Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin
Brian has produced yet another Saturday source of entertainment from the shores of Lake Ontario. I had some very nice exchanges with Brian and on the write-up I will point out some of Brian's original clues and Rich's where our editor attempts to "Saturdayize" our puzzle. Here are Brian's comments:
Hi Gary,
Nice to hear from you, as always!
I submitted this puzzle in May of 2020, almost 2 years ago. It got lost in the machinery for a long time, but finally found its way to the paper. As with many of my puzzles, I worked on getting sparkly entries that pass through the center, then worked on the corners. One might think that I built the puzzle around 7D MindOnesPsAndQs, but that was kind of an offshoot from the three long Across entries in the middle, which came first. Sometimes you get lucky that way.
I used more black squares than normal, but I think that I just needed them to make the puzzle work. I'm thinking particularly about the two cheater squares in each of the NE and SW corners. I figure that extra black squares are better than gluey, obscure fill entries.
I hope that you and your readers are riding out the pandemic safely. This should be the last year of it, one hopes!
Brian
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| The Shoal Tower built in the 1840's by the British to protect the Kingston Harbor against a feared attack by the Americans |
Across:
1. Biography beginning?: AUTO - The difference?
5. Energy: VIM.
8. It may be fictional: ALIBI.
8. It may be fictional: ALIBI.
13. Works on walls: GRAFFITI - The Berlin Wall has been called the world's longest art gallery and the more conventional 17. Works on walls: PAINTS
15. Where "Madama Butterfly" premiered: MILAN - A 1904 poster for Puccini's Madam Butterfly premiering at The Teatro alla Scala in Milan
16. What spies often do: LISTEN IN.
19. Cereal bit: OAT.
20. Prisoner's place, in an 1894 adventure novel: ZENDA - This first edition, first issue can be purchased for $3,125
22. Most coins have them: RADII - All round coins have RADII. Brian's clue was "Circle parts"
25. 2004 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Isao __: AOKI - Our frequent crossword visitor should go into the Vowel Hall Of Fame.
27. Titled woman: DAME - The spouse of a DAME does not have a title. That spouse is simply Mr. or Mrs. or whatever works today
28. Radiation Protection Program org.: EPA - In yesterday's puzzle they were monitoring our water
31. Las Palmas lad: NINO - Las Palmas is a Spanish city in the Canary Islands and a boy there would be a NIÑO
33. Badger: NAG.
34. Celebrity's arrival, perhaps: GRAND ENTRANCE.
37. In the negative, unlikely to be fooled: BORN YESTERDAY - Judy Holliday plays a naive woman in this great movie. With a little education, she soon discovers that she was not BORN YESTERDAY (97% on Rotten Tomatoes)
38. Bet, in a way: PLAY THE PONIES - Don't quit your day job
39. "Alley __": OOP.
40. Works on, as a lawn: SODS.
41. Five mL, in medicine: TSP.
42. Is beholden to: OWES - This solver/blogger OWES a lot to a lovely Asian lady in Minneapolis
44. __ sauce: WEAK - A slang insult for a person or an item shown here by the inverted syntax of our crossword friend YODA
42. Is beholden to: OWES - This solver/blogger OWES a lot to a lovely Asian lady in Minneapolis
44. __ sauce: WEAK - A slang insult for a person or an item shown here by the inverted syntax of our crossword friend YODA
46. Oodles: TONS.
50. Musical skill: CHOPS - From the word EMBOUCHURE. It has progressed from the skill of wind instrument players to manipulate their mouth and lips to other musicians and even other disciplines. Brian definitely has crossword CHOPS
52. Sign up, in Salisbury: ENROL - The Salisbury Plain in England has Stonehenge but no use for another L in ENROL.
55. Zilch: NIL.
56. Wanting success?: HAVING - Brian's clue was "Dining on". He and I discussed our take for Rich's cluing here and arrived at: Wanting something means you don't have it and HAVING it is a successful outcome of the wanting.
