An Eerie Theme
Today's constructor is Alexander Liebeskind,
who is making his 6th appearance on the Corner. His theme today is a
demonstration of the vagaries of English vowel sounds. And quite
coincidentally he has cleverly concealed the answer to his theme reveal
somewhere in the lyrics to the Marine Corp Hymn*. Here are the themers ...
17A. "Almost done!": BE READY IN A JIFFY. If you're in a hurry to get an oil change for your car you can just take it to JIFFY Lube, who specialize in oil changes. They are a subsidiary of Shell Oil and are headquartered in Houston, Texas. A CSO to -T.
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| Scotty Enterprise Engineer a CSO to Picard |
59A. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on: FIBONACCI SERIES. In mathematics, the Fibonacci series is an integer sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. Numbers that are part of the Fibonacci sequence are known as Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted Fn . The sequence commonly starts from 0 and 1, although some authors start the sequence from 1 and 1 or sometimes (as did Fibonacci) from 1 and 2. Starting from 0 and 1, the first few values in the sequence are:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144.
The surprising thing is that this sequence is found in geometric patterns in nature, e.g. in plants, shellfish, and even ocean waves. Here are some phenomena exhibiting it ...
In our recent visit to the National Gallery of Art we saw this Nautilus shell whose curve follows the Fibonacci sequence ...
 | |
| Nautilus Shell carved cameo relief in a silver mounting |
.. and this is another CSO to -T who IIRC once developed a computer program to compute the Fibonacci sequence to an arbitrary length.
And here's the reveal ...
37. Capital of Libya, and a phonetic hint to a feature of this puzzle's four longest answers: TRIPOLI. If you place your cursor just to the right of the final letter "i" in the IPA translation of TRIPOLI (/ˈtrɪpəli/) you should see this mouse tip popup -- /i/: 'y' in 'happy'. You can also do this interactively with this IPA reader utility. In each long answer in the grid you'll see a TRIPLET of letters spread across the fill that also sound like the 'Y' in happy, the other two being E and I ...
TRIPOLI (/ˈtrɪpəli/) is the capital of and largest city in Libya, with a population of about 3.56 million people in 2023. It is located in the northwest of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean Sea and forming a bay. Founded in the 7th century BC it has many interesting archaeological sites, including this one ...
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| Marcus Aurelius Arch built in 163 AD |
Here are the rest of the clues ...
Across:
1. Less occupied: IDLER.
6. Taj Mahal builder __ Jahan: SHAH. Mirza Shahab-ud-Din Baig Muhammad Khan Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also known as SHAH Jahan I,
was the fifth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1628 until 1658. Under his
emperorship, the Mughals reached the peak of their architectural
achievements and cultural glory. He had this mausoleum built for his
favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal who is entombed there ...
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| Taj Mahal |
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| The Serbian Diaspora |
14. Gave one's word: SWORE.
15. "Citizen __": KANE. Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Orson Welles. Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the screenplay. The picture was Welles' first feature film. Citizen Kane is frequently cited as the greatest film ever made. For 50 consecutive years, it stood at number 1 in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound decennial poll of critics, and it topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. The film was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories and it won for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) ...
The film is loosely based on the life of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, who reportedly wanted to have the negative destroyed. The backstory about his attempts to do so was loosely documented in The Battle Over Citizen Kane. It was panned by the critics.
16. Urgent request: PLEA.
17. [Theme clue]
20. Homer's neighbor: NED. Nedward "Ned" Flanders Jr., commonly referred to by his surname, is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer and first appearing in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." A scrupulous and devout Evangelical Christian, he is among the friendliest and most compassionate of Springfield's residents and is generally considered a pillar of the Springfield community.
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| Ned Flanders |
22. Fetch player: DOG.
23. [Theme clue]
29. 3-Down, for one: POET. See 3D.
30. Image on the Connecticut state quarter: OAK TREE. I did not know this. Now we both do.
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| 25 Cents |
34. New Haven collegian: ELI.
35. Enjoys hot tea, say: SIPS.
36. Bit of static buildup: ION. Here's an explanation. Here's an example ...
.jpg) |
| Static Electricity The child's hair has lost some electrons due to friction and has become positively charged. . The positive IONS are repelling one another |
41. Rare game show outcome: TIE.
42. In __ parentis: LOCO. Today's Latin lesson: "In place of parents". This policy was the cause a much protest among college students back in the 60's. Also the surname of one of my grandchildren's cats, although I think he's more than a little LOCO. I've never heard him sing.
