Dress Codes
Today's constructor Keegan Edgar is making his LAT debut (his constructor debut anywhere I think), and he wants to know why people who perform certain services are such conformists when it comes to their garb ... 20A. Court garb: TENNIS WHITES. These people don't wear robes, but they do serve. So why do tennis players wear white -- at least on the poncier courts? Turns out it's a Victorian thing.
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| Serena Williams Wimbledon 2012 |
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| Two Sailors in Dress Whites Fleet Week in New York |
47A. Restaurant garb: WAIST APRONS. There are several types of aprons for those who serve in restaurants: bib aprons cover from the neck to waist, full body aprons cover from the neck to the knees and are most often used by cooks in the kitchen, and waist aprons are most likely worn by the ladies and gents who take your order and serve your food ...
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| Waist apron |
I thought the reveal was a bit forced until I googled SERVING LOOKS and discovered that it's Gen-Z speak for "someone who is confidently wearing a distinctive and memorable outfit" -- and thus a clever pun on the three "services" in the theme clues ...
55A. Very well-dressed, or what 20-, 29-, and 47-Across are?: SERVING LOOKS. IMHO they're really just an invitation to be ogled 😀 -- here are 200 examples from Pinterest (apparently cell phones are required accessories).
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Early __: RISER.
6. Have empathy (for): FEEL.
10. Model/actress Delevingne: CARA. Cara Jocelyn Delevingne (born 12 August 1992) is an English model and actress. She signed with Storm Management after leaving school in 2009. Delevingne won Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2012 and 2014, and has also received three Teen Choice Awards and nominations for a British Independent Film Award and an MTV Movie & TV Award.
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| Cara Delevingne |
15. Kent co-worker: LANE. As in Lois. There have been a lot of Kents and Lanes over the years, but here they meet for the first time in the 1978 film Superman played by Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder ...
16. Hoppy brews: ALES. IPAS fit, but didn't perp.
17. Deluge: FLOOD.
18. Some mnemonic devices: ACROSTICS. An acrostic mnemonic is a sentence or poem where the first letter (or letters) of each part of the text represents a thing that you’re trying to memorize. Here are some common examples, and how you can create your own. An acrostic is also a type of word puzzle, related somewhat to crossword puzzles, that uses an acrostic form. It typically consists of two parts. The first part is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which the answers for the clues fit.
20. [Theme clue]
22. Slurpable course: SOUP. TSK, TSK -- such bad manners!
23. Spam holder: CAN. 22A comes in CANS too but we make our own. One of our favorites is vegetable soup -- here's Jaclyn's recipe.
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| Vegetable soup |
27. Negotiator's abbreviation: OBO. Or Best Offer.
29. [Theme clue]
33. Basis for a civil action: TORT.
35. Jamaican genre: SKA. Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Here's Give It To Me by one of the founders of the genre, Stranger Cole.
36. Waffle House alternative: DENNYS. IHOP was too short.
37. "They went __ in a Sieve, they did": Lear: TO SEA. Nice misdirection -- not a quote from the Shakespeare play, but from the poem The Jumblies by 19th century English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet Edward Lear. Probably his most famous poem was The Owl and the Pussy-Cat published in 1870.
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| Edward Lear 1866 |
41. Cliched: STALE.
42. B flat equivalent: A SHARP. B flat and A sharp are examples of "enharmonic equivalents" that is notes, intervals, scales, key signatures, or chords that sound the same but have different names.
44. Dawn goddess: EOS. This is the tale of Eos and Tithonus: a tragic story of immortality and love.
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| The goddess EOS The Bringer of Light |
47. [Theme clue]
50. Cable alternative: DSL. Digital Subscriber Line -- you might have faster ways to get to the Internet, but if you don't, here's what you need to know about DSL.
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| DSL connections |
51. Energy storage molecule, briefly: ATP. Adenosine triphosphate is often referred to as "molecular unit of currency" for intracellular energy transfer. The energy that it supplies is contained in its phosphate bonds and when one of them is broken that energy is available for use to by various cellular processes. The depleted ATP results in either ADP (Adenosine diphosphate) or ADM (Adenosine monophosphate). But as cells have a constant need for energy, there an ongoing process for "recharging" ATP via a complex enzyme called ATP synthase, a so called "molecular machine". Here is an amazing simulation of ATP synthase converting ADP to ATP ...
