Theme: Goonerisms, Spalore!
Puzzling Thoughts:
Sorry for my brevity today, but the holiday season has made blogging duties take a back seat. Today's puzzle by Alan Siegel uses an assortment of spoonerisms to add some levity to our crossword puzzle solving. I will describe these as the puzzle unfolds
Today's puzzle was not as difficult as some Friday puzzles I've blogged, nor was it so hilarious and/or clever that I got majorly excited. On my 5-star rating scale, I give this one a ⭐⭐and 1/2⭐
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| Solved grid - my one mistake @ 44-down |
Across:
1. Bunches of bucks: WADS. The dollar bills; not the stags
5. A neighbor: B FLAT. It is right next to "A". Don't believe me? See the image below:
5. A neighbor: B FLAT. It is right next to "A". Don't believe me? See the image below:
10. Annoyance that may be tough to reach: ITCH. Nothing more satisfying than an itch being scratched
14. Hodgepodge: OLIO. Crosswordese
15. Still kicking: ALIVE. As in "alive, and kicking"
16. Grand Canyon carrier: MULE. I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask Picard to post a picture of him on a mule, descending into the Grand Canyon ... don't let me down, Robert!!
17. Org. that works with SpaceX: NASA. Outsourced to Elon Musk
18. "Bridgerton" rank: BARON. Read all about it here
19. Murky: GRAY. Nice Friday clue
(Entry #1) 20. Au pair with a sinister sidekick: CROOK AND NANNY. First of the Spoonerisms: the more recognized phrase is NOOK and CRANNY
23. Big name in battery-powered lawn equipment: EGO. Unfamiliar to me; solved with perps. I know that many of you dislike taking a word such as ego and clueing it as a proper noun/name
25. Briny delicacy: ROE. This:
26. Official timekeeper of the Olympic Games: OMEGA. Dunno why I chose ROLEX first
(Entry #2) 27. Purchases for an organized gardener: SHED AND HOLDERS. Second of the Spoonerisms: the more recognized phrase is HEAD AND SHOULDERS
32. Danger: PERIL.
33. Lines of praise: ODES. Cute clue
34. Thumbs-up votes: YEAS. AYES also fit
35. Italian fashion brand: PRADA. Didn't the devil wear Prada?
37. Slash mark: SCAR. The most recent famous one:
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| Harry Potter scar |
41. Symbol on a dressing room door: STAR. Also found on a famous street in Hollywood
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| Walk of Fame |
And another clue/entry whose word means "star" in French: (44-down. Prima ballerina:) ETOILE.
42. Roughly: CIRCA. Referring to a date, perhaps ... I was born circa 1950, e.g. ... rounding the actual number up or down
(Entry #3) 43. Common sights in the Caribbean: KEYS AND PARROTS. Third of the Spoonerisms: the more recognized phrase PEAS and CARROTS (made famous by Forrest Gump)
48. Adjust to, as a radio dial: SET AT. Green paint? I have a number of pre-sets on my car radio
49. Flamenco shout: OLE.
50. Wee taste: SIP. I am having a wee sip of Scotch as I am writing my blog tonight
(Entry #4) 51. Some pieces in an avian-themed chess set: CROWS AND PAWNS. Fourth of the Spoonerisms: the more recognized phrase PROS AND CONS
56. Has __ with: AN IN.
57. Lack of musical ability: NO EAR. Moe-ku #1:
Vincent Van Gogh was
Tone deaf. He had an excuse
'Cause he had NO EAR (literally)
58. Naturally curly style: AFRO. This hair style is making a comeback
61. TV component?: TELE. As in: TELE Vision
62. Gas meter unit: THERM. "a unit of heat equivalent to 100,000 Btu or 1.055 × 10 joules" [according to Dictionary dot com]
63. Feature of some vacation homes: VIEW. I erroneously placed LOFT in here
64. Luge, for one: SLED. I thought that the word "luge" meant an Olympic event ...
65. Arranges in order: SORTS. One of the many functions of an Excel spreadsheet
66. School visible from Windsor Castle: ETON. This was too easy for a Friday clue
Down:
1. Finished up?: WON. Huh? As in, finished (a game, e.g.) and were the winner? Meh
2. __ Française: A LA. In the French manner
3. Summer's "Hot Stuff" time: DISCO ERA. This one gave me fits, at first, as I misspelled olio as oleo and I couldn't figure out what "time" began DESC_ERE (I also had AYES instead of YEAS in 34-across). I eventually saw the ways of my errors and corrected it. And of course, I spent the rest of the puzzle solving with this ear worm ...
