It's All Fun and Games Until ... The last word of each theme answer is the name of a card game, unlike Chess, which is a board game.
17-Across. * Wrestling contest where opponents hold hands: THUMB WAR.
25-Across. * Homemade liquor during Prohibition: BATHTUB GIN.
39-Across. * Marinated antipasto items: ARTICHOKE HEARTS.
And the unifier:
64-Across. Chess finales, and what the answers to the starred clues have: ENDGAMES. The END word of each theme answer is a Card GAME.
Across:
1. Scoffer's laugh: HAH(toolah).
4. Shapes of some annexes: ELLs.
8. No longer feral: TAMED.
13. Kerfuffle: ADO.
14. Roll of fabric: BOLT.
15. Open declaration: AVOWAL.
19. Replace outdated connections, perhaps: REWIRE.
20. Sprinkler hookups: HOSES.
21. Georgia home of the Allman Brothers: MACON.
23. Poetry Out Loud org.: NEA. As in the National Endowment for the Arts.
24. Top poker cards: ACES.
27. Fatherly nickname: PAPA.
29. __-friendly: USER.
30. Quilters' gathering: BEE.
32. Positive quality: ASSET.
35. "It's a cinch!": EASY.
43. [OMG!]: GASP.
44. Sticky pine product: RESIN.
45. Long, slithery fish: EEL.
46. "Humpty Dumpty" rhyme scheme: AABB.
49. Thompson who won four NBA championships with the Warriors: KLAY. Klay Alexander Thompson (b. Feb. 8, 1990) currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks. He previously played for the Golden State Warriors for 13 seasons.
56. Money to repay: LOAN.
59. Reproductive cells: OVA.
60. __-Coeur Basilica: Paris tourist spot: SACRÉ. Today's French lesson. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a minor basilica in Paris and is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
61. Pianist's practice piece: ÉTUDE. More of today's French lesson.
62. Cocktail garnishes: OLIVES.
66. Experts: MAVENS.
67. Rum quaff: GROG. There are several "origin" stories of how Grog came to be. Here is one version.
68. Not mainstream, informally: ALT. As in Alternative.
69. White of "The Golden Girls": BETTY. Betty Marion White (Jan. 17, 1922 ~ Dec. 31, 2021) was a wonderful comedian and actress. She also starred in the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
70. Filming locations: SETS.
71. __ Moines, Iowa: DES. Anyone here from Iowa?
Down:
1. Gentle yoga style: HATHA. Everything you wanted to know about Hatha yoga but didn't know to ask.
2. Like some committees: AD HOC. Today's Latin lesson.
3. Indoor cats, e.g.: HOUSE PETS. // And 63-Down. 3-Down doc: VET.
4. Flows out, as the tide: EBBS.
5. Close to the ground: LOW.
6. Camel kin in Peru: LLAMA.
7. Classic Fender, familiarly: STRAT. Everything you wanted to know about Fender guitars.
8. Fortunetelling decks: TAROTS.
9. Utah or Maine, in Washington, D.C.: AVENUE.
10. Make a path in a field, say: MOW.
11. Former Knicks center Patrick: EWING. Although Patrick Ewing (né Patrick Aloysius Ewing; b. Aug. 5, 1962) was born in Jamaica, he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts during his childhood before being recruited by Georgetown, where he played college basketball.
12. "Is it worth the risk?": DARE I?
16. Like turkey chili: LEAN.
18. Flat-topped landform: MESA.
22. Skydivers' needs: CHUTES.
25. Wild party: BASH.
26. La __ Tar Pits: BREA.
28. Ms. __-Man: arcade classic: PAC.
30. Tote or duffel: BAG.
31. Pitching stat: ERA. As in Earned Run Average.
33. Food preservative acid: SORBIC.
34. Scrape (by): EKE.
36. "Did I do something wrong?": ARE YOU MAD?
