A Whole Lotta Shaking. The wordWholecan be added to the last word of each theme answer to give a new concept.
200Across. * Customer support line, typically: TOLL FREE NUMBER. Whole Number. A whole number is simply any positive number that
does not include a fractional or decimal part.
25-Across. * Male minister: MAN OF THE CLOTH. Whole Cloth. The term "whole cloth" is something that is entirely fictional or utterly false; completely
fabricated and not based on reality at all. The term is a reference to
tailors who would falsely advertise garments being made "out of whole cloth,"
when, in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts.
45-Across. * Rolled meaty entree that may be served "wet": BEEF ENCHILADA. Whole Enchilada. According to Webster's, the Whole Enchilada means "the entire thing : everything".
And the Unifier:
50-Across. "Too complicated to explain," and a way to describe the end of the
answer to each starred clue?: IT'S A WHOLE THING.
Across:
1. Tree covering: BARK.
5. Put up, as wallpaper: HANG.
9. Tabloid couple: ITEM.
Rumor has it that these two are an item.
13. Margarine: OLEO.
14. Emotionally distant: ALOOF.
16. Weigh station rig: SEMI.
17. Four Corners state: UTAH.
18. Ancient Greek region: IONIA.
19. Settled on a perch: ALIT.
23. Barbecue chef's spice concoction: RUB.
24. "Barton Fink" director Joel: COEN. The Coen Brothers,
Joel (né Joel Daniel Coen; b. Nov. 29, 1954) and Ethan (né Ethan Jesse Coen;
b. Sept. 21, 1957) have made numerous films together. [Name # 1.]
Ethan (Left) and Joel (Right) Coen
31. Step before a "big kid bed": CRIB.
33. December decor: WREATH.
34. Compete: VIE.
35. "Morning Edition" medium: RADIO.
37. Raggedy __ and Andy dolls: ANN. The backstory. [Names # 2 and 3, fictional.]
38. Venue for a major 1-Down: ARENA. // And 1-Down:
1. Boxing match: BOUT.
40. __ de Triomphe: ARC. It's been in Paris, France since the 1830s
41. Mottled horses: PINTOs.
44. Airline that doesn't fly on Shabbat: EL AL. A
crossword staple.
48. "You've Got Mail" director Ephron: NORA. Nora Ephron
(May 19, 1941 ~ June 26, 2012) makes frequent guest appearances in the
crossword puzzles. [Name # 4.]
49. Short albums, for short: EPs. As in Extended Plays.
57. Big birds of Australia: EMUs. We often see Emus in the
crossword puzzles.
58. Greek fable writer: AESOP. You can find a list of his fables at the Library of Congress. [Name # 5.]
59. Mental flash: IDEA.
60. Apple Watch assistant: SIRI. [Name adjacent.]
61. Email option since 1997: YAHOO!
62. Harvest: REAP.
63. Brief "Chat soon": TTYL. Textspeak for Talk To You Later.
64. "__ Yankees": DAMN. The only thing I know about this
1950s era film is in the video below.
65. Sugar amts.: TSPs. As in Teaspoons. Why the
measurement is called a Teaspoon.
Down:
2. Voice range higher than tenor: ALTO.
3. Tangible: REAL.
4. Vegetable also called a German turnip: KOHLRABI.
5. Blue accessory for Maggie Simpson: HAIRBOW. And her
mother, Marge, has blue hair. [Name # 5, fictional.]
6. __ vera gel: ALOE. A crossword staple, as is this
cartoon.
7. Sold-out amount: NONE. Cute clue.
8. Enter: GO IN.
9. "The House of the Spirits" novelist Allende: ISABEL.
Isabel Allende (née Isabel Angélica Allende Llona; b. Aug. 2, 1942) is
a Chilean novelist who makes frequent appearances in the puzzles.
[Name # 6.]
10. Latin American soap: TELENOVELA. As in a soap opera,
not a bar of soap.
11. Gulf States ruler: EMIR.
12. Research univ. near Harvard: MIT. As in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
15. Tap: FAUCET.
21. Enjoyable: FUN.
22. Chocolaty coffee drink: MOCHA. Yummers!
25. Era associated with modern furniture: MID-CENTURY.
Everything you wanted to know about Mid-Century furniture but didn't know to ask.
26. Senegal currency: FRANC.
27. First extra inning: TENTH.
28. Home of the Vietnam National Museum of History: HANOI.
There is also a memorial in Hanoi honoring John McCain.
29. "Proud Mary" singer Turner: TINA. Time for a musical
interlude with Tina Turner (née Anna Mae Bullock; b. Nov. 26, 1939 ~ May 24,
2023). [Name # 7.]
30. Mend: HEAL.
31. Grump: CRAB.
32. Deeply un-well?: RARE.
36. Covent Garden performance: OPERA.
39. Keep out of college sports for a season: REDSHIRT. Redshirt refers to a year in which a student-athlete sits out for a playing
season, but still maintains his/her four-year eligibility.
42. " ... Kind of?": IN A WAY.
43. Consider overnight: SLEEP ON.
46. Paleontologist's discovery: FOSSIL.
47. Fitting: APT.
50. "You found the right person": I'M IT.
