Saturday Themeless by Evans Clinchy
Evans is a master scrabble player who lives in Tacoma Washington. Obviously he is also a great crossword constructor as you can see by his first LA Times entry we get today. I moved right along in my solve but had a natick at the jumping off point of 1 Across/1 Down. I do not know any New Orleans neighborhoods, old or new, and joining that with uber obscurely clued T-RAP made for some very unsettling final minutes for me. 😖 I guessed at a "K" but I had other equally bad/desperate options. Boo!
1. One of the oldest neighborhoods in New Orleans: TREME - Excuse my ignorance Big E!
6. Into footwear?: SHOD - A well SHOD unit
10. Included, in a way: CCED.
14. Settle down: RELAX - Aaron said this in 2014 when the Packers started 1 - 2. They then made the playoffs and massed making it to the Super Bowl by 6 points.
15. Come down: POUR - N.W. Ayers and Son ad agency came up with this slogan in 1914 for Nebraskan Joy Morton's salt company.
16. Barcelona's Fundació Joan __: MIRO - Joan MIRO's foundation has the biggest display of MIRO's works and supports many new artists in Barcelona. More info
17. Homes.com units: APARTMENTS - Our granddaughter is very familiar with this site in her job in D.C.
19. Like a kumquat: OVAL.
20. Fair activities for kids: PONY RIDES.
21. Carrot family plant: ANISE
22. Academic domain: EDU.
23. Took a spill: TUMBLED - The source of Wide World Of Sports' "The Thrill Of Victory, The Agony Of Defeat"
25. Nightie nights?: PAJAMA PARTIES 😀
30. Young egg cells: OVULES.
31. "It's not you, it's me," maybe: LIE.
35. Struggles with sigmatism: LISPS.
36. Nurse: SIP 😀 Make that drink last!
37. Resolve: SPINE.
37. Resolve: SPINE.
38. Swear words: OATH.
39. State on the Arabian Sea known for beautiful beaches: GOA - West coast of India
41. World Chess Champion from 2013 to 2023: MAGNUS CARLSEN - Norwegian Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen
44. "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" star: SEYMOUR.
46. Waze suggestion: Abbr.: RTE.
47. Facility for tech-savvy HS kids: AV LAB - Every student in America these days is pretty tech-savvy and goes to an AV LAB.
48. Election map figure: BLUE STATE - Here is the 2020 election by county
54. Long-handled hammer: MAUL - I split a lot of wood with my splitting MAUL
55. Fan attribute: TEAM SPIRIT.
56. Part of YOLO: ONCE.
57. Belgrade native: SERB.
58. Possible warning signs: OMENS.
59. Uses Siri, maybe: ASKS.
60. Holy chests: ARKS - Opening the Lost ARK was not a good decision
61. Cantankerous: TESTY.
Down:
1. Genre of Ariana Grande's "7 Rings": T-RAP - I threw a flag on this play where this ludicrous cluing with TREME seemed unfair for a common word! In case you're interested: "7 Rings" is a trap-pop song with elements of hip hop and R&B that runs for 3 minutes, with Grande rapping the hook and final verse."
2. Used car, perhaps: REPO.
4. Barra of General Motors: MARY.
5. Highs and lows: EXTREMES - For April 27, Nebraska's EXTREMES are 95°F in 1989 and 24°F in 1950.
6. Got the lead out: SPED UP.
7. Give an edge: HONE.
8. Surpass: OUTSTRIP.
9. MRI orderers: DRS.
10. "Help me out here": C'MON BE A PAL.
11. Means of settling some disputes: CIVIL SUITS - OJ was found not guilty (not innocent) in his criminal trial but was found guilty in the CIVIL SUIT charging he caused wrongful death.
12. Take marks off: ERASE - There was a time...
13. Gave out: DOLED.
18. Touchy one?: MIDAS 😀
21. "__ wrong?": AM I.
24. SLC athlete: UTE - In Salt Lake City
25. Game that may be played on horses, bicycles, or elephants: POLO.
26. Brand of slip resistant shoes: AVIA.
27. "Short straw again": JUST MY LUCK.
28. Figures in a dominance hierarchy: ALPHA MALES.
29. Protective cover?: ALIAS.
33. __ sock: KNEE.
34. Spotted: SEEN.
36. Gose or lambic: SOUR BEER - "Sour beer is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. Sour beer styles include Belgian lambics and Flanders red ale and German Gose and Berliner Weisse."
