Title: Sign him up to a long term contract.
Little did I know when I was solving Sunday's puzzle and telling Bryant I was looking forward to his next effort that it would be this puzzle. This is a letter removal puzzle, but the reveal is so perfect you will wonder why you didn't think of it.
64A. Secret message technique ... and a hint to four puzzle clues: INVISIBLE INK (12). INK disappears leaving a single letter for each of the 4 letter implied clues.
18A. L[INK]: CHAIN SEGMENT (14). All the fill are very simple if you "see" the invisible ink.
27A. M[INK]: LUSTROUS FUR (11). The theme is restricted to 4 letter words ending INK.
39A. F[INK]: POLICE INFORMER (14). This pejorative is the hardest to suss.
56A. R[INK]: SKATING AREA (11). This is the easiest.
There are only 2 eight letter fill outside the theme, BLISSFUL and MUTINEER. 60 of the 81 words (this is a 15x16 grid) are 5 letters or less. Most of the fill are crosswordese, with a "freshness facor" of 5% which is the lowest I have ever blogged; but I enjoyed it.
11. 4x4, for short: UTE. ICK
14. Song with a story: BALLAD.
21. Teacher's note: SEE ME. Not a note you want to receive.
22. Sparkling flapper accessory: TIARA. Gatsby?
24. Cobblers' tools: AWLS. Not if you are making peach.
31. Dumbledore and Snape, in brief: PROFS. As long we don't see them in their briefs; sadly they are both dead.
33. Range rover: STEER. A great alliterative misdirection; everyone join in, "Home, home on the range..."
34. Military meal: MESS. mess (n.). From 1300, "a supply or provision of food for one meal," from Old French mes "portion of food, course at dinner," from Late Latin missus "course at dinner," literally "a placing, a putting (on a table, etc.)," Meaning "a communal eating place" (especially a military one) is attested by 1530s, from the earlier sense of "a company of persons eating together at the same table" (early 15c.),
35. __ rasa: TABULA. The blank slate, more Latin.
37. Clarinet, e.g.: REED. Because you need one to make music with it? Ron?
45. Somewhat, to Salieri: POCO. This is difficult in so many ways, first ANTONIO SALIERI is not as well known as others and POCO means little in both Spanish and Italian.
46. "Circus Sideshow" pointillist: SEURAT. Georges Seurat, (born December 2, 1859, Paris, France—died March 29, 1891, Paris), painter, founder of the 19th-century French school of Neo-Impressionism
48. General vibe: AURA.
52. Traditional doings: RITES. Tradition, tradition...hit it Zero!
55. Skylit lobbies: ATRIA.
59. George Harrison's "__ It a Pity": ISN'T.
60. Kit Kat component: WAFER. It's back
61. Capital served by the Queen Alia International Airport:AMMAN. Jordan.
63. Ballpark fig.: EST. Crowd count.
71. Pulitzer novelist Harper: LEE. From 10 days ago.
72. Strainer: SIEVE. Not Ballesteros. Though I am sure he usually flew on...
73. Madrid-based airline: IBERIA. It is a Peninsula thing.
74. Vehicle for some trips: LSD. Since July 1:
75. It has a head and hops: BEER. Harvey, Jimmy Stewart's friend?
76. Ankle-related: TARSAL. Is this one of those new fangled META clues?
Down:
7. Compilation: DIGEST. Readers being the most famous.
8. Bulg. neighbor: ROMania.
9. Half of eleven?: ONE. 1 1. see it now?
10. Wall map insert: PIN.
11. Nader's "__ at Any Speed": UNSAFE.
12. Alphabetically penultimate zodiac sign: TAURUS. Next to last, with VIRGO (my sign) last.
13. Places in a cell: EMBARS.Yuck!
16. Alaskan site of the only WWII battle on U.S. soil: ATTU. HISTORY .
19. Layers of big eggs: EMUS. We cannot escape LIMU or his family.
23. School of thought: ISM.
24. Quick: APT.
25. Stop shooting: WRAP.
26. Timber wolf: LOBO. A CSO to OMK and his New Mexico roots.
28. Fork-tailed flier: TERN. Very aerodynamic
29. Coral habitat: REEF. Staying near the ocean, we have:
30. Some Blizzard ingredients: OREOS. Yummy.
32. Place to park a clipper: SLIP.
More seafaring stuff.
He is a squirrel...
47. Skin pic: TAT. Ooo Ooo
48. In addition to that: AS WELL.
49. Czar's decrees: UKASES. (Historical Terms) (in imperial Russia) an edict of the tsar.
50. Traveled like Huck and Jim: RAFTED.
51. Bolted down: ATE. Rush, rush, rush.
53. Tip for fixing mistakes?: ERASER. So cute, tip of the pencil.
54. Highway behemoth: SEMI. How big would a whole one be?
57. Camera part: IRIS. Designed by using the EYE.
58. Gamut: AMBIT.
62. Daughter in "The Time Traveler's Wife": ALBA. The actress who played the 9 year old version, HAILEY McCANN has already retired. No Jessica here.
65. Spoonbill's bill: NIB. The word nib comes from a 16th century word meaning the beak of a bird.
66. Angled formation: VEE. More birds.
67. "__ gotta run!": I'VE. Not yet, I must finish first.
68. Collection agcy.: IRS. The biggest.
69. Peeples seen in People: NIA. This multitalented multi cultural beauty from her mother Elizabeth Peeples of Filipino, German and Spanish descent and her father Robert with Italian, Scottish, Irish and Native American Heritage.
