Happy Mardi Gras, All Y'All!
Mind your budget to stretch your Cash. Times are tough, you need to Stretch your Cash or find someone who will Spread the Wealth.
17-Across. Garment made from goat's wool: CASHMERE SWEATER.
27-Across. Picture that may feature students in height order: CLASS PHOTOGRAPH.
47-Across. Completely spotless: CLEAN AS AWHISTLE.
59-Across. Be generous with one's good fortune, as depicted by the movement of this puzzle's circled letters: SPREAD THE WEALTH.
I'll start with the grid so you can see how clever the Wealth is spread out. We start with the Cash all together. Then there is one letter in between Cash, and finally 2 letters are spread between the Cash.
Across:
1. South African language: ZULU.
5. "Uh ... feels wrong": UM ... NO.
9. Inky smudges: BLOTS.
 |
| The caption reads: It's just a simple Rorschach ink-blot test, Mr. Bromwell, so just calm down and tell me what each one suggest to you. |
14. Iowa State's town: AMES.
15. Folk artist Joan: BAEZ. Joan Chandos Baez (b. Jan. 9, 1941) began her recording career over 60 years ago. [Name # 1.]
16. Gracefully limber: LITHE.
20. Roebuck partner: SEARS. The department store of Sears and Roebuck was founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears (Dec. 7, 1863 ~ Sept. 28, 1914) and Alvah Curtis Roebuck (Jan. 9, 1864 ~ June 18, 1948). [Names # 2 and 3.]
21. __ borealis: colorful sky display: AURORA. I would love to see the Aurora Borealis someday, but not sure I want to go so far north to see the display.
22. Put back in the pan: REFRY.
24. Big name in SUVs: GMC.
26. GPS display: MAP.
32. Astern: AFT.
33. "Klutzy me": OOPS!
34. Some Blu-ray players: SONYs.
35. Urgent request: PLEA.
37. Point value of "eight" in Scrabble: NINE. // And 52-Across. Point value of "five" or "six" in Scrabble: TEN.
39. Be in harmony: AGREE.
42. Kia hatchbacks: RIOs.
44. Destiny's Child's "__ My Name": SAY.
51. Apple CEO Cook: TIM. Timothy Donald Cook (b. Nov. 1, 1960) became the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. in 2011, following the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs (1955 ~ 2011). Prior to becoming the CEO, he was the company's chief operating officer. [Name # 4.]
53. Arranges logically: SORTS.
54. End of an era?: SMALL A. I am not keen on clues and answers like this.
57. Large member of the violin family: CELLO.
64. Lopsided: ASKEW.
65. Elton John musical based on a Verdi opera: AIDA. [Name # 5.]
66. Raptor's weapon: CLAW. Because Talon was too many letters.
67. Workspaces: DESKS.
68. "Dark Phoenix" mutants: X-MEN. I've never seen any of these movies, so can't comment of their names or superpower mutations. [Name # 6, fictional.]
69. Catch sight of: ESPY. // And 40-Down. Quick look: GLIMPSE.
Down:
1. Actor Efron: ZAC. Zac Efron (né Zachary David Alexander Efron; b. Oct. 18, 1987) got is start in the mid-2000s starred in the High School Musical movies. [Name # 7.]
2. Thurman of "Red, White & Royal Blue": UMA. When her name comes up, I usually think of her dancing with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. That was 30 years ago! [Name # 8.]
3. Heart-healthy phrase: LESS FAT.
4. Helpful theater employees: USHERS.
5. Car service app: UBER.
6. "24K Magic" singer Bruno: MARS. Bruno Mars isn't his real name. His given name is Peter Gene Hernandez (b. Oct. 8, 1985). [Name # 9.]
7. Previously named: NÉE. Today's French lesson. The word comes from the French and means Born. Né is masculine and Née is feminine.
8. Fluid meas. units: OZs. As in Ounces.
9. Couleur of the sky: BLEU. More of today's French lesson.
10. Pants-on-fire person: LIAR. Cute clue.
11. Padded footstool: OTTOMAN.
12. Curative treatment: THERAPY.
13. High-ranking angels: SERAPHS.
18. Baseball Hall of Famer Willie: MAYS. Willie Mays (né Willie Howard Mays, jr.; b. May 6, 1931) is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all times. He played center field. [Name # 10.]
