Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
18-Across. * Many stadium screens: JUMBOTRONS.
|
| The Jumbotron at Death Valley at LSU. |
24-Across. * Seven-star pattern in Ursa Major: BIG DIPPER.
39-Across. * Curly-haired dogs: STANDARD POODLES.
53-Across. * Skimpy garment credited to fashion designer Mary Quant: MINI SKIRT. The Mini Skirt seemed so radical at the time. Its designer, Mary Quant (Feb. 11, 1930 ~ Apr. 13, 2023) died just last year at age 93.
And the unifier:
60-Across. Cornerstone of the KonMari method, and the progression found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues: DOWN-SIZING. Hand up if you immediately recognized the KonMarie method.
Across:
1. Stretched the truth: LIED.
5. Takes a break: RESTS.
10. Garçon's workplace: CAFÉ. Today's French lesson.
14. Actress Kendrick: ANNA. Anna Kendrick (née Anna Cooke
Kendrick; b. Aug. 9, 1985) starred in the Pitch Perfect film series, some of
which were filmed on the LSU campus. [Name # 1.]
15. Love, in French: AMOUR. More of today's French lesson.
16. Operatic high point: ARIA.
17. Folk singer Joan: BAEZ. Joan Chandos Baez (b. Jan. 9,
1941) visited us last Tuesday also. [Name # 2.]
20. GI field fare: MREs. Meals Ready to Eat. Don't they look yummy - Not!
22. Phoenix suburb: MESA.
23. Fannie __: federal mortgage agency: MAE.
27. Little League precursor: T-BALL. // And 24-Down.
Clubs for 27-Across: BATS.
29. "__ thoughts?": ANY.
30. Vegetable in a pod: PEA.
31. Fr. holy woman: STE. A continuation of today's French
lesson. A holy French woman would be a Saint.
32. Ballet garb: TUTU.
34. Piece of advice: TIP.
36. Insensitive, in a way: NON-PC.
43. Spreadsheet software: EXCEL. I hate having to use
this program.
44. "Low" rapper __ Rida: FLO. I am not up on my rap
musicians nor their music. Apparently Low was a # 1
song in 2007. Flo Rida (né Tramar Lacel Dillard; b. Sept. 16, 1979) is
from Florida, hence is moniker. [Name # 3.]
45. "Smooth Operator" singer: SADE. Sade (née Helen
Folasade Adu; b. Jan. 15, 1959) is a Nigerian-born British musician. She
goes by Sade, which is a her Sade a shortened form of her Yoruba middle name,
Folasade. [Name # 4.]
46. Actor Pacino and singer Green: ALs. Al Pacino (né
Alfredo James Pacino; b. Apr. 25, 1940) portrayed Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Last year, at age 83, he and his 29-year-old girlfriend had a baby
boy. Al Green (né Albert Leornes Greene; b. Apr. 13, 1946) was big in
the 1970s. [Names # 5 and 6.]
47. Alias letters: AKA. Also Known As.
49. Summer shade: TAN. My first thought was and ELM tree.
50. Nile Valley country: EGYPT. // And 48-Down. Snake
once sacred in 50-Across: ASP.
56. Summer sign: LEO. Hi, Leo III. Come back! We
miss you.
57. "Firefly" actor Tudyk: ALAN. I am not familiar with the
television series Firefly which aired in the early 2000s. Apparently it
was a space Western drama that took place in 2517 on other planets and moons.
I didn't recognize the name of Alan Tudyk (né Alan Wray Tudyk; b. Mar.
16, 1971), but when I looked him up, I recognized his face. [Name # 7.]
59. Brad of "Moneyball": PITT. Brad Pitt (né William Bradley
Pitt; Dec. 18, 1963) gained recognization after his appearance in the 1991
film Thelma and Louise. [Name # 8.]
64. Draw (in): LURE.
66. Nurse Jackie portrayer Falco: EDIE. Edie Falco (née
Edith Falco; b. July 5, 1963) also portrayed Carmela Soprano on The Sopranos. [Name # 9.]
67. Spanish title: SEÑOR. Now it's time for today's Spanish
lesson.
68. Poems of praise: ODES.
69. Wetlands plant: REED.
70. "Fire away!": ASK ME!
71. Flow slowly: SEEP.
Down:
1. R&D setting: LAB. Research and Development.
2. "Almost ready": IN A MINUTE.
3. Fuel surcharge, e.g.: ENERGY TAX.
4. Stunned: DAZED.
5. "The Big Bang Theory" chum of Sheldon and Leonard: RAJ. I
never saw the attraction this show, but it was very popular. [Name's #
10, 11 and 12, all fictional.]
