DIAMETRIC OPPOSITES
16. Focus of some nongovernmental organizations: HUMAN RIGHTS - MARS - Interesting that the God of war be found in the phrase; I considered Human League, their song "Human", and Rage Against the Machine, but settled for this one....
Civil War - Guns N' Roses - lyric @ 1:35
22. The five ways romantic partners connect and communicate, per Gary Chapman:
LOVE LANGUAGES - VENUS - Very cool that this planet/goddess be found in the phrase; I did an internet search for songs titled "Love Language", but I cannot listen to them - Period. So I will go with the actual topic in the answer, the Love Languages. . . .
One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx
Keep Your Hands to Yourself - The Georgia Satellites
Separate Ways ( Worlds Apart ) - Journey
1. Roti flour: ATTA - AND - 66A. Org.: ASSN - AND - 55D. Memo abbr.: ATTN: see also 51A.
5. "Stop that!": "DON'T!"
9. Papa: DAD - AND - 25D. Nana: GRAN - it was "granny" when I was growing up
12. Hatchling: CHICK
14. Made noise while throwing tomatoes, maybe: BOOed
15. Alter __: EGO
18. Maker of tools for writing and lighting: BIC - AND - 58. Maker of tools for paring and peeling: OXO - a clever way to clue a couple of 3LWs
19. Opposite of WNW: ESE
20. Splitting target: ATOM
21. Build muscles, with "up": BULK
29. "A simple yes __ will do": OR NO
30. Bit of help: HINT
31. Gold unit: KARAT
40. Signs off on: OKs
41. Reluctant (to): LOATH
42. Bring on board: HIRE
43. Sea swallow: TERN - Crossword staple
44. Thrills: ELATES
51. Plenty: ALOT - I don't care for "ALOT" and "ATON" in crosswords
52. Idyllic spot: EDEN
53. IRS form expert: CPA - had this one yesterday
56. Actress Wasikowska: MIA - Her IMDb
61. __ milk: OAT - this or "SOY" would have worked
62. Pig Latin rejection: IXNAY - Formed when the N of "Nix" moves to the end + "ay"
63. Transfer, as a houseplant: REPOT - Hey, guess what~? My mother's last remaining house plant is doing well again after a repot almost a year ago. Phew.
64. Feature of some lower-priced streaming services: ADS - I pay $4/mo. for Pandora - worth every penny to not be interrupted with overly loud advertising while trying to relax with music
65. Overly curious: NOSY
DOWN:
1. Heating pad target: ACHE - I have a beanbag version that I can microwave for those times when my lower back tightens up
2. In this manner: THUS - "À LA" was too short
3. Social media feeds: TIMELINES - I don't Facebook, Instagram, or SnapChat, etc., and I am banned on Pinterest
4. Legislation from the Obama Era, initially: ACA - Affordable Care Act
5. Religious doctrine: DOGMA
6. "Aah" counterpart: "OOH"
7. Court feature in basketball and tennis: NET - Thanks to HuskerG for the shout-out, as I used to "mind" the net in hockey; Tolland Town is building new pickleball courts at Heron Cove park just around the corner from my house
9. Clean up, as code: DEBUG
10. Limber: AGILE
11. Prepares to disembark, say: DOCKS
13. Scoundrel: KNAVE
14. Life sci.: BIOLogy
17. Numbered hwys.: RTEs - also in yesterday's puzzle
21. Pixar short featuring a dumpling that comes to life: BAO
23. Twice tetra-: OCTA - 2 x four = eight in prefixes
24. "Come Away With Me" singer Jones: NORAH
26. Golden Rule preposition: UNTO - do UNTO others, as sumdaze did to us Monday
27. "Git!": "SHOO~!"
