A Menagerie in the House. One word in each two-word theme answer is a Sound a Pet might make.
17-Across. American government official accused of Soviet espionage in the McCarthy era: ALGER HISS. // Snake (or a Cat). Alger Hiss (Nov. 11, 1904 ~ Nov. 15, 1996) was and remains a controversial figure. He was accused of spying for the Soviet Union, but was never convicted on these charges. Instead, he was convicted of perjury. Whether or not he actually committed espionage remains unresolved.
25-Across. Arts and entertainment company known for large-scale interactive installations: MEOW WOLF. // Cat. I was not familiar with Meow Wolf.
34-Across. Traditional canoe material: BIRCH BARK. // Dog. A brief history of the Birch Bark Canoe.
48-Across. Kaleidoscope opening: PEEP HOLE. // Chick.
And the unifier:
57-Across. Beach Boys album that's No. 2 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and what can be found in 17-, 25-, 34-, and 48-Across: PET SOUNDS.
Across:
1. Chatted privately online, for short: DM'ED. As in Direct Message(ed)
5. Smack: SLAP.
9. College mil. unit: ROTC. As in Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
13. Meaty red sauce: RAGU. Ragu a sauce typically made with ground meat, onions, tomato puree, and red wine, and served with pasta. It is also the name of a commercially prepared pasta sauce.
14. Musical finale: CODA.
15. Belgian bills: EUROS. The euro (€) is the official currency of 20 out of 27 European Union member countries. The following countries use the euro: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
19. Curry who was the NBA MVP in 2015 and 2016: STEPH. Steph Curry (né Wardell Stephen Curry II; b. Mar. 14, 1988) professional basketball player and is currently a point guard for the Golden State Warriors.
20. Subgroup: FACTION.
21. Golf peg: TEE.
23. Soccer star Hamm: MIA. Mia Hamm (née Mariel Margaret Hamm; b. Mar. 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist (1996 and 2004) and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2001 and 2002).
24. Connects with: TIES TO.
27. Class for some immigrants: Abbr.: ESL. As in English as a Second Language. It's a crossword staple.
28. Anaheim MLB team: ANGELS.
30. Heaps: ALOT.
31. Oscar winner Benicio __ Toro: DEL. His full name is Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (b. Feb. 19, 1967). He won an Oscar for his portrayal of a conflicted Mexican detective in the 2000 crime thriller Traffic.
32. Pre-Easter period: LENT.
33. Plans secretly: PLOTS.
37. Colorado spot for hitting the slopes: ASPEN.
40. Daytime TV host Kelly: RIPA. Kelly Maria Ripa (b. Oct. 2, 1970) has been co-hosting the Daytime show Live! since 2001. She has had a number of co-hosts including: Regis Philbin, Michael Strahan, and Ryan Seacrest. Her current co-host is her husband, Mark Consuelos (né Mark Andrew Consuelos; b. Mar. 30, 1971).
41. Indy 500 sponsor: STP. Did you know that STP stands for Science, Technology, Performance?
44. Ballet class bend: PLIÉ.
45. Verse: POETRY.
47. Cartoon frame: CEL.
50. Break free: ESCAPE. On May 16, 10 inmates escaped from a jail in New Orleans. As of yesterday, 8 of the 10 had been recaptured.
52. Suffix with puppet: -EER. As in a puppeteer.
53. Total: ADD.
54. Latvia's northern neighbor: ESTONIA.
55. Declares publicly: AVOWS. A crossword staple.
59. Genuine, casually: LEGIT.
60. Wild and crazy: AMOK.
61. Brazilian soccer legend: PELÉ. Pelé (né Edson Arantes do Nascimento; Oct. 23, 1940 ~ Dec. 29, 2022), was a Brazilian professional soccer player and is generally regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
62. One-__-fits-all: SIZE.
63. Comedian Love: LONI. I am not familiar with Loni Love (b. July 12, 1971). Before turning to show biz, she earned a degree as an electrical engineer and worked in that field until the early 2000s.
