Saturday Themeless by Doug Peterson
The first thing that caught my eye in Doug's grid was the 109 open squares! That's a lot of cells for his fiendish cluing to take its toll on entertain us solvers.
The entire southeast corner mocked me with white boxes and then cell by cell and I broke through where Doug was headed. Let's see what master constructor Doug has for us with special attention to that bedeviling corner.
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| Doug's collaboration with with Jeff Chen |
1. British cartoon whose logo features a curly tail: PEPPA PIG - It runs in English, Swedish and here in Welsh:
9. Company offering Viewliner Bedrooms: AMTRAK.
15. Cape Canaveral's 321, for one: AREA CODE - I don't how many of my 40 trips to KSC I had made before it hit me that its AREA CODE was part of a launch countdown.
16. Period of devotion: NOVENA.
17. Nearest the back: REARMOST - The part of the auditorium that fills first for a teacher's meeting.
18. Private __: SECTOR - Every year of my career I saw great teachers leave for the Private SECTOR
19. Tool akin to a staple gun: TACKER.
20. Shelter named for a senator: ROTH IRA.
21. Bean sprout?: IDEA - Here bean is a metaphor for head, so...
22. Printer color: CYAN.
24. Art student's subj.: ANAT - Michalangelo dissected many bodies to view underlying tissue to make his art more realistic.
25. Orthodox leader?: NEO - NEO-orthodoxy. / (ˌniːəʊˈɔːθəˌdɒksɪ) / noun. a movement in 20th-century Protestantism, reasserting certain older traditional Christian doctrines.
26. Hedgehog relative: SHREW.
28. Clog buster: SNAKE - I bought this 25' one and it did no good. My plumber said he needed 40' of his industrial SNAKE to open our drain.
29. 1993 Jack Lemmon comedy: GRUMPY OLD MEN - Yeah, right, 😯, "still hot" Ann Margaret fell for these two guys.
32. Rentals used on rugs: STEAM CLEANERS.
35. Top 40 hit on the soundtrack for "A Charlie Brown Christmas": LINUS AND LUCY.
37. Studio bed: FUTON.
40. Stock reducers: SALES.
41. "My __": Usher/Alicia Keys duet: BOO - BOO is slang for girlfriend or boyfriend. This song has a video I choose not to post here.
42. Tofu nutrient: IRON.
44. Bobby of R&B's Famous Flames: BYRD - Bobby Byrd started the Famous Flames in 1953 and one member of the group was a guy named James Brown. Hmmm... I wonder what became of him.
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| Bobby (2nd from left) James (4th from left) |
45. They swell with pride: GAY BARS - GAY pride
47. Tick by: ELAPSE.
49. Do some warehouse work: UNCASE.
50. Nick name in Paris?: PERE NOEL - These cells filled cell by cell and then BAM, Father (PERE) Christmas (NOEL) for St. Nick hit me like a ton of mistletoe! 😁
52. Venetian marketplace: RIALTO.
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| Shopping in the RIALTO Bridge area |
53. One MCU character: UNIVERSE - Another bolt of lightning hit me when Marvel (Comic) Cinematic UNIVERSE hit me!
54. Frostbite preventer: EARLAP.
55. Stood firm: RESISTED.
Down:
1. Occasion to say 3-Down: PARTING - She could have just said, "See ya, Romeo."
3. "See ya": PEACE OUT - What Juliet could have said?
2. Literary devices: E-READERS.
4. Arctic hunter's wear: PARKA 13. Arctic hunter's wear: ANORAK - We all know about a parka but an ANORAK is a pull over, waterproof, hooded jacket.
5. Culmination: ACME - Playing in the Super Bowl is the ACME of a football season
6. Barely passable: POOR.
7. Docs with DOBs, often: IDS - If you have a prolonged stay in a hospital, you'll have recited your Date Of Birth over and over.
