Hi kids! Today we're visited by our old friends
Yoni Glatt and Dani Raymon, who conduct a reveal-less tour
of
The Musical Plant Kingdom
The themers for this tour are all musicians whose last names refer to plants in one way or another. CAVEAT: I don't like to RAP constructors, but a couple of these numbers may not be your idea of SOUL music.
17A. "Fancy" (2014) singer: IGGY AZALEA. Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), known professionally as Iggy Azalea, is an Australian rapper, singer-songwriter, and model. As the French say, "a chacun a son goût", but it's certainly not to my taste. 😞
22A. "November Rain" lead singer: AXL ROSE. W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr.; born February 6, 1962)[3] is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses
37A. "Whole Lotta Love" lead singer: ROBERT PLANT. The closest we get to a reveal. Robert Anthony Plant CBE (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 up until 1980.
53A. "Walk on the Wild Side" singer: LOU REED. Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and poet. He was the guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The lyrics to this are a bit OUTRÉ, but at least it's music:
59A. "Johnny B. Goode" singer: CHUCK BERRY. Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music.
And now the Animal and Mineral kingdoms:
Across:
1. Nursery piece: CRIB.
5. Orkin target: ROACH.
10. Cousin of a sari: TOGA.
14. Jay with lots of wheels: LENO. Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno admire a 1958 Porsche 356 A Speedster (12 min):
15. Speed skater Ohno: APOLO. Apolo Anton Ohno; born May 22, 1982) is an American retired[6] short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. Ohno is the most decorated American Olympian at the Winter Olympics and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019. But he only got a Silver Medal for this one:
16. Like webs: SPUN. What are spider webs made of? And how do they spin them?
19. Sent up: APED. Made fun of.
20. Bro, to sis: FAM.
21. Seminarian's subj.: REL. The first seminaries were founded by the Catholic Church in the 16th century as a part of its internal reforms, needed to address the many real abuses that had given rise to the Protestant Reformation. One of these was the need for a uniform way to educate new priests.
24. Back-pocket booze holder: FLASK.
26. One being hunted: PREY.
27. Org. concerned with secrets: NSA. No Such Agency!
28. Barcelona-born muralist: SERT. José Maria Sert (December 21, 1874, Barcelona - November 27, 1945, Barcelona) - Catalan muralist, unprecedentedly in demand during his lifetime and almost forgotten after his death.
29. Fiver: ABE. Plastic is making these obsolete, but I'll bet you Lucina sees lots of green and wrinkled ones every week when she counts her church collections:
31. Show in a theater: SCREEN.
33. "How chic!": OO LA LA. How chic? Here's Rod Stewart with the Corrs:
36. Tears: RENDS.
39. Silvery food fish: SMELT. It can be eaten by humans, or fed to other fish.
41. Most mature: RIPEST. Constructors often add "est" to an adjective, instead of prefacing it with "most" to indicate a superlative. RIPEST sounds okay to to me.
42. Handkerchief alternative: TISSUE.
44. Its capital is Sydney: Abbr.: NSW. New South Wales is on the Southeast coast of Australia.
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Sydney Opera House |
45. End of a classic palindrome: ELBA. Legend has it that "Able was I ere I saw Elba", was attributed to the renowned French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, who was once exiled to the island of Elba. This claim first appeared in 1848 credited to someone with the initials "J.T.R" residing in Baltimore, Maryland. Perhaps coincidentally Napoleon's grand nephew Charles Bonaparte, who served under Teddy Roosevelt, built an estate in 1896 in Glen Arm, Maryland about 20 miles outside of Baltimore .
49. Very old: Abbr.: ANC. Ancient?
50. Metallic residue: SLAG. What's left over when you extract the metal from an ore. Ground slag has several uses, e.g. as a filler in concrete:
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| Early slag from Denmark, c. 200-500 CE |
52. Award-winning '80s-'90s soap opera actress Deborah: ADAIR. Deborah Adair (born Deborah Adair Miller, May 23, 1952). She has certainly led an interesting life.
