A, E, I, O, U
and sometimes Y.
and sometimes Y.
Today's constructor, Yale linguistics major Jem Burch is making his LAT debut and takes us back to elementary school to relearn our vowel sounds and to demonstrate some of the vagaries of English spelling and pronunciation. His theme clues had me stumped for awhile -- they are identified only by being the 5 longest answers in the grid and they are not intended as a solving aid, but rather a second puzzle you can solve if you want to understand the theme ...
The first thing you notice is that the first word of each theme answer begins with the letters SH, but the rest of the letters don't seem to follow any pattern. But when I moved them in order to the top of this review for explication, they made a bit more sense -- the remaining letters of the first word make the sound of the long vowels: Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō, and
16A. Old New York ball field: SHEA STADIUM. SHĀ. Shea Stadium (/ʃeɪ/ SHAY), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. Opened in 1964, it was home to the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1964 to 2008, as well as the New York Jets of the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 to 1983.
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| Shea Stadium |
23A. Hit that one critic called "the original 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' song": SHE LOVES YOU. SHĒ.
38A. Recoil (from): SHY AWAY. SHĪ. Here's Shy Away by Twenty One Pilots ...
50A. Class presentation: SHOW AND TELL. SHŌ. Here's Show and Tell by Jerry Fuller sung by Al Wilson ...
59A. Some Dr. Scholl's products: SHOE INSERTS. Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Shoots the breeze: CHATS.
6. Forest denizen: DEER. Cue Bambi meets Godzilla (sound track by Gioachino Rossini) ...
10. Disc golf target: PAR. Nice misdirection. In disc golf the "hole" you target is called a basket, but your score on this basket helps determine whether you make PAR ...
 |
| Disc golf basket |
13. Metropolis in north central India: DELHI. Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India.
14. Spanish diacritic: TILDE. The tilde is also used in Portuguese. It looks like this ...
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| Ceramic jar Edo 300 BC to 300 AD |
18. Orinoco, por ejemplo: RIO. Today's Spanish lesson: RIO = "river". The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America. It is also the namesake for Orinoco Flow, a popular song by the Irish singer/songwriter Enya ...
19. Boston hrs.: EST. Eastern Standard Time.
20. Short greetings: HIS.
21. "Ready to go!": I'M SET.
23. [Theme clue]
27. Guinea primate: BABOON. The Guinea baboon inhabits a small area in western Africa. Its range includes Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, southern Mauritania and western Mali. Its habitat includes dry forests, gallery forests, and adjoining bush savannas or steppes.
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| Guinea baboon |
31. Nearly identical: ALIKE.
32. Make an acquaintance: MEET. More casual than a MEET CUTE -- like When Harry Met Sally --which can get pretty intense.
34. Cry one's eyes out: BAWL. If someone bawls you out, you might cry your eyes out.
37. Chili __ carne: CON. Here's Chef Jimmy Lee's award winning recipe.
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| Chile con carne |
41. "Eternals" actress McHugh: LIA. Lia Ryan McHugh (born November 18, 2005) is an American actress. She has roles in Totem (2017), The Lodge, and Into the Dark (both 2019). She portrayed Sprite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Eternals (2021).
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| Lia McHugh |
44. Defib pros: EMTS. Emergency Medical Technicians are first responders to an emergency and specialize in keeping victims alive while they are being transported to a hospital. They are experts in the use of defibrillators for restarting the heart of heart attack victims.
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| The Star of Life Symbol of emergency medical service. |
45. Once more: AGAIN.
47. "Otello," for one: OPERA. An opera about pure evil -- here is the character Iago with his signature aria Credo in un dio crudel ("I believe in a cruel god"), sung by baritone Efilzeo di Reggio ...
49. Greek life inductee: PLEDGE. Strictly speaking a PLEDGE is a candidate for induction into a fraternity or sorority (aka "Greek life"). They may need to pass a controversial trial period called "hazing" before being actually inducted. Note that this does not apply to inductees invited to become members of honorary associations such as the Phi Beta Kappa society.
50. [Theme clue].
