Title: Add three letters and call me in the morning.
Doctor (figuratively speaking) Wechsler has built another extra large grid (15x16) to permit room for his three 16 letter theme fill. Each of them has the trigram (three letter) AMA added to a base phrase. We also have the rare benefit of a reveal on a Friday which helps solve this puzzle even if you are not used to JW's tricks. The triple sevens in each bottom corner and the triple sixes on the sides are indication of the gridding skill this man has. This is a very difficult puzzle to build as it is hard to find another 16 letter fill where AMA could be added to an existing phrase. Some of the fill is more strained than we usually see from JW, but the first themer is so perfect there always are consequences. Bear in mind he does his fill by hand not machine.
ACACIAS, BAILEYS, CRYSTAL, CUSTODY, DEADPAN, ECSTASY, ENROBED, ENSNARE, NUREYEV, RIPENED, UNDERGO, VANILLA, ELECTRIC, and LUCIDITY are all interesting non-theme fill, a benefit of having 15 extra spaces in the puzzle. The first of the themers may be the most challenging.
18A. *Crèche, for example?: CHRISTIAN DIORAMA (16). With DIORAMA not an everyday word and the final fill combining a clothing designer with the trigram to create this religious piece may be a bit outré. But then it may have been the puzzle's inspiration. Vote ( ) yes ( ) no.
42A. *Animal rights goal in the Andes?: JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA. (16). We get Ogden Nash's 2 LLama; with all the commercials they are now appearing in I would think llamas are the richest of the working beasts. Finally, the reveal...
54A. Altered, in a way ... and a hint to the org. that helped create the answers to starred clues: DOCTORED UP (10). The American Medical Association. They were founded in1847, making this their 175 year anniversary. On to rest...
Across:
1. "'And hast thou __ the Jabberwock?'": Carroll: SLAIN. What a wonderful quotation to begin a creation aimed at people who love words. The poem may appear to be total nonsense but it has been studied and discussed such as this ANALYSIS by Dr. Oliver Teale. His blog is even more successful than the Corner.
6. Steady guy: BEAU. Boyfriend from the French.
10. Event involving hidden matzo: SEDER. Passover (Pesach) begins this year at sundown on April 15, which is also a sabbath.
16. Loads: A TON. Simple, and clearly a big load.
17. Horror film burden: CURSE. My thought is poor Lon Chaney Jr. and the curse of the werewolf.
21. Geode feature, perhaps: CRYSTAL. Geodes are spherical to subspherical rock structures with an internal cavity lined with mineral materials. Very pretty.
22. Dressed: ENROBED. Back to our naked Emperor from my Wednesday write-up.
23. Current type: ELECTRIC. No, not anymore. Now I want only my wife. Oh, electric current, never mind.
34. Grammy-winning pianist Peter: NERO. This MUSICIAN was extremely popular during my growing years of the 50s and 60s.
35. 2020 N.L. batting champ Juan: SOTO. This 23 year old from the Domincan Republic has already logged 4 years in the majors. STATS. A very hard fill for most here, and fill unlike Jeffrey.
36. "Sula" author Morrison: TONI. This was her second novel and Goodreads says, "This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation."
37. "That describes me, right?": AM I NOT. This sounds philisophical and historical as well as being a rallying cry of the modern young.
40. Paradise: HEAVEN. Ah, religion a forbidden topic here but an interesting one.
47. Sugar suffix: OSE. Sucrose, lactose, maltose, hammer tose...
48. Clear thought: LUCIDITY. Dictionary says this word is the quality of being easily understood, completely intelligible, or comprehensible. A goal for a blogger?
49. Spirit that's also a game: GIN. Alchemists in the Middle East were the first to master distillation. They were hoping to not only change lesser elements to gold but to make medical elixirs. To do so, they would distill liquid, collect the vapor, and gather the “spirit” that came off the material. Gin is a very competitive card game.
50. "Molto __": "Very good": BENE. An Italian lesson for a change!
52. Trough fill: SLOP. Historically people saved their food scraps and spoiled food and served them to their pigs in the trough.