64. Ice cream brand: EDYS.
Down:
1. Chosen for the NFL, maybe: DRAFTED.
2. Coming-down-with-a-cold feeling: MALAISE.
3. Ovum: EGG CELL.
4. Songs for two: DUETS.
5. Fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat: SCHOONER. What exactly is a Schooner, besides being a fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat?
6. Pork cut: LOIN.
7. App pop-ups: ADS.
8. Gentle shade: PASTEL.
9. Stitch again: RESEW.
10. Not fashionable: OUT.
11. Vibrating effect, in music: TREMOLO.
12. Cockpit partner: COPILOT.
16. Elevator passages: SHAFTS.
18. ADHD medication: RITALIN.
22. Lip balm brand: EOS.
25. "I'm in too!": ME THREE!
26. Stroll: WALK.
29. "Live Well" supplements retailer: GNC. As in General Nutrition Center.
33. Connects with, as a higher power: PRAYS TO.
34. Microwave alert: BEEP.
35. Smidgen: BIT.
36. Relaxing time after hitting the slopes: APRÉS SKI.
37. Curb __: APPEAL.
38. Coffee cup insulators: SLEEVES. Because Zarf was too short.
39. Polish dumplings: PIEROGI. Yummers!
41. Read a barcode: SCANNED.
42. With little gusto: TEPIDLY.
43. Satisfies: PLEASES.
45. Pea holder: POD.
46. Bud from way back: OLD PAL. I say, Old Pal!
49. Speed: HASTE.
51. Sporty car: COUPE.
54. British boarding school: ETON. Eddie Redmayne and Prince William were classmates at Eton.
56. "Black and Yellow" rapper __ Khalifa: WIZ. I am not familiar with Wiz Khalifa (né Cameron Jibril Thomaz; b. Sept. 8, 1987).
58. Moody genre: EMO.
חתולה
June 1 marked the beginning of Hurricane Season.
38 comments:
This puzzle had a few
“puzzling” moments, as with “ Meow Wolf” but on the whole presented few difficulties. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Wow, ME THREE is back for another encore -- from original to trite in the span of a couple of weeks. Campus ROTC wasn't very popular in olden times when I attended. In those days a SCHOONER was just a big beer glass. Yay, d-o got the theme. Thanx, Emily, Sala, and Hahtoolah.
FIW, mispeling TREMeLO and having no idea of MEOWWeLF to bail me out. imed->DMED, and ridalin->RITALIN.
Never been skiing except behind a power boat, but APRES SKI evokes copious alcohol consumption and soaking in a Jacuzzi. I'm in favor of both,
Airlines don't use PILOT / COPILOT anymore. The titles are "Captain" and "First Officer." Both are fully capable PILOTs. The roles in the cockpit are "PILOT Flying" and "PILOT Monitoring." The PILOT Flying has control of the aircraft, while the PILOT Monitoring watches the instruments, operates the radio, and tells the pilot routine information such as when it is too late to abort the takeoff and when to rotate the plane. The Captain and First Officer split Pilot Flying duties, so on a round trip if the Captain is Pilot Flying on the outbound leg, the First Officer will be Pilot Flying on the return leg.
The Carter Administration will be remembered by, among other things, his "MALAISE speech," in which he blamed the gloom of his fellow Americans on their own “self-indulgence” and “consumption.” (The speech actually never used the word MALAISE.)
Thanks to Emily and Sala for the mostly-enjoyable puzzle. And thanks to Ha2la for another fine review.
Once again the decision came down to WE or ME THREE. And this time the M or W crossed the unknown MEOWWOLF, which crossed the unknown EOS. It took PET SOUNDS for me to make the correct guesses. I had guessed the sounds after HISS and BARK were filled.
MY HS had the option-four years of phys Ed. or four years of ROTC.
TREMOLO is sometimes confused with vibrato. The tremolo has
trembling sound (same pitch) of the same tone while the vibrato is changing pitches.