53. Mazda model: MIATA. Here's a 2025 Mazda Miata ...
_by_Negawa_Bridge_(cropped).jpg)
54. P-like Greek letter: RHO.
58. Not feeling well: ILL. E.g. after contracting 55A.
59. [Theme clue]
64. "haha": LOL. Meh.
65. Salad tossers: TONGS. We use a large spoon and fork for tossing our salads ...
68. Some members of a flock: EWES. The others are RAMS and LAMBS.
69. Test for purity: ASSAY.
Down:
1. Some credit union accts.: CDS. A certificate of deposit (CD) is a type of savings account that pays a fixed interest rate on money held for an agreed-upon period of time. The best CD rates are usually higher than savings accounts, but you lose withdrawal flexibility. If you withdraw your CD funds early, you'll be charged a penalty.
2. Texter's giggle: HE HE. Very funny! 😀
3. Brewery stock: ALES.
4. "Not a problem": THAT'S OK.
5. Certain sib: SIS.
6. Schoolyard retort: DID SO.
7. Yale grad: ELI. A nickname derived from Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) whose bequest made the creation of Yale University possible. Yale was a British-American colonial administrator, born in Boston, Massachusetts. Yale lived in America only as a child, and spent the rest of his life in England, Wales, and India (and a CSO to our constructor Jem Burch who is an Eli).
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| Elihu Yale Enoch Seeman |
9. Hardly diligent: REMISS.
10. Outmoded dating profile: PERSONAL AD. Some personal ads were more personal than others (at least in Colorado). I hope I don't get flooded with ISOs just for researching this one. 😀
11. "Toodle-oo": ADIEU. TA TA was too short.
12. Square __: ROOT. Today's math lesson: "the square root of a number X is the number Y such that (Y times Y) = X". The notation for a square root in a formula is called a radical sign, and looks like this:
14. Dog, or a dog's body part: TAIL. Clever clue.
17. In that case: THEN.
22. "Don't be nosy!" shorthand: MYOB. Mind Your Own Business! A text response to a request for TMI?
24. Breaks up a plot: HOES.
25. Instagram video tally: VIEWS.
26. James of jazz: ETTA. Here Etta sings the Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler classic Stormy Weather ...
27. Endorse: BACK.
28. Soothing plant: ALOE.
29. Places to play a card game?: BINGO HALLS. POKER TABLES was too long.
32. Greeting to one of the boys: MY MAN.
33. "Have some": EAT.
35. Kristen of "Palm Royale": WIIG. Palm Royale is a period comedy-drama television series created by Abe Sylvia, based on the 2018 novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. The series premiered on March 20, 2024. Set in 1969, outsider Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons (Kristen Wiig) strives to attain a place in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida, through the town's most exclusive country club, the Palm Royale, in the process learning what she will and won't do to achieve this status ...
36. Bowler's assignment: LANE. Definitely not an ALLEY.
39. Greek goddess of childbirth: HERA. Hera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus (and forever on the watch for his roving eye).
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| The goddess Hera |
43. Watch out for at the gym, maybe: SPOT.
46. Coloring book options: GEL PENS. A gel pen uses ink in which pigment is suspended in a water-based gel. Because the ink is thick and opaque, it shows up more clearly on slick surfaces than the typical inks used in ballpoint or felt tip pens. Here's one in action ...
48. Old computer parts, e.g.: E-WASTE. Electronic waste (or E-WASTE) is a result of the growing consumption of electronic goods due to the Digital Revolution and innovations in science and technology, such as bitcoin, which have led to a global e-waste problem and hazard. The rapid exponential increase of e-waste is due to frequent new model releases and unnecessary purchases of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), short innovation cycles and low recycling rates, and a drop in the average life span of computers. Here are some myths about e-waste.
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| E-Waste |
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| Exploited peons being punished in Chile or Peru, 1862. by American tycoon Henry Meiggs |
50. Grain containers: SILOS.
51. Bottom of the barrel: DREGS.
52. Taylor Swift's "__ Is Me Trying": THIS. Cue the weekly Taylor Swift song ...
53. Marathon unit: MILE. Our son is a marathoner and if you ask him why the race is 26.2 miles long his reply is always "because 26.3 miles would be crazy!".