37. Fr. holy woman: STE. A continuation of today's French lesson.
38. Fr. fashion brand: YSL. More of today's French theme. The company is a luxury fashion house founded 1961 by Yves Saint Laurent (né Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent; Aug. 1, 1936 ~ June 1, 2008) and Pierre Bergé (né Pierre Vital Georges Bergé; Nov. 14, 1930 ~ Sept. 8, 2017)
40. Apple Pencil device: iPAD.
41. Mountain trail activity: HIKE.
42. Made a JPEG bigger, briefly: ENL. As in Enlarge.
47. Not at school: ABSENT.
48. Loud and shrill, as a trumpet: BRASSY.
50. Ski town in Utah's Wasatch Mountains: ALTA.
51. Weaver's device: LOOM.
52. Space for tech-savvy HS kids: AV LAB.
53. Clueless: NAÏVE.
54. Wine residue: DREGS.
55. Artistic category: GENRE.
57. "Skyfall" vocalist: ADELE. Adele (née Adele Laurie Blue Adkins; b. May 5, 1988) English singer-songwriter known for her soulful ballads and mezzo-soprano vocals. Yesterday she was drinking wine.
58. Cozy spots: NESTS.
61. Soufflé ingredients: EGGS. Yummers!
65. Part of a URL: DOT.
Here's the Grid:
חתולה
I have, as a general rule,
ReplyDeleteconfined my “walk in the park” designations to Mondays. However, when the puzzle is such an obvious WITP as this, I can do little else but repeat myself from yesterday. FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR. Let's start with that as a test.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteWas zipping right along until I stumbled over ARE WE GOOD? I think it fits better than ARE YOU MAD?...except it doesn't. Thanx, Noel and Hahtoolah. (Nope, not from Iowa, but I did live there for about 6 years. Does that count?)
Hey, my post just posted, and I forgot to turn off Malwarebytes first. Did Blogger change something for the better? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteThat something for the better was to offset something for the "worser," namely, it let me back on.
DeleteTook 7:38 today to come up in spades.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with the lower-middle section (brassy, dregs, & sorbic crossing sacre), but otherwise found it to be a SubG-approved WITP.
GIN escaped me as being the name of a game, which quashed any chance I had at guessing the reveal - but at least I had fun trying.
ReplyDeleteFormer WaPo solver here - I went over to the LAT site today and solved there - the difference is astonishing, and somewhat eerie. It’s hard to contemplate how the Post came up with such an amazingly bad solving interface, actually forced their solvers to use it, and haven’t abandoned it yet even though the cacophony of complaints has been load, relentless and overwhelming.
* loud
DeleteI’ve heard constant complaints about the new formatting of the WaPo CW, I’ve recommended before, go to where the puzzle originates from - latimes.com - and link from there, it’s easy and clean and free, and keeps somewhat of a record of your past performances. Use your WaPo subscription to read the news or whatever.
DeleteI've never had a WaPo subscription. I just solved the LA Times puzzle there.
DeleteThe LA Times puzzle is syndicated by the Tribune Content Agency. You can solve it in many places. C.C. once polled readers and there is a list (probably not current) on the home page:
https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2009/11/la-times-daily-newspaper-update.html
I now prefer https://fun.chicagotribune.com/game/la-times-daily-crossword?categoryId=crosswords for online solving.
Unlike the latimes.com website, the clues at the Chicago Tribune site display on the right side of the page, so you don't have to constantly scroll up and down to see both the across and down clue at the same time.
If you have a (free) Cruciverb account, you can also solve it there.
You can also solve it using AcrossLite, but you'll need the puz file.
@TTP - thanks for the tip. I just did a drive-by of the Trib’s website and played around a little - it looks very promising. Not having to scroll through the clues looks like a potential game-changer. It’s actually kind of funny to consider - I think there is an old saying to the effect of “from the sublime to the ridiculous” which is what going back to the Post would be like. Seems like something Monty Python would have embraced.
DeleteI have to confess that I don’t miss Chi-town though. I did some consulting work there (was only there for a few months, I lived just south of River North). Weekends were fun, but boy did I hate walking south on Michigan Ave to get to and from work. I got an Arctic Blast off of Lake Michigan when crossing every side street - yuk, and BRR !
