Maître d'
Today, let's start with the the reveal:56. Restaurant or theater staffers who work with patrons, or where the starts of 20-, 28-, 36-, and 48-Across can be found?: FRONT OF HOUSE.
The front of house, in restaurant parlance, are the customer-facing staff -- the host, servers, and bartenders. However, in this puzzle, the FRONT of the themers are also things on the FRONT of your HOUSE. Cute, eh?
20. One who is easily awakened: LIGHT SLEEPER. Think: your FRONT porch LIGHT.
28. Alley oops?: GUTTER BALL. Um, OK sure, many houses have GUTTERs.
//and Boomer will appriciate this being called an Alley :-)
36. Aerobic session with a small platform: STEP CLASS. Your FRONT STEPs.
48. Price-slashing event with early hours: DOOR BUSTER. But you get the picture by now...
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| For folks slow on the uptake ;-) |
Across:
1. Wears a long face: POUTS. I know you've heard this one: A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Why the long face?"
6. Designer Wang known for bridal gowns: VERA.
10. Tears roughly: RIPS.
14. Insider vocabulary: ARGOT. Argot: the jargon or slang of a particular group or class.
15. Lab flunky of cinema: IGOR. "It's Frankenschteen." "Your putting me on."
16. Quod __ demonstrandum: ERAT. Didn't we just have this Friday?
17. Chevy model that shares a name with an alpine lake: TAHOE.
18. Soft drink: SODA. Pop up east and "coke" down south.
19. Constellation in the southern sky also known as the Sails: VELA.
20. [See: Theme]
23. Pierce of "Mamma Mia!": BROSNAN.
26. Better than good: GREAT.
27. Container weight: TARE.
28. [See: Theme]
32. Piques, as an appetite: WHETS.
34. Billion suffix: AIRE.
35. Golf peg: TEE.
36. [See: Theme]
40. NYC summer hrs.: EDT. New York City is on Eastern Daylight Time in the summer.
43. Prefix meaning "both": AMBI. Ha! Cute. ///Think AMBIdextrous.
44. Dark-colored beer: STOUT. I used to brew my own beer. I made a Russian STOUT once. Once.
48. [See: Theme]
52. "Joy of Cooking" writer Rombauer: IRMA.
53. Ancient Greek region: IONIA.
54. Sack with letters: MAIL BAG.
56. [See: Theme]
60. __ of March: IDES. Et tu?
61. Landed on a perch: ALIT.
62. Reference book with maps: ATLAS.
66. "__ kleine Nachtmusik": EINE.
67. Lavish party: FETE.
68. Pioneering gaming company: ATARI.
69. Cincinnati MLB team: REDS.
70. Cheeky talk: SASS.
71. Space object with a tail: COMET.
Down:
1. Butter serving: PAT.
2. "You & I" singer Rita: ORA.
3. "Gross!": UGH.
4. Kits with wrenches and hammers: TOOL SETS.
5. Biergarten mug: STEIN.
6. Four-armed Hindu deity: VISHNU.
7. Four-award acronym: EGOT. Mel Brooks got 'em all. Right?
8. Fishing poles: RODS.
9. Central Asia's North __ Sea: ARAL.
10. Echo effect in a recording studio: REVERB. I know Splynter can do this.
11. "Let me stress ... ": I REPEAT.
12. Light-colored brew: PALE ALE.
13. Take by surprise: STARTLE. So, sorry folks, story follows, I was at a hacker meetup and someone dropped their water bottle. I was STARTLEd. I was told by a lady-hacker that folks that STARTLE easily are empathetic. Is that true?
///I think it's just Army training :-)
21. Practical joke: GAG.
22. Way out: EGRESS.
23. Brief "And another thing ... ": BTW.
24. Sidelines cheer: RAH.
25. Mine output: ORE.
29. Unspoken: TACIT.
30. Shop __ you drop: TIL.
31. Slice of history: ERA.
33. Take a __: try: STABAT.
37. Outback bird: EMU.
38. Airer of Ken Burns documentaries: PBS.
39. High heel: STILETTO.
40. One who bestows wisdom: EDIFIER.
41. Like a last, desperate effort: DO OR DIE.
42. Without success: TO NO END.
45. Poetic globe: ORB.
46. Actress Thurman: UMA.
47. Label: TAG.
49. Hoses off: RINSES.
50. Acts big, so to speak: EMOTES.
51. "Home to India" writer Santha Rama __: RAU.