53. Huge amounts: SEAS. I guess this is something likened to the sea especially in vastness such as a sea of faces.
59. Plain: VANILLA. I have had bosses and secretaries who called manila folders "vanilla folders."
62. Soviet-born ballet immortal: NUREYEV. I am not a great fan of ballet, but he was amazing.
66. Broad-topped trees: ACACIAS. Hard to believe these are in the pea family 
67. Catch: ENSNARE.
68. Safekeeping: CUSTODY. When they throw you in jail, safekeeping is not your first thought.
69. Poker-faced: DEADPAN. More Stephen Wright, right?
Down:
1. '60s civil rights gp. inspired by student sit-ins: SNCC. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the culmination of many sit-ins by young blacks in 1960. It also spawned many impressive black leaders.
2. Lion player Bert: LAHR. Since Detroit traded away Matthew Stafford so the Rams could win the Super Bowl, Bert is back to being the most revered lion.
3. "__ in the Dark": 1988 Neill/Streep film: A CRY. Not the original title, but a movie based on a true story of a New Zealand woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her baby daughter. You-tube will not let me use it, but look at the movie trailer, and you will see Streep really is magical at becoming a character.
4. Bearded bloom: IRIS. At first I thought of Morris Bloom and his make believe wife, but without the capital B it must be this beautiful plant.
5. Iced drink brand: NESTEA.
6. Irish liqueur made by an English company: BAILEYS. It may seem that this liqueur has been around forever but Baileys was invented in London in 1973 by a team of professionals hired for the job. These included Tom Jago, head of innovation and development for International Distillers & Vintners (IDV), who was from the U.K.; David Gluckman, a South African; and Hugh Seymour-Davies, an Englishman from Oxford and Eden. They aparently do not like apostrophes.
7. LAX stat: ETA. Estimate Time of Arrival,
8. Chicago's __ Center: AON. For our big city midwestern readers this skyscraper was completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and St Regis Chicago. AON has bought naming rights to this and one in Los Angeles.
9. Experience: UNDERGO. There are good experiences and not good ones. Undergo makes me think of the not good ones.
10. Really burn: SCORCH. The wiktionary says it is from Middle English scorchen, scorcnen (“to make dry; parch”), perhaps an alteration of earlier scorpnen, from Old Norse skorpna (“to shrivel up”). It reminds me of the scorched earth caused by war.
11. Catalan cash: EURO. In Catalonia they now use Euro.
12. Colorless: DRAB. Such a potentially mean word.
13. Girl in a Salinger title: ESME.The short story For Esmé with Love and Squalor is a post World War II story which I am not sure I ever understood. Here is an ANALYSIS. This might be time to ...
14. Curl up with a good book, say: READ. As it tells an interesting..
19. Story: TALE.
20. D.C. part?: Abbr.: INITial.
24. AFL partner: CIO. AFL–CIO, in full American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations, American federation of autonomous labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which organized workers by industries.
25. Blasted stuff: TNT. Very cute clue.
26. Out working: ON A JOB. If it weren't a three word answer this would be very easy.
27. Puzzle: BEMUSE. I know A-muse, and B-muse, but what is C-muse? Is it musical?
28. Ascended: ARISEN. Another word with many connotations.
29. __ Blanc: MONT. A mountain and a pen; talk about being versatile.
30. Shorthand for unlisted items: ET AL. Latin, Et alia.
31. Romantic-sounding herb: LOVAGE. Native to Southern Europe, lovage is a member of the parsley family but tastes like celery. My wife will feed me anything green she finds.
32. Lethargy cause: ANEMIA. Low red blood count caused by many serious and not serious matters.
33. CeCe with 12 Grammys: WINANS. Not related to the Wynan brothers. BIO.
38. Natural resource: OIL. A topic I will not touch now.
39. Horned Frogs' sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University began as a private co-ed college in 1869. The STORY.
40. Seuss cat's trademark: HAT. This LINK .
41. English cathedral town: ELY. An Anglican CHURCH.
43. Sheer joy: ECSTASY. What you are likely feeing now that this tour is almost over.
44. Baklava dough: FILO. Also a famous detective, no relation to Director Vance.
45. Smell: ODOR.
46. Came to fruition: RIPENED. A tiny pun since the word was taken from fruit becoming mature.
51. Official proclamation: EDICT. Synonyms for edict: bull, decree, diktat, directive, fiat, rescript, ruling, ukase.
53. Use plastic, say: SPEND. Some of my credit cards are no longer plastic.
55. Miscellany: OLIO. One of C.C's words.
56. Wearing, with "in": CLAD. The robe convering the emperor.
57. Beach feature: DUNE. A book, a hit movie, and a natural sand formation.
58. Up-there bear: URSA. Well there are two, a major and a minor.
59. Brief cleaner: VAC. I just throw mine in the washer with the rest of my clothes.
60. Pressure opening?: ACU. Not tire? I am getting tired.
61. "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. Two days in a row! He is a very respected rapper who is only now getting his full recognition depite being around for 25 years. As a 73 year old sheltered white man I will never be able to fully appreciate his artristy but the world does.