LONI and WIZ were other unknowns easily filled.
Take a deep breath and get over yourself. Have a positive day.
Took 5:36 today to buzz through this one.
Seemed tougher than a Tuesday, as I didn't know Alger Hiss (uncommon first and last name), Meowwolf (?), and tremolo. Fortunately, pierogi was in my wheelhouse (and currently in my refrigerator).
FIR. Seems to be a pattern developing this week, this had some crunchiness to it.
I've never heard of Meow Wolf, but got the answer thanks to the reveal. And the presence of so many proper names made this puzzle a bit of a bear. Thank heavens for perps.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Emily and Sala, and Hahtoolah (I LOLed at that Gulf of America cartoon).
This CW was a WALK in the dog park for me today. I saw the animal SOUNDS early in the solve.
Two small inkblots to change e to O in TREMOLO (hi Jinx), and Y to I in PIEROGI.
I smiled at ASPEN and APRES SKI, and PLOTS under A LOT.
We had TIES TO and PRAYS TO.
I’ll take a CSO with BIRCHBARK. Those canoes are an iconic Canadian symbol. Thanks for the link, Hahtoolah.
Wishing you all a great day.
I just got back from being out of town - and I had to remember what day it was as this solved like a speedy Monday!
Lots in my wheelhouse
-our family are Beach Boys fans and "Pet Sounds" was the best of their albums . Interesting doc on making it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0vAL8dHBxA
- MIA Hamm was the idol of all the girls playing soccer when my daughter was playing
-TREMOLO sounds good in an arrangement but it isn't easy to sing
-When I lived in Chicago it was near immigrant areas of Polish and Czech people and pierogis and kolaches are both yummers!
Thanks Susan for the blog and Emily & Sala for the puzzle!
Good Morning, Crossword friends. I'm glad I wasn't the only one unfamiliar with with Meow Wolf. That was my last fill.
QOD: You don’t want to own a boat. You want to be friends with someone who owns a boat. ~ Bill Burr (né William Frederick Burr; b. June 10, 1968), American stand-up comedian
Hola! i guess you have to be of a certain (old) age to remember ALGER HISS.
On my last trip to Europe, I paid with EUROS but prior to that every country had its own currency. It made buying easier, but I missed the charm of all those coins though not the confusion of exchanging them.
I've seen Dick WOLF Productions but never MEOWWOLF.
LONI Love is not familiar to me, but I would have known LONI Anderson.
Thanks, Emily and Sala and Hahtoolah for today's fun! Have a lovely day, everyone!
Believe it or not, but I am not going to comment about cats today...
My mind has wandered thinking the clues were not specific enough.
(Which is the nature of clues, I know, but...)
Kelly Ripa, I always thought of her as a morning show host...
Schooner... sails fore and aft... interesting. However my mind wanders to "3 sheets to the wind," because of the quantum leap finale episode where the Bartender (God?) responds to Sams request (for a 10 cent beer?) as;
"Do you want that in a Pilsner, or a Schooner?...
Hmm,
3 sheets to the wind,
That reminds me...
(HG, that'll teach ya to ask for thoughts.... :)
A little crunchy today, but perps to the rescue. Pet Sounds...great music, and a big help figuring out the theme. Ha2la, I think your nice moving picture of a sailboat is square-rigged, not scooner-rigged.
Good Morning:
I missed the sounds until the reveal, so that was a pleasant surprise. Not familiar with Meow Wolf or Loni or Pet Sounds, but fair perps did their job. I like the word, Malaise, and also, Ennui, but I never use either one in conversation. There were several fresh entries today, including: Tremolo, Co-pilot, Pierogi, Aprés Ski, etc., all of which added to the enjoyment of the solve, IMO.
Thanks, Emily and Sala, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for entertaining and enlightening us. Favorite comics were the Cat’s Swear Jar, the Fish Bowl, the Pea’s Podcast, and the Elevator Captive pooch.
Have a great day.
“What’s the buzz?”
