Speed needed to reach your gate~?
A
clever, double-depth theme of not just words, but 'concluding'
adjectives rephrased as nouns into a 'punny' answer; I missed the 'resulting' part until I
went to use the word 'final' in one of my comments, and thought "I'd
rather use 'last' here", and the "A-ha~!" moment occurred: see below.
I'm impressed, so I had to find an appropriate theme title, and I think I
succeeded - the answer, if you haven't guessed, is below. Several
answers brought music to my mind, and I will now share those thoughts
with you. Two ten-letter and two fourteen-letter theme answers;
odd-numbered answers always seem to be more difficult to get into a
grid, at least in my constructing experience. Here they are;
17. Spa for out-of-shape shoe forms?: LAST RESORT
33. Marking off the hours left to cram before the big exam?: FINAL COUNTDOWN - the first musical interlude
41. Home-buyer's day-of-sale demand for a single window dressing?: CLOSING CURTAIN - I asked for nothing when I closed on my home here in CT
60. Effects of months of glute workouts?: END RESULTS - oh, so easy for me to add a raunchy photo here, but I will refrain....
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Sitcom pioneer Lucille: BALL
5. Taken __: startled: ABACK - can you be taken "A-forward~?"
10. Arthur __ Stadium: world's largest tennis venue: ASHE - crossword staple
14. "Titans" actor Morales: ESAI - crossword staple
15. __ Lama: DALAI
16. Great Basin people: UTES
19. Coffee brewing choice: DRIP - my preferred method, but I do
have a one-cup K-cup coffee maker, and since I am hosting Christmas this year, I
will suggest to my brother to bring his choice of coffee K-cups, just
to be considerate.
20. French farewell: ADIEU
"Indiana Jones, Adieu" - @ 1:18
21. __ decorator: INTERIOR
- I used to put in my dating app profile that I was looking for an
interior decorator, but now that I am the sole owner of my home, it's a
total man-cave...
23. Himalayan bovine: YAK - an oldie, 1958, before my time....
24. Word with stone or marker: MILE
26. "Right now," in texts: ATM - Hey~! A new clue for a crossword cliche - "at the moment"
27. Sit-up muscles: ABS - yesterday's theme
28. Ceiling metal: TIN - as interior decorating goes, I like the look, with the right tiles; might do this in my home - I plan on a pool table in the basement, and I like At Deco
30. Identity statement, briefly: BIO
38. Clenched hand: FIST
39. Major artery: AORTA
40. Writer Wiesel: ELIE - crossword staple
44. Animation frame: CEL
45. Commercials: ADs
46. Boat blade: OAR
47. Uru. neighbor: ARGentina
49. Spielberg film featuring a shark: JAWS
51. Answer to an addition problem: SUM
54. Wore red at a wedding, say: STOOD OUT - if it ever happens
for me again, I am totally hip to a red wedding dress ( my first
marriage was a "medieval" one - in more ways than one.... )
57. Fluffy-eared marsupial: KOALA
59. Cancel, as a check: VOID
62. __ vera: ALOE - ah, just for Hahtoolah....
63. Inbox message: EMAIL
64. Binary digit: ZERO - and - 32D. Binary digit: ONE
65. Running with scissors, e.g.: NO-NO
66. Southwestern plateaus: MESAS - another Spielberg movie
67. Muscat's country: OMAN
DOWN:
1. Secure, as a ship's line: BELAY - as I've said in the past, I start with the DOWN clues, and I didn't know this answer, so not a good start
