Title: Two themes for the price of one?
We had the pleasure of C.C. blogging the first Patti V. puzzle since she became editor; now we have the first post-change puzzle from her new assistant. Christina has been a very active since she DISCOVERED crossword puzzles for fun and profit four years ago. If you click on the link above it is an interesting and helpful introduction if you want to follow in her footsteps, or word steps. I became aware of her with the reading of the CROSSWORD PUZZLE COLLABORATION DIRECTORY a Facebook group. Perhaps Moe will share his experience with them. Anyway, on with the puzzle.
This Friday effort jibes with the new style, with an emphasis on fun cluing. The themers are a 9, two 11s and a 9. The longish CONDUCT, DISTANT, I NEED IT, and VACUOUS are just 7 spaces, though we do have LIFE IS GOOD and MISSED CALL in the down fill. But wait, there is more! There are also two ten letter fill clued as if they were part of the theme, but are they?
First,
16A. NVS: GREEN EYED (9). If you have imagination you can see NVS = ENVIOUS, especially if you add IOU to the letters. Jealously is the green-eyed monster.
23A. TDS: MIND NUMBING (11). TEDIOUS, exhibits an additional insertion of IOU and thus a punnish fill. A ninety minute organic chemistry lecture was enough brain drain for me.
52A. DVS: UNDERHANDED (11). Ah, good; DEVIOUS = UNDERHANDED. The theme has emerged and is consistent.
39A. IC: DISTANT. A curve ball as this is another sounds like
clue (if you are icy to someone, you will appear distant) but there is no
IOU? Then,
41. MT: VACUOUS. The next clue/fill
are exactly the same pattern; if you told someone that their friend was
empty headed, they would be vacuous. Hmm.
I hope Christina comes by and unravels this mini-mystery.
Across:1. Flows back: EBBS. A classic crosswordese clued differently. And 4D. Flow slowly: SEEP.
5. Sci. major: BIO. Many choices here, must wait for perps.
8. Fisher of "Wedding Crashers": ISLA. Goody, a fill that I am sure is correct. Isla Lang Fisher was born on February 3, 1976 in Muscat, Oman, to Scottish parents Elspeth Reid and Brian Fisher, who worked as a banker for the U.N. She spent her early childhood in Bathgate, Scotland, before moving to Perth, Australia with her family in the early 1980. imdb.
22. Toy company with theme parks: LEGO. This also is is in Mnnesota.
26. Bound: JUMP. Definition of bound (Entry 4 of 7) 1 : leap, jump cleared the hedge at a xinglebound.
30. Island chain: LEI. This is witty; we used to make all kinds of chains in schools. Then paired with the non-clecho...
31. Parts of an island chain: CAYS. This is pronounced and is another spelling of KEYS, which anyone in Florida is familiar with.
32. Bagel flavor: ONION. I cannot think of any other five letter bagels.
34. Part of a flight: STAIR. Another nice deception, not running away or going in the air, just stairs.
36. Steve Carell voice role: GRU. I am not sure I knew he was the felonious Gru in the DESPICABLE ME movies.
43. "__ been a while!": IT'S. Did you miss me?
44. Place to have a ball?: DISCO. A cute clue/fill pair; literal but evocative.
46. Smog element: OZONE. Another layered clue/fill.
47. Sweeping: EPIC. The old CBS record company?
49. Olive extract: OIL. Poor girl, she has had a hard life and they cannot even spell her name correctly.
51. Some Neruda poems: ODES. A reminder of dear Clear Ayes, our initial poet in residence. The critics list these as his BEST. This is my favorite of his ODES.
57. Pull the plug on: END. My mind jumped to the horrible choice made in hospice.
58. Top 10 U2 song from "Rattle and Hum": DESIRE.
67. Totally fine: ALL OK. Or if you want obscure and you are a techie nerd ALLOK
68. Cuatro y cuatro: OCHO. Spanish multiplication/
69. Resale warning: AS IS.
70. "Betsy's Wedding" writer/director: ALDA. Star...
72. Zero: NONE. Nada.
Down:
1. What some layers cover: EGGS. See, I knew this was intended as a layered puzzle.
2. Toon boy known for chalkboard gags: BART. Young Mr. Simpson.
3. Flag couleur: BLEU. French begets French.
5. __ leaf: BAY. Now we are cooking...
6. "This isn't optional!": I NEED IT. You deserve it!
7. Nash who rhymed "Bronx" and "thonx": OGDEN. The Bronx? No thonx! This - one of the shortest poems ever - is the product of Ogden Nash (1902-1971). It was called a "Geographical Reflection" in his book Hard-Lines (1931).
8. First-person contraction: I'VE.
9. Date stamp: SELL BY. Are they meaningful? Use By" Dates: "This date is put on by the food manufacturer as the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. "Expiration" Dates: "The "expiration" date is aimed at consumers and is the last date the product can be considered fresh. "Sell By" Dates: "This date tells the store how long to display the food product.
