2. Facetious target of a series of guides: IDIOT. As I resemble that remark, I refuse to buy one of these.
3. Talk of the town?: LINGO. I tend to think of this as a synonym for specialized ARGOT or JARGON. The talk of the Corner perhaps?
5. Spain and Portugal, mostly: IBERIA.
|
|
The Iberian Peninsula |
IBERIA is also a suite for piano by Isaac ALBÉNIZ.
As this article describes it, "
It is considered one of the most challenging works for the piano: "There is
really nothing in Isaac Albeniz's Iberia that a good three-handed
pianist could not master, given unlimited years of practice and permission
to play at half tempo. But there are few pianists thus endowed." Here
is pianist
Luis Fernando Pérez, who is definitely up to the task:
6. Unavailable: TAKEN.
7. See 57-Across: EYED. As in Black EYED Susans, the yearly prize for winning the PREAKNESS. Something only a Baltimoron will admit: as Black Eyed Susans, the Maryland State Flower, aren't in season when the Preakness Stakes is run, they use Oxeye daisies with the centers painted BLACK. Here is Secretariat in 1973 in the winner's circle after winning the second leg of the Triple Crown (this year's races run Fri, May 14, 2021 – Sun, May 16, 2021, limited bleachers seating):
8. Ed.'s stack: MSS. Manuscripts.
9. Word with lemon or orange: ZEST. Every thing you need to know about zesting lemons. And much much more!
10. Pot starter: ANTE. My Auntie Ev wouldn't go near a deck of cards!
11. Jury member: PEER. Selected by a process called VOIR DIRE. It looks like French to me: "To see. To say", but the dictionaries say it's Latin. A CSO to Lemonade on this for an official ruling. I've shown up for jury duty many times, but the lawyers take one look at me and the defense signals a thumbs down. I think they don't like my hat.
14. English: SPIN. Pool talk. A CSO to any pool sharks on the Corner - this looks like a good place to buy "bespoke" (i.e. expensive) pool cues. Also a word coined by Erwin Schrödinger to describe an indescribable property of quantum objects. Still curious? You were warned! A CSO to Dash T to 'splain this one in simple 14D.
20. Extends, as a building: ADDS TO. See 21D.
21. Building extension: WING. See 20D. Is there an ECHO in here?
23. Jigsaw bit: PIECE. In the Corner case a WORD.
25. "No clue": GOT ME. Well if it's not a CLUE, then what is it?
27. Start over: REDO. See 28D.
28. Over: ANEW. See 27D.
29. No __: surprisingly: LESS.
30. Possess: HAVE. Quick - what's something of value that you can give away, but still keep (see answer at the end *)
31. Tel __: AVIV. Formerly the capital of Israel.
32. Fill with freight: LADE, i.e. to LOAD. Also a regional synonym (Scottish) for a MILL RACE that channels river water to a water powered wheel. Here's DW beside the old Oakland Mill on the Liberty Reservoir near Eldersburg, MD. The mill race is beyond the stone wall behind her:
33. Casual pants: JEANS.
34. React to fightin' words, maybe: RASSLE.
39. Hebrides native: GAEL. The Hebrides is an archipelago off the West coast of Scotland, perhaps best known for FINGAL'S CAVE, a mammoth opening in a basalt-columned cliff on the Isle of Staffa:
On a tour of Scotland in 1829 composer Felix Mendelssohn, seasick below deck on an excursion over to this site, was coaxed above by a companion when they arrived. His seasickness disappeared, he grabbed a pen and paper and immediately begin composing his famous HEBRIDES (a.k.a. FINGAL'S CAVE) OVERTURE:
43. Wedding destinations, often: ALTARS. As in ...
45. Like 55-Down: EASY.
46. Inspiration for the 2004 film "Troy": ILIAD. The latter is a cornerstone of Western literature, which I mentioned to get through in UNI. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, so I didn't bother. Although the Trojan War lasted 10 years, the actual events of the epic take place in a matter of a few weeks, just before the fall of the city (which actually occurs in the ODYSSEY). The story is concerned with the "wrath of Achilles" and his vengeance for the death of his beloved friend Patroclus. The backstory of how it all started is recounted in tales remembered during the battles.
