Today's constructors are husband and wife team Paul and Karen Steinberg.
I believe this is Paul's LA Times debut. This is Karen's second puzzle
here, the first being published on Saturday, May 28, 2022. See Husker Gary's review for a capsule bio. Paul and Karen are also the parents of prolific constructor David Steinberg has had over 20 puzzles published here and numerous others at that other paper. In fact the three of them have co-constructed a puzzle for the NYT. What fun to be a fly on the wall at one of their Sunday morning breakfasts!
Today, riffing on the title of Adrienne Raphel's classic book on crosswords, they invite us to
Think Inside the Fill
We'll start with the reveal where they admonish us to ...
56A. "Remember what you were about to say," and what the answers to the starred clues literally do: HOLD THAT THOUGHT. ... and remind us with four theme phrases holding an IDEA spanning two of the words:
16A. *External troublemaker: OUTSIDE AGITATOR. OUTSIDE AGITATOR
is a term that has been used to discount political unrest as being
driven by outsiders, rather than by internal discontent. Many books
have been written on the subject including this one:
23A. *Prized possession: PRIDE AND JOY. Here's Stevie Ray Vaughan with his Pride And Joy (Live at Montreux 1982):
33A. *Camera attachment for a panorama: WIDE ANGLE LENS. Formerly the province of photo-jocks, relatively low-cost add-on lenses are now available for cell phones. Here's a review.
47A. *Space-saving option for overnight guests: HIDE AWAY BED. Make sure you read the directions before you get into one:
Here's the grid (with nary a circle):
Here's the rest:
Across: 1. Salinger title girl who says, "I prefer stories about squalor": ESME. For Esmé—with Love and Squalor is a short story by J. D. Salinger. It recounts a sergeant's meeting with a young girl before being sent into combat in World War II. Originally published in The New Yorker on April 8, 1950,[1] it was anthologized in Salinger's Nine Stories two years later (while the story collection's American title is Nine Stories, it is titled as For Esmé—with Love & Squalor in most countries).
9. Las Vegas WNBA team: ACES. The Las Vegas Aces are an American professional basketball team based in the WNBA Western Conference. The Aces won the 2022 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup and WNBA Championship.
13. Dress up like: GO AS.
14. French endearment that means "cabbage": CHOU. Today's French lesson. Only in "Le pays de l'amour" would you call your loved one a "cabbage". "Petit Chou" is their word for Brussels sprout, a tiny cabbage.
15. Pound the pavement?: STOMP. These folks will pound just about anything. Here's the overture to their DVD Stomp Out Loud.
16A. [Theme clue]
19. __ Pueblo, New Mexico: TAOS. Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark.
 |
| Multi-level adobe dwelling |
21. Brewpub fave: IPA.
22. Bubble bath sigh: AHH.
23A. [Theme clue]
26. More spread out: SPARSER. The population of Canada is nearly 9 times SPARSER than the US. Perhaps that's why Canadians live longer than Americans. Hi CanadianEh!
 |
| Comparative population density of Canada vs United States |
28. Dice game: CRAPS. How to play craps for beginners (12 min.). It's complicated.
29. Tech journalist Swisher: KARA. Kara Anne Swisher (/ˈkɛərə/ KAIR-ə) is an American journalist. She has covered the business of the internet since 1994. As of 2022, Swisher was a contributing editor at New York, the host of the podcast Sway, and the co-host of the podcast Pivot.
 |
| Kara Swisher |
 |
| Aloo Matar |
32. Craft project initials: DIY. Do It Yourself and a CSO to TTP, Anon-T, Picard, and Moi. Hand up if I missed you?
33A. [Theme clue]
38. Acne treatment brand: OXY. There are several treatments available for mild acne. You may try, or your doctor may recommend, treatment with a nonprescription drug that contains benzoyl peroxide (the generic name for OXY). It's believed that this compound works by destroying the bacteria associated with acne.
39. Lout: OAF.
40. Indie rock's __ Kiley: RILO. Rilo Kiley
was an American indie rock band based in Los Angeles, California (1998
- 2014). The band consisted of Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de
Reeder, and Dave Rock.
Here's their Silver Lining (lyrics):
45. Make damp: MOISTEN.
47A. [Theme clue]
51. Frustrating groove: RUT.
52. "One more sleep" time: EVE. This is a new clue for Christmas EVE, based on the song One more sleep by British singer Leona Lewis. This was the shortest version I could find:
53. Gushing reviews: RAVES. Apparently One more sleep got RAVE reviews in 2013 (see link in previous clue)
54. "__ You Babe": I GOT. All you need is love! But it ended when Cher became a mononym.
