No matter how inspired we may be, there are write-ups where there is no better title than the constructor's reveal. This is one of those.
Dallas is making his LAT debut though he started with a Universal collaboration with Christopher Adams in 2019, then a solo UC in 2020 and WSJ earlier this year,
40A. Magic trick that affects the answers to starred clues: DISAPPEARING ACT (15). Those three magic letters disappear in every one of the many themers, so before we discuss Dallas and his arrow making abilities, let's look them over.
17A. *Runs drills: PR{ACT}ICES (6).
22A. *Extremely demanding: E{ACT}XING (5).
23A. *Did a double-take, say: RE{ACT}ED (4).
31A. *Produce milk: L{ACT}ATE (4).59A. *Like two-humped camels: B{ACT}RIAN (5).
73A. *In a concise manner: COMP{ACT}LY (6).
12D. *Strategic maneuver: T{ACT}IC (3).
41D. *Has an effect on: IMP{ACT}S (4).
65D. *Thing that matters: F{ACT}OR (3).
The grid:
So we are left with: PRICES: EXING: REED: LATE: BRIAN: COMPLY: TIC: IMPS: FOR. If you can make more out of them as part of the theme I look forward to hearing the theory.
Meanwhile, Dallas did include some nice long fill HAS A COW,
Across:
1. Let off: ACQUIT. This fits right in with earlier in the week mini-rant about our judicial system. There are innocent people who are charged with crimes and desrved to be acquitted. It is not being let off.
7. "Beats me," in texts: IDK. I Don't Know.
10. Boozer: SOT. Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about SOT.
13. Its recipe often includes egg whites: MOUSSE. You guess how to make it work...
29. Screen legend Flynn: ERROL. He would not have appeared in the above movie.
33. "Indeedy": YUP. Slang.
35. One-time Nigerian capital: LAGOS. Abuja is a planned city and is relatively affluent. It was built from scratch in the 1980s and became the nation's capital in 1991.
37. Thingamajig: DOODAD. A recent jumble solution.
44. Seales of HBO's "Insecure": AMANDA. This unlnown to me but multi-talented PERFORMER.
45. Feed a crowd, say: CATER. Well golly, that was who brought the food to my wedding.
46. Printer spec.: DPI. DOTS PER INCH.
47. Singer Susan Boyle, e.g.: SCOT. Another of Simon Cowell's discoveries.
49. Outfit again: RERIG. Meh.
53. Kind of sink: SLOP. A deep sink, usually set low, esp. used by janitors for emptying pails of dirty water.
56. Tot's bruise: OWIE. and 70A. "Ouch!": I'M HURT.
58. __ trap: SET A.
61. Non-Rx: OTC. Over The Counter.
63. Form 1040 calc.: AGI. Adjusted Gross Income.
64. Religious groups that allegedly communicate with ETs: UFO CULTS. A more complicated GROUP.
67. Sweatshirt with a head cover: HOODIE.
69. Classic couples carrier?: NOAH'S ARK. I love this clue/fill.
71. Word with film or form: ART.
72. Utter: SAY.
Down:
11. Lord's Prayer opener: OUR. Father...
15. Handlebar part: GRIP.
16. Last word in a holiday song: SYNE. That auld saw...
21. Kin of Kourtney: KHLOE. Kardashian krap.
24. __ Twins: online comedy duo: DOLAN. The INSIDE SCOOP if you care. This is very "modern" fill which many want to see more of in the 2020 decade.
26. Freaks out: HAS A COW. Not quite as new, but classic BART.
28. Quick dip?: GUACamole.
30. "Bosch" squad: Abbr.: LAPD. Lots of Southern California references in this puzzle.
32. Prep for publication: EDIT.
34. Calif. summer hrs.: PDT. Didn't I tell you.
36. Admissions depts. review them: GPAS.
38. Unique thing, to a Brit: ONER. Steve? Help.
39. Meanies: OGRES. Makes them sound almost cuddly.
40. __ joke: DAD. I had a good one but I forgot, maybe by morning.
42. Tot's tub toy: SAILBOAT.
43. 1:15, e.g.: RATIO.
48. Against: CONTRA. Iran affair>
50. Study, with "on": READ UP.
51. Celebrity socialite: IT GIRL. Not my idea of an IT girl but what do I know.
52. Merriment: GAIETY.
54. Theater ticket abbr.: ORCHestra.
55. Name of 12 popes: PIUS. You would hope they all were and had a well defined...
57. Value system: ETHIC. But, if not...
60. Old-style "Bummer!": ALAS what are you going to do.
62. Crooner Perry: COMO. He settled in So. Fla. for hsi golden years.
64. __ vez: once: UNA. Hola, Lucy.
66. __-high: SKY. And to wrap up the week we have sky back, which leaves popping off rather than popping up. Have a safe and fun 4th of July week-end all. Thank you Dallas, please come by and share your thoughts. We are a bunch of fun curious people. lemonade out.
