Theme: "GAME CHANGERS" - Each common phrase is reinterpreted as a customized edition of a board or card game.
23A. Genius edition of a popular word game?: HARD SCRABBLE.
29A. Extended-family edition of a popular conquest game?: RELATIVE RISK.
70A. Solitaire edition of a popular board game?: SORRY FOR ONESELF.
113A. Trivia edition of a popular strategy game?: FACT CHECKERS.
124A. Bodybuilding edition of a popular card game?: MUSCLE MEMORY.
33D. Personalized edition of a popular strategy game?: GO YOUR OWN WAY.
43D. Easy edition of a popular board game?: TROUBLE LIGHT.
Two of the Down theme entries intersect SORRY FOR ONESELF. I love when this happens. I can picture the glee on Gary's face.
Intersection
often makes the filling easier, but it also creates its constraints.
Like today's placement of 23/29 and 113/124. Thankfully there are only 3
letters overlap and the fill doesn't suffer at all.
Across:
1. Everypooch: BOWSER.
7. Sudden burst: SALVO.
12. David of "Starsky & Hutch": SOUL. Wikipedia says he had a daughter named China Soul.
16. __ race: RAT.
19. Colorful songbird: ORIOLE.
20. Former: PRIOR.
21. __ Domini: ANNO.
22. Egg cells: OVA.
25. Rheinland refusal: NEIN. German for Rhineland.
26. Karate level: DAN.
27. Nondairy spread: OLEO.
28. __ Lingus: AER.
32. Baseball player Jose with the hit song "OMG": IGLESIAS. Chart-topping Latin pop hit. I think this is Patti's clue. She's a diehard Mets fan.
35. Bummed: SAD.
36. Picnic pests: ANTS.
37. Jon Favreau holiday film: ELF.
40. Bygone: OLDEN.
41. Some volcanic rocks: BASALTS.
44. Like some jokes: CORNY.
46. Spanish home: CASA.
49. Place to work on Wikipedia drafts: USER PAGE. Read more here.
53. Chocolaty cereal brand: OREO OS.
55. "South Pacific" song: BALI HAI. Sung by Bloody Mary.
57. "Are you sure you're right about that?": DOES IT?
58. Batting in the bottom of the ninth: LAST UP.
59. Complex dwelling: UNIT.
60. Channel launched in 1981: MTV. 1981 is also the first time we had light bulbs.
62. Intercontinental mountain range: URALS.
63. Gets: INHERITS.
65. Spot for valuables: SAFE.
67. BOLO alternative: APB.
69. Foot the bill: PAY.
74. Street of nightmares: ELM.
77. Very small: WEE.
78. Les États-__: UNIS.
79. Like the 18th Amendment: REPEALED. The 18th Amendment
prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic
beverages for beverage purposes, launching the Prohibition Era. Learning
moment for me.
83. Take in: LEARN.
85. Bro's counterpart: SIS.
87. Luminous ball of plasma: STAR.
89. In the previous month: ULTIMO.
90. Tropical birds: MACAWS.
92. Tidies: NEATENS.
94. Keyed instruments: PIANOS.
95. Met topper: OPERA HAT.
97. Cold War satellites, briefly: SSRS. Soviet Socialist Republics
98. Squat target, for short: GLUTE.
99. Artificial tear: EYE DROP.
101. O Magazine mogul: OPRAH.
105. Struck (out): X'ED.
106. Brief December celebration: XMAS. And 12. December costume: SANTA SUIT. Missing our own Santa.
109. By way of: VIA.
110. Agrees (to): CONSENTS.
117. Vader, as a boy: ANI.
118. Turn over __ leaf: A NEW.
122. Shiba __: INU.
123. Daughter of Cronus: HERA.
127. "That is a __ to take in": LOT.
128. Right on the map: EAST.
129. Manner of speaking: IDIOM.
130. Indifferent to right and wrong: AMORAL.
131. Before, in old odes: ERE.
132. Unleash: FREE.
133. Swarms (with): TEEMS.
134. Act as a go-between: LIAISE. I always associate this word with Kissinger.
Down:
1. __ chic: BOHO.
2. Not written down: ORAL.
3. Electrician's supply: WIRE.
4. "Me too": SO DO I.
