Puzzling thoughts:
FIR but with several spelling errors - and one major w/o: I put RAGE in 29-Down. Which was supposed to be WAGE (clued as: Carry on)
So how many of you "ran out of GAS" trying to figure this Bryant White puzzle? This Author/Cartoonist/Crossword Puzzle Constructor from British Columbia, Canada (CSO to CanadianEh!) must've taken a couple of Beano tablets before constructing this puzzle, as there was no GAS to be found anywhere ... at least in 6 of the entries to the puzzle.
How so you ask?
I don't normally place the reveal at the beginning of my recap, but today it makes more sense to.
34-Across. Incapacitating agent of pulp detective and sci-fi novels ... and a hint to solving this puzzle's starred clues: KNOCK OUT GAS.
First example:
17-Across. *Throw for a loop: FLABBER[GAS]T. So as (50-Across. Homer's bartender:) MOE was solving the puzzle, he realized after a few perps that 17 Across had to be "FLABBER" something, and once the reveal was sussed, the theme hit him. When you KNOCK OUT (remove) the word GAS from the starred clue answers, you're left with the "correct" answer for today's puzzle.
18-Across. *Traditional jack-o'-lantern sources in the British Isles: RUTABA[GAS]. Moe didn't know that RUTABAgas are British jack-o'-lantern sources, but he'd heard of the vegetable
As Moe likes to solve his puzzles from top left to bottom right, he next encountered two "down" entries:
24-Down. *Gourmet: [GAS]TRONOME. A GASTRONOME is a person who loves good food; a gourmet. There is a "science" attached to a gastronome and Moe puns it in the following haiku:
Gourmet loves to fart
Whilst studying the stars. That's
Called: GAStronomy
26-Down. *World's second-largest island country: MADA[GAS]CAR. The world's fourth-largest island in size is actually the second-largest island country, as New Guinea and Borneo are part of Indonesia. Greenland is the world's largest island country
But what about Australia, Moe? Isn't that larger than MADAGASCAR? Or Greenland? Well, technically, Australia is a continent though some refer to it as an "island continent"
52-Across. *Adele and Cher, e.g.: ME[GAS]TARS. MEGA STARS. Oddly, this one came to the Chairman almost as quickly as:
55. *Buffet variety: SMOR[GAS]BORD. By then, I had figured out the theme. One more haiku? OK!
Bryant White gave the
EPA a break, 'cause of
His GAS omissions
Across:
1. With 41-Across, "Cloud Shepherd" Dadaist: JEAN (41. See 1-Across:) ARP.
5. RR depot: STA. Why is it that when I want this answer to be STA, it's always STN? And vice-versa
8. Elbow grease: EFFORT. I have yet to use either of my elbows - other than to support my forearms when typing - to write the recaps.
FUN FACT: When Moe was in grade school the grading letters were: E as in excellent; G as in good; F as in fair; and P as in poor. So when I first heard the term "A for EFFORT" I was a bit perplexed
14. Hoosier: INDIANAN. Nope; sorry guys. I'm not a native Hoosier but I doubt that many of them call themselved INDIANANS
16. Storied restaurant: ALICE'S. How more often do we see the songwriter's name ARLO in puzzles than ALICE's? Impressive that he could recite this considering the amount of lyric
19. Worthlessness metaphor: FIG. As in "not worth a FIG"
20. "__ Weapon": LETHAL. Whatever happened to Mel Gibson?
22. 1921 robot play: RUR. Have any of our Cornerites ever seen this play?
23. Surfers' find: SITE. WAVE and FOAM fit, too, but this surfer travels on the internet
25. Warring son of Zeus and Hera: ARES. The God of War
26. __ Scarlett: MISS. MISS Scarlett, in the kitchen, with a knife. That's my guess. I never got bored by that board game
27. Only Canadian MLB city: TOR. Another CSO to CanadianEh!
28. Half-Betazoid sci-fi counselor: TROI. WAG for me. I am not a huge sci-fi fan but Margaret is. She introduced me to all of the Marvel movies
