Theme: Darling, food is love!
Constructor Daniel Hrynick treats us to a Valentine's Day feast, introduced by terms of endearment.
The theme clues and answers, all Across, are:
17. "My love, borscht for the first course of our Valentine's dinner!": SUGAR, BEETS! Hey, Sugar, I prepared SUGAR BEETS in a delicious Russian soup!
1. Clipped: TERSE.
6. Per: EACH.
10. Binary pronoun: SHE.
13. __ trail: VAPOR. Contrails (short for "condensation trails") or VAPOR TRAILs are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure. They are composed primarily of water in the form of ice crystals. Unfortunately, these high altitude clouds absorb thermal radiation from the Earth and then warm the atmosphere.
14. March Madness org.: NCAA. The National Collegiate Athletic Association organizes this annual basketball tournament in -- you guessed it -- March.
15. Aviation prefix: AERO.
17. [Theme clue]
19. Avian mimic: MYNA. MYNA (or mynah) birds are prized as pets because of their ability to mimic human speech. They are perching birds in the starling family, native to Iran and Southern Asia. The common MYNA (AKA Indian Myna) has been declared one of the world's most invasive species and is one of only three birds listed among "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Species" that pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests.
20. D.C. figure: POL. Short for politician. Some of these also pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests! In this neutral space, we shall not opine as to which ones.
21. Site traffic stat: PAGE HIT. Website owners like to see PAGE HITs. It means someone is looking.
23. [Theme clue]
28. __ loss: AT A. Puzzled or uncertain what to think, say, or do.
29. Balkan natives: SERBS.
30. Cybergiggle: LOL. Texting shorthand for Laugh Out Loud.
31. "Whipped Cream" musician Alpert: HERB.
33. Ceremonial pile: PYRE. A ceremonial pyre is a structure of combustible material that is set on fire for a variety of purposes, including funerals, celebrations, and executions.
34. Strong cleaners: LYES. LYE is a strongly alkaline solution, especially of potassium hydroxide, used for washing or cleansing.
36. Princeton team: TIGERS. The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports.
41. First name in animation: WALT. WALT Disney.
44. Touchpad toucher: USER.
45. "__ be an honor!": IT'D.
46. Filmmaker Kurosawa: AKIRA.
48. Moo goo __ pan: GAI. Moo goo gai pan is a Chinese-American dish that translates to chicken with mushrooms.
49. [Theme clue]
53. Taking five: ON BREAK.
54. __ mode: A LA. "À la mode" is a French phrase that means "according to the fashion". It is used to describe something that is stylish or fashionable, or something served with ice cream.
55. Free __: REIN. Free REIN is the freedom to do or say what you want. The expression comes from horseback riding: when you give a horse free rein, you hold the reins loosely so that the animal may wander where it wants. In contrast, if you keep a tight rein on something, you control its every move.
56. [Theme clue]
62. Prefix between micro- and pico-: NANO.
64. Digestive aid brand: BEANO.
65. Winter hrs. in Utah: MST. Mountain Standard Time.
66. "Last four digits" IDs: SSNs.
67. Change channels?: SLOTS. I think the clue refers to coin slots -- where you insert your "change."
1. Hotel room sets: TVs.
2. __ Claire, Wisconsin: EAU. The name of this city in Wisconsin is French for "clear water."
3. WoW or D&D: RPG. World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons are Role Playing Games.
4. Like the taste of cilantro, to some: SOAPY. I love cilantro. DH hates it. My love language involves keeping cilantro out of the house.
5. Blunders: ERRORS.
6. Chemistry suffix: ENE. A suffix used to form the names of hydrocarbons having one or more double bonds, such as benzene.
23. Thai coin: BAHT.
24. Ordered room service, say: ATE IN.
25. Spots for priced-to-sell items: BARGAIN BINS.
26. Not at all humid: DRY.
27. Beer letters since the 1800s: PBR. Pabst Blue Ribbon.
32. "Actually, bad idea": BETTER NOT.
