HAT TRICKS. Notice that each theme answer is in the DOWN position and the circles all spell a "dropping" HAT. And, as we move across the grid, the HAT Drops Down until it ends at the bottom of the grid.
3-Down. Rueful words from a guest who can't stay for dessert: HATE TO EAT AND RUN.
5-Down. Contented sigh during a massage, perhaps: AH, THAT'S THE STUFF!
7-Down. Start of many an answer from Siri: HERE'S WHAT I FOUND.
10-Down. 2002 rom-com starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes: MAID IN MANHATTAN.
11. Instantly, or an apt title for this puzzle: AT THE DROP OF A HAT.
Here's the Grid so you can easily see the Dropping Hat.
Across:
1. Rapper/actor __ Jackson Jr.: O'SHEA. O'Shea Jackson Jr. (b. February 24, 1991), also known by the stage name OMG. He is the oldest son of actor Ice Cube, aka O'Shea Jackson, Sr. (b. June 15, 1969).
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| Father and Son. |
6. "L'__!": "To life!": CHAIM. Today's Hebrew lesson. The word means Life. It is also a male Hebrew name. Two famous men named Chaim are Chaim Weizmann (Nov. 27, 1874 ~ Nov. 9, 1952) who was the first President of Israel, and Chaim Potok (b. Feb. 17, 1929 ~ July 23, 2002) a novelist.
11. "Abbott Elementary" TV network: ABC. If you haven't seen this show, you should.
14. Overflowing (with): AWASH.
15. Natural hair dye: HENNA. Henna is a reddish dye made from dried and powdered leaves of the henna tree. It has been used since at least the ancient Egyptian period as a hair and body dye, notably in the temporary body art of mehndi (or "henna tattoo") resulting from the staining of the skin using dyes from the henna plant. I got a henna tattoo recently. It wore off after a couple of weeks.
16. Furthermore: TOO.
17. Used, as a desk: SAT AT.
18. Tehran inhabitant: IRANI. The best book I have read this year is The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali.
19. Not yet scheduled: Abbr.: TBD. As in To Be Determined.
20. Sleep masks: EYESHADES.
22. Capital of Qatar: DOHA.
24. Old ultrafast plane, for short: SST. As in the SuperSonic Transport.
25. Long stretches: AGES.
26. Add to the payroll: HIRE.
27. Not fooled by: ON TO.
29. Squeeze out all the water, say: WRING DRY.
33. Sheds tears: WEEPS.
35. Abyss: CHASM.
36. Toyota __4: RAV.
37. Estranged: APART.
38. __ Vegas Aces: LAS. Everything you wanted to know about Sin City and more.
39. Higher than: ABOVE.
41. Earn after taxes: NET.
42. Toffee bar brand: HEATH. Yummers!
44. Neck parts supported by travel pillows: NAPES.
45. "Madam Secretary" star: TÉA LEONI. Téa Pantaleoni (née Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni; b. Feb. 25, 1966) portrayed Elizabeth McCord on Madam Secretary. The show ran from 2014 to 2019.
47. "Go on, git!": SHOO!
48. Loch __ Monster: NESS.
49. Pest on a pet: FLEA.
51. Org. with a Most Wanted list: FBI. Thomas James Holden was the first fugitive on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted List.
54. Polish, as an essay: EDIT.
55. Arthritis symptom: JOINT PAIN.
57. Out of sight?: FAR.
58. Company with orange-and-white trucks: U-HAUL.
60. Lake in the Sierra Nevadas: TAHOE.
61. Baton Rouge sch.: LSU. As in Louisiana State University. This school often makes it into the puzzles. Geaux Tigers!
62. Lightheaded: FAINT.
63. Athlete's peak performance: A-GAME.
64. Tokyo currency: YEN.
65. Does some origami: FOLDS.
66. Famous: NOTED.
Down:
1. Camping spots for desert nomads: OASES.
2. Moves with the breeze: SWAYS.
4. Those, in Spanish: ESAS. Today's Spanish lesson.
6. Admonish: CHIDE.
8. Santa __: hot California winds: ANAs. The Santa Ana winds explained.
9. Overnight option: INN.
12. Bubble tea pearls: BOBA. Everything you wanted to know about Boba tea but didn't know to ask.
13. Cape __, Massachusetts: COD. Cape Cod got its name in 1602, 18 years before the Pilgrims landed on the Cape. Today, it is a popular summer vacation destination.
21. Previously: AGO.
23. The "O" of NGO: ORG. As in a Non-Governmental Organization.
26. That dude's: HIS.
28. "Morning Edition" network: NPR. As in National Public Radio. For a donation, you can get your very own NPR Tote Bag.
