Good morning, curciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here wishing everyone a slightly belated wonderful start to November. It is difficult, indeed, to realize that Halloween has once again come and gone. Thanksgiving is around the proverbial corner and with that the "Holiday Season" will have officially begun. Of course, my local Costco had Halloween merchandise on display starting in mid-August so, perhaps, I am a bit out-of-date in my perception of how all of this is supposed to work.
Today's puzzle was constructed by Nancy Stark & Will Nediger who seem to have last visited us in July, 2020.
Our simian friend, above, strongly suggests that we start with the reveal and that we declare it to be "Theme for A Day":
58 Across. Reason to wear a hat ... or what 17-, 27- or 43-Across may describe: BAD HAIR DAY.
At three places within the grid the puzzle setters have placed answers that (with a bit of a stretch) COULD describe hair styles that have gone bad.
17. Garnish at the bar: LEMON TWIST. I have heard LEMON used to describe a used car but never to describe a poor quality hair styling job.
27. Tough gymnastics maneuver: BACKWARD FLIP. I am not sure how one might get a FLIP BACKWARD. Turned under, perhaps. That might tickle.
43. Heavy surf feature: CRASHING WAVE.
Here is how it looks in the grid . . .
. . . and here is how we get there:
Across:
15. Plant not actually in the lily genus: ARUM. ARUM lily, aka Calla Lilly. There are approximately 391,000 species of plants. Only approximately 90 of these are classified as being in the lily genus but the "not actually" tips us off to something along the lines of a misnomer. Still, perps to the rescue.
16. Sound from a roller coaster: WHEE.
19. Essence: GIST.
20. Key under a tilde: TAB.
21. Actress __ Gurira who plays Okoye in recent Marvel films: DANAI. Once again, my lack of familiarity with current pop culture was exposed. Perps to the rescue. Again.
39. Related: AKIN. A friend of mine had an idea for a subscription box that came with everything you needed to make something AKIN to pita bread but softer and made with yogurt. I had to tell him that it was a naan-starter.
62. Singer featured on Missy Elliott's "Lose Control": CIARA. Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. Sierra Nevada.
63. Jacob's dozen: SONS.
64. Distort: SKEW.
65. '50s bomb: EDSEL. A-Bomb? H-Bomb? Nope, an automobile flop.
Down:
1. Valletta's island: MALTA. Valletta is the capital city of MALTA.
2. Creative output: IDEAS. A hand up for first thinking of some of the creative arts.
3. Swing supports: LIMBS. A tree swing, I suppose.
5. Old timer: SUNDIAL. Not a grizzled veteran but, literally, an old timer. No moving parts to break.
6. Be obsequious: FAWN. FAWN is another polysemous word.
7. Showcase for pipes?: ARIA. "Pipes" being slang for singing ability.
8. Cutting-edge instrument?: MUSICAL SAW. Creative word play makes us smile.
9. Ambulance pro: EMT. Emergency Medical Technicians hang out in our puzzles.
10. Car once marketed as the Rabbit: VW GOLF.
11. Young at heart: CHILDLIKE. While this c/a was pretty quickly resolved, a lingering dissatisfaction remains as being "young at heart" has always seemed to signify so much, much more than CHILDLIKE.
Frank Sinatra
12. Take a breather: REST. Let sleeping dogs lie.
13. Spreads, as sails: SETS. Hoist up the John B's Sail. See how mainsail SETS.
Al Jardine & Brian Wilson
18. Soft rock: TALC.
29. Squeezed (out): WRUNG.
30. "Let's do it!": I'M IN.
31. (The) Atlantic, to Brits: POND. Often used in the phrase "across the pond".
32. "Zeeba" eater in the comic "Pearls Before Swine": CROC.
41. Greeting at sea: AHOY. AHOY, mateys, thar's fools gold in Cuba, Trinidad and Jamica. Arrg, they be the Pyrites of the Caribbean.
