Theme: "Elementary" - The chemical element in each person's name is replaced by its symbol.
21A. One of four women with an EGOT: WHOOPI AUBERG. Whoopi Goldberg. AU for GOLD.
26A. "Elizabeth I" Emmy winner: JEREMY FES. Jeremy Irons. FE for IRON.
31A. Joint winner of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award: DIEGO MARNA. Diego Maradona. RN for RADON.
44A. "Long Day's Journey Into Night" dramatist: EUGENE EILL. Eugene O'neill. NE for NEON.
92A. Grammy winner for comedy and banjo playing: STEVE MARSN. Steve Martin. SN for TIN.
98A. Emmy-winning comedian/actress: SARAH AGMAN. Sarah Silverman. AG for SILVER.
105A. Rami Malek's Best Actor role: FREDDIE HG. Freddie Mercury. HG for MERCURY.
117A. First living magician with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: DAVID CUFIELD. David Copperfield. CU for COPPER.
And the extras:
2D. Fe: IRON.
27D. Au: GOLD.
40D. Ag: SILVER.
48D. Sn: TIN.
49D. Hg: MERCURY.
55D. Rn: RADON.
66D. Cu: COPPER.
113D. Ne: NEON.
I'm
thinking David did not originally have those short element entries, but
Rich felt those were needed for solvers to understand the gimmick. Man,
they made gridding so much harder, despite the short length.
See how this puzzle differs from the "Elements of Style"
Mike Peluso made a few years only? Both have David Copperfield, but this theme set is
much tighter. I know you guys don't like puzzles with many names, but
this extra layer of "name only" set elevates the puzzle.
Across:
6. Subterfuge on ice: DEKE. Hockey fake-out.
10. High-quality: TOP END.
16. Makes the rounds for rounds: BARHOPS. Great clue.
18. Thick noodle: UDON. Love seafood udon.
19. "No Reservations" host Anthony: BOURDAIN. He likes cacio e pepe.
23. Early rotary-winged aircraft: AUTOGIRO. We also have 67. Whirlybird raisers: ROTORS.
24. "Winning __ everything": ISN'T.
25. Butt heads: TUSSLE.
27. "... going, going, __!": GONE.
28. Speedy shark: MAKO.
30. Give in to gravity: SAG.
36. Magic's org.: NBA. The Orlando Magic. Chinese love NBA. Most don't care about baseball or American football.
38. Martini partner: ROSSI.
42. Foot rest?: INSOLE. 43A clue.
43. Games go-with: FUN.
47. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, e.g.: OCTAD. 8.
48. Sweet __: TEA.
49. Christmas opener?: MERRY. Another misdirecting clue: 59. Horse trailer?: CART.
50. Court exchange: RALLY.
51. Author Silverstein: SHEL. Could have avoided "Silver" in the clue.
52. Nothing in Naples: NIENTE.
54. "The Waltons" actor: GEER (Will).
56. "Frozen" reindeer: SVEN.
57. Screen star, say: ICON.
61. Red-wrapped cheese: EDAM.
63. PC panic button: ESC.
64. __ Creed: NICENE. Adopted by the First Ecumenical Council in 325.
67. Countermand: RESCIND.
69. Scarcity: DEARTH.
71. Tokyo, before the Meiji Restoration: EDO. Edo period is between 1603 and 1867.
72. N. Macedonia is its newest member: NATO. Followed by
74. Capital of Latvia: EURO.
75. Threadbare: WORN.
76. Mo. once seventh: SEPT. July and August were added to the original 10-month calendar, honoring Julius Caesar and his successor Augustus.
78. Immortal Babe: RUTH. Boomer just sold his Albert Pujols rookie card (ungraded).
80. Stitched again: RESEWN.
82. Whaler of fiction: AHAB.
86. Spanish bar food: TAPAS.
88. Kind of trap: BOOBY.
90. "That's enough!": TMI. Too Much Information.
91. Mild cigar: CLARO.
94. Is for you?: ARE.
95. Islands west of Lisbon: AZORES.
96. "Buss It" rapper Banks: ERICA. And
97. One-named singer who directed "Music" (2021): SIA.
100. Airport calc.: ETD.
102. In the __ of time: NICK.
104. "The Kite Runner" protagonist: AMIR.
