Choose Your Weapon!
Today marks veteran constructor Susan Gelfand's 28th appearance on the Corner. She challenges us with a simple, playful theme with three clues that hearken back to a 1950's TV show set in the early 1800 hundreds when Southern California was still a Spanish territory. It was an era when lawless men roamed the land unopposed by duly appointed law enforcement officers.
But there arose a masked swordsman, a fox cunning and free, who swashbuckled his way thru the land righting the injustices of local petty tyrants. Zorro was a good humored soul and he never seemed to actually skewer anyone, preferring instead to humiliate them by autographing their clothing with his first initial ...
So how does this relate to Susan's theme? Her reveal challenges us to determine his weapon of choice ...
56A. Art of fencing, and a hint to the starts of the answers to the starred clues: SWORD PLAY -- also a hint that she is PLAYING with different types of SWORDS. The first word of each themer is an anagram for a type of sword, but only one of them can be the weapon that Zorro used to make his mark.
Can you guess which one?
17A. *Baklava base: FILO DOUGH. This unscrambles to FOIL, which is used in the Olympic sport of fencing, but it's really too light for swashbuckling ...
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Italo Santelli and Jean-Baptiste Mimiague foil fencing at the 1900 Olympics |
28A. *Gives testimony: BEARS WITNESS. This unscrambles to SABRE, a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. But this one is much too heavy for Zorro to make his mark ...
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Sheathed French sabres of the sailors of the Guard, First French Empire |
42A. *Fix-it guide: REPAIR MANUAL. Which leaves us with RAPIER, a type of sword with a slender and sharply pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. And in the hand of a master, it is perfect for signing autographs!
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Rapier first half of the 17th century |
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. State gem of Wyoming: JADE. Wyoming is home to one of the largest and purest troves of nephrite jade in the world, prompting jade to be named the state gemstone in 1967. Wyoming jade was used in the creation of this church window ...
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North Shore Baptist Church Chicago, Illinois 6.5' high x 3.5' wide |
5. Strongly suggest: URGE.
9. Make self-conscious: ABASH.
14. Really excited: AGOG.
15. Horn output: TOOT. See 25D.
16. Brown shade: COCOA. Teri uses COCOA to make Zucchini brownies using this recipe. Instead of icing them she adds chocolate chips to the batter. With all the hot weather and rain around here the zucchini have been growing wild, so she's been making boatloads ...
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Zucchini Brownies |
19. Spiral-horned antelope: ELAND. The common ELAND (Taurotragus oryx), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a large-sized savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa.
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Young bull Eland |
21. No more than: UP TO.
22. Part of a process: STEP.
23. Taylor Swift album with the hit "All Too Well": RED. Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Recognized for her songwriting, musical versatility, artistic reinventions, and influence on the music industry, she is a prominent cultural figure of the 21st century. RED is her 4th album, released in 2012. Here is "All Too Well" ...
24. "C'est la __!": VIE. That's Life!
25. "Don't move a muscle": STAY PUT.
28. [Theme clue]
30. Den fixture: TV SET.
33. Accessory with a Lego Riddler minifigure: CANE. The Riddler is one of Batman's nemeses. He began in the D.C. comic universe, morphed into a series of action movies, which morphed into animated action movies, and then descended into the Legoverse ...
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The Riddler Leaning on a Question Mark? |
36. Core-strengthening exercise: PLANK. Here's how it's done ...
The Plank
38. Result of fogged-up glasses: BLUR.
39. Touchdown stat: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. Also the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet ...
40. Twofold: DUAL.
41. Axels and lutzes: LEAPS. There are others. This live action and animated video seems to cover most of them ...
42. [Theme clue]
46. Words of wisdom: PROVERB. The terms "wisdom" and "proverbs" derive from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) wisdom literature, which includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom is enduring and survives today, even in popular culture ...
47. Kimono accessory: OBI. An OBI (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles. Originating as a simple thin belt in Heian period Japan, the obi developed over time into a belt with a number of different varieties, with a number of different sizes and proportions, lengths, and methods of tying.
48. "Way cool!": RAD. Or as Tony would say Woot!
51. Make the grade: PASS.
52. Cabinet dept.: ENER.
53. Sunny Day Real Estate genre: EMO. This oxymoronically named band Sunny Day Real Estate hails from Seattle, Washington and formed in 1992. Here's their In Circles (lyrics) ...
54. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. CRETE is also the land of Theophilos, the fictional father of the Evangelist Luke in Michael O'Brien's beautiful novel of the same name ...