55. Venomous snake: ASP. Legend has it that Cleopatra used this snake to commit suicide:
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Asp (Egyptian Cobra) |
57. Trendy boot brand: UGG.
58. Pulitzer-winning author James: AGEE. James Rufus Agee; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, and screenwriter. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family (1957), won the author a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize. Here are his lyrics for Samuel Barber's work for voice and orchestra, Knoxville: Summer of 1915.
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| James Agee |
62. Hanks Oscar role: GUMP. Here's why Hanks got Best Actor in 1995:
63. Oscar winner Marisa: TOMEI. And here's why Marisa got Best Supporting Actress in 1993:
64. Jessica of "Hitchcock": BIEL. Jessica Claire Timberlake (née Biel; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and model. Hitchcock, the movie, was about the making of the film Psycho, directed by Sacha Gervasi. Biel plays the actress Vera Miles. This is Biel's take on the experience of working with the team of A-List actors, including Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, and Danny Huston:
65. Dates: SEES.
66. Surgery souvenirs: SCARS.
67. George Eliot's "Adam __": BEDE. Adam Bede was the first novel by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), and was published in 1859. It was published pseudonymously, even though Evans was a well-published and highly respected scholar of her time.
Down:
1. Dover attraction: CLIFFS. The White Cliffs of Dover is the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face, which reaches a height of 350 feet (110 m), owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint. The National Trust calls the cliffs "an icon of Britain", with "the white chalk face a symbol of home and wartime defense. There was a popular song about the cliffs during WWII that my Mother used to sing to us around the supper table.
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The White Cliffs of Dover |
3. "The Seventh Seal" director Bergman: INGMAR. Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, producer and playwright. Universally ranked among the most accomplished and influential filmmakers of all time. In "The Seventh Seal', a knight played by Max von Sydow, challenges the Devil to a game of chess (view scene on YouTube) .
4. Word before and after "oh": BOY.
5. Totally destroy: RAZE. You can RAZE a barn, or you can RAISE a barn: two homophones with opposite meanings or ANTONYMIC HOMOPHONES. Similar and even more interesting are CONTRONYMS, words that are spelled the same, but have opposite meanings. Constructors love them!
6. Autumn gemstone: OPAL. Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Because of its amorphous character, it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are classed as minerals.
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Opal |
7. Web pioneer: AOL.
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as
AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online)
is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City.
It is a brand marketed by Yahoo, Inc.
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| AOL headquarters, 770 Broadway, NYC |
8. Golf-friendly forecast: CLEAR.
9. Counterfeits: HOAXES.
10. Former Russian ruler: TSAR.
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an emperor of Russia before 1917. The last was "Tsar Nicholas II", who along with his family was executed by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918.
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a person appointed by government to advise on and coordinate policy in a particular area."America's new drug czar"
11. Other side: OPPONENT.
12. Didn't know, but got it right: GUESSED. We do a lot of that
on the Corner.
13. Quechua speakers: ANDEAN'S.
The prevalent language of the inhabitants of the Andes, both today and in ancient times.
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Quechuan Languages |
18. Genesis transport: ARK. Noah's Ark (Hebrew: תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: Tevat Noaḥ) is the vessel in the Genesis flood narrative (Genesis chapters 6–9) through which God spares Noah, his family, and examples of all the world's animals from a world-engulfing flood.
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Noah's Ark (1846) by the American folk painter Edward Hicks. |
There was also later vessel, sacred to the Hebrew people, called the Ark of the Covenant, used to hold the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
23. Stretchy fibers: LYCRAS.
25. Your legs may not touch the ground when you're on them: STOOLS. Hand up if you guessed STILTS first.
26. Snowball action: PELTING.
29. Pub brew: ALE. Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale was originally bittered with gruit, a mixture of herbs or spices boiled in the wort before fermentation. Later, hops replaced gruit as the bittering agent.