42. Grasping nature: AVARICE. Greed
44. Tracks of a sort: SCENTS. To a bloodhound
45. __ 51: AREA. AREA 51 is a highly classified USAF facility. You can find it on the map (but you probably won't be granted access - although I suspect there are a few folks who hang out on The Corner who would be).
48. Score conclusions: CODAS. A musical composition reference
49. Place to see some Chicago touchdowns?: OHARE. Not Soldier Field (home of Da Bears) but, instead, the airport.
50. Word with family or flush: ROYAL.
51. "Windows to the soul": ORBS. Poet-speak for eyes
52. Religious art image: HALO. One of many.
54. Like frivolous chatter: IDLE.
55. Spring harbinger: THAW.
58. It picks people up: BUS. Not, in this case, an antidepressant.
59. Done with, with "of": RID. Well, we may be done with today's recap but we are certainly not RID of our cruciverbal habits.
_________________________________________________________________
48 comments:
FIWrong. For a long time I was sure I wasn't going to finish at all! But I still lost to a WAG at 1a and 1d. No idea who Valletta was, and guessed hILLS < MILLS.
As for the theme -- blah. I guessed TWIST, FLIP, and WAVE were all gestures, hand gestures. LEMON TWIST as a bad hairdo? I don't think so.
Hagrid was having a BAD HAIR DAY.
The knots in his hair would not go away!
He combed it, he raked it,
He even drain-snaked it!
The follicles insisted they SKEW their own way!
To polish up his sermon, the preacher did intend.
He read it over carefully, some bits he did AMEND.
But ere he COULD deliver it,
A wind gave it a BACKWARD FLIP,
He preached only a bit of it -- the congregation said. "AMEN!"
{B, B+.}
Prescience is an Owen concept. Having done Thursday, Tuesday, I had to remain mum on VCR(Jayce post), VWs, and OH HEY(AW C'MON). Are there more?
Big self-inflicted wounds in West. Open space that I stared at. IN FASHION started to break the logjam. V8 cans fell with RAIN and SONS. I had scar for 'Reason to wear a hat '. RENE should have been easy(NEe) for a French 101er. And PBS is a fav but it wasn't Rat,Pigeon or Goat? Duh, CROC
FIW on CIeRA and CODeS. I got preoccupied with West and forgot to recheck. Music and pop-cul, my BANES*
I inked icon/HALO. SW was a mess.
Owen, minimum B+ especially #1
Was this as difficult as I made it? I'll see as day WEARS on.
WC
* We just had this
Holy Toledo, what a tough CW! FIR, but took 42 minutes. Lots of DNKs: 1A, 1D, 15A, 61A, 62A. W/Os SMELT: AMEND, EYES:ORBS, YALE:UCLA. Shouldn’t the clue for 25A be “Was able to” instead of “Is able to”? Overall, a real tough struggle. Thanx for the brain-sprain, NS&WN. And thanx for the brain-sprain ‘splain, MM. Like Owen said, I almost gave up on this CW several times.
Good morning!
This one went past the ten-minute mark, but that's permissible on a Thursday. MILLS was difficult to accept, but it had to be. TRUSS was cleverly clued to pass the "breakfast test." My LEMON_____ was at first a WEDGE. Nope. Jacob's dozen began as TINT for his "coat of many colors" -- which, as it turns out, belonged to Joseph. D-o's Bible knowledge is tenuous, at best. That swing could've been supported by ROPES or CHAIN. The perps dictated LIMBS. Fell into the icon/HALO trap (Hi, Wilbur!). This one turned into a Wite-Out wonderland. But it still wound up in the win column. Thanx, Nancy, Will and Mal-Man.
It's M-o-W double-meals day today. Next Thursday is Veteran's Day. In two weeks, it'll be another double-meals day due to Thanksgiving. I may have to get a bigger car.
Good morning !
I guess I'm starting this Thursday with a BAD HAIR DAY.
Recovered from (surgical something) sCALpAl and got MUSICAL SAW, but ended with wRASHING WAVE, which didn't seem right, but I thought a CROw might eat a Zeeba, whatever that is. Zebra ?