... but the most amazing thing about ATP synthase is that it resulted from zillions and zillions of accidental mutations 😀.
52. Son of a son: III. Assuming that the sons have the same given name, the second son's name will be suffixed with "Jr" and the third son's will be suffixed with "III".
53. Organizer entry: Abbr.: APPT.
55. [Theme reveal]
60. Fish commonly prepared à la meunière: DOVER SOLE. The term à la meunière translates from the French literally as "in the style of the miller's wife". The name implies a simple dish, usually fish, which is first dusted with flour and then cooked in butter sprinkled with lemon juice and chopped parsley. The simplicity of the dish derives from the delicacy of the fish -- anything more would be "gilding the lily" ...
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63. Golfer Palmer, familiarly: ARNIE. Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in 1955, he won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and the circuit now known as PGA Tour Champions. Nicknamed "The King", Palmer was one of golf's most popular stars and seen as a trailblazer, the first superstar of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s.
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| Arnold Palmer sporting his US Coast Guard whites in 1953 |
64. CNN anchor Burnett: ERIN. Erin Isabelle Burnett (born July 2, 1976) is an American news anchor, currently the anchor of Erin Burnett OutFront on CNN. She has also worked over the years in various positions for CNBC, NBC. and MSNBC.
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| Erin Burnett |
66. Stretch: STINT.
67. Pulsate: BEAT.
68. Soft summons: PSST.
69. Ingredients in traditional collard greens: HOCKS. Here's LaKita's recipe for Southern Collard Greens with Ham Hocks. Collards will get leathery if you leave them in the garden too long, and our advice is to pick them when they're young and tender.
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| Collard Greens with Ham Hocks. |
BTW my first google hit on HOCKS had a dad joke, which I wasn't going to use, but now I can't resist -- it reminds me just a little of O'Henry's Gift of the Magi.
Down:
1. Rapids transport: RAFT. If you're going to do this sort of thing, it pays to work with pros ...
I wonder if Renee or anyone else has any rafting stories?
2. Tropical spot: ISLE. We spot this one on the Corner a lot too.
3. Big deal for an Olympian: SPONSORSHIP. The story of advertising and sponsorships at the modern Olympics begins in Athens, Greece, during the 1896 Games, when stamps were sold to help fund the event. In 1908, OXO became the first official sponsor of the Olympics, providing athletes with beef stock drinks for energy. Jump forward to 1928, when Coca-Cola signed its first contract with the Games and remains a major sponsor 104 years later. Sponsorships have evolved considerably since the early days and are currently regulated by Rule 40, a by-law in the Olympic Charter. I think sponsorships really are a "big deal" in that you need a lawyer to understand them! Here is some guidance that was put together for 2024 athletes and sponsors to navigate advertising restrictions. CSO to Jason and Susan for a simpler explanation?
4. __ Lodge: ECONO.
5. Spoke on a bicycle wheel, e.g.: RADIUS.
6. Fatal __: FLAW.
7. Made for __ other: EACH.
8. Henry, in Italian: ENRICO. Of course the most famous ENRICO is Enrico Caruso, widely regarded as the greatest tenor of all time. Here he's singing the aria Nessun Dorma from Giacomo Puccini's last opera, Turandot ...
... and a CSO to Anonymous T.
9. Bodysuit named for a trapeze artist: LEOTARD. Jules Léotard (1 August 1838 – 16 August 1870) was a French acrobatic performer and aerialist who developed the art of trapeze. He also created and popularized the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name and inspired the 1867 song The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" here sung by the inimitable Eddie Cantor ...
10. Lions and tigers, but not bears: CATS. "Oh my Toto! Maybe we really ARE still in Kansas!" 😀
11. Oscar winner Mahershala: ALI. Mahershala Ali (born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century. Like wow!