10. Apparel company with a smiling stick-figure icon: LIFE IS GOOD.
13. Grave danger: PERIL. Pauline where are you?
15. Love thy neighbour, say?: SNOG. Notice the "our" telling you that this is a British answer and snogging is just what you think it and you are not supposed to it.
17. Snarfing sound: NOM. Cookie monster again.
21. Saint __: only country named for a woman: LUCIA. What male world we have grown up in, no wonder they created feminists.
24. Sticky places?: NESTS. Sticks, not adhesion.
25. Venice's Piazza San __: MARCO.
26. Novelist Picoult: JODI. Her list of books. LINK.
27. Peck, e.g.: UNIT. Of weak kisses?
28. Notification while in silent mode, perhaps: MISSED CALL.
29. Cauldron: POT. I do not want to stir up any contraversy, but...
33. Low point: NADIR.
35. Skirt: AVOID. I do not think you need to avoid all women...
37. Mythological character?: RUNE. Not a character in a story but writing character.
38. Applications: USES.They were uses before other alhabets came along.
40. __ market: NICHE.
42. Aduba of "In Treatment": UZO. Uzoamaka Nwanneka Aduba is an American actress. She is known for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, for which she won an Emmy
45. Manage: CONDUCT. Another tricky syntax clue/fill.
48. Online grocer with green delivery trucks: PEAPOD.
50. Resulted in: LED TO. People being healthy?
52. __ Major: URSA.
53. Wafer brand: NILLA. Two days in a row.
54. Short-necked pear: ANJOU. Poor guys, they are yummy, neck or not.
55. "Snowfall" law gp.: DEA. Snowfall is set in 1983 Los Angeles and revolves around the crack cocaine lords and its overall impact on the city’s culture. Thw DEA wants to catch them, maybe.
59. Graceful bird: SWAN.
60. "Assuming that's the case ... ": IF SO. Logic.
61. Mess up: RUIN.
62. Choice word: ELSE. Or else what?
64. Genre with Jamaican roots: SKA. According to Britannica this was pioneered by the operators of powerful mobile discos called sound systems, ska evolved in the late 1950s from an early Jamaican form of rhythm and blues that emulated American rhythm and blues, especially that produced in New Orleans, Louisiana.
66. __/her pronouns: SHE. What aperfect end to the new all female regime at the LA Times Crossword Puzzle.
FIRight. It's Friday, so lotta t/os (type-overs).
ReplyDeleteThe theme I caught fairly early, but I think it led me astray as often as it helped me. Odie's? Over-doses?
What? Your phone says you had a MISSED CALL?
If you can't always answer, why have it at all?
Yes, robocalls are JUST AWFUL!
MIND NUMBING, some unlawful!
Know what? LIFE IS GOOD, when you missed a call!
OGDEN NASH is my poetic ideal!
Before him I will always kneel!
He made odd words obey
What his ODES were to say,
If they wouldn't, he brought them to heel!
{A, B+.}
I said the theme led me astray, but I fear it has led our blogger even further astray!
ReplyDeleteThe 6 themers are clued phonetically, Lemonade got that right, but then over-thought it to shoehorn in some spelling coincidents that were inconsistent and unnecessary. Just pronounce the letters to get the clue words.
NVS = envious
TDS = tedious
IC = iciy (could have been I SEE)
MT = empty
DVS = devious
ODS = odious.
I'm reminded of a poem I learned as a child (and when I looked it up just now, was dated to 1925!)
Phonetic Love—
O, MLE, what XTC I always feel when UIC,
I used to rave of LN’S eyes,
4 LC I gave countless sighs,
4 KT, 2, and LNR,
I was a keen competitor.
But each now’s a non-NTT,
4 U XL them all UC.
I'll let someone else recall the goldfish.
Great explanation of the theme :) and thanks for sharing the poem.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteMethinks d-o is getting too old for some of these current culture references. This one ended in ignominious defeat in North Carolina. Didn't know GRU or UZO, and thought that "Smog element" was smOkE rather than OZONE. That left me scratching my head for the _UKE "Mythological character." Luke? Ruke? Puke? Bzzzzzt. Time's up.
I agree with Owen on the "sound-it-out" theme, but Lemonade's observation about IOU is interesting. I don't think it's coincidence that we have ...Dious and ...Vious in the north and again in the south. The central entries don't follow that pattern, but are both 7 letters, symmetrically placed.
I really liked this one, even though it ended in failure. Thanx, Christina and Lemonade. (You should revisit your math.)
At first, I had "leap" instead of "jump." And I could hardly believe that there was somebody named "Uzo*" but t
ReplyDeleteBut that's what the perps indicated. When I finished the puzzle, I went back and finally understood the "abbreviations" so that was good. FIR, so I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteChristina, thank you for stopping by and commenting. I guess you are agreeing with OKL that I overthought and was misled by the 4 IOUs. Ah well, I never said I knew it all.