Jacob's dozen were SiNS. D'OH ! I'm claiming typo there, but still, I should have seen HALO where I had HALi.
And then there was hILLS / hALTA. Wha ?
Sloppy, absent minded work. My solve was an EDSEL today ! A real flop.
Funny naan and blot, MM. Nice, easy reading blog today. The image for Jacob's dozen has a pair of Levis. Might have been used in a joke. Seems to be missing a Gad.
What time is it on that SUNDIAL ?
A friend of mine bought a new VW Thing (remember those ?) in 73 or 74 after it first came to the U.S. He got rid of it fairly quickly and then got a diesel powered VW Rabbit that had to be plugged in during the winter to keep the fuel and engine block warm.
TTP, block heaters were commonplace in my WI hometown. Most homes had a pole-mounted yard light beside the driveway, complete with an AC outlet to power the heaters. Some folks would also remove their car battery and keep it warm overnight to preserve the cranking power. A cold battery could sometimes evoke only a groan or click from the starter motor. Ahhh, memories of my ute...not fond memories.
Took me 11:31 to comb through this one. I'm ok with that considering there were many unknowns for me today (the poem, the island, some trilogy actress, a cartoon, and musical saw - just to name a few).
Most of this solved steadily - but it took a while to get SUNDIAL since I hadn't noticed the clue had Old and timer separated. I had the most trouble in California/AZ region. Once I knew it wasn't ICON - it took awhile mentally to get past it to HALO.
Also I saw the hair styles in the theme - but I thought they would have to be BAD - but no - just the HAIR part was relevant. I started with BALD instead of RAIN for another reason to have a hat- NOT!
Thanks MM and Nancy & Will!
So happy to see Irish Miss back on the blog!
D-O, I do remove my John Deere battery every winter, but I couldn't imagine doing it with a car or truck battery every night.
Your comment made me recall what I meant to comment about the other day when you were talking about having a tree taken down. years ago, the tree service crew of about 4 guys and 4 women that took down my big spruce were from NW Wisc near Duluth. The guy told me they worked their way southward in the winter towards Georgia and Florida and wherever big storms had rolled through, following the work, and then back to WI in the early spring. When he said they were "travelers", my first thought went to Romani. Whatever the case, they were highly skilled and efficient, and made short work of that huge spruce and stump for a great price. I guess it gets too cold in NW Wisconsin in the dead of winter to be doing that kind of outdoors work. Or maybe that line of work just slows down so much in the winter.
Good Morning:
I have enjoyed solving several of Will and Nancy’s puzzles but this one missed the mark for me. I thought the theme and theme answers were tepid, at best, as far as cleverness and pizazz are concerned. It was a difficult solve for me due to the many unknowns and ambiguous cluing, to wit, Mills/Malta, Arum, Danai, Scoob, and Croc. I couldn’t understand why Eyes wasn’t working until Orbs was forthcoming and Jacob had a dozen Sins before Sons (Hi, TTP!) My favorite C/A was Old timer=Sundial.
Thanks, Will and Nancy, for a Thursday challenge and thanks, MalMan, for your humorous and enlightening expo.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
Fun but a bit tough today. got it all except DANAI. Liked the HAIRY theme. The long downs helped knit the solve together. Wanted 'eyes' for ORBS but perps didn't agree. 3 nautical; SETS, AHOY, and asSAIL:-).
EDSEL - MM 'splained it. Here I thought the AF actually dropped the EDSELS on the evildoers to smash them. :-)
TTP @ 0704 - Re: Diesel. Northern users also had to make sure they got a Winter blend of fuel. Essentially a #1 fuel oil. (more kerosene added). At one time we had a Peugeot and an Oldsmobile Diesel. Both poorly engineered IMO.
Some low lying fog in the Mohawk Valley which Ray-O will miss in Florida.
