In the Key of B
Hi all and Happy Friday! Today I get to blog another Peterson Puzzle. Doug offers us an "add a sound" gimmick for fun, whimsy, and profit! Let's dig in...20. Phrase on a card in Desert Monopoly?: DO NOT PASS GOBI. DO NOT PASS GO is both a Community Chest and a Chance card.
33. Doll with many advanced degrees?: GENIUS BARBIE. GENIUS BAR is Apple Stores' counters.
41. Part of the year that's filled with possibility?: MONTH OF MAYBE. MONTH OF MAY.
56. Sport whose players wear furry hides?: BEARSKIN RUGBY. BEARSKIN RUG.
Cute, eh? Let's see what else Doug has in store for us...
Across:
1. Prayer wheel spinner: LAMA.
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| One "L" Lama |
5. "You know you want to!": C'MON.
9. Half a pop quartet: MAMAS and the Papas.
California Dreamin'
14. Like some defenses: ORAL. Masters' & and PhD defenses.
15. Outsized promotion: HYPE.
16. San Antonio mission: ALAMO.
 |
| I've been there; no basement. |
17. Fixes beforehand: RIGS. Fixes as a game or fight. You lost b/f you play'd.
18. Border on: ABUT.
19. Jurassic giants, for short: DINOS. T-Rexs was right out.
20. [See: Theme]
23. Pelican State sch.: LSU. I went to Louisiana Tech for my Undergrad but root'd for LSU.
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| Louisiana State University |
24. Passé: OLD.
25. "The Red Tent" novelist Diamant: ANITA. Anita is known for her bestselling novels including "The Red Tent", "The Boston Girl" and "Period. End of Sentence."
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| Anita Diamant |
27. Sanaa citizen: YEMENI.
29. Stable environment?: BARN.
31. Clearasil shelfmate: OXY.
33. [See: Theme]
36. Nevada city on I-80: ELKO. And 69a - Nevada city on I-80: RENO.
39. Calendar col.: FRIday.
40. Hinged fastener: HASP.
41. [See: Theme]
46. Pirouette point: TOE.
47. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA. The Queen's Gambit is the only movie I know her from.
 |
| Anya Taylor-Joy |
48. Dismays: ALARMS.
52. Bamboo fencing?: KENDO. Cute - fencing: like with an epee but with bamboo.
54. Capote nickname: TRU.
55. Time capsule time: ERA.
56. [See: Theme]
60. Bundle of wheat: SHEAF.
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| Sheaf of wheat |
62. Apple variety: GALA.
 |
| Gala is an apple cultivar with a sweet, mild flavor, a crisp but not hard texture, and a striped or mottled orange or reddish appearance. |
63. Sweeties: BAES.
64. Soeur de la mère: TANTE. Nique! :-) French? Google Translate: Mother's Sister: Aunt. Oui.
65. "No time to wade through this" initialism: TL;DR. Have we all learned this by now? Too Long; Didn't Read. Basically and executive summary of blather before / to follow.
66. Sparkle: ELAN.
67. Provide backing for: ENDOW.
68. Word with box or car: SEAT.
69. [See 36a]
Down:
1. Haughty: LORDLY.
2. Having a melody: ARIOSE. In classical music, arioso is a category of solo vocal piece, usually occurring in an opera or oratorio, falling somewhere between recitative and aria in style. Literally, arioso means airy. [WikiP]
3. With 7-Down, masterpiece: MAGNUM. 7d - See 3-Down: OPUS.
4. "And don't forget ... ": ALSO.
5. Star of the 1925 film "The Gold Rush": CHAPLIN. Charlie. His exile was the topic of Tuesday's Fresh Air [NPR]
6. "That's on me": MY BAD. Me messed up.
7. [See: 3d]
8. Team that shares an arena with the Liberty: NETS. New York Liberty is a WNBA team that shares Barclays Center with the NBA's Brooklyn NETS.
9. Pietà figure: MADONNA. Not the singer.
10. Defense mechanism?: ALIBI. Cute.
11. Nunavut neighbor: MANITOBA.
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| Canada, Eh? |
12. Chilean's "I love": AMO. Spanish.
13. Brillo alternative: S.O.S.
 |
| I bet you thought I was going with The Police* [5:03] again ;-) |
21. Mood: TONE.
22. Threads: GARB.
26. x or y, on graphs: AXIS.