ReplyDeleteI inked STAge/STAIR which held me up until I grok'ed the DVS theme. Which I finally discerned as devious.
ReplyDeleteDNK GRU. Had nada/NONE. How is DISCO a place to have a ball?
If OCHO is 8 and cuatro is 4 isn't it addition? LUCIA? Help.
I see D-O agrees
There was enough LHF to perp in the DVS clueing.
Owen, I like the ODE to Ogden better. Both W's
Christina, thanks for dropping by.
WC
Wilbur, here's a Disco Ball.
ReplyDeleteFIR as a themeless, with perps and wags. I disliked the abbreviations in the clues until OKL explained it. Now, I think they are clever.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Y Spanish for AND? cuatro y cuatro = ocho.
Didn't realize snow fall was about cocaine. I know cocaine is called snow.
FIR, but never got the theme. Tough Friday puzzle, but very fun!
ReplyDeleteFIW, missing iZO x VACiOUS. Bad spelars of the world, UNTIE! Erased vast for EPIC, teem for JUMP, elves for EFLIN, and fixed NADiR (UNTIE! again).
ReplyDeleteYears ago I made a hobby of decoding vanity license plates, and that made the phonetic clues easy. I once emailed a picture to the couple who always volunteered to provide our (sailboat) race committee boat, telling them that it should have been theirs, since it was their boat's name. The next day they wrote back, saying they didn't get it. The license plate was NACLYK9. Their boat was named "Salty Dog".
Off to see if Lowe's can provide a sales slip for a fridge I bought there 6 years ago. The compressor is bad, and LG says they will replace the parts under warranty as long as I have the receipt for the purchase. If not I'll be buying a new fridge today.
Thanks to Christina for the fun puzzle, and to Lemony for explaining it.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. Check you Monday.
Lemonade, I caught the theme at NVS but for the second one, IOU. But in keeping with the 'initial' theme it was a DNF. I couldn't make the Carolina area work. I've never heard of the 'Apparel co.', GRU or UZO. Tried VACANCY, VACATES, SMOKE, APU, PELE and settled on correctly filling MARCO, LIFE IS GOOD, & OZONE. I couldn't finish because I didn't know how to spell VACUOUS, not a word I ever use. RUNE never had a chance.
ReplyDeleteISLA, ALDA, JODI Picoult, DESIRE, PEAPOD, & SNOG were other unknowns perped.
SNOG- I caught the British 'our' and figured its meaning and thought SHAG but the perps wouldn't allow it.
Thank you Christina for a very doable Friday puzzle, although I got an FIW for sloppy proofreading - typoed SKY for SKA, and thought ALDY might be a female director for "Betsy's Wedding", which I DNK.
ReplyDeleteThe theme was clever and very helpful, especially for this "text speak" group. I did pause over some misdirection at 39A (IC could be ICEY or it could be I SEE) which might have been intentional.
And thank you Lemony for the XCELNT XPLKSHUN.
Busy weekend coming up (baby sitting the grandkids) and a puzzle next Thursday, so until I catch up I'll just say ...
Cheers,
Bill
YR good to see you back. And heroin is HORSE as in "I went to the desert on a horse with no name"
ReplyDeleteJinx if you have rhe credit card used to buy it it may help. Some in here are good about automatically paying off CC's thus the invaluable use of them at dept stores. Even better is the store card.
WC
Fabulous Friday with an early FIR! And I caught onto the theme with the first one. Thanks, Christina, for the puzzle and your post confirming the theme. I did notice all the themers were negative descriptions and JUST AWFUL. I spent the most time on the upper East side figuring out ISLA, ELFIN and ALIGN. I wanted to fit in "Issa, elven, and allign" but perps didn't agree. WOs aplenty, but FIR on Friday!
ReplyDeleteAnd Lemonade, you cruised along bringing us the answers with wit. Thanks for your review.
Well, LIFE IS GOOD here. We're getting some needed rain well before the weekend graduation outdoor events at Emory University start.
Alan and I always order ONION bagels, only freshly made from a bagel shop. Supermarket bagels are not worth a sou.
ReplyDeleteI have read most of Jodi Picoult's excellent novels. I like the moral/ethical dilemmas they pose. Much food for thought. BTW her name is pronounced like pea coat, without the T.
The multitalented Alan Alda is a favorite of mine.
I went downstairs to the common area and participated in social activities yesterday for the first time. I am using a cane and found traversing the long halls here too painful, even with a cane. Now it is slightly less painful and doable. I had many snafus getting a walker, even after 11 days. My David is bringing me his tomorrow.
