CURSES~!
Parker Higgins returns with a "conspiracy" construction - he has two previous LA Times puzzles, and I don't recall this one, but the theme was quite unique. Today we have three incidents of being foiled more than once - I am kinda '"meh" on this one, sorry - having found a clever theme from just two years ago, have we started to run out of ideas~? No circles - we had those yesterday - 25 TLWs, and a dozen names, pretty much what I would expect for a Wednesday grid. The themers;
33. "Another touch point for my opponent!?": OLYMPIC FENCER - Sword Foil
39. "Another literary figure whose qualities contrast my own!?": MAIN CHARACTER - Literary Foil
59. "Another plan thwarted!," or another way to phrase three clues in this puzzle?: FOILED AGAIN
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. Saweetie songs: RAPS - A name (#1) to start us off - thankfully, I do the DOWNS first - her Wiki
5. Japanese mat: TATAMI
11. Turf: SOD
14. Burn application: ALOE - I am breaking with tradition, Hahtoolah
15. Preplanned, as some viral videos: STAGED
16. Duo: TWO
19. Gun, as an engine: REV
20. "Fame" singer Cara: IRENE - name #2 , but a Crossword staple
21. Designer Jacobs: MARC - name #3 - the website - and you can have a sack bag for just $550
22. Give over: CEDE
23. Private convos: DMs - Direct Messages - for users on a social media platform, i.e., Facebook, etc. Not my thing
24. Trans- opposite: CIS
26. Queens stadium eponym: ASHE - Shea~? Citi~? Ah - the tennis place - name #4
28. Corn core: COB
29. Throbbed: PULSATED
This is what my knees feel like after squats
35. "Mamma Mia" group: ABBA - Crossword staple, name #537. Fish used as currency in medieval England: EEL - 'tis true; at least according to this website
38. Soap unit: CAKE
44. Kids playing in the backyard?: PET GOATS - goat juveniles are kids; seems like a "forced" fill to me; but then again, I had "GOAT YOGA" not too long ago, and that is a "thing"
45. Blue: SAD
46. Remain unsettled: PEND - AND - 12D. Outstanding: OWED
47. Up to, briefly: 'TIL
48. "Stay With Me" singer Smith: SAM - name #6
51. Hefty alternative: GLAD - Garbage bag wars; name(ish)
53. Bangers partner: MASH - Brit-speak for sausage and potatoes
56. Computer expert, briefly: IT PRO - Information Technology 'briefly' is "I.T."
58. Untrustworthy paper: RAG - hey, now, MiB read them on a regular basis
Let's check the hot sheets
62. Flowery, as prose: ORNATE
63. Frozen drink with a domed lid: ICEE
65. Aquarium fighters: BETTAS
66. Muppet material: FELT - and ping-pong balls; more at this museum
DOWN:
1. Overzealous: RABID - Not EAGER
2. First smartphone alert of the day, for many: ALARM
3. Jabs: POKES
4. "I feel __": SEEN - this must be 21st century-speak, as I have said this never
5. Baking amt.: TSP - I wanted to make me some brownies with a peanut butter filling and fudge topping last weekend - went to use the electric beater I got from clearing out the parent's house, and discovered the beaters were NOT in the box - they were kept separately in a kitchen drawer - D'oh~!
7. "Toodles!": "TA-TA~!" - I tried "CIAO" first
8. Food thickener: AGAR - LFDC
9. "Lady Bird" Oscar nominee Laurie: METCALF - name #7
10. Words one utters in an altar-ed state?: "I DO." - har-har
11. Transport largely replaced by light rail: STREETCAR
13. Peace sign: DOVE
18. Diversionary tactic: DECOY
22. Risked: CHANCED
25. ThinkPad maker before Lenovo: IBM
27. NNW opposite: SSE
28. Sounded like heavy metal?: CLANGED - sounded like Heavy Metal~? - let me count the ways - OK, this one has some clever harmonics that sound like bending metal . . .
Blue Öyster Cult - Heavy Metal; The Black & Silver
29. Fishing spots: PIERS - I was recently contacted by two friends from high school for the first time in decades - one of them is the weatherman on TV in Richmond VA, and he has a podcast on fishing - but he prefers upstate NY to the pier
30. Sch. based in Westwood: UCLA - I'm East Coast
31. "A mouse!": "EEK~!"
