Theme: "ALL righty then ..."
Puzzling thoughts:
Today's Friday offering from Zachary Edward-Brown (who, after doing some research, appears to be a newbie constructor - having had published puzzles this year in both Universal and AV Club) features the type of puzzle that our Irish Miss 🍀loves almost as much as she does a puzzle that contains a plethora of three-letter words, abbreviations, and uncommon names: the add/subtract a word/letter with corny clues 😜
Ok, that being said ... let's look at the "good", the "bad", and the "so-so" that Zachary provided us today:
As my theme heading suggests, the word ALL appears once in three of the across entries and twice in another. We'll get to that in a Moe-ment ...
As the reveal in 53-down. states: "Bold poker play, and an apt title for this puzzle:" ALL IN is the bold move Zachary uses to change the meaning of the entry phrases. How? Let's check out the entries:
18-across. Performance in which dancers avoid center stage?: SIDE BALLET. In this example, the word all changes the familiar term side bet to fit the clue. A side bet is usually one made at a Texas Hold'em table after one of the players goes "all in". A side bet can be made by the remaining players who have called the "all in" bet, and that wager does not affect the outcome of the other
31-across. Fearlessness shared by characters such as Rocky and Rambo?: HEART OF STALLONE. By far, my favorite of the entries. Perhaps my all-time favorite add/subtract clue/answer. Well done Zachary! How about a little Rolling Stones "Heart of Stone" to bring this one home?
40-across. Decide it's time to harvest oniony bulbs?: CALL THE SHALLOTS. This entry is the outlier as it has the word ALL in two places of the answer: after the first letter (Call) and word of the phrase, and again in the word shallots. "Call the shots" is the phrase that's being punned, and in keeping with what appears to be a gambling theme (the reveal is a poker term, as is the first entry), this phrase, too, can be used in various forms of wagering. Have you ever played "HORSE" in basketball?
58-across. Vehicle built for Yao Ming and Shaq?: TALL-MOBILE. And then this entry threw all of the monkey wrenches into the mix, as the word, minus the "all", T-Mobile, has nothing to do with gambling. It is a wireless phone carrier service and internet provider ... although some users of that provider might say that you're "gambling" with getting good coverage
So, the good: HEART OF STALLONE (as well as the phrase "SNAIL MAIL" and the word "HOLYOKE")
The bad: TALL-MOBILE (as well as the entries of "HTC", "EEL POT", "T-BEAM", "ODOR EATER" and "E-BOAT")
The so-so: SIDE BALLET (that phrase just doesn't make any sense) and CALL THE SHALLOTS (due to its use of the word "all" twice) as well as the entries: "IMAGO" "A LOT" "ESAU", "ABC NEWS", and "BEEP" (as clued)
Overall rating for this one: ⭐⭐ and 1/2⭐
Perhaps one of the clued entries that was left on the cutting room floor:
00-across. Convention activity for clowns that involves creating blown-up animals from colorful latex?: BALLOONDOGGLE
Here is the grid ...
Across:
1. "Casablanca" role: ILSA. Some SparkNotes for ILSA Lund
5. Postop therapy: REHAB.
10. Sound from R2-D2: BEEP. meh
14. Family nickname: NANA. My maternal grandparents were called "NANA and Gramps"
15. Insect stage: IMAGO.
 |
IMAGO = The adult stage |
16. Syllables repeated in Rihanna's "Umbrella": ELLA. Fast forward the video to the 1:20 mark to find the refrain that repeats the syllables, ella ella eh eh eh
17. Place for Jazz players to practice: UTAH. Utah Jazz basketball team (NBA)
[entry #1]
20. Take to the hills?: SKI. Something my fellow Friday co-blogger, Malodorous Manatee, has done often this past ski season
21. Like supernovas: HOT. Hot? Ya think?
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Literally, an exploding star |
22. Some flight destinations: ATTICS. Not a fan of the plural use of the word attic, but the clue was very clever
23. Underwater trap: EEL POT. Moe-ku #1
25. Digging: INTO.
27. Pig's place: STY.
28. Needs to: MUST. As opposed to "wants to" --- and its somewhat related clue/answer from 25-down: Refuses to bargain: INSISTS.
