Friday, July 12, 2024, Renee Thomason, Zhouqin Burnikel
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a puzzle co-constructed by a couple of extemely talented folks - and you know them both very well: CC and Renee (sumdaze). Brava!
It did not take long for this solver to figure out that something out of the ordinary was going on with the themers because, as they filled in, not a single one of them even began to make sense. Not only in the way of answers, but in any sense. Complete gibberish. Could this puzzle really be that bass-ackwards? Well, as it turns out, yes. The reveal at 61 Across helped to sort things out:
61 Across: Classic film with a time-traveling DeLorean, and an apt description of 17-, 24-, 38-, and 52-Across: BACK TO THE FUTURE.
Ah ha! "On The Horizon", which was used as the clue for every themed-answer (repetition seems to be a recurring motif in this puzzle's clues)was meant to be taken as "in the future". And the use of the word BACK in the reveal tipped us off that we might want to look at the emerging answers backwards. With these bits of enlightenment the perps, read right to left, began to reveal the answers. Eventually, the correct responses all fully emerged.
To wit:
17 Across: On the horizon: RENROCEHTDNUORA - - - > AROUND THE CORNER Pete Seeger and The Weavers give a more literal example.
Early 1950's
24 Across: On the horizon: NOOSYADEMOS - - - > SOMEDAY SOON Judy Collins will illustrate its usage.
Smothers Brothers Show - 1969
38 Across: On the horizon: EMOCOTTEY - - - > YET TO COME As in "The Best is Yet to Come"
Frank Sinatra
52 Across: On the horizon: ESRUOCEUDNI - - - > IN DUE COURSE continuing with the "dinosaur" motif . . .
This is how it all looks in the grid:
.... and now for the rest of the story:
Across:
1. Golfer's vehicle: CART.
5. Lingerie purchases: BRAS. Repetition seems to be a recurring motif in this puzzle's clues.
9. Lingerie purchase: SLIP. Repetition seems to be a recurring motif in this puzzle's clues.
13. 21-Across in Spain: AGUA. and
21. 13-Across in France: EAU.
Both AGUA and EAU, in English, mean water. Clever. A Spanish clue for a French answer and vice versa.
14. __ Raton, Florida: BOCA. I have always wondered how a town named Mouse Mouth could be deemed to be a desireable place to reside.
15. Buenos __: AIRES. A geography reference. Neither buenos DIAS nor buenos NOCHES was going to fit in any event.
20. Permit: ALLOW. Used as a verb. As in Please ALLOW me . . .
the Jagger clip
was too long
22. Zip: NIL. Nothing.
23. Spy-fi org.: CIA. Interesting clue in that the CIA exists in the real world and is not merely a staple of spy fiction. Of course, CIA does often appear in works of fiction. KAOS or SMERSH, for example, would be Spy-fi (fiction) only organizations.
29. Counter attacker: ANT. Cute. Not a counterattack. Something that attacks food items left on your kitchen counter.
30. Oft-redacted fig.: SSN. Social Security Number
31. Burrito option: ASADA. Repetition seems to be a recurring motif in this puzzle's clues. For those among you who may be unfamiliar with certain aspects of Mexican food, ASADA is grilled, sliced meat.
32. "I've __ better": SEEN. Close enough:
34. Mouth pieces?: LIPS. Not as in the colloquial for attorney. Literally, pieces of mouths. Labios de boca de raton?
37. Hosp. caregivers: LPNS.
41. Fish tacos fish, familiarly: MAHI. A missed opportunity for repetition 😄
43. Foil kin: EPEE. Not a Reynolds Wrap reference.
44. Wound covering: SCAB. Today's "let's skip the image" moment.
48. One of five competitive figure skating disciplines: PAIRS. Men's Singles, Women's Singles, PAIRS, Ice Dancing, Synchronized Skating.
49. Grilled fish in kabayaki: EEL. I was not familiar with kabayaki beforenI solved this puzzle but the answer easily perp'd. It turns out that kabayaki is aka EEL sauce and, of course, kabayaki appeared in last Sunday's NYT puzzle. Learning new stuff is one reason we all enjoy puzzling.
51. In the style of: A LA. A LA Mode. A LA carte. A LA King.
56. "Miracle Workers" channel: TBS.
57. Fed. health law: ACA.
58. "I knew it!": HAH. Something that someone might say. See?