70. Actor Penn: KAL. Fascinating young man who
Across:
1. Suitable for growing crops: ARABLE. Arable land is the land that can be used for agriculture. The term is derived from the Latin word “arare” meaning, to plough. Non-arable land is the land unsuitable for agriculture. For some reason I know this word.
7. Rain unit: DROP.
7. Rain unit: DROP.
11. 4x4, for short: UTE. ICK
14. Song with a story: BALLAD.
15. Ephesus' region: IONIA. The HISTORY of [EF][UH][SUHS].
17. Hamburger Hill setting, briefly: NAM. Not our finest HOUR.
20. Long order: SUB. Cute, submarine sandwiches are often long.
20. Long order: SUB. Cute, submarine sandwiches are often long.
21. Teacher's note: SEE ME. Not a note you want to receive.
22. Sparkling flapper accessory: TIARA. Gatsby?
24. Cobblers' tools: AWLS. Not if you are making peach.
31. Dumbledore and Snape, in brief: PROFS. As long we don't see them in their briefs; sadly they are both dead.
33. Range rover: STEER. A great alliterative misdirection; everyone join in, "Home, home on the range..."
34. Military meal: MESS. mess (n.). From 1300, "a supply or provision of food for one meal," from Old French mes "portion of food, course at dinner," from Late Latin missus "course at dinner," literally "a placing, a putting (on a table, etc.)," Meaning "a communal eating place" (especially a military one) is attested by 1530s, from the earlier sense of "a company of persons eating together at the same table" (early 15c.),
35. __ rasa: TABULA. The blank slate, more Latin.
37. Clarinet, e.g.: REED. Because you need one to make music with it? Ron?
45. Somewhat, to Salieri: POCO. This is difficult in so many ways, first ANTONIO SALIERI is not as well known as others and POCO means little in both Spanish and Italian.
46. "Circus Sideshow" pointillist: SEURAT. Georges Seurat, (born December 2, 1859, Paris, France—died March 29, 1891, Paris), painter, founder of the 19th-century French school of Neo-Impressionism
48. General vibe: AURA.
52. Traditional doings: RITES. Tradition, tradition...hit it Zero!
55. Skylit lobbies: ATRIA.
59. George Harrison's "__ It a Pity": ISN'T.
60. Kit Kat component: WAFER. It's back
61. Capital served by the Queen Alia International Airport:AMMAN. Jordan.
63. Ballpark fig.: EST. Crowd count.
71. Pulitzer novelist Harper: LEE. From 10 days ago.
72. Strainer: SIEVE. Not Ballesteros. Though I am sure he usually flew on...
73. Madrid-based airline: IBERIA. It is a Peninsula thing.
74. Vehicle for some trips: LSD. Since July 1:
Universal Crossword - Aug. 11, 2021
WSJ Daily - Aug. 2, 2021
Universal Crossword - July 28, 2021
USA Today - July 22, 2021
WSJ Daily - July 20, 2021
LA Times - July 16, 2021
Universal Crossword - July 14, 2021
USA Today - July 12, 2021
USA Today - July 1, 2021
75. It has a head and hops: BEER. Harvey, Jimmy Stewart's friend?
76. Ankle-related: TARSAL. Is this one of those new fangled META clues?
Down:
1. Simple comparison: ABC. In Sunday's effort he used an Agatha Christie Poirot title.
2. Fan noise: RAH. Rah, sis boom bah; rah rah ree , kick em in the knee, rah rah rass, kick em in the other knee
3. Like: A LA.
4. Like ignorance, at times: BLISSFUL.
5. "Stay in your __!": LANE. Clark!
6. Ranger or Corsair: EDSEL.
2. Fan noise: RAH. Rah, sis boom bah; rah rah ree , kick em in the knee, rah rah rass, kick em in the other knee
3. Like: A LA.
4. Like ignorance, at times: BLISSFUL.
5. "Stay in your __!": LANE. Clark!
6. Ranger or Corsair: EDSEL.
7. Compilation: DIGEST. Readers being the most famous.
8. Bulg. neighbor: ROMania.
9. Half of eleven?: ONE. 1 1. see it now?
10. Wall map insert: PIN.
11. Nader's "__ at Any Speed": UNSAFE.
12. Alphabetically penultimate zodiac sign: TAURUS. Next to last, with VIRGO (my sign) last.
13. Places in a cell: EMBARS.Yuck!
16. Alaskan site of the only WWII battle on U.S. soil: ATTU. HISTORY .
19. Layers of big eggs: EMUS. We cannot escape LIMU or his family.
23. School of thought: ISM.
24. Quick: APT.
25. Stop shooting: WRAP.
26. Timber wolf: LOBO. A CSO to OMK and his New Mexico roots.
28. Fork-tailed flier: TERN. Very aerodynamic
29. Coral habitat: REEF. Staying near the ocean, we have:
30. Some Blizzard ingredients: OREOS. Yummy.
32. Place to park a clipper: SLIP.
More seafaring stuff.
He is a squirrel...
