Saturday Themeless by Jamey Smith
Our Texas Longhorn alum, Jamey Smith, is back after a one month hiatus. The long fills were very helpful but I struggled in the SW corner for various and sundry reasons but eventually emerged victorious. In keeping with these lazy, hazy days of summer, here is what Jamey shared with us:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the opportunity. No big insights come to mind for this one, I'm afraid, so I'll keep it brief. Let me just say I hope this puzzle provides a welcome diversion during these dog days of summer.
Stay Cool,
Jamey
1. Ottoman Empire symbol: FEZ - They are also worn by Shriners in parades around here
4. Deep divide: CHASM.
9. __ candle: ROMAN.
14. Martinique, par exemple: ILE - J'habite sur l'ILE de la Martinique (I live on the island of Martinique)
15. Shade: UMBRA - We were in the Moon's UMBRA during the 2017 solar eclipse
16. Soul, to Aristotle: ANIMA.
17. "On the contrary": FAR FROM IT - The answer to, "Can I read the text above?"
19. Principle: TENET.
20. Online loan calculator, e.g.: E-TOOL - Here's one
21. Put out of action: SIDELINE.
19. Principle: TENET.
20. Online loan calculator, e.g.: E-TOOL - Here's one
21. Put out of action: SIDELINE.
23. Ordained: DECREED.
26. Junction point: NODE.
26. Junction point: NODE.
27. [Eyeroll]: HERE WE GO AGAIN.
32. Vast amounts: SEAS.
34. Name on a "Speed" movie poster: SANDRA - Most of the posters only contain the visage of Keanu Reeves but not this one
35. Letter spelled by inserting a letter into another letter: PSI - PI can add a letter to get PSI (or PHI)
36. Wish list items: WANTS.
38. Protein-building molecule: RNA.
39. __ Ideas Festival: annual Western resort conference: ASPEN - More info
42. Toshiro ___, actor in many Kurosawa films: MIFUNE - One MIFUNE/Kurosawa collaboration was called The Seven Samurai and was the inspiration for an iconic American Western movie
45. 1940 toon goldfish: CLEO - Pinnochio, CLEO and Figaro
46. Broad perspective: THE BIG PICTURE - Here's a failure to achieve that
49. Mideast carrier: EL AL.
50. Dizziness cause, perhaps: EARACHE.
53. Could be taken for: PASSES AS - As generations progress, what PASSES AS acceptable behavior changes
57. "__ moi, le déluge": Louis XV: APRES - "After me the deluge". Louis never said it and here are more things royalty never said
58. 24-part epic: ILIAD.
59. "Sorry, you can't talk me out of this": NO I INSIST.
62. Cosmic balance: KARMA.
63. College sports channel: ESPNU.
64. Nottingham-to-London dir.: SSE - It would have been a 129 mile trip for Robin Hood
64. Nottingham-to-London dir.: SSE - It would have been a 129 mile trip for Robin Hood
65. Operative: ASSET - A _ _ _ T. Yeah, I'm the only one who put AGENT first. BTW, ANON-T is an ASSET to our blog!
66. Things to do: TASKS.
67. Word in many rates: PER - My typing rate in words PER minute is impressive unless you insist on accuracy
Down:
1. Played a high wind: FIFED - Not OBOED it appears
2. Gratify: ELATE.
3. "Not a prayer": ZERO CHANCE - These teams have the worst odds to win the NCAA FB national championship this year. If you bet $100 on any of them, you'd win $1,000,000 if they surprised everyone.
4. Winter Olympian: CURLER.
5. Kaiser offering: HMO - Health Maintenance Organization
6. SALT subject: ABM - Anti ballistic missiles
6. SALT subject: ABM - Anti ballistic missiles
7. Mumbai misters: SRIS.
8. Courtship ritual: MATING DANCE.
9. Like investment-grade bonds: RATED AAA.
10. What yoga may be practiced on: ONE LEG.
10. What yoga may be practiced on: ONE LEG.
12. "Agreed!": AMEN.
13. Silver of FiveThirtyEight: NATE - Some 2021 NFL thoughts on NATE's FiveThirtyEight site
18. __ green: FOREST.