Wow, this was a sea of white for a while. But I did manage to FIR in spite of the unknown A&E fills- KAREN BLACK, CIARA, & DANAI (misspelled 'Diana"). My TWIST had to change to TRUSS (perps) and my "Old timer" VETERAN became a SUNDIAL. C'MON? No, I"M IN. "Swing supports"- HOOKS turned to LIMBS.
There's no way I COULD have finished without filling BAD HAIR DAY first and then going back and getting the TWIST, FLIP, & WAVE fills. B.E. never has a BAD HAIR Day, only a NO HAIR DAY.
I've had three sailboats but have not heard the term SET used. But those were just pleasure boats with lengths of 23', 27', and 33'.
IN FASHION- the antonym of B.E.'s wardrobe.
FIR again today, after some s l o w spots taking extra time to figure out. WOs were hILLS/MILLS, Can do/COULD, and eyeS/ORBS. I see I had company with those, TTP, uncledfred, and OwenKL. Perps eventually showed the way. I did avoid some other traps, also thanks to perps. The theme reveal explained what the link between the themers was. No problem there. Thanks, Nancy and Will for a satisfying puzzle.
And thanks, MalMan for your jolly review, complete with fun links and learning moments. WHEE! And by the way, OH HEY reminded me that I had never heard of HEY as a greeting before moving to Atlanta. Now I am used to it. Have a jolly day, everyone!
TTP, my father was an undertaker. Digging graves is another task that couldn't be completed during Wisconsin winters. Dad built an unheated cinder-block storage building behind the funeral home for cold storage until it was time for the spring plantings.
Thursday Triumph. Thanks for the fun, Nancy and Will, and MalMan.
I FIRed and saw the BAD HAIR DAY theme . . . but it was a workout.
Many clever misdirections in the clueing today. Plus some unknown names (DANAI, CIARA) But perps and P&P finally led to the OHO moment.
Starting out with MILLS and the obscure Blake Jerusalem poem was cruel.
Again today, the SW corner (near UCLA?) was the last to fall. Hand up for Eyes before ORBS and Icon before HALO
RANCOR crossing AVARICE deserves a gold star for use of “old” words.
We had more VWs today, plus an EDSEL and CIARA. EDSEL could go with LEMON also. CSO to Jason.
Did anybody else wag Nene before RENE (thinking of double nee for reborn)?
Brit day today with POND and ROYAL, but LITER was spelled the American way. Sigh!
Wishing you all a great day.
Thanks, Inane hiker. "Also I saw the hair styles in the theme - but I thought they would have to be BAD - but no - just the HAIR part was relevant. I started with BALD instead of RAIN for another reason to have a hat- NOT!" Now the theme makes sense.
Red letters in the SW 4x4 cells. Duh! Getting Jacob's 12 sons and accepting OH HEY led to completion.
Talc is a mineral. Rocks are made up of various minerals. Most sedimentary rocks, i.e., sandstone and shale, are considered 'soft' rock. So your clue stumped me for a bit.
Thank you Nancy and Will. Pretty crunchy for a Thursday (for me anyway). And I DNF on of all things ARIA. Pipes? An organ? Gams? No dummy, WINDPIPES.
Thanks MM for for an entertaining review with lots of fun stuff. Our constructors left out my personal style: "PERENNIAL MUSS". Every day is a BAD HAIR DAY for me! Why do think I always wear a hat?
1A MILLS. Tried HILLS, as Jerusalem is on a hill, but it didn't work with MALTA. The quote is from Blake's Jerusalem and the "Dark Mills" may be an indictment of English industrialization with its coal powered steam engines blackening the landscape.
15A ARUM. Another lily, not a lily is the Day Lily (genus Hemerocallis), whose buds are edible and taste like a mild onion. OTOH all parts of the ARUM plant are poisonous!
21A DANAI. DNK Ms Gurira and I'll blame her for the NATICK (i.e. two intersecting clues, which I DNK), intersecting with7D ARIA. I'll make up for it by doubling down with the Flower Duet from Lakmé, consisting brief intro, followed by 5 minutes of the most sublime singing.
