Theme: Mumbo Jumbo Idiom Jumble
Puzzling thoughts:
Today's idiomatic/anagram puzzle is presented by none other than Winston Emmons, no stranger to the LA Times crossword puzzles. Winston uses 5 "theme" entries. Each answer to these entries is an unscrambled word/phrase that comes as a result of answering the second part of the clue (as well as the first part)
Wait just a darn second, Moe. That doesn't make any sense! Well, you're right; it doesn't. But if you carefully rearrange the letters in the theme answers, you can achieve both halves of the clue's meaning
Please look again at the cartoon above. The carolers are singing "Listen Thing", which is an anagram for "Silent Night" (re-arrange the letters). And while there is no clue associated with the cartoon, all we need to do is use that bit of logic to understand what's going on in each clue and answer:
15-across. Cleanliness is next to ... a minimalist approach?: DOING LESS.
The obvious answer to the first part of the clue is "GODLINESS". It was so obvious to me that I typed it into the white squares. The phrase: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is a proverb that implies that practicing cleanliness is akin to worshipping or performing religious obligations
The obvious answer to the second part of the clue, "a minimalist approach", is DOING LESS. I never thought of "doing less" as being a form of "Godliness", but when you rearrange the letters in doing less you can spell the word Godliness, and now we have answered both parts of the clue correctly
19-across. Going to hell in a ... damaged armored vehicle?: BASHED TANK.
The phrase "Going to hell in a "HAND BASKET" is well-known idiomatic phrase that means "to be rapidly deteriorating - on course for disaster;"
a BASHED TANK is indeed a damaged armored vehicle, but the phrase "bashed tank" is not one we often use ... but rearranging bashed tank also gives us handbasket
34-across. Don't throw the baby out with the ... decorative Halloween ring?: BAT WREATH.
"Don't throw the baby out with the "BATHWATER" is an idiomatic expression for an avoidable error in which something good or of value is eliminated when trying to get rid of something unwanted. A slightly different explanation suggests this flexible catchphrase has to do with discarding the essential while retaining the superfluous because of excessive zeal."[wikipedia]
Not this, I hope ...
A BAT WREATH is not the most popular Halloween "ring", but I did find an image:
And as you might suspect by now, a quick rearrangement of bat wreath = bath water
50-across. The only thing we have to fear is ... feeling better quickly?: FAST RELIEF.
The first half of the clue cites FDR's speech (featured below) with the iconic idiomatic phrase: "The only thing we have to fear is FEAR ITSELF."
And last, but not least, we have: 56-across. Famous ... weapon that would dissolve in water?: SALT SWORD.
Unscramble SALT SWORD and you get (famous ...) "LAST WORDS".
This is the only thing I could find for Salt Sword. I am guessing it is a reference to Salt and Sanctuary (unfamiliar, to me), but I suppose that, literally, a salt sword could dissolve in water. But it's a stretch, and of course, YMMV
Certainly, this was a very interesting puzzle and theme. As always, your comments below will let us know how you liked or disliked this puzzle. I floundered with it for over 20 minutes, but once I "got it" it made sense
BTW, this is a puzzle that is **admiral toe** for those who enjoy solving the daily Jumble™. If only Old Man Keith was still alive he would have been smiling **area rote** 😁, as he was extremely fond of finding the diagonal anagrams of the daily puzzle
Here is the grid, and then "To depart ... or what might come with a bundle of shingles? **ROOF FACT SHEET** (let's see how many of you get this - as well as the other two anagrams I used in the intro!!)
Across:
1. Ointment amount: DAB. How many of you recall this old jingle?
4. PIN point: ATM. Sometimes clues can get too cutesy. But I get it ... an ATM is a "point" for where a PIN is entered ... meh
7. Prone to micromanage, perhaps: BOSSY. Don't have a "cow" over this one!
12. Napping racer of fable: HARE. The tortoise and the HARE
13. "Vive le __!": ROI. "Long live the king!" [Frawnche]
14. Gas brand with a torch logo: AMOCO. Shouldn't the clue have been: "Erstwhile gas brand with a torch logo?" Didn't BP take over AMOCO?