59. Lessens: EASES.
66. Cookies with a Sour Patch Kids flavor: OREOS. How do I clue thee? Let me count the ways.
67. Mystical glow: AURA.
68. Fielder's need: MITT. A baseball MITT.
69. Mangyshlak Peninsula's continent: ASIA. This solver was not familiar with Mangyshlak but it sounded ASIAn and the answer was quickly perep'd. The Mangyshlak Peninsula is located in western Kazakstan. All you'd like to know: Mangyshlak Peninsula
70. More __ meets the eye: THAN.
71. 64-Down, for one: STAT. STATisitc
Down:
1. Capital city with BolÃvar Square: CARACAS. Venezuela.
2. Botox target: AGE LINE. WRINKLE had the right number of letters.
3. Go long?: RUN LATE. Not a football reference. As in the event ran long (did not finish in it's originally allotted time)
4. Root in the Hawaiian dessert kulolo: TARO. If it's a root it's very often TARO.
5. Television network created by royal charter: BBC. No abbreviations in the clue. The "royal" bit was the tip off.
6. Sushi topper: ROE.
7. Feels sore: ACHES. Did you hear about the students complaining of aches and fatigue when they did math homework? They're calling it fibromyalgebra.
8. Thai skewers: SATAY. What is the best type of food to eat while wearing a suit? Thai food.
9. Japanese title of respect: SAN.
10. Actor Simu: LIU. Simu LIU is the first Asian lead in a Marvel movie, a sitcom star, a memoir writer and a Ken doll in "Barbie".
11. Big name in endurance events: IRONMAN. Triathlon. Swim, bike, run.
12. Stretches: PERIODS. Not something you do pre-workout. PERIODS of time.
16. Burrito option: SALSA. Repetition seems to be a recurring motif in this puzzle. You can put the SALSA (sauce) on your carne ASADA.
18. Doesn't rent: OWNS. My friend OWNS a pen that can write under water. It can write other words, too.
19. "Radical Optimism" singer __ Lipa: DUA. A frequent visitor these days.
25. Northern European capital: OSLO. Frequently visited.
26. In reserve: ON ICE. As in keeping something ON ICE in case that it is needed in the future.
27. Valley: DALE. Over hill, over DALE, as we hit the dusty trail . . .
33. Indira Gandhi's father: NEHRU. Significant figures in the history of India.
35. Soda: POP.
36. Trusty horse: STEED. We had a government-employed doctor in our area who was half STEED and half man. We called him the centaur for disease control.
39. Japanese soup: MISO. The waitperson at my local soup restaurant recently greeted us with "Chowder you all doing today? MISO sorry for the puns. What can I get phở you folks today?"
40. Suffix with ump-: TEEN. IRE was too short.
41. Lash lengthener: MASCARA.
42. Decorated fighter pilots: AIR ACES.
45. Form-fitting garment: CATSUIT.
46. Columbia Icefield province: ALBERTA. Canada.
Photo By MM (many moons ago)
47. Angela of "9-1-1": BASSETT. An actress. One T is the hound.
48. Soul singer Bryson: PEABO. An occasional, if not frequent, visitor.
50. "In __ of gifts ... ": LIEU.
53. Comedian Margaret: CHO.
1993
54. Patronize, as a restaurant: EAT AT. What's a single vowel between friends?
55. Casual agreement: UH HUH. Yup.
60. Devices loaded with cash: ATMS. Oh, cash!
62. Fish in an ornamental pond: KOI. Frequent swimmmers
63. LAX safety team: TSA.
64. Young fig.: ERA. Earned Run Average. A baseball reference. The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitcher in each league.
65. Booster: FAN. This solver is a big FAN of today's puzzle. YMMV.
When something makes no sense, I try to look at it a different way. That worked for me in this case. With the first themed entry, it took me a minute, but I uncovered what was going on before too long, and that made the rest of the puzzle much easier to solve. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a “backwards” puzzle of this type, but, of course, it’s a classic design. Anyway, you two didn’t fool me, at least, not for long. FIR, so I’m happy.
Seemed easy (not heavy, as Marty McFly would say) for a Friday. Was surprised it wasn't add/subtract a letter or two. I got tipped-off to the theme with the backwards "the" in the top themer.
I didn't know the eel dish or that mascara lengthens lashes. I remembered the first 2 letter of the actor (Liu), so cue Meatloaf....
Not a fan of the Spanish and French cross-referential clues, but otherwise a good puzzle that I would think would be more of a Wednesday level.
