Today's constructor Billy Ouska's last visit to the Corner was on January 22, 2024 blogged by sumdaze. Today he's here to fill us in on that ever popular topic, the vicissitudes of FATE (today's Latin lesson) ...
O Fortuna!
Lyrics
(which didn't work out too well for Prometheus!)
And just like one hit wonder Carl Orff's secular cantata Carmina Burana, Billy's puzzle is all about ...
60. Reversal in luck, and what can be found in the answers to the starred clues: CHANGE OF FORTUNE. I'm sure that some in our community will be delighted that Billy doesn't circle around his fill, but gets right to the point (which I've decided to do today 😀) ...
17. *Critical juncture: POINT OF NO RETURN. In Prometheus' case it was after he had defied the gods and had given FIRE to humanity ...
27. *Record: CAPTURE ON FILM. No one was around to capture his defiance on film, but Orff later captured it in music.
46. *Online discussion site: INTERNET FORUM. Ours will begin immediately after (*the trailer to) this review.
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Surge of adrenaline: RUSH. If you really want to get your hormones up, try a little of Rush's Fly By Night (and a CSO to Tony for all of his help when I was away) ...
Click CC for lyrics
5. Regent's order: EDICT.
10. Mil. branch with wings: USAF. The United States Air Force. See also 22A.
14. Tactical political research, for short: OPPO. Prepare yourself for a blitz of it this year.
15. Birthplace of pesto: GENOA. Also the birthplace of GENOA salami ...
16. Issue at the ATM: NOTE.
17. [Theme clue]
20. [New paragraph]: ENTER.
21. "Handling that now!": I'M ON IT. This review.
22. Take to the sky: SOAR. Fly like an eagle ...
25. Friend __ friend: OF A. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
26. Midnight to midnight: DAY. 1440 is the number of minutes in a DAY; the approximate year that the printing press was invented; and a daily news site: here's what they have to say today.
27. [Theme clue]
32. Not just some: ALL.
33. Kitchen scale button: TARE. A TARE button zeros the scale to compensate for the weight of any containers used to weigh ingredients in. When weighing ceramic glaze ingredients I use a triple-beam balance with a sliding TARE weight on a separate beam to compensate for container weights.
34. Frangipani garlands: LEIS.
36. Water taxi: BOAT.
38. Longtime "One Life to Live" actress Renée __ Goldsberry: ELISE. In addition to starring as Evangeline Williamson in One Life to Live, Renée Elise Goldsberry (born January 2, 1971) also created the role Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
40. Red sign above a door: EXIT.
42. Mantis quintet: EYES. Six astonishing facts about the Praying Mantis.
44. Literary magazine contributor, perhaps: POET. As this is the 400th Anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare's First Folio I think one of his sonnets would be appropriate.
45. Status update fig.: ETA.
46. [Theme clue]
50. Fellow: MAN.
52. Tres menos dos: UNO.
53. As appropriate: DULY. I guess appropriately is close enough ...
54. Garden container?: EDGING.
56. Isaac of "Dune": OSCAR. Here's a father son talk between Duke Leto Atreides (Isaac) and his son Paul (Timothée Chalamet). Dune Part 2 will be upon us soon. I wonder if OSCAR will get an Oscar?
60. [Theme reveal]
65. Show up: COME.
66. Record company: LABEL.
67. God who took a bow: EROS. His darts can be painful and sometimes even fatal.
68. Half of all blackjacks: ACES.
69. Did half of a biathlon: SKIED.
70. "Seasons of Love" musical: RENT. Here it is ...
Down:
1. Tire swing line: ROPE.
2. Right after: UPON.
3. Doner kebab rod: SPIT. Doner kebab is a dish of Turkish origin made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cooking element. The operator uses a knife to slice thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks. The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, I guess it saves counter space in small kitchens ...
4. "No fooling!": HONEST.
5. Boosting target: EGO.
6. Dict. entry: DEF.
7. Airbnb alternative: INN.
8. Soft murmur: COO.
9. Trade hindrance: TARIFF. A TARIFF is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods.
10. Biblical preposition: UNTO.
11. Audio engineer's equipment: SOUND MIXER. A SOUND MIXER, AKA a SOUND BOARD takes multiple input signals—such as microphones, instruments, iPods, DJ turntables, etc.—and merges them together so they can be sent to speakers as one signal.
12. Heart duo: ATRIA. The atrium (plural ATRIA) is one of the two upper chambers in the heart that receives blood from the circulatory system. The blood in the atria is pumped into the heart ventricles through the atrioventricular mitral and tricuspid heart valves.
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13. Rihanna's fashion brand: FENTY. Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics brand by Rihanna, that was launched on September 8, 2017. Popular for its broad inclusivity across various skin tones, its Pro Filt'R
foundation became high-demand upon first release. The original
foundation launch included 40 shades, and has since expanded to 50. The
inclusion of Fenty Beauty concealer includes 50 shades, offering a wide
variety for all skin types.