36. Scrat's obsession in "Ice Age" films: ACORN.
38. De Matteo of "The Sopranos": DREA. I have had this actress many times. No literally of course, just in puzzles.
40. Juul product, briefly: E-CIG. Probably more dangerous than the cigarettes they are replacing.
41. Ninth Greek letter: IOTA. abc def ghi in Greek.
42. Fletcher Christian, for one: MUTINEER. Where? On
the
43. Does as humans do?: ERRS. But forgiving is divine.
44. Sprinkle, perhaps: RAIN. Purple?
40. Juul product, briefly: E-CIG. Probably more dangerous than the cigarettes they are replacing.
41. Ninth Greek letter: IOTA. abc def ghi in Greek.
42. Fletcher Christian, for one: MUTINEER. Where? On
the
43. Does as humans do?: ERRS. But forgiving is divine.
44. Sprinkle, perhaps: RAIN. Purple?
47. Skin pic: TAT. Ooo Ooo
48. In addition to that: AS WELL.
49. Czar's decrees: UKASES. (Historical Terms) (in imperial Russia) an edict of the tsar.
50. Traveled like Huck and Jim: RAFTED.
51. Bolted down: ATE. Rush, rush, rush.
53. Tip for fixing mistakes?: ERASER. So cute, tip of the pencil.
54. Highway behemoth: SEMI. How big would a whole one be?
57. Camera part: IRIS. Designed by using the EYE.
58. Gamut: AMBIT.
62. Daughter in "The Time Traveler's Wife": ALBA. The actress who played the 9 year old version, HAILEY McCANN has already retired. No Jessica here.
65. Spoonbill's bill: NIB. The word nib comes from a 16th century word meaning the beak of a bird.
66. Angled formation: VEE. More birds.
67. "__ gotta run!": I'VE. Not yet, I must finish first.
68. Collection agcy.: IRS. The biggest.
69. Peeples seen in People: NIA. This multitalented multi cultural beauty from her mother Elizabeth Peeples of Filipino, German and Spanish descent and her father Robert with Italian, Scottish, Irish and Native American Heritage.
70. Actor Penn: KAL. Fascinating young man who
worked as a real-life White House staffer (as Associate Director of the Obama administration's White House Office of Public Engagement) and played one on TV (as Seth in the TV series Designated Survivor).
I do not think I will ever fully adjust to all the new blogger protocols, but hopefully you stayed long enought to have a good time. I also wanted to share more than the grid, as my wife received a shipment of Moon Cakes from Thailand to celebrate the mid-autumn festival. Try one. Thanks Bryant. Lemonade out.
For you Zhouqin and Boomer, come by for some tea. Jason and Oo.
Notes from C.C.:
1) Thanks for the mooncakes, Lemonade! Do they have egg yolks inside? Yes they do; we cut them like a pizza revealing the central surprise.
2) Happy Birthday to Spitzboov's wife Betty, who has met a few regulars on our blog, including Argyle, Sallie (the Crab), Gerry (Grumpy), our Naples readers. See more pictures here. Are you still in contact with them, Spitzboov?
Here's a picture of Spitzboov and Betty posing with the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear sub and the first ship to transit the North Pole.
58 comments:
FIWrong. Had LUSTROUSFUL instead of FUR. I knew the perp, EMBALS, was wrong, but couldn't figure which letter was off. EMBARS is not a word I know, so I had no clue.
I did not get the theme before I read the reveal, but it helped me get the last themer I hadn't yet completed. And would have saved my failure if I had paid more attention.
Oh, let me rhyme you a BALLAD, a ballad,
About a STEER who ATE a LUSTROUS salad!
This son of TAURUS
Ate flowers so garish,
His turds smelled so sweet they seemed perfectly valid!
He got into politics, and after a bit,
He ran for high office, his turds were a hit!
Their rainbow AURA,
Adorned many a TIARA,
But flowers DIGESTED were still just bullshit!
~
A TERN and an EMU were having a brawl!
The tern flew up high, the emu not at all!
The emu cried, "Coward,
Your wings may be powered,
But on the ground, to my TARSAL kicks you would fall!"
{AA, B.}
DNF. Too much I didn’t know, snd couldn’t suss the theme, so after a half hour I threw in the towel. No fun. Thanx for ‘splainin’ it, Lemonade. Phooey. I’m going back to sleep.
Challenging theme, although quite clever. This was a tricky puzzle.
Lemonade, great write-up! What is the freshness factor, and how is it calculated?
Good morning!
Inked in ARABLE and BALLAD immediately, and d-o was off and running. Wow, even got the theme before the reveal. It must be that supplement that's supposed to help your memory, whose name I can't remember. Have of ELEVEN could've been EEE...but it wasn't. UKASES came bubbling up from somewhere. This one was suitable for a Friday. Thanx, Bryant and Lemonade. (No Moon Cakes for the rest of us?)
Ballpark fig. -- Methinks this could be any estimate, not just a crowd count. I'll just ballpark it...
DIGEST: Spent a couple of weeks in Coatzacoalcos (say it three times fast) back in the early '80s. While there I hung out with a Dutch tugboat captain and his wife. He told me he brushed up on his English with Reedah Diggist. Took me "foevah" to realize he was saying Readers Digest.
That should be "half" of eleven. Thank you, Otto-correct.
DNF. Usually puzzles that are too hard for me at least are interesting once I give up and look at the completed grid. Not today. Most of the stuff I didn't know today I just don't give a rat's patootie about.
My family owned 3 Corvairs before Nadar tanked them with that book. One was my first car - cherry red 4-on-the-floor with a white convertible top. Fun, cute little cars if you didn't try to corner hard with them.
NAM - The USA again surrendered in a war we weren't losing. Since WWII we're 0-2-1, if you don't count the Cold War. I hope the people in charge are proud of all the people who are already getting murdered in the vacuum. It is now more dangerous to be in Afghanistan than in Chicago.
Thanks to Lemonade for the interesting review.
Jinx, this CORVAIR was an Edsel. One of my nieces learned to drive witht he Chevy version.
D-O, sometimes I do not see the forest for the trees; your ballpark explanation is obviously what the clue/fill was all about.
