Theme: "IN THE BEGINNING...."
So, I was born February, 1971....oh wait, that's a long story. This is
my first time blogging a "themed" puzzle for C.C. and the LA Times, as I
was the regular Saturday themeless guy for about five years. I still
work the puzzles everyday, and I read the write-ups every day. Since I
last blogged, I changed my solving style and prefer to do all the DOWN
clues first, then when I switch to ACROSS, most of the perps are in
place, and the theme answers a little easier to solve. We had two nine-
and two eight-letter words in the downs today, which is unusual for a
Monday puzzle. C.C. had asked me to "guest" blog, and I had the
opportunity last month, but was way out of practice, and thus had my own
"EPIC FAIL". But enough of my long story, here are the theme answers
for today;
20. Bank customer, e.g.: ACCOUNT HOLDER
28. Colorful and fuzzy street art: YARN BOMB - Never heard this term before; here's an image
36. Innovative concept: NOVEL IDEA
49. Big-time letdown: EPIC FAIL
57. "I'll tell you the rest another time," and what can be said about the starts of 20-, 28-, 36-, and 49-Across: IT'S A LONG STORY
And away we go~!
ACROSS:
1. Matriarch of the Three Bears: MAMA
5. Grocery shopper's aid: LIST
- I have mine on my phone, listed by aisle, and my new favorite store
since I moved to CT is "Big Y" because I can scan the barcodes with my
phone camera, pay via credit card, and walk right out.
9. Private supply: CACHE
14. "Right away" letters: ASAP - As Soon As Possible
15. Mideast leader: EMIR
16. Catchall option on a survey: OTHER
17. At a __ for words: LOSS
18. Regarding: AS TO
19. With 4-Down, small dog from Tibet: LHASA and 4D. See 19-Across: APSO
23. 24 horas: DIA - Spanish
24. Disco __ of "The Simpsons": STU - Crossword regular now
25. Has lunch on a blanket, say: PICNICS
31. More expansive: VASTER - meh.
32. Southeast Asian language: LAO
33. Mani-__: spa treatments: PEDIs
35. "For sure": "YES"
40. Cat coat: FUR - clever clue
43. Calf-length skirts: MIDIs - I cannot resist....
44. Raspberry shade: RED
47. "The way things are ... ": AS IT IS
53. Shares a tweet on Instagram, say: REPOSTS - Spell-check doesn't like this
55. Pull the plug on: END - Sadly, I pulled the plug on my career
as a Pipe Organ technician - at least for now. I had tried to bargain
for a pay increase, but the company could not come up to the offer I got
from a local millwork company that needed a CAD drafter; so my
three-week trip to Lynchburg VA in July was my "Swan Song"; here's me at
the Washington National Cathedral; it was howling windy and raining as
we unloaded.
56. Ode title words: TO A....
60. Vietnam's capital: HANOI.
62. Comfort: EASE.
63. Shape of many a car logo: OVAL - Ford, Subaru, Toyota and others
64. Houston MLB player: ASTRO - Spellcheck doesn't like this one, either65. Squeezes (out): EKES - Crossword staple
66. How-to presentation: DEMO
67. Cereal eater's utensil: SPOON
68. Hissed "Hey!": "PSST~!"
69. Etch or sketch: DRAW
DOWN:
1. Affliction: MALADY
2. Preferring to be alone: ASOCIAL - My ex-wife is/was a
counselor, and she 'diagnosed' me as being anti-social; I told her
"good, that lets me off the hook" - not the answer she wanted to
hear....