2. __ Française: A LA. In the French manner
3. Summer's "Hot Stuff" time: DISCO ERA. This one gave me fits, at first, as I misspelled olio as oleo and I couldn't figure out what "time" began DESC_ERE (I also had AYES instead of YEAS in 34-across). I eventually saw the ways of my errors and corrected it. And of course, I spent the rest of the puzzle solving with this ear worm ...
4. Fly high: SOAR.
5. Primate with a doglike muzzle: BABOON. Woof!
6. Like Maldon sea salt: FLAKED. Two thoughts about this:
1) Who among us even knew about the Maldon "sea" and its salt? (I didn't)
2) And if we didn't know, how would we determine that it is flaked?
Moe to the rescue ... this short (2 minute) video is quite the "Cliff Notes" version of this fascinating place
7. Turkish currency: LIRA. Italy sent all of theirs to Turkey when the Euro was coined ...
8. Bath flower?: AVON. ROSE might have fit if:
1) There was no ? in the clue
2) The word "flower" meant a member of the flora family
This tricky clue plays on the word "flower" as something that "flows" (a river, perhaps?), and the word "Bath" refers to a city in England. The River Avon flows through the city. And now you know
9. See (to): TEND. I tend the Crossword Corner blog every two weeks ...
10. "Sure, let's!": I'M GAME. A bit about its origin
11. English Romantic painter: TURNER. A brief biography and some images of his paintings
12. Metallic sounds: CLANGS. This may be the most bizarre video that Chairman Moe has ever attached to one of his blogs ...
9. See (to): TEND. I tend the Crossword Corner blog every two weeks ...
10. "Sure, let's!": I'M GAME. A bit about its origin
11. English Romantic painter: TURNER. A brief biography and some images of his paintings
12. Metallic sounds: CLANGS. This may be the most bizarre video that Chairman Moe has ever attached to one of his blogs ...
13. OutKast hit that asks, "What's cooler than being cool?": HEY YA. This might be the second most bizarre video that C-Moe has shared ...
21. Administered with a spoon: ORAL. This one almost gagged me (with a spoon) ...
22. Silent assents: NODS. Okay
23. Award won by Caitlin Clark: ESPY. Caitlin Clark wowed the basketball world with her gritty performance in the NCAA Tournament for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes this past March/April, and then went on to wow the WNBA with her Rookie of the Year performance for the Indiana Fever
24. Biryani butter: GHEE. Moe-ku #2:
What's the best butter?
Some say Irish; I say GHEE.
Just to clarify ...
[groan]
28. Bad-mouth: DIS. Are you in the "one S" camp, or the two? Dis versus diss
29. Stockpile: HOARD. After my Mom passed away, and I was left to go through her stuff, I realized just how much of a hoarder she was
30. Peculiar: ODD. Couldn't this be "EVEN"?? The word peculiar has eight letters ... just sayin'
31. Grassy meadow: LEA. For as many times as I've seen the word "lea" in crossword puzzles, I don't think I've ever used it (in everyday conversation) to describe a grassy meadow
35. Org. with moms, dads, and educators: PTA.
36. Operated: RAN.
37. Post-dubbing title: SIR.
38. Workout regimen with tire flipping: CROSSFIT. Oh, to be young again ...
39. Dramatic beginning: ACT I. This is more of a Friday clue
40. Filing tool: RASP.
41. Bygone jets, briefly: SSTS.
42. __ cut: CREW. BUZZ also fit
43. Essence of an idea: KERNEL. This seems kinda corny, to me
45. Displayed boredom: YAWNED. I thought that you yawned to get more oxygen into your lungs ...
46. Warhol genre: POP ART. Why didn't I think of this??? Could've made a fortune
47. Scares: ALARMS. The verb form
48. Sings jazzy nonsense syllables: SCATS. She was the best
52. Farm insects: ANTS. Some might argue that ants were the original colonists
53. L.A. nabe with an arts district: NO HO. Short for North Hollywood
54. Animal on "XING" signs: DEER. Have you ever seen a deer actually cross at one of these signs??
55. Cathedral area: NAVE. APSE fits, too
59. __ Speedwagon: REO. Last of the videos ...
