Good Morning, Cruciverbalists !
If you are not proficient in reading sea creatures' lips, and there is really no reason why you should be, you might guess that my friend above is wishing all of you a very happy Seis de Mayo. Because Cinco de Mayo fell in the middle of the workweek this year, perhaps only a few of you overindulged in cerveza or mescal or tequila. If you are one of those who did, it's okay to go back to sleep and read this tomorrow because you certainly do not need to add to your morning headache. Of course, if you celebrated last night and have already tackled today's puzzle then it might be time for some hair of the dog that bit you.
Those who are proficient in lip reading sea creatures will know that my friend is actually voicing her opinion on several aspects of today's puzzle - Something like twenty proper nouns. Answers such as YOINK, INSPO, and TECHY. Throw a handful of abbreviations and a dozen two-word answers into the mix and the bellowing, above, is quite understandable (pun possibly intended).
Today's puzzle setter is Joe Deeney who also created the recent March 18th & 31st and April 17th & 25th puzzles, among many others. Being an accomplished constructor, we have to assume that Mr. Deeney's choices were well-thought-out and were intended to give us a worthy Thursday challenge even if they do, in places, leave us shaking our heads.
THEME: DU YOU SEE WHAT I SEEST?
The answer at 63 Across provides one key to our eventual enlightenment: At four places in the puzzle, Joe has placed two-word answers. Each first word starts with DU and each second word ends with ST. Thus, the center components of the theme answers are bordered by, JACKETed if you will, by DU and ST.
63 Across. Book protector ... and what 17- 24-, 39-, and 53-Across each has: DUST JACKET. (It would have been jaw-droppingly impressive if the second word of this answer had also ended in ST).
The elements of this clever bit of construction are:
17 Across. Bridge relative for three players: DUMMY WHIST. WHIST is a trick-taking card game usually played by four players. If there are only three players then a DUMMY hand is dealt.
24 Across. NBA All-Star Weekend event, casually: DUNK CONTEST. Each year, during the All-Star game break, the National Basketball Association holds a Slam Dunk Contest. A slam dunk is a shot in which the player forcibly thrusts the basketball down through the basket.
39 Across. Equinox sunset direction viewed from the equator: DUE WEST. By definition. If the sun is directly overhead at noon on the equator it will be due west when it sets. Interestingly enough, this could also have been the theme. The DU of each theme answer falls on the left, west on most maps. DU WEST.
53 Across. Sporty muffler option: DUAL EXHAUST. Several manufacturers have come up with aftermarket devices that make your EV sound like a V-8 with glass packs (a V-E?).
We'll put the finished grid here for a better look:
Now, let us consider the rest of today's clues and answers:
Across:
1. Apple since 1998: IMAC. We are used to seeing the clued Apple be an electronic device and not a piece of fruit and if Apple is the first word of the clue it will be capitalized either way. So that's no help. One day, some smart (ass) constructor will play on this and the answer will turn out to actually be a recent cultivar. Apple since 2009: ENVY
5. Doctor's order?: SAY AH.
Curious George
10. Large number: HOST. In the biblical sense (no, not that way), a group or army. צבאות
14. Dunn of "SNL" (1985-'90): NORA. NORA Dunn was cast-member of the Saturday Night Live television show.
Nora Dunn
15. Food recall cause: E. COLI.
Escherichia Coli Bacteria
16. Not about to back: ANTI. You can opt to back a cause or opt to oppose it. When I was a kid, it was considered great fun to ask someone if they could spell Antidisestablishmentarianism let alone explain it. Okay, so I hung with a bunch of weirdos.
19. Union foe: SCAB. From the Latin scabere meaning to scratch. For centuries, the term SCAB has been applied to people who were untrustworthy and/or despicable. In 1816 the term was first used (by members of the Albany Typographical Union) to apply to strikebreakers.
20. Muse's gift, in modern slang: INSPO. A riff on "inspiration", I suppose. The muses must be quite amused that anyone has chosen to add this particular linguistic gift to their lexicon.
21. "Too Many Rappers" rapper: NAS. NASir bin Olu Dara Jones.
22. Elephantine: HUGE. Which came first, the animal's name or the adjective? Apparently, the animal's name. The adjective is said to have originated in the 1620's. It derives from the Latin elephantinus meaning "pertaining to elephants".
23. They're not from around here, briefly: ETS. Extra TerrestrialS In Maine, upon meeting an ET they might say, "You're from away. Chuppta?"