29. Draw to a close: WANE.
30. Four quarters: ONE. As in ONE dollar
32. Spanish inns: POSADAS. Needed ESP to solve this ONE. CSO to my Phoenix area neighbor, Lucinda
36. Illegal "Risky Business" business: BROTHEL. BROTHEL scene:
37. NRC forerunner: AEC. NRC = Nuclear Regulatory Commission; AEC = Atomic Energy Commission. Per the NRC website: the Federal agency (known as the AEC), which was created in 1946 to manage the development, use, and control of atomic (nuclear) energy for military and civilian applications. The AEC was subsequently abolished by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and succeeded by the Energy Research and Development Administration (now part of the U.S. Department of Energy) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
38. Avatar of Vishnu: RAMA. WAG #2. This is the only "RAMA" that Moe knows:
39. Blanket __: FORT. I wasn't expecting this one! My sister and I used to build a blanket FORT in the back of our parent's station wagon when we went on road trips back in the late '50's, early '60's
44. Copacetic: JAKE. Another video clip for your entertainment: "Do what I tell you, and everything will be JAKE"
The Sting (1973)
45. Nickname of NBA great Oscar Robertson: BIG O. Oscar Robertson's nickname. Played college ball at U of Cincinnati and then starred in the NBA for the Cincinnati Royals. The Cincinnati Royals was a professional basketball team in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Royals originated in Rochester, New York, but moved to Cincinnati in 1957 where the team played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1957 to 1972. Robertson eventually ended his career with the Milwaukee Bucks. For a couple of seasons, Robertson averaged a "triple-double", meaning he had a double-digit average in points, rebounds, and assists
46. Branch headquarters?: TREE. Nice play-on-words
48. Songlike: ARIOSE.
57. Flora and fauna of different regions: BIOTAS. A very infrequent visitor to crossword fill
58. Liqueur made with coffee beans: TIA MARIA. It is also a relative of Kahlua
59. Actress Dash: STACEY. Needed ESP to suss this one. This is she (or is it, this is her?):
60. Sun. delivery: SER. My mind first went to something to do with a newspaper, but landed on the abbreviation for SERmon
61. Hat-tipper's address: MA'AM. A palindrome. Maybe it should be said to women with the name EVE or ANNA, or (47-Across. Actress Gardner:) AVA
Down:
1. Wink: JIFF. JIFF is an abbreviation for JIFFY
2. Beat the draft?: ENLIST. Nice play-on-words. Back when MOE was eligible for the draft (Selective Services) he considered enlisting, but was in college at the time. Nixon called off the draft when MOE was a senior and he chose not to ENLIST
3. "Moonlight Sonata" opening movement, e.g.: ADAGIO. ADAGIO means "slow tempo", as Beethoven demonstrates in this iconic piece:
4. Penpoint: NIB. "the pointed end part of a pen, which distributes the ink on the writing surface"
5. Dagger of yore: SNEE. A bit of crossword-ese but a useful word; not used anymore outside of puzzles
6. Fish-and-chips sauce: TARTAR. "TARTAR sauce is a condiment made with mayonnaise, pickles, capers, lemon juice, and herbs. It's often served with seafood but can be a great addition to many other dishes, too." FUN FACT: MOE likes to use malt vinegar on his Fish-and-chips
7. Studiers of human ancestry: ANTHROPOLOGISTS. 15-letter fill words and/or phrases are always fun, especially when they fit so nicely into the middle of a puzzle
8. Viscounts' superiors: EARLS. According to Wikipedia dot com, "The ranks of the English peerage are, in descending order, Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron". So DUKES could also have fit this answer
9. Winter bug: FLU. With all of the news about COVID over the past two years, I wonder if anyone still gets the FLU? Of course they do; and perhaps, going forward, a COVID booster will be administered and/or given alongside a FLU shot to those who want that extra protection
10. Be the right size: FIT. We always hope that the answers we put into crossword puzzles FIT correctly
11. Panpipe relatives: OCARINAS. This:
12. Picture puzzles: REBUSES. I have to admit to a mistake I made in a comment on this past Sunday's puzzle. I thought that a REBUS puzzle contained a group of letters that when placed in a "down" position completed a phrase. I was wrong. According to Oxford Languages, "a REBUS is a puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters; for instance, apex might be represented by a picture of an ape followed by a letter X"
13. Winter Palace figures: TSARS. In St. Petersburg Russia. That's one big house!
15. Cutting the mustard: ABLE. The origin of this phrase
21. Vital quintet in English literature: AEIOU. Interesting clue for all 5 vowels
28. Georgia __: TECH. Here's a bad joke that C MOE heard, many moons ago:
At a dinner party a group of guys were discussing southern colleges. One fellow challenged another when he mentioned Georgia TECH. The fellow said, "Georgia TECH has only two attributes: they have great football players and prostitutes!" To which the other said, "Well it just so happens that my wife gradutated from Georgia TECH!" And just as quickly the fellow asked, "What position did she play?"
31. "__ bad idea": NOT A.