35. Cut close: SHEAR.
37. Touch up, as a fading salon job: RE-DYE.
38. Barely run?: STREAK. To STREAK is to run bare naked through a public place for publicity, for fun, as a form of protest, or to participate in a fad. It was a big fad in the 1970s.
39. Actor Estrada: ERIK. Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada is an American actor and police officer. He is known for his co-starring lead role as California Highway Patrol officer "Ponch" Poncherello in the police drama television series CHiPs, which ran from 1977 to 1983.
41. Buildings without elevators: WALK-UPs.
42. Alias letters: AKA. AKA is an abbreviation for Also Known As, which might precede an alias.
43. Fashion's Claiborne: LIZ. Liz Claiborne's success was built on stylish but affordable apparel for career women featuring tailored separates that could be mixed and matched. I loved wearing her clothes during the decades I spent as a college librarian. She left this mortal coil in 2007.
47. Improvises: AD-LIBs.
49. Instrument in a toot suite?: HORN. Silly! Horns "toot." "Tout de suite" (which sounds like "toot sweet") is French for "right away." And of course, a suite in music is a collection of short musical pieces that are played in sequence. Maybe it's a French HORN for a toot suite!
50. Wee hour: ONE AM.
51. Stares slack-jawed: GAPES.
52. Advisory group: PANEL.
57. Max. opposite: MIN. Maximum vs MINimum.
58. Dells, e.g.: PCs. Dells are Personal Computers ... Dell being a brand name.
59. Kung __ tofu: PAO. More good eats!
60. QB misfire: INT. Interception. The quarterback gets the blame if his throw is intercepted by a member of the opposing team. Amirite?
61. Goddess of the dawn: EOS. In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess and personification of the rosy-fingered dawn, who drives a chariot each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and dispel the darkness.
23. "My love, ruby spuds as a side": BABY, RED POTATOES! Hey, Baby, I boiled BABY RED POTATOES to go with our main dish!
49. "My love, sweet-and-sour chops for our entree": HONEY, GLAZED PORK! Hey, Honey, I made HONEY GLAZED PORK for dinner!
56. "My love, I didn't forget dessert!": PUMPKIN, PIE! Hey, Pumpkin, I baked PUMPKIN PIE!
I like how the terms of endearment are part of the names of the food. Food is love.
Across:1. Clipped: TERSE.
6. Per: EACH.
10. Binary pronoun: SHE.
13. __ trail: VAPOR. Contrails (short for "condensation trails") or VAPOR TRAILs are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure. They are composed primarily of water in the form of ice crystals. Unfortunately, these high altitude clouds absorb thermal radiation from the Earth and then warm the atmosphere.
14. March Madness org.: NCAA. The National Collegiate Athletic Association organizes this annual basketball tournament in -- you guessed it -- March.
15. Aviation prefix: AERO.
17. [Theme clue]
19. Avian mimic: MYNA. MYNA (or mynah) birds are prized as pets because of their ability to mimic human speech. They are perching birds in the starling family, native to Iran and Southern Asia. The common MYNA (AKA Indian Myna) has been declared one of the world's most invasive species and is one of only three birds listed among "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Species" that pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests.
 |
| Common Myna |
20. D.C. figure: POL. Short for politician. Some of these also pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests! In this neutral space, we shall not opine as to which ones.
21. Site traffic stat: PAGE HIT. Website owners like to see PAGE HITs. It means someone is looking.
23. [Theme clue]
28. __ loss: AT A. Puzzled or uncertain what to think, say, or do.
29. Balkan natives: SERBS.
30. Cybergiggle: LOL. Texting shorthand for Laugh Out Loud.
31. "Whipped Cream" musician Alpert: HERB.
33. Ceremonial pile: PYRE. A ceremonial pyre is a structure of combustible material that is set on fire for a variety of purposes, including funerals, celebrations, and executions.
34. Strong cleaners: LYES. LYE is a strongly alkaline solution, especially of potassium hydroxide, used for washing or cleansing.
36. Princeton team: TIGERS. The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports.
38. Ease: SOOTHE.
40. Actor Corddry: NATE. Nathan Corddry is an American actor best known for his roles as Adam Branch in the NBC drama series Harry's Law and for his role as Gabriel in the first two seasons of the CBS sitcom Mom. Sorry, NATE, all perps for me. Glad I didn't have to spell your surname.