28. TV's Arthur: BEA. . . . and then there's Maude . . . and before Maude:
Bea Arthur on the Perry Como Show circa 1960
29. MSNBC host Melber: ARI. What do you call a cat's Italian sports car? A fur ARI.
30. Irish New Ager: ENYA. Alternatively, a four-letter singer who often appears in x-word puzzles.
31. Hawks' home: Abbr.: ATL. The ATLanta Hawks are a professional basketball team.
32. 23andMe concern: DNA. DeoxyriboNucleic Acid. 23andME is a company that provides direct-to-consumer DNA testing.
34. Everglades bird: EGRET.
A Great White Egret
38. Eugene-to-Portland dir.: NNE. North North East or 22.5°
42. Flying phenom: ACE. Not a UFO. Not Rodan. An expert pilot.
The Royal Guardsmen - 1966
43. Miso soup base: DASHI. The Bon Appetite recipe for DASHI uses only water, dried kombu and bonito flakes.
45. Sch. found inside hotel suites?: LSU. A clue intended to be interpreted quite literally. Louisiana State University - HOTEL SUITES
46. Scand. land: NOR. NORway. Neither Sweden nor Finland.
47. "Wonderfilled" cookie: OREO. I had never heard of an OREO being "Wonderfilled" but Oreo is always a reasonable guess for anything cookie-related. I gather that OREO built an advertising campaign around the Wonderfilled theme.
Owl City Commercial -2013
50. Actor Vigoda: ABE. ABE Vigoda is best known for his role as Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather and as Fish on the Barney Miller TV show.
Justice Delayed
52. U.S. number-issuing agcy.: SSA. The Social Security Administration. Not to be confused with 64 Down.
57. BOLO cousin: APB. Be On the LookOut and All Points Bulletin are both "Heads Up" alerts from the police.
58. Lone: ONLY. I first tried SOLE. Interesting cross with 55 Down.
59. Constitution letters: USS. Not to be confused with the US Constitution. A ship . . . . and a pretty easily identified bit of misdirection. If you go to Boston you can visit the ship. It's where I learned why a ship's toilet is called the head.
USS Constitution
60. Like computer innovations, say: TECHY. IMHO (In this Manatee's Humble Opinion) - Tacky.
62. Caiman kin: CROC. CROCodile. Oddly, caiman is spelled out and the answer is abbreviated. Is one-half of a pair of Crocs a CROC?
66. Casino game: KENO. The name has French/Latin roots meaning "five winning numbers" (quine) or "five each" (quini). Thanks, Wiki.
67. Remove entirely: ERASE.
68. "__ we go!": HERE. And awaaaayyyy . . . . would not fit.
69. Eject: SPEW. See 2 Down.
70. Malibu, e.g.: SEDAN. Another bit of (less) easily identified misdirection. The Chevrolet Malibu was manufactured from 1964 to 1983. It was reintroduced in 1997 and continues to be part of the company's product line.
A 1964 Chevrolet Malibu Sedan
71. Spenser's "Epithalamion" and others: ODES. I was familiar with neither the author nor the ode. The poem was written to his bride by Edmund Spenser in 1594.
Down:
1. The Smiths, e.g.: INDIE BAND. Formed in 1982 in England, Wiki says that the critics considered The Smiths to be one of the most important BANDs to emerge from the Independent music scene of that era. I am not familiar with the group. If I had been, then, perhaps, this answer would have been more quickly figured out.
2. Europe's highest active volcano: MOUNT ETNA. Elevation -10,991 feet
February, 2020
3. Heat transfer subject?: ARMS SALES. Carrying a gun is sometimes referred to as "packing heat" and a sale is a transfer or sorts.
4. Like-minded group: CAMP. I first thought of BLOC, then SECT. Thanks, perps.
5. Use a Singer: SEW.
6. Augsburg "Oh!": ACH. A German language lesson to which we have previously, and repeatedly, been exposed.
7. "I'm taking that!": YOINK. This was (charitably) a learning moment for this marine mammal. Other (quite strong) reactions preceded that of charity. Coined by The Simpsons writer George Meyer and perhaps imitative of the sound effect (made by a violin) that accompanies something being snatched in classic comedies.
8. Treaty of Versailles region: ALSACE. An area along the border of France and Germany that has been the impetus for several wars. Under The Treaty of Versailles (at the end of World War One) the Germans ceded Alsace to the French. This helped precipitate World War Two
9. Tries to pick up: HITS ON.
Daisy Duck
10. Tweet symbol: HASH TAG. Being unable to text on social media with his flippers, this manatee still thinks that the # symbol means number, or pound, or higher by one semi-tone.
11. When expected: ON CUE. When filming the original Star Wars, Peter Mayhew had to redo a scene because he missed his CUE. It was a Wookiee mistake.
12. Does' beaux: STAGS. The plural possessive and the X at the end of beaux (c'est français) tell us that the answer is going to be plural.