37. Subject worth avoiding: SORE SPOT.
39. Masai Mara mammal: GNU - The great migration in the Masai Mara (Kenya) in Kenya and Tanzania
42. Lump: GOB.
43. Remnants: CRUMBS.
44. American __: SAMOA - You deserve a break today in Pago Pago, Samoa
45. "Captain America" star: EVANS.
49. Willa Cather's "The Song of the __": LARK.
 |
| D.C.'s Statuary Hall |
50. Life partner?: TIME - Speaking of people from Nebraska
51. Mars counterpart: ARES - Gods of war
52. Windshield treatment: TINT.
 |
| % of light allowed in |
53. Artisan's platform: ETSY.
55. Org. that conducts lots of searches: TSA.
 |
| Really, you thought you'd get this stuff through? |
Well, it started out with a little difficulty, since I wasn’t familiar with “Trap” in the sense it was given, and didn’t get much easier from there. But somehow, through P&P, I managed to conquer this very challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteTREME/TRAP? (Have I ever mentioned...?) A lot of this puzzle was easy, but the fatal strike came dead center. Tried StaR BEER, EMU, and ALIBI rather than SOUR, GNU, and ALIAS. Bzzzzzzt. At least the agony was brief. Thanx, Evans and Husker.
Good morning.
ReplyDeleteHand up for for having no idea on the needed letter at 1. I saved it for last and walked the alphabet sounding out the possible answers. TREME sounded like it might be of French origin, so I went with it. A pure luck finish.
Overall, not too many miscues. I did have Dealt before DOLED and limb before TIME.
Properties would have fit for the Homes.com clue, but I ruled that out when I filled REPO, ELAN and MARY. A couple more perps and APARTMENTS was a given.
I've never heard of SOUR BEER. I might try one some day, but I have a feeling that I wouldn't like it.
Among many, my favorite clue was "Protective cover" for ALIAS.
Thank you, Evans. I noticed the self referential shout out at "Captain America" star.
Thank you Husker Gary. And wow, 45 images today! That might be a record. BTW, just curious. Are you a McDonald's stockholder?
DNF, filling 42, only missing with SEYMOre.
ReplyDeleteToday is:
NATIONAL POOL OPENING DAY (gives me goosebumps to think about it)
NATIONAL SENSE OF SMELL DAY (can’t taste much if you can’t smell. But I've been told that I have no taste, and I smell good :)
NATIONAL BABE RUTH DAY (he certainly didn’t look like a steroid user, more like a starch eater)
NATIONAL TELL A STORY DAY (my favorite is “nooo, Baby Ruth candy bars were absolutely not named for The Sultan of Swat)
NATIONAL KISS OF HOPE DAY (the theme song should be Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer
INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY (disappearing fast. I go to one that sells for ½ retail, and accepts select trade-ins for ¼ retail)
CELEBRATE TRAILS DAY (CSO to inanehiker)
NATIONAL FIRST LADIES DAY (not so fast, Melania. You aren’t in with in crowd)
NATIONAL DEVIL DOG DAY (German name for USMC combatants in WWI. Also a tasty snack cake)
NATIONAL GUMMI BEAR DAY (not my cuppa)
NATIONAL PRIME RIB DAY (definitely my cuppa. End piece if available, medium rare otherwise)
Long list, so comments follow.
Erased pc LAB for AV (audio-video? aviation?) High school students in Polk County (FL) can take aviation classes. They have classrooms at a couple of the smaller airports in the area. Also erased Help for HONE, and deA, then nSA for TSA.
ReplyDeleteA golf axiom is "the players with the fastest cart never have a bad LIE."
To win the amateur contest at the "gentlemens" club, one must OUTSTRIP the other dancers.
I'm from Kentucky, so being SHOD was optional.
Under standard temperature and pressure, PAJAMA PARTIES will evolve into pillow fights. Registered in the John Belushi documentary film Animal House.
Thanks to Evans for the fun challenge, even though I wasn't equal to it. And thanks to H.Gary for the tour.
FIR. Tried to force alibi before alias and have never heard of sour beer.
ReplyDeleteTalk about abusing proper names in puzzles, Magnus Carlsen? Really?
The cross at Treme and t-rap was just cruel, and only a WAG did the trick.
And what is an AV Lab? Another unknown.
