Theme: "Con Test" - Each common phrase is rephrased as if it's con (convention)-related.
22. Con current?: AIR OF EXCITEMENT.
33. Con tour?: MEET AND GREET.
37. Con quest?: AUTOGRAPH.
54. Con sorts?: COSPLAYERS.
68. Con note?: I LOVE YOUR WORK.
86. Con text?: FAN FICTION.
101. Con figure?: MOVIE STAR.
103. Con script?: GROUP READING.
119. Con form?: CARDBOARD CUTOUT.
Just
a perfect title. Also love that all the theme entries are
in-the-language phrases. Not easy for this type of theme where the
answers have to match the second parts of the con words and have to work
within the convention contest.
You can find more of Brian puzzles at his site Puzzles That Need a Home. More of Kate's puzzle at her site Crosswords Schmosswords
Across:
4. Most pancakes: DISKS.
9. Ijeoma Oluo's "So You Want To Talk About __": RACE. OLUO is very crossword-friendly.
13. Lumps in a stack of folded sweatshirts: HOODS.
18. Make a big fuss: RAISE CAIN.
20. Auburn, to Alabama: RIVAL.
21. Skerry, e.g.: ISLET. I did not know the meaning of skerry. Wikipedia info: small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation.
24. Bradbury genre: SCI-FI.
25. Brotherly sort: FRIAR.
26. Blackpink genre: KPOP. Very popular girl group in Asia.
27. December quaff: NOG.
29. River near Shakespeare's birthplace: AVON.
30. Argentine grassland: PAMPA.
41. Hardly any: A DAB.
42. Squeaky toy?: POM. Ha. Squeaky.
43. With 52-Across, some midriff-baring attire: CROP. 52. See 43-Across: TOPS.
44. "Star Trek: TNG" counselor Deanna: TROI.
45. Leg bone: TIBIA.
47. System connecting OAK and SFO: BART.
50. Patella spots: KNEES.
57. Plays chords, in a way: STRUMS.
59. Aristotle's teacher: PLATO.
61. Fictional Amelia who, when asked to remove spots from a dress, cut out all the polka dots: BEDELIA.
62. Maui's Road to __: HANA.
63. Iranian money: RIAL.
64. Chart-topper: HIT.
65. "Shucks!": RATS.
66. "Black-ish" dad: DRE.
73. Tic-tac-toe side: XES.
74. Slitherers in the sea: EELS.
76. Freedom Rider's ride: BUS.
77. Scuffle: FRAY.
78. As concerns: IN RE.
80. Code names: ALIASES.
82. "See what I did there?": GET IT.
84. Drives too fast: SPEEDS.
88. Half of quatorze: SEPT. French for 7.
90. Spousal term of endearment: WIFEY.
92. Toss, slangily: YEET.
93. Performed miserably: STUNK.
95. Put pen to paper: DREW.
97. "Aida" river: NILE.
98. Classic film about a football-kicking mule: GUS.
100. Swing about: SLUE.
108. False move: FEINT.
109. Capital of Italia: ROMA.
110. Lacking freshness: OLD.
111. " ... __ I thought": OR SO.
113. Saint-Saëns's "__ Macabre": DANSE.
117. Conscious: AWARE.
124. Seeds, weeds, and feeds: TENDS. 128. Nave-y bases?: PEWS. Fun clues.
125. Asteroids publisher: ATARI.
126. "Wait, what happened?": I MISSED IT.
127. Come up: ARISE.
129. "Divine Comedy" poet: DANTE.
130. Greek vowel: ETA.
Down:
2. Skating team: PAIR.
3. iPhone speaker: SIRI.
4. Reorganize a hard drive, familiarly: DE-FRAG.
5. Cocktail sphere: ICE.
6. "Yakety __": horn-heavy novelty hit: SAX.
