Good morning, cruciverbalists! Malodorous Manatee, here with the recap. Today you might sense a change in the air. Or, perhaps, it's "in the bag". To help illustrate this, my canine pal has shown up wearing a number of different outfits (while doing his best Jeff Lynne impersonation).
Our puzzle setter today, in what appears to be his L.A. Times debut, is Bill McCartha. Welcome to the Crossword Corner, Bill. We hope that it is just the first of many appearances.
At four places within the puzzle, Bill has cleverly placed streaks of consecutive letters that, when unscrambled, spell CLOTHES. That is impressive. The reveal provides us with a quite straightforward description of what is going on:
40 Across: Overnight bag item ... and what's literally hidden in 17-, 24-. 51- and 63-Across: CHANGE OF CLOTHES.
17 Across: Plane storage area: TOOL CHEST. A nice bit of misdirection. Something aeronautic? Nope. It's not an airplane but a carpenter's plane.
24 Across: Alpine resort features: SCENIC HOTELS. A bit awkward in that the alpine vistas are SCENIC but the HOTELS, themselves, probably would not be described as being scenic. Not too bad, though.
51 Across: St. Petersburg's Vaganova Academy, e.g.: BALLET SCHOOL. BALLET is often a good guess when the clue is looking for something Russian . . . et Les Ballets Trockadero hail from Monte Carlo (at least in name) so that won't be the answer.
63: Kyra Sedgwick TV title role:THE CLOSER. That second E in this answer was just a tiny bit confusing, theme-wise, for a moment.
Here's where the theme answer jumbles appear in the grid:
. . . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Spot for honored guests: DAIS. A low platform on which to place a seat of honor.
5. AutoZone rival: NAPA. Often clued with an oenophilic reference.
9. Long-necked African mammal: OKAPI. What is the opposite of an OKAPI? An Original.
An Okapi Visited Us Last Sunday As Well
14. 1 for H, e.g.: AT NO. ATomic NO. (number)
15. Help flee a collar: ABET. A nice riff on Flea Collar. Collar, in this instance, as in slang for arrest a perp (no, not our kind of perp).
16. One finalizing a return, perhaps: FILER. Ah, a tax return. ELVIS ("Return to Sender") also came to mind.
19. Knighted golf analyst: FALDO. Sir Nick Faldo
20. Itzcoatl, for one: AZTEC. Itzcoatl was an AZTEC Emperor. This is probably not common knowledge but the word, itself, looked to this marine mammal like it might be from the Mesoamerican language group and that helped.
21. Kansas __: CITY. Kansas CITY here I come! Great BBQ.
Wilbert Harrison - 1959
23. Hardly flushed: WAN.
28. Kleptomaniacal toon monkey: ABU. ABU, a character from Walt Disney's version of Aladdin, swings by semi-regularly.
31. Paper gauge: PLY. Hmmmm. I think of gauge as a measure of thickness and PLY as a layer. Now, where did I put that micrometer?
32. Migraine symptoms: AURAS.
33. Excludes: BANS. Hold off on that third letter until you know if it's going to be an N or an R.
35. Pivot around: SLUE. We've seen a slew of SLUEs in our puzzles over time.
38. "This I __ see": GOTTA. Fill in the blank.
43. Arabian Peninsula capital: SANAA. The capital of Yemen regularly pops up in puzzles. Five letters. Three A's and an S. A constructor's friend.
44. Linguist Chomsky: NOAM. Known also for his social criticism and political activism.
45. Radio button: SEEK. The SEEK function searches up and down to find a station with a strong signal.
46. Seriously wounds: MAIMS. Today's "let's skip the graphic" moment.
48. Easy mark: SAP. There are many different definitions of SAP from which to choose. E.G. we often see a clue referencing maple syrup. Here, our puzzle setter/editor has gone with a usage derived from slang for a simpleton.
50. "Treasure Island" monogram: RLS. Robert Louis Stevenson
55. Name from the French for "beloved": AMY. From the Latin amare (to love) via the French (as clued).
56. Zip: BRIO. Neither ZERO nor NADA nor NONE (all four letters). Not a CLOTHES closure reference. Rather, "zip" as in energy or vigor.
57. Bounded: LEAPT.
61. Musical buzzer: KAZOO.
Tracy Newman - San Francisco Bay Blues
66. Abrasive mineral: EMERY. EMERY is commonly defined as a rock containing the mineral corundum (aluminum oxide) mixed with other minerals.
67. Quick correction: UNDO. One of today's computer references. Ctrl+Z
68. Diamond figure: NINE. The number of players in a baseball team's starting lineup (okay, ten if there's a DH).
69. Carpentry grooves: DADOS.
70. Quiet "Yo": PSST. A faint sound often heard in crossword puzzles.
71. One way to go: EASY. Borderline obtuse. FAST? FISH? OVER? INTO? PAST? JUMP IN THE LAKE? Thanks, perps.
Down:
1. __ mining: DATA. STRIP would not fit. Either GOLD or COAL would have fit the space but would not have worked out. DATA mining is a more modern concept.
2. The whole shebang: A TO Z.
3. How some close NFL games are won: IN OT. INOverTime
4. Pump bottoms: SOLES. Pump, as in a type of shoe.
5. "Not feelin' it": NAH. A bit of a punt.
6. The Great Emancipator, familiarly: ABE. Abraham Lincoln. A nickname clue for a nickname answer.
7. Frequent De Niro co-star: PESCI. Robert De Niro and Joe PESCI.
8. Tall story?: ATTIC. An amusing bit of word play. The uppermost story of a house. Although, often without much head room.
