Theme: "What's My Line?" - Each profession is punnily rephrased fitting the person in the clue.
23. Researcher with an outgoing personality?: SOCIAL SCIENTIST.
37. Clergyman who builds cupboards?: CABINET MINISTER.
49. Bleep button operator?: CROSSWORD EDITOR. Read it as CROSS WORD EDITOR.
68. Dietitian?: MIDDLE MANAGER.
87. Drug kingpin?: TRAFFIC ENGINEER.
96. Getaway driver?: FLIGHT ATTENDANT.
118. Fishing guide?: CASTING DIRECTOR.
Ha ha, we can just call Rich a "bleep button operator". All the other theme entries will make me smile. Lovely theme, Pau1!
Grid design is our standard LAT, 144 words with 76 black squares. Very much my style, though I often I reach 78 black squares.
Across:
7. "__, Inc.": 2001 film: MONSTERS.
15. Commonly green dish: SALAD.
20. South American naval force: ARMADA. Spanish for "naval fleet".
21. Turkey, mostly: ANATOLIA. Asia Minor. Asian part of Turkey.
22. Torment: AGONY.
25. Terry O'Quinn's "Lost" role: LOCKE (John). I don't recall seeing a O'qu* style surname before.
26. Big bunch: SCAD.
27. Floors: STUNS. Verb "floors".
28. Clamp shape: CEE.
29. Leveled, with "up": TRUED.
30. Dot-commerce: E-TAIL.
32. Two-time Super Bowl QB Manning: ELI.
34. Country name last used in 1949: SIAM. Thailand's former name. "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble. Not much between despair and ecstasy...". Argyle really loved the song. He was in Bangkok for a few days in his Marine days.
35. R&B singer's hyphenated stage name: NE-YO. Wiki says "The
stage name Ne-Yo was coined by Big D Evans, a producer with whom Ne-Yo
once worked, because Evans claimed that Ne-Yo sees music like the
character Neo sees the Matrix."
44. Links scores: BOGEYS.
46. Lena of "Chocolat": OLIN.
47. Lennon's love: ONO.
48. Fall Out Boy genre: EMO.
53. __ boom: SONIC.
55. "Elder" or "Younger" Roman statesman: CATO.
56. Stuns: AWES.
57. Charlemagne's realm: Abbr.: HRE. Holy Roman Empire.
58. Marine snail: WHELK.
59. Home of Hercules' lion: NEMEA.
61. Loafer, e.g.: SHOE.
64. Mikey, Mouth or Chunk, in an '85 film: GOONIE. Alright, the film is "The Goonies".
65. TV monitoring org.: FCC.
72. Ground cover: SOD.
73. Friend of Athos: ARAMIS. "The Three Musketeers".
75. Big name in pet food: IAMS.
76. Hard-to-ride horse: BRONC.
78. Moved to a quieter table, say: RE-SAT.
79. Special __: OPS.
81. Old apple spray: ALAR.
82. Dept. of Labor arm: OSHA.
86. Football's Terrell, nicknamed "T.O.": OWENS. Hall of Famer.
92. "Yuck!": FEH.
93. Bank offering, for short: IRA.
94. Advanced: LENT. Verb "advanced".
95. Ancient ascetic: ESSENE. Jewish ascetic.
102. Former Fords: LTDS.
103. Mmes., in Madrid: SRAS.
104. CVS pickups: RXS.
105. Conger catcher: EELER.
107. Chopper blade: ROTOR.
111. Mimic's talent: APERY. We just had APED last Sunday.
113. "To be" is one, poetically: IAMB.
117. Busybody: SNOOP.
122. Liveliness: VERVE.
123. Like some hard drives: EXTERNAL.
124. Altogether: IN TOTO.
125. Tradesperson: PLYER.
126. Reveal: DISCLOSE.
127. 1980 TV series with the episode "Harmony of the Worlds": COSMOS.
Down:
2. Fast food magnate who once owned the San Diego Padres: KROC (Ray). Nice trivia.
3. Pool site, often: YMCA.
4. Spotted: LAID EYES ON.
5. Nabokov novel: ADA.
6. Light wood: BALSA.
7. Retinal area subject to degeneration: MACULA. I bet Lemonade nailed this one.
8. "Come __!": "Welcome!": ON IN.
