Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, with the recap of a Friday Puzzle by Jeff Stillman who has previously had puzzles published by the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.
Today's theme is quite straightforward. At four places within the grid, Jeff has added the letter A to morph common expressions into witty answers to the out-of-necessity-somewhat-convoluted clues. In each case, the A follows an E and is the third letter of the "new" word and the first three letters form a word or acronym that could stand alone. Here are the places where this occurs:
20 Across: Say, "Everyone put your key in the ignition and turn," e.g.?: TEACH STARTUPS. From Tech Startups. (A cuppa, anyone?)
28 Across: Brief reminder before a Disney musical featuring Belle?: BEAST IN SHOW. From Best In Show. (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
 |
| Disney's Beauty and the Beast |
44 Across: Sidewalk stand earnings arranged in tidy stacks of cash?: NEAT PROFITS. From Net Profits. (National Educational Association)
55 Across: One overseeing a reform program for kleptomaniacs?: DEAN OF THIEVES. From Den Of Thieves. (Drug Enforcement Agency)
This is how it all looks in the grid:
... and the rest of the story:
Across:1. Big production: EPIC. The Waco Kid knows EPIC.
5. Half an island in French Polynesia: BORA.
19. __ knife: BOWIE.
25. Rite Aid rival: CVS. A drug store reference.
31. Cut with a beam: LASE.
35. Bull's-__: EYE. Did anyone check with the cattle on this one?
36. Lyric poem: EPODE. EPODE - Wikipedia
37. Tablet option: IPAD PRO. Not a medicinal reference.
39. Bar sing-along: KARAOKE. This guy comes up to me at the karaoke bar and asks, "Are you the guy who spends all night singing Neil Diamond songs?" "I am", I said.
42. Elevator part: CAR. Ever pause to reflect on what is really going on when you are riding in an elevator CAR two hundred feet above the ground floor?
43. Bed support: SLAT.
48. Dejected: SAD.
49. VMI program: ROTC. Reserve Officer Training Corps
50. Opening word?: SESAME.
58. The least bit: AT ALL.
60. After-lunch sandwich: OREO. How do I clue thee . . . .
61. Some watch displays: LEDS.
62. Faithful: LOYAL. What is a 3 letter word for playful, LOYAL, and unconditional love? Dog.
63. Bound: LEAP. Where do most people dine out on LEAP day? IHOP
64. Empire State canal: ERIE.
65. "R u kidding me?": SRSLY. Seriously?
66. Seals' meals: EELS. How does it feel when they reel in the EEL with zeal?
67. Chips-in-a-can brand: STAX. I might have clued this differently.
Down:
1. Without value: EMPTY.
2. French city, in song: PAREE. Paris
10. Play thing: PROP. Not a toy for a child to play with. An item used in a stage play.
11. "The Paper Chase" setting: LAW SCHOOL. A book and a movie.
12. Letters in the news: UPI. Long before social media.
26. Salty dog option: VODKA.
33. Times of youthful innocence: SALAD DAYS.
Where does the noun salad days come from?
Earliest known use
early 1600s
The earliest known use of the noun salad days is in the early 1600s.
OED's earliest evidence for salad days is from before 1616, in the writing of William Shakespeare, playwright and poet.
34. Perfect copy: EDIT. Not perfect as in without flaws. Perfect is used, here, as a verb as in "to make perfect" and copy is a body of writing.
38. Pregame event: PEP RALLY.
59. Only Canadian MLB city, for short: TOR. At one time there was also MON.
Some extremely obscure names in this puzzle (“Hey, Siri, I’m backed into a corner with a couple of three letter entries that make no sense. Can you find me some people with these names?”) On the other hand, I figured out the gimmick right away, so that was helpful. On the whole though, I give this puzzle a “C plus.” FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteDidn't know most of the names in this one, so it turned into a perp-fest -- especially with RON and OTOOLE side-by-side. SRSLY? But d-o got 'er done, so this one goes in the win column. Thanx, Jeff and Mal-Man. (Loved the Neil Diamond quip.)
Elevator CAR: Otis didn't invent the elevator CAR. He invented the spring-loaded brake that would automatically stop the car if the cable should break.