17. More vast: WIDER. A little contemporary music to soothe and relax the soul ...
18. Muppet who had a meltdown over a rock named Rocco: ELMO.
Elmo vs Rocco
21. Nabisco wafer cookies: NILLA'S. Good old Vanilla Wafer cookies ...
Here is a recipe for NILLA's in banana pudding
23. Like some receptions: ICY.
 |
| Speaking of an ICY reception ... |
24. Architect who designed air traffic control towers for the FAA in the 1960s: PEI. The only three-letter architect that I know of
25. Squalid: SEEDY.
 |
Might you call this, squalid squash? |
26. As much as: UP TO.
What Merrium-Webster says
28. Angry: SORE.
29. Make a typo, say: ERR.
30. Genesis twin: ESAU.
32. Like an old mattress, maybe: LUMPY. Or maybe like this character from Leave it to Beaver:
36. Bart in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: STARR.
38. Mongolian desert: GOBI. [Brittanica dot com]:
- The Gobi Desert is a great desert and semidesert region of Central Asia that stretches across large parts of Mongolia and China.
- Much of the Gobi is not sandy desert but bare rock.
- The Gobi is the 5th largest desert in the world, covering over half a million square miles.
- The Gobi’s fauna is varied and includes camels, kulan, and dzeren.
- The Gobi’s Yol Valley houses an ice field, even during summer.
- Ancient tales in Mongolia speak of lost cities buried beneath Gobi’s sands.
- The Gobi’s Taklamakan area is often called the “Place of No Return” due to its harsh conditions.
- The Gobi is surrounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands of Mongolia.
- The Himalayas block weather and starves the desert of rainfall from the South.
39. Altar constellation: ARA. I know of the erstwhile Notre Dame football coach (ARA Parseghian) but not the constellation. And further down the grid we had a similar sounding clue with a much different meaning (59-across. Alter __): EGO.
42. Arts and crafts bit: BEAD.
Was Manhattan really sold for $24 worth of BEADs and trinkets?
43. Not covered: OPEN.
 |
| Covered vs "OPEN" |
45. Solitary sort: LONER.
47. Urgent care ctrs.: ERS.
48. MIT's domain: EDU. [Oxford English Dictionary 3rd definition of domain]:
- computinga distinct subset of the internet with addresses sharing a common suffix or under the control of a particular organization or individual
49. Grammatical gender: NEUTER. As someone who studied German in HS and briefly in college, I became all to familiar with the grammatical "genders" ... In der deutschen Grammatik ist das Wort für Neutrum "das"
54. Pad __: THAI. Moe-ku:
Bangkok's Apple Stores
Pair street food with Tablets. Serve
Pad THAI with i-Pads
55. Monteverdi work: OPERA. [Britannica dot com lists these] "Notable Works: “L’Arianna”, “La favola d’Orfeo”, “Licoris Who Feigned Madness”, “Madrigals of War and Love”, “Movete al mio bel suon”, and “The Combat of Tancredi and Clorinda”
58. Some Redfin transactions: RELO'S.
Find your RELO for sale here:
60. Ont. neighbor: MINN. Four-letter state abbreviations went by the wayside when the USPS decided to further abbreviate them to two-letter ones ... MINN became MN because MICH laid claim to MI
61. L'Oréal polish brand: ESSIE. Thank you, perps. Maybe our resident mani-pediites can chime in on this not-so-famous-to-me brand ...
62. Icarus, to Daedalus: SON.
63. Muddy pen: STY.
Down:
1. German auto pioneer: DAIMLER.
DAIMLER story
2. "Baked the Right Way" bread brand: ARNOLD. Also, the name of the pig on "Green Acres":
3. Beseech: BEG. Applying this loftier clue word to an old phrase I came to know all too well:
"Tis better to beseech for forgiveness than to ask for permission ..."
4. Turf: AREA.
Slang definition for "turf"
5. Throw: TOSS. There is a certain skill involved in this relatively new game:
6. Out-of-bounds golf shot, e.g.: MISHIT. TTP, HG, and any other golfers ... care to share one of your MISHITs that might have turned out to be positive?
7. Ribald: BAWDY. Moe-ku #2:
A spotted horse was
Quite BAWDY with the fillies.
A ribald piebald??