6. 6-foot Aussie bird: EMU. Emus make frequent guest
appearances in the puzzles.
7. WWI battle site in France: SOMME. Everything you wanted
to know about the Battle of Somme but didn't know to ask.
8. Potato or yam: TUBER.
9. Low-budget hotels, for short: SROs. I thought SRO stood
for Standing Room Only, but in the case of low budget hotels, it means Single Room Occupancy.
10. Mustang or Pinto: CAR. Also breeds of horses.
11. Enticing odor: AROMA.
12. End-of-term exam: FINAL.
13. Equipment used in oil production?: EASEL. Cute
misdirection.
19. Result of some needlework: TATTOO.
|
| Why? |
21. Opposite of guzzle: SIP.
25. Blossom parts: PETALS.
26. Duo: PAIR.
|
| Iconic and dynamic duo. |
28. Road curves: BENDS.
31. "Jersey Shore" nickname: SNOOKI. Her given name is
Nicole Elizabeth Polizzi (b. Nov. 23, 1987). [Name # 13.]
33. Take the lid off: UNCAP.
35. Adobe creation: PDF. Portable Document Format.
37. Insipid remark: PLATITUDE.
38. Source of fragrant wood: CEDAR TREE. The flag of Lebanon
has a Cedar Tree in the center.
40. Triangular river formations: DELTAs. Everything you
wanted to know about River Deltas but didn't know to ask.
41. Strategy: PLAN.
42. Inbox subfolder: SENT.
50. Respected leader: ELDER.
51. Rock with inner beauty: GEODE. Loved this clue.
52. "That smarts!": YOWIE.
53. Some puzzle book offerings: MAZES.
54. How paper contracts are signed: IN INK.
55. Metric weights: KILOS.
58. Middle Simpson kid: LISA. [Name # 14, fictional.]
61. Actor Beatty: NED. Ned Beatty (né Ned Thomas Beatty;
July 6, 1937 ~ June 13, 2021) was primarily a character actor. He was in
a lot of movies, but is probably most remembered for his role
in Deliverance.
[Name # 15.]
62. Snack, in slang: NOM. Meh!
63. Higher ed hurdle: GRE. As in the Graduate Record Examination.
65. Telepath's claim: ESP. As in ExtraSensory Perception.
Here's the Grid:
- חתולה
39 comments:
The only “word” I had trouble coming up with in this puzzle was “non-PC” as there was no hint there was an abbreviation involved. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR without erasure.
Today is:
NATIONAL LOVE YOUR PET DAY (around here, that’s all days that end in “y”)
NATIONAL COMFY DAY (if you think we need to encourage this, just visit an airport waiting area)
NATIONAL MUFFIN DAY (meadow muffins look nice, but taste terrible)
NATIONAL LEADERSHIP DAY (I wish there was a celebration of followship, which more people need help with)
CSO to moi @ NON PC.
Sorry to learn that Mary Quant died. Can she become a saint now? She raised the spirits of half the population.
I guess a Saturday clue for LEO would be "cop" (law enforcement officer.)
I've only seen fuel surcharges imposed by private sector entities. TAXes, including those for ENERGY, are imposed by governments. (I know that some play fast an loose with the language, usually at a the cost of reduced precision.) Nothing wrong with the fill, just a bad clue.
Hand up for not knowing SROS inn [sic] this context. There is a chain called OYO - On Your Own - which I think are also low-budget hotels. Kinda like a hostel for loners.
I've owned Mustangs and one Pinto. A truck rear ended my Pinto with my ex-DW driving. Unfortunately, it didn't explode.
Other than being produced by Microsoft, I don't find a lot to dislike about EXCEL. I cut my spreadsheet teeth using Lotus 1-2-3, then Symphony.
I think that email is going the way of other dinosaurs, like snail mail. Cox Communications notified me that they are abandoning theirs in a month, and swinging all existing users to Yahoo. I still use it, but not nearly as much as I used to.
Thanks to Eric for the nice, easy Tuesday puzzle, and to Ha2la for helping us get our Kix.
Good morning!
Despite many unknown names, the perps came through for the win. Odd, no mention puzzle-setter Eric Rollfing in the blog. This was a nice, early-week romp. Those Kix on Route 66 were cute. Thanx, Eric and Hahtoolah.
ALAN: Alan Tudyk is probably the least-known actor on that brief series. You'll probably recognize the names of the others: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, and Adam Baldwin. It was a pretty good space opera. I'm sure CED was a fan.
