Sorry to tell you folks, you're stuck with me again.
I'm not sure what's on C.C.'s plate, but I'm sure she needs a break regardless.
I knew there was a reason I don't do Sunday puzzles, and now I remember - too many words for this dyslexic. //I clued a Sunday LAT with C.C. once... Once! [Johnny Dangerously]
OK, let's get going...
Opposite Day!
The Constructors take in-the-vernacular phrases and flips one word opposite for whimsy. Take a look:23. Drill sergeant, perhaps?: PRIVATE ENEMY NUMBER ONE. As opposed to Public Enemy Number One - aka the dude on the Wanted poster.
A Drill Sgt's goal is to get the platoon to work as a team. He makes it a point to become the PVTs' common enemy. Ask me how I know. #GoArmy
36. Collective action by society women?: DEBUTANTE STRIKE. As opposed to a Debutante Ball - think baseball's strikes & balls.
49. Farm bird that never topples?: NO FALL CHICKEN. No Spring Chicken - we ain't getting any younger.
66. Amendment proposed by a technophile?: RIGHT TO ONES OWN DEVICES. Left To One's Own Devices - only using what (little) God gave you.
Lawsuits were filed and folks won the right-to-repair. [See: Apple / Deere lawsuits. Interesting story: when Russians stole Ukrainian farm equipment, John Deere remotely disabled all of them.]
78. Like a typical ride on a mechanical bull?: A FEW BUCKS LONG. A Few Bucks Short - not enough money to ride the bull again.
92. Endure within a group of peers?: LAST AMONG EQUALS. First Among Equals - The Crème de la Crème (in your circle) or to last through/put-up with their airs.
109. Death and taxes, per Benjamin Franklin?: UNIVERSAL BASIC OUTCOME. Universal Basic Income - what some in D.C. argue for instead of what out-goes every April 15th (when's Canada's tax due, C,Eh!?).
A very cute and well-executed theme. Debutante STRIKE threw me for a while 'cuz I was thinking, "what's opposite for Deb?"
And now, for the rest of the fill:
Across:
1. Cat's attention-getter, maybe: PAW. Some Cornites report their cats paw them awake them for their (cats') breakfast.
4. Car once advertised as a "well-built Swede": SAAB. A man called Ove cherished his.
8. Endpoint for some boots and skirts: THIGH. Just above the (67d) TIBIA.
13. Like cookies soon after the Cookie Monster spots them: EATEN. Nom, nom, nom.
18. Equine parent: SIRE. The daddy-horse that begat.
20. Anti-censorship org.: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union. I wanted EFF (fights for right-to-repair) before I saw I needed to ink four squares.
21. Provençal mayo: AIOLI. Garlic and oil mayonnaise.
22. Only just: NEWLY. Minted.
23. [See: Theme]
27. New York, for one: STATE. And a city, and a county.
Ghost Busters - City, County, and, STATE
28. Lubricate: GREASE. For the squeaky-wheel.
29. Return: PROFIT. One's ROI [Return On Investment].
30. Audrey Hopburn letters: IPA. Indian Pale Ale. I assume this is a beer. Note the Hop(s) and not Hep.
31. Distribution parties: ISSUERS. People handing out stuff, not galas with swag.
34. Ellington composition: RAG. Duke.
Soda Fountain Rag
35. Inning's trio?: ENS. Not OUTs - There's three 'N's in iNNiNG. I'd like to speak with management about these types of clues/answers :-)
36. [See: Theme]
41. French bread?: EURO. Bread, dough, money. France was one of the first countries to eschew their currency and adopt the Euro on 1 Jan 1999.
43. Part of an underwater forest: KELP. Dried & spiced, it's Eldest's favorite snack.
44. One-eighty: UIE. U-turn.
45. Movie trailer?: CREDITS. Cute.
47. Pick up: DETECT. Sense. You have five (or six if you're "special").
49. [See: Theme]
55. Wrath: IRE. The IRE of Khan [Star Trek] doesn't have the same ring to it.
Khaaaaan!
56. Honeycomb unit: CELL.
57. Rep. from the Bronx: AOC. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the representative from the City of the New York. //Remember - no politics :-)
58. WWF, e.g.: NGO. World Wildlife Fund is a Non-Governmental Organization.
World Wrestling Federation lost a lawsuit to the NGO inre: WWF moniker so now they're WWE (Entertainment) - that ordeal made a comic Hahtoolah posted a bit back very LOL.
59. Mountain goats' terrain: CRAGS.
62. Temperamental: MOODY.
63. Org. with the largest-circulation magazine in the U.S.: AARP. American Association of Retired Persons. Bzzt - you don't have to be retired for them to start sending you membership forms when you hit 50 :-) //and how do they know?
65. Corner store: MART.
66. [See: Theme]
70. Cut and paste, say: EDIT. Editing commands to a computer (CTRL-C & CTRL-V / CMD-C & CMD-V [Apple]) or what folks physically did (with scissors & GLUE (11d)) before going to press.
71. Ibex range: ALPS. CRAGS there, too, I bet.
72. Drops: OMITS. Leaves out.
73. Invite for: ASK TO. A bit gluey fill, no?
74. Gretchen of "Boardwalk Empire": MOL. I've never watched this so ESP (Every. Single. Perpendicular.) #1.
75. La Liga cheer: OLE. LaLiga is Spain's futbal division. Only English speakers add the space between La and Liga. I guessed the fill but thank Google for the expo.
76. Contact __: LENS.
77. Carol contraction: 'TIS the season to be jolly...
78. [See: Theme]
83. Some Japanese TVs: SANYOS.
86. "I don't care!": SO SUE ME. Can't get blood from a turnip.
87. Terr. divided in 1889: DAK. Into North & South DAKotas.
88. Kiwi-shaped: OVAL. The fruit, not the bird nor the people of New Zealand.
90. Color of Montana's flag: BLUE. Hi, Montana!
92. [See: Theme]
97. __ carte: ALA.
