Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with the recap of a Friday puzzle by Dan Schoenholz who's puzzles have previously appeared in the LAT and NYT. Today, at five places in the puzzle (I hope that the count is correct this time 😁) Dan conjures up homophones of common words by splitting the word into two parts. The result each time is a punny, two-word answer to the themed clue. All of these answers end with the sound of "ease". Cleverly, the sound is created four different ways - EASE, IES, EES, IES (again) and EAS. If, e.g., EZE could had been employed in lieu of the second IES then the feat would have been, perhaps, even more remarkable.
The gimmick is applied at:
17 Across: Baseball player who flirts with joining the Kansas City squad?: ROYAL TEASE. From ROYALTIES.
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| The Baseball Team |
31 Across: Release vital agricultural workers?: FREE BEES. From FREEBIES. Everybody loves free stuff.
37 Across: Sound of a job seeker who ran hard to get to an appointment on time?: INTERVIEW WHEEZE. From INTERVIEWEES.
46 Across: Precaution for absent-minded drivers?: TWIN KEYS. From TWINKIES. Have you ever asked yourself "Where did I put my keys"? While holding them in your hand?
64 Across: Coast Guard's desire after a hurricane warning?: VACANT SEAS. From VACANCIES. Stay in port.
The completed grid looks like this:
. . . the the rest of the clues/answers:
Across:
1. Quarrel: SPAT. Alternative clue: Hocked a loogie.
5. Hosting, briefly: M C ING. Rarely have I heard emcee employed as a gerund.
10. "Love & Basketball" actor Omar: EPPS. A frequent visitor.
14. Electrolyte components: IONS.
15. Cartoon hunter Fudd: ELMER.
16. Dab: BLOT. A Little BLOT' ll do Ya? Meh.
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| Brigitte |
36. [Bam!]: POW.
43. Hundred Acre Wood resident: ROO. An A. A. Milne / Winnie The Pooh reference. See also 2 Down.
44. Mascara site: LASH.
45. Unagi roll fish: EEL. A frequent bite to eat.
49. Comes to: AWAKES.
52. Sneak: WEASEL. A WEASEL walks into a bar. The bartender says “Wow, I’ve never served a weasel before. What can I get you?” “Pop,” goes the weasel.
53. Attempt: STAB. Idiomatic.
71. Narrow opening: SLIT.
1. Old-fashioned letter opener: SIRS. Dear SIRS: . . .
2. Hundred Acre Wood resident: POOH. See also 43 Across.
3. Actress Taylor-Joy: ANYA. Not a name familiar to this solver. Thanks, perps.
4. Airport express lane, briefly: TSA PRE.
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| Jackie, Shadow, Gizmo and Sunny's House. |
18. Kylo Ren's mother: LEIA. A Star Wars reference.
25. Patron saint of Norway: OLAV. This solver often forgets which is OLAV and which is OLAF.
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| OLAV |
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| OLAF |
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| Sometimes The Cats Fight Back |
41. Capital of Zimbabwe?: ZEE. One of those clues. Did it fool you?
42. Overhead trains: ELS. ELevated TrainS.
46. Shakes one's booty: TWERKS.
47. "Don't worry about us": WERE OK. Or Not.
48. Nearing noon: ELEVEN. This solver might have clued it differently.
50. Float, as a scent: WAFT.
51. Belittles: ABASES.
53. Writer's angle: SLANT. As in bias. Anyone try to squeeze in ITALIC?
57. Nails: ACES. As in the idiom "to nail it".
59. Authentic: REAL.
60. South Asian wrap: SARI. SARI puns would be repetitious.
61. "__ that something?": ISN'T.
63. Sneaky: SLY.
65. Vote against: NAY. We often have to choose between YEA and AYE for the pro votes but with the anti bloc it's EEZE - ier.
I understood most of
ReplyDeletethe themed entries, but I didn’t get what “interview wheeze” was a take-off on until I came to this site. Nevertheless, I didn’t have too much trouble with this fun puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteDecided maybe a MED GALA was a thing, but still couldn't figure out what RONALD EASE had to do with baseball. Bzzzzzt. Maybe d-o should learn the names of the teams. Every week is PLEDGE WEEK now that federal funding for PBS/NPR has been eliminated. Houston Public Media says they're losing $2-Million. ABASES -- the noun form is where d-o is headed, down to the abasement.
Groan re “abatement”!
DeleteFIR, but my second royal gave way to REGAL, and I was certain the four-letter part of "NYC fashion event" had to be something or other "week," which yielded to GALA.
ReplyDeleteMalman, I've done something similar. A long time ago I was known as a guru on a new computerized telco switching system. When a problem happened that the relevant checklists wouldn't fix, and the tech support line got stumped, they called me in. I got a call one fine afternoon, and scurried around changing clothes, gathering a few notes that I had made, and making sure I had my ID badge. But I couldn't find my keys. After searching too long, I started to ask a roommate if he had seen them, and when I started to speak, I realized that I was holding the plastic key fob between my teeth. DOH!