51. Leader: HEAD.
52. Workplace-focused workplace: Abbr.: OSHA. As
in Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
53. Weaving machine: LOOM.
54. __ of March: IDES. Did you know that every month has
an Ides? Ides of March is famous / infamous because it is the day that
Julius Caesar was supposedly assassinated.
I didn’t find this puzzle terribly difficult. The themed entries were well known things or expressions, and everything fell into place pretty quickly. One thing though: I had no idea what tied the themed entries together until the reveal. Then there was an “A-HA!” moment. FIR, so I’m happy.
Today is: NATIONAL CHOPSTICKS DAY (I can play CHOPSTICKS on the piano. My CHOPSTICKS expertise ends there) SAFER INTERNET DAY (goal is reaching as many internet users as possible and provide them with the tools and resources to keep them safe) NATIONAL LAME DUCK DAY (originated as a description of stockbrokers in 1700s England who could not pay off their debts. Now has well-known political meaning) NATIONAL FROZEN YOGURT DAY (Especially good on a tourist-trap boardwalk on a hot summer day. Oh wait – that’s frozen custard)
In this age when most everyone has unlimited local and long distance calling included in their phone plans, why do companies still use TOLL-FREE NUMBERs? It enables them to harvest the number of the caller. It's one of the few types of calls when your privacy setting doesn't work, another being 911.
Sounds like the start of a joke. "A minister, a priest and a RAB(b)I go into a KOHLs."
Thanks to Madeline for the fun, easy-ish Tuesday. Except that "MIT" and "I MIT" notwithstanding, I'm just not MIT material. Man's gotta know his limitations. And thanks to Ha2la for the chuckles. Loved "barking up the wrong tree."
The Wite-Out got a rest today. No moguls encountered as d-o slalomed down the grid. Had no idea about the theme until the reveal. I guess that's a good thing. Thanx, Madeline and Hahtoolah.
The last of the tax documents finally arrived yesterday. Today I'll figure it all out. As usual, I'll have to pay -- no surprize there.
Then there are the days when I ignore the theme for good reason: I'd never get it. Never heard of "whole cloth". And I've heard the phrase "It's a whole 'nuther thing" but not IT'S A WHOLE THING. They aren't wrong, they just aren't familiar to me.
Also did not know KOHLRABI, ISABEL, or TELENOVELA. I'm not a fan of foreign language words, and I don't think they need to be harder with misdirection or vagueness. Combined with misreading the 22D clue and trying COCOA (which I am sipping on right now), I was missing too many letters for the across answers, but TOLL FREE NUMBER brought it together.
Jinx, thanks for noting that today is National Chopstick Day. It's appropriate for us today since we will be having sushi tonight.
QOD: A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it. ~ Zsa Zsa Gabor (née Sári Gábor; Feb. 6, 1917 ~ Dec. 18, 2016), Hungarian-born actress
Took 4:51 today for me to ... shop at Whole Foods.
I didn't see, or look for, the theme until coming here.
I didn't know today's author (Isabel), and was briefly annoyed by "Latin American soap," but I guess the answer redeemed it.
Like Whiner, I am not a fan of foreign language words (whether borrowed or otherwise) in the crossword puzzle. You may also be aware that I am not particularly fond of those circles.
FIR. Got to breeze through today's puzzle with little difficulty. A few learning moments but the perps solved them. Got the theme early and found it pretty clever. This was an enjoyable Tuesday romp.
Easy Peasy Tuesday offering. I, too, am not familiar with Whole Cloth as an expression, but it was easily discernible, as was the entire grid. The theme was well hidden and led to an Aha reveal, and lots of fresh fill made for an enjoyable solve. CSO to Picard at MIT.
Thanks, Madeline, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the usual fun and facts. Favorite comics were the ones for Bark, Crib, and Ides. The Raggedy Ann doll was one of my prized possessions as a child, second only to my Teddy Bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy. My brother (the culprit responsible for my shortened finger) delighted in hiding Fuzzy on me every chance he got, usually in the refrigerator. I often wonder how I survived growing up with four big brothers! 🤣
DO @ 5:35 ~ I, too, received my final tax document yesterday. 😬
Thank you Madeline for a WHOLE LOTTA LOVELY Monday puzzle!
One of the fun things about solving Monday and Tuesday puzzles is trying to picture the cartoons and other bling that sumdaze and Hahtoolah will use to illustrate their reviews, and neither has disappointed this week ...
Some of today's favorites:
9A ITEM. Where did you EVER hear that Susan?
17A UTAH. The only FOUR letter state of the FOUR.
24A COEN. Rumor has it that this on again off again ITEM are on again.
40D KOHLRABI. Grow some KOHLRABI and you'll think ALIEN SPACESHIPS have landed in your back yard. When sliced thinly and added to a salad it imparts a slightly peppery flavor, a la radishes.
12D MIT. A CSO to PICARD.
28D HANOI. I find it very interesting that Vietnam has a monument to John McCain, who was once dissed for getting shot down by someone who will remain unnamed.
SS@7:45 a.m. - Hey, SS! I liked the way you changed things up from “Oh joy, Circles!” to something a little more “nuanced.” Keep us on our toes, will you?
Good Morning! Another fun puzzle today! Thanks, Madeline. No WOs today. Yea!
When I bring up the puzzle, before I print it out, I like to see if I can get 1A & 1D. Always a good sign. Today BARK & BOUT jumped right out.
