32-Across. Neighborhood social events ... and what the four sets of circles
are?: BLOCK PARTIES. Notice that the circles form "blocks" and the letters in the
blocks spell out a type of Party:
FÊTE: A fête is an elaborate festival, party or celebration. The
English is borrowed from the Medieval
Latin festus via the French fête,
meaning holiday or party.
BASH: A bash is a party or celebration, especially a large one held by an
official organization or attended by famous people. Origin of the Bash.
GALA: A social occasion with special entertainments or performances.
The word comes to use from the French, which is derived from
either Italian gala, or Spanish gala, both meaning festive occasion.
BALL: A formal dancing party. The ball derives from the Latin
word ballare, which means to dance.
This was an appropriate puzzle for this week. The big Saint
Patrick's Parade was this past weekend. I live near the end of the
parade route so there were big BLOCK PARTIES all over my neighborhood. It's also the beginning of
crawfish season, crawfish was served at many of these parties, along
with lots of music and adult beverages.
16. "__ I Would Leave You": "Camelot" song: IF EVER. So
many musicals are making a come-back. I
wonder Camelot will make a revival.
17. One-named singer with the 2002 #1 hit
"Foolish": ASHANTI.
18. Took the loss: ATE IT.
19. Movie critic Roger: EBERT. Roger Ebert (né Robert
Joseph Ebert; June 18, 1942 ~ Apr. 4, 2013) and Gene Siskel (né Eugene
Kal Sikkel; Jan. 26, 1946 ~ Feb. 20, 1999) hosted At the Movies together for several years.
Ebert and Sickle
20. Remarkable things, in old slang: GASSERS. It also
appears to be a term for a style of drag race car.
22. Liam who played Schindler: NEESON. In the movie,
Schindler's List, Lima Neeson portrayed a version of the German
industrialist Oskar Schindler. Schindler was a very complicated man.
26. Runs scored on a solo homer: ONE. No one on base when
the batter scores a homer. // And 10-Down. Baseball's home
__: PLATE.
27. Implied: TACIT.
29. Barn bale: HAY.
30. Singer Shore whose name is associated with a major LPGA golf
tournament: DINAH.
31. Miso soup cube: TOFU. Yummers!
36. Putin's refusal: NYET. Could also be classified under
Current Events. Enough Said.
39. Quarterback Favre: BRETT. Brett Lorenzo Fabre (b. Oct.
10, 1969) was named MVP three times in the mid-1990s.
40. "Doubt it": NAH!
43. Impediment for Moses: RED SEA. Moses may also have had
a speech impediment.
46. Golfer's appointment: TEE TIME.
48. San __: San Francisco Bay city: MATEO.
50. Steel support for concrete: REBAR.
51. Against the law: ILLEGAL.
54. Opera with Desdemona: OTELLO.
55. Spanish rice dishes: PAELLAS. Yummers. There is
a Spanish restaurant not far from my house that serves fabulous Paella.
You have to either order it before you go to the restaurant, or have
lots of tapas while you wait for it to be made, but it is well worth the
wait.
56. Very tired: DONE IN.
57. City west of Dallas: ABILENE. Quite a bit west of
Dallas.
58. Names of four of them begin with "New": STATES. I have
lived on 3 of the 4 "NEW" states.
Down: 1. Italian cheese: ASIAGO.
Yummers!
2. Beach robe: CAFTAN.
3. John of Monty Python: CLEESE. John Marwood Cleese (b.
Oct. 27, 1939) is one of the four surviving members of the original Pythons.
4. Rock 'n' roller dubbed "The King": ELVIS.
5. Like lo-cal regimens, e.g.: DIETETIC.
6.
Shakespeare's "always": E'ER.
7. Swedish
auto: SAAB. Saab ceased its car operations in 2016.
8. Not in
class today: ABSENT.
9. Skiing champ Phil or Steve: MAHRE. Phillip Ferdinand
Mahre (b. May 10, 1957) and his twin brother, Steven Irving Mahre (b. May
10, 1957), both competed in the Olympics.
11. Chaney of horror: LON. Lon Chaney (né Leonidas Frank
Chaney; Apr. 1, 1883 ~ Aug. 26, 1930) was known as the Man of a Thousand
Faces for his ability to transform himself into the images of horror for
many silent films. Sadly, he died at age 47. His son, Lon
Chaney, Jr. (né Creighton Tull Chaney; Feb. 10, 1906 ~ July 12, 1973), was
also an actor who portrayed creatures in horror films.
Lon Chaney, Sr.
12. Tolkien talking tree: ENT. Creatures from Lord of the Rings.
13. Opus __: "The Da Vinci Code" sect: DEI.
19. Prison break fugitive, e.g.: ESCAPER.
21. Corporal or private: RANK.
23. Pump or boot: SHOE.
24. Klutzes: OAFS.
25. Manhattan sch.: NYU.
28. "No choice for me": I HAVE TO.
30. URL speck: DOT.
31. __ Woodman: Oz traveler: TIN.
32. Memory unit: BYTE. Computer memory, not human memory.
33. Show the way: LEAD.
34. Baptism or
bris: RITE.
