Today's constructor is Paul Coulter, who by my reckoning has
published 82 puzzles in the LA Times in the last 6 years, starting in
February 6, 2015. The works out to almost 1 a month!
Paul's reveal-less theme plays on
HOMOGRAPHS, words that are spelled the same but have different
meanings. Here pairs of
HOMOGRAPHS
in each clue are punned against one another:
17A Blades for trimming blades:
LAWNMOWER. A machine for trimming blades of grass:
28A Development that ended much development:
DIGITAL CAMERA. The invention of the DIGITAL CAMERA brought a steep
decline in the use of photographic film and dark rooms. The
Eastman Kodak
company didn't see this coming.
46A Club used at a club:
PITCHING WEDGE. In golf a pitching wedge is one of a subset of the iron family of
clubs designed for special use situations.
64A. Wheels for carrying wheels:
LIMOUSINE. Let's pick up the pace a bit. The "wheels" IN this LIMO don't get
much bigger (lyrics):
Here are the rest of the clues.
Across:
1. Some game pieces: PEGS. Pegs are used in the game of
CRIBBAGE.
Here's how to play it.
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Cribbage Board |
9. Like horses: MANED. On horses, the mane is the hair that grows from the top of the neck, reaching from the poll to the withers, and includes the forelock or foretop. It is thicker and coarser than the rest of the horse's coat, and naturally grows to roughly cover the neck.
14. Palm whose oil is used in cosmetics: ACAI. Same crosswordese, different clue.
15. David Copperfield wife: DORA. David Copperfield, is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity. It was first published as a serial in 1849 and 1850, and as a book in 1850. Here he is with his wife Dora (née Spenlow)
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David and Dora |
19. Futile: NO USE. Or a NOSE with a U in the middle.
20. Channel that shows college games: ESPNU.
21. Banquet offering: TV DINNER. A bit of a stretch, but sadly it may be true these days.
23. Any ship: SHE.
24. Shine, in adspeak: GLO. Remember "Mop and GLO"?
27. Evasive: EELY. A slippery creature.
34. Disinfectant brand since 1889: LYSOL. This stuff flew off the shelves at the beginning of the pandemic, but it now seems to be available again in our neck of the woods.
35. Nipper: PUP.
36. Collapsed: SANK.
39A. Bell invention with a bell: PHONE. Even though it's short fill I thought about adding this to the list of themers, but all the others pair nouns, whereas Bell as used here is an adjective. Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish inventor, living in Ontario (Hi CanadianEh!) at the time of the telephone's invention. The first words ever uttered over the telephone were"Mr. Watson [Bell's assistant], come here! I want you!", a call for help after the inventor spilled battery acid on his pants. The telephone network, layered on top of the network of existing telegraph wires, eventually morphed into what is now the Internet. BTW, Bell did invent other things besides the telephone.
42. Farm mom: MARE. See 9A.
43. "Bravo!": OLE.
44. Unaccustomed to: NEW AT.
52. Centuries-old discipline: YOGA. A CSO to Lucina, and a hand up please from any others here who practice it. Yoga has had a major impact on the world over the millennia, particularly in the East. It first came to the United States in 1893 through Swami Vivekananda. I highly recommend the book Autobiography of a Yogi, a personal and intimate account of the interior life of yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, first published in 1946.
53. Pod opening: TRI.
54. Japanese computer giant: NEC. NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo.
57. Call dibs on, with "to": LAY CLAIM.
61. 1736 writer of a seminal paper on graph theory: EULER. Leonhard Euler (15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics.
63. From an earlier time: OF OLD.
67. Setting for a Tony-winning Miller play: SALEM. Arthur Miller's play was The Crucible, a fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials of 1692–93 set in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The play was a veiled criticism of the McCarthy hearings investigating Communist influence in the U.S., conducted from the late 1940s through the 1950s. During the hearings Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
68. Persia, now: IRAN.
In the Western world, Persia was historically the common name for Iran.
In 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the Persian
term Iran
(meaning the land of Aryans in Persian), the
endonym
of the country, in formal correspondence.34. Disinfectant brand since 1889: LYSOL. This stuff flew off the shelves at the beginning of the pandemic, but it now seems to be available again in our neck of the woods.
36. Collapsed: SANK.
39A. Bell invention with a bell: PHONE. Even though it's short fill I thought about adding this to the list of themers, but all the others pair nouns, whereas Bell as used here is an adjective. Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish inventor, living in Ontario (Hi CanadianEh!) at the time of the telephone's invention. The first words ever uttered over the telephone were"Mr. Watson [Bell's assistant], come here! I want you!", a call for help after the inventor spilled battery acid on his pants. The telephone network, layered on top of the network of existing telegraph wires, eventually morphed into what is now the Internet. BTW, Bell did invent other things besides the telephone.