13. Starting point for an Everest ascent: TIBET.
18. "Size matters not" Jedi master: YODA.
Weird Al Yankovic Yoda
25. Pakistani tongue: URDU. A language frequently seen, if not heard, in x-word puzzles.
26. Important baseball number: NINE. There are nine players in each baseball team's starting line up.
27. Nureyev negative: NYET. Nureyev is a Russian ballet dancer and NYET is Russian for no.
33. Leatherwork tool: AWL.
35. Plundered: RANSACKED. From Old Norse and Middle English. Rann (house) + secan (seek). Modern use of the word is not restricted to houses.
36. Closed system that includes all life on Earth: ECOSPHERE. ECOSPHRE has evolved, over time, from a circumstellar habitable zone, to self-contained/completely enclosed aquaria to the way it is used in this clue.
37. Substantial storage units: TERABYTES. A TECKY reference.
39. Boding disaster: DIRE. On this day in history, May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg dirigible burst into flames upon touching its mooring mast in New Jersey. There had been no DIRE warnings.
40. Isaac's eldest: ESAU.
Got It?
41. Replacements: SUBS. As in SUBStitutes. Either Sandwiches or U-boats could also have been made to work as a clues.
44. Phil Rizzuto catchphrase: HOLY COW.
¡Ay Caramba!
48. Radiates: EXUDES.
49. "Yeah, I bet!": OH SURE.
51. James of jazz: ETTA. Alternatively, a four-letter singer who often appears in x-word puzzles.
53. Places to tie up: DOCKS. If you are not yet familiar with the series of songs posted on YouTube by the organization Playing for Change, you should correct that oversight post haste. You could do far worse than starting with Ripple, The Weight and Listen to the Music.
Dock of the Bay - Playing For Change
54. Gen. Assembly member: UNREP. United Nations REPresentative
55. Unaccompanied: ALONE. It is interesting that it intersects with 58 Across. Also, a great opportunity to slip this into the recap (I could have gone with Gilbert O'Sullivan. Just kidding):
Arthur Lee & Love - Alone Again Or Circa 2003
56. Mideast ruling family name: ASSAD. The current ruler of Syria was educated at medical school in Damascus and also trained in ophthalmology in London. The empirical evidence seems to suggest that he skipped class the day they covered the Hippocratic Oath.
61. Make the same point as: ECHO. Hey, Alexa!
Amazon Echo Silver
64. Bag-checking org.: TSA. Transportation Security Administration. Not to be confused with 52 Across.
65. Comedian Kirkman: JEN. I was not previously familiar with JEN.
May the 6th Be With You!
______________________________________________
58 comments:
FIWrong. The SW corner was a mess. I had SOLE, ENOL, and HOLE LOW instead of . The two other perps crossing them made no sense, but I couldn't figure out which one word was wrong since there were two of them. Once I erased the offending errors, HOLY COW looked likely (tho I have no idea who Phil Rizzuto is), and the rest fell in line.
RIP, Nancy Salomon. 😢. I only interacted with her a couple brief times, but she did get me started on constructing cryptics.
The rules have certainly changed, with ALONE crossing ONLY, clued as "lone"!
Suspect words: YOINK, INSPO, TECHY.
Nice cryptic-style clue for LSU.
A lot of fun mis-directions.
Correction FLN - I said the Seattle Times crossword was 2 weeks behind the original publication in the NYT. Today's puzzle was noted as the April Fools Day, which is 5 weeks behind, not just 2.
On the biography's DUST JACKET,
Sinatra tells of an Egyptian junket.
A photo was shot
Of Frank with a CROC,
And in one he's ALONE without an EGRET!
An intro class to be ecologically versed
Might be ECOL "I", that is the first!
A queen who has a colony begun
Denominated ANT "I" is number one!
And DASH "I" is a run in one burst!
{A-, B+*.}
* but only in conjunction with yesterday's l'ick.
Oops. soLe, enOl, and HOLe lOW instead of ONLY, CROC, and HOLY COW.
Yoink, inspo really? I also don't understand 45 across "school found inside hotel suites?"
Answer is LSU. I don't get it.
I disliked this puzzle.
Yoink?! Inspo?!
Putting "Yoink" next to "Alsace"?
"Jacketed"? C'mon.
A few answers all start with "DU" and end in "ST," so what? There's nothing funny or amusing about that.
Hated the LSU clue too. Maybe this will help: "hoteL SUites"
Good morning!
Quite crunchy cereal this morning. YOINK and INSPO didn't mean jack sh...well, anything to this old reprobate. I did figure out the "hoteL SUites" clue. Thought like-minded individuals would be a CULT. That slowed things down coming out of the gate. But, I got 'er done, so life is good. Thanx, Joe and MalMan.