7. Algonquian-speaking people: KICKAPOO. Learning moment for me. We have Ojibwe here.
8. Manicure sound: SNIP.
9. Salt garnish locale: RIM.
10. Letters after Madison or before Maria: AVE.
11. Source of hemp: CANNABIS. Sure hope you don't ever encounter the smell issue.
12. John who completed an EGOT in 2024: ELTON.
13. That fella's: HIS.
14. Name on a Wienermobile: OSCAR MAYER.
15. Tapenade fruit: OLIVE.
16. Crusoe's creator: DEFOE (Daniel)
17. Stay: STINT.
19. Major drama: SOAP OPERA.
20. Two bars and two dots, on a staff: REPEAT.
23. Actor Hardy: TOM.
28. Macroeconomics abbr.: GDP.
31. Actor born Laurence Tureaud: MR T.
32. Components: PARTS.
34. Proclamation: EDICT.
35. Hasbro's "game of unspeakable fun": TABOO.
36. Turn: GO BAD. (Thanks, D-Otto!)
37. "Cathy" cry: ACK.
38. Vessels in a pharaoh's tomb: URNS. Fresh clue angle.
39. Follow the rules: TOE THE LINE. 48. Dadcore jeans specification: RELAXED FIT. Two more great fill.
40. 1960s nonconformist: HIPPIE.
46. HS exam with a cellular energetics section: AP BIO.
49. Lacking freshness: TRITE.
51. Olympic gold medalist Lee: SUNI. She grew up in St. Paul.
53. Tear it up: SLAY.
55. Unleash: LET RIP.
56. Spunk: SASS.
58. Many an Argentine red: MALBEC.
60. Up in the air: ALOFT.
63. Campground sights, briefly: RVS.
64. Rte. 66, e.g.: HWY.
66. The "D" of CODA: DEAF.
67. Baton-passing event: RELAY.
69. Boots: OUSTS.
70. Novelist Leon: URIS. He wrote "Exodus".
71. Like the Resident Evil games: RATED M.
72. Had more than an inkling: KNEW.
75. Rails against failure?: SAFEGUARDS. Love this clue also.
79. Put back: REINSTATE.
81. Crunch cousin: SIT UP.
82. Actor Elliott: GOULD. He was once married to Barbra Streisand.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/elliott-barbara-f3618ddf1f734a9db651e36aea1060d5.jpg)
83. Jaded feeling: ENNUI.
84. Big name in Apple history: STEVE. Jobs.
85. Ward of "Gone Girl": SELA.
87. "See you then!": IT'S A DATE.
89. As per routine: PRO FORMA. Hey, a PRO word in this Con puzzle.
91. "__ outta here!": YER.
94. Skywalker mentor: KENOBI.
96. GameCube successor: WII.
99. Cheap ticket spec: SRO.
102. Final application: END USE.
103. Persona non __: GRATA.
104. Scull mover: ROWER.
105. Bahla Fort visitor, perhaps: OMANI. On the UNESCO World Heritage List.
106. Yosemite peak free soloed in "Free Solo," informally: EL CAP.
107. Miracle-__: GRO.
112. Came out with: SAID.
114. Vertex, in graph theory: NODE.
115. Clubs, but not cabarets: SUIT.
116. Jazz singer Jones: ETTA.
118. Kampala-to-Nairobi dir.: ESE.
120. Unedited, as footage: RAW.
121. OBs, e.g.: DRS.
122. Racket: DIN.
123. Chicago winter hrs.: CST.
OK,
an update on my freestyle. What do you think, Wendy? My hand entry is
much better, but I need to hold my glide a bit longer.
61 comments:
I got the gimmick pretty quickly, and that helped solve the rest of the puzzle. I have one quibble with this puzzle: “Suni” crossing “Hana” doesn’t seem quite fair. Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle, in spite of its length. FIR, so I’m happy.
That was fun. I also liked many of the clues.
So there were two songs. Yakety Yak and Yakety Sax. I keyed in the prior but the perps didn't agree.
A few typos. The game options were set to "Skip Over Filled Letters" and I didn't notice.
Cross Eyed Dave, I use Google Photos. It is pretty easy to upload pictures. Then you just create and copy the link.
As for Husker Gary's post with the shelfie photos, go to the main page, scroll down to Archives, open 2024 February, and scroll down. You'll see the SHELFIES! post listed between Feb 19th and Feb 20th.
This cute commercial has been airing in Chicagoland: GE Appliances TV Spot, 'Shelfie'.
Good morning!
