(Notes from C.C.:
Chairman Moe (Chris) is on vacation. Steve, who used to guide us on Thursdays, will be covering for Chris the next few weeks. Steve has been in Las Vegas for a conference, but he still wrote his post. Reminds me of the old days when he completed his blog at various airports. It's so nice to have you back, Steve!)
Theme: Eden Hazard
The reveal describes the theme much more neatly than I can:
58A. John Milton epic, and a hint to how four long answers in this puzzle were formed: PARADISE LOST.
Each of the theme entries drops the last letter of the original noun to form a punny new entry, and the dropped letters in order spell EDEN, hence "paradise" is "lost".
19A. Victory that has a real shine to it?: SPARKLING WIN(E).
29A. Environmental law that targets hair ties?: ELASTIC BAN(D).
37A. Fish that's only on an unofficial menu?: SECRET COD(E).
49A. Provide spiced tea?: SUPPLY CHAI(N).
Happy Friday! I loved the theme and the thematic entries of this puzzle. The new phrases formed from dropping the last letter are fun and clued nicely. I solved the puzzle basically clockwise starting at one o'clock and working my way around to midnight. On my first scan of the NW I didn't see anything obvious so moved on and around. A fun solve.
It looks like a first LAT collaboration from Josh and Katie, so congratulations if that's the case. Both have been published as individuals.
Let's see what else jumps out:
Across:
1. "Lord above!": OH GOD! I'm still getting used to what editor Patti will allow and Rich would not. C.C. can chime in here, but I'd have submitted "EGADS" as a fill to Rich and probably self-edited this one.
6. Mork's planet: ORK.9. Pacific resort, popularly: CABO. Cabo San Lucas is probably the best known, but there are others, collectively known as Los Cabos.
13. Burning: FERVID. Word of the day for me
15. Mammal also called a scaly anteater: PANGOLIN. Weird looking dudes, sadly highly trafficked.
17. Seek refuge from: FLEE TO.
18. Electrify: ENERGIZE.
21. Unknowns: IFS. There are known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns according to Donald Rumsfeld. Quite astute.
22. Knee surgery target, for short: ACL. Anterior Cruciate Ligament. I often hear the middle word pronounced (or misunderstood to be) "crucial".
23. Hula or hora: DANCE.
27. "Ten __ Commandments": "Hamilton" song: DUEL. Maybe the theatrical experience is different, but I just couldn't get into the filmed performance on Disney+
33. Like a big sister: ELDER.
35. Yarn spinner: LIAR. I'd call a yarn spinner more of a storyteller, but your mileage may vary.
36. "Is there more to this story?": AND?
41. Boho-chic boot brand: UGG.
44. Wash and dice veggies, e.g.: PREP. If I'm short of time I buy my mirepoix ready prepped from the grocery store and I don't end up with most of a head of celery that I don't need or use.
45. __ Pole: NORTH.
53. iPhone assistant: SIRI.
54. Jia Tolentino piece: ESSAY. She's new to me - Jia's a staff writer at the New Yorker, author of the essay collection Trick Mirror and a screenwriter.
55. "I'm thinking ... ": HMM.
57. Set (down): PUT.
63. Painting featured in Marcel Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q.": MONA LISA. The famous mustachio'd painting. The title is a gramogram - when you pronounce the letters (using the french pronounciation) you get a phrase which begins "Elle a chaud ..." or "She has a hot ..." I'll leave you to look up the rest to protect the innocent.
66. Garbage tech: E-WASTE.
67. Shout from the rooftops: PROCLAIM.
68. One working in beta: TESTER.
69. SpongeBob's pet snail: GARY. Thank you, crosses. Never watched the show.
70. Drift off for a bit: NAP.
71. Closing documents: DEEDS.
Down:
1. Soccer ref's ruling: OFFSIDE. Cue lots of arguments. The Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, was introduced to attempt to reduce incorrect offside calls, but the micro-analysis of the relative positions of the players has generated more arguments than before.
2. Advantageous: HELPFUL.
3. Readied, as a baking pan: GREASED.
4. Roger follower, at times: OVER. And out.
5. Former Bears coach: DITKA. Da Bears! WWDD, or What Would Ditka Do?
6. Word in many tournament names: OPEN. I'm going to the US Open Golf Championship here in LA on Sunday. Look out for me at the 18th hole!
7. "You __?": RANG.