CROC: One of the builders active in our area is CastleRock. Their website is C-Rock.com. We call 'em "crock" houses.
MALIBU: My first new car was a 1964 Malibu 2-door, 6-cyl, manual transmission, back-up lights optional. $2000 out-the-door of the dealership.
M-o-W today. Could be interesting with portions of FM1485 still underwater from weekend flooding of the east fork of the San Jacinto River. Not sure I'll be able to complete my route.
The original MALIBU was a model of the new, mid-sized Chevelle.
DIRE is an adjective, clued as a noun
Thought I could make Mt vesuvius fit into MOUNT ETNA
JUMBLE Spoiler alert:
Thought of sOle before LONE because of today's Jumble answer
Enjoyed this puzzle that was a challenge! My only slip up was AMMO SALES before ARMS SALES! I knew I had never heard of the person on SNL, even when the name was spelled right, so Noma worked as well as NORA - BZZZT!
I appreciated learning some new slang like "Yoink"- thanks for the Simpsons' clip, MM - to make it stick in my mind. I think the LA xword is trying to have some words that appeal to a younger demographic mixed in - I was reading an article about that happening in all the crosswords. e.g. AVA isn't always going to be clued "Gardner" for the 55+ crowd but "director DuVernay" for the Oscar nominated director of "Selma".
Thanks MM and Joe!
Fln, -T, I assume 9 walks and 11 SOs. 6 innings.
I WAG'ed INSPO and INDIE BAND* but my guess on _OINK was B as in SAbAH. FIW. Duh, SAY AH. We've even had it recently. It reminded me of our little group at college:SAHA**.
I remember when ATL was STL (With Bob Pettit who belong on the pantheon of NBA greats)
45A(LSU) was perped but cute. Needed expo for that
58A, not to speak of today's J
I can only guess how # is used in Tweets. I really don't want to know
And….NINE Innings
WC
*Anon-T bailiwick
*Screaming and Anonymous are the jacket. MaloMan would have fit in. TBBT type of group
Good morning everyone.
Got it all except for 3 letters in the NW. Hands up for 'ammo sales'. But I did WAG YOINK successfully. Got DUMMY…… using the theme set-up. Made sense. I'll take a CSO for USS.
Enjoyed Joe's puzzle despite some tough cluing. Nice intro, MM.
Thank you, Joe Deeney, and thank you, Malodorous Manatee
Well, that was interesting. TECHY, YOINK, and INSPO were all new to me. The good thing is that the perps were all relatively easy to get, especially once I realized INDIE BAND. I've read of the card game of WHIST, and DUMMY for an extra hand makes sense, but I wasn't familiar with DUMMY WHIST either. A few extra minutes were required today.
It's funny that I don't remember hearing or seeing YOINK while watching "The Simpsons" so thanks for adding that video clip, MM.
I don't remember the Wonderfilled OREO campaign, but I'm with you, MM. Anything cookie related with a 4 letter fill has a good chance of being OREO.
I forget what grade and class it was, but at the beginning of one school year we got brand new textbooks. We also got a brown paper grocery bag, instructions and help creating DUST JACKETS to protect them. Then it became a "thing" to have all of your textbooks wrapped in your own custom dust jackets. Cue up John Mellencamp - Small Town
I liked it. Some interesting clues, and answers that we don’t normally see. YOINK is a funny word. NW took me a while, the ARMSSALES clue was clever.
Joe is one of our best constructors, always enjoy his puzzles.
I really disliked this puzzle . This PPP-laden schlock made every inch of progress in this puzzle like having a root canal. Painful. Way too many proper names and weird stuff. Like Yoink?! Inspo?!.Let me add these words to my list that I will try to use today with my friends just so they can't stand me.
I spent two semesters studying Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics. It was my most difficult subject.
The most important concepts are ENTROPHY and ENTHALPY, driving forces for heat transfer.
None of the words would fit.
Now I find, what I really should've been doing was being out on the street, learning some street lit cred and hip hop slang.
If muses give you INSPO does Playboy teach you SEXTO ? Boo-ink.
FIW, with kASHI and INDIEBANk. Tough one today. Close, but no cigar. I was visiting the high-rise office of a friend one July 4th, when I spotted the USS Constitution taking its annual sail down the Boston Harbor. We hustled over to Charlestown to see her come into the dock.
YOINK?!! D'oh! Thank you for the Simpson's cartoon explanation. But really?!!
My only bad was I thought ENE and SASCHI in the NW, so had INDIE BAES for 1D. Well, I figured, if you have YOINK in a puzzle, why not BAES for sweeties. Of course, my first guess for 1D was Neighbors, but that didn't work.