9. Dundee denials: NAES.
10. RR stop: STN.
11. "Sesame Street" watcher: TOT.
12. Bring out: ELICIT.
13. Angry reaction: RISE.
14. Fill to the max: SATE.
15. Short-lived 1979 nuclear treaty: SALT II.
16. Ancient assembly areas: AGORAS.
17. Temporary substitute that means "place holder" in Latin: LOCUMTENENS. Wow, never heard of this word, you?
18. Huber of tennis: ANKE. Forgot. We had her before. German.
19. Like some blond hair: DYED.
24. Bic Clic __ pen: STIC.
31. Small dogs: TOYS.
32. "National Velvet" author Bagnold: ENID.
33. Filmmaker Riefenstahl: LENI. German. Known for her Nazi propaganda.
34. __-cone: SNO.
35. "A Doll's House" heroine: NORA.
36. Awards acronym: EGOT.
38. They're ripped in gyms: BODS.
39. Martinique, e.g.: ILE.
40. Anchor: MOOR.
41. About, on a memo: IN RE.
42. __ Barzini, Vito's rival in "The Godfather": EMILIO. Barzini. He killed Don Corleone's oldest son Sonny, the hot-tempered one.
43. Disturbed greatly: ROCKED.
44. Discreetly send a dupe email to: BCC.
45. Hindu teachers: SWAMIS.
50. Was shy?: OWED. Good old clue.
51. Interpret: READ.
52. "Accordingly ... ": THEN.
53. Like much testimony: SWORN.
54. "Look here!": OHO.
60. Gives forth: EMITS.
61. Last word of "America the Beautiful": SEA.
62. "Let's see ... ": HMM.
63. Allied gp. since 1948: OAS.
64. "Seinfeld" friend: GEORGE (Costanza). Played by Jason Alexander.
65. Remote: FAR OFF.
66. Embroidery yarn: CREWEL.
67. Patient record: CASE HISTORY.
69. When repeated, Cult Jam vocalist: LISA.
70. Competent: ABLE.
71. Nana: GRAN.
74. "Wow!": MAN.
77. Negatively affects the flow in: CONSTRICTS.
79. Other, to Ortiz: OTRA.
80. Fall preceder?: PRAT. Pratfall.
81. Court records: ACTA.
83. Schedule competitively, as a tournament: SEED.
84. Coop group: HENS.
85. Is for a few: ARE.
88. Bend: FLEX. I never made the connection of the "drip, drip"
noise in our bedroom/bathtub wall with rain until I read TTP's comment.
Then we had steady rain on Thursday and I heard the annoying noise on
Thursday evening non-stop. Here's our downspout. The association guy
actually replaced the bottom bending part earlier this year as the old
one was broken.
89. Marshy areas: FENS.
90. Not Rep. or Dem.: IND.
91. "Cast Away" setting: ISLE.
93. Part of TGIF: IT'S.
97. It's on the record: GROOVE.
98. Susan B. Anthony biographer Ida Husted __: HARPER. Also learning moment for me. Both Lemonade and Melissa have a granddaughter named Harper. See here.
99. No-tell motel events: TRYSTS.
100. Pine __: NEEDLE.
101. Garr of "Tootsie": TERI.
106. Songlike: LYRIC.
107. Invite request: RSVP.
108. Turow novel set at Harvard: ONE L.
109. Finished perfectly: ACED. Amazed at Moe's astute observations of Friday's theme.
110. Dress style: MAXI.
111. __ Domini: ANNO.
112. Annual May golf tournaments, familiarly: PGAS.
114. Tiny bit: ATOM.
115. Con __: briskly: MOTO.
116. Frat dudes: BROS.
119. Shamus: TEC.
120. Offline, briefly: IRL.
121. Brian of rock: ENO.
I'm very pleased to tell you that Fermat Prime (Lorraine) is doing well, though she does not get out much, according to her friend Malcolm. Here's a picture from her backyard last Monday.