56A. [Theme reveal]
60. "Hamilton" Tony winner Renée __ Goldsberry: ELISE. A DIY YouTuber created this pastiche of 3 songs from Hamilton, featuring Renée (and a CSO to our Monday sherpa):
61. Dance move: STEP.
62. Stink: REEK.
63. Cambodian currency: RIEL. The Cambodia RIEL (KHR) has been the official currency since 20 March 1980. Here is the current exchange rate for US$. Between 1975 and 1980 (during the Vietnam War era) the country had no monetary system, . Between 1953 and May 1975 a currency also called the RIEL was issued. Between 1885 and 1953 when Cambodia was a part of French Indochina the piastre was used. Prior to that time a variety of regional currencies were used.
64. Picks up a Bug, say: TOWS. Presumably the Bug being a disabled VW.
65. Edit menu option: UNDO. Hands down the most useful editing command.
Down:
1. Self-importance: EGO.
2. Lefty: SOUTHPAW. IMHO lefties are less "handed" than righties, because we've had to adapt to a right-handed world. OTOH it's easier for us to ESC from pages we wish we hadn't stumbled into. Hand up if you're a SOUTHPAW 👍
3. Spy played by Greta Garbo: MATA HARI. Mata Hari is a 1931 American drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice loosely based on the life of Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod, a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan executed for espionage during World War I. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film stars Greta Garbo in the title role. It was Garbo's most commercially successful vehicle. Since Greta prefers to be left alone, here's the real Mata Hari:
 |
| Margaretha MacLeod |
5. Med. condition that may be treated with Paxil: OCD. Do you have to be OCD to review crossword puzzles, or is it just me.
6. Alter ego of "Batman" villain Lorelei Circe: THE SIREN. Played by siren Joan Collins, this character draws from the wellsprings of Greek mythology (Circe), German folklore (Die Hexe Lorelei), and such historical figures as the seductress Mata Hari (see 3D).
 |
| The Siren |
 |
| Roald Amundsen 1908 |
10. Crumbly Mexican cheese: COTIJA. Cotija is an aged Mexican cheese made from cow's milk and named after the town of Cotija, Michoacán. White in color and firm in texture, its flavor is salty and milky.
 |
| Cotija cheese |
12. Wets with a hose: SPRAYS.
15. Lettering guide: STENCIL.
17. Web access cos.: ISPS. Internet Service Providers. Actual access to the World Wide Web is the first, and perhaps most important of, many types of services provided by ISPS.
18. Wyo. neighbor: IDA. Wyo. is short for Wyoming. My grandson (the long distance axe thrower in my last review) goes to Wyoming Catholic College, and like all the students there, he is majoring in the Great Books. The college also teaches a lot of outdoor skills, among them wilderness survival training and advanced first aid. He has already had an introductory course as a backwoods EMT and may pursue that as a career.
IDA is short for IDAHO, sometimes clued with IDA Tarbell, the woman who took on Standard Oil (see 4D ESSO). She was often accused of being a 16A.
22. Query: ASK.
24. Get even with: REPAY.
25. Laundry room appliances: DRYERS.
27. Semicircular antenna housing: RADOME. A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna electronic equipment from view.
 |
| Radomes |
32. Author who wrote on Friday?: DEFOE. Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant, journalist, pamphleteer, social critic, and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities (an outside agitator no doubt), and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him. Oh yes, Friday? He is the manservant of the novel's protagonist, Robinson Crusoe.
 |
| Daniel Defoe 1660 |
35. Meaty Moroccan dish: LAMB STEW. Here's a recipe.
 |
| Lamb Stew |
 |
| The Nitrogen Cycle |
41. Toronto's prov.: ONT. CanadianEh! just scored a hat trick!
42. Feminine pair: SHE HER. Clever clue. As it turned out this was filled by a pair of pronouns, not by several possible collective nouns that I suspect some of the males on the Corner might have thought of first.
43. Copenhagen's __ Gardens: TIVOLI. Tivoli Gardens, also known simply as Tivoli,
is an amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. The
park opened on 15 August 1843 and is the third-oldest operating
amusement park in the world:
 |
| Tivoli Gardens |
 |
| Adélie penguin |
48. "Hush, ya big baby!": WAH.
