3. Academy Award category: BEST ACTRESS. CATS
18. "Great to find that out": GLAD I ASKED. AIDA
20. Eclectic online digest: UTNE READER. RENT
26. Au pair: LIVE-IN NANNY. ANNIE
24. Arrives, and an apt description of the sets of circled letters: SHOWS UP.
Melissa here. I'm putting the grid up top, so you can see C.C.'s clever gimmick. The circled letters, read UP, are all Broadway SHOWS.
Across:
1. Flash __: impromptu gatherings: MOBS. One of my all-time favorite flash-mobs, even though it's quite old now.
5. Chew like a squirrel: GNAW
9. Pretzel topping: SALT.
13. Pentathlete's sword: EPEE. The five events in the modern pentathlon—fencing, swimming, horse riding, pistol shooting, and running—were chosen to reflect skills that cavalry soldiers of the 19th-century ought to possess and refine.
14. Low opera voice: BASSO. From Wiki: Basso profondo (Italian: "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo, contrabass or oktavist, is the lowest bass voice type. Below: Basso Profondo Trio - Song of the Volga Boatmen.
15. Joshua __ National Park: TREE. Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park.
16. Swell: RISE.
17. "Your work is awesome!": I'M A HUGE FAN. When I met my son's new girlfriend, she said "I'm a huge fan of your work," meaning my son. How can I not love her?
19. Overstep boundaries, perhaps: INTRUDE.
21. Civil rights activist Baker: ELLA. Who was Ella Baker?
22. Beverage brewed in a chawan: TEA. What Makes a Bowl a Chawan?
23. "The Bone Garden" novelist Gerritsen: TESS.
25. City that hosts the State Fair of Texas: DALLAS.
29. Fifth of a nickel: CENT.
31. Round of applause: HAND.
33. Aggravate: IRK. And 40A just a few below ...
34. "I'll handle this": LET ME.
36. __-Free: contact lens solution: OPTI.
37. By way of: VIA.
38. Fact-checker's catch: ERROR.
39. Leave stunned: AWE.
40. Troubled to no end: ATE AT. 1) Annoyed 2) Annoyed greatly 3) Annoyed no end 4) Annoyed persistently 5) Bedeviled 6) Bothered 7) Bothered a lot 8) Bothered a lot 9) Bothered big-time 10) Bothered constantly 11) Bothered deeply 12) Bothered greatly 13) Bothered incessantly 14) Bothered nigglingly 15) Bothered no end 16) Bothered persistently.
42. Thanos, to the Avengers: FOE. Supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
43. Those, in Spanish: ESOS.
45. "Say cheese!": SMILE.
46. QB stats: TDS.
47. Org. fighting for LGBTQ rights: ACLU. What do we want? An end to acronyms! When do we want it? ASAP!
48. Garlic's covering: SKIN. For a few years I lived in Gilroy, just on the other side of the fence from one of the Christopher Ranch garlic processing plants. When they were drying, it would literally rain pieces of the paper skins for days.
49. Emphatic agreement: YES I DO.
51. Washed-out: PALE.
53. Go out for a bit?: NAP. Cute.
56. Light in signs: NEON.
58. Text from a glum chum: SAD FACE. There's an emoji for most everything. 🧄
60. Gala celebrating the Academy Awards: OSCAR PARTY.
64. Heavy burden: ONUS.
65. Like ground chicken: LEAN.
66. Dubai dignitaries: EMIRS.
67. Fully aware of: ONTO.
68. Palm fruit: DATE.
69. Promotional sample: DEMO.
70. Turns blue, maybe: DYES. The image that popped into my head was Violet, from Willy Wonka.
1. Deserve: MERIT.
2. Offer one's two cents: OPINE.
4. One with a crystal ball: SEER.
5. Go and Go Fish: GAMES.
6. Org. that uses cryptanalysis: NSA. National Security Agency.
7. Arthur in the International Tennis Hall of Fame: ASHE.
8. "__ that be nice!": WOULDN'T.
