20. *Kitchen fire, for one: HOME EMERGENCY.
24. *Laura Dern's "Little Women" role: MARMEE MARCH.
44. *Lifetime Achievement Award presented to "Sesame Street" in 2009, e.g.: DAYTIME EMMY.
50. Soft-shoe classic, or what can be found in the answers to the starred clues: ME AND MY SHADOW. That phrase is a crossword theme waiting to happen, amirite?
Melissa here. Each theme answer contains the sequence "MEEM," so "ME" followed by it's shadow "EM." There are a few additional answers in the grid with different letters that use the same pattern, I've marked them with the same highlighting as above.
Across:
1. Creates suds: FOAMS.
6. Lettuce variety: BIBB. Named after John Bibb, a lawyer who developed this variety in Kentucky out of his Frankfort home. More about Bibb Lettuce.
10. Testy mood: SNIT. Or person. SNIT is a valid scrabble word.
14. Patronized, as a diner: ATE AT.
15. __ Bator: former spelling of Mongolia's capital: ULAN. Also spelled Ulaanbaatar, it was originally a nomadic Buddhist center.
16. Security checkpoint device: WAND. I haven't seen the wand at TSA lately, just go through the scanner, followed by a pat down if they see something. Sadly, it has become like a prison visiting room check-in.
17. Crooner Mel: TORME.
18. Tracks on a muddy road, e.g.: TIRE MARKS.
22. To boot: ALSO.
23. __ lodge: SKI.
30. '60s protest gp.: SDS. Students for a Democratic Society, American student organization that flourished in the mid-to-late 1960s.
33. Bed bug?: APHID. Garden bed.
34. Vaio laptop maker: SONY.
35. Game, __, match: SET. Tennis.
36. Kylo Ren's mother: LEIA. Not up on my Star Wars, had to look this one up. Ben is the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, the nephew of Luke Skywalker, and the grandson of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Padmé Amidala. After turning to the dark side, he becomes the apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke, and later renames himself Kylo Ren upon becoming the Master of the Knights of Ren.
37. Yellowstone bovine: BISON. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is probably the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States, estimated in 2020 to be 4,800 bison. There have been at least two bison attacks this summer in the park, as national park visitors explode post Covid. Here’s a quick bison "rule of thumb:" If you outstretch your arm and hold up your thumb, you should be able to cover the entire silhouette of any bison in the vicinity. If not, you are too close.
39. "I Just Wanna Stop" singer Vannelli: GINO. 1978 memories!
41. House overhang: EAVE.
43. Pvt. address: APO. Military mail - Pvt. for rank of Private. APO stands for "Army Post Office," and is associated with Army or Air Force installations. FPO stands for "Fleet Post Office," and is associated with Navy installations and ships.
47. Michael of "SNL": CHE. Co-anchor on Weekend Update and co-head writer alongside Colin Jost. Not to be confused with SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
49. Latest: NEWS.
56. Common sweetener: CORN SYRUP.
59. "Oh, sure, whatever you say": UM OK. Alright then.
60. Wolfe of detective fiction: NERO.
61. Try to stop: DETER.
62. Chilean sea __: BASS.
63. Revise: EDIT.
64. Part of an inner circle?: SPOKE. Nice clue. Why Do Bicycles Have Spokes?
1. Butter or lard: FAT.
2. Brief "Then again ... ": OTOH. On the other hand ...
3. Flight-related prefix: AERO.
4. Jukebox musical featuring ABBA songs: MAMMA MIA. AMMA.
5. Braced (oneself): STEELED.
6. Kid's dismayed cry: BUT MOM.
7. Nastase of tennis: ILIE.
8. Mystery writer Nevada: BARR. She is known for her Anna Pigeon series, which is primarily set in a series of national parks and other protected areas of the United States.
9. Uncommon blood type, briefly: BNEG. B negative red blood cells can be given to both B and AB patients. B negative patients can only receive blood from other B negative donors or from type O negative donors (who are the universal donors).
10. Two-time Best Actress winner Hilary: SWANK. Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby.
11. Self-absorption: NARCISSISM. ISSI
12. Very dark: INKY.
13. NFL scores: TDS. Touchdowns.
19. Like netting: MESHY.
21. Linguistic suffix: ESE. Chinese. Portuguese. Vietnamese.
24. Island near Sicily: MALTA.
25. "Not __ out of you!": A PEEP. PEEP.