I thought today's puzzle was going to be easy when I was able to throw down pajama parties, but, boy, was I wrong!
Welp, I finished it. But only with significant help from red letters and alphabet runs.
ReplyDeleteTook 13:04 to finish today.
ReplyDeleteCount me among the lucky folks who guesses "T" for the 1A/1D crossing. Having heard some of Ariana Grande's singing, I really was tempted to put in "C" in that square.
Seriously though, a neighborhood (regardless of age) and a chess player (regardless of championships) are supposedly fair game just because it is Saturday?
It took me a little, but I knew today's actress (Seymour), however, I failed today's Spanish lesson (Miro).
Sour beer? Gose or iambic?
HG, thanks for the informative (and illustrative) review. One nit of jargon/semantics: OJ was found "liable" in the civil suit.
Yes, indeed, alphabet runs were our friends this morning. The TREME / T TRAP crossing was the first to be tested and the last to fall. Elephant polo was a learning moment.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteFor some unknown reason, I remembered Treme as a New Orleans neighborhood, so I escaped that dilemma because T Rap is most certainly not in my vocabulary. (I like SS's version, though, even though I've never heard Miss Grande sing, I'll take his word for it). I did trip up at Wind/Knee, DEA/TSA, and Limb/Time and perps were needed for Magnus Carlsen, Sour Beer, and Lark. I thought the cluing was very clever (1A and 1D excluded), particularly, Touchy One=Midas and Protective Cover=Alias. Not only were there only 11 TLWs, the fill was brimming with lively entries, such as Just My Luck, C'mon, Be A Pal, Team Spirit, Alpha Males, etc., and, fittingly, a salute to the author at Evans, to boot!
Thanks, Evans, for a very enjoyable solve and congrats on your very impressive debut, on a Saturday, no less!, and thanks, HG, for your equally enjoyable and impressive review and the pleasing and relative visuals. That "old-timey" eraser sure brings back memories of the days of inkwells and pencil boxes! Now I know why I don't like carrots, thanks to your chart showing they're members of the same family as Anise and Fennel, two flavors I avoid. Hope you weren't affected by the recent horrendous tornadoes.
FLN
Monkey, I hope you've recovered from your recent health emergency.
Have a great day.
Started out very difficult with the 1a/d trap, but most of the long answers were sussable, and the perps were kind.
ReplyDeleteA very enjoyable Saturday stumper..
Did not know anise was in the carrot family, but if you are hiking, here is a PSA
Wild carrot family plants and dangerous lookalikes:
Queen Anne's Lace.
Root is edible, best in spring, the flower is a teeny tiny purple thing in the center fabled to be the blood of Queen Anne when she pricked her finger sewing lace. This is how you tell it apart from poisonous lookalikes.
Hemlock
Very similar to wild carrot above, you know how dangerous this is...
Giant Hogweed
Just touching this plant can give you serious burns!
Tread carefully!
I FIR but with some help. I looked up the chess champion’s name; that was a huge help.
ReplyDeleteI knew TREME so TRAP showed up on its own, but I had no idea why. Thanks to HG I now know. Also didn’t know AVLAB when it showed up.
I had to STRIDE through this CW but I enjoyed the journey. As Irish Miss ☘️ said lots of lively and fun clues. Not a bad Saturday.
Thank you IM☘️ for the good wishes. I’m feeling better but I see the doc Monday and I’ll see what he has to say. I’m not used to being sick so it makes me TESTY.
Like Evan and many others, trap/treme was the death of me! My wag was crème (at least sounds French! And there is a genre for c-rap either for Chinese or country! So I FIW for one darn square! Otherwise fun, but I would venture to say swear words, being plural, would be oaths? And I’m much more used to life partner answers coming together with an “and” answer, such as ‘life and times’ which doesn’t fit and took me awhile to move away from limb instead. For some reason, civil suits didn’t click for awhile and unknown crosses such as miro and magnus didn’t help. Onwards!
ReplyDeleteHoly Ignatius Reilly! This was your LA Times debut, Mr. Clinchy? Please come back, maybe on a Monday, when we won't destroy so many brain cells. Today's puzzle was ingenious and clever and fun and DIFFICULT.
ReplyDeleteThe very beginning--1A and 1D--understandably twisted people in knots. Like Irish Miss, I got TREME, and I'm not sure why. There are three possible explanations:
1) I've heard of the TV show. Nope; we can rule that one out, due to my minimal TV viewing time.
