Good morning, curciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here wishing everyone a terrific Thursday.
Our constructor today is Chris Sablich who had his debut puzzle reviewed here on June 21st of this year. Welcome back, Chris. For today's theme, Chris has chosen something to which almost all Cornerites can, as we used to say, relate (we all seem to enjoy groaners).
STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE
Here is the unifier:
49. Dated jokes ... and what the ends of four Across answers are, in a way: STALE MATERIAL
At four places in the grid (he said that, didn't he?) we find anagrams of STALE:
19. Kin of urban legends: OLD WIVES TALES. Supposed truths which are actually spurious.
25. Possible result of a bankruptcy filing: CLEAN SLATE. A new beginning.
35. Minimally: AT LEAST.
43. "That's some bargain you got!": WHAT A STEAL. Idiomatic. Not a misdemeanor.
Here is how this looks in the grid:
Now that Chris has teed it up for us, let's see if we can have a bit of fun with a stale joke or two.
Across:
1. Group for whom "Drive" was a Top 10 hit, with "The": CARS. The CARS front man, Ric Ocasek, often makes appearances in crossword puzzles.
5. Sarge's charges, briefly: PFCS. Private(s) First Class
9. Finishes in the bakery: ICES. What does Frosty The Snowman like on his cupcakes? Icing.
13. Part of an agenda: ITEM.
14. Fracas: MELEE. A confused fight or struggle.
15. Bar purchase: SOAP. I used to be addicted to SOAP but I'm clean now.
16. Wanted things: DESIDERATA. A bit arcane. DESIDERATA means those things desired as essential. Max Ehrmann wrote an eponymous poem in the early 1920s. It begins, "Go placidly among the noise and the haste." Readings have been recorded by Les Crane and Leonard Nimoy, among others. In 1972, The National Lampoon released a parody called DETERIORATA.
18. Santa __: Sonoma County seat: ROSA. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released a song called "Santa Rosa" on the album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy.
21. Shows: BARES. Why was the tomato blushing? She saw the salad dressing.
23. Wander: ROVE. I just flew in from the coast. Boy are my arms tired.
24. James of jazz: ETTA. ETTA visits quite often.
Etta James
31. ERA, for example: STAT. A baseball STATistic. Earned Run Average. Misdirection in that the clue could also have been referring to a period of time or to the Equal Rights Amendment.
32. Suffer: AIL. Did you hear that the CEO of Fox News had died? I wonder what AILed him.
33. Some, in Potsdam: EINES. Today's German lesson.
34. Dirt alternative, at times: TAR. A road surface reference. Do you know what I love about baseball? The pine TAR and the dirt. . . . and that's just in the hot dogs.
38. Member of the 2019 World Series champs: NAT. The Washington (D.C.) NATionals. Champs is a shortened version of Champions, ergo . . .
39. Large quantity: OCEAN. What did the ocean say to the shore? Nothing. It just waved.
41. Beethoven preceder: VAN.
42. "¿Qué __?": PASA. Today's Spanish lesson. "What's up?"
46. Assist badly?: ABET.
47. Indian nurse: AMAH. An Indian or East Asian nursemaid who takes care of children and frequents crossword puzzle the world over.
48. Jacques' title, in a children's song: FRERE. One of today's French lessons.
55. Guitarist's gadget: CAPO. Allows one to play in different keys without having to learn a new set of chords.
56. Tennessee Williams specialty: ONE ACT PLAY. He wrote more than seventy.
59. King toppers: ACES. A playing card reference. I ACEd my chemistry quiz on the PH scale. It wasn't difficult. In fact, it was really basic.
60. Brazilian range __ do Mar: SERRA. "Mountain Range of the Sea". It would be nice to swim along that coast someday.
61. Architect Saarinen: EERO. He often stops by to visit because his first name is a four-letter word containing three vowels.
62. Leader: BOSS. My boss says that I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We'll see about that.
63. Egyptian vipers: ASPS. A snake charmer was bitten on his lips. He didn't know his ASP from his oboe.
64. "Glee" character, usually: TEEN. The TV show.
Down:
1. "Le __": 1636 Corneille play: CID. Not the 1961 motion picture, El Cid. Not the actual historic figure (1043 - 1099). Same subject matter, though.
2. Put away: ATE. Constructors/Editors love to clue with words whose tenses are ambiguous. Could have been EAT.
3. Vacation destination: RESORT AREA. Did you hear about the professors who went to a RESORT AREA to discuss research paper titles? It was a topical vacation.
4. Greet with a grin: SMILE AT. What is the longest word in the English dictionary? SMILEs, because there is a mile between the first and last letters.