63. Jabber: YAP. An odd semi-dupe with the opening poetic reference, perhaps a little wocky.
64. Live-ball __: baseball period: ERA. It is the dead ball era which ended when Babe Ruth (the ball player, not the candy bar) started smacking home runs in record fashion in 1919. We now have the livlier ball era.
65. S.A. country, to the IOC: VENezuela. The International Olympic Committee assigns three letter tags for each nation, which is only slightly ironic in this three letter puzzle. This troubled nation is often in the news for unhappy reasons.
1. "'And hast thou __ the Jabberwock?'": Carroll: SLAIN. What a wonderful quotation to begin a creation aimed at people who love words. The poem may appear to be total nonsense but it has been studied and discussed such as this ANALYSIS by Dr. Oliver Teale. His blog is even more successful than the Corner.
6. Steady guy: BEAU. Boyfriend from the French.
10. Event involving hidden matzo: SEDER. Passover (Pesach) begins this year at sundown on April 15, which is also a sabbath.
15. Shell material: NACRE. The inside of the shell of some mollusks also known as mother-of-pearl. Here is a picture of a vintage Egyptian folding chair I was given some time ago with nacre insets.
16. Loads: A TON. Simple, and clearly a big load.
17. Horror film burden: CURSE. My thought is poor Lon Chaney Jr. and the curse of the werewolf.
21. Geode feature, perhaps: CRYSTAL. Geodes are spherical to subspherical rock structures with an internal cavity lined with mineral materials. Very pretty.
22. Dressed: ENROBED. Back to our naked Emperor from my Wednesday write-up.
23. Current type: ELECTRIC. No, not anymore. Now I want only my wife. Oh, electric current, never mind.
34. Grammy-winning pianist Peter: NERO. This MUSICIAN was extremely popular during my growing years of the 50s and 60s.
35. 2020 N.L. batting champ Juan: SOTO. This 23 year old from the Domincan Republic has already logged 4 years in the majors. STATS. A very hard fill for most here, and fill unlike Jeffrey.
36. "Sula" author Morrison: TONI. This was her second novel and Goodreads says, "This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation."
37. "That describes me, right?": AM I NOT. This sounds philisophical and historical as well as being a rallying cry of the modern young.
40. Paradise: HEAVEN. Ah, religion a forbidden topic here but an interesting one.
47. Sugar suffix: OSE. Sucrose, lactose, maltose, hammer tose...
48. Clear thought: LUCIDITY. Dictionary says this word is the quality of being easily understood, completely intelligible, or comprehensible. A goal for a blogger?
49. Spirit that's also a game: GIN. Alchemists in the Middle East were the first to master distillation. They were hoping to not only change lesser elements to gold but to make medical elixirs. To do so, they would distill liquid, collect the vapor, and gather the “spirit” that came off the material. Gin is a very competitive card game.
50. "Molto __": "Very good": BENE. An Italian lesson for a change!
52. Trough fill: SLOP. Historically people saved their food scraps and spoiled food and served them to their pigs in the trough.
53. Huge amounts: SEAS. I guess this is something likened to the sea especially in vastness such as a sea of faces.
59. Plain: VANILLA. I have had bosses and secretaries who called manila folders "vanilla folders."
62. Soviet-born ballet immortal: NUREYEV. I am not a great fan of ballet, but he was amazing.
66. Broad-topped trees: ACACIAS. Hard to believe these are in the pea family
67. Catch: ENSNARE.
68. Safekeeping: CUSTODY. When they throw you in jail, safekeeping is not your first thought.
69. Poker-faced: DEADPAN. More Stephen Wright, right?
Down:
1. '60s civil rights gp. inspired by student sit-ins: SNCC. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the culmination of many sit-ins by young blacks in 1960. It also spawned many impressive black leaders.
