Theme: Your INITIAL reaction:
Puzzling thoughts:
David Ritterskamp appears to be a fairly new constructor of xword puzzles. This may be his LA Times debut. If so, congratulations!
Today's puzzle has its reveal placed at the dead center of the grid:
34. With 36-Across, first encounter, or what the answers to the starred clues make?: INITIAL
36. See 34-Across: CONTACT
My initial reaction to this - as I slogged through the grid in a very pedestrian time of around 15 minutes or so - was "meh". So, I stepped away from the computer and let this one sink in for a day or two before starting my blog
After reviewing the entries, I am still somewhat nonplussed. No offense meant to David. I just don't know how else to react to the puzzle
Here are the four entries and what I took from them:
16-across. *Sound made by bursting a cereal bag?: SPECIAL K POP. Special-K is a brand of cereal (seemed to be more popular back in my youth) that catered to adults (mostly women) who were counting their breakfast calories
K-pop (short for Korean Popular Music) is characterized by a mixture of modern Western sounds and African-American influences (including sounds from Hip-hop, R&B, Jazz, black pop, soul, funk, techno, disco, house, and Afrobeats) [wikipedia]
The initial "K" is in contact with both the word Special and the word Pop. The sound that is made from bursting a cereal bag is "POP"
29-across. *24-hour TV marathon that requires glasses?: THREE D DAY. Three-D (as spelled out; better known as 3D) is the appearance of something that has (in its image) length, width, and depth. Images on a flat screen surface (movies and tv) are seen in 2D (length and width). But with 3D Glasses one can see the added "depth" feature
D-day is most commonly referred to as the invasion of Normandy and nearby beaches by Allied troops in WWII. This occurred on June 6, 1944.
Fun fact: Here's what you get when you google the term D-DAY Marathon
The initial "D" is in contact with both the word Three and the word Day. The 24-hour period that requires 3D glasses is a DAY
43-across. *Many fan letters to N.W.A.?: EAZY E MAIL. Eazy-E was a member of N.W.A. who died some thirty years ago
E-mail is a popular means of communication
The initial "E" is in contact with both Eazy and mail. Fan letters used to be sent primarily by MAIL - as in the US Postal Service
59-across. *Bridge that plays a familiar note when crossed?: MIDDLE C SPAN. Middle C is a musical note that every piano student is familiar with. Middle C (video); Middle C (more info about the note)
C-SPAN is a private nonprofit television network organization that is funded by its cable, satellite, and streaming affiliates. They feature live broadcast of the US Government (think Congress hearings, e.g.) and other public affairs programming
The initial "C" is in contact with the word Middle and the word Span. Another definition/characteristic of the word SPAN is bridge. If a bridge were to play a familiar note as it's being crossed, Middle C would suffice
I hope this is what David had in mind when he created this puzzle. If any of you who visit here and read the blog have a different view, please comment below. Here is the grid; you can see (by the black marks in the corners of some of the squares) where I made my errors:
5. After, in Avignon: APRES. I always think of this word when it applies to a winter sports activity:
10. Texting format initials: SMS. Crossword-ese
13. Tiniest bit: IOTA. Ditto
14. Flexible: PLIANT. Good Friday word (good, as in acceptable!)
15. __ it on thick: LAY.
18. Ancient: OLD. Probably how my grandson sees me when I am being curmudgeonly
19. Fix, in a way: CEMENT. Krazy-Glue didn't fit
20. Tags on Insta, say: ATS. No clue; I rarely use Instagram so this is a foreign phrase. Auto-tags?? (this is a WAG)
21. __ song: SWAN. Moe-ku:
Witty Mockingbird
Retired. Guess his last act?
He sang his SWAN song
22. California home of the National Yo-Yo Museum: CHICO. I tried CHINO and got a black mark in the "N" square
24. "Us" director Jordan: PEELE. His biography
25. Sales talk: PITCH. SPIEL also fit - until it didn't
31. "Brave New World" drug: SOMA. Here is why SOMA
32. __-ray: BLU. Got this one!
33. Rooibos, for one: TEA. I didn't get this one until perps came by ... I will likely see this again, so I had better commit this to memory
40. University extension: EDU. Got this one, too
41. Baseball's Mattingly: DON. Got this one;
Fun Fact: This past weekend, NYY captain Aaron Judge (the newest Yankee player to be featured in xword puzzles) was ejected for having an argument at home plate (with the ump) on a called third strike. This always carries an immediate ejection. Almost exactly 30 years ago (May 12, 1994), DON Mattingly (who was also the Yankees' team captain at that time) was ejected for a called third strike. They are only two Yankee captains to ever get ejected from a game by an umpire
 |
| The "hit man"; aka, "Donnie Baseball" |
42. Sound reflection: ECHO. Is this worth repeating?
47. Spot of land: ISLET. Or, a spot/dot in the water on most atlases and globes
48. Some vines: IVIES. "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat IVIES ..."
49. Bailey's Irish __: CREAM. This used to be my go-to CREAMer for my coffee ... until I discovered Buffalo Trace Bourbon CREAM
51. Give for a time: LEND. The past tense of LOAN. We gotta pay attention to our tenses here when reading the clues and filling in the grid ...