55. Violinist Stern: ISAAC.
57. Clumsy boobs: OAFS.
58. Pet collar target: FLEA.
59. "Billboard" entries: HITS.
63. Go on the __: skip town: LAM.
64. "__ we good?": ARE.
65. Gain a lap: SIT.
The Grid:
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| The Grid |
My breakdown:
WOs: TOOL boxe (oops), VESHrU
ESPs: BROSNAN (duh!), ISSAC (as clued), VELA (I bet HG knew that at first read!)
Fav: I can't not ignore IGOR
Sorry for the lack of Hahtoolah's comics today, but that's all I got folks. See you on the 18th! Tip your waitstaff.
Cheers, -T
Even when I didn’t know something (such as the constellation) the perps made the answer clear. So, no problems today. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteD-o has heard of VEGA, but not VELA. PAGE ALE demanded the L. D-o has also heard of TO NO AVAIL, but not TO NO END. Sheltered life, I guess. Thanx for the entertainment, Janice, and for the EDIFIER, Dash-T. (Maybe it's PTSD. Or maybe what she said was, "People who startle easily are...um...pathetic?")
Stayed up really late last night to watch the game. OK, until past ten pm. The Cougars demonstrated once again why Houston is called "Clutch City."
Liked edifier, do or die, and to no end next to each other
ReplyDeleteFIW, fretting so much about BROSNAN x VISHNU that I forgot about VEgA x PAgE ALE. I wore the face of a worried man about that SHN sequence, but finally decided it was the most likely choice.
ReplyDeleteIn military parlance, "pretty good" means GREAT. My son has a new red tee shirt with a white goat on the front, adorned with a red "8". It celebrates Alex Ovechkin as the NHL's GOAT.
I'm very tolerant of clumsy boobs. It's just who I am.
I've figured out that the NCAA Men's basketball tournament this year was a Southeastern Conference concentrator. The input to the round of 64 was 20% SEC, and the output was 25% SEC. The round of 32 output was 44% SEC. The Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and semifinals produced 50% SEC. But the most effective was the final, producing 100% pure SEC. Congrats to the Gators, who led less than a minute in the 40-minute game. I'm glad it wasn't a seven-game series.
Thanks to Janice for another fun early-week puzzle. I especially liked DOOR BUSTER crossing DO-OR DIE. And thanks to Bayou Tony for another fun review. You're pretty good at this.
FIR. I had no trouble with the solve, in fact I found it rather easy.
ReplyDeleteThe theme, on the other hand, was somewhat baffling. I'm not familiar with the phrase "front of house", and front gutter still has me scratching my head. But fortunately this wasn't needed for the solve.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis had a bit of crunch for a Tuesday with such entries as Vela, Vishnu, and Rau, although I knew the latter two, but perps were fair, so no foul. I think my only w/o, due to haste, was DST/EDT. Alley Oops?=Gutter Ball wins the Best Clue of the Year Award, IMO. The theme was very well hidden until the surprise reveal, which is not always the case in an early week puzzle.
Thanks, Janice, and thanks, Anon T, for pinch hitting once again. The Frankenstein sketch never gets old, nor does Mozart.
Have a great day.
Took 4:57 today for me to traverse the walkway.
ReplyDeleteI knew today's actress (Uma), but I didn't know today's writers (Irma or Rau), the Latin, the German, or the constellation (vela).
Good to be back, but time to go.
Enjoyable puzzle today, Janice. Interesting theme, and a well-constructed puzzle. I noticed, for example, such touches as two intriguing 7-letter vertical entries down in the SW. They were both 2-2-3 expressions: "do or die"; and "to no end." They sat perfectly side-by-side, and amazingly, all the crossing perps were not just gibberish! Well done, Janice.
ReplyDeleteUp in the northern latitudes of the puzzle appeared Vela and Vera. Sounds kind of like a vaudeville team: "Vela & Vera appearing tonite!"
By courtesy of Computer Compiler, today's vowel-rich staples that are becoming stale from overuse included ORA, EMU, ARAL, ERA, UMA, and ORE.
