Alliance Consolidation
Good Wednesday Cornerites.
[Note: Today's expo will be terse as I drafted yesterday's expo before going on vacation only to later learn that I had solved the wrong puzzle(?!?). Below is the best I could do in short-order.]
Today's puzzle brings ALL sides together to form a unified PACT. What do I mean? Let's take a gander:
17. Garb Maria creates from curtains in "The Sound of Music": PLAY CLOTHES. Curtains implies a play and not a musical(?)
23. Administer in small portions: PARCEL OUT. Dole OUT was too short.
34. Practical advice for an overnight stay: PACK LIGHT. Any more than a backpack and it's too much stuff.
50. The NCAA's "Conference of Champions": PAC TWELVE. The PAC-12 is known as the "Conference of Champions," for having won more collegiate championships than any other conference.
56. Formally agreeing to terms, and what this puzzle's sets of circled letters are gradually doing: MAKING A PACT.
The word PACT came together as the four theme answers progressed.
P
PA
PAC
PACT
Clever. MAKING A PACT can be a step by step process. One step at a time.
Now that we've agreed on that, let's see if we can come together (like the theme's circles) on the rest of the fill.
Across:
1. Chicago MLBer: CUB. Not a [White] Sox.
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| Cub's Logo |
4. 9000 and 9-5 automaker: SAAB. A Man Called Ove loved his SAAB.
8. Flourish: BLOOM.
13. Singer DiFranco: ANI.
Folk-y
14. Spanish "she": ELLA.
15. Like Ralph Lauren clothing: PREPPY. Preppy as in "from Prep School." Like, totally '80's.
 |
| The Rich Kids' Duds |
16. Apple co-founder, casually: WOZ. Steve Wozniak [Berkeley Profile].
17. [See: Theme]
19. Hold a cattle call: CAST. A broad-net casting call is a "cattle-call" (or Southwest Airlines' boarding)
21. Cattle calls: MOOs. Tee-hee.
22. Email status: SENT.
23. [See: Theme]
25. Oklahoma city: TULSA. Cute - lower-case "city" and not Enid, OK.
26. Printing goofs: ERRATA. Latin for a list of errors post-printing.
27. More like a cord: ROPIER. Um, OK.
28. Megastar: IDOL.
29. Fragments: PIECES.
33. Need for some noisy toys: AAs. Small "Batteries not included."
34. [See: Theme]
37. "Poldark" airer: PBS.
40. Salad option: CAESAR. It's only proper with discernible anchovy flavor. Anyone else ask for extra anchovies if you can't taste 'em?
41. Minnesota representative Ilhan: OMAR. Somalia-born Representative from Minnesota's 5th District. IIRC, she's now in her 3rd term.
45. Surgical knife: LANCET. Also the name of England's oldest medical journal.
47. Jalisco, por ejemplo: ESTADO. Jalisco is Mexico's 7th largest ESTADO (state).
49. Zones: AREAS.
50. [See: Theme]
53. Multifunction printer function: SCAN.
 |
| My Multifunction HP |
54. Get along nicely: MESH.
55. See 62-Across: IDLE. //wait for it...
56. [See: Theme]
59. X-ray kin: MRI. Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
61. Large concert venues: ARENAS.
62. With 55-Across, "Spamalot" co-creator: ERIC. Eric Idle is one of the founding Pythons and my (28a) IDOL. He is still quite active on Twitter as @EricIdle
63. Start of a kindergarten tune: ABC. Stephen Write asked why the alphabet is in that order? He postulated that it's because of that song.
64. Sprinkle about: STREW.
65. Snack (on): NOSH. Nom nom nom.
66. Therapist's maj.: PSY. Psychology: the study of non-phonetic spelling's effect on the mind.
Down:
1. Crow's cry: CAW.
2. Draw Two or Skip: UNO CARD.
3. Stranger than strange: BIZARRO.
Bizarro Jerry
4. Deadly sins, e.g.: SEPTET. Sept = 7 -- of which the count of sins that mars the soul.
5. The "A" of GOAT: ALL. Greatest of ALL Time.
6. Avis rival: ALAMO. I barely remembered it ;-)
7. "The __ City": Houston nickname: BAYOU. Aka Clutch City, Space City USA, H-Town - anything to keep your mind off the fact you're in an over-developed swamp and it's 100F outside.