2. Lion player Bert: LAHR. Since Detroit traded away Matthew Stafford so the Rams could win the Super Bowl, Bert is back to being the most revered lion.
3. "__ in the Dark": 1988 Neill/Streep film: A CRY. Not the original title, but a movie based on a true story of a New Zealand woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her baby daughter. You-tube will not let me use it, but look at the movie trailer, and you will see Streep really is magical at becoming a character.
4. Bearded bloom: IRIS. At first I thought of Morris Bloom and his make believe wife, but without the capital B it must be this beautiful plant.
5. Iced drink brand: NESTEA.6. Irish liqueur made by an English company: BAILEYS. It may seem that this liqueur has been around forever but Baileys was invented in London in 1973 by a team of professionals hired for the job. These included Tom Jago, head of innovation and development for International Distillers & Vintners (IDV), who was from the U.K.; David Gluckman, a South African; and Hugh Seymour-Davies, an Englishman from Oxford and Eden. They aparently do not like apostrophes.
7. LAX stat: ETA. Estimate Time of Arrival,
8. Chicago's __ Center: AON. For our big city midwestern readers this skyscraper was completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and St Regis Chicago. AON has bought naming rights to this and one in Los Angeles.
9. Experience: UNDERGO. There are good experiences and not good ones. Undergo makes me think of the not good ones.
10. Really burn: SCORCH. The wiktionary says it is from Middle English scorchen, scorcnen (“to make dry; parch”), perhaps an alteration of earlier scorpnen, from Old Norse skorpna (“to shrivel up”). It reminds me of the scorched earth caused by war.
11. Catalan cash: EURO. In Catalonia they now use Euro.
12. Colorless: DRAB. Such a potentially mean word.
13. Girl in a Salinger title: ESME.The short story For Esmé with Love and Squalor is a post World War II story which I am not sure I ever understood. Here is an ANALYSIS. This might be time to ...
14. Curl up with a good book, say: READ. As it tells an interesting..
19. Story: TALE.
20. D.C. part?: Abbr.: INITial.
24. AFL partner: CIO. AFL–CIO, in full American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations, American federation of autonomous labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which organized workers by industries.
25. Blasted stuff: TNT. Very cute clue.
26. Out working: ON A JOB. If it weren't a three word answer this would be very easy.
27. Puzzle: BEMUSE. I know A-muse, and B-muse, but what is C-muse? Is it musical?
28. Ascended: ARISEN. Another word with many connotations.
29. __ Blanc: MONT. A mountain and a pen; talk about being versatile.
30. Shorthand for unlisted items: ET AL. Latin, Et alia.
31. Romantic-sounding herb: LOVAGE. Native to Southern Europe, lovage is a member of the parsley family but tastes like celery. My wife will feed me anything green she finds.
32. Lethargy cause: ANEMIA. Low red blood count caused by many serious and not serious matters.
33. CeCe with 12 Grammys: WINANS. Not related to the Wynan brothers. BIO.
38. Natural resource: OIL. A topic I will not touch now.
39. Horned Frogs' sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University began as a private co-ed college in 1869. The STORY.
40. Seuss cat's trademark: HAT. This LINK .
41. English cathedral town: ELY. An Anglican CHURCH.
43. Sheer joy: ECSTASY. What you are likely feeing now that this tour is almost over.
44. Baklava dough: FILO. Also a famous detective, no relation to Director Vance.
45. Smell: ODOR.
46. Came to fruition: RIPENED. A tiny pun since the word was taken from fruit becoming mature.
51. Official proclamation: EDICT. Synonyms for edict: bull, decree, diktat, directive, fiat, rescript, ruling, ukase.
53. Use plastic, say: SPEND. Some of my credit cards are no longer plastic.
55. Miscellany: OLIO. One of C.C's words.
56. Wearing, with "in": CLAD. The robe convering the emperor.
57. Beach feature: DUNE. A book, a hit movie, and a natural sand formation.
58. Up-there bear: URSA. Well there are two, a major and a minor.
59. Brief cleaner: VAC. I just throw mine in the washer with the rest of my clothes.
60. Pressure opening?: ACU. Not tire? I am getting tired.
61. "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. Two days in a row! He is a very respected rapper who is only now getting his full recognition depite being around for 25 years. As a 73 year old sheltered white man I will never be able to fully appreciate his artristy but the world does.