Sros and nom where complete unknowns. The perps were friendly.
FIR. I found this to have some bite to it for it being only Tuesday. Too many proper names, and 22A and 36A were beyond nasty. And I've never heard of a hotel referred to as SRO. Theaters yes, but hotels?
When I got to the reveal the theme became apparent. But overall it seemed somewhat of a stretch.
This was a super fast solve for me - I came to the blog to find out what solved on its own by perps!
I didn't remember the name KonMari method but did remember Marie Kondo and her book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". After the puzzle I skimmed through her Wiki bio - I didn't realize she was 4ft7in tall! I did remember an article somewhere along the line where she said in an interview that after she had her 3rd child she just 'rearranged her priorities" about being quite so rigorous about tidying up LOL.
Thanks Susan for the always funny blog and Eric for the puzzle!
Good Morning, Crossword Friends: There did seem to be an extraordinary number of names in today's puzzle.
Jinx: I didn't know that Cox was abandoning its email. We haven't gotten our notice yet, but ...
QOD: The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity. ~ Helen Rowland (1875 ~ 1950), American journalist and humorist
Trendy Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Eric and Hahtoolah
I FIRed and saw the DOWNSIZING theme (I saw the sizes early on, and it was only a small step to see their downward progression.
I thought this might be a pangram when I entered Z, J, X, but there was no Q.
I’m back after a busy Family Day weekend here.
Namefest today which sucked out some of the joy. But some of the names were well minor to me, and the rest perped fortunately.
NOMs could have been clued as another French word. “What there are too many of in this CW”
SROS was a lesser known.
I noted TATTOO and IN INK, plus TATTOO and TUTU.
FLO and SEEP (with those DELTAS?).
Wishing you all a great day.
Took 5:33 today for me to cut this one down to size.
I knew both of today's actresses (Anna & Edie), 3/4 of the actor clues (Pitt, Ned, & Als). Not particularly fond of the foreign/foreign borrowed words (Ste, senor, amour), nom, and some of the abbreviations. Otherwise, a fine Tuesday puzzle & review.
How did auto-correct get “well minor” when I wanted “well-known”?
Out of 25 proper nouns I knew 8. Not familiar with: non PC, sro, or nom.
SENT is not a subfolder of Inbox, it is a separate folder. It's OUTgoing so how can it be part of an INbox?
I'm another who has never heard of an SRO that way. Seems like a clue for later in the week, not Tuesday.
Now we have foreign word abbreviations? (STE) Please don't.
Good Morning:
My only unknown was the actor, Alan, and while I'm familiar with Marie Kondo, KonMari Method sounded like some esoteric function that I was unaware of. I saw the varying sizes but didn't spend any time trying to decipher the reveal, until I filled it in. I never saw The Sopranos but Edie Falco was outstanding in Nurse Jackie.
Thanks, Eric, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the fun and facts. Today's favorite comics were the ones for Café, Pea, Tutu, and the winner, Kix on Rte. 66.
Have a great day.
FIR even with the unknown names. Certainly a pleasant theme, easy to figure out.
The Konmari reference had me baffled at first. I see you all are spelling it with 2 capital letters, my copy didn’t. Anyway, I got it regardless. I wonder how NOM became a slang word for snack.
I love poodles, especially STANDARD ones. My dear MIL many years ago had a silver tea cup poodle named Sachet. She was super smart, energetic and fearless; once I watched her run off a boxer several times her size.
Hahtoolah you regaled us again with great references and neat funnies. I especially likes your Helen Rowland quote @ 7:52.
That should liked not likes. Oops.
Good Morning! Nice puzzle today with perps in perfect working order. Thanks, Eric.
ESP: ANNA and ALAN.
No WOs. Is there a thing called crossword radar (or maybe ESP)? I think I may be achieving it. Something told me to tread cautiously in the mid-east: PL was PLAN and not Ploy; P was PDF and not Pot. It doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes I just plunge ahead with the Wite-Out handy, but nice when it works.
I saw the progression as the theme developed. Nice!
Hah2lah, as always, you’ve given us a fun recap. Loved the rhino art, Route 66 Kix and the AROMA candles. And, of course, that handsome STANDARD POODLE photo.
Learning moment from your pic that the Mississippi Delta region is different from the Mississippi River Delta.
DOWN-SIZING: I wish I could tell my 30 years ago self to Start Now!!!
A first-rate Tuesday offering from Eric.
And the second day in a row that I am
wite-out free.
My first car was a Pinto.