58. Assign responsibility: DELEGATE.
60. Summary: RECAP.
61. Serious predicament: QUAGMIRE.
62. Wine residue: DREGS - A poignant look at a life from "the brim to the DREGS"
63. Modern marshal's milieu: SKY - Now they must also deal with mask issues
64. Text translation: TROT - Saturdayizing to the max: Brian had "Jog along" for the clue but Rich came up with something a little farther down the list of definitions
Down:
1. Radiant: AGLOW.
2. First name in a Dickens classic: URIAH.
4. "For the apparel __ proclaims the man": Polonius: OFT - Hamlet, Act I, Scene III
Polonius advises his son to buy clothes ("habits") which are as good as he can afford but to avoid buying clothes that are showy ("gaudy"). The phrase "the apparel oft proclaims the man" means that the type of clothes one wears tell a lot about the wearer; showy clothes may suggest that the wearer is a superficial type of person.
5. Wisteria, e.g.: VINE.
5. Wisteria, e.g.: VINE.
6. Memoir that led to the movie "What's Love Got to Do With It": I TINA - All you need to know
7. Act mannerly: MIND ONE'S P'S AND Q'S - Brian said this long fill just happened to work out with his long horizontal middle fill
7. Act mannerly: MIND ONE'S P'S AND Q'S - Brian said this long fill just happened to work out with his long horizontal middle fill
8. Music box, maybe: AMP - What roadies have to move
9. Yarn spinner: LIAR.
10. Homeric epic: ILIAD.
11. Versatile head-neck garb: BANDANNAS - Talk about yer versatility!
9. Yarn spinner: LIAR.
10. Homeric epic: ILIAD.
11. Versatile head-neck garb: BANDANNAS - Talk about yer versatility!
12. Getting very close: INTIMACY.
14. Tasseled hat: FEZ.
18. Extended attack: SIEGE - Grant's successful SIEGE of Vicksburg,MS and Meade's win at Gettysburg both occurred around the Fourth of July, 1863. Vicksburg did not celebrate Independence Day again until 1945,
14. Tasseled hat: FEZ.
18. Extended attack: SIEGE - Grant's successful SIEGE of Vicksburg,MS and Meade's win at Gettysburg both occurred around the Fourth of July, 1863. Vicksburg did not celebrate Independence Day again until 1945,
21. Like: AKIN TO.
24. Looped fabric: TERRY - TERRY Looping
26. Strongly focused: INTENT.
29. What a hot dog or 38. Dog: POOCH.does?: PANTS.
29. What a hot dog or 38. Dog: POOCH.does?: PANTS.
30. "But I digress ... ": ANYHOW.
32. Root in perfumery: ORRIS.
32. Root in perfumery: ORRIS.
Worth The Wait
Iris is a beautiful flower with origins in Italy and Morocco. It takes on all the colours of the rainbow but is most commonly known for it’s purple and blue petals. The flower itself actually carries little scent. It is the roots (ORRIS) that hold the scented magic but only one species is used in fragrance – Iris pallida. When the iris is picked, it is left to dry for up to 6 years! In our opinion, it’s well worth the wait. Like a fine wine, the scent of iris gets better with age.
34. Wig out about: GO APE OVER.
35. Clinton press secretary Myers: DEE DEE - The first woman to get that job
37. Windbag: BLOWHARD
43. Food flavoring: SPICE.
45. "Smallville" actress Kristin: KREUK
47. Studio sign: ON AIR.
48. Explosive, briefly: NITRO.
49. Letter carrier's challenge: SLEET.
51. Catch-22: SNAG
53. Skin care brand: OLAY
54. Relay part: LEG - When Usain Bolt is running anchor (the last LEG), ya gotta like your chances to win.
54. Relay part: LEG - When Usain Bolt is running anchor (the last LEG), ya gotta like your chances to win.
57. Family docs: GP'S.
59. Clock-setting std.: GMT - The International Space Station passes over each time zone 16 times/day. Therefore they simply use Greenwich Mean Time for their schedules. The Current GMT
53 comments:
FIRight! Took a long time, with lots of passes, but no particular difficulties. Did have ALIas < ALIBI, lOtS < TONS, and never heard of an ORRIS. Perps (eventually) to the rescue!
To DELEGATE to others
What you should do yourself,
Will lead to a QUAGMIRE
That can bring down your wealth!
To be a fly on a wall,
And LISTEN IN to all the dirt!
A mural PAINTED on a wall
Is a GRAFFITI artist's work!
