MORNIN', SUNSHINE~!
I loved this theme~! We have two authors today; Mr. Callahan has been a frequent co-collaborator for the LA Times, and this appears to be Mr. Giannetti's debut - well done, sirs~! The theme, again in the Downs for me ( I had a similar puzzle Apr 16 - plus circles ), is a graphical depiction of the word STAR as it "rises" from the bottom of the answer phrase through the middle phrases, and finishing up at the top of the final phrase. I felt it was a tidy construction, lots of names and circumreferential clues, yet at the same time sort of weird - as if it were an exercise in obsucrity AND a texbook array of crossword entries with chunky corners; the result being a puzzle that didn't feel like a Wednesday level, but that's exactly where it needed to be. The best I can do to "express" the theme;
9. Secret passed down by Nonna, perhaps: PASTA RECIPE - Nonna = Granny in my family
11. "Don't try to do everything at once": START SMALL
20. Some turnpike turnoffs: REST AREAS
23. Certain business quota: SALES TARGET
29. Up-and-comer, or a progression found in 29-, 23-, 20-, 9-, and 11-Down: RISING STAR
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. HS class with many average lessons?: AP STATS - I did not know this class was available
8. Twitches: SPASMS - As I get older, I can no longer have caffeine late in the day - otherwise, my legs twitch when I go to bed
14. Greeted from afar: WAVED HI - um, yeah - such an odd fill, but OK
15. MSU athlete: SPARTAN - MSU = Michigan State University; their website
16. Top rank in a tournament: ONE SEED
17. Can compete with the best: HAS GAME - the only "game" I have is Monopoly
18. Fisheye __: LENS
M.C. Escher, Three Spheres
19. Blood bank fluids: SERA
21. Crooner Mel: TORMÉ - name #1
22. "__ live and breathe!": "AS I . . ."
24. Thompson of "Men in Black: International": EMMA - name #2 - AND - 4D. Thompson of "Men in Black: International": TESSA - not the same "Thompson" - name #3
26. Paving goo: TAR
27. World Autism Mo.: APRil
30. Roadie's charges: AMPS
32. Planets, poetically: ORBS
34. __ tai: MAI
35. Future JD's exam: LSAT - crossword staple, Law School Admissions Test
36. Fishy fellow: MERMAN
Family Guy
39. "I'm home!": "IT'S ME~!"
41. Chem class site: LAB
43. __ Case: White Castle purchase: CRAVE
Man, I have not had White Castle in long, long time - now I AM craving
44. Branch of Islam: SHI'ISM
46. "The Amateur" actor Malek: RAMI - and the "bad guy" Lyutsifer Safin in the last James Bond movie; his IMDb - name #4
49. Quick scribble: NOTE
50. O.K. Corral surname: EARP - name #5
51. Acid letters: LSD - LySergic Acid Diethylamide -the Wiki
52. URL option: ORG
54. Actress Jessica: ALBA - frequent grid visitor; name #6
56. 36-Across's realm: SEA
58. Civil rights activist Chavez: CESAR - name #7
60. Brief "Get it done!": A.S.A.P.
62. "Frozen" princess: ELSA - name #8 - AND - 3D. "Frozen" reindeer: SVEN - name #9
"The Blonde & The Beast"
66. Immune response trigger: ANTIGEN - the Wiki, if you're curious
68. Stressful situation: HOT SEAT
70. Heads: LEADERS
71. NASA or NASCAR: ACRONYM
72. "Gosh darn it!": AW RATS
73. Ticket for a black diamond enthusiast: SKI PASS
DOWN:
1. Mil. no-show: AWOL - Absent WithOut Leave
2. Window installer's unit: PANE - I had one break on me last year; no sense in fixing or replacing it - I plan to replace both windows with a set of French ( Frawnche ) doors
