Ship Building
This Sunday, C.C. meticulously builds a ship in a puzzle like the puzzle of a ship in a bottle.23. "Don't wait to sign up!": REGISTER NOW. The STERN is the back of a ship.
25. Rolling aid at a sushi bar: BAMBOO MAT. The BOOM is perpendicular to the MAST.
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Mmm... Sushi |
36. Places to see turkeys: BOWLING ALLEYS. The GALLEY is the boat's kitchen. Note: Boomer said lanes; BOW is highlighted 'cuz, um... see 111a ;-)
58. Tree blight spread by bark beetles: DUTCH ELM DISEASE. The HELM is the ships wheel. Dutch elm disease is caused by sac fungi spread by bark beetles.
78. Christmas carol set to "Greensleeves": WHAT CHILD IS THIS. The HATCH is the door to the hold or cargo area. I'll admit I had to write this with out the circles in order to NOT parse it as WATCH ILDIST HIS.
95. "Mood Indigo" composer: DUKE ELLINGTON. The KEEL is ship's backbone.
Nice.
111. Boss at a hot spot: CLUB OWNER.
113. Like a blanket fresh from the dryer: WARM AS TOAST. The MAST is the center pole.
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Not to be buttered. |
And, just to keep us all on the same boat:
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Ship's Bits |
Across:
1. Father of Rosemary's baby: SATAN.
6. State tree of Texas: PECAN. My old neighborhood had pecan trees shading the streets. Every year, folks walk down the medians bagging them up.
11. Lhasa __: APSO.
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Cousin Itt dogs. |
15. Mlle., in Mexico: SRTA. Short for seƱorita.
19. Affordable, in brand names: ECONO. Economic or easy on your wallet.
20. Red Velvet leader: IRENE. Red Velvet is a female K-pop group. You can read about them here or listen below:
YMMV
21. Bring up: REAR. Not bring up the rear but bring up as child to adult.
22. Many a babysitter: TEEN.
23. [See: Theme]
25. [See: Theme]
27. Beach on a film set: ADAM. Canadian actor.
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Rotten Tomatoes Bio |
28. Hardly an angel: BRAT.
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Calvin could be a real stinker. |
29. Love to pieces: ADORE.
31. Sussex strollers: PRAMS.
32. In progress: AFOOT.
34. Some breakdancers: BGIRLS. B-Girls are breakdancing females.
35. Slip of the fingers: TYPO.
36. [See: Theme]
40. "SNL" actor Wakim: EMIL.
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Emil on Weekend Update |
42. Miracle-__: garden brand: GRO.
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YMMV |
43. Store with hiking gear: REI. Recreational Equipment Inc.
44. Sculling tool: OAR.
45. Chopping tool: AXE.
46. Sacred bird of the Nile: IBIS.
50. Share a viewpoint: AGREE.
52. Swindler's scheme: CON.
53. Cosmopolitan place?: BAR.
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A Cosmo |
55. Most exquisite: FINEST.
57. Shopping centers: MALLS.
58. [See: Theme]
61. Winds down: ENDS.
62. Top gear?: HATS.
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Similar to my topper. |
63. Tapestry creature: UNICORN. So, this was a thing [WikiP].
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The Unicorn Purifies Water |
64. Time out?: NAP.
65. __ press: small appliance: PANINI.
67. Dated: OLD. Think fashion.
68. Shade-loving plants with broad leaves: HOSTAS.
70. Come up short, maybe: OWE.
72. Largest fog desert in the world: ATACAMA. Atacama is a desert in Chile.
74. Street food vendor's need: CART. I've seen tamale sellers outside of bars with just a 5-gallon bucket.
75. Links org.: LPGA. Ladies Professional Golf Association.
78. [See: Theme]
81. Sensitive spots: SORES.
82. Setting: LOCALE.
83. Take a course?: EAT. Cute.
84. "__ Missing Hearts": Celeste Ng novel: OUR.
85. Dog, cutesily: POOCH. Cf. 121a.
86. Built on __: SPEC.
87. Blog feed letters: RSS. Really Simple Syndication. It's a protocol to update you without needing to constantly visit all of your subscribed websites to know if they've updated.
89. QB misfire: INT. An interception is a quarterback's error.
90. Drink in a growler: ALE.
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About 4 pints |
92. Luau instrument, briefly: UKE.
93. Don't throw away: KEEP.
95. [See: Theme]
99. Best buds: PALS.
101. Continental divides?: OCEANS.
103. Speak in public: ORATE.
104. Labyrinthine puzzles: MAZES.
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A maize maze at nearby Dewberry Farm |
105. "Gosh!": OH GEE.