19. City halfway between Dallas and Austin: WACO. How the city got its name.
22. Early TV brand: RCA. RCA and its Dogs.
23. Tiny toymaker: ELF.
24. RNC group: GOP. As in the Republican National Committee and the Grand Old Party. No politics, please.
25. VT ski resort with an apt name: MT SNOW. Everything you wanted to know about Mt Snow but didn't know to ask. And a shout out to JFromVT.
28. Poet Edgar Allan __: POE. Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809 ~ Oct. 7, 1849) is considered the father of the modern detective mystery. [Name # 11.]
29. All shouted out, maybe: HOARSE.
30. "Tug of Words" channel: GSN. As in the Game Show Network.
31. Caviar: ROE. Yummers!
35. Podded plant: PEA.
36. Former "Inside the NFL" host Dawson: LEN. Len Dawson (né Leonard Ray Dawson; June 20, 1935 ~ Aug. 24. 2022) played for the Kansas City Chiefs for over 10 years in the 1960s and 1970s. [Name # 12.]
38. "Or so": -ISH.
39. Puts on a frown: ACTS SAD. I initially tried Acts Mad.
41. Casual observations: REMARKS.
43. Actor McKellen: IAN. That's Sir Ian McKellen (né Ian Murray McKellen; b. May 25, 1939) to you. He is a very versatile actor. [Name # 13.]
44. Ambles: STROLLS.
45. Key sometimes used with Ctrl: ALT.
46. "You rang?": YES.
48. Slightly: A TAD.
49. Hebrides landmass: ISLE. The Hebrides is an archipelago comprising hundreds of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.
50. Comfort during trying times: SOLACE.
55. Long onion kin: LEEK. Wha't the difference?
56. Rules for society: LAWS. The oldest known written legal code was found in what is now Iraq.
57. Relinquish: CEDE.
58. Obi-Wan player: EWAN. Obi-Wan Kenobi was the Jedi master in the Star Wars movies. In some of the later films in the series Ewan McGregor (né Ewan Gordon McGregor; b. Mar. 31, 1971). [Names # 14 and 15, one fictional, one real.]
60. Line on a receipt: TAX.
61. "That's the guy!": HIM.
62. Noisy dance style: TAP.
63. Major rd.: HWY. That major road could be the highway.
That's all for today.
חתולה
Mardi Gras is celebrated outside of New Orleans, too.
36 comments:
This puzzle was pretty easy, considering it’s obvious in-the-language phrases, etc. I won’t say it was easier than yesterday’s, but it came pretty close. The theme word was obvious from the beginning, and the reveal simply confirmed it. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but hand up for erasing ACTS mAD for ACTS SAD.
Today is:
GALENTINE'S DAY / FASTNACHT DAY / PACZKI DAY / MARDI GRAS / FAT TUESDAY (prior to Lent, the faithful eat all the remaining rich foods that would otherwise spoil, drink too much, and flash their boobs for plastic beads)
NATIONAL CHEDDAR DAY (not that THIS stuff will make you fat)
NATIONAL PANCAKE DAY (not that THIS stuff will make you fat, either)
PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT (this was a biggie for me before my divorce from MLB)
Since we have "pitchers and catchers report" and Say Hey Willie MAYS today, I was disappointed when the fill for "high ranking angel" wasn't "owner," "manager," "coach" or "GM."
I had a friend from even further south than may native Kentucky who told me he "had to go to CS." I asked "CS who?" He answered "C'mon, Jinx. CS and Roebuck."
REFRY - especially frijoles refritos.
SAY My Name - can be a very discomforting demand on the morning after a Mardi Gras. (The young man was preparing for his first trip to celebrate Mardi Gras. He shyly selected a box of condoms, then went to the drugstore checkout counter. The clerk said "that'll be $5.38, please." The young man said "but the sign said $4.99 - what's the extra 39 cents for?" "Tax," she replied. The young man grew pale, and said "Oh no - I thought they stayed on by themselves!"
No, no, no, don't bother. I'll see myself out.
