ANONYMOUS EPONYMOUS
I do not recognize the constructor of today's puzzle, and congratulations are in order if this be their LA Times debut~! I am not entirely sure I grasped the theme - can't be sure I get how it connects with two of the "*" starred clues exactly. Add to that over a dozen proper names, and I have to give this a mere "⭐⭐" rating, despite the fact that it's a shout-out to yours truly, Splynter, who in the "real" word is "Rich". The theme answers;
17. *Layered dessert with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache: OPERA CAKE - pretty much THE definition of a RICH cake
25. *Evergreen used to make incense: SANDALWOOD - the plant wood is RICH in fragrant oils, and highly aromatic - also used in perfumes, and expensive
36. *Silicon Valley success story: TECH BILLIONAIRE - my last fill was the "B", which I had as "M", so a Natick of a theme crossing a name. . . . "BOO~!" - the better use of this 14A. word
And Away We Go~!
1. All the rage: HOT
4. "Same here": "DITTO." - from the Latin dictus, "said"
9. "CBS News Sunday Morning" correspondent Mo: ROCCA - name #1, but I do know of him
14. Sweetie: BOO - not a fan of this type of "abbreviation". Period.
15. Strike caller?: UNION - I read that the East & Gulf coast Dockworkers went on strike, but then suspended it until January - which seems to defeat the purpose of a strike, but it means our economy won't collapse before the upcoming Christmas season. . . .😜
16. Cartography collection: ATLAS - Seven syllables : two syllables = clue : answer
19. Barren and severe: STARK - or better yet, a description of Tony
27. Live (in): RESIDE
29. Celtic "The Celts" singer: ENYA - crossword staple, still a name, #2
30. Sambuca flavor: ANISE
31. Cooped (up): PENT - I would not mind being cooped up in a PENT house
33. Network that airs many MGM and RKO films: TCM - Turner Classic Movies
40. CIA forerunner: OSS - crossword staple; the Office of
41. Mountain route: PASS
42. Eatery with its own lingo: DINER - A Greasy Spoon List from Wikipedia
43. Bridge: SPAN - I love the architecture of bridges; this one is in Frawnche Bordeaux
51. Game with a rhyming name: I SPY
52. Performs penance: ATONES
53. Wheelchair-bound "Glee" teen: ARTIE - name #3, had him once this past year, so I "64A." knew it
55. Up: RAISE - meh. Give me a sentence with a one-to-one swap of these two words
60. Discovery astronaut Ochoa: ELLEN - I knew this one, but still a name, #4
61. Pigpens: STIES
62. Shade of green: PEA
63. Map lines: ROADS
64. Rather, informally: KINDA - Sorta like, you know, slang
65. Outside the mainstream, genrewise: ALTernative - I like the Vevo video channel Alternative 80s
DOWN:
1. "House of the Dragon" network: HBO - shoulda known this; my buddy insisted that I watch "Game of Thrones" because I like castles and dragons, but that's not the only thing going on in the series
I don't have HBO, and I've only seen scenes of GoT
2. Alley-__: OOP
3. Low digit?: TOE - crossword comedy
4. Binary: DUAL
5. Carve: INCISE - dah~! not SCULPT
6. Disney princess voiced by Anika Noni Rose: TIANA - Disney's The Princess & The Frog - name #5
7. Arcade coin: TOKEN
8. "Best Song Ever" singers __ Direction: ONE - name #6, don't know this 'boy band'
9. Without thinking things through: RASHLY
10. Canadian capital: OTTAWA - CanadianEh~!, hockey is here~! ( name-ish)
11. Spanish "Of course": CLARO - Filled via perps; I really should learn a second language
12. __ shorts: garment with lots of pockets: CARGO
18. Peppery salad slice: RADISH - Ah. Took me two passes before I got it
21. Poem division: CANTO - A long subsection of an epic or long narrative poem, such as Dante Alighieri’s Commedia (The Divine Comedy)
22. Muse for poets: ERATO - crossword staple, still a name #7
23. Part of one's inheritance?: GENES - har-har
24. "Sound Mind, Sound Body" athletic brand: ASICS - name #8
26. "Dune" and "Dune: Part Two" director Villeneuve: DENIS - name #9 - I cannot get into "DUNE"
28. DOI head Haaland: DEB - name #10 - Dept of the Interior - her website
31. Jet: PLANE
32. Raised trains: ELs - Seamus, in the Pipe Organ picture above, is from Chicago, known for its ELevated trains
33. Shades: TINTS - as in color tones, not window treatments
34. Advance slowly: CREEP
35. "__ Christmas!": "MERRY~!"
