Today's puzzle was constructed by LA Times Crossword veteran
Jerry Edelstein, whose last appearance here was on
August 18, 2021. Today he appears in a MASTER's TOURNEY, turning the
last word of each themer into the first half of the reveal.
Here are the seeds:
20A. Retiree's investment goal:
INCOME STREAM. A CSO to JzB.
42. Cornell's "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" and others: ALMA MATERS. A CSO to any of our Cornell alums on the Corner. Hands up please!
And the reveal:
54A. "Mona Lisa" and "Guernica" ... and, in a different way, the
last words of 20-, 34- and 42-Across:
MASTERPIECES. That is, the last word of each themer is an anagram of MASTER*. I found the contrasts between these
two masterpieces to be intriguingly dissonant.
Leonard da Vinci's
masterpiece, the
Mona Lisa, is one of the most well-known works of art in the world. It's
difficult to visit the painting in the Louvre because it's always surrounded
by enormous crowds. Instead we'll take a
virtual tour. After the brief intro, click the start button. You can
control the tour by clicking on the small menu icon on the right side
of the screen.
The Mona Lisa has inspired many other works
of art,
including this one. The painting is pretty high-maintenance, demanding one of the largest
insurance premiums of any painting in the world, and all for just 4.4 sq ft.
of canvas (poplar actually).
The painting suggests many emotions, but for me it is iconic of serenity.
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Mona Lisa, The Louvre 30 in × 21 in |
Pablo Picasso's masterpiece Guernica, on the other hand, is iconic of the madness and horrors of war, depicting the April 26, 1937, bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country town in northern Spain which was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists:
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Guernica, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain 11 ft 5 in high x 25 ft 6 in wide |
Across:
6. Winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second-most in the Open Era: GRAF. Stefanie Maria Graf (born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks (only player, male or female, to be No. 1 for more than 7 years) and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which is the second-most since the introduction of the Open Era in 1968 behind Serena Williams (23).
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Steffi Graf |
14. Gulf State native: OMANI. A citizen of OMAN, a country occupying the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula at the confluence of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
15. Jedi who lived to be 900: YODA. See 23A. See also MASTER in 54A.
16. Dance with a chair: HORA. As a left hander, I'm also left footed. In fact I'm so left footed that I have TWO of them. Maybe this will help me the next time I'm invited to a Jewish wedding:
17. Ice shelf breakaways: BERGS.
18. Relaxing melodies: MOOD MUSIC. Winter's on its way and here's a bit of MOOD MUSIC for relaxing with your sweetie:
22. __4: Toyota SUV: RAV.
23. Happy eating word: NOM. Yes it's in the
Scrabble Dictionary. The word originated as an an onomatopoeic adjective coined by the
Cookie Monster, a NOM DE PLUME of puppeteer, actor, and film maker
Frank Oz.
24. ABC early show, briefly: GMA.
27. Wandered: STRAYED.
31. Eclipse shadows: UMBRAS. From the Latin for
SHADOW.
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The UMBRA of an ECLIPSE |
33. Kung __ shrimp: PAO. Here's a recipe.
37. River in the Congo: EBOLA. The river and the virus.
40. Female in a field: EWE.
41. Loyal subject: LIEGE.
45. Hobbyist's buy: KIT.
46. It often follows a crash: REBOOT. AKA the "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD). Save this link in the unlikely event that this should ever happen to you. Oh, but you won't have any way to access it will you? 😖
47. Overthrows: DEPOSES. Speaking of BSODS, there are some tech companies I'd like to DEPOSE.
50. Federal benefits org. founded under FDR: SSA. So we're talking about the "Federal benefit" of all that hard earned money that was withheld from my paycheck for 53 years?
51. Hit hard: RAM. See 46A.
53. Write "ere" for this answer, say: ERR. Yeah, "This clue has on" too. Just sayin' - this is a slippery slope!
60. Debate provision: EQUAL TIME.
63. Spice native to Indonesia: CLOVE. 8 Surprising Health Benefits of Cloves.
64. Hide in the shadows, say: LURK. There are a lot of people who
just LURK on the Corner, but we still love you!
65. "Garfield" dog: ODIE. Known for his copious amounts of
saliva. Pretty obvious that
Jim Davis
is a cat person. A CSO to .חתולה
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| Odie |
66. Southend-on-Sea's county: ESSEX. Southend-on-Sea is a resort town on the North shore of the Thames estuary, to the east of London in county ESSEX:
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County Essex |
67. Movie "Citizen": KANE. Spoiler alert: ROSEBUD was the brand name of Kane's childhood sled.
68. Parallel __: PARK.
69. Snookums: DEARY.
Down:
1. East Asian desert: GOBI. For your next vacation, here are twenty interesting facts about the GOBI desert and some stunning photographs. And for the grandchildren, Mongolian dinosaurs!
