FLAME ON~!
A Marvel Comics theme with the long(ish) Across fills referring to the "super-powers" of the four members of the reveal "Fantastic" group - here's the Wiki.
I must apologize in advance to everyone here at the blog who is a
massive comic book and/or Marvel / DC Comics movies fan - it's just not my
"THING" (get it~?) I grew up with Star Wars, and those movies, toys
& action figures. I did actually see the Fantastic Four movie
released in 2005 ,
but the "THING" I don't much care for is the never-ending
"remakes" and rebranding of comic book superheroes - including Batman, Iron Man, Spiderman, etc.
- Fantastic Four came out again in 2015 ( and for the truly hard-core,
there was a 1994 movie as well ). The "THING" is, part of the reason
for my apathy - and this is a consequence of Star Wars - is that the
movies are SO overdone with CGI that it's all just a blur to me....
19. Economic metaphor coined by Adam Smith: INVISIBLE HAND - Sue Storm-Richards, who can turn invisible and generate force fields
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28. Gawk: RUBBERNECK - Reed Richards, able to 'stretch' to incredible proportions
38. Hurry, with "it": HOTFOOT - Johnny Storm, who has the ability to become the "Human Torch"
46. Lowest of lows: ROCK BOTTOM - Ben Grimm, with skin of stone
54. Superhero team with the physical features of 19-, 28-, 38-, and 46-Across: FANTASTIC FOUR
ACROSS:
1. Halts: CEASES
7. Loops in via email: CCs - a subtle shout-out to our blog creator - as to our "challenge", I had my first personal training session last Friday, and another on Sunday - ooof....
10. Muslim cleric: IMAM
14. "Dear Prudence" offering: ADVICE
15. Circle of life?: TREE RING
18. New word for something old: RETRONYM - Spell-check doesn't like it, but it makes sense to me
21. Crow's-nest call: "AHOY~!" - I had "LAND" to start; crossing LDS at 20D. - Bzzzt~!
33. Cantina dip: SALSA - Star Wars had a cantina
35. Hence: ERGO - THUS fit too, but didn't gibe
36. "Leave the World Behind" actor Mahershala: ALI - filled via perps; never read the clue until I wrote the blog
41. Hydroelectric facility: DAM
42. Ore-__ Tater Tots: IDA
43. Years during Caesar's reign: ANNI
50. Some Dada works: ARPS - learned from doing crosswords; Jean Arp, artist of the Dada movement
51. "Manhattan Beach" novelist Jennifer: EGAN - no clue, filled via perps
52. Ranch newborn: FOAL
62. Hawaiian treat similar to a snow cone: SHAVE ICE
64. Mellow: SEDATE
65. "Until we meet again": "FAREWELL"
67. Pieces de resistance?: OHMS - har-har
69. States definitively: SAYS SO - "sand" being a problem for the Fantastic Four and Darth Vader - this article "says so"
DOWN:
1. "Pretty please?": "CAN I~?"
2. Genesis paradise: EDEN
3. Tel __, Israel: AVIV - crossword staple
4. Gorillas, e.g.: SIMIANS
5. Net funds: eCASH - as in interNET
6. Ranking: SENIOR
7. Corner PC key: CTRL
8. One of Canada's First Nations: CREE
9. "An American Pickle" star Rogen: SETH - about the only proper name I did know
10. Like some transfers: IRON-ON
11. Telepath: MIND READER - how 'bout a Blue Öyster Cult interlude~? - the "THING" is, it's got a bit of a 'superhero' flair to it....
12. Whichever: ANY
16. Big Band __: ERA
20. Mormon sch.: BYU - Dah~! Brigham Young University. For some reason, I went with Latter Day Saints
23. Letter-shaped vise: C-CLAMP - I like answers like this, with the opening "C-C" ( shout out ) as sort of misleading; I thought I had something wrong
24. Pinches pennies: SKIMP
26. Cuddly companion: LAPDOG
27. Source of some wool: ALPACA FARM
29. Suit: BEFIT - ah, the verb
30. "Dude!": "BRO~!"
