Theme:
17. Has a contagious smile, say: LIGHTS UP THE ROOM.
28. Parties like there's no tomorrow: RAISES THE ROOF.
47. Gets ready for action: CLEARS THE DECK.
Reveal:
63. Remodeling projects, or a tongue-in-cheek title for this puzzle: HOME IMPROVEMENT.
Across:
1. Went 60 in a 30, say: SPED.
5. Expression of anger, maybe: SLAP.
9. Deli device: SCALE.
14. __ stick: POGO.
15. Double agent: MOLE.
16. Sense of __: HUMOR.
20. Whitlock Jr. of "Cocaine Bear": ISIAH.
21. Seal Beach's location, informally: SOCAL.
22. Self-care destination: SPA.
23. Gym top: TEE.
24. Prefix with Pen: EPI.
26. Italian bubbly: ASTI.
34. Feature of some kaleidoscopes: PRISM.
35. Google Maps suggestion: ROUTE.
36. Resting on: ATOP.
39. Mary Roach book subtitled "The Curious Life of Human Cadavers": STIFF.
42. "Good going!": NICE.
43. Keep from expiring: RENEW.
45. R&B singer Braxton: TRACI.
51. Enjoy: LIKE.
52. Spanish "that": ESA.
53. __-Ida Tater Tots: ORE.
56. Get older: AGE.
59. Airport postings: TIMES.
61. Turkey neighbor: SYRIA.
66. Nepali or Laotian: ASIAN.
67. Country singer McCann: LILA.
68. Bird house: CAGE.
69. "Dunno" gesture: SHRUG.
70. Social sci. major: ECON.
71. Auth. unknown: ANON.
Down:
1. Gymnastics move: SPLIT.
2. Equanimity: POISE.
3. Like challah, compared to white bread: EGGIER.
4. Qatar's capital: DOHA.
5. Texting tech: SMS.
6. Worst: LOUSIEST.
7. Dog food brand: ALPO.
8. Willow, to the Biden family: PET CAT.
9. Bus stop fixture: SHELTER.
10. Hostile dog: CUR.
11. Famous __ cookies: AMOS.
12. Coaster feature: LOOP.
13. Bombeck who said, "If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it": ERMA.
18. Nonbinary possessive: THEIR.
19. Word with tag or mark: HASH.
25. Trident-shaped letters: PSIS.
27. Like a big dog named Tiny: IRONIC.
29. Attraction: APPEAL.
30. Singer Patti who wrote the memoir "Just Kids": SMITH.
31. Arles aye: OUI.
32. How homeopathic remedies are sold, for short: OTC.
33. Shipping charge: FEE.
36. Path of a three-pointer: ARC.
37. Contact no.: TEL.
38. Small number: ONE.
40. Climb El Capitan without ropes, say: FREE SOLO.
41. Crazes: FADS.
44. Putting pen to paper: WRITING.
46. Come to an end: CEASE.
48. Milk choice: SKIM.
49. The Pantheon, e.g.: TEMPLE.
50. Like kimchi: KOREAN.
54. Drummer Starr: RINGO.
55. Consumed: EATEN.
56. Cries of clarity: AHAS.
57. "Oh, golly": GOSH.
58. Gulf States title: EMIR.
60. Writer/illustrator Carle: ERIC.
62. Party song title spelled out with gestures: YMCA.
64. __ Claire, Wisconsin: EAU.
65. Moving vehicle: VAN.
49 comments:
I don’t have a lot to say about this puzzle. I did think the reveal was clever and appropriate. And I didn’t find the rest of this puzzle overly difficult, in spite of the fact that in at least two cases there were proper names crossing each other. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
I thought the theme and reveal were well done. We continue to learn about many female newsmakers from the many female constructors. I did miss the witty write-up generally provided by the excellent group C.C. has assembled.