56. Miner's quarry: ORES.
57. Additional, in adspeak: XTRA.
60. Word of awe: HOW. HOW did this all happen?
61. Small bill: ONE.
62. Australian singer featured on the hit "Titanium": SIA. Here's Sia's Titanium co-written with David Guetta, Giorgio Tuinfort, and Afrojack...
63. Hog pen: STY.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
21 comments:
I don’t have too much to say about this puzzle.
There weren’t a lot of obscure names (“Lia” being an exception) and, as it turned out, there was no need for a reveal. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Got the pzl. Failed to get the theme -- d-o would've needed a reveal that he wouldn't read. It looked like it would be a Wite-Out-free experience until SHOE INSOLES (er INSERTS) showed up. Thanx for the little gem, Jem. Also thanx to waseeley and Teri for the explication.
Good morning! I haven’t done the puzzle yet, but I wanted to respond early to your kind comments of Monday & Tuesday, reminisces of your own experiences and healing wishes.
Thanks to Monkey; inanehiker, Kelly Clark, Lucina, UncleFred, and Misty.
And to:
CanadianEh!: I’m left-handed which helps somewhat.
Desper-Otto: Yes, the voice of experience. I’m able to drive, but silverware and getting dressed are definitely awkward! My arm for now is in a plaster splint, top & bottom wrapped in ace bandage immobilizing both my thumb, back to & including my elbow.
sumdaze: I love the pizza cutter trick – I’ll definitely try it. I came up with a way to get cream cheese on my morning bagel – I stick a carving fork in it to stabilize it & hold the handle between my 2nd & 3rd finger because my thumb is out of commission, so I can’t pinch. Bottle caps, safety caps and jars – Impossible!!
CrossEyed Dave – Thanks, but I’m left-handed – all bases covered!
Picard: my break is right radius about an inch above my wrist & a broken off ulnar styloid. I see the hand surgeon on Monday morning, so I’ll find out more then.
NaomiZ: What a beautiful cast! I loved the roses! That would cheer everyone up who needed one!
FIR, but load->ORES. I got the superficial theme "SH," which I tagged "quiet on the set." The deeper theme was clever and, of course, beyond me.
I took me an embarrassingly long time to get PAR for disc golf target. I went down a rabbit hole, thinking "what is that basket-thingie called?" To complicate things, I DNK LIA nor Orinoco. Then the V8 can jarred loose PERSONAL AD and it all made sense.
A pair of PERSONAL ADs is the backdrop for Rupert Holmes' Escape, which everyone knows as "the pina colada song." (Holmes never won a Grammy, but he has won three Tony Awards.)
All square root questions have two answers, except for the square root of zero. (E.g. the square roots of 4 are 2 and -2.)
I guess folks used to say HOW when they were in awe back before WTF was coined. Growing up I heard "how on earth..." but not just HOW by itself.
Norfolk residents can dispose of E-WASTE only from noon to 4 PM on Tuesdays and Saturdays, at a collection center in a corner of the city dump.
Thanks to Jem for the Thursday gem. And thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for another fine review, especially the Stormy Weather track.
From yesterday -
Thank you all for the anniversary comments, and good to see some others here with similar - one day at a time, ProfM. As for Thursday, thanks for the write-up, W, as I solved the puzzle, but never looked at the theme~! :7))
FIR. Had no problem with this one even though it's a Thursday. Seemed somewhat more like a Tuesday puzzle difficulty wise.
I got the theme of starting with "sh", but the "aeiou" part escaped me. Luckily it didn't matter for the solve.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Well I had to look at the grid for a while to figure out the theme after I FIR in 12:13, it helped that each fills started with SH and the vowel sounds were in descending order. While solving I had to change thus to THEN, wow to HOW, and like d-o, insoles to INSERTS, I liked that INERT was directly under that. Pulled WIIG out of my memory bank which got me the unknown LIA, and SIA required perps. Thank you for the puzzle Jem and congrats on your LAT debut!