5. Prefix meaning "all around": PERI. A learning moment.
6. Rapper with a clock necklace, familiarly: FLAV. The clock was hungry so it went back for seconds.
Flavor Flav
7. Et __: CETERA.
8. Salt, say: SEASON. Used, here, as a verb. SEASONing would not fit in the allotted space.
9. Begin, for one: ISRAELI. A play on words. Not "commence" but, instead, an ISRAELI Prime Minister.
10. Hip: COOL.
11. Alleviate: EASE. My friend pushed a book across the table to me. It slid with EASE. It was non-friction.
12. Places to relax: SPAS. Not many people know that the local SPA has closed. Apparently, they did not get the massage,
14. Cry from a litter: MEW.
17. ADA member: DDS. Americans with Disabilities Act? No. American Dental Association. Dentist.
20. Tube, so to speak: TV SET. Slang. Sometimes, boob tube.
21. Grant: BESTOW.
22. Staple, e.g.: ATTACH. Staple is used, here, as a verb.
25. Monopoly token that replaced the iron: CAT.
26. Unlike Abner, actually: LIL. Al Capp's LIL Abner was not a small fellow.
27. École attendee: ELEVE. Another French lesson. École is school and ELEVE is student.
28. "Kingdom by the sea" maiden of poetry: ANNABEL LEE.
28. "Kingdom by the sea" maiden of poetry: ANNABEL LEE.
29. Come-on: TEASER.
30. Executor's concern: ESTATE.
35. "What's in __?": A NAME. That which we call a rose . . . .
36. Motorists' org.: AAA.
37. NBC weekend show: SNL. Saturday Night Live. Since 1975.
40. Clueless: AT A LOSS.
44. Stuffed Indian pastry: SAMOSA. Samoza (with a z) was a Nicaraguan dictator.
45. Macduff and Macbeth: THANES. In Scotland, THANES are the chiefs of clans.
48. Hale: FIT. You cannot FIT inside a tuna can. But some tuna can.
49. Sign of healing: SCAB. Sometimes, SCAR.
50. Snack from a truck: TACO. Did you hear about the tortilla rebellion? It was a hostile TACO-ver.
51. Primatologists' subjects: APES. Why did the giant APE climb up the skyscraper? The elevator was not working.
52. UMD athlete: TERP. University of Maryland TERraPins
53. Some crop units: EARS. As in corn, wheat or rice. The grain-bearing tip of the stem. Why do scarecrows find it difficult to keep a secret? Because the potatoes have eyes and the corn has ears.
54. __ Building, now 30 Rockefeller Plaza: RCA. Known as the RCA Building from its completion in 1933 until 1968. Known as the GE Building from 1968 until 2015 and, subsequently, as the Comcast Building. Frequently called 30 Rock.
57. Exist: ARE.
58. "... the morn ... / Walks o'er the dew of __ high eastward hill": "Hamlet": YON. Meaning over there or in that direction.
Headin' Toward YON High Hill
________________________________________________
So literary today! Poe, Williams, Ehrmann, and at least three plays by Shakespeare! Who wouldn't feel inspired?
ReplyDeleteMacbeth and Macduff, the Scottish THANES,
Battled moat to PARAPET, to moat again!
"Lay on, Macbeth,
'Tis a fight to the death!"
And at last, the killer of Duncan was slain!
Juliet asked, WHAT'S IN A NAME?
A rose is a rose, is Romeo the same?
"Romeo and Juliet" trips on the tongue
Could "Juliet and Rumpelstiltskin" be one?
No, such a pairing would be utterly lame!
ANNABEL LEE, so consummate was she,
That angels came, such perfection to see.
They took her to heaven,
And her lover was stricken
To be alone in YON KINGDOM BY THE SEA!
Its age is merely an OLD WIVES TALE,
But the DESIDERATA will never pale.
What it doth say
Some mock as cliché,
Yet it speaks to the soul in travail!
{A, A-, B+, A-.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteWow, dad jokes galore. Well done, Mal-man. Had to correct PVTS to PFCS, but otherwise finished with a clean grid this morning. As usual, brain refused to read the full reveal clue, and as a result, failed to find the theme. [Sigh] Enjoyed it, Chris.
FIW, missing my WAG at SAMOtA x tERRA. But I wagged correctly at THANES x tERRA and EVEVE x VAN, so I got that goin' for me. (I thought it was VoN Beethoven.) Erased set to for MELEE and miz for CID.
ReplyDeleteI remember Begin's serving at the same time as Alexander Haig. Some wag said that the morning after their first official state meeting, they had a bite to eat before their planes took them back to their home countries. It was a Begin and Haig breakfast. I think I mentioned this before, but some friends in Santa Monica called I-10 the "Jewish Freeway" because of the sign there that says "Begin Freeway".
Thanks to Chris for the fun but difficult puzzle. But it would have been more fun for me with fewer foreign language terms. And thanks to MM for all the groans.
Arcane? An understatement. I had a WAG for CARS for 1A but a 1636 play by somebody I'd never heard of AND a Rapper I'd never heard of crossing a word I'd never heard of. It was a DNF with CI_ and _ESIDERATA leaving a blank. FLAV came from an AEIOU guess. "Desired Data" wouldn't fit and the dentist-DDS- wouldn't allow it. You don't know what you don't know and an ABC run didn't help.