8. "Who __?": KNEW.
9. After-dinner brandy: COGNAC.
10. Wong of "Baby Cobra": ALI. Stand-up special from 2016. I know I watched it, don't recall a thing about it.
11. Profession, casually: BIZ.
12. Single: ONE.
14. Fellini's "La __ Vita": DOLCE. Classic 1960's Italian cinema.
16. Football field: GRIDIRON.
20. Green around the gills: ILL.
24. Org. with a February All-Star Weekend: NBA.
25. Coke holder: CAN.
26. Coda: END.
28. "__ Misèrables": LES.
30. First Hebrew letter: ALEPH.
31. "Stay" preceder, perhaps: SIT. My mind jumped to "The Loadout" which is the track which segues into "Stay" on Jackson Browne's classic album "Running on Empty". Here's my earworm music link for the day.
32. Tic-__-toe: TAC.
34. Email button to avoid when sharing office gossip: REPLY ALL.
38. Holler: CRY.
39. TiVo button: REC. Is TiVo still a thing? It feels like the world has moved on to built-in DVR in your cable box and streaming services.
40. __ Equis beer: DOS. Popular in Cabo.
41. Functionality: USE.
42. Director Van Sant: GUS.
43. Route-finding app: GPS.
46. Witty retort to an insult: RIPOSTE.
47. Put faith in: TRUSTED.
48. Baseball lineup: HITTERS. I'm not a baseball expert but do you have a lineup of hitters rather than batters?
50. Vatican City office: PAPACY.
51. Yellowfin tuna: AHI. Tuna + three-letter crossword entry = Ahi. This is starting to become one of those staple fills that may as well have been printed in the grid.
52. "No more for me, thanks": I'M SET.
56. Spoke Siamese?: MEWED. Cute.
59. "Poker Face" creator Johnson: RIAN. Streams on the Peacock service provided by my peeps NBCUniversal. I get a free subscription, which is rather nice.
60. China setting: ASIA.
61. Like a post-bath towel: DAMP.
62. Use a surgical beam: LASE.
63. Fuel efficiency letters: MPG. Miles Per Gallon. I just leased a new car, I'll be keeping a close eye on this over the first few weeks.
64. "You for Me" singer Rita: ORA.
65. Scand. land: NOR. Way. Here's a Scandinavian oddity that I love. When Sweden play Denmark in international soccer games, the scoreboard shows "SWE DEN" which is fun. What is more fun is that the dropped parts of the country names spell "DEN MARK". Cool, huh!
46 comments:
In looking back on this puzzle, now that I’ve completed it, I’d say it wasn’t as hard as I first feared it might be. The themed answers were easy to suss, and I even figured out, after the reveal, that the missing letters spelled “EDEN.” It’s true that some of the answers were obscure (“Sponge Bob’s pet snail,” anyone ?) but, on the whole, I would say this was a fair and fun puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Fln(Anon-T), Mets fans are becoming like Redsox fans during the "Curse" years
Re. JB… I have a friend (of a friend) who's a ROADIE
The new cars actually calculate MPG themselves . I was surprised that my VW Taos had similar MPG to my Rav4 Hybrid
I knew the dropped letters but didn't think to write them out. I thought they were part of PARADISE LOST(Somebody said they'd actually read it)
FIR "So I'm happy"(too)
CSO to Husker GARY
WC
OMK pointed out that today is Juneteenth although holiday is Monday
Good morning!
Looked daunting, but came together quickly and Wite-Out-free. D-o sussed the dropped letters, noticed that they spelled EDEN, and failed to read the full reveal clue. D'oh. Great collaboration, Josh and Katie. Steve, good to have you back in the blogger chair, even if it's only temporary.
RIAN: Enjoyed streaming Poker Face. The heroine had the ability to know when someone was lying, and would make them pay for it by the end of the episode. Still, RIAN was an unknown.
DOS Equis: Customer LGBTQ boycotts knocked Bud Light off the top spot in US beer sales. The new winner: Modelo Especial, at least for now.
Took 8:01 today for me to find the promised land.
Actually, I didn't see or understand the theme until I came here. Missing letters spell out "Eden". Ok.
Several unknowns today: riposte, the Hebrew letter, Dolce, and the director crossing the essayist.
Rian Johnson is the man behind Knives Out and its sequel. I've not seen "Poker Face."