31. Self-importance: EGO
32. Decomposes: ROTS
39. Artist Yoko: ONO
40. Minecraft explosive: TNT
45. Part-timer's work period, perhaps: HALF-DAY - ah, but which half~?
47. Rapscallions: KNAVES
48. Many times, poetically: OFT
49. Felipe Alou's outfielder son: MOISES - learned by doing crosswords
55. State-of-the-art: NEW
56. Deadlocked: TIED
57. Women's Rights Project org.: ACLU
58. Actress Ward: SELA - I know her from the movie "The Fugitive", and TV's "House, M.D."
59. Feedbag grains: OATS
60. Versatile vehicles, for short: UTES - crossword staple
61. Start afresh: REDO
62. Bay Area airport letters: SFO - I went looking for an explanation for the "O" at the end, but no revelations there; I did, however, see that a plane crashed on my birthday in 1937 - the Wiki
63. "As if!": "HAH~!"
Splynter
39 comments:
Ah, my misspent yute as an avid comic book reader stood me in good stead with this one, as “Fantastic Four” leaped out at me right away for the reveal. I hope those of you who did not spend time in this way were able to get it, too, but it might have been more difficult for you! Anyway, the rest of the puzzle did not strike me as all that difficult. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
D-o could not name the FANTASTIC FOUR, so the reveal provided no revelation. Michael must've needed the Hawaiian twist to handle that missing D in SHAVEICE. SHEMP was a gimme. When we moved up here to redneck land 17 years ago, we brought three kittens with us: Moe, Shemp, and Curly. Of that trio only Moe remains, and she's on her way out the door. Oh, the puzzle... No Wite-Out was required this morning. Everything came together quickly. Thanx, Michael and Splynter.
FIR, but erased StEMP.
Today is:
BEER CAN APPRECIATION DAY (the old steel beer cans made better shooting targets. They would jump and ping when you hit them. You don’t even know whether you hit the flimsy aluminum ones unless you look at them up close. As Joni sang, “don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?”
NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER DAY (if I have an open jar of crunchy, I’ll snack on it teaspoon-by-teaspoon, day after day, until the jar is empty)
LIBRARY SHELFIE DAY (arrange your collection on a shelf and take a picture. Post it on social media. I have been accused of being shelfish, or something like that)
NATIONAL COMPLIMENT DAY (brighten someone's day, and give credit for a job well done)
Kinda a retro-shout-out to the telco industry with CCS (hundred call-seconds) and ROTS (rotary out-trunk secondary.)
My 6th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats will be lower when the new rankings come out Monday, having lost to the unranked SC Gamecocks last night. UK has two SENIORs who play.
I'm the right age (ripe old) to appreciate superhero comics, but I never got into them. I was more of an Archie guy.
Thanks to Michael for the job well done, and to Splynter for 'splain' it all so well.
Jinx in Norfolk
I was a Telco traffic engineer back in the 70s and used CCS data from a TDR (Traffic Data Recorder) to provision interoffice trunk requirements. SNET 1965-1998
Good Morning:
Not knowing Invisible Hand didn't help nor hinder the solve because I didn't know Fantastic Four, either. In fact, until Splynter's expo, I thought the physical feature part of the clue referred to the body part in the answer, i.e., Hand, Neck, Foot, and Bottom. So much for my knowledge about Action Heroes! No unknowns today and only one w/o, Serene/Sedate. Dua Lupa is appearing almost as frequently as Rite Ora, thanks to their vowel-friendly names. Rapscallions is a fun word, sort of evoking sophisticated Imps. (Hi, CEH!) Props for some fresh and lively fill and an enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Michael, and thanks, Splynter, for enlightening me about the correct theme. The organ replacement endeavor sounds daunting and overwhelmingly difficult. When and how did you acquire the necessary skills for this type of craftsmanship? It seems so specialized from the other areas of your expertise.
FLN
PK, hope your water and cable issues are resolved quickly.
Have a great day.
Mea Culpa, CEH, we know you're not an Imp. CED holds that title! 🫢
Took 4:57 today for me to end the Doom.
Didn't see the theme. Ms. Irish Miss's theme makes more sense to me though.
I knew today's actress (Sela Ward). I didn't know/remember: anni, ppp, Moises, MGM, & Neiman.
Good Morning! A bit of a challenge in a good way. Thanks, Michael.
My CSO to CC (7A) & CanadianEh (8D)
I’ll add my nit that the “ppp” clue should have indicated it was an abbreviation.
WOs: palm -> MIND READER; hop on it -> HOTFOOT; ATVs -> UTES (what’s the diff?)
Thanks, Splynter. I share your thoughts RE: comic book “heroes” Not my “thing” either, but the theme fills were pretty gettable.