Looks
who's in town this week! Andrea Carla Michaels. Guess who the other
cool guy is. Boomer will show you another picture tomorrow.
 |
| Andrea, Boomer and the Guy, 5/26/2021 |
50 comments:
FIWrong. Didn't know NaYO, LOrnE, ANnE, forgot the crosswodese aGOT, and flunked the Latin LOrUM TENENS (I first wanted Lorum ipsum). NE-YO, LOCKE, ANKE, EGOT (Emmy, not Academy), LOKUM.
49a CROSSWORD EDITOR was inspired, and I'll bet made RICHwant to buy this puzzle! And a near CSO to me at 86a.
STUNS as both a clue and an answer. When did this become acceptable? I'm surprised "awes" wasn't the clue for 27a.
As perps filled in CABINET MINISTER, I was expecting "cleric for Narnia's Wardrobe".
I ran into WHELK just yesterday as the only common rhyme (according to RhymeZone) for ELK. Instead I dealt with the veldt.
Enough babbling. Let's get to what I'm really here for:
ATHOS and ARAMIS went for a ride,
Each with his sword sheathed at his side.
They had no fears
As the Roi's musketeers --
Hoping to highwaymen their blades could be PLIED!
Rene Descartes was a Renaissance man.
An animal lover, he fed them IAMS!
As mathematician,
Coordinates his mission.
A poet with a quill, wrote "I ink, therefore IAMB!"
{A-, A.}
Morning!
This was a Natick matrix. FEH! (Is that a word?) Crossing NEYO with EGOT, ANKE with LOCKE, LOCUM TENENS with GOONIE -- d-o had no chance at all. Was it a rule that the friends on Seinfeld have 6-letter names? (Kramer, Elaine, George, Newman) I look forward to hearing the experiences of other solvers. To me, this was a fun sponge. Clever theme, Paul, but Mrs. Lincoln didn't enjoy the play. Thanx for the tour, C.C.
MACULA: It was a problem for my father, a brother, and two sisters. So far, I've escaped, along with my remaining brother. We're hoping it bypasses us. We're the only two in the family with color-blindness. Maybe our eyes are different enough.
Good news that Fermat is doing OK. It's been many months since we've heard from her.
Thanks for the review, C.C. You have a lovely Sunday Universal today! I recommend that everyone should check it out. They're downloadable at crosswordfiend.com in the Today's Puzzles section. BTW, the AMY clue was Rich's. Locum tenens is one of my favorite phrases. It generally refers to a physician filling in for another, allowing that doctor to take a vacation, etc. And yes, Owen, "cross word editor" was my seed entry. Glad you liked it. But your "...sword sheathed at his side" line has given me the earworm "Froggy went A-courtin'. There's a verse that includes "sword and pistol by his side" in that old tune.
FIW. Crossing of Nora and Ne-Yo was cruel.
Terry O'Quinn early in his career was Terrence Quinn. I remember him from JAG as Admiral Thomas Boone, the CAG (Commander Air Group). Most of the carrier screens were filmed on the USS Forestall.
Thanks, Paul. Thanks, C.C.
FIW in a little over 38 minutes. More pure guesses than in any crossword I've solved of late. I didn't get the congrats message and by then I knew it was fruitless to look for errors.
Correctly guessed the N in NORA and NE-YO.
Didn't know wither CREWEL or FEH, but correctly guessed the E that was needed. I'd wager that Madame Defarge knew CREWEL.
Incorrectly guessed LOrnE for LOCKE and ANnE for ANKE.
Didn't know WHELK and didn't know the characters in the never seen GOONIES. I thought maybe they were each a GOalIE in "The Mighty Ducks" hockey movie.
So most of my errors were centered around LOCIM TENUNS. All those years of Latin I never took didn't help.
There were other answers that needed a letter to be perped in as well.
Pat (FLN), thanks for sharing those CICADA clips. Your back yard is so lush !
C.C., glad that you know the source of your drip drip noise. Now, climb up a ladder and get on the roof with a length of clothesline (longer than the downspout), a clothes hanger, and a larger heavy nut.
1)Loop one end of the clothesline through the nut and tie it off. Tie off the other end of the clothesline to the hanger, and then wedge it securely in the gutter (not the downspout).
2)Drop the nut down the downspout. The clothesline should follow. If not, pull it back up and add another nut or two. Then drop it down again.
