Hello there, Cornerites, and welcome to another Friday version of Chairman Moe trying to make heads or tails out of what developed into a pretty clever crossword puzzle. Today's offering is a collaboration of two Crossword Puzzle "All-Stars", Kevin Christian and Tracy Bennett. They used a "p-o-w's" question to combine two separate team names of the Wowen's National Basketball Association. (51-Down, and the "reveal": Org. that includes each part of four puzzle answers: WNBA)
Kevin and Tracy managed to find 4 combinations (8 of the 12 teams in the WNBA) and the Chairman found one more - my "theme" title. And whilst I couldn't come up with an appropriate question (The SUN are the WNBA team in Connecticut, and The FEVER are the WNBA team in Indiana), "SUNS" FEVER is rampant here in the Valley of the Sun, as the Phoenix team (the SUNS) are playing in their first ever NBA Championship Finals, as we speak, and are leading the Milwaukee Bucks 2 games to 0. Count the Chairman as one who has hopped on the SUNS bandwagon . . . but I digress . . .
20-Across. Longing at a dull lecture? (N.Y., Atlanta): LIBERTY DREAM. The New York LIBERTY are one of the original eight teams that formed the WNBA in 1996, and play their home games in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center - a venue also used by the NBA's Brooklyn NETS. The Atlanta DREAM was one of the league's expansion teams in 2007, and play their games at the Gateway Center Arena, in College Park, GA
The "play-on-word's" question for the clue probably means having the freedom to doze off, but since this was the first clue in the set, and the use of N.Y. and Atlanta was at first confusing, I was thinking about things other than team names, quite honestly, and I am a sports fan. NY LIBERTY airport? MLK's "I have a DREAM" speech? WTH? Let's go on . . .
32-Across. Talented meteorologists? (Seattle, Las Vegas): STORM ACES. OK, Moe is confused. Airports? Well, Seattle is linked with Tacoma (SEATAC), but as I was solving the puzzle, the only letters I had were "____MACES", and this one sat a long time before filling in. The Seattle STORM joined the WNBA in 1999, and has been one of the better and more successful franchises. The Las Vegas ACES are one of the original teams of the WNBA, but the franchise has moved a few times. Starting out in Utah as the STARZZ as a charter league member, then moving to San Antonio TX, and finally to Las Vegas. Kevin and Tracy's clue fits well, as talented meteorologists are indeed, "storm aces"
38-Across. Lightning? (Chicago, L.A.): SKY SPARKS. The Chicago SKY are another expansion team, and the Los Angeles SPARKS are one of the founding eight. An easier clue to connect the two team names, as "lightning" flashes are very much "sky sparks"
48-Across. Feature of a Roman god's boots? (Phoenix, Dallas): MERCURY WINGS. The Phoenix MERCURY are one of the original eight, and have featured stars such as Nancy Lieberman and Diana Taurasi. The Dallas Wings began in 1998 in the first expansion of the league as the Detroit Shock. The franchise relocated to Tulsa, OK, and finally in Dallas in 2016. And let's not forget the other two WNBA teams: The Washington Mystics and Minnesota Lynx. The WNBA season is underway; here are the standings as of July 8:
And here a few of the current players in the league:
Across:
1. Motel arrival?: ROACH. I think it was Black Flag that introduced us to the "ROACH" Motel - a trap that lured the world's most reviled insect to its deadly fate ...
6. Amazed: WOWED. I am always WOWED when I can complete a Friday puzzle with no cheats (or a Saturday; sometimes Thursday and Sunday, too!)
11. One of three in the opening scene of "Macbeth": HAG. The video clip is but 0:50 in length . . . three, count 'em, three HAGs
14. The Jetsons' boy: ELROY. "Meet George Jetson. "His boy ELROY." The Jetson's were a part of my "growing-up" years
15. Saw: ADAGE. Oh, the "noun" form of saw:
16. Radio host Shapiro: ARI. NPR star, among other things
17. Clear for better viewing: DEFOG. When I "Googled" the word DEFOG, and looked for an image, most all of what came up was related to THIS. Any of our Cornerites young enough to have known, or are familiar with this??!
18. River to the Caspian Sea: VOLGA. VOLGA: The longest river in Europe. When you look at the image below, you get a better perspective for just how long the VOLGA river is. From Google: "Rising in the Valdai Hills northwest of Moscow, the VOLGA discharges into the Caspian Sea, some 2,193 miles (3,530 kilometres) to the south. It drops slowly and majestically from its source 748 feet (228 metres) above sea level to its mouth 92 feet below sea level
19. Zip: VIM. "Code" wouldn't fit; "Nil" did but did not work with the perps
23. How J.Lo performs: IN HEELS. Not only does she perform in them, she also designs them
26. Where flight attendants often work: AISLE. But hopefully, not in high heels. Not sure of the current flight attendant "dress code", but I would think that most flight attendants who identify as she/her would be far safer performing their duties in flats, or minimal heels
27. Declines to: DOESN'T. "But ya DOESN'T have to call me Johnson!"
28. Gated water channel: SLUICE. I somehow recall SLUICE showing up in a recent LAT puzzle. July 4th, perhaps?
31. Humpty Dumpty-shaped: OVATE. OVATE: "having an oval outline or ovoid shape, like an egg"
35. WC: LAV. Water Closet, abbr. Anyone else put LOO in first? I did
36. "Rappa Ternt Sanga" artist: T-PAIN. Rap is not my style, so this one was all perps. Here is what I found out about the artist "T-PAIN"
37. Granola morsel: OAT. And what is it called when you are more OAT? OATER
41. Clerical home: MANSE. Or more specifically, "the house occupied by a minister of a Presbyterian church." Google
43. "See you later": BYE BYE. TA TA didn't fit
44. Hair-coloring style: DIP DYE. What??? Well, perhaps since the Chairman is selectively bald, this clue and answer had no meaning for him. However, and unlike the word we had on Monday in CC and Andy's puzzle, "ombré hair involves gradually fading your hair from one color into the next, DIP-DYED hair isn't so subtle. Your hair will shift straight from your natural roots into your color of choice, with no in-between shade to soften the look. Basically, it's perfect for those looking to make a statement. Like this person:
45. __ double: STUNT. "STUNT doubles are a cross between a body double and a stunt performer, specifically a skilled replacement used for dangerous film or video sequences, such as jumping out of a building or from vehicle to vehicle, and for other sophisticated stunts (especially fight scenes). Believe it or not, I was a STUNT double for Richard Dreyfuss, but I only subbed for him on love scenes . . .