49. Nautical "Halt!": AVAST.
50. BTS hit "__ Come": YET TO. "Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)" is a song by South Korean boy band BTS, released on June 10, 2022, through Big Hit Music and Universal Music Group, as the lead single from their first anthology album Proof. It is the band's first original Korean-language single since 2020's "Life Goes On". An alternative hip hop track, the song's lyrics are a reflection on the past nine years of the band's career while also looking forward to what the future holds. All the clips of YTC were in Korean, with no translations. Pass.
55. Ashram adviser: GURU.
57. Broadband letters: DSL. Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines, which were originally created for voice communication. Data transmission via DSL is provided by an Internet Service Provider (see 17D) in this case usually a telephone company.
58. Some PCs: HPS. This review was created on one.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
50 comments:
FIW the second I saw the reveal. Circles would have helped since I needed Bill to get an IDEA
Thus, have a DAY BED needed quick adjustment leading to correct spellings of TaVOLI and AdELIa(I had RIaL). I remember the Piaster well as I kept a supply in my safe
dAH became WAH
WC
Well, this puzzle afforded me a “happier “ outcome than yesterday’s, notwithstanding the many possible Naticks and other opportunities to go wrong. In other words, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Went with ADELIa and RIaL (Hi, Wilbur). Bzzzzzt. OTR_, CH__, and __GIE was another possible tripping point, but successfully navigated. Whew. Wondered if it'd be STOMP or STaMP -- settled when STAMP appeared further down. That was a cute clue for TOWS, totally missed because it was already filled in. No, d-o didn't suss the theme, nor read the full reveal clue. Hmmmph. Thanx, Steinbergs and Waseeley. (This comment is being written on an HP all-in-one.)
Thank you, Paul and Karen, and thank you, waseeley.
Slightly longer than yesterday. I lost my focus and vegged out on the theme after the SW corner. Don't like it when I miss a theme.
Had STAMP for "Pound the pavement" and then had STAMP for "Passport mark", so I changed the NE answer. Originally, CaTIJA seemed to be as likely as COTIJA.
" "One more sleep" time " clue was deceptive. I had the V from TIVOLI, and that alone led me to throw in EVE.
Needed to guess the A in RADOME crossing the unknown KARA. KARA sounded better than KARi or other vowel choices. Also didn't know AUGIE or RILO, and the name of the KPOP song, but perps were sufficient. Oh, so that's what those things are called. RADOMES. Hmmm.
Thanks for the review, Bill. Anytime there's an embedded SRV track, I'm in. And thanks for the shout out. My last DIY project of note was replacing the whole house humidifier on the side of the furnace. Got it hung on the supply side plenum, turned it on and everything worked except the water dripping over the pad. That's kind of the important part in creating humidity. I had wired it into the existing 24V transformer which turned out to be bad.
I'd have to counter that IDA Tarbell was hardly an OUTSIDE AGITATOR. Her father's business, along with many others were wiped out when Rockerfeller started buying up property rights and using his monopoly powers to close down all competition for the oil in northwestern PA. She was personally and deeply affected.
I visited Tivoli Gardens in København in the 70's. That's also where I got plowed into by a bicyclist. My fault.
D-O, I also had RIaL but ADELIa didn't look right, and I guess it is because I've watched enough NatGeo, PBS Nature, and BBC programs about penguins to make me think twice about it.
Well, I was soundly defeated in today’s game, too many Naticks I couldn’t WAG my way out of...CHOU/ROALD, KARA/RADOME, and since I didn’t know what “one more sleep” meant, the whole SW block of EVE/TIVOLI/ADELIE/RIEL was the dagger. RILO and COJITA were unknowns but solved by perps. As a consolation, I did manage to see the theme (sans circles which should make SS happy). I did find three more IDEA by connecting letters of adjacent words. Thanks for today’s puzzle Paul and Karen, always enjoy a challenge even if not up to the task.
Bill and Teri ~ thank you for the fine in depth review, I always learn a lot on Thursdays!
FIW with RIaL/ADELIa. This grid is just a mess, lots of Natick potential. Not too surprising since the middle 13-letter themer forces some awkward black squares, and the word count is just 72 (!!). There's a reason why the word limit is HIGHER for themed puzzles.
RILO crossing ONT just...RILEs me. Such a simple fix. (And by the way, RILO has never appeared in any NYT puzzles)
FIW. Too many proper names and a few unknowns that my best WAG's couldn't fathom. Chou, Roald, Augie, Rilo, Adelie, Elise to name a few. Even spell check didn't like what I just typed
Took a little over 10 minutes today for me to finally get the idea.