FENG SHUI, NOAH'S ARK, SAILBOAT, SHAGGY D.A., STORY ARC, and UFO CULTS. The ones in red are new fill. He had some nice combinations like 14 - 18 across and 64 - 69 across. Overall, this does not really play like a Friday with so many three letter fill and so many fill in general. He does provide a reverse CSO to Shawn Corey Carter . On that note, on to the rest.
1. Let off: ACQUIT. This fits right in with earlier in the week mini-rant about our judicial system. There are innocent people who are charged with crimes and desrved to be acquitted. It is not being let off.
7. "Beats me," in texts: IDK. I Don't Know.
10. Boozer: SOT. Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about SOT.
13. Its recipe often includes egg whites: MOUSSE. You guess how to make it work...
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
14. System used in home decor: FENG SHUI. This is the ancient Chinese practice that charts the balance of energy, or chi, via scientific calculations.
18. It can unfold over many episodes: STORY ARC. TV Talk.
19. P.O. box item: ENVelope.
20. Canadian grazer: ELK. A deer relative and a CSO to CEh.
25. Sounds of relief: AHHS. Sometimes requiring more Hs.
27. Simon of "Shaun of the Dead": PEGG. Very funny movie.
4 egg whites
¼ tsp lemon juice
20g unrefined sugar
14. System used in home decor: FENG SHUI. This is the ancient Chinese practice that charts the balance of energy, or chi, via scientific calculations.
18. It can unfold over many episodes: STORY ARC. TV Talk.
19. P.O. box item: ENVelope.
20. Canadian grazer: ELK. A deer relative and a CSO to CEh.
25. Sounds of relief: AHHS. Sometimes requiring more Hs.
27. Simon of "Shaun of the Dead": PEGG. Very funny movie.
33. "Indeedy": YUP. Slang.
35. One-time Nigerian capital: LAGOS. Abuja is a planned city and is relatively affluent. It was built from scratch in the 1980s and became the nation's capital in 1991.
37. Thingamajig: DOODAD. A recent jumble solution.
44. Seales of HBO's "Insecure": AMANDA. This unlnown to me but multi-talented PERFORMER.
45. Feed a crowd, say: CATER. Well golly, that was who brought the food to my wedding.
46. Printer spec.: DPI. DOTS PER INCH.
47. Singer Susan Boyle, e.g.: SCOT. Another of Simon Cowell's discoveries.
49. Outfit again: RERIG. Meh.
53. Kind of sink: SLOP. A deep sink, usually set low, esp. used by janitors for emptying pails of dirty water.
56. Tot's bruise: OWIE. and 70A. "Ouch!": I'M HURT.
58. __ trap: SET A.
61. Non-Rx: OTC. Over The Counter.
63. Form 1040 calc.: AGI. Adjusted Gross Income.
64. Religious groups that allegedly communicate with ETs: UFO CULTS. A more complicated GROUP.
67. Sweatshirt with a head cover: HOODIE.
69. Classic couples carrier?: NOAH'S ARK. I love this clue/fill.
71. Word with film or form: ART.
72. Utter: SAY.
Down:
1. Electrical unit: AMPERE. Begins the down clues and they finish with a classic clecho 68D. Electrical unit: OHM.
2. Home plate edge: CORNER. That picher sure knew how to paint the corner. More baseball esoterica for our non-sports group.
3. Accessory for Katniss Everdeen: QUIVER. A self-SO to our constructor.
4. Trojans' sch.: USC. Not the condoms.
5. "That makes sense": I SEE. That is why I am here.
6. Electric wheels: TESLA. My wife wants to drive one- but if she likes it, what do I do?
7. Hypotheticals: IFS. Yes, it is only a thought and the idea is not one...
8. Not like at all: DETEST. I hate
9. Fort defended by Bond: KNOX. The classic 007 film GOLDFINGER starring Sean Connery as James Bond is set mainly in England and Switzerland, but it was partially filmed at Fort Knox.
10. Disney film featuring a canine prosecutor, with "The": SHAGGY DA. Part of the Shaggy Dog series.
2. Home plate edge: CORNER. That picher sure knew how to paint the corner. More baseball esoterica for our non-sports group.
3. Accessory for Katniss Everdeen: QUIVER. A self-SO to our constructor.
4. Trojans' sch.: USC. Not the condoms.
5. "That makes sense": I SEE. That is why I am here.
6. Electric wheels: TESLA. My wife wants to drive one- but if she likes it, what do I do?
7. Hypotheticals: IFS. Yes, it is only a thought and the idea is not one...
8. Not like at all: DETEST. I hate
9. Fort defended by Bond: KNOX. The classic 007 film GOLDFINGER starring Sean Connery as James Bond is set mainly in England and Switzerland, but it was partially filmed at Fort Knox.