2) In some of my trips to New Orleans, I may have visited Treme. I do know that there is an accent aigu over the second e, so it's pronounced Treh-MAY.
3) I have read John Kennedy Toole's novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces." This is a picaresque account of one Ignatius Reilly, who lives down near the French Quarter. I'm thinking he lived in Treme, or at least that name was used a lot in the book. The book, incidentally, won the Pulitzer Prize.
I can't speak for Irish Miss, but I'm going with #2 and/or #3.
As for the rest of the puzzle, yikes! Without helpful perps and a multitude of WAGs, I would have foundered. Especially in the vicinity of good old MAGNUSCARLSEN and his buddy. CMONBEAPAL. As it was, I actually did FIR.
Evans (Mr. Clinchy's first name, not to be confused with the guy in Captain America), your debut here was auspicious, and I look forward to your speedy return.
I guess I meant to say ‘like Gary and many others’!
ReplyDeleteWow! Tough outing, but with some really clever clues. Very satisfying puzzle, even though I FIW at #1. My musical tastes were pretty much set in concrete by the time I hit 30, so "C"RAP made perfect sense to me. The chess guy was all perps & a WAG or two, but on the whole, a fun morning exercise.
ReplyDeleteKen @ 10:35 ~ I can rule out #1, 2, and 3 but still have no concrete reference other than having heard the name.
ReplyDeleteMonkey @ 10:35 ~ Glad you're feeling better. 😉
I've been out of town for a few days and come back and find a puzzle that was way above my pay grade. Jus too many unheard of unknowns. SOUR BEER, MAGNUS CALRSEN, SEYMOUR, LARK- and unknowns as clued. T-RAP(I did get that one), OVAL, ANISE, LISPS, EVANS.
ReplyDeleteTREME- crime ridden area abutting the Vieux Carre that I avoid.
MARY Barra- continuing the tradition of GM leaders leading GM's market share down, down, down.
I FIR, with only a couple of quandaries, a bit more quickly than the usual Saturday puzzle, with perps solving some of those quandaries.
ReplyDeleteI loved the “nightie nights” clue for PAJAMA PARTIES, although I’m reluctant to admit that answer and KNEE socks occurred to me so readily. Other likes: TREME, once I got the m from MARY, because I remembered an HBO series set there; AUKS; MIRO, although I was thrown by the Fundacio and didn’t at first notice the Joan part; and Jane SEYMOUR, which unlike Gilmour/Gilmore is usually spelled with a ur, not an re, whether it’s the first name or surname.
Several clues had needless distractions, like calling goatees “kin” to the Van Dyke. Both are nearly always accompanied by a mustache in the examples I found, so I could find no distinction, but apparently the mustache is an addition to a goatee, not integral. That said, NOBODY looks good with a goatee sans mustache. . . . The AVIA clue implied non-existent distinction from other athletic shoes, as if Avia’s surefootedness is a specialty.
But my main problem throughout the exercise was coming up with OUTSTRIP. My first guess was “overtake,” and, although the perps made clear my guess was wrong, SPED UP and POUR came slowly to me. I also thought the 1D clue for TRAP was unfair to just about everyone, and I didn’t know what EVANS starred as Captain America, and his first name (Chris, but wouldn’t it be funny if it were Clinchy?) wouldn’t have helped. . . . I wasn’t sure about the MAUL hammer and the AV LAB when I sussed them. . . . The second-largest issue was SOUR BEER. The unknown product with the unknown varieties nearly led to sour grapes.
HELPHONEDNF - like others, TREME/TRAP (T-RAP) was unknown and I just didn’t guess. Pajama bedtime before PAJAMA PARTIES, help/HONE. Did not understand SPINE. Did not know MAGNUS CARLSEN.
ReplyDeleteSubject worth avoiding - religion?, politics?, no, SORE SPOT.
Reading books again that one read years ago is such a pleasure. New insights and forgotten plot developments makes it all worthwhile. I am now reading Salinger’s Nine Stories who writes about SEYMOUR Glass.
The puzzle refers to the Joan Miro Foundation which is in Barcelona, which is the name of the restaurant my 2 children took me to last night to celebrate my birthday. It warms my heart that so many of you sent me birthday greetings on my 90th. In my head I feel about 60 and some days my body feels about 100. My wish for all of you is that someday each of you will receive best wishes on this blog when you also reach this milestone.