FIW. I found this a little crunchy for a Wednesday. I'm not a comic book fan, but the theme and the answers weren't that difficult to suss out.
My downfall was the SW. I just couldn't see ohms and hah escaped me.
FIR
Thanks, Michael and Splynter.
What's the big deal?
Gone!
I assume SFO is for San FranciscO. Kind of like some crossword answers (not any from today), where it's an somewhat arbitrary abbreviation. At least they didn't get stuck with SUX like SioUX city did.
I didn't think much of CAN I being the answer to "Pretty Please?" but the perps made it clear it was.
I got hung up in the NE corner because I didn't know RETRONYM (even though the perps should have solved it for me) and for some reason thought "Circle of Life?" would start with THE. So I was staring at THE E RING and wondering how that made any sense before I realized the First Nation must be CREE. My difficulties were all on me.
Did not know ALI, PPP, ARPS or EGAN at all, but since the perps gave those so I can't whine about them. I'll go further and call this a very good crossword with a theme I enjoyed, even though I don't follow the FANTASTIC FOUR that much.
I knew MOISES would give some non-baseball followers issues. He's the guy who glared at Bartman for reaching out to catch a foul ball Alou was going to catch in a key 2003 NLCS game. The Cubs looked almost certain to make the World Series at that point, but the team seemed to use the incident to fall apart and blow the lead in that game, and lost game 7 the next day. Bartman was vilified but when the Cubs finally won it all in 2016 everyone seemed to forgive him, and the team even gave him a championship ring for all the abuse he took over the years. The players always acknowledged that they blew the game, not Bartman.
BobB - So you are intimately familiar with those Poisson tables. (What a great Saturday fill.)
BTW - I really upset our traffic engineering dept when I suggested that we provision all trunks between digital offices as 2-way, and activate entire digroups (24 channels.) That would greatly reduce their workload, and, they thought, their importance. My point was why would we want to lose .01 or .001 BH calls, when we could lose none without extra cost. I also didn't want to be the equipment engineer who had to tell the utility commission we weren't doing so.
GTE/Verizon 1970-1972, 1977-2001
Jinx, "poisson tables?" Methinks there's something fishy going on there.
Thought the SW had me cuz I filled ALPACAfurs not FARM but SHAVE ICE saved the day and ironically unfroze my brain. Otherwise str8forward puzzle with the usual smattering of unknown perped PNs, not exactly “facilississimo”. But there’s no denying the theme was fantastic
Inkovers : oer/OFT, primate/SIMIANS
Liked the ⚪️ of life 🌳 ring clue. RETRONYM was an easy perp-aided guess. We have a Greek restaurant in town called SYMEON’S (so the chef just might be a 🦍)
AHAB definitely needed “rehab” …. HOTFOOT: sumpth’n Moe would do to SHEMP, the rapscallion🤭
Didn’t know you were coming _____ baked you a cake….OREIDA.
Church part ____ KNAVE.
Dogs “during Cæsar’s reign”….CANI.
Happy hump day
Musings
-Turning unrelated in-the-language phrases to describe super powers was way cool.
--TREE RING: I was today’s years old when I learned how to find the age of a tree without cutting it down
-NEIMAN: is there some way you can tell which letter gets pronounced when and I is next to an E?
-RETRONYM was more fun learning today
-Kids are excited when they TOTS are for lunch that day
-Loved the OHMS cluing
-Nit pickers would argue CAN/MAY I for asking permission.
-My former student runs an ALPACCA FARM high in the Colorado Rockies and makes hats from their hair.
-I have to ask myself, is making only $80 worth it for subbing for a HALF DAY?
-I cleaned out a drawer last year and threw away a bunch of stuff that was once state-of-the-art.
-I’m sure there are UTES at BYU
-Nice job, Splynter. If I ever have an organ that needs some work…
D-O, traffic engineers use Poisson tables to determine how many devices (usually interoffice circuits, called trunks) are required to provide a specific grade of service, specified as the number of calls lost during the busiest hour of demand. We typically used one lost call in one hundred for non-revenue calls, and one lost call in one thousand for toll calls, as our standard of performance. CCS is the number of seconds of calling that are demanded during the busy hour, divided by 100. Using the number of CCS and the grade of service to be provided, the Poisson table will tell the engineer how many circuits are required.
A funtastic puzzle for those of us of the 60’s comic book superhero fare.
I have had shave ice in Hawaii and it’s a delicious treat.