35. Ore-Ida morsel: TATER TOT.
Yummers!
36. "All Things Considered" airer: NPR. Terry Gross (b.
Feb. 14, 1951) is the host of All Things Considered, which is
aired on National Public Radio.
39. 1942 Philippine battle site: BATAAN. The Battle of
Bataan was fought between January and April 1949 by the United States against
Japan during World War II.
40. Corn kernel: NIBLET.
41. Charlotte __: U.S. Virgin Islands capital: AMALIE.
The city of Charlotte Amalie is named in honor of Charlotte Amalie of
Hesse-Kassel (Apr. 27, 1650 ~ Mar. 27, 1714), Queen consort and wife of
Christian V, King of Denmark.
42. Cousins of storks: HERONS. They are beautiful
birds.
44. Bloodhounds follow it: SMELL.
45. Two under
par: EAGLE.
47. "Lovergirl" singer __ Marie: TEENA. Teena Marie (née
Mary Christine Brocket; Mar. 5, 1956 ~ Dec. 26, 2010), sadly died young.
49. "Who __ is coming?": ELSE.
51. Hoppy brew letters: IPA. As in India Pale Ale. This has become a crossword staple.
52. Research site: LAB.
53. Floral ring: LEI.
54. Some ER cases: ODs. A drug OverDose might cause one to go to the Emergency Room.
חתולה
Notes from C.C.:
Happy 81st birthday to Pat (PK on our blog)! So glad to see you back on the blog. Hi CrossEyedDave, your cake still looks stunning to me!
FIR but took 20 minutes. Started right off at 1A with ACCEED, a boneheaded pre-coffee misspelling that buggered up the NW for just a bit. My first thought was FEET for the theme, but BASH corrected that, and made 32A obvious. I remember Dinah Shore singing, “See the USA, in your Chevrolet…” back in the day when we had three channels to choose from. Nice CW, thanx, ADK. A perfect Tuesday level that should not have taken me 20 minutes. Thanx for the nice write-up, Hahtoolah, it was yummers.
FIR, barely. At the last minute I thought about nieson x mahri, and changed the "i" to an E. I knew Liam, but wasn't sure about the last name. And the only skiing I care about requires an outboard motor. Why on earth would someone ski when the water is ice cold?
GASSERS is also an informal category of motor homes. Ours is a diesel pusher (DP). A growing category is FRED, for FRont-Engine Diesel.
ODS are more frequently DOA these days. This fentanyl crisis is real. This stuff is so awful that people providing CPR have ODed from contact.
I used to know a survivor of the BATAAN death march. He was married to our sixth grade teacher, and was the audio-visual tech, or more accurately the projectionist, at our K-12 school. (At least I didn't write "elhi".) He had a kind of vacant look and manner. No one talked about PTSD then, but he certainly had it.
Happy birthday to our dear PK. I like the way you think!
Thanks to Alan for the fun grid. And thanks to Hahtoolah for another visual treat.
Stumbled here and there with ScEnt/SMELL and ESCAPEe/ESCAPER. But d-o completely turfed it when he kicked the H out, and wound up with ASSANTI/MASRE. Bzzzzzt. Thanx for the outing, Alan, and for the always-well-illustrated expo, Hahtoolah. (I only know of Terry Gross from NPR's Fresh Air.)
MATEO : Gimme. Older sister lived there back in the '50s.
Have a meet/greet with the oral surgeon this morning. He'll confirm that my tooth should come out. Then I'll have to make another appt for it to be removed. This has gotta be the most protracted extraction ever. A string tied to the bathroom door would be quicker...and considerably cheaper.
Happy birthday, PK. I always enjoy hearing of your exploits out there on the prairie.
DNF. But it's only Tuesday! I had a natick at two unknown names crossing: MAhRE + AShANTI.
Theme -- the first one I got was FEET, so I figured the theme was words to go with BLOCK. Square feet, wooden BALL, but the other two were enigmas. After staring at them a while, I finaly got the Z pattern instead of the conventional O. That was the hard part, not even hinted at in the reveal! The reveal was a red herring!
Nice steady fill for a Tuesday - the BLOCKS with PARTIES helped move the solve along.
I remember DINAH Shore from her variety show and for her relationship with Burt Reynolds - back in the day it was very unusual to have an older woman with a younger man. I don't think they even had the word "Cougar" in the vernacular.
Thanks Susan for the always entertaining write-up with amusing cartoons. Enjoyed the link to "IF EVER I would leave you" from Camelot. I remember seeing the movie for the first time sometime in elementary school and was very confused (and naive) about a queen who seemed to love her husband early in the movie but then ended up in an affair with Lancelot. But I loved the songs of that musical. Thanks to Alan! And HBD to PK
I forgot to mention: The books/articles I have read about the BATAAN death march described a horrific time- not surprised that anyone who survived had PTSD. I read a historical fiction book set at that time which was good "Along the Broken Bay" by Flora Solomon which was about ex-pat American families who were living in Manila during the invasion by Japan and what they had to do to survive (or not)
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Alan and Hahtoolah. This was a workout for me and I FIWed, but I did get the theme. I had several almost-Natick crosses that required me to WAG the vowel. Is it DEo or DEI, Amelie or AMALIE, Teana or TEENA? Perps finally decided them all. But I misspelled SAAB with a U giving me USHANTI, and I had a L instead of T in the cross of MATEO and BATAAN. I did know NEESON.