37. Apple tablets: iPADS - I am PC
38. Confidentiality contract, for short: NDA - Non-Disclosure Agreement - I have three board games I have "invented", and would like to get published/produced, but I cannot go to any company without having some sort of 'theft protection' - and a patent costs about $3K
43. Had a feeling: SENSED
"I've A Very Bad Feeling About This"
44. Primps: PREENS - good for "PR" - get it~?45. Went for a run?: BATTED - baseball reference for C.C.
46. Less common: RARER
47. Novelist Calvino: ITALO - name #11
48. "Behold!": "VOILA~!" - Frawnche
49. Christine of the Paramount+ series "Evil": LAHTI - name #12 - her IMDb
50. Coach: TRAIN - ooh, I got this; I guessed at the 'verb' definition
54. Rae of "Barbie": ISSA - crossword staple, still a name #13
56. Sound of shame: TSK
57. Hoppy brew, for short: IPA - every other crossword
58. Cartoon frame: CEL
59. Pillbox, for one: HAT - standard uniform item in the 60s, for most airlines
32 comments:
Some of the names seemed a bit obscure. And I’m not clear on how a river delta is “rich.” But besides those nits I enjoyed this (somewhat) challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
HON morphed to BOO and BUNTED to BATTED. Only know Mo ROCCA from Celebrity Jeopardy! and WWDTM. Otherwise, this was a smooth solve. If this is a debut, I'd call it a good one. Thanx Blair and Splynter.
FIR, but hand up for erasing million for BILLION, my only smudge mark today.
Visited Ektorp today with ENYA and A LINE. Wonder if Misty will have ENYA wearing an A LINE?
Game with a rhyming name reminded me of Shirley Ellis's The Name Game. I kept waiting for her to do "Chuck."
I also don't get up->RAISE.
FLN - Thanks to Jayce for your comment. Sadly, I think it is the best for all. Also, I would ask the doc to clarify what he wants you to do to wean off that med. You have too much at stake to figure it out on your own, even if you are 99% sure you know what he meant for you to do.
Thanks to Blair for the fun outing. In spite of some clunky cluing it was fun. And thanks once again to Splynter for the RICH comments.
BTW - I have a friend who is a bit of a cornball. His first name is RICH and his wife's name is Janet, but when he introduces them he says "I'm RICH and she's famous." (She isn't.)
Thank you, Blair Hassett, and thank you Splynter.
D'OH! I wasn't paying enough much attention to the puzzle, and ended with four incorrect cells. I had SHO at 1D and ONE at 3D (and also at 8D). HON would have worked for 14A Sweetie. Say la vee.
Anyway Splynter, I don't understand why you said you didn't quite get how two of the theme answers were related, and then explained them clearly. Maybe I'm not paying enough attention.
I also had endive before changing it to RADISH, but endive is bitter rather than peppery.
I liked the DINER lingo terms. Most of that lingo was new to me. Very colorful.
Oh, Maverick and few cowpokes are sitting in the saloon playing poker and drinking rot gut whiskey. One asks Brett, "Do you want to up the ante?" I think RAISE fits there.
Learning moment (for me anyway) while watching an episode of Maverick the other day. I knew of Brett and Bart. But in that episode, there was Beau, played by Roger Moore. I read the IMDb and Wikipedia articles, and found out there was also a fourth Maverick named Brent. Who knew?
D'oh!
Much was supposed to have been parenthesized. "I wasn't paying enough (much) attention..."
TTP, my media professor informed our class that in the radio pilot for Gunsmoke, the sheriff was named Mark Dillon. They backed up to the previous Bible book shortly thereafter.
FIR. I'm not a fan of the theme as it seems a bit of a stretch on a few of them.
And there were too many proper names for my liking, especially two of them crossing at Artie and Lahti. Yuk!
But the puzzles done so there's that. Not an enjoyable Wednesday offering.
Took 8:06 today for me to ... miss the former LAT crossword puzzle editor?
I didn't notice the theme while solving, but it seemed like the theme was a real "Who's Who" (if you catch my drift) based on all the proper names, such as, Rocca, Lahti, Artie, Tiana, Deb, Denis, Italo, Erato, Issa, Enya, & Ellen.
I managed to guess correctly at today's Spanish lesson (claro) and at the DOI head being Deb rather than Dem.
The things we learn in crosswords!
Here's another that I found when reading about Mark/Matt. In The Simpsons episode Forgive and Regret in the cold opening, Maggie Simpson has a gunfight with Marshal Matt Dillon, marking the show surpassing Gunsmoke as the longest-running scripted American primetime television series by number of episodes.
So they were obviously aware of the historical significance and worked it into the script.