63. Jabber: YAP. An odd semi-dupe with the opening poetic reference, perhaps a little wocky.
64. Live-ball __: baseball period: ERA. It is the dead ball era which ended when Babe Ruth (the ball player, not the candy bar) started smacking home runs in record fashion in 1919. We now have the livlier ball era.
65. S.A. country, to the IOC: VENezuela. The International Olympic Committee assigns three letter tags for each nation, which is only slightly ironic in this three letter puzzle. This troubled nation is often in the news for unhappy reasons.
And speaking of unhappy, I must now leave you to wait for the reaction of all of you who read and write. I do get impatient but still love the process. Thank you JW and all of you. Lemonade out.
38 comments:
FIW, interpreting S.A. as South Africa and KENya at the Natick NUREYE_ x _EN. Oh yeah, South Africa is a country, not a continent. I blame decaf.
Erased scald for SCORCH, dist for INIT, sand for DUNE, and Nestle for NESTEA. Ten unknowns. I knew ELY, Nevada, so it make that guess easier.
We start our 100-gallon trip back to Norfolk this morning. I'm looking for an ATM that dispenses arms and legs so I can pay for all that diesel.
Thanks to JefWech for the fun puzzle that I almost got right, and to Lemony for another clever review.
With the first long answer, I understood the gimmick if not the theme. I finally got the theme with the reveal. Other than that, I'd say it was pretty smooth sailing. FIR, so I'm happy.
Good morning!
I always enjoy a JW creation, but one lacking a Shakespeare reference is a special treat. I fell into several traps in my march to victory: Dull/DRAB, NESTle/NESTEA, sAvannA/VANILLA. SNCC ("snick") would probably be very tough for someone who didn't attend college in the '60s. Nice CSO to C.C. with OLIO. My final fill was that G in LOVAGE. Not sure I've heard of it before. Very nice both of you, JW and Lemonade. ("Hammer-tose" [groan])
AON: When I lived in the Chicago Area, all of the TV stations had recently moved their transmitters to the newly-completed John Hancock Center, tallest in the city. When Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) went up, it wreaked havoc with TV reception in the northern suburbs, so the stations had to move their antennas once again. Today 875 North Michigan (formerly John Hancock Center) has dropped to fifth tallest Chicago skyscraper.
Took 15:07 today. I guessed at the abbreviated country crossing some ballet immortal. Perhaps I should've shown my support for Ukraine by boycotting that Soviet-born immortal. Seemed like "seas" of proper nouns today.
I'm more familiar with the verb "doctored" than "doctored up," but later on I can use Google to search it up....
FIWrong. I thought I had this one. I had it down to a single cell natick, and thought my WAG had a good chance to be right. It was, but another wasn't. CHRISTmAs < CHRISTIAN. The two crossers were both unknowns. Also misspelt JUSTIsE, because I guessed TsU instead of TCU. Spelling errors and typos don't count, so it's that university that kills that cell.
The theme I got. I saw the reveal's clue, but hadn't solved it yet until after I had seen the AMA as the linking factor, which then solved DOCTORED UP for me. Not a bad theme. Weak, but others have been worse.
Right off the bat, I FIW, as it turned out. I confidently wrote in CHRISTmAs DIORAMA, feeling smug. The two perps were not helpful, though I have heard of BAILEYS, of course. There were some other tricky areas that Jeff concocted, but I got them OK. Until I filled the reveal, I tried sand/surf/DUNE. And so it went. Thanks, Jeff, for the clever theme and all the rich vocabulary. It was a joy.
Thanks to Lemonade for explaining so well and adding humor to the morning. MOLTO BENE! My favorite fill was VAC, which I finally got with perp help. First thought was SOS which we had recently.
Finished our taxes yesterday so on to other projects. Have a fun Friday, everyone!
FIW, first block remained empty. Didn't know the Carrol quote.
In my exp, bloggers eschew LUCIDITY
I thought it was the AOl Center. That slowed me in Minnesota
D.C. part was not dist(rict)
And…I inked over something to reink ECSTASY but can't make it out
Jinx , RV grade diesel is closing in on $6.00. I recall you saying you have discount but.. Regular Diesel's at $5.00
I found this very tough as JW's are apt to be.
