Theme: There's something different about you!
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
Frequent constructor Roland Huget serves up a Thursday challenge. The theme clues and answers are:
17-Across. *Technical team supervisor: PROJECT ENGINEER.
27-Across. *Special occasion mailing: GREETING CARD.
49-Across. *Place of monumental achievement?: ANCIENT EGYPT.
63-Across. Change studied by evolutionary biologists, or what can be found in the answer to each starred clue?: GENETIC MUTATION.
In the answers to each of the starred clues, the word GENETIC has been scrambled, or mutated, and spans both of the words in the answer. I have a hard time unscrambling words, so I'm impressed with Mr. Huget for finding these scrambles! I like seeing the theme answers placed symmetrically in the grid, and two of them span the grid. It's also worth noting that mutations involve scrambling of the genetic code. All very impressive.
Across:1. Erie Canal city: UTICA.
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| The original Erie Canal ran right through downtown Utica. |
6. True, in Italian: VERO. Shared Latin roots give us the English words very, veracity, verify, and verdict.
10. Hippie event: BE-IN. The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on January 14, 1967. Inspired by sit-ins and teach-ins, it gave rise to another Human Be-In in Denver later the same year. Along with some very cool musical performances, the events focused on ideals of personal empowerment, communal living, ecological awareness, higher consciousness, and radical New Left political thinking. Apparently all that universal love and grooviness didn't replace the existing culture.
14. Pinned distinction: MEDAL.
15. Female gamete: OVUM.
16. The 411: INFO. Dialing 411 used to get you to directory assistance, where a live person could help you find phone numbers and other information. Now, whether or not you can reach 411 depends on your phone carrier, and sometimes, on whether you pay for 411 service. But based on the way we oldsters used our corded phones back in the day, "the 411" is current slang for information or the latest news. "What's the 411 on the party tonight?"
17. [Theme clue]
20. Storage tower: SILO.
21. Group taken for a drive?: HERD. Herd of cattle, taken for a cattle drive.
22. Google Books __ Viewer: tool that tracks word usage frequency: NGRAM. The Google Books Ngram Viewer is a search engine that charts the frequencies of any set of search strings using a yearly count of n-grams (sequences of adjacent symbols) found in printed sources published between 1500 and 2022 that are in Google's text database. The program can search for a word or a phrase, and if found in 40 or more books, the results are displayed as a graph.
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| I used the Google Books Ngram Viewer to search Human Be-In. It begins to register in 1978. |
23. Go ahead: LEAD. One meaning of the verb "lead" is to guide by going in advance. I might lead a hike by going ahead of my friends on the trail.
25. Sky streakers: METEORS.
27. [Theme clue]
31. Poppin': LIT. If you've been around the Crossword Corner a few times, you know that it's lit! But did you know that it's poppin'? Same deal. It's awesome. (But poppin' can also mean happenin' -- as in, what's poppin'?)
32. Blended juice prefix: CRAN. The Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative used to make all its money at Thanksgiving through sales of cranberry juice and cranberry sauce. The introduction of Cran-Apple juice in 1963 gave Ocean Spray a year-round product. Now there's Cran-Grape, Cran-Pineapple, Cran-Raspberry, Cran-Strawberry, Cran-Mango, and more.
33. "Tough": TOO BAD. An unsympathetic response to an unfortunate situation.
37. Way off: AFAR.
39. "That smarts!": YOW.
33. "Tough": TOO BAD. An unsympathetic response to an unfortunate situation.
37. Way off: AFAR.
39. "That smarts!": YOW.
41. Staff member?: NOTE. A staff is a set of five lines and four spaces on which notes are written to indicate their pitch. The notes are represented by ovals on the staff.
