On the Home Stretch. The circles are needed for today's puzzle. A circle is progressively added to each theme answer to slowly spell out the word HOME.
17-Across. Big spender in Vegas: HIGH ROLLER.
25-Across. Extremely volatile situation: HORNETS NEST.
44-Across. Southern breakfast side dish: HOMINY GRITS. I think Grits are an acquired taste.
60-Across. Sigh from a weary traveler, and an apt title for this puzzle: HOME AT LAST.
Across:
1. Tenant's payment: RENT.
5. "F" on a test, often: FALSE. Not a failing mark, but a mark on a True/False test.
10. One-named "Believe" diva: CHER. Cher (b. May 20, 1946), whose given name is Cherilyn Sarkisian, is a singer and actress. She is also known for her outlandish outfits.
14. "A Streetcar Named Desire" director Kazan: ELIA. Elia Kazan (né Elias Kazantzoglou; Sept. 7, 1909 ~ Sept. 28, 2003) makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles. He was born in what was then known as Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. He is also known for naming names before the House Un-American Committee in the 1950s.
15. Like days of yore: OLDEN.
16. In robust health: HALE.
19. Land in a lake: ISLE. I don't associate an isle being in a lake. I think of an Isle being situated in a larger body of water.
20. Had a dinner date: ATE OUT.
21. TV cooking competition hosted by Kristen Kish: TOP CHEF. Kristen Kish (b. Dec. 1, 1983) is an American chef known for winning the tenth season of Top Chef. She became the host of Top Chef:Wisconsin earlier this year.
23. Flat French hats: BERETS.
24. Loafer, for one: SHOE.
31. "You go, __!": GIRL.
35. Kanga's son: ROO.
36. Running total: TALLY.
37. Like two jacks in a deck of cards: ONE-EYED.
39. Drool: SLOBBER.
41. Ward (off): STAVE.
42. "I Like __": 1950s political slogan: IKE. Dwight David Eisenhower (Oct. 14, 1890 ~ Mar. 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the United States.
43. "No Ordinary Love" singer: SADE. Sade (née Helen Folasade Adu; b. Jan. 16, 1965), is a Nigerian-born British singer. Her parents began calling her Sade, a shortened form of her Yoruba middle name, Folasade, hence, that is how she is known.
48. Art hub in New Mexico: TAOS.
49. Desert that covers most of North Africa: SAHARA.
54. Item in a makeup bag: COMPACT. Some are very expensive.
58. Connect to a power supply: PLUG IN.
59. __ the hump: OVER.
63. Musical Auntie played by Angela Lansbury: MAME. Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (Oct. 16, 1925 ~ Oct. 11, 2022) was a British actress. She played Mame on Broadway in 1966 and was awarded a Tony for her portrayal. She is probably best known to younger audiences as portraying Jessica Fletcher on the television series Murder, She Wrote.
64. Levels in some subscription plans: TIERS. A tiered subscription provides different levels of services or products at different price levels. For example, some magazine subscriptions have one price for on-line issues, but a different price for on-line and hard copy issues.
65. To __: perfectly: A TEE.
66. Sound of a stone skimming failure: PLOP. We had a nearly identical clue in last Thursday's puzzle.
67. Celebrities: STARS.
68. Email button: SEND.
Down:
1. Post-surgery regimen: REHAB.
2. Crème de la crème: ELITE.
3. Chad neighbor: NIGER. Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa. Chad is not its only neighbor. It is bordered by Libya to the northeast, Chad to the east, Nigeria to the south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the southwest, Mali to the west, and Algeria to the northwest. Its official name is the Republic of Niger.
4. Lake between the Silver State and the Golden State: TAHOE. Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the border of California and Nevada.
5. Tender after too much walking: FOOT SORE.
6. __-purpose flour: ALL. Everything you ever wanted to know about All-Purpose Flour.
7. "Bad" cholesterol, for short: LDL. Low-Density lipoprotein cholesterol, is the "bad" cholesterol. It is the type of cholesterol that can build up in your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. High-Density Lipoprotein cholesterol is the "good" cholesterol. HDL helps remove excess cholesterol from your body and lowers your risk of heart disease and stroke. Everything you ever wanted to know about your body's cholesterol.
8. Get hot under the collar: SEETHE.
9. Plant securely: ENROOT.
10. Hip and stylish: CHIC.
11. Corned beef __: HASH.
12. Fashion magazine with a French name: ELLE. Elle means She in French.
13. Big name in flip-flops and surfing apparel: REEF. I was not familiar with this company.
18. The "R" of the Supreme Court's RBG: RUTH. As in Ruth Bader Ginsberg (née Joan Ruth Bader; Mar. 15, 1933 ~ Sept. 18, 2020). She joined the United States Supreme Court in 1993.