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| Poco Loco |
_(cropped).jpg) |
| Megan Rapinoe |
47. Destructive wave: TSUNAMI. On 11 March 2011, at 14:46 JST, a Mw 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approximately six minutes, causing a TSUNAMI. It is sometimes known in Japan as the "Great East Japan Earthquake" or simply "3.11". Nearly 20,000 people were killed and 3 of Japan's nuclear reactors at Fukushima experienced meltdowns, releasing radioactive water into the sea.
It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture. Here is some National Geographic footage of this catastrophic event ...
49. "Ideas worth spreading" offshoot: TED X. E.g., in the clip for 6D -- but I wouldn't spread this idea any further.
51. [Theme clue]
55. Bronze element: TIN.
56. Mimic: APER.
57. Narrow inlet: RIA.
59A. [Theme clue]
64. Speak for oneself?: BRAG.
65. Art hub in New Mexico: TAOS. It started as The Taos art colony an art colony founded in TAOS, New Mexico, by artists attracted by the culture of the Taos Pueblo and northern New Mexico. The 1898 visit by Bert Geer Phillips and Ernest L. Blumenschein to Taos was an early step in the creation of the Taos art colony and the Taos Society of Artists. In the early-20th century, modern artists infused the area with a new artistic energy, followed in the 1950s by abstract artists. Today Taos supports more than 80 galleries and three museums. There are a number of organizations that support and promote the work of artists on the Taos Pueblo and in the Taos area.
66. Larger relatives of violas: CELLI.
67. "Othello" plotter: IAGO. Hand up if you can think of a more EVIL Shakespearean villain.
68. "While" prefix: ERST.
69. Swinton in many Wes Anderson films: TILDA. Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. Swinton has been in 5 Wes Anderson films, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, one of my favorites. Here Swinton on the film and on Anderson ...
Down:
1. Copyright page ID: ISBN.
2. Nerdy type: DWEEB.
3. "Sister Outsider" writer Audre: LORDE. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
is a collection of essential essays and speeches written by Audre
Lorde, a writer who focuses on the particulars of her identity: Black
woman, lesbian, poet, activist, cancer survivor, mother, and feminist.
4. Before, once: ERE.
5. Farthest back: REARMOST. E.g. AFT on a boat, not where 9D is.
6. Rogue artificial intelligence system in "The Terminator": SKY NET. I really didn't know much about the "Terminator Franchise" until it showed up in this puzzle. Someone please tell me this is science fiction ...
7. 17-syllable work: HAIKU. A CSO to MOE.
8. __ Arbor, Michigan: ANN. Years back I used to subscribe to the Worm Runner's Digest, founded, edited, and published by a James V. McConnell, a psychologist at ANN Arbor -- a fascinating publication about research with planaria, a species of tiny flatworms, which can be taught to "run" mazes. If you cut one in half the one without a head will grow a new one. You can even get one to grow two heads! ...
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| Planarian |
10. Taps: SPIGOTS.
11. Mischief-maker: ELF.
12. Soccer official: REF.
13. Receiving area: BAY. A BAY is distribution facility where industrial goods are received at, or shipped from. In more common parlance a BAY is any large body of water sheltered by land. Both the former and latter types of BAYS have docks. And in 1967 one of those docks inspired Otis Redding to write this song 😀 ...
18. Coin with a torch: DIME. That would be the Roosevelt DIME.
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| 10 Cents |
24. Program opened with a tap: APP.
25. Sport played on horseback: POLO. JOUSTING, Maryland's state sport wouldn't fit, but POLO is popular here as well.
26. Overused: TRITE. In crossword puzzles we call it crosswordese. I hope when you opened today's blog you didn't have to accept any cookies!
27. Lukewarm: TEPID.
28. Positive responses: YESES.
31. Grime: FILTH.
32. Rough, as a translation: LOOSE.
33. Bring on: INCUR.
34. Org. concerned with climate change: EPA.
38. Dwell (on): RUMINATE. Just don't chew your cud twice.
39. "That so?": IS IT.
40. Roundabout: INDIRECT.
43. "Almost done!": ONE TO GO. Well THIRTEEN actually.
46. Office contact no.: EXT.
48. Comparable (to): AKIN.
49. Keyboard pro: TYPIST. CODER was too short. In my generation women were often discouraged from learning to TYPE, lest they be pigeon-holed into secretarial jobs. In my case, "Personal use typing" was the only useful course I took in high school.
50. __ out a living: EKES.
52. Food truck fare: TACOS.
53. Sing like a bird: TRILL. Here is violinist Itzhak Perlman playing the 4th movement of Giuseppi Tartini's Violin Sonata in G minor, popularly known as The Devil's TRILL ...
54. Give: YIELD.
58. Home to more than half of the world's population: ASIA. Also frequently living in crossword puzzles. We never get clues for where the other half lives.