22. In spot?: DOOR - Our big box lumber store has its "In DOOR" about 50 yards from its "Out DOOR", so when you park you have a decision to make
24. Some RPI grads: EES - Electrical Engineers
25. Ceres, for one: DWARF PLANET - Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Since it is only one of thousands of objects in that belt, it is not considered to be a full planet
28. The blahs: ENNUI - It would take someone as hip as Cole Porter to use the French word ENNUI in a lyric
29. Classic autumn treat: APPLE CRISP.
30. "Ah": I SEE.
31. Baja boy: NINO - Which kind of winter is on tap for us?
32. Thwack: SWAT.
33. Term regarding distribution: EACH.
37. Was friendly to: SMILED AT.
40. Throws out: SCRAPS.
43. "Hometown Proud" supermarkets: IGAS - Here's one in Forest Hill, New South Wales, Australia
43. "Hometown Proud" supermarkets: IGAS - Here's one in Forest Hill, New South Wales, Australia
44. DFW posting: ETA.
47. "__ Mucho": classic Consuelo Velázquez song: BESAME - I don't know Srta Velázquez at all but Paul Anka's 1962 put me on the right track.
48. Seventh of eight: URANUS - Sorry Ceres, you'll have to eat at the kids' table
51. "Siddhartha" author: HESSE -Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautam Buddha.
52. Fruity compound: ESTER - The Chemistry
53. Rabbit relative: PIKA - Not in my fauna vocabulary. Maybe the bouquet is part of his mating dance
54. "That's too bad": ALAS.
55. Quaint letter opener: SIRS.
56. 600 Home Run Club member: SOSA - AROD was left on the bench
60. Online addresses, for short: IP'S - What is an IP?
61. Publicity: INK - With the demise of print media, perhaps the origin of this use of INK will fade.
40 comments:
DNF. That little 5x5 square in the SW corner had 4 blank cells when I gave up to check the red letters. Then SEVEN more of them got the measles! (Plus the WAG for MIFUNi.) Once the bad cells were scrubbed, I managed (with P&P) to correctly fill the SW, but MIFUNE took 4 tries to get right. The down perp there I assumed was a military acronym I didn't know, so didn't even try.
There were some Ottomen from FEZ
Who wore a fez on their headz.
Now a fez, on the rim,
Has no grabbable brim,
So to tip it, they had to nod like a Pez!
FAR FROM IT for me to desist
I offer -- NO, I INSIST
That despite the ENNUI
You listen to me
As pipe on my FIFE -- it's my gift!
{A, B.}
This was the fastest I ever worked a Saturday until I got to the SW. I thought it would be easy but FAR FROM IT, I hit the wall. BESAME & MIFUNE- never heard of either. PIKA- total unknown. DNF. KARMA, ASSET, SMILED AT- never got a decent toehold. I wanted AGENT for Operative but my Rabbit relative- HARE- wouldn't even give me the first letter.
NATE Silver was filled by perps- unknown.
URANUS and DWARF PLANET- isn't Ceres an ASTEROID? When did it get a promotion?
RATED AAA- all you'll get is your money back because they aren't paying much interest.
Have a good weekend.
Good morning!
Gotta love a themeless puzzle -- no pressure, no embarrassment for missing the puzzle writer's brilliant idea. Hand up for AGENT and OBOED, but that's why Wite-Out was invented. Enjoyed it, Jamey. Thanx for the illustrated tour, Husker. (At our big-box I go in where one is supposed to come out. No parking issue.)
Quick DNF, Saturday par for me. Managed to fill in 14 answers before I quit, a dozen of which were right.
Great review as always, Gary. I'm sure that Jamey's puzzle was a fun challenge for those a notch above my capabilities.
SW corner did me in. Had paca instead of pika. Totally whiffed on Iliad.
Oh, forgot to add Happy Bowling Day to Boomer. Hadn't heard of the Bowling to Veterans Link charity before this morning, but I'll bet he knows all about them.
