Terpsichore
Today's puzzle is all about dancing so I've taken the title of this review from the name of the Greek muse of Dance and Choral music and the opening video is a performance of La Bourée by Renaissance composer Michael Praetorius from his Dances from Terpsichore.
Today's constructor is our very own Renée Thomason, and today is her first solo without her mentor C.C. Burnikel. And I have to say that C.C. has mentored her well. I usually don't comment on the quality of puzzles, but in this case I really enjoyed solving and reviewing this one. Not only was there a cleverly executed theme to amuse us, but there were no references to obscure pop culture icons, and some very clever cluing.
Here are the themers. They don't appear to have anything in common semantically so we really need the reveal to tell us that they all have something to do with dancing ...
56. Moonwalk, running man, floss, et al., and what can be found in the answers to the starred clues?: DANCE MOVES. And here I'll squeeze in a bit more music to show us something about the nature of these dances -- they really resemble a frenzied Italian Tarantella ...... scrambled across the theme clues ...!
22A. *Appetizer with lots of toppings: LOADED NACHOS.
35A. *Solving the Sunday crossword, for one: WEEKEND ACTIVITY.
45A. *Some design transfers: IRON ON DECALS.
Note the adherence to the convention that the embedded word must span multi-word fill. Finding the right combination of words for the themers and finding a place for them in the grid is impressive.
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Chunk of fairway: DIVOT. We recently took one of our granddaughters to our first POLO match this Summer and found that during the Chukkers (time outs to swap out horses) the audience is invited onto the field (which is 9 times the size of a football field!) for "DIVOT stomping."
6. All-__ pots and pans: CLAD. Pots and pans used by the pros ...
10. Exactly suitable: APT.
13. "Parting is such sweet sorrow, mon ami": ADIEU. Today's French lesson -- "goodbye", spoken to a male friend, A DIEU is actually a blessing ("to God") and is used when the separation will be long term or permanent. Au revoir ("Until I see you again") is used for short term partings.
14. Classroom helper: AIDE.
15. Qatari ruler: EMIR.
16. [Theme clue]
18. Tree with needles and cones: PINE. Conifers -- a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Unlike deciduous trees (oaks, maples, poplars, etc.) which shed their leaves in the Fall, conifers drop their needles gradually over the course of the year.
19. Continuing ed course: ESL. English as a Second Language.
20. Mixology verb: STIR.
21. Dukes: FISTS. Maybe this is why they called John Wayne "the Duke" -- because he used his fists so much.
22. [Theme clue]
25. Birds with blue eggs: ROBINS. We're talking here of course about American Robins ...
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| Robin Eggs (American) |
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| Robin Eggs (English) |
29. Casserole appliance: OVEN.
30. Off: AMISS.
32. The "Gras" of "Mardi Gras": FAT. More French -- "Fat Tuesday", i.e. getting stuffed on the Tuesday before the first day of of Lent (Ash Wednesday), a season of fasting.
35. [Theme clue]
39. Soon-to-be alumni: Abbr.: SRS.
40. Window part: LEDGE.
41. Sound imitated by hitting coconut halves together: CLOP. Used to great effect by these coconuts ...
42. Cor anglais kin: OBOE. What's the difference between a Cor Anglais and an OBOE? Here Vivien Kong plays a lovely excerpt from the second movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World with a Cor anglais ("English Horn") ...43. Abrasion: SCRAPE.
45. [Theme clue]
50. Update, as a library card: RENEW.
51. Tomato paste tomato: ROMA.
52. Bird that can weigh more than a baby hippo: EMU. Who knew -- a new EMU clue?
55. Rae of "Insecure": ISSA. Jo-Issa Rae Diop (born January 12, 1985), credited professionally as Issa Rae, is an American actress, writer, and producer. Founder of Hoorae Media, she achieved wider recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the HBO television series Insecure (2016–2021), for which she was nominated for multiple Golden Globes Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards. Here's a very short clip with Issa as President Barbie in the 2023 film Barbie ...
56. [Theme reveal]
59. Mushroom part: STEM.
60. As well: ALSO.
61. Amazon option: PRIME. I was surprised that Renée didn't clue this with a bit of number theory. 😀
62. FDR successor: HST. Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Missouri from 1935 to 1945 and briefly in 1945 as the 34th vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Assuming the presidency after Roosevelt's death, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established both the Truman Doctrine and NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism.