I always liked that Meat Loaf's Paradise By The Dashboard Light included Rizzuto's Holy Cow!
Well,
It looks like we are all in the same "camp" in that
Words like "yoink, inspo, and techy" would never
Pass muster in a scrabble game,
But in a crossword. Eh! Waddya gonna due?
(English is going to hell in a hand basket...)
Maybe, if yoink was clued, "Simpsons grab?" (Or something, anything...)
maybe this puzzle should have come with a dust jacket...
Oh well, onward!
Just a little serendipity,
When I was checking my linkages for errors,
For some reason this page came up.
some related images for your amusement.
BobLee - #Ditto.* Meat Loaf [Phil Rizzuto starts ~3:35]. Play later, -T
*That's how # is used in Tweets, WC :-)
The Smiths (1D) were one of the most important bands to come out out the UK in the 80's. I know Anon T will know who they are. In the event you're wondering, here are a couple of original MTV videos of my favorite Smiths songs: Half a Person and Girlfriend in a Coma
Musings
-I’m a SUB today and doing the puzzle in ink again with no ERASING option
-This physics teacher taught heat transfer processes of conduction, convection and radiation. Oh, that heat!
-21st century INSPO and YOINK slang was somewhat balanced by 20th century HOLY COW. Joe and I have had some great exchanges about his unique cluing/fill.
-EGRETS are a familiar spring and fall sighting here in Nebraska
-My Birds Of Nebraska FaceBook page told us to BOLO for orioles and so we put our feeder with grape jelly and here they came
-French is the official language of ALSACE but German is taught in every school
-Boding disaster – The Hindenburg and the Challenger’s external tanks (ET’S) were both full of highly explosive hydrogen
-My favorite UN REP moment - provided by cwd fill vet Adlai Stevenson (2:22)
Well, Say ah was completely beyond me, and I never heard of yoinks. But I'm not upset. I thought it was a great puzzle Mr. Deeney, and it was/is a great write up MM!
Becky
billocohoes at 7:44 AM wrote: "DIRE is an adjective, clued as a noun." Not so! "Boding disaster" means "foretelling diaster" or "giving a warning of disaster" -- something like that.
My last fill was SAY AH, which gave me the very weird YOINK. FIR!
Needed MalMan to explain LSU to me. Thought maybe this team was known for trashing hotel rooms.
Nice puzzle, Joe! I liked it. MalMan, your review was a treat.
Hi All!
INSPO? 'Com'on Joe :-)
Thanks for the puzzle. It wasn't easy. I felt a FIR was going to be YOINK'd at any moment.
Wonderful expo, MManatee. Lots of fun clips (That BEA Arthur..., I tell ya)
WOs: NWA -> NAS, I actually filled in Dunn instead of NORA, can't spell EXahUST, ECOSysteme [sic]
ESPs: ALSACE, ARI, JEN, LS?U(?) - oh, no Joe... Say it isn't so. #SuchaDadJoke
Fav: HOLY COW [see: my @10:24a]
{B, B+}
FLN - Thanks NaomiZ. I do admire her.
@9:25a - Thermodynamics were a difficult classes but that's 'cuz they insisted on doing everything in imperial units. Once I got my conversions to SI down, formulas were a snap.
//I never understood engineering schools (on our same campus) that didn't use SI. #EE
LOL SEXTO
WC - NINE innings and NINE players.
D-O: How much rain did you get up there? I was talking to a guy (vendor) in Austin yesterday and they had flooding too. We had a deluge (and the pool is full) but no flooding.
TTP - we did the same DUST JACKETs with Kroger grocery bags turned inside out - then colored our personalities in. (The girls always had nice ones - ours were more scribbly). Thanks for the MellenCAMP.
JJM - The Smiths' Morrissey pretty much invented our crossword pal, EMO*. It was them or ECHO and the Bunnymen. I liked it OK but wasn't ('cuz I'm hyperactive and need fast and tempo-switching music [see: RUSH]) a huge fan.
My CEO Bro has a band, Red Pinto Wagon [making fun of Pop's car when we were in HS], they're kinda 'Death Cab for Cutie'-ish.
Back to the mines. Cheers, -T
Hola!
In a couple of hours from now I shall "SAY AH" during my visit to the dentist today. Luckily that and the other fill helped with YOINK which of course I've never heard as I am not a fan of the Simpsons. Nor The Smiths, apparently, because I did not know them as an INDIE BAND. INDIE was my last fill.
Overall, I found this tough, thank you, Joe Deeney. However, the stacked NINES were really fun to sort out.