As to the theme, I got the “WHOLE” part tying into the starred answers, but not how the 50A clue and fill related to each other. I’m not aware if “it’s a whole thing” is an expression for something being complicated, or am I looking too deeply into it? Pretty vague.
YAHOO!: It brings to mind the movie Frequency with Jim Caviezel (2000) about a 30-year GAP ham radio communication between a son and his father in Spirit and how his father told him to remember the word YAHOO. If I recall, the son's friend bought Yahoo and became wealthy. Good movie.
Thanks, Hah2lah, for a plethora of fun and info. Loved the misguided barking dog, the taps in the kitchen and the "I Fell" tower!!
Easy and neat CW this morning, however I needed Hahtoolah’s expert guidance to get the theme.
I was even able to spell KOHLRABI properly right off.
The son of one of our acquaintances co-founded YAHOO.
JINX: I bet there are still some “old” people who use land line phones without free long distance service. That was the case for my SIL up until three years ago.
Thank you Hahtoolah for the references and funnies.
It’s a beautiful day this morning. I hope our California cornerites are OK.
The theme kept me in suspense until the last word, THING. I have heard this idiom often, with thing emphasized. It's a whole THING. It's a big complicated deal. Also I hear whole cloth often. Thanks for the interesting explanation, Susan. Many conspiracy theories seem to be made of whole cloth. Why man of the cloth? At one point in history, cloth referred to the clothing worn by a particular profession. Eventually cloth referred primarily to the clergy profession's clothing, and then to the clergy profession, as well. Kohlrabi is also grown in the US. One summer my dad planted it. It was not a big hit. He never planted it again. I remember oleo as a kid. During WW II, butter was very hard to get. People turned to oleo margarine, which they called oleo. The dairy industry had laws against coloring oleo yellow to compete with butter. White oleo came with a packet of yellow coloring which we mixed in by hand, my Saturday job. Soon the white oleo was packaged in plastic with a yellow button of dye inside. We could then just knead the package to turn the oleo yellow. Interesting article on loan words. How poor English would be without them. https://www.dictionary.com/e/borrowed-words/
Thank you, Madeline Kaplan for the neato puzzle and thank you, Susan, for the amusing and entertaining explanation. I always look forward to your cartoons.
I also enjoyed watching and listening to TINA Turner's rendition of Proud Mary. She was honored at the Grammys with that routine.
"Made out of WHOLE CLOTH" is a familiar saying about someone who is lying.
YR, I, too remember the OLEO packets and how they had to be mixed. That was my job, too.
ISABEL Allende is one of my favorite authors and I believe I have every one of her books. My favorite is "Fortune's Daughter", but they are all well written and entertaining.
My daughter still has the Raggedy ANN doll that my aunt made for her. She was a genius when it came to sewing.
Very enjoyable puzzle and review! The only thing I had to change was MIDsixties to MIDCENTURY. I live in a midcentury modern house built in 1964, and in our neighborhood of mixed architectural styles, we tend to speak of the area as mid-sixties. I am familiar with WHOLE NUMBER, WHOLE CLOTH, and WHOLE ENCHILADA, and was therefore tickled by the reveal. The only unfamiliar concept was REDSHIRT, but DH confirmed IT'S A WHOLE THING.
I was familiar with “whole cloth” and “whole enchilada,” but I was NOT familiar with the expression “IT’S A WHOLE THING.” Didn’t make the puzzle difficult to complete, but it did make the puzzle difficult to admire.
That orange sauce in the enchilada illustration is an abomination that I never saw in Texas before moving to California, where burritos hold sway but enchiladas aren’t worth eating. Tex-Mex enchiladas are covered with chili gravy, and that’s why they’re much tastier. I’ve had a couple of good enchiladas in Mexico (Guadalajara, Taxco), and they certainly did not have orange sauce. TV-dinner enchiladas have orange sauce. Case closed.
Musings -Like yesterday, the gimmick was more difficult to discern than solving the puzzle -My brother said veteran SEMI drivers know how to avoid weigh scales -IONIA has an 80% score on vowel content! -Tonto’s PINTO was named Scout -I used SIRI to answer “Is Stephen Hawking still alive?” for a student last week. Dr. Hawking died in 2018. -I grew up in a household of Yankee haters. -KOHLRABI filled in itself -Disney’s Prime Time Café at Disney Studios is full of MID-CENTURY decor -Some parents REDSHIRT their kids so they can be more successful in H.S. sports
Fast, fun FIR. No problems on this one. Theme? D'oh! Got done so fast, I forgot to look. Thanks, Ha2la! Back in the day, my folks were oleo smugglers. Dad would have the local grocer put cases of "yellow margarine" in his coldest cooler. We would wrap them in old wool army blankets for insulation, pack them in the car under the suitcases, and head for Minnesota on our summer vacation. Upon arrival, our many relatives would arrive with the cash.
I think I was able to link the citation this time. Loan words
RosE, I ,too, am happy when I get 1A and 1D immediately. I thought I liked rare steak until I went to a dinner at a conference where each serving of the steak was cooked alike. Everyone's steak seemed to have been just waved over the stove. It remained just as it came from the butcher, bleeding and kind of cold. Did I hear it moo? Nobody ate it. Now I order medium rare. Children are sometimes red shirted by their parents and delayed a year before entering kindergarten, especially boys. It could have temporary advantages, but the advantages often fade in a year or two. I thought any phone call I make, whether land line or cell, shows the recipient my number. I see every number that calls me, except for Not Available. I never answer those unless they leave a voice mail that I am interested in.