18. Slangy britches: TROU. "Cut offs"?
19. "Inbox zero" killer: EMAIL. Inbox Zero is a rigorous approach to email management that aims to keep an inbox empty -- or almost empty -- at all times. Digital OCD?
23. Collezione della galleria: ARTE. Today's Italian lesson. No English or French ART allowed.
24. Expert: REAL PRO.
25. Top rank in a tournament: ONE SEED.
27. __ franc: CAB. Cabernet Franc is a grape varietal blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to make Bordeaux wines.
28. Plant with lace and soap varieties: ALOE. Soothe your aches and take a bath at the same time.
29. Qualifying contest, perhaps: PLAY-IN GAME. A play-in game is a game, usually played at the beginning of a tournament or just prior to the tournament depending on how the tournament is defined. In a play-in, the lowest qualifiers and/or participants who have earned conditional qualification compete for qualification to the main portion of the tournament.
30. Star-studded hunter: ORION.
31. Name sewn onto some jeans pockets: LEE.
35. In __: unmoved: SITU. In SITU (Latin) is a phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" depending on a wide variety of contexts. My father, who was a carpenter, used to build cabinets, counters, and benches "in situ" (not his term for it) -- nowadays they're brought in prefabbed and then installed. In fact today whole houses are prefabbed, trucked in, and assembled on site -- or even 3D printed! ...
37. Number of Canadian provinces: TEN. A CSO to CanadianEh! IIRC she lives in Ontario.
39. Caesar's rebuke: ET TU. I think this is a myth. Can you imagine Crossword puzzles using Roman numerals? 😁
41. Edinburgh topper: TAM. This one's for you Lucina!
43. Wounded by a jellyfish: STUNG.
47. Marx collaborator: ENGELS. Friedrich Engels (8 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, political theorist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman and Karl Marx's closest friend and collaborator. It turns out that Engels continued to work in his Father's cotton business throughout his life and used a lot of his money to support Marx -- but then they do say that "the ends justify the means".
48. __ de Mayo: Christmas orchid: FLOR. There are several "Christmas Orchids", but Billy apparently wanted this one, Cattleya trianae
49. Raw bar offering: OYSTER. My favorite bivalve. Chesapeake Bay sushi!
50. Muslim holy site: MECCA. Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. Mecca is revered in Islam as the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Visiting Mecca for the Ḥajj at least once is an obligation upon all able Muslims.
51. __ committee: AD HOC. Latin: "for this". An AD HOC committee is formed for a specific purpose and upon completion of its mission is disbanded.
55. Spanish model Sastre: INES. Inés Sastre Morató (born 21 November 1973) is a Spanish model and actress. She studied at The Sorbonne in Paris, and in addition to Spanish, she speaks French, English and Italian fluently. In 1996, Sastre succeeded Isabella Rossellini as Lancôme's spokes model for its perfume, Trésor.
57. Medical research objective: CURE.
58. Quote book abbr.: ANON.
59. Have a nap: REST.
61. Tree on the Connecticut quarter: OAK. The story of the Charter Oak.
62. CBS crime drama: FBI.
63. Service charge: FEE.
64. Played out: OLD. This review is almost played out.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
*Bonus trailer: This is a short romantic comedy called Crossword (13 minutes). We are certain you will love it!
10. Mil. branch with wings: USAF. The United States Air Force. See also 22A.
14. Tactical political research, for short: OPPO. Prepare yourself for a blitz of it this year.
15. Birthplace of pesto: GENOA. Also the birthplace of GENOA salami ...
16. Issue at the ATM: NOTE.
17. [Theme clue]
20. [New paragraph]: ENTER.
21. "Handling that now!": I'M ON IT. This review.
22. Take to the sky: SOAR. Fly like an eagle ...
25. Friend __ friend: OF A. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
26. Midnight to midnight: DAY. 1440 is the number of minutes in a DAY; the approximate year that the printing press was invented; and a daily news site: here's what they have to say today.
27. [Theme clue]
32. Not just some: ALL.
33. Kitchen scale button: TARE. A TARE button zeros the scale to compensate for the weight of any containers used to weigh ingredients in. When weighing ceramic glaze ingredients I use a triple-beam balance with a sliding TARE weight on a separate beam to compensate for container weights.
 |
| Aloha! |
38. Longtime "One Life to Live" actress Renée __ Goldsberry: ELISE. In addition to starring as Evangeline Williamson in One Life to Live, Renée Elise Goldsberry (born January 2, 1971) also created the role Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
 |
| Renée Elise Goldsberry |
42. Mantis quintet: EYES. Six astonishing facts about the Praying Mantis.
 |
| Praying Mantis The three additional eyes are tiny and are in the center behind its tentacles |
44. Literary magazine contributor, perhaps: POET. As this is the 400th Anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare's First Folio I think one of his sonnets would be appropriate.