2. It can be a good sign: OMEN.
4. Wool from a rabbit: ANGORA. Awe, aren't they cute? There's money to be made raising Angora rabbits, if you want to try your luck.
5. Sudden loss of courage: DISMAY. The closest our friendly Thesaurus comes to that is "disCOURAGEment". I think the cluer is stretching it today:
8. Fancify: ADORN.
9. What many pop songs end with: FADE OUT. The greatest FADE OUT of all time:
10. Buddy: CHUM.
11. __ Altos, California: LOS.
12. Jackie's second: ARI. Aristotle Socrates Onassis (January 20, 1906 – March 15, 1975), commonly called Ari , was a shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest men. But before Jackie his partner was Maria, considered by many to be the greatest soprano of the 20th century ...
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Maria Callas |
13. Big __: MAC.
19. Me or you or a dog named Boo: MAMMAL. Let's see, we're: warm blooded (✓), hairy (✓), ... I could go on, but I think that narrows it down enough.
21. Daredevil Knievel: EVEL. Robert Craig Knievel (October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007), professionally known as Evel Knievel, was an American stunt performer and entertainer. Over the course of his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps. Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. He died of pulmonary disease in Clearwater, Florida, in 2007, aged 69, sans BOOTS.
24. Early Olympians: GREEKS. Apparently the early Olympic games were plagued by many of the same problems as we see today.
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Panathenaic amphora, a victory prize from ca. 530 BC depicting a foot race, Terra Sigillata slip attributed to the painter Euphiletos. |
25. Name related to Peggy: MARGIE. An old nickname applied to an even older name.
26. Gems, for example: ASSETS.
27. Pickles on a plate, often: SPEARS. Britney Spears has been in a pickle for the last 13 years or so, but things are starting to look up for her.
28. Puts on hold, as an agenda item: TABLES. Aside from a necessary noun in the kitchen, TABLE can be verbified in American English, e.g., to remove from item from consideration during a formal meeting or other procedure; and in British English, curiously, its meaning is the opposite: it denotes placing an item on an agenda. One can also "lay one's cards on the TABLE" ("to be candid") and "under the TABLE" ("intoxicated" or "secretive").
29. Wandering vacuum: ROOMBA. Robotic vacuum cleaners have been around for a while. The next new thing is robotic lawn mowers.
30. What you eat: DIET.
32. Fat meas.: BMI. Body Mass Index, how you can tell whether you need to watch your 30D and tips on the right approach.
35. Part of IOU: OWE.
36. Uncool one who lately is sort of cool: NERD. We've been over this before, but I think there is a difference between the words GEEK and NERD, but YMMV. As I think I'm both, it probably doesn't matter.
38. Philosopher __-tzu: LAO. LAO TZU (6th-5th Century-531 BC), the father of Taoism and the author of the Tao Te Ching.
39. Seeing no evil?: AMORAL.
Today's Morality lesson: 'Unmoral', 'Immoral', 'Nonmoral', and
'Amoral' all have prefixes meaning "not."
So which to use when? Ted's quote in the latter link seemed timely at the time, but I guess times
change.
43. Not moving: AT A STOP.
44. Flow slowly: SEEP.
48. Having a tag on it, maybe: PRICED. Or the "it" on a playground?
49. Unsettling closing words: OR ELSE.
52. Site of the Cave of Zeus, in myth: Abbr.: MT IDA. Apparently
there is some dispute about the exact birthplace of Zeus: in a cave on
Mt Ida in Western Crete
or the
Psychro cave
further to the East. Another possibility is that Zeus and his twin
brother Jupiter were swapped at birth. This happens a lot in Gilbert and
Sullivan operettas, but it's the first time I've heard of it happening in
Greece.
54. Put together: MAKE. OTOH, MAKING a marble statue means
taking things apart, bit by bit.
55. Kuwaiti ruler: EMIR. Emir , sometimes transliterated
amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that
can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or
political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial
authority.
See here for
more on this frequent denizen of Crosswords.
56. Give a strong impression (of): REEK. Rhymes with LEEK,
featured at the annual
Polk County Tennessee Ramp Tramp Festival, where there's a whole lot of REEKING goin' on.
57. __ Nostra: COSA.
58. Even one time: EVER.
59. Like some knockouts: SEXY. This clue/fill is relevant to a
dispute currently going on within a prominent restaurant chain regarding new
"uniform" requirements, but as this is a family blog I won't reveal it.
60. Rockies bugler: ELK. With an S an
ORDER Without an S a MAMMAL (see
19D).
61. Sine __ non: QUA. The grid is the SINE QUA NON of a
review and after I dispatch the next clue, it will be forthwith.
62. Coffee hour sight: URN. Crosswordese.
waseeley
Cheers,
Bill
And special thanks to Teri for proof reading this puzzle and for her
constructive suggestions.
And thanks to TTP for his suggested correction of the reveal definition.