56. [Theme reveal]
58. Out in the country: RURAL.
59. Inheritance factor: GENE. An organism's genome (all of its GENES) defines the structural proteins that make up our bodies as well as those that control our metabolism (enzymes). However it has been discovered in recent decades that various environmental factors can alter our genes, without changing the actual DNA sequences that define them. Collectively these changes are called the EPIGENOME (literally "on top of the GENOME") and can be inherited by subsequent generations. Inherited epigenetic modifications seem to primarily affect the expression (i.e. activation) of genes related to behaviors. For a deeper dive into the actual mechanisms for epigenetic changes see this article.
60. Bulldoze: RAZE.
61. Trips around the sun: YEARS.
62. Trampled (on): TROD.
63. Plow pullers: OXEN.
Down:
1. "Aladdin" villain who transforms into a giant cobra: JAFAR. Nasty dude ...
2. Quick and nimble: AGILE. Also the name of one of an interminable number of software development methodologies. Now that AI has finally arrived it's probably obsolete too. Maybe.
3. Parceled (out): DOLED.
4. Swelled head: EGO.
5. Perfect place: UTOPIA. Samuel Butler's 1872 novel Erehwon (an acronym of the word Nowhere) is about a fictional UTOPIA discovered and explored by the protagonist, and is a satire on Victorian society. The novel is one of the first to explore ideas of artificial intelligence as influenced by Darwin's then recently published On the Origin of Species (1859), and the machines that developed out of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th centuries). Specifically, it concerns itself, in the three-chapter "Book of the Machines", with the potentially dangerous ideas of machine consciousness and self-replicating machines. Very timely!
6. Network device: ROUTER. So what's a ROUTER and how do they work?
7. Disco era adjective: GO GO.
8. Horn of Africa country: Abbr.: ETH. Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest.
9. Transparent overlay: ACETATE.
10. Second wife of Henry VIII: BOLEYN. Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
11. Like Pentatonix performances: A CAPPELLA. I was turned on to their music by my granddaughters, who love to sing A CAPPELLA. This is my favorite, a song from their debut album called White Winter Hymnal. I hope it brings a little relief to what has been an oppressively hot summer ...
12. Dad's lad: SON.
13. Possessed: HAD.
18. Comforter: DUVET. According to this article they're not the same.
22. Perform abysmally: STINK.
25. The ugly duckling, eventually: SWAN. In the finale of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (1919) there’s a magnificent melody the composer called his “swan hymn.” In his diary, he identified his inspiration for the theme: the sight of sixteen swans flying in formation overhead: “One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, that beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming, silver ribbon…”. The theme is played by the horns and if you listen carefully you can count all sixteen ...
26. Exhaust: USE UP.
27. Rulers before the Bolsheviks: TSARS.
28. Turning in place?: BED. If it's cold you might need a comforter or a DUVET.
29. Milan's La __: SCALA. "The house that Verdi built". Here's the aria Tacea la notte placida ("Silence the placid night") from his opera Il Trovatore ("The Troubadour") sung at LA SCALA by the great Maria Callas (lyrics) ...
30. Pipsqueak: TWERP.
31. Polling booth user: VOTER.
32. Serialized drama: SOAP OPERA. This one is in its 19th season. It sounds like it's about as SOAPY they get ...
36. Good vibrations?: PURRS. A CSO to Hahtoolah. She brings us good vibrations every Tuesday!
37. Ewe kid: LAMB. Here's a recipe for LAMB chops with garlic mint sauce.
38. "The Fresh Prince of __-Air": BEL. Where
Will Smith
got his start.
40. Some trucks: DIESELS.
41. Highlands title: LAIRD.
43. Gamer's game face: AVATAR.
44. "What are you doing!?": NO NO NO.
45. Got a ride through an app: UBERED. A verbified noun.
48. Kick back: RELAX.
49. Astonish: AMAZE.
50. Senior member: DOYEN. Some bon mots from the DOYENNE of Downton Abbey ...
52. Washstand accessory: EWER. Here's an old EWER and washbowl I made some years back. We don't use it anymore ever since we got inside plumbing ... 😀
54. React to onion fumes: CRY. You'll never shed another tear with
Vidalia onions
...
55. "You will __ the day!": RUE. In addition to meaning REGRET, Teri informs me that the medicinal herb RUE is the national plant of Lithuania and symbolizes maidenhood. Lithuanian brides wear a crown made from the herb during wedding ceremonies.