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| The letter names of the notes are not normally indicated as above. |
42. Indirect route: DETOUR.
45. Perfume application: MIST.
48. Slip into: DON. "Don we now our gay apparel, fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la!"
49. [Theme clue]
52. Sleep aid of folklore: SANDMAN. The Sandman is a mythical character originating in Germanic and Scandinavian folklore who puts people to sleep and inspires dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. I wonder whether people still tell little children that the crust in the corners of their eyes upon waking is from the Sandman? What on earth did we picture when our parents said that?
45. Perfume application: MIST.
48. Slip into: DON. "Don we now our gay apparel, fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la!"
49. [Theme clue]
52. Sleep aid of folklore: SANDMAN. The Sandman is a mythical character originating in Germanic and Scandinavian folklore who puts people to sleep and inspires dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. I wonder whether people still tell little children that the crust in the corners of their eyes upon waking is from the Sandman? What on earth did we picture when our parents said that?
55. No longer here: GONE.
56. Top-tier: ELITE.
57. Hawaiian coffee region: KONA. If you're ever on the Big Island of Hawaii, you can tour a coffee plantation in the Kona area and learn all about coffee production.
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| coffee berries on the Big Island |
59. Birds associated with wisdom: OWLS. Because they know WHO! Also, those big, forward-facing eyes, rotating heads, and serious looks just make them seem smart.
63. [Theme clue]
66. Lines that cross at (0,0): AXES. In a two-dimensional coordinate system, the x-axis is the horizontal line, and the y-axis is the vertical line. They are perpendicular to each other and intersect at the origin (0,0), forming a coordinate plane. The plural of axis is axes.
67. Lope or canter: GAIT.
68. Capital on the Red River: HANOI. The capital of Vietnam.
68. Capital on the Red River: HANOI. The capital of Vietnam.
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| One of several bridges over the Red River in Hanoi. |
69. Shoemaker's form: LAST. At LAST, my daughter's career as a shoe designer helps in the crossword puzzle!
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| Men's shoe lasts. |
70. Bldg. units: APTS. Building units can be apartments.
71. Contract negotiator: AGENT.
Down:
1. Some park workers: UMPS. Ball park workers include umpires, officials responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport.
2. Garr of "Young Frankenstein": TERI. She was fabulous.
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| Teri Garr |
3. "Survivor" find: IDOL. In spite of its 25 year history, I don't think I've ever watched an episode of Survivor. Apparently, the "Hidden Immunity Idol" is a pocket-sized talisman that prevents the user from being voted out from Tribal Council. This is not to be confused with the tribal Immunity Idol or the individual Immunity Necklace.
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| The not-so-hidden immunity idol. |
4. Wheedle: CAJOLE. Synonyms of cajole include coax, sweet-talk, and wheedle. These are all about getting someone to do something by means of gentle urging, special attention, or flattery.
5. Schooner filler: ALE. A schooner can be a sailing vessel or a rounded glass with a short stem. Usually the one filled with ale is the glass.
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| A schooner of ale. |
6. Gave a thumbs-down: VOTED NAY. In a voice vote, the presiding officer asks those in favor to say "yea," and those opposed to say "nay."
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| A challenging aspect of horse politics. |
7. At all: EVER. Have you been to Utica at all? Ever?
8. First hip-hop group to have music videos on MTV: RUN-DMC. With the release of Run-D.M.C. (1984), Run-DMC became the first hip-hop group to achieve a Gold record. With subsequent albums, Run-DMC became the first hip-hop group to go platinum and then multi-platinum. Run-DMC was the first hip-hop act to have their music videos broadcast on MTV, appear on American Bandstand, be on the cover of Rolling Stone, perform at Live Aid, and be nominated for a Grammy Award.
8. First hip-hop group to have music videos on MTV: RUN-DMC. With the release of Run-D.M.C. (1984), Run-DMC became the first hip-hop group to achieve a Gold record. With subsequent albums, Run-DMC became the first hip-hop group to go platinum and then multi-platinum. Run-DMC was the first hip-hop act to have their music videos broadcast on MTV, appear on American Bandstand, be on the cover of Rolling Stone, perform at Live Aid, and be nominated for a Grammy Award.