29. Holiday melodies: NOELS. Some biblical history on the use and meaning of the word Noel
[entry #2]
37. Voyage: TRIP.
38. Flair who was the first wrestler to complete the WCW's Triple Crown: RIC.
 |
Also known as, "The Nature Boy" |
39. Noisy commotions: ADOS.
[entry #3]
45. WWII craft: E-BOAT. German "fast attack craft" known as Schnellboot. The British donned it "E"-Boat with the "E" standing for enemy
 |
Schnellboot |
46. Oaf: BOOR. I tried "clod" until I knew it wasn't correct
47. Dockworker's gp.: ILA.
50. Part of BPOE: ELKS.
51. Purchase that's worth a shot: CAMERA. I really wanted the word here to be "whisky"
54. Amount after deductions: NET PAY. Moe-ku #2:
56. "Your point being?": AND.
57. Feel sick: AIL.
[entry #4]
61. Etc. kin: ET. AL. Fun Faux Fact: the abbreviation et. al. really stands for (Extraterrestrial Aliens)
62. Biblical twin of Jacob: ESAU. Moe-ku #3
63. "Bam!": KAPOW.
64. Alien-seeking org.: SETI. Fun Fact: This doesn't mean: Seeking English Translators Intergalactically
65. Suffix that means "without": LESS. Moe-ku #4:
66. Les __-Unis: ETATS. Mandatory foreign phrase entry
67. Prefix in some juice names: CRAN.
Down:
1. Unavailable: IN USE. As opposed to this:
 |
Not in use |
2. Potato pancake: LATKE. Not to be confused with:
 |
Any "Taxi" fans out here?? |
3. Delivery for those who haven't gone paperless: SNAIL MAIL.
4. Spa sigh: AAH. If you didn't look carefully, you might have thought the clue said: "Spa sign"
5. Starchy dish that requires attentive stirring: RISOTTO. How to be a risotto master:
6. Radiate: EMIT.
7. Bore: HAD. Took me a while to suss this ... think of birthing a child, and now re-read the clue and entry ...
8. Grow old: AGE.
9. Bubbly drink?: BOBA TEA. In this case, I think the word "bubbly" should have been in quotes, and the clue does not include a question mark. The "bubbles" in boba tea refer to tapioca beads, not CO²
11. "Black-ish" star Tracee __ Ross: ELLIS. This person. To be perfectly honest, I have never seen this actor in any of her movies and/or television series
12. Put in office: ELECT.
13. Gullible one: PATSY.
19. Bikini, for one: ATOLL. Here is some interesting history regarding the atoll called Bikini
21. Emcee: HOST.
24. Color of Fear in the "Inside Out" films: PURPLE. This one solved via perps, but I have seen this animated short from Pixar. Just didn't recall that the Color of Fear was purple
26. "Take it down a __, please": NOTCH. "It's creepin' a bit"
30. Super G event, e.g.: SLALOM.
31. Taiwanese electronics co.: HTC. High Tech Computer corporation
32. Cy Young stat: ERA. All of Cy Young's stat's
33. "Let your __ flag fly": FREAK. An idiomatic phrase that refers to being singular and expressive
34. Shoe insert: ODOR EATER. A lot of us carp about certain words or phrases in crossword puzzles being erroneously pluralized; but in this case, I've never heard of the branded name product used to mask the smell in one's shoes called by its singular ... they're always referred to as "Odor-Eaters"
35. "Psych!": NOT. For those who are not into either internet jargon nor youthful slang:
36. Start of spring: ESS. The letter ess is also the start of start
41. Construction girder: T-BEAM. Here <== is a link to many of the different kinds of construction girders, including the t-beam, as well as the i-beam and h-beam ... "Beam me up, Scotty"
42. "The Paper City" of Massachusetts: HOLYOKE. So why, in my intro, did I target this word in the "good" category? Well, for starters, that is the city where C-Moe spent some of his early career in sales. Holyoke is situated on the Connecticut River, in Western Massachusetts, and was, in the 1870's a leading producer of various paper and textile products. Paper mills in Holyoke produced everything from paper napkins to cotton-fiber printing paper, as well as wall coverings (textile-based wallpaper) used during the early 20th century. The city is also home to the International Volleyball Hall of Fame ... most folks, when looking at the city's name, would pronounce it "holy - oak". But true natives say it as: "whole'-yolk"
43. "GMA" production co.: ABC NEWS. Good Morning America = "GMA"
44. Burden: LOAD. Onus fit, too
47. Brand of chips: INTEL. Moe-ku #5:
48. New car option: LEASE. Remember when new car options included: automatic transmission, AM/FM radios, A/C, power brakes and power steering, power windows, carpeting, cloth-interior, white-walled tires, et al?? And soon after, cruise-control and cassette-radios were options? The question now is: what isn't included