, feshness factor is a made up evaluation of how unusual the answer words in a particular puzzle are. If a word has been used on 3 or 4 times over the years, it is fresher than one that has shown up more than 1,000 times. It is not an absolute, just an opinion
I kept refusing that the word could be EDSEL since I thought that there was just 1 model - The Edsel! Finally gave in.
I really liked the theme once I got INVISIBLE INK and figured out lINK, mINK, etc. That helped a lot.
I had pure guesses on some cross letters, like DReA- SeURAT and AMMaN-aLBA.
Also had MRES instead of MESS at first, and LENS instead of IRIS until I sorted them out.
I think this was a tough but fair Friday puzzle. My favorite clue was Layer of Big Eggs (I guessed EMOS instead of EMUS but fixed eventually)
My wife and I took our honeymoon in Greece and did a boat tour of the islands which stopped at Ephesus. The guide told us there was a secret tunnel from the Ephesus library to the brothel across the street, so husbands could just tell their wives they were going to the library! They don't tell you THAT on the linked web page about the Ephesus library!
Good Morning:
I thought the theme was clever and found it tricky at first, but then the penny dropped. Alba and Acorn, as clued, were unknowns and Embars was a nose wrinkler. Like DO, Ukases just plopped right in. Bryant really brought his A Game today: Ionia, Tiara, Tabula, Aura, Atria, Area, Iberia, Ala, Iota, Drea, Alba, and Nia. We also have some dazzling duos highlighted by the anagrammed Tiara/Atria, Reed/Reef, Nia/Nib, and Aura/Area. On the minus side, however, seeing Emus again and the overload of three letter words.
Thanks, Bryant, for a pleasant solve and thanks, Lemony, for the cheerful and enlightening commentary. Those Moon Cakes look yummy.
Happy Birthday, Betty, hope Spitz makes it a special day for you. 🎂🎁🎉🎊🎈
Have a great day.
I was confusing hamburger* with porkchop thus kor/NAM.
I see I FIW after all. I had inked doRSAL, But only changed the d.
I was able to perp in where I didn't know such as ABC and EDSEL. Is the point that Edsel and Corsair were both lemons?
Hawks and mores had to be blotched over with the xword friendly TERN and RITES. And ECIG.
DNK scrat or pointilist.
I was ASEA re. L,F,M,R. I only grok'ed the theme after all were filled. Clever of Bryant.
I have all day to figure out the SW of Saturday which is a typical Saturday
WC
** I read the wiki version. Now I'll have to skip breakfast. What useless slaughter especially of my fellow Officers
This was easier for me than Thursday's puzzle, but not fast. The theme helped a lot, once I realized the fill was a definition of the -INK word.
I, too, puzzled over the R in EMBAR until I got 27A, FUR, and ditched FUL. I suspected the clue was about a jail cell. After I had the R, I saw we needed a verb.
I learned UKASE from crosswords.
My first thought was that EEE was half of eleven.
KAL was all perps, but it rings a bell.
I had trouble with the U in SEURAT. There had to be a vowel there. A vowel run saved the day. SEURAT/art. SERRAT/music.
I thought the misdirections here were cute. I especially loved the misdirections yesterday. To me they were cute and fun, not cutesy.
A very happy birthday, Betty. I hope you have a great day.
Lot of white space until the reveal. Not enough letters for LUxuRiUS FUR.
My uncle had an EDSEL Ranger. Strikes me in the ad how many colors were available 60 years ago. Now for most cars you have choices spanning white, silver, grey, and black, with maybe one real color.
Hola!
Again, not fun for me. I guess I am too much of a traditionalist when it comes to puzzles. I finished it but without the usual BRIO.
Since I didn't check it over, I didn't notice I had EMBALS. sigh
I never saw Ice Age so did not know ACORN or who or what Scrat is.
Yes, those SEMIs are monstrous!
Happy birthday to Betty!
AMMAN is a typical desert city with all white buildings.
Have a BLISSFUL day, everyone!
Good morning.
What D-O said about half of eleven. EEE went in. The rest of the puzzle solved fairly easily, but a few perps were needed to complete some answers. Didn't understand the theme LMFR clues until solving the reveal INVISIBLE INK, and then it was AHA ! Then went back and stared at the 2 incomplete rows around the incorrect EEE. Then it was quick. DI RO ON and PI to finish.
Lemonade, I never heard of that TV series, but knew KAL Penn from the Harold and Kumar movies, as well as the Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj movie that was on the other day. I also didn't know that the EDSEL came in all of those different models, but surmised there must have been at least the two models cited in the clue since the answer was solid...
Tried to stay awake to watch the FIELD OF DREAMS game. It was 7-4 after the 6th inning, and, given the prowess of the White Sox relief pitchers this year, the game looked to be over so I went to sleep. Thus I missed the exciting ninth inning comeback by the Yankees to take the lead, and then Tim Anderson's bottom-of-the-ninth game-winning 2 run home run to get the victory for the White Sox. I've been reading the box scores of the Yankees games since they picked up Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo. Even though they lost last night, it looks to me like the Yankees are going to take a wild card spot and make the playoffs.
Speaking of the White Sox, earlier this week when the tornadoes were popping up all around, I was surprised to see that the White Sox / Twins game was playing as scheduled. It was only yesterday that I realized why. The game was being played in the Twin Cities. D'OH !
Beautiful weather in Chicagoland for the next few days after scorching heat and big storms. I'd normally be getting out to the golf courses but my back has been screaming at me for the last couple of weeks after over exercising, so it's better just to kick back and let the inflammation go away and the sciatic nerve calm down. Doc agrees.