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| Run-DMC |
9. Texter's gasp: OMG. Oh my gosh!
10. Watched an entire season of, say: BINGED ON. The joy of streaming -- watching a whole season of a television show in a single sitting, or within a short period of time.
11. Año start: ENERO. The Spanish year (año) begins with the month of January (Enero).
12. "Sorry to say ... ": I FEAR.
13. Expected results: NORMS.
18. Board head: CHAIR.
19. Emcee's piece: INTRO. The emcee (or Master of Ceremonies) for an event usually gives an introduction to the proceedings.
24. Ellipsis alternative: Abbr.: ETC. You can add "etc." to an incomplete list, or use the ellipsis to indicate things you're omitting, which is to say, you don't have to go on and on and on ...
26. Have something: EAT.
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| Eat! |
27. Showy flower, briefly: GLAD. Gladiolus is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the iris family, native to Eurasia and Africa.
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| Gladiolus are pretty, but my ethic is to plant things that have co-evolved with local birds and insects. |
28. Widespread: RIFE.
29. "L'__, c'est moi": Louis XIV: ÉTAT. King Louis XIV of France supposedly said "L'État, c'est moi" (The state, it is me) in parliament, suggesting that his power was absolute. However, the statement does not appear in the registers of parliament, and on his deathbed, Louis is known to have said "Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours" (I am leaving, but the State will always remain).
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| Just a nice guy, misunderstood and misquoted. |
30. Garden sentinel: GNOME.
34. __ positivity: BODY. Body positivity is a social movement that promotes acceptance and appreciation of all body types and sizes.
35. Straddling: ATOP.
36. Slight progress: DENT. As in, making a dent in my workload.
38. Consumer Reports task: ROAD TEST. Consumer Reports rates automobiles, among other things, so one of their tasks is to take a car out for a road test.
40. Hand-tightened fasteners: WING NUTS.
43. Like some expectations: UNMET. We've all had a few! This is when anticipated outcomes or desired results do not materialize, leading to disappointment or frustration. TOO BAD!
44. Classic TV brand: RCA.
46. Summer ermine: STOAT.
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| The white animal we call an ermine in winter is a brown animal called a stoat in summer. |
47. Decimal value of hexadecimal A: TEN. Hexadecimal (or hex) is a base-16 number system, meaning it uses 16 unique symbols to represent numbers. These symbols are the digits 0-9, and the letters A-F, where A represents 10, B is 11, and so on, up to F representing 15. This system is often used by software developers and system designers.
50. Mushroom that drips black liquid: INK CAP. Coprinopsis atramentaria, also known as the common ink cap, tippler's bane, or inky cap, is a species of fungus. It is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is edible, but poisonous when consumed with alcohol.
51. Location label: GEOTAG. A geotag is a piece of data, usually in the form of coordinates (latitude and longitude), that is embedded within a digital file, like a photo or video, to indicate its geographical location.
52. "Love Story" novelist: SEGAL. Erich Segal wrote a screenplay for Love Story, and Paramount required him to turn it into a novel before the movie came out, as part of the marketing campaign. The novel and the film were both released in 1970. A huge success in print and film, the tear jerking story is very unfair to the female protagonist who gives up everything and forgives all, in return for not much.
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| "Love means never having to say you're sorry." What?! |
53. Echo assistant: ALEXA. Echo devices are smart speakers developed by Amazon, and Alexa is the voice assistant (or software) that powers these devices and compatible products. I don't have smart speakers around the house. It's bad enough that the robot vacuum sometimes thinks I've said his name and responds, "I'm here." Then we keep quiet for five minutes hoping he'll go back to sleep.
54. Dressed to the __: NINES. "To the nines" is an idiom meaning "to perfection" or "to the highest degree." In modern English, the phrase most commonly appears as "dressed to the nines." It seems to be Scottish in origin, and may refer to the nine muses. The earliest written example of the phrase is from the 1719 Epistle to Ramsay by the Scottish poet William Hamilton:
The bonny Lines therein thou sent me,
How to the nines they did content me.