Bill ~ I spent a lot more time reading your in-depth blog than I did on the puzzle, quite the array of music genres you put together today! I listened to them all, and liked SHE LOVES YOU and Stormy Weather the most. I’ve never been an opera buff and I can’t say Elfizeo’s aria swayed me to become one. Never heard of Henry Weiggs before but I read his bio on the link you shared. Also liked the personal ads. Thanks to you and Teri for the entertaining education.
Took 9:02 today, I shudder to say.
Actually, I never saw the theme, which is fine with me.
I didn't know one of today's actresses (Lia?), but I knew the other (Wiig).
This one didn't bring much enjoyment. Maybe it was all the 3LWs, whatever we call the phrases (such as "itson", "thatsok", and "imset"), the lol/hehe, the initials/abbreviations, or the foreign words (tilde, rho, rio).
Thursday puzzle. Ewaste just wouldn’t copy, hung on to wow. Never got SH relationship.Still enjoyable fill.
Greet the day.
Figured Thursday hadda start getting difficult … nope EZ. ….So will Friday be super hard? …. Busy AM forget to consider a theme 🫣
🎶 “Orinoco flow”…sail away etc etc
Inkovers: bear/DEER, bonobo/BABOON, pleb/PEON, wow/HOW
thus or THEN. Only know GELPENS from CWs. Chickens 🐓 can’t get “Chicken” POX
PERSONA LAD: an outmoded gay dating profile? What? Ohhh … never mind 😄
“Palm Royale” I’m a Kristin WIIG fan, today’s karma convinced me to try it out. Oh and 91 year old Carol Burnet is part of the cast 👍
”The Naked Gun” BINGO
The missing “H” tells you it’s the Italian opera not Will’s play about “The Moor of Venice”
Looks bad when you’re asked to SPOT someone at the gym and you can barely lift and set the barbell down even with the “spotee” doing most of the work 😟
Beer, good for what ___ you … ALES
Where you “endorse” a check, on the____ … BACK
“Card game” winnings: BINGO HALLS
Down South: ____ up North: ____ ….YALL, EWES
Unbelievable pictures of Pacific Palisades destroyed by the California fires.. Looked like the horrific scenes of devastation in Gaza.
Maybe I'm getting crankier as I get older, but I am finding it harder to take a Thumper these days over seemingly minor nits...
Wiig? I like it about a much as spell checker, but I guess it's better than Lipshitz...
Colouring book options = gel pens? Oh well, I guess I shouldn't complain, next week it might be paintball guns...
Surprisingly easy today and all week. . Probably tomorrow's puzzle will be a bear.
I saw the SH quickly but missed the long vowels. Listing the first words in order as Waseeley did would have given me the theme. Interesting blog, Waseeley and Teri.
Favorite clue was golf disc target=PAR.
Most problematic was word of awe=How. Somewhat of a stretch.
Some of my fifth graders would cause trouble by getting involved in each other's business. My simple MYOB pronounced MY OB always calmed both parties. The kids began to say it too and laugh. Tension dissolved immediately.
I loved Otello. I felt so sorry for Otello and Desdemona. Falsehoods can destroy people. This reminds me of the shoe cartoon.
Shoe cartoon is so true. My mom would say, "A plague on both your houses" (from Romeo and Juliet.)about both parties these days,
Only Natick was the I in LIA and WIIG. Then I remembered seeing WIIG, but I had no context for it. I also have seen SIA and had no context for it.
Rose, so sorry to hear of your break. Not having use of your thumb makes things even more awkward.
Not too difficult á CW today, though through carelessness I missed the crossing of the two actress, WIIG whom I know of, and LIA whom I don’t know of, because I spelled BAWL, ball. Please be assured that I know better, Y’ALL.
I saw the SH in each long answer but that’s the extent of my noticing the theme.
I’m not familiar with disc golf, but PAR showed up thanks to perps. HOW for á word of awe seems á little unfair. The cutest clue was the dog TAIL. I don’t quite get GEL PENS for á coloring book.
I see INSERTS on top of INERT.
Thank you waseeley for the really fine recap and as pointed out above the nice videos. What á pleasure.
I cringe when I see the catastrophic images of LA burning. I can’t imagine the horrors so many people are having to endure. I hope our California folks are safe.