98. "Hair Love" voice actress Issa: RAE. ESP #2
100. Strapless bralette: BANDEAU. ESP #3.
101. "__ Lasso": TED. If you have Apple+ TV, I highly recommend the show. Touching & funny at the same time.
Trailer
102. Passing remark?: GO DEEP. Football - for the "Hail Mary" pass.
104. Slides (over): SCOOTS. Skootch was a letter too long (and shows my Midwest upbringing).
107. Hides in plain sight?: TIPIS. ESP #4. I guess this is an alternate spelling of Tepees(?) made of animal hide. If I'm right (I am, I looked it up), this is really cute.
109. [See: Theme]
114. Contributed: ADDED. Y'all will get your chance to contribute / ADD commentary.
115. French 101 verb: AVOIR. Fr. for Have. //another ESP. #5.
116. Ziggurat level: TIER. I got this from "level." A ziggurat is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. [WikiP]
117. Shoestring catch?: SNAG. A trippy-moment or SNAG'n' a ball near your feet in the outfield? We should be told.
118. Creates a Maillard reaction on a steak, say: SEARS. Interaction of sugars with amino acids. She'll explain:
119. Gave back, as land: CEDED. Tense, -T, tense. See Gave (past) in the clue? (I didn't at first).
120. Be worthy of: EARN. You earned it.
121. Nestlé's __-Caps: SNO.
Down:
1. Nintendo : DS :: Sony : __: PSP. Sony's PlayStation, Portable, 1EA :-) //a joke for the Vets.
2. Measure typically given in knots: AIR SPEED. A nautical mile well above the waters.
3. Like some data disks: WRITABLE. I hope they were at least once writable or there's nothing on them.
4. Chili-based Vietnamese condiment: SATE SAUCE. Looks like very hot salsa.
5. The "A" of LGBTQIA+, for short: ACE. Perps.
6. The "A" of 30-Across: ALE. It's been a while, but remember 30a? It, Audrey Hopburn, was an IPAle.
7. __ cord: BUNGEE.
The Girls loved Veggie Tales (and it was funny)
8. Maximally vanilla: TAMEST. Not fair to vanilla - it's my fav w/ peaches or malted milk (or both!).
9. "Howdy there!": HI YA. HolA fit, didn't it Lucina? My only ink-over.
10. Cyclotron particles: IONS. A Cyclotron is a ring of magnets that speed IONS to near light just to smash 'em into other particles. Subatomic physics. #Fermilabs
11. "I'm rubber, you're __ ... ": GLUE. Your insults bounce off me and stick on you.
12. That guy: HIM. I have a buddy who's "catch-line" was "That guy" as he thumb'd at someone nearby. I was the butt of that bit when we were at .conf in Vegas. He taught me Blackjack, so there's that.
13. Fired up: ENERGETIC.
14. Prefix with Mexico: AERO. Aeromexico is an airline.
15. BOGO deal: TWOFER. Buy-One/Get-One aka a Two-for-One deal. I thank WC talking about his BOGO deals at Publix for knowing this.
16. Weather-affecting Pacific current: EL NINO.
17. Politburo nos: NYETS. Not numbers but NO! in Russia before 1991.
19. Noblezada of "Easter Sunday": EVA. A&E I didn't know. A three-letter actor/actress with EV_ can only end with an A or E. No?
24. Bumping heads: AT IT. A row, a fight, going AT IT.
25. Drops the ball, say: ERRS. Oy! Boss-man: "Where are we regarding..." Me: "D'Oh!, I dropped the ball."
26. __-free plastic: BPA. BisPhenol A is a synthetic organic compound used in making certain plastics. It's thought to be harmful if ingested; they're probably right.
30. Brief "Beats me!": IDK.
Story: I texted Youngest, "When will you be home?" She texts back, "idk"
I respond, "What's idk?"
Youngest: "I don't know"
Me: "Then why would you text me idk if you don't know what idk means?"
The penny dropped a microsecond after I hit send. #EggFace #EmojiGigglesEnsued.
Why would you tell me you have a plethora if you don't know what it means to have a plethora?
32. Fit of pique: SNIT. Yet another ado.
33. Great Basin native: UTE.
34. Sends off the soccer pitch: RED CARDS. Did y'all hear about the ref that Red-Carded himself?
37. Far from relaxed: UPTIGHT.
38. Color TV pioneer: RCA. Hi Misty!
39. Offline, briefly: IRL. In Real Life.
40. Kenan's "Good Burger" co-star: KEL.
42. Sch. that competes against Notre Dame for the Jeweled Shillelagh: USC. ESP #6. University of Southern California. Some history of the trophy.
46. [Crossing my fingers!]: I HOPE. Or, if behind your back, you're telling a lie.
48. German "first": ERST.
49. Bright shades: NEONS. Remember the '80's?
50. Ye __ Shoppe: OLDE.
51. Eschew a co-pilot: FLY SOLO.
52. Real talent: KNACK. With "The" you get My Sharona
53. Wading bird: EGRET.
54. "Au contraire!": NOT SO. Oui, Oui! More French.
56. Member-owned grocery: CO-OP. A COOPerative.
59. Espresso froth: CREMA. I'm assuming Italian spelling of Crème(?) When DW & I were in Italy, I'd just quit smoking (again) so I loved to end the day with espresso & gelatto before our last bit of wine.
60. Free from: RID OF. Toss it if it doesn't bring joy. Or not: I'm just sure I can use this again ;-)
61. Fleet of foot: AGILE.
62. Chemistry class model: MOLECULE.
63. Filling with wonder: AWING. Gluey IMHO.
64. Children's song marchers: ANTS. The ANTS go marching/One by one/The ANTS go...
65. Text in a long-distance relationship, maybe: MISS YOU. Or, just mid-day texts to Significant Other.
67. Tibia neighbor: TALUS. Dem Bones/Dem Bones...
68. Spilled salt, to some: OMEN. Throw a bit over your left-shoulder and the demon goes away, so they say.
"kill -9 all" makes the daemons go away [*nix joke for the techies]
I wrote "kill -9 all | sort -god out" on a buddy's white-board. He left the company 5 years ago, but the quip is still on the wall.