33. Runs or walks, e.g.: STAT. In Major League Baseball runs scored and walks issued are among many STATistics
34. Volcano in the Sunda Strait: KRAKATOA. Here is a clip of a 1960's movie called "KRAKATOA, East of Java"; which is a bit of a misnomer, as KRAKATOA is actually west of Java:
35. Russian milk drink: KEFIR. This was one of Moe's many misspellings; he had an "A" instead of an "E". KEFIR is not one of his favorite beverages, despite the health benefits. According to Healthline dot com: "Adding KEFIR to your diet can be an easy and delicious way to increase your intake of probiotics. However, drinking too much can have several side effects, including digestive issues. It also contains carbs and a small amount of alcohol, so it may not be suitable for everyone"
36. Go out into the storm, say: BRAVE IT. Folks here in AZ are told not to BRAVE IT when our Monsoon season produces a rainstorm, as the lack of permeable soil induces a lot of flash floods. Vehicles that attempt to cross over a flood-filled "wash" and get stuck can be fined
40. Dorm pal: ROOMIE. I had a ROOMIE in college that resembled Art Garfunkel
42. Ride-hitching fish: REMORA. These guys; I wonder if Malodorous Manatee ever had one of these "hangers-on"?
43. Everycity, USA: PEORIA. PEORIA, IL is well-known in the marketing industry as a place to test new products. "Will it play in Peoria?"
44. Door parts: JAMBS. KNOBS also fit; how about a haiku?
When Jim Morrison
And the Doors played, would they
Have a JAMB Session?
45. Very low: BASSY. Definitions dot net says: BASSY (adjective) Describing the reproduction of sound that overemphasizes low-frequency sounds"
46. __ paper: TERM. Many a college students' assignment
49. Skyrocket: SOAR. One more visit from our Thesaurussaurus
51. Red-wrapped cheese: EDAM. Another crossword staple
53. LAX tower service: ATC. Air Traffic Control
54. Issa of "Awkward Black Girl": RAE. Issa has taken the place of Martha when referring to the surname "RAE"
56. Emeril catchword: BAM.
And the grid:
Comments welcome
46 comments:
FIWrong. It's Friday. *sigh*.
Two cells wrong near center -- FORm + STAm; KEFoR + BoGO.
Cluster wrong in SW -- BASSo + AM_ + Rea +BIOmeS + STA_ao.
Got SMOR(GAS)BORD and RUTAB(EG)A (sic) but hadn't figured out the pattern yet when I read the reveal. With that, the other *ed clues quickly fell. Good gimmick even if I didn't get it.
CSOs to me at BIG-O (closest I ever got to a nickname) and POSADAS (I wrote a church play, "La Posada", for Christmas about 35 years ago. I'm told the minister posted it to a UU website, but never seen it.)
My wife will tell you she's a native INDIANAN
Says that her university team's FLABBERGASTIN'
The football linemen
Are great on the diamond,
The B-ball squad's unbeaten on the gridiron!
Humble roots are the rutabagas
They're not high rollers in Vegas.
At the SMORGASBORD
They're mostly ignored.
To GASTRONOMES, they lose in a fracas!
{B, B.}
Well, the great Subgenius finally got a FIW. I had no idea that "bassy" was a possible word and I also misspelled "Krakatoa" as Krakatoe" Oh, well, I guess you can't win 'em all
DNF. SW corner wouldn't fill. Didn't like "bassy" as the answer to "very low".
Good morning!
D-o lost the gunfight in Yuma. BIGO, ATC, METARS, BASSY (Merriam-Webster doesn't recognize it), and STACEY all were missing letters when I threw in the towel. Got the theme early on, but failed to "snap" to the fact that METARS was a themer. Bzzzzzt! Thanx for playing; enjoy your ceramic Dalmation parting gift. Thanx, Bryant. (Was this a debut?) Thanx for the tour, C-Moe. (Methinks Picard will take you to task for your "Marvel"ous comment.)
ENLIST: That's what I did. My deferment ended in March of my senior year, and by May I was ordered to report for a physical. After passing that, I enlisted in the Navy to avoid the Army. That was in those pre-draft-lottery days.
Alice's Restaurant: I played it once on American Forces Radio. Just once. Was ordered to never play it again. The Navy had no sense of humor.
Took just under 15, but I was really running out of gas in the bottom left corner (much like the others who have already posted). Had Basic before Bassy, but that didn't work. Spellcheck doesn't like Bassy either.
I appreciate the creativity, but felt the fill suffered as a result. Bassy, Kefir, Posadas, AEC, ATC, & Bassy (it bears repeating).
