I found this on the tougher side for a Wednesday puzzle, and I needed my thinking cap. Not a lot of unknowns, but clued so I had to work for some of the answers. Nice theme, each a common phrase with a double meaning.
17. Recap of the biopic "Walk the Line"?: CASH ACCOUNT. A cash account with a brokerage firm requires that any securities transactions be payable in full from funds in the account at the time of the settlement. Also, Walk the Line was first a (1956) hit song, then a (2005) movie about Johnny Cash, his rise to fame as a beloved country music singer and his 35-year marriage to June Carter Cash. Story Behind the Song: “I Walk the Line” by Johnny Cash.
26. Recap of an anatomy lesson?: ORGAN RECITAL. Thirty-minute organ recitals are given each day by Tabernacle and Temple Square organists and guest organists. An alternative meaning would be bodily organs, such as the liver, pancreas, and spleen.
47. Recap of the rise and fall of Peloton?: SPINNING YARN. "Spinning a yarn," is slang for telling a long, imaginative story. Also, Peloton is a brand that makes exercise equipment, notably stationary bikes. The bikes are used for "spinning" classes in trendy gyms but are also available for home purchase, along with a monthly subscription for streaming and on-demand classes. After reports of falls and injuries, millions of models were recalled.
61. Recap of a dollar bill's journey from the mint to a wallet?: SINGLE STORY. Common phrase meaning a building that has only one level. Also, a one-dollar bill is called a "single." I know someone who wrote his name on every $5 bill he ever had, as an experiment to see how often the same bills came into his hands. Learning moment: In her TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story, Adichie describes the effects that labels can have on how we think about ourselves and others.
Across:
1. Update a cartographer's work: REMAP. A person who draws or produces maps.
6. With 8-Down, "The Simpsons" character in a rhinestone suit: DISCO.
11. Plant, as seeds: SOW.
14. The first "A" in CAT scan: AXIAL. CAT stands for “computed axial tomography” and CT is simply “computed tomography.” CAT scan was the first of the two terms to be used; CT scan has become more common in recent years. These two procedures are the same, though.
15. In the lead: ON TOP.
16. Vietnamese soup: PHO. Phở is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat.
19. Before now: AGO.
20. Fire dept. volunteer, perhaps: EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.
21. Flimsy: THIN.
22. Like some 1950s cars: FINNED. These Are the Most Fin-Tastic Cars of the 1950s.
24. Newborn horse: FOAL. Male foals are called colts and female foals are called fillies. When a mare (female adult horse) has her baby, we say she has foaled. When foals turn one year old, we no longer call them foals but instead we call them yearlings.
25. Dance versions of songs, e.g.: REMIXES.
30. "The Golden Girls" city: MIAMI.
31. Take steps: ACT.
36. Apple Watch med. app: ECG. Apple Watch Series 4 and later has an electrical heart rate sensor that, along with the ECG app , allows you to take an electrocardiogram (or ECG).
37. Wetlands plant: CATTAIL. Cattails – A Survival Dinner.
41. "I get it now!": AHA.
42. Orderly: NEAT.
44. By way of: VIA.
45. Glitch: ERROR. Anyone else having a sudden glitch with Apple saying you are out of space but you're not? I even bought more to buy myself some time while I figured it out, but it didn't help.
51. High-jumping antelopes: IMPALAS. I always remember Poet Rainer Maria Rilke's vivid description about gazelles (a group of related antelope) in a 1907 letter to his wife: "Their legs are like rifles, from which leaps are fired."
54. Mad (at): SORE. Seen mostly in books and crosswords.
55. Chef Samin who wrote the cookbook "Salt Fat Acid Heat": NOSRAT. Also a series on Netflix.
56. First-class: A ONE.
57. Studio with a lion mascot: MGM. MGM (acquired by Amazon in 2021) was formed in 1924 by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. In November 2010, after MGM Studios filed for bankruptcy, MGM Resorts released a statement MGM Studios is a completely separate entity with no common ownership," and "The filing has no impact whatsoever on MGM Resorts International."
60. Wine adjective: DRY. 40 Wine Descriptions and What They Really Mean.
64. Business abbr.: INC. Incorporated.
65. Hit a low note?: MOOED. Haha. Cow.
66. Characteristic: TRAIT.
67. Beginning and end of a phoenix: ASH. The phoenix is a mythical golden bird associated with renewal and regeneration. Rising from the ashes of its previous life, the phoenix is a symbol of hope, of life and of better things to come, born from the knowledge and experience of difficult times and challenging circumstances.
