Theme: "The ESPY Awards" - SP is added to each common phrase.
23. Advice for making a stick more fun?: PUT A SPRING ON IT. Put a Ring on it.
33. One with joint custody of a pet cat?: KITTY SPLITTER. Kitty litter.
43. Request from a chef who ran out of asparagus?: LEND ME YOUR SPEARS. Lend me your ears.
62. Treatment for phaser burns?: SPACE BANDAGE. Ace Bandage.
69. Peloton instructor from hell?: SPINNER DEMON. Inner demon.
85. Litterbugs in Alberta's capital?: EDMONTON SPOILERS. Edmonton Oilers.
94. Encouragement to a waiter adding ground pepper to a dish?: BREAK THE SPICE. Break the ice.
108. Budget for "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," et al.?: TRAGIC SPENDING. Tragic ending.
I don't recall seeing this SP addition before. Great title!
Congrats to Carl on his LAT debut. Here's his intro from Xword Info: "My name is Carl Larson, I'm 56, retired and living in Studio City, California. When working, I was an electrical engineer and marketing manager in the computer industry."
Across:
6. Unplanned break from school: SNOW DAY. I might still hike Elm Creek when it snows. My favorite place on earth these days. So pretty with all the fall colors now.
13. Stood out: POPPED.
19. Ristorante choices: PASTAS.
21. Emphasize strongly: RAM HOME.
22. "One ring __ them all": "LOTR" line: TO RULE. Patti normally limits partials to 5 letters.
25. Enthusiasm: SPIRIT.
26. Capote nickname: TRU.
27. Ocho menos cinco: TRES. All Spanish.
28. Quaint contraction: TIS.
30. Snarky: SNIDE.
31. Hannah of "Sense8": DARYL. She's married to Neil Young.
38. Big game locale: ARENA.
40. Yoga poses: ASANAS.
42. Ukrainian port on the Black Sea: ODESA. Their preferred spelling.
47. Energy bar bit: NUT.
50. Array in linear algebra: MATRIX.
51. Astronaut Jemison: MAE.
52. Slapstick prop: PIE. Here's a picture of Carmen's meal for Mid-Autumn Festival (9/29/2023). Behind the grapes are two steamed taros.
53. Freshness symbol: DAISY.
55. View from a pew: APSE.
56. Top with spaghetti straps, informally: CAMI.
58. Within: AMID.
60. Tablet alternative: GELCAP. 64. Pain-relieving drug: OPIATE.
61. Attic pests: MICE.
67. Coastal flock: TERNS.
68. World Cup chant: OLE OLE.
71. Silver-tongued: GLIB.
72. Bountiful residents: UTAHNS. City in Utah.
73. Sprinkle, say: RAIN.
74. Level or bevel: TOOL.
75. Invitation letters: RSVP.
79. "The Terminator" actress Hamilton: LINDA.
80. Rapper will.__: I AM.
81. __ Speedwagon: REO.
82. Runs together?: ELOPES.
84. Card game cry: UNO.
89. Writer Mario Vargas __: LLOSA. Peruvian novelist.
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92. Kit with paints, markers, colored pencils, etc.: ART SET.
93. Kilt detail: PLEAT.
98. Ticked off: RILED.
100. Hops-drying kilns: OASTS.
101. Energy bar bit: OAT.
102. Kolkata dress: SARI.
103. "New Rules" singer __ Lipa: DUA.
106. Rebel: RISE UP.
114. __ St. Brown: NFL player named for an Egyptian deity: AMON-RA. Unknown to me. Is he good?
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115. Many a family car: MINIVAN.
116. Tranquil: SEDATE.
117. Like some windshields: TINTED.
118. Arnold Palmer and Shirley Temple, e.g.: EPONYMS.
119. Job-related moves, for short: RELOS.
Down:
2. Ending with dino-: SAUR.
3. Kids of the 70s?: C STUDENTS. Nice clue.
4. __ loss for words: AT A.
5. Langer's Deli specialty: PASTRAMI. Learning moment for me.
Wikipedia says it's a kosher deli in LA. "Founded in 1947, Langer's is
known for its No. 19 pastrami on rye sandwich, described by the Los
Angeles Times as "the Marilyn Monroe of pastrami sandwiches".
6. Indian honorifics: SRIS.
7. Editor Talese with her own Doubleday imprint: NAN.
8. "r u kidding me?!": OMG.
9. "__ knew?": WHO.
10. Slip on: DON.
11. Friendship: AMITY.
12. "Smallfoot" creatures: YETIS.
13. Qt. halves: PTS.
14. "Clumsy me!": OOPSIE.