It broke when I opened the window in a near-perfect arch
5. Sports drink suffix: ADE - GatorADE, e.g.
6. PC game with Livin' Large and Hot Date expansion packs: THE SIMS - I have not played much of this game - I preferred being the Mayor of my own Sim City
7. Hash browns, e.g.: SIDE
8. Club with cucumber slices?: SPA - Nice. I was contemplating "BLT" - but I like this fresh clue
10. Golden Fleece vessel: ARGO - name(ish)
12. ABBA's "__ Mia!": MAMMA - AND - 25D. Lisa Bonet, to Zoë Kravitz: MOM - a couple of days too late for this past Sunday
13. Vile smile: SNEER
15. Part of a bedding set: SHAM - the part I never bother with when I buy a set; I hardly use the top sheet, in fact - it's the fitted bottom sheet, with side pockets that I like best - I can hang my electric blanket controller there
27. Brest friends: AMIs - I missed the "r" on the first pass in Brest ( France )
Frawnche Friends
28. Way: PATH
31. Buddy: PAL
33. "I c-c-can't feel my t-t-toes": "BRR~!"
37. "We try harder" car rental chain: AVIS
38. "... should the __ arise": NEED
40. "'O Sole __": MIO - how 'bout Elvis' take on the melody~?
I dig the sideburns, man~! - the song Wiki
42. Farmyard bleat: BAA
45. Filmmaker Brooks: MEL - name #10
47. Vulcan salute giver: MR. SPOCK - name #11
52. Sunshine State city: OCALA - I made it as far as Jacksonville, FL - name #12
53. Subscribe again: RENEW
55. Prohibits: BANS
57. "The Tortoise and the Hare" teller: AESOP - the Fabulist
59. Verdi opera: AIDA
61. "I see now!" cries: "A-HAs~!" - the plural is a bit Meh.
63. Emmy winner Waithe: LENA - name #13; her IMDb
64. Declares: SAYS
65. Twentysomethings?: ATMs - A HA~! Trying to find an alternative to this crossword constant, not as clever as the one for SPAs
67. MD workplaces: ERs
69. Tetra- minus one: TRI - Four, less one, in prefixes equals Three
Splynter
38 comments:
This is one case where
I definitely needed the reveal to see what was going on. Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
The revealer giving a free STAR in each themer made the puzzle pretty easy.
The clue on 21A not being a cross-reference with MEL (as it should be) is quite a noticeable editing oversight.
Good morning!
Like Sub-g, I would've needed a reveal to see what was going on. I was seeing rising RATS. MIAMI, nope. TAMPA, nope. AHA, OCALA. Be careful how you parse SKIPASS. Thanx, Brian, Tim, and Splynter.
FIR, but hot spot->HOT SEAT. But I waited for momma/MAMMA for a change, so I got that goin' for me.
MSU athlete? Easy - Morehead State University Eagle. Wait - not enough letters. (My (crossword-favorite) elhi was on its campus. We were Eaglets.)
MERMAN? Would it kill you to clue it using Ethel? My last Irish Wolfhound Merlin was nicknamed MER-moose by the staff at his vets, because he was a 160 pound clown.
I'm more of a Leisure Suit Larry guy than THE SIMS.
In Robin Cook's Night Shift, Dr. Jack Stapelton explains that ERs were originally called that because they were usually just a room in a hospital with some cots and curtains. Now they are EDs because they usually have their own staff, instruments and devices, patient rooms, blood supplies and pharmacies. Essentially a hospital-within-a-hospital.
OCALA will probably be my next home town. It reminds me of a smaller version of the beautiful Lexington, KY, with its rolling hills and thoroughbred horse industry. Except that snow shovels aren't needed.
Thanks to Brian and Tim for the fun solve. I think the theme would have been better had 29 been left off. Kind of marred the sequence - The "S" in 23D was the 4th letter, the 3rd in 20D, the 2nd in 9D, and 1st in 11D. (29D's "S" is 7th, which still complies with the sequence, but breaks the 4-3-2-1 intervals.) And thanks to Splynter for another fine review.
FLN - C-Moe, Ms. Goldstein's puzzles remind me of the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When they are good they are very, very good, but when they are bad they are horrid. I actually had her on my "don't bother" list for a while, but I've subsequently found that most are in the very, very good category. Totally subjective opinion, of course. It could be that I've somehow become a better solver over the years, which has allowed me to appreciate her work more.