Cheers,
Bill
TTP @7:04 AM Zeeba are in fact Zebras. And CROCS are the reptilian brained crocodiles, so stupid that they've never caught a Zeeba in the whole time I've been reading the comic. I think Pastis is a PETA person.
Musings
-I feel like throwing a flag on ORBS/EYES (no hint as to poetic license) which delayed the SW
-…and while I’m at it MALTA had to rescue HILLS/MILLS
-It seems odd that “bidding ADIEU” would be in a cowboy song like Red River Valley
-TAB? Sure, I can see it’s not ESC now that I’m typing.
-Our town made the state VB by the skin of their teeth and got wiped out in the first round yesterday but had more fans in the Pinnacle ARENA than the three Omaha area schools combined (Two games went on simultaneously)
-Grandson got accepted at UCLA but Covid prevented a visit
-I had a girl named CIARA in class on Tuesday but these old ORBS (grrr…) saw on the roster and said CLARA
-Cool Hand Luke tried pepper to throw off the SCENT the bloodhounds were tracing
-It’s 46F and cloudy but it’s supposed to clear off and get near 60F today. FORE!
DUFF @10:44 AM I'm with you on Talc DUFF. Minerals have a definite chemical composition and talc is a hydrated magnesium silicate. OTOH rocks are generally mixtures of minerals (not quite true, but I'm already bordering on TMI). I use talc as a matting agent in some of my ceramic glazes.
Hola!
A nice workout from Nancy and Will. Thank you. It took a bit longer than usual but worth the extra thinking time.
VCRS recalls our posts from yesterday. Hello, Jayce!
I love SCENTS, especially White Shoulders and Carolina Herrera which is almost gone. Hmm. Birthday suggestions?
Once upon a time I loved being IN FASHION but these days not so much.
YALTA or MALTA? Yills did not make sense so MILLS/MALTA made the cut. It has been way too long since I read Blake's esoteric poetry to recall it.
CSO to my cousin's husband, RENE.
No need to worry about a THAW in the desert!
Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!
Fun Thursday puzzle--many thanks, Nancy and Will. And great commentary, Mal Man. Your cartoon for "Royal Flush" cracked me up.
My favorite item was 50's bomb. Boy, I sure do remember the EDSEL disaster.
The easiest item was 'sound from a roller coaster'--what else could it be but "WHEE."
Loved the Van Gogh picture of his ARLES painting.
Have a great day, everybody!
Bill Waseeley, what a coincidence !?!
I normally don't do arias ... I don't understand them, and the high notes are well past my hearing range ... But, the name Lakme', in the opera itself, hooked my interest !
Lakme' Cosmetics, is one of the most popular brand of cosmetics in India, for the last 50 years. However, the women in our family don't do cosmetics, because ... we've resigned ourselves to be genitically ugly ;-0)
However, there is another reason why Lakme' is so popular ... per Wiki, it is the french version of the sanskrit name Lakshmi, the hindu goddess of Wealth... and what is even more coincidental, is that she 'comes around' the households, only once a year ... during the most celebrated of all festivals, in India, of Diwali .... which happens to be Today !
Based on the mass shopping and consumption stats, it is the indian equivalent of Xmas.
But, my wife and I don't celebrate it much ... because we have become too blase about such things. My wife used to take the day off, but she's gone to work, as usual, at her regualr 6.00 am. time. But, the memories of my childhood, still linger.
Thanks, for being the spark to remind me of what I'm missing.
On to more mundane, but more relevant matters ...
Thank you Nancy and Will for a very enjoyable CW puzzle ... the long answers made the job much more easier. Thank you MalMan, for a very comprehensive and enjoyable review.
I first had MALLS for Blakes poem, but I dont think Malls had been invented in those times... I knew of MALTA, of course, because I had an uncle on that island, a trader.
I, now, learnt what RENE means, .... There was a girl in my office, with that name ...and she did not use the extra E at the end. Very confusing.
