Theme: "News Splash!" - One word in each common phrase is replaced by its nautical homophone.
23. Weather: "Warning to Surfers During Storm Surge": TIDE UP IN KNOTS. Tied-up in knots.
38. Classifieds: "Isolated Waterfront Property Now Available": SEA FOR YOURSELF. See for yourself.
49. Op-ed: "Archipelago Expansion Has No Place in Our Waters": ISLE BE DARNED. I'll be darned.
68. Style: "World's Largest Jib Now Complete": SAIL OF A LIFETIME. Sale of a lifetime.
89. Culture: "Five Stars for the New Jetty": PIER-REVIEWED. Peer-reviewed.
97. Front page: "Waterway Corruption Exposed": THE STRAIT TRUTH. The straight truth.
Reveal:
120. Component of some social studies classes, or the name of the newspaper sporting the headlines in this puzzle?: CURRENT EVENTS.
I always like homophone theme, but this puzzle is more than just homophone replacement. The extra clue layer makes the puzzle so much more interesting. Great title also.
Congrats to Zhou Zhang on her
first LAT Sunday. And Mallory on her LAT debut. Zhou is also a common
surname in China, as in Zhou Enlai.
Across:
1. Activist Yoko: ONO.
4. Lose, as fur: SHED.
8. Sell: VEND.
12. "You've had enough of my antics": I'LL STOP.
19. Stateroom window: PORTHOLE. Never been on a cruise. Stunning view.
21. Brazilian berry: ACAI. Tart and a bit bitter.
22. Flat-bottomed glassware: BEAKERS.
25. Items that often hang above cribs: MOBILES.
26. User profiles: IDENTITIES.
27. IRA options: CDS.
29. Secret plan: PLOT.
30. Key contraction?: O'ER. Francis Scott Key.
31. Hide-and-__: SEEK.
32. That girl: HER.
33. Inbox clogger: SPAM.
35. Like a twangy voice: NASAL.
44. Map showing elevation, for short: TOPO. Topography.
47. Proper part of speech?: NOUN. Proper noun.
48. "¡Ay, caramba!": DIOS MIO. "My God!"
54. Penny: CENT.
55. "Srsly?": OMG.
56. Whole pizza: PIE.
57. Fern bump: SPORE.
58. Ore. neighbor: IDA.
60. Romantasy and dramedy, for two: GENRES.
62. Side squared, for a square: AREA.
64. __ the web: SURF.
65. Monogram pts.: INITS.
67. "The __ have it": AYES.
72. Get exactly right: NAIL.
74. Greta Thunberg, for one: SWEDE.
75. Disney's "The Princess and the __": FROG.
76. Warm up: THAW.
80. 2022 Beyoncé hit that won a Grammy for Best R&B Song: CUFF IT.
82. Paper cutters, for short: EDS.
83. Spooky: EERIE.
85. Lamb's maa-maa: EWE. Ha.
86. "What have we here?": OHO.
87. Brace (oneself): GIRD.
93. Stumbled: LURCHED.
95. Slugger Sammy: SOSA. Boomer once pulled an autographed card of Sosa.
96. Philosopher Descartes: RENE.
101. Is aware of: KNOWS.
105. Commotion: FUSS.
106. Director Anderson: WES.
107. Clif Bar ingredient: OATS.
110. Architect born in Guangzhou: PEI. His family left for Hong Kong when he was one. He designed the Bank of China Tower in HK.
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111. In-flight convenience: WI-FI.
113. Practically forever: EON.
114. All-powerful: OMNIPOTENT.
117. "My brother from __ mother": ANOTHER.
123. Broadcasts on Twitch, e.g.: STREAMS.
124. Wading bird: IBIS.
125. Suggest: ALLUDE TO.
126. Superstar with swagger: HOTSHOT.
127. Toy brick brand: LEGO.
128. Command post: HELM.
129. Put on: DON.
Down:
2. "Beats me!": NO IDEA.
3. Waiting list?: ORDERS. Great clue.
4. Like a just-finished book: SHUT.
5. Native Arizonans: HOPIS.
6. First-class: ELITE.
7. Rejects as untrue: DENIES.
8. Sneakers with a checkerboard design: VANS.
9. Green prefix: ECO.
10. D.C. player: NAT.
11. Make out: DISCERN.
12. Early ThinkPads, e.g.: IBMS.
13. Summer sign: LEO.
14. Chocolate __: LAB.
15. Ticket for someone who needs a lift?: SKI PASS. Ski lift.
16. "Keep talking": TELL ME MORE.