2. Carne __: steak dish: ASADA - but I knew this one, and we were on our way~!
3. Sharper image innovation?: LASIK - and then we weren't
4. Lo-cal: LITE - and I dropped in DIET here....sigh
5. Fruit drink suffix: ADE
6. Pesto herb: BASIL
7. Independently: ALONE
8. E-commerce icon: CART
9. Toy with a string and a tail: KITE
10. Sit in on, as a class: AUDIT
11. Calzone cousin: STROMBOLI
12. Beneficiary: HEIR
13. Telepathic letters: ESP
18. Afro-Cuban dance: RUMBA
22. Tirade: RANT
25. Manhattan, e.g.: ISLAND - cocktail wouldn't fit
27. CGI creatures in a superhero film series starring Paul Rudd: ANTS
28. Tulle skirt: TU-TU
29. Lined up: IN A ROW
31. Victorious cry: "I WIN~!"
33. Nail salon tool: FILE
34. Quarantine: ISOLATION
35. Gear teeth: COGS
36. Tolkien monster: ORC
37. Beloved: DEAR
38. Media-monitoring org.: FCC - I would link Eminem here for a
musical interlude, since "the FCC" is mentioned in his rap "Without Me",
but Google for yourself....
42. Shakespearean betrayer: IAGO
43. Assignments: TASKS
48. "This isn't my first __": RODEO
49. Biblical betrayer: JUDAS - another musical interlude, this time, JUDAS Priest
50. Naturally lit courtyards: ATRIA
51. Capital of Oregon: SALEM
52. Extreme: ULTRA
53. Lawyer Perry of classic TV: MASON - another musical interlude:
54. Without help: SOLO
55. Judge to be: DEEM
56. "Lunch is __": "I'm buying": ON ME
58. Anise-flavored Greek liquor: OUZO - the "penultimate" musical interlude...
59. Vehicle with sliding side doors: VAN - I have a Dodge CaraVAN, and here's my LAST musical interlude, VAN Halen~!
61. Raised trains: ELs - <-- train, train ^
Answer: TERMINAL VELOCITY 😁
Splynter
31 comments:
Trying to remember how to spell “Stromboli” was the only thing that gave me the least little difficulty in this very sussable puzzle. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but erased ort for ORC. I'm that guy who hasn't seen/read any of the LOTR stuff.
Today is:
GINGERBREAD HOUSE DAY (wish we had this tradition when I was a kid)
NATIONAL AMBROSIA DAY (no, not the guys who sang You're the Only Woman, this is the fancy fruit salad)
NATIONAL POINSETTIA DAY (keep your pets from eating them)
NATIONAL DING-A-LING DAY (not a shout-out to Ivy League presidents, but instead encourages us to reconnect with people we once talked to often)
Can't believe that Splynter missed the opportunity to ask his date 'please don't wear red tonight.' Also that he missed Jackson Browne's ode to his FIST.
My Cousin Vinnie knew all 'bout those UTES.
Thanks to Kelly for the fun Tuesday romp, and to Splynter for the fun musical review. Loves me some gal in a red dress.
Good morning!
Caught the punny theme early on; those themers were cute. This was a nice early-week romp. Wite-Out need not apply. I'm familiar with "BELAY," from my navy days, but in a different sense. "Belay my last" means "ignore what I just said." Thanx, Kelly and super-sub, Splynter.
I was feeling really blah yesterday, weak, balance issues, and zero appetite. Thinking that maybe it was Covid, at 2 AM today I decided to use one of our home Covid tests. I couldn't find my glasses. One of the cats had pushed them behind the bed. No matter, I could use my computer glasses. Found the test kit with its Spanish-only instructions. No matter that I can't read Spanish. I can't read with my computer glasses, anyway. Somehow I muddled through to a negative test result. Yay. Still don't know what sort of bug it was. Definitely feeling better today.
Thank You Kelly Richardson for a nice and easy Tuesday puzzle. I had no real difficulty and the puzzle solved itself so fast, I almost didn't realize I had completed it. The punniness of the answers were pretty much over my head.
Thank you Splynter for the many musical interludes.
I've seen many copper roofs but have never seen a tin ceiling. Tin can't stand too much heat ... Aluminum would probably be a better choice ...
You all folks, have a great Tuesday, and the week ahead.
Speed run for me today too, but creative theme
I've only heard BELAY with climbing with ropes on mountains, not ships, when you have another person assisting the climber with the amount of tension
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belaying
I think TIN ceilings are beautiful restorations of older buildings for a restaurant - but I don't like how echo-ey it is and thus hard to hear.