10. Disney film featuring a canine prosecutor, with "The": SHAGGY DA. Part of the Shaggy Dog series.
11. Lord's Prayer opener: OUR. Father...
15. Handlebar part: GRIP.
16. Last word in a holiday song: SYNE. That auld saw...
21. Kin of Kourtney: KHLOE. Kardashian krap.
24. __ Twins: online comedy duo: DOLAN. The INSIDE SCOOP if you care. This is very "modern" fill which many want to see more of in the 2020 decade.
26. Freaks out: HAS A COW. Not quite as new, but classic BART.
28. Quick dip?: GUACamole.
30. "Bosch" squad: Abbr.: LAPD. Lots of Southern California references in this puzzle.
32. Prep for publication: EDIT.
34. Calif. summer hrs.: PDT. Didn't I tell you.
36. Admissions depts. review them: GPAS.
38. Unique thing, to a Brit: ONER. Steve? Help.
39. Meanies: OGRES. Makes them sound almost cuddly.
40. __ joke: DAD. I had a good one but I forgot, maybe by morning.
42. Tot's tub toy: SAILBOAT.
43. 1:15, e.g.: RATIO.
48. Against: CONTRA. Iran affair>
50. Study, with "on": READ UP.
51. Celebrity socialite: IT GIRL. Not my idea of an IT girl but what do I know.
52. Merriment: GAIETY.
54. Theater ticket abbr.: ORCHestra.
55. Name of 12 popes: PIUS. You would hope they all were and had a well defined...
57. Value system: ETHIC. But, if not...
60. Old-style "Bummer!": ALAS what are you going to do.
62. Crooner Perry: COMO. He settled in So. Fla. for hsi golden years.
64. __ vez: once: UNA. Hola, Lucy.
66. __-high: SKY. And to wrap up the week we have sky back, which leaves popping off rather than popping up. Have a safe and fun 4th of July week-end all. Thank you Dallas, please come by and share your thoughts. We are a bunch of fun curious people. lemonade out.
59 comments:
A neat removal of ACT from words today. At 22A I knew something was missing when I filled EXING by perps. When LATE was also filled by perps I realized it was a missing word. It took a while for the NW to fall because I didn't know MOUSSE and both PRICES and REED were missing ACT. I only had to make one write-over change to FIR-AAHS to AHHS. My SUMP became a SLOP sink- never heard of that term.
DISAPPEARING ACT- putting the reveal in the center made the lower half fill easier.
I don't "Keep up with the K's" but they certainly have made a fortune out of nothing.
LAPD was filled by perps as I had no idea what "Bosch" squad was but it wasn't NYPD or SFPD. For all I know it could have been a football team.
Everybody knows Perry COMO but I doubt they've heard of DOLAN Twins if they don't get online shows. New to me, along with AMANDA Seales, Simon PEGG, and KHLOE.
Adios
Good morning!
This one was a struggle. Had no clue on the theme answers for most of the journey. Tried PPM (pages per minute) before DPI showed up. The penny finally dropped, and everything filled in. But not correctly. Didn't know what a Kourtney was, so KALOE made sense, which went with my AAHS (which should have been AHHS). DNF. Oh, well, Houstonians have always had problems with Dallas. Thanx for 'splainin' my failure, Lemonade. This was definitely a toughie.
Once disappearing act emerged, the other strange fills made sense and completing the grid got easy.
Today's *abstr puzzle *prically *frured my brain as I initially *reed to the *contred answers. In the end, I found the puzzle amusingly *attrive, although some of the regular *detrors and other *charers here will surely post negative *reions. All I can say, without *redion is that *pice makes perfect, and don't solve when *distred.
Hi Y'all! This puzzle was a real OWIE, Dallas. Thank you, Lemonade, for sweetening the slog.
The reveal was one of the last lines to fill. A lot of white space in this thing for a long time. I knew what and where was missing so I sort of "got" the theme, but by the time I filled the reveal, I was too tired of the whole thing to make the connection. I DETEST this much "cute". He threw in that "D" word so I'll use it. Got tired of having to red-letter so much trying to fill it.
I did laugh over the crossing of HAS A COW with L(ACT)ATE.
BOSCH was a gimmee. I've read all of Michael Connelly's BOSCH books.
DNK: too many of the proper names.
Caught onto KHLOE because she appears in a current commercial in which they have to introduce her because she has had too much plastic surgery to be recognizable. I'm Not a fan, but the K's kinda intrude in one's mind, like it or not.
Gee, I wasn't so grouchy when I got up.
Good Morning:
It took me a long time to figure out what was going on but the reveal did help with several of the remaining theme answers. I admire the creativity involved but I didn’t enjoy the solve itself. Amanda, Pegg, Dolan were all unknown and Brian took forever as I’ve never heard the word Bactrian. (Sounds germ related.) There was some interesting and lively fill but, overall, this was just not my cuppa. I did enjoy seeing Imps as we have a few on the Corner, though they shall remain unnamed.