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Alexander Graham Bell |
43. "Bravo!": OLE.
44. Unaccustomed to: NEW AT.
52. Centuries-old discipline: YOGA. A CSO to Lucina, and a hand up please from any others here who practice it. Yoga has had a major impact on the world over the millennia, particularly in the East. It first came to the United States in 1893 through Swami Vivekananda. I highly recommend the book Autobiography of a Yogi, a personal and intimate account of the interior life of yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, first published in 1946.
53. Pod opening: TRI.
54. Japanese computer giant: NEC. NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo.
61. 1736 writer of a seminal paper on graph theory: EULER. Leonhard Euler (15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics.
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Leonhard Euler |
67. Setting for a Tony-winning Miller play: SALEM. Arthur Miller's play was The Crucible, a fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials of 1692–93 set in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The play was a veiled criticism of the McCarthy hearings investigating Communist influence in the U.S., conducted from the late 1940s through the 1950s. During the hearings Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
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Arthur Miller |
69. "Check this out!": PSST. IMHO the clue's a bit of a stretch.
70. Seriously weaken: ERODE. Loss of stability due to erosion.
71. Bind, in a way: TAPE.
72. Eye ailment: STYE. Possibly leading to a CHELAZION. My oldest sister used to get these a lot, but outgrew them.
Down:
1. Loses color: PALES. What causes sudden PALE skin? That last link is enough to make me afraid to get out of bed in the morning.
2. PayPal payment, e.g.: ECASH. Very convenient, but it does have its problems. If you're considering signing up for this service, here is everything you need to know and more. Well, maybe not everything.
3. Rubbernecked: GAWPED. GAWPED vs GAWKED? What's the difference? The former's Brit and the latter's Yank. Caveat: the Gawker site mentioned in the preceding article no longer exists. It was effectively driven out of business by billionaire Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal, to get even for the site's outing of his sexual preferences. Could that be why Paul put these two clues together?
4. __ Féin: SINN. Sinn Féin (shin FAYN Irish; English: "[We] Ourselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
5. "What will __ now?": I DO. If you happen to be standing on an ALTAR at the moment, you'd better say I DO, or you might find yourself in the middle of a really big ADO.
6. Intimidate: COW.
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| Merriam-Webster |
E.g., having a COW MOO in your ear could be pretty intimidating.
7. Two-time Cy Young Award winner Saberhagen: BRET. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.
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Bret Saberhagen |
8. Show amazement (at): MARVEL. Richard Feynman on marveling at a flower.
9. Western Pacific island capital: MANILA. Manila, capital and chief city of the Philippines. The city is the center of the country’s economic, political, social, and cultural activity. It is located on the island of Luzon and spreads along the eastern shore of Manila Bay at the mouth of the Pasig River.
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Manila, Philippines |
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| from Merriam-Webster |
13. Big game: DEER.
18. Wet weather word: MUGGY.
22. Holiday mo.: DEC. Timely fill.
25. Speak like Sylvester: LISP. A speech impediment common among AI programmers, and also in a certain cartoon cat:
26. Texter's "Then again ... ": OTOH.
29. Breed: ILK.
30. One way to sing: ALONG.
31. Acid Rain Program org.: EPA.
32. Capek classic: RUR. Czech writer Karel Čapek's science-fiction play "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots"), which turned 101 this year, and shows just what a seer the author was:
33. Parrot: APE. Which is smarter, the PARROT or the APE?
36. Bribe: SOP.
37. "Aladdin" prince: ALI. From the 1992 film Aladdin" - "A Whole New World" (lyrics)
38. After expenses: NET.
40. Colorful salamander: NEWT. Common denizens of Cwds in both their immature (EFT) and adult (NEWT) forms. Not only colorful, but varied:
41. Big-mouthed one that can hold its wine?: EWER. Here's an oldie, but goodie. I wouldn't call it "big-mouthed", but it does look like it could hold a lot of wine:
42. Sess.: MTG.
45. Bye word: ADIEU.
47. Recurred at regular intervals: CYCLED. It's about time!
48. Loving request: HOLD ME. A CSO to all the DWs and DHs on the Corner.
49. "Hometown Proud" supermarket: IGA. The Independent Grocers Alliance, founded in 1926, is an American chain of grocery stores that operates in more than 30 countries. Many of these stores operate in small-town markets and belong to families that manage them.
50. Ace a test: NAIL IT.
51. Join: ENLIST.
55. Tiny: EENSY.
56. Minotaur's home: CRETE. The Minotaur lived in the center of a labyrinth in Crete where he lived on the flesh of Athenian youngsters. They were sent to the island yearly as a sacrifice by the city of Athens, to atone for the death of King Minos' son Androgeus, whom the Athenians had once killed out of jealousy for beating them at the Panathenaic Games.