59 comments:
DNF. Had REcOil instead of REBOOT, and couldn't figure out A_i_AL (AMORAL), _l_STOP (AT A STOP), _TIDA (MTIDA), ALMA__TERS (nourishing mothers), or ___ (RAM).
Mythology is usually one of my areas, but I've never heard of Cave of Zeus nor MTIDA*.
How the heck does ALMA MATER fit that clue?
Even with the reveal, I had a hard time seeing the anagrams. I copy suspected themers to my notepad to examine more carefully, but today misrecorded the endings as STREAMs, TAMER (no S), & __TERS.
CSO to - T with LURK!
We just had NOM on Tuesday.
* Just checked Wiki, it has two places listed as Cave of Zeus, neither on MT. IDA, and two Mount Idas, one of which has a cave connected to the myth of Zeus, named the Idaean Cave. One of the CofZ and one of the Mt.Idas do cross reference each other, but I'm still calling foul and incorrect on this one!
Stars and planets thru space are tumblers!
To find eclipses, check the numbers!
STRAYED orbs, bright
They will enlight
Their orbits, not keep you in UMBRAS!
I wonder if, when young, did YODA
Ever get to dance a Jedi HORA?
Go to shul,
On Torah mull,
Wear a tallis of soft ANGORA?
If for your computer you cheer and ROOT,
It's TIME you faced the awful truth.
No matter how good
Your apps have stood,
The day will come when you have to REBOOT!
{C, B-, A-.}
FIR in a distressing 34 minutes, undoubtedly once again winning the trophy for slowest solve. This one started out easy, and I thought, “Oh boy! An easy Thursday!” Should not have thought that, as it quickly became a struggle. With Owen, I don’t see how “ALMAMATERS fits the clue. After filling, I searched for the theme, but didn’t get it until Bill ‘splained it. Only W/O ADORE:ADORN, because EOM made no sense for 23A. Overall, a challenging Thursday, thanx, JE! And thanx too to Bill for his unbelievably fact filled and entertaining write-up. BTW I’m sure you meant 30D not 30A in one of your comments. I can’t imagine putting together today’s write-up, it must have taken all day!
Good morning!
Fess up. You tried GO APE, didn't you? Don't you just hate it when Wite-Out is required at 1a.? Failed to parse MT IDA; thought the answer was pronounced TIDA with a silent M. ALMA MATERS just seemed wrong. Of course, d-o thought "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" was probably an oil painting by somebody named Cornell. (I think Bill G was our only Cornellian on the corner.) Parallel BARS kept things from coming together in the Texas Big Bend area. Over all, it was a fine challenge for a Friday...and a little to tough for a Thursday. Got 'er done, but barely. Thanx, Jerry and Waseeley. (Lucia seems to favor brief marriages.)
OwenKL @3:34AN Apologies for my mistake @54A - "anagram" not acronym". And thanks to TTP for pointing it out.
Took 7:54 to get this, tripping over parallel bars instead of parallel park, and sloppily mistyping (or erring, per 53A) "roooba" for "roomba", which took too long to finally see.
I've got to keep working on my speed, as I can tell UncleFred is working hard and will likely beat me any day now.
Let's not forget that Yoda was a Jedi "Master," and many (I'm one) consider Citizen Kane to be a masterpiece.
DNF. Lost P&P and looked up EBOLA (doh!) and MTIDA (oh, MT IDA!). Since I wasn't crazy about the puzzle, I didn't bother with the theme.
I love my RAV4. Bought it new in 2001, and just flipped 200,000 miles on the clock. I would have traded it in on a new model but they keep making them larger, and since I don't have off-street parking (there weren't many cars 107 years ago when my house was built),smaller is easier to parallel park. It is also has plenty of room for Zoe the Wonder Dog, even with the back seats installed and folded.
Isn't this three days in a row with a vacuum reference?
I recently read Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving. The main character's sister gets killed by a LION when the TAMER makes her feed the big cats. I didn't like this Irving as much as the others I have read.
Executive Orders was written by Tom Clancy before the 9/11 attacks. A terrorist attacks the US Capital with an airliner, and China helps Iran attack the USA with a modified EBOLA virus. Eerie.
Gotta go - more later
unclefred @6:01 AM Thanks for that Unc. Fixed it. And as I a slower blogger than you are a solver, it took more like two days.
Anonymous @7:27 AM Thanks for the tip. Actually I had added a CSO to MASTER for YODA while tweaking a few other comments.
Hand up to D-O as I also went the “go ape” route, but after backspacing out ape with help from the perps I completed correctly the remaking grid in 11:43, good for me for a Thursday level. I knew alma mater means the school one graduated from, didn’t know it can also be a schools theme song. Thanks JE for the puzzle and Bill for the interesting and informative write up!