PEP RALLY: Our high school team was the Pigeons. Who could've thought that was a good idea? Crappy name. Our little town was on the Pigeon River, but that's still no excuse.
FIR in 13:06, not too difficult for a Friday IMO. I saw the “add an A” part of the theme, but the three letter word or acronym at the start went over my head. Revelation of the day ~ that there’s more than one AYO, last week she was TOMETI, today and two days ago she’s Edebiri (with an equally obscure reference attached). I never have and never will use SRSLY, it only omits four letters which take about one second to type. Or have I ever used “u” in place of you, I like complete words. Rant over. I did enjoy the solve and the recap though, thank you Jeff and MM for your fine work!
ReplyDeleteFIR. There were a few too many obscure proper names for my liking, and I didn't care for "srsly", but other than that this seemed a bit easy for a Friday.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme early on and that helped a lot with the solve.
But overall I did enjoy this puzzle.
Enjoyed the puzzle and rhe commentary. I didn't notice the acronyms either but will add that if you're from Texas the Texas Education Agency comes to mind although not a national agency unless intended as a subtle commentary on Texans' pride. And being from Texas, I know that "cinco" is Spanish and "cinque" is in the name of those 5 picturesque Italian towns I'd love to visit on the coast.
ReplyDeleteFIR, but dplus->C PLUS, plot->PROP, loan->LIEN, and ses->SEI.
ReplyDeleteRite Aid is a rival of CVS in the same way GMC is a rival of Chevy's truck division.
I used to have an LED watch, but I haven't seen one for nearly a half century. LED clocks, for sure, but not watches. ("Watch" and "clock" are both "un reloj" en Espanol.) I remember I had to push a button on mine to see the time.
Happy to know SALAD DAYS. I had assumed it was dieting, or (crossword favorite) eking by, as in "my salad, ramen and spaghetti days."
Those sprays don't have CFCs anymore, but some have propane. Learned that when I sprayed a skillet with Pam, and my motor home's propane alarm went off. Unlike a smoke detector's alarm, the propane detector doesn't shut itself off when propane is no longer present. IIRC, I had to remove the fuse to reset the sensor.
FLN: Big Easy, I remember reading about an investment guru who would make a hundred lists of high-beta stocks to watch in the coming year. He would send each list to thousands of people. At the end of the year, he would analyze the performance of each list and send "I told you so, now invest with me" letters to the recipients of the lists that happened to do well, and ignored the people he sent lists containing average or poorly performing results.
FLN - Husker Gary, when you spin those wires you will create voltage, but will only create current of there is a load (like the light bulb in the picture.)
FLN - Darren, since you remember Earl Schieb, you probably remember Cal Worthington and his dog Spot. (For non-SoCal folks, Cal was a car dealer, and his "dog Spot" could be a cheetah or an elephant, but never a canine.)
Thanks to Jeff for the Friday challenge. My favorite was "perfect copy" for EDIT. And thanks to our Mal Man for another funny, punny review. Except for I am... I said. Have you no shame? (I volunteered to help put down seat cushions in the Rose Bowl two days before Super Bowl XXI. For several hours we listened to Neil Diamond sing the National Anthem. I don't know if he was practicing to sing it live, or trying to perfect a recording to lip sync to, but after a couple of hours I was hoping they would start playing It's a Small World (After All) for a little variety.
As for those "investment gurus", remember the monkey throwing darts at a list of stocks beat most of the professionals in a contest about 15 years ago? Or the book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street"?
DeleteRe Jinx's mention of Cal Worthington and his dog Spot, I recall once his dog Spot was a hippo. Which Cal rode, of course. And unless I'm dreaming, I think his dog Spot was an airplane once. And Cal--a former World War II bomber pilot-- stood on the wings of his "dog Spot" plane while airborne.
DeleteTook 7:58 to get ahead.
ReplyDeleteI knew one of today's actresses (Mila, but not OToole or Ayo as clued). I didn't know Kai. We've had too many "Ayo" answers recently, and foreign math problems (sei).
"srlsy" and "yer" weren't great, but the crossing of "yer" with "Paree" took it to another level. I originally had "ipad air" before "ipad pro."