3)Climb back down and untie the nut(s).
You can test your fix by climbing back up the ladder with a garden hose or bucket or two of water. The drip drip noise should be gone.
Pro Tip 1: - Don't use a vinyl or plastic clothesline. Use a basic cotton clothesline. It will absorb water much better.
Pro Tip 2: - The length of clothesline only needs to be long enough to go a little bit past the elbow that your association maintenance man replaced. It does not need to go all the way out of the downspout extension at the bottom.
Pro Tip 3: - Just ask the maintenance man if he will do it for you.
Well, we worked our way through this one but, as others have already commented, more than a bit Natick-y (or Topanga-y for some).
Thank you Mr. Coulter for a very nice puzzle, and Thank You for stopping by....
Thank you CC for a very nice review.
Locum Tenens ( as more commonly referred to, in the US ) ... elsewhere in the Commonwealth countries, 'Locums' ... is very common as 'side jobs' ... ( moonlighting ) for physicians and nurses, and other para professionals, like PHysical Therapists ... even clergymen (!)
This is the first thing a medical guy is told when he or she passes
1. The USMLE ... Step One, Two, Three exams, ... etc.
1. The FLEX - Federal Licen exams
2. The hospital certification and state licensure etc.
that just past their Residency, they can start working in any number of odd jobs, in skilled nursing facilities, Urgi Surgis, One-minute clinics, Hospitalist attends, etc. especially on weekends, long weekends (like today ! ) , evenings etc. on an 'as required', scheduled, basis.
Many times, they just stay at home, and are paid to be available by phone, for a consult.
Once they get BQ board qualified and/more BC Board Certified , say, as Internal Med or some sub speciality like Anesth, they can become spec locum tenens at higher rates.
This lasts way past their official retirement ages ... so long as they retain their mental faculties, and their state license.
*******************
The Macula is a small oval area, in the center ( more as in back-center ) of the eyeball, ( in space --) .... which is central and critical to detecting color etc., and contains a high conc of cones and nerve cells for visual accuracy, er, acuity .....
the Retina is the 'wallpaper' on the back surface of the eye.
The Macula is not on the surface of the Retina, ... thus. unlike the clue in the CW, ... not a part of the Retina. The macula is in space ...
As we age, the macula can degenerate, lose its cones, due to, among other things, ... high pressure generation of the eye fluid etc.
Consult Wiki, for much more info ....
Sorry for the TMI.
have a nice day, all.
A puzzle based upon names of obscure persons isn't particularly enjoyable, or fun.
Sometimes you can get lucky finishing with a SCAD of unknowns through lucky WAGs and perps. Was it DORA & DE-YO or NORA & NE-YO? And then there was LOCKE & LOCUMTENENS- perps for both- never heard of him, the book or show, or the Latin saying. Desper-otto & KS, I just got lucky.
Paul, it may been one of YOUR favorite phrases but I doubt very few people know of it, especially those who are not lawyers or didn't take Latin in school.
The theme fills were easy after a few perps. MIDDLE MANAGER was my favorite.
Other unknowns were EMILIO, GOONIE, LENI, AMY, FEH, HARPER, LISA, & TEC. MACULA I knew but not how to correctly spell it.
PGAS as the answer is incorrect if it refers to the PGA Championship that was won by Phil Michelson last week. It has always been held late in the summer (August); this year was the FIRST time it was ever held in May. The PGATour is now year round to accommodate television. Tough to call the PGA 'annual' if it's only been held in May one time.
Musings
-Beware, obscure names and Naticks dead ahead! Got ‘er done anyway.
-You know those things you do that you really don’t want to do but your spouse really wants to? We’re off to visit a cemetery that is 90 minutes away to stand in front of a tombstone for 5 minutes and return home. It’s what you do. Read y’all later.
I loved the theme's long answers which were clever.
BUT...TOO MANY NAMES!
FIW. I never heard of LOCUM TENENS, but guessed it. Still couldn't fill the K in ANKE and LOCKE, and am embarrassed to report that at 49 Across, I had CROSS WORD ErasOR, leading to various other bits of nonsense. You got me, Paul. Thanks, anyway, and thanks, C.C.!
....and the placement of MIDDLE MANAGER was perfect!