Seemed like a lot of 3-letter words, but I defer to our Corner expert on that topic.
Mike "Ditka," a hall of fame tight end, was often "open" on the "gridiron." I wonder if he ever lined-up "offside."
FIR. Took a while to suss out the theme but it finally came to me when I spelled out the missing letters.
This was a typical Friday puzzle with several unknowns for me. I'm not a Hamilton fan and didn't know the song and the clue for Mona Lisa was bizarre. But the perps saw me through.
This was a quicker than usual puzzle for me- creative theme. I have only read a small portion of "Paradise Lost" by Milton in my high school junior British Lit course. Similarly only read a portion of Dante's "Divine Comedy" Reading in their entirety would be cruel and unusual punishment unless you were a Lit major or grad student IMO
I have never seen Sponge Bob or the Simpsons, but with crosswords and Sporcle quizzes I know many of the characters, like Gary the snail and Patrick Star (a starfish)
Thanks Steve for pinch-hitting - I enjoyed the the Jackson Browne link- one of the first concerts I went to live in the late 70s.
The PANGOLIN traveled from ORK to CABO,
Searching for exotic ants to gobble.
He'd share them with Mork.
His tongue was his fork,
It stretched out to San Diego!
MILTON'S LOST PARADISE was EDEN.
Where Adam labored, morning to even.
Then Eve left his side,
With a snake to abide,
And a banana to ease her urgin'.
{B+, A+.}
You never hear of Gary the snail from SpongeBob?
Then you missed the Great Snail Race!
Actually, there were dozens of episodes featuring Gary. One of the most memorable was how Gary taught SpongBob how to tie his shoelaces...
(I'll leave you to ponder how a snail knows this...)
Good to see you Steve! And thanks for splainin'. I totally missed Eden in my rush to get to the Blog!
Well, I'll leave you for now with one word,
"Petrichor"
(Yes, I learned a new word, and I'm not afraid to use it...)
Good Morning:
While I would prefer an old-fashioned Friday head scratcher, I did enjoy this solve and the clever theme. I thought the dropped letters would spell something but only paid attention to the first two, i.e., E D, but when I read the reveal clue, I knew immediately that the answer was Paradise Lost. I needed perps for Pangolin, Gary, Rian, and Essay, as clued, but no w/os due to pretty straightforward cluing and fill. The numerous (28) three letter words were the usual distraction.
Thanks, Josh and Kate, for an enjoyable solve and congrats on your debut as a duo and thanks, Steve, and a hearty welcome back as a reviewer. I very much miss hearing about your culinary capers and travel escapades, which I always found so interesting and adventurous and, sometimes, comical. I agree with you on the Hitters vs Batters being a tad off kilter.
Wilbur @ 5:14 ~ I believe the actual, historic celebration of Juneteenth is on June 19th. This is sort of embedded in my mind as the watermelon fiasco happened on Juneteenth, seared in my memory as June 19, 2020.
SS @ 7:29 ~ I’m not sure if expert is the right word; scold may be closer to the truth! On another subject, I sat next to Mike Ditka at a country club bar many years ago and can still remember being dumbstruck by the size of his hands. I guess I’d have a similar reaction if I ever stood next to Shaq or any other BB Giant.
FLN
Bill, I absolutely loved the TV production of Lonesome Dove. The book is one of only a few that prompted a second reading, purely for enjoyment. If you’ve never read it, it’s well worth immersing yourself in the 821 pages. (I just checked my copy.)
Have a great day.
5D coulda been HALAS or DITKA, hadda wait on the perps. 13A coulda been so many words…. Hence, the NW was the last to fall. I did FIR, in the end. I saw the missing letters but only saw they spelled out EDEN after finishing the CW, and writing them down. I recall many years ago having a friend with a young son. Steve told me his son loved “Sponge Bob Square Pants”, explaining that it is a cartoon about a sponge. I was, like, “Wait….WHAT?” I had to watch it to see what it is about, and found it pretty amusing. Good sound effects, too. So I knew Gary. Overall, good clues, entertaining and clever CW, thanx JK&KH. Thanx for pinch-hitting, Steve, and for the nice write-up. That is an especially well produced rendering of the JB classic, thanx for that, too.
Welcome back Steve.