{C, C.}
Thanks to Gary for another great write-up, and to Rich for publishing the puzzle! Rich did add some good Saturday zing to the clues.
I had to ask Gary if he understood the clue for 56A HAVING, because I drew a blank on that one. In retrospect, it isn't all that difficult, but sometimes the diversion in a clue can really work.
Also thanks to Owen for the poem!
Gary that is a nice picture of the young lady (Laura Vandervoort) who played Clark's cousin - Kara Kent - in SMALLVILLE . The exotic Chinese/Dutch actress KRISTIN KREUK like Brian, is a Canadian.
Speaking of attractive, that is a great picture of WISTERIA .
Thanks for the extra insight and a nice Saturday challenge HG and Brian.
FIR on Saturday, having gotten my WAG at WEAK x KREUK. Also DNK MILAN, ZENDA, ENROL, TROT, or ORRIS. Erased lots for TONS, intimate for INTIMACY, and dunne for KREUK.
GO APE OVER is definitely better than the GO APE s**t I was thinking.
Stickup men these days don't need BANDANNAS, they just don their obedience masks. But I liked the creative use Gary found, although it would have been slightly better if it was PAINT instead of fabric (a la Fantasy Fest).
It is supposed to get down to 56 degrees tonight on Key West. It will get down to 30 degrees tonight in Frostproof, FL, and 31 in Winter Haven, where I am. Still better than the 19 degrees that Norfolk will see.
Thanks to Brian for the fun. I do like Rich's clue for HAVING. And thanks to Gary for another fun tour.
I had NINO and changed the O to A as aRRIS seemed better. When I rechecked I should have spotted it. FIW
I didn't play the ponies but when I got out of the Service was amazed that one could bet baseball. Then I realized that success there would be as much work as a full time job. My nephew gambles full time.
I don't like solving online. But I enjoyed Brian's xword and Gary's write-up
WC
Like Jinx, I too had a WAG at "weak" and Kreuk." And like OwenKL I never heard of "orris root" but the perps made it clear. And I still don't quite understand "trot" for "text translation" despite Gary's explanation. However, I FIRed, and that's the important thing.
Good morning!
Got 'er done, but tweren't pretty. It was fast, though. That K in WEAK/KREUK (hi, Jinx and Subgenius) was my final WAG. Proudly plopped in CAIRO for that premiere city. Oops, wrong premiere. Also fell into the INTIMAte/cy trap. On the other hand, with just "MIND" in place, I immediately inked in ONES PS AND QS. Like Subgenius, I still don't understand that definition of TROT -- I think of it as the result of irritable bowel syndrome. Thanx, Brian and Husker.
No ALIBI this morning; a DNF for BE. The cross of WEAK sauce & KREUK got me as I'd never heard of either and no WAG or ABC run made sense. Even though I knew DEE DEE Myers I thought maybe her spelling might have been DEE DIE so it could be WING sauce & GREUK. Left it blank. Jinx and Subgenius made the right WAG. And I still don't understand TROT as clued or defined.
Those two and TROT were my only unknowns today. To make my GRAND ENTRANCE I had to change INTIMATE to INTIMACY.
AUTObiography- hmm, I think I'm so interesting and special and I'll write a book about me so you can find out. Guess what, you're not that special. Go back to the bar and MIND 'YOUR' PA AND QS.
PLAY THE PONIES- online gambling started this week in LA; just a faster way to lose you money.
CHOPS- I didn't have them for my mediocre trumpet and baritone horn playing days. Successive sixteenth notes and an inability to double-tongue were my downfall.
BORN YESTERDAY- After my son would arrest someone and ask a few questions and listen to multiple lies he would tell them "I was BORN but it wasn't YESTERDAY. Go sell that crap down the street because I'm not buying it."
FIR. Wow and on a Saturday, and in record time!
There is a lot of luck in crossword knowledge. In my prep shcool days, I studied Latin and we used 'trots' as a guide to translating Ovid and the rest. Knowing individual words is often not enough to get the meaning of a foreign language and the trots were invaluable.
In spite of major questions about three entries, I made WAGs and got them right so a rare FIR Saturday! My problems (and ultimately learning moments) were WEAK, HAVING, and TROT, as others have mentioned. Other than KREUK, the perps were very helpful. It was a Natick but worked out in the end. Thanks, Brian, for the challenging puzzle today. Lots of interesting fill.