I will the miss the graduation ceremony for Grandson Kenny on the 13th and his party on the 14th. Then we were going to have the May family birthdays and Mother's day on the 15th. I would need to drive. NOT! So David, Motoko and Kenny are picking up Alan and celebrating the family events here tomorrow. They will bring their delicious home lasagna. Isn't family wonderful! Life is good.
Screwy theme
ReplyDeleteAck!
ReplyDeleteIn the middle, (more like towards the end) I knew how I was going to respond to this puzzle!
So much so that I rushed they Lemons write up and DID NOT CLICK ON THE LINKS?!?!
(I know, I'm a hypocrite...)
I am going right back to click on them, but I wanted to get here before some one else stole my thoughts. I really thought no one would be here still scratching their heads on this one, but I was wrong again. 16 replies already!
Anywho...
I thought this puzzle TDS..
(Mind numbing, in a good, puzzling way...)
I am sure some Anons will write it was ODS...
But I think it was DVS! (Not underhanded, just sneaky...)
IC = my distant stare as my MT mind tried to cope...
NVS! Yes I am NVS that this constructor thought up clues like "what some layers cover." And I kinda knew island chains were going to be Lei, but to immediately follow it up with Cays had me looking for some kind of petals. It did not help that I discovered the ruse by deciphering the combo clue/answers 8n reverse order.
All I can say (really) is "now this is what a Friday Puzzle is supposed to be!"
Woohoo!
I am actually MAGILL GO-RILLA. I can’t seem to login. Can someone help?
ReplyDeleteHmm,
ReplyDeleteI got so excited,
I forgot to do Wordle...
Magill Gorilla, that's a tough puzzle for some one on the outside looking in to figure out.
You need to solve this one yourself. But I think the next step would be to sign in to your Google account and check for errors,
or make sure to sign in at the bottom of the comments before posting.
How t9 sign in to your google account?
(I have no idea, it's been years-I don't remember...)
This is MAGILLA. I’m shined in properly to my Google account which is what I use here on the Crossword site. Yet when I post a comment it does not show as me rather it comes up anonymous. Been happening for a long time and I can’t seem to get around it.
DeleteDouble Ouch!
ReplyDeleteI just looked at the sign in below the comment box,
and it says "email follow up comments to CrossEyedDave@Gmail.com???"
NOTE:
I created the email account CED @ Gmail about ten years ago only so I could create a google account and get on this Blog.
I apologize if I did not respond to any emails there, but I have maybe looked at this email address once or twice in the first two years, and never in the last 8 years...
I did not 'now it was even active...
(Except for spam...)
Musings
ReplyDelete-Obscure fill for JODI. Obscure cluing for ALDA. NVS and GREEN EYED jumped out at me. Fun!
-Negative political ads in our governor’s race portray rivals as JUST AWFUL and VACUOUS.
-STUPOR – I think I got a call at 7:56 am today changing my dental appointment to next week
-The school where I sub should win the Girl’s State Track meet because of two girls lead. They lead in the long JUMP, triple JUMP, high JUMP and both hurdles (some jumping there as well). Uh, they also run two legs of the state leading 1600 relay
-Wheel ALIGNMENTS are big after our pothole winters here
-Dr. Mallard as a young man was accused of SNOGGING a friend’s girl in a recent NCIS
-I live in an agricultural state and had to look up the fact that there are four pecks in a bushel
-Options - na dir or nay dir and nich or neech
-RUNE on top of RUIN. Perhaps a RUNE could be found in an old RUIN
Magill,
ReplyDeleteHmm...
Are you using a desk top style computer?
Or an iPhone or iPad, or laptop?
Chrome browser or safari or something else?
(Each can be a little different in navigating)
Mine says "choose an identity"
(And I don't want to sign out to try and sign in again because then I would be stuck just like you...)
But, what happens when you click the sign in option for google and not the other tw9 options?
MAGILLA HERE:
ReplyDeleteI’m signed in to my Google account as MAGILLA. When I want to publish a comment I select Google account. It takes me back to the top of the site and I scroll all the way down to where I want to write a comment and no matter what I do it says anonymous. I just don’t get it. I’ve looked at my account to see if I’m blocking anything in the privacy area and it doesn’t appear that I am so I am puzzled. As the King of Siam sad “it’s a puzzlement”.
I seem to recall that folks could run into problems when they have both Google and blogger.com accounts. Maybe TTP (or other techie) can steer you in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI just read Lemonades links ( I am not a hypocrite')
ReplyDeleteAnd found them very enjoyable. But my most pending question that stops me from try8ng to construct is "how do you know a theme idea has not already been used?"
Now I must check out this "crossfire" reference...
Magilla,
I only get 5 posts a day, so I am going to pass you to more capable hands.
(You listening Anon-T/TTP/Waseely/Jinx/Desperotto/ et al...)
In the meantime, I am going to go into my google account that I have been avoiding out of fear, and do some editing.