I know what a blanket fort is, but I don't care for that clue/answer.
This was a real challenge - but the gimmick was first sussed at the top with RUTABA which made the rest of the long fill easier. WEES about BASSY being meh- not helped by STACEY Dash being an unknown- I first had BASAL before preps required a change. Learning moment - for some reason I thought KEFIR was from India instead of Russia.
I first had Blanket form before perps required the change to FORT- Ours usually started with a blanket over a card table or dining room table - and then other blankets covering the chairs for the tunnels in and out - it's been awhile since I could have crawled through the legs of a table!
Thanks CMoe and Bryant
Fln, -T, 'Swave' and deboner?
The pop-cul Natick in the SW ensured there'd be no FIR for Wilbur* today. I solved yesterday and just gave it another look and realized if MADA(gas)KAR was a down then there must be another and voila: (gas)TRONOME.
I wonder if there were FIRs without the GAS gimmick grok'ed? I was slow on the voila, myself, fe. I originally had Malaysia for the island.
Let's see what C-Moe has to say
LETHAL,ARES and TROI* were three solids which effectively anchored ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Oops, genuine FIW with AEC/k.
Anyone remember this RAMA
BIGO was a college MEGASTAR. NBA Vignette: The Rochester Royals passed on Bill Russell because of a bribe from the Celtics- 3 Ice Capade dates. They chose Sihugo Green
C-Moe, I disagree with OED on Rebus(re. Xwords)
I just reread Anna K and "The Idiot" so KEFIR was familiar
Now I see. ATC was the key but I tried BASSe/o; never thought Y(hi KS). I tried STACie which finally left me with Rei/RAE. And finally BIO??AS. ie. A mess.
Owen, how about
"GASTRONOMES eschew them en masse"
(Got a link for the POSADA Play?)
WC
* Did you know yesterday was "Speak in the 3rd person day"?
** CSO to Picard (WC for IM)
Hand up for BASSo. Blanket FORT took a while to remember.
Knew TROI from Star Trek TNG, not from Marvel.
Moe, Martha RAyE is spelled differently, but Issa is a clueing alternative to Charlotte RAE.
Puzzling thoughts 2:
billocohoes: thanks for the correction on the RAE I wanted; also, TROI (for me anyway) was an unknown. I lumped him/her with the with the Marvel characters as I categorize all of that as “Science Fiction”. I’m sure someone will set me straight!! 😜
FIW Friday, but only one wrong square so I will count that as a win since I had so many questionables! My downfall was not thinking of the person gourmet so I put (gas)TRONOMy. I wondered about JAKy. I easily got the theme trick with RUTABA(gas), Hi, inanehiker! Themers at 17A and 52A were much harder to see for me. And the NW and SW corners were slow to fill. But it all was a worthwhile EFFORT. Thanks, Bryant. We've seen you before, I think.
Thanks, C Moe, for clarifying my remaining questions. I had the wrong surfer in mind and didn't see the real connection with SITE, though I put it in after erasing wave. DO, my DH also ENLISTed around the same time for the same reason. WEES about BASSY but STACEY seemed right.
FLN I was happy to see your posts, AnonT. Hope things are easing up for you.
TGIF, everyone!
Good Morning:
I liked the theme which I caught onto early, at Rutaba(gas), I think. My favorites were (Gas)tronome and Mada(gas)car. I also liked a lot of the cluing but Bassy was a clunker, IMO. I needed perps for Posadas, Krakatoa, Kefir, and Remora, which I know but can never remember. Also liked Effort/Fort, Gastronome/Smorgasbord, and Tor/Troi. CSO to CanadianEh (Tor) and Moe (Moe). Wilbur took care of Picard (Troi) which I appreciate because I didn’t know if Troi was a Star Wars or Star Trek character.
Thanks, Bryant, for a fresh and clever theme and thanks, Moe, for the informative expo and the many links, especially Moonlight Sonata. Liked you Moe-kus, also.
FLN, Anon T, in all fairness, the nurses weren’t at fault yesterday, my poor veins were. They are Certified Oncology Nurses and, as you can imagine, are extremely proficient putting IVs in. They both found what looked like “good” veins but the veins wouldn’t cooperate. Three different nurses, counting last week and yesterday, made the same frustrating attempts and finally succeeded. As far as Star Wars and Star Trek getting lumped together, if you asked me, I would have said they were both in the Science Fiction genre. And, as mentioned above, my knowledge of the characters is practically zero. Apologies to you and Picard. 🤭
Chairman Moe, if CED ever decides to abdicate his Imp throne, you will definitely be crowned as his successor, although you might have to share it with Ray O! You both certainly have impressive Impish credentials. 🤣
Have a great day.