47. Parts of some V's: GEESE. Why DO geese fly in a V? Actually the Canada Geese (second photo in link) in Maryland live here year round. But every Fall they take to the skies and fly around the country side in V formations just to stay in practice.
48. Lit up: AGLOW.
49. Kind of position used for meditation: LOTUS. The basic pose is fairly easy, but this one takes a lot of practice:
50. "Ditto": SAME. See for example 27D and 28D.
51. Pack it in: QUIT.
52. __ Major: URSA. Latin for GREAT BEAR, a.k.a. the BIG DIPPER. The two left-most stars in the "ladle" are called the "pointer stars" as they point to Polaris, the NORTHERN STAR.
53. Triangle calculation: AREA.
55. See 45-Down: ABC.
That's a wrap!
* Information
Cheers,
Bill
waseeley
52 comments:
Good morning!
This one was definitely "chewy." Got 'er done but had no idea as to the theme, so I had to hunt down the reveal clue (which I had missed during the solve, naturally). Aha. Needed my trusty Wite-Out for Your/ONES SEAT and ADDS On/TO. Thanx, Waseeley and Joseph. (Do you own a river?)
PING: At least once daily my ISP suffers a slow spell (if not a completely dead spell). When it's slow, email still works, but SpeedTest fails with a "taking too long" error.
MISTY: Noticed the CSO to our resident Misty. That made me think of Clint Eastwood's Play Misty For Me. Jessica Walter, the female star of the film, died last week.
"Voir Dire:" Here in Texas it's not pronounced Vwahr Deer, but with a Texas accent (naturally) -- Voy-r Dye-r. I'm not kidding; that's the official court pronunciation.
Good Morning Waseeley and friends. I wasn't Fooled by today's puzzle. The starred clues came before I got to the ALTER EGO, so I had to go back and look for them.
Don't get pranked today!
QOD: “I think, therefore I am” is the statement of an intellectual who underrates toothaches. “I feel, therefore I am” is a truth much more universally valid. ~ Milan Kundera (b. Apr. 1, 1929), Czech writer
Hola!
This being Thursday I thought it would take a long while to solve the puzzle but that didn't happen. I sashayed through it with only a few bumps along the way.
I see that our constructor fit his name into the grid at JOE GREENE. I know the name but managed the last E in GREENE because it was needed.
Yes, I saw the CSO to MISTY.
JEANS are my winter-long costume and now it's time for shorts.
Does anyone else equate English with SPIN? That was a puzzling fill for me.
Speaking of JOE, I saw in the obituaries that Mrs. JOE Garagiola died.
I'll take a CSO at LOTUS which is a common position when doing yoga.
This was a very nice puzzle with plenty of ZEST.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! I may try to go back to sleep.
Many thanks to waseeley and Joseph for the fun and I was not fooled at all.
I managed to get this one done in just under 10 minutes. The top-left was the last section to fall for me; the upper-right was the first.
I'm not a fan of puzzles that have the theme of having a word jumbled, but at least this puzzle didn't suffer because of the theme.
For "English," think of spin on a cue ball in billiards.
Is it just me or do others root for the perps. Ok, not sadistic killers like Hannibal Lector.
I had rILE/BILE. The main ITEM out there is Meghan and Harry?
"And in the darkness bind them"
The key to the early ANGELs success was signing Jim Fregosi* from the Redsox. The incumbent Redsox SS was Don Buddin, the sil of GM "Pinky " Higgins. The Sox had done the same thing 20 years earlier by letting xw fav "Peewee" Reese go because he threatened Joe Cronin's job at SS. ALAS.