8. Skip over: OMIT.
9. Diner drink: SODA POP. ICE CREAM SODA wouldn't fit; nor COFFEE. ICED TEA did. Anyone try that first?
10. Tourist's diversion: SCENERY. Perhaps Picard can provide us with some SCENERY that caused a diversion for him?
11. Long-haired terrier, familiarly: YORKIE. My first thought - after viewing a few images of a YORKIE - was, "is Toto (the dog from Wizard of Oz) a Yorkshire Terrier?? [hepper dot com says]
"Toto’s breed is never mentioned in the books, and many scholars insist that he was supposed to be a mutt. He’s described as having long, silky hair — just like a Yorkie. One other thing worth noting is the fact that the book’s illustrator, W.W. Denslow, was the proud owner of a Yorkshire Terrier"
So now you know
12. More sacred: HOLIER.
15. Thick: DENSE.
16. Birth announcement abbr.: LBS. Is there any proof that babies who are born weighing 7 lbs 11 ozs turn out to be great craps players??
20. Clean water company: ECOLAB.
ECOLAB
22. Per annum: A YEAR. This word seemed a bit "forced" to me - nitpick
26. Detroit labor org.: UAW.
Tennessee VW plant's workers join UAW
27. Rid (of): PURGE. Something I do every time I move (which happened over 7 times the last 14 years), and yet I still have a lot of "stuff". And another similar clue: (48-down. Get rid of): ERASE.
28. Texter's "How disappointing": SMH. 🤦
31. Went boldly: STRODE.
33. Practical: UTILE. Or, the clue could've been "Scrabble™ square worth 1 point": U-TILE
34. Base: BAD. It is better to show an antonym for "base" to know how this adjective can mean "BAD":
35. Proterozoic, e.g.: EON. [Britannica dot com says]: "Proterozoic eon, the younger of the two divisions of precambrian time, the older being the archean eon. The proterozoic eon extended from 2.5 billion to 541 million years ago"
36. Colorful shawls: SERAPES. As seen on ETSY:
37. Mortarboard attachments: TASSELS. I somehow recall that a TASSEL on a mortarboard is in one position before graduation and another position afterward
39. Ramos of "In the Heights": ANTHONY.
He is just a kid ...
40. Gain again: RE-EARN. As in someone's confidence, perhaps
41. Secret alternative: ARRID. does TRYST also fit??! 😉 In this clue's case, it was referring to a woman's deodorant/anti-perspirant brand called "Secret". But if you didn't get this one, don't sweat it ...
42. One side of a comparison ad: BEFORE. Clever; the old before and after comparison ... the image below is of one that always seemed to be on the back cover of comic book magazines, back in the day:
My inspiration for getting a set of barbells |
44. Signs of life: PULSES. I just checked mine ... yep, still alive ... 69 bpm @ resting rate
46. Dupe: OUTWIT.
One of the three basic strategies in this "game"
49. Asset on a blockchain, for short: NFT.
It helps to know what a "blockchain" is
51. Starship Enterprise counselor: TROI. Once again, I will defer to Picard to elaborate on Deanna TROI
52. Othello advisor: IAGO. Another crossword staple proper name/fictional character. Three vowels and one consonant
53. Entrepreneur Musk: ELON. Another crossword staple proper name/actual person
57. Texting letters: SMS. Short Message/Messaging Service abbreviation
And we have come to the conclusion of today's blog. Please add your thoughts below. See you next month ...
**For those who were unable to unscramble the words in my intro:**
admiral toe = tailor made
area rote = ear to ear
ROOF FACT SHEET = OFF TO THE RACES
Notes from C.C.:
Today we celebrate the 90th birthday of Parsan, who lives in the same area as Agnes. Happy birthday, Parsan!
39 comments:
Before I came on to this site, and got C-Moe’s explanation, I didn’t understand a single one of the themers, especially “bat wreath.” And I protest having two obscure names next to each other; Daimler and Arnold. I really didn’t enjoy this puzzle much at all, though I do say “FIR, so I’m happy” just because I did manage to solve this monstrosity. Subgenius out!
Good morning!
I got Winston's gimmick when BASHED TANK showed up. Suddenly DOING LESS made sense. Cute, though SALT SWORD is a stretch. Remembered DAIMLER of Daimler Benz. "Cornhole" had a whole other meaning in my ute. Thanx for the amusement, Winston, and for the detailed expo, C-Moe. (Got the first two, but "off to the races" just wouldn't come to me -- I was looking for a 3-word scramble.)
BAD: "He was bad, he was base, he was mean." At 1:18, remember The Limeliters?
