FLEETING MOMENT
While
I am pleased to see a constructor I have not blogged before ( I
checked, and found two grids back in 2022, one in 2019 ), this was a
real struggle for me, as it felt a little more than Wednesday-level. Another 16x15 Grid, another set of circles (yay), another run of 26 Three-Letter Words, another set
of some really vague people ( I'm looking at you, 56A. ) crossing names
with vague clues, and I ended up with two bad squares - see the grid at
the end. I'm feeling "unsuccessful" with this puzzle - I didn't catch a BREAK, I just feel "broken"; Yem Beady. Two
12-letter, two 10-letter themes, and a centered 8-letter reveal;
37. Opportunity for success, or what 17-, 29-, 45-, and 61-Across each have: BIG BREAK - synonyms for BIG, with a 'break' in between
17. Small, rustic house on a game reserve: HUNTING LODGE
29. Vacation spot in the Adirondacks: LAKE GEORGE - I once lived in upstate New York, so I got this; at 45 Sq. Mi., it's quite LARGE
45. Joins the table: GRABS A SEAT
61. Changing price: VARIABLE COST - oof. A looooong way to go for VAST
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Stage name of actor Raiford Chatman Davis: OSSIE - I begin with the down clues, but even with perps this was still a non-starter for me (#1)
6. Spanish 53-Down: CARNE - AND - 53D. 24-Across, for one: MEAT - sometimes, I am not a big fan of circumreferential clues like this
11. Band also known as the Bangtan Boys: BTS - Their Wiki (#2)
14. Shapewear brand: SPANX - it should be no surprise that I knew this one
15. Trojan War hero: AENEAS - I could not recall this name (#3)
16. "Shine Ya Light" singer Rita: ORA - no clue about this name (#4)
19. Say "Bingo," say: WIN - Shout would have been better
20. "Another thing ... ": "AND ALSO..." - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy follow-up
21. Aired: RAN
22. Recurring TikTok post: VLOG - Video bLOG; ya know, I don't think I have ever visited TikTok, but I do have a friend on Long Island who uploads clips of car repairs/modifications
23. Mauna __: KEA - Dah~! I had KEA, switched to LOA, had to switch back to KEA, missed the "K"
24. Antipasto choice: SALAMI
26. Wine sale units: CASES - Dah~! Wine CasKs is a perfectly acceptable answer~!
33. Shaq's alma mater: LSU - it helped to know who Shaq is, but I still didn't know where he attended school - from his Wiki page (#5)
34. Meadow: LEA
35. Muppeteer Jerry: NELSON - No clue - his Wiki, and here's his most popular character (#6)
40. Large container: VAT - why isn't it Huge, Great, or Vast~?
41. Polite refusal: NO, MA'AM - I like this fill
43. Nobel winner Hammarskjöld: DAG - Died in a plane crash - or was it something more~? (#7)
44. Gloves, gowns, and goggles in the ER: PPE - I had to take the "1D." 30-hr course to qualify for work at the National
Cathedral; they used the term "PPE" about a thousand times in the
tutorials - Personal Protective Equipment
48. Fabled hare, e.g.: LOSER - ah. I was looking for a name - go figure.
50. "Star Wars" heroes: REBELS
51. Andrew Lloyd Webber title: SIR - "Ektorp" (#8)
52. Actress Watson: EMMA - name, and it messed up my "LYFT" at 54D. (#9)
55. Green hotel opening?: ECO - something something crossword 'green' = ECO; again, Ektorp, but the whole clue seems 'meh' to me
56. Chinese American fashion icon: ANNA SUI - my apologizes, C.C., but I had no idea who she is; double digits, #10
60. Director Ang: LEE - I knew this one, but still name #11
63. Yield to gravity: SAG
64. Latin for "actually existing": IN ESSE - I got it because I took 4 years of Latin
65. "A Delicate Balance" playwright: ALBEE - gee, another name - #12
66. GPS guess: ETA - I hardly call it a "guess"; in fact, I
notice that it is extremely accurate, and the longer the trip, the more
accurate it gets; as a result, it's pretty clear that one simply cannot
go any faster to get there sooner - as shown in this Mythbusters
clip, the whole weaving in traffic shaves a mere two minutes off a 46
mile drive - so what do you plan to do with your "extra" two minutes~?
67. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES -ARGH~! SIX names in just 10 clues = #13
68. Set a security system again: REARM - I'm a REBEL, about to take up arms in the fight against proper names~!
DOWN:
1. Div. of Labor: OSHA - well, whaddya know~? BTW, the Organ
renovation is scheduled to be finished in 2028, not 2029, but it's still
going to take FOUR years; I am cleaning the biggest wood pipes this
week
2. Played dreidel: SPUN - played~? I thought it was the top, not the activity
3. Castle makeup: SAND - Dah~! Got me. I was too deep into real castles, like Greystone, and the beach kind never occurred to me
4. Output opposite: INTAKE - intaLK seems like a very reasonable word in our text-speak society
5. Ostracizes: EXILES
6. Bambi still, e.g.: CEL - a single frame of animation
7. Winter hiker's coat: ANORAK - I knew this, but was not clear on the spelling at first
8. Irish brew: RED ALE - I know of Killian's, and here's the process, plus I found this one . . . .
9. "You always tell me what to do!": NAG NAG NAG - clever clue/answer
10. Jargon suffix: ESE - e.g. legal-ESE
11. Pitch, in cricket: BOWL - Dah~! Another one got me - the verb pitch, but I have an excuse - my parents were born & raised in England, so I knew the (noun) "pitch" was the field.
12. Snap, Crackle, and Pop, e.g.: TRIO - oof. Vague for Wednesday; ZZTop, Rush~? Better.
13. Performed an aria: SANG - nice to see ARIA in the clues, not the grid
15. Before today: AGO
18. SIGINT org.: NSA - I had no clue, but the perps gave me _SA; strangely, I can link their site
22. Baroque instrument: VIOL - Smile, it's a "VI-al"
24. Bygone Swedish carmaker: SAAB - I had one; buy now, "Saab" later - get it~?
25. Mouselike: MEEK
26. Trolley sound: CLANG - meh. Trolley BELL . . . .
27. Fur tycoon: ASTOR
28. __ cum laude: SUMMA - MAGNA or SUMMA~? I got it wrong; but 40% was 20% correct
29. Pants part: LEG - ooh~! Another opportunity~!
Thanks for the shoutout Sunday, CanadianEh!
30. Attendance records?: RSVPs - in the plural noun, it just seems "meh"
31. Rant and rave: GO APE
32. [Run program]: ENTER - my WAG, but still a bit "meh"
34. Legumes from the Andes: LIMA BEANS - now that I see the answer, it seems obvious; some info from the USDA
37. Possible litmus test result: BASE - or ACID~? Guess which one I picked. Bzzzt~!
38. Nutritional stds.: RDAs - again, in the plural, a bit meh.
39. Snack: EAT - ah. The verb again
42. Syllables for a stage magician: ABRA - is this not just ONE syllable~?
46. Like some alter egos: SECRET
47. Plaza Hotel girl: ELOISE - Never heard of this; the Wiki, and the Plaza site, too
48. Straight: LINEAR - like my thinking a lot of the time
49. Seer: ORACLE
51. Bowen Yang's show, for short: SNL - perps got me S_L; this clue/answer has shown up three days in a row. sumdaze linked his Titanic iceberg skit Monday
52. "Can I get you anything __?": "ELSE~?"
54. Über relative: MEGA - ah. Not the taxi service from yesterday, but the adjective
56. Only pres. to hold a patent: ABE - Dah~! I was looking for DDE, HST, FDR - his patent
57. Japanese noodle: SOBA - I can never remember which one this is NORI, ROTI, MISO - four-letters crossword something . . . .
