Melissa here. In 1921 Edward Elzear "Zez" Confrey wrote his novelty piano solo Kitten on the Keys, inspired by hearing his grandmother's cat walk on the keyboard of her piano. It became a hit, and he went on to compose many other pieces in the genre.
Across:
1. Breaks in relations: RIFTS.
6. Update cartographically: REMAP.
11. Adorns with Charmin, for short: TPS. Toilet papers, as a verb.
14. Basketball Hall of Famer __ Thomas: ISIAH.
15. Sherlock Holmes' younger sister as depicted in a recent Nancy Springer book series: ENOLA.
16. Hot temper: IRE.
17. Using any available means: CATCH AS CATCH CAN. One of two grid-spanners.
20. He broke Babe's record in 1974: HANK.
21. Tulip-to-be: BULB.
22. Kitchen protection: MITTS.
23. Rocks in a bar: ICE. For drinks.
24. "Miss Saigon" setting: NAM. Vietnam. Miss Saigon is a coming-of-age stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover.
25. Clear out: VACATE. Hit the road, Jack.
26. A college applicant may have to write one: ESSAY.
28. City on the Ruhr: ESSEN. City in Western Germany.
31. Roman 151: CLI.
32. Ella's forte: SCAT.
34. Strain: TAX.
35. Swiss Army knife's assortment: USES.
36. Dashboard gauges: ODOMETERS. An instrument for measuring the distance traveled by a vehicle.
39. Go for a rebound: JUMP. Rebounds in basketball are a routine part in the game; if a shot is successfully made possession of the ball will change, otherwise the rebound allows the defensive team to take possession. Rebounds are also given to a player who tips in a missed shot on his team's offensive end. A rebound can be grabbed by either an offensive player or a defensive player.
42. Generation __: GAP.
43. Opportunity metaphor: DOOR.
45. Ike's WWII command: ETO. European Theater of Operations.
46. Heathcliff's love: CATHY. Wuthering Heights.
48. Future docs' exams: MCATS. Medical College Admission Tests.
51. Cassiterite, e.g.: TIN ORE. Cassiterite is a reddish, brownish, or yellowish mineral consisting of tin dioxide. It is the main ore of tin.
53. A-lister: VIP. Very Important Person. Well, excuse us.
55. Govt. mortgage agcy.: FHA.
56. Golf goof: SLICE. A slice is a ball that curves away from the players dominant hand.
57. Slangy sweeties: BAES.
59. Stern's opposite: STEM. Nautical terminology.
63. Skater Midori: ITO.
64. Old Venetian coin: DUCAT. At today's gold prices, one ducat is worth $148.83.
65. Havana's __ Castle: MORRO. A fortress guarding Havana Bay, Cuba.
66. Leb. neighbor: SYR.
68. Elizabeth of "WandaVision": OLSEN. Miniseries on Disney+.
1. Singer Lionel: RICHIE. Blast from the past.
2. Jason of "Harry Potter" films: ISAACS. Played Lucius Malfoy.
3. Exercise goal: FITNESS.
4. Thumb-pressed nail: TACK. Thumbtack.
5. Theater rebuke: SHH.
6. Continue: RESUME.
7. Ltr. insert: ENCL. Enclosure.
8. Utah city with a Biblical name: MOAB.
9. __-rock: music genre: ALT. Alternative rock is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s.
10. Game with ghosts and a maze: PACMAN. Pacman doodle. Use your arrow keys to play.
11. Tiny breath mints: TIC TACS. Remember this scene with Patricia (Parker Posey) in You've Got Mail?
12. Talk nonsense: PRATTLE.
13. Martial arts instructors: SENSEIS. Teachers.
18. Attorney's gp.: ABA. American Bar Association.
19. Juice box brand: HI-C.
24. Long-distance swimmer Diana: NYAD.
25. Perturbed: VEXED.
27. "Rent-__": 1988 film: A-COP.
29. Curry of the NBA's Warriors: STEPH.
30. Warmed the bench: SAT.
37. Yoga surface: MAT.
38. Frolic: ROMP.
39. Kawasaki watercraft: JET SKIS. Personal watercraft.
40. The U in "SUV": UTILITY. Sport Utility Vehicle.
41. Hall pass checker: MONITOR.
44. Roof supports: RAFTERS.
46. Belief systems: CREEDS.
47. "The Big Fib" host __ Nicole Brown: YVETTE. Game show on Disney+.
49. "And __ off!": THEY'RE.
52. Fall mo.: OCT. October.
54. Suffix like -like: ISH.
57. Fla. resort: BOCA.
58. Toilets for T.S. Eliot?: Abbr.: ANAG. Sneaky. Toilet is an anagram of T.S. Eliot.
61. Trail mix morsel: NUT.
62. Fall Out Boy genre: EMO.
FIRight, tho it seemed more of the end of week difficulty.
ReplyDeleteI didn't catch the theme until combining a copy of the grid with the bubbles in red, and the reveal. Musical keys A-G, with a kitten above each. Simple enough once it's known, but a beast to suss out!