17. Cookie with a Space Dunk flavor: OREO.
18. Start of a secret exchange, perhaps: PSST.
20. Top __ list: TEN.
24. Actress Palmer: KEKE. "Nope".
28. Parched: DRY.
32. Escape artist born in Budapest: HOUDINI.
33. Taking to court: SUING.
34. Jets, Mets, or Nets: PRO TEAM. Patti is a Mets fan.
36. Munched: ATE.
37. Soft tosses: LOBS.
39. Journalist Curry: ANN.
40. Rival: FOE.
41. Celebratory poem: ODE.
42. Mojito fruit: LIMES.
43. Obscures: FOGS.
45. Cola brand: PEPSI.
46. Brand of near beer: O'DOUL'S.
49. Craft beer letters: IPA.
50. 108-Down for a knight: SIR. 108. Honorific: TITLE.
51. "To Kill a Mockingbird" novelist: LEE.
52. Flew in a direct, fast line: ARROWED. Didn't know "arrow" can be a verb.
53. Officiated a game: REFFED.
54. One who serves a function?: CATERER. Social function.
59. Clash (with): DIFFER.
61. Russian "no": NYET.
63. "In your dreams!": AS IF.
65. Suffix with percent: ILE.
66. Stockpiling sort: STORER.
69. Lands: ALIGHTS.
70. Super Bowl breaks: AD SPOTS.
71. "Mercy!": I GIVE.
72. Childish disagreement: NU HUH.
73. "You did your best!": A FOR EFFORT.
77. Chop down: HEW.
78. Wonderment: AWE. My pretty Asiatic lilies survived again and are thriving.
79. Join: WED.
80. Young stallion: COLT.
81. Levels: TIERS.
84. Kindle tech: E INK.
88. Fig. on an OTC bottle: RDA.
90. Syr. neighbor: ISR.
91. __ de parfum: EAU.
92. Poetic dusk: EEN.
94. Highest corporate levels: C SUITES.
95. Precut pattern: STENCIL.
98. __ Jima: IWO.
99. Heavy book: TOME.
100. Waddingham of "Ted Lasso": HANNAH. She was born in London.
102. Was on first: OPENED.
103. Visited: WENT TO.
104. Doesn't release: SITS ON.
109. Go letter by letter: SPELL.
111. Scrub: WASH.
112. Gaga over: INTO.
113. Formerly, once: ERST.
114. Roughly: OR SO.
115. Egg cell: OVUM.
116. Bill's partner in time travel: TED. "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".
118. "Pshaw!": HAH.
119. Punk offshoot: EMO.
121. Yam in purple ice cream: UBE. Our local farmers markets have purple yams.
122. 18-wheeler: RIG.
Happy 59th birthday to Barry G, who gave me invaluable feedback when I just started making crosswords. Hope all's well in your world, Barry!
C.C.
39 comments:
Kudos to the
constructors for the intricate interweaving of naval and newspaper topics. That’s basically all I have to say about this puzzle, except that it wasn’t overly difficult. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I usually don't intentionally leave a square blank, but today I did. I just couldn''t accept N_HUH crossing C_FFIT -- something else must be wrong. Bzzzzt. The theme was DARNED (not damned) clever. Not sure I've ever seen REFFED before. Congrats on your first Sunday, Zhou, and your debut, Mallory. Thanx for 'splainin' it all, C.C.
Excited to see Greta Thunberg as a clue, and love it when my first name shows up as well (Ann). Plus, I do drink non-alcoholic beer from time to time. The nautical them was appreciated, although I feel as if something was missed by not being able to use "dammed" instead of "darned" in the "Islebedarned" answer. Great Sunday to all, stay cool, it's beautiful here in Sweden.
A really fine Sunday puzzle which I only had to devote a half hour to FIR. I noticed a lot of nautical Easter which were probably intentional by the constructors, HELM, PORT HOLE, SURF, RIG, AYES, and from the French, ILE. Thanks to Zhou and Mallory for your collaboration, and to C.C. for the recap.
**should read “Easter eggs”
Took 16:53, to drift away on a wrong letter - I misspelled Iwo as Iwa, and didn't notice the wrong "ean".
