KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF
More my kind of music
This looks to be Dana's debut puzzle for the LA Times - congratulations~! She has manufactured a muscial medley of clues & answers, and a rare 15 x 14 Grid, which makes up for the long line of grids 15 x 16 that I have blogged on a regular basis for several Wednesday crosswords in the past. No circles, a handful of easy-enough names, and twice the # of 4LW to 3LWs. Two of the themers are unique*, as are two of the longer Down fills. The theme, and the centered reveal;
16. Plant that can cause an itchy rash: POISON IVY - I get the rash just looking at it....
22. Piece at the Met or the Louvre: MUSEUM ARTWORK*
55. Power source for some trains: THIRD RAIL - for those who prefer rap to rock and blues, Erik B. & Rakim had this track, which has the lyric "the stage is a cage/the mic is a third rail" @3:05
34. MC Hammer hit, and an important reminder about 16-, 22-, 45-, and 55-Across:
U CAN'T TOUCH THIS - sampling my generation's Super Freak by Rick James, this rap took Stanley Kirk Burrell ( and his signature pants ) all the way to best R&B and rap solo for the year 1990; the "DEETS" are here at Wiki
All things being equal, it IS a catchy number
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. "Waterloo" group: ABBA - crossword musical fodder to start us off
5. Sported: WORE
9. HS exams with many multiple-choice questions: SATs
13. Big chunk: SLAB
14. Milky gemstone: OPAL
15. Bloke: CHAP
18. Morning TV host Kelly: RIPA
19. Green roll: SOD
20. Pouty expression: MOUE - My last correction before the "ta-DA~!"; I had moPe
21. "Old Time Rock and Roll" singer Bob: SEGER - this might come as a surprise, but I am not a Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band fan - I'll leave it to the Cornerites for any links
25. 57-Across product: TNT - AND - 57A. Cartoon manufacturer of explosive tennis balls: ACME
26. Statement that may follow "Not to toot my own horn, but ... ": BOAST
27. Absurdist art movement: DADA - Here's the Wiki; I happen to like "fountain" by Marcel Duchamp
Yes, that's exactly what it is . . . .
30. Red __: cinnamon candies: HOTS - I like cinnamon in candy, gum, mouthwash, etc., and Fire Water was my go-to shot in days of yore - but it seems to be hard to find these days
31. Nickname for Ernesto Guevara: CHE
38. "Yo!": "HEY~!"
39. __ and parcel: PART
40. Inclined plane: RAMP
41. Good bargains: DEALS
43. Swiatek who was the first Polish tennis player to win a major singles title: IGA - she likes AC/DC and Pink Floyd - more here from WTA Tennis
50. Fight grime: CLEAN - clever play on word
51. Fail to enunciate: SLUR - especially if you've consumed copious amounts of Fire Water
52. "Yo!": "S'UP~!"
54. Turn over a new leaf?: READ - I just finished "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" by Hank Green - a well-written Sci-Fi story
58. Big name in headphones: BOSE
59. Boundary: EDGE
60. Med. condition once called shell shock: PTSD - Post-Trumatic Stress Disorder; here's George Carlin's skit referring to both terms
61. Full collections: SETS
62. Like some internships: PAID
DOWN:
1. Venomous snakes: ASPS
2. Bouquet element: BLOOM - ROSE, FLOWER, STEM~? Ah, that floral word
3. Tech giant known as the "Google of China": BAIDU - I've never heard of this company before today - here again is the Wiki
4. Muscles worked in boat pose: ABs - I have my second "weigh-in" tomorrow with my trainer
5. Triumphed: WON OUT
6. Yves Saint Laurent fragrance: OPIUM - I bought a sample of "Scent of Dark", the fragrance from Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath - and it's quite alluring - not what you'd expect, if you were expecting "heavy metal on-stage sweat & body odour" 😜
Here's the website where one can buy the fragrance
7. Sing the praises of: RAVE ABOUT*
8. "Tarzan" actor Ron: ELY - I somehow recalled this; I guess I must have seen some Tarzan movie on a Saturday afternoon, long ago
9. Nail alternatives: SCREWS - a more betterer fastener, IMO
10. "Oh, understood": "AH, I GOTCHA.*"
11. Gradually decrease: TAPER - Dah~! Not ABATE
12. Chemistry, so to speak: SPARK - as in romance and relationships
17. Gathering of crows, to some: OMEN - not MURDER - the official name for a group of crows
21. Secret stock: STASH - Dah~! Not CACHE
23. Megafan: STAN - 21st century-speak; a reference to an Eminem song, if you care to listen to this rap - might be a bit too 'unsettling' for some
24. Univ. military gp.: ROTC - Reserve Officers' Training Corps - had this a couple weeks ago
27. "Obvi!": "DUH~!"