I've PRATTLED on enough, with what I'm sure will be in the expo a few hours from now. On to what you put up with me for: doggerel!
To name his firstborn "Mycroft" is absurd!
His second son "Sherlock", oh, my word!
The man was daft!
A psychopath,
To name his daughter "ENOLA" is the worst I've heard!
When solving a puzzle, it's CATCH AS CATCH CAN.
Catch the low hanging fruit with your first scan.
That will catch you a base,
Other words fall in place.
Using Google, Wiki, red letters are legal, my man.
{C, B-.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThought this was a pretty weak theme, until Owen pointed out the CAT above each of the circled "keys." Oh, that's cute. YVETTE and CATHY were all perps. I obviously don't know the difference between Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and I've never watched the Disney Channel. Thanx, David and Melissa Bee.
ISIAH: Do you suppose he could be Oprah's half-brother?
FIW, not catching the gimmick, feeling confident with TOGAs, and not knowing what cassiterite is. Also DNK ENOLA, although it nice, fresh cluing. That plus was offset by yet another Potter fill, ISAACS. Other unknowns: KITTEN ON THE KEYS, MORRO, OLSEN, NYAD, YVETTE, and Fall Out Boy.
ReplyDeleteOffsetting CSOs at TIN ORE and ICE. Repeat 3rd down.
A SLICE isn't always a goof, sometimes it is to correct a goof. If you hit your tee shot such that a tree is between the ball and the green, you can try to recover by hitting a SLICE. Align your shoulders where you want the ball to start, align the club face to the green, take one club lower (5 instead of a 6, e.g.), and swing normally. Problem is that your normal swing produced this golf goof that got you into this fix to begin with.
Back in my gin 'n tonic days, the vodka I drank was sometimes called "mother-in-law vodka", the cheap stuff like SKOL. About $10 a litre (hi C-Eh), IIRC.
Thanks to David for the challenge. Wish I had caught the clever theme that I really didn't need to know the clue to catch. And thanks Melissa B for another interesting, fun tour.
On call last night - so last paged at 6 am - might as well stay up and solve the puzzle!
ReplyDeleteVery amusing theme with the CATs scampering on the different musical keys. Definitely took the reveal and the circles to figure that out!
Having one less letter for Isaiah helped me remember that the Detroit Pistons basketball player was ISIAH.
Thanks Melissa and David
FIR, but seemed to be a Friday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThanks, David, for a puzzle I could FIR with the help of your theme. I had TOGAs until I saw the alphabet run in the circles. Then I wondered about the reveal, "kitten?" Finally I found the CATs sitting above the circles and all became clear. What fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melissa B, for your nice review. I wondered about TINORE, but tried parsing it to see if that helped. It did. Figuring out the ANAGram for TS Eliot was my last "aha" moment. Perps were solid in my problem areas. Favorite word today was PRATTLE.
OwenKL, I liked your second limerick today. My low hanging fruit was PAC MAN, my first fill.
OK, I will ask. What's the connection between Oprah and Isiah, DO? Just bad spelling?
Hope you all have an excellent day today.
There is a rare error in 49 down and 55 across. 55 across should be FHA, not FMA as shown in the answer grid.JLW
ReplyDeleteI found the piano keys in order, tipped off by the reveal, but I didn't see the cat sitting on them. Very cute. "Kitten on" should have been the tip off.
ReplyDeleteOne error. In 35D I missed the C. So obvious now. Brain freeze. Of course, it should have been the MCATS. Is that an Easter egg?
I had TINORE, but could not parse it. Ohh! TIN ORE. That and ICE are CSOs to Tinman. I miss
his posts.
How could ANA be something about toilets? Then I found STAGE and there was an anagram. So tricky.
To me this was Wed. level and I missed the obvious.
TOGAE is not a spelling variant, it's the Latin plural, so I needed perps for E or S at the end.
ReplyDeleteOK so this is the second ENOLA I've heard of, after Col. Paul Tibbett's mother ( and the bomber he named after her.)
Yes, ATLGranny, it was my weak attempt at humor. Both are misspelled Biblical names.
ReplyDeleteWell the theme went completely over my head, saw the circles but didn’t see CAT above the letters till d-o pointed it out. Somehow still managed a FIR in decent time due to major help from the perps as I was unfamiliar with MORRO, MOAB (only as a Biblical city, not the one in Utah), OLSEN, and ENOLA as clued. Filled ANAG correctly but the clue made no sense till I read Melissa’s review. My last fill was the E in the TOGAE/TINORE crossing. DNK what cassiterites were, and the fact that TINORE was actually TIN ORE escaped me, duh. Yesterday we had ULNAE, today TOGAE, is there some literary license that says you can pluralize a word ending in A with an E instead of an S? And speaking of words ending in AE, I’ve never heard the term BAE used by anyone, only in CW’s.
ReplyDeleteThank you David for your clever construction (so clever that I never grasped it), but a fun solve nonetheless! Thank you Melissa for your write-up today and including “Kitten on the Keys” and some scat from Ella! Good day to all!