If you don't ever hear from me again, you will know what happened...
MAGILLA, I am sure there is a solution. Do you show the help address from Blogger? It is a Google company.
ReplyDeleteThe good news, I see that I was "Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night"
I learned today that there is another gram I have never tried, a GRAMOGRAM which shows a real poet would know it. It also reduces my appreciation for Christina's creativity as wiki and other sites have lists and generators like anagrams. I guess there really is no cheating in finding themes...
Hola!
ReplyDeleteNothing makes me feel as old as the newspeak of the young and this puzzle nailed it.
I FIR but not easily which I should expect that on a Friday. It almost put me in a STUPOR. Yes, it was MINDNUMBING.
Adding to all that, I've never heard of an apparel company called LIFE IS GOOD though I do occasionally buy clothes for my grandchildren. Obviously not that brand, though.
Another unknown for me is PEAPOD; I wonder if that is a regional company. Has anyone seen it in AZ? thankfully, perps filled it as they did other unknowns.
Yes, CUATRO Y CUATRO is addition and of course, the answer is OCHO. Four plus four is eight.
Alan ALDA is one of my favorite actors, too. He is so talented.
I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!
BTW, OKL I am impressed by the nearly 100 year old gramogram poem. My comments are a salute to you and Christina for knowing more than I do, not sour grapes. My appreciation is now for your joint knowledge. Well done, both of you
ReplyDeleteVery puzzling,
ReplyDeleteMy 5th post today mysteriously disappeared.
(Lemonade, did you delete me?)
Anywho, I was messing around my accounts trying to figure out a way to help Magilla,
And as far as I can tell, you need TWO ACCOUNTS...
A google account
And a blogger account.
I just can't figure out how I did it ten years ago...
Magilla, try this:
When I go to blogger.com I am already signed in.
If you click on "settings" on the left, at the very bottom I can edit my profile to add all the "stuff" you want to show when you post.
I can only assume, if you do not have a blogger account, or are not signed in, that there must be an option to to so that is not available to me as I am already signed in...
I have the same problem you have, CED. I can't remember how I got my avatar name to finally come forth. I think, though, it had something to do with the "choose an identity" buttons at the bottom of the comment page. However, if Magilla has already tried this I don't know what to tell him (or her.)
ReplyDeleteOwenKL explained the theme perfectly. I got it, but the answers weren’t so obvious. Overall thought the puzzle was tough, but I guess it is Friday.
ReplyDeleteOnce I got to IC, I figured out the theme and loved it. Thank goodness because there were a lot of paper names I didn’t know, but they finally fell into place. Fun one.
ReplyDeleteI meant proper names. Oops.
ReplyDeleteI have given up trying to post comments on my iPhone. When I try, and click on "Enter Comment", it takes me to "Comment as:" which will allow me to post a comment as Anonymous, but if I click the menu drop-down arrow, I get three options: Google Account, which if I click, takes me back to the blog home page; if I click Nmae/URL and enter "unclefred" and click "continue" it takes me back to the "Enter Comment" page. So.....I gave up quite some time ago and just post comments on my laptop. Anyway, the CW: clever, caught the theme with the first theme clue. Managed to FIR in 36, which is not bad all things considered. DNK ISLA, JODI, PEAPOD, GRU or LIFEISGOOD. I had been feeling really bad for several days when I finally did a home-test for Covid. Guess what: POSITIVE. I'm fully immunized and double-boosted and STILL sick. So a time today of 36 is not bad after hardly any sleep for several days, and some foggy-headedness. I called my Dr when I had the positive test, to have him phone in an Rx for the antiviral, but of course he insists on doing a telemedicine call first. Gotta make it a "billable event" first, even if the patient dies waiting. American medicine: profits first, second and third. Patient care at the far bottom of the totem pole. Disgraceful. Anyway, telemedicine call later today, then he'll have his nurse call in the Rx at the end of the day, CVS will fill it tomorrpow or Sunday, if I'm lucky I might actually get it next Monday or Tuesday....if I send someone to fetch it for me. Otherwise, they will mail it Monday and I'll get it next Thursday or Friday, if I'm still alive. And this is from Holy Cross Medical Group, "The Sisters of Charity". What a joke. (Rant over).
ReplyDeleteMagilla, if you accidentally click on sign out, it is difficult to sign back in. When it happened to me I fooled around until I hit on the right answer. TA DA. I should have written down what I did. I am sorry I am not confident enough to sign out and back in again to rediscover it.
ReplyDeleteJodi Picoult is far from obscure. She has been on the NYT best seller list and has won countless awards. She is very popular, especially with women. All my friends who like to read know her books.
ReplyDeleteIt's deja vu all over again.
Magilla, click this link and follow the steps. See if that solves your issue. Good luck.
If that is not your issue, and is more akin to what Unclefred wrote, then there is a different issue.
