Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with today's Friday puzzle recap. Our puzzle setter, Katie Hale, has constructed a Puzzle wherein she literally uses the word literally correctly and not in the-centuries-old, and seemingly becoming more prevalent, mis-used way of figuratively.
For example, in Little Women Louisa May Alcott wrote that `The land literally flowed with milk and honey.' Tom Sawyer was not turning somersaults on piles of money when Mark Twain described him as `literally rolling in wealth.' Jay Gatsby was not shining when Fitzgerald wrote that he `literally glowed.' Such examples are plentiful, even in the works of the authors we were taught to emulate.
Excuse me? It's not possible that anyone could say that. Oh, never mind.
On to the puzzle. There is no "reveal" as the "gimmick" (if you will) is found within each of the clues in which Katie asks us to suss out the literal meanings of words from five languages other than English. The French, Italian and Spanish may have been familiar to many of us Eurocentric American solvers. The Turkish and Indonesian were likely less so. Here are the five themed answers:
16. Zevk, literally: TURKISH DELIGHT. Zevk is TURKISH for pleasure.
24. Bise, literally: FRENCH KISS. Today's French lesson. Bise is FRENCH for kiss.
36. Cangkir, literally: CUP OF JAVA. Cangkir is cup in Indonesian. The island of Java, Indonesia is the world's most populous island.
50. Quando, literally: WHEN IN ROME. Quando is Italian for, yep, WHEN. What is this world coming to? Last week Sonny and Cher and this week:
Engelbert Humperdinck
58. La lluvia, literally: THE RAIN IN SPAIN. Today's Spanish lesson: Spanish for RAIN. By George, I think she's got it:
Here is the completed grid:
. . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Kid's parent: GOAT. Neither a human child (clue) nor the Greatest Of All Time (answer). An ovine reference.
5. Rebecca in the Basketball Hall of Fame: LOBO. Our esteemed editor, as has been previously pointed out on this blog, seems partial to WNBA references.
9. Texter's "I don't understand": WDYM.
13. Actor Omar: EPPS. Omar often visits us and more often it's his first name that is the answer.
14. Hyaluronic __: ACID. It keeps body tissues hydrated.
15. Frost: HOAR.
19. Early ISP: AOL. America On Line. Remember all those discs they used to give away? I still use their email service for other-than-personal (junk) email.
20. Fictional sleuth Wolfe: NERO. Another frequent visitor.
21. Egyptian cobra: ASP. Cleopatra's ASP is very well known.
22. St. __: Cornwall town: IVES. Polygamy as a learning opportunity:
28. Sought out for advice: WENT TO.
30. Part of a vague ultimatum: OR ELSE.
31. Pianist Rubinstein: ARTUR.
B: 1887 D: 1982
32. Philistine: BOOR.
35. Make a bad impression?: DENT. A clue that was to be taken literally.
39. Reserve: BOOK. Used as a verb as in to BOOK a table at a restaurant.
42. Noshes: EATS. Today's Yiddish/German lesson.
43. Vigilant: AWARE. What do you call a wolf who is cognizant of his surroundings? AWARE wolf.
47. Marquee time: TONITE. Cutesy, intentional mis-spelling. TONITE is also an explosive compound.
49. Plays loudly: BLARES.
54. Sails off course: YAWS.
55. "You __ do this!": CAN. A straightforward fill-in-the-blank clue/answer.
56. Some ballpark figs.: ERAS. A baseball park reference. Earned Run Average.
57. Dust jacket paragraph: BIO. BIOgraphy
63. Humdinger: LULU. A real doozy.
64. Element used in a 5-Down: NEON. It could have been clued as Colorado's new football coach.
65. Dressed: CLAD.
66. Ancient Briton: CELT.
67. Some digital natives, informally: GEN Y. Digital native describes a person who has grown up in the digital age.
68. Moral lapses: SINS. Golfer: "Caddy, do you think it is a sin to play golf on Sunday?" Caddy: "The way you play, sir, its a sin any day of the week!"
Down:
1. Move past, as a breakup: GET OVER.
2. Luxurious: OPULENT.
3. Car loan fig.: APR. Annual Percentage Rate.
4. Judgy sound: TSK. Is it going to be TSK or TUT? Only the perps know for sure.
5. Lithography tool: LASER. We're not talking about 19th Century printmaking here. All you might want to know:
6. Prehistoric paint colour: OCHRE. The extra u in colour leads us to the British spelling.
7. Compete for, in a way: BID ON.
8. First word of the European Union anthem's title: ODE. "ODE to Joy", from Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
9. Taken suddenly: WHISKED AWAY. I can't find my eggbeater. It's as if someone just WHISKED it AWAY.
10. Group celebration after a game-winning play, say: DOG PILE. Also, an early search engine.
11. Slangy agreement: YAH. Today's punt.
12. B.A. Baracus player: MR T.
17. Recon collection: INFO. Reconnoiter is truncated, ergo INFOrmation is also.
18. Cowardly Lion portrayer: LAHR.
19. Big name in speakers: AIWA. Not orators. Music system speakers.
23. Longing for change, maybe: STUCK IN A RUT.
25. "Downton Abbey" countess played by Elizabeth McGovern: CORA. Yet another frequent visitor.
26. Tax form digits: SSN. Social Security Number
27. All ready: SET. Hit It!
29. Capote nickname: TRU.
32. Fluffy wrap: BOA. Sometimes clued with reference to the snake.
33. Again and again, in verse: OFT. The OFT re-posted jokes are wrong. A pirate's favorite letter is P. Because without it he becomes irate.
34. Fresh-squeezed drinks, for short: OJS. Orange Juices. Rarely seen pluralized as here.
37. Hammer end: PEEN. The end of a hammer head (not the shark) opposite the flat striking surface, often wedge-shaped or ball-shaped and used for chipping, indenting, and metalworking.
