Today Tim D'Alfonso makes his LA Times Crossword puzzle debut just
as the Summer season approaches, and he greets us with a
real scorcher ...
"Bad Girls" is one of the twists on today's theme that Tim doesn't broach, but
here are the ones he does ...
18A. Author's dream:
BEST SELLER. This dream was answered for
these authors. For another author, see themer 67A below.
26A. It's rated
10+ on the Scoville Scale: GHOST PEPPER. Don't let Tim's rating fool you. According to "Cayenne Diane" the Ghost Pepper is actually rated at 1,041,427 SHU's (Scoville Heat Units). The nursery I bought plants at today was carrying some, but
after reading this, I passed them by ...
56A. Haul, in a bad way: STOLEN GOODS.
67A. "Fifty Shades of Grey," for one: EROTIC FILM. In the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, writing for the Court, said that for the material to be obscene, it must be "utterly without redeeming social value." It was in this case that Justice Potter Stewart made this famous quote: "I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it." The film "Fifty Shades of Grey" received an MPAA R Rating and the public rated E.L. James' book on which it was based the best seller of the past decade. I've not seen the film, so I can't weigh in on whether it has "socially redeeming value". Here's the trailer:
And Tim mixes it all up with ...
42A. 1979 #1 hit for Donna Summer, and what the four longest Across answers are: HOT STUFF.
I'll be back in a minute.
I really need to go cool off!
Okay, I think I'm ready
...
Across:
1. Base in "A Few Good Men," familiarly: GITMO. Short for the
GUANTANAMO Naval base, a small part of Cuba still owned by the United
States. As I recall, this film exhibits a lot of
HOT TEMPERS in a TROPICAL climate, as
it explores the conflict between the Esprit de Corps of the United States
Marines and
the rule of law. A powerful film:
6. Selection: PICK.
10. Eat away: ERODE.
15. Live, TV-wise: ON AIR.
16. Turkish title: AGHA.
An honorific title for a civilian or military officer, or often part of such title, and was placed after the name of certain
civilian or military functionaries in the Ottoman Empire. At the same time
some court functionaries were also entitled to the
agha title.
|
| The Agha of the Janissaries |
17. Red Square honoree: LENIN. My favorite quote from Lenin:
20. White pawns, e.g.: OCTAD. See also 8D below.
21. Became effective: TOOK.
22. Spanish she-bear: OSA.
23. One may be grand: PIANO. As opposed to an "upright" or a "digital". The PIANO was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who named it "clavicembalo col piano e forte" (literally, a harpsichord that can play soft and loud noises). Older keyboard instruments were essentially plucked via a mechanical plectrum or "pick", with no way to control dynamic range, i.e. softness and loudness, or in Italian "piano" and "forte". The original Italian "pianoforte" was eventually shortened simply to "piano".
There have been many variations on this instrument, including one that echos a figure we have already seen in 16A above. Around the turn of the 19th century, "Turkish" music was so popular that piano manufacturers made special pianos with a "Turkish stop," also called the "military" or "Janissary" stop. The player would press a pedal that caused a bell to ring and/or a padded hammer to strike the soundboard in imitation of a bass drum. Here is Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca played on a Janissary piano by Manuela Giardina:
24. GPS displays: RTES.
29. Skip the café: EAT IN.
31. Battleship abbr.: USS. The one that came immediately to mind was the USS Constellation, now docked in Baltimore's inner harbor. "The USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built at the Gosport Shipyard between 1853 and 1855 and was named for the earlier frigate of the same name that had been broken up in 1853". After years of disrepair, the ship has been completely restored and the tours of it are fascinating:
32. Praiseful poem: ODE.
33. Words that may preempt a dismissal: I RESIGN. I used this phrase a lot to preempt a "Check Mate", when I was playing against a buddy of mine, a Chess whiz.
35. Bird in Liberty Mutual ads: EMU. They also frequently appear in Cwds - this is at least the third time since I started blogging on this corner of the Corner. This past Sunday's puzzle included this gluey clue.
37. __ Valley, Calif.: SIMI. DW and I once took the coastal train from Berkeley to LA, and it seemed like most of the trip was spent going thru Simi Valley. The East Coast gets much of it fresh food from here in the cold weather months. Some would even call it the bread basket of the USA.
41. Primes, e.g.: Abbr.: NOS. Prime Numbers. Today's math lesson.
45. Many a fed. holiday: MON.
46. Ltr. directive: ATTN.
48. Ontario-based music gp.: TSO. Not the Chinese chicken dish, but the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. And here they are with a CSO to our very own CanadianEh!
51. "Big Little Lies" airer: HBO. Gee, this was in Sunday's puzzle too, but the answer was one of the co-stars: REESE, as in WITHERSPOON:
53. Providence-to-Boston dir.: NNE.
55. Island environs: WATER.
61. When tripled, a story shortener: YADA. The phrase "yadda yadda" was first popularized by the comedian Lenny Bruce in his standup bit "Father Flotsky's Triumph," the closing track on his 1961 album "Lenny Bruce - American." It gained renewed popularity in the US in the late 1990s on the television show Seinfeld, where it appears as a catchphrase, initially in Season 8, Episode 19, entitled “The Yada Yada”, originally aired on April 24, 1997,
62. Ralph of "The Waltons": WAITE. Ralph Waite was not only an actor, but also a political activist.
|
|
Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 - February 13, 2014) |
63. "So awful!": UGH. See 66D below.