52. Means to be cooler: FAN. As opposed to "ways" to be cooler, which could be "HIP"
53. Irrigates: WATERS. This video shows another type of "irrigation" @ 2:57 ... the patient appears to be in shock! 😕😧😮
58. Gerund suffix: ING. [from Oxford Languages]: "a gerund in a form that is derived from a verb but that functions as a noun, in English ending in -ing, e.g., asking in do you mind my asking you?"
61. Take advice from a personal injury lawyer, perhaps: SUE. Moe-ku 2:
Singer Johnny Cash
Employed a gentile lawyer:
He's a goy named SUE
62. Submits taxes sans paper: E-FILES. It has been my means of filing for over a decade now
63. Anti-fur gp.: PETA. Hmm?:
 |
| Does this pass the no-politics test?? |
64. Them alternative: HER. They/them; she/her; he/him
65. Make big bangs?: TEASE. Moe-ku 3:
Character Penny
Liked to flirt with Leonard on:
The Big TEASE Theory ...
Down:
1. Compact __: DISC. Or it could've been clued as: "the D in CD"
2. Wrangler's need: ROPE. JEEP fit, but in the clue's context did not
3. Shipped pair?: ITEM. Credit Margaret for explaining this to C-Moe: "let's say you're shipping a pair of shoes in a box. The UPS store would see that shipment as one 'ITEM'"
Seems plausible to me ...
4. Walk to and fro: PACE.
5. Tide shelfmate: ALL. I think the clue is OK (ALL is a
brand of laundry detergent; like Tide) provided they meant
"store-shelfmate". We only have one brand of detergent on the shelf in
our laundry room, and a bar of Fels Naptha
6. Detective voiced by Ryan Reynolds: PIKACHU. A Pokemon character
7. Kite, for one: RAPTOR. Learning Moe-ment: [earthlife dot net]: "Kites are smaller raptors with long wings and weak legs which
spend a great deal of time soaring. They occur naturally in the warmer
regions of this world. In general they will take live prey but mostly
feed on dead animals"
8. Father of Kenan: ENOS. Most of we old folks will recall when a constructor wanted to use the word "ENOS", they would clue it as : Slugger Slaughter (or something similar)
9. Gas additive brand: STP. Could this abbr. be clued any differently? There must be a texting phrase linked to these letters ... Stop Typing Poorly, perhaps??
10. Got ready to stop: SLOWED. Last week I slowed as I
was making a right hand turn (green light) and got rear-ended. The
guy who rear-ended me had no insurance card at the scene, but was cited
by the police for causing the accident. I am still waiting to hear from my insurance carrier to see if they were able to determine if he does have coverage. In the meantime, my car is about 50/50 from being totaled (according to the body shop) ... arrgghh
11. UNESCO's __ Fund for Girls' Right to Education: MALALA. Looks like a very worthy cause
12. "Finding Nemo" city: SYDNEY. I visited Sydney once,
but never found Nemo. I did climb the Harbour Bridge, though. No
personal cameras allowed so I have no photo to share other than this
"stock one":
 |
| I climbed it at night. Sydney Opera House to the left |
14. Well-worn trail: PATH. Margaret and I have hiked many of the trails nearby; they are quite well-worn. Many are over 150 years old
 |
| Treasure Loop trail (path) in AZ |
17. Move slowly: INCH. Three Stooges, anyone??!
21. Gets ready for surgery: SEDATES. Before or after they IRRIGATE the wound?? I was most recently SEDATED when I had my colonoscopy. Interesting that the performing physician referred to the procedure as "surgery"
23. "__ cost ya!": IT'LL. Not this blog, though. It's free but I know that C. C. welcomes any donations
24. Hammer end: PEEN. I started to create a Moe-ku and then said, "Nope" 😀
25. Penultimate Greek letter: PSI. Don't you just love the word "penultimate"??!
26. F-, e.g.: ION. In this case, a fluoride ION
27. "I'm covering my ears now!": TMI.
28. Like some retro frames: CAT-EYED. My partner Margaret admits
that she had a pair of these when she was a kid. She refuses to EVER
get another pair of these frames again ...
 |
| This is not Margaret, BTW. Though without glasses they do look similar |
30. School near Heathrow: ETON. Yet another way to clue this classic crossword entry
32. Scarecrow creator: BAUM. The creator of "The Wizard of Oz", L. Frank BAUM
35. __ of March: IDES.