110. Softly illuminated: LOW-LIT.
112. Obstacle: SNAG.
116. Conspicuousness: SALIENCE. Not a word I use.
119. Against the flow: UPSTREAM.
120. Galena and others: ORES.
121. Easy way to win: IN A ROMP.
122. Mortarboard dangler: TASSEL. Husker Gary knows detasseling. Have you all read this article?
123. Field protector: TARP.
124. Church cries: AMENS.
Down:
3. It may be a long one: SHOT.
4. Prune: LOP. Oh I meant to ask, do you use a garlic press or just use your kitchen knife to smash the garlic?
5. Ideal: EPITOME.
6. Adds dialogue to: DUBS.
7. Super Bowl LIII MVP Julian: EDELMAN. Retired now. Brady is still doing strong.
8. Divided land since 1945: KOREA.
9. Official language of Belize: Abbr. : ENG.
10. Outings with buses: TOURS.
11. Make more than: OUT-EARN.
12. Teen in a tux, often: PROM-GOER.
13. Unconventional, maybe: EDGY.
14. Ingenue: NAIF.
15. Like some straits: DIRE.
16. D.C. area airport: BWI. Baltimore/Washington International Airport.
17. Sweat spot: SAUNA.
19. Main squeeze, in slang: BAE. Baby.
20. House IDs: NOS. Numbers.
22. Highway toll, e.g.: USER FEE.
26. South African metropolis, colloquially: JOBURG. Johannesburg.
29. Dad-to-tot talk support: KNEE.
31. God of Guatemala: DIOS. And 33. One of four direcciones: ESTE. East.
32. Small amount to give: INCH.
34. Net defender: GOALIE.
35. Subtlety: NUANCE.
37. Shook, in a way: AGREED.
39. Lunar plains: SEAS.
41. Least well: ILLEST.
45. Inspected: EYED.
46. "The Elephant Man" (1980) director: LYNCH (David)
52. Lack of musicality: NO-EAR.
53. Zap: TASE.
58. First TV channel with 24-hr. news coverage: CNN.
60. Swing seat, maybe: TIRE.
62. La Méditerranée, e.g.: MER.
64. Stick-y spots?: NESTS. Full of tiny sticks.
65. Think: IDEATE. Not a word I use.
68. Cosa __: NOSTRA. The Sicilian Mafia Also 99. Firenze friends: AMICI.
70. Like old timers?: ANALOG. Another fun clue.
73. Bass in a band: TUBA.
75. "In Flanders Fields" setting, succinctly: WWI.
77. Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-__: TAVI.
79. Scam: HOSING.
81. Shade of green: EMERALD.
83. Hippocratic oath prohibition: HARM. First do no harm.
84. Field or its measure: AREA.
85. One on a fo'c'sle, perhaps: BOSN.
87. Union breakers: SECEDERS.
89. __ B'rith: BNAI.
91. Kingpin: CZAR.
93. Afternoon feature: MATINEE.
94. Invite for dinner, say: ASK OVER.
95. Yellowfin: AHI TUNA. We often just see AHI.
101. Window sticker: DECAL.
103. Santa __, Calif.: CLARA.
105. Seminoles' sch.: FSU. Does anyone still stay in contact with XchefWalt?
106. Spellbound: RAPT.
107. "Lohengrin" heroine: ELSA.
108. Morse sounds that can spell "hies": DITS.
109. Fashion line?: HEM.
111. Swirl of smoke: WISP.
112. Royal address: SIRE.
114. Contents of a monk's bowl: ALMS.
115. Econ. indicator: GDP.
117. Point: DOT.
118. Blood, slangily: FAM. Family.
For blog regulars, click here to solve the "Aggie" puzzle I made this week. There's a video clue for 1-Across. Just click on the red arrow in the clue area (on top of ACROSS/DOWN), the red arrow inside the ACROSS box does not work. Hope you have fun. There are four more Minis there.
C.C.
FLN: Anonymous T (and everyone) you can reference a specific post in a past blog by linking to the timestamp of the post you want, rather than have people try to scroll down and find whatever on our long blog pages.
ReplyDelete1.Misspelt GOLDBuRG, didn't know the name crossing it at that cell.
2.Had cARHOPS, again didn't know the perp.
3.Misspelt both SALIaNCE & SECEDaRS.
That may well be the most elaborate theme I have ever seen! And one that was absolutely essential to solving it! Difficult but enjoyable, and a sense of accomplishment when I finished, despite FIWrong. Three bad cells, but none affecting the elemental elements of the puzzle!