47. Popular cider apple: WINESAP. WINESAP is an old apple cultivar of unknown origin, dating at least to American colonial times. Its apples are sweet with a tangy finish. They are used for eating, cooking, and cider. Wikipedia
52. Plus: AND. One AND (+) two = three
53. Interminably: NO END. I'm sure there are those of you who say, "Is there NO END to the Chairman's recap today??!"
54. Mario's brother: LUIGI. From the Nintendo video games, c 1981 with Donkey Kong. Mario is depicted as a portly plumber who lives in the fictional land of the Mushroom Kingdom with LUIGI, his younger, taller brother. In the television series and film, Mario and Luigi are originally from Brooklyn, New York. LUIGI is the guy in green
58. Employ: USE. Crossword "fill" and one of several 3-letter words USEd today
59. "How about that!": I'LL BE. Well I'LL BE a monkey's uncle
60. Pillow stuffing: EIDER. I thought the word "EIDER" could only be USEd in "down" words
61. __-Z: GEN. JAY fit, but not with the perps. GEN-Z's: "GENeration Z, colloquially also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials (GEN Y) and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years. Most members of Generation Z are children of Generation X. Wikipedia
62. "The Gold-Bug" name: ALLAN. You'd have to have known that Edgar ALLAN Poe wrote this. I didn't and had to look it up
63. Took badly?: STOLE. Nice play-on-words clue
Down:
1. Great American Ball Park player: RED. Having lived in the Queen City (aka, Cincinnati) this one came immediately. Great American Ball Park replaced Riverfront Stadium (later called, Cinergy Field) as home to the Cincinnati REDs baseball team. Its first year of operation was 2003
2. Fútbol cheer: OLE. Favorite skin care brand of Fútbol fans?
3. Canine alert: ARF. Sandy's favorite expression
4. Most suave: COOLEST. Slang use of COOL for "fashionable" (suave) is by 1933, originally African-American vernacular; its modern use as a general term of approval is from the late 1940s, probably via bop talk and originally in reference to a style of jazz; the word is said to have been popularized in jazz circles by tenor saxophonist Lester Young
5. Keep-it-clean routine: HYGIENE. Not going to make this "personal"
6. Ripple-patterned hairstyle: WAVES. I had wavy hair once; now I have none! But this pretty lady has lovely WAVES in her hair
7. Compost emanation: ODOR. We tried a compost bin for awhile before starting a garden. The ODOR was fortunately contained in the side yard . . .
8. Mickey's maker: WALT. WALT Disney; creator of Mickey Mouse, et al
9. Like quiche: EGGY. Definition of EGGY (courtesy of Google): Adjective; covered with or dipped in egg. EGGY bread (cooking) Resembling eggs in some way. An EGGY smell/taste. Of or relating to an egg or eggs. A quiche is a French tart made with a simple pastry crust (with flour, butter and water) that is filled with a savory egg custard
10. Something taken by an archer: DEAD AIM. Rather a morbid phrase, eh?! Thank goodness this archer had a good AIM, but his son wasn't thrilled!!
11. What hungry diners often do: HAVE SECONDS. Our family (me, as a kid growing up) rarely had "SECONDS" at the dinner table, and when we did there was always a battle for them. Moe-ku:
The clock family
Made sure their kids were fed. They
Always HAVE SECONDS
12. If you don't like it, you can go to Helvetica: ARIAL. Cute clue. Helvetica and ARIAL fonts are pretty darn similar, if you ask me. Can you spot the differences?
13. Tot's "Mine!": GIMME. Well, the clip below is hardly the words of a tot; but when I see the word GIMME, I always think of the song that the Rolling Stones made famous in the late '60's. "War - children - is just a shot away; it's just a shot away". "Love - children - is just a kiss away, it's just a kiss away". And if you're needing a big Stones fix click on the link for a copy of the 1970 Documentary, based on the Stones' Tour in 1970. Caution: it's 1 hour and 30 minutes in length. The song below is about 4-1/2 minutes
21. Three-ingredient sammie: BLT. Interesting clue. "Sammie" is an abbreviation for the word "sandwich", and BLT is an abbreviation for Bacon Lettuce & Tomato
22. Costa __: RICA. Costa RICA is a rugged, rainforested Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific. Though its capital, San Jose, is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity. Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds. ― Google. The Chairman visited there in 2008 or 2009 on a business trip, so he didn't get a chance to enjoy much of the beauty or culture. The few pics I saved are shown below
23. Beloved stars: IDOLS. Did any of you have an IDOL when you were a kid? As a boy growing up in the '50's and early '60's, I was a huge baseball fan, as well as a pretty good player. My baseball IDOL was Rocky Colavito, who may be one of the better players of his generation not to be inducted into the Major League Hall of Fame
24. Tennis ace Djokovic: NOVAK. The Chairman is not a huge tennis fan, though he's heard of him. Heard of him? I mean, c'mon Moe, NOVAK has only been the #1 professionally ranked men's tennis player in the WORLD for over 6 years now!! Like I said, not a tennis fan. It might have been the only "ball" sport in which Moe never participated. Meh. Now when MOE thinks of NOVAK, this person came to mind:
25. Considerable load: HEAVY BURDEN. This titan had quite a HEAVY BURDEN
28. Investment: STAKE. Let's see what the Thesaurusaurus has to say: yep, there it is at #8
29. Two-time Newbery Medal winner Lowry: LOIS. OK. Two things the Chairman will admit to not knowing: 1) who LOIS Lowry is, and 2) what a Newbery Medal is. Other than that, this clue was a breeze! Actually, LOIS won her Newbery Medals in 1990 for Number the Stars, and in 1994 for the book The Giver
30. Buffet server: URN. "Server" as in a thing, not a person. Nowadays, many if not all buffets are being staffed by people who plate and serve your food, rather than have a bunch of potential Covid carriers spread their germs among many dishes. An URN of course is the large coffee vessel used alongside a buffet
32. Nimble: SPRY. Believe it or not, I grew up not too far from SPRY Pennsylvania. I'll bet that Misty has heard of it
33. GPA booster: EASY "A". Moe needed a couple of EASY A courses to boost his GPA during his college years. He was a pretty good student; just a bit lazy at times . . . If the cartoon below were penned when I was in school, the teacher's comment would've been "Cliff Notes" instead of Wikipedia!