64. Nautical unit: KNOT. The knot (/nɒt/) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, exactly 1.852 km/h (approximately 1.151 mph or 0.514 m/s). It is not surprising that sailors would use this word in the measurement of speed and distance at sea, as they are the masters of KNOTS. In fact they wrote the book on it. I thought my copy was out of print, but I was delighted the find that it is still available:
66. Moray catcher: EELER. An EELER (pursuer of Family Anguilliformes) would really have to know his/her eels to go after a MORAY (subfamily Muraenidae). Some of the genera are really HOT STUFF, e.g. the flesh of some species is highly toxic, whereas larger species may be aggressive and are capable of killing humans. However their exotic nature makes them of interest to tropical fish mavens:
|
|
Fangtooth Moray Eel |
71. Crosswise, on deck: ABEAM.
72. Suckers: SAPS.
73. "__ now, when?": IF NOT.
74. Singer nicknamed "The Velvet Fog": TORME. MEL TORME (September 13, 1925 - June 5, 1999) was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells. Here he is singing "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" ...
75. Hook's sidekick: SMEE. What's a nice guy like SMEE doing hanging out with a crook like Hook:
76. Certain NCOs: SSGTS. Staff Sergeants.
Down:
1. Hunk: GOB. Be still your hearts Cornerettes.
2. Serpent's tail?: INE. While this could e.g. refer to a winding road, I'm assuming that this clue is a misdirection for the suffix INE, and thus might refer to a group of green, brown, or spotted minerals. Serpentine minerals are quite versatile, providing everything from crushed aggregate for road paving all the way to a fine sculpture medium resembling a green marble, This Chinese carving depicts Guanyin, the Buddhist bodhisattva* associated with compassion:
* roughly equivalent to one of our angels.
3. Competition with blindfolds, maybe: TASTE TEST. This should
have been CMOE's puzzle, but the clue could also describe a child's game with
a
Piñata, or
Pin the Tail on the Donkey. You can buy the necessities at your local party store.
4. Cell division: MITOSIS.
The clue says it all, but if you want more
here's a brief intro
to this complicated subject.
5. Roughly: OR SO.
6. Bud: PAL.
7. Inuit homes: IGLOOS. These links on the
Inuits
and
the homes they used to live in
are from the Canadian Encyclopedia (another CSO to CanadianEh!).
8. Place for kings and queens: CHESS SET. PALACE came up
short.
9. Gold measure: KARAT. I always confuse this with CARAT,
both measurements for precious substances (gold and gemstones,
respectively). A
carat is a unit of weight (0.200 grams) used to measure the weight of a gemstone such as a
diamond. A KARAT is a measurement indicating the
proportion of gold in an alloy out of 24 parts, so 18K gold is
18/24 parts gold. Sounds simple enough, but how do you measure the
proportion of gold in an alloy? For that I refer you to
The Story of Archimedes and the Golden Crown. Thus Archimedes discovered a new type of measurement:
density or the ratio of mass over volume.
We'll save the definitions for CARET and CARROT for a later
puzzle. Isn't English spelling fascinating!
10. Ran off to get hitched: ELOPED.
11. Chef's assortment: RECIPES.
12. Ready to be poured: ON TAP.
13. Lane of "Unfaithful": DIANE.
Diane Colleen Lane is an American actress and producer. Born and raised in
New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 13 in George Roy Hill's
1979 film A Little Romance. A major supporting role was played by Laurence
Olivier, who called her "the new Grace Kelly".
19. Hosp. readout: EKG.
24. Isabella, por ejemplo: REINA. Today's Spanish lesson. Or perhaps someone who lives in a "juego de ajedrez" (see 8D).
25. Deck with the Fool and the World: TAROT The great Swiss
psychiatrist Carl Jung,
thought that Tarot cards provided a gateway to the Unconscious Mind.
|
|
Carl Jung (July 26, 1875 - June 6, 1961) |
27. Tracks down: HUNTS.
28. Hairdos made popular by Marie Antoinette: POUFS. This was apparently the wrong hairstyle at the wrong time:
|
|
Marie Antoinette
(November 2, 1755 - October 16, 1793) |
30. Medical research org.: NIH. National Institutes of Health.
34. Boarded: GOT ON.
36. Like some colors: MUTED. And like some MICS. If you're throwing shade, make sure yours isn't HOT.
38. Pretending to be: IMITATING.
39. Called from the pasture: MOOED. DW and I finally got around to watching All Creatures Great and Small. Great series with a lot of MOOING. Rumor has it there WILL be a Season 2.
