Theme: "Split Decisions" - Each of the 8 animals is cracked by a black square in this grid. See this.
28A. *Wine ingredient?: LONG I. Just the letter i in Wine. And 29A. *Sarah of "Suits": RAFFERTY. Giraffe.
49A. *Slip through the cracks: OOZE. And
50A. *Traffic stoppers: BRAKES. Zebra.
86A. *Take by force: HIJACK. And
88A. *"A Clockwork Orange" antihero: ALEX. Jackal.
104A. *Closely match: PARALLEL.And
109A. *Aconcagua's range: ANDES. Eland.
11D. *Biblical possessive: THY. And 33D. *Put on the books: ENACT. Hyena.
20D. *Gene variant: ALLELE. And 56D. *Ghost: PHANTASM. Elephant.
38D. *Norse mythology battle used as the subtitle of a 2017 "Thor" film: RAGNAROK. And 92. *Place abuzz with activity: APIARY. Okapi.
80D. *Dangerous strain: E COLI. And 116. *It's next to nothing: ONE. Lion.
Reveal:
66A. Product with lots of shapes ... or what each of four black squares effectively is?: ANIMAL CRACKER. This intersects two more theme entries.
Incredible concept, so brilliantly executed. All theme entries are symmetrically placed.
Guys, I'm speechless. I can't imagine the amount of work designing and filling this grid.
Across:
5. Shrink: ANALYST.
12. Traditional koa wood product: UKULELE. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.
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19. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" author Loos: ANITA. And 38. Diamonds, in slang: ROCKS. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend".
21. Unworthy of: BENEATH.
22. Started up again: RESUMED.
23. __ officer: NAVAL. So cool!
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| Spitzboov |
24. Bishopric cousin: CANONRY. I only know canon.
25. Like aftershave after a shave: BRACING.
26. 1994 A.L. batting champ Paul: O'NEILL. Yankees' color commentator.
30. Pigment used in rustproof primer paints: RED LEAD.
32. Blood lines: VEINS.
34. Bananas or nuts: LOONY. Crackers too.
37. Monetary "p": PENCE.
43. Rib-tickler: JOKE.
46. Oval-shaped wind: OCARINA. We also have 116. They're seen among the reeds: OBOISTS.
48. Benefit: AVAIL.
51. Junk bond rating: CCC.
54. Yitzhak's predecessor: GOLDA (Meir)
55. Allegro non __: fast, but not too fast: TROPPO. New to me.
57. Umbrella component: RIB.
58. Problematic to the max: THORNIEST.
60. Gas pump fractions: TENTHS.
61. Fermented honey drink: MEAD. Never had it, you? I don't know why people would want to ferment sweet honey.
64. Mountain nymph: OREAD.
65. World Cup "Way to go!": OLE.
70. Poli-__: SCI.
73. Absinthe flavoring: ANISE.
74. A-line line: SEAM.
75. Bench warmer?: BOTTOM. Ha.
77. Stone set alone: SOLITAIRE.
81. Basic card game: WAR.
83. 1994 Olympic gold medalist skater Baiul: OKSANA.
84. __ donna: PRIMA.
85. Triple __: liqueur: SEC.
89. Keys: ISLES.
90. South American river with a crocodile namesake: ORINOCO. I know this from Enya's "Orinoco Flow". Looks docile.
92. Clumsy boats: ARKS.
93. Tribal emblem: TOTEM.
94. Minty cocktail: JULEP.
96. Gun: REV UP.
98. Daredevil's stock-in-trade: PERIL.
99. Put out: EMITTED.
114. Conditionally let out: PAROLE.
115. Winning game after game: ON A TEAR.
118. Samurai lacking a master: RONIN. Japanese for "wanderer" . Same in Chinese. The character on top just means "wondering", the second means "person".