26. Thick-skinned safari beast: RHINOCEROS.
27. Valuable quality: ASSET.
28. Milne joey: ROO. A.A. Milne is the creator of Winnie the Pooh. Kanga is the doting mother to Roo. A baby kangaroo is known as a joey, which means “little animal” in the Aboriginal language.
31. Durable fabric: DENIM.
32. Poker-faced: STONY.
37. Shearing day sound: BAA.
39. Hits a homer, in baseball lingo: GOES DEEP. Football lingo, too. ETA: Thanks anon@7:23, you are correct - my brain tried to make that DEED to fit the theme.
41. Idyllic places: EDENS.
42. Loyalty program perks: REWARDS.
45. Trendy place: IN SPOT.
46. "I could take it or leave it": MEH.
48. Tom who voices Woody in the "Toy Story" films: HANKS.
51. Unit of force: DYNE.
52. 1960s TV horse: MR ED.
54. Not duped by: ONTO.
55. Pay period, for some: WEEK.
56. Baby bear: CUB. Cubs and joeys today.
58. Poetic "before": ERE.
36 comments:
I must admit I never read “Little Women “ but thought I was familiar with all the main characters. And I’ve never even heard of “Marmee March.” Other than that, it was a pretty straightforward puzzle and, after getting the reveal, the gimmick became clear. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
MESHY? OK. Missed the reveal, and forgot to look for the theme, but you've gotta love a puz with NARCISSISM and RHINOCEROS in it. Doctor Ed scores again. Thanx for leading us through the maze, Melissa Bee.
FIR, but erased stoic for STONY. DNK MARMEE MARCH, LEIA, GINO, RENEE, BARR, or jukebox musical.
Had to wait for square root of 100. In octal it equals 010 (two), in base ten it equals 010 (TEN).
TORME brought to mind Night Court.
With so many games, so many teams and so many baseball journalists, there are so many synonyms for "hits a homer". "Dings", "goes yard", "goes long", "clears the bases" and "touches them all" are a few. Sometimes I miss baseball. Then hockey season starts and I get over it.
Thanks to Ed for another fine and fun puzzle (except for MESHY and the WNBA clue). And thanks to Melissa for so ably 'splainin' it.
FIR, but didn't get the theme until coming here.
Took nearly 8 minutes to see my shadow, which means there will be six more weeks of winter or something.
A WNBA co-owner? Really?
That's our leader for worst clue of October.
Otherwise, a good Wednesday puzzle.
I don't see how "Goes Deep" has a shadow - did I miss something (other than the theme while I was solving)?
Hola!
Love Ed Sessa's puzzles. We should have more of them.
I love MAMMA MIA in all its iterations.
Little Women is a timeless story. Though I've seen it numerous times, I love every new version.
I wonder how many here have even heard of YURI Gagarin.
14A can be misread in different ways! Or maybe I'm still in Sunday's past events.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! I'm going to try to go back to sleep since it's only 5:40 AM.
Thank you, Melissa!
Good Morning:
I did the puzzle last night so Goes Deep was quite apropos with Aaron Judge hitting his record-breaking 62nd homer! Congrats, Aaron, go Yankees!
I always like Dr. Ed’s puzzles but this theme had me flummoxed because I was focused on seeing a Me and a My, both of which were scattered about in two themers, but not the third one. Thanks to Melissa’s clarifying the Me Em sequence, I now understand the theme. Gino and Reneé were both unknowns, as clued. In fact, I saw Vannelli as Vanilli and could only come up with Milli. 🤠I enjoyed seeing the fully spelled out Rhinoceros and his coterie of creatures: Aphid, Bison, Bass, Roo, Mr. Ed, and Cub.
Thanks, Dr. Ed, for a mid-week treat and best wishes for your recovery from Ian’s wrath and thanks, Melissa, for your spot-on analysis of the theme and for the very informative summary.
Uncle Fred, check your emails, please.
FLN
Owen, sorry to hear of your health issues and hope you’re feeling better.
Have a great day.
Dr. Ed always comes up with a good puzzle. Even self references with the MR. ED fill. I noticed the MEEM at MARMEE MARCH for two reasons. First it was directly below MEEM in HOME EMERGENCY; secondly, never heard of MAMREE although I had to endure the movie that DW dragged me to. Chick flick.
RENEE was the only other unknown and I wish Patti would lay off the WNBA clues. I have to agree with anon@7:23.
Knew the RHINO but had to think about how to spell rhinoceros.