36. Natalie with nine Grammys: COLE. Would not have been easy to parse if the clue were: "Natalie with nine "grammies" ... I had three grammies, growing up ...
37. Knee pt.: ACL. I was at first "torn" by what to put here ... 😃
38. Marxist Guevara: CHE.
39. Tyke: TOT.
41. Oktoberfest outfits: DIRNDLS. A German dress - famous in the Alps
43. Billie who is the youngest woman to win two Oscars: EILISH. Best Song - for "Barbie" and "No Time to Die"
44. Way, or means: AVENUE. Not "Means or Ways" - a federal committee responsible for taxes and tariffs
45. Snappy put-down: ZINGER. I like Sheldon's word, better ... long
46. National park on Mount Desert Island: ACADIA. Margaret has never been to Maine. I have, but have never visited ACADIA National Park. Bucket list item
47. Apple with a few cores: IMAC. Probably the most clever clue in today's puzzle. Computers have "cores" (multiple) while an apple (fruit) has just one. Apple is the computer company that makes the IMAC desktop model
Moe-ku 4:
My Apple IMAC
Had a faulty CPU:
Rotten to the core
50. Stupefies: AWES.
52. Revolutionary era pipe: FIFE. As in FIFE and drums corps
54. Baking amts.: TSPS.
55. Foil alternative: EPEE. Saran wrap would not fit ...
56. Give a star, maybe: RATE. To me, I will usually only RATE a product (or service) based on whether it totally pleased me (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) or totally pissed me off (⭐)
57. Lose it: SNAP. When I was rear-ended last week I admit that I snapped
59. Crossed: MET. Did anyone keep track of the TLWs today?? Irish Miss??
60. Greta of "The Morning Show": LEE. Greta LEE plays Sheila Bak Total unknown, to me
53 comments:
Well, for the first time I can remember, DNF. I just could not figure out Mala_an and Pee_e. Furthermore,
no way did I understand the theme until I read what C-Moe had to say about it. I can’t say I’m happy about the DNF, but I am happy to be here and see how the rest of you did. See you tomorrow!
Good morning!
Yup, d-o tried SEEP at 1a. (Have I ever mentioned...?) Also tried ERA as that Tide shelfmate. Sussed the theme without the reveal. EASY-E and N.W.A. rang no bells, but the other three themers made sense. Enjoyed the outing, David, and the tour, C-Moe.
IMAC: I bought one of these over-priced All-In-One's several years back. It lasted less than a year before suffering the blue screen of death. Best-Buy wanted $700 to bring it back to life. I settled its fate with a hammer, no charge.
Penultimate: Evoked memories of The Limeliters. This is from the fifth stanza of Have Some Madeira, M'dear:
Then there flashed through her mind what her mother had said
With her antepenultimate breath
"Oh my child, should you gaze on the wine when 'tis red
Be prepared for a fate worse than death!"
Item makes absolutely no sense
DNF, not even close. At least I didn't linger.
Today is:
NATIONAL MILITARY SPOUSE APPRECIATION DAY (like I wrote yesterday, they say that the hardest job in the Navy is being a Navy wife)
NATIONAL CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM DAY (guess I was never invited to the celebration)
NATIONAL PROVIDER APPRECIATION DAY (recognizes child care providers, teachers, and other educators of young children)
NATIONAL LIPID DAY (thanks to Crestor my cholesterol is under control)
NATIONAL SHRIMP DAY (I used to eat at a Carlsbad restaurant that served big shrimp,served on the rim of a giant bowl of ice - with cocktail sauce - at no charge. Kinda like Mexican restaurants serve chips and salsa)
PETA's world HQ is about a mile form my house. Good neighbors, even if they sometimes do some wacky things.
I thought my "pees" made more sense for "shipped pairs" than ITEM.
Don't know how many cores IMACs have, but the current (14th generation) Intel i9 has 24.
Not being a constructor, I don't really know the rules. But it seems unusual for FAN to be in a clue and a fill. But that's not even close to being the most irritating aspect of this one.
Thanks to our Chairman for the fun review. And the joke from last night. That one was a long trek out the back door to get to the front door. I loved it.
Good Morning:
I was not very impressed by the theme until I read Moe's detailed and fleshed-out explanation. I completely missed the clever, dual/separate meanings, so mea culpa to the author. However, my newly found appreciation for the cleverness of the theme did nothing to alleviate what I consider unnecessarily unfair clueing/fill: Pikachu, ATs, Raptor, and Chico. Having never heard of Chico, not knowing Pokémon characters or Instagram lingo and obscure Raptors led to a DNF. Had the editorial staff been a little more gracious, ATs could have been clued as @s in email and Raptors could have been clued with a more familiar example than Kite. This approach to a particularly tricky area is what I consider to be fair to the solver, through supportive perps.