119. Go back over: RETRACE.
120. Superheroes always have them: NEMESES.
121. They come with strings attached: YO-YOS.
122. Fine-tuned: TWEAKED.
123. Krypton, but not Tatooine: ELEMENT. Tatooine is the desert planet in "Star Wars".
124. Canapé spread: PATE.
Down:
2. Pointless: INANE.
3. Stayed: LIVED.
4. Business for many Amazon explorers?: E-TAIL. Fun clue. Thank God for Amazon these days.
5. Agatha Christie's "The __ Murders": ABC.
6. "The Day the Earth Stood Still" actress Patricia: NEAL.
7. Part of A.D.: ANNO.
8. Musician Redbone: LEON.
9. Half the taijitu symbol: YANG. Taiji is how "tai chi" spelled in China. Tu just means "picture".
10. Tried hard: STRIVEN.
12. Polished: URBANE.
13. Grooves made by a saw: KERFS. D-Otto might know this term. Not me.
14. Sky-high gp.: USAF.
15. Time co-founder: LUCE. Henry R. Luce.
16. Mideast leader: EMIR.
17. Fast time: LENT.
18. On pins and needles: EDGY.
27. Vientiane native: LAO.
29. Ocasek of the Cars: RIC. Just had him last Sunday.
31. Means of access: DOOR.
35. Elon University st.: N CAR. 112. "__ quam videri": 35-Down motto: ESSE.
36. Washington city where Olympic skiers Phil and Steve Mahre were born: YAKIMA.
37. Circle ratios: PIs.
39. Egg-shaped: OVOID.
40. Racer Yarborough: CALE.
41. Roasts, in a way: KIDS.
42. Blind segment: SLAT.
43. Brando role in 1978's "Superman": JOREL. Brando played Superman's father.
44. Critical layer: OZONE.
45. Fulfilled: KEPT.
47. Defies authority: REBELS.
49. Ringling Brothers brother: OTTO. No idea. Read more here. He died in 1911.
50. Half a Balkan country: BOSNIA.
52. Prefix with -aholic: CHOC.
53. Magnum stopper: CORK.
59. Boston-based sportswear giant: REEBOK.
62. Hotshot: ACE.
63. Attract: DRAW IN.
67. Goddess with a throne headdress: ISIS.
68. Insignificant: MERE.
69. Key of Schubert's "Trout Quintet": A MAJOR.
70. Cornfield sight: STALK.
71. Sundae alternatives: CONES.
72. Big name in movies?: IMAX.
73. Mann of 'Til Tuesday: AIMEE.
76. Winter Palace resident: TSAR. Winter Palace is now part of the Hermitage Museum.
77. Roasting rod: SPIT. In Xi'an's night market, you'll always
find these lamb skewers. Cumin-heavy. Most from Muslim-vendors. Xi'an
has a large Muslim population. Hahtoolah visited the Muslim Quarters a
while ago. Muslims are called Uyghurs in Xi'an.
78. Rounding phrase: OR SO.
79. Merry-go-round tune: LILT.
82. Derby, perhaps: RACE.
86. Cool: HIP.
87. Anchorage for a galleon: COVE.
91. Mark down, maybe: RE-LABEL.
94. Sent raspberries to?: JEERED. Blowing a raspberry.
95. Text letters often in blue: URL. See our Blog Photos.
97. Diamond pro: UMP.
98. Location: PLACE.
100. Body with arms?: TROOP. Not our body.
101. 1994 rival of Nancy: TONYA.
102. "The Cocktail Party" playwright: ELIOT (T.S.)
103. Fog modifier: DENSE.
104. Red dessert wine: PORT.
105. From square one: ANEW.
106. Appraise: RATE.
107. Cutting-edge brand?: ATRA. Good old clue.
108. Security problem: LEAK.
110. Iditarod terminus: NOME.
111. Carpe __: DIEM.
113. WWII weapon: STEN.
According to Wiki: STEN is an acronym, from the names of the weapon's chief designers, Major Reginald V. Shepherd and Harold Turpin, and EN for the Enfield factory.
117. JFK arrival, once: SST.
C.C.
29 comments:
Good morning!