3. Cosmetic applied with a wand: MASCARA
5. Makeshift shelter: LEAN-TO.
6. "Haven't the foggiest": "I'M STUMPED"
7. Lightsaber wielders who are enemies of the Jedi: SITH
8. Scout unit selling cookies: TROOP
9. Unsolved crime: COLD CASE
10. Home of the Acropolis and the Parthenon: ATHENS - GREECE fit, too
11. Donation recipient: CHARITY - On my way back from Lynchburg, I saw billboards reading Mega Millions was up to $940mil - I would have to donate to more than one CHARITY if I walked away with that kind of money
12. Father and son: HEs - Meh. True, but I'm not a fan of this kind of answer
13. Time studied in history class: ERA
21. PC connection port: USB
22. Really steamed: LIVID - I had IRATE to start
26. Average grade: CEE
27. Graduating gp.: SRs - Abbreviated group, abbreviated SenioRs
29. Persona __ grata: NON - Latin
30. Represent inaccurately: BELIE
34. Hands out: DISPENSES - ATMs and vending machines "dispense", which I think is not quite the same as "hand out"
37. Something left out: OMISSION - $2 Monday 8-letter word
38. Photogenic expanse: VISTA
If you zoom in, this is Washington DC from the cathedral
39. "Woof!": "ARF~!" - Dogspeak
40. Few and __ between: FAR
41. Function: USE - as a designer, I am of the thought that FORM follows FUNCTION
42. Verbally attack: RIP INTO - We stayed at a popular, long-term
hotel with in-room kitchens for the trip to VA - there were several
issues in my room that never got resolved during my 19-day stay - so
when they sent me a survey, I had to RIP INTO the chain's poor service.
45. Dine at a friend's: EAT OVER
46. Elementary school shoebox project: DIORAMA - I helped my buddy's seven-year-old son build a "Leprechaun trap" for a school project - quite enjoyable
48. "My Neighbor __": Studio Ghibli film: TOTORO - The Wiki;
I've been solving the LA Times crossword daily for the past year, and I
can tell that the new editor has changed the rules - I doubt this
clue/answer would fly on a Monday in the past
50. Consume: INGEST
51. Insured investments: Abbr.: CDs - I have one through my Discover card, and a savings account now getting 4.30%
52. "Stay out of trouble": LAY LOW - I had BEHAVE
54. Dream state: SLEEP
58. Thousand __: Ventura County city: OAKS - filled via perps
59. Sondheim's "Sweeney __": TODD
60. Gives birth to: HAS.
61. Egyptian snake: ASP - My #1 movie of all-time, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Well, I'm back,
da-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na
Fix your bent antenna, tune it in, and then I'm gonna
Enter in and up under your skin like a....
Splynter
Notes from C.C.:
Welcome back, Splynter! We missed you.
Splynter will blog next Monday's puzzle also. Sumdaze will be back on August 14th.
30 comments:
Hi, this is Subgenius. I’m having a problem with the “server” on my iPhone so I’m posting “anonymously” right now. I agree with Splynter about “Totoro.” Other than that, the puzzle was the usual Monday “walk in the park.” FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Welcome back to our former Saturday Sherpa. Didn't know you were such a tech genius, Splynter. Nice CSO to Lucina with Mani-PEDI. There was plenty of crunch in the Monday cereal. Nothing that couldn't be sussed with a few perps, though. Enjoyed your effort, Jolie and Alexander.
There was an evening lady of ATHENS
On her mule up the heights did ascend.
There she'd turn her ride 'round
And show to the whole town
Her moon, as well as her ass end!
There was a LHASA APSO
Who wanted to become an ASTRO.
He journeyed to Houston
Where teams were a-feudin'
And joined in the ARF-time show!
{B, B+.}
Took 5 minutes flat for me to finish this story.
Originally misspelled diorama as diarama.
Didn't know/agree about "Totoro".
Congratulations to our good friend, SubG, on going anonymous....
During my working years I wasn’t keen on Mondays, but now I LOVE Mondays: my CW level. But I am slowing down. Or the CWs are getting slightly more difficult. This was a nice solve though, with TOTORO the only DNK. Although STU, as Splynter mentioned, has become somewhat a CW regular, for some reason I couldn’t think of it (have NOT had my morning caffeine yet) so needed perps. Other than that a smooth fill to FIR in 16. My usual Monday time at one point (in my yute) was 8-9; slipped to 10-12; now here I am at 16. Anyway, thanx JL’H&AL for the fun start to the week. Nice to see you back, Splynter, and thanx for the fine write-up. This summer in SOFLO is absolutely brutal. 11pm local news last night said feels-like temp was 100*F AT THAT TIME: 11pm! It had gotten to 112*F earlier in the day, and last Friday got to 118*F. Have a good week, everyone.
FIR, but of course it's Monday.
Never heard of yarn bomb and I agree, Totoro is a bit much for a Monday CW.
I've been doing crosswords for decades and I've noticed the introduction of obscure proper names has increased dramatically. Just my opinion, but they don't belong in puzzles.
FIR without erasure.
I'm told that grade inflation has resulted in the average grade of "B."
I haven't heard of EAT OVER, but I am a certified expert when it comes to OVER EAT.