RUE is also French for "street", as in The Murders of the RUE Morgue, a short story by Edgar Alan Poe, which has been described as the first modern detective story. C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it.
56. PD rank: SGT.
57. Tennis club expert: PRO.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
39. Touchdown stat: ETA. Estimated Time of Arrival. Also the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet ...
41. Axels and lutzes: LEAPS. There are others. This live action and animated video seems to cover most of them ...
46. Words of wisdom: PROVERB. The terms "wisdom" and "proverbs" derive from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) wisdom literature, which includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom is enduring and survives today, even in popular culture ...
47. Kimono accessory: OBI. An OBI (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles. Originating as a simple thin belt in Heian period Japan, the obi developed over time into a belt with a number of different varieties, with a number of different sizes and proportions, lengths, and methods of tying.
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Back of a woman wearing a kimono with the OBI tied in the tateya musubi style |
51. Make the grade: PASS.
52. Cabinet dept.: ENER.
53. Sunny Day Real Estate genre: EMO. This oxymoronically named band Sunny Day Real Estate hails from Seattle, Washington and formed in 1992. Here's their In Circles (lyrics) ...
54. Land of the Minotaur: CRETE. CRETE is also the land of Theophilos, the fictional father of the Evangelist Luke in Michael O'Brien's beautiful novel of the same name ...
58. Out in the country: RURAL.
59. Inheritance factor: GENE. An organism's genome (all of its GENES) defines the structural proteins that make up our bodies as well as those that control our metabolism (enzymes). However it has been discovered in recent decades that various environmental factors can alter our genes, without changing the actual DNA sequences that define them. Collectively these changes are called the EPIGENOME (literally "on top of the GENOME") and can be inherited by subsequent generations. Inherited epigenetic modifications seem to primarily affect the expression (i.e. activation) of genes related to behaviors. For a deeper dive into the actual mechanisms for epigenetic changes see this article.
60. Bulldoze: RAZE.
61. Trips around the sun: YEARS.
62. Trampled (on): TROD.
63. Plow pullers: OXEN.
Down:
1. "Aladdin" villain who transforms into a giant cobra: JAFAR. Nasty dude ...
2. Quick and nimble: AGILE. Also the name of one of an interminable number of software development methodologies. Now that AI has finally arrived it's probably obsolete too. Maybe.
3. Parceled (out): DOLED.
4. Swelled head: EGO.
5. Perfect place: UTOPIA. Samuel Butler's 1872 novel Erehwon (an acronym of the word Nowhere) is about a fictional UTOPIA discovered and explored by the protagonist, and is a satire on Victorian society. The novel is one of the first to explore ideas of artificial intelligence as influenced by Darwin's then recently published On the Origin of Species (1859), and the machines that developed out of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th centuries). Specifically, it concerns itself, in the three-chapter "Book of the Machines", with the potentially dangerous ideas of machine consciousness and self-replicating machines. Very timely!
6. Network device: ROUTER. So what's a ROUTER and how do they work?
7. Disco era adjective: GO GO.
8. Horn of Africa country: Abbr.: ETH. Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest.
 |
| Ethiopia |
10. Second wife of Henry VIII: BOLEYN. Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that marked the start of the English Reformation.
 |
| Ann Boleyn |
11. Like Pentatonix performances: A CAPPELLA. I was turned on to their music by my granddaughters, who love to sing A CAPPELLA. This is my favorite, a song from their debut album called White Winter Hymnal. I hope it brings a little relief to what has been an oppressively hot summer ...
13. Possessed: HAD.
18. Comforter: DUVET. According to this article they're not the same.
22. Perform abysmally: STINK.
25. The ugly duckling, eventually: SWAN. In the finale of Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (1919) there’s a magnificent melody the composer called his “swan hymn.” In his diary, he identified his inspiration for the theme: the sight of sixteen swans flying in formation overhead: “One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, that beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming, silver ribbon…”. The theme is played by the horns and if you listen carefully you can count all sixteen ...
27. Rulers before the Bolsheviks: TSARS.
28. Turning in place?: BED. If it's cold you might need a comforter or a DUVET.
29. Milan's La __: SCALA. "The house that Verdi built". Here's the aria Tacea la notte placida ("Silence the placid night") from his opera Il Trovatore ("The Troubadour") sung at LA SCALA by the great Maria Callas (lyrics) ...