Steady as she goes...no major snags, and finished under 20, so life is good. Only needed Wite-Out once to change HOLY SEE to CANONRY. (My knowledge of religious stuff is less than meager.) Kept looking for TKO to be split across words. Never found it, and totally missed finding the theme answers. [Sigh] I'll take an SO at OTTO. Thanx, Bryant, and for the tour, C.C. (Yes, KERFs are familiar, especially when making dadoes.)
LEON Rebone: We lost him in 2019. Here's one if his most famous: Seduced
RAGNAROK crossing ONEAD crossing OKSANA is a bit much!! A Natick for sure!
Good morning everyone,
Thought I was going to crap out - in the SE - but after an extended break, saw EMITTED, TROOP, and TONYA, and , Voilà, it was done. Tried 'dados' before KERFS perped. A new learning. FIR. Thought cluing was mostly superb.
Nose wrinkle at LONG I.
Enjoy the day.
It was an almost FIR today. I never saw the animals even after filling ANIMAL CRACKER. Thanks for explaining it C.C. It was my incorrect spelling of OKSANA Baiul crossing the unknown RAGNAROK. It was a WAG of either X, K, or C. I guessed C. a FIW.
BigJ @9:20- I knew the skater and OREAD is an old crossword staple; The CORK for the magnum bottle of champagne made me remember it. RAGNORAK- 100% unknown and unheard of.
CANONRY, TROPPO & BRACING (used that way)- new to me. perps
RAFFERTY, JOREL, OTTO, ONEILL, RONIN, AIMEE- unknown people that were filled by perps
YANG, ABC, ELIOT were guesses I got right.
LOONY, Banana, nuts, CRACKERS, retarded- very unPC these days. Any PRIMA donna complaints?
My little sister would spend her allowance buying Barnum's Animal Crackers. Totally tasteless cookies.
Musings
-I agree with C.C.’s summation
-ORE_D/RAGN_ROK. 50/50 for me for an “A” or an “I”. I guessed wrong!
-My son-in-law just sold a UKELELE he bought cheaply at auction for $1,300
-When school is RESUMED this month, I will be subbing again
-I had to RETRACE my cart path when I lost my iPhone
-Cutting a board to a precise length, you have to allow for the width of the KERF
-I think people in YAKIMA may not see things the same as people in Seattle
-With no-till farming, stubs of corn STALKS are visible from November to May
-TONYA was from a whole different world than Nancy Kerrigan
13D There seems to be some kerfuffle here.
Illustration seems to use a drill,not a saw
to cut the groove !
I thought this was harder than the usual Sunday, and didn't understand the theme until I was finished and went back to those black squares to see how it fit with Animal Crackers. I eventually got it because we had something similar a week or so ago.
Very inventive puzzle! And some clever answers, like YOYOS and BOTTOM.
Luckily I'm a big Marvel fan so RAGNAROK was easy, and I remember OKSANA!
The only reason I know the word OCARINA was from my son's video game: the legend of zelda: ocarina of time (Link blows in it to jump to different times)
I was stuck in the N and NE. Oh, UKELELE. I was thinking Koa the camping company instead of the tree.
As usual, Sunday toughie for me, but with lots of neat and interesting items--many thanks, Bryant. And your Sunday commentaries are always a delight, C.C. Would never have gotten the theme with all those verbal ANIMAL CRACKERS without your grid diagram--thanks for that too.
Nice to see T.S. ELIOT in the puzzle--I got that one. And also nice to see ANITA Loos and GOLDA Meir and TONYA Harding, although I didn't realize what complications she ended up having in her career until I looked her up.
And fun to see both UKULELE and OBOISTS in the puzzle.
Have a great Sunday, everybody.
Spent WAY too much time on this thumper. Looked up four answers and still had two bad cells. I don't begrudge the smart Cornerites who can solve or come close to solving these puzzlers, but I need to: have the courage to try the difficult grids I have a chance on, the serenity to quit early on the difficult grids I have no chance on, and the wisdom to know the difference.
What a masterfully constructed puzzle! I enjoyed every minute of time solving it. I did have to go back to find the cracked animals and still didn't find all of them even though they were flagged by asterisks in front of the clues. Actually, GI-RAFFE enabled me to get that one nose-wrinkler LONG I.