Congrats, David, on your debut and thanks, Moe, for the excellent and much-needed analysis of the theme. Enjoyed all of the Moe-kus and your tongue-in-cheek asides. I was so frustrated by the aforementioned troublesome area that the 22 TLWs went unnoticed during the solve.
Have a great day.
Took 15:59 for me today, to like SubG, get it wrong. I had "fad" for "Means to be cool." I had no idea what the Oktoberfest outfit was.
Item was clunky.
Who is Kenan and Enos - Biblical characters?
"F-"? That was apparently my grade for today's Avignon lesson... and the German lesson (see, Oktoberfest outfit, supra).
I didn't know today's actress (Lee), nor the fund or the drug.
Alas, I miss the old Friday puzzles.
FIW. The crossing of two proper names did me in. Malala and Peele. Come on, proper names like that, especially crossing, do not belong in a crossword. There is no way out but to take a WAG and pray. Yuk!
I got the theme with Special K pop, but I still found it lame.
Overall this was a most unenjoyable Friday puzzle. I enjoy a challenge, but there has to be a path to a finish. Today there wasn't!
I solved this with a variable rhythm fast/slow/fast/slow. Very creative theme, I knew the parts and the INITIAL in the center was a link between the two other parts.
I had some gimmes - CHICO has a university in the Cal State system and some friends' son played basketball for them. One of his years CHICO State went to tournament's last 3 rounds which is often played in Evansville, Indiana. It was just a few hours away for us, so we went to root him on since his folks couldn't come on such short notice.
There is a prescription drug named SOMA which is a muscle relaxant- in med training we all got a kick out of the name with the link to BNW- but SOMA being the Greek for body it made sense.
Thanks CMoe and congrats to David!
Thank you David and congrats for your INITIAL LA Times puzzle. With a bit of struggle, erasures, and re-arranging, I got a FIR.
And thanks MOE for another informative, entertaining and poetic review. Really liked the D-DAY link.
Favs:
20A ATS. Took awhile to drop. I think they look like this: @.
25A PITCH. E.g. MIDDLE C.
31A SOMA. I read the book years ago and remembered the happiness drug. Huxley was ahead of his time, conceiving test tube babies.
29A THREE D DAY. One of the beaches in second half of the fill was OMAHA, which we saw in gruesome detail yesterday. It was great to see that the good folks of Normandie are celebrating this event with a Marathon -- OMAHA beach was the marathon of all marathons for the men who came ashore there 80 years ago this June 6. We've visited the beaches twice and the people of Normandie still remember the sacrifices that Americans made there.
43A EAZY E MAIL. DNK M.W.A. or EAZY-E.
51A LEND. Yeah, LOAN didn't work.
59A MIDDLE CSPAN. C-SPAN is my favorite place to watch paint dry, except for the House majority, who have actually been quite entertaining of late. 😀
3D ITEM. And here I thought it had something to do with touting famous couples.
7D RAPTOR. Favorite fill.
11D MALALA. A truly courageous young woman.
Cheers,
Bill
DNF. I usually make a special effort to get the theme answers, but 23a just didn’t come since I had no idea what N.W.A. was.
Not knowing some of the names like Mattingly and Nathalie, the center fell apart.
How in the world is HER is an alternative for them?
I am a FAN of Bailey’s Irish CREAM.
Thank you C-Moe for the explanations and the fun Moe-kus.
I think cannabis is the equivalent of soma
Monkey, some non-binary individuals prefer to be referred to as they/them rather than she/her. If you've been watching Jeopardy! Masters, you'd notice Ken Jennings refer to Mattea Roach that way.
This was a Friday worthy puzzle today. It took a few trips around the grid to FIR and CEMENT the letters. The usual proper names from A&E clues required perps and guesses. I filled SPECIAL K POP easily but the others took a while. I dug a hole for myself with SPIEL before PITCH and DOPA before SOMA (I sold both). I remember both CATEYED glasses and CAT EYE marbles.
I'm calling a foul on the F- clue. The charge for an ION is always a plus or minus in the exponent position. (+,-) I have no idea how to do it on the keyboard.
Started and finished with 'Percolate'. DRIP and SEEP.
MIDDLE C SPAN took a while with the unknown Greta LEE, FAD before FAN, and not knowing the correct spelling of DIRNDL. Not knowing anything about NWA or even heard of EAZY-E didn't help. And I hope this they them he him she her heshe dog cat lunacy disappears in the future. The intersection of the unknown ATS and correct spelling of PIKACHU was a guess; wanted IDS but the RAPTOR killed that thought. I had a kite nest in my front yard a few years ago.
PIKACHU and Ryan Reynolds, Jordan PEELE, MALALA, ENOS and Kenan, TEA and Rooibos- took perps to fill those
PETA- you can't make this up. The Audubon Institute's Insectarium in NOLA had someone demonstrating on how to EAT cicadas and PETA had three people dressed as cicadas protesting that it was cruel to the cicadas.