8. "My guy!": BRO.
9. Eases off: LETS UP.
10. Daughter of Polonius: OPHELIA. From The Bard's Hamlet.
11. Briny deep: OPEN SEA.
12. "Zounds!": MY STARS.
15. "If you don't mind," in a text: PLS. Please.
18. Air mattress alternative: COT. Air mattress was not an option in Basic Training.
20. Head massage target: SCALP.
23. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame architect: PEI.
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| Looks like a 45RPM spindle. Read more |
24. Purrr-manent fixture when sitting: LAP CAT. Cute.
25. Reggae singer Peter: TOSH.
27. Rue: REGRET.
30. 1950s prez: IKE.
31. Couple of fellows?: ELS. There are two "L"s in feLLows.
32. Jack Ryan's org.: CIA. Ryan is a fictional character who works in the very-real Central Intelligence Agency.
35. Las Vegas WNBA team: ACES. Makes sense that a team name in Vegas deals with playing cards :-)
36. Hauled: TOTED.
37. Once-common flat-screens: PLASMAS.
38. Spot for drinks in a small apartment, say: BAR CART.
39. Athletic shoe: SNEAKER. What do you call 'em? Tennis shoes?, sneakers?, tennies?, or just shoes?
42. Aid in finding the food court, perhaps: MALL MAP.
43. Sometimes and often: ADVERBS. Part of speech. An adverb is a word that can modify or describe a verb, adjective, another adverb, or entire sentence.
Schoolhouse Rock
44. Sushi topper: ROE.
46. Incisor neighbor: CANINE. #Teeth
48. Animal Crossing console: SWITCH. Animal Crossing is a video game played on the Nintendo SWITCH platform.
50. Gravel size: PEA.
51. Colorado ski destination: ASPEN.
52. One-named actress/flamenco guitarist: CHARO.
What I found - link if you know better (please!)
54. Booker T.'s band: MGS. Booker T and the MG's
You know this tune
57. Casual denial: NAW.
58. Opposite of trans: CIS. -gender.
60. Like unsalted winter roads: ICY.
And without further ado, The Grid
 |
| The Grid |
Cheers, -T
Good morning. Thank you Brian and Katie.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle. I really liked how the word PACT came together.
Nice recovery, Dash T!
I will admit I didn’t notice the progression from “P” to “Pact” until T described it. Also, getting the “right “ television station proved a little difficult; it took me a while to get “PBS.” Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteDidn't notice the circles on my way through the grid, but did notice the revealer. D-o demands half-credit. Tony, those curtains were actually sewn into play clothes for the Von Trapp kids. SAAB filled in. Should've been clued as a former automaker. SAAB closed the doors back in 2011. This one was just right for a mid-week effort. Thanx, Brian, Katie, and the absent-minded Dash-T. You redeemed yourself, Tony.
SCAN: There's an HP Inkjet near my desk. I keep it around for scanning only. We've got a Brother laser for printing.
SEPTET: If there were only seven deadly sins, why did they need ten commandments? Seems excessive.
Back to sweltering...
Well, I did manage to FIR, but in more time than usual for a Wednesday. W/Os = HERTZ:ALAMO, NAH:NAW. And I agree Saab has been out of business for 12 years, so shoulda been clued as “ex-automaker”. DNK Houston calls itself “The Bayou City”. I’ve been there often, and it never seemed “bayou-ee” to me. I tried to write “bizarre” but didn’t perp. A complaint often voiced by unclefred is “Why do words need two letters where one would do?” Is it “bizzare” or “bizarre”? Why can’t it just be “bizare”? Is it “errata” or “eratta”. Why not “erata”? Well maybe that’s not a good example since it’s derived from “error”, but there ya go again with the two-letters-when-one-would-do. (End of rant). Anyway, nice CW, I did manage to notice the “building a pact” theme and it helped. I appreciate the relative sparsity of proper names, and I knew most that were included. Thanx BC&KH for the fun CW. And thanx anon-T for the fine write-up. And it was fine. If you hadn’t mentioned it was rushed I would not have guessed.