9. "Scoot along, now": OFF YOU GO. When the clue is in quotation marks then the answer can be almost anything a person could say.
10. Soul seller: KIA. FAUST? ROBERT JOHNSON? JIMMY PAGE? Nope. An automobile.
2020 KIA Soul
11. Come rain or come shine: ALL WEATHER. What is the opposite of a cold front? A warm back.
12. C&W strings: PEDAL STEEL.
The Byrds with Lloyd Green on PEDAL STEEL Guitar
13. Clubs seen near woods: IRONS. A golfing reference.
18. Sputnik letters: CCCP. Союз Советских Социалистических Республик. The Union Of Soviet Socialist Republics in Cyrillic. Sputnik was the name of the first man-made satellite sent into orbit and is also, now, the name of a COVID vaccine.
22. Hip-hop article: THA. Wha?
25. More: ELSE. If then ELSE?
26. Guitar string option: NYLON.
27. Gentle gaits: TROTS.
28. Beginner's lesson: ABCS.
29. Nassau rum drink: BAHAMA MAMA.
30. Like raw 1-Down: UNANALYZED. It seems appropriate to leave this one uncommented upon. Oops.
34. Gourmet gastropod: SNAIL. People on diets often eat SNAILS because they want to avoid fast food.
36. Storied abduction craft: UFO. Unidentified Flying Objects. A UFO is now often referred to as a UAP or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and also, sometimes, as CRAP or Completely Ridiculous Alien Piffle.
37. Internet funding: E-CASH. Yet another appearance of an "E word". Enough.
39. Big favors: ASKS. Slang.
41. Handhelds that debuted in 1989: GAMEBOYS. Developed by Nintendo
42. Texter's "Too funny!": LMAO. Laughing My Ass Off. Can we say that here or is it okay only in reference to Balaam?
47. Orchestra sect.: STR. STRings, I guess. Another bit of a punt. I suspect that Bill tried to find something else that work work. Glad that it didn't turn out to be an STD.
49. Interview: POLL. A bit of a stretch as clued by, hey, it's Thursday. I took a poll the other day. It turns out that 100% of people get angry when their tents fall down.
51. __ beans: BAKED. A straightforward fill-in-the-blank clue.
52. Abs-strengthening exercise: SIT UP. Alternatively, what a canine sometimes does to beg.
53. Attorney Roy and sports anchor Linda: COHNS. Linda COHN is a sportscaster with whom I am unfamiliar. I do not receive ESPN on my TV antenna setup. Roy COHN? That's an extremely lengthy story.
54. Spaghetti Western director Sergio: LEONE. With great music by Ennio Moricone.
58. K2 locale: ASIA.
59. Pilot and others: PENS. As with 17 Across, a bit of aeronautic misdirection.
60. Hoops long shot: TREY. "Hoops" is slang for basketball and TREY is slang for a shot worth three points.
62. Acapulco gold: ORO. Today's Spanish lesson. In the 60's Acapulco Gold was much sought after. Likely, it still is.
64. News VIPs: EDS. EDitorS
65. Barracks unit: COT. I suppose that if we can have a 215-bed hospital we can also have a 45-COT barracks. Of course, if you sin 90 times you will only be cot 45.
Well, Cornerites, that almost wraps up this Change of Clothes wrap up. Before packing it in, however, I will point out that roughly once each decade I am forced to change my clothes from the practical (usually denim or cargo pants, polypropylene shirt and good walking shoes) to a costume deemed by society to better suit a specific occasion. Here is a photo taken of Valerie and me at her niece's wedding last Saturday.
As the bumper sticker says, "When hell freezes over I'll ski there, too."
On the DAIS there sat an OKAPI In a CHANGE OF CLOTHES that looked sloppy. He was just filling in For his giraffic kin. He wasn't the HONORED GUEST, just a copy!
A pliers tattoo on one breast, And a wrench, and imagine the rest. B. and D.'s not her thing, She has a mechanical swing, And feels naked without her TOOL CHEST!
FIR, but amfm -> SEEK, nada -> BRIO, awry -> EASY, and ussr -> CCCP. DNK either of the COHNS, THA, Vaganova (new WHAT?), or Itzcoati. I thought of "EASY going", "EASY Livin' (Uriah Heep)", and "Take it Easy" (Eagles), so I liked that clue and fill.
Anyone else think of cell phones for "handhelds"? Lately some restaurants that DW, Zoe and I frequent call their sammies "handhelds".
Yay, another successful solve, complete with reveal and theme. Interesting that OKAPI and DADO both reappeared today. No Wite-Out required, so life is good. Nice debut, Bill, and excellent review, Mal-Man. (You both look great in that photo. How'd you ever convince that lady to marry one such as you?)
AURAS: I used to get migraines, but none in the last 30 years. I still get the visual aura about once weekly -- a "starry" circle that expands until it goes out of range. Takes about 15 minutes.
SEEK: Dad's 1950 Cadillac hearse came with an AM radio. The only way to change stations was to let it "seek." Apparently push buttons were too plebeian.
PEDAL STEEL: The Byrds got no love in Nashwille when that album came out.
CCCP: I remember going outside to watch Sputnik cruise across the sky. My 12-year-old brain wasn't impressed.
Was FIR EASY? Yes. Was noticing CHANGE OF CLOTHES easy? NO. I noticed the CH in the first three theme answers (purposely bypassed 40A) but there was no CH in THE CLOSER. No V8 moment for me today. Just a few unknowns filled by perps- ABU, THE CLOSER, COHNS, AURAS.