38. Actor Kilmer: VAL.
39. FYI kin: BTW. For Your Information By The Way.
40. __ and aah: OOH.
41. Like yeast: ONE CELL. Often clued with an amoeba.
44. Horse breed that originated on an Asian peninsula: ARABIAN.
45. Goes back to the start: REWINDS.
46. Exxon, in Canada and Europe: ESSO. Standard Oil (S.O.)
48. Jukebox musical whose first number is "Nutbush City Limits": TINA. Nutbush, Tennessee is Tina Turner's rural home town.
49. "Porgy and __": BESS. A Gershwin reference.
51. "Judy" star Zellweger: RENEE. I didn't know Judy but I knew Zellweger.
52. Hunter slain by Artemis: ORION. Often clued with reference to the constellation.
53. 2004 World Series MVP Ramirez: MANNY. He played in the major leagues for nineteen seasons. This year he received 32.% of the vote in the Hall of Fame balloting. A player needs 75% to get in.
58. Indulgent attention, for short: TLC. Tender Loving Care
59. Shade: HUE.
60. Gerund syllable: ING. By definition.
61. IBMs, e.g.: PCS. Personal ComputerS that aren't Apples.
62. Former boxer Laila: ALI. A frequent visitor who, lately, seems to have replaced her father as the clue of choice.
Well, that's it for today. Now I must go grab something to eat as I am so hungry that I could figuratively eat a horse.
I wanted HOAR for Frost but couldn't fit it. IDNK WDYM and my last fill was MR T. I vaguely recalled Baracus but DNK who he was
Sleuth today, Emperor yesterday
Two w/os: frISKED/WHISKED,piGPILE/DOGPILE NE corner was a mess
I read that in The Battle of Ain Jalut that the turning point was the Mongols trying to capture prized ARABIAN horses
I actually needed perps for MANNY. His HoF is stalled because of alleged steroid use. The Redsox hired a Sports Talk guy(Adams) on the proviso that he bash Manny every hour on the air. Why? Because previous ownership signed him as a poison pill. Ironically said signing led to first(2004) WS since 1918
It took me a few minutes to really get started on this puzzle, past the first three or four clues. But with the first themed fill, I had a pretty good idea as to what was going on. As WC said, it seemed a little easier than usual for a Friday (in fact, it has seemed “easier than usual” pretty much all week - is Patti getting “soft”?) Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Yay, d-o got 'er done, even while thinking that B.A. Baracus was probably the name of a soccer team. Came together quicker than a typical Friday. That's a good thing. Thanx, Katie and Mal-Man.
JAVA: I read last year that the Indonesian parliament voted to abandon polluted, stinking, sinking Jakarta as their capital. They're going to relocate from JAVA, building a new one in the middle of the jungle on Borneo.
TINA: Thinking Nutbush was probably fictional Tennessee city, I headed to Mr. Google. Nope, there it is, halfway between Ripley and Brownsville. Who gnu?
Took 7:06 today for me to ... get it wrong. Instead of the "g" at the crossing of ing and geny, I entered an "e". Eeny made as much sense to me for a digit (toe) than "geny". Oops.
I am against using foreign words in crossword puzzles, but today's theme clues are an exception.
I was expecting an add/subtract a letter, being Friday.
This was a fun solve because of the clever theme and the literal definitions. The only foreign word that I was even vaguely familiar with was Bise, but the others filled in nicely with perp help. I went astray at Ade/OJs, Limn/Hoar, and Ests/ERAs. I know a few text shortcuts, but WDYM is new to me, not that I use any of them very often. I wouldn’t know Mr. T’s alter ego if I fell over him, and Nutbush City sounds like a cartoon locale. But, perps were fair so no serious complaints, except for the plethora of abbreviations and initialisms and maybe Yah.
Thanks, Katie, for a fun Friday and thanks, MalMan, for the chuckles, especially the Burning The Campbell … cartoon and for the great visuals. The My Fair Lady video was a delightful reminder of that wonderful movie and the beauty and class of Audrey Hepburn. The Stooges (Hi, Moe!) silly song brought a smile, too.
FLN
I hope you’ve recovered from your locked-out in the cold ordeal. My garage key pad battery also conked out at an inopportune time for me but in the summer, so no weather issues. Fortunately, my next door neighbor was still up at 11:00 pm and, even more fortunately, she had an extra 9V battery on hand. My brother had driven me home after a wedding reception and because I brought a small, dressy purse, I didn’t have my extra set of keys with me. I now have the battery replaced every so often, before it’s even ready to die!
DNF, TITT and Googling MANNY. Then I came here and saw that I got IVaS wrong, and remembered the kiddie riddle that starts "As I was walking to St. IVES I met a man with seven wives."
I've heard of all the theme phrases except for TURKISH DELIGHT. Turkish taffy? Turkish brothel worker?
When I finally got MR T, I remembered that B. A. was supposed to be for "Bad Attitude."
I've never heard of AIWA speakers. I think of them for their other components, like cassette tape decks and other cutting-edge devices. I remember that their decks had autoreverse, but not autoREWIND.
Thanks to Katie for the fun challenge that I was almost up for. If not for my divorce from MLB after the 1994 strike I would have known MANNY (I think). And thanks to the MalMan for delivering again.
FLN - My problem with locks is my DW. A couple of months ago, she visited a restroom in a restaurant, closed the barrel bolt lock and couldn't figure out how to open it. I was summonsed by our server, and it took me about 10 minutes to talk her through unlocking it. (I asked them what they would do in case of a medical emergency like a slip-and-fall or someone passing out. They said they guessed they would call 911 and let the EMTs figure it out.) Then I was taking out the trash and she locked the RV door. Again I had to talk her through unlocking it, and she didn't remember locking it. Last week she left the bathroom and locked the button-lock. No big deal; a bobby pin unlocked that one. I have started keeping my keys in my pants pocket at all times, instead of putting them on the counter when I get home as I have done for decades.