40. Actor Corddry: NATE. Nathan Corddry is an American actor best known for his roles as Adam Branch in the NBC drama series Harry's Law and for his role as Gabriel in the first two seasons of the CBS sitcom Mom. Sorry, NATE, all perps for me. Glad I didn't have to spell your surname.
 |
| Nate Corddry |
41. First name in animation: WALT. WALT Disney.
44. Touchpad toucher: USER.
45. "__ be an honor!": IT'D.
46. Filmmaker Kurosawa: AKIRA.
48. Moo goo __ pan: GAI. Moo goo gai pan is a Chinese-American dish that translates to chicken with mushrooms.
49. [Theme clue]
53. Taking five: ON BREAK.
54. __ mode: A LA. "À la mode" is a French phrase that means "according to the fashion". It is used to describe something that is stylish or fashionable, or something served with ice cream.
55. Free __: REIN. Free REIN is the freedom to do or say what you want. The expression comes from horseback riding: when you give a horse free rein, you hold the reins loosely so that the animal may wander where it wants. In contrast, if you keep a tight rein on something, you control its every move.
56. [Theme clue]
62. Prefix between micro- and pico-: NANO.
63. Colossal: EPIC.
64. Digestive aid brand: BEANO.
65. Winter hrs. in Utah: MST. Mountain Standard Time.
66. "Last four digits" IDs: SSNs.
67. Change channels?: SLOTS. I think the clue refers to coin slots -- where you insert your "change."
Down:
1. Hotel room sets: TVs.
2. __ Claire, Wisconsin: EAU. The name of this city in Wisconsin is French for "clear water."
3. WoW or D&D: RPG. World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons are Role Playing Games.
4. Like the taste of cilantro, to some: SOAPY. I love cilantro. DH hates it. My love language involves keeping cilantro out of the house.
5. Blunders: ERRORS.
6. Chemistry suffix: ENE. A suffix used to form the names of hydrocarbons having one or more double bonds, such as benzene.
7. Expert: ACE.
8. Spine-stretching asana: CAT POSE. An āsana is a body posture, originally a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended to any type of yoga exercise position.
8. Spine-stretching asana: CAT POSE. An āsana is a body posture, originally a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended to any type of yoga exercise position.
 |
| Above: CAT POSE. Below: Cow pose. Good stretches to alternate. |
9. Attacks: HAS AT.
10. "Likewise!": SAME TO YOU.
11. Repeated line in "Blitzkrieg Bop": HEY! HO! LET'S GO! Blitzkrieg Bop was the opening track on the Ramones' self-titled debut album, 1976. The line "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" became a rallying cry at sporting events.
10. "Likewise!": SAME TO YOU.
11. Repeated line in "Blitzkrieg Bop": HEY! HO! LET'S GO! Blitzkrieg Bop was the opening track on the Ramones' self-titled debut album, 1976. The line "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" became a rallying cry at sporting events.
 |
| The song came out first as a single with this cover art. |
12. Orange Muppet who tries to learn the saxophone: ERNIE.
16. Stout grains: OATS.
16. Stout grains: OATS.
18. Censors: BLEEPS.
22. Pico de __: taco topper: GALLO. Pico de GALLO (Spanish for "rooster's beak") is a roughly chopped Mexican salsa made from tomato, onion, peppers, salt, lime juice, and cilantro. Sorry, DH! Cilantro is a key element.
22. Pico de __: taco topper: GALLO. Pico de GALLO (Spanish for "rooster's beak") is a roughly chopped Mexican salsa made from tomato, onion, peppers, salt, lime juice, and cilantro. Sorry, DH! Cilantro is a key element.
23. Thai coin: BAHT.
24. Ordered room service, say: ATE IN.
25. Spots for priced-to-sell items: BARGAIN BINS.
26. Not at all humid: DRY.
27. Beer letters since the 1800s: PBR. Pabst Blue Ribbon.
32. "Actually, bad idea": BETTER NOT.