22. Green sauce: PESTO. Yummers!
24. __-cone: icy treat: SNO.
26. Curtain holder: ROD.
27. Grabs: NABS.
28. Actor Idris: ELBA. In 2016, Idris Elba (né Idrissa Akuna Elba; b. Sept. 6, 1973) mad Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people.
29. Winter coaster: SLED.
30. One of four on a British car: TYRE.
31. Gentle expression of surprise: GOSH.
32. Division word: INTO.
33. Printer's package: REAM.
34. Strauss of jeans: LEVI. This is the third week in a row that jeans have appeared in a Tuesday puzzle.
38. Blabbermouth: YENTA.
39. Compete in a slalom: SKI.
40. "I don't think we want any!": LET'S PASS.
42. April 15 agcy.: IRS. As in the Internal Revenue Service.
45. America's Cup vessels: YACHTS.
46. "Get cracking!": GO TO IT.
47. Basic food preservative: SALT. Everything you ever wanted to know about salt as a preservative. Twenty-four years ago tomorrow (Nov. 20, 1980), an oil drilling company punctured a salt dome in Lake Peigneur in south Louisiana creating a massive sinkhole. The salt dome was being mined by the Diamond Salt company. Amazingly, all the workers in the salt mine survived.
50. Oahu dances: HULAs
51. Marble material: AGATE.
52. Out of the sack: RISEN.
53. Added a chip, say: ANTED.
54. Free ticket, casually: COMP.
55. Elongated circle: OVAL.
56. Note from the boss: MEMO.
57. Get ready, briefly: PREP.
61. __ culpa: MEA. Today's Latin lesson.
62. Make a mistake: ERR.
Here's the Grid:
34 comments:
A cute puzzle, in terms of its theme, and not difficult to solve. I had some fun with it. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
H-HO-HOM-HOME constitutes a theme? Wow. Nothing too difficult in this one; the Wite-Out got a rest. Thanx, C.W. and Hahtoolah.
IKE: The news of Ike's death reached Guam on a Sunday. Our AFRS radio station received teletype news via shortwave radio, and on that Sunday afternoon the signal was particularly "chancy." I was the only guy at the radio station, and I broke into a recorded program to make the announcement. I tried haltingly to read the garbled bulletin. As I threw a page over my shoulder, my arm hit my Coke bottle; it rolled clunkety-clunkety-clunk and then crashed to the floor. That struck me as hilarious, and I erupted into uncontrolled laughter...for about 5 minutes. I'm not sure how I escaped a "gig" from the base commander for making fun of such a serious matter.
FIR without erasure, including ONE EYED without a single perp.
Amy Winehouse had a big hit with her song REHAB. The hook for the song is that she says "no, no, no" to REHAB, and soon afterwards (in real life) she died of alcohol poisoning.
IMO, they ruined the America's Cup allure when they switched to the foiling catamarans. It's fun to watch for a while, but it has almost no connection to the sport most racing sailors compete in.
Thanks to CW for the Monday-easy puzzle, and to Ha2la for another fine review. Except that you didn't mention the great song by Steely Dan, HOME AT LAST.
Saw the circles but finished so fast I didn't notice any them until HOME AT LAST.
REEF-perps for that unknown.
TOP CHEF- know of the show (never watched) but Kristen was unknown.
ONE-EYED Jacks and flying purple people eaters
In the annual review of the Bible, the Rabbi presented his take on Lot this week; if the timing of this was planned I am impressed. He also referred to Lot's two daughters as the Lotettes which I think is pretty funny, especially considering their shocking plan. I also found the inclusion of HALE timely the day after Katy Hale's Monday puzzle yesterday. Time to start your Thanksgiving menu planning. Thank you CW and Susan. I believe the C stands for Carol who has been making puzzles from at least 2010. Welcome back
Lemon: Yes, I knew the week's parsha mentioned the story of Lot and his wife turning to salt.
Jinx: Thank you for reminding me the two appropriate songs!
FIR. I saw the circles and decided to ignore them. Then I saw the reveal and got it. It sure wasn't necessary for the solve.
A few too many proper names for my liking, even some crossing. Fortunately the puzzle was so easy it didn't matter.
And seeing grits in the puzzle makes me hungry. I guess I know what I'm having for breakfast this morning.
Overall a pretty enjoyable puzzle.
Well, you can't think of everything, although you seem to think of almost everything.