40. Prefix with mural: INTRA. Also a prefix with UTERINE. Speaking of which ...
43. Ultrasound image: SONOGRAM. This is a SONOGRAM of my oldest grandson, aged 6 months. Eighteen years later he is graduating from high school this weekend and will then be headed off to Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, WY. His first 2 weeks there will be spent on an "outward bound" trek through the Wyoming wilderness. Who'd have thought that all of that would happen as a result of this:
44. Small amount: FEW.
47. Blues, e.g.: NHL TEAM. For any Hockey noobs (hand up here), everything you want to know about the Blues. Based on today's scores (5/22/2021), it looks like the Avalanche were giving them something to be blue about.
|
|
St Louis Blues |
50. Terminations: LAYOFFS.
52. "Cold one, please": BEER ME.
54. Words of despair: NO HOPE. Often a self-fulfilling prophecy.
56. It may be broken in a gym: SWEAT. A lot of it is being broken in the next answer ...
57. Fitness regimen: TAE BO. Tae Bo is a body fitness system that incorporates martial arts techniques, such as kicks and punches, which became popular in the 1990s. It was developed by American taekwondo practitioner Billy Blanks. Such programs use the motions of martial arts at a rapid pace designed to promote fitness. Here's Billy:
58. Gulf ship: OILER. A lot of OILERS were blocked from passing through the Suez Canal this past Spring, when the massive container ship Ever Given ran aground there and was stuck for a week. To give you some idea of the damage wreaked by this catastrophe: About 12% of global trade, around one million barrels of oil and roughly 8% of liquefied natural gas pass through the canal each day. The chairman of the Suez Canal Administration estimated that the Canal's revenues alone were taking a $14m-$15m (£10.2m-£10.9m) hit for each day of the blockage.
59. Jeans brand with a question mark in its logo: GUESS. Okay, I give up?
60. Hit the slopes: SKI. A CSO to Malodorous Manatee.
65. "JAG" spin-off: NCIS.
68. Mao __-tung: TSE. Or when repeated a deadly fly.
69. Realtor's offering: LOT. I think LOT's wife is more famous than most realtors. She was a real pillar of her community until she was turned into a PILLAR OF SALT for looking back as she fled Sodom.
70. Peaks: Abbr.: MTS. And now for the ultimate in HOT STUFF, that gluiest of Cwd glue:
|
|
Mt Etna |
Here's the grid:
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
I wonder if ever an Ottoman AGHA
ReplyDeleteTraveled to India's city of Agra?
Would he like at all
The Taj Mahal?
Or would he dismiss it as YADA, yada?
LENIN lies in Moscow's Red Square
The say he's decomposing there.
He was HOT STUFF,
A ruler, tough.
But ERODING in the open AIR.
In shallow WATER you'll find an EELER.
In deeper water plows an OILER.
Eels make sushi
Oil leaks are gushy
Should they meet then call a lawyer!
{A, B+, B-.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteSaw the reveal; got the theme; finished in good time; will wonders never cease? Today it was NHL (I was being prescient yesterday). Enjoyed your debut, Tim, and your expo, Waseeley.
WAITE/NCIS: He played Gibbs' father Jackson Gibbs on NCIS. That's a twofer.
SIMI: It's a pretty small valley near L.A. I'll bet you were thinking of the Central Valley, Bill.
HOT STUFF: Today would be a good day to link Tom Lehrer's Smut. But I've done that before. If you're interested in some clever wordplay, you can look it up on YouTube.
D-O @6:46 AM. I'm sure you're right about that. I recall we passed by one of Musk's space centers
Delete"If the eel bites your thigh, and you fear you might die, that's a moray."
ReplyDeleteDonna wanting some HOT STUFF tonight (and not ghost peppers) after watching an EROTIC FILM. Heard the song many times but not interested in the movie. But all the women I know read the BEST SELLER book. Might induce some meiosis and MITOSIS in a younger crowd.
ReplyDeleteNever noticed the STUFFable items. GHOST PEPPER was an unknown pepper. I did stuff ten BELL peppers (green, red, yellow, & orange) Monday with sausage, rice, and cornbread dressing. Other unknowns filled by perps were HBO, Ralph WAITE, Diane LANE, changed REINE to REINA, POUFS, GUESS,
LENIN- why would anybody who caused the deaths of untold million of his own countrymen be an honoree?
TASTE TEST- "Pin The Tail On The Donkey" wouldn't fit.
Fun puzzle! Donna Summer had 3 #1 hits in 1979, and I put in a different one that had the same number of letters: Bad Girls. Then I had huge trouble trying to understand how the theme answers fit into that! I eventually found my way to HOTSTUFF.
ReplyDelete(The third one was "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" with Barbra Streisand.)
This was pretty quick for a Thursday - some of the answers filled themselves and I found out about them here!
ReplyDeleteThis is a week for shout out to my state's pro teams - BLUES today and CHIEFS earlier in the week!
I think of SIMI Valley as where the Reagan presidential library is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Presidential_Library
Thanks Bill and Tim!
Hot stuff, Tim. Fun theme. Hot stuff, Bill. Fine blog, as usual.
ReplyDeleteNo hangups, only WAITE needed all perps.