Looking back at my comments of last Thursday, I'm through Bay of Pigs from Mailer's "Harlot". Two leaders were on different time zones thus history was written.
I could see neither Nadal, Djokovic nor Federer would fit. Did Steffi marry Andre Agassi?
Re. SSA, and if you're an independent contractor you pay double soc-sec tax. The rest of my rant is way too political *
did ARI finance the actual killer of JFK? In cohoots with rogue British Intelligence. I've been reading into LEN Deighton. I'm a conspiracy RAT
I think I know that SEXY restaurant, they serve a nice mahi-mahi sandwich
MATERS gave a away the rearranged PIECES
Owen, tastes differ. I have to award #2 with the A
Actually, I thought this was an easy Thursday. Needed lots of perps but pen never left paper and w/o was in spelling ROOMBA sans U. When it's hard for me it's easy for the regs. Speaking of those content to be NERDS...
Ever try to talk xword in a group. The looks!! And it seems like a recent clue will be so apt to the conversation
WC
** Saying what you didn't say is too political is political in itself
Anyone who's seen Dustin Hoffman and Lawrence Olivier in "Marathon Man" will also remember that oil of CLOVE will relieve a toothache.
My uncle, sister, and cousins have attended Cornell University. An alma mater is a college anthem, different from an athletics fight song.
FIR today, though with WOs: Parallel bars/PARK (Hi, DO and Anon), MAgGIE/MARGIE, and NuM/NOM. Otherwise, smooth fill with some patience and perps easing the way. Jinx, I noticed the vacuum reference today, too. What will tomorrow bring for our fall cleaning theme? I had no trouble seeing the anagrams after the reveal. Thanks, Jerry, for an interesting Thursday puzzle. And thanks for your extensive review, waseeley. Much appreciated!
FLN: Anon T, I'm not a constant fan of the Braves, but do take notice when it gets interesting. Last night's win by the Astros keeps the suspense going. Lots of newspaper coverage! See you all tomorrow.
Good morning everyone.
Neat puzzle from Jerry. FIR. Early on, saw that the theme involved anagrams of MASTER. Pretty clever. Thursday level cluing made this a bit of a challenging, but it all worked out. Liked the ERR clue.
Have a good day.
Musings
-Me too on STREAM. Fun, late week cluing!
-Dance with a chair – Elvis sang - “If you can’t find a partner, use a wooden chair”
-You know how that first PIECE of pie is hard to get out of the pan? My wife’s sister served one to me that was in PIECES and she was not amused when I said, “Oh, an apple pie KIT.”
-SSA – That system has to be revamped but of course it is, “The third rail of politics.”
-My childhood dentist let us choose between CLOVE or Blackjack gum after an appointment
-M*A*S*H’s Margaret Houlihan had a promiscuous friend whose last name was Parker who she referred to as “Parallel Parker”
-Rain just isn’t getting over the Himalayas and which makes for the GOBI Desert
-A gym rat is a person and a gym rep is repetition of an gym activity
-“Let’s TABLE this motion until there aren’t so many people in the room”
-I wonder if comedian Cliff Arquette altered MT IDA to get MT IDY as his home
Anon @7:27, your comment got a big grin from me, thanx for that!! As for working on my time to beat your solving time, don't get your tighty-whiteys all up in a knot worrying about that happening....ever! I've been doing CWs for roughly 60 years and still suck at it. At 77 y.o., I doubt my time will improve. Thanx for the grin, though!
UncleFred: You're welcome. I had a hunch you'd reply, and I'm certainly glad you enjoyed the comment. I think it's cool that you post your times too.
You've got a few years (decades, actually) on me, and I've only been messing around with crosswords for about 15-20 years, I guess. But, you clearly don't suck at solving.
Like I've said before, years ago, someone used to post on this site their times, which helped me learn to solve faster, which makes it more enjoyable/challenging for me. However, from prior posts, I know that many feel the timing detracts from their enjoyment. To each their own.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Jerry and waseeley (and Teri).
I FIRed in slightly better time than unclefred LOL, but ERRed in the theme. I saw that a TAMER could be a MASTER, and was trying in vain to see how STREAM and MATERS could fit. Oh, anagrams. D’uh!
Several inkblots. Animal changed to MAMMAL; ROOMBA required some perps for the proper spelling; also waited for perps to decide between UMBRAS or Umbrae. (Clechos with the shadows clues at 31A and 64D.)
Hand up for not parsing MTIDA and scratching my head.
Another hand up for not knowing that ALMA MATERS could also refer to the school’s anthem.
I noted OMANI crossing OMEN, EWE crossing OWE, PAO and LAO, DEARY crossing SEXY.
We also had a double-o day today with the ROOT MOOD and ROOMBA REBOOT combos.
Don’t ask me about my 4 hour trip for what should have been 2 hours on the unaptly named GO train yesterday. We were AT A STOP because of an accident on the track; the resulting bus routing and waiting showed a lack of emergency preparedness. But I am thankful to be home safely , even if tired and “hangry”.
