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| No. No. The Other Way! The Other Way! |
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists, and welcome to Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Your host for today will be Marlin Perkins. Oh, sorry. Your host, today, is Malodorous Manatee and the program for today is a recap of a Friday puzzle by Katherine Simonson.
Let's start with the reveal:
56 Across: Annual mass relocation, or a movement that happened four times in this puzzle?: ANIMAL MIGRATION.
At the places where the theme is applied, Katherine takes well-known two-word combinations, each involving an animal of some sort, and reverses the order of the words. I guess that this could be called "MIGRATION". While MIGRATION is a form of relocation it does seem to be a little bit of a stretch. However, because the gimmick is more readily identifiable than in many other puzzles, there is no need to belabor the point.
Here are the four "times":
17 Across: Meeting of monarchs?: BUTTERFLY SOCIAL. A social butterfly is a person who is outgoing, enjoys attending social events, and often moves between different social groups without forming deep connections. They are typically charismatic and thrive on interacting with others. Flip Social Butterfly around and we have a group of Monarch butterflies enjoying each others company. Did anyone first think that kings and/or queens would somehow be involved?
23 Across: Lingerie for a grizzly?: BEAR TEDDY. From this:
To this:
34 Across: Shortage of raptors? HAWK DEFICIT. Deficit hawk is a political slang term for people who place great emphasis on keeping government budgets under control. As the federal deficit alone is in excess of $35 trillion there is, apparently, a shortage of this type of hawk. Flip Deficit Hawk around and we have a dearth of flying carnivores.
51 Across: Protest in support of the loser of a fabled race?: HARE MARCH. The March Hare from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland morphs into:
This is how it all appears in the completed grid:
.... and here are the rest of the clues and answers
Across:
1. Raucous field cry: CAW. A reference to the noise a crow makes and the first of 21 three-letter answers.
4. Workforce: STAFF. Does the STAFF at REI or EMS sell staffs?
9. Wounded by a scorpion: STUNG.
14. Suffix with mod or nod: ULE. ModULE or NodULE
15. Arctic: POLAR.
16. Break down: PARSE. Bill Clinton brought PARSE into the broader lexicon with his famous "It depends on what the meaning of is is" and “Well, I’m just showing the American people what a verb is and what a noun is, would you like me to show them another verb and another noun?"
20. Words of the weary: I'M BEAT.
21. Box: SPAR. Not a carton. Pugilism.
22. Mocking irreverence: SNARK.
28. Sea dog: MARINER. Both GOB and Tar were too short.
30. Kicks on Route 66?: NISSANS. Nice mash-up. The NISSAN Kick is an automobile. I don't think that the song anticipated that. We'll let Ray Benson and company explain . . .
31. Moisturizer brand: OLAY.
33. Central Asia's North __ Sea: ARAL. A place we frequently visit.
39. Half-moon tide: NEAP.
33. Central Asia's North __ Sea: ARAL. A place we frequently visit.
39. Half-moon tide: NEAP.
41. Lad of La Mancha: NINO. Spanish for a young lad.
42. Divide with two cuts: TRISECT. One might also create four pieces with two cuts (but the cuts would have to intersect each other).
46. Slices of American cheese: SINGLES.
53. Plot: TRACT. Not the arc of a story. A parcel of land.
54. Pedestrian: BLAH. Meh.
55. Contort in pain: WRITHE.
61. Under the __: RADAR. Idiomatic for intentionally not drawing attention to one's own self. Look, the Norwegian RADAR operator has reported seeing some birds on the screen! He's Scandinavian.
63. Not gross: NET. Not yucky. A financial reference.
64. Acknowledge: THANK.
65. Had a restful night: SLEPT.
66. Burro: ASS. A small one.
Down:
1. Avant-garde movement pioneered by Georges Braque: CUBISM. Per Wikipedia, the CUBISM movement was pioneered in partnership by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
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| Still Life - Georges Braque |
2. Spelman graduate: ALUMNA. Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 1881.
3. Suite amenity: WET BAR. Perhaps. A hotel room that is not a suite could also have a WET BAR and a suite of multiple rooms could be without one.
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| Literally |
4. "Last chance to object": SPEAK NOW. . . or forever hold your peace.
5. Lawsuit basis: TORT. A frequent cause of action in our puzzles.
6. Landon who was governor of Kansas in the 1930s: ALF. ALF Landon was a Kansas governor and a Republican presidential candidate in 1936. He lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt and was the only Republican governor to win reelection in 1934.
