Theme: "Runway Show" - Each theme entry is a "show" in the sky.
27. *Dish service: SATELLITE TV. Normally our first themer starts in Row 3. This one starts at Row 4.
29. *Animated film with the tagline "Honey just got funny": BEE MOVIE.
44. *"Rumpelstiltskin" or "Cinderella": FAIRY TALE.
47. *Many a sunset image: CLOUDSCAPE.
86. *Kids party entertainer's craft: BALLOON ART.
88. *Asian competition involving line cutting: KITE FIGHT.
105. *Repeated tweets: BIRD SONG. And 58. 105-Across producers: WRENS.
108. *Chinese festival performance said to bring good luck: DRAGON DANCE.
Reveal:
63. Long-haul travel perk, and a description of the answers to the starred clues: INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT.
I'm not famliar with kite fight. Looks like it's popular in Southeast Asian countries.
Fresh theme. Such a fun reveal. Congrats to Adrianne Baik on her LAT debut.
Across:
6. Shell competitor: MOBIL.
11. Secures: BAGS.
15. Big serving: SLAB. Thick Chinese bacon.
19. Cover, in a way: ALIBI.
20. Press backspace: ERASE.
21. Welsh accent feature: LILT.
22. Company picture: LOGO.
23. Eldest von Trapp sister: LIESL.
24. Ride __: roll backward while facing forward on a skateboard: FAKIE. Learning moment for me.
25. Greek venues: ODEA.
26. Taj Mahal site: AGRA.
31. Kerfuffles: ADOS.
32. "Wonder Woman" antagonist: ARES. Look at his armor.
33. Sounds of hesitation: ERS.
35. KPMG employee: CPA.
36. Company VIP: CEO.
38. Turns loose (on): SICS.
40. Focal point in a cathedral: APSE.
42. Sign on a staff: CLEF.
43. British "sir": GUV.
50. Reasons some check Zillow, for short: RE-LOS. Zillow price is not that far off. We also have100. Real estate expert: AGENT.
51. "... as all __-out": GET.
52. Do not disturb: LET BE.
53. Truckloads: A TON.
54. Chewy Japanese noodle: UDON. Hmm, I love a good seafood udon.
55. Inner circle members: PALS.
57. Honey holders: HIVES.
59. __ Deng: pygmy hippo of internet fame: MOO. So cute.
60. Finish with a lower score: LOSE.
61. High quality: A ONE.
62. Asian language: LAO.
71. Expressive rock genre: EMO.
72. Handled talent show intros, e.g.: MC'ED.
73. Spiny succulent: ALOE.
74. __ favor: POR.
75. Family, in Hawaiian: OHANA.
78. Dipper's twin in "Gravity Falls": MABEL. Mabel Pines.
80. Read a QR code: SCAN.
81. List title: TO-DO.
82. Didn't give: HELD.
83. Preps vegetables, maybe: DICES.
84. Fashion designer Anna: SUI. Her niece is actress Chase Sui Wonders.
85. Holiday time, slangily: VACAY.
91. Hosp. areas: ORS.
92. D-Day conflict: WWII.
93. Final notice?: OBIT. Good old clue.
95. River residue: SILT.
96. Thanksgiving tuber: YAM. This is candied yam, Xi'an style.
97. __ of the line: END.
98. Big stretch?: ERA. Time stretch.
99. Crunch in the cereal aisle: CAP'N.
101. Takes in: EATS.
111. Vocalist's spotlight moment: SOLO.
112. Machu Picchu native: INCA.
113. Less noble: BASER.
114. Biotech giant: AMGEN. They make Enbrel.
115. Color choices: HUES.
116. Pair: DUAD.
117. Calendar entry: EVENT. Our blog turns 17 years old on 1/21/2025.
118. Spills the beans: TELLS.
119. Crafty marketplace: ETSY.
120. SFO info: ETAS.
121. Checks: TESTS.
122. "Easy on Me" Grammy winner: ADELE.
Down:
2. Epic set in the 10th year of the Trojan War: ILIAD.
3. Dupe: LIE TO.
4. Extreme preoccupation: OBSESSION. We have total ten 9-letter fill in Downs: 8. Efforts to get dough from cookies?: BAKE SALES. 13. Groups that create harmony?: GLEE CLUBS.16. Digital circuit building block: LOGIC GATE. And
17. Come to the same conclusion concerning: AGREE UPON.76. Learn of: HEAR ABOUT.
77. Looking sunny: ALL SMILES.
78. Small glazed treat: MINI DONUT. 80. Travel baggage: SUITCASES.
81. Tackled together in tandem: TAG-TEAMED. Simply amazing.
5. Window feature: SILL.
6. Impatient kid's cry: ME FIRST.
7. Give a TED Talk, e.g.: ORATE.
9. Doubter's query: IS IT?
10. "Frasier" actress Jane: LEEVES. She played Daphne Moon.