Thanks, Janice, for another enjoyable and fresh challenge. It was Tuesday-appropriate and fun to solve. And thanks, Dash-T, for your entertaining and helpful recap.
Even easier than yesterday's puzzle. Only Vela was new to me. I am surprised I have never heard or seen it. It is certainly not obscure.
ReplyDeleteI know Irma's Joy of Cooking.
I loved the clue alley oops/gutter ball.
The saying is Front of THE House. "In a restaurant or hospitality setting, "front of the house" (FOH) refers to the areas and staff that guests interact with." I haven't ever heard or seen it without the word THE.
The themers are just one word, a light, gutter, step or door can be found in front of a house. The themer is not front gutter, just gutter.
I say "to no end."
Newborns startle easily.
Not a bad Tuesday
ReplyDeleteTAHOE: I guess “alpine” here refers to “mountain” in general 🏔️ (alpine vrs X-country skiing)
“Alley oops” … the fill I already had almost led me to write in GUTTEnBerg, huh? If you’re AMBIdextrous can you can do the puzzle using both hands and finish twice as fast??
Appropriate for Lent: “STABAT Mater” Latin hymn (“the mother was standing”)
Dad carried his MAILBAG over his shoulder for years and eventually developed bursitis.
Don’t know the terms DOOR BUSTER or FRONT OF HOUSE, (mine has a porch too ☺️) STEP CLASS (where you learn ballroom dancing? 😀)… Shouldn’t all the theme answers stand on their own?
Solution for “Clumsy boobs”… D cup? 🤭
Silk Pajama …. LIGHT SLEEPER
Lady who charges a monthly premium to Medicare ….IRMA
“Are you str8”. No I ___ …. AMBI
The Santha Rama clue caused quite a ___ … RAU
Ancient Greek master to slave___ … IONIA
Busy week so far. Have a good one 🙂
Ray-o - you are in rare form today. Thanks for the laughs.
DeleteHola! Quick and fairly easy solve today. Thank you, Janice Luttrell and thank you, Anon-T. I agree with Jinx, you are good at this.
ReplyDeleteRAU could have been problematic but MAILBAG delivered. And how many ways can EMOTES be clued? Every time I see it, it's different but easily filled.
Another EGOT is Rita Moreno, the only Latina, I believe, to achieve that. i know it's STAB AT but STABAT is also a Latin phrase from the Lenten liturgy meaning "waiting." "STABAT mater", the mother waiting.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
"MAILBAG delivered". Nice one, Lucina!
DeleteThank you Janice for a Tuesday walk in the park, and thank you Tony for stepping in for Susan -- nice explanation of the theme.
ReplyDeleteA few favs:
14A ARGOT. LINGO fit but didn't perp.
19A VELA. I've never been in the Southern hemisphere so I've never seen this constellation. It looks like this.
28A GUTTER BALL. Actually I think Boomer preferred LANES to ALLEYS in bowling venues, but I agree with IM that it was a great clue.
9D ARAL. Former "North ____ Sea" would be more accurate.
22D EGRESS. P.T. had a big sign in his exhibition tents with an arrow pointing to "The Great Egress" which led to the outside. To get back in again you needed to buy another ticket. Like the man said, "A sucker is born every minute." 🙃
33D STABAT. As parsed it is also at the FRONT of a hymn called the Stabat Mater, often sung during ">Stations of the Cross during Lent.
55D ISAAC. Here ISAAC plays the Fugue from Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001. Two of the greats (violinist and composer).
Cheers,
Bill
I see that Ray-O beat me to Stabat Mater.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-My mother always called the living room the “FRONT” room. She was born in 1924 and the term Living Room was probably not used in depression ERA Iowa farm houses.
-Alley oops tickled me
-The hardest part of removing snow is the icy mess the maintainer leaves in the gutter at the end of the drive after I have already cleared it.
-When I was in construction we had argot like mud, pins, twigs, story poles, puddle, etc.
-I am the TARE when I weigh myself without and then with our kitty :-)
-I learned the word FETE when one was thrown on Downton Abbey
-TOOL SETS – I seem to have accumulated dozens of screwdrivers over the years
-Ricky Nelson used REVERB a lot. Hello Mary Lou leaps to mind. BTW, constructor Mary Lou Guizzo told me she just smiles and tolerates hearing this greeting so often. :-)
-Many athletic contests end with a DO OR DIE situation.
