17. *Manga series also known as "Mach GoGoGo": SPEED RACER.
Oh, did I love this cartoon in the '70's.
29. *Captain Morgan product: SPICED RUM.
47. *Iced bun, e.g.: SWEET ROLL.
64. *Yuletide excursion: SLEIGH RIDE.
40. Ceiling beams, or a three-word hint for the answers to the starred clues: R AFTER S.
What you think? A nice breezy puzzle that keeps the reveal hidden 'til the end.
Across:
1. British pop singer Lewis: LEONA. The only pop singer I know is Huey but he's from CA.
6. Stuff in a trough: SLOP. Oink.
10. Sea blue: AQUA.
14. Winter X Games host city: ASPEN. #Snowboard
15. Word before or after man: CAVE. HG showed you a snap of my "Cave" last Sat.
16. Reynolds of "Boogie Nights": BURT. He was also in Smokey & the Bandit w/ Sally Field & and the incomparable Jackie Gleason.
17. [See: Theme]
19. Latvia's capital: RIGA.
20. Condensed, for short: Abbr.: SYN. I'm not sure how this works but it filled.
21. Measuring stick: RULER. "Ruler" is a 15th century variation of "rule," which comes, via French, from Latin "regula," which meant a measuring stick, a diminutive derived from "regere," to straighten, lead, or guide." I use mine to make a straight line.
22. Nodded: DOZED. I'll #Nap when I'm done.
23. Trusty mount: STEED.
 |
| My Hero! |
25. "Loki" voice actress Strong: TARA.
27. Team on a movie set: CREW.
29. [See: Theme]
34. __ Fables: AESOPS.
37. "Cornflake Girl" singer Tori: AMOS.
38. United: ONE.
39. Molecule in some vaccines: RNA.
40. [See: Theme]
42. Hullabaloo: DIN.
43. AOC, for one: DEM. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D) is a representative or NYC's 14th.
44. Bassoon cousin: OBOE.
45. MLB team with Mr. and Mrs. mascots: NY METS. New York's Mr. Met.
47. [See: Theme]
50. "Alita: Battle Angel" star Salazar: ROSA.
51. Having no loose ends?: TIED.
52. "To reiterate ... ": I SAID.
55. Malfunction, as a copier: JAM UP.
58. Guilty and not guilty: PLEAS.
60. Relieved (of): RID.
63. Suitable for cacti: ARID. I love my Gramp's cacti but this is a sore subject for me right now.
64. [See: Theme]
66. "You can't have it!": MINE.
67. Normandy city: CAEN.
68. Rainwater diverters: EAVES.
69. Cricket clubs: BATS.
70. Calligrapher's collection: INKS. Pens & nibs also fit.
71. Give an address: SPEAK.
Down:
1. Gal: LASS.
2. Glimpse: ESPY.
3. Ali Baba's magic words: OPEN SESAME.
4. Family tree word: NEE.
5. Actor Braugher: ANDRE.
6. Spills the tea, maybe: SCALDS. You can sue if it's too hot and SCALDS you.
7. Garter trim: LACE.
8. Paycheck fattener: OVERTIME. Time and a half helped pay the rent.
9. __ capita: PER.
10. Using one's passport, say: ABROAD. I need to renew mine; expired in Dec t did.
11. Pop __: QUIZ.
12. Hard-to-resist impulse: URGE.
13. Just slightly: ATAD.
18. Have regrets: RUE.
22. Black tie optional, say: DRESSY.
24. Only even prime number: TWO.
26. Oak nut: ACORN.
27. Swiped items: CARDS.
28. Extend, in a way: RENEW.
30. Dev of "Slumdog Millionaire": PATEL.
31. Beverly Hills shopping destination: RODEO DRIVE. You can't say RODEO like a Texan. You gotta Church-it-up hoity-toity like Targette.
32. Storage rentals: UNITS.
33. High-minded org.?: MENSA.
35. Expert advice: PROTIP.
36. Buffalo hockey pro: SABRE.
41. Meal regimen: FOOD PLAN. Your diet.
46. Med scan: MRI.
48. Technique-building piano pieces: ETUDES.
49. Supine protests: LIEI-NS.
53. __-AFTRA: SAG. The Nanny (Fran Drescher) is in charge. Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. I didn't know the AFTRA bit. Sounds like a razor.