68. Tennis star Agassi: ANDRE.
69. __-pop: electronic music genre: SYNTH.
Down:
1. 10K, for one: RACE.
2. Academic hurdle: EXAM.
3. Waterfall spray: MIST.
4. "I needed that!": AAH.
5. Nonromantic, as a friendship: PLATONIC.
6. Unlikely to bite: DOCILE.
7. Privy to: IN ON.
8. See 6-Across: STU.
9. Parade shower: CONFETTI.
10. Former name of Kia's K5 sedan: OPTIMA. In 2021, Kia dropped the “Optima” name and renamed the model in the U.S. to feature the same name it carries in South Korea, “K5.”
11. Shapewear brand: SPANX.
12. "Golly!": OH GEE.
13. Forest: WOODS.
18. Burn a bit: CHAR. Burnt Ends: What are they and how to make them.
23. Cairo's river: NILE.
24. Partner and the kids, briefly: FAM.
25. Costa __: RICA.
26. Comet, to some: OMEN. "Comets have a long history, usually as omens and bearers of bad news," says Woody Sullivan, professor of astronomy. "But on the other hand, the death of Julius Caesar was marked by a comet and this was taken by the Romans as a sign of his divinity.
27. Risotto grain: RICE. From Bon Appétit: Risotto is like a clingy baby. You can’t put it down, you can’t walk away from it, and you can’t ignore it. Its needs are straightforward; it just wants all of you. And if you give it all your patient attention, it will transform into a puddle of love. Here's a recipe.
28. "Bad Romance" singer Lady __: GAGA.
29. Board game with settlers: CATAN. Previously known as The Settlers of Catan or simply Settlers, is a multiplayer board game first published in 1995 in Germany. The object is to grow your small island town into a flourishing city.
33. "Nobody doesn't like __ Lee": SARA.
34. Son of Odin: THOR. Norse gods. As well as thunderstorms, Thor is associated with oak trees, and is said to protect mankind.
35. "Phooey!": DARN.
38. Earhart's field: AVIATION. Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and writer. In 1932, Earhart became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In an attempt to fly 29,000 miles around the world, with only 7,000 miles to go, she and her navigator Fred Noonan took off from (now) Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937, at 12:30 a.m., heading toward tiny Howland Island. They were never seen again.
39. Containers in a British pantry: TINS. Better known in the states as "canned food."
40. Support for calves, but not cows: LEG RESTS.
43. Old Russian ruler: TSAR.
46. Pastrami bread: RYE. On my bucket list: Eat a Rueben at Zingerman's Deli.
48. Blood bank supply: PLASMA.
49. Tristan's beloved: ISOLDE. Lovers in a medieval romance based on Celtic legend. The hero Tristan goes to Ireland to ask the hand of the princess Isolde for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. On their return the two mistakenly drink a love potion prepared for the king and fall deeply in love.
50. Not any: NONE.
51. Country whose national anthem is "Jana Gana Mana": INDIA. (Lit. 'Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People.')
52. Poetic dawns: MORNS. Noun, not verb. Short for mornings.
53. "Ha! You believed me!": PSYCH.
56. Golden __: AGER. Used euphemistically or humorously to refer to a senior citizen.
57. Bellyache: MOAN.
58. Sandpaper coarseness measure: GRIT.
59. Bit of folklore: MYTH. Stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional.
62. Silent assent: NOD.
63. Take a bite, say: TRY.
And here's the grid:
30 comments:
I don’t have too much to say about this puzzle. It seemed appropriate for a Wednesday. Only one answer seemed way “out there” and that was the name “Nosrat .” Everything else seemed pretty logical, or else seemed easy to suss. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Caught the theme early on, and soon the tale was told. Finished under 10, which is good by d-o standards. CATAN was the only unknown, and no Wite-Out was expended in the quest. Thanx, Jodi, Barbara, and Melissa Bee. (I think you meant Lae, New Guinea on 7/2/37.)
TTP: FLN. Here in Token Creek, right now, we have 291 on AirNow.gov. Yikes !!