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| Mahershala Ali |
12. Cam button: REC. As in RECORD.
13. Pack animal: ASS. Constructors seem to pack a lot of this fill into puzzles as well.
19. Has a feeling: SENSES.
21. Facilities for rest and relaxation: SPAS. I think we need to give this fill a rest too.
24. Cocktail that often contains quinine: GIN AND TONIC. Tonic water is a carbonated soft drink in which quinine is dissolved. Originally used as a prophylactic against malaria, modern tonic water typically has a significantly lower quinine content and is often more sweetened than the original medicinal form. It is consumed for its distinctive bitter flavor. Here's a recipe for a gin and tonic.
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| Gin and tonic |
25. "Harry's House" pop singer: STYLES. Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer and actor. Known for his influence in popular culture, showmanship, artistry, philanthropy and flamboyance in dressing, he is a subject of widespread public interest with a vast fanbase. Styles is considered to be among the most successful solo artists who have emerged from a boy band. Styles' musical career began in 2010 as part of the pop band One Direction. They became one of the best-selling boy bands of all time before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. Harry's House is Styles' 3rd studio album. Here he sings As it Was, issued as one of the singles from the album ...
If you haven't seen the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk it's definitely worth viewing -- in his feature film debut Styles plays the character Alex, one of thousands of British soldiers waiting on the exposed beaches of Dunkirk for evacuation to England, while being strafed and dive bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
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| The Great Seal of the United States |
27. Bilingual North American capital: OTTAWA. French and English.
28. Expresses disdain for: BOOS AT.
30. One half of a candy duo: IKE. Thank you perps. DNK this candy. Mike and Ike is an American brand of fruit-flavored candies that were first introduced in 1940 by the company Just Born, Inc. Despite conjecture, the origin of the candy's name remains unknown. Mike and Ike were originally all fruit flavored but now come in several varieties.
31. Golden brew: LAGER. The basic difference between these two major beer classifications is how they are fermented. Ales are fermented with top-fermenting yeast at warm temperatures (60˚–70˚F), and lagers are fermented with bottom-fermenting yeast at cold temperatures (35˚–50˚F). Because of their warm fermentations, ales can generally ferment and age in a relatively short period of time (3-5 weeks). On the other hand, lagers take much longer to ferment (up to 6 to 8 weeks) because they are cold fermented. And I say "Vive la difference!"
32. Golden Rule word: UNTO. As I used the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you") as a part of a non-denominational answer last week I'm going to steal from myself (gee, I hope that doesn't violate the Golden Rule 😀).
34. Steeped brews: TEAS. These are usually bottom-brewed for only a couple of minutes. Here's our favorite ...
40. Gunk: GOO.
43. Finds a partner: PAIRS UP. A lot of pairing up goes on at square dances ...
... and a CSO to Yellowrocks.
45. Unforeseen impediment: SNAG.
48. Swivels: PIVOTS. Another common square dance activity.
49. Eclat: SPLASH. To do something with éclat could be described as making a SPLASH. The word is obviously derived from the French and has an interesting history.
54. Douro River city: PORTO. Thank you perps -- not a river or a city I knew. The Douro is the largest river of the Iberian Peninsula by discharge. It originates in Spain and flows generally west through Castile and León into northern Portugal. Its largest tributary (carrying more water than the Douro at their confluence) is the right-bank Esla. The Douro flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Porto, the second largest city of Portugal.
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| The Path of the Douro |
56. "Southern Man" novelist Greg: ILES. The novel Southern Man by Greg Iles is "a political thriller from his Natchez Burning series". Here's the goodreads review.
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| Amazon page |
57. With 39-Across, funds for a rainy day: NEST. A "rainy day" is a metaphor for times when things don't go right. The band Coldplay has set one to music ...
58. Hose problem: KINK. LEAK fit but didn't perp. Preventing kinks in long garden hoses requires a sturdy metal hose hanger, e.g. the one shown below available from Amazon. As you're coiling a hose for storage you need to give it a slight twist after each turn to preventing kinking ...