28. Whiz: ACE
29. Fantasizes: DAY-DREAMS
30. Lawn game item pitched at a stake: HORSESHOE - semi-meh; we always called the GAME horseshoeS
32. "That bloke": "HIM~!" - "You~! Yes, You~! Stand still, laddie~!"
33. Telepath's talent: ESP - crosswordese
35. "Bartender" singer: T-PAIN - Cringe - I triple-dog dare you to listen through to the end - I could not. Warning~! No foul language, but a not-very-deep, excessive abuse of Auto-Tune hip-hop song
36. Soft silicate: TALC
37. Vehicle with cables: TRAM - good WAG, but then again, STREETCAR was almost a grid-spanner
42. Dodged: EVADED - HA~! I risked filling this in, knowing that it could have been ELUDED, etc.
43. Accustoms (to): INURES - Wednesday's $2 word - You have to use it in a sentence in a convo today
44. Steel (oneself): GIRD - especially your loins
45. Leftover bit: SCRAP
46. Vote in: ELECT
47. Most sought-after, as party guests: A-LIST - "That's why I invited clients instead of friends" -who said this~? What movie~? - See below.
48. Carne __ burrito: ASADA
49. Mario character in green: LUIGI
some anon on the street because I had on grey overalls
53. Declared in court: PLED
55. Samantha Bee's former network: TBS
56. Agt.: REP
Louis Tully, Ghostbusters, @ 0:42
38 comments:
In spite of at least one
horrible answer (Ah, I gotcha) most of the puzzle was readily understandable. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
D'oh. Guess who went with ENURES/EGA? Yup. Bzzzzzt. Still, d-o enjoyed the trip to the abasement. Thanx, Dana and Splynter. (Carlin is always hilarious. The HORSESHOE, singular, is the "item pitched" in horseshoes.)
Took 5:56 today to put this off-limits.
I didn't know the Chinese tech firm or T-pain, but I knew today's actress/hostess (Ripa).
Like SubG, I didn't like "ahigotcha", nor did I like "sup".
If you don't like Bob Seger, you can always turn the page.
I do not like the WAPO's new puzzle format.
FIR, but forgot that there is a "U" in the theme's title song, and therefore erased the entry when I ran out of letters before I ran out of cells. (I knew about Hammer getting permission to use the bass line from Superfreak for today's tune.)
I'm not much of a fan of Old Time Rock and Roll either, but Night Moves takes me back to the good ol' days. For some reason, I get SEGER confused with Boz Scaggs, who I can (and have) listen to all night.
Who can forget The Coaster's big hit POISON IVY?
If you play HORSESHOEs on your lawn, you won't have any lawn where you played HORSESHOEs.
FLN: Anon @ 7:37, UCSD is just up the cliff from the famous (but unofficial) clothing-optional Black's Beach in La Jolla. SDSU is inland, just a little NE from the Zoo. (SDSU is also part of the Cal State University system, but it isn't named "Cal State University - San Diego" as would be consistent with other institutions in the system.)
Thanks to Dana for the fun, easy-ish Wednesday challenge. My usual gripe about too much A&E applies to this one too, but it's kind of necessary for the theme.
FIR, despite proper names like Iga and T-Pain to name a few. But the perps were there to assist.
I got the theme half way through. I'm not sure why you can't touch a service animal, but it wasn't critical to the solve.