I was positive I was moving rather quickly to an unheard of FIR (for me) on a Saturday. I left a blank in 1A and 1D until last, thinking a light bulb might turn on later. Lots of clever clues, my favorite answers being MIDAS and ALPHAMALES. Clicking along, singing a song, but then I ran into the middle KNOT of the chess player, the unknown beer, and protective cover, all of which I totally botched. I had alibi, /ALIAS, nob/GOB, which totally screwed up GOA, MAGNUS and appeared as Mannui. I know that sounds dumb, but I remembered Mannu from the Dallas Spurs and thought maybe…
ReplyDeleteAnyway, looking up an answer took away my FIR.
So, I’m disappointed, but I really enjoyed the puzzle and the many clever but not “gotcha” clues. I look forward to next time, Evans.
Thanks to Husker for always entertaining and amusing us.
Parsan, please add my warm wishes to many others for achieving such a significant birthday milestone.
ReplyDeleteI, too, ended up with the TREME/TRAP guess. So, I looked up the neighborhood. My only other assistance was needed with the Hess champion. Boris Spasky and BobbyFisher were the last ones I remember. The rest of the puzzle came slowly but surely.
ReplyDeleteResolve=SPINE because you need a stiff backbone to stand up for yourself against unequal odds i.e. resolve. No idea who Joan Miro is.
My long handled hammer, sledge, didn't fit.
Congrats to all who participated in the care and feeding of today's delicacy.
I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts and you want bananas.
Nevermore!
Chess not Hess. Sorry, missed the "C".
DeleteFirst - From Yesterday: Thank you for the kind welcome back words.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but cross of ?REME/?RAP was a true Natick. Not nice or necessary.
Struggled with SW corner cluster of names. I met JANE SEYMOUR once in Santa Barbara. She was eating sushi at the next table. She was very sweet to a boy who asked for her autograph. I had a crush for her when I saw her as a teen in "Live and Let Die".
At MIT some of us played POLO on unicycles. Not sure if that is odder than elephants. I cannot seem to find any photos, sorry.
Thanks Evans for a fun Saturday puzzle, parts of were EASY and parts of which were HARD, but I did manage a FIR.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks Husker for your usual informative and entertaining review.
20A PONY RIDES. Cute.
19A OVAL. I hung onto TART for far too long, but was getting nowhere in the NE, when the penny dropped.
21A ANISE. One of the last to fall. I should remembered that Fennel is licorice flavored as well.
23A TUMBLED. Ouch!
25A PAJAMA PARTIES. Cuter.
31A. LIE. Did not get this, but Husker explained it perfectly.
32A AUKS. There aren't a lot of three letter birds and AUK didn't occur to me at first because of the Great Auk, which is extinct.
35A LISPS. DNK sigmatism. Thought it might be related to Astigmatism, which sounds like my post-cataract surgery vision, a subject which I will bring up with my ophthalmologist when I see her next.
39D GOA. I knew it was a state in India, but was thinking of the Arabian Gulf, aka the Persian Gulf, not the Arabian SEA. But perps rule.
40A GOATEE. I gimme for me -- the only place hair will grow on my face is my chin (and I'm too lazy to shave (much 😀)).
44A SEYMOUR. Jane is now starring in Harry Wild, about a retired literature professor who starts her own detective agency.
48A BLUE STATE. No wonder the Democrats lost. 😀
9D DRS. Held onto MDS for far too long.
25D POLO. I can see horses and elephants, but bicycles?
27D JUST MY LUCK that I SWAGGED TREME for 1A, figuring that TRAP was as good as any other genre of RAP that I'd never heard of.
Cheers,
Bill
Hola!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a contradiction but for a Saturday this puzzle was enjoyable and almost, almost easy to finish. Drat! I had two empty cells that I forgot to go back and fill. One at TREME since I've not been to the fair city of New Orleans and MARY which really could have been clued in so many other ways. Oh, also LIE?UTE. What?
SOUR BEER? To me, BEER is SOUR. I've never liked it.
And you have to be of a certain age to recall Jane SEYMOUR as Dr. Quinn and yes, I am of that certain age!
So thank you, Evans Clinchy, for this worthy challenge and Gary for your always thorough explanations.