The missing letters were easy to notice but not in EDEN order-DDEN- so even after completing the puzzle I couldn't figure it out. Duh. I knew of PANGOLIN but couldn't remember until a few perps were place. GARY and RIAN- no knowledge of those two. UGG(H). DUEL was a WAG for that unknown. Ditto for MONA LISA.
My BIZ was originally my BAG. Slowed the NE FILL.
OVER and out. Roger.
Is it Wednesday? 1,2, 3 quick today. Perps were very helpful. RIAN needed perps for I or Y (we had him before). Just the P suggested Pangolin. ----L-SA suggested Mona Lisa, ES--- suggested essay. After the first two theme answers I was looking for the missing letters. Aha! EDEN. The reveal was great.
REPLY ALL as caused many a user great consternation.
I watched Sponge Bob with my grandson more than 20 years ago. He loved it and so did his dad. I grew to like it, too.
From yesterday. Dropping a bar of soap on one's toes, ouch! That can be avoided by using body wash. I have not used bar soap for decades. No messy soap dish, no soap scum, especailly on the glass doors. Alan and guests do not wipe down the shower and soap leaves a build up. Best of all, I love the luxurious lather and moisturizing quality of body wash.
I tried to read Lonesome Dove and gave it up.
Welcome back, Steve. I missed your blogging and stories.
FIW, missing my WAG at my Naticks DOLCp x pLASTIC BAN and AmI x PANGOmIN. I thought the theme might be "missing E" at that point, with WIN(E), pLASTIC BAN(e), and COD(E). But CHAI(N) HAD to be right, so I gave up on the theme.
I stalled in the south, put the puzzle aside while I ran to Toyota to pick up some parts, then picked up the puzzle again. OF COURSE! PARADISE LOST! Weird clue, but it must be MONA LISA! One last guess at ORA x GARY and I was done.
I keep forgetting that sponges are animals, except the ones I use.
I must say this isn't my least favorite puzzle ever. But it was sketchy enough to make me look to see if either author was on my "don't bother" list, and they aren't. It was a treat to see Steve's return as guest. I hesitated at HITTER too, but it seems like I've heard baseball guys say something like "walk this guy and take your chances on the shortstop, who's hitting eighth and is below the Mendoza line."
Good Morning! I found today’s puzzle a curious mix of early-week and Friday-worthy obscurity. Thanks Josh and Katie.
NW was the last to fill and quite a slog, mostly blank. Finally filled SPARKLING and the rest zipped in. Done!!
Had PANGO- and had to google -LIN. Never heard of this creature.
Saw the theme at BAN(D) and confirmed with COD(E).
I’m finally beginning to recognize GUS and ORA from their previous puzzle appearances.
WO: spelling – reversed G&N in COGNAC; DOn -> DOS.
Perps for GARY.
Thanks, Steve, for the fun & informative recap. Loved the Sweden/Denmark oddity.
I agree that with body wash there's no danger of dropping a bar of soap on your foot...just a danger of dropping a great, heavy pump-bottle of body wash on your foot.
What Subgenius said goes for me too. I really liked this puzzle’s theme. The unknowns revealed themselves easily enough. At first I spelled ORK with a c, but I quickly KNEW that had to change.
A snail with a name?
I’ve always loved COGNAC, but my elderly body cannot tolerate more than a sip now. I’ll resort to SPARKLING WINe.
PANGOLIN somehow crawled out of my brain from some far away memory.
So we’re still talking about the dangers of soaps. 😜
IM@8:30. I too thought the TV production of Lonesome Dove was superb. I watched it when it first aired then again about several months ago and it was still fresh and engaging.
FLN
-T @12:26 AM (today?) Thanks for the Tex Mex pics. Also I liked the dishes you dished them out on!
RoseE @11:12AM Repeating this as you might not have seen it:
I bet you've heard Knoebel's Grove in Elysville. We're headed there Saturday to meet the family this week. Here's a video that Teri found describing what the staff there does during the off season when all the visitors are away. When we get there, one of the first exhibits I'll visit is 45A in today's puzzle!
Re "Under the Tuscan Sun", we really liked Diane Lane's performance and found that she had also appeared in Lonesome Dove, a movie I've wanted to watch for years. It's streaming on Prime and we're about 1/2 way through it. Lane shows that she a great dramatic actress as well as a comedienne. She deals with some pretty tough situations in the Wild West.