I strongly disliked this puzzle. Too many obscure, proper names to bother to list. However, on the bright side, there were no circles. So "YP in the U.P.", I won't say that makes me happy, but just less disappointed.
Upon filing-in "Price and Joy," I made the same association that Bill/Teri did, and I appreciated the link to Stevie Ray Vaughan - I was fortunate enough to see him in concert.
For a puzzle with easy theme fills I had no IDEA about quite a few unknowns and ultimately FIW at the cross of KARA and RA DOME. I figured AEIOU would be one but KARL is a very common Swedish name and thought that maybe RL DOME looked just as good-wrong.
OUTSIDE AGITATOR, PRIDE AND JOY, WIDE ANGLE LENS, and HIDE-AWAY BED were gimmes but COTIJA, EMOPOP, EXPARTE, THE SIREN, AUGIE March, YET TO, ELISE, and RILO unknowns- thank you perps. EVE fit but I had no IDEA what "One more sleep" time referred to. I knew ADELIE but missed it because I guessed RIAL instead of unknown RIEL. Sloppy handling.
SHE/HER- as Lou Reed sang about insanity:
"Holly came from Miami, F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, "Hey, babe
Take a walk on the wild side"
KARA- The only Swisher I'd heard of was a cigar, a Swisher Sweet. Sounds disgusting.
FIW Thursday due to the Steinberg's challenging puzzle. In spite of my three wrong squares, I feel satisfied because of WAGs that were more successful. Plenty of unknowns and naticks for me today. It could have been worse!
Thanks go to waseeley and helper Teri for explaining the answers thoroughly in the review. I had the most trouble in the SW with ELISE ADELIE and RIEL. I see others had problems there too from earlier comments.
I did see the IDEA of the theme before I checked the review, but was sidetracked at first glance by the SIDE, PRIDE, WIDE and HIDE words, wondering how they were involved the theme. Then I got it.
Some clues and fill made me smile:
Bug (VW), TOWS and Dress up like, GO AS. That one was devious and I first put GOeS before perps said otherwise. I also had STAMP first then STOMP, which is a better description for pound the pavement. Many learning moments today.
Hope you all have a good one!
Musings
-I escaped the SW morass with one bad cell at the RI_L/ADELI_ vowel coin flip
-I won the coin flip at OTR_/_UGIE. I wonder if the Steinbergs put in that cluing for EVE.
-COTIJA had solid help
-I have to invoke Malaika Handa again, “It’s a game not a test”
-My OCD, keeping track of whether I have eaten an even or odd number of French fries, chips, etc. Pass the Paxil please. :-)
-RADOME is something I learned in cwds years ago
-KC’s Worlds Of Fun Park has a TIVOLI theater. We would go often on the same day for the great entertainment and the fact that it was air conditioned on KC’s broiling hot days.
-We briefly had DSL many years ago but were told our distance from the phone company (two miles) made it a “hit-or-miss” proposition
-Nice job Bill and Teri. I enjoyed the write-up and the craps tutorial. It seems to me that the croupier there has to be very skilled.
Although the long across answers were obvious. I applaud 👏 anyone who figured out what the theme was getting at.. But alas I FIW with SPACIER (SPARSER), which gave me ISPI (ISPS) and CADOME (RADOME), no idea what that is nor who KARA is.
OXY, our 1966 Junior Prom made the gym smell like Clearasil
I'm Pick Knitting (a form of crossword crochet complaining) but when an adjective is translated from English to a gendered language the word should be rendered in the singular masculine form. The generic Spanish word for "other" is otro not otra, otros or otras. The clue should be " Spanish 'other' feminine." IMO.
Odd we just had Salinger's other piece in a recent puzzle. Didn't remember "Lorelei Circe" till I saw the photo but knew Lorelei in mythology as a SIREN (sirena, mermaid)...SHEHER, kyna weird, RILO Kelly?(guess the best the computer could come up with). Were we not just told RAVES are "Big dance parties"?... (make up your minds 😉) "One more sleep" time? wha? ..AUGIE?
Had ails for "picks up a Bug" but the uppercase (capital) B fixed that...clever for TOWS a VW. ..."Robinson Caruso" a CSO to Anon Tony C. 😁
Dixie Daddy... SOUTHPAW
Penguins sandwich shop...ADÉLIE
(Once again) in Paris, Ed Sullivan put on a "really big ___ " ...CHOU
Raining, low 30s. Had a routine eye exam this AM and had to skate on a thin layer of treacherous watery ice from the parking lot to the office. There will be broken hips and wrists in the ER today.