106. Movie ending?: GOER. A moviegoer sees films.
107. Tom yum cuisine: THAI. Tom yum is a hot (as in spicy) and sour soup. WikiP says, "Tom yam [alt.] is composed of two words in the Thai language. Tom refers to the boiling process, while yam means mixed."
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Yummers! |
111. [See: Theme]
113. [See: Theme]
116. Prefix with space: AERO.
117. Roll-call call: HERE.
118. Like some college walls: IVIED. Also like Wrigley's outfield walls.
Two early ground-rule doubles.
119. Monument Valley land formation: BUTTE.
120. "__ hates pushups": message on a silly tee: T-REX. Me parsing: "What's a TREX? Oh, a T-Rex!"
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LOL! |
121. Garfield's frenemy: ODIE.
122. Baby bear?: TEDDY. #Roosevelt
123. Mist in a sauna: STEAM.
Down:
1. "Buona __!": SERA. "Good night" in Italian.
2. Totally crushed, as a test: ACED.
3. Classic dorm party costume: TOGA.
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Animal House |
4. Cat or mouse: ANIMAL.
5. Thumbs-downs: NOS.
6. Dumplings often served with sour cream: PIEROGI.
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Yummers! |
7. Printed slips: ERRATA. Ha!
8. Bit of change: CENT.
9. "It's __-win situation": A NO.
10. Crystal collector, maybe: NEWAGER. A newager is into new age crystal healing.
11. Shady spots: ARBORS.
12. Tapioca unit: PEARL.
13. Like some couples: SAME SEX.
14. Space ball?: ORB.
15. Thread that unfolds in a courtroom drama: STORY LINE.
16. Craft a new plot: REMAP.
17. Phrase heard before un beso, at times: TE AMO. I love you followed (at times) by a kiss.
18. Six-legged social workers: ANTS.
24. Cut from the short loin: T-BONE.
26. __-Free: contact lens solution: OPTI.
30. Handy letters: DIY. Do It Yourself.
33. Camp cracklers: FIRES.
34. Sauvignon __: BLANC. A dry, herbal, white-grape wine.
36. Second-best effort: B-GAME. A-Game is a thing... B-Game, not so much(?).
37. Brain or heart: ORGAN.
38. Global harmony: WORLD PEACE.
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John Lennon's Vision ;-) |
39. Takes inventory?: LOOTS. Ha!
41. Selfish shout: ME FIRST.
45. __ quarterback: ARM CHAIR. During the game as opposed to Monday-Morning around the watercooler.
47. Shoot added to pho: BEAN SPROUT. They add a bit of crunch to your soup.
48. Rae of "Barbie": ISSA.
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President Barbie |
49. "Take a __ back": STEP. And look at the bigger picture.
51. Queen with a frosty touch: ELSA. Disney's Frozen movie.
52. Manicure targets: CUTICLES.
53. Be flexible: BEND.
54. "Aladdin" prince: ALI. Another Disney reference.
56. Ain't right?: ISN'T. Cute.
58. Gurira of "Black Panther": DANAI.
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Danai Gurira |
59. Luau dances: HULAS.
60. Access points: DOORS.
62. "Well, hello!": HI THERE.
66. Salt formula: NACL. Sodium [Na] Cloride [Cl].
67. Fail to include: OMIT.
69. __ gobi: vegetarian curry dish: ALOO. Even though I enjoy Indian cuisine often, it's crosswords that have taught me potato is aloo.
70. Hooting birds: OWLS.
71. Hit with force: WHOP.
73. Orthodontist's org.: ADA.
74. Skydiver's need: CHUTE. You only need a chute if you expect to skydive more than once.
76. Lizard with sticky toe pads: GECKO.
77. Visibly frightened: ASHEN.
79. Container with lures and worms: TACKLE BOX. I have a tackle box filled with IC [integrated circuit] components ;-)
80. Strengthens, as muscles: TONES.
81. Totally wiped: SPENT.
88. Cuddled in bed: SPOONED.
89. "Told ya so!": I KNEW IT.
90. "So soon?": ALREADY.
91. Make-up artists?: LIARS.
94. Petro-Canada rival: ESSO.
95. Academic goal: DEGREE.
96. Dubai's fed.: UAE.
97. Was imminent: LOOMED.
98. "Beat it!": GET OUT.