Oops, forgot to wish Parsan a very happy birthday. Hope it's special.
My niece sent this to me. Thought you might find it interesting...
• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
• A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
• An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
• A question mark walks into a bar?
• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out -- we don't serve your type."
• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
• A synonym strolls into a tavern.
• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar -- fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
• A dyslexic walks into a bra.
• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.
FIR. Typical Friday puzzle, lots of misdirection in the cluing, but thankfully no circles or proper names. Yay!
Got the theme with bashed tank, and then it was off to the races.
The only nit I have is with mishit. When I played golf I often hit out of bounds, but never called it that. My name for it cannot be printed here.
Although this was a tough puzzle, it was quite enjoyable.
Took 13:32 for "I dayshift on."
I, once again, echo the comments of the great (and early) SubG.
I didn't quite "get" the theme while solving, and I disliked Daimler (which I sussed) abutting Arnold (which I've never heard of). You can add "Troi" crossing "Essie", and "NFT" crossing "neuter" crossing this "Anthony".
At least I kind of got today's French lesson (roi).
I have to imagine that this puzzle took an inordinate amount of work.
FIR, but ersed oreida for ARNOLD, it's for LBS, and sarapes for SERAPES (untie!) Also lost, then REEARNED DAB.
Today is:
NATIONAL ARBOR DAY (slow growing trees are usually the strongest)
NATIONAL AUDUBON DAY (The Bird is the Word.)
NATIONAL HISTORIC MARKER DAY (usually placed where you can’t pull over to read)
NATIONAL DISSERTATION DAY (it’s not enough that you stuck me for your student loan?)
NATIONAL HELP A HORSE DAY (wish I was in position to rescue a couple of these magnificent beasts)
NATIONAL HAIRBALL AWARENESS DAY (you should be aware when your cat delivers one of these “presents”)
NATIONAL PRETZEL DAY (I’ll have mine covered in chocolate or yogurt please)
NATIONAL RICHTER SCALE (a 6.0 quake is 10 times bigger than a 5.0, but releases 32 times as much energy, according to the USGS calculator.)
NATIONAL KIDS AND PETS DAY (pick the right pet for children at the right time)
This sucker is long enough. Comments to follow.
Aside to C-Moe - your grid has BAr WREATH x SrRODE.
HBDTY, Parsan!
I liked this one. Tough enough for Friday, and nearly as fun as a DAB special. I'm not fond of anagrams, but that's just a personal preference.
I knew the Sesame Street characters (including ELMO) when I worked at a PBS station, but haven't watched it since (circa 1976.) I'm sure the meltdown didn't happen on my watch.
YORKIEs are a favorite among RVers. I find them loving, but awfully yappy. 'Course I'm compairing them to my stoic greythounds.
I've owned several DAIMLER Benz autos, and my RV is built on a DAIMLER Freightliner chassis.
My favorite MISHIT didn't happen to me. I was invited to fill out a foursome by my stepson, who was hosting a couple of customers in a business outing. It turned out that we were all duffers. We came to a par 3 with an elevated tee and green, with a closely-mown fairway between them. One of my guests hit his tee shot just above the equator, and it rolled down the tee box, across the fairway, up the slope onto the green, and right in the hole.
KS - The game is called "golf" because all the good four-letter words were taken.
Thanks to Winston for teh smokin' puzzle, and to our Chairman for explaining it all.
The word is #$%#&*$. 😄
I struggled with this at first and thought the theme answers silly. Then the light dawned and sped me on my way. I now find the theme clever.
I was tripped up by a personal natick, the I in TROI and ESSIE, otherwise this was easy after sussing the theme.
Block chain/NFT was all perps.
I was surprised that Arnold products are not sold nationwide. They are so common here. LIU. They are sold in the Eastern states only.
PURGE. I moved to this independent living apartment from a three bedroom condo with a dining room, atrium, two and a half baths and a garage. It had very many kitchen cabinets. I had to sell and move quickly to take advantage of a generous signing bonus. It was so hard to know what to take and what to get rid of. Some item I wish I had kept.
My retired son has become a micromanager. He was so used to being an efficient manager at work. Also, when a single sentence would suffice, we get a ten minute dissertation.
Parsan, happy birthday to you.