7. Like some starts and returns: FALSE. The former might result in a disqualification, the latter might result in a heavy fine and jail time.
8. Skillet: FRY PAN. More often frying pan.
9. Hurling and curling: SPORTS. Hurling is a contact sport played by men and women with a wooden stick and a ball. It is one of Ireland's native Gaelic games. Alternatively, see 25 Down. Curling is somewhat akin to shuffleboard played on ice.
10. Middle of a winning trio: TAC.
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| Tic Tac Toe |
11. Ocean State sch.: URI.
12. Cryptography org.: NSA.
13. Set: GEL. Used as a verb as in how Jello firms up or GELs.
18. Polo of "Good Trouble": TERI.
19. Dress for a formal puja, perhaps: SARI. This solver was not familiar with puja but SARIs are a form of dress frequently worn in crossword puzzles so, with a couple of perps, the answer quickly came to mind. Once, I accidentally offended an Indian woman by using the wrong word for her clothing. So I said "SARI."
23. Small nail: BRAD.
24. Morales of "Mission: Impossible" films: ESAI.
25. Feathered projectile: DART. How does a dart board on the ceiling make you sick? It causes you to throw up.
26. Forensic sample: DNA.
27. French fashion monogram: YSL.
29. Large ruminant in the Rockies: ELK.
32. Japanese dough: YEN. Dough as in slang for money.
34. Locks: HAIR.
34. Locks: HAIR.
35. Cathedral feature: APSE. A place frequented in our puzzles.
36. Amy Tan's "Saving __ From Drowning": FISH. Tan is perhaps best known for The Joy Luck Club.
36. Amy Tan's "Saving __ From Drowning": FISH. Tan is perhaps best known for The Joy Luck Club.
37. Pasta suffix: INI. Bucatini, Ditalini, Capellini, Tagliolini, etc.
38. Distinction: CONTRAST. As opposed to, say, horizontal hold?
39. Advanced degree?: NTH. Not an academic reference. Extremely/as much as possible.
40. Time capsule time: ERA. A big 'thank you" for not heading down the Swifties road.
43. Board: EMBARK. Do dogs ever leave? Of course not. They EMBARK.
44. Buzz: CALL. As in "I'll give her a buzz". No, not that kind of buzz.
45. Wanders (around): TRAMPS. Like a TRAMP steamer. ROAMS and ROVES were both too short.
47. Sandpaper measure: GRIT.
38. Distinction: CONTRAST. As opposed to, say, horizontal hold?
39. Advanced degree?: NTH. Not an academic reference. Extremely/as much as possible.
40. Time capsule time: ERA. A big 'thank you" for not heading down the Swifties road.
43. Board: EMBARK. Do dogs ever leave? Of course not. They EMBARK.
44. Buzz: CALL. As in "I'll give her a buzz". No, not that kind of buzz.
45. Wanders (around): TRAMPS. Like a TRAMP steamer. ROAMS and ROVES were both too short.
47. Sandpaper measure: GRIT.
48. America Ferrera, for one: LATINA. Clued this way, for this answer there were hundreds of millions of clues from which to choose.
49. Repeats: ECHOES.
50. Medical tubes: STENTS. I have a friend who has been feeling really sentimental about a stent she had put in several years ago. It still holds a special place in her heart.
52. "You need to relax": CHILL. CHILL, man. Gee.
55. Cloak: WRAP. As in a riddle WRAPped up in an enigma.
56. Part of LACMA: ART.
57. Casual refusal: NAH. Nah.
58. NAACP co-founder __ B. Wells: IDA. A frequent visitor.
59. "Hoo boy": MAN. Gee. Chill, MAN.
60. Bagel center?: GEE. GEE, man, chill. Oops, sorry. Force of habit. It's actually one of those types of clues (but we're on to this trick). B A G E L
Well, we've wrapped things up up five- three-letter words in a row so there's not much left to say except "Bye Bye For Now." I will add, however, that the relative lack of proper nouns was refreshing, indeed.
On a further note, this recap marks the first time that this marine creature has ventured into the realm of AI generated images. Did you spot them?
___________________________________________
Well, I knew what the
ReplyDeletegimmick was from the first themed solve, and that helped me solve this (not too difficult) puzzle.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThis was pretty smooth, from the CAW at the start to the ASS at the end. The theme needed no reveal, but it got one. Even d-o managed to figure it out. Thanx, Katherine and Mal-Man. [Scandinavian, indeed.]