Splynter's Diner lingo link had a citation for "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America" and I have been reading sections of it for the last hour or so. It's good. I think you'd like it. It's almost 2200 pages.
Going to have to quit though so I can get some of the tasks marked off my list.
Good Morning:
I guess the themers fit the reveal closely enough, but it’s not as strong or tight a theme as we’re used to, IMO. I never heard of Opera Cake, nor Artie, Ellen, Tiana, or Claro, but perps were fair, so no complaints. One, Cargo, and Merry could have been clued less blatantly. Overall, though, the solve was smooth and Wednesday appropriate.
Thanks, Blair, and congrats if this is a debut, and thanks, Splynter, for your continued pinch-hitting and interesting commentaries.
Have a great day.
I guess my reaction to this puzzle is sort of a "Meh." The relationship of the theme
answers--and to each other--is somewhat tenuous and inconsistent.
And there was certainly a plethora of names, some of which were pretty obscure. I will say that they were fairly well spread out, so abundant Natick perils were for the most part avoided.
As a sports nut, I see that Kevin McHale played Artie in "Glee." The only Kevin McHale I know was one of the best power forwards in NBA history. He won a bunch of NBA championships for the Boston Celtics. So either Artie was 6'9" or there is another Kevin McHale.
Some clues I enjoyed: "Went for a run" (BATTED); "Low digit" (TOE); and "Part of one's inheritance" (GENES).
Blair, thanks for your hard work on an interesting Wednesday-appropriate puzzle, and I hope to see you here again.
18 proper nouns. Too many
After I retired, I dedicated a chunk of each morning to watching classic Westerns that were favorites of my parents. Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bat Masterson, and Maverick to name a few. Maverick was my favorite, and I was crushed when James Garner left and was replaced by Roger Moore (as Beau). I lasted just two more episodes after that ill-advised casting.
Congrats to Blair for his debut and hard work and to Splynter for her well met recap. TTP's example of 'up the ante' is probably as good as any.
My last fill was the "C" in CLARO with a WAG. The one erasure was ToNeS for TINTS. The rest came without much effort.
The worst part of being old is that in your mind you are still a teenager.
Relate.
Musings
-This okay puzzle is only marred by the barrage of mostly obscure names. I guess it’s fairer if it seems there is no other way to clue the fill.
-Okay, ELLEN as an astronaut was fine by me!
-Sweetie for BOO in October? TSK, TSK!
-I’d hate to have to count the items in this house that need charging or batteries
-BARTER: Peter Minuit may or may not have bought Manhattan with $24 worth of beads and trinkets
-Paul Simon grew to dislike the man he called ARTIE Garfunkel
-Surprisingly few people know OTTAWA and Canberra are capitals of important countries
-My uncle grew RADISHES that were not for the faint of heart or stomach
-AIRIER – We have had the A/C off and the windows open all week
-I too thought of former Celtic great Kevin McHale and thought he may have had a cameo as a COACH
-Nice pic and write-up, Rich!
Good Morning! I felt we were plunging ahead to the weekend and skipping over Wednesday.
The NW was a mess of WOs, so not off to a good start. The only one I was sure of was OOP. 3D was a toss-up between one and TOE – guessed wrong. That led me to TOO and HON. Then not knowing House of Dragon or OPERA CAKE (my only thought was Boston Cream Pie, but that wouldn’t fit…), I went to Google for the unknown HBO which sent me on the right path.
I was more in tune with the southern half, and the theme seemed loose except for 36A.
Perps for OPERA CAKE, CLARO, ELLEN, DENIS, DEB, ASICS.
Thanks, Splynter! So happy to be done with the CW and get to your recap. A joyful summation, and I agreed with your commentary.
That was a rough suss, I don't know why the clue/answer jet/plane gave me a nose wrinkle. Maybe because I would have preferred a woodworking clue...
Yes, a lot of names. But somehow perpable. (A lot of work, but perpable.)
Hon/boo?
I dunno, this is the only reference in my memory.
now that's a rich dessert...
Forgot to look for the theme, again. I stumbled in the mid south since I left the two names blank and had teach for TRAIN. Otherwise the other names I didn’t know, all of them except our resident ENYA, filled with perps.
Never heard of OPERA CAKE. it does look rich in Splynter’s picture. Nice review by the way.
What a beautiful day today. I hope the people of western Florida will be safe.
Wednesday workout. Thanks for the fun, Blair and Splynter.
I thought I FIRed, but arrived here to discover the TECH success story was a BILLIONAIRE. I had the M and didn’t notice DEm instead of the unknown-to-me DEB.
I did get the RICH theme, although Splynter’s explanation of the RICH delta soil cleared up that one more fully.
An egregious plethora of honorifics today IMHO! ‘Nuf said.