28. John Legend accomplishment, briefly: EGOT. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.
29. Myanmar, once: BURMA.
30. Java setting: ASIA. Not a coffee house.
32. "No prob": YEP.
34. Highly questionable: IFFY.
35. Seehorn of "Better Call Saul": RHEA.
 |
| Rhea Seehorn |
36. Life-saving pro: EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.
37. Glance: LOOK.
38. Element of a warrior pose: KNEE BEND.
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| All I need to know. |
42. Got tipsy: HAD A FEW.
43. __ close to schedule: ON OR.
44. Craftivist's creation, at times: YARN ART.
45. Fuzzy memory: BLUR.
49. Entertain sumptuously: REGALE.
50. Childlike Rowan Atkinson character: MR BEAN. Rowan Atkinson's creation.
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| Mr. Bean |
51. Sends regrets: SAYS NO.
53. Cool kin: NEATO.
54. Oscar winner Swinton: TILDA.
 |
| Her IMDB |
57. Some military figs.: SGTS.
58. Collard greens kin: KALE.
59. Superlative prefix: UBER.
60. Fr. holy title: STE.
61. Frenemy of Lando: HAN. Star Wars reference.
Well, folks, another Friday in the bag.
The Grid:
 |
| The Grid |
The TL;DR:
WOs: ALIas-> ALIBI, RENO->ELKO
ESPs: ARIOSE, ANITA, ANYA, TILDA, TANTE
Fav: Mr. Bean
Cheers, -T
*DW & I saw Sting two Sundays ago. Message in a Bottle was in the set-list and it rocked The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Also, DW was enamored with Sting's physique (arms!) - I need to work out if I'm going to look that good at 72yrs!
///or MAYBE just play bass? :-)
23 comments:
I got the gimmick with the first themed fill, and that helped me solve the rest of the puzzle. One clue/solve I wanted to mention: “garb” for “threads.” Although this may seem nonsensical, “threads” was actually beatnik slang for clothing, hence “garb.” Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Almost failed in Texas. I had KALE, but didn't feel great about it (ain't that the truth!). Couldn't quite remember TILDA Swinton, and that GALA apple was a WAG. Whew, disaster avoided. Missed the reveal...again, but managed to get the theme anyway. Thanx for the brain exercise, Doug. I like your style, Dash-T.
Don't know why, it doesn't track, but LORDLY led my mind to thinking about jibber-jabber, which reminded me of this TBBT scene (0:46).
I had a hard time starting the North with only LAMA, HYPE, ALAMO, and of course LSU in place. It took a while to get the added B sound and probably wouldn't have finished the North. I had GOBI and just guessed DO NOT PASS. CHAPLIN, OPUS MAGNUM, MY BAD, and LORDLY took perps and guesses. To FIR was IFFY but I got it done. WHEW!
Unknown people today- ANITA, RHEA, TILDA, ANYA, MR. BEAN
Just plain unknown- YARN ART and KNEE BEND.
I've seen TLDR only in crossword puzzles, along with TTYL, BFF, EGOT, and a few others.
BURMA is still BURMA just like CONGO changed its name back to Congo from Zaire.
Tony- as for the LA Tech BULLDOGS the school was kind enough to call the girls basketball team the Lady Techsters instead of Bull--es, I won't go there.
Took 10:15 today for me to make this one go bye-bye.
Struggled with the top-left (lordly, ariose, & lama) and the ugly bottom-left intersection of "ste" and "tante". The perps filled-in "kendo" and the Chilean word, thankfully.
I knew today's actresses, Tilda (not sure why) and Anya (from the show "The Queen's Gambit" and the movie "The Menu"). Interesting to see Chaplin and "MrBean" in the same puzzle.
FIW, missing BEAR SKId RUG x YARd ART. I think I just ran out of P&P before doing my proofing. But I got my SWAG at TANTE x HAN, so at least I got that goin' for me.
Today is:
NAVY DAY (as long as they beat Army, they’ve had a good year)
NATIONAL CIVICS DAY (this is SOOO 20th century)
NATIONAL FRANKENSTEIN FRIDAY (parts is parts)
NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY (true story - a black cat wandered through our outdoor marriage ceremony)
NATIONAL BREADSTICK DAY (add a little butter and a lot of garlic and ya got sumthin’)
NATIONAL AMERICAN BEER DAY (proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy – B. Franklin made no such statement about beer)
NATIONAL PHARMACY BUYER DAY (another johnny-come-lately day)
Yes, I've had TLDR beaten into my dumb mass.