31. Polling booth user: VOTER.
32. Serialized drama: SOAP OPERA. This one is in its 19th season. It sounds like it's about as SOAPY they get ...
36. Good vibrations?: PURRS. A CSO to Hahtoolah. She brings us good vibrations every Tuesday!
37. Ewe kid: LAMB. Here's a recipe for LAMB chops with garlic mint sauce.
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Lamb chops w/garlic mint sauce |
40. Some trucks: DIESELS.
41. Highlands title: LAIRD.
43. Gamer's game face: AVATAR.
44. "What are you doing!?": NO NO NO.
45. Got a ride through an app: UBERED. A verbified noun.
48. Kick back: RELAX.
49. Astonish: AMAZE.
50. Senior member: DOYEN. Some bon mots from the DOYENNE of Downton Abbey ...
 |
| Ewer and washbowl |
|
|
Vidalia Onions |
55. "You will __ the day!": RUE. In addition to meaning REGRET, Teri informs me that the medicinal herb RUE is the national plant of Lithuania and symbolizes maidenhood. Lithuanian brides wear a crown made from the herb during wedding ceremonies.
RUE is also French for "street", as in The Murders of the RUE Morgue, a short story by Edgar Alan Poe, which has been described as the first modern detective story. C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it.
56. PD rank: SGT.
57. Tennis club expert: PRO.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
47 comments:
It took me a couple of minutes, but I finally saw what the “swords” were in the themed answers. I am proud of getting that before Bill explained it. The only other thing I want to remark on is the answer “ETA” for the clue “touchdown stat.” My first thought was football, of course. It wasn’t until the perps gave me the answer “ETA” that I realized the constructor was talking about a plane “touching “ down. Clever misdirection! Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Read the reveal, but missed the theme, even after going back and looking for it. [Sigh] However, no Wite-Out was expended in the quest for success, so d-o demands half-credit. Thanx, Susan and Waseeley. Now it's time to go back to learn about the Epigenome, skating leaps (d-o is a master of the klutz), and to listen to the ACAPPELLA harmony of the Pentatonix.
A very easy Thursday. Did not need the reveal or see the theme to solve.
FIR, but erased acapellla for A CAPPELLA (UNTIE!) Even my spellling usually doesn't STINK this badly. JAFAR x RED was my one personal Natick.
Today is:
NATIONAL WAFFLE DAY (Then what's for dessert?)
NATIONAL PEACH PIE DAY (Oh yeah. I'll have mine with a big scoop of vanilla.)
DW seems to be entertained by Secrets of the Zoo, so ELAND was easy.
A horn is not the only thing that can output a TOOT. I was hoping that Elon would change the name of Twitter to TOOTer. I think my name is better than "X".
Grand Funk Railroad asked "Can I get a WITNESS?"
I use adverbs a lot, but PROVERBS, no so much.
I remember the comedian Gallagher's first appearance on Johnny Carson's show. He said he went to the doctor because he was getting bald at his relatively young age. His doc said "Gallagher, it's in your GENEs." Gallagher replied, "No, Doc. I've got hair in my jeans, I just don't have hair on my head!"
I got a mesh ROUTER when they first came out for my way-to-big house. Works great, but there are plenty that are better and cheaper now.
The first American discothèque was the Whisky a GO GO, which opened in Chicago in 1958. Disco in the middle of the Elvis era? Who'd a thunk it.
Thanks to Susan for the fun Thursday challenge. My favorite was "touchdown stat" for ETA. And thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the mirthmaking.
This was a creative theme - but fell into the category of "themes I needed the blog to explain" even though I FIR. It doesn't happen too often, but twice in a month or so the frequency is increasing!
I love listening to Pentatonix music - some people think they only record Christmas music but they have an eclectic array of music
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDBrVPIudx1Zj50mAdan8fkN_xlavDEI7
Will Smith first became famous as a part of the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince winning the first Grammy for Rap music and then TV exec came to him to star in a fictional sitcom about coming from Philly to LA with "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1990
BTW - Bill - your video is from a dramatic remake of this story 2022 TV show "Bel-Air" which he exec produces
My husband has been doing a sermon series this summer on PROVERBs - so that was a gimme.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the informative blog and Susan for the puzzle
FIW. The NW did me in. Crossing of Jafar and Red was cruel, complete unknowns. And I never heard of filo dough. I suppose if I had sussed out the theme I might have been able to piece this section together. But I didn't and only learned it when I got here.
The puzzle was easy for a Thursday but it was a DNF for me. The Aladdin villain and Taylor Swift album had a 1/26th chance of correctly intersecting. Left it blank. JAFAR & RED were total unknowns. As for the SWORD PLAY, I never noticed but anagrams and Jumble are not 'my thing'.