35. Cut close: SHEAR.
37. Touch up, as a fading salon job: RE-DYE.
38. Barely run?: STREAK. To STREAK is to run bare naked through a public place for publicity, for fun, as a form of protest, or to participate in a fad. It was a big fad in the 1970s.
39. Actor Estrada: ERIK. Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada is an American actor and police officer. He is known for his co-starring lead role as California Highway Patrol officer "Ponch" Poncherello in the police drama television series CHiPs, which ran from 1977 to 1983.
41. Buildings without elevators: WALK-UPs.
42. Alias letters: AKA. AKA is an abbreviation for Also Known As, which might precede an alias.
43. Fashion's Claiborne: LIZ. Liz Claiborne's success was built on stylish but affordable apparel for career women featuring tailored separates that could be mixed and matched. I loved wearing her clothes during the decades I spent as a college librarian. She left this mortal coil in 2007.
47. Improvises: AD-LIBs.
49. Instrument in a toot suite?: HORN. Silly! Horns "toot." "Tout de suite" (which sounds like "toot sweet") is French for "right away." And of course, a suite in music is a collection of short musical pieces that are played in sequence. Maybe it's a French HORN for a toot suite!
50. Wee hour: ONE AM.
51. Stares slack-jawed: GAPES.
52. Advisory group: PANEL.
57. Max. opposite: MIN. Maximum vs MINimum.
58. Dells, e.g.: PCs. Dells are Personal Computers ... Dell being a brand name.
59. Kung __ tofu: PAO. More good eats!
60. QB misfire: INT. Interception. The quarterback gets the blame if his throw is intercepted by a member of the opposing team. Amirite?
61. Goddess of the dawn: EOS. In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess and personification of the rosy-fingered dawn, who drives a chariot each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and dispel the darkness.
 |
| Eos AKA Aurora (in Roman mythology) |
Here's the grid:
If you were old enough to listen to popular music in 1969, you might remember a song by The Archies that became the most successful "bubblegum pop" single of all time. Today's puzzle brings that old ear worm to mind:
Sugar
Oh, honey, honey
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
Honey
Oh, sugar, sugar
You are my candy girl
And you got me wanting you
With love to all you lovers,
NaomiZ
52 comments:
Note to self:
(I haven’t come up with a
good comment for the day’s crossword puzzle yet.) Something about how appropriate it was for Valentine’s Day perhaps? And how it wasn’t very easy? Something like that. And concluding with
“Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.”
Good morning!
Tried SHORN at 1a, but "Hotel room sets" set me straight. After that fox pass the Wite-Out got a rest. I've never heard anyone called PUMPKIN, only PUNKIN, which is also the name of a street around here. Nice puzzle, Daniel, and d-o enjoyed your expo, NaomiZ.
FIR. One can expect a high level of difficulty on a Friday, but this was over the top. So many off the wall clues, and a boat load of proper names.
The only saving grace for this puzzle was the theme. It was appropriate and clever. But that's all that can be said for the entire crossword.
Overall this was not an enjoyable puzzle.
FIR, but shu->GAI, resting->ON BREAK, and huge->EPIC. LFC (Learned From Crosswords): RPG, and that some find cilantro SOAPY.
March Madness© concludes in April, usually the second Monday of the month.
Clues I would like to see: The Incredible Dr. ____" for POL, and "Shelvers' lobby" for ALA (American Library Association.)
Seems like only yesterday that we were discussing college TIGERS.
Leon Russel's classic Tight Rope describes a relationship characterized by soaring heights and deep chasms:
"I'm up on the tightwire
Flanked by life and the funeral PYRE
Putting on a show for you to see"
(The Wallenda family from Sarasota perform daring tightrope exhibitions all over the world.)
My favorite musical suite is Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills and Nash. (The link is to an outstanding live, acoustical version I heard for the first time today.)
A QB's INT will go solely against his stats, but is often not his fault. Receivers often cause INTS, either by bobbling a catchable ball, running the wrong route, slipping when running a route, or not coming back toward the QB on a contested throw. Kinda like the captain of the USS Truman that collided with another ship yesterday - he will probably lose his job, unless it is found that the other ship intentionally ran into the Truman. The boss is usually blamed.