59. "Criminal Minds" org.: FBI. Criminal Minds is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020, but it was revived in 2022. It follows a group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), using behavioral analysis and profiling to investigate crimes and find the unsub (unknown subject), the team's term for perpetrators. The show tells the story of the team as they work various cases and tackle their personal struggles.
60. Nest egg letters: IRA.
61. Purse: BAG. Just last week we started taking our own BAGS to buy groceries, as Baltimore County is now charging 5 cents a pop for every bag the grocer must supply.
62. Train unit: CAR.
63. Camping apparel retailer: REI. Recreational Equipment, Inc., doing business as REI,
is an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation. It
is organized as a consumers' co-operative. REI sells camping gear,
hiking, climbing, cycling, water, running, fitness, snow, travel
equipment, and men, women and kids clothing. It also offers services
such as outdoor-oriented vacations and courses.
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
Postlude to last week -- Some of this was covered in a comment Nina (inanehiker) made last week, but as this had already been written by then, and it is tangentially related to today's theme 😀 ...
So what brought Nina to D.C. on October 26? She didn't come specifically to see Teri and I, but rather to attend the *Marine Corps Marathon, which her husband and one of her sons
were both running in on October 29. Nina was flying out separately
and arriving few days early so she reached out to us to see if we could
meet. Which we could, and so the three of us had a wonderful time
visiting the National Gallery of Art and getting to know one another. And the icing on the cake was that my son and his nephew
also happened to be running in the Marine Corps Marathon! And all
four finished! Here's my son's medallion. He said it was heavy ...
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| Andrew Altman Sr. Marine Marathon 2023 |
55 comments:
Well, this puzzle had its challenges, but on the whole I found it fair and sussable. One thing that helped with the solve was that all of the themed answers were well-known expressions, including the last one, which I doubt gave many people here much trouble, with all the computer whizzes, teachers and engineers who populate this site. I also appreciate the explanation of the reveal that our esteemed moderator gave us, as I was wondering why I didn’t see “triple e’s” in the themed answers. Now I understand (I think). Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Yay, a themeless Thursday. Many answers weren't obvious, but they eventually fell. Just right for a late-week offering. Thanx, Alexander, waseeley, and Teri.
KANE -- The professor of my college film history course thought this was probably the greatest film of all time, due to the numerous innovations that Welles created. For example, he insisted on rushing the film processing for the newsreel sequences, so they'd have spots and streaks, like authentic newsreel footage.
Criminal Minds -- Mandy Patinkin was one of the original stars of the series, but quit after two seasons because he was uncomfortable with the violence of the series.
TAOS -- We were intrigued by the black pottery we saw when we visited there. One of the potters said the secret was horse manure that was used during the firing process. Maybe waseeley can confirm or deny that story.
Makes absolutely no sense and neither does the explanation
D-O @5:41 AM You're close on the black on black pottery of the Southwest. It was fired with dried cow manure -- I suppose horse manure was used occasionally, but I think the former was more plentiful in the desert. The process was is pretty simple -- dig a shallow pit in the ground, fill it with coil built "greenware" (dried clay pots); stack lots of dung around it; and light the dung. When the fire burns down and cools off clean off the pot and burnish the parts of the design you want to be shiny with the back of a spoon. I suppose this technique has been around for centuries, but it was burnished to perfection by potter Maria Martinez from the San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico Here's one of her works. I found another image of one of her pots on the net, selling for $14,000. Unfortunately I couldn't get a link to it.
Anonymous @6:31 AM Sorry, I'll give it another shot -- the long E sound (as in Bee the insect) can be produced by the letters E, Y, and I. Each of the themers had 3 words with one of these letters pronounced as a long E.
Anonymous @6:56 AM BTW, the title I gave the puzzle AN EERIE THEME, also has 3 long E sounds, in this cause all produced by the letter E.
Here's the link to Cropped Tees, David Alfred Bywater's bi-monthly puzzle. He has this to say about it: Here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender we always conform our dress to the eternal and universal rules of etiquette. We wear morning coats, evening gowns, dinner jackets, party frocks, top hats, white ties, and tails—whatever is appropriate to the time of day, the season of the year, the nature of the occasion, etc. Never, ever do we wear “tees,” cropped or otherwise. But our consumer research department advises us that we need to appeal to a broader demographic—to the vile habits, undeveloped tastes, uninformed opinions, and appalling manners of the vulgar multitude. So today’s puzzle includes allusions not only to the informal dress but also to various of the other things—musical, literary, etc.—which that multitude is said to enjoy. Very topical -- he must be a regular reader of the Corner Comments section.