Growing up on the Hudson River, we would cross the tracks to go fishing and step on the wood covered third rail and never think anything of it. I wouldn't do that today, but kids are fearless and also clueless.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
As I understand it, service dogs are on alert to the needs of the person they serve, and distractions aren't welcome. That's different from support animals, which can also serve an important purpose but may not be on alert to specific conditions. Service dogs don't sniff other dogs or go wagging to strangers for attention. Per the Americans With Disabilities Act web site, service dogs are not "emotional support or comfort dogs, because providing emotional support or comfort is not a task related to a person’s disability."
Good Morning:
This was a pleasant enough solve with a Wednesday appropriate difficulty level, IMO. Baidu, T Pain, and the song itself were unknowns, but perps were fair, so no foul. The theme was fresh and the themers were solid, as was the surprising reveal.
Nice debut, Dana, thanks, and thanks, Splynter, for the detailed review. Enjoyed the George Carlin routine, especially touched by his concluding statement.
Have a great day.
Jinx, thanks for explaining the difference between service and support animals.
I needed the reveal to see what the long across answers had in common. Nice surprise. I too needed perps to get the song, but not too difficult.
I had á few unknowns like BAIDU, TPAIN and EGA. I’m sure we’ve had STAN as clued before, but I needed TNT to dig it up. Anyway, nice Wednesday CW.
I’m always amazed at the abilities of SERVICE ANIMALS, and the talent of wonderful people who train them.
Thank you Splynter for the nice recap. George Carlin is always welcome.
Musings
-A fun humpday puzzle where the gimmicks involved all the fill
-I knew MOUE and IGA from cwds.
-AH, I GOTCHA, IGA and EGO are now women’s names
-I tip my hat to you if you knew BAIDU
-My grandfather returned from France in 1918 from WWI and was never the same.
-4” of very welcome rain and more predicted.
Nice work, Dana! Nifty theme, and only two worrisome unknowns: BAIDU and T-PAIN. I was trying to make the latter into TWAIN, but perps prevented it. FIR and enjoyed it. Thanks for the interesting wrap-up, Splynter!
Congrats on your debut, Dana!
Splynter, thanks.
Dan Kammann & C.C. Burnikel have today's USA Today crossword,"Take a Trip".
C.C. also has today's Wall Street Journal crossword, "Boomerang Effect".
HGary--Your comment about your grandfather certainly resonated with me. My great-uncle ( my grandmother's brother) fought in the Spanish-American War, after which he became a professor at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. When the U.S. entered WW1 in 1917, he resigned his position and re-joined the Army, this time as a Major. He served in France for the duration, and I have all his letters that he wrote home to his sister--my grandma--and to his nephew, my dad. Parenthetically, there is an old saw about how WW 1 soldiers writing home were--for security reasons--not allowed to give the date or their whereabouts, so they just wrote at the top, "Somewhere in France." Well, that old saw is true: Uncle Whit wrote exactly those words in all his letters.
He returned to the States in early 1919, at age 42, and resumed his teaching post at Penn. And in 1925 he dropped dead at at the age of only 48.
So I am curious if you know in what way your grandfather was never the same. Was it partially health-related, and if so, did he die young, like my great-uncle? Whit served at the front for a year and a half, and I've always wondered about the extent to which he might have been exposed to mustard gas and other noxious entities.
Has your family pinpointed in what way your grandfather was never the same post-war, and perhaps mentioned something like exposure to noxious gases?
Nor was my late brother-in-law after Vietnam. He went into deep depressions, during which he had various stories about what he did in "Nam." The stories were often mutually exclusive. He never talked about the war unless he was deeply depressed. The depression didn't kill him, but the inability of the VA to perform a complex robotic prostatectomy did.
Wow, C.C.'s on a tear, lighting up the crossword world everywhere! A worthy role model for our newest constructor, Dana. Congrats!
One important thing at Dana has already learned that eludes some others - if you include an unusual word or name, make sure the crosses are fair.