Good Morning:
It took me a few minutes to figure out what our constructor was up to, but once I saw the gimmick, it helped with the rest of the solve. I like this recent trend of the answer being in the clue itself, but I really didn't enjoy this presentation as much as some others because I don't care for anagrams. Anagrams and self-referential clues in a puzzle give me agita, as do Roman numerals and TLWs. All of the themers work pretty well except for Salt Sword, which is too much of a stretch, IMO. The only unknown was Anthony, but I stumbled over Outfox/Outwit, Era/Eon, and, apologies to Picard, Sulu/Troi. My Star Trek knowledge is limited to only those names that have appeared in crosswords but who is who escapes me.
Thanks, Winston, for your creativity, and thanks, Moe, for the excellent analysis of the theme and the accompanying commentary. Enjoyed your Moe-kus and visuals, especially the convertible Conestoga, Arnold the Oinker, and, of course, the riff on Toto's lineage. I always heard that Toto was a Cairn Terrier, but upon further reading, the exact breed of the famous mutt is uncertain.
Happy 90th Birthday to Parson and sincere best wishes for a wonderful day of celebration and joy! 🎂🥂🎁🎈🎊🎉
DO @ 7:24 ~ Please thank your niece for the many smiles and chuckles induced by her delightful repertoire of language faux pas. The funniest, laugh-out-loud example, to me, was: "A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph!"
I hope Ray O's absence is a result of being inundated at work after his trip to Florida. I certainly miss his puns, not to mention his presence.
Have a great day.
Musings
-Masterful! HAND BASKET gave me the gimmick
-NEUTER: Where I sub I am trying to use “they” as a singular pronoun for the two transgender kids we have but it is hard to overcome 77 years of conditioning
-In West Side Story, the white Jets had to defend their turf against the Puerto Rican Sharks
-My MISHIT shot story redux: I MISHIT my tee shot 50 yards out of bounds into a cornfield. I teed up again and made a hole-in-one (with three witnesses). Uh, I took a three on the hole.
-I wonder why S.E. Hinton named characters in The Outsiders SODA POP and Pony Boy
-Our neighbors have too “yippy” YORKIES that can be annoying but their house is for sale
-NASA PURGES fuel lines in rockets by running inert helium gas through them before launch
-You can add this SMH to your SMS to show how you really feel
-New teachers have to STRIDE boldly into their classroom and “own the room”
-My summer business pulled billions of TASSELS over the 23 years
-I’m sitting in the middle of 22 eighth graders who are sewing buttons and my Apple Watch says my PULSE is 62
Thank you, Winston, for a clever Friday challenge. I don't mind anagrams, so the long reveals were pretty much a walk in the park--especially when many of the answers weren't really all that jumbled; e.g., in 56A "words" is in the clue, and WORD is in the answer; or 34A, where "bath" is almost the first three letters of the answer.
I did FIR, but the southeast nearly did me in, with ANTHONY, REEARN, and ARRID sandwiched together. But Winston and Patti had thoughtfully placed several horizontal perps in that neighborhood.
Speaking of Anthony, he (Ramos, from "In the Heights"), was about the only refugee from yesterday's exercise in pop culture. Today's proper names were few, and they mainly consisted of people like Monteverdi and I. M Pei (and for sports aficionados, Bart Starr).
I found today's puzzle to be tough but Friday-appropriate. And solving it gave great satisfaction.
Good Morning! Quite an enjoyable puzzle today, even though I was OUTWITted in the SE, it was more than Friday fair. Thanks, Winston.
I didn’t know what a blockchain was nor who ANTHONY is, so that threw off that area. Along with trying to find an abbreviation for Manitoba (CSO CanadianEh) when I should have gone a bit more south to MINN.
TASSEL, guessed wrong at LE vs. EL dilemma.
I knew the missing word(s) in the phrases and filled all the theme clues without any idea where it was going, a complete mystery until I got to the Corner. Thanks C.Moe. Sorry, I was not on board for your jumbles, but your recap was the epitome of fun and facts.
I have to disagree, my favorite butternut squash is SEEDY, but never squalid.
Interesting info about Toto. He certainly wasn’t cast as a YORKIE in the film.
Happy Birthday to Parsan! 🥳🎂🌼 Have a delightful day!
DNF. I’m still recovering from several hours at an urgent care clinic yesterday, so my head is not clear. But I enjoyed C-M’s explanations and the comments.