I finally had to look up LEON Redbone in order to complete that area, since I didn't know him nor did I know CANONRY. At least I did know Patricia NEAL; I love that movie. STRIVEN is one heck of a word, isn't it.
I knew RAGNAROK not from any movie but from my studies in college. Also, I had a roommate named Ragnar who taught me a lot about Norway.
OBOIST reminds me of yesterday's CANOEIST and Jinx's funny joke about the Unsers being racists.
MY BUTT didn't work for 75 across but it was close. CRAZY had to be changed to LOONY.
Good wishes to you all.
I almost claimed an FIR, but I couldn’t get one letter inRAGNAROCK crossing OKSANA, so I guess it’s a horseshoes “win”.
I got all the very clever theme answers and was delighted to realize they were all animals I saw in the wild on my safari to Kenya and Tanzania. A truly amazing adventure.
Thank you, Bryant, for an amazing feat. Thanks, C.C., for the interesting and entertaining tour.
Thank you Bryant for a THORNIER than expected Sunday challenge. And thank you CC for your ANALYSIS of this (to me at least) complex puzzle. I got off track early after solving the reveal, when I began looking for 4 CONSECUTIVE squares, as opposed to the 4 INDIVIDUAL squares that CRACKED the ANIMALS. The only animals I've ever cracked were the OVOID things laid by HENS.
I was expecting a lot of "wailing and gnashing of teeth" when I got to the Corner, but a lot of the early arrivals appear to have taken the puzzle in stride.
I did manage an FIR and I learned a lot of new stuff, so who am I to complain?
Fav FILLs: the musical 46A OCARINA, sometimes called the "sweet potato" (the original ocarina?) and 116A OBOISTS, just like MOSES, "seen among the reeds".
21A Wanted DIOCESE but that was a non-starter, and knew what a CANON was, so I swagged CANONRY. Sounds like something a NAVAL officer would be schooled in (and a nice CSO to Spitz CC).
Liked the other sprinkling of MUSICAL clues 12A UKULELE, 55A Allegro non TROPPO, 84A PRIMA donna, 8D LEON Redbone and 69D A MAJOR. The "Trout Quintet" got its name from the 4th movement variations on one of Schubert's equally famous songs, "Die Forelle" ("The Trout").
30A Years ago RED LEAD was also used as a colorant and a flux (to promote melting) in ceramic glazes, but it was discontinued because it is highly toxic (mainly to potters!). Nowadays LEAD is used in the form of non-toxic FRITS (pre-fused with SILICA) and is safe for both potters and consumers.
38A Liked the pairing of 38A ROCKS with 77A SOLITAIRE.
9D Didn't know what the "taijitu" symbol was, but after perping "YA" for the start of a 4 letter fill, something told me it had to be the opposite of YIN.
13D Think of KERF as simply the width of the saw blade, which as HG has pointed out, you have to account for if you want to make ends meet. And I'm with ANONYMOUS INDIAN on the drill pic as being a BIT misleading, although I suppose one could argue that a bit's diameter is analogous to the KERF of a saw blade.
38D Got RAGNOROK after realizing that BOTTOM was the real "bench warmer", not BATTER.
Cheers,
Bill
Oh I forgot to mention that. Bryant is a GENIUS!
Jinx @1:33 PM Jinx, you're a Saint!
Sunday tuffy for me. FIW despite many look-ups. Watching Brewers and Giants in Milwaukee. They sing "God Bless America" for their seventh inning streach.
Just observing that the German for hotshot : ACE - - is KANONE. And so it goes.
In many ways I succeeded in solving much of this difficult puzzle. ANITA immediately popped into my head when I saw Loos, and that helped in the NW corner. MILE was a guess; 2,3,and 4 Down were easily guessed. I saw ANIMAL CRACKER on the first pass through, and that helped with theme answers. However, the East side was a real stopper with RAGNAROK, BOTTOM, OKSANA. I needed over an hour to FIW, but admired many of the clues (like Shrink), and enjoyed my efforts.