Good morning all. I was stalled in the NW not knowing JEAN or FIG. But INDIANAN, NIB,SNEE, TARTAR & ADAGIO were gimmes. ANTHROPOLOGISTS was a correct guess; so when I saw AGGERT I couldn't think of any word and figured something would be missing. As the Rolling Stones sang, "It's a GAS, GAS, GAS". RUTABA confirmed it. But it took an EFFORT to FIR. KEFIR, POSADAS, STACEY, BASSY, RAMA, BROTHELS- unknowns filled by perps.
Not worth a FIG is something I've only seen in crossword puzzles. I usually it's "not worth a damn."
KNOCK OUT GAS, aka ether. And you get to vomit when you wake up.
BASSY- is that a real word? I only got it because the crossing STACEO or STACEI didn't look like a real female name.
REMORA- filled an never saw the clue until I read Moe's write up. Happens a lot when the perps are solid.
20. "__ Weapon": LETHAL. Whatever happened to Mel Gibson? The liberal Hollywood PC crowd turned against him but he made an absolute fortune with The Passion of the Christ. Net Worth is over half a BILLION dollars.
This was a challenge but, eventually, FIR after sussing out the theme before I ran out of gas.
I had read Krakatoa - The Day the World Exploded soon after it was published so I knew about the "East of Java" Hollywood malarkey even before reading Ch. Moe's superb recap. The book argues for the eruption being the first true global event not only because the explosion was felt over ten percent of the world's surface, but also due to mankind's (then) recently developed ability to spread the news world wide in a matter of days. It also discusses how the event was used by certain religious leaders to advance their agendas (agendae?). Recommended.
I did also know about Remoras (thanks for the CSO) probably from visits to aquariums (aquaria?).
FLN
Thanks Jayce for the info on Marian Anderson's triumph over societal racism, only to fall victim to racism within the musical world. This is much less a problem today as witnessed by MEGASTARS like Kathleen Battle, Leontyne Price, and Pretty Yende, although the latter experienced a racist incident in a Paris airport in June of 2021. Here is one of my favorite performances by Price from Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs.
Re my axe toting grandson, here's a clip of him in action taken by his father as he was demonstrating to some students. Be sure to turn up the audio before you start it. Oh and this proud grandfather exaggerated a bit - it was 27, not 50 paces.
TODAY'S PUZZLE.
Thank you very much Bryant for DEFLATING your puzzle but not my ego. I was fooled by FLABBERT, but I know my vegetables and it was clear that RUTABA was incomplete so I went looking for the reveal. As I fill using the SFFLHF method ("searching first for low hanging fruit") I already had enough perps to SWAG "KNOCKOUT GAS". After that I was able to pump up any obviously deflated fill.
Thank you MOE for another great review. This one really CUT THE MUSTARD. Favorite bling was "Alice's Restaurant", that great anthem of the Vietnam era. Lucky for ARLO he didn't have to serve as he had been arrested for "failure to pick up the garbage". My salvation was getting a 327 in Nixon's lottery gambit. Had I gotten a low number I'd have ENLISTED, and with my luck wouldn't be writing this.
Some other favs:
22A RUR. I recall blogging this play this past December. I've never seen R.U.R., but here's a trailer from a performance by the University of South Florida on the 101st anniversary of the play.
32A POSADAS. There is a Catholic rite, a skit actually, called "The Posada" that is celebrated in many Spanish parishes in December. It commemorates Joseph and Mary finding "No Room at the Inn" as they arrived in Bethlehem and searched from place to place looking for somewhere that she could give birth to Jesus. I have fond memories of Sister Josefina leading a procession outside a monastery I used to visit, accompanying the story with a guitar as we were turned away from each window we knocked on.
59A STACEY. Looks like a she to me.
6D TARTAR. My Mom like her "chips" (also called "Freedom Fries" in the "W" era) with vinegar, a taste I inherited from her apparently.
21D AEIOU. It turns out that there is a cottage industry that tracks down and catalogues words and phrases with these letters, preferably in alphabetical order. And the list keeps growing.
Cheers,
Bill
Word of the Day confelicity
Pronunciation: kahn-fê-lis-ê-ti
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Pleasure in someone else's happiness.
Notes: Here is a much better antonym for schadenfreude than firgun. It hasn't made it into many dictionaries yet, but its adjectival form should be confelicitous. Let's spread it around at this particularly insecure time.