"The first asteroid discovered, Ceres was first observed on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory. Originally considered a planet, it was reclassified as an asteroid in the 1850s after the discovery of over 20 other objects in similar orbits. In 2006, it was reclassified again as a dwarf planet because, at 940 km (580 mi) in diameter, is the only asteroid large enough to be rounded by its own gravity. This makes Ceres both the smallest recognized dwarf planet and the only one inside Neptune's orbit." Wikipedia
So Pluto wasn't the first one kicked out of the club.
One of my attempts in SW was El Cid*/ILIAD. Aha, ASSET as in agent which I couldn't fit. PIKi/(is set) was my FIW. SW was a lengthy struggle.
I finally realized I had DECREEs and the DW gave me Ceres.
The rest was typical Saturday. Seemed to be lot of obscure P&Ps
Anybody think of vole for that pesky website?
WC
*streams on Amazon prime
Wow, that was a tough FIR! Like others, I struggled with the SW, putting in "hare" at first. After I decided how to spell BESAME, KARMA and ILIAD came to mind. Then I remembered seeing a PIKA gathering material for his nest in the Colorado mountains. I also wasn't sure about the letters in ESPNU, due to my sports ignorance. Eventually that area got sorted out too. Thanks Jamey for today's challenge. Thanks go to Husker Gary for the helpful review and for contacting Jamey. As usual it cleared up uncertainties.
Now it's time to take a walk before starting the TASKS for the day. Hope everyone is doing well this weekend.
Once I googled Consuelo Velazquez song, I was able to finish. 42A, Mifune, filled in with perps. A piper plays the flute or fife, so for 1D I had piped for a while.
Good Morning:
Unlike others, my brick wall was The NW region. My confident entries of Abyss/Spring Dance were the culprits, plus not coming up with Fez and not accepting that Fifed would be an acceptable answer. (I still say Thumbs down!) After much exasperation, I finally removed Abyss and, voila, the rest is history. Overall, though, I enjoyed the solve and challenge and the satisfaction of finishing w/o help. Mifune was totally unknown but perpable (?) as were many other entries, thanks to the fairly easy to discern long answers. We had another A Game with Umbra, Anima, Sandra, RNA, Karma, AAA, ETA, Sosa, and Pika, plus some cute duos: Pis/IPS, Sris/Sirs, Seas/Ile, and Planet/Uranus, plus one of my favorite words, Ennui. CSOs to Spitz (EEs//RPI) and Lucina (Besame and Nino.)
Thanks, Jamey, for a tough but satisfying workout and thanks, HG, for the always informative and entertaining expo. Loved the elephant cartoon.
Another addition to the family arrived last night, Giovanni Joseph, 8 lbs. 3 Oz. He is my sister, Peggy’s, great grandson.
FLN
Vidwan, best wishes for a speedy and successful recovery.
Leo III, I join Lucina in never having seen The Sopranos, but only because I don’t have HBO, ditto Homeland. De Matteo is familiar to me, though, because she had a key role in the series Shades of Blue with Ray Liotta and Jennifer Lopez. She played a tainted cop.
I miss CED.
Have a great day.
As Agnes said, DREA de MATTEO has appeared in much more than The SOPRANOS and is still working.
I liked all the astronomy lessons.
I think it was the hairdo inspiration MADAME POMPADOUR who was Louis' mistress who predicted bad things for France.
Thank you Jamey and Gary
Good morning everyone.
Thanks again to all who expresses good wishes for BH on her Birthday yesterday. You are a good supportive group.
Typical Saturday slog, but the long acrosses were very much in the language and helped make the solve easier. Last sector to fall was the SW, but finally parsed ASSET and SIRS correctly and it was done. Had hare before PIKA, and sire before SIRS. Fair amount of unknown stuff, but perp prompts were good; ie. ILIAD. FIR. Cleverly done, Jamey. BZ
APRÈS - Reminds me of "La plume de ma tante."
RPI EE'S - Except I was a Ch. E. Made getting ESTER real easy. IM, thanks for the CSO.
MIFUNE - Played ADM Yamamoto in "Midway".
CURLER - I curled for 10 years after I first retired.
DWARF - Only 3 DW words in English so this fell easily.
Enjoy the day.
Investment Grade Bonds can be rated BBB or better. Clue should have added "some".
Good morning.
A one letter miss. Had iS SET rather than ASSET. Should have thought about it a little bit longer, but the clock was running.