D-O: loved the language funnies. Precious.
My niece has a tiny YORKy.
Happy birthday Parsan. 90 is a milestone.
Very clever, but I don't do well with anagrams at all.
Must claim a DNF, not because of the theme, but because of the 18 attempts to alphabet run the "S" in "sms." Since I had no idea salty sword was an anagram, I did not have a clue... SMS has appeared several times in the past, but I never remember what it has to do with texting abbreviations.
I would probably get lost in this town also...
( I believe the sign reads "pls drive curly flea thru the village of Anagram." )
have a very happy milestone birthday Parsan!
P.S.
I am still confused by base = bad
Why on earth would anyone use an antonym as a clue, without at least giving you a clue?
Friday Fail. Thanks for the workout, Winston and CMoe.
Officially a DNF and FIW for this beast. But I did see the Jumbled themers (except for the last one as I was just too fatigued and out of time to wrestle with it).
As TTP said yesterday, “This is not your grandfather’s Oldsmobile.”
Let me count the inkblots - no, let’s not!
Dry changed to ICY., IMS to SMS.
DAIMLER required a Google check for spelling.
Seamy changed to SEEDY, bare to OPEN, Bag to BAD (I was thinking of a baseball base).
There were so many choices for Ont. neighbor, but I eliminated Man. and Que. not only because only three letters but the spelling of neighbour would indicate American state not Canadian province.
Unknowns included ECOLAB, ARNOLD, SMH (Shaking My Head when I LIUed), ANTHONY, NFT (Non Fungible Token) (no cryptocurrency for me).
Most of them perped, but the SE corner was last.
I think Picard is still in Japan. We will get wonderful photos later I’m sure.
Happy Birthday Parsan.
Wishing you all a great day.
Tough Friday-worthy puzzle today. A lot of ESP required, but the lack of obscure names made for an enjoyable FIR. Unfortunately, the theme zipped high over my head until explained by Moe. Not a Jumble fan.
Good morning. Thank you Winston, and thank you Chairman Moe. Happy Birthday, Parsan!
The first clue I read was 15A, so I filled in Godliness. Then I read 19A and filled in hand basket. I filled in the rest the same way, except for last words.
At that point, I started to fill in all of the perps and immediately ran into problems. OOPS! All of those standard answers were quickly erased, and I started over. Got DOING LESS quickly and saw that it was an anagram of Godliness. That made the rest of the puzzle theme answers easier to solve.
After reading Moe's review, I looked up ARNOLD. I'd never heard of it, so I thought it was another west coast Topanga for me. That's when I discovered it is an east coast product. I did recognize the logo though. It's the same as we have on Brownberry brand bread. Same parent company. Grupo Bimbo.
Moe, on Wednesday in 40ish degree windy weather, I played perhaps my worst round of golf in probably the last 10 years. Maybe 20 years. My drive on the first hole hit the edge of the cart path, caromed to the right into a tree, and then bounced and rolled half the distance back to the tee boxes. It ended up among more trees. I could've safely punched out, but I had a narrow alley to advance the ball down the fairway with a hero shot. Bad decision. I clipped another tree and went deeper into the wooded area. I finally got back to the fairway, and then promptly sculled my 8 iron. The positive was that it rolled up the fairway and onto the green. Then I three putted. It was all downhill from there. I had bookend snowmen on the scorecard. I was 22 over par. For 9 holes! One quadruple, three triples, four doubles, and one single bogey. On a par 3, where I also hit a tree. It was so bad it was funny.
CED - My sign reads "ERROR 1011." Maybe it's a sign for the town where they built the Lockheed Tristar airliner.
CED- base and bad are synonyms (“base=adjective as in vulgar, low,” per Thesaurus, or perhaps BAWDY, SEEDY). CMoe used antonym thinking the opposite definition might show the meaning better.
I forgot to mention my smile when I noted HOLIER crossing the jumbled Godliness.
In our health system Urgent Care Centres are not ERS, but rather a walk-in clinic for more minor ailments. They are designed to lessen the crowd at ER, and provide faster care, as these ailments would be triaged to the bottom of the list. Patients are transferred to ER if higher level of care is needed.