"I'll SEE your ten and raise ten".
"WHAT of the bow?
The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of YEW wood,
The wood of English bows;"
"Voy-r Dye-r."?? That beats my pal's "Hores da Votes".
WC
*Fregosi was the key to the Nolan Ryan trade, a disaster for the Mets
"12. "That's on me": I DID. I couldn't get "My treat" to fit." That was my only unknown and I still don't get it. I guess admitting a mistake was 'on me'. I've always used "you own it" or " you eat your own cooking:.
The NW was the last to fall. Had RILE before BILE. I loved the puzzle without the A&E and proper names.
Joe GREENE played college ball at North Texas State in Denton, TX and the team was called the 'Mean Green'.
ALTARS crossing ALTER felt weird.
I did this puzzle after midnight when I couldn't sleep. The theme seemed very slight. No problems with the answers.
I don't care that you dogear your own books. Please don't dogear library books or books borrowed from friends. I have several bookmarks. The most effective is a sticky note. It doesn't fall out of the book. Put it at the line where you stop reading and let a little peek out of the edge of the page. My bête noire is the removal of pages or sections from library books and magazines, recipes, artwork, etc.
Why is spin in billards called English?
"By 1860, the French were referring to spin imparted to a billiards ball as anglé … a clever play on words since anglé meaning angled and anglais meaning English share the same pronunciation. This play on words quickly caught on with other billiards players, and when someone put spin on a billiards ball, they were playing a ball that was anglé / anglais which was literally translated to the word: English."
I wanted to to treat you, too. I DID.
I believe lingo, argot and jargon are near synonyms.
lingo argo jargon
Good morning all. Really enjoyed this puzzle and the write up gave me a chuckle at ekes out .
Fairly straight forward . No look ups or white outs , nice and neat Teacher would be pleased No raps on the knuckles with the yard stick needed here.
DW and I watch more TV now than we used to so the entertaining cooking shows out there helped with ZEST .
Played a lot of pool and billiards in my youth so SPIN was easy once I saw Brit wouldn’t fit.
ALTER EGO helped with CAN GO EITHER WAY as PING was slow in comming.
Thanks for the fun
Cheers
Voy-r Dye-r like the pronunciation of high-AY-nus for heinous in My Cousin Vinnie.
SOU was a small French coin, and was slang in Canada for a penny.
The original Major League LA Angels had a circle around the top of their caps, and the current logo has a halo on the capital A
NW corner gave me fits. I too, tried RAGE & FURY, but to no avail. Once i got BILE it fell quickly.
Good morning everyone.
Like Lucina, I sashayed around, too, probed here and there, and FIR. Sorta saw the theme but didn't dwell on it. Note that REDO and ANEW are nested together. URSA and BEAR are near each other, too.
ANE - As Waseeley said. Add'l examples include methane, ethane, butane, pentane. …… octane. They can be branched invoking the prefix iso- as in isopropane.
CSO to MISTY.
Musings
-Strained metaphor - Some of the tulips were thorny during my tiptoeing
-An auto shop here has employees park their cars in the empty BAYS to make it look like they are busy
-I type this in Word then Cmd + A, Cmd + C, Cmd + Tab (to comment box), Cmd + V
-Yelling UNO while playing GIN? That’s on me!
-A great Victor Borge line: Giuseppe Verdi, Joe Greene to you,…
-Simpler plural of AURA today
-Not just IDOIOTS
-I never made the cut for jury empanelment either
-My sweats put me one step lower on the casual pants scale this winter
- FLN - Wilbur that was a very interesting line score for your shut out!
FIR, but it took a while. Joe, you gave me quite a challenge in the NW and SW, but the eastern side zipped along. No complaints and I got brain exercise today so thanks, Joe. Thanks, waseeley, for your rich tour and confirmation of the answers. FDA was one of my problems. I had CDC since it's in Atlanta not far from me so that error slowed down my progress there. Got the theme and ALTERedEGOs with no trouble and that finally straightened out the NW corner. All in all an enjoyable pastime this morning.