Ray - O @10:21 AM How appropriate that you would fill SPACIER! 😁
FIR. The SW corner was the last to fall. I searched but couldn’t see the IDEA hiding. Clever puzzle, fairly clued. I liked the BUG clue.
Not familiar with COTIJA cheese. WAGS got me out of the KARA and RADÔME natick. (Spell check insists on placing an accent on RADÔME)
Adélie penguins are adorable little creatures, emperors, not so much. But I love penguins.
A little off the subject, I’m reading Remarkably Bright Creatures about an octopus named Marcellus held prisoner at an aquarium in the Pacific Northwest. This might be fiction, but we know that octopi are super smart.
A mess of W/Os, and still managed to FIW. WMOS, RIaL and ADELIa. Took far too long to still FIW. Also did not get the IDEA. Bill had to ‘splain it.
Tough, but fair!
Thanks to sussable perps, (that i sussed to the perps that we're giving me trouble.)
All in all, an enjoyable slog!
She/her? (Thank you Blog)
The theme? (I had "no idea.")
Thanks for the Indian veggie stew recipe, looks awesome! I want to give it to my vegetarian daughter #3 and hope she makes it for me... (some of those ingredients look a bit daunting...)
remember when?
honorable mention.
on the importance of remembering....
ooh! You remembered!
Sonny and Cher, hmm, why does that music sound "exactly " like the recording?
(And why don't you hear Cher clapping?)
Excellent lip syncing though...
I saved this video for later, as I must take a tour of Tivoli Gardens. join me if you like!
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR after a few mistakes here and there
I actually did get the theme once I looked more closely at the entries and saw the word IDEA in each
But as Big Easy @8:43 said, there were far too many obscure words surrounding the entries for my liking
Thanks Teri and Bill, and thanks to the Steinberg parents for their creative puzzle. Guess I am going to have to widen my sphere in nearly every area if I'm to know how to solve 2023 puzzles without help from Google
[spoiler alert] tomorrow's puzzle won't be a whole lot of fun either. Good luck!!
Good Morning! Yes, I'm a 2D, and oh, the stories I could tell about 1st. grade! A head-strong kid and an old-school teacher.
Natick for KAR_ and R_DOME. knew neither one of them, but interesting info about the dome.
DNK: CO_IJA cheese or most of the SW, but still enjoyed the puzzle. Liked that the long fills came pretty easily. So interesting about the Steinberg family. Hats off to you!
Thanks, Bill & Teri, for your reveal. Especially liked the clip about VERA.I didn't know about this series but will definitely seek her out.
Found out yesterday I will be joining the crew signed up for Spring cataract surgery. Had my left eye done in Nov. & looking forward (pun??) :-) to the right.
CED @10:49 AM Thanks for the Tivoli link. I wished I'd have stumbled across it.
I had no IDEA of the theme. I, for one, would have appreciated circles.
Favorite clue was picks up Bug/tows. The capital B gave it away.
I never heard of OXY or RADOME, so I missed the OM. I now recognize EX PARTE, but could not come up with it. Two bad cells there.
Then I had hide a day bed instead of hide away bed which gave me DAH for WAH, D, the third bad cell. I have been searching for a day bed online. Obviously AWAY is better. Shoulda gotten that one.
This cheese aficionado never heard of COJITA cheese, all perps.
In Copenhagen I had a hotel room overlooking the wall of Tivoli Gardens. I couldn't see what was behind it. It was closed for the winter so there was no sound either.
Alan is in the hospital with orthostatic hypotension which caused him to collapse upon rising after sitting this AM. His tests are all good. I wonder whether it is a side effect of his antipsychotic meds.
Hola!
Well, I'm glad I wasn't the only one baffled by this puzzle. Thank you, Steinbergs for the challenge. I think.
Thanks to crosswords I'm familiar with ESME, EMO POP and other terms which I would never otherwise encounter. I know COTIJA only because I've sometimes had to use it in a recipe and I have to shop at a store that sells Mexican items. Luckily there is one close to me in Tempe.
I'm pleased to see words like NITROGEN, SLEUTHING and even MATA HARI which are not obscure.
AVAST is fun to say.
WAH? That seems like a last minute filler and I have no RAVES for it.
If you want to experience discomfort, sleep on a HIDEAWAY BED.
Our tour of Copenhagen did not allow time to explore TIVOLI Gardens and I've regretted it ever since then.