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| Hose storage hanger |
59. Volleyball match divisions: SETS. Volleyball matches are made up of SETS, typically three or five sets. Three-set matches are two sets to 25 points and a third set to 15 points. Each set must be won by two points. The first team to win two sets is the winner of the match. Researching this term was a bit confusing, as SET is also the term used as part of a one-two maneuver to pass the ball to a player near the net to either dump the ball over into an undefended spot or to “set” the ball into a position that allows the hitter to spike it over. Fortunately I didn't have to ask my third granddaughter about this, as she is a volleyball specialist, and despite having driven her to many games I'm still unclear on the nuances of the sport -- I can see her just rolling her eyes and saying "Granddad? ..." 😀
60. Food blogger Perelman: DEB. Smitten Kitchen is a blog for home cooks created and maintained by foodie Deb Perelman -- her site has a lot of tempting recipes. Perelman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from George Washington University, where she studied psychology and art therapy. She originally started writing online in 2003 while also working as an art therapist, and she eventually began the Smitten Kitchen blog in 2006. IIRC our very own sumdaze is one of her fans.
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| Deb Perelman |
61. Load from a lode: ORE. Very punny -- crosswordese for pay dirt?
62. By way of: VIA. Today's Latin lesson: "ROAD".
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
45 comments:
This was not a terribly easy puzzle; particularly because I was unfamiliar with the term “waist aprons.” Nevertheless, I persevered and got the win. (And, by the way, the reveal was lame.)
FIR, so I’m happy.
Unlike succinct SubG, I am not happy with a FIW on a Thursday. I dawdled for a bit in the SE, and my WAGs proved correct when I clicked on “reveal grid”. Nothing seemed right about SERVING LOOKS. Not surprisingly, my one bad cell was the cross of two unknown names from the fashion world and cinema. I had ELI Mahershala instead of ALI, oh he’s an actress I thought, then the expo showed me ALI is a guy and it’s his last name. STYLES, ILES, and ACROSTICS were all perps, as was ATP (I would guess practically everyone needed perps for that, except for any physicists in the crowd). Have never heard of the specific WAIST APRONS either, or that there are terms for different kinds. Congrats on your debut Keegan, you got me on this one. Bill and Teri ~ thanks for your well-researched review, even in layman’s terms I don’t think I’ll ever grasp ATP 🤣.
Good morning!
D-o struggled with this one, but finally emerged victorious. Yay me. Figured that half candy would be either TIC or TAC. Nope. Was that SPAM sold in a TIN or a CAN? The perps decided. DOVER SOLE à la meunière reminded me of the time a member of our inspection team proudly (and loudly) ordered trout à la manure on a transatlantic flight. That picture of ARNIE indicates he was a Coast Guard yeoman, yes? My first thought at ENRICO wasn't Caruso, but Fermi. Lots to like in this puzzle. Thanx, Keegan (nice debut), waseeley, and Teri.
DSL: It's a pretty slow internet alternative. I tried to order it when we first moved up here to redneck land. Turns out that our local infrastructure was too primitive to allow it. We had to go with a cable modem, instead.
DNF. I struggled from Atlantic City to Panama City. Odd - it's usually the West Coast that gives me heartburn. I had about a dozen blanks when I realized I wasn't having fun, and so TITT.
ARNIE won $3.6 million in his long and lustrous career. Scotty Sheffler won $25 million over the weekend of September 15th, 2024.
Even though I lived in Atlanta, the only schools I remember are Emory and Georgia Tech.
Another day, another CNN reference. At this point, CNN's audience is so small that it is nearing the point where "zero" is within the margin of error. How about "Fox News' Dana _____" for Perino?
Airline captains and first officers in this country must have an ATP (Air Transport Pilot) certificate. I'm so old I remember when we had pilots and copilots. And stewardesses.
I remember my mom working the Quote Acrostic in the paper. Until today I thought ACROSTIC was a made-up word. Didn't know that I used one frequently - Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls, but Violet Gives Willingly - for the color bands on resistors used in electronics. (Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Violet, Green, White.) Then there's the obsolete Make Virginia Eat More Jumbo Suckers Under Nancy's Porch. Guess that they teach kids today to Eat More Jumbo Suckers Under Nancy.
Thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for explaining this one. I still don't get the dad joke.
FIR. What a workout. The SE was the last to fall. And I still don't get "serving looks", but I can live without understanding it, or knowing.
Once again several obscure proper names flooding the zone. Yuk!
This definitely was NOT an enjoyable puzzle.
Here is DAB's bi-weekly puzzle, entitled "Overworked abbreviations" and here is his meditation on its meaning ...