15. Museum store purchases: PRINTS.
16. Rigidly moral: PURITANICAL.
17. Skip over, as syllables: ELIDE.
18. Try to stop: DETER.
20. Quick and nimble: SPRY.
24. Pass along: RELAY.
29. Fern bump: SPORE.
32. Actor Braugher: ANDRE. He's in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"
33. Island home of the Grand Canyon of the Pacific: KAUAI.
34. Memo phrase: IN RE.
35. Univ. helpers: TAS.
36. Kitchen meas.: TSP.
37. Mormon initials: LDS.
38. __ mater: ALMA.
39. Gather: REAP.
41. River in northern France: SOMME. So many 5-letter rivers in France. Seine, Rhone, Loire, Isere, Saone. What else?
44. Fires up: EXCITES.
45. Cinematic spectacles: EPICS.
46. White House staffer: AIDE.
48. Stylebook subject: USAGE.
49. Classify, as blood: TYPE.
53. Summer triangle star: DENEB.
54. Designer Gucci: ALDO. Messy family.
57. Taiwan-based laptop brand: ACER.
58. Food Network cover: APRON.
59. Grammy winner Aimee: MANN.
60. Italian astronomer who embraced heliocentrism: GALILEO.
61. Food from heaven: MANNA.
62. Big rig: SEMI.
63. LAPD alert: BOLO.
64. Decide to take part: OPT IN.
65. Where to learn key concepts?: PIANO LESSON. Another great clue.
66. Aired with sharp resolution: IN HD.
67. Spanish "I love you": TE AMO. Boomer used "wo ai ni" from time to time.
69. Helmsman under Kirk: SULU.
70. Ounce fraction: DRAM.
71. "Duck, duck" follower: GOOSE.
74. Nerve-wracking: TENSE.
75. Esther of "Good Times": ROLLE.
76. One-touch shortcut: SPEED DIAL.
77. Designer Wang: VERA.
78. Soft "Over here!": PSST.
80. Shoshone Falls state: IDAHO.
81. College mil. unit: ROTC.
83. Makeup bag item: LIP-LINER.
85. Approximate fig.: EST.
86. Midday refresher: NAP.
87. TNT part: TRI.
88. Curved plumbing piece: P-TRAP.
90. Dormant: LATENT.
91. "Fine, whatever": OK SURE.
94. Sacha Baron Cohen persona: BORAT.
95. "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" director Sam: RAIMI.
96. Wonderland cake instruction: EAT ME.
97. Funny pages unit: STRIP.
99. Ticks off: IRES.
102. IDs on tax forms: SSNS.
104. "Do __ others ... ": UNTO.
105. Forever: AGES.
107. __ thai: PAD.
109. "It's __-brainer!": A NO.
110. Card game cry: GIN.
111. Wrigley Field climber: IVY.
112. Kiss follower: CAM.
113. JFK predecessor: DDE.
A few extra notes:
1)
I'm relieved to tell you that the 5501 renters are finally gone. I got
way too close to a gun one day. Scary and scarring. The 5505 renter, the guy with a gun and does drugs, seems to have left also. Not sure. The renter before him had a gun also, but the gun was not able to save his life.
Anyway, I celebrated the Pyrrhic victory with my sweet neighbor Valerie (5507) at P. F. Chang's. She saved me the day I had the car tire problem. I was cold and hungry, sobbing in the rain, then she showed up.
 |
| Valerie My Neighbor, 10/5/2023 |
2) Belated 74th "Happy Birthday" to Pat and her husband. And 80th "Happy Birthday" to Dennis. Sorry I missed both on the blog.
3)
Happy 82nd birthday to dear Jayce! Hope it's a day full of love and
good food. I bet you've tried the Kung Pao Brussels sprouts P. F.
Chang's, so good.
 |
| Jayce and his wife on their wedding day |
C.C.
Another fairly easy “letter addition “ puzzle. I got the gimmick right away with the first themed entry, and it was “off to the races “ from there. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add, HBD, Jayce.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the end of September was a scary time, C.C. Now, maybe things will get back to normal on your street.
Took almost 20 minutes to finish this one. Probably would've been faster if I'd read the puzzle title. Nice debut effort, Carl.
Happy birthday to the recent celebrants, Jayce, Dennis, and Pat. (Is she the one who was born in the same hospital and on the same day as her husband?)
Took 19:06 today, and yeah, maybe it would've been faster if I read the title too.
ReplyDeleteClever entries, even though I didn't know the editor or the writer.
Amon Ra St. Brown is really good, and a very interesting person. He's also motivated by the fact that many other wide receivers were drafted ahead of him.