What CC referred to as "extras" were integral to the theme! The 8 elements corresponded to the 8 names. And all names were referenced as award winners, giving yet another layer to the puzzle's complexity!
FE IRON JEREMY FES
AU GOLD WHOOPI AUBURG
CU COPPER DAVID CUFIELD
AG SILVER SARAH AGMAN
SN TIN STEVE MARSN
HG MERCURY FREDDI HG
RN RADON DIEGO MARNA
NE NEON EUGENE EILL -- EugeNE O'Neill was the hardest, both because it spanned the two names, and the symbol appeared in the uncompressed name as well as the gimmicked version.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteGot the theme, but Radon didn't come to mind, and I wouldn't have recognized MARADONA. Thought that MARSODIUM or MARGONNA were probably wrong. But, yay, the perps said MARNA was correct, so it got to stay. Got it wrong, but finished it right. Looked sideways when SALIENCE appeared. Looked it up, and it got to stay, too. Very nice theme, David. Thanx for the tour, C.C. (I prefer a garlic press. A knife-smash works well, too, but then you need to use more garlic. The amount of garlic flavor/aroma is relative to the exposed surface area.)
Hi Y'all! Thanks to HS chemistry, I caught onto the theme with WHOOPI which helped with the others. My memory didn't extend to MERCURY, NEON or RADON so those took more mulling over. Didn't help that I'd never heard of DIEGO MARADONA. I got STEVE MAR(TIN)SN but the M kept turning red for several tries. Don't know what that was about.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David, for an unusual challenging puzzle I was proud to finish. Okay so it took some red-letter runs to get a toe-hold. Doesn't bother me a bit.
Thanks, C.C., for 'splainin' well. I did the little Aggie puzzle too. Harder than expected. Did know who the puzzle was named for. Enjoyed hearing Boomer sing.
DNK: AMICI, NIENTE.
SECEDER not Brexits. Buttheads wasn't Beavis or argues, but TUSSLE.
I really enjoyed the half dozen bus TOURS I took years ago.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteWhew! I feel like I finished my sophomore chemistry exam! What a clever, convoluted puzzle. Thank you, David Williams for the challenge.
And many thanks, C.C., for the needed complete explanation.
I saw the gimmick right away at WHOOPI AUBERG but sussing all those elements took some time to IDEATE. Even with all the names, I managed to finish. R.I.P. Anthony BOURDAIN. I really liked his programs which introduced us to food from all over the world.
JEREMY IRONS is one of my IDOLS along with a few others.
EUGENE O'NEILL is always included in a study of drama. Good to see him thee, too.
I'm sure Ray-O will know NIENTE and AMICI. I just remembered Don Ameche.
Oops. I had carHOPS not BARHOPS.
This took less time for me than yesterday.
I have a garlic press but it's quicker for me to just smash the garlic with a knife. Only if I am using several cloves do I use the press. Although sometimes I lay them all side by side and smash them all at once. It all depends on how much time I have.
Happy Fathers' Day to all the fathers! Please enjoy your day! I have a few dim memories of my dad but since he died at age 35 they are limited.
Yes, I also enjoyed all the BUS TOURS I took over the years. It helps to have a guide explaining the local lore.
ReplyDeleteCC, those were great Minis! It was fun to have CSOs that are really shout-outs to so many people on this blog. You included a lot of people!
ReplyDeleteI've personally never done a crossword with a video clue in it before, so thank you for the new experience!
I enjoyed this puzzle, although I imagine it would be extremely difficult for those who don't know the celebrities involved. I liked that all the names were across and all the elements were down. As OwenKL points out, it's not ideal that EUGENEILL still has "Eugene" in it, but I would guess that it was very hard to come up with names that fit in the grid and fulfilled the theme.
Really clever puzzle...not at all "elementary!!"
ReplyDeleteTom
Zionsville, IN
Like Lucy I was reminded of the tragedy of the suicide of ANTHONY BOURDAIN just over three years ago. Fame and fortune do not solve all.
ReplyDeleteDavid P., who made his puzzle debut here on May 15 with HG writing-up the effort, followed with a WSJ on May 22. Each has been different.
Whoopi made the theme concept jump out, but it was not a walk in the park; i liked TUSSLE and TASSEL along with CLARA and CLARO . I did not know/remember this about CIGAR BASICS
Thanks David and C.C.
DNF. I had to think about RN, but the other elements were easy. Problem is, I only know of one soccer player - Pele.