52. Vaquero's rope: RIATA. Only the second foreign phrase used in today's puzzle; kudos!
55. Bonus: PLUS. Let's see if the Thesaurussaurus agrees:
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Yup! |
56. Very much: A LOT. OK, I included this in the "so-so" group of entries today. I am not a big fan of using a lot in crossword puzzles. How could Zachary have avoided this? Here is how I might have constructed the bottom center of the grid. The new look would get rid of ETATS, BAT, IPA, and most importantly, the dreaded "a lot":
59. Critter under Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas: BAT. Learning Moe-ment <=== every crossword puzzle should have at least one of these as a clue, IMO. I had no idea that a ginormous colony of bats was a feature of the capital city of TX
60. Hoppy brew, briefly: IPA. So, if Zachary had used C-Moe's version, the clue would have been: URL addresses: IPS
61. Key above ~: ESC. Fitting clue/answer for the last one of the puzzle ... it's now time to escape this blog and wait for your comments and thoughts to today's puzzle
46 comments:
How is “bore” “had”? Other than that
question, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle. I got the theme before the reveal, and then everything pretty much fell into place. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Also puzzled by HAD -- took out the D, did an alphabet run -- put the D back in. Moved on. Is it RISSOTO or RISOTTO? Hmmm. Didn't figure out the theme; C-Moe had to 'splain it to this dense one. Thanx, ZE-D and C-MOE.
LEASE: Methinks the most useless "standard" feature is the moon roof. It was $900 and packaged with keyless entry. The dealer didn't have a single vehicle without both.
This is how C-Moe described how "bore" = had
7. Bore: HAD. Took me a while to suss this ... think of birthing a child, and now re-read the clue and entry ...
FIR, getting my guesses @ RISOTTO x IMAGO and ELLIS x ELLA. (I knew RISOTTO, just not how to spel it.) Also, uboat->EBOAT, ibeam->TBEAM, and onus->LOAD.
For a change, I caught the gimmick before I got the reveal.
Adult stage - I wonder what that must be like. Sounds boring.
Thanks to ZEB for the fun, doable Friday exercise. My favorite was TALL MOBILE->T MOBILE. And thanks to our Chairman. Great kus, and interesting article about our blowing up the atolls.
Seat belts, turn signals, heater/defrosters, and an analog clock that died after a few years were options. Seems like the passenger-side rear view mirror, and for sure the lighted vanity mirror on the reverse side of the passenger's sun visor was an option. But I don't remember cloth seat covers being anything but base equipage.
(I once bargained hard to get a bare-bones Dodge van for a little over $8,000 from a dealer in SoCal, circa 1982. When the deal was done and all the paperwork signed, they brought it to the front of the lot and I started to get in, only to find that there was no passenger seat and only a little plastic shell for the driver's seat. They said that's the deal I made. I asked if it was legal for me to drive on public streets with that seat. They didn't answer, but took the van to the back, added some really nice captains seats, and made me sign a paper that I would bring it back in when cheap seats came in. Never heard from them again.)
I think the most useless standard feature is the tach. The only use I can think of is for folks that are hard of hearing to know when the engine is running. I use my sunroofs occasionally, and loved the (crossword favorite) T-tops on my Mercury Capri - Mustang good looks and 302 CID performance, but much cheaper,
Jinx, my first new car was a '64 Chevelle -- $2000. Back-up lights were optional.
The only vehicle I ever leased, early 1980’s Ford Ranger for 4 years, 72,000 max miles (length of lease and miles unheard of today), the rear bumper was considered an “option”.
Not as difficult as Friday’s can be (depending on the constructor and editing), FIR in 13:01 with the usual significant perp help. Filled SIDE BALLET, and thought it may be a real thing 🤷♂️. The ALL IN reveal helped solve the other three themers. DNK E BOAT, only U Boat, or T BEAM, only H or I Beam. Never heard of HTC, or a FREAK flag, or heard anyone say Psych! (But it’s appeared several times in CWs, and I’d be happy to see it disappear). Perps helped me decide it is a BAT under the bridge and not a cat. RIATA used to be standard puzzle fare but haven’t seen that for a while. Coincidentally, DW made RISOTTO for dinner last night and I can attest to the fact that it takes “attentive stirring”, made with Italian Arborio rice (not pasta), she made it with shrimp, peppers, onions and cheese, delicious! Thanks Zach for the morning fun, enjoyed solve and clever theme. Thanks to C-Moe for the elucidation, especially the Moe-Kus, I wish I could come up with stuff like that!