58. Password keeper: USER - Fooled me; clever
59. Agenda listing: ITEM
61. Fight (for): VIE
62. Jack or jenny: ASS - second time this week, and speaking of which, we are at the "bottom"
Splynter
42 comments:
I saw the theme early on, and that helped me solve this somewhat challenging puzzle. There were some obscure names and terms (I wonder how many people put down “blog” instead of “vlog”? It took me three tries before spellcheck would even allow me to ask that!) Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Too many obscure and crossing names. Got three quarters of the way through, lost interest and quit
FIR. But it was a struggle. This puzzle had two things I absolutely hate: circles and proper names, plenty of them! Neither belong in a crossword puzzle.
I got the theme early on, not that it helped much. For such a difficult puzzle the theme was easy and lame.
Overall, an unenjoyable effort. But it's done, so there's that.
JUst finished in under 10 minutes, time for some guMBO.
Oh joy, circles!
There were many I didn't know: the Chinese American fashion icon, the Nobel winner, the obscure actor (Estes), the baroque instrument, Lake George, etc.
I didn't parse "goape" either.
This puzzle is another example of why I don't like circles. Instead of solid puzzle, we have to deal with all the obscurities, abbreviations, and 3LW -- merely so we can have a gimmick of seeing synonyms spread-out. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze.
Anon 6:52, I like the comment "The juice just isn't worth the squeeze." Splynter I think all the three letter fill on a Wednesday made you grumpy. Speaking of which, RITA ORA is now a regular panelist on the US version of MASKED SINGER . She seems pleasant. We have KEA and LEA which reminds me of my suggested clue "It's higher than LOA" which C.C. rejected on a puzzle we created together. Otherwise, I agree.
Lots of hate for this puzzle but I thought it was relatively doable and I enjoyed it. Yes some unknown names that the perps handled.
FIR, but magna->SUMMA, acid->BASE, lyft->MEGA, udon->SOBA, and geneva->GEORGE (I geog as poorly as I spel.)
The beautiful, brilliant and talented Katie Pavlich does a special called Luxury HUNTING LODGEs of America. It is in its third season. She's a great choice to host, because at a young age she learned how to ride, shoot and fish. Of course we will never see her name as fill in the LAT crossword, because she's known as "Fox's own Katie Pavlich."
The ignorance of LAT crossword editors and constructors of the difference between "COST" and "price" is rivaled only by their ignorance of the difference between "ASAP" and "STAT."
A GPS's ETA is AKA "time to beat."
I know Bowen Yang's Ektorp show only because we just had it. Next week I won't be so "skilled."
Thanks to Splynter for another fine review. I guess we could say that ANNA SUI is a "Vogue" person as well as a "vague" person.
Good Morning:
I'll defer to Thumper this morning.
Thanks, Splynter, for the spot-on, honest review. You have a keen sense of juice vs squeeze! (Where did you live in Upstate New York?)
Have a great day.
Well I managed a FIR in a Saturday time of 28 minutes for a Friday puzzle on a Wednesday, would have been a little speedier had I not had to correct a typo. Among the plethora of names, I think ELOISE was the only one in the down position, so the easier verticals definitely helped perp. I always need one perp letter before I fill Mauna__. Millions of injuries occur because people don’t use proper PPE for the task. Thank yo Seth for the challenge and to Splynter for the run down!
“Japanese noodle” shows up regularly in crossword puzzles. It’s either SOBA or UDON and I guess incorrectly EVERY SINGLE TIME…
The four cell wide vertical strip on the east coast was as difficult as a Friday puzzle. The other 3 vertical strips were Wednesday easy. I liked the theme, caught on early and used it to my advantage. I like circles when used occasionally.
Too many names, but not a fun sponge for me. There were only a few glitches.
ANNA SUI was the most difficult name, ESP. PPE was also ESP
I knew pitch was the cricket field. The W and L suggested BOWL. Oh the verb, but one I had never heard of.
I looked up one name to supply two letters. More P&P would have solved it.
In my experience, ASAP really meant you had better make it possible STAT.
With bosses, sometimes mildly stated requests are actually urgently required. Even requests stated as a choice meant you had better do it or else. I like dealing with straight forward people. Mean what you say.