Anon@5:13 -- When TTP noticed that today's blog post was "missing," he quickly slapped together a bare-bones summary so there'd be something on the blog. Thanx, TTP. No mysteries, no drama in this one. It was an easy mid-week romp. Thanx, Wendy.
Good Morning:
Well, so far this week, we've had nice, pretty straightforward solves with, as DO pointed out, no mysteries, no drama. There were a few unknowns today, i.e,, Isiah, Lila, and Eric, but the perps were fair which is all we ask. I noticed the "home" references, naturally, but the reveal was a cute surprise and a grid spanner, to boot.
Thanks, Wendy, for a fun romp and thanks, TTP, for coming to the rescue and thanks, DO, for explaining.
Have a great day. 60's today-a continuation of the most bizarre winter weather that I can recall. However, I'm not at all convinced that we'll get through March unscathed. Time will tell.
FIR, but erased bra for TEE and tree for CAGE. Waited for ESA/o.
Today is:
NATIONAL K9 VETERANS DAY (these heroes have ruff duty)
NATIONAL JEWEL DAY (no, no, no. Not the singer of Foolish Games, – the stuff you buy your wife when you get into trouble that flowers can’t fix)
NATIONAL OPEN AN UMBRELLA INDOORS DAY (really is “disprove superstitions” day)
NATIONAL COCONUT TORTE DAY (the only coconut I like in my food is a little coconut snow in my pina colada)
NATIONAL DERMATOLOGIST DAY (as a former avid sailor and sun worshiper, I give my dermatologists plenty of work)
NATIONAL GOOD SAMARITAN DAY (the Boy Scout slogan is “Do A Good Turn Daily”)
NATIONAL EARMUFF DAY (Chester Greenwood was awarded a patent for them on March 13, 1877. Just in time for spring)
I new that the Bidens had a hostile dog, but not that they have a PET CAT.
The Hollies immortalized the Bus Stop, but we're more likely to see INGE here.
Thanks to Wendy for the fun hump day special, and to TTP for starting us off.
Knew. Even I don't spel that poorly.
FIR. Lots of proper names (yuk), but I managed to fill them in even when they crossed. The center bottom gave me fits, but an educated guess finished it. Never heard of free solo?
The theme was clever and I got it before the reveal. Overall, this was a fairly typical Wednesday puzzle, albeit the proper names.
Took 6:39 today for me to paint myself into a corner.
I didn't know Isiah, Lila, Eric (whether it's a "c" or a "k") Traci, and had to guess at the singer/author crossing the book title - which was admittedly inferable, though "Smyth" was considered.
Today's foreign language & geography lessons included: French (oui & eau) and Spanish (esa), and also Korean, Syria, & Doja.
I really enjoyed the documentary, "Free Solo."
Hi All!
I hope JzB is OK; it seems out of character for him to not post. Thanks for stepping in, TTP.
WEES - a dramaless mid-week puzzle with nary a crunch. Thanks Wendy!
WOs: N/A
ESPs: ISIAH, TRACI,
Fav: For the past two days, RINGO's It Don't Come Easy has been rattling through my head.
Mary Roach's books, STIFF, GRUNT, BONK, and GULP were all good.
IM - You sure you don't remember ERIC Carle? ;-)
Back to the salt-mines,
Cheers, -T
No sweat today. Considered Miss TonI Braxton but she wasn't long enough. Perps filled in TRACI. All in all, a FIR day.
Much ado about nothing is a waste of time and energy.
Swell.
70A Is ECONomics really a Social sci. major?
The puzzle was more Tuesday like today. I liked the theme.
I enjoyed planning and overseeing home improvements until I reached 80. Now I am very happy to have the Oaks make the home improvements and repairs.
I always had a patio before I came here. Even with a big umbrella, it was too hot and sunny most of the time. I thought of getting a retractable awning, but didn't want to deal with the HOA. Now I have a covered balcony on the 2nd floor which I use much more frequently. It is heaven for 4 people or fewer.
Remember DOHA Doc?