Thanks, Husker Gary, for everything. We depend on your great Saturday reviews to clear up the cobwebs, though I admit HAVING still puzzles me. And the constructor interviews are always appreciated.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Wordle 3/6
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(Much better result today.)
Ya beat me, ATLGranny. Took me four tries -- got bupkis on the first one.
Good Morning:
I cleared the screen showing my completion time before noticing it, so I don’t have any idea how many minutes it took me, but it wasn’t a long haul at all. I loved the Mind Your Ps and Qs entry, that and the other long fill made for a smooth solve. I had to look up Trot after finishing because I never, ever heard it used in that sense. Rich got me on that one, for sure. Orris and Miss Kreuk we’re also unknowns. I always thought Bandannas had only one final N but, then again, it’s not a word you would see written out, often. Liked the duos of Tons/Nil, Dose/Tsp, and Nag/Snag. Nice CSO to CanadianEh (Dose and Enrol, maybe?)
Thanks, Brian, for a Saturday challenge and for sharing your thoughts and thanks, HG, for another sparkling and informative review. I especially enjoyed the Autobiography vs Memoir article. I also liked the beautiful photos of the Wisteria and the Bearded Iris, wistful, welcome sights on this cold, snowy morning.
Our power will be off today from 11:00-1:00 while National Grid performs maintenance updates. It was scheduled for last Saturday but then postponed due to the frigid temps. It’s only 5 degrees right now with a high of 11 for the day, but it was colder last Saturday. I’m more concerned about what I’m going to do for two hours without the Internet and TV. But I’m sure I’ll survive.
Have a great day. Stay safe and warm.
Fun Saturday puzzle,.
For those of you playing Wordle, if you missed the first 223 games you can go to “Wordle Archive” and start at game #1 and play as many games a day as your brain can handle. Your welcome.
For those of your in the cold country, be safe, keep warm, and stay inside and play Wordle
Thought it was a fairly easy Saturday puzzle. FIR, but the clues/answers for WEAK, CHOPS, HAVING, TROT not in my wavelength.
Big snow storm hitting New England, except for much of Vermont. It’s winter, I want snow!
jfromvt : "It’s winter, I want snow!" My motto is similar : "It's winter, I want summer!"
Hola!
Que bueno! It's rare for me to finish a Saturday puzzle in one sitting! Thank you, Brian! It was GRAND! And thank you, Gary, for the fine RECAP and illustrations. Well, actually, it wasn't in one sitting; halfway through it I went back to bed then finished it later.
At our school in California we had a lovely arbor covered with wisteria VINEs. It was a great place to walk and meditate.
The Q in QUAGMIRE ensured this was a pangram.
I vaguely recall DEEDEE Myers but have no idea who Kristin KREUK is.
Am I the only one who does not play WORDLE?
Irish Miss: I hope you have a good book to entertain yourself with during the power outage. That's what I would do.
Have a spectacular Saturday, everyone!
For Wilbur Charles: When I reviewed the puzzle a few days ago, I thought that I really should have used 31A NINA and 32D ARRIS. Many people will remember "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris".
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun Brian (thanks for dropping by to increase our Canadian content) and HuskerG.
I FIRed in good time.
Hand up for WAG at the cross of WEAK and KREUK (and I can’t claim Canadian disadvantage, but I have never heard of this Canadian).
Thanks for explaining HAVING. Hand up for not knowing that meaning of TROT.
ADEPT was a breeze after our discussion the other day.
I haven’t heard the term BANDANNA for years.
My fabric was Twill before TERRY finally perped.
Mows changed to SODS.
I had Into It for 26A, but realized it was partially duped beside AKIN TO; correcting to INTENT broke open that area.
Yes IM, I would use the ENROL one-L spelling (and that Shoal Tower in HuskerG’s photo is in Kingston Harbour). I will take a CSO with TSP (but I don’t see DOSE today?); actually in medicine, the 5 ml dose is preferred for accuracy,, as household TSPs may vary in size and not all be accurate.
I thought of Abejo with FEZ.
Wishing you all a great day.