Wishing you all a great day.
Anon @10:24, I time myself because I do the CW and Jumble trying to preserve the few brain cells that have managed to survive the oceans of beer that have washed over them in the last 60 years. Timing gives me an idea of how they are doing, and, as you pointed out, adds a little pressure to try to push them to do their best, and hold back senescence. I've noticed as I age my solving times have, sadly, gradually increased, but I do my best to rage against time. The Monday CW I used to do in 8-10 minutes, now it averages 12-15 minutes. The funny thing is, you've posted some truly AMAZING solve times. I recall some time ago printing out a blank CW and laying it beside my completed Cw, and transcribing the answers from the completed to the blank, and BARELY matching the time you posted that day to FIR. I guess I'm a bit envious. Spare some of those brain cells for me??
FIR, only erasures were the U in NUM instead of NOM and writing the right fill in the wrong boxes, corrected by perps.
Fred, as I get older I process more slowly. The word I want is in there somewhere and I need time to dig it out. I don't care how long the puzzles take me.
I dressed as the Cookie Monster one Halloween and went to the store to buy cookies as a prop. As I walked to the checkout, I said, "Me want a cookie," and "NOM, NOM, NOM." The little kids in the store were thrilled.
WC@7:58, I admire your restraint today.
I know many gym rats. Here that is a common term. Kids who used to hang out in the mall were called mall rats.
Bill, I often tried to define Mona Lisa's look. I believe, too, that it is serenity.
I wonder whether any brides have fallen off that chair during the HORA dance. Precarious.
42A, in that clue are the words to Cornell's alma mater. Scrambled MASTER is mater, pluralized. Another verbification.
If the first piece of the pie I am serving comes out in pieces, I set it aside for myself. HG, funny quip. Amazing how some people cannot take a joke.
Anon @ 10:24 ~~ I always figure the time completed is another challenge and there’s a sense of smug satisfaction if I can beat the previous days time, Also find that what may be a difficult solve for me is easy for others and vice versa, all depends on the cluing and individual knowledge I guess, some names are familiar to some and some are not etc...
I enjoy all the commenters take on a puzzle cuz they invariably see things that I don’t, ie: the observations noted by CanadianEh today.
UncleFred: I'm going to hang-on to my remaining brain cells, because I, too, enjoy "oceans of beer." Also, I solve using the keyboard (faster than writing for me), so your hand-written transcription test was doomed to fail.
YooperPhil: Yes, it's another challenge, and to me, it's "part of the game." Can't imagine what it'd be like for Boomer to bowl, but not keep score. How would he know if he's improving/slipping? Also, I don't try to beat the previous day's time, but I do try to get in my expected range for each day (e.g., under 5 minutes for a Monday).
I appreciate the feedback.
-Anon @7:27, @10:24, and @now.
Hola!
Thank you, Jerry, for a thoroughly thrilling Thursday puzzle. I never time myself because I leisurely drink coffee while solving and ideating. It's my primary enjoyment in the morning. I will never win a race to finish.
Classical MUSIC is my preference over MOOD MUSIC.
Only two w/o's, SUR to MAC and YUM to NOM.
I like the word UMBRAS, akin to Spanish SOMBRAS.
CSO to my sister, Margaret, who is often called MARGIE or MARGE.
And CSO to Anon-T who often uses the term: LURK
Another CSO to my daughter and her husband, both NERDs, whose ROOMBA roams around their home, collecting whatever lies around. If it's cool and electronic, they likely have it, such as the ring doorbell. We're going to dinner at their home tonight.
Have yourselves a great day, everyone!
Musings 2
-I don’t spend time looking at my speed of solving. My OCD goal is to work the puzzle so that I finish top third completely and then the middle third and finally the lower third before moving on. OCD2, if I don’t get the gimmick, I refuse to look at the reveal and try to get it with other fills.
Thursday puzzles start getting a little tough for me, but I still enjoy them, and this one was fun--many thanks, Jerry. And your commentary is always a help, Waseeley, thanks for that too.
With puzzles like this I always start in that smaller northwest corner, this time with LOS Altos and ARI giving me HORA. I was hoping for a picture of a HORA, with the couple in their chairs held up in the air.
How did the name MARGARET give way to the nickname PEGGY? Have always wondered about that.
My favorite clue was Me or you or a dog named Boo giving us MAMMAL--very funny
Have a great day, everybody.