Yes, the weather is bizarre. We had strong cold wind on the weekend with snow flurries on Sunday. Now we have 60;s in the PM.
I always open my umbrella indoors to dry it out.
Cadaver with the ST start, must be STIFF. F for climbing without ropes must be FREE. The two perps supplied SOLO. May lucky wags today.
Anon T @ 9:03 ~ Yes, I'm sure. I'm only familiar with The Hungry Caterpillar from crosswords and I couldn't have told you the author if my life depended on it, so Carle the illustrator was as totally unknown as Lila McCann, not to mention Isiah Whitlock, Jr. 😉
Musings
-Subbing today where every kid has a lesson on the computer and headphones. I think it is a great way to learn at their own pace and makes for an easy sub day.
-Kids today have dozens of TEES in their wardrobe from all their activities
-STIFF is a humorous title for that book!
-TONI? Wrong Braxton.
-The first coaster with a LOOP was built 178 years ago
-At 77 years old, it’s hard for me to equate, “Where is his car?” with “Where is THEIR car?”
-Three point shooters with very little ARC have reduced success
-A boy in Alabama received a CEASE-and-desist order for his lemonade stand where he was raising money for a trip to Disney World.
-Most baseball games play YMCA and Sweet Caroline between innings along with Take Me Out To The Ball Game during the 7th inning stretch
-Thanks for the catch TTP and all the other things you do for our blog!
Took 8:23 to sweep this one under the rug. Seems like a descending difficulty level as my times are getting faster as the week progresses. Nice not have to scroll through a sea of complaints and harsh criticism. Thanks Wendy for the enjoyable solve, you’re not by any chance Wendybird from here on the Corner?
Flights from DOHA to Dallas and Chicago tend to fly right over my house in Upper Michigan, navigating north across the polar region then back south. Flightradar24 is a great app if you’re into tracking just about any aircraft in the world.
I took economics and became a business owner; the formulas equations and graphs in economics were not something I would say was “social science”
FREE SOLO fit but I didn’t like it. Enjoyed the rest the puzzle. FIR and cleared the deck.
Cadaver story.
Cadaver study.
Cadaver stone.
Cadaver stuff.
Cadaver still.
Cadaver style.
Amen to the lack of complaints and harsh criticism!!!!
Hola!
What a nice one from Wendy L. Brandes. Thank you for the fun.
Here every bus stop has a SHELTER. I wonder, though, about the wisdom of making them all metal especially in summer when the temps soar above 100 degrees.
ERIC Carle's books were a favorite of my granddaughters when they were young.
I first learned of Mary Roach in "Readers Digest" where she had a monthly article.
As a child I was mystified by the "EAU de cologne" until many years later when I learned what it was.
Today I have to pick up my tax filing.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Thanks TTP,
(You need to add your moniker to the pinch hitters on the right of the blog! :)
Home Improvement?
WEES. Not too difficult. I didn’t know any of the proper names, but perps helped fill them.
I had a kaleidoscope as a child and loved it. I still find the play of PRISMs fascinating.
We hadn’t had AMOS in a while. Not much else to say about this nice CW, except I never think of white bread as being made with eggs, just flour water salt and yeast, so EGGIER was my last fill since to add to the fray I inadvertently filled POlO for POGO.
Thank you TTP for the last minute rescue. I and I’m sure everyone else would be bereft without a CW recap.
As an HGTV and Magnolia fan, I loved the theme. Thanks, Wendy, for the lovely walk in the park.
I hope all is well with our designated blogger today. Missed you! Thanks, TTP for the completed grid.
I am more familiar with Toni Braxton than her sister TRACI (RIP).
ESP: ISIAH, LILA, SMITH, ERIC.
Puzzle was super easy except the unknown proper names. ISIAH, LILA,ERIC, TRACI
anon@9:53- agree with you on the Economics. More mathematical.