Thanks to Zachary for the fun puzzle, and to Ha2la for the chuckles.
My list omitted the Ides of February, which is today.
Good morning!
Yup, d-o fell into the mAD/SAD trap. Otherwise, no problems with this Tuesday tour. The cartoon Hahtoolah posted for "HIM" reminded me of IM and her brother. SEARS started radio station WLS (World's Largest Store) in Chicago. In my ute all the kids had a push-button in their jalopies tuned to WLS. Thanx for the outing, ZDL, and for the excellent expo, Hahtoolah.
D-O, I had always assumed that it was "world's largest station" and didn't know the connection to SEARS. Thanks. When I was a teenybopper I used to go to sleep listening to Dick Biondi, the Howard Stern of his time, on WLS.
Kentucky's oldest station is WLAP in Lexington, started by Quakers. WLAP, for "We Love All People." That's where I met Nick Clooney, who was a long-time DJ there. Nick had a famous show biz sister Rosemary, and his son George is also fairly well known, although neither appear often in crossword puzzles.
Good Morning, crossword friends. I fixed link for the 46-Down.
QOD: An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans. ~ Mark Twain (né Samuel Langhorne Clemens; Nov. 30, 1835 ~ Apr. 21, 1910), American writer and humorist // Everywhere else, today is just a Tuesday.
The photo of John Travolta is from Pulp Fiction, not Kill Bill.
Took 4:28 today for me to Capture A SnapsHot of this puzzle.
Seemed like a bit too many 3-word entries and proper names, but otherwise fine. I didn't pay attention to the theme until finished.
Oh joy, circles!
Good Morning:
This was an enjoyable solve with only one w/o, Rte/Map, and no unknowns except for XMen, which filled itself in. Saw the Cash theme right away but was surprised by the clever reveal and, as Hahtoolah pointed out, the gradation in the spacing. Four grid spanners is impressive and the fill was fresh and junk free. I liked the clecho clues for the Scrabble values and, also, the C/As of Podded Plant=Pea (I'm a big fan of alliteration) and End of an era=Small a.
Thanks, Zachary, for a fun Tuesday and thanks, Hahtoolah, for a great review and visuals. Your choice of comics today was outstanding and brought at least four outbursts of laughters with those for Oops!, Cello, Ottoman, and Hoarse! Thanks for starting my day with humor and good cheer! Always love seeing Nipper, as a 28' replica of him sat atop the building I worked in for 16 years, home of an RCA distributorship.
DO @ 5:33 ~ My laughing spells continued with your comment about the Him comic. 🤣
Have a great day!
FIR. Nice and easy Tuesday. I especially liked the scrabble clues. Very clever.
I got the theme early when I was able to throw down cashmere sweater. My only surprise was that the word cash wasn't in the reveal.
But today's CW was much fun despite the fact that it had circles.
Pretty typical Tuesday fare, managed a FIR in about 12 minutes, always enjoy solving a Zachary grid.
Hahtoolah ~ I appreciate your Tuesday write-ups, always replete with pics, cartoons and videos. I sometimes see the Aurora (Northern Lights) over Lake Supeior in Upper Michigan, never know when they may make an appearance, but they can be spectacular. When I first saw Pulp Fiction I thought the first half was bland and boring, but I’m glad I stayed around for the second half cuz it was cinematic brilliance! The tap dancing video may be the best choreography ever in that genre!
C.C. has the byline in USA Today.
I had fun solving this CW. A few unknowns not hard to figure out. I too had ACTS mAD.
It s so nice to see Joan BAEZ’s name. I used to have several of her LPs.
Hahtoolah, I caught myself chuckling as I read your recap.
Happy Mardi Gras to all.
dog turns cash into a spread you don't want...
Learning moment: Ted Cassidy had 3 Star Trek roles.
Ruk
The voice of Balok's puppet
And also, the voice of The Gorn...
Terrific Tuesday -- FIR. Never heard of "Tug of Words" or the GSN channel; may have to look into it! Hahtoolah's review was full of fun, especially the Pulp Fiction blast from the past, and The Ottoman Empire. Thanks to Zachary and Patti for the puzzle.