BACK TO THE MAIN EVENT --
Thank you Josh & Katie for the Milton lesson. While I got a FIR on the fill I flubbed the theme. For 29A I hung onto the pun and truncated BANE in my mind instead of the common phrase ELASTIC BAND and then didn't know what to do with EEEN (DOH!) And thanks to Patti as I found this puzzle to be much easier than yesterday.
Thank you Steve for the insightful review. It's great to have you back! Thanks especially for your theme analysis.
A couple of favs:
15A PANGOLIN. My grandsons taught me about this endangered species when they insisted that we stream the PBS KIDS Wild Kratts episode highlighting this scaley creature.
45A NORTH POLE. As I mentioned to RoseE above one of the attractions at the Knoebels Grove amusement park in PA is an icy replica of the NORTH POLE complete with a Santa Clause behind it. It is very cold and it's not recommended that you touch it with your tongue! Another thing you can see in this picture is that they didn't cut down all the trees to create the park -- lots of shade!
Cheers,
Bill
Busy day today, so I'll just Echo SubG. Sums it up well.
While we’re on the subject of dropping things on one’s foot, mine was a nearly full 1.75 liter of Smirnoff, which fortunately comes in a plastic bottle, onto my bare foot. Ouch! (and a few other choice words). Thankfully I had enough wits left about me to ice it right away and though it left a nasty bruise the ice kept it from swelling. Man oh man that hurt!
DO, Lucina: I use a pump-style body wash in my motor home. The soap holder that is part of the shower assembly cants slightly downward, probably to encourage water draining. But the soap sometimes slips out and onto the floor. The soap holder has a little grab bar above where the soap is supposed to sit, and my body wash fits perfectly behind it and sits where the soap is supposed to go. If I remember, I'll take a picture the next time I go out, probably in less than two weeks.
Decent puzzle with a few weak points. The worst of these is 17A, which is simply a bad clue-answer pairing. It is clued as a regular synonym-type clue (rather than a pun, an "i.e", or a "say" type clue), but the answer does not match the clue. You cannot replace "seek refuge from" with "flee to" in a sentence. You "seek refuge from" a danger or hazard, but you "flee to" a place of safety.
Perhaps just personal taste, but I also did not care for the "elastic band" fill. Does anyone actually call a hair-tie an "elastic"? It seems to me that someone might call a hair-tie an "elastic band" but not simply an "elastic." Though, frankly, I am skeptical that anyone has ever actually used the phrase "elastic band" in a real conversation. The other three theme clues were just much more solid, in that the real-life phrase that had lost a letter had nothing to do with the clue and/or punny answer.
A couple other bugs. I don't really understand why COGNAC is specifically an "after-dinner brandy." Any brandy makes a fine digestif; cognac simply refers to brandy produced in a specific region (akin to champagne vs. SPARKLING WIN(E)). Also agree with Steve's nits about OHGOD and HITTER.
Waseeley, thanks for the video of Knoebel's. I've never been but have friends who have spoken highly of it. So nice to get to see what it's all about! Enjoy your trip!
As a kid growing up with winter weather, sure, we all put our tongue on a metal pole. What we knew was a little bit of warm spit broke the seal! 😛 LOL!! The scene in A Christmas Story was either "artistic license" or writers who never knew cold weather.
Enjoyed the puzzle and FIR but needed Steve to spell out EDEN for me and make sense of it all, so thanks for that!
Like John from Cincinnati, I object to the cluing for 17A. FLEE TO is the *opposite* of "Seek refuge from" but was presented as synonymous.
John & NaomiZ, I interpreted it that what she was fleeing to was providing a refuge that she was seeking.
Thank you , Josh & Katie, for your very clever theme! FAV: China setting
CSO to H-Gary @ 69A.
Steve: Thank you for filling in! I enjoyed your write-up, especially the Jackson Browne clip. Also, Sweden/Denmark, who KNEW?
Fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, John and Katie. And your commentary was a pleasure, Steve--thanks for that too.
Well, we certainly got off to a religious start with OH GOD, followed with the PAPACY redeeming us, possibly, from PARADISE LOST. But we were then able to get back to a more secular world where we were ENERGIZED and could DANCE, and listen to LA DOLCE VITA, and celebrate our good DEEDS with some COGNAC and SPARKLING WINE and then finish up with a comfortable NAP. A pretty neat way to end the week. And, if you're a James Joyce scholar, like me, HAPPY BLOOMSDAY!
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
Hola!