Yellowrocks, if you need them, I can probably find the instructions I gave to you when had issues with signing in. Your's was slightly different than Magilla's, IIRC.
ReplyDeleteDave, your 5th comments post has been approved. I'm not sure why it was sent to spam. As for counting the number of times you comment, I'm not counting.
This was a faster than usual Friday for me though I had a few slip ups I had leap before JUMP and I though the 49A answer was going to be Friday hard - so I had the olive extract being a pit before changing to OIL. !A had a great clue. Enjoyed the amusing theme
ReplyDeleteFriday clue for 42A Aduba of "In Treatment" - I knew her more from "Orange is the New Black" for which UZO won an Emmy. I listened to an interview of her on the NPR program "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me"- such an interesting life - she is from Massachusetts (parents are from Nigeria). She majored in classical music and voice from Boston U, and then worked in theater in New York - she had just decided to give up theater and go to law school, but got the offer for OITNB the same day.
Thanks Lemonade and Christina!
TTP, it sounds to me like you're the SYSOP here. If so, I think you're doing a good job. But I thought there was a limit of "five" on the number of times a person could post at this site in a single day. Am I wrong about that?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThank you Christina Iverson for an unusual puzzle, that eventually turned out to be delightful, and In enjoyed it. I could figure out NVS as 'envious' but the others appeared more difficult, but eventually were sussed .... somewhat.
I am not so familiar with text-speak or text-write-lexicon, and I carefully spell and type out my words and sentences when I text somebody.
Talking about vanity license plates, my daughter's plates are CD8SN ... she puts people to sleep.
Thank you Lemonade for your thoughtful and analytical review. I enjoyed that, as well.
Talking about islands named after female gods - ...goddesses ... I can only speculate that Hinduism is probably one of the few religions that has as many, .... or more ( female) Goddesses than male gods.... and most of the major rivers in India, are all named after female gods .... an equal opportunity idol worshippers ??
The rivers Indus ( Sindhu -) , Ganges ( Ganga - ) , Yamuna, Narmada, Tapti, Godavari are all named after female gods.
Even the current renamed-name for Bombay ... Mumbai .... originally Amba-ayi ( mother Amba ???) ... is from Mumba-devi, or Amba-devi, a local goddess of the islands.
SELL BY:: Most U S drugs have a DISCARD AFTER dates, which is exactly a year after the Rx was filled.... so, it appears that the pharmacist set the date contamination, in motion.
Have a nice day, and a gr8 weekend all.
LOL!
ReplyDeleteI read SubGenius "Sysop"
as this guy...
V8 can alerted me that it is System Operator...
Hmm,
Perhaps syop and Sysiphus are one and the same...?
Yes, 5 posts are the max to avoid blabbermouths,
but you can posts off for good behavior if you try to help people.
:)
A cute and EZ PZL from Ms. Iverson, well explained by Lemonade!
ReplyDeleteYes, surprisingly easy for a Friday entry.
My only hangup was at 41A, crossing with 10D and 37D. I just couldn't get my brain to give up VACANTS, especially when the adjacent perps were unknowns.
Ah well, Friday should not be simple.
~ OMK
_____________
DR: Sadly, none to report.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR with just a couple of w/o's
Lemonade, be glad you got THIS Friday's puzzle and not next week's (*spoiler alert*)
Christina, enjoyed your puzzle. Wish I were decades younger, read more books, saw more movies and TV shows, and had a full command of the new text abbreviations. I'm not saying that the "new look" to crossword puzzles is bad, though. At least today I didn't have to look up any answers
GREEN EYED - I'm too lazy to link, but one of my favorite songs from my teenage or college years (can't recall the year it was released as a single) was Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf
Sorry I missed commenting on yesterday's puzzle, but to Jinx, the Karsten Course @ ASU in Tempe is no more. I think it's part of a freeway now. I played it once, several decades ago, and it was a pretty sporty track
Enjoy the weekend, folks. Tomorrow's Derby Day; today is the running of the Kentucky Oaks - any other horse racing fans among us?
FabulS Friday. Thanks for the fun, Christina (thanks for dropping by) and Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme, but like others, had Various instead of VACUOUS ( UZO was unknown to me).
I smiled at EBS crossing EGGS.
Lightbulb moment at Lemonade’s explanation of “sticky” NESTS.
This Canadian did not even notice the U in neighbour as being strange. LOL. SHAG perped (it is not a Canadian expression).
I’m glad others did not know PEAPOD (not just Canadian disadvantage).
I have read JODI Picoult, most recently her pandemic book, Wish You Were Here. Great reading.
YR- glad you are feeling a little better. Yes, family is great!
Lucina- hope you feel better today too.
unclefred- may your meds come soon (you make me appreciate our Canadian healthcare).
Wishing you all a great day.