Where would crossword constructors be without abbreviations? How many themes would have to be discarded if it weren’t for EEO and EOE? And the AAA and the ABA and the ACA and the ADA and the BBA and the BBB and the BBC? Indignant solvers may complain that they’ve never seen a screen referred to as an SCR, that SSRs aren’t much talked about anymore, that SPR is not a season they’ve encountered outside of a crossword, that an STR is not and has never been an orchestra section, or a narrow maritime passageway, or a stock unit, or a riverboat, or a soft-shell clam. And they have a point. But what they don’t consider is just what these guessable letters may have spared them in the way of unguessable jargon, or trivia, or slang. This puzzle is a grateful tribute to the hard-working, much-abused abbreviations that have got us all out of more than one tight cruciverbal corner with minimal semantic damage.
YP @5:45 AM In simple terms ATP is the cell's battery for metabolism. I don't grasp it either - where did it come from?
KS @8:04 AM "Serving looks" is Gen-Z slang for self-obsessed "beautiful people" offering a free license for others to ogle/leer them. If you think this obscure, wait until next Thursday!
Jinx @7:37 AM Here's the link that contained it --
"The hock is a joint on an animal's hind leg, or hock (as a verb) can also mean "to pawn." If you are hard up for cash, you may need to hock that ham hock for a few bucks. Good luck!"
I guess it's not really a Dad joke, but rather a paradox -- if you hock the ham for cash, you won't have any ham to make the "Southern greens with ham hocks".
Musings
-A potential proper name Natick on the top row that yielded to a educated guess and a reveal that was completely foreign to me.
-The south 40 gave me some issues
-For some reason I remember ATP and ATCG from biology class. As irony would have it, I am typing this in a biology class where I am subbing.
-As a math teacher I had heard of the ACROSTIC, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally for order of operations but had always thought of it as mnemonic like HOMES for the Great Lakes. An acrostic can not be one word. Our music peeps know Every Good Boy Does Fine.
-Oh, not King Lear! I think I’ve sailed in that sieve.
-Named for real people: LEOTARD : Tights = Bloomers : Not tights
-OTTAWA and Canberra are two national capitals that are not well known because of more famous cities in their countries
If this was indeed Keegan's initial puzzle, I feel he did a serviceable job. Obscure proper names and trendy pop culture nonsense were kept to a minimum, as were all those stale, overused vowel-rich staples provided by Crossword Compiler.
The puzzle was well-constructed, and by pluralizing the three theme answers as well as the reveal, Keegan obtained two 12's and two 11's. There were also two vertical non-theme 11's.
Like others, I had been unacquainted with the term SERVING LOOKS until Waseeley explained. Good old "GenZ-speak."
Thanks, Waseeley, for your informative and entertaining guidance, and thanks, Keegan, for a fine debut today. I look forward to more of your challenges.
FIR. Seemed an appropriate difficulty level for a Thursday, but agree with comments about “SERVINGLOOKS.” We can hope that term will end up on the dustbin of CW history. Had a tough time in the SW, which wasn’t helped by the aforementioned theme answer.
I always thought of a nest egg as a retirement or other long term planning fund, not as a rainy day fund.
Needed perps for Porto, but do know that it’s where Port wine got its name (too sweet for me).
I learned ADP/ATP long ago (maybe even in High School Biology, but most likely in College Organic Chemistry), and, as waseeley’s write-up says, it’s a key molecular transition for transporting energy in living cells. The chemical reaction either takes up or gives off energy (depending on the direction), hence serves as a convenient way to transport energy within the cell. YP, please don’t give physicists credit/blame for that!
FLN, in Germany would Harry Styles be called “Herr Styles.” I guess that’s enough of that one.
Good Morning:
I’ll defer to Thumper today.
Thanks, Bill, for your very informative and entertaining review. I enjoyed Mr. Caruso’s rendition of Nessun Dorma very much but, IMO, Pavarotti owns that Aria. Mahershala Ali was outstanding in Green Book, as was his co-star, Viggo Mortensen. Thanks, also, to Teri.
Have a great day.
im sorry but the whole thing was lame
Three alcoholic drink references in a single puzzle doesn't seem right. "III" was a stretch as clued. The theme unifier can join "YEET" and "YAS" on the trash pile imo. I give this puzzle a 5/10.