FIR. IM, I was looking for ME and MY, also, but Marmee March didn't fit. I finally saw the ME EM shadows. MB, how clever of you to find the other shadows. Interesting theme, Ed.
I first read Little Women as a preteen and have reread it often, as well as seeing several of the movie versions. I remembered MARMEE because it seems an unusual version of Mommy in this day and age.
I thought of Milli Vanilli first, too.
Lucina, those of us interested in outer space travel know YURI.
MESHY is not used frequently, according to Google, but here is a current example:
The meshy upper is snug yet stretchy enough to provide ample volume, even around odd feet, without being sloppy."
from THE BEST NEW RUNNING SHOE FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAIL|JBEVERLY|JANUARY 13, 2022|OUTSIDE ONLINE
Owen, I wish you a return to better health.
Lucina, I remember Yuri Gagarin. I'll bet any fan of The Hunt For Red October can quote, "It reminds me of those heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets. Now they will tremble again -- at the sound of our silence."
EZ puzzle but is the theme ME, with EM my shadow? 'Cept a shadow is not necesarrily a mirror image. (BTW, I always felt that song was sad, lonely, and depressing 😢). "The Shadow Knows!"
GOES DE EP not sure there's a shadow there? Also thought this was a football expression.
Inkovers: uhok/UMOK, Acer/SONY (..and I owned a VAIO!!), Ilia/ILIE, resin/ROSIN,
Yesterday the TSA agent was a WANDER, and today is using the WAND..quite a coinicidence 😉 ....."Nevada"?...
"Little Women" was originally intended as as sequel to "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs" 😄
Is it a type of lettuce with a leaf so large it can be used as a BIBB? (I wonder...Did they serve Iceberg lettuce on the Titanic?🤔)
"Jukebox musical?" (Aren't they all?). Haven't run into the SDS gang in puzzles in awhile.
Me 2 IM...Mili "Vannelli" fit..but both wrong 🙄
Offspring who likes both...BISON
Eat at....DYNE
Donkey's colt...ASSET
Med line....IVY
Mother who smokes...BUTMOM
Anonymous @ 7:23 will you continue to do CWs in your burrow? Time to get out the long sleeve shirts 😧
Musings
-A wonderful puzzle by Dr. Sessa who Ian made a refugee from his Sanibel Island home last week.
-Our fav steakhouse where we have “ATE AT” for decades now has a wait time of at least an hour
-A surprising place to eat on Chinggis St. in ULAN BATOR . There’s also one at Triq Valletta, Mosta, MALTA.
-Our REWARD for watching a neighbor’s house last year was her taking us to see Little Women. Uh, it was not rewarding for me or my bride.
-Your car price using a trade-in depends on what is “to boot”, not nonsense about what they take off their car or what “over blue book” money allowed for yours.
-Last month I played at Nebraska’s fabulous Tatanka (Lakota for BISON) Golf Course.
-MESHY? UM, OK. :-) Hey, the guy just lost his home and I made two stupid mistakes today.
-REWARDS – Yesterday Joann paid for our $75 of Menards merchandise with her 11% rebate check
-Part of a WNBA franchise. I have no chance. First man in space? I’m all over it.
Counted 15 proper names knew 7. Marmee March was not a character in the original Little Women. News as a plural did not come to me for the clue Latest, just didn't fit. Since I am not a baseball fan I hadn't heard of a bag of Rosin. New word for me.
Marmee was definitely in the original novel by Alcott. I don't know if she was in all the movie versions. She was in the 1917 one.
"Latest" is kind of slang. She was always up on all the latest, meaning all the news.
"Although the equivalent expression in many languages would be in the plural, “news” is a singular noun, so you should say: correct The news is being broadcast by all major TV stations. wrong The news are being broadcast by all major TV stations."
Thank you Dr. Ed, it's always great to see your byline. Your appearance here is very timely, and thanks to Husker we've learned a great deal about the tribulations you've been enduring for the past few weeks. And thank you for your cleverly themed puzzle.
And thank you Melissa for another interesting and informative review.
A few favs:
6A BIBB. DNK it was named for a person. As the salad sous-chef in our family, it's one of my favorite ingredients.
33A APHID. Clever clue.
36A LEIA. As there aren't too many 4 letter women in the Star Wars universe, it had to be LEIA.
11A NARCISSISM. A common affliction among contemporary politicians.
12A INKY. NOIR fit, but didn't perp.
16A WAND. Yesterday we had WANDERS.
19A MESHY. First time I've 'eard this one.