ReplyDeleteI remember the bumper sticker "AUH2O 64". My sister (who would go on to get a PhD in chemistry) loved the sticker, but she would have voted for Chairman Mao if he were the democrat candidate.
My favorite local license plate is NACLYK9 (salty dog).
I don't watch MLB, but the college world series playoffs are on TV. Today Virginia plays Tennessee. Then there is the US Open, and the Stanley Cup playoffs. I'm glad I have a Geenie DVR. Great sports day for this dad.
Just got a fancy new garlic press, but haven't taken it out of the box yet. It is supposed to help peel the cloves as well a press them. We'll see.
Great puzzle. The bottom filled first for me, and when I got David CUfield it suddenly all made sense.
ReplyDeleteDiego MaRNa area stumped me for a long time, since I had IOTA for a small amount to give instead of INCH (clever!) and the only other soccer star I could think of that had RN in it was Ronaldo and I didn't know his first name but starting with a D and Hispanic gave me DIEGO so I just went with it. Oh - Maradona! I totally forgot him as I only watch soccer occasionally. Go US Women's Team!
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteNeat theme today. The elements were all easily gotten. Good, varied fill.
BOS'N - "A non-commissioned officer responsible for the sails, ropes, rigging and boats on a ship who issues "piped" commands to seamen."
BOOBY - Could have been clued as a "blue-footed bird"
Enjoy the day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Cleverness and chemistry! Gotta love it. Shoehorning AU in after WHOOPI gave me the gimmick
-A movie with a famous hitchhiking scene featured an AUTOGIRO
-We saw our ETD get later and later in Minneapolis when we were heading for Sea-Tac. Our plane was declared “sick” and we had to wait for a replacement
-Corn TASSELS will be showing up here in about ten days. I haven’t run my detasseling crews since 1999.
-EDLEMAN was a tough little nut who took big hits and kept playing
-BAE and IDEATE are on my “don’t like ‘em but might as well get used to ‘em” list.
-Horrible WWI fighting took place along the YSER River that flows through the fields of Flanders in France and Belgium
-An article this morning said some in western Oregon want to SECEDE and join Idaho
-Jinx, while you are watching the CWS from Omaha you might want to also tune to the Olympic Swim Trials which are being held in “O-Town” just across the street.
The capital of Latvia is Riga. Why isn't that fitting?
ReplyDeleteNever mind! I got it :-)
DeleteJust colored the puzzle for my own enjoyment, and noticed a few other things.
ReplyDelete⊞ The names were all placed symetrically, so we had two each at lengths 12, 9, 10, 10.
⊞ While the element names weren't entirely symetrical, they came surprisingly close, 5 out of 8!
IRON : NEON
SILVER : COPPER
MERCURY down the very center.
⊞ The elements going down never crossed the symbols buried in the names. This was probably just serendipity.
July and August weren't "added to" the calendar. They took the places of Quintilis and Sextilis. While the early calendar was 10 months, they corresponded pretty well with our own March thru December, plus there was also a winter "super-month" that was later split into January, February, and the intercalary month Mercedonius that was sort of "leap week", at the logical tail end of the year, instead of two months in as it is today. Later, Julie moved New Years from March 15 to January 1, but didn't change the month names to reflect the changed order.
I believe Euro is the monetary capital of Latvia. Dollar is the monetary capital of the USA.
ReplyDeleteI had a great High School Chem teacher. The other Chem teacher required her students to memorize the Periodic Table but our teacher simply told us that we were going to use (the helloutuv) that table and we'd know it far better than the other kids. He was right and it helped here decades later. Still, I stared at the correct answer to "Long Day's Journey" for a long time before realizing that it was correct.
ReplyDeleteVery fun challenge. I used my 3 semester at Villanova as a chem major to good stead today. My wife and I spent some time in Johannesburg in 2015 when on safari. Everything was in my wheelhouse for a change.