45. Status update fig.: ETA.
46. [Theme clue]
50. Fellow: MAN.
52. Tres menos dos: UNO.
53. As appropriate: DULY. I guess appropriately is close enough ...
56. Isaac of "Dune": OSCAR. Here's a father son talk between Duke Leto Atreides (Isaac) and his son Paul (Timothée Chalamet). Dune Part 2 will be upon us soon. I wonder if OSCAR will get an Oscar?
60. [Theme reveal]
65. Show up: COME.
66. Record company: LABEL.
67. God who took a bow: EROS. His darts can be painful and sometimes even fatal.
68. Half of all blackjacks: ACES.
69. Did half of a biathlon: SKIED.
70. "Seasons of Love" musical: RENT. Here it is ...
Down:
1. Tire swing line: ROPE.
2. Right after: UPON.
3. Doner kebab rod: SPIT. Doner kebab is a dish of Turkish origin made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cooking element. The operator uses a knife to slice thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks. The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, I guess it saves counter space in small kitchens ...
 |
| Doner Kebab meat cooking on a vertical rotisserie |
5. Boosting target: EGO.
6. Dict. entry: DEF.
7. Airbnb alternative: INN.
8. Soft murmur: COO.
9. Trade hindrance: TARIFF. A TARIFF is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods.
10. Biblical preposition: UNTO.
11. Audio engineer's equipment: SOUND MIXER. A SOUND MIXER, AKA a SOUND BOARD takes multiple input signals—such as microphones, instruments, iPods, DJ turntables, etc.—and merges them together so they can be sent to speakers as one signal.
 |
| Sound Mixer |
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18. Slangy britches: TROU. "Cut offs"?
19. "Inbox zero" killer: EMAIL. Inbox Zero is a rigorous approach to email management that aims to keep an inbox empty -- or almost empty -- at all times. Digital OCD?
23. Collezione della galleria: ARTE. Today's Italian lesson. No English or French ART allowed.
24. Expert: REAL PRO.
25. Top rank in a tournament: ONE SEED.
27. __ franc: CAB. Cabernet Franc is a grape varietal blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to make Bordeaux wines.
28. Plant with lace and soap varieties: ALOE. Soothe your aches and take a bath at the same time.
29. Qualifying contest, perhaps: PLAY-IN GAME. A play-in game is a game, usually played at the beginning of a tournament or just prior to the tournament depending on how the tournament is defined. In a play-in, the lowest qualifiers and/or participants who have earned conditional qualification compete for qualification to the main portion of the tournament.
30. Star-studded hunter: ORION.
31. Name sewn onto some jeans pockets: LEE.
35. In __: unmoved: SITU. In SITU (Latin) is a phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" depending on a wide variety of contexts. My father, who was a carpenter, used to build cabinets, counters, and benches "in situ" (not his term for it) -- nowadays they're brought in prefabbed and then installed. In fact today whole houses are prefabbed, trucked in, and assembled on site -- or even 3D printed! ...
 |
| Ugh! |
39. Caesar's rebuke: ET TU. I think this is a myth. Can you imagine Crossword puzzles using Roman numerals? 😁
41. Edinburgh topper: TAM. This one's for you Lucina!
 |
| Scottish Tam |
47. Marx collaborator: ENGELS. Friedrich Engels (8 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German philosopher, political theorist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman and Karl Marx's closest friend and collaborator. It turns out that Engels continued to work in his Father's cotton business throughout his life and used a lot of his money to support Marx -- but then they do say that "the ends justify the means".
 |
| Friedrich Engels |
 |
| Flor de Mayo |
50. Muslim holy site: MECCA. Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. Mecca is revered in Islam as the birthplace of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Visiting Mecca for the Ḥajj at least once is an obligation upon all able Muslims.
 |
| The Kaaba during the Hajj |
55. Spanish model Sastre: INES. Inés Sastre Morató (born 21 November 1973) is a Spanish model and actress. She studied at The Sorbonne in Paris, and in addition to Spanish, she speaks French, English and Italian fluently. In 1996, Sastre succeeded Isabella Rossellini as Lancôme's spokes model for its perfume, Trésor.
 |
| Ines Sastre |
58. Quote book abbr.: ANON.
59. Have a nap: REST.
61. Tree on the Connecticut quarter: OAK. The story of the Charter Oak.
 |
| 25 cents |
63. Service charge: FEE.
64. Played out: OLD. This review is almost played out.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
44 comments:
Unlike the last couple of days. I didn’t find this puzzle to be very easy. There were a number of obscurities (cab franc, Fenty, et.al.) that were only accessible through WAGs and perps. And I had no idea what “play in game” meant until I came to this site. But somehow, through P&P I solved this challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Misspelling TARIFF (two Rs one F) really slowed things down in the upper midwest. There were several unknowns in this one, but the perps were fair. My last fill was the IN in PLAY-IN GAME. Like Sub-G, d-o wondered what that could be. Thanx, Billy and waseeley.