Thanks Michael for a lively and fresh puzzle.
….. kkflorida
Hola!
Thanks to Michael Schlossberg and to Splynter!
This was a Wednesday whiz! It was over before I realized it! I had ENTS before ORCS and I wish I knew the difference since I never read the books.
I have been on Amtrak only once and don't know if it was the ACELA.
My Menina was not a LAPDOG, but she was a cutie and I still miss her. She was a papillon.
My three friends and I who travel together call ourselves the FANTASTIC FOUR or sometimes the Fabulous Four.
PPP filled itself and surprised me. I wasn't sure it was correct.
FAREWELL for now! Enjoy your day, everyone!
Please excuse my ignorance but I had no idea about the FANTASTIC FOUR. I saw HAND, NECK, FOOT, & BOTTOM and was thinking body parts. I am NOT a comic book and/or Marvel/DC movies fan either. Not familiar with any of them. Zilch, nada, zero.
RETRONYM- I'd never heard of it either but it fit and gave me MGM instead of RKO for 13D.
SHAVE ICE & Snow cones- in NOLA they call them Snow BALLS
DUA Lipa, SELA Ward, Mahershala ALI, SETH Rogen- only know of from Xword puzzles. But Jennifer EGAN was a complete unknown.
NEIMAN Marcus had a Christmas catalog that had ridiculous overpriced items, waiting for some fool to buy.
ALPACA- had to wait for perps to get FARM
"ppp"- if you know anything about music the clue is correct. "ff" is fortissimo and "fff" fortississimo. "mf" is mezzo forte, not mothe_...can't go there on that one.
FAREWELL- off to do my income taxes, just received the last 1099s,
The extraordinary thing is I managed to fill the theme answers and get the theme, knowing nothing about all those characters. Sometimes you luck out.
Other fills that showed up without my help: PPP, RETRONYM, E CASH.
Liked the OHMS clue. I finally learned DUA, one of those three letter words, in this case a name like IGA yesterday.
I enjoyed Splynter’s recap. All in all a great puzzle experience this morning. That makes up for the cats and dogs falling out of the sky right now.
Thank you Michael for a gimme Wednesday. As was mentioned above the theme seemed anatomical to me.
And thank you Splynter for tying the theme into the comics. But what do you read after Superman -- he could do everything as long as he watched out for Kryptonite (which I can't seem find in the Periodic Table). So if your YOB was 1937 that makes you 87. You don't look a day over 50! 😁
Only few favs, I've got an eye exam today:
15 A TREE RING. Great cartoon.
37A PPP. The clue doesn't give any indication of an abbreviation, but inserting "Piano, piano, piano" in a score would be a bit wordy. Bt then we do find it in the lyrics to this aria from the Marriage of Figaro.
44A SHEMP. One degree of separation from our Chairman MOE.
Cheers,
Bill
A fast FIR today. The nose-wrinklers perped nicely. I was into the Marvel comic books in my own mis-spent yute. Had the first issue of the Fantastic Four, and wish I had held onto it. Cost 12 cents, I think, and I gave it to my younger brother. He sold it for $800! Have to agree with Splynter on the movies, though. They leave me cold, and there are way too many of them.
Agree that "ppp" should have indicated an abbreviation. No problems with the puzzle, it was quick and easy.
BobB….
I haven’t seen SNET mentioned anywhere in years. Worked for them from 1973 to 1998 when they got bought by SBC, continued with SBC….who then bought ATT and kept the name…until they retired me in 2010. Worked IT the whole time.
Jinx, thanks for the explanation. My comment was just a weak attempt at humor. "Poisson" is "fish" in French.
D-O, IDNKT. My French is pretty much limited to "I'd like fries with my Happy Meal."
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR with a couple of checked squares that I had to choose a different letter ... the intersection of BEFIT/HOTFOOT/ANNI was one Natick; the other was an ORCS and CCLAMP
CSO to my brother in avatars, SHEMP
Thanks to Michael and Splynter for the Wednesday entertainment
I was a fan of the whole Marvel Comics cast of characters some 60 years ago ... oh but to have the original comic books now, as they would fetch a lot of $ to the right collector. But what I surmise is that the big $$ from collectors are paid only for comic books in pristine condition. As an 11-year old (60 years ago) I wasn't concerned about my comic books' condition; I read 'em and dog-eared the pages
I'm in the take-it-or-leave-it camp on superheros but I loved Michael's puzzle!! The body parts were part of the theme. The lady who is invisible has an INVISIBLE HAND. The stretchy guy has a RUBBER NECK. The guy who is on fire has a HOT FOOT. The stone buy's bum is made out of rocks so he has a ROCK BOTTOM. How clever is all that??!! Right on, Michael!