FLN - Tony - thanks for the tip about LL Bean vs KEEN shoes - my feet rarely stink so not an issue for me - but big issue for one of my sons. I would sayI'll remember for the next time I get some - but they last so long I'm not sure when I would be getting my new ones
Thanks Splynter for subbing and Kelly for the puzzle
FIR. Definitely a lot easier than yesterday's puzzle. The theme came to me after the first two answers. This was a crossword to whiz through with ease and speed.
Took 5:07 today for me to reach the finish line.
I also thought of rock climbing with "belay." Didn't see the theme.
I knew today's actress (Ball), but always hesitate spelling Esai, ouzo, and adieu.
D-O, maybe you mistranslated and tested positive for the Spanish flue....
I enjoyed the solve. My only question is how does LAST in the first themer relate to " out of shape shoe forms"? Thanks.
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Kelly and Splynter.
I whizzed through this CW and saw the Final theme (but missed.processing the second part).
No inkblots, as I waited to confirm ATM (not the bank machine?) and the spelling of STROMBOLI (hi subgenius).
We haven’t had ELIE for so long that I had Elia, but couldn’t find a digit ending in A. Ah, I did have an inkblot!
This Canadian did not immediately know FCC or UTES, but perps were fair.
We had ABS and glute workouts, and two binary digits (plus a SUM).
Wishing you all a great day. ADIEU (an Easter Egg to the END theme?).
GJ- “ A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers in the manufacture and repair of shoes”
Thank you Canadian Eh! Another learning moment from my friends!
Yeah! FIR — something that happens less often than a blue moon. And did it in ink with no corrections. My lucky day.
Loved yesterday's theme. On a very active day, I used my brief time outs just to veg. I ended the day administering and angeling the square dance class and then dancing the regular dance for two more hours. Sorry I didn't post.
Today I am baking a second batch of those touchy cookies. My only other cookies will be pinwheels, some red and white and some green and white.
I enjoyed today's puns. I don't see the adjective noun theme, but the puns were enough.
Closing woes. I sold my house as is. When the inspector flagged a few important issues I remediated them. The buyers raised no objections at the walk through. Then they raised many nitpicky cosmetic problems that should have been obvious during the walk through. Both lawyers said no. My son says this happens all the time in his neighborhood and sellers have to swallow it.
Because belay has so many other uses, this use did not occur to me until I had three perps. Now I recognize having heard it.
In China and India, brides typically wear red for good luck. In many East Asian countries white is the color of funerals.
A shoe last is a device to insert in a shoe to maintain its shape.
Good Morning! Thanks, Kelly, for a fun puzzle. I waited to suss the theme before I filled in the "L" in BELAY. After that it was an easy ride from North to South. I appreciated this today as my stress level shoots up in the days before Christmas and my life is filled with "TO-DO" lists.
Perps for ATM as clued.
STOOD OUT: I find it so interesting the psychology and social norms of color.
Thanks, Splynter, for your recap. I never saw the underlying theme until you revealed it.
Ohhh, look at the time! Gotta run.
Musings
-I was so taken ABACK I when I learned I Love Lucy was actually filmed in California
-Oops, I thought DALAI had one of those silly silent “H’s” and didn’t check my work
-Speaking of silent “H’s”, RUMBA/RHUMBA
-Many 100+-yr-old buildings in our town have retained their original TIN ceilings
-Disney has a “morgue” full of millions of CELS and other materials under its Glendale, CA offices
-Every once in a while I saw a student who really STOOD OUT from the rest
-BELAYING on dry land
Easy day on the crossword front. No major minor glitches. FIR.
The two long 9's were nicely placed to cross three of the theme entries. There were also a minimum of three letter words today. IM should be pleased.
East is East and West is West, but they really should get together.
Hark
Splynter, I scratched my head a bit at your theme explanation, but the V8 can hit. Kelly, nice clean job with your offering. Keep up the fine work.