Not a bad Thursday 'cept for the theme, another washout.. sheesh 😠
Inkovers: GOape🦧(yes DO)/MAD, bars/PARK, TKOS/SEXY. Suspect the EBOLI river has lost its appeal as a water sports attraction like Lake Malaria and Covid Cove have😀.... Fancify?... ZEUS has a mancave in North Carolina? oh wait that's Mt. IDY. ( Waz: I thought Jupiter was the Roman equivalent of Greek ZEUS not his brother. (Jupiter... Jove.. Jehovah.. Y....H etc. all variations of Jupiter? Jupiter in Italian is Giove "JOH-veh:)
Thus sayeth Jinx...3 days in a row...a CW vacuum referral? a coin-incidence?🤔
A MORAL dimemma....when he's too fast on his motorcycle I can "see no EVEL".. am I AMORAL?😁
The ELK doesn't play the crossword instrument, the OBOE? I was DISMAYed to see it means "sudden loss of courage"? not "consternation or distress"
CLOVE in the singular? Seems like the bottle is labeled CLOVES..(cinnamon, nutmeg).. but hey why not
I turned 71 ____ DISMAY
Preferred by contented cows...MOODMUSIC
Male retirees urologic goal....OUTGO STREAM.
Cool down with multiple room ventilators...FANCIFY
TG(tomorrow)IF...😲
Thank you Jerry Edelstein for a very challenging puzzle, that I enjoyed, and that I learnt from.
Thank you Bill Waseeley for a comprehensive and informative review.
My Learning moment today, was the opera aria for Lucia D L... the 'Mad scene'. I listened to the entire aria, and then read up on it, and the style, in Wiki ... there is a reason why the coloratura soprano, keeps singing, altho' she's been knocked out. Wow ! I am a total ignoramus on Opera and sopranos, but even I could appreciate the mastery of the art. And the italian composers, in that era, seemed to totally dominate that field, around the world.
I have visited Cayuga Lake, near Rochester NY, and Cornell Univ, but was not famiiar with the college song.
I just pictured our Dr Ray-O-Sunshine, camped on its shores, fishing with his grandkids ... or listening to arias in authentic italian...
Bill, you are an expert, and a connoisseur in music, and it shows. Although I am quite ignorant on the whole subject, I can appreciate your talent and enthusiasm.
Have a nice day, all.
Anonymous @11:28 AM I use a binary scoring system: either FIR (1), FIW (0) or a DNF (a QUBIT timelessly wandering around, lost somewhere in the interminable grid).
When I retired I started teaching project management on a consulting basis. I was taken aback to see that I had to explicitly pay both halves of my SSA tax. Now I hope no one takes this as political. It isn't, merely economic. The employer's half of an employees' FICA is just money that the employee doesn't get paid as a wage. It just LOOKS like a tax on the employer. I ran across something similar during the Clinton administration. Al Gore sponsored a tax on phone companies mainly to provide internet access in public libraries. Congress passed it, and we (the IT department) added the tax as a line item on our cell phone bills. The outcry from the government was immediate and harsh. They didn't want the people who pay the tax to see what they were paying. We changed it to just be an unidentified cost, but customers' bills didn't go down. It is a universal truth that businesses never pay taxes,they only collect taxes. Only customers and/or owners pay taxes.
Ray - O @12:45 PM "washout"?, STREAM? Heh,Heh 🤣
I guess Jupiter's twin WAS a bit too subtle. I could have used Zeus's "ALTER-EGO", but that wouldn't have riffed with G&S. My fav take on the Roman is JOVIAL - Joe's Own Version of ALGOL, two early programming languages.
VID...Cayuga is one of the Finger Lakes (the middle finger? 😁) between and south of Rochester and Syracuse. I actually lived 500 feet from a minor finger lake called Owasco Lake in Auburn NY (it's still huge) but my grandkids weren't born till after I moved back to Utica and later got my "camp" in the Adirondack Park.. Northern Tier of the state.
Vidwan @12:40 PM Thanx for the atta boy Vid, but alas I'm not a musician, one of my few regrets in life. As for opera, the Italians are the MASTERS, 'cepting of course for Mozart, but then most of his operas were written in Italian. The one outstanding exception is "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute") - here's the Queen of the Night's mad scene (not a SINE QUA NON for all operas!).
GO Train - - Long ago I was taught by Ont. Hydro personnel who commuted on it that GO meant Government of Ontario. A common sight in the Horseshoe area along Western Lake Ontario.
I'm with Lucina on coffee and the ignoring of solving time.
Beautiful day here today. Just returned from Med visit to Syracuse. 5 yrs since melanoma removal; and no need to return unless something crops up.
ISS tonight at 1747 local time.
FIR. Lots of white out needed. I got stuck on parallel bars and my mind wouldn’t get out of park to move forward so I had to rework the south clues until PARK finally hit me. A nice challenge today Jerry. Thanks for the expo Waseely.
Hi everybody...
I have been having a hard time working up the desire to post stuff like I did before Barbara passed away last Christmas. I still solve daily as best I can and read the writeup and the posts. Bonnie and Tim live close by and are a big help with lots of short and long-term obligations. Grandson Jordan and I are good buddies and enjoy each other's company including reading collections of old Calvin and Hobbes adventures.