Had my physical earlier this week. All the blood work and urinalysis numbers came back within range. The only number out of range was BMI as pandemic pounds pushed me barely into the overweight category. I have to either lose twelve pounds or grow three inches taller by the time next year's physical comes around. :-)
Happy Birthday to Betty. I'm sure Spitzboov will make it special.
Quite some time after starting this one my Chromebook screen informed me that I had FIR. Never did grasp the theme until Lemonade explained it at which time I realized that it was so perfect that I wondered why I had not thought of it.
The field of Dreams game was fun to watch. I am a fan of neither the ChiSox nor the Bronx Bombers but I am a fan of the game.
FIR, but the theme took a while to figure out, even after the reveal. With the word LINK discovered, I put it in the middle of my fill at the time: CHAIN FENCING. That made sense until I tried to insert the others in the other themers. It also made getting the perps very hard. SKATING AREA was my breakthrough point when it all became clear. I also had FUL at the end of the second themer at first. And vape/ECIG. I noticed RAIN as fill and in a clue. That seems to be acceptable now.
In general the puzzle came together gradually and was enjoyable. For a change both ARABLE and BALLAD came to mind quickly, giving me a hopeful start. Thanks, Bryant, for your encore performance this week. And thanks, Lemonade, for clearing up my questions. Enjoy the moon cakes. Happy Birthday to Spitz's Betty, and I hope everyone has something good happen this Friday the 13th.
This is a terrible puzzle!
Musings
-LINK stayed with me and then I saw FINK and MINK and RINK helped with SKATING AREA! The gimmick was fun and gave me KAL. What fun!
-RAIN around here has been plentiful and, more importantly, timely this year
-A favorite BALLADEER of mine would be Johnny Horton for North to Alaska, El Paso, et al
-The EST attendance for the fabulous “Field Of Dreams” game last night was 8,000 and the average ticket price was $3,000. That’s a $24M gate! It was a big win for the White Sox, MLB and Iowa.
-DREA De Matteo’s The Sopranos character is suspected of being a FINK and so…
-I got paired with a guy who used ECIGS. I was taken aback when I saw huge plumes of white vapor coming from his cart
-HBD to Betty, the commander of Spitzboov’s ship! :-)
-No triskaidekaphobia here!
Husker, are you giving Johnny Horton credit for El Paso?
Finicky Friday. Thanks for the fun, Bryant and Lemonade.
Officially a FIW, but I got the INVISIBLE INK theme.
My downfall was the same as OwenKL with LUSTROUSFU l, but I had Emails as “places in a cell” (phone) and had no idea what the resulting SU I for “long order” meant.
I WAGged the E in the “almost Natick” cross of DREA and SEURAT (hello Bob Lee)
Plenty of misdirection in the clues today, but somehow I saw them. The fan was in the stands, not for cooling ; half of eleven was ONE not those three Es; it was not a rabbit but BEER.
UKASES was completely unknown. Do I need to add that to my CW memory list?
Quick did not seem exactly equivalent to APT, but I can see it now as quick to pick up teaching, knowledge (from those PROFS).
Did IM notice the plethora of A endings today?: IONIA, TIARA, TABULA, ATRIA, AURA, IBERIA, A LA, IOTA, NIA, DREA, AREA. (OK, now I read you all and see that she did😁👍)
Happy Birthday to Betty.
Wishing you all a great day.
Relatively easy, not unlucky, Fry-day 13th puzzle (it's usually haddock for dinner) ...plus link, fink, mink, rink...I assume the commentary will reveal how this is a "secret message technique"? that doesn't S "smell bad" 😄
Started out with an error "rain unit" inch/DROP, also horn/: shoulda known (it's always REED), lens/IRIS.
St Paul's letter to the Ephesians, "pay no attention to what the Thessalonians and the Corinthians say about the Philippians and, Galations but the rumors about the Colossians" are true"....🙄
Doesn't apt mean "appropriate"? Blizzard ingredients is NOT sleet. Really wanted "wars" for Does as humans do (it's just as APT as ERRS). ....Apparently another misunderstood word, thought DIGEST implied stories that were abridged or abbreviated into shorter versions "digested" like the stories in Reader's Digest .
Had to do a zodiac alphabet run to come up with TAURUS (my own sign!😲) but UKASES was buried in my CW memory cerebral lobe from prior puzzles. Vaguely remember the EDSEL, like Bob Lee thought it was a model not that they came in different models.
Electric "fan" noise is not "rrr" but (people) fan noise is RAH
Lotsa nonsense..Taurian droppings? 🐂
Broadcast worthy....ARABLE.
Obsession with oars or seating.....ROMANIA
Basic rule of slavery....IONIA
Ralph to Alice "Why _____ !!" IOTA
Shaving tool for male auditory hair... ERASER.
So far POTUS has always been ____ AMMAN
What will be, "Que ____ " ...SEURAT
What some humans put on...ERRS
Been a nice but super busy week fingers 🤞for the weekend
Tough one today. Didn't get it.
Perps helped fill in many of the unknowns, but it wasn't enough to get it done.
Ergo a DNF.
Have a great day even though it's Friday the thirteenth.
Good morning everyone.
Doozy of a puzzle today. Good one to do today just to learn more. Very good summary, Lemonade, and fine intro. Much cluing just oblique enough to 'pull' you into the next sector. I'm seeing a 16 X 15 grid.
MESS - Our destroyer had an officers mess, chief's mess and enlisted mess. A bird farm could have a Flag mess, senior officer's mess, regular wardroom mess, (possibly a)warrant officer's mess, a chief's mess and an enlisted mess.
Thanks to C.C. and others for the Birthday wishes for Betty. We're having dinner tonight at a special nearby restaurant.