34. Expensive: STEEP. Again, the word associated with the clue has several meanings, and choosing this one allowed it to be more of a Friday clue/fill than if the constructor's had clued it as: "a 30% grade on a hillside"
36. Generous pickup: TAB. How about THIS TAB "pickup"?? The video is quite long, but skip through some of the video to see something totally weird!
39. Bring together: SYNC. Short for SYNChronize. According to Webster's, the word can also be spelled "SYNCH", and this use often appears in xword puzzles
40. Hanging basket bloomer: PETUNIA. Your gardening tip du jour from C Moe: Planting PETUNIAS in hanging baskets is a cinch, as long as you use a sturdy container with at least one drainage hole. Fill the container with a lightweight commercial potting mix, which will promote healthy drainage. Never use garden soil, which quickly becomes compacted and too heavy for proper drainage
41. Associates (with): MINGLES. Movie Trailer
42. Jungle film costume: APE SUIT. A little APE SUIT history
44. Cacophony: DIN. A four-syllable clue for a one-syllable, three-letter word. Welcome to Friday!!
45. "The Hobbit" dragon: SMAUG. Did you ever wonder how they shot some of the animated scenes which use actor's voices? Watch the first and then the second
46. Not cool at all: TENSE. The antonym of 4-Down
47. Expand: WIDEN. I am guessing that part of the eventual "infrastructure" bill in Congress is the plan to both rebuild and WIDEN certain roads and bridges. I never could quite understand why, as a kid, when we took the PA Turnpike west of Harrisburg, the seven tunnels used were all only two-lanes wide when the highway itself was four. Until I discovered the history. Here is a brief snippet from Federal Highway Administration dot gov:
The Turnpike originally began as a railway route. The construction began in the 1880s but was never completed, even though a combined total of 4.5 miles of tunnel had been dug through seven mountains. Called the "Tunnel Highway" or "America's Super Highway," the seven-tunnel Pennsylvania Turnpike opened 60 years later in the fall of 1940 as a four-lane highway. For truckers, the down-hill travel on the low grades would be mechanically safer, and all motorists could enjoy a safe journey while also saving time. At a cost of more than $61 million, the 160-mile roadway took 770,000 tons of sand, 1,200,000 tons of stone, 50,000 tons of steel, and more than 300,000 tons of cement to complete.
The 24-foot wide lanes, divided into 12-foot lanes, accommodated the width of vehicles, but shrunk to 11.5 feet wide inside the tunnels where the double lanes ended and only one lane in each direction began. In 1941, after one year of operation, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission reported more than two million cars had traveled the road. By 1960, however, there were many more vehicles on the roadway causing congestion and delays at the tunnels. Some of these delays were as long as five miles.
49. Sushi prep verb: ROLL. Watch and learn; it seems to me that you're paying for the labor, not the ingredients:
50. Shout: YELL. Per Google, I checked to see just how "loud" a shout or YELL is: "Using everyday items you could probably measure sounds in the range of roughly 20 to 80 dB. ... Loud appliances such as a vacuum cleaner or power tools could exceed 80 dB. Human YELLS can be quite loud, possibly exceeding 100 dB (as of March 2019, the world record is 129 dB!). That's loud
55. Promising words: I DO. One of the sixteen three-letter fills used in today's puzzle. I like the clue; "I DO, I DO!"
56. Dab that'll do your do: GEL. But was the one that I recall really a GEL or was it something else? It definitely had a memorable commercial ad for TV:
57. Dander: IRE. Technically speaking, the word "dander" refers to tiny scales shed from human or animal skin or hair. Dander floats in the air, settles on surfaces, and makes up a good portion of household dust. Cat dander is a common cause of allergic reactions. But in the phrase "get one's[sic] dander up", "dander" refers to anger, or IRE. I hate to end on a negative, so I'll plea, "Thumper"
Here's the grid:
Please feel free to comment below . . .
Notes from C.C.:
Happy birthday to Dear Anon-T (Tony), who
turns 51 year old today. The First picture is Tony on Father's Day hiking At Wit's End
near Carmel. And of course, we just saw him and Leo a few days ago. Thanks for the care and attention you've given to each of us on the
blog over the year, Tony!
 |
| Tony 2017 |
 |
| Anon-T & Leo, 7/3/2021 |
56 comments:
Happy Birthday Tony!! Cheers!
A HAG on the banks of the VOLGA
Invented a flora style of yoga
Instead of "downward dog",
It uses "moss on a log".
And the "frog" pose is now the "PETUNIA".
You SLUICE your bod till it's clean,
AND brush your teeth till they gleem.
Let your denim pants
In the washer dance,
Don't let them sag, that's proper HYGIENE!
{B, B+.}
Just saw this last night: George Jetson.
I had PBJ < BLT.
LUIGI was present in every sense
COOLEST around when things got intense
But he lost his SUAVE,
AND his face grew mauve
When LOIS showed up -- he went past TENSE!
{B+.}
I was able to Sting (former Charlotte WNBA team) this one in 12:03.
Stumbled early in the top-right, as I had wrongly entered Ira instead of Ari, and nil instead of vim. Sluice had me stumped for awhile too.
Once I filled in the reveal the cities came into focus as part of the cluing. But, I am not a viewer of the WNBA. Not because I am misogynistic, I have only watched the playoffs of the NBA this year (Chairman, Go Suns!). Even so, the names of the WNBA teams do stir in the empty caverns at the back of my brain when stimulated.