ReplyDeleteDNF. The NE did me in. I first threw down play costume and tried to make it work. I didn't think of the answer being plural. Preppy and bloom escaped me, and Tosh (had Tesh first) was a complete unknown. So I went down in flames in that corner.
ReplyDeleteTook 8:32 today for me to come to terms with this one.
ReplyDeleteI got tripped up at towed before toted (for "Hauled"), and the crossing foreign word was no help at all. Ani, Woz, Ella - 3 of the first 7 across clues seemed to foretell a name-heavy puzzle, but it leveled-out.
I've never heard H-town called Bayou City either.
I'm not sure what Ms. Irish Miss's over/under line of acceptable amounts of 3-word answers is, but this one is likely over that line.
(My stars, circle!?)
Oh joy, circles!
Can we make a pact to end circles?
FIR, but erased audi for SAAB, oil for AAS, nova for IDOL, men for ELS, and bizarre for BIZARRO, which is a can't-miss daily comic for Jinx.
ReplyDeleteI knew WOZ because I regret to this day not buying a WOZ Pack, copies of handwritten notes that Steve made while getting the Apple II ready for market.
Lots of geezer stuff today, like the MGS, WOZ, ERIC, UNO CARD, OPHELIA, PEI, TOSH, IKE, SNEAKER, and CHARRO.
Here is CHARRO on the Tonight Show with Rickles filling in for Johnny.
Jimmy Buffet explains the octet of deadly sins.
Happy national hot dog day. Don't weenie out on this one. I'll have mine with chili and onions, and you have them, some jalapeno rings.
Thanks to Brian and Katie for the fun, and to Bayou Tony for the fine makeshift tour. (Ever seen "makeshift" in a puzzle? Fun word.)
Some poor entries in this one:
ReplyDelete1. BIZARRO is a substandard term used by teenage girls trying too hard to be teenage girls.
2. ROPIER - What could be dopier? It's not really a word.
3. JALISCO is a real word, but in another language and hardly part of our lexicon as is NOSH,
at 65A.
4. BRO is not "my guy" but "amigo" or "brother." "My guy" is a woman referring to him.
5. LAPCAT is convenient for construction, but it's not a lap dog.
6. "Animal Crossing Console" - Really? A reference to a Nintendo game played only by pimply
boys who should be reading a book of some value. And what is SWITCH?
7. NAW is a denial only west of the Pecos for eight miles.
Good Morning! I fastened my seatbelt when I saw Katie Hale’s name. I knew it was going to be a rough ride! Thanks, Brian & KH.
ReplyDeleteToo many WAGs to count, especially along the East coast but the perps were kind.
WO: e -> O in BIZARRO
Remember this kids riddle?
ABCD goldfish
LMNO goldfish
OSMR
CMP!
Then we’d all giggle!! Fun memory.
Thanks, AnonT. Enjoy you vaca.
Yesterday was a fast-as-you-can-write puzzle. Today we had a typical Wednesday puzzle, needing just a few perps. Good theme. I knew there had to be more to it, but did not see the progression. I like circles, so I vote to keep them.
ReplyDeleteTOSH was totally new to me. I had ELS, but wondered why. V-8 can, please.
I liked A man Called Ove, so I looked for more novels by Backman. I found Beartown which I liked even more. The residents of Beartown thought their future lay in winning the ice hockey pennant which would attract business and money to the dying town. The moral dilemma was how far can you bend your ethics to assure this admirable goal. Gripping and well written.
I thought maybe state in Spanish was ESTADA, but RAE didn't work, so ROE.