Cute theme. I knew today's actress (Hannah) and today's foreign language lessons (dios mio).
I didn't know "cuffit" and cringed at "oho" crossing "nuhuh".
"eink"?
FIR, despite the aforementioned crossings of NUHUH with CUFFIT and OHO. EINK is pretty inside baseball and I only knew it because I used to work for a company that provided a key raw material for it. ARROWED is a prime example of the "any noun can be verbed" school of thought. PIERREVIEWED was cute (could the clue have been "Observed by a Frenchman"?). Anyway, did you hear about the accused tugboat? It was tried by a jury of its piers.
FIR. I had to take a WAG at the crossing of Cuffit and huhuh for the win. I guess my guesser worked!
This wasn't that hard a puzzle for a Sunday. A few names I didn't know, but perps that helped.
I got the theme early on and was able to "sea" all the water related answers.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
e-ink: electronic-ink for the letters on a Kindle
FIR, but pdas->IBMS, and lemon->LIMES.
Four-letter fill for "cookie (blah, blah, blah)" is gonna be OREO.
PEPSI, invented by a pharmacist in the quaint town of New Bern, NC.
Isn't AD SPOTS redundant? Maybe it's from being in broadcasting for a while, but we said "SPOTS" or "ADs," not both together.
By the same token, STREAMS aren't broadcast. Broadcast, at least in my experience, is radio or TV (or a seeding technique in agriculture.)
Thanks to MM & ZZ for the fun workout. Favorite was "one who serves a function" for CATERER. Least favorite was NUHNH x CUFFIT. I really dislike those grunt words, and can't name a single song by Bouncy. And thanks to CC for the interesting review.
Well,
I never rip-tided thru a puzzle before...
You could say it was a wash...
But it was fun to get my feet wet...
I remember Barry G!
And,
in other news...
A nice walk in the park today, with solid cluing and a fun theme.
Favorite clue/fill was ay caramba/DIOSMIO. Least favorites were NUHUH and EINK.
Excellent work finding that related sub-theme!
Terrific puzzle this morning. I too left the crossing of CuFFIT and NuHUH blank, but the rest filled with no problems.
I usually see or hear I’LL BE DAmNED or I’LL BE DARN (no ED).
I so appreciated that there were so few names. What I didn’t know perpped quickly like HANNAH, PEKE, UBE and EINK.
The theme is clever and fun. It couldn’t have been easy to create. Congrats to the constructors.
I love mojitos in the summer with lots of fresh mint.
Thank you CC for the recap. I hope you’re feeling better.
Not again. The above was Monkey.
Musings
-C.C.’s summative paragraph is perfect!
-BEAKERS and flasks were a big part of my science equipment
-Eastern Oregon and Washington are more aligned politically with IDA and MONT than with their western counterparts
-I have never listened to any Beyonce tunes and so I wondered what Cuff It sounded like. The song is built around “We gon f**k up the night”. Are we headed toward being inured to the use of that word?
-Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus contains “For the Lord God AHM NEEEEE POH TENT reigneth.”
-I STREAMED a “free” movie on Tubi yesterday. Of course, it contained many AD SPOTS.
-Parched/DRY – Not in eastern Nebraska this fall. We had another half-inch last night
-E INK appears to be a Kindle technology not a technician
Glass Wax and STENCILS were a big part of Christmas in my yute.
-The Beatles were once an opening act for Tommy Roe, Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee, et al.
Lotsa good fun today, made even better that they're all (presumably) true. Zhou Zhang and Mallory are off to a great start!
You might say VANS sneakers had a checkered past.
With ARROWED, we have an example of verbication, where virtually any noun can become a verb. I just Googled that.
Thanks CC, for the write-up. As usual, you highlighted all the unique points of interest. When you mentioned the "Waiting list?" clue, I dug deeper and now get the pun. I skimmed over it with a shrug when doing the puzzle.
Good one on PIERREVIEWED!
Addendum: Vintage video for aforementioned STENCILS
ARROWED is just plain stupid.
You made me think of Johnny Cash who said that Ira Hayes was "speeched and honored."
I mostly enjoyed this one, even though some of the clues were a bit off-frequency (for me). Brace seems more like "stiffen" than "gird" (armor?). Srsly and OMG do not seem to fit together, either. Didn't care for CUFFIT/NUHUH much. The theme was clever, but the "paraphrase" non-clues sucked some of the fun out.