FIR, but erased sex for SSN. At my age, one's sex fig. is frequently redacted. Viagra might unredact one's fig.
I was ready to TITT because I thought the theme fills were anagrams, which I don't do. After taking a break to solve a couple of Sudokus, I came back, re-read the theme revealer, and saw the gimmick. The remaining white squares fell quickly.
This winter I picked up tiny ANTs in Florida. My golf buddy (who owns a pest control company) told me to spray the ones I see with Windex, and get Terro bait stations for the rest.
I worked for a short time in CARACAS, spending my Bolivars freely.
Cute take on Ektorp OREO.
Had to think for about a nanosecond to decide which 4-letter continent was correct.
CSO to our own Lucina at DALE.
Thanks to sumdaze and CC for the fun and easy (for Friday) puzzle. At least easy after I finally started approaching from behind. And thanks to our MalMan for yet another punny review. I hope I can remember fibromyalgebra.
Good Morning! Quite a novel puzzle today! Thanks, Renee and CC.
I was just going along filling as I could without analyzing but I did notice something was off. I verified the perps, so I just continued. Once I got to the reveal I had the AHA moment and was able to fill the rest of the missing letters. Diabolical twist! I can sense two Cheshire cat grins!
As a kid I could write from right to left as well as left to right. I think it may be part of being left-handed, so the east to west thing wasn’t that far afield. Anyway, a fun and unusual puzzle.
Not a fan of circular clues, but perps to the rescue. Perps for LIU. I knew the other names. TBS was a WAG because I’m not familiar with CAT SUIT. Oh, Batman??
Thanks, MalMan. Oh, Cy Young – now 64D & 71A makes sense! And another 5-star recap!
FIR. I kept second guessing my answers the whole way through this puzzle because the long answers made no sense, and then the reveal filled in easily and I went back to look. Suddenly "in due course" popped into my mind and the rest just filled in. Once that happened the solve was easy. This was a very clever puzzle with good misdirection and solid cluing. I thoroughly enjoyed this Friday offering!
Musings -SOMEDAY SOON had to jump off the grid for me to see this oh so clever gimmick. My mind then tried to leap into the future to wonder how they would tie these together. Clever redux! -Some golf courses have a “90 degree rule”. If the fairways are too wet (common this year), you have to keep the CART on the CART path and walk out to the ball. -I’ve _EEN better tempted me with a “B” at first -Cy Young ERA cluing was so fun! -Of course, SAN follows the name unlike English where it precedes the name. Smith SAN. -If you ask for a Coke around here, you’ll get a, uh, Coke. -We did not see our kitty’s CAT SUIT until after sundown yesterday. We had roofers making so much noise, she hid downstairs. We took her food, water, litter box down to her. Joann also tuned the TV to the Hallmark Channel for her. -ANTS? This stuff is undefeated at our house -Fun review, MM.
Fast fantastic Friday solve. Thanks for the fun, Renee and C.C., and MalMan (thanks for the Lightfoot music). I got the BACKWARDS theme with the reveal, and went back to fill in the themers. That brought a speedy solve. But I arrived here to discover that I FIWed by entering PBS for the unknown-to-me channel. I wondered what a CapSUIT was. D’uh!
I hope you all got LIU after my reminder the other day. CSO to LfromAlberta with that Icefield clue. Definitely ON ICE although it is receding rapidly. Son and DIL and family are visiting this week. I await photos.
In this part of the world, we say POP. After yesterday’s birthday, I may need to think about AGE LINES. HAH! Thanks again for all the greetings.
I have no idea how I finished this but I did. Once I caught on to the theme, it was fun figuring out the long answers. I was still left with a few blanks here and there but somehow I was able to finish.
Not being a burrito eater, I was stumped, but friendly perps helped. I didn’t know PEABO, but again good perps.
All in all a lot more fun than I expected.
We have LIU and LIEU I guess pronounced the same way.
Sumdaze congrats and as always I trust in Zhouqin’s ability to construct a doable CW but still make it challenging. We’re lucky to have both talents this morning.
CC UOY KNAHT DNA EZADMUS UOY KNAHT for a really retro riddle! The perps were making perfect sense, but the first two themer were gobbledygook so I knew that the cause had to be revealed someplace. And 61A was just the plaintext cypher-key needed to figure out exactly what was going on. To borrow a phrase from our reviewer -- "Brava ladies!".
And thank you MalMan for all of the great tunes and the fully groan puns.