32. Beats by __: DRE
33. Newspaper section with notable passages?: OBIT PAGES - forced
34. Bog makeup: PEAT
35. Source of feedback for a guitarist?: AMP - Clever clue, but not deceptive - one could argue there's no "abbr" in there, so it should be "amplifier"
41. Went for seconds: HAD MORE - forced - but has been in another puzzle
42. Forensic drama with regional spinoffs: CSI
43. Actress Shire: TALIA - name #8
47. Eta follower: THETA - Greek letters
48. Elbow room: SPACE
49. Mermaid played by Halle Bailey: ARIEL - name #9
50. "Water Lilies" painter: MONET - two weeks ( for me ) having to guess the "A" or "O"; name #10
51. Snag: GRAB - Ah. The verb, not the noun
52. Floor material, in a children's game: LAVA - "don't touch the floor~!"; 'composition' or 'make up' would have been a better word than 'material', but I still got it - I would pretend to be Indiana Jones when we had this "exercise" in gym class
54. Casual contraction: AIN'T - I tried Y'ALL
55. Thin strip: SLAT - oops, not LATH
57. "Yay, the weekend!" letters: TGIF
Thank Grover It's Funny~?
59. Car remote: FOB
60. __ Plaines, Illinois: DES - LFDC
Splynter
43 comments:
Did I say I wanted a more challenging puzzle yesterday? “Be careful what you ask for…” because today I got it! There were a whole slew of “?” clues, for one thing. And misdirection was only the half of it! Nevertheless, I persevered and got the win. FIR, so I’m happy.
Brrrrrrr. Not a Good Morning!
Zipped through this one, but looked sideways at BETTAS -- d-o never was into aquariums. I thought "passages" made OBIT PAGES clever, not meh. Thanx, Parker and Splynter. (What does LFDC mean?)
Learned From Doing Crossword
Thanx.
FIR, but cod->EEL, eggs->MASH, and iotas->ATOMS.
I always thought that literary FOIL was used by the MAIN CHARACTER, not the MAIN CHARACTER him/herself. Kinda like Dickie Smothers to Tommy, who got all the punch lines.
I had a girlfriend that had a GOAT that she was especially fond of. He was allowed to come into the house occasionally and had no trouble going up stairs to her bedroom. But the GOAT wasn't housebroken, and so spent most of its time outside. Can't really call it a PET, that was reserved for her wonderfully sweet and smart collie named Boots.
I feel ____? "Pretty?" No, too many letters. No West Side Story for you, Jinxy.
I DO. Seems like I mentioned this recently, but one of my favorite old saws is "a man is not complete until he takes a wife. Then he's finished."
My biograndson is on the Murray State University Bass Fishing Team. They fish from boats, not PIERS.
I was OK with AMP not indicating an abbreviation, because it is used that way most of the time instead of AMPlifier of AMPere. But I thought OBIT needed that hint.
Again I think that we've discussed this before. but my all-time favorite Italian restaurant was Romano's in DES Plaines. It was on the approach path to the (crossword favorite) O'Hare airport, so when you went there you could always look up and declare "DES planes!"
Thanks (I think) to Parker for the workout. I could have done without METCALF x TATAMI and MARC, but otherwise it was fun. I could have been born Parker Pieratt Jr, for a man my mother dated before meeting my dad. He went on to become wealthy in the retail furniture business. On the bright side, my last name would have been pronounced PEE-rat, and I can't imagine going through junior high with that moniker. And thanks to Splynter for nailing another review.
I've procrastinated long enough. Time to take poor Zoё out for what might be her first walk in the snow at almost 12 years old. Looks like a couple of inches, less than forecast. IS THAT THE BEST YA GOT, C-EH?
FIR, but man did this seem crunchy! After two easy days we got this bear of a puzzle.
There were complete mysteries to me, like "Beats by Dre"? That took a WAG to enter. Also the theme seemed a bit forced.
I guess i should be pleased i finished today's puzzle, but i did not enjoy it.
Wednesday puzzle. TLW are tolerable…unk names definitely destroy otherwise good fill for this -4 morning. Theme, meh.
Greet the day.
Took 6:14 today for me to wrap up this one.
Surprisingly, I knew today's actresses (Talia & Metcalf), the Japanese mat (tatami), and the Greek letter (theta), but not much related to the theme until I finished. I was surprised when I ran out of room entering "obituaries".
Ariel abutting Monet - both words I have to wait for a cross, as I can't remember the Ariel v. arial and Monet v. Manet.