I was lost in SW as the Chef was UNK but I see Mr Stupidity* paid a visit last night as I had REMIkES and SPANk. I had the right idea on the "shaped" wear brand SPANX**
As soon as NOSROT supplied the S I recalled the nouveau slang PSYCH. DRY made sense but P?YCH, didnt compute.
I agree with D-Otto re. Amelia: She was in the Pacific not Atlantic.
FIW for WC
* I'm limiting myself to one "Smart" CBD gummy a week for Saturday xword
** Remember when babysitters had (shudder) SPANKING privs?
FIR in the middle of the night. Zoё was very restless last night, pacing and panting. Took her outside, and she peed a little and wanted to come right back in. I think she heard distant thunder that I couldn't hear, maybe because even corn has better ears than me. I would have gotten a FIW had I not solved online, having messed up the tennis player's name with perp (golden) AGEs. No TA-DA, and that was an easy fix that I would have missed if solving on paper. I kinda know the pro tennis players, but can't watch the matches for long because it sounds like the players are waiting for the Metamucil to kick in. Especially the women players.
If you follow thoroughbred horse racing you know that all the horses are a year older on January 1. Foaled on New Year's Eve? It turns one the next day. It is important for age-restricted races like the Kentucky Derby. A three year old foaled early in the year can be much more mature and developed than a three year old foaled in the fourth quarter. Once the horses reach four or five, the difference doesn't much matter. IIRC, the date foaled is in the daily Racing Form.
I had fun with this one, partially because of the novelty of solving on line. But I'll be back to pencil and paper tomorrow, Dog willing. Thanks to Jodi, Barbara, and melissa bee.
Took 6:17 today for me to chronicle this.
I totally agree with my friend SubG.
I confused "cattail" with the theme (tale).
Nosrat, axial, & Isolde were unknown.
FIR, but it seemed a bit crunchy for a Wednesday, but definitely doable. Nosrat and psych had me going for a while, but eventually they fell into place.
So far, Monday’s CW was the most difficult for me. Today seemed like a Tuesday. It helped to start off with REMAP which I actually waited on a perp or two since it seemed too obvious, not the more typical sneaky, devious clue, but a straightforward clue. W/Os AHEAD:ONTOP, SEAR:CHAR. DNKs NOSRAT, CATAN, ISOLDE. Do not get PSYCH for 53D. Enough easy fills (NILE, RICA, RYE, ANDRE, etc) to help FIR in average Wednesday time (for me). Also, seeing the theme with CASHACCOUNT helped with the other theme fills. Why are there so many ways to spell TSAR??? Thanx JD&BL for an enjoyable CW.
Oy! Forgot to say thanx to Melissa Bee for the as always excellent write-up.
NOSRAT- no way that would have filled without perps; unknown person and book and no Netflix acct. A-ONE- having never flown "first class" I'm sure that others pick seat 'ONE-A' (1A). I'm usually in seat 25F or farther back in the cheap seats.
SYNTH-pop and MIAMI were other unknowns filled by perps. GAGA was a WAG.
33. "Nobody doesn't like __ Lee": SARA. Apparently the "Sara Lee corp". didn't like Sara Lee. Sara Lee Corporation, major American producer of fresh and processed meats, coffee, hosiery and knitwear, and household and shoe-care products but NOT baked goods.
Good Morning:
I didn’t see the theme until I finished and went back and studied the grid. No problems with the solve except for the unknowns of Catan (which I’ve heard of but know nothing about) and Nosrat. Overall a smooth Wednesday solve.
Thanks, Jodi and Barbara, and thanks, Melissa, for the fun facts and links, especially The Golden Girls video, a segment I’ve never seen before. What a group of talented ladies they were!
Jinx @ 7:21 ~ Dog Willing, indeed! 🤣
Have a great day.
OwenKL, you'll have to repost your licks. I meant to delete your earlier post that you deleted at 7:36, and picked the wrong one while my wife was yakking at me.
Token Creek, 291 ? That's terrible. Right now our AQI is 204 and our advisory runs through midnight. The weatherman said that the combined fires are the size of the state of West Virginia, and that they'll last until the winter snowstorms put them out. I don't know if that was hyperbole or not. I don't ever recall such a widespread issue with this much smoke in the air. I wasn't around when the Peshtigo fire occurred. :>)
Thank you Melissa,
I especially enjoyed the cattail link, and now I absolutely must try "burnt ends" if I ever see them on a menu.