5. Raised trains: ELS.
6. Take back: RECALL.
7. Scant: SPARSE.
8. Wall St. figure: ARB. Arbitrator.
9. First sign of fall: LIBRA.
10. Field mice: VOLES.
11. Former pitcher Hershiser: OREL.
13. Five Nations members: ONEIDAS.
14. Pt. of NYU: UNIV.
15. Set apart: LONE.
16. The Thinker's sculptor: RODIN.
17. Nautical "Halt!": AVAST.
18. Loses on purpose: TANKS.
24. Saxophone insert: REED.
30. Butterfield of "Sex Education": ASA.
31. One with a gravelly voice: RASPER.
34. Ancient Andean: INCAN.
37. Gut bacteria: E COLI.
38. Navigation acronym: LORAN. Long Range Navigation.
39. Field-to-table, say: FRESH.
41. "Poppycock!": BAH.
42. Had an edge: LED.
45. Staff members: NOTES.
47. Brie of "GLOW": ALISON.
48. Musicians who may be accompanied by tabla and tambura players: SITARISTS. Left to right: sitar, tabla and tambura.
50. Pronto: ASAP.
51. __ monster: GILA.
52. Site for artisans: ETSY.
54. Steeple: SPIRE.
55. In use: BUSY.
56. Sound from a flock: AMEN. Now I just cross my arms for a
blessing (rather than receiving the Eucharist) and say "Amen". In my
innocent days while accompanying Boomer, I'd eat the host and said
"Thank you" to Father Charlie.
61. Flower holder: VASE.
64. "__ chic!": TRES.
66. Encourage: FOSTER.
68. Make perky: PEP UP.
71. Melt together: FUSE.
72. Transgresses: ERRS. Father Charlie never corrected me though.
73. Like some flaws: FATAL.
74. Toy that's more than tickled pink: ELMO.
75. Spring: LEAP.
76. Nutmeg spice: MACE.
80. PC OS choice: LINUX.
81. Chew the scenery: EMOTE.
82. Given medicine: DOSED. Need to see the RA doctor again soon. And my regular infusion.
84. Least cooked: RAREST.
86. Rather complicated: INTRICATE.
88. "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" actor Mount: ANSON.
91. "That's all __ wrote": SHE.
93. Cleopatra biter: ASP.
96. Unfavorable: ADVERSE.
100. Wine cask wood: OAK.
102. Old Testament book: PSALMS.
103. Actress Russo: RENE.
104. Bear or hare: ANIMAL.
106. Case for Scully and Mulder: X FILE.
107. Grand estate: MANOR.
108. Not quite right?: ACUTE. Angle-wise.
110. Unrefined: CRUDE.
111. Actor/activist Davis: OSSIE.
112. Pago Pago's land: SAMOA.
114. Many a cookbook author: CHEF.
115. When repeated, cry of approval: HEAR.
116. Radiate: EMIT.
119. Onigiri seaweed: NORI. This is Chinese nori. We call zi cai.
120. Noted times: ERAS.
121. "The Pitt" actor Noah: WYLE.
125. URL ending: COM.
126. Classic record label: EMI.
C.C.
17 comments:
I know we’ve had
“Oreoos” (“Oreo O’s”) before, but I always pause before I put that in. And that was a rather obscure way to clue the word “soul.”
Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this fun puzzle.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Started right off with TRES at 1d. It showed up later at 64d. Didn't know the baseball player, but knew Julio as a singer. Wasn't familiar with all the games, but they filled without incident. Thanx, Gary, Amy, and C.C.
FIW, missing my mispeling@ iSe x BeSALTS and RELiTIVE RISK. First one was a WAG, the second just careless. The unknown Butterfield didn't help one skosh.
DNK the games GO and MEMORY. I suspect that MEMORY is what we called "concentration" after the TV game show of the same name. Align the cards from two suits in a 26-card grid. Players take turns turning two cards face up. If the cards match (i.e. two queens) the player collects the two cards and plays again. If the cards don't match, they are turned face down again and the next player tries. I thought it was invented by my mom to keep her hyperactive son's mind busy in a world before Ritalin.
The entire soundtrack from South Pacific is a masterpiece from Rodgers and Hammerstein.