11. Ambiguous shapes: BLOBS.
12. Teacher's helper: AIDE.
14. Spooked wildebeest movement: STAMPEDE.
15. Bulgarian or Bosnian: SLAV.
18. Feathery wrap: BOA.
28. Like some veils: LACY. Traditional Chinese bridal veils are not lacy.
30. Clumsy hulks: OAFS.
34. Got comfortable in a La-Z-Boy: RECLINED.
37. Hot spots in the kitchen: OVENS.
39. Org. that takes many forms: IRS.
41. Veterinary patient: PET.
42. Dove shelter: COTE.
44. Consumed: FED ON.
45. Icy: ALOOF.
46. Shoelace tip: AGLET. Learned from doing xwords.
48. Digger controller: LEVER.
49. Billiards bounce: CAROM.
50. Persian poet: RUMI.
55. __ stick: POGO.
56. Fire sign?: ASH. And 65. Fire sign?: EMBER
57. Guest spot?: HOTEL. 68. Big time?: EPOCH. 84. Go on a run?: SKI. All great clues.
58. Dwindle in size: WANE.
60. Capital near the Andes: LIMA.
61. Old relation: ANCESTOR.
62. MGM mascot: LION.
64. Tennis star Ivan: LENDL.
66. Wordless: TACIT.
67. French cookbook term: A LA.
69. Greet silently: NOD AT.
70. Donald Glover's "Community" role: TROY. Google shows that he was "the star quarterback of the football team and also the prom king."
75. "Here we go again": OH BOY.
79. Deep purple fruit: ACAI.
83. Con: DOWNSIDE. Pros and cons.
85. Disney's Cruella de __: VIL.
87. Was short: OWED.
89. Gamer's field: ESPORTS.
90. Twain hero: FINN.
94. Hundred-to-one shot: BAD BET.
98. "Good grief!": EGADS.
102. Camera view: ANGLE.
103. Pathogen fighter: T CELL.
104. Vibe: SENSE.
106. Hopeful: ROSY.
107. College World Series org.: NCAA. Held in Omaha every June.
109. Critic's kudos: RAVE.
110. Spreadsheet filler: DATA.
111. __ shed: SHE.
C.C.
40 comments:
Despite a few obscurities, I found this to be a pretty fair puzzle. The grid-spanning reveal was not too difficult to get, despite its length. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
In hindsight SKI should've occurred to me. But it didn't. Wasn't familiar with Anna SUI, so that didn't help. Bzzzzzt. Otherwise this was an easy downhill run. Excellent debut, Adrianne. Thanx for the recap, C.C. (Armor? There was armor in that photo?)
KITE FIGHT: Here's how they did it on The Big Bang Theory. (1 minute)
Well I didn’t exactly fly through this one like some Sunday’s as it took me 45:53 for the FIR, thank you perps! Unlike SubG, there were more than a few obscure clues and fill for me, DNK the names LEEVES, MABEL, or SUI. I know ADELE but not by that song title. My last fill took an A-run to get the M in the RUMI/MOO cross. Also from the tech world, I didn’t know of AMGEN or LOGIC GATE. GUV and KITE FLIGHT were new to me. I liked the clue for BAKE SALES. A bit of a slog but an enjoyable solve, thanks Adrianne and congrats on your debut. Thanks C.C. for explaining it all and congrats on the almost 17th anniversary of the Corner, a must-see every day for a lot of people! 😊
This one seemed trivia-heavy, but that may just be a wheelhouse thing. There is also, in my opinion, some very sloppy editing. A good example would be RAMI x MOO. When proper nouns (or foreign words, or other esoterica) cross, I believe the editor should take extra care to ensure that both entries are firmly entrenched in popular culture. A 13th century poet and an internet hippopotamus would seem to come up short on that score.
My wife loves the internet views of baby animals like Elephants and the famous MOO DENG who is very cute. Never heard of FAKIE or MABEL as clued. Did not notice the 9 letter down fills, but they helped get er done. Thanks Adrianne and C.C., as always.
FIW, missing both WAGs FAKIr x LErVES and RUkI x kOO. Those two crosses are kind of half-Baiked, IMHO.
I'm DirecTV, not DISH. If not for traveling in my RV, I'd be 100% streaming.
I know it's pronounced GUV, but isn't it spelled GOV - short for "governor?"
It's ironic that "truckloads" = A TON, when one truck can deliver many TONs of almost anything.
