Help Me,
I think I'm Falling!
35A. Hurried, and what this puzzle's word ladder literally did in eight steps?: PICKED UP THE PACE. -- from 16A SLOW to 57A FAST.
I'll just leave the themers in place, because listed here they don't tell you very much. Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Smartphone software: APPS.
5. Air Force hotshot: ACE.
8. New Jersey city south of Paramus: LODI. I visited Paramus for work several times, so I must have past the exit to LODI off of US 80, but I don't recall it ...
13. Club __: SODA.
15. "Climb aboard!": HOP IN.
16. #1: SLOW.
17. Forming a tight group: CLUSTERING. Sort of the opposite to the Corner, which is a pretty LOOSE group ...😁
19. #2: SLOT.
21. One learning the ropes: TRAINEE. We are forever TRAINEES.
22. Rebel, in a way: ACT OUT.
25. #3: SOOT.
26. E-file org.: IRS.
27. Roger Rabbit and Bugs Bunny: TOONS . Both are members of the family Leporidae. Here's some selected CELS from Who Framed Roger Rabbit ...
28. Hindu sage: GURU. Not an Indian HERB, but rather a
teacher of the
Vedanta or
one of the other schools of Hindu philosophy. A CSO to
Vidwan to stop by and enlighten us further on this topic ...
29. #4: LOOT.
30. Home of the NCAA's Buckeyes: OSU. Ohio State University.
31. Hamilton notes: TENS.
33. Smile that may be silly: GRIN. 😀
35. [Theme reveal].
40. Mata __: HARI. A Dutch femme fatale who met her fate by a French firing squad after passing secrets to the Germans in WWI ...
|
|
Mata Hari née Margaretha Geertruida Zelle |
42. Wearable souvenir: TEE.
43. #5: LOST.
45. Careful phrasing, perhaps: TACT.
47. Feature of some 42-Acrosses: V NECK.
49. Flight coordinators: Abbr.: ATC. Air Traffic Controller
50. #6: POST.
51. Crystal-lined stones: GEODES. We saw one 2 weeks ago.
52. False testimony: PERJURY.
54. #7: PAST.
55. Metaphor for a fresh start: CLEAN SLATE. Today's English lesson. The original Latin was TABULA RASA, a philosophical position on nature vs. nurture.
57. #8: FAST.
61. All eyes and ears: ALERT.
62. North __ Sea: Kazakh lake: ARAL. Suffering from a lack of 63A - going, going, ...
63. Desierto's lack: AGUA. Today's Spanish lesson: WATER.
64. Oodles: TONS.
65. Useful Scrabble tile: ESS. Also useful to constructors and solvers.
66. Easy win: ROMP. The Baltimore Ravens recently scored a 37 to 3 ROMP over the Seattle Seahawks, but then lost a 33 to 31 HEART BREAKER to the Cleveland Browns.
Down:
1. Pitches: ADS.
2. Intimate: PAL. I guess it depends on how well you know her/him.
3. Debate side: PRO. Not the PRO who hangs around the greens or the tennis courts (or around jets -- see 5A)
4. Attaches, as a button: SEWS ON.
5. Fancy neckwear: ASCOT.
6. Future stallion: COLT. A future mare is called a FILLY.
7. Dean's email suffix: EDU.
8. Petty of "Orange Is the New Black": LORI. Lori Petty (born October 14, 1963) is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She is noted for her roles in the films Point Break (1991), A League of Their Own (1992), Free Willy (1993), the title role in Tank Girl (1995), and Lolly in Orange is the New Black. I think she hears voices ...
10. Cabbage for tacos?: DINERO. More Spanish: MONEY. I've had shredded lettuce on tacos, but never cabbage. 😀
11. Gulp down: INGEST.
14. Wealthy New York family on HBO's "The Gilded Age": ASTOR. The trailers for The Gilded Age were all pretty stuffy and the acting looks like it is no where near as good as Downton Abbey, to which it's a prequel. IIRC the Brit series begins with the news of the sinking of the Titanic, the most famous casualty of which was John Jacob ASTOR IV. Aside from Jack Dawson of course. 😀
15. Furnace output: HEAT.
18. Farm structures: TROUGHS.
20. Sheen: LUSTER.
22. On: ATOP.
23. Start of a Mozart opera title: COSI. As in Così fan tutte ("They all do it"), an opera that probably wouldn't get past the #METOO censors today. The overture's not too controversial though ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756 - 1791
1756 - 1791
24. ATM feature: TOUCHSCREEN.
25. Questionable: SUSPECT. A "perp" in detective stories. But the more perps we get in crosswords, the less SUSPECT potential fill becomes.