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Real Ale from an English Pub |
30. Attorney General under Bush, Sr.: BARR. William Pelham "Bill" Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States attorney general in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump.
32. Chartered: RENTED.
34. Over 90 degrees, in a way: OBTUSE. Today's math lesson. Also a metaphor that shows up under lots of different guises.
35. Pixel purchases: APPS.
37. 2004-2011 TV series about firefighters: RESCUE ME. Rescue Me is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on FX on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters, overshadowed by the aftermath of 9/11/2001.
38. __ Zealand, Muppet known for fish-throwing: LEW. Lew Zealand’s act involves boomerang fish. "I throw them away, and they come back to me!" He has appeared in all of the Muppet movies except Kermit's Swamp Years.
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Lew Zealand and his boomerang fish |
39. WWII prison camps: STALAGS. Lest we forget.
40. Kylie dubbed "Princess of Pop" by the European press: MINOGUE. Kylie Ann Minogue AO, OBE; born 28 May 1968), also known simply as Kylie, is an Australian singer and actress. Minogue is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 70 million records worldwide.
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Kylie Minogue at the Queens Birthday 2018 |
43. Gives a seat to: ELECTS.
46. Metcalf of "Lady Bird": LAURIE. Laura Elizabeth Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress. Over the course of her four-decade career, she has won three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for an Academy Award and British Academy Film Award. Her standout performance in "Lady Bird" opened a lot of doors for her.
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Laurie Metcalf |
47. Colorful Wrigley product: BIG RED. It certainly looks big:
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Argyle (Feb 20, 1945-April 30, 2018) |
51. Committee type: AD HOC. I did my best to avoid committees when I was working - for reasons why, consider this "basics" of committee work. SOMEBODY has to do the actual work!
52. Urgent police msg.: APB. All Points Bulletin.
"
54. Account execs: REPS. As in REPRESENTATIVES. Also REPETITIONS of an exercise. Often accompanied by ABS.
55. Big name in PCs: ACER.
56. Pair on the slopes: SKIS. A CSO to my partner in crime MalMan. When he's not frolicking in lagoons, he's often out on the slopes:
60. Actress Thurman: UMA. Third time for me. I pass.
61. Decline: EBB. I think I'll decline this one as well. All done.
Here's the grid:
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading
and suggestions.
Notes from C.C.:
1) Thank you, Teri!
2) Happy Birthday to Pat and her husband, who were born in
the same day and same year. I
don't have a picture of the special couple, but here's a picture of Pat
(right in pink T-shirt) and Java Mama at the shelter where they
volunteer. They met on our little corner.
46 comments:
FIR! Unbelievable! So many WAGs! I'll bet there's not a person on this blog who did well on this puzzle without problems. Not because it's a bad puzzle, but because the wheelhouse needed is pop music, which no one here (to my recollection) has ever laid claim to! The puzzle may also be to spite all those puzzlees who endlessly complain about too many proper names in puzzles.
Except for the names, this wasn't really a very difficult puzzle. I think my only t/o was STILTS < STOOLS, which hid OO-LA-LA and also gave me alBERT < ROBERT. And so many easter eggs of other performers! I'll let someone else provide a roster.
When fruits are mature, the way to test
Is to find which one SMELT the RIPEST.
This rule won't carry
For the acai BERRY,
And try a durian fruit, you'll be laid to rest!
Deluded people say viri are HOAXES,
Or that vaccines are poisonous doses.
They're extending the time
Of the death-toll's climb.
For everyone's good, they need to get pokeses!
ROBERT was running to get ELECTED,
But his OPPONENT'S lead left him dejected.
Still his AD HOC committee
Demonstrated no pity,
In claiming the man was by hubris infected!
{B, B+, B-.}
Good morning!
Despite the plethora of names, many unknown to moi, this one came together very quickly. Thought Fancy would be Bobbie Gentry or maybe Reba Mcentire. Nope. Laurie Metcalf was priceless as Sheldon's mother on TBBT. Thanx, Yoni, Doni and Waseeley.