Took 6:19. My thoughts mirror most of what everyone else wrote so far, I'll just add:
ReplyDeleteOh joy, circles.
Last Wednesday I talked about memorizing and reciting poetry during medical tests. During yesterday's Echo I used the dirge of Boromir: "Through Roban over fen and field…."
ReplyDeleteHeathcliff. Miss Saigon. Look these up later (the first is a comic strip character I think.
Aha, not TINORE but Tin ore.
Any soliloquy of yore, come to mind, OMK?
Toilets, couldn't fathom ANAG.
And… NUT/oaT
Owen, as usual, I really liked both l'icks. And… Spotting those CATS, excellent
I solved these yesterday. Thursday thinking it was Wednesday. Yes, the latter perhaps harder than former.
WEES re. Plethora of perps needed
WC
I see preview is broke again on Android
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would have noticed the CAT above the keys had there been no circles. Maybe, because I always look for the theme to get that second "puzzle within a puzzle" layer. Except on LAT Saturdays.
The USA Today, Universal and any number of other crossword puzzles often leave you to your own devices to understand the theme, but they also normally have a title that helps.
To each their own.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI solved this last night and thought A through F, in circles no less, was a meh theme until a review this morning with sharper eyes and brain saw the Cats sitting on the keys. That was a truly Aha moment which prodded a mea culpa to the constructor. I think some of the cluing and fill are above a Wednesday level based on several unknowns: Tin Ore/Cassiterite, Kitten On The Keys, Morro, Yvette, Isaacs, and Olsen, as clued. My w/os include: Apron/Mitts, Leap/Jump, Yvonne/Yvette, and Oat/Nut. I was totally flummoxed by Anag until reading the expo. We had some fun pairings with Essay/Essen, Mat/Scat/Sat, Tack/Tacs, and Isiah/Steph/Jump. Oodles of CSOs, too : Tin (_ __ _/Tin, Ray O and Inanehiker (MCATS), Slice (All golfers), ABA (Lemony and Hahtoolah), Stage (Keith), and Boca (All Floridians). USOC is very timely.
Thanks, David, for a cat’s meow theme and thanks, Melissa, for the informative and entertaining summary. Any recent photos of Jaelyn and Harper you can share?
Owen, your first verse deserves an A, IMO.
ATLGranny, I chuckled at your choice of Prattle as your favorite word because it was one of my mother’s, as well. Her generation used lots of flowery, old-fashioned terms that you seldom hear today. For example, everything under the sun, from events to food to people to movies to anything at all, her default adjective was Grand. To her, a roast beef sandwich was just as grand as a Chateaubriand. It makes me smile, just remembering.
DO, you sound like you’re on the mend. 😉
Have a great day.
BTW, CC has a puzzle on USA Today today.
ReplyDeleteWonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, David and melissa.
ReplyDeleteI can echo ATLGranny today. “Thanks, David, for a puzzle I could FIR with the help of your theme. I had TOGAs until I saw the alphabet run in the circles. Then I wondered about the reveal, "kitten?" Finally I found the CATs sitting above the circles and all became clear. Again like ATLGranny, my favourite was PRATTLE.
Thanks melissa for explaining ANAG.
Several inkblots today as Grab changed to JUMP, Oat to NUT (hello IM).
Several unknown names but they perped, as did TIN ORE.
Some Canadian disadvantage today with FHA, USOC, but I have been here long enough to wrinkle my Canadian nose and enter ODOMETERS. (Thanks Jinx for the salve of litre!)
YooperPhil- some words with Latin origins like TOGA can be pluralized with the A (as in the original Latin) or with a S. Perps decide which in CWs.(see billicohoes@7:33). LOL BAE gets the added S.
We had a mini exercise theme with FITNESS, Yoga MAT, SENSEIS, ROMP, but some of us SAT on the bench.
FLN- thanks Vidwan for the WORDLE archive link. Now we can feed our addiction with past puzzles! I completed in 3 today, but yesterday was harder and took 5 tries.
Wishing you all a great day.
YP- meant pluralized with an E for those Latin words.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the theme until I saw Melissa's explanation, saw the "cat" but didn't notice the circles until she pointed them out. "Toilets for T.S. Eliot". I was thinking "loos" "lavs" and all kinds of things until the perps made it clear that it was "anag." Anagram! Of course! It's all clear now. Also, I took a guess to get "M-rro Castle and Sk-l" Vodka, as I didn't know them. But I was right! Finally, "togae" instead of "togas", Latin is not one of my specialties, but, again, the perp made it clear. Fir, at last. The theme was excellent, once I grasped it.
ReplyDeleteThank You David Poole for an interesting puzzle, which I enjoyed !
ReplyDeleteThank you MelissaBee for a charming and depth filled review blog,
Thank You OwenKL for your limericks, and poetry which I always enjoy and rhyme out, and love to sing our loud ... but dont mention most of the time. Thank you for your eagle eyes noticing the CAT, above each of the alphabet circle entries. You used the word 'kitten' and I kept looking for that exact word, until I realized you meant CAT, for the Kitten in the song title. Congrats to the constructor for such a clever device, which must have taken some doing !!