ReplyDeleteJust lurking...based on the commentary the puzzle sounds like quite a challenge.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow
Happy Father's Day to all our father's 👨👧👨👦
In the off chance that anyone is interested in a glimpse behind the construction curtain:
ReplyDeleteThe germ of the puzzle was FREDDIE {Hg}. Then the task was to collect enough crossworthy names that contained elements. That set is quite limited (governor GEORGE {Pb}ER and chef MARIO {C}E wouldn’t cut it), so there wasn’t much flexibility on that front. I would’ve liked the final set of eight to have been more diverse, but names with European roots are simply more likely to contain English words (i.e., the elements). I consciously opted for WHOOPI {Au}BERG over BARRY {Au}WATER, though there weren’t many choices to be made beyond that. (Symmetry constraints meant a fun double instance with QUEN{Sn} TARAN{Sn}O was not to be, unfortunately.) But to anyone who can come up with a valid name containing a not-already-used element: let me know and I’ll owe you a {Ni}.
It was Rich’s idea to include the eight elements as additional entries, and also to do so as symmetrically as possible. I liked the suggestion, but it did introduce considerable constraints on the grid. (Another consequence of including all the “freebie” element entries was that the puzzle is likely to play a bit easier.)
For consistency, I placed all of the original "name" theme entries horizontally (and symmetrically, of course), and all of the new "element" theme entries vertically and symmetrically to the maximum extent possible (the 7-letter MERCURY is in the center, and the odd 3-letter and 4-letter are paired opposite the 5-letter in a balanced spacing). I also made sure that none of the "name" and "element" theme entries crossed in the special chemical element squares, and also that none of the crossing "name"/"element" theme entries corresponded to the same element.
In the end, after a few crossings, there were 116 theme squares, so the grid skeleton was rather rigid. Then the goal was to keep the fill as clean as possible — I would’ve preferred to keep all other names out of the grid, but the best that I could do was to avoid any full (i.e., first and last) name entries. Hopefully your solve was still enjoyable, but the shade’s cool too.
Thanks to Rich for letting this puzzle see the light of day, and thank you all for solving.
A sneaky Sunday puzzle which I FIW, to my surprise. One bad square, missed when I proofread, dang! I had TIN at 48D, but slipped up filling in STEVE MARtN and didn't catch that the perp didn't make sense. HOtING? What's that? Once again reading the downs is harder than the acrosses.
ReplyDeleteBut, the puzzle was fun as well as complex and I was not WORN out when I finished with a smile on my face. Thanks David for the puzzle and for coming by to explain more. (Semiwild Lava = Dave Williams?) And thanks C.C. for an excellent review. One expression I wasn't familiar with was IN A ROMP, expecting it to be IN A ROut. But the perps were solid so it stayed.
Hope you fathers are having a special day. The sun just peeped through the clouds here to brighten things up after the rain. Nice!
Many thanks to today's, and yesterday's, constructor for providing such detailed and informative glimpses behind the curtain.
ReplyDeleteThis is an enjoyable puzzle that was a lot of fun to solve. My only complaint is that Eugene O’Neill does not fit the pattern of an element in the last name. Thank you, David Williams.
ReplyDeleteLove, love, LOVE this puzzle! Many thanks to David, Rich, C.C. for a wonderful Sunday experience!
ReplyDeleteFun puzzles today! Thanks CC for the minis and solo by Boomer!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this theme a lot - although if a solver didn't know chemistry abbreviations it would be harder - since many of the ones David picked are the elements that aren't the first few letters of the element (e.g. Hg, AU, AG, SN). If you did - this made it a pretty quick solve once WHOOPI AUBERG was filled.
ReplyDeleteI was sidetracked a bit with 87D Union breakers - thinking that it would have something to be related labor unions to scabs during a strike, but perps worked that out.
Thanks CC and David!
Happy Father's Day to all the dads/granddads - my husband isn't one to watch golf on TV - but my memories of Father's Day past included watching the last day of the US OPEN with my dad
I love this puzzle. It took me a long time to solve it but that is good, as it extended the enjoyable time. Very clever indeed.
ReplyDeleteWe are back from a week in Los Angeles. We stayed in Koreatown so my wife could walk to her consulate to deal with passport renewal. A wonderful part of town where we could use public transit and walk. And eat delicious Korean food every day!
ReplyDeleteDavid Williams/SemiWildLava Thank you for a most clever puzzle and thank you for stopping by for the background story. What is the meaning of Semi Wild Lava?
I was stuck with AUTOGYRO and struggled to figure out what was NAYF. Never saw that weird spelling AUTOGIRO. As a teen I built flying model airplanes and one of my big achievements was a model helicopter. I also had plans for an AUTOGYRO but I am not sure I ever built it. My grandfather in Florida sent me photos of a real AUTOGYRO.
Husker Gary Thank you very much for the AUTOGYRO video! Way cool! I wonder how it took off from that tight space!