Happy Birthday, Pat.
Well, Owen, I guess I can add to your list of “people who endlessly complain about proper names in puzzles”. This CW was loaded with them, 19 by my count. I did not like it at all. DNF for unclefred, although Google filled all the cells. Waseeley, thank you for the delightful and entertaining write-up. You obviously put a lot of time and effort into it, and it is appreciated.
OwenKL @3:43 AM Good morning Owen! I use you to set my watch on the days I blog. My mileage on the poems varied:
{A+ for teaching us a new fruit, avec CAVEAT,
A for the PSA,
B+ for treating politics with a bit of sorely need WHIMSY
}
Cheers,
Bill
Cute theme. However, agreeing with a few of you regarding the amount of names: especially actors, singers, authors and directors. 15% of the total clues were in this league, 20% just in the Across. Southeast corner was packed with them.
I understand that this was partially due to the theme. But I find that most crossword puzzles lean pretty heavily in this direction. Why not more science? I'm guessing that a lot of crossword constructors are more literary/artsy people.
Anyway, not meaning to complain (much!), but please, can someone construct a more heavily math, science, social science, history puzzle? Thanks
Andy W.
Yep, I inked stilt/STOOL.
FIW, the clue for Zealand was at the bottom of the page. I overlooked the comma and never noticed the Muppet ref. Worse…
I never caught onto the theme and when I had ROBERT N NANT I decided the perps were solid. Mr S. convinced me.
Also, Muppets were after my time but a staple for many. I think the precursor was Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
My FIW in this case was a result of newspaper solving. I eschew online because I do everything on cell.
D-O, thx, I didn't know LAURIE was Sheldon's mother. Great actress indeed, what interplay the two had.
I'm waiting for the wailing and gnashing. I lost count of the P&Ps(15?). Why couldn't LEN be clued as Deighton my fav writer.
Also, PLANT is a big TBay name as he used his Spanish Anerican War windfall for philanthropy . Morton Plant Bio
WC
This one took 7:48 to blossom. It sure seemed like a lot of proper names, which was certainly the theme, but in the lower portion of the grid there are almost 3 full tiers of proper names (Lou Reed on Agee on Gump - crossing Minogue; Ugg on Chuck Berry on Tomei and Biel - crossing Laurie). That's too many. But still, I enjoyed this fresh take rather than "word split up over two words" or "word jumbled".
Definitely an A&E puzzle today. I caught the PLANT theme after AZALEA & ROSE but I'd never heard of IGGY AZALEA (or Kylie MINOGUE). But everybody's heard of CHUCK BERRY. Being a Zeppelin fan, ROBERT PLANT was a gimme and so was LOU REED. AXL ROSE- not familiar with his music but I know of him. I'm glad Yoni didn't include a song from YANNI.
Deborah ADAIR, LAURIE Metcalf, and LEW Zealand- unknowns filled by perps. INGMAR was a WAG- only Bergman I know.
"RESCUE ME"- I know the song by Fontella Bass but nothing about the TV show.
Only one change today, STILTS to STOOLS.
OO LA LA- the spelling kinda threw me; OOH or if you look at the video it's spelled OHH LaLa.
About 40 years ago I took my son to Six Flags Over Texas and in their amphitheater CHUCK BERRY was playing that night (no extra charge). I was talking to a couple of their security personnel wondering how much it costs them for Chuck and they said he did things differently. First he always showed up a few hours early with a briefcase and demands CASH up front. Then he disappears until about 5 minutes before his scheduled time to play.
"Take a Walk on the Wild Side"- look up the lyrics and listen to the song. Today's news media and some groups try to make people think that all the stuff he sings about is the 'new normal": it's not. Those people are still weird.
Wilbur Charles @7:49AM Thank you so much for the Morton Plant bio, of whom I'd not heard. Incredible human being!