Could have been much worse. The northwest and top central gave me the most trouble:
- I had pIpED for "played a high wind." I was thinking of bagpipes.
- I had flat CHANCE instead of ZERO for "not a prayer". Don't know what I was thinking there unless it was fat CHANCE.
- Those two entries led me to isl for "Martinique". I was thinking English would be isle, Spanish would be isla, and French was isl. That's just pitiful after having just read the Wikipedia on Ile-de-France and having previously blogged a puzzle where the answer was Ile-de-Paris.
- That mess of wrong answers had me leaning towards slake for "satisfy" at 2d. But psf couldn't be correct for "Ottoman Empire symbol" at 1a.
In the top central:
- I had abySs for "deep divide" and bun for "Kaiser offering". Must have been thinking of a Kaiser roll. Worse yet, I typo'ed and entered i instead of u.
- Instead of MATING DANCE, I had spring DANCE at 8d. Hey, it was 72.7272727272727 % correct. :-)
So with 6 or so squares to fill and nothing making sense, I stopped the timer, walked away, got a second cup of coffee and turned on the TV to watch a bit of the morning news.
Abejo and I talked about this when we met for the first time and had a beer. Sometimes just walking away for a bit helps. Tremendously. Upon coming back, I immediately saw that it was ZERO CHANCE. That led to FEZ and ELATE, and then FIFED instead of piped. Then, looking at the start of FARF, it was clear that the answer was FAR FROM IT for "on the contrary". The rest fell into place quickly.
So, with one wrong letter and the scoreboard clock registering 22 minutes and 59 seconds, I'll take the A+.
Great puzzle, Jamey. Keep them coming !
I'll have to review the review later. The only thing I took a glance at so far was to see what Gary had for (the unknown to me) PIKA.
FLN, Jayce, I agree. I think BMI is just an indicator. May or may not be useful. My neighbor is a bodybuilder. His BMI is higher than mine.
Also, Dash-T, I know you were working in TARSALS with your hang upside down comment, but it made me remember that scene in American Gigolo where Richard Gere was hanging upside down in the doorway to do ab exercises.
Lucina, in re a couple of your comments in the past couple of days... I, too was a big fan of The Closer, and still am. Like the series Monk, I think I've seen every episode, and many more than once. And like you, I never watched any episodes of The Sopranos.
I was stuck on the SW corner for quite a while. I didn't know PIKA, and ASSET seemed like it didn't really match the clue. SIRS? I guessed it was meant to be Dear Sirs? Obsolete?
Loved the astronomy answers: DWARF PLANET, UMBRA, URANUS.
BTW, CERES was called a planet when it was first discovered before they found more asteroids in the asteroid belt and demoted it to an asteroid. THEN Ceres was 'promoted' from an asteroid to a dwarf planet at the same time they 'demoted' Pluto to be a dwarf planet in 2006. Was that to remove the sting of the demotion? IMHO most definitely.
My favorite FEZ wearer was Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor in the BBC Doctor Who series. (Waiting patiently for the new season!)
Toshiro Mifune also played Admiral Yamamoto in the 1976 movie MIDWAY. An awesome actor.
Took me a while for the __ green clue. All I could think of was SOYLENT!
What seemed like a quickly evolving Saturday puzzle FIR with NO Inkovers gave way to disappointment when I hit the SW road block...PIKA, (looks like a rat not a cwazy wabbit), incomplete SIRS, PASSESAS. So a DNF like some of my invisible cornerite buds.☹
I NEVER remember it's HESSE as the author of: "Siddcaesar" I mean "hartha". ANIMA is a latin/Italian word for Soul. Ain't Aristotle a Greek fella? Every grade school kid has a giggle with URANUS; no matter how it's pronounced it's excretory. The next Dwarf planet should be named Sneezy. 🪐
Never heard of the ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL (hey I have an idea let's go skiing!⛷⛷) Our Old Forge Adirondack village grocer/supermarket is an IGA.
Mixed up salsa dance...UMBRA
Candles without a home....ROMAN
For many Christians, de Nicene is____....DECREED
Endstage play utterance.....SIDELINE
Small tat...____ ling...INK
(I used this last year but it's a personal favorite....)