Pre-puzzling thoughts:
Wordle 224 3/6
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Testing.
(Yes TTP, I had Nil on my first two tries.)
I fear that posting our WORDLE results here may take too much space, or be annoying to those who are not participating.
Any view on this?
Wordle 224 4/6
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Thank you Brian for a sparkly Saturday challenge. I was WANTING a FIR, but Rich was not HAVING it. I FIW due to a personal NATICK plus one clue that I should have thought just a little bit more about. But for a Saturday the puzzle did exceed my expectations, despite not having met its.
And thank you HUSKER for an illuminating review and for your exegesis of some of Rich's more obscure clueing.
A few favs:
15A MILAN. If we had been at that premiere in LA SCALLA, we would have heard this.
44A WEAK. Thought WEAK SAUCE was pretty WEAK SAUCE.
50A CHOPS. I get the connection between MUSIC and BOUCHE(mouth) for wind/brass players, but don't get where CHOPS comes in. Are we talking MOLARS here?
64A TROT. One wanders what the LITERAL translation of TROT (as defined by Rich) would be into say, Swahili?
11D BANDANNAS. I wonder of that young lady needed any assistance tying that BANDANNA.
18D SIEGE. Long before VICKSBURG, there was the SIEGE OF CORINTH, which Rossini immortalized with an opera of the same name. Here's the Overture.
45D KREUK. I've not seen Smallville, so Ms KREUK was my FIW FEMME FATALE. It looks like she wouldn't need any Kryptonite to wrap Clark around her little finger.
59D GMT. I checked HUSKER'S link to Greenwich against my trusty TIMEX, and the GMT was only 10 seconds fast.
Cheers,
Bill
D-O @7:03 AM CAIRO. You must have been thinking of Verdi's AIDA.
FLN to Vidwan,
I had the same thought that you did about the oddity of the clue/fill: "Penélope who is the only Spanish actress with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame": CRUZ. However it turns out that she was only actress born in Spain, but these Hispanic/Latinxs do (including IIRC Desi Arnaz).
Word of the Day: funereal
Pronunciation: fyu-ni-ri-êl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Related in any way to a funeral. 2. Like a funeral: mournful, sorrowful, woebegone.
Notes: Today's woeful word is the adjective of funeral. (We hope it doesn't spoil your cheery mood.) It does support an adverb, funereally and, maybe, funereality, if you aren't afraid to stretch it that far. It looks much like its underlying noun, funeral, so be careful of the spelling since it is pronounced quite different from the noun.
In Play: Because English allows nouns to be used as adjectives before other nouns, we tend to use funeral, the noun, in attributive position where today's word would be expected: "The funereal (funeral) proceedings were interrupted by a knock coming from inside the coffin." However, the second sense above can only be expressed by this Good Word itself: "The boisterous laughter gave way to a funereal silence when the stranger announced that he was the new minister at the Methodist Church."
See Alpha Dictionary for more info.
My oldest son who I have never been able to get solving crosswords is now playing WORDLE, so I too must join the fray. My first effort was a 5/6 but I did not expect any better. We will see if I learn
Lucina @ 10:49 ~ Fortunately, the power was only off for 45 minutes during which I made a marinade for my dinner menu, tidied up the kitchen, and dealt with some paperwork. Unfortunately, before I could do these chores, I had to contort myself like a pretzel to get out of my electrically-operated recliner! Believe me, not an easy endeavor! 🤭
CanadianEh @ 10:56 ~ I don’t see any Dose, either, so why I referenced it remains a mystery. Maybe for the same reason I was putting the OJ into a cabinet instead of the refrigerator! Wool gathering, as my mother would say! 🤣
TROT, as clued was totally new to me. Perps to the rescue as they were with ORRIS.
I have not yet tried Wordle and am reluctant to try for fear of getting hooked on yet another word game. I am almost at 2,000,000 Golden Apples on Word Collect.
I managed to FIR on the computer w/ red letters turned on early this morning, and it still took me 22 minutes. DNK KREUK or what a WEAK sauce is, and still do not get TROT for Text translation. Then just for grins I printed out a blank grid and filled it this afternoon, to see if I could remember the morning fill. STILL took me 11 minutes! Geez. Anyway, a doable but definitely Saturday level CW, thanx, BEP. And thanx too to HG for his, as always, outstanding write-up.