28. African grazer: GNU. Also a free computer operating system. A CSO to -T -- he'll explain it.
29. Gloss recipient: LIP.
32. Copy cats?: EDITORS.
34. Keanu of "The Matrix": REEVES. I've never seen The Matrix, but some people believe we live in one. The trailer for this was so bizarre that I decided to skip it.
36. "WandaVision" actress Dennings: KAT. Katherine Victoria Litwack (born June 13, 1986), known professionally as KAT Dennings, is an American actress. She is famous for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in various Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films including the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021). I suspect that if you're not a fan, none of the trailers I viewed would make any sense to you either.
37. Parlor art, informally: TAT. A "tattoo parlor" that is.
38. Gospel singer Winans: CECE. A CSO to our C.C. Priscilla Marie Winans Love, known professionally as CeCe Winans (born October 8, 1964), is an American gospel singer. Winans has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards, the most for a female gospel singer; 31 GMA Dove Awards, 17 Stellar Awards, 7 NAACP Image Awards, along with many other awards and honors to her credit including being one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. Winans is one of the greatest gospel artists of all time, and is the most-awarded and best-selling gospel act of all time. Here she sings Alone in the Presence ...
25. Questionable: SUSPECT. A "perp" in detective stories. But the more perps we get in crosswords, the less SUSPECT potential fill becomes.
28. African grazer: GNU. Also a free computer operating system. A CSO to -T -- he'll explain it.
 |
| GNU Logo It's Not Unix! |
32. Copy cats?: EDITORS.
34. Keanu of "The Matrix": REEVES. I've never seen The Matrix, but some people believe we live in one. The trailer for this was so bizarre that I decided to skip it.
36. "WandaVision" actress Dennings: KAT. Katherine Victoria Litwack (born June 13, 1986), known professionally as KAT Dennings, is an American actress. She is famous for her starring roles as Max Black in the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls (2011–2017) and as Darcy Lewis in various Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films including the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision (2021). I suspect that if you're not a fan, none of the trailers I viewed would make any sense to you either.
|
|
Kat Dennings |
38. Gospel singer Winans: CECE. A CSO to our C.C. Priscilla Marie Winans Love, known professionally as CeCe Winans (born October 8, 1964), is an American gospel singer. Winans has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards, the most for a female gospel singer; 31 GMA Dove Awards, 17 Stellar Awards, 7 NAACP Image Awards, along with many other awards and honors to her credit including being one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame. Winans is one of the greatest gospel artists of all time, and is the most-awarded and best-selling gospel act of all time. Here she sings Alone in the Presence ...
39. Surprised cries: EEKS.
43. Purring snuggler: LAP CAT.
44. Verdi opera set in Cyprus: OTELLO. Verdi's penultimate
opera.
A very sad story about jealousy, suspicion, and human evil. The prelude paints a tone poem of this story ...
46. Safe havens: ASYLA. These days millions of people all
across the globe are seeking ASYLA.
48. Within walking distance, say: NOT FAR.
50. Pre-euro Irish coin: PUNT. The Irish PUNT, worth one Irish pound (£1), was used in Ireland from 20 June 1990 until the formal adoption of euro currency in 2002. The last issue was minted in 2000.