Took 4:38 today for me to find my way home.
"Footsore" seems clunky. I didn't know the tv chef. I share D-O's surprise to see what constituted a theme, although I prefer gimmick free puzzles.
Isle Royale National Park is located in Lake Superior. A few of us have discussed it here before. It's tricky to get to (boat or plane), and sometimes, even trickier to get off of.
Oh joy, circles!
This was an enjoyable puzzle by C.W., with hardly any obscure "celebrity" names or pop culture references. It was logical, I think, to provide circles to emphasize the four-step progression from H to HOME.
My favorite clue was 66 Across, "Sound of a stone skimming failure." There you are as a teenage boy at the lake with a girl. You of course want to impress her with your stone-skipping skills, so you toss one, and PLOP. The. worst. possible. sound. Girl laughs. Rats!
Thanks, C.W., for providing us with an enjoyable Tuesday morning pastime. The puzzle was straightforward and well-constructed, and I enjoyed the many amusing and clever clues (some of which I suspect were Patti's). The puzzle was a satisfying solve.
Doesn’t get much easier than this in the LAT. About a 7 minute romp to the FIR line, much of the fill entirely perped, words I didn’t see till Hahtoolah’s review (like REEF, which I wouldn’t have known by the clue), Good puzzle for beginners. Have heard of en route, but not ENROOT. The king of ♦️’s is also ONE EYED, all the queens have two. Thanks to C W for the grid and Hahtoolah for your review, you always find some great cartoons!
SS ~ I too thought of ISLE Royale, I know you have been there, or almost there, by sea-plane if I remember right.
Musings
-My trip to HOME AT LAST was a very leisurely stroll
-Charles Lamb/ELIA, with its lovely vowels, seems to have been relegated to the cwd closet.
-I wrote to Irish Miss yesterday and hoped she was in fine fettle ( a phrase she said her mother used) but could have hoped she was HALE and hearty.
-Kristen Kish and TOP CHEF let themselves in.
-SIRI just told me it is currently 25F in the high desert of TAOS and 92F in Niamey, NIGER in the Sahara
-A fun write-up as usual, Susan. The dog sled and Lot cartoons got a big smiles from me.
-I’m off to see what a foiling catamaran is and wait for our furnace checkup. Having the A/C go down in summer is annoying but the furnace failing in winter is a whole different ball of wax.
Good Morning! Nice flow to today’s puzzle without any traps. I liked the progression of the theme, and the familiar sentiment I have often expressed!
One of my favorite, and maybe lesser known, roles for Angela Lansbury was in Rosamund Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers.
Perps for REEF.
Thanks, Hah2lah, another fun Tuesday with your recap. Loved the Lot’s wife toon, the pups at the closet and that cute pic of the joey.
Hola!
i can't believe how quickly this was solved and I never saw the theme. Thank you, Hahtoolah, for explaining that and for your many amusing cartoons! GRITS are definitely an acquired taste which I have not. And it's true that the puzzle contains many place names, but luckily they are well known, such as TAHOE, NIGER (mostly from Jeopardy!) and SAHARA.
C.W. Stewart will be a welcome sight when she appears again.
Enjoy your day, everyone!
WEES, nice and easy puzzle, Monday-like. My only erasure was SEE red for SEETHE. I thought the theme was really cute.
We often have GRITS for with eggs for breakfast. And for dinner I sometimes prepare shrimp and GRITS.
Thank you Hahtoolah for the bio info you regularly include in your reviews. For instance I never knew ELIA Kazan was born in Constantinople.
Oops. One “for” too many in my post.
Good Morning:
I know it’s Tuesday but I found the clueing too straightforward and the theme too simple, both of which translated to a quick and way too easy solve. The Top Chef clue was probably the only one that gave me pause, but perps settled that in a hurry. Props for three solid themers.
Thanks, C. W., and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the fun and facts and the stand-out comics of the Closet raiding Canines (Shoe), the Poker Pups (Anted), and the Penguin Casual Friday faux pas (Memo). You always manage to find the “just right” illustrations! Thanks for your efforts!
Have a great day.
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, CW and Hahtoolah.
I FIRed in good time, and didn’t notice the circles until I got HOME AT LAST to the reveal.
Several inkblots, mainly in the NE.
Like Monkey, I had SEE red before SEETHE. SHOE gave me the H but I was still fighting the change.
I had HORN at 25A and was looking for a Road Rage phrase until HORNET’S NEST finally perped.
My faulty Yiddish delayed changing YENTL to YENTA.
This Canadian had HOMINY GRITS once when we ATE OUT on the way to Florida. LET’S PASS.