37A BISON. Thanks for the "rule of thumb" MB.
29D CNN. Thank you for the great interview MB. Amanpour is one of my favorite journalists. Let's hope that Iran can somehow make a peaceful transition to a more equitable society.
37A BAA. Sheila's fleece was probably too thick for a wolf to bite thru.
50A MOMA. What a resource. I recall a trip to NYC several years back to see an incredible exhibition of 5000 year old Mesopotamian art. The Babylonians were doing small lost-wax bronze sculptures back then and all of the cultural and artistic precursors to this capability must have started centuries, if not millennia beforehand.
Cheers,
Bill
Lucina @7:41 AM Hand up for YURI, first human to orbit our orb.
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Ed (glad you are safe) and melissa.
I FIRed and saw the SHADOW theme. (Great catch on the other shadows, melissa.). I saw the ME in TORME, MESHY and even the MY in EMMY as possible Easter Eggs.?
NARCISSISM took a while to fill and spell properly. My first thought with the NA that I had was NAvel gazing, but it wouldn’t fit or perp.
U changed to O in RHINOCEROS. We usually have the shortened Rhino.
MAMMA MIA again!
I smiled at WAND after our Wander yesterday.
Word changed to PEEP; Resin changed to ROSIN.
That laptop wasn’t an Acer.
MESHY was a little MEH-y.
How does Latest=NEWS?
Wishing you all a great day.
Lucina- I remembered YURI.
Sherry- I am confused by your statement about MARMEE. Like YR, I know her as being in both the book and the movies.
YR- thanks for explaining NEWS.
OwenKL, get better soon, we miss your poems!
Me and my shadow?
Easy peasy monday level puzzle, except I never saw the theme. Filled in too fast.
I saw "me and my shadow," and directly above it, "daytimeemmy," which contained me, and my, which sent me off on the wrong tangent...
Learning moment : MarmeeMarch
( except this is not something I wanted to learn about...)
Bicycle spokes "is" something I enjoyed learning about, especially when it had a practical application. My rear wheel was rubbing the brakes, and just a quarter turn looser, while a quarter turn tighter on the very next spoke, made for a very true (and round) wheel. (Always loosen and tighten in pairs). Anon-T, do you true your own wheels?
FLN,
Never really got into banana peppers, as rather than sliced, I prefer to eat the whole thing, seeds and all. So pepperoncini has always been my go to choice. If it's sliced, I prefer to go straight to pickled jalapeños... the only problem is I am too lazy to make them myself from scratch, so I get store bought, which can be disappointing, as many of the store bought brines can be bitter.
My fav has to be Clausens pickles because of their brine.
So much so, that I would spend extra for the Clausens, and when done save the juice to pickle (just about anything!)
You can re use the brine many times for pickling veggies, with the exception of onions. It makes the the onions taste great, but the onions make the brine bitter...
One other thing I have found is that you can greatly improve store bought peproncini (depending on the brand) by adding diced garlic and letting it sit for a couple of days.
Always nice to see the byline of the talented Ed Sessa, his offerings are always a pleasure! Managed a FIR in 14:40, about average for a Wednesday. I agree D-O, putting RHINOCEROS and NARCISSISM in the same 15X15 is quite the feat! A few unknowns, MARMEEMARCH and RENEÉ were fairly easily perped, and I agree that “Atlanta Dream co-owner Montgomery” was quite the stretch in clueing.
Dr. Ed ~~ sorry to see the devastation on Sanibel, paradise lost for now 😔. We dodged a bullet in Punta Gorda just a few miles away where we have a condo, mostly minor damage that is repairable. We were in Michigan so didn’t experience the wrath of Ian, but going down next week to aid our association any way we can.
Melissa ~~ as always a very informative and entertaining synopsis, thank you for your time and effort putting it together!
I did know YURI, he made one orbit of 🌎 making him an instant celebrity and hero in the USSR, not so much in the US cuz it gave them the lead in the space race. Ironically after all that, he died in a plane crash.
Are RESIN and ROSIN the same thing??
Edward in Los Angeles here….
Too much math, too early in the morning.
It is so nice to have Ed Sessa here with one of his interesting puzzles. I FIR, but had to correct Uri to YURI and my original mis-spelling of RHINOCEROS.
I’ve read Little Women over and over as well as enjoying the movies, and Marmee, their intrepid and loving mother, is central to the story. Although the family name is March, I’ve never heard her referred to as Marmee March. A fun spinoff, published fairly recently, is “March”, featuring the father and his experiences away from the family.