I hope Canadian Eh? will be pleased with the CSOs.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Jes whateru implyin' 🤬
Hand up for 2d southpaw! 5 in our family - all SP’s. Hi, RosE! Did you have those right hand desks? Ugh!!!
Favorite clue - 64a — loved our 1964 VW white convertible Bug! It took at least an hour for the heater to warm up on a cold day (was the source just the motor?).
BE@7:43 - also had KARL before guessing right. Had daybed before the “a” EXPARTE showed up.
Didn’t see the theme. I often forget to look for it.
Thanks to all who made this fun!
Ray - O @12:23 PM MOI?
Parsan @12:26 PM Teri and I are lefties, but our son is a rightie. Only one of our grandchildren is an SP.
Keeping Count @12:27 PM An Ignoble?
Delightful Thursday puzzle--many thanks, Paul and Karen. And always enjoy your commentary, thank you too, Bill and Teri.
My goodness, seeing ESME as the first word of this puzzle triggered so many IDEAS. It was hard not to immediately picture that sweet girl on a playground, in great dancing mode, taking a STEP, a STOMP, a SLIDE, and getting lots of RAVES for her performance. When she was done she was served a LAMB STEW in thanks, and given a STAMP and some paint SPRAY and a STENCIL because someone hired her to paint the back wall of their garage. Yep, I think young ESME has a good career underway and will no longer have to worry about living in squalor.
Have a good day, everybody.
ONT(ARIO):
70% of Canadians live South of the main Canada US border, the 49th parallel.
Antenna:
Remember when you were a kid and dad would try to get a better TV picture while you turned the rabbit ears..it got better when you touched them and worse when you'd let go.
Waz @ 10:29 AM...
spaciest...As I'm already a space cadet I tried to sign up for the Space Force but was rejected as, too old and too sane. 👽
I believe a day bed has a normal mattress but no box spring. It is more comfortable than a hide away bed. When I am offered a hide away bed I keep it closed up and sleep on the sofa. Much more comfortable.
I should have written octopuses 🐙
Tante Nique, I don't think they would have written back, but I am curious. What would you have written to them about ?
Ray-O is rubbing off on me :-)
Our sleeper sofa is not very comfortable unless we pad the crossing bars with heavy packing blankets first, and then the mattress. The guest room has the most comfortable bed. The guest room is over the garage. That way, if anyone starts getting too comfortable... DW said I should have put in belt drive openers instead of chain drive. There's a method to my madness :>)
FIR, but erased aah for AHH, odor for REEK, on a for AT A, and atone for REPAY. Gussed all three of my Naticks: ADELIA x ELISE, and CHOU x ROLAD & AUGIE.
I know of two AUGIES of the top of my head. One named Busch created a fine beer empire that was sold to a German concern. The other, Augie Doggie, son of Doggie Daddy, got his start on the reality TV show Quick Draw McGraw.
I knew RADOME from the nose of aircraft. Here's what it looks like when one gets hit by lightning.
This one took me all day, but I'm still adjusting to my new abode in Silver Springs. I thought this puzzle was hard, but at least not built from watching Entertainment Tonight.
Thanks to Paul and Karen for the challenge, and to Bill & Teri for the fun tour.
waseeley brings us a Steinberg/Steinberg PZL.
This promised to be a toughie, yet yielded steadily to P+P.
My only hangup was in the SW corner, where I forgot the currency of Cambodia and couldn't figure out what was meant by "Feminine pair." Just a STEP too far.
My fave fill? 64A.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, near side.
Its anagram (12 of 15) identifies an awed reaction to a self-defined authority on Freud's sense of the self.
When suitably impressed, the layman says...
"OO, EGO PEDAGOG!"
Parsan,yes! Right hand desks in HS. Spent the day twisted sideways (except for lunch & gym :-)
Well I got the solve while disliking the process.
Our new “editor” should just give up the act and make sure that all proper names are no one you heard of, all rock bands are ones you never heard of, all foreign words are ones you never heard of and…..oh, wait, she’s already doing that.
Too bad the website doesn’t work anymore, I’d be wondering how many of these “answers” were EVER used before.
CHOU !
How about AUGUSTUS CAESAR? I seriously doubt anybody called him Augie.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Bill & Teri, for wading thru this to give help.
There was a theme? I had no IDEA. By the time it was filled, I didn't much care. Thank you, red letters.
Thought SPARSER was spelled with a "C" in the middle.
Caught on to our man Friday at once. Woohoo!
I know it takes smart people to construct puzzles, but there is a line crossed where too smart isn't tolerable.