DO @5;47 - Thank you for the Covid test story. — it made me laugh out loud.
A fun puzzle and interesting review. Also did not know BELAY or CART but it all filled in. A red dress at a wedding will STAND OUT but so will a woman, not the bride, dressed in white. With changing customs, is that still a NO NO?
.
Fun puzzle, hated the ATM clue/answer until it was explained to me.now I love it! Very clever...
Hate tin roofs in crowded restaurants...
Loved the second puzzle, figuring out who wrote the write up!
I was sure it was Anon-T, but the music links were not his style.
I should have known it was Splynter by that awesome red dress picture...
These "pictures of the end" seem to go on forever....
Note: re: wedding dress colors.
If you ever get the chance , watch the Hindi movie "PK."
(Hard to find English sub titles, but well worth it.)
Alien visits Earth (India) gets ripped off, his ufo car keys stolen, he has to learn all about earth to get them back.
Learn8ng about wedding dress colors was hilarious! Along with everything else he "learns."
the dance scene is a favorite, and about the only scene that does not require a translation.
Sorry, but watching these clips is making me want to watch it again.
Like here, does not speak the language, needs clothes, finds "dancing car..." and finds can get food by showing picture of Dahli Lama? Very funny movie, and yet so touching, that it will make you cry near the end...
Zippy, fun FIR. Nice puzzle, and if we must have proper names, at least today they were not total obscurities. ATM as clued was new to me. Thanks for 'splaining, Splynter! (And thanks for the Blue Oyster Cult)
Splynter So glad you are back with the sexy legs and the RED WEDDING dress. I think I got the theme when it was all over, but I am still not sure if I am missing a layer.
I never knew the correct meaning of STROMBOLI. I just knew that the name of our juggling group was the STROMBOLIs.
Here I was in a newspaper promotion for a STROMBOLI Family event. And a far more impressive newspaper article about the STROMBOLI Family at the 1984 Olympics.
From Yesterday:
sumdaze Thank you for the kind words about my RICE PADDY photo and for the color explanation! In the headhunter place, they dried the RICE on the road.
Fun puzzle. Thank you, Kelly Richardson.
Splynter leads off with a rock radio station earworm, and then hits us hard with some metal deep cuts. If you had any thought he was going to link the standards, You've Got Another Thing Coming. You might as well Bark At The Moon. He's Running With The Devil. I can't see no reason to put up a fight. I'm livin' for givin' the devil his due. i.e., I'm Burnin' For You.
Enough of that silliness.
Except that after finishing the review, I read Jinx's comment about Ambrosia, which got me Holding On To Yesterday. That sent me down the YouTube rabbit hole. I Go Crazy listening to music there, until reality bites, and then its like, Baby Come Back.
I guess it is just The Spirit Of The Radio that keeps me listening.
D-O, I had a similar experience last week. No appetite, weakness in the legs, light headed, with a sense of malaise. Forced myself to eat, and then drank a lot of water. I had to lie down that early afternoon. Not sure what it was, but the next morning, I felt completely back to normal.
Lee @ 10:09, you are thinking of a shoe stretcher, AKA as a shoe tree. A shoe LAST is as Canadian Eh defined.
Yellowrocks, DW decided to add pinwheels to her assortment this year. First time. She rolled the baked cookie edges in a glazing, and then rolled the edges in a bed of crushed peppermint candy canes. Quite pretty, and tasty too!
Hi All!
Thanks, Kelly, for a clean pun puzzle. Thanks, Splynter, for stepping in with a stellar review - I dig the tunes.
WOs: how do you spell audeau? Certainly not like that.
ESPs: LAST as clued (thanks C, Eh!!), ELIE
Fav: STROMBOLI - didn't even need a perp ;-)
In his 130+yro house, Pop installed TIN ceilings in the kitchen and upstairs hallway. The kitchen ones are painted bronze and the upstairs' are painted white. Pretty classy.
In the same vein as TTP, I gotta get back to the grind... I guess that's why the call me the Working Man.