AURAS- never had a migraine and hope I never do. AMY- now spelled Amie, Amee and who knows what else PEDAL STEEL- didn't know that was a name of a 'steel guitar'
MM-you're too formal for BE. I wore a tux in 2019 for a Mardi Gras Extravaganza. Suits? Weddings and funerals only.
Nice puzzle, Bill, and great write-up, Manatee! I really liked this puzzle. The theme answers are seemed very natural, although CLOTHES is a pretty long word to anagram. Some of the fill was a little tricky, but it's towards the end of the week.
Good morning everyone. Thanks for a great puzzle and review. However it was tough for me. Lots of unknowns. Data mining, tha, pedal steel,, dados slue. Oh well. For the baseball fans here, tonight is the Field of Dreams game. My Yankees are playing. Sorry all you Yankee haters, they’re my team. Can’t help it. Really looking forward to this game. Have a great day everyone.
I think my only w/o was Spin before Slue and the only unknown was Pedal Steel which was slow in revealing itself due to my entering Falco instead of Faldo, a silly mistake as I knew full well it was Nick Faldo. I also realized that Pecal Steel couldn’t possibly be right. I liked the theme and the reveal but some of the cluing was too cutesy for my taste. I also liked the O Team: At No, Undo, Faldo, Brio, Kazoo, Go, LMAO, UFO, and Oro. No Oreo, though!
Thanks, Bill, and congrats on your debut and thanks, MalMan, for the chuckles and commentary but most of all, thanks for the cute and clever canine, strutting his/her stuff in style. Cute as can be and made my day. Thanks for sharing the lovely photo of you and Valerie. Tres chic, (I did not picture you with a beard.)
Lizza @ 7:59 ~ Go Yankees! I’ve been a Yankees since I was old enough to understand the game. ⚾️
FLN
Welcome back, Lucina. You were certainly missed and it’s nice to hear that you had such en enjoyable trip. 🤗
Spelt FALDO wrong, so, no cigar today. But got everything ELSE. Kind of a neat theme, but it was not used in the solve. No searches were needed. Nice mis-direction with 'plane'. PENS - This puzzle was solve with a Pilot PEN G2.
Musings -Bill’s debut was fun to do and seemed to have a lot of new clue/fill entries -Isolated - An area where the SEEK function finds nothing -I’ve lost count of how many ways kids have spelled AMY in my classes -Opponents can get completely different conclusions when mining DATA -Most tires today are sold as ALL WEATHER. I remember putting on “mud and snows” for winter -My golf woods have no trace of wood and I doubt my IRONS have any iron -Sputnik put a scare into America which made us consolidate all space programs into NASA -I don’t mind taking a POLL over the phone until it turns into a Push POLL. Click! -Dyersville, Iowa, where “The Field Of Dreams” is located is a long way from New York geographically and ideologically
I.M. @ 8:45 - I am very happy that you enjoyed the pup's antics. As for the beard, that is a recent addition (lack of subtraction?). I am not certain how long I will keep it as I do not recognize myself in the mirror. Okay, I didn't before I grew the beard but it's worse now.
HG @ 9:02 - I have been shopping for ALL WEATHER tires and am pretty close to "pulling the trigger" on a set of Michelin Cross Climates. Perhaps a bit too aggressive for most of my driving but nice to have in the mountains.
D.O. @ 6:50 - We had both been down, and back up, the marriage aisle earlier in our respective lives (before we met) and find it better to just "shack up" at this point.
I guess it's just me that found this puzzle just a bit too cutesy. BRIO is a word I love so that was nice. And NOAM Chomsky has become a crossword staple and was in fact, my first fill.
NAPA to me means something else entirely. On my next trip to California at the end of the month we shall celebrate a birthday there.
I beg to differ about the SCENIC HOTELS. Some of them have unusual architecture and those details that describe not only an Alpine hotel but many other buildings as well. I find them definitely SCENIC.
TREY as clued is news to me. One of my nephews is the third of his name so he is TREY.
I really liked THE CLOSER and watched it until it was discontinued.
The unusual spelling of Itzcoati screams AZTEC.
Thank you, Malman, for your commentary and the photo of you and your mate. She is lovely.
Well, Friday's are toughies for me, but I still enjoyed this one--many thanks, Bill. And, great write-up, MalMan, with great pictures (cute pup), thanks for that too.
Started off with DAIS, which helped a bit. And happy to get NOAM Chomsky, as always. Also Sergio LEONE. KAZOO was funny--a buzzer? Well, yeah. Had to laugh when the last word on this toughie was EASY.
Thank you Bill McCartha for a very nice yet challenging puzzle, with some unusual clues and definitions. IMHO, your unusual last name moves you ahead of all the other McCarthys.... Alphabetically, at least ... a big advantage in a phone book listing. ;-)
Thank you MalMan, ... for a great review. IMHO, you two, look like a power celebrity couple... you guys must have been the cynosure of all eyes at the wedding.
The Okapi, as pictured, looks more like a combination of a hyena, a horse and a zebra ... rather than a relative of a giraffe, as deduced by zoologists. Looks like a copy produced by a photocopier that ran out of toner .....
A la RayO-Sunshine .... ABET ... A Lincolnesque 5$ wager. PESCI ... when repeated several times, what my jewish neighbor pleads with her dog, to complete its act. BAHA MAMAMA ... a Baja Californy maternal grandmother. I wonder if Pesci ever said, OFF YOU GO, to the victim in any of his mafia movies ....