9. Real bargain: STEAL.
10. Bark: ARF.
11. Field for grazing: LEA.
12. Value of a Q tile, in Scrabble: TEN. Trivia: The highest score ever achieved for a single move in a Scrabble tournament was by Cathy Evans of Redbridge, Essex, who played QUETZALS for 365 points during the November 1986 Letchworth Open Scrabble Tournament.
14. Bathroom fixture: BIDET.
27. Sans serif typeface: ARIAL. Font and design geeks will enjoy this documentary all about Helvetica. You can watch the whole thing free here.
28. Go rollerblading: SKATE.
30. Music genre that spawned screamo: EMO. Never heard of screamo.
32. Donkey Kong, e.g.: APE.
34. Southpaw: LEFTY. How Did Lefties Become Known as 'Southpaws'?
35. Wear down: ERODE.
39. Yahoo! alternative: AOL. Not so much an alternative. According to Wikipedia: AOL is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc.
41. "Spare us the details!": Abbr.: TMI. Too Much Information.
44. Served, as ice cream: SCOOPED.
48. Brings down the house: SLAYS.
50. Plain silly: INANE.
52. Four-footed Jetson: ASTRO. The Jetson's family pet.
55. Guadalajara cash: PESOS. And 29A CENT.
57. January or June: NAME. Sneaky.
59. Something to chew on: FOOD. And 5A GNAW.
60. Like antiques: OLD.
61. Zooplankton's habitat: SEA.
62. Litter box visitor: CAT. And ASTRO, just above at 52A.
63. Hoop's outer edge: RIM.
37 comments:
Outstanding CW from our fearless leader. Clever, and only a few proper names! I knew ASHE and ASTRO, ELLA and TESS perped in w/o too much fuss. What’s not to like? FIR in 20, with no W/Os! Thanx, C.C. And thanx too to Melissa for the outstanding write-up.
Good morning!
It's been a while since C.C. has graced the pages of the LAT. Zip, Zip, Done. Forgot to look at the circles, but it was just as well. Thought AIDA was an outlier -- nope, it was a Broadway show from 2000 with music by Elton John. Who gnu? (Probably everybody.) DALLAS was back for an encore. (Yesterday it was BIG-D. Houston and Dallas are natural enemies.) ELLA Baker was a learning moment. Thanx, C.C. and Melissa Bee.
Hi Y'all! Oh, goody, a fast & fun puzzle from C.C. Thought the theme was clever & liked the reveal in the middle of things. Thanks for a great start to my day!
Thanks also to Melissa for a great expo. Loved the BASSO clip. "Song of the Volga Boatmen" (Yo yo heave ho!) was one of my favorite piano pieces to play over & over again as a child who hated piano practice. IRKed my piano teacher mother no end.
Was surprised to see CAT & CATS both in the grid.
FIR, but erased ariel for ARIAL. UNTIE! DNK ELLA, TESS and Thanos
Like melissa, I immediately thought of that Beach Boys tune.
My mom's NAME was May.
I have a couple of unopened bottles of OPTI Free Pure Moist after my ophthalmologist gave me a sample. Turns out that sterile saline works better for me. I used tap water to rinse my contacts for decades, until my contact-fitting optometrist recoiled with horror when she saw me do that. Turns out that I was risking an acanthamoeba infection. (TMI - I have terrible astigmatism in my left eye that requires a hard contact. Can't be corrected with glasses or soft lenses.)
The biathlon is my favorite Olympic event. Participants must get their bodies revved up for cross-country skiing, then s-l-o-w everything down for rifle shooting, then get revved up again for the next leg of skiing.
Thanks to CC for A CUTE puzzle, and to melissa b for the interesting and entertaining review.
E asy puzzle for me today as it only took me 3:41.
S eemed like a Monday-level.
A ll clues were fair and good.
E veryone else seemed to agree, at least so far.
R eader is usually part of the clue for "Utne", but nice to see it all as the answer.
G ood puzzle, CC, I'm a huge fan.
This felt like a Monday puzzle that couldn't run on Monday because they had to go with the Halloween theme. IMAHUGEFAN was a top-notch bonus entry.
