Theme: "Finish Lines" - Each theme entry has five R's.
27A. *Coral Sea structure: GREAT BARRIER REEF.
46A. *Place to chill on the train?: REFRIGERATOR CAR.
65A. *Long-running comic strip about the Patterson family: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE.
85A. *Naval vessel known as a "flattop": AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
107A. *Dog breed that weighs no more than seven pounds: YORKSHIRE TERRIER.
14D. *Cause of some memory problems: READ/WRITE ERROR.
47D. *Need for a comprehensive background check?: REARVIEW MIRROR.
Reveal:
122. Fins, or when parsed differently, a feature of the answers to the starred clues: FIVERS.
I don't get the title "Finish Lines". How does it relate to the five R's?
I like that 14D/47D & 65A intersections. I always try myself and love when it happens. Interesting that Brian started the first theme entry at Row 4 rather than 3.
Across:
1. "That's sorta funny": HEH.
4. Oscar-nominated biopic about a Supreme Court justice: RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
7. Pampered pet's destination: CAT SPA.
13. "If I Were __ Man": A RICH.
18. Good Grips brand: OXO. Their ginger grater.
19. In the way of: A LA.
20. Eyepieces: OCULARS.
22. Soprano Fleming: RENEE.
23. Choking hazard warning label: NOT A TOY.
25. Like some car engines: REBUILT.
26. Disciple of Haile Selassie, informally: RASTA. Their god is Jah.
30. Fawning parents?: DEER. 33. Shows of soft power?: NERF WARS. Great clues.
31. Roland Garros playing surface: CLAY. French Open. The King.
32. "Far out!": NEAT.
35. Battleship response: MISS.
36. Webpage standard: HTML. 92. Wrote 36-Across, say: CODED.
37. Delight: JOY.
40. Pushover: DOORMAT.
41. Quick __ wink: AS A.
42. Tribeca neighbor: SOHO.
43. Names on a fundraiser's call list: ALUMS.
45. Customizable Wii Sports avatar: MII.
50. Wander off: STRAY. I had a few 6-mile hikes at Elm Creek this year. Mostly because I wandered off and got lost.
54. Property transfer need: DEED.
55. Word on a whiskey bottle: MALT.
56. Stadium visitors: AWAY TEAMS.
58. DDE rival: AES.
60. __ Xtra: soda brand: PIBB.
63. Pan Am rival: TWA.
64. Track legend Zátopek: EMIL. Czech runner. Wikipedia says he popularized the interval training.
71. First name in game shows: MERV.
72. Old Prizm maker: GEO.
73. Actor Morales: ESAI.
74. South, south of the Rio Grande: SUR.
75. Liz of fashion: CLAIBORNE.
78. Vegetables in fried rice: PEAS. No peas in Xi'an style fried rice. Just green onions, eggs and rice.
81. Peal: TOLL.
84. Fifth cen. pope: ST LEO.
90. Org. with lots of "Raw" footage: WWE.
93. Threesome: TRIO.
94. Fannie or Sallie follower: MAE.
95. Salt spray: SEAMIST.
99. Gas additive brand: STP.
100. Luge, e.g.: SLED.
101. Ctrl+C action: COPY.
102. Belle & Sebastian genre: INDIE POP. Scottish indie pop.
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104. Hearty bowlful: STEW.
105. Blue Pixar fish: DORY.
106. Red or Card: NL'ER. Gluey.
113. Iraq port city: BASRA.
115. "You had your chance!": TOO LATE.
116. Centrum alternative: ONE A DAY. I finally finished Boomer's remaining multivitamin last Friday.
117. One who plays a part: ACTOR.
118. To the extent that: SO FAR AS.
119. Adobe file format: PDF.
120. New __: cap brand: ERA.
121. Caterpillar rival: DEERE. Caterpillar has a big factory in Shanghai.
123. Retired boomer: SST.
124. 1040 fig.: SSN.
Down:
2. Lifted one's spirits?: EXORCISED. Nice clue also.
3. Traveler's storage spot: HOTEL SAFE.
4. Well-worn: RATTY.
5. Amorphous mass: BLOB.
6. Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," for one: GAY ANTHEM.
7. Round up: CORRAL.
8. Nail the midterm: ACE IT.
9. Mascara container: TUBE.
10. Curved line, in musical notation: SLUR.
11. Twosome: PAIR.
12. "King of the Hill" town: ARLEN. Arlen, Texas.
13. Pt. of ETA: ARR.
15. Jeans measure: INSEAM. I like American Eagles jeans. They have the perfect inseam, rise and leg opening for me.
16. Part of etc.: CETERA.
17. San Simeon castle builder: HEARST.
21. Mount: STEED.
24. Duracell options: AAAS.
28. Suckerfish: REMORA.
29. Gift tag field: FROM.
34. Pass off (on): FOIST.
35. Tarnish: MAR.
36. Biker's wheels: HOG.
37. "The Back-up Plan" actress, familiarly: JLO.