We did enjoy several lunches/dinners with Grumpy, Sallie, and their spouses in the Naples, FL area back in 2011. Nice people. However, I have not had recent contact.
As I was ungracefully FIW I kept looking at LUSTROUSFUL, a redundant word of itself, and didn't notice that I'd misspelled EMAILS as EMIALS, thought it should have been EMBARS. LUSTROUS FUR makes a lot more sense. But while finishing the rest correctly I still couldn't L-INK the INVISIBLE INK to the L, M, F, & R. And it laughed and said "see if you can SEE ME.
The last fill was the cross of two unknowns- ALBA & AMMAN. KAL, NIA and SEURAT joined the unknown list filled by perps.
Gotta go.
Happy B'day, Betty!
FLN, -T I was happy to see that someone cot the joke. That was a good sine.
Spitz..Happy birthday to DW Betty
Now I know what you look like next we are in the New Hartford Lowe's 😁
Friday toughie for me, but still, many thanks, Bryant, and you too, Lemonade, for your always helpful comments.
Nice to see PROFS, though I don't know Dumbledore or Snape. But glad to have many doable items, like that clarinet REED, Harper LEE, TABULA rasa, and that military MESS. And, of course, that simple DROP of rain.
Fun verses, Owen, thanks for those.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
What an ugly puzzle, complete with too cute by far clueing.
I’m with KEREK.
I got the solve with one bad cell, but I really don’t care, these are supposed to be fun, not an example of how clever (or not) the author is.
I hated every second of this solve.
See you tomorrow.
Hi All!
Nope. DNF in the SE @73a xing 62, 69, & 70d. (good on you BigE for perp'n' 'em!)
Maybe I could have finished but, by the end, I'd already sINK'd* into "No, not more of this..."
Thanks Bryant for the puzzle. Cute theme (nailed the reveal b/f the themers) that helped figure out WTF you were doing w/ the single letter clues.
Thanks for finishing my grid Lem. Nice expo with which to salve the wounds.
RAIN DROPS [see: 7a / 44d dupe] will be playing in my Head all day.
WO: vape -> eCIG. Hand up for starting Ees as 1/2 of ElEvEn.
ESPs: oh, so many ++ some really lucky WAGs (DREA?)
Fav: RAFTED. Click and you'll know why ;-)
I may need to watch my IPA intake... Head and hops evoked BEER (sans perps!) way too quickly. ibid. DQ Blizzards - no other thoughts b/f OREOs...
//TTP - we'll hang upside down by our TARSALs for 20 minutes a day; we'll gain those needed 3" :-)
{A+, B}
FLN - MManatee: And the trig-pun groans keep a-comin' :-) LMAO.
Spitz - please extend my Happy Birthday (and many more) wishes to Betty.
HG - not a bad return on investment ($25MM gate for Dreams game). I heard MLB only spent $5MM to build it (and they came!).
Ray-O: I was angling for 'hum' at Fan noise. LOL IONIA malaprop.
BobLee: The bar across the street of OU's campus is also appropriately named -- my parents were so proud I spent every night of grad-school at 'The Library.'
Cheers, -T
*two nights ago I awoke @2a with a sINKing feeling of a new(?) puzzle theme... I'm still noodling.
Bob Lee, when I went to Univ of KY, there was a bar just off campus named "The Library". Where's Jinx? Oh he's at The Library. When I lived in LA there was a large power boat named Branch Office. (Where's Mr. Big? Oh he's at the Branch Office". I wanted a sailboat named Another Line (he's on Another Line), but I didn't buy another new boat during my working life.
Lemony, "Unsafe at Any SPEED" skewered the Chevy Corvair and had a lot to do with its demise.
Bill O, I remember Ford having all of those colors, many with "colorful" names: Hulla Blue, Thanks Vermillion, etc. I suspect that Lee Iacocca inspired them. That's a long way from Henry Ford's "any color as long as its black" when the Model T was introduced.
HG - Yeah, Adriana got snuffed for being a rat, but Christopher should have done it to atone for his pillow talk.
Thank you Bryant for a crunchy, or should I say "rocky" Friday puzzle.
I did manage to stumble to an FIR after freezing for a spell in the rain DROPS drizzling from the NORTH. And thank you Lemony for another entertaining review. Loved the twist on META-TARSALS.
Still GC sitting so I'll try to keep this short (HAH!):
16A The link on EPHESUS omitted any mention of its important role in Bible history. The "evil overlord" CYRUS was also the Emperor who freed the Jews from their captivity to the Babylonians and helped them rebuild Jerusalem. St. Paul preached there and one of the books of the New Testament is his "Letter to the Ephesians". Finally legend has it that Mary, the Mother of Christ, died in Ephesus under the care of the Apostle John.
33A I read LAND rover (the Queen's preferred wheels) but I was
perped into RANGE rover and heard the pounding of hooves.
75A Clever clue!
6D Favorite c/a. I learned that EDSELS were more than "Mercuries sucking on lemons". A CSO to our reviewer?
28D Wanted SWIFT as I saw a bunch of them nesting on the roof girders above the horse stables where I took one of my grand daughters for riding lessons. Settled for what the perps said.
49D Somehow dredged up UCASES from the dark, dreary, dank of my subconscious.
Thanks for the pics Lemony and C.C. and HBD Betty!
Cheers,
Bill
Great puzzle – I got it all with no help, but I had to enter 'nib" against my instincts.
When I realized only "nib" fits, not "neb", I checked a multitude of dictionaries. They all say:
1) "Nib" is the pointed end of a pen, or shelled and crushed beans.