Hola! As long as i can finish a puzzle I won't trash it although some parts of this one might have been reworked, IMO. I did like seeing ACROSTIC, LEOTARD, DOVER SOLE and some of the long fill. Nice job on that, Keegan Edgar. I have fond memories of visiting the city of PORTO and learning it's history of "Port Wine". Also good memories of white water RAFTing on the Nantahala River in North Carolina with my sisters and late Bro-in-law. He used to arrange wonderful activities for us when we visited as I know I've mentioned.
Yes I've stated in an ECONO Lodge and many others when we traveled across the country.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
FIR eventually but not because I’m clever but because perps helped me come up with all those people names I didn’t know, in fact the only one I knew was LEOTARD.
Now the theme left me baffled. Not being of the Gen Z generation, I had no idea what SERVING LOOKS was supposed to mean.
We did have good food and drinks. Of course I first entered IPA for ALE, but I got the LAGER and many years ago I used to drink GIN AND TONICs. My favorite fish dish is SOLE Meunière.
We seem to have many early RISERs on this blog, I’m not one of them.
Thank you Waseeley for á nice recap. Good links.
I’m not a musician, but I’m pretty sure B-Flat is not equivalent to A-Sharp. B-Sharp IS equivalent to A-Flat. Poor clue editing.
Not an enjoyable puzzle. Too many names, fill in the blanks, and abbreviations.
Shame on the editor for publishing this puzzle.
Never mind, in addition to not being a musician, I am an idiot.
I’ve noticed NaomiZ hasn’t chimed in for about a week, probably busy working on her upcoming blogs?
Anonymous @10:27AM as I stated in the review A Sharp and B Flat are "enharmonic equivalents". I guess I should have included this link to better explain why. Sorry.
Thank you for that ATP video. I would say that it is totally unbelievable that it resulted from zillions and zillions of random mutations. ☺️ A great reminder of the wonders of our world on a gray midwinter day.
Anon@9:38. Agree strongly "III" is a stretch. My grandfather, father, son and myself all have same first and last names, but different middle names. So no Jr's, II, or III's.
It’s difficult to like a puzzle whose theme reveal is “in-the-language” only for Gen Z. I’ve never heard SERVING LOOKS or even WAIST APRON, although they clearly were the intended answers and although my FIR ultimately depended mostly on the reveal’s intersection with the unknown author ILES.
My favorite entries were HOCKS, SKA, PORTO (a WAG), and GIN AND TONIC. I don’t think most people actually recognize SKA when they hear it, though.
Unknowns included IKE (as clued), CARA (as clued), and ATP (which to me means “Association of Tennis Professionals”). I did figure out GSU (though I thought it was Georgia Southern), hoping it wouldn’t be GTU for Georgia Tech, but a good editor shouldn’t have let a fledgling constructor get away with that one. III, as clued, was just awful, U.S. SEAL and ONE-A were green paint, and I prefer to PAIR without doing it UP.
While we’re in that neighborhood, I have to mention that boxing commentators and ring emcees ALWAYS seem to include a couple of unnecessary words when they recite a boxer’s record. They’ll say, “Jones has a record of 34 and 3, with 18 of those victories coming BY WAY OF knockout.” I’d rather say VIA knockout.
Couldn’t finish the mid east even with my buddy Harry STYLES SERVING up a meal at DENNYS. Blocked on USSEALS 🦭🦭🦭
Got the SERVE clue but WEES: how is “very well dressed” SERVING LOOKS?
Inkovers: arcane/ARTIER, Ales/ILES, staid/STALE,
“hose problem”’neither leak nor runs/KINK ….. I Have a G & T 🍹a thrupple times a week… only… to prevent malaria! and it’s working!!
ENRICO, Anon-T’s famous musical great uncle. ARNIE: various percentages of lemonade and ice TEAS. ….. DEB Perelman?
Paddling through “rapids” a ___ of rowers fell out of the “transport device”…. RAFT
Ocean liner with ads … SPONSORSHIP
Disposable pinafore …. WAISTAPRON
Another snowstorm, flights cancelled.
Trying Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Keegan, and waseeley and Teri.