FIR. I had to really work at this one. Some of the clues were quite off the wall, like bore being had.
And the theme made sense, but I'm not a fan of T-mobile as an answer. Half way through I noticed "all" as part of the scheme and that helped a lot.
But overall I'm not thrilled with this puzzle. It just wasn't that much fun!
CALL THE SHALLOTS tripped me up because I thought the ALL in CALL was the extra bit that was added in. CALL THE SHOTS is a solid base phrase.
Fill-wise, starting with ILSA x AAH with EELPOT nearby didn't bode well, but... HOLYOKE? HTC? ILA? EBOAT x TBEAM?! I really didn't want BOAT to fit just because UBOAT is the only kind of crosswordese _BOAT I've ever seen.
Like YP, I looked for the cheapest Toyota pickup back then and was surprised it had no rear bumper. Or passenger-side mirror. Or radio! But I negotiated hard and got all that thrown in at the same price.
I had SIDE BArrEs (before I knew the theme). Barres are used in BALLET training, so...
Quickly read "Some flight destinations" and wanted ETA, but it didn't fit until I realized ETA stood for Entering The ATTICS! Sorta.
Typical Friday puzzle. The theme was pretty easy to figure out.
Super G is not a Slalom event. There are four races in Alpine skiing - Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super G, and Downhill. Slalom has many turns, then each race progressively has fewer turns with faster speeds.
Nice puzzle, Zachary--it boasted a clever and creative theme, featured many misdirected clues, and was well-constructed, with not one, but two, grid-spanners.
Some of my favorite misdirections included "Place for Jazz players to practice" (UTAH), where the capital J was key; "Bore" (HAD), and "Brand of chips" (INTEL). Oh, THAT kind of chips.
One entry I didn't like was "Start of spring" (ESS). I forget the term for that kind of clue/answer; whatever, I dislike them.
In a similar vein, I'm with Chairman-Moe when it comes to an "in-the-language" nuisance like ALOT. I sympathize with the repair job you laid out, C-Moe, but you traded ALOT for ALOE, which is also an annoyance, being one of the most overused stale staples, being up there with OREO and ALE.
Thanks, Zachary, for a fresh and enjoyable Friday-appropriate diversion. And thanks, C-Moe, for your thoroughly professional and enjoyable recap.
YP--ditto from me re HTC, the freak flag, and "psych!"
Quite the workout! Acrosses yielded very few, downs helped a bit, finally saw the reveal and that helped a lot. A lot of sussing later I finished with that dang D in "had." I came to the Blog so fast I forgot to look or see the cleverness of removing "all" from the themers.
Thank you Moe for splainin, I guess bore/had is acceptable. however the puzzle rem8nds me of my garage...
I liked the puzzle and the theme which helped the solving. Much easier than most Friday puzzles
FIR, no look ups or red letters
So much to be critical of these days, but
puzzles are relaxing and fun. No worries.
Let it slide
Yellowrocks
Good Morning:
Moe was absolutely correct; this type of theme is not one of my favorites, but I do recognize and admire the creativity of the constructor. The common phrases were fine but the puns were stretched, IMO, especially Call The Shallots. I also found some of the cluing off kilter and unnecessarily pop-culture centric, e.g., the clues for Not, Purple, and Freak. On the positive side, the perps were fair and the TLW count wasn’t an issue.
Thanks, Zachary, and congrats on a debut and thanks, Moe, for an honest, fair review. I liked your Good, Bad, So-so rating system and your overall analysis of the entire puzzle. The Moe-kus were all clever but my favorite was the Intel/Lay one.
Have a great day.
Musings
-The LA Puzzle site froze on me six times. The mouse worked on all the other sites I had open but not on the LA Puzzle site. Arrrggghhh!
-What a fiendish and fun exercise once the site stayed open.
-ILSA/RICK, PAPA/MAMA/NANA and AHH/AAH made for a tough NW start
-EMIT/GLOW, SODA POP/BOBA TEA and HAM/HAD further complicated the top row.