ReplyDeleteSTALE MATERIAL or "Steal Material". I once read that the definition of an original joke is on that you can't remember who you stole it from.
No other problems with the rest, making some WAGS for THANES & SERRA.
Santa ROSA Island in FL. is called Okaloosa Island on the east end and Santa Rosa Island on the west end.
This was a quick solve for a Thursday, I think reading MM's blog took as long with all the jokes and time to groan and a ba da bing on the drums afterwards.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting DESIDERATA and ONE ACT PLAY to be a part of the theme- but no
Thanks MM and Chris!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI saw the relevant scrambled letters after the second entry but I was parsing them as Tales, so the reveal was truly an Aha moment. I thought the cluing was sort of Goldilocks-ish, some hard, some, easy and some just right. Flav and Cars needed perps because while I’ve heard of them, I know nothing about their music. I liked Mew/Cat, Cars/Van, Stat/Nat, Ease/Tease(r), Least/Ocean, and Stale/Tale(s). CSO to Misty (RCA), Lucina (Pasa, Taco, Rosa, Serra), Keith (One Act Play), and Vidwan (Samosa, Amah).
Thanks, Chris, for a tricky Thursday and thanks, MalMan, for the funny, punny, and sunny commentary and links. I hereby nominate you for the 2021 Dad Joke Extraordinaire!. 🤣
FLN
YR, so sorry that you’re having so much difficulty with Alan’s caregiving. I hope you get some satisfaction and resolution soon. We’re here for you.
Have a great day.
Took me a little over 12 minutes to throw in the towel at the intersections of both Cid/Desiderata and samosa/serra. I really dislike this puzzle today due to all the proper nouns, including way too many foreign people/places, just so we can have four anagrams.
ReplyDeleteI'd much rather have a themeless crossword puzzle with the option to solve the Jumble.
It seems these gimmicky themes, which are stale material, are taking over the overall enjoyment of the puzzles.
Seeing all the groaners, I recognized your style, MM. HA HA! Thanks for the fun.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did not find the STALE words by myself, I think that it is COOL that they are all real words, true anagrams.
Just a few perps suggested DESIDERATA. I was AT A LOSS for FLAV, though, all perps.
According to the Los Angeles Times, "Beethoven’s name was not Von Beethoven but Ludwig van Beethoven and certainly his birthright! The family was of Dutch origin and retained their Dutch name after settling in Germany. The Dutch “van” has nothing to do with nobility--it merely means “from.” Beethoven means “beet farm.” The name tells us that this great composer was the descendant of Dutch beet farmers."
VAN is Dutch, VON is German.
LE CID was a lucky wag. My mind immediately went to EL CID. EL in Spanish LE in French. So I took a chance on LE. I have heard of The Cars.
I like to see a sprinkling of foreign words. Some of them appear in the LAT puzzle often enough that we automatically learn them if we keep an open mind.
I like SAMOSaS. Much ethnic food is available here.
Many a winding road to finally reach the pot of gold, AKA FIR. I had SEAman for Salt. eat/ATE. Just enough LHF to perp my way home.
ReplyDeleteAha, it's maloman with a theme of STALE JOKES. And he does not disappoint
At the VA I was stuck in front of a TV GameShow. First letter given, then you fill. Theme of one? What do you experience at a ballgame?
I couldn't come up with the MLB Team until I got the T. Very unlikely WS Champs
I was trying to remember the French author of the Spanish drama. I was thinking Racine. I might have read it in my French days.
Yes Begin was a slow grok
Great xword, great write-up
WC
Musings
ReplyDelete-Any prompt to reread DESIDERATA makes my day that much better
-That bankruptcy CLEAN SLATE ain’t all that clean
-ROVE/ROAM and ETTA/ELLA marched in sequence today. At least APES wasn’t a verb today
-Omaha’s Bob Gibson’s ERA was so low in the 60’s that MLB lowered the mound
-As my voice lowered over the years, the CAPO came in very handy
-Even with insurance paying half, my DDS extracted $500 from me this week
-TEASER – seen at the end of each TV news segment. “Are bikinis getting smaller? We’ll be right back.”
-Fun write-up, MM!
-We’re off to cross the muddy Missouri River to play golf in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteNot so hard today. Got it all and the theme. FIR. Had 'roam' before ROVE.
EINER - Wanted 'einige' but wouldn't fit. Very nuanced in usage. EINER would work in certain usages. It IS Thursday.
Thanks for the intro, MM.
A FIR Thursday, but definitely a challenge. The NW triangle down to OCEAN took me the most time to see what was happening. Some WOs, for example, from trying recS/PFCS, ROamS/ROVES, and starCH/ATTACH (thinking of staples in the pantry?) but most areas filled in easily. The reveal explained what was happening with the theme, although I didn't select the letters making up a known word at first in every case. Even better theme when I learned that. Good work, Chris. Looking forward to puzzle #3!