Widwan827 fr Friday night: Your soliloquy was stunning. I'm awestruck......
DNF due to a temporary substitute place holder & and other oddities...
Which reminded me of a story...
(You can skip to the next post now)
TTP reminded me that once having fallen off a ladder
(Yes, I know it explains a lot)
My kids will not let me go up on the roof to clean gutters.
So I was looking at my (now unused) walking cane while during a storm
That funnels the entire roofs rain towards my garage door gutter,
And marveling at the resulting cascade waterfall,
(I never have to take my car to the car wash)
That an idea occurred to me.
Looking around the garage, I found a 10 foot section of thin "v" shaped
Wooden molding.
(Any stick will do)
Duct taped the long end of my cane to one end.
Then found a croquet goalpost thingie,
(Any stick will do)
And duct taped that to the canes short end,
And proceeded to stand out in the rain to use my newly made
U shaped long stick to poke at the clogged gutter hole.
Now, if you are a sissy, you can do this in the sunshine,
But make sure the gutter is full of rainwater if you want to hear
That satisfying "whoosh" of water when the hole is cleared.
Now, if you want to be a real he-man,
You can make the entire contraption out of 1/2 inch
Copper pipe. Being sure to only attempt blockage clearing
At the height of a lightening storm.
Don't worry,
We have a temporary substitute place holder already picked out for you...
(End of story)
Hi Y'all! I got a chuckle from the theme answers, thanks, Paul. However, I counted 17 names & words I didn't know which slowed me down considerably. Fill, erase, WAG, erase, red-letter, etc. Didn't hate it or love it. Kept my mind exercised.
Hand up for FEH is a word?
Saw a question about NORA & "A Doll's House" on a TV quiz show recently, but I thought they said Lora. BZZT!
Didn't know NE-YO until C.C.'s picture appeared. I think he was on "World of Dance" but didn't know his name was hyphenated. Not sure I knew what they were calling him either.
C.C.: thank you for the great blog & letting us know about Fermat Prime. I was wondering about her the other day.
CREWEL embroidery is done with wool thread. I did a lot of it for gifts back in the 60's. After I had my third child in 5 years and moved to the farm, I somehow lost the VERVE to do "fancy work".
CED: your timely tip for cleaning gutters made me laugh out loud. I'm always fighting that problem. My current yardman has resisted cleaning gutters the past two years, but blew out the thousands of maple seeds as needed earlier. However, he blew them out to the flower beds & shrubbery area instead of blowing them out to the grass for the mower to clip off. With all the rain, thousands of little maple seeds are now sprouting where I least want them. I was out twice trying to sweep up the worst places but get exhausted quickly. Eat those seeds fast, all you squirrels!
FIW today. Four wrong squares. One was due to unknown names crossing each other: ANnE and LOCnE, (hi, Naomi and TTP). One was sloppy spelling/proofreading: FLIGHT ATTENDeNT. And most embarrassingly, two squares were so filled with ink, I forgot what I had last written. LOCUM TENENS was new to me and involved in that error.
But overall the number of WAGS that were right were more than those wrong, the clever themers were big helps once filled in, and I can't say a CROSS WORD about the experience. Thanks Paul for the puzzle and coming by. Thanks C.C. for your review and insight.
I noticed the Seinfield friends having six letter names too, DO, as the fourth try finally fit. Many oft used three letter words appeared, but FEH? When will we see you again?
Tomorrow is another (holi)day. Hope you all are doing well. Glad to hear from Fermat and from Tinbeni recently.
CC, I really needed you today! The very best part of this puzzle was sussing out theme phrases which were clever and fairly easy to solve. FLIGHT ATTENDANT was my only unsolved theme entry. However, many other clues left me cold: LOCUM TENENS, NE YO, EMILIO, GOONIE. FEH was a bit of a cheat since it’s never used, is it? Never seen IRL for “offline”.
Overall, a difficult puzzle, but still fun to chew on.
Fun Sunday puzzle, Paul, with lots of neat clues. Many thanks. And C.C., thank you too. I always appreciate it when a cue or a word is new to you--makes us feel okay if we had trouble with it too.