Thanks d-o @ 9:41. I don’t watch Jeopardy because we don’t get it with just an over the air antenna.
Finished with help. There were several thing stand I ng in the way of progress, the hardest was the detective PIKACHU. The other two were DIRNDLS and MALALA. Theme was obvious but didn't understand the reference in 43A.
My other error was reading Oscar's for Grammys. Dropped in wood and got nowhere. Correctly entering COLE fixed it.
David came up with an interesting puzzle and CMoe a brilliant review.
A family is the best place to hang your hat.
ROIKA.
Enjoyed the INITIAL CONTACT theme! Very creative! Was sure DIRNDLE was wrong. Wrong. FIR!
From yesterday:
sumdaze Thank you for your puzzle! FIR, but I was wondering about the ISN'T IT IRONIC title? Was there a theme I missed?
waseeley Thank you for the kind words! I would be honored!
Good Morning! Welcome to the Corner, David. I enjoyed today’s puzzle even with a few stumbles. Overall a nice Friday offering. Clever theme.
I learned that a Kite is a RAPTOR a well as an air craft. I love to see them at the beach in summer – the structures, not the birds.
I ended with one blank square, the Natick PIK_CHU crossing _TS, both unknown to me.
Perps for PEELE, SOMA, EAZY, ENOS, MALALA, BAUM, LEE
Hand up for CHInO -> CHICO, (again crossing the evil PIKACHU)
Thanks, C. Moe. Creative Moe-kus, as always.
DNF, but like Jinx, I didn't waste a lot of time before folding my cards. Reading Moe's recap reinforced the wisdom of that decision! Sheesh. I know, it's a Friday puzzle. But, really! No fun.
Friday F score. Thanks for the fun, David and CMoe.
I FIWed today in several areas and “sorta” got the theme. (After the first themer, I thought we were going to have combos f cereal and music genres.)
A Natick for me with the cross of PIKACHU and ATS and CHICO. I WAGged the C correctly but had E instead of A.
I missed the tense at 10D and had SLOW UP which spoiled my perps for the unknown PEELE, and gave me THREE D pAY. Silly mistake.
Other unknown names perped fortunately. I knew MALALA (I read her book several years ago)
I had enough letters already filled to avoid entering PEES for the “shipped pair?” (I agree with Jinx on this one)
I entered xed for “crossed” but MET was needed.
Jinx- if I remember correctly, it is allowable to use the same word in a clue and as an answer if the meaning is different, which is true here for FAN.
FLN- sumdaze, sorry to hear of your bad news.
Wishing you all a great day.
Left one square blank; I decided not to WAG PIT__NHU crossing __TS so settled for a DNF. Wait also had CHInO 😕 (Canada Eh) so a FIWDNF?? (BTW are the in-between theme letters s’pose to spell sumpthin’? )
Start and end with “percolate” but Inkover: brew/seep/DRIP (first clue) like many others.
SOMA: Haven’t taken it…er…I mean haven’t seen it in a CW in quite awhile. ROOIBOS? (I should know by now a three letter answer that has a weirdly spelt clue and starts with T E must be some kyna TEA.
Isn’t a grade of F bad enuff why add a minus….ohhhh Fluoride ION. (Loved the Chemist Comedian HE HE). Didn’t know about EAZY-E (including at least one rapper per CW now seems to be de riguer )
ATS ??
Was thinking the old timey actress “Billy” Burke (LIU it’s “Billie”
And I learnt there is also a current guy actor named Billy Burke),
The “father of a Ke(e)nan” isn’t Ed Wynn. Retro frames 👓 couldn’t figure beyond tortoise shell
Arena or sports palace: AVENUE
Needle hole….ISLET
ICU catheters… IVIES
If you “kite” on your online tax return you ___ the government…..D-FILE
OD lens implant was intended to make me farsighted and require glasses to read. So far the opposite is true but just day 1 post op. Either way is fine with me. 👀….OS 🐈rack out next Wednesday. Hoping for a birthday gift of excellent vision.
Have a nice day all.
I felt so smug, filling in everything in about 20 minutes – and then I remembered I hadn’t dealt with the double-Natick along the Rio Grande, with the unknown-to-me Greta LEE and the labored clue for what turned out to be TEASE. Then the clue for MET made sense and I got my FIR.
Although I sussed the theme gimmick quickly enough, and most of it parsed, I can’t endorse SPECIALKPOP, because “special pop” doesn’t mean anything, unlike the structure of the other three theme entries. Still, I liked this puzzle a lot, even though I anticipate a lot of screaming about several entries that would be unknown to most of you, including the theme entry with EAZY-E in it. PLIANT, SOMA, DIRNDLS, and FIFE were all delightful fill.