CANE- no idea about that one even after filling it by perps.
PLANK- when I do them for 60 seconds the only things that hurt are my elbows and shoulders
GO GO- when I was a kid in the early 60's I remember a "Whisky AO-G-GO" that would advertise on the radio. It advertised dancing girls in cages.
Hola!
This can't be Thursday! It felt more like Monday but for me it's much too early to be up so I'm grateful that it was an easy solve.
Having toddlers around means watching hours and hours of videos so JAFAR slipped right in except that I had JAbAR first. FILO set me straight.
ETH seems lame since it could have been ethics, ethanol or any number of other words.
I did not realize that I could not spell ACAPPELLA. Now I know.
Did I ever mention that we had a cat named General Motors because it would PURR so loudly.
How I wish I had just one of my grandmother's EWERs. She had one in every bedroom.
Time to go back to bed. Have a lovely day, everyone! Every day is a gift!
Took 6:43 today for me to finish without mucH ANGER.
I admit to not seeing the theme, nor looking for it, during the solve.
I wouldn't have known Swift's album, but I remembered Jafar. I think Will Smith was the Genie in the Aladin remake. And in the top-right, I didn't know Boleyn and I was tripped-up a little with cocoa, eland, abash.
With the "pu" in place, I first tried "pulse" for "Good vibrations?".
Easiest Friday in a dog’s age, many unknowns yet all promptly perpred …but curses! FOILed again by the theme 😳 . I parsed “rapier" but since I couldn’t unscramble the others figured that wasn’t the theme after all
Always misspell Bolynn/BOLEYN. (She thought Hank would change his mind at the last minute…WRONG!!)
There’s an excellent series “The Tudors” (2007 if you can still find it) with Jonathan Rys-Meyers and Henry Cavill. Except for some minor historical discrepancies provides an excellent explanation of the Catherine of Aragon/Anne Boleyn annulment issue which I hadnt completely understood and many other aspects of Henry VII’s reign
Almost put opal, (or onyx) for JADE but knew the perp JAFAR
Haven’t seen ELAND in so long I thought maybe they went extinct. Glad to see our old reliable OBI retied into the puzzle
Ursine observer….BEARSWITNESS
Bovine slumber….. BULLDOZE
Rear….RAZE
Some fellow American University students and I were chatting back around 1972 outside the Istituto di Anatomia. An Italian student heard us speaking English and asked us in Italian “What does Grand Funk Railroad mean?” …uh…duh 😳?
Musings
-Our palindromic exercise of yesterday gives way to an anagrammed one today
-Oddly enough, the rarer word RAPIER gave me the fun gimmick
-A former colleague took great pleasure in ABASHING students
-C.C. requests that we limit ourselves to UP TO five posts/day
-People who BEAR WITNESS have been shown to sometimes be unreliable
-Fun clues: Touchdown stat and Turning in place
-Operators who can single handedly farm thousands of acres are making RURAL areas less populated
-My brother’s counselor was surprised that none of his three siblings had the alcoholism GENE
-FB coaches try hard not to USE UP their timeouts until the end of each half
-The odor of DIESEL burning vehicles reminds me of waiting for kids at Disney buses
-Nice job Bill n Teri.
Good Morning:
I’m trying to decide if the reason for not seeing the forest for the trees is a rapidly aging brain or a dwindling reservoir of persistence. Whichever is the case, I missed the anagram feature and had to go the blog to have the theme explained. My frustration and annoyance were erased by seeing the obvious solution that I had so obliviously overlooked, and my petulance morphed into praise. Despite some stumbles, i.e., Meted/Doled, Abase/Abash, and Liege/Laird and the unknown Jafar, the solve was on the easy side for a Thursday. Pop culture references were minimal which is always a welcome feature. One small nit with abbreviating a six letter word, Energy, to a four letter word, Ener. We see this often, though, so I guess it’s deemed acceptable, at least in crosswords.
Thanks, Susan, for a pleasant solve, despite my obtuseness, and thanks, Bill, for the always amazing review. I think you really outdid yourself today explaining and expounding on almost every discipline, from Figure skating Leaps to La Scala performances to luscious Lamb Chop recipes, with smatterings of music, art, literature, science, history, mythology, pop culture, etc. thrown in for good measure. Kudos to the Bill/Teri team for these Thursday treasure troves.