8. Appreciate: GET
9. Actor Mount who plays Captain Pike in recent "Star Trek" series: ANSON - Not ANSON Williams for Happy Days
10. Name on some magnums: MOET.
11. Remote possibility?: TV CHANNEL - ...and so much more. Example: This red button gets me closed captioning
12. Cone holder: RETINA.
20. Reasons for grievances: RAW DEALS.
22. Sources of saffron: CROCUSES.
23. Chews out: YELLS AT.
26. Tenerife's country: SPAIN - Tenerife is the largest of Spain's Canary Island (862 miles SW of Gibraltar) and its landscape is dominated by the active volcano Mt. Teide which is also Spain's highest mountain
27. Mass performance: HYMN.
28. Fires off: SENDS.
30. Summer salad morsel: MELON BALL.
31. Locks in a barn?: MANE - 😀
33. Fortified red wine: RUBY PORT.
34. Filmmaker who helped launch the African Film Heritage Project: SCORSESE.
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| A Swiss group YODELING in the Alps |
37. Sculpture, often: FIGURE - Even if it's a bean
38. Muse on the U.S. Naval Observatory's seal: URANIA - The goddess of astronomy and stars
39. A little buggy, perhaps: TOY CAR.
43. Before going under, say: PRE-OP - I have received videos and printed literature about what I have to do before my 2/15/23 procedure.
44. Curses: BANES.
46. Hound of whodunits: ASTA - Nick and Nora Childs' pooch
47. Judgment of Paris instigator: ERIS - Gary, I'd like to know more about this
48. "The Periodic Table" author Primo: LEVI - This signed first edition will cost you $4,500.
50. Brita alternative: PUR.
51. Navigator's dir.: ENE.
47 comments:
My first thought on seeing this grid was the same as Gary’s, quite the sea of white! Usually on a Saturday themeless the center stackers are the hardest to suss out for me, today those three came easy but all four corners gave me fits, but I managed to pull off a FIR in 42:44 w/out help of any sort. DNK’s were a majority of the puzzle, so perps to the rescue. Last fill was the T in the MOËT/ROTHIRA crossing, oh THAT kind of shelter! Definitely worthy of a Saturday with really fine clueing and fill, nice piece of work Doug, thanks for the challenge.
HG ~ another outstanding review, always entertaining and educational, you must have been a really good teacher!
Good morning!
Struggled with this one, especially in the SE SECTOR. Had no idea what MCU could represent, and PERE NOEL took some time to bubble up through the gray matter. Thanx, Doug. Excellent expo, Husker. (I think those "Docs" were documents.)
ROTH IRA: Devilishly clued. Dw and I both have one, in addition to our regular IRAs.
E-READERS: When my third (or was it fourth?) Kindle bit the dust, I gave up. Now I read books on my phone.
Sometimes, when there’s a rather difficult puzzle, and I’m one of the few people to get it right, it makes me rather despondent. So I was happy to see my two predecessors managed to do alright with this very challenging puzzle. All sorts of misdirection (filled with “pride” anyone?) made this puzzle quite tricky. But through P&P (including putting this puzzle down twice!) I managed to FIR, so I’m happy.
Good Morning. DNF, but that's okay. What I did fill, I got right, so satisfied there. Thanks, Gary for the review.
One nit, not that it would have made that much of a difference. ASTA is a Terrier, not a hound. If the clue writer wants to use a generic for a dog, don't use the wrong breed group for the solve.
Good Morning:
This was quite the challenge but P and P saved the day, once again. It took 34:40, w/o help, which is not too much longer than a normal Saturday time, so I guess I can’t complain. Well, maybe I can, just a little, considering the difficult of that SE corner and some of the overly tough cluing, e.g., the specificity of the clues for Boo, Universe, and Scorsese. There were too many unknowns, some as clued, for me to list but mostly proper names, the bane of my solving. I went astray at Unload>Unlade>Uncase, Rite/Hymn, and The Odd Couple/Grumpy Old Men. On a positive note, much of the clueing was clever, my favorites being the clues for Gay Bars and Yodeled, and the fill was fresh and lively and extra props or the barely noticeable 6 three letter words.