I wonder what Disney was thinking of, when they named the klepto monkey ABU, in a pseudo arabic film. ABU in arabic, means 'father' or 'father of' and has been used as a non de plume for national leaders to terrorists ( as in Abu Nidal - Father of the struggle - ).
Uh, Misty - Hate to tell you, but this one was a Thursday puzzle. Bet I'll DNF tomorrow's Friday version.
Vid - What is this "phone book listing" of which you speak?
Gary, there ain't any persimmon in my "woods" either, but it grates on my nerves to hear Sir Nick announce that Phil is hitting a "3-metal" instead of a driver. I wonder if he'll start calling irons "steels" as well?
Write-overs…ANYWEATHER/ALLWEATHER, MAMABAHAMA/BAHAMAMAMA (all the As were correct!).
ALWAYS get the best tires you can afford…they are the ONLY interface between the car and the road.
MIGRAINES…I get the aura as well, mine looks like the 3D cube that blocked the Enterprise in the original STAR TREK. If I take the meds right away that’s all I get. They don’t happen often.
Glad to note all the Yankee fans here…they’ve been playing much better as of late. Funny how an all right hand lineup is so easy to pitch to. Since they got some lefty batters they have been much tougher. Now, for that bullpen.,..
The reveal helped me greatly in solving this one, just a change in the order of the letters in CLOTHES. I liked the many misdirections. This was not easy for me, but I made a needless spelling error, I used I instead of Y in analyzed, which gave me AMI I don't try to avoid write-overs. I use the "Hokey Pokey" style when solving. You put the right hand in, you take the right hand out, you put the right hand in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey. I put the L in. I put the L out. I put the L in. Today, most of the time, my first thought was correct. I use trial and error, I don't wait to be sure. I didn't know PEDAL STEEL or FALDO. The D was a lucky WAG. Not knowing THE CLOSER held me up a while. OKL, I liked the first one best. The "trots" are not gentle. LOL. PLY usually refers to layers. Not a fan of this clue. I am a fan of both the Mets and the Yankees. The e words don't bother me. It's 2021. They are neologisms that I predict are here to stay. The Y gives specificity to the words.
Re Sputnik -- FLN: Husker Gary "Craft orbiting Earth travel at about Mach 23." Sound travels at different speeds thru different materials. Mach is the ratio of an object's speed compared to the speed of sound. Since sound doesn't travel thru a vacuum, satellites are going Mach ∞.
PLY = toilet paper gauge (I only use 2 ply) Hand up for not knowing PEDAL STEEL, TREY.
Wondered if Vaganova was in St.Petersburg Russia or Florida.
ATOZ was also the librarian of Starfleet's Memory Alpha.
Today's puzzle was not EASY for me. I meandered down to the middle before I wrote two words in. And both of those turned out to be wrong! Ultimately, to my surprise, I managed to FIR. Thanks, Bill for an entertaining debut. Figuring out the theme took a bit, but then I saw the jumbled CLOTHES. My gourmet gastropod was a squid/SNAIL, I am embarrassed to say.
Thanks, MalMan, for the excellent review and the picture of you and Valerie all dressed up. It's nice to see your comments again, Lucina. We missed you while you were enjoying your trip. Hope you all are enjoying your day today.
Congrats on the LAT debut, Bill. Nice theme, though, I nearly ink'd bundle b/f CHANGE (SNAIL stopped me).
Thanks for the music laden expo, MManatee. //eat snails to avoid fast food? Really? ;-) //math joke at COT was funny, though //nice pic of you and your SO
WOs: PEcCI, WoN ESPs: FALDO, BRIO | COHNs, AMY Favs: KAZOO and BAHAMA MAMA are fun to say.
{A, A}
FNL - Lucina: Sorry, I forgot that was a NYT pay-wall'd link. I think I only get 3 free a month before I have to use DW's account.
Spitz - I also use a Pilot G2 (0.5mm black) to ink my grid
Jinx - Yeah, I was thinking PDAs but even the Apple Newton didn't come out until '93. //self fact-check: While Apple was the first to use the term 'PDA', the Psion Organizer (1984) is recognized as the 1st.
What a slog.When every other clue seems to be trying so hard to be cutesy/tricky,it gets tiresome.Guess I'm gonna have to bone up on my Russian Ballet schools, hip-hop lingo, and the countless sports names and actors we're expected to know at the drop of a hat.
Although this puzzle has plenty of clever, fresh cluing and fill, in the end it simply was not quite my cup of tea. Maybe it's the aforementioned "cutesy" cluing, as well as "punt" fill such as ATNO, INOT, NAH, STR, and THA that misflavored my tea.
The word aimée literally means "loved" in French.
Thank you, OwenKL, for explaining how ELSE can be clued as "More."
Thank you, Malodorous Manatee, for a terrific, enlightening, and entertaining recap.
A neat PZL from Mr. McCartha, well explicated by the MalMan! It was probably doable--maybe-- if only the latter "P" of my P+P had held out.
But I seem to be in a hurry these days, so skipped to the end after completing 60%. Much of my time is spent on cracking the Jumble and contributing to Owen's clever site. Y'know, over at http://jumblehints.blogspot.com/2021/08/aug-12-2021.html.
By now my friend Misty has learned that the reason her "Friday" PZL was tough wasn't the end of the week, but that it was actually Thursday-tough. Tough enough, anyway, while boding ill for the real Friday trial am Morgen. ~ OMK ___________ DR: Three diagonals, a 3-way on the near side. While I needed help to finish the XWD, I score majorly on the anagram front. Yes, my friends, it is Woo-HOO! for an anagram of the central diagonal that uses 15 of the 15 letters!