Some (decrypted) favorites ...
14A BOCA. DNK Raton was "mouse", always thought it meant RAT. IBM used to have a training center there and I recall visiting it for a week to learn how the newfangled PC worked.
24A SOMEDAY. A great Ian Tyson song by one of the greatest singer songwriters of our generation. And she introduced many other songwriters to us, including my favorite, Joni Mitchell.
32A ASADA. Had to wait for 16D SALSA as the last letter of this fill depends on the gender of the meat used, e.g. beef vs. chicken. CSO to Lucina to correct me if I'm wrong.
32A SEEN. Not sure what its connection to the clue is, but I'm a big Lightfoot fan (aren't we all?)
66A OREOS. Plural clue for 5 letter cookies? Ektorp.
69A ASIA. One of the many strengths that C.C. brings to constructing: her wide knowledge of the largest continent in the world.
5D BBC. Most networks need no abbreviation and this one is my favorite.
Fun puzzle today! Had me scratching my head until the light bulb lit about halfway through. Clever concept, ladies! I also enjoyed the nifty misdirections, and the dearth of obscure names. The only unknown to me was Liu, and he perped nicely. (Wanted Simu Emu for a while!) Nice tunes in the recap, MM! Going back now to listen again.
Bill, I hope this clears up the bit of a mystery at 32 A. As noted, the Lightfoot reference was just "close enough" for me to use as an excuse to post the song. The lyrice in Carfree Highway is "you seen better days".
Did you see Bela Fleck on the 6th? If so, was Rhapsody in Blue as good as it promised to be?
MM's blog made the day worthwhile. Not a fan of this puzzle. I figured the long answers would be read backwards, but a few wrong perps made that impossible for me. Jinx, thanks for the Windex tip. The pop/soda chart seems wrong for Pennsylvania. In the eastern half of the state where I grew up we said soda. In the western half they say pop. My southern college roommate called any kind of soda pop, CO COLA. a slurring of Coca Cola. UMPTEEN - teen is the base word not the suffix. Google says, "humorous formation based on -teen."
The team of sumdaze and CC gave us another gem. Renee, will you be going out on your own NOOS YADEMOS?? May I assume that Renee has the idea and CC puts it into a grid and added the fill? Just curious about how you gals collaborate ...
MM => great videos and of course, the in-fam-ous dad jokes
Here is a Moe-ku from the archives:
Bottles of Bordeaux Rescued from sunken ship were Way too Ti-tannic
Hoo boy! That's what I said out loud when I finished today's puzzle. I had to reach the reveal before going back and completing the theme answers backwards.
When I had _BS for the channel at 56 across, I confidently filled in pBS, and never noticed CApSUIT. Bzzzt! FIW.
MalMan, your humor was much appreciated today, as well as all the music. Carefree Highway is special to me because my mom lives in Carefree and we blast that song cruising down Carefree Highway.
C.C. and sumdaze, this was a brilliant puzzle. From my perspective, it was a perfect Friday offering. !UOY KNAHT
The right-to-left theme and unifier were nicely conceived and executed, but our sumdaze had to bend over backward to make the fill fit in.
The Texas area that contained UH HUH, HAH, and EAT AT was particularly short on charm, and the (Cy) Young/ERA clue in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area was so hard to decipher that this former sportswriter/editor got the answer with perps before realizing what the clue meant. Over in the Panhandle, Margaret CHO couldn’t be expected to beautify the surrounding landscape.
One theme entry, SOME DAY SOON, gave me some trouble until I changed Riga to OSLO and gums to LIPS. I really wanted it to be gums. So, umpTEEN was my favorite filler, other than PEABO. I did know pretty much all the names, counting the breakthrough CW star Simu LIU, as well as DUA, BASSETT, ALBERTA, CARACAS, and BOCA.
Thanks to MalMan for his generous review! I love that you linked the Judy Collins song. It's one of my favorites. Early on, I thought we might clue all the themers musically but dropped that idea for the tighter "On the horizon". You tapped into those roots.
Honestly, I've been feeling a bit anxious lately, wondering how this one would be received. It sounds like most people enjoyed the aha moment.
C-Moe@10:22. Yes to your idea/grid question -- plus C.C.'s guidance is a precious resource.