FLN
oc4beach, your posting yesterday was so coincidental as I had just received an email regarding my latest shipment of Gibble’s. The supplier company is now under new ownership and the orders are shipped almost immediately, a welcome improvement over the previous lengthy processing time. Thanks for the streaming recommendations. I’ll catch Harrow on the CW but I don’t have Hulu or PBS, at least not yet. Sorry to hear of your health issues but glad you dropped by. Chime in when possible. 😉
Have a great day.
SS @9:30 AM There's an anagram for H ANGER?
Ray - O @9:30 AM ? I didn't think the Italian alphabet had a K.
I did most of the puzzle while having breakfast downstairs in the bistro. However, I forgot that most of the NW corner was unfinished when I came back upstairs and read the expo. So I had quite a few blanks and didn't find the anagrammed swords.
I agree, JAFAR and RED were cruel. PURR was cute, but held me up for a while.
My parents grew tons of zucchini and they let them grow large. We couldn't give them away. The neighbors had too much zucchini, too. Mom made lots of zucchini bread. As a cook, I prefer a smaller size like a cucumber.
I haven't heard the TV called a TV SET since I was a kid, so old fashioned.
I find anything made with filo dough is yummy.
I enjoyed the puzzle and FIR but could not see the SWORD PLAY in the answers to the starred clues! Thanks, Bill, for solving the puzzle. One really hasn't finished until they've grokked the theme.
It took a while, but eventually I did FIR, although (alas) once again did not see the theme. In my defense, I didn’t really search for it: after all the W/Os and a few WAGs I was just happy to FIR. W/Os = DUVEE:DUVET, ITEM:STEM:STEP, BOLYNN:BOLEYN, LIEGE:LAIRD. DNK = JAFAR, RED. The “R” seemed like the only letter that fit, so I stuck it in there, and lucky me, it fit. Thanx for the fun, SG. Favorite clue: “Touchdown stat”. YDS didn’t work; hmmmm. OH! THAT kind of “touchdown”, hit me with the perps. Thanx, Bill for the outstanding write-up. I hardly slept last night, so will try to sleep a bit more now and come back later to look at all the interesting links you included. I will especially be interested in the epigenetics article. R-O-S: this was not an especially difficult CW for a Friday, but today is Thursday.
The week is zipping by so fast I said today was Friday. Still an easy endish of the week puzzle.
Waz: There is no J,K,W,X,or Y in the Italian alphabet but necessary if the word is in a language (English) that does.
I had an Italian buddy from Prato outside Florence whose name was “William”. I asked why the English version of the name particularly because it contained a “W” He said his parents didn’t like the odd sounding Italian version “Guglielmo” (Gool-yelmo) Before WWII Italians tended to pronounce the letter W in English words like a V. Afterwards, more likely correctly like a W. So some older folks called him “Villiam”.
waseeley, I wasn't going for an anagram, just "playing" with the "hanger sword."
Maybe I should've tried harder, and instead found a way to work in "rehang".
Ray - O @10:18 AM Years ago I had a dear friend who gave me my love of opera. He also had a gift for languages, Italian among them, and he used to call my Guglielmo.
SS @10:23 AM Thanx for that. I knew there had to be some method to your madness -- you've added another sword type!.
The theme eluded me, even after trying hard to figure it. But the puzzle was very enjoyable with reasonable clues and answers. - thank you SG. Wonderful review, Waseeley and Teri! What a lovely way to begin the day with the SWAN influenced Sibelius and the in-tune perfect music of the ACAPPELLA singers. DOYEN Maggie Smith, superb actress!
Taylor Swift reissued her RED album in 2021 as “RED (Taylor’s Version)” because of a dispute over the sale of her catalog of music, a contract she signed at age 16.. Standard practice (until you are a big star), is to give up your rights to your recordings to record management, and then they can profit from its use, sell it, etc.
I learned to make FILO DOUGH for an opera fund-raiser from a wonderful Armenian woman. It is a very difficult skill and I was not good at it. The Armenians call it paklava, not baklava.
A recent article in Popular Science wrote that scientists have now assembled the complete sequence of the Y chromosome of the human genome. They now have data on 30 million base pairs. I am reporting this because the long repeated sequences, read backward and forward are PALINDROMES, the theme of our puzzle yesterday. Frankly, this is an EGO deflated because I don’t understand any of it.
Happy day, all!
Greetings! I enjoyed today’s doable with crunch puzzle. Thanks, Susan.
The theme went deeper than I could go. Thanks for explaining it and the informative recap, Bill & Teri.