This anagram yields a term for a lummox behaving like a teenager. Yep, I mean to...
Musings 2 -Fun comment Jinx, There also is no tin in “tin foil” despite that is what many call it these days! -Owen – NASA uses that Mach # just for a frame of reference to terrestrial, scalar event like speed. Orbiting space craft go approximately 23x the speed of sound under normal Earthly conditions and many times faster than bullets as well. -Welcome back, Lucy! -Nice write-up, Bill! You look fine in that picture but it’s easy to see who got the best of that deal! :-)
Hi Y'all! Very challenging, Bill McCartha. Thanks, MalMan for a great expo & picture.
Like Vidwan, I noticed that the OKAPI seemed to be built out of spare parts of other animals or as a result of unusual mating.
I enjoy Sir Nick Faldo's commentary & knew who the clue meant. Could I think of his name? Not until I had a couple of perps.
Speaking of memory loss: saw an old "Catch 21" show on TV. Question was "Solving daily crossword puzzles will help prevent what". Answer was "dementia". I didn't start early enough, methinks.
Handsome guy in a tux, thank you so much for that rendition of San Francisco Bay Blues. It's hard enough to sing, I can't imagine playing the guitar and kazooing, too.
You're welcome, Becky. Thanks to all of you,Corner Dwellers, for your kind comments and kind critiques, too. Now it's time to unload the dishwasher, and take in the trash cans, and put away the laundry and deal with a less-than-truthful HVAC vendor, and then, perhaps, watch the balance of the Field of Dreams game and enjoy a glass of scotch. Peated or Non?
Misty, as noted by OMK, that was THURSDAY. Wait til you do Friday. Fiendishly clever clueing.
I guess cornfield baseball has an appeal. We played at cow-flap stadium. No limit on no. of kids to a side. Nor ability. Cows had left previous year or two.
Well, I fought with this one off and on all day! The SW was the last to fall – about 30 minutes ago, when I finally filled in enough holes in that area to fill in BAHAMAMAMA and UNANALYSED. Got the theme about a third of the way through, which helped by telling me what to look for in a couple of the long fills.
Actually, for me, there was a whole bunch of chicken/egg stuff all through the puzzle. I can’t tell you how many times it took out and put in STR in 47D. Mount Wite-Out!
Oh, give me a FIW. Couldn’t remember OKAPI (could visualize it, but it was facing the other direction), and I was completely misdirected with KIA and PEDALSTEEL. I’m just glad I filled in the whole grid and only had two incorrect squares.
Thanks for beating my brains out today, Bill! Thanks for the expo, MM! Great photo!
Yes, Lucina, the Z in ITZCOATI screams AZTEC, but some dummy (and it wasn’t Mr. Kizzy, who was lying here on my desk sleeping … er, helping me) decided that an S would look nice there. Oh, well…. I eventually saw the error of my ways.
On the DAIS there sat an OKAPI
ReplyDeleteIn a CHANGE OF CLOTHES that looked sloppy.
He was just filling in
For his giraffic kin.
He wasn't the HONORED GUEST, just a copy!
A pliers tattoo on one breast,
And a wrench, and imagine the rest.
B. and D.'s not her thing,
She has a mechanical swing,
And feels naked without her TOOL CHEST!
{B+, A.}
FIR, but amfm -> SEEK, nada -> BRIO, awry -> EASY, and ussr -> CCCP. DNK either of the COHNS, THA, Vaganova (new WHAT?), or Itzcoati. I thought of "EASY going", "EASY Livin' (Uriah Heep)", and "Take it Easy" (Eagles), so I liked that clue and fill.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else think of cell phones for "handhelds"? Lately some restaurants that DW, Zoe and I frequent call their sammies "handhelds".
Thanks to Bill and MalMan for the fun.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteYay, another successful solve, complete with reveal and theme. Interesting that OKAPI and DADO both reappeared today. No Wite-Out required, so life is good. Nice debut, Bill, and excellent review, Mal-Man. (You both look great in that photo. How'd you ever convince that lady to marry one such as you?)
AURAS: I used to get migraines, but none in the last 30 years. I still get the visual aura about once weekly -- a "starry" circle that expands until it goes out of range. Takes about 15 minutes.
SEEK: Dad's 1950 Cadillac hearse came with an AM radio. The only way to change stations was to let it "seek." Apparently push buttons were too plebeian.
PEDAL STEEL: The Byrds got no love in Nashwille when that album came out.
CCCP: I remember going outside to watch Sputnik cruise across the sky. My 12-year-old brain wasn't impressed.
Was FIR EASY? Yes. Was noticing CHANGE OF CLOTHES easy? NO. I noticed the CH in the first three theme answers (purposely bypassed 40A) but there was no CH in THE CLOSER. No V8 moment for me today. Just a few unknowns filled by perps- ABU, THE CLOSER, COHNS, AURAS.
ReplyDeleteAURAS- never had a migraine and hope I never do.
AMY- now spelled Amie, Amee and who knows what else
PEDAL STEEL- didn't know that was a name of a 'steel guitar'
MM-you're too formal for BE. I wore a tux in 2019 for a Mardi Gras Extravaganza. Suits? Weddings and funerals only.
Nice puzzle, Bill, and great write-up, Manatee! I really liked this puzzle. The theme answers are seemed very natural, although CLOTHES is a pretty long word to anagram. Some of the fill was a little tricky, but it's towards the end of the week.