I could not recognise a Bad Hair if I saw one, ... I generally wear a hat, anyway.
I thought a TRUSS held up a roof, or a bridge span.
While looking at the zodiac sign chart, I was surprised to see a sign named 69 ... now, what would that signify ?
Have a nice day, all.
DNF. The trouble was in the La Jolla area when I penciled in "eyes". Unlike IM and Spitz, I wasn't smart enough to think of ORBS until I convinced myself that it had to be something else and did a "reveal word".
Had a big day. Zoe had to go back to the vet to ensure her mouth was healing properly after a couple of teeth were extracted two weeks ago. All is well. Then off to out RV to charge the batteries and stock up some commodities for our Florida trip.
DW had a Mercedes 300 SD when we married. It was a a total slug in town, but a great car for the interstates. In winter we would make sure we got a ground floor room so we could snake out an extension cord to plug in the block heater. Supposedly the glow plugs should have allowed it to start down to zero, but we found it iffy below freezing. Same with the Caterpillar engine in the RV.
Thanks to Nancy and Will for the fun, and to MM for the laughs.
"The trouble was in the La Jolla area." Jinx, you are betraying your SoCal roots!
From the beautiful SF Valley, I remain
MM
Vidwan @11:50 AM That really is a coincidence! Lakmé is probably Leo Delibe's most memorable work, but he also wrote several ballets that are still in the repertoire, including Coppélia and Sylvia.
Got golf but abbreviation wasn't in clue. Other than that flawless. Liked old timer.
Tough Thursday PZL from the Stark/Nediger duo!
I needed a cheat (in the downstage right sector) to finish it properly. I was hung up on ICON (like my pal Wilbur Charles and many others--good company!) and could not for the life of me see HALO w/o aid.
Anyway, it was fun.
I love that William Blake poem at 1A. And the hymn version (music by Hubert Parry) is absolutely inspirational. This and the "Jersalem, Jerusalem" hymn by Maybrick & Weatherly are almost enough to send me back to church.
Not quite, but almost.
~ OMK
____________
DR: A 3-way on the far side.
The central diagonal is rich in vowels, limiting the anagram possibilities. But I found one (11 of 15 letters) that speaks to a less than pleasant first-time visit to our 50th state.
What does one receive when disembarking in Maui, after the better floral treats have been dispensed?
What does one get when all the plumeria, orchids, and hibiscuses are past their prime?
Late arriving tourists must put up with the...
"LOUSIER LEIS"!
I struggled with this puzzle, having fallen into the same traps many of you did, such as EYES-->ORBS, ICON-->HALO, and HILLS-->MILLS. Wondered at COULD being clued as "Is able to". Stretchy, that. Never heard of DANAI and even with DANA- filled there was no way to know what that last letter would be without solving that MUSICAL SAW. I learned that CHILL can (COULD?) be an adjective. I made this mistake of prematurely entering YALE instead of UCLA; a four-letter "U.S. sch." right? Wrong. And a one-named five-letter singer would be ADELE, right? Nope. At least I got RENE right. And yeah, Vidwan, sometimes RENE is a woman's first name, as it RENE Russo, and sometimes RENEE, as in RENEE Zellweger. I can't think of any men named RENEE, however.
Good wishes to you all.
Oh, I, too, loved the clue "Old timer." Of course GEEZER didn't fit.
Typical Thursday! Lots of white space until a few answers started to appear. Thanks, Nancy and Will, for the challenge. Thanks, MalMan, for filling in my unknowns and the expo.
27a Tough gymnastics maneuver(s) I think the answer should be ALL OF THEM!
I fell for eyes/ORBS.
I remember Dad hanging a 40W bulb under the hood of his work van to keep the engine warm. No garage back then.
Waseeley @ 10:50 I love Day Lillies! My avatar is a picture of the variety that was at our family home when we moved in in 1956. The house was built in 1850 and I wonder if the plants were there back then. I don't think you can buy this variety.
IM, glad to hear that you are getting better all the time.
