Theme: ????
59-across. Go over the top, or a hint to 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across: PUT ON A SHOW. I inserted the YouTube video above to try to see if there is some explanation I am missing. Maybe someone who follows this blog can enlighten me in the comments section
The themers (entries):
17-across. Extremely popular puddle jumper?: HOT AIR TAXI. Ok, I am familiar with a hot air balloon but I don't think that's in play here. I found a link to a site that describes the present and future of air taxis. But how does this connect? Where is the hint that the reveal describes? Is it the fact that the promise of using an air taxi for commuting is "full of hot air?" The phrase "puddle jumper" in the clue (to me) refers to a commuter air service that makes frequent stops
23-across. Soon-to-be buds?: NEXT BEST FRIENDS. Again, there can be two pairs of phrases: next best which refers to something that can be an alternative if the best option is not available; best friends which refers to a group of acquaintances that are all well-connected and well-liked by each other. Where (again) is the hint, and what does this have to do with "putting on a show"?
37-across. Beach race outcome?: QUICKSAND CASTLE. Can I not see the forest for the trees? How is a quick sand castle (however you want to connect the words) related to a beach race outcome? Is it that there is a race to build a sand castle the fastest?
48-across. Four-bed, three-bath digs in the backyard?: FAMILY TREEHOUSE. A family tree is simply the charting of ones ancestors and showing it as a "tree" to indicate the branches from one generation to the next. A treehouse is simply a structure built into the network of branches and limbs of a tree and used as a getaway (secret hiding place, maybe?) for kids
Maybe it's time for me to retire - both from doing crossword blogs and creating crossword puzzles. I hope the future generations of solvers and constructors are at least getting some entertainment from this. Maybe after somebody reveals the "aha" I will see what's so clever ...
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| The Grid |
6. Assess: RATE.
10. Lens option: TINT. Here is a link to reasons why to tint eyeglass lenses
14. 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner: OBAMA. Ariana Borut is an undergrad @ Yale University. Barack Obama graduated (law school) from Yale's biggest rival, Harvard
15. Like a lemon: OVAL. Nice misdirection clue - I thought tart was the answer; oval never registered but indeed, a lemon is oval in its shape
16. Seth's first son: ENOS.
[themer]
19. Soul singer James: ETTA.
20-across. 12/31, for one: EVE. This clue is written as a date (in this case, New Year's Eve falls on December 31st. (50-down. 12:31, for one): RATIO. This clue is written as a ratio which made me wonder why the use of a colon? Here is one explanation
21. "Despacito" singer Fonsi: LUIS. I think this is the correct video
22. Pep rally chant: CHEER.
[themer]
27. Shakespearean exclamations: AYS. An actual William Shakespeare quote: "What, gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do; it cannot speak, For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it."
28. Batman and Robin, e.g.: ROLES. Another interesting, misdirected clue
29. Coyote call: HOWL.
32. Hispaniola nation: HAITI. Two choices, and Dominican Republic was too large to fit into the five cells
34. Charged particle: ION.
[themer]
41. "Un Verano __ Ti": Bad Bunny album whose title translates to "A Summer Without You": SIN. The word "sin" in Spanish means "without". Fun fact: the literal translation for an erstwhile high-end strain of marijuana (sinsemilla) means "without seed"
42. Perplexed: AT SEA.
43. Jekyll's alter ego: HYDE.
44. Actor Hawke: ETHAN.
46. Barnyard sound: MOO.
[themer]
55. National alternative: ALAMO. Rental car
56. Vegan-friendly gelling agent: AGAR. All you need to know about AGAR
57. Cello's sect.: STR. Abbreviation for strings
58. Durham university: DUKE. Not an Ivy League school (such as Yale or Harvard) but one that ranks highly in its academics
[reveal]
62. Pt. of EMS: EMER. Emergency Medical Service
63. Curriculum segment: UNIT. I was thinking of a college credit, rather than a unit, so I found this link that explains the difference
64. Italian fountain at the junction of three roads: TREVI.
65. Bygone pol. divisions: SSRS.
66. Angry chorus: BOOS.
67. Warning often accompanied by flashing lights: SIREN.
Down:
1. Andy of "The Real Housewives" franchise: COHEN. Not a tv franchise that I watch so I had to wait for the perps to fill this in
2. All of the __: ABOVE.
3. Swim cap material: LATEX. The clue: "Examination glove material" would also work. I wonder - since every time I fill out my medical "history" the question is there - if one is allergic to latex and were a swimmer, what kind of swim cap would they use?