99. Lighter in color: PALER.
Procol Harum's 1967 A Whiter Shade of Pale
100. Shade of blue: AZURE.
102. Darling, in Dijon: CHERI.
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PepƩ Le Pew |
104. Aspiring doc's exam: MCAT. The Medical College Admission Test.
106. Aid in solving a logic puzzle: GRID.
108. "Stop the __": HATE.
109. Hammett dog: ASTA.
110. Article: ITEM.
112. "__ told you?": WHO.
The WHO who told(?)
114. Blvd. kin: AVE.
115. Conan's former network: TBS. Originally, the Turner Broadcasting System.
The Grid:
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The Grid (for the visually impaired) |
WO: HaSTAS
ESPs: SATAN (as clued), IRENE, ADAM, ATACAMA | DANAI, T-REX (as clued)
Fav: LOOTS' clue.
Well, what do you think? (I know, I know, "circles")
I say this was a another fun Sunday puzzle by our hostess C.C..
Now it's time for me to SHIP out.
Cheers, -T
30 comments:
Our beloved blogmistress has
crafted a good puzzle. Getting all the boat parts right was fun without being overly challenging. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
I found quite a few answers to be obscure, but in every case the perps were kind. The ship I was assigned to had no BOOM. If you count the radar MAST, all the other nautical theme features were there. I was so happy on the day of my separation to salute the flag at the afterbrow and announce to the OOD, "Request permission to leave your navy, sir." I immediately hopped on my motorcycle and headed out of state. That same day the ship departed San Diego for decommissioning at Bremerton. The old rust-bucket sat for another twenty years and was finally sold for scrap.
Thanx for the puzzle, C.C. Also thank you for filling in, Dash-T.
Nice recap, -T. I also thought of whirled peas when solving. I enjoyed this puzzle quite a bit. I imagine C.C. constructing this by adding and removing ship parts like the Athenians maintaining the Ship of Theseus. It gave me an excuse to sing snippets from two Duke Ellington songs, "Mood Indigo" and "Azure". If anyone is interested, you can watch my solve with narration here (24:10):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M9TYO-KPA4
FIW, missing my WAG @ unknowns DANnI x ATnCAMA.
The original meaning of B GIRLS is women who are employed by bars to entice men to spend more money. "Hey, handsome - wanna buy us a drink?" As often as not, the drinks for the B GIRLS had no alcohol in them.
A TEDDY may be the reason that a couple needs to buy a TEDDY bear a year or so later.
We all say STEAM when referring to the white stuff coming from boiling water. Most of us know that technically, STEAM is invisible. That makes it dangerous in an industrial setting. Workers have been badly hurt from invisible steam leaks. That white stuff is water droplets, not STEAM or vapor.
My first thought for "skydiver's need" was life insurance. Upon further review, life insurance is the skydiver's spouse's need.
"Stop the HATE" usually means "agree with me."
All Cornerites should check out today's Pearls Before Swine comic strip. I tried to link it, without success.
Thanks to CC for the fun workout this morning. My favorite was "slip of the fingers" for TYPO. And thanks to Bayou Tony for another fun review. 'Cept that although a MAST on a sailboat is on the fore-aft centerline, if there's only one mast it is always closer to the pointy end than the blunt end.
Took 14:06 for me to get this one in ship shape.
I didn't know the Actress of the Day (Danai, but I knew Issa), the Actor of the Day (Adam), and struggled with some of the foreign words (srta, thai, cheri, blanc). So, normal puzzle solving experience for me.
I made some pierogi yesterday.
Oh joy, circles!
The puzzle would have worked pretty much as well without the circles. This was a fun, fast solve. Thanks CC. Liked the 88 down cartoon.
Middle of the night solve as I had trouble sleeping - it was a nice steady solve
It seems like many ethnic cuisines have some sort of pouch of dough filled with sweet or savory fillings: Polish PIEROGIS, Czech Kolaches , Indian Samosas, Mexican Empanadas, Ghanaian Meat Pies, British Pasties .... When we lived in Chicago there were many different neighborhoods that featured their particular cuisine
"Animal House" movie came out when I was in college, so many parties had that theme. Easy to improvise a TOGA with a bedsheet if you happened to have more than one!
Thanks CC for the nautical puzzle and AnonT for the blog
FIR. OK another puzzle with circles. Said it before, say it again, circles belong in Jumbles, not crosswords. And the number of obscure answers was obscene in my opinion.