In Play: Today's word seems to be having difficulty finding its way into the English vocabulary: "The news that Tristan Farnon had passed his final exams was met with confelicity in everyone who knew him in Darrowby." Still, it is perfectly formed, so it is a perfectly good member of that delightful congress: "When Gladys Friday joyously announced to the office staff that she had found another job elsewhere, a sense of confelicity spread through everyone."
Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from Old French felicite "happiness" (Modern French félicité), a reduction of Latin felicitas "happiness; fertility", the noun for felix ([felik-s]) "happy, fortunate, fruitful".
For more info see Word of the Day
Bill's comment: I'd have to call "confelicity" a major characteristic of Cornerites.
I was cooking with gas with RUTABA(gas) which helped what would have otherwise been a confusing fill: FLABBER(gas)T. But alas or should I say ALICE, I DNF.😒. I ran out of gas (C Moe) in the SW corner.
Inkovers/not correcteds: sou/FIG , wave/SITE , biomes/ BIOTAS , rage/WAGE, basso/BASSY (meh), fort/FORT. I don't care for rebuses (rebi?) particularly the ones that require more than one letter per box like the Sunday NYT has wont to do.🙄
I've heard of KNOCKOUT drops in pulp detective novels but not GAS. (maybe in pulp dentist novels?). "Incapacitating agent" was not a
Mickey Finn
SMOR(gas)BORD. ..depends... can give, not take away "gas". BAM, chef La GASse catchword. Now I know why Aunt Mary gets drunk after morning coffee. REMORA: dontcha put that in coffee too?
Some unknown names...actress Dash, Issa, NBA nickname, half betazoid counselor..
After Columbus got a city in Ohio named for him he continued westward and thought he finally made it to India, calling the natives INDIANANS 😆
JAKE known only from prior puzzles. Have cousins that live in Peoria, the one in Arizona. "Branch headquarters" TREE, clever, threw me without perps .."Dagger of Eyore"? He carried a SNEE?...what?...oh...never mind
Got as far as ANTHROPOLOG... with blanks to spare cuz it took me most of the puzzle to finally read "studiers" not "studies" 😲
Front legs...FOURQUARTERS
Emeril is short: a ____ ... (GAS)TRONOME
PBJ: JIFF with jellies or ____ ...JAMBS.
When repeated Barney's boy....BAM
Spacious...ROOMIE
What Henry Ford did.... MADA(GAS)CAR
Living ___ .. WAGE
Enjoy the weekend. Time to refill the birdfeeder.🐦
Stupid
Ray-O - FLN - all the videos are archived on You Tube is you want to start Dante now - my son just started a few weeks ago with a group of friends after hearing his dad talk about it the last few months
yesterday was crazy day - so just now did your Golden Girls puzzle - really enjoyed it!
IM @ 9:04
Glad to hear your iron infusion went well. Make sure you stay out of the rain for at least a week to avoid
Rust
And keep away from Magnets.
😆
I'm bored waiting for the appliance repair man ("we'll be there sometime between 12 and 3") so I might as well annoy you all a bit more. 😁
1. Just finished Wordle in 2, the first time!! 😊
2. Blanket Fort.
My younger brother and always made blanket forts in our bed. Turned into a pillow fight once . I missed him and the pillow flew into a statue of Mary on our dresser. Fell over and broke clean at the shoulders. Choice, go to Hell or worse...tell Mom. I put the top piece back on with the crack barely showing.
Mom apologized a week later. "I don't know what happened, I was cleaning your room, dusting the statue of the Blessed Mother when it broke in my hand, Dad glued it back together. I waited till I was old enough not to get whallopped to fess up.🤭
I often skip Friday puzzles, but this one was fun--many thanks, Bryant. And enjoyed your write-up, Moe.
Got both INDIANAN and ALICE's restaurant--a great start.
Then got stumped with FLABBER----what! There should be four more letters!
Took a while before I got RUTABA----and then finally figured out that the GAS would be the recurring theme. Very clever and funny.
My favorite clue was "Branch headquarters." Oh, that kind of a branch, on a TREE.