Somehow I managed a TERMINA BIEN (literally) in 27:21, relying on perps cuz I knew none of the foreign words or phrases or several other answers as clued. DKN what a gerund was or a digital native, the G in the ING/GENY crossing being a WAG and my last fill. A cleverly constructed grid with a difficulty level that I like, Friday’s shouldn’t be easy. Thanks Katie for the challenge!
Musings -Ya gotta love it when a theme is seemingly so obscure and then it bowls you over with its cleverness and eventual helpfulness. CUP OF JAVA tipped me off and since I love musicals, THE RAIN IN SPAIN filled in quickly. -Omar EPPS’ character endured many scripted racist comments on House 10 yrs ago -Going to St. Ives was the first thing that came to my mind too, MM! -If a teacher says ….OR ELSE… they had better follow through -The start of a DOG PILE in Omaha -Julian Fellowes wrote that Lady CORA was based on the real Lady whose fortune saved Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed -REWINDS – Unlike a GEN Y viewer, it always amazes me that Netflix remembers where I left off and takes me right back to that spot many days later. -RENEE is our new Monday blogger aka Sumdaze -D-O, Nutbush is real and I’ll bet you know the famous person whose home is Grinder’s Switch, TN -BTW, FWIW, Katie is the assistant to Patti, so I doubt she had a problem getting the puzzle past her.
I too despaired when I started solving, then when I was all the way down south, I visualized THE RAIN IN SPAIN, so FRENCH KISS was a breeze after that and to my DELIGHT over a CUP OF JAVA, I FIR.
Really fun theme.
Every bakery in Istanbul prominently displays colorful boxes of TURKISH DELIGHTs of various sizes. As Lucina states they are gooey, sweet morsels of dessert.
Friday Frazzle. Thanks for the workout, Katie and MalMan. I was tempted to toss this CW several times, due to the plethora of unknown names and the themers in other languages. But I persevered and got all but the NE corner. I see that I am not alone. I wanted Rime before HOAR, YUH before YAH, had no idea about that Baracus player, and had not sussed DELIGHT. (I know TURKISH DELIGHTs as chocolates (that may have a British origin). I wanted Grasped AWAY, but knew that FRENCH pISS would not pass the breakfast test! WDYM it wasn’t fun? It was a LULU.
The usual Ests changed to ERAS (literally a ballpark figure!). O’er (over and over) changed to OFT. I had entered the pluralizing S for those “digital natives”, but MANNY corrected it to Y. Do we have a Gen S? LOL! But of coarse, I got my ESSO CSO.
FIW today because of a wrong guess at one of several unknowns: Whys instead of WDYM. I didn't catch the reference to MR T, thinking it referred to a soccer team (Hi, D-Otto). And hand up for putting hOG PILE instead of DOG PILE, a new expression for me (though the UGA DAWGS could have a true DOG PILE.)Thanks, Katie, for a friendly Friday puzzle.
Like others I found the themers helpful once I caught on at CUP OF JAVA. I knew la lluvia meant RAIN, but first put it in SPAIN's place. Perps cleared things up. GEN Y was questionable fill but I had the idea right which MalMan helpfully confirmed in his rich review. MANNY was a more likely spelling of Ramirez's first name since Mani didn't fit.
Irish Miss, one of my WOs was EstS/ERAS, too. And I had O'er/OFT like C Eh. (BYW I didn't know where ESSO came from until MM explained it today!)
Unheared of theme clues with answers that only become evident as common phrases with enough perpaid. Weird but clever and fair. But had logpile instead of DOGPILE (yah shoulda took Rover out for a walk sooner 😆) And no idea what a Baracus player was (not a sport but MR.T 🙄) thus a one-letter DNF
Worked with a physician, always nattily, dressed named Caldwell. We called him Dr. CLADwell....Remember the VHS rental return requst: "Be Kind,____ "... REWIND
I've literally used the same AOL screen name since the late 80's which figuratively identifies me as a geezer.
Cashier with an empty till...LONGING FOR CHANGE Guided trip through the Louvre...ARTUR Catch your breath....REWIND. Earl Grey sobriquet...MRT
IMHO the word "literally" used incorrectly is actually being used as hyperbole. Like saying something is Terrific (full of terror) or Aweful (full of awe).
Temperature to plunge,...7⁰... icy conditions 🥶...will stay in and read (do crossword puzzles).
Had no clue to any of the long answers. And strangely I knew all the names that got me through the puzzle. That's different. So, enough perps to figure everything out. Thanks Mal for the recap and the English lesson. Well done. GC
At the end of the day, this puzzle had a lot of good qualities; literally. The use of five phrases, each having a foreign reference, was quite clever. The path around the phrases, however, had a few RUTS in it, IMHO. But given the new audience/generation of crossword puzzle solvers, this one probably scored high. GENY, WDYM, and all of the proper names were a bit tedious, but when you have a puzzle with that many theme-entry characters, there will be a plethora of 3 and 4 letter words
The MOST fun I had, though, was reading MM's recap! Maybe your best ever, JS
Fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, Katie. And always enjoy your clever commentary, MalMan, thanks for that too.
Well, I sure didn't expect a kid's parent to be a GOAT, and so that prepared me for a critter puzzle. But except for that ARABIAN horse, didn't find many others. Oh, wait, there was an ASP, wasn't there? The CUP OF JAVA made me start looking for food, but except for that TURKISH DELIGHT I didn't find too many other EATS. Just as well, I don't want to have any ACID to deal with in the morning. Well, not much else to deal handle--I'm just going to ignore that BOOR--and think I'll just go back to reading a BOOK.