2) "Neb" is a word from Scottish and Northern English that means a nose, a snout, or a bird's beak.
Duh.
From Merriam Webster:
Definition of nib
1 : BILL, BEAK
Thank you Mr. Bryant White for a very challenging puzzle, that flipped me out, for over an hour,
and Lemonade for your very interesting and well researched review.
Rather than discussing the CW, I will, as is my nature, go off on a tangent and discuss two very interesting facts.
Talking of Tangents, Thank you MalMan for the sin 90 times and still be a Cot 45 joke !! !!
I gave a double take yesterday, and thought about it for a minute, and realized that Tan 45 is 1 and hence the (inverse -) , Cot 45 is also 1 ... and so is Sine 90, ... and Cos 0. And I thought here is a guy who still remembers his basic High school Trignometry... I meant to thank you but forgot. Apologies.
The first thing, is todays constructor's name Bryant White ..
.. sounds like a Assoc Justice of the US Sup Crt, who was there in from the 60-s, upto early 2000's, and he resigned ( Sup Ct Jst's dont retire ... they 'leave' on their own accord ... ).
His seat. in 2002, was nominated to no other than , .... Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
****He was also a pro Football player, runner up to the Heisman trophy, and played pro football WHILE studying at Yale Law School !!!!
Truly, how much can a human being achieve ?!?
Except, that his name was BYRON WHITE. a few letters off.
This post is already too long, So, Have a nice day, all.
Vidwan - Tangents are fun!
When I was thinking of 'Fan noises' == hum, The band Hum (from Champaign, IL) jumped to mind...
Both I Like Your Hair Long (You'd Prefer and Astronaut) and Stars started playing in my head.
Rock fans... If you've somehow missed Hum... You're missing a special flash in the pan.
Cheers, -T
Hello friends, on the blog,
This is the second part of my post ... and I crave indulgence from Lemonade and all of you, on something that is rather important to me alone.
This post is also about another irrelevant fact, and you may ignore it completely, and not miss a thing.
Todays is Friday, the 13th, a triple witching day, if not the witching hour !
And I was scheduled for a medium surgery today.
And the vascular surgeon was a Woman, from Far East Asia, across the seas.
I will not mention her ethnicity, because it does not matter.
I was the only patient on the schedule, in this small upcountry hospital.
The only anesthesiologist avaiable could not come in, because of sickness.
There was no other anesthetist, or CRNA or Anes Asst. available.
Most of the RN's there, are on locum, or PRN work, and sub every day.
( Hello, Husker Gary ! )
My wife, who was driving the car, found no empty spaces in the Emergency parking lot... even for patients ...
Finally, the chief of police of the small township, who does private security, at the hosp. , 'gave' us "special permission", to park in a handicapped space, with his signature on a torn-off citation ticket ...
To account for the lack of an Anesthtist, the surgeon decided, on her own powers, to have an RN give me a regional block with a lower drug dose, of Demerol,
.... so I was awake the whole time.
The surgeon followed a 'Yankee, Can do ' philosophy ... and I think I saved some money out of pocket, from the anesthesia fees .... maybe. Just a joke.
I was a little miffed at the moderately salty language the RNs use in the OR when they think the patient is asleep .... although I really believed in their competency to do their jobs !
They were very kind, empathetic, efficient and professional.
Was the operation a success, ? We'll see two months from now.
I have a 100 percent confidence in the surgeon !
Que sera, sera ... whatever will be, will be.
I am awake, now home, and very much alive.
I am not writing this for sympathy or empathy .... REALLY !
You are not obliged to reply to sympathize....
... but, please treat this as a minor comedy drama skit to be laughed over.
Life is too short to be serious all the time.
There is humor even in the gravest matters ... ( pun intended.)
Make that UKASES.
Vidwan and others, as a longtime Friday Corner Blogger, I have written on may Friday the 13th puzzles. Ordinarily, I will include a comment or reference. As a Jew, the 13 at the last supper did not become an object of trauma. I also sincerely believe superstition is enhanced by self-acualization. If you think your knee will hurt when you m-i-l shows up, it likely will. I applaud you my brother from another mother not for ignoring the superstition, but for trusting this very unprepared hospital and staff and send you my shabbt prayers for a speedyand complete recovery.
I guess this is why I did not think of this THEME
Drat
RIP, Nanci Griffith, gone far too soon.
Vidwan: "There is humor even in the gravest matters ... ( pun intended.)" My father was an undertaker and would have appreciated the humor.
FIR. I managed to work my way through today's fine PZL from Mr. White. Happily, my two "P"s held out long enough. I gotta kick outta the long theme answers, but couldn't understand them.
Truly, I hadn't a clue regarding the theme. I kept looking into the appropriate fills, but the true answer required us to supply the absent first letter--just too far a bridge for moi.
Nice job from our Lemonade. Always enjoyable!
Sadly, today's asymmetrical grid (16x15) means we have no diagonals to anagram.
Happy Birthday to Spitzboov's Betty!
~ OMK
Vid, you are a braver man than me. Glad it worked out. I live two blocks from the local Level 1 trauma center, the children's hospital and the medical school. Valet parking. All the sirens and helicopter traffic a person could ask for.
I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy next month. If the anesthetist doesn't show up, I'll get dressed and tell them to stick the camera where they wanted to stick it into me.
It's time to do a major brush-up on minor 19th century French neo-impressionists, who had girlfriends on the Sopranos ... "DREA", aha! ANDREA. (Or as we say in Middle Hittite, total natick.)
It was off my wavelength at every turn.
Felt like an enormous slog.
Another day another gimmick theme.I just couldn't find much to enjoy here.