54. Lenten symbol: ASHES.
55. Door part: JAMB.
56. Opera highlight: ARIA.
57. Money maker: MINT.
59. Chive kin: LEEK.
61. Lightbulb, metaphorically: IDEA.
62. Help __: DESK.
64. School subj.: SCI.
65. Jay-Z genre: RAP.
The Grid:
The TL;DR:
WOs: pens -> INKS
ESPs: LEONA
Fav: I kinda liked JAM UP xing with JAMB.
Cheers, -T
43 comments:
In spite of the fact that I thought there were way too many obscure names, I didn’t find this puzzle terribly difficult. FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but Today is:
NATIONAL STRAWBERRY DAY (The Florida State Strawberry Festival runs Thursday through March 10, 2024 in nearby Plant City. A really big deal in these parts)
NATIONAL POLAR BEAR DAY (makes me want a Klondike ice cream bar)
NATIONAL RETRO DAY (great day for golden moldys like me)
ANOSMIA AWARENESS DAY (a condition causing a loss of smell. It would be awful to not be able to enjoy that new puppy smell. On the up side, diaper changing must be much less challenging)
Bayou Tony, "short" is a SYN for "condensed." Also my favorite clue/fill today.
I knew BURT and AMOS, but none of the other show biz names.
Loves me some Captain Morgan's SPICED RUM. Maybe someday when I find a cure for this awful sobriety.
If you really wanted the latest and greatest, USSF or NASA would have been better fill for "high minded org."
Boogie Nights had some great nudity from big-name stars. Better yet, BURT kept his clothes on.
Thanks to Jared for the fun Tuesday romp, and to sore-butt Bayou Tony for the short and condensed review.
Good morning!
Thought that entire NW corner was difficult. Came here to learn how "Condensed, for short" equalled SYN. Darn, -Tony didn't know. Thanx for stepping up, Jinx. Missed the S-R theme until coming here; would've been clearer if d-o had read the full reveal clue. D'oh. Thanx for the outing, Jared (He went to Jared!). Thanx for subbing while under gluteal distress, Dash-T.
Thank you, Jared, and thank you Dash T.
I liked the theme reveal. R AFTER S. Isn't it great for solvers that constructors find a word play like that and then create a fun crossword around it?
Took 5:37 today for me to go to ShopRite.
Like TTP said, it's a clever theme, but I didn't like this puzzle because of: British pop singer, voice actress, Alita: Battle Angel "star", Riga, Caen, Burt, Andre, etc., etc.
It's too much.
FIR. More obscure proper names and even two crossing with Leona and Andre. That is so wrong. And the clue for syn makes no sense, making the NW corner extremely difficult for a Tuesday puzzle.
The theme answers were no problem, but the unifier made no sense. I had to come here to have it explained.
As a retired builder, I find the clues for rafters and eaves to be slightly inaccurate. Rafters support a roof, not necessarily a ceiling, joists do that, and eaves do not divert rain, gutters do.
As others said before me too many names. Knew very few. Especially when proper names cross each other.
R after S is pretty darn clever
Good Morning:
I saw the S - R repetition but the revealer was quite a surprise. Very creative to see a simple word like Rafters and come up with R after S as a theme. There were a lot of proper names but I knew all by two, Tara and Rosa. Better Tuesday level cluing would have been Scarlett's home and Civil Rights Parks, respectively. I almost put Rep before Dem for AOC and Syn took a few seconds to make sense, but the rest practically filled itself in.
Thanks, Jared, and thanks, Anon T, for pinch hitting, especially when you're among the walking wounded! Hope you recover quickly!
Have a great day.
Being a constructor is fun and this theme is cool; but I wonder if the number of themes have an ultimate limit. This puzzle, as have said, had too many proper nouns and names; I’ve constructed many puzzles and have no difficulty to fill with regular words. And it seems this is now becoming more prevalent. C'est la vie!
FIR, but didn’t get the theme until poor hapless A-t explained it. I hope you’re not hurt too badly, Tony.