Cheers, -T
Awesome day! We have a punny puzzle and a 5-star write-up! Thanks, Kelly and Splynter! "Terminal velocity" yuk!yuk! (in the good way). Hahtoolah will appreciate your ALOE gif.
Splynter is in charge of today's Richardson PZL...
Nice theme, moderately challenging, well worked out.
My first fill in response to 63A was EMPTY. Funny, no?
~ OMK
___________
DR: Two diagonals, each to a side.
The near diag yields an anagram (12 of 15) of the thoughts of a younger brother when hearing his older bro's tutor lecturing in a juicy litcrit course on erotic novels.
"Aha," he thinks...
"LESSON CRUMBS"!
Dash T, touché !
TTP - WE ARE NOT WORTHY! Well done.
Jinx, thanks. Party on!
For a brief moment, I wondered if Dash T was changing the genre. I was thinking Hard Workin' Man. Are we going there? I mean, Thank God I'm A Country Boy. I Should've Been a Cowboy, but I Got Friends In Low Places, and I'll be Chasin' That Neon Rainbow. You know I Like Beer, but I don't want to get into T.R.O.U.B.L.E if I run into The One I Loved Back Then. :>)
Heavy metal rocker lovin' Splynter's head probably just exploded (if he looked up and listened to any of those.)
Amazon had a special on Skechers slip-ons, and I order a pair for around the house. The delivery came today. I ordered brown. The box indicated Light Brown. Inside the box, the shoes were Charcoal Gray. They were also the wrong size. They'll be returned tomorrow. I've never had an order go so very wrong.
Yellowrocks, DW wants to know what touchy cookies are. I looked back through the comments, but I couldn't find where you mentioned them. She also wanted to know if you were willing to share your recipes for those and for your pinwheels. She's not happy with her pinwheels, but I thought they were excellent.
In the sad but true department, DW just received a call from her very upset SIL. Someone stole the poinsettia flowers off of her husband's cemetery plot. Really? What kind of lowlife would steal flowers off of a grave site? And then to do what with them? To honor their deceased loved one? So sad.
C E Dave, I wanted to communicate with you by private Email, but the Email (?) in your blogger account seems to be missing... hence I have decided to communicate with you thru this very public blog.
Re:: The 'PK' movie... Director (Mr) Rajkumar Hirani,
... and Star Actor: Mr. Amir Khan.
Amir Khan has made many iconic movies ...and is one of India's 3 most famous actor/producers, and director.
1. Taarey Zameen Par ( ... Stars on Earth -) 2009 - about an autistic student...
2. Dangal ( about amateur female wrestling competitions ... ) 2016
3. Laal Singh Chaddha ( an adaptation of Forrest Gump ...) 2022
4. 3 Idiots ... 2009. about 3 classmates in college ...
and .... PK of course...
You can read details about the movies on Wiki, and most of these movies are available on Netflix, and on Amazon Prime.
Movies 2 and 4 were huge blockbuster Hits, and 3 was not very successful. 1 was very successful. Multiple songs on movie 2 are all available on Youtube.
RK Hirani, the director of PK, is also a very famous director. His latest movie ... Dunki .. starring Shah Rukh Khan, another Superstar ... is going to be released on this December 21,2023, worldwide ...
We, in our household, do not generally watch many movies, and that includes HIndi movies. However these are undeniably the cream of the crop - for mature humor and good realistic acting.
You can write to me at Vidwan827@gmail.com
C.E.D. - Dave, I just wanted to correct the misimpression that you might have had about the portrait of the old man on Indian currency notes that 'PK' deals in ... ( the 50 Rupee note is shown in the movie- PK ).
The portrait is that of Mohandas K. Gandhi, 'the father of the nation' also called Mahatma ( Great soul ) Gandhi, ...
... and not the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, and his successors, are/ is a buddhist tibetian refugee staying in exile in India, after having escaped from/ after being ousted from ( Chinese ) Tibet. He does not carry any temporal/ spiritual or political power in India.
Post a Comment