30. Foolhardy: RASH.
31. Rant and __: RAVE.
32. __ Saint Laurent: YVES. Yves Saint Laurent (né Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent; Aug. 1, 1936 ~ June 1, 2008) was a fashion designed and established the haute couture fashion house bearing his name. He was born in French Algeria.
33. Covet: WANT.
34. Sword that might have a French grip: ÉPÉE. A crossword staple. A French grip refers to a way of holding the fencing blade. The hand is placed directly on the grip, with the fingers spread out and the thumb positioned on the side of the grip.
35. Extended family: CLAN.
40. Steamed bun in Asian cuisine: BAO.
43. Lip balm brand that shares a name with a dawn goddess: EOS. Greek mythology.
46. Hawaiian garland: LEI.
47. Capitol Hill VIP: SEN. As in a Senator.
50. Happy tunes: LILTS.
52. Ecosystem: BIOME. National Geographic defines a Biome as "an area classified according to the species that live in that location."
53. "Boy, do __ a vacation!": I NEED.
54. Get (into) carefully: EASE.
55. One corner of a Monopoly board: JAIL. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass go and do not collect $200.
56. When doubled, largest city in American Samoa: PAGO.
57. Take to the sky: FLY.
59. "Ni __": Chinese "Hello": HAO. Today's Chinese lesson.
Hat's off to all!
חתולה
43 comments:
It helped that I got the gimmick right away, and that I was familiar with the actress Tea Leoni. Those two things kept the puzzle from being too challenging. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Tuesday fun puzzle, especially liking the long verticals…..greets the day.
Good morning.
Like a careless pig farmer, I'm getting sloppy. Not paying attention and not reading all of the clues.
Definitely did not bring my A GAME today. As a result, an incorrect entry in the NE corner. TBa was valid for "not yet scheduled" but Cape COa wasn't.
Also did not see some of the other clues and answers until reading Hahtoolah's review. BAO, RAV, NPR, CLAN, BIOME and I NEED all fell into that category.
Thank you, Zachary David. I liked the DROP OF THE HAT theme. Clever, and a nice visual design.
Good morning!
Those vertical 15s were very nice. ZDL did not disappoint. Wasn't careful about checking the perps, so the Wite-Out got it's day in the sun on WAFTS, ESOS, and CRIES. Enjoyed your expo, Hahtoolah. (Cute Elf-on-the-Shelf cartoon.)
Good Morning, Crossword friends. It's fun to have a puzzle with the theme clues and answers in the Down position.
QOD: To be or not to be. That’s not really a question. ~ Jean-Luc Godard (Dec. 3, 1930 ~ Sept. 13, 2022), French film director
FIR. My only misstep in this very easy puzzle was to put TBA instead of TBD. I figured something not scheduled with a time would be " to be announced ".
Normally I hate circles, but I immediately saw the gimmick and proceeded to enter "hat" in all of them.
And a "hat's off" to our constructor for five long answers in one puzzle. Quite clever.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle today!
FIR, but tia leone->TEA LEONI. I still think of her as David Duchovny's ex.
I think of EYE SHADES as being those green visors that card dealers and bankers used to wear. But if you search for EYE SHADES you get offers of sleep masks from Amazon.
My 2001 RAV4 is the best car I've ever had. Not as fancy or as elegant as our Mercedes 300SE or 300SD, but much more reliable. Our 2013 Honda CRV is also not nearly as well made as the RAV. The RAV now has >200,000 miles on it. I bought it 12 days before the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks. Had I waited a couple of weeks, I could have probably saved a couple of thousand bucks when the economy nosedived and no one else was buying.
Thanks to Zachary for the fun. easy puzzle that was disguised as a toughie by the first three across clues. And thanks to Ha2la for the fun review. Had I been the cartoonist of the FOLDS example, I would have the lady saying "and you want ME to pay off his college loans?"
L’CHAIM! 🍷 ~ 🍷 to all Cornerites, especially to Picard (who told me I should learn and remember it when it was in Friday’s grid), and to NaomiZ (who toasted us in her comment exactly as clued today). I first thought “Hebrew toast” was something made from Jewish Rye Bread, and starting a word with LCH seemed phonetically impossible, (the apostrophe is important), but now I know! As for the rest of the puzzle, a very enjoyable solve with a good theme and cluing, FIR in about 15, thank you Zach. Hahtoolah ~ your blog is always a fun read, so well thought out and illustrated, thanks for your time and effort putting it together.
H ad to spend 5:32 today to finish.
A n impressive amount of vertical theme answers today.
T here's only one thing left to say: oh joy, circles!
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Zachary and Hahtoolah (I LOLed at that Origami cartoon).