Yes, I went to Cornell far above Cayuga's waters. It is an excellent university in a beautiful setting with a lake and two gorges running through the campus. I met Barbara there in 1963 at a mixer. Cornell was a great experience although it seemed as if some of the faculty were trying to get rid of me due to the difficulty of their exams. :>)
Mind how you go...
Regards, Bill G
Nice to hear from you, Bill G. We have missed your posts.
Quick solve of a very enjoyable crossword puzzle.
Ditto on the review. Still perusing some of the links. Thanks, Bill !
Never heard of Cornell's "Far Above Cayuga's Waters", nor any of the other colleges and universities that use variants of it as their ALMA MATER song. The answer easily perped in.
Loved the clue for ROOMBA. Wandering vacuum. Struck me as funny.
Steffi Graf dominated tennis for so long. Incredible player.
I've read a few articles trying to understand about the HORA chair. I understanding the bride and groom each holding the end of a napkin to signify their union, but don't understand the significance of hoisting the couple up on chairs. Or is it just for fun, and not symbolic of something else ?
Gym rat - As in the person trying to get swole.
"Verbification" of nouns - Late morning, I was reading a market analyst's comments on a pending divestiture, and came upon this beaut, "... even before we diligence the numbers ..."
Good news, Spitzboov.
Welcome back, Bill G. Nice to hear from you.
Ray-o- Thanks for the laughs today. You are in rare form.
Spitzboov- yes, I believe GO does stand for Government of Ontario. Perhaps that explains some of the deficiencies yesterday. Why can government agencies not be more practical in their real-life planning?
BillG- wonderful to hear from you. We have missed you, but are glad you are having good family support.
Welcome back, Bill G! I, too, have missed you and often think about you. Believe me, I understand the loss of a spouse. I had never before felt such a deep sadness as when my late DH died. Even my parents' death did not affect me like that.
Please do come often. You have a support group here.
Bill G @2:11 PM It's good to hear from you, so far the only Cornell alumnus with a hand up. Coincidentally, I'm currently reading a book by another Cornell alumnus named Michael Guillen, a brilliant physicist who was there perhaps a generation after you, starting grad school circa 1980. He recently published a fascinating book called "Believing is Seeing" about the relationship between science and faith.
I liked this puzzle and the MASTER pieces. Hand up for learning that ALMA MATER also means the school anthem. A lovely Irish lady we knew often called me DEARY Pie. And now I say to Irish Miss, get well soon and completely, DEARY Pie.
Bill G, doggone good to see you.
Waseeley, excellent write-up. Thank you.
Good wishes to you all.
"diligence the numbers ..." good one. First they must numberize and trenderate
I'm going to sove Friday soon, in pen. I don't like online solving
Perhaps I'll set a timer but I'm with YR and others re. Haste.
Plus when I was stuck last Saturday I went to the Jumnle and when I came back it all cleared up.
WC
Good to hear from you Bill G!
late to the party today
Because I was looking for the the perfect master-pieces link.
(Act7ally, I am still looking...)
From previous days posts,
Yes I always read the late night posts
As I need the encouragement before looking
At the newspaper front page....
Hand up for GO APE.
I don't time myself because I know I'm slow, plus I don't always work in a single undisturbed session.
I also work all puzzles online (including the Jumble -- I stopped doing anagrams the second time I managed to do one completely in my head without marking anything down.)
Not only do I not need white out, but I can actually read the letters, something I can't always do with my handwriting!
But doing them online (or offline with AcrossLite) has another advantage that actually changes how I work puzzles. Because correcting is so much easier, I'll fill answers that I have low confidence in, and I'm right more often than not! It makes it easier to fill in the perps, even if it is wrong. The rare times I work on paper any more, I leave blanks unless I'm very sure, and I think it slows me down overall.
And the rare times I find a double-acrostic, I can hardly imagine what that was like before computers!
I learned a new meaning of DISMAY today, i.e. fear resulting from the awareness of danger. synonyms: alarm, consternation. Source:Vocabuary.com
This definition seems legit.
"Ten thousand spears I might have sent riding over the plain to the dismay of your foes." from The Return of the Kings.
We have great dinners here. Tonight I had Zuppa de Pesce over linguine in a great marinara sauce. It had fresh seafood in the shell, clams, mussels, calamari and shelled shrimp. So yummy. For take out we get a choice of four entrees with our choice of soup, salad, sides, beverages and dessert. In the dining room, our choice instead of takeout, we get the same, but all the entrees are buffet style so you can take as much or as little of each of the four entrees as you like. Sometimes I just sample each. One advantage is you don't need to shop, cook and wash up. A disadvantage is you must begin your meal within a two and a half hour time frame, and, for take out, you must order for an entire week. You can buy groceries in town to cook for yourself or pay for 25 or 30 dinners here in advance each month, no carrying over unused credits. You must chose one of the plans or none for a long period of time.