Thanks to Dan for the very easy-for-a-Friday puzzle. And thanks to our Malman for once again delivering the mirth.
Took 7:14 today to blow through this like a breeze.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know today's French lesson (allo), but I knew the Actress of the Day (Anya).
You know how if someone has to explain a joke, then that means it wasn't funny? That's how I feel about today's puzzle, which seemed a little light for a Friday.
At least we had lea & Leia, and none of those pesky circles.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteProps to Dan for a fun theme and some fresh and lively fill, e.g., Patriarchy, Pledge Week, Met Gala, etc., and some cute and clever cluing. Nice CSO to Darling Lily! Interview Wheeze was not as strong a themer as the others, IMO, but, as sound puzzles go, some leeway is allowed. Yesterday’s offering was too easy for a Thursday and today’s is too easy for a Friday, but I guess the previous standards of daily progression in difficulty no long apply, sadly.
Thanks, Dan, and thanks, MalMan, for a rib-tickling review and lots of interesting tidbits to mull over. Enjoyed all the puns and visuals.
Have a great day.
FIR. For a Friday puzzle I didn't find this to be that difficult. The cluing was straightforward and when it wasn't the perps were more than fair.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme with free bees, and was off to the races from there.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle.
I FIR fairly quickly. The NE was the last to fill not knowing LEIA, ANYA, and not thinking that SIRS was old-fashioned enough to be correct.
ReplyDeleteThere were very few obscure names to contend with. I enjoyed the theme, once I figured it out.
I find the word TWERK very ugly. And I don’t know how the poor WEASEL ended up with such á bad reputation.
Nice review MM. loved your selection of funnies.
Oops. NW
DeleteAt least you know your directions. Half of the people under 20 couldn't show you which direction was north or south if you asked them to point in either of those directions.
DeleteDan's punny puzzle gave me trouble in the northwest. Like Monkey at 8:57 AM, I wasn't sure that SIRS fit the bill, and although I admire ANYA Taylor-Joy's acting, I had filled in ANnA, which gave me ROnALTEASE, and I was stumped. I APPEALed to DH, who knew the Kansas City squad. Oh, ROYAL TEASE! You got me. FIW by the one square.
ReplyDeleteMalMan was certainly the best person to parse the puns. I will say that I saw a double meaning at 53-Down, "Writer's angle," where SLANT could be a bias *or* a handwriting tilt. Onward!
I saw the double meaning of SLANT also.
DeleteFab Friday. Thanks for the fun, Dan and MalMan (yes, your count is correct today).
ReplyDeleteOur newspaper was AWOL today, and I solved online at Chicago Tribune site. Does anyone know how to turn off the red letters?
I can’t say I FIRed when red letters changed RoyAL to REGAL (hi Jinx).
But I did see the EES theme with the second themer. I noted EASE, EES, EEZE, EYS, EAS sounds in the themers (and was not thinking of the spellings of the common words represented as having a dupe).
ZEE besides ELS was interesting.
We have had ANYA before, but I tried ANyA first. This Canadian learned ELENA here EONS ago.
Wishing you all a great day.
Whoops, I ERRed. Like NaomiZ, I tried ANnA before ANYA.
DeleteIf it's like its cousin LA Times web site, click "settings" and slide "error check mode" to the left.
DeleteC.E., re: the red letters. Click on where is says "Check" (above/left side) . The first choice on the drop down menu is "autocheck". Toggle that by clicking on it. Nothing will appear to happen but clicking "autocheck" turns the red letters on and off and on and off ...
DeleteRegarding the Chicago Trib site. I do the same as what MalMan@10:29 wrote. I am training myself to remember to turn off "autocheck" before starting the puzzle. Blue letters mean my letters are correct but I forgot to turn autocheck off. Black letters mean it is off.
DeleteMy question about the Chicago Trib site is I keep missing the title on the Sunday puzzles. Can anyone help with that?
I also don't get to see the title. .. and even a bigger gripe about the Trib site, for me, are the advertisements which, on my browser, will sometimes play too often and at the oddest moments.
DeleteThanks Jinx, MalMan and sumdaze. Like Jinx, I expected to find a red letter deactivation in Settings. No luck.
DeleteMalMan’s advice works.
I’ll second (third?) the complaint about the missing title on Sunday.
But I only get a 4 second ad at the beginning on my iPad. There are more ads on my iPhone.
Our old friend David Alfred Bywaters most recent puzzle, named shrift, declares:
ReplyDelete"This puzzle comes with an important disclaimer: the “shrift” it provides is not effective as a means of remitting sin or conferring absolution. If that’s what you want, you need a priest."
Musings
ReplyDelete-Five fun gimmicks and two symmetric 10-letter fills made for a nice solve
-My DW has trained me to dab or BLOT when using Resolve spray on furniture
-Fill in for? It's what I do!