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| Harry S. Truman |
63. Prerelease software version: BETA. In my experience the "release" software IS the BETA. That's when the real debugging starts. 😀
64. Tennis star Monica: SELES. Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a former world No. 1 tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. She won nine major singles titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final one while representing the United States.
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| Monica Seles |
1. Miami-__ County: DADE. Miami-Dade County is in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida (CSO to unclefred and Lemonade). The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Miami, the core of the nation's ninth-largest metropolitan area with a 2020 population of 6.138 million people. As I am writing this, I'm sure the people throughout the state of Florida still have much work to do to recover from hurricane Milton.
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| Miami-Dade County |
3. Bottle in a lab: VIAL.
4. 20-vol. lexicon: OED. You can also buy this used edition of the 2-vol OED, complete with magnifying glass, for as low as $79.95 ...
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| 2 volume OED |
5. Arizona city nicknamed "The Old Pueblo": TUCSON. Here's how Tucson came to own its charming nickname.
6. Cat : felid :: dog : __: CANID. Today's Latin lesson.
7. Bath water volume: LITRE. Clever clue! -- Bath the town, not the vessel for bathing. I spent 2 weeks working in Bath once, but I took showers so I can't tell you how many LITRES of water I used. If truth be told however, only the government, industry, commerce, and scientific research have been metricated, whereas the common folk still use Imperial units -- when Brits walk into a pub they will invariably order their ALE by the PINT (i.e. 473 ML).
8. Citrusy suffix: ADE.
9. German article: DER. Today's German lesson: THE -- DER, DIE, and DAS are the definite articles used to modify masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. In English we don't make such distinctions and use THE as the definite article for all nouns, e.g. "the boy, the girl, the table", but in German it's not that simple.
10. Community known for barn raisings: AMISH. This scene from the 1985 film Witness shows how they do it ... 11. Skewbald horse: PINTO. Not to be confused with a Paint.
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| Pinto horse |
15. Sweeping accounts: EPICS. They don't get any more epic than this ...
17. Airport sked details: ETAS.
21. Language of Iran: FARSI. Also the language of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam see clue 9A of the puzzle for 10/10/2024 for a sample of FARSI.
22. Common sight on Safari: LINK. Another clever one -- if like me you didn't notice that Safari was capitalized and you'd already perped the first two letters: LI, you would have reflexively filled LION, rather LINK -- a URL on a Safari browser page.
23. Prepare for a winter flight: DE-ICE.
24. Political cartoonist Thomas: NAST. Thomas Nast (September 26, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He also popularized the donkey as the symbol for the Democratic Party and the elephant, for the Republican Party; and created the “modern” image of Santa Claus.
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| Thomas Nast |
26. No longer hung up on: OVER.
27. Crucial pollinators: BEES. Some are more crucial than others.
31. Short periodical?: MAG.
32. Hoka rival: FILA. I'd not heard of Hoka shoes, but I did know FILA because one of my BILs used to work for them. Our clue is also today's Māori lesson: the word Hoka means "to fly" in that language.
33. Sitting upon: ATOP.
34. Blood category: TYPE.
36. Pasta salad pasta shape: ELBOW.
37. Colorless gas that makes colorful signs: NEON. For over 70 years this NEON sign dominated the sky above the Baltimore Harbor, but eventually succumbed to old age. On July 4, 2021 it was replaced by an LED version. The lowercase “o” from the old Domino Sugar sign was donated to the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
42. Last-call hr., sometimes: ONE AM.
43. Equal: SAME.
44. Workshop grippers: CLAMPS. There are a lot of shapes and sizes ...
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| Workshop clamps |
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| Irish Setter |
47. Get-go: ONSET.
48. Surrealist Max: ERNST. Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalized American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism in Europe. If the word surrealist is clued in a crossword puzzle, the fill is almost invariably DALI or ERNST.
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| Max Ernst |
52. Really rotten: EVIL.
53. Social media share: MEME. A MEME begins as a social media share, but like the GENE, the biological entity upon which the idea is based, it must be propagated widely in order to survive. While I don't always see eye to eye with the bloke, I have to give credit to ethologist and story teller Richard Dawkins for coining this word in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene.