Got the movie right away so I was on the lookout for something backwards. Once I saw the long clues were all backwards the puzzle fell into place. Well done you two. I really enjoyed this one. GC
Well done, C.C. and sumdaze! It took me a full cup of coffee to realize what was happening but the light bulb finally glowed for me when I realized it was all backwards! At first it was disconcerting to see that the long fill was not making sense. I continued to solve as much as possible and when 61A, BACK TO THE FUTURE emerged, I saw the light! Then I went back and read it from right to left and, yes! That was it!
That was tricky! I don't know why anyone thought it would be a good Wednesday puzzle. it's just right for a Friday and a pre-courser to Saturday's challenge.
Well, I did ask for the return of gimmicky Friday, and this certainly fit the bill. What would have been a difficult puzzle was made much easier by the theme.
Anonymous PVX ~ in crossword lingo, the term was recently coined by constructor Emma Oxford, meaning that you can decipher a clue simply by the context, and not necessarily know the answer. Today’s cookie clue could be an example, not knowing the type but cookies in a CW are most often OREOS.
FIR, but also stumbled with the theme for a while. And I too was stuck with capsuit/PBS until I did an alphabet run to come up with something that made sense both ways.
Here in eastern PA, it’s “soda” despite what that map says. Must be a Pittsburgh thing. I was introduced to the universal use of Coke for soda pop by a friend from the Carolinas in grad school. It led to another student from Rhode Island claiming he almost got fired from a summer job at the beach when a woman (presumably from a non-soda state) asked for a “pop-in-the-can.”
A really enjoyable collaboration by C.C. and sumdaze, and a stellar recap by MM, what could be better than that on a Friday? Thank you all for your efforts!
Thanks, YP. I had forgotten that EKTORP had entered the crossword lexicon (similar to NATIK). But, yes if it's a convoluted (to English speakers) vaguely Nordic sounding name then the answer is very likely to be IKEA.
I thoroughly enjoyed this clever, witty puzzle. I equally enjoyed the clever, witty review by M2. What a great way to end the week. Welp, I guess that Gin and Tonic isn’t going to make itself, so…
I wasn't going to mention it, but a clue like today's asking for a 4-letter continent is also an Ektorp, not that there is anything wrong with that.
YP - Your friend from the Carolinas must not have been from NE NC. Around there, most folks drink Pepsi, and most (non-chain) restaurants serve it. Pepsi was invented in a New Bern drug store.
Late working on the puzzle today but early on, since the perps were solid, the theme fills were the only crosses that made sense. Caught it early. Right to left instead of left to right. Hebrew and Arabic, not the rest of the western world.
Arabs and Israelis are forced to learn the alternate thinking.
There was a similar one in the paper a few years ago.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Do think that fielders don't use mitts but gloves. Yes, I suppose a catcher can be a fielder, so ok. Very glad to have found this blog.
36 comments:
When something makes no sense, I try to look at it a different way. That worked for me in this case. With the first themed entry, it took me a minute, but I uncovered what was going on before too long, and that made the rest of the puzzle much easier to solve. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a “backwards” puzzle of this type, but, of course, it’s a classic design. Anyway, you two didn’t fool me, at least, not for long. FIR, so I’m happy.
Took 5 setunim and 57 sdnoces today to finish.
Seemed easy (not heavy, as Marty McFly would say) for a Friday. Was surprised it wasn't add/subtract a letter or two. I got tipped-off to the theme with the backwards "the" in the top themer.
I didn't know the eel dish or that mascara lengthens lashes. I remembered the first 2 letter of the actor (Liu), so cue Meatloaf....
Not a fan of the Spanish and French cross-referential clues, but otherwise a good puzzle that I would think would be more of a Wednesday level.
FIR, but erased sex for SSN. At my age, one's sex fig. is frequently redacted. Viagra might unredact one's fig.
I was ready to TITT because I thought the theme fills were anagrams, which I don't do. After taking a break to solve a couple of Sudokus, I came back, re-read the theme revealer, and saw the gimmick. The remaining white squares fell quickly.
This winter I picked up tiny ANTs in Florida. My golf buddy (who owns a pest control company) told me to spray the ones I see with Windex, and get Terro bait stations for the rest.
I worked for a short time in CARACAS, spending my Bolivars freely.
Cute take on Ektorp OREO.
Had to think for about a nanosecond to decide which 4-letter continent was correct.
CSO to our own Lucina at DALE.
Thanks to sumdaze and CC for the fun and easy (for Friday) puzzle. At least easy after I finally started approaching from behind. And thanks to our MalMan for yet another punny review. I hope I can remember fibromyalgebra.