YR, if you ever want to hide your phone number from someone who you are calling, just press *67 then the number you want to call. You can also block your number from being delivered on all calls (except for toll frees and "official" numbers like 911). You can do that yourself on your smart phone. Doing it for your landline requires calling the telco. I don't block mine - I find it's better than leaving a voice mail to get someone to call you back.
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Madeline and Hahtoolah. I FIRed in very good time, with no inkblots. Plus I saw the WHOLE theme (although my first thought was “it’s a long story”). I’m also not familiar with that Whole Cloth expression.
RED SHIRTED was another fill that was unfamiliar to me. I was misdirected at first, but got the Soap OPERA , TELENOVELA. Favourite clue was for RARE. I prefer Medium-well. I learned OLEO doing CWs. We call it margarine (and I remember the white margarine with those dye packets).
Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Madeline. And enjoyed all your pictures, Susan, they were a treat as well, many thanks to you too.
I always look for an animal theme, but PINTOS and EMU and CRAB weren't enough, especially since the CRAB was a grouch and not a critter. I bet AESOP was a bit disappointed too.
Geography didn't do much better, although I liked seeing UTAH (we see it often) and HANOI, and an EMIR--though not enough to work as a theme.
But, who cares, the puzzle was still a WHOLE lot of fun.
I see how the reveal connects with the entries, but aside from WHOLE NUMBER and WHOLE ENCHILADA the other phrases (WHOLE CLOTH and WHOLE THING) were unfamiliar to me
We are expected to get the rains that deluged SoCal - forecast is for constant showers starting later today through Thursday. Hope all of our SoCal Cornerites are doing OK
Some nits to pick: OLEO is too "MID-CENTURY" for my tastes; literally and figuratively. OREO is still OK; OLEO is too archaic. I'M IT/MIT/IT'S/ITEM/ALIT - surprised we didn't have the Addams family member, Cousin ITT
Some words to like: REDSHIRT/the aforementioned MID-CENTURY/KOHLRABI (although I abhor Kohl's Department Stores)/SLEEP ON/and the like-sounding FAUCET and FOSSIL
This puzzle was a WHOLE lot of fun. No trouble today, FIR. Liked the variety of the four long down answers at 4, 10, 25 and 39. Knew the LA soap and the German turnip. My neighbor plants kohlrabi every year in his garden. Often shares with me. It looks like a baseball with leaves. The stem of the plant swells a couple inches above ground level to about hardball size. Peel and slice, texture like a radish or carrot.
A friend has been using Yahoo for many years for email. Called me about missing emails she swore she didn't delete. Couldn't help her. She keeps all her email on their server and uses a browser to read it. May be a space thing on Yahoo. Recommendation: if you want to keep email, download it to your PC using a program like MS Outlook or Thunderbird.
CharlieEcho Why did you have to smuggle the OLEO? I don't understand that.
On my only trip to Israel we were served steak that was completely COLD. What a shock that was.
In one of my college classes I wrote a paper on LOAN words. It was an interesting research activity and I had to set limits on it because it could have been exceedingly long.
At the moment it is 62 degrees here with rain expected at any moment.
Learning moment about the McCain monument in HANOI. From what I could find it is not honoring him. It is honoring those who captured him. He was dropping bombs on them. Until the day he died he vowed he would never use the word "Vietnamese" and would only use a racial slur beginning with G and ending with K. I am not judging him. I honor the fact that he stayed with his men when he had a chance to leave. I am just making an observation.
I'm sure I have a photo of myself standing at the "four corners" but I think it's in a slide and I have been meaning to convert those slides into manageable photos. This is a good reminder that I need to do that!
The rain has arrived and it is supposed to last a long while so we shall be good and wet tonight.
Lucina: In the 1950's, and until sometime in the '60's Dairy Protection Laws in Wisconsin and Minnesota made it illegal to sell "Colored Oleomargarin" . The only oleo that could be sold was the unappetizing white variety with the red dye pack. Thus our smuggling! (Oleo was quite a bit cheaper than butter.
Jinx, I understood about hiding my number. My point was: why do corporations need to do anything special to find the number of the caller. I thought that most of the time the number of your caller can be seen on your phone. I never hide my number. I think it is rude. If the caller's identify is unavailable, I am unavailable. It's a "whole thing" is quite informal.
I liked this puzzle, Hahtoolah's recap, and all your comments. It took me a while to figure out how OSHA is itself a workplace. TINSEL had to be changed to WREATH.
Yeah, it was also my job as a kid to massage those bags of OLEO margarine until the yellow dye was thoroughly mixed in.
I had met Jerry Yang, one of the founders of YAHOO, at Stanford.
Picard, interesting to learn that ENCHILADA means "seasoned with chili". Some the best enchiladas and nachos I recall ever having was when I lived in San Angelo, Texas. (I still think fondly of Ol' Man Keith when I hear/see the word Nacho because that was the name of one of his beloved dogs.)
Thanks for another humorous expo, Hahtoolah. LOL Carbon Dating comic.