WC
FB bloggers I meant, not so much CC'ers
Scratch my earlier rating of the theme. I hadn't noticed that the themers became something else if the AMA was removed. That boosts it up to extraordinary! Thank you Lemonade!
Hola!
I'm back to a searing puzzle from JW! I almost got it but had CHRISTMAS instead of CHRISTIAN and did not scrutinize BAMLEDS. DNF! Obviously I'm out of practice! But I had a wonderful time in northern California with my friend of 65 years and she returned with me. Sadly, it's to attend a funeral Saturday. We are going to Flagstaff where the son of a friend is to be buried. He died of a brain tumor at age 38 leaving a wife and two children.
The rest of the puzzle filled quite easily. I laughed at JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA.
Thank you, JW and Lemonade. It's wonderful to be back and I shall have to sharpen my solving skills. Also I have a lot on my mind.
I hope you all have been well. I can't wait to hear of any new developments among you, hopefully all good.
Enjoy a beautiful day, everyone!
Good Morning:
I’m a big fan of JW and always enjoy solving his puzzles, especially those that highlight his wizardly wordplay skills. That said, I must confess that I made the same mistake as Owen with Christmas Diorama which led to a FIW and, even worse, I missed the in the language phrases when AMA was removed. This revelation by Lemony raised my rating of the theme from simple to spectacular, a true JW gem. Even though Bamleys looked like a feasible English name, why I didn’t remember Baileys Irish Cream, a trendy drink back in the day, remains a mystery. Not knowing the AOS Center was incorrect sealed my fate. My other stumbles were On Duty/On A Job and Ore/Oil. As Lemony noted, the fill was lively and fresh and gave us a few cute duos, to boot: Enrobe/Ensnare, Oil/Olio, and Clad/Enrobed. JW was also generous with several CSOs: Lemony, Hahtoolah, Picard, MalMan (Seder), CC (Olio), Ray O, Anon T (Bene), and DO, Anon T (TCU and Oil).
Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a challenging Friday and Mea Culpa for overlooking your wizardry skills, even temporarily. Thank you, Lemony, for showing me the error of my ways and for the excellent commentary and links. I enjoy and appreciate your talents in deconstructing the C/As in a non-pedantic manner, not to mention your well-honed understanding of Jeffrey’s substance and style.
FLN
Vidwan, best wishes for an uneventful and positive procedure.
Last night, I watched Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil with Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. I was quite surprised by Spacey playing the role of a gay man. The movie was made in 1997 at which time Spacey’s homosexuality was unknown, at least to the general public. Apparently, he felt safe in playing the part, even though his character had to admit to his orientation in an open courtroom in prim and proper Savannah, Georgia. Knowing what we know now, it raises some interesting questions, at least to me, about his decision and motivation to accept the part.
Have a great day.
What fun! But, I had to come here because I kept insisting SLEW was the way---to go instead of SEAS for huge amounts! Huge amounts of "very good" creative thinking here today and I am always thankful I can come to this corner and find the right clues plus some wonderful explanations about how everyone else came to the finished fill in! Take care, All and I'm praying for the Ukrainians and spring.
I dunno,
With the reveal doctored "up"
I really thought the themers would be vertical...
(And not palindromic)
Consider me
puzzled, but not disappointed...
Musings
-What a wonderful puzzle. No chance on LOVAGE and WINANS and SCAD was the wrong huge amount (grasping at straws). Oops, me too, a too quick CHRISTMAS not CHRISTIAN, made for four bad cells.
-Grid spanning themers were a bonus and JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA was brilliant on every level!
-My lovely bride can really “DOCTOR UP” a store-bought pizza
-On one episode, Thelma Lou made Barney Fife mad by making him think he wasn’t her only BEAU
-SCORCHING wood can make a beautiful effect
-My ANEMIC bride had to choke down liver during her second pregnancy.
-VAC – my Friday chore. I’d better get started.
Long, long march to FIR. I thought I would have to give up several times. Confidently wrote in EDDY for 6A “Steady guy”, and that buggered up that part for quite a while, especially combined with CHRISTMAS which EVENTUALLY became CHRISTIAN. Other W/Os include ORE:OIL and SNIC:SNCC. I won’t even say the time I spent on this, just .... a long time. A real challenge, even after I saw the AMA gimmick. JW, thanx (I think) for this mental workout. Lemonade, thanx for the excellent write-up.
Tough but fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, Jeffrey. And thanks too for the helpful commentary, Lemonade.