I'm going to Ann Arbor tomorrow. No paper until I get home on Monday. I haven't seen family since Thanksgiving, 2018 so we siblings are getting together to enjoy a sister's Halloween decorations.
Have a great evening and a wonderful weekend!
You solvers over at the LAT are lucky to have this well-written and comprehensive blog -- into which, it seems to me, a great deal of thoughtfulness and care is lavished on just about every crossword entry. And not just photo links are provided to round out many of the answers but video links as well. (What an adorable dog! Though I can't right now remember to which clue/answer it was attached.)
I didn't even know this blog existed -- but someone over on the Rex Parker blog -- where I spend a great deal of my time -- put up a link to it this morning. Curious as to how Will's and my puzzle would be reviewed, I scampered over here to find out.
It's been reviewed very nicely and very thoughtfully by both the blogmeister and by the rest of y'all, and I thank you.
I was surprised at how many here didn't know MILLS or the Blake poem. This was the first word of the puzzle I clued and I was really happy to be able to clue it with a poem and a poet I love so much. It's a very moving poem and an eloquent protest against the worse excesses of the Industrial Revolution. But if you really want to be moved, listen to the hymn "Jerusalem" that @Ol' Man Keith mentions. It might make you shed a few tears; it always affects me that way.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Nancy & Will for the challenge. Nice to hear from Nancy, but I never have read Blake, the poet. Theme was amusing.
THanks for the info & chuckles, MalMan.
Last to fill was the section CHILL/CROC/RENE/CRASH... Don't see that CROC comic.
Story of my life = BAD HAIR DAY.
DNK: MILLS, DANAI, MALTA, KAREN BLACK, MUSICAL SAW, CIARA. Perped in pretty well & finished with red-letter runs, MILLS? IT's MILLS & MALTA? Surely not...
Nancy - Thanks for checking in to our fun spot. I hope you make a habit of checking in, and commenting when the spirit moves you. We are an eclectic group. We don't keep statistics (at least I think that's the case), but I would hazard a guess that at least half hold liberal arts degrees. We have a lot of teachers, but also rocket scientists, computer scientists, thespians, newspaper writers, lawyers, physicians, physicists, dog lovers, cat lovers, military professionals, sales professionals, religious professionals, business management specialists, and probably many that I'm forgetting. Our avocations include travel, photography, flying, hiking, sailing, car restoration, community service (most of it not even court-ordered), and solving word games like Jumble and, of course, solving (and creating) crosswords. We mostly get along, and even when things are not so calm, we disagree about issues, not people. I've never seen a "well you always..." or "well you never...", or "well that's because you are a..." on this blog. Of course tomorrow is a new day...
Thanks for stopping by, Nancy. We hope to see you again, soon. With or without a puzzle. Hopefully, with.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR after a few cheats. Like others, MILLS did not come to mind for 1-Across even though it was the most obvious answer. Other unknowns included DANAI and CIARA but the perps helped solve those. Favorite clue was 5-Down: Old timer: SUN DIAL
Thanks to Nancy and Will (thanks Nancy for stopping by) and to my blogging partner MM for the concise yet informative and lively review. And yes, Joseph, the Stooges are indeed a trio. I should know!!
EYES/ORBS; SIX/TAB but I now see that the character above the "SIX" key is a carat
I had a "hair" theme get rejected recently although it was not at all like this one. I guess that in the world of crossword composing, originality is not only key, it is also at times unachievable
Anent heaters for engine bocks in winter, every auto parts place used to stock spray cans of [di-ethyl] ether to goose the carburetor into life in chilly weather. (That's when there were manual chokes and such ... there's so much plumbing and electronics under the hood nowadays that it isn't easy to get to the carb.)
Plus, there was another aspect to winter. My wife and I -- being native Angelinos -- went and got our car washed in early afternoon one Saturday in New York in early November. The car was parked on the street, in the shade. When we came out to go somewhere a few hours later, I couldn't get my key in the door lock, because water from the car wash had frozen inside the lock! That just doesn't happen in California -- I think it's against the law there -- but we understood why every car in New York looked so gross and sloppy until the spring thaw.