WO: meted -> DOLED
pulse -PURRS
Liege -> LAIRD
ei -> IE in DIESEL – it’s a vowel thing with me…
New word: DOYEN
WAG: JAFAR crossing RED
Got the FIR, missed the theme. Not a good Jumble player. Lots of Perp and WAG today, but the fills came in nicely. Have to disagree on the dico clue, though. The Go-Go Era was the '60s, disco didn't get its start here 'till the early '70s.
Uh, Ray-O, it's Thursday.
Slightly tough, but still fun Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Susan. And thanks for your helpful commentary, Bill and Teri.
Well, UTOPIA certainly gets a puzzle off to a good start, although I guess in our culture we're more likely to find it on the TV SET. There we can just RELAX in BED covered in a DUVET and watch a SOAP OPERA. Of course, we'd need a snack, with some COCOA, or later some ALE, AND ENJOY some BAKLAVA made with FILO DOUGH. But feels like a pretty relaxing day, doesn't it, so let's just STAY PUT.
Have a great day, everybody.
I got stuck with Jafar crossing Red also. Most was fairly easy. Wanted to do rsa for hor of afr country since the bottom of Africa is Cape Horn. But it didnt fit
Charlie Echo said "Have to disagree on the dico [sic] clue, though. The Go-Go Era was the '60s, disco didn't get its start here 'till the early '70s."
That's what I thought too, but I LIU. Whisky a GOGO, America's first disco, opened in Chicago in 1958. We should have eradicated it right then before it had time to emerge from hibernation nearly 20 years later. My excuse is that I wasn't quite 10 years old in those days, and was too young to appropriately disparage polyester leisure suits.
It seems that if you knew Jafar the puzzle was an easy Thursday. If not the bloggers are calling it a cruel clue. Lucky for me I immediately filled it in because my kids watched the VCR many times when they were younger. However, even though I had a white-out free day I didn’t get the theme until I came here. Thanks Susan and Bill….kkFlorida
I read the reveal as 'S Wordplay' and drove myself crazy looking for S words! Thank goodness for the Corner.
Jinx & Charlie Echo- not matter when the first "discoteque" started "disco music" always did STINK and always will. I guess it is still used for exercise classes because I've heard it being played at different health clubs I've used.
The Whiskey A-GO-GO in Bossier City usually had a live band that played regular rock music (or so they advertised). I never went there as I was in Jr. High School.
“Sunny Day Real Estate” genre? That’s a clue? An unknown Seattle band from 30 years ago?
Who edits these clues?….oh, wait….
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR, but I didn't catch the SWORDPLAY until reading Waseeley's recap
MHS rating: 6.9
In need of solving another puzzle?? Here is a link --> Puzzle called "Go Fish". I know the constructor ...
GRR, I missed the swordplay also. Too bad, because the theme was clever and fun. The whole puzzle was easier than usual for a Thursday. The R of JAFAR and RED was definitely a WAG.
Lucina@9:30. You made me laugh with your cat’s name GENERAL MOTORS. Did you have a nick-name for hiim, since that name must have been a mouthful when trying to call out to him?
Fun puzzle, thanks, Susan, but couldn't get the theme without Bill's help. Thanks, Bill, for an over-the-top expo.
For some reason, I had never heard Taylor Swift's music, so I listened today to Bill's offering. Couldn't understand most of her words, but enjoyed what I heard. Reminded me of my grandson's recent recordings. He & some college friends put together a band that has been playing near their Oklahoma college with some success. Have listened to their songs on YouTube and don't understand a word past the title phrase. I wrote him for his birthday (with money gift) and asked for a copy of his lyrics, which he himself writes as well as being lead singer. Haven't heard back. Maybe the lyrics aren't fit for old grandma's?
I received a series of messages on Facebook about our dear late friend Bill Breen, aka Wilbur Charles.
Dear dear Owen.. Wilbur has passed on..I am so sorry to report this..it's been almost two weeks now..in hospital he was checking on a spider bite gone bad ..they admitted him..he threw a blood clot and had a huge coronary and died Friday night at 3:03 am the 11th of August 2023..
This is Betsy his wife ..
Phillip and I are handling this as a shocking series of events..leading up to the blood thinner the 4 days on iv antibiotics the previous 4 days on strong antibiotics for the bite..recluse blood. Widow we don't know..but couldn't eat ..or sleep at hospital very well ..threw fibrillation and had a full heart attack at midnight..they fought very hard to bring him back again..
Very very peaceful death really rare they said.