My favorite clues this morning were "undesirable freshness" for SASS, and "was shy?" for OWED (oh, not timid, but not enough money to pay up).
I loved that little area down a bit in the middle where ENID and LENI were next to each other, confirming ELI and OLIN across. There were lots of names, but I actually got more of them than I usually do in puzzles (nice to see ONO, by the way), so this was no problem for me.
Nice poems, Owen.
Have a great holiday weekend, everybody (even if the weather is not too great).
FIW after a long slog. Beaten by a rapper is poetic justice. Two names crossing? Do we have to do that? Jackassery! I spent a year in Thailand in 1963 and spent some 3-day weekends in Bangkok. My goto bar was the Why Not?, which now is a trans bar I think. My wife and I were in Bangkok for a cruise excursion day in 2018. It wasn’t the same (in all ways).
Massive FIW. The sports guy can't remember T OWENS. I had Odems. And Curse WORD sounded so apt. Bleeping Rich calls a curse a cross word.
Lots of naticks today so I can't feel too bad. No, I never heard of LOCUMTENENS(nor Mr LOCKE).
There are PGAS from January thru August.
" I thought maybe they were each a GOalIE in "The Mighty Ducks" hockey movie.". TTP that's hilarious
I got distracted by the Knicks and waiting for Jordan Speith to tee off. What a treat, I get 18 holes of JS. He's struggling a bit.
I struggled in the SW. We had INTOTO recently but I'd like to see Mr MOTO clued someday.
Before xword blogs I'd work the NYT Sunday xword all week or all month. I actually changed TOYS to TOYe to fit that bleep'n EDITOR. A solid is a solid. BTW, I'm feeling much better.
WC
Spieth is making a comeback
Liked SASS and sports clues PGA and ANKE Huber. LOCKE not so much.
Hope to see a puzzle by ACME (Andrea Carla Michaels) soon.
Sunday Lurk say....
C.C. - That is such good news about FermatPrime. Thank you.
{A, A+}
Alice - IRL == In Real Live (as opposed to meeting one virtually or "online").
PK - I've got some squirrels you can borrow :-)
TTP - LOL ProTip #3.
I had to do that to reattach the down-spout after the painters knocked it loose; my 24" extension ladder wasn't long enough to (safely) perform the task.
//And CED is just crazy :-)
I've seen The Goonies >100x. Being 9 years older than my oldest 1/2-sib, it was my job to keep them quiet on Saturday mornings so Stepmonster could sleep in. About half the time, Army Bro (I'm 11 years older than he) wanted to watch it.
If you're in charge of kids under 15yrs old (older than 8 - there's some potty-mouth) and it's raining... I recommend.
Cheers, -T
I enjoyed all the amusing theme answers. Only hang up was having FAR OUT before FAR OFF so I wanted UGH before FEH (which I had never heard before) but with the CRE I knew the CREWEL was right. So I backed into the FEH - which I thought was going to be a BZZT but turned out to be right! Of course LOCUM TENENS is right up my wheelhouse - I have never been one- but some colleagues have stopped regular practice and then done that on and off - if you're filling in you don't have to have that state's license and it can be on your schedule- 2-4 weeks on and then a couple of months off - or same job for 6 months while they recruit a new physician if someone has left, etc.
I have millenial children so knew IRL meant In Real Life.
Had thought about driving to my mom's for the Memorial Day visiting of the graves (2 1/2 hour away) but still catching up from being out of town so I was glad my brother offered to go with Mom (he lives near her but is not always the most reliable) - otherwise we would have just gone in a few weeks!
Thanks CC and Paul!
CC- after you linked the song Argyle liked I looked it up - I have never seen the musical "Chess" and didn't realize the music was composed by the male half of the ABBA quartet and Tim Rice of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita" fame. sounds like it was more popular in the UK then the US.
Can a whole puzzle be a Natick? A Natick crash-and-burn and a DNF for me. This one, I might have been able to finish,but it was so annoying I just junked it.Virtually everything else about this puzzle was decidedly unfun.Overloaded with names and crosswordese and just stuff that should never,ever be in a grid.How do you not see that when you're making this??