My AC is blowing hot air, I had better call the concierge. It will be handled today at no extra charge. It's a huge benefit to get immediate service with one phone call being my only responsibility.
This was a creative puzzle theme - I got the theme reveal near the end so had solved most of the theme clues already and just smiled at how they fit the theme
Just a few unknowns that perped easily - always need perps for SOBA vs UDON noodles
ELOISE was one of my favorite book characters when I was growing up - it wasn't until I was older that I felt sad for her having absentee parents -happy for her that she had a loving nanny
I agree with the majority today, not the best puzzle in the group.
I take issue with the clue for 37D. BASE is not a result of using litmus paper. Pink and blue are the results of detecting an acid or a base.
Perps were the biggest factor in unlocking the answers for this grid. P&P got me to the end without any help.
Thanks to Splynter for her sticktoitiveness in sussing out this submission.
Every good turn deserves a tip of your hat to the Turner.
Bistro.
Musings
-A very fair and fun puzzle. ANEAS and ANNA SUI (we had her 208 days AGO) took some finagling.
-I don’t mind the circles but the gimmick could have been gotten without them
-I share Splynter’s annoyance with using proper names when there are very good alternatives
-VARIABLE COST: The only rule in econ is “supply and demand”
-Another thing: Rodney Dangerfield asks his doctor for a second opinion, “All right, you’re ugly too!”
-An online quiz I have to take to sub talks a lot about PPE’s in the section of Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Prevention
-My INTAKE has way too many potatoes.
-Did Judy Garland leap to anyone else’s mind with Trolley/CLANG?
-SECRET alter egos: Clark Kent’s glasses seemed to hide his deception
-Forgive me ladies, LINEAR thinking
-“Gary, go [insert chore].” She thinks STAT and I think ASAP
DNF. The NE stayed blank, and so did the Middle East.
The theme was overshadowed by the anxiety causing proper names. AENAS LEE DAG and ALBEE were the only ones I knew. You would think that would be enough proper names, but there were a slew more and I had no clue who those people were. So I admit defeat. These kinds of puzzles are not a good fit for me.
I did remember from previous CW that Shaq graduated from LSU.
Thank you Splynter for a nice recap.
FIR on paper, no cheating, and liked it. Admittedly, the plethora of proper nouns was problematic. Like Splynter, I struggled with "circumferential clues." But while some of you prefer a theme that is a surprising reveal after the solve, I like a theme that *helps* with the solve, and this one did that. I would not have seen the BIG BREAK without the circles, so hooray for them!
Thanks, Seth, Patti, and Splynter. Good times.
I've always been impressed that Shaquille Oneal, even while playing in the NBA he not only completed his LSU BA but also got an MBA and then a Doctorate in Education - not just honorary degrees from schools
Good Morning! The blank north didn’t begin to fill until the NE, so I knew this was going to be a challenge. But ultimately what I filled was without WOs, so that’s a plus. Thanks, Seth.
The theme was readily seen and helped fill the SE. Thanks, circles!
My downfall was the Naticks in the mid-Atlantic. The unknown NELSON crossing RSVPS (as clued – Ugh! My least favorite clue is one with a ?) with gripe (YES!) instead of GO APE crossing the unknown PPE. I had no chance.
Thanks, Splynter. The photo of the wood pipe was amazing! As a non-musical person, I am enlightened that not all pipes are metal. Nice.
RE: 26D, you may be too young to remember the song, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG went the trolley, by, I believe, Judy Garland.
RE: 57A, the other noodle that might fit is UDON. Nori and miso aren’t noodles and roti is not Japanese, but I see your point that they are 4-letter foreign foods..
This was probably the most obscure crossword I've ever tried to solve. 16 proper names. #'s 2, 5, and 18 were complete unknowns.
I feared for my FIR when the Eastern Seaboard was full of Far-East fill, and I’ll confess that when I suspected the unknown Muppeteer Jerry’s last name was Nelson, I googled the first and last name for confirmation.