51. Iona University athletes: GAELS. Speaking of the Irish (hello Irish Miss!), the
Iona Gaels are the
athletics teams of Iona University, in New Rochelle, New York. They compete in
the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and participate in
21 NCAA Division I programs.
53. Disturbs: JARS.
54. K-12 fundraising gps.: PTAS.
56. "__ you for real?": ARE. After meeting Nina, I know for sure she is. I guess I shouldn't extrapolate from a sample of one, but I have to assume that the rest of you Cornerites are too -- although I'm still not so sure about CrossEyedDave. 😁
58. Before now: AGO.
59. Total: SUM.
60. Activate, as a 24-Down: TAP. Or a dance made famous by this guy ...
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
43. Purring snuggler: LAP CAT.
48. Within walking distance, say: NOT FAR.
50. Pre-euro Irish coin: PUNT. The Irish PUNT, worth one Irish pound (£1), was used in Ireland from 20 June 1990 until the formal adoption of euro currency in 2002. The last issue was minted in 2000.
|
|
1990 Irish Punt |
54. K-12 fundraising gps.: PTAS.
56. "__ you for real?": ARE. After meeting Nina, I know for sure she is. I guess I shouldn't extrapolate from a sample of one, but I have to assume that the rest of you Cornerites are too -- although I'm still not so sure about CrossEyedDave. 😁
58. Before now: AGO.
59. Total: SUM.
60. Activate, as a 24-Down: TAP. Or a dance made famous by this guy ...
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
42 comments:
Not my favorite kind of puzzle, by any measure. I did the reveal early, which helped me figure out what was going on. But until then, I was groping for words blindly, and getting them solely through perps . Nevertheless, I persevered and managed to FIR, so I’m happy, if a little “put out.”
Good morning!
Noticed the word ladder early on. That helped with the solve. The only unknown was that pre-euro Irish coin. Thanx, Bruce, Teri, and waseeley. (Never noticed that CLEAN SLATE / Tabula Rasa connection. Neat.)
Thank You Bruce Venzke for a challenging Thursday puzzle, with the word ladder that meandered through the game. I noticed and figured out the progression but since I was jumping all over the place, in the wee hours of the morning today, it was of little help. After reading the constructor's name, I wasn't sure I would be able to finish the game, but I managed to, anyway.
Thank You Waseely, and Teri, for a very instructive and informational summary and commentary on the puzzle and some very useful links...
Thank you for the CSO on Guru ... though I believe that word has been mainstreamed in American English, so much, that it does not require a further explanation. In a strict literary sense, a Guru is a religious Hindu teacher ... ( Hi Hahtoolah, !!, who taught us about Rabbis and Rebbes, earlier this week ...). But now, the name Guru could be applied to ( ... a hopefully erudite) , teacher in any worthwhile literary or scientific subject, under the sun.
In this, a Guru differs from a Vidwan ( my ill-chosen ? avatar ...) , in that a Vidwan is merely a smart guy ... even a smart Alec... not necessarily a teacher. And in my book, at my age, 70+, ... a teacher is worth a 1000 smart Alecs...
BTW, FWIW, ... I chose the avatar Vidwan ... to keep a control on myself, so that what I write and post, will hopefully be helpful, decent and instructive, ... thats all.
Have a great Thursday, all you folks.
I would like to offer a small (!) comment on an 'indian' name ...Mata Hari. Mata Hari literally means ... Mother Hari, or, more likely, Mother of Hari ... Hari is a common pseudonym/ alternate name, for a Hindu god...
I have read about her copiously, and also on the Wikipedia. She was a simple Dutch woman, who married and lived her ordinary life in Indonesia ... before returning to Europe. She was not much of anything, leave alone a spy, ... but her biggest mistake before and during World War One, was to commingle and cohabitate with both French , ... and German military officers.
Anyway, she was arrested and charged with spying, with sparse evidence, and found guilty and fired on by a firing squad. According to Wiki, the French, who were smarting under their disasterous defence during the WW I , were in need of a scapegoat, so they convicted her, and made a 'spy' out of her ... this is not unique to their national behavior ... remember, the Dreyfuss case ??
FIR. A normal degree of difficulty for a Friday. Got the ladder thing early and threw down the unifier with ease. The bottom of the puzzle was my tough area, but I eventually got er'done.
One small nit: flight coordinators was plural as the clue and air traffic controller is singular as the answer. This had me doing a lot of second guessing.
Had Ural instead of Aral and did not notice my mistake.
FIR, but erased hop on for HOP IN, hara for HARI, ural for ARAL, and ere for AGO.
Today is:
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR TOLERANCE (how the hell did we breed the current antisemitic generation?)