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW; NEYO tripped me up as I forgot the anagram lineup in EGOT
Not too many W/O’s today but no victory for solving it correctly. I had no lookups or peeks; (our paper provides the answers to Sunday puzzles on a following page) Thanks Paul and CC for your Sunday entertainment
Talking about dogs eating strange things, my daughter's husband came out in time to witness their cairn terrier swallowing a small wriggling-alive snake without chewing. He's been off his feed ever since & vomited blood a couple days ago. Vet diagnosed pancreatitis. Daughter doesn't know if the snake caused that or what. They have to closely watch the dog who is trying to eat anything he finds outdoors.
AnonT: thanks for the squirrel offer but I have plenty here. And teeny bunnies.
I am so totally beaten by this puzzle today. The elephant in the room was LOCUM TENENS, into which space I was trying to squeeze (or stretch) LIEUTENANT. Not knowing LOCKE didn't help, although I knew Terry (O')Quinn. So many places where I went wrong. FEH gave me fits and my refusal to accept it wrought havoc in that area. For some reason I had INTERNAL hard drive and MINI dress; EXTERNAL and MAXI ended up making much more sense. Con BRIO had to be changed to con MOTO in order to make that area work, and GOALIE had to be changed to GOONIE. TOTO, MOTO, Stuns, STUNS, ONO, EMO, ENO, Lena, ENID, LENI, ILE, ISLE. Sheesh.
Okay, I still don't get it. What does a sleep button have to do with a CROSS WORD?
So glad to hear that Lorraine is doing well.
Good wishes to you all.
Jayce, if you're not joking .... Bleep , not sleep.
The clue for 49 Across was Bleep Button Operator ... Bleep. as the sound of something censored on the air. Thus a Cross Word ...hence CROSS WORD EDITOR.
Vidwan, thank you. I was not joking; I see now I misread the clue. Makes sense now.
Actually that clue didn't make a lot of sense. Clueing "Cross" word is difficult. Do we bleep someone out who is cross?
Of course Curse WORD is neat but the theme was about actual things. So , a little more time spent would've unraveled the mystery.
Plus we a were looking for something easier.
WC
Musings
-A 220 mile round trip with 6 miles of it being on a muddy road that scared me to death.
-Of all the AMY’s, ENID’s, LISA’s, HARPER’s and NORA’s in the world… This will not make my Puzzle Hall Of Fame…
-Now LENI and TERI, I knew and ANKE was unavoidable
-British philosopher John LOCKE would have given me a shot.
-NE-YO gets my award for obscurity of the day.
-Classy pro ELI will was a stark contrast to showboat TERREL
-SEED – My lovely bride still doesn’t see what the best team gets to play the worst team in the first round
-Glad to hear about Ferm!
I have not had time to finish today's puzzle. Tomorrow is another day. I have not peeked or read the blog yet. I need be alone to concentrate.
How do choral groups and orchestras perform in sync, each from their own homes? Our Zoom church responses and hymns are so out of sync that we have to mute ourselves to respond.
Happy Memorial Day. "See" you tomorrow.
Thank you Paul and thank you C.C. And special thanks for the baby pictures of Lemonade and Melissa's beautiful granddaughters Harper and Harper.
I hadn't planned to comment today, but couldn't stay away from reading the rest of the Corner's reactions to this NICE NEST of NATICKS (my Mother taught me that "If you can't say anything NICE then don't say anything at all."). She also taught me that "MISERY LOVES COMPANY", so I've resolved to pal around with my follower sufferers, apparently a large lot. Oh and BTW I FIW, the count of W's being 4ish, although I could kick myself for not getting SIAM, but I'm miserable enough as it is.
There was a lot CREWEL about this puzzle, but there WERE also a lot of NICE things to say about it, and though I struggled with it, I nevertheless really enjoyed it. And I'm not likely to forget LOCUM TENENS, at the heart of the NATICKS NEST.
The clue/fill themers were all very clever and I did manage to get them all. My fav themer was MIDDLE MANAGER, someone I could sorely use after living the last year on the PANDEMIC diet (a variant of the SEEFOOD diet). CROSS WORD EDITOR was my second fav, with its CSO to our favorite fixer RICH.