38. Sharing word: OUR.
39. Org. with a community pool: YMCA. Brooklyn Park does not have a YMCA.
42. Record half: SIDE B.
43. Wear: ATTIRE.
44. Handled: SAW TO.
48. Suisse peak: ALPE.
49. Playful growl: RAWR.
51. Hits hard: RAMS.
52. French friend: AMIE.
53. Couture initials: YSL.
57. Veers port or starboard: YAWS.
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59. Bell-shaped lily: SEGO.
61. Sox from Mass.: BOS.
62. Cup insert: BRA PAD.
65. Experienced: FELT. Verb.
66. __ hygiene: ORAL.
67. Portable drive capacity prefix: TERA.
68. Restorative: TONIC.
69. Medieval land: FIEF.
70. Closing music: OUTRO.
71. Roast hosts, briefly: MCS.
76. "Young Americans" singer David: BOWIE.
77. Son of Ares and Aphrodite: EROS.
79. Prime minister before and after Churchill: ATTLEE. Clement Attlee.
80. Some bottle caps: SCREW TOPS.
82. Stretches out?: LIMO RIDES.
83. 2024 and 2028: LEAP YEARS.
86. ORD summer hrs.: CDT.
87. Weight room unit: REP.
88. Help: AID.
89. Del __ Books: sci-fi publisher: REY.
91. 2023 award for Lionel Messi: ESPY. Inter Miami.
95. Mythical mariner: SINBAD.
96. Twist together: ENLACE.
97. "__ Fideles": ADESTE.
98. Horn sounds: TOOTS.
100. Emotional strain: STRESS.
101. Former "Iron Chef America" chef Cat __: CORA.
103. Word on a whiskey bottle: PROOF.
104. Instrument in the tanbur family: SITAR.
105. P&G detergent brand: DREFT.
108. Former U.N. chief Annan: KOFI. He graduated from Macalester, a private college here in Minnesota.
109. Macedonian or Montenegrin: SLAV.
110. Aesop character: HARE.
111. Winds down: ENDS.
112. Meg of "You've Got Mail": RYAN.
114. "__ you sure?": ARE.
C.C.
28 comments:
Well! Zipped right through this one with nary a white-out. All the themed clues were well-known expressions or things and there is, in my opinion, very little cause for complaint. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning, C.C. and friends: Not only are their 5 Rs in each theme answer, but FIN is also slang for a Five Dollar Bill.
I sang with Renee Fleming once. Well, we went to a concert and she invited the audience to sing along with her near the end of the performance. So technically ...
QOD: When you are free from self-doubt, you fail better. ~ Jennifer Lee (née Jennifer Michelle Rebecchi; b. Oct. 22, 1971), American screenwriter, film director
Took 15:04 today for me to RecaRRyfoRwaRd or to be the caRRyfoRwaRdeR.
Plenty of unknowns, most of them proper names, including, but not limited to, Emil, Arlen, Jlo, the IndiePop band, the Iron Chef, and the soprano.
Didn't like rawr, ending with SST & SSN, and a few others.
But, I knew today's actress (Meg)!
I didn't see/notice the theme while solving, and I also don't understand the "finish lines" title.
FIR. Not sure I get the title "Finish Lines" but when I finally got the unifier the CW got easier.
The NE had me flummoxed for a while. Not familiar with Arlen or nerf wars, and it was not coming to me until I saw read write error.
Good Morning:
I'm deferring to Thumper this morning.
Thanks, CC, for being our faithful Sunday Sherpa.
Have a great day.
FIR, but erased hah for HEH, wwf for WWE, nemo for DORY, and attley for ATTLEE (UNTIE!)
Today is
NATIONAL MAKE A DOG'S DAY (sponsored by Subaru and supports rescue over buying from a breeder or pet store - love their TV ads)
NATIONAL COLOR DAY (interesting that this occurs when leaf peepers are active)
NATIONAL MOTHER-IN-LAW DAY (I was afraid of MIL #1, adored #2, and never met #3)
NATIONAL NUT DAY (I’ll admit to being a little disappointed that this isn’t on my birthday)
Car engine lifespans have greatly increased, thanks in large part to the EPA's 10-year warranty mandate for emissions control systems. Oil kills catalytic converters, so engine wear would cost the manufacturers a lot of money. That put a lot of engine rebuilders out of business. My 2001 RAV4 has > 200,000 miles on the clock and is still going strong.
From personal experience, my guess is that the YORKSHIRE TERRIER is the dog most RVers choose to travel with.