GTE California was so assailed by the Tom Hayden / Jane Fonda mayorship that they moved their HQ and hundreds of jobs from Santa Monica to Thousand OAKS.
I'M STUMPED could have been clued as "words Jinx usually utters after working on Saturday crosswords."
Thanks to Jolie and Alexander for the fun Monday-level challenge, and to Splynter for stepping up to the plate.
Fast and fun Monday as expected, unexpected to have Splynter back as a sub blogger - thanks for helping out.
"My Neighbor TOTORO" which came out in 1988 - is the "Snow White" of the anime world. It and "Spirited Away" have had worldwide appeal and box office. TOTORO is loved on the scale of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse - so a good word to have in the crossword toolbox with all its common letters!
When we were visiting Augusta, GA the downtown was having a festival and many of the trees were YARN BOMBed - beautiful!
FLN -T I will check to see if my son is going this year
Good Morning:
As mentioned, Totoro was an outlier in this otherwise simple solve. My only w/o was Stash/Cache, but I hesitated at Eat Over, as it is so awkward-sounding.
Thanks, Jolie and Alexander, for the pleasant Monday stroll and thanks, Splynter, for pinch hitting for sumdaze.
Have a great day.
Musings
-So nice to see Splynter again! I thought he might have an “anti MIDI” picture. :-)
-VASTER VISTA – Do you use the “panorama” feature on your cell phone camera?
-I quit after three $40 PEDIS. A needless expense and some self-consciousness.
-Cwds have taught me that HANOI sits on the Red River. It is red because, like the planet Mars, it is rich in iron oxide.
-HOW TO – A fun exercise is to tell a group to write out how to make a PB&J sandwich
-In the last few years no TROOP member has approached me about cookies
-We had a nice 2” rain last night and I got yet another wet newspaper this morning. I would RIP INTO the World Herald person who is in charge of carriers but it has not done any good so far.
-Did your child ever tell you her DIORAMA is due tomorrow and she hasn’t started?
-I blew right by TOTORO (generated by a cwd app?) as it filled itself in.
Good Morning! Off to a good start to the week. Thanks, Jolie & Alexander. Now, as I was saying…. clever theme!! 😄
OMISSION – had to decide if 2 Ms or 2 Ss – guessed right!
Dream state: I’ve been known to do more daydreaming than SLEEP dreaming…..
ESP: TOTORO, but easily gotten with the perps. That’s okay on a Monday.
Thanks, Splynter, for the recap & subbing in. Nice job!!
WEES about TOTORO. This CW was not super easy for me. I started out with cart instead of LIST, stash for CACHE. Once those were corrected, then the rest was filled. I agree with IM that EATOVER is a little awkward.
My BIL and my sister had a LHASA APSO that I called the broom. They kept her hair long and when she walked it looked like she was sweeping the floor. My BIL was crazy about that dog.
So, nice CW and recap.
Uncle Fred, those are unusual temps for Florida. It’s quite hot here too today we’ll break the record of 100 by 2 degrees.
Hi again -
I stopped in the Pipe Organ shop to turn in my expenses and timesheet, and they decided to renegotiate my "contract" - so I will be staying after all~!
Yay~!
Now the issue is my weight - I need to drop about 20-30lbs before the end of the year, so that I can fit into some of the smaller organ chambers....
Splynter
Fun, easy early week puzzle. Splynter, I recognized you from your fine style. Welcome back. Interesting blog.
After moving to NJ as an adult, I hear always hear, Eat over my friend's house or sleep over my friend's house. In PA we used eat over AT your house. Also, New Jerseyans say going down the shore instead of going down to the shore. After living here more than 60 years, I say these things, too. They no longer grate in my ears.
I have seen yarn bombing in person and on the web for quite some time now. Lovely.
After getting TOTORO, my only seemly unknown fill, with ESP, I realized that I have seen this movie in Japanese with my grandson. The perps were solid. Charming movie. Much of the plot was inferable with understanding just some of the words.
So often ASAP means STAT and any delay is frowned upon. for instance by my principal.
JINX, yes grade inflation makes real achievement less meaningful. We didn't have grade inflation where I taught, but in the later years, we were forced to let students retake tests or do extra work to erase bad grades. No one's kid is average these days. Even those kids who didn't study or put forth any effort and then bragged about it were propped up by parents and the admin. Helicopter parenting.
Some projects like dioramas were 90% parent made. I often gave a student whose project was obviously self made extra points for personal effort.