Bob SEGER is not on the top of my list, but my band does play "Sunspot Baby" and "The Fire Down Below" with me on piano. I started playing keyboards several years ago to add that iconic Hammond B3 organ sound after unsuccessfully trying to emulate on guitar. Songs like Seger's are fun because you can just bang away. Those elementary school piano lessons finally paid off! Thanks, Mom! (today would be her 99th birthday)
And thanks to Splynter for another ace review!
Ooops!!!
When I googled Dana Edwards he wasn’t very happy that you assumed his pronoun was “she” . 🙈
T.K. and Jinx,
My grandfather became very withdrawn from his family. He bought a bar and and proceeded to give away a lot of beer and food and the bar went broke. After that my grandmother took a job as a phone switchboard operator ("number please"). Now, I'm embarrassed that I don't know what he did after that unitl his death and am going to try to find out what he did.I just remember his sitting around the house smoking unfiltered Camel straights and fending off grandma's nagging. He died of of respiratory illness at the age of 61 from a lifetime of smoking and grandma lived alone for decades after that.
Like Dana Carvey the actor. Both are men.
My uncle, mom’s bro, served in Korea and was plagued by nightmares for the rest of his life, not exactly debilitating as he held a career, but still traumatic. I think he suffered in silence and never sought professional help. Coincidentally, he also chain smoked non-filtered Camels which he fired up with a Zippo.
14 names, DNK 5. Also DNK: MOUE, STAN, or DADA. With all that ignorance, I kinda surprised myself to FIR in 9. What of the names I DNK was IGA, but like her choices for favorite music. Poison ivy is something that, peculiarly, I can roll in with no ill effects. Yet I'm allergic to tons of other stuff. Go figure. Once again, to nobody's surprise, I forgot to look for the theme. Dang. I woulda seen it for sure. Very pleasant, fun, clever CW, thanx DE. Thanx to Splynter also for his great write-up. Lots of talk about PTSD, so I guess everyone watched the Carlin clip. He was great! My grandfather fought in WWI on the German side. He refused to talk about it when asked, but once in a while when he had a bit too much beer and schnapps he would talk about it. He was a machine-gunner. He said the other side would blow a whistle and the soldiers would come out of a trench and charge at the German side, and he would just mow them down. He said, "I have no idea how many I killed. And for what? But I had to kill them, if they made it to our line, they would have killed me." He said after a while, the other side would blow another whistle, hoist a white flag, and come out to drag the dead back to their trenches. He told me the German army provided plenty of bullets, but almost no food, and they'd crawl out at night with knives and forks and cut up the dead horses for food. He said the whole thing was terrible, and repeat, "And for what?" Sometimes he'd cry a little. My grandfather cemented my anti-war attitude for life. There's are definitely better ways to solve differences.
Just remembered that my 6th grade teacher was married to a WWII vet who survived the Bataan Death March. He was clearly not right, although it was years before I learned what he experienced. He was the AV guy at our K through 12 school. His duties mostly involved running the film projector, but also making sure the auditorium TV was working for important events like the first US man in space, and World Series games when the Reds were playing. (In those days the games were mostly played in the daytime.) He drowned in a small local lake, and most folks thought it was a suicide.
BTW, the "grandpa" story above was from the 1960s, 50 years after WWI.
The WAPO eliminated the print feature for the puzzle. They responded to me, few people used it. I did! I did! Are there any papers left that carry the LA Times puzzle and have a print feature?
Dayton Daily News
Splitter, here’s my assigned sentence: Nothing INURES me to MOUE being a real word, same for adorbs.
WEES about BAIDU and T PAIN, and for me OPIUM and THIRD RAIL also needed perps. Eluded or EVADED also gave me pause. All in all, a good Thursday level puzzle and a nice debut for Dana (I have a SIL also named Dana). Favorite SEGER song - “Roll Me Away”. Thanks Splynter for your informative commentary!
Thank you all for your generosity and frankness in sharing your family stories. There definitely seem to be some common themes involving our relatives who were veterans.