That said, (rant over), the theme was clever and I had fun identifying the boat parts. I used to have a boat once. I was thrilled to buy it and even more thrilled to sell it. What a lot of work!
There were a ton of unknowns for me, too many to mention. Suffice to say that the perps, and a few WAG's, got me through.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle for me.
Ahoy, mates. If you're on a sailboat, watch out for that BOOM when it swings around when you tack. I've worked 3 puzzles since I got back in town and two were by C.C.. Today's LA Times and Monday's WSP. Good going girl.
Finding nautical terms spanning two word was nice for a landlubber like our girl Sunday. Solving was fairly straight forward with the usual unknown proper name- IRENE, ADAM, EMIL, DANAI- and a few others.
The only Red Velvet I know of is a cake.
BGIRLS were the paid shills in BARs that would go up to single men and ask them to buy them a drink. His was real; hers was a non-alcoholic fake. But he paid for two. A real CON job to get the guy to spend more money.
Never heard of "T-REX hates pushups". I didn't mind doing 5 sets of 10 daily until my shoulder started hurting a little. Don't want to tear a rotator cuff.
NEWAGER- somebody who listened to a CON job. But it's not so new because those fortune tellers always had a 'crystal ball'.
WORLD PEACE- won't ever happen. Somebody always wants something somebody else has. Land, resources, money or your women.
Having never accomplished three strikes in a row, turkey was a real Natick.
(And also makes absolutely no sense to any non bowler)
Can some one please explain why on earth 3 strikes is a turkey?
(Actually, pls splain hat-trick while your at it...)
Other than that, this puzzle floated my boat...
Here is the link to go comics for Pearls before Swine.. It's a link to the daily's, so tomorrow it will take you to tomorrows comic. You need to know the strip quite well to answer this puzzle, and as a constructor, Pastis' puzzle is a bit two dimensional...
Good Morning:
Sunday puzzles with a clever theme and an appropriate level of difficulty are a rare pleasure and today’s offering was just that. Although the title and early circled entries signaled the theme, the themers were not fill-in-the-blank easy peasy; some thought and parsing was required. There were a few unknowns, i.e., Irene, Adam, Emil, Atacama, and Danai, but the perps were fair throughout the grid. The overall cluing and fill were top-notch, IMO, other than that pesky term of Alleys that Boomer would frown upon!
Thanks, CC, for a very enjoyable and satisfactory solve and thanks, Anon T, for being our faithful guide and subbing, once again. Grazie!
Have a great day.
I also saw Animal House in college and, as you said, togas became all the rage.
My exact downfall except I tried a T at that intersection instead.
Fun times at the dry dock! The theme was obvious and helped to fill in circled words from just a few (or one) letters, which made a breezy solve. Perfect Sunday entertainment from our C.C. One minor nit: I'd like to see the ship built up from the KEEL at bottom to the MAST at the top.
Thanks T, for filling in the blanks like Red Velvet leader and Beach on film. I inferred the names, but had no idea who they were. And thanks for the Whiter Shade of Pale link - it's fun to play the descending runs on organ.
FIR. Not too much trouble today. Started out a little rough with the Italian phrases and the Beach guy, but helpful crosses helped with those and other unknowns. As with others, the exception was the crossing of DANAI with ATACAMA, but fortunately, A comes first in a vowel run.
When I see CC’s name as the constructor I trust that I will mange to FIR. And sure enough, I completed this fun, pleasant puzzle with enough well-placed perps to fill the unknowns like ATACAMA, DANAI, IRENE, ADAM.
My last fills were in the north. I was so sure doWAGER was right for Ć” crystal loving
Well something happened and I published before finishing.
As I was saying doWAGER seemed right but then i couldn’t figure out what
tree ended in cad. I finally came to my senses, erased my ERRATA and the rest fell into place.
Thank you Ć -t for Ć” nice recap and good links.
Musings
-Smooth sailing even though I thought I had sailed into Port Natick a few times
-Growing up our area had DUTCH ELM DISEASE and now we suffer from Emerald Ash Boer
-AFOOT from the 16th century
-Father Mulcahy once told Hawkeye that he “worked his way through divinity school as B-GIRL in San Diego”
-Even B-GIRLS on the B-TEAM who only have a B-GAME could play some B-BALL.
-With our severe housing shortage, very few houses are built ON SPEC anymore
-Occasionally we go through “stuff” we thought we should KEEP and do some serious pitching
-Movie GOERS are becoming a rare breed. Poor movies and other options are killing the practice.