I used to be a DIYer from cutting everyone's hair, growing & preserving our food, making our clothes, tearing out old ceilings, to painting, papering & fine finishing woodwork. Now I'd rather just read about everything.
TTP@2:50 pm As wonderful it would be to hear from an octopus, actually I was referring to my post at 10:30 where I misspelled the plural of octopus. I think we’ve had a discussion on this blog about that in the past.
I finished it right, but it wasn't fun. COJITA took all 6 perps. ALE --> IPA. ONA --> ATA. REAL --> RIAL --> RIEL. NITROGEN and SOUTHPAW are nice fills.
Tante Nique, I know. It was my poor attempt at humor. I will stick with my day job.
Hi All!
Nope. Two foreign words (one which could end in an A or O and still be correct) stacked on a title I don't know in the North and 43 & 44d (no clue) crossing another name. 42d had nothing to do with X Chromosomes and I didn't know 52a either. So that's eight (8!) empty squares :-(
I see I'm in good company with YooperPhill.
Wait a min... I've been to TIVOLI; it's in Italy not Denmark ;-)
I love the IDEA in the themers - nice job, Steinbergs. Thanks for the puzzle it was (mostly) fun.
Thanks for the final fill and the informative review, waseely. LOL @10:21am.
WOs: DYI (#dyslexia!), odor -> REEK
ESPs: COTIJA, KARA, RILO, YET TO (well, educated guess)
Fav: TOW's clue is cute.
DW is a SOUTH PAW - we always have to eat with her to my left.
Looking at Daniel Defoe's picture makes me wonder - did anyone smile back then or was sitting for a portrait that miserable?
BigE - your assessment of Swisher Sweet is spot on. We smoked them in HS.
Oops, time's up. Gotta run. Play later, -T
TTP. I’ll let you know if I hear back from one of them. They seem to be smarter than us. And from that book, i gather they have a sense of humor also. You can take the ALSO both ways. 😎
@AnonymousPVX
Don't you like learning new things? If it's only entries you know, that's not much fun either.
Gold medal day - I'm home with work done before six!!
Enjoyed this puzzle and I actually caught the theme after 2 theme answers - making the rest speed along.
We always called it a Hide-a-bed - but it wasn't much of a hop to get to HIDE-AWAY
Like Anon-T, I always used to mix up the TIVOLI Gardens in Copenhagen with the Villa d'Este in TIVOLI, Italy. I have never been to Copenhagen- Scandinavia is on my bucket list. I have been to Villa d'Este at night and it was enchanting.
WEES about COTIJA being unknown but feel better about it since even Lucina as hardly heard of it. But thought the LAMB STEW was going to have a Moroccan word for STEW- but no - just good ole' stew
Like Tante N - I enjoy seeing penguins at the zoo and the cute little ADELIE variety are some of my favorites.
Thanks Bill and Teri for the fun blog - adore "Hamilton" so clip is always fun. And thanks to the Steinbergs for the puzzle.
Just saw RIP Burt Bacharach- so many wonderful songs from growing up that he and Hal David teamed up on.
CED @ 10:49:
i recall when some school I was going to, had announced that the entirety of their paper card catalogs were going to be dumped, gone forever. Scared the dickens out of me, as this was in the days when computers were just coming into play and their trustworthiness was unproven. Scared me at some primeval level -- "How can I ever find anything now??"
What a difference a few decades make! Now Google is my middle name!
AUGIE could have been clued as "Former MLB umpire Donatelli"
I'm with YR re. Circles
Here's the origin of SOUTHPAW
I have fond memories of Thanksgiving back when I was a child
Uncle Lefty, Sprockett that is, would come to the house for lunch
Dad told me, "Lefty was not only brash but equally was wild"
When he uncorked a beauty his coach"d say, "Thanks a bunch!"
"He'd hitched on with a team inland from Bangor
Everywhere he pitched the result was anguish and rancor
Did he indeed get a cup of coffee in the Bigs? Boston perchance
But brash and wild are not ingredients for success in the Big Dance"
Wherever Lefty played he would be embroiled in deep intrigue
In '98 he pitched in a fast upstate Double-A Maine league
One day a quick one-hopper glanced off his tibia bone
Lefty gave out a whelp of pain and fell down like a stone
Lefty did his utmost to pitch and play in pain
But it'd be a month or more before he'd stand the strain
Thus it was no surprise to see him drinking heavily again
A jug of wine in one arm, in the other a fifth of gin.
"From what side does Sprockett throw, that rummy?"
"He's a Lefty, so his Port side you dummy?"