ReplyDeleteMalMan, back on the job, I appreciated your humor today and the explanation of a sports term I didn't get when filling in the puzzle: STAT for ERA. I was thinking of the other ERA. Spitzboov, not to spoil your day, this time the word was EINES which allows ESTATE. Best wishes to all of you today. Onward to Friday!
I didn't care for DESIDERATA, but otherwise a nice puzzle. I also had ROAM instead of ROVE which threw me off, and wasn't sure if it was TERRA or SERRA. And I guessed LE CID assuming it was EL CID but the French version?
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to recall Flava Flav's name. Some show on TV used to have him on a few years ago.
5. Prefix meaning "all around": PERI. A learning moment.
Not a learning moment - as in PERIMETER.
Did you know there's no simple formula for the perimeter of an ellipse? Now THAT'S a learning moment.
Well, for me this was too difficult. I did fill the cells correctly….but only by cheating with Google searches. So, a big FIW. The most fun thing today was MM’s jokes and comments, thanx MM. I especially liked “smiles” being the longest word, and the “non-friction” quip. I (unfortunately as usual) did not see the theme until MM ‘splained it. Sigh. At the mention of soap, I quit using it long ago, and switched to dye-free, scent-free liquid laundry detergent. It has these advantages: gets you cleaner; is easier on the skin; doesn’t burn your eyes; doesn’t leave soap scum. Try it and you’ll never go back to soap. HG mentions “Teasers” on news shows. I HATE that practice! Every news show leads off by taking two minutes of your life to tell you what they are going to tell you. Them before an ad, they take another 15 seconds to tell you what they will tell you after the ad!! I just record everything now and watch it later and skip over all that INFURIATING waste of my time. Back to the CW: “Begin” was a clever clue. DESIDERATA filled after DESIREDITEMS didn’t fit. Overall a nice CW, thanx, CS, just to difficult for me. Well, in reality, most of these “too difficult” I probably COULD do if I wanted to spend an hour or more wrestling with them. But I don’t. Now, on to the Jumble.
ReplyDeleteunclefred, Yes, indeed! Each tease adds just a tad more. By the time they get to the point, they have already said it all. Big let-down.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same about click-bait teases, or even more-so You have to readjust the screen every few sentences. Most of what is said is irrelevant to the tease. I no longer get sucked in. In an article you can just skim and skip read to gather what you want to know,
After yesterday's pristine puzzle today was an inky mess. Lots of inkovers and a FIW. Had PvCS crossed with VLAV (hey a perfectly good rapper name). Plus screwed up RESORTAsEA thought the final "EA" would be "SEA
ReplyDeleteThought the theme was "OLD" "STALE" etc. so another screw up.
AMAH we missed you where have you been nursemaiding? Didn't know CAPO, Forgot it's pronounced "von" but spelt VAN. figured if it's "sierra" in Spanish it is likely SERRA in Portuguese. in The NE thought "begin" was "to start" for too long. Plus had ROam as a perp.
Was too sure it was WHATtAdEAL
Primatologist doesnt study 8 - 11pm TV shows? Our big screen TVs are really not "sets" anymore
In Potsdam NY "some" is..."some"
Some more STALE MATERIAL...
Find a dog companion...PARAPET
If it's not "the knees" it's the _____ BESTOW.
I'd place ____ you're groaning right now...ABET
Hot and sunny...heading for the lakes and hills
ATL @ 0926 - - Not spoiling day at all. EINES is correct as clued. Just not the first word I think of in translating 'some' without seeing how it would be used. Eines is the masculine and neuter genitive for 'a' or 'one', also. 'Some' can be rendered many different ways depending on how it is used. Very oblique; good Thursday or Friday cluing.
ReplyDeleteFun Thursday puzzle, even if a bit challenging--may thanks, Chris. And always enjoy your commentaries, MalMan.
ReplyDeleteMy first break was the northeast corner and once I got the short words, I saw that "begin" was actually the ISRAELI BEGIN. ETTA James and EERO Saarinen show up a lot in puzzles these days, don't they?
The melody of the FRERE Jacques tune popped right into my head. German is my original language, and SOME just doesn't feel quite right to me as a proper clue for EINES. But I'll defer on that--it's just my instinct.
Enjoyed your poems, Owen.
Irish Miss, thank you once again for remembering that my dad worked for RCA for all those years. He's 92 now, but still in good shape.
Have a great day, everybody.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chris and Chris! Groan is right! Even with the STALE jokes, I liked solving this puzzle because it contained mostly real words and only a few foreign phrases. I've learned ELEVE, EINES, of course, FRERE from elementary school music class. Though SERRA is Portuguese, it's related to sierra, Spanish.
Though it is not from a ONE ACT PLAY, I liked that THANES crossed it.
Bar purchase was my favorite clue!
Though I've not stopped in Santa ROSA I have passed it many times on the way to somewhere else.
Roam or ROVE? Perps to the rescue.
AAA membership has saved me many times especially when the battery dies. The arid desert weather reduces the life of a battery though newer ones seem to last longer.