This is one of those puzzles that I am thankful for the blog. I solved it but need to come here to get the explanation of the theme with TRIPOLI.
I have seen clips several times but never watched "Citizen KANE" all the way through.
I do enjoy the quirkiness of Wes Anderson Movies, he has favorite actors like TILDA Swinton that often pop up in his films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWLY6NrS2Q
Thanks Bill & Teri- that was quite a day for the marathoners! and to Alexander for the creative puzzle!
FIR. The theme seemed a bit of a stretch for me but the CW was quite doable. This despite proper name answers like Lorde and Tilda. Why not just clue "my favorite poet" or "my favorite actress"? I know, "the last book I read"! Can we just guess? Sheesh!
Good Morning:
After solving the puzzle and reading the explanation of the theme, Thumper and I are retiring to a more idler room to recover from splitting headaches.
Bill, your write-up, links, photos, etc. were top-notch, as usual, so thank you and Teri for your time and efforts.
DO @ 5:41 ~ I stopped watching Criminal Minds for the same reason as Mandy Patinkin, shortly after Mandy left the show. Joe Mantegna is a fine actor, but Mandy was irreplaceable, IMO.
Monkey, see Lucina's post at 12:33 last night.
Lucina, thanks for your reply and enjoy The Lincoln Lawyer, I loved it.
Have a great day.
FIR, erasing swear for SWORE (tense, Jinx!), imp for ELF, eked for EKES (ok Jinx, no way to know the tense from the clue.) SWAGged SHAH x SKYNET.
Today is:
MICROTIA AWARENESS DAY (the birth defect that causes small ears – first I’ve heard of it)
WORLD ADOPTION DAY (no, you can’t adopt a world. This day encourages adoptees to share their stories.)
NATIONAL SCRAPPLE DAY (OK, I’ve tried it. Moving on…)
WORLD FREEDOM DAY (commemorates the fall of the Berlin Wall)
Hand up for wanting Moeku at first.
I've replaced a couple of IDLER arms, but this context is a nose wrinkler.
Anyone else want bow sprit before HEADSAIL?
If you can't be an athlete, at least you can be an athletic supporter.
Thanks to Alexander for the challenge, that to me looked unsolvable at first. And thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the fun review. I got the theme after reading the second explanation. And thanks to the DAB reminder and quote. Sounds like DAB would have made a sterling Charles Emerson Winchester of M*A*S*H fame.
.. and this is another CSO to -T who IIRC once developed a computer program to compute the Fibonacci sequence to an arbitrary length.
WHAT LANGUAGE IS THIS?
I didn't understand the TRIPLE "E" sound theme even in the explanation until coming here to the comment. If anyone got any answers from the "hint" of the theme, I'll be amazed.
Is FIBONACCI SERIES a correct term? I have only heard it called the FIBONACCI SEQUENCE but obviously that didn't fit and SERIES became obvious.
Pretty easy one today, with the perps giving me the unknown (to me) LORDE, SHAH, and enough to get LOCO and ELF. I only got hung up on TEDX/EXT. EXT should have been easy but I had to step through each letter until the X ended the puzzle for me.
Anthony Gael Moral 8:43 AM You'll have to ask him. IIRC he wrote it many years back.
Whiner @8:46 AM I agree. It's definitely what I call a "type 2" theme: you use the puzzle to figure out the reveal, not vice versa. Such themes BTW are sort of like the clues in cryptic crossword puzzles: once you figure out which of the several possible meanings to use for the clue, the fill becomes obvious.
This puzzle reinforced my suspicion that constructors are running out of sensible themes.
Other than that, the puzzle was a breeze.
FIR in a puzzle with Math!! If Saturday puzzles had themes todays woulda been one of ‘em
Inkovers: tweet/TRILL, asin/AKIN, Isee/ISIT,
Why not make IDLER a noun answer? the klue was klunky “I’m IDLER than you” doesn’t sit right. Knew I’d never parse a first name for the Taj Mahal guy. Luckily it was his title SHAH cuz I didn’t remember SKYNET and was wavering between HEAD and LEAD SAIL . TRIPOLI (Gr: “three cities”)
FILTH is a bit hyperbolic for “grime”
“In loco parentis” I believe means Your folks are crazy?… TACOS! again??, how about a nice burrito today instead
They put the first ever ROUNDABOUT on our main thoroughfare about 10 years ago where 4 streets converged at confusing angles. You’d think they had burned down a church there was such an uproar until local drivers figured out how to YIELD etc with now a smooth flow of traffic and 3 traffic lights eliminated.
“Farthest back” ….was expecting a superlative that ended in “est”
With most currencies each coin gets larger as its value increases but a DIME is smaller in size than a nickel and even a penny. Something to do with value of the metal by weight.