Roe is the only sushi topper I have tried that I do not care for, neither the taste nor the texture.
We have had a long spell of 90+ degree temps here. The weather announcer no longer counts how many of 90 degree days there are so far this season because they are now so numerous. This week we are at or near normal for here with highs in 80's and lows in the low 60s. I had a pleasant hour walk at 6:00 AM. I feel sorry for all of you who are sweltering in a long stretch of over 100 degree temps. We lucked out, too, in the fierce weekend downpours. There was destruction all around us, but we were safe.
AGM, crosswords often use slang and informal English, in addition to standard English. All of the words you complain of, except Jalisco, are in standard dictionaries and are frequently used in some people's everyday speech. My favorite cat was a purr-manent fixture whenever I sat. I miss him so much. My dog was very companionable but never sat on my lap.
For instance, from the dictionary:
comparative adjective: ropier, resembling a rope, especially in being long, strong, and fibrous.
my guy, A way to refer to a friend of yours. A variation of homie, the boy, my dude
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteSS @ 7:32 ~ Truth be told, I was so taken aback by Ropier that I lost my focus on any other aspect of the puzzle. If my count of 22 three letter words is correct, then that number falls under the “too many for my taste” column. I will concede that the circles were necessary to achieve the visual effect of the theme and reveal but, like you, I’m averse to them when they unnecessarily lessen the challenge of a solve. Tosh and MGS were unknowns, as was the Switch console. The cluing was odd, IMO, for Zounds (Comic book slang) = My Stars (Old-timey-ish) and My Guy (Sort of feminine connotation) = Bro (Masculine slang). OTOH, Cattle Calls=Moos was delightful! Nosh and Caesar salad (Yum!) hit the spot!
Thanks, Brian and Katie, and thanks, Anon T, for filling in again and informing and entertaining us. Waiting anxiously to hear about your trip to the Big Apple!
DO @ 5:40 ~ Your sins vs commandment question is a good one! Excessive, indeed! 😅
Jinx @ 7:43 ~ I am geezier than you but I’ve never heard of Tosh or MGS and the only thing I know about Eric Idle is his odd name. 🤣
FLN
Wilbur, I just recently saw a video of someone using an electric fly swatter and I found the zapping sound unnerving. If yesterday’s treatment works its magic, I won’t even need my trusty manual fly swatter! So far this morning, not a creature is stirring! 🤞
Musings
ReplyDelete-Way to rally, Tony!
-When I taught, kids classified themselves as PREPS or hoods
-I had a couple of Apple II’s, but here is WOZ’s Apple I
-American Idol set the standard for CATTLE CALLS and frank assessments
-Gene Pitney sang Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s 24 Hours From TULSA in 1963
-ROPIER? I’m sure Brian and Katie shrugged and said, “Waddaya gonna do?”
-CAESAR is a vowel placement free-for-all
-Texas University gets a ton of 5-star FB players but they never seem to MESH
-I wonder why a rental car company has displaced the San Antonio shrine in our puzzles
-LETS UP: If it’s late in the BB game and you’re up by 40, call off the press!
-They’re tennis shoes around here, Tony.
Funny thing,
ReplyDeleteI like circles...
And yet listening to all the naysayers, I opened todays puzzle, and automatically let out a
"Oh joy, circles" in a sarcastic tone...
(You people are a bad influence..)
Curious tho, I never saw the progression. Makes me wonder if the circles could have been better placed.
Like one circle for 1st P, one circle for second theme A, one circle for for third them C, etc...
Leaving you to find the broken pacts by yourself...
speaking of broken pacts...
Hmm, speaking of broken...
I had a better 1st link, but when I tried to link it, the address was three pages long!?
Remember when the internet had "find this picture" feature? I can't seem t9 find it anymore...
As I went through this puzzle, the north was practically all blank, then when I reached midway, the south was a proverbial walk in the park. BIZARRO.