Hand up for Scent before SMELL, and Escapee before ESCAPER (meh!). Potatoes changed to TATERTOT, Nein to NYET (Russian not German). I noted ABALONE and ABILENE, E’ER crossing IF EVER.
I’m DONE IN. More coffee needed. Happy Birthday PK!
A Tuesday FIR, actually helped by the circles confirming the H in ASHANTI. No complaints about circles from me! They can be misleading though, as unclefred and OwenKL said. I too saw FEET at first. In general a smooth solve with minor WOs. Thanks, Alan.
Hahtoolah, you did it again. An informative and humorous review to start our day. Thanks!
A very Happy Birthday to PK today and a good day to all.
OMG, as AtlGranny pointed out, there were circles! Guess who had 'em, but didn't look at 'em? Guess who forgot to look for a theme? Guess who's going to have to start looking at 'em? Yup, mea culpa.
Musings -TEE TIME? After many lovely days, we are having 35F, high winds and a rain/snow combination. -This much-needed rain will help make a lot of HAY this summer -ASHANTI and AMALIE worked themselves out as did ESCAPE R(E) and S CENT(MELL) -Players with fewest RBI for differing amounts of homeruns -SIRI just told me the average home price in San MATEO is $770,000 -ABILENE - George Hamilton IV’s first and only #1 song. -Music today is too diversified for there ever to be another ELVIS -My old hearing aid is done dealing and so I HAVE TO get a new one. My audiologist wants $4,800 for the very same model I can get for $2,000 online. -People who were alive during Pearl Harbor and the BATAAN Death March are much more likely to express support for the use of the nuclear bomb on Japan in 1945 -Kansas is the home of that TIN MAN and our birthday girl, PK!
This was a cute theme with a perfect reveal but I so wish for less obvious placement. Getting the reveal answer with half of the grid to be filled is disappointing, at least to me. That said, the solve was quick and fun with only two stumbles, Scent/Smell and Escapee/Escaper (Hi, DO and CEh). Escaper and Gassers were clunkers, IMO. We had lots of fun duos with Tee Time/Eagle, Abalone/Abilene, Byte/Rite, NYU/Nyet, and Herons/Eagle. Lots of CSOs, as well: Tofu (CC), All Teachers (PTA), Paellas (Lucina), Tin (Tin), Byte (All Nerds 😉), Asiago (Ray O and Anon T), and San Mateo (California Contingent).
Thanks, Alan, I enjoyed the party and thanks, Hahtoolah, for brightening my day. I think the Cat/Shampoo Bottle might be a contender for the Cat Cartoon HOF! I got the sense that you were hungry when you did this write-up as there were more Yummers than usual! 🤣
Happy Birthday, PK, hope you have a special day. 🎂🎉🎈🎊🎁 So glad you’re back on the blog!
It wasn't the reveal, but the circles that gave away the theme to me. FETE and BASH/ Let's Party! CLEESE and ONE were the most difficult. DUH, a solo homer is ONE RUN with nobody on the bases. GASSER, Jinx, no wonder an RV is called a gasser, with all the fuel it takes. ESCAPEE before ESCAPER. I suppose Brett's name was mispronounced so frequently he just gave up and called himself FARVE instead of FAVRE, but he kept the original spelling. The same with the composer, HANDEL. Everyone was was calling him HANDLE, although German does not have that A sound. After a time, he called himself HANDLE, but kept the original spelling. I knew of ASHANTI as a tribe and that an entertainer had the same name. "Ashanti also known as Asante, are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Twi is spoken by over nine million Ashanti people as a first or second language." Have a wonderful birthday, PK. I am so glad you are back.
Dizzy and weak, but functioning better now. Glad the fever is gone.
I had some doubt if I had everything right today. Paul and Steve Mahre, Agnes Dei, and Charlotte Amalie all had a WAG quality to them. But my WAGS were on the money today, and I FIRed, so I'm satisfied. Unlike some people (such as SS) I like circles, they're always helpful to me.
My friends son is appearing in Spamalot in a few weeks
Like Anon-T, I'm a Terry Gross fan
"Stumbled here and there with ScEnt/SMELL and ESCAPEe/ESCAPER". Ditto, D-O. I too forgot to check out the Party although I spotted the circles(FETE etc)
FIR, fairly easy and quick. Hbd Pk, nice to see you back.
Love me those hahtoolah write-ups.
Anybody sell their house for cash to investors? I take it there has to be a title company involved to handle escrow and paying of mortgage simultaneously with purchase money.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Alan, liked the party theme on my birthday! Hahtoolah, your expos are always a treat.
Thank you, C.C. & everybody for the nice birthday wishes. Thanks CED for the lovely cake. I remember my first year with the Corner, you gave me bacon roses which I found very amusing. You all made my birthday happier on a rainy, gloomy day.