I certainly noticed all the names today, but missed seeing the PLANT aspect of the theme. Got all the puzzle ok with help from perps. Hand up for STiltS/STOOLS. Had Slides/SCREEN so OPPONENT took some time to get. But in the end, a FIR! Thanks, Yoni and Dani, for the workout. And many thanks go to waseeley for an able review, full of goodies!
What will tomorrow bring? The suspense builds..... Enjoy your day, everyone!
I grasped the musician/vocalist part of the theme but missed the flora aspect. Still, it was some help and that was needed due to the plethora of proper nouns. Thanks, Bill for the CSO. It snowed yesterday in both Mammoth Lakes, CA and Park City, UT so perhaps we'll see a winter with a good amount of precipitation. That said, it's going to be 90 F here today.
This proper noun-fest puzzle with so many proper nouns crossing was a fun sponge, a rare meh from me.
I LIU several of the names, including all but two of the themers.
By the time I looked up PLANT, the reveal, I was so disgruntled I didn't look for the theme. IMO, because all the theme answers were names, any other proper nouns should have been omitted.
My take on UGGs is ugly.
Happy birthday, Pat. With Java Mama, your love and care for animas is heart-warming.
I think of regaling with talk and stories more often than with wining and dining, but both are valid.
Amost a DNF...Didn't know it was L for LEW and ROBERT until I reminded myself the theme is Flora ergo PLANT 🌱🌿...after correcting opposite/OPPONENT finally FIR 😀..." Didn't know but got it right"
My vertically challenged DW won't sit at restaurant tables with those high STOOL-like chairs. (Thats why I didn't have stilts first) Fess up, how many pre-perped "sib" instead of FAM?😳....Never heard of the 2 Aussie chanteuses... Held off on APOLO thinking two "L's"...'Spose there are many variants but I've only seen Oh and Ooh là là. 🤗
Have been told, having an AOL email address (like mwah) is a sign of age.. 🙄
Waz...REL, I believe as a response to the Protestant Reformation the Catholic Church conducted a Counter Reformation where they replaced the seminary kitchens with granite.🤣
"TISSUE?, I hardly know you!" 💋
I guess just one of the pair is an UGG. Had fin, never heard a "fiver" referred to as an ABE.
"Cheers" Mailman's...CLIFFS
Storm again...REGALE
Pawn shop sign change request....ADHOC.
We deceive with _____ ...ARGYLE
Ben (a "tenner"?) said company, like fish, ___ after 3 days....SMELT.
A candy or a breath mint?....SERT.
TGIF tomorrow.😲
Oh, my! I was proper named out and had to come here! Chuck Berry was my known in the lower half of the puzzle, but everything else never came anywhere near "south" with whatever else I could fill in. I guess my movie and song singers background is a bit too old. Anyhow, out the door with my head filled with "plant" names and so happy I can fill in the unknowns by coming here. Stay puzzled, All!
Good morning everyone.
Proper noun fest as others said but they all perped in for me so; FIR. A few lucky WAGs, too, so avoided Naticks. Had 'stilts' before STOOLS, and 'opposite' before OPPONENT.
Thanks Bill for a fine intro.
This was a fun and fast (for a Thursday) puzzle - knowing they were plants helped with remembering which artist to fill in for the other themers!
Thanks Bill and Yoni & Dani!
Happy birthday Pat!
Musings
-I thought there would be a reveal but it was not needed. The top half finished quickly and four of the five themers were fine but MINOGUE, LAURIE, ADAIR, BEDE and BEIL temporarily bollixed up my, uh, bottom. TMI?
-APED is like the popcorn hull in your teeth that just won’t go away.
-Our new drive-in theater has its SCREEN surrounded by corn fields
-I always use the word Kleenex in lieu or TISSUE
-I do know that lesser known Canberra is the capital of AUS and did not fall for Sydney s being that in cluing
-On a clear day, the White CLIFFS Of Dover are visible from France
-The weather forecast for here today is NOT golf-friendly. Our teacher’s group cancelled our outing
-SWINGS and STILTS preceded STOOLS for me
-Andy Dufresne got sent to solitary for calling the warden OBTUSE in Shawshank Redemption
-What? They didn’t choose this for RESCUE ME?