69. Thinking a song is about oneself, say: VAIN. Cue Carly Simon.
75. Music store supply: OBOE REEDS. We get both OBOE and REED in the same fill!
77. Roll the dice, say: TAKE A TURN. My first thought was TAKE A risk.
79. Pacific Northwest sch.: WSU. Washington State University.
80. Hawaiian for "white": KEA. Ok, now the Hawaiian mountain's names make sense.
81. Texting tech: SMS. Short Messaging Service.
82. "If we must die, O __ us nobly die": McKay: LET.
83. Herb used in some smudging rituals: SAGE. DW's PhD department was so toxic - one night, she and fellow candidates took bunched SAGE, lit it, and smudged every office. You could smell the sweet for a week.
84. Big hands?: OVATIONS. Cute - give Brian & Brooke a big round of applause.
85. Word in an Arthur Miller title: SALESMAN. The Death of a...
87. RPG with a 20-sided die: DND. Dungeons-n-Dragons is a Role Playing Game. An icosahedron (20-sided die, aka a 20d) is used to determine chance of survival from an orc / dragon / random-monster attack. Or, if your character is strong, hit-points against a foe. I oft played a Paladin Ranger, so I'd usually end up w/ a 12d (dodecahedron) for hit-points. //the rules have changed since I played the 2nd edition (D&D is now on v5e) and now I have to keep up with Eldest's knowledge.
89. Acid initials: LSD. Lysergic acid diethylamide. More trippy-stuff (or so I am told).
90. Strawberry __: BLONDE. This took forever 'cuz I kept thinking margarita, jam, or preserve. Cue BLONDiE.
Call Me
91. Highfalutin: LA-DI-DA. Mr. Fancy Pants.
93. "All __!": ABOARD. Rise (think court-room) was too short so I got on the train.
94. Rolls in yoga class: MATS.
95. In the office: ON SITE. Post-Covid vaccines, a few departments are still 100% remote, but our team is ON-SITE, IRL, three days a week.
97. __ frescas: fruit drinks: AGUAS.
99. Passover's month, often: Abbr.: APR. April. I was expecting this fill to be in Hebrew. Not that I speak it but, silly me, waited for perps.
103. Even once: EVER. Have you Ever...
That Dog
104. Back up: SAVE. Your data on Writable data disks or in "The Cloud."
105. Graceless one: CLOD. Some days, yes, that's me. //EVER just turn into a wall instead of the doorway thinking you were one step later?
106. Four Tops singer Benson: OBIE. Renaldo "Odie" Benson [WikiP]
108. Some laptops: PCS. Personal ComputerS.
110. __ fly: SAC. Short for Sacrifice. #Baseball! A SAC fly is when there's a runner at 3rd, fewer that 2 outs, and you hit it deep knowing you'll be out but hoping the out-fielder can't get the ball to home before the runner tags-up and takes off. I suppose, with less that two outs, you could SAC to move the runner to 3rd - but that's a risky bet.
111. Spy-fi org.: CIA. Central Intelligence Agency - USA's spooks. //Back in the day, at hacker conferences, we'd play spot-the-spook to figure out who was .gov. Eventually, they started recruiting us :-)
112. Not 'neath: O'ER. Poetry and more carols... "the river and through the woods..."
113. Nwodim of "SNL": EGO. We recently had her in the grid - and I remembered!
Phew! That was a lot of words.
Well, I hope y'all had fun with the grid and the expo.
Thanks Brian & Brooke for the puzzle!
Cheers, -T
Oh, yeah, insert the Grid you Big Dummy.
29. Return: PROFIT. One's ROI [Return On Investment].
30. Audrey Hopburn letters: IPA. Indian Pale Ale. I assume this is a beer. Note the Hop(s) and not Hep.
31. Distribution parties: ISSUERS. People handing out stuff, not galas with swag.
34. Ellington composition: RAG. Duke.
Soda Fountain Rag
35. Inning's trio?: ENS. Not OUTs - There's three 'N's in iNNiNG. I'd like to speak with management about these types of clues/answers :-)
36. [See: Theme]
41. French bread?: EURO. Bread, dough, money. France was one of the first countries to eschew their currency and adopt the Euro on 1 Jan 1999.
43. Part of an underwater forest: KELP. Dried & spiced, it's Eldest's favorite snack.
44. One-eighty: UIE. U-turn.
45. Movie trailer?: CREDITS. Cute.
47. Pick up: DETECT. Sense. You have five (or six if you're "special").
49. [See: Theme]
55. Wrath: IRE. The IRE of Khan [Star Trek] doesn't have the same ring to it.
Khaaaaan!
56. Honeycomb unit: CELL.
 |
| Perfect Little Hexagons |
57. Rep. from the Bronx: AOC. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the representative from the City of the New York. //Remember - no politics :-)
58. WWF, e.g.: NGO. World Wildlife Fund is a Non-Governmental Organization.
World Wrestling Federation lost a lawsuit to the NGO inre: WWF moniker so now they're WWE (Entertainment) - that ordeal made a comic Hahtoolah posted a bit back very LOL.
59. Mountain goats' terrain: CRAGS.
62. Temperamental: MOODY.
63. Org. with the largest-circulation magazine in the U.S.: AARP. American Association of Retired Persons. Bzzt - you don't have to be retired for them to start sending you membership forms when you hit 50 :-) //and how do they know?
65. Corner store: MART.
 |
| Apu's Quick-E-Mart |
66. [See: Theme]
70. Cut and paste, say: EDIT. Editing commands to a computer (CTRL-C & CTRL-V / CMD-C & CMD-V [Apple]) or what folks physically did (with scissors & GLUE (11d)) before going to press.