Why is Lenin's corpse in a place of honor?
Lenin
I like many types of hot peppers, but would not try ghost peppers. Why endure such agony?
FLN We hear much these days about the horrors of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. As a child, I had a vivid imagination and wondered about many things. But I just accepted nursery rhymes and fairy tales as they were. I never thought of them as true or identified with the characters. I didn't sense any horror. Hansel and Gretel being abandoned by their parents? The witch being pushed into the oven? It was just a story, not real life. Children have no idea that Ring Around the Rosy was about the plague, nor do many adults. Sometimes we adults overthink things like this. I am surprised at some of the things modern people read into cartoons, tales, etc. - a big S T R E T C H.
Ralph Waite also played Booth's father on BONES during the same time he was Jackson Gibbs, all while appearing regularly on DAYS OF OUR LIVES as FATHER MATT !
ReplyDeleteFLN, I was serious about the darkness included in so many things aimed at children, from the fairy tales, to all the 'violence' in cartoons. We also have television shows like AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS , ELLEN'S GAME OF GAMES , HOLEY MOLEY and , DON'T where we are supposed to laugh as people hurt themselves. I was totally kidding about the SANTA SATAN coincidence but the rest is real to me.
A very nice first puzzle; the only Tim D'Alfonso I found online is a r4espected heart surgeon...come say hi Tim. Thank you and Bill you new guys are killing it!
Got this one in 5:51, even though "I resign" and "reina" had me stumped.
ReplyDeleteTSO and TSE and TSEliot.
Pretty sure "Hot Stuff" will now be ringing in my ears throughout the day.
I thought the blind taste test was the Pepsi vs Coke competition. I have seen it done with blindfolds.
ReplyDeleteFIR today with mostly clean grid of easy fill. TAE BO slowed me down since I tried THE BO but couldn't make any sense of it. WAITE wasn't familiar so it didn't help. HOT STUFF was a good theme. Thanks, Tim. Come again. I enjoyed your puzzle. And thanks, waseeley! Fun review as we have come to expect.
ReplyDelete"That's a moray," has me still smiling, DO. Hope you all have a happy day!
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteFLN: - Lucina re: Inherit the Wind. After giving my movie petty officers a pep talk on drawing better movies from the Base movie exchange, they came back soon after with Inherit the Wind, before its first showing in the Norfolk theaters.
Had TAE BO wrong but got everything else. Neat theme. Couple unknowns like GUESS and DIANE were sussed from the perps.
Bit of a nautical motif with USS, ABEAM, and KNOT. Also had WATER. Good outing; Thanks Tim and Waseeley for getting the day started.
KNOT - As earlier explained: one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is exactly one minute of latitude, which makes it very convenient to work with on maps and charts. Position finding, say, with celestial navigation, makes the nautical mile a very handy unit.
Have a great day.
Another easy one today. I didn’t find any crunch, but I bet that tomorrow will be different. I don’t time myself with pen on paper, but I’m sure it was a quick solve. I never heard of GHOSTPEPPER, but I might have eaten part of one. In 1962, I was stationed at Fr. Bliss, TX, right outside of San Antonio and quite accessible to Juarez, MX. For some reason, I used to venture down to Juarez by myself on occasion. One night, on my way back across the border, I encountered a couple of fellow soldiers making their way back. I had a bottle of red wine with me to carry back to the barracks. They had a pepper. One of the two took a bite from the pepper and asked me to try it. I was skeptical, but went ahead. It was the hottest thing I have ever ingested! I chugged down my bottle of wine to try to put out the fire.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-I’ve got Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff blasting in the background!
-Got ‘er done but had to see “haul” as a noun and unsee “boarded” as “provided a home”
-A #1 PICK in the NFL draft has a 99% chance of at least making the starting day roster
-Enjoyed the OCTAD cluing
-Our GPS did a great job getting us the right RTE’s to grad parties out in the country
-Gilligan’s SS Minnow simply stood for Sailing Ship
-Around 2:50 they start to realize the aliens are sending PRIME numbers
-The ISS maintains an orbit at 17,500 mph or 15,200 KNOTS
-Doctors were really in the dark before X-rays, EKG’s, MRI’s, and CT’s
-Nice job, Bill!
A very solid debut, Tim, and a great write-up Bill. Today, and the next several, look to be quite busy on my end but I do have time to make one brief comment: Death Before Disco!
ReplyDeleteHadn't heard the word mitosis since 10th grade biology(circa 1969) but somehow popped right to mind. Also, as a frequent pub patron going back decades I'd recommend one be on fairly friendly terms with the bartender before laying a "beer me" on him/her...or at least have a twinkle in the eye.
ReplyDelete{A+, A, B.}
ReplyDeleteVery nice puzzle, exactly right for Thursday. I was also surprised that BEER ME passed without comment! Maybe this works in those bars where one drinks BEER by the yard.
D-O knows his California valleys. SIMI is a HOT inland suburb of Los Angeles.