Thanks, Dallas, for your efforts and thanks, Lemony, for your measured and honest critique.
FLN
Robert, best of luck with the surgery and recovery.
CanadianEh, truer words were never spoken that they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. As another example, I heard from my girlfriend last night that her refrigerator died and it was only eight years old. She bought a replacement which is in stock at the appliance store but won’t be delivered until July 15th due to the backlog caused by the pandemic.
Have a great day
9 *s. O think I had 90% of the squares filled before I grok'ed the theme. At first it seemed to complicated to bother with. I wonder if D-O came here and found out a about the missing ACTs.
CORNER required 6 perps for this former pitcher
I was vaguely familiar with Katniss. So QUIVER only required the Q
Despise didn't work . I should have realized that CHLOE would need a K. FIR BTW. Not an easy xword even for Friday.
I just bought #1 of the Bosch-Connelly series. 1 of about 20+
I replaced an old fridge with a not so old. Reading IM it dawned on me that store delivery (for new) is standard. Is it included in price?
I kept MUM about theme fln but bite marks prevail on tongue. I'm sitting at VA on my second hour. Informed they need urine sample minutes after…
WC
FIRight. Caught the gimmick early. Fun to figure out, but one weakness is that only one pair -- EXING/BRIAN -- was symmetrical. With 2 at 3 letters, 3 at 4 letters, 2 at 5 letters, and 2 at six letters, it could have been done, with the extra 4-letter word in the center.
When a BACTRIAN camel will LACTATE,
If BRIAN ferments it, will it make him LATE?
The drink, called "chal", should COMPACTLY
COMPLY with Turkmenistani taste.
If a doctor only PRACTICES,
How does he justify his PRICES?
If a censor does an EXACTING job,
Is he EXING out some plot devices?
The answer to these queries IMPACTS
The way with IMPS, one interacts.
They use a TACTIC of making a list,
Then checking off each line with a TIC.
As I REACTED to these burning questions,
I clung to a slender REED of hope,
That if I accounted every FACTOR
I wouldn't be taken FOR a dope!
{C- for poetry, A+ for hitting the theme.}
I saw ACT missing in t(act)ic. I know Friday puzzles often have missing letters, so I suspected the theme. The reveal confirmed it, helping in the solve.
I liked that the fill all were real words without the ACT,
I was missing two cells. The last G in PEGG and the U in YUP. I didn't think of GUAC, although I was onto "chips and DIP." DUH! I have seen GUAC and it appears in puzzles, but I never hear or say it. It looks odd, but tastes yummy.
Some guilty people are acquitted. They are let off for lack of evidence or technicalities. Some innocent people serve many, many years in prison and some are executed.
ONER seems in the language to me. One of a kind, unique.
Years ago several Chinese couples would not buy my house due to the bad FENG SHUI of the front door placement.
It took me a very, very long time to figure out the theme. After I figured it out, it still took a while in some cases to figure out where the ACT was supposed to be. But it was good to exercise the brain!
I really liked that each of the theme answers was still an actual word without the ACT. I really disliked "nonsense" theme answers and am glad that didn't happen here.
not aware of Pegg, Seales and Dolan. Totally flummoxed until the long reveal was in place. Scratched my head a whole lot because the themers were filled in and seemed to be words, but I could not figure out how they could possibly be related to what the clues said. Very hard puzzle today.
Musings
-Brilliant! Nine, count ‘em, Nine gimmicks! I usually don’t do the reveal until the end but not today.
-Six people who were found guilty of murder now threaten to bankrupt Gage County in Nebraska after being ACQUITED
-Kardashians : current decade = Gabors : sixty years ago
-IDK is a common reflexive response from a teenager who really means, “Don’t ask me!”
-The STORY ARC of The Fugitive played for 120 TV episodes
-Those of us with some miles on our odometer would have known AMANDA Blake
-Yeah, Boomer and I were the only ones who put SAND for S _ _ _ Trap
-Overhead cameras can show how far the pitch missed the CORNER on a called strike
-My daughter loves her 2015 electric car but stays close to home so a gas-powered vehicle can come get her. I wonder if that was true when new gas-powered vehicles relied on a nearby horse.
I would have titled this one "Act Out".
I'm sorry. I didn't enjoy this construction and that led to destruction.--way to many scratch outs! However, I'm always glad I can slip in to this site and see if it's only me who was driven to distr{act}ion. I'm going to need a another huge cup of coffee after this. It probably would have helped if I'd tried to solve this abstr{act} puzzle without having an allergy fr{act}ure. My brain wasn't in high tr{act}ion. Thanks, All!
Good morning everyone.
Slow slog until I got the missing 'ACT' theme. Wanting BACTRIAN got me on to the theme schtick; as well as EXACTING. Then the solve caught fire and proceeded to the finish. Several unknown proper names, but were sussable like others have said.