"The Gold Rush" made me think of Neil Young's classic album After the Gold Rush.
I don't like collard greens or KALE. Or poke, for that matter.
RHEA Seehorn made me think of the lovely Jeanne Triplehorn of The Firm for some reason.
FLN: Thanks to TTP for the West End Girls link. Now I can say I've heard it once.
Thanks to Doug for the tough Friday challenge. And thanks to Bayou Tony for another fun ride through it.
FIR, but mostly because of a correct WAG for gala and TLDR. Had no idea in this section and easily could have finished wrong.
Got the theme early and it was a big help with bear skin rugby. I would not have finished without that.
Good Morning:
I thought the theme was very cute and the cluing clever, without being strained or cutesy. My favorite themer was Genius Barbie. I didn't know Kendo but it perped easily enough. I entered Reno first, then perps changed it to Elko, then, serendipitously, Reno shows up as the last entry. Over on the other blog, this coincidence is referred to as a Malapop, a term coined by Andrea Carla Michaels, AKA, ACME. As always, the very low count (12) of three letter words is a plus in my book, as was some fresh fill and no dreck.
Thanks, Doug, for a fun Friday, and thanks, Anon T, for filling in, once again. I enjoyed your write-up and graphics but thought your tone was a little low-key compared to your usual effervescence. Seeing the photo of Rhea Seehorn reminded me of how striking and forceful she was in Better Call Saul.
TTP mentioned AtlGranny's absence. Misty and YR have also been absent and I hope this is due to reasons other than anything worrisome.
Have a great day.
Woo, woo! Part of my name in a CW puzzle.
I too had lots of blanks in the north and didn’t discover the theme until the BEAR SKIN RUGBY. Once I got that I returned north and managed to FIR, but not without some struggles. The last to fall was the KENDA neighborhood. Lots of erasures going on there.
Really cute theme, not too many unknown names. I believe BAES exists only in CW puzzles.
I loved the MAMAS and the Papas.
Thank you A-t for pointing out my TANTE name. Would you believe I had not even noticed.
Nope. I filled everything but only with multiple Google cheats. DNK = ELKO, ARIOSE, KENDO, BAES (again!), HAN (as clued) or NETS (as clued) or many of the names. So spent 30 minutes to complete the fill with Google. Interestingly, I did get the theme. DP, ya got me. Super write-up, Anon-T, thanx!
Greetings! I dabbled at today’s puzzle until I had filled everything south of DO NO PASS GOBI, but alas, couldn’t get the top 12 boxes of the NW. Still, this puzzle was fun to work. Thanks, Doug.
I even caught on to the theme before the reveal!! Clever!
I fell into the trap of t-rexs -> DINOS.
ESP: HAN (as clued)
My great-nephew goes to LSU, so that was familiar, and I remember the movie of Grisham’s Pelican Brief, so I had that association for the state.
CSO to Tante Nique and CanadianEh!
Thanks, Anon-T, a fine recap of a challenging puzzle.
Musings
-Doug’s puzzle had just the right amount of horseradish in that it added flavor without making my eyes water.
-Everest climbers spin those prayer wheels too on the way to the mountain.
-The Segway mode of transportation did not live up to the HYPE
-Some will always think the Cassius Clay (Ali) vs Liston fights were fixed
-Of all the ANITAS in the world…
-TLDR: Get to the point, I stopped reading two minutes ago. Same could be said for TLDL (listen)
-RHEA’s character ignored this rule: If someone tells you who they are, believe them.
-SAYS NO – What I do to many sub jobs during the school year
Not today. This one was not in my world-view. Had to TITT, it just did not spark joy.
Certainly didn’t know Ariose. But it seems everyone is fine with using a foreign language clue that is a phrase and not well known nomenclature? Soeur de la mere. Seriously? Thanks to perps, got er done but NW and SW took some time.
Thanks you Doug for a Friday challenge, which after wandering around in the DESERT for a while I finally found the OASIS.
And thanks -T. I knew right away it was you -- no GIFS, no KUS -- just lots of fun and info.
A few favs:
9A MAMAS. Those were the days my friends, we thought they'd never end!
14A ORAL. Oh yeah, and FLOSSING.