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
I usually hate CWs that subtract letters from the answers, because w/o the letters the fill makes no sense, making me sure it MUST be wrong. Today however I guessed the theme with the second theme fill RUTABA(gas) which was a huge help in getting to FIR. I am not gonna mention the time required, it’s embarrassingly long. I’ve never really understood how some islands are called islands and some are called continents. Australia looks like a big island, to me. I wanted NewZealand for second biggest island nation but it wouldn’t fit. How is Europe a separate continent from Asia? They are the same land mass! So MADAGASCAR took several perps to suss. Miss Scarlet I thought of GWTW. Moonlight Sonata is a longtime favorite of mine. I tried to learn how to play the piano by learning Moonlight Sonata as a kid. Not the best pick for a beginner, but I loved it, so tried. I never got all the way through it. As others said, BASSY was meh. I didn’t know what ATC could stand for, but it is what perped in, so it stayed, and turned out to be correct, as ‘splained by CMoe. Overall, a long, tough, but doable Friday, thanx, BW. And thanx too to CMoe for his outstanding write-up. You really had me today, so many interesting things in your write-up, I got an hour of entertainment just going through it. Thanx again.
I would have preferred the answer to very low
to be Nadir, rather than Bassy...
Lessee,
what possible images could I conjure up for
knock out gas? Just imagine the image possibilities...
And blanket (blank) could have been anything...
I mean, saying "blanket blank" is really giving carte blanche ...
Here is 4:24 minutes of silliness in Shamy's Fort!
DNF, giving up and Googling panpipe, ARIOSE and KRAKATOA. There is a mountain in Triganastan called "sohcahtoa".
I thought KEFIR was the guy who played Jack Bauer.
When the Pointy-Haired Boss retired and Dilbert got promoted to the position, all the engineers started calling him "FLABBERT".
If you are in the area of the Georgia TECH campus, it is mandatory to visit The Varsity, a great greasy-spoon eatery. They have opened in a few other locations, but the atmosphere just isn't the same.
Thanks, I think, to Bryant for this bear of a puzzle. And thanks to C-Moe for the fun tour.
Thank you all for the shout outs and kind words yesterday and today.
Got the GAS theme with MadaGAScar. Hand up that SW Natick/mess of BASSY, RAE, STACEY was a challenge. Lucky WAGs to FIR
Yes, TROI is the counselor to PICARD. She has a special kind of ESP that reveals the emotions of other beings. Very handy!
The Ramayana celebrates the life of RAMA in Hindu culture.
Here I was among a privileged few who posed with RAMAyana performers in Indonesia after this epic performance.
We visited the church in Stockbridge where ALICE's Restaurant took place. Can't find any photos of the church.
PT3:
unclefred, you're most welcome!
Jinx - I have been to the Varsity adjacent to the GT campus. Probably would've been a lot more fun had I been a student (or in my 20's/30's) and in need of a good cleanse due to too many beers or other libations. I recall a very long wait and food that was "meh". If I am not mistaken they closed their location in Athens, GA. The location was not the best (too far from campus) and I'm pretty sure the pandemic sealed its fate
IM - CED is our resident imp; I'm our resident stooge!! BTW, looking forward to solving your puzzle tomorrow (oops! Spoiler alert!!!)
In response to Chrmn Moe's call, my mitt is raised.
I did not complete today's PZL on my own. It was a hard nut to crack, esp. because I (along with Ray - o - Sunshine) have never heard of KNOCK-OUT GAS. On the rare occasions when it may have appeared in old movies, it was simply "ether."
I am sure the descriptive "KNOCK-OUT" was reserved entirely for "drops."
I doubt I would have lucked into the theme fills if I had not filled SMOR'BORD entirely through perps.
And there is nothing to report on the D.R. today, as the grid pattern prevents diagonals.
Maybe tomorrow, anagram fans!
~ OMK
Musings
-Just back from a funeral (daughter of a childhood friend). I was on the fence as to whether to go or not but am so glad I did.
-I really loved this puzzle and thought it had everything a new solver would hate.
-BASSY/BASIC/BASAL coupled with RAE and STACEY left me with two bad cells
-I fretted over TRONOME before I realized it was a gimmick fill!!
-KNOCKOUT GAS reminded me of how the Lone Ranger never killed anyone but just shot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand
-I first encountered TIA MARIA in last Saturday’s puzzle
-In Swing On A Star Frank Sinatra, “But if you don't care a feather or a FIG, You may grow up to be a pig”
-The OCARINA supplies a haunting passage in the theme from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
-Nice job, Moe!
I remember using a blanket to make a hiding place, but never called it a FORT.
It was a *#@! TENT, for goodness' sake!
A FORT was made of upright timbers with sharp pointy tops. It had a swivel gate, with guards posted on duty. And flags.
We used a blanket not just for a tent, but to serve as a tunnel and (closer to its real function) a sleeping bag.
I think we once called it a space ship, but we knew we were stretching. (And would never, ever inflict that on future cruciverbalists.)
What is this nonsense about it becoming a FORT?!
~ OMK
Oh yes! And a "Tepee" at times...