TTP -- Only 22 over par? That'd go into the record books as my best game ever. We had a ten-stroke limit on any hole. I'd usually score a 90 for 9 holes.
base as an adjective "morally low; without estimable personal qualities; dishonorable; meanspirited; selfish; cowardly.
Synonyms: contemptible, despicable" Dictionary.com
Base seems to be a stronger kin of bad.
Thanks all for the base definition, learning moment for me as it was not in my data base...
Jinx, error 1011?
Hmm, it works for me here, try this diffferent path to picture of the town of Anagram welcome sign.
Happy Birthday, Parsan!
As for the puzzle, when wrestling with the obvious answers didn't pan out the light went on and then the oblivious answers weren't. I enjoyed the "double" cluing (after the need to anagram the obvious became apparent).
Thanks for the puzzle, Winston, and for the great recap, Ch. Moe.
Hola!
Whew! Lots of commentary about this anagrammed puzzle! Even though I finished the puzzle with no errors, I did not stop to parse the anagrams because I'm very distracted by outside events, i.e., messages about my new medications, contacting the doctor, etc.
It was exhilarating to just be able to fill the puzzle and I knew "something" was going on but my brain just wasn't on that aspect of it; it was busy thinking about the other topics in my life. Thankfully, MOE explained it all brilliantly.
SALATSWORD? Is that really a thing? I can't even imagine it!
SERATPES was, for me, easily sussed.
d-otto, that list has been used by English teachers for a long time. It's a useful tool to take each phrase apart and analyze it. I used to give one or two phrases to each student and have them re-write it. For ESL students that is quite a challenge but a good learning experience.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Happy birthday, Parsan! I hope you celebrate and enjoy your special day.
I believe Picard got back yesterday.
CED, the second link worked. Your guess is as good as any regarding what it says.
This felt slow while I was solving but when I finished it was faster than a usual Friday - Not sure how that happened - I think my brain is just tired from a long week of work!
I enjoyed the creativity of the constructors - even though some of the anagrams I needed to come here to figure out- I'm looking at you SALT SWORD.
I'm not in the region for ARNOLD bread - I thought it was going to be something like Arrowroot or Orowheat - but then let perps handle it
When I lived in St Louis I lived within walking distance of the largest AMOCO sign - even though the station underneath is now BP - they left the iconic sign up. It's on I 64 just SW of the famous St Louis Zoo
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/10245
Thanks CM for a fun blog and Winston for the amusing puzzle!
And happy, happy birthday to Parsan!
Winston’s idea was excellent, but it paid off fully in only two of the five answers. It was interesting challenge, even though I could see quickly that Godliness was scrambled so that must be the gimmick. I would have enjoyed this theme more had I not been feeling poorly today. I did FIR.
I thought of Manitoba before MINN, before I wised up. I use the postal abbreviations only when I’m doing something postal. Otherwise, I believe they’re not fully intelligible, and that the M-states in particular trip up a lot of people, maybe even a majority. As you might infer, a copy editor prefers the old AP style for state abbrevs., with the four- and five-letter states spelled out.
Got off to a good start in the NW, knowing DAIMLER, but I wasn’t familiar with ARNOLD bread. I still love Arnold Ziffel and still manage to find “Green Acres” hilarious. . . . BESEECH I learned from “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” The title characters remind me of boxing promoters Don King and Bob Arum (respectively), who are both in their 90s and still active. . . . If MIS-HIT isn’t supposed to be hyphenated, it oughta be. As it did me, I’ll bet that entry reminded Jinx of George Carlin’s “you don’t take ‘em, you leave ‘em” rhetorical point. . . . Ribald piebald is an all-time great Moe-ku from today’s Sherpa. . . . . I got ARRID quickly. That was my brand in high school, when I really needed it. . . . I didn’t need another reminder, CMoe, that I am a 137-pound weakling. I prefer to think of myself as a junior welterweight.
Chairman Moe, Irish Miss, CanadianEh, AnonPVX Thank you for the shouts out. Yes, we got back yesterday from Japan and I made a post.
I think Marina Sirtis as COUNSELOR TROI is SCENERY that makes a very good DIVERSION.
Once again, here is one of my several photos of Marina Sirtis/TROI up close and personal.
Hand up this was a bit of a challenge, but I FIR. Unlike yesterday. Unscrambling the theme helped a bit with the solve.
CanadianEh Hand up for BAG as a baseball BASE.