I eventually FIRed with one Google Map look to find out that Douro River is in Portugal.
I didn’t really “get” the SERVING LOOKS reveal, but that sounds like a generational disadvantage today.
I suspect that many of Keegan’s clues were adjusted by the editor (here’s looking at you IKE). This made the CW more difficult, and I’m not sure that “the juice was worth the squeeze”. I understand Irish Miss’s Thumper.
I had Canadian disadvantage today with GSU, DENNYS, III (we don’t use that designation for a grandson), DEB, ASPCA (ours is just SPCA), ERIN, UTES. Some I have learned from previous CWs, others perped or WAGged. We don’t have collard greens either, which made HOCKS all perps too.
But OTTAWA was a given (and hopefully for all of you too!). What was interesting was the 26D, 27D and 28D clues (and positioning with the US SEAL far removed from OTTAWA. You may have seen the videos of NHL fans in OTTAWA and their BOOS AT the US anthem. (This has occurred at other games too.). I can’t say that I condone this disrespect, but I understand the sentiment. Never underestimate the patriotism of Canadians even if we don’t parade it very often.
I noted ISLE and ILES.
Was STYLES the Easter EGG today?
Wishing you all a great day.
Thumper for me too today.
It was a DNF today. The SE did me in. SERVING I got; LOOKS-no way. I had my G&T drink and SETS but my LEAK wouldn't let the unknown LOOKS make it. WAIST APRON is a term I've never seen. DEB, TO SEA, and GSU came from perps.
BTW, bicycle spokes are NOT radii, at least on any bike I've ever seen. They are alternately offset from the axle.
LAGER vs. ALE reminds me of a law school joke. The professor asks a student "what is the difference between adultery and fornication?" After a thinking about it the student responded " I don't know. I've tried them both and can't tell the difference". Class dismissed.
Another joyless puzzle.
I had a different view: 20A, 29A & 47A all refer to people who "serve" in one way or another...and how they look.
August is our 50th wedding anniversary. Booked an overseas cruise/tour. May cancel, not sure of a welcome. Will wait and see.
I managed to FIR, but forgot to write down the starting time, so would hafta guess that this CW took about 20 minutes or so. Another name-fest, 18, DNK 8. Did not at all like the crossing of two DNK names in the NE. Very fortunate to WAG the "A". I've heard the opposite of the Golden Rule, also: "Do unto others before they do unto you." I like the real Golden Rule better. Some clever clues, some not so great, but before I criticize I should be able to do better, which I absolutely cannot, since I am clueless on CW construction. (Pun intended). I saw the veg soup recipe, here's my lazy guys' recipe: pour an 11.5oz (what happened to the other 1/2 oz, Campbells?) can of V-8 juice in a kettle, add one can of water, bring to boil, add one cup of frozen mixed vegetables, bring back to a boil and cook for no more than one minute, so the veggies still have some crunch to them, then eat. Whole thing takes maybe ten minutes. Anyway, thanx KE for your CW creation, and congrats on getting it published. Thanx too to Bill for the as always fun and informative write-up.
Shall I lend you a Canadian flag pin?
Lucina, your late nite comment yesterday left me troubled...
For todays Anons who felt something was missing...
I had trouble with the area that contained 46a early part of many an outline = one a... tough to parse, and even harder to visualise. so I looked it up.
All my iPad iOS 15.8 YouTube imbeds were "sign in to prove your not a bot." But I was curious, so I looked at my iPhone, and I'm glad I did because that messenger molecule video was fascinating. All the iPhone YouTube imbeds worked just fine, up until Eddie canter, and then, you guessed it, "sign in to prove your not a bot."
Note to self - skip next Thursday's puzzle.
CEh! @11:20AM Your comment about not using "III" as a designation for male descendants in Canada reminds me of one of my BILs' side of the family. The oldest male in the family was Joseph Rosario R______ and thus his initials were JRR. He then had a JRR Jr., who had JRR III who had a JRR IV, who had JRR V. When JRR V married and had a male child the entire clan was rooting for a JRR VI and everyone was relieved when the youngest couple agreed to it. But the youngest wife had gotten so tired of always asking "which JOE?" whenever the senior males were mentioned that she nicknamed her child "Rio". This didn't go over too well at first, but then the child was so adorable and now everyone knows exactly who Rio is whenever his name is mentioned that the nickname stuck.