Missed the point, thinking "Con" meant either "convict" or "anti." Oops. TTP, there was a third song -- Yakety Axe. Was sure that wine was MELBAC. Re-Oops. Guess I was confused with Alf, that big-nosed guy from the planet Melmac. Was sure that game rating was gonna be X or R, but M? At the end it all came down to that one square where HANA crossed SUNI -- if you didn't know, it could'a been anything. Bzzzzzt...crashed and burned. Thanx, Brian, Kate, and C.C. (Methinks you meant "Go bad" with your "Gob ad." Swimming? I agree with Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary -- it's not about style, it's staying alive in the water.)
Took 18:10 today for me to find the pros; never did suss what all the cons were about.
I've driven the Road to Hana, so that was a gimme for me. Suni I vaguely recalled.
The crossing of "Danse" and "node" was my last square.
FIR, but it was one helleva workout. And I still don't get the theme even after having it explained here.
I too got off on the wrong foot putting yak before sax. And the number of unknowns for me led me to believe that I was doomed to a non finish.
This took a lot longer than I wanted but perserverence made it happen. I did not enjoy this puzzle but was determined to see it through.
I managed to FIR but still don't get the gimmick. I just guessed the fills after enough perps were in place. Maybe I'm dense but I still don't GET IT.
The puzzle was full of unknowns and unknown clues, Oluo & RACE, Skerry & ISLET, Blackpink & KPOP, Amelia & BEDELIA, KICKAPOO, SUNI Lee, MALBEC, quatorze & SEPT, DRE.
Changed HONEY to WIFEY, DRAW to DREW, LET OUT to LET RIP, CODA & DEAF, IRAQI to OMANI
I didn't know KICKAPOO was a tribe. Only knew about Lil Abner's "Kickapoo joy juice"
EL CAPitan- for people with a death wish.
STEVE Wozniak was the brains; Jobs was the salesman- couldn't program
I missed the last three CW, so I must be out of shape because I had to TITT on this one. There might have been a lot of clues, but I was clueless. I must have regressed to Monday level.
Good Morning:
I saw what was going on but didn't get the full gimmick until CC's explanation. Like DO, my thoughts were focused on convict and I was wondering how that tied in to the answers. Convention, however, makes perfect sense and meshes well with the title. I needed perps for Islet, K Pop, Kickapoo, Hana, Gus, and Node. I only had two w/os, Cami/Crop and Seis/Sept, but I had to wait on many, many simple fills because of the vague or non-specific cluing which, IMO, is a sign of a well-constructed puzzle. I thought the difficulty level was above that of most Sundays, as was much of the fresh, solid fill, including Toe The Line, It's A Date, Relaxed Fit, Soap Opera, Safeguards, etc.
Thanks, Brian and Kate, for a challenging and enjoyable Sunday solve and thanks, CC, for making everything as clear as a bell. Congrats on your swimming progress. You look might impressive!
TTP @ 5:23 ~ The Shelfie commercial is cute but the sight of that huge watermelon made me shudder! Thanks for reassuring me that I wasn't off base re the two different Yakety songs! 😉
Have a great day.
Mighty impressive. Sorry.
Musings
-What a delightful struggle with great cluing and only an inkling of the gimmick!
-GPS and Uber got us around Washington D.C.
-Other cities on the AVON are Malmesbury, Chippenham, Melksham and Keynsham
-LLANO or PAMPA
-When rasslin’ was popular in early TV, this was the Wild Bull Of The PAMPAS
-New KNEES are very common in my senior golf league
-My friend described The Road To Hana to see Lindberg’s grave as the worst road he’s ever been on
-Is the most famous code name The Manhattan Project?
-49er defense STUNK at the end of the Super Bowl. Their defensive coordinator got fired three days later
-I MISSED IT: I looked down for two seconds when my golf partner had a 150-yd eagle this week
-Al Capp could not get away with this today
-Red M _ _ _ _ _ - MERLOT was wrong although it is also produced in Argentina
-I was today years old when I learned Child Of DEAF Adults
-Elliot GOULD will always be Trapper John in the movie M*A*S*H
-Say the magic word and an umpire will bellow, “YER outta here!”
-A two-time cheating husband became a former friend and persona non GRATA
-Wonderful progress, C.C.
Had a couple of misspells and had YER originally and changed it to get and didn't change it back. Wanted NUIT for 115D. French for night. Get it? Night club?? No? Sorry.
Liked the embedded 10s down. Really added to the challenge.
Gold as stars to Brian and Kate for their fine work. Hats off to C.C. for her as smooth review.