57. Get rid of: LOSE.
58. Hardly around the corner: AFAR.
59. Risk-taker's acronym: YOLO. "You Only Live Once", unless perhaps you're a Hindu. See 52A.
60. Actress Sorvino: MIRA. Mira Katherine Sorvino; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Mighty Aphrodite (1995).
62. FedEx rival: USPS.
65. Plan (out): MAP.
66. "A Chorus Line" number: ONE. A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante, and lyrics by Edward Kleban:
29. Breed: ILK.
30. One way to sing: ALONG.
31. Acid Rain Program org.: EPA.
32. Capek classic: RUR. Czech writer Karel Čapek's science-fiction play "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots"), which turned 101 this year, and shows just what a seer the author was:
33. Parrot: APE. Which is smarter, the PARROT or the APE?
36. Bribe: SOP.
37. "Aladdin" prince: ALI. From the 1992 film Aladdin" - "A Whole New World" (lyrics)
38. After expenses: NET.
40. Colorful salamander: NEWT. Common denizens of Cwds in both their immature (EFT) and adult (NEWT) forms. Not only colorful, but varied:
41. Big-mouthed one that can hold its wine?: EWER. Here's an oldie, but goodie. I wouldn't call it "big-mouthed", but it does look like it could hold a lot of wine:
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Greek Style Italian Ewer Ca. 400 BC |
45. Bye word: ADIEU.
47. Recurred at regular intervals: CYCLED. It's about time!
48. Loving request: HOLD ME. A CSO to all the DWs and DHs on the Corner.
49. "Hometown Proud" supermarket: IGA. The Independent Grocers Alliance, founded in 1926, is an American chain of grocery stores that operates in more than 30 countries. Many of these stores operate in small-town markets and belong to families that manage them.
50. Ace a test: NAIL IT.
51. Join: ENLIST.
55. Tiny: EENSY.
56. Minotaur's home: CRETE. The Minotaur lived in the center of a labyrinth in Crete where he lived on the flesh of Athenian youngsters. They were sent to the island yearly as a sacrifice by the city of Athens, to atone for the death of King Minos' son Androgeus, whom the Athenians had once killed out of jealousy for beating them at the Panathenaic Games.
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The Minotaur |
58. Hardly around the corner: AFAR.
59. Risk-taker's acronym: YOLO. "You Only Live Once", unless perhaps you're a Hindu. See 52A.
60. Actress Sorvino: MIRA. Mira Katherine Sorvino; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Mighty Aphrodite (1995).
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Mira Sorvino |
65. Plan (out): MAP.
66. "A Chorus Line" number: ONE. A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante, and lyrics by Edward Kleban:
Here's the grid:
waseeley
waseeley
And thanks as always to Teri for proofreading and constructive criticism.
Cheers,
Bill
Note from C.C.:
1) Boomer had surgery yesterday afternoon to remove the tumor in that T7 area. I have not talked to him post-op. Will keep you updated. (Updated at 6:00am: Boomer is still in the recovery room. But he sounded cheerful.)
2) Happy 77th birthday to dear Misty, who's been with our blog for over 8
years. I think Misty found us by googling some crossword answers for her husband Rowland, who was an avid solver. Here is a picture of them celebrating their 15th wedding
anniversary in 2009.
46 comments:
DNF. Still had a dozen white cells in the SW and NE when I punched the red button, which showed several errors in those two corners. the only one that wasn't plainly wrong was CYCLic < CYCLED. Once I cleared the deadwood, I finished the rest with alacrity.
The theme completely flummoxed me. I must have spent at least half an hour staring at those words trying to figure out what they had in common. It wasn't until I went back over the clues in case I had missed a reveal that I finally saw the pattern! I needed a clue to finding the clues!
There was a pampered MARE in IRAN
Who was brushed every race that SHE ran.
When she won by A NOSE
She was combed as OF OLD --
She referred to her groom as "My MANE man!"
A colorful salamander is a NEWT.
The little swimming efts are cute!
The PUPS always knew that
Walking, they were NEW AT,
Bt once grown from the pond they must scoot!