Wordle 224 5/6
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Just testing, I was hoping it would also post stats, but no.
Ever since that Blog posted article about Wordle, I have started every one with the dreaded frawnche "adieu."
As you can see above, it does help, but is still hard.
Anywho,
Aside from weak sauce giving me the trots,
I am all imped out today....
Well, amazingly for a Saturday, I FIR, although I couldn't believe that Brian/Rich would "trot" out "weak sauce" as clueing! LOL About P's and q's, a British colleague once told me that in Merry Olde England, under the feudal system, the Lord would have a tavern where the barman would serve the workers pints and quarts of ale. These were sold on credit to ultimately the Lord (or 'Company Store' a la Tennessee Ernie Ford) and were recorded on a tote board for all to see. If you misbehaved in any way the barman would point to the tote board and remind you to "mind your p's and q's" meaning your credit could get cut off if you weren't careful. Great write up, and stay safe all!
Thanks, Lucina, for pointing out that the CW was a pangram, I hadn't noticed that before. And I don't play Wordle either, one hard puzzle a day is enough for me!
Always enjoy the Saturday themeless, and I worked out as I do most puzzles, in an insomnia induced grogginess at 4:00AM, just late getting to the Corner party. Thank you Brian for the thought provoking challenge, and you had some very good clueing too! Managed a FIR a whole 7 seconds ahead of unclefred, not that there is any competition 🤣, Anonymous hasn’t posted yet, but he’ll probably come in under 10
Hand up for WAGging the K in the WEAK/KREUK crossing (never heard WEAK sauce), not knowing TROT in that context, thinking BANDANNAS didn’t have a double N (banana only has one). ORRIS was a vague remembrance, didn’t know what wisteria was, but it sounded more like a disease than a plant. “getting very close” inferred a verb answer whereas INTIMACY is a noun so I don’t get that clue. I did enjoy Rich’s “wanting success” clue, was an aha moment when I made the connection.
Also hand up to Lucina and MM for never playing Wordle, for the same reason MM stated.
Thank you Gary for your illustrative expo today, always learn new things when you take the reins, as I’m sure your students do also! Today’s history lesson for me is the Shoal Tower, never read about that in my history books, and didn’t know Canada feared a U.S. attack as late as the 1840’s. And your photo of the woman wearing the bandanna was easy on the eyes. Also, your link to GMT showed me that if my iPad was any closer to correct, it would be off!
Thanks, HG for your recap and BEP for a fun puzzle. Never heard of WEAK SAUCE so I LIU after I wagged. From Merriam-Webster's etymology section: "Time Traveler for weak sauce. The first known use of weak sauce was in 1992." There was a hyperlink, but it didn't copy over - "see more words from the same year". I've heard of trot out, meaning introducing, but not as clued.
As for Wordle, I'm with Mal-Man; I have enough addictions already.
IM - you must be pretty flexible to free yourself from that recliner!
Actually the puzzle is missing J and X. But who's counting.
Subgenius ~~ I don’t see an X or J that would make it a pangram?
Well Brian was quicker on the draw than I 🤣. Nice to see you read the comments and post yourself Brian, not sure a lot of constructors do that.
Easier than usual Saturday.
Inkovers: alias/ALIBI (Thought it was purposely not fictional?), lots/TONS. Deirdre/DeeDee, INTIMAcy/ATE.