54. Applications: USES.
56. Skosh: DAB. Here's one clue that I doubt Patti came up with -- our constructor likely brought it back from Japan.
57. Taproom brew: ALE. See also 7D.
58. Mine find: ORE. Solvers often find ORE in crosswords too.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
waseeley
Notes from C.C.:
1) Congrats on your first solo, Renee! I'm so proud of your accomplishment.
2) Happy 80th to Uncle Fred, an avid Packers fan! Fred is based in Fort Lauderdale.
41 comments:
FIR online. Zoё woke me at 3:00 (0200 Corner Daylight Time) for an emergency walk, by jumping on the bed and panting until I got up. Sure enough, she wasn’t bluffing. Came back home and was too awake to go back to bed.
Now I remember why I prefer solving on paper. When I finished I hadn’t even read some of the clues, didn’t have any notes about erasures or things I wanted to address here, and my memory is about as long as, well, never mind. On the up side, the timer told me it took me 10 minutes without rushing.
I really enjoyed this puzzle, and thought it was the easiest one of the week.
I didn’t know that A DIEU meant “to God,” but I’ve always wondered whether “adios” meant that literaly in Spanish.
Thanks to Ha2la for the terrific puzzle. And thanks to Bill ‘n’ Teri for the fun review. I remember seeing a TV show about building and installing the new Domino Sugar sign, but I thought they reused the shell of the old sign. Well, again, my memory is about as long as, well, never mind.
Still to early to be up, but too late to go back to sleep. "Adios" and "ADIEU" started me thinking about our "goodby." Could it be...? I LIU, and found:
“Goodbye” comes from the term “Godbwye” a contraction of the phrase “God be with ye”.
Old dog, new trick.
Once again, a puzzle I
didn’t have too much difficulty with, despite some attempts by the constructor to make certain clues more obscure than they needed to be. The reveal was a pleasant surprise, though. FIR, so I’m happy.
Jinx ~ the puzzle is by Renee sumdaze, I know it’s early 🤣
Good morning!
Looks like the corner denizens are up early this morning.
Tried (and missed) seeing the scrambled "DANCE" in the themers. D-o was looking for the names of actual dances. D'oh. That Safari answer had me stumped until waseeley 'splained it. I enjoyed your solo debut, sumdaze. Nice expo waseeley (and Teri). (I use our paper dictionary in the spring to look up the locations of obscure colleges participating in March Madness.)
All-CLAD: I'm certainly no "pro," but I've got a few pieces: Two small sauce pans and a 12" skillet.
BETA: From my experience, the real debugging doesn't begin until after the official release.
Happy birthday, unclefred. I read that your Packers whupped our local team this past weekend. Congrats.
I usually look at the byline before doing a puzzle, sometimes the constructors name will be an indication of what I’m in for. Today I forgot to look till I was done and was pleasantly surprised to see it was a solo effort by Renee (and thought hey I know her, sort of). A clever theme which took a little time to suss, sans circles I didn’t see the jumbled DANCE right away. I knew moonwalk was a dance, but floss and running man? Hadn’t heard of Hoka so FILA was perped, as was CANID. FIR in 10:45. Thanks Renee, and congrats on your solo debut!!
Bill and Teri ~ nice that you got tasked to blog a puzzle by a fellow Cornerite, fine review and thanks for that. CLOP immediately brought to mind Monty Python also. The Gulf Coast in Florida is still in major clean-up mode, flooding from rain and storm surge brought the most devastation, barrier islands especially hard hit.
Happy b/day uncle fred! 👊🏼
One answer today reminded be of a song lyric “I remember your eyes were bluer than robin’s eggs”, Joan Baez, Diamonds and Rust.
Thank you. Apologies to both. Decaf is worse than autocorrect.
Congrats Renee for a great puzzle!
And HBD Uncle Fred!
Here's the bi-weekly DAB puzzle ....
Here's what David has to say about it ...
This puzzle should not be taken as an endorsement of those tasteless social events from which women are excluded (except as performers).
In fact I find the idea of “stag parties” in that sense distinctly disagreeable.
But if forest creatures wish to gather for their own festive purposes, I do not feel that I, from my necessarily anthropocentric subject position, have any right to condemn them.