PIKACHU came late because I had CHInO before CHICO. I’d just seen a “Dragnet” rerun in which a criminal was now serving time in the former. Chino was the declasse town where the protagonist on “The O.C.” was from, which spawned a running joke in which Rachel Bilson’s character would always say “Chino? Ewww!”
Gerunds: There was a discussion in the Corner a few months ago in which several folks characterized all ING words as gerunds, when in fact most are not. Gerunds are nouns – yes, NOUNS -- set up by a possessive situation usually involving pronouns. Example: “I don’t mind his singing so loud.” Almost all people these days would use “him” instead of “his,” which is why grammarians complain that “no one knows what a gerund is anymore.” The usage of the wrong pronoun in gerund situations seems so obviously clumsy to me that I can’t understand why gerunds have become passe.
Anyhoo – Mr. Ritterskamp is welcome back anytime, and C-MOE’s comments were delightful, as always, as was his joke in Thursday’s comments.
I thought the theme was brilliant in its construction and layout, but many (most) of the clues left me without a clue...
Yes, maybe it was out of my wheelhouse, and the explanations reveal only this was above my pay grade.
F-?
Eazye??
And I think them alternative=her should only legally be allowed on Saturdays!
I could rant on further, but that would be a waste of a review.
However, I was especially impressed by Moe's initial oration. (Chairman Moes'also!) and am in awe of how Curly can take repeated punches and fall flat on his back without injury! Yes, I think I will start reviewing more stuff that is almost 100 years old if I want to give out 5 stars...
Oh, one more thing I am confused about. TLW? I googled TLW text definition, and many results came up. The closest I think matches is The Loving Wife, but comments above seem to indicate it had something to do with the puzzle? I hate to ask for an explanation to your explanation. (Sigh) maybe I should give up on doing puzzles...
initial contact?
CED, three letter words.
Copy Editor @ 11:14 ~ I believe Moe's explanation of the theme illustrates the correctness of Special K Pop. 😉
CED @ 11:23 ~ TLWs is shorthand for the number of Three Letter Words in a puzzle.
Puzzling thoughts 2:
Ray-O @ 11:08 -- I, too was wondering if all of the initials from the entries (K, D, E, and C) were supposed to be part of the theme. The word DECK is a result, but I am not seeing how that fits the INITIAL CONTACT theme. Clearly the word DECK is also "shuffled", but we are not playing cards ...
CED @ 11:23 -- the Stooges were quite the trio. I think I first started watching their movie shorts back in the early '70's when I was in college. Many of their more famous quips are ones I can recite at will ...
Copy Editor @ 11:14 -- my partner Margaret proofreads my blog for typos and grammatical errors. Unlike waseeley's partner Teri, Margaret is not looking to add her thoughts as she is quite a novice when it comes to xword puzzles
Irish Miss @ 7:30 -- thanks for enumerating the TLW's, and thanks to you and desper-otto for explaining to CED what TLW means ... also, IM, I guess you now know where one of my recent crossword puzzle ideas came from (the IMAC Moe-ku) ... ;^)
Picard @ 10:36 -- curious ... with all of your world travels, have you ever climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge?
Big Easy, you mean like F⁺ and F⁻? (alt codes 8314 and 8315)
Ray-O, glad your vision is looking good.
C-MOE AND I.M.: I certainly didn’t mean to insult Chris or his partner. But I stand by my comment. Special K and Kpop work, as Chris explained, but Special Pop does not. I originally felt the other theme entries work in every way, but I’m having second thoughts about “three day.” . . . . I write most of my comments before I read the blog and then make additions and changes while reading the blog and other comments. I wrote the gerund comment, by the way, before reading the blog version, which was excellent and more concise than mine.
EAZYEMAIL as a crossword answer made my day in this puzzle. Kudos.
Well, this was a toughie for me--but then Friday and Saturday puzzles are supposed to be harder than earlier ones, so this is still fair. Many thanks, David. And your commentary was as helpful as always, Moe--so many thanks for that too.
My favorite clue and answer this morning was one I'd never seen in a crossword puzzle before: the Oktoberfest outfit DIRNDL. I grew up in Austria back in the late forties and early fifties, and all the women in my family wore DIRNDLs, including me. So this brought back happy memories of my childhood.
Have a great day, everybody.
I liked this puzzle very much, except for one or two spots that I hated because they absolutely required Wags, and I Wagged wrong. SMS/MALALA and ATS/PIKACHU/CHICO got me.
I looked up Malala, and I’ll never again forget this courageous Nobel Laureate. Thanks Waseely for ‘splainin’ the Ats sign - of course I use it, I just didn’t recognize it spelled out. I should have gotten Pickachu, but I’d already entered Chino/CHICO, so I couldn’t see the right answer.
So it goes - it was still fun, and I thought the themers were clever, although I don’t what the N.W.A. Is, nor EASYE nor SMS …. Anyone?