Thanks for a relatively easy Friday foray into crosswordia.
And thanks MOE for the explication. I got ALL the fill, but when I saw your first CARTOON I immediately saw the higher level. Didn't see your improvised ACRONYMS (see 12A below).
A few favs ...
1A DAB. I do remember it. I do!
7A BOSSY. Peanuts LUCY was too short.
12A HARE. Bad timing. I feel a NAP coming
17A WIDER. Some would say INFINITE.
24A PEI. There's also Maya Lin who designed the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, which I've never visited because one of my childhood neighbor's name is on it.
25A SEEDY. Butternut squash is a favorite of ours. It's easy to grow (not so easy to peel, but then that's my job) and it keeps very well in a cold garage. In fact we had some last night sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
30A ESAU. BEGIN RANT: I protest. The descendants of ESAU were lost in the sands of time thousands of years ago and the descendants of JACOB are still with us today. When are stingy constructors going to add letter to the fill for the crosswordese "Genesis Twin" and make room for JACOB. And SHEESH - it's Passover! :END RANT. 😁
55A OPERA. Here's the trumpet toccata that opens his OPERA Orfeo.
Cheers,
Bill
p.s. HBD Parsan! 🎈🎁🎉🎂
I am very bad at anagrams and didn't get Moe's without his explanation, but I did somehow figure out the theme which I thought was quite creative.
Does anybody ever say NILLAS in the plural like that?
I'm old enough (and a born Pennsylvanian) to remember Uncle LUMPY from the days of the Fred Waring Orchestra.
"Not covered" started out as NUDE, then BARE, and finally became OPEN.
Just, as Moe pointed out, the only 3-letter architect that I know of is PEI, the only 7-letter grammatical gender is NEUTER.
My brain kept wanting to parse MIS-HIT as one word MISHIT (rhymes with fish it.) Maybe it's because ever since I learned to read I thought it was "mishap" (rhymes with fish app) because nobody ever used that word aloud with me so I didn't until many years later learn how to pronounce it. I had the same experience with the word "misled" which for years I thought was pronounced as if it were the past tense of "misle" (rhymes with sisal as in sisal carpets.) I guess it all "shows to go" that it is a good thing for parents to read aloud to their kids when they (the kids) are young.
The fictional character Kate Shugak in Dana Stabenow's novels had a dog named MUTT.
Woody Strode STRODE into cinematic fame with his starring role in the movie Sergeant Rutledge. He was also that gladiator named Draba who was pitted against Spartacus early in that movie and was summarily dispatched by Marcus Licinius Crassus played by Laurence Olivier.
Well, enough trivia from me for one day. Good wishes to you all.
Picard:
Welcome back! I look forward to your photos but since I am planning a trip next week I might miss them.
TTP @11:10 AM Sounds like a good walk ruined. 🙂
Thanks, Winston, for your fun puzzle. I enjoyed the extra anagram challenge. I don't think I could have filled the grid with a IRF without solving the anagrams.
FAVs: DOING LESS and PIN point (It took me a while to see the caps.)
Thanks for your excellent write-up, C-Moe! That would have been an "Where do I start?" moment for me. Yes, I thought of that LUMPY, too. Loved your Pad THAI Moe-ku!
D-Otto@7:24. Thanks for sharing! Good stuff!
Monkey@10:18. I missed what happened yesterday. I'll go look for your post now. I hope your head feels better soon!
Picard. Welcome back!
Parsan. Happy 90th Birthday!!
FLN... I very much enjoyed TTP's write-up. Definitely not "lame". Thanks for the eagle AERIE link!
Hi All!
Fun puzzle that I finished at the dermatology Dr. (rosacea). I liked it and SALT SWaRD [sic] spilled the beans.
Thanks Winston for the play and thanks C.Moe for the after-party.
Happy Birthday Parsan!
Bad MISHIT* that...
Hitting out of the fairway I sliced big-time. The ball was headed to the club house's plate-glass wall overlooking the course.
I was twisting my body for some extra English on the ball.
The ball hit a metal railing on a bridge going over a stream and careened right back to the fairway.
I still didn't make par but I also didn't have to make a payment on a new window :-)
I enjoyed reading all y'all today.
Cheers, -T
*I stink at golf but BIL loves it so.., I go w/ him for a nice walk and a few "swing lubricants".
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