Meadow weighs 63 lbs. so she is not a LAP DOG.
Thanks for your write up today, Splynter! I always like hearing about your organ-repairing adventures. Thanks also for the John Denver song.
I liked this puzzle. Very clever theme.
My siblings and I were avid comic book fans in our youth. We bought them for 5 or 10 cents then traded with our friends. We often had stacks of them! Where are they now, I wonder?
Now I have shelves and shelves of books that I am wondering what I should do with them. I know my family will not want most of them. They are avid readers, but our tastes differ.
Speaking of books, out next book club selection is "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. It sounds intriguing and I can't wait to start it but it hasn't arrived yet.
I hope you are all staying warm. It's cool here! 61 degrees.
I don't know why my post appeared as anonymous! It's not!
Lucina
Consider donating your books to the library. They usually have an area where they display donated books for giveaway. I’ve found some great reads in those bins
Lucina, I've found a place near me that takes in used books. They give you store credits equal to 1/4 the list price, but they don't give credit for all of them. You can choose to get back the ones they don't want, or donate them to an auction they have ever month, with proceeds going to charity. There is a book dealer at a flea market I frequent that takes anything on his list of authors, which numbers into the 100s. I'm not sure what he pays, but I think it's about $1 per book. Still better than throwing them into the dumpster. I'll bet there are things like that in The Valley of the Sun, but I was too busy working and getting my MBA to do any recreational reading when I lived there.
I have thought about donating my old books to one of the big charities like Goodwill or Salvation Army (or Meals on Wheels), but they aren't as handy to where I live.
I've kinda gotten hooked on my Kindle and Libby, so I don't know what I'm going to do with my holdings.
Wednesday workout. Thanks for the fun, Michael and Splynter.
Not being into those FANTASTIC FOUR, I missed the theme but it didn’t really matter.
But I FIWed twice with silly errors. Like Lucina, I had Ents before ORCS, and never got the T corrected to C for the CLAMP.
Plus I had IMAN (ok, she’s the model) instead of IMAM, and thus (ERGO) had no idea about the NG? Movie studio or RETRONY?
Ah well, some days are like that!
My CSO today is not a great fit. CREE are much farther north and west of me. We have more Mohawk.
HAH, IM gave me another CSO, but then withdrew it. I LOLed at being called an Imp.
I saw ERGO crossing EGO. We almost had ANNo crossing ONO but we needed the plural ANNI.
For some reason, my Canadian brain cannot remember ACELA. But I was close with Anela and perps corrected.
Hand up for Thus before ERGO.
Did anyone else think of a Calf before FOAL on that ranch?
Wishing you all a good evening.
Yes! I originally thought of CALF but realized it wouldn't be right.
Thank you for all those suggestions on what to do with my books. I believe I'll start slowly taking them to the library to donate. I have full sets of some, like Dick Francis. I have an entire collection of his books. Also Martha Grimes and Ken Follett. Some of those I'll likely re-read before giving them up. Isabel Allende is another one whose complete set I have. And some oldies like Helen MacInnes, Micael Underwood and Edward Rutherford
Know very little about superheroes, but I managed to fill this puzzle anyway in less time than yesterday. Thanks, Michael.
Very good, thanks, Splynter. My mother & sister were organists, but a bit smaller organs than you fix. Mother just did electric organs, but prodigy sis was hired by a church in another town to play their pipe organ at age 14. I was older and had to drive her there and listen to her practice. She took lessons from their retiring organist. We both explored the pipe cabinet.
I had enough musical training to fill in PPP easily, but I didn't think of it as an abbreviation because I never learned the whole word it stood for.
Thanks, Agnes, for your good wishes. Seems to have gotten worse today before it gets better.
Ents are "good guys" that care for trees-and are trees. Orcs are the "bad guys". Ugly and mean with no redeeming social characteristics
Thanks for remembering the Bartman fiasco & my Cubbies finally "taking it all" in 2016. I cherish the memories of both situations!
C-Eh @ 4:23 invented a new entry for the DSM: RETRONY, which is widely recogized as 'An insatiable desire to return to Manhattan in mid-August.'
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