Arrested by Mayberry deputy Sheriff....FIFED
I join the never have seen "The Sopranos" club...Where are the Italian antidefamation orgs? What about "The Godfather,” “Goodfellas,” “A Bronx Tale,” “Donnie Brasco, “Analyze This,” “The Untouchables", “Casino,” “Married to the Mob” and, now, "Green Book"
Sometimes I think our skin is too thick..
"discorso finito" (rant over)
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
🌤
Thank you Jamey Smith for a very nice, yet extremely challenging puzzle. It was one of my most difficult in recent times, but it brought out the fact that we do crosswords to learn, learn, learn.... and learn some more.
Thank you Husker Gary for some very interesting notes during your fascinating review.
The Shriners seem to be having a good time, but I wonder would the battery power in those mini cars have the power to cart them along ? .... they must be having delicious, filling food at their periodic banquets....
Toshiro Mifune, was one lucky actor who Hollywood got familiar with, and he got the first shot as a ethnic japanese samurai in all the Hollywood movies. He WAS Adm. Yamamoto in many Hollywood WWII war movies.
Yoga: I thought the answer would have MAT somewhere in it. Bzzt. BTW, the young person ( man or woman) in the picture seems to be a little off kilter ... unless it is a trick photograph.
Ceres: I thought was a cereal breakfast goddess, whose statue, as Goddess of Agriculture is on the Chicago Board of Trade bldg...
51 Down, Siddhartha author - HESSE "... deals with the spiritual journey of self discovery of a man named Siddharta during the time of the Gautam Buddha...." (sic)
To those who are not familiar with Buddhism, ... Siddhartha Gautam was the original given name of the Prince of Kapilavastu, and Buddha is his honorific. Siddha or siddhi means 'achiever/ achievement' and Artha means 'meaning / realisation / existence' so the combination is 'one who has found the meaning ( of existence )'. Buddhi means knowledge / brains so buddha would be one who found the ultimate knowledge.
So, I presume the book Siddhartha would be the story of the Buddha, himself. BTW, I have not read the book ... I thought it would be too profound for me ...
Have a good weekend, all.
Saturdays are always toughies for me, but this one was still enjoyable--many thanks, Jamey. And thanks for your commentary too, Husker Gary.
I don't know why, but my first entry in puzzles is always the top middle word--CHASM this morning. I liked getting EL AL too, since it turns up in a lot of puzzles. Glad that I remembered HESSE as the "Siddhartha" author. And APPLE CRISP made me hungry.
Fun poems, Owen, thanks.
Have a great weekend, everybody. I'm going to a neighborhood party tonight--Yay!
Unlike everyone else, who seemed to have trouble in the SW corner, my problem was the NE. It was completely blank. A sea of white, except where I very lightly penned in tenet. then I put in, very lightly, font for the iPad choice. Well, I was so wrong. But that's okay, I am human so I err. It's always enjoyable, even when I don't do well.
Emile, I think every post I have read from you is negative and mean. So either put on your big boy pants or don't wear any at all!
Becky
This took almost an hour to FIR. What a Saturday struggle. W/Os, CIDER:CRISP, HARE:PIKA, NINA:NINO. I knew better on the NINO, but screwed up anyway. I thought SALT was about ICBMs, but that didn’t fit, and it took a while for ABM to perp in. I liked this CW because of the long common phrases incorporated into it. Although a time consuming struggle, I still liked this CW better than yesterday’s, which was a HUGE DNF. I struggled in the NW and the SW, last fill was FEZ, which finally gave me the ZERO that I’d been scratching my head about. Thanx, JS, for the mental workout. Thanx, Gary for the terrific write-up, and the ESTER reminder. I taught chemistry in what seems now like another lifetime it is so long ago. I knew it was ESTER immediately, but had to dredge my mind for the formula, which you so kindly confirmed.
Ray O Sunshine ... you have really outdone yourself. You should have been Sid Caesar !
ROMAN and UMBRA were fantastic !
Famous sayings: ( ala Louie the 14th )
Once, Pres. Johnson, was at Andrews Air Force Base, waiting in the VIP lounge, to take off on a foreign trip...