71. Ibex range: ALPS. CRAGS there, too, I bet.
72. Drops: OMITS. Leaves out.
73. Invite for: ASK TO. A bit gluey fill, no?
74. Gretchen of "Boardwalk Empire": MOL. I've never watched this so ESP (Every. Single. Perpendicular.) #1.
 |
| Gretchen Mol |
75. La Liga cheer: OLE. LaLiga is Spain's futbal division. Only English speakers add the space between La and Liga. I guessed the fill but thank Google for the expo.
76. Contact __: LENS.
77. Carol contraction: 'TIS the season to be jolly...
78. [See: Theme]
83. Some Japanese TVs: SANYOS.
86. "I don't care!": SO SUE ME. Can't get blood from a turnip.
87. Terr. divided in 1889: DAK. Into North & South DAKotas.
88. Kiwi-shaped: OVAL. The fruit, not the bird nor the people of New Zealand.
90. Color of Montana's flag: BLUE. Hi, Montana!
 |
| Montana's State Flag |
97. __ carte: ALA.
98. "Hair Love" voice actress Issa: RAE. ESP #2
100. Strapless bralette: BANDEAU. ESP #3.
101. "__ Lasso": TED. If you have Apple+ TV, I highly recommend the show. Touching & funny at the same time.
Trailer
102. Passing remark?: GO DEEP. Football - for the "Hail Mary" pass.
104. Slides (over): SCOOTS. Skootch was a letter too long (and shows my Midwest upbringing).
107. Hides in plain sight?: TIPIS. ESP #4. I guess this is an alternate spelling of Tepees(?) made of animal hide. If I'm right (I am, I looked it up), this is really cute.
109. [See: Theme]
114. Contributed: ADDED. Y'all will get your chance to contribute / ADD commentary.
115. French 101 verb: AVOIR. Fr. for Have. //another ESP. #5.
116. Ziggurat level: TIER. I got this from "level." A ziggurat is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. [WikiP]
 |
| A Ziggurat |
117. Shoestring catch?: SNAG. A trippy-moment or SNAG'n' a ball near your feet in the outfield? We should be told.
118. Creates a Maillard reaction on a steak, say: SEARS. Interaction of sugars with amino acids. She'll explain:
119. Gave back, as land: CEDED. Tense, -T, tense. See Gave (past) in the clue? (I didn't at first).
120. Be worthy of: EARN. You earned it.
121. Nestlé's __-Caps: SNO.
 |
| Sno-Caps |
Down:
1. Nintendo : DS :: Sony : __: PSP. Sony's PlayStation, Portable, 1EA :-) //a joke for the Vets.
2. Measure typically given in knots: AIR SPEED. A nautical mile well above the waters.
3. Like some data disks: WRITABLE. I hope they were at least once writable or there's nothing on them.
4. Chili-based Vietnamese condiment: SATE SAUCE. Looks like very hot salsa.
5. The "A" of LGBTQIA+, for short: ACE. Perps.
6. The "A" of 30-Across: ALE. It's been a while, but remember 30a? It, Audrey Hopburn, was an IPAle.
7. __ cord: BUNGEE.
The Girls loved Veggie Tales (and it was funny)
8. Maximally vanilla: TAMEST. Not fair to vanilla - it's my fav w/ peaches or malted milk (or both!).
9. "Howdy there!": HI YA. HolA fit, didn't it Lucina? My only ink-over.
10. Cyclotron particles: IONS. A Cyclotron is a ring of magnets that speed IONS to near light just to smash 'em into other particles. Subatomic physics. #Fermilabs
11. "I'm rubber, you're __ ... ": GLUE. Your insults bounce off me and stick on you.
12. That guy: HIM. I have a buddy who's "catch-line" was "That guy" as he thumb'd at someone nearby. I was the butt of that bit when we were at .conf in Vegas. He taught me Blackjack, so there's that.
13. Fired up: ENERGETIC.
14. Prefix with Mexico: AERO. Aeromexico is an airline.
15. BOGO deal: TWOFER. Buy-One/Get-One aka a Two-for-One deal. I thank WC talking about his BOGO deals at Publix for knowing this.
16. Weather-affecting Pacific current: EL NINO.
 |
| Difference between EL NINO & LA NINA |
17. Politburo nos: NYETS. Not numbers but NO! in Russia before 1991.
19. Noblezada of "Easter Sunday": EVA. A&E I didn't know. A three-letter actor/actress with EV_ can only end with an A or E. No?
24. Bumping heads: AT IT. A row, a fight, going AT IT.
25. Drops the ball, say: ERRS. Oy! Boss-man: "Where are we regarding..." Me: "D'Oh!, I dropped the ball."
26. __-free plastic: BPA. BisPhenol A is a synthetic organic compound used in making certain plastics. It's thought to be harmful if ingested; they're probably right.
30. Brief "Beats me!": IDK.
Story: I texted Youngest, "When will you be home?" She texts back, "idk"
I respond, "What's idk?"
Youngest: "I don't know"
Me: "Then why would you text me idk if you don't know what idk means?"
The penny dropped a microsecond after I hit send. #EggFace #EmojiGigglesEnsued.
Why would you tell me you have a plethora if you don't know what it means to have a plethora?
32. Fit of pique: SNIT. Yet another ado.
33. Great Basin native: UTE.
34. Sends off the soccer pitch: RED CARDS. Did y'all hear about the ref that Red-Carded himself?
37. Far from relaxed: UPTIGHT.
38. Color TV pioneer: RCA. Hi Misty!
39. Offline, briefly: IRL. In Real Life.
40. Kenan's "Good Burger" co-star: KEL.
42. Sch. that competes against Notre Dame for the Jeweled Shillelagh: USC. ESP #6. University of Southern California. Some history of the trophy.
46. [Crossing my fingers!]: I HOPE. Or, if behind your back, you're telling a lie.
48. German "first": ERST.
49. Bright shades: NEONS. Remember the '80's?
 |
| The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) Rocked It |
50. Ye __ Shoppe: OLDE.
51. Eschew a co-pilot: FLY SOLO.
52. Real talent: KNACK. With "The" you get My Sharona
53. Wading bird: EGRET.
54. "Au contraire!": NOT SO. Oui, Oui! More French.