{B+, B-.}
A joyous holiday season to all. Thanks, Bill, happy birthday, Misty, and best wishes, Boomer. I have a Christmas theme in tomorrow's Universal, if you'd like to check it out. This theme had the working title "Part and Parcel." It made the rounds of other venues for about a year before Rich accepted a revised version. PHONE is indeed intended and placed as a theme answer. Some theme entries that didn't make the cut were:
WRISTWATCH - Accessory with two or three kinds of hand that's worn near the hand
LEAFBLOWER - Gardener's device with a fan that a noise-hating neighbor is no fan of
BULLDOZER - Machine for groundbreaking that was a groundbreaking advance on moving earth with shovels
PHONEJACK - Connection point for those who want to connect by voice
BUGGYWHIP - Driver for a carriage driver
ROLLINGPIN - Dough flattener that doesn't cost much dough
ICESCRAPER - Tool to clear the windshield when the weather isn't clear
DOGWHISTLE - It might call Spot or might appear in a political spot
WASHERDRYER - Users load a load into it twice
TRACTORBEAM - It grabs scifi fans' attention when it grabs ships
DENTALDRILL - Cutter without teeth for cutting teeth
CHANGEMACHINE - It produces quarters at game quarters
REMOTECONTROL - Channel changer that often falls into the channel between cushions
SPINNINGJENNY - Yarn maker in old yarns
As you can see, many of these were a real stretch. Who can come up with a good one?
Bill, you apparently missed out on the days of TV diiners made and sold by BANQUET .
Paul have a wonderful Christmas with your family; C.C. we keep praying. Misty many happy returns and now I must go look for the new RUR
well that was too big...how about some SALISBURY STEAK ?
Good morning!
Needed an application of Wite-Out to fix ALOUD/ALONE/ALONG and NEW TO/AT. Managed to get the theme. Surprised? Thanx to the ubiquitous Paul Coulter and Waseeley. (Lemonade beat me to the Banquet dinner.)
Hope everything went well with Boomer's surgery. Please keep us posted, C.C.
Happy birthday, Misty.
Lemonade@5:36 AM Wow, I SWALLOWED that one hook, line, and sinker. CSO to Hahtoolah - what's the opposite of YUMMERS?
Get well soon, Boomer. And Happy birthday to Misty.
FIR, but erased fades for PALES, alone for ALONG,eeney for EENSY, and lay for MAP. DNK GAWPED.
I just love the English language. In addition to Paul's theme gems, he shows us that "parrot" and APE are synonyms. But I think that with all the clever wordplay, the clue for SANK could have been better than "collapsed".
I don't think that the USPS and FedEx are rivals, more like business partners. FedEx will carry the mail for USPS through 2023. Now if we could just get USPS to contract with UPS to provide the rest of the service, maybe I could get my mail forwarded correctly.
Thanks to PC for yet another gem. My favorite was TV DINNER by Banquet. To be honest, I think that the rejected themers can remain in the can. And thanks to Bill for the colorful tour. Must be hard to get the images to appear where you want them.
An amazing FIR on a puzzling puzzle. Thanks, Paul, for a clever offering as well as for dropping by. Like OwenKL and others I spent some time looking for an additional theme, though I had noticed the pair of nouns in the clues. Several tries were needed to fill ECASH and A NOSE. Another WO was NEW to/NEW AT (Hi, DO!). But generally perps were helpful.
Thanks, waseeley, for the review tour. Banquet was familiar to me as a TV DINNER provider, telling something about my diet earlier. I appreciate the effort you and Teri put in for us on these puzzles.
Good to hear updates about Boomer, C.C. Thanks! Happy Birthday to Misty. And a good day to all!
This went pretty smoothly for a Thursday - slow start as I put in FADES before perps required the change to PALES. I hadn't heard of SOP as a bribe - only as a verb for what you do with your bread to get the last of the soup in the soup bowl.
As a kid, we would get excited about the occasional treat of the TV DINNER when my folks were going to be going out. I look at them now and certainly have a different opinion, but we loved all the little compartments.
I gotta go - last day before the 3 day holiday weekend and I think my MA has added at least 3 patients to an already busy schedule of people who wouldn't be able to wait!
Thanks Bill and Paul!
Happy birthday Misty and prayers & better food for Boomer!
waseeley, your grid shows 28A ...CAMaRA crossing 31D aPA, should be an E
I think it's MUGGY before it gets wet, muggy air could be cleared out by a cold front without actually raining
billocohoes @8:09 AM Thanks for catching that. I'll try to get it fixed before the Sun sets. Busy day today!
Hola!
Happy birthday, Misty! I hope you celebrate with friends and family.
As usual, Paul's puzzles provide plenty of food for thought! It took me longer than normal, but I finished with only two uses of wite-out at GAWKED where I had GAPED and SANK which overtook FELL.
I did not realize that ACAI was a palm in spite of its regular appearance in puzzles.
In case of emergency I keep BANQUET and some other TV DINNERS in the freezer.
It will be later today that I will do YOGA.
Is this the first time LIMOUSINE is in a puzzle? Usually it's the short form, LIMO.
I was in SALEM, MA on Halloween weekend and witnessed some strange costumes. Some people go all out in their disguises.
Have a beautiful day, everyone! Continued prayers for Boomer.
Too many acronyms that were unknown to me. Dnf.
Happy B'day, Misty.
Thanks for the update C.C.