I tried to read Fifty Shades of Grey, but the writing was so bad, I wanted to go over it with a red pen. Rare for me to give up on a book once I've started, but I can't live by plot alone. I need language. I couldn't imagine that the EROTIC FILM was much better, so I passed.
Thank you, Tim, Bill, and fellow travelers!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was fairly easy for a Thursday, but the cluing made it harder to come up with the right answers quickly. Cute theme and a fun reveal. As Spitz pointed out, there was a mini nautical theme to which I’ll add Gob which is a slang word for a sailor. Lots of fun groupings: Eliot/Ode, Not/Knot, Recipes/Taste Test/Eat In, Tse/TSO, Ski/Mts, and On Tap/Beer Me. In addition to the O parade of Gitmo, Piano, TSO, HBO, Or So, Tae Bo, there were numerous Os throughout the grid, more so than usual, it seemed. CSOs to Spitz and DO (Nautical theme), to Lucina (Reina), CanEh (TSO) and MalMan (Ski).
Thanks, Tim, for a Thursday treat and congrats on your LA Times debut and thanks, Bill, for another review filled with information I didn’t know but found interesting and informative.
If anyone can explain more fully the ending of Tuesday’s This Is Us final episode of the season, please email me. I know what happened but I don’t know how it happened.
Have a great day.
FLN Lemony, I would say to anyone who wants to be an actor (isn't it amazing there is no gender difference now, I think that happened during the Me Too movement)(but I have to stop and think before I say actress) has to realize that there would be absolutely nothing else in life that would make them happy. Or fulfilled.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest daughter loved to act and did it in high school and later in college and later in law school! But she realized she wanted to be a STAR and not necessarily to just act. So she's an attorney now, and got really mad at me when I said, "Sarah, does the world really need another lawyer?"
Only become an actor if other is nothing else you could possibly do.
Becky
"Providence-to-Boston" And in the middle is Gillette Stadium
ReplyDeleteMy Doctor was in the dark as to what I was suffering from yesterday. I've been bedridden since Tuesday. My temp was only 100 but I have the exact symptoms of Strep.
I had the J&J vaccine 3 weeks ago. Chest Xray ruled out pneumonia. Painful
Of the 20+ BEER comments Norm makes, none was "BEER ME "
WC
Becky @11:11 AM US movies/TV are indeed based on the star system. DW and I stream almost exclusively English shows (this maybe because my Mother was English) and their system is very different. Local and regional theatres abound and almost all of the actors get their start in Shakespearean theatre. The Bard's plays were peopled with human beings of all types, and English actors can make a decent living playing ordinary, not necessarily beautiful people. In many ways it resembles a giant reportery system, with the same actors appearing in many different roles. While the do have their stars, they tend to run in families like the Redgraves, the Foxes, and the Wests.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tim, and congratulations if this is your LAT debut! I liked this HOT puzzle. I love chile but prefer to enjoy the TASTE, not burn my insides. My sister made red for Sunday's festivities and it was delicious! I've never heard of GHOST PEPPERS.
One does wonder why LENIN is so revered in Russia yet the long lines to view his tomb in Red Square feed morbid curiosity.
After many years of watching NCIS I got tired of it so missed Pam Dawber but I enjoy the reruns of Rizzoli and Isles.
I love seeing the complete name of T. S. ELIOT! I bought a copy of CATS in NY and was surprised that it's a remarkably short pamphlet-like book.
Spitz:
Good choice by your troops!
Owen:
Laughter ensues!
Have a happy day, everyone!
Thank you Waseeley for posting the french version of O Canada, which I hold dear to my heart. Thank you also for your enjoyable review. Hello to all the cornerites! I may not post often, but I enjoy the daily conversation and all that I learn from your varied life experiences and ways of looking at the world. Wishing you a wonderful day!
ReplyDeleteNot to dwell on the subject but...did you consider yourself a star Becky? Would they classify Ralph Waite as a star? I agree with Bill that there is tremendous attention, opportunity, and deference given to "stars" in the US but there are now more working actors than ever before. One of my associates in my law firm continued to pursue his acting in community theater long after he began work in the courtroom. Is trial law acting? Is your daughter happy? How many children do you have? Your response was not crystal clear; was your comment telling her to act?
ReplyDeleteBeer me sounds offensive. I took a bite of ghost pepper once...
ReplyDeleteI thought this Thursday grid a bit crunchy.
Write-overs…TEE/INE, CITOSIS/MITOSIS, WORK/TOOK.
So the NE was a bit of a poser for me.
People will watch what they like, but I never understand wanting to watch what’s already been watched rather than a new episode of a hit show. Not a critique.
You couldn’t pay me to eat a Ghost pepper…I enjoy spicy foods but I fail to understand eating fire. Also not a critique.
It’s SO hot here, 90°s for the last few days. It may “cool off” to the high and mid 80s for the weekend…that’s still hot.
Stay safe.