I FIRed in very good time, and saw the dropping HATs theme early in the game; that sped up the solve as I filled in those circles!
Hand up for TBa before TBD (yes COD corrected that). If it is “not yet scheduled”, it needs to be determined before it can be announced.
Unremembered names like OSHEA (as clued) and TEA LEONI perped.
EDITing and EYE perp corrected Oasis to the plural OASES.
I wanted WRING out but DRY perped.
I must remember HAO ( to go with BAO from yesterday).
CHAIM again. Patti is testing our memories.
Wishing you all a great day.
Seeing the circles with the hats dropping down gave me joy. How clever!
Typical Tuesday level for me.
O'Shea was the only answer new to me.
Joint pain, a CSO to so many of us.
TBD. to be determined.
L'chaim, a gimme around here in this multiethnic area.
There were many alternatives in the NE corner. After finding the A in 11D it gave me ABC and the rest was easy.
I lov
ed Tea Leoni in Madam Secretary, but after a time, it was hard to accept that such complex problems could be solved almost "at the drop of a hat."
First three clues across were beyond me. After they filled the rest wasn't too difficult. I counted 6 foreign words and 23 proper nouns. Most filled ok. I guess all the proper nouns are the norm?
At the drop of a hat rem8nded me of this famous scene,
3:20 video with a hat drop at 2:50
What other famous hat drops can you remember?
Good Morning! Well, circles were a bonus today, but in general, I ran into some sticking points among the otherwise doable puzzle.
I had some nits: I challenge anyone to WRING anything DRY, damp, yes, DRY, I doubt it. The other was 5D. STUFF? I never heard anyone ever say that, at least in my orbit. It sounds like something someone would say to a drug dealer…
Surprisingly perps filled a bunch of squares before I even saw the clues.
My thanks to Hah2lah for saving the day with humor and the lovely HENNA tattoo. You must have gotten many compliments on it.
Ni Hao, C-Eh!, I didn't mention the Easter egg RASH, saving it for you. Alas.
BAO - C.C. pictured them in one of her Sunday blogs many months ago. I had to try them. The chicken and the BBQ pork were good, but the sweet bean curd was my favorite.
Shoot, my post entry disappeared. Oh, well. That was a fun CW.
Being that I live a few miles from the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area on the CA/AZ border 1 down for me was DUNES. Besides being a major recreation area it offers fabulous scenery. Some of the movies filmed there include, Flight of the Phoenix, Scorpion King, Hidalgo and Star Wars.
Fun puzzle, just a few unknowns.
Idiom.
I don't say this, but I have heard of it a few times.
That's the stuff
1. That's really great or satisfying.
Ah, that's the stuff. Nothing like a cold beer after a long day's work.
2. Good job; you're doing that well or correctly.
Yeah, that's the stuff! See? You're a natural at programming code.
Another idiom
wring dry (Technically it doesn't sound right, but I use it sometimes.)
"Wring dry" means to squeeze something until almost all of the liquid is gone. For example, you can wring a towel dry or wring out a wet bathing suit.
Finished quickly, with no particular problems thanks to fair perps and educated guesses. Had to check with Ha2la, as I didn't see a lot of the clues! Clever gimmick.
Good Morning:
I always enjoy a vertical-themed puzzle. Most often, it makes the theme less obvious, but that wasn’t the case today, partly due to the circles and the grid-spanning themers. No worries, though, as it was still a fun, Tuesday-level solve. For some reason, I always want O’Hara instead of O’Shea for Ice Cube, Sr. or Jr. Well, at least they’re both common Irish names. I especially liked the symmetry of the dropping hats.
Thank, ZDL, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for a fun and fact filled review. Favorites today were the tam-wearing Nessie, the flea collar “engagement ring”, the Origami grad, and the Lei-ing Hens. Thanks for the time and effort spent for our entertainment!
Have a great day.
Musings
-AI editing of writing
-Fredo should never have gone out onto Lake TAHOE that day
-A new Honda in Tokyo will cost about 2,000,000 YEN
-Fun write up Hahtoolah, some of your cartoonage has already zipped its way to my English-teaching colleagues.
Loved it. Great puzzle!
Enjoyed the HAT theme. I always wear a HAT. And my juggler and magician friends use them in their routines. I am impressed with the construction with perfectly spaced falling HATs.
YooperPhil Thank you for the shout out that you made a point of remembering L'CHAIM!
Here is a LAKE TAHOE photo I have never shared before.
With friends Petr and Marketa visiting from the Czech Republic.
From Yesterday and Before:
Jinx and sumdaze Thank you for the kind words about my photo of the PLUMMETING hang glider that had been in FREE FALL.