I too found this CW A TAD crunchy because of the many proper names. I knew only two, ANDRE, who I think passed away recently and BURT.
JAM and JAMB crossing.
My sweet grand niece plays the bassoon.
Hola!
The above was a test to insure that my comment would post. Luckily, it did.
The only LEONA I know of is LEONA Helmsly of hotel fame but with good perps, it filled.
APEN is a small town so I can't imagine the Olympics being held there. It will be overwhelmed by the crowds and I wonder if they even have enough hotel space for them.
My students knew that a pop QUIZ could happen at any time. Some prepared, some didn't. However, in fairness, it usually counted for only a small percent of their grade.
Thank you, Jared, for a nice challenge today. D-O, I see what you did there!
Have yourselves a beautiful day, everyone! Every day is a gift!
More of a later-in-the-week challenge. “Manga Mach Go etc. “?? C’mon it’s only Tuesday. Coulda used a simpler clue for SPEEDRACER 😳. Today “spill the tea” is not gossip, the tea actually got spilt: Owie!! that burns, 🥵….
SYN, “condensed”? Why not “abbr. for related word” etc. so early in the week. 🤔
In cartoons Ali Baba commands “Open Sez Me!”
Inkovers: reach/RENEW
You can’t have it, it’s “Mine, Mine, Mine”.
I didn’t think Huey “Lewis” was a Brit. 😉. ANDRE Baugher who died recently had a supporting role in “Brooklyn 99”, a favorite comedy. BURT in “Boogie Nights” which was Mark Wahlberg’s break out role, famous, for his PROTIP ☺️
OBOE a “baboon cousin”? Hold on lemme reread that ☺️
Lovable garden statue… SWEETROLL
Thank you go with…. PLEAS
Kings of the jungle….LIEINS
Barrel of condiments….SPICEDRUM
Another spring like day in February
This puzzle was fun and easy for me, a rare occurrence; thanks JG. I felt like Anon-SS must feel as he buzzes through each morning. Clever theme!
ANDRE Braugher is a fine actor and LEONA Lewis a favorite of a granddaughter. With the A and E in place I thought “made man” (Mafia), “man made” but OVERTIME changed that to CAVE. TARA and ROSA unknown but filled in easily. SYN makes sense to me - favorite clue.
Anon-T —Sorry to hear of your mishap. I hope you have a soft pillow.
Sunny and 64 degrees expected here today - hooray! Back to 30’s on Thursday.
Happy day, all!
Should have written “was” not “is”. ANDRE Braugher 1962 - 2023.
Good Morning! I thought today’s puzzle was deceptively easy/hard if that makes sense. The perps were on the job! Otherwise, with some guessing, I finished w/ one WO: ado -> DIN.
ESP: LEONA, TARA, ROSA, PATEL. Too many for a Tuesday puzzle, IMHO.
I never saw the theme but didn’t really stop to figure it out. I was just glad to be done.
Thanks, Anon-T, for explaining it. Sorry about your fall, but you rallied for a fine review.
Musings
-Sorry to hear about your accident, Tony. I hope your ass, cacti and tea kettle are doing okay.
-Today’s gimmick was fun and despite using uber obscure names when fairer alternatives exist
-Nebraska set an all-time high temp for Feb. 26 yesterday (80F) but after 18 holes in a stiff breeze, I DOZED for about 15 minutes.
-In Law and Orde, the detectives promised not to JAM UP a witness if they tell what they know
-Teaching is a job where doing extra work does not mean OVERTIME pay
-We have no ACORNS in our yard but our squirrels love the sunflower chips we feed the birds and we have no problems with that.
-The CARD reader at our course broke down yesterday and so every CARD had to have its info painstakingly entered into the computer. Kevin types as badly as I do and the line was out the door
-PATEL is the most common Indian surname in America
-PRO TIP – You’re not a pro, so keep your golf advice to yourself
Never did grasp the theme, maybe if the clue had been “three-part hint” instead of “three-word hint” I may have seen it, R and S are letters and not words 🤷♂️. Anyway FIR in 9:27, the obscure names (obscure for me anyway) filled by perps. Thank you Jared for the Tuesday exercise!