ReplyDeleteTook me 10:34 today to switch outfits.
ReplyDeleteHad no idea on the ballet school clue/answer, and was unfamiliar with "auras" in that context.
This might have been more difficult if there weren't so many lhf footholds. It helped to know FALDO, AZTEC and recall SANAA. PEDAL STEEL was unknown.
ReplyDeleteMaloman piqued my interest re. Roy COHN
WC
That link may be considered political , sorry. I just remembered the guy as RFK's boss in the Mccarthy hearings
DeleteGood morning everyone. Thanks for a great puzzle and review. However it was tough for me. Lots of unknowns. Data mining, tha, pedal steel,, dados slue. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteFor the baseball fans here, tonight is the Field of Dreams game. My Yankees are playing. Sorry all you Yankee haters, they’re my team. Can’t help it. Really looking forward to this game. Have a great day everyone.
Charlamagne THA God, Trae THA Truth, and Ceebo THA Rapper are among prominent American rap artists.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI think my only w/o was Spin before Slue and the only unknown was Pedal Steel which was slow in revealing itself due to my entering Falco instead of Faldo, a silly mistake as I knew full well it was Nick Faldo. I also realized that Pecal Steel couldn’t possibly be right. I liked the theme and the reveal but some of the cluing was too cutesy for my taste. I also liked the O Team: At No, Undo, Faldo, Brio, Kazoo, Go, LMAO, UFO, and Oro. No Oreo, though!
Thanks, Bill, and congrats on your debut and thanks, MalMan, for the chuckles and commentary but most of all, thanks for the cute and clever canine, strutting his/her stuff in style. Cute as can be and made my day. Thanks for sharing the lovely photo of you and Valerie. Tres chic, (I did not picture you with a beard.)
Lizza @ 7:59 ~ Go Yankees! I’ve been a Yankees since I was old enough to understand the game. ⚾️
FLN
Welcome back, Lucina. You were certainly missed and it’s nice to hear that you had such en enjoyable trip. 🤗
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteSpelt FALDO wrong, so, no cigar today. But got everything ELSE. Kind of a neat theme, but it was not used in the solve. No searches were needed. Nice mis-direction with 'plane'.
PENS - This puzzle was solve with a Pilot PEN G2.
Have a great day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Bill’s debut was fun to do and seemed to have a lot of new clue/fill entries
-Isolated - An area where the SEEK function finds nothing
-I’ve lost count of how many ways kids have spelled AMY in my classes
-Opponents can get completely different conclusions when mining DATA
-Most tires today are sold as ALL WEATHER. I remember putting on “mud and snows” for winter
-My golf woods have no trace of wood and I doubt my IRONS have any iron
-Sputnik put a scare into America which made us consolidate all space programs into NASA
-I don’t mind taking a POLL over the phone until it turns into a Push POLL. Click!
-Dyersville, Iowa, where “The Field Of Dreams” is located is a long way from New York geographically and ideologically
I.M. @ 8:45 - I am very happy that you enjoyed the pup's antics. As for the beard, that is a recent addition (lack of subtraction?). I am not certain how long I will keep it as I do not recognize myself in the mirror. Okay, I didn't before I grew the beard but it's worse now.
ReplyDeleteHG @ 9:02 - I have been shopping for ALL WEATHER tires and am pretty close to "pulling the trigger" on a set of Michelin Cross Climates. Perhaps a bit too aggressive for most of my driving but nice to have in the mountains.
D.O. @ 6:50 - We had both been down, and back up, the marriage aisle earlier in our respective lives (before we met) and find it better to just "shack up" at this point.
B.E. @ 7:34 - Yes, weddings and funerals only.
Nick is my nephew’s wife father. Very nice guy.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's just me that found this puzzle just a bit too cutesy. BRIO is a word I love so that was nice. And NOAM Chomsky has become a crossword staple and was in fact, my first fill.
NAPA to me means something else entirely. On my next trip to California at the end of the month we shall celebrate a birthday there.
I beg to differ about the SCENIC HOTELS. Some of them have unusual architecture and those details that describe not only an Alpine hotel but many other buildings as well. I find them definitely SCENIC.
TREY as clued is news to me. One of my nephews is the third of his name so he is TREY.
I really liked THE CLOSER and watched it until it was discontinued.
The unusual spelling of Itzcoati screams AZTEC.
Thank you, Malman, for your commentary and the photo of you and your mate. She is lovely.
Thank you, Irish Miss!
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Well, Friday's are toughies for me, but I still enjoyed this one--many thanks, Bill. And, great write-up, MalMan, with great pictures (cute pup), thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteStarted off with DAIS, which helped a bit. And happy to get NOAM Chomsky, as always. Also Sergio LEONE. KAZOO was funny--a buzzer? Well, yeah. Had to laugh when the last word on this toughie was EASY.
Have a good day, everybody.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bill McCartha for a very nice yet challenging puzzle, with some unusual clues and definitions. IMHO, your unusual last name moves you ahead of all the other McCarthys.... Alphabetically, at least ... a big advantage in a phone book listing. ;-)
Thank you MalMan, ... for a great review.
IMHO, you two, look like a power celebrity couple... you guys must have been the cynosure of all eyes at the wedding.
The Okapi, as pictured, looks more like a combination of a hyena, a horse and a zebra ... rather than a relative of a giraffe, as deduced by zoologists.
Looks like a copy produced by a photocopier that ran out of toner .....