Thank you Katie for a friendlier to usual Friday FIR.
And thank you MalMan for your literally incisive explanation of the theme and for all the illuminating bling (where do you get all this stuff!?). I got all the themers, but was literally flummoxed about their meaning until I got here.
A few favs:
22A IVES. St. Ives in Cornwall was where the great English potter Bernard Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979) established his pottery. Leach was a leader in the revival of English crafts after their decimation by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century. One of the big thrills of my life was hold a Leach pot in a small regional museum in Bath. It was heavy.
8D ODE. Beethoven's use of the Friedrich Schiller's poem Ode to Joy in the final movement of his 9th Symphony was one of his many musical revolutions.
38D VAL. Top Secret! just landed on my bucket list.
51D ONE CELL. Yeast cells are Eukaryotes the simplest life forms whose cells have a nucleus, unlike bacterial cells (Prokaryotes), which don't have nuclei. Eukaryotes were an important stage in the evolution of higher life forms.
51D RENEE. Gary has already noted it, but I'll add a CSO to sumdaze, our the newest colleague on the blogging team.
Cheers, Bill
FLN: Michael @12:00 AM (the stroke of midnight!). Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives. ROTFL!
I don't mean to get Cerebral with this link, (The cerebral part is that it takes ten minutes to figure out how to get past the ads in this clickbait!) but I thought it would be fun to look up literal meanings of foreign phrases. I was then going to look at images instead of text (because, thats what I do...) but it the text was just so much funnier...
Like in the above, the German word for nipples is Brustwarzen. Literally, "breast warts."
Or, that in Afrikaans, a stapler, is a "paper vampire."
I’m an occasional contributor here for many years, and enjoy the repartee and affection you seem to have for each other.
Kudos to Katie and Patti for a really fun solve! I found it fair, with enough reasonable clues to make the theme answers obvious, even when I didn’t know the foreign word. It’s like the leg of an elephant, today I knew almost all the names (Mr. T?), when some had trouble, and other days I know almost none, when some say the names were
Enjoyed the write-up! I thing poor Mr.Campbell was even wearing the proper Black Watch plaid. (A family name).
Sorry, Didn't realize that the above link would not contain its origin source...
The eyeglasses on the banana were supposed to refer to "keep your eyes peeled" as if interpreted by a non English speaker...
Waseeley, "Top secret" is on my list too! But it is a hard one to find. Currently only available on Hulu, Paramount, and other premium services. ( to think they make you pay for a 39 year old movie that no one has ever heard of...) ( there has got to be a word for that!)
CED and Waseeley, Top Secret was, literally, brought to us by the folks responsible for Airplane and Kentucky Fried Movie. If you enjoyed any of those. . .
There was no way I was going to finish this, but after an hour at home and another 45 minutes in the Dr.'s waiting room, I did! I had no idea what the clues meant but having Countries in the (common) phrases really helped me WAG my butt off (figuratively).
Thanks Katie (lovely name, says DW) for the grid. The puzzle (figuratively) stretched me but good.
LOL "Burning the Campbells," MManatee!, in addition to all the great info in the post-game. Plus two dad-jokes (last one visual) and references to two of the best lines in movies - "There Wolf" & Aykroyd's quip - so extra points there.
I tried to watch Top Secret once - just too corny. Kentucky Fried Movie, however, was just campy enough and UHF just tugged at the heart-strings...
WOs: Ests->ERAs (Hi C, Eh!), YArS (when's Talk Like A Pirate Day again? :-)). ESPs: I lost count. WDYM is new to me BTW. Fav: just finishing this LULU of a grid. "WDYM, -T?" idk. Actually, ARTHUR followed by DENT on the same row was really cute (even if it wasn't intended).
Knowing ARTHUR DENT (the ape-descendant life form - not a frood [really amazingly together]) was the only reason 31a's fill looked good enough to me, waseeley.
The A-Team was my favorite show when I was a wee-lad; I even had the lunch-box. The 5th-grade rumor was that B.A. stood for "Bad Ass" but don't let the Nuns hear you say that. Mr. T has mellowed a bit. [Conan]
I nearly entered GEN-X @67a until I remembered I didn't have a computer once. Interesting thing about the 'digital-generation,' a) most have no clue how computers nor the internet works b) they're (literally) surprised when you tell them one had to RTFM [Read the Fine Manual] and keep it on the shelf as a reference 'cuz there was no Google. //I (literally) had this conversation with one of our Jr. Analysts last week - she was (figuratively) blown away by that fact: "OMG! How did you do homework?" I had to tell her about libraries and then had to explain card-catalogues because there weren't computers to tell you where on the shelf a book was :-)
FLN - TTP, so was it the key-pad lock or the garage door opener battery? I'm confused. I did Google my key-pad Schlage so I now know where the battery is housed.
Jinx - My study door seems to lock randomly (with me inside! - makes DW very suspicious what I'm up to). Sometimes it locks w/ me outside so I put a little-baby screwdriver over the jamb so I don't have to go down to the garage every time. I should probably change the knob when I think about it again (while at Lowes).
Lucina - right?!? Why is there only one p in apologize when you're (literally) really sorry? :-)
A ONE CELL dad-joke a buddy made today: I send in team-chat: "I'm dropping off-line for Dr. apt. I have my cell." Buddy: That's a biology joke, right? - OK, make like an amoeba and split."
CyberSecurity is a slog. We need these little moments ;-)
Hi Y'all! I read Katie's name, cringed and almost quit. Then I read the top row of clues and almost quit. But I kept going and actually finally liked the puzzle. I just ignored all the theme words which I didn't know. Eventually I got enough perps to WAG my way thru. First of Katie's puzzles that didn't annoy just me. Thanks.