-The first courtroom drama STORY LINE that came to my mind was in To Kill A Mockingbird but A Few Good Men was close behind. You?
-Using EMIL, an obscure SNL cast member had other options but obscure DANAI did not
-I don’t really understand the vehement dislike of circles. Finding the ship parts today where there was no reveal would have been very difficult.
This puzzle was a treat to solve from start to finish. The few minor stumbling blocks were conveniently crossed by friendly perps.
Yesterday’s constructors, take note…a clue can be clever and designed to give a solver pause without having to be ridiculous.
This was as close to a perfect Sunday puzzle as I’ve seen in a long while.
13:25. One of the most boring Sunday puzzles in recent memory.
Jinx--yes, I saw today's "Pearls Before Swine," and did the crossword. Hilarious. "Pearls Before Swine" is one of my favorite comics.
Great job CC. I loved the nautical theme. The circles were definitely needed and helped solve the puzzle. You know I love the bowling clues. Thanks for pinch hitting dashT. Excellent recap.
What a nice breath of fresh air after yesterdays abomination! A most enjoyable outing this morning. My definition of B GIRL lines up with Jinx and Big Easy. In Vietnam, it wasn't even much of a con. "Hey, GI! you buy me Saigon Tea?"
I saw that the constructor was Zhouqin so I knew it would be an enjoyable solve, forgot to look at the title but it wasn’t hard to suss the theme after the first few circled fills. Personally I’m ambivalent about circles, sometimes they help, other times not. FIR in 23:09 with only a few total unknowns, IRENE, TE AMO, and RSS. And of course what others have mentioned, the cross of unfamiliar ATACAMA/DANAI, as John M27 stated, the A was a WAG, but the first vowel in an a-run, and that’s when the congratulatory message popped up. I liked the clue for TYPO. The clue for PIEROGI said Dumplings, would the plural for PIEROGI end with S, or is it singular and plural? Add ALOO to the Cornerite menu! Knowing Boomer’s sense of humor, and his aversion to the term BOWLING “ALLEYS”, he’s probably shaking his head in amusement that C.C. would include it in one of her GRIDs. š Thanks C.C. for the Sunday fun, and to —T for taking the blog reins today.
I started solving the puzzle without looking at the constructor's name or the title (a normal oversight on my part), and was thinking how delightful it was, especially compared to yesterday, when I looked up and saw that C.C. was the responsible party. Really a pleasure to solve. I had nine solid DNKs (Did Not Knows) but perps (perpendicular entries) let me solve them. The only WAG (Wild Ass Guess) was at the cross of ATACAMA (DNK) with DANAI (DNK), but A seemed likely, and gave me the FIR (Finish It Right).
Like Husker Gary at 10:17 AM and Acesaroundagain at 12:02 PM, I appreciated the circles, which allowed me to see the ship parts, and even to benefit from them. Would anyone really have been able to see the theme, and to get a boost from those bits, without the circles? Circles rock!
Many thanks to C.C. for giving us the kind of puzzle that draws us to the crossword page in the first place, and to Dash T for blogging. I did not understand the answer to "cosmopolitan place" until -T illustrated it, got a kick out of his explanation of the "skydiver's need," and also loved the "cuddled in bed" cartoon. Oh, and C.C., I laughed at the "takes inventory" clue for LOOTS. Very cute misdirection.
I loved this puzzle. As NaomiZ said, "Many thanks to C.C. for giving us the kind of puzzle that draws us to the crossword page in the first place".
YooperPhil, I had the same reaction to BOWLING ALLEY as you did! :-)
Cousin Vinny was fun.
Well, there's no way to enjoy a Sunday more than to wake up and find a C.C. puzzle in the newspaper! So this has been an exciting morning for me. I did find it a bit challenging, but that's what Sunday puzzles are supposed to be, and I very much enjoyed it. And I always appreciate your helpful commentary, Anon T, thanks for that too.
Having a puzzle start off with the word SATAN could be a bit depressing, especially when you meet a BRAT soon after that. But maybe that BRAT has started to ADORE some sweet B GIRL break-dancers (whatever they are) and would be willing to take them to some BOWLING ALLEYS to have some fun a little later. Or they could go to the OCEAN by the beach and get in a boat with an OAR and have a good time sailing. Let's just pray that nobody gets DUTCH ELM DISEASE from those bark beetles on the trees. So, I'll just hope everyone will enjoy nice weather and a day as WARM AS TOAST and have a lovely time.
Have a great week coming up, everybody.
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