(I noted that we ATE OUT and ATE E today. Parse!)
ENROOT was initially a meh! for me, but I am more familiar with the “embed an idea” usage than the garden variety usage.
Chad has several 5-letter neighbours.
Wishing you all a great day.
Having the furnace go down in winter is annoying, but the A/C failing in summer is a whole different ball of wax.
Just to be opposite:
sound of a stone skimming failure?
And,
home at last?
Also,
It is a well known fact, that most accidents happen at home...
Yooper Phil @ 8:39 a.m.
I’m glad the nomenclature “SS” (for “Speedy Solver”) seems to have “caught on” for our “Anonymous” friend, today at 8:00 a.m. He’s got too vibrant a personality to remain completely nameless!
He’s easily recognizable by his posts, always ties in the theme in a (mostly 🤣) clever way. Also referred to as “DNLC”, does not like circles.
GO TO IT doesn't sound like a phrase that anyone would say. GET ON IT is more in the vernacular. I know, too long and the clue contains Get, but that's not my problem.
After I entered REHAB (figuratively) I noticed the themers started with 1 circle, then 2...so it looked like we were building a word and I jumped to the revealer. Once I had HOME, I just filled in the rest of the circles. Easy peasy.
Unlike IM @ 9:20, I will never complain about a "too easy" CW. I enjoyed this quick solve, but forgot to even look for the theme. Thanx CWS for the fun, and thanx Hahtoolah for the terrific write-up.
I've eaten HOMINY and GRITS but never heard the term HOMINY GRITS. Maybe Joe Pesci found out in "My Cousin Vinny" when he said, 'what's a grit'?
Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, C. W., And your commentaries and pictures are always a pleasure, thanks for these too this morning, Hahtoolah.
GOSH, this puzzle was exciting right from the beginning, urging us to RENT a hall where we could host a party for HIGH ROLLERS in TAHOE, in a place where you can see YACHTS sailing around in the water outside.
We would, of course, need to order food for the ELITE and CHIC guests showing up, certainly no HASH, although maybe HOMINY GRITS might not be too bad. But we'd better let that TOP CHEF decide on the menu.
And so, it's time to send out invitations, to the editors of that ELLE magazine, and celebrities like RUTH B. G., and Idris ELBA, and ELIA Kazan, and CHER, and Angela Lansbury and any other STARS we can think of. Some of them might be wearing BERETS, and I bet they'll all be happy they ATE OUT, and had a chance to ANTE up playing poker, and even dance some HULAs to the orchestra's music. I bet when it's over, these folks will send us a lot of Thank You notes.
Have a happy and hopefully sunny day, everybody.
Aww, you guys are making me blush.
Yes, YooperPhil, I did make it onto (and off of) Isle Royale in the summer of 2023. My stay was extended by hours (but not days, which happened to other island-goers there we met) due to the high winds and high waves. When we finally landed back in Houghton, our flights home were delay (and later canceled), so I had a long drive (mostly in the dark) through the UP and the rest of Michigan to get home.
Don't forget about Fannette Island in Lake Tahoe. Wikipedia says it was called many different names, including Coquette, Fanette, Baranoff, Dead Man's, Hermit's, and Emerald Isle (it is located in Emerald Bay.)
I liked this puzzle, Hahtoolah's write-up, and all your comments.
Two one-named singers today. And a ONE-EYED jack.
I loved Angela Lansbury's performance in The Manchurian Candidate.
Yesterday LW and I ATE OUT. We will be joining our son and granddaughter to eat out again on Thursday.
I learned from my Egyptian friend that SAHARA simply means desert in Arabic.
I actually like GRITS. In the OLDEN days my mom used to call them HOMINY GRITS. I also like corned beef HASH. Never had SALT pork, though.
Best wishes to you all.
All grits are made of hominy, but not all hominy are grits. I've had some awful grits - not the taste so much as that they coagulated into a blob when they cooled. Also, you need to put butter in a little divot you make in them, kinda like making a "lake" for gravy in mashed potatoes.
Here's the New Zealand foiling catamaran winning the final race in the latest America's Cup regatta. When the boat is going fast, neither of the hulls are in the water - just the rudders and one or both foils.
Thanks to CW for a HOME sweet HOME puzzle.
FAVs: F on a test and SLOBBER
I noticed some fun in the SW -- PREP x PLOP and OVER x OVAL
Hand up for SEEred before SEETHE.
Thanks to Hahtoolah, as well! I liked your theme. That SALT video was unbelievable, well worth the time to watch it. I also liked the dog sled comic.
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