Thank you, Billy Ouska, and thank you, Waseeley.
No sweat. Needed some perps here and there to suss a few answers.
My last entry was the E at the intersection of the clue in Italiano and the soap opera actress. E seemed to be the best fit for both answers.
I like calzones. They are a Collezione of ingredienti
Doner kebab - note the spelling.
Inbox Zero - Anyone else read "The One Minute Manager"?
American disadvantage at 39D. :>)
Despite several unknowns I managed a FIR in a little over 12 minutes, close to the same time as the last two days. FENTY?? Entirely perped, and it sounds like a shortened version of a very dangerous drug. Thank you Billy, your creativity on this theme really shines!
Waseely ~ you and Teri always make for an interesting Thursday read. I appreciate the time and effort you put into your blogs! I think you meant to say that there are 1,440 minutes in a day, since there are 3,600 seconds in an hour.
Phil @5:55 AM Thanks for catching that. I just multiplied the number of seconds by 60. 😀
Here's the latest DAB puzzle. David has this to say about it ...
I was going to use this title for one of those fun puzzles in which the theme answers are two-word phrases, each word of which begins with each of two letters—but they’re so hard to make! After hours of meditation, I managed to think of “rubber bullet,” “rex begonia,” “retail banking,” and “rock bottom.” But then I couldn’t think of a fifth, and it turned out these four were all different lengths, so that I couldn’t fit them in a grid. So I just gave up and made this puzzle instead.
Phil 5:55 AM. And I'm sorry that, as per usual, much of today's news isn't good. 😥
Impressive puzzle - FORTUNE is a long word to keep rearranging the letters to come up with other in-the-language theme answers.
My son in the USAF always worked the SOUND board- MIXER for all the high school plays and musicals. The 2 week of tech rehearsals came just after or just before the sports he was involved in.
Rihanna's FENTY line of cosmetics uses her last name- her full name is Robyn Rihanna FENTY.
Dune II is coming out on March 1. I enjoyed OSCAR Isaac in the first one.
In medicine, IN SITU often referring to Carcinoma IN SITU means the person has cancer type cells but they are still staying in the appropriate boundaries of the organ and haven't gone haywire yet.
Welcome back to Bill and Teri for the blog - glad your recovery went smoothly
FIR, but erased legs for EYES and hand-up for tarrif before TARIFF. D-O and I UNTIE!
Today is:
NATIONAL GUMDROP DAY (I prefer my sugar shooters to be jelly beans)
SINGLES AWARENESS DAY (the day after Valentine's Day points out all the ways that singledom benefits our communities and more. Sponsored by the National Beer, Wine and Distilled Spirits Association, and the USA Singles Bar coalition.)
The USAF has about 5,000 aircraft, and the USN has about 4,000. President Calvin Coolidge mused "Why can't we buy just one aeroplane and let the aviators take turns flying it?"
I only have one ATRIum, and it is in constant fibrillation.
The NCAA coined the name "First Four" for the two play-in games for March Madness. This should really be a mad March Madness. The top 10 teams together have 43 losses, no team fewer than 2. Upsets will rule the tourney.
I really wanted the fill to be "hold" de Mayo.
Thanks to Billy for the fun Thursday, and to Bill 'n' Teri for another fine review.
Took 6:08 to finish today, which is good because I OFTEN RUn out of time in the mornings.
I didn't know today's actress (even though she's "longtime"), but I did know the actor (Oscar). Flor, cab, and today's obscure food were unknown/unsightly.
FIR. This Thursday endeavor had some bite in it.
There were several unknowns for me, Fenty, spit, cab, to name a few. Perps made them fill in for me.
The theme was clever and actually assisted in the solve.
Good Morning! A bit crunchy today after a relatively light week, but I gradually worked my way through with a bunch of WOs until it all fit. Thanks, Billy, for the workout.
I saw the theme after 60A filled. Clever!
ESP: CAB; ELISE; OSCAR; INES.
A few FORTUNE-ate WAGs saved the day.
Thanks, Bill & Teri, for your review.
Soon after humpday the puzzle often takes a steep uptick in difficulty but not today. Fairly rapid north to south fill aided by gettable long theme answers providing lots of healthy perpage. So it’s anagrams in the
middle of each answer of NORETURN? (how ‘bout if I still got the receipt?)
“Slangy WHAT 😳??!! ..ohhhhh…..”BRITCHES!. 😅. (Almost made me drop TROU!)
In much of Europe they measure recipes amounts by weight on a kitchen scale rather than volume so TARE is important.