HOME IMPROVEMENT? DW has done too much the last few months. Entire interior painted, new carpet and bathroom tiles upstairs (nobody ever goes up there except to get suitcases), granite counter tops in two bathrooms, new light fixtures and faucets in two bathrooms, Interior plantation shutters in three rooms, replaced 13 windows, and I hope it stops there.
I just discovered an intriguing, to me anyway, word that CW constructors might like to use: ZHUZH. Maybe some of you know it but I found it in the NYT’s mini crossword puzzle.
A growing number of PNs as we arrive at mid week. But the long theme answers were fun and fair.
No idea what “Seal Beach location” is called even formally. Needed perps.
Didn’t see the “coaster” LOOP connection nor the “Aries” OUI French connection. (0h “Arles!!”)….AHA, HG, “coaster” is an amusement park ride with a LOOP.. OK
Told my grandkids that they shoulda named “Penny” their female Great Dane “Hundred dollars” instead. “Climb El Capitan without ropes”… suicidal ideation too long. With a perped S and T figured that cadavers are usually STIFF
“Gulf states “… head slap..AHA. not Alabama, Louisiana etc,
Crossing PNs “Carle” with “McCann” kyna unfair ….GOSH but my WAGs worked for the win.
Nice aye…. OUI
Espies…CEASE
Stores patio furniture…. CLEARSTHEDECK
Rind….APPEAL
Thanks for pitching in TTP
Did the puzzle in the Miami airport waiting for flight home. Give it a C minus. Elevators and escalators broken (as they were when we 10 days ago). Need to ask multiple agents for directions just to get from point A to B. Seems like the last
thing they wanted to do was be helpful. Many wouldn’t talk only point. SHRUG…🤷♂️ But ended up a great working vacay.
For once it was a good thing that I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. :>)
I went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 9AM. I was too tired to add the flair and embellishments that are typical of our esteemed bloggers. Yesterday was an exhausting day.
Wendy, you are welcome to provide a puzzle anytime, as far as I'm concerned. Your theme was amusingly pleasant, and you seemed to have the best interests of the solvers (us) in mind. Your contribution today made for a great start to Wednesday, and will be a tough act to follow.
Nice, easy mid-week puzzle. I worried about 3 proper names crossing each other, but kind perps plus a little intuiting ( is that a word?) solved my problem. Arriving at STIFF made me laugh. Thank you, Wendy, and thanks TTP for not leaving us blogless!
Eric Carle has been a fixture in our house since my children were small; recently I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my great granddaughter. It never loses its appeal.
Yooper Phil at 9:44 - I wish I had Wendy Brandes’s talent, but I am a very middle-of-the-pack member of the cornerite crew. BTW, I’m still homesick for Michigan even after 50+ years in California.
I’m breaking out my Duke sweatshirt and hoping my Blue Devils make it past the first round of March Madness. I think our glory days are over for a while, but hope springs eternal.
The new Jeopardy TOC format for an eventual winner has me completely confused - anyone else??
Finally, what does SMS stand for? I hoped one of the comments would mention and ‘splain it.
I agree!
GOSH, TTP, thanks for checking the blog in the middle of the night. We would all have been thrown for a LOOP if we had no place to praise Wendy for her delightful midweek puzzle. Proper names were unknown to me but perped fairly. FIR.
FREE SOLO is a daring way to climb rocks, and is widely known because of a 2018 documentary of the same name. It follows the first attempt to climb the vertical face of El Capitan in Yosemite without ropes. If you fall, you CEASE to be. More risk than we undertake in the crossword, for sure!
Wendybird, SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is the usual tech for text messages.
Wendybird, the TOC format is different, but it makes sense. You start with 27 players, and after 9 days you've got winners. That gives you 3 semifinal games with 3 players each, winnowing the field down to 3. In the past it would be a 2-day final, adding the scores from the two days to determine the winner. But a lopsided win on day one would end the suspense. So now they're ignoring the scores...the winner will be player with most wins of 7 games. Sorta like a world series. I guess it may be easier to understand than to explain.