Bill, you set the bar quite high today with a great mixture of words and images.
Have a wonderful Christmas Eve Eve, everyone.
Paul, it's NO USE to try to USE it in a different way.
Learning a new word today- homograph- for word spelled the same with different meanings. Too many in the English language to begin listing. He USES a word for different USES- definition and pronunciation are different.
I FIR this morning very rapidly after a slow start in the NW. Wanted FADES for PALES and GAWPED is a word I've only seen in Xwords. Seen ACAI before but really didn't know it was a palm. No other unknowns today, which is rare for a Thursday puzzle.
LISP & Stutter- years ago I remember some person on a news program trying to get WB to remove Porky Pig & Sylvester from their cartoon shows, claiming it was making fun of those with speech impediments. Ditto for Bachman Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". Everybody has some type of speech impediment. I have a little trouble with R-R words and just say them slowly- re-read or re-write.
Best wishes to Boomer.
Good Morning:
Once again, Paul treats us to a creative and fresh theme which, to be honest, took awhile to grasp. My Aloe morphed into Açaí and Ten became One. Why I entered Ten is a mystery as I have seen A Chorus Line more than once and know that One is a show stopper. Paul gave us lots of treats with a mini creature centric theme: Deer, Pup, Cow, Mare, Ape, Newt, Eely, Stye, and Maned. He also brought the A Team: Dora, Camera, Yoga, Manila, IGA, EPA, and Mira. And, last but not least, he threw in a few fun duos: Net/Newt, Ewer/Euler, and OTOH/YOLO. CSO to Lucina (Yoga and Olé) and Wilbur (Salem). My favorite C/A was Nipper=Pup as Nipper is the name of the RCA trademark canine who graced the roof of the building I worked in. (Hi, Misty, whose dad worked for RCA.)
Thanks, Paul, for a fun solve and for dropping by and thanks, Bill, for your always erudite and entertaining summary. Thanks, also, to Santa’s helper, Teri.
Happy Birthday, dear Misty, celebrate in style! 🎂🎁🎈🎉🎊
Best wishes to Boomer for a short hospital stay and a rapid and smooth recovery.
FLN
Ray O, thanks for the recommendation but, unfortunately, I don’t have access to Apple TV. I’m a fan of both Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd and the series’ premise sounds intriguing.
My Christmas present to myself is arriving by FedEx soon: Stone Crab Claws from The Sunshine State! Yummers, Hahtoolah!
Have a great day.
waseeley, you caught NOSE/NOUSE, which makes a mini-theme with the ones I caught, NEWT/NEWAT, MANE/MARE. Maybe EELY/EENSY, OTOH/YOLO?
I wanted DESCARTES before de horse/////// EULER for "graph theory".
Before inanehiker's comment about SOP, I was thinking a bribe is Standard Operating Procedure. Maybe that's "graft theory"?
Thursday Triumph. Thanks for the fun, Paul (and for dropping by) and waseeley (and Teri).
I FIRed eventually, but my grid is a mass of inkblots. The SE was the last to fall.
I did see the theme homographs.
Aloe, Shea didn’t pass the Palm test. OK AÇAI is a palm!? Learning moment.
Foggy changed to MUGGY. Not muggy here in DEC.
Wily changed to the meh EELY because no month has an I in its abbreviation.
Are we singing Alone or ALONG? Not solo!
Are we saying goodbye in Spanish or French? Adios changed to ADIEU, with EULER and the proper spelling for LIMOUSINE. (I had the plural LIMOSINES for my plural wheels.)
Teeny (no, too close to the clued Tiny) , Weeny changed to EENSY and gave me PSST.
ANONYM (I balked at the noun) has different pronunciation than the more familiar Anonymous.
Banquet made no sense to me with TV. Dinner, even when it perped. I am familiar with the Swanson brand.
And of course, this Canadian needed perps for ESPNU and USPS (we have Canada Post).
But we do still have a few IGAs in smaller centres. Others are part of the Sobeys chain now.
But I am more familiar with the Yank Gawked than GAWPED.
Thanks for the CSO with BELL. Yes, he lived in Brantford, Ontario (also childhood home to Wayne Gretzky). Bell also had a large summer home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. There is a historic site museum there.
I noted A NOSE (to win the horse race) before MANED (but missed ANOSE above NOUSE). Then we had MARE (as waseeley noted), and another barnyard animal COW.
Happy Birthday Misty. (Lovely memories with that photo of you and Rowland.)
Continued thoughts and prayers for Boomer. Glad for the positive update C.C.
Wishing you all a good day.