Hope you all have a terrific Thursday. Looking forward to reading your comments as the day goes on.
Another meaning of putting English on the ball.
"This expression originated about 1900 in such sports as bowling and ice hockey, where a player tries to influence the path of a ball or puck by moving his body in a particular direction. (It was based on the earlier use of English to mean "spin imparted to a ball.") Long after it's been known that "English" was in use."
I have seen English used as putting spin on the ball and as trying to influence the path of the ball by using body language.
I agree the NW and SW took quite a while. I got the EGO hint right away which finally helped.
I wasn't sure if it was IBERIC to cross with CDC at first. (Not even sure that's a word!)
And I never know if the chemistry ending is ANE, ENE, or INE.
But glad I finally got everything. Tough for a Wednesday!
Good Morning:
Although the theme and reveal were not Thursday level, IMO, the solve itself had the right amount of resistance, so no complaints from Moi. I stumbled over Scot/Gael, Dummy/Idiot and, with HG, Uno/Gin. Some cute pairings were: ABC/Easy, A Sou/Anew, and the two related crossings of Area and Aria and Alter and Altars. Also liked the mini critter theme with Birds, Geese, Dog, Bear and Ursa. CSO to bright-eyed Misty!
Thanks, Joseph, for a Thursday treat and thanks, Bill, for the very informative and entertaining commentary. I greatly appreciate your back stories on such subjects as the Iliad, Albéniz, and the Hebrides and Mendelssohn. Neat stuff!
AnonPVX, hope your son is feeling much better. You, too!
I just received my “treat yourself” package from Gloucester, MA: fresh lobster meat, fresh haddock, and little neck clams. Definitely having a lobster roll for lunch today! As Hahtoolah would say, “Yummers!”
Have a great day and watch out for the pranksters.
IrishMiss:
It's great that you enjoy all that seafood. It's all I can do to get through meatless Fridays. For tomorrow I bought some crab cakes that look promising.
Never having played billiards nor paid much attention to it I had no idea that SPIN/ENGLISH referred to anything associated with the game. Thank you all for explaining it.
Woohoo! Woohoo! I was excited by this puzzle when I got the whole southeast corner on my first run-through, including the theme, although I didn't know it then. Then had to cheat to work my way through the rest, and then--voila!--there it was: MISTY! Woohoo!
Thank you, Joseph, for that kind gift, intentional or not, and thank you, Bill, for the shout-out, along with kind friends Desper-otto, Lucina, Spitzboov, and Irish Miss, and others--you've made my day, Woohoo!
Have a lovely April, everyone.
Waseeley:
Unless it was intended to be an April Fool's prank, you may have inadvertently led us astray with your comment on 52d concerning the pointer stars in Ursa Major. In your image, the pointer stars are on the right of the ladle, not the left. It's the two outer stars, Merak and Dubhe, in the Big Dipper’s bowl that always point to Polaris, the North Star.
Find the North Star
Thanks again for the well wishes for both my son and myself. He continues to improve.
Crunch City today...the NW was tough to start, ended up finishing there.
Write-over...NIH/FDA.
I have been in this house for 11 years. Today I found out my property line isn’t my neighbor’s fence, it’s the middle of the drainage easement BETWEEN our fences on either side of the easement. I had been told it was all mine. I don’t really care, but I was all set to put in a flower bed and then a picket fence.....which would have been on the neighbors property. Another Homer moment....D’OH!
Stay safe.
xtummkr @11:57AM
As the Big Dipper slowly rotates around Polaris during the year, whether the pointer stars are on the "right" or the "left" (or even above or below) depends on the season. In the illustration they are pointing roughly upward on the left side of the ladle, opposite where it joins the handle, which points toward the bear's head on the right.