LOGIC GATEs was easy for me. Back before microprocessors I took a 3-week corporate class in them. It consisted of building things like ring-tail counters on a breadboard, using NOR, NAND and J-K flip flop gates. After the class I was assigned to help install and maintain an electronic switching system built around a CPU made nearly entirely of NAND gates. Abejo (Brad), our late Cornerite pal from Erie, was an expert on that system.
CSO to my daughter who is a hot-shot real estate AGENT in NJ.
A hundred-to-one shot isn't necessarily a BAD BET. It depends on the payoff, and the amount wagered. If you had someone playing a guess-the-number game with an honest random-number (1 to 100) generator who would pay you $500 for a winning $1 BET, I think that most people would consider it to be a good BET and give it a try. But if the minimum wager was whatever you had in all your savings and investments, very few would take that BET. (The same is true for lower odds. If someone would pay you $2 for winning your $1 guess on an honest coin flip, everyone except those morally opposed to gambling would take that BET. But almost no one would take a chance on losing their life savings, even with those favorable odds.
Thanks to Adrianne for the fun puzzle. I liked "repeated tweets" and "old relation," and appreciate that you managed to shoehorn in both ORS and ERS. And thanks to CC for the fun review.
KITE RUNNER was a very emotional book my sons had to read in high school which taught me about kite fighting. It is horrific but worth reading. IMO
Good Morning:
I finished in about 31 minutes w/o help, but only through a combination of lots of WAGs and helpful perps. As YP said, it was a bit of a slog but an enjoyable slog, IMO. The grid-spanning reveal was worth the price of admission alone, even though the theme itself wasn’t that strong, IMO. Overall, it was an unusually difficult Sunday, but one that offered a satisfying and fun solve.
Thanks, Adrianne, and thanks, CC, for the insider’s opinion which always adds an extra level of understanding and appreciation of the constructor’s work. Your photos of those delicious-looking dishes are appreciated, as well, plus the Chinese cultural tidbits you share!
Have a great day.
FIW. I too was zapped by the crossings of fakie and Leeves, as well as Rumi and moo. My WAG's were wrong, and so my solve was also.
I got the theme early on and that helped a bit, but the persistent weird clues made this puzzle somewhat difficult. Last to fall was the SE, when suddenly dragon dance appeared.
Overall not an enjoyable Sunday puzzle.
Sunday puzzle. Kind of a slog…not in my wheelhouse. Didn’t really enjoy…just time consuming.
Don’t mean to be a Grinch…maybe cause it’s raining here.
Greet the day.
I came here to say the same thing. I had to use the "reveal letter" tool to finish that cross.
I agree with SSJ@7:49 that the cross of RUMI and MOO was unfair. I don't spend much time on internet trivia nor studying Persian poets
Also crossing a skateboard move with a proper name is sketchy at best. If the name were a familiar one, maybe. Even though I am a Frazier fan, I don't know Daphne Moon's real name.
Rest of the puzzle was fair. Good theme. Thanks to Adrianne for her hard work. Bow to C.C. for her analysis of the offering.
Isn't it funny how your memory plays tricks on you?
Heartbeat.
Took 16:37 today to see the light.
I didn't know today's actress (Leeves), Sui, Troy, logicgate, guv, fakie, duad, and a few others.
The title doesn't fit, and the reveal barely does. The title is supposed to be a pun for a fashion runway instead of an airport, but in either case that would mean the plane is still on the ground, not IN FLIGHT.
Themers all start with something that can be up in the air, but a CLOUD and SATELLITE don't really fly, and the latter isn't in even in air. Only the second word being a type of entertainment (not a Show) works.
Anyway, I was tripped up by the single letter crossing a hippo with a poet, so this is all sour grapes.
Just enough crunch to make this CW fun. Whatever unknowns I encountered were filled by perps or WAGS. WAGS especially came in handy for DRAGON DANCE and KITE FIGHT.
When I was in Turkey I visited RUMI’s tomb/shrine in Konya. I like his Sufi poetry.
Thank you CC for your recap.
After horrendous storms last night, today is á beautiful sunny day.
Thanks, this was fun. I like having to guess a name, it is sometimes logical. Exciting to think that this blog has been here almost 17 years. I found it when my second child was two and I was sitting in her room at night to keep her company while pondering over the crossword clues I couldn't get. Now that child is nearing 19 years old. Thanks for keeping me company in the dark everyone!
Am I the only one who immediately inked in OMAR as the Persian poet?
Planes sit on runways waiting to taxi.
FIW at the poet/hippo junction. A bit too much obscure trivia for my taste, and clues that did not show up on my radar screen
I’m one.
Don't think so. Planes sit on aprons waiting to taxi, but when they land they are supposed to exit the runway as soon as practical.
Makes sense, but any time the plane is on the tarmac, it's not IN FLIGHT, so title seems amiss.
