Theme: - "The Long and Short of It" - The long I sound (in *IGHT) is replaced by a short I sound.
26. Sweaters in King Arthur's court?: KNITS OF THE ROUND TABLE. Knight of the Round Table.
34. Offshore retreat for comedians?: THE ISLE OF WIT. The Isle of Wight.
62. Query to a U.K.-focused think tank?: GOT ANY MORE BRIT IDEAS. Got any more bright ideas?
72. Altered the revealing side of a dress?: MADE A SLIT ADJUSTMENT. Made a slight adjustment.
98. Siblings who produce court orders?: WRIT BROTHERS. Wright brothers.
111. Dieters' interim report on smaller-sized clothes?: WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIT. We have just begin to fight.
Super tight set. Long I-t sound is replaced by a short i-t.
And a rare 136-word grid. Normally we get a 144-worder. This means we get more fill in the 6-and 7-word length.
Cannot tell you enough how much I admire Jeffrey, a truly original. You'll never see him dupe a theme that's been done before.
Across:
7. Tab on old cash registers: NO SALE.
13. Tarkington tween: PENROD. Unknown to me. Booth Tarkington.
19. Disagreeable: ORNERY.
20. Brunch fare: OMELETS.
22. Like zebras and donkeys: EQUINE.
23. __ pin: metal fastener: COTTER.
24. They know their stuff: SAVANTS.
25. Plants with flavorful and irritating varieties: SUMACS. Here's the flavorful spice. It's also in Za'atar.
29. "Ciao!": SEE YA.
30. Shiraz's country: IRAN. 16. Currency of 30-Across: RIAL.
31. PC shortcut key: ALT.
32. Earth goddess: GAEA.
43. NL West team: PADRES.
47. Thing thrown from a tree?: SHADOW. Nice clue.
48. Hotel selection: ROOMS.
49. Director Kazan: ELIA. He directed "East of Eden". His name popped up a lot in Tracy & Hepburn.
50. Clog (up): STOP.
53. Amsterdam's Anne Frank House, e.g.: MUSEUM.
56. Swindle: ROOK.
57. "Best ever" acronym: GOAT. Greatest of All Time.
58. Harsh-smelling: ACRID.
60. Spectrum maker: PRISM.
68. Pic, in Peru: FOTO.
69. Buffalo QB Josh: ALLEN. Sorry I don't know him. Saw the sign behind the other play's helmet?
70. Utah ski resort: ALTA.
80. Work with pupils: TEACH.
81. Mazda two-seater: MIATA.
82. Adverb for Descartes: ERGO.
83. Police force acronym: SWAT. Here's the Beijing SWAT. The four Chinese characters say "Beijing Special Police".
86. Venue for the premiere of Handel's "Water Music": THAMES.
90. Genesis casualty: ABEL.
91. Come across: MEET.
92. Capital of Yemen: SANA'A.
94. Allows access: LETS IN.
96. Diner counter array: STOOLS. Xi'an has 16 COVID cases right now. Many places are closed.
101. Tusked beast: BOAR.
103. Like the lower half of the Polish flag: RED. See here.
104. Allows access, poetically: OPES.
106. Major appliances: OVENS.
119. March: PARADE.
120. Out of the loop: UNAWARE.
121. Prison with a Greek eponym: ATTICA.
122. Worshipper: ADORER. We all adore Jeffrey.
123. Lead off: GO FIRST.
124. Kitchen gadget: PEELER.
125. Defy: RESIST.
126. Biological quintet: SENSES.
127. Members of the genus Vipera: ADDERS.
Down:
2. Pot boiler in "Macbeth": CRONE.
3. Remove, as a knot: UNTIE.
4. Female driver Ortiz of "Fast & Furious" films: LETTY. Learning moment for me. Played by Michelle Rodriguez.
5. Augur: PRESAGE.
6. Rookie: TYRO.
7. Cosa __: NOSTRA.The Sicilian Mafia. As mentioned in Mario Puzo's books.
8. Missouri River city: OMAHA.
9. Ordinal for Uranus: SEVENTH.
10. Bygone fruit spray: ALAR.
11. Longtime TV host who gives automotive advice in "Popular Mechanics": LENO.
12. Caesar's penultimate words: ET TU.
13. Mortar partner: PESTLE.
14. Congo line?: EQUATOR. Did you read "Conga line"?
15. More than cold: NUMB. Cold here. But last Wednesday was very warm. A tornado touched down in Minnesota. First time in December.