What? Steve was here? Wonderful! I enjoyed the narrative, Steve, and also miss your foodie stories. I am sure you are enjoying life, though.
Yea! I KNEW Mike DITKA! I guess the name has been repeated enough that it is seared in my brain.
I'll take a CSO at ELDER which I am of my six siblings.
The few times I have tasted COGNAC I loved it!
I don't know how UGG boots were foisted onto the fashion scene. It goes to prove that with enough hype anything can be promoted, even ugly boots.
DOLCE is one letter away from the Spanish, DULCE, which also means sweet.
Both my daughter and my granddaughter love to watch, Sponge Bob, Square Pants, so I am familiar with GARY.
Alas! I never got to NORway but really enjoyed Sweden, especially learning to eat herring which I found surprisingly tasty! Occasionally I find it at the local grocery store. I say surprisingly because I'm not normally a fan of seafood .
Again, it's so good to hear from Steve!
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
John @11:19 AM I agree with you about ELASTIC BAND. The last time I needed one for my hair was 50 years ago and I just used a RUBBER BAND. 😁
Naomi @11:50 AM Yes, "FLEE TO" was forced.
Lucina @12:42 PM Don't worry, those boots will go away. To paraphrase the prophet Oscar Wilde -- "A fashion is merely a form of UGGliness so absolutely unbearable that we have to alter it every six months!"
I didn't have as much issue with the 17A Seek refuge from clue, whose answer was FLEE TO
It reminded me of the Old Testament and Hawaiian culture's Cities of Refuge
People who had committed some capital offense could FLEE to one them to be saved
from being killed by those wanting to avenge the offense against them or a family member
https://www.gotquestions.org/cities-of-refuge.html
I have visited one of the Hawaiian ones near Kona on the Big Island - a very peaceful place
https://www.parkrangerjohn.com/city-of-refuge-hawaii-puuhonua-o-honaunau-national-historical-park/
Listening to Jackson Brown made my day! Thanks for blogging!
Thanks to Steve for filling in, and for bringing us today's Kaufmann/Hale PZL.
I didn't work out the dropped letters on my own. I assumed, incorrectly, they might be the final letters of "ParaDISE." But of course EDEN makes much more sense.
I bit on "OH, GOD," but I thought HITTERS was very strange.
I'm not a SpongeBob watcher either. I used perps for GARY. Is his surname "Indiana"?
~ OMK
___________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
After so many days of nonsensical anagrams, we finally have one to respect.
Today's diagonal gives us an anagram (13 of 15) of what we all try to avoid, and yet serves as the proper end of any prank we pull.
It is the dreaded...
"PEER INDIGNITY"!
FIR Friday! I agree with Subgenius that it turned out to be easier than I first thought. Unlike some people, I got the NW quickly and noticed the themers were missing a letter. I started writing them down when I saw they were different but didn't expect the EDEN reveal to be PARADISE LOST. Clever puzzle, Josh & Katie.
I don't hate the three letter fill since I rely on it to keep going in tough sections. I used them to fill the beginning of PROCLAIM after filling the last part. Did anyone else try FERver first? DOLCE soon fixed that.
It's good to know we'll see your reviews while C Moe is gone, Steve. I too enjoy your take on things and have missed you. Thanks for being available to fill in!
I checked on Google about Juneteenth and found like IM said that the holiday actually is the 19th of June. In Georgia it's a state holiday which means our trash pickup will run one day late next week. I didn't know that the name is June + teenth from nineteenth.
Enjoy the rest of your Friday, everyone!
I appreciate the different thoughts regarding "seek refuge from." I still disagree with the clue, but at least you all have offered a way to make it make some sense. The following is possibly a bit pedantic, but for me, it's these small details are the difference between a good puzzle and a great puzzle.
Anyway, I think the issue comes down to the use of the preposition "from." In the context of the phrase "seek refuge," I think that the preposition "from" necessarily indicates that the object of the preposition is the enemy, hazard, danger, etc. And I don't think the 17A clue is clever misdirection; I think grammatically incorrect. For a "seek refuge" clue to have the answer "FLEE TO," it needs a different preposition; "in," "on," or even "with" come to mind, but I'm sure there are others. Personally, I think "seek refuge in" sounds kind of biblical, and would have been a nice light nod to the theme (along with "Lord above!" and "Vatican City office" as others have mentioned above).