Rumi and Moo and fakie and Leeves were unknown to me. I had never heard of kite fighting, but ski came to me all of a sudden. Definitely some obscure clues but all in all I liked it. Nice job. I enjoyed the recap CC.
Hand up almost done in by cross of LE?VES/FAKI?. Could have been E, N, O or R. WAG to FIR. Hand up a bit mystified by the theme. Unlike pop culture icons, RUMI is an enduring name to remember. Here is one of his sayings I like:
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there."
Here is my video of another CHINESE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE DANCE.
From Yesterday:
Ray-O-Sunshine Thanks for your further comments. I also usually feel more at home with the pagans.
I wrote "oof" next to a couple of today's clues, and that was my overall reaction to today's puzzle! I made a lucky guess at the crossing of the skateboard move and the Frasier actress, but not so lucky at the crossing of the hippo and the poet -- although I should remember the latter. The former is too trivial to commit to memory. FIW with one bad cell, and found the whole process to be tedious. Others fared better, so thanks for the Sunday workout, Adrianne! C.C., it's interesting to read your comments on the puzzle's structure. Thanks for that, and for conceiving this corner of cyberspace, and for keeping it alive.
Very interesting Sunday puzzle, Adrianne--fun to work through, many thanks for that. And your Sunday commentary is always a blessing, C.C., thanks for that too.
Loved seeing a BAKE SALE in this puzzle, with MINI-DONUTS, and food in the OVEN, bot not much more to be FED ON. At least, the critters were happy in the puzzle, the BEE HIVE ones, and the BIRD SONGS and the LION. Hope they got enough else to RAVE about. Well, have to go, but wish you all a lovely Sunday, and a good week ahead.
I usually like the large size of Sunday puzzles and that they are titled. Today's I didn't dislike but didn't like it as much as usual. It had some pretty good stuff in it, though, enough to outweigh the RUMIs and MOOs.
Yes, RB. I agree. I still don't quite get the theme. My comment was meant for Anonymous @11.54. Planes DO sit on taxiways waiting to be cleared to the runway - I lived in LA and Dallas, so I know about waiting our turn for the runway. Few things worse than being on a morning flight that departed on time (meaning that they pushed back from the gate,) then being told by one of the pilots that "we're number 14 in line for departure."
Remember the Billy Joel line "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; the sinners have much more fun..."
Jinx Yes, exactly! "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints; the sinners have much more fun..." I was just talking with a friend who works at the Farmers Market. She said she has stopped going to her family Christmas gathering for exactly this reason. She is a very good person and she has gotten tired of being made to feel like a sinner. I honor her courage.
An excellent puzzle for certain. Many complain of "MOO"; if I may, I'd guess it'd be a product of those autocratic editors modifying the crossword, trying to appeal to the so-called next generation. That crossing aside, an indubitably splendid construction.
One must always remember to not denigrate the vital job of an editor: he or she is the sole executor of a will, bestowed upon him or her by their profession, which entrusts with him or her a sacred duty to maintain the integrity of a clue for a solver of proceeding generations. If anything, the best choice for an editor of this crossword would be to treat the aforementioned will as a stepping-stone for an even more promising and soon-to-be timely reference, which contemporary solvers would find impossible to rationalize themselves. In so doing, he or she would most effectively convey the eternal message of a crossword; that being, that cultural references are ever-changing, and a single creator is inadequately prepared to meet such a standard.
Anon at 6:46PM is this sarcasm or sincerity?
You are so much nicer than am I, but of course that's not saying much. I was going to use terms such as "eloquent" and "horse manure."
and maybe ask whether someone's been playing with his daddy's AI engine.
It smells as if the comments by anonymous 6:46 PM were generated by AI.
Jinx beat me to it.
If I could write faster, I might’ve finished this one in record time! That wall-to-wall theme reveal is pretty extraordinary; for a first shot, I’d rate this very nice puzzle with only a couple of ragged bits (here’s looking at that RUMI-MOO cross-up…even if I did remember our pigmy hippo’s name) but all in all, a great job Ms. Baik 🤙🏽😎
GUV is the way it’s spelled in all the books and scripts I’ve read it in, even though it is derived from “Gov’nah”. And here in SoCal one can’t avoid knowing what FAKIE means — da place is lousy wid skate rats 🛹🐀 😆
How long do y’all think it will be until we have an AI-generated construct show up? I’m tempted to learn enough AI-ese to enable giving it a shot…
EGADS, seventeen years, that is impressive, C.C. — thanks to you and all the dedicated denizens of The Corner, from this relative newbie to the clan.
====> Darren / L.A.
Bit of side eye for 81D. Seems to me that tag teamers work alternately rather than together. Only from my volleyball background can I come up with a tandem usage that would fit here.
All smiles then?
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