T ~ thanks for your abbreviated expo today, and sorry for your pain in the __!
Whenever I see a J, Q, and Z in a puzzle, I immediately think "pangram", but the constructor missed out by not including an X.
Couldn’t get past the NW corner. Who? What? Forget it
Jared, I thought you had a pangram here, but I'll be darned if I can find an x.
I generally detest names in crosswords, but I was pleased to see Andre Braugher here. He died recently--way too young--and we lost a compelling actor. One cannot forget him, for instance, in that fine film Glory.
Managed to FIR despite the ultra obscure names (voice actress? British singer crossing Andre?) which sucked much of the enjoyment out. Meh.
I took Benadryl last nite 'cuz my underarm swelled up. I should have paid attention to my rule - not on a school night.
Anyone going to correct me on the spelling of "toosch"? If Hahtoolah were here, she'd know and have a better expo. //No, seriously, The Internet doesn't agree how to spell it.
Thanks all y'all all for wishing me well being. I'm still picking pricks out of my arm and nether region but I'll be fine when DW gets home tonight.
She knows how to use tweezers :-)
Cheers, -T
Enjoyable puzzle. Hated the clue “AOC, for one” Also, how are cards swiped?
Dash-T, I've always spelled it "tush." Merriam-Webster agrees.
Instead of AOC why not use her full name in the clue? AOC in the Air Force stands for Air Operations Center
Anon @11:49 ~ if your credit card doesn’t have a chip you swipe the magnetic strip.
I had no trouble knowing who AOC is; that is how she is referred to by most newscasters. Alejandra Ocasio-Cortez is a bit unwieldy and takes up a lot of space.
I agree about "tush". That is how I know it.
I vote for tush
OUCH!!! Toosch? How about TUSH? Or as ZZ Top sings, "Lord take me downtown, I'm just lookin' for some TUSH.
Never saw the R AFTER S, even after the three word hint until Tony's write up. The cross of two unknowns, LEONA & ANDRE, was a guess; only A made sense. I'd heard of SPEED RACER (didn't know what it was), didn't know what "Manga series" was about, and say thank you perps for the fill.
SYN for Condensed-no idea but the perps were solid
ROSA, PATEL, TARA- other unknowns filled by perps.
CAEN- an old crossword staple. Whatever happened to ST LO?
OVERTIME- I loved it when I was working in a warehouse. 5am to 4pm, 11 hours a day, and 15 hours of overtime.
Or as my wife’s Babcie might have said
“Niech ciÄ™ kaczka kopnie w dupÄ™”
“May a duck kick you in the ass”
🦆
R S Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Jared and AnonT (feel better soon).
I FIRed and saw the theme.
I started to grumble about all the names, but perps were fair.
This Canadian had no clue about AOC (or how DEM fit the bill).
Thanks Jinx for explaining SYN.
We have tickets for a SABRE’s game in March.
Like Anon@10:07 and TehaKen, I was looking for a pangram too. Perhaps that MRI should have been an X-ray.
Like Ray-o, I was wanted to use my new CW knowledge about tea being gossip. But proper tea is made with boiling water and will SCALD if spilled. (Perhaps there is an analogy here to the corrosive effect of gossip!)
Yes, JAM UP crossing JAMB brought a smile.
Wishing you all a great day.
Puzzling thoughts:
Big Easy @ 1:32 ==> Funny, I was trying to find a ZZ Top video version of "I'm Just Lookin for Some Touch" to post here, as I always thought that the boys were going downtown for some TUSH
FIR but didn't get the reveal until reading Dash Tony's abbr. version ... ouch, you fell on a cactus??
Lucina @ 9:15 ~ The Winter X Games are not the Olympics. They are skiing and snowboarding competitions. 😉
Ray O, wish I had coined that one!
Big Easy, when I was an hourly employee at GTE, I volunteered to work all the holidays. Partly for the pay ($20 per hour became $50 per hour,) but mostly because I was single and most of the people I worked with had kids at home. It was easy money - not much to do when most businesses were closed and residential customers were otherwise occupied. Seems like I was hourly for about half my career, but it was actually only 3 of my 25 years. Then the overtime pay stopped, even though the overtime work didn't.
