THE ENGINEER COMEDIAN...
...was "technically funny"
Don McMillan - technicallyfunny.com
Another RG puzzle on a Wednesday, a standard 15 x 15 grid with no circles, 18 TLWs, seven of which are abbrs, along with three out of the 28 4LWs in the construction. Lots of "quoted" clues and answers, too, only three(ish) names, but one still got me; I shoulda known via the crossing theme perp. Sigh. That said, the theme is a punny one with the opening line of
At the amateur comedy night...
17. the omelet chef had the audience __: CRACKING UP - an eggs-cellent joke
24. ... the personal trainer had the audience __: BUSTING A GUT - I ABs-olutley loved this one
38. With 51-Across, ... the professional bowler had the audience __: ROLLING - AND - 51A. See 38-Across: IN THE AISLES - "Aisle" never see bowling the same way again
60. ... the tailor had the audience __: IN STITCHES - this one is SEW funny
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:1. Mosque leader: IMAM - Crossword staple
5. Get ready quickly?: PREP - abbr, the "short" version of prepare
9. Tapioca pearls: BOBA
A recipe site
13. Zilch: NADA14. Sweeping stories: SAGAS - palindromic
16. Russian mountain range: URAL - name(ish)
19. Deli spread: MAYO - I like mayonnaise, even for my fries - like in Pulp Fiction
** Note:34A. F-bomb coming **
20. __ facto: IPSO - Latin, "by the fact itself"
21. Hear about: LEARN OF - Did you hear about Van Halen~?
Hear About it Later - from the album "Fair Warning"
28. Scented accessory: LEI - trying for some alternate cluing here
29. Oscar winner Stone: EMMA - name #1 - her IMDb
31. Vacay: PTO - I am enjoying some Personal Time Off currently, but not quite by choice
32. "And for my __ trick ... ": NEXT
34. Warning letters in a subject line, maybe: NSFW - Not Suitable For Work
37. Part of MYOB: OWN - Mind Your Own Business
40. "It just clicked!": "A HA~!"
42. Org. with ergonomic guidelines: OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration
44. __ Liberty: LADY - La statue de Frawnche
The copper clad Colossus belongs to . . . .NY, or NJ~?
46. Little devil: IMP
48. Stinger in a swarm: WASP - this one is NOT an abbr. 😜
50. CBS show with the theme song "Who Are You": CSI - Crime Scene Investigation
55. Pay stub letters: YTD - Year-To-Date
56. Home to the Hockey Hall of Fame: TORONTO
57. Dark side force: SITH - the "anti" Jedi
59. Word with deep or dive: SKIN - Skin deep, Skin dive
65. Silent performer: MIME
66. Edmonton NHL player: OILER - Hockey again
67. "I'm all __!": "EARS~!"
68. "No sweat!": "EASY~!"
69. One of Canada's First Nations: CREE - filled via perps, name(ish), but common in crosswords
70. Recipe that may call for a bay leaf: STEW - I have a crock pot and a bay leaf; I should make me a stew
1. Company abbr.: INC - Ever wonder what it means, exactly~? More here
2. Helicopter carrying the Vice President: MARINE TWO - I knew it was named something similar to "Air Force One", but waited on perps; I found the history quite fascinating
3. Films that have been formatted to fit a smaller screen, e.g.: ADAPTIONS - this just sounds wrong; adapTAtions seems more common, and better yet, adapted to fit your screen
4. Apples that are inedible: MACS - I figured it was a computer reference
5. Tired initials?: PSI - I knew the gag, but could not think of a three-letter 'radial' tire brand - turns out to be the recommended pressure in Pounds per Square Inch
6. Aired: RAN
7. Caviar bit: EGG - I tried ROE - Bzzzt~!
8. Theoretical physicist Wolfgang: PAULI - name #2 - I knew we needed a name, so I tried PAULA
9. Negative charges?: BUM RAPS - "I was framed, I tell ya~!"
10. Chimp relative: ORANGutan
This one fits the "stalker" description
12. Floating: ALOFT
15. Toss a coin?: SPEND - you'll need more than just coins these days . . . .
18. Region known for Wagyu: KOBE - took the "K" to remind me; everything Wagyu from Wiki - name #3
"You're sick, Jerry~! . . . Sick, sick, sick~!"
23. Beagle's bowlful: ALPO - I tried CHOW, but we were looking for a brand name(ish)
25. "Yeah, guess again": "UM, NO."
26. Catch a whiff of: SMELL
27. Withholding information?: TAX LAWS - I owe money this year, but I'm still waiting on a mess the IRS created two years ago
33. Current-ly?: TIDAL - Har-har
35. "Well, I'll be!": "FANCY THAT~!"
36. Question from behind a closed door: "WHO'S THERE~?" - AND - 51. Potential reply to 36-Down: "IT'S ME."
38. Japanese broth dish: RAMEN
39. Trading letters: NYSE
41. Dry as the desert: ARID
43. "I'm home, dear": "HI, HONEY~!"