PARSAN – The first of the Nine Stories by Salinger is specifically about Seymour Glass, but at least two of the others also involve the Glass family. My favorite of the nine, by far, is “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,” which does seem to involve the aftermath of Walt Glass’s “unspeakably absurd” death at the tail end of WWII and the girl – and child – he left behind. I suggest to newbies, whether or not they’ve already read “Catcher in the Rye,” that they begin their Glass Family studies with the long short story “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,” which is a masterful yet hilarious account of Seymour’s wedding day and makes that first of the Nine Stories all the more stunning.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say that MIRO was my first fill. In Barcelona there is evidence of his art everywhere in the city. If you don't know, his name, Joan, is pronounced HO-AWN.
ReplyDeleteDNF - like others, TREME/TRAP (T-RAP) was unknown and I just didn’t guess. Pajama bedtime before PAJAMA PARTIES, help/HONE. Did not understand SPINE. Did not know MAGNUS CARLSEN.
ReplyDeleteSubject worth avoiding - religion?, politics?, no, SORE SPOT.
Reading books again that one read years ago is such a pleasure. New insights and forgotten plot developments makes it all worthwhile. I am now reading Salinger’s Nine Stories who writes about SEYMOUR Glass.
The puzzle refers to the Joan Miro Foundation in Barcelonaparsan
Pp, which is the name of the restaurant my 2 children took me to last night to celebrate my birthday. It warms my heart that so many of you sent me birthday greetings on my 90th. In my head I feel about 60 and some days my body feels about 100. My wish for all of you is that someday each of you will receive best wishes on this blog when you also reach this milestone.
Oops! That should read “—-Miro Foundation in Barcelona which is—-“.
ReplyDeleteSaturday Soecial. Thanks for the fun, Evans (like others, I noticed that you gave yourself an CSO with Captain America!), and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteI finished, but not without a little Google help.
#1- I looked up the chess master to open up the south.
#2- finding MIRO opened up the NE corner and corrected Tired to DOLED.
#3- I gave up at that Natick NW corner and googled TREME. I don’t know NOLA or the different types of rap.(I have trouble understanding any type of rap!)
My kumquat was Sour before it was OVAL. It was needed for SOUR BEER (yuk, I don’t care for any beer).
I had no idea that sigmatism was LISPing. I took speech lessons for that (but still have a mild case).
“Resolve” required a noun, not a verb.
Like anon@10:34am, I entered Vows for those swear words, thinking it required a plural answer. But an OATH is made up of swear words.
I noted ASKS, ARKS, and AUKS.
Then GOA led into GOATEE..
This Canadian is not commenting on BLUE STATE. Too political! Yes, Parsan, probably a SORE SPOT.
Welcome back Picard. We await your photos.
Wishing you all a great day.
I just can't shake off the feeling I have that this puzzle is simply showing off how cutesy-poo the constructor/editor think they are. If I give enough of a hoot, I'll try to explain why I feel this way in a later post. Before anyone attacks me, let me remind you that I am merely expressing how I felt, not whether I think anything is right or wrong, valid or invalid, fair or unfair.
ReplyDeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIW with lots of red squares I enabled to help me eventually "solve" the puzzle; or at least fill in all of the squares. My patience level would not tolerate having to "google" the answers. I am "good" for about 20-25 minutes with a puzzle; after that it's cheat city
Like d-otto (and others), the 1-across/1-down Natick got me started in a bad mood. Why, for example, could not the clue for 1-down be something actually "TRAP" related? Even a reference to the old movie, "Parent ___"? Or, god forbid, the constructor/editor might have gone with CREME/CRAP instead?
Nevertheless, as I look back at the finished grid that HG posted in his blog, the entries were not that unusual given that it's a Saturday puzzle
FLN/yesterday: sorry that I didn't reply to any of the comments ... Margaret and I had a "play date" and were otherwise distracted. I am always happy to read the reactions you all have to the puzzle and blog
A belated HBTY to Parsan. 90 is a big milestone! My mom's 90th birthday celebration was one I fondly remember
Margaret's youngest grandson just turned two ... birthday party later this afternoon
Tricky but fun! I could not for the life of me remember who played Dr. Quinn but it was on the tip of my tongue for the whole puzzle. Got lucky knowing MAGNUS CARLSEN but had my vowels a little fouled up. Didn't know Ariana Grande made a TRAP song, but it was the only genre I could think of that fit, which helped me get TREME (I remembered the TV show). Loved the cluing for MIDAS, EXTREMES and SHOD. Also had to step back and think for a minute about what other kinds of labs there were besides PC.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Evans for his LAT debut! Good work with your CSO!