Musings
-I liked cribbage because of the math involved and because it is the only game I ever played with my dad. Our PEGS were usually matchsticks
-“Winterizing” my electric LAWN MOWER took 15 seconds
-Those Banquet brand TV DINNERS have scary “nutrition” numbers
-Using riprap to slow EROSION
-NEW TO/AT and SING ALONE/ALONG were speed bumps
-CYCLED – political majorities in Congress have done this many times
-A familiar lyric for DEC. - We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse AFAR
-Lovely puzzle and visit, Paul!
We went to a sold-out Manheim Steamroller Concert last night at Omaha’s Orpheum Theater. Its founder, Chip Davis, lives a half hour north of the theater and made a brief appearance onstage having to be assisted by his daughter Elyse. The first part was a wonderful sight and sound event, but after the Entr'acte his new staging was not nearly as entertaining.
Thank you Paul for your creative, thought provoking Thursday offering, your prolificacy as a constructor is quite impressive as I have enjoyed much of your work over time!
Managed a FIR in about 20 minutes with one correction...I know gaped and gawked, but GAWPED?? New word to me. Also the perps filled SALEM, but my thought from the clue was that Willy Loman lived in Salem OR 🤷🏼♂️, was I ever off on that one!
Thanks Bill for your very detailed expo, I spent wayyy more time reading that than I did solving the puzzle. Surfing through the various links I learned all about Kodak, how to play cribbage (even though I already knew), Euler, Bell and more! And a new word - Chelazion. Your efforts are much appreciated!
Happy b/day to Misty 🎈 🎊
Boomer and C.C.~~ hope the surgery was a success, and that recovery is speedy! You are in my prayers.
Wishing you a speedy recovery Boomer
Not sure if I’m allowed to claim a FIR today since I had to look up several things. I did fill all the cells correctly with several W/Os, SIEN:SINN, ALONE:ALONG, ADIOS:ADIEU. DNK EULER, GAWPED, or ANONYM. I undoubtedly took the booby prize again for slowest fill: 29 minutes. When I have to look something up (AKA:cheat) it takes time!! A tough but interesting CW, thanx, PC, for the fun challenge. And thanx Waseeley for the outstanding write-up. I’m glad to hear Boomer is making progress; please keep us posted daily, C.C. HBD Misty!
Hi Y'all! I do like a good Paul Coulter puzzle & this is one that flowed out for me. I sorta got the theme & liked it. Good expo, Bill. Thanks to Teri too.
DNK: EULER
I swear I never GAWPED in my life. I'll admit to a lot of gawking through the years though.
Next to last thing last night & second thing when I got up today had to check the blog to see if there was word of Boomer's surgery. Glad it is over and hope he recovers quickly. Still praying for healing.
Happy Birthday, Misty! Hope you can party.
BTW, I loved the 21A clue, “Banquet offering”. What if you were invited to a banquet, and everyone there was served a Banquet TV dinner? I also am going to investigate if eating TV dinners may be a way to diet, since the portions are adequate but limited, and they do tend to be balanced, though high in sodium. Hmmm. Gotta look into it.
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog. FIR. Normal Thursday difficulty level. More than 3/4 of it was very easy.
I saw the homo graphs in the clues, but expected the theme to be in the fill.
Happy birthday, Misty. Hope you have a fabulous day. I joined the Corner in the same way as you did. I was googling and the Crossword Corner was suggested. After reading the blog written by Jason, I emailed him my thoughts. He suggested I join. Thanks Lemonade for hours and years of fun and for introducing me to all my virtual friends here.
I was happy to see "proper NOUN" instead of having a plethora of them.
I do not see frozen dinners termed TV DINNERS these days.
It seems either people are really into cooking or else into ready made meals.
Hi All!
Fun puzzle, Paul; I loved the theme. Thanks for stopping in at The Corner with some lagniappe themers (even if they are a stretch). SW was last to fall; LAY CLAIM took a long time coming (with only --Y--AI- known at the time).
Thanks for the expo, waseeley. Enjoyed the links (so far - more to click).
WOs: fAdES -> PALES, CYCLEs, ADIos until EULER showed [that held me up a while]
ESPs: SOP as clued, DORA (oh, not the illusionist's wife), MIRA.
Fav: Who doesn't love ZZ Top's TV DINNERs?
//y'all beat to: Banquet makes TV Dinners.
{B, B+}
Happy Birthday Misty! I always enjoy reading your take on the days' puzzles.
Thanks for the update on Boomer, C.C.. Sounding cheerful is a great sign.
Play later. Cheers, -T
Oh my goodness, what a wonderful gift you have all given me on this morning's blog.
I didn't think anyone would remember my birthday, given that it's so close to Christmas, and was just stunned to see that lovely picture of my sweet Rowland and me, posted by you, C.C. Thank you so much for remembering my birthday and posting it--especially at a time when all our hearts and thoughts and prayers are with your dear Boomer. Thank you so much for your kindness.