58. Drop: OMIT.
60. Product that gets pressed into service?: WINE. Our inlaws in Italy use a little wine press like this one to squeeze the grapes that make the family wine:
61. Diving bird: LOON. Bird clues always help me out.
62. Agitated state: SNIT.
64. "Hometown Proud" food market chain: IGA. The Independent Grocers Alliance was founded in 1926 to bring family owned, local grocery stores together under the IGA brand. I count 36 of them in California, but none in the Los Angeles area.
65. Epiphany cry: AHA. An epiphany is a moment of sudden revelation or insight ... an AHA moment.
Here's the grid: WARNING! TYPO at 57-Across! Should be KONA. Thanx, Jinx!!
So ... any AHA moments for you today?
Was your grid RIFE with errors? Did you OMIT anything? Or do you deserve a MEDAL?
-- NaomiZ
36 comments:
Impressive, to be able to
jumble up “genetic” in so many different ways. Other than that, I don’t have too much to say about this puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Hi there~!
First off, I must apologize to yesterday's constructor for assuming ( I know, I know ) HE was a SHE - I once 'dated' a Dana, so I think that's why...(ellipsis) I also misread the clue for HORSESHOE being the ITEM, so that's on me, again...(etc.)
Thank you, Naomi, for your recap - I meant to ask you where that castle was in Spain on your trip, but never got around to it....
Splitter / Spyder / Splynter - it's all good~!
FIR without erasure, somehow.
Before it was Directory Assistance, 411 was called "Information." Folks could ask for the time, weather, or how much it would cost to call their cousin in Peoria station-to-station at 9 AM on Friday.
I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. I'm still reading the first part of the book, where he discusses the process that led some humans to become farmers and herders instead of hunter-gatherers, which all of our early human ancestors were. Early crops were all annuals, because mutations to make plants more beneficial to man happened much faster than with perennials.
Hand up for having never seen an episode of Survivor.
FLN: Anon @ 4:37, sorry, but the ADA recognizes only dogs as service animals. The cat you met is likely to be a support animal.
Thanks to Rowland for the Thursday workout. The Northeast gave me a lot of trouble until the PROJECT ENGINEER wormed his (or her) way in. And thanks to Naomi for another fun review. (You have an error in your grid - you have GONE replicated where KONA belongs. But your narrative is correct, so it's all good.)
Good morning!
Grumpy this morning. The coffeemaker hissed and sputtered, but no coffee found its way to the pot. D-o does not perform well when caffeine-deprived. Still, he managed to complete Roland's offering, read the reveal, and found the GENETIC mutations. I call that a win. Thanx, NaomiZ for your capsule summary.
UTICA: The great-grands traveled via the Erie Canal when they relocated the household to central Wisconsin in the mid-1800s.
CAJOLE: I almost always see it paired with WHEEDLE. It works on some politicians.
Like Naomi, I found it very impressive that the constructor was able to jumble GENETIC overlapping two words, to even come up with idea is very creative! Not real easy for me as perps were required for the unknowns VERO, NGRAM, BODY, INK CAP, LIT, IDOL ( 🙋♂️ for having never seen “Survivor”), and not knowing what gamete meant, OVUM also. FIR in 16:28. Yesterday IGA was a tennis player who I’ve now committed to memory. I liked the clue for WINE. Trivia of the day - a group of OWLS is called a “Parliament”. Ermine or STOAT, to me they are a weasel, and I once had one in my house, early winter, white with black tail, YOW, that’s what I get for living in the woods. Thank you Roland for your fine piece of work, and to NaomiZ for your exemplary review!