My only nit was the crossing of utterly unknown EDELMAN and DIEGOMARNA but I did WAG correctly to FIR.
"DIOS, Patria, Motociclismo" was the slogan of this motorcycle club in Nicaragua.
GOD, Country and Motorcycling! I took that photo while on a weekend break when I was working in Nicaragua in 1986.
Here are more of my photos at this beautiful lake where I went swimming.
Many unknown proper names today, but I will forgive them for the most remarkable construction challenge.
Sunday Lurk say...
ReplyDeleteThanks OKL - I forgot I could link directly to a post.
Cool pix, Picard. I too would have ink'd AUTOGyRO.
Semiwild Lava (aka David, I presume) - thanks for the glimpse. Tarantino would have been tricky w/ two periodic substitutions.
C.C. - Seldom either mushing methods (pressed or side-knifed). Sliced for big bits of garlic or diced for just flavor without the pleasure (to me) of a big bite of garlic. Last night, whole cloves went into the steamer w/ broccoli and cauliflower. Tonight, it will be in the food-processor w/ pine-nuts before the oil and basil go in. #Pesto! (with grilled chicken)
Jinx - I'm intrigued re: press that peels. Do tell.
Boomer - Twins lead the Rangers and the Astros lead the ChiSox. Good day so far :-)
Happy Fathers Day to the Dads that made us who we are.
Cheers, -T
OMG! Two in a row! INSOLVABLE! Too much switching from Periodic Table abbreviation to elemental name at the whim of the constructor. Rich and Joyce: please indicate when only MENSA members should attempt a puzzle! A big raspberry to Williams and the Times for destroying the warmth of memories on this day of honoring the memories of Dads. Where's your DAD themed puzzle? A better fit than today's drudge!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Semiwild Lava is an anagram of Dave Williams.
ReplyDeleteThose mini puzzles were fun.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone. I thought this was a great puzzle. So many unknowns but so many great clues and answers. I really liked it. I loved that the answers to the elementary answers were given to us. Very clever. How do you do that? Kudos to Mr Williams. Great work CC . Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHappy Father’s Day to all you guys. You are all heroes!
Sunday toughie for me, and I would not have gotten anything without all the essential information C.C. gave us. But clearly very, very complex and inventive, so, congratulations, David, for a terrific achievement, and thank you, again, C.C. for your invaluable help.
ReplyDeleteStill nice to get odds and ends, here and there, like MERRY Christmas, and that "immortal Babe" Ruth (helped that Babe was capitalized). Thank goodness I've worn a lot of mortarboards in my day, so TASSEL was no problem at all. And nice to have the puzzle end with all of our AMENS.
Have a great Sunday evening, everybody.
I am surprised there is so much grumbling as the puzzle was not easy but a nice challenge. The element of the elements was very cool and required knowledge which I thought was better than names. As MM pointed out, Mr. Williams who obviously likes words, uses an angram of his own name. I also was blown away by C/C.'s minis and being included in one of them. However, it was the Gary puzzle which I completed the fastest. C.C. you are a gem
ReplyDeleteI gave up after I came across names on top of names. I picked the puzzle up again later and in the end really enjoyed this one. Very clever. I now realize the names were a necessary evil. I thought this was the best Sunday puzzle in recent memory. Good one,thanks.
ReplyDeleteEDELMAN's 'retirement ' might be like Gronk's
ReplyDeleteChemistry was junior year. Periodic Table was in front. Was I supposed to not use it? Very helpful with aaavalances.
Maloman very clever catching the lava anagram. Ever try Hari Selden? I've posted my translation before
Odd, I was amazed at the universal praise and solving skills. I figured out the trick very late in the game and went back to all the two characters abbreviations and filled (fe. MERCURY). I actually knew all the names. HOSING was my last fill using HG and SN. I looked at "Scam" all afternoon but a little bit of caffeine did the trick. FIR
The clueing was no picnic : BARHOPS, EPITOME etc.
AGREED with 95% that this was a corker of a Sunday xword.
WC
Picard, that's a very BUCOLIC setting in Nicaragua. Ironic* that EDELMAN and MAradonA were hanging fruit for us sports buffs. Elements not so easy but I recognized AU from Auric Goldfinger.
ReplyDeleteRe. Autogyro. My father who flew in WWII thought they'd replace cars.
WC
Bucolic was Thurs or Fri, ironic from today's J