SMS is Short Message Service -- 160-character limit for texting.
I nearly took a DNF on the Jumble today, with trouble unscrambling “tandem” and trouble sussing a real lame unifier, so I wasn’t happy to flirt with a DNF on a Wednesday crossword as well.
The theme material was easy, but the Texas area was quite a struggle because of the CARLE-McCANN natick, the jargony FREE SOLO, the clunky usage of TIMES, and problems coming up with TEMPLE. I wasn’t so sure about ECON, either. Also wasn’t sure the singular version of SPLITs is used in gymnastics.
My half-brother is an ECON professor at a large university near Seal Beach, so I knew that rather obscure community is just over the Los Angeles County line in “the O.C.” Perps led me to SOCAL instead, but I thought the Seal Beach clue was unfair to most of you.
The clues for ISIAH, SMITH, and TRACI didn’t help me much, either, but many newsroom veterans, who develop hides like M*A*S*H surgeons, would have less trouble coming up with STIFF than the general population would.
I had an earlier comment, but several commentators brought up some specifics I'd like to weigh in on.
--Wendybird, I'm with you on the Jeopardy TOC. I don't have a clue what is going on. I hope they do.
--i love roller coasters with loops. I love roller coasters without loops. I love roller coasters. Has the inventor of roller coasters been made a saint?
Now for your comments on today's puzzle:
--We who have--or have had--kids, probably had an unfair advantage on 60D (Eric Carle). Would it have helped if The Very Hungry Caterpillar had been part of the clue? (BTW, why is it spelled caterpillar and not caterpiller?)
--full disclosure: on 3D (EGGIER) I had an unfair advantage perhaps, because I had just cracked an egg into my pancake batter.
--I agree there were one or two proper name Naticks, but Wendy (and/or Patti) were judicious about providing helpful perps in the vicinity.
--for 9D, the first Bus Stop fixture that immediately hit my mind was Marilyn Monroe.
--We who live in SoCal didn't have a problem with the location of Seal Beach.
--What department should Econ be in? My Graduate School discipline was Political Science/Government, which was--correctly--part of Social Science. But the Econ guys were also with us. I think you'll find that in the majority of universities, you'll find Econ under Social Science. But they do a lot of math, I agree.
----Wendy had TWO grid spanners today. In so many areas, this was a model crossword puzzle today.
.
Enjoyed the HOME IMPROVEMENT theme, which helped a bit with the solve. Some crossed proper names like ERIC/LILA, SMITH/TRACI but able to guess to FIR.
Here I was on a LOOP Roller COASTER with many KOREAN people!
My co-worker friends and I were in KOREA for a huge convention on our field of atomic force microscopy. This was the first and only time I took a Roller COASTER with a LOOP. It is called the French Revolution.
Didn't occur to me that Seal Beach would be obscure, because I used to launch my first sailboat at nearby Alamitos Bay.
If Wendy the Constructor checks in, were you / are you married to Bob Brandes of GTE fame? The Bob I knew was married to a Wendy, but I never met her.
From the esteemed Harvard: "Economics is a social science that covers a broad subject matter in seeking to understand the social world." So there.
Yeah, SMS has a 160 character limit. But modern phones work around that, so to the user the limit is (crossword favorite) moot.
Most regular bread does not contain eggs. "Most traditional Ashkenazi challah recipes use numerous eggs, fine white flour, water, sugar, yeast, oil (such as vegetable or canola), and salt." IMO it tastes eggy, so eggier was the only answer I could think of.
The title and subtitle of the Mary Roach book is "Stiff: the Curious Life of Human Cadavers." Story, study, stone, stuff, still or style would not be good replacements for STIFF.
A dead body is sometimes called a stiff, but it's rude.
I didn't realize that the Jeopardy! TOC format would permanently replace the regular format, or is it only for tournaments?
Duh! TOC is only for tournaments, a brain hiccup.