Finishing was worth being worthy to read MalMan's & CED's jokes. Hilarious. Thanks, guys.
Helene @10:27 AM Yes, welcome Helene. Are you any relation to Irish Miss? She lives in Troy, NY. Parsan @12:19 PM And welcome to you too Parson. You need to meet Michael. I think he's a Parson too. -T @1:57 PM Thanks for the date for "Talk Like a Pirate Day". I've added it to my perpetual calendar. And thanks for reminding me about ARTUR. I knew I left something out: Chopin's Étude op 25/11 "Winter Storm". Funny ONE CELL joke!
Super busy all day. Still haven't read Malo Man's review. I found the puzzle to be easily solved. 12:34 unaided, so it must have been easy. That was about 11 hours ago.
I have only scanned most of the comments today looking to make sure no spammers. But I did periodically search the comments to see if anyone directed anything at me, like telling me there was a spam comment that needed to be purged.
Irish Miss, thank goodness your lockout wasn't in the winter !
Dash T, when I write garage door, I'm talking about the big overhead garage door that goes up so you can pull your car in. Were you thinking about the garage service door ? The one that's wide enough for a person to walk though, but a car won't ? :-)
DNF but felt pretty good about sussing the theme after TURKISH DELIGHT (BTW, known from "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.") FAVs: Make a bad impression? and BOOK
MalMan, excellent recap!! OMG, is that meme of the auctioneer breaking the vase legit or a funny set up? I did think the clue referred to music systems, but still didn't know it was AIWA. That was the least of my unknowns today.
33D. You might think a pirate's favorite letter is "P" or maybe even ARRRR, but 'tis the C !
Dear Waseeley @ 12:08 -- I lifted 'Finagle's Law' from some science fictioneer in the 1950s. It's a handy explanation for when everything goes pear-shaped.
40 comments:
I wanted HOAR for Frost but couldn't fit it. IDNK WDYM and my last fill was MR T. I vaguely recalled Baracus but DNK who he was
Sleuth today, Emperor yesterday
Two w/os: frISKED/WHISKED,piGPILE/DOGPILE NE corner was a mess
I read that in The Battle of Ain Jalut that the turning point was the Mongols trying to capture prized ARABIAN horses
I actually needed perps for MANNY. His HoF is stalled because of alleged steroid use. The Redsox hired a Sports Talk guy(Adams) on the proviso that he bash Manny every hour on the air. Why? Because previous ownership signed him as a poison pill. Ironically said signing led to first(2004) WS since 1918
Seemed easy for Friday
WC
It took me a few minutes to really get started on this puzzle, past the first three or four clues. But with the first themed fill, I had a pretty good idea as to what was going on. As WC said, it seemed a little easier than usual for a Friday (in fact, it has seemed “easier than usual” pretty much all week - is Patti getting “soft”?) Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Yay, d-o got 'er done, even while thinking that B.A. Baracus was probably the name of a soccer team. Came together quicker than a typical Friday. That's a good thing. Thanx, Katie and Mal-Man.
JAVA: I read last year that the Indonesian parliament voted to abandon polluted, stinking, sinking Jakarta as their capital. They're going to relocate from JAVA, building a new one in the middle of the jungle on Borneo.
TINA: Thinking Nutbush was probably fictional Tennessee city, I headed to Mr. Google. Nope, there it is, halfway between Ripley and Brownsville. Who gnu?
Took 7:06 today for me to ... get it wrong. Instead of the "g" at the crossing of ing and geny, I entered an "e". Eeny made as much sense to me for a digit (toe) than "geny". Oops.
I am against using foreign words in crossword puzzles, but today's theme clues are an exception.
I was expecting an add/subtract a letter, being Friday.
DNF. Too many proper names for me, and the NE corner would not fall as I tried in vain to make "wrested away" work at 9D.
Good Morning:
This was a fun solve because of the clever theme and the literal definitions. The only foreign word that I was even vaguely familiar with was Bise, but the others filled in nicely with perp help. I went astray at Ade/OJs, Limn/Hoar, and Ests/ERAs. I know a few text shortcuts, but WDYM is new to me, not that I use any of them very often. I wouldn’t know Mr. T’s alter ego if I fell over him, and Nutbush City sounds like a cartoon locale. But, perps were fair so no serious complaints, except for the plethora of abbreviations and initialisms and maybe Yah.
Thanks, Katie, for a fun Friday and thanks, MalMan, for the chuckles, especially the Burning The Campbell … cartoon and for the great visuals. The My Fair Lady video was a delightful reminder of that wonderful movie and the beauty and class of Audrey Hepburn. The Stooges (Hi, Moe!) silly song brought a smile, too.
FLN
I hope you’ve recovered from your locked-out in the cold ordeal. My garage key pad battery also conked out at an inopportune time for me but in the summer, so no weather issues. Fortunately, my next door neighbor was still up at 11:00 pm and, even more fortunately, she had an extra 9V battery on hand. My brother had driven me home after a wedding reception and because I brought a small, dressy purse, I didn’t have my extra set of keys with me. I now have the battery replaced every so often, before it’s even ready to die!
Have a great day and stay warm!
Sorry, TTP, of course that message was meant for you!
DNF, TITT and Googling MANNY. Then I came here and saw that I got IVaS wrong, and remembered the kiddie riddle that starts "As I was walking to St. IVES I met a man with seven wives."
I've heard of all the theme phrases except for TURKISH DELIGHT. Turkish taffy? Turkish brothel worker?
When I finally got MR T, I remembered that B. A. was supposed to be for "Bad Attitude."
STUCK IN A RUT reminded me of this oldie-station favorite by one-hit wonder Rupert Holmes.