Only red letter was I had YeP vs. YUP.
Agree with IM about the overall experience.
HAS A COW - Always liked that phrase.
BACTRIAN - Our Utica Zoo has a couple of them. Believe they're named after the region where today's Afghan Uzbek Tajik borders are. Alexander the Great (ATG) advanced to that area. One-humped as in the GEICO ad are Dromedaries.
Lemon - Thanks for the re-cap.
Didn't anyone else try ASIAN for BACTRIAN before the missing ACT revealed itself?
A delight of a puzzle! FIR!
Also, did anyone else watch the trailer for The Shaggy D.A. ?? Worth more than a few laughs!
IM at 8:18 put forth what was also my reaction to this one. So, at the risk of being somewhat redundant, I will say that I finally "groked" what was going on at TactIC on my second pass through the puzzle. Things then fell into place and I was able to use the perps to complete the (too) many unknown, to me, proper names.
To Lemonade, merci beaucoup, mille grazie, todah rabah, thank you for tackling a difficult task with style, humor. . . and self restraint.
Almost finished but ruined the delicate FENGSHU(e)I of the puzzle with a one letter error. T(e)C shoulda been TIC rendering T*ACT*TIC 😏
Got the theme when "exact" for "demanding" proved wrong and EXING proved right with the A-C-T part "DISAPPEARING". The theme would have been more fun if the clue answers were words both with and without ACT in it. EXING, etc, by itself is a meaningless answer for the clue. Agree with Lemony.
"The Shaggy Dog" (1959) wouldn't fit....wait! there was a sequel!!....Poor Shrek getting OGRE-shamed as a "meanie" again. What happened to the "ban" on OWIE? (a "yoink",a word that would start a fistfight at a Scrabble game)
The questionable ability of housing 2 of every physical animal on earth in the Ark has been countered by a theory that it was their DNA that was actually preserved. Plus don't all religious groups believe in some type of ET environment? (Never heard of UFOCULTS, sounds like a swear word)🤭
Who names a camel, Brian? oh right, BACTRIAN...(should be 3 humps: "back-tri-an")🐪🐫
"If the glove doesn't fit you must ACQUIT" read that on a carton of pulp free OJ.
Trojans' sch: Banana U? 🤭🤣....Today an IT GIRL would work for a tech company.
Lemony, In your egg white MOUSSE recipe should the antlers be removed?🤔
Inkovers: refit/rerig, ethos/ETHIC, tax/AGI
More t*ACT*tless nonsense....groaning re*ACT*ions.
Hard subjects taught in a special school ...KNOX
Sounds of relief, when meeting the Wizard of ____ AHHS
Vampire theme song, "____ 'O My Heart"..PEGG
Actor Flynn liked ____ with swordplay...ERROL
Father of a bro.....DOODAD.
If I had a program....RATIO
Some pope's like cake others prefer. _____ PIUS.
Beautiful Katniss made a lot of guys____ QUIVER
(enough is enough...someone stop him!!)
so DALLAS, who shot JR? 🤠
True Friday level slog. I didn't see the theme until it was too late, so, a definite DNF.
I know that a two humped camel is a BactRIAN, but it didn't dawn on me until I read Lem's write up.
I wanted STORY LINE before STORY ARC, but it was too long.
I kne:w Simon PEGG and ERROL Flynn, but not AMANDA and DOLAN.
I wanted GIZMO instead of DOODAD, but it was too short.
I put in TAX before AGI.
I've read most of the Michael Connelly books with his hero Hieronymus BOSCH. Amazon Prime has produced 7 "seasons" of BOSCH shows that are mash-ups of a number of Connelly's books. The final season is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. I finished it yesterday and enjoyed it. My only regret is that it is the last.
DO @10:09am: Yes, you definitely have to remove the antlers, otherwise they get stuck in your teeth.
Have a great Fourth of July weekend everyone.
Bactrian camels have two humps (B shaped)
Dromedary camels have one hump (D shaped)
I got the theme fairly quickly once I had INGACT (penciled in ---VanishingAct). Still it was a long time getting all the answers.
Thought Clap Trap originally -> Set A Trap was my last fill.
I love Simon Pegg's films (ex. in the Star Trek reboots as Scotty) so he came easy.
HAS A COW -- LOL loved that one.
The only UFO Cult I am aware of was the Heaven's Gate cult that all committed suicide in 1997 when Comet Hale-Bopp appeared so they could travel to the alien ship hidden in its tail. I used them as the basis for my Martian Manifesto sci-fi trilogy where a cult leader decides to take his cult to Mars.
Even tho this was a very hard puzzle for me, I really enjoyed figuring out all the answers. Thanks!