ECONomics is a purely social construct, isn't it? You won't find it in the stars, or in the Earth's mantle, or in the atmosphere. Political science and sociology also use mathematics, but they are still social sciences, just like ECON.
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Wendy, and thanks TTP for filling in. I hope JazzB is OK.
I FIRed in good time and saw the HOME IMPROVEMENT theme. Did anybody else think of Tim Allen and that TV show?
Yes, there were a few unknown names (and some even crossing), but I managed to WAG them.
We have had SO CAL so often recently that even this Canadian guessed the location of Seal Beach. No excuse for the rest of you LOL,
EGGIER may be valid but it gave me a nose wrinkle as it is not a word I use.
I am currently sitting on our patio in the sun enjoying this beautiful afternoon. But it is only March. We will surely still have some cold, snowy days yet.
Wishing you all a great day.
A book is a story.
A cadaver stone is another name for a cadaver monument.
Cadavers are studied.
Cadavers are, at least, as still as they are stiff.
Considering cadavers don't have life, we will just have to disagree what constitutes good replacement words.
I don't get it. Those words are real but they do not seem germane to the clue. The clue is asking for a missing title that precedes the sub title, "The Curious Life of Human Cadavers." We need the main one word title. So your book would be "Stone: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers." Also, there is an actual book with the Title of "Stiff" and the subtitle of "The Curious Life of Human Cadavers."
Good night. See you tomorrow.
What happened to peer sharing and learning as im social skills?
An easy Wednesday FIR, in spite of some unknown crossing names. Everything I would say about this CW has already been said in comments, so let me just say Thanx WLB for the fun. And thanx TTP for stepping in.
CanadianEh! Yes, I thought of Tim Allen playing Tim the Tool Man on that TV show.
Jinx, et al, maybe you can help me out here.
I knew what SMS stood for, so no problem. But I don't understand a lot about smart phones. I've been trying to understand why my smart phone often converts SMS text messages to MMS.
I understand that if you try to send a group text to too many recipients, the SMS message will get converted to MMS. Or if you exceed the character limit, the message will get converted to MMS. Or if you include videos, images, gifs or attachments, it will get converted to MMS.
What I don't understand is why when I send a short message to two recipients, it often gets converted to MMS, even though there aren't too many characters, there are no attachments, images or gifs, and there are no videos.
It wouldn't be an issue except that it seems that the SMS messages are sent quickly, while it appears that MMS messages are delayed. The other day, I sent a short text message to two golfers in my league, telling them I'd meet them at a local pub. I sent the message just after 1:00 PM, and the message wasn't delivered until after 6:00 PM. One guy was already there anyway, and the second responded long after I had already gone home.
I don't think there should be a difference, and maybe it's only an occasional fluke or perception issue on my part, but it's not the first time this has happened. Any thoughts?
Im late as usual, but I thought I'd contribute (!) anyway.
Thank you Wendy L. Brandes for a nice and easy Wed puzzle that I finished as the clock turned two am.
Thank You TTP for pinch hitting andstepping in ...
THEY ALSO SERVE, WHO STAND AND WAIT .... WW II slogan (?) ....
We, and many others who read the solve part of the blog ... would have missed the complete solution, even after solving the entire puzzle.
No need to apologize ....Mr. TTP for no extraneous (sp?) comments or smart alecky bon mots ... you did fine all by yourself....
CED Thank You for your for links for the .... your funny funny home improvement problem competition. .... I'm too stupid or left handed to even try any home iprovement projects myself ... and would rather pay top dollar to have them completed professionally ....
I would have liked to write some more smart comments and some hellpful hints but .... I have to take some medical procedures every day which completely sap my energy and rreduce my awake' time very considerably ... hence this late posting....
Have a great rest of the week, all you guys and gals,
Late to the party. The cool thing is that all the solvers have done a puzzle review for all the clues that needed it. If this keeps up we bloggers will be out of a job😢. I do hope Ron is okay.
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