I've never heard of AIWA speakers. I think of them for their other components, like cassette tape decks and other cutting-edge devices. I remember that their decks had autoreverse, but not autoREWIND.
Thanks to Katie for the fun challenge that I was almost up for. If not for my divorce from MLB after the 1994 strike I would have known MANNY (I think). And thanks to the MalMan for delivering again.
FLN - My problem with locks is my DW. A couple of months ago, she visited a restroom in a restaurant, closed the barrel bolt lock and couldn't figure out how to open it. I was summonsed by our server, and it took me about 10 minutes to talk her through unlocking it. (I asked them what they would do in case of a medical emergency like a slip-and-fall or someone passing out. They said they guessed they would call 911 and let the EMTs figure it out.) Then I was taking out the trash and she locked the RV door. Again I had to talk her through unlocking it, and she didn't remember locking it. Last week she left the bathroom and locked the button-lock. No big deal; a bobby pin unlocked that one. I have started keeping my keys in my pants pocket at all times, instead of putting them on the counter when I get home as I have done for decades.
Somehow I managed a TERMINA BIEN (literally) in 27:21, relying on perps cuz I knew none of the foreign words or phrases or several other answers as clued. DKN what a gerund was or a digital native, the G in the ING/GENY crossing being a WAG and my last fill. A cleverly constructed grid with a difficulty level that I like, Friday’s shouldn’t be easy. Thanks Katie for the challenge!
MM ~ superb write up today, thank you!
Hola!
Yum! TURKISH DELIGHT! It's actually a honey-filled, savory, gooey dessert.
I am enjoying my CUP OF JAVA as I solve this.
QUANDO in Italy; cuando in SPAIN.
My downfall is modern jargon like WBYM. I don't use those abbreviations when texting.
Why is OPPULENT spelled with only one P?
I had no idea about "Nutbush city limits" but TINA emerged without effort.
THE RAIN IN SPAIN recalls My Fair Lady. What a great movie!
TRUman Capote wrote the BOOK, In Cold Blood.
My mother had a distant cousin named LULU though I think that was a nickname.
Have a DELIGHTFUL day, everyone!
Musings
-Ya gotta love it when a theme is seemingly so obscure and then it bowls you over with its cleverness and eventual helpfulness. CUP OF JAVA tipped me off and since I love musicals, THE RAIN IN SPAIN filled in quickly.
-Omar EPPS’ character endured many scripted racist comments on House 10 yrs ago
-Going to St. Ives was the first thing that came to my mind too, MM!
-If a teacher says ….OR ELSE… they had better follow through
-The start of a DOG PILE in Omaha
-Julian Fellowes wrote that Lady CORA was based on the real Lady whose fortune saved Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey was filmed
-REWINDS – Unlike a GEN Y viewer, it always amazes me that Netflix remembers where I left off and takes me right back to that spot many days later.
-RENEE is our new Monday blogger aka Sumdaze
-D-O, Nutbush is real and I’ll bet you know the famous person whose home is Grinder’s Switch, TN
-BTW, FWIW, Katie is the assistant to Patti, so I doubt she had a problem getting the puzzle past her.
This was a clever and fun puzzle. It seemed rather easy for a Friday. First time poster, long time crossword puzzle enthusiast. Blessings to all, h
I too despaired when I started solving, then when I was all the way down south, I visualized THE RAIN IN SPAIN, so FRENCH KISS was a breeze after that and to my DELIGHT over a CUP OF JAVA, I FIR.
Really fun theme.
Every bakery in Istanbul prominently displays colorful boxes of TURKISH DELIGHTs of various sizes. As Lucina states they are gooey, sweet morsels of dessert.
Friday Frazzle. Thanks for the workout, Katie and MalMan.
I was tempted to toss this CW several times, due to the plethora of unknown names and the themers in other languages. But I persevered and got all but the NE corner. I see that I am not alone.
I wanted Rime before HOAR, YUH before YAH, had no idea about that Baracus player, and had not sussed DELIGHT.
(I know TURKISH DELIGHTs as chocolates (that may have a British origin).
I wanted Grasped AWAY, but knew that FRENCH pISS would not pass the breakfast test!
WDYM it wasn’t fun? It was a LULU.
The usual Ests changed to ERAS (literally a ballpark figure!).
O’er (over and over) changed to OFT.
I had entered the pluralizing S for those “digital natives”, but MANNY corrected it to Y. Do we have a Gen S? LOL!
But of coarse, I got my ESSO CSO.
Wishing you all a great day.
FIW today because of a wrong guess at one of several unknowns: Whys instead of WDYM. I didn't catch the reference to MR T, thinking it referred to a soccer team (Hi, D-Otto). And hand up for putting hOG PILE instead of DOG PILE, a new expression for me (though the UGA DAWGS could have a true DOG PILE.)Thanks, Katie, for a friendly Friday puzzle.
Like others I found the themers helpful once I caught on at CUP OF JAVA. I knew la lluvia meant RAIN, but first put it in SPAIN's place. Perps cleared things up. GEN Y was questionable fill but I had the idea right which MalMan helpfully confirmed in his rich review. MANNY was a more likely spelling of Ramirez's first name since Mani didn't fit.
Irish Miss, one of my WOs was EstS/ERAS, too.
And I had O'er/OFT like C Eh. (BYW I didn't know where ESSO came from until MM explained it today!)
Welcome, Helene! Come back often.
Do have a DELIGHTful day today, everyone!
Unheared of theme clues with answers that only become evident as common phrases with enough perpaid. Weird but clever and fair. But had logpile instead of DOGPILE (yah shoulda took Rover out for a walk sooner 😆) And no idea what a Baracus player was (not a sport but MR.T 🙄) thus a one-letter DNF
Engelbert Humperdinck looks so stiff in that video probably why they had him surrounded by whirling dancing girls. 💃 💃💃
"Quando, Quando, Quando", the original 1962 version if anyone is interested
The EU has an anthem? Had the middle D, the only word that made sense was ODE.