17. In the distant past: ONCE.
18. __ Arc, Arkansas: DES. What's it famous for?
21. Common ID: SSN.
27. Quaint word of revulsion: FIE.
28. South Asian lentil dish: DAL. Is this too spicy for your taste these days, Vidwan?
33. Evaluate: ASSAY.
35. Sam-I-Am offering: HAM.
36. Rutgers URL ending: EDU.
37. Android alternative: IOS.
38. Won all the games: SWEPT.
39. Official note from the boss: FORMAL MEMO. I just call it a memo.
40. What beaux do: WOO.
41. Texter's letters for two cents?: IMO. Cute clue.
42. "That's unfortunate": TSK.
43. Simon who played Scotty in 2009's "Star Trek": PEGG.
44. Distant: ALOOF.
45. Unicellular alga: DIATOM. New term to me.
46. Onomatopoeic rapping: RAT-A-TAT-TAT.
47. Notebook type: SPIRAL.
51. Network for film buffs: TCM.
52. Gold in La Paz: ORO.
54. Sch. near Providence: URI. The University of Rhode Island.
55. Term starter: MID. Midterm.
59. Chopped liver purveyor: DELI. A few more food items: 64. Sammie with crunch: BLT. 73. Put away: EAT. 78. __ fresca: pico de gallo: SALSA.
61. Something taken on a bus: SEAT.
63. Transfer point: NODE.
65. Twenty quires: REAM.
66. Bay of Bengal's ocean: INDIAN.
67. Sound system: STEREO.
71. Madonna companion, in much art: ANGEL.
74. Dresden "Drat!": ACH.
75. Word on old tablets: SHALT.
76. Hook partner: JAB.
77. The VW Amarok, e.g.: UTE. Not familiar with the car. VW Amarok.
79. Little ones: TOTS.
83. Bismarck-to-Tucson dir.: SSW.
84. Journalist Hemingway's assignment: WAR.
85. Singer DiFranco: ANI.
87. "No big deal": MEH.
88. Summer at the Sorbonne: ETE.
89. Bygone geopolitical abbr.: SSR. Soviet Socialist Republic.
93. Wears down: ABRADES. Not a word I use.
95. Meteorological lines: ISOBARS.
97. Put on display, with "out": TROTTED.
99. Go back: REVERT.
100. Dedicated verse: ODE.
101. Engenders: BEGETS.
102. Brutus Buckeye is its mascot: Abbr.: OSU.
105. Intrinsically: PER SE. Also the name of pricey restaurant.
107. Made an official choice: VOTED.
108. IRS option: E FILE.
109. More amiable: NICER.
110. Marquee names: STARS.
111. Enjoy the kiddie pool: WADE.
112. Cupid analog: EROS.
113. Sreenivasan of PBS News: HARI. Wikipedia says he was born in Mumbai, India. So happy that Jeffrey found this new clue angle.
114. Oft-corked container: JUG.
115. Chicago pizzeria franchise, familiarly: UNOS.
116. Security source: SAFE.
117. Hotel bed request: TWIN.
118. Valley with vintners: NAPA.
119. Course goal for many: PAR.
Two extra notes:
1) Here's Spitzboov's
obit. Thanks for the link, Ray! Thanks also for visiting Spitzboov and
talking with him while he was sick. Thanks also for all your sweet
comments, everyone. I sent the Monday blog link to his family. His son
Mark read them and was very touched.
2) Please continue to
keep Boomer in your thoughts and prayers. He's going to get a CT scan
and then bone scan next Thursday. We hope they can take actions soon to
relieve his pain. We also hope they can help him with the loss of
balance issue. He falls so easily now.
C.C.
28 comments:
FIWrong. Spelt GAiA correctly, and didn't notice the cross that turned it into an alternative spelling. Theme was nice and easy, I didn't even notice which particular substitutions were being made until after I was done and read the title.