I liked the combination of reasonable clues--Lion player Bert LAHR, really burn SCORCH, out working ON A JOB--with crazy ones like Plain VANILLA and romantic sounding verb LOVAGE.
Don't know how I remembered her, but I got ESME (with love and squalor?) right away.
Yes, 'safekeeping' and CUSTODY are a bit conflicting, aren't they?
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody. On Sunday we'll celebrate my Dad's 93rd birthday on Zoom.
I, too, have used the SCORCHing method but on paper, not wood. I hold a candle and quickly burn around the edges of the paper for the desired effect.
I AMAzed myself with a FIR on a FRI Jefferey W. puzzle in 24:32. I marvel at the creativity of all constructors, and JW certainly stands out as a master of his craft, his grids and clueing are pretty much an art form, I think I mentioned before, I’d really like to see a collaboration of Stella Z. & JW, maybe a Sunday themed, as their styles are somewhat similar.
Lemonade ~~ thanks for your excellent synopsis, I didn’t see the expanded 15 X 16 grid till you pointed it out. Also, I vote yes on CHRISTIAN DIORAMA as most likely the seed for the theme.
I am ired, irked, p/o'd that the Enquirer has reformatted the puzzle page, given us 2 crossword puzzles and NEITHER is the LA Times puzzle!! I've tried doing it online and didn't like the experience at all. Since Fri/Sat are above my pay grade I didn't even try it today. To make myself feel better I changed my avatar to 4a bearded bloom/IRIS from Mom's garden in Michigan.
Thanks for the puzzle, JW. Thanks for the write-up and all the extras, Lemonade. I wouldn't have gotten much right on my own.
Welcome back, Lucina!
Best wishes for routine care, Vidwan!
Have a great day and weekend!
A good, solid Friday Wechsler.
Finished 98%, then cheated the NE remainder just to wrap it up.
Again no diagonals, so no DR from me.
(An asymmetrical grid [16x15] plus the fancy design placed diag blockers right in what would have been the center.)
Fave fill? Same as for Lucina (Welcome back!): JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA!
~OMK
Fantastic Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
I finished, but had what I thought was a Natick cross at 6D and 35A. But I arrived here to find that I FIWed, and failed to see the entire theme. I saw the AMA but did not look at the rest of the phrase. Thus I did not question CHRISTmAs DIORAMA. When corrected to CHRISTIAN, BAILEYS was obvious and SOTO easily WAGged. Oh well. I see that I was not alone.
Dull changed to DRAB, Ore to OIL, Yak to YAP.
I noted A TON and SEAS, ENROBED and CLAD.
I felt no ECSTASY as I entered ODOR. And who spells FILO that lazy way, instead of Phyllo (from the Greek for leaf Phyllon).
Happened would not fit; RIPENED was a little different slant.
We saw A TON of ACACIA trees in Kenya. Giraffes are tall enough to eat the leaves on those broad tops just like eating off a plate. Giraffes have long tongues and tough lips to eat around the thorns.
Wishing you all a great day.
No problem. Funnist in a while JW is my favorite. It used to be Mr. Chen. But where is he?
#60 down pressure opening, ACU? Is this an abbreviation?
I use to listen to Peter Nero, now I like Peter Kater, his “Earth” is my chill out CD.
When I lived in Chicago, the Prudential Building, was the tallest.
Yuman "acu" is an "opening" for pressure as in "acupressure," a Chinese healing technique similar to "acupuncture." Just FYI.
Addendum: Actually, Yuman, I was slightly off. I just looked up "acupressure" on Wikipedia and discovered it's actually an ancient INDIAN technique, rather than Chinese. But when it came to China the Chinese refined it into "acupuncture." FYI, again.
Sub genius, thank you. I should have gotten that as I have acupuncture done at the chiropractor.
Some great comments and interesting questions.
With one vote in, YOOPER PHIL wins the prize of a year's supply of snipe snacks for correctly recognizing that CHRISTIAN DIORAMA was the seed entry, confirmed by JW.
JEFF CHEN a friend and mentor to the few and to the many now publishes mostly collaboration puzzles. He works for the NYT having taken over writing XWord Info: New York Times Crossword Answers and Insights
He also is a published author and a really fine humanbeing who seems to have lost his from the Seattle weather where he lives and works. Here is a snippet of his LIFE . You can go meet him at the ACPT coming up soon. Tell him I sent you. If you want to stalk him there is much more on the web.