Good Morning! Quite a novel puzzle today! Thanks, Renee and CC.
I was just going along filling as I could without analyzing but I did notice something was off. I verified the perps, so I just continued. Once I got to the reveal I had the AHA moment and was able to fill the rest of the missing letters. Diabolical twist! I can sense two Cheshire cat grins!
As a kid I could write from right to left as well as left to right. I think it may be part of being left-handed, so the east to west thing wasn’t that far afield. Anyway, a fun and unusual puzzle.
Not a fan of circular clues, but perps to the rescue.
Perps for LIU. I knew the other names.
TBS was a WAG because I’m not familiar with CAT SUIT. Oh, Batman??
Thanks, MalMan. Oh, Cy Young – now 64D & 71A makes sense! And another 5-star recap!
FIR. I kept second guessing my answers the whole way through this puzzle because the long answers made no sense, and then the reveal filled in easily and I went back to look. Suddenly "in due course" popped into my mind and the rest just filled in. Once that happened the solve was easy.
This was a very clever puzzle with good misdirection and solid cluing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this Friday offering!
Musings
-SOMEDAY SOON had to jump off the grid for me to see this oh so clever gimmick. My mind then tried to leap into the future to wonder how they would tie these together. Clever redux!
-Some golf courses have a “90 degree rule”. If the fairways are too wet (common this year), you have to keep the CART on the CART path and walk out to the ball.
-I’ve _EEN better tempted me with a “B” at first
-Cy Young ERA cluing was so fun!
-Of course, SAN follows the name unlike English where it precedes the name. Smith SAN.
-If you ask for a Coke around here, you’ll get a, uh, Coke.
-We did not see our kitty’s CAT SUIT until after sundown yesterday. We had roofers making so much noise, she hid downstairs. We took her food, water, litter box down to her. Joann also tuned the TV to the Hallmark Channel for her.
-ANTS? This stuff is undefeated at our house
-Fun review, MM.
Fast fantastic Friday solve. Thanks for the fun, Renee and C.C., and MalMan (thanks for the Lightfoot music).
I got the BACKWARDS theme with the reveal, and went back to fill in the themers. That brought a speedy solve.
But I arrived here to discover that I FIWed by entering PBS for the unknown-to-me channel. I wondered what a CapSUIT was. D’uh!
I hope you all got LIU after my reminder the other day.
CSO to LfromAlberta with that Icefield clue. Definitely ON ICE although it is receding rapidly. Son and DIL and family are visiting this week. I await photos.
In this part of the world, we say POP.
After yesterday’s birthday, I may need to think about AGE LINES. HAH! Thanks again for all the greetings.
Wishing you all a great day.
I have no idea how I finished this but I did. Once I caught on to the theme, it was fun figuring out the long answers. I was still left with a few blanks here and there but somehow I was able to finish.
Not being a burrito eater, I was stumped, but friendly perps helped. I didn’t know PEABO, but again good perps.
All in all a lot more fun than I expected.
We have LIU and LIEU I guess pronounced the same way.
Sumdaze congrats and as always I trust in Zhouqin’s ability to construct a doable CW but still make it challenging. We’re lucky to have both talents this morning.
Thank you MM for a nice review.
I hope Irish Miss is OK ☘️ this morning.
CC UOY KNAHT DNA EZADMUS UOY KNAHT for a really retro riddle! The perps were making perfect sense, but the first two themer were gobbledygook so I knew that the cause had to be revealed someplace. And 61A was just the plaintext cypher-key needed to figure out exactly what was going on. To borrow a phrase from our reviewer -- "Brava ladies!".
And thank you MalMan for all of the great tunes and the fully groan puns.
Some (decrypted) favorites ...
14A BOCA. DNK Raton was "mouse", always thought it meant RAT. IBM used to have a training center there and I recall visiting it for a week to learn how the newfangled PC worked.
20A ALLOW. I am ALLOWED, and so I WILL.
24A SOMEDAY. A great Ian Tyson song by one of the greatest singer songwriters of our generation. And she introduced many other songwriters to us, including my favorite, Joni Mitchell.
32A ASADA. Had to wait for 16D SALSA as the last letter of this fill depends on the gender of the meat used, e.g. beef vs. chicken. CSO to Lucina to correct me if I'm wrong.
32A SEEN. Not sure what its connection to the clue is, but I'm a big Lightfoot fan (aren't we all?)