Well, darn. The NW remained blank. The fish for tacos here is usually drum or cat. I just drew á blank on that section. How I missed PAREE is beyond me. I too have owned part of CISCO for over 30 years, but missed that too.
ReplyDeleteI did get the theme gimmick when I reached DEAN OF THIEVES. Once I got that, I was able to finish the rest.
Too many names unfamiliar to me but I did get AYO since we had that actress’s name yesterday.
If I saw SRSLY in á message, I would have to ask for translation,
OBIT is an abbreviation but the clue is not abbreviated so I hesitated filling it in.
Yes, cinque is not Spanish e is Italian for y (and). Two Romance languages with many similarities. In French, another Roman e language, it’s cinq et un.
All in all, not my favorite type of CW. Thank you MM for á nice review. I love that quote about de Mille.
.
A slow start and fast finish today when I realized what was happening. My seals ate FISH instead of EELS, my paint came from an ART STORE (didn't notice the plural) until the SHOPS opened, my bank provided LOANS that held LIENS to add to the four unknown people- ELLIE, AYO, KAI, and O'TOOLE. PRINGLES wouldn't fit and I've never heard of STAX. I have heard the term SALAD DAYS but thought it referred to meals.
ReplyDeleteWith those problems, it took a while for me to catch the added As.
And SERIOUSLY, what the hell is SRSLY?
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI’m with Monkey on this not being a favorite type of theme. Perhaps my disappointment over the lack of Friday challenging head-scratchers colors my views on other less interesting, to me, novelty themes. That said, the solve was relatively smooth, excepting Kai and Ayo, but no w/os.
Thanks, Jeff, and thanks, MalMan, for the many chuckles, especially on the Un-curtain Times, IHOP, and I am, I Said quips.
Have a great day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-I could not AVERT grins at Jeff’s fun gimmicks
-It turns out BALI Hai is 4,000 miles west of BORA BORA and the wrong B multi-word island.
-CSN fans will recognize Papeete in the above map.
-I remember being shocked that the BULL’S eye was not the highest score on a dart board
-The salt mine elevator CAR in Hutchinson, KS will take you so far underground (650’) your ears will pop.
-How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, After they’ve seen PAREE?
-Interesting BUM STEER info and fun puns, MM.
-Is Yorick’s skull the most famous PROP in a play?
-Even with my memory issues, I know we have had AYO recently
-D-O, worse nickname, Omaha Benson are the Benson Bunnies.
-Jinx, not only did I create current but I had kids hold the wires when I cranked. After the first kid got a small buzz the others (uh, boys) all wanted to do it.
-What? A disagreement with my friend Irish? I enjoyed the puzzle! :-)
"CSN fans will recognize Papeete in the above map." OK, I need a hint. What song?
DeleteEven friends disagree every now and then, HG. 😘
DeleteNice job, Jeff. You provided us with a challenging puzzle that was Friday-appropriate: thorny in places, sure, but mostly informative, too. It made you think.
ReplyDeleteMalMan in his recap was accurate about "salad days." It was one of hundreds of expressions invented by Will Shakespeare that are still used today. He gave the first use of it in history to Cleopatra, in "Antony and Cleopatra," a play he wrote in 1606. She is admonishing her attendant to not remind her of the foolish and juvenile things she may have said and done when she was young: "My salad days, when I was green in judgment: cold in blood, to say as I said then."
I could go on about Shakespeare's use of the "salad days" concept, but won't. Well, just one brief note, where it has an ominous connotation, encompassing the two "Henry IV" plays as well as "Henry V." The son of Henry IV is Prince Hal, and his youth is misspent partying with Falstaff and other riffraff. Well, when a young Hal becomes king, how is he going to justify and explain his recent salad days, and what will be his relationship now with his old chums?
Back to the puzzle, I enjoyed the misdirected clues, especially "Perfect copy," where it turns out "perfect" here is not an adjective.
A couple familiar faces, OREO and ERIE, made their unwelcome appearance. There were the usual obscure (to me) names, like AYO and ELLIE, but friendly nearby perps made short work of them.
Oh--and I appreciated the clever theme. So thanks again, Jeff, for a well-constructed, smooth, and enjoyable and instructive puzzle. And thanks, MalMan, for your usual professional yet amusing recap.