Comment on KEVIN SPACEY I do not know the man but it was not his choice of partners that caused his downfall but his abuse of his position of power. There are times that the best place to hide is out in the open.
PS, Jeff's most recent LAT appearance were: January 20, 2022 collaboration with Michelle Kenny and February 12, 2022 with Chase Dittrich. I would expect to see an upcoming collaboration with one of our own...or not.
Totally in awe of this construction. Each theme answer was solid and had to work with and without the inserted AMA. I am no fan of the AMA. They have worked for many decades to block any kind of universal healthcare system as found in every civilized country. So much for "Do No Harm".
Hand up for NESTLE before NESTEA. And CHRISTMAS before CHRISTIAN. Once I got beyond those blocks I was pleased to FIR. DIORAMA is very well known to me. I remember having elementary school assignments to make one. Anyone else?
Delighted to see LUCIDITY! I have spent many years in LUCID Dreaming practice. And one of my favorite festivals is our LUCIDITY Festival. I have many thousands of photos there.
Instead, I will share this photo of me at Callender DUNEs in San Luis Obispo County north of here.
Very other-worldly in a place that is less than two hours from our home.
Irish Miss Yes, I have attended many a SEDER and I think I shared a photo recently.
From Yesterday:
Vidwan Thank you for taking the time to explain your concern about attending a peaceful rally at the ELLIPSE or anywhere else.
You can stop looking over your shoulder. First of all, most rallies, protests and demonstrations in the US are totally peaceful and no one is arrested. In general, the police would much prefer compliance than arrest when dealing with a large crowd. In my lifetime of such experiences, the police will almost always offer repeated warnings before anyone is arrested.
When I was a grad student at UCSB I attended a protest at the planned construction of a nuclear power plant on an earthquake fault. (What could possibly go wrong.) The police drew an actual line and said you would be arrested if you crossed that line. The crowd surged forward and I was pushed across the line. The police calmly said to step back across the line if we did not want to be arrested. No one was arrested who did not voluntarily choose to be arrested.
But, more to your point.
The short answer is that a naturalized citizen cannot be deported for breaking a law.
The only possible exception is if the naturalization itself was based on fraudulent information.
WC, my fill-up today was a 64 gallon top-off for $360. Won't know until tomorrow or Monday (don't remember if they settle every night, or only on banking evenings). I use plain-old truck diesel, because my engine is the same plain-old Caterpillar C7 engine installed in trucks, generators and earth-moving equipment.
I must be getting soft. I can't believe I've decided not to counter Picard's political bomb-toss about the wonderful benefits of socialized medicine.
I loved this puzzle, and I add my praise of Mr. Wechsler to what others have already offered. JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA gave me a big laugh. Good stuff.
Pat, I second your reaction to the Enquirer discontinuing the LA Times puzzle. Since I regularly solve online, it took me a day or two to notice. Still, I like to have the dead tree version as a backup when the internet isn't working.
Nothing in life is really just black or white. I can only offer the logic beyond not debating religion, politics, personal preferences and the like is that there are no right or wrong answers. A belief may be strong and eliminate any doubt for an indivdual or a group but not for all individuals or groups. Are they wrong for not believing as you do? No.
And Robert, while we appreciate your passion for people, health care too is not absolute even if a country has free and or universal health care. This "article" is an example while I do not give final answers for any law or medical questions. It is an ADVERTISEMENT but you can get the idea. I enjoy lively discussion and debate but not if someone has to win. IMO
Puzzling thoughts:
DNF as I completely ignored SEAS crossing ANEMIA
Lots of w/o’s too; too many to mention
Jason, an EXCELLENT recap! I completely missed the omissions of AMA to reveal more common names and phrases with the exception of JUSTICE FOR ALL. Glad to see a JW puzzle hit on your exact date so we didn’t have to switch. JW outdid himself today despite some different words (LOVAGE, ET AL)
No DST for us in AZ, thank god
Thanks Chris and good luck with next Friday's puzzle.
Hi All!
Late to the party but I wanted to thank JW for the neat-o puzzle and Lem for his excellent expo.
And, to let y'all know that Patti will be taking over the reins of the LAT.
Enjoyed reading y'all.
Cheers, -T
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