ReplyDeleteFAVs: Protective cover? (even though I had ALIbi instead of ALIas), Give an edge, and PAJAMA PARTIES
I went for dREME and d-RAP, reasoning that if it were TRAP, surely there were other clue options. Also, I thought "D" could be for "dancable rap" since Miss AG is known for her dancing. I also missed a few boxes in the middle because the 12-letter name was ESP and SOUR BEER is new to me. (Lucina and C-Eh! I will join you for a glass of wine. The smell of beer turns me away.)
Jane SEYMOUR was in the punchbowl. She is fun when she plays the meanie. Austenland, anyone?
I remembered a Freakonomics interview with MARY Barra.
Thanks to H-Gary for another helpful review! I never thought about the girl with the umbrella on the salt container. So fun to learn something new that's been around forever!
Lucina, can you give me the phonetic difference between JOAN and JUAN? Would Joan = HO-AWN and Juan = WHAN be close?
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteEvans bested me but I had fun playing with my pen ;-) Congrats on your LAT debut and well done getting your name in the downs.
Actually, I did pretty well -- well, for me on a Saturday. Didn't hurt that I knew TREME (we speed east on I-10 every year or two) and TRAP music.
Thanks HG for the expo that filled in my blanks with style.
Oh, and HG. It's not T-Rap, it's just TRAP: Trap is a subgenre of hip hop music that originated in the Southern United States, with lyrical references to trap starting in 1991 but the modern sound of trap appearing in 1999.[1][3] The genre gets its name from the Atlanta slang term "trap house", a house used exclusively to sell drugs.[4] Trap music uses synthesized drums and is characterized by complex hi-hat patterns, snare drums, bass drums, some tuned with a long decay to emit a bass frequency (originally from the Roland TR-808 drum machine), and lyrical content that often focuses on drug use and urban violence [WikiP]
For the record, TRAP is not to my taste. LOL @8:07 wanting a C in square 1.
KS - I guess you missed the big (alleged) cheating scandal in the Chess community back in '22. NPR covered it. I play on chess.com every day so MAGNUS was a gimme (I needed perps to remember his last name).
Picard - Unicycle POLO makes way more sense that bicycle POLO.
Anyone want a story?
Two weeks ago the guest-toilet started leaking a bit on the floor. Ok, re-seat it; Easy peasy. Well, last weekend I didn't have time.
Today I did have the time.
I went to Lowes (#VeternsDiscount!) and got all the parts. I got home and realized the lighting in the bathroom was crap to work under the toilet.
So, back to Lowes for a better work-light (I have others but halogen gets hot and this is a small, poorly-ventilated room).
I get home and the work-light is broken out of the box(?!?!)
Back to Lowes to exchange.
Now I'm ready.
OK, let's un-hook the commode. But wait, the tank is full(?).
//I thought DW turned off the supply when she called about the leak.
OK, no problem.
I reach back, turn off the supply, and flush.
Wait... Water keeps coming in.
Oh, cRAP!!! I am not going to mess with the broken valve.
I'll call my plumber Monday :-(
Cheers, -T
Tony, I called my plumber as soon as I saw the leak!
ReplyDeleteGood luck my friend!
A-t. you lead an exciting life. And to know the (more than I ever wanted to know) the definition of TRAP. I’m impressed.
ReplyDeleteBayou Tony - sorry about your crappy day. If the plumber has to replace the valve, have him put in a ball valve. I have several gate valves that leak out of the stem every time I have to turn off the water supply to change the inner float and valve assembly. They seem to get over the drips after a few weeks - I just have to remember to empty the bowl every week or so. If I thought I could do it myself I would change all the toilet and under sink valves to the ball variety. But this 110 year-old house has some odd plumbing, and I don't trust myself to do anything that requires the building water to be turned off.
ReplyDeleteBy the way - didn't you flush the john to get rid of the water in the reservoir?
Jinx in Norfolk
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about JOAN Miro vs. Juan. Yes, it is that small of a difference and I am guessing now, I believe it's that JOAN is Catalan whereas, Juan is Spanish. For more information I shall have to research. Although they are from the same country, Spain, the Catalan roots run very, very deep.
Lucina, thank you. Interesting.
ReplyDelete