56. Member-owned grocery: CO-OP. A COOPerative.
59. Espresso froth: CREMA. I'm assuming Italian spelling of Crème(?) When DW & I were in Italy, I'd just quit smoking (again) so I loved to end the day with espresso & gelatto before our last bit of wine.
60. Free from: RID OF. Toss it if it doesn't bring joy. Or not: I'm just sure I can use this again ;-)
61. Fleet of foot: AGILE.
62. Chemistry class model: MOLECULE.
 |
| Water |
63. Filling with wonder: AWING. Gluey IMHO.
64. Children's song marchers: ANTS. The ANTS go marching/One by one/The ANTS go...
65. Text in a long-distance relationship, maybe: MISS YOU. Or, just mid-day texts to Significant Other.
67. Tibia neighbor: TALUS. Dem Bones/Dem Bones...
68. Spilled salt, to some: OMEN. Throw a bit over your left-shoulder and the demon goes away, so they say.
"kill -9 all" makes the daemons go away [*nix joke for the techies]
I wrote "kill -9 all | sort -god out" on a buddy's white-board. He left the company 5 years ago, but the quip is still on the wall.
69. Thinking a song is about oneself, say: VAIN. Cue Carly Simon.
75. Music store supply: OBOE REEDS. We get both OBOE and REED in the same fill!
77. Roll the dice, say: TAKE A TURN. My first thought was TAKE A risk.
79. Pacific Northwest sch.: WSU. Washington State University.
80. Hawaiian for "white": KEA. Ok, now the Hawaiian mountain's names make sense.
81. Texting tech: SMS. Short Messaging Service.
82. "If we must die, O __ us nobly die": McKay: LET.
83. Herb used in some smudging rituals: SAGE. DW's PhD department was so toxic - one night, she and fellow candidates took bunched SAGE, lit it, and smudged every office. You could smell the sweet for a week.
84. Big hands?: OVATIONS. Cute - give Brian & Brooke a big round of applause.
85. Word in an Arthur Miller title: SALESMAN. The Death of a...
87. RPG with a 20-sided die: DND. Dungeons-n-Dragons is a Role Playing Game. An icosahedron (20-sided die, aka a 20d) is used to determine chance of survival from an orc / dragon / random-monster attack. Or, if your character is strong, hit-points against a foe. I oft played a Paladin Ranger, so I'd usually end up w/ a 12d (dodecahedron) for hit-points. //the rules have changed since I played the 2nd edition (D&D is now on v5e) and now I have to keep up with Eldest's knowledge.
89. Acid initials: LSD. Lysergic acid diethylamide. More trippy-stuff (or so I am told).
90. Strawberry __: BLONDE. This took forever 'cuz I kept thinking margarita, jam, or preserve. Cue BLONDiE.
Call Me
91. Highfalutin: LA-DI-DA. Mr. Fancy Pants.
93. "All __!": ABOARD. Rise (think court-room) was too short so I got on the train.
94. Rolls in yoga class: MATS.
95. In the office: ON SITE. Post-Covid vaccines, a few departments are still 100% remote, but our team is ON-SITE, IRL, three days a week.
96. Word after rage or force: QUIT. Rage quit or force quit.
- Rage quit - Youngest @9p night b/f post explained Rage quit: it's when you're so mad at something / someone you just stop fiddling / texting.
- Force quit - Stopping (ending) an unresponsive application on your Windows or Apple device. Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows devices, and Option-Command-Esc on a Mac.
99. Passover's month, often: Abbr.: APR. April. I was expecting this fill to be in Hebrew. Not that I speak it but, silly me, waited for perps.
103. Even once: EVER. Have you Ever...
That Dog
104. Back up: SAVE. Your data on Writable data disks or in "The Cloud."
105. Graceless one: CLOD. Some days, yes, that's me. //EVER just turn into a wall instead of the doorway thinking you were one step later?
106. Four Tops singer Benson: OBIE. Renaldo "Odie" Benson [WikiP]
108. Some laptops: PCS. Personal ComputerS.
110. __ fly: SAC. Short for Sacrifice. #Baseball! A SAC fly is when there's a runner at 3rd, fewer that 2 outs, and you hit it deep knowing you'll be out but hoping the out-fielder can't get the ball to home before the runner tags-up and takes off. I suppose, with less that two outs, you could SAC to move the runner to 3rd - but that's a risky bet.
111. Spy-fi org.: CIA. Central Intelligence Agency - USA's spooks. //Back in the day, at hacker conferences, we'd play spot-the-spook to figure out who was .gov. Eventually, they started recruiting us :-)
112. Not 'neath: O'ER. Poetry and more carols... "the river and through the woods..."
113. Nwodim of "SNL": EGO. We recently had her in the grid - and I remembered!
 |
| Ego Nwodim |
Phew! That was a lot of words.
Well, I hope y'all had fun with the grid and the expo.
Thanks Brian & Brooke for the puzzle!
Cheers, -T
Oh, yeah, insert the Grid you Big Dummy.
 |
| The Grid |
30 comments:
I had a possible Natick at the intersection of “Obie” and “avoir*”, avoided with a WAG. Otherwise, got through this clever puzzle okay. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Took the full allotted 30 minutes to put this one into the "solved" column. Understood most of the themers -- forgot to look at the title. Thanx for 'splainin', Dash-T. We got NGO, EGO and BOGO today; more on BOGO later. Was thinking TUPPERWARE for those distribution parties. Confused Arthur and Henry and tried to squeeze in CAPRICORN where SALESMAN needed to go. Still, d-o got 'er done. That's something, after yesterday's debacle. Thanx, Brian, Brooke, and Dash-T.
BOGO: Wasn't actually a BOGO, but it was an online purchase that I made, and moments later cancelled, back in mid-November. Citibank finally notified me yesterday that the dispute had been settled in my favor. I don't have to pay, and get to keep the doodad.