28. Clickable text: LINK - Like this
31. Reeves of "The Matrix": KEANU - I was never a huge fan of "The Matrix" films, but my brother and I have this ongoing thing of sending the other a text whenever a "John Wick" movie comes on TV
33. Waves on rough seas: WHITECAPS - found in the stained glass window of the church where the latest pipe organ installation continues
35. Raw metals: ORES - is it the raw metal, or is this the rock it be found in~?
37. Pet shampoo target: FLEA - I tried ODOR to start . . .
38. Legal wrong: TORT - learned by doing crosswords
39. Comparison word: THAN
43. Explosive initials: TNT - Not really "initials" IMO, just an abbr.; Everything you ever wanted to know about trinitrotoluene
44. French summers: ETES - Frawnche
45. __ eclipse: LUNAR - Dah~! Not SOLar - I had a 50/50 chance because I start by doing the DOWN clues first(ly) - aaaaand SOLAR was on Monday as well
46. Girl Scout Cookie with coconut: SAMOA - Cookie #3 in the lineup below
I see they're called Caramel deLites, too
48. Animals in some yoga classes: GOATS - they really do have goats in the class
49. Swim team event: RELAY
50. Whirlpool: EDDY
54. __ and cons: PROS
57. Come out on top: WIN
59. Some ER workers: RNs Emergency Room : Registered Nurse
Notes from C.C.:
Happy birthday to George (Big Easy), husband of Louisiana Tennis Hall
of Famer Diane. I'll never forget his call last Christmas when I was walking alone on the trail. Thanks for the care all these years, George!
Big Easy and his wife Diane
37 comments:
No doubt some will comment on having circles two days in a row. I will say the circles tended to make the puzzle “a piece of cake.” However, to me that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I liked the BIC/OXO pairing. Went sideways with TENET/DOGMA and SCAT/SHOO. No biggie. Enjoyed the outing, Jack. Nice expo, Splynter.
Happy birthday, B-E.
Oh, and Happy Birthday, Big Easy. I always enjoy your trenchant comments, even though I don’t always agree with them!
FIR, but lag->ADS and kenau->KEANU.
I like the bumper sticker declaring "My karma just ran over your dogma."
In the little bit of coding I've done, I consider DEBUGging part of writing the code. My cleanup starts after DEBUGging, and consisted mainly of adding more comments, rewriting sloppy/inefficient construction, and deleting code that doesn't do anything. What say you, professional programmers?
Thanks to Jack for the fun humpday special. I especially liked "...and lighting" for BIC. And thanks to Splynter for the fine review. Happy Birthday, Big Easy!
Good morning all. It was a slow start and a fast finish today. After SIGNATURE TUNE was filled, I looked at the circles and saw the circled planets. WORLDS APART was easy to guess after a few perps and when I got to the last open spot-I__NAY-I was wondering what word it could be. Then I read the clue. Pig Latin.
LOVE LANGUAGES is a new term for me but the are needed to keep marriages from coming WORLDS APART. And those women think in the language of KARATS & CARATS. BAO-unknown.
OCTA- think of gasoline. I learned my prefixes in organic chemistry classes.
Splynter- your "warm up" song is what every teenage boy hears. I always loved the song. "Tell me no lies and keep your hands to yourself"
I loved the theme.
Because some fill has two words, I prefer to read ALOT as A LOT.
I prefer men who look fit, but not ripped. I find the enhanced muscles like the illustration off-putting.
My sibs and I said Grandma, my own kids said Grandmom and my grandson says Grammy, even though is now an adult.
Happy birthday, Big Easy. I enjoy your comments, even though I sometimes disagree,
JUst needed 4:47 to sPIT out this hERe puzzle.
I didn't know today's actress (Mia) and was thrown by the odd clue for Iliad, but I passed today's foreign language lesson (etes).
I resisted "thus" after considering the too long "thusly".
Oh joy, circles! Back-to-back!
Happy B-day to the Big Easy.
FIR. Another day with circles, and again absolutely useless for the solve. I'm beginning to think constructors do this to try to be cute.
But this was an extremely easy Wednesday puzzle. I had no problems at all.