Request at a TACO stand…..”ONETOGO”
Love to hear the birdies sing: The ____ of it all…. TRILL
Wonder what a cow _____ about while she chews her cud….RUMINATES
Have been doing battle this AM with our Whirlpool washer “locks” and “errors codes” armed with You tube videos and Google suggestions but the washer is winning. 🙄
Ray - O @9:32 AM Our washer started growling at us a few months back and we threw in the towel and got a new one. 😁
Tough Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Alexander, and waseeley and Teri.
I saw the Triple E theme sound early in the solve, but FIWed.
I had Lead SAIL instead of HEAD (I knew Jinx would know it) and didn’t know the difference between Shal and SHAH. (Agra is our usual Taj Mahal fill)
And I see that I mistakenly filled Poem instead of POET, thus messing up SKYNET. Careless reading of the referential 29A clue.
IDLER seemed a little meh IMO.
I tried Remotest before REARMOST perped.
The blank in the clue for 50D gave no inkling of the tense required. Perps finally changed my Eked to EKES. (See my FIBONACCI comment below re Accudent)
I changed ISSN to ISBN. I’m not sure that the clue asked for one over the other. Can anyone comment ?
The more common FIBONACCI sequence would not fit the grid, and would not have had the third E sound. SERIES was a compromise IMO. I suspect Alexander is a computer Engineering DWEEB who is more familiar with this mathematical concept.
(I had to parse correctly as I was seeing Accident in the letters that I had perped.)
I had some Canadian disadvantage today with the American camping apparel retailer - we have MEC and I can never remember REI. Then an American dime and quarter appeared. Our Canadian dime has the Bluenose schooner (is that a HEADSAIL on her, Jinx?). Our quarter usually has a caribou but can be used for commemorative issues. And of course all of our coins have the Queen on the front. The Royal Canadian Mint is redesigning coins to feature King Charles III.
Wishing you all a great day.
waseeley @ 9:04 - Bill, I have commented on “cryptic crosswords” before, those fiendishly difficult British innovations that give me such a feeling of triumph when I (eventually) solve one. I’m glad to find a fellow enthusiast!
Nice juicy puzzle today, not a lot of names. Theme answers were as clued, no cutsy misdirection. Liked the superlative, REARMOST, without the 'est' ending.
A math major by education, Fibonacci sequence is the accepted terminology, but series is an acceptable alternative description.
Being an adult means "Do it" when it needs doing.
Charge!
No complaints this morning, some crunch but all solvable with some effort and thought. I was close (!) to getting the theme but I couldn’t see the ee sound. Very clever and fun. Thank you Waseely for a great review.
I appreciate that there were so few proper names. Although I didn’t know TILDA, I was able to guess it. I too really like Wes Anderson movies.
I quit Criminal Minds for the same reason Patinkin did. He’s a fine actor.
IM☘️. I’ll check Lucina’s comments FLN. Thank you.
Ray-O, PA has lately become enamored with roundabouts. They have improved a number of roads where a series of traffic lights had caused traffic jams. Now the cars can keep on moving, albeit slowly, not having to stop and idle. Saves gas, too. The semi trucks have not gotten the message about 'slow'. There have been a number of overturned loads at the roundabouts when they forget about centrifugal force.
Good Morning! Well, today’s puzzle was “over my head” and I congratulate waseeley on the in depth explanation of the theme, but still over my head. Your further reveal at 6:56 helped a lot.
Alas, FIW – I See -> IS IT and As IN -> AKIN.
Hand up for EKEd – EKES. As with Jinx, no way to suss the tense from the clue. And it didn’t help that I’d never heard of the FIBONACCI SERIES.
I knowingly finished with these areas which didn’t jive, and in retrospect, I could have gone back to maybe work it out, but I was done, bah!
1A: Less occupied. IDLER seemed a stretch. I was trying to go with it in terms of density, but the perps came around to get the correct fill.
My favorite clue was “Fetch player.” It brought up fond memories.
Thanks, Bill & Teri.
Ok, I should have read you all before posting my comments.
We can all agree with IM on that “more idler room”!
Whiner- Be amazed. Why did TRIPOLI meaning Triple E seem so obvious to me today but not to others? Who knows! I noticed the double F and T on the first two themers and was thinking at first of a doubles theme. That might have made the jump to Triple easier.
You beat me to commenting on sequence vs series. We await AnonT’s comments.
Jinx- Bow sprit! LOL, I couldn’t even get Lead sail (Ray-o too). I see that you agree about the clue for EKED.