66A OREOS. Plural clue for 5 letter cookies? Ektorp.
69A ASIA. One of the many strengths that C.C. brings to constructing: her wide knowledge of the largest continent in the world.
5D BBC. Most networks need no abbreviation and this one is my favorite.
6D ROE. It's on the menu tonight!
9D SAN. My favorite SAN is CHO CHO SAN.
11D IRONMAN. A CSO to our co-constructor Renee!
27D DALE. A CSO to our Lucina!
Cheers,
Bill
Fun puzzle today! Had me scratching my head until the light bulb lit about halfway through. Clever concept, ladies! I also enjoyed the nifty misdirections, and the dearth of obscure names. The only unknown to me was Liu, and he perped nicely. (Wanted Simu Emu for a while!) Nice tunes in the recap, MM! Going back now to listen again.
Bill, I hope this clears up the bit of a mystery at 32 A. As noted, the Lightfoot reference was just "close enough" for me to use as an excuse to post the song. The lyrice in Carfree Highway is "you seen better days".
Did you see Bela Fleck on the 6th? If so, was Rhapsody in Blue as good as it promised to be?
MM's blog made the day worthwhile. Not a fan of this puzzle. I figured the long answers would be read backwards, but a few wrong perps made that impossible for me.
Jinx, thanks for the Windex tip.
The pop/soda chart seems wrong for Pennsylvania. In the eastern half of the state where I grew up we said soda. In the western half they say pop. My southern college roommate called any kind of soda pop, CO COLA. a slurring of Coca Cola.
UMPTEEN - teen is the base word not the suffix. Google says, "humorous formation based on -teen."
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR with nary a hiccup
The team of sumdaze and CC gave us another gem. Renee, will you be going out on your own NOOS YADEMOS?? May I assume that Renee has the idea and CC puts it into a grid and added the fill? Just curious about how you gals collaborate ...
MM => great videos and of course, the in-fam-ous dad jokes
Here is a Moe-ku from the archives:
Bottles of Bordeaux
Rescued from sunken ship were
Way too Ti-tannic
Hoo boy! That's what I said out loud when I finished today's puzzle. I had to reach the reveal before going back and completing the theme answers backwards.
When I had _BS for the channel at 56 across, I confidently filled in pBS, and never noticed CApSUIT. Bzzzt! FIW.
MalMan, your humor was much appreciated today, as well as all the music. Carefree Highway is special to me because my mom lives in Carefree and we blast that song cruising down Carefree Highway.
C.C. and sumdaze, this was a brilliant puzzle. From my perspective, it was a perfect Friday offering. !UOY KNAHT
The right-to-left theme and unifier were nicely conceived and executed, but our sumdaze had to bend over backward to make the fill fit in.
The Texas area that contained UH HUH, HAH, and EAT AT was particularly short on charm, and the (Cy) Young/ERA clue in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area was so hard to decipher that this former sportswriter/editor got the answer with perps before realizing what the clue meant. Over in the Panhandle, Margaret CHO couldn’t be expected to beautify the surrounding landscape.
One theme entry, SOME DAY SOON, gave me some trouble until I changed Riga to OSLO and gums to LIPS. I really wanted it to be gums. So, umpTEEN was my favorite filler, other than PEABO. I did know pretty much all the names, counting the breakthrough CW star Simu LIU, as well as DUA, BASSETT, ALBERTA, CARACAS, and BOCA.
Thanks, Renee, C.C., and MalMan.
MalMan @9:49 AM Yes we did see the Maestro of the Banjo and there will be a full report in an epilogue to my 7/18 review.
I look forward to that! For those here who may not be familiar with what Bill and I are talking about:
Rhapsody In Blue - On the 5-string banjo
Thanks to MalMan for his generous review! I love that you linked the Judy Collins song. It's one of my favorites. Early on, I thought we might clue all the themers musically but dropped that idea for the tighter "On the horizon". You tapped into those roots.
Honestly, I've been feeling a bit anxious lately, wondering how this one would be received. It sounds like most people enjoyed the aha moment.
C-Moe@10:22. Yes to your idea/grid question -- plus C.C.'s guidance is a precious resource.
Huge thanks to C.C. and the LA Times editors!
Got the movie right away so I was on the lookout for something backwards. Once I saw the long clues were all backwards the puzzle fell into place. Well done you two. I really enjoyed this one. GC
MM @11:14 AM Yup that's the one. I located the full piece premiered by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and will link it in the review.