60. Cop to: OWN. See you all in 2025 ... Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!
58 comments:
When I got to “keys and parrots,” it finally dawned on me what was going on. Pretty dern clever, if you ask me. Anyway, in spite of a few obscurities (“Hey Ya,” anyone?) the rest of the puzzle fell into place without too much difficulty. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
This one was doable, but not as smooth as a well-boiled icicle. Cute theme, although Cons and PAWNS don't rhyme to my ear. Nicely done, Alan. Enjoyed your expo, C-Moe. (Some neighbors put up a DEER Xing sign. The deer like to hang out in the next-door woodlot. Occasionally one of them gets injured dashing across the road in front of an oncoming car.)
At 1D, "up" means "ahead in points", so if you "finished" (while) "up" that means you WON.
Friday puzzle. Iceandkneasy, kinda.
Greet the day.
FIR. Never got the theme till I got here. I spent the entire solve confused as to what the theme was. Oh well.
Typical Friday fare. Never heard of "Hey Ya" and threw down apse before nave.
This was not my cup of tea, but it's done, so there's that.
Took 9:15 to finish today, although I never caught on to the theme.
Truthfully, I (wishfully) thought this was themeless - considering there were no "?" following the four long across answers. More themeless puzzles are on my wish list ... every year.
Etoile was entirely perped, Turner was unknown, and "acti" took a long time to parse. But, I know "Hey ya".
Took me 21:25 for the FIR, about par for Friday difficulty wise. I may have heard the term “spoonerism” before but didn’t know what it was till today, very clever theme and construction from Alan. Took a bit to suss out DISCO ERA, cuz I didn’t equate Summer’s “Hot Stuff” with Donna. KERNEL and ETOILE were perped, my last fill being a WAG at the EL in TELE. I don’t own any EGO equipment but I see a vast array of it at Lowe’s. I have about a dozen DEER XING into my yard every day for a handout of corn and silage, all does and fawns as the bucks pretty much stay in hiding. Thanks Alan for the Friday challenge and to Moe for the write up, always like the Moe-kus!
FLN - sumdaze, I don’t recall if there was pickled okra in the Bloody Mary 🍹 at SRQ, might have had a spear of pickled asparagus, nature’s swizzle stick. The empanada made for a tasty side though!
Yeah, and the constructor of that grid a coupla days ago would say "finished all?" Not that I hold a grudge or anything.
Happy Friday; Chris did your last puzzle blog (see December 6, 2024) which did not have individual fill as part of the theme inspire you to try this style where you intersperse theme answers in their numerical place in the write-up? I guess I am old fashioned as I found it a No-ku. Okay a cheap attempt to steal Moe's unique approach, but the fact is his write-up pointed out all that I found deficient, e.g. MALDON flaked salt. All I know about this salt variation is that you can make it at home with virtually no-cost. EGO lawn mowers? I live in condo and haven't mowed a lawn in 20+ years. The puzzle itself felt uneven with spoonerisms a popular theme, but PAWN and CON are not close as Moe said. Alan is not a newbie (noobie) having published 2 NYT- 2/14/2022 and 9/5/2023 as well as a Wall Street Journal On August 1 this year. Have you all finished your holiday gift shopping? I haven't. So I must go, thanks Chris a very fair and entertaining write-up, Alan welcome to the LA Times and the Corner who publish a rare blog dedicated to that venue.
FIW, not catching my silly mistake at SlED (lower case L) AND HOLDERS. herd->WADS, raft->MULE, lire->LIRA, anti->ACT I, and cays->KEYS.
Florida isn't in the Caribbean, and I don't remember seeing KEY used while I sailed around in the USVI and BVI. Lots of cays though. Probably not technically wrong, but kind of Ugly American to force our spelling on their geography.
Technically wrong would be THERM for "gas meter unit." Gas meters units are cubic feet, period. It is the gas company's billing system that determines how many THERMs are in those cubic feet, based on the grade of the natural gas supplied.
Other than those two problems, I really enjoyed this puzzle. My favorites were Summer's Hot Stuff and Bath flower? Thanks to Alan for the fun run, and to our Chairman for the fine review and kus.
We're a Greenworks house.
Started this one late last night (after our office Christmas party) and was stumped on just what the heck was going on.
Started fresh this morning and finally sussed it out.
Enjoyable puzzle.