I came up with OSSIE as the 1A Davis fairly quickly. ANNA SUI was a name I recognized just enough to look for apt perps. I replaced Placid with GEORGE as the Adirondack lake when the rodent had to be MEEK. I knew Shaq played at LSU. ELOISE was a gimme for me. And I knew ANORAK. So I got through the puzzle, but I agreed with Splynter’s commentary all the way.
The unknowns ended up bugging me less than the “small’ LODGE and the off-clue for EXILES. But as Subgenius always says . . .
Hola!
Wednesday worthy is all I can say about this puzzle. For the most part I filled the far west, south and center quickly and easily but was stumped with VLOG, a term I never use. I also did not know the band so the NE corner suffered. I also failed at RSVPS.
ANNA SUI is also unknown to me but the perps took care of it. CARNE as clued took a while to fill; I had to find SAUSAGE first. A five letter playwright is almost always ALBEE.
Thank you, Beth and Splynter. Now I have to go for a blood draw. Enjoy your day, everyone! Has anyone heard form the Texas contingent?
I thought it was a fun puzzle and I don’t know why so many people hate the circles. Is it really that big of a deal that it requires a temper tantrum?
Yeesh. What a hot mess of a crossNAME puzzle. Could we possibly be more obscure? Note, also, to editor: to OSTRACIZE is to IGNORE. To EXILE is to BANISH. Misleading clues are fine. Incorrect clues are not. TITT on this one, and got my morning entertainment from Splynter!
FIW - sorry, I didn’t find this puzzle fair by far - and certainly a better fit for a Friday than a Wednesday, but no matter the day, another constructor in love with being clever enough to beat everyone with personal names and obscure clues/answers. While some personal names are easy or frequent (Emma Watson, director ang Lee), Bangtan boys? Singer Rita, tik tok arcane, a muppeteer, really? Chinese fashion icon!! Plaza hotel girl, playwright, Latin phrase? (Most of us didn’t unfortunately have 4 years of Latin although I did have 5 years of German) etc. Perps can make obscurities doable, but not when obscure crosses obscure. Ultimately, the NE corner was my undoing where I had CGI’s for snap, crackle, pop and didn’t know vlog.
At first I had casks for wine, which made Mauna Loa instead of kea, so it took awhile before hunting lodge and spanx helped me fix it.
Also originally had Lake Placid vs George and wanted acid instead of base initially. Nuff said. Sure hope constructors some day get the message on obscure personal names and challenge themselves more for a wide vocabulary range. I’m sure that isn’t easy, but I’m told that’s what crosswords used to be?
If I may echo IM, Thanks, Splynter, for the spot-on, honest review."
I loved the sand castle graphic and the round table joke.
FWIW, circles do not bother me. If I find 'em helpful I allow them to help me. If not, I just ignore them.
Splynter - I'm curious if you work on tracker pipe organs. A friend's company (which he later sold to employees) builds such organs where I live.
You always enjoy your oppo opinion.
Irish Miss ☘️@8:08. I know this has been explained before, but I don’t remember. What does I'll defer to Thumper this morning mean?
Wow! I had the hardest time managing to FIR. Half blank on the first pass and slowly worked from South to North. Changing RESET to REARM go me going. ANNA SUI? No idea? NELSON? Ditto. After seeing VAST and GREAT in circles HUGE and LARGE were filled after a couple of perps and I filled in the others. NELSON only appeared after GRIPE became GO APE.
The NE fell last. Any 3-letter fill with Rita as a clue just calls for ORA (no idea about the song). BOWL and VLOG were other unknowns. Tough puzzle for me to finish.
I was confusing English soccer and cricket. The pitch in soccer is the field, that I knew. Pitching a cricket is bowling. Learn something new every day.
My grandson starts at LSU in August. He turned down multiple tennis scholarships from many colleges so he could go to a large school with hopefully a winnings teams. He said being a college athlete is like having a job and he's ready to party and study a little.