Math joke:
Noah told the animals to go out and multiply.
Two snakes remained, and he asked them why?
"Multiplying makes us sadder,
You see, we're only ADDERS."
So Noah built them a "log table" to try!
ZEBRAS are of the ilk EQUINE,
Used to living in a Southern clime.
Some are colored white on black,
Some black on white, it's a fact!
Painting each other is how they pass their time!
{B+, B.}
Good morning!
Noticed the missing GH with the first themer, and that helped with the solve. Went awry in the midsection putting ALTERATION where ADJUSTMENT needed to go. Wite-Out, please. Noticed the SSN/SSR and SPIRAL/SHALT pairings. The A at the SHALT/THAMES cross was my final fill. I allot 30 minutes for the Saturday and Sunday puzzles, and this week both came into the station with plenty of time left on the clock. Yay, life is good. Thanx, Jeffrey and C.C.
STOOLS: Jeffrey found breakfast-friendly cluing for this one.
E-FILE: I've opted out of participation in this upcoming tax season. COVID and onerous procedural rules took the enjoyment out the past two years.
Sending good wishes Boomer's way. I hope the doctors can provide some pain relief.
82-A: ERGO is a conjunction, not an adverb.
"Cogito, ergo sum" translates as "I think, therefore I am." "Therefore" is an adverb. So is "ergo." From Merriam-Webster:
ergo adverb
Definition of ergo
(Entry 1 of 2)
: for that reason : because of that : therefore, hence … there is no sound, ergo, no speed of sound, in the vacuum of space.— Stephan Wilkinson
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Jeffrey, the theme was very WITty but hard to fill. Lot of interesting words throughout.
Thanks, C.C., for a great expo. Please tell us Spitz's real name. I can't get into Spitz's obit because I don't know his real name other than Al.
Prayers continue for our bright spirit, Boomer.
Last fill was RESIST/HARI/REVERT crosses which RESISTed my determined tries. Also NE corner stumped me not knowing PENROD & couldn't come up with SUMAC/NUMB/RIAL/ONCE/DES. Didn't know SUMAC could be used as a spice. Thank you, red letters.
Always a delight to see a JW byline, especially on a Sunday themed, cuz I know it will be a fun challenge, and today’s offering provided just that. He just has a unique style, from the construction to the clueing which I assume most dedicated solvers really enjoy. Managed a FIR in a little over 38 minutes, which for me on a Sunday is a respectable time. After filling about 4 themers I noticed the subtraction of the “GH”, but didn’t understand the correlation to the title, my aha moment coming with C.C.’s expo of changing the long vowel sound to the short sound...duh...My title would have been “GHONE WITH THE WIND” 😂
Had a few DNK’s in GAEA, PEGG, PENROD, DAL, and as clued, THAMES. Also never heard of the PBS news person, but would have known ”MATA ____”. And being that the first letter of a crossword clue is always capitalized (unless by design), one word clues can be bamboozling as to whether it is a proper or common noun. Take today’s clue of “Spectrum”, it had me thinking car model and not of colors.
Thank you Jeff and Rich for the early morning mental exercise, and thanks C.C. for your thoughtful insight and educating me along the way! My regards to Boomer, hope the tests go well and he can at least be rid of the pain.
Hola!
Thank you, C.C. and I am sorry to hear that Boomer is in pain. Prayers for him when I go to church today.
It has been years, no decades, since I read and thought of PENROD, but it came slinging back to me out of who know what recesses. He was a naughty one.
Jeffrey is so clever. I enjoyed all the puns.
This past week the Fiesta Bowl PARADE took place in downtown Phoenix. I did not go. I went once, many years ago when a cousin who played in a band was in it.
I and all the teachers here can take a CSO at TEACH.
I have already mentioned that we saw Jay LENO's mansion in Rhode Island during the trip to visit my friend who lives in Connecticut. We took a tour of the ISLAND.
It's fun to see RAT-A-TAT-TAT.
Ooh. Hot SALSA. The hotter, the better. In fact, tonight I plan to make tacos which of course, require it.
In the past I have mentioned that my grandmother referred to money as RIALes. I am sure it was a holdover from the Spanish soldiers who settled in New Mexico. She used other terms from ancient times. Living in an isolated village in New Mexico likely preserved that language.