Why "mostly" for the IBERIA clue?
xtummkr @11:57AM
Perhaps this will help clarify my previous comment re the Big Dipper pointer stars.
Geographically Curious, Andorra and Gibraltar are also on the Iberian peninsula.
Geographically Curious @ 12:20p: I'm guessing that it has "mostly" because of Gibraltar and Andorra.
XTULMKR. Agree with you . Since early childhood the first recognizable stars were the big dipper and the north star. Getting directionally oriented in a strange place was no problem on a clear starry night. I have done that many times with good success.
Cheers
Rabbit, Rabbit.
More like a Saturday level for me today. A DNF because I needed Red Letters and LIUs. I didn't really see the theme until I read Waseely's excellent write-up.
I liked the "One PING only." from the Hunt for Red October". It's one of my favorite movies that I have seen many times. DW is not so thrilled with it though.
In addition to being April Fool's Day, today is also National Sourdough Bread day and National Burrito day. Both are favorites of mine. Plus I just took 5 loaves of white bread out of the oven. I love the smell of fresh baked bread.
Also, wasn't it Eli Whitney who said "Keep your cotton picking hands off my gin"?
Enough inane stuff. Have a great day everyone.
FIR in 25. Typical time for me for a Thursday. Like BigEasy and others mentioned, the last to fall was the NW. I find it discouraging when the very beginning of a CW stumps me, and I hafta start somewhere else and work my way back to it. Mean Joe Gangi! 42A: Chemical suffix, there are hundreds, ANE, ENE, INE, ASE, OSE just a few. Had to be perped. WOs were SQUEEL:SQUEAL; ADDSON:ADDSTO. As usual I had to read Waseeley’s excellent write-up to have the theme ‘splained to me. 1D FOWL = BIRDS reminded me of an article in this morning’s South Florida SunSentinel about ravens stealing food from the baskets of shoppers at a Costco in Fairbanks Alaska. If u didn’t read the article see if you can find it, it’s a fun read. Thanx for the challenging but fun CW, Joseph, and thank for the excellent write-up, Waseeley. Yesterday my gf got her second jab, and today she says she just hurts all over and don’t bother her she’s gonna sleep all day. To me that’s a good sign: her body responded to the vaccine. She’ll feel better tomorrow.
Hi All!
Thanks Joseph for a fine Thursday puzzle - I had to hunt of the EGOs upon completion.
Fun expo, waseeley. I don't think I could do the quantum equations anymore; been a long time since I did that kind of math.
Like others, East was EASY but the West was crunchy. My last letters, however, were EYE (after MISTY showed) which finally gave me BAYS (oh, a literal service station; not a gas station w/o mechanics which I still call a service station).
WOs: N/A
ESP: ACONT
Fav: PING as clued - I say it all the time.
ENGLISH = SPIN is that just in billiards? I've heard it in bowling and tennis (one guy I played with could put a heck of a spin on the ball).
YR - twisting your body hoping to keep the bowling ball out of the gutter after you've thrown it -- that's called Body English. And it never works :-)
I only DOGEAR the newspaper; never a book or magazine.
HG - I kept wanting DUMMY at 2d but could get nary a perp to support it.
IM - Yummy for sure!
I've been on one jury. The lady didn't fully stop at a stop sign and was ticketed.
She argued a California-roll was the same 'cuz she saw the cop there and even nodded at him.
She even had posters of the area showing where she was and where the cop was...
The jury wanted to let her off or just find 1/2 the fine.
I'm like, "but she admitted she did not come to a full stop and wasted our time here today."
Tell y'all April 1 prank later.
Cheers, -T
Not exactly EASY but FIR thanks to a series of lucky WAGS..MSS(Ed.'s stack?), AURAS (distinctive characters?), IDIOT (target of guides?). The theme? Mr Gangi? Where did ego with it?