WISK AWAY that ring around the collar
Worked with a physician, always nattily, dressed named Caldwell. We called him Dr. CLADwell....Remember the VHS rental return requst: "Be Kind,____ "... REWIND
I've literally used the same AOL screen name since the late 80's which figuratively identifies me as a geezer.
Cashier with an empty till...LONGING FOR CHANGE
Guided trip through the Louvre...ARTUR
Catch your breath....REWIND.
Earl Grey sobriquet...MRT
IMHO the word "literally" used incorrectly is actually being used as hyperbole. Like saying something is Terrific (full of terror) or Aweful (full of awe).
Temperature to plunge,...7⁰... icy conditions 🥶...will stay in and read (do crossword puzzles).
Found literally in this order:
exhibit A
exhibit B
exhibit C
exhibit Q?
Ok, I lied, I really saw this one first..
To make a point about all the above, you really have to think about it?
Had no clue to any of the long answers. And strangely I knew all the names that got me through the puzzle. That's different. So, enough perps to figure everything out. Thanks Mal for the recap and the English lesson. Well done. GC
Puzzling thoughts:
At the end of the day, this puzzle had a lot of good qualities; literally. The use of five phrases, each having a foreign reference, was quite clever. The path around the phrases, however, had a few RUTS in it, IMHO. But given the new audience/generation of crossword puzzle solvers, this one probably scored high. GENY, WDYM, and all of the proper names were a bit tedious, but when you have a puzzle with that many theme-entry characters, there will be a plethora of 3 and 4 letter words
The MOST fun I had, though, was reading MM's recap! Maybe your best ever, JS
PTs2:
CrossEyedDave @ 11:12
TOO funny!!
Thanks for the nice comments, Cornerites.
Incredible insight, Ray-O 😄😄
Fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, Katie. And always enjoy your clever commentary, MalMan, thanks for that too.
Well, I sure didn't expect a kid's parent to be a GOAT, and so that prepared me for a critter puzzle. But except for that ARABIAN horse, didn't find many others. Oh, wait, there was an ASP, wasn't there? The CUP OF JAVA made me start looking for food, but except for that TURKISH DELIGHT I didn't find too many other EATS. Just as well, I don't want to have any ACID to deal with in the morning. Well, not much else to deal handle--I'm just going to ignore that BOOR--and think I'll just go back to reading a BOOK.
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
Thank you Katie for a friendlier to usual Friday FIR.
And thank you MalMan for your literally incisive explanation of the theme and for all the illuminating bling (where do you get all this stuff!?). I got all the themers, but was literally flummoxed about their meaning until I got here.
A few favs:
22A IVES. St. Ives in Cornwall was where the great English potter Bernard Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979) established his pottery. Leach was a leader in the revival of English crafts after their decimation by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century. One of the big thrills of my life was hold a Leach pot in a small regional museum in Bath. It was heavy.
35A DENT. Can be alternately clued as "Arthur ___" from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
8D ODE. Beethoven's use of the Friedrich Schiller's poem Ode to Joy in the final movement of his 9th Symphony was one of his many musical revolutions.
38D VAL. Top Secret! just landed on my bucket list.
51D ONE CELL. Yeast cells are Eukaryotes the simplest life forms whose cells have a nucleus, unlike bacterial cells (Prokaryotes), which don't have nuclei. Eukaryotes were an important stage in the evolution of higher life forms.
51D RENEE. Gary has already noted it, but I'll add a CSO to sumdaze, our the newest colleague on the blogging team.
Cheers,
Bill
FLN: Michael @12:00 AM (the stroke of midnight!). Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives. ROTFL!
Welcome, Helene! May this be a long and fruitful association for you!
I don't mean to get Cerebral with this link,
(The cerebral part is that it takes ten minutes to figure out how to get past the ads in this clickbait!)
but I thought it would be fun to look up literal meanings of foreign phrases. I was then going to look at images instead of text (because, thats what I do...)
but it the text was just so much funnier...
Like in the above, the German word for nipples is Brustwarzen. Literally, "breast warts."
Or, that in Afrikaans, a stapler, is a "paper vampire."
However,
If you are really bored,
You can follow this image back to its click bait site which lists
English phrases that really scare the crap out of foreigners ...
I’m an occasional contributor here for many years, and enjoy the repartee and affection you seem to have for each other.
Kudos to Katie and Patti for a really fun solve! I found it fair, with enough reasonable clues to make the theme answers obvious,
even when I didn’t know the foreign word. It’s like the leg of an elephant, today I knew almost all the names (Mr. T?), when some had trouble, and other days I know almost none, when some say the names were
Enjoyed the write-up! I thing poor Mr.Campbell was even wearing the proper Black Watch plaid. (A family name).
Opps! Somehow a word went missing. —“when some say the names were easy”.
Sorry,
Didn't realize that the above link would not contain its origin source...
The eyeglasses on the banana were supposed to refer to "keep your eyes peeled" as if interpreted by a non English speaker...
Waseeley,
"Top secret" is on my list too! But it is a hard one to find.
Currently only available on Hulu, Paramount, and other premium services.
( to think they make you pay for a 39 year old movie that no one has ever heard of...)
( there has got to be a word for that!)
CED and Waseeley, Top Secret was, literally, brought to us by the folks responsible for Airplane and Kentucky Fried Movie. If you enjoyed any of those. . .
I guess that I am not logged in on my tablet. That was me immediately above. MM
Hi All!