Thank you CC for pointing out the difficulty of constructing the puzzle. Since I’ve never attempted construction, I think I may not appreciate how hard it is.
Thanks also to Bryant White for a challenging puzzle.
Great puzzle!....and -- the animals were all African!
10D "Tried hard" should be STRIVED or STROVE. STRIVEN is only used with "have" or "has", as in "she has striven" or "they have striven", so it's a bad clue. CHOCOHOLIC is misspelled. And no anywhere, ever uses the word ETAIL. The editor should be ashamed.
Hi Y'all! WOW! What a challenge, Mr. White! And I had a lot of white on my first pass of the top TIER. I almost gave up and went to bed, but kept going instead. The fill took almost an hour then I went back to make sure I had CRACKed all the ANIMALS which took another gob of time. My eyes kept thinking a couple of clues with quotation marks at the start were starred. When I realized what they were, I realized I was done. Had to write them out to be sure.
figured out there were animals when RAFFE perped in and I WAGd the GI. Didn't know either word from clues.
Thank you, C.C. for being out guide on this safari. Helps to know you found some unknowns also.
DNK: what Big Easy said.
I spent enough time remodeling to know KERF. As a skating fan, I knew OKSANA & TONYA -- but not sure on the spelling.
Jinx: good use of our favorite prayer terms.
For some reason my PC won't let me enlarge the Corner blog comments section enough to be able to read them most days. Very annoying.
Anonymous @5:52 ABASHED even! 🙃
I was sure of TACOMA. It caused three errors: BRAc/KEs and Ro/IB along with LOONt/Y for FIW after a great comeback getting GOLDA,USAF,OVOID and THORNIEST.
Oops, put out was not evicted and that strange "Diamond pro" clue was UMP. Leaving EMITTED for the above.
I finally figured out the theme and as noted it helped on EL APHANT. I agree with anon@552 on STRIVEN unless YR can defend it.
CANONRY and KERFS were unknowns.
And…
I recall my troika of friends, frenemies and NEMESES
A late start and no Wite-out led to my carelessness eg FIW. But we'll always have the Saturday FIR
WC
Bryant surely threw us a KERF ball with this very witty puzzle. DADOES are GROOVY ; the fact that all the animals are from Africa makes this a masterpiece. Thank you BW! Look forward to your next challenge
Started this slog at 10:30, took an hour off to have my nails done, and caved at 5:30. Really wasted six precious hours exclaiming my angst with this entry! Way too many esoteric references to archane subjects. Bryant shall be added to my growing list of LAT constructors that I will TBC (toss before commensing).
8 hours off and on…. But it was fun!
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
ED, did your record player get stuck?
Boy, we really miss Anon-T
Sunday Lurk say...
Well, thank you WC (I think :-))
If I've heard KERF, it was from This Old House. My vocabulary, though, only extends to "Account for the width of the blade, moron." [I talk to myself when wood working].
BigE - you had me up to retarded. All prior are perfectly fine to describe a "candidate for a padded room," "men being chased by men with butterfly nets," etc. Retarded is simply that - a stunted development in the mind or physical capability when compared to others in the same age bracket - there's nothing 'wrong' with it (the word) nor the condition. It just is. [I would insert George Carlin here but...]
I've said it before and I'll say it again - nice pic NAVAL Officer Spitz!
HG - so did he (son-in-law) buy it 'cheaply' at auction for a mere $1,300? #DanglingModifier ;-)
Boomer - Even with your Twins in the basement, it's gotta give you hope they took the 'Stros in the 4-game series 3-1.
'Tis the last night at Pop's house... We had some quite time [read: no other family visitors] and some pizza. Good times & good stories.
Everyone's in bed now; this is the time in my visit I do a walkabout and just look at all the stuff that's been in the same spot for (seemingly) ~30 years.
If everything works out, I'll be back at Pop's 9/11 for (Army) Bro's retirement bash.
Puzzle Play with ya's tomorrow!
Cheers, -T
For Superman’s (biological) father: Jor-El.
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