Thank you SO much, Ed, for the challenge, and thank you , Melissa, for the very thorough and entertaining tour.
Your puzzles are always a pleasure, many thanks, Ed. And thank you too, for your delightful commentary, Melissa.
Yes, I too remembered YURI Gagarin.
Wondered if the RHINOCEROS and the BISON became friends and decided to DETER any SNITS, which would surely be an ASSET for them. In return the zoo keeper gave them a treat of their favorite dessert, CORN SYRUP. That made MR.ED and the Chilean sea BASS a bit jealous.
Have a great day, everybody.
Who could do better justice to the song than Peggy Lee
👤
Like I said a hauntingly melancholy, depressing song, didn't like listening to it when I was a kid.
"Me and my Shadow
Just a heads up to those interested,
I have been trying to find out what happened to the Naples Fl pier.
(I unfortunately just found out)
after being repaired from Hurricane Irma
after Hurricane Ian
All the sand they used to to recently widen the beach, is now spread many blocks inland making it look like flooded broken houses in a desert...
It's a real mess...
Wonder if we'll get "Funny woman _______ Sykes" anytime soon?
Hi All!
Nope. 7 down xing 15a was not going to happen. DNF.
Thanks Ed for the fun puzzle. Nice to see you back constructing and thanks for your messages of post-Ian safety to HG.
I missed the ME EM bit of the theme (never looked for it after giving up in the North) but I like it.
Thanks mb for enlightening my Natick; fun expo too -- good 'rule of thumb' re: BISON and LOL TSA comic.
WOs: I was headed for cain [sic] sugar b/f CORN SYRUP.
ESPs: [see: DNF], MARMEE MARCH, spelling RHINO-CEROS & NARCISSSSSISM, GINO, RENEE
Fav: Tom HANKS - a national treasure.
I also liked GOES DEEP crossing the ROSIN bag the pitcher throws in a SNIT after giving-up yard.
I normally don't watch guest interviews on the late-night shows. I made and exception for Christine Amanpour on The Daily Show.
Lucina - like YR said, anyone who's into space exploration, knows of Yuri.
CED - I've never had a reason to true my wheels. If I do though, now I know. Thx.
Back to work. Cheers, -T
Awful lot of names, many of which I had no clue. Kylo Ren? Oy. Held off on ULAN because clue says “Former spelling” and I thought it was the CURRENT spelling. One of the names I DID know (I thought) I still got wrong: ILYA:ILIE. Second Oy. I count 17 names. Anyway, did manage to FIR, but it took MB to show me the theme.
Too much math? Really? Where?…wondering.
Mr. Sessa provides today's XWD, interpreted by melissa bee.
DNF, because I fell into the RESIN trap. ROSIN is processed differently and more labor-intensively than resin. I not only believed they were the same, I thought there was only one spelling! That is what prevented me from "seeing" the answer to 39D.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (13 of 15) refers to an imagined re-make of the new Universal release, Bros.
By critics' accounts, this Gay Rom-Com is tastefully made. But today's anagram seems to anticipate a more vulgar--not to say pornographic--version, a very...
"CRASS BROMANCE"!
Thanks anon@7:23 and others, you are correct - my brain tried to make that DEED to fit the theme.
What a clever puzzle -- loved it. Thanks, Dr. Ed, and Melissa!
Thank you, Dr. Ed, for the fun puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for the explanation of the theme. I didn't see it on my own.
I had most of the issues others have mentioned.
42a Pitcher's bagful/ROSIN People who play the violin, viola or cello use rosin on their bows so the hair of the bow will grab the strings. How and why to rosin your bow.
Fav: 52d 1960's horse/Mr Ed For some unknown reason, someone at the shelter named a dog Mr Ed! This one doesn't talk but he's a sweetheart. Mr. Ed. I can't link just one dog so you'll have to scroll down the page to find him.
Owen, I hope you regain your health soon.
I hope everyone has a great day!
Owen, wishing the best of health for you.
I liked this puzzle, especially fill such as CORN SYRUP, NARCISSISM, and RHINOCEROS.
MARMEE always makes me think of that jammie stuff that is spread on toast. TIRE MARKS invokes in my mind an image of poor ole Wile E. Coyote.
Many years ago LW and I had the great pleasure of seeing/hearing Mel TORME and George Shearing in concert together. Amazing how Mel's voice and George's piano blended so well.
Hand up for getting a smile at WAND.
Good wishes to you all.
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