It’s too bad those cars got a bad reputation because mine was very reliable and used very little gas.
Thanks for a fun Tuesday.
…. kkflorida
JUMBO, BIGK, STANDARD, MINI? Are those the new coffee sizes?
EXCEL- it comes with MS Office. I have it but don't use it because I prefer Google Documents for the simple things I do that need a spread sheet.
SRO- Single Room Occupancy. NOM for snack. Never heard of either.
Most river DELTAs are not triangular. The Nile's delta is triangular. The Mississippi Delta region IS NOT A DELTA. Most of SE LA could be considered a delta. The Mississippi River splits to form the Atchafalaya a few hundred miles up river from where the main channel empties into the Gulf.
NON-PC is not 'Insensitive, in a way'. Who determines what is 'politically correct'. If you disagree with their beliefs it doesn't mean you are insensitive. You just don't agree with their thinking.
ALAN, FLO, SNOOKI, ANNA, PLATITUDE, YOWIE- filled those using perps.
Hahtoolah- as for Cox and their email I dropped it AND Cox years ago. Getting stuck with an email address is time consuming to get rid of. AOL, Cox, ATT. That's why I use gmail.
Not bad for a Tuesday but FIW, crossed PDa with aLO also forgot to check out the theme
Inkover: pistil/PETAL.
“The oil production equipment” klue more klunky than klever?
STANDARD POODLES bred with other pooches to produce expensive “designer” dogs (what used to be called mutts). “Mutt” is probably considered “unPC/NONPC” when referring to those pricey designer mongrels. We call any local rescue a “Steven-Swan” 🐶. (the name of our Humane Society 😃)
That was SOMME battle… haven’t seen StLo in a while.
Owie = hurts, 😣…..YOWIE = hurts a lot 😰. ✋Never knew SRO as “single room occupancy”. Joan said in a interview years ago her name is pronounced “BUYS” not “by-ez”
There must have been giggles when ALAN Tudyk was in HS during attendance call.😁)
Spanish HS dance fiesta, ____ Ball…. SEÑOR
Slangy SE Asian snack, Viet ___ ….NOM
Poem of praise for an electronics company…..GEODE
Insipid remark, usually uttered by a person with a bad _____ …PLATITUDE
Happy Tuesday.
Musings
-Redux: Mini Skirts: Who knew swimsuits of the 1940’s would become today’s prom dresses.
-No idea on KonMari(e?) method but a pattern is a pattern.
-Obscure ANNA replaced Karenina, Kournikova et al. today
-Same idea but different names for ALAN
-As I’ve stated before, kids in my science class learned MRE’s get HOT in a hurry and are pretty tasty
-Cub pitchers and catchers have already reported to MESA
-Sorry, Hatoolah, I was amazed when I first saw EXCEL and still love it.
-I wonder if AL will see his boy graduate at 101 years old. Hope springs eternal!
-Some kids with high averages get excused from FINAL exams
-I wonder if TATOO guy would sue if he did not get a job where he has to meet the public?
-Cartoons were fabulous, Susan. Kix on Rte 66!!
Managed a FIR in 11:03 even with the plethora of names which I maybe knew half. Not familiar with Kon Marie, but after reading about it, feng shui sounds like a subset. Downsizing to me is what companies sneakily do with their products and I detest the practice. Less product for the same or more money, cereal boxes with the same height and width, but 3/4 of an inch thinner, 14 oz of a canned veggie instead of 16 etc etc…. I would guess that nobody is familiar with SRO as clued. NOM?? I did enjoy the solve though, thank you Eric for the grid.
CanadianEh! 🇨🇦 ~ I too looked for the pangram after seeing the J, Z, and X. Oddly a V and H were missing along with the Q.
Hahtoolah ~ thanks for another stellar review, enjoyed the story of the split peas! 😊
Get Your Kix On Route 66 . . . bowls of fun!
Not much trouble with the answers today. Most perped easily if I wasn't aware.
They didn't have Tball when I was a kid. You just started out with softball and graduated to hardball. Played a lot of softball in elementary school.
Most people don't realize that the big dipper and Ursa major are not the same thing. As the clue indicates the big dipper is just a subset of the stars that make up Ursa major. Ursa has 22 named stars and the dipper only 7 of them.
Ursa minor or the "little dipper" consists of only the seven stars in the cluster. Polaris, or the North star, is the end star of its handle and is pointed to by the line of the big dipper's bowl
Winning is fun, but sometimes losing is the greater teacher.
Wonder.
Forgot congrats for Eric and H2H for their contributions today.