Thanks, David, for entering the fray, and thanks C. Moe, for the great tour.
PLIANT and RAPTOR were favorite fill answers.
Hola!
Thank you, David B. Riterskamp, for this puzzling effort. It took me a bit longer than normal but I pushed through to the end and found some familiar terms. Back in the day when I sewed my own clothes I made DIRNDLs which looked good on my size 8 body.
APRES has become somewhat of a crossword staple. PIKACHU is so close to Picacho Peak, a low level mountain located between Phoenix and Tucson.
My late s-i-l loved CAT EYED glasses.
CONTACT reminds me of CONTACT paper for shelves which is a nightmare to install!
I also read MALALA's biography and why she had to flee her home country.
Have a sensational day, everyone!
Puzzling thoughts 3:
to Copy Editor @ 12:42 -- The way I saw this puzzle unfold is that the phrases Special Pop, Middle Span, Eazy Mail, and Three Day mean nothing without the connected initials: "K", "C", "E", and "D". Now, that being said, of the four entries the one that comes closest to having "meaning" (as clued) is SPECIAL POP. The others don't. Perhaps the constructor and editor could've changed the clue to remove any ambiguity ... and BTW, I didn't feel insulted. My skin is pretty thick ... as a "Stooge" I am pretty immune to getting punched or poked! ;^)
Things I didn’t know: tags on insta (never used it), brave new world drug (never read it), NWA (never heard of), gerund suffix, any Pokémon characters (if you’re not under 12 or a parent of one, how would you?), Kenan? UNEsCO fund, F- (huh?), Greta of the morning show. So wherever these crossed or crossed difficult fills such as zinger, her, ing, or psi and soma; dirndl and middle c span (I don’t play piano!), etc. Ultimately I finished wrong only due to phi and homa not being psi and soma. But I did look up NWA to find out what that was and of course it immediately gave me the answer which was not my intention, so that confirmed zinger, her, and ing. I do enjoy a challenge, but pikachu, enos (slaughter slugger would have worked!), and eazy e are not in my wheelhouse, although I was happy to finally recall kite as a type of raptor!
Well, once again I required several alphabet runs, as there were many DNKs, so can't claim I FIR. I ended up filling every square, but the alphabet runs are no way to solve a CW. So:DNF. Cleverest clue:7D. "Kite, for one." Several clever clues. Another good CW, but it defeated me...again...although I did see the theme, which is also clever. Thanx DBR. And thanx too to C.Moe, excellent write-up.
unclefred
I don't understand why you object to alphabet runs as being a valid way to solve a puzzle. Surely you don't expect an answer to appear spontaneously without effort. Sometimes that happens but often an alphabet run is needed when answers aren't immediately apparent. Please give yourself a break!
I found the puzzle easy and the theme delightful. Congratulations, David! You never can predict what the collective Corner will say.
Moe, at 51 Across, LEND is by no means the past tense of "loan." The past tense of LEND is "lent." "Loan" is more properly used as a noun, but is increasingly used as a synonym for LEND, with past tense "loaned."
I agree with Moe that the first part of each theme answer makes sense with the addition of the "initial" in the middle, and the last part also makes sense with that "initial" as a start, but you cannot make sense of putting the first and last parts together without the "initial." That's not the theme, and it doesn't work.
I'm a fan of birds in general, so I loved RAPTOR for kite, and was also glad to see SWAN in the grid. I don't know most of the sports and TV stuff, but I was really surprised to see how many Cornerites had not heard of MALALA.
FIR at breakfast and have been eager to visit the blog since then. Glad to see some of you liked it, too. Many thanks to David, to Patti, and to Chairman Moe for the fun.
Uncle Fred @ 1:36 re: “alphabet runs”
I agree with mi amiga Lucina.
If it weren’t for alphabet runs many of my puzzles would end up unfinished especially on Saturday. Going through the alphabet in my feeble brain in hopes of hitting on the correct letter to complete an answer doesn’t count as cheating in my book. It’s not the same seeking help from an outside source.
At least IMHO
😌
According to popsugar.com shipped comes from the word relationship. You "ship" the two people you want to be in a relationship. So, if I think Olivia Pope and Fitz Grant should be together, I ship Olivia and Fitz. Thus they can become an item
NaomiZ @ 2:26 -- I always though lent was the fasting period between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday ... ;^)
As I mentioned to Copy Editor, about the only entry's clue that might make the two words "blend" as a phrase is the one for SPECIAL POP. You could argue that opening a cereal bag makes a "special" pop. It is a fairly unique sound ...
Musings
-A delightful struggle after 18 holes and vacuuming today!
-The gimmick was fun and some of the cluing was just vague enough to give me pause. ITEM?