Thanks, Doug, for a tough but tameable offering (why doesn’t autocorrect like tameable?) and thanks, HG, for the usual sparkling and illustrative review. I echo YooperPhil’s compliment about your teaching talents which are so evident in your daily comments and your blogging.
It is -9 here right now but we’ll be back in the 40s next week. This has been one of the strangest winters I’ve ever experienced.
FLN
Welcome to Helene and Parsan. I hope we’ll hear from you both often.
Have a great day.
My proof reading needs improvement. Should be Difficulty and For, both in the first paragraph. Sorry. 🫢
I debated E READER vs PoPPAPIG. The latter sounded better, forgetting the peculiarities of an English readership. I did enjoy the utterly un-PC Andy Capp
I had mukluk/ANORAK
I immediately thought of Nick and Nora but I thought the dog was Nala or Fala(FDR?)
RosE, Doug was being alliterative though "Hound" threw me too. I think there's an
Inspector Hound
This was the hardest for me, mainly because of paucity of LHF(SALES,SNAKE,ANAT,PETS?). CO?E in CC surely referred to a cone even after AREA filled. NW was my last fill and I went to sleep with the E READER in place. But On-line seemed OK
I had nada and little hope for anything but a massive DNF then…
Yes, I took the smart pill (CBD ) and inch by inch…
Oaths/BANES held me up as did leavING/PARTING
NOVENA is CSO to Lucina as is HYMN. Cluei g was outrageously sadistic thus hugely entertaining
PEPPA schmeppa!!!
WC(aka One-Box Wilbur-just one last Saturday too)
What a toughie, but some great clues! Not even close to finishing. Got STEAMCLEANERS right off the bat, which I thought would get me going, but no. SPIKELEE instead of SCORCESE didn’t help.
Hard puzzle, "hard" as the ice on the driveway this AM... plummeted to - 17⁰ last night (yes, that's a minus sign). -8⁰ right now.
The Crossword Gods punish hubris especially the deities in charge of Saturday puzzles. Like Sisyphus tormented by constantly rolling a rock uphill only to have it fall back. Saturday pride is punished by repeatedly inking out answers that persistently come up incorrect. Gasbag was wrong as was Totcar LINUSANDLUCY seemed correct but would not perp with Spike Lee which was wrong anyway. MCA?
FWIW...Inkovers: prayer/NOVENA, leaving/PARTING, Micmac/ANORAK ("give the dog a bone" 😄)
CROCUSES? shouldn't that be Croci (croke'-eye) 😁....liked "remote possibility", never heard IDEA referred to as a "bean sprout"
NEOorthodox sounds like an oxymoron. What's a TACKER?..."Famous Flames" 🔥 (the great Chicago fire?)
WEES: Most of the SE was white like figurative driven snow. I truly admire all you guys who FIRed. 👌
Ed Sullivan though he saw a large rat but it was just "a really big _____"... SHREW
Bangor flight attendants say:... " The ____ in ____ are mainly on the plane..BANES, MANE
A mocking sub soprano...RIALTO
Gotta go to the supermarket for DW, tryna find a pair of gloves that match or at least opposite ✋s... in a oversized cardboard box in an overstuffed closet. 🙄
FIR, but what a workout. NW corner was the last to fall. I had OBs at 7D that I was convinced was right until I realized docs was not doctors, and filled in IDs. Never heard of Peppa Pig so that didn't help.
Learning moment about saffron for me; crocuses? Really? Oh well.
Wilber Charles, Baskerville wouldn't fit!! :-)
By this def. iron would be a “nutrient” wouldn’t it: “a substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life; ‘fish is a source of many important nutrients, including proteins, vitamins and minerals’” (from Oxford Languages, online)
This was a challenge, but of the Silkie variety. I ended up solving from NE clockwise and ending in the NW.
A few helpful gimmes opened up certain sections - eg. LINUS AND LUCY - The community choir I'm in had sung a medley of songs from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at our December concert.