I got ORE before I came to that clue, so I knew only TIN would fit in the spaces...
Actually I have a small sample of Cassiterite in my little rock collection. It comes as a glassy crystalline or tiny native metal crystals, which are silvery and resemble galena (lead) or pyrites, ( which are actually copper sulfide, and golden colored -).
Ever since stainless steel and other alloys have taken over, Tin has reduced in value as a strategic element/metal. I remember, as a youth, when a tinner could come around to our homes, and offer to 'tin' our copper and brass vessels, so they could continue to be used for cooking purposes... He would heat the vessels to high heat, apply the flux (Ammonium Chloride, which smelled great ...) and then the melting tin wire and spread it along the inner surface. Ah, memories of our youth !
Onto Wordle ! Have a nice day, all.
Mistake in the grid - 55 across, 49 down.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThis one is for CAT lovers, which I am not, but cleverly constructed. I did not stop to suss what the circles meant so thank you, Melissa, for the detailed explanation.
Since I don't play the piano I'm not familiar with KITTON ON THE KEYS but worked it out. However, I missed out on DUCAN/ANAG/STAGE. FIW.
Unfamiliar with YVETTE Nicole Brown but I love the name.
CSO to Yellowrocks at CATHY.
I like the word PRATTLE because it sounds exactly like its meaning.
I failed to parse TINORS so of course did not see that it was TIN ORE. Ooh, tricky TOGAE, TOGAS that it can jump between Latin and English.
Thank you, David Poole, you beat me to a pulp.
And thank you again, Melissa, for the enlightenment.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!
Musings
ReplyDelete-TINOR_/TOGA_ and making some sense of the theme were small bricks in the wall
-Oops, now I see the CATS above the A – G musical scale. Cool! Thanks Owen!
-Cartographers had to REMAP the Omaha, NE/Council Bluffs, IA area often because the Muddy Mo kept meandering
-Wow, new cluing for ENOLA!
-Window closes/DOOR opens: My summer construction job ran out in 1976. I started detasseling corn where I made big money.
-We have a hole on our golf course where a SLICE puts your ball on or across a well-traveled road. FORE!
-Talk to the audience on stage – Monologue. Talk to yourself on stage – Soliloquy.
-If I stopped watching a movie a month ago, NETFLIX RESUMES right where I left off. Amazing!
-Security people on Disney properties are RENT-A-COPS
-A new group of 7th graders just walked in longing to know the difference between chemical and physical changes.
Thank you David for a fine Wednesday morning puzzle. And good timing, as this month marks the 100th anniversary of Zez Confrey's Kitten on the Keys. Thanks OwenKL for pointing out the "KITTENS" above the "KEYS". Though the actual piece was in the key of F MINOR not A MINOR (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), I guess juggling all those cats would have been a real chore.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you Melissa for another fine review. I really enjoyed KITTEN ON THE KEYS and ELLA clips.
24A NAM. We saw "Miss Saigon" in London and it is a very powerful musical. But I am always moved to tears by Cho Cho San's death scene in Pucini's opera.
17A CATCH AS CATCH CAN. MEANS that are not always justified by the ENDS.
54A TIN ORE. Cassiterite is a good example of a MINERAL ORE, comprised of molecules of the metal combined with oxygen (SnO2). Less reactive metals such as GOLD or "NATIVE" COPPER are usually found in matrices of igneous ROCKS, which are by definition mixtures of minerals.
5D SHH. PAN didn't perp.
50D SAMSON. He was strong, but DELILAH was stronger.
58D ANAG. Clever meta-clue that had to be 'splained to me to get it. Thanx MB! I wonder if it's just a coincidence that T.S. Eliot wrote the poem on which the musical CATS is based, ("Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats")
Cheers,
Bill
Word of the Day: audient
ReplyDeletePronunciation: aw-di-yênt
Part of Speech: Adjective, noun
Meaning: 1. (Adjective) Listening, capable of listening. 2. (Noun) Listener, something capable of listening (hearing and understanding).
Notes: The adverb for the adjectival use is audiently. The plural in its noun use, audients, is pronounced identically with the noun audience. Audience is what linguists call a "collective noun", a singular noun (in the US) that refers to many things. In British English the agreement is with the semantics, i.e. 'the audience are', 'the family are', 'the parliament are'. In fact, the linguistic position is that -s is (also) a noun-forming suffix added to Latinate adjectives ending on NT, with the [ts] spelled -ce: dependence, convenience, existence.
In Play: As an adjective, this almost lost word may be used in this way: "Horace's performance connected with the souls of the audient spectators standing around him." Let's preserve this word, if only as a noun: "It serves little purpose to propound democracy if you have no audients."