Once I got the reveal “shows up “ I went back and looked at the circles, and they suddenly made sense. And , at first, I had “live-in nurse” instead of “live-in nanny” but I figured the show CC was referencing was “Annie” so I fixed that forthwith. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, got the theme early on and the rest was smooth sailing.
Good morning. Thank you, C.C., and thank you, Melissa
I'm not sure that there is as much effort as there once was in scheduling puzzles M-F these days. Not that it's better or worse; it's just different. We get what we get, and I'm fine with that. Plus, I'm always happy to see a C.C. puzzle.
Timely: Aggravate: IRK and Troubled to no end: ATE AT - Spammers hitting the blog. At least 45 attempts in the last 24 hours. The filter caught most, but I think 7 got published before being removed. I've taken additional steps to hopefully slow that crap down. PSA: If it looks odd, or has unassociated links, don't open them. Also, don't click on the sender's name to check it out.
"What do we want? An end to acronyms! When do we want it? ASAP!" - made me chuckle.
Quetzals is a new term to me. I knew the bird - at leats visually. I read about them. Then about other English words from Nahuatl
True, Dallas is getting a little too much airtime here lately. :-)
Was June Cleaver the perfect 50's mom ?
I'M A HUGE FAN of C.C. but where did she come UP with this gimmick? Great job. Normally I don't look at the circles as they tend to give away clues and fills but in this instance I would not have noticed it since I don't read bottom to top. But the puzzle was easy to fill with a few unknowns. ELLA Baker, TESS Gerritsen, FOE (a WAG), TEA (another WAG),
When ATEAT was filled by perps without reading the clue, A TEAT looked like a mistake until ATE AT was seen. Melissa, 17 would be "Past tense of GNAW". 18 would be "got under one's SKIN"
Jinx, Don JANUARY was a pro golfer, MARCH Smith was a customer of mine, APRIL is a friend of my daughter, MAY is a cousin, JUNE was the wife of my boss, JULIE plays pickleball with us, DW's nephew has a 6-mo old named AUGUST names after Uncle AUGUST. Don't know anybody named Feb, Sept, Oct. Nov or Dec.
What a relief to get a FIR today, thanks to C.C.'s excellent puzzle! My two WOs were, once again, due to not checking perps before writing: app/APE and in on/ONTO. Easily fixed before moving on. And having clues like "swell" with several meanings kept the puzzle from being boring and too easy.
Thanks for to Melissa B as well for her illustrative review of the puzzle and theme. No complaints from me about the circles today. They were helpful.
I saw what you did with GREASE, Anonymous @ 7:18 AM. Up to your tricks as usual.
Jinx, I had a similar experience during the 58 years I wore hard contacts, including astigmatism in the left eye.
FLN: Good to hear from you, D4E4H. Glad you are doing better!
Middle of the week already. Have a wonderful day!
Good Morning:
I don’t think I have ever been disappointed in a puzzle crafted by CC, not in the theme, the cluing, nor the fill. I particularly enjoy her puzzles with down themers because they usually keep you guessing longer, although today’s circles and reveal placement were obvious giveaways. I’m not as anti-circle as SS, but I think today’s lessened the Wednesday difficulty level. IMO, the solver would get more satisfaction in searching out the shows, their “up” locations clearly indicated by the reveal.
Another trademark of CC’s construction skills is the use of strong, declarative phrases, i.e, I’m A Huge Fan, Let Me, Yes I Do, and Glad I Asked. These really add liveliness to the fill. Speaking of fill, the proper nouns weren’t excessive nor obscure, and the three letter words were relatively low in number, with only a few not actual words, e.g., abbreviations, acronyms, or initialisms. My unknowns were Ella, as clued, and Opti. I stumbled over After Party/Oscar, In On/On To, and Lead Actress/Best. The bottom row D trio caught my eye: Date/Demo/Dyes.
Thanks, CC, for the enjoyable solve and thanks, Melissa, for the enjoyable and enlightening review.
FLN
Dave, so nice to hear from you. I hope your recent setback is behind you and that you’ll stop by again soon.