WOs: lORA -> NORA ESPs: KOHLRABI Fav: I'll go with YAHOO! I remember using it long before Google existed. //I also remember within weeks of discovering Google, everyone I knew switched.
I knew all the WHOLE-thing phrases.
FLN - Picard: We've been on the Ferris Wheel too!
I must be really young 'cuz OLEO (margarine) has always been yellow. My family used it all the time thinking it was healthier than butter. I didn't even know what real butter was until moving to the south (and learned it's better for you than margarine).
WCES (What Charlie Echo said) about the laws in Wisconsin and Minnesota that were put in place to protect the dairy farmers. The laws in those states existed into the mid 1970s. And yes, butter was among the many rationed items during WW2.
But it was long before that - in fact longer than anyone here can remember - that there were prohibitions in the U.S. against yellow colored oleomargarines. Here's a great article: How the Government Came to Decide the Color of Your Food
I was reading a food blog on this subject the other day. The gist of the article was that there's now compelling evidence that cooking with lard is no more harmful than cooking with butter or margarine. The author was clearly in favor of the flavor that lard imparts. The point was that for years lard has been knocked, but studies don't support the rap against it. I personally don't know about the health impact one way or the other. I know that lard makes for better tasting biscuits and tamales and many other foods, but it still has a bad rap.
Correction, the laws existed in Wisconsin until the mid 1960s. I recall that Desper-otto commented in this blog many years ago about the margarine laws in Wisconsin. His comments was where I first heard of the Wisconsin laws that were written to protect their dairy industry by banning yellow margarine.
Thanks to Madeline for her puzzle! I liked the WHOLE THING -- but I especially liked the fun long fills. Learning moment about the WHOLE CLOTH.
Jayce, did you hear that the Whole Enchilada restaurant in Moss Landing is closing? Apparently the owner passed in Nov and the family decided to close shop.
Thanks, also, to Hahtoolah for her fun write-up! It's getting late so I'll just pick one FAV: Carbon dating.
39 comments:
I didn’t find this puzzle terribly difficult.
The themed entries were well known things or expressions, and everything fell into place pretty quickly. One thing though: I had no idea what tied the themed entries together until the reveal. Then there was an “A-HA!” moment. FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but had to fix ENCHeLADA.
Today is:
NATIONAL CHOPSTICKS DAY (I can play CHOPSTICKS on the piano. My CHOPSTICKS expertise ends there)
SAFER INTERNET DAY (goal is reaching as many internet users as possible and provide them with the tools and resources to keep them safe)
NATIONAL LAME DUCK DAY (originated as a description of stockbrokers in 1700s England who could not pay off their debts. Now has well-known political meaning)
NATIONAL FROZEN YOGURT DAY (Especially good on a tourist-trap boardwalk on a hot summer day. Oh wait – that’s frozen custard)
In this age when most everyone has unlimited local and long distance calling included in their phone plans, why do companies still use TOLL-FREE NUMBERs? It enables them to harvest the number of the caller. It's one of the few types of calls when your privacy setting doesn't work, another being 911.
Sounds like the start of a joke. "A minister, a priest and a RAB(b)I go into a KOHLs."
Thanks to Madeline for the fun, easy-ish Tuesday. Except that "MIT" and "I MIT" notwithstanding, I'm just not MIT material. Man's gotta know his limitations. And thanks to Ha2la for the chuckles. Loved "barking up the wrong tree."
Good morning!
The Wite-Out got a rest today. No moguls encountered as d-o slalomed down the grid. Had no idea about the theme until the reveal. I guess that's a good thing. Thanx, Madeline and Hahtoolah.
The last of the tax documents finally arrived yesterday. Today I'll figure it all out. As usual, I'll have to pay -- no surprize there.
Good morning. Thank you, Madeline Kaplan and thank you, Hahtoolah.
I was today years old when I first learned of, and did further reading on WHOLE CLOTH. New to me.
I also did not know Jinx's factoid about TOLL FREE numbers.
R.I.P., Toby Keith.
Then there are the days when I ignore the theme for good reason: I'd never get it. Never heard of "whole cloth". And I've heard the phrase "It's a whole 'nuther thing" but not IT'S A WHOLE THING. They aren't wrong, they just aren't familiar to me.
Also did not know KOHLRABI, ISABEL, or TELENOVELA. I'm not a fan of foreign language words, and I don't think they need to be harder with misdirection or vagueness. Combined with misreading the 22D clue and trying COCOA (which I am sipping on right now), I was missing too many letters for the across answers, but TOLL FREE NUMBER brought it together.
Good Morning, Crossword friends.
Jinx, thanks for noting that today is National Chopstick Day. It's appropriate for us today since we will be having sushi tonight.
QOD: A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it. ~ Zsa Zsa Gabor (née Sári Gábor; Feb. 6, 1917 ~ Dec. 18, 2016), Hungarian-born actress
Took 4:51 today for me to ... shop at Whole Foods.
I didn't see, or look for, the theme until coming here.
I didn't know today's author (Isabel), and was briefly annoyed by "Latin American soap," but I guess the answer redeemed it.
Like Whiner, I am not a fan of foreign language words (whether borrowed or otherwise) in the crossword puzzle. You may also be aware that I am not particularly fond of those circles.
"DAMN Yankees" is an updated remake of "Faust." A souvenir from the show is the only Yankees t-shirt I own.