Christina Iverson has a puzzle on the New Yorker website today! Two for one! And hooray for feminists!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSubgenius, thank you. Sysop ? Sounds like a mighty fine job title. Actually, the Blogger term is sysadmin, but there's not too much to do. It's mostly about housekeeping, like sweeping out the dirt (spam). And maybe helping with solving or reporting a problem every now and again.
BTW, you can edit your Blogger profile and change your avatar by using this link:
https://draft.blogger.com/edit-profile.g
CED, et al, the thing is, Blogger and other Google apps have evolved through the years. Processes and methods have changed, so even if you knew how you created your profile ten years ago, I'm certain you would find it to be different today.
C.E.D., I did not delete you or anyone. In terms of helping people, I imagine C.C. would prefer that those response go directly from the helper to the helpee, if you have an email attached to the helpee name. I just look forward to your 1-5 witty and informative posts per day.
ReplyDeleteCan somebody remind me how to find somebody's profile name? I'm looking for WendyBird (I think that's it)?
ReplyDeleteAnon at 3:50, Christina also co-produced the Universal puzzle today so it is a triple bagger for her.
ReplyDeleteBill here is the internal link WENDY BIRD . There is a search the site on the right side of the home screen.
ReplyDeleteWaseeley,
https://www.blogger.com/profile/13680784385470001268
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteSonnava... I had roMP not JUMP... Didn't know 26d and 27d... Peck (at?) oN IT(? like a bird?).
Oh, for Heaven's..., a Peck of pickles like Peter picked.
I shoulda taken a left turn at Albuquerque.
erog - FIW :-(
//That central California was a stumper. I musta spent 20m before thinking 'frigid' at IC (instead of Aha!) just noodling on letters that might work - and they didn't :-)
Fun Friday puzzle regardless. Thanks Christina! Nice you dropped by The Corner too.
Thanks for the intro to Christina, Lem. Oh, yeah, good expo and all that. :-)
//joking! - expo was fun and I still have links to click / things to learn later.
WOs: STUPeR, ELvIN, Nada->NONE
ESPs: see FIW, UZO
Fav: GRU - Best bits GRU in Despicable Me [according to someone(?) - 14:37]
Runner-up: clue for DISCO ball. [Blondie @:16 of Heart of Glass*] //Does that help WC?
{A*, A++}
MR Ducks
MR not
O S A R - C M Wings
L I B
MR Ducks!
Lucina - a) you almost had a CSO at 21d!
b) PEA POD was strong (and nation-wide [ZZ Top]) during the dot-com bubble and then scaled back. I still see their ads sometimes on YouTube.
Jinx - you'd think LG already knows by the model# how old the fridge is.
What?, do people go around stealing appliances now?
MAGILLA - TTP plays with blogger the most. I'm stumped but glad to see you at The Corner. So, what'd you think of the puzzle? //props to CED & TTP for the 411
SubGenius (can I call you SubG?) - you're not wrong. Keep it civil, don't post over 5x, and keep 'em posts to 25 lines.
I sometimes go over 25 lines but... I try to check myself but...
TTP - yeah: until CED let's the neighbour's dog (there's love there) post hours of (aero)dog-fighting video-game videos, he has free reign. CED's a funny fun guy. I give him a pass today. #Helping!
Speaking of help (and going way over 25 lines). C, Moe... GREEN EYEd Lady //Lovely Lady.
Lem - are you sure those are the lyrics to Manferd Mann's Earth Band's tune?
There seems to be some confusion [The Vacant Lot - 3:52] :-)
Cheers!, -T
*Blondie helped end Disco and bring in Rap. I don't DESIRE either genre but I love her music. #GoFigure.
**my phone doesn't even ring if you're not in my contacts -- best iFeature ever!
I had a hard time solving this puzzle, which is to be expected on a Friday. I had to do a "Check grid" to learn that SMOKE and Saint LUCIE were wrong; I was glad SMOKE was wrong, though, because I strongly felt that RUNE was correct. It was a learning moment that OZONE is an element of smog, though, since I was taught the word smog is a portmanteau of smoke and fog.
ReplyDeleteI also had OAK leaf, followed by FIG leaf, followed by TEA leaf, before I finally discovered that BAY leaf.
Persons' names that I didn't know but were perpable:
ISLA Fisher
GRU
JODI Picoult
UZO Aduba.
Place names and brand names I didn't know but that were also perpable:
LIFE IS GOOD
Piazza San MARCO
PEAPOD.
So now you know.
Maybe I should list the proper names I did know. Nah.
I noticed something waseeley posted: "...typoed SKY for SKA, and thought ALDY might be a female director for "Betsy's Wedding", which I DNK." This is a case in point that a person's name sometimes simply CANNOT be guessed; I mean maybe there really is somebody named ALDY.
Good wishes to you all.