-AWAKE – I have a very cute, four-legged alarm clock
-A Happy Persian New Year’s Card in FARSI
-A former principal of mine was asked to write a REC for a terrible administrator. He wrote, “He always showed up on time.” “How was he as an assistant principal?” “He always showed up on time.” "OK, I get it!"
-When I see great 1960’s singers on PBS, I know it’s PLEDGE WEEK
-So that’s the Star Wars family tree.
-Last Saturday Erik, Chandi and Patti gave us “Lockers in a row/HORNS” where row rhymed with cow
-TWISTS did not seem to have sufficient booty shaking :-)
Another pretty easy Friday. The theme was cute but not sensational and the fill had few thrills or annoyances.
ReplyDeleteThe theme took up 51 of the 225 squares, so making fill of any kind fit in is probably the most admirable thing about the puzzle.
POT PIE is two words!
The STOGIE/Conestoga connection came up on Jeopardy a day or two ago.
I’m a fan of advertising jingles, so now the Brylcreem ad will be in my head all day. “Brylcreem. A little dab’ll do ya/Brylcreem. You’ll look so debonair./Brylcreem. The gals’ll all pursue ya . . .And you know the rest. . . And my favorite line ever on The Sopranos, from Uncle Junior: “I got federal agents so far up my (wazoo) I can taste Brylcreem.”
If you search "POT PIE" at Merriam-Webster, it'll come back with "POTPIE."
DeleteHola! Yes! Easy Friday solve! I do miss the challenges of the past but it's also nice to finish with only one cup of coffee.
ReplyDeleteI also expected the Mexico solve to be in Spanish and was surprised when STATES emerged, but of course, ESTADOS was too long.
OBOE is also a frequent fill and almost automatic, but we've had HARP before and so not to be assumed just because it's four spaces.
With three spaces, the capital of Zimbabwe did not fool me.
Well done, Dan and Malman! Thank you both. Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Wait. Is this Friday? Can it be that I FIR in 10 on a Friday? Hooray for me! Only 11 names, and only DNK 1, so that was a big help. I really like the clever theme, and that all the last words in theme fills rhyme. Very clever fun Friday CW, thanx DS. Too many clever clues to list. Outstanding write-up, too, MalMan, thanx.
ReplyDeleteNice Friday puzzle, many thanks, Dan. And I always appreciate your commentary MalMan, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteWell, this puzzle began with a SPAT, and although thankfully it didn't turn into a RIOT, it was still a bit NASTY. But some friends quickly MET with the pair and did APPEAL to their good spirits enough to have them saying WE'RE OK. In response, the friends threw them a GALA on PLEDGE WEEK, designed to AWAKE everyone's good spirits and EARN their trust. Now the conflicted pair have a whole new SLANT on their relationship, and everyone feels as though they're all back in a happy NEST.
Let's hope everyone's week ends like that. Cheers to you all.
ALLO! Another day with only one unknown-ANYA-filled by perps.
ReplyDeleteOLAV or OLAF- always a toss up for me.
ROYAL TEASE- when the queen flirts with you or that girl on your first date.
GREASE- I've used Dawn or Dawn Powerwash and it works pretty well.
TWIN KEYS- I would always have three keys for the work vehicles. One for the driver to keep, one to keep on the key peg with the other trucks' keys, and one to keep in the vault as a back up.
POT PIES- an easy fill but the only Callendar pies I've ever seen are frozen desserts that require no cooking.
TWERKing was popularized by some female impersonator in NOLA called The New Orleans Bounce. Now you see Jr. High school cheerleaders dancing like strippers. Now that's a ROYAL TEASE.
Dear SIRS, Madams, or To whom it may concern? Nobody writes and phone calls are free. Just call their customer service, get answered by a computer, punch the extension # you don't have, and wait about 5 minutes (if you're lucky) until you can talk to a live person.
When the Brother couldn't get into the abbey after he ate his TWIN-KEYS, he used his MONK-KEYS to open the door.
Thanks to Dan and MalMan for the Friday entertainment! We had EEL crossing ELS and EPPS crossing EBB. FAVs were the GeomeTREE and Big Bear eagles' NEST.
ReplyDeleteGreat catch sumdaze
DeleteThanks to Dan for a really easy but snazzy puzzle today! His themers were groaners — but I got a laugh out of each of them (esp. that wall-to-wall in the center of the grid) so he’s forgiven for the Dad-joke-level punnery 😎
ReplyDeleteThe Mal-Man delivers again!! In fine style, from booger gags to killer puns (Geometree had me on the floor) and thank you for the “Star Wars” family tree — I’ve never been able to keep all those odd names straight…
====> Darren / L.A.
I haven't yet started the puzzle or read any of your comments. I just wanted to say hello to you all before it got too late in the day.
ReplyDeleteHello, Jayce!
DeleteAnother hello Jayce! I’m glad you are joining us, even if briefly.
Deletehey Jayce! Better late than not at all 😎 ====> D.
DeleteIt's officially tomorrow, but good reading you, Jayce!
Delete