ALL joins Era, Tide, and Fab as a CW laundry detergent option. Is half a biathlon a monathlon? ….PLAYINGAME was unknown as was INES (quite a hottie)
…..We’ve had OPPO before (the forgotten Marx brother, probably an alias of ENGELS) a past denizen found INSITU CWs
I’m embarrassed to say Canada Eh I didn’t know how many provinces you had. 😟 (but you’ll probably have Nunavut)
A veterinary ophalmologist could do really well treating cataracts on mantises’ 5 and spiders’ 8! EYES . My just 2 get popped out in May. 👀
Good Morning:
The absence of circles made this a much more enjoyable and challenging solve, so thanks to the constructor and editor for trusting the solver's ability and instincts to see the theme easily upon seeing the reveal C/A. Kudos also for scrambling a seven letter word within solid, in the language phrases. My unknowns were Elise, Cab, and Ines, but no w/os. In addition to the theme answers, I noticed an unusually high number of U words: Rush, USAF, UNO, Duly, Upon, Unto, Trou, Et Tu, Situ, Stung, and Cure. I think these caught my eye because, for no explicable or rational reason, I'm averse to the letter U in a Scrabble or Words With Friends game.
Thanks, Billy, for a fun solve and thanks, Bill, for a thoroughly entertaining and informative review. Loved the Crossword short film! Nice to have you back. Glad your surgeries went well. Thanks to Teri, also.
Have a great day.
A nice crusty submission for our enjoyment today by Billy. We'll done theme entries. I tried picTUREINFILe before CAPTUREONFILM for 27A. Also csI BEFORE FBI. Also Shoot before SKIED for 69A. Didn't know FENTY at all so perps filled in. But it all led to a FIR.
My wife and I started our annual winter picture puzzle marathon yesterday. Made a good start on it. The biggest troubles with it are getting in each other's way and the aching back from bending over to reach your work area. We have a large dining room table to work at. Going to be a long session, we received four puzzles for Christmas.
A tip of the hat to wasseley for the review coming of his slack period.
Nothing hurts so much as rejection.
Salute.
Wasn't there a movie, River of no Return with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe?
I found this CW a little difficult, could be because I have a cold and my brain is fuzzy this morning. But, I FIR, in spite of the many unknowns like CARB, ELISE, FENTY, OSCAR, etc.
Thank you Waseely for pointing out the theme. I forgot to look for it.
Last week I had some OYSTERS on the half shell at a local oyster bar. They were perfect, cold, small, and briny.
Had to TITT on this one. Too many obscure clues that were just not on my wavelength this morning. Could not get a foothold. Ah, well. On to Friday!
Musings
-Anagramming a seven-letter word is impressive to this solver
-Issue at the ATM/NOTE hit me after I filled it in
-A friend of a friend told me that the 49ers were a lock in the Super Bowl
-The TARE adjustment on my triple beams was a knob under the pan
-We took water taxis in Ft. Lauderdale and Venice, Italy
-An HONEST racist valentine of my ute
-Lovers of Handel’s Messiah will know For UNTO Us A Child Is Born
-I’m sure Rhianna spent countless hours in the lab perfecting her cosmetic line
-The PLAY-IN GAME decides who will be badly beaten by the ONE SEED in the next round.
-The NFL calls PLAY-IN GAMES wild card games
-Our school had more than one AD HOC committee to rid the school of the scourge of gum chewing
-What a fun video in addition to Bill and Teri’s narrative! GO LASSIE GO!
One More thing:
-You are old if you remember this:
Whenever the laws of any state are broken, a DULY authorized organization swings into action. It may be called the State Police, State Troopers, Militia, the Rangers... or the Highway Patrol. These are the stories of the men whose training, skill and courage have enforced and preserved our state laws.
Wow! Making three CHANGE(S) OF FORTUNE must have taken a course in 'anagramology' or used AI. Either way it was done, I never saw it. The theme fills were easier than a few fills, CAB, FENTY, INES, OSCAR, ELISE, RENT-those were unknown as clued. I don't buy make-up or watch soap opera. But PLAY-IN GAME is a term I'd never heard. Qualifying round or something similar.
Had to change TBA to ETA and CSI to FBI today's INTERNET FORUM.
Doner kebab was unknown but all K_B_B's(add your own vowels) require a SPIT.
Gary, I'm sure Rhianna spent ZERO hours in the lab. The same as most celebs who put their names on books they didn't write.
EMAIL- I clean both Text and Email files every day. I delete or archive texts that I'll temporarily keep. Emails- delete 99% of them and move the ones I keep into specific files. Unsubscribing doesn't seem to slow them down. Everybody want you to rate their service-stores, products, doctors...etc. It's getting ridiculous.
FLN….PARSAN….what's the model of your Bimmer?…I’m seeing prices on the cat from $400-$600+….
