Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Welcome to the Crossword Corner mixer. What is a bit out of the ordinary, today, is that, thanks to the imagination of our constructor, Caroline Hand, it is the drinks themselves that are doing the mingling with each other. Let's start with the reveal:
62 Across: Cocktails, and what 18-/39-Across and 24-/54-Across literally are?: MIXED DRINKS. This was a case where the reveal was, indeed, helpful in figuring out what was going on in the grid. Also, thank you, Caroline, for "pairing up" the drinks. It certainly made things easier to sort out. At four places in the puzzle the names of mixed drinks get taken apart and then re-assembled in order to answer the clues:
18 Across: Innie or outie, in Paris?: In one regard, a bellybutton reference. FRENCH NAVEL and 39 Across: Poor internet service?: FUZZY CONNECTION.
A Fuzzy Navel and a French Connection get mixed up with each other.
24 Across: Result of applying bright yellow polish?: LEMON NAIL and 54 Across: Feature of an old iron roller coaster?: RUSTY DROP.
A Lemon Drop and a Rusty Nail switch partners.
This is how it all looks in the grid:
Across:
1. Set: PUT. As in to place something on a table or shelf (or in its place). See also 13 Down.
4. Very Cherry Twist soda brand: SHASTA.
10. Back up: CLOG. As in the hairs stuck in the drain are CLOGging up your bathroom sink.
14. Actress de Armas: ANA.
15. Risks: PERILS. Used as a plural noun. As in:
16. Robust: HALE. Free from infirmity or illness.
17. Brief "Blah, blah, blah": ETC. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
20. Safari roarer: LION.
22. End __ high note: ON A.
23. Viper roll fish: EEL. This solver had never heard of a Viper Roll but it was easy enough to figure this one out.
27. Garth's co-host: WAYNE. WAYNE Campbell and Garth Algar. From the "Saturday Night Live" skit and subsequent films.
Another Bit of A Mash-up
31. Taqueria option: ASADA. One of today's Spanish lessons. Grilled.
32. Quaker product: OATMEAL. The clue refers to the cereal company not the religious sect.
34. Type of symmetry: RADIAL.
38. European volcano: ETNA.
Earlier This Month
44. Samoan capital: APIA. Four letters three of which are vowels. A constructor's friend.
45. Good guy: MENSCH. A bit of Yiddish. A man of great integrity and honor (a MENSCH) began earning some extra cash by driving for an app-based ride sharing service. To market his services to people in the community, he made business cards offering rides from the Uber Mensch. He thought that his community was under-served and that he could fill that Nietzsche.
46. Not as warm: STONIER. A bit of a stretch definition-wise? COOLER was too short.
48. Recitations made by students before entering Oxford's Bodleian Library: OATHS. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps. From Wiki: "Before being granted access to the library, new readers are required to agree to a formal declaration. This declaration was traditionally an oral oath, but is now usually made by signing a letter to a similar effect."
53. Picker-upper: TONIC. Good for what ails ya'.
58. Largest U.S. labor union: NEA.
60. Spanish relative: TIA. Another of today's Spanish lessons. Aunt.
61. Like canned olives: OILY.
67. Boxer Laila: ALI. A frequent visitor as is her father.
68. Lines of praise: ODES. An Ode To Crosswordese
69. Sweet: DULCET.
70. Alpha preceder: GEN. As in Gen-x or Gen-z or GEN-alpha which encompasses those born from 2011 - 2024.
71. Rootless plant: MOSS. As in "A Rolling Stone gathers no MOSS". See also 25 Down.
 |
| Shoulda Kept Rolling |
72. Snide looks: SNEERS.
73. Rowing machine, familiarly: ERG. From Wiki, "The word ERGometer comes from the Greek word ‘ergon’ and ‘metron’. While these might sound more like gladiator names than a way to measure your progress, the word ergon means ‘to work’ and metron means ‘to measure’. So the term ‘ergometer’ means that it measures work."
Down:
1. Dish named for the pan it's cooked in: PAELLA.
2. Lets free: UNTIES. If 17 Across had been a reference to the Las Vegas Electric Day Carnival (EDC) then this answer would have been UNDIES.