I guess I was the only one who had SANTA'S before SLEIGH, SIT INS before LIE INS and TART before QUIZ.
Here are a couple of my RODEO DRIVE photos.
I like the luxury cars for kids. What really blew me away: You could buy museum quality archeological relics on RODEO DRIVE.
As others said, too many obscure proper names. Anon-T, that's kinda the opposite of acupuncture, more like inaccurate puncture. Sorry. I shouldn't make fun of your misfortune, especially since I've been in a similar disaster. Hopefully, your particular cactus spines don't have tiny hooks on the end, making them difficult and painful to remove. Be sure to use H2O2 to sterilize the area and avoid infection. Oh, the CW: got 'er done for a faster than usual for Tuesday FIR, although the CW seemed more a Thursday than Tuesday. In spite of a couple of explanations in the comments, dopey me STILL does not understand the SYN clue. Thanx for the CW JG, and thanx for the write-up, Anon-T.
Nice theme. SYN was the only thing I needed explained so thank you for that.
Like others I get annoyed with the numerous proper names — especially if also included are foreign words and those dual meaning clues with the question marks after them. What is the cruciverbalist’s term for that type of clue, any way (e.g., 51a and 33d)?
One of those days when my med sessions ended serendipitously early and I am able to contribute my two and a half bits to the blog...
Thank You Jared Goudsmit for an interesting and well constructed, challenging CW. I was misled and stuck a couple of times, by names and meta clues like the infamous "SYN" ???!!! ... which, thanks to D-O I now understand ...
Sorry Anon-T for your unfortunate episode with the propane tank and the way laying cactus. Next, to 'running with scissors ....' I guess propane tanks are also dangerous. I pray and wish that you will be relieved of your misery soon, and forever.
Re: Husker Gary's notes that " Patel is the most common indian name in No. America ...?".
Sounds like it, doesn't it ? Actually, among asian indian names ( including Pakistani's ...) the most common name is probably .... Singh ...followed by Mohammed (?), Kumar, Khan and others ...
FYI, Patel ... simple means 'chief' ( of a village, presumably - )... but now, its just a surname. For those orthodox Patels, even in No. America .... there are 7 different types of Patels ... 6 village, 12 village, 16 village etc., and there is even an hierachical gradation amongst those who follow such ancestry.
Singh .... which means 'lion' ... is required of all Sikhs, and followers, and many other non-sikhs as well. Mohammed ofcourse, is the name of the Holy Prophet, and Khan is a warrior. KUmar means male, gentile, gentleman etc.,
The preponderance of Patels .. probably gave rise to the old american adage ... " Too many chiefs, and not enough indians ...."
Patels are argiculturists, inshort, farmers ... but few millionaires. There are a large number of millionaires from Gujrat, where the Patels hail from ... but The Ambani's etc., are from a business class, not farmers. BTW, the Prime minister Na. Modi is from a lowly group of sesame oil extractors/ pressers and maybe even, shoe repairers ... no offense.
TMI ... have a good week, all.
Feel better soon, -T
Thanks for the Buford, Nell, Dudley, and Huey riffs.
Husker & Vidwan, a large number of those Patels in America are motel/inn owners. I interviewed some in two different states. The motel I stayed at in another state was very well run by Patels. However, they bought a motel in my hometown and the small-minded people would not patronize it. They were used to people they knew owning it. Patels soon sold it and moved on.
Tony, sorry for your fall. What condition is the cactus in now? I had a toddler fall into a prickly pear cactus many years ago. That was a day of agony for both kiddo & mama.
I had to come to the Corner to make any sense of the theme. Had to make a lot of red-letter runs and redos for a Tuesday.
IrishMiss
Thank you for that information. As you likely know, I don't follow sports so the reference was lost on me. I do watch some of the Olympics and I still wonder if Asspen can handle what's coming. I guess like every other venue in the past, they will build what's needed to accommodate the anticipated guests.
When I visited Greece many years ago, they were in the throes of preparations for the 2004 (I think) Olympics.
I saw the R AFTER S theme and liked it! Thanks, Jared and -T for the fun.
Cacti needles hurt. Ouch! It's Tues., perhaps apply some aloe.
= )
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