AERO: Back in the late '70s I flew AERO-Mexico to Minatitlan. The pilot made a rehearsal pass over the runway to scare off the pigs and chickens before circling back around for the actual landing. (I am not making this up!)
SAVE: This troglodyte doesn't trust the cloud, and still backs up all his important data onto portable hard-drives.
RID OF: Confessions of a messy homemaker -- I read this week that Marie Kondo's domicile isn't squeaky clean and well-organized. Who gnu?
This was quite the RUN IN THE PARK for me today, like a half-marathon which took 1:02:14 to cross the FIR line. More difficult than most Sunday’s, but when I see Brooke as one of the constructors I know I will be in for a challenge as was the case today. Knowing the theme didn’t seem to make things easier as it often does. Cleverly constructed and some really fine clueing. A few DNK’s including EGO, BANDEAU and OBIE. Last fill was TIPIS, which made no sense till I thought about it. Used to be a lot of times, a clue like “Hides in plain sight” would be followed by a “var.” denoting a variant of the usual spelling, don’t see that a lot anymore, we are left to our own devices to figure it out. Anyway, it was a fun solve, thank you Brain and Brooke.
T ~ Fine job filling in for C.C. today, appreciate your time and effort in putting the expo together, enjoyable read!
Hey all!
I got to this posting box with my eyes closed, as I am saving the puzzle for something to do while keeping DW company sitting in the beach all day. (Sunday puzzles are perfect for this...)
But I just had to post after reading last nights late comments.
Anon-T mentioned to Pk that a nosebleed can be stopped by rolling up a matchbook and putting it under your upper lip?
(I never heard of such a thing!)
So I had to look up the science behind it. it puts pressure on the blood vessels leading to the nose!
Also, I have seen that cutesy animated video of Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah's Lake shore Drive before, (and will watch it again, to Anon-t!) but if you need to get that Ear Worm out of your head, then this 14 minute video might do the trick!
(But I like to watch it while playing LSD on my stereo multiple times...)
( Tx to Anon-T)
( **#&&#* auto-correct...)
FIR, but this was a workout for a Sunday puzzle. Not happy with a lot of the answers: tipis, uie, to name a few. Even spell check fought me over typing them here.
CED - It was just the matchbook cover torn off the book of matches and rolled-up. Thanks for the science-y link.
Lakeshore Drive - I first heard the song on KSHE-95 out of St. Louis when I was a wee-lad [I lived in SPI and hacked cable to pickup far-away radio stations using their antennas]. KSHE only played it late at night. I loved the imagery in the lyrics.
To answer my own question FLN - yes! Lyme disease is named for that town in CT.
Cheers, -T
Musings
A fun theme and some “out there” cluing. Lower TIER delayed this comment.
A cat’s PAW woke me up at 6:30 this morning
I stay for the CREDITS if there are some outtakes with them
Listening to my lovely bride is one skill, DETECTING what she really means is a whole other issue
LEDGE not CRAGS was an incredible speed bump.
I've been hip deep in teenagers for over 50 years. What’s this MOODY word all about? :-)
Milk at our MART is $4.10. Drive another mile to the Super MART, it’s $2.25
Boardwalk Empire - I only remember Steve Buscemi, not Ms. MOI or her character
Have you ever ordered a low priced entrée at a restaurant only to find out the menu is ALA Carte
Were happy to let people by rather than SCOOT over
My friend owned a crane and started a BUNGEE jumping business. Insurance drove him out.
My niece got a new job that requires she be in the office three days a week but says she MUST be available at her computer at her house the other two days
A run must score to get a SAC fly. Some have scored from second on a SAC fly.
Nice job -T
I liked the theme fills very much when I finally caught on with UNIVERSAL BASIC OUTCOME. Once that solved I was able to fill many of the blanks. Yet, there were still lots of head scratches. Lots of 3 letter proper names ACE KEL RAE AOC SNO RCA TED, as well as 3 letter abbreviations and unfortunately I usually stumble over those.
So almost finished but I could not QUITe come up with TIPIS and QUIT.
Anon-T you filled CC’s shoes just fine with your usual ENERGETIC verve.
Hola!
A nice one from Brian and Brooke. And well-analyzed by our own Anon-T. Thank you for that.
All I can say is that Sunday puzzles are a slow but enjoyable slog. Today's offering was no different though I do seem to have more wite-out spots than usual. RATS/ANTS, SMS, not sure what I had before, same with BLONDE, CREAM before CREMA. Also, TWO FOR then TWOFER.
MOL is a mystery to me but MOLECULE went right in.
Death of a SALESMAN is very familiar to me.
MOODY. Gary, are you saying that teenagers are MOODY? Incredible!! What an eye-opener!
I wonder if anyone had trouble with AGUAS frescas. Literally, "fresh waters".
I'm sorry to hear that C.C. is unavailable and I would guess that she is still in DEEP mourning. I am thinking of her and recall the two years it took me to mourn my late DH.
Yesterday we celebrated my sister's 80th birthday all afternoon. The party started at 1:00 and I didn't get home until almost 8. It was a "tea party" with all the appropriate trimmings and great fun with my nieces, friends and family. My niece, her daughter, and a couple of her granddaughters did a beautiful job of decorating and creating the right atmosphere. It was the second long drive for my car and I fell in love with it all over again.
I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend.
FIR, finally. Put it down and picked it up three times.
SO SUE ME. Pro golfer HOFer Chi-Chi Rodríguez told a story about driving without insurance in his impoverished ute. He said he had T&C insurance - Try and Collect.
I don't particularly care for Nestles' SNO-Caps, but Zoe likes their Purina Pro Plan dog food. Her vet thinks it's a good choice too.
You might be fleet afoot without being AGILE, and you can be agile without being fast. This one could have been clued better, IMO.
I wonder what percentage of Americans have ever heard a conductor say "all ABOARD?" Movies and TV shows don't count. For extra credit, stratify the results by 10-year age groups.
When I was an engineer, when I was ON SITE I was out of the office. ON SITE meant "in the field," not at my desk. But if the person I intended to see (usually the construction foreman) was there, ON SITE meant "he's around here somewhere."