Forgot to add: According to Bing, "...about 200 people die from deer-vehicle collisions annually. Deer are considered the deadliest animal in America due to car fatalities." I suspect the deer don't come out of the collisions too well either.
I'm a sucker for Spoonerisms as well as misdirected clues, so I enjoyed today's puzzle on both counts. As a singer, probably my favorite misdirection was 5 Across, " A neighbor."
Jice nob, Alan. Dell won!
Good Morning:
It took me a few minutes to figure out the gimmick, but I can’t say that helped with the rest of the solve. Spoonerisms are cute and comical, but I prefer more challenging and complex themes, especially in a Friday puzzle. Props to Alan for creativity and imagination, but this was not an enjoyable solve for me.
Thanks, Alan, and thanks, Moe, for your honest and straightforward critique. Enjoyed the Moe-kus, as always, and your tongue-in-cheek humor. Loved the Deer Crossing Guard comic.
Have a great day.
Fun puzzle, Alan, and congrats on your LAT debut!
It took longer to get the theme than it did to solve. It was rethinking CROOK AND NANNY as NOOK AND CRANNY that gave me the theme.
Chairman Moe, thanks for the review. FLAKED was easy enough to figure out, but I am not familiar with their product and don't recall ever hearing of the sea.
I do get one product that is made in England. Red currant jelly. Specifically Tiptree red currant jelly, via Amazon. DW needs it for one of her Christmas cookies recipes, and red is hard to find in any local stores.
Even worse are feral hog collisions, since their center of gravity is so low. Not as populous as deer, though, thus a lower rating.
Musings
-A real treat on every level especially when the gimmick dawned on me.
-My EGO mower battery last 3 ½ years but I was promised a lot more. Hello Toro.
-Yesterday they told you you would not go far
That night you open and there you are
Next day on your dressing room
They've hung a STAR
Let's go, on with the show
-Ya gotta have some white hair to get this: My fav radio station was was 1290, just after the right-hand symbol
-Crossword standards: Flower that rhymes with blower and Number that rhymes with dumber
-Supervising final exams today that kids are doing on computers. The better students can opt out and so there are very few kids in each class.
Musings 2
-This just in. I asked the teacher next door and she said getting exempt from finals has nothing to do with academics. The kids who are exempted from taking finals are ones who have missed fewer than four days and have had no disciplinary referrals. She further said this has really helped with absenteeism. I have only two kids this period, one took a week-long hunting vacation in South Dakota and the other suffered a concussion in softball.
Husker, I'll bet that AM radio station is all talk today...like practically every other AM station in the country.
"Florida isn't in the Caribbean"- neither are the BAHAMAS but some TV weathermen seem to think they are. KEYS are low limestone islands formed by land rising. The Carribean is ringed by mountainous islands to the north and east.
Back in 1967 one of my HS teammates was driving his cousin's VW and hit a COW. Totaled that VW.
Only 5 more shopping days until Christmas. Good morning.
This puzzle was baffling me for about 15 minutes. Like Subgenius,when I'd filled AND PARROTS theV8 hit me after I'd changed SNORED to YAWNED. ETOILE, Frawnch for the Prima ballerina star, and KERNAL opened everything up and I noticed it was not "___out" but "___cut". My CHEW out became CREW cut. My radio dial(don't touch that dial, and listen to our message from one of our sponsors) went from a RESET to SET AT.
HOLDERS came by perps only due to the spoonerism. No idea about that fill.
I know what a THERM is but have never known it to be a 'meter unit', only 'thousand cubic feet' or BTUs. Gas(oline)'s meter units are gallons and litres.
DISCO ERA- listen to the song and she's definitely horny and on the prowl. She must have HOARD around.
EGO, FLAKED, TURNER, HEY YA, NO HO,- BARON thank you perps.
Not too hard except for one trouble spot, the center of the west coast. I got the theme with peas and carrots. It helped with crook and nanny. I agree with others, to my ear Pawn and Con have different vowel sounds. But, some people do pronounce Don and Dawn alike. They say La for Law and Pa for Paw.
I knew Etoile. EGO was all perps.
When I go to pick up Alan I see many deer that cross country roads. When deer cross busy highways sometimes I see a DEER CROSSING sign. It means in that general area, not that specific spot. Deer on the highway are so dangerous in the dark. When you stop for one, you should wait for others to follow.