I found this puzzle to be a delightful nod to women - including JLo's footwear. TPain, a departure from the overall theme, lived up to his name and I had to resort to perps.
a fun Friday,
Good morning!
Not my favorite theme. Before working this puz, I couldn't name a single WNBA team if my life depended on it. And I won't be able to tomorrow, either. Noticed the coolest and not cool at all pairing. Anyone else try A-to-Z or E.A. Poe? Things looked really bleak in the SW, but little by little, word by word, it all came together...until it didn't. It came down to the TPA_N/LO_S cross. Bzzzzzzt! Thanx for playing. DNF. Thanx, Kevin, Tracy, and C-Moe.
ROACH: Not a problem in Texas. There's only two times when they'll come into your house -- when it's dry to find water, and when it's wet to get dry.
OVATE: Evokes a memory from my ute. The know-it-all kid at school (you know, the one who'd read every single book in the school library) asked me what was the shape of the earth. I told him it was a ball. "Wrong!" he sneered, "It's an oblate-spheroid."
Happy birthday, Anon-T. Thanx for steering me to Duck-Duck-Go and Ghostery, and for all the behind-the-scenes tech support you provide to corner denizens.
Hola!
Happy birthday, Tony!!!!! I hope you have a wonderful celebration. Will all your girls come home?
For some reason I awoke early and solved this quickly. As I've said many times, I'm not a sports fan but the teams have names that are easily perped. I have actually heard of the Phoenix MERCURY. Right now, as Moe said, it's the Suns who are in the spotlight.
Costa RICA is one of the most beautiful, lush places I've ever seen.
My PERUNIAs are not in a hanging basket but in a pot and they are struggling to survive in the intense heat.
I was WOWED by the limited number of proper names in this puzzle. NOVAK, LOIS, ELROY, WALT, ALLAN, LUIGI are the only ones I see. SMAUG? TPAIN?
Thank you. Chairman Moe! You outdid yourself in the details you provided.
Have a lovely day, everyone! Later I shall be off to get a haircut.
I eventually got the theme, though I think WNBA team nicknames are too obscure for most solvers, not to mention a big sports fan like me.
Well I WAGged the cross of LOIS & TPAIN. AND even though one of my neighbors (https://www.wnba.com/player/theresa-plaisance/) plays pro basketball for the Washington Mystiks I don't follow the WNBA. At least I filled all the teams correctly. But the SW's dragon slayed me. I was stuck on ADD for 'Plus', would never think of TENSE for "Not cool at all", and A TO Z didn't get it. DNF today. As for the dragon- not a chance of filling SMAUG.
GEN-Z? I don't really know (or care) which age belongs to X or Y. Tony's 51; I'm 70.
VIM- got it by perps but have only seen that word used along with Vinegar. Never ever heard anybody say "put a little VIM in your step". I tried TIE & NIL before VIM finally made the scene.
DIP DYE- got it but never heard of it.
Moe- the Baseball HOF is in New York. Any wonder why some not so great Yankee players made it while truly great players 'west of the Hudson' didn't. I don't. Rocky was a good slugger but his batting average wasn't that high. AND he played in the hinterlands, not NYC.
J.Lo IN HEELS? With that pose it looks like she does 'other things' in heels.
I got off to a shaky start this morning. IRA instead of ARI; IN AWE instead of WOWED; NIL instead of VIM; IN JEANS instead of IN HEELS; SAYS NO instead of DOESNT, MANOR instead of MANSE; LOO instead of LAV.
I got LIBERTY DREAM fairly early and thought AHA - Buildings or statues maybe? That didn't work as I continued solving. Ladies? as in LADY LIBERTY? Hmmm.
Eventually sorted things out.
My favorite clue was ROACH Motel!! "They check in but they don't check out."
Why does my old brain remember every single song and jingle I heard as a kid? Now I'm humming from the clue: Dab that'll do your do->
Brylcreem, a little dab'll do ya,
Brylcreem, you'll look so debonair.
Brylcreem, the gals'll all pursue ya,
They'll love to run their fingers through your hair!
I liked the theme which I guessed early on, although I did not know any WNBA teams. They were all perps. Two bad cells. I skipped the G in GEN and SMAUG and forgot to go back. This took me a long time to solve,
I didn't think of ROACH MOTEL, but have seen the ads. I have never had roaches in my home. Busloads arrive at motels so I wrote COACH. Great American Ball Park is not in my wheelhouse.
I grew my hair out during the quarantine and now have a longer hair style From being fine and stick straight my graying hair has given me body and WAVES.
I, too, thought of Brylcreem.
The expression, VIM and Vigor, seems common enough to me.
I make a crustless spinach and cheddar quiche which is popular with family and friends. I prefer crustless. Sometime I bake it in small individual muffin cups, as small finger food for parties. I don't use the paper liners.
Costa Rica is indeed beautiful, full of flowers and wildlife. It was one of Alan's and my favorite trips.
LOIS was a gimme for this teacher of elementary students. CSO to one of my sisters.
The text book is not always correct, sometimes teacher's manuals are not either. My compulsive LIU habit discovered this. One of many examples: As a student I found contradictory info within the same text several times.
LOO before LAV.
Those boots look horribly uncomfortable.
LIBERTY DREAM. "I dream of being liberated from this boring class."
Defog - I use my car windshield DEFOGGER many mornings.
Happy B'day, Anon-T ! Fifty-one, eh? I can almost remember what that was like.
The puzzle was a challenge for me. ROACH was not the first thing I thought of at 1 Across and in the SW I first went with A TO Z and ON THE Double. Much head scratching later it got sorted out. Also, I recognized a mash-up fairly quickly but first thought that we'd be dealing with airport codes. Once the Vegas ACES were identified I was able to shift gears. Overall, FIR in 17.
Stunt double? I will have to revisit Jaws and Close Encounters.