Cheated my way to a fill, but can't say I managed to FIR. FAR too many names, many obscure. I knew DAG, SAAB, LEE, ALBEE, ASTOR and ABE. By my expanded count 22 names. Mauna LOA/KEA needed perps. "Small, rustic house on a game reserve" CABIN comes to mind, certainly not LODGE. I got the theme early, which helped with the theme fill, but just too many obscurities for this CW to be any fun, especially when they sometimes crossed. Sorry, SB-H, maybe if your CW had been offered up on a Saturday I would have understood the obscurities. Thanx, Splynter, for the outstanding write-up.
Monkey @ 11:39 ~ I don't know how to embed videos, but there is one of Thumper being admonished by his mother when he makes a critical remark about a fellow rabbit "Thumper, what did your father tell you this morning?" To which Thumper, shamefacedly replies, "If you can't say somethin' nice, then don't anythin' at all." 😉
Again, I ask, can you get something quicker than it is possible to get?
Thank you Irish Miss☘️
How many anonymouses are on the blog today? Is there only one, who also responds to him/herself or are there two or possibly three separate entities? A conundrum I say.
Bill V ~ Anonymous @6:52 is easily recognizable as SS, all the others are impostors. 😂
Anon @ 2:04, the problem occurs because the "possible" in ASAP really means "practical." If someone broke laws or endangered people or property to make good on ASAP and got caught, the requestor would just say "of course I didn't mean for him/her to do any of those things."
So, As Soon As Practical could be interpreted by the person expected to deliver as "I'll get started as soon as I finish my expense report," or "I'll get started on that after I return from my dentist's appointment this afternoon." A much more powerful request is specific - "I've gotta have it before you leave for the day" or "it must be finished before the NYSE opens on July 19."
YR, your comments made me think of a funny memory. My boat partner and I were flying to Dallas to inspect a boat we were considering buying circa 2007. It was shortly after TSA got seriously concerned about bombs hidden in clothing. While we were in line, an employee came by to tell us what to do when we got to the scanners. When it was our turn, I took off my shoes, put my carry-on on the belt, and breezed right through. My boat partner asked him he had to take his shoes off, and the guy said "no, but I suggest you do." My partner declined, was scanned, the directed to secondary inspection. 15 minutes or so (seemed like an hour) later we were finally free to go pick up our rental car and drive to beautiful Lake Texoma.
Wednesday Wipeout! Thanks for the fun, Seth and Splynter (you are welcome re Sunday’s LEG SO).
Officially a DNF today with that east coast area of NELSON, RSVP, GO APE (hand up for Gripe).
I did get VLOG since I had the I and O to change my Lute/Lyre dilemma to VIOL.
I was waiting for perps to decide between Box, Can, Keg or Tin. VAT was not on my list.
LYFT changed to Mega (Easter Egg to the BIG theme!).
I noted EAT crossing the circled EAT in GRABS A SEAT.
My four years of Latin gave me IN ESSE. (Sorry Anon@11:12 - but then, I have no German).
This Canadian had the final E and guessed DDE. It turned out to be a first name not initials.
With a few letters, I dredged ANNA SUI out of my CW memory.
I hope all is ok with our Texas contingent. We are getting the remnants of Beryl with heavy rain spells here today. Now we have a tornado watch and thunderstorm forecast for later in the day.
Wishing you all a great day.
My SIL and DH’s niece, both live in Houston. One lost power and got it back today, the other never lost power, but as of this morning there were still over 1 million people without electricity. I hope Tony is not one of them.
Hi All!
Thanks for the HBD wishes yesterday and the inquires today. We are fine but with out power or stable cell signals (the latter is getting better). We have batteries and a USB-powered fan so staying cool as we can (plus there's A/C in the car :-)
No paper yesterday == no puzzle ☹
I did today's puzzle and enjoyed reading Splynter & y'all more than today's #CrossNames.
I'm sure D-O is fine too. However, his ISP seems to go out anytime we get more than a thunderstorm.
Saving my electrons, Cheers!
-T
Sheesh!
Anon -T, I completely failed to note that yesterday marked the annual recurrence of where, in it's orbit, our planet was on the day that you were born. Please accept belated good wishes! Hopefully you can return to squandering electrons in the not-too-distant-future.
I am not an imposter!
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