Wherever you go, there you are, but never stay.
Once.
Two hometown clues today. We call our rival bama (with a small b). And Suni Lee competed her for two years
Here for two years
Addendum
I am still open to post more shelfies! Just send them to
gschlapfer@gmail.com
Another hand up for still not understanding the theme, for yAX over SAX, and the HAxA/SUxI Natick, by which time (due to a balky internet) I didn't feel like an alphabet run.
The Li'l Abner comic had characters drinking KICKAPOO joy juice.
I think the theme is related specifically to a comic con (or similar) convention. Where there’s a lot of cosplay and excited fans looking to meet like-minded individuals.
Hand up I FIR, but still do not understand the theme, despite your best effort to explain it, CC. I have never heard CON used as short for CONvention. And I don't see how it works as CONvention. Sorry for being dense, but I need a further explanation.
So many proper name unknowns that maybe are just me: MALBEC, BEDELIA, BAHLA FORT, CODA/DEAF.
Here we were at Glacier Point overlooking EL CAP.
A memorably amazing spot!
Hand up only know KICKAPOO Joy Juice. Learning moment.
FIR once I got the theme, which helped me fill in the blanks. JudyB at 12:04 PM SAID it! Think of Comic-Con, a convention where fans seek an AUTOGRAPH at a MEET AND GREET with a MOVIE STAR. That helped me fill in COS PLAYERS and AIR OF EXCITEMENT. This was much harder than the usual Sunday! Practice makes perfect: just look at C.C. swimming! Thanks Brian, Kate, Patti, and C.C.
Picard@12:19. I’m with you, I don’t understand the theme in spite of others’ efforts to explain it. Since i was at sea with theme answers, I did not have a chance to guess the many unknowns.
I’m in awe of all the posters who FIR.
Robert/Picard @ 12:19, ironically given your "handle", pretty early on I started working from the guess that we were dealing with things related to COMIC CON. I never even thought to "flesh out" CONvention but everything worked fine with COMICON as a point of reference even if things can also be taken in a broader context.
Just a quick update…
I don’t even look at the Saturday puzzles anymore because the editor is content with publishing difficult material that is unenjoyable to solve.
I wonder how many other corner have followed the same path.
I find much more pleasure in the USA today Saturday offering.
That being said….
Todays offering had a lot of crunch for a Sunday but the cluing was clever.
The theme seems to be about a comic-con and not most conventions.
I don’t think you’d see a Doctors convention with Cosplay.
Thanks for an enjoyable Sunday puzzle Brian and Kate.
An awesome recap CC
…… kkFlorida
Billcohoes @ 11:35
I have no access to the the Sunday CW but like to review the clue/answers for help with future puzzles and read everyone’s comments .
Surprised no one else remembered Kickapoo Joy Juice
Al Capp, the cartoonist, described the drink as "a liquor of such stupefying potency that the hardiest citizens of Dogpatch, after the first burning sip, rose into the air, stiff as frozen codfish". It was said to be an elixir of such power that the fumes alone have been known to melt the rivets off battleships.
I D N K …. It’s a real non alcoholic drink
I’m with you! Although I did finally finish today’s puzzle, I’ve been wondering if they were getting harder or I was losing my mind. Saturdays have been making me feel stupid lately, and while I am old, I didn’t think I’d entered my dotage yet.
This puzzle was impossible for me to solve even though I stuck with it way too long. Obviously, I’m in the minority since so many of you FIR - I salute you! I couldn’t figure out the themers, even when I filled in the squares correctly, and pop-culture clues usually elude me. There were some clever filler clues - liked RELAXED FIT.
However, this day is still happily special - Jack and I celebrate 40 years of (mostly) wedded bliss!
C.C., your swimming gets better and better! Huge kudos for doing FLIP TURNS, for gosh sakes, and your backstroke looks good too. Kicking from your hips, not so much knees would be my suggestion on freestyle, but I’m old school, so you should probably ignore me. Keep it up!!!
I’m with you on the “con” point.
The puzzle title was of no help today, never did equate “con” with convention, took perps to get every theme answer even though I was familiar with the words and phrases, nothing made sense till C.C.’s recap. Managed a FIR w/o help but it took me 53:39, seemed like a Friday difficulty level. Personally I prefer the head scratcher grids like today over the easy ones, win some lose some.