FIR. Got to breeze through today's puzzle with little difficulty. A few learning moments but the perps solved them. Got the theme early and found it pretty clever. This was an enjoyable Tuesday romp.
Good Morning:
Easy Peasy Tuesday offering. I, too, am not familiar with Whole Cloth as an expression, but it was easily discernible, as was the entire grid. The theme was well hidden and led to an Aha reveal, and lots of fresh fill made for an enjoyable solve. CSO to Picard at MIT.
Thanks, Madeline, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the usual fun and facts. Favorite comics were the ones for Bark, Crib, and Ides. The Raggedy Ann doll was one of my prized possessions as a child, second only to my Teddy Bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy. My brother (the culprit responsible for my shortened finger) delighted in hiding Fuzzy on me every chance he got, usually in the refrigerator. I often wonder how I survived growing up with four big brothers! 🤣
DO @ 5:35 ~ I, too, received my final tax document yesterday. 😬
Have a great day.
Thank you Madeline for a WHOLE LOTTA LOVELY Monday puzzle!
One of the fun things about solving Monday and Tuesday puzzles is trying to picture the cartoons and other bling that sumdaze and Hahtoolah will use to illustrate their reviews, and neither has disappointed this week ...
Some of today's favorites:
9A ITEM. Where did you EVER hear that Susan?
17A UTAH. The only FOUR letter state of the FOUR.
24A COEN. Rumor has it that this on again off again ITEM are on again.
40D KOHLRABI. Grow some KOHLRABI and you'll think ALIEN SPACESHIPS have landed in your back yard. When sliced thinly and added to a salad it imparts a slightly peppery flavor, a la radishes.
12D MIT. A CSO to PICARD.
28D HANOI. I find it very interesting that Vietnam has a monument to John McCain, who was once dissed for getting shot down by someone who will remain unnamed.
46D FOSSIL. Hilarious cartoon!
Cheers,
Bill
SS@7:45 a.m. - Hey, SS! I liked the way you changed things up from “Oh joy, Circles!” to something a little more “nuanced.” Keep us on our toes, will you?
Good Morning! Another fun puzzle today! Thanks, Madeline.
No WOs today. Yea!
When I bring up the puzzle, before I print it out, I like to see if I can get 1A & 1D. Always a good sign. Today BARK & BOUT jumped right out.
As to the theme, I got the “WHOLE” part tying into the starred answers, but not how the 50A clue and fill related to each other. I’m not aware if “it’s a whole thing” is an expression for something being complicated, or am I looking too deeply into it? Pretty vague.
YAHOO!: It brings to mind the movie Frequency with Jim Caviezel (2000) about a 30-year GAP ham radio communication between a son and his father in Spirit and how his father told him to remember the word YAHOO. If I recall, the son's friend bought Yahoo and became wealthy. Good movie.
Thanks, Hah2lah, for a plethora of fun and info. Loved the misguided barking dog, the taps in the kitchen and the "I Fell" tower!!
I meant to say - bought Yahoo stock, not the company.
Easy and neat CW this morning, however I needed Hahtoolah’s expert guidance to get the theme.
I was even able to spell KOHLRABI properly right off.
The son of one of our acquaintances co-founded YAHOO.
JINX: I bet there are still some “old” people who use land line phones without free long distance service. That was the case for my SIL up until three years ago.
Thank you Hahtoolah for the references and funnies.
It’s a beautiful day this morning. I hope our California cornerites are OK.
The theme kept me in suspense until the last word, THING. I have heard this idiom often, with thing emphasized. It's a whole THING. It's a big complicated deal.
Also I hear whole cloth often. Thanks for the interesting explanation, Susan. Many conspiracy theories seem to be made of whole cloth.
Why man of the cloth? At one point in history, cloth referred to the clothing worn by a particular profession. Eventually cloth referred primarily to the clergy profession's clothing, and then to the clergy profession, as well.
Kohlrabi is also grown in the US. One summer my dad planted it. It was not a big hit. He never planted it again.
I remember oleo as a kid. During WW II, butter was very hard to get. People turned to oleo margarine, which they called oleo. The dairy industry had laws against coloring oleo yellow to compete with butter. White oleo came with a packet of yellow coloring which we mixed in by hand, my Saturday job. Soon the white oleo was packaged in plastic with a yellow button of dye inside. We could then just knead the package to turn the oleo yellow.
Interesting article on loan words. How poor English would be without them.
https://www.dictionary.com/e/borrowed-words/
Hola!
Thank you, Madeline Kaplan for the neato puzzle and thank you, Susan, for the amusing and entertaining explanation. I always look forward to your cartoons.
I also enjoyed watching and listening to TINA Turner's rendition of Proud Mary. She was honored at the Grammys with that routine.
"Made out of WHOLE CLOTH" is a familiar saying about someone who is lying.
YR, I, too remember the OLEO packets and how they had to be mixed. That was my job, too.
ISABEL Allende is one of my favorite authors and I believe I have every one of her books. My favorite is "Fortune's Daughter", but they are all well written and entertaining.
My daughter still has the Raggedy ANN doll that my aunt made for her. She was a genius when it came to sewing.