3. Toyota pickup since 1995: TACOMA.
4. Daytime coverage letters: SPF. Sun Protection Factor. A sunscreen reference. We had this one two weeks ago.
5. Wading bird: HERON. Why does a heron sleep with one leg in the air? Because if it lifted both legs it would fall over.
6. Big event space: ARENA.
7. Middle East peninsula: SINAI. Also the name of a famous mountain and a famous hospital.
8. Pampering, for short: TLC. Tender Loving Care
9. 1970s tennis great: ASHE. A frequent visitor.
10. Dylan portrayer: CHALAMET. A more recent visitor. How does it feel?
11. Head, in Hammersmith: LAV. British English for toilet. Hammersmith is a district in West London and a head is what a toilet on a ship is called.
12. "Viva!" alternative: OLE. A hearty cheer!
13. Set: GEL. We also saw this clue and answer combination two Fridays ago. See also 1 Across.
19. Pond critter: NEWT. Tiny is a great name for my NEWT - because she is, after all, my NEWT.
21. Show approval: NOD. In many societies, but not all around the globe.
25. __ a one: NARY. Nobody. Not a soul around.
26. Interest-ing offers?: LOANS. Interesting cluing. LOANS bear/earn interest.
28. Hairy cryptid: YETI.
29. Second prefix: NANO. Not second as in the one after the first and before the third. A measure of time reference. A NANO-second is equal to one one-billionth of a second.
30. Zip: ELAN. A bit of a stretch. Also a bit of misdirection as zip can mean none/nada.
33. Obi-Wan player: ALEC. In the "Star Wars" movies, ALEC Guinness played Obi-wan Kenobi.
35. Pinnacle: ACME. We never know if it will be ACME of APEX until we crosscheck. They, however, know immediately:
36. "Cloud Cuckoo Land" novelist Anthony: DOERR. New to this solver.
37. Lodge: INN. The worst hotel I’ve ever stayed at was called The Fiddle. It was a vile INN.
39. Observe Ramadan: FAST. FASTing, for an entire month from dawn to sunset requires the abstinence from sex, food, drinking, and smoking. It occurs roughly around the time of the Vernal Equinox.
40. Doing: UP TO. As in "What the heck are you UP TO, now?" No good, probably.
41. Western national park: ZION.
42. Eccentricity: ZANINESS.
43. La __: brand of Asian food products: CHOY. Jim Henson created their spokesdragon.
47. Summer coffee choice: ICED.
49. Stir: ADO. Not as in to stir a mixed drink.
50. Emergency room procedure: TRIAGE. TRIAGE is a process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment. Triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites when limited medical resources must be allocated.
51. Whoop: HOLLER.
52. Agent's activity: SPYING. Not a Hollywood agent. Not an agent of change. One of these:
55. Purposeful: UTILE. Purposeful/UTILE was not the first connection this solver made.
56. Thereafter: SINCE. RIP, Brian.
57. Giver's counterpart: TAKER.
59. Goes on to say: ADDS.
62. Former sitcom starring Allison Janney and Anna Faris: MOM.
63. Rite answer?: I DO. Is that the right answer?
64. Tic-tac-toe side: XES. X's and O's Is XES is usually spelled this way?
65. Broadcast: RUN. As in "what year did (fill in your favorite TV show) RUN? Definitely a "pre streaming" concept.
66. GPS lines: STS. STreetS Global Positioning System
Well, that will wrap things up for today. It's time, now, for this marine mammal to navigate his way back to the office.
_____________________________________
47 comments:
This puzzle started
off pretty tough, with one across and one down, and didn’t get a whole lot easier as it went along. There were quite a few WAGS on my part, for one thing. But, in the end, I could see all the “drinks,” so at least I had that going for me, as Jinx would say. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
1a wasn't obvious, but 1d had to be OMELET, right? Not. D-o got the theme before the reveal; miracles do exist. When RUSTY showed up, d-o remembered NAIL. Aha. Thanx, Caroline. For some time (it could'a been years), I thought Johnny Rivers was singing about a "Secret Asian Man." OATMEAL reminded me that Quaker Oats can make a big stink -- just ask the residents of Cedar Rapids. Enjoyed your expo, Mal-man.