What a treat to have Nancy Stark stop by amd provide some thoughts. She seems to be a very upbeat and creative person. The collaborations with Will Nediger one of our wunderkids of construction who began getting published in his early teens and has more than 50 published puzzles appearing in every major venue. Since he is the mentor for Nancy and other late bloomers, it is an interesting world.
C.C.'s INTERVIEW WITH WILL NEDIGER . He is not a vampire
FIR. Got stuck in the SW corner by the misquote of ORBS as "the window of the soul." The common proverb (of unknown origin) is "The eyes are the window of the soul." Once I gave up on accuracy, and solved the perps without reference to it, I finally got the corner. But then I COULD be wrong. (See, it can be be present tense.)
>> Roy
DNF! While I managed to fill in 80 or so percent of the puzzle (who’s counting?) there were some clues for which I didn’t have a clue, and a few for which I was simply wrong. I finally gave up the ghost.
I did get BADHAIRDAY and BACKWARDFLIP. I refused to put the V in CRASHINGWAVE (although it was the only letter that would fit), because I couldn’t suss AVARICE, because I had SMELT instead of AMEND and didn’t know CIARA. I also made a mess in the middle of the far north, which kept me from seeing the TWIST to the LEMON. I had LEMONSLICE. Also couldn't get the SW corner, because EYES were the only windows to the soul I ever knew.
Thanks, Nancy and Will, and thanks for stopping by, Nancy!
When my dad was stationed in Alaska way back in my ute, we plugged in the car's head bolt heater to an electrical outlet on a post. I never understood what it was (couldn’t SEE it), but I know it worked.
Dear Nancy. I enjoyed solving your puzzle today (created with Wil Niediger) and was pleased to learn that you are the one and only Nancy on the Rex Parker site. Please stop by more often.
Hi All!
DNF - I had to lookup DANAI to finish the NCentral.
Thanks Nancy & Will for the BAD coif puns :-)
Nice that you found The Corner and nicer that you posted.
Thanks MManatee for the LOL expo.
Also, FLN, thanks for the heads-up on C.C.'s USA Today pzl.
WOs: hILLS, AHA -> OHO, end -> RID, tIARA -> CIARA
ESPs: MALTA | MILLS, RENE, CIARA, ARUM, ARLES (when will I remember?), KAREN BLACK
Fav: SUN DIAL's clue
{B+, A}
Funny DR, OMK.
Vidwan - namaste and Happy Diwali!
Three buddies and I went to Musaafer but didn't order the Diwali menu special.
None of us are Indian so I can't tell you how "authentic" it is - but it was absolutely delicious.
I do remember Pop putting a lightbulb next to the battery on colder nights. These were the batteries you had to add water to all the time so I guess it was so the water didn't freeze(?).
Enjoyed reading everyone.
Cheers, -T
Dear -T:
Such an interesting menu, but I'd need a guide ... what is GULAB 2.0, when I don't even know what the 1.0 release is like?
Michael - so, the GULAB 2.0 is what I ordered for dessert. OMG! It was a beautifully crafted and painted chocolate rose (that looked like a rose!) in the middle of the plate. Around the plate was 2 little scoops of vanilla ice cream w/ some raspberries & blackberries and golf-ball & marble-sized fried milk balls.
On serving, the waiter poured cream over the rose and then mashed the chocolate rose into the plate's center. That was supposed to be the "dipping sauce."
The Rose's stem (painted green) was chocolate but with an overtone of a spice I don't know. But it was soooo good.
Only the fried milk balls were too sweet requiring a few sips of black coffee in between.
A picture.
Cheers, -T
Dear -T:
OMG ... enough calories to light Houston!
I was tripping on GULAB, because of the 'GU' -- the 'Main Administration' (Glavnoye Upravleniye) in Russian bureaucratic nomenclature [as in GULAG].
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