LSU simply emerged so thank you, MalMan, for parsing that.
I shocked myself by immediately filling ATL when I saw hawks' home. Will wonders never cease?
Sigh. My liquid pen finally dried up so I'll have to stop at Staples for a new one after my dentist trip. So many errors. So little white-out.
I wish you all a happy day today!
Anon T... Although the Smiths are not one of my favorite bands, Morrissey is a huge talent. Great songwriter. And, I have to admit that one of my guilty pleasures is Indie Pop
The Sun doesn't give the constructor's name, but I should have known it would be Joe! Can't blame all my stumbling around on Cinco de Mayo celebrations, but the experience did reaffirm my faith in miracles, ESP, and the supernatural in general.
Anyway after IMAC and MOUNT ETNA in the NNE, I was stymied and had to persevere with the "let's try this and see if it works", which mostly it didn't. But I slogged on, and with the help of my trusty Tornado Crossword Puzzle Pencil, when the DUST (ERASER crumbs actually) had settled I had somehow FIR (the F is past tense right?).
Special thanks to MM for his cruciverbal candor and his litany of all the stumbling blocks that JOE littered in the maze on the way to our goal. But don't get me wrong. I thought this was an excellent puzzle and thank my lucky stars that this is MM's week.
Anyway ...
5A SAY AH - Grandson 4 spent the day with us on Monday, and as it was raining, he spent a lot of the day watching Curious George videos. That monkey sure has the makings of an ACE cruciverbalist.
16A MM I think I must have hung out with a similar crowd when I was a kid. We used to clue this answer with "What is the longest word in the dictionary?". But I think that "antidisestablishmentarianism" has been superseded by "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
32A "23" the reverse of the clue number (clever Joe!). Alternately the number of homologous chromosome pairs (one from each parent) containing the human DNA.
34A EGRET - great pic!
45A LSU - got this on perps. Thought at first that this UNI got its start in donated hotel rooms. Thanks for the reveal MM.
46A Could also be DEN.
57A Had TIE until the perps turned it into APB.
59A Baltimore has the CONSTITUTION's sister ship, the CONSTELLATION, moored downtown in HARBOR PLACE.
71A Thought this was a bride's name, but it turns out that an "Epithalamion" is an "ode to marriage". Apparently not in common use by poets.
3D Neither SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS nor ENTROPY fit. The NW was like a cliff that fell last and all at once into a sea of white. The chunks that undermined it were the D in DUMMY WHIST (had RUMMY, a valid WHIST variant) and INSPO (INSPO? And I thought it was 99% INSPIRATION) allowing NORA, INDIE BAND, and ARMS SALES.
10D or alternately a label for a common ingredient in brownies (a mushy, mushy CSO to -T).
Cheers,
Bill
Whoops, make that 99% PERSPIRATION.
Hi Everyone:
Late to the dance due to a busy morning.
I’m in the minority today as this just was not my cup of tea, although I always appreciate the constructor’s efforts.
MalMan, you were in fine fettle today, so thanks for adding some humor to my Thursday.
Does anyone know why Tin hasn’t been posting?
Have a great day.
TTP @8:54AM Thanks for the clip. Great memories.
FIR in 34 minutes, but with so many cheats there is no satisfaction. As others have complained, YOINK and INSPO were two of the worst crimes of this construct, but there were others they I did not like. I always thought it was called a DUSTCOVER, not a DUSTJACKET. Sorry, Joe, I know it’s a lot of work to construct a CW, and is something I’m totally incapable of, but in spite of that I am not a big fan of this CW. Last to fall was the NE; MOUNTETNA finally got a toehold there. Also I was so sure TOFU was the base of miso soup, DASHI was a new word and one of my cheats. Thank for the nice write-up, MM!
Anon-T, we didn't get that much rain here -- less than 3" spread over three days. But the watershed to our north got drenched. I didn't get to "test the waters" this morning -- my lone client on the far side of the San Jacinto canceled delivery for today. The river's supposed to be back within its banks sometime this afternoon.
I crashed my FIR streak today with two bad squares so FIW. Like Bob Lee I had eNE and sASHI for INDIE BAes, not knowing the band or soup base and forgetting about the possibility of the direction being NNE. A big learning moment.
For quite a while, I thought I would have a DNF as I had about ten balky squares, but little by little I settled on fill that worked, to my surprise (YOINK and INSPO). One easy fill for me today was ATL! I got the themers and reveal but forgot to look for the DUSTs before reading MalMan's helpful expose'. Tomorrow I'll try to be more patient. Thanks Joe and MalMan.
See you all HERE again tomorrow.
Complex puzzle, Joe, but very clever. And very helpful commentary, MalMan. Your joke about furARI cracked me up.