4. Combat sport, for short: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts
5. Pass on the water: SAIL BY. I thought this would be a debut word, but Crossword Tracker shows three other times used [by the way, if you get a warning about Crossword Tracker not being "safe", I can attest that it is. They haven't updated their website]
6. Flatbreads cooked on a tawa: ROTIS. I am guessing that the word "tawa" gave this away. I was thinking NAANS but again, waited for perps
7. Nautical shout: AVAST.
8. Assess: TAX. We just got our 2025 tax assessment for our house. Didn't go up too much
9. "Lux et Veritas" collegian: ELI. Our constructor's school
10. Light laugh: TEE HEE.
11. Strong quality: INTENSITY.
12. "Understood": NOTED.
13. Pre-1917 rulers: TSARS.
18. Regrets: RUES.
22. Paramecium hairs: CILIA.
24. Makeup powder: TALC. What the American Cancer Society has to say about TALC
25. With 38-Down, Mexican artist known for self-portraits: FRIDA (38-down. See 25-Down:) KAHLO. As a fellow constructor I noted that while the two names are proximate on the grid, they are not in the same symmetric location. Close
26. Univ. scholarship program: ROTC.
29. Control ctrs.: HQS.
30. "Certainement!": OUI. A bit of French
31. One familiar with the aging process: WINEMAKER. I obviously enjoyed seeing this word for the given clue. I met a few winemakers during my California vacation trip
32. "It __ been easy": HASN'T.
33. Hydrocarbon suffix: ANE.
35. Out of style: OLD.
36. Maiden name intro: NEE.
39. Lab request?: STAY. As in a Labrador Retriever
40. "Scram!": SHOO.
45. Treadmill features: TIMERS. Once upon a time I used to frequent treadmills at the gym. My walking regimen now is to speed walk in the neighborhood or go for hikes in the desert
46. Spiteful: MEAN.
47. "Darn it!": OH RATS.
48. Slowly disappears: FADES.
49. Reunion attendees: ALUMS. As this blog is being published, I am one day away from attending my HS reunion, so if I don't respond to any of the comments today it's due to my traveling
51. "Grand slam" awards, for short: EGOTS. In this case, the "Grand slam" is for the quartet of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Awards for TV, Music, Motion Pictures, and Theater, respectively
52. One who walks you down an aisle: USHER.
53. Heated counter point?: STOVE. If this referred to a debate or argument, the word counterpoint would be one word, not two words. Strange clue, IMO, as I never think of a stove as being a "point" along the counter, but it made for a decent Friday clue
54. Theoretical physicist Schrödinger: ERWIN. One of my favorite clips from TBBT:
59. Crawl stop: PUB. I think that a few of my fellow HS alums are planning on visiting a brew pub or two, as our hometown has become a place where a number of these have popped up. I don't plan on "crawling" though; will take Uber or Lyft
60. Game based on Crazy Eights: UNO. New rules
61. Sanskrit title of respect: SRI. Rearranged, this group of letters can also make the word sir - another title of respect
28 comments:
C-Moe, all the last parts of the themed answers are television shows of the past! Remember “Friends,” “Taxi”, etc? I’m surprised you didn’t pick up on that , as smart as you are !
Anyway , FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
C-Moe, is that really you? In addition to missing the theme, you added no Moe-Kus. D-o struggled with the NW, though after figuring out the theme and circling back, it all came together. Hand up for naanS before ROTIS showed up. Excellent debut, Ariana. I hope to see more of your efforts. C-Moe, enjoy your reunion. Not sure my H.S. class still holds 'em -- no notification since the '70s.
Took 9 minutes flat today to tune in.
Like C-Moe, I had no idea what was going on with the so-called theme while solving. Then, like SubG, I saw "Friends" and "Taxi" and vaguely remembered a show called "Castle." Then, I parsed "House" away from "treehouse".
Seemed like a lot of names, especially early on (Obama, Enos, Etta, Luis -- all in the first 10 acrosses). There was an unfortunate foreign cross of "sin" and oui". Despite the Shakespearean exclamation, Sanskrit title, Italian fountain, and clunky abbreviations/suffixes (emer, ssrs, ane), this puzzle was better than that ridiculous offering yesterday.