I'm off to finish packing for a return trip to San Rafael. Three friends were scheduled to go as well but each one canceled for one reason or another, illness, death in the family, etc.
I hope all is well with each of you!
Lucina @12:06 PM. I think that's "Chris and Joe (MalMan"). The review was a DEAD giveaway. More on that later.
DeleteI have often thought about timing an hour-long newscast with a stop watch just to see how much reporting is actually taking place. Cut out the teasers, the ridiculous chatter, the advertising and there's not much left. Network, the movie, was supposed to be a warning not a freakin' roadmap.
ReplyDeleteHand up tough going with PFCS/PERI/FLAV and CARS/CID. WAGS to FIR. Googled DRIVE and CARS and I realize I have heard the song many times but did not know the title or the band. Enjoyed the STALE theme which was not STALE at all.
ReplyDeleteMy father was a biology professor at UMD for several years but I cannot find a single photo that he took there! I don't think he was happy there and he soon went into industry.
Here I was with my family at ROCKEFELLER PLAZA as a child.
Clever clues involving BAR, BEGIN.
Malodorous Manatee Thank you for the illustrated review. Loved the ETCETERA video!
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the puzzle, Chris. So, um, 16a didn’t have a STALE in it... //me too, Inanehiker
Excellent Expo, MManatee. One addition to the STALE 'secrets in the garden' groaner... corn has ears, potatoes have eyes, and the beanstalk.
Speaking of groaners... "Begin & Haig" for breakfast?, Jinx? :-)
//Also, add to ERA [Amazon.com], for example == SOAP
WOs: Pvts -> PFCs (Hi D-O!)
ESPs: DESIDERATA, SERRA, AMAH, ELEVE, EINES, ISRAELI as clued
Fav: SAMOSA. I love those things. Once, I ordered a dozen (3 for everyone) not realizing there were 3 per order. We ate all 36.
{A, B+, B+, A}
Serendipity? Last night, I linked Friends of P [The Rentals] which is supposedly written for CARS' Rik Ocasek's wife:
"The actual "P" in the song refers to Paulina Porizkova, the wife of The Cars guitarist Ric Ocasek, who produced the first Weezer album, known as The Blue Album. Porizkova made a claim that no one had ever written a song about her, and so [Matt] Sharp [of Weezer and The Rentals] took on the task. Ocasek noted that he found the subject matter of the song a bit odd." [Wikipedia]
Enjoyed reading y'all.
Play later. Cheers, -T
From Tuesday and Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteLucina Glad you loved the MACHO Man song by the Village People. Did anyone else think of that song when they saw MACHO?
Vidwan and Ol Man Keith Thank you for the kind words about my NATIVE AMERICAN Pow Wow video. This was a huge event, with people coming from thousands of miles away. It is held at Live Oak Campground, County park that is managed by the Chumash NATIVE AMERICANS.
There were live musicians, but there may have been a recording mixed in. I don't remember now.
Loved seeing the MOOG SYNTHesizer mentioned. I loved hearing Switched On Bach as a child. Anyone else? Apparently, it is not possible to get this online at all. Googled this and learned the story of how its creator Walter Carlos became Wendy Carlos and how she hid the transition for years.
Here is another MOOG SYNTHesizer piece created in the spirit of Switched on Bach.
Very beautiful.
I don't mind being mistaken for the Chairman!
ReplyDeleteFaced with mysteries dark and vast statements just seem vain at last.
Oh boy, I went down so many rabbit holes with this puzzle, I couldn’t clamber out - big fat FIR! I misspelled AMAH, insisted on LAIRD/THANE, PICK/CAPO, CHIC/COOL. Never heard of FLAV, couldn’t suss out Oldwive’stale, never heard of Desirata, (I’m embarassed to say) and on it goes. Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteSilver lining is I loved The King and I clip, laughed/groaned at MM’s dad jokes and learned some stuff. My favorite clue/misdirection was BEGIN. I plan to read Desirata today. Great learning moment!
Thanks, Chris, for the workout, and thanks MM for your excellent tour. Deteriorata was a riot.
A good, tough, Thursday PZL from Mr. Sablich! Solved it after much P+P.
ReplyDeleteIt required several "leaps," all of them fun to make.
Thanks for the excellent follow-up, MalM!
Too smart for my own good?
My rusty German led me to fill ETWAS,
instead of EINES,
for "Some, in Potsdam" at 33A.
Had to back down, letter by letter.
Misty ~ I wonder if that was why EINES didn't feel right to you..?
~ OMK
____________
DR: On the near side, one diagonal only.
But it's a D O O Z Y!
Because it gives us a JACKPOT, a full anagram using ALL 15 of the available 15 letters.
CHECK IT OUT!
WooHoo!!
Woo ~ HOO!!!
This anagram celebrates those activists who went into the streets and on line to denounce publicly the corrupt city officials and corporate leaders who allowed the household water supply in an eastern industrial city to become filthy and unhealthy for human consumption.