LIU. I see that OutKast is a rap duo. The capital K is a clue. They have a song called Hey Ya! News to me.
Favorite clue was bath flower.
Fun puzzle and write up.
Canadian here (but not CanadianEh!) with a question for D-O and Lemonade and maybe many, many others: To my northern ear, "Con" and "Pawn" sound exactly the same. How do they differ to you? Thank you, and thanks to C.C. for this wonderful blog.
It took me way too long to figure out that the theme involved spoonerisms, which can be lame when a child is studying comedy but sort of worked in this puzzle.
Once I got the theme, my FIR came easily, although I finished at what seemed to be a Natick because SET AT is lousy fill and I wasn’t expecting the crossing fill (ETOILE) to be French. As for Bath and flower, I actually thought of both correctly, yet I still needed perps for AVON. I did realize 3D involved Donna Summer, who was born CIRCA 1950. She died too young.
I liked Thursday’s Friday-level puzzle even better, but unknowns like EGO and HEY YA didn’t spoil today’s effort, which I liked a bit more than Moe did.
One of Thursday’s entries brought a spoonerism joke to mind: Q: What’s the difference between a sea gull and a baby? A: Well, the sea gull FLITS on the shore, and . . .
.
Aaauuugh!
I came to the blog to have splained many things, first of which was discoera"
Aauugh and rats! I can't parse for beans! To give you an idea, I thought dramatic start = acti, hmm, must mean the the beginning of activate... didn't help that I never heard of this battery powered lawn equipment company. So Spoonerisms are a complete mystery to me, right behind Anagrams. I just can't sort them out...
On a more serious note:
Couple of years ago, we were driving with the kids on 78 east in NJ, approaching Newark airport. We were headed to the airport, so we were on three of the right lanes with local exits, next to 3 express lanes, next to 3 more express lanes in the opposite direction! Next to 3 more local lanes. I lost count of how many lanes there were do to the flyover ramps we were about to go under, when, this magnificent buck, leaped over the car to the right in front of us, landed in our middle lane in front of the car in front of us, and immediately rebounded in an amazing jump that took it over the left lane and separating wall into the right lane of the eastbound express. All this happening in the fraction of a second, as we were travelling close to 70 miles an hour as the deer disappeared to our left. What immediately followed sounded like an explosion, and one of our kids looking from the back seat exclaimed "oh my God! It exploded!"
We could not stop, could not slow down, as we were in the middle of a multi lane expressway with a 65 mph limit. I could only think that there must be pure devastating behind us with multiple cars careening into a huge mess...
I perused the news and papers for days after that, trying to find out what happened. Noth8ng! No word, not a peep in the media... now every time I fly thru that same spot, my white knuckles grip the wheel even tighter...
On a lighter note:
There was only one sound in that video that sounded like a "clang." Of all the other metallic sounds, I could not think of appropriate names. However, while thinking of sound names, my mind strayed back to the puzzle. Somehow the metallic banging and thinking of how this puzzle bested me, and what I would like to do to it, was somehow very satisfying.
So instead of staying silent, or declaring a Thumper, perhaps I should just play that metallic banging video to critique puzzles that best me...
Lemonade714 @ 8:04
I was too pressed for time to write a full introduction. I was visiting family when my turn to blog came, and wrote an abbreviated recap. Have a nice holiday
Copy Editor @ 10:59
I've heard many of those spoonerism jokes, but never that one involving the sea gull and baby! Too funny ... and don't get ME started with these as mine are far more crude ...
Couldn't quite get this one across the finish line this morning. Bogged down on the middle western border. There were some really clever clues, along with some that were way too clever for me. Enjoyed the Spoonerisms, once they dawned on me!
Hola! Again, this was a tale of two solves, one at six A.M. then finished later at ten. I awaken too early, drat! But thank you to Alan Siegel for the puns. SHED AND SHOULDERS really cracked me up! However, I did not get EGO/GHEE so FIW and I can't tell what I had there originally. Oh, I missed SHEA butter and I should remember GHEE as it shows up often though I've never had any to taste.
ATOILE simply emerged after that corner was filled; I was surprised to learn that SCATS is nonsense syllables. Live and learn and apparently I have much to learn yet.
I thought THERM should be THERMAL but then chemistry and physics are not my strong suit.
Have a fabulous Friday, everyone! I enjoyed reading you all.
Oh. A THERM is an actual unit which I just LIU.