SIEGE: purposely not an attack. After a starter with PL took a chance on PLAYTHEhOrsES, close but no cigar. RADII clue a bit strange. WEAK sauce?, CHOPS for "musical skill"? TROT for "text translation"?... wha? huh? 🙄
QUAGMIRE
Dad was a mailman.."letter carriers' challenge" should have been POOCH too 🐕. Read Huskers comment..."Wanting success" I took to mean desiring and filled HAVeit..but I see "wanting" here means lacking so HAVENT (awkward). Thanks Mr Paquin for your cameo. 😊
Canada eh & the Brits, with one less L you can enroll faster than us.😆
ORRIS new (at least to me). Mom sometimes referred to irises as "dishracks" I thought she was saying "dishrags" 😃
Both the film and yours truly BORN in 1950
Done not to lose the fizz....RECAP
Thief ......KREUK
"Yes, we have no......._____ BANDANNAS
Whacked.....OFT
Our travel agent (yep, back to using an agent for flights and car rentals, not doing it on my own online anymore) wisely switched our connecting flight from La Guardia (where right now all flights have been cancelled) to Atlanta yesterday, side stepping the Nor 'Easter..(and it's not even Good Friday yet) ✈
I liked this puzzle TONS. I remembered Ms. KREUK from that TV show even though we only watched it a few times. I love the entry MIND ONE'S Ps AND Qs even though I had MIND ONE'S MANNERS first. I also had PLAY THE HORSES at first. Not knowing ORRIS didn't help but I did eventually get it all sorted. FIR in 35 minutes.
Still pondering HAVING. Learned the term TROT which I had not heard of before.
Thanks Brian and Gary.
Oh, and speaking of ADEPT as a noun, our son used to play a lot of fantasy games in which there are many magical characters such as MAGE, ADEPT, WIZARD, PALADIN, KNIGHT, etc.
Best wishes to you all.
TXMs @ 1:14 ~ I think necessity and stubbornness were more of a factor than flexibility. It was a funny moment, though, because I was on the phone with my niece at the time and she insisted that I not say goodbye and hang up until she was sure I was successful and not victim of another infamous fall! I blame myself for not having the foresight to lower the foot rest before the power was turned off. Another wool gathering moment! 🙃
Okay. I stand corrected. It can't be a pangram without X. I blame it on poor eyesight. that's my story, etc.
Aha, Irish Miss in the Conservatory with the electric chair.
I was so sure "Mind your "p"s and "q"s!" had to do with setting type by hand, since the type has to be set backward, it would be easy to get the letter "p" and the letter "q" wrong. What's the real origin?
I know TODAY it means "Mind your manners", but I wondered about the ORIGIN.
Post-puzzle thoughts:
I rarely finish a Saturday themeless without a cheat or two. Today’s line cheat was looking up the actor's name KREUK. I too thought the clue __ sauce for WEAK was weak. But I realize the time and effort the constructors (and editors) put in to getting the perfect blend of clues. They’re quite INTENT, that way!
A few w/o’s: LOOM/LIAR; LOTS/TONS; DEEDRE/DEEDEE; and I misspelled GRAFFITI. But all in all this one solved easily and rather quickly
My Moe-ku du jour:
British pubs’ loos have
This sign in front of the door:
Mind the queues, and pee!
Thanks, HuskerG, for the photo of the Berlin Wall.
I have a strange relationship to that iconic emblem of the Cold War. My first visit to Berlin was a year before the wall went up. I was staying in a pension in West Berlin and walking every day through the Tiergarten and the Brandenburg Gate to attend performances at Brecht's old theater in East Berlin.
It was cold, rainy, and often exhausting, but I appreciated that there was no hindrance to my journeys.
Back home, I saw & heard reports of the wall, but really didn't pay them much attention. Later--in the mid-'80s--when I was returning from a working trip to Poland via trains into East Berlin, I found I had to make my way on a very dark night through the wall, to get back to West Berlin and safety. I recall asking intimidating border guards WHERE I could find a place to pass gesetzlich--Legally!--through the wall. Bitte!
I never actually saw the wall in the deep dark of night, with glaring lights in my eyes. I just knew it was there. I finally found a passageway at another train station where, brandishing my US passport, I got waived through.
Some time later, after the wall was down, I visited Berlin again--and was shocked--"Shocked, do you hear?!"--to see how small the wall actually was--not nearly as tall as I imagined it to be.
I was offered fragments of it--to keep as a souvenir--along with just about everyone else in the Free World.
I declined.
It looms far more impressively in my imagination than on my mantel.
~ OMK
I forgot to add that I really enjoyed this PZL & must thank Mr. Paquin for the pleasure of the challenge. It took a while, but I knocked it out completely despite several unknowns.
It is always a joy when the clouds clear and we can "see" a fill that has been eluding us for a while. For me that was when FLIP ( ) OVER changed to GO APE OVER. That freed several perps and sub-perps.
I like the "tavern" explanation for MIND ONE'S Ps AND Qs.