Thanks TK for explaining “salad days”.
ReplyDeletePEP RALLY: Our high school team is the Yuma Criminals . In 1910 Yuma High School moved to the abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison in 1917 the school board officially adopted the nickname. Yuma High School has been proudly called the home of the “Criminals” ever since,
Once again, to many names, thanks MalMan for informative recap.
Yuma High School in Yuma, Arizona is nicknamed the "Criminals" because the school held classes in the empty Yuma Territorial Prison in the early 1900s. The nickname was originally used as a taunt by rival football players, but the school later adopted it as a source of pride.
Sorry for the double post, how do you delete a post?
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle, as it was puzzling at times.
ReplyDelete(Re)learning moment: salad days
(I used to remember things in my salad days, especially to use dressing...)
(Re,re)learning moment: Italian counting
And (I was todays years old when I learned):
Many, many years ago, before they out locks on fire escape doors. I was a kid, climbing the stairs to the top, where I found (the unlocked) elevator rooms for our 25 story building. I was amazed by one particular piece of machinery, the flyball governor. At the time I thought it stopped the elevator from falling, but now I find it simply controlled it's speed.
If you want to know exactly what Otis invented, peruse this 3 minute video here...
Of you want to know more about what a flyball governor is, you can peruse this 8 minute video here...
If you want to be entertained for (90 odd minutes) you should watch the fantasy romcom called Kate and Leopold. It's about Otis from the elevator invention, travelling in time before his invention, which causes all the elevators in the world to break down because he was not there to invent his doohickey. The entirely ridiculous method of time travel involves jumping off the Brooklyn bridge. As dumb as this sounds, the movie is utterly charming and watchable, as you can see from this clip here...
You know I love any puzzle with a VMI clue! However, pretty easy for a Friday.
ReplyDeleteJeff, I thought today's puzzle was a toughie, with 7 solid unknowns for me, but it must have been fair, because I FIR. Thanks for that! NEAT theme, too.
ReplyDeleteMalMan, you cracked me up at 16-Across, Window treatment: DRAPE. "I don't know if I can afford new DRAPEs for my windows. These are un-curtain times." I promised myself that I'd get new drapes and carpet after the dogs passed away. It's proving to be quite a project.
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ReplyDeleteOrbiter Dictum: Love that “…Call Me Al” bit by Paul and Chevy. I wonder how many times they had to rehearse to get it right.
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ReplyDelete“obiter”
ReplyDeleteBEAST IN SHOW was the first theme entry I sussed. I found it delightful and looked forward to more such cleverness. Alas, there was none, although DEAN OF THIEVES wasn’t actually bad. Why did the NEAT PROFITS clue cite a sidewalk stand?
ReplyDeleteElsewhere, AYO and KAI created problems for me, and IPAD PRO took me a while. . . . There’s no need to explain why I disliked SRSLY. . . . The “little birdie” cliché has always been past tense in my experience, but it had to be present tense to make I HEAR work. An editor is supposed to intervene in that situation. . . . VODKA was easy to summon, but gin is much better in a SALTY DOG. . . . UPI is a shadow of its former self, barely “in the news,” if at all. . . . I’m with MalMan on STAX.
I think “Pigeons” is a great mascot choice, D-O. . . . I know Annette O’TOOLE primarily from “48 HRS,” in which she had one of the most thankless roles of all-time as Nick Nolte’s extremely dissatisfied girlfriend. I loved Nolte in that movie, and he had a line I cite often, but it’s not fit for the Corner. . . . Jack PAAR is another of those names that separates copy editors from imposters. . . . I loved the misdirection of “perfect copy.” Natch.
When I am forced to use an alphabet run in red letter help mode to come up with a letter, I can't reward myself a FIR. Such is the case today, although I did complete the CW in 20 minutes. I also did see the theme, but not the three letter acronym bit. Although I can't claim a FIR, I will say this CW was clever and enjoyable, other than the alpha run. W/Os EPOCH:EPODE, ARTSTORE:ARTSHOP. Thanx for the fun, JS. Thanx too to MalMan for the usual terrific write-up. MalMan's write-up reminded me of a great joke but it's too long to add it here. If anyone would like, email me at fredmitchel@gmail.com and I'll email the joke. It's one of the two best I've ever heard.