Bill, my hat is off to you! I don't know that I could have seen the theme. Thanks for The Vowel Song -- that was cute!
It took me a moment to change "are so" to DID SO. The only thing that occurred to me for "Square ___" was fOOT, which left me with PAf for the unknown Disc golf target. Didn't look right, and it wasn't. FIW.
Thanks anyway to Jem for a good puzzle and to Bill for a great review.
Most of Los Angeles and the surrounding area is intact and functional, but the burned areas are a nightmare, and we all have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. We are boiling water now because low water supplies expose nasty stuff in the DREGS.
Brewery product = Ales.
Brewery stock = Hops.
A weak clue.
Hola!
Thanks to Jem Burch for an easy flow into Thursday. TONGS reminds me that recently a TV caption spelled them as TONGUES.
My late b-i-l loved his MIATA.
As children, if one of us had a disease such as Chicken POX, very soon, all got it.
I, too, thought my puzzle would be wite-out free but ADIOS changed to ADIEU.
Have a great day, everyone! Condolences to all affected by the fire in the L.A. areas.
I liked the creativity of having instead of the usual AEIOU progression of letters through a theme, that it was the sounds of the letters, not the letters themselves that progressed.
I finished the puzzle earlier but then started watching Carter's funeral at the Washington Cathedral so just getting back to the blog. Our one son decided to go to the Rotunda yesterday after talking to me & my sis about her going to it for Eisenhower in 1969 when it happened to coincide with a school trip and my grandad taking my brother I to the funeral in Abilene, KS. He said he was in line for over 3 hours and got in just after midnight!
RosE's cast is called a sugar TONG splint -it's nice at first when you don't know how much swelling there will be and gives room to swell without dangerously compressing the nerves, tissue, and blood supply
Thanks Bill & Teri for the blog and all the musical links! and to Jem for the puzzle
The dictionary says stock is: "the goods or merchandise kept on the premises of a business or warehouse and available for sale or distribution." You would find ale among the stock in brewery warehouses. AI says, "some breweries in New Jersey are located in warehouses."
Musings
-I saw the SH but feeling there had to be more, I went back and discovered the clever A, E, I, O, U progression.
-Jem will always be a character in this wonderful movie
-My high school year memories are instantly revived by She Loves You
-I paid $55 for shoe inserts from my friend at a Rehab place. I then saw them for $6 at Wal-Mart.
-PAR: My golf partner who winters on the Rio Grande saw temps in the low 40’s this week.
-I think I can CHAT with anyone I MEET. Everyone has a story.
-Like all colleges, UNL has been fighting hazing of frat PLEDGES.
-NASA uses INERT helium to flush out fuel lines to avoid any unintentional explosions.
-Ann Landers famously used the MYOB admonition for Karen’s of the world
-My friend tried for a record lift in his basement without a SPOTTER. He was lucky to escape.
-This is a sticker some marathon runners have on their cars
-Bill and Teri, I enjoyed your write-up and included music.
First, let me say to CED: yesterday you asked where I got the smartwatch that I'm so happy with. I didn't see your question until almost midnight. So I did post an answer, but it was very late, you may not have seen it. I continue to be delighted with the device, though, and am discovering the battery lasts at least three days, despite my having it set up to automatically monitor my blood glucose, and playing with it frequently. Anyone who is diabetic or prediabetic would love this device. O.K., enough on the smartwatch. Now the CW: I once again failed to look for the theme. No surprise there. Others commented about this CW being easy for a Thursday, but I found it about Thursday level. My one nit to pick is the crossing of two unknown (to me) names at 41A and 35D. My "i" was a WAG, but if I had guessed wrong I would still have awarded myself a FIR, because it should be against CW rules to cross two or more obscure names. Other than that, a fun CW, took me 16 to FIR. Of the 11 names, only DNK 5, unfortunately 2 of them crossing, as mentioned. Thanx JB for the entertaining CW. Thanx too to Bill for the nice write-up, and for enlightening me to the theme.
Just up the street from me there is a car with a sticker reading "0.0," then in small letters "I don't run." We have more 13.1 stickers around here than 26.2.
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