ReplyDeleteI went back north and eked out a win ever so slowly. The BRO, PLS stayed blank. Although BLOOM was my first thought, I then thought of many other answers, so left it blank. Like KS I had costume instead of CLOTHES.
A-t. Cool catch up. Thanks for pointing out the PACT progression which I missed. That was neat.
A LAPCAT? A rare species.
Living in SW Louisiana all these years, I knew that Houston was the BAYOU city.
CED - Go to Google.com. On the right side of the search input-box is a microphone and a camera-looking thing. Click the camera to search by image. Back l8r to PLAY. -T
ReplyDeleteRopier, meaning more like a cord, most often refers to muscles in body builders' arms or legs. Over many weeks of exercise his arms have become ropier. I do hear ropey used this way, but not so often ropier. But why not?
ReplyDeleteThe other meaning of ropey is more common, of poor quality. "Despite the ropey production values, Flywheel was a success on its own terms, attracting large audiences."
I say sneakers. My older sister seems to be the only one I know who calls them sneaks. I have fancier canvas slip-ons that I simply call shoes, or occasionally, canvas shoes.
Of course, being a cat, they chose to be lap sitters on their own terms, when they feel like it. I had an exceptionally cuddly cat.
Another meaning: I have friends who are cat sitters for other family members. They actually go to the cat's home to keep them company while the owner is away, sometimes staying overnight.
I did have people who would come twice a day to feed my cat and keep the litter clean, but mostly I used a cat veterinarian who also boarded cats. My cat hated to be boarded with dogs in the room.
FIR. I thought this puzzle might give some difficulty but when the theme became evident, filling in the circles made most of the remaining fill much easier. The only trouble was my last fill. Was it TWITCH or SWITCH? Filled in the "S" aas a WAG.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Brian and Kate for their efforts and -T for the quick recovery and review.
Stay cool out there!
Got the FIR, but have to Echo AGM and IM on this one. Thought the clues were a tad squishy, but that that may just be me. Lancet, (britspeak) when scalpel wouldn't work.
ReplyDeleteLAPCAT: Three of our cats love to sit in my lap. (And I'd better let them!) The others, not so much.
ReplyDeleteBAYOU city: Houston is cross-hatched with a number of wide drainage ditches which have been dubbed "bayous" -- Bayou City sounds better than Big Ditch City. Some in Texas pronounce it By-o as opposed to By-oo. As more outsiders immigrate to Houston, the By-o folks are becoming scarcer and scarcer.
RoseE - I remember that as ABCD elephant...
ReplyDeleteIM - I guess I'm a closet Monte Python fan. Not as much as Bayou Tony, but enough to have once owned their 3-sided album Matching Tie and Handkerchief. (Three sided - on the B side of the LP, you would randomly get either one or the other of two tracks.)
Although Green Onions is better known, my favorite Booker T and the MGS is Groovin from 1967.
I knew JALISCO from the 1985 listeriosis outbreak in LA. Turns out that JALISCO-brand cheese was made partly from unpasteurized milk.
H. Gary, maybe Texas' gridders will cohere when they join the conference of football champions, the SEC. Also, if I'm the coach, when the losing team goes into a four-corner offense to run out the clock I'll call off the press. Until that time, the trailing team is trying to embarrass our team and make headlines by making a historic comeback. But if they put in the scrubs, so will I.
D-O, here's ole Hank singin' about havin' some Jambalaya on the Bayou, pronounced By-o.
Hi Anon-T! Back from the Big Apple Already?
ReplyDeleteGoogle.com search did not work for me, probably because the picture I was searchin for a copy of was on Safari with an iPad.
I think I did find another way to share though:
test
Thank you for a good, Wed-level puzzle, Brian and Katie!
ReplyDeleteFAVs: UNO CARD, PACK LIGHT, and the clue for ADVERBS
PLAY CLOTHES were made out of window curtains ala Scarlett O'Hara. Reminds me of a Carroll Burnett skit. So funny!
Today is my Big BRO's b-day.