I never looked for the RISING STARs because it was filled by perps and didn't
need to read the clue. I had some minor trouble in a few places. Like Splynter, I never knew HS had statistics as a class, let alone AP STATistics. I filled WAVED TO before HI. Too many proper names today.
As far as ONE SEED, I've only heard it called "top seed", "number one seed" or "seeded first". But the ONE SEED always HAS GAME; That why he/she is number one.
TAMPA, MIAMI, or OCALA-wait for a perp or two.
THE SIMS- It was a guess; I have never played any PC game.
CRAVE Case was unknown- I knew White Castle was a hamburger place-somewhere else. None in Louisiana that I know of.
EMMA and TESSA were unknowns in the movie that was also unknown to me. Ditto for Zoe and MOM.
Splynter-French doors are only good for moving large furniture into the house. Eventually they double doors don't quite line up due to using only one of the doors and to your house settling. The front of my house has fake French doors but there is a real one going to the back porch.
I was cleaning the outside of the house yesterday and worked the puzzle late last night. Those text abbrs. that I never use? No way I had a clue what those circled letters mean. Constructors becoming more constructive doesn't mean the puzzles are any better, just different.
S ven & Elsa were a frozen pair, also not linked.
T ook 5:52 today.
A ctresses of the day were mostly known (Tessa, Emma, & Alba, but not Lena).
R egrettable crossings of shiism with mio and amis.
FIR. This was about par for a Wednesday puzzle given the degree of difficulty. Maybe a few less proper names.
The theme was fun and getting the reveal first certainly helped with the solve.
Overall I enjoyed this puzzle.
WAVED to, then WAVED at, finally WAVED HI!
When I first filled in the RISING STAR reveal, I thought, "It's a SHAM!" because the word STAR appears in normal descending order. Usually, RISING means the themers spell from the bottom up. Then I noticed their placement in the grid. AHAS (or ohos) followed! Now AHAS plural looks odd...
Excellent job, Splynter, in depicting the theme in your opening! Clever and made it very clear how it all fit together.
Working down from the top, I had the Vulcan salute giver starting with MRS____. I briefly wondered if SPOCK had a wife!
All in all, I found this one Wednesday appropriate.
For decades I taught Statistics--and AP Statistics--at the high school level. It's not unusual.
"Top seed" or "One seed" are interchangeable. Either way, the Top/One seed Cleveland Cavaliers evidently did NOT "have game" in the second round.
Good Morning:
The Sims, Lena, Crave, as clued, all needed perps but, overall, the fill was pretty straightforward. The cluing, however, would have been more polished if, as others have suggested, Mel and Torme and Ella and Sven had been cross-referenced. Mel in a clue and Mel in the grid should have been avoided. Props to the authors for a cute theme and fitting progression.
Thanks, Brian and Tim, and thanks, Splynter, for a fun write-up.
Have a great day.
SS@7:55
I like your clever wordplay, ole buddy
And, in other news...
Yes, I too noticed the dupe of Mel, which is usually a Nono
Easy enough puzzle, but I’m nominating “twentysomethings” for ATMS for inclusion into the Cluing Hall of Shame.
?? My CW has the S as 5th letter at 23D, 3rd at 29D, 3rd at 8D, 1st at 11D, and 7th at 29D ??? I’m confused?
Or look at the sequence another way . The S in STAR is on the same level across as the R in the next themer for 29D, 23D, 20D, 9D, but 11D is the outlier, as the glass ceiling has been reached LOL!
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Brian and Tim, and Splynter.
I FIRed in good time, but had to go looking to get the AHAS for the RISING STAR theme. No circles!
Hand up for WAVE at before HI.
I waited for perp to decide if the MD was in the OR or ER.
I thought of AP MATH but it was too short.
I thought of Allergen but it was too long. An allergen is an ANTIGEN but an ANTIGEN is not necessarily an allergen.
I had M_ _MAN, and thought perhaps MalMan might be our fishy fellow LOL!
Wishing you all a great day.
It took me á while, but I finally noticed the theme. Neat, except for the STAR placement in the reveal.