-Do women still wear STILETTO heels around the office?
-NASA EGRESS system on Launch Pad 39
-I was all over VELA, Tony!
Husker @10:05 AM TARE -- loved it!
DeleteEasy to FIR, as a Tuesday should be. I'm glad to see PALE ALE, which I don't like the taste of, instead of REAL ALE. But both are probably better than Tony's Russian STOUT.
ReplyDeleteThat house pictured at 48A should have a double door, with DOOR BUSTER crossing DO-OR DIE.
I DNK RAU or VELA.
In a restaurant, the FRONT OF the HOUSE is who you see; the BACK does the real work.
TAHOE- my son, a police dept. captain, has to approve all purchases for the dept. He absolutely hates the TAHOEs because they are not good for city traffic. They don't last. He said they are great for the state police who drive on the open roads but city police work requires vehicles suited to stop&go driving and chasing criminals. Fast acceleration and heavy braking.
Hi Gary, my mom called the living room the front room, too. With six kids, the front room was used every day. It was not reserved reserved for just company. On nearby farms the front room was reserved for company only.
ReplyDeleteLiving in a senior independent living facility, I now see no one wearing stilettos, and only a few wear any kind of heels at all. Oh, our aching knees, heels and/or backs.
I used to wear heels, but not stilettos. During the last few years before I gave up moderate heels, I enjoyed wearing kitten heels.
Our local bank manager always wore 4 or 5 inch stilettos. One day she was called from the employee lunch room to help at the counter. She came out in her stocking feet. obviously her feet hurt .
Well, I’ll say it, it was á walk In the park this morning, though i didn’t notice the theme until I filled the theme answer. I didn’t notice VELA because perps had already taken over.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at the finished puzzle I saw something strange: DOOR DIE. What in the world is that, then it came together properly, DO OR DIE.
Thank you Á -t for your review.
What á gorgeous day this morning. Bright sunshine, cool temps but going up to the 70s. 🌷🌻
Google's AI overview of search results says, "In a restaurant or hospitality context, "front of house" (FOH) refers to the areas and staff directly interacting with customers." This is the way I've heard it -- never front of THE house -- so today's reveal worked for me. At first I tried to put the starts of the themers in front of the word "house," but as has been pointed out, that doesn't work. It's just that these items can be found on the front of an actual house. Very cute. I liked the whole thing. I thought "clumsy boobs" was funny, and am glad to see that our manly solvers are tolerant of such.
ReplyDeleteThanks Janice and -T! Good times.
No problems. Prefix meaning both, I had it right then it left me. My favorite, Alley Oops, I bet Boomer never had many of those. Good Tuesday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteBig Easy, as a front of the house waitress I worked my a__ off. Some days we didn't stand still for one second. Run, run, run the entire shift. I waitressed all through college during the school year and the summers in between. I also waitressed summers when I taught. LIU, I see the expression with THE in the middle and without it. We always used THE.
ReplyDeleteFun Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Janice. And thanks for your commentary too, Anon T--always appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWell, it was nice to take a STAB AT this delightful work which, thankfully, did not STARTLE me, even with slightly tough items like DO OR DIE. So, no need to EMOTE on my part, and I started right away to look for food items, as I always do. I found the drinks: a STEIN of PALE ALE right near the beginning, followed by some SODA, and a little further down we got some STOUT. But I just couldn't find any food and I suppose we'd have to wait and hope we get invited to that FETE in the evening, where we'd have to get dressed up and wear STILETTOS and stuff. But that's not much help for this morning, so I'd better go see if there are any leftovers for lunch in the fridge.
Hope you have lots to munch on, everybody.
Six-letter partial STAB AT, really? That's why you really have to be careful with 12-letter revealers (they force all the theme stuff to be crammed between the 4th and 12th row) unless you make the grid 16 wide.
ReplyDeleteThe temps are forecast to take a STAB AT the 100s in southern Arizona later in the week.