Anon T, sorry your Asteroids* disappointed you.
(*I almost fell out of my chair laughing at that!)
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, C.C. and melissa.
I FIRed and saw the plays (oh SHOWs) going UP.
Clever. (Would have been even better if they had been Oscar movie SHOWs to go with OSCAR PARTY and BEST ACTRESS.)
Things moved along quickly until the South.
My After party changed to OSCAR (hi IM). In On changed to ONTO, SAD Sack changed to FACE (ok i need an emoji).
Any unknowns perped, which is how CWs should work!
I had no idea about chawan but TEA perped. Thanks for the link, melissa. Learning moment.
Did anyone else see 5 spaces and start to enter Tenor. No, go lower (not UP) with BASSO.
I have heard June as a NAME, but January (ok, Big Easy has an example, but it is a surname).
I had the Big D and entered DALLAS. Hi d’o.
Hand up for thinking of the Beach Boys’ tune.
Anon@7:18- great acronym
FLN- good to hear from you D4. Sorry to hear about your setback; hope things continue to improve.
Wishing you all a great day.
No SAD FACE here. Loved this CW. We can always rely on the construction skills of CC. I too stumbled on ATEAT, until I separated it.
Thanks d-o for finding AIDA as a show because I too thought it was an outlier which surprised me because CC is always so meticulous.
We used to do the drive between Monterrey and Carmel frequently in August and driving by Gilroy was always an olfactory treat.
CanadianEh!, January Finley was a female coworker. Nobody called her "Jan."
Greetings on All Soul's Day to All you OLD Souls
FIR but I didn't get over the Humpday theme and I've actually seen all those shows on B'way. 😏 Fun puzzle C C , (like you have nothing else on your mind, thanks for entertaining us)
The only 3 letter brew I know is TEA. "Screamo?" C'mon... Didn't know Gerritson. . Flash MOBS? Can't quite figure how a one-on- one sword fight figures into a pentathelon.
WOULDN'T it be nice if to hear a recording of one of my fav Beach Boy Songs 🎵..Thanks Melissa 😊
INANE(H) got a CWSO
June, name? yes (June Cleaver) but January? Just actress Jones (Madmen). Actually Januarius is the English translation of San Gennaro the famous Neopolitan saint with the NYC feast day celebration. I had a great Aunt Jenny (Gennara) so indirectly another lady named "January" (Gennaro is old Italian for Gennaio = the month of January. )
Lately "what fact checkers catch" are lies.🤨 LETME or will I be fooled with lemme like I am lotsa times
Just had BIG D...(Dallas)...hmmm
You can get to Rome via VIA Appia.
Opposite of Yeah....GNAW
Proves better than...SHOWS UP
Dinner is ____ ....ONUS
No idea, Haven't ____ ....ACLU
Liquid residual in a chawan....LEFTY.
What you'll find in Santa's garage...SLAYS
Betcha all get🥱 tired 😴 of comments that are just peppered 🌶🌶 with EMOJIS 🤨...
😁
FLW, I just aaw WAGYU ground beef at Aldis
I had Guess/GAMES which messed me up UT I needed an A for BASSO
Here's the definitive story of the origin of "Portsider" and "Southpaw"
[Lefty Sprocket was injured ]
Thus it was no surprise to see him drinking heavily again
A jug of wine in one arm, in the other a fifth of gin.
"From what side does Sprockett throw, that rummy?"
"He's a Lefty, so his Port side you dummy?"
"Is Sprockett the fastest pitcher you ever saw?"
"Do I fear that bum?. That Souse? Pshaw!"
And so new baseball lexicon was born in the Bangor Bulletin
And the wilds of Maine will surely never see his like again.
Lefty Sprockett was popularized on Boston's WHDH by Norm Nathan
I remember Augustus Mutt(a friend of Jeff) and Augie Donatelli an MLB Ump
Yes,Monday got switched with Wednesday
WC
Ps, I never looked UP for the SHOWS until the end
Big E, C-Eh! - Don't forget Don Draper's (of Mad Men fame) wife, played by the lovely JANUARY Jones.