Thank you for checking in with us, Paul, and for your delightful puzzle. And always enjoy your neat write-up and pictures, Waseeley.
Loved your poems, Owen.
Irish Miss, how kind that you remembered that my Dad worked for RCA all those years.
I'll be talking to him on Zoom this afternoon (he's 92 now) and tell him.
Thank you, everyone (wish I could mention each of you) for your kind, kind wishes, and have a good day, everyone.
HG, the only time I saw Manheim Steamroller was a Christmas dinner concert in an Atlanta arena. We had four or five couples from IT project management, and we got our own great table on the floor near the stage. The food was good (for banquet fare), the wine flowed freely, and a good time was had by all. I especially enjoyed the percussion chimes that I didn't realize would be such an important part of the performance.
Unclefred, as far as I am concerned, you can set your own rules about what a FIR is. I grade myself a DNF if I look up anything. Then again I don't count an erasure when I realize I just wrote something in the wrong place,or when my brain commanded my hand to write a particular letter and my hand ignored my brain, but others count those. Kind of like golf. I used to question my playing partners when I know they aren't counting them all, but I grew out of that (but I no longer gamble on stroke play). Just tell me how many and I'll write it down. Occasionally I'll question the number when I know the person doesn't fudge (how did you find that ball you hit into the woods, i.e.), but I don't play with very many that don't.
happy birthday Misty!
Re: puzzle
I think 63a gave me the most trouble.
From an earlier time=ofold
I mean, I have heard of Etrade, but what is ofold?
Also, 19a futile=nouse
(What the heck is a nouse?)
billocohoes @ 8:09 AM Done!
unclefred @11:09 AM I'm with Jinx on your question. I don't look things up anymore, but have in the past. When you're first learning this stuff, a single LIU can break a logjam and enable you to finish all the rest of the clues. And there's no shame in saying that you did. There are no priests here to absolve you of crossword sins! ☺Nowadays I settle for a DNF or a TITT and then 'fess up to it.
Oh, and Happy Birthday Misty! 🎂
I count it a DNF if I had to look up any part of the fill or had a blank or a wrong letter at the time I view the correctly completed grid or read the blog. I do not see why erasures should count. I write in temporary trial answers which I am less than 50% sure of and plan to erase if necessary. Online I fill in trial cells to see if they remind me of an answer. I feel free to change them. On any school test, including the GRE you are allowed to change your mind and erase as much as you wish to.
I feel happy with an almost correct Saturday puzzle even when I have a few mistakes or look ups, A DNF in that case does not bug me.
YMMV. To each (their) own criteria. Whatever floats your boat.
Were people kinder in the days OF OLD?
FUTILE NO USE It is futile (no use)to complain.
Jinx pretty much nailed it; unless it's a sanctioned tournament, you're xwording against yourself / your rules [see: Mulligan Golf].
I was with YR right up to... DNF == one (or more) bad square(s); that's a FIW 'cuz some Natick [, MA], e.g. xing names [DORA | BRET! -T got lucky there], shows up.
Red-letters are right out (as I play in ink ['you sonnova-bitch' my Gramps would say to Pop's FIL]) for me but if that's you, play!
I mean, it's not like I don't cheat my butt off on a Saturday (I've NAIL'd ONE 2x this year :-( )
Anyway - until Will Shortz is judging your grid at a tourney, just play, have fun, and bonus if you learn something*.
Cheers, -T
*Learnt: A month or so ago someone at The Corner posted a vid on ACAI berry harvesting from Palms. Though hesitant, a little bit of grey-matter got excited giving me confidence to go w/ it.
To answer the question you almost asked Lucy, LIMOUSINE has appeared twice before in the LAT - August 19, 2020 and June 15, 2019. It has has three appearances in the NYT, but the most recent was October 23, 1999.
Today's puzzle was hard as a rock for me. leaning toward Saturdayish. Lots of interruptions including DW's pre-holiday honey do list. Finally finished..inkovers: aloud/ALONG, faded/PALED, foggy/MUGGY, newto/ NEWAT, adios/ADIEU, gawked/GAWPED (fooled again!!).
To"Join" the military you ENLIST otherwise it seems to mean "seek out" (ENLIST help). Yesterday we had PTUI, today PSST , I'm P.....D. 😠. Kept reading "intimidate" as "imitate" like a dumb APE (PARROT) 🙈. The Philippines are considered western islands but just miles offshore from China and the rest of the east.
David Copperfield ended up with 2 wives when he sawed his first wife in half. 😆
Saberhagen? this time "Barely with by" is NOT "eke". Alexander Bell's phone number was 1 ☎️. His next invention, a day later, was the one page telephone book. ANONYM? (makes sense I guess). LIMOUSINE (was thinking towtruck or car transport). "Bribe" SOP? have the feeling this is CW fodder.