But my favorite fill in the whole puzzle was the short 109A AMY, the given name of a remarkable musician, child prodigy of Mozartian proportions, composer, performer, and major force in American music. Eminent composer Horatio Parker even dubbed her "One of the Boys" (i.e. "The Boston Six") after attending the premier of her first symphony ("The Gaelic").
Liked 21A ANATOLIA: St. Paul's NT fertile field of faith.
DNK 59A NEMEA, a labor of Hercules I'd not heard of.
And "Let's see ... HMM", there was alsO OLIN, ONO, EMO, OPS, OTRA, and OH yes "OWENS".
Which brings me to a CSO to the Corner Poet Laureate:
{A,A+} Especially loved the riff on IAMB.
Cheers,
Bill
So, overall, this crossword is cruising in the D- to 'Feh' range, by the Cornerites' consensus so far.
Thanks, Tony, for explaining IRL. I kept thinking it was something like 'Internet Relay League', a la ARRL for amateur radio.
And also, EGOT, is an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. (What 'R' would fit to make it ERGOT?)
Hola!
I haven't finished today's puzzle nor read any comments but I had to report on seeing the movie, HERE TODAY with Billy Cristal. It is a hoot! Billy is as funny and charming as ever with quite a twist to his story. It was an absolute treat to go to a movie for the first time in well over a year! People are out and about enjoying themselves. What a delight to be normal again. I hope you are all doing well. Read you later.
Michael @8:23 PM. How about Raspberries? Has a bit of the psychedelic about it.
Michael @8:23 PM as in the RAZZIES.
Waseeley - Maybe Liza Minnelli? She's gotten an Oscar and a Razzie. Haven't looked at the rest of ERGOT yet :-)
-T
Finished at 1:00 am but was puzzled by LORNE as were others ("Lost" character? I'd watched all seasons except the last four episodes). Slept on it - then looked at 17D clue "place..." aha LOrUM had to be LOCUM. Never studied Latin, but seems like it'd be logical as the root for locale, locate, etc. in my feeble reasoning.
FEH - IIRC we've had this before and it created discussion then. Lucky guess with the N in Nora - never heard of NE-YO - these stage names! Remembered SIAM from watching "The King and I" with Yul and Deborah Kerr.
TTP @9:40a - Very interesting "drip fix" using your practical knowledge, and as I read along I thought "Ain't happening!" so I laughed at your Tip #3.
WC @3:32 - You're in fine form today discussing curse vs cross and with reference to Rich - or did I misunderstand? :)
Anon-T - Almost fell out of my chair re The Goonies on Saturday mornings! Is dear Pops still married to Step-mo---er?
It was the NEMEAN lion that Hercules slew as one of the labors
TxMS - no, they got divorced shortly after moving back to IL after leaving Shreveport, LA. Pop's #3 is a gem. Not only does she put up with us five kids, they are happy together.
I send her flowers every Mother's Day.
So..., tonight, in a call with my Brothers & Pop, Pop was relating his nightmare trip from HOU to SPI. He was stuck at DFW for >26 hours.
Pop said, "I was sitting at gate 32A so long I put up a mail box."
You can't write that stuff :-)
Cheers, -T
Anon-T, your dad sounds like quite a character - fun-loving (and easy-going - 26+ hrs!?) with a hilarious sense of humor. Glad he found that the third time's the charm is true. She must be very special in her own right to "put up" with your Italian family - quite a handful I imagine.
Dear Waseeley: RAZZIES it is ... a welcome antidote to the EGOTism that Hollywood seems to stir up.
Hand up for "curse" before CROSS WORD EDITOR. I seem to curse a little when I'm CROSS about something.
I agree that there were way too many obscure items. Among the most obscure are locumtenens, Locke from a 1996 series “Lost”, Goonie from the 1985 movie Goonies, the one season 1980 series Cosmos and filmmaker LENI Riefenstahl. Also the answer for getaway driver. Just what does a flight attendant drive?
Despite all the obscure junk, the rest of the puzzle was enjoyable.
Agree with prior posters on PGA — switched to May in 2019, back to Aug in 2020 (COVID-19), then to May in 2021 (and in future).
After seeing it, remembered hearing the Yiddish feh.
Heard locum tenens when my father (clergyman) took a position replacing a locum tenens who had filled in since the prior rector left.
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