Thanks to Brian and Brooke for the fun, albeit difficult, Sunday workout. And thanks to -T for the fun-to-read explanation, although I was disappointed not to find a link to swimwear featuring the BANDEAU. Those things work GREAT at swim park slip-n-slides.
I liked Brian & Brooke's puzzle with its clever twists. FAVs: Return, Passing remark?, Thinking a song is about oneself, say (I was hoping you'd give us the clip, -T. Thx!), and CREDITS ... plus all the themers. I could not see the opposite of NO FALL CHICKEN until coming to the Corner. Thanks, -T for your awesome write-up. I know it is a lot of work!
Once again I enjoyed yesterday's Universal Crossword, CC, your the best
49ers at Eagles.
Niner QB Brock Purdy v Eagle QB Jalen Hurts.
They faced each other before. Unranked Iowa State at # 7 ranked Oklahoma in Nov 2019.
Hurts and Oklahoma barely hung on for the 42-41 win after an epic 4th quarter comeback by Purdy and the Cyclones.
Iowa State's head coach is Matt Campbell, and he coached Purdy during his college years.
Campbell isn't surprised about Purdy or the success he's had in the NFL.
Campbell knows about winners and leadership. He played on three Divison 3 national championships at Mount Union.
Campbell's teammate on those three national championship teams ? Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
Small world.
Hi Y'all! Took 1:06:16 hour to tame this monster. So many unknowns. Filled the themers but didn't understand the gimmick or the title until Tony's great expo. Thanks, Tony.
Tipis were a sight on the Great Plains as portable hide-covered dwellings used by the nomadic American Indian tribes. So "plain sight" has an additional meaning.
Thank you, CED & Tony for the nosebleed tips. I'm looking for a matchbook substitute to try under the lip. I am also going to try vitamin C. This has been a serious problem for me -- not just a minor thing. I've had to call the EMT's and go to the ER twice in the past three years. A year ago I lost so much blood that I fainted and fell into the bathtub. Then was so dizzy & weak I couldn't get out. Nosebleed started around 1:30 a.m. It eventually stopped after several hours of nose pinching. Finally managed to use my back scrubber to lasso my cell phone on the sink without knocking the phone into the toilet. At 7 a.m. I called my daughter who has a key. She brought the EMTs. Luckily I was fully dressed with shoes on. Took two EMTs to drag me out of the tub. When I got to the ER room, my blood pressure had dropped to 87 over 53. They put me on a saline IV to raise my blood pressure. Injured my neck in the fall & hit my head so got a CT scan. No brain bleeds. Bad headache. Was in the ER until 4:30 p.m. My clothes were so blood-soaked they had to be thrown away. Took me over a month to recuperate. My daughter was severely traumatized seeing her bloody mother & cleaning the bloody bathroom.
PK
That experience sounds terrible and very serious. Have you thought about getting one of those "medical alert" devices to wear around your neck? It sounds like you might need one. Please be careful.
Had a similar experience in 1985 taking off at Beijing Airport. Chickens, livestock and people on the runway!
Thanks Brian and Brooke. I should have known that Brooke had something to do with this one. After 2 hrs or so I rassled it down to one letter, took a SWAG, and low and behold when I got here (the letter) was right! But SCOFF THEMER that I am, I actually got a whole WORD wrong, so mark this down as an another FIW (same as yesterday).
Funny, fine review Tony. And thanks for takin' a load off C.C.
The gory details:
62A MOODY & 90A BLUE & 89D LSD. The MOODY BLUES wrote a song about it. Oh, and it IS "trippy-stuff" (or so I'm told).
116A TIER. The Tower of Babel is thought to have been a Babylonian ZIGGURAT
3D WRITABLE. I heard that Walmart is having a BOGO sale of NON-WRITABLE disks.
39D IRL. Many people are IRL only briefly these days.
34D RED CARDS. No, I've never heard that story T, but then I've never heard of "Peterborough North End and Royal Mail AYL" either.
46D I HOPE. If you CROSS YOUR HEART, then that's a PROMISE.
60D OMEN. CLEVER BLING T!
62D MOLECULE. Another dead give away that Brooke was responsible for this puzzle!
83D SAGE. Was DW's department RID OF the toxins?
84D OVATIONS. Do I have to? ok ... clap ... clap ... clap ...
113D EGO. ... and she's from Baltimore!
Cheers,
Bill
I didn't know if I had FIR until I read Tony's write- up. I was right, I didn't know because it was a FIW. I found the puzzle just weird, with obscure clues. My downfall was the spaghetti area of DND and its clue RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade), BANDEAU, QUIT, and TIPIS. I erred on the guess of QUAT and TAPIS, which made as much sense as TIPIS and the unheard of 'rage QUIT'. I got the other two. The opposites? Like Tante Nique I was slow on the uptake but eventually noticed them when OUTCOME was filled.
IPA- I got. ACE too, but still and do not care what it is. My OUT became ENS, MARE changed sexes and became a SIRE, and LAMEST became TAMEST. KEL, OBIE, SATE SAUCE, EGO, AGUAS, ANTS (don't know the song), EVA, MOL- all came through perps.
RAG- I got it but Duke Ellington was not a rag composer.
AARP- who pays them because they want us to join, send it to us and I've NEVER given them a dime.
Strawberry BLONDE- when I had hair it was red, red, red, as were my brother's and sister's. Mine went to the brown side while they went to the blonde (or is it blond) side.
PROFIT for 'Return' was a great one. Last year it was negative for most people, except for the liars.
CrossEyedDave- my ER friend says they use phenylephrine spray (Neo-Synephrine) on nosebleeds.
Husker Gary- if you drive another mile and back you theoretically spent another $2.00 because not matter what the IRS allows you be that it costs about $1.00/mile to run a car.
sumdaze- I doubt there are any "Spring chickens" on this blog. Maybe a few old roosters past their prime.
This puzzle did me in. I wound up with 2 empty squares despite trying mightily to FIR - so a big fat DNF.