PINTOS are also a type of bean. Yum.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Very enjoyable puzzle and review! The only thing I had to change was MIDsixties to MIDCENTURY. I live in a midcentury modern house built in 1964, and in our neighborhood of mixed architectural styles, we tend to speak of the area as mid-sixties. I am familiar with WHOLE NUMBER, WHOLE CLOTH, and WHOLE ENCHILADA, and was therefore tickled by the reveal. The only unfamiliar concept was REDSHIRT, but DH confirmed IT'S A WHOLE THING.
I was familiar with “whole cloth” and “whole enchilada,” but I was NOT familiar with the expression “IT’S A WHOLE THING.” Didn’t make the puzzle difficult to complete, but it did make the puzzle difficult to admire.
That orange sauce in the enchilada illustration is an abomination that I never saw in Texas before moving to California, where burritos hold sway but enchiladas aren’t worth eating. Tex-Mex enchiladas are covered with chili gravy, and that’s why they’re much tastier. I’ve had a couple of good enchiladas in Mexico (Guadalajara, Taxco), and they certainly did not have orange sauce. TV-dinner enchiladas have orange sauce. Case closed.
Musings
-Like yesterday, the gimmick was more difficult to discern than solving the puzzle
-My brother said veteran SEMI drivers know how to avoid weigh scales
-IONIA has an 80% score on vowel content!
-Tonto’s PINTO was named Scout
-I used SIRI to answer “Is Stephen Hawking still alive?” for a student last week. Dr. Hawking died in 2018.
-I grew up in a household of Yankee haters.
-KOHLRABI filled in itself
-Disney’s Prime Time Café at Disney Studios is full of MID-CENTURY decor
-Some parents REDSHIRT their kids so they can be more successful in H.S. sports
Fast, fun FIR. No problems on this one. Theme? D'oh! Got done so fast, I forgot to look. Thanks, Ha2la! Back in the day, my folks were oleo smugglers. Dad would have the local grocer put cases of "yellow margarine" in his coldest cooler. We would wrap them in old wool army blankets for insulation, pack them in the car under the suitcases, and head for Minnesota on our summer vacation. Upon arrival, our many relatives would arrive with the cash.
I think I was able to link the citation this time.
Loan words
RosE, I ,too, am happy when I get 1A and 1D immediately.
I thought I liked rare steak until I went to a dinner at a conference where each serving of the steak was cooked alike. Everyone's steak seemed to have been just waved over the stove. It remained just as it came from the butcher, bleeding and kind of cold. Did I hear it moo? Nobody ate it. Now I order medium rare.
Children are sometimes red shirted by their parents and delayed a year before entering kindergarten, especially boys. It could have temporary advantages, but the advantages often fade in a year or two.
I thought any phone call I make, whether land line or cell, shows the recipient my number. I see every number that calls me, except for Not Available. I never answer those unless they leave a voice mail that I am interested in.
YR, if you ever want to hide your phone number from someone who you are calling, just press *67 then the number you want to call. You can also block your number from being delivered on all calls (except for toll frees and "official" numbers like 911). You can do that yourself on your smart phone. Doing it for your landline requires calling the telco. I don't block mine - I find it's better than leaving a voice mail to get someone to call you back.
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Madeline and Hahtoolah.
I FIRed in very good time, with no inkblots.
Plus I saw the WHOLE theme (although my first thought was “it’s a long story”).
I’m also not familiar with that Whole Cloth expression.
RED SHIRTED was another fill that was unfamiliar to me.
I was misdirected at first, but got the Soap OPERA , TELENOVELA.
Favourite clue was for RARE. I prefer Medium-well.
I learned OLEO doing CWs. We call it margarine (and I remember the white margarine with those dye packets).
I noted REAP crossing NEAP.
Wishing you all a great day.
Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Madeline. And enjoyed all your pictures, Susan, they were a treat as well, many thanks to you too.
I always look for an animal theme, but PINTOS and EMU and CRAB weren't enough, especially since the CRAB was a grouch and not a critter. I bet AESOP was a bit disappointed too.
Geography didn't do much better, although I liked seeing UTAH (we see it often) and HANOI, and an EMIR--though not enough to work as a theme.
But, who cares, the puzzle was still a WHOLE lot of fun.
Have a great day, everybody.
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR
I see how the reveal connects with the entries, but aside from WHOLE NUMBER and WHOLE ENCHILADA the other phrases (WHOLE CLOTH and WHOLE THING) were unfamiliar to me
We are expected to get the rains that deluged SoCal - forecast is for constant showers starting later today through Thursday. Hope all of our SoCal Cornerites are doing OK
Some nits to pick: OLEO is too "MID-CENTURY" for my tastes; literally and figuratively. OREO is still OK; OLEO is too archaic. I'M IT/MIT/IT'S/ITEM/ALIT - surprised we didn't have the Addams family member, Cousin ITT
Some words to like: REDSHIRT/the aforementioned MID-CENTURY/KOHLRABI (although I abhor Kohl's Department Stores)/SLEEP ON/and the like-sounding FAUCET and FOSSIL
This puzzle was a WHOLE lot of fun. No trouble today, FIR. Liked the variety of the four long down answers at 4, 10, 25 and 39. Knew the LA soap and the German turnip. My neighbor plants kohlrabi every year in his garden. Often shares with me. It looks like a baseball with leaves. The stem of the plant swells a couple inches above ground level to about hardball size. Peel and slice, texture like a radish or carrot.