Yeah, I caught hell once for authorizing the deployment of telco switching system software our team had tested thoroughly, or so I thought. Turns out that the new version broke a feature used only in California, and only by a handful of customers. They subscribed to a feature that would call 911 if the phone was picked up but nothing was dialed, as a lot of folks used to do to avoid wrong numbers / crank calls overnight. The application was for folks who had medical conditions that were likely to cause events that would make them unable to speak. Even when they were unable to speak, the enhanced 911 system used in the LA area would pinpoint the address and forward the call and address to the appropriate Public Service Answering Point. In the PC business I can't imagine how much testing is involved with the multitude of hardware, operating system versions, 3rd party applications, and hacks / workarounds that are out there.
I hate it when my cell phone is stranded after a couple of OS updates, but I totally understand the reasons. That's also the reason I'm switching to iPhone next time.
Very easy for a Thursday. By the time I got to the reveal, I had completed the grid.
FIR. Not too difficult for a Thursday, and congrats to the constructor for her first.
I got the puzzle finished and looked at the reveal and failed to see the connection. I had to come here to have it explained.
But overall a very enjoyable puzzle.
Today's is not only a first-rate puzzle, but it was constructed by Renee, one of our Cornerites!
Have the circles-haters in our group intimidated some constructors? Today's puzzle could have used some circles, in my view.
There were several good clues, one of the best, I think, being 7 Down, "Bath water volume."
Renee showed her construction savvy with five lengthy theme and reveal phrases, one of which was a grid-spanner. And all four of the theme answers were two-word phrases with the jumbled DANCE contributed by each word.
And thanks, Renee, for being kind to us solvers by not relying on a bevy of pop culture "celebrities."
All in all, this was one of the smoothest Thursdays in a while: a well-constructed, clever, and fun-to-do crossword.
Musings
-No need to gild the lily. Bill’s second paragraph says it all! What a treat!
-I saw some common letters in the gimmicks but it took the reveal for what was going on.
-Most golf carts have DIVOT bottles attached full of sand, fertilizer and seed for repairs
-Spring is the ETA for the return of our lovely ROBINS and annoying grackles
-We have new guttering and so Mrs. Robin will find something AMISS as her nest is gone
-I’ll need Amazon PRIME to watch FB tonight
-Bill, what is this paper dictionary you speak of? :-)
-Yeah, the use of Bath in the clue drew a smile out here on the prairie
-I’m, uh, on Safari every day!
-Some VB teams simulate ROWING to celebrate success
-HGTV’s Ben Napier of Hometown likes clamps
A nice, straightforward puzzle with no nonsensical attempts to confuse the solver or show off a knowledge of the obscure. I made no attempt to figure out the theme, because I don't care about themes and never will.
If anybody solves DAB's puzzle, please explain 4D to me -- I got it with perps, but don't understand it.
I solved the puzzle but STRAITEN was perped, 🤷♂️
No circles needed! However hoka crossing French messed me up. I did the puzzle online, so I was surprised when I read in the blog it was link and not lion. Nope, filled in lion, never saw it get changed... not even an inkblot!
I did get a kick out of the puzzle though...
have a happy birthday Fred!
According to Merriam-Webster, the 3rd definition of STRAITEN: "3
: to subject to distress, privation, or deficiency" I guess you could put someone in financial straits. “I really am one bad tire replacement away from being in dire financial straits,” said Ms. Davis.
Super smooth CW this morning. Congratulations sumdaze. I thoroughly enjoyed your puzzle, unfortunately I forgot to look for the scrambled DANCE.
I too smiled at the clever Bath clue. Thank goodness no obscure names, yet just enough crunch to make the solving interesting.
Circles would have been too much of a give away.
When I was a child we had an IRISH setter named Tita. She was gorgeous. Nowadays I don’t see many of those setters.
Thank you waseeley for a very nice review.
Happy birthday uncle Fred. 🎉🎊🎂
Yeah, I LIU. Kinda where dire straits comes from. YR can give us some literary examples I'm sure, but the example I saw (and can't find now) said that the lad was in STRAITS because his father lost his job, never to work again.
Took 5:34 today for me to get in the sedan car.
Very nice puzzle, sumdaze. Loved the lack of obscurities and celebrities, and especially the lack of the dreaded circles. My only nit is that this seemed easy for a Thursday puzzle.
Happy Birthday to our dear uncle fred!