-HBD, Pat!
Too many names to know. My white-out got a workout this morning but somehow I managed to finish the puzzle. A cute theme and a good expo.
Hola!
Happy birthday, Pat!
Name fest! Yes it was. I knew INGMAR, APOLO, LOU REED, CHUCK BERRY, AXL ROSE, LAURIE Metcalf, James AGEE, GUMP, BARR, and of course, ARGYLE with fond memories.
This is not my favorite kind of puzzle and the last one I shall do for a few weeks so not the best memory to take with me. But I finished it.
STALAG is familiar from the many TV shows popular in the 70s and 80s.
Thank you, Yoni Glatt and Dani Raymon for keeping me challenged.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! I'll see you in a couple of weeks.
Hi Y'all! Groan response for Yoni & Dani. Not fun. 20 proper names if you count the unknown muppet. I had heard of a few of them. AZEALA filled first & I wagged IGGY. Never heard her music & thought it was a man. Why would a woman want to be called IGGY?
Thanks, Bill, for explaining it all.
Happy Birthday, Pat & mate.
Add me to the list of complainers. I get the theme, and the proper names. But then all the others, it was a trivia contest. The worst puzzle in memory.
Ray - O @9:26 AM LMAO re "Counter Reformation" 🤣 I do know something about that from one of the leaders of the movement, our Parish patron St. Charles Borromeo. He not only founded seminaries, but also invented the confessional, the forerunner of the Comments Section of this blog. 😎 For his pains he was knifed in the back by one of his OPPONENTS, but his heavy cloak saved his life.
FIR. I still play in a classic rock band so I knew all the old rockers. That said, I realized that they decided to publish a trivia quiz disguised as a crossword puzzle today.A cheap way of making a puzzle difficult rather than being clever.
I post very seldom, but just had to express my alternate view today. I like proper names in puzzles! Not that I always know them, because I certainly don't. But there is frequently a level of ambiguity in clues, so that at least at first glance more than one answer is quite reasonable. With proper names, if you know one or can figure it out with a perp or two, you can be absolutely certain of the answer. I find that very reassuring.
Just my opinion, for what it's worth. (Not much, perhaps.)
Well, I got LENO because I remembered that he collected cars. Nice to see that picture of him, Bill. And I also got INGMAR Bergman, so that too helped with the northwest corner. Also ARK helped me get FLASK. Yep, this was my favorite corner.
Had some good luck in the southwest too, since I got STALAGS right away--which helped with TISSUE and AGEE and GUMP.
In the east, my biggest help came from TOGA, and SCREEN and ELBA. Would never have gotten UGG, since I'm not into footwear, and so didn't get ARGYLE either.
But enjoyed getting what I got, so thanks, everybody.
And happy birthday Pat and partner.
Have a good day, everybody.
Sandyanon @12:05 PM A rare, but refreshing POV. I'm of the opinion that "All's fair in Love and Crosswords".
Sorry, but I didn't like this misplaced Entertainment Weekly grid. (Sandy, your opinion is every bit as valid as mine, just different.) I got it after looking up ADAIR and LAURIE, but wish I had just given up much earlier and gone on to the King Features and old NYT CWs.
FLN Thanks for the videos, Pat. Lovely dog. I bet she'll become a wonderful pet some day, thanks to your kind work.
WTF Never heard of Adair. If she was award winning how come she is not in top 50 Soap Opera actresses in history. Must have been trick question.
Tiring Thursday. Thanks for the effort, Yoni and Dani, and to waseeley (and Teri) for explaining.
Mark me down in the group who lost interest in this CW because too many of the names were outside of my wheelhouse.
Officially a DNF, even after a couple of Google searches; plus several more were 12D (we Cornerites say WAGged).