John M, "Observed by a Frenchman" could be an alternate clue, but it would need to be in a section of a newspaper as the others all are. Perhaps the Travel section?
Jinx, a therapy Bunny:
https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/rabbit-throws-out-first-pitch-minor-league-game?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage&partnerId=it-20250629-14043523-mlb-1-B&utm_id=it-20250629-14043523-mlb-1-B&lctg=102920782
Thank you, Zhou and Mallory, and congrats on your debuts at the LA Times. Keep them coming. Very enjoyable.
Thank you, C.C. Your lilies are lovely.
Happy Birthday, Barry G!
I sometimes struggle to explain a puzzle theme. Not C.C.! She is succinct! Pure gold. This was an enjoyable puzzle from Zhou and Mallory. Thank goodness NUH UH was part of my childhood vocabulary. Many thanks to Husker Gary for listening to CUFF IT so the rest of us don't have to.
Thanks CC for nailing that theme. I agree with Naomi on "Cuff It". I use "nuhuh" as a kid. Eink didn't look right to me then it finally dawned. I've heard "reffed" used otherwise you'd have to say "officiated". All in all I had fun with this one. Well done Zhou and Mallory.
80 Across Beyoncé Grammy win was 2023, not 2022
So the captain of the tug came down to the wharf, only to find his vessel missing. "Where's my tug?" he screamed. A guy on the next boat over told the intrepid captain "It's tied up in court."
Don't ya love MiLB? From their zany team names to fun special nights, there's always something going on. (There are lots of therapy animals, and they can give their owners some housing rights. But by federal law, service animals are all dogs.)
There are no awards for 2023 music at the 2023 Grammys. The eligibility period is from October 1 to September 30 of the year before the February ceremony. So most of the songs (including Beyoncé's) would be from 2022 with some from coming from the 4th quarter of 2021.
Delightful Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Zhou and Mallory. And your Sunday commentary is always a pleasure, C.C., many thanks for that too.
What a nice surprise to have a Sunday puzzle start with Yoko Ono! Made me happy. And we were out in a water landscape today, weren't we: having to TIDE and SEA and ISLE and SAIL near the STRAIT where there was a busy CURRENT. But there was lots of other neat stuff, so that this puzzle was really very pleasant in the end. Well, I have to get out in the open air while the sun shines, so I think I'LL STOP here, and say goodbye, and wish you all a lovely Sunday.
And have a healthy, happy week coming up!
I usually like the big Sunday puzzles and this one is no exception. I really liked the theme gimmick.
Some fill that I liked include PORTHOLE, BEAKERS, LURCHED, OMNIPOTENT, and DISCERN.
Some fill that I didn't like so much include REFFED, ARROWED, STORER, and NUH UH.
Happy birthday, Barry G!
Hi! My Grandmother grew up in Gotlunda and we still have family in Arboga and Stockholm. Love Sweden!
Good point Rusty. I can see that after rereading the clue.
Hola! Like Jayce I also like the big Sunday puzzles but as some have said, this one had some of the joy sucked out of it by simply inventing terminology to fit the space. I'm looking at REFFED and NUHUH. And I've never listened to any song by Beyonce so CUFFIT is unknown to me. Sigh. I really miss the genius of some past constructors but, of course, I would never attempt one myself and I do admire those who do such as today's.
I also learn so much from every puzzle and am grateful for that.
I hope all are having a wonderful day!
Add ARROWED to my dislikes.
“Gird one’s loins”, archaic phrase for “brace yourself”…
====> Darren
Got through this one swimmingly today — amusing wordplay in the themers, and very sparse in the pop-culture names front — thank you ZZ and MM for not falling on that sword! Nice crunch for a Sunday — not overly complex but a good workout nonetheless. Still had to put in my thinkin’ cap; left a blank in ISLEBEDA_NED until the perps told me I didn’t need to cuss at it. AFOREFFORT took me forever thanks to that tangle with NUHUH and CUFFIT. Not a big Beyoncé follower…
ADSPOTS, yeah — you either run an ad or air a spot, not both. But a minor nit; Other’n that, a pretty clean puzzle.
C.C., your recap was its usual concise tour d’fills 😎 TY
====> Darren / L.A.
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