47. Al fresco dining area: PATIO - eating outdoors
49. Soft "Hey, you": "PSST~!"
52. Early mobile phone manufacturer: NOKIA - I think my first cellular phone was a flip-open Nokia, and I had this one, as well
54. Type of chemical bond: IONIC - Such as Sodium and Chlorine = salt
61. High-end camera initials: SLR - Single Lens Reflex
62. Undershirt, for one: TEE
63. Fury: IRE
64. NNE opposite: SSW
Splynter
12 comments:
Sometimes, when I’m the first one to chime in (as I usually am) I say something that ends up being ‘contrary’ to what most others think. Is this going to be one of those times? I found this puzzle quite challenging. Did the rest of you find it easy? I’ll be interested to hear what you all say!
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy!
FIR. Getting an early start this morning and taking a friend in for surgery.
I found this to be typical Wednesday hard. There were several tricky clues, and too many abrieviated answers, but generally fair.
The theme was clever and unlike past days actually helped with the solve.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Good morning!
Sorry, Sub, d-o also found this one to be pretty easy. No Wite-Out required. ADAPTIONS (don't see that word very often) because Pan And Scan was too long. Thanx, Rebecca and Splynter. (Good luck with that knee.)
TAX LAWS: In previous years I would have my taxes E-filed by early February and mailed in Form 8283 separately. This year the IRS, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that returns which include Form 8283 can't be E-filed. I always owe money, so I'll be waiting until the very last minute to send in my check and thick stack of forms. My printer output is fairly faint. Hope they can read it, but don't really care. There probably won't be any IRS employees left to look at it, anyway.
When I saw the byline I thought this puzzle may leave me drowning in tears, but like d-o stated I found it fairly easy for mid week, a little less challenging than a typical Rebecca G offering, FIR in 10:35. DNK PAULI, IONIC, and ADAPTIONS was unfamiliar but they all perped. IN STITCHES was an outlier, all the other themers had the suffix ING. I liked the clues for TIDAL and TAX LAWS. Thanks Rebecca and Patti for taking it easy on us today, and to Splynter for your fine recap!
I also thought easier than the normal midweeker. The few unknown were easily resolved by the perps. NE, bumraps was the final fill.
FIR, but funny that->FANCY THAT.
Seems like I either love or hate Rebecca's puzzles, and this one fell into the first category. My favorite was "tired initials" for PSI.
CSO to BAYOU Tony.
My wife worked for AT&T's Western Electric, which became Lucent Technologies, which went bankrupt due to fraudulent accounting practices and bought by the French telcom giant Alcatel, which was bought by the Finnish telcom giant NOKIA. For a while I thought they were playing "hide the 401(k)," but it seems stable now.
The young lady walked into a lawyer's office and said "I want an annulment, or maybe a divorce." Lawyer asked her the grounds for the action. She said "I learned on my wedding night that my groom is a hobosexual." The barrister replied "you mean he's gay?" She replied "no, he's a hobosexual - you know, a BUM lay."
I got to file my first 1040X this year, because the IRS sent me a 1099-INT after the January 31st deadline, and after I had filed my return. I owed an extra $9 in tax. Probably should have waited to see if they would have done anything about such a trivial amount, but I'm not wired that way.
You know you are really AGING when at bedtime your dear lady locks eyes with you and asks "did you remember to take your blue pill?" and you know she's talking about your Tylenol PM to help you get to sleep.
Thanks to Rebecca for the fun, and to Splynter for more fun. I really liked the Venn diagram lecture.
If you saw the theme, this was not a difficult Wednesday. This puzzle forced me to learn much about WOLFGANG PAULI but physics has always been one of my very weak subjects. My first failing test was in Physics in high school. I avoided it entirely in college.
Splynter you always entertain, heal. Frohe Wochenmitte all.
I will never get used to how this keeps resetting but the above is me.
Never heard the term "skin dive" or "adaptions". Thanks for the enlightening bit about geeks and nerds- nice to know where one fits in.
Eight quoted clues is eight too many, in my opinion. "Toss a coin" for SPEND was a (questionable) attempt to be clever. Despite these nits, I found the puzzle to be Monday level.
Took 4:47 for me to make like a knight and slay this one.
I knew today's actress (Emma).
I agree that there were too many quoted clues, or that those were too much of a stretch (e.g., "toss a coin").
"Theoretical physicist Wolfgang". No comment.
SubG, I think you're up too early.
Wednesday level for me. Having studied Japanese, I blush to write that I spelled KOBI instead of KOBE. That led to me missing EMMA, because I had UHNO. The E in KOBE would have given me Emma and then UM.
PSI was a surprise but makes sense. I have heard of PTO but never use it and rarely see it.
ADAPTIONS seems to be used mainly for films. I read dozens of citations from the NYT.
"Any film or TV series adaption of a novel automatically comes with a filter that may make the experience of the story differ between those who have read the source work and those who haven't." Salon April 29, 2020.
With film adaptions of books, I greatly prefer the book. One exception, "The French Lieutenant's Woman." The film story line was easier to follow. I liked the book and film, "Where the Crawdad Sings" equally. The photography was gorgeous. The endings were different. I preferred the book ending.
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