Tante Nique
Of course, she was called GM and had more than a slew of kittens, several generations, in fact. It was at our school and she and her progeny were great mousers and even got after the gophers. In those days we had a large orchard behind the school, so gophers were numerous.
Owen
Thank you for posting that and keeping us informed about WC's last moments. It is very sad.
Owen, Yikes! What a shocking tragic end for Wilbur Charles. My condolences to Betsy & Phillip. Thanks for letting us know.
PK, I'm so glad that when we were that age we had singers who enunciated clearly, like John Fogerty and Phil Collins. When John sang "there is a bathroom on the right" everyone knew the words he sang. Wait...what? Oh never mind.
Hand up cross of JAFA? and ?ED was just not nice. WAG to FIR. Got the scrambled SWORD words after completing the solve. Fun!
Jinx Fogerty clearly did indeed sing "There's a Bathroom on the Right". You can Google it. Thank you for taking the time to read my FEBREZE article yesterday. Today we have STINK. I think perfume STINKs. Just give me clean.
Here I published an article about UTOPIA.
It is not a destination, but a worthy quest.
OwenKL Thank you for the additional information about Wilbur Charles from his wife Betsy. I had further communication with her today. She confirmed that she has been able to read your kind comments about Bill Breen AKA Wilbur Charles. And she has forwarded them to his niece.
Jinx @4:08 PM Or Manfred Man's "Blinded by the Light" -- "Wrapped up like a douchin, in the corner of the night" -- or was that just me?
When I was very young, my Grandfather taught me the words to "God Bless America". I thought for the longest time it was "....stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with a light from a bulb."
Hold me closer Tony Danza
This is the dawning of the Age of Asparagus
Like a virgin, touched for the 31st time
We didn't start the fire, it was always burning, said the worst attorney (Joel)
If it ain't paradise, then put up a parking lot (Joni)
There's a wino down the road (Led Zep)
See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen (Abba)
Excuse me while I kiss this guy (Hendrix)
I've got two chickens to paralyze (Money)
In a glob of Velveeta, honey (Iron Maiden)
The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind (Dylan)
The girl with colitis goes by (Sir Elton)
It doesn't make a difference if we're naked or not (Bon Jovi)
Ok, ok, fun time's over. A little sober information from the spoilsports at Newsweek, where I stole most of these:
"A mondegreen takes place between auditory perception (the physical act of hearing) and meaning-making (when our brains imbibe the noises with significance). This is essentially what happens in the childhood game of telephone. As one friend whispers a word or phrase into another's ear, it can become wildly distorted, and a totally different word or phrase can come out the other side. The acoustic information that's received and the interpretation a brain comes up with simply don't match up. It's not exactly entirely clear why this happens, we just know that it does."
Easy solve for any day tho I did not get the theme. I loved the music while reading the article about the environmental effect on our genome. Excellente!
Hi All!
Another Smooth Susan puzzle. I too did not catch the anagrams/theme but I can appreciate it - Thanks Susan!
Another fine review waseely - I enjoyed all the learning and I still have tons of links to click.
WOs: hand-up for not knowing how to spell ACAPPELLA and starting Meted. And, I blame Bugs Bunny & Three Stooges for spelling it SWaRD.
ESPs: RED, CANE as clued, SCALA, LAIRD(?), DOYEN(??!??)
Fav: ETA & BED were cute Ahas!
YR - Sometimes I'll still refer to the TV as just "the set." Grandparent's impressions on me. Same with fridge calling it an "ice box."
OKL - thanks for the WC info.
Grilled Zucchini is a perfect side for steak.
Ray-O: Grand Funk Railroad means American Band :-) //I saw them at the Krewe of Bacchus party in '16 or '17 #FUN
HG - the smell of DIESEL takes me right back to the Army motor-pool.
In the late '70's, I sported a "DISCO Sucks" button on my backpack. I will admit Blondie & ABBA are fun but I was under Dr. Johnny Fever's care :-)
The Vacant Lot - Blinded by the Light.
Cheers, -T
Jinx @ 6:10 wrote, "(when our brains imbibe the noises with significance)". While the daemon SpellChek leads us to imbibe a lot, we should better "imbue" our crania.
An addition to Waseeley's discouse on 'routers': a router is also the name of a power tool with changeable bits used to shape wood products. The well-known -- at least in crosswords -- "ogee", is produced with an 'ogee' bit.
Picard
That is an interesting article with some thought-provoking ideas. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Jinx
Also interesting ideas.
Whew! This blog is chock-full of ideas!
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