Edward. Los Angeles
I love my dyslexia…40A I kept reading
as “A TEAT”
Definitely a Monday(ish) puzzle,
Why not on Monday? Halloween?
Maybe, but I think it is because Boomer would have to recuse himself...
Shows up, hmm, no visual links out there silly enough...
But it does make me think that the Pixar (Disney?) movie "Up" would be better as a play, than the inevitable "show on ice..."
TTP asks: Was June Cleaver the perfect 50's mom ?
(Boy, are you opening a can of worms...)
According to The Gilmore Girls, that would have to be Donna Reed.
but you have to insert your own dialogue.
(They even had an entire episode, where Rory dresses up for "Donna Reed Day!")
Thank you C.C. for a delightfully easy Wednesday puzzle. Figured out what the circles were UP TO right away, as I AM HUGE FAN of vertical themes.
And thank you Melissa for an informative, entertaining, and sometimes inspiring review.
A few favs:
21A ELLA. Did not know her and I'm GLAD YOU ASKED us to read the link. I suspect there are thousands of civil rights saints out there that we don't know about.
22A TEA. Thanks for the CERAMICS lesson. I knew some of this, but the article added so much more. The British potter Bernard Leach, who spent his early years in Japan, drew the inspiration for much of his work from the Japanese tea ceremony. Here is one of his chawan bowls. Leach was instrumental in the revival of crafts in England after the Industrial Revolution. His influence also spread to the US and a revival of crafts that began in California.
ASIDE: MATCHA TEA contains a substance that interferes with beta blockers used to treat high blood pressure. I take my BP everyday and I discovered this when I started adding it to my morning smoothies. IIRC I first learned about MATCHA from crosswords.
47A ACLU. The First Amendment should protect free speech, but not WPA ("Wanton Proliferation of Acronym").
53A NAP. I'm out for the count right after this post.
12D TEN. My youngest sister is a SCRABBLE fiend. I've yet to beat her. Anybody know where/how QUETZLS was played on the board and if it had any crosses?
34D LEFTY. This fill was filled by my LEFT hand.
57D NAME. AUGUST is another one.
Cheers,
Bill
D-O @5:35 AM 'RENT" was another musical based on an opera, although the title was taken from a single word uttered in Act I of La Boheme.
Anonymous @ 7:18 AM Cute!
Hand up enjoyed this SHOWS UP puzzle by our creative leader. Hand up thought "PLAYS" before "SHOWS". Never heard of JANUARY as a NAME.
Here is my video of a FLASH MOB that filled the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Garden last week for Halloween!
We get plenty of ZOOPLANKTON in our local SEA that sometimes makes the water glow at night. Fun to walk on the shore and leave glowing footprints.
Thanks d’o and Ray-o (and Jinx, but Ray-o beat you) for confirming that January really is used as a first name.
Delightful Wednesday puzzle, and so exciting to see C.C. as the constructor. Weeks don't start any better with this, when we have Boomer on Monday followed quickly by C.C. And always enjoy your commentary, Melissa, thanks for that too.
Lots of fun events in this puzzle, with MOBS of folks showing up for that OSCAR PARTY, yelling "I'M A HUGE FAN" every time a celebrity SHOWS UP to STEAL the show, and cheering when one of them wins the award for BEST ACTRESS (while some others have a pretty SAD FACE). Hey, LET ME just say that the winner did MERIT her award.
Have a great day, everybody.
Another fun CC puzzle. I didn't know the online digest nor the novelist's name so the circles helped me complete all. I especially liked going out for a bit! Good one. GC
Thanks C.C. for the fun puzzle and Melissa for the interesting links!
I liked the vertical theme and the circles were a big help to fill 20D.
I'M A HUGE FAN of clues like 5D and 57D. Well, "huge" might be overstating a bit, but they do make me SMILE when I come across them.
FAV: Go out for a bit?