DNK: ASHANTI, CLEESE or how to spell MAHRE but knew the sound of the twins' name.
Couldn't get IF EVER at the first reading of the clue, but by the second reading the song was playing in my mind and is still going in his lovely tenor voice.
Lived near ABILENE, TX for a year in the long ago. Have also been to ABILENE, KS many times to the Eisenhower museum.
Have read several books describing the BATAAN death march.
I had a BALL solving this puzzle! Unlike some, I like circles, especially like this one which forms the theme, i.e., letters inside the BLOCK.
San MATEO. One of my cousins is married to a man named SAN and for a long time I pondered the name until it dawned on me one day. Oh, saint!
I love corn NIBLETS! And I love PAELLAS but have never tried making one.
If I've ever heard of ASHANTI, I don't recall.
Liam NEESON is a wonderful actor and I was so sad for him when his wife, Natasha Richardson, died in a tragic accident.
Sports names are usually difficult for me, but BRETT Favre is so often in the news that I am familiar with his name. Phil or Steve MAHRE, not at all but perps filled it with the help of circles because ASHANTI was obscure, too.
Thank you, Alan, for the challenge and many thanks, Susan, for the vividly illustrated narrative!
YR, FLN thank you for enjoying my multi-lingual pun.
The following LINK lists cities named Carmel, but somehow Carmel California is not on this list. I can think of three pronunciations for the name, I wonder why there are so many variations.
Thanks for the day-brightening write-up, Susan. Unfortunately, it has not been Party Time here. In fact, things have been dragging quite a bit. Valerie and I both came down ill about a week ago. Very sore throats, coughing, aches. We were tested twice for COVID - both negative, both times. The test for Influenza A came back positive. I guess the vaccine this year was not "on target". If we're feeling up to it, we'll head south and west tomorrow and/or Thursday.
MM, hope you and Valerie are soon better. You're correct that in many years the flu shot given doesn't always match the strain that's going around. Probably like the COVID vaccine, though, I think those who get the annual flu shot suffer less than those who don't, should you catch it
Happy Birthday PK
I did I double take when I saw 16-across fill via perps. Without looking at the actual clue, how might you clue "IFEVER"? How about: "what do you call it when I virus attacks your Apple phone?"
I believe the origin of the name CARMEL is from Our Lady of Mount CARMEL, one of the titles of the Virgin Mary. As a man's name it is pronounced Car-MEL. My late ex-brother-in-law, was named Car-MEL.
Jinx @ 5:57 am: FRED is also short for "Flashing Rear End Device," that flashing red light the railroads put on the end of a consist to notify anyone following that there is a train ahead (and which replaced cabooses and brakemen).
CED, those potato/bacon roses look yummy. The things people who like to play with their food come up with is unbelievable.
My daughter came over after work and brought me a plant gift and two cupcakes, one of which was so yummers! Had loooong phone calls from my brothers & one son. A gift was delivered right on schedule from my other son's family. Despite the rain, a pretty nice birthday.
Happy Birthday Pk, Pat .... We all got used to hear /see your blog. Hope you had the best birthday yet !! We missed you when you didnt post for soo long.!!
C E D ... your various cakes are fabulous, and the bacon potato roses look so authentic and so appetizing ... no lo cal DIETETICS here !! Thank you for your entertainment.
Thank you Alan DerKazarian for a very nice Tuesday puzzle, which I enjoyed very much.
Thank you Hahtoolah for a very interesting and fun filled blog review. I am always on the lookout for your cartoons on Tuesdays. You write so much pertinent info on jewish themes and about Moses perceived mouth and tongue handicap (?) and then you mention about block parties with crawfish delicacies .... I can only assume that a) you only visually admire the food, or b) you dont follow kosher rules strictly.
FLN... I was Soo confused, that, by mistake, i read yesterday's blog and wrote a lenghty note on YellowRocks Covid illness, and now that posting has probably go to the ether of intercellar space..... before I realized that today was Tuesday. So I solved todays puzzle online, and read todays blog...
FLN:: I did not 'get' what Lemonade meant when he said about 'Flo does not put out for anybody' ( Progressive) Google helped me, and now I know that putting out can have a sexual connotation of having a relationship. BTW, a guy, rear ended our fairly new Lexus in Philly, late last year ... the driver spoke no english, and had no ID or a driver;s license... plus the insce company - Progressive refused to accept any liability for the damages caused because, the socalled driver was supposedly not listed on the policy. So my insce compnay Allstate had to pay me a deprec value for our car, and I lost a deductible.Oy Oy ... but we were safe , thank god.
Also I didnt understand Lemonades joke on Macht Schnell , means 'HUrry Up !' or 'Make it Quick' in German...but Google was a big help, as usual.
We have been to Carmel by the sea a couple of times, while my wife was attending some seminars and CPE/CME courses in Monterrey. The houses were all quite expensive and the restaurants were all very tony, but the sea view was breathtaking...
Nope. NE was a name-fest and I'm not up to par today. Youngest was down over the weekend and now I am too. Me thinks allergies(?)