ReplyDeleteI’m ashamed to admit I don’t get the “cdrom/floppy disc” cartoon
ReplyDeleteThe 3 1/2 inch floppy was "winking" with the metal slide that's real purpose was to retract for the drive to access the disc media. The CD ROM had no moving parts. About as current as punch cards and paper tapes discussingchad and Jeremy songs.
DeleteTook some sweat, but eventually arrived at the FIR. This is not always the case on a Friday. SRSLY! I had one of those LED watches back around 1978. A real pain to read while driving on a sunny day...had to wait for the shadow of an overpass, take one hand off the wheel, and hold the button down until you could see the readout. (At 80 mph, in traffic!) Didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the whole "drive 55" thing back then!
ReplyDeleteTough but fun Friday puzzle, many thanks, Jeff. And I always appreciate your commentary, MalMan, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteHaving a puzzle begin with EPIC prepares you for a reference to a PRESident, and a suggestion that you go to LAW SCHOOL and learn how to TEACH START-UPS so that you can end up earning credit as the BEST OF SHOW (no, definitely not the BEAST OF SHOW). After that morning work, it's time for some afternoon fun, a PEP RALLY and some KARAOKE and a visit to some ART SHOPS before going to the SPAS and then watching some MEDIA while eating OREOs on one of these pleasant SALAD DAYS. A great start to a weekend, wouldn't you say?
Have a good one coming up, everybody.
Forgot to congratulate C-eh! on the fine Canadian victory over the US team. It was a great game, and the team with the best goalie won (in OT.)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jinx. That was quite a game, and a nail-biter right down to the end. And of course, the political overtones (because of your 17A) made the win even SWEETer for Canadians.
DeleteI liked this puzzle and found it similar to one Jeff created back on February 6, 2013 (if only I remembered how to link stuff in a comment. As MM in understated way commented, Mr. Stillman has had many, many puzzles published here at the LAT. Again my dwindling skills prevent a more complete reference but I am sure there have been more than 50 published here. I even dissected one on September 12, 2014 and almost every one over the years has written about Jeff's work. I do recall that HG had his maiden write-up a Stillman but I do not recall that date. (Gary?) You guys have said it all, sp I wish you a peaceful and joyous week end.
ReplyDeleteI’m with Desper-Otto — all those obscure pop-culture names did indeed turn this into a Perp-Fest…but I’ll forgive Mssr. Stillman in view of his amusing theme fills. Took ol’ dense moi until DEANOFTHIEVES to grok the hook, although by then I’d already filled the previous ones just by semi-pseudo-quasi intelligent guessing 😆. Nice job, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, our illustrious Mal-Man had me SRSLY ROTFL with his un-curtain gags, and the Neil Diamond riff. Well done, my man. Yes, dogs — unconditional love from them.
How could one not know the Cal Worthington legend growing up in SoCal, Jinx? It was always a kick to see what “Spot” was going to be each Saturday morning (tho I don’t recall the airplane one, T-Ken). That was a brilliant ploy to make the viewers watch his Spot spots! He must’ve loved the “Dick and Jane” reader as a kid…
====> Darren / L.A.
I will stand up on my head 'til my ears are turning red. Go see Cal Go See Cal Go see Cal.
DeleteForgot to mention, part deux: That didn't take long - the commander of the USS Truman aircraft carrier lost his job one week after it collided with a freighter. As I said back then, the boss almost always takes the fall in the US Navy.
ReplyDeleteFab Friday. Thanks for the fun, Jeff and MalMan.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed finally, and saw the “drop the A” theme erly (sic) in the game.
But oh, the inkblots.
I’ll blame unknown names (KAL, ELLIE, AYO, O’TOOLE, RON - but I did know one of those ALS, and SELES), plus Canadian disadvantage (VMI program?).
But Jeff (or Patti) threw me a bone with TOR.
We had some possible Easter Eggs with I HEAR, LEAP, TEAL and PLEA, but they were rotten ones that don’t make another word when the A is dropped.
Favourite was the “perfect copy” clue that requires you to adjust both your pronunciation and part of speech for “perfect”.
Wishing you all a good evening.