But I did get the theme (sort of)! I saw the flowers and the fruit, but had to change Weed to REED and DNK PLANT.
Hand up for Stilts before STOOLS. I’m tall, but I prefer a regular chair.
Ray-o - even this Canadian knew ABE (but I had to Google BARR).
I have met Quechua Speakers in Ecuador. Beautiful, friendly people and gifted artisans. I still have some wood carvings and bright wool ponchos.
I smiled fondly at the CSO to ARGYLE.
Happy Birthday Pat and DH.
Wishing you all a great day.
Forgot to wish you and your spouse Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Pat. It is rare for married couples to have a shared birthday so you all are lucky!
I don't like crossing names because if I don't know them I have no idea. Crossing words are usually easier to suss and wag, even if you don't know them.
Hand up for OPPOsite/OPPONENT and STiltS/STOOLS. At 5'1", I hate the high tables and chairs. If I'm lucky, I can get my toes on the crossbar.
Thanks, Yoni and Dani, for the puzzle and thanks, Bill, for the write-up! Since I have heard of all the musicians, I didn't have as hard a time as some others did.
Thanks for the kind words about my work with the dogs. I've been trying to get Shelby to go up stairs; she'll get her front feet on the second step but she's not ready yet to lift her back feet off the floor. She'll get there.
Thank you for the birthday wishes. It's pretty much just another day. We'll exchange cards, maybe have a glass of wine with dinner. wild and crazy times!
Enjoy your day!
Forgot to mention: "Happy Birthday to Pat and her husband," Do you get a cake twice as large?
Thank you Yoni and Dani for a nice and enjoyable puzzle, although it was challeging, and Waseeley for an enjoyable and link filled review. I never noticed the plethora of names, but kept doing them,one at a time, until I finally got it finished.
Argyle brought sweet memories of an old friend of the blog. He was truly one of a kind ....
Nothing much to add ....
Have a nice day, all.
Spitzboov, no cake. DH doesn't care for sweets and I'd rather spend my calories on a glass of wine. Someone else can have our cake.
Jeez.
Tough but do-able PZL from the Glatt/Raymon team!
I abandoned the "P" of my "P-and-P" when I drew a blank (or two) with the PLANT in the middle.
The unfamiliar name wasn't helped by perps: ah, time to move on with one's day...
Thanks for the bail-out, waseeley.
You do an excellent job and deserve all our gratitude. The only nits I might pick are (1) to question the strange apostrophe in your posting of ANDEAN'S. Surely the plural form for folk in the Andes does not require a possessive mark.
And (2) to get even nittier-pickier, I would respectfully suggest that what the Bolsheviks did to Tsar Nicholas was not an "execution" (implying the final act of a judicial proceeding) but an extra-legal assassination.
Perhaps "murder" would be an even better label for what they did to him and his family.
But I understand this is an interpretive choice--and bow to your editorial right.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Only one diagonal today--on the opposing side.
Its anagram (14 of 15 letters) refers to a class of characters, such as Ariel in The Tempest and other such-like critters.
Yes, I mean theatricalized fairies, those...
"AERY SUPERSTARS"!
HI All!
Dang, what a namefest. So many so that I completely missed the theme -- Geez. DNF in the SE (what HG noted).
Thanks Yoni & Dani for the puzzle. Cute idea (Garden variety singers :-)) but too many names outside the theme, IMHO.
Wonderful writeup waseeley. The salve I needed after the "solve."
FIW - LEs for LEW the muppet.
WOs: hand-up - stilts, oldEST -> RIPEST, reno->BARR (duh!), AUS->NSs(?)
ESPs: Did I mention names? ANC
Fav: ARGYLE. I don't have any such footwear but fond memories of The Santa.
{B+, A!, B}
Happy Birthday to Pat and her SO.
Lucina - STALAG 13 stands out from the '70s shows I watched.
When DW and I were dating, ROBERT PLANT put out his solo album "Now and Zen." I became her Tall Cool One.