I thought this was about a typical Wednesday challenge, not too difficult as I FIR in 12:01. Last fill was sort of a WAG at the C for the unknown MARC/METCALF cross but not much else would fit, the names IRENE, ASHE, ABBA, and TALIA should be familiar to most, SAM is a little iffy and took perps. Like a lot of others, whenever I see M_NET, the blank is filled by either a perp or a WAG. I’ve never heard anyone say BAE. Thanks Parker for today’s puzzle, and Splynter for the critique and review.
I managed to FIR with a few guesses and unknowns, starting with 1A- "Saweetie songs". I thought maybe they was some country's music- nope, just trashy RAPS. As for "Trans- opposite", I wish the editors would quit this alphabet nonsense. Unlike Splynt, I liked the PET GOATS because their young ones are 'kids'. And speaking of 'kids' game' LAVA was perps. I've never heard of the game "don't touch the floor!"
RAGS- every one of them being published. I only subscribe for three reasons. DW 1. It is in my driveway when I get up. 2. DW likes to drink her coffee and look at it. 3. Comics and crossword section. The rest is just wire downloads with ads for hearing aids, chiropractors, walk in baths, cruises, scooter chaairs, etc.- everything for OLD people like me.
I had to change TETRAS to the unknown BETTAS to wrap up the puzzle today. I was almost FOILED AGAIN But there was no Snidely Whiplash ending today.
Greek clue for THETA crossing a sorta Greek BETTAS. Hmm.
OBIT PAGES- appeared slowly for me until the V8 moment recognizing 'passages'. The other kind of passage, as in the final passage.
PIERS- fishing from a pier or river bank is what you do when you don't own a boat.
Good Morning:
I guess this was a typical Wednesday level offering, not too easy, not too hard, but the theme wasn’t that strong or clever, IMO. I agree that a few of the entries seem “forced” or, to put it less politely, green paintish. I’m not familiar with Bettas or the Lava floor, but perps were fair, so no foul. The clue for I Do was too clever by half and the 25 TLWs were too many by any metric for my taste.
Thanks, Parker, and thanks, Splynter, for an honest and fair critique.
Have a great day.
If an answer in a crossword can be characterized as "you either know it or you don't," the constructor and editor need to take accountability. It is inexcusable. Unfortunately, there were several such instances today, due to the plethora of proper names, as well as such inscrutable clues as "I feel ____", or "Beats by ____," or the one about a kids' game. Lava?
The theme was interesting, though, and I particularly enjoyed all the misdirected clues, like the newspaper section with notable passages, or kids playing in the backyard.
Thanks, Parker, for your efforts, and thanks, Splynter, for your guidance today. How's it going with the National Cathedral's Aeolian Skinner?
The preceding comment is mine.
Finished but didn’t pick up on the theme. “FOILED AGAIN😠”
You might remember Laurie METCALF as “Jackie” the younger sister in “Rosanne“. Yep I also use my charging Apple phone as a beside lit clock and ALARM. PETGOATS , (anyone watching “Severance”) …”
MARC “Jacob’s”? no idea. …. BAE 😠 Saweetie?” 😳
“Outstanding” almost filled A one. Like a top notch farmer “outstanding” in his field. 😀
In medieval England the value of an electric EEL was shocking! (quite a lot of MONET) 🤭
“TALIAAA!!“ oops I mean “ADRIAAAAN!!!”
For a moment when I just had the F thought Fist for “muppet material” like a sock puppet 😄
I call Dave our ITguy
Hare, when he lost the race became a ____ rabbit …. RABID
It likely will “remain unsettled” who actually ____ the poem … PEND
The land stayed unplowed “ ___ there was youuuu“ 🎶….TIL
Our balmy tropical 8 degrees from yesterday 🏝️ has dipped to minus 7. 🥶
LFDC?
Ray-O, Laurie Metcalf may also be familiar as Sheldon's mom on TBBT.
Anon@10:08, see another Anon@5:46 today.
Musings
-The old game show $10,000 Pyramid had a category of “What a _____ might say” (example) and I thought this was the gimmick here but FOIL was fun too.
-The temp outside is 27F today which is 34 degrees warmer than this time yesterday. Why did I put my shorts away? :-)
-MARC? Crossing METCALF was saved by my admiration of Laurie’s work. She played a psycho in Orange Is The New Black
-What was the first national TV show to feature the Muppets
-Omaha is ripping up downtown streets to install a street car lines while its city busses run mostly empty.