Good Morning
I know very little about the NBA and even less, if anything, about the WNBA, so this solve was a slog for me. I never heard of T Pain or Smaug and while I know what the Newbery Medal is, I couldn’t name one winner if my life depended on it. The Ira ~ Ari conundrum struck again and, as usual, I chose the wrong one, but perps corrected me. I made the same mistake with Loo before Lav.
Thanks, Kevin and Tracy and thanks, Moe, for a very interesting and informative commentary. Will explore the links later when I have more time. You do have a strong resemblance to Ricard Dreyfuss.
Very Happy Birthday wishes to our dear Tony, hope it’s a special day. 🎂🎁🎈🎊🎉 Tickets to the Home Run Derby and All Star Game are icing on the cake. Enjoy your reunion with your Bros!
FLN
Picard, I’m so sorry that you’re having such scary post-op problems. Feel better soon! 💐
Have a great day.
Quite a battle but despite an inky mess finally FIR.
The theme? Are those city airports? team cities? At first all I got was Liberty, NY and Mercury a Roman God... Let me surmise... Sports stadia/arenas?...now wait for the reveal narrarive....wrong..team names..😬
Inkovers: wavey/WAVED, loo/LAV (C. Moe), goo/GEL, stock/STAKE.
How can you tell that Humpty Dumpty is an egg just from the rhyme?..
Instead of "Crisco" my mom used "SPRY" shortening.
Where do they call a sangwidge (our local dialect) a "sammie"?. Not sure what an ARIAL is other than a misspelt mermaid or an antenna.(C.Moe; how'd you ever figure that one out, BTW your commentary was a font of information!😁) ,DIPDYE? WINESAP apples? TPAIN? Learning tons scribbling thru this puzzle.
The clergy used to be a ______ world....MANSE
Stand and applaud.....OVATE
"Three Tall Women author"....ILLBE
Chromosome particle causing tallness HYGIENE.
Amazed or wowed....STUNT.
Have a week off, preparing the house for a week's visit from Her Majesty the Queen...no not QEII... but DW's older sister from Chicago and her obedient consort.
We had "Elsa" flooding in our small town in low-lying areas. Keep your hurricanes in Florida where they belong ☹⛈
Buon compleanno Tony...51?👶 a mere child!🎂
Have birthday, Tony. I enjoy your posts and thank you for your help over the years. I hope you have a wonderful day. You are much younger than my sons. David turned 60 three weeks ago.
I love petunias. Years ago I planted an infected petunia from the garden center. I tried the recommended treatment for several years, but the eggs wintered over and the larvae returned every year. I quit trying. Now I wonder whether a hanging basket might have been safe.
My BIL used the term SAMMY. I have seen it often in novels and have heard strangers using the term. Although my friends and I don't use it, I believe it is common.
Moe, very interesting and informative blog. Thank you.
Musings
-Didn’t know the team nicknames but they came easily enough
-VOLGA dredges up the dirge The Song Of The VOLGA BOATMEN
-Those AISLES have been treacherous for flight attendants these days
-What feature do you notice about Cincinnati’s River Front Stadium when it first opened?
-Lillian Disney thought Mickey was a better name than her husband WALT’s original Mortimer and so he changed it
-BLT’s are wonderful this time of year because we are using our own T’s.
-HEAVY BURDEN? I live 20 minutes from this ”He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” statue
-I thought SPRY was reserved for us older peeps who can still get around
-This fall there will be Husker FB on TV but the local radio sound will not SYNC and will be 10 seconds ahead
-HBD Tony!
Husker, it's not that the over-the-air radio is ahead, it's that the tv picture and sound are lagging behind. I've never understood why there's an almost 30-second delay in the network TV broadcasts on DirecTV. Nor why there's a one-minute delay in the audio stream from our local NPR station.
Hi, this is Kevin Christian. Tracy Bennett and I constructed today's puzzle. Thank you everyone for solving and for your comments.
Tracy is an Associate Puzzle Editor at the New York Times. She co-founded the Inkubator, which is a subscription puzzle service offering puzzles by women, in particular focused on developing emerging talent. Thank you Tracy for collaborating on this puzzle with me.
We wrestled quite a bit with the two long downs, HEAVY BURDEN and HAVE SECONDS. We both knew we could find interesting long downs and get clean fill in those areas, but it took a while. We tried a bunch of other phrases that didn't work before we decided on those two.
Have a great day everyone. - KevinC
After perping LIBERTY DREAM, this puzzle was off to the races! Rooting for UW, Stanford, and Baylor women's college basketball teams, I then follow some of their stars into the WNBA. The Minnesota Lynx have had 2 women- Maya Moore and Napheesa Collier- who grew up in Jefferson City!
And NOVAK Djokovic will be playing in the Wimbledon final this weekend- going for his 20th Grand Slam of tennis trying to tie Federer and Nadal- good timing for inclusion in this puzzle!
I did have a little slow down in California/Nevada as I had SAYS NO, OVOID, and LOO which morphed into DOESNT, OVATE, and LAV! I also switched from TIP DYE to DIP DYE once DIN filled. I also had a little correction from GRR to ARF - the R in ELROY was right in either one!
Thanks CMoe and Kevin & Tracy!
and HBD to Tony!
I know or care little about sports, but in this case I was probably not at a disadvantage. As noted by others, few people know WNBA teams. But I have to say if I am going to watch basketball I would rather watch women than men! I have watched a Lady Gauchos game at our local UC Santa Barbara arena and may yet do so again.
I do appreciate the effort that went into the construction. Had STAR MACES and realized it was STORM ACES. Thought the children's writer might be LARS. That did me in with a FIW.
Chairman Moe, Lucina, OwenKL Thank you for taking the time to read my article on sexual identity and gender and the peculiar case of DALI. Which leads me to offer another relevant article today if I am not overstaying my welcome.
Here is an article I wrote on a talk about GEN-Z and how different their world is than the one we grew up in.
The speaker Dr Jean Twenge calls them iGEN or the Smart Phone Generation.
Joseph, I looked so much like Dreyfuss back then that I actually got asked for an autograph. I obliged and had to mentally focus on signing Richard Dreyfuss instead of my actual name!