INTERNATIONAL CHECK YOUR WIPERS DAY (I always check everyone who is wiping me. Seriously, never cheap out on wipers, tires or brakes)
WORLD PANCREATIC CANCER DAY (supports improved treatment, screenings, and research)
NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH DAY (Where I grew up, the doctor sometimes took payment in farm products)
MADD TIE ONE ON FOR SAFETY HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN (urges you to designate a sober driver and to hand over your keys. I’m the DD for annual golf boondoggle in Myrtle Beach)
NATIONAL BUTTON DAY (Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum is always pestered by her mom to get out of the bounty hunter business and get a job at the button factory)
GREAT AMERICAN SMOKEOUT (a bunch of quitters)
NATIONAL FAST FOOD DAY (I don’t remember the name of my first employer, but they offered a sandwich with two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun)
KS - ATC is also an organization.
California is so big they ran out of city names, and I'm pretty sure that some guy from New Jersey got a consultant gig to come up with more names. To wit: Menlo Park and LODI.
Most OPINIONATED people can be persuaded to change their viewpoint by facts and solid logic. But feelings and pseudoscience won't overcome their inertia. (offering or withholding sex also often works)
Is it LUSTRE north of the border, eh?
FLN: Vid, RIP doesn't bother me. My pet peeve is when I get a sales receipt stating "card swiped." No it wasn't, it's mine - I swear! Also, AOC is the cutest little communist in congress. If she looked like Bella Abzug, no one would know who she is.
Thanks to Bruce for the fun toughie. This is the first puzzle where I've really understood ladder fill before reading the explanation. And thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the clever and informative tour.
Vidwan @6:32 AM Thanks for your (very believable) comments on Mata Hari. The French sure had me fooled.
KS @6:59 AM I believe ATC is correct (it's an abbreviation), but my comment Air Traffic Controller was not.
I like to do word ladders on the Sporcle trivia site - so the puzzle today combined two of my favorite puzzles in one. This was different in the words in the ladder didn't have clues, so had to use the verticals.
Tabula Rasa theory of human development which said that newborns are a completely CLEAN SLATE as espoused by Descartes and Locke in the 17th century as pretty much been discarded.
Learning moment for PUNT - I only knew of the football term and the boating use.
I thought of IM with this puzzle starting with APPS and ending with TAP
I only know of LODI in California - so needed perps for the NJ one
KS- I thought of 49A ATC for Air Traffic Control - so that would cover the multiple in the cluing.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the blog - at the blog and in person you are a great team! and thanks to Bruce for a fun puzzle
Jinx @7:52 AM I've lost two dear friends to PANCREATIC CANCER. It's a dreadful disease.
Took 7:42 today for me to change gears.
Not a fan of this type of puzzle, but it was a good challenge.
The ladder didn't help much, as I initially skipped the "l" in slow, not wanting "pal" for "intimate."
I didn't know CeCe, punt, cosi, who/what desierto was or what it/they were lacking. I knew (without confidence) today's actress (Lori).
Go Buckeyes!
Good Morning:
Although I was glad to see Bruce's byline, it's been a while, I'm in SubG's corner on not being a fan of ladder-theme puzzles. I admire the execution and symmetry, but "clueless" clues are frustrating to me, the same way referential clues are. Also, with this type of theme, word play is non-existent, which lessens the enjoyment of the solve, IMO. I was unfamiliar with Punt, as clued, and I had to correct Hop On to In and Nearby to Not Far. The long-fill entries were impressive, as was the spot-on, grid-spanning reveal.
Thanks, Bruce, hope to see you back again soon, and thanks, Bill, for the usual enlightening and entertaining review and commentary. Leave it to you to run the gamut of personalities from Mozart to Bugs Bunny to Fred Astaire to Mata Hari! Thanks for the CSO. The Gaels are well known to me as they're in the same conference as our local school, Siena College. Thanks, also, to Teri for her participation.
Have a great day.
ASYLA was a new one to me but it was the only guess I could make when I found out URAL was really ARAL. With PTAS that's two awkward (rarely seen) plurals. I'm always going to whine about those.
This was the first ladder I've come across in a crossword so I had no idea, making the puzzle harder to complete.
I could whine that LODI is a borough, not a city, but that didn't change the fact that I only knew of Lodi, CA. And the perps weren't hard after correctly taking a chance on LORI.