-The UCLA campus was spared but several staff members lost their homes in the fires
-Fun trivia: “I Feel Fine" starts with a single, percussive feedback note produced by McCartney plucking the A string on his bass, and Lennon's guitar, which was leaning against McCartney's bass AMP, picking up feedback. Hear for yourself
-Hi Splynter, when I googled LFDC, I got Libyan Freedom and Democracy Group. :-)
FIR, but not with a smile. Agree with never having heard of BAE outside of crossword puzzles. Almost prefer it being clued as "British jet and electronics company." Still a TLW (and abbreviation), but at list it's literate and not some elided nonsense, aight?. If you think in terms of chemistry, cis/trans could be considered to be rationally clued for once. And the theme!? Less than helpful.
BAE? Yeah that made me cringe too. But I see it's been used 137 times since 2017 in the major crossword outlets so we'd better get used to it. That's even more than BYE has been used in the same period. I guess it's yet another word I have totally missed since I don't text with the Gen Y/Z crowd.
Your Muppet link wouldn't work for me, but I'm guessing that the obvious answer, Sesame Street, is wrong.
I agree about the FOIL character. The FOIL character is used to highlight the main character’s traits.
Hola! Thanks to Parker Higgins and Splynter for the toasty offerings.
I well remember riding a STREETCAR in the distant past. They went east to west in Phoenix but then were replaced by buses in later years.
LAVA for a children's game? It sounds dangerous!
No PIERS are found here in the desert but some of the lakes likely have them. Sadly, three people died of monoxide poisoning in their houseboat recently.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!
I thought I posted my comments from earlier this morning.
Thank you, Parker, and thank you, Splynter.
I enjoyed it. No issues and filled in under 10 without trying for speed. I didn't know the Lady Bird Oscar nominee, and I didn't know the Designer Jacobs. I only needed the middle letter of the prior and the last letter of the latter. C was apparent because METCALF is a common name.
I knew Saweetie was a RAPper but I'm not sure why I knew that.
I hadn't heard of Don't Touch the Floor either, but I figured it was a spinoff from adult team building outings generically called "ropes courses." Ours featured an acid swamp (could have been a lava floor,) milk crates representing rocks protruding from the swamp, a rope, and a couple of 2x10 boards. The idea was to present a challenge that can't be solved without teamwork, forcing individual contributors to work together. At GTE, we had engineers and construction supervisors doing a lot of blamecasting, when they should have been natural partners. We put them through a great 5 day ropes course (the acid swamp was on day 1), where they bunked together, ate together, and worked hard on this type of challenge every day. No phones, no computers, no TV. People nearly universally hated it going in, and most loved it when they left.
FIR, but needed perps for á few unknowns like METCALF although I saw that movie and remember really liking it. MARC was another, SAM, LAVA. For 1A, I entered TAPS, because I so quickly looked at the clue that I thought it had something to do with the Navy. LOL.
I didn’t get the theme until Splynter explained it. As I wrote above the use of the MAIN CHARACTER for FOIL is incorrect.
I learned about bangers and MASH watching the long ago All Creatures Great and Small.
I don’t understand “beats by DRE”.
My grand nephew’s wife is taking care of two KIDS whose mother couldn’t nurse them, so I chuckled at 44A, PET GOATS. Her two are adorable.
Thank you Splynter for á nice review and for keeping track of the names.
This morning our expanse of snow looks so beautiful under the sunshine.
I’d welcome one day a week. OK, once a-month to a puzzle with no Proper Nouns. (Like Saturday has no theme ) Where answers were based on imagination and thinking outside the box equally fair to all.
Roosevelt? Plesant?
Meh. The whole shebang was pretty cringeworthy. Fortunately, Splynter brought some fun back into the day. BTW, folks... streetcars ARE light rail!
Thank you Splynter, I came to find an explanation for "main character."
Oh, literary foil, of course...
Which made me wonder, I don't want to say "oh,". I want to say ooooohhhhh!
(You know, the long "oh."). But it just doesn't look right. Yellowrocks! How am I supposed to convey in writing what I am feeling, you know, that extra, extra, long "O" of the V8 can whistling in....
Betta slowed me down a bit, probably because in Brooklyn, where I grew up with many fish tanks, the pet stores always called them "Bay-tahs."
Hmm, which reminds me, my puzzle did not highlight the interconnected theme answers? Actually, it may not have for the past week... which reminds me, did I check that option in the settings after I cleared my Safari Cache a week ago? Which reminds me, rats, it's been a week! I gotta go clear it out again!
Which reminds me, I have a rant I want to rant about, but I'm not sure how to segue it into a meaningful blog post yet. It's a long one, and it has to do with my iPad. Anywho, to abbreviate the rant into just one pic...