The puzzle?
Very enjoyable, but I really don't know what to say about it, other than it was a fine puzzle.
Perhaps, some trivia...
Catan doesn't mean much to me, I guess I should do some research.
The only Catan I am aware of, is quite trivial.
In the Star Trek Next Generation "Inner Light," touted to be (and is) one of the best episodes of the series,
the planet Picard finds himself on is called "Kataan." I wonder if there is a connection.
If you don't like sci-fi, and have never watched STNG, this episode is an acting extravaganza, that changed the direction of the whole series. Ignore the spaceship scenes (very few, and only an introduction.) and watch what happens to a human being that hates children, and must be in command, find himself to be married, with children, on a dying planet, and spending an entire lifetime there before returning.
The Inner Light
From this episode, the character of Picard is forcibly changed. And how the stories play out irrevocably altered by his humanity.
He even (by a lifetime on an alien planet) learned how to play a musical instrument, which is (punningly) instrumental, in a future episode.
Again, thanks for the cattail refresher course...
it has altered my entire perception of them...
Musings
-SINGLE STORY – Teachers should be skeptical when they hear only one side of the story
-REMAP – There are new highways on every side of our town so my GPS is no help
-A person who thinks, “You can never be too THIN” may need an EMT. My wife believes, “You can never be too NEAT!” :-)
-NOSRAT and CATAN, you ain’t gettin’ me today!
-The school where I sub is about 10K from here
-A hilarious discussion of PLATONIC friendships
-Parade shower – Was the parade getting rained on or was someone broadcasting the parade? Nope.
-Airplane seat – Only once did any airline set aside an entire block of seats for me and the 100 kids I was travelling with. The seats were in the back of the plane, but still…
-“…I was traveling with”: I recently read that ending a sentence in a preposition is now acceptable.
I enjoyed trying to figure out the theme answers. I liked this puzzle, but of course several unknowns like CATAN, NOSRAT, PSYCH as clued. There were some really fun answers like LEG RESTS, MOOED.
I got golden AGER since I’m one, although I don’t see that phrase much anymore. Many years ago my dear mother belonged to the local Golden Age club and went on several trips with some fun people.
My dear father was named ANDRE.
Melissa Bee’s recap was spot on.
Good Morning! I found today’s puzzle kinda crunchy, but it came together in the end with no WOs. Melissa, your opening paragraph expressed it perfectly! Thanks Jodi, Barbara, and Melissa.
SPANX, CATAN and NOSRAT were pure trust in the perps.
CWs are a good exercise in thinking outside the box. I tend to be more literal. Example: low/MOOED. It wasn’t until the recap did I get the connection.
OwenKLJune 28, 2023 at 7:36 AM
A BIT OF FOLKLORE they call a MYTH,
A legend, tho it may have some pith.
Some folk, in terror
Fear that's in error,
And that it is Math that's a MIST!
There was an old dame in MIAMI
Who welcomed a call from her FAM'LY.
The grandkids she'd meet,
And keep them all NEAT,
By washing them up with a chamois!
{B-, B.}
d-o and wilbur - thanks, fixed it.
Enjoyed the creative theme - my only pause was in Minnesota because I needed perps for DISCO STU in two words, having never seen the Simpsons but know most of the main characters from Crosswords and Sporcle.
My KC mom's favorite BBQ is Burnt Ends
I didn't know NOSRAT - but I did know her first name Samin as I have watched the Netflix series' "Salt Fat Acid Heat" after my son & DIL recommended it. I learned a lot about the areas she visited as well as food prep, even if you aren't a foodie I would highly recommend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oKbs4jAf7M
Thanks Melissa and Jodi & Barbara!
Hola!
When a contestant wins big on Wheel of Fortune, CONFETTI falls from the ceiling.
CATAN is totally new to me. Thank you, perps.
I just finished reading THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese, which takes place in INDIA.
ISOLDE. Sometimes my background in English Lit, specifically, Shakespeare, comes in handy.
My memories of COSTA RICA are still vivid, especially the iguanas on trees!
Oprah introduced us to SPANX and to the woman who invented them.
I'll take a CSO at golden AGER though it often feels more like old ager.
I hope you are all enjoying a lovely summer's day!