Thanks for the good update, Zhouqin.
Happy birthday to the honorees.
Man, 5501 renters is a LOT of renters....
I'd never heard of putting a SPRING on a stick but the added SP's were easily predictable and made the puzzle a little too easy, even with the unknowns. I had a little trouble in the SW, changing the unknown AMEN RA to AMON to get the LESSON spelled correctly and just left LLOSA after staring at it to make sure the perps were solid.
ReplyDeleteAll the C-STUDENTS now have a 3.9 GPA with all the grade inflation.
PASSTRAMI- never heard of Langer's but every deli has pastrami
NAN, DUA, DENEB, MANN, ANDRE, ALDO- unknown as clued
IRES- I know it but have never heard anybody say it. It's usually IRKS or pisses me off.
FIR, but I found the cluing to be a bit too tricky. The theme was clever, and once i saw the "sp" gimick, it helped with the solve.
ReplyDeleteThere were way too many proper names for me. I strongly contend that they do not belong in crossword puzzles.
Amon! I mean, amen!
DeleteI had a rough time with the NW and SW corners until I figured out CSTUDENTS (great clue answer) and PIANO LESSON.
ReplyDeleteVery nice theme and I figured it out early which helped. MY favorite was LEND ME YOUR SPEARS.
And I didn't get why UTAHNS are Bountiful Residents.
Look at the sign that C.C. posted in her review.
DeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-I share C.C.’s admiration for the gimmick and the title. Obscure names had ample escape routes, so they did not IRE me.
-Joann wants to paint our front door so it will POP
-Gotta love “Runs together”
-I think of SPRY as an adjective for the elderly who can still easily move around
-“Casualties topped 1 million, including the deaths of more than 300,000. British troops sustained 420,000 casualties—including 125,000 deaths—during the Battle of the SOMME. The casualties also included 200,000 French troops and 500,000 German soldiers.”
-My daughter works for a large aviation company and next week she is flying to Battle Creek, MI to instruct some of their techs on USAGE in the their communication with clients
-No speed dial here, I just tell SIRI, “Call Joann”
-C.C., I hope the latest events are going to give you some peace.
-Best wishes to all our celebrants!
FIW, missing my Natick AnONRA x RAInI. Erased laptop for GEL CAP, elides for ELOPES, and irks for IRES.
ReplyDeleteToday is:
NATIONAL FLUFFERNUTTER DAY (is this the same as National Lapdance Day?)
NATIONAL PIEROGI DAY (sign me up!)
CLERGY APPRECIATION DAY (but not the Pope who imprisoned GALILEO)
NATIONAL GOE DAY (Growth. Overcome. Empower. Coming to a crossword puzzle near you soon)
AMERICAN TOUCH TAG DAY (first date at a drive in movie)
INTERNATIONAL OFF-ROAD DAY (not so much since I quit drinking)
NATIONAL HERO DAY (first responders, medical personnel, military members and others)
Google Calendar has "Event" and "Task" but not APPT. As we always said, "pound to fit and paint to match." (Outlook has events, appointments and meetings. Tasks are a separate function.)
GALILEO's Daughter is a fantastic account of the man and his two daughters. Both daughters became nuns, and the Church imprisoned him for teaching that the earth orbited the sun.
I thought that "midday refresher" would be NOONER until I ran out of letters.
EAT ME was also on the cake-float at the end of Animal House.
Thanks to Carl for the fun Sunday challenge. Favorite was STRIP (for some reason.) Least favorite was AMONRA. And thanks to CC for the fun review. I'm glad the neighborhood seems to be getting better.
From yest, re: neck crick.
ReplyDeleteI did these exercises, and they really help.
Happy birthday Jayce!
Welcome Carl on your debut. A very doable Sunday with a few clever clues.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends here at the Corner…. kkFlorida
Thank you, Carl Larson, for the challenging puzzle and fun theme, which I managed to get in time to help.
ReplyDeleteThank you, C.C., for a great expo and for letting us know that your home is now safer. Hope those bad guys stay gone.
Many unknowns in this puzzle that required some red-lettering to get a toe-hold. The SW corner with 3 unknown names was very annoying. DNK BORAT, RAIMI, AMON RA. Several years ago I knew BORAT, but no longer.
Happy Birthday, Jayce & Pat.
My daughter had a scare yesterday. She has two new puppies that were digging out iris rhizomes and eating them. She called the vet and was informed rhizomes are poisonous to pets. She took the pups to vet emergency and they induced vomiting. The male pup had eaten a lot. However, the pups are fine and frisky this morning. Daughter is frazzled. Many years on the farm with both irises and dogs. Never knew they were a problem? Anyone else know this?