Time to go. Have a sensational Sunday, everyone! Sptizaboov's name is Al Hollmer.
Dont get the Sunday Puzzle so just lurking but FLN...
PK...Spitz's name is Alvin Hollmer look up Utica OD obituaries, it's there today
Vid...
Tuscans (Toscani)...not Tuscanians..The regione di Toscana of which (Firenze, Florence is the capital) called that because it was originally inhabited by the Etruscans
Pappa (accent first syllable, accentuate the double P) = mush, baby food
Papa (accent first syllable, do not accentuate the P). "Pope", derives from "Pater Patrum" (father of fathers)..Google also says The word pope is derived ultimately from the Greek πάππας (páppas) originally an affectionate term meaning "father"
"Who am I to judge"
Papa (accent on the second syllable, again do not accentuate the P) some kids call their father but most kids especially young ones say "Babbo" (accent, first syllable, accentuate the double B: bahb' boh
esame domani (exam tomorrow)
Irish M, "The Power of the Dog" , not a Western in the usual sense, could have been set anywhere, a psychological drama between 4 people. I thought it was great but be warned lots of bare behinds...🙈
IM, I can echo what Ray-o said about "The Power of the Dog." Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a cruel character you'll love to hate. Kirsten Dunst is a single mother who, along with her gay son, runs a boarding house -- a far cry from her previous ingenue roles. She winds up marrying Phil's brother, George, and she and her son come to live at the Burbank ranch. Very interesting. Definitely not a comedy.
Just had to report
I had a very strange experience with the Chicago times
Crossword site!
I came to the blog because what I was seeing made no sense.
Turns out the crossword site malfunctioned badly...
It was reporting with blue letters indicating that "I" was correct
In wr"I"tbrothe"I"s and na"I"a instead of napa
And sta"I"r being correct instead of star.
I have never seen a crossword go this " kablooie" before...
Musings
-Jeffrey always provides a great puzzle. I had every cell correctly filled but only earned a “got ‘er done” after I parsed PER SE.
-Jeffrey used both SENSES of the word capital with SANA’A and RIAL
-The word on my old tablet was CHIEF
-SHADOWS will start to shorten again this week as we pass the winter solstice
-Jeffrey chose a .edu school from his home state of N.J. (Rutgers)
-Paper MEMOS from our boss were very common before every room had a phone and email
-Hemmingway also had a WWI assignment
-I ABRADE both ends of these incredibly cheap implements as they are all I use to do crosswords
-Some hilarious marquees
-The Earl Of Grantham on Downton Abbey was called “puh PA” by Mary, Edith and Sybil and the latter two were AHWNTS to Mary’s son George
Thank you Jeffrey for a fine Sunday morning starter. This puzzle didn't give me much of a FIT as I caught SIT of the theme with first themer. And thank you C.C. for another fine review. I especially like your analyses of the grid characteristics and your comments about JW. And thank you for the funeral arrangements for Al, for the update on Greg. We continue to pray for him.
80A TEACH. A CSO to Lucina, Yellowrocks, and Husker (and a hand up to other teachers on the Corner). The last couple of years have been really tough for this profession.
13A PENROD. I used to work for a man named Jim Penrod, probably no relation to Tarkington's PENROD.
25A SUMAC. If you soak the berries of Staghorn SUMAC, in water, add some sugar, chill and add a few sprigs of fresh mint you get what is called "Indian Lemonade", a refreshing late summer drink.
86A THAMES. Here's probably the most famous tune from "The Water Music".
18D DES ARC. Okay C.C. I give up. What is Des Arc famous for?
45D DIATOMS. DNK they were algae. Deposits of fossilized diatoms, call "diatomaceous earth" are used as ingredients in skin care products, toothpastes, foods, beverages, medicines, rubbers, paints, and also for water filtration.
71D ANGEL. Specifically the Archangel Gabriel, a buddy of Ray - O, or so I've been told.
101D BEGETS. As it's that time of year, there are a whole lot of BEGETS in the Gospel of Matthew 1 verses 1-17.