DOES IT? Or my somewhat gentler version (borrowed from Jed Clampett) "you sure about that, Jethro?"
I bought a LORAN for my sailboat when they dropped below $600 ($1,800 in 2025 dollars.) The digital readouts were in Lines of Positions, and NOAA charts were overlaid with them too. It was much easier to determine the boat's position using LOPs than longitude/latitude because you could get a reasonable fix using two fingers, where long/lat plotting required parallel rules and dividers. LORAN was discontinued about 10 years ago as cheap and much more accurate GPS devices became available.
My scuba club used to go through GILA Bend, AZ on the way to dive trips off San Diego.
"Make perky" had to be PEP UP, because "WonderBra" wouldn't fit (and some say isn't a verb.)
My neighbor has a Vizsla named Scully because of her hair color. That has to be the happiest dog I've ever known.
Thanks to Gary and Amy for the mostly-fun Sunday workout. Still way too much A&E stuff, even though I knew a few of those fills. My favorite was "not quite right" for ACUTE. And thanks to CC for another fun review. (BTW - you have a typo in your review - NEIN is German for "no," not "Rhineland.")
FIR. I breezed through this Sunday presentation with ease. I got the theme immediately and it was fun finding all the games.
My only stumbling block was David Soul, whom I've never heard of. But the perps were very kind today.
Overall a most enjoyable puzzle.
FWIW, the blog website is showing an entry for next Tuesday's solution. No I did not look! 😁
So it wasn’t just me. I did see that CC was the blogger.
I usually like Gary and Amy’s CWs and this was no exception. I knew all the games except RISK.
I ran across a few unknown names like ALISON, WYLE, ANSON, and the abbreviation ARB but perps were kind. IGLESIAS and INU were WAGS.
Thank you CC for that review.
Monkey ~ I think Zhouqin is the constructor for Tuesday, Hahtoolah will most likely blog.
I missed that because since I didn’t want to peek I closed it quickly.
FIR. No strong feelings one way or another. Oregon had me going for a while…didn’t particularly care for OREOOS and INHERITS (as clued) and LORAN was new to me. BOHO was also new to me, but all eventually perped. Shouldn’t ASAP have been clued as an abbreviation or acronym?
Here on the edge of Pennsylvania Dutch country, it’s possible to have some stale breakfast meat mush and partake of a meal of…ahem…hard scrapple. And finally, I have to confess, my still juvenile mind can never see Aer Lingus without thinking of that old, old, old SNL gag.
Enjoyable FIR this morning. My only nose-wrinkler was UP LAST for batting in the ninth. If the score is tied, or you tie it up, you'll get more at bat's! FLN: I'm with Lucina on not keeping up with the younger generation on slang, music, A&E, etc. Not a television watcher (Except for Jeopardy and Packer football!) Give me a good novel, anytime!
Musings
-The puzzle and C.C.’s inside baseball info made for a pleasant start for my day
-I remember BOWSER as the clownish member of this group
--Did anyone else ever play this MEMORY game with your kids?
-We are officially out of winter when the first ORIOLE appears at our feeders
-Wouldn’t Jose IGLESIAS be Joe Church in America? :-)
-A piece of BASALT from 246,000 miles away
-REPEALED: States are slowly coming to grips with the reality of laws on alcohol, marijuana and gambling
-I would think it would be hard to give your best effort when playing for a team that you know is TANKING
-Alison: I had a girl in class week who (read mother) spells it Alysyn
-Many SPIRES are landmarks out here on the flat prairie
-Where were you in 1981 and what did you use for lights before you got bulbs, C.C.?
Big Easy
I thought I finished it right, but I was mistaken. I made a fatal mistake, only realizing it after our read the review by CC. I had made so many changes that I didn't notice that I never changed pop-up to pep up. MEMORY as a game, I've never seen. Shiba Inu was complete unknown filled by perks.
A good Sunday puzzle. I put a T in Anson. I remember him from "Hell on Wheels". I always enjoy the Chinese tidbits in the recap.
ULTIMO? Has anyone heard this word before as clued?
But Rheinland is German for Rhineland
I liked this puzzle, even though I wrinkled my mode a tiny little bit at NEATENS.
LIAISE is such a cool word.
Anonymous @12:54PM, nope.
Good reading you all.
Post a Comment