For more on this word see the Alpha Dictionary.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, David. Loved the theme since my mother was a pianist/teacher who played "Kitten On The Keys" by memory often. Really bouncy & cute tune. Took some concentrated study of the circles to recognize a music keys theme then see the CATS thereon. I'm proud to say I did get it last night. Cats all over the puzzle hiding in plain sight like cats do. We always had a plethora of CATS on the farm as pets & mousers.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of the much respected CAT poet T.S. Elliot, the anagram reference to his name is offensive. ANAG was last to fill with all perps & one red letter. Did not suss it as ANAGram until Melissa B. explained.
Thank you, Melissa, for another fine expo.
thank you owen, and others, who eyed the CAT atop the keys - the real gimmick of the theme that escaped me. i've updated the post with all CATs outlined.
ReplyDeleteirish miss - thanks for asking, i'll get something new to share soon :).
Mini-apology to MB. When I first opened the review, I didn't see the red boxes you'd outlined the CATS in and thus didn't really suss the theme until I read Owens comment.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI see we had another Easter egg in Heathcliff The CAT.
Here's a summary of Miss Saigon I'm glad Chris, the GI is portrayed positively. I had a pilot friend who was determined to bring an Asian bride home. Doom is the theme but collective insanity suffices for me.
WC
Nice Wednesday challenge but so busy I forgot about the theme. 😮
ReplyDeleteQEII reigns but does not RULE. It has finally sunk in that a good quality horse is always a CW ARAB. 🐎
My daughter Catherine doesn't like being called CATHY. Could do without BAES. 🙄
"WandaVision" was a strange but facinating series. Appropriate that Diana is a NYAD ("naiad" is a water nymph). 🏊♂️
Was first offered the then unknown (in the US) mint candy TIC TAC ("teek tock", the sound an Italian clock makes)by a colleague at University in 1971, now it's international (....wait!, was it my breath?😳).
Did SAMSON, the Nazirite, smite the CASSERITE army? Speaking of battles,our customary CW is the bomb-dropping ENOLA Gay.
Preliminary exam to the MCATS is NOT the MKITTENS.😾
"Miss Saigon" Saw it in Chicago years ago with the live helicopter (evacuation scene) on stage.🚁
PRATTLE....
Eat less is the _____ losing weight.....KETO
Rest...REPOS
Medical fluid delivery sytems....IVIES
Donkey corrall .... ASPEN
on to Thor's day
waseely - i just added those, after seeing owen's comment.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI was watching the midday news and the Rich on Tech segment. Here's the segment, that features constructor/editor Amanda Rafkin discussing the game with Rich DeMuro. Bonus - WaPo Sunday crossword constructor Evan Birnholz adds his thoughts on the game, as well as a tip about a word to start with. What I learned was that there is a "hard" setting and that I've had that turned on since I began playing. Maybe that is the default ?
Wordle
Fun Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, David. And thanks for your commentary, Melissa.
ReplyDeleteDidn't notice all those CAT words as the solution to KITTEN ON THE KEYS. Makes this a brilliant puzzle, David.
As a literary scholar, I was also a little offended at first by the "Toilets for T.S. Eliot" clue. But the solution just cracked me up! I had never noticed that that word was buried in his name. Wonder if he ever noticed that in his time?
ENOLA surprised me because I always think of ENOLA GAY in relation to war and bombing.
Owen, your first poem was just a riot. Made me laugh!
Have a good week, everybody.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR with a cheat; I looked up YVETTE to assist me with the SW corner. KITTEN ON THE KEYS rang no bell for me; I had OAT in 61 Down and CREDOS in 46-Down; both of which hindered me until NUT and CREEDS filled in
Kudos to Owen for sussing the theme. I never saw the CAT above each of the “keys” (and yes, my puzzle grid did have circles). As I’m sure other of our puzzle bloggers will agree, we don’t always CATch the theme right away. IIRC, Owen helped “elbow” me out of one of my earlier blogs when the letters E L B O W were aligned in a 90 deg angle
Today’s puzzle and theme were clever enough; I wonder how many millennials found it so? CATCH AS CATCH CAN and KITTEN ON THE KEYS are hardly words that boomers know! 😜
CSO to Tinbeni with TIN ORE and ICE
No Friday spoiler alert
I'm with you on themes MOE. MalMan bailed out once when there was a single circle close to each corner and nothing else around. The theme was something like LETTERS ON CORNERSTONES. I promptly started looking for "roman numerals" which of course abound in CWDS. Turns out each circle was the start of the first name of a STONE: EMMA, SHARON, OLIVER and SLY, each turning a corner. Constructors are a devious lot. You oughta know! 🐱
DeleteAnd thanks for the red rectangles Melissa!
Wees!
ReplyDeleteThanks Owen for the keen eye!
(I didn't see it...)
And thanks Vidwan for the Wordle archive,
(Which proves why once a day is enough...)
I found the four daily's I've done so far easy,
But that first archived one nearly kicked my butt....
You would think "kitten on the keys" would be an easy one
For me to find a silly link for, but after much research, I have not
Found anything that would not annoy the crap out of you.