OOH! Forgot to extend my thanks to Daniel for the puzzle that I found fun and challenging. And thanks to NaomiZ for another fine review. Just one personal Valentine's question - does your DH object to kissing when you have cilantro breath?
Forgot about FLN: - Bayou Tony, is the technical term for your situation "garbage in, garbage out?"
Took 9:18 today, my lovelies.
Weird puzzle. Themers made it almost too easy for a Friday in parts, but the other parts? Yeesh. Lots of proper names, abbreviations, and foreign-derived words.
SubG: You've proved your genius today. That was excellent.
Always interesting to me how differently we view the difficultly levels. I found this very easy for a Friday and I am by no means an expert solver. I guess it all depends on what knowledge one has stored away and sometimes just being on the same wave length as the constructor.
The cleverness of Daniel's Valentine today slipped a bit into the cutesiness realm. For example, where Sugar, Baby, and Honey are terms of endearment, Pumpkin is not. It is a gourd.
And is "toot suite" supposed to be a play on the French phrase "tout de suite"? Which means "immediately." What does a horn have to do with that?
Too many other farfetched obscurities for me, like "Site traffic stat" somehow leading to PAGEHIT, and "WoW or DoD" giving us RPG.
To all the sweethearts here on the Corner (and there are many), Happy V-Day! 🩷. FIR in 13:14 which is a good Friday time for me, the names were all gimmes except for NATE, which made for a relatively easy solve. Two HERBs today, the SOAPY cilantro plant (silent H, not sure if it tastes that way to me cuz I don’t eat soap, but I know it overpowers everything else in a recipe and I’m not too fond of it), and HERB the musician, I still have my parents album “Whipped Cream and Other Delights”. Just learned today that coriander spice is the seeds of cilantro. I liked the clues for SLOTS and STREAK. Never heard the term WALK-UPS. Thank you Daniel for the puzzle and to NaomiZ for taking the REINs for today’s write-up, very well done!
Good Morning:
The theme was cute and timely but the puzzle itself, overall, was certainly not of a Friday difficulty level. Perhaps this was partly due to the 9 fill-in-the-blank clues and the 22 TLWs. Granted, the number of TLWs is dictated by the grid design, but the number of unnecessary FITB clues could easily be reduced by more judicious editing, IMO. Props for some clever cluing and fresh fill.
Thanks, Daniel, and thanks, Naomi, for explaining the theme in full context and for filling Moe’s shoes so capably.
Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️
DO, watch the movie True Lies where Arnold rescues his daughter from the terrorists, he calls her "Pumpkin".
Is fox pass a "foe paw"?
In the days before elevators, they referred to apartments on upper floors "walkups", because you had to walk up the stairs to get to them. Many tenement buildings were 3 or 4 stories.
Years ago, I had a customer who would always talk like the theme. One sentence would begin with Sugar baby, the next would be Sweetie, then Honey, and so on. I referred to it as "waitress talk", like waitresses used to talk in the old days. Now it's "my name is ___, and I'll be your server."
Being Valentine's Day, this puzzle was predicted. I guess this puzzle could have also had the Frawnch term, my little CABBAGE head (mon petite chou) for another food to go along with the Chinese dishes.
I had no idea what "WoW or D&D" referred to or why RPG was the answer but the perps handled it.NATE- complete unknown, along with the two mentioned shows.
I've heard of the term "Cat BACK pose" but not CAT POSE but it fit, so I left it.
I had no knowledge or "Blitzkrieg Bop" or the term PAGE HIL and had to guess the H to make it work. I'm not a website owner.
LIZ Claiborne is the great-great-great-granddaughter of William Claiborne, the first gov of Louisiana.
Much easier than the usual Friday for me. My only holdup was the P in VAPOR and RPG. A mental ABC run gave me the P for VAPOR and I accepted RPG. Now I know it stands for role playing game.
Favorite clue, instrument in a toot suite / horn. A horn can toot a musical suite.