Unclefred - you need to ACCEDE your "slowest solve" trophy to me. About 9+ hours since I started this morning ;-)
Happy Birthday PK! I love reading your Little House on the Prairie [you! are one bad-ass woman] posts and your newspaper days. Keep on truckin', eFriend.
I nailed the theme just looking at the circles. It was the NE proper names that stymied me. Overall, a fun party, Alan.
Hahtoolah. We need to bump you to Friday... More time for you to double-up on your Moses cartoons :-) Thank you for the entertainment. //HEB is getting live crawfish this week... Yummers!
WOs: I can't find my newspaper. I think I recycled it this morning.
However, I do remember: HG beat me to the ABOLINE song... WC has a buddy's kid in Spamalot [wait. wha??? Do spill the TEA] //WC - I get a few calls a week about buying my house. They go straight to voicemail.
Also, there was a TIN MAN [America], Siskel & EBERT, and Baseball! -- a ONE run dinger can put a team up in a zero-naught game... 'cuz, yeah!
And, John CLEESE? He's only the 7th greatest comedic actor ever! //They, Idle, Brooks, Feldman, Leachman, Bell, Garr, et.al. can verklempt amongst themselves in no certain order :-)
//want a story? Maternal Gran-ma died. Aunts & cousins flew in from around the country. One of my cousins did a Cleese/Python impression pulling himself by his hair back into the basement bathroom. Funniest thing I'd ever seen. Aunt said, "he's been watching too much Monty Python on PBS or MTV." upon which I, as an 8 yr old, found everything produced by Python.
NEESON gets a nod too. FIL, a Marine who RIPs, met LIAM in N. Louisiana back in the '70s. He (FIL) related to me that NEESON was just as quick-witted sitting by the pool as he was on film.
Misty - you're not missing much re: TOFU. It's just pressed soybeans in a bowl of hot water. Don't get me wrong, it's yummers, just not something to die for.
Well, I managed to mess up another Tuesday puzzle with sloppy proofreading, missing another stupid but obvious mistake. Hate it when that happens. The reveal was my first fill, which made the theme circles a gimme.
Nice puzzle, Alan, and of course a nice expo, Hahtoolah.
38 comments:
Happy, Happy Birthday, PK!
FIR but took 20 minutes. Started right off at 1A with ACCEED, a boneheaded pre-coffee misspelling that buggered up the NW for just a bit. My first thought was FEET for the theme, but BASH corrected that, and made 32A obvious. I remember Dinah Shore singing, “See the USA, in your Chevrolet…” back in the day when we had three channels to choose from. Nice CW, thanx, ADK. A perfect Tuesday level that should not have taken me 20 minutes. Thanx for the nice write-up, Hahtoolah, it was yummers.
FIR, barely. At the last minute I thought about nieson x mahri, and changed the "i" to an E. I knew Liam, but wasn't sure about the last name. And the only skiing I care about requires an outboard motor. Why on earth would someone ski when the water is ice cold?
GASSERS is also an informal category of motor homes. Ours is a diesel pusher (DP). A growing category is FRED, for FRont-Engine Diesel.
ODS are more frequently DOA these days. This fentanyl crisis is real. This stuff is so awful that people providing CPR have ODed from contact.
I used to know a survivor of the BATAAN death march. He was married to our sixth grade teacher, and was the audio-visual tech, or more accurately the projectionist, at our K-12 school. (At least I didn't write "elhi".) He had a kind of vacant look and manner. No one talked about PTSD then, but he certainly had it.
Happy birthday to our dear PK. I like the way you think!
Thanks to Alan for the fun grid. And thanks to Hahtoolah for another visual treat.
Good morning!
Stumbled here and there with ScEnt/SMELL and ESCAPEe/ESCAPER. But d-o completely turfed it when he kicked the H out, and wound up with ASSANTI/MASRE. Bzzzzzt. Thanx for the outing, Alan, and for the always-well-illustrated expo, Hahtoolah. (I only know of Terry Gross from NPR's Fresh Air.)
MATEO : Gimme. Older sister lived there back in the '50s.
Have a meet/greet with the oral surgeon this morning. He'll confirm that my tooth should come out. Then I'll have to make another appt for it to be removed. This has gotta be the most protracted extraction ever. A string tied to the bathroom door would be quicker...and considerably cheaper.
Happy birthday, PK. I always enjoy hearing of your exploits out there on the prairie.
Circles, yuk. Not a fan. Nor crossing 2 proper names (Mahre and Ashanti). Got careless and FIW.
DNF. But it's only Tuesday!
I had a natick at two unknown names crossing: MAhRE + AShANTI.
Theme -- the first one I got was FEET, so I figured the theme was words to go with BLOCK. Square feet, wooden BALL, but the other two were enigmas. After staring at them a while, I finaly got the Z pattern instead of the conventional O. That was the hard part, not even hinted at in the reveal! The reveal was a red herring!
Nice steady fill for a Tuesday - the BLOCKS with PARTIES helped move the solve along.
I remember DINAH Shore from her variety show and for her relationship with Burt Reynolds - back in the day it was very unusual to have an older woman with a younger man. I don't think they even had the word "Cougar" in the vernacular.