(Much like that TS Eliot clue...)
I will keep looking though...
Lots of unknowns in the puzzle requiring much sussing on my part.
ReplyDeleteMelissa, you are so nice.
Speaking of hard to see/find themes, today's theme in the USA Today by C.C. was a real doozie. It's no gimme and wasn't readily apparent.
Just in case, for those that weren't already aware, C.C.'s puzzles are published every Wednesday and Sunday in the USA Today.
Owen Thank you very much for CATching the CAT part of the theme! Hand up, I got the ABCDEFG, but missed the best part. I technically FIR, but I am not satisfied if I don't fully understand the theme. Hand up with Subgenius fell for the LOOS misdirection instead of ANAG.
ReplyDeleteSE almost did me in with all those crossed proper names. Only know the mis-spelled ISIAH from these puzzles. I am always astonished when parents name their child without taking an extra moment to verify the spelling of the name. Then the child is stuck with it for life. Learning moment about TIN ORE.
I have been to MOAB, UTAH. But a yoga friend sent me a photo of her doing an amazing yoga pose there many years ago. Unfortunately it is very low resolution. I just asked her if she can find the original print for me to scan.
Here I was hiking above MORRO Rock at MORRO Bay in San Luis Obispo County, CA.
Haven't been to MORRO in Cuba. Yet.
From Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteVidwan, CrossEyedDave What started the Heathkit discussion with Vidwan? Funny to have HEATHCLIFF today. I always think of Heathkit when I hear that name. I made many useful Heathkit devices. Including a TV pattern generator to repair my first TV that was broken when I got it. Would never have been able to afford a new TV or pattern generator then.
Hand up never heard of OCEANOLOGY. One son of JACQUES COUSTEAU lives in our little city and is also an OCEANOGRAPHER.
From Monday:
Becky Learning moment about the AMTRAK mooning. Thanks!
CrossEyedDave Indeed I have not been there. Yet.
From Last Thursday:
I agree that MSG is not something to be feared. It indeed is a natural product of cooking and makes everything delicious. MSG is the primary ingredient in Accent.
CanadianEh! ~~ I know you are sometimes at a disadvantage in the LAT puzzle due to certain things or words or places in the U.S. that you would be unfamiliar with. I was kinda looking for a CW that would be directed at Canadians to see if I would have the same disadvantage so I went to the Toronto Star but found out they publish the same Universal CW that the Smithsonian runs here. Is there a source that publishes a Canadian CW? On a side note that I found rather humorous, one story in The Star had the headline “ Despite a Zamboni driver shortage, Torontonians find refuge at the rink during COVID-19”. I know there is a shortage of truck drivers, but Zamboni drivers? Only in Canada! 🤣
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSolved the puzzle but didn't get the theme until it was 'splained by MB. Perps as usual was my savior, plus a couple of guesses.
I've been to MOAB on a tour of national parks in the area. We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge outside of Moab. As part of the tour we took a boat ride down the Colorado river to see the formations in the cliffs. We visited Arches and Canyon Lands National Parks while based in Moab. Interesting area.
Have a great day everyone.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteArggg! DNF by shooting myself in both feet.
1) I was thinking "novelty piece" as furniture. Something akin to a player-piano; so KITTdo [see #2]__THE KEYS didn't bother me
2) CREDOs, OATs (not NUTS), transposed BeaS [BAES], and having no idea 64a (coupled with the meta-ANAG I didn’t catch)... #EpicFail
Thanks David for the cute puzzle. I kinda caught the theme except I thought the circled musical notes represented the holes in a player-piano scroll. At least that [wrong] idea fixed TOGAs, so I've got that going for me ;-)
Thanks MB for the expo. Thanks OKL for the pièce de resistance: CAT over the keys.
WO: TOGAs
ESPs: ISAACS | ISIAH, ENOLA, MORRO, YVaTTE, OLSEN, NYAD
DNF: [see above]
Fav: ISH was fun as is PRATTLE (Lucina - yes, onomatopoeic-ISH indeed)
{B+, B}
Anyone recall Python's Wuthering Heights in semaphore?
//I'd link it but looks like Monty Python has scrubbed YouTube of their non-channel content(?)
Fellow techs: Who thought CLI should have been clued non-GUI [interface]? :-)
C. Moe: As the Girls got older and the household busier, ~2x/week CATCH AS CATCH CAN (every wo/man for themselves) became our dinner staple.
Enjoyed reading everyone!
Cheers, -T
Wordle: 5 FLN: Thanks for the archive link, Vidwan; I had to pull myself away.
//TTP - I haven't watch the video yet but I start with SKATE or STAKE; that's 4 very common letters used. I'm sure I'll learn better. Thx.
TTP, everyone is searching for the same hidden Wordle. How can there be a "hard" or "easy" version? Oh, just LIU and see it now. "hard" mode restricts your subsequent guesses.
ReplyDeleteCATCH AS CATCH CAN not only has two CATs therein, but perfectly describes what happens if you get out the CAT carrier and need to take kitty to the vet. Once they've been there in that carrier, they avoid going again. Especially outdoor CATs.