Took me a while, but finally got 'er done. A very enjoyable outing, despite the ultra-obscure names, which, fortunately, were nicely perped. Wanted to cry foul at Odesa, after a lifetime of spelling it with two esses, but it is what it is. BIG EASY-if you put a spring on a stick, you have a POGO stick. CC-glad to see that things are calming down a little for your neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteFIR today with no lookups. Enjoyed that there were 8 theme entries.
ReplyDeletePK@11:05 Interesting thing also happened to me with my one cat. I am a home vegetable gardener and one day I brought some tomatoes in from the garden, rinsed them and left them on the kitchen counter. My cat, Maks, jumped up and proceeded to enhance his diet with a serving of tomatoes. I was also panicking, but our friend Google showed me that I was not in trouble. Ripe tomatoes are not harmful, but green ones are for cats. Also onions are very bad as well as chocolate.
Another week bites the dust. Enjoy the cool weather that just moved into the NE. Fall is finally here.
Be welll.
Forgot to say Thank you to Carl and C.C. for their fine work.
DeleteCC Glad that your scary neighbors are gone. Was that what was traumatizing you last week, or is there still something else? Glad that you were able to have a nice meal with a pleasant neighbor. And glad to have your comments and images back this week!
ReplyDeleteOur local Jewish community is quite distressed about what is happening in Israel now. We had a community gathering last night. The new rabbi in training played guitar and sang. But he said he honestly didn't think singing would help the situation. As we like to say: It couldn't hurt.
Speaking of which, it was fun to see LANGER'S DELI today! I have only ever been once. But we had a very special treat. No PASTRAMI. Just a lush fruit salad. But...
Owner Norm LANGER came over to greet us personally!
LANGER'S DELI is across the street from MacArthur Park, which has appeared in song and in this puzzle. The last photo is of me across the street in MacArthur Park. I have other photos there that are not so nice. A rather sad place now.
As for the puzzle... Fun theme. Not so happy about crossed proper names:
DARYL/ANDRE, AMONRA/RAIMI, SOMME/MAE. Last one WAG to FIR.
From Yesterday:
Michael, Lucina Thank you for the kind words about my TAIKO DRUM video. Yes, the energy was enormous. We attended a big performance at a local theater and we wore earplugs. We could feel the energy in our bodies and the sound in our ears was still plenty loud!
Grumpy Granny
ReplyDeleteTwo and a half hours for today's entry ... pretty fast for poor old me! Got hung up on SE and had to peek. Actually I was splitting my time with reports from Israel...so sad!
ReplyDeleteBTW!! The Edmonton ice hockey team had the nickname of "The Spoilers" because a couple of years in a row they beat teams trying to make the playoffs late in the season and kept them out of the playoffs! .....so the clue answer was accurate!!
ReplyDeleteThank You Carl Larson for a long, involved and challenging puzzle. I enjoyed it, despite the fact that it took an awful long time. I could not understand 'C Student' for the longest time ... probably because I was never was one ...
The main theme itself was very tricky, in my opinion.
Thank You CC for your explanation blog ... and I am very glad to see and hear that your neighborhood has become a little safer. Guns and drugs are one of the worst banes in America...
Since other people have mentioned it, I would also like to mention that the news out of the Middle East is very disheartening. I never thought this could happen again in my lifetime. We can only hope it will end as soon as it began... And to what end ?
Picard, I've enjoyed all your pictures throughout when you post them ... Here is a guy who takes pictures by the gross ... and he catalogs them ( unlike me ....! ).... and he displays them, with panache, at appropriate times !!! Appropos to what you mentioned,... at present, at times like these, guitar music is hardly what the situation could call for.
have a great week everyone.
Thank you, Carl, for your SPlendid puzzle and congrats on your debut!
ReplyDeleteFAV: Kids in the 70s?
Thank you, C.C. for your cheery review! I am happy to hear your good news!
My new computer arrived today (old one was having irreconcilable issues) so I spent the afternoon migrating, downloading, adjusting settings.... I am pretty hands-on with my computer so I often make things more complicated than they need to be.
My microsoft office license would not transfer and I don't want to do a subscription so I downloaded FreeOffice from SoftMaker. So far it's recognizing all my files. I have not played with it yet, though. Anyone else using this?
I am happy I got on here in time to wish Jayce a happy b-day! I always enjoy reading your posts -- long or short.
Also, happy belated birthday to Pat and Dennis.
Одеса is the preferred spelling ;)
ReplyDelete