Oh, yeah, that AMANDA. Talk about miles on the odometer, GS lasted forever
Stick with umpires, after a few pitches the pitcher can adjust. I fixed up the ump with a girl I knew and I had the OUTSIDE CORNER all Summer
ATG is over at the J today.
WC
Unlike most, I really liked this puzzle. I suppose seeing the theme early on colored my satisfaction. Perps were good. My goof was my own fault. I "shoulda" had QUAC.
I thought of ASIAN camel. When I noticed the *, ACT led me to B(act)rian. Long ago I was interested in the difference between one and two humped camels, so I knew Dromedary and Bactrian. I have read many desert sagas.
I find the K's even more crass than the Gabors.
OKL, ACT OUT is a good title.
My Maytag washer had many repairs right from the first month. Hello Maytag, repairman! The washer irreparably failed within a few years. I had a long term warranty and so was given the initial price for the washer plus tax. I had to buy a new one at the current price which was a good bit higher because my model was discontinued. The new washer was installed and the old one removed for no new fee. Even though the original service contract had not expired I had to buy a new contract. These appliances used to last more than 20 years. Now they seldom make replacement parts.
Julie - Our Bactrians' humps are - like - double-D shaped; kind of like the McDonalds arches.
Makes one think of Burger with a "B". :-)
Julie, thank you for the very simple memnonic for camels; they were just unfiltered in my day.
Thank you Anon 9:57, I try to use my links to inform and or amuse.
OKL, the themers are indeed all symmetrical though I appreciate the great title I did not think of.
HG, it depends on were you live. SoFla has myriads of charging stations
tiptothru- where have you been?
Spitz, "double-D shaped" -- are we still talking about camels?
Wow! If this is what you do for a debut Dallas, I can't wait to see the encore! A very clever theme and execution. Rich's constructor choices seem to be getting better and better.
Some comments:
Things were going swimmingly until I hit 17A and then none of the *'d clues made sense. Then I reasoned that where there are *'s there must be a reveal. So I found it and concentrated on revealing it. After that I saw the light and solved the rest of the puzzle quickly with a minimum of IONS.
10A A gentle suggestion to Dallas. The use of this answer in a clue or answer is a little like the "N" word to some recovering alcoholics. We've had a few comments from Cornerites in the past who have taken it personally. It no longer appears to meet Shortz's "Sunday Morning Breakfast Test".
35A Knew this answer because several Nigerians in our church are from that city. LAGOS is in Southern Nigeria, right on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, far from the "troubles" in the North of the country. For some reason our friends left the US at the beginning of the last administration and haven't been back since.
64A "UFO CULTS" are much in the news these days because of a recently released Government report of 140 or so unexplained sightings in recent years. The sightings are mostly by experienced Navy pilots, unlikely to be cult members.
There are lots of hypotheses as to what these "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" are, but I've not heard mentioned an explanation originally put forth by Carl Jung in 1957 in his book "Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies" In it his speculates that there are "psychosocial" dimensions to these sightings that are often overlooked. The implications of these dimensions may be just as "paradigm shifting" as the possible origins of the physical dimension.
5D I see, therefore I am. But wouldn't I have TO BE first?
21D The "K"s are the BITKOINS of "unreality TV". Pray for their depreciation.
And thanks Lemony for removing the veil from all of those apocalyptic clues.
Cheers,
Bill
Friday toughie for me, but still fun, so thanks, Dallas. And very helpful write-up, Lemonade, thank you too.
I loved some of the pairings in this puzzle--like that tot's OWIE producing an OUCH--I'M HURT. Also enjoyed having OUR Lord's prayer followed by the holiday "auld lang SYNE."
Nice to see ERROL Flynn and Perry COMO--two favorite old-timers in my youth. One funny mistake I made was to put HAS A FIT before I got OWIE and realized it had to be HAS A COW.
TTP, enjoyed your playing around with those missing ACTs.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
SAY what you will but it was a tough solve today. I finally got the theme's trick with the reveal so was able to FIR. Until then I was putting in fill all over the puzzle that were actual words (Hi, YR and others) but didn't make sense with the clue. What a puzzling puzzle! Thanks, Dallas, for the challenge which I was able to finish in one sitting at least. Come back soon. And thanks, Lemonade, for the lighthearted review.
My last fill was entering GUAC after changing YeP/YUP since I didn't know PEGG. Actually GUAC is making me hungry for some. Maybe this weekend.... Hope you all have a happy holiday weekend!
Nope. DNF. Too difficult. The DISAPPEARINGACT trick totally eluded and frustrated me. After 30 minutes of struggling I threw in the towel. DF, ya got me.
This Friday go needed a better editor.
Nine theme entries plus the proper names of unknown folks seems a bit much, even for a Friday.
Really swell to have theme entry 23A cross with the relatively unknown 24D.
Write-overs…RUBBER/CORNER, AAHS/AHHS, YEP/YUP, ASIAN/BRIAN.
Always happy to get the solve in a grid like this one.