Two questions:
1. What does ACE mean in LGBTQA+ ?
2. When is a clue “gluey”?
Perhaps I’m whining, but I think there were too many names, acronyms and abbreviations. Cuts down on the fun level.
As Big Easy said, Ellington did not compose rags.
I liked this puzzle very much. It was a pleasant 67 minutes of noodling, although I did wrinkle my nose at UIE and ENS. I think the "Opposite Day" theme is beautifully creative. Thanks to Brian Thomas and Brooke Husic.
And thanks to you, Anonymous T, for your write-up, which I enjoyed reading.
Must have worked on this puzzle for an hour and a half on the beach, and still could not finish it. I had just enough blank spots to stop me from sussing "any" of the themers. I had "just" figured out the 1st themer with private versus public, when DW said we gotta go...
By gotta go, I mean, the gulf water was 67 degrees. No way we were making a pit stop there...
Arriving home, and some red letters helped everything fall into place. I (we) were very "relieved."
Re: hearing song lyrics wrong.
Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah song "Lake shore Drive" came out in 1972.
To this very day, when he sang
"And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town
Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound."
I thought he was saying he was trippin' on the drug LSD on a motorcycle, flying down the highway...
It was not until this very morning, typing a post to Anonymous-T,
that I realized he was never talking about LSD the drug, but the initials for the highway!
Oh, and now I am getting clips of that cutesy animation in my YouTube recommendations feed.
Thanks a lot Anon-T!
(wtf?)
Tough but interesting Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Brian and Brooke. And always enjoy your neat commentaries, Anon-T, so thank you for this one too. And thanks for remembering that my Dad worked for RCA for most of his career.
Well, I'm afraid this puzzle seemed to be all about business and stuff, with PROFIT for ISSUERS, and watching that SALESMAN stand in line waiting for CREDITS and a few EUROs, maybe having to EDIT some financial stuff on his CELL phone.
So, no problem, I figured, I'll just check out all the food, like I do every Sunday. And sure enough, there was some AIOLI there ready to be EATEN, right at the top, along with some SATE SAUCE. Not a bad beginning. But sadly, that was about it, unless you wanted to eat some GREASE (yuck!). Oh wait, there was some CHICKEN down the line, maybe to be used for a SNACK--nope, that was a KNACK, not a SNACK. But then a bit of CREMA turned up, though not much to put it on, and, hey, I give up. I'm going to see what I can find in my fridge.
Have a great week coming up, everybody.
HG - does a SAC fly always have to bring home a run? I know a sac bunt [moving runner from 1st to scoreing position] doesn't.
PK - What Luncina said; that sounds very serious.
Waseeley - I nearly forgot about that Moody Blues tune. Thanks.
Wendybird - I think when you have to bend normal-speak to make a word it's gluey. I've never hear anyone say awing or use it that way. Sure it's right, but...
Thanks, y'all, for the kind affirmation of a team's (DW & TTP get props!) effort. Took us about 12 hours to get this expo just (mostly) right.
Errata - The caption under the MART image should be "Apu's Kwik-E-Mart", there should be a . after My Sharona, I didn't count SATE, KAL, nor ACE as an ESP, and, apparently, I can't spell shoulder (thanks for fixing that, TTP!). Molto mea culpa(s).
Jinx - No, Youngest [same name as your pup] doesn't. She loves Sno-Caps as much as I. I didn't Google BANDDEAU 'cuz the last time I looked up women's apparel, I got ads constantly - much to DW's suspicion [what where you looking at?!?]. I don't need that consternation. I also get your connotation of ON-SITE as being at the job-site rather than in the office.
CED - a) LOL lyrical mishap b) cute clip with the baby!
The 49er's couldn't pull it off. We had family over so I only saw about 20 minutes of the game :-(
Cheers, -T
Quite the workout, this one! Some “gluey” clues? Oh yeah. Some obtuse references? Yup! Fun theme? For sure! Thanks for a grinder 😎. ====> Darren/L.A.
Great and fun recap, Tony - you're a natural! (wow, 12 hours!) I got the hint from your last night's post..."Hope you enjoy the recap tomorrow" or whatever wording you used.
Thankfully, your family occupied your time this afternoon and you only saw 20 minutes of the game. It was brutal, horrible, and the worst! You know it's bad when briefly RB McCaffery was sent in as QB; 4th-string QB Johnson left the game with a suspected concussion. Defense was really painful to watch.
The FIR today took all day of doing a little, taking a break from it and coming back later with a few more answers. Some of the themers needed time to get but starting with RIGHT TO ONE'S OWN DEVICES I knew what to look for. Thanks, Brian and Brooke, for today's puzzle, a good way to pass time between walks, watching football, fixing meals and watching PBS tonight.
Thanks, Anon-T, for filling in for C.C. You did very well and I needed your help to understand ENS since I had forgotten about that possibility. Otherwise my grid had too many WOs and second tries to list here. Most difficult areas have already been mentioned by others. I'll just say my last fill was EGO, and I hope I remember it next time. Quite a few learning moments today.
See you all tomorrow!
-T @8:32 PM I think of "gluey" as gratuitous fill, whose sole purpose is to connect other fill. Usually short with a high vowel content and ending with connecting consonants like S, D & R.
I SPELT RIGHT wrong. I corrected that but socal is still a mess. I never went back to THIGH; I had a ness there too.
I'm surprised I got all the themes
WWF is also Worldwide Wrestling Federation. NGO perped though
-T, expand your IDK routine and you'll be giving Abbott and Costello a run for it
I had oSU/WSU. Phil was a big D&D guy in his tweens. I also had at work/ON SITE
I better post. Didn't start until halftime of Chiefs game.. I have it taped
WC
Ps, FIW
WC - Take another peep at my post - WWF (wrestling) is now WWE.
I'll workshop the idk bit; maybe Second-City will give me a second try :-)*
//there's no way I could top Abbott & Costello.
Cheers, -T
*That's a total joke folks - I've never tried improve/stand-up.
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