Puzzle was easy but #1-8 were filled by perps. LODI, LORI,CENT were unknowns.
If I knew what a word ladder was, I would say it's great. But I really don't have any idea. Brilliant but stupid.
A bit of an uphill 🏃♀️ jog today. Bruce’s word ladder 🪜 provided some Friday crunch but I finished it right with a few wite-out moments.
Thanks Vidwan for the informative explanation of Guru.
Today is the inaugural meeting of the PWHL… Professional Women’s Hockey League.. its the ladies equivalent of the NHL. Our esteemed editor will now be able to educate us on players from this league and not have to solely rely on the WNBA which I’ve come to respect….kkFlorida
TGFP- no idea about the number clues other than they were easy to fill by perps. #1 was SLOW and PICKED UP THE PACE to #8 FAST. Really didn't know LORI or LODI but L was a good guess. No idea about PUNT. I changed the spelling of PERJERY to PERJURY; CENT was my first thought but the U after C wouldn't have made it in the newspaper, with perps from CLEAN SLATE and ALERT. COST became POST.
OPINIONATED- I don't mind opinionated people, IF they know what they are talking about. Most don't. Just blowhards.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Bruce, and waseely and Teri.
I thought I had FIRed until I read Irish Miss re HOP on changing to HOP IN. I left the O, not knowing DINERO vs. Donero. I saw the letter progression which helped the solve. I appreciated the grid symmetry of those themes.
Some American disadvantage with that city LODI, the money TENS, the university athletes GAELS, the Buckeyes OSU, and the spelling LUSTER ( yes Jinx, it is Lustre up here). But I have learned many of them here already, and the rest perped.
Favourites today were the clues for TAT and EDITORS (plus we had LAP CAT).
Great catch on APPS and TAP, inanehiker.
Wishing you all a great day.
Scratched my head when I saw the "#" clues. Then I realized they were all 4 letters. So it had to be a word ladder. Ladders go by rules and have a minimum of (word length + 1) number of steps, changing ONLY one letter at a time to change the starting word into the final word. These word usually bear some relation to each other, e.g. harsh to rough. The chains can be longer than the minimum and there can often be several different chains since the words in between are not fixed.
Again the longer fills were interesting and there was a minimum of three letter words per Irish Miss's preference.
FIR, so here is an award of merit to Bruce for his clean execution of the theme and Bill's coverage of the result. BTW, Bill, you either "drove past" or "passed" the Lodi exit.
Merit has its reward, but it is better if no one cares who gets the credit.
ACHTUNG
Inanehiker, there's also a LODI in WI -- NW of Madison and not far from the Merrimac Ferry.
picked up the pace?
Waseely said:
56. "__ you for real?": ARE. After meeting Nina, I know for sure she is. I guess I shouldn't extrapolate from a sample of one, but I have to assume that the rest of you Cornerites are too -- although I'm still not so sure about CrossEyedDave. ��
Waseely, I assure you I am...
P.s., loved the Fred Astaire clip!
(And the rest of the write up!)
With the series of #’s thought maybe one of my long lost favorite CW themes was back: the “phrase / saying / proverb” but nope… guess that is gone forever.
I almost didn’t finish, was crashing in the SE. rout for ROMP, all for SUM. Nothing worked till I laddered down letter by letter on the theme from SLOW to finally FAST and worked around that answer
Other Inkovers: foal/COLT, cap/TEE, which explains: visor/VNECK
“North” ARAL “sea”’ is such a frequent flyer. I LIUed once and discovered there is only a much smaller North and South ARAL Sea left. TONS or lots has become a choice like “aver” or “avow”. “Deans suffix” uni or EDU? ….”Club ___” Med was too short 😄
OPINIONATED: I “stubbornly cling to the notion” that you can’t hold on to an “idea” that hasn’t been “conceived” yet. ��
How am I s’pose to know the Spanish word for “cabbage”? 🥬. Ohhh, (never mind.)
Fascinating story from both from Waz’s link and Vidwan’s blurb re Mata HARI. She coulda used help from the #Metoo movement back then. BTW Vid you chose an apt name as a smart (intelligent not “Alec”) fellow
How guilt is determined ____ ….PERJURY.