The rest of the CW filled no problem, some unknown names, like SIMS, CRAVE, I’ve bought the frozen White Castles burgers, but never saw this CRAVE box, but perps were nice, however, no FIR because I did not try hard enough in the SE. ATMS for twentysomethings? ? Granted I should have come up with SEAT and ELSA. Oh, well.
Thank you Splynter for this nice review.
Another puzzle this week consisting of vertical themes-and-reveal instead of the usual horizontal. I find this switch refreshing. And Brian and Tim gave us a cleverly-constructed puzzle with its symmetrical rising STARs.
I'm with others in preferring "Ethel" to "Fishy fellow" for the 36 Across clue. Singer Ethel Merman could belt it out like no one else, projecting with ease to the last row. "Microphone?! I don't need no stinkin' mic." When I get around to writing a dictionary, for "BELTER," I'm just going to define it as "See Merman, Ethel."
Thanks, Tim and Brian, for an enjoyable and well-constructed Wednesday-appropriate challenge. And thanks, Splynter, for your fine recap.
Musings
-A perfect humpday offering. I had to figure out that the rising STAR was not the letters going up the grid but the entire word rising. Loved it!
-PASTARECIPE bedeviled me as I could not let go of PAST or PA’S. The White Castle and RAN_ (A or I) crossing did not help but Nona should have led me to Italy and PASTA! Cool!
-Cross reference and short-term memory issue: I looked up and quickly saw MERMAN and wondered how I could fit Broadway into three spaces for Ethel’s realm. Doh!
-SPASMS (cramps) in my foot instep are too common and incredibly painful
-Lifting a finger off the pickup’s steering wheel passes for saying “Hi” here in farm country.
-It seems to mandatory for Hollywood to show young women wielding weapons in promoting their movies
-Our recent hail storm has roofers and PANE installers working overtime
-Me too on BLT, Splynter
-Should the need arise: My golf bag has bug repellent, sun blocker, band aids, Tums, Advil, etc.
-The sign you see when leaving Orlando International Airport
-I am certain Ken and other STATS peeps knows this quote
Typical Humpday fare.
Doing the puzzle in my primary’s waiting room “waiting” for my physical. DNF … didn’t know “PC game” THE S _ DS crossed with “Roadie” A_PS. (AWRATS…AMPS, how obvious! 🙄)
Shouldn’t it be Ethel Mermaid?
So that’s what HASGAME means
Inkovers: like RB: WAVED at, to,/ HI, Olaf/SVEN
‘O Sole Mio “My Sun” not “Oh My Sun” (‘O is Neapolitan dialect for masculine “the”. Possessives take the article. La mia tavola, “My table”
It’s usually Shia
Some turnpike “turn offs”: Lotsa potholes? 😀
A teetotaler would likely be ____ … ANTIGEN
“Cap’n Hook who be yer first mate?” …. ITSMEE
Part of bedding set you don’t need, it’s just a ___ …. SHAM
Have a nice midweek day 🙂
100% agree that the ATM clue is very bad.
Yes; and another good one is "Figures don't lie; liars figure."
Ol' Mark seems to have borrowed that quote. Here's a physician's warning from 1894: "His less enthusiastic neighbor thinks of the proverbial kinds of falsehoods, “lies, damned lies, and statistics,” and replies: “Reports of large numbers of cases subjected to operation seldom fail to beget a suspicion of unjustifiable risk.”"
My mom used to ask why singers nowadays use mics, noting that Ethyl could "belt it out." And I'd reply there are more ways of delivering a song than belting.
I think we're BOTH confused. I miscounted 9D and 23D. As you noted, 9D's "S" is the 3rd letter down, as is 20D. (which I think you meant at your first 29D.) Since I still have all my fingers, I'm left to blame decaf. We agree on 29D, at least your second 28D. In any case, I was all wet on my criticism.
A clever and fun puzzle. I enjoyed it.
In the recap I personally think the using the word Frawnche for 27 down is ignorant and rude. Very ethnocentric.