Still gotta be cheaper than another car.
An FIR without incident, except for a lot of head-scratching. I had 16 complaints about cluing, unknowns, and WTFs, with OPPO being an example of the latter (opps wouldn’t bother me), and FENDY being both an unknown and a WTF. It’s never good when you’ve got the right answer but you’re still unconvinced it’s right. Of all the ELISEs out there, they picked the middle name of an actor from a soap opera I’ve never watched, although I should have known her from “Hamilton.” Thanks for the photo, Bill. Yummers! I know many an OSCAR, but not Mr. Isaac. I also wasn’t keen on NOTE being the ATM “issue.” I found the clue for EDGING too obtuse, and the combination of CAB and Franc stopped me for a while despite my fairly good knowledge of red-wine blends. I never call Cabernet simply “Cab,” and I’m proud to say I never wrote any of the headlines in which a wine critic “hailed” a Cab. . . .Hand up for CSI before FBI. . . . I first encountered PLAY-IN GAMEs as a sportswriter in Vermont in the days when high school sports were administered by the Vermont Headmasters Association. I think that’s an Eastern thing, although the NBA now has play-in games for seventh-through-10th seeds for its playoffs. . . . I did like TROU and DULY. Husker Gary cited the precise reason I got a kick out of DULY. Trivia question, HG: Who read those lines on “Highway Patrol?”
As for the theme, the answers were easy, including the unifier, but, unlike other Cornerites, I have nothing against circles and can’t always be bothered to look for meaning if there could have been circles yet weren’t any.
TRIVIA ANSWER; Art Gilmore. I'm often awake at 5 a.m. to see reruns on ME-TV.
Oops. I thought I wrote FENTY but it came out Fendy. Darned autocorrect?
We have been blessed with very clever themes lately, giving us puzzles within puzzles. FIR! DNK FENTY or ELISE, and the number of mantis EYES was news to me, but perps were very fair. Thanks to Billy and Patti for the puzzle, and to Bill for blogging.
Hi all, this is Billy checking in. Thank you for the review and comments! I'm glad to see that the theme made sense (to this crowd, at least), even without the dreaded circles. To be honest, my original submission to the editors included circles so I have to give Patti and her team full credit for making the decision to omit them.
The editors also ratcheted up the difficulty on a number of clues, including the ones that have already been commented UPON today.
Inside Baseball:
* My original submission usedhad WATER FOUNTAIN instead of CAPTURE ON FILM as a themer.
* I only know of FLOR de mayo from a song on the Encanto soundtrack ("What Else Can I Do?") that my kids have listened to about 10 million times. My original clue referenced the song but was probably (understandably) seen as too wordy.
* 11-Down was originally DOUGHMAKER or DOUGHMIXER but the editors requested a more "in-the-language" word here. I think SOUNDMIXER worked out pretty well.
As always, thank you for solving and for your comments!
Hola!
Thanks to Billy Ouska and Bill and Terri for the fun. I was not in a RUSH but finished quickly. The only unknown was FENTY. I've never heard of it or seen it. And thank you, Bill, for the eye candy.
I'm not familiar with the name, FLOR de Mayo but I love orchids. It was a treat to see them growing everywhere at the Honolulu Botanical Gardens.
Hand up for CSI before FBI.
On one memorable trip to Hawaii, we saw many JELLYFISH in one particular spot; one man was spraying Windex on his daughter where she had been stung by one.
Caesar may not have uttered the words, ET TU, but Shakespeare has convinced us that he did.
I hope you are all enjoying this lovely Thursday!
The puzzle had a good strong theme, that did not really help in solving due to lack of circles. So in this case, I can understand why some people do not like circles. Some of the fill was unfortunate, like "trou." But, if you can do better, then I would like to see your puzzle creation...
Fortunately I enjoyed this puzzle...
I absolutely enjoyed the crossword video! Which serendipitously echoed todays theme...
(I found it delightful, & will check out the other shorts from that site.) thank you Waseely!
What would you expect from "your" fortune cookie:
exhibit A
exhibit B
Or, exhibit C...
A clever and crunchy offering from Billy Ouska today.
I liked the “ garden container “ clue.
My wife and I celebrated Valentines Day at our local Punjabi restaurant. The chicken tikki masala was 🌶️ spicy and had a wonderful flavour .The naan was fresh out of the oven and was delicious also.
Thanks for the Thursday challenge Billy.
…, kkFlorida
Thanks, Billy, for checking in and for giving us a peek behind the curtain.
H.Gary - That's a very flattering caricature of Liz Warren on the valentine.
Billy @ 11:22
Thanks for stopping by and offering us your comments. It’s of interest to see how some clues and answers evolve and the way the puzzle is altered by the editor.