ReplyDeleteA neat PZL today from Mr. Poole! Well explicated by Melissa B!!
ReplyDeleteMy fave clue was for 58D, one I knew Misty would appreciate. (And she did!)
~ OMK
____________
DR: Three diagonals on the far side.
In keeping with 58D's spirit of toilet humor, the central diag gives us an amusing if vulgar anagram (a hybrid JACKPOT!!--fully 15 of 15 letters [plus an extra "C" from the HI-C in today's PZL]):
It tells of the limited vision of a track custodian, a broom-toting sweeper-upper who lived in the wake of the fastest racehorse ever to win the Kentucky Derby.
What do you think the guy's view of this magnificent animal was?
Yep, he saw only...
"SECRETARIAT'S CA[C]A"!
-T @1:48 PM Is this it? Or was that a Gallaudet U send up of the Pythons? Or have I got my CODES SWITCHED? CLI? XLII See entry 6.1?
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle todayy - thank you David and Melissa Bee. I did, however, fall into the anagram trap at 58D and coyldn’t parse TIN ORE, due to initially entering Togas.
ReplyDeleteAppropos of nothing, I wonder how many of the Cornerites solve the puzzles on line, and how many, like me, use pen and paper.
Wendybird @3:52 PM On paper with a pencil.
DeleteWendy, I prefer pen (and ink) on newspaper. I get the week's xwords from a Sunday insert.
ReplyDeleteNow this week The insert was in the car and it was cold so I solved online. Since I use android I prefer the straight latimes link.
WC
Bte, I just solved the Friday Jeff Weschler. P&P
DeleteWendybird, one hand up here for usually on line but occasionally on paper. Speaking of paper, now that I have just returned to SoCal from Colorado I realize that I prefer shoveling snow to shoveling paper. Of course if I had to shovel snow all winter long I might not feel that way.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed today's puzzle, it's theme, and Melissa's recap.
I still have the Heathkit timing light that I assembled something like fifty years ago. I have not used it for almost that long a period of time.
Now, it's back to shoveling paper . . .
Ok,
ReplyDeleteI put Wordle on "hard mode"
And I am not sure
(As I can't test it till tomorrow)
That it is really any harder...
I mean, don't you always use hints that are given?
I think maybe "once" I disregarded a hint to find more letters,
But is it really harder if you are busy sussing and puzzling?
Now "dark mode."
Intriguing!
I was hoping everything was Batman related....
What a disappointment!
ReplyDeletePEN on newspaper.
~ OMK
Wendybird ~~ online always, but with no help from red letters etc...I’ll solve it on my own or concede to the constructor.
ReplyDeleteMy nose wrinkled up when I came across ISAACS and ISIAH crossing. I didn't see the cats over the circled letters until coming here. Hated that ANAG. I call for banning BAE(S). Liked BULB and DOOR. Saw CLI and immediately thought "Clear Interrupt." Hand up for solving on the computer.
ReplyDeleteJayce @5:56 PM -T seems to think CLI stands for "Command Line Interface", which a lot of us Oldtimers prefer, but with which the post Windows generation would be AT SEA
DeleteMy former neighbor in Norfolk competed in a mountain bike race series called "24 Hours of MOAB", which is how I knew what / where MOAB is. Sounds like a grueling event, which is probably why they don't hold it any longer.
ReplyDeleteNew Cornerites won't know that Picard and I knew a California woman named ENOLA Gay. She wasn't warlike at all, in fact she was delightful.
Wendy, I print the LAT puzzle from the LAT web site and solve with a Pentel 0.9mm Twist-Erase mechanical pencil.
MalMan, I keep my timing light (which I did not build) to detect whether I have spark on an engine that doesn't run. If I have spark, it is probably a fuel problem. Don't know if they have any other use. But I don't remember the last time I had an engine that wouldn't start, other than a dead battery. (Except the Caterpillar in my motor home, and that was due to cold weather and a broken preheater. And, of course, timing lights won't work on diesels.)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteJinx, you and I would have known her. I would mention her last name, but I shall refrain.
ENOLA - Her mother named her that as a warning she would always be alone. Alone spelled backwards. Of course, I put TOGAS and so missed the theme -- had to come here for that.
ReplyDeleteHelen
PK,catch as catch can, LOL, so true.
ReplyDeleteI'm a pen and paper gal. I print it out.
Hi everybody,
ReplyDeleteI finished the USA crossword by CC but...?
I noticed the grid didn't have the usual symmetry and I'm clueless about the theme (Junior class). Help please?
~ Mind how you go...
Bill G
Hi, very late to the game but for those who read yesterday's comments tomorrow, maybe I will entertain you. I was busy working and now I got busy reminiscing as my very first Friday as blogger here was November 5, 2010, a David Poole special. It also had tic tacs. My "style" has changed and it was fun to read those who were complaining about my including "too many links." It was also bittersweet to read comments from some who have left this mortal coil. It also reminded me that I was sharing Wednesdays at that time with...yes Melissa B! Back at with new partners. That took me to my last Wednesday, October 27, 2010. More emotion as it was a Dan Naddor write-up after he died so young. It also was when Boomer was introduced as the one who gave C.C. her Burnikel. It was before C.C. had a puzzle published, and before I met my future wife and knew very little about Baht.