Always glad to see ENYA, and OREO in puzzles, but, what, no ETTA? Oh, okay, at least we got BEA.
Have a good day, everybody!
Wow worst puxzzle ive ever finished. Wasnt fun. I do like playing keno, but havent for awhile. Etta has been in many puzzles in last couple of weeks. But excuse me what a disappointment. Getting tired of the dunk contest in nba. Like 3pointer challenge beeter. Well keep trying.
Misty said "but, what, no ETTA? " ETTA is at 51d
Hi Y'all! Joe Deeney's name always scares me a little. Knowing IMAC as a former user encouraged me to proceed. As to all the rest of the NW section: groan, whimper, whine! I didn't believe it even when I red-lettered much of the section. With this trauma, I was too EXHAUSTed to even think to look for a theme. Nuff said.
YOINK? What is the world of English coming to when we let the Simpson & rappers coin words & set our grammar standards?
Thanks MalMan for your encouraging words and constructor bashing.
As an NBA fan, I knew the DUNK CONTEST & ATL.
Knew Singer = SEW. I learned to sew on a machine just like in MalMan's picture. It had been converted to electricity from an old treadle machine. I bought my first modern Singer when I got my first job. Mother never had anything but the old one.
Bill: hand up for thinking LSU operated out of an old hotel.
Some of my ancestors immigrated to the US from ALSACE where they spoke German.
The puzzle wasn't a complete loss for me. There was some satisfaction in guessing right the first time in places. However, the only reason I attempt a Joe Deeney is because of the existence of this blog. Enjoy y'all!
Thanks to everyone for their kind comments (about the recap). Cutting up paper shopping bags and turning them into book covers was a semiannual rite for me all throughout Junior and Senior High. I am glad to note that someone else had heard of antidisestablishmentarianism. I was beging to wonder if it had been a hallucination.
Well this Thursday grid had its moments for sure.
One bad cell….had DIRE crossing DASHI and it looked fine.
Write-overs…ECOSYSTEM/ECOSPHERE.
Even though I filled them correctly, I have nothing good to say about YOINK and INSPO.
Stay safe.
Thursday Thumper. Thanks for the workout, Joe and MalMan..
I was stumped in the NW like most of you.
We are probably showing our age by not knowing (or liking) YOINK and INSPO.
I counted 14 three letter word (IM probably did not like either). ACH!
But I got the theme, and went back to fill in some DU ST letters.
I got the LSU in hotel suites but thought it was a little lame.
I wanted to use my Call A Friend to ask YR, because I couldn’t remember DASHI. It finally perped.
This Canadian was thinking of your Civil War - Confederate would not fit.
ARMS SALES are so tightly regulated here that “heat transfer” did not bring that to mind.
And ALONE crossing ONLY clued as Lone proves my rant of the other day about the old CW rules being abandoned.
I was also misdirected at first and thought of USA in your Constitution. Oh, a ship!
I stood on the Equator in Ecuador where the active volcano is Cotopaxi. Try that in a CW you constructors😁👍
Wishing you all a great day.
HOLY COW....a HOST of unusual clues to say the least
Applesauce Lorraine...not ALSACE (on authority of "Rocky and Bullwinkle") ...I never made it to the top of EVEREST cuz I started out in Nepal...oops..
The theme? Figured out "DU"ALEXHAUST once the other DUanswers were obvious. But kept sneezing continually into my elbow from the rest of the "duST" theme that I didn't notice.
Inkover: sole/ONLY. Let's argue that CROC is an abbreviation, (unless you wear one on your foot)...none in the clue as per Malman..... Screwed up INDIEBAND and NNE so ....FIW.
Malman: A Maine man might say to an ET "You can't get heah from theyah"
KENO: The twins from "Antique Road Show" from Mohawk NY.....did the constructionist get INSPO in ELHI?... but YOINK!! Huh? Wha?...Beside SCAB another word derived from Latin scabere, "to itch" is scabies! double YOINK!!
Casino, a place ____ TIBET.
Donut event....DUNKCONTEST
Where the brass is found....INDIEBAND
Mannequin parts store transactions...ARMSSALES
YOINK! (Propose a new CW definition: a YOINK is a crossword answer that would result in a scrabble fist fight) 😛
Puzzling thoughts:
OK, pat myself on the back time: FIR, and with ZERO ERASEures or W-O’s
Agree with others that YOINK, DASHI, TECHY et al is stretching the envelope
Nevertheless, thanks Joe and Joseph for the entertainment
CSO of sorts to yours truly with LSU - I’m an LSU Dad as my daughter got her BA in Music Performance there
I didn’t count them but there were a ton of 3-letter words today, most of which were abbr.