Thank you Brian and Kate for the challenge, and C.C. for making sense of it all!
I really must say something about this puzzle Firstly, I think that some of the cornerites are afraid to say anything at all, lest they offend someone. This is commendable but is really not changing anything in the content of the puzzles. One more like this and I like a few others, will probably swear off Sundays. A CW shouldn’t be this gnarly. Particularly since the size of the puzzle is already pretty substantial. This puzzle was absolutely no fun at all. Yeah, maybe some of it is I’m getting old but that isn’t all of it. Give it a whirl. Let’s see if we can get back to the English language on occasion and keep some of happy. Nuff said.
Wendybird @ 1:37 ~ Congratulations to you and Jack on the 40 years of (mostly) wedded bliss! 💞
JJB ~ a lot of people on here express their dismay at the difficulty of the puzzles, especially the cluing with obscure names and the esoteric nature of a lot of the words and phrases, but like everything else crosswords have evolved. Yeah sometimes there’s frustration involved but reading everyone’s comments leads me to believe that many folks give up way too early on the solve. Early week puzzles are almost always solvable, even for newbies, late week and Sunday’s aren’t supposed to be a five minute romp, they’re meant to require thought, and yes sometimes they are tough and I think most dedicated solvers appreciate that. Read what Irish Miss ☘️ has to say everyday, she offers a great critique but always in a respectful way. I once complained to the golf course superintendent (who is also a friend) about the ridiculously tough placement of the pins. His answer ~ get better at the game!
This was more difficult than most Sundays but I enjoyed it. Thanks to CC for explaining the theme. I had no clue until then. Makes sense, things you might do or say at a comic convention. I messed up the NW corner. I couldn't think of pancakes as disks and didn't know Kickapoo or Kpop. I guessed Suni. Nice job on the swimming. Swimming to me is exercise, a very good exercise. That's all you need to be concerned with. Still it all seems fine to me. GC
FIR, missing surVEYOURWORK and FANFIshION. I knew the second one was wrong, but had just run put of P&P and the truck isn't expected to deliver more until tomorrow.
Today is:
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME (love it or hate it, it’s here)
NATIONAL PACK YOUR LUNCH DAY (I always liked to get away for lunch. Cleared my head)
NATIONAL BLUEBERRY POPOVER DAY (sounds good – I don’t think I’ve ever had one)
NATIONAL WOMEN AND GIRLS HIV/AIDS (watch out for those darned guys – you never now where that thing has been)
NATIONAL I AM DAY (just what we need – a day to encourage self-centeredness)
Great RIVAL game yesterday, with Kentucky beating favored Tennessee by 4. Kentucky was ahead by 11 with a minute remaining, then the team remembered that they were mostly freshmen and played accordingly.
I was gonna mention KICKAPOO joy juice too. My home town had a Lil Abner's restaurant, with menu and decor geared to Dogpatch. It was intended to become a chain, but it didn't catch on.
I was also gonna mention Woz as the indispensable half of Steve and Steve's Apple venture.
FLN - sumdaze, AFAIK car belts aren't configured as a mobius device. Old cars had v-shaped belts, and later ones had ridges on them, so that wouldn't work. But my "new" car is now 11 years old (my old one is 23 years old) so I'm not sure what current models use. My cars have belts made using a compound called EPDM (whatever that is) and last between 100,000 and 200,000 miles.
Thanks to Brian and Kate for the challenge, even though a less obscure theme might have saved me. And thanks to CC for the fun review, and congrats for your dedication to continuous improvement in your swimming.
Wendybird: congratulations on 40 years of marriage. I hope you can celebrate in style.
Ray-O, since you can comment here, you can access the LAT puzzle at https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword
Today I had to watch a 30 second commercial, but that happens less than half the time.
To add to what Jinx posted just above, the puzzle can also be accessed here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/crossword-puzzles/daily/
and here:
https://fun.chicagotribune.com/
When I started doing the LA Times crossword regularly -- a couple of years ago? -- and found this Corner, I had to admit that I DNF or FIW frequently. I was in awe of the senior solvers. I once mentioned asking DH for help with the sports clues, and Picard wrote that you have not FIR unless you work the puzzle alone, without lookups or assistance, and deciphered the theme, if there is one. I took Picard's words as a personal challenge, and now it is very rare that I do not FIR, always playing by those standards. Now that I can keep up with the big boys, please don't ask for the puzzle to be easier! Focus on improving your game. Not every puzzle can be solved by everyone. That's OK.