And overall, circles aside, this was an enjoyable puzzle.
Breaking up is hard to do! Unfortunately, so many long themers led to ALOT of 3 & 4 letter words. And some sort of logical arrangement of the planets would have elevated this puzzle.
Saw MARS immediately, and all that remained was gods or planets (sometimes both!). Once a few scattered circles filled in, it was easy write in the rest of the planet names.
On a cosmic scale, an ATOM split is vastly different than WORLDS APART.
Good Morning! I was slow to get started, but then when the north filled, the rhythm of the puzzle set in. Nice, and a bit crunchy. Loved the theme, and here we were right in the middle, third planet from the Sun!
Hand up: WO: I opted for solar before perps called for LUNAR eclipse, an Easter egg to our theme?
Perps for BAO.
My favorite KEANU movie is The Lake House.
Splynter, you are a true craftsman of organs and blogs! Thanks for the fun! LOL at the Pea phobias.
Birthday best wishes to Big Easy! Enjoy your special day! 🥳🎂🎈🎈!
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Jack and Splynter.
I FIRed in very good time and saw the Planets (WORLDS) APART early enough to finish EARTH and SATURN with just a few letters filled.
One inkblot to change Hand to HINT; another to change You to the nebulous WHO.
MIA was unknown but perped.
I wanted to purchase Pizzas at the pizzeria, but we were downsized to SLICES.
BAO, not the dissed BAE today.
I always have to confirm C or K with perps. Carat is for diamonds and KARAT is for gold.
Even this Canadian knew ACA. But we don’t have all those choices of Girl Scout cookies. We have “two campaigns per year: chocolatey mint cookie campaign in the fall and our classic cookie campaign in the spring”.
I noted the similar sounds of OOH, SHOO and BOOED.
Happy Birthday Big Easy.
Wishing you all a great day.
I didn’t see the theme until the EARTH showed up then things started to fall into place. Nice theme that helped fill the long answers.
I didn’t know MIA, BAO, SAMOA. For some reason I couldn’t come up with OAT for the milk, so DNF since the SW was left blank.
Nice review Splynter and Happy Birthday to my neighbor Big Easy. 🎉🎂🎊
Rose- the moon is a satellite and not a planet, but since we have a celestial theme, we could consider LUNAR to be an Easter Egg. Nice catch!
Ignored the circles and the gimmick and got it done quickly. I enjoyed the puzzle but, being the nit-picker that I am, I would argue that "limber" does not mean "agile." The former suggests flexiblity while the latter suggests fluidity of motion, or being light on one's feet.
Also, who throws tomatoes while booing?
"The slang term "bae" is common in American youth culture, on social media, and in online publications:
In 2022, "bae" was a top trending term. It was also the 10th most popular slang word in a survey, but it was also the most annoying.
"Bae" originated in Black slang and is a shortened version of "baby" or "babe". It's been used since at least 2004 in song lyrics,
"Bae" has become widespread through the use of internet memes and corporate social media.
"Bae" is used as a term of endearment to refer to a significant other, such as a boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse. It can also be used to refer to other loved ones, such as family members, friends, and pets.
Source: AI from Google
IMO, BAE is widespread, but annoying, except among youth.
"Bae" is often used familiarly without any personal pronouns. For example, "Bae got home early!" instead of "My bae got home early!".
I found today's puzzle to be enjoyable and Wednesday-appropriate. Thanks, Jack! It was well-constructed: for one thing, the dead-center phrase was a 15-letter grid-spanner containing the letters of EARTH in it; and the circles were useful. I do not get in a twist over circles one way or the other, but the fact is that today's circles--as were yesterday's--were helpful to the solver. I see nothing wrong with a constructor having solvers' best interests in mind.
Jack (and presumably Patti) kept annoying obfuscations to a minimum, except in the SW. I found myself in a Natickian mess down there, with MIA and an oddly-clued OAT side-by-side, and both crossed by some GOATS unaccountably wandering in from some yoga class. Zounds! Luckily, I was able to escape thanks to ILIAD, SAMOA, and the horizontal perps.