-Until retirement my life was 95% “need to” or “has to”
-In my lifetime our BPOE building has been razed and the site has housed a bank and now the new police station
-Wayne’s World made this use of NOT a part of the language
-Some sing NOELS when celebrating that Mary BORE a child
-A cheapskate manager at a seed corn company where I worked summers ordered pickups for his salesmen without radios or air conditioners.
Thank you Zachary for the Friday FIR, for ALL the work you put into this puzzle, and congrats on your LA Times debut.
And thank you MOE for ALL the work you put into this very poetic review.
FAVS:
The cleverly executed theme.
1A ILSA. RICK is never the answer to this.
22A ATTICS. ATTICS = more than one ATTIC? -- for example in Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables.
23A EEL POT. So EELS smoke dope MOE?
29A NOELS. This might also have something to do with the ELohist school of divine names, which identifies "EL" as one synonym for "God" -- e.g. used in words like Ang-EL (a messenger from God) or Emmanu-EL ("God is with us").
62A ESAU. I pray that someday this will be clued "Biblical twin of ESAU: JACOB", but this would probably be Beyond the Fringe. 😊
64A SETI. Whenever I see this word abbreviated I'm reminded of the great physicist Enrico Fermi, who said "So where are they?".
34D ODOR EATER. One for each shoe MOE?
42D HOLYOKE. I didn't know that -- I'll be careful to use the right pronunciation the next time I say this word.
47D INTEL. I wish you wouldn't have reminded me of that MOE.😒
59D BAT. I did know this one. I spent a Summer in Austin on a gig ("The year of 10,000 degrees"), but I never did see the BATS.
Cheers,
Bill
p.s. I wasn't expecting to try this puzzle today, but if you don't hear from me tomorrow you'll know why. 😒
I had more trouble with today’s Jumble than today’s CW.
My biggest problem was T-BEAM, but the horizontal answer solved that issue. I also didn’t know IMAGO and HTC (WTF). I took issue with “oaf” and “bore” as clues. An oaf is a far more sympathetic character than a BOOR. HAD wasn’t wrong, but it was a bit obtuse. ELLA gave me pause, and more pause. Tricky clues for ESS are getting tiresome. The “psych” clue for NOT! was a stretch for me. The popularity of the interjection “psych” preceded the heyday of “NOT!” as a punchline. I DID like FREAK flag.
The theme entries in their entirety were kind of meh, but the hidden words were fun to produce and deduce. I enjoyed two geographical entries more: I knew Austin has a lot of bats. The first entry to catch my eye was the Massachusetts paper city. I figured it was probably in the western part of the state, and HOLYOKE was the first seven-letter city that came to mind. It appears CMoe liked that one even more than I did.
By the way, noting that LATKE ends in E, I recalled yesterday’s discussion of Yente/Yenta. My sense, the opposite of what Big Easy contended, is that Yente is the default and Yenta is a variation, not the other way around.
Hand up for being a “Taxi” fan. In my favorite episode, Louie uses a disgusting ploy to see Nardo naked. Her demands for atonement lead Louie to pour out his heart about his many defects – notably that it’s humiliating to have to buy clothes in the boys department -- so that he’s got Elaine feeling sorry for him – but only for a while.
Hola! This puzzle was unexpectedly solvable! And humorous! I now recognize some names such as RIC Flair so that went in quickly. However, like others of you, I was surprised to see E-BOAT instead of u-boat which is more common.
I watched "Black-ish" for a while and knew Tracee ELLIS Ross's name and that she is the daughter of Diana Ross.
And I'll take a CSO at NANA which is what I am called.
Thank you, Moe, for explaining HAD; I had doubts about that one.
We've also seen BOBA TEA enough that it also filled quickly.
Enjoy a fabulous Friday, everyone!
Hand up for trying to extract ALL from the first word in CALL THE SHALLOTS. I didn't know HTc, and wanted i-BEAM, not T-BEAM, so I left 2 squares blank in my puzzlement. DNF! Good challenge, Zachary. Many thanks to Moe for explaining, versifying, and generally making me feel better about it.
Thanks Moe for setting me straight on "Bore". My favorite "brand of chip". Of course I was thinking food. Good solid puzzle for a debut.
Meh. Got it done, but didn't really enjoy it. Weak cluing, and I really don't care for clues like BAM! for KAPOW. What I DID like was the Chairman's review!