Enjoyed this amusing Spoonerism theme - congrats to Alan on your debut! I first heard the term in grade school when I teacher read the tale of "Beeping Slootie" and have been a fan ever since
Had a little gimme with EGO as that is the brand of electric mower we have -
it works well for us - and I love not having a gasoline smell in the garage
I'm in the camp where cons and prawns and pawns all have the same vowel sound
TTP I also have a Christmas recipe that needs red currant jelly too- I get Mrs. Miller's brand from Amish country in Fredricksburg, OH - but I can get it at our local Mennonite store or order online from Amazon or direct from the
company
https://www.millershomemadejams.com/our-story
Thanks CM for a fun blog!
It's Winter Themeless week at Universal
https://syndication.andrewsmcmeel.com/puzzles/crosswords
Enjoyed Alan's puzzle and FIR with help from the theme, once I figured it out. Like YooperPhil at 7:45 AM, I had heard of Spoonerisms, and could have said they were related to language, but didn't know the definition, so thanks for that, Moe! The first cartoon was amazingly on point.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and DH grew up in Tennessee. Our vowels aren't perfectly aligned, but we agree that con and pawn have the same vowel sound. Where are these pronounced differently? I can imagine a distinction in New Jersey.
inanehiker, thank you! I just showed her the website. She likes the mix and match opportunity, so maybe we'll try it next year. I bookmarked both the Mrs Miller website and put a couple of jars in my Amazon shopping cart. I use the "Save for later" option to park items that I'm apt to get in the future.
Somewhat tough but still neat and interesting Friday puzzle, many thanks, Alan. And thank you, as always, for your helpful commentary, Chairman Moe.
So I'm guessing the BARON'S MULE was ALIVE and lived in a SHED. He probably HOARDED KERNELS of corn which he took from the DEER. I bet he didn't give any to the ANTS. His owner paid his NANNY some LIRA to take care of the MULE, and maybe gave her some PARROTS as an extra treat. So this puzzle ended up with no ALARMS and everyone was and still is in good shape.
Have a great end of the week, everybody.
Jinx, was that the puzzle with the clue "One up" = TIED?
Congratulations, AS on so many levels: first LAT CW, fewest NAMES in a CW in a very long time, (9, only 2 DNKs), great theme, and too many clever clues to list. Thanx for this real gem of a Friday CW, I really enjoyed the 17 minute FIR fill. I recognized what was going on with 20A, which happens to also be one of my all too frequent lame attempts to be funny: when I lose something and search "Every crook and nanny" looking for it. But could not remember they are called Spoonerisms. Recognizing the theme early was a help with the solve, especially since they each contained the word "and". There were several DNKs, including HEYYA and ETOILE. I've thought of my own little witticism, I'm calling it "Namies". An example: "If my last name was Strap and I had a son, I'd name him Jacque. He'd grow up to be a great athlete." I'm sure there are many funnier Namies, but they are not as easy to think of as it may seem. If you can think of some, please post them. C-Moe, another terrific write-up, thanx for all the time and effort you put into your write-ups.
Yup. I figured if he use "one up' for tied, he'd use "one all" when leading by 1.
Yeah, but f you look on a chart or a list, you'll see Cay, Cays, Caye or CAYES on the Caribbean. When in Loam, do as the Lomans (or some damned thing.)
A school chum had a Rambler with beefed up suspension and a transplanted 383. He rounded a curve and slammed into a bull. He wasn't hurt, fortunately, but the car was totaled.
Hi Naomi, YP here ~ in my neck of the woods CON and PAWN are two very different vowel sounds, which I can’t think of an example because other words that have a CON sounds, will also have a PAWN sound to those that speak that way. UP here our tones are not that much different than parts of Canada so that may explain something 🤷♂️.
Conelrad, 640 and 1240 on your radio dial. If you listen to FM, well, there weren't FM broadcasting stations when Conelrad came out.
Correction - not MANY FM stations in 1950. After all, it was before the album rock format was introduced.
Me too. Well, except the "C" and "P" differences. Also "pan" when used in a nautical or aviation distress context.
Otto Carr was a pillar of the little community where I grew up. In California, I worked with a guy named Hy Weiner. One of the best local RV repair guys is named Rusty Fender (and he's a redhead.)