Peter S, yes, I had a similar experience with the cold upon arriving in Chicago. Either open my blog and scroll down to the puzzle review and 28D, or open the archives on the main page of this website to Friday, May 8, 2020 Stu Agler and 28D if interested.
DeleteC.C. has today's USA Today crossword - "Candy Wrapper".
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Crossword Friends:
ReplyDeletePeter, I agree that the new WoPo site is a nightmare.
QOD: I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna Quindlen (née Anna Marie Quindlen; b. July 8, 1952), American journalist
FIR. There were a couple of knots today, hatha and sorbic for example, but the perps were kind and I kept going.
ReplyDeleteOnce again the theme escaped me. And once again I had to come here to have it explained to me. I must be experiencing mush brain!
But overall it was an enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle? With its card game theme ? “It’s a cinch”
Our constructor has a first name that we “know well” from many puzzles
Inkover: Ipen/IPAD
How can you tell from the poem lyrics that Humpty D. is an egg?
RESIN: or did you “fiddle” withbut rosin
Thought it was ascorbic “acid” “Skyfall vocalist” Chicken Little wouldn’t fit
“Wheel of Fortune” purchase … AVOWAL
Miniature donkey …. ASSET
How to weave a huge tapestry: ___ large …. LOOM
“Should I call you Mrs.?” “No ISTHMUS”:
Great toons H2LH. I’m on vacay so had the time to read all of them. They always bring a 😀
Enjoy the day all
LOL re constructor “know well”.
DeleteTerrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Noel and HAHtoolah (love that CSO).
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time and saw the END GAMES theme.
Two inkblots to change Debt to LOAN and Rave to BASH.
I waited for perps to decide between Pops or PAPA.
NEA and KLAY were all perps.
I had a slight nit with CHUTES not having the Para prefix. Is the shorter term used regularly?
Our AV LAB produced AVENUE, AVOWAL, OVA, MAVENS today.
We had BEE to match our AABB rhyme scheme. ELLS was an outlier.
We had DREGS and GROG to go with the GIN, and OLIVES for garnish.
Wishing you all a great day.
FIR. Liked the theme which I did notice until the reveal. I’ve never heard of THUMB WAR, but I love ARTICHOKE HEARTS.
ReplyDeleteExcept for KLAY, no unknowns this morning. All good.
Thank you Hahtoolah for the fun review.
That should be didn’t
DeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed this solve, from the cute and hidden (to me) theme, to some clues that required thought, to the clean grid. I went astray at Iamb/AABB and At Home/Absent (Silly me!) Klay was unknown, but Ewing was a gimme. And Aces was a fun Easter Egg.
Thanks, Noelle, for a very enjoyable diversion and thanks, Hah (toolah) for the usual outstanding mixture of fun and facts. I see that the felines got top billing today vs the canines, but the chuckles they induced were worth the sacrifice, especially the chess champion and the Tarot Rascal. Other favorites were the card-playing Kings and the Artichoke heart.
Have a great day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-I can’t believe I needed the reveal but impatient me did on this nice puzzle. :-)
-Another inch of rain which means our Tuesday morning golf league has now been cancelled for four of the last six weeks. The corn is loving it as it needs moisture while it is tasseling. Pivots are still sitting unused.
-Neighbor wanted to add an ELL to his house but contractors are so busy he could not get a bid. He moved.
-PAPA is a proud name I bear for grandchildren
-I had to recite Humpty Dumpty to get the scheme
-KLAY and Steph Curry really started the trend to way too many 3’s and I quit watching the NBA
-This SET hosted a show for 13 years as apparently none of the characters could afford to move out
-It is confusing to me when a town has numbered streets crossing numbered avenues
-DARE I? Should I try to get over the water on my next shot or lay up?
-That MESA is a big part of one of my fav movies
-More of your great cartoon finds are winging their electronic way to my colleagues. Hahtoolah!
Terrific Tuesday, Noelle and HAH(toolah)! As DH would say, What's not to love? I didn't know KLAY and wasn't certain of ALTA, so that crossing gave me pause, but otherwise, it was SubG's WITP. The END GAMES at 64-Across revealed a cute theme. And Hahtoolah left me laughing with a plan for retirement.