When it comes autobiographies, I am very selective but recently a friend gave me Jamie Raskins' UNTHINKABLE and I'm really enjoying it.
Wilbur Charles Thank you for your comment yesterday about REBI as the plural of REBUSES. A perfect come back to the turmoil about the plural of OCTOPUS! I hope we can all laugh at this, no matter our position on the subject!
Slow to get today's theme, but then I loved it. Stuck a long time not knowing OPTIMA, DISCO STU, SPANX, NOSRAT and especially CATAN. Managed to FIR.
CrossEyedDave Thank you for recalling "The Inner Light" episode. Indeed a beautiful and truly creative story. The genius of Star Trek was at its best when it offered this kind of creativity and stayed away from the space battle scenes.
Not sure that any REMIXES were involved in this Brazilian DANCE performance at our Solstice Festival on Saturday.
I was privileged to have such intimate access as an official photographer before rushing to be in the Grand Finale of the parade.
FIR, but had to struggle. NOT a walk in the park, but came to a satisfying conclusion. NOSRAT & CATAN were ESP. Do the constructors/editor really have these on the tips of their tongues? All the world wonders. Amelia E. Did fly the Atlantic earlier. The Pacific, not quite.
A Davenport/Lin PZL escorted by melissa bee...
Tough SE sector; otherwise a steadily yielding XWD.
I had to change SYNCH to SYNTH and GRIC to GRIT. It was a toss-up, as either way one of the two perps had to be an unknown.
ISOLDE: And Tristan? Some say they're a myth, but I call them collateral ancestors. My grandad's folk are all Cornish.
PHO? Yep, I learn all about ethnic cuisine via crosswords.
~ OMK
___________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
This offers. an anagram (13 of 15) that may be recognized by any deep water fishermen among us.
It refers to a particularly nervous warm water ocean gar, one whose herky-jerky reactions may shake a hook loose!
I refer to a ...
"TWITCHY MARLIN"!
I liked the theme and the clue for MOOED. I know we have had it before, but I had totally forgotten CATAN. AHEAD changed to ONE UP and changed again to ON TOP. I confess I have never heard of Samin NOSRAT, and, like CATAN, will probably have forgotten it by the time she comes up again.
Excellent write-up, melissa bee. Thank you.
Good reading all your comments.
Hi All!
Thanks for the cute "recap" puzzle, Jodi & Barbara.
Thanks for the informative expo, mb. Lots of good links to chase I "likes it, I likes it."
WO: bINS -> TINS
ESPs: NOSRAT, ISOLDE. CATAN did take 3/5th perps b/f I remembered it.
Fav: DISCO xing STU
{B, B+}
Flying First (or in my case Business) Class spoils you. My company gets us BizClass for oversea trips; I was "sore"ly disappointed DW & I couldn't afford that for our trip to Italy. //Oh, and the one time on the Corp. Jet was the best - park, board, go!
NEAT video and great opportunity, Picard.
CED - The Inner Light was absolutely brilliant. I felt I lived his whole life with him and welled up at the end. LOL comic!
Cheers, -T
I liked today's puzzle. Wisconsin was a struggle but it finally came together, box by box. My FAV of the themers was SINGLE STORY.
All these years I thought it was "Nobody does it like SARA Lee." No joke. #eggcorn
I read "Salt Fat Acid Heat" this past Feb. and still needed ESP for NOSRAT. Oof!
Thanks for your A-ONE write-up Melissa Bee! You had so much good stuff today, i.e., CATTAILS, FINNED cars (Speaking of, didn't the old Chevy IMPALAS have FINs?), wine descriptions, and the Mikey Life commercial.
Easy and fast except for the SW. NOSRAT was totally new to me. CATAN sounded plausible. SPANX is advertised a good bit.
Melissa, interesting blog. Did the man ever see any of his $5 bills again? Thanks for the memories with the pics of 1950's cars with fins.
Alan and I found Costa Rica to be one of our favorite trips with lovely scenery and lovely people. Plenty of animals and flowers.
OKL,2nd one I rate A+.
H-Gary @ 9:40. I like what Grammar Girl has to say about ending sentences with a preposition.
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition/
Picard
Thank you for posting the photos of the Brazilian dancers. I love the costumes!
Have a great weekend, everyone! I'll see you next week!
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