Then a coupla F-15's came on the runway, and took off...
His aide informed him: Sir, your plane ( AirForce One ) will be taxing up, to the tarmac, in a few minutes ...
And Pres. Johnson was heard to say, ' Ah My plane, Hell, they're all my planes ...'
**********************
Yesterday, I had a minor operation. The anesthetist was AWOL, ( I think - )
The vascular surgeon instructed an RN to give me a Regional Anesthetic.
The RN was,( I thought...) a little nervous, and he explained the procedure... he said, I will give you 25 mg of Fentanyl ( an anesthetic ) and 25 mg of Benadryl ( for possible allergic reactions ). The Fentanyl is a synthetic opiod, 80 times more powerful than morphine ... Do you have any questions ?
( I have 3 anest, in the family, including daughter etc., so I was familiar with Fentanyl and even have a dozen Fentanyl and Propofol ballpoint gift pens from various conventions etc... )
So, I said ... Well, I have always bought Organic food, with no synthetic additives at the grocery stores, ... so could you give me some organic anesthetic instead ? .... like good ole morphine, from the poppies of the god given Afghanistan ?
It took one second, before everybody including my wife started giggling ... the ice was broken .. and the RN was really much more relaxed... and he did a fantastic job at finding my blood line, for the IV.
Just a joke, from a very little importance person ....
Hola!
For a Saturday puzzle this one was not overly difficult but still took time and some deep thinking to finish.
CHASM opened the solve for me then UMBRA. After that I just jumped around filling in here and there until the long fill came together. HERE WE GO AGAIN reminds me of Ronald Reagan who used that phrase often.
I love SANDRA Bullock. My favorite of her movies is While You Were Sleeping.
While watching David Attenborough I've seen many a MATING DANCE by a variety of birds.
I really liked the clue for DOOR, in spot. Which reminds me, I'm looking for a new screen/security DOOR as mine was destroyed by the wind in a previous storm.
Since CERES is also the goddess of agriculture I thought DWARF PLANTS fit in nicely but no! And of course I'm not up on ESPN U. Curses! A sports subject!
It's been a very long while since I could do ONE LEG yoga. My balance is no longer what it used to be. That and the pandemic pounds I've acquired.
There is a scammer who has been trying to contact me to tell me I've won the PCH prize! I spoke to him them looked up the website and discovered they don't call, they just appear with a surprise visit.
Thank you, Gary, for your always thorough commentary and interesting interviews.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! Mani-pedi day!
I couldn’t get a foothold until I looked up Mifune and then everything else just fell into place with no trouble.
Started in the East and worked clockwise to finish in the Northwest.
Great graphics all around today, HG, but for me, the elephant "takes the cake".
I only eat organic food. I have trouble digesting the non-carbon-based stuff.
Thank you Jamie for a breezy Saturday puzzle - you must have taken pity on us in all this heat. And thank you Gary for your usual Saturday tour de force.
Quickly passed over the NW as nothing clicked. When I Finally got back I had enough perps to be not FAR FROM IT and with a little extra eFFort I got 1D FIFED and the rest of the FILL FELL into place.
35A I got PSI on perps, but shouldn't all the letters be in the same alphabet? You could do that trick with all Greek letters by inserting IOTA in OMICRON to get PHI.
38A It's interesting that RNA requires the assistance of a whole suite of PROTEINS to make PROTEINS. Scientists have yet to figure out which cam first: "the CHICKEN or the EGG".
42A KUROSAWA's break thru play was RASHOMON, in which all of the characters tell conflicting stories, leaving the audience to figure out for themselves, which of them, if any, are telling the truth.
46A It's because they only see what they want to see, an increasingly persistent problem these days.
49A Reached into the bowl blindfolded and fished out CLEO, not remembering what TALE she was a part of.
53A Amen to that HG. And they're all sitting right next to that last DOMINO in 62A.
65A And AMEN to that too, and TTP to boot.
51D SIDDHARTHA's mantra in that novel was "I can think, I can fast, and I can wait". I used to be able to do all three, but now I can only do the first and last.