I remember "Taxi" and "Friends" (I never watched Friends, though) but not "Castle" or "House". So despite how "smart I am", Subgenius, I failed today. Sorry if I let you down. And to D-o, yes, it is I who blogged. No Moe-kus as I had zero inspiration with this puzzle. I graduated HS in 1970 - our 50th was canceled due to Covid so this one should be well attended
FIR, getting my WAG @ OUI x SIN. Also, ufc->MMA, titter->TEEHEE (and I had a great pun for my original fill) and bar->PUB (in Tidewater we call them "bar crawls" which is just a marketing way of saying "bar hopping.")
Nobel jumped the shark when they awarded OBAMA the prize for his lofty rhetoric. Reminds me of Golden Globe's loss of credibility when they awarded Pia Zadora "new star of the year" over Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth McGovern because of a "donation" her old fart husband made to grease the skids.
I knew Andy COHEN from his interview-format shows covering episodes of Below Decks.
There's an old saying that "whenever two SAILboats are going in the same direction, at least one of them is racing."
Thanks to Ariana for the fair but challenging Friday puzzle. The only SHOW I've seen was HOUSE, but except for CASTLE I knew the others. The theme wasn't needed (or even helpful) for the fill, so I've got no Moe to say about it. And thanks to our Chairman for the review, and I hope you have fun at the reunion.
Thanks to Wikipedia: ''Castle is an American crime mystery/comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC for a total of eight seasons from March 9, 2009, to May 16, 2016''. Never heard of it.
As SS might say, it took me 12:30 to M*A*S*H this one to a FIR. I think the publisher mistakenly gave this one the Friday slot instead of yesterday’s. The reveal fit the theme but didn’t really aid in the solve. Never heard of CASTLE, knew of HOUSE and FRIENDS but never watched either, TAXI was a really good sitcom. Perps did the work to get AYS, SIN, LUIS, ERWIN, and FRIDA KAHLO. All in all an enjoyable solve, thanks Ariana and congrats on your LAT debut. C-Moe ~ thanks for your in-depth review, have fun at your 55th!
FIR. I agree the theme was weird. I had to come here to have it explained to me. Of course I see it now, but it is a bit over the top.
Add to that several proper names that got sprinkled in here and there, and this puzzle was a bear. I know it's Friday, but really? Why have these names at all? Isn't there some other use of the space? So much for my rant!
Overall this was not an enjoyable puzzle.
Of course! Once it’s explained to me, the theme now seems delightful. I kept focusing on the WORDS, not TITLES, like CASTLE and HOUSE, so I looked for residential clues. Great misdirection.
I needed perps for LUIS and COHEN, otherwise no problems with names.
I too immediately entered tart for the lemon clue.
Sorry C-Moe you lost your mojo this morning. I could tell how disappointed you were in yourself, so much so you didn’t grace us with some Moekus. Next time. Enjoy your reunion.
Finicky Friday. Thanks for the workout, Ariana (congrats if a debut) and CMoe (have a great 55 reunion - my 45th U of T reunion was cancelled by Covid, but we had a wonderful time recently at our 50th)
Officially a DNF as I hung onto _ TSED for the past tense of the “ perplexed” clue and no vowel made sense in the blank. Ach! It was two words - AT SEA (to go with SAIL BY).
I thought the theme might be TV shows. CHEER just needed an S to be an Easter Egg.
My Sour lemon held up the mid-north until I entered AVAST and saw OVAL.
That gave me ELI. This Canadian WAGged DUKE.
FRIDA KAHLO was a cruel name combo.
We had a Latin motto collegian and microscopic organism hairs, an Italian fountain, Spanish artist, singer and album title, French yes.
Wishing you all a great day.
I never got the theme, even though my wife and I were huge fans of Castle and watched all the seasons. The best I could come up with was 'hot show' 'next show' 'quick show' and 'family show'
I thought it wasa perfect puzzle when Obama was directly above hot air.
Dang! I would never have made that theme connection in a million years!
But in retrospect, it looks so obvious,
Hmm,
I prefer a puzzle that hits you in the head like a V8 can...
(I feel like I just had a V8 poured over my dumb head...)
(Hmm, second thoughts. Is this why they add tequila and spices?)
Thank you Chairman Moe, for making this vegetarian mess into a tasty Bloody Maria!
YooperPhil, I felt bad being rushed this morning.
Then, I read your opening sentence, and now I feel worse. You put me to shame.
Very nicely done.
We finally have a more deserving candidate for the peace prize 🤣
Much better experience than yesterdays hot mess, even if the theme made absolutely no sense. I couldn't see it either, C-Moe! Nonetheless, the perps were fair and the constructor didn't resort to imaginary spelling! Enjoyed it.