Way to go NaomiZ. BTW, IIRC you once posted here that you a Los Angeles resident. In what part of L.A. are you located? I am in the beautiful San Fernando Valley.
NaomiZ I am honored that you adopted my own personal FIR rules as your own personal challenge.
For me, it is an unwritten contract: I won't look anything up. But the constructor has to be fair. "Fair" can include misdirection and clever clues. But the constructor has broken the contract if there are crossed proper names or truly obscure words that you simply have to know. Perps have to be fair.
This contract should mean that any reasonably intelligent person can indeed FIR with persistence and creativity.
Yesterday I should have added that the SHEEPISHNESS/CONFORMITY clue/answer is my idea of "difficult but fair". Go away. Think about it. Come back later and maybe the light comes on. If you get one of those, it gives a real sense of satisfaction and can make you laugh out loud!
Monkey, MalMan, others Thank you for your comments on the CON theme.
JudyB and kkFlorida I think I am satisfied with your explanations. Yes, when I think of COMIC CON, that indeed makes sense. And it does not apply to a medical or scientific CONvention!
Picard ~ I share the same approach to a puzzle as you, I don’t look anything up in my attempt to solve, my satisfaction comes from a FIR on my own accord, heavily relying on perps and WAGS. I do the crosswords online, so the only help I get is if I fill the grid and don’t get the congratulatory message, I know I’ve made a mistake, sometimes a typo, sometimes a wrong word. When I’m stymied I’ll do a walkaway, come back sometime later and almost invariably I will figure out something that I didn’t before. OTOH, when I’m done with the puzzle, I’m usually googling all kinds of stuff that’s brought up by the bloggers in their expos, or in the crossword itself. I love the learning experience of it all!
Curmudgeon time for me:
First, I feel not entirely satisfied with the "con" gimmicky theme. It seemed far-fetched and bordering on the inscrutable, which is unfair to the solver trying to solve 8 to 10 long answers.
Second, a Sunday puzzle, because of its heft, should not be as difficult as a Friday or Saturday workout. This one was quite challenging, even apart from the "con" theme.
Third, call this my "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" rant. I refer to your 93 A clue, "Performed miserably," with your answer being STUNK. Nope, it should be STANK. The clue is simple past tense, not past participle. The past tense of stink is stank, and its past participle is stunk. So "today he stank; he has often stunk."
It pains me to say this because I really enjoy this forum, but the last few Sundays have caused me to further explore the web for Sunday crosswords. It's not just a matter of these being too difficult, but there's a real difference between "boy, that was hard" and "WTH was that?!"
If someone is going to go to the WAPO site for a Sunday crossword, I highly recommend Evan Birnholz's. Challenging, but a lot fewer eye rollers and proper names and more complete words (and I haven't seen "KPOP" there yet).
Yooper Phil Thank you for the kind words and validation.
And thank you for that most important additional point: A good puzzle should be a learning experience! Learning something of actual lasting value. Indeed, a good sign of that is the desire to learn even more about what appears in the puzzle and the comments. Thanks!
Picard, nice photograph of you and Merlie on Glacier Point, but that is Half Dome, not EL CAP.
Picard, sorry. Now I see EL CAP on the other side of the valley.
Jayce Oops! You are correct!
Here is my photo of EL CAPitan.
Not sure if I have any of EL CAPitan with either of us in it. Thanks!
Very rare to not understand the theme, even after the puzzle’s filled in!
TITT
I’ve driven the road to Hana and I’ve seen worse. There are a zillion curves and many many one lane bridges. It took close to 3 hours to travel about 70 miles - but it still wasn’t as grueling as this puzzle. WTH…
IMO, comments in this forum wanting the puzzles to be easier, harder or just the same are, as ol' Bill said, Sound and fury, signifying nothing. I'll bet that Patti would rather have a colonoscopy than read this blog. Can't say that I blame her. Still won't keep me from venting from time to time (or some would say most every day.)
MalMan, are you a denizen of beautiful, downtown Pacoima?