Long story?
Splynter!
NOW the puzzle has legs!
Hola!
Welcome back, Splynter! It's so good to see you at the helm again! Thank you.
My wite-outs were at CARTS before LISTS and DISPERSES/DISPENSES.
On our trip to ATHENS we stayed at a midtown hotel and across the street was a much older hotel which had noisy visitors all night. It was apparent that they were one- or two-hour guests!
My granddaughter has taught me to use Alexa, which is connected to my cell phone, for shopping LISTS. I'm slowly entering this brave new world.
DesperO, thank you for the CSO. I now go for mani-PEDIS less frequently since the prices have almost doubled after the great remodeling of the salon under new ownership.
Time to get ready for the Monday count. It's my last one until the end of August as all the teams are now moving to Mondays instead of Sundays.
Have a marvelous Monday, everyone! I have out of state visitors so may return here only sporadically.
I agree about proper names in CWs. They irk me. FIR but had NO idea what TOTORO was. I've heard of a sleepover but never an eat over. GC
Back after a great week at the airshow. A quick CW to get back into the swing of things. FIR, but TOTORO? Really? On a Monday? Ah, well.
Hello Splynter. I miss the 'legs'. My solving style is to try across-down, across-down,...etc. and always go for the three letter fills. It's NOT a long story, just the way I find easiest. Doesn't work too well on Saturday puzzles.
HES- never seen it except in a crossword puzzle. HE'S-yes; HES-a plural non-word IMHO.
YARN BOMB and TOTORO- new to me; 100% perps on those two.
CEE is definitely no the 'average grade'. I think it's A+ these days. Everybody is on the Dean's List. Pathetic.
Splynter- Concerning your weight gain, I would speculate it was caused by eating most meals in restaurants while you are on the road working on the pipe organs. Been there, done that. I gained 30 pounds when I was on the road M-F for 18 months. Restaurants put too much butter and oil in their dishes.
I love the bumper sticker that says "My jack Russel is smarter than your honor student."
Too much butter in a dish - is that really a thing? Sounds like "too much grass for soccer."
Hi All!
I started reading the expo and, after the second sentence, thought "Is this Splynter? - doesn't sound like sumdaze??" Whoot! Splynter's back.
Thanks Jolie & Alexander for the quick puzzle. No real hang-ups 'cuz I never noticed TOTORO (what's that?).
Great to have you back pinch-hitting, Splynter. And great news about staying on - there can't be that many pipe-organ fixers around so...
AS TO: dropping 20lbs, what you've overcome so far, that should be a cinch.
//my $0.02? Just eat fresh yummy things and eschew fried.
WOs: men->HES
ESPs: TOTORO
Fav: ASTRO - we're only 1 game back from the Rangers.
{B+, there's no halftime in Baseball* so --1 :-)}
YARN BOMB was used 5/1 in Robin Stears' puzzle. It was new to all (most?) of us then...
Nobody else wanted carT at 5a?
YR - in the land of Lake Wobegon, all kids are above average :-)
HG asked "Did your child ever tell you her DIORAMA is due tomorrow and she hasn’t started?" No, but I found out I needed to buy her a Poster Board at 11pm.
//It's the Cosby curse - I did the same thing to my Pop ;-)
Jinx - Your Russel isn't that smart 'cuz it left out the U in 'honour'. (Hi C,Eh! !)
Cheers, -T
*say it like Tom Hanks.
No one here had kids in the late 80’s? I rented the “Totoro” movie a couple times….the kids loved it, and so did I.
Splynter…weight loss…I lost 90 pounds, was 250+ and now 160+. I had a sleeve gastrectomy in Dec 2013 and lost 60 lbs rather quickly. I’m still on Ozempic and the weight has continued to drop off after initially sitting at 183 for a while.
All the bad numbers came way down, BP, A1c, all of them.
Talk to your doc, stop trying all on your own like I did for years. I had it done when I was 60, have never felt better. Best of luck.
Splynter, congrats on your new organ-fixing contract! I suspect your employer discovered it was not as easy as they thought to replace you. On the weight loss, IF you can STRINGENTLY adhere to the Atkins Diet, I know for a fact that it works. In the past, I have lost 30 pounds in one month on Atkins. My problem is I love bread, and potatoes, pasta, and, especially, (unfortunately) beer, all no-nos on Atkins. And you cannot do "almost Atkins". You must TOTALLY ban any and all carbs from your diet, as the diet relies on your body learning to burn fat, instead of carbs for energy, and any carb intake ruins that. You want to achieve ketosis, which you can measure with ketone test strips (if I recall they are called "Ketostrips") readily available in any drugstore, or online. As with all diets, it seems as soon as you quit the diet, the weight slowly returns. If you do the Atkins, let me know how you do.