I zoomed through this pretty quickly for a Friday (hey! I'm here before noon!). I really liked how this one played out. The themers interacted with each other in a unique way and the resulting phrases were whacky. Good fun! I don't drink, but I'll raise a toast of SHASTA to Caroline!
I wasn't familiar with PAELLA until I moved to South Fla many years ago, but now its a special treat. It's often served at catered parties in giant 4-ft pans (much larger than pictured) with all kinds of meats and seafood in it. Something for everybody!
I see Mal Man is dragging us kicking and screaming into the 21st century! His AI content is adding a new dimension to the reviews. Now, if he could just figure out how to make it write the dang thing, then we could all retire. I hope not - we're all having too much fun here!
FIW, missing with UnTO x the unknown AnIA. egret->HERON, mix->ADO, hence->SINCE, and menche->MENSCH (he (2d) UNTIES!)
I got the gimmick before the reveal for a change, and it prevented another error at DOERd. Don't think I've heard of a drink called a FRENCH CONNECTION, but have heard of the others.
We watch MOM a lot. DW can kind of follow it, and I enjoy the adult humor. Best of all, the reruns only last about 20 minutes when the commercials are skipped.
Thanks to Caroline for Hand-ing us a puzzle that was only a little beyond my grasp, as Friday puzzles should be. And thanks to our MalMan for delivering the humor and informative tour.
Took 8:49 for me to get the drink orders out.
I knew today's actress (Ana), but didn't know today's writer (Doerr) and wasn't sure about the foreign language lessons (asada/o, tia/o, and lav/loo). Good thing today's actor (Chalamet) was not a complete unknown.
Zion National Park is gorgeous.
I thought this was not a typical Friday puzzle made difficult only by the theme, but that may be just me. I would say I have to Hand it to Caroline for entertaining us, but I could never compete with MM in the world of puns. My favorites were the Yeti cartoon and the moss gathering stone. Speaking of which, STONIER is a stinker in my lexicon. Damn, I see Jinx beat me to the name pun. Happy weekend all, thanks Joseph and Caroline.
FIR, miraculous considering the plethora of obscure proper names, too many to mention here.
The reveal made the long answers make sense, because up to that point I didn't see it. Of course the fact that I don't drink also adds to the mystery when it comes to mixed drinks.
But it's done, so there's that.
FIR in 21:21 with significant perp help. A few changes along the way: Choi to CHOY, air to RUN, and ripe to OILY. Got the top two themers which didn’t make since till I got the reveal which helped with the other two. DNK DOERR or CHALAMET, I did see “A Complete Unknown”, and Dylan himself gave a thumbs up for his portrayal of him. Not familiar with the FRENCH CONNECTION drink, but I LIU after and it’s cognac and Amaretto. In the category of words I’ve never used or heard anyone else use - DULCET. I’ve been to several seafood festivals in SW Florida, and there’s always a vendor serving up PAELLA, as RB stated, usually from a very large pan. Quite delicious! MENSCH May mean “good guy”, but it has a derogatory sound to it. The clue for OLE was “iViva”, was the “i” a typo? All in all, fun Friday fare from Caroline and MM, thank you both for the entertainment.
Typical Friday toughness with a very clever theme. Thanks Caroline and Patti.
Good Morning:
This was a cute theme, although not the usual Friday fare. I was familiar only with Rusty Nail and Fuzzy Navel, but I couldn’t tell you what they consist of. Same for French Connection and Lemon Drop, but they’re totally new to me. I found some of the cluing strange, especially, Like canned olives=Oily. I don’t get this at all. The only unknown was Doerr and no w/os and helpful perps led to a successful solve.
Thanks, Caroline, and thanks, MalMan, for tickling our funny bones with your punny humor and for the informative and entertaining review.
Have a great day.
I finally saw the drinks, although I’m not familiar with FRENCH CONNECTION as á drink (I should be, right?), so the reveal was easy to decipher.
Several WAGS in lauding SHASTA and CHOY. I didn’t finish however because I couldn’t come up with XES. Of course I should have perpped it had I come up with MOSS.