"A hit is a request for a file such as a web page, image, javascript, or CSS hosted on a web server. In the early years of the internet, the number of hits was the accepted metric to compare the amount of traffic between websites." They are called page hits.
Cute theme, easy to suss.
Happy Valentine's Day/
I'm off to spend $2000 at the dentist today. Ouch! A bigger pain in the wallet than in the mouth.
Musings
-A very timely and fun puzzle.
-You’d better be careful addressing anyone with these endearments in conversation these days
-_AP_R was PAPER Trail first
-With NIL, transfer portal, super conferences, etc., the NCAA is on the verge of irrelevancy
-The connection between change and SLOT was fun to uncover, DOH!
-A Big Mac in Thailand costs about 109 BAHTS
-My frugal DW would never think of using room service or the in-room fridge
-The first apartments my daughters lived in were two and three floor WALK UPS
-GAPES gets the start over GAWKS today
-An INT can be blamed on receivers running the wrong route or bad o-line blocking but the QB gets the blame. However, the QB gets credit for a 90 yd. TD even if he only throws the ball five yards, so…
-Nice job Naomi and “What Irish said, again!”
-Thanks, Jinx, after listening to CSN’s Judy Blue Eyes, I’m off to listen to one of my all-time favs, Southern Cross,
FIR. I agree, IM, this was not a particularly difficult puzzle. My only backpeddle was BABY from RUBY when I saw the theme emerge.
Perps were very kind especially with the (my) unknown repeated phrase HEYHOLETSGO.
Happy Valentines Day, to all and sundry. Kudos to our creator and reviewer of today's offering.
Love is best when given without reservation.
Heart
Lee, isn't the rule of thumb that new construction doesn't require elevators for buildings up to three floors, but require them if units are above that level?
Anon@ 8:18 - Yes, it is interesting to see the range of knowledge each one of us has. I too have days I can not finish a LAT late week puzzle.
This was a fun, easy puzzle, especially for a Friday, but the theme was a delight., so thank you, DH. NATE filled in, two a.m./ONE A..M., always liked the PBR commercials.
Men have to be careful who they call SUGAR, BABY. or HONEY these days. I had a friend whose father called her PUMPKIN all her life. She hated it when she was a teenager but thought it was endearing as an adult. I once lived in a 4 flight WALK UP in SF, in a time when knees and back were no problem.
HERB Alpert and the Tijuana Brass played music that made you happy
Thank you NaomiZ for all the explanation, especially PAGE HIT.
It is nice to see all of the Happy Valentine Day wishes here, so I say SAME TO YOU and to all of you.❣️❣️❣️
Love that song. Here's Jimmy Buffett's live cover of it. Jimmy actually sailed those waters, DNK if CNY ever did.
Enjoyed NaomiZs recap more than the puzzle. Clues were just a bit outside of my wheelhouse. Kept trying to figure out how WoW and D&D were some type of Rocket Propelled Grenade.
I have no complaints about this puzzle. I liked the timely theme, the clues I had no answer to were taken care of by perps, that makes 5 CW I’ve enjoyed this week. Will my luck hold tomorrow.Let’s hear that Toot suite.
Now out of the food items, I disliked them all but the BABY RED
POTATOES.
I noticed ERIK and EPIC, and HERB and SERBS.
MYNA birds are super smart birds.
Thank you NaomiZ for á nice Recap.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all.
I agree with most that the puzzle was easy, but the theme, like most themes, served as nothing more than an excuse to roll my eyes.
Another celebration compliments of Hallmark? Anyway, may it be happy, Dearies!
I enjoyed the theme despite some of the straining Daniel had to do to make it all work. I sussed the theme with PUMPKIN PIE and then sailed to the finish line.
My biggest problem was HEY HO LET’S GO, resolved when I finally spelled MYNA correctly. I also flirted with trouble in the NW corner despite coming up with SOAPY early on. I had “paper” trail before VAPOR trail and TpS as the hotel room set before I got wise.
PAGE HIT and RE-DYE were green paint, and there were an awful lot of short words, but most of those helped me along in the puzzle. I knew most of the names. The spelling of ERIK may have confounded others, but not me.