ReplyDeleteI could finish with- baht wait, there is more, instead I will just say how much I have appreciated the world C.C. created here and getting to know so many new friends.
Lemony @8:24 PM Thank for that trip down memory lane.
DeleteNot sure that a slice is a golf error. The club is drawn across the ball so that it curves in flight.
ReplyDeleteWaseeley @ 7:18 ... Is it even possible to use CLI anymore? I thought GUI had swamped all that way. (Of course, if we're doing nostalgia, once upon a time, the entirety of CP/M would boot from Track 0...)
ReplyDelete[BTW, MacOS does allow a quasi-CLI via the Terminal program, but it's not recommended.]
Michael @8:54 PM Certainly. Most server farms run Linux, which used a CLI. And I've got Ubuntu Linux running under Windows.
DeleteOn 'puter. AcrossLite when I can,but when they load it late at Cruciverbalist, I do it on line at Washington Post. WaPo uses the same interface as the LAT, but without ads (or my ad-blocker works better there.)
ReplyDeleteFinally, work is done. BTW, if anyone needs a perl script to turn the output of 'ls -laR' into something Excel* friendly...
ReplyDeleteWaseeley - Yeah, I found that video too - that's not the Python players on the moor :-(. And yes, Command Line Interface as opposed to Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Michael - MacOS is mostly FreeBSD underneath. That CLI is, IIRC, the bash (borne-again sh) shell.
In Windows, you can Start->Run->cmd (just type cmd) and you'll get a command shell that's DOS-ish / CP/M.
Wendybird - newsprint & ink (Pilot G-2 .5mm, black, 1ea) everyday save Sundays. Sundays I just lurk.
CED - I just realized that I play like you - logically following from the start-word. We're imposing "Hard Mode" (TTP: thanks for the video!) on ourselves.
But, imagine, if you played "easy mode"/cheated by entering ARISE (and one letter is green) and then, say, TWEAK - you could get rid / know a lot of (common) letters in 2 moves. "Hard Mode" wouldn't let you do that because you didn't use the green-letter in the right spot.
Cheers, -T
oh, I forgot - Picard: Cool pic. Made me curious why you weren't in Havana(?) so ILU...
ReplyDeleteMORRO is Spanish for "round hill."
But I bet Lucina already knew that :-)
-T
-T @10:51 PM Please email me the perl script. I used to be a perl freak.
ReplyDeleteAnonT:
ReplyDeleteActually, I did not know MORRO. I can't recall ever having seen it before. If I have, it's totally forgotten. I need to research the origin.
FIW, with two incorrect squares today. I had TINORS/TOGAS and DUCET/ANEG.
ReplyDeleteI got the reveal, but since I didn’t highlight the “B” circle (I always highlight the circles first, but missed that one), I didn’t see the ABCDEFG. I’m not sure it would have helped.
Oh, well. Time to print out today’s puzzle and start on it.
Thanks, David and Melissa!
ReplyDeleteBill G, Son of a ... !
The solve of C.C.'s Junior Class crossword took under 10 minutes. Understanding the theme took twice as long.
I finally noticed that the last word of the theme answers were each three letters. BIN, SON, SKY and MAC. It turned out that having three letters wasn't significant, but concentrating on those four words finally gave me the theme.
The first two were the key for me, and then googling to confirm that SKY and MAC could be in the same group, or "class", and they were. Learning moment, for sure !
Each was, in a sense, a junior.
Wikipedia - List of family name affixes
As I opened with, Son of a... !
Sometimes understanding the theme is far more difficult than simply filling in the letters of the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteDash T,
Chuck Norris solves the Wordle on his first answer. Every time.
YooperPhil- LOL re Zamboni driver shortage article. But we have a Covid shutdown right now and lots of workers in all areas out with Covid or in quarantine. Kids just went back to school yesterday (two weeks shutdown after Christmas holidays, and two Snow days).
ReplyDeleteMost of our newspapers publish an American CW. I am fortunate to get the LATimes CW (and there is an easier one too). I did see some Canadian themed CWs in some magazine a few years ago, but they were meh! for me.
I Googled and found a lady in BC who creates them; you buy a subscription for one/week for a year. They look more challenging. But I tried the sample CW, and it had GMen (American to me!) and “Fill with love, in the States=ENAMOR”. Nose-wrinkle for me, even if I am warned about the American spelling! Why would you do that in your sample CW?!?
Wendy bird- hand up here for newspaper and pen Monday to Saturday, and online at Washington Post on Sunday when my newspaper does not publish.
I start WORDLE with STARE in hard mode and work from there. Usually solve in 3 or 4 tries.
TTP !!? Re Chuck Norris.