My mother was the family historian, and shortly before she died, she called her three sons together to discuss the question of to whom she should pass the genealogy baton when the time came. She--and my two brothers--all voted for me. It reminded me of that scene in a W.C.Fields movie when he was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. His comment afterwards was something to the effect of, "well, I might have been bothered by it except for the honor of the whole thing."
So I was honored, but for the past ten years, I've been the family's go-to person to resolve unanswerable questions. For this one, involving Great Uncle Whitford, the queries are usually along the lines of, all of our relatives on that side of the family lived well into their 80's and 90's. What's with Whitford dying at 48?
We may never know; it's a long time ago. Geez, it just hit me that it's exactly 100 years ago when Whitford died.
But all your answers provide food for thought, and a welcome wider perspective. Thanks again.
Autocorrect butchered your name, Splynter. Sorry!
Not to wear out the obvious, but I print mine every morning from https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword
No login required, but you usually are exposed to a short ad.
I solved this puzzle without needing help. Found your stories of grandfathers, etc. to be far more interesting.
Hi All!
Thanks Dana for a well themed and nicely executed puzzle. Congrats on the LAT debut!
//I see on xwordinfo, that you have 2 NYTs. Nice.
Great expo, Splynter. Just reading "shell shock" immediately evoked Carlin. Thanks for sparing us the rap :-)
WOs: SEGaR
ESPs: BAIDO (spelling), MOUE, IGA, T-PAIN required some perps. I heard of him but I'm not familiar with that song.
Fav: READ's clue
HG - I knew BAIDU but not the spelling - I've only heard about them on the radio where it was pronounced as Bi du (to my ear anyway).
Both my grandfathers fought in WWII - One was messed up a bit (I was told from the psych drugs) and never talked about it but the other was pretty happy-go-lucky and tell us the fun stories like tying a string to the flue of the Zippo and dipping it in a drum of jet fuel for lighter fluid.
My (Army, ret) Bro was a FO in Iraq and if it weren't for heavy drugs, he wouldn't sleep. But, overall, he's pretty stable now.
My Army service never saw combat - I was back-fill at the Ft. Hood hospital while the "real army" went to Kuwait.
YooperPhil - I'll second "Roll Me Away."
Cheers, -T
I call it "Auto-f___-up", since it messes up more stuff than it corrects.
Hola! Dana Edwards gave us a nice, easy puzzle today. I'm always pleased to start with ABBA. I've seen OPIUM perfume at the store but have never been tempted to buy it. As for POISON IVY, it's no laughing matter when you come in contact with it. On a trip to Mt. Palomar, we came across some and itched for many days afterward. Calomine lotion was slathered on and that helped.
I've never listened to MC Hammer but the perps were helpful for the song.
IGA used to be a grocery store chain.
Just yesterday I went out to lunch with my friends and had CARNE ASADA. I also learned that my favorite Mexican food restaurant is moving to north Scottsdale. Sigh. It's not too far but this one is in the neighborhood and will soon close. Luckily there is another one not too far away. You would think that I would be INURED to change, but I'm not.
I hope you are having a wonderful day, everyone! Insomnia struck again last night.
My late DH was in the Korean War and never wanted to talk about it. He also did not have any of his medals, so my daughter has made it a mission to get them from the U.S. Army, and she has them displayed. The same with my great-grandfather who was in WWI. He never talked about the war, and he always walked with a limp so I'm sure he was injured during that time.
Next to the famous research institute Scripps.
I just met a service cat and his trainer at Lake Balboa! Just as calm and intelligent as a service dog!
The Scripps Institute is part of SDSU, IIRC. Scripps also has a couple of more locations along the coast.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks, Dana, for the delightful puzzle. And thanks, Splynter, for your always helpful commentary.
Well, hard to wonder if the CHAP who was helping out at the MUSEUM ART WORK place, might have touched some POISON IVY and gotten scratched and was now pouting (with that expression some call a MOUE). I hope no one offered him any OPIUM, and maybe cheered him up by letting him walk their SERVICE ANIMAL. It worked, and then his spirits started to BLOOM and this did SPARK a whole new direction in his career. After such a cool afternoon, he finally WON OUT!
Have a lovely evening coming up, everybody.
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