Also “Ami” is masculine and refers to a guy friend so the accompanying picture should show two men. It would be “Amie” if it were gal pals.
Pretty easy today, unlike Monday. Lots of names, but only Lena was unknown. Would even have been more enjoyable without the paraphrase non-clues. "Get it done!" sounds like NOW! to me, not "As Soon As Possible". Once again, forgot to look for the theme. Thanks, Splynter!
I dunno... I kinda like frawnche!
FIR in 15 in spite of the 18 names, of which I DNK 8. Last letter to fill was the "H" in WAVINGHI. For some reason I couldn't get past WAVINGTO, and when the "I" perped in, I was stumped, and THESIMS was a DNK, so it took a while. Also PAST A RECIPE made no sense, took another V-8 can. Didn't see the rising star until I circled "STAR" on my printed out CW. Then thought, "Wait, stars don't rise from the SW and go to the NE". Beside the point, I guess. Overall a fun CW, thanx BC&TG for the entertainment. Great write-up, Splynter, and glad to see the lovely legs have returned. Thanx for all the time and effort you put into the write-ups.
I liked this puzzle, but I do not like the paraphrase clues:
"I'm home!": ITSME (the clue doesn't seem to match the answer)
Brief "Get it done!": ASAP (ASAP does not mean "Get it done!")
"Gosh darn it!": AW RATS
"I c-c-can't feel my t-t-toes": BRR.
As for cluing ATMS as "Twentysomethings?", I call this the "Trouble in River City" thought process. "Trouble starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!" ATMs deliver twenty dollar bills and the word twenty also appears in the word Twentysomethings which is half of the name of a Netflix show.
Anyway, nice write-up, Splynter. Thanks.
Good reading you all.
I've never known a person who couldn't find something to be offended about if they choose to be. People have many rights, but there isn't a right to not be offended. For my tastes, current mores have gone way overboard to avoid even the remote possibility of offending anyone. I was once scolded by a community college administrator for using the term "flip chart." Apparently, she was concerned that Filipino students could take it the wrong way somehow.
Delightful Wednesday puzzle, Brian and Tim--many thanks for that. And Splynter, thanks for your helpful commentary, and especially the chance to hear Elvis sing.
So this puzzle may have had a guy who WAVED HI to us right at the beginning, and said IT'S ME, but without telling us his name. He sure seems to have had a busy day where he wasn't allowed to be AWOL at his job. He had to work on publicity for a RISING STAR who was becoming a real SALES TARGET, and he was thankful that this didn't put him into a HOT SEAT. On the way home, he stopped to RENEW his driver's license, and was delighted that his wife made him dinner using her favorite PASTA RECIPE. In return he promised to get them both a SKI PASS, and she was delighted. Not a bad day all around.
Have a lovely Wednesday, everybody.
Hola! Thanks to Brian, Tim and Splynter for today's entertainment. I filled it quickly but failed to see any theme, so thank you for that. Yes, circles would have helped! I see, though, how cleverly the STARS rise.
In my defense I had one of those sleepless nights. It was five A.M. when I finally slept and then the phone rang at 8:30! Wide awake I am not.
I love MAMMA MIA and can't get enough of it. I watch it at least every couple of months or so.
Enjoy your day, everyone!
As I read it, Anonymous@11:29 never said that he was offended per se. He just noted that there were two faux pas in the recap for 27Down: first, that there was a misspelling of "French;" and second, that the two females pictured were labelled "two amis," where it should have said "two amies." He chalked up both of these errors to ignorance, more than his having been offended.
LOL Jinx! I was on my phone (iPad has bigger keys) and made those typos - should be 3rd at 20D and 9D. Some days nothing works out as it should.
Thanks for your clever puzzle, Brian and Tim...plus congratulations to Tim on his debut! Your puzzle had me seeing stars -- but not until the grid was filled.
FAV: NASA or NASCAR
Thanks to Splynter for the twinkling tour! (Sorry, I could not hold back.) FAV today was Elvis.
If you were a regular, rather than a complaining anon, you'd know where Frawnche comes from - not this blog, but a Hollywood classic. Sigh.
Post a Comment