FIW at PDa/aLO, just like BigE, but it went pretty quickly despite all the names and poor clues sucking most of the enjoyment out of it. SRO? NOM? NONPC? Fortunately, Ha2la was there to pump some fun back in this morning! Loved the Rhino artist, and wasn't that Todd & Buzz in the Kix booth? Wonder where they parked the 'vetted? I did like the Pacino-Green clue for AL...seems like names used to be clued this way to give folks a fairer chance.
'VETTE, not 'vetted! Thanks, Otto, you dummy!
FIR without complaint. Didn't know all the names (Raj, Anna, Flo, Alan) but perps were fair. I do tire of the complaints here about common bits of foreign languages! Sault Ste. Marie is a city in Michigan, and STE enters our cultural discourse in various ways. Ever hear of Ste Jeanne d'Arc (St Joan of Arc)? I enjoyed seeing Marie Kondo referenced in the puzzle -- a woman after my own heart -- and enjoyed Hahtoolah's videos of Joan BAEZ and SADE. Many thanks to Eric, Patti, and Hahtoolah.
I think the confusion between what consists of the Big Dipper and Ursa Major is that frequently in text books they draw the outline of a bear around the Big Dipper which gives the impression that it’s the same as Ursa Major
I was familiar with the term SRO because it has often been referenced relative to New York City housing options.
NaomiZ ~ I live not far from the U.P. City of Sault Ste. Marie, which for the uninformed is pronounced “Soo Saint Marie”, or simply “The Soo” . Across the St. Mary’s River is Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario which is much larger than its U.S. counterpart. The St. Mary’s River is the outflow of Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes. The Soo Locks raise or lower boats to compensate for the difference in elevation. Geography lesson for the day 😂
Ha2la, here's the Cox announcement.
Whiner - how did I miss that glaring error re: inbox. I must be off my griping game.
A great book for stoopid computer tricks is It's Not Excel, It's Magic. It is a little dated though, I think it was written for Office 2005.
I guess my days of using POP3 email are nearing an end. Yahoo is supposed to come equipped with a terabyte of storage, so I guess it will be nearly as good as having the email stored on by hard drive(s). I find that I rarely camp anywhere I can't connect my computer to the internet via my cell phone.
What I don't know yet is whether I'll still have a cox.net address hosted and supported by Yahoo, or whether they'll gin up some derivative like "jinx-cox@yahoo.com." IMAP, here I come! (IMAP would be great Saturday fill.)
Hola!
Yea! I'm back. Thank you, Anonymous T.
Today's puzzle was exceptionally easy, IMO. It filled rapidly and quickly. Thank you, Eric Rolfing!
I'll take a CSO for my neighboring city, MESA.
Do I ever remember the shock caused when the MINI SKIRT appeared. Our elders saw it as the end of the world but I was young and thin and loved it. I immediately bought several and wore them quite unashamedly. In fact, I still have one outfit that my late DH particularly liked.
I hope you are all well and enjoying a beautiful day. I am!
Hi All!
WEES re: names. Otherwise, it was a cute theme with a bit of learning (i.e. Marie's method is called Konmari). Thanks Eric.
LOL expo, Hahtoolah! I don't know where you find all these comics (don't tell me, that's your "signature look") but they're always cute.
WO: put ESP in 63d
ESPs: Same as WEES
Fav: EASEL's clue
Excel - I use it near every day and am still finding features in it. Two weeks ago I found the filter function and used it to take a list of questions but only display the ones pertinent to X, Y, or Z.
MREs - I haven't had one for 30 years but they weren't bad (when you were hungry).
Lucina - glad I could help and (it worked!)
Back to work; play later. Cheers, -T
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR in under 8 minutes on the computer (that is like solving at lightning speed, for me as I type quite slowly, and always have to backspace and/or delete misspelled words)
As with Sra. Lucina, I'll take a CSO for my neighboring city, MESA - if I am correct, she borders it on the north; I border it on the east, and for 3 years it was my mailing address
As Irish Miss said, I just filled in the words and then later on saw the reveal. Always a clever tactic for a constructor to use progression (up OR down) of similar words
Susan, I enjoyed the JUMBOTRON @ Tiger Stadium ... saw many a game there in the early 2000's when my daughter was an undergrad there - Geaux Tigers!
Y'all need to check out xkcd today :-)
Cheers, -T
I liked Hahtoolah's write-up much more than the puzzle. I heartily agree with Whiner that SENT is not a subfolder of the Inbox, it is a separate folder.
Thanks to -T for helping Lucina.
😎
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