From Yesterday and Ongoing:
WA Seeley, PK, Lucina, Chairman Moe, Yellowrocks, LEO III, AnonT Thank you for the good wishes on my surgery recovery.
DW told me to change what I wore into something looser, but I could not find anything that worked. Wearing pants without a belt, the pants kept falling down. So I did a Google search of what to wear after hernia surgery and it seemed that it was a good idea to wear something that compresses the area. Just the opposite of what DW said.
We walked to the nearby pharmacy and the pharmacist said he discovered that biker shorts worked for him after his hernia surgery! A lot of compression! I have biker shorts for when I perform on my unicycle. I wore them to bed last night and I was able to sleep without narcotics. Will have to see how things go during the day wearing them.
Lucina I did not feel your magic spell. Perhaps try again at noon today. I think your time is the same as our time in California.
WA Seeley, RayOSunshine Thank you for the comments on my DALI piece and corruption in the art world. In the old days it was harder to fake things. Apparently DALI had many different signatures. Some art dealers and appraisers will not touch newer art.
Fortunately, I do like the piece and that is the main thing that matters according to the DALI specialist Bernard Ewell. The last time I was in Europe I noticed that these pieces were still being sold, though they had toned down the rhetoric of how close DALI was to them.
One of the most interesting things Bernard Ewell told me is that in his final years DALI was held as a virtual prisoner by a guardian or guardians. And that he was forced to sign thousands of blank canvases. Making the fraud even wider.
Happy Birthday Tony. You are an inspiration to us all!
And thank you Kevin and Tracy. Great puzzle, which I was able to gradually DRIBBLE my way thru to an FIR. In my several re-wanderings, I arrived at at 51A and perped the reveal. Unfortunately it wasn't too much help, as I don't really know any of the WNBA teams. I did manage to SWAG some of sportzy sounding ones though and got the rest on perps.
6A As am I CMOE, as am I.
17A And thanks for your help in DEFOGGING this puzzle!
18A The VOLGA is sort of the Mississippi of central Europe. I'm most familiar with it from a folk tune called the "VOLGA BOATMAN" that shows up in a lot of Russian music.
23A IN HEELS was the last to fall. J-Lo and Ben are performing a lot of PDA duets these days.
35A Hand up for LOO before LAV.
41A Learning moment for me MOE. Didn't know you had to be Presbyterian to live in a MANSE.
45A Lucky you - nice work if you can get it.
62A A gimme, as POE is buried in Bmore, and he is a local cottage industry.
13D Great riff. That song's been around over 50 years, and 20 of it was spent in Afghanistan.
30D URNS can also be used to store ASHES, a common ingredient in GLOSSY ceramic glazes. I keep trying to get DW to fire me, use my ashes in a glaze, glaze an URN with it, and keep me on the mantelpiece. But for some reason she thinks I'm CRAZY.
FLN to Tony
Yes that was one of my pieces. It has two contrasting MATT glazes: "I of Toad" and "Eggshell Matt". I'll leave it to you to guess which was which.
FLN to YellowRocks
Yes MATTE is an alternate spelling for MATT, but all of the ceramics teachers I had in college used the latter spelling (including Mr. Pittman, who gave me the formulae for the aforementioned glazes)
Cheers,
Bill
Picard, I found your iGEN piece to be so true. One result of this is that many in the iGEN generation do not have the people skills to be good store clerks or servers. Neighbors turning in parents for allowing children, and even teens, to be outdoors alone still shocks me. Our kids just went outside and within minutes they picked up playmates. They played games, negotiated rules and mostly settled their own arguments.
I did not get to read your Dali piece or your sexual identity piece. Would it be too hard to send the dates they appeared? I am not that skilled with the comupter.
I never realized that hernia surgery could cause so much pain. Both my sons had a very easy time of it. I hope your pain will soon be gone.
Happy BD Tony! This CW had me struggle to FIR in 38. I’m not a hoops fan, and did not know any of the WNBA team names. The clues were very clever but until the reveal I had no idea what the cities had to do with them. Only then did I see the names of the teams. VERY clever, KC & TB, thanx so much for the imaginative CW. Hand up for IRA:ARI, which slowed down the NE. BEGONIA:PETUNIA slowed me down considerably in the SW. Even started off slow as I could not remember where Great American Ballpark is, could not think of ELROY, until ARF, COOLEST and HYGIENE gave me the ROY part. Had COACH before ROACH but after some thought ROACH gave me RED and the lightbulb illuminated over my pumpkin-head. ADD:AND = more mess. OVAL…?:OVOID:OVATE. Oy, yet more mess. So….a long struggle to finally FIR. Chairman Moe you outdid yourself today with your write-up. I started looking at your links then realized I would be at it all day!! Good links though, nice selection. Did watch the “Macbeth” scene; must say the “hags” didn’t sound very much like hags, they sounded like young women. TGIF!! Although for this old man every day is Saturday. Nope on second thought Taco Tuesdays and $1 oyster Wednesdays gotta be in there.
Yellowrocks: regarding the post-op pain from a hernia operation; inguinal hernias, due to their location, are in close proximity to … well … and the drainage that occurs has to go somewhere . . . and the increased swelling and size of that “somewhere” is quite painful. Could be that your sons had either an umbilical or epigastric hernia which might not have impacted the groin so much
unclefred: one thing I miss greatly from FL is the seafood. Our tacos are better, but I haven’t found a decent seafood purveyor or restaurant since moving here to AZ. A place I used to frequent in Jupiter had $1 a shuck oysters on Mondays. But no hurricanes here; ever!!
Fridays are always toughies for me, but enjoy them all the same--including this one. Many thanks, Kevin and Tracy, and fun commentary, Chairman Moe.
I thought HYGIENE was a cool response to the keep-it-clean routine. And then even more fun to see it pop up in an Owen poem. The other clue that cracked me up was "took badly"--oh, STOLE! Yes, he or she took that thing badly.
Happy birthday, Tony.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
C-Moe, but you do get haboobs. I'm not sure which is worse.
Set the puzzle aside early today, in favor of driving to where my motor home is stored. local news reported 60 mph winds and a rotating storm in the vicinity. Turned out to be a false alarm - not even a tire cover out of place.