Inkovers: text/PING, rassel/RASSLE
Interesting combos: URSA/BEAR....HALOS/AURAS....ASH/YEWS....BIRDS/GEESE...PEER/SEES. (Hello IM)
Waz: Ancient Roman coins were and are so ubiquitous only certain ones have real value. I have one well preserved, not worth that much. . . That coin will get me a cheap seat in the collosseum. ....(I think voir dire is français, Wiki says from Latin verum dicere)
Half a table tennis match....PING
(The other half of a VIDEOGAME: Pong)
Guiseppe Verdi...JOEGREENE
"Coq au vin", chicken ______ wine< /i>...STOODIN.
Scot's squall, _____ force winds....GAEL.
Sick raptor....ILLEGAL.
"April snow make May flowers grow slow"
April really fooled us in Central NY ...Sheesh
RABB
IT/RA
BBIT
Happy April, All!
An excellent response by Waseeley to Mr. Gangi's clever PZL!
I enjoy a variety of illustrations in the write-up, and today's selection was impressive. One of my faves was the cartoon mouse helping to educate his fellow to the finer points of accessing meals from humans.
Glad to see MISTY occupying a place of honor in today's fills! Woo and Hoo!
~ OMK
____________
DR: We have two diagonals today, one to each side.
The near-side anagram (13 of 15 letters) speaks to the comfort of the favorite spots in our homes, those special spaces where we may have spent time and ingenuity in installing a special video hookup, maybe extra speakers, certainly a wet bar, comfy chairs, and perfect lighting.
I am speaking of course of our own...
"ELABORATE DENS"!
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Joseph and waseeley.
I was moving along very quickly for a Thursday (so I thought), until I reached the bottom half. Then I had a distinct slowdown and several inkblots. But I FIRed eventually, and got the theme (although I saw GO before EGO).
Hand up for wanting the verb Rile before the noun BILE.
I ran through Ese, Ene, before I arrived at ANE.
I am familiar with English=SPIN in the sense that YR quotes, "I have seen English used as putting spin on the ball and as trying to influence the path of the ball by using body language."
How are AURAS "characters"? "Distinguishing feature" maybe? That could be my brown eyes!
We not only had VIDEO GAMEs and PING, we had card games (GIN, SEES in poker, and ANTE).
I noted LADE and STOWS; can I add 51D "pack it in"?
IM beat me to ARIA crossing AREA.
And of course, the CSO to MISTY!
I'm not sure that I want the CSO with those messy Canada GEESE. (LOL Ray-O re those "sick raptors"!)
Wishing you all a great day.
English is a term used in pool games to describe the spin that is put on the cue ball to get it to move at a sharper angle.
Anonymous T and Terry, I see you both agree with me, both kinds of English, the one that works and the one that does not. Did you ever see a bowler lean left or right after the ball has left his hand to keep the ball from the gutter?
I attended an excellent piano concert here this afternoon, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, etc. Entertainment and treats are part of our monthly fee. Glad they are allowed again.
I think the Canada geese have overstayed there welcome here. They say, "Fish and visitors stink after three days," also geese.
I thought yesterday's puzzle was very hard and today's not so hard. Enjoyed both puzzles and all your comments.
See! It IS possible to create an excellent crossword puzzle without a bunch of names of unknown (to me) Hollywood types!
Thanks, Joseph and waseeley!
Fairly fast solve. Had it done shortly after midnight. I THOUGHT my ONLY problem was the A in ANE/GAEL (my final fill). Didn’t have a clue about 39D, and 42A could have been any vowel, as far as I was concerned. I chose the correct one. I also got the starred clues fairly quickly, along with the theme and the ALTEREGOS.
However, after I got here and read waseeley’s fine expo, I saw that I messed up again! Some dummy plugged in LODE (huh?), instead of LADE. The result was the unknown AVONT (what’s that???), instead of the known AVANT, for a FIW! In my defense, it was midnight.