Cheers,
Bill
OwenKl @5:42 AM {A+,A} You get an A+ for your riff on logarithms. And and A on the second poem for local interest. Four Zebras have been on the LAM in Maryland for months now and only were only recently recaptured. Some WACKO was trying to raise them in captivity.
Husker @1:11 PM You put me to shame, HG. Here's what I use.
I noticed the missing GH at KNITS and THE ISLE OF WIT confirmed my acknowledgement of the theme. Did I notice the 'long to short' sound change? Nope, flew over my head. Both the NW & NE were the last to fall today. But I did SOCK it away when I worked (55-60 hour weeks) and invested wisely. My friends called me cheap but I retired at 49 and they had to work into their late 60s. There were one unknown -LETTY- in the NW but for this ORNERY (not really) guy, I couldn't think of SCULPT or COTTER pin until the end.
Fran Tarkington- Yes; Booth Tarkington & PENROD- total unknowns along with DES Arc, Arkansas, Simon PEGG, & HARI. Didn't know "pico de gallo" was called SALSA fresca.
VW Amarok- I filled UTE but it looks like a pickup truck to me. Never heard of it.
ERGO- don't know latin parts of speech but ERGO looked good, and it fit.
Hotel bed request- definitely never a TWIN for me. King or two queens if the king is not available.
"96. Diner counter array: STOOLS. Xi'an has 16 COVID cases right now.". That is KNOWN CASES. With a population of over 7,000,000 that genie is out of the bottle.
Best wishes for Boomer.
waseeley@1:44 PM Note to Bill. Boomer's name is Doug. Early onset Oldtimer's Disease I think. 🥴
I loved every one of the 37 minutes I spent solving this masterful puzzle.
Jayce, I'm impressed with your time. Puzzle took me 66 minutes.
This was a fun Sunday puzzle. Thanks so much, Jeffrey. I had a FIR and found the theme helpful once I saw the removal of GH in common words. Like others I missed the extra level of vowel sound shift. Must. Pay. Attention!
The variety of vocabulary and creative cluing keep crossword puzzles interesting. Having several possibilities caused my main WOs: snakeS/ADDERS and GO For iT/GO FIRST. Also eye/JAB and REturn/REVERT. All in all it filled in relatively fast this morning. Time to comment now at last.
As usual I have enjoyed the comments from earlier today and last night. Thanks C.C. for the review and for the update on Boomer. Hope everyone has a good week ahead.
Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler, for, as always, a very punny challenging puzzle, which I enjoyed throughly. It was a long slog and it taxed my memory and my wits, and for that I am very grateful... Thank you.
Thank you CC for a nice, illuminating review, that answered some of my unsolved questions. I never got the theme, but now I know. I often don't worry about the theme, but try to diligently solve all the clues, to the best of my capacity ... and it did solve completely, today.
My best wishes, and prayers for our patron friend Boomer. I hope and earnestly pray, that the pain can be solved early and completely, and the prognosis will also be hopeful. Also my prayers and best wishes for you, so you can cope with it, and would be able to help him to all the extent necessary. I have a good friend who has gone through a similar situation, and it can be very demanding. The best we can do sometimes, is to take it one day at a time.
Ray O Sunshine, thank you for your explanation, I knew the demonym for Tuscans was wrong, but I hoped it would egg you on to a response. Thank you for the Pappa and Papa differentiation.
I once learnt Thai ( Siamese) when I was 6 years old, and now only remember that 'Maa' can mean 7 different nouns or objects, depending on intonation, and context.
It can mean Mother, Cow, milk, and 4 more things... and once you learnt the intonation, you never made a mistake...
28 Down ... Dal ...( pronounced d-aa-ll or daa-hl ) merely means
1) any of a number of lentils. pulses or legumes,
2) the split ( seed, pea ) decoated/ variety of the same, OR ...
3) a curry / stew made with the aforementioned.
There are atleast a dozen seeds that qualify for dal ... english peas, french bean peas, pigeon peas, various black beans, red beans, and mung beans etc. These are the most common pulses in India, and the most popular method of eating non-animal protein. It need not be spicy at all, unless you add chillies and/or peppers and /or hot spices.
Unfortunately, I have to limit my intake of dal, because of limitations to my intake of potassium.