Thanks Susan for the always entertaining write-up with amusing cartoons. Enjoyed the link to "IF EVER I would leave you" from Camelot. I remember seeing the movie for the first time sometime in elementary school and was very confused (and naive) about a queen who seemed to love her husband early in the movie but then ended up in an affair with Lancelot. But I loved the songs of that musical.
Thanks to Alan!
And HBD to PK
First, I hope all in the path of the tornado destruction are safe. Second, HBDTY PK and many more.
The puzzle is a Tuesday challenge with lots of fun food.
I can see that ASHANTI would be hard for a Monday and the MAHRE twins but I have expected puzzles to ramp up difficulty.
Be safe and be careful.
I forgot to mention:
The books/articles I have read about the BATAAN death march described a horrific time- not surprised that anyone who survived had PTSD.
I read a historical fiction book set at that time which was good "Along the Broken Bay" by Flora Solomon which was about ex-pat American families who were living in Manila during the invasion by Japan and what they had to do to survive (or not)
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Alan and Hahtoolah. This was a workout for me and I FIWed, but I did get the theme.
I had several almost-Natick crosses that required me to WAG the vowel. Is it DEo or DEI, Amelie or AMALIE, Teana or TEENA? Perps finally decided them all.
But I misspelled SAAB with a U giving me USHANTI, and I had a L instead of T in the cross of MATEO and BATAAN. I did know NEESON.
Hand up for Scent before SMELL, and Escapee before ESCAPER (meh!).
Potatoes changed to TATERTOT, Nein to NYET (Russian not German).
I noted ABALONE and ABILENE, E’ER crossing IF EVER.
I’m DONE IN. More coffee needed.
Happy Birthday PK!
Wishing you all a great day.
A Tuesday FIR, actually helped by the circles confirming the H in ASHANTI. No complaints about circles from me! They can be misleading though, as unclefred and OwenKL said. I too saw FEET at first. In general a smooth solve with minor WOs. Thanks, Alan.
Hahtoolah, you did it again. An informative and humorous review to start our day. Thanks!
A very Happy Birthday to PK today and a good day to all.
OMG, as AtlGranny pointed out, there were circles! Guess who had 'em, but didn't look at 'em? Guess who forgot to look for a theme? Guess who's going to have to start looking at 'em? Yup, mea culpa.
Musings
-TEE TIME? After many lovely days, we are having 35F, high winds and a rain/snow combination.
-This much-needed rain will help make a lot of HAY this summer
-ASHANTI and AMALIE worked themselves out as did ESCAPE R(E) and S CENT(MELL)
-Players with fewest RBI for differing amounts of homeruns
-SIRI just told me the average home price in San MATEO is $770,000
-ABILENE - George Hamilton IV’s first and only #1 song.
-Music today is too diversified for there ever to be another ELVIS
-My old hearing aid is done dealing and so I HAVE TO get a new one. My audiologist wants $4,800 for the very same model I can get for $2,000 online.
-People who were alive during Pearl Harbor and the BATAAN Death March are much more likely to express support for the use of the nuclear bomb on Japan in 1945
-Kansas is the home of that TIN MAN and our birthday girl, PK!
Thank you Susan for all you effort and entertainment and ADK for puzzle.
Oops, forgot to say, "Happy Birthday, PK!" And that I, too, had ESCAPEE:ESCAPER W/O.
Good Morning:
This was a cute theme with a perfect reveal but I so wish for less obvious placement. Getting the reveal answer with half of the grid to be filled is disappointing, at least to me. That said, the solve was quick and fun with only two stumbles, Scent/Smell and Escapee/Escaper (Hi, DO and CEh). Escaper and Gassers were clunkers, IMO. We had lots of fun duos with Tee Time/Eagle, Abalone/Abilene, Byte/Rite, NYU/Nyet, and Herons/Eagle. Lots of CSOs, as well: Tofu (CC), All Teachers (PTA), Paellas (Lucina), Tin (Tin), Byte (All Nerds 😉), Asiago (Ray O and Anon T), and San Mateo (California Contingent).
Thanks, Alan, I enjoyed the party and thanks, Hahtoolah, for brightening my day. I think the Cat/Shampoo Bottle might be a contender for the Cat Cartoon HOF! I got the sense that you were hungry when you did this write-up as there were more Yummers than usual! 🤣
Happy Birthday, PK, hope you have a special day. 🎂🎉🎈🎊🎁 So glad you’re back on the blog!
Have a great day.
SO I made it around the Block today in 4:39, just ahead of dear unclefred.
REEnergized for another good day.
Unknowns for me today were dietetic, Ashanti, and "I Fever" (or, "If Ever"). Also was unsure on spelling of Mahre and Neeson.
not sure what to say about this puzzle...
Happy Birthday PK!
It wasn't the reveal, but the circles that gave away the theme to me. FETE and BASH/ Let's Party!
CLEESE and ONE were the most difficult. DUH, a solo homer is ONE RUN with nobody on the bases.
GASSER, Jinx, no wonder an RV is called a gasser, with all the fuel it takes.
ESCAPEE before ESCAPER.