See you tomorrow.
I went ‘hit and miss’ to the southeast corner before I figured out that ACT was the missing FACTOR. Once I had ACT, I solved the clues with asterisks. That helped a lot, but I still a problems, especially with DPI, GUAC, and BRIAN (I don’t know my camels!). Thank you, Lemonade.
Are UFO CULTS religious? The ‘religious’ part of the clue threw me off as I was expecting a traditional religious group, and am unaware of any communicating with ETs.
Overall, I liked the puzzle a lot. Thank you Dallas Fletcher.
DNF. Revealed SLOP and that fixed leos-->PIUS and the rest fell. Same erasures and unknowns as others. Didn't hate this one, but didn't love it either.
Back from camping near beautiful Advance, NC. Glad we got back yesterday, since it is rainy and cold today. My rooftop satellite dish system failed, and the meter that allows me to align my tripod-mounted dish also failed. I was forced to watch OTA TV (or pass the time talking with my wife), and found myself enjoying Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune for the first time in years.
CONTRA to Lemon's assertion @10:41, the themers were not placed symmetrically in the grid. The grid was symmetrical, but there were 4 across themers in the top half, only 2 in the bottom half, 1 vertical in the top, 2 in the bottom.
RE UFO CULTS, the article Lemon linked mentioned, in addition to Heaven’s gate, Räelian movement; Solar temple; Unarius academy. To those I would add Scientology and the Cargo Cults. (WE know what the cargo planes were, but those natives didn't.)
I was keenly interested in UFOs when I was young, and once attended a lecture by Allen Hynek, who expressed his thought (not mentioned in any of his books) that maybe UFOs were time travelers from our future.
"[Dallas] does provide a reverse CSO to Shawn Corey Carter ."
Lloked it up, and SCC is a rapper who goes by Jay+Z. But what was the CSO?
Hi All!
Wow Dallas, that was a puzzler alright. I finally figured out the theme and I liked that, sans ACT, we still had a word fill.
Theme filled long b/f the *'d themers (I like magic).
ALAS, I FIW @ KatieE instead of KHLOE (AAhs seemed OK, TATE (pay attn to the theme!, -T), LAGiS). Oh well, it's Friday... Wait! It's Friday b/f a 3-day weekend!*
Thanks for the expo Lem. We enjoy'd the same sparkle.
WO: Rubber->border->CORNER, [It's a -> Sand -> SET A] trap, YeP, UNe/UNi/UNA
ESPs: LAGIS, PEGG, AMANDA,,,, More I'm sure.
Fav: FIW?, Don't HAVE A COW, man.
{B, (A, A, A)+}
LOL Problems w/ Dallas, D-O. Big smile.
waseeley - re: UATs/UFOs. I'm inclined to think it's a technical glitch in the tracking devices and/or cameras b/f thinking little-green-men. Though I do love the speculation though ;-)
I'm calling foul at 59a. I think those were only one-hump Camels in Life of BRIAN [3:45].
Enjoyed reading everyone; Play later.
Cheers, -T
*with a 0day (CVE-2021-34527) out there, I'll be working :-(
d-o, I also had ASIAN before BACTRIAN.
Musings 2
-I helped grandson picked out a laptop for his freshman year at UNL. I am so pleased that he called to have me help.
-ET CULTS @ 1:16
HG - what box did you help Grandson pick?
Yeah, people are smart but groups of people are dumb... I enjoyed the *Cont{ACT} clip.
Cheers, -T
Frantic Friday. Thanks for the fun, Dallas and Lemonade.
I finally got the theme and went back to look for the ACT. But a DNF because I had REkit instead of RERIG, then got GAITY but gave up. This Canadian does not fill our Form 1040 and has never heard of AGI (I think it would be our Net Income?).
No ELK around here, but I remember coming out of our camper in Jasper National Park, and ELK were sleeping on the doorstep😮.
Hand up for Aahs before AHHS, and thinking of Asian.
I HAD A fit before a COW.
Wishing you all a great day.
Re: AGI - - adjusted gross income:
Gross income reduced by certain amounts, such as a deductible IRA contribution or student loan interest (per the IRS)
Fantastic. Love you all!
Whew, I had to struggle mightily to finally solve this puzzle. I got misled by thinking that the TIC, being the second syllable of TACTIC, of which TAC is the first syllable, would mean the theme would involve similar words or phrases such as seesaw, ticky-tacky, teeter totter, bric-a-brac, humdrum, tick tock, hanky-panky, etc. Nope.
Damn clever theme, but very hard for me to see. I was impressed that removing the ACT left real words remaining.
Yes, desper-otto, I tried ASIAN at first. And NET before AGI.
I DNK Simon PEGG, AMANDA Seales, the DOLAN twins, or the "Bosch" squad. With acknowledgement to Abejo, enough perps and I had 'em.