There was no way I was going to finish this, but after an hour at home and another 45 minutes in the Dr.'s waiting room, I did! I had no idea what the clues meant but having Countries in the (common) phrases really helped me WAG my butt off (figuratively).
Thanks Katie (lovely name, says DW) for the grid. The puzzle (figuratively) stretched me but good.
LOL "Burning the Campbells," MManatee!, in addition to all the great info in the post-game. Plus two dad-jokes (last one visual) and references to two of the best lines in movies - "There Wolf" & Aykroyd's quip - so extra points there.
I tried to watch Top Secret once - just too corny. Kentucky Fried Movie, however, was just campy enough and UHF just tugged at the heart-strings...
WOs: Ests->ERAs (Hi C, Eh!), YArS (when's Talk Like A Pirate Day again? :-)).
ESPs: I lost count. WDYM is new to me BTW.
Fav: just finishing this LULU of a grid. "WDYM, -T?" idk.
Actually, ARTHUR followed by DENT on the same row was really cute (even if it wasn't intended).
Knowing ARTHUR DENT (the ape-descendant life form - not a frood [really amazingly together]) was the only reason 31a's fill looked good enough to me, waseeley.
Welcome to The Corner, Helene. You too Parsan.
DOG PILE on the rabbit! [Looney Tunes]
The A-Team was my favorite show when I was a wee-lad; I even had the lunch-box. The 5th-grade rumor was that B.A. stood for "Bad Ass" but don't let the Nuns hear you say that. Mr. T has mellowed a bit. [Conan]
I nearly entered GEN-X @67a until I remembered I didn't have a computer once.
Interesting thing about the 'digital-generation,'
a) most have no clue how computers nor the internet works
b) they're (literally) surprised when you tell them one had to RTFM [Read the Fine Manual] and keep it on the shelf as a reference 'cuz there was no Google.
//I (literally) had this conversation with one of our Jr. Analysts last week - she was (figuratively) blown away by that fact:
"OMG! How did you do homework?"
I had to tell her about libraries and then had to explain card-catalogues because there weren't computers to tell you where on the shelf a book was :-)
FLN - TTP, so was it the key-pad lock or the garage door opener battery? I'm confused. I did Google my key-pad Schlage so I now know where the battery is housed.
Jinx - My study door seems to lock randomly (with me inside! - makes DW very suspicious what I'm up to). Sometimes it locks w/ me outside so I put a little-baby screwdriver over the jamb so I don't have to go down to the garage every time. I should probably change the knob when I think about it again (while at Lowes).
Lucina - right?!? Why is there only one p in apologize when you're (literally) really sorry? :-)
CED - you out-did yourself today with the LOLs!
Cheers, -T
A ONE CELL dad-joke a buddy made today:
I send in team-chat: "I'm dropping off-line for Dr. apt. I have my cell."
Buddy: That's a biology joke, right? - OK, make like an amoeba and split."
CyberSecurity is a slog. We need these little moments ;-)
-T
Hi Y'all! I read Katie's name, cringed and almost quit. Then I read the top row of clues and almost quit. But I kept going and actually finally liked the puzzle. I just ignored all the theme words which I didn't know. Eventually I got enough perps to WAG my way thru. First of Katie's puzzles that didn't annoy just me. Thanks.
Finishing was worth being worthy to read MalMan's & CED's jokes. Hilarious. Thanks, guys.
Helene @10:27 AM Yes, welcome Helene. Are you any relation to Irish Miss? She lives in Troy, NY.
Parsan @12:19 PM And welcome to you too Parson. You need to meet Michael. I think he's a Parson too.
-T @1:57 PM Thanks for the date for "Talk Like a Pirate Day". I've added it to my perpetual calendar. And thanks for reminding me about ARTUR. I knew I left something out: Chopin's Étude op 25/11 "Winter Storm". Funny ONE CELL joke!
Super busy all day. Still haven't read Malo Man's review. I found the puzzle to be easily solved. 12:34 unaided, so it must have been easy. That was about 11 hours ago.
I have only scanned most of the comments today looking to make sure no spammers. But I did periodically search the comments to see if anyone directed anything at me, like telling me there was a spam comment that needed to be purged.
Irish Miss, thank goodness your lockout wasn't in the winter !
Dash T, when I write garage door, I'm talking about the big overhead garage door that goes up so you can pull your car in. Were you thinking about the garage service door ? The one that's wide enough for a person to walk though, but a car won't ? :-)
The keyless wireless remote is this device. In this image, Chamberlin calls it a keyless entry. Chamberlain Group G940EV-P2 Chamberlain/LiftMaster/Craftsman 940EV-P2 Keyless Entry, Security +2.0 Compatible Garage Door Opener Keypad, Grey. This is the one that I have. You can spot where the 9V battery goes, just below the Enter key. It's designed to be mounted on the wall and will open multiple garage doors (if the battery is good). ;-(
Back later.
Read the FINE manual. Thanks for that. I have been saying it incorrectly all these years!
YAH sure, I liked this puzzle, don'tcha know.
I literally liked MM's write-up better, though.
CED, good stuff. Thanks.
DNF but felt pretty good about sussing the theme after TURKISH DELIGHT (BTW, known from "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.")
FAVs: Make a bad impression? and BOOK
MalMan, excellent recap!! OMG, is that meme of the auctioneer breaking the vase legit or a funny set up?
I did think the clue referred to music systems, but still didn't know it was AIWA. That was the least of my unknowns today.
33D. You might think a pirate's favorite letter is "P" or maybe even ARRRR, but 'tis the C !
Hello Helene & Parsan!!
Dear Waseeley @ 12:08 -- I lifted 'Finagle's Law' from some science fictioneer in the 1950s. It's a handy explanation for when everything goes pear-shaped.
Thank you, Katie, and thank you, Malodorous Manatee.
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