ReplyDeleteDejan Vu all over again! Monday on a Tuesday! A very nice puzzle, and a whole bunch of neat 'toones from Ha2la to start the day. Aah! (not HAH!) Nice to see Jinx back.
ReplyDeleteDelightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks for this treat, Noelle. And your pictures are always a pleasure, thanks for those too, Hahtoolah.
ReplyDeleteWell, it looks as though the puzzle PAPA may have gotten a TAMED LLAMA to BOLT and the boys may have had a hard time getting him back. It looks like they may have packed some OREOS and some OLIVES--possibly at the suggestion of the VET--and then went on a HIKE to try to find him. It worked and they brought him back home and put him in a NEST. After feeding him, they sat down and ate some EGGS and drank some GROG, and played some games of TAROTS. When the boys first said they wanted to get HOUSE PETS their father said "ARE YOU MAD." But now, after seeing how much that LLAMA pleased his sons, he's decided to adopt him and become his PAPA-LLAMA.
Makes the whole family very happy.
Have a lovely day, everybody.
Old joke: You don't need a parachute to skydive, you only need one if you intend to skydive more than once. Anyway, nice Tuesday CW, FIR in 9. Of the 11 names only DNK 2, which helped. Once again (sigh) I forgot to look for the theme. I woulda seen it had I looked, though, I promise! When I saw SORBIC acid I thought, "Oy! It's called ASCORBIC acid" (Vitamin C). But guess what? Could be either. Only W/O IPEN:IPAD, like R-O-S @ 8:15. Like HG @ 10:12 I had to recite "Humpty Dumpty" to get the rhyme scheme. Chess finales: CHECKMATES didn't fit. All-in-all, very nice, enjoyable CW, thanx, NG. And thanx too to Hahtoolah for the fine write-up, complete with, as always, great cartoons. Your time and effort are appreciated, Susan.
ReplyDeleteAlso: "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be the sport for you."
DeleteThat HumptyDumpty/AABB thing is just not in my wheelhouse, can somebody placate my brain...
ReplyDelete(Above spellcheck typo was supposed to read " somebody please explain", but for once, spellcheck got it right...
I’ve never understood rhyming schemes, and I’m too lazy to look LIU. 😂
DeleteHumpty Dumpty sat on a WALL
DeleteHumpty Dumpty had a great FALL
All the kings horses, all the kings MEN
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together AGAIN
So it's WALL/FALL, first and second line
MEN/AGAIN third and fourth line.
I very much enjoyed solving this puzzle today.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Noelle and HAHtoolah for the Tuesday fun!
ReplyDeleteARE we okAy --> ARE we gooD --> ARE YOU MAD ("we" worked with "debt" but not "LOAN")
Lots of fun comics today but my FAV was the one with cats playing chess.
Hand up for switching from the WAPO to the ChiTrib. (Thanks, TTP for the suggestion!)
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThank you Noelle! I enjoyed the theme and it helped me suss LAND BRIDGE faster than remembering what an isthmus is ;-)
Another bang-up expo, Hahtoolah! I can relate to cats playing chess comic. (Army) Bro and I were playing on the patio and Forida (a tabby) just jumped on the board knocking over all the pieces.
WO: I misspelt TARRO [sic] cards.
ESPs: HATHA & KLAY. I almost went with bATHA 'cuz BAH worked for 1a
Fav: DOT. I was thinking "Protocol: //host.subdomain.domain:port/path/file"[see: WikiP] but none of those are three letters! That V-8 can hurt.
Y'all just need to print it out or do it in the paper like I do :-)
CED / Yooper - it's the cadence of the rhyming pattern. First rhyme defined as A, second as B, third as C, etc.
Line 1: HD sat on a wall (A)
Line 2: HD had a great fall (rhymes w/ first so A)
Line 3: ...horses and men (doesn't rhyme with wall or fall so B)
Line 4: ...together again (rhymes with the B)
If line 4 was: ....couldn't clean up the hall (wait, that rhymes with A), it would be an AABA scheme.
Clear as mud now?
Cheers, -T
Excellent rhyme scheme discussion, -T!
ReplyDelete