16A ALAMO. Yeah, I looked in the basement for restrooms too and didn't find any either. It's funny that that pic is right in the middle of downtown metropolitan SA.
55A ERA. We just watched the first two episodes about a cold case mystery series called Black Snow that begins with the opening of a time capsule that was buried at a high school 25 years ago, around the time a murder case was closed. Evidence was found in the capsule that caused it to be reopened. Now we've got to get to the bottom of it.
6D MY BAD. Wanted MY BUY and MY BUD, but perps ruled.
Cheers,
Bill
FLN to TTP -- thanks for pointing out the problem with the decimal point. Did a little research and found that there are also binary points, but the point was that's not what the clue said ...
IM - Sorry for the low-key tone. 'Cuz I spent the weekend in NOLA, I had to put the expo together late Wednesday night and didn't have time to make sure my side "jokes" were understandable -- i.e. I was going to put "(think he'll pass The Bar)" after "1 'L' LAMA." OneL being year-one of law school... get it?
Yeah, needs word-work ;-)
TANTE-N: I missed it too but my Angel Editor (he knows who he is) called me out and I got it in under the wire.
Waseeley - it is kinda weird to be center-city and then happen upon the Old Mission. I've been 3 times - once in the Army when stationed at Ft. Sam, once w/ DW [our Honeymoon - we were poor, so SA it was] and once with our kids 15 years later.
Did everyone see the "blue" in the caption for ALAMO? The bully that took Pee Wee's bicycle said he stored it in the basement of the Alamo and thus begun Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure.
Cheers, -T
Anon T leads us through this Peterson PZL...
Not too difficult for a late week XWD. Enjoyed the theme fills. But I got stuck on 33A because I thought it was going to open with KEN- instead GEN- for GENIUS.
I'm familiar with RENO and ELKO from many cross country drives in my 20s and 30s.
We used to hit a lot of rabbits driving at night outside ELKO. I woke up once to the sound of thuds, with my wife sobbing at the wheel:
"I'm killing bunnies," she wailed.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals today, three of them on the far side.
Most of these diags are too heavy either in vowels or consonants.
The top line on the far side looks most promising. Its anagram (11 of 14) identifies a German road hog as an...
"AUTOBAHN OAF"!
Hola!
Almost didn't make it today because of several phone calls. Lots going on in people's lives so we have a change of venue for tomorrow's Book Club meeting. Our usual hostess has much on her plate at this time. She has an invalid daughter who lives with her so we must respect her privacy and her obligations. Another member has offered her house.
I solved the puzzle many hours ago but was unable to post until now for the above reason as well as other phone calls. It's a busy and sometimes problematic time for everyone!
I can't even recall much about the puzzle except that it wasn't too difficult considering that it was from Doug Peterson.
Ha ha, MONTH OF MAYBE sounds like a true procrastinator!
Later. Daytime Jeopardy is on.
Anon T ~ Your expos are always a delight, no matter the tone, but especially so when you include news of eldest and youngest and Pops and tales of Casa Caruso's Culinary Capers! 😉
Some of the recent puzzles have stuff that is just out there.
I like Doug Peterson's puzzles. However, I have a feeling that Patti sh*t on his work quite a bit today. Yeah, proper names like ANYA and TILDA, and ANITA as clued. Ya either know it or ya don't; the pleasure of noodling is sucked right out. I did like the theme very much, though, and NEATO fill such as MANITOBA, REGALE, and SHEAF.
Thank You Doug Peterson for a challenging Friday puzzle, that I completed just an hour after midnight. The western areas both up and bottom were a challenge, but slowly I reasoned them out ... and enjoyed the entire process. Thank You.
Thank You Anon-T, Bayou Tony, for a very nice commentary and some very interesting links...
By the time I got the second long answer, i kinda figured the algorithm out.
Posting rather late, because of some company and urgent work ... will end now, cuz I hae to up bu 4 am tomorrow.
Have a good weekend, all you folks ... ;-)
At first start, I was going zilch, nada, nowhere on this one, esp. the NW…but slooowly filled in one here, one there, until some stuff started working out with perps. By the time the smoke cleared, I’d somehow FIR!
Once I grokked the themers, it became fun (absolutely loved BEARSKINRUGBY!) but thank the center gods for perps. I mean, “Soeur de la mere”… Really??? Yech. No mas pot favor 😆
This one coulda been titled “To Be or Not To Bie/Bi/By” lol
====> Darren / L.A.
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