You coulda given us a spoiler alert before linking to the solution. (No problem - I didn't see any of the answers, and I have a bookmark to his site.)
There is no rhyme or reason to this YouTube morass. I’ve to accept it and move on.
This was a nice steady solve - WEES about not knowing SERVING LOOKS - so that was today's learning moment and filled by perps
An ACROSTIC can be a mnemonic but not all mnemonics are ACROSTICs The first letter of each word needs to spell a word e.g. HG's HOMES for the Great Lakes but Jinx's mnemonics examples are not ACROSTICs- just opportunity for him to share the dark side of where his mind goes.
On the Sporcle Trivia website, B Henderson likes to make involved ACROSTIC puzzles like this one:
https://www.sporcle.com/games/bhenderson79/sporcle-acrostic-numero-cuatro
PAIRS UP reminded me of YR and her square dancing too, Bill
Mike and IKE are similar to Jujyfruits but from another company
SPONSORSHIPs are important for some of the lesser funded sports especially in the training years - we had a friends who were training in pole vault for the Olympics and getting a SPONSORSHIP from an athletic shoe company like Nike made it easier after college scholarships ended.
Home Depot is known for giving Olympic athletes jobs which are flexible for time off to go to meets
Thanks Bill & Teri for another informative blog and to Keegan for the puzzle
Delightful Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Keegan. And thanks for your commentary, Bill. I especially enjoyed listening to Enrico Caruso give us the lovely performance of that aria that I haven't heard for a long time. What a pleasure!
Well, how interesting to have a TENNIS player in this puzzle, who ended up having to serve as a SAILOR going out TO SEA. Apparently, he still had a SPONSORSHIP when he returned and that gave him a good life. I gather he was an early RISER who enjoyed dressing in STYLES that gave him some SERVING LOOKS. Glad he enjoyed EGGS for breakfast and a DOVER SOLE for lunch, along with some ALES. Later in the evening he savored some GIN AND TONIC while watching some programs on his TV SETS. Pretty good day, I'd say.
I also wish everybody a good day, even with our cloudy and wet weather today.
Canada Eh: plus we’ll add an “Eh” at the end of sentences from A to Zed and a “u” between “o” and “r”. 🤭
Waz: When registering at Uni in Italy a student from Texas told me he wanted his name spelled John G— I I I , the registrar at first refused saying they don’t recognize royalty or nobility. They went back and forth until the registrar gave in when he convinced her it was just his name not a title
I would have nicknamed him "Hex."
Hi All!
Fun theme/! Hand-up, I was tricked at Lear. Thanks for the puzzle, Keegan.
Thanks for the educational expo, waseeley.
WO: RADIal
ESPs: CARA | ALI, STYLES as clued, ATP, ILES, STALE 'cuz I kept reading "Clinched.
Fav: I liked ALEs & LAGER as well as ISLE and ILSE. Fine fun.
I've heard SERVING LOOKS (Youngest is still an undergrad, so...) and I liked the themers all served in their look.
The way I've heard it used is as a complement about a friend's outfit: "Oooh, you're serving looks."
Mike and IKEs are great for keeping your mouth busy at the movies.
C, Eh! - OTT[O|A]WA was a gimmie except the spelling. I waited on that perp (and, since there's no O note, it was a short wait)
Ray-O & waseeley: inre ENRICO - I've always been told no relations, but then Eldest goes and gets a degree in Opera (while getting another in Psych) and oft sings with the GMU choir while working on her PhD. So maybe there is a relation from far back and she got that recessive gene :-)
Cheers, -T
YooperPhil, thanks for noticing my absence! DH and I took our adult offspring to watch grey whales migrating out of the Sea of Cortez, from the sunny deck of a remote lodge. I also got fabulous bird photos. Baja California Sur is part of the Sonoran Desert, and there were birds familiar to me from Arizona, from Los Angeles, and from Galapagos.
I enjoyed today's puzzle and FIR on paper, no cheating, in good time. The reveal worked for me, but better with Bill's explanation. Many thanks to him, and congratulations to Keegan Edgar on a fine debut.
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