This puzzle was so dreary I did a voluntary dnf.Seems like every day the LAT puzzles get more nonsensical.
Thank you Lemonade, for your always good wishes. I have long been converted to karma, and a philosophical attitude on life. Thank you again !!
BTW, Georges Seurat's MOST FAMOUS painting is ... A sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte and it is at The Art Institute of Chicago, and I have seen it.
It is the very essence of pointillism - made up of little dots of the most delicate shades to make a macro painting of a comprehensive scene. Marvellous. There is a picture in Wiki.
***********************
A small point on Assoc. Justice of SCOTUS, Hon. Just. Byron White. from my first post ...
One of his more famous cases, that he participated in, was Immigration and Naturalization Service Vs. Chadha 462 US 919 1983 .
It affected only one man, and I became aware of it, when that man became the father in law, of one of my neighbors....
In that case, Mr. White dissented,( and believe it or not, I agree with his reasoning ) but the majority concurred and overruled the US Congress, because their opinion, the House actions went beyond their powers according to the US Constituion.
Only a lawyer like you will properly appreciate such a subtle point.
Mr. Chadha was an innocent party who suddenly became famous ( but not notorious ...).
He has had a quiet and productive life, ever after.
So, in the law, it is helpful to have the facts on your side,
it is helpful to have the Law on your side,
.... but LADY LUCK beats them all. !@##@!
Out.
Sorry !! Apologies,
Immigration and Naturalization Service V. Chadha, 462 UF 919, 1983
That should do it.
It really is boring crap but very important
Thank you V.
Forgot to wish you a happy birthday, Betty. Hope you both had a great day.
Happy birthday, Betty.
I liked the invisible ink gimmick. Some of the cluing I also liked, namely for BEER, ERASER, and ERRS. I feel pretty much neutral about the rest. I only knew SEURAT because it was a Jeopardy "answer" recently. Thanks for the puzzle, Bryant.
Thanks for the write-up, Lemonade.
Vidwan, very interesting. My best wishes to you for a full recovery.
TTP, I'm skeptical that BMI is a meaningful or useful metric. As far as I can tell, one's height is not the yardstick for evaluating one's weight. Some people are simply built "big" and some are naturally skinny, regardless of how tall they are.
OwenKL, I enjoyed your verses today.
I read in the news that the computer game maker, BLIZZARD, is involved in some sort of scandal.
Good wishes to you all.
-T, I might to have guessed Rush or Foo but Heck that guy could've been singing anything.
I see I got corsair and corvair mixed up
OMK, I'd have thought the FINK,LINK stuff right up your alley
Jinx, agreed on the anesthesia specialist. I had a good one. I'm 76, should I get another one?
I'll ask my son, Phillip about Blizzard. A whole big world which is , like Moriarty*, unknown to most of us normies
WC
**Holmes and Watson are discussing Professor Moriarty. Watson says, "The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as—" and Holmes interrupts, "My blushes, Watson." Watson replies, "I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public."
Lemonade, thanks for the freshness factor explanation!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Vidwan. I do not know why I did not think to do it earlier but I very recently looked up the definition of Vidwan. Based upon almost a year of reading your comments I was not at all surprised but what I learned.
Hi Y'all! Groan, Mr. White. No INKling of what all those letters for the theme could mean. Thank you, Lemonade, for supplying the answers.
ARABLE: My farmer husband drove thru the Colorado Rockies for the first time and commented, "What a lot of damn worthless land." None of it was ARABLE that he could see. I took him to the high mountain meadows with lush grass threaded by streams & cattle grazing. He like that area much better.
Can't read the comments today because I can't enlarge them enough to see. Big lightning storm & heavy rain last night. No internet until this evening.
So after reading the brief comment about the death of singer songwriter Nanci Griffith, I decided to read the internet for her obituary. I was amazed at the headline that her death may have been related to health issues.". This world is too crazy for me.
Happy birthday and many more Betty
RAIN is something we finally had tons of these past few weeks. We really needed it! Sadly, it causes flooding in the very dry washes and some unfortunate results because of it.
So far I really like all the guest hosts on Jeopardy. I knew nothing about this week's, Joe Buck, but you sports fans likely know that he is an award winning sportscaster. I looked him up.
Took me ALL DAY! Well, I was working today, but we weren’t THAT busy, so I was able to sit and stare at it a good portion of the day. Actually, I printed it out and started on it right after I left the Corner last night, and then got a few hours of sleep.
This puzzle beat me up pretty badly (thank you very much, Bryant), with a whole bunch of stuff that took a long time to suss. Luckily, I didn’t run out of Wite-Out, but then I always carry extra with me.
I did eventually get the four long fills (having gotten the INVISIBLEINK and CHAINSEGMENT fairly early). I never could figure out what’s it all about, Alfie. Never could figure out how the L, M, F and R fit anything. Thanks for explaining it, Lemon.
I did manage to get down to exactly ONE blank square (the E in SEURAT/DREA) before it was almost time to close. The three of us working today were standing out on the ramp watching airplanes land and takeoff (Friday afternoon rush hour) with one eye, and watching the clock poke along to closing time with the other. I mentioned that I was stuck, and the boss knew SEURAT, and that was that! Oh, I’m probably the only person who never watched a single minute of THE SOPRANOS.
WC --- I too thought Korea before Nam.
I’m happy with a one-square DNF!
On to Saturday's puzzle, which I'll be able to print in a few minutes!
Leo III
No, you are not the only one. I did not watch any part of the Sopranos.
I hear thunder!
I filled it out quickly and accurately but had no idea what the puzzle was about. Thanks for the explanation.
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