I too thought the origin was with printer's letter-type, but I see that the true origin is "unknown," at least according to the OED.
I like that, as it allows us to grab onto whatever origin we prefer.
~ OMK
Whoot! I got a Saturday!!!
Hi All!
Thanks, Brian, for the puzzle and inside-baseball. The solve was frustrating at first (lots of snow) but it slowly ink'd from the SE up.
Thanks HG for the educational expo [Pints & Quarts, eh?] and the constructor interview.
WOs: MIND your, GRAphITI, ridge-> RADII
ESPs: ZENDA, AOKI, KREUK, ORRIS, TROT as clued
Fav: QUAGMIRE is a fun word
I'm familiar w/ and have used "WEAK Sauce" in conversation. Basically it's used to describe something put out there (an excuse, a joke, a guess) that's pretty lame.
E.g. BigE's son could say "Go sell that Weak Sauce down the street 'cuz I'm not buying it."
{C+, B}
LOL Ku, Moe.
IM, I'm sorry but the imagery is LOL. And the idea of "oh, the power's out I guess I'll just get up and... Oh crap." Is too much :-)
Glad everything worked out and your power is back.
Jinx - that's how my APE was GOing too :-)
Wordle is addictive but, since you can only play once a day and it takes less than 5 minutes, it's not a time-sink. Link.
OMK - Interesting Berlin Wall stories. I've only seen a piece (a full 'slab') of the wall after it was down at the Kilpatrick Center in Oklahoma City. I guess it didn't stay in OKC because this listing of pieces doesn’t show bits in Oklahoma.
Y'all have a wonderful evening!
Cheers, -T
Wordle 224 3/6
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OMK @ 4:10 PM Thank you Keith for that wonderful story of your 3 visits to the Wall that was such an icon of tyranny to many in our generation. I suspect that the Wall of your 3rd visit was much taller in practice, extended by a foot or so of barbed wire at the top and a "no man's land" on the East side bordered by barbed wire as well. But the relentless human spirit finally tore it down in November of 1989. And it is the same spirit of tyranny that built it in the first place that has reared its ugly head again in recent years.
You can binge-play Wordl here: https://hellowordl.net/
and change the length of the word if you like. Both features were really needed in the original version.
I hear that the game was invented by Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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Walls come in and out of fashion for all kinds of reasons
There's always a justification
The official name of the Berlin Wall was Antifascistischer Schutzwall (antifascist protective wall). The GDR and the USSR justified the wall as a way to keep out spies, saboteurs and speculators.
IM - Glad to hear that you were on the phone with your niece and that she insisted staying on the phone during your "escape." Gave you a bit of reassurance. I remember your watermelon fiasco.
Jayce @ 1:29, the way I think it is meant to be taken is that if you have been successful at wanting something then you have it. If you unsuccessfully want something then you don't have it.
I had another two-square FIW, but as with yesterday, I believe today’s puzzle was my first completely filled Saturday grid. I didn’t know ZENDA at all, but since I had ISINTO for 21D, I ended up with AOSI. It didn’t look correct to me, but since I haven’t watched golf for years, I wasn’t sure. I'm not sure that I ever would have come up with AKINTO.
I also wasn’t sure about URIAH, and I didn’t know ORRIS or KREUK, nor had I ever seen an NN spelling for 11D. Apparently, either spelling is acceptable.
My favorite today was CATCH-22. It’s hard to find such a simple, yet more perfect colloquialism in the English language.
Never watched Smallville. I guess Lois and Clark was the last Superman series I watched, which gave me my love for Teri Hatcher. NOTE: In spite of that love, I did not bother with Desperate Housewives, who, BTW, lived on Wisteria Lane. Teri Hatcher was also a Bond girl in TOMORROW NEVER DIES. "Tell me, James, do you still sleep with a gun under your pillow?"
Looking through the Wiki article, I saw that quite a few of the people in Smallville were Canadian, and most of it was shot in British Columbia. After reading up on it, I might have to give it a try.
No, Lucina, you are not the only one. I don’t even know what it is, nor do I care.
Thanks, Brian and Gary!
Quit this entry when I peeked and found wanting and having are synonyms. Grandma always said, "Wanting good grades is not having good grades".
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