Ray-o and waseeley- your comments on new washers (with computer controls) are making me worried about my new choices now that my 42 year old Maytag washer and dryer (with dial controls) are probably in their palliative stage. Repairman says that new ones are lucky to last ten years.
If you visit the Jumble Hints blog, OMK treats us to a daily haiku containing all the Jumble words. He kindly gave me a tutorial last evening.
JumbleHintsBlogYesterday
Yes, bowsprit b/4 headsail...
Learning moment (fabnowhaccicallit?)
I had no idea it was used by nature, fascinating!
(Thank goodness for the blog.:)
Got the theme, but never parsed the 3 E's...
Of interest (to me), 11. Mischief-maker: ELF.
Maybe now Irish Miss will stop calling me an Imp...
(Santa was purported to be an Elf you know...)
Just don't put me on a shelf...
(I prefer a pedestal, thank you...)
SG @10:08 AM Don't get me wrong on cryptics. I'm barely a noob.
CEh! 10:45 AM Make sure you have a good surge suppressor on the outlet the washer is plugged into. We had to have a new front panel installed when all the solid state circuitry got zapped on the one we just replaced (because it was growing).
CED @10:46 AM Yeah, but Santa eventually grew up. We're still waiting CED ... 🙄
Canada Eh
Curious as to your opinion of continuing the tradition (I understand there is no legal reason) of having Brit royals pix stamped on your money. I did some googling and many co-nationals would prefer notable Canadians instead.
Nope. Just not on my frequency today.
Hola!
I finished this puzzle but am still puzzled by it. The only time I heard of the FIBONACCI SERIES was in Dan Brown's book and since I am not mathematically inclined I am not curious about it.
My sisters and I visited TAOS on one of our trips and were intrigued by the artwork. The food, especially the green chile, was excellent.
TACOS. Yummmy
Round-abouts are becoming more common here and once used to them, they are easy to navigate but I still like the light signals better.
Sigh. My granddaughter was involved in an accident yesterday on her way home. Another vehicle hit her from behind and I went to pick her up. No wonder accidents happen! Traffic was bumper to bumper all across four lanes. Her little car was fragile to begin with and is now a total loss. As it turns out, after his accident, Mark bought one he doesn't like and was planning to dispose of so we shall buy it from him at a very reasonable price.
i hope you are all enjoying your day! I had trouble getting to sleep last night so I am really tired today.
Waz and Canada Eh
Unfortunately the only non-electronic washing machine is probably a 1930’s wringer model. Staying over Grams house on a Friday night in the 50’s I loved to watch her and my aunt go through the steps involved in using the wringer washer Saturday morning. They would even let me carefully put a few articles of washed clothing through the wringer mechanism flattened into the rinse tub. With eerything washed the machine hose had to be emptied into a drain in the cellar floor.
A bud is coming over to help with the You tube video suggestions. One last ditch effort before try likely in vain to find a repairman and then kick the thing to the curb. Yes I DID try unplugging It and plugging it back in!!! 🤨
Grow up?
only one word comes to mind...
This was a themeless puzzle that had a theme. Theme was definitely no help. Thanks Bill, I had no clue on this one. Puzzle was fun. Anytime you can work "Beam me up Scotty" with the "Fibonacci Series" I'm impressed. GC
A clever Thursday 🏃♀️ run. The reveal was a head scratcher but thanks to Waseeley’s two explanations it finally made sense…
Al Pacino used “ In Loco Parentis” , to save Chris O’Donnell from the malevolent headmaster of Baird school in Scent of a Woman.
Megan Rapinoe is married to Sue Bird of WNBA fame.
Thanks Alexander, Bill, and Teri……kkFlorida
Took me two times reading the explanation before I understood the revealer. The puzzle was not that hard. But I don't find this revealer to be that interesting. I could enjoy the puzzle as themeless just as well.
CED - now THAT'S the sp(i)rit!
C-Eh, thanks to piquing my interest in the Bluenose. She was built to win the International Fishermen’s Cup Race, a regatta created as the working man's America's Cup. Bluenose was designed with three sails forward of the fore mast, starting with the jib topsail, then the jib, followed by the fore staysail. All are HEADSAILs, which includes any sail set forward of the foremast.
Bluenose dominated challengers from the United States throughout the 1920s and 30s, which kinda explains why this American sailor had not heard of that fabulous fishing vessel.
waseeley and Ray-o - thanks for the heads up re new washers/dryers
Ray-o - I lean to the monarchist side because of my British ancestry. I have no problem with having King Charles on the coins, especially since they are in currency for such a long time. We do have notable Canadians on some of our newer bills (Queen is on $20 bill) and that is fine with me also. I believe a $20 bill with Charles on it is in the works.
But many people are apathetic about the monarchy, especially now that the Queen is gone. Québécois are generally anti- monarchy.