A la RayO-Sunshine .... ABET ... A Lincolnesque 5$ wager.
PESCI ... when repeated several times, what my jewish neighbor pleads with her dog, to complete its act.
BAHA MAMAMA ... a Baja Californy maternal grandmother.
I wonder if Pesci ever said, OFF YOU GO, to the victim in any of his mafia movies ....
I wonder what Disney was thinking of, when they named the klepto monkey ABU, in a pseudo arabic film. ABU in arabic, means 'father' or 'father of' and has been used as a non de plume for national leaders to terrorists ( as in Abu Nidal - Father of the struggle - ).
Have a nice day, all.
Uh, Misty - Hate to tell you, but this one was a Thursday puzzle. Bet I'll DNF tomorrow's Friday version.
ReplyDeleteVid - What is this "phone book listing" of which you speak?
Gary, there ain't any persimmon in my "woods" either, but it grates on my nerves to hear Sir Nick announce that Phil is hitting a "3-metal" instead of a driver. I wonder if he'll start calling irons "steels" as well?
ReplyDeleteIt’s almost 2 PM…where’s everyone at?
MISTY..,hate to break it to you…it’s Thursday.
Not to much trouble today….
Write-overs…ANYWEATHER/ALLWEATHER, MAMABAHAMA/BAHAMAMAMA (all the As were correct!).
ALWAYS get the best tires you can afford…they are the ONLY interface between the car and the road.
MIGRAINES…I get the aura as well, mine looks like the 3D cube that blocked the Enterprise in the original STAR TREK. If I take the meds right away that’s all I get. They don’t happen often.
Glad to note all the Yankee fans here…they’ve been playing much better as of late. Funny how an all right hand lineup is so easy to pitch to. Since they got some lefty batters they have been much tougher. Now, for that bullpen.,..
Anyway, looking forward to the game as well.
See you tomorrow.
The reveal helped me greatly in solving this one, just a change in the order of the letters in CLOTHES.
ReplyDeleteI liked the many misdirections.
This was not easy for me, but I made a needless spelling error, I used I instead of Y in analyzed, which gave me AMI
I don't try to avoid write-overs. I use the "Hokey Pokey" style when solving. You put the right hand in, you take the right hand out, you put the right hand in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey. I put the L in. I put the L out. I put the L in. Today, most of the time, my first thought was correct. I use trial and error, I don't wait to be sure.
I didn't know PEDAL STEEL or FALDO. The D was a lucky WAG. Not knowing THE CLOSER held me up a while.
OKL, I liked the first one best.
The "trots" are not gentle. LOL.
PLY usually refers to layers. Not a fan of this clue.
I am a fan of both the Mets and the Yankees.
The e words don't bother me. It's 2021. They are neologisms that I predict are here to stay. The Y gives specificity to the words.
Re Sputnik -- FLN: Husker Gary "Craft orbiting Earth travel at about Mach 23." Sound travels at different speeds thru different materials. Mach is the ratio of an object's speed compared to the speed of sound. Since sound doesn't travel thru a vacuum, satellites are going Mach ∞.
ReplyDeletePLY = toilet paper gauge (I only use 2 ply)
Hand up for not knowing PEDAL STEEL, TREY.
Wondered if Vaganova was in St.Petersburg Russia or Florida.
ATOZ was also the librarian of Starfleet's Memory Alpha.
Anything more?/anything ELSE?
Today's puzzle was not EASY for me. I meandered down to the middle before I wrote two words in. And both of those turned out to be wrong! Ultimately, to my surprise, I managed to FIR. Thanks, Bill for an entertaining debut. Figuring out the theme took a bit, but then I saw the jumbled CLOTHES. My gourmet gastropod was a squid/SNAIL, I am embarrassed to say.
ReplyDeleteThanks, MalMan, for the excellent review and the picture of you and Valerie all dressed up. It's nice to see your comments again, Lucina. We missed you while you were enjoying your trip. Hope you all are enjoying your day today.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the LAT debut, Bill. Nice theme, though, I nearly ink'd bundle b/f CHANGE (SNAIL stopped me).
Thanks for the music laden expo, MManatee.
//eat snails to avoid fast food? Really? ;-)
//math joke at COT was funny, though
//nice pic of you and your SO
WOs: PEcCI, WoN
ESPs: FALDO, BRIO | COHNs, AMY
Favs: KAZOO and BAHAMA MAMA are fun to say.
{A, A}
FNL - Lucina: Sorry, I forgot that was a NYT pay-wall'd link. I think I only get 3 free a month before I have to use DW's account.
Spitz - I also use a Pilot G2 (0.5mm black) to ink my grid
Jinx - Yeah, I was thinking PDAs but even the Apple Newton didn't come out until '93.
//self fact-check: While Apple was the first to use the term 'PDA', the Psion Organizer (1984) is recognized as the 1st.
Back to the grind. Play later!
Cheers, -T
What a slog.When every other clue seems to be trying so hard to be cutesy/tricky,it gets tiresome.Guess I'm gonna have to bone up on my Russian Ballet schools, hip-hop lingo, and the countless sports names and actors we're expected to know at the drop of a hat.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this puzzle has plenty of clever, fresh cluing and fill, in the end it simply was not quite my cup of tea. Maybe it's the aforementioned "cutesy" cluing, as well as "punt" fill such as ATNO, INOT, NAH, STR, and THA that misflavored my tea.
ReplyDeleteThe word aimée literally means "loved" in French.
Thank you, OwenKL, for explaining how ELSE can be clued as "More."