Daniel did avoid the tiger-laden Southeastern Conference with the Ivy League team’s version.
NaomZ, that’s the first time I’ve seen the can instead of the bottle for my second-favorite stout.
My first fill was HERB Alpert, whose Tijuana Brass albums are still a guilty pleasure for me, and not just because of the famous album cover for Whipped Cream. By the way, there are three syllables in Tijuana, not four.
I'm usually Graham Nash when I can find two or three other musicians to perform CSNY songs. Suite Judy Blue Eyes was a conduit to my finding my sophomore-year roommates in college.
Oops. Omitted a letter in Naomi, which gives me a chance to thank her for her write-up.
Hola! Happy Valentine's Day! To cynics, it is a commercial edge for Hallmark and other greeting card makers, to romantics, it is a day to love and cherish our dear ones. I am the latter.
The puzzle was interesting in that it meshed romance with food, glorious food! I love PORK, PUMPKIN PIE, BEETS, POTATOES, MOO GOO GAI PAN and almost all other food. Cilantro is good when a garnish is needed such as on posole or menudo. Now, I'm getting hungry!
Sad to say, I missed TERSE/TV sets and VAPOR as well as SUGAR beets. In my defense I have to say I am not thinking clearly these days as I have so much on my mind. I'm not sure that my credit union woes have been resolved, I'll have to check later and I'm still waiting for new checks to arrive.
I haven't done yoga in a while but I certainly remember CAT POSE.
Abbreviations like RDG and PBR are irksome unless one knows them and I do not. INT just emerged so I did not have to ponder it. Also, HEY HO LETS GO and PAGE HIT made no sense so thank you, Naomi IZ, for explaining.
LIZ Claiborne outfits are among my favorite clothes. Thank you, Big Easy, for that insight about her. I wasn't sure she was even a real person.
May you all experience love in a special way today!
You are so right about HERB Alpert’s music. As soon as I saw his name, his happy tunes echoed in my head.
Not too many names today, 14, and only 3 DNKs. Lots of really imaginative clues left me sitting there straining my brain. "Barely running" perp filled as STREAK and I didn't get it until NaomiZ 'spained it. "Site traffic stat" was another struggle, but it was the NW where I struggled most. "Vapor" did not come to me for quite a while. RPG? Rocket propelled grenade? Oy. Anyway, FIR but took 23 minutes and lots of perps and a few WAGs. Very clever clues and appropriate theme for Valentines day, thanx DH. And thanx too to NaomiZ for the excellent write-up that 'splained all those parts of the CW that filled by perps but left me scratching my head. Happy Valentines Day to all.
An entertaining and clever puzzle.
And after a delicious dinner like that a dose of BEANO would certainly be needed.
Happy Valentines Day everyone ❤️🥂🙏
Thanks Naomi. I couldn't figure what "change channels" was even after I had "Slots". I never hear of "RPG". I had it almost finished but messed the top NW corner up when I had "Paper" not "Vapor". All in all not bad for a Friday and the theme was appropriate.
Big easy here. PAGE HIT not HIL. I try to proof my own work but obviously I failed today
I remember Herb's music from The Dating Game.
If we still had "Preview," a lot of these typos wouldn't get posted. Especially mine.
CSN. I want my preview back.
Before I retired, I held several posts as high school principal/academic director at several schools. One of my students was the son of Graham Nash, who was a great parent. Ditto for another dad, Don Felder of the Eagles, whose son was there at the same time!
Thank you for working a bit of Valentine affection into today's puzzle, Daniel--a very sweet idea and much appreciated. I'll comment more on it below. And your commentaries are always helpful, thanks for those too, NaomiZ.
All those terms of affection were such a dear treat. SUGAR, BABY, HONEY, and PUMPKIN must have smiled when they saw not only the lovely tributes they got, but also that delicious dinner of BEETS, POTATOES, PORK, and PIE. I was hoping they'd also get a bottle of wine to share, to SOOTHE them on this busy day--but maybe later. It must be the husbands who provided all these treats to them this morning, and I'm sure they all responded with SAME TO YOU.