Along with STEAM CLEANERS gave me the the SC in SCORSESE. Definitely a Saturday clue for that director - thought it would be a black director- but what other director starts with SC.
Finally remembering PEPPA PIG at 1A - that was one of the newer balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade this year opened up the NW.
Thanks HG for the fun blog and Doug for the clever puzzle!
Too many great clues to list. Even though I DNF, the NW corner got me, I loved this puzzle. Yes, lots of unknown names, which for me too Irish Miss, are a bane, I managed to fill them with the help of perps. Some I scratched my head about, like UNIVERSE; MCU, looked like a university to me, but it wouldn’t fit.
I started with MOËT and NOVENA, then a sea of white until the SE corner, then I dutifully went back to the top and got to work.
My favorite was the PÈRE NOEL clue.
Those of you who reside in the “North Pole”, stay warm. Wear your ANORAKS or your PARKAS, and don’t forget your EAR LAPS.
Sunny and cool here.
HUSKER
The page you printed from "Romeo and Juliet" had the modern English translation directly under the Shakespearean terminology. That is SO convenient. Usually if present at all its on a mirror image opposite page with the whole piece reprinted or distracting footnotes.
What is this from? I'd love to find a whole works of the bard done up this way.
Wasn't able to email you for some reason
Symmetrical failures in NE and SW corners. Oy!
Hi All!
Getting PEPPA PIG right off the bat gave me false confidence. More false confidence came through a few minutes later when YELLS AT and STEAM CLEANERS filled. But this was not to be - too many unknows and clues more brilliant that I ("Swell with pride" - I was thinking lions :-)).
Great puzzle, Doug. Well above my abilities, but still good stuff.
Thanks for the expo, HG. When you pictured the RIALTO, I realized I was reading Vietnamese the whole time! #dyslexia. The irony: the flat DW & I AirB&B'd in Venice overlooked the bridge.
WO: N/A
DNF
Fav: Remote possibility == TV CHANNEL
Best c/a (IMHO): NASA's 321 == AREA CODE. I was trying to remember the building numbers there :-) Building 30 houses Mission Control at JSC.
No one else's first thought was Trojan at 10d? :-)
If you have Netflix, Pretend it's a City with SCORSESE* and Fran Lebowitz is LOL.
Y'all stay warm up there and have a wonderful Saturday.
Cheers, -T
*I'll be honest, I had to Google the spelling of his name for the fill.
To waseeley - yesterday
Funny that you ask if Helene was related to IM from Troy because I live in Troy. Parsan (not clerical) refers to my favorite cities where I once lived, Paris and San Francisco.
Knew PEPPA PIG, the bane of wonderful actor and writer Stanley Tucci who called her an “irritating animated swine”. His young daughter watched the show every day. I Agree with RosE, a hound is a breed (our long mourned basset “Miles”) and doesn’t describe ASTA.
Very hard puzzle for me, but just what Saturday should me. Thanks!
Thanks, Doug. Keep 'em coming ! Nice job, Husker.
The very bottom got me. I stood firm and inSISTED that insisted was coorect for stood firm. Also had ERoS for the instigator. Never recovered from those, but did correct TV CHANgEr to TV CHANNEL when GRUMPY OLD MEN emerged. We call it a changer for some reason. Simply too worn down today after yesterday.
I thought the puzzle was full of really good clues.
Shelter named for a senator ? ROTH IRA
Stock reducers ? SALES
Locks in a barn ?
LINUS AND LUCY ? A one-hit wonder, at #37.
By the pure definition, a one hit wonder is an artist or group that has had at least one song, but no more than one song break into the Billboard Top 100 at # 40 or below. Breaking into the top 40 in individual charts, like the top Rock songs, Country songs, pop songs, etc, doesn't count. Breaking into the rankings in some other country also doesn't qualify. Ergo, Rush is a one-hit wonder. I'd better duck !
RUBY PORT took some time. I barely knew of PORT.