I noted GRAN at 25 Down. I called one of my grandmothers Nana, and the other one, Grandma.
An aside to Husker Gary: I got your follow-up note re "Field of Dreams"/"The Natural." Of course, it was the umpire, not you, who had the wrong movie. But the main thing now: your Cornhuskers are going to be just down the road from me this Saturday playing USC. I don't think I'll be able to go to it, but I'll sure be watching on TV. Rooting for the Trojans, I'm afraid--as I have since dating a girl from USC many moons ago.
Thanks again, Jack, for your clever and enjoyable puzzle. It was fun and satisfying (usually) to work on!
Musings
-This astronomy teacher enjoyed this puzzle and the reveal
-Circles don’t bother me and here they didn’t help with the solve today but were probably necessary to see the gimmick.
-Of all these planets, only our EARTH is in the “Goldilocks Zone”
-Rick Nelson grew tired of performing the SIGNATURE TUNES of Ricky Nelson
-Seeing the baby CHICKS in our farm store is very enjoyable
-W O R L D S A P A R T describes opposing pols who are LOATH to work together
-Running or swimming the last leg of a RELAY as hard as you can when you know you are hopelessly too far behind is a real sign of character
-Happy Birthday, George!
-Ken, the Huskers spent decades as a huge power in college FB despite being in a small market, cold weather area. Now they are aiming to just be respectable and I am making progress to accept this.
Hola!
Happy birthday, Big Easy! I'm sure you will celebrate in true southern style.
OOH. How I used to love SAMOA cookies but that is now IXNAY to me. Darn diabetes!
I liked the WORLDS APART theme. Thank you, Jack Maurer.
BIC. I prefer Pilot pens. And I don't understand OAT milk.
Even though I was ten years old when my DAD died, I have some vivid memories of him. He was a caring, hands-on father.
I'll take a CSO at nana which is what I am called by my grandchildren.
Thank you, Splynter, and I sincerely hope you find your true love.
Gary--I grew up in Pittsburgh, and Dad and my brothers and I went to many Pitt football games. They often played Nebraska, and I think the Panthers and Huskers played each other about even. This is in the '50's, before the Cornhuskers got so powerful.
I note and admire your patient attitude now, and I can relate: I have been a 49er fan for decades, before and after their glory days. And I'm still waiting. They've come close to winning the Super Bowl in recent years, including when their Harbaugh lost to the Ravens' Harbaugh a few years ago.
LOVE LANGUAGES:
In Roman mythology VENUS and MARS were lovers. VENUS = Friday (vendredí , venerdí, viernes). MARS = Tuesday (mardí, martedí, martes ). SATURN = Saturday. As planets are mostly round, ⭕️s are quite appropriate 🌎 🪐 today.
Inkover: gram/GRAM, scat/SHOO
BIC makes “pens” that “light” up? Cool idea for writing in the dark 😎
Seen ELATES in a ton of CWs but never in actual speech other than as an adjective : ELATEd. A clue in a recent puzzle was “make very thirsty: answer was PARCH, I’ve only seen/heard the adjective PARCHED.
IXNAY on the “igpay atinlay”
Almost put tOADs for some Yoga class animals😃 and SaRAH for NORAH. What is a SIGN NATURE TUNE? (Huh? Ohhhh …never mind 🫢)
The best man’s toast at the sea swallows’ wedding: “One good ____ deserves another”…. TERN
It takes a ___ to pull off a good “con”…..PRO
”Topo Gigio” would say ___ put on a good ____ EDDY, SHOO
Happy Bday Big Easy in NOLA
Forgot to mention - today is the Ides of November. The ides of November honors Jupiter, who got overlooked in today's puzzle.
I've been told that smart phone flashlight apps have replaced BIC lighters in rock concerts as a symbol of fan adoration and fans begging for an encore.