"Is Sprockett the fastest pitcher you ever saw?"
"Do I fear that bum?. That souse? pshaw!"
And so new baseball lexicon was born in the Bangor Bulletin
And the wilds of Maine will surely never see his like again.
Meanwhile the Bangor manager was throwing a fit
"That bum better sober up, I won't put up with it!"
WC
Note, this doggerel is composed of the daily Jumble words embedded
Michael - I hope they gave out the card-catalogue cabinets. The ones at the library I frequented were beautiful credenza-sized (so you could put the drawer on top of the cabinet and rifle through the cards) pieces of furniture.
Even the ones shown in CED's picture would be useful in the garage (I have ~60 plastic shoe-box sized containers labeled "electrical," "plumbing," "Sprinklers," "work gloves," "garden gloves," etc.
CED - I don't know if you remember the story of our Jr. Analyst responding with, "Wait. How did you do your home work then?" when I said there was a time before Google.
Me: We'd go to the library and look things up.
Her: But how did you find a book. Were there computers then?*
Me: No, not always. We used the card-catalogue.
I spent the next 10 minutes trying in vein to explain 'em and the Dewey Decimal system.
So, CED, I posted your pic in our team's chat, @tag'd her, and captioned "This is a card catalogue." I'll probably have to explain everything else** in the image when we're back in the office Tuesday :-)
Cheers, -T
*I guess she thinks Google was invented shortly after computers(?)
**that's how big a TV was, that looks like Beta-Max, etc :-)
DNF. I had no IDEA. However, I am familiar with COTIJA cheese. It is sorta-kinda like feta.
FAV: Picks up a Bug, say
I enjoyed your write-up Bill (and Teri)! Thanks for the CSO! Although, I do not use the accent mark so maybe it doesn't count. Thanks for the Aloo Matar recipe. (I want to make it.) and for the cute penguin pic.
I always call RADOMES "golf balls", so does DH (and he's in the biz), but he did confirm that RADOME the correct word (pronounced "ray-dome"). Now I know!
While left-handedness is present in only about 10% of the population, in our nuclear family it was 40% (our identical twin sons). Their sons are not.
Life is still complicated for SOUTHPAWS, but technology has eased the communication problem of smearing ink when writing cursive. Now most people only sign their name in cursive when required. Being seated on the right of left-handed people works better at meals.(Hi, AnonT!)
I proctored tests on Emory's campus for years and noticed a few left-handed desks or seats were provided in rooms of newer buildings. Progress.
Inanehiker and Tante Nique, I thought the ADELIE penguins were cute too and maybe that will help me remember the word for next time.
Tired Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Paul and Karen, and waseeley and Teri.
Officially a FIR that I will blame on it being the end of a busy day (and maybe Natick crosses).
But I did see the IDEA theme. (Plus the Easter Eggs of IDA and IDEO).
I had trouble with my A’s and E’s today. I changed Dafoe to DEFOE with perp help.
I had Rial instead of RIEL and needed ESP for ADELIE.
I WAGged the final A in KARA (RADOME was unknown).
But I had an A (thinking Latin ending) on EXPARTE and couldn’t decide between Elisa or ELISE.
I didn’t know the WNBA team or the Mexican cheese, but I WAGged the C and the rest perped.
I noted STAMP/STOMP, SPRAYS/MOISTENS.
DSL, ISPS &PCS, plus UNDO were the computer quartet.
I entered Ails lightly, noting that Bug was capitalized. Sure enough we were TOWing that VW.
Wow, I GOT a hat-trick. Thanks. OMK and I had a Jumble blog conversation about Canadian and American life expectancy.
Wishing you all a good evening. I’ll have to read you all tomorrow. The eyes are going shut!
In our family, of the seven siblings two are lefties, one brother and one sister and one of my granddaughters is as well. My great-grandson is not. I suppose that all falls in the general percentage of the population.
I wish I had kept a record during my teaching years, but left-handedness rarely occurred.
I’m a leftie! Tho, a pretty one-handed one. I did somewhat master writing “right” a few years ago when I broke my left wrist. When I learned to write, they validated and accommodated us lefties (there were four or five in my 3rd-g class, me the only girl)! I grew up w stories of my dad being forced to switch (born 1912, when left still associated w devil by many 🙀). He was VERY ambidextrous as a result - I think that made him a way more versatile carpenter. OTOH -er, foot? - I’m right-footed! “Cross-dominance” it’s called. Enough reminiscence… thx for this blog! This puzzle. And for the ongoing space!
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