I meant the SW corner got me.
cast your fate to the wind reached 22 on the pop charts, and led to Vince guaraldi being chosen to write the background Charlie Brown music. Which led to many other hits, like skating...
(I'll let Anon-T defend Rush.)
TTP - Funny you mention RUSH. Sis texted a pic this morning with me, Eldest, & (CEO) Bro in our R40 concert tees. It was their last tour and I took the Girls to the Houston show and Bro & Sis to the Chicago show. Sis said it was too much fun watching the concert and her big brothers elated.
RUSH was the biggest band with a "cult" following :-) I am curious about your source on Top 100. This site shows seven (7) songs that broke into Billboard [am I confusing Hot w/ Top?].
Anyway, it doesn't matter what "The Critics" say, RUSH only put out a handful of WTF?!? songs (I Think I'm Going Bald was, um.... let's play Working Man again :-))
And now we return The Cornerites to their regularly scheduled blog.
Cheers, -T
Fun Saturday toughie, many thanks, Doug. And your commentary is always a pleasure, Gary, thanks for that too.
Well, PERE NOEL is behind us, but it's still winter, time to wear your ANORAK and your PARKA and an EARLAP to prevent frostbite. Hope we're not all in such a cold AREA CODE, and if we are, let's turn on the TV CHANNEL and sit on the FUTON with our PETS and eat a few MELON BALLS and drink some RUBY PORT. Much better than just being a bunch of GRUMPY OLD MEN, don't you think? Time to sing a HYMN of thanks, and watch LINUS and LUCY on TV!
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Parsan / RosE - I think hound, in some parts, is just a generic (larger) dog. eg: Pop's hound is a Chocolate Lab.
I wouldn't call Bitsy, Pop's DW's Yorkie, a hound - just a yippy little dog. So maybe y'all are correct about the Terrier ASTA :-)
Back to chores. -T
Thanks for the challenge Doug, to which I did not rise. After a couple of hours of digging in and out of this grid I had to look up at least a half dozen clues, and still finished with an FIW. Still this had some fiendishly clever cluing and it was a real learning experience.
And thanks Husker for showing me the error of my ways.
A few favs:
15A AREA CODE. Got this via perps. Thanks for the V8 on the count down Gary.
16A NOVENA. I pray one the first 9 days of each month for cancer sufferers.
20A ROTH IRA. Clever clue. An ESP. Never heard of senator ROTHIRA and QUONSET didn't perp.
48A GAY BARS. WNBA wasn't long enough.
50A PERE NOEL. Got the V8 on this one.
52A RIALTO. Very expensive form of RETAIL THERAPY. And that doesn't include the VAPORETTO fees.
58A UNIVERSE. Didn't get the V8 on this one. UNOVERSE? We've had 47D ERIS several times, but didn't DNK the whole story on this. Another thanks for the link Gary.
12D ANORAK. Also Brit slang for a GEEK. My favorite ANORAK was named ANORAK, the wry techie in the British mystery series Gil Mayo, played by actress Louise Brealey
Cheers,
Bill
🐶
Since the 50's some hound dogs are known to cry and do it continuously. Incapable of trapping game (rabbits) and are considered low class and unfriendly. I believe there's even a song about this unfortunate situation. 🎸
😄
Parsan @12:23 PM Actually I was riffing HELENE to HELEN, awarded to Paris for his poor judgement and a resident of a different Troy, this one in ancient Asia Minor. But it's good to know you're a neighbor of Irish Miss.
Anon T @ 12:13 ~ I burst out laughing at your “I was thinking of lions.” Tuck that away for a future collaboration!
Parsan @ 12:23 ~ Do you really live in Troy, NY.? What a coincidence if you do!
It’s now a balmy +9. 🤣
Cross Eyed Dave, wow. Vince Guaraldi had 2 Billboard songs (Linus and Lucy, and Cast Your Fate to the Wind") that made it into to the Top 40. So they weren't a "one hit" wonder. I stand corrected. So technically, a two hit wonder.