I thought this was a fun offering and a creative theme. This reminds me why I no longer attempt to create crossword puzzles. I do still enjoy them, and this had few unknowns for a Thursday. Back in the early days of this blog the LOON was chosen as the official bird of the Corner. I also learned about NGRAMS reading puzzle reviews at other sites. While STOATS are in the weasel family they are not the same animal. For example, stoats are generally larger than weasels, with a more robust body. Regular weasels do not turn white in winter. Thank you, Roland and Naomi.
FIR. Typical Thursday difficulty but quite doable. I'm afraid the theme eluded me until I got here to have it explained to me. But this didn't stop me from solving this puzzle.
Overall a most enjoyable puzzle.
Took 10:43 today before elECTING Everyone qualified to office.
Impressive theme, but some of the fill suffered.
I knew today's actress (Teri), but struggled with the foreign language lessons (etat & enero), the writer (Segal), and found the clues for "last" and "glad" to be too ... obtuse.
When we were in Kona, before touring a coffee plantation, we made a pit stop in the local McDonalds. It had a display showing that it sources its coffee from ... South America.
The McDonald's corporate reps would have a cow if they served KONA coffee. When I was moonlighting at a Pizza Hut, we used local stone-ground, unbleached flour for our crust. When the Pizza Hut corporate spy stopped by our store, he had a fit. He didn't argue against our point that the crust looked and tasted better using our flour, his insistence that we stop using it was that Pizza Hut pizzas in Lexington should look and taste the same as Pizza Hut pizzas in Omaha. He had a point, I guess. Gotta protect the brand.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and NaomiZ.
Officially a DNF and FIW today as my Italian was lacking and an alphabet run did not help me get the R in VERO and RUN DMC.
Plus my Consumer Reports task was a lOAD TEST, “widespread” was RIpE, and the resulting ApAr for “way off” was way off!
I also had aTICA (misspelled and it is south of the Erie Canal) resulting in aMPS working in the park.
But I did get the theme, and like others, I marvelled at the various scrambles for GENETIC.
PROJECT manager changed to ENGINEER.
We had Italian, French and Spanish today.
This Canadian thought immediately of Winnipeg, on the Red River and capital of Manitoba. HANOI perped and fit the space.
LOON made me think of our beautiful northern lakes and the haunting cry on the water. Lemonade, the Corner use of Loon must have been before my time (2010 lurking, late 2012 joining).
DH loves GLADs, and we have two rows coming up in the garden.
Favourite today was the clue for NOTE.
Wishing you all a great day.
I can’t give myself á MEDAL because I left an Á for the very first blank leaving aTICA crossing aMP. YOW, that hurts.
However the rest was popping’. I really liked the theme and am impressed by its execution.
The NE gave me pause not knowing NGRAM and not coming up with I FEAR. The PROJECT ENGINEER showed up pretty easily helping me get another unknown RUN DMC.
Some clever clues like SANDMAN, HERD. So, really fun puzzle. Just enough crunch to make me work, but still doable.
Thank NaomiZ for á great recap.
Great day in the morning as an old friend used to say.
Musings
-Another inch of rain last night which has closed golf courses and kept center pivots in place. 6” in three days!
-Small anagrams are standard fare but a 7-letter version is very impressive!
-Towns that grew up on the Erie Canal are similar to those that formed on the Great Plains as railroads headed west
-The path of the HERDS coming to market did the same thing
-Sadly, many of them are GONE or very reduced in size
-I am 4E years old in the hexadecimal system
-IGA is not a tennis player today
-Nice job, Naomi, and I always enjoy seeing Lemon return to the fold
The ''play together'' function on the WAPO's version of the LAT CW has been broken since yesterday. I telephoned them about and got a runaround that didn't help at all. They also have apparently installed their own front-end that is ugly and less usable.
That should be Thank YOU. Sometimes it’s really awkward to proofread my entries, so I gave up this morning, and sure enough errors popped up. That should also be Poppin’ but spell check changed it.