//I did NOT like that song when it first came out.
Enjoyed reading everyone. Play later.
Cheers, -T
Pat, I'm with you on the empty calories. I eschew any dessert unless it is in my most favored list.
Thank you, Yoni and Dani and Bill.
Well, I got a great big DNF for this one! I have a bunch of red-ink squares (mostly in the SE corner) for things I simply didn’t know and couldn’t suss. If I had thought of UGG, I might have done better.
I DID get all of the musicians (some with a couple of perps before I saw the light), and I saw the plant relation. Um, I remember seeing Chuck Berry on American Bandstand. (That was LOUSY camera work, by the way, or maybe the times dictated that his duckwalk had to be partially censored.) Nah, lousy camera work.
MY COUSIN VINNIE is one of my favorite movies, and Marisa Tomei was the BEST of an OUTSTANDING cast. STALAG 17 is another outstanding movie, with an outstanding cast, that I’ve seen many times. If you've never seen the latter, put it on your list.
For some reason, I had the idea that an ASP was a much smaller snake. Guess not.
While I sometimes complain about too many proper names, I won’t today, because this puzzle seemed to be a “proper name “ kind of puzzle. (Hope that makes sense.)
OMK @4:29 PM Fair points both.
Puzzling thoughts:
Another FIW as I never saw (or recalled) GUMP in the SW corner. I had CEOS for 54-Down, but doing an alphabet run led me to LOU REED, but REPS never came to mind. I totally FU'd MINOGUE. I think I had MINOGEE or something like that . . .
Enjoyed the puzzle Yoni and Dani, and also the music and video clips, Bill. There were about as many of those as there were proper names!! ;^) My favorite among the clips was Led Zeppelin and ROBERT PLANT. "Whole lotta love" is a classic LZ tune.
OPPOSITE/OPPONENT; SIB/FAM; SUNNY/CLEAR
An old limerick classic that fits with today's puzzle:
A young British seafarer named Grover,
Seven celibate years, a sea-rover,
As he espied England's coast
Got excited; flogged his post,
And re-painted the White CLIFFS of Dover
I liked this puzzle. I often start in the middle, and ROBERT PLANT was a half-a-sec no brainer fill. Off and running. FIR in less than 14 min. I think the only change might have been Alba for BIEL. My favorite Jessica is an instrumental by the Allman Brothers. This puzzle was definitely in my wheelhouse.
Thanks for all the musical links today, Bill. Enjoyed your write up. Happy Birthday to Pat and hubby !
I had to run to Walmart today. We don't have a Fry's, an HEB, a Dominick's, an Eagle, a Kroger, a Randall's or a Giant. Or a Wiggly Piggly. We have a Jewel-Osco. They are okay, but more expensive for the same items. So I went to Walmart for the staples I needed.
The only reason I bring it up is because I must be getting old. I was trying to open one of those plastic bags at the end of one the vegetable aisles. You know, the ones on a roll, that are folded... The plastic quart-sized bags that are are almost impossible to open when the whorls on your fingertips are so smooth from years of working that the FBI couldn't get meaningful fingerprints. No friction, no opening.
There must be a trick. I tried wetting my finger tips and thumb to no avail. A young couple came came to the rescue, handing an opened bag over the top of the vegetables. I must have been a spectacle, or perhaps they were simply being kind to an older man. Damn whippersnappers ! But I was happy that they helped. Otherwise, I might still be there.
😁😁😁😁
Dear TTP @ 6:27- -
Oho! I thought I was the only one that couldn't open those produce bags. My son laughs at my troubles with them, then opens 'em up, slick as a whistle.
Modern maturity sure isn't what they promised us it would be!
TTP, I told my daughter over the phone that I no longer have fingerprints and she refused to believe me because "everyone has fingerprints". She suggested that my eyes are so bad I just can no longer see them. I keep forgetting to show my "slick fingers" to her when I see her. I spent a lot of time sanding wood in years past and think that might have contributed.
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