Only one W/O in this one as I slogged my way thru. 2D ENT:ENE:INE. Misread 71A as “Clockwise on deck” even on second look. Oy. My first thought was ABEAM but that’s not “Clockwise”. After perps filled it I finally went back and re-read the clue. Lots of time wasted there. Eventually FIR but ended up spending 31 minutes getting there. I wonder how many Inuit live in igloos today? I bet very few or none. Bill, I’m with you on the “carat/karat” confusion, I get ‘em mixed up too. Great write-up, BTW, thanx, I especially liked the Mozart piece on the Janissary piano, which was something I didn’t know about. Interesting. Thanx for that and all the rest of your terrific write-up. The USS Constellation I think I toured when I was in England and it too was on a tour and in England. Southampton, I think. I was in a supermarket checkout line several years ago with a well endowed young woman ahead of me wearing a “Guess?” shirt. I hazarded a guess of “Store bought?”, but she didn’t see the humor, and I got a frown and hand-on-hip from her. Tim very nice CW, thanx for all the work put into constructing it. I really like TSEliot. April 2020 was “the cruelest month” in a long time...until worse months followed. Tomorrow the termite guy comes and will drill many holes in my expensive quarry-tiled floor to inject poison under the slab. I’ll be left to fill the holes as best I can. Last time I had termites I took up and threw out the carpeting and spent big-bucks to have the tile put in. That was just three years ago. Now it’ll be full of the-best-I-can-do patches. Oy.
ReplyDeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR without any W-O's or hints. Can't say the same for tomorrow's (mini spoiler alert)
Tim and Bill - get job to you both. As IM said, the plethora of "O's" and the repeating of TSE in TSELIOT, TSE and TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra did not resonate in my brain when I saw that clue) was a bit awkward, but as one who has dipped his toe into the crossword puzzle publishing "waters", I know the difficulty of making a puzzle perfect
Speaking of which, I have recently had two solo puzzles accepted and in the queue for this fall (at Universal), and have at least five more awaiting a decision. Had three recent rejections. You win some; you lose some.
Anyone been able to reach Tinbeni? Hope he's OK
IM regarding "This is Us" . . . not going to give anything away here, or email you (as we too are stumped by this season's ending). A real head scratcher. But at least we know that there is one more season. That's a really well-made show
See y'all bright and early tomorrow
Typo - that should've been "good job" to Tim and Bill! Oops
ReplyDeleteWonderful debut puzzle -- congratulations, Tim!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, Bill, for the blog and the beautiful image of your 6-month old grandson.
Sorry,
ReplyDeleteMy LA Times wasn't delivered today. And my *#@! printer won't work to give me a copy of the XWD from the digital version.
Bummed out.
~ OMK
Hungry Mother-"In 1962, I was stationed at Fr. Bliss, TX, right outside of San Antonio "
ReplyDeleteSan Antonio is a long way from EL PASO and Ft. Bliss (553 miles via I-10), which is across the Rio Grande from Juarez. You guys would have been sober by the time you made it back to base.
Wilbur Charles- BEER ME- the only place I've ever seen it is in a crossword puzzle. Never heard anybody say it.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim for the puzzle and congrats on the LAT debut. Fun theme!
Nice expo, waseeley! Thanks for the music too.
WOs: SoMa(?) -> SIMI
ESPs: REINA, DIANE, AGHA, WAITE
Fav: The King and Queen with an OCTAD of pawns in the CHESS SET
{A, B+, B}
WC - sorry to read you are ill. Get well soon.
Unclefred - how big do the holes have to be? Can they just drill through the grout?
HungryMother - I think you meant El Paso (where I did Basic - in the Summer!); Ft. Sam is in San Antonio (where I did AIT). //BigE just beat me to it.
Congrats on the solos, C. Moe! I have yet to make a solo grid where I didn't paint myself into a corner.
I seem to remember Norm, looking beat-up from the day, coming into Cheers and saying "Beer me, Sam" but I can't find the clip :-(
//I did find Best of Norm [8:16]
When my family gets together, the first thing said after hugs is "Beer Me."
My brother would tease my sister in her jeans with the Guess logo on the butt:
"About 140 pounds?"
Didn't say my brother was nice :-)
Play later!
Cheers, -T
AT @3:14 Thanx for the suggestion but it is not ceramic tile but quarried stone installed without grout lines. I can mix some I sanded grout of a similar color and fill the holes the best I can. Holes are 1/2”. The quarried stone has many colors and pattern I may be able to hide my fill amongst.
DeleteHi Y'all! Thanks, Tim & Bill! Very enjoyable. HOT STUFF needed these cold dank days here.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing this puzzles, I thought it didn't have any unknowns in it. While reading the blog, I realize I didn't know TSO or ENDOR but they must have perped in while I was busy elsewhere. I didn't know where that movie was filmed but a few perps & I WAGd GITMO.
Last to fill was the "C" in RECIPES/OCTAD cross. I was wanting a specific dish instead of the broader RECIPES.
Lemonade, I agree with you about the darkness & violence that children & all of us are exposed to. I can't watch those movies & TV shows. I still do read about it but don't usually get too offended if I don't see it in living color.
Remembered Ralph WAITE okay. Will wonders never cease.