I highly recommend DOERR’s novel Cloud Cuckoo Land. It’s terrific.
I thought we had á pangram, but I believe the letter J is missing.
Thank you MM for your great review.
I don’t know what I mean by in lauding.
STONIER was the most egregious of a handful of eye-rollers in this otherwise easy puzzle. The gimmick was obvious early, which significantly lowered the degree of difficulty.
"In lauding" is much more Friday than the mundane "including." I like it.
Spanish exclamations and questions place an upside down exclamation mark/question mark in front of statement. The exclamation mark can look like the letter "i".
Good morning.
Thank you, Caroline, and thank you, Malodorous Manatee.
Solved it rather quickly, but since I don't know the drinks, I didn't see what was going on - even with the reveal That's on me. After reading MM's expose, I recognized the drink names. Well, two of them - FUZZY NAIL and RUSTY NAIL. LEMON DROP kinda sorta sounds familiar.
Not much else to write about now, and I have to get to some other matters.
Gracias Anon, no sabia eso.
An excellent Friday puzzle and fabulous review. Hands up for not knowing FRENCH CONNECTION as a cocktail, but at least it's a phrase we've all heard. MalMan, I loved your Übermensch joke and the Ode to Crosswordese, among your other funny bone ticklers. Many thanks!
Thank you.
According to Wikipedia A French Connection is a cocktail made with equal parts Cognac and Amaretto liqueur. The cocktail is named for the Gene Hackman film of the same name.
As a former string player, "vile inn" cracked me up!
I loved Caroline's puzzle today; for one thing, it was thought-provoking in various ways. I'm just going to mention a few:
1) the word "set." It can be a verb, adjective, or noun. And for all I know, perhaps other parts of speech. Its versatility is on display in any dictionary. It takes up column after column of definitions, putting "the," "a," "and," and so forth to shame. Can anyone think of another word that takes up so much space in a dictionary? And I love that Caroline wasted no time with us today, putting "set" right up there at 1 Across. SETTING the tone, so to speak.
2) Like Copy Editor, I appreciate seeing in crossword puzzles wonderful underused words like "stolid" and "nonce." Today it was, for me, Caroline's "dulcet." When my good friend Will Shakespeare wrote about "her dulcet and heavenly sound," I believe he could have been referring to the voice of our recent LAT Crossword entry, the late Roberta Flack. If I were compiling a dictionary, the definition I would write for "dulcet" would be "See Flack, Roberta."
3) I'm with many of you regarding Zion National Park. To me it is an unqualified pleasure. Indeed, right now--as with most mornings--I am wearing my Zion sweatshirt. Just one thing: "Zion" is pronounced "ZI-uhn," not "ZI-AHN."
Thanks, Caroline, for providing us with such a pleasant yet challenging Friday diversion. And ditto to MalMan for another helpful and colorful recap.
Oh, Caroline, I nearly forgot. I had a high school student once whose last name was Hand. When I met her, I told her that she should be honored to share the name of one of our greatest Supreme Court justices, Learned Hand. To which she replied that yes she was....since that's her great grandad. Oops!
So are you related to him?
Musings
-Changing SONOMA to TACOMA changed TMI to ETC and revealed UNTIES and I had a “got ‘er done”
-The gimmick was amusing and the reveal was helpful, especially at LEMON DROP?
-Mrs. Thomsen spent a lot of time trying to get us sophomores to understand sit/set and lie/lay usages
-3-letter sushi tossup – EEL or AHI
-Today, the other cwd I do every day, PAELLA was clued simply as “Spanish dish”
-One reason the NEA was so large was that we were forbidden to join local or state organizations unless we joined the national one despite their forays into politics.
-Gen ALPHA is new to me
-LA CHOY makes Chinese food swing American. No Gen ALPHA has heard that!
-Fore!
Oops Part 2: Learned Hand was named to a Court of Appeal, not the Supreme Court. I always think of him as a Supreme Court justice because of the eloquence and legal brainwork of his written opinions. I think that he still holds the record for the judge whose opinions are most cited in the U.S.Supreme Court.
A fun and clever puzzle. I don’t think I’ve ever had any of these cocktails 🍹 but they sound delightful.