Cheers,
Bill
Vidwan @11:37 AM Siddhartha is a short, easy read and I'm sure you would enjoy it. I've read most of Hesse's books, in fact my son is named for one of his characters. My favorite is "The Glass Beadgame" ("Das Glasperlenspiel"), AKA "Magister Ludi" ("The Master of the Game", about the inter-connectedness of all knowledge. You'd probably like that too, although it's a bit longer and denser.
MalMan @12:50 PM I used to have a refrigerator magnet that said - Eat Organic Food, or as you Grandparents called it, "Food".
Excellent PZL by Jamey Smith!
50% of it fell to my P+P.
The rest brought out the pirate soul in me. (Or see the Diagonal Report below*.)
Misty ~ You got one of the fills that eluded me. I speak of 29D--APPLE CRISP.
I dunno why, but I found myself too devoted to a "RUST" ending, so could not complete it properly.
Lucina ~ MATING DANCE was one of my fave fills today. Like you, I enjoy those wonderful ritual behaviors by courtly courting birds--and other critters--on David Attenborough's nature shows.
I am absolutely amazed at the photography and the scenes they manage to bring us.
We speak of P+P here, but we've got nothing on those great cinematographers.
Ye gods, how they capture those intimate rites astounds me!
~ OMK
____________
*DR: We have an amazing total of SIX diagonals today, three to each side.
Just keeping with the front end main diagonal, we can draw a FULL anagram (15 of 15 letters)!
Woo-HOO!
This two word phrase explains how I, a non-finisher, managed to capture a FULL anagram.
It was an ...
"INTERLOPER SNARF"!
I liked this puzzle. Plenty of material to scratch my head about, and just enough toeholds to get started.
VERTIGO? Nope. EARACHE.
PIPED? Nope. FIFED.
AGENT? Nope. ASSET.
GIFTS? Nope. WANTS.
Last cell to fill was my own typo, where I had SSW instead of SSE and didn't notice ESTWR right away.
Aristotle wrote in Greek. I'm not sure Latin as a language even existed at that time. The manuscript Gary shows must be a later translation by David Bolotin from Greek into Latin, although the writing as shown appears to my untrained eye to be Greek.
I've been thinkin' the clue/answer at 35 across about putting one letter inside another to spell PSI maybe works as follows: take a U and put an | on it to get Ψ.
Good wishes to you all.
This was a toughie, Saturday or not.
A sea of blanks after a couple of passes.
Then I just started filling things in.
Write-overs…MIGUNI/MIFUNE, HARE/PIKA, AIR/INK, ESE/SSE.
I’m surprised there weren’t more, actually.
BMI is just a stupid made up stat that no one in medicine (or anywhere else) should reference. When a person, male or female, has low body fat and increased musculature and shows as obese, then there is an issue.
The only foolproof stat is body fat percentage. One used to have to go into a pool and hang from a scale, then stand on a scale on the floor, to get this measurement. Now all you do is buy the $60 body fat analyzer.
There is no way anyone would undergo a colonoscopy without anesthesia. No way. So don’t worry about that.
And that’s a wrap for the week.
See you Monday.
Hi All!
Jinx - you and me both...
NE corner filled fine (I have some left-over ROMAN candles I can't fire since our area was 'incorporated' into Sugar Land) as did my brethren EEs from RPI and a few other smatterings about that I couldn't get a perp to cross.
I finally cheated on 1a(!?!) and that helped fill the NW. But I still had problems... an [Eyeroll] wasn't FOR CHRISTSAKE and I left a mess of INK on the paper b/f tossing the towel.
Thanks Jamey for putting this wannabe Sat solver in his place.
Thanks HG for a fine expo making my day a bit brighter after such a loss (including Eldest returned to OU this morning - gonna miss her, I am. #ENNUI).
WOs/ESPs - why bother today? My grid's a MESS.
Fav: KARMA. In the End, the love you get is equal to the love you make [FF to 5:01 or 6+ min - sorry, I just like this rendition]
TTP - I wanted my sandwich on a Kaiser bun too. Oh, that Kaiser -- who underwrites NPR programs.
Jayce - That's (I into U) how I justified PSI too.