Yes, this anagram extols those whistleblowers and public jeerers, identified here as the...
"FLINT (Mich.) CATCALLERS"!
So, Group for whom "Drive" was a Top 10 hit, with "The". Um, nope.
ReplyDelete-LAV. Who?
NCOS? Nope. PVTS? Nope. CPLS? Nope. The very specific PFCS.
Member of the 2019 World Series champs. Dunno. Some sports team or another.
"Le __": 1636 Corneille play. Who? Wha?
__ Building, now 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Dunno the NYC buildings, especially when they change names. Like sports arenas.
So that shows the extent of my ignorance of specific You-Know-It-Or-You-Don't trivia.
Even Spitzboov and Misty felt the cluing for EINES was dodgy.
I did like the COOL clues for SOAP and especially LIL Abner.
I loved your write-up, MalMan, with all the stale dad jokes. Excellent.
I also very much enjoyed your verses today, Owen.
I totally agree with you, unclefred and Yellowrocks, about those dreadful newscast "teasers" and how they seem to spend more time telling you what they're going to tell you than they do in actually reporting the story. Personally, I also don't give a hoot whether it is "breaking news!"
Yes, Picard, to answer your question, I loved, and still love, Switched On Bach, as I discussed yesterday in re the MOOG synthesizer and Walter/Wendy Carlos's expert skill with it.
Jayce the Grump wishing you all a good day.
Jayce:
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with most of your criticisms so as far as I'm concerned, grump and grouse away as much as you like!
Whooeee! I brought up the subject of the broadcast news spending so much time telling viewers what's "coming up" and my dear wife snarled "Quit your complaining!" and walked out of the room. Ya think maybe I p---ed her off maybe? Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteLucina, thank you.
Thank you Chris for a fine FIR Thursday puzzle. And I have only one word to say to you MalMan - OUTRAGEOUS!.
ReplyDeleteAs there were no circles on my puzzle I didn't bother to look for a theme, but was thankful for all the STALE GRIST CHRIS gave for MM to GRIND.
16A Shed a tear for the DYSTOPIAN DETERIORATA and its paean to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
18A SANTA ROSA - thanks for the NGDB clip MM It's been a quite a while.
59A ACES - I'm not LYE'N, on a scale of 1 to 14 I'd rate that a 12.
61A EERO Constructor Superglue!
5D PERI - also FARSI for "Fairy" and the title of a Paul Dukas ballet called "La Peri". Here's the fanfare (yes he did write something else besides "The Sorceror's Apprentice).
20D TV SET - "A vast wasteland". INTERNET - "a vast cesspool". The Corner being the only exception!
52D Known locally as the Diamondback Terrapin.
Cheers,
Bill
Jayce ~
ReplyDeleteMy complaints (about which I also grumble aloud) of broadcast news are not about the "coming up" teases, but about the lack of follow-through on so many reports.
They told us last week of a girl riding a horse, how she was injured when the horse was knocked over by a car.
Not a word about the fate of the horse.
Typical.
They OFTEN report half a story, not seeming to recognize questions they raise without resolving them.
They also show cops' body camera footage--terribly shaky clips where you can't tell whose arms are doing what to whom.
Or quick shots of the sky, the ground, the sky, the ground, etc. etc.
And, OTOH, any half-way decent video can make news headlines, even for a dull event, hardly worth mentioning.
But, hey, "We've got VIDEO!!"
~ OMK
Thank you Chris Sablich for a very challenging puzzle, and MalMan for your Dad jokes, most of which I had heard, but were still funny.
ReplyDelete( I'm always ready for jokes .... )
I had a tough time with CID, FLAV (who?), EINES etc. but when the correct answer came up in my mind ... it all sounded reasonable ... Except FLAV... Who wears a giant alarm clock around his neck ???.
Nurses, sometimes, wear small watches on a chain around their necks ...
Today, was a very busy day ....I had 3 medical appointments with diff docs in three different bldgs. The middle appt doc was very chatty and loves to talk .... and I hated to tell him, 'I'd love to talk Doc, but I have another appointment waiting for me ' ...
Sounds familiar.?
Van means that he is 'from' a certain area, 'Von' is nobility... I learnt that when Von Neumann, the mathematician was ennobled, he went from Van to Von. The Kaiser and various kings allowed you, by use of patents, to use the title, 'Von' .... you couldn't just decide. by yourself, to use it willy-nilly. That would be a serious crime.
Amah :::: I have never seen this used for a nurse in India ... perhaps more in China and VietNam or Thailand. In some indian languages, amah means 'Is that so ? ... please continue, with your story ...'.
I don't eat much samosas, because they're generally fried in some saturated oils, like Ghee ( clarified butter) or coconut oil or shortening, to make them more tasty. Atleast they dont use lard.
Before Israeli independence May 1948, during the british rule, mandate, Manachem Begin's pic was on a wanted poster, by the british authorities, for something akin to terrorism, because he was head of the Irgun, a break away from the mainline Haganah.