GOB: In my myopia, I thought there was a "GOB" on the back of my walking shoes. Nope, "608."
FIR, but old salt->MARINER, oni->INI, and traips->TRAMPS.
ReplyDeleteMARINERS encounter phantom images on their RADARs. They call them "FALSE ECHOES," or sometimes "FALSE returns." Here's Jimmy Buffet's sweet ballad FALSE ECHOES,honoring his seafaring father, fitting for this lead-in to Father's Day weekend.
Thanks to Katherine for the fun Friday (the 13th) challenge. Best puzzle of the week by my arbitrary assessment. And thanks to our MalMan for another interesting review, plus the plethora of terrible puns. Keep 'em coming!
Totally agree. The most enjoyable puzzle in quite
Deletea while. Some very clever clueing without being “too cute.”
METHREE
DeleteAgree with Jinx about the enjoyable terrible puns and the write-up as a whole but I am trying to see the correlation MM finds between curling and shuffleboard. As a resident of a 55 plus community with a first-class shuffleboard court I do not see it. I did not know the Amy Tan book or anything about Spelman college, but each inspired a little deeper dive. Thank you, Katherine and Joseph.
ReplyDeleteLemonade, what I was thinking was that both activities involve sliding a disk/stone across a flat surface with two goals in mind. To place your disc within a scoring zone and to bump the opponent's disc out of the scoring zone. YMM, of course, V.
DeleteFIR. It seems this week we've gone from hard to easy each day. Today was no exception. The only snag, and final fill for me, was parse. I just went into brain fog for a bit.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the theme as it was quite clever.
For a Friday puzzle, this was most enjoyable.
Took 7:22 today to sneak through this like a feline thief (burglar cat)?
ReplyDeleteI knew today's actress (Teri). I didn't know the book (fish), the 1930s Kansas governor, what LACMA is (nor which A...), or that Kick was a car. I also found the trisect clue a bit off.
The animals were noticed but I missed the migration until the end. The clues made the puzzle Friday worthy. Kicks, Pedestrian, Hoo boy, and Buzz didn't have me thinking NISSANS, BLAH, MAN and CALL and took a while for the V8 moment.
ReplyDeleteYou will WRITHE in pain if you are "Wounded by a scorpion"-STUNG.
HAWK DEFICIT- everybody's a deficit hawk when it comes to cutting our somebody else's pork. Just leave mine alone.
WET BAR- unless you have money to burn, don't get anything out of one of those in a hotel. I always bring my own water and drinks.
SLICES- I don't know what they are but there ain't cheese. But neither is Velveeta. I buy cheddar and colby-jack, slice them myself, and put them in zip-lock bags.
Arctic is POLAR in the northern hemisphere, but not south of the equator.
I had no idea about LACMA but guessed it was ART after RADAR was filled.
Isn’t there a South Pole? He lives just below Warsaw
DeleteYP here, reporting from the MS Chi-Cheemaun which is rolling quite a bit in the fairly rough water today. Puzzle was a bit easier than most Fridays, not a lot of proper names or unknown rappers, although I never heard of America Ferrera or the cubism dude, perps were kind. Also DNK that Kick was a car, let alone a NISSAN. Thank you Katherine for the puzzle and MM for the insightful recap!
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was an absolutely delightful theme and a thoroughly enjoyable solve. I needed a few perps to get my footing, e.g., I didn’t know Cubism or Nissans, as clued, and Fish and Art were educated guesses. While the difficulty level didn’t reach a Friday challenge, the theme and reveal’s fresh playfulness provided a
lovely change of pace from the add/subtract a letter format. A clean grid, no obscurities, and pop-culture scarcity added to the overall smooth and satisfying solve.
Thanks , Katherine, for such a fun puzzle and thanks, MalMan, for such a fun and humorous recap. Your illustrations of the theme were perfect, my favorite being the Bear’s teddy! Your puns are not only chuckle-worthy, some of them are ingenious, to wit, Scandinavian! Bravo. Loved the Goldilocks cartoon!
Have a great day.
Sorry for that spacing error. I don’t know why it happened.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, you just spaced out for a moment?
DeleteC'mon Man, give her some space.
DeleteFar out.