{A, A-}
LOL! on the DR, OMK. #Me(Interlope)Too
FLN - Vidwan. I couldn't make out what was wrong but I wish you a long future. You're a very, um, Vidvan (I looked it up after MManatee's post) poster. I enjoy your extra contextually (and humor).
PVX - They gave me something for the butt-cam exam. When they woke me I heard "We're all done now."
I said, "I'm sorry, I seem to have fallen asleep.
Wait, it's over?"
Best nap ever! No idea what they gave me but I was wide-eyed and bushy-tailed afterwards.
Waseeley - what your grand parents called 'food': My buddy from Hong Kong says, "You know what we call Chinese food where I'm from?.... just food." He's a card.
IM: Congrats on the new Great-Grand Nephew!
Lucina - keep working on your balance. My trainer is now working (hurting!) me to get my left knee lined-up. He's done wonders for my back so I'll keep doing my ONE-LEG 25lb rows/shoulder-lifts (even as I fall over).
Ray-O: you're on fire! LOL all the way home.
I'll join all y'all for not watching 'The Mob' shows (there's no such thing as the Mafia)...
And, I don't need to watch a family documentary*... ;-)
Cheers, -T (the Knee)
*when I was at the DOD (Tinker, AFB) there was a guy I worked with from Back-East. When he heard my last name, he (in his head) knew I was a MADE MAN and started calling me -T the Knee.
I roll'd with it and others left me the F* alone #LightenUpFrancis :-)
//actually, I really don't like seeing violence - I can never un-see it. DW tried to make me watch Casino; I lasted less than half-hour.
R-O-S, the problem with Italians being too comfortable with being ortrayed as tough guy gangsters is that the perception is based on reality. Theit certainly does not apply to all Italians, but like most stereotypes it has a basis. As a Jewish male, I recognize that there are many immigrant Jews who are very cheap. There are also more tall Asians. In the end who cares.
BUT! Gary what a cheap shot to show my alma mater, the University of Connecticut being predicted to field one of the 10 worst teams this upcoming season. My brother, may he rest in piece, played football there. They were undefeated in 2020- well actually they cancelled the season, but they didn't lose. They went to many Bowl Games in their recent football FOOTBALL HISTORY . They also had a memorable win in 2009 in South Bend Indiana, defeating NOTRE DAME 33-30 .
Lem - you made me think of Russell Peters' stand up. He's a Canadian-Indian comedian and his bits are funny.
Oh, and any good Italian knows s/he needs a Jewish accountant (and a good Deli nearby!) :-)
//leave the gun; Take the cannoli.
Eddie Murphy said it best: 'You gonna believe the myths, believe all the myths... Black people [... and] have big REDACTED'
#ComedyUnites
-T
Bill Waseely @ 12:58 --
"51D SIDDHARTHA's mantra in that novel was "I can think, I can fast, and I can wait". I used to be able to do all three, but now I can only do the first and last."
Sure, but at our ages, we can still "slow"!
Lemonade @ 6:18 pm
"R-O-S, the problem with Italians being too comfortable with being ortrayed as tough guy gangsters is that the perception is based on reality. Theit certainly does not apply to all Italians:"
Feel so much better that you feel that not ALL of us are gangsters. whew!! (maybe only 75%?)
53d, Had P_KA. Tried a U: PuKA - Jimmy Stewart's six-foot rabbit.
Perps gave me the I, to FIR.
>> Roy
Roy - can you really throw out a movie reference filmed (released) when my Dad was born? There might be kids reading! who don't know Harvey. //love that movie.
Ray=O: But isn't it cool to be fear'd for nothing more than ethnicity? :-)
Well, the Girls are safe in Norman, OK. Though, Eldest forgot to pack the bolts for her bed-frame (I just found them in the Ziploc we put them in).
Best laid plans...
Cheers, -T
Anon-T
The bolts for her bed frame???? Don't they supply beds in dorms?
Lucina - She's not in the Dorms - they won't let her RA for just one (her final!) semester.
Eldest moved in with a buddy who's finishing her grad studies while she (Eldest) polishes off another 24hrs/semester for two degrees (music & psych). I'll be up there (at OU) 9/4 for her final vocal performance.
Can I say I'm proud of her? Crow about it?... Just wait 'till she's in Grad School :-)
Cheers, -T
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