Returned to the grid and surprised myself by FIR. Another hand up for erasing ira, nil, loo and jay. I couldn't get IROC-Z out of my head for a long time. I also erased grr for ARF, on the double for STUNT double, lil for GEL and weave for WAVE.
"Killer appetizers" could could appear on a menu for MECURY WINGS.
I saw a sign declaring "Our complaint department is headed by Helen Waite. If you have a complaint, go to Helen Waite."
Was Riverfront the first to have "grass" basepaths? I remember when it opened, replacing Crosley Field. I find it a little disconcerting when the "new" stadiums (stadia?) get replaced. I remember that the Reds spoiled the opening game in Dodger Stadium, then having the Dodgers return the favor by beating the Reds in the first game in Riverfront. Great baseball men not in the HOF? None better than Pete Rose!
This was a clever Friday construction.
I don’t watch pro basketball at all, but I do like both the men’s and women’s college game.
Write-overs…LOO/LAV, TOO/AND, ATO/GEN.
LOIS crossing TPAIN filled last.
Those boots are not made for walking.
Sannich, sammie, samwich, sammich…whatever. I want a cheeseburger.
See you tomorrow.
I'm sure APE SUITs were plentiful supply in my winter home of Silver Springs, FL when Tarzan was filmed there. Probably had a few Gill Man suits for Creature From the Black Lagoon, too.
Nice write up Chairman Moe. I like puzzles that promote female sports teams. I didn’t know a single team but managed to complete the puzzle.
Knowing nothing of the WNBA made the theme
Quite the stumper...
Also cannot decide if Moe's Wowen in the 1st paragraph
Is a typo or done on purpose...
Riverfront stadium?
I dunno, is that astroturf?
Had to google type fonts to see the differences.
happy birthday Anonymous-T!
And, in closing, some famous stunt doubles...
But before I go, the reason Ferris bueller took the day of....
Moe,you need to give your Phoenix Suns more credit. Wikipedia says that the Suns were in the 1976 NBA finals against the Celtics, and the 1993 NBA finals against the Bulls. They lost both times, though.
Hi Y'all! Fun challenge, Kevin & Tracy. Great expo, Moe.
I was watching the play back of the NBA playoffs when I came to the corner. Made me laugh to see Moe's info. I went to sleep at 8 p.m. last night waiting for the game tip off and didn't wake up until the game was over. Turned on the playback during lunch today. Go Suns!
Don't watch WNBA but apparently have absorbed enough info that I knew DREAM was a team & WAGd LIBERTY with the last three perps. Got the theme immediately but couldn't come up with some of the names right away. SKY I knew.
SLUICE didn't stump me today like it did a few days ago.
DNK: T-PAIN (kept trying "S"PAIN. Real PAIN in the patoot IMHO). DNK: DIPDYE, GEN-Z (wanted a car model), NOVAK, SMAUG.
Happy Birthday, Tony. Celebrate hearty. You are my elder son's age. Good year for guys.
Picard, glad you found some relief. Heal well!
Hello everyone.
No EASY A today. Had loo for LAV and A TO for GEN. But did get the theme. so, not a great solve but, a good solve. That's Fridays.
I've never seen EIDER clued as a North Sea feeder. A major river of Schleswig-Holstein, it was the northern boundary of the HRE and a major route for the Vikings when the needed to go forth and plunder France. (Also, the locale from which my parents emigrated.)
Happy Birthday wishes to Tony.
CED —> 😂😂 on the STUNT doubles
Yup, Mike Me, knew that. This year’s team appears to be a much more well-rounded, and one whose basketball IQ is off the charts. Unlike 1976 and 1993 when the Suns started the Finals 0-2, this time they are 2-0. Rally the Valley 🏀🏀🏀🏀
Happy HAPPY B'day to Anon-T!
Today's PZL was a tough il' booger but fun to do. Thanks to the Christin/Bennett team. Hmm. Bennett is one of my family names, so I wonder....?
Anyway, this was fun, at least for a while. I ran out of one of the P-and-P's so turned to cheating after 50%. One of the blessings of our Corner is we can always come here to heal our wounds.
At least to lick them.
Owen, I would upgrade your verses to A- today. You are brilliant, and also too tough on yourself.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Two diagonals, one to a side.
On the near end, we can use all 15 letters (plus one letter borrowed from the opposite end) to find a reference to a buffet-style array of foods of foreign origin, typically of German or Italian specialties.
Come on in, and pick out your own treats at the...
"S(e)LF DELICATESSEN"!
Of all the girls in all the seedy bars it had to be LOIS*. Yes, that messed me up because I too had STAR MACES. Mr Stupidity wouldn't let it go. I even grok'ed TPain. I blame it on solving online; I lost my weekly insert.
I loved the Mario Brothers movie
I recognized BUG but forgot it was an EAP.
Met/RED. It could've been Nat.
For a sports buff I'm embarrassed to be so unfamiliar with WNBA Teams.
WC
** OMK and Misty (and Sandy) know of whom I speak. Also I had actually had to think SEC before remembering SMAUG
Did the puzzle earlier but got busy (Hand up for a haircut, Lucina!) After reading CMoe's excellent review, I discovered a FIW (Hand up YR for thinking of cOACH in spite of ROACH, quite common in ATL.) Otherwise I proudly report, I figured out the sticky spots, got WNBA easily and the themers in spite of my lack of sports knowledge, and generally enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Tracy and Kevin (also for coming by) and CMoe for your interesting review. (You are better looking than Richard!)
Hand up for Loo/LAV, CMoe. And unclefred, I also had begoNIA/PETUNIA because of our shady garden. First I ever heard "sammie" was on Food Network by Rachael Ray.
Very Happy Birthday to AnonT. I look forward to your daily comments as much as I do for news from our kids, who are about your age.
Hope you continue feeling better, Picard. Sorry it's been difficult for you.
Hope everyone is ready for a good weekend!