I wanted "bond" for my whiskey bottle. My dad held that as long as it had the "bottled in bond" label, it would be good sippin' whiskey.
I wonder if Brian realized the Easter egg in Jimmy Buffett's song Fins:
But now she feels like a REMORA
With the school still close at hand
Just behind the reef are the big white teeth
Of the sharks that can swim on the land
Thanks to Brian for the fun challenge, and to CC for another fine review.
Finish Lines and RRRRR- what gives as I have no idea. Five-RS wasn't noticed either.
Good morning. The puzzle was easy with just a few unknowns (as clued) filled by perps. MII, GAY ANTHEM, JLO, ARLEN, OUTRO, RAWR, Del REY, & CORA. INDIE POP was a WAG- never heard of them or the GAY ANTHEM either.
The RRRRR fills were easy to fill after a few perps with only READ WRITE ERROR being the hardest, not knowing MII or ARLEN (got it from NERF WARS)
CLAY- always wondered why the tennis world refers to it as clay. It's NOT. The red 'clay' is ground up bricks and in the US the darker 'clay' is ground up basalt.
Would a tailor who measures the 15-D-INSEAM be called a 95A-SEAMIST? I'm glad C.C. found the jeans with the perfect fit but for me it's damn near impossible. DW refers to my 'behindless butt' and 'no-ass-at-all'.
Hahtoolah- sing with Renee Fleming? I ate dinner with both John Goodman and Harry Connick, Jr.- technically. They weren't at my table, just in the same room. Harry's 1st cousin-Pat Connick just got reelected as my State Senator last Saturday.
little known trivia...
"Finish Lines" -- methinks that Hahtoolah nailed it with "FIN-ish Lines."
Musings
-Brian hid the gimmick in plain sight. I’m surprised it didn’t run on “Talk like a pirate day”
-Our new neighbors have two YORKIES who love to express themselves.
-Our kitty already has a CAT SPA without need of transportation
-A great night for the Husker VB but not the AWAY TEAM
-Frank Sinatra made a star out of one member of the Will Mastin TRIO
-Six-letter cup insert starting with BR, hmmm…
-SINBAD beat out the less literary POPEYE
A very "boaty" puzzle today with AIRCAFT CARRIER, SINBAD, YAW, BARRIER REEF, and FINS, but the actual gimmick failed to surface for me. FIR, thanks to fair perps and lucky WAGs. An enjoyable Sunday stroll. An ex-Navy pal of mine referred to aircraft carriers as "BIRD FARMS".
Am I discovering my inner ?prude - why are bra clues so common these days? When will jock strap get equal time?
Hand up I don't get the FINISH LINES title. But I did parse the FIVE RS theme, which helped a bit with this Sunday challenge. I thought SOFT was about SOFTWARE and thought of NERD before NERF.
DREFT had to be wrong, but I was wrong. FIR. I have some AIRCRAFT CARRIER photos. But by amazing coincidence I got a tour of the Coast Guard Cutter BlackFIN yesterday!
Here are four photos on board the Coast Guard Cutter BlackFIN yesterday.
CanadianEh I will claim a CSO to you with FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE. It is written by Canadian writer Lynn Johnston and the PATTERSON FAMILY live in a fictional town in Canada.
From Thursday:
waseeley, Lucina Thank you for the kind words about my TRAMPOLINE video from our Holiday Parade. I deliberately made it a bit dark to accentuate the lights.
Interesting debate about the WHOOPING CRANES. I know nothing about them, but my Google searches indicated that there are only a few hundred in existence.
Great photos of the Blackfin, Picard. Gotta love the cup holders on the edge of the bridge console! I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of the USS Hancock at Sydney, Australia in '71 which included the carriers boiler & engine rooms. I think if my tour guide had abandoned me, I would still be trying to find my way out! (And the Hancock was SMALL compared to today's modern carriers!)
Almost, just a few little blank squares. Still, I got the theme early and all the theme answers and thoroughly enjoyed my journey.
My stumbling blocks were NERF WARS, PIBB Xtra, totally unknown, DREFT and DORY, didn’t know either. I got RAWR, but it didn’t register with me.
Some fun clues like EXORCISED, DEER, and a few others. All in all fun CW, with a very clever title.
I used to wear Liz CLAIBORNE clothes. Somehow I could always count on their fit and quality.
My niece has a tiny YORkie. I love dogs, but Yorkies are not my favorite, although our neighbor has one called a party colored Yorkie that I really like.
Got every square except the N in “nerf wars. I had it as either S or T. N never occurred to me and since I was “doing it the old-fashioned way” on paper, there was nothing to tell me it was wrong - dammit
FIW. The only city I knew was ARLES, in France. So I ended up with sERFWARS. A small nit; the comic strip is called For Better or Worse, not For Better or For Worse. Poetic license no doubt.