And he went on win a share of the Nobel Peace prize in 1979. No politics, just a fact.
Bankruptcy in the US generally results a record on one's financial dossiers and records for atleast 12 years. Generally. Some clean slate.!
I have read Desiderata several times, and my eldest brother (RIP) had once committed it to memory. I thought it was prose, not a poem.... actually, per wiki, it is both poem and prose.
Bugs BUnny saying 'Que pasa viejo ?' ... ( viejo --- Wee-ay-hoe )
does NOT mean ..... What up, Doc ?
it means...... Whats up, ancient worn out old man ? ( per Google - )
Maybe Lucina can correct Google, and me ...
have a nice evening, all. Thank God, Tomorrow is Friday ... (!).
With the grumpers today -- a 385-year old play by a no-longer famous French dramatist? A clock-laden rapper?
ReplyDeleteThis approaches the outer limits ISTM ... unless there are no limits?
Well, Michael, I gotta take issue with calling Pierre Corneille a "no-longer famous French dramatist."
ReplyDeleteHe may not rank up with Shakespeare
& his fame may have dwindled among a few pockets of anglophones, but....
~ OMK
OMK @7:00 PM I'm with you on Le Cid. All you had to know on this was EL=LE, recognize that CORNEILLE was French, and get a perp and this was an easy swag.
DeleteOl'Man Keith et.al. yes exactly, no follow up. I've noticed the reported "news" is mostly about the reactions people are having about some event or occurrence, with very little factual information about the occurrence itself and what actually happened. I've even heard the reporters who are interviewing people ask, "How do you feel about that?" rather then inform us what the heck those people are reacting to. What actually is the event or policy they are complaining about? And prognosticating: "This is going to result in ..." which is no more than a guess. It's NOT news. It's nothing more than sensationalism and speculation.
ReplyDeleteVidwan et. al. in French there is a common expression "Comment ça va, mon vieux?" which means "How's it going, my old [friend]?" So (not knowing Spanish) I assume that "¿Que pasa, viejo?" means the same thing.
Best wishes to you all from Jayce the no-longer Grump.
Hey, Vidwan ...
ReplyDeleteAnd I just thought it was because "van" is Dutch, and "von" is German.
"Beethoven Ludwig van," for instance, is a good Dutch surname, although he was born in Bonn, Germany.
~ OMK
First, MalMan - I enjoyed all of your many fun puns - thanks! Second, I totally agree with Michael @6:46. I thought others would have problems with those two clues, but nope - a lot of FIRs - congrats! Should've filled in the "D" as a WAG considering La is the counterpart to El. Not familiar with rappers and certainly not those who think it's cool to wear a clock as a necklace - good grief. FlOv or FlAv? Never heard of DESIDERATA, but learning a new word is always a good thing. Anyway, sailed through otherwise with help from a coupla perps - EINES.
ReplyDeleteQue pasa, viejp? What's up, old man or in today's parlance, What's up, Dude? What's going on?
ReplyDeleteIt could also mean, What's up?
Beethoven's grandfather was a Fleming (Dutch speaker).
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGood evening.
Hand up starch before attach. Pvts before PFCS. Also had bat before CAT and blank slate before CLEAN STATE. Overcame each of those errors but still managed another one letter FIW. Again. Too embarrassed to say what it was.
I read Corneille and remembered the name. But my wires were crossed an it was Moliere, who I read about when blogging a crossword sometime ago. Turns out they were both 17th century French playwrights. Not that it helped me get CID. That was all perps.
MalMan, your comment about hot dogs at ballparks reminded me of the scathing reviews and the tweeted images and comments about the food sold at the new SoFi stadium for the first game. I was surprised. So then I found articles that were published well before the stadium opened, touting the expertise of the two chefs hired to create the menu items at the various concession areas. Pictures included. Looked great. I counted at least 13 pieces of pepperoni on a slice of delicious looking pizza in the publicity photo. The pic on Twitter showed one sad looking piece of pepperoni on a slice that seemed as if it was recently added to a pizza baked the day before. The scrumptious looking cheeseburger with oozing melted cheese instead looked like a cold slab of cooked meat. The cheese didn't even melt ! Same with he vegan burger, and the hotdog looked like it was inedible. Growing pains I guess, and hey, it's preseason, so they should get it all together. Pics of the stadium were impressive.
So many great songs and music scores have been embellished or created with synthesizers, though not necessarily with a Moog. The theme from Chariots of Fire comes to mind.
On the early morning news today: A car thief in Chicago wrecked a stolen Porsche in front of a diner. Captured on a street camera. To flee the scene, he ran through the diner and out the back door to the alleyway. The videos from the inside security cameras showed him running past the five Chicago police officers that were sitting there enjoying lunch. The camera in the alley showed the officers in hot pursuit. He didn't get very far.
ReplyDeleteLucina, Jayce, OldManK, and Spitzboov ... Thank you for your valuable contributions. Those of us, without close encouters with the spanish and german are often grasping at straws in the dark....