Have a nice day, folks, and a good week, you all.
JW comes to us on Sunday while C.C. is offering her weekly USA Today creation. All the while while the sports fanatics are treated meaningful NFL games (sorry Jets, there is always next year) (sorry Giants, there is always next year) and the golfing world gets to watch Tiger Woods' 12 year old son hit some awesome golf shots. The invention of the remote control really came in handy. All of which explains why I am so late to this party.
I did not know Venue for the premiere of Handel's "Water Music": THAMES , nor The VW Amarok, e.g.: UTE . I also never even thought about the derivation of diatomaceous earth (DE), and thus never commected to diatoms which I did study. My uncle put a swimming pool in the back yard and the filter was periodically loaded with new DE because it removes the tiniest of contaminants – particles as small as five microns (an average grain of sand is 1,000 microns!). The water gleamed (thought it never crested).
Work call - I'll be back
Thank you Waseely for jogging my memory on the relationship between Diatoms and Diatomaceous Earth (DE) ... I had forgotten that they were related. In addition to the many uses that you listed for DE, I think you may have left out the most important use ... that of dynamite.
Alfred Nobel, he of the prize for Peace fame, biggest invention was his discovery that Nitro Glycerine - an unstable, unpredictable, sensitive to temp and pressure liquid explosive, ...could be stabilized by absorbing it into the diatomaceous earth.
That was the beginning of his fortune, and he went on to invent Gelignite, and the precursor of Cordite. By the time he died, he owned 90 armament factories, including the famous Bofors, the massive long range cannons ... that a century later, was the undoing of Saddam Hussein.
I would also like to congratulate OwenKL, like Waseely did, on his inventive use of Log tables and Logarithms into his 'addders' poem. Very creative indeed !!
I remember with fond memories, my two high school years, spent ( wasted ?) on using 4 and 5 digit log tables to do simple multiplication and division ... and 4 years later, further wasted in using the slide rule to achieve the same purpose, in a mechanical manner...
PK, it usually takes me longer, which is fine with me because I like to "savor the flavor" as I solve. (I usually don't report my time, either. I don't know why I did today, except that it seemed to fit the structure of the sentence expressing my enjoyment of the puzzle.)
My wife just came back from a "celebration" memorializing a neighbor who died several days ago (at the age of 84). It was held in a local city park. She says it was a pleasant gathering and that approximately 50 people showed up. Everyone brought their own lawn chairs to sit on.
C.C. keeps sneaking some difficulty into her Sunday USA Today puzzles. They are decptively easy until they are not. A full day for me as I have been forbidden by the REAL BOSS from doing any form of labor or exertion while I heal.
Thank you Jeffrey and C.C. twice
Lemonade, best wishes and prayers that you heal soon, with less pain and a good prognosis.
Real Bosses often have real concerns, and only your benefit at heart.
-T: The Log4J issue made Yahoo today.
"Known as the Log4j vulnerability, the flaw impacts a piece of open-source logging software that allows developers to understand how their programs function. The idea is to help companies understand potential bugs or performance issues in their own software.
But Log4j, which is part of the software offered by the open source Apache Software Foundation, can be exploited to allow attackers to take over the computers and networks of any organization running the program."
$54 for a mechanical pencil?? (Albeit adorned with the proper heraldry....)
FWIW, 64d "Sammie with crunch" is BLT. 'Sammie' lead me somehow to think of Sammy Davis, Jr.; luckily perps saved the day.
I thought perhaps the $54 was a misprint! Does it really cost that much and more importantly, why?
Favorite clue -"make a face perhaps". "Put" (on display) is a difficult clue as it can mean both present or past tense - finally read the other word in the clue which was "out". Rats - negated my "trot out" which I corrected to "trotted". Never watched Star Trek, but perps filled in PEGG - so a win.
I know from reading previous Corner posts that "el-hi" grates on our educators' nerves - which I totally understand. I've never seen it used in print except in crosswords. But I absolutely hate, abhor, detest, despise (etc.) the word "sammie", but I've seen it used frequently! Grr! When did the American language adopt a 16 month-old's gibberish!?! [end of rant]
Wishing all a great holiday week!
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