~ OMK
And for that matter, isn't KNOCKOUT GAS the result of Angelina Jolie breaking wind?
Absolutely, Jinx!
It's a gas! Gas! Gas!!
~ OMK
Whew, what a struggle. RUTABA was the first themer I figured out. Hand up for wrinkling my nose just a little bit at BASSY, even though I have read reviews of and have listened to hi-fi speakers that sound very "bassy." I don't think I have ever used the word "trebly" though.
There are some videos on YouTube of my favorite Ukrainian-born pianist, Valentina Lisitsa, playing the "Moonlight" Sonata.
I sure do like reading all of your comments, folks. Good wishes to you all.
OMK @ 3:07
You are correct, 'tis more of a tent, but ours was surrounded by protective pillows thus by military standards somewhat fort-like, which could be converted to assault weapons at a moments notice. (I described the unfortunate collateral damage) The bed itself ringed by a crocodile-infested moat.🐊🐊🐊
The built in microwave needs a $30 part that will take a week (by Covid time standards that is infinitesimal) to get here. The service call to tell me that..$160. 🙄
Confelicity seems to be the opposite of schadenfreude. A good addition to the lexicon. Thanks.
Ray O', IIRC, the Firesign Theater recorded an album titled "Waiting for the Appliance Repairman (electrician) Or Someone Like Him".
Flabberting Friday. Thanks for the fun, Bryant and CMoe.
Officially a DNF and FIW, since I took three Google visits (KRAKATOA! really!) and still messed up the SW corner.
But I did eventually see the theme with SMORBORD, and went back to complete the other themers.
But my LAX tower service was ETA, and I could not parse METERS properly to insert GAS. How could Cher and Adele be GAS METERS (and besides, a Canadian like Bryant would know that Adele would be a Metre!
Thanks to CMoe for clearing that up. Sheesh!
Ok, I’ll take a CSO with TOR. Bryant is on the other side of the country, and I am not sure if he realizes his “inside joke”. Native Torontonians (as opposed to INDIANANs) pronounce it as Tron-o. I smiled broadly to see TOR crossing TRONOME (a Toronto lover) with TROI sitting adjacent to reinforce the pronunciation.
I had Nest before TREE. Right idea.
I had Baser which gave me the AE plural for BIOTA. STACEY was unknown so that area remains an inkblot.
Wishing you all a great day.
Got the theme, but too many Naticks for me. Rare Friday DNF.
OMK @ 3:40..Besides "Grazing in the Grass"
One of my favorite instrumental pieces is an apt theme for this puzzle 🎸
Ray - O @6:17 Thx for that ROS. I'm FLABBERTED by that GAS from the past. Wow,1968!
Too many names,words I never heard before irl and gibberish theme answers. Tossed it.
Loved this theme. It helped the solve. I had three red !etters. Still a lot of fun. Enjoyed the expo.
I had many nits about the nits.Thumper for the nits. No other comment.
We had a Mardi Gras social today. Decorations, beads, music, jambalaya and hurricane cocktails.
Just found out that WaPo is running special Wednesday puzzles (apart from the LAT daily) for Women's History Month. This week's puzzle is from CC. Check it out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/crossword-puzzles/womens-history-month-crosswords/
I’ve had DNFs before, but I’ve never had one like this one! I counted 182 blank white squares in the grid, and Chairman Moe was kind enough to fill in 48 of them for me. (If I miscounted, T. S. Eliot!) What a disaster!
Luckily, I had to work today, and luckily, we were moderately busy, and luckily, I didn’t have to stare at this one ALL day, but it took up enough of my time. I simply never could figure out the shtick, so I was most definitely OUT OF GAS.
Thanks (I think) Bryant White, and thanks (for sure) Moe for filling in all my empty squares!
Actually, I found ANTHROPOLOGISTS quickly, and I thought that was going to give me the boost I needed, but no joy.
-T --- FLN: Actually, I’m not too fond of the chicken ones either. I’m more a beef and/or pork kinda guy with my Mexican food.
We’re still hanging in there at the museum. In fact, this week was the first since Covid that we have been open our normal six days a week, closing only on Monday. Admissions have been increasing bit by bit, and our open house events on the third Saturday of each month have been GREAT! We also did really well with our events (weddings and holiday parties) during Q4. Since I work most of the events too, there were many times when I didn’t get home until around 0200. We’re looking for another raffle plane; the one we had lined up couldn’t be made airworthy.
Thanks for asking!
Could have been a fairer puzzle. Some big stretches in the clues and answers.
Rex Parker would have gone wild with this one.
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