UFred: how disheartening to have those termites. Maybe you should put corks or wooden plugs in those floor holes. If the termites have invaded twice, maybe they'll be back a third time. Nasty things.
PK @ 3:16 Thanx for the condolences. This old house was built in 1950 with stem walls and floating concrete slab, leaving a tiny space between the slab and the walls for the subterranean termites to crawl up inside of the wall. I’ve owned the house since 1984 and this will be the third time it’s being treated. The house next door is gonna get treated too, as is the house across the street. The Formosan subterranean termites are everywhere in this neighborhood. I’m just really upset to hafta drill holes in the expensive new quarried tile floor. It’s only three years old, put in after the last termite infestation. I think this time is a better plan though snd suspect it will last much longer. They will drill holes through the exterior walls below the floating slab and inject poison. Unfortunately the infestation is in an interior wall, necessitating the holes through the new floor. Damn!!
DeletePK @ 3:16 Two brand new houses across the street built just last year have the termites too!! Unreal!!
DeleteLemony, no I was never a star. I was a working actress (see?) pretty consistently. Until my agents threw me away and I wasn't hungry enough (their words) to get another one. But being a mother of two and happily married to a successful writer/producer/director does take some of the hunger away. Being an actor is really difficult, that's all I'm saying. If there's nothing else she wants to do OR can do, then go for it. I miss it like crazy and I realize my persona is based on acting and I've been less myself all the years I haven't been acting. I do not mean to turn this into a therapy session.
ReplyDeleteBecky
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of your messages! This was the first puzzle I have had published and it was a lot of fun putting it together.
Thanks for the great write-up, Bill!
NNE: Providence to Boston - correct - (Gillette) Foxboro is in between. I grew up in Rhode Island and I'm a big Pats and Red Sox fan, which makes it fun living in New York City.
I can do a habanero, but would not mess with ghost peppers...
Tim D'Alfonso @3:32 PM. So you live in NYC. I see that Sloane Kettering Cancer Institute is in NYC. Would perchance be a pathologist @SKCI?
DeleteTim D'Alfonso @3:32 PM Thanks to you Tim and thanks for my first ever ATTA Boy from a constructor! And thanks for a fun puzzle with plenty of interesting clues/fill to adorn with internet bling.
ReplyDeleteThought I was HOTSTUFF 😃 ...FIR with no inkovers...Many unknowns (INE?) perpwalked.
ReplyDeleteLAYOFFS are not technically terminations. The implication is that work will eventually resume.
Watched a few episodes of the original British version of "The Office". In England they call them "redundancies" but took a while to figure out what they were talking about. Thought a sniggler was an EELER? D.O. loved "a moray" So there is a Karat and a CARAT!
Singer named The Velvet Frog??.Kermit? ..oooh fog! sorry!....OSA: female Spanish bear, ORSO: Italian male bear. (they met on Ursine Match.com). Thought a gulf ship was a tanker
Sadness? Music genre? no Blues is a NHLTEAM 🏒
BEERME?🍺
Were friendly.....GOTON
Bowery Boy Hall.....HUNTS
A dry one....BESTSELLER
The cow who refused milking, wasn't in the____ Mooed.
Welcome Tim D'Alfonso. Great to have another Irishman as constructionist.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr. D'Alfonso for a nice and challenging puzzle.
Really enjoyed it,
Thank You, Bill Waseeley for a very enjoyable and informative review.
From Last Night : Thank You Lemonade, for pointing out that SANTA and SATAN are anagrams. I could sure use that to scare my grandkids, .... if I can make them understand what an anagram is ... also, .... I would probably also have to explain the myth-concept of a Satan .... ;-)
GHOST PEPPER; ( 26 ACROSS ) I have eaten some very hot peppers, but nowhere near as hot as that one. Altho' I probably sucked peppers with my mother's milk, I have no desire to burn my tongue or any other organ in my body.
The word 'Ghost' is a definite misnomer, and a confused-backronym invented by some savy marketing agents.
'Bhut' does mean 'ghost', in many indian languages ... but the cognate of THIS word, Bhut, in the peppers, comes as a short form/argot slang for 'Bhutanese' ... Bhutan being a small pricipality or kingdom on the NE indan border, between China, nex to Nepal.
So the word, for 'Ghost', is really not relevant. But, since it sounds Sexy enough, why would anybody bother about the actual facts ?
To give you a little story ... Once upon a time, bratwurst ( the beef kind -) was imported into Dubai, UAE. Since the natives couldn't pronounce the word, it was called German Beef, .... then a slang, -Germ beef, then 'Germ meat'. Fast forward, ten years later, its still called germ meat ... and everyone thinks it is a special meat made up of some special exotic germs .... you see the progression ?
AGHA ( or AGA ) 16 ACROSS : Agha might have originally, been a title, of nobiity, for the Turks, but now it exists in many other countries, as well. Read about, The Aga Khan the IV, the leader of the Ismaili sub-sect, of the Shia Community, a major sect of Muslims. He is, by far, one the richest pontiffs, in the world, lives in upscale Gstaad, Switz., citizen of UK and Portugal, .... a presumed direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, himself, via his daughter Fatima, and S-I-L Ali. He is of 25% Indo-iranian paternal genetics, and maternally, Italian, French and British. No Arab or Turkish bloodlines, in the last 150 years.