Good Morning! Nice Tuesday puzzle. Thanks Zachary & CSO to 1D. Putting your stamp on it right up top!
WO: agile -> LITHE
I haven’t played Scrabble in decades, but I caught onto the diversion and the numbers were quick to fill.
TIM – was my Dad’s name.
ESP: XMEN
POE: I'm reading Patterson & Sitts: Holmes, Marple & POE. A clever little escapade.
The sun is just coming out to melt the 5-6” of snow we got last night.
Thanks, Hah2lah. You bring so much fun to reading your recaps.
(One typo I might let slide, but three (grr) - no, no - I can't...😉😀)
A fairly easy Tuesday offering.
Had to change mad/sad.
I tried tap dancing once but fell in the sink.
Thanks ZDL and Hahtoolah.
….. kkFlorida
Super fast fill today. I was able to fill the theme fills after just a few perps were in place. CLASS PHOTOGRAPH was filled entirely by perps. SPREAD THE WEALTH- what every politician tries to do with YOUR money but not his own. They sure get rich on their gov. salaries. I like The Beatles song TAXMAN.
LENny Dawswon- the QB of the KC Chiefs in the first SupernBowl. Lost to the Packers.
RE-FRY- usually not a good idea, especially after it cools a little. But it's how fast food joints cook some things.
SMALL "a"- took all perps for that. That had to be a clue for a difficult placement of words in the puzzle. Surprised Patti let it go.
X-MEN was a guess. SAY My Name and GSN- Total unknowns. I acted MAD until I was SAD for ACTS SAD.
Hahtoolah- speaking of Mardi Gras, we left the Convention Center at 2:00 am this morning after the Orpheous Extravaganza. Had five different bands playing from 7:00pm with Harry Connick playing a few tunes after the floats all got there. A band was still playing when we left.
Fast FIR again today. Fun puzzle, despite a couple of nose-wrinkles. Lookin' at YOU, SMALL A! At least the obligatory proper names were mostly familiar. Back in the day, I bounced between Dick Biondi on WLS and Clark Weber on WCFL, the other Chicago top 40 station. (I was a card-carrying member of Webers Commandos)
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Zachary (you gave yourself a CSO at 1D) and Hahtoolah.
I FIRed and saw the spread-out Cash. But I will confess to one Google search, since this Canadian had no idea what RNC stood for. Once I saw Republican National Convention, the G in GOP and GMC fell into place. I don’t consider that a DNF, but rather a personal Natick due to Canadian disadvantage. (I should have asked DH for the SUV name.)
I didn’t know GSN either, but it perped.
No abbreviations in the clue meant that “urgent request” wasn’t ASAP or STAT, but PLEA.
THE scrabble clues were interesting, but I don’t keep the tile values in my memory. A couple of perps gave NINE and TEN.
GPS display was MAP not Rte today.
SEARS closed here years ago.
CSO to Misty’s Dad with RCA.
Wishing you all a great day.
Charlie Echo, I used to enjoy the adventures of Chickman, the incredible white-winged warrior (secret identity: mild-mannered shoe salesman, Benton Harbor) on WCFL. It was the concoction of Production Director Dick Orkin, morning man Jim Runyon as the narrator, and his real-life wife Jane Roberts playing all the female roles, most notably the mayor's secretary, Miss Hellfinger. Jane's day job was as Agent 36-24-36 doing Chicago traffic reports on WCFL -- voice of the Chicago Federation of Labor.
First fill was SPREAD THE WEALTH, making the solve much easier.
Here I saw JOAN BAEZ in 2016.
We attended a Mardi Gras party on Saturday. For once I just let the official photographer take the photos, but now I am waiting to see them.
Musings
-I just finished the puzzle in a room full of 7th graders. They are such good kids, it was not a problem to have them on auto-pilot.
-I am making my NASA presentation to the 8th graders today and so I have my “carrot suit” on and it is attracting a lot of attention!
-Our CLASS PHOTOGRAPH is a source of sadness. We have lost a lot of our class of 28.
-Brock Purdy is a proud graduate of Iowa State University in AMES.
-The first thing the lady from Raptor Sanctuary told our kids before her presentation was, “A Raptor will NEVER be your friend.”