DeleteThe Crossword Corner is slowing morphing into the Comedy Corner! 😂
DeleteTab hunter
DeleteI agree that is one was pretty easy for a Friday, what with all the 3LWs. 20!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Gov. Landon was an Alien Life Form.
Favorite clue was Kicks on Route 66 for NISSAN. They should use that in a commercial.
Thanks, Malodorous Marlin, your review was wild! Especially liked the stent joke. Ha ha!
I liked the theme entries and enjoyed seeing TRISECT AND WRITHE.
ReplyDeleteMy only problems were in the SW, largely because I didn’t accept EMBARK as clued because I thought you embark only AFTER you board. . . . I figured out what LACMA stands for, but I thought the clue was unfair just the same. . . . I didn’t like having to infer that Kick is the name of a Nissan model. . . . I liked even less that GEE was an entry, though I also figured that out quickly.
Still, an easy and speedy Friday solve, and now to enter these comments before a planned electric outage in our subdivision to remove an ancient pole.
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Katherine and MalMan (I’m guessing that the BEAR TEDDY, MARINER, ELK we’re AI generated.)
ReplyDeleteI had a FALSE start with a sea of white in the NW downs, but TEDDY BEAR was the first themer to fall, and I immediately saw the inverted theme.
I fought ANIMAL at 56A, but that BUTTERFLY belongs to the ANIMAL kingdom and Insect class.
MARCH HARE brought a LOL.
Plenty of misdirections today, but perps were fair, and some fill I didn’t even see until I arrived here (NISSANS, TAC).
If the clue indicates clothing and has any Indian word, then SARI is an ECKTORP. My DIL informs me that it is a learned ART to properly WRAP a SARI.
Lucina taught me long ago that NINO is masculine and ALUMNA and LATINA are feminine.
Wishing you all a great day.
"(I’m guessing that the BEAR TEDDY, MARINER, ELK we’re AI generated.)" You nailed it, EH!
DeleteWe Canadians are good at sifting out the fake, LOL!
DeleteAI has infiltrated the Corner! Pretty soon the reviews will be written by machines. Once they learn how to write dad jokes, we're all doomed!
DeleteOh, and the Marching Hares were AI-generated, too.
DeleteMM, how so?
DeleteProf M, I went to two or three of the free AI picture generating sites and played around with entering something along the lines of "rabbits marching on a picket line" as seeing what was generated. I forget the exact verbiage I used, or the site, but the image I used was as close as any of the combinations of site and input came to representing a hare protest march.
Deletesorry for the typo - "as" at the end of the first line s/b "and"
DeleteAh, thanks MM.
Delete-Amusing theme which I caught after the first theme entry making the overall solve easier- I basically echo IM's post
ReplyDelete- I grew up on the Kansas side of the Kansas City, MO area, so ALF was a gimme - his daughter Nancy Landon Kassebaum was a US senator from Kansas 1978-1997
-Thanks MM for the fun and punny blog and Katherine for the puzzle!
Constructor here. I’m happy to see that many of you enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you for the kind words.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a fun theme to work with, and my only regret was that I was unable to fit “Rabbit stimulant” = BUNNY ENERGIZER.
MalMan, you have outdone yourself with this hilarious and informative review! Thank you for pulling it all together.
Thanks, Kat, for the kind words about the recap. Bunny Energizer would, indeed, have be"en really amusing. . . and perhaps illustrated with the old Alka Seltzer mascot Speedy with the head of a rabbit?
DeleteKat, you hit my sweet spot with Bear Teddy, as I’m a Teddy Bear junkie. I have numerous sizes and types looking over me in my den. Bunny Energizer would have sent me into La La Land, as I endearingly refer to my older sister as the Energizer Bunny. She has more get up and go and non-stop energy than most folks half her age! Thanks again for the lovely puzzle.
DeleteWe live on the edge of Cibola National Forest, and see bunnies regularly and bears occasionally. I love both! Glad to hear that you feel the same way. :o)
DeleteToo funny!!
ReplyDeleteEasy for a FRY day. (we say FRYing pan too). Not “Pedestrian” in the BLAH sense but Pedestrian as a “walk in the park” . Str8forwad reverse theme. (ELK and the Monarch BUTTERFLY: ANIMAL MIGRATION).
ReplyDeleteInkover: CUBISt/M
“Lingerie for a grizzly”: BEARnecessity too long
Nissan KICK? (What you do to a car in frustration if it won’t start) like the theme “KickNissans”
HAWKDEFICIT: now an endangered species. Traditional “cathedral”feature” forms a cross, with APSE, nave (long part), and transcept (short part)
“Wanders around” traipses not TRAMPS.