Answers progressed slowly then suddenly accelerated once the neurons started firing for a FIR….AHA: the word GENETIC is mutated in each theme answer
A CSO to me in UTICA
The old “Erie Canal” (Governor Dewitt) “Clinton’s Ditch” through downtown UTICA was filled in during the 1920s (my GF remembered) and became Oriskany Blvd which leads to the eponymous town at the site of the famous 1777 revolutionary war Battle of Oriskany. The canal was moved north about a mile and is now used mainly for recreation. I fell in while trying to get out of a kayak a few years ago. 😖
Inkovers: hot/LIT, trot/GAIT, agree/NGRAM (huh?)
I BINGED (the ON seems superfluous) episodes of the first season of “The SANDMAN” (a fantasy/drama on Netflix). Second season starts July 1
INKCAP and GEOTAG were both perp/WAG combos…. RUN-DMC?
While watching a LOON diving on the lake last evening I was bitten on the lip by a deer fly, YOW. Getting ready for work this AM I looked in the mirror and saw my lip was swollen. Looked like an ugly Kardashian sister. 😳. Had to ice it the whole 50 minute drive from camp to UTICA
“Dragnet” theme: DON DON DON DON !
Super hot weather all week. 🥵
Good morning. Thank you, Roland. Your puzzle is a perfect example of why I enjoy solving themed puzzles. Nothing apparent in common among the themers, and then the reveal provides the needed help. MUTATION told me we were looking for a common series of letters in each theme answer. Seven letter jumbles aren't seen that often. That's excellent craftsmanship.
Thank you, NaomiZ. I enjoyed your tour. Breezy, fun and thought provoking.
Notes:
- "Hometown Proud" food market chain: IGA. Not associated to Swiatek today.
- Decimal value of hexadecimal A: TEN. And in the hexadecimal system, 16 is writen as 10. Hex numbers are usually declared by a 0x prefix. So, 0x10
- Shoemaker's form: LAST. A gimme. Antique ones are common. No electronics nor connected parts that fail.
- Erie Canal: George Washington proposed a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River in 1787. It would be about 100 miles long. The last attempt to make it happen failed in 1995. Expanding Great Lakes Trade.
- Hippie event: BE-IN. "The Human Be In...." That reminded me of The Human BEINZ "Nobody But Me".
- NGRAM Viewer. I like that you can easily find citable examples of words or phrases in books at different periods of tme.
- No IGA's in Los Angeles, but that's where Metallica formed. Enter SANDMAN, for Splynter.
Probably calcium buildup. If running a coffee maker cleanser doesn't fix it, consider buying a Bunn. Dash T vouches for them.
Thanks, Jinx, that's what I thought, but didn't verify. Dogs only.
The "Red River of the North."
The "Red River of the South" forms most of the state boundary between Oklahoma and Texas.
My WaPo doesn't have the print problems mentioned yesterday, and the font is the same.
They must be doing BETA testing...
Oh, front end.
Still, nothing has changed here. I also just tried Play With Friends and it works for me.
Thanks @TTP. I believe you are correct about the BETA Testing. They mentioned something about testing. They provided a link to return to the LAT version, but the ''play together'' function didn't work there either. Mrs. Hululi and I were heart-broken until we figured out the the LAT version still worked fine.
Hi, Splynter -- that castle is called the Alcázar of Segovia. Segovia is about an hour and 15 minutes northwest of Madrid by car -- an easy day trip. As we had never been to Spain before, and might never go again, DH and I were rather ambitious, spending several nights each in Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Granada, and Malaga. I have good things to say about each, but Madrid was our favorite city. We made one day trip from Madrid to Toledo, and another from Madrid to El Escorial and Segovia. Highly recommend!
Jinx, thank you so much for catching my error in the grid! I repeated the answer for 55-Across in the space for 57-Across, and have now indicated the error for the sake of later readers. This is the second time I have had an error in my published grid pointed out to me, so I clearly need to be more careful. Thanks again!