Thank you, Malodorous Manatee, for a terrific, enlightening, and entertaining recap.
Good wishes to you all.
ATLGranny:
ReplyDeleteThank you. It is very nice to know I was missed.
Speaking of which I miss people who drop off, especially Bill Graham, though I know they have their reasons.
I really need a nap right now.
A neat PZL from Mr. McCartha, well explicated by the MalMan!
ReplyDeleteIt was probably doable--maybe-- if only the latter "P" of my P+P had held out.
But I seem to be in a hurry these days, so skipped to the end after completing 60%.
Much of my time is spent on cracking the Jumble and contributing to Owen's clever site.
Y'know, over at http://jumblehints.blogspot.com/2021/08/aug-12-2021.html.
By now my friend Misty has learned that the reason her "Friday" PZL was tough wasn't the end of the week, but that it was actually Thursday-tough.
Tough enough, anyway, while boding ill for the real Friday trial am Morgen.
~ OMK
___________
DR: Three diagonals, a 3-way on the near side.
While I needed help to finish the XWD, I score majorly on the anagram front.
Yes, my friends, it is Woo-HOO! for an anagram of the central diagonal that uses 15 of the 15 letters!
This anagram yields a term for a lummox behaving like a teenager.
Yep, I mean to...
"OAF ADOLESCENTLY"!
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-Fun comment Jinx, There also is no tin in “tin foil” despite that is what many call it these days!
-Owen – NASA uses that Mach # just for a frame of reference to terrestrial, scalar event like speed. Orbiting space craft go approximately 23x the speed of sound under normal Earthly conditions and many times faster than bullets as well.
-Welcome back, Lucy!
-Nice write-up, Bill! You look fine in that picture but it’s easy to see who got the best of that deal! :-)
Hi Y'all! Very challenging, Bill McCartha. Thanks, MalMan for a great expo & picture.
ReplyDeleteLike Vidwan, I noticed that the OKAPI seemed to be built out of spare parts of other animals or as a result of unusual mating.
I enjoy Sir Nick Faldo's commentary & knew who the clue meant. Could I think of his name? Not until I had a couple of perps.
Speaking of memory loss: saw an old "Catch 21" show on TV. Question was "Solving daily crossword puzzles will help prevent what". Answer was "dementia". I didn't start early enough, methinks.
DNK: BRIO, COHNs.
Love the pic in the tux.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill for a crunchier than usual Thursday FIR. And thanks for all the groaners MalMan. And where did YOU get a classy chick like that?
ReplyDeleteCan't really stay to party, as DW and I are baby/teen sitting while DIL is visiting her seriously ill brother in Texas for a few days.
Just a few:
71A or "kick the bucket" or "buy the farm"?
25D or "Anything ELSE"?
36D or the extremely rare UFB ("Unidentified Flying Billionaire").
Cheers,
Bill
so now I'm talking to myself!
Oops! Strike Bill in my previous post and put in Joe. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteOh, two ply TP. Makes sense
ReplyDeleteYes, Jayce, Aimée [eh-may](beloved) is the original French name. Many variants in English [ay-mee].
ReplyDelete>> Roy
I miss Bill G. I sure hope he is all right. I know it's tough to lose a spouse.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks, I agree wholeheartedly ! TTP makes sense. :-)
Great job today, Joseph. You and Valerie look very happy in that photo. Lookin' good.
"Every girl's crazy about a sharp dressed man."
Locked in on the Field of Dreams game. Time to watch. Go Sox !
FIR no problems
ReplyDeleteHandsome guy in a tux, thank you so much for that rendition of San Francisco Bay Blues. It's hard enough to sing, I can't imagine playing the guitar and kazooing, too.
Becky
You're welcome, Becky. Thanks to all of you,Corner Dwellers, for your kind comments and kind critiques, too. Now it's time to unload the dishwasher, and take in the trash cans, and put away the laundry and deal with a less-than-truthful HVAC vendor, and then, perhaps, watch the balance of the Field of Dreams game and enjoy a glass of scotch. Peated or Non?
ReplyDeleteMisty, as noted by OMK, that was THURSDAY. Wait til you do Friday. Fiendishly clever clueing.
ReplyDeleteI guess cornfield baseball has an appeal. We played at cow-flap stadium. No limit on no. of kids to a side. Nor ability. Cows had left previous year or two.
WC
MM, not.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jayce but too late. I already grabbed the Peat Monster. However, that bottle of Aberlour was right next to the Compass Box.
ReplyDeleteWell, I fought with this one off and on all day! The SW was the last to fall – about 30 minutes ago, when I finally filled in enough holes in that area to fill in BAHAMAMAMA and UNANALYSED. Got the theme about a third of the way through, which helped by telling me what to look for in a couple of the long fills.
ReplyDeleteActually, for me, there was a whole bunch of chicken/egg stuff all through the puzzle. I can’t tell you how many times it took out and put in STR in 47D. Mount Wite-Out!
Oh, give me a FIW. Couldn’t remember OKAPI (could visualize it, but it was facing the other direction), and I was completely misdirected with KIA and PEDALSTEEL. I’m just glad I filled in the whole grid and only had two incorrect squares.
Thanks for beating my brains out today, Bill! Thanks for the expo, MM! Great photo!
Yes, Lucina, the Z in ITZCOATI screams AZTEC, but some dummy (and it wasn’t Mr. Kizzy, who was lying here on my desk sleeping … er, helping me) decided that an S would look nice there. Oh, well…. I eventually saw the error of my ways.