For so early in the week had a couple one letter hang ups, Worried about the crossing of ME_W and E_S until the reveal clue made it obvious it was MEOW, a “sound” (though never heard of the A&E company). Add to that I held on to JETSOUNDS for too long. Would have helped if I knew who LOMI was. But it finally all came together.
“Espionage/McCarthy”: was gonna try Rosenberg but wouldn’t perp. To aver … is that “declared publicly” too?
With a “direct message” you’re DM’ED if you do and DM’ED if you don’t
“some migrants” who show up at ESL “class” risk an ICEE reception. Tease my DW of Polish descent. “Potato pierogis”: starch nutritiously stuffed with … starch.
“Brazilian soccer legend” (how much is a brazillion?)
“Read a bar code” past or present tense? (our nonsensical English language)
Enjoy the day
He actually said MAYONNAISE
No problems today. It was enjoyable. I have never heard of Meow Wolf. Nice job as always Hahtoolah
Very interesting information about pilots that I DNK. Thanx.
Add me to the long list of never having heard of Meow Wolf. 17 names, DNK 3, also DNK APRESSKI. So pretty crunchy for a Tuesday. Got 'er done to FIR in 11. Saw the theme, but only after I'd finished the CW and went back to look. Thanx to EB&SW for the entertainment. Thanx to Hahtoolah for the terrific write-up, and the as always great cartoons.
Interesting Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Emily and Sala. And your pictures are always a pleasure, Hahtoolah, thanks for those too.
Well, LENT is a time for us to think about hard times at this season of the year, when it's not uncommon to suffer from MALAISE, and to be feeling a bit TEPIDLY about things. Maybe a good time to take some RITALIN to ESCAPE from even harder symptoms. Not a good time to SKI or APRES-SKI, or even just to WALK to feel better again. Let's go feed ourselves some PIEROGI and some RAGU. Would that APPEAL to you? And why not spend a little time writing some POETRY while listening to those lovely DUETS, and even to some PET SOUNDS. I'd say that PLEASES all of us, don't you agree?
Have a good day, everybody.
Living in South Fla, that boat expression goes back many, many years. I've been on boats of all types, and crewed in regattas, but I'm so glad that after helping clean up at the end of the day, I simply get to go home and not worry about the storage and maintenance, not to mention the purchase price.
I found this one to be tougher than usual for a Tuesday, but I see others sped through it. So, I guess Emily and Sala nailed it, but I didn't. I misread part of 25D as _ _THERE (even though I had _ _THREE, reading vertically threw me) so BE THERE seemed good and it made BEOWWOLF, which is a great name for an Arts Co. Although "BEOW wow" is a stretch for a dog!
STP was originally Scientifically Treated Petroleum. Now they use the backronym Science, Technology, Performance as a tag line.
My microwave "bings" rather than BEEPs.
Wonderful review, as usual, Hahtoolah! And thanks for answering a nagging question I never had - What's a zarf? TIL it's from the Turkish word for envelope that referred metal ornamental cup holders. Cool!
PET SOUNDS? The only album name I ever bothered to learn was "Meet The Beatles".
Thanks to Emily and Sala for a BIT of Tuesday crunch, and to Hahtoolah for a sparkling review! I FIW, thinking the word was TREMuLO, and never having heard of MEOWWuLF. That'll cut me down to SIZE!
Thank you, Emily and Sala. I liked your puzzle.
The squares for the theme answers and the reveal were shaded light gray so I read those first. My first three entries were BIRCH BARK, PEEP HOLE and PET SOUNDS. ALGER HISS took a few perps to recall, and I've never heard of MEOW WOLF, so it was all perps.
One of my older sisters bought the PET SOUNDS album. She played that album and Carole King's "Tapestry" album all the time.
Hahtoolah, thank you. "Let's bark at nothing." Loved that!
Geese HISS too. They are also not afraid of golfers and golf carts when protecting their goslings, and if you get too close, the hissing starts before they charge at you. At least on our golf course.