But I was thrown a bone with OTTAWA (I trust you all know our capital city and its spelling by now.)
I thought of Rad and MOD at 1A before HOT perped.
I immediately thought of “UP the Ante” when RAISE replaced Risen.
Tones changed to TINTS.
Alley Cat? - no, OOP.
I fought CANTO because I associate it more with music (word origin is Latin cantus for song), but it is used in poems.
Perps were required for the Spanish CLARO, but I knew the French VOILA.
I’m typing this on my iPAD mini. Love it (it is my second).
Wishing you all a great day.
To Splynter at 55 Across comment: How about " They upped the ante." ?
SandyAnon
The actor is Joel McHale.
Kevin McHale was definitely a beast in the low post.
The only thing that I noticed as RICH was BILLIONAIRE. Zero knowledge about SANDALWOOD (perped) and have never heard of an OPERA CAKE. Plus equating RICH with RIVER DELTA? That's a stretch.
CARGO shorts- DW makes fun of mine but always asks me to hold some of HER things in the pockets.
Saw all the names...and tossed in the towel. No interest in this one today.
Like CanadianEh! at 10:35 AM, "I thought I FIRed, but arrived here to discover the TECH success story was a BILLIONAIRE. I had the M and didn’t notice DEm instead of the unknown-to-me DEB." Well, I *did* notice the M, but figured with a surname like Haaland, DEm was possible. Unlike CanadianEh!, I should have known this U.S. official! FIW.
Not a bad puzzle, but I agree that there were too many obscure names, and the relationship of the theme answers was stretched thin. Splynter did a better job interpreting them as RICH than I would have. Thanks to him for a fine review, and to Blair for a reasonable effort!
CC, I enjoyed your USA Today puzzle. Thanks!
THAT'S RICH
OPERA CAKE is flavorfully RICH
SANDALWOOD is aromatically RICH
The TECH BILLIONAIRE is financially RICH
A RIVER DELTA is nutrient RICH
HUSKER GARY's deep bass voice is vocally RICH
A car with too much gas in the air/fuel mixture is said to be running RICH
Constructor Cathy Carulli was anagrammatically Actually RICH. (Norris)
Splynter told us today that his name is really RICH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_McHale_(actor)
Hola!
Though I still don't feel well I'm not too ill to finish a CW puzzle. Thank you, Blair and Splynter! I, also, changed DEM to DEB since that made more sense as a name. ME TOO also changed to DITTO. I know of Mo ROCCA from watching "Sunday Morning" and other shows where he appears. Yes, I do know OTTAWA and of course, CLARO is clear to me. Everything else filled nicely without ado. CSO to my nephew, ARTIE. I hope you are all safe and enjoying a good day.
Many thanks for this complex puzzle, Blair. And always enjoy your commentary, Splynter, thanks for that too.
Well, I usually work puzzle items into a narrative of sorts, but that was a bit tough this morning. I suppose a guy might have used an ATLAS to try to find a place where he might RESIDE. Not bad if it's located near a DINER where he could stop by to get an OPERA CAKE, that tasted so good that he said "THAT'S RICH." Afterwards he might go down and check out the RIVER DELTA before hitting the ROADS or taking a TRAIN to maybe look for a new place to live.
Hope everyone has a sunny day to enjoy.
Congratulations to Blair on today's debut! Hand up for a 1-box FIW with a mILLIONAIRE and thinking the DOI name could be DEm with Haaland. Regardless, I did like that you made a puzzle around THAT'S RICH. It's a great phrase for identifying hypocrisy...and our society is RICH with THAT!
I had to leave the NW for last as I had too many options to be sure. I have seen an OPERA CAKE on "The Great British Bake Off" so it was in the punchbowl.
Mo Rocca is my favorite WWDTM panelist.
Thanks to Splynter for his RICH commentary! FAV: Learning about that bridge!
Struggled with this one. I decided to start right out online w/ red letter help, instead of my usual pen and paper. I struggled with the PLETHORA of unknown names, and when ARTIE perped in at 53A, it was ALL RED LETTERS! I knew the perps were correct, so...??? I tried an alphabet run at the "A" in ARTIE, but every letter in the alphabet came up red!! So...did I FIR? I think so, but the online CW doesn't! This is a first (for me at least). Anyway, I agree with Splynter, I give this CW a 2 star out of five rating, mostly due to the number of unknown names. Thanx anyway, BH, it was something to do. Thanx to Splynter, your write-up was the best part of this experience. You'd never know a monster hurricane was on the way, right now here in FLL no wind, no rain. Must be the calm before the storm. Oh wait, we did have a few tornadoes this morning, so not "nothing".
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