Mall unit ….. ASTOR.
Jokingly…. INGEST
Tidies up after hours….CLEANSLATE
Sunny Florida has been anything but . Overcast, cool, with showers since Monday. Too rainy to even sit on the lanai. Our daughter is disappointed. She looked forward to getting into the pool. Can’t win ‘em all. ☹️
Not getting #1 in the word ladder put me at a disadvantage, I think. So it was a while before I understood the word ladder, anyway that’s my excuse for being slow finishing, but finish I did.
Yes a little crunchy this morning. A few unknowns like PUNT as clued, CECE, LORI, LODI, KAT.
It must be all those Spanish language clues that influenced my dream last night. It was in Spanish LOL.
Good Morning! What a fun challenging puzzle today! Thanks, Bruce.
I loved doing word ladder puzzles when I was a kid. They appeared in the Sunday Comics section. And I wrote the ladder at the bottom of my puzzle printout to keep track of where I was as I worked my way through the puzzle. Fun!
Perps for the unknown PUNT and GAELS.
I associate LODI more with Calif. than NJ – very devious!
TAT – LOL, Bill. In my mind I saw ladies sitting in the parlor tatting, 🤣🤣🤣and I left it there until I got to the recap.
ASYLA: Safe Haven - very good movie with Josh Duhamel.
Thanks, Bill & Teri for the jaunt down today’s ladder.
FIR with a WAG for the L in LODI/LORI. (We love LODI in California for wine and cherries.) Waseeley, if you've never had cabbage on a taco, you haven't had fish tacos! Those were a favorite when we still ate our finny friends. These days, DH and I confine our cuisine to the vegetable kingdom. Oh, and fungi, too -- we have it in for them!
Hola!
thank you, Bruce, for the clever ladder descent. I was almost finished when I received a distress call from my granddaughter who had car trouble. I circled around twice because the traffic was so dense and by the time I went the third time she was gone! I had a garbled message on my phone from a male caller so I don't know who gave her a ride. Another frustrating day! I haven't even mentioned yesterday's chaos when my newly arrived debit card did not work at the grocery store! I finally went home and took my checkbook to the store to finish my purchase. It seems that the stars are aligned to give me grief.
It's a surprise that there is a LODI on the east coast as well as in the west.
BTW, cabbage in Spanish is COL
Interesting and sad about MATA HARI. In Spanish, MATA, means "kill".
OTELLO, OTELO, OTHELO, often appears in puzzles.
We received some AGUA in the form of rain last night. Hooray! We need it.
I've said it before, my favorite Keanu REEVES role is in "A Walk in the Clouds".
Have a beautiful day, everyone!
Many, many years ago I went to an event that featured Steve Allen and he introduced Cece Winans.
FIR, thanks to perps & WAGs, but not my favorite type of puzzle. I'll Echo SubG and Irish Miss on this one. To each his own, I guess. Vidwan: interesting about Mata Hari. Seems like the French military was really good at blaming others for their mistakes. "Pour le encourage les autres." I recall the 1957 movie "Paths of Glory," starring Kirk Douglas, as an example.
CrossEyedDave @10:10 AM Just funnin' with ya CED. I really do believe you're real -- and you're spectacular!
RosE @10:44 AM Interesting that you know the word "tatting". I'm descended a long line of spiders who not only tat, but knit, crochet, and macramé.
(Although the original execution to "encourage the others" was done by the Royal Navy to Admiral Byng for failure to carry out an attack on the French.)
Impressive and clever construction. But it was very SLOW going for me, because I did not remember what is a WORD LADDER.
waseeley Hand up I was wondering if there was another layer to the theme.
Lee Thank you for correcting the incorrect use of "past".
I would say cross of LODI/LORI is unfair. Other letters were possible. Did FIR. The City of LODI, California web site offers this attempt to explain the name:
===
It is uncertain why "Lodi" was chosen. Some people said it was the name of a local racehorse, others claimed that it came from the famous bridge in Italy. A third explanation is that some of Lodi's citizens came from Lodi, Illinois.
===
Our CA LODI is the only one with a song about it. I know NJ very well and never heard of that one.
Here is my photo of a GEODE at the Harvard Mineralogical and Geological Museum
My brother is a geologist and he used to work at that museum.