As they say, language translators should ONLY translate INTO their mother tongue, and never the other way around...certainly makes sense, especially with idioms. In case of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, I'm sure a lot of spanish speakers cont ibuted their suggestions, before the decision was made for that caption, at a very high level.
I'm reminded of the hoary story that used to go around in the 70's that the best selling sedan, in the US, of the GM line, the Chevy Nova, .... became a "flop", while marketed in Mexico because NOVA means 'No -go' or 'Won't go' in spanish.
Jeeves or Snopes.com have debunked this theory, because of several reasons, that Nova is in the wrong tense, ..... that the car had some other name in Mexico, etc. etc.
Picard, I knew you'd be around , fln, when I saw UHARA. Spectrum internet has been a problem so I missed the powwow parade. Liked seeing photos of you as a 'ute
ReplyDeleteWow, Vidwan, you had a doctor who actually talked to you rather than sitting at a computer screen typing? My Urologist was the husband of a substitute for my regular Dr two years ago for whom I could lavish effusive praise. She cured my dropsy.
Agreed, OMK, Corneille in the French is a beautiful read. I imagine he's still very popular in France. Contemporary with Shakespeare I see. And Racine.
WC
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Chris and MalMan (and those groaners😂).
ReplyDeleteI’m very late to the party. It is so hot here (humidex 40C), that I go out to do my gardening right after breakfast while it is still bearable, and my CW schedule is thrown off!
But I did eventually FIR and I saw the anagrams of STALE. Like inanehiker and AnonT, I was looking for 16A and 56A to be part of the theme; it did say four Across answers to prevent us from looking in vain for STALE in those other two long answers.
And I still don’t see what MATERIAL has to do with the mixed up STALEs in the themers. Am I being too picky? I did not see a comment from anyone else here about that.
The STALE theme did help me to see that STEAL was the proper fit, not Deal, for my bargain.
I WAGged the C in CARS and CID, FLAV was all perps,
ROVE or Roam, SCAB or Scar decisions also waited for perps.
We weren’t purchasing Beer at the Bar. Begin was not referring to start. Ah, the misdirection👍
Yes, Bob Lee, I confirmed PERI by thinking* of Perimeter. Now I remember Periodontal too (for the DDS).
I noted RESORT AREA crossing OCEAN.
Ray-o- it took me a while to get BESTOW but oh the groan🤔😁😂
Wishing you all a good evening.
All yous grumpin' about CARS and Flava-FLAV now know how it feels when I need to know pop-stars from the 50's or some actress before the Talkies ;-)
ReplyDelete//Erik seems to be youngin' down puzzles at USAToday.
Now, about those teasers - keep the complaining coming. I totally agree and that's why I don't watch TV SETs for news*. NPR and the paper seem to keep me fairly well abreast.
//It's not just reporters that don't follow-through. That UFO/UAP report was over-hyped a bit.
Fun DR, OMK. Nice find.
TTP - some people are just too dumb to crime.
//I oft imagine someone trying to BOOST my car before realizing it's a stick they can't drive.
C, Eh! To a comic, jokes are his/her MATERIAL.
Anything else fun to link? Becky, how about SOAP? :-)
Cheers, -T
*DW does and sometime I have to overhear it while working. They're all blowhards making the single-day's news on one issue seem like the biggest thing ever... like, all day - it seems to be their only story
NOVA or no va is the correct tense and can be actually translated as "it doesn't go" or loosely, "it won't move" so that in itself would give it a negative meaning. Whether that contributed to its failure in Spanish speaking countries, I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteIt's been 111 degrees here all week so tomorrow I am getting out of Dodge and seeking a cooler climate!
ROTFLMAO...
ReplyDeleteLucina: a spot on my screen made the first 1 in your temp-report look like a 4.
The temp is 40F b/f paper bursts into flame!?!
//Just ask Ray Bradbury
So the NOVA thing re: Mexico wasn't just a OLD WIVES TALE?
Snopes says it was along with FIAT doesn't mean "Fix It Again, Tony" //CarTalk lied to me! :-)
Enjoy your second sojourn to CA and hopefully the fires won't keep you away from the redwoods this time.
Cheers, -T
I guess I get to eat crow somewhat. When I asked my kids at tonight's baseball game if they knew of a rapper that wears a clock, they both --in unison, mind you-- said "Flav" and expressed a dash (well, several Imperial ounces, actually) of disdain for my ignorance.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, when I asked them to name three French dramatists of the 17th century, the decay of American letters was clear as they said, "Huh? What's a dramatist? There's drama in France?"
Michael: I just refreshed b/f bed and saw your (kid's) "Drama in France?" query.
ReplyDeleteWhen I drafted my bit about the news only reporting one piece of sensational/day, I DELE'd "What I want to know: what's going on in Gaza, has help gotten to Haiti, are the French still(?) on strike?"
Yes, there's always Drama in France :-)
While I'm here...
Wendybird: It was nice to see / read you today. Hope all's well.
PK - where are you?
Cheers, -T