I didn’t get the anagrams and might have with your circles
Looking forward to more of your entries
😃
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Billy, and waseeley and Teri.
I FIRed and saw the CHANGE OF FORTUNE theme. It did take me a while to realize that I was looking for more than OFTR that I was seeing repeatedly in the themers. Without circles (oh joy!), the long seven letter word was well-hidden. It must have been work finding themers for those letters.
Yes, I will take a CSO for those TEN Canadian provinces (the three northern areas are called Territories), and your memory is correct, waseeley, re Ontario.
Sadly, this Canadian was excluded from access to the video of RUSH’s Fly By Night. But I found it myself - wow, those memories of 1975 songs, long hair, baggy pants. And Neil Pearl’s lyrics (set to Geddy Lee’s music) about leaving home (yes in St Catharine’s, Ontario) to fly to England. AnonT, were you a fan then or too young?
I had to enter USAF although RCAF would have fit just as well.
I thought of Bill before NOTE being issued from the ATM.
New clue for ALOE held me up for a minute.
I had to come here to figure out the quintet of EYES that perped. I was reading mantis as rhyming with panties (ie. “those slangy britches”), silly me.
DH and I enjoyed a bottle of CAB franc along with some tasty lobster spaghetti at yesterday’s Valentine’s dinner at Scaddabush.
EROS would have been appropriate yesterday.
Wishing you all a great day.
Waseely: I too really enjoyed that crossword video. Just charming and so apt.
The theme was easy to find with the reveal. FORTUNE was scrambled not anagrammed. Anagrams form a new word.
FIR with perps and wags.
Doner kebab. Although most kebabs are grilled on short skewers, kebab rod was enough for me to wag SPIT from S--T. I see that in doner kebab a very large piece of meat is put on a vertical spit which rotates. Thin slices are cut off to serve as the spit rotates. It reminds me of the schwarma we had in Israel.
OPPO is always in the political news. From either party, it could be lies, half truths or skewed truths, or actual facts. Sometimes it is absolutely irrelevant and silly, like dissing the type of suit or haircut, the way pizza is eaten, or the type of the cheese ordered on Philadelphia cheese steaks.
So much bad info is out there. Trust and verify before swallowing OPPO whole.
FENTY was new to me. I struggled with PLAY IN GAME and finally accepted it. Now I see it is used by sports fans.
I perped and wagged CAB, so I learned a new wine term, CAB FRANC, today. I like most reds, like cabernet sauvignon, merlot and shiraz.
TROU is informal. The only way I hear it here is in DROP TROU. Lower one's trousers or pants to "moon" someone. I have read TROU in novels where it merely means pants.
Fun puzzle, with or without circles. Circles don't bother me.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR; very fair puzzle despite a few words that I was unfamiliar with (FENTY, OPPO, FLOR -as clued)
Thanks for stopping by, Billy. Always fun to hear how the constructor(s) came to this idea
Jinx @ 12:01 ==> too funny (the reference to Liz Warren)
CopyEditor @ 11:05 ==> after further review, I believe that the proper fill-in-the-blank clue for CAB should've been ___ Franc. I don't know if it's a fact, but I am pretty sure that all grape varietals that are two-word names (Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, et al) are capitalized, both words. A bit of a nit, but one to point out to the editor for future reference
Jinx and Husker - regarding the PLAY IN GAME ... as you might be aware of, the venue for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament PLAY IN GAMEs in the Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. I used to live about 45 minutes south of there, and would occasionally go there to see these games. Last year my alma mater - Pitt - had to win a P-I-G (vs Mississippi State) to enter as an 11 seed. They went on to win the next game (Iowa State) before losing to Xavier. For the longest time, a ONE SEED had never lost to a 16 seed, but it's happened twice (I think) within the last 4-5 years
Bill and Teri: glad to see you back blogging/proof-reading. Quite entertaining today, especially the romantic short with a crossword reference
Hand up learning moment about FENTY. RIHANNA's name may be derived from the Irish name FENTON. We lived along the FENTON River in CONNECTICUT.
waseeley Thank you for the learning moment about the CONNECTICUT Charter OAK. And for the MANTIS facts.
Hand up CSI before FBI. Struggled with that and with getting the CHANGE OF FORTUNE. Ended up seeing the scrambled letters for a full FIR. We had INES SASTRE once before in 2021.
Here we were on the WATER TAXI BOAT Lil Toot in the Santa Barbara Harbor.
Somehow, some way, FIR… Thank goodness for themes and for long sports answers (play-in-game and one-seed)—Billy, are you excited for March Madness maybe?
After RUSH and ROPE I made zero headway and decided my only chance was to plow into the main theme. After seeing CHANGE I figured it was OF FORTUNE, then only having the P in 17a, I figured out POINTOFNORETURN. That’s how powerful themes can be. And being a Jumble enthusiast sure helped with this one.