Hola!
Well done, C.C. and sumdaze! It took me a full cup of coffee to realize what was happening but the light bulb finally glowed for me when I realized it was all backwards! At first it was disconcerting to see that the long fill was not making sense. I continued to solve as much as possible and when 61A, BACK TO THE FUTURE emerged, I saw the light! Then I went back and read it from right to left and, yes! That was it!
That was tricky! I don't know why anyone thought it would be a good Wednesday puzzle. it's just right for a Friday and a pre-courser to Saturday's challenge.
Thank you for the CSO at DALE. I'll take it!
I hope all is well with Irish Miss.
Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!
waseeley @11:57, I look forward to seeing the performance with the orchestra. The link I posted above is, essentially, audio only.
Well,
I did ask for the return of gimmicky Friday, and this certainly fit the bill.
What would have been a difficult puzzle was made much easier by the theme.
My only nit would be that it went by too fast...
What is going on with the use of EKTORP?
Not understanding how an IKEA furniture line applies.
EKTORP is the name of a collection of sofas sold by IKEA. According to "Architectural Digest" this is the origin of the name:
Ektorp is both a super popular IKEA sofa and a quiet residential suburb within the province of Stockholm, most notably home to an unspoiled nature reserve called Nyckelviksvägen, which has trails and beaches, plus farms, bountiful gardens, cafés, and a yellow circa-1746 manor that hugs the coast and has been in the same family for centuries. Today the manse is a blend of eras, retaining original painted linen walls depicting hunting scenes but also shapely armchairs by Carl Malmsten, the prominent Swedish modernist furniture designer who once lived there. In the French-style salon, 18th-century floral wallpaper imported by the Swedish East India Company shares space with three-leaf tables from 1970s IKEA.
Anonymous PVX ~ in crossword lingo, the term was recently coined by constructor Emma Oxford, meaning that you can decipher a clue simply by the context, and not necessarily know the answer. Today’s cookie clue could be an example, not knowing the type but cookies in a CW are most often OREOS.
FIR, but also stumbled with the theme for a while. And I too was stuck with capsuit/PBS until I did an alphabet run to come up with something that made sense both ways.
Here in eastern PA, it’s “soda” despite what that map says. Must be a Pittsburgh thing. I was introduced to the universal use of Coke for soda pop by a friend from the Carolinas in grad school. It led to another student from Rhode Island claiming he almost got fired from a summer job at the beach when a woman (presumably from a non-soda state) asked for a “pop-in-the-can.”
A really enjoyable collaboration by C.C. and sumdaze, and a stellar recap by MM, what could be better than that on a Friday? Thank you all for your efforts!
Thanks, YP. I had forgotten that EKTORP had entered the crossword lexicon (similar to NATIK). But, yes if it's a convoluted (to English speakers) vaguely Nordic sounding name then the answer is very likely to be IKEA.
I thoroughly enjoyed this clever, witty puzzle. I equally enjoyed the clever, witty review by M2. What a great way to end the week. Welp, I guess that Gin and Tonic isn’t going to make itself, so…
I wasn't going to mention it, but a clue like today's asking for a 4-letter continent is also an Ektorp, not that there is anything wrong with that.
YP - Your friend from the Carolinas must not have been from NE NC. Around there, most folks drink Pepsi, and most (non-chain) restaurants serve it. Pepsi was invented in a New Bern drug store.
Late working on the puzzle today but early on, since the perps were solid, the theme fills were the only crosses that made sense. Caught it early. Right to left instead of left to right. Hebrew and Arabic, not the rest of the western world.
Arabs and Israelis are forced to learn the alternate thinking.
There was a similar one in the paper a few years ago.
Jinx, point taken. I was being needlessly generic. He was from SC.
Hi All!
We gots power!
I printed out the puzzle at DW's friend's house (where we stayed until power returned this AM) and played with it.
I got to 61a with only smatterings about and... Oh! This is my wheelhouse...
I nailed it at DeLorean!
And then BACK filled all the themers post-haste.
Thanks sumdaze & C.C.! The shout-out to the car and the greatest movie trilogy ever!
I'd say more but we've been post-Beryl cleaning (with A/C!) all day.
Cheers, -T
Thank you for the Judy Collins.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Do think that fielders don't use mitts but gloves. Yes, I suppose a catcher can be a fielder, so ok. Very glad to have found this blog.
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