Welcome back & terrific job, -T! Looks like C.C. can count on you for 2 per week now. You nailed the videos & music clips.
I grew up saying "tennis shoes" even though none in my family played tennis. My Scottish friend says "trainers".
Hi, Jinx! 🙂! Isn’t it lovely to know that kids all across states and even continents know the (almost) same silly rhyme. Tx for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAnon T leads the way through this Callahan/Hale PZL...
ReplyDeleteThe PACT theme doesn't seem to be a big deal--until you see how they split the letters over four postings.
TYPOS wouldn't fit, so ERRATA it must be.
Ah, my fave salad, the CAESAR. Unless I'm very hungry and opt for the Blue Cheese.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, near end.
Its near-jackpot anagram (14 of 15) seems to be warning me to "go no farther," that some other combination of these 15 letters may be too, too embarrassing.
You can see the letters--and check them out for yourselves!
Meanwhile, I will stop where it tells me that this...
"MAY SCANDALIZE"!
The Breakfast Club had the classes:Nerd,Jock,Hood,PREPpy girl and…
ReplyDeleteThe nutcase. I fit 4 of 5 as PREPPY I was not
I see I FIW on tWITCH,TOwed and EtwADO
Fats Rhymed it with (Meo)MYO Darn, Jinx beat me to it
WC
I rather liked this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteJinx, I was going to link old Hank as well but got distracted. BTW, I shoulda knocked on wood. Spent most of yesterday mowing the lawn (twice because it was so long with all the rain we've had in July) and edging the gardens with the string trimmer, and sure as sunshine, two other gardens had dayflowers. Past tense. They are gone now.
ReplyDeleteinanehiker, thanks again for the Zanfel recommendation. It worked wonders. Almost immediately, no itch and no further spreading! So much so I was able to get the lawn work done and I'm going golfing this afternoon.
Where is Texas University? Or is that like saying Nebraska University? I know that the University of Texas is in Austin. Texas State University is in San Marcos.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteGlad to read most of you barely noticed the C+ effort today ;-)
//Brian DM'd me on Twitter saying he liked the review - I do wish he'd have stopped into the Corner to explain himself on ROPIER ;-)
Some fact-checking and maybe I wouldn't have flubbed the PLAY CLOTHES clue. Whilst in NYC we say three plays so I was thinking curtains from a PLAY for play-clothes. Thanks for correcting that D-O & sumdaze [behind the scenes w/ Carol Burnett is your reward ;-)]
Props to our secret-squirrel for fixing a couple of my errors (spelling & grammar) and adding the P PA PAC PACT visual before publication.
CED - We got to see Peter Pan Goes Wrong (girls stood on line for an hour at noon (in the rain!) for rush-tickets and scored two pair). OMG - I don't know how they (the actors, not my girls) did it but it was funnier live. Girls got their playbills signed by a few of the CAST.
We also saw off-Broadway's The Play That Goes Wrong and Grey House with Sophia Anne Caruso. Grey House was like an scary episode of Twilight Zone.
IM - The trip was fantastic. We stayed at a AirBnB . The first thing I noticed when I walked into the front bedroom was a picture of Fran Lebowitz.
//I had this ready for yesterday's c/a.
Marjorie Eliot's place was just around the corner, so we went to that Sunday -- that was cool. Oooh! And there was a great bagel place (Mike's) about 5 blocks away. More food? We ate at Carmine's, Lambardi's, some Cuban place off of Times Square, some other place (Italian, of course) after one of the plays. Never a bad meal (except the snack-box on the flight home ;-))
Sumdaze - trainers! That's the moniker I couldn't recall last night. Yes, I've heard trainers from my UK & AU buddies too.
MManatee - the one thing about doing the wrong day is a) embarrassment 2) no one will *groan* my jokes, III) no time to actually do the puzzle you were supposed to blog :-(
And there's the secret out of the bag - I only did about 2/3rds of the grid b/f I needed to get down to business (there was no printer at the B&B).
Cheers, -T