@TTP I wrote to WAPO to report the problem again. They promptly replied, ''unfortunately, that feature [play-together] is no longer available''. I don't understand why it works for you and not for me. AFAIC, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
They must Beta test like Blogger tests. Write the code, and then load it to a server or servers that supports some region or subset of the audience. Then collect the complaints and bugs. Prioritize and fix (or ignore).
I just tested Play With Friends again. Copied the link and sent it from one of my email accounts to another. It opened fine, but with an orange (ish) red background. Everything looked okay, but that's as far as I went.
Gotta run to my shopping errands. Back later today or tonight
TOO BAD (and “tough”) can be sympathetic depending on tone and context.
The Erie Canal began its climb from sea level at the Hudson River past the Cohoes Falls into the Mohawk Valley
Good Afternoon:
Late to the dance due to a super busy morning. I echo the praise for the scrambling of seven letters, and for the feat of doing so with three strong, in-the-language phrases and then giving us a rock solid reveal. Bravo! Vero, Ink Cap (ugly looking!), and Hanoi needed perps, but no w/os necessary. The difficulty level was true to the day and, thankfully, wasn’t lessened by circles.
Very clever theme and reveal and very fine execution.
Thanks, Roland, and thanks, Naomi, for your very interesting, informative review. Another hand up for never having seen Survivor, nor any other so-called reality TV show. I enjoyed all of the photos/illustrations. Thanks for pinch-hitting.
The Bear’s fourth season is now available so I think some bingeing is in my future.
Have a great day.
Very impressive puzzle. I FIR without too much difficulty. Thanks for the nice recap Naomi.
Hola! it's always a pleasure to be reminded of places like KONA where my DH and I vacationed. We circled the island in our rental car and stopped at frequent intervals including the KONA plantation.
I've heard of VERO Beach, FL very likely from some puzzle in the past.
NGRAM looked wrong to me so I'm glad it was correct. And thinking about GLADs, one year I planted the bulbs and had gorgeous flowers in the spring.
Thank you, Roland Huget, for the puzzle and thank you, Naomi, for your lively and informative review.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
I liked this puzzle.
Hey Naomi, I wonder if you do what I do, that is solve on paper then fill in the grid afterwards for publication purposes. As I zoom through filling it in, I don't notice typos at first.
Naomi, your review today was a tour de force! Funny and informative and everything in between.
I wish I could say the same about the puzzle. It worked as a nice themeless for a Thursday, but the trick was only good for the constructor. Roland is very accomplished, and finding phrases with 7-letter anagrams must be difficult, but it's something only seen at the end. Oh boy, isn't he clever, but the solve was not enhanced in any way.
NaomiZ, that's such a small error that I wouldn't have mentioned it, except the first thing I do after I check the previous last comments is to check today's entries against the grid in the write-up. Folks who solve online won't even notice, and many of us old pencil and eraser types use their original source to check their grids. I would too, except that I print on my second floor bedroom printer, then spend the rest of the day (including solving) on my first floor.
Brava, Naomi! Oh, the puzzle was very good, also.
Only 9 names (Hooray!) and I only DNK 3. W/Os: ATICA/UTICA, proving I am not only geographically challenged, by sell poorly, too; STREAMED stayed waaay too long at 10D. I looked at it quite a while before BINGEDON occurred to me, then I wondered what a BEIN was, not getting BE IN. Oy. DNK: INFO (as clued), NGRAM, or IDOL. I, too, have never watched Survivor. Watched part of one episode but thought it was ridiculous, as is "Naked and Afraid". DNK TEN as clued, or INKCAP. ENERO reminds me of buying a souvenir calendar at La Sagrada Familia, and only discovering when I got home and went to hang it on the wall, the weeks start on Monday, not Sunday, as is our custom. Nice pictures, but useless as a calendar, since I kept reading it wrong. Anyway, thanx RH. I was surprised to FIR in 14, very good time for me for a Thursday. Thanx too for the low number of names! Thanx too to NaomiZ for the great write-up, and for 'splainin the theme, which, no surprise, I failed to suss, even after trying. I will give myself a second "Oy" today.
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