Good afternoon. Solved this one much earlier today, then got outside pronto to get after some of my garden work that was neglected when we were in the heat wave last week. Just caught up on the comments after my late lunch.
Nothing to add.
Welcome back, Splynter. There you go, quoting Slim Shady with the apt lines to close your post.
For those of you that were wondering what Husker Gary's Saturday jpg image of the woman standing in front of a tree had to do with Haul:LUG entry ... It's actually an image from a TikTok video. You can copy/paste this link if you want to watch it. Actually, it's quite impressive.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sena_store_/video/7224145055395728686
Time to go mow the lawn and burn some more calories.
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Jolie and Alexander, and Splynter (thanks for filling in).
I FIRed, but perhaps not quite as quickly as the usual Monday. I saw the LONG STORY theme by the third themer.
I WAGged OAKS.
CDS filled by perps, but I had to LUI for Certificate of Deposit. Sounds like our GICs (guaranteed investment certificate). I think I have seen them in previous CWs.
TOTORO was all perps. But we have seen it before on June 23/23. That was a Thursday. Maybe I will remember it next time.
AnonT mentions that we have seen YARN BOMB previousl6 also.
Hand up for a meh at HES. And this mother of three thinks that HAS is much too underwhelming a description for “giving birth to”.
I also did a lot of DISPENSing in my career, and it certainly involved much more than “handing out”!
Irish Miss did not mention the twenty three-letter fills, but I think that is above her acceptable level.
We did have a mini-eating theme for Misty to develop - PICNICS, INGEST, EAT OVER (and perhaps RIP INTO if you are a caveman).
Thanks for the honour, AnonT. We Canadians will take every U we can get!
Wishing you all a great day. (We have cooler weather today, thankfully.)
Yay Splynter! Congrats to Jolie and Alexander. FIR.
Never heard of TOTORO, but perps did the job.
Welcome, Splynter, and thank you for guiding us through this L'Heureux/Liebeskind PZL!
I see your solving style is to begin with the Down clues. If you should think to make another change, may I suggest the Diagonal route?
Your diagonal anagram today (See the "DR" [Diagonal Report] below) yields a fascinating result.
I am never sure of the spelling for LHASA APSO. (Where, oh where does the "H" go?)
I found the lower left sector tricky, probably because of the 48D clue. But it felt good to have a challenge on Monday.
A pleasant experience all around.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Two diagonals, one per side.
The far side offers one more vowel, so we'll go with that.
The anagram (14 of 15 letters) gives us words to ponder. If we first imagine the fetchingly lovely curves of the female form, we are halfway there.
BUT if the first attempt of a gentleman to soften those attractive lines should fail, he may resort to smooth antics (unbecoming a true gentleman) to achieve his goal. In that case, we may observe a rude...
"CAD'S SVELTENESS"!
CEh @ ~ While 20 three letter words borders on the high side, almost all of of them were actual words and were also nicely distributed throughout the grid, thereby tempering any criticism. 😉
I was a DISbursement Officer in USMC. I'd travel 20 miles from Marble Mountain to Danang to pick up money. 250k in mpc, 50k USD and 10k Vietnamese plasters. So…
We(the other Lt who signed for the $money, Sgt Doofuss et moi) decided to stop at the PX. As I left the jeep the other two were arguing as to who would stay with jeep and guard the $money.
As I went down one aisle I said hello to Lt Don. And…
Around the corner came the Sergeant. Being a math wiz I quickly deduced that no one was at the jeep. I hightailed it and the $money was still there
Neither of them were concerned about $300,000 sitting there waiting to be snatched
CED, yes that's the Splynter trademark
I may have been the first "cart wrangler " in 1962
Typical Monday with a bit of crunch. Stash/CACHE,Ezra/ECCL
WC
I echo earlier welcome disbelief that it was Splynter returning.
S, you might enjoy the J-blog . Try the Chet and Lois saga that began on 5/6/21 when the J-word SEEDY appeared
WC
Splynter, here is the
Second day of the saga Lois approaches Chet and suggests a way out
WC
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