The “canned olives” clue and answer “oily” was stupid. Olives can come canned in water. Do better editors !!
Thanks for the awesome recap MalM.
When I refreshed the WaPo puzzle page for the LAT this morning, there was a new message, "Available until June 30"
I noticed that the URL was now:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/games/crossword/?games-beta=1
I was also given a message, "Trying something new. Your feedback helps."
There was also a link entitled "Play the beta of our new crossword"
I loaded it in a new tab. The link on the page was:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/games/crossword/
The "Play With Friends" option was missing.
The background colors and grid lines are off-putting, and it seems to me to be a poorly thought out version of the PuzzleMe format that the WaPo has used for a long time.
I don't care for it.
I liked the theme gimmick, although RUSTY NAIL is the only one of the mixed drinks that rang a bell, and FUZZY CONNECTION was the only one of the four entries that didn’t sound contrived.
I also enjoyed some of the trivia. NEA was particularly challenging; I had UAW first. PAELLA was excellent, although I already had ANA and ETC and thus was looking for the A-E combo. I also liked the WAYNE’s World entry, DULCET (as Tehachapi Ken surmised), MENSCH, NARY, and TACOMA (although I still don’t know why Toyota chose to glamorize such an unglamorous town). Was UNTIES a CSO to our spelling-challenged friend Jinx?
On the minus side, XES wasn’t a very good solution for perping the X in the unifier, Hammersmith was an obscure example of LAV locales, and the OATHS clue also was unnecessarily arcane. Anthony DOERR was even more obscure than 1940s Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr would have been, and I didn’t like the SPF clue, although it did make me think of SPF immediately, as in “Please tell me it’s not SPF.”
I liked MalMan’s “vile inn” pun.
Ken, according to the OED, Run has 635 definitions and Set has greater than 400 definitions/
Fuzzy NAVEL and Rusty Nail.
Maybe a distant relative, Oakland's Rollie Fingers? Then there was Jake Butt, once a tight end (no joke) for the Denver Broncos, Louis Lipps who was a wide receiver for the Steelers, Mo Cheeks who was a guard for the 76ers, Barry Foote who was a catcher for the Cubbies, Luther Head who was a point guard for the Kings, and if you really want to stretch it to euphemisms, the famous Magic Johnson of the Lakers.
Bill Hands pitched for the Cubs, Giants, and Rangers in the 1960s/1970s.
DNF. Done in by a sea of white in the southeast corner. Interesting puzzle, though, and I did manage to figure out the theme for a change. Federal Judge Learned Hand was often referred to as "the 10th justice" for the frequency of his decisions quoted by the Supremes!
Thanks, TTP, for coming up with "run" supplanting "set" as our most-used versatile three-letter word. I knew bringing up my question in the Corner would have results!
The OED mightn't include "the runs" as one of their definitions, would they? To trot it out there, so to speak? Heaven forfend.
Delightful Friday puzzle, many thanks, Caroline. And your commentary is always very helpful, thanks for that too, MalMan.
OLE!--Were we going to be able to do some sports at an ARENA? I soon didn't think so, so I had some OATMEAL for breakfast, and decided to take a pleasant walk around ZION in the afternoon. After that I enjoyed some TONIC and some MIXED DRINKS, while composing some ODES to share with friends. I might get a few SNEERS, but my poems will still be UTILE with very little ZANINESS, and that's a gift.
So have a lovely day, everybody. And a delightful weekend coming up.
Hola! Late to the party but what a delightful set of comments! For a Friday, this puzzle was quite doable and amusing, too. I'm also not a big drinker but I have heard of most of those mentioned. And by now I believe APIA is firmly set in my memory as the capital of Samoa.
i thought of the movie, "The FRENCH CONNECTION" but it took a long while to make the, er, CONNECTION.
What an interesting bit of trivia at #48 about that OATH taking.
The only time I've ever been to the emergency room after a car accident, I was distressed because they cut up my jeans!
Have a fabulous Friday, everyone!
TTP, I agree with your observations on the WAPO beta puzzle site. They were dismissive about my concern that they eliminated the print option. I cancelled my 40 year subscription.