On this day my own heart is always with my sweet late husband ROWLAND, who gave me the pleasure of my life-time during our twenty-one years of marriage. How lucky that we found each other so late in our careers, and thanks partly to the moment when we both realized we had identical dachshunds. Yes, they were the bride-dogs at our wedding!
Have a wonderful Valentine's day, everybody.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Daniel and NaomiZ.
(Anyone with a last name of Hrynick loves a good borscht and pedaheh!)
Hand up for remembering Sugar, sugar.
I FIRed in very good time for a Friday and saw the food theme. (Was Moo goo GAI pan and Easter Egg?
One inkblot to change Resting to ON BREAK. I waited for perps to decide between A pop and EACH.
Several unknowns (TIGERS, NATE, AKIRA, RPG, PBR) but they perped.
Favourites were the clues for PUMPKIN PIE, SLOTS, and STREAK.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Uncle Tex Elmlund worked wl the Wallendas for Ringling Bros. Scariest shows ever!
🤣👍🏽 ====> D.
No cynic here. And why not support Hallmark, an American company that makes most of its card in the USA? And why not make thousands happy on ❤️ Day
I kinda figured that today being V’s Day, we’d have some sort of a “sweet” theme…and Daniel didn’t disappoint. Some of you seem to have found it a little too gooey, but
“What the hey — it’s
Valentines Day!!”
Even with the giveaway theme, this one still wasn’t a WALK in the park — there were some very nicely deceptive clues (“change channels” anyone?) but not so diabolical as to be impossible. Thanks for an entertaining romp, Mssr. Hrynick.
Loved your recap, Naomi! That CSN live version of “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” is EPIC — I’ve saved it to rewatch so I can (attempt to) play that guitar version like Stills does — amazing solo. Thanks for that alone, Naomi! (and for the micro- to tera- chart).
While on the “suite” topic, I took the “toot suite” as a wordplay for today — as in “toot sweet”. Okay, maybe I’m stretching the ol’ imagination a bit, but I’m gonna give the constructor the benefit of the doubt on it. Plus, I think it’s kinda funny!
Cilantro for me falls in the same taste family as cucumbers — they both totally pollute anything they’re mixed into. As Snoopy would say, “bleah!!”. (And yet, I do like pico de gallo…go figure.)
Football, Husker G., is indeed a game of contradictory actions, starting with its name…
Anyway, hope everyone has a sweet day with their sweeties ❤️❤️
====> Darren / L.A.
HERB could toot sweet(ly).
HERB could toot sweet(ly).
Well, to each his own. I love cucumbers and have them in salad every day. And as I mentioned earlier, parsley is a garnish which I can take or leave.
Sweet!
My reply button is not working for some strange reason,
But Darren, re; suite Judy blue eyes :
Of all the alternate guitar tunings, the above has to be the strangest. But it works. You need to know this bizarre tuning in order to play it like Stills:
try not to break any strings....
Loved reading all your comments today, and want to express condolences to all who are missing their Valentines, including dear Misty. I'm in Arizona to console my mother, whose sweetheart passed away a week ago today. A remarkable man who would have celebrated his 100th birthday next month! Love is to be cherished. And yes, dear Jinx, my DH will gladly take a SOAPY cilantro kiss!
Thanks to Daniel for a fun Valentine's Day themed puzzle! Thanks, also to NaomiZ -- especially for explaining why SLOTS worked. I thought I grokked the theme but you showed a deeper meaning to those quotation marks. Well done!
I have that HERB Albert album. All the song titles are foods, making this the perfect HERB for today's puzzle.
Thanks for sharing your love story with us, Misty. I'm so glad you are a regular commenter. XXOO
I'm so glad you are there for your mother. Good on you. (I wouldn't have asked that most personal question had it not been Valentine's day. But good to hear that the flame is still lit!)
Hey, thanks for that link to the CSN demo, Dave.
Looks like an E-modal tuning…but I’m going to try to adapt it to a dropped-D (also a “modal”) and see where I get with that! Stay tuned…(yah, bad pun…🤣)
====> Darren
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