But it is a constitutional nightmare to abolish the monarchy, requiring the agreement of all ten provinces, House of Commons and Senate.
Lucina- glad your granddaughter is ok. Cars can be replaced.
Belated CSO to C-Moe. You were the first person I thought of when I read 7D – fill shoulda been MOE-KU!!
CanadianEh! Don’t despair – there are choices (always a good thing!). Basic model washers are still available. I was not happy with my former Maytag front-loader and when the seal and door latch finally broke, I was happy to return to a top-loader basic model Kenmore.
Happy to see that both of my red flags in this puzzle have been discussed ad nauseum:
That BEAM ME UP SCOTTY is not an actual thing.
That it is the FIBONACCI SEQUENCE.
A sequence is defined as an arrangement of numbers in a particular order. A SERIES is defined as the sum of the elements of a sequence. They really are two different things.
Perhaps it could have been clued with the caveat "incorrect term for..."
Crosses of SKYNET/SHAH/HEAD SAIL unfair. Hand up had LEAD SAIL which seemed sensible.
From Yesterday:
Charlie Echo Thanks for validating that the clue/answer for the theme UPPER ATMOSPHERE as a place for SPACE STATIONS was simply wrong.
By coincidence, the talk at our Science and Engineering Council yesterday was about orbital space debris and the threat it poses to our entire civilization. Given our dependence on satellites.
Regarding ROUNDABOUTs, they are meat grinders for humans not inside a steel cage.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW with my lone mistake at the intersection of POET and SKYNET. For some reason I put in POEM; SKYNEM or SKYNET, either one would've been a WAG
FWIW, I solved tomorrow's crossword in almost 5 fewer minutes than today's ... if it provides any of you additional hope!
Yes, I did notice the HAIKU in 7-down; thanks for the SO
Another SO appeared at 55-across (TIN) for our ERSTwhile poster from the Tampa BAY area. I trust he is still among the living. I emailed him quite a while ago and never got a reply. He was a NEAT guy (liked his drinks without ICE)
See all y'all on the blog tomorrow
CED @12:13 PM ROTFL 😂
idler bad
CED @ 10:46 ~ I had to change Imp to Elf but they're both associated with Mischief, so both suit you to a T! Personally, you're more like Dennis The Menace than one of Santa's industrious Elves, though. Your 12:13 link proves that! 🤣
Waseeley~ Doing a fine job introducing this Liebeskind PZL...
Weird of me not to notice the repeating "ee" sounds--and I used to teach phonetics!
Silly Department: Does anybody else use "HERE KITTY KITTY" to call a pet other than a cat?
I use it sometimes to call our new little Yorkie. It is easy to say/yell, and fun to repeat.
And Penny doesn't seem to know the difference!
~ OMK
____________
DR: Just one diagonal today, on the far side.
It lacks vowels (just 2), so is a poor candidate for anagramming.
But I can offer a holdover from the past. I was too late to the game to post yesterday, but here it is, the anagram (12 of 15 letters) based on the central diagonal of the three on the far side from yesterday.
(It is worth posting, even late, as an antidote to the prevailing cheeriness of web blogs. It is NOT aimed at any one person, just to be taken as a balancing message.) ...
"DAMN OPTIMIST"!
I enjoyed (and understood) the theme and also enjoyed solving some of the rest of the puzzle. My nose wrinkled big time at IDLER and FIBONACCCI SERIES. (I'm certainly familiar with IDLER wheels.) I think the only connection between the answer RINK and the clue for it rests on the mere fact that the clue has the word "ice" in it.
The discussion about ION and what happens to hair reminds me about that Bichon Frisé we had in a puzzle not long ago. I always think of "frizzy" when I see that word frisé.
I watched Citizen Kane and fell asleep several times throughout. I guess I just don't recognize greatness when I see it.
Lucina, sorry your granddaughter got rear-ended. I'm glad she's all right.
Good wishes to you all.
Canadian Eh and Jayce
Thank you for your thoughtful wishes for my granddaughter. I am sure she will recover emotionally. I am just so glad her son was not with her though he is, of course, always strapped into his seat belt. I don't know if I mentioned that the other driver was cited.
Lucina.So glad your granddaughter daughter is alright. Even though it’s always a chore to have to deal with the consequences of an event that was not your fault.
Many years ago I was in heavy traffic and the car in front of me stopped suddenly, so I did too and so did the car behind me but the one behind him didn’t stop and that started a chain reaction bang, bang, bang. My lovely yellow Corvair was kaput. All I suffered was whiplash that lasted a few days. Thank goodness traffic was slow enough no one was seriously hurt. And of course the culprit had no insurance.