I can just say ditto to Lucina's post with this fun creative puzzle - congrats to Zachary on his debut
There are BATs under the bridge in Austin but in Waco there are swallows under a bridge - both do a lot to mitigate the bug populations in their respective cities
CRAN apple is the flavor of juice most likely to be in our fridge
Thanks C-Moe for a fun blog
Occasionally in a crossword the answer will be BOAT preceded by two spaces, so the answer is usually PTBOAT.
The PT boat played a not insignificant role in World War II. With her torpedoes and speed and maneuverability, she could sink enemy ships ten times her size.
During the war, the John Ford film "They Were Expendable" was made, brilliantly capturing the story of the PT boats.
After the war, Chris Montagna, a restaurateur/commercial fisherman in Ocean City NJ, purchased two PT boats from the Navy. Chris' restaurant was already featuring sightseeing rides on various boats, and he decided he would add speedboat rides to his mix.
So he put two diesel engines in one of the PT boats, and three in the other. He made seating accommodations for 75, and named the 3-diesel boat the Flying Saucer.
Chris would not allow anyone but himself to take the helm of the Flying Saucer. Chris' dream vessel was ultimately considered one of the fastest boats in the world, with Chris cranking it up reaching speeds out in the ocean of around 65 knots (over 75 mph).
Ocean City NJ was our family's summer home, and spending time with Chris on the Flying Saucer or the Flying Pony (the other PT boat) was always a highlight. My brothers and I would always try to sit well forward, near Chris, and of course we'd yell "Faster faster!" Chris didn't need our encouragement; the guy was a speed demon. Passengers were reminded before the ride that they were likely to get wet. Well, change that to drenched.
I love PT boats. Oh--and there was one named PT-109 skippered by a guy named Jack Kennedy.
Don't forget that Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. Guess Mary knew a ram, too.
GTE's practice was always to order vehicles that are intended for craft (AKA union) workers without radios or AC. Two great (I think) stories.
There was a rash of robberies in the Plam Springs division on employees who collected the coins from pay phones. Security (in cool Santa Monica) issued an edict that coin collectors in the division must always have the windows up unless they were on company property. The union won a quick grievance decision because it was unhealthy to drive a truck in 100+ degree weather with the windows up and no AC. Security then welded bars across the windows of all coin collection trucks. The very first work day, California Highway Patrol stopped several of the vehicles and wouldn't let them continue. Turns out it is illegal in California to drive a vehicle with bars over the windows. Finally, the bars were removed and aftermarket AC added to the coin collector's trucks.
The second story involves my four transmission engineers. They requisitioned and received a Dodge Power Wagon (kinda like the Ford Bronco.) Great for getting to remote microwave installations like Rincon Mountain up in Picard country. Since this type of vehicle was normally used by craft employees, it arrived without radio and AC. Problem was that my engineers were required to wear coat and tie to meetings, and the San Fernando Valley is too hot to drive around in a suit in the summer with no AC, and they would arrive too mussed and too aromatic to attend a meeting.
They called the local vehicle center, and a guy told them that they had an AC that would fit and to bring the Power Wagon over. They did, and the next day the same guy called back to tell them that he was stopped from installing an AC in a craft vehicle, but that they had just received some big momma winches, and he had been cleared to install one of those if we wanted. They told him to do that, and escalated the issue to me. I got nowhere, and escalated it to my boss, who discussed it with the Regional President. Next day my guys got a call, saying that our vehicle with the winch and AC was ready to be picked up.
HG, re mouse froze...
My problem is I want to know "why" this stuff happens. (And the answers are not good). Anywho, I am currently using an iPad mini 4 with an ios15.someth8ng that can no longer be updated because they say it doesn't have enough RAM. It is getting slower and slower every day, and there is noth8ng I can do to fix it.
A new iPad is currently over $500- (out of my price range) and with 125% tarrifs , well, I don't want to get deleted for being political, this this is to close to home...
I never noticed the ALL in because it was a DNF today. I've heard of I-beam, H-beam, but not T-BEAM. HTC- that's a company that was unknown to me.
CALL THE SHALLOTS- couldn't make it work out. Got all the rest.
SIDE BALLET- I filled it correctly, but not being a gambler 'side bet' would make no sense to me. But I did notice HEART OF STONE.
Most people don't realize that submarines are Electric-BOATS. "Enemy" boats is new to me. The Electric Boat Company makes subs for the US Navy. Nuclear is no problem for power, but the old diesel powered subs had to surface to run the engines to charge the batteries. Got to keep those engines quiet.