I do not read books competitively or time myself. I just read them for pure pleasure. I feel the same about puzzles. My measure of success is FIR with little or no struggle on Mon and Tue. FIR on Wed, Thurs and Sun, with a little more effort and FIR on Fri and Sat. with a bare minimum of look ups or red letters. I consider understanding the theme as icing on the cake and spend little time on it. I often do not finish on Saturday, but getting most of it feels like a triumph. I am often too busy or distracted to solve in one sitting, so time doesn't matter. Fun without stress.
OKL, pencil I, also, lightly fill in answers I have low confidence in and then change them as I go along.
why, just why?
Pretty easy for a thursday. Thanks Bill and Jerry. Ray-O, your anatomy quips bring tears to my eyes.
CED @4:45
Because somebody had too much leisure time??
Ok, here we go!
Master-pieces!
Late to the dance. A HORA? Thanks for the lesson, Bill. I was able to read through the great exposition and will come back again later to read through the comments.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW with a Natick at RAM/MTIDA - I had RAP/PTIDA. IDA know, never heard of either.
Thanks to Jerry and Bill for the fun puzzle/recap. Hopefully I'll do better on tomorrow's puzzle . . .
WO --> AGATES/ASSETS; ADORE/ADORN
See y'all bright and early on Friday
i just wanted Bill G. to know another person who misses him. (me.)
I was just getting used to his math puzzles, a few years ago.
I would like to say to him, that loss of a spouse is probably the most sorrowful event in one's life ... and to those that haven't, will surely face such an event, one day.
And, often it may happen rather suddenly ... and you can never prepare for it.
My sincere wishes and prayers for hope, courage and hope for all those who have lost a loved one.
I had sent this post with the same sentiments, earlier, from a dr's office, but it disappeared into neatherland ... the wifi was probably not strong enough. Maybe Peter Pan will read it.
Steffi married Andre. They raise their family and run a tennis school in Las Vegas.
CED, Why? "Idle brains are the devil's workhouses" (T. Fuller 1732). "Because someone learned how to use Photoshop" (Jinx, 2021).
Creative theme - but the puzzle was solvable without knowing the reveal ahead of time!
Most college/universities "alma mater"s are hymn like songs that almost nobody knows the words to, but are sung at events like graduation. I think that's why they all have fight songs which are upbeat and sung or played at sporting events.
I only knew the first line of the chorus of my school's alma mater "From the foothills to the bay.." and the last "Hail, Stanford, Hail"
One of the acapella groups on campus decided to spice up the droning nature on this clip at the 2:00 minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClkVr8_C_5s
RPI ALMA MATER
Great to read you Bill G! Glad Cornell in the grid got you down to The Corner to say "Hi."
What Lucina @3:25 said. Ditto Vidwan, et.al.
BTW, Did you see CED's C&H / Star Wars mashup link the other day? Thought of you & Jordan when I saw it.
=====
Hi All!
Cute puzzle, Jerry. Theme helped me @ ALM---TERS.
//Hip-Hop DJ: MIX MASTER [9]
Fun expo, waseleey. I'll play with/click your links later.
WOs: N/A
ESPs: MARC, LAO | EBOLA (as clued), MT IDA (ah, two words, thanks waseeley)
Fav: REBOOT over corrupted RAM? //I'm such a NERD.
{B, B, A}
//while you will eventually have to REBOOT, I had a Linux box running as a router/firewall with over 6 years of uptime. Only reason we shut it down was to move into a new office building.
D-O: I wanted 1a to be GO off; I held off for a while. ibid bARs. Too, I wanted ASHE for the 4-letter Tennis clue.
TTP - "diligence the numbers" ??? Oy! What will MBAs think of next?
I'm w/ YR on puzzle-play / timing.
During the week, I'll play a little bit to pass the time at red lights on my way to the office.
Then I'll play a bit more if a meeting is boring or if my computer is doing my bidding and I'm in a hold pattern.
Mondays I'm done by 9ish, Wednesdays by 10ish. Today I was done around 11:30a. Fridays may take me 'till 1 or 2p.
Saturdays are the only time I "focus" on the puzzle (while listening to NPR) - usually takes a couple of hours of head-scratching before I cry 'Uncle' and look at HG's grid.
Sundays, I just LURK :-)
Oh, and, I do the puzzle w/ my trusty 0.05 Pilot G-2 black inkpen on newsprint :-)
Cheers, -T
Me and you and a dog named Boo
I knew ALMA MATER as the school song before I knew itreferredto the school itself.
>> Roy
CED - side links led me to Mark Rober's MASTER PIECE domino robot.
Cheers, -T
I'd forgotten that during my travels in New England while driving to our destination we passed the town of NATICK! My friends had no idea why I got so excited about it. I'd forgotten that it is an actual town.
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