When I see the word PEAPOD I think of a wonderful mechanism developed by Cal Poly in San Luis Obisbo to contain and launch small satellites called "cube sats" which they call the P-POD. When we launched our "Quakesat" way back in June 2003 we used their P-POD Mk.1 model. Quite an ingenious design! See http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~workshop/archive/2004/Spring/04c-Toorian(CubeSat)-P-POD.pdf
ReplyDeleteNASA has used them too. See https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/nasaedge/NE00031413_54_CubeSat.html
ReplyDeleteI've had a frustrating day today. Bren has the annoying habit that any time she has trouble logging into anything, she just creates a new account. There are probably a dozen(s) Facebook profiles for Brenda Watson and Brent Watson hanging in there. Today's problem is Instacart. Because of my recent 'puter problems, I no longer sign in automatically. To get back in on a different machine, I need a password. But besides owenkl@owenkl.com, there are a dozen sign-ins for variations of her names on almost as many ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, Juno, etc.) One of them has our history and the free delivery we pay for annually. The rest are decoys. I tried them all, without getting in to the right one, or not getting in at all. Then tried them again on my phone, and I had apparently had a typo, because I finally got in! But I don't understand how to use Instacart's phone interface, so have to use my laptop. The recovered sign-in works, but it wants a verification number from my phone. Okay, I give it. Then it wants a verification from her e-mail. But it's an old one that no longer exists. Instacart says no prob! Just e-mail us photos of two official IDs! Ack! I didn't have this hassle on my cellphone! I also don't have photos of our IDs, or any way to get them. I've disabled the camera on my laptop, and don't know any way to transfer a photo from my phone to the laptop. (BTW, this is a very simplified version!)
ReplyDeleteAlso BTW, Bren grew up in a suburb of Louisville, so always gets excited about the Derby, so I have to, too. She ignores the rest of the races.
CED, don't worry about the limits. They're voluntary, and only enforced on uninteresting bloviators, so you're safe. You're very interesting!
Hi Y'all! Thank you, Christina & Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteHad no idea what those letter consonant clues were about until after the puzzle filled. (I think I asked the other night if the language will evolve to use without vowels.) I solved mostly from down clues.
Just finished reading JODI Picoult's latest book. I have all of her works and enjoy them.
Bound = JUMP not "tied". I recently read a book where the murderer "bound" his victim's arms & legs before placing them in his car trunk. Led me astray there.
DNK: PEAPOD, GRU, NOM, UZO, ISLA.
ReplyDeleteOwen, I don't know what to say. Managing accounts and passwords alone can be hard enough, much less with the lack of concern and cooperation you've been having to deal with.
Dash T, yes, I guess I do play with Blogger quite a bit. Oh, and entre nous, I've been keeping an eye on that CrossEyedDave character. But let's keep it on the QT. The down low, so to speak.
Just a sidenote: GRU is the initials of the "Glavnoye Razvidivatyelnoye Upravlenie" - - the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military.
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind for decades, there was no way that I could see that anyone would name their child 'GRU.' Total crash and burn.
Too obtuse, I didn't get it. Not fun, frustrating
ReplyDeleteMichael: Good call-out on the G.R.U. //I forgot to mention it
ReplyDeleteIt's touches like that that makes the movie Despicable Me even cuter.
Cheers, -T
AnonT:
ReplyDeleteThank you for the nice thought but I can only aspire to SAINT LUCIA's lofty heights! She is, of course, one of my heroines. I love hearing he name (St. Lucy) during the Mass!
Oooh! Jodi Picoult has a new book! I must find out about it. Right now I'm reading The Postmistress of Paris. Very good so far.
Tomorrow I will likely be AWOL. My family is having an all day event. The four adopted children are receiving all the sacraments at once: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion and of course, Confession. Party afterwards. Naturally. I'm so looking forward to my sister's red chile.
Lucina - well, not all of the Sacraments... There's one you don't want until the end :-)
ReplyDelete//when I was in grade-school learning about the 'Big 7', I thought 'can I collect them all?
But, how are you supposed to get married and get Holy Orders?"
You did it! :-)
Confession is easy when you're a kid. "Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I took the Lord's name in vain. See, I hit my thumb with a hammer... and I said what Pop says."
"What is that son?"
"Jesus H! Holy Mother ****"
//I think the sin of saying God's name is based in the Old Testament. [cite (Python)]
All kidding aside, enjoy the Rites, the day, and your family tomorrow.
Peace, -T
Thank you, -T -- I never saw the movie, but now that adds another dimension to why there was no way that I could see that anyone would name their child 'GRU.'
ReplyDeletePretty GRUesome, no?
Back for more for Anon -T -- "But, how are you supposed to get married and get Holy Orders?"
ReplyDeleteSimple: be Orthodox. We never got caught up in that sex hangup thingy.
Is YR a live "wire"?
ReplyDeleteShould CED "see Edie" and not see Alice?
Has OKL found "Oh, kale"?