-I wonder if LEN would have really liked the new NFL rules that protect the QB’s
-ACT SAD
-ALEC Guinness is OBI, right? :-)
-Lunch!
Speaking of Len Dawson ~ has anyone seen the photo of him from the very first Super Bowl (or as it was called then, the NFL/AFL Championship Game). He’s sitting on the bench during halftime, puffing on a cigarette. Didn’t see anyone doing that this year. 😂
Big Easy - Back in the old days when McDonald's french fries were great, we got the spuds delivered in 50 pound bags. We peeled them in a mess hall-style peeler, leaving some of the potato skin on. Then they were hand-sliced by stabbing a potato and putting it into a slicer like this one, where one stroke sliced the whole spud. At my peak, I could slice a 50 pound batch in just under a minute. Then the (nearly) 50 pounds were bathed in cold water to replace some of the starch with water. This was repeated three or four times, depending on how the raw fries feel to the touch. Then they were cooked slightly in shortening (don't EVER call it lard) at low heat, a process known as blanching, to replace most of the water with shortening. The fries had to cool to room temperature before their final cooking in hot shortening just prior to being drained, salted and bagged. This was a very labor-intensive process, and is one reason the day shift cooks showed up at 6 AM to be ready to open at 11.
CED….RUK and BALOK don’t show anything.
Hola!
I AGREE with what most of you have said about this puzzle. It was fun and not too difficult to solve. Starting with Z is an eye-opener. When I finished it looked like this might be a pangram but it's missing J, Q, and V.
I love a CASHMERE SWEATER! When they were on sale at Macy's or Dillard's I would buy one or two; we don't have severe winters but the temps do go down a bit in winter and CASHMERE feels nice then. My coat is a CASHMERE blend and I have it only because I went to NY one winter. Now I wear it once or twice a year.
Hatoolah, your choice of cartoons is always a treat. Thank you for that and for your entertaining commentary.
Have an enjoyable FAT TUESDAY, everyone! Tomorrow, the fast, although at my age I am excused from fasting.
Jinx, you got the process exactly right. That was my first job working at a joint called Harvey's Hamburgers.
Sorry to be so late today. Spent the time cleaning up after the ridiculous snow storm we had last night and this morning. Like Lucina above, I agree with most comments about the grid today. I was going for viola for the large member of the violin family but ceded it to CELLO.
GMC makes the big suvs that all the federal agencies like best.
Mother Goose had so many children she didn't know who to sue.
Never.
Go gettem, Zac and Hantoolah. Great job!
Thank you, Zachary David Levy, and thank you Hahtoolah.
Just a couple of early miscues while watching the tube.
I entered Ted COOK in a lapse of attention. That changed to TIM because GLeMPSE and REdARKS were obviously incorrect.
The funny lapse was that I also entered SERAPeS instead of SERAPHS, mixing up high-ranking angels and Mexican blankets. Good thing I took my eye off the TV to notice CLASS PHOTOGRAPe. Photo grape?
All's well that ends well.
AnonymousPVX@12:20
Sorry and thanks, very curious that the images were missing.
I double checked, and they show up fine on my iPad, but when I try to view it on my phone, they are indeed missing.
I'll try again:
Ruk with an attractive costar.
And Balok's puppet from the episode, The Corbomite Maneuver.
Yay, took me a day and a half but I finally finished Monday! Now I think I’ll make like an orange and peel.
Sigh. Today I received MONDAY'S newspaper instead of today's. Luckily, I can always find the crossword on-line and print it. I can also read the newspaper that way but I really enjoy holding the newsprint and of course, I recycle it.
If anyone is interest, at present I am reading THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride. As an author he has made giant strides in writing with colorful idioms and an intriguing plot. His first book, THE COLOR OF WATER, made me a fan.
The puzzle opened with ZULU and the opening parade on Mardi Gras day is named ZULU, followed by REX. I forgot to mention that earlier.
I liked this puzzle, although the plethora of names sucked a little of the fun out of it. Very much enjoyed reading all your comments.
Thanks to ZDL for a fun solve and to Hahtoolah for doubling the fun!
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