Dash T, that's the same link for Rush that I looked at, and then couldn't believe it. So I looked deeper, thinking that it had to be an error, and yet it's true.
BTW, the accepted criteria (as set by Billboard) to define a hit: The song must make the U.S. top 40. (Not top 40 in its genre like country or hip-hop, and not the top 40 in every single other country.)
Only "New World Man" did # 40 or better, reaching # 21. Obviously, on the rock charts they had more.
I don't know that it is a good measure anyway. They join Garth Brooks, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and other very successful acts who are technically one hit wonders that have only cracked the Top 40 one time.
Then there are the "No-Hit Wonders" like Bob Marley, The Ramones, The Band and more, that never broke the top 40.
Having sold over 42 million albums, with so many great songs that I rock to, it's very hard to think of Rush as a one-hit wonder...
CrossEyedDave @12:44 PM Thanks for the tunes Dave. The link to Vince Guaraldi's "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" had a brief comment by someone named Dan Gergen, also apparently a pianist. It's definitely worth reading in full, as it tells a very moving story.
Ray - O@ 2:13 PM You're incorrigible!
I culminated by looking up at least 20 things in order to finish this puzzle, which otherwise I would have been utterly unable to solve.
So, it wasn't THE APARTMENT or ENSIGN PULVER. It was UNCASE, not SHELVE. It was PERE NOEL, not BASTILLE. It was MOET, not MUMM.
I don't see how UNIVERSE is "one" MCU character. Isn't it the whole universe of characters?
Agree that ASTA is not a hound, and that BASKERVILLE didn't fit. Then I thought of HORE hound, but I don't know why that entered my head, since it's a plant.
Re saffron: Is the FOCI of the CROCI anything like a Chevy on the Levee? (Just being silly now.)
Good wishes to you all.
Irish Miss @ 2:38 - Yes, but it’s complicated. Live in Eagle Mills, pay taxes in Brunswick, have a Troy address!
Keep warm! It is going to be in the 40’s next week. Frozen pipes, but now all clear. What a winter!
After quickly filling in KARATE, ANORAK, CYAN, AND ANAT, RIALTO, NEO, IDEA, SPAIN, and YODELED which gave me toe-holds in the corners, it slowly filled in. "They swell with pride" - GAY BARS would have been easier if "pride" had been initial-capped. Never been fond of PEACE OUT (contrived/silly IMO).
Lastly, the NW took forever. Finally gave up and googled "321 in Florida". HG-your explanation made it so duh-worthy! I always enjoy your interesting and fun recaps - thank you!
Re RESISTED and the photo of a woman on a bus...today is Rosa Parks' birthday - born in 1913.
Got it! Couple of writeovers. FAIR became POOR and INBETA (didn't heed the ?) became TOYCAR.
Parsan @ 3:15 ~ Close enough, as they say in horseshoes! 😉 About as far as I now go out Route 2 is to Engel’s Farm Stand. Welcome, again, to the Corner.
Hola!
So late to post! I washed clothes, worked on the puzzle off and on, went to visit my niece who had breast removal surgery, bought her flowers and stayed with her a while. She is my second niece to go through that and I'm sorry to say the first one did not survive. I am praying that this one does. She is only 52, also.
My puzzle is riddled with wite-out. LEAVING/PARTING; HYMN/can't read it; too much other stuff that is also unreadable. Period of devotion started as LENTEN changed to NOVENA.
ANSON was LIU since I've never heard of it. MOET! Yum
I'll take a CSO at LUCY which is what my friends and family call me. However, you'll never see anyone here wearing either an ANORAK or a PARKA. Nor EARLAP.
One of our English teachers used to call us all her PETS.
Best clue is for GAYBARS.
I tried E-READERS but just could not do it. I like to hold a book when I'm reading. At present I'm reading The Book of Everlasting Things.
PEACE OUT! I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day. It's 75 here and lovely.