I had no idea that the Cirrus SR22 aircraft carries a parachute. I had no idea that a hang glider would have one, either. When I saw it pop out I was delighted. But also skeptical that it was big enough to be effective. It was!
RE: the ongoing saga of synchronicity of crossword puzzles - the fills AWASH and HATS appeared in the USA Today puzzle.
Really nice photo with Tahoe as the backdrop, colorful apparel too!
I agree that this was a delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Zachary. And thanks for the helpful commentary and neat pictures too, Hahtoolah, very interesting.
The words in this puzzle stirred all sorts of ideas for a possible narrative or story, beginning near the bottom, where a trial assisted by the FBI gets a NOTED person in JAIL. When he gets out, he's wearing EYE SHADES and feeling a bit FAINT and INEPT with JOINT PAIN, but he manages to FLY home and rejoin his CLAN, who are delighted to have him out of that CHASM. His wife WEEPS with joy and has to WRING DRY her handkerchief and tells him "HERE'S WHAT I FOUND for you," and hands him a new HAT. The guy is AWASH with joy at all this, and before long gets a job driving a U-HAUL, and feeling as though he's back in his A-GAME. And his parents smile and say "THAT'S THE STUFF."
Have a good week coming up, everybody.
I liked this puzzle.
CED, watch what happens when a truck from the Acme Theatrical Hat Company accidentally drops hats across the landscape.
Vertical themers usually are more difficult to work out, but once I had the first HAT and another group of 3 circles starting with H, I went though and filled them all in. Not great when a puzzle gives up so much of itself while just getting started, by I guess that's why it's on a Tuesday.
Anyone else's mom wash clothes in a tub-style washing machine equipped with a wringer? Had to be careful not to get a finger or something caught in it. Then everything went out to the clotheslines.
Less than $15k US?
DNK 1A, so off to a slow start, but picked up after that, and got the "dropping hat" theme immediately which was a big help. Impressive to get the HAT drops so perfectly aligned within the CW, and the 3 vertical grid-spanners was also quite a feat. Very nice, appropriate-for-a-Tuesday level CW, ZDL, thanx for the fun. Only W/O: WRINGOUT/WRINGDRY. As others mentioned, lots of names, so many I quit counting, but I still managed to persevere to FIR in average Tuesday time. Hahtoolah, your cartoons are always a highlight, thanx for the time and effort you put into your write-up, including finding the cartoons. I especially liked the Elf/Cat cartoon.
YooperPhil Thank you for the kind words about my TAHOE photo and the colorful garb worn by Merlie and me! Petr and I worked together for many years and we were very close friends. His family were refugees from the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. When the Berlin Wall fell, his parents took a risk and bought a house in Prague. It worked out well. Petr moved there and married the beautiful Marketa. They have two bright and beautiful daughters.
A Tuesday puzzle with only three unknowns- O'SHEA, HAO and MAID IN MANHATTAN.
With the circles, the descending staircase HATS were easy to spot. And the lack of people's names came as a bonus.
TBD- my normal thought is TBA, which I've heard all my life when scheduling is not finalized. To Be Determined? That's usually associated with some either/or action 'to be determined' at a later time. 'Do I wear the red dress or the blue dress?' is an example of TBA where "do we go to the zoo or some place else" would fit TBD.
Query,
I'm not sure how to answer TTP when he responded at 2pm to my 9:22 post.
(My only option was to hit reply to myself...)
But here goes:
TTP, I see your Merrie Melodies,
and raise you Abbot and Costello!
CED, thanks. I used to watch Abbott and Costello on Saturday morning TV.
As for Reply, just reply to the first comment, even if it was by you. It will be posted sequentially. Try it. Reply to your 3:54 comment, and it will be added after this one.
Yea! I am back on line! The modem had to be replaced and a new one was sent today so now I can resume blogging. I solved the puzzle early this morning and had no trouble but now it's time to start dinner so i'll check in later.
TTP- RASH an Easter Egg to the HAT ?? Oh, “foolhardy”, AT THE DROP OF A HAT”, RASHly! Great catch. That one was obscure IMHO.
Yes, Jinx, I remember that wringer washer from my very early days. In the winter, the clothes on the line froze solid and had to brought in and hung on. rack over the furnace floor vent to finish drying. I appreciate my Maytags!
Beautiful photo- both the scenery and the people!
C-eh!, thank you. Yes, rashly, rather than rash would be the better fit for the "AT THE DROP OF THE HAT"
Thanks to ZDL for another impressive creation! I saw the HATs dropping two ways down 5 grid-spanners. Wow!
I'll join Jinx@7:28 with a RAVE about my 2005 RAV4.
Thanks to Hahtoolah, also! FAV comics today were INN, HIS, and toupee.
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