Your ski bum cartoon reminded me of early in my career. One of the guys called off ill and went golfing at The Woodlands. It just so happened that one of the managers in the office had taken the day off to golf... at The Woodlands. The next day, it must have went like this: "Hey, I ran into Randy at the course yesterday." We all got new security codes that afternoon when Randy was terminated.
Microwave alert - BEEP. The beep on our Ninja air fryer is loud. Too loud. Can't turn it down or turn it off. The gifted toaster oven is in storage for the same reason. So annoying. When our microwave bit the dust, I bought a Toshiba model that allowed me to turn off the beep.
Dash T - Good link last night with Free Guy.
Prof M’s CWPS(Crossword Purity Score*) for this CW: 65% D.
* Calcuated as the ratio of non-proper names to total fills (In this case 47/72). (Disclaimer: The Prof exercised some discretion in applying the non-proper name standard.)
Thanks to Emily and Sala! It turned out that not knowing either ALGER HISS or MEOW WOLF kept the gimmick hidden longer, which was fun.
Thanks to Hahtoolah, as well! FAV was the DUET comic. That first .gif of the cat and snake reminds me of when a rattlesnake bit my cat. I think I might have mentioned that before. After being very sick, she survived but took off running every time the hose kinked and made a HISS sound.
That sewing machine from Flintstones was hilarious.
FIR in under 10, not purrfect as I had to make a couple changes, but perps saved the day. As usual, the unknowns were names, DEL, WIZ, and LONI (but I did know LOIN). Seems we are introduced to a different rapper almost daily, surprised that we don’t see vowel heavy Eminem more often. I was at a convention at a ski resort last week (Boyne Mountain MI) and I saw a reference to APRES SKI, but didn’t know what it meant till today. I know what PIEROGIs are but needed perps to spell it. WEES about MEOW WOLF. PET SOUNDS was the BEACH BOYS 11th studio album, critically acclaimed but not commercially successful, took 44 years to be certified platinum. Most of their more famous songs came from other works. Thank you Sala and Emily for your fine collaboration, and to Hahtoolah for your well thought out recap, you always make Tuesday’s a treat!
Above is Yooper Phil, I seem to have lost my handle.
Ray-O, Southern is my native tongue.
U-Fred, the two pilots are doing the work done by 3 or 4 people previously. The 727s and earlier aircraft had flight engineers, and don't forget that Bob and Emily Newhart's neighbor Howard Borden was a navigator for an airline. Even with GPS and computerization, the workload is pretty heavy during takeoffs and landings, with long stretches of light duty in between. (I learned last week that the first order of 8 or so (I forget the exact number) of 767 jets were configured to use flight engineers. No modern commercial planes use more than two cockpit crew, although super long flights require two teams of pilots , with bunks for the off-duty pilots.)
Another fun fact about airliners is that they MUST be flown by autopilot above 29,000 feet. Above that altitude reduced vertical separation is used, and hand-flying is not precise enough to do that safely. If the autopilot breaks the pilot must get clearance and descend below that level, making it fly slower and use more fuel.
I've owned six sailboats and have loved every one of them. It is indeed an expensive hobby, but it is nice to have your own stuff on board - from life jackets to towels and washcloths. and if you want to race, rental boat sails won't cut it.
The ancient joke is that the two best days in the life of a boat owner are the day he buys it, and the day he sells it.
What? You don't know Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief? Oh the humanity!
Our pet phrase for playing vendor golf during working hours was "a meeting in the green room." Allowed, but don't do it too often, and never when reorgs were underway or internal auditors were afoot.
For some reason when I open the icon to comment, it is stuck on "Monday, January 6, 2025" and I have to then scroll all the way down to "Home" to access the current day's posting. Can anyone advise me on what to do about that, if anything? Thank you.
Late to the party today. Been running errands, etc.
I liked this puzzle. Got hung up on that MEOW WOLF.
Sorry I can't advise you, Lucina. I don't know why that happened either.
Thank you for your reply, Jayce.
Post a Comment