I agree with Joe Greene! There have certainly been many “meaner” players in the NFL. The Victor Borge line is hysterical! I had never heard that one.
Being a “keyboarder” (as opposed to a “mouser”), I LOVE my friend CTRL. Of course, when I went to copy and paste bête noire so that I could Google it (French ain’t my language), I had to use my mouse. My avatar was using my keyboard as a bed and my left arm as a pillow at the time for his fourth or fifth nap of the day, and I couldn’t disturb the slug, er little dear.
I’ve bought a few IDIOT and DUMMIES guides in my day. I need one for crossword puzzles!
I too hate DOGEARs!
Happy “All Fools Day”, as my wife says. No fool here as I FIR with no sweat.
HG, every auto mechanic within 25 miles was booked solid here. My pal Mike fit me in though and I got Friday finished while waiting. And…. That was a No-hitter. No hits, no runs, nine walks, 11 strikeouts. We had a bet and traipsed up to the library to verify the No-hitter. I should've taken a picture.
YellowRocks, like this?
Body English And -T, it worked that night
IM, that package has me drooling.
WC
Waseeley:
Mea culpa. Taking another look at the Ursa Major image you posted originally, I see you were correct.
Wilbur @ 5:36 ~ Sorry, I can’t share the bounty of the sea with you, but I did think of you when I typed Gloucester, MA. 😉
I loved that excellent performance of “Asturias” by Sr. Perez. Thanks for linking to it.
WC, loved that baseball body English.
Haven’t posted anything in ages, but I read the blog every day. Haven’t seen this addressed by anyone else, but I’m having an issue with Cruciverb.com, which is my preferred way to work the puzzle. LA Times puzzle has not appeared on this site since 3/21. Anyone else having this issue? I’ve been getting the puzzle from the Washington Post - but I have to print it and that’s not convenient when we’re on the road using an iPad with no access to a printer. All comments appreciated.
xtulmkr @6:14PM Gee, I'd almost talked myself into agreeing with you! I think the confusion may have arisen from the drawing of the bear, not actually a part of the constellation, and also the fact that the latter was also a drawing rather than an actual photograph and does not align exactly with the real thing.
April Fool prank...
You know those spray hoses next to the faucet on most kitchen sinks?
Youngest wrapped a brown headband (we have dark fixtures) around the trigger of the spray gun.
DW approved of this...
As soon as I turned on the water, I got sprayed.
The best part, ~1hr before I got had, DW was at the sink, forgot, and got herself!
Cheers, -T
Why is "lingo" "Talk of the town"?
mtnest995, I saw that identical post just the other day. I have the advantage of getting the week's worth on Sunday.
IM, I thought of Gloucester when I paid $15 for a lobster roll in Ruskin that a Cape Cod cat wouldn't touch.
And...
I just finished Saturday*. Again, if Wilbur can finish it then stick with it. One name that everybody in here would get in a sec. A missing hyphen. And a lot of clever clues. Ryan McCarty.
WC
Supper in between
Actually finished an hour ago. Didn't hit publish
@9:27p some places, towns, cities have their own 'lingo' or way to talk. E.g. license plates vs. tags.
If you grew up in my town then you'd know the lingo around the Horseshoe :-)
Cheers, -T
I enjoyed Joseph's puzzle early this morning and was able to FIR quickly before the day got busy. It did require a little jumping around to solve related clues, and Waseeley's entertaining explication did more linking, causing me to run up and down the list of answers to see the relationships.
What really made my head spin, though, was the description of the pointer stars on the Big Dipper as being on the left side of the ladle, when they are certainly on the right in the illustration provided. Xtulmkr seemed to set it right, and then after various illustrations were offered, he agreed with Waseeley. I'm dizzy now, but I can still find the north star using the stars on the opposite site of the Dipper from the handle.
Thanks, all!
Just curious how you’re able get the week’s worth on Sunday?
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