I agree.
YP here ~ beats are headphones or maybe earbuds, DRE is the Rapper who started the company I believe.
I thought Parker's puzzle was very clever, and was able to FIR in spite of an initial struggle in the NW. DNK Saweetie, singer Cara, singer Smith, or Oscar nominee Laurie, but perps were fair. The reveal at 59-Across gave me a delightful aha moment.
I'm impressed by Jinx's 5 day training course with acid swamps and whatnot. Not sure I would have survived that, but when we were kids, it was very normal for one of us to declare "the floor is lava!" and then we'd leap from one piece of furniture to another to avoid touching the floor, until we got tired, or our antics annoyed a parent.
Hi All!
Thanks for the puzzle Parker. I liked the theme but some of the fill...?
Great expo, Splynter. I like the Conspiracy title you added and, of course, the BOC.
//what about The Red Rocker's Heavy Metal?
WO: ate MORE
ESPs: WWES - names.
SLWs*: M, C at the TATAMI | METCALF | MARC intersections
Fav: PET GOAT's clue had me going for a while.
Jinx - HG's Muppet link was to Jack Paar's show. I thought SNL was first. Shows you what I know.
BigE, et.al. - The floor is LAVA. //I picked the dog version for you, IM.
Ray-O: DW and I are awaiting S2E2 of Severance coming out Friday.
Monkey - Beats by Dre is the headphone company started by the RAPper Dr. Dre. I have a set of their earbuds. Website
CED - LOL the pic. About 8 years ago, someone did that to a work-mate on his 50th birthday. His entire office in aluminum foil!
//I can tell you that, no alien signals were coming in that day :-)
Cheers, -T
*Super Lucky WAG [Wild A** Guess]
//that's a macronym - a nested acronym :-)
Thanks Á-T for explaining Beats by DRE.
I agree , that’s the LAVA game we played till Mom hollered . “Get off the furniture NOW” !!! 😡
For DO @ 10:17 et al.
Laurie METCALF as Sheldon’s mom “Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur” “The Big Bang Theory”
Thank you YP
Hand up I found this a challenge. Some crossed unknown proper names. FIR and got the theme.
Meet Giuseppe the PET GOAT.
This was on the ocean bluffs near the university. Where I practice my music. Where odd sights are the norm. The PET GOAT owner runs an HVAC company in town.
From Yesterday:
AnonT Thanks for the kind words about the photo of me SEWING a SEAM at Solstice. Glad you are also in awe of costume designers. You will have to explain the comment about the Yuban coffee can. I don't do coffee. I think it just held SEWING supplies.
Those weren't sheets of aluminum FOIL, they were elements of a Faraday cage!
39A says "another literary figure whose qualities CONTRAST with the main character". The Main character is not the foil, the contrasting character is the foil, often the antihero. FOIL: "In any narrative, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character, typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist. A foil to the protagonist may also be the antagonist of the plot."
I think the clue is right on target.
People who feel overlooked are thankful when they are seen or heard. I feel seen, I feel heard are common in novels. I real life senor citizens are sometimes overlooked, not seen and not heard,
I haven't heard CAKE of soap for over 70 years.
Raised in rural PA, riding on the street car with my city Grandma was a treat.
I liked the theme.
Parker thanks for a fun puzzle, just the right amount of spice for a Wednesday. No nits withe the clues. Splinter, thanks for the blog.
Fun Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Parker. And I always enjoy your helpful commentary, Splynter--thanks for that too.
How neat to see I DO followed by TWO, since a wedding is generally STAGED by TWO people each saying I DO when asked if they'll follow their vows. The setting for this wedding would be even more ORNATE if the room was decorated with a DOVE who will bring peace to the happy couple. Afterwards, I hope they'll be able to enjoy a lovely lunch with BAKED POTATOES followed by a beautiful wedding CAKE and some ICEE to drink for dessert. They can then take off on a STREET CAR to go on their honeymoon. When they come back, I bet they'll find they were given some PET GOATS as a wedding present, and were just delighted. Hey, weddings don't get much better than this, do they?
Have a delightful day everybody, with hopes that our chilly weather will soon warm up a bit!
Tony, thanks for that cute clip. It served as a brief diversion from the horrific news story I just read about a Bichon being thrown into a dumpster and left to freeze to death. Thankfully, the dog was rescued and the monster responsible was apprehended.
Yellowrocks at 1:32 PM, I have missed you! Your perfect explanations of today's clues and answers exemplify what's been lacking for the last little while.
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