I suppose Brett's name was mispronounced so frequently he just gave up and called himself FARVE instead of FAVRE, but he kept the original spelling. The same with the composer, HANDEL. Everyone was was calling him HANDLE, although German does not have that A sound. After a time, he called himself HANDLE, but kept the original spelling.
I knew of ASHANTI as a tribe and that an entertainer had the same name. "Ashanti also known as Asante, are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Twi is spoken by over nine million Ashanti people as a first or second language."
Have a wonderful birthday, PK. I am so glad you are back.
Dizzy and weak, but functioning better now. Glad the fever is gone.
I had some doubt if I had everything right today. Paul and Steve Mahre, Agnes Dei, and Charlotte Amalie all had a WAG quality to them. But my WAGS were on the money today, and I FIRed, so I'm satisfied. Unlike some people (such as SS) I like circles, they're always helpful to me.
My friends son is appearing in Spamalot in a few weeks
Like Anon-T, I'm a Terry Gross fan
"Stumbled here and there with ScEnt/SMELL and ESCAPEe/ESCAPER". Ditto, D-O. I too forgot to check out the Party although I spotted the circles(FETE etc)
FIR, fairly easy and quick. Hbd Pk, nice to see you back.
Love me those hahtoolah write-ups.
Anybody sell their house for cash to investors? I take it there has to be a title company involved to handle escrow and paying of mortgage simultaneously with purchase money.
WC
Fun Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Alan. And your pictures are always a delight, Susan, thanks for those too.
I miss Roger EBERT. His reviews were such a pleasure back in the day.
Am not sure I've ever tasted TOFU. Hope I have a chance to try it sometime.
Laughed at TEE TIME for a 'Golfer's appointment.'
Not sure I've ever heard the word NIBLET used, but I got it with no problem.
Have a good day, everybody.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Alan, liked the party theme on my birthday! Hahtoolah, your expos are always a treat.
Thank you, C.C. & everybody for the nice birthday wishes. Thanks CED for the lovely cake. I remember my first year with the Corner, you gave me bacon roses which I found very amusing. You all made my birthday happier on a rainy, gloomy day.
DNK: ASHANTI, CLEESE or how to spell MAHRE but knew the sound of the twins' name.
Couldn't get IF EVER at the first reading of the clue, but by the second reading the song was playing in my mind and is still going in his lovely tenor voice.
Lived near ABILENE, TX for a year in the long ago. Have also been to ABILENE, KS many times to the Eisenhower museum.
Have read several books describing the BATAAN death march.
Hola! Happy birthday, PK!
I had a BALL solving this puzzle! Unlike some, I like circles, especially like this one which forms the theme, i.e., letters inside the BLOCK.
San MATEO. One of my cousins is married to a man named SAN and for a long time I pondered the name until it dawned on me one day. Oh, saint!
I love corn NIBLETS! And I love PAELLAS but have never tried making one.
If I've ever heard of ASHANTI, I don't recall.
Liam NEESON is a wonderful actor and I was so sad for him when his wife, Natasha Richardson, died in a tragic accident.
Sports names are usually difficult for me, but BRETT Favre is so often in the news that I am familiar with his name. Phil or Steve MAHRE, not at all but perps filled it with the help of circles because ASHANTI was obscure, too.
Thank you, Alan, for the challenge and many thanks, Susan, for the vividly illustrated narrative!
Have a terrific Tuesday, everyone!
Favre actually was traded by Atlanta to Green Bay. Crazy? Almost as crazy S Tom Brady drafted in the 6th round
WC
PK!
Oh my Gosh!
I had forgotten about the Bacon Roses!
Cornerites, here is the recipe for your next party!
PK, you made it another year,
so I guess we have to "up" the Ante!
(Ooh,,, now can't wait till next year...)
Par-Tay!
YR, FLN thank you for enjoying my multi-lingual pun.
The following LINK lists cities named Carmel, but somehow Carmel California is not on this list. I can think of three pronunciations for the name, I wonder why there are so many variations.
Lemonade, the one in California is officially Carmel-By-The-Sea.
Happy Birthday,PK!
Thanks for the day-brightening write-up, Susan. Unfortunately, it has not been Party Time here. In fact, things have been dragging quite a bit. Valerie and I both came down ill about a week ago. Very sore throats, coughing, aches. We were tested twice for COVID - both negative, both times. The test for Influenza A came back positive. I guess the vaccine this year was not "on target". If we're feeling up to it, we'll head south and west tomorrow and/or Thursday.
Thanks Tom, I knew that but got caught up in the knowledge that there were 13 others. The more I know the dumber I get.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR
Only smudge was having FANNIE/SALLIE
MM, hope you and Valerie are soon better. You're correct that in many years the flu shot given doesn't always match the strain that's going around. Probably like the COVID vaccine, though, I think those who get the annual flu shot suffer less than those who don't, should you catch it
Happy Birthday PK
I did I double take when I saw 16-across fill via perps. Without looking at the actual clue, how might you clue "IFEVER"? How about: "what do you call it when I virus attacks your Apple phone?"
I believe the origin of the name CARMEL is from Our Lady of Mount CARMEL, one of the titles of the Virgin Mary. As a man's name it is pronounced Car-MEL. My late ex-brother-in-law, was named Car-MEL.