Bill, spider? – as in the arachnoid type? Or is that a sweet nickname for lovely ladies of your family tree versed in the creative arts?
Picard @12:43. Bet the Ravens would like to get their hands on that geode -- it would look great in the club house!
I like Bruce Venzke's work and liked this one. I especially liked seeing CLUSTERING, PERJURY, CLEAN SLATE, OPINIONATED, TOUCHSCREEN, and ASYLA.
Good reading you all.
Puzzling thoughts:
CED @ 10:10 --> thanks for the Seinfeld clip; an all-time favorite
I, too thought there might be more to this than the SLOW to FAST connection; was hoping that each step of the ladder was more connected to the reveal, but it all worked out in the end
FWIW, waseeley, my Friday Nov 24 puzzle is a bit of a head-scratcher; I want to think it has more to do than what is seen at "face value" [no, not a spoiler alert]
Is anyone else having trouble realizing that Thanksgiving is but a week away?
Bruce and Bill did a good job today - but from a MOES hardness scale this was a 5 at best
CMOE @3:45 PM Yes, I thought it would have been clever to come with a more graduated acceleration, but the rules of the word ladder make that impossible I think.
Waseeley is on the job, marshaling this Venzke construction...
This would be a toughie, equal to a Saturday challenge, but with just one or two cheats it fell my way.
Those "cheats" were probably unnecessary, but I was impatient today.
~ OMK
____________
DR: ♬ Yes, we have no diagonals--
We have-a no diagonals today!♬
♪ We've black squares and vowels
and owls crying fouls,♪
but we have no diagonals in play!♬
(The lack was easy to spot, with a near black square at 6x6, and the far one at 7x7.)
cODI & cORI looked just fine to me. FIW.
Thanks, Bruce for the grid -- it took me a LONG time to get traction what with missing clues, words like ASYLA, names, and not being able to get 8a nor 8d.
Thanks for the expo, waseeley! Fav is the TOONs
WOs: PURgURY, oasis -> ASYLA, lei -> TEE
ESPs: ASYLA, PUNT as clued
Fav: EDITOR's clue was cute.
Re: REEVES & The Matrix - I didn't want to watch it 'cuz it came out around the same time "The Net" and other not-at-all realistic hacking movies that made me physically ill to view. But a buddy loaned me his DVD copy and said, "Just watch it." It blew my mind and I watched it two more times that weekend.
GNU is a recursive acronym standing for "GNU's Not Unix". It is free (as in beer and speech) software containing NO proprietary code.
Picard - nice shot. BTW, most of photos I just vicariously (and jealously) travel through but I've actually seen that GEODE IRL! DW & were in Boston to get info on Harvard for Youngest and we went to that room when we had some time to kill. We later went to the museum at MIT. I can say I went to Harvard and MIT ;-)
Headin' off to a hacker meet-up. See y'all much later tonight.
Cheers, -T
*most of YOUR photos... -T
waseeley Sorry for being dense! Is there a particular reason the Ravens would like this GEODE?
AnonT I am honored that you make a point of viewing most of my photos! Way cool that you were in the Harvard Geology Museum where my brother worked. The Harvard Museum complex is a relic of the 19th Century. You feel like you are in the world of Jules Verne.
Did you get to see the Glass Flowers? I remember the first time I entered I searched in vain for the glass flowers. It took awhile to realize they really were made of glass.
And I am honored that you visited our MIT Museum. Not as interesting as the Harvard one, but still cool. Where did your kid end up going?
Picard @7:45 PM They wear purple uniforms and amethyst is a shade of purple. 🙂
Thanks to Bruce for his double puzzle. Two for the price of one! I worked out the word ladder concurrently on a separate piece of paper -- needed that for perps for the other fill. I have been mulling over what NaomiZ said earlier this week, "...but one has never truly solved the puzzle until the big reveal has been grasped". Solving the word ladder seems to fit that statement, too. Thanks for the motivation (push?), NaomiZ!
Thanks to waseeley for his informative write-up! I always like it when you get an opera clue.
Lucina. Sorry to hear about your tough day. Oof!
sumdaze
Thank you! I'm happy to say, though, that on the whole I have more pleasant than unpleasant days.
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