I caught on to the CONvention theme right away altho a comic con is no place I would ever go even when I still could go. However, so many of the people's names and places in cws are not known, there is no way I could get it without help of some kind. I just red-letter along after doing what I can to fill. It's mental exercise for me and not a test.
Leon Uris is another one of my favorite authors from long past years and I owned all his books.
C.C., you just keep looking better and better in the water. Your perseverance is admirable.
PICARD @ 4:24...you nicely put in words what I feel is a very important point. Any constructor can come up with an unsolvable puzzle, but to build one that is challenging but fair and does not need arcane, specialized knowledge or constant assists from Google is a pearl of great price and a joy to complete!
MalMan, I'm waving to you from the Westside. Ladera Heights -- next door to Culver City.
Picard, I absolutely rely on crossing entries to be fair, and I will complain if a ball player and minor actress cross in such a way that I must know both in order to finish the puzzle. I like reading that one solver relied on foreign language, another on knowledge of literature, and another on geography to fill a corner.
Finally, some others are feeling what I have felt over thae past few months: way too difficult for long time solvers like me. I've been solving LAT Sunday puzzles for nearly a half century and lately, I fail to solve more than I complete. Today's I completed 2/3 with little help ...then spent two hours with no success in the SW corner. What I've been experiencing is the thought,"Is it ME? Has my brain atrophied to the point of no return?" I truly used to look forward to Sunday Solvers but lately they've left me feeling I'm "losing it". Will this, too, disappear as a pleasure for me as jogging did a few years back? Am I being discarded as detrious to make room for a new breed of brainiacs much more proficient in word knowledge than I??
Thank You Brian Thomas and Kate Chin Park for a very challenging puzzle. I had a very tough time ... the hardest since the last year sometime. Honestly, not very enjoyable.
Thank You CC for your explanatory blog.
I didn't get the theme, despite all explanations ...maybe I've got to read it summore. ( Get it, Sumdaze ?? lol ) .
Call it Schadenfreude - a german word describing .... the pleasure one gets from the misfortunes of others - not a very nice concept ....
Well, seeing all the troubles and heartaches most of you have had in this puzzle ... gives me a lot of schadenfreude ... and on a more rational, logical level tells me, that I was by no means ... alone ... and I don't know how to say it ... somewhat comforting.
I'm just glad that solving crossword puzzles, is not my day job ...
Moving on, to a hopefully easier Monday ...
Have a great week, you all.
Toughie for a Sunday — no easy cruise today. Hand up as a member of the team that, even after reading C.C.’s recap, just can’t grok this “con” theme. And I even thought of ComicCon, but still can’t stretch my mind to buy it. Oh well, FIR in spite of not GETting IT. I’ll co-curmudgeon with Tehachapi Ken @5:13pm — it’s a bit of a reach.
“Squeaky toy?” is a Pom? My grandma raised the dogs, but I’ve never heard one squeak…mostly, they’re yappers.
The only reason I got 7D is due to (as apparently many others here) remembering KICKAPOO Joy Juice from “Li’l Abner”. An aside: there’s a neighborhood in San Francisco named Dogpatch; it’s in the Central Waterfront area, on the Bay.
Two bars and two dots = DS al CODA in music. You STRUM the same chords to do it 🎸
Did the road to Hana about three years ago; we never did make it all the way there, because there were just so many cool stops along the way. He who SPEEDS on that route is asking for a STINT in the ICU…or worse.
Opinion: it’s about time to toss, slangily or otherwise, this word YEET from crosswords. ACK!!
And I thought jazz great ETTA was James, not Jones… ==sigh==
Pleasantly surprised to find out so many Cornerites are close (or at least semi-close neighbors — NaomiZ in Ladera Heights, and now hearing MalMan lives right here in The Ditch near me! I’m in North Hills, Mr. Manatee — you?
Finally — C.C., you are getting along just, erm, swimmingly 😆 Keep on strokin’!
====> Darren / L.A.
WEES ...
E.g. last Friday: Clue "[Jinkies]", answer "Cripes", heartfelt response: YEET!
Still don't get it
Please explain
Thanks
con is referring to a convention. So the theme answers are things that appear at a convention (like Comic-Con).
Thank you😊
Thanks - we will! Going to New Orleans in late April for some great jazz!!
😆👍🏽
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