Happy Birthday, Big Easy!
Heavenly puzzle, Jack! The floating orbs were certainly necessary to see and appreciate the theme, and gave me a head start on filling 46 Across.
I'm not a Pinterest user, but I've had reason to visit a few pages there. Users save or "pin" images of interest (found on the internet) to a kind of virtual bulletin board there, each one expressing the user's personal taste or favorite subjects. One can easily imagine why Splynter was banned!
Happiest of birthdays to Big Easy.
Have a oodgay ayday, llaay
Good Afternoon:
Busy morning! This was a fun solve and Wednesday appropriate, circles and all. The reveal was a surprise and quite descriptive. Interestingly, Signature Tune is mainly a British phrase which, to me, makes sense as I would automatically think Signature Song sounds more American. In any case, the themers were solid and captured the World’s Apart concept perfectly.
Thanks, Jack, and thanks, Splynter, for the fun and facts and photos. The 24 Carrot Snowman brought a chuckle, as did the “Phobic Peas”.
Happy Birthday, Big Easy, enjoy your special day. 🎂🎁🎊🎈
Have a great day.
If I’m in the hospital and that’s my nurse I’m gonna have high BP issues.
An enjoyable crossWORD puzzle today! Got the FIR, AND the theme! Nice write-up, Splynter, and a Happy Birthday to the Big Easy!
FIR in very good Wednesday time. My system for memorizing the planets: My Very Earthy Mother Just Said You're Not Pluto! (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto). Yeah, I know, Pluto... Anyway, nice, fun, witty CW, thanx JM. 8 names, DNK 4 as clued. Knew "KEANU" but needed perps to get the spelling right. My favorite actor, largely because of his overwhelming generosity to others in real life. Also, "The Matrix" remains my favorite movie. Back to the CW, DNK ATTA, either, so started off with a frown, but then the next several clues filled easily, and eventually ATTA perped in. Always love your write-ups, Splynter, especially the organ info. You have my admiration for your skills regarding pipe organs. I also enjoy the sexy lady pictures. Thanx for all your time and effort.
We learnt: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
Thanks for the fun puzzle, Jack, and congrats on your debut!
FAVS: NORAH Jones and the bit of pig latin
I noticed ATTN crossing ASSN but Splynter added the ATTA.
Thanks for your tour, Splynter! It's been a minute since I've heard that G.S. song.
Happy Birthday to Big Easy! Wishing you a terrific day!
Very pleasant Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Jack. Also your commentary was again very helpful, Splynter, thanks for that too. And a Happy Birthday to you, Big Easy--have a lovely day!
No one should ever be BOOED for promoting HUMAN RIGHTS. DAD and GRAN would certainly disapprove of that behavior as a DOGMA, since it would also hurt people's EGO. So it was good that this puzzle also had a bit of science, with BIOLOGY and its promotion of the ATOM, drawing our attention to the KARAT. So we've already been at two WORLD'S APART, and it's now time to think of a place like EDEN, and stories like the ILIAD, tales that would ELATE us with their LOVE LANGUAGE. On that happy note, I'll stop and wish you all a good day.
Make Virginia Eat More Jumbo Suckers Under Nancy's Porch
OY!! Forgot to wish BE a HBD!!
Happy Birthday, Big Easy!
Hi All!
Thanks Jack for the grid and congrats on the LAT debut. Little rough start with Roti flour but a fine Wednesday puzzle.
Loved the musical expo, Splynter!
WO: KEANo
ESPs: ATTA, NORAH, MIA
Fav: IXNAY
@8:59 - never seen old movies where the audience throw produce and boo the bad comedian off the stage?
T.Ken, the Girls call my Mom Grandma and Pop's wife Nona. It's Nana for DW's Mom.
Happy Birthday BigE!
Cheers, -T
'BAE' confused me for a while, because "BAE Systems plc is a British multinational aerospace, defence and information security company, based in London, England."
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