I had initially entered "trend" where "Irish" belonged (no offense to Ms. Irish Miss) and "lion" where "link" belonged. As always, I struggled with today's foreign language lesson (adieu).
Wow, so easy for a Thursday with only one unfamiliar clue, HOKA/FILA.
I didn't see the scrambled dances, but I looked for them for only a few seconds. I would add the dance move, dos a dos.
They serve bow toe pasta here in many dishes, even macaroni salad. I find it to doughy. I prefer elbows.
American soldiers picked up the term sukoshi, meaning a little bit, while stationed in Japan after World War II. They shortened it to skosh and brought it back to the United States in the 1950s. My husband would ask for a skosh more coffee. During the Korean War, the term "Skosh" was used to nickname a small soldier.
Yes, the real debugging occurs after the official release. I wait for that before downloading new Windows.
Straiten means bring into difficulties or distress, especially financial hardship.
I have heard of straitened circumstances due to financial problems and also dire straits.
Have a wonderful birthday, Uncle Fred.
synonyms:distress
OOPS! Bow toe pasta? It sounds meaty. Bow tie pasta is doughy.
Terpsichore? In NOLA the street is between Melpomene and Euterpe. As for DANCE MOVES, I didn't see them and I definitely don't have any. Two left feet.
Congratulations Renee. Only one unknown today- All CLAD cookware. We have a variety of brands- copper, stainless, coated, and even a Club Aluminum roasting pot.
Mardi Gras is either shrove Tuesday or FAT Tuesday. Take your pick.
FILA- Hoka shoes are a hot seller but they will fade. The current hot pick is the OC brand. Big money financiers see how much Nike, Adidas,...etc are selling for, so they start a brand, advertise it, and charge $125 and up for a pair of sneakers.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Renee (congrats on your solo debut), and waseeley and Teri.
I FIRed in great time (actually had more success initially working the Downs), and found the DANCE MOVES only with the reveal. (No circles necessary.). I had seen DEAD in the first two themers and thought that might be leading to a theme. Ah, no.
This Canadian loved the LITRE clue and spelling, but then it crossed CENTER. LOL!
Enough of TUCSON perped so that I could fill it.
Both Hoka annd FILA are unknown to me. Perps were fair.
HST could also be clued as “Canadian federal/provincial goods and services levy” (Harmonized Sales Tax)
Happy 80th Birthday unclefred!
Wishing you all a great day.
Well done. Nice straight forward puzzle. Easy for Thursday but I definitely enjoyed it.
Good Morning:
I was pleasantly surprised to see Renee’s solo byline and more pleasantly impressed by her polished offering. The theme was well-hidden and remained hidden to me because, like DO, I was fixated on finding types of Dances and never considered the more obvious solution. I’ll blame an early rising sans sufficient sleep for this failing. The grid was super clean, there was no silly or obtuse fill, and some of the clueing was particularly clever, not to mention the admirably low TLW count (13), which all add up to a very enjoyable and satisfying solve. I agree the solve was on the easy side for a Thursday, but circles would have made it even easier and far less challenging to decipher, IMO.
Congrats, Renee, on a very nice solo debut and thanks for joining the crossword world, and thanks to Bill and Teri who keep us informed, enlightened and entertained week after week. Their dedication and efforts are truly appreciated.
Have a great day.
Oops! Happy Birthday, UncleFred, hope you celebrate in style! 🎂🎊🎁🎈
I really enjoyed this one. Nice job, sumdaze! Just the right amount of crunch for my taste. Happy Birthday, Unclefred! Go, Pack Go!
First, a huge Thank You to all that wished me a HBD today. 80??? What happened to 30??? Could it really be 50 years ago? Anyway, the CW: I loved it, for all the reasons others mentioned. Thanx very much for this wonderful creation, RT. For me it was Monday-on-a-Thursday, which I LOVE. Only W/O: LION:LINK. Clever clue, BTW, among many. And congrats on u LAT solo debut! I loved it so much I hope you keep 'em coming! Thanx too to Bill for the outstanding write-up, although I don't have time for all the videos today. I'll come back and enjoy them tomorrow.
Too easy for a Thursday and solved like a themeless. Not a fan of finishing a puzzle, and then searching to see how everything ties together. I prefer themes that help in the solve, not ones where you go back at the end and marvel at the cleverness of it all. Creator = 1; Solver = 0.