Musings
-Ray, this is the site where I found that quote: https://myshakespeare.com/romeo-and-juliet/act-2-scene-2
-50F and sunny today on the Great Plains.
That anatomical drawing is by Leonardo da Vinci, not Michelangelo.
Hi Y'all! IMHO this puzzle was needlessly brutal! Took me 52:18 minutes to fill while red-letters YELL "wrong" at me all the way. First pass thru, Only two words filled in on the top half. Did a little better on the bottom and worked back up. No hope without using red-letter runs to get some toe-holds. Sorry, but I didn't like this puzzle much.
I did know saffron came from crocuses. Yay me! I had heard of PEPPA PIG, never saw the TV show, and didn't think of it until last.
Thank you, Gary, for making it all somewhat more pleasant. Good luck on your upcoming surgery. Did I miss seeing what kind of surgery?
51 degrees here. Nice to open up a window and let in fresh air.
Thanks, Doug, for an awesome & challenging puzzle! I was excited to get 1A right away. I read not too long ago that little kids in the States are speaking with a British accent because of watching PEPPA PIG on the telly.
Ultimately, it was the SW that stymied me. I misread "buggy" as "baggy" and decided "TOo big" was the perfect fill.
FAVs: Nick in Paris and Shelter name.
RUBY PORT was a gimme (more)!
I regularly enjoy my Vince Guaraldi Trion CD. All tracks are good "wonder"ful.
H-Gary. Great work today! I am especially happy to learn the story of the Judgement of Paris and of the 3-2-1 area code. Thank you!!
RosE, YEH I thought of Sherlock's Hound
I mentioned EREADER or OREADER to Phil. He said no such thing as OREADER
Anon-T, I took a CBD smart pill. One half per week. It must have worn off for me to change E to O on ?READER
So we had Par(is)san and Helene near Troy. Btw, I thought ERoS first too
Along with fair I almost inked iffy before POOR
Someone had to mention Rush. I took a date to hear Willie Nelson on Boston Common and she blurted out "This is great, if only [I was with anyone but you]". I barely get excited at ballgames
Then again this xword excited me no end
WC
The southeast corner did me in. Never heard of the famous flames, BYRD, BOO, MCU, RUBY PORT, LEVI, or UNIVERSE. PEPPA PIG, PEACE NOW, GAY BARS, & SHREW we're unknown and filled by perps and guesses
Another Saturday struggle only to end in a DNF just like last Saturday. Unlike other puzzlers, I filled the NW easily but had a lot of empty squares in the other three corners. The center filled OK with the exception of S_RE_. Learning moments about SHREWs! Thanks for a puzzle I returned to all day, Doug.
Husker Gary, thanks to your helpful review and answer grid, I finished up by peeking at a word in your review, writing it down and trying to keep building on it. Hand up for having entered Spike Lee for the filmmaker and Mozzarella was in my head for "summer salad morsel" but was too long to fit. Parents fit for "they swell with pride" but perps said no. Just a few examples where I went wrong.
Welcome to Parsan and thanks for explaining your name.
RIALTO was the only word I got without help in the bottom two corners. I credit my knowledge of it from reading Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice. Anyone else a fan of them?
Until tomorrow....
ATLGranny@10:34. I too am a fan of Donna Leon’s series set in Venice.
AtlGranny:
Thank you for the tip about Donna Leon of whom I have never heard but I love mysteries so I'll have to look her up.
The family is coming for dinner tomorrow so I had to make a quick decision about the menu. Thankfully the slow cooker is available! I just have to buy ingredients for the salad.
Have a good night, everyone!
Husker G @ 6:53. I investigated the //myshakespeare.com// site which you suggested. It looks to be a great help ... but only for a small set of Shakespeare's plays; 6 as I recall.
There is also an issue, for me at least: English doesn't work that way anymore. I must translate his words in my mind, before I can bring them into understanding. As an example. this; "Hadst thou but come...." translates for me as "If you had only come...." But by the time the working translation is done, too often the thread of which it is a part has been lost.
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