-Being around teenagers for 70 days/year mitigates some effects of getting OLD
-Textbook salesman used to bring goodies when they were making a PITCH for their product
-Irrigators won’t have to turn on their pivots for a while due to great spring showers
-A song our folk group sand in college
Where are you going my little one? Little one
Little DIRNDLS and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own
-Gotta get going to Lincoln for granddaughter’s graduation party
CPS @3:18--if that's true, then this puzzle is officially "for the birds" ... I thank you for this reference, but if ok with you I'll take my partner Margaret's explanation over popsugar.com ... : - )
The last cell I filled was the letter crossing PEE-E and MALA-A, by doing an alphabet run. SPIEL changed to PROMO (because I thought 27 down might be OMG) which later changed to PITCH. I also spelled it CREME until IMAC and AWED churned it into CREAM. Interesting that we saw a cooking show making Tater TOT Hotdish last night; we learned it is very popular in Minnesota.
I don't think anyone would ever equate a percolator coffee maker with a DRIP coffee maker.
Here are some things in this puzzle that made my nose wrinkle:
Them alternative: HER
Tags on Insta, say: ATS
Shipped pair?: ITEM
"I'm covering my ears now!": TMI
Crossed: MET.
Here is some stuff I liked:
Means to be cooler: FAN
Kite, for one: RAPTOR
Oktoberfest outfits: DIRNDLS (I learned I have been mis-spelling it as DRNDL forever.)
Apple with a few cores: IMAC
Good reading you all.
Ineach case the clues are written as though the initial belonged only to the first term. It is not special pop, but rather Special K pop equivalent to Rice Crispies snap crackle and pop, the sound made when milk is added.
Chairman Moe Thanks for asking! I walked on the SYDNEY Bridge, but I did not do the crazy climb on the support structure. I am impressed that you did. Was it as dangerous as it looks?
Here I was on the normal part of the SYDNEY Bridge.
Again from Yesterday:
Does anyone know if there was a hidden theme in the puzzle by sumdaze/Renee that had the title "Isn't it Ironic"? Why that title?
Guess I’m in the minority today on this one — I thought it was a walk in the park! Yes, a couple of the clues were a bit sticky (like the one for ION) and the crossing of PEELE and MALALA sucked like a Dyson (luckily I was well-acquainted with the saga of that astoundingly brave — and lucky — young lady) so I cruised it. The themers were well-made, imo, with MIDDLECSPAN being the reveal for me on grokking how they worked! Nice gag, David R.
Thanks for the Mac Haiku, Moe; being an Apple kinda guy it gave me a good chortle 😎🍎
====> Darren / L.A.
Picard @ 5:51 ~ To answer your question re sumdaze and CC's puzzle, all of the themers were FE phrases (Fatal Error, etc,) and FE being the symbol for Iron explains the title, "Isn't It Ironic?"
Irish Miss Thank you for the IRONIC explanation! I totally did not see it.
Thanks, David, for your puzzle! I had a one-box FIW, thinking a FAd would make me cool. Classic mistake! LOL! I liked your beginning & ending clecho.
I would call this a "mash-up" theme. Looking at it that way, "contact" might refer to the mash-up???
I had the advantage of having lived on a ranch west of CHICO for a while so I did not fall into the CHINO trap. CHICO was the nearest "big town".
Thanks to C-Moe for his help with understanding the clues. And thanks to Margaret for ITEM. Hand up for doing the Sydney Bridge climb, liking "penultimate", and owning a bar of Fels Naptha (excellent for poison oak).
FLN: Lucina. I saw your post. Thank you!
Picard @ 10:36. Sorry it took me so long to get here today. IM@6:41 nailed it. Thank you for checking it out!
C-Eh! @ 10:53. Thank you!
Picard: enjoyed seeing your panoramic view from the bridge. The last time I was in Sydney, the Opera House was still abuilding, and covered in scaffolding. ('71) Brought back some wonderful memories! Great trip, great people, great beer!
Ray-o - glad your OD cataract surgery went well. Hope OS goes well too. Remember your drops LOL,
Picard @5:51--the worst part of the Harboir Bridge climb were the four vertical ladders that went from the level you were on to the catwalk. You are in a specially designed suit, and are always tethered to the structure. Climbing the ladders (each were about 25' high @ 90 degrees) was not as easy as it looked. But the climb up the catwalk was very impressive; especially at night, when I went. The guide took pictures which we bought after the climb. At the time I was a guest of one of my business representatives in Australia, and they forwarded the photos to my company email. I left that company a year or so after the trip and no longer have the photos. It was pretty amazing. The "photos" are etched in my brain
I agree with Lucina and Ray-O that alphabet runs are a legitimate strategy. I’d be sunk without it. Askong Google, on the other hand, is cheating, although often educational for a “next time” efgort. Is there any kind of Official Ruling?
I disagree with solution to 26 Down clue, “F-e.g.”. If I recall chemistry class, capital “F” represents Fluorine, an atom, not ion.
Thank you,
MB
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