ELLA and the song- unknown to me. Perps.
UTAH- when the NEW ORLEANS JAZZ played in NOLA, a friend worked for a oil rig company. The bosses bought tickets, box seats, that were directly next to the court. They really didn't like basketball and he would get the tickets. They players' wives and girlfriends were in the next box.
PURPLE, NOT and ELLIS- unknowns as clued.
Some years ago, I was in Austin, TX some years and our computer programmer said to go see the BATS, which start flying out from under the bridge. It took over 30 minutes for all of them to come out. The smell was horrible.
Ditto on the useless sun roof. I've had three Mercedes, one Acura, one Murano, and one Toyota and they all came with sunroofs. DW opened the one on the Murano-once. I never opened any of them. I don't know and don't care it they work.
PT-109
The oil filter was an option on the basic Chevrolet Biscayne in 1961, but the cigarette lighter was included.
Good reading you all.
inanehiker @ 12:55 - it was my pleasure! 😉
Charlie Echo @ 12:39 - thank you! I had fun writing this one
Irish Miss @ 10:26: I try to mix up the reviews each time just to stay fresh. Remember the Moh's hardness scale??! Of all of my haikus today I would not have bet that you like the Intel one the best. I actually had my biggest laugh when I came up with BALLOONDOGGLE; Margaret liked the "clueless" haiku the best ...
YooperPhil @ 7:44: you said "Thanks to C-Moe for the elucidation, especially the Moe-Kus, I wish I could come up with stuff like that!"
Phil, trust me; you don't want to spend too much time inside Moe's brain!! 😂🤪
This CW was right up my alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it, got the theme early and even remembered RIC from previous CW. I was on á roll.
Thank you C-Moe for all the fun Moekus. You’re on á roll too.
A little plug for my DIL: check out her art at www.artbyleslielaurence.com
Thanks to Zachary for the Fri. fun! FAV was the clue for ATTICS. Also happy to see RIATA properly clued.
I have seen the BATs in Austin. They fly out in the gloaming. Very cool.
I used to provide math teacher trainings in HOLYOKE but it still took several perps for me to recognize it.
Realizing the chips were tech was my last get.
I resisted ELLA because it is embedded in umbrELLa.
Thanks to C-Moe for his excellent tour! I loved your theme! I also thought of alcohol at 51-A.
Jayce: I looked at the artwork. Very nice!
Lucina, thank you.
Thank you for the link, Jayce. Your DIL has a wide creative range.
Pretty fun puzzle by Sir ZED (which, of course, is the continental name for the letter Z…) and a lot to muse about, in the cw itself, Moe’s review and in the comments.
Let’s start with Zach’s effort: very snazzy theme hook, and the reveal clue did its job — I finally grokked the others thanks to it!
I didn’t have any big issues with the construction, save the clue for NOT (“Psych!”…meh).
A reply to @Jfromvt: Super-G is indeed a slalom, because it is run around gates, like the other slalom events. The name comes from “super-giant-slalom”, hence the “G” in it. Not that it matters that much — I like to ski fast, but those guys’n’gals are on another level of insane; I’ve watched the incredible Michaela Shiffren do training at Mammoth, and she is visibly faster than many of her male compatriots…
Speaking of skiing, I didn’t know our Malodorous Manatee was of the pursuit; d’ya ever go up to Mammoth? Maybe we’ll meet…
Funny, I’ve had •T•Mobile for 16+ years, traveling all over the US of A on business, and have rarely had any coverage or other issues. And their plans and deals are better than any of the other majors imho.
The bats in Austin are actually pretty famous these days; in season, crowds gather at dusk to watch them exodus from their roost under that bridge. Apropos for a city whose motto is “Keep Austin Weird” 😎
@Yooper Phil, not only did the average pickup truck not come with a bumper, they also didn’t have beds attached until after they got to the dealers! Look up the “chicken tax” for why — it’s a fascinating tale of international business tariff b.s.; our current occupant in 1600 Pennsylvania NW could learn a thing or two of the effects tariffs can spawn…
Chairman Moe, you constantly out-do yourself in your recaps! Loved the “clueless” Moe-Ku, and BALLOONDOGGLE is killer! But as for those shoe inserts, they are, after all, boxed in pairs, so you’d stick one ODOREATER into each of your clodhoppers, yeah?
====> Darren / L.A.
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