Anon@2:03 - I have the print option on the new WaPo format, so you might want to keep trying the link.
Nope. Too many DNKs, including 10 of the 16 names. Also, a toilet is called a "LOO" in England, not a LAV. I did persist and fill each cell, but only by reverting to the online CW, turning on red-letter help, and doing several alpha runs. So completed, but cheated like crazy, so a big DNF for me today. I did get the theme before the reveal, but it wasn't enough to FIR w/o multiple cheats. Rats. And last Friday I was so proud of myself for the FIR in record time (foe me) for a Friday. Not today. Looking at the CW as a whole I must admit that it is clever. Ya got me, CH, but thanx anyway for the entertainment, even if it left me feeling defeated. Thanx too to Mal-Man for the terrific write up and humor. Anon @2:03 another way to print the CW, if you're using a PC, is "windows button, shift, s" which gives you a clip tool to outline the CW. You can then save it, and print it from its saved location.
That was one of those little tidbits I came across when reading an article on words somewhere, so I saved it. Not sure about the runs, but when Hahtoolah used the phrase "Nosey Parker" the other day, it led me to a reference of British slang which was pretty neat.
A couple of the golfers in my league are from England. One Manchester, and the other Liverpool. I really have to pay attention when they speak. One said "nick" in a sentence last week. I didn't know the British slang meaning of the word, but they explained it to me.
Puzzling thoughts:
Like Jinx, my mistake was using UNTO/ANIA instead of UPTO/APIA along the western border. Other than that, I had a clean grid
I totally enjoyed my partner-in-crime's recap today. When you read next Friday's blog the "style" will be eerily familiar, but I swear that I wrote it
We are in our long season of triple-digit temperatures. Hot does not describe it
Today is Bruce Johnston's 83rd birthday. He, like Brian Wilson, was one of the original Beach Boys
Today also would've been a dear-departed friend of mine's 78th birthday. RIP, Cousin Phil, and I'll raise a toast to you later this afternoon
Happy to learn that folks enjoyed the puzzle and the recap. Have a great weekend, everyone!
It took a bit of a trudge through this one to grok the theme, but in the end FIR, wooHoo! A big hand to Ms. Hand for her clever booze mashup — I kept looking at FUZZY and NAIL, somewhat befuddled…until I filled the reveal. Duh!! (Read the 🤬ing clues, D.!). Thanks, Caroline, for a tasty trek around the bar🍸🍹
My Muslim friends observe Ramadan, but it sounds to me like once the sun sets and they are “off the clock”, so to speak, things get UNTIEd in a hurry!
Mr Manatee, you were in fine form today — the DULCET tones you linked were excellent! “Secret Agent Man”, a classic, with great lyrics. And it’s a fun one to play on guitar, too! Stones, the Beach Boys,m…I was hummin’ along (you don’t want to hear me try to sing these days, trust me…). The lion on safari, Über Mensch, your tiny NEWT — you had me ROTFL. And then Jinx pops up with his Magic Johnson gag, and I was a goner! Such cheap entertainment from you all; even a tip o’ the ol’ fedora to the brilliant animator Chuck Jones, he from behind the “Roadrunner” cartoons. ACME was Wile E.’s Amazon!
Speaking of tips: @Copy Editor, be advised that the Toyota truck is named after an Indian tribe up in the PNW; the city usurped the word uninvited…
I gotta get me one of those 👣Bigfoot mugs to go with my four Yeti cold cups…
====> Darren / L.A.
. . . don't forget Isadore "Friz" Freleng.
Been busy all day and just got to the puzzle. I liked it. The grid looked interesting, too. RIPE-->OILY. DULCET is such a cool word.
Yes! Fris created some iconic characters (like Yosemite Sam) and did some awesome stuff at Depatie-Freleng, MalMan; but Chuck Jones forté was as a director. The story lines and gag routines in the Roadrunner shows were amazingly sophisticated for cartoons at the time; how he came up with all those zany gag routines for Wile E. Coyote is truly creative.
Have you ever seen the homage cartoon where Wile E. finally gets the bird? It tests his whole life asunder…
====> Darren
*tears 🤬ing autocorrupt…
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