Colorful congressman....NEWT
Dangerous alley....MUGGY
Film of the burning of Atlanta: " ____ to Remember"...AFAR
TV's slippery 1960's Tarzan, Ron ___ EELY
Digital capture has revolutionized medical imaging. No more film. All captured directly and sent to computers for interpretation. I remember spending time in the dark room developing film to help out our techs, If you forgot to lock the door..there goes 1000s of dollars of exposed film. oops 😱
You go Boomer😊
HBD Misty, I spent forever on a DW errand today to find a birthday (DEC 25) and Christmas card combo for a niece in her 30's and a cousin turning 89. (and they won't even get them on time)😒
A HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Misty...
and a wish for a HAPPY and smooth recovery for Boomer following his surgery!
A fine piece of work from Mr. Coulter, well fielded by waseeley!
Did not know PITCHING WEDGE. (Know pretty much nothing of golf.)
~ OMK
___________
DR: Just one diag today, near side.
Its anagram (11 of 15 letters) speaks to the cleanup that often follows an oil spill or any large affront to the environment.
We may call it...
"ECO-SWEEPING"!
Or, alternatively, the same diagonal provides for what happens among actors when a bad egg jumps your lines by inserting his improperly.
This is...
"CUE-SWEEPING"!
(Bad form, really. Tsk.)
IM and anyone interested. LN I saw the film "Becoming the Ricardos" on Amazon Prime. If you have access, highly recommended. Involved one week in the production of " I Love Lucy" fictionalized only by telescoping events into that week including Lucille Ball accused of being a communist and the issue of her pregnancy including in the series
Nicole Kidman is incredible.
Happy birthday, Misty.
Wishing you a complete recovery, Boomer.
Excellent puzzle, Paul. I enjoyed it.
Misty, may your glass of Bogle merlot taste especially good this evening.
Anon T, I meant I would happily take a DNF on a very hard puzzle, just glad to have gotten as far as I did, even if I had to red letter or Google. I consider it a learning experience. Just my personal point of view. I don't know what your comment means. Please explain your point of view.
I couldn't figure why Limosines wouldn't fit. So I started my post early and Google nicely filled the U(Hi C'eh) I guess I have to take FIW. Also, I started on paper and left the insert behind again like last week. But on paper I had ANONYM but mistyped to miss the "Congrats "
Just enough Thurs crunch.
Hbd Misty and lovely pic of two lovely people.
Passed through SALEM a few times but best CSO, IM, is DEC, eh Anon-T?
Jinx, if there's NAE fudg'n there's NAE Golf
YR and Anon-T, I had a FIW* on a hopeless Natick on a Saturday and wasn't disappointed. But misspelled Dnieper(River) and was sick about it.
BigE you and Baba Wawa, eh
Clever puns on SOP and graft theory re. EULER, Owen. Great l'icks today.
Nobody had MustY/MUGGY?
WC
* If you finish incorrectly vs left a lot of white(DNF)
Our newspaper, the Arizona Republic, informed us that they would not publish Friday OR Saturday so they included an extra large and long puzzle today. It's tedious. I would rather have the regular size, or even a Sunday length one. I'll just keep plugging away at it.
Misty, I really like that photo of you and your late husband. It's so sweet.
Steve Binder did an early version starring Lucy.
OMK so much to unpack in that DR 'cuz... :-)
YR - simple for me at this point in my puzzle-solving prowess; no outside help or it's a DNF. If I muff a square but still completed(ish) the puzzle it's a FIW.
I still can't get a Saturday but once in a Blue Moon -- that's my "learning day."
//as are some Thursdays & Fridays.
Ray-O: aside from your fun quips there's a Program (Amazon? Apple?, Acorn?) called Jack Irish. [ok, it's Acorn we saw it on]...
DW made me watch S1 E1&2... She fell asleep but I was hook'd. I watched all of S1 until 3a. The programme is fun but you can kinda figure it out way before.
Warning -- lotsa dead people.
This eve, Eldest & I watched Matrix 4 on HBO Max. The reboot premise was way better than I thought it would be. That said, some scenes (fight & love ones) went on a bit long. Overall, if you're a fan of the first 3 Matri, I recommend.
Lucina - DW & I were in Salem, MA during the witching season. I got a book (a Wicca take on Halloween - very matter of fact) for the girls that my very religious Mother thought was going to send us all to Hell.
WC - am I to take that as NEC? or DEC as in base-10? :-)
C.C. please update us on Boomer when you have a moment.
Cheers, -T
Anon T I agree .. That is what I thought I said.
AnonT:
Yes, I brought some things for my daughter who likes all that. Do I think she is going to hell? Who knows? She is a good person, a great wife and mother and a wonderful daughter so that is what I judge.
C.C. I second that request. When you can.
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