ReplyDeleteGood Afternoon! Nice Tuesday level CW, FIR in 10. 17 names, but only DNK 4. And I got the theme, which is pretty clever. Thanx JL, very enjoyable CW. Thanx too to Anon-T for the nice write-up. A big thunderstorm blew through FLL today, killing the power briefly several times. Thank goodness I have the solar and batteries. Solar not producing much, or course, in a thunderstorm, but the two Tesla batteries kept me powered up. Thunderstorms are ushering in what the weather forecasters ridiculously call a "cold front". Temps are gonna get all the way down to....81*F. Yep. I guess I better dig out my overcoat.
ReplyDeleteTesla batteries for power. So what did you do with the rest of the car? 😀
DeleteNot being familiar with restaurant parlance, the reveal was a total WAG due to 2 personal Naticks. Would you be curious enough to "inquire within" the front door on April Fools Day?
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary, being curious, and it not being April fools day, I have to enquire,
What the heck is a maintainer? If it is anything like a snow plow, why would anyone call it a maintainer. (I still have trouble with Massachusets directi9ns I was once given t9 take a right fark at the rotary...) is a maintainer a regional th8ng?
Lastly, I am very curious to know if every9ne else has been been having the same Blog Ad experience as I did today. can you find the link to the comments?. It seems to be sandwiched between two Ads, yet when I looked closely at the upper Ad, it did not have the mandatory markings that define an Ad in Google... so curious was I, that I clicked on it to "learn more",as it says, and it took me to the Apple Store to download a new game???! (Talk about clickbait...)
Just getting around to the puzzle as I am hosting my book club tonight so the morning was spent cooking and cleaning
ReplyDeleteNice straightforward solve, but not a speed run like yesterday for me
Tony- I enjoyed the music links - the music video of Rita ORA was of her wedding to her husband Taika Waititi the New Zealand director and actor
Thanks for the pinch hitting for Susan and to Janice for the puzzle
Vela?
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteD'Oh!, I missed the space in STAB AT.
YR - For years, my sister also waited tables. Eventually, she married the owner's son. Now they both own the joint.
C, Eh! - I don't know if you remember the 80's show A-Team (with Mr T) but here's a shirt I saw Saturday. He had this shirt under it :-)
I enjoyed reading everyone today!
Cheers, -T
Anon-T, I just saw that they are now making fake scam captchas to load malware! Could that Ad I mentioned above have been something similar?
DeleteI mean, I thought the link took me to the App Store, but I just exited without even looking. I wonder if it could have been a fake App Store webpage?
AnonT- great shirts (both of them)!
DeleteCED - Could be. If your computer starts acting up I'd worry. (wait, you read the blog on your iPad, right? You're probably safe if you're up-to-date). -T
DeleteI liked this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI was finishing this post this morning when internet went down, and I forgot to get back.
ReplyDeleteTerrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Janice and AnonT.
I FIRed in good time and saw the FRONT OF HOUSE theme.
Several inkblots.
VISHNa changed to VISHNU. Spin changed to STEP. oMnI changed to AMBI which fit the clue better.
STILETTO was one big inkblots as perps corrected my spelling - e to I, a to E.
I was misreading my G in GAG as a B, which then made me misread GUTTERBALL as bUTTERBALL (slippery ball causing you to lose the neighbourhood basketball game in the alley. Oops!). I was up early for an appointment this morning, and I think my brain is rebelling.
But I did better than GREAT at Wordle today, with a Magnificent two guess win!
I too liked DOOR BUSTER crossing DO OR DIE. I also noted ATARI above ATLAS.
VELA and RAU perped.
I wanted TO NO avail, but END fit.
Wishing you all a great day.
Dash T - your closing with Young Frankenstein... IGOR... the end of that clip at the end of your blog post... walk this way...
ReplyDeleteDid ya know?
"Written by Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, “Walk This Way” began as a guitar riff. On a recording break, the band saw Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. The film included a gag in which Igor instructs Dr. Frankenstein to “walk this way,” inspiring the title."
Aerosmith - Walk This Way
TTP - I did NOT know that but it makes me like Aerosmith even more.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janice for the homey puzzle! FAVs: STILETTO and Alley oops?
ReplyDeleteTTP@8:47. I did not know there was a connection. Good gouge.
-T. Thanks for being there today! I liked your house diagram and caption.