Loved “Scanned an avian!” The “Hurling” vid looks more like a violent street riot than a sport. Beat each other with sticks till some one “throws up” (Hurls)😳
Although “contorting in pain” they were able to ____ to the occasion … WRITHE
We only have pita bread. Your sandwich is finished. It’s a ____ … WRAP
He takes the meat out of ragu … MARINER
All things Havana-like …. CUBISM
Just back from my grade school’s (Roscoe Conkling here in Utica) 100 anniversary celebration. He was a Senator and BFF of Abe Lincoln. Many of us alumni went to the same HS and have remained friends through the years.
Delightful Friday puzzle, many thanks, Katherine. And MalMan thank you for your neat commentary. I just loved hearing Elvis sing his sweet TEDDY BEAR tune--took me back to my teens and made me laugh and cheer.
ReplyDeleteWell, since I love critters, I was really happy to get a puzzle with an ANIMAL MIGRATION theme that started out with a CAW. But there they all were, a POLAR bear (hope he wasn't STUNG by a scorpion), and that social BUTTERFLY, and having that HAWK there, rather than being deficit. We also got a FISH and a HARE and that sweet ELK. Would have been nice to walk around and pet them all. Well, time to go to the WET BAR and get a bit more coffee.
Have a delightful weekend coming up, everybody.
Started with a CAW and ended with an ASS
DeleteHola! BUTTERFLY SOCIAL and MIGRATION brings to mind those millions of them that converge in Mexico during the MIGRATION season.
ReplyDeleteI'll take a CSO at LATINA and also at NISSANS, which I drive. Mine is an Altima.
I like to use SINGLES with cheeseburgers. Right now, I'm out of them and need to replenish my stock.
Sigh. The cracker I left out disappeared so that means all the mice are not gone! it's not surprising since I learned that a female mouse can have up to 16 in a litter! The glue traps will go out again tonight.
I've read several of Amy Tan's books but not the one cited.
I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day. Here, the heat is on.
Started off slow: I thought of CAW but waited for a perp. All-in-all, this CW filled W/O much difficulty, and I was surprised to see it had taken me 20 minutes to FIR. Seemed faster. I sussed the theme with the first theme fill, which helped. Only 7 names!! Thank You Big Time, KS, I hate names in CWs: either you know the name or you don't, there's no cleverness to the clue, and no way to fill it if you don't know the name, except to wait and depend on the perps. Of the 7 names, only DNK 2. Also DNK LACMA: all perps. Thought of "WEATHER" before "RADAR", but it didn't fit. KS, this was a clever theme, and thankfully not a Friday the 13th nightmare. So thanx for the fun. Great write-up MalMan, thanx for all the time and effort you obviously put into it for our entertainment.
ReplyDeleteA most enjoyable crossWORD puzzle today. Appreciated the dearth of A&E drivel, and that the names which did appear were by no means obscure. Now, about those "paraphrase" clues...oh, MAN! All in all, this showed up with crystal clarity on the radar screen, nicely capped off by our Magnificent Manatee.
ReplyDeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDelete43-down: Had I been the blogger du jour, this would have been my "Moe-ku" for the entry
"C'mon, Dorothy,
Our ship leaves. Toto can't come."
Her Auntie Em barks
Auntie Em also barked : “Now you go feed those hogs before they worry themselves into anemia!”
DeleteWhich begs the question how does an animal “worry itself into anemia” ? And how does she do blood tests on her pigs
🐷
AI comes to The Corner! I like the images but not the potential generic prose. Crossword puzzle creators and solvers entertain with word play. Bots do not!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your puzzle, Kat! It practically filled itself, and I liked the theme.
ReplyDeleteMalMan certainly added to the fun. I am traveling home from my mom's, where I Scandinavian, too. (There are Verdins nesting in her Palo Verde.)
I enjoyed this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for your nice comments about the write-up. We aim to please.
ReplyDeleteMeet the newest member of the future crossword club, Leo David Maiorana!
ReplyDeleteI'm a GrandPa!
Congratulation!
DeleteCongratulations, Grandpa Dave. Leo is adorable! Best wish to the proud parents and the entire Gordon clan.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, CED and family!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Grandpa Dave! I could not open the photos but I'm sure the baby is adorable!
ReplyDelete