My trick for remembering the Japanese word "chawan" is switching its syllables sort of makes "wanchan", an affectionate word for a pet dog. As can happen in a foreign country, making small talk about my dog with native speakers became my forte.)
Annon@7:18 Nicely done!
TTP. Thanks for monitoring the Blog and keeping us safe from spammers!
FLN, David, thank you for the heads up about National Peanut Butter Lover's Month! I will be sure to celebrate appropriately!
so sorry solvers, for omitting the space in ATE AT in the writeup - it's been corrected :)
Musings
-Spectrum had a state-wide outage this morning and I am just now getting connected after doing C.C.’s lovely puzzle at 8 am.
-The SHOWS, uh, showed up immediately and the gimmick was fun!
-TTP, thanks for the shoutout last night! We were thrilled beyond words to see our cousin/former student Alec Bohm hit a homerun last night! He still looks so young around the grizzled veterans!
-ERROR – Every Saturday morning I check to see if my proofreader (read: ME) messed up.
-An OSCAR PARTY might have made sense to us twenty years ago when movies were entertaining.
-MERIT pay for teachers: I’ve had principals who would have put me on very different places on a pay scale
-NBA basketball that is played only above the RIM or from beyond the three point line holds no interest for me.
-Vintage Carol Burnette and Juiie Anderews singing about Big D, little a, double L, a, s
Hola!
Thank you, C.C., for the intriguing puzzle and thank you, Melissa, for the informative narrative. Love those BASSOs. No SAD FACE here. It's all good. I'M A HUGE FAN OF YOU both.
Last night I was plagued with insomnia so, of course, slept later today. Sigh.
ESOS is a gimme but had to wait for a or o. Right. ESOS.
Not exactly a Flash MOB but in Barcelona one year after coming out from church one Sunday, the entire congregation suddenly started swaying and singing then some musicians appeared seemingly from nowhere and a PARTY started!
Of the SHOWS noted, I've only seen ANNIE and CATS. The late Nell Carter was in CATS.
Canadian Eh, I see that someone already mentioned JANUARY Jones. My ex son-in-law went to school with her in South Dakota.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!
It is nice to be home and to have such an enjoyable puzzle and wonderful recap to help dissipate the jet lag. Thank you both, C.C. and Melissa.
Oopa. No. Nell Carter was in ANNIE. I guess I was till sleepy when I posted.
melissa bee does the honors for C.C.'s Wednesday PZL.
Not only a fine vertical theme today, but a diagonal theme as well. See today's Diagonal Report.*
TESS Gerritsen was a feature fill in the last NY Times crossword. Small world.
58A had me for a bit. Probably because I am still not comfortable with sending emojis--pictures in place of text. I don't even think of pix as "text," which I reserve for verbiage. They seem childish to me.
Let me try one.
🤪
- Ugh.
See what I mean?
~ OMK
____________
*DR: One diagonal on the far side.
WOULDN'T you know it? C.C. has included an anagram (14 of 15 letters) that shows her to be a SEER.
She must know that I recently acquired a special drizzler to attach to the top of my wine bottle, shaped to aerate my wine as it is poured.
Her anagram might serve as a cautionary direction, how best to employ said drizzler.
It reads...
"DECANT FACE DOWN"!
How wise...
I liked this puzzle and everyone's comments.
Jinx- as for the name January, I've never seen the show "Mad Men". Only know of Draper from doing crosswords.
I guess I am the only person who thought June and January were NAMEs of months and didn't look for people named January.
Finally had a chance to do the puzzle after a full day of travel: leave the house at 4:20 am to get to SEA-TAC - connected to Denver delayed flight in Denver - Denver to KC- stopped at my mom's for an hour to eat a late lunch - then 2 1/2 hr drive home in time to get to a meeting - and finally home.- need to prep for work tomorrow!!
Nothing to much to add- usually I could say "whatever D-O said" but today it was "whatever Ray-O said"
Lots of fun music with Melissa's blog post - Beach Boys song is very dated - as most of the young people live together and aren't waiting for anything for after marriage.
Thanks CC for a fun puzzle - I'm a big fan of musicals - and thanks for the CSO.
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