A friend has been using Yahoo for many years for email. Called me about missing emails she swore she didn't delete. Couldn't help her. She keeps all her email on their server and uses a browser to read it. May be a space thing on Yahoo. Recommendation: if you want to keep email, download it to your PC using a program like MS Outlook or Thunderbird.
Once a day, breathe fresh air.
Pablum.
CharlieEcho
Why did you have to smuggle the OLEO? I don't understand that.
On my only trip to Israel we were served steak that was completely COLD. What a shock that was.
In one of my college classes I wrote a paper on LOAN words. It was an interesting research activity and I had to set limits on it because it could have been exceedingly long.
At the moment it is 62 degrees here with rain expected at any moment.
Hand up never heard of "IT'S A WHOLE THING". Learning moment. Learning moment that ENCHILADA means "seasoned with chili". Fun theme. FIR.
CanadianEh Hand up RARE clue was my favorite.
Irish Miss, waseeley Thanks for the MIT CSO!
Here I was as a teen standing at FOUR CORNERS
Learning moment about the McCain monument in HANOI. From what I could find it is not honoring him. It is honoring those who captured him. He was dropping bombs on them. Until the day he died he vowed he would never use the word "Vietnamese" and would only use a racial slur beginning with G and ending with K. I am not judging him. I honor the fact that he stayed with his men when he had a chance to leave. I am just making an observation.
I'm sure I have a photo of myself standing at the "four corners" but I think it's in a slide and I have been meaning to convert those slides into manageable photos. This is a good reminder that I need to do that!
The rain has arrived and it is supposed to last a long while so we shall be good and wet tonight.
Lucina: In the 1950's, and until sometime in the '60's Dairy Protection Laws in Wisconsin and Minnesota made it illegal to sell "Colored Oleomargarin" . The only oleo that could be sold was the unappetizing white variety with the red dye pack. Thus our smuggling! (Oleo was quite a bit cheaper than butter.
Jinx, I understood about hiding my number. My point was: why do corporations need to do anything special to find the number of the caller. I thought that most of the time the number of your caller can be seen on your phone.
I never hide my number. I think it is rude. If the caller's identify is unavailable, I am unavailable.
It's a "whole thing" is quite informal.
I liked this puzzle, Hahtoolah's recap, and all your comments. It took me a while to figure out how OSHA is itself a workplace. TINSEL had to be changed to WREATH.
Yeah, it was also my job as a kid to massage those bags of OLEO margarine until the yellow dye was thoroughly mixed in.
I had met Jerry Yang, one of the founders of YAHOO, at Stanford.
Picard, interesting to learn that ENCHILADA means "seasoned with chili". Some the best enchiladas and nachos I recall ever having was when I lived in San Angelo, Texas. (I still think fondly of Ol' Man Keith when I hear/see the word Nacho because that was the name of one of his beloved dogs.)
Good wishes to you all.
Hi All!
Quick, fun, Tuesday run. Thanks Madeline.
Thanks for another humorous expo, Hahtoolah. LOL Carbon Dating comic.
WOs: lORA -> NORA
ESPs: KOHLRABI
Fav: I'll go with YAHOO! I remember using it long before Google existed.
//I also remember within weeks of discovering Google, everyone I knew switched.
I knew all the WHOLE-thing phrases.
FLN - Picard: We've been on the Ferris Wheel too!
I must be really young 'cuz OLEO (margarine) has always been yellow. My family used it all the time thinking it was healthier than butter. I didn't even know what real butter was until moving to the south (and learned it's better for you than margarine).
Gotta run; enjoy'd reading y'all.
Cheers, -T
AnonT
I believe OLEO was sold during the war years, WWII.
WCES (What Charlie Echo said) about the laws in Wisconsin and Minnesota that were put in place to protect the dairy farmers. The laws in those states existed into the mid 1970s. And yes, butter was among the many rationed items during WW2.
But it was long before that - in fact longer than anyone here can remember - that there were prohibitions in the U.S. against yellow colored oleomargarines. Here's a great article: How the Government Came to Decide the Color of Your Food
I was reading a food blog on this subject the other day. The gist of the article was that there's now compelling evidence that cooking with lard is no more harmful than cooking with butter or margarine. The author was clearly in favor of the flavor that lard imparts. The point was that for years lard has been knocked, but studies don't support the rap against it. I personally don't know about the health impact one way or the other. I know that lard makes for better tasting biscuits and tamales and many other foods, but it still has a bad rap.
Correction, the laws existed in Wisconsin until the mid 1960s. I recall that Desper-otto commented in this blog many years ago about the margarine laws in Wisconsin. His comments was where I first heard of the Wisconsin laws that were written to protect their dairy industry by banning yellow margarine.
Thanks to Madeline for her puzzle! I liked the WHOLE THING -- but I especially liked the fun long fills.
Learning moment about the WHOLE CLOTH.
Jayce, did you hear that the Whole Enchilada restaurant in Moss Landing is closing? Apparently the owner passed in Nov and the family decided to close shop.
Thanks, also, to Hahtoolah for her fun write-up! It's getting late so I'll just pick one FAV: Carbon dating.
Yes. TTP is correct. Tamales are made with lard and I believe it is what greatly contributes to their delicious flavor.
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