Greetings! What a nice puzzle! I enjoyed it! Thanks, Renee/sumdaze.
I found the jumbled DANCE in the themers – Nice! Although the only one in the reveal I’m familiar with is the moonwalk.
Two WOs: reverse ER -> RE in LITRE & CLaP -> CLOP.
The last box to fill was the F when I remembered FAT Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
OED – Dictionary, no I haven’t used a paper dictionary in an age, but I use the dictionary feature with my Libby app often.
I was fooled by both the Bath and the Safari clues, but I went with the perps.
I use orzo or rotini for my pasta salads.
I loved our VCR, so easy to record and play. We bypassed clunky DVDs, and transitioned right into DVRs, so much like the VCR in playing without all the hundreds of tapes cartridges I’ve just trashed as I declutter and downsize.
Happy Birthday, unclefred! 🎈🎂🎉🥳. Many happy returns of the day!
Thanks, Bill & Teri. Enjoyed your recap filled w/ fun & info.
"Mardi Gras, festive day celebrated in France on Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday), which marks the close of the pre-Lenten season. The French name Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence." It is celebrated in here in the US and many other places, not just France.
The traditional PA Dutch make fastnachts, raised donuts cooked in lard. on the the day before Ash Wednesday. "Making and eating fastnachts was a way to consume all the fats, such as butter and lard, kept in the house pantry, as these rich ingredients were seen as lavish and were not supposed to be eaten during the Lenten season."
I think the fat in Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras is the fat, butter or lard that must be used up before the fasting of Lent. As kids we relished my mom's fastnachts.
Sumdaze is so cool! She hikes, she bikes, she ROWS! And now she publishes a puzzle in the LA Times all by herself. We are not worthy, but we are appreciative! Like CanadianEh at 10:59 AM, I saw sumdaze's DANCE MOVES with the help of the reveal.
YooperPhil at 5:38 AM, I want to thank you for calling Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust" to mind. It's one of my favorite songs, and of course beautifully sung by Ms Baez, recalling her heartbreaking relationship with Bob Dylan.
Happy birthday, Uncle Fred! 🥳
👋🏼 Naomi ~ YP here, I agree sumdaze is quite impressive! “Diamonds and Rust” has been my ear worm of the day, beautiful voice, great song!
See? She should have opted for Steve Jobs, who couldn't compute a way to her heart.
Puzzling thoughts:
Renee, let me add to the others in congratulating you on your very clever, and very well-constructed puzzle!
Bill and Teri: thanks for the recap. Lots to uncover!!
Unclefred: HBTY!
I loved this puzzle.
Hi everyone-
Thursdays are my one-thing-after-another day so I've been waiting all day to come see how this one landed. I have a list of thank-you's:
~ to waseeley for his generous write-up! How lucky was I that this fell to you with your Terpsichore theme?!
~ to C.C. for her mentoring! You are unmatched in the XWD world!
~ to the LAT editors for their patience and guidance. They were a huge help! Credit where credit is due: the LITRE and LINK clues came from the editors.
~ to everyone on The Corner for your enthusiastic support! It means a lot!
CED@9:22. Love that dancing clip!
Happy 80th birthday to unclefred! I hope you enjoyed your party...and perhaps showed off some of your DANCE MOVES!
Awesome debut, Reneé! Loved the fun clueing — just diabolical enough to twist the brain without being obtuse, and NO CELEB NAMES, wooHOO! Nicely-played theme that had me doing a Happy DANCE (an’ dis white boy cain’t dance fer beans…). Keep it up, ma’am, I’ll be looking forward to your next one 😎👍🏽.
I actually have used a paper dictionary recently…but with good reason, as it’s a Japanese-English one. Speaking of which, Waseeley, if you think today’s German lesson is befuddling with the DER/die/das business — try Japanese sometime… 😵💫
All in all, well done by all. Thanks!
====> Darren / L. A.
Hi All!
WEES about Renee's wonderful puzzle. Congrats on the solo debut, Renee!
Thanks Waseeley (and Teri) for the fine expo.
WOs: I started ToComa @5d.
ESPs: FILA as clued, ISSA
Favs: LITRE's & LINK's clues; AIDE crossing ADE
I'm a fan of All CLAD.
Jinx - "I don't often test, but when I do - I do it in production." :-)
Happy Birthday Uncle Fred!
Cheers, -T
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