Good Morning:
I got the theme but thought it was rather weak for a Friday, as was the cluing and fill, IMO. The solve, however, was enjoyable and satisfying, unlike yesterday’s. For the life of me, though, I will never understand the reasoning behind using a 14 word clue for a basic three letter word, i.e., Sin.
Thanks, Ariana, and congrats on the debut and thanks, Moe, for the commentary and the very funny TBBT video. Enjoy your reunion!
Have a great day.
Another rare example traveling south the puzzle got easier but FIW: had hEEHEE, didn’t notice that meant hINT made no sense for “lens option”
Inkovers: caped/ROLES, tart/OVAL,
TREVI a corruption of “tre vie” three roads or ways (that converge at the fountain)
“The Fonz” could sing?!! Oh wait …. never mind
HOT AIR TAXI?
C Moe don’t retire a lot of us are equally cornfused.
I always forget about ROTI and I’m still naan the wiser
Isn’t TAX what you pay after they “assess” your stuff ?
Have a good weekend all 😊
Don't feel bad Moe, i missed the theme also. Now its obvious. Only gripe I have is "lemon" and oval. C'mon, tart is the answer. Use something better for oval. Never heard of the artist. Definitely better than yesterdays mess.
Hola! Why, yes, now I see the connection! TV SHOWS! I was an avid fan of TAXI, CASTLE and FRIENDS but never watched HOUSE. Through most of the puzzle I was AT SEA, but it slowly came together. A few of those three letter fill I never even saw as the long phrases took over quickly.
CILIA made me thankful for biology classes of long, long ago!
A UNIT in any lesson is a series of chapters.
Thank you, CMoe and have fun at your reunion. Enjoy your day, everyone!
I read the biography of FRIDA KAHLO and she has been featured on PBS along with her husband, Diego Rivera who was also a famous artist.
Delightful Friday puzzle, many thanks for this treat, Ariana. And your commentary is always fun, Moe, so thanks for that too.
Well, as soon as I saw OBAMA I was CALM and ready to CHEER and enjoy the puzzle. I'm sure if we all knew him personally, we'd all be BEST FRIENDS. But until then, let's just focus on family and build some SAND CASTLES with the little kids, and help the FAMILY build their TREE HOUSE. That's probably how every family PUTS ON A SHOW, including ours. And we don't even need a SIREN to HOWL and MOO and BOO and just enjoy it.
After this delightful morning, have a great day, everybody.
Being married to an aspiring artist, I was "invited" to join her when the movie FRIDA came to our town circa 2002.
I liked Ariana's puzzle and FIR, but was stumped by the reveal. I saw how the word in the middle of each theme answer could go with the first or third word --
HOT AIR / AIR TAXI
NEXT BEST / BEST FRIENDS
QUICK SAND / SAND CASTLE
-- et cetera, but never noticed the SHOW titles until SubGenious explained them. Of the shows listed, I've only watched HOUSE.
It is not nice to stump the blogger! Moe, you have our sympathy.
In a shocking lack of smarts, I have misspelled Subgenius above. Apologies!
I realized the themed answers all ended with TV shows, but I feel like I'm still missing something. Is it as simple as "two-word phrases where the second word is the first word in another phrase where the last word is the name of a TV show"? I feel like there should be another layer to it on a Friday. Still, FIR ( and I learned the word tawa) so I'm not really complaining.
After yesterday's TITT DNF, on a Thursday, I feared what today would look like, but pushed right through it to FIR in 12, a SPECTACULAR Friday time for me. As hard as I looked I did not see the theme, possibly because I never heard of "Castle". 16 names, 5 of which I DNK, so kinda surprised I FIR as fast as I did. Only W/O = SOUR/TART/OVAL. Thanx AB, while I never got your theme, the CW itself was fun. C-Moe don't feel bad about not getting the theme, most of us did not. Thanx for the terrific write-up, and we'll look for your Moe-Kus next go-around.
Musings
-Subbed today and found our per diem is now $170
-The reveal showed me the backend of the gimmick about TV shows I recognized and I read all the comments to see if there was more to it. I made some fuzzy connections such as a FAMILY TREE HOUSE would probably have to have multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. There could indeed be a race on the beach to build a sand castle the fastest, etc.
-How Nobel Prizes are awarded is testimony to the fact that merit can take a backseat to politics and/or money. Golden Globes are an open joke in Tinseltown.
-For years my four UNITS were Forces and Motion, Light and Optics, Simple Machines and Heat.
-I still prefer Crazy Eights to UNO.
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