Never heard of the actresses but thank you, Bill for the photos (Hubba Hubba)! Other things I wasn’t familiar with: oppo, tare (ok see my phone just auto-corrected it), doner, fenty, cab franc, in situ.
A few months ago I went on a family trip to Cinque Terre, Italy which is right next to Genoa, and the waiters at the restaurants all told us that pesto came from that region. We had pesto dishes every night and they were all amazing… I probably don’t finish this top section if not for that lol.
Musings 2
-I just finished this episode of Highway Patrol
-Yes, the closing credits name Art Gilmore as the announcer with that sonorous voice.
-The show’s plots, sets, direction, dialogue, etc. are horrible but it’s a wonderful link to my misspent childhood and shows the works of art that were the cars of that era.
-Thanks for the comments, Billy!
-Yes, YR, thanks for the gentle correction on anagram!
-The Space Shuttle had a POINT OF NO RETURN out over the Atlantic Ocean. After that point it could not turn around and return to KSC, it could only try to make it to a landing in Europe or try to get into orbit and land after one trip around the Earth.
Art(is) Gilmore is a 7'-2" old-timey ABA and NBA star, now in the Naismith Basketball HOF. His Jacksonville Dolphins lost to UCLA in the March Madness finals in 1970. His wife's name is (crossword-favorite) Enola Gay.
Neato bar room March Madness trivia - in 1985, the tournament expanded from 16 to 64 teams. Madness indeed ensued.
I will happily point out that today's constructor referred to circles as "the dreaded circles." Further, CanadianEh! aptly exclaimed, "oh joy!". I am glad to see our movement is gaining momentum.
-Anon from 8:04 a.m. (the one who strongly dislikes circles).
When I spent a month in Greece, my best friends were lamb doner kebabs.
Oh, the puzzle! Sorry, got distracted. Billy, this was an appropriately crunchy Thursday puzzle, I feel. And you are to be commended for scrambling the seven letters of FORTUNE three different times and coming up with something sensible.
I look forward to your next submission. Gentle reminder: these are crossWORD puzzles, not crossNAME puzzles.
Hi All!
Who can't love the Toronto band RUSH at 1a?!?
Thank you Billy for the noodler and for dropping by The Corner. Always nice to read some inside the setter's head.
But alas, FIW. ENGErS looked nice and rABEL sounded like a Rap LABEL.
I won't bore anyone with my WOs & ESPs (#names!)
Fav: Duh! It's RUSH (Gene Simmons dotes)
//Though, I did fancy ORION's clue.
Thanks waseeley (now your email makes sense) & Teri for the great review.
And thanks all you Cornerites (funny links CED!)* for the fun reads.
//Monkey - them OYSTERs from Royal Oyster House? I finally got DW to try the joint last Halloween after Boo Krewe. The gumbo was her Mom's cookin'
Cheers, -T
*HG - I want a picture of you in your orange jumper. There's a photographer on the FORUM that could take a nice snap :-)
Released in 1975, the 5th album by Kansas was POINT OF kNOw RETURN. Dust In The Wind was the big hit on that album, followed by the title track.
I've taken to watching Highway Patrol in the early morning when I can't sleep. It's on METV at 4AM Central followed by back to back episodes of Dragnet. Copy Editor, you must be in the Eastern time zone.
From what I've read, Broderick Crawford was a functioning alcoholic and was often inebriated during filming. There was an episode I watched where he was clearly drunk, and I was surprised it was ever aired. I should have written down that episode number so I could reference it or link it. It will repeat at some point.
Big Easy, it's always Doner Kebab with the E and the A. Other spellings for similar/same foods from other cultures. But you can trust that it's kebab with an E and an A when Doner is there.
Emails - I survived by writing mail filters to autofile them in appropriate folders. Including the trash folder.
What CED said, "But, if you can do better, then I would like to see your puzzle creation..."
My thought when reading certain comments has often been, "Where is your perfect puzzle?"
I'm going to watch Caitlan Clark make history tonight. She's an exceptional basketball player. She not only leads the country in scoring and will set the all-time NCAA scoring record tonight, she also leads the country in assists. Which means she's an excellent ball-handler and is not a ball hog. She'd just as soon feed a teammate who is in a better scoring position than take the shot herself. She's elevated the attention of sports fans on NCAAW basketball.
There is no "movement." Not that I am aware of.
Dash T, the question that you may have avoided was, and I'll paraphrase, "When you were 4, were you a RUSH fan?" Or were you listening to Kansas then? I was listening to the albums Toys in the Attic, Born to Run, Physical Graffiti, Fool for the City, Straight Shooter, and previous albums from some of those same bands.
Bill, I had a chance this evening to watch the linked Crossword film. Thank you for sharing it. It is delightful.
A-t: Them oysters came from our neighborhood oyster bar called Jones Creek Cafe.
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