I've heard Brits say, "That was a one-off," but have never heard the term ONER. (I assume it is pronounced "wunner.")
Years ago we bought a Maytag dishwasher to replace our old GE one. From day one the rinse wetting-agent dispenser did not work; it would release the entire contents of the reservoir all at once. Within a year it began to leak through the door gasket (the door apparently didn't close snugly enough) but we couldn't see the leak and therefore didn't know it was happening. Eventually the leak got bad enough that we could see the water coming out from underneath, but by then the floorboards had been repeatedly boiled by the hot water. We had the dishwasher removed (as they were removing it the door totally fell off) and the floorboards refinished. Rather than buy a new dishwasher we utilized the space for an additional cabinet, which gave us very useful extra storage space. Heck, with just the two of us we don't need a dishwasher anyway. It's easier, and uses less water, to wash the dishes by hand. And yes, I help.
Thankfully it rarely gets all that hot here so we don't have, or need, an AC unit. It would be just more maintenance and repairs for an expensive piece of hardware we might use maybe two weeks out of the year, if at all.
I'll just say, it sure seems that "religion" can take on many forms.
Good wishes to you all.
What a slog. Another gimmick theme to deal with. Enough of the owies,dead popes,aahs junk and watch me double the clue" gimmicks.
Reverse CSO, the only missing letters in the puzzle were J Z.
I am pleased you looked.
Yep, first time, last time.
Well, I know what a "nooner" is. I guess a ONER could be a tryst-never-to-be-repeated.
YIKES!Mr. I need to re to Mr. Fletcher from Dallas's vain attempt to be cutesy with his theme. He showed no t in applying his theme incorrectly several times. As a matter of f , his theme was weak throughout the puzzle. At least, that Is MY region to his entry today.
AGI used to be a very important calculation when there were many "above the line deductions" but those are almost all gone. As someone commented, the trickle down trickled down the throat of the middle class choking most of them. Fortunealy they can be easily distracted by hot button politics - religion, guns, race etc. - thence to where we are today as a nation. Not a political statement, just an observation
Dallas could've compounded the theme with words like
smoke gets into your eyes ... CAT AR ACT ... or * AR *
and put in an alternate IRS 1040 calc. of ... AMT instead of AGI.
The Alternative Minimum Tax is a very valid and reqd calc. for those affected, it affects 0.1 percent of all taxpayers, yet raises over 5 percent additional income taxes, or about 7 billion $.
Originally, meant to 'gotcha' rich filers, from taking 'too much' benefits from, say, the capital gains exclusions, it started hitting some socalled middle level Taxpayers from Hi state-income tax states, of the likes of NY, MA and CA etc.
If you're using esoteric calculations for a tough CW, why not go the entire distance.
Have fun on Jeremy Lin's typical Saturday stumper. Good news, Wilbur FIR.
I wonder if the brains scientists have studied the Saturday xword solve experience. First, nuttin, then the miracle* occurs.
Why do I know the answer when ten minutes ago I had no clue. I will say there's hanging fruit but one person's apple is anothers kumquat
WC
I actually solved while in line for an oil change. I finally figured out, this is 4th of July weekend. I abandoned the gas fillup at Sam's, a hornets nest.
Well sonova... I think my microwave got wind of all this talk of appliances going kaput. I reset the breaker-box but nada.
Sigh, there goes my Saturday.
Hopefully, the microwave has it's own internal breaker.
Cheers, -T
-T --- Bummer! Guess that means we won't be seeing you at the museum later today.
Looks like we're in for a rainy day anyway.
LEOIII - I just talked with BIL (huge fan of all things aviation) and we're making a (half)-day of it. Give me a time and I'll see you there.
//the microwave can wait 'till Sunday :-)
Cheers, -T
Hola!
I had a very hard time with this puzzle today compounded by not being able to work on it for long periods of time. Too many interruptions including getting my A/C repaired! Yea! Priorities! And moving back home. I almost forgot my car since I walked home from Mark's who lives across from me.
Maybe next time he has one I can concentrate better.
It's nice to be back home!
I hope you all had a lovely day and look forward to a wonderful weekend.
Puzzling thoughts:
I did a DISAPPEARING ACT earlier in the day and finally finished it - after a few cheats - just a few minutes ago. Lemony’s excellent recap made this enjoyable, as well as the comments from the “peanut gallery”. As for the puzzle itself? Thumper.
Lots of unknowns and W/O’s: B{ACT}RIAN, AMANDA (Seales) had to look that one up, DOLAN (it was a Natick there as I had NOLAN/REEN (REEN{ACT}; BORDER/CORNER
I “got” the DISAPPEARING ACT reveal from L{ACT}ATE. I guess if I had one good thing to say about the puzzle, is that all of the words used in the *’d clues were {ACT}UAL words or names. At first I thought this was a rebus but none of the perps worked when I pencilled the word ACT into a square.
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