LIU As a generalization, saying con and pawn with the same vowel sound is more prominent in the west and in the New England area. Saying them with a different vowel sound is more prominent in the east, with exceptions. I see that saying them differently is a bit more common than saying them with the same sound.
I say con and Don with my lips stretched back into a long horizontal line. I say the vowel in dawn and pawn with my lips puckered like a kiss.
Chairman Moe Thank you for the shout out. Sorry to let you down, but I did not ride a MULE to the bottom of the GRAND CANYON. My father did such a ride, but I think he was on a horse and the MULE was to carry cargo. I have a few of his photos, but they are not great.
However, here I encountered a MULE team in the middle of nowhere in Arizona.
As for the rest of the puzzle I enjoyed the creative and original theme. But hand up I did not figure it out until long after I finished. So it was no help with the solve. Had A NIT WITH before figuring out it was AN IN WITH. FIR.
Favorite clue was BATH FLOWER for AVON. My best friend is from BATH and I have been there.
Yellowrocks at 2:58 PM: good research and great explanation of the vowel sound. Thanks!
This is one of those entertaining CW’s that was really fun to do! I’m surprised no one here pulled the 21D clue as proof we had all been ORALly administered this collection of spoonerisms!
I caught on early to the hook of this puzzle (just like @unclefred) via CROOKSANDNANNIES, one of my favorite word-bastardizing gags. Like him, I just could not remember what these are called until reading Moe’s run through…so thanks, Mr. Chairman, for your thorough exploration of this one, abetted by all the vids. Btw, maybe you thought of Rolex instead of OMEGA because you watch Formula 1? Their timing sponsor is Rolex. Also, Moe, I’m comforted that you were able to clarify your GHEE 🤣👍🏽
CROWSANDPAWNS gave me no issues, but DIS always gets two S’s in our ‘hood.
Luge is indeed an Olympic event, but the name comes from the SLED used for it.
And I still don’t grok OLIO being a hodgepodge… ?😵💫?
Like @Jinx, I had to listen to my ears (a good trick!) to get the KEYSANDPARROTS bit; KERNAL finally sealed the deal on that one. We’re a Greenworks house, too (and when you get to needing a new battery, Jinx, don’t buy it from Lowe’s at GW retail — eBay has a ton of clones at about 1/3 of what the dealers ask).
====> Darren / L.A.
This puzzle had much that I liked (the spoonerisms, the cluing for AVON and B FLAT, for example) and some things I wrinkled my nose at (SET AT, ETOILE, and AN IN, for example).
I get the heebie jeebies when I consider buying off-brand lithium batteries. There have been a LOT of house fires started by lithium batteries, many by suspected internal battery defects. I feel fairly safe sticking with the brand names. I presume (without evidence) that their QC processes are better than the no-name brands. But I'm not wed to Greenworks batteries - if Panasonic, Sony, Energizer etc. offers one that will fit at a better price, I'm in.
OLEO is margarine. OLIO is a miscellaneous collection of things. A hodgepodge is a haphazard assortment of different kinds of things.
Second order synonyms like this often appear in crosswords.
AI says, "Second order synonyms" are synonyms that are not direct or primary replacements for a word, but rather are more closely related in meaning, often describing a secondary aspect or a slightly different nuance of the original word; essentially, they are synonyms that are "a step removed" from the original word, signifying a more indirect or related concept.
To clarify "Namies": The formula is like this: "If my last name was ____ and I had a (son/daughter) I would name (him/her) ____." With the two blanks being filled to create a witty double-entendre. In the example I gave, "If my last name was Strap and I had a son I would name him Jacque." Jacque Strap is jockstrap. Athletes are called "jocks" because most wear a jockstrap to protect the family jewels. Then add WHY you would choose this name: "He (Jacque Strap) would grow up to be a great athlete." It's not easy to come up with Namies. I'm hoping I have invented a fun little game. Maybe not?
Congrats to Alan on his LAT debut! I sussed the spoonerism theme but learned the word spoonerism here from C-Moe.
FAVs were the clues for WON, B-FLAT, and DISCO ERA.
Thanks to C-Moe for making the time despite his busy holiday schedule! FAV was the GHEE Moe-ku.
Is it just me or is there no blog this morning, December 21?
Monkey,
Just re-published. Somehow it was reverted to Drafts earlier.
umm, Jinx… you do realize that these batteries are all made in the same factories in China, right? The resellers just find the source and buy them direct, bypassing all the middle men.
====> Darren
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