But I am certainly not an expert and do not claim to have the end all, be all answer to this question of grammar and crossword cluing. This is just one lover-of-well-constructed-writings-in-the-English-language's perspective on an interesting topic!
I liked this puzzle. Having filled PARADISE LOST I was thinking "Wow, PARADISE is a lot of letters to remove!" Then I began to think "Maybe it's a play of PAIR OF DICE lost" but that, too, is a lot of letters to take out. Only after finishing the solve did I figure it out.
AARDVARK had to be changed to PANGOLIN. GRIDIRON determined that it was the NORTH pole, not the south pole. I kept wanting Roger WILCO but it was too many letters.
Agree about that FLEE TO clues/answer. (So, does FLEETO rhyme with Cheeto?)
You RANG always makes me think of Lurch.
Good to read you, Steve. Thanks for pitch batting today.
Best wishes to you all.
So, you dropped soap on your foot in the shower?
Maybe a bottle of body wash?
Hmmf, amateurs...
I use those soft soap pump dispensers, and once, with slippery hands, pushed too hard and the bottle went skeetering sideways in the little soap holder nook, knocking a dozen of DW's soap concoctions every which way, one of which hit me me in the face, causing me to fall back, thru the glass doors and onto the bathroom floor...
Ok, I embellished a little bit,
But if you believed it,
I have a bridge I would like to sell you...
CED @3:19 PM So how much to you want for it Dave?
C-E-D@3:19 great story. I’ll stick to my bar of soap.
Some dictionaries list elastic bands and rubber bands as synonyms. This is more common in the UK but I have heard it said here. Using elastic as an adjective instead of a noun, it means capable of being easily stretched or expanded and resuming former shape. So this makes sense.
In seeking refuge from something, you are fleeing from something and thus necessarily fleeing to somewhere else, hopefully fleeing to a place of refuge.
Crosswords are a game, not a test or a textbook, so I solve them lightheartedly and not pedantically. All levels of language are used, including slang, colloquialisms, and street language. Often the less common usage of a word is used. I hung up my red marking pen long ago. The older I get, the more open minded I become.
I have dropped a plastic container of body wash or shower gel from time to time with no disastrous results. You would hold it away from your body to squirt it on a bath puff or washcloth. So then it wouldn't land on your toes. If you hold the soap close to your body, you may drop it on your toes. BTW, a shower puff gives better lather than a washcloth.
Lucina, I agree about UGGS.
True that!
YR:
Yes! Give me a shower puff any day. I have them in many colors, mostly shades of pink.
Even for dishes, I prefer a sponge rather than a dishcloth but a dishcloth cleans surfaces better. Mark usually rinses the dishes for the dishwasher so I rarely have that duty.
And now my excuses have run out for not cooking. My foot has healed and no longer hurts. So hi, ho, hi, ho, off to cook I go.
Musings
-Stuff got in the way today but I did the puzzle and enjoyed it. I ever discovered the E D E N omissions and thought the reveal was great.
Wilbur Charles. On Thurs you asked, "Re. Better Call Saul as both prequel and sequel to Breaking Bad. If I wanted to binge watch both should I start with BB or BCS?"
I was waiting to read what others thought but, since no one else has responded, I will give it a try. FWIW, I watched BCS first and really liked it so then I started BB. I did not enjoy BB and gave up somewhere toward the end of its 2nd season. Maybe it improved after that??? The internet told me all the connections I would have known if I had stuck it out. My recommendation is to start with BCS because if you start with BB you might not want to give BCS a chance. Given the topic, I know this sounds weird, but BCS is more fun and BB is more dark. Your experience may vary. I'll be interested to hear what you think after you watch them.
Hello from Austin!
Fun puzzle John & Katie. Neat theme that kept me guessing Drop and E, P->E(?) [Plastic BAN], ???. Oh, EDEN are the 'lost' letters. Very cute.
Steve! So good to read you again. You haven't lost a step.
WOs: my GOD, REw -> REC
ESPs: ALI | PANGOLIN, GUS, ORA, RIAN
Fav: REPLY ALL gave me a good chuckle.
{A, A+}
@7:29 - I remember ALEPH 'cuz it's like alpha scrambled. That and Aleph One is the hacker that wrote Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit.
I enjoyed reading everyone. I'd say more but I brought the wrong power supply for this laptop and it can only charge the batter when the laptop is asleep.
Cheer, -T
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