Just some food for thought, for those who might be interested.
Have a nice day, all. Apologies for the long length of this posting,
I liked Tim's puzzle and waseeley's informative essay. A very pleasant solve and a fascinating read..
ReplyDeleteLW and I did see the movie Fifty Shades of Grey and thought it was just plain stupid.
Enjoyed your verses, Owen.
Enjoyed your "that's a moray" joke, desper-otto.
I don't think I will ever say "Beer me" to anybody, ever.
Sorry about those termites, unclefred.
Good wishes to you all.
Could someone please email me the trick of the celebrity name category on Jeopardy tonight. I didn't get it
ReplyDeleteA tad on the easy side for Thursday, but a fun, well constructed puzzle with some nice clueing.
ReplyDeleteYR, I think the first name of the celebrity in the blanks was the same as the last name of the celebrity a line above. Also the last name of the celebrity in the blanks was the first name of the person below. Since I didn't know most of the celebrities, I was uncomprehending until almost the last. Anyone else get this? I'd appreciate knowing too.
ReplyDeletePK and YR - - I was flummoxed by that category, too.
ReplyDeleteWC - Glad you saw your Doctor. Strep can be mean. Did the doctor prescribe antibiotics?
Sure. James -------- -------- Scorsese
ReplyDeleteDean Martin
Janes Dean; Martin Scorsese
I thought it was kind of a tough category.
JaMes Dean!
ReplyDeleteTerrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Tim (congrats on your debut and thanks for dropping by), and waseeley.
ReplyDeleteI am very late to the party after a busy day and watching the NHL* tonight, and would have just lurked (two days in a row) if not for my CSOs.
Thanks waseeley for the TSO music and our anthem (hi LfromAlberta- chime in more often).
I must admit I thought of Rush (hello AnonT) for Ontario- based music group😁 and needed a perp to give me TSO.
And we have been too hot to build IGLOOS, but weather is cooling tonight.
I wanted Bod for that hunk at 1D (yes waseeley thought it too). It could have been an Easter Egg addition to the HOT STUFF theme🤔😁😮
*re NHL: Montreal won in overtime to force the series to game 6 with Toronto leading 3-2.
Wishing you all a good evening.
Tim: Thanks for stopping by The Corner. Don't know if you ever visited before but stay and play.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to link Jon Stewart's GITMO (based on Elmo) puppet show but... the politics over-ride the humor. Google at your own risk.
C,Eh! - Oh, no, no, no... RUSH is from Toronto (well, the "New Guy" [Neil Peart, RIP] is from Hamilton, Ontario) :-)
Speaking of Canada - I realized, when PK posted, I too had TSO as an ESP.
//Wanted ELO at 1st but I know they're from the UK.
Cheers, -T
Dash T - regarding being painted into a corner . . . fortunately, I bought the whole Crossword Compiler software program which really helps with the construction. I am by no means a "pro", but I learned a lot working with both CC and Mark McClain, as well as asking questions of many other constructors who are various Facebook Crossword Groups. I need to update and upgrade my word data base, though. Many of the words that come with the software are either archaic to modern Crossword lexicon or just too weird. The editors are really trying to get rid of the old, trite words and phrases to attract a younger crowd of solvers. Not sure that this old guy will ever totally adopt the more modern clues and fill, but it's a part of being published. Fortunately, I am fully retired so it makes my time spent more easy. I would find it hard to have both a full or part-time job AND be a constructor. My last accepted puzzle must have had a dozen remakes.
ReplyDeleteSnadyAnon:
ReplyDeleteI believe that explains it. I also thought it was especially tough but they seemed to catch on. Those finalist are sooooo knowledgeable. And quick. I recorded it so I plan to re-watch it.
C.Moe: I too spent the big bucks on Crossword Compiler... I get going pretty good but then end up with FGZT in a corner and... oh, crap. C.C., Help! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is which grid pattern to pick for a theme (2 11's & 2 13's, et.al.). I know the pinwheel and some of the standards but I just keep getting myself stuck. That's why I am so appreciative of C.C.'s patience with me (she also improves my themers!).
One day (with more time?), I may be able to fly solo.
Cheers, -T
Unclefred - I feel you pain...
ReplyDeleteNot termites but I live on clay; the right side of my house is 3" lower than the rest of it (I've got doors that won't close and cracks the size of your pinky-finger in the drywall).
$35k is what the foundation people say it will take to fix it.
.
My foundation engineer (who I paid for independently) and the insurance company agree the broken plumbing underneath (a slab house and I guess that's how they do it) is "Not covered."
//But, but, but,... I've paid $$ extra for years for that coverage!
Most everyone else on the block has already had foundation issues too. I've seen the piles of mud in their yards as repair men tunneled under. Oy!
Good luck to you! -T
Thank you for so many great links today : fun, and I learned a lot! Fine way to start the day!
ReplyDelete