D-OTTO
There is no comparison between hurricanes and haboobs! Haboobs are sand being blown by strong winds and while it's true that they do some damage, it is usually nowhere near the destruction wreaked by hurricanes! Also, haboobs are not a regular occurrence. Last year there were none. Most of what they leave behind is a thick layer of dirt.
Picard:
I have been gone all morning since 9:30 today and just returned at 12:30 and now I need a nap after driving 60 miles each way.
CEDave, @12:51.That droning teacher reminded me of my HS physic and chemistry teacher. He turned me off of those subjects forever. Before the mandated standardized science test in 12th grade, I crammed all night skimming through the text and answering the questions at the end of the chapters. I did fine on the test but didn't know a thing.
OOPs, sorry, Tony. I really meant happy birthday.
Bill, you taught me something new about MATT and MATTE. I like your idea of becoming a glaze, but don't burn me before my time.
Hi! Tracy Bennett here. It's a pleasure to be in the LA Times after a long hiatus! I loved reading the comments on this puzzle. Kevin was such a joy to work with!
WC - Could have been a Ray as well.
-T - Hope you have a great time on your birthday.
Picard - Continued best wishes for pain relief and healing.
Lucina @3:30 PM Thanks for the HABOOBS definition. I thought the term might have been TEXT SPEAK for "funny idiots", or maybe something nicer.
Thank you Mr. Christian and Ms, Bennett for a challenging puzzle. It was a double jeopardy for me because not only did I not know of the women's team names, and I am not totally aware of the WNBA. But the long clues made sense.
Thank you Chairman Moe for an interestingly linked review. You do look like Richard Dreyfuss.
I found it interesting that Richard Dreyfuss was the lead actor and Co-Screenplay writer, in the 1991 movie about the french 'Alfred Dreyfuss Affaire'... Prisoner of Honor. But he did not act as Alfred Dreyfuss, but as a follow up prosecutor who tries to make sense of the conviction. Richard thought he was actually related to the officer Alfred Dreyfuss.
Happy Birthday, Anon-T - Tom. You're perhaps one of the youngest, in the group out here.
Have a great day and a wonderful celebration. Its is always interesting reading about the many projects you undertake with your daughters and family. !
Continued Best Wishes and prayers to Picard, for your recent surgery.
I, too, have undergone many medical procedures, and have often wondered why the surgeons or interventional physicians, often don't alert you to ALL the possible medical complications, before or after the medical procedure. Although they do have to mention the possible risks and pros and cons, in the contract that they ask you to sign before they perform the operation .... but most patients never read the contract they sign.
One surgeon, a friend, but who has never operated on me or family, once mentioned that the MDs dont emphasize the risks because ...
1. Sometimes there is no choice, to the surgery,
2. .... Studies show that a larger percent of patients who really pay attention, and concentrate on the risks, actually do come down with those complications .....
psychosomatic ?
3. It unnecessarily scares off the patient, to a needed procedure ... could cause unnecessary mental anguish.
Have a nice day, and a nice weekend all.
This puzzle stumped me. I had to look up TPAIN and NOVAK, the latter of which I should have remembered. Only then did LOIS emerge from the perps. Having filled ROA at 1-across, I thought I was being so smart when I filled ROADY. Actually, ROACH is better. Hand up for LOO before LAV, NIL before VIM, and JAY before GEN. (Jay-Z is one of only three rappers' names I can remember, the others being Ice-T and LL-Cool-J.)
I liked the clues for ROACH, AISLE, HYGIENE, ARIAL, TAB, and DEAD AIM. I cannot distinguish any difference between Arial and Helvetica. In the days of dot-matrix printers we mostly used the term Helvetica to refer to a sans serif font. If I recall correctly, I think either Times or Roman was the word we used to specify the font with serifs. Those were the only fonts then.
Happy birthday, Tony!
May those spandex shorts help speed your healing, Picard.
Good wishes to you all.
Happy birthday wishes Tony. It is nice to see that Kevin C. has continued to join our little band by stopping by to provide insights into the puzzle process and a nice surprise to have Tracy stop by. She is a significant pioneer in promoting a more inclusive world not only in puzzles but our world.
As a University of Connecticut graduate, thw Lady Huskies and their impact on the WNBA DRAFT are asource of great pride.
Thank you Kevin and Tracy and Moe for the wonders of where your mind wanders
Kevin and Tracy -- Thanks for stopping by. Always good to hear from the VIPs of the day! This is the first time in my memory that both constructors of a duet creation have stopped by on the same day! (Not counting times when the constructors were already active members here).
d-o: Haven’t had a haboob as yet. They’re pretty rare
d-o: Haven’t had a haboob as yet. They’re pretty rare
Fiddly Friday. Thanks for the fun, Kevin and Tracy, and CMoe.
This CW was just above my pay grade; I will plead Canadian disadvantage, since I don’t hear anything here about the WNBA. Hey, we only have one NBA team😮 let alone the women! But I did figure out that I needed team names from the various cities; I pestered DH for NHL, NBA, MLB, and even American football teams, but no names would fit.
Finally, perps filled most of them. But I had a personal Natick cross also - TPAIN and LOIS were unknown and I could not WAG the I.
Hands up all you other Canadians out there in CWland who tried to fit Double double* into 45A. 😁👍🇨🇦
I smiled to see Amazed (gobsmacked wouldn’t fit) and BYE BYE, after yesterday’s CW.
I have never heard “sammie” for a sandwich. I thought about samosa, but BLT perped.
NOVAK was timely with the Wimbledon semi-final today, where Djokovic beat Canadian Denis Shapovalov. It was a valiant effort from the young Canadian, but GEN-z is still up-and-coming.
Happy Birthday, AnonT.
Picard- hope you are feeling better soon.
Wishing you all a good evening. I am late to the party and will return to read all your comments.
*double-double is a Tim Horton’s coffee order
Well, I see that it was not Canadian disadvantage, as many of you did not know the WNBA.
That may be a sad commentary on gender equality in sports 🤔😮🙁
Professional sports are driven by dollars and cents and not equity. If pro women want more money and recognition they've got to put butts in the seats or get more viewers to watch their games. Equity has nothing to do with it at that level.
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