Proper names in this puzzle that I did not know:
NORA Dunn
ARI Melber
The Smiths
Phil Rizzuto
JEN Kirkman
Proper names in this puzzle that I did know:
NAS (Didn't know for sure but 'twas sussable)
BEA Arthur
ENYA
ABE Vigoda
YODA
ESAU
ETTA James
ASSAD
Words and phrases that were utterly foreign to me:
DUMMY WHIST
DUNK CONTEST (Technically, isn't it called "Slam Dunk Contest"?)
INSPO
TECHY (not utterly unknown, just stinky)
YOINK
So, what did I like about this puzzle?
Nothing.
Now I will read what y'all had to say.
The usual term is, in fact, dust jacket. "The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations." -- Wikipedia
Today's DUST JACKET helped me fill in several blank squares. I like it when the theme helps with the solve.
I think a dust cover is the clear plastic thing you use to cover a turn table from a record player, phonograph or as Aunt Rose used to say the Victrola
There have been enough complaints already about YOINK and INSPO. These were the bases for my personal Naticks today.
I think when so many regular cruciverbal partners complain, we have grounds for identifying an unfair PZL--t lead one that is outside the standards of our otherwise sharp-eyed community.
A good commentary from the M-Man today. Thanks for your erudition!
Glad that some of you were able to fill YOINK, Lucina. I give you extra credit for persistence, but it does not lessen my opposition. Unlike you, I was a fan of The Simpsons, but even if I heard that sound, I never saw it spelled out. The constructor may wish to take refuge in onomatopoeia,
but I would have spelled that cartoon noise quite differently--as, for instance:
PLONGH or BuhLANG!
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal today, near side.
But it has only three vowels, fairly cheap. The best I can do, anagram-wise, is...
"BRIMSTONES."
Well. I am now ARMed with two trusty correction pens from Staples for future errors that will need erasing. Of course, being there I could not leave with only those items. One of my nieces just graduated with an MA from ASU and a party will be celebrating her accomplishment so I bought her some "teaching tools" since she will need them in her new career. She will be a special ed teacher. Now, that is a specialty only for the gifted among us and she is a darling having raised 11 children, four of her own and five adopted. And she attended college all the while.
I should add that her four children were gone from home after the five appeared. I've told you the story that they are the children of a druggie niece we have.
Angels walk among us.
PS Amidst everything going on in all of our lives, my MN son, USMA grad, Army Vet, applied to several colleges for his MBA. Was accepted by UNC at Chapel Hill, Boston University, John’s Hopkins, Penn State. I think most of the folks here understand the importance of life in the military and the importance of the education earned.
Lucina - someone in your lineage will be canonized!
MIL was a Special Ed teacher (maybe that's why she likes me(?)) but burned out after ~7 years. It's a tough row to hoe.
JJM - Can't argue with you about Morrissey. I find the music a bit monotonous but he is talented.
Fun DR OMK. FLN - I failed to heap praises on "BORSCHT [Belt] HOST"; that was LOL.
C, Eh! - Cotopaxi. Please, don't give constructors ideas :-)
C.Moe - that's right; I near forgot your Daughter is (was) also a music major.
On that note - right on, Lizza!
Jayce - I thought TECHY should have been clued more computer-nerdyish.
Dust Jackets on LPs are called sleeves; in my closet, they're just suits not worn for over a year :-)
Cheers, -T
Sorry my initial comment wasn’t posted. My opinion, way to many proper names, back to back. I really like words in a crossword puzzle. Most of the people and places aren’t known to me. I still manage to finish the puzzles. But without much satisfaction or fun. Just my opinion. Words, please. Thank you!
MM, your writeup was terrific.
Somebody recently said something like these are called crossword puzzles, not crossname puzzles. I'll add my entreaty: please, guys, not so many proper names. As was also said before, multiple times, the major problem with names is that you either know it or you you don't; there's no guessing. So always cross names with non-name words so that at least they can be filled from the perps. As Abejo used to say, "5 perps and I had it."
What Lizza said.
Owen, I just got the play on words on #1 eg. "EGRETS I've had few...but then again…"
I agree with billicoes re. DIRE
WC
Thank you, Anonymous T ~ for remembering me from yesterday.
Thoughtful of you. Kinda makes up for today's disappointments.
~ OMK
Lizza: glad to see you back. I also have a military (ret) son who was a pilot with an engineering degree who now works for FAA. I am in awe of his dedication & intelligence.
Been there! Done that! You can also straddle two active earthquake faults in Iceland. Scary thought!
Ditto!
Cotopaxi is a fun word, just like axolotl. I just like words!
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