Oops. That should be just granddaughter.
Re: Roundabouts. IMHO they are best when the majority of traffic is from just one direction to only another one; where there is a multiplicity of entering and departing lanes it's chaotic ... think of those vast roundabouts in European or Indian cities.
Michael @8:16 PM When my son and I were in Harbin, China (think Detroit) to adopt my grandson, the adoption services provided us with a van and this incredible Chinese driver named Soong. We'd get to a 6 lane ROUNDABOUT, and he would make sharp left into the outer lane, zip to the innermost lane, zip around to the other side, make a sharp right to the exit lane and we'd be on our way. Soong was a miracle driver!
When I got the puzzle, in the early hours this morning, I was most fascinated by the name of the constructor ... Alexander Liebeskind.
Although I never studied German, I somehow knew that 'Liebes' either means Love, or Dear , or Living (?), and 'kind' would be a child or children, as in Kinder-garden etc. ...
I just found out, thru Google, that Liebes-Kind means 'Dear Child' and is a thriller series of German fiction, which is available on Netflix...
Thank You Alex for a very nice puzzle, which I enjoyed, and could suss out most of the answers. When I got to the central theme answer ... TRIPOLI, I figured it had to do with the fact that each of the long answers ... had three sets of double repeating letters ...
.... altho HERE KITTY KITTY ..has 6 sets of double letters ...
But, I didn't wait to count too much ... I thought POLI in Latin or some such language meant a repeating letter or consonant or something similar.
The fact that it could be parsed as Triple E ... as a vocalization, never occurred to me.
Thank You Waseely and Teri for your cogent explanations and many interesting links.
I too, thought of Chairman Moe on HAIKU, and of Anon-T on the Fibonacci Series or Sequence,because he had discussed this in a post about a month ago. The series or sequence is one of the simplest ones in math, and I remember that my eldest daughter studied this in the 4th or 5th grade,1990?, and we even bought a T-shirt for her, with this series printed on it, like an inverted pyramid.
I was not familiar with LORDE or SKYNET or HEADSAIL but managed to stumble through to them.
BTW, SHAH JAHAN , literally means 'Emperor of the World/Universe'... This was a self given title, that he chose for his biography to be written ... the 'Shah Jahan Nama' ... written by his group of biographers ( and sycophants ....). His given name was Khurram.
Although he is most well known for the Taj Mahal, he was not otherwise a great general or administrator. His father and grandfather had done most of the work to consolidate a grand kingdom and empire ... he merely enjoyed the benefits, and he and his son Aurangjeb, slowly ran it into the ground ...
His last 7 years were rather painful ones ... some modern medical specialists speculate that he either suffered from serious gout or an enlarged prostate, and his genitourinary system gave him a lot of problems.
Have a great day, tomorrow, all you folks.
Without getting into TMI, I have to mention that although the reverse side of the FDR Dime ( 1946- 1964 ) is a torch,an Olive branch and an Oak branch, ....
.... the earlier Dime, the so called Mercury Dime,( 1916 - 1945 ), ... had the reverse of a Fasces and a olive branch wrapped around it...
A fasces is a bundle of wooden rods, tied around an axe, and and was carried in a parade or procession. And it symbolises magestrarial authority, since the ancient Roman times....***
BTW, the apparent lack, or timely availability, of fasces as climbing material (for ladders -
), was one of the main causes of the loss of the war by british troops of the Battle of New Orleans ( 1815) .... Read the Wikipedia about the battle for more details ...
*** I learnt this while reading up on collecting american coins, about 30 years ago, when the dimes could be bought for about a quarter apiece... and silver was still $3 per fine oz.
Hi All!
Thanks for the puzzle Alexander. I enjoyed the themers but had no idea how they actually "tied" together. Fun nevertheless.
Thanks waseeley for 'splainin' the theme & another detailed expo. I always wonder if you & JzB have all that in your head or how many hours of research is needed.
Note: My formula would, for any number, tell you a) if it is a Fibonacci number and, if it is b) which n in Fn the number is. I wrote a program to prove my formula (a formal proof was beyond my HS math :-))
AnthonyGael - I think I wrote it in FORTRAN 80.
WOs: imp->ELF, APEs, FIBONACCI SEquen... oops.
ESPs: LORDE, LOCO (as clued)
Fav: FIBONACCI
SKY NET? I, for one, welcome our Robot Overlords. //you have to say that 'cuz they'll read us in the future ;-)
Lucina - Sorry to hear about your Grand. Watch her over the next day or so. I got side-swiped and it took about 15 hours before my back locked up :-(
Glad she's OK.
It's late and I need sleep.
Cheers!, -T
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