Quite a feat to find seven phrases with 5 R s in them. Great job Brian!
A bow to C.C. for her regular review.
Bon chance.
OK, OK, if they call a YORKSHIRE TERRIER a dawg in Georgia, maybe they also call the sound a lion makes a RAWR.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Brian, for an engrossing challenge. I liked the puzzle altho I didn't get the theme until I reached FIVERS at the end and sat there puzzling over it before I caught on. Lot of names I didn't know, but a lot I did know.
C.C., thank you for another great expo. Especially found it interesting that KOFI Annan graduated from college in Minnesota. I didn't know he was educated in the USA.
As for the whooping cranes the other night. I went back and found the first Google reference I had to them in Kearney, Nebraska. The reference talked about whoopers then it said a million birds stopped along the Platte River. I was wrong in thinking this number meant the cranes. It meant all kinds of migrating birds apparently. However, whooping cranes do stop there and my group did go up and see a group of whoopers which was a great thrill. We used binoculars because you can't get close or they depart. Sadly, I am the last living member of that fun bunch of people who gave me so much pleasure before I moved to the city.
I liked this puzzle. Perps got me the names I didn't know.
I mentioned the other night that when we went to Kearney, our group leader had engaged an ornithologist to meet and talk to us. He took us to where they knew the whoopers were hanging out. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have found them on our own.
My newspaper has the title as "For Better or For Worse".
FIW but was impressed with so many 5R phrases. I didn't get "Finish lines" either. Thanks, Hahtoolah @ 5:08! "Fin-ish" works.
I liked the clue for SUR. Also noted DEER & DEERE and Twosome & Threesome. Blogging last Monday's puzzle helped me with PIBB. MII was a puzzle. I wonder how much quicker I could solve these puzzles if I played video games.
Thanks to Brian & C.C. for your work today!
CED @ 10:18. Spocking their fivers. OMG, too funny!
In my nearly 60 years of solving I have never seen a more conveluted set of defs, silly theme, a total waste of my time! I'm sorry I wasted a Sunday afternoon on this claptrap. My advice to Mr Callahan: "Find another hobby!
Thank You Brian Callahan for a very nice Sunday puzzle ... the long answers were a dead giveaway ( for me ... ) so solving the rest of the puzzle was made much more easier. I got to the theme clue, at the very end, so by the time I sussed it out, it was a aha! moment, but it was not necessary to solve the long answers, which run across and vertically (!) ....
All in all, very enjoyable. I used to know a Brian Callahan many moons ago, but I seriously doubt he could have constructed, or even solved a crossword puzzle ...
Thank You CC, for your concise commentary blog.
Regarding your note about finishing the last of Boomer's multivitamin tablets ... I realize only too frequently, on how we often miss our long term soulmates ... for long periods afterwards, and how some common, little things can bring our missing souls into our memories ...
... I provide, as a voluntary duty, some psych therapy, some quiet comfort, and part time, companionship to two widows, out here, to allow them to cope with their loss. Hopefully, time, as it passes, ...it will partly heal the wounds of loss.
As Hahtoolah said, the 'finish' probably comes from the pun on 'fin' as the last clue. Thus the pun for the numerous R's would also apply to the puzzle, itself.
CED the 'Spocking' of the Canadian Five Dollar Bill, seems really funny. I looked at the original picture, ... and found that it was that, of Winifrid Laurier, an ex-PM of Canada, (1895-1901 ).
The Rasta - Rastafarians,... smoke 'weed ', Marijuana, as a part of their ( daily ?) religious rituals. However, the US Sup Ct., SCOTUS, has consistently nixed this practice, as a required one for religious freedom (... ).
It was decided, way back in, United States vs. Middleton, 690 F,2d, 820, 823 ( 11th Circt. 1982 ), Ethiopian Zion Church, and later re-confirmed, in U.S. vs. Rush, 738 F.2d, 513 ( 1st Circuit, 1984 ) but various users have raised this defense consistently over the last 30 years, .... only to be turned down. However, since then, many states have voluntarily passed laws for the decriminalization of Marijuana, and many will still be, passing such laws in the near future...
Have a great rest of the weekend, all you folks.
Pretty simple except for the NE corner that gave me fits. I made 3 cruises flying off and on an aircraft carrier. Gee, only 40 years ago. GC
Picard, if i ever had to do military service again, I would choose Coast Guard ... Coasties have E-6s commanding small boats, but in the Army, Navy, etc., you have to be an O-4, at least, to clean the blackboard (and worse in the Pentagon: O-6 or -7 to just carry briefcases).
Nice photos.
I guess Lee and I have newspapers that like to save a little ink. It’s “For Better or Worse” in my newspaper as well.
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