Jinx @ 5:57 am: FRED is also short for "Flashing Rear End Device," that flashing red light the railroads put on the end of a consist to notify anyone following that there is a train ahead (and which replaced cabooses and brakemen).
CED, those potato/bacon roses look yummy. The things people who like to play with their food come up with is unbelievable.
My daughter came over after work and brought me a plant gift and two cupcakes, one of which was so yummers! Had loooong phone calls from my brothers & one son. A gift was delivered right on schedule from my other son's family. Despite the rain, a pretty nice birthday.
Happy Birthday Pk, Pat .... We all got used to hear /see your blog. Hope you had the best birthday yet !! We missed you when you didnt post for soo long.!!
C E D ... your various cakes are fabulous, and the bacon potato roses look so authentic and so appetizing ... no lo cal DIETETICS here !! Thank you for your entertainment.
Thank you Alan DerKazarian for a very nice Tuesday puzzle, which I enjoyed very much.
Thank you Hahtoolah for a very interesting and fun filled blog review. I am always on the lookout for your cartoons on Tuesdays. You write so much pertinent info on jewish themes and about Moses perceived mouth and tongue handicap (?) and then you mention about block parties with crawfish delicacies .... I can only assume that a) you only visually admire the food, or b) you dont follow kosher rules strictly.
FLN... I was Soo confused, that, by mistake, i read yesterday's blog and wrote a lenghty note on YellowRocks Covid illness, and now that posting has probably go to the ether of intercellar space..... before I realized that today was Tuesday. So I solved todays puzzle online, and read todays blog...
FLN:: I did not 'get' what Lemonade meant when he said about 'Flo does not put out for anybody' ( Progressive) Google helped me, and now I know that putting out can have a sexual connotation of having a relationship. BTW, a guy, rear ended our fairly new Lexus in Philly, late last year ... the driver spoke no english, and had no ID or a driver;s license... plus the insce company - Progressive refused to accept any liability for the damages caused because, the socalled driver was supposedly not listed on the policy. So my insce compnay Allstate had to pay me a deprec value for our car, and I lost a deductible.Oy Oy ... but we were safe , thank god.
Also I didnt understand Lemonades joke on Macht Schnell , means 'HUrry Up !' or 'Make it Quick' in German...but Google was a big help, as usual.
We have been to Carmel by the sea a couple of times, while my wife was attending some seminars and CPE/CME courses in Monterrey. The houses were all quite expensive and the restaurants were all very tony, but the sea view was breathtaking...
Have a good evening, you all.
Hi All...
Nope. NE was a name-fest and I'm not up to par today. Youngest was down over the weekend and now I am too. Me thinks allergies(?)
Unclefred - you need to ACCEDE your "slowest solve" trophy to me. About 9+ hours since I started this morning ;-)
Happy Birthday PK! I love reading your Little House on the Prairie [you! are one bad-ass woman] posts and your newspaper days. Keep on truckin', eFriend.
I nailed the theme just looking at the circles. It was the NE proper names that stymied me. Overall, a fun party, Alan.
Hahtoolah. We need to bump you to Friday... More time for you to double-up on your Moses cartoons :-) Thank you for the entertainment.
//HEB is getting live crawfish this week... Yummers!
WOs: I can't find my newspaper. I think I recycled it this morning.
However, I do remember:
HG beat me to the ABOLINE song...
WC has a buddy's kid in Spamalot [wait. wha??? Do spill the TEA]
//WC - I get a few calls a week about buying my house. They go straight to voicemail.
Also, there was a TIN MAN [America], Siskel & EBERT, and Baseball! -- a ONE run dinger can put a team up in a zero-naught game... 'cuz, yeah!
Then there's Frank on Madden on BRETT Farve.
I mean, there yougo...and then bam; a miracle!
And, John CLEESE?
He's only the 7th greatest comedic actor ever!
//They, Idle, Brooks, Feldman, Leachman, Bell, Garr, et.al. can verklempt amongst themselves in no certain order :-)
//want a story?
Maternal Gran-ma died. Aunts & cousins flew in from around the country. One of my cousins did a Cleese/Python impression pulling himself by his hair back into the basement bathroom. Funniest thing I'd ever seen.
Aunt said, "he's been watching too much Monty Python on PBS or MTV."
upon which I, as an 8 yr old, found everything produced by Python.
NEESON gets a nod too.
FIL, a Marine who RIPs, met LIAM in N. Louisiana back in the '70s. He (FIL) related to me that NEESON was just as quick-witted sitting by the pool as he was on film.
Misty - you're not missing much re: TOFU. It's just pressed soybeans in a bowl of hot water. Don't get me wrong, it's yummers, just not something to die for.
Cheers, -T
Well, I managed to mess up another Tuesday puzzle with sloppy proofreading, missing another stupid but obvious mistake. Hate it when that happens. The reveal was my first fill, which made the theme circles a gimme.
Nice puzzle, Alan, and of course a nice expo, Hahtoolah.
HBD, PK!
No one mentioned EAGLE crossing ILLEGAL.
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